Rewrite
by AvalonReeseFanFics
Summary: Rated M - Updates 3x a week (MWF) - When Rowan Pierce dropped into Steve's lap (literally) he didn't know what to make of her. Was she an angel, a psychic or a crazed fangirl from another dimension? Doesn't matter, she's Steve's responsibility now and now that's she's a permanent feature in his life she's either going to drive him crazy or save the day.
1. Chapter 1

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: This is my first Hawaii Five-O fic. So be kind. I've written quite a bit of it already so hopefully you guys are interested in reading more._

Chapter 1

* * *

"Something just bumped into the boat!" Danny called. "Sorry, the dinghy."

Steve, who was yard away with a rope strapped to his chest stopped swimming and turned to Danny. "What do you mean something?" he called.

"Something! Steve there is something in the water! There is definitely something out there!" Danny repeated, this time louder with a touch of franticness in his voice. Steve submerged and looked around. The salt water stung his eyes and blurred his vision but he could make out a pretty big and fast moving something swimming around their boat.

Danny too was frantically looking around and spotted the crest of a fin that he knew very well from his time watching TV.

"Shark!" he shouted. "Steve, it's a shark! Get out of the water! Come on! Get on the freaking boat already!"

Steve had been hoping that Danny wouldn't have noticed it was a shark, that he could just swim back to the boat pretending to be taking care of Danny and he wouldn't have been none the wiser. There was no calmly about it now. Steve swam as fast as he could while trying to keep his heart rate down. He tried not to think of where the shark could be and whether or not he could get back to the boat in time. When he got to the edge of the boat Danny grabbed his upper arms and practically hauled him in.

As soon as he was back on the boat he turned to Danny who looked to be catching his breath, though Steve wasn't certain what he was huffing about he wasn't the one who just had to speed swim.

"It's a dinghy," he reminded him.

"It's a dinghy," Danny repeated. "Even in the face of death you're annoying."

Steve ignored that last comment and looked out at the water. "Where did it go?" He caught sight of it disappearing into the deep just a few feet away from them. "Awww, that was a tiger shark."

Danny followed his gaze but seemed less then impressed by the sight of it. "It's a tiger shark?" he repeated.

"Yeah."

"Oh so no big deal then, right? Have you even seen shark week?" Danny thundered. "I don't want to be on shark week! Alright? That thing gets near you, you punch it in the nose. Trust me!"

Steve just stared at him for a bit. "I'm not going to punch it in the nose," he complained.

"That's what you're supposed to do otherwise it eats your hands. I'm telling you, I know this stuff," Danny cried.

Steve shook his head. "I'm not going to disrespect this animal by provoking it."

"Please, please. Don't get all island on me, now, okay?" Danny started.

"Besides I'm cramping up bad man, I need to rest. Right now, I'm going to take a break, okay?" Steve asked.

"Okay, and then what?"

Trust Danny to always need to have a plan. "Well, we wait," Steve said with a shrug.

"Wait? Wait for what?"

God he was so annoyingly nosey. "For the giant tiger shark to go away, and then we'll stick to the plan," Steve said.

"Oh well we're going to have to wait a while," Danny muttered which earned him a side glance from Steve.

"Oh you're an expert in sharks now?" he asked teasingly.

"No, I'm an expert on McGarrett Danger Magnet!" Danny thundered.

"Oh? So now you're saying this is my fault?" Steve asked.

"Who else on the planet earth could turn a nice relaxing day of fishing into a boat jacking and a shark encounter?" Danny cried his hands waving everywhere to signify just how riled up he was getting.

"Oh so I'm a danger magnet? You know what, it's your negative attitude," Steve shot back.

"Yeah, because the shark could sense my negative attitude?" Danny asked sarcastically.

"Sharks can sense fear just like dogs," Steve explained calmly.

"We are in a leaking dinghy in the middle of the ocean, of course I'm sacred?" Danny yelled at him.

"It's water, Danny, it's just water!" Steve said, and to prove it was harmless he scooped up some and splashed it into the dinghy. Probably not the best idea seeing as their dinghy was leaking but he thought it might calm Danny down.

"Yes, with tiger sharks and rip tides and all sorts of other things that can make you dead," Danny explained still gesturing with his hands. "Not everyone is a navy seal, Steve!"

"Seriously, Danny, what is your problem with the ocean?" he asked. "I mean who hates water? 60% of the human body is made of water!"

"Well that explains why I don't like people, and you! You are on the top of that list.

"Yeah? Well right now I'm thinking that shark may be better company!" Steve shot back.

"Then go, go swimming with the tiger shark," Danny ordered point out at the ocean which looked calm but Steve didn't trust it yet. "But do me a favour, if he comes near yah punch him. I don't want to be the one to tell your sister that you ended up man sushi."

Steve was starting to get frustrated. "No one is going to be man sushi, Danny! The ocean is fine, the ocean is safe, so long as you know what you're doing," Steve assured him.

Danny probably would have said more if it weren't for Steve holding a hand up and asking: "Do you hear that?"

Danny paused and listened to and that's when he heard it. The sound of shrill screaming that was quite faint but getting louder and louder. They scanned the ocean around them but there was nothing out there with them. But the screaming didn't stop and it was getting closer which caused both men to look up.

The body rapidly falling towards them crashed into the water beside the deflating dinghy and both Danny and Steve stared dumbfounded at the rippling surface where the body had sunk.

Danny was looking back at the sky. "There's no plane," he seemed to be whispering to himself.

Steve removed the rope from his chest his eyes staying on the water. The person should have resurfaced by now. He moved to dive back in but Danny grabbed him.

"Are you nuts? There's a shark in the water," he snapped.

"Well I can't leave them," Steve argued. But it all turned out for naught.

The person resurfaced, coughing and spluttering. It was a girl. She wore a black tank top and pink lacy short shorts, her red and blonde hair was pulled back into a pony tail and her wide blue eyes were staring up at them with surprise and confusion.

She was treading competently but when Steve reached out to grab her to help her onto the boat she swam back.

"What the hell? Where am I?" she asked turning around to see nothing but the expanse of the ocean behind her.

"You're in the Pacific Ocean just off Oahu," Danny snapped.

Steve leaned out farther trying to get a hold of her. "Come here please, get in the boat, it's safer," he asked.

The girl turned back to his outstretched hand with a look of contempt. "I don't think so," she told him. "I've had this dream before, if I just keep swimming I'll grow a tail and everything will be fine."

"Great, she's nuts," Danny snapped sitting back in the boat.

"Okay, you're probably suffering from some sort of trauma, but this is real life and you're not dreaming and there's a tiger shark in the area so you really, really need to get on this boat," Steve ordered.

This time when the girl turned back to him there was a hint of concern on her face. "A shark? Really?" she asked.

Danny pointed out at the horizon behind her and she turned again where she could see a dorsal fin heading in her direction. The girl yelped and began to swim towards the boat. Once she got to the edge Danny and Steve grabbed her arms to haul her up.

"Get me up, get me up!" she kept saying. "If you see it, punch it in the nose!"

Once she was safely on the boat Danny turned to Steve. "See, she knows about the nose thing," he crowed triumphantly.

The girl turned to Steve. "Well duh, it's mentioned over and over on _Shark Week_."

Steve ignored them both. The girl looked around at the ocean and the two men in the boat with her. She stared at them a little bit more with surprise growing on her face and the confusion.

"Uh, are you okay? Miss…"

"Rowan, I'm Rowan. Wow I must be having the Hawaii Five-O dream again," she said staring at the two of them and guffing loudly as if she were excited.

"Excuse me?" Danny asked.

"Well, you guys are Steve McGarrett and Danny Williams, right? Or are you Alex O'Loughlin and Scott Caan? I haven't crashed the Hawaii Five-O set, have I? Where are the cameras?" she asked.

"She knows our names, Steve, how does she know our names?" Danny asked him.

Steve stared at her as if she were crazy. "I don't know. Do we know you?" Steve asked her.

The girl blinked her big blue eyes at them like she wasn't phased about the situation at all. "I watch you guys on TV all the time. You're my favourite TV show. I love the way you guys bicker all the time, like a little old married couple. And I just love it when you're shirtless," she said eyeing Steve with a suggestive smile that set his skin on fire.

"She thinks we're a TV show," Danny said. "Why does she think we're a TV show?"

Steve stared at her. She didn't look to be injured. She didn't look like she had hit her head. But she was clearly not right in the head. "I don't know."

She smiled at the two of them and then leant back against the deflating side of the dinghy. "Right. Well wake me up when we hit land or whenever it's time for me to wake up," she said. "To be honest, I was hoping for a _Vampire Diaries_ dream to night, so whenever we can switch I'd like to know."

Danny and Steve exchanged glances as she settled down. What the hell was happening?

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

Rowan Pierce didn't get her _Vampire Diaries_ dream. She didn't even get to go back to sleep, not with the way the two of them were bickering. She didn't know how she got where she was. The fact that she was soaking wet, tired and burning up from the sun told her that this probably wasn't a dream, but it still didn't explain anything. It didn't explain how she went to bed and woke up in the air and falling. It didn't explain why she was in a small boat in the middle of the ocean looking at a pair of her favourite TV characters.

Danny and Steve were staring at her like she was crazy. Probably because they had never met her before but she knew who they were. Once it was established that they thought she was crazy she sat back and let Steve explain their situation.

"So let me get this straight," she asked, her fingers massaging her temples. "We're in the middle of the ocean, with no way to contact anyone and our boat—sorry I mean dinghy—has holes in it. But everything is going to be okay because you're Super Seal and you say it's going to be okay?"

Danny turned to Steve with an expectant glare as Steve stared at Rowan with his impossibly blue eyes. Seriously it should be illegal for someone to be that attractive. Why hadn't he put his shirt back on anyway? Why did he still have to be shirtless?

"Great, another Danny," he growled.

"Oh, no, wait a second. I don't always look for the black cloud on the horizon, I just happen to be a realist," she said smugly. She sat back as Danny and Steve started to argue about Danny's consistent pessimism. She thought about her situation and what she could do.

It was becoming clearer that she wasn't dreaming but that didn't make her feel better. It didn't explain how she got here or if she was even in her own time line, but she figured there were worst places to be. She even knew what episode she was in… wait.

"I know this episode," she said suddenly sitting up straighter, both men turned to look at her again. "You guys were fishing for tuna right? And some guy hijacked your boat… well not your boat, its Chin's uncle's isn't it?"

Steve and Daddy exchanged glanced before both drawing out their: "Yes" like they tried to figure out how she knew all this.

"Okay, that means there's a boat on the horizon. The boat this dingy belongs to. It's a luxury yacht. There's a dead body on it. The owner's dead body. I know who did it too," she said turning around to look at the horizon, the boat should be there but she couldn't see it yet.

She planned to turn around to tell them that it was the wife of the owner who put her boyfriend up to the murder, but when she did she saw the looks on their faces and her smile faded. "What?" she asked.

"This isn't a TV show," Steve snapped. "Granted, you knew about our day and things about us but there's a rational explanation for that!"

"And what's that?" Danny snapped.

"She obviously a stalker!" Steve cried.

Rowan narrowed her eyes at Steve and glared at him. "Oh yeah? I'm a stalker? I mean you're cute but you're not that cute," she growled. Which caused Steve to huff at her. "Besides, where I come from you guys are a TV show! And I can prove it."

The two men waited for her to say something, to come up with some sort of evidence but she couldn't remember what season they were in. She turned to Steve and asked: "Have you found Shelburne yet?"

Steve's face paled under the sunburn. He turned to Danny who was now staring at Rowan with a shocked stare on his face. "Does that mean yes?" she asked. "So you know she's your mom and all that or is that major spoilers?"

Danny turned to Steve. "So does the stalking theory explain how she knows classified information?"

"Oh so you already know," she said. "So that means Wo Fat has escaped from prison and your mom's missing again? Do you want to know where she is? Cause I'm pretty sure I know her general location."

Steve shook his head. "No, no one knows where my mom is…"

"She never left the island," Rowan replied. "Bet you everything when you find out where your mom has been you'll find out she never left the island. Or do you already know that and have Catherine looking for her? I think that was part of the conversation on the other boat right? That it was weird for you to be having your girlfriend spying on your mom? I agree with Danny, it's a bad idea."

Rowan smiled smugly at him she was ready to tell him that she knew why his mother shot three rounds into the ground instead of killing Wo Fat too. But she never got the chance. Steve suddenly charged her, a hand pinning her chest down and the other grabbing her arm before she could try and strike him or wiggle out of the way.

"How do you know that? Who do you work for?" he yelled into her face

"No one!" she cried struggling to breathe, struggling to break free. "You think I'm a spy? Look at me?! Do I look like a spy to you? And what spy goes around throwing secrets at people, I'd be the worst spy EVER!"

Danny put a hand to Steve's shoulder. "Not that this isn't fun, babe, but uh, look up."

Steve did as he was told and whatever he saw made his jaw drop in shock. Rowan tried to crane her neck to see what they were looking at but with the way Steve was holding her she couldn't see anything.

"Is it the boat?" she asked. "Did we finally spot the other boat?"

Both men didn't answer her, but they had, in fact, found the boat.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

Steven didn't trust Rowan. She knew too much. Things she shouldn't know. Things that only the government knew. But he couldn't believe her to be a spy. She was small, she was naïve, and she was adorable. Okay scratch that, that last part wasn't important and he shouldn't have been thinking it either.

He had begrudgingly had to let her up to help them paddle over to the boat. He had thought he could get in the water and swim them to the boat but both Danny and Rowan had been against it. Sharks in the water and all.

So she had been right about the boat, that didn't mean anything.

When they found the body on the boat he was starting to think that something was off. She couldn't have been right about everything without being involved. He was not going to buy that they were a favourite TV show from wherever she came from, because that did not make any logical sense.

Rowan had flat out refused to go anywhere below the deck where the body was located but instead stayed by the back of the boat where she said she was waiting for the coast guard. Steve had elected to ignore her because everything on this boat was dead, including the radio and both of the damn engines… something she had already known as well.

"You can fix it though, right?" Danny asked him as Steve surveyed the damage.

Before he could answer Rowan answered from her side of the boat. "Nope! It's done deliberately, he thinks he's going to be able to do some Navy MacGyver tricks to get it working but it doesn't matter cause the coast guard is going to come and arrest us cause they'll think we're the murderers and y'all don't have your badges."

Steve rolled his eyes trying very hard to not get annoyed with her. "There's something really wrong with that girl, isn't there?" Danny asked him.

"It's probably the trauma, she got dropped out of the sky, it's probably how she's coping with everything," Steve said. "Just don't listen to her."

"She knows too much Steve and there wasn't a plane in the sky when she fell so where did she come from?" Danny whispered. When Steve couldn't offer him a good answer he leant in and added: "Personally I think she may be psychic and just doesn't realize it."

Steve glared at him. "You don't believe in ghosts but you believe in psychics?" he snapped.

Danny just waved him off. "She's been right about everything else, why wouldn't she be right about the coast guard coming?" he asked.

Steve was going to tell him exactly why she couldn't be right when Rowan called out: "Of course I'm right, they're coming up right now."

Danny and Steve stared at each other before Danny actually stood up and looked over to where Steve knew Rowan to be standing. "Son of a bitch," he muttered to himself. Steve shook his head and followed Danny out from the engine hatch to the deck where he found that there was a coast guard boat pulling up alongside them.

Steve couldn't help but breathe out the same curse as Danny as he saw them and heard their shouts of hands up and stay where you are.

"I told you so," Rowan said.


	2. Chapter 2

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Thank you to everyone who has shown interest in this. I promise to upload again next week!_

Chapter 2

* * *

Just as she said they would be, they were handcuffed the second the Coast Guard boarded the boat. And luckily for her face Rowan had not said a single other "I told you so." Steve wasn't sure what he would have done if she had said it to him again, probably not hit her, but he would have done something… kiss her maybe? No that was ridiculous.

Danny was pissed off and ranting again, arguing with Steve about their predicament. The captain of the boat was coming back to talk to them when Rowan, who had been silent up until this point suddenly spoke up.

"I need to lose the cuffs," she told him. The captain stared at her as if she were crazy.

"You're suspects in a murder, I'm not uncuffing you," he told her.

"Okay, then someone needs to hold me," she said.

"What the hell are you talking about?" The captain asked.

Rowan suddenly lurched up to her feet. "I'm going to vomit."

Steve finally noted that her face was looking a little ashen and realized that the reason she had been so quiet while Danny and he argued was because she was sea sick. He watched with a wince on his face as she threw herself to the side of the boat and he heard the telltale signs of her being sick. He had almost cried out in fear as he noted that she had thrown herself towards the side with such force that she had almost lost her footing.

She might have gone overboard if the captain hadn't had been quick enough to grab her. Rowan was uncuffed but instead of sitting back down she just lay down where she had been standing, covering her eyes with the heels of her hands as she groaned.

"I'm just going to stay on the floor okay? I feel better when I'm on the floor," she told whoever was listening.

Steve tore his eyes away from Rowan's prone from to find Danny staring at him with a knowing look, like he knew that Steve had been about to jump up and try to grab her—not sure how he was going to do that while handcuffed but he was going to try—before she fell. He avoided his partner's eyes as the Captain said he was going to radio Chin as they suggested to get their ID and then told one of his shipmates to watch the girl in case she tried to jump ship.

"I'm not going to jump ship," she grumbled. "I'm not that stupid."

Danny turned to Steve, "Chin can vouch for us, but he won't be able to vouch for her," he said gesturing to where Rowan was still lying and still groaning.

"Is there any way to make sure the boat doesn't rock this much?" she called out which just caused Steve to roll his eyes and shake his head.

"She really pisses you off doesn't she?" Danny asked after watching Steve's reaction closely.

"No, she worries me," he answered keeping his voice low so she couldn't hear them. "The fact that she knows all these things that she shouldn't know, it worries me."

"She's not a spy though is she?" Danny asked.

"She doesn't act like one," Steve admitted. "To be honest, I don't get that vibe from her, but she could also be a really great actor."

"Oh God," Rowan suddenly groaned stumbling to her feet so she could retch over the side again. Danny winced as he watched her and the growled as he watched one of the ship's men approach hand her a ginger ale to drink.

"Oh she gets the special treatment," he snapped.

Rowan turned to glare at them. "Hey, I'd share with you but I don't think you want to share the can of pop with the girl who just threw up," she snarled. She then turned to the sailor who was standing beside her. He handed her a blanket that that she let him help wrap around her.

Steve found his own stomach roiling as he watched Rowan put a hand to the Sailor's arm. "Not to be too demanding but could my friends get some water? We've had a rough day," she said to him with a coquettish smile on her face.

Steve felt the frown on his face before he realized he was frowning and while the Sailor said he'd get them something to drink that did not make him happy. Even if he was parched.

"Well, she's been pretty useful so far," Danny said to Steve, bumping his shoulder with Steve's.

The captain returned. "I'm sorry for the misunderstanding Commander McGarrett, Detective Williams" he said, reaching over to unlock their cuffs. "A member of your team verified your credentials."

As he leant over Danny he was certain to throw out one more snarky comment: "Well next time I get forced into the ocean at gunpoint I'll be sure to remember my credentials."

Luckily both he and the Captain ignored him. "Captain, was the boat reported stolen?" Steve asked.

"Missing, actually. The owner's wife called worried when her husband hadn't returned," the captain explained.

"Maybe it had something to do with him being shot," Danny offered and Steve tried not to sigh and shake his head. He noted that Rowan was up again and throwing up once more. God, he needed to get her off this damn boat.

"Again I'm sorry. We've been having a rash of pirate attacks recently, so when we got the call about the boat we assumed they were behind it," The Captain said. "When we get to land we'll hand over the investigation to Five-O."

The Captain followed Steve's gaze. He was quiet a bit before clapping a hand to Steve's shoulder to get his attention. "Your team verified you, they didn't verify her," he said jerking his head in Rowan's direction. She was slowly getting back down on the floor huddling up into her blanket as if she were cold.

Steve stared at her, pity starting to overwhelm the logic sensors in his brain. "I can vouch for her. We found her in the ocean, too far away from the boat to be a part of this," Steve said.

"Thank you," Rowan said from her spot on the floor giving Steve a thumb's up to show her appreciation.

"Any idea how she got there?" the Captain asked.

Steve shook his head. "She's in some major shock, she doesn't remember," Steve replied. He wasn't sure why he was lying for her, just that he felt it was absolutely necessary.

"I'm an amnesia-mani-ianiac," she said from her spot on the floor.

"What the hell was that? Did you have a stroke?" Danny asked.

Rowan waved her hand at him. "Ignore me, I'm talking nonsense. I'm pretty sure I'm going to hurl again."

"You know, I don't get it. You were fine on the dinghy and the yacht, both of which were bobbing much more than this," Steve complained, "How the hell can you be this sick?"

"I don't know, maybe cause the dinghy went like 2 miles an hour and the yacht wasn't moving at all?" she shot back. "Oh... yep… I'm gonna do it again…"

Steve turned away as she threw up again shaking his head and trying very hard not to get even more frustrated with her. He ignored the fact that Danny rushed to the side to put a comforting hand to her back and to hold her red-to-blonde faded hair.

But he couldn't keep back the amused snort when he heard Rowan snarl: "I am never leaving dry land again!"

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

The whole of Five-O was waiting for them when they got to the dock. Catherine was up first her arms around Steve's neck. Danny barged past them.

"Hey," he said to her. "I'm fine."

Steve scowled at him. "We were fine, and we were lucky to find that boat. But we were fine," he snapped before Danny could get anymore snark out of him.

Danny stopped walking and turned to accost Steve again. "No, we were not fine, okay? Tell her about the sharks," he ordered, he then turned and pointed at Chin, "Tell him about the sharks!"

"Sharks?" Catherine echoed.

"Sharks. A shark. It was _a shark_ ," he told her. "But it wasn't a big deal."

"Oh look, it's your girlfriend Catherine," Rowan said appearing behind them, still wrapped in her blanket. "And Chin, oh and Max is over there, why does he have a cane? Oh right, explosion… I always forget about that episode. Where's Kono? Did she stay behind to work leads?"

Everyone was staring at her now her blue eyes darted from face to face. The excited smile that had been on her lips slowly faded as she took in the stares of the people around her. "I really need to stop talking," she said mostly to herself.

"Steve, who is that?" Catherine asked eyeing Rowan who seemed less then interested in her now and seemed to be staring off into the distance as if deciding what to do next and where to go.

Steve started to answer Catherine's question but he got distracted by Rowan's movements. She darted past Danny and made a bee line for one of the cars, but she didn't stop there. Steve watched her perplexed. He couldn't figure out what she was doing.

"Hey, where do you think you're going?" he asked her as she continued to walk away from them.

She turned but didn't stop. "Oh, you know, just gonna try to get home," she said. She then turned and started to walk a little faster.

"Oh no you don't," Steve cried giving chase. Rowan yelped and broke into a full run at that point with Steve, barefoot and chasing after her. They ran down the walkway, Steve trying to catch her, Rowan trying to evade, and doing a damn good job.

She started by throwing her blanket at him, which distracted him for all of two seconds. When he lunged she stopped, crouching down so he missed her and then getting up and tracking back. Steve was undeterred. This continued, her managing to avoid his lunges and grabs despite him being faster then her. She was just better at wiggling away.

Catherine and Danny stood shoulder and shoulder watching the two of them chase each other in circles. Chin came to join them.

"Seriously, who is that?" Chin asked. In the distance Rowan yelped Steve's name as his hand raked down her arm. They heard him bark an apology to her but the chase kept going.

"That's Rowan. She literally dropped out of the sky and onto us. Or beside us. Not the point. She knows a lot of things about us and thinks we're her favourite TV show, the girl's nuts but she very much in the know," Danny explained.

Catherine nodded. "Okay… and he's chasing her because?"

"She knows things about his mother, things that you only just told us," Danny explained.

There was a primal roar of rage followed by a scream and terror and the three looked back just in time to watch Steve tackle Rowan off the dock and into the water. Danny threw up his hands exasperatedly.

He jogged over to where the two were just resurfacing. He heard Rowan's scream of: "STEVE!" and the first of Steve's chuckles. Danny scowled down to him. "God, you are an animal!" he shouted down to him.

Rowan tried to swim past him but Steve jumped on her back. "Where do you think you're going now?" he asked her regardless of the fact that she was underwater.

"What are you waterboarding her? Let her up, you savage!" Danny ordered.

Steve let go of Rowan's shoulders and she immediately came up, and slapped Steve hard across the face. "What the hell is the matter with you?!" she thundered.

"Me?! You were the one evading arrest!" Steve shot back.

"I was trying to get to the ladder so I could get out of the water you NEANDERTHAL!" she cried, shouting that last word, right in his face.

"Oh, you pulling pages from Danny's book now?" Steve taunted.

"Well it's one of his standard insults, and I heard him use both _savage_ and _animal_ already so _Neanderthal_ was all I had left," she explain as she lazily breast-stroked towards the ladder. Steve followed after her, spotting her as she went up first like he expected her to fall or to jump back in and try to escape him via the water.

When Steve joined her back on dry land again he found her staring down at her arm and wincing. He could see the beginning of four long welts from where his nails had raked down the back of her bicep.

"I said I was sorry, but if you had just stopped running this wouldn't have happened," he reminded her. He grabbed her arm, a little more gently this time and dragged her over to Chin. "Chin here is going to take you back to the Iolani Palace and we're going to get down to the bottom of who you are and who you work for."

Rowan just glared at him. "Okay, for starters this is kidnapping," she snapped at him. "And secondly. I already told you who I am and that I don't work for anyone!"

"And I do believe I mentioned that I don't believe you," Steve snarled into her face. He was too close to her. He realized it the second he was looking into her eyes. Those defiant blue eyes that were actually more of a sea blue color, the kind you saw when the waters were calm and great for snorkeling. She smelt of salt and something else, something sweet. Her skin, while red, looked smooth and soft and he was fixating on her lips.

Rowan was the first to turn away, which worried him. And when she did he saw that Chin had produced a blanket for her. He let Chin usher her towards the car and tried not to feel a jab in the chest as the feeling of her presence left him.

He heard her say: "Aw I'm going to get your nice car wet, do you think we could wait until I dry off?"

Steve nearly stormed back over to her and if it wasn't for Catherine standing beside him he might have. Instead he called out: "I swear to god if you do not get in that car I will cuff you myself and throw you in the trunk!"

Rowan turned to back to look at him and as soon as she did he felt that tightness in his chest double. She looked to the back of the car and then back to him. "It's a hatchback, you moron!"

Steve took one step forward and Rowan yelped and threw herself into the car. He ignored the grin on Chin's face. He ignored the pointed look from Catherine and Danny's chuckles. Damn, this girl was going to be the death of him.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

When Steve got back to the Iolani Palace at the end of the night he was exhausted, they all were. The twist in their case, where the sister shot the wife to punish her for killing her brother, was not one they expected. When he got in he saw that there was a bunch of notifications waiting for them.

"Chin what is this?" he asked.

Chin walked over and pulled them up. "So, these are the results to the DNA and fingerprints check we ran on Rowan Pierce," he explained. "According to this she doesn't exist."

Steve glared at the screen. "What?"

"You heard me," Chin said. "She does not exit. She has no file, has no family, there's no missing persons report, nothing at all."

"Nothing?" Steve echoed.

"Nothing!" Chin repeated. "And I inputted everything. Her age, her correct hair color, her birthday. Nothing matches. She doesn't exist."

Danny clapped a hand to Steve's shoulder. "Well there you go, she can't be a spy, because she'd exist. If she were a spy she'd have some sort of cover story, wouldn't she?"

Steve shook his head. This wasn't right. There should have been something, school transcripts, a social insurance number, anything. There shouldn't have been nothing on her, no trace of her life anywhere. He was obviously going to have to confront her about this, but he wasn't looking forward to it. He knew where she had been held all this time, and if her earlier behaviour was any sort of sign he was going to be walking into one of the biggest scenes in his life.

Still he stormed to the elevator and made his way down to the holding cells. When he got there, he found himself stalled outside the door to where she was sitting. He caught his breath, steeled himself for what he was going to walk into, started to draw up the armor he'd need to withstand her vicious barbs.

And then he heard it.

It was the distinct sound of singing. And it was an Elvis song, the best kind of song, a love ballad. _Can't Help Falling in Love_. Rowan was singing and she was singing well.

For a moment Steve found that he couldn't move. It was like he was under a spell and he couldn't bring himself to break it. It took all his will power to open that damn door, and then all his willpower to not let the wave guilt crush him when he saw her tear stained face.

"You complete and utter asshole!" she shouted. "Do you know how long I've been down here? With nothing to eat, or to drink and I really, really, really need to pee!"

Steve raised his eyes to meet hers. He tried not flinch at the look on her face, the utter rage, the fear and hurt under it all. Still she continued. "Are you happy now? You win. You handcuffed a girl to a chair and left her here for hours! HOURS! You got me, you made me cry. Are. You. Happy?!"

No. Steve was not happy. This was not him winning, this wasn't a game anymore and he truly felt bad for having left her here all day. But he wasn't going to say that to her.

"You don't exist, Rowan," he said to her and a sob came out of her mouth. The sound completely heart wrenching.

"You tackled me today, you had me in a chokehold, and you have my skin under your nails! I _am_ real," she told him. "But I don't come from here. I tried to tell you that!"

"So what? You're from a different time line? That's what you're telling me? Rowan, you have to see how crazy that sounds!" he argued.

The tears were back and that heart wrenching feeling in his chest was doubling. He wanted to brush her tears away, he wanted to tell her that he would make sure everything was okay but he couldn't do any of that and honestly it frightened him that he wanted to do any of these things for her.

"Yes!" she shouted at him. "You don't think I don't know how crazy I sound? But I don't know what else to tell you! I don't exist here because I'm not from here—that is all I got. You don't think I would come up with something a little more sane if I could?"

Steve stared at her. He stared at her hard. She looked so small in that chair. Her red parts of her hair frizzing around her face, the blonde ends matted and sticking to her neck and collarbone, tear tracks running down her sunburnt face. She looked down to where her legs were bouncing, he wasn't sure if it was a nervous tick or because she needed to go to the bathroom.

"I'm scared Steve," she whispered and he tried not to bristle at the way she said his name. In that low silken tone, the kind one would want to hear whispered into an ear late at night or maybe early in the morning. "I don't know what's happening. I don't know how to get home, or where home even is. I'm scared and I want to go home. I just want to go home."

Steve wanted nothing more than to send her home and while he knew he was going to regret this there was really only one thing left to do.

"Alright, say I believe you. You mentioned this morning that you knew who killed our guy," Steve said. "So, tell me, who killed our boat owner?"

Rowan blinked her eyes at him. "What? Why does that matter?" she asked. "I've been here hours, she's gotta be dead by now!"

Steve's smile faded. She couldn't know, not really. She'd been in a box all day she couldn't know what happened. Rowan sighed. "Okay, from what I remember the guys wife did it. She got her boyfriend to whack him and then set the boyfriend up to take the fall by sabotaging the boat so he'd get stuck out there with the dead body. Before you guys got there to arrest her though his sister shot her. I think she heard the wife on the phone, talking about how her boyfriend just needed to bide his time, she put two and two together and shot her. I'm not sure if it was self defense, it might have been I don't remember."

Steve just stared at her. She was right. She was right about everything. What happened with the wife, what happened with the boyfriend and the sister. She had been right. She couldn't have been, but she was.

"How… how did you know that?" Steve asked.

"I told you, it was an episode. I watched it forever ago, but I remembered because of the shark scene," she whispered. "You also spent most of the episode shirtless and that was my favourite kind of episode."

She had a small sheepish grin on her face that made Steve smile. "Oh yeah, your favourite kind?" he couldn't help but ask.

Rowan's red cheeks went a little redder. "We don't need to talk about it, it's not important. It was a crush on a fictitious person. Now that I've met you, you've killed it. Congratulations."

That jab shouldn't have got him the way it did, but it did. "Okay," he whispered. "Okay. Here's what's going to happen. I'm going to take you to the hospital, and after the psych ward checks you out and gives you a clean bill of sanity I'll let you stay with me okay?"

Rowan looked up at him. "Isn't Catherine living with you?" she asked.

"No, no, why would you think that?" he shot back.

She shrugged. "Well I know you two are dating. I know she spends a lot of time staying over. I'm pretty sure at one point she moves in with you and I think you think about…"

"No, stop talking," he whispered. "I don't want to know. I don't want to know what you know."

Rowan nodded. "Fair," she whispered. "I guess that's all fair."

Steven stooped down to uncuff her. "Washroom first, correct?"

His head was right by her ear so when she turned to look at him he caught those clear blue eyes looking up at him and found that he was now fixated on the way her tongue darted out from between her lips. Suddenly he couldn't move again as she stared at him.

"What if I am crazy?" she asked him.

Steve found himself smiling. "Then I'll come visit you in your padded cell."

Rowan didn't smile, she didn't say anything at all. When she was uncuffed she didn't struggle, she let Steve hand her off to the hospital and didn't look back once as she was taken away. Even though he watched. He stood there until she was gone and even a little bit after. And he still couldn't figure out what that feeling was rolling around in his chest.


	3. Chapter 3

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Had a rough day so I'm going to post a day early. Any love would be greatly appreciated!_

Chapter 3

* * *

Danny was grinning at Steve like an idiot. Steve was trying to ignore it but he could feel that giant grin beaming at him from the passenger seat of the Camaro. He was probably getting tan lines from it.

"You have got to stop doing that, what are you so damn happy about?" Steve snapped.

"What? I've got a lot to be happy about. We cracked our headless polo horseman case, and I get to come with you when you pick up your new pet," Danny said.

"Rowan is not a pet," Steve argued. "And I don't know if I'm picking her up, I don't know if she's going to be discharged."

"But you're hoping she gets discharged today," Danny sang which just made Steve's face twitch.

"No, I am not hoping she gets discharged today," Steve explained. "I just know that she really wants to get discharged today. I'm excited for her, I couldn't care less if it happens or not."

Danny was still grinning. "Yes, you are hoping she gets out today. You want to see those blue eyes of hers, you want to hear her singing, you want to show her the room you dressed up for her, the clothes you made Catherine buy for her, and you want to get her away from that sexy nurse who's got his eyes on her."

Steve purposely turned away from Danny so he couldn't see the anger on his face. Yes, there was a nurse, a guy named Alex which she thought was a freaky coincidence because the actor who apparently played Steve's character in her world was named Alex. He didn't follow but whatever. What did matter was that she called him dreamy, with his black hair and brown eyes. He was the same height as Steve, same sort of build, but all of his Five-O team had been teasing him that Alex was much more attractive than Steve, like this was the kind of nurse who was actually a model. And since Steve had killed Rowan's crush on him she seemed completely over any attraction she could have ever had for him. Which should have made things easier for Steve but instead apparently it just made him very, very angry.

"Do not ever mention Nurse Alex in this car again," Steve warned him.

Danny raised his hands in mock surrender. "Spoken like a man not about to fly into a jealous rage."

"I am not jealous, I'm just worried that the man might be taking advantage of her. I mean, common, we don't know how sick she is," Steve reminded him. Which wasn't entirely true.

The first night at the hospital scans were done on Rowan's pretty little head and found evidence of brain trauma. The doctor's didn't know how long ago it had happened, but for it to only be affecting her now it had to be recent. Except that she showed no outward signs of trauma. For the signs to be this serious it had to be a pretty serious and extremely recent incident. Except Rowan didn't remember having any incident and while it explained the TV show delusion, it didn't explain how she had known everything she had known.

Steve didn't think they'd ever get answers to that mystery.

Regardless, she had been held for more than five days as more and more tests were done on her. Which meant, as of today, she had spent almost a full week in the hospital with the Dreamy nurse and his stupid guitar.

"They've gotta let her go at some time. She's basically fine now," Danny told him. They sat in silence for a bit before Danny turned to him and said: "Hey, how much do you want bet that Nurse Alex is in her room with his guitar again?"

Without even realizing it, Steve began to speed. He shot a glare at Danny, "Hey! What did I say? Don't bring up that name in that car again," he warned. Danny merely laughed at him and Steve fought every impulse to flick on his siren and lights to get to her faster.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

Rowan smiled up to Alex as he strummed the final chords of the song he had just been singing to her. She had just finished changing and was putting on her pair of converse when he had come in. he was still in his ER uniform, the blue scrubs, and even though he was working he had traded breaks with a friend to come see her off and sing her the new song he was working on.

"That was great Alex!" she said with a giant grin. "I love it!"

She was trying really hard not to be nervous. Sure Steve had said that he was going to take her home with him if she was given a clean bill of health but that didn't mean he meant it. She was a stranger and the two of them argued nearly as much as he and Danny argued, it was logical that he wouldn't want her around. After that she didn't know what she'd do or where she'd go. Probably be homeless.

"So is your brother coming to get you?" he asked, eyeing the door carefully. Steve was very fond of barging in while Alex was with her and glaring at the man until he left. No matter how nice Alex was to him.

"Again, Steve is not my brother," she told him, and not for the first time. He was always trying to peg what kind of relationship she and Steve had. Then she paused, because she didn't know how to define their relationship. So she just left it there, left it hanging like that.

"Well for someone who's not related to you, he sure is invested in your welfare," Alex said putting the guitar back in its case.

Rowan could only shrug because she couldn't explain it either. And then the door swung open and Danny was in the room staring down at her.

"Oh look, it's Nurse Alex and his guitar. I just made me an easy 20 bucks" he said with a giant grin and a clap of his hands. He then turned to Rowan. "You ready? Steve's getting the news about your health and then we're taking you home."

Rowan nodded happily jumping to her feet and twirling. "What do you think of my outfit? Didn't Catherine pick me some great stuff?" she asked. Catherine had kind enough to pick out an entire wardrobe for her, but this was what she had sent over for the day Rowan got released, a pair of burgundy denim shorts and an army green off the shoulder tee-shirt to match. She loved her burgundy converse the best though.

Danny nodded to her. "Yes, you look beautiful," he said before turning to Alex with a strange smile on his face. "And you may want to run."

Alex took that news in stride. Nodding to Danny respectfully before crossing to Rowan and putting a hand to her shoulder. He handed her a small slip of paper and said: "For when you get a phone."

While Rowan smiled Danny shook his head: "Boy if you don't get out of here…"

Alex moved in swiftly to kiss her cheek before exiting the room, just as Steve came into view. Steve must have seen the kiss because he was glaring at Alex's retreating back. When he came into Rowan's temporary room there was a scowl on his face and she found herself frowning back at him.

"What was that?" he asked pointing in the direction that Alex had just disappeared in.

Rowan was going to tell him it was less than nothing, as a kiss on the cheek was literally nothing, but Danny had other ideas.

"Oh, that was Nurse Alex, by the looks of the guitar they were singing again," he said. "He also slipped her his number and kissed her on the cheek, real smooth like. A real Smooth Dog if you catch my drift"

Rowan's cheeks flamed and she glanced away from Steve whose scowl was darkening and cheeks were reddening. The way Danny said you would have thought they got caught screwing. "It was nothing," she insisted.

"He gave you his number? You don't even have a phone!" Steve complained.

Rowan shot a look to Danny to see if he'd be any help in the situation but he just stood there with that dumb grin on his face and his arms crossed over his chest. So he was going to be no help at all. Rowan turned back to Steve and decided it was time to change tactics.

"What did the doctor say? He told you I'm good to go, right?" she asked. She had hoped so since they had told her to change but maybe they had changed their minds.

"Yeah, you're good. You're not crazy, but you may have latent hallucinations, and I've got meds I need to pick up for you," he told her.

"A girl who doesn't exist can get a prescription?" Rowan shot back.

"Oh he didn't tell you?" Danny asked, pointing at Steve. Steve shot him a warning glare but that didn't shut Danny up. "He badgered the Governor into getting you a citizenship, and then badgered the citizenship people until the paperwork went through, which was this morning. So, congratulations on officially existing."

Steve avoided her eyes while Rowan just stared at him. No he had not told her that. Danny probably knew damn well that Steve hadn't told her that too. "Oh wow, thank you," she said to him, but he still wouldn't look at her.

"We going or not?" Steve asked, hitching his thumb over his shoulder signalling that he was ready to go.

"SHOTGUN!" Rowan screamed and then ran out the door. She heard the first of both older men complaining—Danny about riding in the back, Steve about her mad dash for the door—but she didn't care. She was finally free.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

Steve had watched as Rowan looked around at the room that was now hers. She didn't jump and down for joy but she didn't seem to not like it either. She was pretty neutral about it.

"Uhm… are you sure it's okay that I stay here?" she asked for the millionth time. "Catherine won't mind?"

Steve shook his head. If he was being honest, he hadn't asked Catherine about how she felt with this strange girl staying in his house. He merely told her that Rowan had nowhere else to go so he was giving her a place to stay. She had said that made sense and he hadn't thought to ask if it bothered her. "I already told you its fine," he said instead of relaying all of that information to Rowan.

She turned back to the space and sat down on the bed, a strange smile on her face. "We'll look into getting you a phone tomorrow," he said.

Rowan shook her head. "No, no, no rush on that. I owe you too much as is," she told him.

Steve tried not to let that get to him. He didn't want to tell her that he wanted to get her a phone so he could keep tabs on her. "You don't owe me anything," he said instead. "And I'd like to get you a phone please."

Rowan stared at him, her blue eyes unreadable. "Can we agree to talk about it later, like maybe when I get a job?"

The thought of Rowan leaving his house and trying to work anywhere where he couldn't get access to her right when he wanted to didn't sit well with him. It made him more than a little anxious. "Okay, you just got out of the hospital, let's pace ourselves here."

"What are you talking about? You bought me a whole wardrobe, made sure I was a citizen so I could get my head meds and you're letting me stay here rent free," she argued. "I need to do something!"

"Yeah, rest," Steve told her.

"Well I don't want to do that!" she snapped back. "I'll feel useless if I just stay here doing nothing."

"You can come to work with me," Steve offered.

At this Rowan stood, hands on her hips and cocked an eyebrow at him. "Come to work with you?" she echoed. "We gonna give me a vest?"

"Well, you're not going to come on scenes or chases with us," Steve told her.

"Okay, then what am I going to do? Stay in your office and answer your phones?" she asked.

"No, everyone calls my cell anyway," he said. He didn't like where this was going and he didn't want to have to admit that he expected her to sit in his office, do nothing and just wait for him. He could already hear her sarcastic remark in his head. _What? Like a Dog? Woof. Woof._

Rowan stared at him a bit before lowering her eyes. "Look, I appreciate how much you seem to care about my welfare, I do, really. But you don't need to watch me 24/7, I can take care of myself."

Steve felt the glare on his face, he watched her blue eyes raise up to him and then widen in fear at whatever face he was making, but he couldn't seem to make it stop. "Okay, what I mean is that you can leave me to my own devices and I promise I won't get into trouble." When he continued to glare at her she winced and amended her response. "Okay, I can't promise I won't get into _any_ trouble…"

"Look, just give this a few days, okay?" he said. "You can say what you want but I feel responsible for you and nothing's going to change that."

Rowan nodded again and the two fell silent. Steve couldn't bring himself to move though so they just stood there staring at each other until the silence got awkward and Rowan couldn't take it anymore.

"Just one more note, I think I remember you saying this to Danny in an episode, but if you think I'm doing that three minute shower thing you've got another thing coming. I'm not a guy and I have a lot more to do than you."

"Okay, except that is one of the house rules so we save on water, it's called a Navy shower and it'll be good for you," he said trying to smile or show that thinking about her in the shower was making his blood heat.

"Okay, yeah, but as I said, I'm a girl and I have more to do, so this army—," "—Navy!" "—Whatever! The point is, my showers are going to be longer."

"I don't see why…"

"Because I have to shave from ankle to thigh, I have to wash everything, shampoo, conditioner, and don't even get me started on what I have to do when I get out of the shower, that's a whole 'nother hour of prep," she said. Steve just stared at her. It had never occurred to him that girls had more to do, and now he had the image of her lathering herself stuck in his head.

"Alright, look, we'll discuss this later, you hungry or what?" he asked.

"Sure, just… uh… let me get settled in and then I'll be down to help prep okay?" she said.

It was a clear dismissal. Steve was to walk away but he was still staring at her and he couldn't make his feet move. It was only when she turned her back on him to look in her new closet did he manage to turn his back on her and walk away. Happy he managed to not tell her that his room was right across from hers.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

Steve couldn't sleep. It wasn't that Rowan was being loud, in fact she had turned in when he did. It wasn't that he was angry, because she had been nothing but polite the whole night and whatever minor spats they had over elbow space in the kitchen or who was going to do dishes, or what TV show to watch were small and nothing to get be obsessing over. It wasn't that he thought she was going to hurt him, because other than that slap he certain did deserve she had barely touched him since they had met.

Steve couldn't sleep because he knew she was across the hall. He knew that if he just got up out of bed, if he walked five steps down the hall, he could open her bedroom door and see her there. That alone should have been comforting, but it wasn't. It was keeping him up. It made him toss and turn. It made him kick the covers off and the pull them back up again. His skin was crawling, something in his gut was twisting and turning over, and he had this feeling that something was wrong but he heard nothing to back that theory up.

After what seemed like hours of this Steve finally got up. He took those five steps down the hall and quietly opened her door.

Rowan wasn't there.

Steve's stomach dropped immediately but his heart flew up into his throat. He hadn't heard her leave. He hadn't heard footsteps, but there was the bed, unmade and empty.

He rushed down the stairs, looking for any sign that she had been there and saw that the back light was on. He moved towards his lanai and spotted someone sitting in one of the beach chairs. He opened the door and found that Rowan was just sitting there, a small blanket wrapped around her shoulders, her knees up to her chest as she stared out at the water. She had gone to bed in a pair of grey shorts made out of the softest fabric Steve had ever seen and a shirt he didn't recognize as one of his own until right that moment. Her wearing his clothes was a sight he could definitely get used to.

"Sorry," she said without turning to look at him. "I have a bit of insomnia. I wasn't really sleeping at the hospital."

Steve took the chair next to her and just stared at her, hard. He didn't know what that meant. Was it because Alex was keeping her up or because she was too uncomfortable to sleep at the hospital? Whenever he went to see her she had always been out or too sleepy to stay awake and talk to him. "It's alright," he said even though his heart rate was just starting to slow down and it felt like it was going back up again.

"It's very pretty out here," she whispered. "I was looking at the stars and watching the water, I thought it might help me go to sleep but I think it just got me more excited."

Steve nodded, glancing up to the sky and then out to the water. It was a stunning sight and it made him proud that she liked the view from his lanai.

"Catherine picked out some bathing suits for you, maybe you can come swimming with me tomorrow," he offered.

Rowan finally looked to him, her eyes alight in the darkness and he was struck breathless just staring into them. The warm smile on her face wasn't helping matters either. "I've done enough swimming in the ocean, thank you," she said. "I'm more of a pool girl anyway."

Steve nodded to her, glancing down to where his hands where clasped tightly. It seemed she was always shooting down his ideas of spending time together. "Do you even want to stay here?"

He pointedly refused to look at her when he asked that question though he did hazard a glance and saw a confused look on her face. "Of course I want to," she told him. "Really, where else am I going to go?"

"Okay, so you're just staying here because you have nowhere else?" Steven shot back.

"Well yeah," she said. "But this is great. So long as we don't kill ourselves with arguing."

Steve could only stare at her. Something was tight in his chest and he couldn't understand it. He didn't understand why he needed her to want to be here with him, why it mattered that she wanted to stay. When he didn't comment, Rowan lowered her knees and leaned towards him.

"Is this because I didn't get super excited about the room?" she asked him. "Because I can explain that."

"Oh yeah?" Steve shot back, because maybe hearing her reasoning would make him feel better.

"Steve, that room, how much money did you put into it?" she asked him. Steve was slightly taken aback by the question. Was that her problem? "Because it looks like you just dropped your lifesavings on me and I'm not okay with that."

"Okay, no, it was not my lifesavings. I didn't redo the whole room. We just got you the necessities… and a new bed cover… and new pillows… and new furniture," he listed off.

Rowan shook her head. "You're just trying to bury me in debt to you aren't you?" she asked.

Steve smiled, that sounded like a good idea, but he had not thought in the least that she would have to pay him back. It made him happy to hear that she clearly had every intention of paying him back, she had morals, she had standards, and she was clearly an independent person. She was going to match him well. Whatever the hell that meant

"You should try to sleep," he said standing up. Rowan followed suit, being sure to keep her blanket wrapped around her form until she got into the house and dropped it back on the couch where she had found it. She smiled at him as she said goodnight again as he made sure she went into her room and got in bed. He walked away to go to his own room, but minutes later he was back across the hall and staring into her room. He didn't know how long he stood in her doorway watching her sleep curled up on her side with a peaceful look on her face.

And he wasn't going to think about it either.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

Rowan woke up early the following morning. She didn't like the act of waking up that early, but she liked having her whole day to herself afterwards. But she wasn't waking up to get a head start on the day, she was waking up to get a head start on breakfast.

She had already made coffee and had pancakes on the stove and had moved on to cutting up fresh fruit to decorate the plates when someone came into the kitchen. Rowan looked up expecting Steve but it was a woman instead. One she recognized.

This was Steve's mother. With her short reddish-blonde hair, and her red smile set with a dangerous glint. She wore normal mom clothes, mom jeans, a white wife-beater with a black cotton dress shirt over it hanging open. She was staring at Rowan with a knowing look. The kind that made Rowan think that Steve told his mother all about the crazy girl he had living with him, especially her crazy tv show delusions and her knowledge of things she shouldn't know.

"You must be Rowan, I'm—," she started but Rowan cut her off. "You're Steve's mom. I know who you are."

She nodded, her eyebrows raising. The smile on her face got a little bit more dangerous. Rowan knew she should have shut up, but she remembered watching Steve suffer through his mother's actions and she didn't want to relive it live and in person.

"I know why you're here too," she told her before she could stop herself. At this Doris McGarrett cocked an eyebrow at her but Rowan didn't move to elaborate.

"Something smells good," Steve called from the further recesses of the house and in a few seconds he came into view. Wearing his navy seal tank top that he loved so much and a pair of loose black shorts. His muscles were rippling as he stretched and the sun was highlight all of his defined features. Damn, why did he always have to look so good?

"Oh, hey Mom," he said leaning in and giving her a kiss on the cheek. "I see you've met Rowan."

"Yes, I did," she said, her tone low and dangerous. Luckily Steve didn't notice because he was too busy helping himself to coffee and pancakes.

"I forgot to tell you, Rowan. My mother's going to be staying here for a while until she gets her own place," he told her.

"She should take my room then," Rowan told him. "I don't mind sleeping on the couch."

"Nonsense, there's a second guest room I can stay in. I'm used to cramped quarters so it won't be too bad for me to stay there," Doris told them waving off their concerns.

Steve had come to stand beside Rowan and she was acutely aware of the way Doris was watching them as she doled out more fresh fruit for his plate. The way Rowan watched him with expectant eyes as he took a giant bite and then groaned.

"These are good," he said shoving another mouthful into his already full mouth. He swallowed quickly before continuing. "I think we know how you can pay me back."

Doris continued to stare at her with her unwavering dark brown eyes and Rowan refused to look away. Steve finally noticed the tension between them and put his plate of pancakes down.

"What's going on?" he asked.

Doris turned to him with a smirk on her face and said: "Rowan was about to tell me why she thinks I came back."

Then it was Steve and Doris staring back at her. She looked up at Steve's face, she saw the distrust and worry there and knew, just knew, that she couldn't shatter him. She didn't want to be that person who told him just what his mother was doing, why she was back, and that she was going to make him feel like she loved his arch nemesis more than him.

So instead she put on her most brilliant smile and flashed them both with it. "She's here to visit you, of course," she told him, relief bubbling up in her as a grin dawned on his face lighting it up in a way that made him look like a kid in a toy store. "She missed you."

Steve picked up his pancakes again and smiled at both the women at the kitchen island. He shoveled more into his mouth as Rowan got a third plate ready to hand Doris. They were all quiet for a bit until Rowan handed Doris the plate and then turned to Steve. "Hey Steve? I was wondering if we could look at phones today," Rowan said. "Would that be okay?"

"Yeah of course," he told her. "I was looking at adding you to my phone plan."

"That would be great, do you have the details, like what kind of plan it is?" she asked. "Like… somewhere I could read it?"

"Yeah, I think I can pull it up on my computer," Steve offered.

"Now?" Rowan urged.

Steve nodded, moving to go around his mother, pancakes and coffee in hand. If he thought the request odd he said nothing, just moving towards the den to as he was asked. Both women kept the smile on their faces until he was out of the room. When Doris turned back her smile had faded and so had Rowan's.

"You're here for the microfiche," she blurted out, her voice nothing but a low whisper. "I know you're going to take it out from under the floorboards, and when you get a new place you're going to hide it in a wall. Some dude it going to steal it and you and Steve go on a mission to get it back. Shortly after you up and abandon him again."

Doris blinked her eyes at her, she was clearly surprised but not by much. Rowan wasn't even close to being done. "I know why you didn't shoot Wo Fat too. I know who he is to you and the mistake you made on that mission where you 'killed his dad," she had said that last bit with air quotes and that had been enough for Doris.

The shock on her face was apparent, but Rowan continued. "I know Steve's gonna badger you for answers and instead of giving him the truth like he deserves you drop off the face of the earth again and it's going to kill him. He finds out about the mistake. He finds out who Wo Fat is and when he does he's going to be upset because it didn't come from you. Because it looks and it feels like you love Wo Fat more than your own children. Seeing as you keep picking him over and over again."

Doris was staring at her now. She looked afraid, she looked like she might cry. "I don't know if it's true. Maybe you don't love him more than Steve, and if that's the case tell him that. You're his mother, he just wants you to be there for him. He wants his mom back," Rowan felt an awful lot like she was begging.

"If I didn't know any better I'd say you cared for my son," Doris whispered her eyes narrowed at Rowan like she was trying to figure her out.

Rowan flinched. She had been acting like she had been oblivious to Steve's rugged handsomeness and his soft and fluffy heart, but she wasn't. That crush on a fictional character was getting stronger and stronger as she stood in front of him and witnessed that rugged handsomeness and kindness in person. But he was with Catherine, and she had no intention of ruining a good thing to chase after a man she barely knew.

"No," Rowan answered before Doris could get the wrong idea. "It was heart breaking watching it on TV I don't want to live through it. I don't want to watch that man go to pieces on the inside if I knew I could say something now and prevent it."

"And you won't tell him?" Doris asked.

"No. He's asked me to not tell him things about himself," Rowan replied. "And none of this should come from me. It should come from the woman who chose to take him down this path."

Doris just stared at her. Rowan had said her piece, she was done now. She offered a plate of pancakes to her and tried to smile. But it didn't come out right. She didn't know why she felt so strongly about protecting Steve she just knew that she did and if she had to, she'd tell him all about Doris and her motives.


	4. Chapter 4

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanfics**

 _A/N: Longer note today. Today's my birthday so I'm once again posting early. For everyone who liked jealous Steve get ready for a chapter fraught with a very Jealous Steve. I got a wonderful review from someone only named: Guest. To whoever that person is thank you for the review, it made my day a little bit brighter. I hope you continue to read and review! I hope you guys enjoy this chapter too, and I'll post again next week._

Chapter 4

* * *

This Halloween was not going the way he wanted it to. For starters, Kamekona had nearly intruded on his alone time with Catherine. Then, after finally getting Kamekona out, Danny let himself in and started ranting about Grace picking going out with her friends over going trick or treating with him. And it didn't help that since Steve had gotten Rowan a phone she had not gotten off that thing and he had a feeling he knew exactly who was texting her nonstop and making her laugh in that way. Because, sure she texted him every now and then, especially pictures she found funny, she wasn't blowing up his phone, or giggling and smiling over his text messages.

He was still standing at the open door trying to hint at Danny that he wanted him to leave but Danny wasn't get the hint. And then Rowan pounded down the stairs and dashed past him calling: "Don't wait up!" to him.

He caught sight of a low cut shirt and a short skirt and that was enough. "Wait a second," Steve snapped reaching out a grabbing her by the scruff of her shirt and practically ripping her back over the threshold. "Where the hell are you going? And what the hell are you wearing?"

She was wearing a uniform, and a suggestive one at that. The white dress shirt was lowly buttoned and tied at the midriff bearing her now tanned skin, she had a loose grey cardigan on too that was doing nothing to cover her sensuous curves. The skirt was a black pleated skirt, she had white socks up to her thighs and a pair of platform black shoes. Her hair was in braided pigtails and was curling up somehow as if it were defying gravity. He was drinking in the sight of her he couldn't even stop himself.

"I'm Britney Bitch!" she cried wiggling her hips in a seriously seductive manner. "You know: _Hit me baby one more time._ "

Yeah, her singing the song wasn't making the situation better. "Okay, that explains the outfit, but where are you going?"

"Alex invited me to a Halloween party," she told him. Okay well that changed everything.

"Dressed like that?" Steve thundered. "Hell no, you march up those stairs and change, Ro!"

"Why? What's wrong with it?" she asked looking down at her outfit.

"You look like a tramp, that's why!" Steve snapped

"Well, duh," she said. "That's what I was going for!"

"Get up those stairs right this second and change, Ro, or I will carry you up there myself!" he warned which caused the younger girl to roll her eyes and sigh.

"Uh, okay _dad_ ," she snarled stomping back up the stairs. Steve watched her go with his hands on his hips. The sound of her door slamming behind her was what had him turn back around.

"Can you believe her?" Steve cried.

Whenever he got too bossy she called him _dad_ and he hated it. But the trade off was he was allowed to use her nickname now, so whenever he never called her _Rowan_ unless he was really angry with her. But at that moment he wanted his… whatever Catherine was… and his best friend to back him up but both of them were staring at him in surprise.

"What's the matter?" he asked.

"What's wrong with the outfit? She's a grown woman, Steve, she can dress slutty if she wants," Catherine shot back and Steve frowned.

"It was too suggestive. I don't want Alex getting the wrong idea," he argued.

"You don't think she just gave in a little too easily though, do you?" Danny asked. "I mean… she's gotten really good at climbing out that window now hasn't she?"

Steve blanched because Danny was right. She had been sneaking out the window whenever he tried to ground her from seeing Alex. "Son of a bitch!" he cried rushing towards the lanai to catch her in the act or catch her if she were to fall. As soon as he was gone Rowan scampered out of the shadows of the hallway on the second floor and rushed down the stairs.

"I'll be back at a decent hour I promise," she said hurriedly making a beeline straight for the door.

"Steve, she's going out the front door!" Danny called which caused Rowan to gasp.

"You little snitch!" she cried as she ran out the door which just won her a giant grin from Danny. Steve practically thundered into the room trying to grab her before she got out, but by the time he got to the door she was down the drive and gone.

It looked like Steve might have gone in pursuit of her, he certainly dallied at the door for a bit, but then his phone started ringing. "McGarrett," he answered quickly, he listened patiently to the other side before saying: "Be there in ten. Oh and call Duke, tell him to pull a APB out on Rowan and Nurse Alex's car, tell him to pull her in by any means necessary."

Before Catherine and Danny could say anything Steve hung up the phone and merely said: "Come on, we caught a case," and then stormed out the front door.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

To say Rowan was angry was an understatement. Rowan Pierce was furious. So was so angry she was certain her body temperature had raised. They could have fried an egg on her forehead she was so mad at him. She had been perp-walked back to Iolani Palace, in her Britney costume, her hands in cuffs, a gentle hand from Duke on her arm and then deposited in Steve's office.

After an hour of waiting he finally had the grace to appear. He was sporting a stupidly smug grin on his face that she just wanted to slap off. So it was a good thing that her hands were still cuffed. She glared at him until the smile on his face faltered and maybe because of that he didn't come to the office right away.

But that didn't stop her from continuing to glare at his back as if the act alone may stop his heart or, at the very least, burn a hole through his shirt. When Steve finally elected to join her in his office she was ready for him, but that meant he was ready for her too.

"You complete and utter asshole!" she snarled at him.

"What's the matter? You didn't enjoy your party?" he asked innocently. As if he wasn't the one who set HPD on her.

"No! I didn't even make it to the party! You made sure of that!" she cried. "You realize HPD pulled us over and ARRESTED ME, right? Do you have any idea how embarrassing that is? Do you think Alex is going to ask me out again?"

The answer was probably a heavy hell no and that made her angrier than anything else. She needed Alex, he kept her mind off of feelings that she shouldn't have been having. Steve just shrugged with a knowing smile on his face so he clearly wasn't upset by this revelation.

Rowan frowned at him. Clearly the guilt line wasn't working on him so she'd have to try a different angle. "Okay, look. You cannot use your immunity and means to arrest me whenever you feel like it. This is a free country, a democracy if you will, and I am not your child!"

Steve crossed his arms over his chest and stared down at her. She hated this pose, he looked so handsome with his flexed muscles leaning against his desk as if he were posing for a magazine cover.

"Uh… this is absolutely not a democracy, it's a benevolent dictatorship," he said pointing a finger in her direction. "And secondly, if you're living with me than you're abiding by my rules…"

"So just a regular dictatorship," Rowan growled.

"It doesn't matter. If I say you're not going out looking like that then you're not," he finished.

Rowan scowled at him. "God what do you have against Alex?" she snarled. "If you're this worried why don't you just run a background check on him?"

When Steve winced and looked away from her she knew that he had already done just that. "No! No, no you did not run my potential boyfriend through criminal databases!" she cried.

Steve scoffed. "Well I had to see what kind of guy he was."

"And what did you find?"

"What did I find?" he echoed.

"Yes. What did this background check turn up?" she demanded to know.

Steve went an uncanny red color. "Oh… uh… well…"

"You found nothing, right?" she asked drily.

Steve made a face. The one where he scrunched up his nose like the smell of the truth was offensive to him. "Okay… well…"

"It's nothing. You have literally no reason to be doing this do you?" she argued.

"Fine, yes. We found nothing on him but some parking tickets. Is that what you want to hear?" he finally admitted.

"Oh my god! Then what is your problem with Alex?" she shouted.

"I don't trust him, alright?!" he suddenly thundered. "Guys like that don't go for girls like you, especially ones straight off the psych ward!"

For a minute Rowan just stared at him. She had prided herself on being thick skinned when it pertained to Steve's comments or behaviour towards her, especially when they were arguing. But that one just plain hurt. A stab straight to the heart.

"Ro…" he started but she cut him off.

"No." she snapped.

"No?" he echoed. "No what? I can't call you Ro anymore, or what? … Wait, what are you doing?"

It took some maneuvering but Rowan was getting her arms out from behind her back. It involved sitting on her hands, pulling her knees up and then pulling her arms out from under and then up. Once she had her hands in front of her she stood up which made Steve stand up straighter. He reached out to her but she shied away.

"Don't touch me," she breathed out, her voice hitching and his hand dropped back to his side. He stared at her with a wounded look on his face like he had any right to be upset after the insult he had just hurled at her.

Rowan stormed out of his office and over to Kono ignoring the fact that Steve was following her. She offered Kono her hands but she just stared at Rowan confused.

"Can you uncuff me please?" she asked. But when Kono glanced back at something just behind her Rowan snapped. "No! Ignore your dictator and uncuff me or I will leave here bound and find another more illegal way out of them!"

Kono's eyes widened but she took out a key and obliged Rowan's request.

"Ro… come on… I didn't mean it like that," Steve tried to tell her. He put a hand on her shoulder and tried to turn her his way but she wasn't having it. She slapped his hand away and whirled towards him like a mad woman, he must have thought she was going to try to hit him because he took a step back and raised his arm to use some Navy block on her.

"No!" she shouted pointing a finger in his face. "You don't get to make excuses!"

Then before he could stop her she stormed away. He called out after her, asked where she was going but she didn't answer and she refused to look back. Not that it mattered. Five-O had a case and Steve was too busy to chase after.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

"So… let's try this again…" Danny said from the passenger seat of the Camaro. "You admitted that you ran a background check on the guy she's dating and when she made you admit that you found nothing on him you told her that you did it because a guy like Alex would never be interested in her?"

Steve shot a glance to Danny. "Yeah… that's kind of it… basically," he whispered.

Danny shook his head and tried not to laugh at him. "You're lucky that girl didn't cave your skull in with her platform shoe, you putz!"

Steve scowled in his direction. "Okay, it wasn't my proudest moment, Danny, but I do believe I asked you what I should do to fix it. I did not ask you to pile on the guilt," he reminded him.

"Okay, you're right, I'm sorry," Danny conceded.

"Thank-you, now what do I do?" Steve repeated.

"What should you do? You fucking buy her something pretty and expensive and beg her forgiveness," Danny told him. "And while you're at it pray to God that she doesn't decided to up and leave you."

Steve didn't want to admit just how much that comment had him rattled. The nervous guilt that had settled under his skin had suddenly come alive, beating wildly in his throat. "Leave me? Firstly, I'm not dating her, she's just my roommate—," "Yeah a roommate that you're obsessed with." "—and secondly she can't leave me where else is she going to go? To live with you? She won't fit in your apartment."

Danny thought for a moment before turning back to Steve. "Well, the only other person she knows is Nurse Alex."

"No. She wouldn't dare," Steve growled.

"You basically told her that the guy wouldn't want her. Even if she had somewhere else to go guaranteed she's so mad at you that she's gone there out of spite," Danny told him.

Steve thought about it briefly. Logically it made sense. Illogically it infuriated him. He bit back the string of curses that threatened to tumble out of his lips. He didn't have time to be this rattled, or this upset. They had a second victim to find before some psycho sacrificed him to some bi-boobed-goat-demon. He couldn't be worrying about Rowan, where she was, who she was with and what she was doing with that person.

So, Steve did the only thing he could think of. He dialed Chin. "Hey, I'm going to give you a number. Can you track it and then send Duke over to the address?" he asked.

"No. No. Steve. Don't. Do not, under any circumstances, send HPD to pick Rowan up again," Danny begged him, but that didn't stop Steve from listing out her number which he had sadly already memorized.

"Uh… boss, that's Rowan's cell. Are you sure you want to go down that road again?" Chin asked.

"Is she at Nurse Alex's place?" Steve asked. He knew he didn't really want to know the answer to that question but he held out hope that while Chin traced that number she wasn't actually at Nurse Alex's and had gone back to where they were cohabiting.

After an agonizing couple of minutes they heard Chin sigh. "Yeah, that's where she is," he admitted. The anger washed over him and he couldn't stop himself from pounding a fist against the steering wheel.

"He should have lied," Danny muttered as Steve struggled to regain his composure.

"Okay. Please tell Duke to go pick her up. Tell him that he is to get her back to the Iolani Palace by any means necessary, approved by me. I'll come and get her when I get a chance."

Though Chin seemed trepid about the situation he agreed and hung up. Danny shook his head at him. "That girl is going to murder you," he muttered but Steve didn't care.

He tried to focus on the task at hand, and the thought of her being put somewhere where he knew she would be okay should have calmed him. But that turmoil that had his stomach rolling hadn't gone away and he wasn't sure he would until he knew that she had gone home. Where she belonged.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

Duke knocked on the Condo's door praying to whatever God would listen that Rowan Peirce wasn't actually inside. The man who opened the door was the same man that had been driving the car she had been found in the night previous so already it looked like the Gods hadn't listened to his prayers. The young man didn't look too please to see him either.

Still Duke flashed his badge and sighed: "I'm sorry to bother you, but I'm looking for Rowan Pierce, she isn't here is she?"

Even if he hadn't heard Rowan groan from somewhere behind the boy, the fact that the young man threw a glance over his shoulder would have been hint enough that he had her somewhere in the house. Luckily Duke didn't have to go in after her. After a few seconds she appeared at the door looking less than pleased herself but at least she wasn't in the costume anymore.

"You have got to be kidding me," she cried. "I'm going to _kill_ him."

"I'm really sorry Rowan, but Commander McGarrett was very clear. I have to take you back to Iolani Palace… by any means necessary," he told her.

"Any means necessary?" she echoed. "What am I? A fucking terrorist?"

Duke sighed. He didn't really want to do this but he more than owed McGarrett so he felt honour bound to. Though after this he wasn't going to get involved in any other arguments between Rowan and Steve.

"Okay. Let's be clear here. This is a waste of time and tax payer's dollars," she told him obviously trying to appear more calm than angry. "Because I'm not going anywhere. I don't care what he says, I haven't done anything illegal, you can't just take me. So, can call McGarrett and tell him to McSuck-It!"

There were no words to describe how badly he didn't want to relay that message to McGarrett. The man would have Five-O storming the place with extreme prejudice in seconds. Her boyfriend was clearly thinking the same thing because he suddenly stepped forward.

"Hey Rowan, look, you're lovely, but I really don't want Five-O on my back," he told her softly. "It might be best if you went with him… and if I didn't see you again."

Now Duke and Rowan were just staring at him. Duke assessed Rowan's response. It had been brief but surprise and hurt had flashed on her face before she put up a blank mask on her face. A face of uncaring and indifference. He had to admit, with Five-O as a threat hanging over him, Duke wasn't surprised that the young man chose to save his own skin but he still felt really bad for Rowan.

After a moment's silence Rowan blinked her eyes and merely said: "Yeah, that's fair. Just give me a minute, I'm going to go get my stuff."

Rowan disappeared back into the condo and Duke stayed at the door just glaring at the young man. At least the man had the decency to look ashamed over his actions. Duke couldn't help but wonder if this was what Steve had hoped would happen. It didn't seem like him but it sort of looked like he was trying to sabotage Rowan's relationship.

Rowan appeared with a duffle bag in tow and though her now ex-boyfriend tried to offer her an apology she merely shrugged it off and walked away. Duke, who had stayed behind to apologize for intruding on their evening, had to jog to catch up with her. He was worried she'd make a break for it but it turned out that he didn't have to.

Rowan was completely subdued. She sat in the back of the squad car quiet as a mouse. She didn't argue with him or struggle. He didn't have to perp walk her through Iolani Palace and she quietly let him put her in Steve's office and leave an officer to watch her. Though he pretended not to notice, he saw her covertly wipe away the few stray tears that leaked from her eyes. He couldn't help but be overcome by a terrible surge of righteous indignation for her. There wasn't much he could do but best believe that small thing he could do, he was going to do.


	5. Chapter 5

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Look at me, posting on the right day! This next chapter has more of Jealous Steve and a but of repercussions for his Jealous Actions. I hope you enjoy!_

Chapter 5

* * *

The call came in on the way to the suspects house. When Steve saw Duke's name flashing on the screen his first thought was of Rowan. He figured she'd be mad and he hoped that Duke had managed to calm her down, or that she hadn't done anything too rash.

"Duke?" he answered, and he noticed the silence on the other end of the call. Rowan wasn't screaming or ranting so that must have been a good sign.

"I picked up Rowan like you asked," Duke said and Steve avoided Danny's glare. "She's understandably very upset."

Steve winced. He didn't like that he upset her but he was certain that he could convince her that he had done it for her own good. He had a whole speech planned for when he went to get her.

"Yeah, well, she's an over emotional woman, Duke. She'll get over it," he told him trying to play off how worried he really was. He was clinging to that belief because the alternative was a bit too scary for him.

"Actually, I think she's the right amount of emotional considering what you just put her through," Duke said, the disapproval dripping from his tone. For a moment Steve was at a loss of words. How bad had that scene been if Duke was this upset with him? "I would greatly appreciate it if you left me out of these arguments you have with her. And it goes without saying that I will not be picking her up if she goes AWOL on you again. Unless she's in real danger, of course."

Steve nodded before he remembered he was on the phone. "Yeah, of course. I'm sorry I put you in that situation," he said, hoping that would help mollify the older man. "And I'm very grateful for all your help with this matter."

Duke's response was curt and the phone was hung up shortly after. Once it was hung up Steve could feel Danny looking at him which was why he pointedly kept his eyes on the road.

"You're going to have to buy that girl a diamond necklace to get her to forgive you," Danny warned him.

"Naw, Rowan doesn't like flashy things like that. She'd want books," Steve shot back before he could stop himself. These were the kind of things that he didn't need to know, he wasn't dating the girl. And yet there they were, sitting in his brain, memorized and saved for later.

"Fine. You're going to have to buy her a damn book store," Danny amended. Steve said nothing because if it was so bad that Duke got upset with him, Danny may have been right. "You know maybe it might be a good idea to let her stay over with someone else until this all blows over. I don't have Grace this weekend…"

Steve glared at Danny. Surprise was written on his face. Not over Danny offering to take Rowan off his hands but because of the way his body tensed at the suggestion. He didn't want Rowan anywhere else but his place. It was her home, he wanted her to be there, to see it as her home too. And he was certain she would if she wasn't so mad at him.

"We'll be fine," Steve replied through grit teeth.

"Alright, but I get to say I told you so if she tries to smother you in your sleep," Danny said.

The thought of Rowan climbing into his bed and straddling him set him on fire more than he cared to admit. He tried to ignore the warmth that spread through his body and tried very hard not to imagine what he would do if he found himself in that situation. But he couldn't stop the smile from creeping up on his face even though he knew he should feel bad.

To remind himself that he needed to feel bad he dialed Catherine. He was happy to hear her voice. Happy to hear her tease him about needing yet another favour. He could hear the displeasure in her voice when he asked her to go pick up Rowan but she agreed to do it. This would be good for him. He needed reminders. He was more than a little worried he was going to lose himself in Rowan's soothing presence. And maybe he was hoping, just a little bit, that Catherine could help calm Rowan down.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

After rescuing the victim and taking down the crazy person, Steve was looking forward to getting home and relaxing. He was not looking forward to talking things out with Rowan. But when Steve got home, Rowan was already asleep. For a while he had stood at her door just watching her. He noted the tissue box by her bed, the used tissues scattered on the floor and the redness of her cheeks. The fact that he had made her cry stabbed at him. He wanted to go to her, to caress her cheek, to brush that redness away and tell her just how sorry he was. But he also knew he needed to stand his ground.

He went to bed with a heavy feeling settling on his shoulders. Tomorrow's argument was going to be a whopper, probably their biggest yet. He would have to revise his speech to include an apology but other then that it was going to stay the same. But when he got up in the morning she was still asleep and he was being called into the Governor's office.

So, he left her a note saying where he'd be and when he'd be back. He called Duke and begged him to post a uniform outside his house to make sure she didn't run off but Duke refused, so he called Catherine and asked her to go over and just make sure that Rowan was okay.

Asking a second Rowan-centered favour had not put him in her good graces. He could tell be the tone of her voice. He explained that he may have screwed up, that Rowan might be a flight risk and the worry laced in his voice had been enough to send her over and maybe a little be because he promised the date that got interrupted a few nights previous could be picked up when he got back. That left him feeling a little better heading down to the Governors.

When he got into the office, the Governor looked less than pleased, but that was also his default face so Steve wasn't sure if this was a good meeting or a bad one.

"Tell me why I got a report that you used HPD resources to stalk your girlfriend?" he asked before Steve could even sit down.

Steve stared at him drawing a blank. He hadn't sent anyone to stalk Catherine… and she wasn't really his girlfriend. "Uh… sir?"

"I have just been informed that you had HPD tail and detail Rowan Pierce," he clarified. "Is there a reason? Because the one I was given was that you two were in a domestic dispute and you sent HPD to keep her from a party and to forcibly pick her up from another guy's house?"

Steve just sat there staring at him. Had Duke snitched on him? Had Danny? Had Rowan? And she wasn't his girlfriend, she was his roommate. The distinction wasn't that hard to catch was it? The Governor took in his shocked face and looked back down to his report. "When I gave you immunity and means I assumed you'd use it responsibly. Am I to assume that this recent behaviour was due to a misunderstanding about the safety of the lady in question?"

"Yes," Steve said through grit teeth. "It will not happen again."

"It better not, Commander. I gave her a citizenship and I can take it away or send her away if it proves that her presence here is affecting you in an adverse way," he warned.

Steve's features hardened. He felt it. Because the second the Governor even mentioned sending Rowan away his heart stopped beating in his chest. He put on his most serious face, because this was the most serious of threats.

"No sir, it will not be a problem," he swore. Because from now on it wouldn't be.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

Steve had avoided going home. He had called Catherine and told her that he would be bringing by dinner and they were going to finish off that movie they had started a couple nights before. He purposely didn't mention Rowan despite being quite curious about how she was doing.

He had forced himself to revaluate what he was doing. His behaviour was threatening Rowan and it needed to stop. But he didn't know how to do that without avoiding her. But after a few hours he missed her. She hadn't texted him to pictures or funny observations about her day, she hadn't called to ask how his day was, or forwarded him funny memes. He wanted to hear her voice, he wanted to go home to her smiling face and a dinner waiting for him.

When he finally forced himself to go home, he found that Catherine was waiting for him. Rowan was no where in sight. The house was eerily quiet and dread set upon him again. This was going to be bad.

"You had HPD pick her up? Twice?" Catherine asked him. "Is there something you're not telling me?"

The accusation was there. He knew exactly what she was implying. Was his interest in Rowan something deeper than friendly? The problem was he wasn't sure and he sure as hell didn't want to blow what he had with Catherine over a passing attraction to a strange new girl. Yes, she made him feel funny, but he was certain that was nothing but nerves and the fact that he didn't trust her. The fact that this was the second person in one day to question his feelings for Rowan worried him more than anything. This was clearly a problem he needed to get a handle on.

"I just didn't like the guy, okay?" Steve hissed. "I got a bad vibe."

"Why because you don't think she was pretty enough to be with a guy as handsome as Alex?" Catherine snapped. "That's what you said to her, isn't it?"

"No, not really. I mean, it kind of came out that way, but that's not what I meant," Steve argued. But by the look on Catherine's face that wasn't an acceptable response. Damn, if it wasn't working on Catherine it sure as hell wasn't going to work on Rowan.

"I would suggest you go to talk to her," Catherine said. "She keeps breaking out into tears and I can't keep comforting her."

"Oh, it can't be that bad," Steve said with a sigh, though the worry and the guilt were nearly strangling him at this point.

"You think? Ask her how Alex reacted," Catherine offered sitting down on the couch. "I'll be down here, good luck sailor!"

Steve stared up at the steps not wanting to go, but he made himself do it. He might as well get it over with, because once it was done he could move on to making sure people didn't think he had a thing for her. Because he so didn't.

As he walked up the steps he thought about Catherine's comment. He reasoned out what Alex's reaction most likely was if Rowan was crying over it, but it made no sense to him. For a girl like Rowan Steve wouldn't have let something like a grumpy Commander stand between her and him. Not if he really wanted her. Okay, that was a bad example, he should have gone with Catherine. He wouldn't let anything stand between him and Catherine.

Steve knocked on Rowan's door and was met with silence. He knocked again and this time her got a very sullen: "Go away!"

Steve ignored that command and opened the door anyway. Rowan was sitting on her bed with her back to him, but he saw it stiffen when she realized that he was in the room with her.

"Let me guess… _your house you'll open whatever door's you want_ … right?" she snapped, which was exactly what Steve was going to say if she asked why he had just let himself in. He was starting to sound like his father. Or at least he did when Rowan talked for him.

"We need to talk," he told her.

"I don't want to talk to you," she replied.

"You don't have a choice."

Rowan turned at this point. She gratefully didn't look like she had been crying but she definitely looked angry. He noted that there was a duffle bag at the foot of her bed, and it looked pack. Steve chose to ignore it.

"Of course, what does Dictator McGarrett want of his lowly serf?" she growled.

"Okay, enough with the attitude please," he said. "I want to have a calm and rational conversation. Can you do that?"

"I don't know. Can you not boss me around for three seconds or not treat me like a child?" she shot back.

"For fuck sake, Rowan, he is one boy! It's a large island I'm sure you'll find another!" Steve shouted finally losing his cool.

"That is not the point, Steven!" she shouted back. "I liked that boy and you purposely drove him away! And why? You have no romantic interest in me so why the hell would you care who I'm seeing?"

Steve was flabbergasted. Out of everyone who had noticed that he was struggling with an attraction to her, Rowan had not been one of them. He stuttered over his response because he didn't have an answer. An apology would have been good there but he couldn't bring himself to apologise for his actions.

Rowan took a deep breath and the looked at him. "Okay. This was a bad idea," she whispered and suddenly his veins were flooded with ice. No. If she said what he thought she was going to say he was going to lose his shit.

"I think I should go stay with Danny, or Chin or Kono," she told him. "I can't handle your Navy rules and your need to shatter my already rather fragile self esteem."

"No," Steve said. That was it. Nothing else. There was no question, no room to argue. The answer was no. She was not leaving. He watched her stoop down and pick up the duffle bag, hanging it off one of her shoulders. The image burning into his memory before he could stop himself. He shook his head and braced himself in the doorway. He was not letting her by.

Rowan took in his stance and thought over his remark. "No, you can't say no. I don't want to stay here, you can't force me to stay here," she argued.

"No. You're not leaving. We're adults, we can figure it out," Steve told her instead.

Rowan cocked an eyebrow at him. "You can stop being a control freak?" she asked.

"I am not a control freak!" he nearly shouted at her. "Look, I don't care if I have to handcuff you to the bed. You're not leaving this house."

But Rowan wasn't listening to him. "Yes I am. One way or another I'm leaving. You can either move out of the way or suffer my wrath!" she screamed.

Steve wondered just what she was thinking she could do to him. He was a Navy Seal, there wasn't much she could throw at him that could take him down. Unless she pulled a gun on him cause he knew he wouldn't be able to shoot her, he probably wouldn't even be able to even aim a gun at her.

"Oh My God!" Catherine hissed appearing behind Steve. "What the hell is the matter with you two? Danny and Grace are downstairs and you're scaring her! Can you two just make up already?"

"See Catherine's on my side," Steve said to Rowan.

"You're both being unreasonable," Catherine snapped. "Steve, you have no right to try to control her life. Rowan, he was just trying to take care of you. There, now stop it, the both of you."

Rowan and Steve were stuck in a glaring match. Her eyes had narrowed. A challenged had been issued.

"Fuck this," she muttered and then turned away. Steve let out the air he hadn't realized he was holding in. He thought she'd drop the bag to the bed, but she didn't. She crossed to the window that had been open the whole time and dropped the bag out it.

"What the hell are you doing?" Steve asked, though he had a feeling he knew exactly what it was.

Rowan didn't answer him, instead she threw a leg over the window sill and began to pull herself through.

"No!" Steve shouted rushing forward. She was half way out by the time he got her. He gripped her wrist tightly and glared down at her. "Are you out of your mind get back in here!"

"No! Let me go!" Rowan shouted back trying to tug her arm out of his grip. She had both legs out regardless of his attempts to keep her from climbing out the window. She had a death grip on the trellis outside her window and he was honestly going to take that fucking thing down after this.

"Rowan, stop it!" Catherine cried rushing into the room. "This is ridiculous!"

But neither Rowan or Steve were listening. Rowan kept struggling, letting go of her grip on the trellis to sink her finger nails into his hands struggling to get him to let go. Her nails bit into him but he still refused to let go.

He didn't know how it happened, but she must have pushed off the wall, because one minute he had her and the next she had managed to rip her arm away from him and lose her footing while she did so. Steve watched her fall in slow motion. He saw the fear and realization blossom on her face. He heard the surprised yelp as she began to fall backwards. He heard both he and Catherine scream her name as Rowan sank into the darkness.

Her surprised cry was cut off by the sound of her body smacking against the wood of the lanai and it was at that moment that the world decided to start again. Steve was out the window before Catherine could stop him, calling Rowan's name and jumping out after her.

He landed on his feet with no issue, trained Navy seal and all, but Rowan had not been as lucky. She lay on her back, her limbs splayed out in awkward angles, her eyes squeezed shut but gratefully breathing. He had seen this before, dead bodies in strange positions, seeing her in a mirrored position, hearing her gasps of air and her groans of pain was killing him. Steve didn't know how bad the damages were, he knew he shouldn't move her but he wanted to wrap her up in his arms and hold her tightly. He wanted to take the pain from her.

He looked up and saw a worried Danny standing at the door, phone in hand. Grace standing beside him even though Danny was trying to shield her she too looked terrified and concerned for Rowan. Steve wanted to tell them that it was going to be okay but he didn't have the words, his throat had clogged blocking everything including his air. As the sirens grew close he gripped her hand tight and was relieved when he felt her return the squeezing. Her eyes were still closed, her breathing still laboured but if he listened very carefully he could hear her whispering his name, and one phrase over and over again.

 _Don't leave me._

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

"So, the good news, is nothing is broken and the blow to her head wasn't too serious," the doctor said to her. "The bad news is that the bruising she has is extensive and will feel like a break. I'll have to prescribe her some meds for the pain."

Rowan was already on some pretty heavy pain meds which was why she was smiling goofily up at the doctor talking to her. She didn't know why he was talking about her like she wasn't there, there wasn't anyone else in the room.

"You should be talking to Commander McStupid," she said and then broke out laughing at her own joke.

The doctor ignored her, focusing on something to her right and when she turned there he was. Commander McStupid in the flesh. Rowan gasped at him. "Oh my! How long have you been standing there?"

Steve turned to her looking not to pleased with her. "Long enough to hear you call me _Commander McStupid_ six times. It wasn't that funny the first time and it continues to not be funny," he told her.

" _Commander McStupid_!" she cried and broke out laughing again. She didn't care what Steve said, that was absolutely hilarious.

After that things got quiet and she got tired. She must have slept because when she woke up she was in more pain than before, _Commander McStupid_ was not as funny as before, and understandably she was quite alone.

Rowan had sort of hoped that after practically throwing her out the damn window Steve would stay, but High Rowan had also insulted him quite crudely so she wasn't surprised that he hadn't stayed with her. Rowan shifted in her bed, her back was on fire and lying on it wasn't helping the situation much.

She rolled herself over onto her side being careful of the IV that was in her arm. The door opened once she was settled and ready to will herself back to sleep. She expected Steve, or maybe some of her Five-O friends.

She was not expecting Nurse Alex.

Rowan didn't even try to get up. It hurt too much to try. She just lay there, eyes wide, certain she looked like death and wishing that he hadn't been working today.

"You must like the food here," he said with a warm smile.

Oh, so that's what he was going to do now? Pretend they were fine? Sure, she could do that…. Oh who was she kidding? She was an awkward mess, this was going to be a disaster.

"Yep, what can I say I love my food so soft I could consider it prechewed," she shot back. She'd stick with sarcastic retorts, that way she could get some sass out but still seem like she was joking and not being purposely being mean.

Alex came to stand in front of her. He put a hand to where her back hurt the most. "They tell me you fell out a window," he whispered and Rowan frowned with confusion. Why did he look concerned? He had no right to care, he ended things between them.

"Uh… yeah… it's a bit of a long story," she said to him, shifting trying to dislodge his hand but it didn't work.

"I've got time. You could tell me," he replied.

At this Rowan forced herself to sit up, wincing while she did so. She pointedly ignored the fact that Alex's hands hovered at her sides like he was spotting her. What did he think she was going to do? Fall out of the fucking bed and break her back for real?

"What are you doing Alex?" she asked. "You said you didn't want to see me anymore. That means you don't have to make small talk with me or act interested in my life anymore. Just do your rounds and go."

Alex looked down to his hands. "Yeah, I regret saying that to you," he whispered. "Look, I'm not going to lie, it was super intimidating knowing that Commander McGarrett was so over protective of you when everyone around here knows he's a loose cannon. If he was willing to arrest you just to keep you from seeing me I fully believed he could make me disappear if I stood up to him."

Rowan nodded, that's true, Steve could do that. The question was, would he? And she figured he might… just to spite her. "Okay, so why are you here, then?" she asked.

"Because he hunted me down last night while you were getting checked out and he told me that he was sorry and he wouldn't interfere anymore," Alex said. "He did threaten to make me disappear if I make you cry, but essentially he said that if I really like you then I should try to make it work and he'd step aside."

Rowan stared at him. Did she want to make things work with Alex? He was really handsome and she couldn't really blame him _much_ for being scared of Steve and Five-O, not everyone was as brave as her. The only thing that was holding her back was Steve. God she was so very fucking attracted to him. Just being near him affected her sometimes. It was sort of ridiculous. But she couldn't cling to that. She wasn't Catherine and Steve would never be interested in her.

She smiled at him softly. She thought Alex was attractive too, she just didn't get the same reaction as she did with Steve but she could make this work.

"Is that what you'd like to do? Make it work?" she asked.

"If you'll have me," Alex replied.

She nodded and Alex broke into a giant grin. She tried to focus on him as he talked but she caught sight of Steve just behind him, looking into her room with a strange look on her face. She smiled to him and slightly waved to which he just tipped his head. She watched him walk away, butterflies flying around her stomach, and not because Alex was holding her hand.


	6. Chapter 6

Rewrite

AvalonReeseFanFics

 _A/N: Happy Friday Everyone! Here's the next chapter and you're in for even more fluff and cuteness from our fav almost-couple. It's gonna be a slow burn hopefully you guys are up for it! Anyone wanna take bets on who admits their feelings first? Don't forget to show me some love and see you next week!_

Chapter 6

* * *

Rowan returned to the McGarrett house following her second release from the hospital not four days after her fall. She was on minor pain meds and a strict rest and relaxation prescription. Steve and Danny had picked her up and then argued the whole way back to the McGarrett house as to how best to not stress Rowan out.

The arguing was not helping, but it seemed to be cheering the boys up so she let it happen. What surprised her was Doris' reaction. Danny dropped them off and Steve practically carried Rowan up the front walk. Before they even got to the stoop the door opened and the older woman practically tackled her in a hug. Rowan blinked her eyes, surprised, she had not thought the woman liked her.

"I leave for the weekend and my son pushes you out a window," she said. "Teach me to leave you two alone again."

"Okay, I did not push her out the window. She was climbing out of it and I was trying to stop her. She fell during the struggle, you get me, she _fell_ ," Steve explained, for what was probably the millionth time.

Rowan raised her hand with a smirk on her face. "I remember being thrown," she said which caused Steve to scowl and storm away from them.

"Well, Steve has put me on strict babysitting duty," Doris told her. "I will be here to make sure you're comfortable and well rested."

Rowan tried to smile but all she could think was: _Great this woman is gonna murder me._

"Don't look at me like that, I'm trying to be nice," Doris hissed as Steve made his way to the kitchen listing off all the comfort food he had bought her to make her say home better for her.

Rowan took a shaky breath but allowed the woman to steer her towards the kitchen. "Are you really? Cause I could use a motherly influence right now," Rowan whispered back.

Doris put an arm around her shoulder and squeezed her tightly. "I think this girl needs some fresh air," Doris announced. "Steve, why don't you bring her some ice cream and one of the books you picked out for her to the lanai.

Steve poked his head out from the kitchen confusion drawn all over that handsome face of his. "The lanai?" he echoed. "So soon? Won't that be traumatic?"

"It's the most relaxing spot on the property, Steve," Doris said. When his eyes merely narrowed at them Doris scowled. "If it looks like she's getting traumatized, I'll move her, I promise."

Rowan nodded and after assessing the two of them for a moment Steve conceded. "Deal," he said. "Both of you are getting two scoops."

"Yay!" Rowan said weakly. "It's like I never left the hospital."

Rowan let Doris help her sit down, though she didn't need it. She let Steve place the bowl in her lap like he was worried she'd break. She let them both dote on her because for the first time in a long while she felt like she was the most precious thing on the planet.

It wasn't until Steve got called in to work that the warm feeling she thought was just the meds started to fade.

She must have looked less happy because Doris came over to her immediately. "Don't tell me Steve was right?" she asked.

"Huh?"

"About the lanai being traumatic?" Doris explained.

Rowan laughed, the process was painful so she ended up groaning instead. "No, he's not right. If anything, windows are traumatic now. I'm never going try to climb out one again."

"Then what's the matter sweetheart?" Doris asked.

"Pain meds are wearing off," Rowan told her. It was a lie of course, but she was hoping that Doris wouldn't notice. Judging by the look on her face she didn't believe her.

"I didn't get the full story about what happened between you and my son that somehow ended in you taking a dive out of your bedroom window," Doris told her. "But I know if involved a boy. A boy my son didn't approve of."

"Alex is closer to Steve's age then mine," she grumbled. "But yes, that was what started the argument. I was half way out a window because he was trying to keep me hostage and I was escaping."

Doris laughed, low and throaty. "Steve sure does have a strong attachment to you, doesn't he?"

Rowan lowered her flaming cheeks. As much as she wanted that to be true, she knew it wasn't. "No, nothing like that. He just feels responsible for me," she told her. "Me basically dropping in on him and all."

Doris nodded as if she understood. "Is that what he told you?" she wondered. When Rowan nodded Doris crossed her legs and propped her chin up on her hand as she stared at the younger woman. "Let me tell you a secret about the McGarrett men, sweetheart…"

"They don't show emotion well," Rowan finished. "Yeah I know. But that's not what this is. He has Catherine. I have Alex. There's nothing there, believe me."

Rowan went back to her melted ice cream and tried not to let the truth get to her too badly. Who knows, maybe in an hour or so she'd call Alex and see if he could come over.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

Steve had brushed off everyone's concerned questions about Rowan. She was fine, and he left it at that. He tried very hard not to jump for his phone every time the text tone went off. He tried very hard not to smile when he thought about her. He was trying altogether too hard to seem like the regular Steve McGarrett before he met Rowan, only he didn't know who that person was anymore let alone how to go back to being like him.

The terrorist cell case he had stumbled on was just the distraction he needed. Until he realized that a half a roll of rubberized explosives was missing and that meant there was a bomb somewhere on the island.

When he got into the Camaro he had called his mom immediately, while Danny was on the phone with his ex-wife Rachel.

"No Mom, you are not to go looking for it!" Steve cried, not knowing why his mother thought she could take on a terrorist cell by herself.

There was a sudden yelp somewhere in the background and Steve tried not to stiffen and failed. That was a Rowan yelp, why was she yelping in pain? His mother was supposed to be watching her. She was supposed to be resting. There was a bit of a scuffle and then he heard Rowan's laboured breathing on the phone.

"I know where the bomb is!" she cried hurriedly.

"Ro! What the hell—"

"No! Shut up and listen to me," she shouted and Steve fell silent. "There's some retirement thing on a Naval base somewhere and the Secretary of Defense is there and some other important government people and the bomb is there in a rental car!"

"Rowan, what did I tell you…" Steve started but she cut him off again.

"I'm right Steve! I'm right! It's there!" she told him the pleading in her voice squeezing his heart tightly.

"Look, please just stay inside, okay? And whatever you do, don't let my mother go looking for the bomb," he said to her and then hung up the phone.

He sat there for a bit thinking about what she said. He had made her promise not to give him the answers to his cases beforehand. She didn't remember a lot of details and he didn't want her to change things and create a bad outcome. But she had sounded so frantic, so sure of herself, so desperate to tell him that he wondered if there was a worse outcome if he didn't know.

He dialed Chin. "I want you to search for a retirement party that the Secretary of Defense may be attending, tell me if there is one or whatever," he told him.

"Oh? Are we following one of Rowan's hunches?" Chin asked, his voice light and teasing.

"Just check it for me," Steve ordered and then hung up the phone.

The car was quite for less than three seconds before Danny cleared his throat. "She knows where the bomb is?"

Steve grimaced. "She thinks so, yeah," he said.

"And if she's right?" Danny asked.

"I don't know," Steve said. "Buy her a book as a thank you?"

Danny smirked. "If she's right, I'm gonna be asking her what to do for all of our cases."

"You don't think that's tempting fate?" Steve asked.

Danny shook his head. "I think fate put an encyclopedia of knowledge based entirely on our lives in our lives for a reason and it would be stupid not to use it," he argued. "Or her, I mean."

Steve kept his eyes on the road. He didn't want to use Rowan. He didn't want to access her knowledge, make her more useful then she needed to be. He wanted her to be safe and he had a feeling that if it became known that she knew what was going to happen someone would take her and force her to tell them all that she knew. Steve didn't want to think of what he would do if someone tried to take Rowan from him. He just knew it wouldn't go well for whoever tried.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

Rowan awoke with a start and promptly rolled off the bed startling a groan out of her mouth. She had started to notice that her memory of the episodes were fuzzy until she was actually in them. So she had completely forgotten which episode this was until she dreamt about it. She hadn't been able to rest until Steve had called a few hours earlier. She had been right, the bomb was where she said it was, and he had been able to defuse it, or at least, some bomb specialist had. She hadn't said I told you so though she wanted to and even though she had restrained herself Steve was still unhappy with her. Yes, she knew that he didn't want her using her knowledge for anyone—let alone his—gain but she couldn't just stand idly by and let terrible things happen, could she? Helping people wasn't really anyone's gain either. She was just being helpful.

Ignoring the fact that her help in this situation probably wasn't welcome Rowan forced herself up. Her back was screaming in protest but she fought through it. By the time she had gotten up to her feet Doris had made it up the stairs and to the door.

"Honey, what happened? Did you fall?" she asked.

"We need to go," Rowan said. "There's a second bomb and Danny and Steve are gonna get stuck with it, we need to go to them."

She expected more resistance, or a few questions at least, but luckily Doris didn't do any of that. Rowan didn't even take the time to change. She left the house in her pjs, a pair of loose sweatpants and a graphic tee-shirt. Her red-blonde hair was pulled back in a messy bun. She looked like a disaster, but that's where she was going so she doubted that it mattered. They got into Steve's truck and Doris went were Rowan told her to go. They parked the truck just a bit away from the barricade that HPD had put up. That meant that they had already found the bomb and Danny was already under the infrared motion sensor.

"I need to get past that," Rowan whispered and Doris assessed it.

"I'll be the distraction, you slip on in," she said. "But be careful, remember your back and the fact that you were told to relax."

"I'll relax when I see them," Rowan shot back and pointedly ignored Doris's smirk. She purposely stayed away from Doris when Doris approached the barricade. She was extremely impressed by the freak out Doris threw that got all the HPD officers to come over to her.

Rowan waved at her before slipping under the caution tape and rushing towards where she knew Steve and Danny were stuck. She heard people calling for her to stop but that didn't deter her in the least. She hopped over the machine that was checking out the bomb and then slid behind Danny wrapping her arms around him.

Danny was shouting: "Whoa, Whoa!" while Steve erupted with a loud: "Rowan?"

Rowan gripped Danny tightly, she felt his tremors of fear and tried very hard to quell hers. "I've got this," she said into his shoulder. "And by _this_ I mean your back. Quite literally."

"Rowan what the hell are you doing?" Steve asked finally standing up.

Rowan got up on her tippy toes and looked at Steve over Danny's shoulder. "I'm being his back brace," she said. "Cause he's tired and he's scared and I thought he needed a hug."

"Rowan, don't be stupid," Steve snapped. "Get back! Now!"

Rowan glared at him, even in the face of death he looked rugged and handsome, while she looked like a hot mess. How dare he look so good in his stupid cargo pants and that black shirt that hugged his features so well. Rowan forced herself to look away, forced herself to move her mind off of Steve McGarrett and his perfect abs and butt. But she knew, if he thought he could get away with it, he'd grab her and deposit her back behind that barricade and she could not let that happen.

"Okay, here's what we're going to do," she said. "I'm going to ask you guys the same question, if you both say yes, you both shut up? Got me?"

"No, I'm not going to agree to that," Steve said.

"Agree or I'll start singing Backstreet Boys," she threated.

"No," Steve snapped. "We are inches away from a live bomb, Rowan. PLEASE go back to the safety zone!"

Oh god he used her full name. She was in the shit now. If this bomb didn't kill them Steve McGarrett was going to throttle her himself.

"I agree," Danny whispered halting their argument. "Ask your question."

There was a moment's silence were Rowan's eyes darted to the side of Danny's face before turning back to Steve. Danny's eyes were on the bomb, the crinkling of worry in the lines around his eyes deep. Steve, however, looked so upset, so afraid for her, that she could see his jaw twitching as he ground his teeth and she was starting to feel quite… guilty. She wanted to be there to be supportive but it looked like she was making the situation more traumatic. Still he rolled his eyes but nodded and she knew then that he'd listen to her question.

"Okay. If the roles were reversed… if it were me pinned by this laser beam, would either of you leave me here alone?" she asked.

Danny tried not to chuckle. "Hell no. I'd be right here holding your hand," he said. He glanced up to Steve who was frowning, the vein in his jaw still pulsing away. "And don't even bother lying Steven, you'd have thought of a way to get her out and put yourself in her place by now."

"Okay, I wouldn't go that far, but you're right, I wouldn't leave," he admitted.

"Right, then neither of you can say boo to me!" she crowed triumphantly. "I'm just gonna stay here, be his underwire support…"

She cupped his pecks and bounced them up and down like they were boobs causing Danny to laugh and even Steve to crack a smile. "Don't make me laugh," Danny begged and she stopped.

"Don't worry. You can lean on me. When you're not strong. I'll be your friend, I'll help you carry on," she said to him, purposely not signing it for the comedy factor. She then put her mouth close to his ear and whispered: "Don't actually lean on me cause I will not actually be able to support you. We will both go down and you'll never make it to the Daddy-Daughter dance."

"I didn't tell you about that," Danny said. "Steve did you tell her about the dance?"

"No," he answered immediately.

"How do you know about the dance? Do I get to go to the dance? You know what don't answer that, I don't want to jinx it," Danny whispered.

Rowan held her breath as the bomb person walked towards them dressed up like a scene straight out of _The Hurt Locker._ Rowan pressed her lips to Danny's shoulder and kept them there so she wouldn't be tempted to open her mouth and jinx the whole situation. Her eyes met Steve's and that's where the real electricity crackled. She got so lost in his electric blue eyes that she didn't even notice _hurt locker_ fiddling with the bomb.

Then the beeping got more frantic.

"Uh-oh," came from the bomb squad guy and all panic broke loose.

Rowan's grip on Danny tightened, Steve's eyes continued to hold hers but the fear on his face was apparent.

"Go on, get out of here, both of you," Danny ordered one that was backed by the guy working on the bomb.

Rowan couldn't vocalize so she shook her head. "Not a chance," Steve muttered. Well at least one of them could talk.

"I need you guys to get out of here. I need you to look after Grace," Danny cried, he was shaking so hard Rowan thought he might come apart in her arms.

"No! You're going to do that, you're her father!" Steve argued.

"Tell me it's a happy ending, Ro," Danny suddenly said. "Tell me it's going to be alright."

Rowan caught Steve head shake, a small no. Don't tempt fate. The beeping continued, shouldn't it have been disarmed by now? She squeezed her eyes shut and decided to screw the chances. Maybe if she believed hard enough the result would stay the same. So she whispered: "It's a happy ending."

And the beeping stopped.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

"What you did today was the stupidest thing you have ever done," Steve shouted. He was pacing back in forth in front of the TV as Rowan and Doris sat on the couch in front of him. "And you at no point should have encouraged her, MOM!"

"Firstly, don't take that tone with me," Doris said pointing a stern finger at him, showing no signs of guilt what so ever. "Secondly, she was helping. I wasn't about to stand in her way while she tried to help you."

Steve glared down at them both unsure what to say. Seeing Rowan within the blast zone of that bomb, hearing her utter refusal to move, had been both the one of the proudest moments of his life and the most terrifying. And while the situation was terrifying he couldn't help but appreciate just how attractive she looked with her two toned hair up in a messy bun and her lounge clothes. It should be criminal to look that good without having to try.

"I have told you, over and over, that I don't want her using her knowledge to help us," Steve reminded her. "I don't want to tempt fate, I don't want to rewrite what's already set in stone. Today's outcome could have been completely different, do you understand? We all could have died, and that includes Rowan!"

"What is the point of her having this knowledge if you aren't going to use it?" Doris asked. "It seems like a waste to me."

Steve didn't want to argue semantics with his mother. Not with Rowan sitting right there with a blank look in her eyes. Since sitting down on the couch Steve had put a blanket around her shoulders and a mug of tea in her hand but she still seemed catatonic. The second they had gotten back in the house Doris had run off to give Rowan her, and he realized, with a sudden terrifying clarity, that she was probably in quite a bit of pain and she just hadn't said anything. This made him angrier about the whole situation.

Steve glared at his mother. "You want me to use her knowledge? Fine. Rowan, do you know why my mother refused to shoot Wo Fat?"

"Yes," she answered automatically and Steve paused.

"Wait, what?"

At this Rowan looked up, the blank look in her eyes gone, blinking like she had just woken up. "What was the question?"

"Do you know why my mother didn't shoot Wo Fat when she got the chance?" he repeated. He held his breath, not sure if he actually wanted to know the answer to that question, not sure if he'd ask her to elaborate if she actually did know.

Rowan's eyes widened at the question and then turned to Doris who merely stared right back at her. "No," Doris told her.

To which Rowan turned back to him and repeated the answer. Steve groaned and rolled his eyes. They were in on it together. His damn mother had managed to turn Rowan against him. "Are you lying to me?" he asked.

"Yes," Rowan said just as Doris said "No," once more.

Steve sat down on the coffee table and put his head in his hands. This was too hard. He wanted to know, but he didn't. He wanted to shake Rowan for her actions today but he also wanted to hold her just to know that she was still okay. It shocked him to his very core that she ran to them, that in their time of need her only thought was to be there and not for her own personal safety.

"You told me not to tell you, Steve," came Rowan's soft whisper. "You made me promise not to tell you things pertaining to your cases or your life. But you never made me promise not to act on it."

At this Steve looked up. He could tell from the look on her face that there was nothing he could do. If she thought that he or anyone else she cared about was in danger he suspected there was nothing she wouldn't do to try and help them. He looked into her glassy eyes and knew that she was in no state to argue with him and to be honest, at that point, he didn't want to.

"Fine," Steve whispered. "But PLEASE try to be more careful?"

Rowan nodded and then lowered her eyes to her hands. "Okay, now that that's out of the way, Doris has something to tell you," she said.

"Oh, no you're telling him yourself," Doris said raising her hands up in mock surrender.

"Tell me what?" Steve asked.

"No! Not fair, it was your idea!" Rowan complained.

"Yes, but he's your boyfriend!"

"LADIES!" Steve thundered. He had a feeling he knew exactly what they were going to say.

"Doris wanted to meet Alex so he's on his way for dinner," Rowan told him.

"Is that all?" Steve muttered.

"No. You have to make dinner," she said. Steve glared at her and Rowan tried to mask her smile which was no working. "Cause… your mom can't really cook and I'm in too much pain…"

"You owe me," Steve muttered which caused her to break out in a giant grin. He couldn't help it, he lived for that smile.

As he got up he caught a strange look on Doris' face and that happy feeling in his stomach twisted up and disappeared. That was another person who had just figured out just how much Steve was starting to like Rowan.


	7. Chapter 7

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Friday everyone! Thanks for all the love! I didn't realize everyone would want to read the part where Nurse Alex comes over for dinner so I didn't actually write that part! But here's what I'll do, if you keep reviewing I'll post the chapter as a Bonus chapter when we reach 50 reviews? Sound fair? Thanks and see everyone again Next Friday!_

Chapter 7

* * *

Doris was sitting by the front door, her foot taping, tears in her eyes. Rowan was in the kitchen staring at her, not sure if the woman wanted her to intervene yet or not. She stood, instead, with a mug of tea in hand, watching the older woman carefully in case she was needed. But she knew, from asking a million times before and after Steve left the house to pick up Marry from the airport, that Doris did not want her support. So she was going to wait until she asked for it.

"Rowan?" she called softly. Wow that didn't take long. Rowan rushed over to her.

She sat down in the chair beside her and offered her a hand to hold that Doris took immediately. She was nervous, and excited all at once. Mary was back, Steve had gone to the airport to meet her. He was going to tell her that their mom was still alive and then bring Mary back to see her. Rowan had advised that he not tell Mary and just surprise her with their mom but Steve had not listened to her nor let her explain why she had requested he play it that way.

"Does she come?" Doris asked in almost a breathless whisper.

Rowan blinked her eyes she wasn't certain Doris wanted this answer, not the real one anyway. "She's not going to come, is she?" she asked again when she noticed the unconscious wince on Rowan's face.

This time Rowan knew she was wincing. She didn't want to answer that question, she really didn't but Doris was staring at her and she didn't think she could keep quiet for much longer. Outside they heard the crunch of Steve's truck in the drive and Doris let go of Rowan's hand. By the time he had shut the car door and made it to the door Doris was up and had the door opened.

Rowan already knew Mary wasn't there, but hearing Doris confirm it was heart wrenching. Steve walked into the living room ruffling Rowan's hair as he walked by. This was a serious moment so she tried to stifle her groan of frustration, it had taken her almost an hour to tame her hair into the straightened perfection it was. This Hawaiian humidity was trying to kill her with frizz.

"She's not coming, is she?" Doris asked from the door.

"I mean, you can't blame her, Mom," Steve said. "She thought you were dead."

"Where is she staying?" Doris asked shutting the door deftly and moving back to where she had been sitting as Steve stared at her. He said nothing but Doris just laughed.

"Okay. I'll just track her down myself," she said sitting back in her chair. Rowan and Steve exchanged glances but Doris didn't notice that she was too busy digging through her bag to get her cellphone. "I mean, acquiring target locations is actually a specialty of mine, so…"

"Mom," Steve said only to have Doris ignore him to play with her phone. "Mom, Mary's your daughter, she's not a target."

Doris finally stopped but she refused to look at Steve. "I'm sorry, okay? But look, give her some space. Give her some time. When she's ready she's gonna come to you."

Doris shook her head. "And what if that never happens?"

Steve didn't get a chance to answer. His phone started ringing. Rowan sat back, she knew who was calling. Doris, however, got up as Steve did, hope dawning on her face. "Is that her?"

"No, no, no. Stand down, Mom. It's work," he told and her for the first time since the conversation started Doris McGarrett started to laugh.

"Did you just tell me to stand down?" she asked, clearly for clarification because she didn't believe her son could be that stupid. Rowan didn't need it, she heard it and believed that he could, in fact, be that stupid.

"Affirmative. Now, if you don't mind," he confirmed staring her down as she continued to laugh but in a way that conveyed how offended she was by this whole conversation.

"McGarrett," he answered as his mom sat down. She smiled over to Rowan who reached out to take her hand and squeeze it. "Yeah I'll be there in twenty."

Steve hung up his phone and then turned to Rowan. "Come on, you're coming with me," he said.

"What? Why?" Rowan asked staring up at him. She had been quiet and well behaved this whole conversation. Sure she had made faces as Steve talked because he was saying stupid things and she couldn't stop herself but she hadn't thought he noticed.

"Because after what happened last week I don't trust you to not run off with my mom and kidnap Mary," he growled.

"Okay, no. We would not do that," she said and then caught the glare on Doris' face. "Okay, well maybe she would, but I would not be down for that. Besides I don't want to sit in your office all day, bored out of my mind."

"You'll be staying with Kono," Steve answered, stooping down and grabbing her by the arm and pulling her up.

"Aw can't I stay with Nurse Alex instead?" she asked. Steve turned his dry glare to her and Rowan sighed, she should have known better then to mention him. "Alright fine, can I just grab a few things to keep me entertained?"

Steve let her go and Rowan rushed up to her room. She grabbed a sweater because the air conditioning was ridiculous in the Iolani Palace. She grabbed three books because she had a feeling that she was going to be there for hours, then she grabbed her iPod so she could listen to something and her chargers for when her phone and iPod battery eventually died.

Steve was waiting for her at the door and she tried to avoid his eyes. She turned back and saw that Doris still looked forlorn so she put her books into his arms and told him to give her a second.

She went over to Doris and wrapped her arms around the woman. "Give her time and she'll come to you. I promise."

Then before Doris could say anything or Steve could honk his horn Rowan was out the door.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

Steve glanced over his shoulder once more to where Rowan was sitting in the back of Danny's Camaro. She had her headphones in her ears and her nose in a book but he was still worried about having her there at a crime scene with him. Danny was speaking to the parents about their son who had been taken. The supposed _good kid_.

"You did just pick him up after a six-month stay at juvenile hall, though, right?" Danny asked.

Both the parents looked away. "It was just a prank," the mother said.

"Not exactly," the father argued. "Zack took things too far and he paid the price."

"What exactly did he do?" Steve asked.

"Hacked into the White House database and got tickets to the Correspondents' Dinner," the dad explained. Steve couldn't help it, he was impressed. The continued talking. "They wanted to make an example out of Zack and they gave him a six-month sentence."

"What about when he was locked up?" Danny asked. "Any trouble, fights that he got into, anything you know of?"

Both parents shook their head. "None that he mentioned," the mom told them.

Steve looked around again, his gaze falling on Rowan who was now playing with her phone and bobbing her head along to the music she was listening to. He realized that he had gone quiet again and that Danny was looking at him, his gaze darting back to the Camaro before falling back on Steve's face. That smug grin on his face was a look Steve knew well and wanted to slap off.

"What are you doing way out here in the middle of nowhere?" Steve asked hoping to distract Danny before the ribbing started.

"I was just following the GPS," The dad explained.

Steve excused himself from the parents to go track down the GPS to see what had happened. But before he did that he glanced at the Camaro one more time just to make sure that Rowan was there. This time she had her head resting back on the headrest with her eyes closed looking like she was trying to nap.

Danny who had been following him must have noticed just what he was looking at. "She's fine," he told him. "And if you're going to be this worried about her, you should probably have left her at home."

Steve scowled at him. "After what happened with the bomb I'm never leaving her alone with my mother again," he growled. "They enable each other. A pair of enablers!"

Danny tried not to laugh and failed which just meant Steve was glaring at him more. Steve had been trying very hard to be better, to not show how much Rowan got under his skin or just how fixated he was on her, but when she did stupid shit all the time he couldn't help it.

"So, your mother's home alone and you've dragged Rowan to work with you, don't you think it would have been better if you had done it the other way around?" Danny asked. "Rowan's less likely to run off than your mother."

No that would not have worked because his mother wouldn't have listened to him and he was worried if that if he left Rowan alone in his place she'd bring Nurse Alex over and get up to all sorts of terrible things. But Steve couldn't tell Danny that without getting teased.

"Danny," Steve said sighing with aggravation. "Will you please shut up?"

They approached Chin and Kono to find that Kono was searching a license plate. Steve stood idly by as Kono found a match to a stolen van and realized that the van had been found and was being taken to an HPD impound lot. They agreed that she and Chin were going to go look for it while Steve and Danny chased up other leads.

"Okay, you guys are good to go?" Steve asked finally ready to go back to the Camaro and see if Rowan wanted to stop off for malasadas or pancakes or shaved ices except Rowan wasn't in the car.

Steve froze immediately. She was literally just there. "Okay, where the hell could she have gone?" Danny asked.

Steve jogged over to the Camaro. The seat had been pushed forward so she could get out and all her stuff was missing.

"Rowan?!" Steve shouted, looking up and down the trail to see if she had started walking on her own. If she had gotten out of the car and started walking back to civilization he was going to tackle her to the ground and cuff her to the back seat of the Camaro.

There was no answer to his call. Steve was starting to get frantic.

"ROWAN?!" he near screamed. He heard the fear in his voice and tried not to let it show how much it bugged him that he was this afraid. Especially since if he could hear it that meant Danny could hear it too and he'd never hear the end of it.

"Yeah?" came her answer and Steve turned.

Rowan was half out of Kono's car, one earbud still in her ear the other in her hand, she was staring at him as if she couldn't understand what all the fuss was about. Steve spread his arms out in the universal "What gives?" gesture and glared at her.

"What the hell are you doing over there?" he asked her.

Rowan's eyes crinkled in confusion. "You said I was going to be staying with Kono," she reminded him.

"Yeah, at the Iolani Palace, not while she's running down leads," Steve argued.

"But what's the point of you driving me to Iolani Palace just to drop me off? Knowing you, you'll want to wait until she gets there before leaving and then you'd be wasting your time and you don't want that do you?" she asked and she had a point. But Steve didn't want to admit that. He just wanted to be angry.

"Fine, fine," Steve snapped. "You want to ride back with Kono and Chin, fine. Do what you want."

"Are you seriously mad at me right now?" Rowan asked stepping out of the car fully. "Because I'm not going to go back with you and Danny?"

"No, Rowan, I'm not mad," Steve argued, even though he sort of was. "If you would rather spend your time with Kono instead of me and Danny I'm sure Danny will get over it."

"Uh… Danny could care less if she's in the car. No offence," Danny told them. "Danny would just like to drive his car for once."

Steve turned his glare to Danny wishing that just once, JUST ONCE, his partner would either side with him instead of Rowan or shut the hell up.

"Okay. If it's gonna bug you this much, I'll ride back to the Iolani Palace with you, okay?" she asked.

"No. You've made your choice," Steve said, heading towards the driver's seat before Danny could try and snag it.

"Are you seriously going to pout over this?" Rowan called but Steve ignored her. And for the record, he was not pouting.

Danny got in the car, that smug look back on his face. Steve ignored him and put the Camaro in reverse.

"Danny…"

"Yes, Steve?"

"Not a fucking word."

"Or what? What are you going to do? Sulk about it?" Danny asked.

If Steve thought punching him would have shut him up, he would have.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

Finding out that Rowan had been present when Kono and Chin found the body had not been a fun moment for Steve. She had taken it well, he had to give her that. But it wasn't something he wanted to repeat with her. At this rate she was going to need years of therapy to get over the trauma being associated with him was giving her.

After that he had bought her as many malasadas as she wanted and kept her by his side. Which landed her in the surveillance truck in between Danny and Toast. Her eyes were wide as she stared straight ahead at the computer screens and Toast complained. At every stupid comment she would put a hand out to Danny's arm as if her touch alone would keep him from climbing over her and socking Toast right in his whiney little mouth.

"Look there's something I haven't told you," Toast suddenly said.

"Oh yeah? What is it?" Steve asked checking the wire he was about to strap to Toast.

Toast shot a glance to Rowan. "I don't really want to say it around the babe," he murmured.

Steve was dangerously close to hitting him now. He did not like that Toast found Rowan attractive. Nor did he like that Toast's first reaction to even seeing Rowan was to exclaim loudly that he wished he was high or had deodorant or a mint before she came over to them so he could be halfway decent for her. It made sense, of course, Rowan was very pretty, but that didn't mean Toast had to keep saying it. Or looking at her like she was the last bowl of _Cap'n Crunch_. Or calling her some ridiculously objective pet name.

Rowan groaned and put her head in her hands. "Oh My God! I don't care about your glandular issue," she told him.

Toast turned her his jaw slack. "How did you know I was going to say that?" he asked, he then turned back to Steve. "How did she know I was going to say that?"

Steve and Danny exchanged glances. Their inner circle knew about Rowan, he didn't want that to include the often-baked Toast.

"I'm psychic," Rowan said in a dry tone. Steve would have to congratulate her on that one, that was a good cover, a good excuse to give people who weren't to be trusted with the real reason.

"No way," Toast cried. "What am I thinking, right now?"

Rowan stared at him, their eyes linking. She looked so unimpressed. "Boobs. Boobs. Wait… look at her face. Boobs. D'aw I just said not to look at her boobs. Gonna die. I can't do this guys," she listed.

"Holy Shit! She's good!" Toast cried.

That was enough for Steve. He grabbed Toast by the front of the shirt and forced him to look back at him and not at Rowan's chest. "Just remember the plan. You're there to offer your services. That's it."

"When you get alone, download everything off of his computer onto this thing here. We'll take care of the rest," Danny told him.

Rowan leaned forward her chin resting on her hand. "Even I know that's an external hard drive," she said.

"Oh, psychic, cute and a bit of a computer nerd," Toast cried, grinning at her. "Toast likey. I'm gonna call you Jean, you know after Jean Grey the hottest of all the X-men…"

Steve grabbed him again before Danny could reach over Rowan and smack him. "Toast? Live long and Perspire. Now get out of this truck!"

Rowan watched him go as Steve and Danny turned back to the computers.

"It's not going to work," she told them. "He's going to get performance anxiety."

"Shut up, it will work," he said.

"It's too bad you don't have a plan B," she said.

"We don't need a plan B because he will be fine," Danny told her.

"You guys don't have a plan b?" Toast echoed from the mic.

As he and Danny argued Rowan turned to Steve. "It doesn't matter, he's not the one we're after anyway," Rowan said.

"What are you talking about?" Steve cried. She knew better then to tell him things but he was getting better at taking what it was she had to offer when it came to the knowledge she was giving out. "Who are we looking for than?"

"I don't remember. It's all fuzzy, usually I know by now. I don't know why it's not coming to me," Rowan said.

"I can't do this, guys," Toast suddenly cried. "Plan B! Plan B!"

Steve and Danny exchanged glances. Steve hated it when Rowan was right.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

It had taken a whole hour to convince Steve to let her go with Kono. She was just going with her to a wake at the victim's house. To look for a password. How dangerous could that be? It wasn't that she didn't like sitting in Steve's office eating junk food and playing solitaire on his computer. She was just bored. She had finished all her books, her iPod was charging and her phone was almost dead and charging too.

She needed to do something.

This left her sitting at a wake while Kono talked to the parents and then went looking around Zack's room for the password. Rowan was wracking her brain for what happened next but she couldn't remember. Then the room started to spin. She gripped the couch she was sitting on tightly as images clouded her vision and things started to spot around her. It was like she was watching the TV show at home but on fast forward.

When the door crashed open she had remembered everything. She knew was what was going to happen next. She let the masked men round her up, she stayed quiet and waited. When the brought Kono down she immediately went to Rowan's side. The two women held hands and for those moments that they were connected Rowan wasn't as nervous or afraid. .

When the cop came Rowan held her breath. When he walked away and the masked gunman went for the door Rowan spoke up. "You don't have to kill him. If you do the police come faster!"

But she was ignored. The cop got shot, the body got dragged in and the masks came off. The episode was still replaying on loop in her mind. She knew how this was going to end and if she played her cards right, if she could think of a better plan she could change things for the better. It didn't matter if Steve didn't want her to use her knowledge to help, if she could make things better than that was what she was going to do.


	8. Chapter 8

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: So, since this story got so many reviews I'm gonna post this chapter early. You guys will be getting the bonus chapter, it'll be posted next week and then we'll return to our regular programming. Did you guys know that this story is already 224 pages long and that I've written up to chapter 19 plus some future chapters? That's crazy isn't it? Honestly that amazes me._

 _I want to say a big thank you to everyone who reviewed, we definitely made it all the way up to 50! Gotta say though, when I said I wanted 50 reviews I meant real reviews, not the same guest reviewing 20 times in a row. Not that I'm not grateful, I totally am, seriously that showed some real dedication. I didn't realize that you guys would want that bonus chapter so badly. I guess I feel a bit cheated but hey, we're at 55 reviews and that's absolutely amazeballs! Look out next week for that bonus chapter and keep showing me that love!_

Chapter 8

* * *

The kidnappers having Kono was one thing. The fact that they had Rowan too was something completely different to Steve. If he had to guess this must have been what Chin was feeling. A tight constricting pain in his chest that made it hard for him to breathe and even harder for him to stay still. It wasn't even guilt, Steve was flat out agitated.

"Babe, you have got to stop pacing," Danny ordered.

But Steve couldn't stop pacing. He could see Kono in one window, hands up blocking any clear shot of the kidnapers and he could see Rowan in the other. And it was killing him. It should have been him in there. Not Rowan. Not Rowan who was untrained and a completely innocent civilian.

He wanted nothing more than to storm in and get Rowan back, but he didn't have the tactical advantage. Instead all he could do was stand outside that house at a safe distance staring at Rowan's face in the window.

"I never should have let her go with Kono," he hissed. "I should have realized when she was so insistent on going with her that she knew something."

"Okay, now wait a second. I don't think Rowan would have known about this," Danny said. When Steve shot him a dry glare Danny raised his hands in mock surrender and tried again. "What I mean to say, is that, Rowan would have told you this was going to go down, she wouldn't have just run off and gotten herself into this situation."

From the window Rowan was making funny faces at him again and Steve shook his head. The girl was in a hostage situation and trying to make him feel better. Who did that? Who, in the middle of an absolute crisis where one might get shot, worried about the people trying to save them? He opened his arms in that "What gives" gesture again and that earned him a shaky smile and a grin from her. One that immediately faded as her eyes lowered to the ground.

He saw a shadow gesturing behind her and he frowned. Was she getting threatened? God, he couldn't stand the not knowing. But he knew, if he saw Rowan getting hurt in any way it wouldn't mattered if he had the tactical advantage or not he'd burst into the goddamn house himself.

This needed to be over. He needed her back in his arms, or safely back in the Camaro, or even better, back at his house. After this he was locking her in his room, not hers, his. That way he could watch her even at night. And she was breaking up with Nurse Alex, because if she thought that she was going to be out of his sight for even a second after this she had another thing coming.

"Uh oh," Danny said suddenly straightening up and Steve looked back up. Rowan was no longer in the window.

"Where is she? Where is she?" Steve asked the panic gripping in it's icy claws.

"One of the hostage takers took her out of the window," Danny said.

Steve shook his head. No. No this couldn't be happening. He made a move forward, there was no plan in his head other then to break down that door and hope he can shoot faster than the hostage takers, but Danny must have read his mind for he threw himself onto Steve's back taking him down to the ground. Steve struggled while Danny called for back up and demanded that Steve calm down. But all that was running through his head was that the Hostage Takers had taken Rowan out of the window, he didn't know why but he knew it couldn't have been good. He had promised her that he'd protect her and so far, he hadn't been able to keep that promise. But best believe, after this, he was going to be the best damn protector on the planet.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

"She's making faces again," a voice said and Rowan immediately looked down.

"What the hell is it with you, huh?" A voice asked from behind her, the strangely sounding British one that wasn't really British but kinda was. He was also the one calling the shots.

"I'm just trying to make it fun," Rowan whispered.

"Fun? You're a goddamn hostage!" One of the other gunmen shouted.

"It's either that or I have a panic attack," Rowan complained. "What's the harm with a few funny faces?"

She felt the man behind her, felt his breath on the skin of her neck and she tried not to shudder in fear and a little bit of disgust. She didn't dare look up, afraid that if she actually showed how afraid she really was Steve would burst in without a plan and get himself hurt or killed.

"If I catch you making faces one more time, I'll knock the face right off of you," he warned.

When he moved away Rowan let out her breath in a shaky hiss. She glanced up and saw Steve his blue eyes piercing even from that far away. Behind her the leader was interrogating the father threatening to kill the wife for the password. But they didn't have it. Kono did, and if Rowan played this part right they'd believe she had it.

The thump from above came and Rowan held her breath. The boy. The one Kono had hid. They were about to find him.

"I thought you said you checked upstairs," the leader said.

"I did."

"Check again," the leader ordered.

"No need," Rowan called. "That was me."

She felt their eyes on her but didn't look back. "Oh yeah?"

"Yeah, I knocked over a vase," she told them.

The feeling of him being right next to her was back. She kept her eyes forward to where she saw Steve and Danny talking behind the line of police cars. He hadn't looked up in a while and she was grateful, if he saw this next bit there was no telling what he'd do.

"What vase?"

Rowan looked to her right and quickly swept the vase beside her off of the table so it crashed against the floor. She then looked straight into the eyes of the man beside her.

"That one."

In a quick motion he had grabbed the back of her head and practically dragged her away from the window and threw her up against the wall.

"That's it!" he shouted. "Who are you?"

"I'm Officer Rowan Peirce," she said through the pain. She hadn't been on her meds in a while but she would no doubt have to be after this. Her back while better was not ready to be slammed up against things. Her old but fading bruises were smarting again. "I'm with Five-O."

The man stared at her as she waited. He raised the gun to her face. "I don't believe you," he snarled. He then glanced to the man standing by the stairs waiting for orders. With one nod from the leader he was going up the stairs and Rowan had to be quick.

"I know who you are," she told him. "Your name is Sean Winston, your ex special forces, with Africa I think. You started a company called White Fire that specializes in black ops and other messy stuff."

The man's eyes had gone wide, similar to that of a stick-bug all bulging and what not. He might have attacked her then and there if it were for the yelping coming from upstairs followed by frantic screams as the man dragged the boy down the stairs.

"Look what I found," the man said tossing the badge at him. He looked it over and then back at her.

"You really are Five-O," he said more than asked.

"Yep," she said trying to sound more confident then she felt. "And I have two words for you: Richard DeSalvo."

The force of his blow against her cheek was strong enough to send her sprawling. She hit the wall but gratefully didn't fall. Fuck that hurt. Why the hell had she chosen this? She hadn't kept the kid safe, the best she'd have to go for is keeping Kono safe.

"You tell me the password right now, or I will put a hole in this child," he told her.

Rowan turned to look at him. She didn't know the password but she could bluff her way out of this. Before she could even open her mouth to say anything Kono stepped away from the window.

"She's not Five-O, I am," she announced. "And I have the password, not her."

Rowan blinked her eyes. Damn she had not expected that one. She should have, but she didn't. For fuck sake this was almost exactly like the episode, she hadn't changed anything, except now she was in the thick of it. Why had she done this if things weren't going to change? Was it just because it wasn't as radical as a plan? God if she didn't die here Steve was going to kill her for deflecting this situation onto herself. Problem was she was too deep in now to change her mind. She'd have to follow this through to make sure it was still on the same plot.

So, Rowan forced herself to laugh like she thought this was funny. "Okay, so what I'm psychic then? I just happened to know your name, your company and that file you're looking for?" she asked. Kono was subtly shaking her head at her but Rowan didn't stop. "Come on now, you're smarter then that."

Sean glared at them, he forced Rowan to stand beside Kono and then stared at them as if assessing what he should do next. "Give. Me. The. Password."

"Release the hostages," Kono said.

"Not gonna happen," he said.

"Well I can do one better. Yeah, you can get the password from her, but I've already taken the file," Rowan said. Sean rounded on her the gun pointed directly into her face. "I've already transferred it to a secured web page that only I have the password to. I wouldn't say it's heavily encrypted, but if I don't log back in at a certain time the file will be emailed straight to the proper authorities."

He glared at her hard and she hoped she sounded like she knew what she was talking about. "But I'm not going to help you unless you listen to my girl, Kono, so take it away."

Kono turned to her, she could feel the older woman's glare as it bore into Rowan's skull. She then turned back to Sean who was staring at her expectantly.

"Once the hostages are safe we'll give you what you want," she finished.

Sean seemed to think about it. "Or I could just shoot you," he offered.

"True, but then you get nothing and people start looking for your boy," Rowan said with a shrug so nonchalant she surprised even herself. "It's your choice."

She could tell then by the look on his face that she had won. He turned away and pressed a button on his phone and then picked up the house phone.

"Yes, hello, I know you can hear me. I'd like to speak to the person in charge," Sean said.

Rowan tried to stabilize her breathing. Now all that was needed was for Steve to do his part.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

It worked. Steve had gotten them the truck. It had been touch and go when Steve had confirmed that they only had one Five-O teammate in the house. Rowan was nearly shot then and there, but he confirmed that she was a civilian with his team and that had saved her.

The men had all put their masks back on as they exited the house. It didn't matter by that point because she knew that Steve had also figured out who they were. She also knew where Steve was at that moment and she was trying really hard not to laugh in relief.

Still as they got dragged out of the house she caught Chin's angry face and knew that this was personal for him, his little cousin being one of the hostages and all.

"Shorten your countdown by three seconds," she told him. He got a confused look on his face and the gunman holding her shook her to shut her up. It was all she managed to get before she was shoved in the truck.

She purposely chose a seat away from the door, right in the corner where she knew it would be safe. The truck started moving, the masks came off and then the gun was back in her face.

"Come here," Winston said to her.

Rowan shook her head. "I would feel safer if I could stay here," she told him.

"Suit yourself," he said. He took out a bag and handed it to her.

"Log into the website, and get me that file," he ordered.

Rowan put the laptop into her lap. Where had these guys even stashed this? "Uh… is it okay if we wait until we stop moving?" she asked.

"Stop stalling!" Winston shouted.

"I'm not stalling. It's just that if I start reading in a moving vehicle I get sick. And then I throw up. And that would not be good in this nice rental truck, now would it?" she asked.

The gun got pushed into her face again and she tried not to flinch. Kono said something, tried to deflect the attention onto her and her password but Winston backhanded her and she fell back and shut up. Okay… maybe she shouldn't have gotten involved in this. Everything she had been trying to avoid had happened.

"Seriously. I'm feeling queasy just thinking about it. Besides we're in a moving truck, there's no wifi," she complained.

"You have until the count of five to do as you're told or I'm going to shoot your friend in the stomach and you can watch her bleed out," he warned.

The truck banged and swerved and Rowan froze. She looked up and looked around and then promptly shoved the laptop off her lap and covered her ears.

"What the hell are you doing?" Winston asked.

"Bracing for the explosion!" she cried. She caught Kono's eye and saw the surprise in her eyes but she too did the same thing, shoving her back against the wall and covering her ears.

The bang that followed sent the van swerving again, blew the door off its hinges and left a ringing in Rowan's ears. Kono was faster to recover than her. She attacked Sean Winston with a ferocity of a lioness protecting her cub before Sean could shoot her or Rowan. She wasn't sure how the two of them ended up falling out of the truck while it was still moving but it happened which was just another thing she wanted to avoid.

All she knew was that after a few minutes of lying prone in the truck with bullets flying all around her, a strong pair of arms wrapped her up in a giant hug and then Steve was telling her she was alright. She let herself get wrapped up in his warmth, she clung to him like she was afraid he'd vanish, she may have even cried a little bit. Okay, she cried a lot. But that didn't matter, Steve had come through for her, just like she knew he would. And at that moment, in his arms, being carried back to the Camaro, she had never felt safer in her life.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

When Steve got out of the truck and rushed to the back he expected that Rowan would be waiting for him. Finding her lying there curled up on the floor had stopped his heart in his chest. He had pulled her into his arms, felt her heart beat, heard her breathing and his heart started up again. Steve must have held Rowan for a good half hour after he took her out of the truck. She had cried into his chest and told him that she knew he would save her and his heart had melted. In that moment he knew that no matter what happened he would always save her, though he truly hoped that something like this would never happen again.

He had taken her home once they had opened up Zack's file and had arrested Richard DeSalvo, the mobster that White Fire had helped escape protective custody years ago. She had been exhausted. She had taken a shower while he stood watch outside the bathroom door and then she had demanded to sleep. It had been a stressful day, probably more so for her than him, but he found that he couldn't leave her room.

So, he just stood there, staring at her while she slept, like a goddamn weirdo. He wanted to look away, he did, but he was worried that if he took his eyes off her for even one second, she'd disappear again. When she woke up he was going to have to have words with her. Kono had pulled him aside while Rowan was resting in his office. She had told him explicitly what Rowan had done and it had shocked him to the very core. He wanted her to never, EVER, do anything like that ever again and they would be having words about why she shouldn't do that ever again. Not unless he, specifically, was there to give her the back up she needed.

He managed to pry himself away from her bedside when she shifted, rolling over towards him and he was worried she'd wake up and find him standing over her like some stalker. He went into his room to pretend to sleep or pretend to shave or who knows what but he was going to damn well look like he was doing something. But when he came out of his room she wasn't in her room sleeping like he thought she'd be. She was standing at the landing and she was crying.

Steve went to her immediately putting a hand to her shoulder and when she turned she put a single finger to her lips telling him to be quiet. He thought her to be having another one of her mysterious night terrors. That maybe she was having an episode and he needed to comfort her again which was always one of his favourite pass times. But then she pointed down to where they had an amazing view of the front door and the reunion going on there.

Steve smiled himself watching Mary and his mother hug it out. He wasn't about to weep over it like Rowan was but it was definitely touching.

Rowan kept wiping her tears away as if they were going to stop at any minute except they weren't and Steve found himself chuckling. The poor girl was practically sobbing over them and they weren't even her family.

"It's just so great, you know?" she whispered to him. "I'm so happy for them."

Steve put an arm around and pressed a soft kiss into her frizzy red hair.

"Yeah. I know what you mean," he said to her. He tried not to think about having to introduce Rowan to Mary. They'd get along. Too well. It would be double the trouble, but he didn't want to worry about that right now. He just wanted to enjoy this moment.


	9. Chapter 9 - Bonus

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: This is dedicated to the Guest who reviewed over and over. Here's the bonus chapter :D I hope you enjoy it because this is for you! This chapter takes place after the events of Chapter 6 – so read that if you need a recap. Next week we're back to our regular scheduled program. But feel free to tell me about any other bonus chapter's you'd like to read. Also: Bonus points if anyone can guess who said which comment in the second section. Double bonus points if you know what song Alex is singing. Show me some love and I'll see you guys next week._

Chapter 9: Bonus

* * *

The doorbell rang and Steve scowled. He ignored the ring and furiously went about stirring his chilli as if the soft sloshing had muffled his hearing.

"Steve can you get that?" Rowan called from upstairs and the frown in his face deepened.

"No!" he shouted mostly out of spite. "I'm cooking."

Which was not particularly true, as he had finished dinner a while ago he just didn't want to answer the door.

"And I'm getting ready!" Rowan shouted down to him. Steve shook his head, well that wasn't his fault, now was it? He had told her to get ready earlier as, like a typical girl, she took absolutely ages to get ready.

"Not my problem!" he practically screamed.

The doorbell rang again and Steve ignored Rowan's cry of his name. He glared furiously down into his pot of chilli and refused to budge. He had thought a lot about since Rowan had gone upstairs for a quick nap before Alex came around for dinner and he decided that after the stunt that she and his mother had pulled they didn't deserve to have a nice dinner with the guy Rowan was dating. Both Rowan and Doris knew that Steve didn't like the guy.

"Oh My God, you two," Doris said appearing from Steve didn't even know where. "I'll get it."

Great. Yes. The Great Intimidating Doris McGarrett, Super Spy, was gonna answer the door to Nurse Alex. This should be good. He almost wanted to stop pretending he was still cooking this chilli to watch how it went. She'd rip him to pieces. She'd take one look at him and see him for what he really was.

No fucking good for their precious Rowan.

"Hello, you must be Alex," he heard his mother say. "Come on in."

"Thank you."

Ugh, even the sound of his voice annoyed Steve.

"Are those flowers for Rowan?" Doris asked. He brought flowers? What a fucking brown-noser.

"No, no, these are for you," he said.

"Oh, how sweet of you," came from Doris and Steve frowned. "You just wait here, Rowan will be down in just a second. I'll go put these in some water."

Steve watched her come into the kitchen, her nose planted into the bouquet of yellow roses and pink orchids. She was smiling. Fuck. She was actually smiling.

"That chili's done, Steven," she said to him as she went into his cabinet for a vase. "Go out and entertain your guest."

"He's not my guest. You guys invited him. He's Rowan's…." Steve dithered because he couldn't bring himself to spit out the word: _boyfriend_. "Thing. She should be down here."

"Steven James McGarrett, you stop being rude this instant and get out there," Doris snapped and Steve gawked at her.

She wasn't on his side? Really? Her own son? This interloper came in with a bouquet of flowers and she wasn't on his side anymore? What the hell Doris?!

Steve threw the wooden spoon he had been using to stir the chilli into the kitchen and stormed out into the living room trying his very best to smile. But by the way Alex was eyeing him like a rabbit about to bolt he must have been smiling quite aggressively.

Steve shook his hand with a bit more force than he meant to as he asked how Alex was doing. As the two men exchanged pleasantries Alex and Steve looked one another over.

Alex was in back skinny jeans, a tight white tee-shirt with a pair of suspenders holding… fucking nothing up basically, so they must have been for decoration. Steve had chosen not to change. He was still in his white camo pants which were probably still covered in rubble and blood splatters, and his dark blue button down with the grey tee-shirt underneath. He had thought he looked fine enough for a dinner at his own house, but judging by Alex's outfit he was probably under dressed.

"Thank you for having me over," Alex said to him and Steve tried not to grimace because he hadn't wanted the man to come over.

"We're happy to have you," Steve lied looking away from Alex's shaky smile. He glanced up to the second floor where Rowan was seemed to be taking her time getting ready. "Girls, am I right?"

"Well her injury is probably hindering her," Alex said. "You didn't really push her out a window did you?"

Steve glared at Alex. No he most certainly had not pushed her and everyone knew that. Alex was grinning, smirking like he had meant that comment in a teasing way but Steve sure as hell didn't take it that way. He tried to stare down at Alex in an intimidating way, but he wasn't Danny, he was just as tall as Steve. And like Danny, the glare on Steve's face did nothing to make that new smile falter on Alex's face.

"No," he growled through clenched teeth. "I did not push her. I was trying to stop her and she fell."

Alex chuckled. "I know, brah," he said lightly punching Steve's arm. He cleared his throat when Steve merely darkened his glare at him. He turned back to the staircase adding: "Rowan was very clear that it was all her fault."

Steve tried to stifle his smile but couldn't. Rowan had been giving him guff about window incident, but he was happy to know that she took the blame. Even if, he had to admit, he was half at fault for the incident. He could have just let her go down and then catch when she was on the ground. Hell he could have jumped out the window after her and landed just fine. Panic had been the main reason why he held on and didn't let go. Panic left Rowan in the hospital for four days

"Whoa," Alex suddenly breathed out, going rigid beside him. Steve's first instinct was to look for the threat, his hand went to his side even though his gun wasn't there and he tried not to flinch when he found his hip bare. But there wasn't a threat for Steve to nullify. Alex was looking to the top of the stairs where, like some modern-day-Cinderella, Rowan was descending down to them.

She had this coquettish smile on her face but her sparkling sea-blue eyes were on Alex and Alex alone. Which was terrible because Steve was breathless just staring at her. She was wearing a tight light pink tank-top, the neckline plunging with pink straps crossing the tanned expanse that was exposed. Her matching light pink tulle skirt was knee length, thank god, decorated with gold flowers and stuck out slightly giving her some volume. Her red-blonde hair was curled, creating waves of fire cascading over her shoulders.

"What the hell are you wearing?" came out of Steve's lips before he could stop himself. Catherine had bought her that? Why the fuck would Catherine had bought her that? What the hell could she have been thinking?

Rowan's eyes turned to Steve's and he was breathless once more. Whatever make up she had done had highlighted all the spots that blinded him. Her eyes were bigger, bright, shiner, her lips a rosebud pink and so plump he swore she had been kissed before this. He tried to keep his eyes on her face but they kept falling down trying to drink her in without her noticing.

"What's wrong with it?" she asked looking down to her outfit. When she looked back up at him she looked upset, like it mattered what he thought about her outfit.

"I think you look beautiful," Alex breathed out and that breathtaking smile was back on Rowan's lips and directed at Alex again.

Steve meant to say: "It's a bit too much for a dinner at home, don't you think?" but what came out was: "You look ridiculous."

Steve heard it and even he was shocked that it came out of his face. He saw the surprise and hurt dawn over Rowan's features and he was immediately shamed. It wasn't until he caught Alex's scowl that he found himself staring down at her feet which were clad in pink flats with matching gold flower decals. What the hell was wrong with him?

"I'm… uh… gonna check on the chili," he said quickly before he could say anything else that was stupid and walked away.

This dinner was going to be harder than he thought.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

Rowan tried to not be phased by Steve's comment. She looked Hawt AF. She knew she did, because she sent a picture to Kono, Chin, Danny, Max and even Kamekona to see what they thought and she got rave reviews. Alex seemed to really like it, he couldn't keep his eyes off of her. But Steve. Stupid Steve. He couldn't look at her. His eyes went everywhere but her. AND he had said that he thought she looked ridiculous which had made her feel stupid and self-conscious.

She tried to focus on what everyone else had said.

 _Looking good, sista._

 _Your outfit has inspired a positive reaction for me. Your date is sure to enjoy it._

 _I told you that dress would look amazing on you._

 _Any hotter and Alex is gonna combust!_

 _I'd pay to see both Alex and Steve's faces when you come down in that. Send me pictures, or better yet a video!_

But the one comment that played on loop was Steve's.

 _You look ridiculous._

At least he was somewhat being nice to Alex, though she was more worried about Doris.

"So is nursing a stepping stone or is it what you want to do?" Doris asked him.

"It pays the bills," Alex replied with a laugh. "I enjoy helping people, of course, but I really want to be a musician."

Doris' eyebrow raised up and Steve suddenly stopped eating his chilli and stared at Alex. His elbows propped up on the table, his chin resting on his hands. He was watching avidly and Rowan scowled. He was waiting for Doris' appraisal, like he was watching a football game. If he wasn't sitting so far away from her she'd have kicked him under the table.

"And what instrument do you play?" Doris asked him.

"Guitar," he answered quickly. "I'm a lead singer in a bad, we're called the Doctors."

"Are any of you doctors?" Doris asked.

Rowan winced internally she had asked this question when she started seeing him. "Uh… no, I'm the only one in the health care profession," he admitted.

Oh, here we go.

"Oh. Interesting. So why did you pick that name?" Doris asked.

"We cure people's sadness with our sick tunes," Alex replied with a grin on her face. Steve's smile was just as wide, loving this interaction way too much.

Doris nodded. "Interesting. And is your band popular?"

Alex shrugged slightly. "We have a weekly gig at a local club," he admitted.

Doris smirked at him. "Hmm… maybe you should stay in the health care profession then," she said. Steve snorted into a bowl and Rowan scowled at the two of them. She thought she convinced Doris to be nice to him and not be swayed by Steve's already set his prejudices.

"Well as I said before, I do like helping people, but music is my passion," Alex said, his cheeks pink with embarrassment. "What did you say you did, Mrs. McGarrett?"

"I was a teacher," she said carefully eyeing Rowan to see if she had said anything to Alex about her real job. Which she wouldn't have done because she wasn't a fucking idiot.

"And Rowan mentioned that your late husband was a cop here in Hawaii. I guess that's where Steve got his love for law enforcement?" he asked.

Steve nodded. "I got into the Navy because I wanted to help to people and my country. I got into Hawaii Five-O mostly by accident," Steve said.

"And how did that happen?" Alex asked. Rowan could tell that this was a dangerous topic. Steve wasn't very good at talking about his feelings, let alone what happened to his father.

"How about dessert? Does anyone want dessert?" Rowan asked hoping to change the topic.

Steve ignored her. "I got the Five-O team because terrorists I was chasing came to Hawaii and killed my father. The governor, at the time, wanted a task force with the means and immunity to do what we had to in order to keep this island safe."

"Ah," Alex said, putting his own spoon down and smiling dangerously at Steve. "And you used that power to arrest Rowan to keep her from going to a party with me."

Silence hit the table and Rowan just sat there with her mouth open. Great. Steve was going to kill him. Right here that this table. She was gonna witness a goddamn murder.

"Okay, enough of the power plays boys," Doris said, causing both Steve and Alex to look down to their bowls. "We're here for a nice dinner to get to know Rowan's beau, you said you'd be nice, now be nice."

"I'm sorry," Alex said to Steve. "I went too far."

"It's okay, I shouldn't have sicked HPD after Rowan just because I didn't like her outfit," Steve admitted.

"Or her date," Doris added. Steve rolled his eyes but said nothing else. Rowan let the tension out with a soft sigh smiling at the two men. Maybe they'd calm themselves down now that they had gotten out all of their jabs.

"I think we'd like that dessert now," Steve said to her and Rowan got up. She'd have to trust Doris to mediate the conversation now.

She got up quickly rushing into the kitchen to get the bowls. She hadn't been feeling up to making anything too special, what with a sore back and a nervous day. But they had ice cream. Doris' favourite, Steve's favourite and hers. She put two scoops in each bowl, being sure to give Alex to give her one scoop of her favourite and one of Steve's.

When she returned to the table the topic had turned to a completely different one, and not one that she approved of.

"We're actually putting together an EP. We're hoping that will get us traction," he said. He then shot a smile at Rowan. "Especially with our new song."

The bowl clattered out of her hand as she stared down at Alex. Why did he tell them that? She hadn't told anyone else that. All eyes turned to her as she went back to serving the ice cream. Doris stared at her almost surprised.

"Rowan wrote you a song? Our Rowan?" she asked.

Rowan avoided their stares, especially Steve who was now staring at her with appreciative—if not surprised—eyes.

Alex was beaming. He was so proud of this song. So surprised when she gave it to him to sing. His voice did it more justice then hers, she had told him. He didn't believe her, of course, but she had talked him into it.

"Oh yeah, she wrote us a good one," he told them. And then he mortified her further by breaking out into song.

 _Call me a thief, there's been a robbery, I left with her heart tore it apart made no apologies._

He sang her lyrics, lyrics she wrote about someone else, and she avoided their eyes. Avoided Steve's lest he figured out she wrote a song about him, as if he were singing. Not about her heart, of course, because she hadn't fallen for him or anything foolish like that, but about some other girl's heart. And she was sure there were plenty of girls running around with a broke heart because of him.

Steve and Doris were staring at her as if their eyes had been opened for the first time. She bashfully waved away their surprise.

"Well, we better get a lawyer looking at the royalty contract she will obviously need," Doris said pinning Alex with a knowing glare as he stammered through the answer.

"That actually sounds pretty good," Steve said with a chuckle. "I'd love to hear the whole thing some time."

He said it, his eyes linking with hers. And though Alex said he'd be glad to play the song for them, Rowan knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that Steve meant that he wanted _her_ to sing the song for him.

Steve tucked back into his ice cream and Rowan did the same. This wasn't really all that bad. It could have been much worse.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

Steve had reluctantly agreed to let Rowan and Alex take a moonlit stroll down the beach. He regretted it as soon as their shadowy figures were no longer visible. He didn't like it when Rowan was out of his sight, it meant that he couldn't keep track of her, couldn't keep her out of trouble. He found he liked it even less when she was off with Alex.

Steve furiously scrubbed the chili pot. A lot of the chili had gotten stuck to the bottom. All because he kept it on the heat too long stirring. Guess that's what he deserved for not just agreeing to open the door. It helped with the aggravation. He had had a lot of aggravation that day.

And yet… he had learned something knew today. Rowan wrote songs. He knew she liked to sing. He knew she liked music. He knew she was always writing things on scraps of paper, but she had never shown him those before. Clearly those scraps of paper had future golden hits. Why hadn't she ever told him?

"I like him."

Well that broke him out of his revelry. Steve turned to his mother with nothing short of horrified shock on his face.

"What did you just say?" he asked, almost breathless.

"You heard me. I like him. He's a nice boy," she said.

The pot clattered out of Steve's hands. "Are you kidding me? He's using her to write his songs!"

"Well it hardly goes that far," Doris said which merely caused Steve to roll his eyes. Why was he the only one who saw it. How bad Rowan and Alex were together. "He seems to be a sweet boy, his aspirations are a little far fetched but it's good that he's passionate but still smart enough to work to pay the bills, and he seems absolutely devoted to Rowan. Couldn't take his eyes off her at dinner."

"Yeah, couldn't take his eyes off her chest," Steve growled. Not that he was any better. Why the hell did she have to come down the stairs looking so goddamn sexy? Huh? Why was she tormenting him?

Doris pinned him with a knowing stare that had him squirming. "Is there a particular reason why you didn't want me to like him?"

"I wanted someone on my side," Steve snarled and then under his breath he added: "For once."

"Oh, stop it Steven, this isn't something anyone needs to pick sides. So, you don't like her beau? I'm sorry but you can't really do much about it. You tried Steve, she ended up taking a dive out her bedroom window," Doris told him.

Steve frowned. That wasn't fair. That dig was low and he didn't need it right now. He stared up at the ceiling trying to calm himself down, trying to think of a way that he could explain this without sounding out of his mind, but he came up with nothing.

"I know you don't want to hear this, but I think if you don't like him you'll just have to wait for her to see that they don't belong together. Any other attempts to tear them apart will just drive them closer together," Doris said with a shrug.

Steve sighed. He knew she was right, of course, but he didn't want to wait. That would take too long. Maybe he could just arrest him… not him personally, of course. Maybe he could get one of his friends in the Navy to forcibly conscript him… Rowan wouldn't notice that right?

"Or you could just ask her out yourself."

Steve's gaze whipped back to his mother. "What the hell? Why would I do that?"

"Well, I just assumed that your dislike of the man came from a place of jealousy," Doris said acting all innocent. "Is that not it?"

"Of course not!" Steve thundered. "Come on mom, you know I'm dating Catherine."

"A man can be with one woman and still want another," Doris reminded him. "It was only natural to assume that your problem with Alex is that you want Rowan to yourself. And if that's the case, you should let go of Catherine and ask Rowan out."

Steve turned away from his mother so she couldn't see his scowl. "I have no interest in Rowan in that way," he muttered as he picked the pot back up to resume scrubbing. "I just don't want that Nurse/Musician/Model to hurt her. I'd have to kill him and it'd be hard to cover up the murder."

"I doubt that. I'm sure between you and Danny the two of you would find a way to get rid of the evidence of the murder and the body," Doris told him then disappeared off to her room.

Steve sighed and went back to cleaning. How nice of both Rowan and Doris to have him cook the meal and clean up after them too. His eyes wandered back to the beach, he wasn't sure but he thought he saw the silhouette of a couple in a lover's embrace under a tree a few paces away. He tried not to let that get under his skin, he was certain he was only seeing things.

He tried not to let his mind wander to what his mother said. He didn't want to tell her but he was starting to think he was slightly jealous of Nurse Alex too. That maybe… just maybe… he was starting to grow an interest in Rowan. I real, legitimate, romantic interest in her. Maybe. He wasn't saying she was right, but she might be. He just didn't want her to be right. He loved Catherine. Catherine Rollins was perfect for him. His dream girl. The girl he'd settle down with one day… when their careers allowed it. This passing interest in Rowan wouldn't change that and was probably happening only because of how much time they were spending together, that's all.

But his mother was absolutely right about one thing. Danny would probably bitch but he'd help Steve get rid of a body in a pinch. And no one would ever be able to prove they did it too.


	10. Chapter 10

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Here we are guys! Chapter 10. This one is a bit shorter, but I promise there is fluff, there is laughter, and even a bit of worry. For all of those who were wondering about Catherine and her take on Rowan, you start to see a little bit of her true opinion coming out. For those who are interested, I've now written all the way up to chapter 27, and let me tell you... there's a lot of drama coming our way. SORRY IN ADVANCE. Lastly, thanks for all your guesses last week. One one person got the song: it was Thief by Ansel Elgort (Yeah that guy, I didn't know he was a singer but he's got some good songs out there check em out) as for who said which comment, a lot of you were super close. 1 = Kamekona, 2 = Max, 3 = Kono, 4 = Chin, and 5= Danny. Thanks so much for reading and see you guys next week!  
_

Chapter 10

* * *

Rowan had spent the night at Nurse Alex's place. They hadn't slept together yet, but they were definitely heading towards that. She figured sneaking in at ten in the morning, after Steve was most likely out at work, would make her safe.

She was not expecting Mommy McGarrett to pounce on her the second she opened the door. She had been decidedly motherly since Mary had returned to the mainland. Like Rowan was her surrogate daughter. Rowan tried not to show how much she liked that. Even when they were arguing.

"You are in a whole load of trouble, young lady!" she said crossing her arms over her chest.

Rowan blinked her eyes at her. "Uh… I'm a grown woman if I want to spend the night at my boyfriend's I will," she reminded her. Maybe if she believed in that it would become true.

"Yes, but someone was supposed to tell Steve if they were going to be out all night. And someone forgot to text him, which meant Steve spent all night up and pacing the floorboards and would still be if he hadn't been called out to a case," Doris taunted her.

Rowan winced. Yeah. She had forgotten to text Steve. Purposely. Because the last time she did he made up a fake emergency so she'd rush home. Being out of ice cream was not an emergency though he played off like he hadn't called it the end of his world as he knew it.

"You're doubly in trouble for turning your phone off," Doris said.

This time Rowan glared at her. "He tried to track me again, didn't he?" she cried.

"Girl, you'll be lucky if the man doesn't put a house arrest anklet on you," she said. "You better call him and tell him you're home."

Rowan rolled her eyes. "Yes mom," she groaned. She heard Doris laugh and she couldn't help but smile over it. To think she almost made that woman hate her. She was glad that they had learned to get a long, it was nice to have a motherly figure in her life seeing as she had no idea where her own was.

Rowan turned on her phone and groaned when she saw that she had 37 text messages and 18 voicemails—all from Steve. He was going to rip her a new one. Still she dialed his number and he picked up on the first ring.

"You better be calling me to tell me you're dead in a ditch and you need me to send Max over for an autopsy," he growled into the phone.

"Morning to you too, Steve," she said trying to be cheery.

"Don't you _morning_ me, young lady, where the hell have you been?" he shouted.

"Okay, I am not that young. I am only nine years younger than you," she reminded him hoping that if she kept her voice level he may just calm down. "And I was at my boyfriend's."

"Yes, I figured that's where you were, but you said you'd text me if you weren't coming home," he said, and she knew a guilt trip was coming after that. "So, when you didn't come home I worried."

 _Whoomp, there it is._

So much for calming him down. Steve was right pissed over this and she couldn't figure out what the big deal was. Didn't he have a date with Catherine himself last night? Shouldn't he have been too busy with her? Or maybe it was Danny. If he was with Danny it would explain he was so out of sorts about this, with Danny egging him on with his pessimism and all that. It was time to go for a guilt trip of her own.

"You also tried to trace my phone," she snarled. He had promised to stop doing that. He had yet to keep that promise.

"You weren't answering text messages and your phone was going straight to voicemail. At that point I assumed you needed assistance," he argued.

"My phone was dead," she said.

"No, your phone was off," he growled. "You turned your phone off so I couldn't get a hold of you."

"Do you blame me?" she asked and a heavy silence fell over his end of the phone. "The last time I followed your rules you made up a fake emergency so I'd come home."

"Running out of Rocky Road, in a house filled with women who will eventually all PMS at the same time, is an emergency," Steve repeated and Rowan sighed.

"I don't even like Rocky Road, I like chocolate chip cookie dough and you know this," she growled. She bit back any other retort before it could tumble out of her mouth. She took two deep breaths before trying again. "Okay, okay. Look, I'm sorry I felt I had to go radio silent to enjoy a nice night with my boyfriend. Next time I will follow your strategic op to a tee, okay? But if you pull another stunt like the fake ice cream emergency I'll never listen to you again, you feel me?"

"Fine, I guess that's fair," Steve said to her. "You owe me dinner by the way."

"Yeah, yeah, I'll make you something Italian, bring Danny if you want to," Rowan said. "And take a nap, you big baby. You're probably driving your partner crazy!"

Steve laughed said something about needing to go and then he hung up the phone. Rowan tried not to smile, she always smiled once she was off the phone with Steve, even if they had just been arguing. She forcibly put aside the warm feelings that were fluttering around her chest and made her way back downstairs. She could go for some brunch, even though she had just had breakfast at Alex's.

And she walked in to Catherine and some weird man she didn't recognize talking to Doris. The second Catherine turned to her the world around her swayed and Rowan found herself sitting on the steps.

"Whoa, honey, are you alright?" Doris asked pushing past Catherine and the agent she was with to get to her.

Rowan waved away the concern and tried to put a smile on her face as bits and pieces of a murder played out in front of her eyes. "Yeah, just got a bit woozy there for a second," she said. "What's going on?"

"I'm really glad you're here, actually," Catherine said to her coming to stand beside Doris. Rowan blinked her eyes like she didn't understand what had just been said, like the words made no sense to her. And they probably didn't as she had never heard them in that order before coming out of Catherine's mouth.

"Whoa, that's the first time you've ever been happy to see me," she said and Catherine frowned at her.

"I take offence to that, I never said I didn't like you. And I have worked really hard at being as nice as I possibly could to you," Catherine told her.

"I didn't say that either, I said you're not usually happy to see me. Now I'm worried about the not liking me thing," Rowan whispered shooting a worried glance at Doris at the same time Catherine did the same.

"She has a point, sweetie, you seemed to jump straight to the not liking part," Doris said shrugging her shoulders at Catherine. The wry chuckles that erupted from the younger woman were not a good sign.

"And you're on Rowan's side, of course you are," she growled. Rowan didn't like where this was going. She was certain that if Catherine complained Steve would kick her out, Catherine being his girlfriend and all and much more important than Rowan. Then where would Rowan go? She would have nowhere and no one left.

"Okay, topic change cause this is getting awkward. What do you need?" she asked, hoping that if she played nice Catherine might start to like her.

"I need you to stay with Doris," she said. "Make sure she doesn't do anything rash."

Rowan thought about this for a bit and then turned her head to the side like a confused puppy. The scowl on Catherine's face said it didn't work on Catherine the way it worked on Steve and Danny, so she straightened her head.

"Did Steve not tell you about the incident with the bomb?" she asked. "Cause me and Doris are not good at being rational when together. Steve calls us enablers."

Catherine sighed and looked up to the ceiling as if praying to the lord above for strength. "I am asking you to, just for once, keep her from doing something bad okay?" she pleaded.

"I mean, I can try," Rowan said. "But if this all goes to shit, I told you so."

Catherine shook her head and eventually left. As soon as she did Rowan looked up to Doris who already had her thinking face on which did not bode well for Rowan.

"I should have just stayed at Alex's."

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

Steve went to Catherine's place that afternoon because he needed a favour, but also because he needed a relaxing presence. He couldn't go home because Rowan was there and that was not a relaxing presence, at least not while he was mad at her. And he still didn't know what was really making him mad.

Was it the fact that she had never messaged him as promised or the fact that she had spent all night at Nurse Alex's.

Neither were good reasons to be angry at her. She was a grown woman who could make her own decisions. And when he traced her phone he confirmed that she had last been in the vicinity of Nurse Alex's apartment so logically that was where she was. As a grown woman she didn't have to check in with him, but he had asked her to and she had agreed and then immediately gone rogue on their agreement.

Tie in his frustrations with the woman in this new case of his and he was a veritable live wire.

He knocked on Catherine's door and didn't notice that she seemed a bit squirrely when she opened it up to him. He just knew that he was glad to see her and he already felt a little better now that he was in her presence.

"I didn't expect to see you today," she said as she let him in.

"Cath, uh, I need…"

"A favor? Or course," she said quickly. "What a courtesy, an indulgence, a dispensation."

He missed her eye roll but just barely. He knew she was getting a little huffy over the constant favor asking, especially now that he had Rowan living with him but until she actually came out and said something he was prepared to just ignore that issue. Mainly because he didn't know what he'd do if Catherine asked him to choose. So he went with shameless flattery.

"You're so beautiful when you're sarcastic," he said but for some reason it didn't seem to ring true to him at that moment, like he was lying but he couldn't be. He actually thought that… didn't he?

"Would you just ask me, already," she said breaking out into a giant grin.

Ah, now that smile he did love. It warmed him up just seeing it. "Alright, I need you to put a Dr. Olivia Victor on the no-fly list," he said.

"Uh, you could do that," she reminded him and suddenly Steve needed to pace.

"Uh, no, I can't," he said. "She has a restraining order against me."

When he turned back again she was standing half a step closer to the table and her hand seemed to be shaking. Strange but he let it go.

"A restraining order?" she echoed.

"Yeah," he admitted.

"What did you do?"

"I did my job," he shot back which was true.

Catherine nodded as if she understood but her eyes narrowed at him. "How close can you get?"

"Five hundred yards," he listed immediately.

He smiled when she started laughing. At least someone other than Danny was enjoying his suffering. He still couldn't believe that Danny could say that the problem with Dr. Olivia came from him and his control issues. He did not have control issues, damn it!

"Oh God, you've never been good at first impressions," she said and Steve tried to not let that sting.

"But seriously, Cath, if I put her on the no-fly list, it'll look like I'm harassing her," he told her.

Catherine nodded again. "Yes, because you would be harassing her."

Steve frowned. Damn, maybe he should have gone home. Rowan might not have been able to put someone on the no-fly list but he bet she knew all about this _episode_ they were in and she could tell him how to catch her or at least commiserate with him over the horribleness of this psychiatrist.

"I get that," he said instead, trying to make himself look like the bigger person. It must not have worked because suddenly Catherine was staring at him oddly and he found the need to apologise.

"You okay? What's going on?" she asked.

Steve blanched. What could he really tell her? That he got literally no sleep last night thinking about what Rowan could be doing with Alex. Wondering if that's really what she was doing or if Nurse Alex was currently cutting her up into little pieces to drop all over Hawaii like a puzzle for Steve to put back together. That this psychiatrist's defiance reminded him of Rowan so it made him extra prickly with her. He couldn't say any of that, he had no choice but to lie.

"I'm good. I'm fine," he said trying to avoid her eyes. "I just… I need this done."

"Sure, okay. Are you sure you're okay?" she asked again. He stared at her, he could trust her right? Okay, maybe not with the Rowan stuff but he could tell her about how bad Dr. Olivia was without her judging him.

"This woman has murdered two people, all right? Now she's playing me," he told her. "I hate being played. I really need you, Cath. I need your help"

"You got it," she said and that was all he needed to hear.

He kissed her cheek and then rushed out of the house before any other lies could fall out of his mouth.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

Rowan was half asleep on the couch when the phone rang. She let Doris pick it up and she only half listened to the conversation. But it didn't sound good. When the phone was hung up Doris began moving around rather erratically.

Rowan forced herself to get up. "What's going on?" she asked.

"Catherine and Channing are on their way to pick me up," she said. "Mangosta is here on the island, and he is looking for me."

"Okay. Cool," Rowan said starting to lower herself back to the couch. She then blinked her eyes and sat up straighter. "Wait? What?"

"Come on now Rowan, I explained this to you," Doris said.

"Yeah, no, I know that, but they're early," Rowan said jumping up from the couch and going to Doris's side. She wanted to know why the woman was going through her phone, what could her phone possibly have to help them at this moment? Why hadn't she gotten all dizzy about this? Was it because this episode didn't focus on Doris, was it because this was only a secondary plot line? How was that going to help her in any way?

Doris stopped what she was doing and turned to look at Rowan. "What?"

"They're not supposed to get to you in time," she said. "By the time they get here you're gone…"

There was a creak behind her and before Rowan even got a chance to turn something with great force collided with the back of her head. All she saw before the darkness took her was a bunch of white stars dancing before her eyes.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

When Catherine got to the McGarrett house and saw the damage she knew she was in trouble. The table was knocked over, the couch and sitting chair were spun out of place and a lamp lay on the carpet with spatters of blood beside it. She had no idea how the hell she could tell Steve that his mother AND Rowan had been taken by Mangosta and Catherine hadn't even told him that Doris was in danger.

She and Channing had gotten back into her car and taken off. She had called Chin and demanded a favour. He luckily didn't ask many questions but ran the GPS like she asked and got a trace on the car that Mangosta was driving.

They were led to a warehouse somewhere around the Kewalo Basin. The car was left down an alley and they did not find what they thought they would.

Catherine didn't know how she managed it but Doris had managed to turn tables on Mangosta.

"Give me a name!" she was shouting as she held the jumper cables to his bare chest and the man strapped to the chair writhed and bucked in agony.

Catherine watched in horror. This was not the Doris she knew. This was Shelbourne, the cold and deadly spy.

"Look at me. Look at me Mangosta!" she ordered. "Give me a name. Who else knows I'm alive? Huh?"

Catherine had to shout her name over and over until Doris finally stopped. And then they faced a second problem. Rowan was not with her.

They were walking back to the car when she finally got the nerve to ask. "Where's Rowan, Doris? She wasn't at the house."

Part of her hoped that something had happened to Rowan. It would solve a lot of her problems and end her constantly worrying about Steve and what the two of them got up to when she wasn't there. But a larger part of her knew that if she had to tell Steve Rowan died in direct relation to something Catherine hadn't told him about he'd never forgive her. It might even end their relationship.

Doris looked to the car and for the first time Catherine heard the sound of light pounding and muffled shouting. Catherine scrambled to unlock the trunk and when she did Rowan sat up gasping for air like she hadn't be able to breathe. It might have been hot in the trunk but it still had air. She had blood plastering her hair to the back of neck, meaning that the blood they found at McGarrett's had been hers.

Her eyes were glossy and her pupils were unevenly dilated. Catherine wanted to get her out of the trunk but Rowan was wobbling and unstable. She turned, scanning over her shoulder until she spotted Doris who was grimacing. She pointed a finger into Doris' face.

"You locked me in the trunk!" she snarled. Catherine turned to Doris surprised. She had?

"You were freaking out. Honestly you were a liability," Doris said.

"So, handcuff me to something immovable like Steve does," Rowan shouted. "You don't lock me in a goddamn trunk!"

Catherine purposely ignored the Steve comment because she didn't want to think of her boyfriend—or whatever he was—hand cuffing Rowan to anything. "How did this happen?" Catherine asked trying to get a look at Rowan's head.

Rowan hissed in pain as Catherine's finger found the base of the laceration to the back of her skull. She slapped her hands away and glowered at her.

"He knocked me one over the head, she fought him off. When I woke up she was already in Shelbourne mode and there was no talking her out of it. We got him in the car, took him here—argued the whole way here by the way—and then when we got here, she locked me in the trunk. Cause I wasn't down for some mild torture."

Channing scoffed at her. "You're half her age. How were you that easy to incapacitate?" he asked.

"Of course I was easy to incapacitate, my head is killing me!" Rowan shouted.

"Okay," Catherine said. "Let's get you two home."

She got Rowan into the back of her convertible and put Doris in the front. They drove in silence other than Rowan's groaning. She would need a doctor. Catherine really didn't want to be the one to tell Steve that she had to take Rowan to the hospital again. He hated it when she was in the hospital, mainly because he hated her spending any alone time with Nurse Alex. But how was she to explain this to him?

When they pulled up to the McGarrett house Doris finally spoke.

"Steve can't know about this," she said. When Catherine didn't answer Doris continued. "He thought he lost me once. I don't want him thinking it could happen again. Promise me?"

"It does happen again," Rowan grumbled from the back seat. "I've told you this. He asks too many questions and you run like the coward you are."

Catherine shot a glance at her but noticed that Doris did nothing to correct her, in fact she looked quite guilty about it. Catherine didn't want to think about this right now.

For starters she didn't believe that Rowan was psychic. She didn't buy Steve's story of trauma from falling out of an airplane and not remembering anything. She knew that Rowan thought she was from a different reality where Steve's life was a TV show and because of that she knew all these things she shouldn't have. But Steve didn't believe that and neither did Catherine. Steve thought if anything she was psychic but Catherine didn't believe that either and quite frankly she was surprised Steve did. Yeah, she got some things right but that could have been a lucky guess at best.

Besides if Rowan was right about Doris it would end Steve. She also didn't want to keep this promise. She could lie to Steve, or omit the truth, but she didn't think that would fix things. And with Rowan in the state she was Catherine wasn't even certain Rowan could even if she tried. And that was just by judging what was coming out of her mouth right now.

When she glanced back to Rowan again Doris followed her gaze. "I'll take care of Rowan."

"You are not allowed to kill me, Steve said," Rowan said. Catherine blinked her eyes surprised that that was even a conversation Steve had to have with his mother. What the hell was going on in the McGarrett household when she wasn't sleeping over? Maybe Doris didn't like Rowan as much as Catherine thought.

"I meant your head, stupid, and the cover story for your injury," Doris snapped.

Rowan used the headrest to pull herself up into a seated position. "You locked me in a trunk today," she reminded her pointing a finger into Doris' face, she was so out of balance that the finger moved back and forth. "I will never trust you again."

Catherine shook her head. This was not good. "She needs a doctor," she told Doris. Rowan was so out of it she was petting Catherine's head and saying how pretty her hair was. It was the first compliment the woman living in her boyfriend's—or whatever—house had paid her.

"She's dating a nurse," Doris said. "I'll just invite him over."

Catherine thought about Steve. How badly losing his mother had hurt him and how over protective he was of Rowan. If she could do something to help prevent him from getting hurt she should try.

"Fine I'll keep this a secret," Catherine said forcing Rowan to let go of her hair. "But you better do something about her."

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

Steve returned home and found Nurse Alex walking out the front door. The happy feeling from catching that woman who had been playing with him ebbed away from him as if Nurse Alex was syphoning it out of Steve's body himself.

"Why are you here?" he asked instead of greeting him politely like a normal person. For some reason, no matter how hard he tried, Steve just could not make himself be polite to Alex.

"Rowan fell," he said. "Your mother asked me to take a look at her."

Steve went completely still. Rowan had fallen? Rowan was hurt enough that Doris sought medical help? Yeah, that happy feeling was gone entirely. "How bad is it?"

"Contusion to the back of her head. Doris said she fell down the stairs but it looks to me like she was hit with something. She'll need to be woken up on the hour every hour tonight, and if her symptoms continue she'll have to go back to the hospital for a Cat-Scan," Alex explained.

Before Alex could offer his services Steve waved him off. "Okay, I'll stay up with her," he said. "Thanks for coming down."

He took two steps into his house, slammed the door behind him and then waited for his mother to appear. When she did he was angry. Angry because he didn't believe Rowan fell. Something happened here, and he could see that his mother knew something.

"Okay, so I know you probably didn't want to see him after last night's stunt, but Rowan needed help and didn't want to go to the hospital," Doris told him.

"Why didn't you call me?" Steve asked. When he had started leaving Doris and Rowan together he had made both of them promise to call him if anything happened. Why was everyone ignoring their promises to him these days?

"She asked me not to, said she didn't want to bother you," Doris explained. Steve had to give her that one. That was something Rowan most certainly would say.

"How did she fall?" Steve asked heading up the stairs to her room.

"She was coming down the stairs and slipped," Doris told him. "Cracked the back of her head on one of the stairs."

When Steve turned to go into Rowan's room Doris said: "Oh, she's not in her room honey, she's in the bathroom."

Steve turned immediately and went into the bathroom. Sure enough Rowan was lying on the floor with a blanket on her and pillow under her head. Steve turned to Doris and she shrugged. "She was hell bent on sleeping there, so Alex and I decided to make her as comfortable as possible."

Yes… Rowan did feel better when she was lying on the floor.

"Kay, mom, can you give us a minute?" he asked. He knew that if he wanted the truth he'd have to talk to her without his mother there, and he had a feeling that Doris knew that too. But she shut the bathroom door and walked away.

He counted to ten, listening to the silence before settling down beside Rowan and putting his hand to her back. He rubbed her back up and down in smooth strokes until she stirred beside him.

"Ro?" he whispered into her hair and caught the smell of her shampoo. Lilac. That was new, not her usual roses, but he didn't mind the change.

"Mmm?"

"Ro? Can you wake up please?" he asked. Rowan half turned so she was partially facing him.

"Steve?"

"Yeah."

"When did you get back?"

"A couple of minutes ago," he said. Their voices were low, the whispers, he realized, weren't because they thought Doris was listening but because she was half asleep and hurt. And a lot because Steve didn't want her to think that he was mad at her. "How do you feel?"

"Crappy."

"What happened, Ro?" he asked, this time his voice was stern so she knew that this was serious.

"What did your mother tell you?" she asked.

Steve didn't like that answer. Mainly because she didn't answer his question but asked another. She was deflecting. Why?

"She said you fell," Steve replied.

"Then I fell," she said rolling back over so she wasn't facing him. Despite his better judgement he moved closer to her until his chest was against her back. Everything in his body tightened at the contact and he struggled to keep his lips in her hair and not to move them anywhere else. He moved the strands of hair not stuck under layers of gauze out of the way so her could see her face and saw that her eyes were closed again.

"Stop lying to me Ro," he whispered.

Her eyes opened again and this time she rolled over fully. Her eyes were cloudy, and he knew then she was on her pain meds and was, in all likelihood, very, very high. She was also too close to him again, her nose was millimetres away from his lips and when she tilted her head to look at him her nose brushed against his. All he had to do was move and they would be kissing. And he knew, he didn't know how but he just knew, that she would let him and probably even kiss him back.

"Did you catch the evil lady who was playing you?" she asked. "Madame-Doctor-Victor?"

Steve knew Rowan hadn't been told any of this and he didn't care. He tried not to smile. "Yes, I did."

"Good. Dat bitch deserved it! Killing three people. Making you look stupid," she grumbled thankfully lowering her mouth away from his. Her hands came up to grip his shirt locking him in place. He couldn't move now even if he wanted to. "Did you stay 500 yards away the whole arrest?"

"Yep, you'd have been proud of me," he said smiling into her hair. It wasn't true but he liked feeling her lips twitch up into a smile against his shirt. Already his arms were finding their way around her, even without him asking them to do so.

"For the record you made a great first impression with me," she said.

That conversation had been with Catherine. Sometimes it made him uncomfortable with the amount of knowledge running around in her head. But at that moment he decided to let it go to let her rest.

"I had you in a choke hold the first time I met you," he reminded her.

"Mmm, I like it rough," she whispered and then her breathing evened out.

For a moment Steve just lay there listening to her exhales and feeling her heart beat under the hand he had pressed to her back. It didn't matter that she was lying to him, probably to cover up something his mother had done. It didn't matter that she knew about the case and could commiserate with him over how horrible Olivia was after all. It didn't matter that she quoted word for word a conversation she couldn't possibly know about. All that mattered was the warmth settling in his chest as he held her and how badly he wanted to make sure that she was okay.

He had another very long night ahead of him. That night he slept in the washroom too. With an arm wrapped tightly around her waist and his nose pressed into her lilac scented hair. And every hour, on the hour, Steve was certain to wake her up. And despite being exhausted in the morning and having to explain to Catherine what was going on after she walked in on them on the bathroom floor, he regarded it as one of the best nights he had had with her to date, maybe ever.

* * *

 _P.S. Surprise guys, I bet you weren't expecting this. But I have a feeling that some of you would want to read Catherine's reaction to finding Steve and Rowan all cuddled and a sleep on the bathroom floor. If you are interested just mention that in your review. If I get enough people interested I'll write it up as another bonus chapter._


	11. Chapter 11

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hey guys! Here's chapter 11. The next couple of chapters are going to be jam packed with cute moments, comedy and lots of action. Hopefully you guys enjoy them! Also, bonus points for anyone who can tell me which song the Aloha Girls are singing in this chapter. I figure now would be a good time to clear somethings up and then give you guy some good news!_

 _So, I get a lot of requests to post more frequently and I'd love to thank you guys for being so excited to read more but, unfortunately, I can't post more frequently at this time. At the current moment I have quite a few chapters written in advance, but I go through dry spells frequently and won't write, or will focus on another story, for sometimes months at a time. I'm keeping this pace so that if I go through a dry spell I will still have chapters to post for you. If I don't, this story may go weeks if not months without an update and I don't want that. So for now, we're going to keep it at a chapter a week, unless I get even farther than expected and then I'll try the twice a week option._

 _On to the good news! So I've decided that I will post that Bonus chapter I mentioned last chapter. It will be posted when this story reached 100 reviews. I just have one request. As I like to put some space between the last bonus chapter and the next one, I am asking that you guys don't do that review a million times in one day thing again. Right now, I'm just under 70 reviews, this story averages at 8-10 reviews a chapter and that is just enough to get the bonus chapter in about 3 or 4 chapters_.

So that's my essay for today XD. I hope this chapter pleases everyone and I'll see you guys next week!

Chapter 11

* * *

Steve was killing it with Aloha girls. He didn't even care that Danny and Rowan were sitting by the Troop Leader and all three adults had stunned looks on their faces. All the girls were wearing big huge smiles and that was all that mattered.

"Boars are dangerous and unpredictable beasts," he told he girls who were all in awe of him. "They are everywhere on this island. They are all around us right now and they can attack without warning. So you guys have to be ready to protect yourself at all times."

He was going for a minor scare tactic. Unfortunately, he got hit with a twinge of regret the second he saw Rowan glance around the camp grounds nervously. God she was as skittish as a cat sometimes. At this rate she was going to demand to sleep in the Camaro or with Steve in his tent. Though that last option didn't sound that bad, he could live with that option.

"All right, good. We're gonna talk about the kill zone now," he said as he fished out his hunting knife. Trying very hard to avoid Rowan's eyes who unfortunately looked horrified by this.

He tried not to notice the Troop Leader lean in and whisper something in Rowan's ear. He tried not to let it kill him that she then excused herself and left the fireside with Troop leader Michelle following after. He couldn't help it though, he started to frown.

It had been tough living with Rowan and his mother ever since Doris and Rowan had solidified whatever treaty they had. They were a united front against Steve ever since her slip down the stairs. Either Rowan's accident had been directly caused by Doris or something else had happened. Either way with Rowan most likely hanging a cloud of guilt over Doris's head the woman had been agreeing to everything Rowan had asked for or said. But there was one thing they hadn't agreed on and that had been Alex.

Steve would have hoped that after getting to know Alex, his mother would have seen that he and Rowan would never last. That Alex was no good for her. But that was not what happened. Not only had Doris loved Alex but after spending enough time with him she felt the need to announce that she thought he was perfect for Rowan… and that he bore a remarkable resemblance to Steve. She then went on to add that if that had been done on purpose it would be an easy fix to make sure Rowan ended up with the person she actually wanted to be with.

Rowan and Steve had been flabbergasted. Neither of them had noticed any similarities between her Nurse and Steve. But after some not so discrete questioning Steve realized that everyone on Five-0 thought the same thing, they just hadn't said anything because they figured it would cause tension. And partially because they had a bet on when Steve and Rowan would figure it out, who would figure it out first, and what the reactions would be. Steve was still reeling from the discovery. Why the hell would Rowan want a guy that looked just like him?

"Okay, why don't we learn how to find fresh water or how to make pillows out of flowers or something?" Danny asked as the troop leader wandered off to go find Lucy who still hadn't returned.

"Yeah we can do that," Steve agreed and then chucked his knife at a tree, "Or who wants to learn how to do that?"

"Okay, Rowan, please intervene," Danny said over the cheers of the Aloha girls.

When Steve looked up not only had Rowan appeared again but she was carrying the guitar Chin had bought her. It had upset Steve to learn she could play guitar from Chin, she had never mentioned it to him. Just like she had never mentioned she wrote songs and Steve had to learn that from Alex. When Steve asked why she had never told him she had merely shrugged and said: "You never asked." And well… she had him there. He told himself that he'd ask her all the questions that he wanted to ask her, he even had a list written down to remind himself, but the right time never came and when he did try most of the time she refused to answer.

"Alright Aloha Girls have we been practicing our camp song?" Rowan asked beaming down at them and strumming a few loud chords to get their attention.

All the girls started chanting and Rowan started playing a tune Steve sort of recognized but he didn't know the words. "Alright, so we all know our parts?" she asked and they all called out their affirmations. "Okay, but I'm gonna need help from my special helper."

"We agreed I wouldn't be helping, Rowan," Danny snarled and Steve turned his eyes to Danny with surprise, Rowan was going to make Danny sing? He was her special little helper? Why had he not agreed to come do a demo for the Aloha Girls sooner?

"Well it has to be you cause Uncle Steve can't sing," she said throwing a cheeky grin at Steve.

"Oy! I can sing!" he snapped. Already Danny was leaving his side to go stand by Rowan. The Aloha Girls had all turned their back on him, a blow to his pride that he had lost them so quickly. But this meant Steve could stand there and stare at Rowan to his heart's content with no one to notice, except for Danny.

"Debateable. You forget I've heard you sing in the shower," she called out causing all the girls around them to giggle. Steve's cheeks turned red and his mind walked off a cliff and straight into the gutter. "Besides you don't know the song."

Before Steve could argue she strummed the guitar and then was singing. The girls were around them clapping and even Danny knew the song, standing there, singing along but not clapping, his hands firmly rooted in his pockets. But nothing beat the sound of Rowan's voice, clear and magical. It hypnotized him immediately it gave him a laser focus and all he could see was her. What brought him back was the girls suddenly signing along.

 _Whoo, whoo_ , the girls all sang loudly.

"Here I come," Rowan sang.

 _Whoo, whoo_ , came from the girls again.

"Back to you," Rowan continued.

"There is no home like the one you've got, 'Cause that home belongs to you," they all sang together. The girls all howled at Rowan's long note like a bunch of wolves which Steve couldn't help but laugh at. The second part of song was apparently all Danny and Steve was struggling to keep his smile and laughter to himself. He tried to be discrete and attempt to take a video of Danny but judging by Danny's glare he had definitely noticed.

 _Well, I was in trouble bad, I was so confused. I may not dress in color, babe, but I sure can feel blue_.

That line, that line Steve knew she wrote just for Danny, made his heart flutter in his chest. He loved that she was considerate enough to make Danny sing a song for Grace and her troop mates and make it specific just to him.

They went for another round of the chorus and Rowan walked over to where Steve was standing. "You think Uncle Steve can keep up?" she asked. The girls cheered and Steve had no choice but to sing it with her.

"Not bad," she said when they were done and the girls giggled at Steve's frustrated face. "Now my Aloha girls!"

They all sang that last line and when they were done they all cheered again. "Alright, Danny, take it home!" she cried and that's just what she and Danny did.

 _There ain't no home like the one you got, but that home belongs to you!_

Steve sang that last line with them, and joined in all the howling they did on that one last _you_. When they were done he couldn't help but laugh while Rowan jammed out on the guitar for a few more chords.

Once the song was done the girls all clapped and cheered and Steve clapped for Rowan alone. His eyes never left hers as she took her bows and laughed. She looked so happy that Steve wished they could stay that way forever.

"Lucy isn't at the tent!" Troop Leader Madeline cried suddenly appearing again and that happy feeling left almost immediately.

"Maybe she's just gone to the washroom?" Steve offered trying not to notice that Rowan was making a strange face. One he had come to recognize.

"No, she isn't there," Madeline told them.

"Okay, well let's calm down, she can't have gotten far," Steve said noticing that Rowan was heading off to the side. He didn't know why, but he could tell by the look on her face that she was very serious about the situation. Steve ignored the feel nagging him, that strange sensation that hit him whenever Rowan was following a hunch from her other-dimensional-knowledge. Steve shrugged the feeling away, it was a camp out, what could go wrong at a camp out?

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

Rowan had remembered the second that Lucy was declared missing. The world had tilted and spun around her as the episode replayed in her mind. For a moment she thought she might pass out but she had gotten a hold of herself. Maybe she could stop the whole episode from happening, she just had to find Lucy before she found Ron.

Rowan walked forward, she knew if she continued she'd bump into the girl but it felt like she should have found her by now. "Lucy?" Rowan called out into the darkness. And she was answered.

Lucy appeared, wearing her pink sweater, and smiling up at Rowan. "Come on he needs help," she said.

Rowan reached out trying to stop her, but missed, which left her chasing after her. When she caught up to Lucy she saw that the little girl was right beside him. "He's hurt his leg," she said and then gave Rowan a detailed description of his injuries.

Rowan reached out and grabbed Lucy by the sweater. "Let's go back to camp and get him help," she said.

"We could help him get there," the little girl offered. "I'm going for my first aid badge."

She looked so excited that Rowan couldn't help but melt. Okay, so she did a little first aid and then let the guy go, that couldn't be too bad right? "Alright, we'll do some first aid, I'll need something to bind the wound."

"Here," Lucy said offering her the sweater she had gone to the tent to get. Rowan took it without argument.

"Can you please find him a walking stick?" Rowan asked. "So that when Ron's ready to go we can send him on his way?"

"He's not going to come back with us?" Lucy asked.

"Nope, Ron's looking for something, right? So we're going to let him go find it," Rowan said not noticing the strange look Ron was now giving her.

"Well, maybe Steve can help us find it?" Lucy offered and then turned to the injured man. "Steve's a Navy Seal, he's knows a lot about Wilderness survival and he works for Five-0."

Rowan finished tying up the tourniquet she made out of Lucy's sweater and noticed that Ron was staring at them funny. She stood quickly to put distance between them.

"How do you know I'm looking for something?" he asked slowly.

Rowan blinked her eyes. Oh goddamn. She glanced at Lucy who had put a walking stick into his hands and tried very hard to signal to the girl to come to her side but she didn't get it.

"Just a hunch," Rowan told him dawning a shaky smile.

"You wouldn't be lying to me would you?" he asked staring her down through his glasses.

Rowan tried to laugh it off. "Nope, not a liar," she said. "Come on, Lucy, let's go!"

"No," Ron said grabbing Lucy's shoulder and not letting go. He pulled a gun and pointed it at Rowan. "You know too much to be just a camper. You're going to tell me just how much you know."

Rowan stared at him. No, she did not want to do that. "I think I'd rather you let go of my camper so we can go back and you can go on your way," she said.

Ron took a small staggering step forward so that the gun was closer to Rowan's face. "Start talking!" he ordered.

"Look, I don't know much. I just know you're looking for something and we have a Navy Seal back at camp who can help you," she said. "If you put the gun down, I'm sure I can trick him into helping you find whatever it is you're looking for."

It was a lie of course. If she got this man to agree she was going to sick Steve on him so hard. But Ron didn't look like he was going to fall for it.

"Do you think I look stupid?" he thundered.

And Rowan narrowed her eyes at him as she looked him up and down. "Well… kinda?" she said with a shrug, which was stupid but hey, she was going for the shock factor here. Ron gapped at her like he hadn't expected that answer and in his stupor Rowan shot forward. She knocked the gun away from him and pried Lucy out of his arms, being sure to kick his injured leg so he'd go down.

Ron screamed out in pain just as Rowan screamed: "Run!" at Lucy. She took two steps away, trying to lose Ron in the foliage by ducking under a low hanging branch when she heard the gun go off and her world vanished in a starburst of white.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

The gunshot echoed in the night which was followed by a scream and Steve's heart stopped in his chest. He moved towards the sound, to where, deep in his heart, he hoped Rowan not to be. He planned to charge into the foliage but the cries of fear of several little girls stopped him. He turned back to them, to tell them that it was okay, that he'd investigate and Danny would stay behind but Danny was saying all of that for him. He took two steps towards the trees, determination hardening his features, and Rowan came into view. She had Lucy's hand in hers and a man behind her had a hold of her shoulder and a gun leveled right with Steve's face.

Rowan's head was bleeding and she looked far from impressed. Steve raised his hands in surrender, he heard Danny behind him and the sound of the girls murmuring in distress and worry.

"Who's your friend, Rowan?" he asked.

"This is Ron, he's a little grumpy from his fall out of the plane," she said.

"Shut up!" Ron shouted shaking Rowan a little causing her to wince. "Which one of you is the Seal?"

Steve shot a glare first to Rowan who had to be the one that told this man who he was and then turned it onto the man with the gun. He raised his hand a little higher. "I'm the Seal," he told him. "Why don't you let the girls go and tell me what you want?"

"I'm not that stupid," Ron said. Steve noted that he was limping and using a walking stick. Great, the man was injured, he could get the upper hand on an injured man if he could just get the gun away from him. "They say you're good at tracking. I lost something up the mountain, you're going to help me find it."

Steve wasn't focusing on Ron, though he should have been, he was staring at Rowan whose eye was twitching. He deduced it was because there was blood running down her face and she was struggling to ignore the urge to wipe it off of her face. If Steve found out that she was pistol whipped by this Ron character Steve was going to shoot the man himself.

"Look man, you're scaring the kids," Danny said taking a step forward.

Ron's arm swung towards Danny, the gun in his hand moving off of Steve's chest to Danny's. The arm knocked into Rowan's head causing her to yelp but she was ignored.

"I don't care. Give me your phones and your weapons!" he ordered. Danny and Steve agreed tossing their phones towards the gunman, Steve tossed his knife, and Madeline gathered all the girl's phones and tossed them at his feet too.

"They don't have weapons, they're children," she spat at him.

"It looks like you're in need of some first aid," Steve told Ron gesturing to his injured leg. "Why don't you let me look at it?"

"Oh yeah, so you can take me out? I don't think so," he snapped.

"Look, Ron, we're losing time. You were supposed to meet your partner hours ago, right? We've got the Seal, let's leave the little girl here and go after your diamonds," she offered.

Steve just stared at Rowan, what the hell was she talking about? And why couldn't she just shut up? Ron squeezed Rowan's shoulder until she cried out in pain, her knees buckling but she didn't fall. Steve took a step forward but Ron kept the gun on him so there he was nothing he could but watch. The anger in him building up.

"How the hell do you know all this?" he shouted at her.

"God! You're not going to like the answer," she told him but when he kept squeezing she cried out: "Alright, alright, I'm psychic, are you happy?"

Ron let her go and Steve let out a sigh of relief, but Ron did not look happy in the least. "You think I'm going to believe that?" he asked her.

"I'm not lying this time, I swear. Look at them they have no idea what I'm talking about and they're the cops!" she said as if that were the best excuse in the world.

"I'm not an idiot!" he shouted at her, the gun waving dangerously close to her.

"Hey, calm down man!" Danny said taking yet another step forward.

Ron swung that gun in his direction and Steve watched this all unfold around him like it was in slow motion. He saw the trigger being pulled but he was too far away to get Danny out of the way. He heard Rowan scream and throw herself towards the gun and he was too far away to stop her. He heard the bang and then he was forced to watch as she dropped to the ground, her hands clutching her head. He didn't even realize he had cried out in fear until all the Aloha girls were screaming in terror around him. He even heard Grace scream Rowan's name.

Steve went to go to her but the gun was trained once more on his chest and he forced himself to stop. "Don't move Sailor!" Ron warned which left Steve staring wide eyed in horror at Rowan's body lying on the ground.

"Ro?" he asked ashamed at how his voice quaked. "Ro?"

Rowan groaned and rolled onto her back, "Oh god I think I'm deaf," she cried. "I'll never sing again!"

Steve let out a string of wry and shaky chuckles. She was alive and she was being overly dramatic. That meant she was okay. "Did he shoot Danny?" she asked from the ground.

"Nope, I'm good," Danny called and Rowan grinned.

"Worth it!" she cried pumping a fist in the air.

Ron grabbed her again and forced her to stand. When she turned Steve could see that she was still wincing, her eye half closed as she shook her head to one side like she was trying to get water out of her ear, no doubt to rid it of the ringing.

"Okay, you've made your point," Steve said. "I'll help you. But let's leave Lucy here."

"True, I'd be a better hostage," Rowan agreed.

"No, she's going to come too. She's my insurance, don't want you two double teaming me," Ron growled, moving his hand to Lucy's shoulder.

"Also true," Rowan said. "Me and Steve don't really get along."

"Not now," Steve hissed shooting a glare at her.

Lucy had started crying. "I don't want to go, I don't want to!"

Ron shook her a bit but that did nothing to quell the crying girl. Rowan put a hand out to  
Lucy's and squeezed it tightly, the sight warming Steve's heart. If it weren't such a dire situation he might have said _aww_ but at that moment he was just angry and afraid.

"Okay, everyone in the shed," he ordered gesturing to Danny and the other aloha girls. "Go. Go on. The seal is going to lock you guys in."

As the girls all shuffled to obey and Steve followed after them to do as he was told he caught Danny's eyes. He didn't look too scared but he definitely looked angry. At least Grace was safe.

"Be careful, okay? Bring them back safely," Danny whispered to him.

"Try to get out of here as quickly as you can and call for help," Steve whispered back.

"Hey Danny?" Rowan called interrupting them. "No foundation."

Danny's eyes crinkled in confusion, even Steve was staring at her confused. "What?" he asked.

Rowan's look was serious, like she was willing him to understand through her eyes. "No foundation," she repeated.

"Shut your mouth psychic," Ron ordered hitting her with the gun across the temple that was already bleeding causing her to stagger to the side a bit and swear.

When she straightened Steve saw a look of anger dawn on her face and she half turned to Ron throwing him a dark glare. "That partner you're working with, he's going to shoot you dead. And if you keep it up, I'm going to let it happen."

Steve narrowed his eyes at Ron, Rowan may not have been psychic, but he was more than certain that Rowan was right.


	12. Chapter 12

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Kay so this chapter is going to be a bit longer than the others (it's 13 pages instead of my regular 8) but a lot happens so it'll be worth the extra reading. I tried to go for comedy here, as well as a few aww moments, I'd love to hear what your fav part is, even if it's not from this chapter. I did some math, I've written 16 chapters in advance at the moment, if I were to try doing twice a week updates I'd run out of chapters in 8 weeks. I don't think that's enough, but I'll tell you what, if I get this story 20 chapters a head, I'll try posting two chapters every other week. (One week there's one update, the next week there's two) how does that sound? OH! Also! I've commissioned some art for this story, particularly a cover. This story's gonna have a cover soon how exciting is that? I'll be sure to tell you guys when it's ready to go. We're on our way to that bonus chapter too. Only 26 more reviews to go. Next week Rowan's gonna rewrite another episode and we get to see a little more cuteness and more of what Catherine thinks of this whole situation. I hope you guys are ready for the upcoming DRAMA! See you guys next week!_

Chapter 12

* * *

Danny kept thinking about what Rowan had said to him. _No Foundation._ It made no sense but he knew it meant something otherwise she wouldn't have bothered. What the hell had she been trying to tell him?

Troop Leader Madeline had kept the girls calm and sent them to find blankets and sleeping bags so they could try to sleep. But Danny was not okay with that. He couldn't kick the door down because it opened in, they had a key but it was for the lock on the front. He didn't like being stuck in tight places, his chest felt tight just think about it. Combine that with his worry for Steve, Rowan and Lucy, he was bound to have a panic attack right in front of Grace.

"What are you brooding about over there?" Madeline asked him.

"I just keep thinking about what Rowan said," Danny told her.

"The girl had a gun fired right by her head, she was talking nonsense," Madeline told him.

"No, Rowan's always right about important things," Grace cried ever quick to jump to Rowan's defense.

He got up and paced the floorboards surprised when he heard them creaking. _No foundation._ Of course.

"Do we have a crowbar or something?" he asked.

"We have tent stakes," Madeline said quickly passing it over to Danny. It took some wiggling but he got the board pried up and found he was looking at dirt. He used the stake to dig a bit laughing at what he found.

"There's no foundation," Danny said. Rowan was right after all. "All we have to do is pull up a few boards and then we can dig our way out! Come on girls, grab a stake and start digging."

So that's what Rowan had meant, she was telling them how to escape without actually telling them. When he found Rowan he was going to kiss her. He didn't even care if Steve got mad at him over it.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

Rowan was struggling to keep up, he didn't know if was because she wasn't used to hiking or because of the head injury. Steve wanted to help her, but Ron was making him walk in front with Rowan behind him and Lucy right beside Ron.

"We should stop and rest," Steve said, more for Rowan's benefit than Ron who also looked like he was not doing well with the hike either. They had been hiking all night, the sun was fresh up and even though they were pausing every now and then so Ron could play with his beeping device, probably a GPS of some kind, it looked like they still had pretty far to go.

Rowan stopped and leaned up against a tree, Steve finally got to turn to take a good long look at her. She was huffing like she was exhausted so her cheeks should have been red but she was pale as death. She had taken her sweater off ages ago, choosing to tie it around her waist, both sleeves were stained with red from her wiping the blood away from her face. The cut that sliced through her eyebrow was an angry red against the pale of her skin but it had finally stopped bleeding. Her sweat pants had been rolled up so her calves were covered in mud and her pink teeshirt was clinging to her skin with sweat. There was a lot Steve wanted to do, he wanted to hold her tight, he wanted to yell at her for getting them into this situation, he wanted to attack Ron for doing this to them but above all for some strange reason he wanted to kiss her. But Steve had to settle for reaching out and brushing the locks of her red-blonde hair that were plastered to her forehead, sticky with her own blood, so he could take a proper look at the laceration above her brow.

Before he could get too close, Rowan beckoned Lucy over and put them in between the two of them. She absent went about fixing her hair, loosening the pigtails and braiding them back up again. Lucy leant against Steve who had handed her water to drink, her head resting against his hip. Steve reached across the distance to Rowan.

"How did that happen?" he asked his fingers lightly tracing the wound which had finally stopped bleeding. He knew if the words _Ron whipped me with his gun_ came out of her mouth, Steve would attack the man right then and there.

"Ran into a branch," she answered and he stared at her hard. Was she lying to him so he wouldn't do anything dire? Because that was a Rowan move he did not approve of. "No seriously, I ran face first into a low hanging branch and stunned myself."

Steve tried not to laugh at her because it shouldn't have been funny, but it kind of was. He brushed her hair behind her ear and suddenly frowned.

There was blood leaking form her ear canal.

"Do you still hear the ringing?" he asked the concern returning to him.

"Yeah, everything's muffled on this side and I'm getting dizzy spells," Rowan replied. "I'm sure I'd be in more pain if I weren't so worried."

Steve stared at her. He didn't know what to do, but by the sounds of it she had burst an ear drum. He was going to have to take her to the hospital again. That was more alone time with Nurse Alex for Steve to worry about.

"Okay love birds, it's time to go," Ron said reaching between them and pulling Lucy away.

Rowan shot a glare at him that Steve seconded. "Kay, that was like five seconds. If I need more of a break you probably need it too. And besides, I'm not done with her hair," she said pulling Lucy away from him and finishing off the second braid.

Ron scowled at them and waved the gun at them again. "We're going two miles up this way."

Steve followed the direction that Ron was pointing at. "Up this way? No we can't go that way Ron. The bridge is out," he told them.

"How dumb do you think I am?" Ron asked.

"Do want an honest answer to that?" Steve shot back.

"Oh you and your girlfriend must think you're so funny," Ron snarled and Steve shot a glance at Rowan who merely shook her head and then winced and raised a hand to her injured ear. Steve would have to ask about that later.

"He's right though, the bridge is out," she said.

"Oh yeah, cause the psychic knows everything, right?" he said. "You'd agree with anything he said."

"Not true, Steve and I rarely get along or agree about anything," she argued.

"Shut up!" Ron shouted. "I am so sick of arguing with you people! Stop trying to trick me!"

"We're not trying to trick you," Steve said.

Lucy was crying again and Steve softened, so did Rowan because she sighed. "It's okay, Lucy, it's going to be okay," she said. "Look, see, we're going to start walking, okay?"

Steve liked that she was distracting Ron, it had given him a chance to pick up a rock and pocket it. "You good to climb Ro?" he asked as he began the ascent up the hill.

"Yep."

"Okay, you good too Luce?" Steve asked.

"Yeah."

"Kay, and Ron?"

"Just keep walking," Ron ordered

"I hope you fall to your death," he heard Rowan mutter and he had to try so hard not to laugh.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

It was light out by the time they had dug their way of the shed. The cars were dead, Ron having cut the spark plugs. But one of the Aloha Girls had found their broken phones and had managed to Frankenstein one into working. Danny had called Kono and Chin who sent the park rangers over to them and a whole bunch of trucks to take the girls.

Danny, of course, was going to go after Steve and Rowan. He promised Grace that he would find her friend, and he was gonna shoot the little bastard if he had hurt his friends and maybe even if he hadn't. Chin was trying to head them off at the top of the trail, they had sent a blood sample that most likely came from Ron back to Iolani Palace to run through CODIS. Grace was safely left in an officer's care and then Danny was ready to go.

The problem was he couldn't convince Madeline to stay behind. It was one of her campers that had been kidnapped and she was better at tracking, so she was coming. And Danny couldn't stop her.

"What's the deal with Rowan and Steve," she asked as they were walking.

"Not dating," Danny said. "Not really getting along either, but really protective of one another."

"I guess that explains why he looked like he was about to faint when he saw her bleeding," Madeline added.

Danny barked out a quick chuckle. "Yeah, Ron might get shot for that alone."

"Here it is again, do you see it?" Madeline asked pointing at the ground. Well, that ended their current conversation, clearly. Straight onto the next topic without a segue. "Circular indentation. It's very faint. Repeats itself every two feet. It's gotta be that walking stick Ron was carrying."

Danny looked down and saw nothing out of the ordinary. It all just looked like jungle to him. Okay, maybe it wasn't so bad that she was there with him.

"Huh, you know, I gotta admit. I never would have noticed that," Danny told her.

"Yeah, well, my dad taught me how to track," Madeline told him. "He was big into hunting. I mean, tracking's just about prediction, you know? Your prey leaves you a clue, you recreate what happened and then you try and figure out what it'll do next."

"Sounds like being a cop," he said.

Madeline glanced back at him. "Yeah, kind of," she agreed. "By the way you have a spider on your neck."

"What do you mean? Where?!" Danny cried jumping around and slapping at his neck and fiddling with his backpack trying to get it off.

Madeline chuckled at him. "It wasn't poisonous."

Oh great. She thought it was funny. Well it was not funny. "Let me tell you something. I hate this jungle. I hate jungles in general. Every jungle in the world, I hate. And no disrespect, but I am pulling Grace directly out of the Aloha Girls and putting her in ice hockey. It's cold, there are no bugs and no deranged kidnappers," he ranted.

Just like Steve she was unphased by his tirade. "You know, you're the reason she does this."

"I'm the reason," Danny echoed.

"Yeah."

"Hey, this wasn't my idea. I told you, I got kicked out of the Boy Scouts," he reminded her.

Madeline shrugged. "She says it make her brave, just like you."

Danny tried to hide his smile, but that was the cutest thing he had ever heard. "Oh, brave like me? Maybe I am not as brave as she thinks I am," he snapped.

Madeline thought a bit before saying: "She's probably never seen you do that little spider dance."

Danny nodded. No, she had not seen that dance. "Yeah. You know, I promised her that I would bring Lucy back. She thinks there's nothing I can't do. I can do anything, but one of these days she's gonna realize I am not Superman."

"Probably," Madeline agreed and Danny tried not to sigh in aggravation. She was not helping the situation. "But it's not gonna happen today. See? These tracks go right up this trail, but in a half mile it dead ends. The bridge is out."

That didn't make sense. But he wasn't going to argue with her. He took a drink of water and caught a flash of something red in the trees. He took a better look and spotted a parachute hanging from the tree. It was then that he remembered something Rowan had said the night before.

If Rowan was right Ron really had jumped out of a plane.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

They had been right about the bridge and Ron had been furious. An innocent passer-by had tried to help and got shot. Steve had no choice but to take them around. Ron had been amped by the shooting and told them quite clearly that next time he needed an adrenaline boost he'd shoot Rowan. That had not made Steve happy but Rowan was too tired to care at this point.

Rowan had told him that she wasn't in pain but she had lied. Her head was throbbing. Running face first into a branch had not been good for her and there was something terribly wrong with her ear. But she couldn't tell Steve that, not when he had to worry about saving her and a little kid. So she kept quiet, maybe a bit too quiet.

"What's going on Ro?" Steve asked. "Daydreaming again?"

"Mmm… McDreamy," she murmured. She tried to play it off like she had just been jerked out of her own musings and not like she had barely heard him because of the constant sound of the ocean rolling around in the one ear.

"What?"

"Oh you know, from that TV show with all the doctors. I have been daydreaming about my own personal hot nurse," she said. Steve stopped hiking and turned to look at her.

"Really? You think Alex is that hot?" he asked turning to dazzle her with that cocky half grin that always set the butterflies rioting in her stomach. "The guy who looks like me?"

"Hey! You said you didn't see it either," she reminded him pointing a finger into his face as he smirked down at her.

"I think you should just admit that you find me attractive," Steve said to her. "It would be easier than dating look-a-likes."

"Okay. I'll admit to finding you attractive when you admit that you tried to alienate Alex from me because you were jealous and wanted me to yourself," Rowan shot back.

"Uh… no… because that is not what happened," Steve snapped.

Rowan crossed her arms over her chest and smiled up to him. "Then I can neither confirm nor deny whether or not you're attractive. The only thing I can say is that my current boytoy is very hot and after this I may be taking him out of his package."

The look on Steve's face was worth the suggestive comment in front of a minor… and hostage taker.

"Okay lovebirds, keep moving. It should be around here somewhere," Ron snapped. "Look for a black backpack."

Everyone looked around. Rowan just turned her head, she wasn't really looking, because it hurt to move her head. She was in too much pain to focus, and she was getting one of her dizzy spells again. It was so bad she had to brace herself on her knees.

"Are you sure it's here because I don't see anything," she heard Steve say but she was too busy looking down at the ground and wondering why it looked like it was moving? How dizzy was she?

Her eyes focused and she saw that she was looking at a snake, brown with tan spots slithering by her feet. "SNAKE!" Rowan screamed jumping immediately onto to Steve's back.

Steve had not been expecting a screaming human projectile and as such the force of her attempting to climb him like a tree caused him to yelp and fall over much like a tree getting chopped down. Once they hit the ground Rowan screamed: "SNAKE!" once more and launched herself up an actual tree, climbing up as quickly as she could without thinking about it.

She gripped a branch tightly as Steve got up. She watched him as he looked around at the ground before turning to stare up at her. He had his hands on his hips as he glared up at her. "It was a Brown Tree Snake, Ro," he called up. "So it can climb trees."

Rowan's eyes widened as she stared down at him but instead of trying to climb down she just gripped the tree branch even more tightly and quickly surveyed the branches in case a snake was up there with her already.

A breathless: "Oh my god!" escaped her lips and she purposely stared at Steve waiting for directions. Steve gave her the "What-gives" arms again and sighed in the most aggravated way possible.

"Just climb down, Ro!" he ordered.

Rowan looked down at the tree branch she was clinging to and then back to Steve. "I can't."

"Why?" he groaned.

"I'm much better at getting up than I am at getting down," she said. She glanced up to where the branch ended and saw something hanging off it. That wasn't some black poisonous version of the Brown Tree Snake was it?

Rowan squinted at it and then pointed: "Oh hey look a backpack."

"Whoa! That's it! She's not coming down until she gets that bag!" Ron shouted.

"Look at that tree Ron, it's all dead. I'm surprised it's holding her weight as is," Steve complained. But Rowan knew with absolute certainty that if she didn't get it Ron would make them send Lucy up.

"It's okay, I've got it," she said scooting forward until she was within arm's reach of the bag. She had just managed to get a hold of the strap when the branch underneath her creaked. Rowan froze immediately. "Uh… Steve?"

"Yeah, yeah I heard it" he called to her. "Get ready to jump."

"To jump?" Rowan echoed.

"Yeah, I'll catch you," Steve told her from under her. The branch creaked again and this time it swayed under her weight.

"Like how you caught me before when I was getting away from the snake?" she asked. Cause he hadn't caught her, he had fallen instead.

"I wasn't ready for that one, I'm ready now," he told her. The branch dipped again and Rowan yelped.

"The bag! Grab the bag!" Ron was screaming.

"Rowan, you have to jump," Steve was saying as the two of them continue to ignore Ron. "Trust me. I will catch you, just jump."

The branch creaked again, this time sounding more like a crack and Rowan pushed herself up just as the branch started splintering. She yelped as she threw herself to the side and as promised Steve did catch her.

Except instead of staying on his feet he fell back clutching Rowan to his chest.

They landed in the dirt once more, groaning as they did so and the branch crashed down by their feet.

After a few seconds of breathless panting Steve said: "See, I told you I'd catch you."

Rowan pushed herself up and glared at him. "Hate to break it to you, Super Seal, but we're on the ground."

She was lying against the length of his body, she could feel every rock-hard inch of him pressed against her. Her hands were on his chest which meant that she could, not only, feel the planes of his chest rising up and down with each breath but she could count each wild, heavy, beat of his heart. His hands were scalding her his palms pressed into skin of her sides meaning her shirt had been pushed up in the fall. She made the mistake of propping herself up to taunt him which meant she was now hovering above him a lips distance away from those soft lips looking into his baby blue eyes.

She was breathlessly in awe of him and she needed that to stop. Rowan rolled off of him and quickly got up, being sure to picking up the bag that had fallen with her, detangling it from the branch it was stuck on. Behind her Steve cleared his throat.

"Yeah, but I caught you. It's not my fault you're heavy," Steve told her.

Rowan turned around, her jaw slack with surprise. "Did you just call me heavy?" she cried. "I AM NOT HEAVY! I am a normal weight for my age and size! You are clearly not as strong as you say you are!"

Steve had gotten up as well. He put his hands on his hips and glared down at her. "How dare you! I can bench pressed at least 150, you should not be that hard to keep up!"

"150?! You think I weigh 150?!" She echoed. "ALSO! I've spotted you while you weight trained. You barely cracked 90!"

"Give me the bag!" Ron interrupted but Steve put up a hand to silence him.

"Give us a minute," he said before turning back to Rowan. "I can bench press you no problem, if you're not throwing yourself at me at weird angles!"

"Bullshit. I could jump at you right now, you wouldn't be able to catch me," she snapped.

"Give me the goddamn bag!" Ron shouted coming closer to them.

"Just a second," Steve said again before turning back to Rowan. "Of course I wouldn't, cause I'm not ready!"

"That's it!" Ron screamed the gun waving towards Rowan again. "Give me the bag or…"

And Rowan gave it to him. She whirled around and swung the bag at him, the corner of it clipping his jaw and sending him spirally.

"Go! Take Lucy and run!" Steve shouted jumping onto Ron and struggling to get the gun from him.

Rowan reached out to Lucy and stared out at the trees. "Stay here with me," she said handing the young girl the bag. "It's gonna get really scary but me and Steve got you, okay?'

"Run Rowan! Why didn't you run?" Steve asked standing over Ron with the gun.

There was the click of a gun and a man came out of the bushes with a rifle pointed in their direction. Rowan had one hand on Lucy's shoulder but she reached out behind her with her other hand to grab the hem of Steve's shirt.

He turned and saw the man standing there and Rowan felt him stiffen.

"Throw the gun aside," he ordered and after shooting a meaningful looking at Rowan he did as he was told.

"Meet Ron's partner," Rowan said. "He's not as stupid as Ron."

Steve said nothing. He merely reached out and gripped back of her shirt, by the hem, and despite the situation she couldn't help but smile.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

Steve should have listened to Rowan when she mentioned a partner, but he was listening now. He remembered her mentioning the partner killing Ron, and he was pretty sure he would be okay with that.

"Get up!" the partner ordered. "You are 24 hours late."

"Well, I had some technical difficulties," Ron snapped as he got to his feet and fixed his glasses again. "I missed my jump window. And look at my leg."

"How the hell did you miss the jump?" he other man cried.

"The pilot tried to stop me, so I had to throw the bag out of the airplane," he near shouted. "And then I had to fight the pilot. But it doesn't matter cause we got the goods. No problem."

"No problem?" his partner echoed. "I'm looking at three problems right here."

"Well okay…"

"Well okay?" the partner repeated. "You're traipsing around the jungle with three witnesses."

"Uh. Correction. There are a lot more than three witnesses," Steve interjected. The partner had been walking towards Ron at this point but now his attention was on Steve, which was how he liked it. He tried to signal to Rowan to move but he didn't have to, she was already edging away.

The partner took in what Steve said and then turned back to Ron who nervously tried to laugh it off. "This guy."

"Tell him about the Aloha Girls," Steve offered. "He'll tell you about the Aloha Girls."

"The what?" the partner asked.

"Hawaiian Girl scouts," Rowan added in. This time the partner swung around to face her. Steve had to keep himself from tackling the man as he glared at Rowan over his shoulder. "There's about twenty of them plus the cop we left behind who's probably called HPD by now… not to mention Five-0. Did he mention that Steve here is Five-0?"

The partner turned back to Steve who just smiled and waved in the most condescending manner he could muster. "But you know, aside from all that, you should get away with it," he added.

"Really?" Ron cried. "Not cool, man."

Like what did he expect? Steve to have his back? What was he nuts?

Ron turned back to his partner. "You know what? Shoot these guys, because we gotta go. My leg is killing me. I gotta see a doctor really bad. My leg's infected."

"What you think we can just walk into a hospital and get them to stitch you up?" the partner asked taking a few more steps closer.

"Well I don't know. Maybe we'll go to Urgent Care. Maybe we'll go to a witch doctor! I've been through a lot of trouble for you!" Ron shouted.

"You had one job. Jump out of a plane," the partner said quite calmly. "All you needed was gravity!"

"Well, I'm feeling pretty crappy!" Ron screamed. "Maybe it's time you did something!"

"I think you're right…" the partner said.

Steve had been edging them towards the bushes as Ron and his partner's argument got more and more heated. Luckily Rowan didn't need the nudge, she was already shuffling, keeping Lucy as far back from the scene as she could. As soon as the gun went off Rowan turned and practically picked up Lucy and sprinted away with Steve following after. He cringed and half ducked as the rifle went off and bullets whizzed past them all. He was grateful that not a single one found a mark.

He pushed the girls forward until he was certain that they had a good enough lead and then Steve stopped them.

"Are you guys okay?" he asked. Both girls nodded but it was Lucy who whispered: "Is he still coming?"

"Yes, he's still coming," Steve told her and ignored Rowan's grimace. What did she expect him to do? Lie to the girl? "But it's okay, we've got a really good lead on him. Lucy, you gotta listen to me. You're going to stay here with Rowan and you're going to hide. I'm going to lead the man away and when it's safe I'm gonna come back and I'm gonna get you, alright?"

Lucy broke out into tears and shook her head. "No, I want to stay with you, I want to stay with you!" she sobbed and then threw herself at Steve and hugged him tightly.

"I second that," Rowan said. "I want to stay with you too."

Steve looked up at her, she looked so afraid he wanted to soothe them both but they were running out of time.

"Come on, Lucy, you're being so brave. I promise you, I'm going to come back. But I need you two to stay here," he said.

Rowan rolled her eyes. "You're seriously going to do this?" she asked to which Steve nodded. "Alright, come on Lucy, let's go hide."

"I'll come back for you," Steve assured them. "I promise, I will come back."

He was ushering them towards the dense foliage, he had a soft guiding hand on Rowan's back. He tried very hard to not feel the electric current running up his arm from the contact. Before Rowan ducked down she turned to him and the look on her face told him she was about to spit some psychic shit at him.

"When you get to the river, watch your feet," she said and then she hugged him. Her arms around his neck her chin in his shoulder. She pressed a kiss to his cheek as tender as she could, their good-bye tradition, and all the breath in his body left him. "Be safe."

Steve didn't even bother to chastise her for giving him info he didn't want. He merely smiled at her, promised once more that he'd come back for them, that he'd be safe, and then vanished.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

Chin Ho had heard the shots and rushed towards them. He found Danny a few miles into the jungle crouched over a dead body. The dead body of the man who had taken Rowan, Steve and Lucy hostage, but all three hostages were missing and they didn't know if was Steve who shot this guy or someone else.

When they heard more shots farther in the jungle both he and Danny rushed off splitting ways to cover more ground. Chin was rushing through the leaves, gun out and listening very carefully in case someone was hiding near-by. And it was because of that that he heard the whimpering.

Chin stopped and doubled back. "Lucy?" he called out.

"Chin?" answered him. Chin knew that voice.

"Rowan?" he asked and then she erupted from the bushes hugging him tightly and knocking him down.

"I am _so_ happy to see you," she said into his neck as he sat them both up. She turned back to the bushes where a small blonde haired girl was climbing out.

"Lucy this is Chin, he works with Steve, he's a friend," she told her. "Chin she has the diamonds, can you get her to safety?"

Chin nodded putting a hand out to help Lucy out of the bushes. When he looked up Rowan was scanning the area a look of frantic worry on her face. "Where's Steve?" he asked her.

"He's at the river, which way is that?" she asked.

"You should come with me and Lucy, Danny's gone after Steve," Chin said but Rowan shook her head and took a step away from him.

"Steve needs help, which way is the river?" she said, her tone matching her eyes. Completely, utterly and seriously determined.

"That way," Chin said pointing her in the right direction. Rowan took a step towards it immediately but Chin grabbed her arm to stop her. "You better be careful, cause if something happens to you McGarrett will never forgive me."

Rowan just smiled. "Trust me, I know what I'm doing," she told him and as she jogged off Chin pretended not to hear her whisper: "I think."

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

As soon as Steve put one foot in the river he understood what Rowan had been saying to him. Because the second his foot hit that first stone he went down, biting against a cry of pain as his body hit the wet stones. Behind him the partner with the rifle came crashing out of the trees and stopped.

Steve forced himself to turn and found the man standing above him with the rifle ready to fire.

"Hold it! Where are the diamonds? Where are they?" the man demanded to know.

Steve tried to catch his breath. He had been running so hard and evading those bullets that he was damn near breathless. "You know what? I forgot," he said. Because he sure as hell wasn't going to tell them they were back with Rowan and Lucy.

"You tell me where they are," he said taking a step closer.

"Uh… they're in the jungle. Why don't you go and take a look? I'll wait right here," Steve said.

"You think I'm playing games?" The partner asked. "I will kill you."

"You kill me, you're really never gonna find them," Steve taunted. The man bashed the butt of the gun into his face. Blood erupted in his mouth, the metallic taste and the sting of the blow making him woozy.

He spit out a mouthful of blood and then turned back to the man with the gun.

"How's that, funny guy? Except no one's gonna find you either," the man said.

"I found him," a soft voice called and once again the world around him began to slow down.

The man with the gun turned revealing Rowan behind him. She was just standing there staring him down. Steve heard his scream of _run_ fall from his lips but she hadn't moved. As the man with the gun turned he fired the first of few shots as Rowan fell to the ground. Only four shots went off before a louder fifth shot was heard and the man with the gun crumpled. Danny was to the left still holding the gun he had fired and the world around Steve went back to normal speed.

He struggled to get up, calling Rowan's name as Danny rushed to her side. He didn't even get to crouch down when Rowan suddenly popped up like a jack in the box startling Danny and causing him to fall over.

"STILL ALIVE!" she crowed throwing her hands up in the air. Steve let out the breath he had been holding as he forced himself to ignore the pain in his leg and move over to where Danny was glaring at Rowan.

Steve offered her a hand that Rowan refused to take so Danny took it. She then turned to Danny. "Can you help me up?"

"Super Seal was right there offering you a hand, what his hand not good enough for you?" he asked.

"No, I'm too heavy," she said shooting Steve a dark look. Steve wanted to shake her, he thought she knew that had just been a distraction. She took Danny's hand and let him haul her up. "Am I too heavy, Danny?"

"Heavy? You're as light as a feather," he said. He pulled her in close and kissed her cheek and lingered until Steve grabbed him by the collar and pulled him off. "What? I'm just saying thank-you for the tip. Didn't take me long to realize we could dig ourselves out because there was no foundation under the shed. Why the hell does she think she's too heavy, by the way? I feel like that's a good story."

"He didn't catch me," Rowan said. "Twice."

"No, no, you tell him the full story, not just the highlights," Steve snapped as they started to walk down the trail.

"Yes, please, tell me the whole story. I can't wait to hear how Super Seal couldn't catch you, Rowan," Danny said.

"Okay, so it started when I saw a snake and jumped on his back…."

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

By the time Steve got Rowan out of the hospital and back to the house he was feeling a bit better, mainly because Alex hadn't been in so he didn't have to deal with that interaction. That was until his front door opened and Nurse Alex stepped out. Rowan ran at him, screaming his name as he too rushed forward like this was some stupid rom-com. She jumped at him, wrapping her arms and legs around him and began to kiss him fervently. Steve tried to ignore that burning in the pit of his stomach as he stormed past them.

"See, he can catch me," he heard Rowan snap at him as he walked past and it took all of his willpower to not tell her to go fuck herself.

Of course he could have caught her, when he was ready and she wasn't throwing herself at him at a strange angle. He slammed the front door and glared at his mother who had discretely moved a single panel of the drapes to spy on Rowan and Alex as they talked but mostly kissed.

"Why is he here?" Steve hissed.

Doris turned to him with surprise on her face. "Because when Danny called me to let me know what happened, I called Alex so he knew. He was worried and offered to wait with me, which was very nice of him, and he wanted to be here when she got back. He's quite a doting boyfriend."

"Course he is, she's his best patient," Steve grumbled to himself as he stormed to the fridge to get a well-deserved beer. He took an extra one out and handed it to his mother who had followed him.

"You know, Steven, if this is bothering you so much you could just tell her you like her. I'm sure she'd be more than willing to drop the Nurse to date you instead," she offered.

Steve nearly gagged on his swallow of beer. He choked and coughed and when his airway was clear he turned to his mother surprise on his face. Not that she had told him to ask Rowan out, she had done that before but she had never mentioned before that Rowan would most likely reciprocate any feeling Doris thought he son to have. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"I'm not blind Steve, I see how she is with you and how you are with her. It's clear as day you both have feelings for each other, why are you denying it?" she asked.

Steve put down his beer and stared at his mother, hard. His heart was beating wildly out of his chest. She was wrong. Rowan was not interested in him in that way, and neither was he interested in her… maybe… probably. "Mom, what is this about?" he asked. "I thought you liked Catherine."

"I do. I love Catherine, I just don't think you do," Doris said. "I think you're a little more interested in our house guest."

Steve shook his head. "No," he told her. "You're wrong."

He moved towards the steps, he wanted to have a shower. He wanted to wash the jungle off of him and the feel of Rowan's body against his. He wanted to forget that mind numbing desire to kiss her as she hovered over him, her hand over his heart, and his hands on her waist. No. He _needed_ to forget.

"Please make sure they come in at a decent hour," Steve told his mother. "And under no circumstances should you allow that man to stay the night."

His mother said nothing and he was grateful she didn't. He needed to get a better handle on this. Maybe it would be better if Rowan stayed with Danny for a few days after all.


	13. Chapter 13

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: So I'm posting early this week because I don't know if I'll be able to tomorrow. So you're welcome for the early post! Well guys! Here it is! For everyone who's been asking what Catherine's reaction is gonna be when she finds out... HERE IT IS. Don't get me wrong, I like Catherine, and I definitely don't want to paint her as the villain of this piece, but I feel like this is going to be an accurate representation of a girl who's boyfriend prefers another girl. Catherine's pretty reasonable but there's always going to be that moment where enough is enough. Well... this is it. Actually, this is where we START seeing it. We're still miles away from the official gauntlet being thrown but we're getting there. Lastly, only 20 more reviews and we get that bonus chapter! Let's see how many we can get by next week! See you guys next Friday!_

Chapter 13

* * *

Rowan sat back in Steve's chair and hoped to god that he wouldn't be back soon. The uniform Duke had left with her had to be getting tired, sooner or later he'd sit down, or fall down, or go to the washroom and she was gonna run for it. Handcuffs and all. Anything to avoid the all mighty smack down Steve was going to rain down on her when he found out she had almost got arrested.

Luck was not with her though because before the uniform could lose her Steve came into the office with Catherine and a…. child? Since when did they have a kid?

She made eye contact with the boy and suddenly the world began to tilt around her again and Rowan gripped Steve's desk with all her might to keep herself from falling over. Steve was in the office immediately.

"What's wrong, why do you look like that?" he asked she felt his eyes zero in on her hands and suddenly the concern was replaced with anger. "Why the hell are you handcuffed?"

"We arrested her for trespassing this morning, Duke said to bring her here," the officer said, having followed Steve into his office when Steve ignored him and stormed past. He offered Steve the keys to Rowan's handcuffs. She might have lifted her hands to get them free if she wasn't afraid that she'd keel over if she let go of the desk.

Steve was towering over her, she knew it but she couldn't move because the dizzy spell had yet to pass. He put a hand to her forehead to check her temperature.

"I'm fine," she told him.

"You're dizzy again," he snarled.

"Yes, but I'm fine," she assured him.

When she looked up Steve was glaring down at her. "Oh good, that's great. WHY THE HELL WERE YOU TRESPASSING?!" he shouted.

Rowan winced. She should have played sick. "I didn't know we were trespassing, I thought we were just at a house party. The cops showed up everyone was running and it didn't occur to me to run fast and here we are."

"We?" Steve echoed. "I thought you went out with Kono last night? Kono didn't mention a partyor cops coming to break it up. Wait… were… were you out with Nurse Alex last night?"

Rowan winced again because she had told him she was going out with Kono and had asked Kono to lie for her and everything. Steve slammed his fist down on his desk causing her to jump. "Okay, calm down," Rowan whispered. "Maybe uncuff me?"

The uniform was at the door staring at Steve like he was terrified to get any closer. Steve suddenly remembered the key in his hand and seemed to contemplate actually uncuffing her before he moved to do so. He was hovering over her fiddling with the lock as he asked his next question.

"You lied to me! How could you do that?" Steve snapped.

"With relative ease," Rowan answered. Steve glared at her and Rowan sighed. "You get so upset when I go out with him and… you know… and you had those plans today and I didn't want you to worry and then be all grump for this morning so… I just came up with a cover story."

It was a lie. She just didn't want to deal with him being distracting while she was getting ready, or give him the opportunity to derail her plans by coming up with an emergency to keep her from going. He kept saying he wouldn't, but he always found ways to guilt her into coming back early or not going at all. But Steve seemed to take her lie at face value because he shot a covert glance at Catherine before changing the topic.

"He just left you there?"

"I guess. I don't know, we got separated," she said.

Steve shook his head. "He shouldn't have left you," he growled staring down at her. Rowan stared up at him, he looked so handsome today it was taking her breath away. The way the light hit him was just right, highlighting all of his good features.

"Oh, she's why you're not married," a small voice said and Rowan turned. Right. Catherine avec child.

"What?" Steve asked clearly confused but Rowan thought she knew what was going on. To save Catherine from having to stutter through an answer she decided to throw her a bone and interrupt.

Rowan pointed at the kid with her now free hands. "Missing convenience store dad?" she asked.

"Oh she knows about this one too, do you know where he is?" Catherine asked clearly unimpressed and upset with Steve's behaviour with her again. Rowan had thought that Catherine knew all about her, but apparently all Steve had told Catherine was that Rowan had suffered some sort of trauma and thought that his life was a TV show. He had also used the psychic excuse with her, saying that Rowan didn't think she was psychic but instead thought that she was from an alternate reality. So basically Catherine thought she was this crazy chick that her boyfriend was housing. That just made Rowan more nervous around her.

"Being held hostage," Rowan said.

"Where?" Catherine prodded as the boy stared at her with wide eyes.

"Don't know. Did you find the money yet?" she shot back before she could remember she was trying to stay on Catherine's good side.

Catherine just glared at her. When she didn't answer Rowan looked up to Steve. "I don't know if that's a yes or a no," she said.

"Shut up, Rowan," he snapped. "You're going to stay here with Ethan and while me and Catherine talk, okay?"

"Uh… why are we letting me watch a child?" she asked. "You barely let me watch myself."

"How old are you?" the kid asked.

"A lot older than I'm allowed to act," she told him as he sat down beside her.

Steve pointed a stern finger at her. "I'm going to be right outside, what could you possible do with me standing right outside the door?"

"Is that a challenge?" Rowan asked.

"It sounds like a challenge," Ethan agreed.

"BEHAVE!" Steve shouted before disappearing through the door with Catherine.

"Is he related to you?" Ethan asked taking a comic out of his bag so he could read it. He didn't actually open it though.

"God no," Rowan replied. "I'm Rowan, by the way, in case you didn't catch Commander McGrumpy yelling my name."

This earned her a chuckle from Ethan. "I'm Ethan," he said as the two shook hands.

Rowan sat back in her chair and tried not to watch Catherine and Steve talking. She turned back to the kid who had his backpack on Steve's desk and was going through it. "How you feeling by the way? This has to be stressful," she asked.

Ethan shrugged, "I guess I'm fine," he said his eyes never leaving Catherine or Steve. "They're talking about me."

"Or me," Rowan told him. Except Catherine wasn't making any of her regular angry faces so maybe she wasn't part of the conversation. "But probably you."

Catherine came back into the room, she knocked on the door and poked her head in.

"Ethan?" she asked and he put the R.I.P.D. comic he had just begun to pretend to read comic down.

"You guys were talking about me, weren't you?" he asked.

"You want a juice or something? We have a machine in the hallway, my treat," she said instead of answering his question. Rowan just blinked her eyes at her. Catherine rarely talked directly to her, since the incident with the trunk she barely looked Rowan in the eye, but she usually got some sort of greeting. The fact that Rowan hadn't gotten anything meant she was mad, but other than getting arrested and having Steve shout at her there wasn't really much for Catherine to be mad at her about.

"You don't have to bribe me. Just say what you're gonna say," Ethan told her.

"Okay, Rowan why don't you go get him a juice?" Catherine ordered as she took a seat in front of Ethan. Rowan moved to get up but Ethan stopped her, putting a hand to her wrist to keep her from leaving.

"No, I want Rowan to stay," he said.

"Great, he also prefers Rowan, just like someone else I know," Catherine muttered.

At this Rowan's eyes crinkled in confusion. "What?"

"Never mind, Ethan we need your help," Catherine said changing the topic almost immediately so Rowan sat back down. "I need you to tell me if you recognize this man from your dad's store?"

She showed him the picture and Rowan flinched. That was a dead body. What the hell was she thinking? "Dude!" she cried shielding his eyes. "He's a minor!"

Catherine pulled Rowan's hands away from Ethan's face and let Ethan take a long look at the phone. "That man's dead, isn't he?" he asked.

"Yeah."

"He was the one killed at the store," he stated more than asked and Catherine's pained look confirmed that.

Rowan put a hand out and grabbed Ethan's hand, squeezing it tightly for comfort. She ignored Catherine's snort of derision. "Does he look familiar?" she asked Ethan.

"Do you think my dad did it?" he shot back.

"We don't know."

Ethan started crying, he turned just as Rowan opened her arms up for the hug. He pressed his head into her shoulder. When Catherine tried to put a hand on his knee he pushed the hand away. She looked hurt by the motion and Rowan mouthed _sorry_ over the kid's head. But that didn't seem to mollify Catherine at all. In fact, she seemed to just get angry. She shot a dark glare at Rowan before turning her attention back to the kid in Rowan's arms.

"I'm really sorry, Ethan. I'm really sorry," she whispered.

"My dad wouldn't do that. He wouldn't," he sobbed.

"I believe you," Catherine assured him. He cried for a little longer before pulling himself together and wiping his tears away.

He avoided Catherine's eyes as he asked: "Can I still have a juice?"

"Absolutely," she said digging through her purse to get her wallet.

"I like orange," he told her

"Orange? Alright? Orange it is," Catherine said. "I'll be right back."

"Didn't even ask if I wanted something," Rowan said shaking her head as she watched Catherine leave. "I know she doesn't like me but I've been trying really hard to be nice."

Rowan looked over to Ethan and found that he was packing everything up. Rowan frowned at him. "I know what you're thinking," she said. "And I'm here to say no."

Ethan was already up and out of his seat and heading for the door. Rowan got up and followed him.

"You can either come with me or get left behind," Ethan said. Rowan thought about it. She knew from the episode that this had to happen but she didn't know if it helped the situation. Also the kid seemed pretty determined to go. Rowan picked up her purse.

"Fine but follow me. I know how to sneak out of here. Oh, and when we get caught I am blaming you," she said which merely caused Ethan to grin. And with that the two set off on an adventure.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

"How could you let them escape?" Steve snapped.

"She is 26 years old, Steve, she should be responsible enough to NOT allow a child to leave," Catherine argue. "I mean, I knew she was bad but this is a whole other level of irresponsible, why didn't you tell me she was like this?"

Steve wanted to argue. It wasn't that Rowan was irresponsible it was that she wanted to help. She wanted to be of use, she wanted to make things better. It was just that the way she went about it that was irresponsible.

"She's been causing you nothing but grief since she entered your life, why haven't you just asked her to go?" Catherine asked when Steve didn't answer right away.

Now this just made him angry. She had not caused grief. She had caused panic attacks and frustration, but not grief. In fact she was also the source of many a happy moment in the McGarrett house when she wasn't running off and getting in trouble or arguing with him. But now Catherine was getting suspicious, she had been getting more and more frustrated over his behaviour with Rowan. He had been trying very hard to avoid this talk with Catherine about Rowan and his dependency on taking care of her. But it looked like it couldn't be avoided anymore.

"And where is she going to go, Catherine? The girl has nowhere else," Steve reminded her. "I'm all she has."

"She could stay with Chin, he has room. She could stay at Adam's, hell she could stay with Danny. Or better yet you could send her psycho-ass back to the psych ward. The question is, why does she need to stay with you?" Catherine repeated.

Steve shot a glance at her. "She reminds me of Mary alright," he admitted. Which wasn't entirely true. "She needs someone to take care of her, to make sure that she gets out of the trouble she gets into, that's all."

"So, this is about your Hero Complex then?" Catherine asked. "Because you know you have one."

Steve shook his head. "Look, I get you're angry about Rainbow's but I don't see why you're taking it out on Rowan," he growled.

"No I am not angry about Rainbow's. I'm angry because your quasi-girlfriend stole the child in our custody!" Catherine shouted.

She was always the calm one so this was new for him. He wasn't quite sure what to do. He had a feeling the only thing that would calm her down was telling her he'd find somewhere else for Rowan to stay but he didn't want to do that. His stomach was turning just thinking about having to do that.

"She is not my girlfriend, Catherine, she has a boyfriend remember and I have you!" he argued.

"She has a boyfriend that looks just like you," Catherine reminded him. "And if you could get rid of him you would. Not to mention you two spend a frequent amount of time cuddling."

Ever since Catherine walked in to find Rowan and Steve asleep on the bathroom floor all wrapped up in each other she had not been able to let anything involving Rowan and his preferential treatment of her go.

"The man left her at an illegal party where she got arrested!" Steve snapped. "He's a douche! I do not look like him. And I have told you many, many times that she had a concussion, I was with her to wake her up every hour and we were on the floor because she feels better on the floor!"

Catherine shook her head. "You are completely delusional," she growled. "Slow down, they're up a head."

Steve lurched the car into a stop and then hopped out. He could see both Ethan and Rowan up on a fence looking to climb over and he lost it.

He ran forward grabbing Rowan by the back of her inordinately lacy shirt and ripping her off of the fence and throwing her back. She hit the hood of his truck and stared up at him afraid but once she realized it was him she smiled. He almost smiled too and then he caught sight of Catherine and remembered he was supposed to be mad at her.

"Are you out of your damn mind?" he shouted at her. "What the hell were you thinking?"

"Kid says the guys who are holding his dad are in there," she said pointing to the fence. Steve didn't even bother to turn around.

"So you just left? You took the kid and snuck out? Why didn't you just tell me? Or tell Catherine? WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT?!"

She had been nervously glancing at something over her shoulder and not listening to a thing he said. At his loud outburst her blue eyes focused solely on him and for a second, he lost the ability to breathe right.

"Steve, the kid's almost over the fence," she said in the most patronizing tone he had ever heard which included every single one of Danny's rants.

Ethan.

Shit.

Steve threw himself back at the fence, grabbing Ethan by the shorts before he could climb over and dragged him down. He practically carried the kid back to where Rowan was standing.

"This was the stupidest thing either of you could have done," Steve said pointing a stern finger at both of them but he lingered on Rowan. "And you should have known better."

"Look, the kid was going with or without me, I figured it would be safer for everyone involved if I went along. And considering how often you track my phone I figured you'd find us no problem," Rowan said putting her arm around Ethan's shoulder. Ethan smiled smugly and put an arm around her waist and for the first time Steve was afraid he might hit the boy.

"Actually, we tracked the phone Steve gave the kid. You left your phone at the Palace, charging," Danny said just as Catherine asked: "How often do you track her phone?"

"It's a necessity," Steve muttered.

"No, it is not. The last time you tracked my phone I was in the damn bath! In your damn house!" Rowan snapped.

"You weren't answering me when I called for you I didn't know where you were," Steve argued.

"Because I was in the bathtub listening to music!" Rowan cried.

"Wait, you don't have to take those Navy showers?" Danny asked. Rowan shook her head. "You, lucky little bitch."

"Not now, Danny," Steve grumbled, if Danny didn't stop he'd end up revoking his invite to the McGarrett Christmas dinner in two days.

"Yes, can we get to the matter at hand?" Rowan asked gesturing to the estate behind them. "You know, the missing dad?"

"They're not going to help me," Ethan growled staring defiantly up at Steve.

"We are here to help you," Catherine said.

"Yeah, help me put my dad in jail!" Ethan accused.

"Ohhh, he's got you there," Rowan said but one glare from both Steve and Catherine had her lips closed and her eyes firmly looking down at the ground.

"Listen to me Ethan. It's your dad that we're talking about here, I totally get that, but what we're trying to do is get to the truth," Steve said to him, putting a hand to the kid's shoulder.

"But he wouldn't hurt anyone. Nobody," Ethan urged. "Not unless they tried to hurt him. Or me. Now that's the truth."

"So help us prove that. Do you know this guy or not?" Catherine asked showing him the photo again.

Steve stood back, he glanced back to where Danny and Rowan were whispering, their heads bent together and a secret smile on their faces. Danny was virtually silent on the drive up, so quiet, in fact, that he had forgotten Danny was in the car.

"I've seen him before, but I don't know his name," Ethan admitted. "He hangs out with the guy who lives here, Darrin Hodge."

It was the way he said that had Steve asking: "Who's Darrin Hodge?"

"A really bad guy," Ethan told him. "My dad warned me to stay away from him."

"Why?"

"Darrin and a few of his friends came into my dad's store to talk to him. And they started arguing. So my dad pulled a shotgun on them and told them to get the hell out," he explained.

"Do you remember what the argument was about?" Catherine asked.

When Ethan shook his head, Steve stepped forward again. "All right, thank you. You've been a big help. Danny and I will check this place out."

"I'm coming with you."

"You're not coming with me," Steve said sternly, in the same kind of tone he used on Rowan that only worked half the time.

"Why not?"

"You know why not. The safest place for you to be right now is anywhere but here," Steve explained.

"Then I want to go home," Ethan said.

"I've got him," Catherine said.

"Okay, fine, but take Rowan with you," Steve said. At this Rowan perked up.

"Wait? Me? Why me?" Rowan asked.

"Because I don't trust you to wait in the damn car!" Steve snapped.

"Oh, no, please don't make me go. She's mad at me, look at her!" Rowan said gesturing to Catherine. When Catherine turned a glare to her Rowan put on her brightest fakest smile and offered up a weak: "You're _so_ pretty."

"She is not mad at you, Rowan. I am mad at you," Steve snarled. "Now go with them, and so help me you better behave!"

Rowan sighed but raised her hands in mock surrender. Danny stopped her from walking away. He handed her phone with a smirk on his face. "So Steve can track you later," he said and Steve scowled at the back of Danny's head.

Steve found himself watching as Ethan rushed over to Rowan, holding her hand as they walked with Catherine back to his truck. He couldn't help but feel a bit of pride that the kid had bonded so quickly with Rowan, couldn't help but admire just how well she took to taking care of him, and of course he couldn't miss the sour glare on Catherine's face as yet another person seemed to show a preference to Rowan over her. He didn't know what he was going to do. If Catherine actually did ask him to move Rowan out of his house, or out of his life, he wasn't sure he was going to say yes. He wasn't sure he was going to say no either. He just didn't want that to be an option.

"You are so screwed, my friend," Danny said clapping a hand to his shoulder. "But we don't have time for that right now, let's go see who's home."


	14. Chapter 14

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: I'm posting hella early this week. We had to put my dog down and I'm a bit of a mess so I doubt I'll be posting on Friday. So I'm going to do it now before I forget. Here we are. We've closed off this episode and it ends with some DRAMA. From here on in Catherine's going to be a little bit harder for Steve to manage. Next week we have a fluff chapter, it'll be shorter than the others but it's super cute and it's supposed to be super funny and then after that we get into the chapters that get a bit... freaky. They're also the chapters that open up this whole can of worms and then the really drama starts. Also Guys... guys... guys... we got a COVER! I hope you guys like it as much as I do! See you guys next week! Don't forget, 10 more reviews and you get that bonus chapter!  
_

Chapter 14

* * *

Catherine shot a glance at Rowan. The girl had been very well behaved since they had returned to Ethan's house. She hadn't talked back, hadn't mentioned Steve, and hadn't tried to run off. But Catherine didn't trust her. Rowan kept her phone on her leg, but she frequently looked at the screen, mainly cause she was getting a million text messages. She said they were from Alex, who was trying to talk to her, but Catherine had a feeling some of them were from Steve because in between the frowns she'd smile. A little annoying as Steve hadn't messaged or called Catherine once since they had separated but she doubted he was telling Rowan pertinent case information or she would have said something. Which begged the question, what could Steve be texting her about and why?

They had been playing poker with Ethan, a game Rowan was not familiar with, a game Catherine may have suggested because she was aware of that. They were playing with chocolates and Candy canes while Rowan stared at her cards confused.

"I will raise you two candy canes and a mint," Ethan said with a cocky grin on his face.

Catherine smirked right back. "I will see your two candy canes and your mint," she told him.

"Are you in Ro?" Ethan asked, having already adopted her nickname.

"I don't know… I don't know if I have anything good…" she said.

"Oh just fold already, woman," Catherine cried.

Rowan glanced at Ethan shot him a smile that Catherine could only describe as interesting and then called their bets.

"What do you got?" Catherine asked the table, but her eyes stayed on Ethan.

"It's your call," Ethan shot back.

Catherine grinned. She was gonna be rolling in it after this hand. "Pair of nines," she crowed happily as she showed him her cards.

Ethan chuckled. "Three kings," he said slapping his cards down.

"Nice!" Catherine cried as Ethan revealed his higher cards.

Rowan smiled. "Aww, Ethan wins again," she said.

"You have to show your cards, Ro," Ethan reminded her. So far, if Rowan had actual bet properly and not folded when she got the chance she could have won. Ethan kept going over what beats what, but she didn't get it.

"Just these ones," she said, putting them down revealing a row of hearts in sequential order, all suit cards.

"Ro! That's a royal flush!" he cried. "You're the winner!"

"I am? Really?" she said frowning as Ethan pushed the pot towards her.

Catherine threw her cards down. Rowan wasn't even trying and she was good at this too. Ethan moved to shuffle the deck again and Rowan unwrapped one of her chocolates and popped it in her mouth.

"Stop eating your chips Ro," Ethan said with a smirk.

"Can't help it, they're too good," she said unwrapping another one.

"You're going to run out of things to bet with," he warned her.

"Naw, I've won a substantial amount. I think I'm gonna retire somewhere nice with my cavities," she said.

Catherine rolled her eyes at her and ignored the way Rowan lowered her eyes when she spotted it. Catherine wanted to be nice to her, she wanted to believe that Rowan was a nice person, but she also had a feeling that Rowan was trying to take Steve away from her. All the evidence supported that theory.

Rowan suddenly went from lounging in her chair texting to sitting up ramrod straight, her phone clattering out of her hands. Her eyes went glossy like she was seeing something that wasn't there. Catherine hadn't really witnessed one of Rowan's dizzy spells but she figured she was witnessing one now.

"Rowan, what is it?" Catherine asked feeling a little bit like someone asking Lassie what was wrong.

A key turned in the lock and Rowan immediately grabbed Ethan's arm and held on with all her might. "Don't move," she whispered. "He has a gun!"

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

Rowan had to cling to Ethan to keep him from running to his dad once he realized that he was in the house. The man who was holding him at gunpoint had forced Ethan's dad to the basement, they were looking for money. They argued the whole way there about how Bruce had betrayed him, but Rowan knew he hadn't, not that the gunman, a man she remembered only as Rizzi, believed him. Rowan knew that but the others didn't yet. Rowan turned to Catherine who was ducked behind the kitchen counter with them.

"Do the smoke alarm thing," she whispered.

Catherine turned to her confusion all over her face. "You know… put the paper towel in the toaster under the smoke alarm to set it off?" she said. "Then beat his ass and I'll get Ethan outside."

"Oh so I'm doing all the hard work?" Catherine hissed.

"Uh no… you have more training in hand to hand combat then I do and I have to wrangle the mini version of Steve," Rowan muttered. "That's a lot harder."

"No, you're right, I'm just going up against the guy with a gun," Catherine snapped.

"Okay, look, I get that you're mad at me, but I don't know what I did so I think we should deal with this situation first and then when it's all over you can yell at me or slap me or whatever!" she offered.

Catherine stared at her as if she hadn't expected that, as if she had thought Rowan couldn't tell that she was angry. Catherine didn't answer her, she stood up and began to fiddle with something, Rowan assumed it was the toaster. Rowan turned to Ethan and pushed him towards the back door.

He shook his head but Rowan just had to glare at him to get him moving. Once they were outside he rounded on her. "I'm not leaving my dad!"

"I'm not asking you to!" Rowan cried shoving her phone into his hands. "I need you to call McGarrett. Tell him a dude with a gun just showed up with your dad, and I'm taking him on."

"Wait… what?" Ethan asked watching her unlock the screen. She prayed he didn't notice that the background photo was one of her and Steve.

"Trust me," Rowan said and then rushed back into the house. She found Catherine in the process of winning with the fight against the guy. Rowan urged the father to her side.

"Bruce?" she asked when he got close. "Ethan's outside!"

Bruce didn't need anything else, he ran out the door calling for Ethan. Rowan carefully made her way back through to the front of the house, narrowly avoiding the flying kicks and haywire punches that both the man with the gun and Catherine were throwing. Damn it didn't look like Catherine was winning anymore. Where was that Navy training she was supposed to have? Wasn't she supposed to be just as good at Steve at hand-to-hand combat? She didn't remember this fight being so bad. Rowan watched as the kidnapper shoved Catherine away and went for his gun. She didn't have a choice. She was going to have to intervene, and he was just correctly lined up for what she wanted to do. Rowan took a deep breath to steel herself, let out the most terrible roar she could manage and charged the man.

This was going to hurt.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

Catherine hadn't been expecting it but one minute the man that had been holding Bruce hostage was standing above her and the next second he wasn't. Taken down by a screaming projectile, it took a few minutes for Catherine to understand what it was that had happened. Rowan had tackled him, straight down into the basement.

Catherine got up and rushed to the trap door looking down. Rowan lay on top of the man not moving. The man's body was sprawled at an awkward angle, probably dead, but Rowan's looked just as awkward and that was not good.

"Ro?" Catherine called but she didn't answer. Also not a good sign.

Behind her the door was kicked in and Steve appeared gun drawn and ready to go. He was packing the big heat, his RPG instead of his pistol. The look on his face spoke to how worried he must have been and she wondered if that was just for Rowan or if he was worried for her too?

"Ro?" he called. Well that answered that question. He spotted Catherine, his face paling when he saw her stricken face and the trap door. "Catherine, where's Ro?'

Catherine wanted to be mad at him for not asking if she was okay. But they had bigger issues at that moment.

"She tackled him and they both fell," Catherine said. Steve dropped his gun and dropped to the ground beside her. "She's not moving."

Steve looked down the stairs to Rowan's unmoving form and quickly nudged Catherine aside. "I'm going to go down…" he started and then a groaning was heard.

Catherine and Steve stared down and saw that Rowan was moving. She pushed herself up and rolled herself off of the dead body. She looked up at the two of them staring down at her and said: "That took the wind right out of me."

Steve laughed practically jumping down the stairs to get to her side. He pulled her up off the floor and checked her all over. No cuts, no breaks, just bruising but otherwise she was fine. Steve spotted her as she climbed up the stairs, Catherine held onto her as she got out. She was going to thank Rowan for helping her, the words were there on her tongue but then Steve joined Rowan on the first floor and scooped her up in his arms and the apology died on her lips.

Catherine scoffed and stormed away. She couldn't believe this. She was there too, she had taken the fight with the kidnapper. Yeah Rowan had tackled him down a flight of stairs but that didn't mean that Catherine didn't want her boyfriend—or whatever—to comfort her too. After standing outside for a bit and catching her breath, Steve still hadn't chased after her. That meant he was still in the house with Rowan. Catherine decided she was going to storm right in there and give the two of them a piece of her mind, to demand that Steve choose between she and Rowan right at that moment but once she got to the door she stopped.

"You should go check on Catherine," Rowan was saying. "She seems really mad at me."

"She's fine, she's taken beatings worse than that. I'm more worried about you, are you sure you're alright?' Steve asked.

Rowan had pushed away from him and was keeping him at an arms distance. "Yeah, I'll be fine," she said. Her phone buzzed in her pocket and she checked it than ignored it again. She looked up to Steve who was just standing there watching her. "Seriously. Go check on Catherine before she does something dire."

"What are you talking about?" Steve asked.

"She's furious with me for some reason, Steve. I'm terrified she's going to ask you to send me away," she admitted.

Catherine paused. She had been thinking that. The fact that both Rowan and Steve looked distraught at the possibility did not bode well.

"She's not going to do that Ro," Steve assured her and Catherine felt her cheeks flame.

"Yeah, but if she does I'll have to go," she said.

Steve shook his head. Catherine didn't know if that meant that he wouldn't choose Catherine or it wouldn't come to that.

"She's not mad at you, so we don't have to worry about that," Steve said.

"Well she sure is taking it out on me," Rowan snapped crossing her arms over her chest. "Are you sure I haven't done something? They didn't interrupt your date to tell you I was arrested did they?"

"No, Ro, you didn't interrupt our date, a guy trying to mug us did. But that doesn't matter because she's mad at me," he admitted. This time Rowan's eyes narrowed at him.

"We'll come back to the mugging later. You didn't take her to that place you were talking about last night, did you?" Rowan asked.

Steve glared at her. "There is nothing wrong with Rainbow's, Rowan"

"I agree. But I told you not to do that, Steve," Rowan groaned. "She specifically asked for something romantic."

"Uh… no… no she did not," Steve complained.

"She asked to go somewhere special before she goes back on the boat, that's girl code for romance. I told you that," Rowan told him nudging his shoulder with hers.

"Yeah, yeah," he grumbled.

"You are going to have to start admitting that I'm right about some things," she said. "Starting with girl stuff. I know a lot more about girls then you do."

Steve cocked an eyebrow at her and Rowan just smiled at him. "You know what I mean. I'm a girl, I get how girls think. You're going to have to think of something to make it up to her, Smooth dog."

"You got any ideas?" Steve asked.

Rowan turned to him with a sigh. "Yeah. I have an idea."

Catherine turned away. She was more than surprised. She did not expect Rowan to be giving Steve dating advice, let alone encouraging him to be as romantic as possible with her. It didn't quite seem like the kind of thing someone who was attempting to steal a man would do.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

They had all gone to Kamekona's shrimp truck for a celebratory meal. Steve had gone home to change, for what, Catherine didn't know. Rowan who didn't like seafood was waiting for her special to come out while everyone else was already eating and opening up the Christmas presents that Kamekona had given out to them, except for Rowan, who he didn't realize would be there and would send a long later.

To keep her from going to other trucks Kamekona had started stocking chicken just for her, because everyone just up and fell in love with Rowan, apparently. He called it the Rowan Special, as in only Rowan could order it. She merely said what sea food meal she wanted to try that day and he'd make it with chicken instead. Today was Rowan's Special Garlic Shrimp, usually it made her smile but not today. While they were all joking and laughing, Rowan had been staring at her phone frowning instead.

"What's with the long face?" Danny asked her.

"Alex and I keep arguing," she said. "He says he didn't know that I was arrested apparently."

"Do you believe that?"

"I don't know, maybe," she answered. "He said that he figured that no cop would be stupid enough to arrest the girl Steve McGarrett obsesses over. Now we're arguing over the validity of that comment."

She avoided Catherine's eyes after that, and Catherine tried not to let that comment simmer in her stomach. She needed to put this jealously away, she was starting to think that Rowan may not be the problem, but she might be.

"Whoa! There he is, 007 in the house," Kamekona said, having just spotted Steve. He had gotten out of his truck and was for some reason, dressed to the nines. Catherine could not take her eyes off of him. He looked so dapper in that tuxedo. She was so mesmerized that she barely heard the comments and catcalling coming from the table of Five-0 members. She did, however, managed to catch Rowan staring at Steve like she had been blinded by his new look, but had frowned and looked back to her still buzzing phone in her hands.

"What are you doing?" Catherine asked him trying to sound nonchalant and not like her panties were dropping as he stood there staring down at her. She would definitely have to thank Rowan for whatever this plan was later.

Steve didn't answer her. He offered her a hand, pulled her up and then picked her up bridal style. "I'm taking you to dinner," he told her.

"Reservation is at 7:30, to give her time to change," Rowan called as he began to take her back to walk back to the truck. Oh yeah, Catherine was going to owe Rowan big after this. She pulled him in and kissed him quickly.

She couldn't help but giggle, this was all so adorable. "I like this," she told him.

Steve's grin was huge, oh, he was going to take all the credit for this, she knew. And she was going to let him. "Yeah, you like this?" he said with his proud smirk. "Good."

This was perfect, but Catherine just had to ruin it with her big mouth.

It was because she recognized the guy that had walked past him. Steve hadn't even registered that he had gone by, he was too busy staring at Catherine. But even though she had only met Nurse Alex once she was certain it was him that walked by with a guitar strapped to his back.

"Was that Nurse Alex?" she asked and that's where everything went to shit.

Steve's happy smile faded and he turned. She could tell by the frown that replaced that big grin that had been on his face that it was Nurse Alex. And boy was he dressed up just as nicely. He was wearing a nice pair of pants and a freshly pressed button-down shirt looking like he just came from a photo shoot or he was in some crazy famous boyband. Already Steve was frozen in place just watching what was unfolding in front of them.

At first Rowan looked far from impressed by his appearance. He said something to her, which could not have been good because she just scowled at him and turned away. Danny was say something and waving his hands at Nurse Alex, and Catherine thought that might have saved the situation except for the fact that Nurse Alex didn't heed a thing Danny had said to him. He merely pulled his guitar forward and then he was singing her a song, which Catherine could hear from where she was standing because everyone in the area had suddenly gone silent to listen to him.

The worst of it was that Rowan was smiling.

 _So you tell your friends and I'll tell mine. We both know it's coming It's too hard to hide. Can't wait for another minute. Let's go and get it over with. Acting like it isn't when we know it is. I think it's time we define the relationship. You're all that I ever wanted. Let's go and put a label on it._

Steve dropped Catherine and she plummeted to the ground. He then stepped over her to go accost the man singing. Catherine yelped when she hit the ground, she called Steve's name as he walked away but he didn't turn back to her. As she watched Steve grab Nurse Alex by the collar of his nicely pressed dress shirt Catherine realized that the problem wasn't with Rowan trying to steal her man, her man clearly had feelings for Rowan.


	15. Chapter 15

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Labour Day everyone! So, you guys. I wanna start by saying thank you for all the kind messages about my dog. It was very hard but at the same time it was a necessity, he was in pain and we needed to think about what was best for him. But on a more positive note, we hit 100 reviews! Thanks so much for showing me and this story so much love! To show you how much I love you guys, I'm going to give you guys 2 updates this week._

 _You're getting this chapter today and the Bonus chapter will be released on the usual Friday :D So this Chapter is a little filler chapter so it's gonna be shorter than the others. This is the Christmas episode (I know it's early) and we get to see a little bit of how Catherine reacted to being dropped last chapter. Don't forget to tell me what you think and I'll see you guys on Friday!_

Chapter 15

* * *

The door opened to Danny and a topsy-turvy Rowan was staring up at him. Something was off, he could tell just by the way her smile rested crookedly on her face. Add in the swaying and he knew someone had gotten into the eggnog early. Steve was right behind her clearly trailing after her doing damage control.

"It's Danny-Daniel-Danno," Rowan cried moving in for a hug. Danny grinned over her shoulder to Steve who looked just about ready to pull his own hair out.

"Rowan, Rowan, we agreed to stay on the couch," Steve reminded her as he put his hands on her shoulder to pry her off of Danny. Good ol'Steve, still unable to handle Rowan making contact with someone other than him.

Rowan turned to him, losing her balance and slamming into the open door as she almost toppled over. Danny and Steve had their arms out to catch her if she fell but she didn't.

"We did, but the door rang," she said. She took half a step forward and went down, Steve had to lurch to stop her from hitting the ground.

She hopped back up. "I'm good, I'm good!" she said moving towards the kitchen. Her Christmas dress, a dark green navy dress with a wide skirt and a red collar, was twirling around her legs as she walked away. Her feet in a pair of moccasin slippers that did not match at all. She looked adorable, except for the fact that she was completely intoxicated.

Steve watched her go, glanced back to Danny and then shouted: "Mom, Incoming!"

"Got it!" Doris called back from somewhere in the kitchen.

"How much has she had to drink?" Danny asked handing Steve the gifts he had brought.

One for him, one for Doris, one for Rowan, and a bag of for the gift Grace had made Steve and the gift she made Danny buy for Rowan. Two subscriptions to the guns and ammo magazine and one perfume and moisturizer set that Grace said all ladies liked, and from Grace a glittered up handmade picture frame with a picture of her and her Uncle Steve, and then a stuffed fox for Rowan.

"She swears up and down she only had one glass of eggnog," Steve said.

"How much rum is in that Eggnog?"

"Honey, no, no more eggnog for you!" Doris was suddenly crying.

"Shit!" Steve cried making a mad dash for the kitchen. Danny tried not to laugh because it wasn't funny… oh, who was he kidding? It was hilarious!

Someone else knocked on the door and with the commotion in the kitchen getting louder Danny decided to help out his host by answering the door for him. Catherine stood on the other side with Nurse Alex coming up behind her.

"Welcome," Danny said, he then leant in close to her and whispered: "You're going to love this."

Catherine's warm smile faded. "Do I want to know what you're talking about?"

Danny shrugged. After the events of two nights ago he wasn't certain how Catherine was going to react to the current situation. Though Danny thought it was hilarious to watch Steve drop his girlfriend, grab Rowan's new boyfriend by the collar and then slam him down on the table, it had not been funny for anyone else. It had taken a lot of talking to unruffle those feathers. But eventually Rowan got Steve off of Alex, Steve convinced Catherine and Alex that he wasn't interested in Rowan romantically and he was just mad that Alex abandoned Rowan to get arrested. Alex explained that he thought no one would dare arrest Lieutenant Commander McGarrett of Five-0's Ward and that he genuinely cared for Rowan and wouldn't purposely get her in trouble or leave her in peril. Rowan eventually got Steve and Catheirne to go off on their date and as soon as they were gone she bid her Five-0 family goodnight and disappeared with Alex.

Danny found out the next morning that Catherine must have forgiven Steve because he had gotten laid. He thought it was amazing that the man could drop his date to accost another girl's boyfriend and still get some at the end of the night. He wished he could be as smooth as that. He then also found out, when Steve called him frantic, that Rowan had not returned home. True to form, Steve had traced Rowan's phone the same time Danny tried calling her. She had spent the night with Alex and had been in the process of coming in the house. He heard the beginning of their argument on the phone before she hung up, but she and Steve had yelled it out and made up by the end of the day. Now with Steve, once again, on Rowan-sitting duty, so soon after assuring Catherine he didn't care about Rowan in any other way than friend, Danny didn't know how Catherine would react to this one.

Rowan came out of the kitchen, tumbler in hand filled with what must have been eggnog. She spotted Alex threw back the rest of her drink, shouted his name and then fell into his arms. Quite literally.

"Oh geeze!" Alex said staggering under her sudden dead weight.

Catherine turned to Steve who was following after Rowan. "Is she drunk?" she asked as he leant in and pressed a kiss to her cheek.

"Completely wasted," Steve agreed, leaning over and pulling the empty glass out of Rowan's hand before she could drop it.

"Seriously, Ro, no more eggnog for you," he ordered.

"Oh stuff it Commander Kill-Joy!" she cried before pulling Alex's head down into a long and sloppy kiss. The adults around them groaned with displeasure before heading to the kitchen to avoid anymore displays of affection from the young people.

Doris smiled at the people walking through. She took one look at Steve's face and said: "I thought I heard my favourite Nurse," she said which caused Steve's scowl to darken.

"They're currently sucking face," Danny said with a grin and then pointed at Steve's scowl. "Hence the reason Steve is making that one."

Doris nodded like she understood, she was pulling the turkey out of the oven. "Then you should have watched her alcohol consumption, honey," she said to Steve.

Steve shook his head. "I can't watch her all the time, mother. Besides, she was in the kitchen with you, how did you not notice?" he shot back.

"Come on now. If I had seen anything out of the ordinary I would have stopped her. All she did was make the pie, which is currently cooling. She got it in the oven, she poured herself a glass of eggnog and then she went to take her meds. I didn't notice anything until she came down…" " Doris trailed off and she turned to Steve, shock on her face. "You don't think…?"

"Shit."

Steve was on the move while Danny and Catherine asked what was wrong. He got to the living room and found Nurse Alex hovering over Rowan who was lying down on the couch.

"Her pupils are crazily dilated, are you sure she's drunk?" Alex asked.

Steve was standing beside him, Rowan's eyes opened up and she gasped softy. "Two Alexes?" she asked. And then she gasped again, this time loudly. "No! One Steve. One Alex! No! No! You _do_ look alike!"

Steve had been about to ask her a question, now he was staring at her slack jawed as Rowan groaned and threw her arm over her eyes like she had been mortally wounded.

"NooooOOOOOooooooo _oooooooooo_ ," she sobbed. "I'll never unsee it."

Steve slapped her arm away and grabbed her by the head, both hands clasped over her ears. "Did you take your meds with the eggnog?" he asked.

Rowan's mental break down ceased immediately. Her eyes crinkled with confusion. "Yeah. Why?"

Everyone around them groaned. Now they understood. "Rowan, that eggnog had rum in it!" Steve snapped. "You can't mix your pills with alcohol!"

Rowan's mouth fell open again. "You spiked the eggnog?! What is wrong with you people? That's just so _wrong_!"

"Fuck Rowan!" Steve swore, Alex put a hand on his arm and Steve turned to him.

"I can watch her," he said. "Make sure she's alright."

Danny waited. He watched the emotions play on his partner's face. The _hell no_ was right there right beside the anger that Alex even offered. But then he saw the way Rowan was clinging to Alex's shirt like he was her anchor and a stiffness came over him. His eyes darted over to Catherine and that stiffness became set in stone.

"Yeah, uh, her room is the first one on the left," he said standing up and letting Alex hoist her up in his arms.

"Are you Boyfriend Alex or Captain Steve?" they heard Rowan ask as Alex took her up the stairs.

At this point Steve had gone back into the kitchen, his eyes pointedly not going anywhere near Rowan. Which was probably why he didn't point out that he was a Lieutenant Commander and not a Captain like he usually did. But Danny had stayed and he was watching.

Danny heard Alex ask: "And who do you want me to be?"

And he heard Rowan's soft and dreamy sigh of: "Steve."

Danny turned to the kitchen to where his partner was carving the turkey. He was no longer the loose and happy man that Danny was used to. Those emotional walls had gone up and Danny had a feeling he knew why and that the reason might be reciprocated.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

After the turkey was carved and the plates were set, one set aside for Rowan for tomorrow, and one to be taken up to Alex, the group tucked into their meal with gusto. Catherine had taken the plate up to Alex, as Steve couldn't stomach going up there. He knew the second he did he'd be angry. He'd want Rowan away from Alex, he'd want to take over her care, and he couldn't do that with Catherine in the house. He shouldn't be doing it even if she wasn't in the house.

Catherine came back down with a cute photo that she showed everyone, it seemed a bit like she did it on purpose to remind him that Rowan wasn't his and he was supposed to be with Catherine. It was of Rowan curled up against Alex's side, his arm draped casually over her shoulder, her hand under the partially unbuttoned shirt resting on the bare skin above Alex's heart. Both had their eyes closed. They looked like one of those couples on a less racy romance novel cover. Steve had taken one look at that photo and his mouthful of mouth-watering stuffing, turkey and cranberry sauce combo turned to ash against his tongue. It took all his will power to swallow it and keep it down.

He tried to talk throughout the dinner. He tried to be light and jovial. He tried to laugh at the jokes, to tell his own, to be a good host and a good friend and boyfriend. But it was hard when his mind had gone up the stairs with Rowan and seemingly hadn't come back down.

They exchanged gifts, which included Rowan's gifts for everyone. She had gotten Catherine a specialty carved lei flower with her name on it, an exact replica of the one her father had gotten her when she was younger and had been broken when it fell off the window sill. Danny got a recipe book with a special section on Frittatas so he could practice his cooking. Doris got a utility belt to replace the one she had lost. Steve got a specially printed shirt that looked exactly like the navy blue one he always wore, his favourite shirt. On the back she had put his nickname _Smooth Dog_ jersey style. It nearly made him cry.

By the looks of it, her gifts had got to everyone. It sort of made him feel bad that all he had gotten her was a book she mentioned she wanted. He was gonna have to step up his game. It also made him curious as to how she managed to get all of this. She didn't have a job and she hadn't asked for an advance on the allowance he had been giving her.

Danny had headed home, Grace's gift from Rowan tucked under his arm still unopened. Doris was in the kitchen cleaning. Catherine and Steve had been sitting on the couch talking, stealing kisses, and basking in each other's company.

With Steve being slightly distracted by the fact that Alex still hadn't come down and he really wanted to go up there and kick him out.

"You can go check on her, you know," Catherine said, interrupting his thoughts. "I know you're worried about her."

Steve turned to her, hoping he could fake surprise and nonchalantness. "What are you talking about?"

"I keep losing you," Catherine said. "Your ward is upstairs with a guy I know you don't like, out of commission because she took a dose of heavy meds with a rum based eggnog. I know you want to go up there."

Steve thought about it for a moment. She was right. He did want to go up there, but he didn't want her to think that it had something to do with a preference to her over his girlfriend. Especially since she had flat out accused him of that literally two days ago. Of course he deserved it, he did drop her after all. Still, he didn't want her to think he was doing it again.

"Do you want to come with me?" he whispered after thinking for a bit.

"Would that be alright?" Catherine asked him.

"I mean… I know you're not exactly her biggest fan, but I wouldn't mind you checking on her with me," Steve said.

Catherine glanced away or a bit. "Yeah, about that," she said. "I'm sorry I put you in that position. I know you're just trying to be nice and she's been trying to help you with your cases. I guess it just looked like you were more interested in her than anything else, especially after what happened two days ago."

Steve thought about it for a moment, he tried not to wince. "I know it was ideal, but I just really don't trust Alex with her. I was hoping after that incident they'd break up and she'd find someone more suitable, but just cause I don't like him doesn't mean I want to date her. And you know… she put a lot of thought and effort into our date, she got the reservations, picked out my outfit, she even gave me lines to use on you," he told her. Catherine's face had changed. She was scowling now. This was not a good territory to be in. Steve lowered his eyes and continued.

"Look, Cath, Rowan… she's a handful," he said with a wry chuckle. "There's a lot of damage control I've got to do when she's around. Even if she's just trying to be helpful."

"She's a lot like you," Catherine said. "She's stubborn, impulsive and loyal to a fault. No wonder she gets under your skin."

Steve smiled softly before standing up and offering her a hand to help her up. They were quiet as they walked up the stairs to Rowan's room. They poked their heads in to find Alex still on his back and Rowan still curled up against his side.

Steve took one step into the room and Alex opened his eyes. "Time to go, right?" he asked.

"Would you mind?" Steve asked carefully, daring the man to say yes.

"Someone needs to take my place or she won't sleep," he said. "She gets really cuddly when she's like this, so if you just lie down on her other side and she'll roll over onto you."

Steve was moving towards the side of the bed. His jaw twitching but it was Catherine who asked: "How do you know she'll do that?"

"Well, she didn't really sleep when she was at the Hospital that month or so we had her, which wasn't good for her. Once I realized that she wouldn't sleep until you guys showed up I'd come in and sit with her until she went to sleep. It seems a bit weird but I couldn't keep waiting for you or your partner to show up so she'd feel comfortable enough to sleep," Alex said gesturing to Steve, the other person clearly being Danny. "Once she got more comfortable with me I'd come into her room, lie down on her bed and there you go, she'd be out like a light, just needed something to hold."

Steve blinked his eyes staring at Alex. He knew that Rowan got sleepy when Danny and Steve came to visit her. He knew that she didn't really sleep in the Hospital. He didn't know Alex had to get into her bed to get her to sleep. Had he known that he would have worked harder to get her out of that hospital faster.

Steve lay himself down on her bed and immediately Rowan rolled over and snuggled up to his side. She mumbled something into his chest, her hand came up and gripped his shirt a leg got slung over his and then she was still once more. Catherine smiled and snapped a picture before Steve could tell her that she didn't have to.

Alex, who was now free and slinging his jacket over his shoulder glanced to Catherine. "You know, if you sit down on the other side there's a good chance she switch sides," he said. "We tested this theory a lot while she was at the Hospital with us. We'd sit down and watch her roll from side to side, then she picks who's the comfiest. And let me tell you there was a big demand to be Rowan's Favourite Cuddle Partner."

Catherine glanced to Steve who, with his free hand, patted the empty side of the bed.

As Catherine walked over, Alex headed for the door. "Well thanks for having me, maybe next time I'll be able to sit at the table with the grownups," he said waving casually to them before disappearing down the hallway.

Rowan was mumbling again as Catherine got onto the bed. She had only to lay down before Rowan rolled over snuggling up to Catherine, using her stomach as a pillow.

"Oh, that's better," Rowan mumbled once she was comfortable. Catherine tried not to laugh at Steve's stricken face.

"Well damn!" he hissed.

Rowan moaned against her like she was in pain and Steve rolled onto his side to run his hand up and down her back.

"I'm sorry I ruined Christmas," she mumbled to them.

"No, you didn't ruin anything," Steve assured her.

"Course you didn't," Catherine agreed.

Rowan shook her head. "I threw up in front of hot Alex. I ruined everything."

Steve chuckled. "If that scared him away then he's not worth it," he assured her. Rowan smiled against Catherine's stomach.

"Did you like your presents?" she asked.

Catherine was rubbing her across the shoulder blades as Steve rubbed across her lower back. Both of them exchanged glances before answering.

"Yes, I did, how did you know I needed a new one?" Catherine asked.

"You mentioned to Steve that it splintered and you couldn't fix it, so I hunted down someone who carved them and had them make one for you," she said sleepily rolling away from Catherine and into Steve's chest. She nuzzled her nose against him before sighing.

"And the shirt took forever to duplicate. Kamekona had to help me out with that one," she told him. "They added _Smooth Dog_ on the back. I thought you'd like that."

Steve smiled into her hair, one of his arms snaking around her to hold her to his chest. "I did like that. Thank you."

Rowan stayed quiet for a moment longer before she sighed again. "I'm really sorry I ruined the night," she said again. "Please don't make me leave."

Steve's eyebrows drew together in confusion. "No, no, don't worry. You're not going anywhere."

"You promise?" she asked.

"We promise," Catherine answered for them and Steve felt his heart melt a little. He held her for a little while longer, with Catherine lying beside them lightly caressing the girl's back who seemed to really like the petting. When Rowan was asleep they both snuck out of the room to snuggle themselves. Catherine went home a little later then she said she would, she still had to pack to go back on the ship after all.

And once she was gone for certain Steve changed out of his fancy wear into his pjs, a simple pair of black shorts. He returned to Rowan's room to hold her. He clutched her tightly to his chest and let the anxiety of the day, that had built up a terrible tension in his back and shoulders, slowly slip away with each of Rowan's soft exhales against his bare chest.

He always slept the best with Rowan in his arms.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

Rowan's head was killing her. Her stomach was churning. Her throat stung, her mouth felt fuzzy, all her limbs were heavy. She was dying. Clearly.

She felt sweaty and disgusting. She was certain there was a sheen of sweat on her skin. She had kicked off all the blankets in her sleep and she was lying sprawled out in her bed but feeling the cool breeze hitting her skin wasn't really cooling her off.

She had a vague remembrance of having someone in the bed with her. But when she looked back on the memories of the night they were all fuzzy and vague after she took her meds. She vaguely remembered being in bed with Alex, with him holding her hair back as she threw up. She also remembered clinging to Steve and telling him that she always knew Alex looked like him and that's why she picked him. But there was also a memory of her glued to Catherine's side and asking about Christmas gifts.

Oh My God, how big of a disaster was she last night?

She felt Steve before she heard him. His presence blanketed over her and her heart doubled in pace. She turned until she saw him, his hand poised to press to her forehead.

"I don't feel so good," she mumbled to him and that hand came down on her. Knuckles cold against her feverish skin.

"Looks like you're still suffering from the withdrawal," he told her. "Do you need to go back to the washroom?"

A flash of violent vomiting replayed in her head with his soothing voice playing in the background like a soundtrack. Rowan groaned and covered her face with her hands, she could feel Steve's smile on her face even if she couldn't see it.

When she dared to look at him again he was kneeling beside her bed. "I'm never taking my meds again," she swore.

Steve shook his head, his fingers came to her cheek and brushed away the hair that had to be plastered it with the softest of touches. She tried not to lean into it. "You took your meds with rum, Rowan. This is the adverse reaction to that combination."

"Rum? No, I didn't. I took them with egg… y'all put rum in your eggnog, don't you?" she asked drily. When he winced and nodded she groaned. "That's something you tell a girl, Steve."

"Well, we both learned a lesson, didn't we?" he offered.

"Do you think you can stomach something to eat? Mom's making you soup," he asked.

At the thought of food Rowan's stomach protested. She shook her head and tried to think of anything else but all that came to mind was Steve. He must have noticed the look on her face because he quickly started talking again.

"It's okay if you can't," he said. "She's going to bring up tea for you in a minute. Now that you're conscious do you want to change out of your dress?"

Rowan nodded. "I'll need help with the buttons…"

Steve, who had helped her do up the buttons in the first place, shook his head. "They're already undone, I did that for you last night. Mom wouldn't let me change you though."

Rowan nodded quickly and tried not to blush at the thought of Steve undressing her and catching the little number she had on for later. She had planned to sneak off with Alex, it was part of his Christmas gift… getting to unwrap her. That had clearly not happened.

"I'm really sorry, Steve," she called as he walked through the door. "I'm sorry I ruined your Christmas dinner."

But he didn't answer her, he merely shut the door and she was left alone with her thoughts. She had wanted everything to go well. She had worked hard to get everyone meaningful gifts, she had worked hard to make dinner a culinary success considering nothing was made from scratch except her pie and she had gone and made a fool out of herself and probably ruined the whole night for everyone.

She got dressed slowly, mainly cause everything ached when she moved. She got on her favourite t-shirt that had once been Steve's, except this one didn't smell like him anymore so she'd need to steal a new one, and a pair of shorts. She wanted to shower but she couldn't stand for too long without the world spinning so that would have to wait.

When Steve returned, she was changed and getting back into bed and he had her tea and two presents with him. Plus, his mother was following after him even more gifts in her arms.

As Steve set down the tea on the night table next to her bed, Doris helped her back into bed and tucked her in.

"Now, Steve mentioned you felt a bit guilty about last night," Doris said. "And let me tell you, you have nothing to worry about. You didn't ruin a thing. We all had a good time, though we missed your company, and we know that it didn't happen on purpose. Mix ups like these are what make for great stories later on."

Rowan looked between the two of them, she wasn't sure if they were serious but they looked it. So, she smiled at them to show that she understood and hoped that was enough.

"We brought you your gifts," Steve said dropping the gifts on her lap.

Rowan's smile widened. "That's very nice of you," she said going for the smallest one.

"No, don't open Danny's, open one of ours first," Doris said tugging the small package out of her hands and dropping a medium sized one into her hands.

"Why does she have to open _yours_ first?" Steve asked.

"Age before beauty," Rowan said with the straightest face she could muster. "And she has both so she wins."

It must have been hilarious because the two McGarrett's broke out laughing like she had told the funniest joke ever. Geeze, if this was how they were going to act she'd have to get trashed more often.

"Alright, fine, fine, open hers first," Steve said with a shake of his head.

Rowan smiled at them, big and toothy and began tearing the wrapping up. Inside was a simple book, but she gasped when she saw it. She opened it up and found that the paper was lined with lines. Sheet music. She had bought a book of blank sheet music.

"For you to write your songs on," Doris said. "Look at the spine."

Rowan turned it and found silver engraving down the spine. Loopy cursive of her name.

"Oh My God," she cried. "I love it! How did you know this is the one I wanted?"

"I did some recon," she said with a shrug.

"She stalked me?" she asked Steve turning her wide eyes to him. Steve shrugged because he either didn't want to answer or couldn't. Still she glared at him, because really, couldn't he control his own mother?

"Kay, mine now," Steve said picking up his own gift.

Rowan couldn't help but get bouncy. Steve had been bragging about how great her gift was gonna be. Needless to say she was super excited about the whole situation. She ripped it open and found a book on her lap. One that had just come out. Yes, she had said she wanted it, but this couldn't have been what he was so excited to give her.

"Oh! You remembered that this is the one I wanted," she said reminding herself to be grateful and not critical.

"Uh-huh, open it up," Steve ordered. Rowan did as she was told and something fell out, but that wasn't all.

"Is this book signed?" she asked glancing over the messy writing. She couldn't make out much except her name.

"Well, yeah," Steve said as if that was to be expected. "But look at the paper! Look at the paper!"

He looked more excited by this than Rowan was. Rowan picked up the paper and found that it was a receipt. She wanted to ask him what was so important about a gift receipt until her eyes zoned in on the company name.

 _Once Upon a Book Club_

"OH! It's a book box subscription!" she cried. "You got me a book box subscription? FOR A WHOLE YEAR?! STEVE!"

Steve was laughing at her reaction as she stared at him so happy she may burst into tears. "I looked at all the options and thought you'd like this one the best. But if you don't like it we can cancel it and try a different one."

Rowan just stared at him before dropping everything and hugging him tightly. "Thank you! You're the best!"

She felt Steve's arm come around her and that warmth she had been trying to ignore came back. She pulled away trying to act like her skin wasn't tingling under the touch. She went on to open the others, a custom strap to match her guitar from Chin, free surfing lessons from Kono, a stuffed fox from Grace, a very expensive perfume and moisturizer set from Danny, gift vouchers for free helicopter rides and free food from Kamekona, and sheet music for a new piece for Rowan to learn on the guitar from Max.

After all the gifts were open, her tea was drunk, and Steve had made her try to eat a few spoonfuls of soup that she gratefully managed to hold down she was too tired to do much else but go back to sleep. Steve had stayed with her and she had cuddled up to his side feeling safe, warm and secure. She had a lot to be grateful for this Christmas, she had somewhere to stay, she had great friends and an even better boyfriend. But most of all she had Steve, and though he wasn't quite hers, sometimes it didn't hurt to pretend he might be, when she had the meds to blame it on.


	16. Chapter 16 - Bonus 2

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Guys! I'm just so excited to get on to the next set of chapters that I'm posting this at 1am my time. So this is it. Your Bonus chapter! We get to see Catherine's reaction to finding Steve and Rowan asleep on the bathroom floor! After this we're moving onto the next episode, Catherine gets a little more disgruntled, and things are gonna get a little more... fantastical. I'm super excited for you guys to meet new characters and discover new abilities. Also, has anyone noticed the new cover? I LOVE IT! Anyways, don't forget to leave a review, I love hearing from you guys. And as always, see you next Friday!_

 _ ***This story takes place after chapter 10, if you need a recap read chapter 10***_

Chapter 16: Bonus #2

* * *

Catherine had returned to the McGarrett house the following morning after the incident with Mangosta to check on the situation. To make sure Doris was alright. To make sure that Rowan hadn't spilled the beans. To make sure that Steve still liked her.

Doris answered the door. Ushered her in. And then told her that Steve wasn't up yet. She went to make them all a round of coffee for when they eventually did wake up and Catherine was left in the front of the house.

The house felt different. Like it was holding secrets. Or maybe she just felt that way because she was carrying around secrets. Secrets she didn't want to keep but felt like she had no choice but to keep. Maybe it was because Steve had never been a late riser, unless something prevented him from waking early for his swim. Like an injury, being hung over or being sick. He had looked fine yesterday. And his arrest hadn't been too strenuous just a little exciting. So, what could be keeping him asleep?

Doris came out with a mug of coffee and Catherine tried to smile at her. "Steve didn't call last night, so I'm assuming he bought the cover story?" she asked her.

"Hook, line and sinker," Doris replied with a giant grin. "Though once he realized Rowan was injured that was really all he cared about."

Those words were like a stab to the stomach. Catherine tried to ignore the heat of the anger rising up from her belly. A jealous burn that she had been trying to ignore, which had been hard as more and more kindling was added to it. She had to remind herself that Rowan had actually been badly injured.

"Her head wasn't that bad was it?" Catherine asked because it couldn't have really been that bad, just a small scrape and a bit of a bump to the head.

"Well, Alex said she didn't need stitches, but he was pretty sure she had a concussion. She had already taken pain meds before he got there so he wasn't sure if she was just high or if it was something else," Doris replied taking a sip of her own coffee.

Catherine held her mug carefully in her hands, trying to will the heat of the mug to move up her arms and into the rest of her body. She suddenly felt chilled. She wanted to believe that Rowan wasn't faking it but she wasn't so sure. Catherine had a feeling that Rowan's symptoms weren't as bad as she was letting on.

Doris clocked Catherine staring at her watch and smiled at her. "You have to understand, it was a late night for all of us. Steve's alarm going off every hour, waking Rowan up to make sure she was okay. It's no surprise they're still asleep," she told her.

Catherine nodded as if this all made sense. Logically it did, but for some reason she felt like Doris had just told her that Steve and Rowan had spent the night together or something. And to a degree they did, as Steve had been forced to get up on the hour ever hour to wake her up to check on her. The jealousy she felt sliding about in her stomach like a hot worm was uncalled for. It's not like Steve had a choice.

"I suppose she'll have to go to the hospital again," Catherine murmured.

"It'll depend on how she's feeling today," Doris said. "Well, I better get breakfast on for them. Feel free to sit for a bit, I'm sure they'll be down soon."

But Catherine didn't want to wait for them. As soon as Doris disappeared into the kitchen, Catherine put her mug of coffee down and snuck up the stairs. She checked Steve's room first but he wasn't there. Dread filled her veins immediately. She went to Rowan's room, trepidation beating a drum on her heart and pushed the door open.

Neither of them was in Rowan's room either. Had they gone to the hospital already? Without Doris noticing? Not likely.

But Steve's truck was in the driveway, had he taken his father's classic? Probably not as the thing barely ran. So, where the hell had they gone?

Catherine was on her way back downstairs to ask Doris that herself, when she noticed something about Rowan's room. Her comforter was missing. As was one of her pillows. She went back into Steve's room and saw that his bed, while his bed never had a comforter, was missing all of his pillows and the one sheet he had. It was then she noticed the half-closed door of the washroom and the flash of pastel blue on the otherwise white tiles.

She pushed it open, more curious than anything else and was shocked by what she found inside.

Steve was on the floor with Rowan beside him. They had all their pillows on the floor with them, they were lying on top of her pastel blue comforter and they were both tangled up in his single white sheet. But it wasn't the fact that Catherine had found them asleep on the bathroom floor like a pair of weirdos that had her in a state of injured shock. It was how they were arranged.

Steve had his nose in her hair, his chest against her back, an arm possessively wrapped around her waist, and his other arm under his head. He never fell asleep holding Catherine before. Not that they didn't cuddle, they just didn't stay that way. It was Hawaii, he'd tell her, it was too hot to cuddle, and besides he rolled around in his sleep. So many different excuses and she had never worried about it before. But seeing Rowan and Steve like this she suddenly wondered if she needed to worry.

She was startled by the sound of his phone's version of _Reveille_ , Steve's alarm. He groaned, the arm under his head moved, grabbing the phone to turn off the alarm. Rowan groaned too burying her head under the sheet to get away from the noise. With the alarm turned off, Steve's head flopped back to his pillows and his arms tightened around Rowan dragging her out from under the sheet and even closer to him until his nose was back in her hair.

"Wake up," he grumbled into her hair. Which just made Rowan groan loudly. "Are you awake?"

Rowan half rolled, her hand came up and smacked Steve in the face causing him to yelp lightly, more like grunt. "Where's the snooze button?" she grumbled.

"Stop it," Steve mumbled against her hand that was now rubbing against his face trying to shut him up.

"Oh my god let me sleep," Rowan mumbled rolling onto her front and putting her face in her pillow.

"No, if I have to be awake you have to be awake," Steve muttered sliding closer to her so his face was in her neck.

Rowan reached out with one arm and wrapped it over his chest. "Shhhh, go back to sleep," she whispered to him.

Steve grumbled against her neck, his voice so low that Catherine nearly missed him whisper: "Okay. Goodnight."

"Turn off the alarm first," Rowan ordered which made Steve groan even louder.

"Next time," he growled.

"How about I do it?" Catherine offered them.

"Thanks Cath," Steve said taking a hold of his phone and handing it over to her. Catherine had to lean over to grab it and once his hand was free he put it back around Rowan's waist.

"You're the best," he mumbled sleepily.

Catherine just stared at him waiting for it to sink it. Waiting for Steve to notice. Except he didn't. He snuggled up against Rowan's side once more and his breathing leveled out. He fell back to sleep. Well, well, didn't he look cozy with the girl he said he wasn't interested in romantically?

Catherine was livid. Furious. This was absolutely fucking ridiculous. Her boyfriend was currently cuddling with another girl. A girl he swore up and down he didn't like in that way. _You're the only girl for me, Cath,_ he kept saying to her. Well she called _bullshit_ on that. It sure as hell didn't look like he wasn't interested in Rowan. In fact it looked an awful lot like he was cheating on Catherine with a younger, prettier girl.

"Well, I'll just leave you guys to it, sorry I bothered you," she growled and then stormed out of the washroom slamming the door behind her.

She pounded down the stairs, dropped his phone rather violently on the coffee table in the living room and then stormed out of the house, slamming the front door too. She didn't say bye to Doris, who was probably well aware of where Steve and Rowan had spent the night together in that washroom and hadn't fucking told her. She merely rushed to her car trying to keep herself from crying.

"Catherine!" Steve cried, running out of the house in what was yesterday's outfit. His grey shirt all wrinkled and his cargo pants looking oddly lumpy on only one side.

"Wait, I can explain!" he called as he rushed to her.

Catherine tried to straight herself out subtly. She straightened her back, she sniffed away anything that might even remotely resemble tears and then crossed her arms over her chest. "Oh really?"

"Yes, I can," he said as he reached her side. "Rowan hit her head, that's all."

"Oh Rowan had another one of her accidents, how fortuitous," she snapped. Even though she was very well aware that Rowan had hurt herself. She had been there and witnessed effect of the damage herself.

"She did. Really. She slipped coming down the stairs and cracked the back of her head open. I had to wake her up every hour on the hour to make sure she, you know, didn't die in her sleep," Steve explained. Ah so that was the cover story Doris went with. "And… well… there was no point in me staying in my room and getting up every hour so I just lay down with her."

"Yes. In the washroom," Catherine said, her tone dry and sarcastic. Because she didn't get that part. It seemed to be the stupidest place to lay down.

"Yes, well, when Rowan doesn't feel well she lies down. And she was throwing up last night, so she lay down in the washroom for ease of access," Steve explained and Catherine had to concede that, in that case, it did make sense.

Steve put a hand to her elbow, a far cry from the kind of intimate gesture that she didn't doubt Rowan was used to, but was Steve's standard with her. "I know it looked bad, but it's really innocent, I swear," he assured her.

"I want to believe you Steve, but you guys looked pretty cozy," she admitted, because it was true. She didn't want to admit how much it had thrown her to see it. How much it upset her to think that Steve liked this crazy girl more than her.

"You know me Cath, I'm a cuddler," he reminded her. "Rowan's a cuddler too, it's not a good mix but it means nothing… unless I'm doing it with you, of course."

Oh smooth save there. She frowned up at him. Steve had never been an issue before this. He was loyal to a fault, and completely monogamous when the time came. Yeah he got girls, that's why they called him _Smooth Dog_ after all, but once he had his eyes set on one girl, he was only with that one girl. Up until this morning she had assumed that she was his one girl.

She wanted to believe that she was still his one girl.

"I'll forgive you on one condition," she said to him and suddenly he was frowning. His hand dropped from her elbow and he took half a step back from her. He eyed her up as if trying to gauge what she was going to ask her. For a minute she thought he may not take the bait.

"Okay, what?" he asked though his voice betrayed a hint of distrust.

"You never cuddle with her like that ever again," she said. Steve laughed like he thought she might be joking. But she wasn't. He came back to her, his hand went to her elbow and began brushing up and down her arm.

He suddenly gripped her tightly and pulled her close. "Of course, Cath, anything for you," he said as he pressed a kiss into her hair. Catherine hugged him back, gripping him tightly to remind herself that he was hers and that he had rushed out to get her and had left poor sick Rowan all alone in the washroom.

She took a deep breath expecting to get a whiff of the salty ocean breeze mixed with sandalwood but all she got was lilacs and a hint of roses. She pulled back trying not to be mad that he smelled of Rowan and tried to smile up at him.

"I'll go get into a fresh outfit and then we'll go for breakfast, okay?" he said taking a step away from her. He didn't turn until she nodded and then he flew back to the house to get ready to go out with her. With her. Not Rowan.

She tried to swallow the lump in her throat. The worry that had rose up like a bile. The possessiveness that had her glaring at the house as if her gaze could pierce the walls and hit Rowan wherever she stood. Steve was hers and if Rowan thought she'd give him up without a fight, then she had another thing coming.


	17. Chapter 17

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Guys this is it. These are the chapters I'm super excited for. This is where things start getting really exciting, this is where things start getting messy and angsty. This is where emotions are admitted, patience is tested and terrible things are going to be said. (okay maybe not in this chapter right now, but it's coming guys. It's coming!) This one still has the funny bits in it, but it's going to start getting real interesting after this. Feel free to tell me what you think your theories are about what happens in this chapter, let's see if anyone of you can guess where it's going to go! And as always, see you guys next Friday!_

Chapter 17

* * *

Steve was having a hard time liking Danny's idiot Nephew. E-Train aka Eric. The amazing nephew who got caught stealing a car and was here to get straightened out by his uncle. So far the only thing that cheered him up was that Danny seemed even more frustrated by his nephew's behaviour than him.

"Just go sit in my office," Danny snapped to keep Eric from playing with the smart table and opening up any more files and documents.

"And what am I going to do in there?" Eric asked, or actually, it was more like whining.

"I don't know. Why don't you meditate on the poor life decisions you've made," Danny snapped and sent the kid off. Steve watched him go and then looked back to Danny to see if he was okay. The poor man was most certainly not.

He was going to say something encouraging, but Danny was already talking.

"It's like house-training a puppy. I mean, the kid has zero impulse control," he hissed.

"Is now a bad time?" came a small voice and Steve nearly jumped out of his skin. He turned and Rowan was standing at his side. She wore one of her signature summer dresses. This one was an empire waisted sea blue dress with mermaids dancing around the hem. Her hair was pulled back in a braid, and she was wearing make up on her face that sharpened all of her features and just made her twice as pretty as she usually was. She was staring up at him with her impossibly blue eyes and Steve had the sudden fear that he had forgotten something important.

"What the hell? RO?!" Steve cried. "What are you doing here?"

"We were supposed to go for lunch," she said and Steve felt his stomach drop down to his toes. "It's okay, I figured you caught a case or something. Do you wanna do a vending machine lunch?"

Steve glanced to Danny and then to Chin who was walking in and looked like he had something important to say. He didn't want to have to say no, but he knew he was going to have to.

Rowan turned to each face, taking in each unique expression before she nodded. "Ah. Right, never mind. Rain check I guess," she said and then fished her phone out of her pocket. "I'll just ask Alex if he wants to go out for lunch or see if he has a break soon or something."

Since Catherine had gone back to her ship, Steve had been trying to spend more time with Rowan. Personal time, to get to know each other, to show her more of the island, to keep her from getting too bored and wandering off. At first all was fine and they were having fun but lately, whenever Steve had been too busy and had to cancel last minute on their plans, which had been almost every time they made plans, she had asked Alex to take her instead.

Which meant she and Alex went to the museum, Alex took her to her first surf lesson with Kono, Alex took her to movies and tried out the new restaurants that Steve and Rowan had wanted to try. He got to do all the cool things Steve had wanted to do with her but couldn't. He shouldn't have been mad, it was his fault for not letting the team take on a case for a few hours so he could follow through with whatever was planned, but couldn't she just wait until they had a chance to go together?

He was too afraid to ask her that. He was certain he already knew the answer.

 _If I waited for you we'd never go._

Because that's what he'd say if he was her.

"Guys, I got a voicemail you need to hear," Chin said interrupting Steve's thoughts and beside him Rowan's phone clattered out of her hand and she suddenly plummeted to the ground.

Steve heard the startled cry escape his lips as he was reaching out of her. He managed to grab her as she fell, a single grip on her wrist but that didn't stop her from hitting the ground. He only managed to jerk her arm and Rowan mostly out of her daze.

"What was that?" Chin asked. "Did she have another one of her visions?"

"Really? Visions?" Steve hissed, kneeling down beside her, her wrist still tightly in his grip. "They are not visions."

"I fell again," Rowan whispered as if she was just realizing it. The emptiness in her tone was what worried Steve though. "I got dizzy, sorry."

"So, what set you off?" Chin asked her as Steve helped her back up into a standing position, gripping both her hands tightly and afraid to let her go. Steve shot him a glare but it only made Chin smile more.

"You said you had a voice mail. And suddenly all I could see was a body in an acid bath," Rowan whispered, her grip on Steve's hands tightening. She looked scared and he understood. If she was seeing what he saw this morning it had not been a pretty sight. She glanced over to Danny. "Danny's Nephew is here, right?"

"Yeah, E-Train's here," Steve told her ignoring how Danny scoffed and rolled his eyes.

"Did you leave him alone in your office?" she asked Danny carefully extracting her hands from Steve's grip all while avoiding his eyes. Steve didn't know what was happening, but he had noticed that Rowan was very careful to not touch him, and whenever she did her cheeks would flame and she'd pull away from the contact.

"Yeah?" Danny replied not sure why that mattered and also ignoring the glare that had formed on Steve's face as he stared at Rowan waiting for her to look at him, but she was pointedly refusing.

"You should not have done that," she said stooping down to pick up her phone, she then stared at the screen as if waiting for something.

"What? Why? What are you doing?" Danny snapped.

"I'm waiting," she said and then waved at Chin who had been standing to the side watching the interactions carefully with a small grin on his face. Steve hated that everyone grinned when watching he and Rowan together, there wasn't anything for them to be smiling about. "Go ahead Chin."

Chin merely pressed a button and a really irate woman's voice could be heard basically threatening their dead professor.

"That came in two days ago," Chin told them.

"Well as far as threats go, that's not subtle," Danny said.

"Did we ID our caller?" Steve asked.

"Yeah, number came back to a Rebecca Fine. She's a senior in Cutler's Advanced Chem class," Chin said but before he could pull up her picture Rowan said: "Five foot two, brown hair, brown eyes. Matches your description."

She hadn't even looked up from her phone and yet she had quoted the description the Dean had given them word for word.

"Yeah, she's right," Chin said pulling up the photo.

Steve shot a glare at her but Rowan kept looking at her phone. Steve tried to listen as Danny and Chin went over theories. Because she fit the bill, left Cutler's office in tears, had access to the lab, had been staying late with the professor, it all made sense. But Steve couldn't stop staring at Rowan. He should have remembered they had lunch plans, he should have texted her or called her to reschedule, but he had completely forgotten. He figured she was mad at him, but she didn't look it and she wasn't acting her text book mad either.

Rowan's phone buzzed and she gasped and quickly opened whatever it was. She suddenly started laughing. Between her bursts of laughter she pointed at Danny and managed to say: "Oh, this is even better in person!"

"What, what is she talking about?" Danny asked.

Chin's phone buzzed too and he checked it as well. "Now, this is the best thing I've ever seen!" he crowed and he too began to laugh.

"Oh, oh, you shouldn't have left him alone in your office," she cried, literally, tears of mirth were running down her cheek. She was leaning against the smart table as if it were keeping her up.

Steve's phone buzzed and he pulled it out to check. The photo on the screen was definitely worth cracking up about.

"It's our own Mr. Williams. As Mr. November in the 1998 Newark Police Academy calendar," Chin said.

Rowan's laughter had turned into wheezing, she once again collapsed to the floor, this time because her knees had given out from laughing too hard. Steve let her hit the ground this time. It was funny but not that funny.

Steve showed Danny the picture. "Look at you, buddy!"

"I was young, this was for charity. Where did you even get this?" Danny snapped.

"I believe you just emailed it to me," Chin said. "All of us by the looks of it."

"Uh… no, I didn't," Danny snapped.

" _I told you not to leave him alone in your office!"_ Rowan exclaimed from the floor. "It went to your _whole_ address book!"

"It is not this funny!" Danny snapped, stalking past Steve and Rowan to accost his nephew whom he had finally noticed was on his computer in his office.

Steve bent over and grabbed Rowan up from off the floor. She was still giggling but calming down, AND she was still glancing at her phone still. He knew she was waiting to hear if Alex would be taking her for lunch.

"Uh, you know, Rowan, if he's not available you can come with me and Danny we can get lunch on the way back," Steve offered.

"Oh… Rainbows? So we can dine and dash and not get in trouble?" she asked.

Steve smiled at her. "Yeah, so… is that okay?"

"Sure! I'll just tell Alex I can't meet him," she said returning to her phone.

Steve tried not to let that get to him as he walked to Danny's office. She hadn't flat out said it, but she had implied that Alex had already replied and agreed to meet her. But she had blown him off for Steve. She had picked him over Alex. Repeat. SHE HAD PICKED HIM OVER ALEX. It shouldn't have mattered but it did.

He opened the door and tried to look like he wasn't about to break out in a happy dance. "Are you ready?" he asked.

Danny and Eric looked like they were having a moment too. Luckily it seemed to be over.

"Let's go, I got a case to work," Danny said and Eric nodded and plodded out from behind his desk.

Once he was out in the bullpen though that sulk he had from getting reprimanded was wiped off his face.

"Oh, hello fine lady," Eric said sauntering up to Rowan.

Rowan looked up from her phone, looked Eric up and down with a cold appraising eye and then said: "Nice to meet you Eric, but I'm not interested."

Steve tried not to laugh, but he couldn't hold it in. She had shot Eric down with one curt but polite comment and the kid looked so shocked by it. Now that was his girl.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

The stop off at Rainbows had to be rushed. There was no sitting out in the sun and eating their messy burgers and fries across from one another. There was no eating in the Camaro either Danny was clear about that but was ignored.

E-Train pulled out his burger and ate regardless of the yelling and moaning coming from Danny's side of the car. Even Rowan was eating, being smart enough to sneak fries every now and then and catching Steve's eyes in the rear view mirror every time he checked. Which was really unsafe because he always forgot to check for cars.

The yelling didn't stop, even when they got out of the Camaro. It didn't stop until Danny had confirmed that nothing had been spilled in the back seat of his car. Steve had purposely saved his food so he could eat with Rowan, he had already spotted the perfect spot, under a giant tree on the front lawn of the sorority house. He could already see them sitting side by side, shoulder to shoulder talking about whatever he could think about. He did want to know more about her. All there was to know about her, if he could. He was getting those warm fuzzy feelings in his stomach just thinking about it.

He forced himself to think of something else. Like the upcoming interrogation. He let her fall into step beside E-Train and hoped to god that Danny's idiot nephew didn't do or say anything to Rowan that would make Steve turn around and punch the kid out.

Eric was two steps into the damn sorority when he said: "I need to rethink my decision to skip college."

Well, at least he wasn't saying anything about Rowan.

"Easy their tiger," Danny said with a sigh and Steve tried not to laugh. Instead he approached the nicest and closest sorority girl.

He didn't even get to ask her the question he wanted to ask. She smiled when she saw him and Steve internally winced, he was going to have to tell this co-ed that she was too young for him.

He was not expecting her to call out to the whole house: "Kelly, your dads are here to pick you up!"

Steve turned to Danny who had turned to stare at him. Steve pointedly ignored Eric who looked confused for all of two seconds before he started laughing and Rowan who was just covering her mouth. He'd have said it was to cover her laughter but she was looking a little white and he wasn't so sure that was why she had covered her mouth.

The girl who was Kelly walked over to them. "Those aren't my dads," she told her stupid sorority friend.

"I'm sorry," Steve said trying really hard not to get angry. "You think I look old enough to be her father?"

"That's… that's the part you bumped on?" Danny asked looking all sorts of concerned.

"You were right. This is definitely worth coming for," Eric said, trying to hide his smirk by eyeing all the girls around him.

Rowan stepped up, her hand on his shoulder and a playful smirk on her face. Okay, maybe she was just hiding her laughter from him.

"Don't worry, you don't look old to me," she whispered and then kissed his cheek. The lightest, softest kiss she had ever placed. So light he practically leant in for more. "Um… I'm not feeling well. I'm going to go wait outside, okay?"

Then before he could even ask her if she wanted him to go with her she turned on heel and rushed outside. Okay… maybe she wasn't hiding laughter?

Steve made a mental note to check on Rowan once they were done talking to their suspect as he pulled out his badge to show the idiot girl in front of him. "Okay, excuse me. We're looking for Rebecca Fine. Is she here?"

The girls had the decency to look awed by his badge and were quick to answer his questions. "Yeah. Becky's room's upstairs. Second Door on the right."

Steve thanked them before walking away. Danny turned to follow but Eric stayed where he was. "You guys go ahead, I don't wanna get in your way," he said. "Besides, I'll watch Rowan for you, hold her hair if she pukes or something."

Steve forced himself to keep walking, pounding up the stairs so he wouldn't turn around and smack Eric. He would not be touching Rowan, if she needed her hair held back Steve would be doing it. He did it all the other times over Christmas and through her last concussion he'd do it this time too. By now he knew how to do it right, how to rub her back to soothe her and when to hand her drinks and tissues. He also knew where to stand to avoid the splatter.

Taking care of Rowan was Steve's job, he didn't even like sharing it with his Mother and he definitely didn't like sharing it with Alex. So there was no way in hell E-Train was going anywhere near her.

Steve found the right door and knocked. "Go away!" came flying out at him from behind the door. Well that was rude.

"Rebecca, this is Commander McGarrett of Five-0. Open the door," he ordered. He wasn't in a good mood so his voice came out a little harsher than intended but at least it changed her attitude.

"Okay, one second," she called out. "I'm just getting changed."

Then the lock to the door clicked. Steve wasn't sure if it was a locked click or an unlocked click but he had a feeling that couldn't have been good. In fact he was starting to feel a little sick himself. Maybe it was the fries, something must have been wrong with Rainbow's fries. Fuck. He should have just sent Danny and Chin and gone somewhere else with Rowan seeing as they probably just got food poisoning from Rainbow's. But hey, at least he'd be off sick with Rowan. That would give him alone time with her.

Danny turned to Steve. "You buying that?"

Ah yes. He was on a case.

"No," he answered quickly. He pulled out his gun, with Danny following suit and then he kicked the door it. They stormed into her room, though it was small and checked all the spaces they could think of. It was Danny who spotted the window, just in time to watch Rebecca take off on a little pink scooter despite them calling after her to stop.

Well that was their suspect was on the run. Steve and Danny sprinted down the stairs to get to the Camaro. Steve was already shouting Rowan's name, expecting her to be there, to come running and when she didn't Steve froze.

He had a suspect on the run and Rowan was missing. He scanned the area but couldn't see her. Was she back inside? She did say she wasn't feeling well so maybe she had gone in to use a washroom. Dread was sinking into his stomach, panic had gripped him with icy hooks. Something was wrong. He knew it.

"Come on! We'll come back for her!" Danny cried. Steve glanced around one more time. There was no sign of a struggle, nothing that could tell him where she had gone and if she was in trouble. Steve was forced to swallow the fear that had rose up into his throat like bile and got into the driver's side of the car.

He'd just have to call her during the chase.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

Rowan was being torn in two.

When she had stumbled outside she thought she'd vomit. She didn't think that this would happen and she didn't even know what _this_ was but she was sure it was killing her.

It had started with a fever and then a terrible pulsing in her chest. Then for an agonizing thirty seconds the air was ripped from her lungs and it felt like she was being dragged underwater slowly. Her eyes were squeezed shut against the pain. They didn't open until the cold bit against her skin. Going from boiling to freezing burned, she forced herself to breathe, the gasps for air stinging for they too were freezing. Snow swirled around her, someone was standing above her but she couldn't see the person clearly nor could she hear whatever they were trying to say.

Panic gripped her. She wanted this to stop.

And it did.

For a brief second the ice vanished and the heat of Hawaii returned to her. But it didn't stay. For the second she touched down on the grass she was pulled right back to the snow.

Hawaii.

Snow.

Hawaii.

Snow.

She was being torn between two places. Everything was burning around her. She could barely breathe. She couldn't move from the weight of the pain. She wanted this to stop. She wanted to stay in Hawaii. She wanted someone to save her. So she screamed for the only person in her head and in her heart. The one person she thought could save her from this.

 _STEVE!_

She heard her cry, shrill and yet muffled, echoing and pulsing and yet not moving anywhere but instead floating around her as if it had no one else to go. For a brief moment in the swirling typhoon of tropical green and crisp white she swore she could see a single red thread winding through it was if searching through the storm to find an anchorage point. It came to a jerking halt, jolting her backwards. She tumbled out of the typhoon and into a tight embrace. She gasped for air as sobs shook her body. She clung to her anchor, afraid that if she let go she'd be pulled back into the storm.

She stared up into cerulean blue eyes, crinkled with worry. She belated realized that he was talking to her, asking her something. He sounded as frantic as she felt. So she held onto him a little tighter.

"Don't let me go," was all she could say to him before the pain became too much and she lost consciousness.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

Steve couldn't stop the shaking. Not Rowan's and not his owns. She trembled in his arms like she was freezing but she felt feverish to his touch. Her breathing was laboured like she had been running miles but it came in staggered gasps as if she had been holding her breath.

He was still in shock.

He knew something was wrong. He had felt it in his gut. Rowan hadn't run off, but she hadn't been taken. She was in trouble, but he didn't know where she was. So when he returned to the sorority house, after catching up with Rebecca and throwing her into the back of the Camaro, he expected to retrace Rowan's steps and find her injured in a ditch. He'd swoop in to rescue her, carry back up the hill like the hero he was and he'd take her for ice cream and lecture her about wandering off.

What he wasn't expecting was to find her on her hands and knees blinking under the shade of the tree like a flickering candle in the wind.

For a minute he wasn't certain what he was staring at.

She was there and then she wasn't. She was blinking in and out of existence. And he would have thought that impossible except for that fact that Rowan didn't come from here. It was almost like he was watching her get pulled back to where she belonged... like she was going home. But Steve couldn't let that happen. She couldn't leave because she belonged here… with him.

And then she screamed. He couldn't hear it, it was like she was on mute, but he saw the pain on her face and knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that the one word she had screamed had been his name. He would have to do something, anything to help her.

He didn't know why he thought this would work but before he could stop himself he shot forward, gripped the back of her shirt and pulled her up off of the ground and back into his arms.

The first thing he noticed was the cold. It was almost like he plunged his hand into freezing cold water, but neither his hand nor Rowan came back wet. When she was solid again he clung to her, backing her away from that tree like it was the reason this happened. He held onto her afraid she might disappear and that couldn't happen.

There was a tightness in his chest that was constricting with every beat. Thoughts were rapidly flying through his head. Could this happen at any time? What had set this off? Aside from her not feeling well was there really anything that could have been considered a warning sign? How could he stop this from happening again without having her handcuffed to his side at all times? That wasn't even a viable option, what the hell would he tell Catherine?

 _Yes, Rowan needs to be handcuffed to me at all times because if I don't she'll go back to her own time and I don't want her to leave me. Not in a romantic way at all… yes… not concerning in the least._

Even he knew that was stupid. And a flat out lie.

"What was that?" Danny asked coming to stand beside him. He put a hand to Rowan tentatively like he thought touching her would hurt him. "I mean… you saw that right? What the fuck was that?"

"I don't know, Danny," Steve snapped. "Yes I saw it but I don't know what that was."

"Well is she okay?" Danny asked.

"She was fucking flickering, dudes!" Eric cried popping up behind Danny. "People don't flicker like that. Is she like… an alien?"

Steve glared at him and Danny pushed him away. "Wait in the fucking car," he ordered but Eric wouldn't move.

"You should check her phone. If that was alien activity her phone would be acting screwy," he offered. "Or we could autopsy her and see if all her organs are the same as ours."

Steve was dangerously close to hitting this boy. If he said one more thing about Rowan he may actually drop her to kill him with his bare hands though he probably wouldn't just because he was absolutely terrified that if he let her go she'd disappear. Luckily Danny intervened, gabbing Eric by the back of the neck and practically throwing him into the back of the Camaro.

To keep himself calm Steve counted each of her heart beats thudding softly against his own chest and once Danny was he done he faced his friend to answer his question. "She seems okay. She's breathing, she has a pulse…" he whispered.

He held her a little more closely, his lips in her hair but her scent is gone. None of that lilac sweetness is there but instead his nose was filled with the stench of crisp burning, not the smell of charred skin or fried hair, but the smell of an ice cube fresh from the freezer. Fuck. What had happened to her?

"Should we take her to the hospital or something?" Danny wondered.

Steve shook his head. "Course not," he snapped. "How would I explain this?"

"True," Danny said. He glanced down at where Rowan was being cradled. Her head resting against Steve's shoulder, a death grip on his light grey shirt. But that was nothing compared to how tightly Steve was holding onto her. Danny was surprised she could breathe at all.

"So what do we do?" Danny asked him.

Steve glanced down to Rowan again. He shifted her in his arms, not because she was heavy, because she wasn't, but because he wanted her even closer to him.

"Take her home," he said. "Get someone to watch her."

"You gonna put her in the back?" Danny asked.

"Yeah, but I'm staying with her," he said, not voicing that he wouldn't be letting her go either, but he knew it was implied. Luckily Danny said nothing about it, but he did force Eric to get out of the back and into the front seat.

Once they were situated in the back seat, Rowan still on his lap, still in his death grip, and Danny was driving Steve made quick work of looking through Rowan's pockets. He discretely slipped her phone out of the back pocket and tried to turn it on. The phone was dead. Not just dead the screen was pitch black, shattered and leaking fluid. Whatever had happened to her had destroyed her phone. How the hell was she alive?


	18. Chapter 18

Rewrite

AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Alright guys, we're going to get some small backstory from Rowan today! And we have Steve's first move on Rowan. Tell me if you think it counts! ALSO, any guesses on what those "red strings" are? We're almost to where we start getting issues. I think it literally starts next chapter! GUYS! I've officially written 500 pages, and I'm not even half way done this story. I'm currently sitting at 43 chapters. So I'm pretty far ahead but for the first time since I started writing this in April I've hit some major writer's block. So I'm going to hold off on posting two chapters a week. HOWEVER for the month of November (Which is National Novel Writing Month) I will be working on this story and many others so I plan to be more active with my posting. That means for November you will 100% be getting two chapters a week. We just need to decide on when you'd like me to post. Would you like me to post every Monday and Friday? Or maybe every Monday and Thursday? Tell me what you think! And as always, see you guys next Friday!

Chapter 18

* * *

Snow swirled around her. Her body was on fire. She wanted Steve. She needed Steve. She called for Steve and he had answered.

The second his body made contact with her she was whole again. She was no longer being pulled in two directions. The call of the white beyond vanished and with it came a shattering clarity.

She knew what had been calling her. What had been trying to pull her through.

 _Trevor._

Rowan came to almost violently. Sitting upright in her bed, which she didn't remember getting into, yelping because something had a death grip on her hair.

"Ow, ow, JEZUS!" she shouted trying to pull herself free.

"Oh, honey, I'm sorry," Doris said, transferring her hold from Rowan's head to her arm. "Steve said you might vanish I didn't know if that was one of those episodes."

Rowan turned to her. She wanted ask what she was talking about but she had a feeling she knew what was going on. While this was all so sweet, Rowan needed to move. She was being swallowed by a terrible guilt, a terrible sinking feel that she had made a mistake that she should have chosen to go back.

"Can we go to the Palace?" she asked Doris. "I mean… can you take me there?"

"Steve's not there Honey, he's on Niihau" Doris told her as if that made any sense to her what so ever.

"No, I don't want to see Steve," Rowan said quickly. "I need to use their computer."

"Oh… sweetie… I don't think…" Doris start, her grip on Rowan still not loosening despite the fact that Rowan was sitting and trying to get up.

"No!" she interrupted before Doris could try and shoot her down a second time. "I NEED to go to Iolani Palace. I need to use their computers. PLEASE?!"

That was it, the second she turned to Doris she saw that she had won, the woman had caved. She must have sounded the most panicked and desperate she had ever been, and to be fair she was pretty desperate. Doris sighed and got up.

"Fine but you have to hold my hand the whole time," Doris said as she got up. She offered Rowan her hand and though Rowan was confused she took it. She must have noticed Rowan's perplexed stare for she shot her a strange smile and said: "Steve was quite frantic at the thought of you disappearing again so he made me promise to have a firm grip on you at all times in case the blinking thing started up again."

Rowan tried not to smile. She tried not to let the butterflies creep back into her stomach. She tried to remind herself that she was supposed to feel guilty, not happy that Steve had wanted her to stay too.

But it was a good sign, right? That Steve wanted to keep her from jumping realities? Right? God… she was pathetic. She had bigger things to worry about right now. Rowan Pierce was on a quest.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

Steve was having a very, very hard time concentrating on the task at hand. Yes, he was on a private island that only allowed outsiders on for exclusive hunting trips, but he couldn't even be excited about that. He kept thinking about Rowan and what had just happened to her.

There had to be an explanation for what he had just witnessed, what he had just saved her from. But what? Who the hell was he supposed to ask?

He had briefly looked up alternate realities and got nothing helpful about his situation. He clearly needed an expert but how did one even go about finding an expert?

Well he had one expert. Sort of.

Dr. Brian Stevens, who had been living on Niihau to try and find a cure for his son's super rare disease, was an expert in botany. It wasn't a stretch to think he might know someone who knew about alternate realities at an academic level.

The problem was Chin didn't know about Rowan's episode and he didn't want him to know. Not that he didn't trust Chin, he just wasn't comfortable with everyone knowing that Rowan almost left. Why did everyone he cared about leave him? Granted they didn't all leave because they wanted to, but in the end they all went away.

He sent Chin toward the truck before turning back to Dr. Stevens.

"I have an off-topic question," he said. Getting the older man to turn around. "You wouldn't happen to know anyone who specializes in alternative universes, would you?"

"The Multiverse theory?" Dr. Stevens asked. Okay, sure, whatever that was. "What kind of theory are you interested in? Tegmark's four levels? Or one of Greene's Nine? Quilted, Inflationary, Cyclic, Quantum, Simulated…"

Geezus how many types were there? Steve cut him off. "I don't know. Who would know how to move say… someone… from one universe to another?"

Dr. Stevens stared at him for a moment. He looked confused and Steve had to use all his willpower to hold the man's gaze instead of looking away. After a while he said: "You'd want Dr. Trenton Pierce. He's been working on a Quantum-verse theory that involves the moving of objects from one place to another."

Did he say _Pierce_? Now Steve was staring at him surprised. Steve shook his head a bit and then asked: "Does he have a daughter?"

"Pierce?" he asked, even more confused than before. "No. He has a son I believe. He's been a little eccentric since his wife left him though. Might be hard to get a hold of him. I can give you the line to his office up in UofT."

"UofT?" Steve echoed.

"Yeah, Pierce is based in Toronto," he said flipping through his book for the number. "He and I have mutual friends but as I mentioned, since his wife left him he's been a bit illusive. I don't know if he'll even pick up the phone."

Rowan hadn't told him she was from Canada. In fact, she hadn't told him where she was from at all. She hadn't told him about her family, or her past. What was she hiding?

Steve took the number that was offered to him. "Thanks," he said, meaning it. He wasn't sure what he was going to say to this man but it wouldn't hurt to try.

"Steve, you coming?" Chin called from the foliage and Steve nodded good-bye to Dr. Stevens. He needed to remember that he was on a case. That he had a man's murder to solve. He couldn't keep getting distracted by Rowan. He couldn't keep getting wrapped up in her but no matter how hard he tried—not that he was trying all that hard in the first place—he couldn't seem to untangle himself.

Regardless. Rowan wasn't going to flicker out of his life. He couldn't let it. And once he caught the murderer he'd get to the bottom of whatever this was and they'd move on to being happy and trying new things again.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

Rowan had wanted to do this in secrecy, which meant that Doris was primed to send whoever was at the office on a wild goose chase. Luckily there was no one in the office to distract. But Doris still did a sweep of the area to make sure they were properly alone. By the time she came back Rowan had the DMV database up and was typing a name into the search bar.

Doris put a hand on her arm, to keep that promised contact, and then looked at what Rowan was searching.

"Trevor Pierce?"

Not a second after she said did the face appear. The Canadian Driver's license featured a handsome chestnut haired boy with a giant loping grin and the same piercing blue eyes as Rowan. The Piercing Pierce Eyes they had always joked. He was 26 when he took that photo, Rowan remembered, she was there. The girl at the counter had been flirting with him and that grin was for her.

What was Trevor doing now? Was he still a figure skater? A simple Google search could answer that question. But who was he skating with, if not her? Would he have a different sister to skate with? Or just a different girl altogether? He wasn't skating alone, was he? Because he was a great choreographer but he wasn't the best skater, they always did the best together, he on technical and she on flow. Who did he talk to about his girls? Or boys? Who played referee between him and their parents, especially their dad? Was this version of Trevor all alone?

She was acutely aware that Doris was staring at her but she couldn't look back at the woman. She was too afraid that she would break out into tears.

"Honey… are you… are you related to him?" she asked.

Rowan blinked her eyes she couldn't even bring herself to tell her that in a different reality that was her older brother, her best friend, the guy she told everything, who stood up for her and took care of her in the most sarcastic and aggravated way possible. Instead she typed in another name.

 _Roselyn Pierce._

But that wasn't all that came up. There was the marriage certificate and a bunch of other documents and then it branched off into another section. One on _Roselyn Carter_ her mother's maiden name. Rowan blinked her eyes. Her parents got divorced? WHAT THE HELL? But they had always been madly in love!

She looked up to the woman with honey blonde hair that no longer shared her last name. Her eyes were a warm brown but she had Rowan's nose and thin smile. She looked older than Rowan remembered but it was still her mom. Doris was asking her if she was related to her too but Rowan was already tying the last name.

 _Trenton Pierce_.

Now he looked completely different. His black hair was peppered with so much grey. He wasn't smiling like he usual was, he had a patchy beard and he was wearing smudged glasses with those trademark Pierce eyes staring back at her. Wow, without mom her dad was a complete and utter wreck.

"Whoa, he looks like a mad scientist," Doris said and Rowan frowned.

Her father had been a mad scientist, kind of, but in the Tony Stark kind of way, not the Dr. Frankenstein way. He looked positively mental here, though. Her father worked with the Multiverse Theory and trying to prove the existence of other realities. He had been working on trying to pull an object from another universe the last she had seen him… before she landed here.

Obviously, she was worried about her father and his clearly deteriorated image. Yes, she wanted to know what happened to him to make him like this. But she had something bigger to worry about. She had been operating under the assumption that her family line just didn't exist in the _Hawaii Five-0_ universe, but they clearly did. If her father's theories were correct, and she was starting to think that they might be, if she came to a different reality she would have taken over the body of the version of her that was in this reality, or she shunted that version of her out and into her own universe. But, from her understanding, she hadn't. She had come through and fallen out of the sky.

So, where was she?

"Doris, do you know about these computer databases?" she asked.

"Yes?"

"And… if they did a cursory search for me, with my DNA and name would I have come up if I were… dead?" she asked.

It took a lot to get that last word out and she pointedly avoided Doris' stare as she asked it. "It would depend on when you died. If you died before having a driver's license or a school record then it's possible that you wouldn't have," Doris answered.

"How… how do I check that?" she asked.

Doris let her go and she immediately gripped Doris' arm. They had a promise to keep to Steve after all. She watched Doris bring up a different database and typed her name and birthday in. She forced herself to look down to her own hands while it did its search. She had a feeling she knew what they were going to find and she didn't want it confirmed.

"Alright. We have one match," Doris told her. "Rowan Pierce, born to Trenton and Roselyn Pierce on January 21st, 1986. Died January 21st, 1986."

Rowan looked up immediately. She only lived a day? She read the death certificate. Cause of death was listed as Stillborn. She hadn't even fucking lived?

"Honey! You didn't tell us your birthday was two weeks ago!" Doris cried. Rowan turned to the older woman. That was what she was upset about? A missed birthday? Rowan had _just_ found out that this reality's version of her was fucking dead!

"That's not the hot issue here," Rowan snapped.

"I don't see why it matters, sweetheart," Doris said. "We don't know how you got here, we don't know why you're here, we just know that you _are_ here. Now would any of this explain why you started flickering this morning?"

Rowan shook her head. No, this didn't explain it because it wasn't these people trying to pull her back home. She was pretty sure that it was her version of Trevor had been standing over her, he had been the one trying to rip her back into her own time… and she had chosen to stay with Steve.

There was no way in hell she was going to tell Doris, who kept trying to throw she and Steve together at every chance she got, that she had chosen to stay in an alternate reality where she was dead instead of going home to her family who were probably all very worried about her.

"Please don't tell Steve," Rowan whispered. "He'll want to talk about this and I… I don't think I can."

Doris nodded to her. "Alright, honey, how about we go home and start dinner?"

Rowan watched as Doris cleared the searches, both from the computer screen and then the history, which Rowan would not have thought to do. She was silent as the woman took her hand and held it, softly leading her out of the office.

Tears were welling up in Rowan's eyes. She couldn't help it. She had a chance to go home and she didn't take it. She could be curled up by the fireplace with Trevor right now. She could be hugging her mother and kissing her dad's cheek. She could be helping him prove his theories right, right now. She could be getting ready to go to a skate practice. But she had chosen to stay here. For a man who didn't think of her in any romantic way. For a man who was dating someone else. For a man who'd never love her.

God.

She was totally fucking pathetic.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

Steve had left a message with Dr. Trenton Pierce with a few details, hoping he'd call him back. All he had said was that he was curious to know what would happen if you moved an organic item between universes. Would it mess with a phone? Would it possibly kill the item being moved? Would the act of moving an object that didn't want to move make it look like it was flickering? Maybe that was too much but he wanted to be sure that he called back.

After catching the murderer, back on Niihau actually as he was angling to kill Dr. Stevens next, Steve headed home. He hadn't heard from his mother which meant Rowan was okay or she hadn't found the words to tell him that Rowan had vanished.

He opened the door to Rowan's music and the sound of them in the kitchen laughing and all the tension and dread that had built up in his chest deflated. He let out the breath he was holding in one long sigh and felt the smile creep up onto his face, blossoming into a full grin as he walked towards the kitchen. His eyes found Rowan cutting up vegetables to put into a pot and that strange feeling whelmed up into his chest again.

This warm constriction that cut off his air whenever he was particularly in awe of her had come so fast he was breathless again. She looked so at home, wearing one of his button-down shirts and a pair of short shorts. Her hair was up in a messy pony tail and she had haphazardly rolled up the sleeves of his shirt. She looked adorable, she looked like she had just rolled out of bed, she looked like she was his.

And he liked it.

It dawned on him, as his lower body tightened and coiled, that he wanted her. He wanted her to be his. He wanted to come home to her in his kitchen, making him dinner, wearing his clothes. He wanted her to turn around, smile at him, throw her arms around his neck and kiss him.

He wanted Rowan Pierce to be the one who stayed.

Rowan did turn and she did smile when she saw him. A big loping grin. She said something to him, but he didn't hear it over the sound of all the blood rushing away from his brain and the wild thumping of his heart.

His eyes fell to her hands. No one was holding on to Rowan. She could blink away right at that moment and there would be nothing to tether her to his universe.

"Mom, I said contact at all times," he snapped coming over to Rowan.

"She hasn't had a single episode since you dropped her off," Doris shot back.

Rowan was staring at him funny, a strange sort of smile on her face. "If you're so worried, here, hold my hand."

She held her hand out to him and Steve stared at it. He wanted to. Oh, he wanted to. But he was also afraid. Afraid of letting this one get any closer than she had already seem to have gotten. The girl who didn't belong in this universe. The girl who could blink away at any time. He couldn't fall for a girl who was gonna leave him like all the others.

Still he didn't want her to blink away right at that moment so he grabbed her hand. He tried not to let the butterflies run wild in his stomach when their fingers intertwined, yet another reminder of how deeply this girl could hurt him if he gave her the chance.

"Just because she hasn't had another incident doesn't mean it won't happen again," Steve reminded them. Rowan rested her head on his shoulder and for a moment Steve thought his heart might beat out of his chest.

He closed his eyes and repeated a mantra: _You love Catherine. You love Catherine. You love Catherine._

It wasn't helping.

"I don't think it'll happen again," she said.

Oh, yeah like she knew that for certain. Wait… did she know that for sure? How would she even know that? What did she know that he didn't? Either way that didn't make him feel better. Not if he didn't know for certain that the flickering was finished.

Still he held her hand. He held her hand while she prepared dinner, while they ate dinner, and while they watched TV. His mother was long gone at that point, back at her own place, which meant Steve could sit and pretend that they were on a date. And with Rowan's head leaning on his shoulder it sort of felt like it too. But it wasn't, he kept reminding himself. And he wouldn't do something like that to Catherine, even though he and Catherine weren't really official...

The real problem came when it was time to go to bed. She couldn't stay in his room and he couldn't stay in hers, though he wanted to. Rowan must have realized that he was dithering, that he was on the precipice of demanding that she stayed with him so he could hold onto her even while she was sleeping.

"I'll be fine, Steve," she whispered to him. "It won't happen again."

"Can you promise me that?" he asked. Knowing full well the answer was no.

"Look," she said turning to him fully. She was still wearing his blue button down, he was trying really hard not to focus on that. "Before it happened I felt it. If I feel anything even remotely like that again I will go straight to you, okay?"

Steve was going to have to let that be enough. He didn't want to let go, he wanted that excuse to keep holding but, but he needed this to stop. He wanted to tell her that this was the last time he'd be holding her hand. He wanted to tell her that he didn't want her wearing his clothing. He wanted to tell her that this meant nothing except that he was worried her crossing back would hurt her. He didn't want to feel this way for her, all mushy and weak, terrified at the thought of losing her.

He let go of her hand and took a step away from her. Cool air assaulted him, like the sexual tension from being close to her had set the air around them on fire.

"Good night, Steve," she said and then launched herself at him. Her arms around his neck, holding him tightly. She pressed a kiss to his cheek quickly before dropping back to the balls of her toes and turning away.

It was all so quick that he had no time to react. That kind of hug, the one with the kiss, wasn't a good night ritual of theirs. It was a good-bye ritual. Why the hell would she be giving him a good-bye hug at the end of the night?

Steve forced himself to ignore it. If she expected to wink out while he was sleeping then he'd let her do it. He'd let her leave him if she really wanted to, and he wouldn't be crushed in the morning when he woke up and found her gone. Steve was determined to be okay with whatever outcome he found in the morning. No matter how much his heart protested.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

She was burning again.

The sensation started in her shoulder blades and then travelled the rest of her body. Her breathing slowed, like she was submerged until she was forced to sit up just to be able to get air into her body. She fell out of her bed, collapsing to the ground painfully, already the world around her was swirling between shadows and crisp freezing white.

She wouldn't have time.

She wheezed out his name. A half hoarse cry. Ragged with fear. She didn't even know if he'd hear her. She tried to relax. Tried to let the pain radiating out from her shoulder blades take over but it hurt too much to just go with it. She fought against it, the fear caged in her chest scratching to get out.

She just didn't want to leave.

She didn't know when he appeared, she only knew when he touched her and for a minute that pain faded she was back in his world. And while the pain eased out of her limbs that pulling sensation still radiated in the spot between her shoulder blades.

Steve had heaved her up from the floor and clutched her to his chest. She held him back.

"Don't let go," she whispered for she knew if he let go, she'd go straight back to flickering. Something about him was tethering her here, and so long as he held onto her she'd be okay.

"I won't," she heard him whisper back and she tried to breathe.

Unfortunately the pain was returning, she could feel the weight of it suffocating her. It tugged and pulled at her, jerking her almost fully out of her arms. She dug her finger nails into Steve's back. She felt his do the same to her. She buried her face into his chest, she didn't want to leave here, she didn't want to leave the safety of his arms… not unless he came with her.

She didn't know how this happened either, maybe it was because she was too afraid to let go, maybe it was because she thought about taking him with her. Either way when the pain managed to jerk her back into that void Steve went tumbling with her.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

Steve was blinded.

It felt like he was being dragged through water. It felt like he was being suffocated. Like his limbs were both on fire and cold at the same time. That crisp fresh smelling burn that had coated Rowan before was up in his nose now and he couldn't get it out. There was a pattern of swirling darkness dotted with white lights all leading towards a bright looking light, the source that was blinding him.

They were being dragged. Something glowing had a hold of Rowan, right between the shoulder blades and it seemed to be yanking her forward. A hook, made of metal coated in layers of jagged ice.

They slowed as they got closer to the light, like they were being pulled through mud or jelly. He struggled against it. It grew harder to breathe. He could have easily just have let go of Rowan and let this hook take her. But he couldn't.

She was his, goddamn it. And he was not letting her leave.

He forced himself to look into the light. It hurt his eyes to do so but he didn't care. He squinted until he could make out the silhouette of a person. The hook's tether led straight to that silhouette.

Steve forced himself to move. He forced his hands to move up her back until he found where the hook had lodged itself. Instinctively he knew, if he got this unhooked she'd be free. So he pulled. He pulled even though he heard her gasp of pain. He pulled even though he saw the first of a streaming red erupt from her like yarn spilling out of a teddy bear. He yanked and pulled even though the layers of ice burnt his skin and cut into his palm.

 _You can't have her!_

He heard himself scream. He didn't know if it came from his mouth or from his heart. But with just that sentence the hook shattered in his grip and they finally stopped moving. For a brief moment they floated in the expanse. The darkness no longer shifting and swirling around them, the dots of lights come to a standstill. Rowan was shaking so hard he was afraid she might come apart in his arms.

The strings of red that had erupted from her tangled around him and tangled them together. He didn't care. He held his Rowan to him, his heart beat calming. It didn't matter if they floated here together for the rest of their lives. Here she was his. There was no Catherine. No Five-0. No Responsibilities. Here there was nothing but them and at that moment that was all he wanted.

He cradled her to him like she was the most precious thing to him. At that moment she was. He got lost in her perfect blue eyes, in the desire welling up in him.

Before he knew what he had done, his hands had caught her face and he had kissed her. He kissed her with all that new emotion and passion that had built up in him in the span of however long they had been in this void. He kissed her like she was his everything, clinging to her like she was his anchor. Her arms came around him again, around his neck, her fingers curled into his hair.

This was it. This was what he had been craving. He would never get enough of this.

And then they came crashing out of the void.

They landed on Rowan's bedroom floor with a terrible clatter and painful whumpf. The air knocked out of both of them, Rowan on the bottom and Steve on top of her. He rolled his weight off of her as the two caught their breaths.

They said nothing as they lay there. They stared at the ceiling shoulder to shoulder until Steve remembered why he had come into her room in the first place. His hand found hers and then gripped it tightly. He felt her eyes on him but he couldn't bring himself to look back.

"If you think I'm letting you go now, after all of that, you're crazy," he snapped.

Rowan answered him by rolling over and pressing herself into his side. He slid his hand out of hers and wrapped an arm around her shoulders so he could press her even farther into his side. After a moment's silence where he was acutely aware of the fact that her breasts were pressed into the side of his chest she asked: "Can we at least sleep in a bed?"

The answer was yes.

That night Steve slept in Rowan's bed. Her back to his chest, his arms tightly wrapped around her. Her hair still smelled of the void but he didn't care. He clung to her, he refused to let go, and he knew then, with an earth-shattering clarity that he would never survive the blow of losing Rowan.


	19. Chapter 19

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: I know what you guys are thinking? Posting on an Monday? What the heck? Well I'm going to be out of town for the rest of the week so I figured I'd post your chapter now seeing as I don't know if I'll post today. And if I remember I'll post #20 this Friday too :D Anyway... here it is guys! The DRAMA has arrived. From here on in it's gonna be angsty, overly-dramatic... and let's be honest... we're not gonna get a happy ending out of this._

 _Lastly, we still gotta decide what day you want your extra chapter in November. Friday and Monday? Friday and Wednesday? What would you prefer? Enjoy your early chapter and I'll see you next week!_

Chapter 19

* * *

Rowan went with Steve everywhere now. She was always with him, even when he went on cases. She sat in the front of the Camaro despite Danny's bitching, so Steve could hold her hand. No one said a thing about why Rowan was always within arm's reach of Steve, or why he had his hand on her at all times, or why he had gotten her a vest so she could come with him into active crime scenes, so long as she stayed back, behind the cars and out of the way, holding anyone's hand at that point. The Five-0 team knew something had happened, Danny knew a bit better than the others, but they knew something had happened. Though they weren't certain what exactly it was that happened, all they knew was that now he had to be near her at all times.

Danny knew exactly what had happened. He knew that Steve had lacerated the palm of his hand trying to free Rowan, that though Rowan didn't bleed she now had a white scar in the shape of a bursting star in between in her shoulder blades. He knew that Steve and Rowan shared a bed, that they were in the washroom when the other had a shower, or right outside the door when they had to use the washroom. He knew that Steve panicked if Rowan wasn't in his line of sight, and that Steve suddenly seemed more than interested in Rowan's life. And he knew that since this had started Rowan had gone on a break with Nurse Alex, seeing as she had no time for anything other than Steve anymore.

Danny knew, probably better than anyone that Rowan and Steve were practically dating. They were doing everything else a couple did, a very clingy couple at that, except the actual sex part.

And this bugged Danny.

Now it had nothing to do with not liking Rowan. He loved Rowan. Rowan was sweet and kind, and she understood his aggravation when it came to Steve's control issues and could commiserate. He liked and trusted her so much that he'd be fine leaving her to babysit Grace if the chance ever were to arise. No, his problem, if you could really call it a problem, was that Steve had Catherine. And this felt an awful lot like cheating on Catherine, and they had made all of Five-0 and especially Danny unwilling accomplices.

Danny liked Catherine. He liked Catherine a lot. He liked how Steve was with Catherine. And Catherine had no idea that any of this was happening. He had a feeling that if Catherine were to be made aware she'd be very upset with what Steve was doing.

He did have to admit that Rowan and Steve were utterly adorable. There was nothing cuter then watching Rowan, in her bullet proof vest, holding Steve's hand and making him dance. She'd hold onto both of his hands and she would force him to pivot as she danced around him. He'd get a soft sort of smile on his face that Danny only saw when Steve was staring at Rowan. Danny had taken pictures the first time this had happened, the whole Five-0 family had, had he known it was going to be a common occurrence he wouldn't have worried so much about getting the perfect shot that first time.

The perfect shot being, of course, the one of Rowan mid twirl, Steve holding her hand above her head like she was a ballerina. The grin on Steve's face was particularly dazzling, his gazing lovingly caressing Rowan's features. Danny had practically shoved Kono out of the way to get that shot of Steve and Rowan.

Plus, it definitely helped that whenever Steve and Danny got into an argument, Rowan was always on Danny's side, no matter what the argument was about. And that killed Steve.

Today, however, was a problem. Catherine was back, only for a few days and of course the lies had to start. Steve told his Five-0 family it was because he didn't know how to explain to Catherine what had happened. He told Danny it was because he didn't know how to tell her that he had to have contact with Rowan at all time or she'd vanish back to her own reality. And he sure as hell didn't know to tell Catherine that the thought of Rowan leaving scared him to all hell. So, Danny agreed to say quiet, with the condition that Steve had to tell Catherine what happened before she went back on the boat.

This lead them to a very awkward breakfast at Kamekona's shrimp truck. Steve was flanked by both Rowan and Catherine, and if Danny knew Steve, which he did, Steve had his hand on some part of Rowan's body under the table. Discretely, of course, seeing as his girlfriend was in her uniform and her black hair up in a serious bun on his other side. It was a stark difference compared to the vibrancy of the girl on his other side who had chosen to wear a simple pink tank-top and a pair of denim shorts and whose red and blonde hair sparkled in the sun and cascaded over one of her shoulders. Danny kept smiling at Steve with a knowing, teasing, smirk and Steve kept scowling at him, but that one hand stayed under the table.

"Trust me, brothers, this is gonna take your taste buds to a whole new level," Kamekona announced coming towards them with a tray and a large Styrofoam container. As he went about unwrapping what he had made for them he kept talking: "I think this is the next big thing."

He revealed to them, four giant burritos. Everyone at the table stared at it, not sure what to say, but it was Danny who thought of the perfect thing to say before anyone else.

"Wow. A burrito. You know, I'm pretty sure that's already a big thing," he said. He nearly chuckled to himself too, he was so witty he even amused himself sometimes.

Kamekona was ready to fire back though. "Not like this one. I'm calling it Kamekona's Sunrise Fusion Shrimp Breakfast Burrito. It's got eggs, it's got cheddar. Pineapple salsa, shrimp and a very secret special ingredient," he told them as he leant in like this next bit was a piece of classified information. He then whispered very dramatically: "Spam."

That was it. Danny was out.

"Oh. Oh, no, no, no," he said shaking his head. "How did I sign up for this? What happened?"

"Why do you got to be such a baby? Try something new. Expand your horizons," Steve snapped. He had been irritable all day, probably because he hadn't been sleeping. As a result, he had gone with wearing the easiest outfit he could manage a loose blue cotton tee and a pair of grey cargo pants.

"My horizon's are broad enough, thank you," Rowan said quite primly. Danny nodded, he couldn't have said it better himself. Well that's not true, he could have, that could have used a little more sass but priss worked better when it came from Rowan so he'd let her have it. "Sorry, but you know I don't eat Shrimp. Or Spam."

"Not to worry Sista!" Kamekona said dropping a burrito in front of her. "Yours is just chicken and bacon."

"Ohhh… chicken and bacon!" she cried picking it up gingerly and taking a big bite.

"How come she gets the chicken and bacon one and we get the food-poisoning-fusion?" Danny asked.

"That's a Rowan special," Kamekona said nodding as Steve and Catherine picked up their burritos. Danny watched passively as Steve and Catherine took a bite of theirs too and Steve looked less then pleased.

"What do you think?" Kamekona asked them.

"That's interesting," Steve said around his own mouthful.

Rowan dropped the burrito in her hand. "Uh… are you sure this is chicken and bacon?" she asked, her nose scrunching and her chewing slowing. "This doesn't really taste like either of those.

Kamekona looked down to the burritos. "Uh… I may have given you the wrong one."

All eyes flew back to Rowan who was struggling with the mouthful she had. "Ugh. What is wrong with you people and your mystery meat? You're basically just a bunch of Warm-Weathered-Newfies."

"Newfies?" Danny echoed.

"New Foundlanders," Steve explained. "Rowan did you spend time around the East Coast of Canada?"

"Ugh, this is awful," she said to the table, her face fading to an ashen grey color. She ignored Steve completely like she always did when he asked her about her past and where she came from. But this time she had a pretty good excuse. "I think I'mma throw up."

Steve's hand came up from under the table and rested on her back. "Spit it out," he ordered. Rowan shook her head and made a strangled gagging noise. "Ro, spit it out!"

Rowan snatched the napkin out of Danny's hand and coughed into it. She shuddered as she tried to cough out the taste of that nasty burrito.

Danny turned to Kamekona. "Okay, I will have the regular breakfast burrito with the eggs and the bacon," he said.

"Naw brah, no substitutions, no changes. A true chef never compromises his culinary vision," Kamekona said taking his tray with the burritos and walking away.

Luckily Kono arrived just in time to distract them. She was struggling to make her way over to them with her rollerblades on the gravel.

"Hey guys," she called, getting a round of _hey_ s from everyone at the table except for Rowan who was in the process of drinking all of Steve's water, no doubt to get the taste out of her mouth.

Danny looked her up and down. She looked ridiculous with her shin guards and wrist braces. "Wow, look at that," he said as sarcastically as possible. "Bringing back the '80s with the rollerblades."

He turned to Steve who was trying to pull his water bottle out of Rowan's mouth before she drank it all and asked: "Got those Duran Duran cassette tapes you can lend her?"

God where did he think of this stuff? He was a comedy genius.

Steve dropped his hold on the water bottle, no doubt resigning himself to having to get another one as Rowan had just about finished that one. His hand disappeared under the table again and Danny tried not to laugh. "Yeah, I got them."

Kono smiled down at them, not phased in the slightest. "Yeah, yeah, you know how it is. Going for a workout, keeping in shape. But I am _Hungry Like the Wolf_ ," she said.

Danny chuckled. He loved it when people piled on his joke. It didn't happen often because not everyone got his brand of humor, except for Rowan who seemed to just speak the same comedy language as him.

"Wow. That was good. It was funny," he admitted, but drily so she wouldn't get too cocky. He waited until she was sitting next to him to continue. "Uh… you missed the tasting, lucky."

"Oh, that bad?" she asked.

"Ugh. So bad. I need to get something to get this taste out of my mouth," she said. "I'm thinking a shaved ice?"

She turned to Steve with a smile on her face, because they usually shared one but Steve didn't return the smile. He didn't even look at her.

"If you want," he said. He was keeping his eyes forward, purposely, Danny knew, and it was probably killing him.

Rowan stood and went to move away from the bench but Steve's arm darted up and gripped her wrist keeping her from moving. Now he was looking at her, but only briefly, his eyes turned to Danny. "Danny," he said between clenched teeth.

Rowan sighed and rolled her eyes despite the fact that Danny was already sighing and getting up. "He doesn't have to come with me. I haven't had an incident in ages, I'll be fine."

Steve's eyes held hers. "I'd feel better about it," was all he managed to spit out.

Rowan sighed but offered her free hand out and Danny took it. They both shook their conjoined hands in Steve's face as if to rub in the fact that they were holding hands in case he didn't quite believe it and then they walked off.

"He's gotta tell her," Danny snapped once they were a safe distance away from the table. He nodded to Flipper as Rowan ordered her usual.

Danny watched her carefully, as he had been doing since this had started. Steven McGarrett was a very attractive man, Danny was worried that with prolonged exposure to Steve in his dating mode would prompt her to possibly fall in love with him. Women were like that. And he knew that Rowan liked receiving the attention as much as Steve liked giving it to her.

Rowan nodded. "Yep," she said quickly avoiding his eyes entirely. She was a little white but that could have been because of the burrito.

"That's it? Just a yep?" Danny snapped. He was primed and ready to go on yet another one of his famous rants but Rowan shot him out of the sky before he could start.

"I get that he has to tell her. But she's going to make me leave," Rowan said and Danny's heart clenched up in his chest like that one time he watched Grace fall flat on her face and he thought she might have broken her neck.

"I hadn't thought about that," Danny muttered. Okay, maybe Steve didn't tell Catherine out right. Maybe he just eased her into the whole idea.

"And then what am I going to do?" Rowan asked him. "I won't have anywhere to go. I'll be stuck sleeping on different couches until I find a job that will hire me without any experience because I can't name any of my previous jobs if I technically never had them in this universe."

"What did you do before?" Danny asked desperate to change the topic. Even more desperate to learn something about her past now that the subject had come up. Rowan was decidedly elusive about her life before she dropped in on him and Steve, something both of them were worried about.

She never answered. The shaved ice was handed to her and Danny had to link arms with her while they walked back and she dug into the flavoured ice with an uncalled-for enthusiasm.

"Just drop it Cath," they heard Steve snap and Rowan avoided Danny's eyes. There was no question what it was that Catherine wanted to know, but neither of them said anything.

"Hey, where is Chin anyway?" Kono asked and suddenly Rowan came to a halt beside him.

He had never been this close to her when she got her dizzy spell, he had been near-by but never touching her. But as he saw that familiar dizziness appear in her eyes he felt a sort of static electricity shudder up his arm.

He yelped and jumped away from her just as Rowan dropped her shaved ice to the gravel and Steve said: "Oh he texted me late last night. He said he was gonna take a few days off, go up to the North Shore."

And then all eyes were on them. Steve's eyebrows drew together when he saw that Danny was no longer holding Rowan but he stood when he saw that haunted empty look on her face.

"Rowan… Rowan…"

She came to life all at once. Jerking out of that fugue state and latching on to Steve in an almost desperate panic. "He's in Halawa!" she cried shaking his arm. "They kidnapped him! They put him in a jail cell and they're gonna STAB HIM! We gotta go! We gotta go get him!"

Rowan tugged on Steve's arm trying to drag him towards the Camaro but Steve dug his heels into the ground and stared at her concerned. "What the hell are you talking about Rowan?"

"CHIN!" she thundered. "IS. IN. HALAWA!"

She was causing a scene. Everyone even remotely close to their table was now staring at them as if they were crazy. Danny could see it on their faces. He watched Steve scan the surrounding faces before pulling Rowan close and lowering his voice so she would do the same.

"Rowan you're talking nonsense…"

"No, I am not!" Rowan snapped as primly as one could, she even stamped her foot. Danny had to swallow the dry chuckles that were threatening to tumble out of his throat. "Chin is in trouble. I'm not lying. He's not on vacation that text was sent by the guy who kidnapped him."

"And who is that?" Steve asked.

And Rowan fell silent. She stood there blinking at him, her mouth opening and closing like a fish gasping for air. "Uhm… okay, I don't actually know that part…"

"Rowan, this is insane," Steve growled at her. "Who the hell would kidnap Chin just to put him in Halawa? How does that even happen? You're not make sense."

"Steve, we don't have time for this. We need to get him out before that riot starts and then you can't get in. Look, you know I'm not wrong!" she cried, she was growing more and more frantic by the moment. "I haven't been wrong about anything I've told you about, so far. Please, just trust me!"

"And you haven't been able to change the outcome of anything either," Steve growled. Rowan recoiled like she had been slapped. Her hands came away from his arms and she took a step back. Steve reached out for her but she shied away from him. Danny almost took a step forward, he knew how panicked Steve got if someone wasn't holding onto her to anchor her to their universe.

"You'd trust Catherine," came out of her in a voice so low Danny almost missed it. But Danny didn't miss how deftly that comment seemed to shatter Steve's emotions. The pain was visible on his partner's face and Danny was kind of surprised by it.

Danny thought about all the times Rowan had his back when he and Steve argued. He figured it was time to step in and help them out. Firstly, by deflecting this situation off of Steve before he had an emotional break down and secondly by having Rowan's back the way she had his.

"Well… it's not like Chin to take a vacation," he said getting their attention. This earned him a smile from Rowan but when Steve turned his incredulous eyes towards him he knew that only one person had appreciated his assistance. So, Danny shrugged and hung back. Hey he tried.

"I can't believe I forgot this. Malia's and Chin had their first date, eight years ago up on the North Shore. Today's that anniversary," Kono told them, but even Danny could see the doubt in her eyes.

Rowan scowled at them. "Fine, you don't want to believe me, go ahead. I'll just go without you," she said and then turned to walk away from them.

Steve lurched forward, snatching her up by the collar and forcing her to come to a halt. Rowan jerked back and practically into his arms, but Steve didn't hug her like he usually did. (Which was the second cutest shot Danny had every captured. The picture of Steve hugging Rowan from behind with his chin resting in her hair and Rowan wearing the kind of scowl that was masking a secret smile.) Instead Steve merely put his hands on her biceps, framing her there. Not too intimate but still making contact.

"Alright, look, Danny and I will swing by his place, okay?" he asked her. "Will that make you feel better?"

Rowan forced herself away from him and turned around. She blinked her eyes up at him. "Can I stay with Kono?" she asked. Danny knew that stare. It was the one she gave Steve that he could never say no to. The stare that could melt Steve's iron will and supreme stubbornness.

Steve's eyes narrowed at her, struggling not to cave under the million-blinks-per-second batting of her eyes. Even Danny didn't trust that request. "Fine, but only if Catherine stays with you guys too."

"Uh… I have things to do today," Catherine cried from behind them.

Both Steve and Danny turned. Catherine took in Steve's silently pleading stare before she sighed. "Ugh, fine," she said. "But you owe me big Sailor."

Steve smiled widely at her, crossing over to her so he could sweep her up into his arms and kiss her. Rowan had quickly moved over to Kono, the two seemingly having a conversation with their eyes.

Steve shot a glance at Rowan, his mouth opened as if to say something to her but instead he shook his head and walked away. Danny trailed after him. The sooner they saw Chin the sooner then went back to their regular programing and Danny could continue to rib Steve about the way he behaved with Rowan.

And if Rowan was right… well then, they needed to do something sooner rather than later anyway.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

"How did I let you talk me into this?" Catherine snapped for the millionth time since they had gotten into Kono's car and driven over to Halawa.

"Easy. I was being annoying. We agreed it would shut me up if we went," Rowan said.

"No, I'm here for Kono. She was worried about her cousin so I agreed to come check it out," Catherine said folding her arms over her chest.

A lot had happened since Steve had left. Kono had called the hotel that Chin usually stayed at when he went up to the North Shore, but he hadn't confirmed a reservation, nor had he checked in at any time. She had Charlie Fong, their lab tech guy, trace Chin's phone. It pinged as at home. After that Kono believed everything Rowan was saying whole heartedly.

This led to all three women heading towards the gate that the visitors went through.

"Whatever gets you more bonus points with Steve," Rowan muttered under her breath. Just not quiet enough for Catherine to have not heard her.

"Hey! You got something to say to me?" Catherine asked coming to a standstill. She glared at Rowan, the girls were the same height but Catherine could take her. Not that Rowan wouldn't put up a fight.

Before the two could slam down Kono got between them. "Okay that's enough," she snapped. "We have a bigger problem, how are we going to get in?"

Rowan scowled and walked away from them. Kono nearly had to jog to keep up. Catherine had already asked why everyone seemed so keen on keeping their hands on Rowan. She jokingly asked if they had thought she was going to disappear. Kono still had no idea what happened that night a month ago, but all she knew was that Rowan could have died. And now someone had to be touching her, or near her at all times.

She followed, wondering if she should have her hand on Rowan now, as Rowan stormed towards the gate. She stood by as she watched Rowan dawn her flashiest of smiles. A saccharine sweet voice oozed out of Rowan's lips, so sweet Kono could have gotten cavities from it.

"We're here to see Sang Min Soo."

Well damn, that was a pretty smart move.

"It's not visiting hours," the guard said to her and then stared at her hard.

"Oh," Rowan said and Kono watched Rowan's tactic change right in front of her eyes. "Well… could we wait inside until it's time? There's a waiting area isn't there? It's just that, I don't really feel all that well and I'd like to sit down if I could."

Kono would have thought the guards at Halawa weren't bleeding hearts, but apparently no one could resist Rowan's blinking baby blues. She'd have to tell Steve that so he didn't feel so bad when he caved to her next time.

The three women walked in silence and not the companionable kind. That was until Catherine piped up.

"Okay, so we're in. How do we go about proving Chin is here?" she asked because she didn't believe Rowan at all. But Catherine didn't know Rowan in the same way, she thought she was just a crazy psychic, but Kono knew better.

"Well she's Five-0 can't she just flash a badge and get us the rest of the way?" Rowan asked pointing at Kono.

"I mean, I might be able to," Kono said. She didn't feel all that confident about it though. If Steve were here it would have been a straight yes, but people rarely said _no_ to Steve. Except for Rowan and Danny.

"Okay, I might be able to pull some strings. Make a call or something," Catherine said.

"That might work. Hey Rowan, both of us are going to make a few calls, can you just…"

Kono trailed off to a stop. She had turned to where she thought Rowan had been standing but she wasn't there. Kono knew Rowan had walked away from them, she had been looking through the bars towards a long hallway that both Kono and Catherine knew they wouldn't get down. She had been getting more and more frantic, Kono could tell by the way Rowan kept fidgeting, like she did was she was getting impatient. So Kono had thought Rowan would still be there when she turned back around, but she wasn't.

Kono and Catherine began to scan the surroundings, they were in a tiny waiting room surrounding by wired solid gates and armed guards, but Rowan wasn't with them anymore.

Kono and Catherine exchanged glances. She was just there. They had been talking to her. Where the hell could she have gone? A sick feeling sunk into Kono's stomach, Steve had been desperate for someone to keep a hold of Rowan at all times. She had let go of Rowan for less than a minute and the girl had vanished. How would she explain that to Steve? He was never going to forgive her.

"Maybe she went back outside?" Catherine asked and Kono nodded. That was logical. Not crazy like this whole Rowan vanishing in the blink of an eye.

The two of them walked out, they hadn't even gotten to the first gate when the guard who had let them in, on Rowan's illness excuse, spotted them.

As soon as he asked: "Where's your sick friend?" they knew she hadn't come this way.

They exchanged that fearful glance again. If Rowan wasn't back there and she didn't come back outside where the hell had she gone?

"You haven't seen her come back this way?" Catherine asked him and he shook his head at them. She swore and turned back to Kono worry etched onto her face.

They didn't have a chance to ask each other their theories. Not a single one of them got to the: "Well let's just call her," suggestion. For no sooner had they realized that Rowan was missing, and one of them would have to tell Steve this, did the Prison alarm start blaring in their ears.

And yet both women had the exact same thought.

Both put their fingers to their noses as quick as they could, calling: "Not It!"

Catherine lost.


	20. Chapter 20

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: WHOA we got some major panic going on there. So I'mma post today to calm everyone now. What I mean by no happy ending at the end of this I mean the end of the season. Rowan and Steve do get a happy ending, it's just a long ways away. at the end of this episode there isn't a happy ending, that's all I mean. Is that better? Also which day would you like to see a second chapter in November? I was thinking Tuesday and Friday. What do you think? Kay! See you guys next Friday._

Chapter 20

* * *

Chin Ho Kelly was pretty sure he was going to die. Dressed like a criminal in the place he sent criminals to rot for the rest of their lives. How the hell had he ended up in Halawa? Well he had some theories, some flashes of memory. How long until his friends figured out where he was? How long until Rowan had one of her visions? Long enough to survive?

With Kaleo, a dirty cop Chin had helped put away, standing above him trying to flatten him into a steamer he was pretty sure he was a goner. Or he'd at least be a Panini.

Until someone crashed a thin pipe into his skull causing him to collapse.

Chin Ho expected to see a lot of people, Steve being the top of that list, he had not expected Rowan.

She was in civilian clothes. Demin shorts and a pink tank top with her signature burgundy converse. Her hair was braided back and she was staring down at the man she had brained as she huffed.

She looked up to Chin but didn't smile. "Uh… hi," she said. "Uhm, he was gonna whack you so I figured… well he's a criminal… you don't think he'll press charges, do you?"

Chin looked down to the hulking 6-foot monstrosity who was about to kill him and then back up to Rowan with a wry smirk on his face. "No, Rowan, I think if he ever finds out that it was you who got him he'd die of embarrassment before admitting 5-feet of nothing took him down."

"Five-foot-five, smart ass," she said. She turned away before he could say anything else and pointed at a figure who was coming towards them. "Sang Min right?"

It was, in fact, Sang Min, who froze mid step, his own pipe in his hand, and stared at Rowan who was pointing him. She looked ridiculous, all of her five-foot-five-ness standing over that bear of a man she had just knocked unconscious looking like a teenaged cheerleader out of a comic book. He just blinked his eyes at her as if he was sure what he was looking at.

"Do I know you?" he asked.

Rowan was already moving towards him. "Wow, your hair looks _amazing_ in real life. I've always wanted to touch it," she said and while he tried to duck away Rowan's hands came up over his shoulder to stroke the ends of his hair. She withdrew them just as quickly. "Oh that's oily. I hope that's actual hair oil and not some Prison-DIY thing. If it's that last one don't tell me."

"Uh, you wanna tell me who d'is snowflake is and why she touchin' me?" Sang Min asked Chin.

"Oh how rude of me. I touched you without permission and without introducing myself. I'm sorry I'm not usually this bad-mannered," Rowan said genuinely looking concerned. At this point Chin was certain she had some degree of shock cause she was rambling and touching people and those were the hallmarks of a very freaked out Rowan. "I'm Rowan, I'm a friend of Chin's."

"Nice to meet you, Snowflake," he said. "But that don't explain how you got into a maximum-security facility. I don't think they just let you walk right in. You got an escape route we can use?"

At that point Rowan fell back to where Chin immediately put a hand out to grab her. A hold over from all those times Steve had demanded that someone be making contact with her it all times. "I don't know," he heard her whisper.

But while Rowan's behaviour was worrying, Chin couldn't help but be happy. With how close Steve and Rowan were over the last couple of weeks, he knew that if Rowan was here, Steve couldn't be too far behind.

"Where's McGarrett?" he asked trying to hide his smile.

"Uh… at your place," she said staring at him with her wide blue eyes. It was as if that answer made sense to her.

Chin's smile faded. "Why is he at my place?"

"Well… uhm… I knew you were here, cause I had one of my dizzy visions. And I told him but he didn't believe me, because he never believes me, and he went to go check your place to confirm whether or not you were there and not here and I came here because I knew I was right and I was gonna get you out even if I had to break you out myself," she said.

"Dizzy visions?" Sang Min repeated. "What is she some drunken psychic?"

"And then you… broke in?" Chin asked trying to understand how Rowan got to him in the first place.

"Well… uh… no… Catherine, Kono and I all came together but we couldn't think of how to prove that you were in here and I knew the riot was coming and I had to get you out fast. And I was thinking about how I needed to get to you, like right at that moment and then I got really dizzy and I couldn't breathe and then I was here," she said.

Chin blinked his eyes again trying to think of something to say to her, something comforting when Sang Min opened his mouth: "This chickito's fucken nuts!"

"Hey!" Rowan cried but Chin couldn't defend her. She certainly did sound insane. Time to change the topic.

"Do you have your phone?" he asked. Maybe they could call Steve and he could hurry his ass over here.

Rowan put her hand into her back pocket and came back with a phone with a broken screen and leaking LCD display. She winced at it and Chin stared at it with a slack jaw of shock.

"What the hell you do to it? Fucken microwave it?" Sang Min asked.

"That looks pretty bad Rowan, it looks crushed. What did you do to it?" Chin asked.

Rowan put the phone back into her pocket. "I have my theories," she whispered but she didn't elaborate. Sang Min looked from Chin to Rowan and then back to Chin.

"Someone better tell me what the 'ell is goin' on here," he said. "Cause things are getting' alittle too freaky up in here for me."

"Would you believe I'm psychic?" she asked him.

"Snowflake, at this point I'm tinkin' you either lolo or fucken magic," Sang Min said.

Rowan nodded. "Let's go with magic," she said and then she clapped her hands. "Alright, let's go set a fire!"

Chin shook his head. What they needed to do was get her a disguise cause she stood out like a sore thumb. He had enough on his plate right at this point, now he had to worry about taking care of Rowan on top of that. This situation just got a hell of a lot more complicated.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

Steve was addicted.

Having Rowan around made him selfish. He wanted all her hours, all her attention, all her smiles, all her laughter. And though he got all she had to offer him, it was never enough.

He had always thought he liked waking up and rolling over to find Catherine in his bed, but that was nothing compared to waking up to Rowan still in his arms. As a restless sleeper he had never managed to cuddle the whole way through the night with someone, especially in Hawaii with the heat, but he never had that issue with Rowan. He didn't care if he woke up slick with sweat, so long as she was still there.

He loved having her in his office, feet up on his desk as she lounged in his chair. He loved having her leaning against the smart table while he and the rest of the team talked theories. He loved making breakfast with her in the morning, or dinner when they got home at night. He loved lounging on the couch with her, she reading a book while he watched sports, an arm wrapped around her shoulders, her head on his shoulder. He loved listening to her sing in the shower. He loved listening to her sing, period.

Catherine returning two days ago had not been met with a positive reaction on his end. Which was tragic because he was usually so happy to see her. He had taken Catherine out for dinner, leaving Rowan with Danny but then spent the whole night being told he seemed distracting and his usually sparkling conversation was lacking. He spent the first night in his own bed, with Catherine curled up to his side, lying on his back trying to fall asleep and not being able to because all he could think about was Rowan. She did not blink out of existence that night, but he was on edge being away from her.

The second night, once Catherine was asleep, he had edged away from her and snuck out. He slept in Rowan's room, over the covers with an arm draped over her small form and an alarm set for a ridiculous hour so he could get back up and sneak back into his own room to pretend to wake up with Catherine. He then spent the next four hours waiting for Catherine to wake up and worrying about whether or not Rowan would disappear in that time.

She did not. But he still worried.

In fact, she hadn't had an incident in weeks. But he still worried. And he used that worry as an excuse, a crutch if you will, to keep up the pretense of needing to be close to her, or holding on to her, at all times.

Now he was on his way to Chin's house, with Danny siting stoically beside him which was not helping Steve in the slightest. This was the longest he had been away from Rowan in weeks. He was so used to always having her in his line of sight that it was unnerving him being away from her for so long.

"What if she's right, Steve?" Danny asked. "What if she's right and Chin's gone."

"He did say he was taking a day off, there's a good chance he chose to not sit in the house his wife died in," Steve reminded him.

"Why won't you acknowledge that she's always right?" Danny asked him and Steve felt his lip curl up in a sneer. He didn't want Rowan to be right, he didn't want her to have this knowledge in her head. He wanted her to be normal. Because every time she brought it up, he was reminded that she wasn't just some girl he took in, she was from a different reality and sooner or later she would go back and leave him.

It also meant that he could learn his future and he wasn't sure he wanted to know about that.

"In this situation, Danny, I think we should hope she's wrong," he said and then Danny fell silent. They made it to Chin's house and found the door open. Yeah that wasn't good.

They found his phone by his bed. They found his wallet and his keys in the kitchen. His car and his motorcycle were both there in the garage so he definitely didn't go anywhere. This was not boding well for them. It was looking like Rowan was right about the kidnapping.

The bed was unmade. So he slept there the night before. The back door was forced open. Danny was assuming two people, Steve supported that theory. One guy held a towel to the alarm pad to muffle the beeping. The other cut the lines to disable and cut the phone lines too so it couldn't call the alarm company. According to the alarm panel the back door was opened at 10:43, but Chin had sent him a text message at 12:15am. Couldn't have been him. Had to be the people that broke in.

But this wasn't a robbery. They didn't want money. They wanted Chin. The text was a distraction. They had sent him that text so he wouldn't come looking right away. But none of them had counted on Rowan and her visions.

Rowan had been right after all.

Steve sighed. Well Fuck.

"Okay, here's what we're going to do," he said to Danny, trying to ignore the sudden and sharp pain that blossomed in his chest. It was the kind of pain he got when Rowan was flickering, but she hadn't done that in a while and it was gone as quickly as it started. So he chose to ignore it. "We're going to take this phone back see if we can get DNA or a fingerprint off of this. Then we're going to go get Rowan and go to Halawa and see if she was right."

Danny shook his head. "Steve, she was right, just admit it. She was right about someone taking Chin so she's probably right about where he is. Call the Warden, tell him to look for Chin," Danny said and Steve nodded.

He didn't want to come right out and say it, but Danny had a point. Rowan had been right and Steve hadn't been too supportive of her that morning. They had wasted a lot of time on this, if he had just listened to Rowan right away they could have been searching Halawa for him right now. And Rowan would never let him forget this either.

Danny and Steve walked out of Chin's house together. Only he stopped on the stoop. His hand went to his sternum where a pain flared up. For a brief second, he was breathless and his heart hammered in his rib cage. Then as quickly as it started it stopped.

"What's the matter with you?" Danny asked and Steve shook his head. Rushing to catch up to Danny he thought about the sense of dread that was settling in his shoulders and his stomach. Why did he feel was like something was wrong?

Maybe it was because he was waiting to see if Danny would add anything else and luckily for Steve he didn't. At this point Steve was just grateful the guy hadn't brought up the whole "Tell Catherine" argument again. Steve was going to… you know slowly ease her into the idea of him constantly being around Rowan. More than he already was.

He knew what he was doing was wrong and he felt guilty, he totally did, but he was more worried about Rowan. About saving her from the void. About making sure she never left him.

He stopped before getting into the Camaro, his hand in his pocket searching for his phone. His intention was to call Kono and tell her that Rowan was right, Chin was gone and to meet him at Halawa. After that phone call he was going to call the warden of Halawa but his phone was already ringing.

Once upon a time getting a phone call from Catherine sent his heart into a tizzy. It would wildly beat, a small smirk would form on one half of his lips and quaking quick fingers would desperately jab at the button to accept her call. But this time there was a sinking feeling of dread that filled him when he saw her name flashing on his screen.

"McGarrett," he answered, and was immediately greeted by sirens and Catherine's frantic voice trying to be heard over it.

"Steve she's gone."

There was more after that opening sentence, but he didn't hear it. All he heard was static. Rowan was gone? How was that possible? That sharp pain, oh god, that sharp pain in his chest, had that been her leaving?

"And now they're saying there's a riot…"

A riot at Halawa? Rowan had said something about a riot. About getting to Chin Ho before the riot started. So, she was gone. Chin was gone. And there was a riot in Halawa. Well. Wasn't that just fucking wonderful?

"Just stay there, I'll be there in a few minutes," he said and then hung up the phone. He turned to Danny, who was staring at him with concern and merely said. "We have to get to Halawa right away."

And for once. Danny didn't argue.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

Rowan had a gleam in her when they set that fire. One that scared Chin Ho. He realized that, without the helpful glares of Steve keeping Rowan in check, she was essentially the equivalent of a deranged puppy. Except instead of teething and piddling everywhere, Rowan set things on fire and ran around clubbing people over the head with a giant pipe.

He did admit, she'd make a great video game character. Maybe after this he'd pitch that idea to Toast, see if they could make the video game together.

He had had it out with Sang Min too. He didn't know why the man would want to help him. But Sang Min had taken out the guard—Warrick—who had locked him in that laundry room with Kaleo in the first place. He would have gotten Kaleo himself had Rowan not appeared and knocked the guy down. Plus, Five-0 had gotten him transferred back here in the first place, so he figured he owed him.

At that point, Rowan had straightened, said: "Actually," and then paused. She looked at Chin's expectant face and Sang Min's surprised one and then lowered the hand she had raised to interrupt them. "Nope, never mind. I lost it."

And then Sang Min decked him.

To even them out for Chin hitting him with the ash tray two years ago.

"Ah. That's what it was," Rowan had said after he hit him and Chin frowned. He liked it better when her visions were helpful warnings and not the "hind sight is 20/20" kind.

Chin had needed a way to get them out of cell block A. But they didn't have the right keys for that. Chin wanted to interrogate Warrick to find out who put him in there. But he was unconscious and Rowan gave him an answer almost immediately: The brother. She couldn't tell him whose brother that was all she remembered. And then he let Sang Min convince him that it didn't matter who put him in there, the important thing was getting him out. He wanted to find a guard and tell him who he really was, a cop and not a dirty one. But they didn't know who was clean and who was paid off.

Sang Min had said they needed to get help in from the outside. Chin didn't know what that meant, but Rowan did.

By that point Rowan had already set the fire.

"Damn. She works quick," Sang Min said.

"A fire's not going to work Ro," Chin said even though the flames were already eating away at the books and laundry she had set ablaze and the smoke was clogging the air. Already the alarm was blaring so it was sort of a moot point but he couldn't stop himself from bringing it up.

"It doesn't?" she asked. Frowning down the damage she had caused. "I could have sworn it worked in the episode."

"She's right. Not about the episode, I don't know what she's talkin' about there. But Halawa isn't equipped to handle a blaze. They'll have to call HFD to come and help and when the first responders come you tell them your Five-0," he said.

Rowan shook her head. "First responders don't come. Prison's gonna go on lock down. Riots gonna happen," she said almost absently. "Maybe I shouldn't have set the fire. Someone would have gotten me out and I could have just taken you with me. Wow, Steve's right, I literally do nothing helpful and don't change a single thing. I'm useless."

Steve had said what?

Rowan collapsed where she stood. Like a lifeless doll being dropped. She just fell to her knees and sat there. Chin, who was coughing over the smoke, had to tug her back to standing and out of the room with the fire. He didn't know what to say to the poor girl because he didn't know what the hell had prompted Steve to say any of that to her, all he knew was that he needed to get her moving again.

"Come on now, Ro," Chin said as he dragged her along. "I don't have the time to fix you, so you're going to have to just perk yourself up."

Rowan came to a stop, she looked dangerously close to tears, in fact she was already crying. "You don't get it. I have all the knowledge and I can't use it to help anyone. I'm stuck her and I can't even be of use!"

"That's not true. You stopped Kaleo from flattening me," Chin reminded her. Sang Min was behind him trying to urge them onward but a Rowan that didn't want to move was an immovable Rowan.

Rowan waved that comment away. "That doesn't matter. Sang Min would have done that if I hadn't gotten to him first," she said.

"Rowan, I don't care what you think, but I'm happy you're here," he said.

Rowan frowned at him, her head cocking to the side in her confused. "Why? I'm just going to make this harder for you."

"Because, Ro, wherever you go, Steve's never far behind," Chin said with all seriousness.

Rowan stared at him for a bit. The sounds of shouting and screaming bounced down the hallways towards him. She looked over her shoulder and then back to him.

"Where's the infirmary?" she asked. It took a second but he realized she was asking Sang Min. Chin turned back to him and waited for his answer.

"Back dat way, why?" he shot back.

"Because, there's a hot nurse over there I think you're going to like," she said to Chin. "And she's got keys."

Chin smiled. He knew Sang Min would question this, but he knew that if he just trusted Rowan he'd get out of this alive.


	21. Chapter 21

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: So we're one chapter away from major Drama. One chapter away from the angst! And I'm half way to 150 reviews! That is so exciting! I've been working so hard on this and I'm glad I have such a solid readership that is enjoying it as much as I'm enjoying writing it. I can't wait to reward you guys with two chapters a week! As always, see you next Friday!_

Chapter 21

* * *

Steve cut the time it should have taken him to get to Halawa in half. The Camaro screeched to stop on the outskirts and then Steve jogged past the row of fire trucks and police cars until he found Catherine and Kono where they were standing just behind the Warden.

He skidded to a stop and towered over Catherine trying very hard to reign in the panic and anger that had taken over him as he had driven down to Halawa from Chin's place.

"She's gone? How the hell is she gone? How did this happen?" Steve thundered.

"One minute she was behind us, the next she wasn't," Catherine explained with a casual shrug like it was perfectly fine for Rowan to be missing around a prison that just went on lockdown for a fire and a riot.

Kono stepped up deflecting Steve off of Catherine. "I'm sorry, Boss," she said sounding appropriately apologetic. "I know you said to hold onto her at all times but I only looked away for a few minutes."

Steve had to restrain himself from shaking her and shouting: "But a few minutes is all it could take." He managed to control himself, instead he ran a hand through his hair and looked at the prison in front of him. There were great billowing clouds of grey erupting from one wing, the maximum-security wing. The best place to put a cop if you didn't want him to make it out.

He didn't know why, he didn't know how, but he felt it, this little tug in that direction. He knew at that moment that Rowan was still in his universe, she hadn't gone home, and she was in the prison. She was in the goddamn prison in the middle of a goddamn riot and if he knew Rowan, which he knew she did, she was with Chin.

He walked to where the Warden was watching the progress of the first responders. Which seemed to be nothing. He had asked Duke what was happening before going over, Danny had asked him to check the cameras see if they could spot Chin inside. He was. No sign of Rowan yet though.

"Warden Grier?" Steve called getting the man to turn around. "Look, one of my men is inside, and I think a civilian, she went missing before the fire started."

Steve tried to swallow his fear down. Chin could take care of himself. Rowan couldn't. Okay, not true, Rowan was feisty, but these were hardened criminals. Chin would have to take care of Rowan, which would make everything ten times harder than if he were just on his own.

The Warden approached him. "Yes, Duke just told me, commander. We're doing everything we can. But I have a riot on my hands and I have a protocol."

"You have a protocol? Where was your protocol when Lieutenant Kelly was locked in your prison? Guards under your supervision conspired to do this. This happened on your watch. What's your plan to get my man out?" he asked. That was him, Steven McGarrett asking the hard questions in life. He was all fingers pointing in this man's face, Danny would be proud with the level of sass that was oozing out of him at this moment.

Warden Grier was far from impressed though. "A dozen of my men are unaccounted for. Some injured, some worse. I won't risk any more lives. Lieutenant Kelly's on his own," he said.

Steve didn't like that answer, he scowled at the man. This useless lump of a man. "And the girl?"

"Your girl went missing inside the lobby. She didn't even make it through to holding. There's no way she could have gotten into maximum security, not without keys and access codes. I'm sure she's just lost in the crowd somewhere," he said.

Steve shook his head, this man was absolutely useless.

Lost his ass. Rowan had gotten in somehow. She was in the thick of this, he just knew it. The Warden didn't know Rowan. He didn't know what she was like. He turned and walked away, he'd have to do this himself. He'd have to get them out himself.

The pull was tugging on him again, the pain in his chest was stretching its fingers, creeping up to his throat to close of his air. She was blinking again, or she was about to blink again. No. This wasn't good. He needed to get to her. He needed to find her. He needed to get Chin out. He needed to be the fearless Steve McGarrett his team knew and looked up to.

He needed a plan.

He made it back to the group. His mind already throwing around possible ways to get in without the Warden's approval. Danny was waiting, Kono looked worried, but Catherine, oh god Catherine, she looked damn near livid.

"Okay, you know what, I'm done," Catherine said to him once he got close. "Steve, I've been extremely patient but this has gone too far. What the hell is going on with you and Rowan? Why do you have your team holding onto her at all times? Why do you think she's managed to vanish and somehow break into prison?"

Steve whirled around on her, having finally lost it. "Because she's not from here, OKAY?!" he thundered and Catherine stepped back, her eyes wide and completely shocked. He could see Danny and Kono also wide eyed and shocked staring at him. He thought he saw Danny trying to motion for him to stop but he couldn't.

He was worried, he was panicked and he didn't need Catherine adding to the emotions that were overwhelming him.

"Rowan is from an alternate dimension. And I don't mean she thinks that she's from an alternate dimension. I mean she is LITERALLY from an alternate dimension. She didn't exist here and I had to have the Governor make her a goddamn identity so she would! Okay! That's how far she's come. And my team and I have been clinging to her because if she's not fucking grounded by one of us she fucking blinks out of existence and gets stuck between the two realities. There are you happy?!"

He finished his rant and he stared at her. His chest was heaving his heart was thundering and Catherine was staring at him like he had two heads.

"So, what you're saying is that you, and your team, have bought into her delusions," Catherine said carefully.

"For the record, I know it's crazy, but I actually saw the blinking thing, so he's not making that up," Danny told her.

Unlike earlier that morning when he had interjected to defend Rowan, Steve appreciated this attempt to have his back. Catherine on the other hand disregarded the information, and he didn't blame her, they both sounded nuts.

"Steve, I think the problem here is that you happen to be romantically interested in Rowan and instead of just telling me that you're giving yourself excuses to spend more time obsessing over her," she said.

Steve shook his head, no, that wasn't it. Okay that was kind of it, but it wasn't because he was romantically interested in Rowan… sort of. God this was such a mess. He was all tangled up in this web of scattered emotions and he couldn't get himself out.

"Cath…" he started but she shook her head.

"You have to choose Steve. Me or Rowan," she said and Steve just stood there. She wanted him to choose now? When Rowan was most likely in a Halawa with a riot going on? Couldn't he choose _after_ they got her out?

Steve clearly took so long to respond because Catherine shook her head and turned away. "Call me when you make up your mind."

Steve watched her go a bile rising up into his throat. The situation he was trying to avoid had come, it was right in his face staring at him. He didn't want to pick. He didn't know if he could. At that moment all he could focus on was confirming that Rowan actually was inside, and then getting both she and Chin out.

Steve turned to Danny and Kono who were standing there staring at him. He knew they wanted to know what he was talking about with Catherine, Danny already knew, but Kono had no idea about the disappearing act Rowan had pulled a month and three days before. He avoided their eyes and dove straight into the problem at hand.

"He's not going to let us storm in so we'll have to find another way to go in and get them," Steve said.

"Okay, and you have a plan?" Danny asked.

"Yeah. We're gonna go back to the Palace and get suited up and ready. After that we're gonna commandeer a vehicle," he said. "Come on, let's go."

Steve prayed that Danny wouldn't ask any unnecessary questions and for the first time one of the Gods listened to him because Danny didn't say a damn thing.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

This was insane.

How had she gotten herself into this mess? Running around with a riot going on dressed in a giant orange overall, where the smallest size was a dress on her, following Chin and Sang Min trusting that one of them knew where they were going.

All she could think was that Steve was going to kill her over that phone. He had just bought her this one and everything.

Now she knew why she was here. She was trying to save Chin. But she wasn't sure how she went from standing in a waiting room just outside the jail to standing in a dank steamy laundry room in the blink of the eye. Okay, that wasn't exactly true. She had been so angry, so upset and so desperate. Angry at Steve for not believing her. Upset because Catherine came back and after almost a month of being constantly together Steve threw her aside like she was trash or some dirty thing he had been caught playing with. And desperate to prove that she was useful, that she was right about something, that she could use her knowledge to actually help someone. In that moment, staring off into the bowels of that prison, knowing that Chin was in there and no one would listen to her, the most hurtful of which was Steve. She thought, if only she could prove to him that she was right. If she could save Chin and prove to him that she was useful after all, maybe he'd choose her.

The need was so strong that it burned in her. It burned through her. A great burning pulsing that started in her shoulder blades and went outwards until it filled every crack in her heart and every inch of her extremities. She closed her eyes, thinking she'd turn around and admit that they needed to go find Steve and get his help, but when she opened her eyes and turned around she wasn't with Catherine and Kono, she was in a laundry room with Chin a stone's throw away getting throttled by some big criminal guy.

Rowan hadn't had the time at that point to wonder how it happened. At that point she just wanted the criminal off of Chin.

One glance at her phone told her what she needed to know. Crushed. Like it had been in a vacuum. The kind you get when you go into voids between dimensions. She had blinked in and out again, but this time, somehow, she had managed travel places. Not back to her own world. No, she was still in the Five-0 world, but she was in a place she wanted to be. She had teleported. She had taken her fear and turned into the power to travel.

She wasn't sure if she should be worried or excited. If her dad was here he'd be excited with a strong side of concerned. But she didn't have time for that at that moment. The riot was in full swing at this point and that criminal she had knocked out hadn't been stopped by a hit to the head. He had gotten onto the PA and told the raiding criminals to track down Chin Ho Kelly the cop who had locked them up. After that Rowan had gotten the back story from Chin about Kaleo, a dirty cop who Five-0 had caught and put away. He bore a particular grudge against Chin even though it was Steve and Danny who orchestrated Kaleo's arrest.

They were just outside the Infirmary now. They hadn't gone inside. They were arguing about it. Rowan was all for it, cause the Nurse was nice and she'd help them get to the phone. But the boys hadn't listened to her, they had pushed forward and not gone into the infirmary, choosing instead to try and get into the main holding area with the phones. Rowan had followed because what else was she going to do, but the fact that all the doors and windows seemed to be painted in blood didn't quite bode well for them.

They were trying to unlock the door, the shouts of men were getting closer. Sang Min and Chin Ho ducked, Rowan didn't which meant Chin felt the need to tug her down with him.

"Come on, those keys aren't going to work anyway," Rowan said. "Besides, that Nurse is going to need our help soon."

Sang Min turned. "There's nobody here lolo!" he snapped and behind her she heard someone shout: "Someone's in here!" which was followed by a female scream and Rowan just smiled at him.

"Sonofabish," Sang Min hissed, already Chin Ho was pushing past Rowan to rush off to the rescue. "You got da winning lottery numbers in that head of yours snowflake?"

"Nope," she said with a shrug. "Doesn't work like that."

Sang Min shook his head and muttered _useless_ under his breath and she tried not to let that sting. She figured she should go help Chin and Sang Min must have thought the same because he followed after her but Chin had already dealt with the two criminals that were harassing the pretty young nurse.

"You're the cop they're looking for," the Nurse said to Chin who merely nodded.

"There's a phone in holding, so we can call for help in there," she told Chin. Chin nodded and smiled like Sang Min hadn't just told him that.

"That's where we're heading but we got to go right away," he told her, guiding her towards the door.

Sang Min, who had been acting as look out quickly shut the door and ducked under the window. "Too late, kids. Holdin's not an option. Kaleo's guys are all over it," he said to them. "Got any other hot ideas snowflake?"

"She's got a master key," Rowan said jerking her thumb over her shoulder and indicating to Leilani. She then turned around and smiled brightly at her. "Hi, I'm Rowan," she said as she offered a hand to shake.

The Nurse, Leilani, stared at her definitely confused as to how a woman ended up in the prison, and the outfit most likely wasn't helping. She took the hand she offered almost hesitantly and then said: "Yes, I do have a master key."

"Can you go get it?" Rowan asked her and she nodded and rushed off.

Once she was gone Chin pulled her in close and whispered: "Maybe don't do that from now on."

Rowan nodded and stepped back. She tried not to show how much that hurt. Here she was, in another life-and-death situation, simply because she wanted to help him, and he's telling her not to use her talents, or at least not talk about them. She got that he was trying to help her, but it didn't feel all that great to be told to stop. Not when the knowledge could save his damn life.

When Leilani returned she had the key in hand and she had clearly decided that Rowan was a friend and she was going to ignore the strange behaviour.

"If you guys can get me to C-Block and I'll get us out," she told them.

"Sounds like a plan," Rowan said heading for the door. She was jerked back when Chin grabbed her collar, a move all the Five-0's seemed to have picked up from Steve.

"Maybe let me go first, huh?" he asked pushing her behind him. They waited until there was a break in people and as soon as the corridor was cleared they made a break for it. Sprinting down towards C-Block.

It didn't take too long to get there but they had criminals around them. Not right around them, of course, but they could hear the sounds of general chaos getting louder and in their general area. Leilani went to the door, scrambling to unlock it. Rowan stood behind her bouncing on her toes ready to get out of this place, call Steve, have him shout at her and then go home for a nice cup of tea. And in the morning when he was ready to argue with her, she'd tell him how wrong he was and how helpful she really was and then she'd say _I told you so_ and make him apologize to her.

Chin and Sang Min stayed behind, the first line of defense in case any of the criminals running around wild in this place caught sight of them and decided to charge.

The door came open and Rowan and Leilani went through. Chin and Sang Min turned and rushed forward, ready to get to freedom. But before they could get through a big burly body slammed into both Leilani and Rowan, shoving Rowan against the wall. The Guard, the one who had been helping Kaleo, Warrick maybe? He shoved the door shut in their faces and then smirked at them.

"Good to see you again, lieutenant," he snarled.

He grabbed both Leilani and Rowan and began to walk backwards but Rowan wasn't having it.

"Ro, call Steve!" Chin was screaming to her. But Rowan didn't want to call Steve. Not unless she changed something.

And she did not come this far to have changed nothing at all.

"No!" she cried, twisting against her captor. Warrick practically threw Leilani into a room, but Rowan wasn't going to cooperate. "No!" she cried again and the anger built up in her body. The burning returned to her shoulder blades but it wasn't a painful burn. She felt alive, she felt electric but most of all she was absolutely raging.

Warrick's arm wrapped around her torso but Rowan was already screaming. "I SAID NO!"

For a brief second the world went static. A ringing echoed in her ears. She couldn't breathe but she didn't panic. She recognized the crisp burning smell, she recognized the blackness and the twinkling of the lights all around her. She was in the void, but the void wasn't a topsy-turvy swirl like it usually was. It was all lights and differently colored strings, she just had to pick the right one. She was calm, she was in control, and for some reason she knew if she just put a hand out towards a blinking star to her right with a swaying yellow string curling towards her she'd be right where she wanted to be.

She grabbed the string. The coolness of it vibrating up her arm as it wrapped itself around her and then she was jerked forward and she was no longer on the wrong side of the bars. Or maybe she was.

She was in between Sang Min and Chin. Warrick, who must have been taken along for the ride, took a gasping breath behind her and then collapsed to the ground. Rowan stared up at Chin with blinking blue eyes as he stared at her, his warm brown eyes wide with shock which meant he probably witnessed all of that.

She looked around, she hadn't gotten the keys from Lelani before she got thrown aside. There was no way to get out now. But she was back with Chin, which was what she wanted. She just had to keep him from getting stabbed in the end.

Chin, however, looked like he had seen a ghost.

"Rowan… what the hell was that?"

"She's a fuckin' X-Men," Sang Min cried. "Did you see that orange electric shit? One minute she's there the next minute she's here. This poor dude looks fucked. I tink she killed him, man!"

Rowan blinked her eyes again. Holy shit what the hell had she done? She whispered the only thing she could think to say: "Don't tell Steve!"

Chin shook his head in disbelief. Like he couldn't understand why that was important right now. Like he wasn't sure he could keep something so monumental from their great leader.

"Hey! Hey! The Cop's down here!" Sang Min interrupted them. He was screaming loudly and waving his hands over his head.

Chin climbed over Warrick's hopefully unconscious body to grab Sang Min and throw him up against the wall. "What are you doing?" he shouted.

Rowan already knew the answer, she mouthed along with him as he answered: "It's about survival. If Kaleo finds out I've been helping you, we're both dead."

Chin looked actually shook by this. Rowan wasn't sure why but seeing as everything was coming crashing down around them and they had no more plans or options. "I knew I couldn't trust you," Chin spat out.

He threw the man away as the criminals charged them. He got one hit it before they overtook him. Sang Min pushed Rowan away, and she had the smarts to turn away so they couldn't see quite clearly that she was a girl. After a few rounds of punching, when Chin was practically limp and almost unmoving, Sang Min pushed the criminals away, forcing them to stop.

"Kaleo wants him alive," he reminded them and they began to drag Chin away.

Rowan hung back. She wanted to help. She wanted to change things. But what if she didn't? What if Steve swooped in and Chin was still stabbed and all of this was for nothing? She could blink, she had done it before, not consciously but she had, maybe she could do it again.

No, she didn't have time for that. Instead Rowan did the only thing she could do. She chased after the mob that took Chin. She was going to fuck fate up.


	22. Chapter 22

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Guys. Guys. It's here. This is it. This is where the drama and the angst starts! So I've posted early this week because you guys deserved it and I left you on a cliff hanger last week. So... I hope that makes up for all the angst we're about to witness for the next... like... twenty chapters. Also. GUYS! I've officially written 50 chapters, and I'm still rewriting season 3. (almost finished though). I don't know whether to laugh or cry. As always, see you next week!_

Chapter 22

* * *

Chin had been dragged through the hallways back to the mess hall where Kaleo was waiting. He had lost track of Rowan in the chaos, but if he knew her, she had another plan up her sleeve. One that would probably get her killed and then McGarrett would never forgive him. Not that it mattered, because if something happened to Rowan he'd never forgive himself.

And what would he tell McGarrett anyway? How would he explain the orange aura, the electricity that flew from Rowan like bolts of lightning, the way her eyes had glowed hot white before she blinked out of existence taking Warrick with her, only to have her appear on the other side of the bars with him seconds later? He wasn't even sure he believed it and he saw it with his own eyes.

When had Rowan learned to do that? And could she do it again to go get Steve?

He was brought up against Kaleo, in a circle of inmates. Kaleo pacing in front of him, sizing him up. It wouldn't be a fair fight. Chin was still winded from the beating, he was tired, he was hurt, and Kaleo was in prime physical condition.

Maybe Rowan could zap him the way she had zapped Warrick. No, he'd rather have her safe and nowhere near Kaleo.

"Me and you have had our issues in the past. But bringing you dis cop means we're all good, you feel me?" Sang Min said, his eyes on Kaleo.

Kaleo looked far from pleased. Behind his shoulder Chin thought he spotted a familiar flash of red and blonde moving through the crowd and he hoped to god it wasn't who he thought it was.

"Sure, I feel you," Kaleo said and he let Sang Min walk away.

Once he was gone Kaleo revealed a shank with a flourish. Like it was some huge present for him. "Lieutenant, I'm glad we'll be able to finish what we started."

He took only half a step closer and then a blur of orange and pink stepped in front of him.

"Hello!" came a cheery cry. "I'm Rowan!"

All the men went silent while Chin's jaw dropped. It was so quiet he could have heard a pin drop. Rowan just stood there, with the top half of her orange jumper off and tied around her waist, definitely a conscious choice to show off her pink tank top to prove she was a girl.

"So. I know what you guys are thinking: _Wow it's a woman!_ But don't all run at me at once," she said with a big grin as if this were all just a joke. "I'm a mediator, and I thought: You know what? There's a way to talk about this and resolve the issue."

Kaleo blinked his eyes at her. All eyes were darting between her and him. His men were all waiting for orders, all seemed more than a little distracted by the presence of a woman, one man looked like he might have been salivating over her.

"Who the fuck are you?" Kaleo asked and Rowan laughed.

"I just said, I'm Rowan, I'm a mediator," she repeated. Kaleo stepped forward, the shank now in-between them. Rowan yelped and took a step back. "Okay, whoa, hold on there. We just started talking, it's rude to point a weapon at someone you just met, you know? I know we're in a prison but you still have basic etiquette, don't you?" she asked. He jabbed at her causing her to yelp and throw herself to the side. They were now circling one another. Kaleo seemed way too interested in her, the kind of interested you saw on A _nimal Planet_ before the lion attacked the helpless baby gazelle.

He looked like he wanted to eat her up. And not in the cannibalistic way.

"Okay, we forgot our manners, that's fine. I can charm school the shit out of you," she said. He made another jab and she backed up. "Oh, my, God, can you stop? I'm trying to have a conversation with you!"

"I don't want to talk to you, you dumb bitch," he growled at her and the men around him laughed. Rowan looked at them all before settling down.

"Okay, I don't think you want to do anything else to me either. I'm not your type. Guys like you clearly like other guys," she said and a chorus of _ooohs_ went off like they were in the middle of some epic rap battle and she had just dropped a lit dis track.

Kaleo growled, he started forward again but Rowan threw her arms out to ward him off. "Okay… EVERYBODY FREEZE!" she shouted and Kaleo once more came to a stop. Rowan glanced around. "Uh… okay… look… I get it… everyone's… every…. It's hot… and that shank looks so dull… and…"

She was blabbering. Stuttering. Rowan Peirce had finally run out of things to say and Steve wasn't around to witness it. She stopped talking entirely and stared in earnest at something just over Kaleo's shoulder.

"Huh," she said to him absently, her finger slightly pointing over in that direction. Already Kaleo's eyebrows were drawn together in confusion. "That's a weird place to put a piano."

Chin held his breath. He realized what Rowan was doing. AND KALEO HAD BOUGHT IT!

Kaleo turned, turned to see what was behind him. But of course nothing was there. Rowan let out a loud cry, a battle cry, a warrior ninja cry and kicked the man square in the nuts. Kaleo cried out in pain, the men around him winced and groaned, for they too knew the pain and they could almost feel it themselves as if it had been dealt to them. Phantom pains vibrating through their groin. Even Chin felt that one. Kaleo dropped to his knees and Rowan screamed again, punching him in the throat this time.

The shank clattered out of his hands as his hands came to his throat. The universal sign for chocking but he wasn't chocking, Rowan had just cut of his air supply and probably broken or bruised the man's windpipe. But she didn't stop. It must have taken all her might but she kicked him right in center mass. Her burgundy converse leaving a shoe print on the orange suit as she knocked him over.

Chin took this time to get away from the inmates holding him. They had been too shocked by Rowan's actions to remember to hold him tightly so he ended up throwing them aside and knocking their heads together for good measure.

"YAS!" Rowan was screaming in victory. Her arms above her head in celebration of her victory. "I'm _CRAY CRAY_!"

The inmates around them actually took a step back. Rowan Pierce, all five-foot-four of her, was terrifying a group of hardened criminals that were so bad they were sent to maximum security.

Chin went to her, he wanted to pull her away but he didn't know where to go. Where would they go now? He wanted to tell her to blink them out, even if it meant that he'd be zapped like Warrick, he wanted her to get them out at all costs.

The inmates were growing restless. They were eyeing her. One girl, a civilian no less, and a cop. They could take them.

But that wasn't all. Kaleo was getting back up.

"He's getting up?" she cried. "Are you shitting me?"

He turned on her, his eyes wide, wildly so. He snorted like an animal, he was enraged. His eyes only saw her. He couldn't have cared less about Chin at this point. It was Rowan he wanted to tear apart.

"Deal with the cop, but the bitch is mine," he snarled and the inmates started forward.

Chin was trying to defend himself but he could hear Rowan. Her yelps as Kaleo rushed her. He tried grabbing her first, but like Chin already knew, Rowan was good at evading lunges. She ducked curling up into a ball at his feet and he tripped over her. She went down too but her fall wasn't nearly as bad as his.

She disentangled herself from his legs and got up, but the ring of inmates wouldn't let her through. She dove to the side before Kaleo could grab her again, ducking away from a punch he threw wild hoping to clip her.

"Why me?" she said to him. "Why aren't you mad at Steve or Danny, they're the ones who put you in here! Chin was just on their team! And I don't even work with them!"

Chin threw the third inmate off of him and blocked another series of punches coming from all angles. Rowan wasn't equipped for this kind of fight. She had no training. She had no weapon. And by the looks of it she was out of plans, once and for all, and running out of options while going up against a big giant bear of a man was not good for anyone.

She got one cry of _help_ out of her lips before there came an almighty crashing, the sound of light explosions and the pops of gunfire echoed over the chaos. The men were backing up, some were falling to the ground. Not shot, of course, they were using the non-lethal rounds.

Chin didn't have to look up to know it was Steve finally making it to them. He watched the man descend the stairs leaving a smoking door behind him. Nothing was going to stand between him and his primary objective. Getting to Rowan.

It only took him a few seconds to get to her, standing behind her. She may not have seen him yet but she was backing up towards him. Even though Kaleo was smart enough to back away. A shot hit him in the chest, soft cloth shot even at a high velocity could hurt, could knock a man down. This time he went down and stayed down.

Rowan froze, her back hit Steve's chest and she smiled. Like she knew it was him from the contact. She turned around with a giant smile on her face and said his name. It was the same sweet way that always made Steve smile, no matter how angry he was at her. But he didn't smile this time.

He glared down at her, his nostrils flaring, the stare dark and foreboding and even it had Rowan frowning.

"Look," she said pointing to Chin. "He's not stabbed. I changed it, Steve. I made it better, I was useful."

"Useful?" Steve echoed. "You did this to be useful?"

Rowan faltered at this, like she didn't get why Steve was mad, or how the conversation had turned in this direction. "Okay, I think I'd rather be squaring off with the dude with the shank right now."

Steve didn't give her time to say anything else. He grabbed her by her upper arm and dragged her out and away. Chin let Kono hug him, he let Danny sling his arm over his shoulder and help him walk even though he didn't need it. Danny even helped him find Leilani.

But they couldn't find Sang Min, he had cut his hair, had stolen a uniform and was gone.

And then it was time to go home. He even fell asleep in the chopper. His head resting in Leilani's lap.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

Steve was furious. So much so he was shaking.

Rowan had stayed with Chin and Kono at the hospital while Danny and Steve went to arrest the man who had put Chin in prison.

Paul Delano. Frank Delano's brother. They had gotten his DNA off of Chin's phone. Also the guard, Warrick, cracked immediately and told them everything. Anything to keep Rowan away from him, which was shocking because neither Danny nor Steve had even mentioned her to him.

After that Rowan was kicked out of Chin's hospital room with the burrito Kamekona had tried to force feed him safely tucked under her arm for her to dispose of, so Steve could talk to him.

And he was not happy with what he heard but he learned why Warrick was terrified of seeing Rowan again.

By the time he was out in the hallway with Rowan he was so mad he didn't even think those blinking baby blue eyes could save her. He was just plain old livid. He couldn't keep living like this. In fear of losing her. In fear of her running off to do something stupid. At least when he did it he had the training to back him up, she had nothing. No gun, no badge, but apparently, she had the control over the flickering thing now. What the hell was that, had she been practicing?

Rowan smiled shakily up to him. She had since then ditched the prison clothes and was back in her regular outfit. He tried to not get distracted by the bruises on her legs, or the scratches under her neck, or how she seemed to have bleeding burns on her legs and arms. He was mad. And he had things he wanted to say.

"You want to explain to me what happened?" he asked.

"Okay, so you're mad," she said.

"Hell yeah, I'm mad," Steve interrupted her. "Do you know what could have happened to you if those men got you? A lot of terrible fucking things before or even if they decided to kill you."

"Okay, true, but that didn't happen and I saved Chin…"

"Saved him how?" Steve asked her. "As far as I can see he still got his ass handed to him, he's still in the hospital and he still ended up in prison during a riot that I hear you fucking caused!"

"Now wait a second, I didn't cause the riot, I set the fire," Rowan said with a pout. "And you're missing the point. Chin didn't get stabbed!"

Steve breezed right on past the confession to arson with the intention of coming back to it. "And apparently you can flicker on command now? When did that happen?"

"I don't have control. It just sort of… happened. One minute I'm standing there wishing with every fibre of my being that I could get to Chin before the riot broke out and the next minute I'm there, with Chin! And the second time… well… I was mad and uh… yeah… I flickered," she said and then she showed him her phone all shattered and destroyed like it had been the first time he saved her. Just more proof that she had flickered.

Chin had witnessed her flickering. She looked like Storm from X-Men he had said. All lightning bolts, flowing hair as if she were immersed in water, and blazing white eyes. Steve would have nightmares about it for weeks.

Steve glared down at her. This girl who had done so much. This girl who braved a riot to help his team mate. Who would probably do more for him. This girl who had come to mean to so much to him in such a short amount of time and in the process had become the most dangerous person to him. She wielded the most amount of damage. She kept him stressed. She kept him worried. She was tearing his relationship with Catherine apart.

He still had to give Catherine her answer and Rowan wasn't seeing sense. She saw nothing wrong with what she did. She'd gladly do it again. But if she had just let him do his job, follow up on her hunch, things could have ended so much differently.

"Look, I get it, the flickering thing is scary, but Steve... I teleported," she said with a wide grin. "Do you know what this means?"

Yes. She could leave at any point in time and he'd just be sitting there looking like an idiot wondering where she had gone. Home or to the corner store? He'd never know.

"This needs to stop Rowan," he growled and her smile faded right off her face.

"Okay, okay, I won't try to flicker anymore," she said as if that would appease him. "But you have to admit, you were wrong. I was right about everything. About the brother. About prison. About the riot. I was right and I fixed things. I'm useful after all."

It was that sentence that did it. Steve was on a short fuse today, Rowan being the reason why, for the second time that day he lost it.

"No! Rowan you didn't fix things! You caused them!" he shouted and Rowan fell silent. Her smiled faded off her lips and her eyes stared at him shocked that he'd say that to her. "If you had just stayed with Catherine and Kono the fire wouldn't have been set and the riot wouldn't have happened. I could have walked into Halawa got Chin out and gone from there. But you and your stupid need to help keeps making things ten times harder than they already were! I don't want your help Rowan! I don't need your help!"

Rowan's lip trembled. "I only went because you wouldn't listen. I told you what happened and you ignored me. I don't know what you want me to do Steve. You won't let me work, you won't let me do things by myself, but you get mad at me when I try to help and you won't help me get a job. So what do you want from me Steve? Do you want me to just sit in your house and wait for you to come home like some pet? Is that you want?"

"I want you to go home, Rowan! I don't want you to be my problem anymore!" he shouted before he could stop himself. He so desperately wanted to stop the words but once they had started he couldn't pull them back in.

Rowan straightened. For a second they just stared at each other. She stared at him her eyes wide, tears brimming. He was holding his breath hoping that this didn't end the way it looked like it was going to end.

"Fine!" she shouted back at him the first of her tears rolling down her cheeks.

Steve's mouth ran dry. The anger left him immediately. He regretted every word. Every syllable because he didn't actually want her to leave. She turned away from him and he forced his hands to stay by his side. He couldn't reach out for her, he couldn't chase after her.

He had to let her go.

He waited until she turned the corner before he pulled out his phone. He tried to level out his breathing, he tried to ignore the tightness in his chest. His heart was cracking, he could feel it. He wanted nothing more than to run after her and apologize but he knew he couldn't. So instead he took a deep breath and made his choice.

He dialed Catherine.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

Rowan cried.

She cried all the tears she had been holding in. She cried over her situation. She cried because she missed her family. She cried because she was afraid. She cried because she was lost and had nowhere to go and no one to turn to. And lastly she cried because a man she had come to care for had shattered her heart into a million pieces and then kicked her out of his life.

When she was done crying, she picked herself up off the pavement of the underground garage and forced herself to move. When the tears had started she had gotten into an elevator and gone where ever it was going. Which had been down. She had moved until she was alone, until she could shrug off the people who were asking her if she was okay, telling her that whatever had happened she'd get through it. She had smiled and tried to thank them but what she had needed was to be alone.

Well, she was done with that and she was ready to move on to the next chapter of her life. She would go to Alex's, get back together with him and then find her dad. This world's version of her dad. He could help her control her flickering to get back home.

She had to walk all the way to Alex's as she didn't have money at that moment, nor did she have a phone to call him. Her broken phone was still tucked in her back pocket and she swore she felt phantom vibrations every now and then that she was forcing herself to ignore.

So it took her longer than expected to get to his place. She was worried when she got there he'd be asleep but she could see a light on so she knew he was awake. She knocked on the door quickly, using the reflection in the small glass window to try and straighten out her appearance. She knew she looked a mess but hopefully still an attractive mess.

The door swung open and Alex was still dressed. And dressed nicely, not his lounge about at home stuff either. Rowan felt the first tendrils of dread sink into her stomach. He looked like he had just been on a date. Well that was okay, they weren't together at that moment, he was allowed to see other people, and she had been practically seeing Steve.

"Hi," she said softly.

"Jezzus, Ro, hi… uh… what happened to you?" he asked.

"I've had a pretty shitty day," she said with a quaking laugh that almost turned into a sob. "I was hoping I could… uhm… talk to you… about us and what not?"

Alex had kept the door closed so all she could see was him, and not into his apartment. His wince told her that he was doing that because he had something he didn't want her to see. Probably a woman.

"I would, but I can't right now," he said his voice low. "I uh… I have…"

"You have someone over," she finished for him.

Alex nodded and Rowan took half a step back. "Sorry, I should have called first. I just, uhm, I just really wanted to see you," she said to him. Which wasn't true but as far as guilt trips went it was pretty good.

Alex stepped out after her shutting the door behind him. "And I wanted to see you to. But I have this girl over and it'd be rude to kick her out," he said. He looked her up and down and then looked back over his shoulder before sighing. "Look, give me a few minutes, I'll get her out and we'll talk okay?"

Rowan shook her head. She didn't want this anymore. She just wanted to go. She wanted to leave. She wanted to go home. Not home with Steve. Not home with Alex. Home. Her home.

"No, no, don't worry about it. It's my fault, I should have called," she said taking a few more steps back.

"Uh… okay…" Alex breathed out. "Uhm… well how about tomorrow. I'll call you tomorrow and if Steve lets you leave we'll do lunch and have our talk."

Rowan nodded. "Yeah, sure, call me," she whispered, knowing full well that he wouldn't be able to. "Have a nice night Alex."

She turned before he could say anything else. She disappeared into the shadows, rushing towards the sound of the waves crashing against the shore. She didn't stop running even when she hit the sand. She kept going until she was alone on a shadowed beach with nothing but the waves to drown out her sobs.

Rowan screamed. She let the rage and the sorrow take over her. She envisioned it travelling up to the starburst scar between her shoulder blades. She screamed into the night sky, as orange bolts of lightning danced around her leaving melted shards of glass in the sand spiking up and out towards her.

And then, in the blink of an eye, Rowan Pierce disappeared. Her haunted scream echoing out over the sea.


	23. Chapter 23

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanfics**

 _A/N: OMGosh I caused some minor panic there. Sorry about that. Since I'm super excited to get to the parts that I want to get to, I'm going to post super early. I hope that's okay! BONUS! Because I feel like you guys are the best readers, I'm going to give you a present. If we reach 150 reviews before this Friday I'll post twice this week. What do you think, do you think we could do it? I can't wait to hear what you think about this chapter. Any theories or things you'd like to see in the future! I WANT TO HEAR IT ALL! See you guys soon, only 2 more weeks until I start posting twice a week!_

Chapter 23

* * *

It was the knock on the door that woke Steve up and already he was in a bad mood.

Not because the person rapping on his door like they were desperate to get in was doing so at an unacceptably early hour. Not because in the middle of the night he was dropped to his knees by a blinding pain in his chest whilst he was making up with Catherine. Not because it felt strange waking up to Catherine in his bed when he was used to a cool softness pressed against him in the morning. No, because he knew if he went into Rowan's room she wouldn't be there.

If the pain he felt last night meant anything she had probably flickered herself right back home. It still amounted to the same thing.

Rowan was gone and it was his fault.

But things were better between him and Catherine now, so at least he had that going for him.

Steve opened up the door thinking it was Danny, even though Danny knew to call first. He was not expecting Alex. Why would Alex be here? Was Rowan still around? Had she sent him to get her stuff?

Steve looked around him to see if Rowan was hiding off to the side or waiting in Alex's car, but he couldn't see her. Made sense, he had shouted some pretty terrible things to her last night, she probably didn't want to see him… that was, if she was still in his universe.

"Have you seen Rowan?" Alex asked. Steve finally focused on the younger man, his eyes narrowing in surprise. Okay, maybe Rowan really had left their reality.

"No," Steve said quickly. He wanted to shut the door. He wanted to pretend he never met Rowan. That he had never let her into his heart.

"Look, I heard you guys had a huge argument last night, okay," Alex said, putting a hand out to stop him from shutting the door. "She came over last night afterwards but I didn't let her stay. I was supposed to see her for lunch but I heard what happened and I've been trying to call her and I can't get a hold of her. I don't care if you're mad at her, can you track her please?"

Steve stared at Alex. Rowan had gone to him but he wouldn't let her stay? What the fuck? And what was he supposed to do? Tell Alex that Rowan couldn't be reached because she had gone back to her own reality. That even if she hadn't her phone was destroyed. That he had no way to track her.

"I can't," he said. "Her phone got smashed in the riot yesterday."

"Riot? You mean the riot at Halawa? She was there? Why the hell was she there?" Alex asked. Steve had no intention of telling him anything and it must have shown. "Okay, never mind. I'll find her myself."

Steve watched Alex take one step away and then turned back to him. "You know, you said some pretty shitty things last night," he snapped. "I don't know how you could tell her you didn't want her in your life when you've been so fucking obsessed with her you refused to let her out of your sight for a month. But if something's happened to her I hope you know it's _your_ fault. I hope the guilt eats you alive."

After Alex had seemingly got all of it out of his system he stormed to his car. Steve shut the door as soon as he heard the engine rev and then stood there staring at the closed door as if it held all the answers. The guilt was already eating him away but not for the reason Alex thought. Steve felt guilty because he had chased a person out of this reality. A person he genuinely enjoyed having around. He made Rowan feel terrible, he told her he didn't want her, and when she had nowhere else to go she found a way to go home. And he was left feeling empty and numb.

"That was a bit harsh," Catherine said, startling him out of his thoughts. Steve turned to her and tried to smile but the gesture faltered. Catherine frowned. "Look about yesterday… this has to be worrying you, did you maybe want to call out a BOLO on her?"

Steve shook his head. "No. I told you yesterday that I picked you. She's out of my life. It'll be better this way. Less stressful," he told her. He put his hands to her shoulders and kissed her quickly before letting go and heading to the kitchen.

He was lying of course, he was twice as stressed as before. Until he got confirmation that Rowan was gone, which he wasn't certain how he'd get in the first place, he was going to be a neurotic mess.

Catherine followed after him. She was wearing one of his shirts, like Rowan used to. In fact, that was a shirt that Rowan liked to wear, the blue button down. He wanted to rip it off of Catherine and not because he wanted her naked in his kitchen. He wanted to remember Rowan in that shirt, he didn't want the conflicting image of his girlfriend in it as well. And that wasn't a good thing to want anyway. He shook his head trying to clear it of Rowan but she just tumbled around in his mind giggling as she went.

Fuck he missed her laugh. Would he ever hear it again?

"When I said _pick me_ , I meant emotionally. I thought maybe you'd move her into Alex's or in with Chin since you don't like Alex. You know, after Malia it might be nice for Chin to have some company, I didn't think you'd kick her out entirely," she said.

Steve sighed. Yeah. Like that would have fixed things. He would have been outside Chin's every night if he knew she was there. No, this was better. She was home… hopefully. He'd move on. He would. He had to.

"You should probably have someone looking for her, she's a sick girl, she needs a psych ward," Catherine said coming to him. He had been making coffee trying to ignore the conversation. He didn't want to think about Rowan.

He let Catherine wrap her arms around him, her cheek resting against his back. He tried to melt into her touch but he couldn't find it in himself to do so. He sipped his coffee and tried to remind himself that this was all for the best.

He wanted Rowan to be home. He wanted her to be happy. He would be fine without her. He would be.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

Rowan woke up on the beach.

Waves crashing, crystal clear blue sky above her. Yeah, she sure as hell wasn't in Canada. Not even PEI was this nice.

She forced herself up and looked around. Beautiful waters lapped at her feet. She was on a white sand beach, with palm trees above her. Rowan groaned and flopped back down to the sand. She didn't get home.

She stepped into void last night filled with rage and sorrow with one thought on her mind. To go home. That one thought took over everything, it emptied her of her fury and that heart-breaking grief that had overwhelmed her. She saw the lights swimming in the darkness. She saw the different colored strings beckoning her.

But she didn't see the right one. She knew. None of them called to her the way it should. None of them were calling her home. She had looked down to her feet and found herself tied and twisted up in a red string. She didn't recognize it but she felt the pulse in it.

Was this what was keeping her stuck here?

She had forced herself forward. Made herself move. But the more she walked, the more she pushed forward the harder it was to breathe, the thicker the void became until she was swimming in it. And all while she moved that red string twisted and tightened around her, crushing her chest until she was too breathless, too tired to move.

She had closed her eyes. Closed her eyes and tumbled right back out of the void. And now she was here. Where ever here was.

She sat up again. On a beach. Probably Hawaii. She turned. A house. One she recognized. A back porch. A lanai that cracked her back. Where she sat and looked up at the stars with a man who had once held her close and held her heart.

Steve's.

The void had dropped her off right back at Steve's. Why? That was not what she wanted. Was it?

She should have run. Should have walked away. He didn't want her in his life. He said so. He wanted her to go home. If he came out onto his lanai and found her standing on his beach he'd think she was some pathetic stalker. She didn't want that. She had too much pride to be that. And yet, somehow, without realizing it, she was on the lanai. Staring into through the kitchen window. He was there, in all his shirtless glory. Catherine was behind him, her arms wrapped around his torso, wearing a shirt that he had given to Rowan earlier that month.

Replaced.

Gone what? Maybe one night? And he already had moved straight on to the next girl? Okay that wasn't fair. He had moved straight back to his girlfriend. And what else would he do? What did she expect? That he'd miss her? How stupid was that? They had never been together, just because it had felt like it was going somewhere during that time when they were inseparable didn't mean that it was true. Didn't mean that he felt the same way. And he clearly didn't. She had been stupid to delude herself into thinking that maybe, maybe he was starting to like her, romantically. Stupid to think that someone like Steve would want her.

She finally had the ability to move. Finally able to force herself back and away. She hit the sand and kept running. Maybe, maybe if she kept moving she run her way right back home. She'd try again. She'd try over and over. Soon or later she'd end up back home. Back to where they wanted her. Back to where she belonged.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

Kamekona opened up his shrimp truck at the regular time. Breakfast was never a rush but it got enough business for him to open it up anyway. Flipper was at the Shaved Ice stand. His Five-0 friends may or may not stop by for a visit.

Everything was calm. The start to a great new day.

Until she showed up.

Rowan looked like a meteor had hit her. She looked the same as when she had when she had gotten off the helicopter last night, except with more tear stains and more of a franticness about her.

"I'm sorry," she kept saying as her tears fell down her face. "Please don't tell him. Please."

Kamekona had been struck dumb by the sight of her. Panic was his first initial reaction. The second was to get her somewhere sitting down before she fell down. He brought her inside the truck. He closed up the doors, which is something he never did and then sat her down on the box that was usually for Flipper and handed her a glass of water. But Rowan didn't drink, it just stayed there in her hands shaking.

"What's going on Sista?" he asked her. "Did someone hurt you?"

She didn't look hurt. She looked scared. She was shaking but she wasn't cold. She smelt of fire and ice and was smudged everywhere with soot and sand.

"I just… I just didn't know where to go," she sobbed. "He told me to leave, but I have nowhere else. And I couldn't get home. I just want to go home."

She was talking nonsense. None of it made sense and he couldn't get her to stop crying. He pulled out his phone.

"I'mma call McGarrett. He'll come get you, he'll…"

"No!" she shouted. "No, please! You don't understand he told me to leave. He told me to leave!"

Kamekona stared at her. He stared at her hard. He had watched the two of them over their inseparable month. He knew it would probably come to a close when Catherine came back to the town. He didn't think it would implode. And if she had been told to leave where had she stayed last night? He hoped it was that fancy Musician-Nurse of hers but by the state of her she must have slept out on the beach.

He needed a new tactic. He needed something to comfort her with. And there was only one thing he was really good at. "You look hungry sista, a good meal could fix the blues for you," he said.

Rowan shook her head. "No. Thank you, but I don't have any money," she said.

"None of that matters," he told her. "We'll get some food in you and then we'll fix you up. Okay?"

He watched her out of the corner of his eyes as he made her a simple breakfast burrito. She lacked a culinary palate but he cared about her. And if a plain breakfast burrito with eggs and bacon was what she needed then that's what he'd give her.

He served it up to her. Watched her eat. Made sure she ate it all. Her sobs had subsided. Her shaking had stopped. But she wasn't Rowan. It was like she had been emptied out and all that was left was the outer shell.

He needed to fix her. The eating hadn't worked. He needed something else. Something to perk her up.

She liked tea. Would tea fill her up or was she too cracked inside to contain anything? He wasn't sure.

"I'm gonna go get you a tea, okay?" he said to her. Her eyes turned up to him, empty and sparkless. He knew then that something really bad had happened to her.

"You'll stay here right?" he asked. "You gotta promise me you won't move."

Rowan nodded, looking back down to her hands. He could leave her there. He'd shut the door, keep an eye on the truck and make sure she didn't get out. Simple easy. He rushed as quickly as he could out of the truck, his phone already dialing McGarrett's number.

He might have caused this. He might have broken the girl but he'd be able to fix her too. He sent Flipped to get the tea while he waited for McGarrett to pick up, but he never did. So, he left a message.

"Call me when you get dis, it's an emergency," he said after the beep.

Flipper returned, a to-go mug of tea was offered and Kamekona returned to the truck. He didn't know how it happened. He didn't know when it happened. But Rowan was gone.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

Steve went to Danny's first. He didn't even knock, just let himself in. Danny bitched, said something about Steve and breaking and entering and then he promptly stopped talking. He had realized something was wrong, could see the worry etched on Steve's face and the nervous energy that seemed to be coming to life around him. Danny stared at him as Steve paced. He could do nothing else but pace. Something had come alive in him. Something had put him on edge. He didn't know what it was but something had a hold of that pulse in his chest, the one that had belonged to Rowan and her flickering had begun to squeeze. It was erratic. It was breath stealing. It turned him wild.

"You wanna tell me what's going on?" Danny asked him trying to drink his coffee. But Danny was having a hard time with Steve pacing back and forth like a caged animal.

"She left," he said, his breath catching. "I felt it. She went home."

"She went home?" Danny echoed. "She? Rowan? Like her world home? And you know this?"

"I felt it," Steve said. "It felt like my heart was being ripped from my body."

Danny took this in. He just stared at Steve and Steve waited. Danny always had the right words… okay maybe not the right words, but he had a lot of words pent up in there so he figured some of them might be able to make him feel better.

"That's… that's… I don't even know what that is. That's gotta suck," Danny said. "But uh… I thought you said that you didn't feel for Rowan in that way."

"Yeah, well there are different kinds of love, Danny," Steve reminded him.

"Whoa, now its love?" he asked.

Steve began pacing again. "You know what I mean Danny. I cared about her. She's been the focus of my life for almost half a year now! And she's gone. Just blinked right out of my life because I told her to go. How would you feel if Grace just blinked out of existence over something you said?"

"Okay. Alright. Rowan's left. You feel like something in you is missing. And now you're pacing in my kitchen," Danny whispered.

"Why does it feel like she's still here then?" he asked. "Why does it feel like I'm being pulled in this one direction? Why does it feel like if I get there, if I follow this pulse in my chest it'll take me to her?"

"What through the void?" Danny asked. "You gonna flicker off after her?"

"No. No like… if I go to… say… Kahanamoku beach," Steve said. "Like if I go to Kahanamoku beach right now, she'll be there waiting for me."

"So, she didn't leave?" Danny asked.

Steve ran his fingers through his hair. He sounded crazy. Maybe he was crazy. Maybe he just wanted her to be there. Maybe he just wanted her to still in this world with him. To still be the one who stayed, even when he thought he didn't want her.

"Yes. No. I don't know," he said. "What do I do?"

"Uh… well if she's actually left, there's not much you really can do, can you?" Danny asked. Okay, this was not helpful. Danny was supposed to have all this wisdom, where the hell was it now? "But if you want, if you think there's even the smallest possibility that she's still here, then let's go. Let's follow that pulsing compass you've got stuck in your chest. Me and you, up to the Kahanamoku. See if she's there. Get something from Kamekona's while we're there."

Steve stood there. He stared at Danny. This man was willing to sacrifice their day off to go with him on some quest. To drive all the way to Kahanamoku to see if the girl he was trying to let go was there. And that's what he was supposed to be doing, wasn't it? He was supposed to let her go, he was supposed to move on. He loved Catherine, he wanted to be with Catherine, didn't he? Why the hell was he so fixated on Rowan if what he really wanted was Catherine?

He was going to say no. He was going to remind Danny that he had to choose between Catherine and Rowan and he had picked Catherine. But he was interrupted.

The pulse in his chest fired up. It squeezed so tightly that spots formed in front of his eyes. He gasped for air but nothing stayed in his lungs. He doubled over, clutching his chest. He could hear Danny calling his name but he couldn't respond. The tightness in his chest was squeezing the life out of him, and he knew what it was.

But it hadn't crept up on him like it did the few times before. It was sudden and violent. It shook him, tore at his bones and burned through his veins. He dropped to his knees, his spare hand gripping Danny's arm who had come to his aid, crouched over him, hand on his back trying to coach him through breathing.

 _Just like last night._

Then as soon as it started it stopped again. It was like bungee jumping. One second he had been free falling the second he had been jerked back into his own body. Finally, able to breathe he gulped down delicious mouthfuls of cold air while he rubbed his sternum.

"What was that, Steve?" Danny was asked. "What happened? Are you okay?"

Steve couldn't get the words out. He didn't understand why it happened again. She had gone home? Had she… had she come back? But he knew now, knew without a shadow of a doubt that she was still on the island.

"She's still here," Steve said to him. "Danny, she's on the island."

"Okay, so… we head to Kahanamoku beach?" Danny asked.

Steve shook his head. "No, she's not there. I think… I think she's moved." he whispered. "But she's here. Danny, she's still on Hawaii."

"Then what are we waiting for? Let go find her!" Danny cried tugging Steve up to his feet. Steve found himself smiling. This was what good friends were for. And Steve had the best kind.

He wasn't sure what he was going to do when he found her. He just knew that he needed to. He needed to find her to stop her from flickering because if it was hurting him it must have been killing her. Steve was going to find Rowan. No matter what it took.


	24. Chapter 24

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Oh my god guys! We got 150 reviews in less then 2 days! That honestly made my day! I can't believe you guys came through like that! So here's your second update of the week. Next week I'm a bit busier so I'm only going to do one update. But if we get to 175 reviews I'll post twice the following week. (So on the 30 and the 2nd). Does that sound fair? Anyways guys! Things are going to start getting hectic over in this story. I know some people are getting annoyed with Steve but it's only going to get worse from here. Hopefully you still like it! I still wanna know what you guys think and what you think will happen next. Even if there's something you really, really want to see, maybe I can try to work it in! As always see you next week!_

Chapter 24

* * *

She was taunting him. The fucking bitch.

Every night he'd feel it. Sometimes multiple times throughout the day. She was constantly flickering. Constantly moving about. She was untraceable, untrackable, but still an ever present part of his life. First it was dropping off at Kamekona's for breakfast in a complete state of disarray. Then it was staying at Max's for a night. Showing up in Doris' living room in the middle of the night soaking wet and looking practically ghostly. And he was pretty sure she crashed at his place once or twice as well while he was out on cases.

For five days there had been a BOLO out on her. And for five days Steve dealt with terrible twinges and heart stopping tightenings in his chest. He felt like he was coming apart at the seams, like he was being torn in two by the pain. It must have been worse for Rowan. And by all accounts it was obvious it was putting strain on her.

Doris had reported that Rowan looked positively skeletal when she had showed up. Big giant bags under her eyes making her eyes look sunken and hollowed. She was skin in bones wearing nothing but her army green shorts and a sweater he had bought her on their trip to the aquarium, the shark one, with a hood that made her look like a shark, teeth and all. She hadn't eaten. She needed a shower. Doris reported that she was covered in minor burn marks and bruising. Doris had let her sleep, let her get a good couple of hours in before finally managing to get a hold of Steve who had been on a case at the time. But by the time Steve got there Rowan had left.

After that call Steve had realized that she had gotten a change of clothes. For the first time since she had left Steve had opened up the door to her room. He found an unmade bed and clothes in the hamper, they too were singed and sandy but that could have been from riot. But most distressing was that she had left her phone, the last real object he had given her, the last little bit of him she had. He found it on her bedside, screen practically melted and so shattered it was almost warped.

It had been going with her, he realized. She had been taking it with her into the void and if this was what had happened to it, what was happening to her?

His worry amplified. Every time his chest would constrict he would close his eyes, he'd envision that void and with both hands he would tug her back down with that red string that had entangled them both. It was what got him through the pain. It was what helped him breathe when the air was sucked from his lungs. He held onto that vision, he kept it close to his heart. He didn't want her to leave. He wanted her to stay. She couldn't leave him not until he apologized and made things right.

But he couldn't do any of that until he found her. And with her acting like she was Where's fucking Waldo it was taking way too long to actually find her.

So Steve did the only thing he could do and that was to go on with his life as if it didn't feel like his heart was being ripped from his body every time she tried to leave. And he was getting pretty good at pretending this wasn't killing him.

That day he had dressed up purposely. In his dress blues. For Danny and his court case. He had tried to soothe Danny the night before, but as Danny had pointed out Rowan had been the one who was helping him. The one who had helped him write his speech. The one who had told Steve what outfit to wear.

 _The court won't be able to resist you in this._

She had been on a war path for Danny. Picking up the phone for him whenever his ex called and giving her all sorts of sass. Glaring daggers at the back of her head in previous hearings. Talking him out of every anxiety driven rant he went on. And now, on the day he needed her most she was missing. Steve couldn't even be that mad at her, he was the one who had told her to leave.

Steve got to the court house and spotted Danny when only a few steps in. The poor man, also in a nice suit, was holding his head in his hands like the world was pressing down on him. And judging by how much he loved his daughter, it probably was.

"Hey!" he said so Danny would look up.

He did, of course, and then took in Steve's outfit. "Wow," was all he could say. "You look very nice, suit and tie. That's good."

Steve smiled and sat down beside his best friend. He purposely didn't mention that Rowan had picked this outfit weeks ago when Steve agreed to be a character witness. All so he could say this…

"It's for you. Wore it for you."

Danny smiled at him weakly. "Thank you."

Steve put his hat beside him. He tried not to think of how Rowan had looked at him when he had modeled this suit for her. The smile that had been on her face, the way her eyes had twinkled. He tried not to think of how he wished she were here, to help calm Danny down, to keep Steve off edge, to have her smiling at him in that suggestive manner.

Danny had been peering at him, trying to eye his neck. Steve tried to ignore that too, he assumed Danny was just being annoying again. Until he leaned in going straight for Steve's neck.

Steve waved his hands away immediately. "Hey, what are you doing?"

"Is that a clip-on?" Danny shot back.

Was he talking about his tie? How dare he assume that Steve could not tie a tie? "It's not a clip-on," Steve snapped. Danny lunged for the tie again and Steve dodged it. "What'd I just say?"

Danny scowled at him. "Your tie's all jacked up. Can I fix it for you, please?"

Steve looked down again. Oh shit, was it? Steve turned up to Danny and then puffed his chest out so Danny could fix the tie.

Danny tried to pull him closer but Steve resisted. "Come here, come here," Danny ordered and Steve reluctantly obeyed.

"I'm here," he replied. Though he liked it much better when it had been Rowan tying and fixing his tie. It was a little awkward with Danny doing it.

Once Danny was done and he was thanked both Steve and Danny turned forward again and assumed their manly position. Legs spread, hunched over, elbows on knees hands clasped together.

"I thought no one wore a tie in Hawaii," Danny said, teasingly quoting what Steve always said to him whenever Danny wore a tie. That was a good sign.

"No, they don't but, you know, it's a special day. So, I thought I'd wear one. Plus, I'm wearing my dress blues. They'd make me walk the plank if I don't wear a tie with my dress blues," he explained going for a little light teasing himself.

"Why do they call them blues? They're black," Danny asked.

Oh, Danny with the stupid questions. With the questions Steve could never answer.

"I know they're black. I never knew—I don't know. Okay, I don't know," he said and then turned away from Danny.

He absently went about rubbing his sternum again. He had had another twinge when he pulled into the parking lot. Not a big one, but enough to have him breathless in his car for two minutes. The twinges were getting to be less powerful, or he was getting used to them. He wasn't sure which one he should be wishing for.

"Thank you very much for being here. It means a lot. Okay?" Danny said breaking him out of his thoughts.

Steve nodded at Danny. "You're welcome. Besides, you'd do the same for me."

"Any… uh… any news on Rowan?" Danny asked and Steve shook his head.

"I had a twinge on the way in," he said. "But no one's seen her. She hasn't dropped off at anyone's house. Kamekona's still charging me double. Max won't look me in the eye. My mom's livid with me over what happened, and from everything I heard about the state she's in I think all these attempts to travel are destroying her. She may kill herself before I manage to find her."

These were all things Steve had said to Danny already. His worries and his fears. And every time he worried about it, worried about not saving Rowan in time Danny would say the same thing: "She'll be okay, we'll find her."

Today he got. "I know she's mad at you, but I thought, maybe if she were still here, she'd make an appearance."

Oh, the fucking guilt trip. Right there. Right to the heart. How could Danny do him like that?

Steve tried not to scowl and decided to change the topic. "Alright, you ready?"

"Yeah, I'm good. I got a speech all prepared, the one Rowan helped me with. You know, everything's good," he said patting his jacket where the speech was no doubt tucked inside.

"Alright, that's good. Rowan worked hard on that speech with you, I'm sure it'll be awesome," Steve assured him.

"I'll tell you something, though, if they take her away from me, I'm jumping off a cliff, _today_ ," Danny said. And Steve believed him.

The problem was Steve wasn't good at this. When Danny got despondent, when Danny got pessimistic and starting talking about throwing himself off cliffs and in front of cars, Rowan would step right up and hit him with some motivational speech and he'd feel better. Steve was always amazed by it, because she never rehearsed, she'd just make it up on the spot.

"Hey, hey, hey. That's not going to happen," was all Steve had to offer. And Danny's weak: Okay, that followed it showed just how effective Steve's little pep talk was.

He clapped a hand to his shoulder and rubbed it for good luck. Steve didn't know what else to say. He just kept repeated: "That's not going to happen," like if he kept saying it over and over it would make it true.

When they were finally allowed into the court room Danny had to sit at the small rinky-dink table at the front and Steve sat in one of the uncomfortable pews at the front. It seemed to be an eternity before the gavel was pounded and the Judge was ready to go.

"In the matter of _Williams vs_. _Edwards_ , where are we?" she asked.

"Your honor, my client has prepared a statement he'd like to read into the record," the lawyer for Danny said standing to address the judge.

"Go ahead," she said eying Danny expectantly.

The lawyer sat down and Danny stood up. He looked shaken, he looked upset, and Steve could guess why. But Rowan had been working on Danny with this, up until she disappeared from their lives. Danny would be okay.

Danny started talking and Steve couldn't help but feel like they had this in the bag.

"Your Honor, I come before you today," he started and then stopped. He crumpled up the speech that Rowan had worked so hard on and threw it to the side.

Oh shit. He was spiralling. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

"Detective Williams, why are you littering in my courtroom?" the Judge asked and Steve winced. Fucking hell this was not going well.

"I apologize, I really apologize, Your Honor. But I was prepared to give my speech to Rachel, my ex, but she's not here," he said and then he glanced over his shoulder. It was a look of panic, a look that said he needed someone to make eye contact with to help him calm down.

And then his face went blank. He was staring at something just beyond Steve. Something that seemed to shock him to his very core.

Steve turned, expecting Rachel, but instead it was Rowan. Rowan standing in the open doorway, an encouraging smile on her pale face giving Danny a thumbs up, waving her other hand at him as if trying to urge him onward.

Steve was on his feet in a second but the moment Rowan noticed him she started and began to back away.

"Commander McGarrett please sit down," the judge ordered and Steve reluctantly did as he was told. He was afraid to move, afraid to break the spell that had come over him. That look in her eyes, the utter fear she had upon clapping eyes on him had not been a look that warmed him.

But Rowan stayed where she was by the door until the judge barked: "You're either in the room or out," and then she shut the door behind her and took a back seat. Her eyes left Steve's and locked with Danny's waving him onward once more.

Danny turned back to the judge a new man, but he didn't reach for his speech.

"Can I start over?" he asked the judge. "I know a family court judge is very busy and you're presiding over cases much bigger and more serious than mine, but if you'd allow it, I'd like to start over."

The Judge nodded and Danny took off, his heart warming speech had apparently been memorized but Steve wasn't listening. He couldn't keep his eyes off of Rowan. She looked so thin. So pale. That shark sweater he had bought her hung off her like a bag, her legs were covered in scrapes, scabs and sand. He could see the angry red burns trailing up her arms and legs. She looked homeless and she seemed to realize that people were staring at her.

Steve couldn't stand being this close to her and not tackling her to the ground. Not when she was a flight risk. Not when she could blink right out of the room before he could stop her. Not when he was so desperate to feel the warmth of her skin under his palms he was practically burning up.

He stood just as the Judge asked Danny: "Detective, weren't you recently shot in the presence of your daughter?"

He took one step towards Rowan and she went ramrod straight in her seat. Those blue eyes wide and on him like she knew exactly what he was going to do.

"Commander McGarret!" The Judge snapped and he turned around again.

"What?" he asked. "Oh, the shooting? I can explain that, Your Honor."

"Commander McGarrett, this is not your forum. And quite frankly that woman is terrified of you. I'm asking you to leave her alone," the Judge ordered.

Steve nearly snapped at her. He wanted to shout that Rowan was his… thing… and he had every right to trap her and make her stay with him. The phone in his hand buzzed, the contact for the Governor flashed on his screen.

"Yes your Honor, I know that," he said instead. His head whipping back and forth between Danny who was trying to signal him, his phone in his hand and the angry Judge sitting before him. "But Williams doesn't just work for me he's my friend. He's my close friend and I've seen him with his daughter. He's a great father. He's actually the kind of father we all wish we had. And Rowan's a… friend… who… uh…"

He glanced back down at his phone. He couldn't ignore a call from the Governor. Danny's face was imploring him to do something but he didn't know what. He shot a glace back to Rowan and found her out of her seat and edging back towards the door that same fearful look on her face as before.

"Don't you fucking move!" he snapped to her pointing a stern finger in her direction.

He turned back to the Judge. "I'm sorry, I've got to take this call," he said.

"Steve," Danny whispered nodding towards the door. He turned back to Rowan in time to see the door shut behind her.

 _She had fucking run again._

He ran out of the room, connecting the call at the same time. It was simple summons to the Governor's office for a discrete case, he hung it up as quickly as he answered it. He scanned the halls for any sign of Rowan. She was a red head with a blonde fade and in a grey shark sweater. How fucking hard could she be to find?

It took a several quick scans to spot her rushing out of one of the doors. He sprinted after her trying to catch up but she had one hell of a lead. By the time he got outside he couldn't spot her anywhere. He was going to do a search of the area, find her before she got away when the tightness in his chest attacked him.

It was so sudden that it took him to his knees immediately. He slid against the pavement, scrapped his knees, and tore his pants. His phone clattered out of his hand so he could grip his chest. The breath was knocked out of his body and spots formed in front of his eyes. People gathered around him to ask if he was alright, but he wasn't.

The pain left his chest not seconds after it started but it didn't matter. Rowan was already gone.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

Rowan resurfaced coughing and sputtering. Her legs and arms were tired, burning from her most recent wade through the void. It was getting harder to move through it, even harder to cross the barriers. Probably because the anger had been siphoned out of her leaving her with nothing else except sorrow and grief.

She had begun to mourn.

Mourn the life she left behind. Mourn the life here she'd never have. What was she going to do? She had nowhere to go, no one to turn to. She was alone with no way to get a job, no money and at this point no will to live.

She could let herself float away no one would miss her, no one would find her.

One mouthful of salt water changed her mind, kicked that _will to live_ into overdrive. She scanned the horizons and spotted land behind her, a good 200m away. Eight lengths max, she could do this.

As she got closer she could see that she was swimming towards some sort of port. She could see shipping containers and warehouses. That was new. Usually when she found herself in the water it was just off of the beach that doubled as Steve's backyard.

Still she breast stroked towards the port. The waves helping her progress which was great because she was dead tired. By the time she had found somewhere to climb out it was raining. She hadn't eaten yet today. She hadn't slept more than four hours in the last two days. She was light headed and everything hurt, both physically and emotionally.

She found an empty doorway and set herself down on the stoop. She was under an overhang which only meant that she wasn't getting anymore wet. She went about rubbing the soreness out of her joints and muscles but it didn't work. Her hands hurt too, there were fresh burns on her arms from her last attempt to travel. She just wanted to lean back against the door and sleep. Just for a moment.

But the second her eyes closed she thought about Steve. About how handsome he looked in those dress blues she had convinced him to wear. She thought when she got dropped in that tree in front of the court house that morning that it meant she was thinking about Danny and how he'd need her support for whatever vile things his ex threw at him. But she knew, the second she saw Steve in that suit, that he was really what she wanted to see. And that was ridiculous. He didn't want to see her, and he looked livid upon noticing her in the back.

He had demanded she stay, probably to tell her not to go back to the house, not to take things he had bought for her as they weren't for her anymore, to tell her to stop dropping in on his life. She wasn't a part of it anymore and she should leave him and his friends alone. And she couldn't bear to hear all of that again.

She was almost asleep, lulled by the sound of the water pinging on the roof above her and the crash of the surf. But then the door behind her opened up.

Rowan jumped up to her feet despite how sore she was. Her legs protested and wobbled which had her stumbling out into the rain. Her eyes lowered away from the person, embarrassed to be caught in this state.

"Sorry," she mumbled. "I'll move."

"No, wait, you're soaked," a voice called out. "Come inside it'll be warmer."

Rowan made the mistake of turning. She meant to tell this person that it was alright, she didn't need their charity, but her heart stopped the second her eyes connected with the figure in the doorway. Her body was ill equipped for the dizzy spell that came over her. She wasn't strong enough to keep herself in a standing position as the world swayed around her. The man put a hand out to steady her, or maybe to pull her inside, she wasn't sure. But as soon as he touched her the visions started. They flashed through her head, images of dead prostitutes, captured Politicians and assault helicopters. Her knees buckled out from under her and she hit the ground. She wasn't even strong enough to keep herself upright.

As soon as she was in a lying down position her exhaustion took over. Her eyes slowly began to close even though she knew she needed to stay awake. The last thing she saw was Wo Fat's emotionless face hovering over her.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

She was skin and bones. Starved. He wasn't sure if it was purposely or not. She was soaking wet, he'd say from the rain but he had found seaweed in her hair and hanging from her shark sweater when he picked her up. She had been in the ocean. He had stripped her of her stupid shark sweater to wrap her in his suit blazer simply to get some sort of warmth into her. Her shoulder blades were sporting deep purple bruises that he was sure spread down her back. Her arms were covered in second degree burn scabs, some more fresh than others. Upon further inspection he found more on her legs.

At this point he was certain she had been tortured.

Wo Fat had never been accused of caring for someone. He had no family. No friends. No one that could be used against him. He didn't act out of the kindness of his heart. He was often told he didn't have a heart. So what had prompted him to pick up the girl who had dropped unconscious at his feet? He couldn't answer that, but he had.

Electricity travelled up his arms when he made contact with her. Static electricity kept stinging him every time he touched her after that. He had taken her to his town car and put her in the back. He expected her to have awoken by now but she was still out. And with deep black sunken bags under her eyes he had a feeling she was too exhausted to wake up. But the more injuries he catalogued the more he wanted her to wake up. So he could feed her and maybe find out who had grabbed her and done this to her… so he could break their legs.

She was against him. Her head on his shoulder as they sat in the back and his driver took them back to the hotel. She'd need a shower too. She smelt of charred hair and dry ice, of salt and that smell after a storm hit. She'd need to come up to his hotel room with him, get her in a bed, get her some food, and get her cleaned up. But how was he going to get her into his hotel room? He could go around back? No. He was illusive enough as is. And he didn't want anyone to alert authorities of his presence. Five-0 and Steve McGarrett couldn't know he was back on the island.

Beside him the girl began to stir, a string of unintelligible words tumbled out of her mouth followed by a groan and then her head falling into his lap. Wo Fat froze, his arms raising up not sure where to go or where to rest them now. Her arms wrapped around one of his legs, like she was cuddling with him, but that was something he wasn't used to.

"Don't make me go," she whispered, her voice light and airy against his knee. "Let me stay."

He slowly lowered his arms, one resting casually over her chest to keep her from rolling off the seat. She finally felt warm against his fingertips. But even with light probing he could feel her ribs, could count each jutting protrusion. Definitely starved.

"You can stay with me for as long as you want," he told her. Though he had a feeling she'd be staying longer than that.

"I love you," she breathed out and for a moment a frown creased his face. He knew then she thought he was someone else.

And he wanted to know who.


	25. Chapter 25

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanfics**

 _A/N: Oh my god guys! We've ALREADY hit 175 reviews! Wow, you guys are just too good to me and I'm totally loving your feedback. So I have a bit of a request, does anyone think we can get to 185 by next Tuesday? I think we can do it! Keep hitting that review button! So, the next couple of chapters are going to be a bit longer, I believe this chapter is about 10 pages long and I usually keep it around 7-8. We're going to have a lot of drama coming up and instead of breaking it up into a million smaller chapters I just elongated them. Hopefully that's okay, not too much reading. There's an exceedingly cute moment in this chapter too (or at least I think so). Tell me if you agree! I've got a lot of people wondering about Wo Fat, and I'll admit I'm going to be changing up his plot line a bit in this story, but that's going to be a surprise as we go on. And yes, Steve's being a real jerk right now but it's going to be explained. Hopefully you guys put up with me until then! Don't forget to tell me what you think about the ultra cute moment and as always, see you next week!_

Chapter 25

* * *

Rowan awoke to crisp clean sheets and an unfamiliar warmth. She bolted up expecting a foreign body but found herself surrounded by pillows and covered in blankets. She was in a hotel room, she was missing her sweater and her shoes and she had met Steve's nemesis—Wo Fat. Not only was she alive, but she was now in a posh looking hotel room. His doing no doubt but what did he want from her? Did he know about her and Steve?

Her heart chose that moment to remember its grief. It cracked under the strain of the pain. There was no she and Steve. There never was and there never would be.

"You were cold," a deep voice said breaking her out of her thoughts so much so that she found herself yelping and throwing herself out of the bed. She landed on the floor, her body jolting painfully and she had to force herself to bite back her cry of pain.

"Skittish thing, aren't you?"

Rowan peeked over the edge of the bed. Wo Fat stood in front of the door blocking her only exit. He was fiddling with his cufflinks, wearing a nice suit as if he didn't have a political candidate to harass and torture. He was smaller than she thought he'd be, he was skinny as a twig, no defining muscles that she could see, and he was at least a few heads shorter than Steve. But taller than her. Why was everyone taller than her?

"My name is Oz," he said. Lying to her outright. Not that he knew she already knew who he was. Well she could lie to him too.

"I'm Wicky," she said softly, ignoring the way her heart bled to hear that precious pet name for the first time since she was torn from her home.

"Wicky?" he echoed. "Are you lying to me?"

"My name is as real as Oz is to you," she shot back. This earned her a chuckle.

"Alright. Fair," he said. "You can stop hiding, I won't hurt you."

Well it wasn't like she had any other options. Reluctantly she got up and rubbed her bare arms where her goose flesh was bubbling up. Where was her sweater? He better not have thrown it out, that had sentimental value. It had been a gift after all.

"It's drying in the washroom," he said answering her unasked question. "You must be hungry, would you like to order something?"

Rowan's stomach grumbled just at the mention of food, but she knew that he wouldn't offer her anything for free.

"And what do you want in return?" she asked her eyes narrowed in distrust.

"A story," he answered taking another step close to her. "Your story."

"My story isn't all that interesting," she said with a shake of her head.

"I found you half drowned, half starved, burn marks and bruises littering half of your body," he listed off. "I do believe that's all the hallmarks of an interesting story."

He wasn't going to let this go. And if she was being honest she was really too tired to argue. And she was really, really, hungry. He was international criminal he could afford to pay for one meal for her.

"Fine, one cheeseburger, fries and a chocolate milkshake and that story's yours," she said trying to make her grin seem like a normal one.

The smile that answered her was a completely acidic one. She wasn't sure he had any other default but it sent shivers up her spine none-the-less.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

It was her eyes that got him. Sky blue, sapphires twinkling in the night sky. Defiant, untrusting, and filled with the kind of fire he only saw in himself. She wouldn't be trustful, her loyalty was the fierce kind and he could tell that she had given it to someone else. He'd have to earn even small amounts of her trust, he'd be working for months just to get her to let him in. And he didn't have months to spend on her.

She devoured the burger he had brought up to his room. Too quickly. It would come back up. Not that it would affect him he'd be gone by then. He did have business with that politician after all.

She was on the fries when the story came. He was sitting in a chair across from her, she was wrapped up in the blankets on the bed, picking each fry up with care and setting it to a rigorous selection process that he was unfamiliar with.

"I'm a long way from home. I… I got lost," she told him. "I've been staying with this guy, a friend. He took me in, his name is… James, Jamie. He had a girlfriend and I knew that, but he was over protective, and always with me and I guess I fell harder than I thought I did. And I had thought he had started to feel the same way."

Ah, that's who she thought he was in the car.

"But he didn't want me," her voice cracked. His back straightened an inch. It seemed inconceivable that an attractive girl like her was not wanted? He may not have been a normal person with normal people emotions, but he assumed nice pretty girls got all the guys. "I'm a lot of trouble, I'm annoying, and I made his life harder so he told me to leave. Since then I've been trying to get home, but I can't get a job and I can't find my way. I'm stuck here."

She was trying not to cry and he was trying not to question her. Her story made no sense. He sensed that she was holding a lot of her story back. Omitting facts, hiding things, stretching the truth thin to cover the story she didn't want to share with him.

"That explains none of your injuries," he growled. She was slowing down on the food. She was starting to feel ill, he could tell. He watched her look down to her arms, where the bruises stood out against the pale of her skin and some of her burn marks had begun to peel and bubble.

"I fell off a boat," she answered. "Multiple times."

She was lying. He could tell. Was he to pressure her? Make her talk? He was used to taking whatever he wanted, making people talk was his specialty but he couldn't and wouldn't use those tactics on her.

"Remind me to keep you off all boats," he said with a wry smirk. He glanced to his watch, he was running behind. He didn't have time for this anymore but this was far from over. "Maybe when I get back you could tell me the whole story, not just the highlights and lies. Over dinner hmm?"

Her eyes widened. "Oh, that's a nice offer, but I was going to go… try to get home again."

He felt his devious smile play across his lips, liked the way it struck a chord of fear in her. "Maybe. But for now you're staying here. I'll be back in a few hours."

He walked to the door before she could say anything else and shut it deftly behind him. He turned to the man he had posted here when they came in.

"Don't let her leave," he said to him in perfect Japanese.

The man nodded and as Wo Fat left he heard the first of Wicky's retching from the other side of the door.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

Rowan was screwed.

She needed to get out of this hotel room before Wo Fat came back.

But she was tired and sore. She wasn't that much hungry anymore even though she had thrown up most of what she had eaten. She didn't have enough energy in her to muster up any of the emotions she needed to get into the void.

She could call Steve. He would come. Maybe. Probably just for Wo Fat alone, since Steve didn't want her. But she couldn't bring herself to pick up the phone. She selfishly wanted Steve to find her, to rescue her, to want her back. But at the same time she didn't want to be his pet damsel.

She could get herself out of this. She just had to be smart about it. She knew there was a man by her door, he kept pacing up and down the hall. How no one called him in for suspicious behaviour was beyond her.

She had put her sweater back on, irregardless of the fact that it was still damp. She could get out of this. She didn't need Steve. What she needed was a plan.

She took a deep breath and opened the door. He was in front of her immediately. He too was in a nice suit and had round Asian features.

"Can you help me? I've… I've kinda thrown up… everywhere" she said lowering her eyes to feign embarrassment. "I'm too embarrassed to get housekeeping… can you call them for me?"

She put on her quivering lips and batted her blue eyes at him. He sighed, pushing her back into the room. Once the door shut he crossed to the phone. He took his eyes off of her to dial and that was all she needed to rip the door open and fall out into the hallway.

She took off in a dead sprint but she didn't run for the elevator. She ran for the stairs. But she didn't go down she went up. And not for the reasons that the girls in horror movies picked. This was all part of her plan. She took the stairs two at a time, her guard right behind her, just a few landings below. She ran even though her legs protested and her lungs burned. Her fear spurred her forward until she reached the roof. She slammed the door behind her and looked for a good place to hide. The best place was behind the small building that covered the stairs. She stepped behind it and heard the door open and the first of her guard's inquiries as to where she was.

She needed to travel. Now. She needed to go home. She didn't call on her rage or her grief, she called on her fear. Her desperate need to be anywhere but there at this point.

She felt the shift. The familiar pain between her shoulder blades, the burn of electricity through her veins, bursting through her skin reopening the wounds on her arms and legs. The sense of utter calm overwhelmed her again and with one step she walked straight into the voice.

For the first time since she left the feeling of home sang through her bones. It was easier to move, she felt guided and sure. She had finally found the way home.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

He dreamed of the void.

He dreamed of red string, white lights and that silver chain he thought he had destroyed.

He dreamed of Rowan, floating up and away from him, leaving the binds of the red string behind. He didn't think about the consequences. Without a second thought he gripped those red strings with both hands and used them to rip her out of the sky.

And then he dreamed of the way she fell through the void as if she had been dropped into water. Her eyes a hot white dying and fading to a dull blue. Her arms outstretch beckoning him. That red strings cascading outwards from her heart.

Twisting around him. Twisting around her. Binding them together.

That silver chain hovered, calling, wanting, blinking in the darkness. But it couldn't get through the web of red. Couldn't reach her. It strained. It struggled. It cut through the red strings and he felt it as if it had cut his own skin.

Then he was falling for real and it was time to get up.

Steve bolted up in his bed, a film of sweat coating his body. He was breathless and a lingering pain ebbed out of his chest even though he was still rubbing his sternum in an almost absent fashion. He couldn't explain it. He wasn't even going to try.

But he knew, with an earth-shattering clarity that Rowan was in trouble. And he knew exactly where she was too.

He threw himself out of bed, gathering up his clothes in one hand while he tried to text with his other. Please god let Chin be awake.

Catherine pushed herself up slowly turning to him and sleepily asking: "What's the matter? Did you catch a case?"

"No," Steve said. "I know where Rowan is. She's in trouble."

Catherine was wide awake now. Her brown eyes peering at him hard. "So send HPD to go and get her."

Steve paused. He couldn't do that. He should do that. But he didn't want to. He didn't know what kind of trouble Rowan was in, he'd never forgive himself if something happened to Duke or one of the other cops because he sent them into a battlefield.

"There's no time," he said instead. "I have to go get her."

Catherine shifted in the bed, now sitting with her legs over the side, covering herself up with the blankets. "You're doing it again, Steve,' she said sounding utterly disappointed. He tried to brush off the sting but he was starting to get frustrated again. He didn't know how to make his position any clearer with her.

"You can't or won't tell me how you know she's in danger, you won't send someone else to get her, you're certain it has to be you to go get her. You're doing it again. You're letting her control and delude you again," she complained.

That was it. The final straw. Rowan had not been manipulating him. She had been _running_ from him. He had sent her away for Catherine. He had shattered whatever relationship that he had cultivated with her, that small smidgen of trust he had earned probably all gone. He had destroyed himself in the process. All for Catherine. And she couldn't even be grateful.

"Catherine!" he shouted and then stopped himself. He took a deep breath to try and calm himself before continuing. He turned to her so she could see his face. "I can't tell you, you won't believe me. You didn't before and you won't now."

"Oh not this again," Catherine groaned. "Steve she is not some time traveller with other worldly knowledge."

Steve shook his head. "Then don't ask me for what you don't want to believe in," he ordered.

"Do you really believe all that Steve? Truly? You think she knows the future. Your future specifically? And you and her are intertwined by fate and you know where she is and that she's in trouble," she asked him.

He knew it was crazy. But he didn't know what else to say. It was true. There was no other explanation for what was happening to him.

"No, Cath, I don't believe in that stuff. And I wouldn't except it's happening to me. It's happening to me right now. I have felt each and every attempt she's made to try and go back home and maybe it's because I spent so long trying to ground her here, who knows. But it feels like a heart attack, like I can't breathe, like the life is slowly being squeezed out of me. And now she's out there somewhere and she needs me, so I'd greatly appreciate it if you stopped hitting me with guilt trips and let me go get her!"

Catherine watched him get changed. Watched him get impatient with Chin and call him with his request. It wasn't until he made it to the door that she spoke again.

"You love her, don't you?" she asked.

"No. I… I don't know," Steve cried. "All I know is that everyone I care about leaves me. My mom left me, Lori got sent away and even you leave. And don't get me wrong, I'm proud of you, Cath, and I would never want you to stop doing what you're doing. I'd never ask you to stop doing your job. But I had one person who stayed, who saw everything I had to offer and didn't run, who worked to take care of me even if I didn't want it. And that was Rowan."

She stared at him for a moment. She took in the look on his face before slowly looking down to her hands. "If you leave, Steve, I won't be here when you get back," she warned, her voice low and her eyes clear when she raised them up to stare him in the eye. Every bit as serious as he was. "Then I'll really be another person who leaves."

Steve shook his head. He didn't know why she had to do this, but he didn't have time to argue with her anymore. "Fine Cath. Do what you have to do."

And then he walked away.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

She fell. Down. Down. Down. _Splash._

And then she sunk.

She had almost been home. She was almost there and then those stupid red strings got tangled up in her legs and ripped her right back down to where she began.

She had to fight her way back up to the surface. Breaking free of the water and gasping for air. The night loomed around her, she saw no stars or moonlight in the sky above her. Winds whipped around her causing the waves to throw her around. She saw no land. No lights to guide her. She was lost at sea. In the middle of the night.

She had never been dropped this far from shore before. She had never been this tired before either. This was it. She was going to die. She was going to either get eaten by sharks or just drown. She couldn't get home. She couldn't help Steve and his friends. And she couldn't save herself.

She lay herself back in the water staring up at the empty black sky letting the water toss her around like a limp doll. Sometimes she'd go under and she'd have to claw her way back to the surface but she was attempting to minimize the amount of movement she was creating.

She was ready to give up. Ready to stop trying when a light passed over the horizon. Rowan straightened. A boat? A boat was out here in these rough waters? She'd have to get them to see her.

"ROWAN?"

A boat that was looking for her? It may have been her imagination but that voice had sounded familiar. But… Steve wouldn't come looking for her? Would he?

"Rowan!"

That time it sounded like Chin. No, that couldn't be right, it couldn't be, she was losing her mind, clearly.

"ROWAN! ANSWER ME!"

 _Steve._

It _was_ Steve. Steve had found her. He was out here. In the middle of the night. On a boat. In rough waters. Simply to find her?

"Here!" she answered and immediately the spot light was on her. Rowan began to swim towards the boat, the waves not helping her, her legs and arms tired and failing to move her anywhere.

She heard a cry of her name again and then a splash. Steve was in the water. He surfaced in front of her, swimming quickly to her side.

"I'm okay," she tried to tell him, but a wave swept over her head and forced her down. Before she could even try to get herself back up to him, his arms wrapped around her chest and he practically ripped her back to the surface.

He dragged her back to the boat. Despite her protests and telling him she could swim. Chin helped her get up wrapping her up in a blanket. Rowan had never been so happy to see familiar faces before in her life.

Steve was on her in a second he was out of the water. Shoving Chin aside so he could put his hands on her shoulders. "Fuck Rowan," he said. "Fuck."

It was so ridiculous. This whole situation. The fact that he found her. The fact that she was so god damn happy to see him, to feel his touch. Tears welled up in her eyes. Tears of relief. Tears of fear. Streaming down her face before she could stop them.

"I couldn't get home," she said to him. "I tried to do as you said but I couldn't get home."

Steve pulled her into a hug, holding her tightly to his chest. She could feel his heart racing, could feel a tremor in his fingers as they clung to her through the blanket, could feel the raggedness of his breathing.

"You are home," he said to her.

And for that moment, as she closed her eyes against his shoulder, she believed him.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

Catherine hadn't left when Steve did. She calmly got dressed and waited. She was going to fight for him. Fight him until he saw sense. But when Steve finally came back home, with Rowan in tow, of course, he was so absorbed in Rowan that he didn't notice her. So Catherine stayed quiet. Determined to witness some of his infamous clingy behaviour with Rowan.

It started almost right away, their hands intertwined until they got to the stairs. Rowan took one step and collapsed. Steve immediately stooped down to pick her up. Catherine could see, by the state of Rowan, that something very traumatic had happened. She was covered in bruises, in red bubbling burns the size of quarters, she was soaking wet and reeked of salt. She was three sizes thinner than she was before she left. She was positively skeletal.

This wasn't a fake collapse for attention. Rowan was too weak to walk.

"Come on," Steve had whispered to her. He too was soaking wet. "We'll have a hot bath and then you'll lie down…"

"I want to go home," was Rowan's response. "I was almost there. I was almost home."

"It's killing you, Ro," Steve argued. "It's killing me too. You need to stop. We need more information before we start jumping realities."

"I don't want to stay here," Rowan was repeating. "I want to go home."

Whatever Steve said next was lost as he walked up the stairs. She only heard the deep timber of his voice rumbling through the walls.

Was she wrong about Rowan? Was she really not manipulating him? She heard the sound of the water cascading into the tub after that. Steve was still in the bathroom with her. She didn't know what was going on but Steve never left the washroom.

Catherine waited until they came out. Steve had taken his shirt off, a towel around his shoulders. Rowan seemingly had no clothes and was wrapped in a towel. He took her into his room, where he tossed her one of his huge sweaters for her to wear, which dwarfed her and he changed out of his damp clothes as well, choosing to put his shorts back on and his navy tank top he liked so much. They didn't stay in Steve's room once they were dressed, he took her into to her room where Rowan found a pair of shorts to put on. By the time Catherine had managed to silently move out of the shadows and into a position where she could see through the door they were already lying in the bed. Rowan was facing him but they weren't talking.

Rowan was asleep. Steve was wide eyed and staring at her. His eyes caressing her features, drinking her in like he was amazed she was lying in front of him. Then his fingertips traced the outline of her. Over each bruise on her arm, each burn, each scab, and each scar. His fingertips lightly traced the features of her face, over her lips, her nose, her eyes. Catherine turned away when Steve sunk his fingers into Rowan's hair with a barely stifled moan and then pulled her forehead to his.

She had every right to be angry. She had every right to hate Rowan for coming back. But then again... Rowan had been gone for six days. And those six days had clearly shattered her. It hadn't been good for Steve either who was a twitching, grumpy mess that complained of frequent chest pains. Still she couldn't get that image out of her head. Rowan's slim fingers gripping his shirt right above his heart. His hand sunk into her hair. Their foreheads pressed together.

It was the kind of motion she had wanted Steve to show her. The kind of motions she rarely got. Though to be fair, Steve had just gone to rescue Rowan from God knows what. He never had to rescue Catherine.

She didn't think she'd be able to sleep but she managed. She stayed in Steve's bed alone, thinking about what she wanted to do. She wanted to talk to Steve. She wanted to get him to send Rowan to a psych ward. Maybe if she phrased it in a way where she seemed to only care about Rowan's mental health maybe he'd agree. Once Rowan was committed she could work on unloosening the hold Rowan had on Steve.

But when she woke up in the morning it was Rowan who was up early and not Steve. He lay asleep in her bed, his arm outstretched over the empty space that been Rowan as if she were still there. Rowan was already in the kitchen making coffee. Catherine went down the stairs, ready to talk some sense into Rowan. To ask her what had happened last night, ask her where she had been, gauge how crazy she was so she could get her committed.

"Rowan," she said softly and Rowan yelped whirling around with her hand pressed to her chest.

"Oh god. You scared me," she said. "I didn't know you were here."

"Are you okay? Steve said you were in some sort of danger last night," Catherine said eyeing the girl a little bit more carefully in the sunlight.

Her eyes had sunken in, big giant bags under her eyes told Catherine she hadn't been sleeping. Covered in burn marks, up her arms, down her legs, across her chest and even some on her neck. Bones jutted from skin, she could see the sinews of her collar bones. Bruises highlighted her joints. Rowan looked a wreck.

"Oh. I fell off a boat," she said. She turned back to the counter to continue to make coffee. "Not sure how he knew that, but he fished me out. That's all."

She had been adrift at sea and Steve had found her? How? Had his internal compass actually pointed him in the right direction? That was some next level version of intuition.

"You didn't fall out of a different reality?" Catherine asked and finally Rowan turned back to her.

"Steve told you," she murmured. It wasn't a question but a statement. "And you don't believe him."

"It's pretty fucking farfetched," Catherine said folding her arms over her chest. "It's more likely that you're sick. You need help. He should be helping you to get that help not coddling you and perpetuating your insanity."

Rowan's glare darkened. It was the first time that the girl truly looked terrifying. There was a moment of intensely charged silence in which Catherine sized Rowan up already deciding what maneuver she'd use if the girl attacked her. But it didn't have to come to that. Rowan carefully put the mug she was clinging to down and set a stare on Catherine so withering it actually raised the hairs on the back of her neck.

"What if I could prove it to you," she asked. "Would you believe him then?"

Catherine picked up on that. That she was asking if she would believe Steve. Not her. She wanted Catherine to believe Steve. She was already walking towards Catherine coming to stand on the other side of the kitchen island.

"You can't prove something like that, Rowan," Catherine said. She didn't like the way Rowan was staring at her. Her gaunt features seemed to have transformed her into something a little less cuddly and a little more dangerous. Her blue eyes weren't a twinkling sea blue, but a glinting dangerous pale blue like liquid steel.

"But if I could. If I proved to you that I'm not from here. Would you listen then?" she asked.

Catherine nodded, if it was proven to her without a doubt, yes she would believe. But Rowan couldn't do that. Or at least, Catherine didn't think she could.

Rowan's eyes closed. Her face began to twist, she curled up into her chest as if she were folding into herself. Rowan groaned like she was in agony, like she was struggling to hold back screams. But it was the crackling that scared Catherine, the glow of something reaching out from Rowan's back. She straightened, vertebra by vertebra, her hair was flowing around her like she was underwater, and bolts of orange electric lighting flew from her, striking out at appliances and metal objects cracking open her skin to escape her. Her eyes found Catherine's and they were white. Pure white and glowing in a misty orb sort of way. Her face clear of pain, clear of any sort of emotion at all.

Catherine tried to scream, she tried to move away, but Rowan's hand grabbed her arm and then they weren't in Steve's kitchen anymore.

The first thing she noticed was the light. She was surrounded by it. From all sides. Twinkling lights like stars and one large one floating ominously in the distance behind Rowan like a spectre closed off by a wall of red webbing. The light behind it pulsed letting off a misty sort of miasma that coated the red webbing with ice. The twinkling light around them also had strings, each a different color, that flowed and ebbed around them like tendrils of smoke.

Catherine couldn't breathe. It was like the air had been sucked out of her, but Rowan either couldn't or wouldn't let go. She was bound in spot by the same red strings that were weaving a wall between her and that pulsing ghost light. The strings were like vines, crawled up and down her body, encircling her, she didn't look like she would be able to move. Rowan jerked, like something was pulling her back. The red strings were gathering up behind her, churning and twisting. It was from behind her that Steve appeared. The strings bound him up to her, which wasn't hard as he was reaching out for Rowan. He had a frantic look on his face, fear and concern was driving him forward.

He made contact with Rowan. His arms gripping her around her torso and then they tumbled out of the void immediately. Rowan's grip on Catherine faltered and Catherine took that opportunity to rip herself out of her grasp. She fell back against the stove gasping for air desperately trying to remember how to breathe.

Steve stood across from her holding a limp Rowan in his arms. Blood leaked from the burns on her arms, blood was slowly beginning to seep out of her nose. Steve was holding her, shaking her, trying to determine if she was okay, if she was alive.

Catherine finally believed.


	26. Chapter 26

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Guys! I can't believe we got to that many reviews! You guys are champions! So to reward you not only am I updating early... I'mma give you guys the chance to get a THIRD update this week! If we get to 195 reviews I will post again WEDNESDAY and FRIDAY! What do you think? Good idea? Okay, so this chapter is 11 pages long, I hope that's not too long. This chapter has more cute moments from Steve and Rowan, next chapter will have even more plus a super secret surprise twist! I don't think you guys are gonna guess what it is either! But feel free to try! I'll see you guys, soon!_

Chapter 26

* * *

Max was called to check on Rowan because Steve knew he couldn't take her to the doctor without having to explain what happened to her. He did a full examination on her. First and second degree electrical burns, all as if the burns were caused from the inside out. Signs of the final stage of anorexia, protruding bones, blue tinge to her finger nails and soft downy hair growing in abnormal places, like in the wings of her collarbones. These signs take months or years to appear and she was exhibiting none of these signs when she was at Max's only four days ago. There was no way for her to have suddenly gotten all of them in that short of a time. There were wing shaped bruises spanning from her shoulder blades all the way down to her lower back. Her blood pressure was high, her blood thin, her heart beat weak and her breathing short and rapid.

Rowan was falling apart and Steve was about to have a damn nervous breakdown over it.

But Steve had a case. He had a missing politician to find. And his current girlfriend was having her own nervous breakdown over Rowan's little magic trick. He was being pulled in so many directions he was stretched too thin. At this rate he was going to burn himself out.

Why the hell had Rowan done it? He still didn't know. He just knew that he woke up to an empty bed and a pain in his chest. Rowan was flickering again. ROWAN WAS FLICKERING AGAIN. He had tumbled out of bed and sprinted downstairs to find that Rowan was in fact flickering in his kitchen and she had fucking taken Catherine with her. He had grabbed her, grounding her back in his reality and she just collapsed in his arms while Catherine collapsed against the counter tops.

Luckily Max had agreed to watch Rowan while Steve dealt with Catherine and his job. He had agreed to keep an eye on her vitals and for any other signs of injury as well, which was a weight off of Steve's already laden shoulders. Steve went and found Catherine who was sitting on his lanai in a seat that usually belonged to Rowan but he figured it would be wise to not mention that now.

"You okay?" Steve asked patting her on the shoulder. "It's a little jarring going into the void. Did you want me to ask Max to look you over?"

Catherine turned to him, her eyes wide, filled with confusion and questions. "She's actually not from here," she said and Steve nodded. "And that place… that void… it was so thick and empty and… and…"

"Amazing?" Steve offered. Because he too had been amazed and blinded by the twinkling lights that had swirled around them. Had been awed by the fact that he was traveling between realities.

Catherine nodded. "And you just grabbed her and ripped her out of it."

"Well, yeah, it's easy when she's not moving. When she's stationary like that, it's like she blinking in and out of the world. But usually it looks like she's in pain, like it's killing her. I've never seen her look so calm like that before," Steve said. "I think it's because she chose to do it. The first few times it happened it wasn't her choice."

"What, you mean like something pulled her in and you went and got her out?" Catherine asked.

"Yeah. I think… I think something was trying to pull her back home. But she was fighting it or she was stuck or something. And when I saw her, I just panicked," Steve explained. "Ever since then, whenever she flickers I feel it too."

Steve hoped she didn't see too much in the void. He hoped she didn't ask about the red strings the void kept tangling around him and Rowan. He hoped she didn't ask why he stopped her from going home. He hoped she didn't ask any technical questions. Because Steve didn't know a whole lot about what was happening here.

"I'm sorry I didn't believe you," Catherine said. "I should have realized that you wouldn't have just blindly listened to her. I should have realized you wouldn't have believe unless you had witnessed something."

Steve shook his head. "It's fine. It was a pretty crazy theory to begin with."

"Have you thought about contacting someone about this? A scientist maybe?" she asked.

Steve was just glad she wasn't trying to put Rowan into a padded cell anymore.

"I did contact someone. He's an expert in this sort of thing, apparently. And get this, his name is Professor Trenton Pierce," Steve said.

"Holy shit," Catherine whispered. "You don't think they're related, do you?"

Steve shrugged. "Rowan said she didn't have family here. If she didn't exist it was most likely because her family line didn't exist here either. But she also doesn't talk about her life before coming here so I don't know anything about her family in the first place."

"She talks like she knows a lot about alternate reality theories though," Catherine reminded him. "Could that be because she had a family member who knew a lot about them?"

"Maybe. But even if she is related to him, it's not her version of her relative, you know? And if she was, why didn't his DNA pop when I ran her's all those months ago?" he asked.

Catherine fell quiet and Steve did too. He tried not to look at his watch or pull out his phone. He was late, he had a case to get on, he needed to go but he didn't want to rush this. He also didn't want to leave Rowan but he couldn't say that to Catherine.

"Will she be okay?" Catherine asked breaking their silence.

"I don't know, Cath," Steve said. "I think she damn near killed herself trying to find her way home. You said the lightning was coming out of her, right? That would explain all of the scarring she had on her arms and chest and legs. Can you imagine how often she was trying, how long she was in there trying to find her way home? It obviously wasn't easy on her. She's lucky I even found her in the middle of the ocean."

Catherine shook her head. It was all too much, Steve could see it. There were so many unanswered questions, things he couldn't tell her simply because he didn't know.

"I have one last question."

"Shoot."

"Are we good?"

It was a good question. He wasn't sure. He knew he loved Catherine, but that feeling was starting to fade out a bit. Did that mean he wanted to end things? No. Right now he had one priority and that was to take care of Rowan. To make sure she didn't try to disappear on him again. To make sure she lived.

"Yeah," he said. "I forgive you. Just please… please don't make me choose again."

A strange emotion played across her features. One he didn't recognize. But she stood and hugged him and he enveloped her in his arms holding her to his chest. Wishing that he couldn't feel the echo of Rowan in his arms. Wishing he could stop comparing the two of them.

"I gotta run, thanks for understanding," he said before kissing her cheek and turning away.

He'd check on Rowan later.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

As soon as Steve was back he interrogated a mainland school teacher whose only crime was screwing their dead hooker in a bar washroom whilst being married. Not their murderer. Not their kidnapper. Knew nothing about island politics, nor cared. Must like Steve, who had been distracted the whole time, losing his sentences, taking out his phone, certain that it was ringing. That it was Max telling him that Rowan had succumb to her injuries, or worse, had disappeared again.

Once they were out of the interrogation room, and Chin had confirmed the school teacher's alibi Steve had every intention of heading straight back to his house for a "lunch break." This so-called break would consist of him hugging Rowan until his heart beat went back to a normal arrhythmia, and then shaking her awake so she could tell him what had happened while they had been separated.

Kono had come down and dashed that dream. The missing chief of staff, Amy Davidson, had finally up and showed up. Okay, so no lunch break, he'd just go to talk to this Davidson woman, and then he'd take his break. Yeah, he'd stop off for malasadas, bring her some tea, she loved tea, and then do the whole hugging and shaking thing.

Steve checked his phone every five seconds while driving. Not safe. Not good. But he couldn't help it. He heard phantom vibrating, heard phantom ringing, and had an irrational fear beating in his chest. He'd be stupid if Danny hadn't noticed.

"She's fine, Steve, you found her," Danny reminded him. Almost sourly. His was still a little upset that Steve had called Chin instead of Danny.

"I know," Steve whispered. "But you should have seen her, Danny, she looks like she's been tortured for weeks."

He still couldn't get the image of her bobbing in those waves out of his head. How that spot light on the boat had picked up her red hair and then it was her pale face looking nothing short of spectral against the mountains of black tossing her back and forth. He had dived off the side with no disregard for his own safety, no life line or anything. His heart had all but stopped when the water sucked her under and then it was all about getting her back to the boat.

He had clung to her, both enveloped in scratching emergency blankets, until they got to shore.

"I couldn't have seen her, you didn't call me," Danny snapped and Steve rolled his eyes again. "Had to find out from Kono you got her back."

"Danny, I've already told you. I called Chin because he had access to the boat and you had Grace last night. Now let it go," Steve growled.

"Let it go. Let it go, he says," Danny sighed. "Fucking jumps off a boat in the middle of a storm to save the girl. The girl he sent off in the first place. Doesn't bother to shoot me a text saying he got her back. Why would I need to know that? Why would I care? It's not like I was worried about her too."

Steve shook his head and ignored Danny. Only Danny could make Steve rescuing Rowan about himself. Chin had been telling people the story. Great. That was all he needed. Steve rolled his eyes one more time and then picked up his phone again.

"Keep your eyes on the road you animal," Danny snapped. "If it rings and it's Max I'll pick it up for you, okay?"

How wonderful of Danny to have picked up on Steve's ticks and figure out that it was tied to Rowan. He was a detective of course, but Steve had hoped he was being a bit more subtle.

The rest of the drive was in silence and then the two of them were storming into Congressman Freed's campaign office.

As soon as they spotted Josh Steve pounced.

"Josh, where's Amy Davidson?"

The younger man frowned at them. "She's inside with Powers."

Powers? Freed's main opponent?

Danny caught that too. "Brad Powers. That's Freed's opponent. What's he doing here?" he asked.

Yeah. Good questions. Both Danny and Steve turned to Josh who looked less than pleased about this whole situation.

"He came by to discuss ground rules of the debate with the congressman. I was handling the situation. Then all of a sudden, Amy shows up," he snapped. Just the way he said it denoted just how happy he was about the situation. "Picks up right where she left off, like nothing even happened."

"Did she say where she was?" Steve asked.

Josh shook his head. "No, she didn't. She went behind closed doors with Powers and they've been there ever since."

Well, clearly Josh didn't care about anything else except that he had been iced out of that meeting. But when the doors came open he stood back and let the man in the suit and his crony looking men come forward. Clearly this was Powers.

"Josh, you disappoint me," was the first thing he said. Wow. What a douche. "I don't know what kind of campaign you're running. But I don't buy Amy's spin for a minute."

"We're not spinning anything, Mr. Powers," Josh said carefully, sounding ever so sincere. God, these political types had to be sociopaths to be able to lie so convincingly like that.

"Really, then what's Five-0 doing here?" Powers asked.

Ohh, he knew who they were. Steve loved it when people knew who he was before he had to introduce himself.

Still he ignored the little thrill he got from his minor celebrity status and said: "That's between us and the congressman, sir."

"Yeah? Well, when you see him, please ask him why he blew me off a night ago without so much as a phone call," Powers snapped.

Danny pounced on that immediately. "What time were you supposed to meet him?"

"Eleven o'clock," Power answered and then turned back to Josh. "I've known Chris Freed for fifteen years. He'd never pulled a stunt like that."

"I'm sure it's just a misunderstanding, sir," Josh said. But Powers wasn't having it.

"He said he wanted to run a civil campaign, one with mutual respect and all of that," he reminded Josh, his eyes wide with his anger and frustration. "This is a hell of a way to show it. I don't know what you people are hiding but I'm going to find out. And when I do, so will the press."

He left with that threat hanging in the air. Stormed off with his burly guy, who looked more like a bodyguard forced into a suit than anything else. Once he was in the hallway, Danny put a hand to Josh's arm.

"Okay. We need to speak to Amy now," he ordered.

Josh opened up the door that Powers had just come from, letting Danny and Steve through. "Amy? I've got Five-0 here. They need to talk to you," he told her.

The woman turned, her angular features pointed, a frown on her face. Steve stepped up quickly. He wanted to get this done and over with, he wanted to get back to Rowan and right now this woman, who had just been missing, was the only person standing between him and her.

"Miss Davidson, where's Congressman Freed?" Steve asked, straight the heart of the matter.

"I don't know, but I think he might have done something terrible," she told them. Well hot damn. Wasn't that a revelation?

"So, you don't know where he is?" Danny asked, clearly surprised. They had all be under the impression that Congressman Freed and his chief of staff had disappeared together as they had both been missing together. Had this been a separate issue all together? No, that didn't make sense.

Amy picked up a stack of papers and pretended to play with them. "Don't you think I'd help you guys if I could?" she shot back instead of answering Danny's question. "I just don't know where he is right now."

Danny sighed. "Okay. Let's start with you. Where have you been?"

Steve put his hands on his hips and stared her down. Not quite a glare but he wasn't smiling at her. This type of stare down usually worked for him, unless it was Rowan. She'd just start laughing at him and then he'd start laughing. The stare down was 100% less effective if one or two of the parties in the stare down were laughing.

"I was out. Looking for him," she cried. "Look, you don't get it. This is complicated."

"Then speak slowly, all right?" Steve snapped back. He did not have time for this bullshit. "Because I need to understand why a man like Congressman Freed would risk everything to get serviced by a prostitute."

If Rowan were here she would have muttered: _He's a guy. Most guys have their brains in their dicks._ But Steve never got that mentality. Yeah, he liked sex, like any other guy did, but if he were in that position, where a prostitute could ruin everything, whether it be his career or his marriage, at no point was he going to chance it.

"To tell you the truth, I brought her to meet the congressman," Amy admitted.

Well that floored both Steve and Danny for a minute. "Wow. Well that's a smart move. Why'd you do that?" he asked, clearly trying to hard not to ask instead: "What you had a political death wish for him and wanted to speed it along? What's the matter with you?!"

That's what he would have asked if Steve had said that to him instead of this woman.

"It doesn't happen all the time, but he's under a lot of stress, and he's a single father, so he's on his own. I mean, besides his daughter, there's really no one else in his life. So sometimes he just needs a little companionship for the evening," she explained. With Danny nodding along like he understood but Steve could tell from Danny's face that he either didn't or thought this girl was dumb beyond belief. Good. Steve thought so too.

"So, you're chief of staff and part-time madam for him?" Danny asked. Yes. There was the sass Steve knew and loved.

"Come on, the guy's human," Amy growled. And there's Rowan's logic about the situation… if she were there with them to hear it.

"Amy, I have to ask you. To the best of your knowledge has the congressman ever hurt any of the women he's been with?" he asked. He had to. He hoped she wouldn't know, but he figured if anyone did it was her.

"Rough stuff doesn't seem to be his thing, but, you know, who knows what goes on behind closed doors?" she replied. Okay, it was official. Amy Davidson knew too much information about her boss.

"Well, something happened that night. Where'd you find Serena Andrews?" he asked crossing his arms over his chest.

"Picked her up at a place called the Liki Tiki Lounge and I dropped her off at the mansion in Kahala," she replied almost like a robot on script.

"No, you delivered her to the congressman, like a pizza," Danny, the sass master, snapped. Okay, it was starting to get to be a bit too much.

"Yes," Amy agreed, clearly done with Danny's sass. Steve breezed past that.

"What about the congressman's 11 o'clock with Powers? Why did he blow that off?" Steve questioned.

Amy sighed. "I don't know. That's why I went back to the mansion. But when I got there, he was gone and I found the girl in the bed."

"And being the pragmatic political officer that you are you go to the governor instead of the police?" Danny growled.

"Because I knew they were friends and I needed time to think," she explained as if it all made rational sense.

"To plan a cover-up," Danny filled in for her.

"No!" she cried. Even though that was probably it. "No. Look, something like this has national repercussions. Okay, you need to have a viable strategy."

Steve cut her off. "What time did you pick up Serena Andrews?"

"Nine. Nine fifteen. She was right on time," she replied. "Am I under arrest?"

And that was the end of their conversation. Danny and Steve left but it wasn't until they left the lobby that they started talking shop about their case.

"Amy might be a good chief of staff but she's a terrible liar," Danny told him as they walked through the door. "The professor was shot and off Serena in the bathroom stall at nine fifteen. She didn't leave the bar till ten."

That was true. "You're right," Steve admitted.

"If I'm right, then why isn't she under arrest?" Danny asked him.

Steve pulled out his phone again. He couldn't feign the need for a lunch break now. Not when Amy Davidson had pulled this crap. He needed to figure out why she was lying and if it had anything to do with wherever Chris Freed went. There were no calls from Max, so that meant that things were fine with Rowan, or she was still asleep. Fuck. Why was she still asleep?

"We have to find the congressman and if he's on the run, chances are he's going to reach out to her," Steve answered absently.

"So, let's sit on her phone, post a surveillance team at her door," Danny said. And that was why Steve couldn't go home for lunch.

"Exactly. And let Freed come to us. The thing I want to know is, why is Amy lying?" Steve replied, once again pulling out his phone to check it. His fingers itched to dial Max. Even if she was just sleeping there should have been some update, right?

"Okay, that is it," Danny snapped. "I'm taking you home."

Steve paused. "Wait… what? Why?"

"You are obviously worrying about Rowan. The girl, according to you, is practically on her deathbed. And you want to go to her," Danny explained. "I can see it. It's why you keep checking your phone."

Steve sighed. Fuck. He really was that obvious. "We have a case," Steve reminded him.

"Yeah, and the rest of us can handle it for a few hours while you drop in and check on Rowan," Danny argued. "I'm not taking no for an answer. I'm dropping you off at your place. End of story."

Steve wanted to argue but his phone was ringing and it was Max. He didn't even tell Danny to wait, he just picked up the phone.

"Max, she awake?" he asked.

"Yes. She has finally awoken and has requested that I get into her bed and… cuddle with her. Is this normal?" Max asked.

Steve felt a twinge of jealousy prick his heart. Why the fuck was she asking Max to do what she usually got him to do? For fuck sake. "Yeah, it's normal. But don't worry about it, I'm on my way back, so I'll deal with it when I get there," he said.

"Okay. By the sounds of it she's currently in the shower, I will be in the kitchen making her something to eat," Max said.

"Okay, but Max, if you hear anything, go in there and check on her," Steve ordered.

"Oh, uh, well, I don't know about that. It seems improper for me to just barge in…"

Steve cut him off. "Max. If you hear something strange coming from that shower I am giving you explicit permission to go in there and check on her. And I will be very disappointed if you don't."

Max agreed and hung up the phone and tried to ignore Danny's triumphant smile beaming into the side of his face. "Shut up," he muttered before Danny could say anything. Right at that moment all he wanted to do was to get into the car and get to Rowan.

As quickly as possible.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O- H5O**

Rowan awoke and it wasn't violent. Maybe it was because her limbs felt like lead, like the weight of the world had caught up to her and was sitting on her chest. She groaned and found Max standing over her, she tried to smile at him but her lips didn't work right.

"You should try to rest," he told her. "You've been through a lot. I'm not sure what it was that you went through to inflict injuries and symptoms such as these, but I'm glad that you seem to be recovering well."

She wouldn't have even known how to explain it to Max so she was glad when he didn't try to ask her about it. "Where's Steve?" she asked, almost grateful that he wasn't there as she probably looked like a swamp creature.

"He is working on his case," Max answered. "He has left me in charge of your wellbeing."

Aww poor Max. On Rowan-sitting duty.

"And Catherine? Is she okay?" she asked. Everyone else that had been pulled into the void, that one prison guard anyway, had not fared well against the harsh conditions. She sort of half hoped that something had happened but when she reminded herself that that was cruel she tried to hope that Catherine was okay.

"As far as I know Lieutenant Rollins left in perfect health, did something happen to her?" he asked.

Rowan forced herself to sit up, ignoring the burning in her arms as she did so. "We got in a fight. I thought I might have landed a hit but I guess she knocked me out before I could."

"Strange, you showed no signs of a struggle. Did she maybe surprise you with a blow to the back of your head? I must admit with all your other injuries I failed to check your head, shall I do so now?" he asked already standing up to do just that.

"It's okay Max, maybe I just fainted," she said waving his hands away.

"Regardless, Commander McGarrett was very clear that I was to make sure you were alright. I should check your head for any injuries," he said again and this time he didn't allow her to swat the hands away.

"I seem to remember you dating a nurse, while not as qualified as me, would you like me to contact him to give you a second opinion?" Max asked. "Or maybe just the company of your partner."

Rowan smiled up to him and shook his head. "No, thank you, Max. But Alex and I broke up."

"Is there anything I could do to make you more comfortable?" he asked.

"Yeah, actually," she whispered. "Could you get in the bed with me? I need someone to cuddle."

Max went an unnatural color, clearly he was surprised at her request. "I think it would be better if I called McGarrett or your nurse, broken up or no," Max said already beginning to stand, his hand in his pocket searching for his phone.

As soon as he left to room to make the phone call Rowan was forcing herself up. She needed to shower, it had been days since her proper shower. Last night didn't count as last night's bath had been to wash the ocean off of her and to warm her up. As quickly as she could she got herself into the washroom and into the shower. The water running, Max would know where she was. Then she started to contemplate her situation

She didn't know what to do. She didn't want to stay, she didn't want to be a burden and make Steve's life more stressful. But yet, she didn't want to leave him. There was nothing she wanted more than to stay the way she had been when she woke up that morning. Forehead to forehead, Steve's arms around her. For a brief moment she had forgotten everything he had said and all about his girlfriend. For a brief moment she felt as if he could feel for her the way she felt for him. That moment was shattered when the pain sunk in, the burning in her limbs and in her chest. He had wanted her gone, that's why it hurt inside and out. But he had also come to save her that had to mean something, didn't it?

She had gotten up to make him coffee and breakfast, all she could do to show him that she was grateful. He'd want to talk to her, he'd want to ask her where she had been and what she had been doing other than trying to get back home. And then Catherine was behind her and the rest of her hope went up in smoke.

Catherine was angry, she could see it on her features. She wanted to send Rowan away, and not just to live with Chin, who could probably use the company. An asylum. Rowan didn't want to go to where they'd put her in a padded room or in a straitjacket. Why didn't Catherine believe what Steve had told her? Why not? Did she want to have him committed too? Well, she'd show her.

She had used all what had been left of her anger. She had pushed through the pain and the tiredness in her body and forced herself to find the doorway to the void. And then she had taken Catherine in with her. Maybe if she kept her there long enough the woman would go down like the guard had. Maybe she could leave her there in the void and tell Steve she had no idea what happened. Maybe she could send Catherine to her home instead to tell Rowan's family where she was.

But all of that came to an end the second Steve had a hold of her. And then she found that, after that last trip, she was too exhausted to do anything except collapse in Steve's arms.

What did she want now? She wanted Steve. She couldn't have him, but she wanted him. She wanted to go home, but she didn't want to leave Steve. Maybe that was why she couldn't get home, her feelings for Steve were keeping her there.

She wrapped herself up in one of Steve's many beach towels and returned to her room. It hurt her just to look at it. This room that he had done up just for her. He cared, she knew he did, not in the same way, but he did care a bit. And she needed to get away from it. She couldn't go home if she was tied to him so she'd have to sever whatever was between her and Steve, get over him and get home.

"Ro?"

Rowan turned and Steve was in the door way. His blue eyes searching hers, assessing her profile, looking like he was worried she was going to try and climb out her window again.

"Steve! What are you doing here?" she asked adjusting her towel even though the thing was a dress on her.

He crossed to her snatching her up and into his arms. Rowan melted into the embrace, hugging him back, digging her fingers into his back. His breath was hot against her neck, his arms just as tightly around her as hers were around him.

When he finally pulled away from her she saw a smile on his face that she wasn't quite sure she recognized but the way the sun lit up his face was enough to make her smile back at him. Why did he have to be so fucking handsome? Why did he have to be so kind and wonderful? Why was he the total fucking package? It wasn't fair. Because all it took was that hug and that strange smile for her to completely forget about getting over him and fall just a little deeper into whatever fucking emotion was rolling around in her chest.

"I thought you had a case?" she asked.

Steve shrugged. "I do, but I wanted to come check on you. Clear up a few things."

Ice filled Rowan's veins. She took a step back from him. She didn't want to have that talk. She didn't want him to tell her to leave again. The fear must have been apparent on her face for Steve's hand darted out and again and gripped her wrist before she could evade him.

"It's not bad," he whispered. "I'm not mad at you, or anything. I just want to apologize."

He wasn't… and he what?

Rowan looked up at him. She didn't trust him anymore. She could feel it, the knot of worry that ebbed softly into pain. Her heart was still cleaved down the middle and she didn't trust him not to smash her into a million pieces again. "Can I get changed?" she asked indicating to her towel.

Steve seemed to take in the towel for the first time and then backed away adverting his eyes probably to protect her modesty. "Yes. Of course. Sorry," he whispered. "I'll, uh… I'll wait for you downstairs."

As soon as the door shut behind him the proud lift in her shoulders sagged away. Rowan needed to end things with Steve. She needed to escape before he could do anymore damage to her. She couldn't stay trapped by her feeling for him forever, not if there was never going to be anything between them.

Rowan Pierce was going to have to break her own heart.


	27. Chapter 27

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanfics**

 _A/N: Happy Halloween you guys! Today I'm Wednesday Addams, (Wednesday on Wednesday) what are you guys dressed up as? Well, we defnitely made it to 195 reviews so here's your reward! There's a lot I needed to cover in this chapter so it's kinda sorta, 16 pages long! I tried to not leave this one on a cliffhanger, but apparently you guys have thought all of my chapters ended on cliffhangers. Hopefully you guys like how this chapter ends. Let me tell you, this is where the ANGST is gonna start. It's gonna get really angsty up in the story. And I'd like to say it's gonna end in a few chapters but it's basically gonna go on until I get to the end of season 5 (there will be different reasons for the angst so don't worry about that). Sorry in advance. But hey! We get to have a third update! So I'll see you on Friday!_

Chapter 27

* * *

When Rowan made her way down the stairs she was in her favourite pair of khaki green shorts and a white flowing shirt that was just sheer enough to see the color of her bra and just thick enough to make people take a second look to make sure that was the color they were seeing. It was an outfit she carefully picked, to show Steve what he had been missing out on and because it showed the most amount of scabs she had cultivated from all her travels into the void. Steve's smile widened upon seeing her downstairs and she noted that while a mug of tea and a stack of toast was waiting for her, Max was not.

"He had to go back to work," Steve answered before she asked and Rowan was forced to stop looking around and focus her attention back to him. Fuck he was so handsome. Why the hell was he so handsome in his cotton blue tee shirt and white cargo pants? Why couldn't he look ridiculous like anyone else who tried to pull that look off? Fuck him and his muscles straining through the shirt, and those tattoos on his biceps and that stupid puppy dog look on his face.

"You said you wanted to talk to me?" she said as she arranged herself in the arm chair and as far away from Steve as she could manage.

For a moment he looked crushed. He was clearly saving a seat on the couch for her. He had put food and tea out for her, but Rowan didn't think she could stomach anything at this point. When she didn't move Steve sighed and moved himself so he was sitting on the side of the couch that was closest to her.

"Yes, I think we need to talk about what happened and what was said," he replied.

"As I recall you were the only one shouting hurtful things," she reminded him and that old anger resurfaced. Yes, good, she could use that to her advantage. _Remember to be mad at him. Remember how hurtful and mean he was. Don't fall for him. Don't fall for his apology._

Steve had the good grace to look ashamed. "Yes. I know," he replied. "I was hoping to explain what had happened."

"I know what happened," Rowan snapped. "You got mad at me for not listening, for putting myself in danger, and you said you didn't want to deal with me anymore and I needed to go home."

"Yes, Rowan, I know what I said. But that is not why I said it," Steve snapped back. She pinned him with a dry glare and he relented. "Okay. It's part of why I said it but it's not the whole reason."

Rowan just stared at him, what the hell was he saying to her? She watched Steve take a deep breath and then start again.

"Look, I never should have said those things to you. I was just scared and upset. Catherine and I had a huge argument about you. You were blinking out of my life and I didn't… want you to. So when you told me you could do it at will I panicked," he explained. He was purposely not looking at her. He was looking everywhere but.

All she heard in that sentence was that he didn't want her to leave. Was Steve talking to her about his… feelings?

"I wasn't blinking to leave you. I blinked to save Chin, there's a big difference," Rowan reminded him.

"But could you use it to get home?" he asked, his voice sounding hollow.

"Clearly not, because I've been trying for about a week and yet somehow I'm still here," she cried. Steve's blue eyes came back up to meet hers and she found that she was disastrously close to crying.

"You told me to leave, Steve," she reminded him and he winced and went back to avoiding her eyes again. "I had no one else. Nowhere to go. No way to get a job. And now I have no way to get home. Without you, I don't have anything. And that's pretty fucking scary to me."

Steve stared at her, his vivid blue eyes linked with hers. There was a grimness about him. A sort of determination she didn't recognize.

"I'm am truly sorry for what I said to you, Ro," he whispered to her. "I regretted those words the second they came out, but I was trying to save myself from getting hurt again. The fact of the matter is that everyone I care about leaves. And I have grown to care for you… very much. Having some unknown force trying to drag you back was scary enough for me. When you could do it at will all I saw was you leaving for real, just like everyone else. And I didn't want that, not when I was so attached to you. So I pushed you away before you could hurt me."

"That doesn't make it okay, Steve," she replied. She was trying so hard to stay angry. But he was baring his heart to her. He didn't want her to leave him. _He cared about her._

"I know, I know," he admitted. "I have a long way to make it up to you, I do. But I just want you to know that I want you stay. With me. I don't care what Catherine says. I don't care what she does. You're staying with me, I'm never letting you go again, do you understand me?"

Rowan stared at him. She could feel herself slipping. Falling back into that crush, plunging even deeper than that. He hadn't flat out said that he liked her in the same way she liked him. In fact she was pretty sure she had just been friendzoned. But he cared. He cared about her. He didn't want her to leave. And he wasn't going to let Catherine make her go. It filled her with a hope she couldn't afford to have

"Yes," she whispered. "Thank you."

Steve's smile set her heart racing again. God she was so weak. Why couldn't she say no to him? WHY?

"Okay, so that's out of the way. Why don't you tell me what you got up to this week?" he asked.

"I spent most of it trying to get home," she replied.

"Yes, I know," he shot back. His hand went to his chest, rubbing the center of it absently as if it was suddenly hurting him. "I felt it, you know. Every single time you tried to leave, I felt it."

Rowan blinked her eyes. "You did? Really?" she asked. She longed to reach out and grab his hand, but luckily she had placed herself far enough away from him that she couldn't. He wasn't hers to have, he could be her friend and her roommate but he'd never love her. "I didn't know that. What does it feel like?"

"Uh, like someone has grabbed my heart and is squeezing it," he answered her absently. "It's not important though."

Rowan couldn't agree less. It was very important. She had no idea that she was causing Steve that much pain. And she was very sorry for doing so. She had been under the impression that the only person being affected by her constant flickering in the void was herself. She mentally promised herself that she'd wouldn't try to go home anymore, that she'd never hurt Steve in that way ever again.

"That wasn't all you did though," Steve reminded her. "You stopped off at Kamekona's truck, at Max's and at my mother's. And then you vanished for two days. Where were you for those two days, Rowan?"

Rowan frowned. She didn't want to tell Steve where she was. She didn't want to tell him who she had bumped into. Especially since she felt like she sort of owed him. As a blood thirsty murderer he didn't need to take her in when she had collapsed in front of him. He could have left her there. Shot her for seeing his face. Instead he took her somewhere warm, tried to feed her, and tried to find out what happened to her. Other than the other Five-0s, this was the first friend she had kind of made. Even if he had locked her in his hotel room and told her she wasn't allowed to leave. She needed a cover story.

Instead of answering she said: "You heard about all of that?"

"Yes, Rowan. They all told me you came to them. You scared Kamekona half to death he's had his contacts on the island looking out for you. He lectured me for two days straight and charges me double at the truck now. Max won't look me in the eye. My mother practically spanked me she was so angry," he growled. And Rowan blushed and avoided his eyes.

"If it makes you feel better, that wasn't why I went to them, to get you in trouble I mean," she whispered. "It's where I got dropped."

"Dropped?" he asked his eye brows furrowing together.

"Yes. I couldn't find my way home, remember? I was getting lost, it was hard to move, sometimes I'd come tumbling out of the void. Usually I landed in the surf outside your place. Other times it dropped me in other places. Once on the shore right by Kamekona's truck. Outside Max's apartment when he was just getting home and at one point right in Doris' living room. I have to pay her back for the coffee table I broke," she explained. "It also dropped me in a tree outside the court house on the day of Danny's hearing."

Steve nodded as it explained a few things and maybe it did. "And the two days where you weren't staying with someone? You couldn't have been in the void for a whole two days, and you didn't try to travel so where were you?"

Rowan sighed. She was going to have to lie. "Promise not to freak out?" she asked. When Steve nodded she hung her head quite dramatically and said: "I kinda just slept out on the beach."

"You did what?!" Steve thundered and Rowan tried not to laugh about it. He looked so stricken by the thought of her out alone on a beach.

"Steve you promised," she chided him trying not to grin.

"Okay, yes fine. But that was stupid. Jesus Rowan, that was dangerous. You could have just come here," he snapped.

"I didn't know that Steve," she whispered. "I didn't know you were looking for me. I didn't know you wanted me back. I thought I was doing as you asked."

Steve sighed at her. He had told her over and over that he didn't mean it. It was cruel of her to keep pressing it, but it she couldn't help it. Sorry or not, he said those hurtful things she couldn't ignore anymore.

"Please eat something," he murmured. Clearly not trying to argue with her. She reached out for a slice of toast and once she put it to her lips he added: "I've said sorry. How many more times are you gonna make me I say it?"

"Those words hurt, Steve," she reminded him around the mouthful of toast she had just taken in. "It'll take me some time to get over that. I know you're sorry and that helps, it does. But I still hear them repeating in my head over and over, and they still hurt."

Steve avoided her eyes. He looked so forlorn that she felt the need to add: "They hurt so much because… well… I care a great deal about you too. When you said I wasn't any use, that my knowledge didn't really help anyone, I got well… nervous. I'm so far from home, to make myself feel better I told myself that I was here to make a difference and when you told me I wasn't it made me wonder why I was even here. Add the fact that Catherine had just come back and you went from obsessing over everything I did to tossing me aside like rubbish, it made me feel even worse. That was very hurtful to my pride, you know."

Steve's head whipped up. If Rowan had been looking at him she would have seen a feeling akin to hope flash in his eyes. She'd have noticed that his eyes began caressing her features almost softly or appreciatively, but as she kept her eyes on the foot he kept tapping in his impatience, which had gotten a beat quicker after her confession, she didn't notice.

In fact, she just kept plowing onward. As if unable to stop. She just kept talking in the hopes of eventually having him stop her.

"I really only rush off into danger to help you," she continued. "I know your friends mean a lot to you, and I'm very fond of them too, so when the opportunity arose to help one of them, I took it. There's not much I can do to help you Steve. I'm not a cop, I'm not trained in anything, and we probably shouldn't trust me with a gun. But I have this knowledge you don't want to use so I figured I'd use it anyway… especially if it kept you from getting hurt, both physically and emotionally."

She took a bite of toast to stop her mouth from moving and immediately Steve moved. He went from sitting on the couch to sitting beside her perched on the arm of the chair. His hand went into her hair. His mouth opened to tell her something, her heart pounding wondering what words were going to fall from those perfectly kissable lips.

And then his phone rang.

Rowan cursed the _Hawaii Five-0_ gods. Did he have to get a phone call now? Steve didn't seem too pleased about it himself, but he excused himself to take the phone call.

It was work, of course. And judging by his tone they were calling him to come back. They probably had a big break or something. Regardless, when he came back in the moment was gone and whatever he was going to say to her was lost forever.

"That was Chin, he's got something for me," he said. "It's a big case, very important."

"I know," Rowan said, because it was true.

"I... uh… I know you're not feeling well, but, I've got to go. I know if I do I'm just going to worry about you," he told her.

"Not conducive to a productive day, I presume," she said with a teasing smirk on her face. She knew what he was going to say what he was going to ask.

"Would you feel up to coming with me?" he asked.

"Would I be getting my vest?" she asked. She hadn't had to wear it in a while, and it had the most wonderful bedazzling she wanted to show him.

"I'm going to try to make sure you don't need it," he answered.

Rowan shrugged. "Alright. If it'll make you feel better I'll come with you," she said.

The smile that lit up his face put butterflies into her stomach. Oh, why did she even bother trying? She'd never get over Steve McGarrett.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Happy was not enough to describe the feeling he had when Rowan agreed to come to work with him. Excited to have her with him again and relieved that he wouldn't be leaving her all alone. He just had this feeling that everything was right in his world. This was where he was meant to be. And after that conversation they had just had he was more than certain that things would go his way. Things were going to work out. Walking into Iolana Palace with Rowan beside him, just felt right.

Though it was probably more just having Rowan by his side that was making him feel that way.

Steve hadn't been expecting the responses of his teammates though. She walked through the door to their office, just behind Steve, and Kono had squealed loudly and rushed her. He had never seen Kono that excited to anyone that wasn't Adam or Chin. Chin was next to hug her, even though he had seen her last night, he had been too nervous to step in between Steve and Rowan at that time.

Danny was next pulling her into an embrace so tight it rivaled the strongest of pythons and telling her that if she tried to run off like that again he'd arrest her himself. Rowan had just laughed and set Steve's blood on fire at the same time.

Already she was a little more vibrant and a little fuller than before. She was still skin and bones, she was still dangerously ill, but the smile on her face made her look a little bit more human than before. And she seemed to be glowing, which was great to see after worrying about her for so long.

Chin dove straight into the investigation while Steve got Rowan a chair to sit in. She was still tired, still not able to stand for too long. He had forced her to eat something before coming here of course, she ate very little and that had worried him, but he'd have time to fatten her up again.

"So, I've been checking Amy's time line and it doesn't add up," Chin told them.

"Oh, you don't say," Danny sighed sarcastically. No one in the room was surprised. Not even Rowan.

"Mm-hm. She said she picked up Serena Andrews from the Liki Tiki Lounge at nine fifteen. But when I ran her credit cards she was having drinks at another place called the Ocean Lounge."

"By herself?" Steve asked.

"No. She bought two rounds," Chin replied. "Two drinks each time."

"Who was she with?" Danny asked.

"The black secretary," Rowan answered from her chair.

They all turned to her at that point but it was Steve who asked: "Is she right?"

"Yes, Amy was with Josh Lowry, the congressman's press secretary. He confirmed it. They were having a strategy session. He also confirmed that they didn't leave the place together. According to a bartender I spoke to, she left with an unknown male companion," Chin replied.

Steve smiled down at her, pride brimming over, practically glowing on his face while Rowan smiled back at them. Fuck. This all just felt so right. How the hell had he convinced himself he didn't need her?

"Hot Damn, do you know where the congressman is?" Danny asked.

Rowan actually thought about it for a minute. "Uh… no. Not by name. I think it's warehouse but I don't know where," she replied.

"Why would he go there?" Chin asked.

"Hiding out maybe?" Danny asked.

"No, he was kidnapped," Rowan replied and then all eyes turned to her. She stared up at them as they all stared down at her. "What?"

"Kidnapped?" Steve echoed. "What are you talking about?"

"I unno. Is this not the dead prostitute and kidnapped politician episode? The one where the governor had people following you guys and was acting like a douche? I could have sworn that was this one," she replied.

Well, it wasn't an episode to them, but that sure as hell was what happened. So their congressman was kidnapped? They needed more proof other than Rowan's knowledge.

"If he was kidnapped, who took him and why?" Danny asked.

"Oh I don't know why but I know…" Rowan started and then trailed off. She had suddenly gone wide eyed and silent. Steve put a hand to her shoulder but she didn't jerk out of it.

"Rowan?" he asked, softly pushing on her shoulder. She turned her face up to him, fear apparent on her features.

"You're not going to like this," she whispered.

"Ro? Who took the congressman?" Steve asked her more sternly.

"Your arch nemesis," she answered. Steve was glaring at her now. Why was she being purposely obtuse?

"I don't have an arch nemesis," he snapped.

"You do. And I don't mean Danny," Rowan argued and Steve sighed. The only person he could consider any sort of nemesis was Wo Fat and that could not be what was happening right now.

"Oy! I am not his nemesis!" Danny cried. And Rowan nodded.

"True, you're more like his wife," she conceded. This earned her a chuckle from Chin and a pair of exasperated groans from Danny and Steve. Oh, the old married joke, they never got tired of that one… NOT!

"Rowan!" Steve snapped and Rowan groaned herself.

"It's Wo Fat! Okay. I'm like 75% certain it's Wo Fat!" she told them and Steve frowned. No. it couldn't be. Rowan took in all the shocked stares she was getting before slouching in her seat. "Fine. Don't believe me, just find the guy that woman left with, that'll prove I'm right."

"She's right, we need a positive ID on that companion ASAP," Steve agreed just as Kono came rushing back into the room.

"We got footage from an ATM across the street," she said, playing with the computer. "Thing is, I don't think there's a clear shot of the exit."

"Not so nice," Danny replied, always having a smart comeback, even when the situation didn't call for it. Steve noted that he hadn't removed his hand from Rowan's shoulder. He did so then before anyone could notice, noting that Rowan shot him a glance as he did so. Did he read disappointment on her features?

"Okay, easy," Kono snapped at Danny. "What it did give us was a shot of a police cruiser pulling someone over near the club entrance."

"Huh, we have a dashboard cam?" Danny asked.

"Yeah, we have a dashboard cam," Kono replied. Kono began typing away at the computer while the other's waited. "And I have footage coming through right now."

Steve found himself playing with Rowan's hair. He couldn't help it. He had missed it. He had missed everything about her. Fuck. Why had he told Catherine that they were fine? He wanted to believe they were but… maybe they weren't.

The footage came up and Amy came out almost immediately with an Asian looking man in a suit.

"That's Amy. Freeze, Kono. Freeze that and push in," he ordered. He had just got a glimpse but he knew, he knew already that Rowan was right.

Still, Kono did as she was told. The frame was frozen and she pushed in on the man's face. It was Wo Fat's cold eyes staring back at them.

They didn't even get to turn back to Rowan before the: "I told you so," dropped from her lips.

Steve turned back to her and saw that her eyes were dropped down, avoiding Wo Fats. Like the man made her uncomfortable. Like she was guilty or something. For a brief moment Steve wondered if Rowan had met him before but shook his head. How could she? He had met her after Wo Fat had escaped from prison. She had never needed to know about him before this.

But she was hiding something. Avoiding something. Steve wanted to know what but he didn't want to ask now. Not in front of everyone. Not when he was still trying to pave the road between them. Not when he could look into her eyes and see that she still didn't quite trust him anymore.

He didn't have time to worry about Rowan's worrying response to Wo Fat's picture. He had to figure out why Amy seemed to know one of Hawaii's most dangerous criminals.

"He's using Amy Davidson to set up Congressman Freed," Steve breathed out.

"Setting him up for what?" Kono asked.

"Think about it," Danny said to her. "Who stands to gain if Congressman Freed takes a hard fall?"

"His opponent, Brad Powers," Kono replied.

"Wo Fat sees this special election as an opening," Chin explained. "He's on the run, he's got no resources. What better way to rebuild your empire than to buy a politician?"

"He's got plenty of resources," Rowan muttered and Steve's eyes found her again.

"Did you have another vision?" he asked her, though she didn't seem to be coming off of one of those. Rowan blinked her eyes before nodding but Steve didn't believe her. She was lying to him. Why?

"Okay. So, by discrediting Freed, Powers definitely gets the Senate seat," Danny said trying to breeze past whatever was going on between Steve and Rowan.

"And Wo Fat gets a friend in Washington," Kono finished for him.

"Quid pro quo," Danny agreed.

Steve wasn't having this. He wasn't having any of this. "Not on our watch," he snarled being sure to be staring into Rowan's eyes as he said it.

He had no idea what was going on with her. But she had been gone for a week and for two of those days she was unattended. A girl in her position would have needed papers to get off the island, a fake passport, a way to make money. He didn't think she would, or could for that matter, but if she were really desperate to get away from Hawaii and him she might have gone to the underworld for some help. Which was why Kamekona had his friends on the lookout for someone of her description. But none of them had turned her up. She either hadn't gone to them or she went to someone with more… connections.

If she had any ties to Wo Fat, had met him briefly as she tried to jump realities, they were going to be cut, burned and made sure to never be reattached again.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

They burst into the campaign office startling the poor woman out of her seat.

"Where is he?" Steve asked. He wasn't yelling or shouting, but the tone of his voice betrayed just how angry he was. And just how serious.

Rowan loved watching him scare people.

The poor woman, Amy, was surprised. She tried to hide her fear but if Rowan could spot it Steve already had and knew how to exploit it. "Excuse me?" she asked

Danny carefully shut the door behind Rowan who was looking for a chair to sit down. She was supposed to be in the main office drinking coffee and eating donuts with the press secretary but she had snuck in to watch the show, as it were, and she wanted to be sitting and pretending to be too tired when Steve noticed her inside.

"Wo Fat, where is he?" Steve repeated, this time his voice was louder. That tone of anger and seriousness doubled with the octave. "You left the bar with him."

"Okay, you need to leave," she said. Oh, wrong answer.

"I don't think you understand who you're dealing with," Steve continued but Amy shouted over him.

"No, I said, you need to leave!" she repeated.

"Everything you've said up until this point is a lie," Danny was saying when Rowan got one of her dizzy spells.

It lasted only a second but it was just enough. "She's wearing a wire," she breathed out and all eyes turned on her.

"What are you doing in here?" Steve asked his eyes finally finding her just as Danny said: "She's wearing a what?"

Rowan shushed them both. "Oh, you know, that is such a wonderful blouse!" she cried, miming for Amy to come over to her. Though the woman looked super confused she did as she was told. Once she did, Rowan undid a few buttons to reveal the mic.

Both Steve and Danny stayed absolutely silent just staring at it. Well that explained the lies.

"You know, I should take a picture of this for Oz, he's always treating me to nice things like this. Does anyone have a mint? I swear this juice cleanse is wreaking havoc on my breath," she continued on.

She wasn't handed a mint, but a candy. The kind with crinkling wrapping paper. She went about ripping the candy apart all while trying to position poor Amy a certain way in the room. She popped the candy in her mouth and then put the wrapper to the mic and began rubbing it.

"What are you doing?" Danny hissed.

"I'm creating static," Rowan hissed back. "You guys talk as quietly as you can I'll be the interference. We also need to keep her away from windows. I'm more than 60% certain she's gonna get shot."

Amy yelped, nothing but a small strangled sound that escaped from the back of her throat.

"I'm sorry," she breathed out to them. "I did it because he said he was gonna kill me."

"Listen to me, where is he keeping the congressman hostage?" Steve asked, his voice also low, barely even audible over the crinkling noise that Rowan was making.

She kept eyeing that window as if she'd know when the bullet was coming. As if she'd be able to see it coming.

"I don't know," Amy cried. "I really don't know."

It was then that Steve saw something out the window. Rowan didn't know what but the look in his eyes told her enough. She tackled Amy just as the gunshot echoed and the class crashed.

Steve and Danny ducked. Steve behind the desk, Danny by the window. Danny glanced out but saw nothing.

"I don't see him Steve," was the confirmation.

Steve looked back, his eyes find Rowan's who was still where she fell… on top of the half shirtless Amy.

"Stay here," he said to her and then he and Danny left. As soon as they were gone, Rowan helped Amy up and to a crawling position so they could crawl out into the main office. Because she wasn't about to stay in a cramped space with bullets flying everywhere.

"You saved my life," Amy said to her. "How did you know about the wire?"

Rowan thought about her answer very carefully before saying: "I watch and read a lot of murder mysteries."

Really, how else was she going to explain it?

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Riding with Rowan in the front again had put a grin on Steve's face as bright as the sun, or at least it did when he was driving her to the Palace. On the way to the Congressman's office, not so much.

It wasn't because Danny had to sit in the back and had sulked over not being able to ride shotgun because when Danny thought Steve wasn't looking he smiled at the back of Rowan's head, happy that she was back too. It didn't even have anything to that with the fact that they were heading straight into what would most likely be an open shoot out with Wo Fat. It had everything to do with what Rowan did after a sniper had tried to kill Amy Davidson.

She had shown up in the road behind Danny after the car the sniper had been driving had smashed into another parked car. The one Steve had just been standing in front of. If he hadn't jumped out of the way he would have been smashed. Steve hadn't noticed Rowan in the street until Danny and Steve had confirmed that the man was dead and Danny was onto the phone with Chin asking him to trace a phone call coming in on the man's phone.

"Oh, is he dead?" came from behind him and Steve whirled around.

"Ro? What are you doing out here?" he cried.

"Well I came to see if you're okay. You had to bounce off another car's windshield to avoid that car, didn't you?" she asked. "I'm sure that hurt."

"I'm fine," he shrugged off and then watched her ease a little closer to the dead man in the car. Purposely keeping him in-between her and the wreckage of the car, standing on tippy toes to see over his shoulder. She made a strange noise before she dropped back to the flat of her feet and moved away. A sort of gagging sound, but he had never heard her make it before… not while he was on cases anyway.

"Oh, what a shame. He was nice," he heard her whisper and suddenly Steve was angry again.

"Excuse me?" he thundered turning around to face her fully. "Do you know him?"

Rowan turned her widened eyes up to Steve. "No, why would you think that?"

"Because you just said he was nice," Steve echoed. "How would you know that? How do you know one of Wo Fat's men?"

"I had a vision."

"About his life?" Steve cried. "That is somehow pertinent to this case?"

"Uh… yes?" Rowan replied and that was when Steve knew she was lying to him.

She knew one of Wo Fat's men. Which meant she, to some extent, knew Wo Fat, or had at least come in contact with him. Call Steve paranoid if you wanted, but he was certain Rowan knew more than she was letting on. He wouldn't have put it past Wo Fat to have turned Rowan against him.

But then Rowan turned that giant grin on him and he began to doubt himself. She genuinely seemed so happy to be back with him. His heart beat skipped a few times whenever he saw that smile.

He thought about how it felt sitting on that couch pouring his heart out to her, trying to make her understand just how badly that whole week had affected him. How happy he was to hear she felt the same way.

He had been about to tell her more. Tell her how he had started to feel. How he might have started to actually… like her like her. He was certain she felt the same way. She had admitted she was upset when Catherine came back, what else would that be? It was what he'd do afterwards that had him stumped.

It shocked even him, but Steve was contemplating breaking things off with Catherine. It wasn't fair to Rowan or Catherine. It wasn't either of their faults that he was this conflicted. But if he was being completely honest with himself, he had been leaning towards Rowan for a while now.

He was going to interrogate Rowan further. Or tell her he was going to take her out to dinner that night. Somewhere nice so he could propose trying out dating. But Chin had traced the phone number that was ringing the dead man in the car. They knew where Wo Fat was, and they needed to get there fast.

He had Rowan with him in the car. In the passenger seat. Smiling up at him. He smiling down at her. That feeling of rightness still sitting in chest. She was only supposed to go as far as coming with them to the helicopter. He had no intention of taking her with them. Rowan had other ideas.

Steve and Danny were getting their vests on, he didn't even noticed Rowan was getting hers until something was blinding him. Rowan had a big grin on her face and Steve could see why. _Pierce_ was winking at him in big pink diamonds, blue glittery dolphins jumped out of sea green diamond waves and a purple jewel butterfly was taking flight on her shoulder.

"What the hell did you do to that vest?" Danny had asked. He was as offended as Steve was.

Stupid Rowan making their perfectly good bullet proof vests girly.

Not to mention she was a fucking glowing target, a bad guy would be able to spot her from space if the light hit her the right way. But her smile was so cute, and her blue eyes were so clear that he couldn't find it in his heart to tell her just how badly she had fucked up. He'd just have to keep her away from all the action and as far away from the ruthless Wo Fat as possible.

"Grace and I made some changes," she said doing a little twirl. "What do you think?"

"I think you're a walking target," Danny snapped.

Steve shook his head. He couldn't bear to crush her, not when they were on such rocky terms as is. "It's a good thing you're staying back. But it looks super cute."

"Staying back?" Rowan echoed.

"You can't go with us," Steve told her making his way to the cockpit. He'd be flying of course. Regardless of how much Danny hated it when Steve took them up in the air. Danny was fiddling with this gun, getting the strap ready so it wouldn't drop while he was shooting or if he had to let go.

"Yes I can, you need me," she said jabbing her finger into his chest. "I'm the only one who knows where the Congressman is."

"We know where he is, Rowan," Danny reminded her.

"No, you know what building he was in, but he's not there anymore. He's escaped and Wo Fat's chasing him. He gets an ATV and shoots him. If we go now and we go fast we may stop the shooting," she told them.

She had had one of her dizzy visions when he wasn't paying attention. Probably while they were driving. Maybe after the phone call when she had been worryingly quiet. Still, this was one of the things that had driven a wedge between them. Steve's reluctance to act on her tips.

He stared down at her, those big blue eyes blinking up at him, begging him to trust her. This was where he could prove that he had changed. That he believed her. That he didn't mean a single one of those horrible things he said to her seven nights ago.

"Alright, you can come with me, but so help me Rowan if you don't listen to me. If something happens because of you, you're never coming with me again, you got me?!" he asked pointing a finger into her face.

The smile alone was going to be worth the worry. But it was the hug he got that sealed the deal.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan threw herself forward, one hand on Steve's shoulder, the other hand pointing forward.

"That way!" she screamed into the mic, trying to be heard over the beating of the blades. Steve winced and she lowered her voice. "The ridge is that way."

"What did I tell you?" Steve said instead of correcting his flight path. "Rowan. What did I say? Stay in your seat. Stay buckled in!"

"But the ridge!" she complained.

"Sit down!" Steve thundered.

She was going to sit down of her own accord, Danny didn't need to reach out, grab the back of her vest and tug her back to her seat. But he did so anyway. But once she was seated she didn't actually buckle herself in. She just pretended to.

She felt the shift in the aircraft as Steve changed the direction heading towards the ridge. They could already make out movement on it. Rowan knew that Steve was going for the surprise tactic but they really needed to get their fast.

The helicopter rose up above the ridge and Danny, who was already hanging out of the open door, gun ready, opened fire. They were just in time to stop Wo Fat from finishing off the congressman.

He looked different from when Rowan had last seen him. He was in a muted blue dress shirt and black slacks. His sleeves were rolled up, rifle in hand. He looked every bit the cold-blooded killer she knew him to be. Nothing like the reserved but still warm man who had let her stay in his hotel room and ordered her food.

She shook her head. Wo Fat was the enemy, he was the cause of almost all of Steve's hurting. He'd do despicable things. He'd torture Steve at one point. There was no changing that plot line to a positive no matter what she tried.

Danny used his own gun to push Wo Fat back, forcing him to take cover behind the ATV Rowan knew he had killed a man to get. Danny continued to shoot until Wo Fat stopped trying to shoot them back. Congressman Freed was standing, still favouring his injured shoulder, trying to reach the helicopter Steve was trying to lower.

Danny stopped shooting to try and help the congressman, and Wo Fat chose that time to stand up from behind the ATV and open fire again. Steve tried to twist the helicopter so it would absorb some of the bullets, but the congressman slipped and so did Rowan, right out of her seat. Still the bullets grazed off, pinging as they ricocheted, cracking the windshield by Steve's head.

They needed to get out of there.

Rowan disregarded Steve's direct order, she threw herself forward and at Danny. As he continued to lay suppressive fire, Rowan grabbed the Congressman's hand and began to help him. She heard Steve call her name but she ignored him, this was more important.

She tugged with all her might, with both hands but she wasn't in any condition to be trying to pull a full-grown man into a swaying helicopter. Danny stopped shooting again, pushing Rowan aside and pulling the Congressman up with one tug. She scowled at him, she had definitely gotten the ball rolling though.

A flash of the future ran past her eyes, one shot. A good one, straight to the Congressman's chest. He was almost in, he was just in the process of turning, Rowan had one chance to stop it. A Hail Mary pass. She got in front of his chest, perched awkwardly at the edge, just as Wo Fat was raising his pistol.

"OZ!" she shouted as loud as she could, willing her voice to reach him.

And it did.

His eyes found her and shock played across his face as he took her in. For a brief second guilt welled up in her throat but she didn't know what she had to be guilty about. She didn't really owe him anything. Did she?

The helicopter pitched as Steve began to pull away and Rowan lost her balance.

And tumbled right out of it.

Rowan hit the rocky ground below and the breath was knocked out of her body. For a brief second the world went white with pain, and all she heard was the whirl of the rotor blades. That was, until she became aware off two distinct cries. One that belonged to Danny and a heart wrenching scream of her name from Steve.

Rowan couldn't answer them. She could only cough, groan and breathe out a pain riddled: "Sonofabitch."

"For Fuck sake Rowan! _Get up_!" she heard Danny call and Rowan forced herself to roll over so she could push herself up. She got to her elbows when she caught sight of Wo Fat making a rush forward. Immediately Danny started shooting again to drive him back, to keep him from her.

Well that was Rowan face-first in the dirt again.

"Rowan get up! We can't hold him off forever!"

She wanted to shout at him that as an untrained civilian she had a deathly fear of bullets. Still she got up to her feet and stretch out for Danny's hand. As soon as he had a hold of her wrist the helicopter began to rise. Her feet left the ground and Danny let go of his gun to grab her other hand. The intention was to haul her up but that wasn't what happened.

She was almost up when something, or someone, grabbed her waist and ripped her out of Danny's grip. This time when she fell she felt the fall, as she was higher. She had enough time to scream one name.

 _Danny!_

But Danny couldn't help her and neither could Steve anymore.

When Rowan hit the ground, she landed on something soft. It didn't take much to figure out what happened. She rolled off of Wo Fat who had taken most of the blow from the fall and forced herself up and out of his reach before he could grab her. But she didn't run for the helicopter, she ran for the ATV. She ignored Steve's scream for her and made a bee line straight for the trees.

Until Wo Fat tackled her.

She hit the ATV and the two of them tumbled right over it. This time when she landed she felt a sharp pain in her shoulder. Well that wasn't good.

Wo Fat had her. His fingers gripped one of her arms and the back of her shirt. She whirled around and hit him, close fist, with all her might, straight to the crotch. He let her go immediately, crying out in pain, and she got back up. Immediately she stumbled back, she tore her eyes away from Wo Fat and turned them to Steve.

The panic on his face was heart wrenching. She had just got him back. He had just found her again. What kind of bullshit was this?

"GO!" she shouted at him because she knew there was nothing else he could do. "Go, Steve, GO!"

She was waving him away but she could see him shaking his head. He had no intention of leaving her. He was trying to think of a way to get her he knew it. But there wasn't enough time. She glanced back to Wo Fat and found him staring at her with a dangerous gleam in his eyes and a terrible smile on his face. She knew he had clocked what was going on with her and Steve, it wasn't much but it was enough to establish that she was important to Commander McGarrett.

She took a hesitant step back, Wo Fat was in a crouched position, ready to pounce. She'd have to be faster. She turned her eyes back to Steve and put a hand to her heart and then made a squeezing motion. Please God let him understand.

Steve was still shaking his head. She smiled at him. Begging him with her eyes to trust her. Then before he could do anything else, before Wo Fat could find that pistol he had lost and shoot her, she turned and ran. Disappearing into the bushes with the thunder of the helicopter fading behind her.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

 _Chasing._

This was his specialty. His prey never got away from him. He was determined. He was in prime physical condition and his prey was weak from torture. He'd have her soon.

 _Escaping._

Her forte. You didn't grow up with an older brother and not learn how to get away from him when he was chasing you. But she was tired. She was weak. And she was fading fast.

Anger pushed him forward. Humiliation chased his heels. She had made a fool of him. When he caught her he was going to make her suffer for it.

Rowan made a wild turn and then ducked into a bush, hopefully before he noticed. She stayed perfectly still and completely quiet. She held her breath, covering her mouth with her hands to quiet her gasps for air. He came into view and it took all her will power to not scream for Steve and run back to that ridge.

She was gone? What. The. Fuck. Wo Fat stilled. Which way had she gone? Why could he hear nothing? He thought he spotted a bit of red in the foliage ahead of him and ran forward to chase it. But when he got closer to it he realized it was nothing but a flower. He had gone the wrong way. So he stilled. And he listened.

He heard his heart beat. He heard his own laboured breathing. And he heard the sound of something moving through the underbrush saw the twinkle of purples within the green. A sinister smile touched his lips. _Got her._

Rowan crept away. Literally on her hands and knees until she was behind a tree. She needed quiet. She needed calm. She needed to use the fear and the anxiety to open up the door to the void. She closed her eyes and willed all that fear into the scar in her back but the void didn't come to her. She couldn't find the cracks and seams to pry her way in. Her limbs were too tired, her emotions too scattered, her energy worn too thin.

She called for the void and for the first time it didn't answer.

A snap was heard behind her but she didn't look up. She could hear his feet on the ground. There was nowhere to run. No energy left to fight. And no mercy from him no doubt.

He said nothing to her. Though she felt him standing above her. She tilted her head up in time to see the rifle coming down on her. It was the last thing she saw.

Wo Fat stood over her. He had meant to bash her over the back of the head. But she had looked up to him in the last second. Those blue eyes flashing as clearly as the day he first met her. Guilt hit him. The emotion foreign, crawling under his skin. He didn't like it. He focused on the anger that had built up in his chest. This girl was Five-0. She was important to Commander McGarrett. He could use her. Use her to get what he needed. To humiliate McGarrett and ruin Five-0's name.

And that's what he was going to do.


	28. Chapter 28

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Friday! Here's your third update! Guys we hit 200 reviews! This is the first story of mine to break 200, I actually cried when I realized this. Thank you for loving this story as much as I do! Anyway, this is closer to a normal chapter length, only 10 pages this time. For all of those who thought Wo Fat was going to pop up again, congrats... YOU WERE RIGHT! I know, this is one helluva plot twist but I promise it's gonna make sense when things start getting explained. Anyone wanna guess what's gonna happen next? I love hearing your theories. A lot of you are usually spot on. I'm gonna try to be a little less obvious from now on though, maybe I'll surprise you. Anyway... see you next Tuesday!_

Chapter 28 

* * *

Rowan never returned.

Steve waited. They had police in the forest searching, helicopters in the air, and a perimeter set. If she had gotten away she could have got to any of them, but none had found her. And no one had spotted Wo Fat either.

Steve twitched all through arresting Bradley Powell, who had been working with Wo Fat. The abandoned warehouse they found Wo Fat had used to hold the Politician and found a phone that proved he had been calling Powell. It was enough, he cracked under pressure. But he couldn't tell anyone if he knew where Rowan was or where Wo Fat would be going with a hostage and on the run.

Still no Rowan though.

He sat on edge on his beach drinking staring out at the water with Danny by his side. Danny tried to comfort him, tell him that he had no other choice but to leave Rowan behind with a murderer. They had an injured congressman to deal with, there was nowhere to land, and Wo Fat was already herding her towards the jungle. They'd find her. They'd find Wo Fat. Everything would be okay.

He drank more when the Governor arrived, as he brought him beer to thank him for his help. He promised to be more honest with Steve and Five-0. Promised to help him with Rowan. Said he'd owe Steve for this favour he had done.

He drank more when Danny announced that the judge sided with him and he and Grace were not going to leave Hawaii. He drank pretending he was celebrating but more than anything it was just calming his nerves. But the searchers found nothing and no one, there was no twinge in his chest and no contact from Rowan.

Then he drank even more when everyone was gone and his house was empty.

The twinge never came. Rowan never appeared. His heart felt like it was about to give out.

He stayed up and paced the floorboards.

The house didn't feel right without Rowan in it. He already knew that. But this was worse than when she had left before. This was because she was in trouble and he didn't know where she was or how to save her. He only knew that something terrible had happened to her at the hands of Wo Fat. He'd find her body in the morning, he was sure.

It wasn't fair. He had just gotten her back. Why had he listened to her when she had asked to come? Why didn't he listen to his gut and make her stay? This was his fault for listening to her. And it was Rowan's for not listening to him.

He had wanted to show to her that he believed her. He had wanted to show her that he trusted her to give him the right information. He wanted to show her that he would use her help, even when he didn't want it. And now she was god knows where, either running from Wo Fat or being cut up by him.

His phone vibrated and Steve dove for it.

 _Unknown number._

Was Rowan using someone else's phone? It was a text. That was her style. But once he opened it he knew it couldn't possibly be from her.

The text consisted of a single picture. And the second he saw it dread hit him like a truck doing 100 on the freeway and slamming into a barrier.

It was of Rowan. Head slumped, tied to a chair. He couldn't see her face but he knew she was still alive. He could feel it in his bones. He may not have been able to see her breathing, but he knew if she was truly dead he would have felt it. He also figured that Wo Fat would have realized she's worth more to him alive.

A single piece of paper was propped up on her lap.

 _What are you willing to pay?_

It was a loaded question. What was Steve willing to pay to get Rowan back? Alive of course. He probably should have thought about it. Should have found a way to make it seem like it wasn't that big a deal, that there were lines he would be sure not to cross. But his heart had a hold of his fingers and it wasn't about to play with Rowan's life. Before he knew what he was doing he had typed up his answer and sent it off. It was only a single word.

 _Anything._

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Anything.

Wo Fat stared at the text and then back at the girl who was asleep on a thin cot.

Steven McGarrett was willing to trade him anything to get this girl back? Really? Now he was concerned. Who was she if the great McGarret was this desperate to get her back? How much did this man care about her? Was she of use? Was she just a valued member of the team? Or was she closer to his heart? Wo Fat had been keeping tabs on Steve for months but none of his contacts or shadows had even mentioned a new girl in his life. Had he kept her secret?

The girl stirred, and even though her hands were tied and she was his prisoner, he found himself retreating from her. What if this whole caring business was contagious? Would she infect him the way she had infected Steve?

Wo Fat already felt infected.

When his bodyguard had called and said the girl had escaped he had been angry. Angry because she was a weak and sick young lady and that disappearing act on the roof had been nothing short of magic. She needed help. He was going to get a mob doctor to look at her injuries. He was going to force her to eat. Get her a change of clothes. Throw out that ridiculously stupid shark sweater. And then make her tell him the real story of how she got burns like that on her arms, chest and legs.

But then he had to deal with the Congressman so he sent one of his guys to find the missing girl. She was a redhead in a shark sweater who was probably homeless, she would stick out no doubt. And he went back to trying to get the man to admit he had killed a prostitute when he hadn't.

Seeing her in that helicopter. With Steven McGarrett. Wearing a bulletproof vest had been jarring. He, who trusted no one, who doubted everyone, had not guessed even once that she might have been Five-0. But taking a second look at her fucking bedazzled vest, he was thinking she might not be. No law enforcement agent did that to a bulletproof vest.

But that didn't change the look on Steve's face when she fell. The absolute horror that had dawned on his features. The way he had screamed her name. Her real name. _Rowan._ Where the hell had she gotten Wicky from that name? Not the point. The way he had watched her as she tried to make him leave without her.

Those faces he made. The fear. The terror. The way his eyes never left her. Steven McGarrett loved this woman. He must have. He had been damn near close to landing that helicopter to get her. And it was lucky for Wo Fat that he didn't. On top of everything he was willing to trade anything to get her back. Wo Fat wondered if he seriously meant it.

The girl stirred again and he found himself pulling his seat away from her. He'd have to be careful with her. She elicited strong and unknown feelings in him. He was worried she might have already infected him with her kindness, with her big blue eyes that begged him to protect her. He shook his head and forced himself to hold onto the anger. She had tricked him once. He wouldn't let her do it again.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan's head was splitting. Like literally. Her head hurt so much she felt it must have been split open, like a watermelon. She brought a hand up to inspect her injury, to see if her brain was out in the open and she noticed three things.

1\. Both hands came up at the same time. So her hands were bound.

2\. It hurt to touch her head. Like the tiniest whispers of a touch hurt like someone had hit her with a hammer. Not a good sign.

3\. Her fingers came away sticky. Her brain may still be inside her skull but she was definitely bleeding.

Well. Fuck. Judging by the pain, blood and location she was pretty sure she was going to have a Harry fucking Potter type scar above her left eye. This was what? Her fourth head injury? What the hell did this universe have against her head? At this rate she was going to lose all her brain cells.

She groaned and rolled over. Wo Fat sat in a char beside her bed. His arms were crossed over his blue shirt which looked an awful lot like he had been rolling around in the dirt in it, his dark eyes glaring at her. Rowan blinked her eyes at him, sized up her situation and then promptly decided this wasn't worth it.

"I'm in too much pain for this," she muttered and rolled back over.

Wo Fat sat nothing to her. If he was upset by her comment she didn't know. She wasn't looking at him. But Rowan was serious. She wasn't going to deal or acknowledge this situation until her head stopped hurting. Instead she was going to pretend she was back in her bed, waiting for Steve to slip in and wrap his arms around her.

"Look at me," Wo Fat ordered after an unknown length in their stretch of silence. Rowan wasn't certain if she fell asleep or not. If he had wanted her to be social he shouldn't have hit her with a gun. She didn't want to roll over but when she didn't answer he put a hand to her shoulder and forced her to roll over and look at him.

Rowan groaned at the movement and his hand quickly retreated. "Just let me die in peace," she snapped at him. She kept her eyes firmly shut to avoid the glare of the of the one light swinging about Wo Fat's head.

"You're not going to die, Rowan," he growled and only then did she open her eyes.

He knew her name. Of course. Danny and Steve had practically screamed it a million times. Rowan turned her body the whole way around, settling herself so she was more comfortable and then stared at him carefully. He had put distance between them and not just physically. Not they were all that close to begin with but he definitely wasn't about to treat her with the same curtesy as before.

"You hit me over the head with a rifle," she muttered dryly. "That was highly uncalled for."

"You're a spy for McGarrett. It was entirely called for," he shot back.

"I am not a spy. Look at me. Really. Do I look like a spy? Or a cop? Or anyone useful?" she cried. She tried to sit up but got dizzy, immediately she flopped back down to the hard cot. "Oh, I think I have a concussion."

She closed her eyes against the pain and missed the briefest flash of concern that swept over his pointed features. She brought her hands back up to her head trying to block out the light, trying to use the heel of her palms to absorb some of the pounding.

"You work for him though," Wo Fat said after a moment. "You have a Five-0 vest, you were in their helicopter and Commander McGarrett seems quite frantic to get you back."

Rowan turned to look at him. He was? Oh the poor boy. He was probably so worried. Wait… how did Wo Fat know that? Had he already tried to ransom her to McGarrett? What the hell would McGarrett do to get her back? Hopefully nothing too illegal.

"I'm not Five-0," she whispered. "Look at me. Really look at me. I am not Five-0."

He seemed to really look at her for a moment but he didn't agree. "I don't believe you."

Rowan glared at him. "Excuse me?" she snapped.

"You're a liar. I can't believe a thing you say," he said with a flippant shrug of his shoulders.

"I'm a liar?" she echoed. "Yeah. Like everything you told me was the truth, right? Don't be such a hypocrite, _Oz_."

"Really? Rowan? Because Wicky is so similar to that," he shot back.

Rowan forced herself to sit up. She ignored the dizziness, the spots that formed in her vision and the flip flopping of her stomach. When her vision cleared she saw that Wo Fat was on the edge of his seat, a hand out hovering by her side like he was ready to catch her if she were to fall.

… strange.

"It comes from an old English name for the Rowan tree," she answered primly. "They used to call it the Wicky Tree. So my… friends… called me Wicky as a pet name. Where did Oz come from?"

Wo Fat tilted his chin up in an almost defiance. "I'm always the man working behind the curtain."

"Well you weren't behind the curtains for this little escapade, were you?" she said with a scowl.

"I've had no choice but to come forward, your boss has left me with little to no resources and no other options," he snapped leaning back in his chair.

Rowan groaned again. "I don't work for Five-0, okay? How many times do I have to say it?"

"I'm sorry. I find it strange that you would show up on my doorstep and not a full ten hours later, Five-0 has gotten wind of my plans and location," he reminded her.

"You didn't even tell me anything about what you were doing, how would I have found out?" she shot back and for a moment that smug smile faded from his lips.

"Oh…"

He was starting to believe her and Rowan should have left it at that. But she either couldn't shut up or wouldn't.

"Yeah! They found out about you from a squad car dash cam. Simple as that. As for your location, they traced the call you put on your sniper. He's dead by the way, my condolences," she said.

Wo Fat's eyes narrowed. "How do you know that?" he asked and Rowan froze. Oh fucking shit. He sat a little straighter and then leant forward a dangerous frown on his face. "You wouldn't know that unless you were there when it happened."

"Okay. So I don't work for Five-0, but I spend a lot of time in their company and at their headquarters," she admitted.

As quick as a viper he had stood up, a gun pulled from somewhere behind him and put into her face. "Stop lying to me!" he thundered.

Rowan cringed, she brought her hand up, brought her knees up and leant away. "I'm not lying," she cried, tears were brimming in her eyes. "I'm not. It's just hard to explain!"

"Try me," came from the silence and Rowan pulled her head out from behind her hands and looked up to him. The pistol was still in her face but she could tell from his face that she was on her last chance.

"Can you put the gun away?" she asked. He merely glared at her and she took a shaky breath. "My name is Rowan Pierce. I don't exist."

The gun lowered a fraction and when she hazarded another glance up she saw him staring at her with a perplexed sort of glare. "What do you mean?"

"About six months ago, I dropped out of the sky and into the ocean. Steve and Danny were fishing and spotted me. I had no recollection of who I was or where I came from. The doctors say the trauma of my incident hit me with some sort of amnesia. I could only remember my name." she whispered. She was lying of course. It was a story she and Steve had rehearsed for hours to protect her. It was the only way to explain her lack of a life before appearing on Hawaii. It wasn't like they could admit that she had dropped out of a different reality. They'd think they were both crazy.

"Steve helped me get an identity. But that's all I have. A health card and US Citizen ship. I have no birth certificate, no bank account, and no recorded life before this. He did a search for my name and used my DNA but I didn't come up anywhere. So… we just decided to wait until I remembered. And he… uhm… well he let me stay with him," she continued.

"He's Jamie, isn't he?" Wo Fat asked. The gun had been lowered but he was still standing above her. Rowan took a deep breath, swallowed her fear and then nodded. "You said he didn't feel the same way."

Rowan lifted her eyes again. "But he doesn't," she told him. "I'm serious, he really doesn't."

"He doesn't act like it," Wo Fat said.

"Well he's never confirmed it with me, so I don't know what you want me to say," she grumbled.

"So, you lived with McGarrett, and he what, just takes you to work with him? Why would he willingly put you in danger like that?" he asked. "Why didn't he just leave you at the Iolani Palace to come after me? Why were you in the helicopter?"

"This is the part that you're not going to believe," she warned him. He gestured for her to continue and she decided to just get straight to the point. "I'm psychic."

Wo Fat laughed, his gun hand went down, resting by his side. "Psychic? You expect me to believe that? You expect me to believe that McGarrett believes that? You're out of your mind."

"No, it's true. I can prove it," she said. "I can tell you something about yourself that only you know."

He had turned away from her, tucking the gun back into the waist band of his pants. He turned back to her now and smiled mockingly at her. "Oh can you?"

"Doris raised you. That's why she didn't shoot you and that's why you're scared of her," she whispered and that smile faded right off his lips. He looked horrified. So she quickly added: "I haven't told Steve. He doesn't know that yet."

"Yet?" he asked, a treacherous tone in his voice.

"I mean, he's a very determined man. He'll find it out on his own eventually," she told him and Wo Fat swore.

"Doris could have told you," he said after a moment.

Rowan just stared at him. He got the implication in the glare. Came to the same conclusion. Doris wouldn't have told her shit.

"Okay, so Steve believes your psychic. He lets you work with him, takes you with him on dangerous missions, it doesn't explain how I found you water logged and tortured," he told her.

Oh, now this one she didn't quite have a lie for. She was going to have to make it up as she went. "Oh. Uhm. Well. Part of the problem is that Steve doesn't quite believe me. So I give him info and tips and he ignores them. Which leads to me running off to try and prevent bad things from happening and then Steve would have to come rescue me from whatever trouble I had gotten myself into. The last one was the Halawa prison riot."

Wo Fat's eyes whipped up to her. "You were the girl who took down Kaleo?" he asked.

"You know about that?" she asked instead.

"I helped Delano get Kelly into the prison," Wo Fat said.

Rowan took both her hands and smacked his leg. "What a terrible thing to do!"

"The pay made it worth it," he snapped back, moving away so she couldn't hit him again. The fact that he didn't just flat out shoot her or hit her back was a shock to her. "So you got into the riot, McGarrett had to save you. Then what?"

"We had a really big argument and he told me to leave," she told him. Wo Fat scoffed. "Obviously I had nowhere to go. And a girl in my position can't get a legitimate job. So I picked up a job running drugs. I'm really good at it, people just let me walk in and out of places, never really giving me a second glance and most cops don't look at me and think, yeah, she's got drugs. But then one of the guys I was delivering too recognized me as the girl who was following Steve around and he just sort of took me. Wanted to use me to get info on HPD movements but I don't know that sort of stuff."

Wo Fat reached down and pulled out her arms looking at her burns. "Cigarette burns," he murmured.

"Nope," she said with a shake of her head. "Heated up metal pole, like a brand."

"Names," he growled and she furrowed her eyebrows at him.

"Why? Why do you care?" she asked. He dropped her hands like they were hot coals and took a step back. "Besides, I don't know their names. I didn't think to get them, I only wanted to get away."

"How did you get away?"

"Slipped my ropes. Snuck out of the room they had me in. And then jumped off the side of the boat," she replied.

"You swam all the way back to shore?" he asked incredulously. Rowan merely shrugged. "No wonder you were so tired."

"So… are we good now? Can I go?" she asked him.

Wo Fat laughed, the sound hollow and spine tingling. "Oh no, my dear. You're not going anywhere," he told her. He smiled down at her that grin glittering and sharp. "You're too precious to let go."

Rowan just stared at him. Oh. Holy. Shit. This did not bode well.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Trevor Pierce was an only child. That was what he had thought. Until he was ten years old and his parents split up. His parents had been his whole world, yes mum had been quiet and withdrawn, yes, she cried over tiny things and yelled at his dad over stupid little things. Yes, his dad threw himself into his research, yes he was rarely home, yes he kind of devolved from being a cool scientist like the ones you saw in movies, to a bit of a mad scientist. But they were his parents and he loved them.

So to find out that they were getting a divorce because neither of them could get over the loss of his baby sister was a bit of a fucking shock to a ten year old who had thought that he was an only child.

Trevor had been two when his mother fell pregnant with the fated child that would eventually end their family, so it wasn't surprising that he didn't remember the whole affair. He didn't remember being excited when mummy went to the hospital with daddy and he had to stay with grandma. He didn't remember asking where his new sister was when they came home and being told not to ask anymore. They told him to stop asking so he did and he forgot about her entirely.

At ten, finding out that you have a sister, a dead sister, and your parents couldn't get over losing her was pretty shitty. It left him wondering why he hadn't been enough to keep them together. What had been so special about his little sister, who hadn't even technically lived, that made it impossible for them to forget her and move on with their lives?

By the time the divorce was over Trevor was livid with this little sister. How dare she not live and derail all their lives? How dare she have a hold on his parents so tight that it dictated their happiness and therefore Trevor's as well? He spent the rest of his adolescent and teen years trying to be enough. Trying to make his mother smile, trying to keep his father from descending even further into his mad obsession.

But nothing he ever did was good enough. By the time he hit those angry teen years he had had enough. If his parents wanted to wallow in self-pity over a baby that had never lived then he was going to let them. He focused on his own goals, male Olympic figure skater. Then best figure skating choreographer when it became clear that he wouldn't be able to skate his own way into the Olympics and he couldn't find a partner he liked or trusted enough to get into the Olympics in the pairs division.

And while he achieved the second goal, his parents were still blind to his achievements. Oh they said they were proud, they always smiled at him and told him how wonderful he was, and he was grateful for that. But his parents never recovered. His mother drank and wallowed in misery half of the time, dedicating her free time to charities and organizations for women who went through what she did. His father spiralled farther down the rabbit whole until he became almost a recluse with his research.

It was his father's approval he wanted the most. His father's attention. But Trenton Pierce was a distracted man. He rarely spent time out of his lab, let alone with his son. Trevor tried not to let that get to him. He tried not to let it bother him, but it did.

So when his father reached out to him, asked him to come to his lab in Toronto to help him with an experiment, Trevor jumped on the opportunity. He acted like he had better things to do, of course, but inside he was freaking out.

All Trevor had to do was point a gun, a giant thing with a silver hook on it. He had to invasion the thing he wanted to pull through all the different dimensions and press the trigger.

Trenton Pierce had been trying to move an object through the space between the realities for years. All of his experiments had been failures. Trevor expected nothing less.

But that night, when his father opened a swirling black portal in front of him, when he felt that blast of cool air hit his face, saw the twinkling lights winking at him from the other side, Trevor Pierce believed.

He shot the hook out into the dark just as his father had asked. But his heart and mind didn't turn to an object.

Looking into that swirling void he saw all the opportunities, all the possibilities. A limitless universe. Where he could be anything. Where anything was possible.

He thought of his family and how happy they used to be. Of his mother who carried the burden of grief and refused to let go. Of his father who dedicated his life to searching for other realities better than the one he was in.

So Trevor Pierce closed his eyes and focused. With all his heart. With all his soul. He willed that hook to travel through the void and get the one thing his family needed.

His sister.

He had felt the hook connect. He had felt the stinging jerk vibrate up his fingers. He had tried to reel it in but it snapped half way. The hook gone, the chain severed, nothing for them to show. He thought his father would be disappointed but he wasn't. He got readings, he said, readings from the hook. And more readings to come from his friends tracking the particles in different areas of the world.

Trenton had gone on a mile a minute about it but Trevor hadn't listened. Instead he had sat numbly disappointed that he had let this opportunity slip him by.

The weeks after that Trevor dreamed of the void. He couldn't seem to stop himself. He dreamed of a hook pulling a girl through the darkness. Her red and blonde hair floating around her like she was immersed in water. She looked trapped. Her eyes closed. Stuck forever in a sleep state.

He dreamed he was search for that girl. But she kept moving. Flickering in and out of place. But when he touched her. When his finger graced the hollow of her back, right between her shoulder blades her eyes snapped open. And then he was downing in pools of electric blue.

 _The Piercing Pierce Eyes._

He'd awake from his dreams with an ache in his heart that would follow him all day. He found himself yearning for her. Wanting to hear her voice. Wanting to reach out and touch her. Sometimes out of the corner of his eyes he'd see her standing beside him but he'd turn and she'd be gone as quickly as she came. It felt like she was haunting him.

After that, the dreams turned more violent. He dreamed of red vines wrapping around him and squeezing the life out of him. The thorns would press into his skin cutting him deeply. They would lash out at his limbs as he tried to pull her back to him. Every night they would attack him until finally, one night he lost his grip.

And the dreams stopped.

Losing the dreams was like losing his family all over again. It crushed him. Defeated him. He had already returned to his home in Victoria BC and tried to lose himself in his work. But he couldn't get those blue eyes out of his head. That girl, a head or two shorter then him, with his eyes, his dad's nose and his mother's smile. He wanted to know her. He wanted to imagine that she'd be the best little sister ever. Sure she'd drive him crazy and he'd sometimes think he hated her, but in the end she'd always have his back and he'd always have hers.

He was mourning a relationship he'd never have, never got to chance to have. He suddenly understood why his parents hadn't been able to get over losing her. She had so much potential. She could have been anything. Instead she was just dead.

Trevor told himself to stop thinking about the sister he couldn't have. He told himself to move on with his life. His father had other ideas.

Six months after the incident Trenton called his son in the middle of the night. He had been collecting data, conferring with other scientists and he had concluded that their experiment had been a success. They had just lost the object before it reached its intended destination. If his data was correct, if the readings were right, their object was somewhere in the water a good 20 clicks off of Oahu.

Fear punctured Trevor's heart. He hadn't told his father what he was really trying to pull through. If he had actually succeeded in pulling something through from another dimension, then it was his sister. But if she had landed in the middle of the ocean had she survived?

It was with that fear pressing heavily on his heart that Trevor packed up an overnight bag and flew to Hawaii with his father. Knowing sooner or later he'd have to tell his father what it was he did that night he shot the hook into the void.

He might have just made things worse.


	29. Chapter 29

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanfics**

 _A/N: Happy Tuesday! So I noticed we had some confusion in the last chapter. I've got some clarification for everyone, the Trevor we're seeing is in the same universe as Steve and Rowan, he's her back story. He's why she got pulled in. (I hope that's not real spoilers cause I totally revealed it in the last chapter) Anyway we're in the part of the story where things are going to get a bit messed up. Character personalities are going to be played with, plots points are going to be moved around a bit to later chapters, loyalties are going to be tested, and our characters are gonna be super angsty. I hope you guys can handle it! But please tell me if you're still enjoying it! Keep telling me what you think is going to happen next and I'll see you guys on Friday!_

Chapter 29 

* * *

Wo Fat had moved Rowan the moment after he sent the text, figuring that Steve would trace it. Not ten minutes later the place was crawling with uniforms. Steve sure did move fast. A testament to how desperate he was to get her back. Or maybe because Bradley Powers had met with him there a few times and had divulged the location. Either way it was a good thing he didn't keep her there. He had moved his operation by that point anyway. Up into the mountains just shy of a cemetery looking over a highway. He had put her in a room, locked the door and left her there. Left her to be tended to. Left her because he couldn't listen to her screams as her head was stitched against her will and without anesthetic.

But that wasn't why he was running that morning. Wo Fat was rushing down the hallway for a completely different reason. He had left Rowan to sleep. She had a concussion, he presumed, he was going to call the doctor back in to see to her head, but first he wanted her to eat. He wanted to fatten her up. But when he got to her room it was empty.

EMPTY.

What the fuck?

What the ACTUAL fuck?!

Wo Fat dropped the plate of food he had been carrying and took off. He barked orders to the men he passed in the hallways. Find the girl. She can't have gotten far. But none of them had seen her

But it was one guy. The nephew of a man he had brought in to help him get weapons. Juan whatever. He was the one who said: "The girl who can sing?"

And Wo Fat stopped. They had no other girl on the compound. He didn't know if Rowan could sing. But if there was no other females in the vicinity it had to be her. Wo Fat glared down at the boy who was tuning his guitar.

"What girl was singing?"

"The ombre girl. _Chica de Fuego_ ," he said.

"English damn it!"

"Fire hair girl," Juan said, "Came in here, sang a song, said she wasn't feeling well and went to the washroom."

Wo Fat practically tripped over his feet turning away from Juan. He rushed to the hallway and practically lunged at the washroom door. The door was locked. HA! Got her. He kicked the door down but the small washroom was empty and the window was open. She had gotten out of the building?!

He stuck his out of the window and caught her crawling under a rolled-up piece of fence just a little ways away.

"ROWAN!" he shouted and she glanced back. Hands still bound in front of her and then turned and ran. Wo Fat had to climb out the window too, easiest way to get to her after all, and then took off. Climbing over the fence as quickly as could be. He jumped down and sprinted off after her. She hadn't gotten far. But she was heading down the hill, heading towards the highway where he could see a procession of cars moving upward, led by a police officer on a motor bike.

Fuck she was good.

He picked up speed, he was almost to her when a gunshot echoed through the silence of the day and Rowan dropped to the ground. Wo Fat was not able to stop in time, he tripped over her, landing in the dirt and rolling a bit away from her before coming to a stop.

He looked up to her motionless body. Fear coiled up in his stomach. Fear for someone else was unknown to him, so he told himself it was a fear of losing his hold over McGarrett. Especially after deciding what he was going to ask for in form of ransom. He scrambled to her side but Rowan was fine, just curled up into a ball of fear.

"Did you shoot at me?" she growled when he rolled her over. As if he had no right to shoot at an escaping prisoner. He even felt a bit angry that she would think he would. She squinted up to him because the sun was in her eyes. His eyes lingered on the black thread weaving through the red welt. He did that to her. And it hurt him to look at it. He ignored the desire to brush her hair over her face to hide the damage he did.

"No," he snapped, because he didn't. It didn't even occur to him to pick up his gun and try to shoot her. His only thought had been to get her back.

He glanced behind him to where a motorcycle lay on its side wheels spinning. Rider lying like a jigsaw puzzle shadowed by red. He didn't tell her that though. Didn't tell her what had most likely happened. Didn't tell her that there was someone far more dangerous than him lurking about at the moment. A shooting like that in the area meant they'd call in Five-0. Which meant McGarrett would be in the area. Which meant moving Rowan as quickly as possible.

He pulled her up, being sure to avoid the big purple bruise on her upper arm from when he tackled her over the ATV. The Doctor assured him that it wasn't broken or a fracture, just really badly bruised… luckily. He quickly turned her away from the scene. "How did you even get out of that room?" he asked.

Rowan shrugged. "I asked."

That answer shocked him. His men, who knew better, had just let her out? He'd have to talk to them. Find out what that was about. And on top of that. He needed to keep her far away from Juan. Right after he moved her.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve was not doing well. It had been 48 hours since he had heard from Wo Fat. No demands had been made. The last known where-abouts of the phone had been combed over. No one was there, but the phone had been left for him to find. No sign of Rowan. Just the room where he had tied her up. Evidence of her being there. Prints. Hairs. Minor spattering's of blood. He already knew it was hers, no DNA test needed though a sample was given to Fong for analysis. She was injured. Not sure how badly. He was trying not to think about it.

Steve's blood boiled when he found the blood. He raged when he got home. Screaming and throwing things until the rage left him and all that was left was the emptiness and the dread.

Then the text came.

 _The Psychic for Shelburne._

It was a different number this time. He sent of a message telling Chin to trace the phone but it was a burner. Last known location in the downtown center. Too vague to trace, to send people to look for her. But uniforms were sent to door knock anyway.

There were several problems with that text. Starting with Wo Fat called Rowan the Psychic. Which meant she had told him who the cover story for who and what she was. Why didn't she just say that she was Rowan Pierce, friend of Steve Garrett and leave it at that? Why had he needed to know that she was psychic? Why had that come up?

And then why did he want Doris? Did he really think he would trade his own mother to get Rowan back? Ignoring the fact that he was already trying to think of a plan to get Doris to agree to help him get Rowan back. What was he really going to do? Agree?

 _Yes._

But how was he to explain? How had she become so important he was actually thinking of handing his own mother over to a homicidal maniac? Because his mother could take care of herself. His mother would be able to handle Wo Fat. Rowan was ill equipped and sick. She needed saving, his mother wouldn't.

Lastly, there was no info. Nothing about how Rowan was doing. Though why would there be? He was just hoping that there'd be something. A picture of her, one of her awake. Maybe a phone call so he could hear her voice and ask if she was okay.

The not knowing was killing him. Not knowing if she was okay. Not knowing if she was being tortured. If Wo Fat was going to kill her. Not knowing if he'd ever see her again.

And then he got the phone call about a job and had to pick himself up and pretend that he was okay when he wasn't.

Steve reached that expanse of road and found Danny waiting for him. There was concern written on his friend's face, but he didn't know if it was concern over his wellbeing or over the victim. He ducked under the police tape and joined Danny.

"I heard it was a police officer," Steve said hoping to cut off any emotional speak Danny might have tried to give him. He wasn't sure he could handle that right now with his nerves as raw as they were.

"He was an HPD solo bike officer who was on funeral detail, Officer Keoki," Danny told him and Steve's innards froze up.

He stopped walked and turned to Danny surprised. "Ben Keoki?" he asked.

Aw it better not be him. It really better not. "I think so," Danny said which caused Steve to look away and bite back a string of curses. Why was this happening to him now? He couldn't lose much more. He wouldn't be able to survive it.

Steve crouched beside the body and pulled the tarp back so he could confirm who it was. It was him. And the guilt crashed down on him like a tsunami.

"What, you know him?" Danny asked.

Steve had a hard time talking. It hurt. To talk about this. To admit his failings. And on top of everything else, he really, really didn't need this right now.

"Yeah, he lived in the corner house on my block," Steve admitted. He kept his eyes away from Danny so his friend couldn't tell how badly this was affecting him. "He and my dad were very close. He was basically an uncle to me."

Danny was silent for a bit. Steve could feel the man shifting behind him as he tried to find the right words. He finally settled with a soft touch on the shoulder and a: "I'm sorry, man."

And Steve believed him. The two of them stood back for a bit as the coroner got the body in a bag. Steve couldn't stop staring at it. The anger building up in him, merging with the guilt was a lethal combination. Guilt over never connecting with Keoki after he came back, guilt over letting Rowan in that chopper when he knew it wasn't a good idea. Anger with whoever killed Keoki. Anger with Wo Fat for keeping her. Death followed him like a spectre, was he really surprised that it came for his friends so often, could he really be surprised if it claimed Rowan? Would he be able to live with himself if it did? He wasn't sure he would.

"Do we know whose funeral this was?" Danny asked interrupting Steve's morbid thoughts. "I mean, maybe this guy's got a beef with the family and Keoki just gets hit by a stray bullet?"

Good theory but Steve shook his head.

"I don't think so," Chin said joining them. Steve had a feeling it wasn't too but he wanted to know what Chin had found. "I found this in the area where our guy took his shot."

He handed Steve a bullet casing. Gold. Huge. With writing on it.

"The shooter engraved a bullet casing with Keoki's name on it," she explained. Steve didn't need that but he said nothing. He was trying to not snap at his friends. It wasn't their fault he was in the situation. It was his. And Wo Fat's. And Rowan's.

Steve looked at the bullet casing and back to the body being wheeled away. "What kind of sick bastard shoots a cop in cold blood?" he asked no in particular.

"Somebody with a serious grudge," Danny answered. Of course, it was Danny, he had a smart-ass remark for everything.

Steve tried not to roll his eyes. "We need to go back the palace, talk to his old partners. See if they know anything," he said and they all started heading back to their respective cars. Danny was beside Steve. He bumped his shoulder with Steve's so he'd look at the shorter blonde man.

"I heard about the text," he said, his voiced hushed. "What are you going to do?"

Steve sighed, he never should have told Chin that the text said. He should have known that the man would tell the others, probably so they could be Steve's support team but he didn't want that. He just wanted Rowan back.

"I don't know," he admitted because it was true.

"You got the drop point yet?" he asked.

Steve looked to his phone. No further text messages. "No," he replied softly.

"When you do, tell me. I'll go with you. All of us, Chin and Kono are down too. We'll set up a perimeter. We'll get her back and make sure the bastard doesn't get away this time," Danny swore.

Steve stayed silent. Was it terrible that he didn't want to chance it? That he just wanted Wo Fat to give him Rowan back, without having to pull a gun into this. To not chance that Rowan may get shot during the hand over.

If he thought begging would help he'd try it. Even if it didn't help he might try it. He was desperate to get her back. It was starting to show.

"If he's hurt her, I'll kill him myself," Steve hissed even though Danny hadn't brought it up. His chest burned with the fear of it. That something had happened to her. That he hadn't protected her. That he'd never see her again.

His chest burned with the helpless rage he felt. With the need to sink his hands into her hair and pull her lips up to his. With the need to plunge his hands into Wo Fat's chest and pull out his heart.

He burned. And there was no one to turn it onto except the sniper who had just made the mistake of killing a man, a cop that McGarrett knew.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan Pierce was never going to complain about Steve following her around and enforcing limiting rules on her ever again.

Having been locked in this room, for god knows how long, was nothing short of torture. She had nothing to do. Nothing to keep her occupied. Her head was pounding so hard it kept her from sleeping. But, hey, at least her hands were untied.

She had been singing to herself for she didn't know how long when Wo Fat came back into the room. He stood over her, hands on his hips glaring down at her. She wasn't sure if it was the head injury but she just could not take him seriously.

"No one let you out of the room," he snapped.

Rowan swung her legs over the edge cot and sat up. "I'm bored."

"What?" he asked.

"I thought we were stating facts," she said to him. "Fact: I'm bored"

He couldn't really get mad at her for lying. He was a professional liar after all. But the look on his face should have clued her in to just how mad he was getting.

"How did you get out of this room?" Wo Fat snapped but Rowan was ignoring him.

"I'm bored," she cried throwing herself back down to the bed. "I'm bored and I wanna go home!"

Wo Fat growled, the first sign that he was losing his temper, his face set in a dangerous snarl. He grabbed her by the hair and Rowan yelped lashing out immediately. She was lucky with the first kick, it got him in the shin and he went down. The second kick was tactical hit, she got him square in the chest, knocking him over. She got up, took one step towards the door and a gun was in her face. Being held by a man she didn't recognize.

He was a giant man covered in gang tattoos and scars. He wore a pressed dark suit and had his black hair oiled back. He glared down at her, brown eyes narrowed in slits. He raised the gun up as if he was going to strike her, but before he could land his blow Wo Fat had gotten between them and blocked it with his own raised arm.

"I am not paying to put her back together again," he snarled to the man.

"Who is this?" Rowan asked from behind him. She got up on her tippy toes to look at the man over Wo Fat's shoulder. "Do you really need more muscle? I mean, can you afford it?"

Wo Fat half turned to her, his arm still raised as if both he and the new guy were frozen in this duel. He had a look on his face that sent shivers down her spine. She took a quick step back. Maybe she should have opened with _thank you_. She watched the two men with careful eyes as they extracted themselves from the position they were in. Each lowering their respective arms and then fixing their suits.

"This is Armando Dias, he's a friend of mine who was up visiting Hawaii. He and I had business. He has now agreed to watch you," he growled when he was done preening. "You've already met his nephew, I believe."

"Juan Carlos?" she asked. "He was nice. Good singing voice. Cute butt."

Both men stared at her like she was crazy. And maybe she was. Armando turned to Wo Fat with his unfeeling eyes and said: "She needs to stay away from my nephew."

"It's not like I'm going to attack him," she grumbled but Wo Fat pushed her away and back towards her cot. "Aw come on! Please! I'm bored, Oz. I swear, I'll be ten times better behaved if you just let me have something to do."

She always called him Oz when she could, she hoped if she did that he'd remember that, once, when he first met her, he had been kind to her. It only served to have him look at her strangely, or with disdain.

"Just stay outside, I can handle her," he told Armando who scoffed.

"When I came in you were on the floor and she was making a run for it," he reminded him.

"Then shut the door behind you, I won't let it happen again," Wo Fat snapped.

"With all due respect, I think she has you blinded."

That sentence hung in the air. Wo Fat had started shaking. She didn't know if it was fear or anger but she had a feeling that no matter what it was it wasn't good for her.

"Get. Out," Wo Fat snapped his voice dangerously low. Oh yeah. He was angry. The door shut behind Armando and then Wo Fat was bearing down on her.

"Uhm… thank you for not letting him pistol whip me?" she offered in a small voice hoping that would appease him. It didn't.

"I have been more than accommodating with you, Miss. Pierce," he growled. "Now you tell me how you got out of this fucking room or I will start being less than friendly."

Rowan blinked her eyes. Now was not the time to push buttons. This man was a sociopath. He could do terrible things to her and it was a godsend that he hadn't yet. She'd have no choice but to tell him the truth.

"The guy who stitched me left the door unlocked because he thought I was unconscious, and I wasn't."

"You were out as late as last night?" he snapped.

"Yeah, but uhm… I passed out in a supply closet and didn't actually get to an escape until this morning," she admitted.

"In a supply closet?"

"Yep, on an overturned bucket," she replied.

To her surprise Wo Fat started to laugh. "How did McGarrett ever deal with you? You must have drove him mental."

Rowan tried not to smile with him. "He used to handcuff me to himself or other people he trusted or to inanimate objects I couldn't break. He was also always yelling at me," she answered.

Wo Fat seemed to think about that briefly. "And you behaved, when handcuffed to others?"

"Well… I mean… sort of," she replied with a shrug. "It wasn't like I could do much. But, you know, if you get me a book to read, or an iPod to listen to, or a TV to watch, I'm sure I'll behave."

The look he gave her told her that he doubted those words and she got that. It didn't help her cause but she got that.

"Have you eaten?" he asked instead.

"No," she replied softly.

"I'll have someone bring you something then," he said knocking on the door so Armando on the other side knew to open it for him. He avoided her eyes as he added: "And try to get some rest, that head injury can't be good for you."

And then the door opened and he was gone. Rowan tried not to let the tears fall down her cheeks, tried to breathe through the blinding panic. She tried to keep herself calm. But she was scared. Why hadn't Steve found her yet? What was she going to do? How long until Wo Fat got tired of her and what would he do to her when that happened?

What the hell was Rowan going to do to keep herself entertained? How was she going to escape now? But most importantly…

Was Steve okay?

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

"Are you okay, honey?" Doris asked as Steve paced about his living room. He had asked his mother over so he could ask her a favor. But he didn't know how to phrase.

How does one ask their mother to sacrifice herself for the girl Steve was certain he was falling for?

"No," he replied. Because why lie? He was a wreck.

"What's going on Steve?" she asked because she'd have to know that he called her over here to talk to about it.

"Wo Fat," Steve said. Already Doris was sitting a little straighter. "I found Wo Fat. He's on the island."

"Steve…" she started but Steve shook his head.

"He took Rowan, mom," he admitted before she could say anything else and then collapsed to the arm chair. One of the last places Rowan had been sitting. It almost felt like he could still feel her there.

He was shaking. He could feel the tremors. He clasped his hands together to try and dispel them but it just made him shake harder. His mother's eyes were on him and it felt like he was about to burst into tears. If his mother got up and hugged him he may just start crying.

But that was exactly what Doris did. She got up, sat down on the arm of the couch and hugged Steve. Tears threatened to fall, actually did fall. He had to wipe them away before his mother could notice.

"Do you know for sure that he has her?" she asked.

Steve took his phone out of his pocket and handed it to her. She opened the text messages and the picture. She stared at them for a bit while he sat there with his fingers pressed to his lips to keep the sobs and cries of frustration at bay.

"He's asked you for me?!" she asked sounding as shocked as Steve had felt when the request came in.

"I don't know what to do mom," he said in a small voice. "She was so sick when she I found her. She could barely walk, she was malnourished and covered in burns. She won't be able to hold him off, she won't be able to survive him torturing her."

"Do you think he's torturing her?" Doris wondered.

"I don't know," Steve admitted. "I don't know what he wants from her. I don't know if this is a straight ransom case. She called him Oz, she called him Oz and he recognized her. He stopped shooting at us. He knew her, mom, he knew her and now he's got her."

"How would she have met him?" Doris asked. "It makes no sense."

"I don't know mom. I can't ask him, can I? I can't ask her either," Steve argued. But at the forefront of his mind was those two days that were unaccounted for, the two days she apparently just stayed on the beach. "All I know is that he has her and he won't give her back to her unless I give him you."

"When's the drop?" Doris asked. Steve looked up at her. What was she saying? "When's the drop? I'll have to know to be ready."

"You're going to go?" Steve asked. "You're going to trade yourself for her?"

"Of course," Doris cried as if it were the only thing that made sense. "You're right. She wouldn't be able to handle him if she were healthy. Not to mention she's mouthy, he won't like that."

Steve felt the shaking return and his mother wrapped her arms around him to help him. He completely forgot how bad she was with her sass. She was always running her mouth. Wo Fat could and probably would shoot her for that alone.

"You agree and get the details and then text me," Doris told him, pressing a kiss to the top of his head. "We'll get her back. Okay? Don't you worry honey. We'll get her back."

Steve sat there melting into his mother's embrace. A few tears escaping and rolling down his cheek before he could get them. He had to believe her. He had to believe he'd save Rowan from this man because otherwise he wouldn't survive.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

The text came in.

 _Fine. When and where?_

And right after that came a second text: _And I want proof of life._

He was still in shock. Steven McGarrett actually agreed to give him his mother. He would be stupid to think Steve would just hand his mother over. There'd be a plan, extravagant and convoluted. Wo Fat just had to have a better one.

But first he had to make a phone call.

He walked towards where they were holding Rowan. Where she was sleeping. He dialed McGarrett's number and the man picked up on the first ring.

"Where is she?" came from the other end of the phone and Wo Fat was taken a bit a back.

There was panic in Steve's voice. A deep-seated fear that Wo Fat hadn't been expecting. "Rowan? Ro? Where is she Wo Fat. Have you hurt her? Can't you see enough's been done to her? Let me talk to her, you bastard."

Steve continued and Wo Fat found himself paused outside her door staring down at his phone. Where the hell did Steven McGarrett come off talking to him like that? Asking if he'd hurt her. Well, we had, but that wasn't point. He wasn't the one who sent the girl off in the first place, telling her to leave and effectively getting her kidnapped by drug runners. He wasn't the one who let her come to an active shoot out in a helicopter. He wasn't the one who left her in the jungle to fend for herself.

But he didn't say any of that, he pushed open the door and stalked into the room. Rowan was actually asleep this time, he could tell by the way she was breathing. The fact that she didn't move when she heard him come in. She was a deep sleeper. Not much woke her once she was out. He almost didn't want to wake her up but Steve was still yapping on the other side of the phone.

So he grabbed her by the back of her hair again. Rowan awoke with a yelping cry that seemed to stab him in the chest. A feeling he quickly shrugged awau/

Rowan glared up at him once he let go. "Hey! What was that for?"

 _Stop hurting her!_

Rowan's eyes went to the phone in his hand. She had recognized that voice. Wo Fat offered it out to her and Rowan snatched it from him.

"Steve?" she asked and Wo Fat sat back to watch her talk to him. A small smile hit her lips and a barb of jealous pricked his heart. She never smiled like that with him. But he was holding her hostage so really, what did he expect? "No, I'm okay. Did a cop get shot?"

That was a weird question to ask.

"Yes it does matter, did a cop get shot?" she snapped. "No, I already said I'm fine. Just a few stitches."

Steve's cries were heard through the phone even from where Wo Fat was standing. He couldn't hear the words just the volume as Rowan held the phone away from her ear. He should have stopped the call by now, they were probably tracing it after all, but he couldn't bring himself to do it.

"It's just a small laceration on my head. It's probably gonna scar though, like Harry Potter. It'll match the one that goes through my right eyebrow." Rowan told him. "No, everything else is fine. Now answer the question. Did a cop get shot?"

She chewed the side of her thumb while she listened to him. She scowled at whatever she said and rolled her eyes.

"Yes it does Steve, because he has no hands," Rowan groaned.

And that was it. He had no idea what it was she was talking about but it needed to stop. Wo Fat took the phone from her just in time to have Steve ask him: "Who has no hands?"

"She's fine for now," Wo Fat interrupted him and Steve fell silent. "You'll meet us at the junction in Kualoa at the end of Kaawa Valley Road, there's a grove there off the side of the road, you'll see it. Midnight, tonight. And if you bring anyone other than Shelburne, I won't hesitate to put a bullet in your precious little psychic."

Steve got the first syllable out of the word: "Understood" and then Wo Fat hung up.

He'd be a fool to think that Steve hadn't been tracing the call. It was why he had waited until the base was ready to move before making the call in the first place. They were going to move, he had a place set up but he needed somewhere to lay low. He didn't want Rowan there while they were setting up. That mean he, Armando, Juan Carlos and Rowan would be going somewhere else to sit until the space was ready.

Rowan looked up at him with those big blue eyes. "You're going to shoot me?" she asked. Her voice quivering. He wanted to tell her he'd never shoot her. That he intended her no harm. But that was a lie. If he had to. If he thought it would stop Steve from getting the upper hand. He'd shoot her in a heartbeat. And then probably feel the guilt for the rest of his life.

He brought the handcuffs out of his pocket and Rowan began to whine. He hated it when she whined and she knew it. "I'll be good, I promise, you don't need to handcuff me," she told him but they went onto her wrist and then onto his.

She shot him a dry glare. "Really?" she snapped. "It didn't work well for the others you're definitely not going to enjoy this."

"You said it kept you well behaved," he reminded her with narrowed eyes.

Rowan got to her feet, swaying slightly. Despite himself he put a hand out to steady her and then took it away. Like touching her was the same as getting burned.

"Yeah, I mean it kept me out of trouble, but I'm sassy AF, I unno if you're going to be able to handle me," she said to him.

"I've taken on dictators, and gun runners and your precious McGarrett. I think I can handle you," he scoffed.

He should have taken that smug smirk on her face and the way her eyebrow cocked at him as a sign. But he didn't know what Rowan was like. He didn't know he had just issued her a challenge. But he was about to find out.


	30. Chapter 30

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Guys this chapter is 12 pages long. I forgot that all the chapters around this drama are a bit longer. SORRY! Hope it's still okay. Things are gonna get hella angsty after this... and kinda strange. Whoever voted for Wo Fat being super possessive as a future problem was RIGHT! Okay! Hope you guys enjoy, don't forget to tell me which parts are your favourite and what you think it going to happen next. And I'll see you on Tuesday!_

Chapter 30

* * *

It started with a simple request.

 _Can I listen to some music?_

What could be the harm? She had been very well behaved up until that point. Wo Fat had no reason to think that this wouldn't have gone as smoothly as everything else had.

He had managed to drive all the way downtown with her handcuffed to him. They had managed to get up into the office space that he knew was being renovated and would therefore be good cover until the new base was ready to have Rowan there. She had sat placidly beside him scribbling on scraps of paper while he talked business with Armando. He even uncuffed her so he and Armando could talk somewhere quietly without Rowan hearing of their plans and while they were gone she didn't even try to escape.

She did, however, end up right beside Juan Carlos, the two of them had their heads pressed together listening to music on his iPod, she with one ear bud he with the other. Shoulder to Shoulder. Within kissing distance. Wo Fat put a stop to that immediately. There would be no romance or canoodling during the imprisonment. He'd make sure of that.

So, when she asked if she could listen to music he figured she'd put some music on a radio or something. You know normal music, the stuff the young kids listened to these days, all beat and no tune. He was not expecting country. He hated country.

Wo Fat made the mistake of telling her that. Anything but country. But that made her play the music louder. Once the radio was shattered he thought that would be enough. He didn't realize Juan Carlos had brought his guitar until Rowan was instructing him to play it. Didn't know Rowan could sing until she was belting out a tune.

Cue to her running around a small office space, breathlessly singing a country song, the epitome of all country songs, while Wo Fat chased her trying to get her to shut up.

 _And I can take you for a ride on my big green tractor._

Wo Fat threw himself at her. Rowan dodged. Damn she was good at evading. Wo Fat landed on his stomach and pounded the floor with frustration.

 _We can go slow or make it go faster. Down through the woods and out to the pasture, as long as I'm with you it really don't matter._

Wo Fat got up. He spotted Armando and Juan Carlos just watching. Juan was smiling, finding it hilarious, playing the guitar for her while Armando was frowning at him. He didn't need another lecture from the older man about his conflicting behaviour with his prisoner. He knew it was a problem, he didn't need Armando Dias, the gun running family man, to tell him that. Rowan was still singing eyes closed and dancing to the song a big loping grin on her face. Other than that phone call to McGarrett she hadn't smiled at all since he had met her.

 _Climb up in my lap and drive if you want, girl you know you got me to hold on to. We can go to town, but baby if you'd rather, I'll take you for a ride on my big green trac—._

He roared, he was sick of this song, he was sick of her. She would not weaken him. He was stronger than her baby blue eyes and infectious kindness.

So he tackled her. Cut her off right at the end of the refrain. Before she could finish the last word. The song was done. Rowan was under him groaning, her hands on his shoulders pushing him off. So, he rolled off of her. He was groaning too, he hadn't expected that take down to hurt as much but she was skin and bones so he had managed to absorb the impact even though she hit the ground first.

"Really?" she breathed out, she slowly raised her arm and smacked his chest. It did no damage to him, a bunny might as well as hopped on his chest, but he didn't like that she thought she could do that to him. He didn't like that it felt nice to have someone to play fight with. No matter how inappropriate it was.

"I told you to shut up," Wo Fat growled slapping her hand away.

"This all could have been avoided if you just shot her," Armando said from where he was leaning.

Juan Carlos was laughing, so much so he was collapsed on the floor holding his ribs and wheezing. He clapped his hands. "That was the best! Do it again!"

Rowan groaned again. "I don't think I can take another tackle like that," she said.

"If you start singing country again I will shoot you," he growled.

"If you're gonna tackle me every time I annoy you I'd rather you just shot me," Rowan shot back. Wo Fat forced himself to sit up. He was in the process of getting her up when Juan Carlos decided to get up too. Wo Fat glared at him, he really hopped that the kid stayed away from Rowan he had enough to deal with without having to worry about that kid being romantic with her.

Instead the kid went to the window to look out. "Is there anything good to eat around here?" he asked. "Whoa, a silver Camaro."

Wo Fat was still holding Rowan's hands, he hadn't had a chance to let go. But the second Juan Carlos said silver Camaro Rowan went stiff in his grip. Wo Fat turned back to her. Her eyes were wide, not shocked, not in fear, but blankly. Like he had lost her in her own head.

"Yeah, right there by that gun shop," Juan Carlos said. "It's a nice model. Oh a burrito place, can we go there?"

Wo Fat didn't hear any of that. When the words _gun shop_ fell from his lips, Rowan shuddered, her eyes rolled back in her skull and then collapsed to her knees.

An electrical shock ran up Wo Fat's arms so strong and surprising that he dropped his hold on her immediately.

He stared down at the girl at his feet. He went into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. He tossed a few bills at Juan Carlos. "Bring back something for her to eat," he ordered and then crouched down in front of Rowan.

"What was that?" Armando asked once his nephew had left the room. Rowan was groaning again, her head in her hands.

"I don't know," Wo Fat replied. Was this from her head injury? Was she ill before he got her? Was seizures a thing she had? Because that would explain why McGarrett was so frantic to get her back. "Are you okay?"

Rowan looked up to him, her eyes squinted as if she didn't understand what had happened. She looked around and then her eyes focused on him again.

"I… uh… I think I'm going to throw up," she said. "Can… can I go to the washroom?"

"Yes of course," he said, helping her up to her feet and ushering her out into the hallway and watching the door shut behind her. He turned his back on the door to where Armando was blocking the doorway and staring at him. He had a look on his face, one that Wo Fat recognized.

"Don't say it," he snapped. "I'm sick of hearing it and I wouldn't think twice about shooting you to shut you up."

"Oh, so you'll shoot me? Are you sure because you've yet to shoot the most annoying thing in your life," he snarled.

"She's my ticket to Five-0 doing anything I ask for. She's my meal ticket. I'm not going to shoot my meal ticket," he reminded him.

"Then slap her around a bit," Armando growled. "You're too soft on her. Which is ridiculous. Everyone said you were ruthless. Where is that ruthlessness with her?"

Wo Fat wanted to argue. He really did but the man had a point. Ever since he found her bedraggled and half drowned outside the office he had been using to inventory his newest arms shipment he had been unable to harness that ruthlessness. Something about her had softened him. Maybe it was the patheticness of her. Or maybe it was the fact that underneath that annoying exterior he saw himself in her. Driven and alone. She had no one, and she needed someone right now. He had been in that position before and it occurred to him that he wanted to save her from it the way no one had saved him.

"I can't be ruthless. The man I stole her from has a laser focus and right now it's on her. His desire to keep her safe is borderline obsessive. If he thinks for even a second I'll cause her any sort of bodily harm he'll double his reserves to find us and get her back. The only thing stopping him right now is that I have her and he doesn't want me to hurt her. He'll play along as long as he thinks she'll be safer this way," he told Armando. It was a lie of course, but a necessary lie. And it wasn't really that much of a lie.

He wasn't sure what Steve would do. All of this was assumption. But Wo Fat knew that Steve would do anything for Rowan. He had proved that by agreeing to the hostage demands.

"And you're that afraid of him?" Armando growled.

"No. But I'm trying to rebuild and the man can be quite annoying when it comes to chasing down people. He has the ability to eliminate my resources and I'd rather not have him try until I'm fully up and running again," Wo Fat argued, because that much was true. It was why he had endeavoured to keep himself hidden from Five-0. He knew Steve would come for him when he was a threat to his mother, in his quest to find out who he was to her. But he was now under the impression that Steve would be a bit more dedicated to ruining Wo Fat's lively hood and putting him back into jail if something were to happen to Rowan.

He turned away from the man to hide his discomfort. He wasn't afraid of McGarrett. Not fully. He was more afraid of the way Rowan made him feel. Regardless, during their argument neither noticed the door to the washroom open and close. No one noticed the small body sneak away from them. And by the time they did notice, it was too late.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan wasn't escaping. She was searching.

She had this terrible vision. It wasn't from the episode. It was a version of the episode. Steve being shot by a sniper. She couldn't tell if it was a kill shot. She could only tell that he was distracted and therefore didn't notice on time, like he would have in the episode. Which meant she would have to do something.

She knew she was in the right building. Somehow, she even knew where to go. Down the floor, three rooms over. There was already a dead body. A painter. She knew that much. She also knew she didn't have much time left to save Steve.

She found the right door and slowly pushed it open, quietly and quickly getting into the room while the man crouched on the floor concentrated on his shot. Rowan rushed forward, she didn't care about being soundless now, she had no plan in mind, she only knew she had to stop him.

So she kicked the gun's tripod out from under it just as he pulled the trigger. The kick sent the poor man flying and Rowan found herself, not running away like she should have, but staring out the window. Please God let it have worked.

Seconds later she spotted Danny rushing out of the gun store, followed by a completely fine Steve. But Rowan was not okay. The man with no hands stood and Rowan took a step back. He lunged at her, and luckily she managed to evade him, dodging to the side avoiding those prosthetics that she knew would be able to crush bone if they got a hold of her.

But her luck had run out or that man's rage was more potent than her fear. He slammed into her, shoving her up against the wall. Her feet tripping over the body of the painter slumped against it. He forced her to turn, she struggled to keep his hands away from her neck. But he got them there regardless.

There was only one squeeze and spots formed in front of her eyes. The pain was almost unbearable but she couldn't do anything but gasp. There was no air in her lungs, in fact it felt like he was squeezing her throat shut. She was going to die. Who would take care of Steve then? He'd blame himself, she knew he would.

She never even got to tell him how she felt about him.

What felt like eons was actually only seconds. It was enough to do damage, she felt it in her throat but at this rate it wasn't going to matter because Rowan was going to die. At least, she thought she was.

In fact, just as she was on the edge of losing consciousness, someone tackled the man off of her. There was a scuffle, she could hear it, but there was a blackness around her vision and all she could do was cough. She was coughing so hard she still couldn't breathe. Her mouth was filled with a sick metallic taste.

She was coughing up blood.

She collapsed to the ground, coughing into her hands, covering them in her blood. Gunshots rang out and she ignored them. The man got clipped in the shoulder and decided to run but she didn't see it. All she saw was black spots and red splatters.

"Rowan, Rowan, what the fuck?" Wo Fat cried, his hands on her shoulders shaking her lightly.

"He… was… going… to shoot… Steve…" she gasped out between coughs.

"Did he shoot you? Where is that blood coming from?" he asked. He pulled her up. She could feel him looking her over, she must have looked a dreadful fright.

She coughed some more. Air was slowly returning to her, she was regaining her vision. Which was how she knew that with that last cough blood had sprayed all over Wo Fat's face. And he looked horrified. She wasn't sure if it was the fact that she had coughed blood up all over him or if it was because she had been that badly injured.

"Holy fuck," was all that came out of him. And then he paused. "Wait did you say Steve?"

"He's… probably… chasing… the shooter," she gasped out but that didn't seem to appease Wo Fat.

He started to drag her down the corridor. She stumbled after him still trying to clear her vision and breathe but she couldn't seem to get enough air into her.

"We need to get you to a doctor," he was telling her. Rowan was barely listening. He must have pulled out his phone to talk call Armando as he pushed her into the elevator.

"No, I found her. She's injured. We'll need to take her to a hospital. We'll meet you in the back," he said before hanging up his phone and turning back to her.

"What were you thinking?" he growled to her. "How did you even know he was there, let alone what he was going to do?"

"I… had a… vision," she gasped and coughed again sending more blood onto her hands. She was starting to panic. This couldn't be a good sign. "I… I… I can't breathe."

Wo Fat was looking at her again. His fingers probing at her neck which caused her to wince in pain. "You'll be okay. We'll get this fixed. I promise."

They were quiet except for Rowan's gasps for the rest of the ride down. He had an arm around her waist, she was pressed firmly to his side as if helping her to walk. She let him think that was what he was doing. In reality her breathing was still shaky, but her vision had returned fully.

She could make a break for it. If she got across the street to the gun store, the one that Steve had been in, she could stay there. He could call Steve. He was going to lose the shooter anyway, he could come get her. Or at least send someone else, like Chin or Kono. She could finally go home.

He led her through the lobby and out through to the back where a town car was waiting for them. He let her go propping her up on the car while he got the door open and she took her chance then. She turned and bolted for the mouth of the alleyway.

"Oh no you don't," she heard Wo Fat growl and then he had her again, arms wrapped up around her waist, hoisting her up so her feet were off the ground.

"No. Let me go!" she cried trying to twist out of his grasp. When that didn't work she kicked back, her leg tangling up in his and taking him down. They hit the pavement hard, the asphalt burning her hands and arms. She was up before he could recover, she took two steps away and heard the cocking of a gun.

She froze but forced herself to turn. Armando was out of the driver's seat. Gun trained on her. And Rowan couldn't breathe again. He wouldn't actually shoot her, would he?

Wo Fat lurched to his feet, grabbing Armando by the arm and twisting it down just as the explosive _pop_ rang out. Rowan jumped and cringed. He would have shot her? He would have actually shot her?

Wo Fat was shouting something. She wasn't sure if it was at her or at someone else. She was too busy coughing. Each cough like a punch to her throat. She felt the thick sticky metal climb up her throat and fly out of her mouth. She tried to cover it up but it was too much, so much she was practically throwing it up.

Wo Fat's hands were on her back. She wanted to lie down on the ground. Lying down had always woked before but she knew it wouldn't work this time. She wanted the pain to go away. She wanted Steve. Whatever it was he was saying to her was lost in the coughing and when she didn't respond or move he lifted her up in his arms and took her back to the car.

"Take me to Honolulu MC. Alex… Alex will help…" she told him between coughs.

"Who the hell is Alex?" Wo Fat thundered as if that was the hot issue of the day.

Rowan lay back in his arms, too weak to keep fighting. She was scared. So, despite her aversions she found herself clinging to the crisp fabric of his suit, and tucking her head close to his shoulder as if trying to hide from the pain. When she started coughing again he pulled out a handkerchief and pressed it to her mouth. Probably to save his suit.

For a second she swore the pain blinded her, because for those few seconds it felt like she was in the protective embrace of her brother. And she had thought she would never feel that again.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

The first thing Chin had noticed was the blood. So much blood. Too much blood for the scene in front of him. Splatters of it against the wall by the lifeless body of the painter. Bullet holes with flecks of blood by the door. A trail of blood leading to a stairwell. Splatters of blood along the hallway, and coating surfaces of the middle elevator, all in spray patterns.

There was another victim. There was another shooter. And they had their shooter's DNA.

The bullets recovered from the wall were from a hand gun. Not the same caliber as the shooter's rifle.

Steve had recovered a prosthetic hand and evidence of blood in the car the shooter had crashed into the water. This confirmed why the shooter never left any finger prints he had no hands. It also confirmed that it was the shooter who had been shot.

And the robotic hands had crushed the neck and windpipe of the painter who had surprised him. So who did the blood belong to? And who was the second shooter?

Max came up to investigate the body and the blood splatters. As Chin had surmised the splatters by the door were high velocity, meaning the shooter had been clipped, probably around the shoulder. The ones by the body were low velocity.

Probably coughed up. And seeing that the first victim had no blood around his mouth it probably wasn't him. Which meant there was someone else with a severely injured windpipe out there somewhere. Probably the same someone who had the pistol. Chin tried to tell Steve, except their fearless leader's mind was anywhere but on this second victim.

But Steve's priority wasn't the second victim with the pistol. It was the shooter they were looking for. And with the DNA plus a tip Rowan had snuck in when Steve had managed to talk to her on that proof of life call they found their guy. Curt Stoner. Who had been arrested by Keoki, Ookala, Duke and Steve's father during a bank heist, in which an explosion had blown Stoner's hands off.

That was why he was killing these men, that was why he had been after Steve. He couldn't get revenge on John McGarrett so he was going to settle with making Steve pay for what his father had done to him.

They had found his apartment with that information. But Curt was ready. He waited for Steve to be at window level to try and shoot him but Steve had figured it out. Then it was just about baiting Curt so Kono could get a shot in.

And Kono delivered. Kono got him in one shot. Then he was dead on the pavement, having fallen off the building he had been perched on and one of Steve's nightmares ended.

Steve had wanted this case dealt with. He had to talk to his mother. They had to have a plan ready for when midnight came. He didn't want to hand his mother over, but he knew, if his back was against the wall he would.

Anything to have Rowan back in his arms again.

Steve got home to his mother already planning out the op. She had a map of the area and little markers for where they were going to put Danny, Chin and Kono. She wanted HPD waiting at the highway ready to swarm in upon her mark.

It was impressive. But it made Steve nervous. He didn't want to chance it. He knew Wo Fat would have a plan. Probably one that ended with Rowan getting shot just to spite him. He didn't want that.

He had been living with a worry in his stomach since the shooting at the gun shop. It wasn't that someone had tried to shoot him, someone was always trying to shoot him. It wasn't he hadn't even been aware that he was in the cross hairs, had been so out of it over Rowan that he didn't hear Danny when he confirmed the shop owner hadn't placed the call that had brought them to this spot. It wasn't because he knew the Stoner would never have missed so there had to be a reason for him missed such an easy target as Steve had been in that window. No, this pit of worry that at wormed its way into his stomach was something else.

It was the same feeling he got when Rowan was in trouble. The feeling he got before she started flickering. But Rowan was with Wo Fat, being held somewhere, there was no way for her to be in harm's way unless Wo Fat was causing her harm.

"Don't worry," Doris said putting an arm around his shoulder. "We'll get her back."

Steve smiled up to his mother, ignored a call from Fong and dialed Danny instead. They had an op to pull off. He had a girl to rescue.

And if things went right, by tomorrow he'd have a new girlfriend and dead nemesis.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

It had been a week since Alex Lockman had last seen Rowan and he'd be lying if he said he didn't worry. He had this irrational fear that the next time he did see her again it would be on a triage table with Steve hovering in the waiting room. Best case scenario she'd show up at his apartment and throw herself at him telling him that she and Steve were done with their toxic whatever it was they had and she was his alone.

He didn't think he'd find her in an examination room coughing up blood while an angry Korean man pointed a gun at his face.

He had walked in, seen Rowan on the table and had rushed to her side. He had hugged her, held her for all of two seconds and then felt the cool of the metal behind his ear.

"Let her go," came a growl. "And step away."

Alex put his hands up in surrender but Rowan just groaned. The man behind him was dressed in an impeccable light blue suit. The white of his shirt was crisp which made the blood splattered across his chest and lapels all the more bright. His pointed Asian features were angular and angry. The gun in his hand didn't waver, the coldness in his eyes betrayed a calculated mind. He wasn't running scared. He was very much in control.

"Can you stop, please," she said, her voice scratchy a low.

He had been under the impression that this man was using her to get treatment for himself, he did have blood spatters across his face and the shoulders and neck of the white shirt of his suit, but he didn't look like he was in any sort of pain. Then Rowan talked and he realized that she was the problem.

"What's going on?" he asked eyeing her. She had big purple welts around her neck. He was officially worried.

"Is this him?" the man asked.

"Yes. Alex this is Oz, Oz this is Alex," she said. "Put the gun down, Oz."

As soon as her sentence was finished she started coughing, the rattling wet kind. Alex pulled her hand from her mouth and found it covered in blood.

"What the fuck, Ro?" he cried immediately going for her neck. It looked like someone had tried to crush her windpipe.

"A guy with fake hands tried to strangle me," she told him in that low raspy voice and then immediately began to cough again like she was clearing her throat. Like she was trying to stifle it.

"Shit," he muttered. He then glanced back at Oz who had since then hidden the gun but kept staring at Alex with the same untrusting eyes that Steve had.

"She'll need x-rays," he told him.

Oz shook his head. "No. We don't have time and we're not leaving this room."

"I need to see if she's fractured her spine or if she has internal bleeding," Alex argued. Oz's lips twitched. They were set in a firm frown and they seemed to be getting deeper.

His eyes glanced to Rowan who was coughing again and then back to Alex. "Fine, but we all go together," he warned.

"I'm not taking her anywhere until you tell me what's going on," Alex snapped causing Oz to frown again.

"It's none of your business…" Oz started but Rowan was already talking. "He's Steve's arch nemesis. I'm kidnapped until further notice."

"Rowan!" Oz snapped but she just shrugged.

"He was going to find out. And so will Steve. My blood is all over the room where the shooter was shooting from," she reminded him. Alex was just struggling to keep up. She had just been missing for a week. He had tried to put out a missing person's report but was told that Five-0 already had a case out on her. Now she was kidnapped? There was a shooter? Some dude with fake hands had tried to squeeze the life out of her… literally? What the fuck was happening?!

Rowan continued on as if all of this was fucking normal. "Plus, he really wouldn't help me if we didn't tell him."

"And if he calls McGarrett?" Oz argued. "I'd rather he finds out later rather than sooner."

"He's not going to call Steve, they don't like each other," Rowan said.

"Of course I don't like him, he broke us up," Alex muttered.

Rowan opened her mouth to defend Steve like she always did but Oz beat her to it. "Wait, you used to date this man?" he asked pointing at Alex, he was now looking Alex up and down in an appraising manner as if this information changed things. "You didn't tell me that."

"Why does your kidnapper care about your love life?" Alex shot back.

Rowan's eyebrows were drawn together in confusion. "Uh… I don't know," she said. Then a cocky smirk dawned on her face. "Hey, Oz, why do you care about my love life?"

"I don't care. It matters because people who care about someone will do desperate things to save them. Had I known that he was a love interest I would have taken you somewhere else," he snapped. Rowan just grinned at him a strange sort of grin she used when she was teasing people.

It must have really bugged Oz for he went a shade of red he had never seen on an Asian man before. "I'm going to wait outside," he snapped. "Give me your phone."

Alex handed over his phone and the hospital walkie. He watched Oz leave the room, the door shutting behind him softly and then he looked back up to Rowan. "Rowan…"

"Don't start, okay?" she said. "I keep coughing up blood, that's more important right now."

"If you get out of this I swear to god I'm moving you out of Steve's, you hear me?" he snarled to her. He was between her legs and really close to her. His examination of her was done all he really needed was to see how bad the damage was and see if she needed surgery or just pain meds.

Her arms wound around his neck pulling him closer. He hated it when she did that. He'd lose himself in her eyes and forget to be angry with her. "I'd kiss you but I taste like blood," she murmured to him.

"I don't give a shit," he mumbled and then pressed his lips to hers. But realized quickly that he lied, because she really tasted of blood, overpoweringly so, and it did bother him.

He had missed her. He had missed this. And it felt great to have what Steve didn't. She didn't go to Steve she had come for him. Though, to be fair, Steve knew nothing about first aid.

"Now tell me what happened and where he's holding you so I can tell Steve and he can kick that guy's ass," Alex whispered once he pulled away. "And once that's done I'm going to take you to get that x-ray."

Rowan dropped her head so her forehead rested against his and quietly began to talk.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Midnight hit.

Everyone was in place.

Steve stood with his mother at the drop point.

Jumping at every noise. Gun on his hip itching to be drawn. He had his own plan. Shoot Wo Fat the second he had a clear shot. Kill Wo Fat. Save Rowan. Kiss her until the worry left his body. Demand that she became his girlfriend. Go home. Cuddle. Rowan makes pancakes in the morning. That was his plan.

But it was ten past midnight and no one had showed up.

Steve was starting to get antsy.

By the time the phone rang at 12:38 he had paced a groove into the patch of grass he and his mother had been waiting on.

"Where is she?" he shouted in the phone. "Why aren't you here?"

There was silence on the other end before he heard: "There were… complications."

"Complications?" Steve echoed and that pit of worry blossomed into a climbing ivy of icy dread. "I did as you asked. I'm here. I brought my mother. What could have gone wrong?"

"You also brought Five-0 and HPD," Wo Fat reminded him and his breath left his body. _He knew._ "But that wasn't the complication. It seems Rowan suffered a bit of an incident."

 _That was worse_.

"Incident? What happened? Is she okay?" Steve asked but he was met with silence. "Look, if she needs a hospital, take her there. Hell, leave her in a ditch for all I care just tell me where she is, I'll send Doris to you. I promise. Just please. Please give her back to me."

He was begging. His voice had hitched and cracked. He had bared all his cards. Not that it mattered, Wo Fat knew. He knew their plan and he'd known that Rowan was worth everything to him.

"She's already been to the hospital," Wo Fat told him his voice quiet and strange. Unreadable. What the hell did he want then?

For a second Steve was confused. Nothing else was added. Nothing about whether or not she was okay. And when the silence grew too heavy Steve asked again: "Then give her to me. Tell me where to meet. I'll go anywhere. Any day or time. Just tell me where she is. Please. _Please give her back to me_."

The silent stretch continued. So long that Steve actually checked his phone to see if he lost the call. He hadn't. So what was happening? Why wasn't Wo Fat answering him? What had happened to Rowan?

"No." Wo Fat whispered so softly Steve almost missed it. "No, I don't think I will,"

"What?" Steve cried. "Wait? No! No! You can't keep her!"

But Wo Fat had hung up the phone. Steve stared down at the blank screen horror dawning on his face. He heard his mother's voice, straining to be reassuring but the shock had overwhelmed him. Rowan was so injured Wo Fat felt that he had to take her to the hospital? And now he wanted to keep her? Why? Why would he want to do that? Just to spite Steve?

This wasn't supposed to happen. This wasn't how that night was supposed to end. Rowan was supposed to be in his arms. Rowan was supposed to be here. He hadn't even tried to plan for any other outcome because he didn't think he could handle another outcome and he was right.

The frustrated angry scream ripped from him before he knew what had happened. And he kept screaming until his throat was raw and his mother wrapped him up in a hug he didn't want.

He didn't hear his team come up. He didn't hear them tell him that Fong had information for him. Something important he needed to hear. He was lost in his rage, in his frustration and fear.

He needed Rowan. _He needed Rowan._

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Wo Fat hung up the phone absently and placed it beside him.

Rowan was asleep on his lap again. Her head resting against his thigh, her arms wrapped around one of his legs. He had draped his arm casually across her shoulders, his fingers twisting the ends of a lock of her hair. Every now and then she'd cough like she was clearing her throat. He'd brush the handkerchief lightly across her lips and it would come back stained in red every time. He could feel the blood seeping onto his pant leg but he still didn't bother to move her.

It would be like that for a while. Maybe the next couple of days. Then she'd stop coughing up blood and start healing. That was what to expect when one's larynx had been fractured. He had been told to keep her from talking and singing, she was to rest, and to be observed to make sure she was breathing right. He also had to keep her head elevated. This was as elevated as he could get her at that moment, but he could move her once it was time for him to leave.

He wasn't sure why he was doing this. He wasn't sure why he cared. He had never cared about anyone or anything else like this before. Was this love? No, he doubted it. He didn't feel any sort of lust for her. He didn't want to fuck her, or kiss her or anything he usually felt when he was sexual attracted to someone.

He just wanted to take care of her.

Rowan shifted, groaning lightly. Making noises that might have been words had she been awake at the time. His grip shifted with her, his arm staying over her holding her tightly in place so she didn't roll off of him and onto the floor.

He could make this work. He could make her want to stay. He could make her into something like him. He just needed to get her loyalties to switch. He needed her to want to stay with him.

He needed to keep her away from Steven McGarrett.


	31. Chapter 31

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Okay guys! After this, the chapters are going to focus less on Steve and more on Wo Fat and Rowan. I promise to make it interesting. They're also going to go back to their normal 7-9 pages long. So I have a Christmas idea, please tell me if any of you would want a Christmas Five-0 fic where a lucky reader would get to pick what happens? If so tell me!. Kay! See you on Friday!_

Chapter 31

* * *

Steve took the phone that Kono was offering him. It had taken some time to reel in the emotional turmoil. It had taken his mother and Danny stroking his back until he could breathe again, until he could straighten his back up and act like the strong man he usually was.

His hands shook as he accepted the phone, luckily no one commented on it or anything else they had just witnessed. They avoided his eyes as much as he was avoiding theirs. He didn't want to see the pity on their faces. He didn't want them to see how weak he was, though after that display it was clear as day just how weak Rowan Pierce and this whole situation had made him.

"McGarrett," he said trying to keep his voice level and steady.

"It's Fong. I got the results of the DNA test on the second sample," he said quickly.

"Okay," Steve answered. Short and curt. Why did this matter? Why had he been blowing up all of their phones over that?

"It's Rowan's."

 _That's why._

All the air he had carefully cultivated left him and immediately he was doubled over again trying to calm his racing heart. Danny and his mother went right back to stroking his back Rowan was at the shooting? Rowan had been _across_ the street from him?

He had felt it too. This stirring in his blood. He thought he was imagining it. He thought it was wishful thinking or an echo of familiarity, something that reminded him of her, which was everything, that brought the feeling back. But he had been wrong. She had been there, just across the street. That bullet had narrowly missed him. He hadn't seen it coming, and Stoner's aim had never been off before. It had been off because he had been distracted during that shot.

And Steve could guess what had distracted him.

"I've done some other tests on the blood, and I've determined from the mucus I've found in the sample that it's most likely from her mouth. Hence the low velocity spatter, she coughed it up," Fong said.

So Rowan had been hit in the mouth. Blood would have sprayed out. Stoner must have tried to kill her, and if Rowan was there Wo Fat couldn't have been far behind. That explained how Stoner got clipped. Because neither Danny nor Steve's attempts to get him had been close.

"Thank you," he said and then hung up the phone. He turned to his team and saw them staring at him concern on all their faces.

There was a wildness in his eyes that none of his team had never seen before. Cracks in that otherwise guarded exterior. He was falling apart in front of them and he didn't know how to put himself back together again.

"I want the security tapes from that building and around it. If Rowan was there with Wo Fat I want to see how they got out," he said.

They nodded. He could see that they assumed he meant in the morning. He wanted to contradict them, tell them the meant right this second but he couldn't. They were all tired, it was past one in the morning. He should let them got home to their beds. He should go home to his bed.

He let his mother lead him to his Silverado. He let them all murmur words of encouragement to him before they left. And while his mother talked about what plan she wanted to enact now, Steve drove and remained quiet.

Rowan's injury was so severe Wo Fat took her to a hospital. It couldn't have been just a hit to the mouth then. Her injury had to be worse. What could have happened to her to have her coughing up blood though?

The hospital.

Rowan was smart. Rowan would have known that Wo Fat never would have taken her to the hospital unless she could secure a doctor that wouldn't talk. But Rowan didn't know a doctor.

She knew a nurse.

Steve flicked on his siren and lights and immediately turned the car around. Screw the illegal U-Turn he just made. He had a hospital to get to.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Alex had waited. Counted down the minutes it took. Steve should have come by now, he figured, after at least two hours into waiting. But Steve didn't show up until eight hours after he had released Rowan.

And boy did Steve make a scene.

He showed up while Alex was cleaning up the mess of vomit his last patient had left. He flashed his badge and then grabbed Alex by the shoulder and forced him to turn around.

"Rowan was here, wasn't she?" he asked getting up into Alex's face.

Alex shoved Steve away from him. Usually he was intimidated by Steve, who looked like he could tear a truck in two on a good day, but at that moment he was so angry about the situation he didn't care if Steve tried to tear him apart or not. "Yes, she was. Took you long enough to track her down. Would have thought you'd have figured it out quicker seeing how obsessed you usually are."

"You should have called me," Steve growled. True, Alex could have done that, but he wanted Steve to worry. Wanted Steve to feel as powerless as Alex had felt over the last two weeks.

"Like you should have when you found her two days ago?" Alex snapped. "Besides the man she was with was pretty clear that if I called the cops, specifically you, he'd kill me and kill her.

"… she was here with some one?" Steve replied.

"Yep. Oz. Your nemesis. Ring a bell?" Alex snarled and Steve flinched. "I'm guessing you have no idea what happened?"

"No. I know some of it. I know who took her and I'm working on getting her back. Unlike you who let her leave with him," Steve growled.

Alex actually laughed. "Yeah, because he had a gun. And you know what else? He's taking care of her better then you eve—!"

Steve had hit him before Alex even finished the sentence. The punch connecting with his jaw and sending him sprawling back against the hospital bed behind him. Alex saw spots in front of his eyes but he forced himself to stand like the force of the punch hadn't knocked him into a star-eyed state. Doris appeared and pulled him away from Alex before Steve could throw another punch. Alex took a good hard look at Steve after that. Took into account the way the older man was shaking, the way his breathing seemed to come out in laboured pants that hitched as if he were about to cry, the way his eyes burned holes into Alex's chest.

"Alex didn't mean it," Doris was saying to him. "He doesn't understand…"

"No I do understand," Alex snapped. "Rowan has been in and out of this hospital more than anyone else trying to help and save you and your friends. She spent a fucking week of her life homeless cause you kicked her out when she had nowhere else to go and now she's a fucking hostage to your nemesis and it took you eight hours to figure out she stopped a crazed sniper from shooting you!"

Steve's lower lip quivered. It was like each accusation was a stab to his chest. He seemed smaller, less threatening now. He actually looked like he might cry. If Alex wasn't so angry he would have picked up on that.

"I didn't… want… I didn't mean…" he stammered. "I didn't know she was there. She was with… what did you call him? Oz? She was supposed to be with him, far away from where we were. I didn't know she was there. I wouldn't have left her if I knew."

Alex found himself glaring at Steve who seemed so dejected that he was shrinking on the spot. He looked nothing like the usual brave brash man that he was. They were silently regarding one another when Doris spoke up.

"Why did… Oz… bring her here? She couldn't have been badly injured if she wasn't kept here," she asked. Steve's eyes drifted away from the floor and up to Alex. He seemed to be holding his breath.

Alex sighed. "She fractured her larynx," he answered. "Not bad enough to need surgery but bad enough that she was coughing up a lot of blood."

Doris looked from Alex to Steve confused. "How would that have happened?" she wondered. Alex's eyes stayed on Steve's but Steve avoided his eyes like he already knew.

"Steve's shooter had prosthetic hands. I'm assuming the mechanic grip was strong enough to crunch bones?" he asked Steve. When Steve nodded he turned back to Doris and continued: "She interrupted the shot to save Steve and the guy tried to choke the life out of her. Would have broken her neck if Oz hadn't stopped him."

Everyone in the room fell quiet. Alex tried not remember the way Oz had stood there taking in each and every order that he gave him. He didn't act like he knew better. He didn't act like Alex was beneath him. He didn't even act like a kidnapper. He took everything seriously, taking notes on what he should do to keep Rowan alive, to keep her comfortable until she was better. Alex had gotten the feeling that, despite being her captor, Oz was going to actually make sure she got better. Not just stick her in a room and keep her there until he and Steve found the time to go through with the exchange.

"Was it so bad that he couldn't have moved her?" Doris asked.

Alex shook his head. "I mean, she wasn't really conscious when she left. I gave her something for the pain and she was pretty out of it. But he carried her out of here without any issue," he replied. "Why?"

"Because he didn't show up at the drop to exchange her," Doris replied. "We were worried it might have been because of her injuries."

"Well maybe he figured she wouldn't heal if he handed her back to you. Maybe he figured she's better off with him," Alex snapped liking the way Steve flinched.

Steve had had enough of him though as he got up and turned away. He was leaving. But Alex wasn't about to let him leave just yet.

"Don't you want to know what she told me?" Alex taunted and Steve came to a stop. He turned to him a glare on his face.

"What? That she's happier with Oz?" he growled.

Alex shook his head, a smirk dawning on his features. "She told me where he's holding her."

Steve's mouth fell open only to be replaced by a dark glare. He approached Alex quickly shoving him the way Alex had done earlier.

"You knew where they were and you didn't tell me?" Steve snapped. "Why didn't you open with that?"

"You didn't ask," Alex replied with a haughty sniff. "Are you sure you even want to know?"

"YES!" Steve shouted and Alex had to fight to hide his smile.

"He's got her in some compound on the other end of a cemetery. It over looks Keoki. I don't know what that means but Rowan said you would," Alex replied.

Steve didn't even say thank you, he just turned and rushed for the door again. But Alex still wasn't done.

"You know, if she survives this, I'm going to make sure you never see her again," he called out, stopping Steve in his tracks. "I'm going to move her in with me, get her a job, and cut you out of her life. You don't deserve her. You don't want her. And at this point a villain's better for her than you. If she comes back. If you manage to get her back alive. I'll do whatever I have to, to make sure she's safe from you."

Steve stared at him but he said nothing. He just took it all in and walked away. Maybe Steve didn't believe him. But he meant it. Every word. When this was done he was going to win Rowan. Come hell or high water.

And then he was going to rub in Steven McGarrett's face.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve and Five-0 burst into the abandoned compound on the hill. It was only a stone's throw away from where Keoki had been shot. Steve wondered if Rowan had been up there when he had been down on the highway. Was this going to be a case of missed connections? Because he wasn't sure he could take it if it was.

Rowan wasn't there. But there was evidence of her being there. Evidence of Wo Fat having done business here. But they had been gone for hours.

His mother found him sitting on the bed Rowan had slept in. There was nothing in the room that said she was being mistreated. No cuffs. No chains. No instruments of torture. But he felt pain radiating through him. His head was splitting from the lack of sleep. His throat was burning from the screaming. His heart was wrenched in two from everything else.

What if Alex was right? What if Rowan was better off away from him?

"You need to snap out of it," his mother said. He looked up and found her standing over him, her arms crossed over her chest. "This won't help Rowan."

He looked around the dark dismal room. Trying not to remember how Rowan didn't like being left alone. Didn't like being bored. Didn't like not being able to escape or run free.

"What does he want with her mom?" Steve asked. "Why won't he go through with the exchange?"

"This is why, Steven," she snapped gesturing to him. "Because he knows it's going to hurt you more if he keeps her. So stop letting him win."

Steve looked up at her. She didn't understand this kind of pain. No one was taken from her. She willingly walked away from the people she loved. But he didn't say that to her, he just looked back to his hands and tried to make himself stronger. Because she had been right about at least one thing. Wo Fat was hurting him more by doing this. And he was letting him do it.

"Fine," he snapped. He forced himself to stand. Forced himself to put that armour back on. To be the leader his team needed him to be. "What do you propose I do?"

"You go on with your life," his mother said as if he could just forget the predicament Rowan was stuck in because of him. "And I'll continue to search."

Steve stared at her. "Keep the BOLO out on her, obviously. Have HPD still working her case, but you can't let this bother you. Make it seem like you couldn't care less, that you're not actively searching. He'll get sloppy, Rowan will continue to rebel and that's how we'll get them."

It was a smart plan. He liked that plan a lot. But it meant trying live without Rowan. To live with the guilt of knowing that she was in this situation because of him. To live wishing he could see her, hug her, hold her close. _Kiss her._ Patience wasn't his strong suit, but he'd try to bear through it seeing as he had no other option.

"Alright," he replied. "But you have to keep me updated, mom."

She nodded and so did he. His mother put an awkward hand to his shoulder and pet him lightly. "We'll get her back Steve. Rowan's resilient. She'll be okay. I promise."

It was a promise she couldn't keep but he appreciated the attempt to encourage him. He didn't trust himself to saying anything so he just nodded again and walked away.

Could this situation get any worse?

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Could this situation get any worse?

Probably.

Yes.

With each day that Trevor Pierce failed to tell his father that he attempted to pull a living being through the void the angrier his father would be when he found out. But he was so excited about this whole expedition that Trevor couldn't bring himself to tell his father that he was searching for a missing girl who may or may not have drowned because she landed in the ocean and not a skating trophy like he said he had been thinking about. He figured he could do it himself. Search while his father was distracted.

But for the first time since Trevor was five his father wanted to do something with him. He wanted to include Trevor in the experiment. Trevor was introduced to colleagues who wanted to ask his theory on his father's theories. Asked over and over what the void looked like. It was the most attention he had gotten in years.

And he didn't want it to stop.

So he didn't try to sneak away.

"We'll have to look into hiring a boat and a dive team. The university is funding us but we still have a budget," Trenton was tell him. "You rented a boat the last time you were here for a skate final, didn't you?"

Trevor was surprised that his father knew that he had been to Hawaii before let alone that it was for a skating competition. "Yes. But it was a pleasure boat, not the kind you'd take out for a deep-sea dive."

"It wouldn't be that deep that far out," Trenton said. "We could always send a robot down. We'll have to talk to one of the other research facilities out here, see if we can borrow one."

Trevor wanted to ask if these people would actually help him. He didn't know if his father was that well known in the science world. Or if they just knew him as the crack-pot scientist trying to find an alternate reality. But it turned out that, eccentric or not, his father was so well known for his theories, so well known as being a respected expert in his field that everyone was willing to help.

With his dad getting more and more support and their deep dive seeming more and more real by the second Trevor was getting a bit frantic.

So that night, after having dinner with yet another colleague who wanted to know all about his father's research and the particles he was tracking that proved to be residue from the void, Trevor sat his father down for a nightcap.

"Dad, uhm, I was wondering if I could ask a few questions," Trevor had started once his father was sipping on the cheap hotel whiskey.

"You don't need to worry about the science, boy," he said immediately and Trevor felt a little slighted. Like his father didn't feel like was smart enough to understand. That maybe have been true but he didn't need to say it.

"That's not it, it's about your experiment," he said interrupting his father before he could tear him down any further. Intentionally or not. "Why haven't you tried to pull a person through?"

Trenton frowned. "Because it would kill them."

Trevor felt the air leave his body. "Kill them? How?"

"Well the void is just that, a void. It's a vacuum. The space between space. Going through there a person would suffocate. And you saw the hook, covered in ice. The person would freeze. No, they'd need a special suit to travel through," he said with the shake of his head.

Trevor felt his stomach sink. He couldn't tell his father now. He couldn't tell him that he tried to pull his sister through.

"Of course, there is the displacement theory," Trenton continued.

"The what?" Trevor asked with a sigh.

"Well, the theory that pulling a person into a timeline in which they already exist would displace them. So the version that came here would stay in their body and in their time line and the person who was here originally would be shunted to the next free version, which is usually the one that was left behind," he explained.

"So like someone taking over someone else's brain?" Trevor asked. Because that's what it sounded like. Not that it helped, there wasn't a version of Rowan here for her to take over.

"Sort of, not really, more like wearing someone else like a suit and taking over their lives," Trenton said with a shrug. "Why do you ask?"

What was Trevor going to tell him? Definitely not the truth. "Oh, I was just wondering. That's all. It'd be pretty cool if we could do it though," he said trying to act as naturally as possible.

If he had actually succeeded in pulling Rowan through then he had killed her. He wasn't looking for a missing person or a girl who washed up on shore. He was looking for a body.


	32. Chapter 32

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: So here we are guys! Chapter 32! So I've got some people interested in a Christmas Chapter. A little spoiler, Rowan is no longer with Wo Fat by Christmas time in the story but she's not with Steve either. I know... PLOT TWIST. Also, I don't know where we're going to be in the story by December, to be honest I've already written 30 chapters a head and I just started rewriting season 4. So the Christmas contest will most likely be for an independent one-shot. How does that sound? Side note, as you can tell this story is gonna be a mammoth. Season 3 closes off at around 60 chapters. So Do you guys want all of the chapters here? In one place? Or should I do separate story for each season? What do you think? Don't forget to tell me when you review, and I'll see you on Friday._

Chapter 32

* * *

Wo Fat came into the room and frowned at what he saw.

Rowan's cell had gotten more lavish since he was last here and he had only been gone for a few hours. He had gotten her goose down pillows upon her very sarcastic request. He thought it might have taught her to not be sarcastic with him, but it had backfired as she absolutely adored her new pillows. The pillows came with a duvet as she was always cold. He had gotten her books to read that she had already finished, books to color in, pencil crayons, pens, and books to write in. He did not however, get her a TV and a DVD player. So how the hell had one appeared in her room?

Rowan was currently cocooned in her light purple blanket, her goose down pillows behind her and all around her. She had a bowl of popcorn in her lap, an abandoned bowl of soup and a mug of tea on a tray beside her. Armando was sitting on the other side of her, every now and then dipping his hand into the popcorn. He was just as engrossed in the singing children's movie he and Rowan were watching.

"What the hell is going on here?" he asked putting his hands on his hips.

Rowan turned to him, as if noticing him for the first time. She picked up her notepad and scrawled in it. When she was finished she held it out to him.

 _I was bored,_ it read.

"I caught Juan cuddling with her again. He's no longer allowed to be in here unsupervised. But she's too much for me to handle so I had one of the boys go and get her a TV and a bunch of movies," Armando explained. "Turns out she sings along to these things so I'm in here to make sure she doesn't."

Wo Fat turned a dry glare to her as she smiled up at him and nodded. They had a bit of a staring match in which her smile faded and she slowly lowered her eyes to look down at the book she had in her lap. She started scrawling in it and Wo Fat waited patiently until she had written out what she wanted to say.

 _You can't not sing along with Disney movies!_

"Well then watch something else so you're not tempted," Wo Fat argued.

"Tried that. She gets frustrated at action moves and shouts at the screen. Horror movies scare her. And she cries at romantic comedies," Armando listed off. "And neither of us like documentaries so this was all we had."

Rowan was nodding again a big happy smile on her face. He tried to stay angry at her but he couldn't. Instead he turned to Armando and said: "I've got it from here."

As soon as he did Rowan hugged Armando, her arms appearing out of nowhere and latching on to him. To Wo's surprise Armando merely tapped the top of her head almost affectionately which got her to let him go. He got up from the single bed they had gotten from Ikea and then left the room.

Armando and Wo had spent six hours trying to put together that bed while Rowan motioned wildly for them to listen to her, they hadn't and five hours later she put it together for them. It only took her one hour.

Once the door was locked, as per the custom as Rowan was still a flight risk, Wo Fat sat down beside her.

"I have a surprise for you," he said softly and Rowan's head whipped towards him. Surprised delight lit up on her face. He pulled the book from where he usually hid his gun and Rowan gasped and snatched it from him.

It was next in a series he hadn't realized he bought her. It was twenty books long. He had bought all of them for her today. He'd give her new ones depending on when she finished them and how she behaved. A reward system. Like he was training a dog. And it was working.

Rowan hugged the book tightly to her chest and then opened it. By the time Wo Fat had eaten his generous handful of overly buttered popcorn she had already gotten a few chapters in. Damn she read fast.

He looked back to the movie in which some black-haired man was waltzing with a red head in a blue dress. What the hell were they watching?

"What is this?" he asked and Rowan turned to him. She held up a DVD case for him to read. "The Little Mermaid."

Rowan nodded as she reached for another handful of popcorn. The bowl was now on his lap as he was worried she'd spill it again. "Why doesn't she talk?" he asked.

Rowan put down the book she was reading and pulled out her notepad. He watched her write, softly brushing a lock of her hair behind her ear and then read what she wrote out for him.

 _She traded a sea witch her voice for legs and she has three days to make sure Prince Eric kisses her or the sea witch will turn her into a kelp thing._

Wo Fat read it and then turned to her with a dry glare on his face. "That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard."

Rowan giggled which caused her to wince and for one of her hands to go to her throat. Wo Fat slapped her arm. "Stop laughing, it's not funny." Which only just made her laugh harder. Which in turn lead to her coughing.

Wo Fat watched her knowing there was nothing to do except let her cough and watch the blood come out. He frowned at her as she used a tissue to wipe the blood away from her lips and off her hands.

He went into his suit jacket pocket and pulled out her meds. He kept them from her on the off chance she tried to overdose. He was almost certain she wouldn't take things that far but he didn't want to chance it.

"Take two, that will help," he said to her as she took them from him. He looked her up and down. He had been trying to make her eat but she hadn't seemed to put on any weight at all. He wanted her to look healthy, he didn't want to be able to see her ribs or be able to count the bones of her spine just by lifting up her shirt.

"Have you eaten much today?" he asked her. Rowan nodded as she threw back the two pills and drank them with what was probably left-over cold tea. He glanced at the soup bowl that was sitting on the tray beside her. Barely touched. "Have you eaten more than popcorn today?"

Rowan nodded again but he could tell she was lying. Could tell by the way her mouth twitched before she did. "I can see the practically full soup bowl beside you," he reminded her and she winced.

She brought out her book and began scrawling again. He waited patiently for her message, slowly raising his hand to brush the tendrils of hair that had fallen in front of her face behind her ear. The absent smile at his touch sent his heart a fluttering. Solidifying his decision to keep her. And then she was showing him the page.

 _I don't like soup. Can I have something different?_

"Alright what would you like?" he asked and she flipped the page obviously ready for this.

 _Hot and Spicy Chicken! I know a good place._

"Okay, well, we'll give your order to Juan Carlos and then we'll get it for you," he said. She flipped the page again and the words _Can we go?_ was scrawled there.

It was frequent that Rowan would write out her response to a conversation they hadn't had yet. It surprised him that she could deduce how he'd react or what he was going to say and had the appropriate responses ready. It had startled him at first but he was mostly used to it now, now it just sort of annoyed him.

"I don't think so Rowan," he said with a shake of his head. He turned away to watch the movie, the black haired prince seemed to be catatonically marrying some woman who wasn't the red haired one from before. He wasn't sure what was happening but he'd pay attention to it so he wouldn't feel guilty about denying her the privilege of the outside world.

She nudged him and he turned back. _Please?!_ was written on the page, her puppy-dog pout on her face. Wo Fat needed to stay strong. He donned his darkest most serious glare and frowned at her.

"No, Rowan," he snapped. "Steve's still looking for you and let's not forget what happened the last time we left the compound."

Rowan frowned and turned the page. _But I'll be good._

"No, Rowan," he repeated.

"Please?"

Wo Fat turned to her. A wince was on her face and a hand to her throat. Her voice was low and scratchy, it sounded like a croak, like sandpaper on her vocal cords.

"You're not supposed to talk, Rowan," he reminded her but she didn't seem to be listening to him. She was winding up to talk again and he put a hand over her lips to stop her. "Fine. We'll go but no more talking, do you understand?"

The smile on Rowan's face was contagious. It made him smile too. But unfortunately, it had a negative side effect. It made him weak.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan waited patiently in line. She had her book ready and the money Wo had given her in her back pocket. But she wouldn't need it. She could hide it if necessary, it would help her with her escape later. But at that moment she just needed to eat something other than soup. She was sick of soup.

When she got to the front of the line she smiled up to Kamekona who seemed just as happy to see her.

"Litta Sistah!" he cried. "I coulda sworn you were still AWOL. Commander know you're here?"

Rowan took out her book and flipped to the page where she had pre written out responses to his inevitable questions.

 _Course. He sent me._

She waited for him to read it. He looked from her to the book and then back to her. Confusion was on his face, concern was right behind it.

"Whatch-u writin in dere for?" he asked and Rowan flipped to the next page.

 _Fractured my voice box. Can't talk until further notice._

"Major bumma sistah," he said. "Watch'u orderin?"

Rowan turned to the next page and smiled up to him as he read it.

"Alright, we got two butter garlic shrimp, one sweet and spicy shrimp, one hot and spicy Rowan special. Looks like you wanta sour strawberry shaved ice too, I'll call over to Flipper and have him make that up for you. Special delivery for our litta Sistah."

She turned to that page that had _Thank you_ written and surrounded by hearts and Kamekona laughed. "No problem, I'll put it on McGarrett's tab too. Gotta gouge him for all he's worth eh?"

Rowan's grin widened as she fought every urge to not laugh. Laughing hurt too much. Instead she nodded in agreement and then stepped aside so Kamekona could get to work on the orders. She made sure that he was covertly watching her before turning and waving at Wo Fat who was waiting for her by the car. He was driving the least inconspicuous car in existence, which made so sense to her, but worked out.. An Audi A8, brand new with all the bells and whistles. Hot or not she had the seat warmer on just to see if it actually warmed her seat. It did. If Danny's Camaro had been in the lot as well it wouldn't have been so bad, but as it wasn't so Wo Fat in his nice suit and fancy car stood out.

He raised a hand, his version of a wave and then lowered it again and looked away. He re-crossed his arms over his chest and leant back against the side of the car. It was all that was needed, the damage was done.

"Who's dat?" Kamekona asked.

Rowan pursed her lips in mock disapproval and made a show of pulling out her note pad. She opened up her book to a page in the middle and pointed to a corner where she had scrawled: _That's just Oz._

"You got yourself a new man?" he asked her. "No more Nurse for you?"

Rowan shook her head to disprove that idea. But he didn't get the idea. "You got yourself two mens now? You litta Playah!"

Okay, that wasn't where she wanted that to go but she just shrugged and smiled while Kamekona laughed.

"Two mens and McGarrett panting after you, you must have a scent or something, make the mens go crazy," he said and Rowan's eyebrows drew together in confusion. Steve was panting over her? Since when? What had been going on while she was gone?

Flipper came up at that point, shaved ice in hand. "For you. Is that your man with the flashy Audi?" he asked her as she took the ice and dug in. Already her throat felt better.

"Yah, she gots herself a new man to juggle, Sista's gonna have her hands full," Kamekona answered for her. Rowan just rolled her eyes but Flipper was grinning and nodding at her so she just let it happen.

"Alright now Sista," Kamekona said. "Here's your two butter shrimp, your sweet and spicy shrimp and a hot and spicy Rowan special. All on McGarrett's tab."

Rowan nodded her thanks and accepted the bag of food and used her snow-cone to wave good-bye to them before heading back to Wo Fat and the car. As soon as she got close enough he pushed away from the hood of the car he was leaning against.

"What is all that?" he asked her. Rowan gave him a pained look as she gestured to everything she was holding and the fact that her notebook was tucked under her arm. How did he expect her to answer?

He opened the door, taking the bag from her and dropping it onto the seat. He then turned to grab her snow-cone which she offered freely so she could pull out her notebook. She turned to the page with the orders she then scrawled names beside them.

"Two butter shrimp for Juan and Armando, Sweet and Spicy for me, A Special for you and the snow-cone's for your throat," he read out. Rowan nodded. He looked at her carefully and thoughtfully before asking: "Is it working?"

Rowan nodded and he sighed. "Alright, maybe we can get a snow-cone machine. Target sells those smaller ones, right?"

He was walking towards the driver's side of the car. Which meant Rowan was to take her spot on the passenger side. She moved the bag of food down to the ground and took the snow-cone from Wo as he offered it to her.

"I'll have Armando look into it, hmm?" he said to a small smile on his face. "And if you don't like that I'm sure I can just steal a snow-cone stand. Sound good?"

He was being nice to her. She wasn't sure what had changed to make him so kind, but she wasn't about to question it. She was still a prisoner, after all, just a prisoner with a lot of privileges and things. She could make this work though, if she could just keep him happy until she was exchanged or ransomed she'd be okay. Or better yet, maybe he'd trust her enough to leave her along, just long enough to escape.

He started the car and they drove off. She hoped Kamekona and Flipper saw enough of the car to tell Steve something about it. That would help her case. It may help Steve find her. She did so want to go home.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve couldn't get the video out of his mind. The one Kono had found and had shown him that morning. A video of the alleyway at the back of the hotel. He couldn't stop seeing Rowan. Looking lifeless. Having to be half carried by Wo Fat. He couldn't get the feeling of panic out of his chest as he she made a break for it only to have him catch her. The panic doubling when she knocked him down and one of his men stepped out of the car, gun trained on her head. Surprised when Wo Fat protected her and then carried her back to the car like she was precious cargo. How Rowan's head seemed to fit in the soft spot between his chin and shoulder. Like she belonged with him.

He just didn't get it. Wo Fat protecting her, caring for her. Evidence was right there in front of his face but he couldn't believe it. Because then maybe Alex was right and she was better off with him. Wait, who was his kidding, Wo Fat was a criminal, what life would he have with Rowan out on the run? What life could Steve have with her with his job?

None of that mattered if he couldn't find her now could it?

Steve had been so distracted by the video that he couldn't concentrate on the case. He could barely drive. And even though he promised Kamekona that he'd find the man who killed his cousin, the one who hadn't cut him off after he went to jail, who helped him set up his first shaved-ice stand, he hadn't found much to find who did it. And he had been too distracted to actually be of any help.

It was so bad that Danny took him aside and told him they were going for a walk. But they didn't go for a walk. They got in his Camaro and they went for a drive. Danny at the helm for once because Steve was too shook up to drive.

"I know this is hard," Danny said. "It looked bad, but he took her to the hospital."

"She's better off with him," Steve muttered to himself. "He's taking care of her, better than me"

"What?" Danny snapped. "Are you out of your mind? He's a psychopath, he doesn't have feelings!"

"You saw them together. He takes care of her!" Steve cried. "She let him cradle her like it was no problem!"

"Steve. That video is only mere moments after a deranged madman nearly crushed her fucking windpipe, she's bound to in enough pain to let even that man take care of her," Danny argued. "And while I'm at it, of course he has to take care of her, he's keeping her hostage. The hostage has to stay alive, or he gets nothing from you."

Steve turned to Danny nothing short of a mask of rage on his face. Danny took in the glare and then turned his attention back to the road. "Who are we kidding, if something happens to Rowan you'll hunt him down and kill him. You'll go full Rambo."

"He hasn't made contact since that night. They're so far underground no one's seen or heard of them. My mom hasn't even turned anything up. I'm afraid he has every intention of keeping her," Steve snapped ignoring the Rambo comment.

"Why would he want her?" Danny asked him.

"To keep something over me. He kept Kaye's husband's body for the same damn reason, didn't he?" Steve reminded him.

"Yes, but she's so annoying. I'm surprised she hasn't annoyed her way out of there," Danny growled.

Steve pinned him with a death glare. "Hey! We wanted to keep her, it stands to reason she could have grown on him as well."

"Yes, except we have regular people feelings and he's a sociopath who likes to murder people. It's a bit different don't you think?" Danny asked.

Steve sighed and looked back out the window. He didn't want to think about it. He didn't want to think about what happened or how it happened. He just wanted Rowan back. He wanted her away from Wo Fat. He wanted her back before the novelty of her wore off, and it would. Steve knew it would. It wore off for him, for a bit there. Wo Fat's fuse was shorter though so it wouldn't take six months for it that to happen. And his penchant for killing people he was "done" with them did not bode well for Rowan.

But what was he supposed to do? He didn't know where she was. Didn't know where Wo Fat's base of operations was or if that was even where he was holding her.

"Alright, so we're at Kamekona's. Get a shaved ice, get a shrimp platter for the whole office. But once we get back to the Palace you need to focus, so get it out of your system now."

"Mahalo, Bruddahs!" Kamekona cried as they got close to the truck. "Do you have news or have you come to settle your debts?"

"Our debts?" Danny asked.

"Yeah. You guys ordered lunch, I sent it off to you half an hour ago," he told them. "You guys owe me for it. Two garlic butter Shrimp, a sweet and sour shrimp, a Rowan special and a sour strawberry shaved ice."

"A Rowan special?" Steve echoed.

"I thought only Rowan could order a Rowan special," Danny reminded him.

"You guys sent Rowan to pick it up," Kamekona said. "Her and her new man in the fancy car."

" _You_ _saw Rowan_?!" Steve cried. "Rowan was here? With someone? Who? Who was she with?"

"Whoa, bruddah. Calm down. She said you knew she was coming," he told them.

"Kame… Rowan was kidnapped, we told you that. You have guys looking for Wo Fat for us," Danny reminded him.

The big guy hung his head. "Awe, man, tricked again," he sighed. "I gotta stop believin' everything she says. But she looks so innocent, you know, it's hard to say no to her."

"You said she was here with someone?" Steve said trying to get Kamekona on track.

"Yeah, a fancy guy in a suit. Asian. Wore sunglasses. Didn't smile. Didn't see much of his face, too far away," Kamekona told him. "Got a good look at his car though. Audi A8, top of the line. All black, tinted windows, silver rims. Didn't see the licence plate though."

"So… Rowan was here… with Wo Fat…" Steve started.

"She said his name was Oz," he interrupted.

Steve shook he was so angry. "Oz is what she calls him. Oz is Wo Fat. AND YOU LET HER LEAVE WITH HIM!"

"He also gave her food and is making you pay for it," Danny reminded him.

"She said he was her new man," he said sullenly.

Steve's eyes narrowed. Anger burned through him, that green eyed snake of jealousy had coiled around him. _Rowan was telling people she was dating Wo Fat_?

"She said that to you?" Danny asked seemingly sensing that Steve was about to lose his damn mind.

"Well, she didn't really talk, per se, she got that note book thing going on," Kamekona said. Both Steve and Danny stared at him like he was talking code. And he sort of was. "You know, she's writin' in the book cause her voice box is broken."

Now that was something he didn't know and it knocked the anger right out of him. Rowan couldn't talk? Couldn't sing? Couldn't make a noise? She'd be a lot easier to argue with now, mainly cause she'd have to write it all out to make her point. Would she have to learn sign language? Would she be able to sing again? She loved her music, she had loved singing, how would she live without it. Alex had said her larynx was fractured, not broken. He said nothing about her not being able to talk. Why wouldn't he tell Steve that?

"Is it permanent?" Steve asked softly. Almost afraid of the answer.

"She didn't say, or write," he said. "Look. I feel terrible. We'll keep an eye out for the car. If she comes back I'll call you. Right away."

Danny looked back at Steve. He took stock of his countenance, the terrible look of grief and worry on his face. He put a hand to Steve's shoulder and Steve sunk into the touch.

"We're going to need more than a minute, aren't we?" he asked. Steve turned a glare at him and Danny nodded. "Yeah, we're gonna need like a full hour."

* * *

 **Hey guys! Look it's an end of story Author's note! So, if I get 250 proper reviews by this coming Monday I will post 3 times next week. So on Monday, Wednesday and then on Friday. Sound good? I will only count reviews that tell me their favourite part up until now AND something they'd like to see happen in the story. See you guys soon!**


	33. Chapter 33

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _ ***Disclaimer*** _We're gonna go in depth here, for sorry for the real talk that's about to hit you in the disclaimer, but the people who keep complaining are all guests and I swear y'all are going nuts over this and I feel like I need to talk you guys out of revolting or something. So... please don't get offend over this either. I'm not mad, I honestly just think the situation is funny and I'd send you a message if I could, but I can't so this is all I got.

So, I am sorry that you guys took offence to the "proper review" comment. So I'm gonna try to explain it and hopefully you guys get what I meant. I kind of lost the proper for it at the time, but what the meaning was for the people who wanted to participate. See I don't even have the word now. One of the commenters said that they didn't want to play the game and that was what I meant. I've been having so much fun with this story, with everyone's reviews that to me this is all some fun game and I'm trying to make it as fun for you as well. But you know, I get that not everyone wants to play. So for those that didn't want to do it like that, they could. The other reason was because I wanted a test run for the One Shot Contest I wanted to run for Christmas. I wanted to run it kinda like those instagram contests. Where you're given a few requirements. Like, follow, tag a few people, you know the ones. But my version was gonna be, two requirements and then the person who hit the right number of review won. But first I wanted to make sure that we could manage something like that. And now I kinda feel like maybe we can't cause it upset some people. And that's the last thing I want to do.

I'm also sorry that I ask for reviews all the time. I get that it can be annoying. But I love reading the reviews I get. I love hearing the theories and the parts that people liked. I want to know that you're having fun reading or you like the twists or you want less cliffhangers (I'm trying I swear) or I need to explain Rowan's family sections a bit better (they're vague right now because they're a very secondary plot line, they're gonna become more prominent in the future). But if it's bugging everyone so much I can stop.

But I will say I didn't appreciate the "dangling a carrot" comments. Or that I should just give instead of rewarding. I didn't appreciate it because I do just give you guys stuff, all the time. I post early constantly because I can't wait to share the next chapter. And since I feel like my reviews are rewards for me, that I would reward you right back. And for your information, whether we hit 250 reviews or not, I was posting three times this week and it's really disheartening that some of you just up and assumed I'd deny you guys three updates just cause I didn't get enough reviews. I was unaware I came off that heartless, I would have hoped I hadn't. To be honest, I just love goals. I set them for myself constantly and nothing is more fun to me than reaching or surpassing a goal. I unfortunately assumed that you guys would enjoy collectively achieving a goal together, because I sure as hell love it, but I suppose I was wrong.

Lastly it just amazed and amused me that you guys took me so seriously. You've read my sense of humour, I'm clearly not a very serious person. I mean, I don't even take myself that seriously. I'm just one Fanfiction writer, and to me, I don't really think I'm that important in the grand scheme of things. It just shocked me that anyone could read one single comment and turn it into such a big deal. I mean, to me it didn't matter, I'm just a fanfiction author guys, I'm really not as important you guys seem to think I am. Honestly it made me wonder if you get mad at Youtube artists who do the same thing at the end of every episode. Either way I think from now on we should just take whatever I say with a grain of salt because I'm literally not out to offend everyone, and not everything I say is meant to be taken as this stern edict. I've never not followed through with giving you any reward I've mentioned, and I am working really hard to put my heart and soul into this story. I want this to be fun, but it can't be if you're looking for things to be offended about in everything I say. I'm one person, I have faults, I will say something stupid, it's inevitable, but that doesn't mean it's coming from a place of malice as you guys seemed to think it was.

So to sum it up. Okay, I get it. I'll stop asking for reviews. (or try, not gonna lie, I may forget) I do actually give you guys things all the time, just cause I love you. Please let me run the contest and not get offended with the requirements cause I just want to give everyone the opportunity to participate and not to participate and a lot of you are "guest" reviewers and I won't be able to ask you for your story choice so I want the review to reflect your choice so I know what you want me to write if you win. And seriously don't take me that seriously, I am not that important.

Well... I feel better now and I hope you feel better too.

 ***Disclaimer over... sorry to everyone who had to read that super long explanation***

A/N: _So here we are. It's an early update with a bunch of surprises, both in the story and here. We didn't quite reach 250 reviews, but as I mentioned above, you guys are my favourite readers and I'm gonna give you your three chapters anyway. Can I just say that you guys are AMAZING?! You guys give me so much motivation to keep writing. Honestly you do. (most of the time anyway) It's why I keep asking for Reviews, cause they help me stay motivated and they make me feel all warm and fuzzy. (But also mentioned above, I'll try not to do that anymore... I may forget, but I'mma try okay?) Well... I was gonna announce the Contest today. But now I'm worried about it. I was gonna choose the person by the number of reviews (ie: Review #275 would be the winner). Is it okay if I set it that way or am I gonna offend people all over again? Tell me what you think and I'll see you guys on Wednesday!_

Chapter 33

* * *

The guitar playing was coming from Rowan's room. _Rowan's room_. No music. That was the deal. Nothing that would tempt her to start singing or humming. When Armando said he had no choice but to leave Rowan with Juan Carlos while he dealt with a situation he had imagined a different sort of trouble. And while it wasn't the sexual kind he was originally worried about, that didn't mean he wanted Rowan singing, not with an injured voice box.

He threw open the door and it was Rowan strumming the guitar while Juan Carlos sang and jotted things down in her notebook. She stopped playing the second she saw him, the happy smile that had been on her face up and vanished. He hated that she stopped smiling whenever he came into the room.

Juan turned, his grin not vanishing. Nothing could get this kid to panic. "She can write songs!" he cried.

Rowan nodded happily. She wrote songs? Why was she so creative? He didn't understand that sort of thinking. Maybe that was why he didn't get her decision-making paradigm. She looked down sheepishly as he picked up Juan Carlos by the scruff of the neck and threw him and his guitar out of the room.

He had originally planned to come in with a gift. But that gift had been left with Armando by the car when he was made aware of the situation. He'd be bringing it later.

Rowan was trying valiantly not to cough. She kept clearing her throat as if that would fix it all while avoiding his gaze. She broke down, her coughs hacking and shuddering through her body. He handed her a few tissues and then two of her pills as blood bubbled out of her mouth.

"You were told," he said in the most patronizing tone he could muster. "Very clearly might I add, that you were not to sing or hum until you were healed. You're not going to heal right if you keep pushing the limits."

Rowan quickly scrawled out a message for him and then showed him the paper. _I can't help it. I'm bored._

"How can you be bored? You have so much to do in here," he cried gesturing around her small cell. She had a TV, her own snow cone maker, a million pillows, a puzzle table, at least a hundred DVDs, a small suitcase filled with clothes for her, stuffed animals to cuddle, books to read, books to color. What other prisoners had this sort of treatment.

 _I need to go outside._

Wo Fat stared at the paper and then up to Rowan who was pouting at him. Getting the sun was part of a healthy lifestyle. He had heard about that, people suffering from melatonin deficiencies from being in captivity. But there was just one problem with taking her outside.

"You're still a flight risk," he reminded her. Rowan gasped. Completely outraged. She glared at him and he relented a bit. "Okay, okay, I get that you've been better behaved but you've also been contained! Except for that one excursion."

 _Which went well._

"Yes. Yes, it did go well, but I still don't trust you," he said. Rowan huffed and threw herself down to the pillows of her bed.

"I'll think about it, okay?" he said. Rowan just groaned and rolled over so her back was to him. Wo Fat took that as she wanted to rest, or be left alone. So he silently got up and moved slowly towards the door waiting to see if she'd roll over and wave him back but she never did.

The door opened and Armando came in. "One Strawberry Lemonade shaved-ice," he announced and Rowan turned around. She jumped out of the bed and snatched it out of his hand. "It's a little melted but it should still be okay."

She smiled her thanks to him and returned to her bed. The shaved-ices and snow-cones had been greatly helping her throat. She had stopped leaking blood in her sleep. Now she only coughed blood if she aggravated her throat. Wo Fat wanted to stay, see if she'd want to watch a movie with him, show him one of those stupid children's movies from her childhood. But Armando was pulling him out of the room.

"Shioma wants to meet you at a private event tonight. He wants to talk business, wants to see the merchandise before he gives you the money," he said.

"So, we bring a crate," Wo Fat told them.

"He wants all the merchandise," he said.

"ALL?" Wo Fat echoed.

"All."

"Fuck…" Wo Fat said, running a hand over his face. "We'll all have to go, I'll have no one to watch Rowan. No one I'd trust anyway."

"I hate to say it. But we'll have to bring her," Armando agreed and Wo Fat found himself sighing.

"What event is this?" he asked.

"Fancy, which is the other problem," Armando said. Wo Fat synced up enough with him for them both to say: "She needs a dress," together.

"Well that's a _you_ thing," Armando said raising his hands in surrender.

"No, no, if I have to go dress shopping, so do you!" Wo Fat argued.

"No. Hell no. I have enough dress shopping to do at home!" Armando snapped. He folded his arms across his chest and glared at Wo Fat. "No. You can't make me. No. No. No."

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Three men sat in a dress shop in the most expensive shopping district on Honolulu. And none of them wanted to be there.

They sat in small white chairs with plush blue seats. Juan Carlos was sandwiched between Wo Fat and his Uncle. They two older men were in their nicely pressed suits while he was still in his dirty ripped jeans and polo shirt. They had a small table in front of them covered in fashion and bridal magazines. A tray held finger sandwiches and cups of tea for them. The tea was half done and the finger sandwiches were gone.

Rowan came out it yet another dress. This one was white, strapless and looked just as beautiful as the other dressed she had tried on.

It had been an hour and 45 minutes of this bullshit.

"Oh, this is it, this is the one," Wo Fat said but he had said that about every single dress and had been horribly wrong.

Rowan winced and looked down, pulling out the skirt as if there were a problem with it.

"What's the matter?" Armando asked. "She doesn't like that one? What could be wrong with that one?"

She turned to show them the back which seemed a bit lumpy though that couldn't be right. "I think that one isn't fitting her right." Juan Carols said leaning forward.

The man who had been helping them. A very flamboyant man with perfectly styled hair and in a nice white suit looked her up and down and said: "Gosh darling that will never suit you."

Armando and Wo Fat groaned. Who said something like that to a girl? That was how you gave a girl insecurities about her body. Besides, he was the one who brought the dress to her! If he knew that it wouldn't suit her why did he bring it out? If he had his gun, he'd shoot the man. The deal he had made with Rowan to get her to agree to go dress shopping though had left all the men unarmed and promised to not commit a single illegal act while they were shopping. Who would have thought a girl didn't want to go dress shopping? He thought females loved that sort of thing. Especially when a rich older guy was willing to drop major bucks on her. But Rowan didn't care about dollar signs and that kind of amazed him.

"There is nothing wrong with that dress," Armando argued.

"Well it's clearly not sitting right. It's meant for a much taller girl," the assistant said as if that made perfect sense. Why the hell would he hand her a dress that didn't fuck fit her?

"Okay, look, we've been at this for almost two hours. Rowan, you have looked lovely in every dress you've tried on," he told her which prompted her to look down at the dress she was wearing again with a wince on her face. "You've been trying on the same dresses. Just pick one."

Rowan glared at him and the assistant gasped. "These have not been the same dresses. They have been unique pieces of art. Why the dress before was a pink chiffon dream…"

"Okay, look, I don't care. Put her in a dress that she will like. That is made for a girl with her proportions and height. Cost is not a problem. Get it done in the next thirty minutes and I'll add a sizeable sum to your commission," Wo Fat snapped.

He swore he could see the dollar signs in the assistant's eyes as he scampered off. He caught Rowan's pained look and he scowled at her.

"I'm tired of this. I have things to do, you know," he snapped to her. He sat back in his seat and Rowan aggressively whipped the curtains of her dressing room closed. This whole process was ridiculous and yet there was Juan Carlos beside him pouring yet another cup of tea. As a wanted criminal this whole process seemed wrong.

The assistant returned with a sparkling black dress, Wo Fat's eyes narrowed why did it look like that dress was encrusted in crystals? He disappeared into Rowan's changing room, and it was a good thing he clearly batted for the other side or Wo Fat would have some choice words for him. Then again, that meant one of the three men would then have to go in and assist and Wo Fat wasn't comfortable with that either.

The two men sat in fidgeting silence as Juan Carlos sat back with his refreshed cup of tea and sipped it delicately. Pinky up like he was at a tea party. The assistant came out again, sweeping the curtains aside like it was a grand entrance. He stepped aside and Rowan came out in a stunning black dress. Short in the front, just a little bit up above her knee that lengthened out in the back into a long train. There was a sweet heart bodice with lacy off the shoulder, half-length sleeves. The dress was made up of layers of black lace and was dotted with little white crystals twinkling like stars against the black.

"This is a Versace, hi-low cocktail dress from the 2011 Winter Haute Couture line. It is made of chiffon and the finest lace and dusted with Swarovski Crystals," the assistant was listing off.

Rowan was playing with the train, bringing it out to the sides so it fanned her like a massive peacock tail. Wo Fat smiled he could see now why Steven McGarrett was obsessed with Rowan Pierce. She definitely could look quite fetching when she wanted to.

"She'll need matching shoes and a clutch of course," the assistant was saying. Wo Fat just nodded and pulled out the stolen credit card and handed it to him.

"Do whatever you want," he said as he stood and moved towards Rowan. She was trying to grasp the tag to find the price. He swatted her hands away and glanced at it. Holy fuck. That was a lot of zeros.

"What the fuck?" he snapped. "Those better be real diamonds for this price."

Rowan winced at him. She shook her head. A signal that she didn't want him to spend the money. But he didn't care about the money. That was her dress. Nothing else in the shop had looked half as good as this one. Obviously because she had tried on half of them already.

The assistant returned with black high heeled shoes also encrusted with a pattern of crystals that looked like stars to match the dress and a simple black clutch. He handed them to her and she went about putting her shoes on. She immediately went up three inches in height. She was officially as tall as him. It was her smile that had him stuck. That little smile and the twinkle in her blue eyes.

For the first time since he took her she looked genuinely happy with him around, with him being the cause.

"She'll have to get her hair and her make-up done to match you know," Juan Carlos added and Rowan winced much more. But he didn't give a rat's ass.

He'd pay whatever he had to, do whatever he had to, to keep that smile on her face.

"Who's going to stay with her while that happens?" Juan asked.

Oh, hell no, he'd do anything but that.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan sat in the car beside Wo Fat. She had been done up. She was in the fancy dress that Wo Fat had bought for her. Her hair had been done up in an elaborate twist and pinned with diamond hair pieces in the shape of different stars. She had the six-inch heels on, which were hard to walk in as is without Wo Fat tugging her whenever she was slow, which was all the time because of the heels. She had a small clutch that was not big enough to hold her note book which she had brought with her anyway. In case she needed to talk, of course.

She wasn't sure what was going on except she had to be fancy for a party where Wo Fat would be doing business with someone who was also going to that party. She didn't know what kind of business he had to do, obviously the illegal kind because he wouldn't tell her what it was, and really what else would his business really be? It's not like he was a legitimate business owner or anything. Still he very kindly wasn't going to make her an accessory to whatever illegal act this was.

They walked through a fancy house. No one else was around with them. But there were servers going from the kitchen to a door that lead them back outside. Rowan spotted a server with a tray of champagne coming towards them and Wo Fat looked suitably distracted by fixing his suit up from the car ride. Now wouldn't that be great for her sore throat? Sarcasm of course. Maybe if she pulled another stunt like the Christmas one he'd take her back to the hospital. She could call Steve from there. Or get Alex to help her escape.

She went to move towards the tray, took half a step away and Wo Fat grabbed her wrist and jerked her back to his side.

"Are you out of your mind?" he hissed. "You're on a pain med so strong it could knock out a horse and you want to combine that with your alcohol? Do you have a death wish?"

Rowan flipped open her book to the page that started the conversation she wrote up earlier in anticipation of this very moment.

 _Stop tugging me, I'm going to fall over._

"Then don't try to wander off," he snapped. "I have enough to worry about tonight without having to add you to that list of things."

 _I'm already a worry, I'm a hostage remember?_

Wo Fat looked down to the new page and then back up to her. "Do you have our whole conversation mapped out?" he asked.

Rowan nodded and he scowled at her. "How is that even possible?" he growled.

Rowan flipped the page. _You're predictable._

" _Predictable?!_ " he hissed. "I'll have you know that I'm one of the most established and completely unpredictable criminals there is. Your precious Steve can never figure out my next move, now can he?"

Rowan turned yet another page. _I'm clearly smarter than Steve._

Wo Fat glared at her and she just smiled at him. "You are so _frustrating_ ," he growled to her and Rowan giggled at him.

He sighed. "I'm meeting him in the study. You will stay with Juan Carlos while I'm in this… uh… meeting. There is entertainment, I've been told. So, you won't be bored."

Rowan rolled her eyes and nodded again. Juan Carlos came to stand beside her. He too was in a nice suit, all black and white and crisp. Her three boys were all dressed quite nicely. But Wo Fat stood out with his maroon tie a stark comparison against the white of his dressy shirt and crisp black suit.

He pinned Juan with a dangerous glare. "Your only job is to keep her in line. That's it. Don't let her drink alcohol. Don't let her wander off. Can you handle that?" he asked.

Juan nodded and Wo Fat and Armando disappeared into the throng. Juan Carlos shot her a giant grin and asked: "Do you want to see what the big fuss is about?"

Rowan nodded eagerly. She knew there was some big private event going on, one needed VIP access to get into it. By the sounds of it she going to get to be a VIP.

She was led through corridors and eventually out into the back where a dimmed and empty pool was waiting for them. In the pool was a woman in a two-piece workout outfit, short shorts and a sports bra. The dark brown hair was pulled back and this person was warming up, most likely for a fight judging by the way she was shadow boxing. The people around her were all dressed up but not nearly to the level that she was at. She clearly stood out.

A tremor of dread ran through her. She hadn't had a single dizzy vision on the days she'd been with Wo Fat. Not since her accident. She was starting to think that either the next episode had been derailed because of her kidnapping, or because she wasn't around Steve she wasn't getting her visions. No point if she wasn't there to help him, right?

But all of this seemed familiar. Like she knew it already. Like she should know what was coming up next. Everyone started cheering and three people came through the door. A tall man, very buff, very bald, with a laceration to his head, followed by an Asian looking man, also in all black, but more of a tailored suit look, and he was pulling along a woman who looked like she was being forced to be there. She looked a hot mess in her pink tank top and skinny jeans.

Rowan grabbed a tray of pastry puffs as the server went by with them. He turned back to her and tried to tug the tray out of her hand. She squeaked her disapproval and Juan Carlos took his eyes off the pool and turned back to her. He looked between her and the waiter and then said: "Shoo." Which sent the man off again.

"Good choice, I love these things," he said to her taking a handful of them. In comparison Rowan was eating them one by one as daintily as possible. She figured if she just paid attention to the food she could ignore the illegal fight happening before her.

But Juan was interested and people were cheering so she couldn't help but look up. The woman in the pink tank top and been thrown into the pool against her will. Now the two women were fighting one another, she could just tell by the way the girl in the pink tank top was only making defensive moves and the fact that she wasn't dressed for the fight at all, that wasn't there of her own volition. Rowan shoved the tray into Juan's hands and then gestured wildly at the fight.

"What? It's just a fight," he said to her.

Rowan showed him her hands as if they were bound and he looked back to the pool. "Yeah, I mean, I guess she's being forced to be here, but she's also some master at Hawaiian martial arts so she should be good," he said turning back to the fight.

But Rowan couldn't believe that this was happening. They had just up and taken this girl off the streets and forced her to come here? That wasn't fair. And if the MMA wasn't going to play fair why should she? Juan was too busy eating his handful of hors d'oeuvres and cheering the fight to notice her slip away. She dumped the rest of the Hors d'oeuvres in a nearby planter. She put her book and her clutch beside the ladder and then slowly climbed down being careful of her dress. Once on the shallow end floor she quickly realized her shoes would slip and slide. She kicked them aside and left them at top of the incline.

She descended as quickly as she could, kept her hands behind her back so no one could really see the empty metal tray she had taken with her and then before anyone could stop her she stepped in between the MMA fighter and the captive woman. The girl in the pink tank top had managed to throw the MMA girl to the ground. The announcer, and clearly her coach was shouting at her to get up and when she did, that was when she noticed Rowan standing between her and her opponent.

The cheers died down, silence hit the pool side except for one incredulous cry of: "Rowan?" from Juan who must have just realized that she wasn't by his side anymore.

The announcer stepped closer to the edge of the pool. The MMA woman had stopped short of her staring at her and then back up to the man above her. Clearly she didn't know what to do now.

"You're interrupting our fight," he called down to Rowan. "Move."

Rowan glared up at him and shook her head. A strangled cry was heard and then Juan Carlos was beside him.

"Get out of there, you idiot! That girl's gonna kill you!" he cried and Rowan shook her head in defiance once more.

"Take her down!" the announcer said just as Juan Carlos screamed: "FUCK!"

Rowan turned back to the MMA fighter who was roaring and running towards them. Right before she got to them, Rowan took the tray out from behind her and bashed the metal plate into the crazy woman's head. She went down with a sickening crack and Rowan hit her over the head three more times before the girl kicked the feet out from under her.

Rowan heard herself yelp, she heard Juan Carlos's cry of fear. She rolled out of the way as the girl got back up but one spinning round-house kick from the girl in pink knocked the MMA fighter right out and back to the ground. This time she stayed down.

Rowan smiled breathlessly up at the girl, she graciously accepted the hand the girl offered her to help her up from off the wet floor. The second she made contact she dropped back to the ground. The visions clouded her eyes, everything she had missed. Days of it. The whole case. How all of this happened, who the girl in pink was. All of it was in flashing in front of her eyes and she was powerless to make it stop.

She didn't hear Juan arguing with the announcer who was angry that Rowan had intervened. She had no idea a man was coming towards them, ready to finish the girl in pink off and then her. Didn't hear Juan Carlos scream her name and then for Wo Fat. She missed him jumping from the deep end wall and onto the man coming for her after the girl in pink had been effectively taken down by this other person. The vision didn't let her go until it was all over.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

With the deal finalized, the money in a briefcase being taken to the car, Wo Fat was finally happy. Now all he had to do was find Rowan and Juan Carlos and take them home. Maybe he'd teach Rowan to waltz, girls liked stuff like that, didn't they? And she had the perfect dress for it.

When he got to the pool side, having gone around the back he found a crowd of people. There were cries of horror. Demands of _kill them already._ But above it all, the sentence that caught Wo Fat's attention was: "GET UP ROWAN!"

Wo Fat pushed through the people until he too was at the pool edge. Juan was on the back of a man in black dress shirt and white khakis. Looked like a smaller, thinner, more Hawaiian Steve.

He threw Juan off of his back, the younger boy bouncing off the floor with a dull crack. Rowan was just sitting there with a blank on her face. The kind he had seen before, the kind she had worn before she attacked a shooter with no hands. She slowly brought her hands to her face as if rubbing the blankness away from her and half turned to the man who was pulling a knife out from his pocket. He just stared down at her as she blinked up at him as if she didn't understand what was happening. Knife poised to come down on her back.

Wo Fat pulled out his gun without a second of hesitation and emptied the clip into the man's back. He kept shooting even when he was down. 10 shots in total, spanning from lower back to neck. A large beefy man shouted in rage and came at him, he wouldn't have been able to reload in time. Luckily for him Armando had come to join him, standing across the pool, closer to the shallow end, pistol drawn. He only shot the larger man three times before he dropped.

By then everyone was screaming and running away. Rowan slowly got to her feet. She looked around at the carnage and chaos and then turned up to him. Her eyes were smudged creating a raccoon type look. She narrowed her eyes at him as he finished reloading his gun, just in case, and then put it in his back waistband.

She clapped her thanks in giddy excitement but Wo Fat was not smiling. All the questions he should have asked when he first encountered this situation flooded him at once. What was she doing down there? Why was she in the middle of an illegal fight? Why was she just sitting on the floor? Had she been injured? She didn't look injured. This was not how this night was supposed to end.

Her smile faded off of her face as he continued to glare at her. She looked back to the carnage at her feet, blood had started leaking out of the man in black edging closer and closer to where her bare feet were. One hand went to her stomach, another hand went to her face.

"Is she going to vomit?" he asked and as if to answer him Rowan's body pitched as she heaved. Oh. For. Fuck sake. He turned to Juan who was pulling himself up off the ground. "Get her the fuck out of that fucking pool before the police get here or she throws up all over you."

Juan coughed and gave him a thumbs up. Rowan crossed to Juan and tugged him towards the hill. The two helped each other up the hill. Juan picked up her discarded shoes as she rushed towards the ladder. She seemed sufficiently okay once she got away from the bodies, but she paused halfway through the shallow end. She seemed to blink her eyes a bit before she turned back to Wo Fat and began to wave frantically at him.

He groaned with frustration and then shouted: "What?!" at her. She showed him her hand. She held up her fingers. Five and then zero. She did it over and over again. But he didn't know why. Fifty? Why was she showing him fifty over and over again? Or five zero? Was it five zero is that what she was trying to say? What the hell did either of those things mean?

And then it hit him.

 _Five-0_

"Steve is on his way here? Now?!" he cried and she nodded wildly. "Oh for fuck sake… get out of the goddamn pool, _now_!"

She turned back to the ladder and jogged the rest of the way there where Juan Carlos stood waiting to help her get out. She stooped down to pick up her clutch and then the two of them ran for the back exit where Wo Fat was waiting to usher them through. Just as Rowan got there, pausing to put her shoes quickly onto her feet there came a loud announcement.

"Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Hope you had a fantastic evening. These nice gentlemen with the hats and the guns, they're going to take you to jail. Thank you very much for your patronage."

That was Danny, Steve's second in command. Rowan paused, half in the shadows, her eyes on the figure moving through the pool towards the girl in pink who had been left on the ground.

"We have cops coming our way, hurry up," Armando hissed. But Wo Fat was watching Rowan and the look of longing on her face as she watched Steve. It almost took his breath away. How could she look at Steve like that, with that kind of painful adoration, knowing full well that he had picked another woman over her?

But he didn't have the time to argue with her over this. Wo Fat scooped Rowan up and dragged her away. She made no move to struggle and no sound. She merely let him hoist her over his shoulder and carry her away.

Once they were in the car and driving away, using a service exit to avoid the cops, Wo Fat turned to Rowan and slapped her arm. "Someone want to tell me how Rowan ended up in the pool with an MMA fighter and a man with a knife?"

Rowan looked him dead in the eye and said: "I wasn't having fun."

There was a startled silence that enveloped them before everyone in the car started laughing, everyone except Wo Fat who didn't find it funny at all. He was too busy marvelling at her voice which had gotten less scratchy and deep, more like her normal voice. She was healing. She was finally getting better. It wasn't until they got back to the compound did he realize that the reason she spoke instead of writing it down was because she didn't have her book anymore.

She had left it behind.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

The beach house at 446 Alapali Place was a mansion. The kind of house that someone like Steve could only dream of having. A million floors. A pool. A library. A massive kitchen. Not that his beach house wasn't spectacular, it was, but if he was to impress a girl, like truly impress a girl he'd want to start with the library in this house. Too bad the girl that would have been impressed by this was the girl he dating right now. Too bad the girl he wanted to impress wouldn't have been impressed by a big house like this, she'd've been happy with his beach house and a bookshelf.

Funny how you only start to appreciate things once they're gone huh?

Five-0 had rushed to this house because Maggie, their first victim's daughter, had been kidnapped. By the same people who had taken her father. He had rushed to get there before they beat the crap out of her like they had done to her father. He had arrived to people fleeing, and gunshots echoing.

He had found chaos on the pool deck. A body hanging over the edge of the deep end, a body by the drop off. A woman unconscious in a shallow puddle of murky water and blood. Maggie lying on her back against the cement floor. Someone had killed the bad guys for them. He didn't know why or how. He wanted to be grateful but he was nervous. Why wouldn't the person who helped Maggie stick around?

Chin had bent over Maggie as Steve examined the first dead body, the one holding the knife. She whispered something to him and Chin called him over.

"Where's the girl with the red hair?" she had asked and Steve took another look around.

Chaos like this was Wo Fat's hallmark. A red haired girl that would step in between an MMA fighter and an injured victim was Rowan's hallmark. Was this the direct consequence of his red haired girl trying to help again?

"Maggie, did the girl with the red hair have a name?" he asked.

"She didn't say, but I think her friend called her Rosie, or Bowen?" she said.

"Rowan, did he call her Rowan?" Steve pressed.

"Maybe. She saved my life," she told him. "She stopped her from killing me."

Rowan had been here. Rowan had done it again. Stepped in to help. And then she had needed someone to save her and he hadn't been there, Wo Fat had. Except, unlike Steve, Wo Fat had no qualms with just shooting everyone.

"Kawano killed my father," Maggie told them and Chin nodded towards the man with more holes than a slice of swiss cheese laying in a puddle of blood.

"He won't be hurting anyone ever again," Chin told her. Steve didn't have to guess what Kawano had done to end up with more than ten bullets in his body. He must have threatened Rowan directly, otherwise one would have been enough.

"Hey boss!" Kono called and Steve jogged over to where she was standing. She had a spiral bound notebook in her hand with a blue cover. "I found this by the ladder."

Steve took it from her. He flipped through it. He recognized Rowan's writing anywhere. There were conversations, doodles, bits of lyric.

 _My throat hurts._

 _No. No more soup._

 _All you sinners stand up sing halleluiah._

 _I want to go home._

 _I've wasted the love of my life, I'm losing it, with every move I die._

 _Wanna watch Little Mermaid?_

 _If you love me let me go._

 _They say I did something bad, then why's it feel so good?_

 _A day without you is like a year without rain_

 _Sour Strawberry Snow Cone_

 _Course. He sent me._

 _I'm clearly smarter than Steve._

But it was what he found at the very end of the book. On the very last page.

 _Hey Steve. I'm fine. It's not your fault. I don't blame you so please don't blame yourself. I miss you. I know you'll find me._

 _P.S. Tell everyone I miss them and I'll see you guys soon!_

Steve felt his eyes tearing up. She had left this purposely for him. She had written him a letter. Just so she could tell him not to blame himself, to tell him that she was okay. That was Rowan, taking care of him even though she wasn't there.

"Is it hers?" Danny asked kneeling down so he was level with Steve. Steve nodded. "Did she leave a clue to her whereabouts?"

"No. She took a big enough risk leaving this there for me," he said. "She says she misses all of us."

"We miss her too," Kono said. "We're going to find her Steve. This just proves that she's okay."

Yes. Yes it did. But why had Wo Fat brought her here? Why was he even here in the first place? Was he starting to realize how hard it was to keep Rowan in line? Because if he was that meant he'd get frustrated with her, and unlike Steve, Wo Fat wouldn't have a problem with beating her into submission.

And though worry coursed through his veins he forced himself to see the bright side. For right now, Rowan was alright. She was still on the island. He still had time to find her. To save her. To bring her home.

Steve wouldn't rest until she was back with him where she belonged.


	34. Chapter 34

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Kay so this is gonna be a regular old update, with no disclaimers, no matter how much I wanna clarify cause it was clear it wasn't read the whole way through. But that is OKAY. I do have two announcements. I've been competing in NaNoWriMo this year, and since I'm way ahead of my goal, I've decided when I meet my 50,000 word goal, you guys (My favorite readers) are gonna get a SURPRISE! You should find out more about that closer to the 25th of November. AND, because I don't care, we're gonna run the Contest and it will be based on Reviews, because I don't know how else to determine who wins. But I don't expect them all at once before the next chapter. I'll post the rules at the end of this update, so be sure to read the whole way through. Good luck you guys and I'll see you on Friday._

Chapter 34

* * *

Wo Fat sat beside Rowan. He had the bowl of popcorn on his lap while Rowan held onto her snow cone. They were watching a movie that wasn't actually that bad. Ever since she had established that he hadn't seen any of the movies normal children watched in their childhood, she had been on a mission to make him watch all of her favourites. He kept telling himself that it was just to keep her entertained and out of trouble, but he enjoyed the time he spent with her. This led to nightly movie nights. Apparently, it was such a routine that his subordinates could set their clocks to it.

They knew that he'd be at the compound between 7:30-8pm. He'd have a snow cone for her and a gummy snack, and they'd have the popcorn popped and ready for them. Rowan would have picked a movie, or sent them out to pick it up for her. Tonight's choice was _Muppet's Treasure Island._

He had read the book during his school days and had loved it, which meant he had high expectations for this children's version. And he had to admit, it was living up to them so far. A good way to get kids into it. He still liked the book better. But he had to admit, the songs were quite catchy, he dare say he might have even liked them. He may not have been familiar with the Muppets but he would definitely enjoy watching more of them if that Gonzo character were always with them.

His amusement must have shown because instead of eating her snow cone Rowan was smiling at him. "You're liking this movie, aren't you?" she accused. Her voice was still a bit scratchy but she had stopped coughing up blood when she talked and after she left her note book with a message for McGarrett, forcing him to move their operation all over again he had refused to get her another one. But she had been talking since the incident in the pool, and other then upping her snow cone intake, she seemed to be perfectly fine. He was just happy she was healing.

Wo Fat leant back against the pillows and crossed his arms over his chest. "It's better than those princess movies that you're obsessed with."

"Hey! Don't you dare bash my Princess movies," she warned him. "But fair, you don't have to like them. I'm glad to see that you at least like some of these movies."

He pointed to the screen where two puppets were singing their love to one another. "See this right here, this is why you're delusional about love," he said. "No guy's like this."

"Well no duh, Kermit's a frog," she said with a teasing smirk.

"And a puppet," Wo Fat reminded her and she just glared at him. He had been trying maybe a bit too hard to knock the disillusionment over Steve out of Rowan's head. But she remained blissfully stubborn about her feelings for him. She denied that they were causing any issues what so ever. But Wo Fat could see otherwise.

Rowan had been better since he had decided it was okay to let her out of her cell. She had free reign of the compound, so long as someone was with her and since he was busy that meant that she spent a lot of time with Armando and Juan Carlos. She had daily jam sessions with Juan Carlos where she played the guitar, but her singing was limited. Wo Fat kept trying to tell them to keep her from singing as it aggravated her throat but she didn't listen to him or them. Hence the daily snow-cones to soothe her throat.

Wo Fat had taught her to waltz and every now and then they'd practiced. Coming back from business early led him to discover that Rowan was now learning Spanish dances. Which was essentially just very provocative dance moves with Juan Carlos who Wo Fat worried was way too close to her. Or a bit too interested in her. Rowan seemed to like the attention and since Wo Fat wanted her off of her interest in Steve he had just sort things go on.

She rested her head against Wo Fat's shoulder and sighed. "Tomorrow JC says we're gonna do some Karaoke," she told him. "You gonna come? I hear you Asians love Karaoke."

"That's racist, Ro," Wo Fat grumbled. Rowan had nicknames for everyone. Juan's was JC, his was Oz and Armando was Poppa Bear. Aptly named for his gruff exterior but gooey center. He too had grown fond of Rowan and caved to her blinking baby blue eyes just like the rest of them. The hypocrite.

"Besides, you shouldn't be singing. You're going to undo all the healing you've done," he reminded her.

Rowan scoffed. "I'm not gonna sing a lot. Just a few songs. If my throat starts to hurt I'll stop," she said.

"I have things to do tomorrow," he told her, slinging an arm over her shoulder. "But I'll see if I can stop by, alright? Is this a morning thing or afternoon?"

"Afternoon," she said quickly. "We gotta set everything up. He's getting lights and we're making a stage and getting drinks."

Great alcohol was going to be involved. He would have to warn Armando about it if he couldn't make it out of his meeting in time.

"You should come, it'll be fun," she said to him as she settled herself so that she was snuggled up to him.

Wo Fat didn't have time for fun. He had an empire to build. "Eat your snow cone," he said instead. Her voice was getting scratchy again.

"When do I get to go home?" she asked him out of the blue and Wo Fat felt his blood run cold. He had effectively managed to avoid this conversation. Usually by deflecting her onto someone else or leaving the room. But Rowan was snuggled up quite neatly to him, his arm was around her shoulder, her fingers digging into his dress shirt. There'd be no getting away unscathed from this.

"Well if you tell me where you live I can help you get there," he replied. Referring to, of course, the place of home she claimed to not remember. He was positive she was lying. He just couldn't prove it.

"You know what I mean," she grumbled. "When are you and Steve gonna do this hostage exchange?"

"Steve has refused to comply with my demands. It seems you're not as important to him as I thought," he lied. He knew Steve was willing to give him what he wanted, he just had no intention of going through with the exchange, no matter what Steve offered him.

He felt Rowan's frown against his shirt and he struggled not to shift under the guilt that had crept up his spine. He hated that he knew what that emotion was. He had never felt it before, why would it plague him now?

"Then ask for something reasonable?" she offered as she shoved a mouthful of flavoured ice into her mouth. She chewed a bit before adding: "If I didn't know any better I'd say you didn't want me leave."

Wo Fat stayed quiet. She couldn't possibly know that was true. The movie ended and Wo Fat disentangled himself from Rowan. He straightened out his suit before leaning over Rowan, picking up the snow cone cup and the bowl of popcorn. He was almost to the door before Rowan called out a soft goodnight.

He shut the door behind him and tried to shrug the warmth out of his system. He needed a plan. He needed to know what to do. Stockholm syndrome should have kicked in by now. He needed to brush up on his psychology.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

After the last move, Wo Fat had moved out of the hotel he had been staying at and into the compound with Rowan. It was a tactical move, he told himself, he stayed up worrying she'd escape, and he was staying late for movies anyway, it made no sense to be away from her. But that was how, while he was getting ready for his lunch appointment Wo Fat was cornered by Armando, who was supposed to be on Rowan-sitting duty. He didn't like it when Armando left Rowan and Juan Carlos alone but judging by the urgent look on the older man's face there was a good reason for it this morning.

"I've been meaning to talk to you," he said. "About Rowan."

Wo Fat stopped straightening his tie and turned back to Armando. "What about her?"

"She has requested lessons," he said. "In either, driving or shooting. Which car would you like me to take her in?"

Wo Fat stared at him, his eyes blinking for a moment digesting what had been said. "You think it's a good idea to give that girl lessons in driving?"

"Considering the alternative… yes," Armando said. "She would like to learn how to drive both defensively and evasively. Where would it be best to do that?"

"On one of the back roads out in the country, less cops more turns, good for learning to maneuver," Wo Fat answered immediately. He then shook his head. "Strike that. You're not teaching her how to drive."

"I would have thought this would be good," Armando told him. "She is showing an interest in your work. This is a step forward in your plan to make her an assistant."

Wo Fat glared at him. He should have never confided that in Armando. "Or, she could throw you out of the car and make a break for it."

"I am big," he said gesturing to himself. "She will have a hard time throwing."

Wo Fat groaned. Alright. Alright. Fine. Wo Fat pinched the bridge of his nose as if trying dispel his frustration through this massage. "Okay. Fine. I'll let you teach her how to drive. But for god sake don't let her get away or crash the car," he growled. "And don't teach her in any of the cars we like, use one we wouldn't care about."

As soon as he agreed Rowan erupted out from behind Armando and hugged him tightly. "Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!" she said into his neck.

Wo Fat wasn't good at hugs. Whenever Rowan hugged him, which was not often, he just stood there, arms to his side. He had been experimenting since they had started getting closer but he still wasn't comfortable hugging her back fully. So, he took one arm and patted her back softly. He silently wondered if she had heard the comment about becoming his assistant. Which was not really the plan, but sort of. He figured that if she had hear she would have voiced her concerned immediately.

"If you crash my car I'll never forgive you," he snapped.

But when Rowan pulled away he saw that giant smile on his face and caved a bit. Maybe he'd be mad but eventually but he'd forgive her. At this point he'd do anything to keep being the reason she had that smile on her face.

Maybe this was starting to work. Maybe she was finally letting go of the idea of going home to McGarrett. Maybe Wo Fat would finally get the start to that family he always wanted. Too bad he didn't deal in maybes.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve and Danny walked out of the Iolani Palace talking shop about their latest murder. They were on their way to La Mariana Tiki Bar. Steve was going to drive. As. Per. Usual.

Catherine drove up in her cute little blue classic sports car. Steve immediately stiffened. Ever since she had found out that Steve felt bad about Rowan being taken she had taken it upon herself to be there night and day. Meaning she practically lived with him and she did her best to fill in the void Rowan left by making him breakfast and dinner and covering him with cuddles. Steve didn't even know how to tell her how much it wasn't helping. He didn't want Catherine to try and replace Rowan, he wanted Rowan.

But all this time together had caused a major confliction. Before Catherine had practically moved herself into his house he had been 100% certain he wanted Rowan. But Catherine was good to him, she stood by his side through everything, and Rowan was… well… Rowan. He barely knew her. She could leave him at any time. She kept secrets and hid things from him and dealt in half-truths just like his mother. And she never listened to him. But he wanted her. He wanted her so bad. But he also didn't want to let go of Catherine. He sort of felt honour bound to stay with her.

It was causing him such anxiety that he was losing whatever precious little sleep he was getting. So he decided to make his final decision when he found Rowan.

"Hey!" Catherine chirruped as she got out of her car.

Both he and Danny said _hi_ back and then their eyes zeroed in on her jersey. Steve was taken aback by the colors but it was Danny who said: "What the hell is this?" like she was wearing trash.

To be fair she was.

"What? I can't surprise Steve at work?" she asked. Ah, oh no, she didn't see what the problem was. Uh oh. Oh no. This was not good.

Danny forced a smile. "No, you can do that," he told her and then frowned down to her jersey. "I'm talking about the jersey."

She looked down to the shirt she was wearing as if momentarily confused. "Oh!" she said once she seemingly understood. "Well, we moved around when I was a kid so I never stayed in one place long enough to get tied to a team."

"Oh, so you willingly root for the Dallas Cowboys?" Danny asked. He was more than surprised, he was shocked. Steve was too, but he was also dating this girl so he didn't want to say anything… yet.

"Yeah," Catherine said looking back and forth between them like she didn't understand. "I mean, come on. Who doesn't like America's team?"

Both he and Danny raised their hands. This had gone on long enough. "I don't," Steve told her just as Danny said: "We don't."

Steve couldn't help but think that he wouldn't be having this conversation with Rowan. In fact, he doubted Rowan even watched Football.

"And if I recall correctly, my Redskins humiliated your Cowboys the last time they played," Steve reminded her.

Danny was grinning again which meant that he had thought of something sarcastic and pithy up and he was about to spit it out and laugh at his own joke. Steve steeled himself for the inevitable.

"That's very cute. You got a Cowboys fan dating a Redskins fan," he said. "That's like the Capulets and the Montagues."

Okay not bad. It was basically true but no one was going to end up killing themselves in this version. Catherine chuckled at him which caused Danny to beam and Steve to roll his eyes.

"That's good. I'm gonna give you an A+ for that literary reference," she said. HE wished she hadn't. People shouldn't reward his stupid smart aleck responses, that's how they ended up getting more of them.

"Oh, you got that?" he said shooting his grin to Steve. "Thanks.

"Yeah," Catherine said, chuckling again. "But actually, I came here to cheer up Steve. Since he's been so depressed about Rowan's latest disappearing act."

Steve tried not to growl. He hated that she did that, down played what had happened as if it wasn't a big deal. It wasn't an act. Rowan didn't do it on purpose. And she was in actual danger. Why couldn't Catherine see that?

Too bad she missed Steve's scowl because she was too busy rooting through her bag. "See, the NFL hooked up my unit with some tickets for the game tomorrow. So you and I are going to the Pro Bowl," she told him flashing her tickets and smiling triumphantly.

Steve glanced to Danny who was grinning because he too had had the exact same idea.

"Uhm… I'm… I'm already going with Danny," Steve admitted watching Catherine's smile fade.

Danny stepped up to the plate. "Yeah, we got 50-yard-line seats. Best seats in the house," he told her, obviously proud.

Steve decided to play like he was sorry, when really, he wasn't. "We got them this morning. I'm sorry," he said to her.

Catherine put on a brave face and put the tickets back in her bag, acting like she wasn't disappointed. As her boyfriend he should have cared more that he had upset her. But he just didn't.

"Oh, that's okay. Uhm… you know what? My seats are pretty good, I'm sure I'll find someone to go with," she told him.

An awkward silence hit them and Danny began to fidget. "I'm gonna let that awkward moment fade out a bit. We gotta bar to go to," he reminded him and then walked away leaving Steve alone with the awkwardness. The asshole. He was about to call Danny back when Danny's phone rang and Steve decided to let him have it.

"For a case," Steve added in case Catherine thought he and Danny were going on a man-date or something. "We're going to a bar for a case."

Catherine said _okay_ like she believed them but it was the kind of _okay_ she used after listening to Steve explain something about Rowan.

"Hey, why don't we do some tailgating before the game together?" he asked her. "You and me?"

Catherine smiled. "Yeah, I would love that," she said and Steve smiled. "But I don't wanna get in the way of your man-date with Danny."

And the smile came right off his face. Yes he and Danny had been spending a lot of time together but they were not man-dating or bro-dating or any other kind of dating. Danny was keeping him from going crazy with worry over Rowan and distracting him from Catherine's attempts to distract him.

"It's not a man date," he snapped.

"No?" Catherine said with a teasing smirk.

"Anyway, Kamekona already invited himself, so it's fine," he told her. "You're not getting in the way."

He leant in and kissed her softly on the lips. Catherine moaned softly against him like it was the best kiss in the world. That was another thing she had been doing. Being more vocal as if to stroke his male ego. He didn't need his ego stroked. For fuck sake he just wanted Rowan.

"That's a three-way bromance," she said to him after he pulled away. "Cute. Very, very cute. I like it."

She got in her own car just as Steve did. Steve avoided Danny's eyes. His partner knew all about his frustrations and was no help with the situation. He just kept saying the same thing. _Just pick one already._ As if it were that easy.

But when Steve turned to him Danny had a look on his face that worried him. The kind of look that Danny wore when he was just about to give bad news. "What? What is it?" Steve asked.

"I just got a call from Kamekona," he said and the first thing Steve thought about was the tickets. "He just spotted the car. The one he last saw Rowan in."

Steve sat a little straighter. _Rowan._ "Where?" he breathed out.

"Over by the shrimp truck. Says Rowan was there getting a snow cone, had some new guy with her. He recognized him. He's a Mexican arms dealer who's base is in Colombia. He's got their current address."

" _Where,_ " he growled. There wasn't time for this. They had to go now.

"She's at the Waikiki Beach Marriot. Says she's parked in the passenger pick up," Danny said. "He thinks she's waiting for someone."

Wo Fat. It had to be Wo Fat. Steve flicked on the lights and the sirens. He had to get to her. He had to get to her before Wo Fat got back in that car. This was his only chance. He didn't know when he'd get another chance like this. If he didn't act on it he may never get another one. He may never see her again.

Danny didn't argue. He said nothing at all as the car sped away. He knew what this was. They both did.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan sat in the driver's seat of the car with her snow-cone in hand crunching away happily on it. Beside her Armando was sucking on his, as his teeth weren't as strong as hers and he needed to wait for it to melt before digging in. They were in front of the Waikiki Beach Marriot hotel waiting for Wo Fat to come out. She knew the second he did, Armando would tell him what Rowan did and she'd get in trouble.

Wo Fat came out of the door and spotted the car. Rowan sunk into her seat, noting that he seemed to be peering in through her window. He got to the car and rapped on her window. Rowan rolled the window down and stared up at him the most innocent smile she could muster.

"Hell no," he said to her. "Get out."

"She's not done with her lesson," Armando intoned as he stabbed his snow-cone with vigor.

"And you took the nice car. I told you not to take a car I like. Why did you have to take the Audi?" he snapped.

"She likes to go fast," Armando told him before Rowan could answer. It wasn't entirely a lie. But it was better than telling them the real reason she wanted to drive the Audi. That she wanted to take this car so someone would recognize it. "And don't think you're getting away with what you did to me, when we get back to the compound I will be talking to Wo Fat about that."

Wo Fat got in the back of the car but paused in buckling. "Excuse me? What did she do?"

Rowan handed him her half eaten snow-cone. "Can you hold this for me?" she asked and he took it without a second thought.

Armando turned in his seat as she pulled away from the curb and out onto the street. "She threw me from the car."

Well so much for waiting until she got back to the compound.

"It was an accident."

"Turns out she can drive. She can drive well. She wanted to learn how to do defensive maneuvers, to learn how to escape cars chasing her," Armando snapped shooting her another glare. "Her specialty is donuts."

"I didn't know he had the door part way open, now did I?" she cried. "And why weren't you strapped in?"

"You threw him from the car?!" Wo Fat cried. But he was ignored.

"You wouldn't stop with the donuts. I was going to tuck and roll but you spun the car again," Armando snapped.

"Then that's not my fault!" Rowan cried Just as Wo Fat shook his had and growled: "You're a fucking hazard. Stop the car I'm going to drive."

"No! I need the practice," she said. "Besides, Armando says my lessons aren't done yet."

"So you can throw me from the car too? Fuck no. Stop the car," he ordered. Rowan stuck her tongue out at him. She was going to tell him to buckle up but Armando interrupted her.

"We have a car, it's been following us since we left. It's gaining fast," he told them. Wo Fat turned. Rowan's eyes went to the rear-view mirror.

She'd recognize that silver Camaro anywhere. Rowan slammed on the breaks causing everyone in the car to lurch forward and the car behind her to slam on its horn and swerve to avoid her.

"What the hell are you doing?" Armando cried.

"It's Steve," Rowan whispered. "I could go home."

"No. Drive." Wo Fat ordered. The Camaro was closer now she could see Steve driving. She was almost there.

"Please," she cried turning to look at him. "Please let me go home."

"I'm not getting arrested today Rowan now drive," he ordered.

Rowan looked back. The Camaro was right behind her the lights flashing at her. Steve was halfway out. "If I get away from them will you send me home?"

"ROWAN!" Wo Fat shouted and she could see a shadow at the back window, she winced but she knew she had no choice. She gunned it.

Steve was out of the car, he had been on his way, gun drawn ready to go. He had not been expecting the car to take off after stopping so suddenly. She heard him shout but she was too far away to hear the words.

"Okay, we're going to get a good lesson out of this," Armando said. "Now we can't lead him back to the base which means we'll have to lose him."

"In the city?"

"No too easy for cops to find us, we'll have to lose him in the bush," Wo Fat told her, he rolled down the window and tossed her snow cone out, ignore her cry of dismay. Armando did the exact same thing as him with his own snow cone.

"You're going to want to stay on the left, be sure to pass cars by going to the left, even if that means crossing the line into the oncoming traffic," he told her.

"You want me to drive into oncoming traffic?" she cried as she swerved around a car moving way to slow. Behind them came the wail of the siren and the glare of flashing blue and red lights.

"He's catching up," Wo Fat told them. "Go faster."

"When people hear sirens they pull to the right. Even if they're going in the opposite direction," he said showing her all the spaces that opened up. "Now, pedal to the metal little lady. We have a crazy boyfriend to outrun."

"He's not her boyfriend!" Wo Fat cried his eyes on the car following them a gun in his hand. Rowan caught it. The glint of metal in the light. He'd try to shoot Steve if he got too close. She'd have to keep a safe distance between them to keep him from getting hurt.

"Go down the highway," Armando said and Rowan immediately jerked the car into a turn. The car wobbling and tilting, the tires screeching in protest.

Steve also took the turn just as fast, the Camaro fishtailing before steadying. Rowan put her foot all the way down, the engine roaring and shaking as she ate up the distance between them and the on ramp to the highway. But the Camaro was faster and it was gaining fast.

"I can't out run him," Rowan told them. "Danny's Camaro is too fast."

"That's Danny's car? Then why is Steve always driving it?" Wo Fat asked. Rowan opened her mouth to answer but Armando snapped: "Why does that matter?" and that shut them both up.

"You'll have to out maneuver him then," he told her.

"Out maneuver? He's a Navy Seal, he has more training and more practice than me!" she cried. "I vote that I slow the car down and jump out. That way you guys can get away and I can go home."

"NO!" Wo Fat shouted so loud that both Rowan and Armando jumped. "Just fucking lose him. Armando help her."

Rowan saw the Camaro creeping up on them. She watched Wo Fat take aim as it pulled up closer to them. She glanced over and saw that they were almost neck and neck at this point. She saw Danny's shocked' face, but it was Steve's face she was stuck on. He was staring at her, not with anger but horrified shock. He had been expecting a lot of things but he clearly wasn't expecting Rowan to be driving. She tried to mouth that she was sorry. She tried to convey that she had no choice. Wind whipped through the car as Wo Fat's window went down. He was aiming neatly through the Camaro's back window. He'd hit Danny even if he was aiming for Steve.

"Alright Rowan…"

"RAM THEM!" she screamed and even though both Armando and Wo Fat shouted _no_ she swerved to the left. The Audi slammed into the side of the Camaro with a loud crunch, an explosion of sparks and force that jerked even her to the side.

"Son of a bitch!" Wo Fat shouted. "Rowan. What the fuck?"

The cars came apart and Rowan swerved again taking an exit onto a back street with very little traffic, she did it so fast that the Camaro didn't have time to swerve with her, which meant she had left Steve behind for now.

"I panicked!" Rowan screamed back at him. Because she didn't think she could say she was trying to stop him from shooting her friends without getting into a lot of trouble with them.

"Okay, now we're not going to do that again," he said and Rowan nodded because she was pretty sure the seatbelt had shattered her collarbone trying to keep her in her seat.

The Camaro returned in her rear-view mirror and Wo Fat swore. "Why won't he give you up?" he asked no one in particular.

It was then that Rowan realized that Wo Fat didn't want to let her go. He wanted to keep her and that made absolutely no sense to her what so ever. Why the hell would he want to keep her? She had been so goddamn annoying.

The Camaro came level with her again. Steve was no longer shocked to see her, he was wearing his determined face instead. He was going to ram her this time. He was going to try and run her off the road.

"He's going to run us off the road," Armando told her. As if she hadn't figured that out.

"I know. I got this," she said.

"Oh God," was Armando's response. He clung to the passenger side grab handle very tightly. Good, he had learned his lesson.

Just as Steve swung the Camaro towards them Rowan pulled up the emergency brake and slammed on the breaks at the same time. She had done this before. She had kept turning the wheel into her car swung forward facing the opposite direction. But as the Audi screeched to a halt and forcibly went into a 360, the Camaro had swerved right past them narrowly missing the front of their car. But it didn't stop there. Either Steve couldn't get in control or he had been going too fast to stop in time. Either way the Camaro ran right off the road and practically dove into the ditch.

A great tower of pillowing smoke erupted from the hood of the car. Before anyone could stop her, Rowan had gotten out of the Audi and was running back towards the Camaro. She just wanted to make sure that Steve was alright. That Danny was okay. She knew Danny would probably kill her for the damage done to his car but she could live with that so long as she hadn't inadvertently killed them both.

"Steve?" she called as she ran towards the accident she had caused. "Danny? Steve?"

But she never got to the Camaro. Wo Fat tackled her straight to the ground. She hit the tar and felt it rip up her arms and her legs and part of her cheek. He pulled her up before she could manage to struggle he had an arm across her torso. Only a single one and she couldn't figure out why until she heard her name.

She knew that voice. She knew who was calling for her. And even though she screamed his name right back she couldn't hear herself over the gunshots.

Wo Fat shot at Steve over and over keeping him pinned behind the Camaro's door. He dragged her back to the Audi and even though she screamed and begged him to let her go home, to just leave her there and escape with Armando he threw her in the back, shot two more times in Steve's direction and then dove into the back to restrain her and keep her from running.

The last she saw of Steve he was running down that dusty stretch of highway screaming her name. Needless to say he didn't catch up and she didn't get to go home.

* * *

 **So... are you ready for the Christmas challenge?**

 **The winner will be the person who gives me that 300th review. **

**To be considered eligible you're review will have to include your favourite part of the chapter you're reviewing on AND what kind of ONE SHOT you would like to read from this universe I've created. **

**You're only allowed one contest submission per chapter, and only on chapter 34 and onward until we reach 300 reviews.**

 **If you're a Guest reviewer, please put a Nickname for yourself in the Review so I can announce you as the winner if you are. **

**The story you pick can be anything you'd like. It doesn't even need to be cannon, you want Rowan and Chin together? Rowan and Danny? You want Rowan to get Danny and Steve together? You just want it to be a scene in the future that you really want to see or a scene I glossed over that you want me to elaborate on. You name it I'll write it. If you need help with story prompts, just mention in the review and I'll post options in the next update to pick from.**

 **Then I'll post the story as a separate story from this one on Christmas Day with a dedication to the winner!**

 **Sounds good guys? Alright, I'll see you guys on Friday!**


	35. Chapter 35

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Alright, so guys here we are. A lot more drama in this chapter, you guys seem to really like the direction I'm taking Wo Fat and I'm glad. To be honest I was worried about it but it seems to be going well. And you're going to see some more of that typical cute stuff between Rowan and Wo Fat in this chapter too. Don't worry though, in three chapters Rowan and Steve will be reunited. Mostly. We're also on our way to crowning a winner for the One Shot Christmas Contest. For those who were having issues picking a story line I've left some possible stories for you to pick from at the end of this chapter. As a reminder, if you're a guest please use the same nickname for each submission. When you're giving me your one shot ideas, please use the same one, if you think of something you'd like better, simply tell me which story you're most interested in seeing. So I know which one you want the most. Also, we're dangerously close to your secondary surprise. I'll update you on that as soon as possible! See you guys on Tuesday!_

Chapter 35

* * *

"We need to talk."

No. No they didn't. Wo Fat had gotten Rowan back to the compound. She had cried herself sore. She cried and screamed so hard she started coughing up blood. She fought him. She lashed out, she kicked him, scratched him, and bit him. He struggled with her. He struggled because he didn't want to hurt her but she wouldn't stop. He struggled because they were doing so well. She had almost been there she had wanted to be with him. To stay, almost. And just seeing Steve had derailed all his hard work so fast that he didn't know what to do.

He had to carry her through the hallway. He had to carry her while she screamed and coughed and his subordinated watched on with curious concern. He dropped her in her cell. Left two of her pills with her, a first aid kit for skin that had been scrapped off of her when she hit the asphalt and then slammed the door shut.

He walked away listening to her cries, her sobs and her wet hacking coughs slowly fade behind him. He couldn't bear to go back until she was calmer. He didn't know how to phrase this. Didn't know how to make this right or better again.

But coming in the following morning with her breakfast and being told that they needed to talk was not what he needed or wanted to hear that morning.

Wo Fat dropped the tray on her lap. "There's nothing to discuss."

"Yes there is!" she shouted putting the tray down on her bed and jumping up to her feet. "You can't keep me. I'm not a pet!"

Wo Fat turned to her. "And what are you returning to?" he shot back and she blinked her eyes. "Do you really think that your home is with Steve? Catherine lives with him now. Did you know that? It took all of three days for him to decide he'd rather have her. He does not want you. Not the way you want him. You have no home. You have nothing."

Rowan recoiled like he had slapped her and Wo Fat found that he was taking one step back and then another. He didn't how that look on her face made him feel. For the first time he truly felt like the low down disgusting criminal that he was.

Rowan's sorrow faded away, that tearful gaze became a pointed mask of rage. "I don't care how long it takes. I will fight you. Day and night until you either let me go or kill me. I will make your life hell. Do you understand? HELL!"

Wo Fat bent his head. Alright, he deserved that.

"Can't do much if you're locked in here," he told her and then stormed away and slammed the door. Until she calmed down. Until she wasn't angry with him. Once he was certain she had given up. Only then would he allow her out. Only then could she stop being his prisoner.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve sat in the hospital trying to focus on the pain in his shoulder and not the pain in his chest. The doctor stood beside him ready to put his shoulder back in place. Danny was waiting for him in the waiting room.

"Okay. On three, right?" Steve asked.

"That's right," the Doctor said holding his hand.

Steve tried not to grimace. He knew this was going to hurt. But it couldn't be worse than the guilt he was feeling.

"Okay. One… two… … … … Three."

On three the doctor swung his limb back and his shoulder popped back into place with a terrible cracking. Steve groaned with displeasure momentarily blinded by the pain.

"I got it, I got it, I got it," he said and the doctor patted his shoulder causing him to cry out in pain. It was like staff here were into hurting him more. Must have been Alex's doing.

He sat on the cot a little longer. He didn't want to move. Not because his shoulder hurt, because it did. It was just a low dull throbbing now. No, he didn't want to face Danny. He had crashed the Camaro and stopped Danny from going to the Pro Football game. He was the worst friend in the world.

"You are not going to believe this," Danny cried walking into his room. "Catherine and Kono are down on the sidelines of the fucking field. I can't believe we missed this."

Steve winced again. He'd have to find a way to make this up to Danny. "I'm sorry man," Steve said but Danny wasn't listening and, instead, was talking again.

"This is ridiculous. This is, without a doubt, the worst day of my life. You crashed the Camaro—," "—I said I was sorry, Danny." "And now I've missed the Pro Bowl because you couldn't walk around the escalator like a regular human being."

Steve hung his head. "I said I was sorry Danny," he repeated, hoping this time Danny would hear him. "I am. I'm sorry I crashed the Camaro, though to be fair half the damage was caused by Rowan. And I'm sorry you missed the Pro Bowl. I am. I'm sorry."

Danny looked him up and down. He watched as Steve rotated his shoulder as if trying to shift some of the pain out of it.

"Are you doing alright, man?" Danny asked.

Steve looked up, one of his eyebrows cocked in surprise. "I mean, it hurts. But I'll be okay," he answered.

"Yeah, I figured that. I mean… you know… about Rowan. Are you doing alright?" he asked.

Steve had to actually think about it a bit. It had been jarring to pull up to that car and find that it was Rowan at the wheel. Firstly, it surprised him that Rowan even knew how to drive. She had never asked him to help her get a licence. When it never came up he figured she didn't know how and he was fine with forever driving her around. Secondly, when she slammed the car into them he realized that she knew defensive moves. Thirdly, she out fucking maneuvered him. He swung in to run her off the road and she braked the car and he missed it. Which was how he crashed Danny's car.

He had gotten out of the car when he heard Rowan calling his name. He had gotten out in time to watch Wo Fat tackle his poor girl to the ground. He got up gun drawn but he couldn't shoot Wo Fat if he was holding Rowan in front of him. Wo Fat had no problems with shoot at him though leaving him no choice but to take cover behind the car door.

Lastly, nothing broke his heart more than sprinting down that highway and seeing her stricken face in the back window of that Audi disappear down the highway no matter how fast he ran.

"No, I'm not alright," Steve whispered. "It's stupid. I know. But I failed her and I failed you."

"Okay, stop it. Don't worry about me. The car is fixable and I'm sure I'll eventually forgive you for the Pro Bowl," Danny said, his hands moving back and forth like they did when he got passionate about something. "As for Rowan. You didn't fail her either. We did everything we could. You did everything you could. You don't think she saw you running after that car? Come on, Babe."

Steve glanced away but Danny kept on talking. "I'll tell you one thing though. When we get her back I'm going to have words with her. Just you wait. Fucking driving like she's a defensive lineman. Where the hell did she even learn to do that, huh?"

Steve couldn't help but laugh at that. It was true. He did want to know where Rowan learned to handle a car like that. Most people found it hard to control cars going at fast speeds but she seemed to be at relative ease behind the wheel. Just another thing to add to the list to eventually talk to her about.

"I'm gonna get set up and then we'll head out, okay?" Steve said and Danny nodded, leaving him alone in the room.

Steve glanced to his phone. He needed to do something for Danny. Something to make him smile. To show him how much Steve appreciated having a friend like him. So he picked up his phone and dialed one number.

"Hey Cath, I need to ask you for a favour."

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

The door opened and Rowan looked up. Juan Carlos stood there, he stared at her with such pity that it made her stomach turn. She looked away from him even though she heard him come closer. She slid away from him when he came to sit beside her on her bed.

"He's gone out for the night," Juan told her. "And he took my uncle with him."

Rowan glared at him. "Yeah? We gonna break out?"

The look on Juan's face was answer enough, she scoffed with disgust and turned away from him. "I know it's not the answer you want to hear, but you have to understand. He'd kill me, Ro, would you want that?"

No. She wouldn't. But she didn't want to give Juan the satisfaction of answering. "And while it's not as great as getting you home to your precious McGarrett, we still have karaoke night set up, so if you're down to party we're ready for you."

Rowan looked at him. Poor stupid Juan Carlos he didn't know what was going to hit him. Instead she smiled widely at him, trying not to show how excited she really was. "It's McGarrett and sure, let's go."

She let him lead her down the hallways to the courtyard. There was a stage done up with twinkling fairy lights. A guitar was awaiting her right by the karaoke machine and the mic.

"We've sung our songs and we were wondering if you'd be willing to sing one of your own songs," he said. "You know… the one you've been practicing."

She knew which song he was talking about. She had been working hard on it. She was surprised all the guys were interested in it. She smiled at the small crowd waiting for her. They were all carrying snow-cones and had bowls of popcorn and nachos on their tables. It was clear that most of this had been done for her benefit. They were trying to cheer her up.

"Okay," she said. "'I'll sing the song, but only if you guys help me."

This was met with a scattered round of applause and cheers. Rowan smiled at them all as she picked up the guitar. Juan Carlos was certainly right about one thing, this was going to cheer her up. She could feel it working already.

"Okay, every time I pointed at you I need you to sing a single world. _Hallelujah,_ " she told them, singing the last word. "Just like that. Can I hear it back?"

The crowd all sung it back and she tried not to laugh. She forgot how giddy it made her to sing in front of crowds. She took her place on the stage, picked up the guitar and began to strum the chords. "Just so you guys know, this was supposed to be a hard rock song, you're getting the acoustic version."

 _My life started the day I got caught. Under the covers. With second hand lovers. Oh, tied up in pretty young things. In a state of emergency. Who was I tryna be?_

She sang the song, a song she had written before. For her brother. The black sheep of her family. She had written out the words when she missed him. Written out the words because for some reason being around Wo Fat made her think about him and how much she missed having her older brother around. She had to practicing playing to remember the chords and the lyrics she had written. A song she had only recorded once, straight to a CD given to her brother for his last birthday. The last birthday she had spent with him. This next one in only a few short months would be the first birthday since before she was born that he'd celebrate without her.

 _All you sinners stand up, sing Hallelujah!_

She pointed at the crowd and got a resounding response of _hallelujah_ sung right back at her.

 _Show praise with your body, stand up, sing hallelujah!_

She pointed again and they sang the word back at her just as promised.

 _And if you can't stop shaking, lean back let it move right through ya._

This time when she pointed she noted that Wo Fat was in the back of the crowd. His eyes boring into her. She wasn't supposed to be out. He'd be mad that JC had ignored his explicit request. She expected him to storm up and snatch her up off of the stage. But he took in the scene and did nothing. Instead he leant back and listened.

 _Say your prayers, say your prayers, say your prayers._

She played out the entirety of the song. And when she was done she got a standing ovation. She handed JC the guitar when he came up and asked who wanted to sing next. She could see Wo Fat trying to push through the crowd, no doubt to get to her. Rowan was shrinking towards the shadows of the stage. If she could just disappear she could escape. She knew it.

She only got one foot into the shadows when someone grabbed her from behind and clapped a hand over her mouth. Rowan didn't even get to scream.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Wo Fat lost sight of her and lost his mind. He was angry when he realized what Juan Carlos had done. But shocked by how it had put a smile on her face. One day after telling him she hated him and she'd stop at nothing to escape and she was smiling again. He'd be stupid to think she wasn't going to try and escape, in fact that was probably why she agreed to come out here and sing for his men in the first place. But for a brief moment as she was singing that song it looked like she forgot all about being mad at him and was just happy.

And then she disappeared. He could see Juan Carlos, having now passed the karaoke mic off to someone else, looking for Rowan and not finding her. That meant she had already slipped away. Wo Fat picked up the pace, going around the make shift stage towards the shadows. She can't have made a break for the main exit he would have seen. She'd be smart about it. She'd stick to a back exit. She'd chance going back into the building to find another way out before trying to outrun him to get out the front door.

He looked for the closest door and found two. One that took her back into the building. Another that took her into a supply room. It didn't have another exit, unless she slipped through a window. He didn't know why, maybe it was because the door was open just a crack, but he decided to try the adjacent supply room. He got a vibe from it. One that told him that he needed to go into that room. That she was there.

And she was.

But she wasn't alone.

Wo Fat didn't know all of his cronies' by name. He barely knew who was working for him. He just bossed people around. So he didn't quite know who the man who had Rowan up against the wall was. He just knew that his hands were in the wrong place. One up her shirt, the other down her shorts, while she struggled with her own hands to get him away from her.

He could tell by her laboured breathing, the way it hitched and hung like she was about to cough that her singing had hurt her voice again, or this man had hit her in the throat to keep her from screaming.

It didn't matter what was happening. It didn't matter that she was trying to get away and this man worked for him. Wo Fat had the man by the shoulders immediately. He threw the man away from Rowan, and over a table, knocking guns, ammo and grenades everywhere. He vaulted over that same table, landing beside the man, stomping one foot into his stomach as he hit the ground. By the time he had pulled the man up to punch him properly Juan Carlos was in the room.

Wo Fat punched the man once, twice, six times all in the face. He split his knuckles on the man's teeth but he didn't stop hitting. Over and over, with the same hand as the other kept the man standing. He then threw him at Juan Carlos' feet.

"Take him to your uncle. Make him suffer," he ordered. Juan hauled the barely conscious man up and out of the building.

Wo Fat knelt in front of Rowan who was sobbing. She was curled up against the wall, she had wrapped her arms around her chest as if shielding herself from him. He could figure what was wrong with her, but he didn't know how to help her. He did the only thing he could. He peeled off his jacket and gave it to her. Watching her put her arms into it and wearing it front-ways instead of the right way round broke his heart. She shouldn't have felt the need to cover herself up, but after this he understood.

He opened his arms to her and she threw herself into them. He had gotten a great many hugs from her but this one was not the one he wanted that night. He wanted her to want to hug him, he didn't want a sobbing girl in need of consoling, she knew he had no idea how to do that.

"I'm going to take you back to your room. Can you handle that?" he asked. Rowan nodded and let him help her up and lead her out.

He walked her back to the room. An arm wrapped around her waist carefully. It was a soft arm. Meant to give her comfort and not to guide or anything else. He let her in to her room, let her sit on the bed and watched her wrap herself up into the blankets, leaving his jacket discarded on the floor. He wasn't even offended.

"Are you okay?" he asked her.

Rowan shuddered and pulled the blankets closer to herself. "Alright, not okay," he whispered. "Is there something I can do?"

"Can you just stay with me?" she asked. "We could watch a movie."

Wo Fat nodded. "I can most definitely do that," he said. He turned to the TV. "Which one do you want to watch?"

"Something happy," she whispered and he nodded. He looked over the DVDs and tried to remember which movie had made her happiest.

"The Little Mermaid, it is," he said picking up the DVD. He put it in, started the movie and then started up her snow-cone machine.

By the time the movie had started he had a cherry flavoured snow-cone ready for her which he put into her hands. She took it and he noted a soft tremor. She wasn't cold, that blanket would be keeping her warm, so that would be the shock.

He sat himself down beside her, being sure not to make contact with her. He wasn't sure if she could handle another male touching her right now. So he figured he'd stay beside her and offer her comfort when she needed it.

Wo Fat nodded. It was the least he could do. It was his fault she was here after all. He could have sent her home. He could have left her with McGarrett. He should have left her with McGarrett. When he had decided that he wanted to keep her, he had forgotten to factor in the lacking morals of the people he'd be working with. Tonight proved to him that if he wanted to keep someone like Rowan around a bunch of criminals he would always have to stay on guard. Or he could just cut his losses and let her go home.

He'd have to ransom her for something else though. As much as he sort of liked Doris he didn't really want her around him all that much.

"What are you going to do to that man?" Rowan asked in a low voice. "You told them to make him suffer."

"Nothing you need to worry about," Wo Fat replied. Because it was true. She didn't need to know about he had told Armando to do. "Are you feeling a bit better? You're still shaking."

"I can't help it."

"Did you want to take a shower?" he asked. "I heard that's a common desire."

"Well… I mean I need one. But I don't particularly want one right now," she replied. "He didn't really do much."

"He did enough," Wo Fat muttered trying to banish the image from his mind. Thinking about it only made him angrier and she didn't need that right now. "You don't need to trivialize it."

Rowan looked away from him. She didn't say anything for a long while before she turned her eyes back to him and whispered: "I know you're busy, but could you… could you maybe stay?"

"I already told you'd I'd stay Rowan," he reminded her.

"I mean all night," she explained.

Wo Fat thought about this. It made sense. She'd want to feel like she wasn't in danger. And no one was going to touch her if he was right beside her.

"Yes, Rowan, I'll stay all night," he replied and she smiled. A small shaky smile. But a smile none-the-less. He'd take that.

That night he fell asleep propped up against a wall. It did a number on his back, but with Rowan in his lap he couldn't have cared less.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

The man was bleeding from everywhere. His face was so swollen he couldn't see. His jaw fractured so he couldn't talk. His fingers had been broken one by one. A hammer was taken to his knees. And when that was done something was shoved deep into him like he had wanted to do to that stupid bitch.

When Wo Fat entered the room the man couldn't see him. He just heard him. Heard the fancy shoes clicking against the cement floor.

"When I brought her here, everyone was given the same warning," Wo Fat said to him. "No one touches Rowan."

If he could talk, he would have told Wo Fat that the whore was begging for it. The way she sang, those Spanish lyrics she sung with Juan Carlos, the way she dressed. She flirted with everyone. Smiling and touching their arms, asking how their days went. She was asking them to fuck her. And when things went south between her and Wo Fat he figured he'd do what everyone else was thinking.

Wo Fat was clearly over reacting.

There was the click of something metallic and then something cool touched his forehead.

"You'll never touch her again."

He didn't have time to be afraid. He didn't even hear the bang. He was dead before he could even register that a gun was against his forehead. The man slumped to the floor and Wo Fat slowly lowered his gun.

He didn't look to Armando who was standing to the side. He didn't even look at the body long. He merely pocketed his gun and turned away.

"Get rid of the body," he muttered.

"Is she okay?" Armando asked softly causing Wo Fat to pause at the door.

"Physically, yes," he replied. "I don't know about mentally yet."

And then he walked away.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

A week had gone by since Steve had last seen Rowan. A week since the rally race in the car. A week since he had run down that highway trying to catch a car. A week had gone by and he didn't so much think of her as he did dream of her. Every night was the same dream. She was falling through the void, a black expanse of white twinkle lights. Arms out stretched to him. A blank look on her face as the white hot of her eyes faded to a dull blue. Red strings cascading out of her chest tangling him up and pulling him down to her.

He always woke up when his arms wrapped around her.

But in that week. Without constantly thinking about her and worrying about her. With having Catherine all over him. He had sort of forgotten the intensity of their connection. The longing had been dulled into a soft throbbing that he could almost shrug aside. He stopped thinking about what kissing her would feel like. He stopped worrying about every tiny little thing. He barely fought with Catherine too. It was almost like they were falling back on track, worming her way back into the spot that Rowan's chaotic presence had taken up.

He was starting to forget why he thought he had thought he wanted Rowan in the first place.

"I came in second," Catherine announced walking into his office.

Steve turned confused. "What?" he asked.

She was wearing this cute little outfit. Fishnet stockings, black short shorts and white crop top. Her black hair was in these cute braided pigtails that sort of made him want to sweep her up and kiss her.

"I came in second," Catherine said. She sounded so proud but Steve didn't understand why.

"Second place doesn't put you on the team, Catherine, I need you to win. First place," he cried. True he was probably being insensitive but it was also true that he needed her on the team for his case. He thought he had made that clear.

Catherine scoffed at him. "Oh, come on. I mean, I don't even get an _A_ for effort?" she cried. "I mean, I was really good today, especially considering that I laced up for the first time today. You know, and you were totally right about the ice-skating. I don't know if it's like muscle memory or whatever but I'm like a natural when it comes to derby skating. I am really good."

All while she was talking Steve had been playing with the smart table. He needed a new strategy. He needed Catherine on the damn team.

"What's the name of the girl who beat you out?" he asked in a dangerous tone.

"Why? What are you gonna do?" she asked. Steve didn't answer he was already on the move. But Steve knew what he was going to do. He was going to find dirt on this other girl. Get her removed from the team so Catherine could play.

Yes. What a plan. This was a good plan.

"You know I bet if I were Rowan I would have gotten a _good job_ from you," Catherine called and Steve froze.

Just be evoking her name Catherine had called up all the emotions he had been burying inside himself. He suddenly remembered all the pain, all the agony and all the heat of desire. He turned back around and came to stand in front of her.

"Excuse me?" he snapped.

"You heard me. You were always so nice to your precious Rowan why can't you be just as nice to me?" she shot back.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Steve thundered. "How dare you?"

"How dare I?" Catherine echoed. She clearly didn't understand why Steve was so angry. And neither did he, for that matter.

"What the hell does Rowan have to do with any of this?" he cried.

"I've been really patient with you Steve, I have, but I just can't get behind your obsession with Rowan. I just can't," she told him. Steve blinked his eyes. He had been so much better, so much more attentive. How could she have found fault in the last week? Yes he had been distant and distracted before but he had thought he had gotten better.

"Yes. I get that Catherine. I get that. But why are you bringing this up now? She's not even _here_ ," he shouted his voice cracked when he got to the last word. He couldn't help it. Rowan being forcibly held away from him, hurt him more than she would ever understand, no matter how hard he tried to ignore the feeling.

"Because she might as well be. Rowan's like this ghost that follows you around. If she's not with you, she's in your house, or on your mind. You're either texting her, or tracing her phone, or chasing her into some dangerous situation. And yeah, she doesn't do it on purpose but it seems like every other week you have to save her from something and I get shoved to the side and forgotten," Catherine explained. "It was hard enough competing with her when she was here, it's worse now that's she not."

"I have told you, over and over and over and over. I am not interested in Rowan. LET IT GO!" Steve cried.

"No!"

"Why not?"

"Because I think you're lying to me. I think you're lying to yourself. You like her Steve. You have feelings for her. Just admit it!" Catherine shouted.

"FINE!" Steve shouted back. "I MIGHT HAVE FEELINGS FOR ROWAN!"

Catherine clearly wasn't expecting that and neither was Steve. He took a step away and blinked his eyes. He mentally went over the words that had just erupted out of his mouth. It wasn't until he said it out loud that he realized it was true. Except _might_ was not how he'd describe it. He definitely had feeling for Rowan.

"You're right. I would have congratulated Rowan for getting second place. But I also wouldn't have put her anywhere near that derby. For starters, she's too fragile, she'd take one hit and get an instant concussion. Secondly I know nothing about her. I don't even know if she knows how to skate," he said, his voice shaking with the realization. He was falling for a girl he didn't know. A girl who kept as many secrets as his mother. "You're right. Everyone's right. I'm fixated on Rowan. I'm obsessed with her. I hate her boyfriend. I go out of my way to spend as much time with her. I go out of my way to make it hard for her to date her boyfriend. I go out of my way to do things that I should be doing for you."

Catherine was scowling. Her lips trembling. She was about to cry. Or yell at him. Steve deserved that. He deserved her anger.

"But Catherine. You've been taking it out on Rowan and it's not her fault. Rowan stays with me because she has nowhere else to go. Rowan puts up with me for the same reason. She sticks around me because I'm the only one who comes to her rescue. I'm the only one she has. I've given her no other options. I chase everyone else away," he told her. "So be mad at me. Okay? But can you be mad at me after we get her back from Wo Fat?"

"I want her out of your house," Catherine growled. "As soon as you get her back. You get one weekend to smooth things out and then move her into Danny's or Chin's if you don't want her at Alex's. But if we're staying together, she has to leave."

Steve nodded. It was fair demand. It was. But now he wasn't sure if he wanted to stay with Catherine. Because once he got Rowan back, he wasn't going to let her go ever again.

* * *

 **Alright guys, here are some plot points for those who need some help picking which story they'd like me to write.**

 **1\. Rowan and Marry the last time she was in Hawaii (the episode where she met her mom)**

 **2\. Steve telling Alex that he's okay to date Rowan (from the Halloween episode)**

 **3\. A Christmas fic, with Steve, Rowan, the rest of the Five-0's, Wo Fat and Doris!**

 **4\. Rowan's last day in her world before falling into the Five-0 world.**

 **5\. How Rowan got so good at driving.**

 **If you need a recap of the submission rules, they're at the bottom of Chapter 34**


	36. Chapter 36

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: What?! An early update? Oh but it's so much more than that. I finished NaNoWriMo a whole day early, and since I spent most of my time working on this Fanfiction, and because I love you guys so much I've decided to give you guys a surprise. I'm not gonna up date three times, or four BUT SEVEN! That's right, I am going to update every day this week starting today. I really want to get that surprise plot twist that's coming up in like... one chapter. :D Don't forget to put in those Christmas submissions, 48 more and we get a winner! If you need a recap of the rules go to the bottom of chapter 34. Don't forget, Guest reviewers, to use the same nickname so I know it's you and if you change your mind on your story option, just tell me which one you like better. I hope you guys enjoy this and I'll see you guys again tomorrow!_

 _Dear JP: I love reading your reviews. I see that you're a bit confused about her family, so I'm gonna try to iron out the confusion. So if you remember back in chapter 18, Rowan and Doris went to the Iolani Palace to look up Rowan's family. And she found out that her family existed in this story line, but her parents were divorced and she was still born? Well the Trevor we're reading about now, is the Trevor from the Five-0 story line. Essentially, he watched his family fall apart after his sister died and he thought if he could pull her through the void back to them he'd fix his family. So the experiment he performed with his father, is what brought her to this world and started this story, and now he's in Hawaii with his father looking for her, but he doesn't know if he actually pulled her through or survived. I hope that answers any questions you have. And P.S. I am female._

Chapter 36

* * *

That sexual assault had worked wonders on Rowan's attitude. Not that he was glad it happened. At no point should it have happened. If he could go back in time and stop it from happening he would without a second thought. But the fact that it fixed everything between them almost instantly had been a definite plus.

Once she stopped cringing at every movement nd wearing sweatpants and sweatshirts in the sweltering Hawaiian heat, he and Rowan became besties. Maybe it was because he lived in her room for five days. Maybe it was because Juan Carlos, Armando and him had rallied around her like a pride of lioness protecting her one cub. Either way, it seemed to have fixed her fear and helped her get back on her feet in record time.

One downside was that her annoyingness had doubled. If he had to guess this was exactly like having a little sister was like. This view of Rowan had warped and created an attachment, had created feelings he wasn't familiar with but it explained what was happening to him. It explained why he was protective of her. Why he wanted her to stay. Why he looked forward to taking her places or giving her things to see her smile.

Realizing it had made things easier for him. No point in fighting it or trying to keep her at arm's length. He embraced the feelings and gave her back all that she gave him. Which meant there was a lot of rough housing, tickling, tackling, noogie-ing, teasing and laughing. He had more fun in that last three days with her than he had in his whole life.

One of the things she loved to do, to piss him off, was to sing songs with Juan Carlos. He hated the Spanish songs the most. It was odd that Rowan didn't know how to speak Spanish but could sing it fluently. What bugged him was the lyrics, they were always provocative and Juan Carlos seemed to make them worse and worse just to upset him. The fact that they were a tag team a lot of the time was not appreciated.

Today's song was different from the last one and while Rowan seemed to know the lyrics already Juan seemed more interested in teaching her the dance, which was more than a little suggestive.

 _Despacito, quiero respirar tu cuello despacito, deja que te diga cosas al oído, para que te acuerdes si no estás conmigo._

Wo Fat stopped overseeing the shipment of gun that had just come in and turned to where Rowan and Juan Carlos were twirling back and forth. He turned his dry glare to Armando who was purposely avoiding his gaze.

"What did she just sing?" he asked him.

"Do you want to know?" Armando asked not even looking up from the shipment they were inventorying. "I mean really?"

"Is it bad?" he asked as they continued singing the song, in perfect Spanish.

"Ride me slowly. I want to breathe in your neck… slowly. Let me murmur things in your ear. So that you remember if you're not with me," Armando quoted and Wo Fat frowned.

"Nope," he said throwing the gun down and walking towards Rowan. "That needs to stop. Right now."

He caught Rowan's wrist mid twirl and tugged her out of Juan's grip. The tug caused her tumbled and as per usual he dropped her into a tang dip which caused her to break out in melodious tinkling laughter.

"Aw come on!" Rowan cried. "I need to practice the new song."

"Do you even know what you're singing?" he asked.

"Nope, not a clue," she said with a bright smile. There was no point in telling her how stupid that was, she was doing this to annoy him. It was best to just smile back at her because then she got bored and moved on to a different way to annoy him.

"Can you just sit still and not sing for like, two seconds while I finish this?" he asked.

"For two seconds? Sure," she said. He knew from past experience that she'd count to two and then start up again so he'd have to clarify. He fell for that more times then he'd care to admit, but he wouldn't be doing it again.

"Okay, maybe not two seconds. More like two minutes. Can you handle that?" he asked.

"Well… I don't know…"

"We'll go straight back to your room for movie time, your choice, okay?" he bargained.

"Alright, you've twisted my arm," she said with a cheeky grin and he let her stand back up.

She sat patiently beside Juan Carlos, who continued to sing and dance by himself, until Wo Fat was done. He had long since stopped allowing her to help him with inventories after the infamous, nearly-shot-Juan-Carlos-in-the-foot incident. He knew she wanted to be helpful but she was too much of a walking disaster to be trusted with automatic weapons.

As soon as he turned his attention back to her, she jumped up to her feet and bounced towards him.

"I wanna watch The Swan Princess," she told him and he playfully rolled his eyes. She would have already decided which movie she wanted to torture him with.

"Of course, you do," he snapped to her.

She nudged his side with his elbow. Dangerously close to the dreaded zone. The zone she recently established was ticklish. Who'd have thought that Wo Fat had a ticklish spot? He certainly didn't, but, then again, he hadn't had anyone in his life that determined to find a ticklish spot on him before.

"Don't whine. I picked a better one," she said and that was true. He liked the songs in this one but he didn't like the heroine. She was essentially useless. Dying because her prince got mixed up and confessed his love to the wrong girl.

God he hoped Rowan didn't do something as stupid as that. Especially since the man she was in love with loved someone else. Maybe he could just assassinate Catherine. No, that wouldn't fix things, Steve would just pine for her. No, Rowan needed to find someone else. Just not Juan Carlos. Problem was, Wo Fat didn't know any eligible men that were good enough for her, or weren't corrupt in some way.

They got back to her room and immediately put the DVD on. While the trailers played he popped popcorn and she made snow-cones. She pressed play only when they were cuddled up, she under her blanket and he on top of it because he was too hot for a blanket. She didn't start the rough housing until the snow-cones were done and the popcorn was discarded on the side table.

It started with the singing. He hated when she sung a long with the movies. Why did she always have to sing? He was there to watch the movie not listen to live musical theater with solos by Rowan Pierce, no matter how amazing they were.

He knew now that there was a spot on her neck right where the skull and spine connected that, if he just hovered her fingers over, would cause her to collapse and go silent. So he often did that, sometimes just to watch her fold into herself and become completely helpless for a couple of seconds. Of course, when he did that she'd have to retaliate.

Because hovering her fingers over his tickle zone had a similar effect on him. Except he'd yelp as the tingling affect moved up his ribcage and would end up in a C shape trying to avoid it. This always led to her jumping on top of him with a pillow as if she were trying to smother him.

And then they would wrestle. Since her attack he had been teaching her self defense while they played. She knew how to get someone off of her if they had her up against a wall and if they were pinning her down to the floor. She knew how to twist her arm out of someone's grasp and where to hit to cause the most amount of damage so she could run away, though she already knew about punching someone's throat was a good idea. He taught her how to do it so it would kill a guy.

It was a gamble, teaching her moves that could get her away from him, but he'd rather she knew in case he wasn't there to stop the next attack. Not that he expected there to be another attack. After what happened to the last offender he was sure his lackeys were absolutely terrified to even look at her.

His back was to the door when it opened. He was readying himself to receive another pillow as it was thrown at him. It didn't occur to him to be worried until the door shut and he had heard nothing but the soft metallic click of a gun loading. Only then did the hairs on the back of his neck raise up.

He turned immediately gun drawn ready to fire but he didn't pull the trigger.

Doris was standing in front of him. Her own gun drawn. Already he could feel his grip shaking. He didn't want to shoot the only mother figure he ever had.

"Doris!" Rowan cried and then went to rush past him. It took one arm to grab her and pull her back. He didn't trust Doris to not accidentally shoot Rowan. And he sure as hell wasn't going to let Doris take her away now.

"What are you doing here?" Wo Fat asked. The silent "And how far behind is Steve?" was implied. Rowan certainly didn't need to ask it but she did anyway.

"Where's Steve?"

Doris looked at her and then back to Wo Fat. "What were you two doing?" she asked.

"Playing," Rowan answered just as Wo Fat said: "Nothing."

Doris looked at them as if they were a pair of two headed aliens and Wo Fat did his best to look imposing even though he knew his shirt was out of place from all the rough housing and his hair was messed up from all the failed attempts to braid his hair. It was not long enough, she knew this, and yet she always ended up pulling his head into her lap so she could try. He went with it because he liked the feeling of her fingers in his hair, it calmed him. Like a really weird scalp massage.

"Seriously, where's Steve?" Rowan asked trying to move in front of him again. Wo Fat side stepped to keep her behind him and therefore still shielded. If Doris asked he'd say it was because he was keeping his prisoner under his control, and not because he wanted to protect her.

"He's not here," she said and then lowered her gun. She then carefully looked back to Wo Fat. "You two were… playing?"

"I wouldn't call it playing," Wo Fat snarled.

"True, we rough house," Rowan said. "But he always lets me win."

Wo Fat winced. Never mind that it was true, did she have to tell Doris that? The woman who had raised him was now staring at them thoughtfully. Her cogs were turning he could see it.

"Can I go home now?" Rowan asked. "I mean, she's here right, that means we're doing the trade? So Doris stays and I go home? Or is she just gonna take me?"

"No!" Wo Fat snapped. "I already told you no. You're not going back."

"So, you _are_ trying to keep her?" Doris asked him. "And not just to hurt Steve I presume?"

"It's none of your business," Wo Fat snapped his own gun coming up just as Doris' did.

Rowan merely had to touch a finger to his side and crumpled into that C shape and she got around him. She bounced up to Doris even though he groaned her name in indignation.

"Oh. calm yourself, she's not going to shoot me and neither are you!" she snapped. "You're here to take me home, right?"

Doris looked from Rowan to Wo Fat and then back to Rowan. "Can I talk to him for a bit?"

"We'll you're in my prison cell… and I'm not allowed to leave… so…," Rowan said dryly.

Doris turned to Wo Fat. "Outside. Now."

He followed glumly like a kid who had just been chastised. The door to her cell slammed shut and when Doris turned she grabbed his chin and looked him straight in the eye. It took a few minutes to get over how stunned he was by that motion and then he went about slapping her hands away.

"What the hell are you doing?" he cried.

"You're different," she said. "You're softer. Less… cruel. She's been a good influence on you."

"What the fuck are you talking about?" he snapped even though he knew it was true. He had just been hoping that it wasn't obvious.

"I'm not going to lie, I was very surprised when you decided to keep her. It's not like you to do something like that, not unless you think she could be of some greater purpose. But you take care of her. You spend time with her. She got away with tickling you and you didn't even hit her for it," Doris explained. "You seem… happier."

He was happier. But things like that were dangerous in his line of work. Weaknesses could be exploited. And he didn't want that to happen to Rowan.

"No. I'm keeping her because it upsets your son. Because it keeps him away from me. Keeps him at bay while I work," he argued. "That's why she's staying with me. That's why you're not taking her."

"And what if I tell Steve where she is?" Doris asked. Wo Fat went for the gun again.

He glared her down. "Then we have a problem," he snapped. Because there was no way in hell he was letting Rowan leave.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

When Doris came back into her cell, Rowan pounced on her.

"Are you taking me home?" she asked. But the door slammed shut behind her and dread sunk into her stomach.

"How are you doing here?" Doris asked instead avoiding her eyes.

Rowan narrowed her eyes at the older woman. "I'm a prisoner."

Doris looked around at her lavish cell and Rowan tried not to groan. "Looks like you have a lot of comforts here," she said.

"Yes, all the comforts except freedom," she growled. "You know… one of my constitutional rights."

Doris sighed. "Look. I'm not taking you out with me," she said.

"Why the hell not?!" Rowan thundered which just won her an exasperated look from Doris.

"Because. You make him happy," she replied.

Rowan just stared at her. _He_? Did she mean Wo Fat? Doris was going to leave her with a convicted criminal because she made him happy? What the actual fuck?

"You're a good influence on him. He seems almost human," she said.

Rowan shook her head. "Doris. Stop it. I am not going to make him right in the head," she growled. "It just doesn't work like that. Yes, so far he seems to like me but that can change. He could go back to his regular sociopathic self any day and when I'm not longer useful or a producer of joy. He'll get rid of me, Doris. By _death_."

Doris glared at her. She showed no signs of relenting. No signs of seeing reason and Rowan was starting to panic. "Please don't leave me here Doris," she pleaded. "Don't keep picking Wo Fat over your real son!"

"Oh, but Steve couldn't care less about you," Doris said so flippantly that it knocked Rowan back a bit. "I mean don't get me wrong, he's worried and he wants to get you back, but he's busy. He has cases that are more important and Catherine filling your place. It may sound cruel to say it so bluntly like that but I think it's time you let go of your delusions. You mean nothing to Steve. You're just an inconvenient roommate."

It was almost word for word the same argument Wo Fat had used before. They couldn't have had the same argument? Right? Or maybe… maybe it was true. She was his mother, she would know more about Steve then Wo did, but she also tended to side with Wo Fat all the time, so maybe that was what she was really doing? But then again, Steve was supposed to end up with Catherine at the end of this series. Maybe with her gone things were sliding back into place.

"It'll be alright," Doris said to her. "I wouldn't be leaving you here if I thought you weren't safe."

Rowan went back to her cot and sat back down. She pulled the blankets around her and tried not to glare at Doris. "Yeah, whatever makes you feel better," she growled.

There was no point in arguing. Nothing left to say. She was stuck here. And that was that. But she knew one thing for certain. When she got out of here, if she got out of here alive, she was going to tell Steve his mother left her there. And if she didn't get out alive… well… she'd just haunt Doris till the day she died.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan cried for four hours straight after Doris left before eventually crying herself to sleep. Wo Fat felt bad. But it was a necessity. What Rowan didn't know was the deal he had struck. Doris would stay quiet about Rowan's where-a-bouts for 72 hours. 3 days. That's all he'd get. If she still wanted to go back to Steve by the end of those three days he'd hand her over. No arguments. No trade. Just hand her on back.

If she didn't appear, Doris would tell Steve where Rowan was.

Wo Fat just had to make sure that he got Rowan to want to stay. But he wasn't sure how to do that. He couldn't give her too much freedom as it would lead to her trying to escape. But he couldn't just keep her here in her room either.

So the following morning he made her pancakes and then showed her all the things he wanted to do with her.

Aquariums. Drive ins. Museums. Events. Hikes. Tours. She just had to pick what she wanted to do and he'd do it with her. He'd start with Hawaii and then if things got better he'd show her other places, hell he'd take her on a round the world trip if that was what she wanted. If that was what he had to do to make her stay with him.

Rowan had looked over all her options carefully before pointing out what she wanted to do. She wanted to go to the museum and then for a nice lunch before ending the night at the roller derby. Diamond Dolls vs. the South Shore Sirens. He had been surprised but if that was what she wanted to do then that was what they were going to do.

The museum was everything he thought it would be. Rowan wanted to go on the tours. She took pictures with artifacts with funny poses and then made him do the same. He had never taken pictures of anything that couldn't be used as blackmail before so it felt odd doing it, but he did it for her. The posing for pictures thing was another uncomfortable moment. He even put up with selfies. Because for those brief few moments he felt like a regular person having regular fun with their sibling or friend.

Lunch was his treat at a restaurant she loved. Rainbow's. She frequented it with Steve, but luckily, he wasn't there that day. Otherwise there would have been problems. Also, they didn't frequent it enough together for the servers to recognize her and call Steve. Another added bonus.

When their burgers were eaten and Rowan had stolen most of his fries the two headed to their final destination of the day. The Pacific Roller Derby Championship.

The gym it was held in had bleachers, he and Rowan had snuck in alcoholic snow-cones, and he had bought her popcorn and gummy bears from the concession stand. They had been enjoying themselves. Or at least he thought they were. Rowan was quiet but she was smiling. She was distant but he figured that was just the shock of being abandoned by the person who was supposed to rescue her.

So, imagine his surprise when he saw Steve walk in. He didn't know how she did it. He didn't know how she knew. But then, she had done that thing when she saw the ad for the Roller Derby. Her eyes had gone blank, and for a few moments she didn't respond. But she had brushed it off and he assumed that she was having another absent seizure. But there was Steve walking in with Danny, gun half concealed but still in his hand.

He wasn't here for her, Wo Fat realized, he was heading to a back door instead. Steve was here for something else. Wo Fat grabbed Rowan's arm before she could bolt.

"We need to leave now," he hissed to her as he made her stand and dragged her away.

Both Danny and Steve were so distracted that they hadn't noticed them and he needed to get her out of that building before they did. She was oddly complacent. She let him get her down the bleachers and to the floor they had just gotten out the door when she suddenly stopped in her tracks.

"No," she said to him. "I like you. I like spending time with you. I do. But I want to go home."

He opened his mouth to tell her that wasn't a possibility but she surprised him by twisting her arm out of his grip like he had taught her to do and then punching him in the throat. As he coughed and wheezed he watched Rowan falter. She seemed almost upset, worried for him. He heard her whisper of _sorry_ and he almost believed her.

And then she ran right back into the gym.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan spotted Danny and raced towards him calling his name. He turned when he heard her and the surprise lit up his features.

God, she missed him. She had missed all of them. She launched herself at Danny, hugging him tightly, laughing giddily, tears coming to her eyes when he hugged her back. Fuck if this was how she was going to react when she reunited with Danny how bad would it be when she found Steve?

"Fucking hell," Danny swore into her hair. "Rowan. My god, Rowan!"

Rowan pulled away and glanced over her shoulder. The door hadn't opened yet, had it? Had he turned tail and gone home? Maybe she should have told him that she wouldn't tell Steve where the main base was. That she'd make up some clever lie and take the secret to her grave.

"We need to get me out of here," she said. "Where's Steve?"

"He's gone to find Catherine," he told her. Rowan nodded, yes, she knew that. Knew about the case and that Steve was going to save Catherine even though she didn't need him to.

"They're in the back, but we need to go now," she told him trying to push him towards the door.

"How did you get away?" Danny asked.

She opened her mouth to tell him that she hadn't quite gotten away yet, that Wo Fat might still be around. But she didn't get to tell him. Someone erupted from the shadows and conked poor Danny over the head. He went down as Rowan screamed his name. She tried to catch him as he fell, she tried to help him but Wo Fat had already gotten a hold of her and slung her over his shoulder.

She pounded her fists against his back but they did nothing to deter him. So, Rowan did the only thing she could think to do. She screamed the name of the one person who never failed to save her before. As loudly as she possibly could.


	37. Chapter 37

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Are you guys liking the update marathon? I know it's only day two, but I'm so excited! This is it! The plot twist I am so excited for! I hope you guys aren't too mad at me after this. But I can't help it, I'm the Queen of ANGST! And JP, yes, Rowan does remember time spent with her brother, but that's a different version of her brother. Remember, the one from the alternate timeline she left behind. The brother that's in Hawaii right now, is the Hawaii-Five-0 version of her brother. Hope that clears things up. See you guys again tomorrow!_

Chapter 37

* * *

Steve found Catherine in the back office standing over their bad guy. Gun in hand. Situation handled. One of the Derby girls had been tied to a chair and as soon as he got there he crossed to the man who was bleeding on the floor, having been shot in the leg by Catherine, and cuffed him. Once the man was on the floor and rendered useless Steve went to the other side of the captive girl to help Catherine untie her.

"You okay?" he asked. He was a little breathless, having the panic drain from him slowly.

"Yeah," she replied and the two shared a soft smile. All he wanted to do was hug her. Because it had scared him to think that he had put Catherine into trouble. At least Catherine had a gun. At least Catherine could take care of herself.

 _Steve!_

Steve knew that voice. He knew it. And just like that all concern for Catherine, all that happiness that she was okay drained out of him and was replaced with a glaringly empty need. All that pain of losing Rowan, it had come back, multiplied by ten. The anger returned full force, along with that lethal drive to find her. It was like everything else became silent and all that mattered was getting to her.

Rowan was here.

He rushed away from Catherine without saying a single word. He rushed back into the disorder or the roller derby. To Danny lying prone on the floor a hand in his hair. To Rowan being carted out by Wo Fat, for who else could it be.

"STOP!" Steve shouted, his gun coming up. Wo Fat answered not with words but by turning and firing into the crowd. Steve dove to the floor, not daring to shoot when Wo Fat was using Rowan as a shield and chaos erupted around him. People were screaming and pushing each other to get out. When the shots stopped Steve forced himself to his feet. No. Wo Fat was not getting away this time. He just wasn't.

He went to Danny and helped him up, checked his head over. Light bleeding, but he wasn't so much in pain as he was angry.

"I had her Steve," he growled as they both headed to the door, guns drawn. "She was fucking in my arms and that asshole got the drop on me."

"It's okay," Steve kept saying. Because it was. He was just glad that Danny hadn't been shot. But when Danny tossed him the keys he was surprised. After the car incident Danny had sworn he'd never let Steve drive again.

"I have a head injury and Wo Fat has a crazy lead on us," Danny told him as he crossed to the passenger side. "But if you crash the Camaro again I'll kill you. You understand? With my own two hands."

Steve's smile lit up his face. Yes. Today was the day. He was finally going to get Rowan back.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Wo Fat threw Rowan into the car. And she didn't struggle. He called Armando on the way and at no point did she try to argue or interject.

"Send the cruiser to the pier, and tell them that we'll need to be taken the freighter. We need immediate transport to Japan. But I need you to stay back and pack everything up. I'll need you to be on the next freighter out," he had ordered.

Still Rowan didn't struggle. She said nothing. She just stared at him. He found that he couldn't look in her eyes, he knew what she was thinking. He knew she was going to try and beg him to let her go. He needed to be strong, he needed to convince her to stay.

"There are lots of things to do in Japan," he told her before she could say anything to him. "Lots of places for you to visit. It'll be safer for you too. I'd be more susceptible to letting you and Juan Carlos explore while I'm working."

Rowan was quiet for a little bit before whispering: "How's your throat?"

He glanced to her. That's all she had to say? She wasn't going to beg him to stay? To let her go back to Steve?

"It's alright…" he replied. "Good shot, good thing you missed."

"I didn't miss. I wasn't trying to kill you," she whispered.

He couldn't help but shoot her a soft smile. He couldn't hold back his proud chuckles either. "I taught you well," he said.

When he glanced back at her big bright tears were welling up in her eyes. "Please don't make me go."

Behind him he heard the wail of a siren and saw that familiar silver Camaro creep up on the horizon. Fucking Steve. Rowan immediately perked up and he almost swore at her.

"Look. I get it. Okay, but do you think you could just try?" he asked. "Just for like a month? And if you still want to go back, if you still miss Steve, I'll send you home. Okay?"

Rowan blinked her eyes at him. "Do you mean that or are you just saying that?" she asked him.

"Yes, I mean it," Wo Fat growled. Even though he was banking on her wanting to stay and then not letting her leave even if she wanted to go back. "I know this is going to sound ridiculous but I like having you around. Alright? Because I see you in me. I see the me I was when I was young and I needed someone to help me. You're all alone and you need guidance and that's what I'm here for."

"So you want to mentor me?" she asked.

"No. I want to be what I needed when I was like you. Someone to count on," he explained. "And don't you fucking tell me you can count on Steve that man has picked cases and Catherine over you time and time again.

"Alright. Say I agree to go with you. Do I have to do illegal things?" she asked.

"Hell no. I'd keep you separate from that," he said immediately. He almost added: _And you can't be trusted._ Especially after the Juan Carlos incident. He'd never trust her around a gun ever again.

"Would you let me call Steve and explain so he doesn't worry?" she asked.

"From an untraceable phone, sure," he replied, even he noted that he sounded a bit unsure. But Rowan didn't seem to notice, she was too busy mulling it all over.

"I guess that's a pretty sweet deal," she replied. "But if you break your promise I swear I'll be so annoying you have no choice but to give me back."

Wo Fat found himself laughing. Yes. Yes! She had agreed. Sure she had some hard demands to fill but she had agreed. He couldn't stop smiling. A proper giant grin. He couldn't believe it. He couldn't believe he had finally won. Fuck, why hadn't he tried that before? He couldn't wait for this trip. He was going to take so many pictures to taunt Steve with.

Rowan laughed at him. "Wow, what's that smile? I didn't even know you had that many teeth!" she cried and the two of them laughed. Until he had to dedicate his attention to the road so he could try and out run McGarrett.

With carefully evading Wo Fat managed to lose Steve briefly, just long enough to get them to the pier and out of the car. He hated to do it but he had to abandon the Audi. But he didn't have to worry about Rowan not following him because he had a hold of her hand. She ran after him as the sirens filled the air revealing that Steve had called in the cavalry. But Rowan didn't run as fast as he did, even though he was holding her hand and tugging her along. She wasn't trying to hold him up, she wasn't fighting him, she just wasn't as fast.

He tugged her down a maze of shipping containers hoping to dodge Steve and the Five-0's that were running around them braying her name. He was trying to get to the right pier, the right place to get them on that boat that would take them to Japan. It wasn't going to be a comfortable journey but it was a necessity.

Rowan was flagging. They came to a stop by the water's edge. But it was the wrong pier. He thought he could find a smaller boat, use that one to get to the one other one. Wo Fat could hear them from all sides. Rowan had slowed him down, he wouldn't get to the boat in time for them both to get away. He could easily have left her behind. He could have. But he didn't want to. He didn't want to let Steve win. He didn't want to hand her back to a man he was certain didn't appreciate her the right way.

 _Rowan!_

His voice followed them. Searching for her. Repeating her name the way a dog howled when he caught scent of his quarry. Why was McGarrett so fucking obsessed with her? Why couldn't he just let her go?

Rowan let out a single whisper, of Steve's name. She wanted to go back to him. But why was he surprised? She had wanted to go back to Steve since Wo Fat had taken her. She wanted to return to a man who didn't want her, she claimed. Wanted to be with a man who had already chosen someone else. Who was he to deny her? If he wasn't so selfish he might have actually done as she asked. But she had just agreed to go with him. She had just said she was fine with their arrangement. It stung to have her so desperate to return to Steve who couldn't and wouldn't give her any of what she wanted. When he was willing to give her anything. But still he couldn't bring himself to leave her. He had dithered too long and now he was cornered. Brought down by his own selfishness.

Now they were both screwed.

She turned to him, gnawing on her pink lips. He hated it when she did that. "You could still get out of here," she told him. And that stung too, because she was offering to not go with him. They both knew that they wouldn't both get away, that he wouldn't get away from Steve with Rowan with him but this move was far from selfless.

"I can distract him," she continued. And a light bulb when off in his head. She really could be a distraction.

It was a gamble. He couldn't be certain it would work. But it might. It just might. If Rowan was wrong and Wo Fat was right about how deep those feelings of Steve's ran. But he didn't know if he could do it. Not when she had opened him up to the onslaught of emotions like guilt.

"Give it up Wo Fat, we have you surrounded! Surrender the girl and we'll go easy on you!" Steve's voice called out to them. He saw the urge for her to scream for him on her face, she hadn't yet as he still had a gun and she still didn't trust him.

"I can draw him away from you, give him wrong intel," she whispered to him. "But you have to go now."

He nodded but made no move to run. Rowan didn't notice. She had a smile on her face that Wo Fat had never seen before. "Steve over here!" she cried. Wo Fat could almost feel the shift. The charge in the atmosphere, the second Steve knew where she was, it was like the air around them went electric.

He came into view and Wo Fat raised his gun. He clocked the panicked look on Steve's face. But he was too far to get a good shot on Wo Fat without risking hitting Rowan. Too far away to get Rowan out of the way.

A scream erupted from Steve's lips. A primal mix of Rowan's name and the word _No_! For a moment, Steve actually froze. For the first time, Wo Fat was certain he was seeing Steve in a state of true fear and panic. He knew then. He knew then he was right.

Rowan seemed to realize that something was wrong, and slowly she turned around. Those big blue eyes he had gotten accustomed to staring back at him and the gun with disbelief. "What are you doing?" she asked him. Her voice warbling and cracking. She took a step back but there was nowhere to go.

"I'm sorry," he whispered. In that split second before he did it she turned to Steve who was in a dead sprint heading for them. She got out a half whisper of his name.

And then he pulled the trigger.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

The howl ripped out of him and echoed through the night. All he saw was Rowan. The way her body crumpled when the bullet hit her dead center mass. The way her eyes stayed on him as the force of the gunshot blew her back. The way she dropped into the water and disappeared under the black surface.

He threw his gun to the side. Ripped the bullet proof vest off of his chest. Ignored Wo Fat who was retreating, disappearing into the shadows. And dove straight into the water after her.

It was like the void dream all over again. She was sinking. Her hands outstretched as if reaching for him. Bubbles escaped her lips. Her eyes were blank and empty. Blood streamed out of her like red strings as he swam down to get her.

He pulled her to him. Pulled her back to the surface. But he wasn't greeted with coughing. He couldn't feel her chest moving. She wasn't breathing. Steve was pulling her to the side. He'd need help. God why had he gone on without Danny and Chin and Kono? Why had he left them behind?

 _Help me!_

His scream sounded foreign to him. Like it was a completely different person. Luckily he was answered.

"Give me her arm," Danny ordered leaning over the side of the pier to grab her. Steve hoisted her up and Danny got an arm under hers and wrapped around her chest. Chin had arrived on the scene as well and grabbed her other side.

They got Rowan out of the water as Steve scrambled out after them.

"Boss, Wo Fat got away," Kono said coming to stand over him. He barely heard her all he could focus on was Rowan.

"She's not breathing," Chin told him. "Pulse is weak. Shot got her right under the collar bone, through and through. She's losing a lot of blood."

Steve was kneeling over her immediately. "Danny, call 911, Kono go flag them down, Chin plug up that hole in her," he ordered. He looked into Rowan's glassy blank blue eyes. "And don't you fucking die on me."

He moved in immediately, his mouth sealing over hers as he breathed into her. Her chest rose half way, he pulled back took a deep breath and breathed into her again. Once she had air in her lungs he began to compress.

Danny was on the phone to 911, an ambulance on the way. When he was done giving them information he joined Chin in the efforts to keep her from bleeding out. The operator still on the phone that he had put down between he and Chin.

"Don't do this, Ro," he said between compressions. "You can't die on me."

He breathed into her again. Once. Twice. Her chest inflating. Her eyes still glassy. "No. Ro. No!" he cried, starting to get more and more frantic. He continued his compressions. Pressing as hard as he could, feeling her ribs crack under the pressure he had to put on her.

Still, she didn't breathe.

"Her heartbeat's getting weaker," Danny told him or maybe the operator who was still on the phone. At this rate her heart was going to stop all together.

The sirens broke through the silence. The flashing red lights shattered the darkness of the night sky.

"We're here!" Kono was crying, waving her arms over her head.

"Wake up, Rowan," Steve begged her, he didn't care if his voice cracked or shook this time. He breathed into her again. Once. Twice. A third time, a kiss. "Please, don't do this to me. Don't leave me."

Chin took over compressions while Steve hovered over Rowan's face. His hands shakingly caressing her cheeks. His hands painted with her blood leaving red droplets of it to roll down her wet face. "Please," he kept whispering to her.

 _Please._

The paramedics arrived. They brushed the worried boys away like flies. One checked on Rowan and her stats. They flashed a light in her eyes. No reaction. They asked if she could hear them. She couldn't. They checked her pulse.

 _She has none._

They might as well have taken a knife and stabbed him in the chest. This. Could. Not. Be. Happening.

"We've got a GSW to the shoulder, Code 99. We're going to need to intubate," one of them said into the walkie. "Get a trauma team ready to take her into triage."

Steve paced the length of Rowan's body. He watched them shove a tube down her mouth, attached to a pump that made her lungs take in oxygen. He watched them get her onto a stretcher. He could have done that. He could have gotten them to the hospital by now. He went to follow the gurney. He went to get into the back. But he was stopped.

"Sorry, family only," a paramedic told him.

He had no intention of letting Rowan out of his sight. "I'm Lieutenant Commander Steven McGarrett of Five-0, I'm going with her."

"If you're not family, you're not going with her," the paramedic repeated and he snapped.

"I'm her goddamn boyfriend now get out of my way," he shouted, a lie, a necessary lie, but a lie that he felt was truth. His hand going for his empty holster. If he had his gun it would have been in their faces by now. But he had left it somewhere. He couldn't remember where and he didn't care. He just knew he needed to go with her.

The paramedic had the good sense to step aside. And Steve got in. His eyes stay on her. That pale ashen almost blue face. His heart ruptured in his chest. A flood of emotion he didn't want to deal with took over him. He took her hand. Her cold clammy hand and held onto her for dear life. He pressed a kiss to her knuckles trying to remind her what his warmth felt like, so she could return to him.

There was no reaction. Not a single flutter of her lashes, not a tinge of red in her cheeks, not a beat of her heart under his fingertips. And the floodgates opened. The last his team saw of him, he was sitting by her side. Her hand in his larger ones, his lips on her knuckles, with tears streaming down his face.

And then the door shut.


	38. Chapter 38

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Oh it's a good thing I chose to do a marathon of chapters. Could you imaging if you had to wait until Friday or even next week to find out what happens? You guys only had to wait A DAY! Okay, don't forget to tell me all about those one shots you want if you get the 300th review. Only 38 more to go! I hope you enjoy this chapter, it's not gonna be exactly what you want, but I hope you guys still enjoy it. See you guys tomorrow!_

Chapter 38

* * *

Rowan was in surgery for 16 hours. 16 hours of Steve sitting in the waiting room letting tears slip out of his eyes because he was too tired to function and too tired to hold them back. 16 hours of Danny sitting beside him until he needed to go get Grace and then it was Danny and Grace. 16 hours of Kono and Chin hovering, wandering, but staying nearby in case there was news. 16 hours of nerve wracking worry, praying to any God who would listen to him that Rowan made it through.

As the night turned into morning, and then back into night again more people trickled in to check on Rowan. Max showed up and sat himself down, stoically waiting for the new. He very kindly declined talking about her injury and the statistics of her survival rate. Kamekona showed up with Flipper and a giant meal for everyone in the waiting room. Doris showed up as well all tearful and worried just like everyone else, though something was odd about the way she went about it. Had Steve actually been mentally present enough to notice, he would have said something. But out of everyone in the waiting room, Steve was the worst.

A nervous wreck. Still stained by her blood and still shaking. Still trying to hold back tears and failing miserably.

But, unfortunately, it was Alex who proved to be the most useful of the people who came to wait with them.

Steve had purposely not called two people. First was Catherine because he was still unhappy with her over their last argument, and he wasn't ready to have the _we're done_ talk until he knew Rowan was alive and well. Mainly because he figured he was too much of an emotional wreck to actually have that talk with tact and decorum. Then he had purposely not called Alex, because he wanted Alex really fucking far away from Rowan, especially if Steve was going to pour his heart out to her.

Alex had stormed into waiting room, maybe around the 10 hours mark, in his scrubs and practically attacked Steve. Sucker punched him right out of his chair.

"You son of a bitch!" he shouted. Immediately Danny was between them warding Alex off. "What happened to bringing her back alive? See this is why you need to exit her life! She couldn't just come back not injured, no she had to get shot?"

"I didn't shoot her!" Steve cried. Steve picked himself up off the ground. His Five-0 family stood with him. Chin and Kono at his flank, Kamekona and Flipper behind them, Danny in front like a pit bull ready to attack. "You think I shot her?"

"No, but this wouldn't have happened if she wasn't associating with you!" Alex hollered

"Okay, you need to take it down a notch, asshole. It's no one's fault but the guy who shot her," Danny snapped.

"By _his_ nemesis!" Alex cried pointing at Steve.

He had a point. She had been shot by Wo Fat. And the guy kind of was his nemesis. Rowan wouldn't have been in this situation if he hadn't taken her up in that helicopter with him that day. If she didn't have visions about his life and want to help. She may be at home curled up with a book instead of in surgery fighting for her life. He could have gone home last night and had her in his house, in his room, in his bed, but they had taken this terrible detour and he wanted nothing more than to get them back on track.

Alex took a few calming breaths as he tried to calm himself down. "I'm going to go see if I can get an update on how her surgery is going," Alex snapped. He then turned a dry glare onto Steve and growled: "Try not to get anyone else killed while I'm gone."

As soon as he left, as soon as he was gone, Steve broke down again. He found himself sitting in a chair flat out sobbing, not because he wanted to but because it was true. Had he just made different choices both he and Rowan would be somewhere else right now. He had brought Rowan so much misery. He was the reason she was always in so much pain. He didn't deserve her and he knew it.

"It's not your fault," Danny said wrapping an arm around Steve's shoulder. "Don't listen to him. He's a douche."

"I should have left her at the base. I shouldn't have let her come with us," Steve said.

"And I should have held onto her tighter when she was dangling out of that helicopter. I should have realized when she showed up at that Roller Derby that Wo Fat couldn't be too far behind her," Danny reminded him. "But we're not the ones who shot her, Steve. We're probably the ones who have saved her. You got her out of the water. We all worked to keep her alive until the EMTs arrived. It's not your fault."

Steve forced himself to wipe his eyes. Forced himself to man up. He couldn't help Rowan by falling to pieces. He needed to be strong for her. He glanced over to where Grace was watching him with wide fearful, tearful eyes. He needed to be strong for Grace too.

Alex came back a couple of minutes after that. He didn't look ready to fight Steve. He looked defeated and a dreadful stillness descended upon the Five-0 Family.

Alex looked to each and every one of their faces before saying: "She's going to be in surgery for another couple hours."

"A couple hours?" Steve echoed. That couldn't be good. Something must have gone wrong.

"The bullet hit her Brachial Artery. It's the vein in the shoulder that supplies all the blood to her arm. It also nicked the Brachial Plexus and has damaged several nerves. They're attempting to cauterize the injuries so there's the least amount of damage done to the nerves but she's making it hard for them," he told them.

Steve had gone ashen listening to this. His poor Rowan. She'd be in so much pain when she woke up. She might lose the ability to move her left arm.

"What do you mean she's making it hard?" Danny asked, which was both a blessing a curse. Steve hadn't been able to ask. He had been worried he wouldn't be able to take the answer, but he so desperately wanted to know.

"So she was DOA when the ambulance got there and the EMTs got her heart started en route, right?" he asked. So he knew Steve arrived with her, great. And you know, he really didn't need the reminder of that harrowing ambulance ride. He nodded. "Yeah, well they've had to stop three times to get her heart started again."

 _She kept dying._

Her surgery was taking hours because she kept dying.

"So what's the eta?" Kono asked. Ever practical Kono. On the outside she looked perfectly fine, but Steve knew she wasn't taking it well. She had been so distraught that Adam had come to see her. Upon seeing her he had decided not to leave. He now stood, hand on her shoulder, offering all the comfort he could to a woman who didn't really want it. "How much longer do they think?"

"Anywhere between two to seven more hours. It depends on the damage. Depends on her heart. She's loosing so much blood they're hooking her up to a transfusion machine to get it into her. I'm not going to lie. It's bad," Alex said. His eyes never leaving Steve. As if he didn't feel enough guilt.

"But she's going to be okay, right?" Grace asked. Alex's eyes fell to her, surprise lit up his face like he hadn't realized that she was there standing in front of Danny with his hands on her shoulders.

"You know what, kiddo, I don't know," he told her. "But the doctors are trying really hard to patch her up so she will be okay. So we all need to send her positive thoughts to help her get better. Do you think you can do that?"

Grace nodded softly and Alex smiled. "I have to go on my rounds, but my friends are going to keep me posted. If anything drastic happens they'll call me and I'll come back, okay?"

Everyone nodded and Alex ran off leaving Steve with the knowledge that while he had been out in the waiting room internally dying while Rowan was on an operating table literally dying and being revived over and over.

Grace went with her Auntie Kono and her Uncle Adam to get a hot chocolate and Danny sat down next to Steve.

"Let's go for a walk," he said. "A quick one around the ward.

Steve shook his head. "I should be here. I should be here in case…"

He didn't know how to finish that sentence so he left it hanging there. He couldn't put the outcomes into words. It was either Rowan lived or she… she… and he just couldn't imagine that other option. But it didn't change the sentiment. He wanted to stay here, so he could be there for whatever news came out of that operating room.

"Trust me. You need this," Danny said. "Besides Chin will call if there's anything."

Chin nodded his assent and Danny pulled Steve out of his chair. Steve let Danny lead him along. They were silent for all of two minutes before Danny said: "You know he said it like that to make you feel bad, right?"

"Her heart's stopped three times since she was taken out of the ambulance," Steve whispered in response. "That's going to make me feel bad no matter how it's said."

"Steve, this isn't your fault," Danny said again and Steve said nothing. It was useless to argue. Danny didn't understand but he'd blame himself for the rest of his life if Rowan died today.

They were almost back to the waiting room when they heard crying. Crying that Steve recognized. He spotted Doris in a shadowed room and left Danny to walk back by himself. He went to his mother's side and put an arm around her shoulder. It surprised him that Doris was this frantically worried about Rowan, but he figured that the two of them had been close, sort of like a surrogate daughter.

"Its okay mom, she's going to be okay," he whispered to her. It helped him to say it, it helped him to believe that it was true. That she'd pull through and everything would be okay. Rowan had been lucky before, maybe his indestructible streak was wearing off on her.

"This is my fault," Doris sobbed into her hand. "It's my fault this happened."

Steve's eyebrows pulled together in confusion. What was his mother talking about? "Come on Mom, how is this your fault. You didn't know where she was or what was going on," he told her.

Doris turned to him. She was going to say something. He could see it. But then she shut her mouth, adverted her eyes and whispered: "I could have found her. I should have worked harder to find her."

Steve fell silent. It seemed everyone had a little bit to feel guilty about. Danny, who had left Steve to deal with his mother, knocked on the door.

"Everything good?" he asked. Steve nodded and the three returned to the waiting room. Kamekona left to go and make them more food. Max went with them to get them real coffee and then the Five-0 family hunkered together and told their favourite Rowan stories.

Danny's was Steve tackling Rowan into the water. Chin's was his moments with her in Halawa. Kono told them about Rowan versus the South African mercenaries. Max told them about the first time he met Rowan, playing his piano with her, and then the night she spent on his couch and how much hair she had left in his shower, he was still snaking it out apparently. Doris told everyone about Rowan and the bomb and how she had distracted the cops so Rowan could get to Danny and Steve.

Steve mumbled that his favourite story was the time they went to the aquarium and she nearly fell into the stingray tank. But that wasn't true. His favourite moment with Rowan was the first morning he woke up in her bed, wrapped up in each other the sunshine streaming in on her face, highlighting every beautiful feature. But he couldn't say any of that. Not that he thought his Five-0 family would tell Catherine about it he just didn't want to make them accomplices in his lies.

They did this for four hours, exchanging their favourite Rowan stories, exchanging their theories about her back story, and telling Steve all about their many bets and who won which one. Kono won most of them. They didn't stop until the power on their level flickered.

Steve straightened. "What the hell was that?" he asked.

He must have sounded worried because Kono said: "Don't worry Boss, even if we lose power they have back-up generators."

But that wasn't what bothered him. His fingers went to his sternum. There was a sudden sharp pain in his chest the kind he got when she started flickering. A power flicker made him nervous. What if the void was calling to her, trying to pull her through, while she was on the table? But this was nothing like the pain when she was actually attempting to travel and Kono was right they had back-up generators if the power went out.

He wasn't truly worried until Alex went sprinting through the waiting room. Steve called after him, he asked what was wrong but Alex didn't answer. He disappeared into the Surgery Theater leaving Steve a quaking worried mess. Something had gone wrong. Something had happened. He knew it. He just knew it.

The Five-0 family all stood around him They put their hands on his shoulder at separate times and told him not to worry. But that didn't make the emotion go away.

Steve paced while they waited. Paced wondering what happened to have Alex run back into her surgery. He paced because if he sat still he'd break down again. Motion kept the emotions moving. Motion kept him together because if he stood still that fragile glue that was holding him together would shatter.

Alex came out an hour later where he then pulled Steve aside.

"Is there anything you guys left out?" he asked. "Had she been electrocuted before this? Or hit by lightning?"

"No, why?" Steve asked. "Is she okay?"

"She started to seize on the table and then everything in the room shorted out. They said it was like an electromagnetic pulse, but that it came from her," he told him. "There's no way that's possible though so they're just in shock over it."

Steve shook his head. No, it didn't make sense, but he had a feeling he knew what had happened. But he noticed that Alex hadn't answered his original question. "But is she okay?"

"What?" he asked clearly distracted. "Oh yeah, she's fine. Surgery's done. She's got a steady pulse but she needs the machine to breathe for her. They expect a full recovery if she doesn't take any turns in the night."

"She pulled through!" Steve cried and a resounding cry from the people waiting for news on Rowan echoed through the waiting room and the Alex and Steve were swarmed for more information.

"Yes, yes, she's out of surgery. They managed to stop the bleeding, fix up the nerves best they could and sew her back up. She's not breathing on her own, but she has a pulse. They expect her to wake up in the next few days, and she has a lot of rest and recovery on the horizon, but they think, if she can make it through the night, there'll be nothing to worry about."

Everyone let out a collective sigh of relief, Steve's was the biggest of all. HE found himself hunched over braced on his knees as he gulping in air like he had just swum a mile underwater. But he saw the threat in Alex's eyes. If Alex got to Rowan before he did he'd turn her against him. Steve couldn't let that happen. Alex wasn't going to take her from him. He was going to prove to her and to Alex that he could take care of her. He'd never let her get hurt again.

"Can I go sit with her?" Steve asked.

Alex shrugged. "Yeah, soon. They're just transferring her to a room," he said.

Steve forced himself to stand straight, he knew the doctors would be coming out and then he'd be in her room. He wasn't going to leave her side until she woke up. He was going to be the first person she saw. He'd guarantee it.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

 _Two hours later._

Rowan had her own room. She lay dwarfed in a hospital bed, a respiration tube down her throat, her arm in a sling. She looked ten times paler than usual. She had the fading of yellow and green bruises around her throat from when that man had tried to choke her, but other then that she was said to be in good health. Whatever she had been doing with Wo Fat had kept her healthy. She was no longer that skeletal thing that had come home to him two months before. She had clearly not been tortured or held in squalid conditions.

Hell, if she hadn't been shot by her captor he would have been forced to agree with Alex. Wo Fat had definitely been taking really good care of her.

Luckily Alex wouldn't come into her room. Once it was deemed that Rowan was okay everyone else left. They went back home, or to work, or wherever they needed to be. Only Steve stayed. Holding her hand, kissing her knuckles and talking to her.

He told her how scared he was when she fell. How upset he had been when he had to leave her behind. How he stayed up, drunk and worried, pacing his floorboards waiting to feel it when she opened the void. He told her how much of a mess he was when Wo Fat sent the first ransom demand. He told her that he was going to go through with it, but then she was injured and Wo Fat no longer wanted to trade. He told her that he felt her at that shooting, though he didn't know what it meant at the time. He told her that he missed her every second of every day that she was gone and that his biggest regret was picking Catherine when his heart so clearly wanted her.

He told her that if she'd let him he'd fix everything, he'd pick her. He'd stay with her, ask her to be his and then never leave her side. He'd treat her right, he'd never forget what she meant to him, and she meant a lot.

Steve, who was not good at talking about his feelings, had suddenly become a babbling brook, but there was nothing he could do to stop it. And he wasn't sure he wanted to stop it anyway.

 _Seventeen hours later_

Steve had barely left that room. He went to the washroom, he had nurses who were vying for his attention bringing him coffee. The Five-0s all came sporadically to visit. Kono came with Adam. Kamekona came with Flipper and Max. Doris showed up with a vase of flowers. Danny came back with Chin and Grace and a get well soon teddy that Grace made him buy Rowan.

They all said the same thing.

"You need to go home and rest."

Steve said the same thing every time. "I want to be here with her."

It was Danny who didn't buy that line. It was Danny who wouldn't accept that as an excuse.

"You've been up for 34 hours in this hospital alone. This doesn't include the full day you were awake before we rushed off to chase her. Steve, you need to sleep," he snapped.

"And a shower," Chin added.

Steve shook his head. "I want to be the first person she sees. I want her to know I was here for her."

"Fucking go sleep down the hall then," Danny snapped. "Steve. You need to sleep. Use the showers here, use a spare cot to nap in. I'm sure the nurses will set you up with something. Chin can stay and watch Rowan. If she wakes up he'll call you."

"Oh! Why is it Chin can stay?" Chin cried. "It's your plan, you stay!"

"I have Grace tonight," Danny added.

"So we both stay! I can braid Rowan's hair," Grace cried trying to climb up on Rowan's bed. Steve lurched forward and pulled Grace off the bed and into his arms. She wasn't trying to hurt her, she just didn't know any better, but he didn't want her hurting Rowan by accident. He squeezed the little girl in a quick hug before dropping her back to the ground.

"If I agree to this you have to promise to call me if she wakes up," he said.

"Yeah, yeah," Danny said. "We promise, now go get some sleep before you keel over where you stand."

Steve reluctantly agreed. As Danny thought, the nurses were more than willing to help him out. He had his shower first. Took him less than 60 seconds. Would have been 30 if he hadn't dozed where he was standing while washing the shampoo out of his hair. After that he got back into his clothes which now felt greasy and dirty against his skin. He dropped by the room again and found Danny and Chin outside arguing over who was staying. When they saw Steve, Danny jumped at the chance to take Grace and leave, promising to bring back a change of clothes for him.

Begrudgingly he allowed a nurse to take him to what she called the crash room. Where nurses and doctors curled up and took naps when they had been working too long. He told himself he'd be too worried to sleep, he told himself that he needed to be there for Rowan, but the second his head hit the pillow he was out like a light.

Until Grace was shaking him awake.

"Danno and Uncle Chin say that there's a man here trying to hurt Auntie Ro," she told him. "Danno said to stay with you."

Steve was up immediately. Rowan in danger? What the hell? He had been asleep for what? Ten minutes. He checked his phone. Four hours?! That had not been the plan!

"Grace, I need you to stay here, okay?" he told her. Grace nodded climbing up onto the bed he had just vacated. He still didn't have his gun but he'd take this guy on with his bare hands before he let him do anything to Rowan.

He got out onto the floor noticing that whatever the issue was it wasn't enough to have the nurses and doctors scurrying away. He got close to Rowan's room and someone came out. A doctor judging by the white lab coat but he shoes were wrong. They were dress shoes. There was a face mask on, not necessary in Rowan's room. She wasn't contagious or sick, just injured.

But when that Doctor spotted him, when their eyes met, Steve recognized him.

 _Wo Fat._

Steve started forward just as Wo Fat shoved a nurse aside to get away from him. He was primed to chase. Primed to tackle Wo Fat to the ground and strangle him with his own two bare hands for doing this to Rowan. But he was distracted by a shrill beeping. Steve turned. Why was Rowan's room beeping?

No. No. No, Wo Fat had not finished the job off, had he?

For the second time in three days he abandoned the chase for Wo Fat and ran to Rowan. Nurses were piling into the room as the machines around her beeped uncontrollably.

"What's going on?" Steve asked. He watched her body arch, her good arm coming up to her face. Panic blossomed in his chest. "What's wrong with her?"

"Please just stand back Commander," the no nonsense nurse that hadn't pandered to him once since they had arrived told him. God why hadn't he bothered to remember any of their names? Steve stood back and watched as the tube was pulled from Rowan's throat. He heard her terrible gags and then her wet coughs and gasps for air.

He didn't understand why they would possibly take her off the machine that was breathing for her until her heard a rasping gasp of: "Tell him he can go fuck himself!"

Steve pushed through so he was standing at the foot of the bed. Rowan was awake, sort of. She was half up and pointing at the door that Wo Fat had left through She then coughed again and dropped back to the bed.

He hadn't been the first person she saw, and that was disappointing. And while he should have been worried that she wanted to tell Wo Fat to go fuck himself, and that she had woken up and the first person she saw was Wo Fat instead of him, he couldn't help but be happy. Rowan was breathing again. But best of all, Rowan was awake.


	39. Chapter 39

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanfics**

 _A/N: Alright guys, here we go. This has a bit of a confession in it, and I'd like to say this chapter ends happily but oh gosh it does not. We won't reach the happy ending for a little while (Sorry I'm the queen of Angst!). There's also more about her family in this chapter so I hope you like how Steve interacts with them today. I know you guys are curious about what Wo Fat was doing at the hospital, and it's kind of touched upon in this chapter but will get better explained later on. We're almost to the winner of the One-Shot Contest, only 36 more review! Don't forget to tell me which one-shot you want if you haven't already! See you guys tomorrow!_

Chapter 39

* * *

It took another ten hours for Rowan to fully wake up again. This time Steve didn't leave her side no matter what anyone said to him. There was a lucky bamboo left on the bedside table of her room that wasn't there before Wo Fat appeared in the building. A small greeting card was nestled in the branches with scrawled writing spelling out Rowan's name. Steve felt he had a right to open it but he didn't. When Rowan woke again her blue eyes, foggy with pain and morphine found his and a slow smile crept up on her face.

"Steve," she murmured.

Steve felt himself laughing and crying at the same time. He couldn't help it he was just so happy and relieved. "Hey," he said to her. "Hey, how do you feel?"

"Everything hurts," she whispered, her eyebrows drawing together a hand reached out to him. "I need to tell you something."

"Yeah?" he asked. He had something to tell her to but he wanted her a bit more lucid when he did. Still he took her hand and held onto it tightly. He brushed his lips on her knuckles and she sighed with content.

"I like you, Steve," she suddenly blurted out. "I do. A lot. I know you have a Catherine, but I can't help it. I like cuddling, I like holding your hand, and I like making dinner for you when you get home. But I want to kiss you, and you know, sex, I think we'd be really great at sex."

She liked him. _She liked him._ This was everything he wanted and more. "Well, that's good Rowan. Because I like you too," he told her and her smile widened.

"Really?"

He stood, framing her face with his hands and kissing her solidly on her lips. He probably should have waited to have a better first kiss with her, but this was enough for now. Just to prove to her that it was true. They could have a proper sober first kiss later.

"Yeah Rowan, I do," he said to her. "Don't you worry about Catherine. I'll deal with it. Okay?"

Rowan smiled again, this time more sleepily. "Best dream ever," she whispered to herself and then rolled onto her bad arm, winced and Steve pulled her back to her back and watched her fall asleep.

He smiled. His heart was soaring. This was it. This was what he wanted. Happiness was right around the corner. Now he just needed to talk to Catherine, and he'd get everything he'd want.

His phone rang and Steve groaned. That's right. He was still on duty. He should have asked for time off. He stared at Rowan's face, her lovely beautiful perfect face. He didn't want to leave that face.

He picked up the phone listened to Duke and then said: "I need a uniform here outside of Rowan's door. Then I can head to the scene of the crime." Once Duke agreed Steve sat back and stared at the girl who now held his heart.

Nothing could deflate this sense of happiness.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve loved rescue missions. He loved going out on boats and finding someone in distress. He loved being their hero. But Steve didn't want that today. He wanted to go back to Rowan. He wanted to make sure Alex didn't do anything while he was gone.

When he got to the docks that morning, Danny was on him in a nanosecond. For starters Steve hadn't contacted Catherine since Rowan's incident and she had called each Five-0 and asked where he was. Not a single one of them had told her about Rowan, each having some unspoken understanding that if Catherine knew, things would get more complicated for him. Secondly Danny wanted to know how Rowan was doing. He was equally as happy to hear that she was awake, even if she wasn't fully lucid. It was progress considering she had been on and off dying not 40 hours before the incident. Danny joked that Wo Fat's presence and her burning desire to tell him to go fuck himself had been her saving grace. Steve didn't find it funny at all. Why was Wo Fat there in the first place if not to finish her off?

They were on their way out to a shark diving cave looking for a missing owner of a shark diving business, and the cage he was supposed to pick up. They got to where the cage was supposed to be and found sharks circling what was probably the sunken cage and a boat only a few leagues away. They pulled the body out first and then they went over to the boat. Potential witnesses and what not.

The captain let them board, and this sudden feeling of dread crept up on Steve. Something wasn't right here.

"We're just a research boat," the captain said. "We've got a scientist working with the UH Marine Center, he's piloting a deep-sea drone at the moment."

"Did you guys happen to notice a cage at any point during your dive today?" Danny asked.

The captain shrugged. "Dr. Pierce rarely notices anything that isn't directly linked to his project," he said. "His kid may have noticed though, I'll go get him."

Surprise lit up both Steve and Danny's features. "I'm sorry. Did you say Pierce?" Danny asked.

The Captain nodded and disappeared below deck while Steve and Danny waited for him to get someone to talk to them. Danny turned to Steve. "Pierce? Like that Doctor you called up in Toronto? Like Rowan Pierce?"

"Why would it be him? The Dr. Pierce I called dealt with theoretical things, not marine biology. Besides even if it is him they're not her real family. They don't share DNA, they probably don't even know Rowan exists," Steve whispered. He shot a look at Danny, a serious look. A don't tell them about Rowan look. Danny merely nodded.

A man came up from below deck and startled both Danny and Steve and not because he appeared suddenly. The man that smiled warmly at them, with the tanned muscular arms, and the windswept dark brown hair, was staring back at them with Rowan's blue eyes.

"Hi, I'm Trevor Pierce," he said offering them a hand to shake. "You were asking about a shark cage?"

Danny recovered faster than Steve did who was still struck dumb by those familiar eyes staring back at them. At the way the man's mouth moved around his words the same way Rowan did. The way he held himself in the same position, arms crossed over his chest. But those eyes were still on Steve, his eyebrow arched just like Rowan's would have been.

"I'm sorry, is there a problem?" Trevor asked cutting off Danny. Steve blinked his eyes but before he could apologize a smile dawned on Trevor's face. "You like what you see?"

He even flirted like Rowan.

"No. Sorry. You just look familiar, like I've seen you somewhere before," Steve said.

"Oh. Probably on TV. I went the national championships last year," Trevor said looking away.

"Yeah? In what?" Danny asked.

"Figure Skating," Trevor answered. "Anyway. Yes. We did notice the sharks this morning. We were supposed to send in divers, but we spotted them and sent the robot instead. We figured it was a feeding frenzy, we didn't see a cage or a body."

"Is it possible that the drone caught sight of the cage on its descent?" Steve asked.

"It's possible. My dad may not have noticed it," he said. "Uh, you can come down with me if you'd like and ask him."

They followed Trevor down the narrow stairs and down a small hallway. They found Dr. Trenton Pierce in a small room, face glued to a screen. There were papers all of the place, taped haphazardly to a wall. A giant map with a big looming red X was across from them. Steve recognized the coordinates. They were the exact coordinates Rowan had been when he had found her in the ocean that night after she came out of the void.

"Dad, we have some people here to talk to you," Trevor said putting a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm busy," the man intoned and Trevor winced. He glanced at them, an embarrassed twinge on his face before pressing his father further. It was a look Steve knew, it was a look that Rowan had patented.

"Dad, they're cops," he said and Trenton's head whipped up. He turned to them and Steve froze again.

The man looked like the poster child for a mad scientist. His salt and peppered hair was sticking up at odd angles, there were coffee stains on his touristy Hawaiian shirt. But those blue eyes peering out at him from behind wire glasses were the same striking blue as Trevor and Rowan's. Now he knew where they got it from.

"We have permission to dive," he said quickly.

"No, dad," Trevor sighed but Steve stepped forward.

"I'm Commander Steven McGarrett…"

"Ah, an army boy!" he cried standing up and clapping a hand to his shoulder. He ignored Steve's attempts to tell him that he was navy and not army. "Sorry but none of my theories are weaponizable right now."

He patted Steve's bicep a few times more before turning back to his monitor.

"No. Dad. Stop," Trevor said getting in his way. "They're here about a murder."

"Well if they want our robot to go searching for a body they're going to be disappointed. I've got this rented out for the next twenty four hours and out on international waters you can't make me do squat," he said pushing past his son to sit back down.

Trevor shot them an apologetic look. Steve didn't even know how to begin to explain how none of that was true to this man. He could definitely see where Rowan got her stubbornness and her one-track mind from. He decided to let Trevor take the reins, he had more practice with his father and Steve had learned nothing about managing Rowan's behaviour during their time together. Maybe this would help him during future arguments.

"Dad, when you were putting the camera in did you notice the sharks?"

"The ones circling the cage?" he asked. When Trevor confirmed that was the cage they were talking about Dr. Pierce merely shrugged. "They were only interested in the body."

Trevor groaned. "Dad… why didn't you tell us that there was a body in that cage?"

"It has nothing to do with what we're looking for," he replied as if it made absolute sense. Trevor groaned again.

"Okay. You know what. Break time. Dad. Go get more coffee," he ordered.

"No, I'm good," Dr. Pierce told him showing him a full cup.

Trevor grabbed it and threw the contents into the garbage. "Get another one," he ordered.

"Trevor, you're starting to be a hindrance to the project. Do I need to send you home?" Trenton Pierce asked, his voice full of parental disappointment.

"Dad, if we get obstruction of justice charges brought up against us do you think the university will keep letting you borrow their things?" Trevor argued. Trenton huffed and then stood.

"You have five minutes. That's it," he snapped. He turned nodded to Steve and Danny and said: "Sailors."

Then disappeared down the hallway. Okay so maybe he was listening when Steve said he was in the Navy, but then he assumed that Danny was too?

Trevor sat down at the computer. "I'm sorry about that," he told them. "He's not doing it to be malicious. It's just… once he gets on a roll, he's got this laser focus. All that will matter is whatever he's working on."

Danny shot a glance at Steve as he said: "Yeah I know how frustrating it is to work with someone like that."

Steve rolled his eyes, that wasn't what was important right now. "Uh… what are you guys looking for?" he asked.

"Oh. Uhm… well the easiest way to explain it is my dad does a lot of research into the alternate reality theories and last year we performed this experiment," Trevor said absently. "We tried to pull an object from reality to another. Except we lost it in transit. We think it fell into the ocean. We tried to search the drop sight but we think it might have shifted with the currents and what not."

He stood and offered up a disk. "I've copied our footage. I don't know how helpful it would be. It was already there when we got here."

Danny took the disk as Steve busied himself with the papers and the map. Danny cornered Trevor who was watching Steve carefully. "You know, your eyes, they're a startling colour."

This caused Trevor to blush a dark red color. The young man immediately stared down at his shoes and rubbed the back of his head.

"It's our trademark. The Piercing Pierce blue eyes," Trevor replied. "Everyone in our family has them. Except my mom… of course. Dad says they're a dominate trait so my kids should get them too."

He turned back to Steve who was now flat out staring at the many papers lying around and pasted on the walls without any subtly at all. "Are you interested in the multiverse theories?" Trevor asked. "You could ask my dad if you want. But he'll go on for hours about them, so don't do it unless you don't have anywhere to be."

"I am interested," Steve whispered. "But I'm afraid we have a deadline. Murderer to catch. You know how it is?"

Trevor laughed. "No, can't say that I would," he said. His smile faded a bit, the way Rowan's did when she thought of a question she wanted to ask but wasn't sure if she was going to ask it. "About that body. Uh… Say it wasn't in a cage. Where do you think it would have gone?"

Steve narrowed his eyes. "Uh. That depends. The currents and the winds could have moved it, it depends on the weather at the time. It could have been eaten by sharks, could have washed up on one of the shores. But this far out, it would probably just sink and get eaten."

Trevor nodded. "Right," he whispered. "You guys are law enforcement, obviously, have you had any cases of people being pulled from the ocean in the last year? Like... dead bodies... or maybe… live ones?"

Danny turned to Steve. "I don't know. Steve?"

"No," he answered as definitely as he could. "Thanks for this."

As they were heading back to shore on their own boat Danny leant in and whispered: "Is there any reason why you didn't tell him about Rowan?"

"Because I don't get a good vibe from them," Steve said. "Besides. We don't know anything about Rowan's family. They may not even be hers."

"They have her eyes," Danny reminded and Steve shrugged and looked away.

He at no point was going to give them any information about Rowan. Not when he had just gotten her to admit that she had feelings for him. Not when he was this close to getting his shot at real genuine happiness.

"That place they were looking," Danny said interrupting his thoughts. "Not that I know much about the ocean, but is that, by any chance, close to where Rowan dropped in on us the first time?"

Steve wasn't sure about that. "I don't know. I'd have to ask the coast guard," Steve asked, pulling out his phone to shoot out that email.

"Is it close to where you picked up Rowan the second time?" Danny asked.

Steve sighed. "Yes, Danny, it's exactly where I picked her up the second time," he admitted because there was no point in lying to his partner.

"The evidence is piling up against you, babe," Danny said and Steve looked away from him. Danny just didn't understand. He wasn't going to give Rowan up now. He just wasn't.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Waking up was nearly as painful as getting shot.

Everything was in agony. Mostly her shoulder. But her head, her throat, and everything else too. Everything was in a dull ache.

She blinked her blurry eyes at whoever was sitting beside her. It was a fairly familiar looking blur.

"Steve?" she whispered.

"Nope, Alex," he replied.

Rowan forced herself to smile. "Alex," she said as warmly as possible.

"Still second best, I see," he whispered.

"No, Alex, it's not like that," she tried to say. God. Why did he have to do this to her right now? She was in so much pain, it was so hard to focus. She didn't want to argue. She just wanted someone to hold her hand and tell her she'd be okay.

"I'm joking, Rowan," he said, she could hear the smile in his words so she smiled too. "How are you feeling."

"Like I got shot and then hit by a truck," she replied.

"Yeah, I can imagine," he said. His hand gripped hers and she clung to it like she was starved for human contact.

"I need to talk to you, Rowan," he said to her. And her mouth ran dry. "I know I'm second to Steve. I am. And I'm fine with that. But Rowan, this man has a girlfriend and you're supposed to be mine. I think, I think, that you just need to get away from Steve."

Rowan blinked her eyes. "It's not that easy," she whispered. Things may have been fuzzy but she knew, without a shadow of a doubt that she didn't want to leave Steve.

"Ro, it really is," Alex urged. "The man got you shot. Your injuries are escalating. I'm worried the next time he gets you into a sticky situation, you'll die."

Alex looked so sincere but he was wrong. Steve didn't get her into this. No one had gotten her into this but herself. It was her decisions alone that got her kidnapped, and Wo Fat's decision to shoot her. Probably as punishment for wanting to go back to Steve.

"Steve didn't shoot me, Alex," she reminded him.

"No. But you wouldn't have been in that situation if you hadn't felt the need to go and help Steve. You know? You're not a cop Rowan. You're not trained for these things like the rest of his team is. He should have known better than to take you along," he chided.

Rowan tried not to frown. Alex knew that Rowan rarely gave Steve a choice. He should have known that her and Steve literally just had a huge argument about her involvement in his cases and how he wanted her to stop. She almost told him all of that too except that Alex had kept talking.

"Look. You forget but I was here, I saw him. He did the bare minimum of getting you back. Did you know it took him twelve hours to put together that you came to the hospital? That you were at his crime scene? He spent all his time with his girlfriend and his cases and because of that you got stuck with his nemesis who eventually shot you," Alex snapped. "The fact of the matter is that getting away from Steve fixes everything. It fixes how often you'll be in the hospital and you said it yourself, you had less visions when you were away from him. It'll also give you the time to heal."

Rowan fell quiet. She just kept blinking her eyes at him trying to clear her vision, trying to clear her head. This was the third person to tell her that Steve hadn't really tried his hardest to get her back. And Alex wasn't like Wo Fat and Doris, they weren't on the same team. He didn't want her to stay with Wo Fat for some twisted reason, he wanted her to stay with him. But maybe it was true. Maybe Steve really didn't care about getting her back. Maybe he really had replaced her with Catherine as soon as she was gone. Maybe he really didn't care that much about her, not even as friends.

"What do you want me to do Alex? I'll have no where else to go," she reminded him because her thoughts were going to dark places and she really needed to get that spiral under control.

"Yeah, I thought about that," Alex said. "I want you to live with me. I want you to move in. And we'll work it all out."

Oh. Oh boy. That was a lot to take in. "Alex, everything's fuzzy. Do I have to answer now?" she asked.

"No. Of course not. Take your time. Think about it," he told her. "Just tell me what you decide, keep me in the loop."

"Keep coming to visit me and I totally will," she said. She went to move her other arm, to pet his hand but her arm didn't move. She looked down to it, the blue blur she focused on wouldn't move no matter how much she willed it to.

At that point she swallowed the panic that was starting to rise and turned back to the blur that was Alex. "Uh… Alex? Is there something wrong with my arm?"

Rowan felt the change in the atmosphere. She felt the trepidation and the worry that radiated off of him and immediately prepared herself for the worst.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

After a long grueling day and a hectic inaugural helicopter ride, Steven McGarrett was glad to return to the hospital. It had been a long day, but he wanted to see Rowan. And he figured that by now she's be sober enough to fully understand the conversation he was going to have with her.

He rushed through the hallways, the bouquet of flowers in one hand, a snow cone in the other and a speech running through his mind. When he got to her room he was happy to see that Rowan was sitting up and seemed completely conscious. She looked up and when she saw him and smiled, that bright smile that was always for him.

"Hey you!" he said mirroring her smile. "I got these for you."

There was a strange look on her face when she spotted the snow cone, her smile faltered a bit before she took it from him. "Uhm… I'm sure you can put the flowers with another bunch," she told him.

Steve nodded and busied himself with find a vase that could spare the room as Rowan carefully went about positioning the swivel tray, while holding a snow cone. He noted that she was doing so one handed. That meant she knew about her arm. That meant there was no mobility in it. The doctors warned him about that. But they wouldn't know how bad it was until she had woken up.

He quickly got the flowers in the vase and moved to her side, grabbing the tray and positioning it for her. He then found himself brushing her hair back. His heart was thundering, swelling with what he could only call intense liking and burning desire paired with a debilitating nervousness.

"Is it bad?" he asked softly.

"Uhm, well… I guess it's bad," she said. Knowing immediately what it was he was talking about. "They did some tests. I can't feel anything or move anything. They want to put me through some physio therapy before they take a look at the nerves to make sure no wires got crossed or something."

"Oh. That's not that bad," he said trying to remain optimistic. "We can start worrying if the physio doesn't work."

Rowan smiled and went back to her snow cone. He glanced back to the first set of flowers she got. That lucky bamboo was the first thing his eyes went to. The card was no longer there. He sat himself down in the chair he had spent more than ten hours in waiting for her to wake up.

"You… uh… you opened the card," he said and Rowan turned to him surprised. "The one from the bamboo."

"Uh… yeah…" she whispered. "I don't know who it was from."

"I do," he answered. "Wo Fat. He came to visit you."

Rowan blinked her eyes. "I didn't dream that?" she asked.

Steve shook his head. "That bastard," she snapped. "Sending me a get-well card like he wasn't the reason I needed to get well. Well, he can go fuck himself."

Steve laughed at her. He couldn't help it. She sounded so angry about it. His little ball of rage packed in a cute little package.

"Is there anything else you dreamed?" he asked her. He watched Rowan's eyes lower and her cheeks flamed. Ah so she did remember. To keep his own nervous energy at a manageable level he found himself getting up and walking to the foot of the bed. "Maybe something you may have told me?"

Rowan's eyes whipped up, her cheeks went this adorable pink color. "Uhm… did I… did I…?"

"Admit you have feelings for me? Yes, yes you did," he said. Rowan groaned and Steve's smile widened. She was so cute when she was embarrassed. She covered her face with her one hand.

"I knew it. I knew it wasn't a fictional crush. I can't wait to rub it into Alex's face," he crowed. Rowan opened her mouth to argue. She would probably try to tell him it meant nothing, but he wasn't going to let her.

"She admitted she has feelings for you?"

Well that shattered the moment. Steve turned, shocked to find Catherine standing at the doorway, she too carrying a vase of flowers.

"Cath," Steve breathed out. Damn, he knew he was forgetting something. He had forgotten to talk to Catherine about ending their relationship.

"So I was right. She is trying to take you from me," Catherine snapped.

Steve glanced to Rowan who looked horrified by this revelation. "No, no, I wasn't. I haven't…" she started and Steve took a step towards Catherine.

"Hey, let's talk about this in the hallway," he urged pulling her away from Rowan before she could make things worse.

"Look, Cath…" he started but Catherine cut him off.

"No. Steve I've been telling you all along that she was doing these things on purpose. She was trying to isolate you from me. All the incidents, all the times you had to swoop in and rescue her, all of them were to keep you and me apart. You had no interest in her until she started doing all those things. Before she came into your life, before you made her your responsibility we had no issues. Rowan's created them. Created them so she could have you to herself," Catherine complained. But that wasn't true, he was just better at hiding it before.

"Catherine, don't be ridiculous. No one sets out to get kidnapped just to ruin a relationship. Not even Rowan is that crazy. I think… I think we're just going to have to face facts…" Steve started but a soft cry of _No_ stopped him from finishing the sentence. When he turned he saw Rowan up and out of bed and leaning against the doorframe.

"Wait, don't. Just… just listen to me," she said.

"You shouldn't be out of bed," Steve said taking a step forward only to have Rowan bark out a command of _don't!_

She turned to Catherine. "I know I'm not your favourite person right now but I think it should be you who helps me to the bed," she said avoiding Steve's eyes. Catherine agreed, pushing past Steve to help Rowan as he hung back. He had to admit he was hurt, she didn't want him to help her? Why? This didn't bode well. His happiness drained out of him and instead he was filled with a terrible trepidation, the air around them felt electric, like at any moment something bad was going to happen.

Once Rowan was in the bed, she turned her face up to them and saw a sort of determination on her features that made him very, very nervous.

"I know you don't like hearing this, but I have to say it. Catherine's right in a sense," she said and Steve's heart dropped to his stomach. He glanced to Catherine and found that even she looked shocked. No one in the room had been expecting that. "I haven't been actively trying to screw you and Catherine up, honestly, but it's happened anyway. If I wasn't here you'd be fine."

"You see… you guys are supposed to end up together. There's a lot of stuff you guys have to go through, we're only in season three after all. She leaves you a lot and she lies like your mother but by season nine you guys straighten everything out and get married. And even though I'm not trying to I can see that I'm derailing that," Rowan said. Steve scoffed and looked away, so that was what his future was supposed to hold? That was what he had to look forward too? Married to a woman who leaves him often and lies like his mother? Oh joy.

"I can acknowledge that I'm part of the problem. I need to get over you, Steve. And to do that I think I'm going to need a lot of space. I don't want you to think that this is your fault or you did something wrong, but I'm the problem and I can't fix it until I get over you. And I think… I think it's going to fix a lot of things too," Rowan said.

Steve shook his head. No. No this wasn't happening. He just spent more than a month worrying about her. Wanting her back and now that she was here she was expecting him to just let her walk away? _No_.

"Like what?" he snapped.

"Well, for starters, it'll fix you and Catherine," she said.

Doubtful. "And what else?" he asked because he'd need more than just that.

"I didn't get my visions as frequently when I was away from you. And once I stopped having the visions I wasn't in a state of constant peril," she said.

"You were with a man who eventually shot you. I think peril was hovering around you at all times, Rowan," he argued.

Rowan shook her head. "You know what I mean. I wasn't going out of my way to find trouble. Which as you remember cause quite an issue between you and me too. You always having to rescue me and all," she reminded him.

"I apologized for that Rowan. I told you I didn't mean it," Steve told her his voice hitching. He didn't even care if Catherine could hear it, if she saw the cracks this was causing in his usually impenetrable armour.

"Steve, come on," she said and he found himself looking down to the floor. "It's painfully clear that I'm not going to get home. I need to learn how to stand on my own two feet. I'm grateful for everything you did, I loved that I got to help you even a little bit. But my life isn't supposed to revolve around Five-0, I was never supposed to be here, or to meet you. And when I'm away from you I'm a little bit normal, you know? Not Rowan the crazy psychic. You need to let me go. You need to let me try. Can you do that?" she asked.

Steve looked at her. At the girl who had done so much to try and make him happy. She was right. He hovered, he had stopped her from getting a job, and by not listening to her and her visions he had forced her into situations that put her in danger. And he never got to her in time to stop her from getting hurt.

"Is this really what you want?" he asked in a small voice, there were unshed tears in her eyes as she stared at him, just like he was sure he looked as miserable as could be. He already knew her answer before she said. It

"Yes, it's what I want. It's what I think we both need," she said.

Well he'd have no choice then. He'd have to do what's right for her. "Fine," he whispered. "But where are you going to go? I don't want you out on your own if you don't have a job or a place to stay."

Rowan looked down to her one good hand that was fiddling with the plastic spoon that came with her snow-cone.

"I'm… uh… I'm going to move in with Alex," she told him and that jealous anger flared up. Alex had gotten to her while he was gone. Fuck he never should have left her. He should have left the case to the rest of the Five-0 team.

But what could he say now? Really? She had made up her mind. And maybe she had a point. Maybe he only felt this way because she was the new and bright shiny thing. And he was one hundred percent certain if he had never met Rowan he would never have looked past Catherine. Maybe this would be good for him.

"Alright," he said though it was far from fine. His shoulders sagged, defeated. "If that's what you want to do, who am I to stop you?"

Rowan said nothing to him, she didn't even look up from her melting snow cone.

"Uh… I'm going to… uh… you know. I've got to go," he said needing to get out of the room as quickly as possible.

"Thank you," she whispered to his retreating back. "For the flowers. For the snow cone. For everything."

But Steve didn't stay, he couldn't. It hurt too much to look at her. This was different from all the other times. This wasn't her leaving because he told her to. She wasn't being held against her will. Rowan asked to leave. She had asked him to let her go. She wanted to leave. Just like everyone else in his life he had cared about. Rowan wanted to leave him. She wasn't the girl who was going to stay.

"Steve wait," Catherine called having apparently followed him. "Steve. Slow down."

"What?" Steve asked whirling around. "You won. She's gone. She's out of my life. Happy now?"

"Steve, calm down," Catherine ordered. "Will you stop making me the bad guy here? I just wanted to see if you were okay?"

"Okay? Am I okay? The girl got shot in front of me almost three days ago. I do everything in my power to keep her alive and she fucking kicks me out of her life!" he thundered. "How is that okay? The ungrateful little brat!"

"You didn't tell me she was in the hospital. You didn't tell me she got shot. You didn't tell me anything. I could have been here for you, but you chose to not tell me," Catherine reminded him. Why was she making this about her right now? "And how is it ungrateful? She's leaving your life so she can get over you and you and I can get back on track. Don't you want that Steve?"

What the hell was he going to say to her? That up until five minutes ago his plan was to break up with her and date Rowan? He couldn't say that. Well, he could. But that would be terribly rude. And then he'd lose two relationships in one day and he couldn't handle that. He wasn't sure he could handle that much pain and loss.

 _GET OUT!_

The screeching sob stopped Steve from having to answer Catherine's question. He turned to see a vase of flowers get whipped through the doorway. From Rowan's room? Despite having his heart ripped out by the girl, he didn't want her this distraught so soon after her surgery.

 _I never want to see you again!_

He was even more surprised to watch his mother come stumbling out of the room. She was crying. Big huge tears falling down her cheeks.

"Mom," Steve said coming towards her as the nurses ran into Rowan's room to calm her. "Mom, what happened? What's wrong with her?"

"She blames me," Doris cried wrapping her arms around her son and crying into his shoulder. "She's never going to forgive me."

"Forgive you? Blame you? Mom, why would she? What happened?" Steve asked after letting her cry for a couple of seconds. His mother straightened in his arms and the tears stopped. As if his questions had put the cap back onto her emotions.

She pulled out of his embrace wiped her cheeks free from any tears. "I don't know what her problem is," she said stiffly. "I guess she thinks I'm someone else."

She pushed away from Steve before he could call her out on her lies. She was gone before he could ask her to stop. He watched her go knowing that he may not be able to do anything about Rowan, but he sure as hell could do something about his mother and her lies.


	40. Chapter 40

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Another day, and another update! Not gonna lie, even more ANGST! Since I know the angst is starting to get annoying, I'mma just spoil some endings right now. Rowan and Steve don't actually get together until season 5. Basically once Catherine goes to Afghanistan. I've already written parts of season 4, I'm at a total of 65 chapters and they're still not together. I know that seems ridiculous but I needed certain things to happen during this time that they're still apart, so that certain things could come together in future chapters. There are a lot of things in the series that happen to Steve to make him who he is, and I need Catherine for those things to happen, and there are a lot of things that need to happen to Rowan and she needs to be away from Steve to make those things happen. But I do understand that it's getting annoying so if you want to stop reading, go ahead, I get it that's fine. Or if you wanna take a break and come back when they're finally together then I'd suggest you come back around the 90th chapter? (I'm trying to make it less than that but this story has taken on a mind of it's own, the season 4 premier was like 6 chapters long) I've got the whole fanfic mapped out, I'm basically rewriting 6 seasons and that's a lot go through. Honestly this story is going to be complete and utter mammoth. The angst that's going on now is the foundations for everything that's going to happen later on, so it's kind of necessary. So I'm sorry if it's too angsty, I'm sorry if it's too much of a roller coaster, but that's the point, that's what life is llike. To help out, I've also changed the description so it's honest about the level of angst in this story. But I promise, I absolutely completely swear that I will make it worth it. Rowan, Steve, and even my readers will not suffer through all of this for nothing. I PROMISE! Side note We're almost to the 300th review! only 28 more to go till I crown a winner! See you guys tomorrow!_

 _P.S. Not mad. No hurt feelings. Honestly just amazed that my writing is invoking such powerful responses. At least I know I write well huh?_

Chapter 40

* * *

Steve knocked on the door. He called out the owner's name but got no answer probably because of the loud music that was playing. The door was open though so he walked through the house to the back yard. He was greeted by a young lady in a bikini. He tried very hard not to look at her, it was actually not that hard he was too mad, too depressed and too busy trying to distract himself from the heartbreak in his chest to notice anything else at that moment.

He found who he was looking for out by the pool, having apparently just been watching the bikini clad young woman swim. Like the fucking old pervert, he was. Still, Steve liked this guy and found himself smiling even though he should probably be creeped out.

"I see you met Brittany," Mick said and Steve shook his head.

"I see you haven't changed," he shot back.

Mick scoffed. "Shoot me if I ever do," he said as he pulled Steve into a tight embrace. "God, it's good to see you, Steve. Been too long, man. Come on, sit down. Put your dog's up and let me buy you drink"

Which was funny because they were at his place and Steve didn't want to drink anymore. He was probably still drunk from his attempts to drown his sorrows last night.

"So, I hear you're running some kind of task force now. Glad to see your talents haven't gone to waste," Mick told him. A hint of pride in his voice.

"Same goes for you, pal," Steve said trying to tamp down the guilt he felt rising up his throat burning like the most vile of biles. He didn't deserve the pride Mick instilled in him. "Looks like the private sector's pay well."

Mick put his hands in his pocket and lounged back like all of this meant nothing at all. "Yeah, well, after 25 years in Navy Intel, it was either hang a shingle or buy a rocking chair, so I hung a shingle."

Might as well get straight down to business. "That's why I came to see you, Mick," he told them and the two sat down in the white beach chairs. "I wanna hire you for your services. I need a full surveillance package on two targets."

"Two targets? How do you want me to manage that?" Mick asked.

"Well, one's a full surveillance, the other is minor… just to make sure she's okay," Steve explained. He handed him the envelope.

Mick opened took out the photos. He showed Steve the first one. The one of Doris. "Who's this?" he asked.

"It's my mother," he admitted. That got him a strange look from Mick. A judging look. The kind of look Danny patented.

"Kid, you don't need a PI, you need a therapist," he told him.

Good thing Steve was used to hearing that one. "Trust me, she's not your average mom. She's a former government agent. She disappeared from my life 20 years ago because of an assignment. Now she's back. Says she's changed," he told him. Steve shook his head a little. "I don't believe her. She goes dark a few hours every day and she racks up too many miles on the odometer. I wanna know what she's up to."

"Why come to me? You've got the resources to handle this," he said.

"No, I don't want my people involved," Steve told him. "Besides, there's no one better than you at recon and surveillance."

Mick nodded. "And the kid?" he asked showing Steve the picture of Rowan. "Ex-girlfriend or is this your sister and you're trying to get a family discount?"

Steve stared into Rowan's face. He found himself squirming in his seat under her gaze. It was a cropped photo. Taken on the beach just down from his lanai. Her arms around his shoulders, her chest resting by his ear, and he looking somewhere else a beer bottle to his lips. She had known the camera was there, she had looked right into it and smiled and now it felt like she was looking straight at him. The cracks in his chest splintered further and he found himself looking away before more damage could be done. Mick just sat there taking stock of the emotions playing on Steve's face.

"Neither… that… that's just Rowan. She just got rescued from a psycho criminal and I'm worried she's still in contact with him. She says she's not but I'm pretty sure she's lying to me and my team, and the cops that have talked to her. On top of that she gets herself into trouble and she doesn't want me hovering anymore. I'd like you to just make sure that she's okay, that she's not, you know, getting into trouble. And if you happen to update me on what she's up to… how that new boyfriend of hers is treating her, then so be it," he said. He looked down to his hands and added: "I'd get my resources on that except they refuse to do recon on her for me."

"That bad a break up huh?" Mick asked looking back at her photo.

"We didn't break up," Steve repeated. But why did it feel like they had? Why did it hurt like they had? Why was he a complete and fucking emotional wreck over her leaving him?

"Okay. Full surveillance package means I'm on your mother 24/7. That's audio, stills, video. Good chance I'll see your mother naked," he told Steve.

Steve grimaced. "Okay, I didn't need to know that," he snapped.

"Just saying," Mick said with a shrug. He then looked back to Rowan. "It also means I won't be able to dedicate time to the not-girlfriend. I'll have to see if I can get a buddy to watch her for you."

Steve wanted to argue, except his phone was ringing. He got up to answer it. He didn't care what Mick had to do. He wanted to know what his mother was hiding from him and he wanted to know that Rowan was safe too.

God. What had his life turned into?

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan sat back in her hospital bed surrounded by flowers, and chocolates, and stuffed animals. But there was a Steve sized hole in her heart, and a dead weight attached to her left shoulder. It honestly felt like things couldn't get any worse.

And then Doris walked back into the room.

"I told you, I'm not talking to you," Rowan growled.

"I just want you to hear me out," Doris said putting her arms out as if to ward off anything else Rowan might have thrown at her.

"No!" Rowan hollered, grabbing the call button and jamming it so hard she thought she heard it crack. At this moment she wished she hadn't told Steve she wanted to move out, because that uniform on the door would have been a great help at that moment. "You left me Doris! I told you, didn't I? I told you he'd kill me. And he tried and you know what? Cumulatively I was dead for ten minutes!"

"Yes. Yes, I know," Doris said but Rowan wasn't having it.

" _No!"_ Rowan screeched. " _YOU LEFT ME!_ "

The nurse came into the room and Rowan burst into tears and just pointed at Doris. The nurses on her floor were all friends of Alex's, they all liked her kind of. There were the momma bears that were all for Alex's new boo, but some where the kind of nice that were waiting for her to fuck up so they could swoop in on him. Luckily a momma bear was on call today.

"Ma'am, I'm going to have to ask you to leave," she said in a severe tone. "We can't have you upsetting the patient."

Doris stared at the woman and then back to Rowan who was still fake sobbing, though real tears were falling down her cheeks, and then left. Which was great.

As soon as she was gone the nurse turned back to her and helped to tuck her in. "I hear you're going to be released sometime this week," she said.

"It's a possibility," Rowan replied.

It was the quickest turnover she'd had at this hospital. But apparently, since she was no longer with Steve, they weren't willing to both hold her bed and waive her fees. She had no idea that she had been under the Five-0 insurance until they slapped a bill on her tray and told her to pay up.

At the current moment she was worrying about how hard it was going to be to get a job with only one arm working, no experience and no references. Rowan was starting to think that she may have made a mistake but there was nothing she could do about it now.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

The phone rang a few times before Mick picked up. He forgot the phone was on blue-tooth and Danny was going to hear too. But that didn't matter. He could handle Danny anyway.

"Hey, what'd you find?" he asked once Mick picked up.

"Nothing," Mick answered quickly. Almost too quickly. "Subject left the house at approximately 10:30. Took a walk on the beach. Got her nails done. French tips, by the way. As far as I can see, she's got nothing to hide."

Danny was staring at Steve now. His eyes narrowed as he thought, as he digested the conversation. Steve forced himself to stay focused on driving instead of glaring at Danny until he shut up.

"I told you she's good, okay? You wanna find something, you gotta dig deeper," he said.

"Well, it's your dime, kid. If my shovel hits something, I'll call you," Mick said.

Before he could hang up Steve added: "Uhm… anything on the other target?"

Now this one he didn't want Danny to know about. Especially seeing how everyone on Five-0 seemed hell bent on protecting Rowan from him.

"Yeah, sent my buddy over there to watch her for a bit. Girl's quiet as a church mouse. She's in the hospital after all. Not like she can do much. He says she kicked a visitor out today, and she had her first round of physio…"

"Yeah and how did that go?" Steve asked.

"You're not paying me to get her files, kid," Mick said in the most patronizing tone every. "Other than that, she and her boyfriend haven't done much. Except apparently her and the boyfriend don't care about getting handsy in public, even in the hospital he works at."

"Okay thanks," Steve said. "Call me if anything changes."

And then he hung up the phone before Mick could say anything else. His stomach was turning over. He didn't want to think about Alex touching Rowan. _His Rowan._ Fuck. He didn't like this at all. He wanted to know how her arm was doing. He wanted to know if she was getting movement or feeling back in her arm.

Steve glanced over to Danny who was staring at him. That untrusting squinting glare crawling up and down his face. Steve hated that look it gave him the shivers.

"Problem?" he asked.

"No," Danny answered quickly.

"Then why are you staring at me?" Steve asked.

"You hired somebody to run surveillance on your mother?" Danny shot back. Well. Danny had him there.

"Okay, I know what you're going to say," Steve started after a moment's hesitation. At least this was all that Danny was interested in. If he was lucky maybe he wouldn't have gotten that the other mark was Rowan.

"Yeah? What am I going to say?" Danny asked with an amused smirk on his face.

"That hiring somebody to spy on their mother is the act of a crazy person," Steve told him. Which was word for word something Danny had said to him, almost, the first time it was just Catherine so it was phrased slightly different. But it was the same gist.

"Yeah. But I would've used different words, like _wack job_ or _psychopath. Crazy_ works, though. That works," Danny agreed.

Steve sighed. "I had no choice, okay?"

"Have you ever tried speaking to your mother like a human being? Like normal people do?" Danny asked. Steve scoffed of course not. McGarrett's didn't talk about feelings. They weren't open about things. They were closed off and cryptic. Why didn't Danny get that?

"What am I going to say?" Steve cried. "Mom I know you're running a covert op. What is it?"

"Yeah, that would work," Danny said and Steve found himself staring at him in shock. What kind of world did Danny live in where that would work? Because Steve would've loved to visit it one day.

"Look, if she's in the game why don't you confront her? Right? I mean, don't bring in an outside source. If she finds out that her son put a tail on her, I promise you, I promise, it will end badly," Danny argued.

"It's not gonna end badly," Steve reasoned. "This guy wrote the book on surveillance. My mother is never gonna see it coming."

Danny nodded. "Are you also gonna admit that you put a tail on Rowan too?" he asked.

"Rowan?" Steve asked feigning surprise. "Why would you think I put a tail on Rowan?"

"Because Rowan's the only girl in the hospital that you'd want to stalk. And Alex is the only person we know who works in a hospital other than Leilani," Danny listed off and Steve swallowed the urge to cuss him out. "Also, we all figured that once we squashed your dreams of getting us or HPD to tail her that you'd branch out to a PI. Only took what... a week? Couldn't have waited another three days, could have won the pot and split it with you. Now Chin's gonna gloat."

"You guys were betting on whether or not I'd put surveillance on Rowan?" Steve asked through grit teeth.

"Yeah, Kono figured you'd've already done it. I figured somewhere between a week to two weeks. Max thought two weeks. Chin said a week or less. Kamekona figured you'd do it yourself. He almost won, if those bags got any deeper we would have all conceded that you weren't sleeping due to being up all night stalking Rowan," Danny explained.

Steve avoided Danny's eyes and focused on driving. Of course, he wasn't sleeping. He couldn't sleep. He stayed up, his mind and heart somewhere else on the island. With Rowan. Wide awake and wanting her. There were many a night he drove over to the hospital just to feel close to her. Other nights he sat on his lanai staring up at the stars and wondering if she was looking at the same ones. Mostly though, he just stayed up late and drank until the pain was manageable again.

"I just want to make sure she's alright," Steve whispered. "I don't see what's so wrong with that."

Danny sighed. "It's not. Except she doesn't want you to. And honestly… you are getting a bit stalkerish," Danny told him. Steve struggled to get his breathing at a normal rate. He hated that Danny was right but he couldn't bring himself to make it stop. "Steve. You need to get over Rowan just as badly as Rowan needs to get over you. But unlike Rowan, you're not giving yourself the chance to do that. You got to let her go."

"Yeah. Okay," Steve said hollowly because it was the only thing that could get Danny to shut up. Even though Danny didn't believe him, Steve could see out of the corner of his eyes. The way that Danny's face crinkled with worry.

He was right. Steve knew he was right. But Steve also knew that he wouldn't be able to let her go as easily as everyone seemed to be expecting him to. It wasn't that he wasn't trying it was that it was much harder than he thought it would be.

Steve shook his head clear and kept driving. He needed to keep his head in the game. He needed a game plan.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Trevor Pierce walked into the Coroner's office to the sound of a discordant jazz piano. He found an average looking Asian man in a white lab coat was plugging away and swaying with the music. It had thought it would take a lot to get away from his father in order to start searching for Rowan. The further they got away from the initial drop point the more focused and moody his father had become. He hadn't even noticed that Trevor had left the boat the last couple of days, he probably hadn't noticed today either. Trevor let him finish before clapping and signifying his presence.

The man turned around a blushed before getting up and apologizing to him. "No need, didn't want to interrupt you as you jammed out," Trevor said offering him a hand to shake. "My name is Trevor Pierce, and I loved you're playing."

"Why thank you, Mr. Pierce," he said in a slipped tone. The kind people used when they were used to be super formal. "I'm Dr. Bergman, I was unaware I was getting visitors. Are you hear to identify a body?"

"No. I was hoping you may have found one," Trevor said. Yeah, that had gotten him weird looks at three hospital and five different morgues before someone pointed him in this direction.

"Pardon me?"

"About a year ago, maybe eight months ago. A body may have washed up. A girl. Maybe twenty-six. Dark brown hair like mine, maybe dyed red that faded to blonde? She would have had eyes just like mine," he said.

Dr. Bergman stared at him. He had a strange look about him like he wanted to say something but he was weighing the options.

"No, I don't think anyone with that description passed my autopsy table," Dr. Bergman told him. "But eight months is a long time. If you leave me with a detailed description and a contact number and I'll go through my files and then get back to you."

Trevor nodded rushing to fill out that information for him. This was the first positive turn in his search he had found. Maybe he'd get lucky and she'd be here. Then he could tell his dad what he did and deal with the consequences.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve sat on his couch digging into his MRE rations with a surprising gusto. He figured if he reminded himself of harsher times he'd get over this trauma with Rowan. It was already working, he could feel it. He was a survivor. A Navy Marine. He had survived war torn countries, terrorists and bombings. He could survive heart ache. He could survive a time-travelling interloper bounding in and stealing his heart. In fact, his heart wasn't even stolen. It was still there in his chest. It may have been a bit more damaged than before but he could fix it. He was a Marine damn it. He could fix anything with duct tape and some ingenuity.

Catherine came out of the kitchen with a bowl of regular people food.

"Hey, we missed you surfing yesterday morning," she said to him as she joined him on the couch.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I had something else I had to do," he said quickly between spoonfuls of rations.

"Yeah?" she asked. "What's going on?"

"Oh, nothing. No, it's just some work-related stuff, soo…" he said trailing off so she'd leave it alone.

He tried to ignore her eyes lingering on him. He had been distractingly distant from her. She brought it up frequently. That since Rowan had ended things he seemed lifeless and uninterested in her. Which was true. But he had told her that he had feeling for Rowan, and she knew that Rowan had feelings for him. He had also stupidly told her that he was certain his emotions were brought to light simply because Rowan had been there and readily available. He had lied of course. What else could he do in the face of Rowan's tirade about her feelings trapping her in his world, about the revelation that somewhere down the line he ended up with Catherine? He lied to protect himself, to protect Catherine. And because he couldn't stand to lose someone else so shortly after Rowan had dealt that death blow to his heart.

"I can't believe you turned up my grandmother's ragu for beef stew MRE," she said, scoffing.

Steve forced himself to chuckle. "I had a craving," he said, which wasn't a full lie.

Catherine's eyebrows furrowed together in concern. "For military rations?" she asked.

Instead of answering Steve half turned to her. "Can you do me a favour and pass me that canteen behind you, there, please?"

Catherine watched him for a few seconds before turning, finding the canteen and handing it to him. She watched him take a drink from it with careful eyes, while he did everything to avoid locking eyes with her.

She cleared her throat to get his attention but Steve refused to turn. "You know what, I got my camo in the car. If you want, I can throw them on and we can play out this whole _trapped in a foxhole_ fantasy thing you got going on right now," she told him, raising her eyebrows seductively.

Steve stared at her. It took him a moment to remember that, that was supposed to turn him on. That this was the woman he chose. That in this universe this was who he was supposed to end up with. That he was supposed to be happy with Catherine. Not trying to drown his sorrow and want for another girl in whiskey and beef stew MRE.

So Steve forced himself to smile. He forced himself to move forward. He threw down his meal quickly. "Let's just put that beef stew down," he said before clamouring on top of Catherine who had lay down on the couch arms outstretched and ready to pull him down to her. "You love the foxhole fantasy, don't you?"

He kissed her quickly on the lips before ducking his head into her neck to press soft put insistent kisses there. He took a deep breath and got a mix of lilac and roses. That was Rowan's smell. Had Catherine purposely gone out and gotten Rowan's shampoo? Suddenly he didn't need to pretend that he was interested, his body was taunt and ready to go.

He had frozen. Catherine had stopped giggling. His mother cleared his throat and that gave him the excuse to come apart from her. Then he focused his anger and frustration on something else.

Why the hell was his mother so nicely dressed up?

"Oh, God, I'm sorry," she said, as if she were actually sorry for interrupting them. "Catherine, could you quickly just help me with this?"

Catherine jumped up. "Yeah. Doris, you look amazing," she said. She had been bouncing like a puppy to get on Steve's mother's good side. She had been bouncing to get on everyone's good side since having Rowan thrown out of his life.

Doris smiled as if she meant it and said: "Thank you," like a normal person but there was a hardness in her eyes that even Steve noticed from where he was sitting. He had told his mother and over and over that, while Catherine had said she didn't want Rowan living with him if Rowan had feelings for him, it was ultimately Rowan who had decided to leave. And see how Rowan wanted nothing to do with Doris McGarrett either, he didn't understand why his mother was so insistent on siding with Rowan on the whole Catherine thing.

"What's the occasion?" Catherine asked. Yes, yes, what was the occasion?

"I've got a date," Doris replied.

Now that got Steve's attention. "Sorry, what?" he asked. He better have misheard that because he was not about to deal with that. He had enough on his plate.

The doorbell rang so instead of explaining she pointed to the door and said: "That's probably him."

Steve looked to the door, then back to Doris who was instructing Catherine on where her necklace was stuck. Okay, so it was up to him to open the door. Whoever was on the other side of that door was not going to enjoy the Navy greeting he was about to get.

Steve wasn't expecting Mick though. Carrying a bouquet of flowers.

Steve shut the door in his face too shocked to deal with this new revelation. Mick knocked and Steve had no choice but to open the door again.

"What are you doing here?" he asked in the most dangerous and hushed tone he could manage.

"You told me to keep an eye on your mother," he reminded him. Steve wanted to hit him, this was not what he meant.

"An eye, not a hand. Not any other part of your body," Steve repeated. He got in a little closer and hissed: "She is my _mother._ "

Mick shook his head. "Steve, at my age, they're all mothers or grandmothers. What can I tell you? We got chemistry," he told him and Steve had to bite back his curses.

Doris tugged the door out of Steve's hand and gasped. "Oh! Anthuriums," she cried. "Oh, they're so beautiful. Thank you. Mick, this is Catherine. Catherine, this is Mick."

Catherine leant in. "Very nice to meet you," she said as Mick shook her hand and asked: "Hi, how are you?"

"And I think you already know Steve," she said pointing to him. It was the way she said it though. Like she knew more than she was letting on. "I'll go put these in water, you wanna wait in the car?"

"Yeah, but don't be too long because we got reservations," he said and Doris smiled.

Catherine shook her head. "Oh, Doris, let me take the flowers," pulling them from his mother's grasp before she could say anything else. Steve avoided Mick's smirk. He tried to think of anything else other then what Mick wanted to do with his mother. He ignored Mick's whisper of _chemistry_ before he turned to go to the car because if he didn't he'd chase the man down and break his face.

As his mother went by him she whispered: "You know, if you wanted to know what I was up to you could have just asked."

She leant in quickly and pressed a kissed to his cheek. Great so his mom did know who Mick was. Maybe this was all just to punish him.

"And you should probably pull the tail off of Rowan. At this rate every PI on the island is going to be tailing her," she added and then skipped off into the night giggling and calling out: "Don't wait up."

Steve watched her go that old worry and concern rising to the surface. Doris was hiding something. He couldn't hire a PI because she could easily make them, and he should have realized that. And on top of that she had just implied that someone else, or maybe multiple someone's, had put surveillance on Rowan. How did she know about the tail on Rowan anyway? Was he that predictable?

But he couldn't ask his mother that. He'd have to wait until she came home. And best believe he'd be waiting all night for her to come home if he had to. His phone rang and Steve quickly picked up the call his heart stopping when he heard Max's voice uttering the one sentence that he wished he wouldn't hear.

 _You know how you told me to call you if a man came in asking about Rowan? Well… he was just here._

Fuck. Now what was he going to do?


	41. Chapter 41

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Guys! One more day and the marathon's OVER! Did you guys like the week long marathon? Is that something you'd like me to go again later on in the story? I'd be totally down if this was a success! Thank you to everyone who stayed even though the angst is still going. It's not going to be all angst I have other things happening too. No spoilers or anything, but I'm going to be putting some fun things to look forward to at the end of this chapter, but if you don't wanna read them that's fine, they're bolded, just avoid the bolded words at the bottom! ANYWAY! This chapter is a bit longer than the others, simply because I had to catch up on all the plot bits I skipped when Rowan was kidnapped. So technically they happened later. Hopefully you like this version of things and I'll see you guys tomorrow!_

Chapter 41

* * *

Steve sat on the rocks thinking about what his life had become. In three days' time Rowan would be released from the hospital and then she'd be coming to his place to move out all her stuff. Steve didn't want that. He didn't want to watch her pack all of her things up in boxes and move out of his place and his life. He didn't want to help her, because he knew he wouldn't be able to stand aside and watch Alex do it all and Rowan struggle with the arm that still wasn't moving. He didn't want to go through an awkward good-bye with her.

He wanted to remember her in a certain way. And leaving him was not the way he wanted to remember her. But he didn't have an excuse to leave his house. Catherine and Danny had both said they'd be with him for moral support but only one of those offers actually left him feeling morally supported. When Catherine offered he had a feeling it was more to remind Rowan that her stake had been claimed and Rowan was to stay very far away.

Then there was Trevor Pierce. He had been going all over Hawaii asking about a body that looked like Rowan's. He had gone to morgues and hospitals on this quest. He had even put in a request over at HPD. Obviously the ones who knew it was Rowan kept their mouths shut and then called McGarrett. But he didn't know what to do.

He had even heard back from the Captain of the coast guard that had picked him up the day he had found Rowan. The boat they had found, the one with the dead body had been found just a few clicks away from the coordinates the Pierce's said their object dropped into the ocean. That couldn't be a coincidence could it? Finding Rowan there twice. Well he was going to continue to tell himself it was a coincidence because he couldn't handle the consequences if it wasn't.

He didn't want to hand Rowan over to these people. He didn't know who they were, not really. It wasn't like Rowan had ever told him who her family was. And they didn't match her DNA, he knew that for certain as he had checked as soon as he learned their names. These people were nothing more than a scientist and a figure skater that shared her last name and her eyes, and were looking for her. That wasn't enough for him for him.

Besides, she was moving out of his house and he was barely handling it. He didn't want her to move off the island as well.

Steve ran his hands over his face. Fuck. What was he going to do? Why was this so hard? Why couldn't he have one moment with Rowan where she wasn't being kidnapped or causing arguments or leaving him? Why couldn't everything just be easy for once?

He was brave in every other aspect. Why wasn't he brave when it came to Rowan? Maybe if he had told her he liked her too she wouldn't have chosen to leave. But it hurt, hearing that she wanted to go, so much that he couldn't bring himself to hold on to her.

His phone rang and he picked it up. Desperate for any sort of distraction. He listened careful and felt a grim smile creep up on his face.

He had found his distraction.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Danny had told Steve he'd watch the house, and Rowan and Alex as a favour for him. And while he was one hundred percent on Steve's side, he was also doing it for Rowan. He was there to help her move, to help her get through the emotional trauma of leaving this place which had become an important place for her. Because no matter what Steve wanted to think, Rowan wasn't doing so well with all the new things in her life. She was putting on a brave face, but apparently Kono could tell the difference between a faking Rowan and a really worried and stressed out Rowan.

But that wasn't all. He was cultivating information for Steve. Well, for all the Five-0's to be honest. Chin and Kono were also sufficiently interested in whether or not her physio was going well—it was not—and if she had regained some movement or feeling—she had not—and if she was doing well with the letting go of Steve—that remained to be seen.

Alex and Rowan were up in her room packing up boxes. Danny was downstairs sending off texts like no body's business. He was careful not to send anything to Steve. The mission he was on that he took both as a distraction and because it had sentimental meaning as well. He didn't want to make things harder for Steve. He wasn't very good at being sentimental.

So Danny decided to call Catherine instead. That was a safer bet to find out _truthfully_ how things went down in North Korea.

"So how'd the exchange go?" Danny asked as soon as Catherine picked up the phone

"Came off without a hitch," Catherine said sounding chipper and happy. Well at least one of the two marines that went to Korea was happy

"Wow. Washington actually did something right. That's nice," Danny said as he pushed the box into the back of the car. Damn Rowan had a lot of stuff. "How's my boy?"

There was more than one reason for asking. For starters Steve had gone to North Korea to pick up the body of his Navy Seal's best friend. The Navy Seal's Danny, one would say. Lastly, Danny knew part of the reason Steve left the country this week was because he couldn't bear to watch Rowan move out of his house. Danny was smart enough to not mention that last bit to Catherine, seeing as Catherine and Steve were still on rocky territory over Rowan's little confession.

"Well, as well as can be expected," she told him. "Those two were like brothers."

Danny tried not to let that sting. He and Steve were like brothers. He wondered if Steve would take having to pick up Danny's body as badly. But now wasn't the time to be petty, even if Commander McGarrett had left him with house sitting and moving duties.

"Tell him I got, uh, a big plate of wings from Side Street waiting for him here," he said, hoping that would be a little ray of sunshine on the otherwise dark horizon. He moved back into the kitchen where he hoped Rowan wouldn't hear him talking.

"Roger that," Catherine said and then there was a silent pause. "Uh… how's everything going over there?"

Danny glanced to where Alex came down the stairs with another box and Rowan, with a blue sling came out carrying a single pillow. Despite not having mobility in one of her arms she kept trying to help in any way she could. She couldn't just sit back and supervise. Just like someone else Danny knew.

"Good. We've almost got everything packed up. She'll be out before you guys get back," Danny said.

"Okay. Good," Catherine said quickly. Danny could practically hear her grin. "We, uh, land in San Jose in about 18 hours. We'll give you a call when we touch down."

Danny said okay and let her hang up. He thought it was a tad bit callous for Catherine to not at least acknowledge how upset Steve was with Rowan moving out but he also understood her eagerness to get Rowan officially out of Steve's life as soon as possible.

He left the kitchen to find the couple twittering as they packed the last of their stuff into the trunk of Alex's rusty VW.

She kissed Alex on the cheek before rushing up the stairs to Danny. "Hey, we're done, I have Steve's extra key," she said handing it to him. Danny took it even though Steve had expressly told him not to. Steve wanted Rowan to have it in case she ever needed to come back. Danny figured he'd just hold on to it.

"Was the house empty last night?" she asked.

"Uh… yeah, Steve's been gone for three days now," he said. He didn't elaborate even though he knew Steve's itinerary. One day for Travel. One day for briefing. One day to collect. Home by tomorrow.

"Okay. Wo Fat broke into the house," she said as if it were common place for the criminal who kidnapped her to break into his arch nemesis's house.

"Wait, what?" he asked.

"I don't think he stole anything or did anything malicious," she told him. "But there's a bunch of stuff that he got me while I was staying with him that was in my room when I got here."

The way she said it you would have thought she had been on vacation or something and he had dropped off souvenirs.

"Rowan…"

"It's alright, I took everything that he brought with me. Like I was going to pass up down pillows, right?" she said trying to smile. "I'd just… uh… sweep the place for bugs. You know… just in case."

Danny chuckled. "You're something else," he said to her as she just shrugged casually.

They were quiet for a bit before she suddenly threw herself at Danny hugging him tightly like it was going to be the last time he saw her.

"Gezzus, you're not moving to the moon Rowan," he said. Though he knew, if Steve needed to be away from her Danny would have to be too, for solidarity alone.

He cleared his throat and looked at her. Really looked at her. Why did he feel so guilty?

"Uh, who's helping you move into his place?" he asked, knowing that Rowan couldn't help Alex with the boxes that Danny had helped him with.

"It's just me and Alex," she said. She seemed to read his mind because she added: "We can manage."

Danny shook his head. "Nope. Not happening. You're injured. I'll follow in the Camaro and get you moved in," he told her.

Rowan laughed. "Ah some of that Jersey chivalry?" she asked at least knowing better than to argue with him. Steve could take some hints from her.

"You know it babe," he said slinging his arm over her shoulder.

He didn't have to end their association right at that moment. He didn't have to stop talking to her just yet. He had until Steve got back after all. He could be chivalrous until then. He just had to remember to stop when Steve came home.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve returned to Hawaii two days after Rowan moved out of his place. He had been weigh laid by having to find the real body of his fallen comrade, and then both he and Catherine needed first aid which kept them longer. He was genuinely grateful that Catherine had come with him, had gone with him to get Freddy's remains. He was happy to have her beside him as they stitched his forehead. Happy to have her beside him in the plane as he recounted his last words with his father. But she didn't fill the void that had opened up in his heart

Upon returning to Hawaii he expected to curl up with Catherine who was basically living with him now and try to forget that the empty feeling that was persisting in his chest and stomach was because Rowan no longer lived with him. He was expecting to drop his bags in his empty, depressed feeling home and get some rest, he was not expecting to have his phone ringing almost the same second he put the bags down.

And he definitely wasn't expecting a call from a hospital. But it sent him off running the second he got it. He had just barely managed to change out of his cammo before he got the call too.

Steve rushed into King's medical center looking for his mother. When he found her he was far from pleased. She had this big purple welt on her forehead, but other than looking like she got the shit handed to her, she looked calm. Almost too calm. Scarily calm.

"Hey," she said when she spotted him as if that would make all of this better.

"You all right?" he asked.

"I'm fine. I just hit my head. It's nothing. What happened to you?" she asked. Steve rolled his eyes. Another hit to the head. With all his experience with Rowan's head injuries he was going to be a damn expert in the subject. He'd tell her all about his trip to North Korea at a different time, he had something more serious to deal with at that moment.

Steve sighed. "We'll get to that later. Okay, all right. Um, let me get this straight. You, uh, got home, you interrupted a burglar, he knocked you down and he took off?" Steve listed off. That was the understanding he got from the police report and what the hospital had said on the phone. But something wasn't adding up.

"Yeah, that's, uh, pretty much it," Doris replied but he could tell by the way she paused that she was lying.

"And he bypasses the entire security system?" Steve asked, maybe if he asked enough questions she'd realize he was on to her.

"Guess so," she said.

"He's a pretty sophisticated thief, mom," he said putting his hands on his hips. "I mean, it took five guys three days to install that system."

"Oh please, you're exaggerating," she said with a mild scoff. Well good to see her attitude hadn't be knocked out of her head.

"And then he got a jump on you," Steve added. His mother had gotten up off of the bed and walked away. She was quiet too long so Steve started talking again. "You get a look at this guy?"

Doris turned back around. "Uh, no, no. He was wearing a ski mask. And it all happened so fast," she told him.

Steve half laughed. Fuck. Why wouldn't she just trust him? "I wanna help, okay? I wanna help and I can't…"

"Steve, please, I don't wanna talk about it, okay? I'm fine," she said interrupting him. Steve stopped talking and took a step back. Why was everyone in his life pushing him way. First Rowan and now his mother. He just wanted to take care of them, was that too much to ask?

"I just wanna get out of here and move on, okay?" she added.

Alright. Fair. "Fine. But you're not going back to your place. Once they release you you're coming home till we find you a safer building to move into," Steve told her and then stared her down daring her to argue.

His mother nodded and he glanced to his watch. "I gonna go see what your ETA is, okay?" he said and the swooped in to hug her tightly and pressed a kiss to her cheek.

She told him not to worry. Which was useless because he would worry. Every second of the day until he knew she was okay, until he knew what she was hiding from him.

He took two steps out into the hallway and smelt it.

Lilacs and Roses.

 _Rowan._

Steve turned and saw her, marching angrily into his mother's room. What the hell was she doing there? Alex didn't work in this building. Something his mother had known, something he was certain his mother had chosen so he specifically wouldn't see the man that had taken the girl he so desperately wanted.

He should have walked away but he couldn't. Rowan was there. He hadn't seen her in more than a week. And he missed her so much.

He found himself in the doorway of his mother's hospital room watching as Rowan angrily accosted Doris.

"Firstly, how dare you call me and tell me I have to come get you before Steve does! How dare you assume you could threaten me into coming to get you! Secondly. I am _not_ talking to Wo Fat, and you know that. The man shot me, he and I are not simpatico at the moment. And Thirdly. HOW DARE YOU even insinuate that I owe you when this," she cried pointing to her injured arm which was still in a sling. " _Is your fault_!"

Now that was news to Steve. He had gotten the impression that Rowan and Doris were no longer okay when Rowan freaked out when Doris came to visit her. He had a feeling Rowan hadn't been lying to him when she said she had no contact with Wo Fat. But he had no idea how the shooting was in any way tied to his mother.

"How is your getting shot by Wo Fat my mother's fault?" Steve asked taking a step into the room.

Rowan turned. Wide eyed and surprised to see him. She looked him up and down and he did the same to her. She looked lovely. In those cammo jean short shorts he had gotten her and a flowing khaki green tee shirt. Her hair was braided over her shoulder looking more of a vibrant red and golden blonde than before. But it was that sling that threw him off. The sling that her useless arm lay in. Had she still not got feeling back in it?

He was glad he had worn his light blue button down shirt today and a pair of blue jeans she had made him buy so he wasn't always in board shorts and cargo pants. She loved the shirt he was wearing, said it brought out the brightness of his blue eyes. But this reunion was short lived. She didn't hug him or smile at him. Instead her eyes found his injuries and almost as if she couldn't stop herself she breathed out the softest whisper of _oh._

"What happened to your head?" she asked him and he almost answered her, his story nearly tumbling out of his lips. But instead he watched her realize that she wasn't supposed to care for him, that it wasn't her place to take care of him anymore.

She adverted her eyes and he remembered that though she had feelings for him she was fighting them tooth and nail so he could be happy with the girl he was destined to be with. He should be fighting his own feelings too. Especially since he hadn't yet and didn't want to tell her the truth about how he felt for her… you know while she was sober.

She drew up a dry glare on her face and then turned it back to Doris and hissed: "Why the hell did you call me down here if you were just gonna call Steve?"

"You said you weren't coming," Doris answered primly. "How was I to know that you were still going to show up?"

Rowan groaned and rubbed a hand over her face smudging her make up leaving a half moon dark circle under her eye.

"I'm not doing this today," she growled. "You wanna know why it's her fault ask her yourself."

She went to walk past him but he blocked her way. He couldn't help it. He didn't want her to go so quickly. He didn't want this to be their interaction. He wanted so much more than this.

She opened her mouth to tell him to move. He opened his mouth to ask her how she was doing. But Doris was the one who spoke.

"Oh stop being so melodramatic," she snapped and Rowan whirled around.

"Melodramatic?" she echoed. "Don't you fucking push my buttons with all the information I've got in my head."

Doris's eyes narrowed at the threat. Steve wanted to step in and stop this but he also wanted to know what the hell had happened between them to make Rowan so angry and Doris even guiltier than before.

"You wouldn't dare," Doris growled.

"Oh yeah? How about this?" she snapped and then turned to Steve. "The CIA broke into her house 'cause she was hiding government secrets in the walls. HA!"

Doris sat there staring at Rowan in utter horror. She had gone this ashen color. Steve blinked his eyes in surprise. "Is she right? Is that what happened?" he asked.

"Oh! And while you're at it why don't you ask her about Mangosta and my fucking fall down the stairs!" Rowan snapped. "Cause I'm pretty sure all of that is connected."

Steve glared at Doris. What the fuck was going on? CIA? Government secrets? Mangosta? And something about Rowan's last head injury? Doris said nothing. She just stared at him before whispering: "I don't want to talk about it, Steve."

Oh, not this again. He went to argue but Rowan must have been trying to sneak by the while he was distracted. But Steve was blocking the way which meant she brushed up against him as she tried to sneak away. The second they touched that vibration of desire shook through his body like an electric current.

It brought his eyes to her immediately only to find that she was looking up at him as well. She had felt it too. He knew it. He felt it. It made his heart yearn even more for her. But he forced himself to move away from the door so she could get into the hallway.

"How did you get here? Do you need a ride home?" he asked softly.

"I'm fine. Don't worry about it," she answered quickly lowering her eyes and moving away from him.

It was word for word what Doris had just said to him and each word was like a stab straight into his already bleeding heart. But Steve had to let it go. He stepped back so he wouldn't lurch out and grab her, he had to let her walk away from him. He tried to remind himself that his heart was supposed to go to Catherine. But as she walked away he knew his heart was walking away with her.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan returned to her new place and fiddled with the key until she got it to work. She had told Steve she was fine but she was having a hard time coping with the changes. She couldn't help but feel like if her arms had both been working this wouldn't be so hard. But she couldn't manage it. She wasn't managing it because she wanted to be with Steve. She wanted her Five-0 friends and her old room.

She didn't have a ride back from the hospital. She had taken a cab there, only to yell at Doris. She was then going to wait for Alex to be on his break to have him come get her. But then Steve was there and she had to get away before she started crying.

It was so hard seeing him and not be able to hug him like she wanted to. She saw that gash on his head and knew he was coming back from North Korea. She knew what he was dealing with and she wanted to hold him. To soothe him. To make it all better. But that was Catherine's job and not hers.

Rowan shut the door behind her and then set down her purse. She still had boxes to unpack. She had things that Wo Fat had given her to sort through now that they were back in life. Like two boxes of DVDs, two boxes of clothes and one box of miscellaneous items. She supposed she'd get to that before Alex came home. Be some sort of useful.

She walked into the room she now shared with Alex and yelped.

Wo Fat stood leaning against the window. He stared at her with this beaten puppy dog look, all hesitant and wounded as if she were the bad guy.

"You have got to be kidding me!" she cried throwing her purse to the bed as violently as possible.

"Hi Ro," he said sheepishly and she frowned.

"Don't you _hi Ro_ me!" she snapped. "What the hell are you even doing here?"

He opened his mouth, probably to tell her more lies but she wasn't having that either. She stalked forward to where the window was still opened and began to shove him with her one good arm.

"I don't care. Get out," she cried.

"Rowan, just wait," he said trying to shrug off her shoving hands. "Let me explain."

"No!" Rowan thundered. "You lied to me. You kept me hostage. You got me all excited about Japan _and then you shot me_! We are done! You hear me? I don't owe you anything. Not loyalty, not guilt, not pity, NOTHING! Now get out! OUT!"

Wo Fat let her push him. In fact, he was almost half out the window.

"Will you at least let me apologize?" he asked.

"No!" Rowan snapped again.

"Why not?" he asked. He turned back to look at her, one leg out the window one leg in. He looked so hurt and wounded that for a second, she almost relented. But then she remembered that her arm still wasn't working and she let that anger take over her.

"Because it would just be a lie!" she cried and then shoved him right out the window. She heard his startled cry and tried not to wince. She heard the yelp as he landed in the tree, followed by a few more yelps as he bounced off a few of the branches and hit the ground. To really prove how mad she was she should have slammed the window shut, but she didn't want him to be actually hurt. So, she stuck her head out the window to confirm that he wasn't completely dead. He shouldn't be it was a second-floor apartment and he was basically unkillable, but she wouldn't put it past him to get severely injured just to spite her. Luckily, or unluckily depending how she was feeling, Wo Fat was completely fine and already dusting himself off. Oh good he was okay… wait… she wasn't supposed to care about that. Rowan immediately made herself look angry and not relieved.

"Get out of here before I call McGarrett and tell him where you are!" she ordered.

She watched Wo Fat shoot her a look of defeat before walking over to his beaten-up Audi, not sure how he got that out of the HPD impound lot, and then drive away.

She slammed the window shut and then sat down on her bed. She thought getting rid of Steve would make her feel better. She thought not letting Wo Fat explain would make her feel better too.

But she was wrong. She didn't feel better at all. Rowan had never felt more alone in her life.

* * *

 **Okay, so minor spoilers, but not by much. Just some things to look forward too in the next twenty chapters that I already have written. Skip if you don't wanna read them okay!**

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 **Okay I think it's safe down here now. Let's get onto things you can look forward to in the coming chapters.**

 **1\. Rowan and Wo Fat being ridiculous**

 **2\. A heist so clumsily hilarious it should make you laugh (It made me laugh while I was writing it)**

 **3\. More of Wo Fat and Rowan being cute and adorable and ridiculous**

 **4\. Steve stooping to new lows even he's amazed he stoops to**

 **5\. Someone gains the power of super static shock (I'll give you one guess as to who)**

 **6\. Rowan puking A LOT. (no she's not pregnant... though that is coming, I just haven't gotten to that part yet) (okay that might be a major spoiler... but I'm not gonna give away anything else.)**

 **7\. Typical Danny sass and more carguments!**

 **8\. Catherine get's told off... like 8 times in the span of 10 chapters. (I might be slightly exaggerating but I'm not sure by how much)**


	42. Chapter 42

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Well, this is it. The last of the marathon. I'm both happy and sad that it's over. So do you guys wanna know what I'm the most excited for? (other than this one shot for Christmas). For the new year. I'm super excited for the new year. Let me tell you. My goal, I'm not sure if I'm going to get there but I'm gonna try. My goal is to be more than half way through the Season 4 by the end of December or just 30 or more chapters a head of what I'm posting to that in the new year... I can post twice a week. What do you think? Sound good? Here's hoping I can actually do it! Side note, we're almost there. We're almost to 300 don't forget to review. Please remind me which one shot you guys want! See you guys on Friday :D_

Chapter 42

* * *

Steve didn't know what to do with himself after he spoke to his mother. Freddy's funeral wasn't until the next day. He didn't want to go home. So he went to his mother's. He looked at crime scenes for a living. He figured he could handle this, but everything in him was already so raw that he found that he couldn't. He was a steaming pile of rage with nothing to take it out on at that moment.

He stood in his mother's house surveying the damage that was done. This didn't look like a regular burglary. It looked like a hit. They came in, they came out, they got what they wanted and they got a couple jabs in at his mother while they were at it. This meant several things. Either these were professional hits or Rowan was right and the CIA, who hired professionals like this all the time, was behind the break in after all.

The door opened and Catherine appeared.

Aw fuck. Come on. Couldn't he have a break? Just one little break? A couple of minutes to himself? That's all he wanted. Was that too much to ask?

"Hey," she said smiling at him.

"Catherine, what are you doing here?" he asked. Because it was a legitimate question. He hadn't told her what happened purposely.

"You didn't come home. I called Danny and he told me what happened," she said. Fucking Danny. Danny could never keep his fucking mouth shut.

"I thought you'd be getting ready for the funeral, or at least getting some rest," he said to her, turning away.

"The funeral isn't until tomorrow. Besides, I need to be here right now," she told him. Which wasn't true. He was fine without her. Danny would have been nice to have right about now. But he had sent Catherine. The bastard. "What happened?"

"Well, according to Doris, she, uh, interrupted a burglary," he told her.

It took all of one glance for Catherine to turn to him and say: "This doesn't look like a normal burglary."

"No, that's because it wasn't a normal burglary. This was a surgical strike. Whoever did this knew exactly what they were looking for and they knew Doris well enough to know where she would hide something," he told her. He then looked back to her to spell out the obvious truth. "She's lying to me again."

Catherine said nothing. She looked shocked. She looked afraid but he didn't know what she could be afraid of. "I don't know what to do Catherine," he whispered as he brushed past her and away from the wall where the safe had been hidden.

Catherine turned to follow him. "Steve?" she asked, her voice timid. She wasn't usually this fearful, it made him nervous.

"Yeah?" he answered not feeling too confident himself.

"I need to tell you something," she said.

Oh, well that didn't bode well, now did it? "What?" he asked hesitantly.

"Have you ever heard of, um, someone named Mangosta?" she asked as she crossed her arms over her chest. It was a defensive move, a move she made to guard herself when she thought an argument was going to break out. And it was about to.

"Actually. Yes. I just heard that name today," he said, his face becoming grim as she looked up to him surprised. "Rowan mentioned it today. Something to do with her fall down the stairs a few months back."

At the mention of Rowan's name Catherine frowned. "You saw Rowan today?"

"Not on purpose. My mother called her to come pick her up from the hospital before the hospital called me," Steve told her, waving it away. "Now don't change the topic. Who's Mangosta? What does that have to do with Rowan falling and what happened here?"

She stared at him a bit before she lowered her eyes and whispered: "He's an operative from Doris' past in covert ops…"

A strange feeling of new-found dread crept up on Steve. "Please tell me you got this information from Navy intel," he growled.

"No, no I didn't," she admitted. Realization dawned on him and Steve found himself groaning.

"No... Cath… No. Tell me you didn't," Steve groaned.

"There was, uh, an incident that happened around the time that Rowan, uh, fell. Mangosta came after Doris here on the island. She managed to turn the tables on him. I think this could be connected to that," Catherine told him.

She was purposely avoiding Steve's eyes now. Purposely avoiding how Rowan was involved in that incident, though he had a hunch he knew how she really hurt her head. But he had bigger issues then her not admitting she knew what happened to Rowan. She was a liar too. Just like Doris. Just like Rowan.

"Why would you not tell me that?" Steve asked her.

"I wanted to and I should have," she admitted.

"Yeah, you should have!" Steve nearly shouted. He couldn't help it. This was painful. Why was everyone doing this to him? Why was his mother so untrusting? Why was Rowan choosing not to be happy with him? Why was Catherine just as bad at them?

"I made a promise," she said and Steve froze. Everyone and their promises. Fuck them and their promises. Why couldn't anyone keep their promises to him, huh? "And Doris, she didn't want you to worry so I didn't…"

Steve stood there as Catherine trailed off. He couldn't believe it. He couldn't believe that this was all happening to him at once.

"So Mangosta is a real person. He has something to do with Rowan's fall down the stairs," he repeated and Catherine rolled her eyes. He pointedly ignored that. "That's just fucking great. Rowan was right."

"I don't see why it matters if Rowan was right or not," she huffed.

"Because if Rowan was right about that then she's right about this being done by the CIA. About Doris hiding government secrets and that, somehow, she got shot because of Doris," Steve shouted, "That's why!"

He stood there huffing as she glared up at him. He couldn't do this right now. "I don't think you should stay over tonight," he told her before he could talk himself out of it.

Catherine blinked her eyes. "Fine, but you know, your precious Rowan knew all about this too. So, she lied to you as well," she reminded him.

"No Catherine, it's different," Steve cried. "I told her not to tell me things. I purposely told her that I didn't want to know my future."

"It wasn't the future. She was there when Doris found out that Mangosta was back. She was there when he grabbed Doris. She covered up the cause of her injury so you wouldn't worry. She was just as in on it as I was," she cried.

"This isn't about Rowan!" Steve thundered. "This is about you being just as bad as my mother!"

Catherine recoiled. There. He had said it. The hard truth. She didn't say another word to him she merely stalked away, shutting the door quietly behind her. Steve stood there in the dim glow of a single lamp with the sinking feeling that he didn't choose the safest route. That he had chosen the wrong girl. Had let the right girl walk right out of his life.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Trevor had been getting the side-step from everyone these days. He stopped going on the boat with his father and his father barely noticed. No one had heard of a girl washing up on shore, alive or dead. No bodies had been found matching Rowan's description. So, either the experiment didn't work or her body had been washed out to sea.

With every passing day his father got more and more discouraged and Trevor felt more and more guilty. He didn't know how to tell his father he was looking for the wrong thing. He didn't know how to tell his father what he had done. He just didn't.

He liked that his dad talked to him. That he bounced his theories off of him like Trevor actually understood what was being said. He liked that his dad was paying attention to him again. He liked that his dad wanted him around.

But this couldn't keep going on.

So when his dad got back to the hotel Trevor was ready to tell him what he did.

"Dad," he said when he came through the door. "I need to tell you something."

"Look, I know it's discouraging, but it has to be there. We'll widen our net, maybe start looking at pawnshops in case someone's already dredged it up," his father said immediately.

Trevor shook his head. "No. Dad, that's not it… I don't know how to tell you this but… uh… I…"

"Look, if you want to quit and go home, by all means. I know you've been away from your trainees for a while and they probably want you back," he said with a shrug. "Would have thought you'd want to see this through but if you want to quit there's only marginal shame in that."

Wow. Really?

"I wasn't thinking about a trophy," Trevor said letting the anger take control. But when his dad turned back to him with that shocked and wounded look on his face the guilt came back.

"You mean to tell me we haven't been looking for a trophy this whole time?" he thundered. "Do you know what that means? All of our calculations are incorrect! We've been looking in all the wrong places!"

"I know," Trevor answered sullenly.

His father threw himself down onto the bed, pinched the bridge of his nose as he inhaled deeply before resting his elbows on his knees and staring down his son. Trevor took the seat by the desk and tried to avoid his father's eyes. He was only half finished with his confession after all.

"Alright. Then what are we looking for?" he asked. "We'll have to start from the beginning and recalculate it's movements."

Trevor took a deep breath looked his father right in the eye and said: "A body."

His father blinked his eyes, sufficiently shocked by this, as Trevor expected him to be. "A… what?"

"A body," Trevor repeated. "I wasn't thinking of an object, I was thinking of a person."

"A person?!" his father echoed. "Trevor!"

"Yes, yes I know, I get it, but I didn't know it would kill them now did I?" Trevor shouted. "I just thought if I could bring her here it would fix things."

"Her?!" his father thundered.

Trevor sighed. "I thought about Rowan," he whispered and his father jerked liked he had been slapped.

"You thought about your sister…" he sounded defeated. Trevor didn't dare look up.

"She broke our family, okay? You and mom haven't paid attention to a single thing I've done since she died. I felt like I was second best to her, my whole life, because I hadn't been enough to keep you guys together. So, when you showed me that void and told me I could pull something from an alternative dimension through I thought… I thought maybe if I pulled her through… if you and mom got that little girl you wanted so much that maybe we could be a family again."

It was a long rant. It was the first time he had admitted to either of his parents how bad their break up had affected him. To his horror he was crying but he couldn't help it, it was a lot of raw emotion that had brought him to this point.

He hadn't even realized his father had gotten up until his arms were around his shoulders.

"Oh, Trevor, I'm so sorry," he said as he hugged his son for the first time in a very long time. "We never meant to make you feel like that. That was never our intention. Our split up had nothing to do with you, and there wasn't anything you could have done to stop it."

"I know that now, but it didn't feel like it at the time," Trevor said. "I didn't know it would kill her. I didn't think about that. And then when the experiment failed I figured it wouldn't matter what I was thinking about until we came out here looking for it. I just didn't know how to tell you what I had done."

His father ran his hands up and down his shoulders as he cried and he found that he liked the contact so much that he was leaning into it, and practically sobbing over how good it felt to have some sort of comfort from the father who had been absent for so long.

"I've been all over Hawaii talking to morgues and hospitals trying to see if anyone found her body but I've got nothing so far," he admitted. "Just a lot of weird looks and a strange vibe off of one coroner."

"That's what you've been doing these last few days?" he asked.

"Try the last week and a half," Trevor told him trying not to sound bitter. His dad seemed to mull the situation over before turning back to Trevor.

"Alright. Well… I'll talk to my guy at the university, and some of the people in the community and we'll see what we can do about those particles they were following," he said. "Maybe we can find what we're looking for."

Trevor nodded and his father went to the mini bar to break out the whiskey for them. Their nightly tradition. "I wouldn't have pulled her through if I knew it was going to kill her," he whispered.

"Oh, well, it might not have," his father answered. Trevor looked up to him and his father smiled. "The particles were so bright they were trackable, I figured it was because your trophy absorbed them. But if it was a body, they wouldn't have absorbed them as readily. For them to glow like that means her particles must have been charged. Which makes perfect sense to me. That my daughter from a different dimension would be protected from the void in some way."

Trevor narrowed his eyes. Okay, so maybe that made sense. But did that mean that Rowan was still alive? "The problem is she wouldn't exist here. So if she were alive she'd have someone to help her. She'd have to set up an identity and she probably would use her own as she wouldn't know any better. We should go to the police and ask if there's anyone here registered as Rowan Peirce. She'd need fake papers, we could say it was identity theft," his father added. He then whispered: "I wonder why she hasn't tried to contact us?"

Trevor nodded, yes, he wondered that too. If she were alive wouldn't she have tried to find her family. Maybe she thought they wouldn't believe her, to be fair if a random girl showed up in Victoria and told him she was his sister last year he probably would have slammed the door in her face. Or maybe someone was keeping her from them? He did get weird vibes from the law enforcement he had spoken and that one Coroner.

When he went into HPD Headquarters to ask about bodies washing ashore he was handed off to a Sergeant Lukela who wrote down everything about the body he was looking for and said he'd get back to him. He was then told that there was no one matching that description in their files and then politely asked not to ask about it anymore. That was when he started to get the feeling that maybe, maybe people were telling him no for a reason. But what could that reason be?

"Okay. We can do that tomorrow," Trevor said.

His father handed him a glass of whiskey over ice and smiled fondly down at him. "You know, Trev, the reason I asked you to help me with that experiment was because I knew if I did it myself I'd think of her too," he admitted. "I'm sorry I put that on you. But we'll figure this out together. And even if we don't figure it out, things will be different. I'll be more present. I promise."

Trevor smiled. Really, that's all he had ever wanted to hear.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve walked through his house feeling like he had the weight of the world around his shoulders. To be fair, he had just come back from the funeral of his best friend, pre-Danny of course, and that didn't help but it wasn't the main reason he was feeling this way. He had a mother who was lying to him, a girlfriend who was lying to him, and the girl he really wanted to be with wanted him to stay away so that she could be happy and keep him on his right path. Everything in his world, at that moment, seemed to be turning against him and he couldn't figure out why.

Still he handed his mother her tea and then sat on the couch beside her as she sat in the arm chair slowly sipping on the mug of tea he had just handed her. He was in his standard position. Knees spread, elbows resting on knees. He purposely stared at the magazine in his mom's hands so he'd have enough courage to initiate the conversation.

"Hey, mom, we need to talk," he said. There we go, step one.

"Sure, honey," she answered absently. Like there was nothing in the world to be worried about. "What's up?"

"Who robbed your house?" he asked after taking a deep breath. He steeled himself for the answer, the one he knew would be a lie.

"I told you, I didn't see him," she answered. Yep, there it was, the lie.

"Okay," he answered. So that's how this was going to go. "Did it have anything to do with Mangosta?"

"You can't listen to everything Rowan says, honey. The girls on powerful pain meds and she's been pretty vicious since you picked Catherine over her," she said as she took a sip of her tea.

It shocked him to see how quickly his mother threw Rowan under the bus. If only his mother knew the truth. If only she knew that Steve hadn't picked Catherine and that Rowan's persuasion and the fact that she had already picked Alex over him was the reason he wasn't with Rowan right now.

"Catherine told me," he announced and then his mother's eyes were on him. Properly on him.

"That fucking bitch," she snapped, slamming her mug of tea down on the side table beside her.

"Oh mom, stop it," Steve cried. "Is it not enough that you can't open your mouth without lying to me? You got to use Catherine and Rowan against me too?"

"I wasn't using Catherine, I was trying to protect you," she cried, he picked up that she hadn't claimed to not use Rowan against him.

"Mom, could you just stop for a minute? Just stop alright?" he ordered. "Catherine and I had a good thing and now what, huh?"

His mother scoffed at that and Steve frowned. "You had a good thing? Steve. You're head over heels in love with another woman. You and Catherine don't have a good thing. You're both delusional. But that girl loves you, she wouldn't hurt you. Just like I wouldn't hurt you."

"That's not the point mom. You still don't get it."

"Steve, I'm sorry," she cried.

"Who robbed your house, mom," he nearly shouted.

"I don't know!" she shouted back.

Steve got up. He was so frustrated. Why was she lying to him? Why? Couldn't she see he was trying to help? He'd need to try a different tactic or he might get violent. And no one wanted that.

"Okay. What was in the safe?" he asked.

His mother was crying. That alone shook him. Made him feel even worse than he already did. But he couldn't back off now, she was finally breaking. "Fuck, she's already told you, I might as well explain," she said, but Steve didn't know if she meant Rowan or Catherine. "It was a microfiche. It had un-redacted action reports from my entire career in Covert Ops. It had… names."

Holy fuck. Rowan was right. His mother had been hiding government secrets. And the worst kind too.

"Mom, that is incredibly dangerous information, okay?" he snapped. "It could get you killed. It could get me killed."

He mentally added, it could have gotten Rowan killed, because she seemed to know exactly what it was. She probably knew where it was hidden too. Damn he should have just told her to tell him things, he could have found that microfiche and destroyed it before any of this nonsense happened.

His mother looked away from him. Okay, so his guilt trip hit home. Wonderful. "How long did you have it?"

She paused to think about it. Not about how long she had it, but whether or not she should tell him the truth. And she had better not lie to him again. "Since I left the CIA."

"And where'd you keep it all those years?" he asked.

"Here, under the floorboards in the office," she answered. Wow she was on a roll. She hadn't lied to him in at least two minutes. That had to be a whole new record for her. Too bad she was telling him things that were worse than lies.

"You brought it into this house? With dad and Mary and me?" he thundered.

"You don't understand," she cried launching to her feet. "It was to keep you safe."

Oh, who was delusional now? "No, Mom."

"Yes. My leverage. It was my insurance policy. In case anyone ever came after me. It was what kept us safe," she argued.

"So long as nobody knew where it was," Steve reminded her.

"It's all I had," she said. Clearly defeated. All she could do was shrug and stare at him with watery brown eyes.

Steve was primed to walk away but there was one more thing he had to ask. "What does Rowan have to do with any of this?" he asked, his voice dangerously low so she knew how serious he was about it.

"Nothing, Steve, I swear. If she knows anything about this microfiche it's from her visions," she said with a sigh. As if she had expected the conversation to turn back to Rowan.

"And her head?" Steve asked. "And her shoulder?"

"Well… her head wasn't a simple slip and fall. Mangosta knocked her over the head with a lamp when he came to get me. She was fine. It only knocked her out for a few seconds. But I couldn't tell you the real reason she was injured so we came up with a lie. Rowan was so out of it she just went with it and by the time she was clear headed enough to argue the damage was already done," she explained.

"And her shoulder? Why does she think she got shot because of you?" Steve asked.

Doris looked at him but he could tell, he could absolutely tell that she wasn't going to tell him what that was about. Well, then he had nothing else to talk about. He pushed past his mother and walked away. Right out of his own house. He didn't know where he was going. Just that he needed to get as far away from her as possible.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Catherine stood looking out at the water. Usually the water made her feel better, but today, nothing could make her feel better. She had managed to drive Steve away and for the first time she couldn't put the blame on Rowan. Rowan didn't make her cover for Doris. Rowan didn't even tell Steve that Catherine had been involved. It shocked her that she hadn't thrown Catherine right under that bus with Doris. Catherine wasn't sure she would have paid Rowan the same courtesy, and she hadn't when the time arose.

She caught someone coming towards her out of the corner of her eyes. She knew that stride anywhere. _Steve_. She couldn't help but marvel at how handsome he was today. He was out of his dress blues, but still wearing the pants and the crisp white shirt, no tie, half unbuttoned. She also couldn't help but wonder if this was where he'd break up with her. She surely deserved it.

She wanted to tell him that Rowan was involved. She wanted to ask him if he was going to go yell at Rowan too? If he was going to get as mad at her like he got mad at Catherine. But Catherine didn't want him to see Rowan. She didn't want to make things worse by bringing her up when she was certain he hadn't forgiven her for being part of the reason Rowan moved in with Alex in the first place. So Instead, when he got close enough, she whispered the only thing she could say to him in this situation.

"I am so sorry."

He just stared at her. His blue eyes just searching her face. She couldn't read his expression. She couldn't figure out what he was feeling or what he was going to say next. When he didn't talk she added: "I should have told you."

And then he silenced her by kissing her. His kisses used to send a hoard of butterflies up her stomach but since finding out he had feelings for Rowan his kisses hadn't felt right. Not that that stopped her from greedily kissing him back. Her fingers traveling to his jawline to feel his steady beating pulse under her finger tips.

That and his scruff. God she loved his five o'clock shadow. He pulled away from her to look at her. He looked like he might say something, like he was longing for something in particular. Whatever it was it must have passed because he chose to wrap her up in a hug and hold her tightly. Catherine held him back. Glad that he was still hers, glad that this had worked out.

But something still felt off. Steve still felt miles away from her. Physically he was present but emotionally he was gone. Still she clung to Steve, hoping that maybe if she held on long enough, he'd returned to her.


	43. Chapter 43

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: So, guys, cause I love you and I feel like waiting until Friday is a long time, I'mma post again today. I think this kinda got left on a cliffhanger. I can't tell anymore guys! If I get a lot of "How could you do this to us?" reviews I'll post again on Wednesday just so you're not waiting forever to find out what happens. Also. Guys... only 13 more reviews and we get a winner! Don't forget, I need to have the favourite part of the chapter your reviewing PLUS the one shot you want in order for your submission to be considered. If the person who reviews hasn't done that (and I therefore don't know which story they want) I will go to the person who reviewed last (so the 299th reviewer). Guest reviewers please remember your Nickname so I can announce you as the winner if you are the winner. And one one contest submission perchapter, but if you just want to review to tell me more things feel free to do that too. See you guys soon!_

Chapter 43

* * *

Two weeks later and Rowan still didn't have mobility in her arm. They had done extensive tests on her shoulder and only determined that whatever the problem was it was in her head. Which really only made matter worse. Then, of course, she couldn't get a job. No one wanted a one armed anything and she had no prior experience and no one she could use as a reference.

But there were some positives. For starters, Steve had left her alone. She honestly hadn't thought he would. That was both a bit disappointing and something to be happy about. It would have made things harder if he had stuck around. Though she had sort of half-hoped that he would come after her and make her come home. But he had never understood rom-coms so he wouldn't have gotten that. Secondly, she hadn't had a proper vision since she left Steve's house. Thirdly, of course, she had a lot of time to write music since she wasn't running off chasing visions. Which had been a great help for Alex and his band. And lastly, she and Alex had a very active sex life. Even though she only had one arm to work with and it was clear her mind was on something else, Alex was super attracted to her and always up for a tumble, which was great because her self-esteem needed the pick me up.

Alex was being super patient with her. Which was great because she had woken up screaming Steve's name at least 4 times since she had been released. She kept having the same two dreams. Steve losing his head at the hands of a terrorists. Steve and Danny flattened by a collapsing building. It was a bit off putting to have one girlfriend's scream another man's name, Alex kept telling her. And she kept apologizing every time it happened.

But there was one problem she was having that didn't seem to stop no matter how much she wanted it to.

It started with coffees and teas being sent to her in coffee shops by unknown suitors. Then it was envelopes stuffed with money. Packages with DVDs, boxes with stuffed animals, and signed books, gifts she always donated. She wanted to believe they were from Steve but she knew who they were coming from and she was less than pleased.

She took the money though. Alex said it was stupid to turn down free money. Especially when it was an envelope filled with fifties and hundies. Even if they both knew it was blood money.

And then it was spotting him across the street, smoking a cigarette, lounging like he had all the time in the world. Then it was seeing that Audi, fixed up now, but she could still tell it was his car, sitting outside the hospital when she went for physio, or trailing the bus she was on. She didn't know how to get him to leave her alone.

At least he hadn't broken into the apartment again. No the asshole just fucking followed her around.

Like right now.

Rowan had clocked him following her three blocks back. To be fair, she had been walking a long time, all alone, on the streets of Oahu, after one of her appointments. She could have waited for Alex to be done his shift but she wanted to go home. She could have taken the bus but she wanted to save her money for tea.

Besides, she needed to keep her cardio up. A 10-block walk wasn't really that bad, even if it was through a few bad spots. She'd just walk faster. But an impromptu selfie to show Alex that she was alright showed a familiar face in the background.

She wanted to confront him than and then but she decided against and decided to walk two more blocks, taking a selfie at each one, giving him a chance to go away. But he hadn't. This left Rowan with no other options. First chance she got she ducked down a sketchy alleyway. She only had to wait thirty seconds before he appeared, darkening the mouth of the alleyway. Breathless like he ran to catch up to her.

"What the hell is your problem?!" she hissed. He hesitated, before walking fully into the alleyway, throwing his cigarette down on the ground and then glaring back down at her.

"I don't have a problem," Wo Fat said.

"Yes! You do! You're following me!" she told him. "Stop following me!"

"Quite prideful to assume I'm here for you," he snapped folding his arms over his chest and Rowan just lounged back, crossed her own arms over her chest and glared up at him. To her surprise, after a few moments of intense glaring, Wo Fat suddenly threw his head back and groaned at her.

"Why the hell are you walking home alone? The hospital is like 20 blocks from your apartment—" "—It's like ten, why you lyin'?" "It's a bad area and I was… well I was worried about you," he admitted.

Rowan looked him up at down before she too sighed and hung her head. "What do you want, Wo?" she asked.

"I'm just checking up on you," he said. "Making sure you're okay."

"Making sure I'm okay?" she echoed. "Why the hell would you care? _You're_ the reason I'm not okay!"

Wo Fat flinched. "I wish you'd just let me explain," he said but Rowan shook her head.

"There is _nothing_ you can say to make this better," Rowan shouted, to her horror her voice had cracked and bit wet tears had started rolling down her cheek. She was so frustrated and angry that she blew right past mad and into a wet anger. "There are no words. There is nothing you can give me that will make me forgive you!"

Wo Fat actually took a step back from her. And, she guessed it made sense. She was hysterical, and crying, and he was even worse with emotions than Steve. He bottled his up, she overflowed with them and spewed them out like some over-emotional volcano onto unsuspecting victims.

"Alright. Here's what we're going to do. I need you to stop stalking me. I had to swear to Steve you weren't in my life, so you gotta not be in my life, you got me?" she ordered. "Now, what do I gotta do to get you to leave me alone? And don't say, _listen to your apology_ cause I don't want to hear it."

Wo Fat twitched his lips. He went into his pocket and pulled out a single piece of paper. "I want you to take this number. If you need me, and I mean for anything, especially illegal stuff, just dial it."

Rowan looked down to the piece of paper he was offering. It would be easy enough to take it but then she'd be in possession of a direct line to Wo Fat. And she would be honor bound to give it to Steve because she had sworn up and down that she had no way to contact Wo Fat, that she wasn't speaking to him at all anymore. If she took this it would be proof that she still was, he'd be mad if he found out. She looked at that piece of paper as if were a poisonous snake. She didn't want to take it because that meant she'd have to go see Steve to turn it in to him and she didn't want to see Steve.

But… she really, really wanted Wo Fat to leave her alone more. Steve didn't have to find out. She just wouldn't use it. Ever. That would solve things.

"Fine," she said and then took it from him. The second their fingers brushed she was bombarded with images. Flashes of fire and green. Of golden bars and plates. Of hospital beds and burns. Rowan must have collapsed again because the next thing she knew she was on the ground and Wo Fat was crouched in front of her, his hands gripping her shoulders.

"You're going to blow up," she whispered looking up to him. "Steve's going to shoot you out of the sky."

Wo Fat blinked his eyes at her. "What the hell are you talking about?" he asked but there came a series of shouts and he backed away.

"Hey leave her alone!" someone shouted and then he moved away entirely.

"Don't use the helicopter to escape," she said not sure if he could hear her or if he had already walked away. And then the crowd enveloped her.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

The week Rowan got released from the hospital, the P.I. Mick had put on Rowan reported that a man had broken into her apartment and she had pushed him out of the window he had used to get in. Two weeks later that same man followed her down an alleyway and during their argument Rowan just dropped. The P.I. didn't get a good look at what he had done to her to make that happen, though from the pictures it looked like she had just touched his hand.

The P.I. couldn't tell him much about the man that had been following Rowan and breaking into her apartment. Only that he was basically invisible until he wanted Rowan to see him. But Steve knew who the guy was even before he was shown the pictures. And he knew what it was that had Rowan collapsed in an alleyway after briefly touching him.

But no one could tell Steve what Wo Fat wanted with Rowan. Though Steve had very many different theories. But he still couldn't bring himself to go and ask her. In fact he hadn't seen Rowan in almost a month. He was doing much better with it though. It still hurt. He was still filled with a numbing pain. But he wasn't as broken up about it. He just didn't want to go out of his way to see her. You know? He wanted her to come crawling back to him.

He had pride you know.

Then, of course, that week, a full two and a half weeks after Rowan last saw Wo Fat, he got forced to take on a Talk Show host and a camera man. He didn't think it would be that big of a deal until he got a case. Then they were a total annoyance.

He was on the scene with his team looking at a mess of a human being. At least, he hoped it was a human being before this.

"That's some serious mutilation," Chin said standing beside Steve. "The killer must have used an axe or a cleaver."

"We'll have to get Max here, right away," Steve answered and then lounged back. He caught sight of Kono talking to Savannah and rolled his eyes. This was ridiculous. Why was this considered good PR?

"Have you seen anything like this before?" Chin asked and Steve looked down to the masticated human being in front of him. He had seen a lot of things so much so that his list of things he hadn't seen was shorter and getting even shorter.

"No. Never," he answered tried to keep things clipped. He didn't know how well that camera could pick up audio from where they were. But he didn't trust it. He knew enough about spyware to know that they could probably get some if not all the audio.

They waited patiently until Max showed up, Steve ignored how Max seemed to be fawning over Savannah. He almost went over to remind Max that he did have a body to investigate after all but he came over promptly without any need for Steve to prompt him.

But then he was acting slightly strange and there was something new on his overalls. Had that always been there?

"On close examination, victim is male, Caucasian. Face desecrated beyond recognition," Max listed out and Steve stopped paying attention to his clothes and became more interested in the words coming out of his mouth. "Lower arms exhibit significant trauma. With both hands appearing to be severed above the wrist. Liver temp indicates our victim was murdered eight to ten hours ago."

"Killer must've hacked up the body to prevent ID," Steve announced to his team. It was the only thing that made sense.

"It's a pro move," Danny added. Also true.

Steve found himself staring at Max and that thing on his chest. "Max, what is that?"

"What?" Max asked trying to feign innocence. Yeah well it wasn't working.

"There's a camera on your shirt, Max," Steve said, daring him to argue. He didn't. But he did stand as Steve crossed to him.

"Oh, uh, this camera. It's—" Max started but Steve wasn't going to let him continue on with that lie. He knew where it came from.

"Nice try," he said to the lens as he pulled the camera off the shirt. He then turned his scowl down to Savannah who was waiting by the caution tape with the rest of the press. He forced himself to smile as if he wasn't going to chew her a new one and then walked towards her.

"Is this yours?" he asked her, waving the camera in her the air so she knew just what he was talking about.

"Uh… yeah," she admitted. Well at least she wasn't going to lie to his face. "Sorry."

Well she didn't sound sorry.

"This was not part of the agreement," Steve reminder her.

Savannah's smile was a patronizing one as she said: "Well, it's called investigative reporting Commander."

"No… that's what it's called when you interview chefs and celebrities," Steve argued. "This is not _60 minutes."_

If this woman didn't leave him alone he was going to get verbally vicious with her. He had spent enough time with Danny to know how to string together a sentence of purposely hurtful words. She better be careful.

"Hold on. For your information, I have a degree in journalism from Northwestern," she snapped at him as if any of this mattered.

"Your professors must be very proud," Steve shot off immediately. He even added a bit of a hand gesture. Danny would have been proud. He would have probably said something about how he needed more sass in his delivery but he'd be proud. Steve couldn't wait to tell him.

He walked away from Savannah to go tell Danny what he did. But he paused when he heard her talking to yet another officer. Didn't this woman get it? She was stopping these people from doing their jobs?

But then he recognized that profile. He recognized the way that man stood. But it couldn't be. He wouldn't be that stupid to dress up as a cop and coming anywhere near him. Not after what he did to Rowan.

"Hey!" Steve cried and the man half turned, confirming who he was. "Guys! It's Wo Fat! Hey! Savannah, get down!"

A lot happened between him screaming those words and his attempt to get down. He pulled his gun, but Wo Fat pulled his own gun a fraction quicker. Shots were exchanged, Steve was forced back. And even though Wo Fat was outnumbered and out gunned he still managed to get in a car and drive away.

Steve shot a few times at the retreating car before turning around and jogging back to his team. His eyes immediately finding each one of his team mates and confirming none of them were injured

"Duke! Get a bird in the air, right now. Wo Fat is not leaving this island!" he ordered. "And someone get me a location on Rowan!"

Because there was no way in hell he didn't believe that the two of them weren't still in contact and this time he was going to make her admit it to him.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Danny had practically dragged Steve back to their headquarters. He refused to let Steve go off after Rowan without looking at any other leads first. He wanted more than Steve seeing Wo Fat as an excuse to go pick up Rowan for interrogation. The only thing that stopped him was Danny accusing Steve of using this sighting as an excuse to see her, because he realized that second Danny said it that Danny was right. And he hated it when Danny was right so he had to prove him wrong.

So they were back at the palace looking at the footage that Savannah's camera man had caught while they were filming the crime scene.

It showed Wo Fat crouched over the body, pulling up the tarp to look at what was underneath. He didn't seem surprised by the state of the body he seemed like he was looking for something.

"What is Wo Fat looking for?" Steve asked. He needed to get the think tank going. He couldn't come up with ideas all by himself.

"And why show up posing as a cop?" Chin asked. Yes. Another good question.

"My guess is he heard about the murder after the fact. Shows up in uniform so he can get access to the crime scene," Danny said. Okay. Yeah that definitely made sense. But why?

"Which would mean that Wo Fat's not he killer," Kono logically concluded. Steve agreed, if Danny's theory was right that means Wo Fat didn't kill this guy, but then why was Wo Fat interested in him?

"Okay, fine," Steve said even though it wasn't fine. He wanted Wo Fat to be the killer. He wanted a reason to be able to hunt him down. To get him away from Rowan. "Why's he so interested in our John Doe?"

But no one could answer him. Steve tried not to smile, that meant he still had an excuse. God, he wanted to see her. He did, but… at the same time he didn't. He wanted her to miss him, he wanted her to be happy to see him, but he knew she wouldn't be. Not if he went to see her now.

But that didn't stop him from saying: "I know someone we could ask…"

"NO!" was shouted at him from all corners of the room.

"Steve, just because Wo Fat's involved doesn't mean _she_ is," Chin told him and Steve winced at the condescending tone.

"She? Who's this _she_?" Savannah asked.

"Besides, she's not doing really good right now," Kono added. "Arresting her for something we all know she's probably not involved in will make things worse."

Steve turned. "Not good? Why is she not good?" he asked before he could stop himself.

All eyes turned to Kono who was suddenly looking like she'd rather not be there. "I don't know if it's my place to say…" she mumbled avoiding eyes. It wasn't like her to not want to tell him things, it must have been really bad.

"But like… what kind of not good? Did Alex do something to her? Is she sick? What? What is it?" Steve asked getting quite frantic. He must have gotten a crazy look on his face because Kono's eyes widened and she took a step back from him.

Danny stepped in between them and put his hands out. If Steve took one more step Danny's hands would be on his pecs but Steve didn't see him, he was looking over Danny's head and straight at Kono. His eyes boring into her as if that would make the right words come out of her mouth.

"Babe, you need to calm down. She is not your problem anymore," he reminded her. That was true. But it didn't feel like it. The tendency to worry about her was right there, sitting right above his heart. And they had just lit the fuse to a worry bomb. Danny watched his face carefully before sighing and saying: "Alright, I'll tell you but then you let it go."

Steve nodded and Danny glanced back to Kono. "I assume it's the same thing, but… basically physio's not working, she can't move her arm but she should. They did all these tests on her but there's nothing wrong with the nerves or her arm per say. So it's basically all in her head which is really messing with her," he said.

Kono nodded. "Yeah, that's it," she confirmed and Steve tried not to look how he felt. Like someone had kicked him in the gut.

Firstly, the fact that Rowan was going through that was heart wrenching. He should have been there to help her. But he wasn't allowed. And he didn't want to ask if Alex was being of any help either because if the answer was _he wasn't_ he'd intervene. Secondly, clearly his Five-0 friends had been checking up on Rowan and then just not telling him. He wanted them to tell him. He should have known about this way in advance. Maybe he could have sent her something, or had them do something for her to cheer her up. He knew her better than anyone else.

"But none of this is your concern," Chin said as if reading Steve's mind. "She's got Alex, and we've been keeping tabs on her too. You need to focus on other things."

"Look babe, Max has something for us," Danny said though Max hadn't called and Danny hadn't checked his phone. "Let's go see him and we'll go from there okay?"

Steve knew this was a distractionary tactic. He hated that his whole team seemed to be in on it, but they were right. He needed it. So, he let Danny pull him away, he let Savannah and her camera crew follow him and he tried his hardest not to think about Rowan.


	44. Chapter 44

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanfics**

 _A/N: So I did the math and you guys are right waiting until May for them to get together is a long time. I know what I'm like though, so I know that I'm probably gonna post three times a week sometimes, when I get super excited about where we are in the plot line and when we reach certain milestones. And even though I wanted to hoard my chapters to make sure that I had enough to post twice a week for the whole of 2019, I figured I'm so far a head that for the next little while I'll post twice a week. So basically I will post twice a week until the 21st. The Christmas post should go up on the 25th, unless I'm super excited I post it on Christmas Eve. (Only 9 more reviews until we got a winner!) And then I will resume the twice a week updates as of January first. I think that's fair. Side note, the next two chapters are all one big massive part, no POV changes, just all Steve being stupid. But I wrote these two chapters to be funny, so hopefully they read like that :D I'll see you guys on Friday!_

Chapter 44

* * *

They had found their first lead that didn't lead to Rowan or Wo Fat. A man named Markov who worked for the Russian mob. The kind of mutilation done to their vic was very similar, if not spot on, to that mob's M.O. He had chased the guy, jumped off a balcony and into a pool after him and then dragged him back to the Palace.

But the guy gave him nothing. And then Five-0 found him an alibi. So he was not their killer and they were back to their original theory. Wo Fat.

But thanks to the Russian mobster. They did get their vic's name. Roger Carson. And where he rented an apartment.

The apartment had been ransacked. So they were looking for something. And seeing as their vic got murdered they probably hadn't found it in the apartment.

They also found out that he rented a motel room not 36 hours before he was murdered. There they found his girlfriend. There she confirmed that the piece of skin removed from his arm was a tattoo he had just gotten.

This led them to a tattoo parlour. Where they tried to get a picture of the tattoo or the stencil the artist used before he properly tattooed Carson. And where they found out that Wo Fat had already been there, still dressed as a cop, and had taken the stencil. It was after that that Danny had finally conceded that in the absence of no one else to ask, Steve could go and ask Rowan… politely.

Steve was driving almost too calmly. He could tell, because Danny hadn't complained about his driving or the fact that he was driving Danny's car. Maybe he could get through this entire car ride without having Danny bitch at him about the car, his driving or Rowan.

"Okay, let me get this straight. This is Detective Williams's car, but Commander McGarrett does all the driving?" Savannah asked. She had demanded to come in the car with them because their camera guy couldn't keep up to them in their van. Now he was wishing that he hadn't had let her come because she just opened a whole can of worms.

"It's because I'm the better driver," Steve said before Danny could get on his tirade.

"He's a control freak," Danny said matter-of-factly. "That's why he drives."

Oh, Fuck him. He didn't need this right now. "And he's got issues with, uh, the truth," Steve said suddenly unable to speak.

Danny scoffed: "Okay. Why don't you tell her about the remote control thing you got?"

Oh for fucksake. What was he going on about now? "What remote control thing?"

"The thing where you come into my house, grab the clicker, and you gotta be in charge. You gotta pick which TV station we watch," he said as if he had no idea how Steve couldn't know what he was talking about.

"Okay. The way I was brought up. It's polite to let the guest choose what you're going to watch on TV," Steve explained.

"Okay, fair. What about having to be first through every single door? Or having the last word of every conversation? Or picking where I eat lunch every single day? You. Why? What does Emily Post have to say about that?" Danny asked. Steve almost punched him. What did he have a fucking list? And why did he have to list it off in front of Savannah and her camera?

Steve sighed. "You're indecisive. I can't help if it if you're indecisive."

"I am not. You're a control freak," Danny argued.

"Fine. Fine, Danny where do you wanna go to lunch today?" Steve asked.

"I'll go wherever you wanna go," Danny answered immediately and Steve rolled his eyes.

"There. You see. You see," he cried and then turned his eyes back on the road.

"And I still say that this is a bad idea," Danny said and Steve tried and failed to keep his lip from curling up into a sneer.

"Don't give me that look. It is. Okay. You going in there, all raw like this. When was the last time you even saw her, huh?"

 _About a month ago. "_ When we were at the hospital," he answered.

"And you want _this_ to be the first time you see her since that incident?" Danny asked him. No, he didn't but he didn't have another choice.

"Come on, Steve. Me, Chin and Kono all went in and questioned her when she was in that hospital, she knows nothing," Danny reminded him but Steve shook his head. Rowan lied. Rowan withheld information. She kept secrets from him. She did it all with a smile on her face and innocence in her eyes. And that was months ago, all of that could have changed by now.

When he got to the bar he parked carefully and then Steve got out of the car and walked confidently up to the bar's door, only to falter right outside. Danny joined him standing at his side, shoulder to shoulder.

He too stared at the door before turning to Steve and saying: "Do you want me to go in instead?"

Steve lowered his eyes. He wanted to say yes, he didn't want to see her like this. Even if he was wearing his dark blue v-neck shirt, which was one of the shirts he had used to let her use as pjs. He had packed it away in his trunk a month ago as it was the last shirt that had her scent on it and he had wanted to preserve it. But after he had jumped into that pool this was the only clean and dry shirt he had to change into. He had preened before showing up, he wanted to look like he didn't try that hard to look good, and he was certain he had got that down.

"She's going to lie to you, Danny," he said.

"She's going to lie to you too," Danny shot back.

He turned to Danny and said: "If she lies to me at least I'll call her out on it."

Danny shrugged because he never really called her out on her lies, mainly because Rowan didn't really lie to him. She apparently only lied to Steve. He remembered the pictures of Rowan and Wo Fat and he let the anger flow free.

Steve slammed the door and stormed into the small bar where he could hear music playing. Getting into the club he could see that it was Rowan up on the stage, with Alex's band behind her, belting out one of his songs as if it were hers. Her arm was still in her sling, which worried him because the P.I. said she was going to physical therapy and she was getting back mobility. And his friends had just told him that that wasn't true. Why was he getting the wrong information?

And why was she singing this song? Wasn't Alex the lead singer?

Rowan stopped mid lyric when she spotted him and then she came to a complete standstill. The music clattered to a stop, the mic slipping out from between her fingers and hitting the floor. She looked ashen, like she might faint.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, she looked like she had seen a ghost. He knew it wasn't fair. He knew that she didn't want to see him that she wanted the chance to get over him. Appearing only a month after she told him to leave her alone seemed the pathetic move but this was work related… or so he kept telling himself.

"I need to talk to you," he said coming towards her, not liking that the camera crew was following them.

Rowan shot a glance at Savannah and the camera behind her. "What is this?" she asked pointing at her.

"Just pretend we're not here," Savanna ordered and Rowan's eyebrows shot up in surprise.

Rowan turned that glare back to Steve and groaned out his name. He shot a glance at the Savannah before turning back to her. "I can't do anything about it. The Governor decided that this was a good PR move."

Rowan bent down and picked up the mic before carefully putting it back on the stand. She suddenly broke out in loud laughter. It had been so long since he had heard it that he almost found himself smiling and laughing with her. "Oh God, you must hate that," she said to him. She then looked back to Savannah. "He's not a talker. The best way to get him going is to complain about his driving or his controlling nature. Oh! Have they had a cargument yet?"

"We do not have carguments," Danny and Steve snapped together as Savannah said: "Yes, we just witnessed one."

"Rowan," Steve growled and suddenly Rowan's eyes dropped away. Immediately he regretted it, they were almost to a place that could be considered back to normal and he had ruined it.

He heard the disappointment and sadness in her voice as she asked: "What do you want Steve?"

"Wo Fat's back on the island…"

"He never left," she answered immediately and then winced and groaned as she realized what she had said.

"How do you know that?" Steve asked her as Rowan busied herself with getting off the stage and walking away from him. He wanted her to tell him the truth. Please God don't let her lie to him. "Rowan. How do you know that?"

"I'm not saying it in front of a TV camera," she said. He didn't know why she didn't want to say it, it wasn't like it she had had a vision, he knew it was because he had pictures of him visiting her.

"Mmm, her visions," Danny murmured, he then turned to the Savannah and said: "She's psychic."

Both Rowan and Steve turned to him glaring at him as he just stood there staring back at them as if Rowan hadn't just said she wanted to say any of that in front of the camera crew.

"Thanks Danny," she snapped the words stained with sarcasm.

"Anytime, Ro," he shot back a smirk on his face.

"Look, I don't know where he is. We don't talk. I just had a feeling," she told Steve. Flat out lied to his face. "That's all. Are we done?"

"No, we're not done," Steve cried. "You're lying to me."

"I am not!" she cried.

"I know you've seen him Rowan. I have pictures!" he shouted pulling out the first picture the P.I. had given him and shoving it in her face.

It was the one of her and Wo Fat in her apartment through a window. They were clearly arguing. Rowan snatched the picture out of his hand.

"Where did you get this?" she cried. She then turned her shocked eyes back up to him. "Did you hire someone to follow me?"

"No, Rowan. I didn't," Steve lied, because if she could lie to him he could definitely lie to her. He had more to say but Rowan turned to Danny.

"Danny!" she whined and Danny raised his hands in surrender.

"No, I'm not a part of this!" he cried which just caused Rowan to groan at him. Steve ripped the picture out of her hand to get her attention back.

"This was taken by a surveillance detail. Alright? They were tracking him not you," he lied because he couldn't bear for her to know the truth.

"Really? Then why don't you ask your surveillance detail where he is?" she asked softly. Steve needed to deflect because he didn't have a good answer for that right now.

"This was taken three weeks ago. Right after you got out of the hospital." he said to her. "I need to know what he said to you."

"I wouldn't let him talk to me," Rowan said. "I kicked him out."

"And you expect me to believe that he just listened to you? That you told him to leave and he did as you said?" Steve asked.

"Yes, Steve, I do, because it's true," she replied she replied finally looking him in the eye. That moment was everything he had been wishing for and dreading since he realized he'd have to see her. The air sucked out the atmosphere. He lost the world. All he saw were those beautiful blue eyes. The eyes he wanted to wake up to, the eyes he wanted to look into as he leisurely kissed the brains out of his girlfriend. Fuck Rowan and her fucking wonderful eyes.

"And you haven't seen him again?" he asked.

"No," Rowan snapped.

"You sure?" Steve probed.

"YES!" Rowan cried.

Steve brought out a second photograph, the one of them in an alleyway and this time Rowan glared up at him. "That's it. You absolutely one hundred percent have someone following me!" she cried.

"No. I. Don't!" Steve growled, punctuating each word.

"DANNY!" Rowan screeched and Danny threw up his hands in frustration.

"OY! I do not want to be a part of this!" he cried.

Both Rowan and Steve glared at him though until he groaned loudly. "Okay, look, I can neither confirm nor deny whether or not Steve is stalking you himself or if he's got someone following you, okay?" he asked. He then added: "Bro's before hoes, babe!"

Rowan gasped as if he had insulted her. She then sighed and shrugged. "Why am I actin' upset? It makes complete sense."

"Thank you," Danny said and Rowan nodded to him. Like a bro nod. Like she got him.

"He's a deranged criminal, Rowan," Steve reminded her getting her attention back on him. "Why are you protecting someone who shot you?"

"You were shot by Wo Fat?" Savannah asked. "You're one of the main reasons that this is personal to Steve?"

"What?" Steve asked. Who had told her that?

"Well Detective Kelly mentioned that things with Wo Fat are personal. That he did things to make them personal. Like murdering your father and kidnapping someone close to you," Savannah explained. Steve scowled. Oh yes, he would be having words with Chin later.

"Yes, Rowan was the _someone close_ that was kidnapped by him. During our attempt to rescue her Wo Fat shot her so Steve would deal with her and not chase him," Danny told her ignoring Steve.

"Danny!" Both Rowan and Steve snapped at the same time. Danny spread his arms open, the silent _what gives?_ As if he didn't know that neither Steve nor Rowan wanted that on daytime television.

"So you spent a great deal of time with this villain," the Savannah said to Rowan before turning to Steve. "And you let him get away to take care of her? Who exactly is Rowan to you again?"

"I'm no one special," Rowan said to her. "Look. You can ask Alex. Wo Fat kept trying to explain to me and I kept ignoring him. The argument got so bad I pushed him out the window. I haven't seen him since. Simple. As for the Alleyway, he… he just keeps following me. That was me asking him to stop."

"Well we're going to have to corroborate that," he told her. "And Alex wasn't there for either of these situations, now was he?"

"Well no…" Rowan said, her eyes widening as he went to his to pull out his handcuffs. She gasped when she saw the silver in his hands.

"No," Rowan and Danny said together. But it was Rowan who said: "Don't you dare arrest me, Steven McGarrett."

She used his full name. Nothing chilled him more than seeing that look on her face and hearing her say his full name in that tone.

"Yes. Please don't," Danny added. "Steve. Let it go. She's not lying. I believe her. Let's go."

Steve stared at her, he didn't believe her. He knew she was lying. And he was livid that she was protecting Wo Fat. The man who took her from him. Who held her hostage. Who had eventually shot her. Why was she protecting Steve's arch nemesis? What was she getting out of it? Had he threatened her? Why wouldn't she let him help her? In a matter of seconds Steve was suddenly livid. Zero to one hundred real quick

Steve grabbed her good arm, hating that the electricity still flowed between them whenever he touched her. Rowan glared up at him, tears in her eyes. Fuck he made her cry. Fuck. Fuck Fuck. _Stay strong McGarrett._ He thought to himself, but he could feel the anger and guilt rising up his throat.

He leant in close to her, his mouth hot against her ear. She still smelled like roses and instantly his body reacted to being this close to her. Still he forced himself to stay angry, to hiss into her ear: "Well you wanted to get over me. This should help."

"One of my arms doesn't work, Steve, what are you going to do? Handcuff the cripple?" she snapped.

Good point. So, Steve just kept a hold of her good arm. He dragged her through the club and out to the Camaro. He opened the car door and softly put her inside. The TV Host jumped in the back from the other side the camera man followed her making the back crowded.

"Steve?" Rowan asked as he shut the door. Fuck Savannah just wouldn't quit.

"So tell us. How long have you known Commander McGarrett? There's a lot of tension between you two, what's that about?"

Rowan just stared at the woman as the questions fired out at her. Steve got in the driver's side and Rowan turned to him again. "Steve?" she asked her voice warbling. She wanted him to save her. She wanted him to step in. And usually he would have by now, but she wanted to get over him, she wanted to forget all about him. She he'd play the villain if that was what he needed.

"You spent time as Wo Fat's prisoner, I'd love the exclusive scoop on that. And while you're at it tell me about your psychic abilities," Savannah continued.

Rowan turned back to her, fear and shock on her face. It was becoming clear to her that Steve wasn't going to help her. There was nothing he could do but drive.

But Rowan wasn't going to just let this woman harass her. No. Rowan had to torment her and him. He got two feet away from the curb, he was almost fully on the street when Rowan just started screeching. One long high-pitched note, so loud, so high that he swore he saw the glass of the windshield trembling.

But what had Steve slamming on the breaks was because that screech was in the shape of his name. It broke his heart to hear his name coming from her in such a manner.

"Jezus," Danny cried. Though Steve wasn't sure if it was because of the screaming or the quickness of Steve's breaking.

Steve was out before anyone could say anything. He went over to the other side of the car, tugged open the door. "Out," he ordered. But neither the camera man nor Savannah moved. He caught sight of Rowan, her face stricken, the tears streaming down her face. She sobbed out his name again and that was it.

He lurched forward, he grabbed the camera man and threw him out of the car. He then grabbed Savannah and pulled her out, being sure to deposit her on the curb a bit more gently then he had the camera man.

"Wait! Commander McGarrett, what are we going to do? How are we going to get back?" she asked.

"Get a cab," he snapped slamming the door shut. He got back in the car and drove off. There was silence except for Rowan's sniffs.

After a sufficient enough silence Danny turned to him and said: "You realize the Governor is gonna kill you right?" he asked.

Steve said nothing, he merely shifted in his seat knowing it was true. From the back came a soft whisper of: "Thank you," from Rowan and that alone made it worth it.


	45. Chapter 45

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: HAPPY FRIDAY! This is all one big huge part from Steve's P.O.V. The next chapter will be about other people I promise. 5 more reviews and we've got ourselves a winner! That is so exciting. I uh... I do have some slight bad news though. So on top of me hitting a major writer's block i uh... wow.. nothing I do makes you anonymous guys happy, huh? Usually the polite response to someone going above and beyond because you complained is thank you, cause at no point do I actually have to post more frequently just cause you demand I do so. AND You guys know what a redemption arc is right? Yeah, well in order to get to the redemption arc in season 4, some pretty awful things have to happen first, can anyone guess what part of the story we're on right now? I've said it a million times. Trust me and Trust the plot, and it will MAKE SENSE. Can't have a redemption arc with nothing to be sorry about. ALSO I NEVER said that these relationships are sticking around for another 50 chapters, ALL I SAID was that Rowan and Steve are getting together around the 90th chapter. So stop putting words in my mouth. Onto the **Bad News**. I have essentially lost the will to write and the usual excitement I get when I post for you guys. So we're going to do one more week of double posts (simply so I can announce the winner) and then we're either going to go to singles or I may not post until the new year. I'm sorry but I'm trying to get in front of this writer's block and I don't want to run out of things to post for you guys, cause when that happens there will be no updates for months at a time. Some of my stories have been abandoned for years because I lost the mojo on them and I can't get it back. So I'm gonna binge watch Five-0. I'm gonna work on the Christmas fics I have to write (Did I mention I have TWO?!) and PRAY that the mojo comes back. Cause I really don't wanna leave you guys high and dry. See you on Tuesday!_

Chapter 45

* * *

Steve leant against the smart table, looking over the evidence. The atmosphere was charged. Each Five-0 knew that Rowan was in one of their interrogation rooms in the basement. Each one except Catherine that was.

Steve had been downstairs putting Rowan in an interrogation room when Catherine came and had therefore been surprised when he came back up and found her waiting for him. She was there to surprise him with lunch, just because she cared. She was still in her army fatigues, having come straight from the boat and he should have been happy to see her, but he wasn't. Steve had tried to get her to go but she was adamant she was going to stay. That left him to him that he could keep the fact that Rowan was here under wraps and he was doing a good job of it until the TV Host stormed into the office with her Camera man in tow ready for a fight.

"You agreed I could go anywhere you went," she snapped to him. "I should have been in that car with your suspect."

"Wait, you have a suspect?" Catherine asked.

"I wouldn't call her a suspect," Chin said shooting Steve a glare. "More like a possible connection."

"You were supposed to be a silent shadow," Steve growled to Savannah. Trying his hardest to ignore both Chin and Catherine. "You were just looking for your next scoop. You were traumatizing her."

"That doesn't matter. You shouldn't have thrown me out of the car," Savannah complained.

"Then you should have shut up," Steve snapped.

"Steve, who did you arrest?" Catherine asked, clearly more than suspicious, only to be ignored again.

"It was an interesting angle. The girl who was kidnapped who still talks to her captor. Is she suffering from Stockholm Syndrome? And that tension between you two, what is that about? All of these are good angles for the show!" she complained.

"ROWAN'S HERE?!" Catherine shouted and Steve groaned.

"Not now," he hissed.

"Oh, so the current girlfriend can determine that it's the ex-girlfriend from those identifiers and she's not happy that Rowan's near-by," she said. "Interesting, Interesting…"

"She's not his ex-girlfriend," Catherine snapped just as Steve snapped: "Rowan's not my ex."

"Uh, guys," Chin tried to interject but was promptly ignored.

"Look, none of this has anything to do with our case," Steve argued.

"Oh, but Rowan does?" Catherine argued.

"Yes! Catherine. She's the last person to see and talk to him. And if he's willing to break into her apartment to see her then I'm betting she knows how to get a hold of him," Steve nearly shouted.

"GUYS!" Chin cried and both Steve and Catherine turned to him shouting: _What?!_ at the same time.

"Someone's hacked into our system," Chin said gesturing to the smart table. "I can see them moving things around but I can't stop them."

Steve and Catherine all looked down at the computer just in time to watch the video function take over, opening up their webcam and conferencing it with someone else's. When Steve looked up Wo Fat's face was on their monitor.

"Hello Commander McGarrett," he said a large smirk on his face. He was still wearing the cop uniform. He could tell by the navy blue and somewhat visible golden accents. God he looked so fucking smug.

Steve shot a glance to Danny and then Catherine and then glared at the screen. "What is this?"

"I hear you need someone to corroborate an alibi," he said with a dry glare.

"You're calling me because I arrested Rowan?" Steve cried. How the hell was this not evidence that Rowan was still talking to Wo Fat?

"Yes. Honestly Commander, I know you're upset she picked me over you…" "— _She did not pick you!_ " "…but you can't just go around arresting the people who don't like you. The prisons would be over run!" Wo Fat finished. "Besides, she's going through enough without having you bully her, have you no heart?"

Steve could feel Catherine's eyes on him but he didn't dare glance at her. Steve merely glared up at the sociopath on the screen. He couldn't believe any of these words had dropped out of Wo Fat's smug mouth.

"Are you telling me, you hacked our system simply to get a hold of me and Rowan an alibi? Why didn't you just call me? Or her? I have her phone, you know. And how are you evening doing this?" he asked. A head popped in from behind Wo Fat, a face that Steve recognized, holding an icepack to an eye.

"McGruff!" Toast called. "I've been coerced!"

"Back off or I blacken your other eye, pot head!" he warned shoving Toast back out of the way. "Ignore him."

"You realize this doesn't make her look innocent, right?" Steve asked and Wo Fat actually paused for a second as if he hadn't realized that.

Wo Fat's eyes narrowed. "You said you didn't believe her when she said she wasn't talking to me. You flashed her that picture the P.I. you hired took," he said. Steve blanched. Fuck. Catherine didn't know about the P.I. for obvious reasons, neither did Rowan, but if Wo Fat knew how long until he told Rowan?

"How do you know about that?" Steve asked between grit teeth.

"You're not the only one with people following her," Wo Fat said. "Do you want me to tell you what happened or not?"

Steve just glared at him and Wo Fat's smirk returned to his face. "It's just like your P.I. told you. A guy broke into her apartment that she then argued with and pushed out a window," Wo Fat said. "You should ask your P.I for the rest of the photos."

He held up one to the camera. A very nice shot of Wo Fat actually half out the window with Rowan in the process of shoving him. Anger clearly the primary emotion on her face.

"See, I have evidence of the assault. I think I should press charges," Wo Fat said.

"Yeah, why don't you come down to HPD, we'll draw up the documents," Steve offered sarcastically which earned him a chuckle.

"I was thinking you could just do it for me, seeing as you're so interested in keeping Rowan locked up," Wo Fat snarled.

"While I got you here, do you want to tell me what you're interest in Carson is?" Steve growled.

"Nice try Commander," he taunted, saluting him as if he were in the navy and showing Steve respect. Which he wasn't on either count. And then the screen went blank.

"Oh my…" Savannah said and Steve inwardly swore. She had been filming all of that? "There sure is a history between you three isn't there?"

Steve glanced over to where Catherine was practically vibrating with rage, then to Danny who was vibrating just trying to keep his laughter at bay and then to Chin who was trying to hide his own smile.

Well things couldn't get much worse, could they?

"I'm going to send a unit to Toast's before he gets himself shot," Danny said pulling out his phone.

"I'm going to go get Rowan out of lock up," Kono said moving towards the elevator. "I'm sure she'd like to go home."

Oh god. They could get worse. They really could.

Catherine turned to him, her hands on her hips as she glared at him. "You actually arrested Rowan in connection to this case?" Catherine asked. "So she had him in her apartment, it doesn't mean she knows anything about this. And a P.I. Steve? You hired a P.I. to follow her? Are you out of your mind?"

"I just wanted to confirm that she wasn't in contact with him," Steve said and that was half true. The other half was that he wanted to make sure that she was okay but Catherine wouldn't appreciate that. "Do we have to have this argument now?"

He gestured to the camera and Catherine luckily fell silent. Steve went into his office where he had left Rowan's phone. He had cloned it so he could listen in on her calls, which would be a great help to see if she was in fact still in contact with Wo Fat. And also, because then he could see firsthand what she was up to.

He had the phone to offer her just as the elevator opened up. Rowan's glare was dark but the second she saw Catherine she blanched and faltered.

"I'm not here of my own volition," she said to her and both Catherine and Steve scowled.

"Yes, Rowan, I know," she said and Rowan sighed.

"Good, good," she said mostly to herself before she turned to Steve and offered out her hand to accept her phone. "Am I good to go now?"

"Yep. Wo Fat corroborated your story," Steve said and then carefully watched Rowan's face.

Rowan actually straightened and then stared at him. She blinked her eyes as she digested the information and then narrowed her eyes as she asked: "He did what now?"

"He had Toast—" "—wait, like food toast or person Toast?" "—hack our computer system and link us up with a conference call—" "—Oh… you mean person Toast." "—simply so he could tell us that you and he weren't talking," he said ignoring Rowan's interjections.

Rowan frowned. "Well that doesn't make me look innocent at all," she said.

"No… no it doesn't, does it?" Steve snarled.

"Okay, well I couldn't have called him. I was with you the whole time and then you took my phone," she said as if she were worried he was going to put her back into cells.

"Its fine Rowan, we're going to make sure he doesn't kill Toast, you can go home now," Steve said. "Uh… Alex can come get you… right? Or I can pay for a cab…"

Oh, he was doing so well up until that point. He just had to ask if she had a ride. Like he still cared. Well he did care but he didn't want anyone, least of all Rowan, to know that. But no Rowan was just blinking her eyes and staring at him. She then absently looked down at her phone.

"Uh, yeah… Alex… sure…" she said she then looked up. "I can go, right?"

She was distracted. Why was she so fucking distracted? Why did she want out so fast? Did she really want to get away from him? Was he really all that bad?

"Yes, Rowan you're good to go," he said trying very hard to not take her behaviour personally. And failing miserably.

Rowan's head went back down to her phone. "Good," she said absently as she turned away from them. "Bye guys."

Steve watched her slowly walk out as she stared at her phone. He was pretty sure that was suspicious but he didn't know if that was just his natural reaction.

"That was weird," Danny and Steve sighed with relief. Okay so it wasn't just him.

He wanted to agree with Danny, to high-five him for pointing out what he thought was so blatantly obvious, but a phone in his office was ringing. It wasn't his cell phone because that was in his pocket, nor was it his desk line because he'd have seen the lights blinking. He realized quite quickly that he knew exactly what it was that was ringing.

But she could have just been calling Alex right? She did need a ride, after all.

He went into the office and picked up the call she was making. It was a number that he didn't recognize, it wasn't one of her contacts and then he waited while she listened to it ring.

When someone answered he knew he recognized the voice even if it just said one word.

"Hello?"

It was Wo Fat. She hadn't been out of his line of sight for more than thirty seconds and she had called Wo Fat.

"Don't kill Toast!" came Rowan's frantic voice. Steve scowled. How could she have done this to him? Lied straight to his face and then thirty seconds after leaving she goes and calls him. Of course, she was just trying to help but did she have to do this now? Did she have to lie to him? Why didn't she just stay and call Wo Fat in front of Steve? Why?

Steve stalked to the smart table and slammed the clone phone down onto the table. It immediately synced in and played the call for everyone to hear.

"How would I even go about killing a breakfast food, Rowan?" Wo Fat answered in a dry tone.

All eyes were on Steve now as they listened to the conversation. There were a lot of questions in their eyes. Probably questions like: How are you doing this? And when did you get the chance to clone her phone? Is that Wo Fat?

Catherine pinned him with a dark glare and asked in a hushed voice: "You cloned her phone?" But everyone ignored her and luckily no one else said a thing choosing to listen before questioning him.

"Don't get smart with me, Wo," she growled. Oh she was so _familiar_ with him. Why was she so familiar with him? "The hacker. Do not kill my hacker."

"Your hacker?"

"Yes! Toast is my friend and I don't want you to hurt him, please?" she pleaded.

"He's seen my face, Rowan, he has to go," Wo Fat said calmly. Danny swore quietly beside him and pulled up his own phone, probably to urge the unit he sent to get there faster.

"PLEASE?!" Rowan cried and Wo Fat sighed in frustration. Was he actually going to listen to her? Wo Fat was going to take orders from Rowan?

"Fine! But I have a condition…"

"I am not listening to your apology," she snapped.

"Yes. I figured. But that's not the condition. I'll be leaving you another envelope. I'd like you to keep it, not Alex," he said. Envelope? He had been sending her things? Why? What was in them? Why the hell hadn't she told him about that?

"I don't want your blood money," she growled. HE WAS FUCKING FUNDING HER?! Okay so that was why she hadn't told him she had been receiving packages from him.

"I know you're having trouble finding a job. I know you're depending on Alex. I've been sending you money so you didn't have to worry. So you won't have nothing if Alex gets tired of being second best," Wo Fat explained. And just like that hope soared up into Steve's chest. Was she having relationships problems with Alex? "You don't have to keep it, once you have a job give it to charity or something. But for right now, I'd like you to have it in case of an emergency."

Steve felt the air leave his body. Wo Fat really was just trying to take care of her. He was looking out for her best interests the way Steve was he just had no morals and didn't seem to care that Rowan had said no and seemed uninterested in any assistance from him.

There was a strange sound in the background. It started with the murmur of voices, and then rose with the sound of sirens.

"What's going on?" Rowan probed. "Wo, what's happening?"

"You're phone is cloned," he said. "Your Toast has just informed me that your Commander is listening in on us. Which makes no sense, he knows where I am, and he's sent cops here."

Rowan was silent for a bit. "What?"

"You know what. Why don't you call me when you get this sorted out, or from a more secure phone hmm?" Wo Fat said and then he hung up the phone.

The second the phone went dead another call popped up on the cloned screen. Rowan was calling Steve. He stared at the screen, he had been dreaming of this moment. The moment Rowan would call him but he knew what this conversation was going to be and it wasn't the convo he had been dreaming about. So he declined it. As soon as he did she dialed another number. Danny's. Steve turned to him as Danny looked down at the phone he still had in his hand.

"Don't you dare," Steve growled.

Danny nodded and declined the call. And then she was calling Chin who also declined the call. And then Kono who declined as well.

Steve let out his breath, he was safe. He'd just have to call down to the front office and tell them not to let her back in. But as soon as he turned Catherine pounced on him.

"And how is cloning her phone pertinent to your case?" she hissed as if she didn't just witness the same phone call as him. She was calling someone else again, he could hear it ringing, but he figured whoever she was calling now would ignore the call too.

"Not now, Cath," he pleaded. "Please, I can't do this now."

"Danny?"

Steve froze and turned. That was Rowan's voice echoing around them. He turned and saw that smirk on Danny's face and then looked to the phone still on the smart table broadcasting the call to confirm that he had actually done it. And he had. Danny had actually called Rowan back.

"Hey Ro, I missed your call, what's up?" he said. He had a smirk on his face that Steve wanted to slap off.

"Put Commander McStalker on the fucking phone," she ordered.

Danny offered him the phone. "It's for you."

"I'm not taking that call!" Steve hissed.

" _PICK UP THE PHONE!"_ Rowan screeched and Steve lurched for it before her screaming could damage any of the screens in the room.

"Jeezus calm down will you?" he asked. "What? What could you possibly want now?"

"I'm going to ask you a simple question and you better not lie to me," she told him. Oh like Mrs. Liar-liar-pants-on-fire had the moral high ground here. "Did you clone my phone?"

"Of course not," Steve answered. She couldn't prove it after all.

"Oh really? Then why can I hear my voice coming out of your office?" Rowan asked and Steve looked down to the phone in his hand and then to the computer that was projecting her voice. Oh… maybe she could prove it.

"Turn around you idiot," Rowan growled and when he did Steve found himself yelping and jumping back.

He had not expected Rowan to be coming down the hallway towards him, a glare on her face so dark he swore he saw the lightning flashing in her eyes.

"You _cloned_ my phone?" she snapped shaking her phone in his face once she got closer to him. Her eyes snapped to the phone on the smart table. Before he could stop her she had snatched it up and slammed it down on the ground effectively destroying it.

She then turned those angry blue eyes back on him and growled: "How dare you," in a low dangerous tone.

The anger built up in him quicker than it ever had before. He leant in closer to her to narrow his eyes and growl right back: "You weren't even out of this office for thirty seconds before you called the man you said you had no contact with. I knew you were lying. That is why I dared."

Rowan took a step back from him and lowered her eyes away from him. "I wasn't ever going to use the number, but you said he had Toast… and I know what he's like…"

"So he gave you a number?" Steve asked sighing and pinching the bridge of his nose. "And you lied to me and said you weren't in contact."

"We're not in contact. I took the number because he said he'd stop following me around if I did. And I _just_ told you I wasn't ever going to use it," Rowan argued.

"You could have given it to me," Steve snapped.

"Yeah but then I'd have to see you and I didn't want to do that," Rowan cried, tears forming in her blue eyes. Steve felt like crying too. How was this what they had become?

"Then give it to Danny, or Chin, or Kono, or fucking DUKE!" he cried. "Why did you keep it?"

"Because it was the only thing I had that was all mine! Not Alex's! Not yours! Not Five-0's! Mine!" she shouted back. Two tears leaked out of her eyes but she quickly brushed them away. "Look. I'm tired. I want to go home. I want you to leave me alone. I get that I did something bad. I get that I should have told you. But I didn't. I didn't want to. So here."

She shoved the paper into his hands but Steve was incapable of holding it. It fluttered out of his hand and to the floor as he just stared at her. He wasn't sure why it broke him to hear those words come out of her mouth, but all he knew was that it shattered the anger that had welled up in his throat and replaced it with a desperate need to cry his own tears.

"If I help you with your case will you let this go?" she asked. "No more surveillance teams, no more cloning my phone?"

"Do you know something about this case?" Steve asked. He pointedly ignored Danny as he stooped down to pick the scrap of paper Steve had dropped. Rowan didn't need it anymore after all, the number was in her phone now.

"Your Vic had a tattoo, right? Of some girl? A Hawaiian goddess? Yeah, well there's some detail on her skirt. It matches up to a trail somewhere. It leads to something. No, I don't know what it is but if I had to guess, I'd say it leads to treasure," she answered.

"You'll have to stay until I can confirm if what you're saying is true," Steve said.

"Fine," she said and then walked away from him. She went into his office and then sat her down at his desk. His eyes followed her, unable to look away. When he realized he was staring he turned away and then back to the table.

"Uh… can we enhance the picture that Wo Fat is holding in the surveillance please, see if she's right?" he asked but he didn't have to because Kono had already done that and matched it up with a trail in the Ko'olau Valley.

Rowan was right. It was a map. Steve looked up to Rowan who was in his office her electric blue eyes staring back at him as she was on the phone. His office line.

He didn't have to guess who she was calling. He knew what she was doing. Who she was warning. But it wouldn't matter. Steve was going to get Wo Fat. He was going to get that man out of Rowan's life and then somehow, once things calmed down and she saw reason, he was going to get her back and make her forget all about Wo Fat.


	46. Chapter 46

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFiction**

 _A/N: So we got a winner! It's the Guest Reviewer: JP! YAY! So JP requested a Christmas Carol version, so I will be doing three small chapters. One of Christmas past, one of a non-canon to my story Christmas present and one of Christmas Future which may or may not be canon. So, there will be two posts this week and then from next week until the new year I'll be posting once a week._

 _So, you know, there's a huge difference in complaining about how things are going and telling me where you'd like to see things go and the negative feedback I was getting. To clarify I love to hear fan theories and your input on things you'd like me to change in the original Five-0 plot, and I don't mind constructive criticisms, like not enjoying what the characters are doing. But the kind of complaints I'm getting aren't constructive criticism. It's just plot bashing, and paragraphs of miserable comments, I get it, he's an abuser… THAT IS THE POINT. Jezze I didn't really think I had to say it. But yes. I WROTE HIM LIKE AN ABUSER FOR A REASON! Refer to last chapter for the reason. Not the most popular opinion of Steve, but the point of my story is to explore everyone's potential, which includes Steve being a complete and utter twat. That being said. Whoa boy did you guys hit me with a bunch of inspiration! Let me tell you, I changed up some future plot points, and came up with great ideas and while that was great, I got no inspiration for the episode I'm currently on. I think I have what I want to write for that episode, but I'm also in the middle of exams right now and have no time to write. I'm working on it though. I promise. Anyway… see you guys on Friday!_

Chapter 46 

* * *

Catherine was livid. She had every right to be. It wasn't Rowan's fault she was in this situation. It was Steve's. Steve and his inability to let her go. Okay, that wasn't entirely true. Rowan didn't have to lie. She didn't have to call Wo Fat, she didn't have to keep talking to him, especially since she could see what it was doing to Steve. Everyone could see what it was doing to Steve. And after everything she had just witnessed he had the nerve to ask her to help him. To ask for yet another favour.

As if his arch nemesis hadn't announced to the whole office that Steve had a P.I. following Rowan around. As if Catherine wasn't going to chew him out for that when they got home.

Actually, she wasn't sure if she would. She didn't want to put more strain on them, not when she had been doing everything possible to just keep him from drifting even farther. She had started using Rowan's shampoo, she had gone looking for the perfume Rowan wore, which was impossible to find unless Catherine asked her herself, which she was not going to do. She even tried to make breakfast the way Rowan did. She couldn't quite get the pancakes right, but Steve always ate them. But nothing he did for her was with the same gusto he used for Rowan.

"So how does this work?" Savannah asked as Catherine stalked away from the Five-0 office where they were officially debugging Rowan's phone so she could be officially discharged. She still couldn't believe that Steve had had the audacity to ask her for another favour, and she still couldn't believe that she was actually going to do it for him.

"He'll tell me it means nothing. He'll tell me he feels responsible for her. That he had no choice because he didn't trust her or Wo Fat, and because he was right, I can't call him delusional. And then he'll blink his big baby blue eyes at me and I'll decide to forgive him even though I shouldn't," Catherine said automatically.

"I meant about the map," Savannah clarified and Catherine felt herself go a pink color. Well wasn't that just the most embarrassing thing to have happened? On top of everything else that had just happened too.

Still Catherine cleared her throat and tried to salvage her pride. "Well, sometimes—actually a lot of the times—Commander McGarrett will ask for help. And he usually repays me in breakfast or dinner. It's kind of like a little game that we play," she said.

"Using military resources to help a friend. Uh, isn't that risky?" Savannah asked. She purposely didn't call her Steve's girlfriend which hurt because she knew she was. But after that scene in the Five-0 headquarters she got why she had been demoted.

"Uh, well, Steve and my CO go way back, so he cuts him some slack," she answered primly.

"Well what about your history with Rowan and Steve?" Savannah asked. "Can you tell us about that?"

Catherine bristled there was no Rowan and Steve. Not anymore. Why was everyone still referring to them as if they were a couple?

"I don't know what you mean," Catherine snapped.

"We'll you're Steve's girlfriend, right?" Savannah asked. "How does Rowan fit into the picture?"

"Uh, why does that matter?" she shot back acutely aware that a camera was following her

"Just… America wants to know," Savannah answered with the shrug.

"Well it's none of America's business," Catherine replied with a shaky smile. "Now if you don't mind I have a phone call to make that's none of America's business as well."

As she rushed away from the camera she tried to calm herself down with a few deep breaths. God. Steve was going to get when she got him alone.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Engraving plates. This was all about 100 dollar engraving plates that Roger Carson, or his real name Gary Ray Percy, had stolen from his old job at the Bureau of Engraving & Printing.

Wo Fat and the Russian mob wanted those plates. Even though Catherine was mad at him she still did him a favour and found him a place to start looking. Trailhead at Waimano Ridge.

They all went there, his Five-0 team and the stupid camera crew determined to follow him no matter how many times he told them to stay back. Savannah walked was one determined young woman.

They took ATVs to where the spot was. They found freshly turned dirt. Kono found Tony's body but no sign of Wo Fat yet and no plates. But he body was warm which meant that Wo Fat could not be far.

Steve found fresh tracks in the mud and while they were following them they heard the whirl of helicopter blades. A helicopter was flying over them and that could only mean one thing.

Wo Fat

"Don't let him get away!" Steve ordered and they all started shooting at it. And it worked. The helicopter went down and Steve was immediately on the move.

"Come on, move, move, move," he ordered. "Over here!"

They found the scene of the wreckage but Wo fat wasn't in the downed helicopter. There was blood on the ground and it led off it the trees. He was injured but he wasn't going to get far.

It didn't take long for Steve to find him mainly because he didn't get far. He shot at Chin, clipping him in the vest and sending him spiralling. The Five-0s retaliated by shooting a whole fuck of a lot.

Steve heard the groaning as he got closer once Wo Fat stopped shooting. He was a mess. He was covered in blood and burns. He glared up at Steve, with one good either, the other was squinted almost shut in his pain. He was obviously in agony as Steve stared down him over the barrel Noveske Rifleworks Diplomat assault rifle he had up to Wo Fat's face. Just one bullet would be enough to end this. He'd never worry about Rowan or his mother again.

"Finish it!" he ordered. And Steve wanted to. He really just wanted to put a bullet in this man. But he couldn't. He wasn't a cold-blooded killer like Wo Fat. He wasn't going to sink down to his level.

Wo Fat flopped down to the ground and started to laugh. "She was right," he said, his words chopped from the pain. "She told me this was going to happen and I didn't listen."

Steve lowered the gun and stared at him in disbelief. "Rowan told you about this?" he asked.

Wo Fat grunted again, turning back into the little stream he had landed again, using a giant rock to pull himself just a little farther away from Steve. "She agreed to go to Japan with me," Wo Fat told him. "Did you know that? If I had gotten her on that boat, if I had just been a bit faster, both of us would have been gone. You never would have seen her again."

Steve felt that anger return. The gun in his hands raised again. Rowan wouldn't have left him. Not for Wo Fat. And he didn't believe that Rowan would use her visions to help Wo Fat either. No, her visions had always been for Steve. She wouldn't do that to him. She wouldn't betray him like that. She just wouldn't.

The gun shook in his hand. He wanted so desperately to shoot him, but he took in the smirk on what was left of Wo Fat's face and knew he was goading him. Lying to him to get him to finish it. Well Steve wasn't going to fall for that.

He walked away before he could do anything dire, already there were sirens in the air. They'd be getting Wo Fat out of this valley and to the hospital as quickly as possible and Steve would be going with him.

And he did just that. He rode up front in the Ambulance. He ignored the pain Wo Fat seemed to be in, crying out at every bump until the EMTs gave him something for the pain. He clung to the memory of the last time he was in an ambulance and how that had been entirely Wo Fat's fault.

When they got to the hospital he hopped out and immediately started spitting out orders to whoever was listening to him.

"He gets his own floor. I want a full security lockdown and guns on every exit. Nobody gets in or out without my approval," he growled. He watched them rush Wo Fat away who was in critical condition. He had no idea that Savannah was still with him until he heard her ask: "Commander McGarrett is he gonna make it?"

Steve turned around and hoped that she didn't see any of the raw anger playing across his face. "I don't care," he told her and he meant it. He meant every word.

It wouldn't be until the episode aired that Steve would notice a familiar face in the crowd following Wo Fat as he was taken into the hospital. An inconspicuous red-head with a familiar blue sling.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan stuck her head into the hospital room and looked at Wo Fat. She wanted to say he looked fine, but he didn't. His whole torso was covered in gauze and his head was wrapped as was half of his face.

She knew that he was covered in burns. Burns that would scar. Burns she had warned him about. Burns she dreamed about and had just known the second he had got them in the real world.

"Hey there, Two-Face," she said with what she hoped was a grin. "If you can, you should audition for the next Batman movie. You'll land the part for sure."

"I don't know that reference," Wo Fat said to her quietly and she winced. Oh dear.

She came into the room and sat down on the foot of his bed. "How are you feeling?"

"Hot," he said. "It feels like the fire is still under my skin… Why are you here Rowan?"

Rowan looked away. He was right, why was she here? She didn't owe him anything. And if Steve found her here, he'd flip out.

"Why did you shoot me?" she shot back. "You went on about how you wanted to keep me safe. That you wanted to take me to Japan with you. Then you just up and shot me. Why? Just to hurt Steve? Is that all this was? Some way to hurt Steve?"

Wo Fat looked away from her. "No. I… I shot you because I had to," he said. "I had to Rowan, I had no choice."

"You had plenty of choices. You chose to put a bullet in me!" she cried

"No, I didn't. McGarrett was closing in and I knew I wouldn't get away with you, and I dallied so long that I wouldn't get away on my own either. I took a gamble, I'll admit it, but I saw the way he looked at you. I took a calculated risk assuming he'd forget about me if I put you in enough peril. But I was right."

"You shot me to escape?!" she shouted. "I told you I'd lie for you! I would have given him the wrong info, I wasn't lying."

"But it wouldn't have been enough," Wo Fat argued. "I needed the whole team distracted."

Rowan huffed. "Distraction. I nearly died for a distraction."

"I regretted it," he whispered. "I thought hitting your shoulder wouldn't damage you as badly as it did. But I hit something vital without knowing. When I heard what happened I had to come see you, I had to make sure you'd pull through. For the first time in my life I was wracked with guilt and drowning in it."

"I could have died, Wo," she whispered.

"Yes, you tried really hard to die, didn't you Rowan?" Wo Fat said. "But you pulled through."

"And I can't move my arm," Rowan reminded him.

"Only because you don't want to right now," he said. "And that's fine. It'll start working when you need it to."

Rowan nodded as the two lapsed into silence. "Are you really sorry?" she asked.

"I'm sorry about a lot of things. I'm sorry I tried to keep you. I'm sorry I didn't just give you back to McGarrett. I'm sorry I'm part of the reason you and McGarrett aren't together and you're unhappy because of it. I'm sorry I didn't listen to you about the helicopter. I'm sorry I'm going to go to jail and not be able to look out for you. I've never been sorry before, I've never had regrets tied to something I had done or directly cause. It's foreign and strange but I'm think I truly am sorry for what I did to you," he said.

Rowan took all of that in. She stared at him. She was sure some of that was true. He was definitely probably most affected by the fact that he was going to go to prison. But maybe he was also sorry for everything he had done for her too.

"How do I know any of that's true?" she asked. "How do I know you're not just saying all of that to make me feel better?"

"What would I gain from that, Rowan?" he shot back. "It doesn't change what I did. It doesn't change how mad you have every right to be at me. I know I don't feel emotions the right way, I know it, I see it. But you, you opened up this whole different door. I feel a lot of things I haven't' felt before, or in a very long time."

"Like what?" she asked leaning forward and resting her elbows on the bed so she could rest her chin on her palms.

"Uh… love. Real love. Not lust. Or like. But the kind of love someone would feel for a family member. I truly think that you could betray me to McGarrett and I wouldn't care. Okay, I'd care, but it wouldn't end the same way it would for someone else. I'd probably yell at you and hen forgive you," he answered.

He liked her as a sister. "You know I told Steve where you'd be right?" she asked.

"Yes, you mentioned in the first phone call," he said. "But… uh… I forgave you. I knew you didn't do it to hurt me. You did it to get him to leave you alone."

"Okay, good," she said. "What else?"

"What else? Oh, what else do I feel…" he murmured to himself. "Uh… well regret is new as is the guilt I suddenly feel. I've also never done something solely for someone else before. Everything has always directly benefited me, but following you around the island didn't directly benefit me in anyway other then I felt a little less guilty."

"You should feel guilty, you shot me!" Rowan reminded him and Wo Fat almost half smiled at her.

"Yes, I know, Rowan, I was there," he reminded her right back. "I do believe I said sorry for that. I don't deserve forgiveness of course, but I think… I'm kinda new to this, but I'm pretty sure I'm sufficiently sorry for what I did to you. If I could go back, I wouldn't. I'd change it if I could."

Rowan smiled at him. Wow, really? She taught a sociopath the meaning of guilt. That was pretty damn impressive. "Alright. I guess you're forgiven," she said to him and his eyes whipped back to her. Rowan pointed a stern finger in his direction. "But you owe me _so many_ favours. You got me? SO MANY!"

Wo Fat broke out in a giant smile. And not his evil vicious one either, an actual proper boyish smile. It actually made him look more presentable, a little less like a villain and more like a real person.

"Starting with… you have to watch this movie with me," she said moving so she was now sitting beside him, pressed into his side like when they used to watch movies at his compound. She pulled a laptop out of her bag.

"It's not one of those princess movies is it?" he asked with a suspicious look on his face.

"No, no, it's a reboot of a classical musical," she said with a cheeky grin. She already knew he wasn't going to like it. But he deserved a little bit of musical torture.

"Ugh… does that mean more singing?" he asked.

Rowan smiled to him and he groaned again, but he rested his cheek against the top of her head and said nothing as she started the movie.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve walked through the hospital corridors feeling elated. He had finally caught Wo Fat. Finally! And this time he wasn't going to let Wo Fat escape. He'd go to prison. His mother and Rowan would both be safe from the threat of his presence.

He was ready to taunt him. To look into the man's face and have him know that Steve had won this game of theirs. Wo Fat hadn't broken him, hadn't outsmarted him, and hadn't got the girl. To be fair, neither did Steve, but Rowan had practically turned Wo Fat in, he was pretty sure she was on his side and not Wo Fat's.

But he stopped short of actually walking in when he saw who was in the Wo Fat's room with him. How did she get by the whole floor of Swat and the two guards at the door? Did they just let her in? And did she have to be cuddled up to his side? What the hell was happening?

Steve couldn't understand what he was staring at. For starters, he didn't understand why Rowan had come to see him. And he didn't understand how any conversation could lead her to falling asleep beside the man who shot her cuddled into him as if he were her boyfriend. Lastly, the way Wo Fat was also curled up into her, his cheek resting against her hair, his arm, though still cuffed, loosely draped over her shoulder.

They looked like a couple. And this wasn't even the guy she was dating. Wo Fat must have sensed him there because after a few seconds of staring at them with his chest heaving and his heart burning with a jealous anger Wo Fat's eyes opened up. He was staring at Steve, the smirk on his face nothing short of diabolical. Like he knew what this was doing to Steve, like he planned it somehow.

Steve backed away. He couldn't bear to see it. It got worse when he heard the soft singing. Not Rowan's but Wo Fat's. The hairs on the back of his neck raised up, it sounded so soft and sincere that it couldn't possibly be true. And the lyrics made it ten times worse.

 _Who am I, now that my armour's gone? You gave me what I didn't know I needed. Who am I, now that my heart is won? I didn't know I need... anyone._

The singing must have woken Rowan up because all of a sudden, her head tilted upwards towards Wo and she was singing the chorus with him.

 _But I've got today, I've got to make the best I can of it. 'Cause yesterday is dead and gone and me along with it. I want to start again, so I'll look within remember what I wanted. 'Cause I don't know who I've become but I will trust in_ _it._

This needed to stop. This needed to never happen again. He looked to the two guards and asked a simple question in a hushed voice. "How long has she been here?"

"About three hours now," the officer said. "It seemed harmless enough."

Steve shook his head. This was starting to get ridiculous. Why was she doing this to him? What had Wo Fat done to her? This really had to be Stockholm syndrome. It had to be, there was no other explanation for this. He'd deal with this. He'd make sure it wouldn't happen ever again.

"And you said you hated that movie," Rowan said jolting Steve out of his angry thoughts and reminded him that he needed her out of the goddamn hospital room.

"Kay, well I better go. I'll try to visit you tomorrow," she said.

"No. No you won't," Steve said finally forcing himself into the room. Rowan turned completely startled, her blue eyes wide with surprise, her cheeks red with what he hoped was shame.

"Steve…" she started but he raised a hand to stop her.

"This stops now," he said. "He's getting transferred out of here as soon as possible, and I'd prefer that you don't commit treason by spending time with the convicted criminal that shot you."

"Treason?" Rowan echoed. "Who the hell am I committing treason against?"

"I think he means treason against him," Wo Fat said. "Isn't that right Commander?"

Steve glared at him. How dare he? How dare he question him in front of Rowan? _How dare he be right_!

Rowan turned back to him. "Steve don't be ridiculous. It isn't treason against you. It has nothing to do with you, remember?"

Well he disagreed. Wo Fat was his nemesis so this had everything to do with him. Especially since Steve was certain that all of this started so Wo Fat could cause the most amount of damage to him.

"Rowan, go home," he snapped. Rowan rolled her eyes but gathered her things, hugged Wo Fat good-bye despite that Steve was glaring daggers at her and then moved to walk past him.

Steve was so angry that he had to unclench his jaw to add: "And you will not be allowed to visit him again, do you understand?"

Rowan turned to him, her eyes a hardened steel blue he had never seen before. "Just try and stop me," she growled and then walked away.

Steve turned back to Wo Fat. He saw the lazy smile on his face. There were so many things he wanted to say but he knew if he stayed here, staring at Wo Fat's smug face, he knew he'd do something he'd regret.

But as he turned his back on him to tell everyone on this floor that under no circumstances was Rowan allowed back on this floor he heard Wo Fat call out to him. And his words made his blood run hot with a jealous anger.

 _You may have won this battle. But it looks like I've won the girl._


	47. Chapter 47

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: I'M WRITING A FANFICTION ABOUT A MURDER MYSTERY SHOW SOME SHADY SHIT IS GONNA GO DOWN Y'ALL. How's that for a disclaimer. I like it. I feel like it covers everything. Cause… like... this sucker is already a good 600 pages long with all the extra shit I've written for the future and I am not about to comb through all of that to find what might trigger people cause like… anything can trigger anyone. So I'll just put that up every chapter. Sound good? Yeah? Good. No? Suck it up butter cup. In all seriousness tho… Guest reviewer who got triggered last time, this chapter may trigger you too so watch out for that, in fact the next few chapters are probably going to bug you. But the point to take is that she is fighting back and not letting Steve intimidate her. I have some mojo back, not a lot of it, but it's coming back slowly but surely. Keep hitting me up with ideas though, love hearing your ideas and what not. Peace out till next Friday! TWELVE MORE DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS ONE SHOTS!_

 _P.S.: HEY JP, So I have a Christmas past story I think you like and a Christmas future, but what kinda Christmas Present story would you like? Anything in particular you wanna see? Cause I'm kinda stuck with it._

Chapter 47

* * *

Rowan skipped out of the elevator, her box of cupcakes held steady in her hands. She smiled up to the Captain of the S.W.A.T. team on Wo Fat's floor and offered up the box. Sam and her had a great thing going. She baked him up whatever they wanted and in return they let her visit Wo Fat and didn't tell Steve that she did.

"As promised. Chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting," she said with a big grin. "Enough for everyone on the floor."

"Oh wonderful, Miss. Pierce," he said. "Well, we have another request. It's Patrick's birthday next week. He'd like to request strawberry vanilla cupcakes."

"Done," Rowan said. "Just so long as Commander McGarrett doesn't find out I was here."

"Agreed," Sam said with a stiff nod. "Remember, if we whistle. Hide."

Rowan nodded quickly and then scampered off to where Wo Fat was waiting for her. Or, well, acting like he wasn't waiting for her. Rowan found him in his bed still handcuffed, staring off at the window almost longingly as if he wasn't just staring at the door. She knew he had been but she'd let him have it. The S.W.A.T. guys were always clear that he stared at the door all day long until she showed up. But she never let him know that she knew that.

"Hey there!" she said. "Bird watching?"

Wo Fat turned to her a small smile forming on his lips. It had been two weeks since he had been caught. Two weeks since she had convinced the S.W.A.T guys on the floor to let her keep coming despite Steve's strictest of orders. Two weeks of subterfuge, of hiding in stairwells and hospital closets. Two weeks of movies and singing songs.

Two weeks of physio therapy finally showing some sort of progress. She could move some fingers. Couldn't move the whole arm yet. But it was getting there. She was finally getting better.

"Yep, saw myself a macaw," he said. Rowan laughed and that earned him a laugh.

"Macaw's aren't an indigenous species, silly," she said.

"I saw a multi coloured something fly past my window. I'm counting it," Wo Fat said with a shrug.

"By that logic it could have been anything. A hat, a scarf, or piece of paper," Rowan told him.

Wo Fat shook his head. "I don't care I'm counting it. Write it in my book for me," he ordered and Rowan laughed and pretended to write it down on an imaginary book. When he too was laughing and wincing in pain, because the act of laughing wrinkled the burned skin on the charred half face, she bent over to get her purse.

She pulled out a small container and smiled widely at him. "Guess what I managed to save you?"

His eyes found the container and then he rolled them at her. "Ugh, Rowan not another cupcake," he groaned.

Regardless Rowan opened up the container and showed him what she had made. "But it's a mini cupcake," she said. "The perfect size for you."

Wo Fat stared at the small cupcake in her hands and then sighed. "Fine," he said and then opened his mouth.

With his hands cuffed she had to feed him. He hated it when the nurses did it but not so much when Rowan did. That was why she tried to be there every day for at least one meal, but she had to be on the floor when her S.W.A.T guys were there, if she got a different set of guys on the shift they wouldn't let her on the floor and then they'd tell Steve she was there.

Rowan peeled the wrapper off the cupcake and then popped it into his mouth. She waited patiently as he chewed the cupcake and then cocked her head to the side waiting for his review.

"What do you think?" she asked reaching for the drink of water that was left on the bedside table beside him. She let him sip from the straw.

"It's good," he said. "Chocolate and peanut butter. It's a good mix."

Rowan gave him a sly smile. "You didn't like it."

"I've told you. Over and over again. I don't like sweet things," he said. He must have seen her face fall for he suddenly added: "But for a sweet thing it tasted pretty good."

Rowan smiled again. She knew he didn't like them, that was why she made him smaller ones. And even though he never wanted to try her baked goods, he still ate whatever she offered.

"Any news on your release date?" she asked him as she went about pulling her laptop out of her bag.

"As soon as it's safe to move me," he whispered. Ah, so whenever his burns healed enough so that they didn't open again when they moved him.

"I'm going to be in maximum security," he added. "After they move me you won't see me again."

"Oh, don't be silly. Prison or no prison. I'll still visit you," Rowan assured him. She settled in beside him like she usually did. His good arm moving slightly to rest up on her shoulders.

"Maximum security means no visitors," he said softly. She was learning things about him. She learned about his mannerisms and which certain motions meant what. She had learned that when he was nervous about something, or was unsure, he spoke in a softer voice than usual.

"And a S.W.A.T. team was supposed to keep visitors out too," she reminded him. "I'm a determined young lady. There ain't nothing I can't do if I put my mind to it."

"Except win the heart of a certain Commander," Wo Fat said with a teasing grin. Rowan froze immediately. Everything in her came to a standstill. He didn't mean it to be mean. He meant it as a joke. But it didn't feel like it. It hit a raw nerve in her. One that left her in a burning pain.

"I didn't mean that," he said after a few seconds of silence "I didn't mean it like that. It was supposed to be funny."

Rowan shot him a dry glare. "You're not funny."

Wo Fat smile at her. "I'm hilarious. You just don't get my jokes."

Rowan shook her head at him. "Speaking of your Commander. He stopped by yesterday," he said and Rowan found herself frozen again. She couldn't even log into her Netflix account if she tried. "He asked me a lot of questions. About you."

"Me?" Rowan echoed. "What did he want to know about me?"

"How much money I gave you. Why I kept you. Why I hung around. Did I know that you betrayed me? That sort of thing," Wo Fat answered absently. "I think he was trying to gloat."

"I didn't betray you," she muttered. "I mean… I told him how to find the plates. But I warned you about it right after. Besides, you know I don't like it when you ask me to pick sides."

"I haven't asked you to pick sides. I was merely reiterating what your Commander said to me," he said. He watched her log into Netflix and then turned to her. "What are we watching today? It's not a Disney movie is it?"

"No, no, I figured we could binge watch a TV show," she said. "I was thinking Supernatural!"

"Is that the one with the gay angel?" he asked.

"Well, we haven't got definitive proof he's gay… but yes, that's the one," she said.

Wo Fat frowned and sunk back into the pillows. She had so many down pillows that she had brought him some to help him sleep better. Steve had yet to notice.

"Ugh, I hate that show," he muttered.

A shrill whistle of a quick tune hit the air and Rowan threw herself off of the bed. She picked up everything and rushed immediately to the washroom Wo Fat wasn't allowed to use but was attached to his private suite anyway and shut the door quietly. Not two seconds later Steve walked in the door.

He and Wo Fat had a bit of a staring contest.

"Is there something you want to say, Commander?" Wo Fat asked. His voice an acidic sneer and nothing like the tone he used with her.

"You're looking cozy," Steve said with a hint of malicious dripping from his voice. He moved closer to his bed. "Those are some nice pillows."

"I suppose. They're just hospital pillows," Wo Fat said. Steve snatched a pillow out from behind him and then took a good long look at it. He found the tag, read it and showed it to Wo Fat.

"The hospital has down pillows now?" Steve asked.

Wo Fat shrugged. "I guess they just wanted me to be comfortable."

"Uh-huh," Steve said carefully. "Look. I know she's still coming to visit you."

Wo Fat glared at him. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't play dumb with me," Steve snapped. "I know all about her visits. I know all about the movie dates and the baking."

"She's not baking for me," Wo Fat snapped and Steve let out a string of dry laughs.

"Yeah. I know. I know that she's used cupcakes to convince the S.W.A.T. team to let her in. But they're being disbanded and put on separate shifts. You're not going to see her again. Do you hear me?" Steve growled.

"I'm not bringing her here," Wo Fat told him. "If you have problem with her visiting you should speak to her."

"Yes, and when someone tells me where she is, I'll talk to her about it," Steve told him. Rowan immediately began to root through her bag. She knew what he was talking about. Someone was tracking her phone. That bastard. Why couldn't he just leave her alone? Why was he still trying to control her life? To be fair, she did promise to not visit Wo Fat anymore. She had sworn up and down that she and him weren't in contact, that she was suffering from any sort of Stockholm. But maybe she was because she was still here, she still felt obligated to come see him and if she closed her eyes sometimes, she was certain she was back home with her brother and not with Wo Fat.

She practically lunged for her bag, struggling to get her phone out and turn it off. Wo Fat was arguing with Steve about how it's none of his business what she was up to, and at this rate he'd drive her away.

"Do you track her often?" Wo Fat asked. "That may be why she runs from you, McGarrett."

"I don't need advice from the man who shot her," Steve growled, he was pacing back and forth. He was so full of energy, why was he so jazzed up? Had something happened? Did he have a case? If so why was he here then?

"Yes… except she forgave me…"

Rowan watched through the crack in the doorway as Steve came to a halt at the foot of Wo Fat's bed. His whole body went rigid as if the words Wo Fat had thrown at him had solidified him.

"She what?" Steve asked, his voice strained his jaw clenched.

"She forgave me," Wo Fat repeated as if it were nothing of consequence to him.

"There is no way in hell that she forgave you," Steve suddenly thundered. "She's not that stupid… she's not…"

His phone beeped and Steve trailed off as he stared at the screen. "…She's in the building."

Rowan winced. Oh god. He knew. Damn whoever traced her phone, didn't they know that they weren't supposed to. Kono had specifically told her that they refused to trace her or post uniforms to follow her around because it was enabling Steve's controlling nature. Well… someone didn't get the memo.

"She's either on her way up or already here. Her phone's offline now though…" Steve said trailing off once more. He turned towards the door his eyes narrowed and Rowan backed away.

Maybe she could throw herself out of the small window? No, they were four floors up, she'd kill herself.

The door snapped open and Rowan looked up to Steve's angry face. "Uh… I do believe I took a wrong turn from therapy…"

Steve surged forward and grabbed her good arm. "This is absolutely ridiculous, Rowan," he growled as he dragged her away from the bathroom.

"Wait… wait… wait… my stuff," she said. Steve let her go and let her rush back to the washroom. She picked up her purse, found the container with the extra cupcakes and then joined Steve back out in the room.

She offered out the container. "I have extras do you want one?" she asked.

Steve's lip curled up in anger but he still snatched the container out of her hands and glared at her while he opened it. "Why are you here?" he asked her. "Why do you insist on visiting him?"

"Well… everyone deserves to have visitors…." She started because she didn't know how to tell him the truth without him taking it personally.

"ROWAN?!" he suddenly shouted. He shoved he container back at her, practically inhaled his cupcake and then turned his eyes up to her again. There was so much pain in those baby blue eyes that it took her breath away.

She looked away, unable to hold his gaze. "I… I just… I just… I like visiting him."

"You like… You…" Steve stuttered. He groaned loudly as if just trying to say the same words was painful to him. "Where the hell is your boyfriend? Huh?"

"Right here," Alex said appearing in the doorway. Steve turned, Rowan caught Wo Fat rolling his eyes. He didn't like Alex, he liked it even less when there were lots of people in his room.

Alex leant past Steve, raised a hand in greeting and said: "What's up Crispy?" to Wo who scowled at him.

Wo Fat turned his dry glare to her. "Rowan," he growled.

"Alex, you know Wo Fat doesn't like it when you call him _Crispy_ ," she reminded him, her tone less than serious.

Alex shot her a look that conveyed almost the exact same tone. "Well I definitely can't call him _Lightly-Toasted_."

Wo Fat turned his exasperated look to Steve and said: "Yeah, if you want to issue a restraining order on them, I will fill out any form I have to."

Steve just glared at him before he turned back to Alex that glare not lightening at all. "Why the hell are you letting her come here? Huh? What the hell are you thinking?"

Alex crossed his arm over his chest. He took a long look at Rowan as if assessing her. He glanced to Wo Fat who also glared at him and then back to Steve a slow smile leisurely appearing on his lips.

"Wow, it really bugs you huh?" Alex shot back. Steve took half a step forward. Alex raised his hands in surrender. "Geeze, no need to deck me again."

"Again?" Rowan echoed.

"I'll tell you about it at home, okay?" he said being sure to put as much emphasis on the word _home_ as he could. He then turned a strange sort of smirk back on Steve. "I let her come here because she's happier when she sees him. He makes her feel better, he's been helping her progress with her mobility and she bakes so much now that I just feel like the pros outweigh the cons."

Steve fell quiet. His blue eyes would have been probing hers if it weren't for the fact that she couldn't look him in the eye.

"Baking's that good huh?" Steve answered softly. As if he hadn't just tried one of her cupcakes.

"Oh, hell yeah. I'm gonna put on so much weight cause of her baking. It's a good thing she takes most of it here or we'd have problems," he said. He then slung an arm around her shoulder, tugged her to his side and put his mouth right by her ear to whisper: "Right babe?"

Rowan giggled because it tickled. Had she been watching she would have seen the way Steve's face contorted in pain and how Wo Fat's face contorted in disgust, like he was going to throw up.

"Still accepting those envelopes of money?" Steve snapped.

Alex blinked his eyes, he seemed surprised but he showed no signs of guilt. "Look, I get it, you know. But the guy was dropping off thousands at a time nd the life of the nurse isn't as cushy. Rowan didn't want it and even though she had medical bills to pay and no job… yet," he explained. He then looked at Rowan. "Yet. You don't have a job yet. I know you'll get one. Maybe at a bakery cause you're so damn good at baking."

Her medical bills. Fuck that's right. He kicked her off the Five-0 health insurance at Catherine's explicit demand and a little bit because he was angry and wanted to punish her. He cleared his throat and pinned them both with a dry glare.

"Okay. Since neither of you will see reason, I'm going to help you out okay?" Steve said. "If I catch you here again Rowan, I'm going to have you arrested. You got it?"

"Arrest me for what?" Rowan shot back, her one good hand on her hip. As if for symmetry Alex put his other hand on his hip and glared with indignation up at him.

"I don't know… criminal association? _Fuck_. I'll find something!" Steve shouted. "Now get out!"

Rowan stepped away from him. She skirted around him ignoring the way his eyes followed her. She kissed Wo Fat's cheek softly before whispering: "Don't worry I'll see you tomorrow."

Once she got back to the door, she gripped Alex's hand tightly and let him lead her out of the room. She walked away from Steve trying very hard not to turn back to look at him as she left, trying very hard not to feel his gaze on the back of her neck. But she felt it quivering through her skin and tingling up her spine.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve watched Rowan leave his stomach twisting with jealous anger. She wasn't even on the elevator before Wo Fat suddenly growled.

"God that boy is a tool."

Steve turned back to him he assessed the seriousness of Wo Fat's face and determined that he actually did dislike Rowan's boyfriend. Well that was one thing the two of them had in common. But why did he hate Alex? What possible reason? Other then his ridiculous nickname for him. Though if it bugged him that much best believe Steve would be calling him _Crispy_ more often.

"I don't know what's going on with you two, but it needs to stop," Steve growled. "It's not healthy."

"Yes, because your obsession with her is a shining example of healthy," Wo Fat shot back. Steve held his glare, he wasn't going to dignify that with a response. He just wasn't. "I know what's really bothering you."

"No, you don't."

"I do," Wo Fat urged. "You're mad because you think she picked me over you. But the only one asking her to choose is you. She likes us both equally. Well that's not quite true. She likes us in completely different ways."

"What are you talking about?" Steve snapped.

"I take it you don't talk to her, do you?" Wo Fat asked. "I mean, really talk to her."

"I'm not talking to you about this," Steve snapped. "I want to know about Doris. What is going on with you and Doris."

"Rowan talks to _me_ ," Wo Fat continued. "She tells me things. Lots of things."

"Stop it."

"I know lots of things about her. I know where she came from. I know all about her family. Her favourite… well everything. She has a lot of favourites. But most importantly, I know that she wishes you had…"

"SHUT UP!" Steve thundered finally losing it.

Wo Fat just stared at him calmly. "Now, now Steve. Keep carrying on like that and someone might think you've grown to care about her. Wouldn't want everyone to know your weakness… now would you?"

Steve froze. Had that been a threat? Was he really threatening him over Rowan? As if he couldn't use Rowan against Wo Fat too?

"You're getting moved," Steve growled. "As of tomorrow, you're getting transferred to Halawa. I'm going to make sure that she misses that transfer. No good-bye. No hugs. Nothing. You're going to prison where she will not be allowed in to visit you."

He didn't care if he was being cruel. He didn't care if Rowan was upset or if she _missed him._ She shouldn't miss him. She shouldn't be upset. But he knew she would be and he'd take that argument on the chin. At least they'd be talking.

"I'm not dealing with this anymore. This ends now," Steve growled. "Now tell me about Doris."

"Why should I?" Wo Fat shot back. "You're not making it worth my while."

Steve growled with anger. He knew what Wo Fat was angling for. But it wasn't happening. He wasn't giving up Rowan for info about his mother.

"Enjoy your solitude," Steve snarled and then walked out. He was finally certain he knew what was going on between Rowan and Wo Fat.

They had to be in love. It was the only answer.

And it was an answer that killed him inside.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve came in the early hours to transfer him. Which meant he had gone to the Governor right after leaving the hospital the day before, after making sure that both Alex and Rowan were no longer in the building, and then demanded that they move Wo Fat as soon as possible. Guards wearing a lot more Kevlar then was warranted released him from the bed and then handcuffed him to McGarrett. Even though his doctor seemed to be against it, McGarrett had orders straight from the Governor. Which meant, no one could argue with him.

Quite Petty.

But it proved something. Steven McGarrett still wanted Rowan. And since Wo Fat knew that Rowan also still wanted Steve, he figured he could use this to his advantage. Well, not his advantage, Rowan's. He was quite invested in her happiness, for some reason. He couldn't quite turn his empathy for her off like he had done with everyone and everything else.

Wo Fat was put in a wheelchair and wheeled down, awkwardly mind you, as he had to hold his arm up as he was still cuffed to Steve. When they got to the great big truck he'd be transported in, Steve uncuffed him and handed him up to the lead of the S.W.A.T. team, a man he recognized. Sam, who wore a strange smile on his face as he pulled Wo Fat up into the back of the truck, said absolutely nothing to McGarrett. There was something behind him, hidden by the bulk of his body and pressed into the shadows of the back. Once Wo Fat was up in the truck, he could see exactly who it was.

As soon as the truck door closed behind him Rowan stepped forward, sitting down across from Wo Fat a small smile on her face.

"So, like… I guess I'm going to prison."

Sam laughed. "Naw, once he realizes you're back here, I'm sure he'll let you go."

Wo Fat smiled at Rowan. He remembered Steve's threat. He wondered if Rowan was worried, though if she was why the hell was she in the back of a transport truck?

"You know. If he's getting too angry with you, just give him a hug," Wo Fat told her. The truck started moving and they lurched a bit. "Guaranteed he'll stop in his tracks."

"You don't know that," Rowan answered. Okay, so maybe he didn't know for certain but he was almost 90% sure that if Rowan were to hug Steve he'd forget to arrest her, the boy would probably forget to breathe.

Rowan got up, quickly trying to taking the seat beside him, the truck helping her get there by turning just as she stood. Wo Fat, who should have been handcuffed but wasn't, lifted his injured arm and caught her with his injured side. He felt his scars reopen but he didn't care, at least she didn't go face first into the metal wall.

"Are you okay?" Rowan asked him and he grinned through the pain and watched as she sat down.

"I gotta know how you swung this, Rowan," he found himself saying. She could be a criminal genius if she chose to, honestly. She was more resourceful than him.

"Oh, well the nurses told Alex that you were getting moved early. Probably cause of me, sorry about that," she said softly. She lowered her eyes like she expected him to be mad at her but he wasn't mad. It was inevitable. "Once I knew that, I called Sam and asked what I had to do to see you before I left and we came up with a deal."

"She's going to cater my kid's birthday party next week, and in return I put her in the truck. I'm honestly surprised he had no idea you were here, I mean, I get that he didn't see you behind me, but the guy's walked onto his floor and just sensed that you were near-by. It's scary," Sam told them.

Wo Fat turned back to her. "You didn't have to, you know. I would have understood," he said to her.

Rowan answered him by hugging him. The first one since the night of her assault. He pressed into it. Desperate for her contact, the last he'd probably get for a very long time.

"Not everyone's like Doris," she whispered into his gauze covered ear. "Not everyone's out to use and abuse you."

Wo Fat hugged her tightly. As tightly as he could. Since Doris had exited his life he hadn't had anyone willing to be there for him, willing to take care of him and support him. He had been on his own for such a long time that he didn't realize that he was starved for human contact until he had met Rowan.

"It may take a while, but I'm going to try to visit you in Halawa too," she told him. Wo Fat found himself chuckling. She really was too good to him.

"I think, maybe, it might be better if you don't," he told her. "It's putting a lot of strain on you and McGarrett."

Rowan winced a bit but she put on a brave face and said: "Well I'm trying to get over him so if it puts some strain who cares?"

"I'll care if he arrests you when I'm not able to break you out," he shot back.

"You'd break me out of the Iolani Palace?" she asked sounded sincerely sounding surprised. As if he'd leave her there. As if she wasn't used to having someone that dedicated to her. As if Steve hadn't already stormed Halawa to get her and Chin Ho Kelly.

"The Palace, Prison, HPD Head Quarters, Guantanamo Bay," he listed. "Wouldn't matter who took you, I'd get you back and raze them to the ground."

"Awww, that's so sweet," she said pressing her hand to her chest as if his words had pierced her in the heart.

God he'd miss her when he was on the inside.

"You two are fucked, you know that?" Sam asked and that had both of them laughing again.

For the rest of the ride Rowan rested her head gently against his injured shoulder signing show tunes that he hummed along with. He refused to flat out sing with her with someone else in the truck with them. He wanted no one to know that he was down to sign duets with a girl who only sang Disney songs and musicals.

When the truck came to a stop, he felt the apprehension settle in his stomach. There were no words to describe how much he didn't want to go in prison. There were no words to describe how worried he was that there would be no one to watch Rowan. He knew, once he was inside, she'd only have Steve's P.I. following her… and Doris's and all the Five-0s that were sporadically checking in on her. Okay, so maybe she wouldn't be entirely on her own but he didn't trust these people. He didn't trust anyone except himself. And her. Oddly enough.

The door opened and though the morning light was streaming in, Wo Fat couldn't really see outside of it. But he could clearly hear Steve.

"WHAT THE FUCK?!"

"Hi Steve," Rowan said in a saccharine sweet voice. Wo Fat found himself snickering to himself no matter how worried and apprehensive he was about the whole prison venture he was about to embark on.

"But... what… how… why?" Steve stuttered, groaning his last word at her.

Rowan stood up, she offered him her good hand which he took without hesitation and helped her out of the truck. "You didn't notice I was in there. You shut the door before I could get out."

Poor Steve looked so exasperated. Rowan sounded so upset about the situation that Wo Fat almost forgot that she had done this on purpose, which meant Steve probably had no idea either.

Wo Fat was handed out of the truck next, he bumped shoulders with her on the way down and managed to whisper in her ear: "Don't forget. If it gets bad give him a hug."

Steve practically shoved him away from her. He barked a few orders at the guards coming to take him into the prison. But once he was handed off Steve turned his attention back on Rowan who had waited patiently by the truck with Sam that S.W.A.T Captain.

Wo Fat could hear them as he was forced to walk away. Could hear the argument get louder. He turned back to watch them as he was processed at the gate. He saw the handcuffs in Steve's hands glinting in the morning sunlight. Fear lanced through him, Steve wouldn't actually arrest Rowan… would he?

But it never came to that. Rowan just hugged him, just like he had told her too. She had one arm around him and the other in the sling pressed between them. She rested her cheek against his chest and just stood there. Steve was frozen, unable to move. A million emotions passed over his face before the handcuffs clattered out of his hands and he returned the hug. His arms wrapped around her so tightly that Wo was worried that Rowan might not be able to breathe, and then he rested his cheek against the top of her head.

Wo Fat saw it then. Understood her constant desire to be with him. Understood Steve's relentless chase for her. Seeing them there together, seeing them embraced and how both of them seemed so much more content together, he realized that they were meant to be together but for some reason both of them were fighting it.

But what was Wo Fat to do? He didn't really want her with Steve because Steve wanted to keep them apart and the asshole had sent him to jail and was the reason he could audition for a villain in a Batman movie. Not to mention Steve had turned into a grade a jerk and a full out stalker. But he also wanted Rowan to be happy and Rowan hadn't looked that content… ever, not with him, not with Alex, not even with the other Five-0s. The look on her face was one he had never seen before and honestly it put him in a state of confusion. This wasn't his problem, he reminded himself. Rowan could figure out her love life without him.

So why did he care?


	48. Chapter 48

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Alright I'm posting early cause I'm so excited. I finished writing the ONE SHOT! Now I'm just waiting until I get to post it. Guys, I've had nothing but inspiration… but not for the chapter I'm writing. Don't get me wrong, I know exactly where Chapter 70 is supposed to go. I just can't seem to get it flowing. Also I have never had so much fun writing a bonus chapter. I hope you guys like these one shots as much as I loved writing them. So I have a small request. Can you guys hit me with even more inspiration? For the episode where Steve has Joanie for the first time and the following two after that? I'd love to get some more ideas cause I'm not sure if I like mine. SIDE QUESTION, and I need **everyone to answer**. I'm about to write Steve and Rowan's first sex scene (not taking place in chapter 70 but will be taking place a few chapters later). How graphic do you want me to get guys? I need to know what level of smut you guys wanna read. – P.S. Guest who got triggered, this is another chapter that's gonna trigger you BE PREPARED._

Chapter 48 

* * *

A week after Wo Fat was put in prison Steve was still watching and waiting. He waited to see if his mother would visit the jailbird. Waited to see if Rowan would make another attempt to see him. But all was quiet. Almost too quiet.

The P.I. had not turned up anything new on Rowan, he had given up getting info on his mother. None of the Five-0s would tell him anything about Rowan. The only thing he knew was that she had been applying for jobs and going to interviews. She went to the hospital. She went to Alex's practices and gigs. She and Alex were still having a lot of sex.

That was all.

He had told Catherine and the Five-0s that he'd cancel the P.I. trailing Rowan. He told Catherine that he didn't see Rowan anymore. He told himself that he didn't care that Rowan would rather associate with a Nurse who flirted with everything and Steve's nemesis who had tried to kill her. But he was lying. He was lying to himself. He was lying to everyone, and it was scary how easily he did so. He was much like his mother that way.

But all that waiting had paid off. He got the call that someone had come to visit Wo Fat. She was immediately detained and brought to the Warden's office. Steve, though on a case, had already told the Warden that he was coming to get her. Warden Grier, who hadn't told Steve who he had apprehended, had simply told him to take his time, they were enjoying their cupcakes and tea.

So that told him who had been caught trying to visit Wo Fat.

Still Steve rushed away from the Iolani Palace even though there was a missing child's case he was on, to go get Rowan before she convinced the Warden to let her visit a dangerous criminal.

When he got in the room Rowan was sitting in a chair, her arm still in a sling, her other hand holding a paper cup no doubt filled with tea. Her blue eyes met his and he forgot to be angry. All he felt was that intense longing that consumed him whenever she was nearby.

And then he reminded himself why she had come here in the first place and the anger came back to him.

"Thank you for taking care of this," he said to Warden Grier. "You can keep the cupcakes."

"Oh… wait… you're supposed to share. I bought enough for the guards on the solitary floor," she said.

"How do you know how many guards are on that floor?" Steve asked hands on his hips as he glared down at her.

Rowan carefully took her eyes off of him and put the paper cup down on the Warden's desk. "You told me not to tell you about my visions," she answered quietly.

"I thought you said you wouldn't have visions if you weren't around me anymore," he reminded her. To be fair she had seen him quite a lot since she asked him to not be in her life anymore. So maybe that was why she was still having visions.

"Oh, it wasn't about you, it was about Wo," she said primly.

Or that could be why.

She smiled up to him as if this were a social call. As if he hadn't been called down to a prison because against his direct orders she was trying to visit the man who had kidnapped her and eventually shot her.

"Are you going to drive me home?" she asked.

"No," he answered before he could change his mind.

"Oh…" she said, sounding so disappointed he almost told her he would. "Could you drive me home? Alex is working and I'd rather not take the bus again."

"I'm not taking you home Rowan," he said to her more sternly. "What did I tell you I was going to do if I caught you trying to visit him again?"

Rowan scoffed. "You wouldn't actually…" she started and then trailed off when she saw the handcuffs in his hands.

She stood so quickly the chair toppled over. She backed away from him. "No. Don't you dare."

"Rowan I was very clear…" he growled.

"On what charges? What could you possibly be arresting me for?" she asked. He took a step forward and she danced around the Warden's desk, moving behind his chair as he watched them with curious eyes and ate one of the cupcakes she had left.

"For Association!" he told her.

"You can't arrest me for that! It's not a crime!" she cried. She tried to run but Steve wasn't having it. He vaulted over the desk, his hands catching both her shoulders and pushing her against the wall. It took some maneuvering but he managed to get her arm out of the sling so he could press it behind her back but after the handcuffs clicked he felt sick to his stomach.

He didn't want to do this. He didn't want this to be how they were. He wanted to take the handcuffs off of her and beg her for forgiveness. But he needed to be strong. He needed her to understand that she couldn't keep doing this.

He pulled her away from the wall, put her in front of him, ready to push her out of the office, but Rowan wasn't letting him have it. She just dropped. Steve nearly tripped over her.

"Rowan. Don't make me add resisting arrest to the charges," he groaned down to her.

"I'm not resisting I'm protesting," she argued.

Steve groaned his eyes rolling heavenward as he tried to reign in his anger. He stooped down and picked her up, throwing her over one of his shoulders. Damn she was still way too light, had she not put on the weight from the void travelling?

"Steve, put me down," she ordered but he kept walking. "Steve. I'm serious. Put me down. This is undignified!"

But Steve wouldn't listen to her. He was going to carry her out and put her in the back of the Camaro he had borrowed from Danny. He'd leave her in lock up for a few hours and then let her go. He shouldn't have taken as much pleasure as he did from having her on his shoulder, from feeling her against him. And he definitely shouldn't have enjoyed the way she squealed his name when he ignored her and continued to walk. But Rowan made him pathetic and he did. Oh god, he did.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan was angry. Steve couldn't dictate who she saw. Steve couldn't dictate whether or not she was allowed to visiting someone in prison. Except he had. Because she wasn't allowed to visit Wo Fat anymore. And on top of that he had actually arrested her, even when he had no actual charges to press.

On Commander McGarrett's strictest of orders. Rowan Pierce was not allowed to visit Wo Fat in prison. Both the Warden and Steve had been very clear that morning. And with Steve actually following through with the whole arrest threat she knew she couldn't just go back. He'd just arrest her again and Kono couldn't keep letting her out as soon as Steve's back was turned. She needed an actual game plan. She needed a get out of jail free card.

Well she was not taking that lying down. No, siree. She was going to show Steve. Which was why she had gone straight to the Governor's office and demanded a meeting with him right after Kono had let her out of holding against Steve's wishes. A meeting that she said was of the utmost importance. And yet it was going on three hours and he still hadn't called her in.

Well. Rowan had had enough of this.

She waited until his Admin Assistant was busy on the phone before she quickly got up out of her seat and made a mad dash for his door. The Admin Assistant didn't even notice until she was half through closing the door behind her. By then it was too late for her to stop her. Rowan turned with a bright smile to where Governor Dennings was sitting, phone to his ear and a grim glare on his face.

Rowan took a seat in front of his desk and then just stared at him. A leisurely smile on her face as she waited patiently for him to be done his call. Once he was finished and he hung up the phone he pinned Rowan with a stern glare.

"Can I help you Miss. Pierce?" he asked, his tone clearly unhappy.

Rowan nodded. "I believe you can," she said quickly. "Commander McGarrett has forbidden me from visiting Wo Fat…"

"Yes, no one is allowed to visit him without McGarrett's permission. So if he has told you that you can't see Wo Fat then I believe he has made a wise decision," Dennings said. "Though I am curious. Why do you wish to see him after everything that happened?"

Rowan wasn't quite prepared for that question, mainly because she wasn't sure. She didn't know how to explain what was going on with her. How Wo Fat made her feel like she was at home. Not like home with Steve but like home with her family. But she didn't know how to say that without sounding crazy.

"Because he's changing," she told him. "When he's with me he's someone new. He's almost human. Like… maybe he just needs to be around a positive influence and you could maybe reform him."

Dennings stared at her his eyebrow cocked in surprise. "Reform him? Do you know what he's capable of?"

Rowan glanced down to the arm she still had in a sling and then back up to him. Was that a serious question. "Yes, I'm aware. But I'm telling you. He's different with me. Really. It's like a plant right? It needs, water, sun and the right environment to grow. Well he gets all of that from me! If he loses me he's gonna go back to his dastardly ways, I just know it. But maybe… maybe I can get him to stop. He could be of great use to you, you know. I'm sure we could find something for him to do."

Dennings continued to stare at her as he drank in her words. "Really? You think that man can be reformed?"

"I don't know. Maybe. Will you just come see," she pleaded. "Please. Let me just show you the difference."

Dennings seemed to regard her for a moment before he quickly began typing into his laptop. "You know, Rowan, I wouldn't believe you if I hadn't already seen it," he told her and Rowan felt her eyebrows draw together in confusion. He had? How? "Sam, compiled a few videos for me to watch. Would you like to see the one I found the most interesting?"

Rowan nodded and he turned the computer around. She was looking at herself sitting on Wo Fat's hospital bed, his head on her shoulder. He was out of it. He had just gotten a shot of morphine and he was in the process of falling asleep.

"Kay, so we're just going to watch one movie," she had said.

"I'm too tired," Wo Fat had slurred.

"It's your favourite," she had urged, nudging him slightly.

Wo Fat had groaned. "If you make me watch _Little Mermaid_ one more time I cannot be held responsible for what happens to you."

"It's not _The Little Mermaid_ ," she had said with an eye roll. "Trust me you'll like this. We'll just watch the one song, your favourite one."

She was fiddling with the laptop on her lap, getting something ready to go. Rowan already knew what it was she was getting ready to play and what he was going to say next.

"Rowan, if I have listen to _Kiss the Girl_ one more time, I'll break out of my handcuffs and smother you myself," he had growled. He was always more violent and threaten-ie when he was on morphine and tired.

"I already told you it's not _The Little Mermaid_ ," she had snapped as she tried to suppress her smile. "And in this state I could totally over power you so bring it!"

Wo Fat had merely grumbled into her shoulder and then she played the song. It was, in fact, his favourite. _Shiver My Timbers_ , the opening song from _Muppet's Treasure Island_. Wo Fat had immediately broken out into a large smile, he picked his head up off of his shoulder and just stared at her all happy, because it really was his favourite song.

"See, I told you to trust me," she had said to him.

"I already do," he had answered sincerely. She knew that he had said it because the morphine had taken control and he didn't have a filter. She had never pressed him to confirm if it were true when he was sober. She had just understood that he trusted her and that was a big deal for a sociopath who was used to bossing people around and hadn't trusted anyone since Doris McGarrett.

The video ended and Rowan fidgeted in her seat. She hadn't realized that her S.W.A.T. boys had taken videos. She hadn't realized that Sam would collect proof of… she didn't even know what… to send to the Governor. But now that she knew that he had video evidence of Wo Fat being a nice person what was he going to do with that information?

"This is a strange predicament, Rowan, and I'd probably be more concerned if I didn't already know how strange you are," he said to her. Rowan had no choice but to concede because it was true. It was a strange situation she was in and she was pretty strange herself. It wasn't like she could argue. "I'm going to ask you a simple question. I want you to answer it as truthfully as you can."

He waited for her to nod before asking the next question: "I don't think this is all about him being nicer when he's with you. I think you're comfortable with him, I think he's filling a McGarrett filled space in your life right now. I don't pretend to know what's going on between you two, but I'd be stupid not to notice that you two seem to have become at odds with one another all of a sudden. Is it possible that you might be suffering from Stockholm Syndrome? Or that you might be trying to replace Steven McGarrett with him?"

Rowan lowered her eyes. She wasn't sure she knew the answer to that question. Maybe on some level that was true. "I don't know," she whispered but it was true. She didn't know what was happening to her right now.

"Alright, fair," he said to her lounging back in his chair. "Alright. How about we make a deal, hmm?"

Rowan raised her eyes up again. He wanted to make a deal?

"I think what we need to do is see where this goes. You're right, he acts strangely with you, almost as if he had regular human emotions. His interest in you is something we can definitely exploit. So what I'm going to do is let you continue visiting him. But if I don't see any progress I will revoke your visiting privileges, are we clear?" he offered.

Rowan was about to say yes, she was about to agree when he suddenly added: "And I'm going to pay to have you see a shrink. I want to make sure you're… you know… okay. That there's nothing lingering."

Rowan stared at him. She really thought about what he was offering. Maybe she did need help. Maybe this was what they both needed.

"Fine. Deal," she said offering her hand to shake. "But you gotta stop Steve from arresting me every time I visit him."

"McGarrett arrested you for visiting him?" Dennings echoed. "What charges could he possibly have arrested you on?"

"Uhm… he said Guilt by Association," she said.

"He can't arrest you for that," Dennings growled.

"I'm aware, but he also has means and immunity… so…" she trailed off.

"I will take care of Commander McGarrett. You take care of your pet sociopath," he said. "I'll call the Warden and tell him of our deal. You may go."

Rowan smiled to him, the kind of smile Wo Fat had called her devious smile. She had gotten her way. There was nothing Steve could do now. She had won. Rowan Pierce had won.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan had not come.

Really what was he expecting? Yes Rowan was resourceful. Yes Rowan was determined to see him. But this was a prison and he was in extra-maximum-solitary security. There wasn't just one man she could bribe to get access to him, but a whole slew of guards at different doors. Steve was very clear that he would keep her from him so it made sense that she hadn't been able to get into the prison, all the way down to the hole they were keeping him in.

But he missed her. And he had sort of hoped that if anyone could find their way down to him, it would be her. But just like everyone else in his young life, Rowan had let him down. Not purposely, of course, but still disappointing.

The doors opened and Wo Fat turned, surprised. It wasn't time for food or his medicine, and it wasn't like they were allowing him to have yard time so he wasn't sure why the door was opening. The guard came in, keys in his hands. He unlocked the door to his cell, and Wo Fat backed away. What kind of trick was this? They were never supposed to let him out, that was the point. So what was happening?

"Hey there!" Rowan said popping out from behind him and Wo Fat nearly jumped. He stared at her as if she were a ghost, as if he were hallucinating, and maybe he was. What had they put in his food?

"Rowan?" he asked.

"Hell yeah!" she cried coming into his cell and hugging him immediately. "Who else is going to come visit you?"

She turned to the guard who was in the process of locking the door behind her. "Thanks Brian!" she said waving at him.

The man shook his head like he thought she were nothing more than a vapid airhead and Wo Fat scowled. She was obviously very smart to have found a way to visit him here. But before he could even sneer at the guard leaving the room Rowan had slapped him, hard.

Wo Fat cried out in pain and stared down at her in horror as he put his hand to his right cheek. Luckily it wasn't his bandaged cheek.

"Fuck Rowan! Why the hell did you do that?" he asked.

"That's for shooting me," she said primly. Wo Fat glared at her rubbing his cheek before he realized something.

She had slapped him and now his right cheek was in pain. She had slapped him and now she was smiling at him in that expectant manner as if expecting him to catch onto something.

"Did you just slap me with your left hand?"

Rowan nodded happily. "Oh my god! You slapped me with your left hand! You can move it now?" he cried.

"Yeah, I've got limited mobility. I can wiggle my fingers and can kind of move it now, but if I save my energy I can make one big gesture," she told him. "Uh… could you actually help me get it back in the sling?"

Wo Fat started, jumping forward to help her get her arm back in the sling. His smile couldn't be wiped off of his face. He just couldn't believe she was here. That she was finally getting better.

"So who did you bribe to get access to me?" he asked.

"No one. But Steve did get to the Warden before I could. He arrested me yesterday, eh?" she said.

Wo Fat froze and stared at her trying to gauge if she were joking or not. By the look on her face she wasn't. "Did you hug him? I told you to hug him."

"I didn't get a chance," she said quickly. "So obviously, I couldn't bribe my way in here, or sneak in. And Steve's orders are absolute after all, as he only has to answer to God and the Governor. So… obviously I had no choice but to go about his head. So I went to the Governor."

"The Governor?" he echoed.

"Well it's not like I could get God's permission, now could I?" she asked as if it were perfectly normal for someone to go into the Governor's office and demand access to a convicted criminal in maximum security solitary.

"But he agreed? You got the Governor to agree?" he asked.

"Yeah we made a deal," she said illusively. She was moving over to his cot. She sat down and immediately went into her purse to pull out her laptop. Did the prison have Wi-Fi? How were they going to watch Netflix?

"Another baking deal?" he asked. She was like a dealer when it came to her baked goods. He was surprised she didn't want to open a bakery or something

"Something like that," she said. It didn't really answer his question and it made him nervous that she was refusing to answer him. But she was here, and if she didn't want to tell him it meant she had given up something precious and it was upsetting her. So he figured he'd wait for her to tell him, not push it, and if it was something bad, he'd get it back for her.

But he wouldn't worry about that until it became a problem. Wo Fat was just going to sit down beside her, put his head on her shoulder and be glad she was still there with him.


	49. Chapter 49

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Merry Christmas guys! Surprise, I'm posting for Christmas cause I love you! So you guys have a lot to choose from right now. We have the Rewrite surprise chapter. We have the One Shot for JP a Rewrite Christmas. The One Shot for Runningwyld which is a McDanno fic, not centred on Christmas but is part of the Christmas one-shot exchange I was doing with them. And as a little added bonus, Runningwyld did one for me (hence why we called it an exchange) please check it out, it's called A Christmas for Nahele and it is set in the Rewrite world, it's mostly to cannon because I gave her some spoilers, but it's her version/wish list of events, so GO CHECK THAT OUT! Thanks so much for Reading this story, I wish every single reader a Merry Christmas and a Happy Holidays and I'll see you guys on Friday!_

Chapter 49

* * *

Glass exploded.

A phone ricocheted off of a wall, hit the ground and immediately shattered into a million pieces. Well that phone was destroyed. Silence hit the office. The happy mumbling between Danny, Chin and Kono, who were all celebrating the fact that they returned a little girl to her family, died on their lips. They all turned. Steve was in his office his chest heaving, rage painting his features.

He had gone into his office to take a call from the Governor. He had only been gone a few minutes. He had been so happy before this. But why the hell had he thrown his phone? Chin and Kono turned their eyes to Danny. They said nothing but he knew, as Steve's best friend, it was up to him to go and deal with this.

"You fucking cowards," he hissed to them which won him nothing but sarcastic smiles as they turned away from the scene.

He carefully walked around the shards of glass and knocked on Steve's door. He didn't have to, the window was shattered after all, he could have just talked to him through that but he thought it was sassier to knock on the door. Steve didn't answer to the knocking so he just opened the door and stared at him. Steve was sitting in his chair, elbows on his knees, and his head in his hands.

"Uh… wanna tell me what that was about?" Danny asked.

Steve shook his head. But Danny wasn't going to let the man smash a window with his cellular device and not tell him what the hell had happened. "Okay, so you got a call from the Governor and something he said set you off. I'm guessing the talk wasn't a _congratulations for finding the girl_ talk huh?"

Steve looked up at Danny and he realized that Steve wasn't okay. Not even a little bit. What the fuck had the Governor said to him?

"He… uh… he apparently talked to Rowan today," he finally admitted.

Oh fucking Rowan Pierce. What the hell had she done now? Get kicked off of Hawaii? She better be dead or getting deported, otherwise he was going to make her pay for that fucking window.

"Okay… and?" Danny probed.

"The two of them came to an agreement apparently. And he's given her permission to continue to visit Wo Fat in his maximum security solitary cell. Not even outside of it. In it. I've also just been told that I am not allowed to arrest her unless I have a legitimate reason, and not the bullshit I made up today," Steve finished.

Danny sighed. "Okay… well… to be fair… we did all tell you that you shouldn't have arrested her," he told him. Steve shot him a glare and Danny stepped away from Steve's desk. "Look. I get it. It sucks. She shouldn't _want_ to visit the man who shot her, but she does. Why the fucking Governor agrees is beyond me."

Steve said nothing, he just rested his chin in his fingers and began to tap his foot. He was bouncing that wasn't good. A bouncing, fidgeting Steve was a Steve that did something rash and stupid.

"Okay, what you need to do is calm down," Danny said, like Steve had ever listened to him before. Steve scoffed and straightened, his foot still tapping, his leg bouncing up and down even faster than before. "Here's what we're going to do. I know Kono is going over to Rowan's apartment this weekend for another baking date. I'm going to get her to ask Rowan what's going on. Okay? Is that okay?"

"What is she going to learn? Huh?" Steve asked. "What is Rowan really going to say? That she went to the Governor to spite me? To prove to me that she's going to do everything she can to stay with Wo Fat?"

"No. I was thinking we'd get some answers though. Is that not what we want?" Danny shot back.

"I don't want to put Kono in that position," Steve answered weakly.

"Don't even worry about it, spying on Rowan is the whole reason she started baking with her in the first place," Danny said waving off Steve's concerned.

"Wait… I thought you said spying on Rowan was a stalkerish thing to do," Steve reminded him.

"Now. I said _you_ spying on Rowan was considered stalking, when we do it its cause we're concerned friends," Danny clarified. He then turned. "Yo. Kono, I got new intel for you to dig up when you go to Rowan's this weekend."

Kono turned immediately. Confusion clearly drawn up on his face. "Uh… okay?"

"Yeah, you gotta figure out what she did to get the Governor to agree to let her visit Wo Fat in prison," Danny said coming out of the room. Steve was following him, he could tell because Kono was staring at him confused before she spotted something over her shoulder and went a white color.

"Uh…."

"Steve's really curious, if you could find out that would be greatly appreciated," Danny said.

"Uh… well… I can try. But to be honest I think she's caught on to me. She's starting to look at my funny whenever I ask her questions," Kono said.

"Well… just try," Danny said. And then turned back to Steve. "Come on, let's go get dinner and drinks. You pick, I know it'll cheer you up."

He then put a soft hand to Steve's elbow and led him out of the room. He'd have to sit on Steve for the rest of the night to keep him from doing something unreasonable. It was going to be a long night for Danny. But in the morning, he was going straight to Rowan's and making her cough up money for the window.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan skipped into Wo Fat's cell, passing off the box of cookie she brought for the guards to Brian, who was letting her into the cell. She waited patiently until he was gone before she sat herself down on the cot beside him and smiled widely at him.

"I got the job!" she sung to him. "They even bought the fake name. I don't think they did a background check at all."

Wo Fat blinked his eyes at her. "Really? They hired you? With a bum arm?" he said sounding surprised. Rowan smacked his shoulder and he laughed at her. "Of course, you got the job, of course they didn't do a background check. It's a cleaning company, Rowan. They'll hire anyone."

Rowan glared at him. "I'm teasing, Rowan," he clarified. "Remember this is only phase one. You still have to find the safe."

"I'm running out of time too," she whispered.

She didn't miss Wo Fat's eye roll. "I don't see why this is _your_ problem, Rowan," he said for the millionth time.

Rowan merely sighed and shot a dark glare in his direction. "We're not debating this again, Wo," she snapped to him. "Where would an ex-CIA operative trying to run for senate hide a stolen microfiche?"

"Probably in a safe," he answered absently digging through her bag to find whatever entertainment she had brought for them. "Probably behind a painting in the man's office. They're terribly cliché that way. Do you know his name yet?"

Rowan thought it over. "Uhm… well uh…. I'm not entirely sure I know. Not for sure anyway," she whispered.

"Doris probably knows," Wo Fat said. Rowan snatched her bag out of his hands and forced him to look at her. "Well, you said she was planning an op right? She probably knows all about it. You got to figure out who it is."

"I'm not talking to Doris, remember," she reminded him.

"I get that you're mad at her for abandoning you with me but if you want to help them, it might help if you actually talk to them," he said. "How's your arm by the way? I see you're still using the sling."

"It's fine. It's getting better. The sling is almost for decoration now," she said almost proudly. "But… uh… I'm not going to lie, sometimes I loose feeling entirely."

"Well that's probably just because you're working it too hard. You have to pace yourself," he said to her. Rowan had heard this from her physio therapist as well. It didn't make it any easier though. He seemed to sense that this was a sensitive subject because he changed the subject entirely. "Now if you don't mind can we get onto what you're really here for?"

Rowan smiled. "Eager today, aren't we? I didn't bring any movies today. I brought music for a dance party!"

Wo Fat was no longer smiling. "Are you kidding me? Rowan. I don't dance."

"Don't be silly you waltz wonderfully," she said.

Wo Fat sighed. "Alright. But if you tell anyone about this I'll have to kill you."

"Wo, there's camera's everywhere," she reminded him.

Wo Fat groaned. "I hate you so much."

But he got up anyway. And though he said he didn't want to he couldn't keep the smile off of his face. Rowan couldn't help but bounce up and down with excitement, she couldn't wait to teach him new dance moves.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Doris came back to her rented bungalow, with the sense that something was off. It wasn't that she had been followed, it wasn't that she had just gotten back from securing a stake out van for the op she was planning. Nothing in her apartment had been moved. Nothing was out of place. But something was different. She immediately moved towards the secondary room, where she had been keeping her plans for the op. If someone was trying to stop her they'd start there.

But before she could even put her hand on the knob the door opened. Out of everyone she was thinking about, it wasn't Rowan she expected to see on the other side of that door.

"Jeezus Rowan!" she cried immediately wondering what it was she had seen. How long had she been in that room? Why had she broken in? How had she broken in?

But Doris never got to ask those questions. Rowan wasn't smiling at her, she didn't say hello, there was nothing pleasant about the look on her face. She put a single hand to her shoulder and an electric shock hit her so strongly that Doris nearly cried out in pain. But it was Rowan, Rowan whose eyes rolled back in her head that scared her. Doris had to lunge to grab her before she hit the ground, but doing so sent another electric shock up her arms so strong she was sure it wasn't just static but an actual electrical current.

Doris couldn't keep Rowan's dead weight up, but she didn't stop holding her, she let Rowan take her down to the ground. Holy fuck, what was she going to do? She'd have to call Steve, he'd have to come get her. God he'd love that. Maybe she'd call Danny instead.

But no sooner did Rowan hit the ground did she pop back up. A name on her lips.

 _Tyler Cain_

That took her aback a bit. Why would Rowan know that name? Why would Rowan be here? She looked at Doris, seemed to realize where she was and then went about picking herself up. "Sorry," she said heading for the door. "Thanks for the info."

"Wait!" Doris cried reaching out for her again but not actually making contact with her in case she got shocked again. "What are you doing here Rowan?"

"Does it matter?" Rowan shot back and then slipped out of front door. Doris let her go. She wasn't going to call Steve. That would just put her son into a frenzy. He was not handling Rowan's departure well.

Instead she called Mick.

"Hey. Yeah, I need you to follow someone," she said as soon as he picked up the phone. "I think you already know her. Rowan Pierce."

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Tyler Cain needed a life. He knew that. But his gun-supplying business didn't run itself. He was the fancy suit that kept his agents and dictators in line and the politicians and civilians at bay. And with Doris McGarrett back in the picture he had a lot to worry about. That microfiche he had stolen from her would only be able to keep her at bay for so long. To be honest he was surprised she hadn't tried to steal it back yet. She must have been getting docile in her old age.

Out of paranoia he opened up the safe in his office, just to make sure the microfiche was still there. Just to make sure Doris hadn't already pinched it. It was still there. Thank God.

The door to his office opened and he tried not to groan in frustration. He shut the safe but didn't bother closing it all the way, it wouldn't matter anyway, she probably wouldn't have noticed. Still he forced himself to smile for she was the reason he had stayed so long after his work was done.

Rose McGowen was new at their firm. She was a night time cleaning lady, who really shouldn't have been trusted with the job. Her first night there, about three weeks ago, he had come back to pick up paperwork, which was a good thing, because she had exploded a vacuum in his office and had been struggling to clean up the mess, quite tearfully at that. Now he stayed late to make sure nothing else exploded while she was here. And maybe a little bit because she was adorably vapid and made him feel better about himself.

She was a sweet girl, who wore the orange cleaning smock well. She was petite with this wide blue eyes and her red-to-blonde-faded hair was always pinned back in a severe braided bun. She had this pale complexion and ability to smile and turn men's knees to jelly. Not that she had done that to him, but she had done it for a few of the men he had working with him. No, Rose just reminded him of his grandchildren and he didn't trust her to be in his office alone.

"Mr. Cain are you here burning the midnight candle again?" she asked.

Tyler struggled to correct her, there was no point, and she wouldn't get it. "Yes, I am," he said instead. "And how are you tonight Miss McGowan?"

"Oh I'm good. Got me some boy troubles," she admitted. Of course she would. Pretty girl like her, all beauty no brains, was the kind of girl fuckboys dreamed about. "But what else is new?"

"Mhmm," he answered absently. James, Oz, Alex, she had three boys she was juggling, each more stupid then the next. One was using her for music, the other was a control freak and the other was in jail. None of them were good choices but she couldn't seem to settle on one of them. But he flat out refused to give her advice on her love life. Just so long as she cleaned his office without coating it in the entire floor dust he would be happy.

"Bake anything today?" he asked her. That was another thing he liked about Rose. She had only been a part of his life for four days but she had already brought three different concoctions for him to try. If she were to ask him for help with a down payment on a bakery he'd shell without a hesitation so long as it was agreed that he got free cupcakes for the rest of his life.

"No not today, I was busy," she told him. Which meant she was at Halawa again. Visiting Oz. Tyler forced his mouth shut. He wasn't going to say a single thing about it.

"Do you think it wise to continue associating with a criminal low-life?" he asked before he could stop himself.

Rose, who was bending over his trashcan, stopped what she was doing immediately. Well fuck, that meant he wasn't getting home any quicker.

"Probably, but I can't seem to stop myself. Socializing is very important to people on the inside. And I'm all he's got," she told him. Tyler rolled his eyes. God this girl was a bleeding heart. She probably gave all her loose change to hobos and street musicians.

Rose moved towards the desk, garbage bag in hand. "And besides, I'd feel ever so guilty if I stopped visiting him and something terrible happened."

She was actually holding the garbage bag above his desk. The same garbage that was probably about to leak seeing how many almost empty coffee cups he had thrown into it today. "Rose. Can you get rid of that please?" he asked her. He swore he could smell the garbage from where he was.

"Oh, yeah, sure," she said as if she hadn't the foggiest idea why he was asking her to finish doing her job before talking to him. She swung around, not paying attention to anything on this desk and knocked the cup of coffee he had just made all over his desk.

Tyler jumped up struggling to save his papers. Rose yelped and dropped the bag of garbage and tried to help him. But together they just made a terrible mess.

"Rose!" he shouted and she fell back.

"Oh Gosh! I'm so sorry Mr. Cain, I'm not usually this clumsy," she said to him. He seriously doubted that but it looked like she was about to cry and he didn't want to deal with that either.

"It's okay. Here. I'm going to go make a new cup of coffee, can you please just clean this up and put the papers somewhere to dry?" he asked.

He stepped around his desk and saw the garbage that had tumbled right out of the bag. "Clean up… _all_ of this please," he added when he saw it.

"I'm really super sorry," Rose called out as he walked away. Tyler tried not to scowl at her, he tried not to shake his head. She was frustrating but she meant well. He couldn't really fault her for that. It wasn't her fault she was so goddamn stupid.

Tyler dallied as he made his cup of coffee. He found a stale donut to eat. He went through some of his emails on his phone and then made his way back to his office. He spotted the coffee stained papers first, being aired out on this secretary's desk outside. Laying on his open calendar.

Great his calendar was going to be coffee stained. But you know what, anything was better then what he was originally stuck with. He opened up the door and the office was actually quite clean. Rose was putting the last of the garbage into the main bin on her cart and smiled at him in a sheepish manner when she saw him at the door.

"Is that better, Mr. Cain?" she asked.

"Yes, thank you so much Rose," he said. "You going to be in tomorrow?"

"No, not until next week," she answered. Ah great he was going to get a break.

"Well alright, I'll see you then," he said, ushering her out of his office.

"Okie-dokie-artichoke-ie," she said as she went off towards the next office. Tyler couldn't keep the head shake to himself that time, it was automatic.

With Rose finally out of his office and moving onto a different one Tyler could finally go home. He put the painting back on his closed safe, shut the door to his office and didn't give the incident any more thought.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Wo Fat was on pins and needles. He knew Rowan was supposed to be coming today. It was her twelfth shift working at that firm and last night she had been tasked with finding the safe, he had told her where to expect it to be. He wanted to know if he was right, if she had gotten the specifics so he could help her crack the safe. He wanted to make sure it had gone well. She had taken to the whole spying business like a fish in water. He was actually really proud of how well she was doing with such little instruction.

She would have been great in his business if she'd only let him train her.

But it was because he was expecting Rowan, because he was anticipating her visit that when the door opened he jumped up and rushed to the glass wall of his cell to see her. But Rowan wasn't alone when she walked in. She looked uncomfortable and nervous which immediately made him angry.

He glared at the man who came in with her. But Governor Dennings didn't seem the least bit intimidated by him and he blamed the orange jump suit. Orange was not his color.

"Hi Wo," she said in a sheepish voice.

"What is going on?" he asked. Because he couldn't ask her what kind of trouble she was in. Not in front of the Governor.

"I have a simple question to ask you and I wonder if you have the ability to answer me truthfully," Governor Dennings said. He had a hand on Rowan's injured arm and she was wincing.

Wo Fat held the man's gaze. He seemed to be thoughtfully looking at Wo who had been looking at Rowan and the pain on her face. He swallowed back the urge to ask him what he'd want in return for allowing Rowan to continue to visit. He didn't want anyone else to have power over him, he was barely coping with Rowan's hold on him.

But he was also coursing with an angry desire to get this man to let her go.

"I want you to look me in the eye and tell me exactly why you're so interested in Rowan. Why you took her and held her hostage for a month. I want to hear it straight from you," he ordered.

Oh this was not good. This was a test with no right answer, or at least no right answer for him. Admit the truth and the Governor can control him, answer in a way that the Governor doesn't like and both he and Rowan are punished. What to do, what to do?

"Anyone can see she's Steve's weakness," Wo Fat finally spat out. He tried to add as much venom as he could muster to make it sound as believable as possible. It wasn't a fully a lie. It was the real reason he had taken her to begin with. "I took her to control him."

"I see. I was afraid of that," he said abruptly frowning to Rowan who was looking up to him surprised. "Sorry, my dear, but I'm afraid I'll have to deport you. Effective immediately. This will need to be hushed up to keep Steve from interfering."

"What?" Rowan cried. The Governor snapped his finger and Brian, the guard who was always posted on his door on days Rowan was visiting him, came into the room. He grabbed her good arm and began dragging her away.

"I can't have my one line of defense against people like _him_ compromised over you. The State can't handle that, unfortunately it's going to have to be this way," he said not sounding sad at all.

Wo Fat watched her go, suddenly very upset. This made no sense. And he didn't want this to happen. "Wait. But… where are you going to deport her to? You don't know where she's from."

"Not my problem!" the Governor said moving towards the door.

He heard Rowan cry out in the hallway and suddenly he wasn't in control anymore. "Wait!" he called out again causing the Governor to halt. "I'm willing to trade. I can tell you where to find bodies. Lots of bodies. A Yukaza hit graveyard. If I tell you, if I help you find them, will you let her stay in Hawaii?"

"You'd do that?" the Governor asked. "You'd give away that kind of intel for her?"

Wo Fat scowled. "She has nowhere and no one else," he told him. Regular people weren't supposed to be like him, they were supposed to have hearts. Where was this man's heart?

He stared at him a little longer before disappearing into the hallway. Where the hell was he going? He better had been going to get Rowan.

Luckily he was. He returned with Brian and Rowan, Brian unlocked the door and Rowan stepped in. She didn't immediately hug him like he thought she would. Instead she stood awkwardly beside him, avoiding his questioning gaze. It worked out well for him, because if she hugged him he would have hugged her back and made the whole situation worse.

"I will be returning once the visitation is over. In return for your intel, not only will she stay on the island, she can continue to visit you. Maybe we can come up with something else you'd like in return for more intel," he said.

Wo Fat merely glared at him. He didn't want to give them more intel. There wasn't anything else he wanted. He didn't care about any of that. All he wanted was for Rowan to be left alone. Which seemed to not be an option now that it was clear that she was a person of interest to him.

He had put Rowan in danger.

"You lied to me, Mr. Fat, this had nothing to do with McGarrett," the Governor said as he walked away. His eyes fell on Rowan before he added: "Well… not anymore."

The Governor of Hawaii left the room. The door to his cell was locked. And then as soon as everyone was gone Rowan hugged him. He heard her apologies, but he didn't care, it wasn't her fault, it was his.

But he'd have to do something to protect her. He just didn't know what.


	50. Chapter 50

**Rewrite**

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: So we're 50 chapters in y'all. And yes. I know they're still not together. I'M SORRY! The good news is, I've written all the way to chapter 72 and they have FINALLY had their first proper kiss. They're still not together yet, but they are on their way there :D As of Today we are officially going to be doing double updates, hopefully all through 2019. I'm also hoping to do some triple updates, and even some weeks where I do an "Update every day". I'm trying really hard to keep us going, but I make no promises about it cause I got stuck on Chapter 70 for two weeks and I feel super behind. But hey, when I was stuck I wrote like 7 future chapters for later in the season and for in season 5 so that's something right? Anyway, enjoy the update, as always tell me what you think cause I love hearing your input and I'll see you on Tuesday!_

 _P.S. GUYS! I only got two votes on the level of smut and they're WILDLY different. Please tell me what you guys think about the level of smut. I wanna know what you guys would like. Are we for full smut or do you want lower doses? I gotta know guys!_

Chapter 50

* * *

Rowan woke up and turned her head over to where Alex was sleeping. He had fallen asleep in his clothes. No doubt too tired to change when he got back from his gig. She usually went to his gigs but she got back from the prison late last night and had been too tired to go. He had an arm draped over her body in his sleep, loosely. Not the way Steve used to cling to her. Not the way she was used to.

She really needed to stop faulting him for doing things not in the way she was used to. It wasn't his fault she was used to Steve. It was hers. And she couldn't keep holding him to that standard.

She slid out from under his arm, not because she didn't want him holding her, but because she felt guilty. There was so much that she felt guilty for. She felt guilty that she still wasn't over Steve. Alex deserved her full emotions not just the parts she could give him. She felt guilty for visiting Wo when she knew it upset Steve as badly as it did. She felt guilty for visiting Wo Fat when she knew the Governor thought she could change him into a better person, and she should accept him for who he was the way he accepted her. Guilty for not trying harder to get home. Guilty for leaving her family behind, for being stuck here because she had fallen for a man who hadn't fallen for her.

Well… Alex deserved so much more than what she had to offer. But for now, she had to do something, so she'd make him breakfast. So she snuck into the kitchen, and quietly went about making him pancakes, with a bacon smilie face and banana eyes. His favourite.

Today was a baking day. She had been baking a lot lately, it had gotten so bad at one point she was baking every day. Which had not been good for anyone, everyone was putting on weight because of her. So she had started to bake just once a week. On Saturdays. But baking was something she did when she was sad. No one had caught on to that yet.

She couldn't be too sad though. Because Kono had invited herself over for baking days. And every Saturday she never failed to show up. That meant at some point in the next few hours Kono was going to be at her door and she'd be asking her some distinct set of questions that Steve had sent with her.

Since she wasn't talking to Steve at that moment, not since he arrested her and all of that, he had to find some way to know what she was doing.

Rowan was halfway through finishing her pancakes when the knock came at the door. She put the pancake she was currently making on the back burner and went to answer the door. She hadn't thought to change because Kono had seen her in her pyjamas a million times but when she opened the door it wasn't Kono waiting for her.

"Hi," Adam said. He was dressed nicely, grey slacks and a blue dress shirt. "Kono caught a case, so she sent me instead."

Rowan blinked her eyes. Oh My God. Why hadn't Kono told her that? She still had bed head, no makeup, and she was wearing short shorts and one of Steve's shirts. This was not the image she wanted Adam to associate with her.

"Uh… okay… uhm…" she said. "Alright, you come in. And I'll… uh… you know what. Can you finish that pancake on the stove? I'm going to go get changed really quick."

"Sure thing, take your time," he said as he walked towards the stove.

Rowan did not take her time. Once she was out of eye-sight she threw herself into the room she shared with Alex to find something suitable to wear. She threw on the first pair of shorts she could find and then the first shirt that matched. She didn't have time for makeup but she was definitely going to do something about her morning breath

From the bed Alex groaned. "Can you be quiet?"

Rowan crossed to him and kissed his exposed cheek. "Sorry. I got happy pancakes for you when you're ready to wake up," she whispered to him.

"Ugh… I'm too sick for sugar," he snapped and then rolled further into the bed to get away from her. Rowan sighed. Well, she deserved that, kind of. Not really, but she'd let it go. She quickly rushed to the washroom dragged her fingers through her tangled curls before hastily braiding it back the best she could. She gargled some mouthwash, promising to brush her teeth once she got a chance to and then returned to the kitchen, putting on an air of confidence like she didn't just rush through her whole morning routine.

"Your arm is looking good," Adam commented, plating the pancake.

Rowan nodded. "Yeah, I don't need the sling as much anymore," she admitted.

"So, what are we making today?" he asked changing the topic entirely. Rowan's eyes narrowed. If Adam was here to fish for information, he was doing a horrible job at it. As the son of a Yukaza boss she thought he'd be better at it.

"I promised to make Grace cookie dough cupcakes," she said. "Don't tell Danny, he explicitly told me not to."

Adam laughed. The sound rich and warm, kind of like Steve's in the night time. God she needed to get Steve out of her brain. Luckily Adam was talking and he sounded nothing like Steve. "You and Grace must be close, I believe Kono mentioned you do the Aloha girls with her," he said.

"Yeah, I'm a volunteer troop leader. I'm in charge of guitar playing and snacks," she said. "And I'm not allowed at anymore camp outs."

Adam laughed again, this time deep and booming. "Yes. I heard you and Steve are both banned."

Rowan hid her smile as she went about collecting all the ingredients and utensils she'd need to make the cupcakes. She didn't know what to say. She didn't want to talk to Adam about Steve she wanted to forget about him and the pain in her heart over him. She had to get over him. She _had_ to.

"Speaking of Steve, I suppose I was curious about a few things," Adam suddenly. Rowan was so startled by the admittance that she dropped the mixing bowl on the counter, where it clattered terribly.

Rowan glanced up to him and found him staring at her with a thoughtful stare. "Kono asked me to ask you a few questions," he admitted. "Sounds callous but they're worried about you and you're not answering their questions. So they've resorted to subterfuge."

Ok that was fair… except flat out asking her wasn't exactly subterfuge. "I understand, what are your questions?"

"Mostly about Wo Fat," he said. "Something about him sending you packages. About you visiting him in prison. They're curious as to how the Governor thought that could be a good idea?"

Rowan scowled. Of course it was all about Wo Fat. "They also asked about your arm, how things are going with your music. When the next gig you'll be singing at is. So it's not all about information for Steve."

Ah so Steve had mostly sent him and Kono here and he wasn't every the slightest bit interested in her personal life. Great. Wasn't that just a blow to the ego? Rowan shook her head lightly. It was okay. It was to be expected. He had Catherine. She had Alex. She was sticking to Wo Fat like glue, that had to be pissing Steve off. Why would he want to know about her social life if she was angering him the way she was?

"I went to the Governor because Steve only answers to him and God. The Governor was just easier to access," Rowan told him. "I… well… l made it seem like Wo Fat could be reformed. So he lets me continue to visit him."

"I never did business with Wo Fat, but my father did. My father… he feared him," Adam said. "Called him ruthless. Is that not how he is with you?"

Rowan shook her head. "No. Not anymore. Not for a while," she whispered.

"But he shot you," he reminded her.

"He was cornered. He's a sociopath with no internal compass that points to right or wrong. He was cornered and he thought hurting me enough to send me to the hospital would keep Steve and the other Five-0's from following him. And he was right," she said. "It was a terrible thing, but I believe he's sufficiently sorry for causing me that much pain."

"And why do you say that?"

"The way he said it. The way he acts. It… well… it reminds me of my brother," she said. He opened his mouth probably to ask her if she actually had a brother but she couldn't think about Trevor without crying and she didn't want that to get back to Steve. "When he's with me I feel like I'm home. Like really home. Like no matter what I do, illegal or not, he'll have my back. In fact he encourages the illegal. It's quite terrifying. But I think he cares about me in his own weird way."

They were quiet for a minute before she dared to whisper: "Please don't tell Steve. He wouldn't understand. He doesn't understand. And if I tell him about my family he'll make me look for them and I just… I just can't."

At that moment the door opened and Alex came out in his shirtless wonder. He was definitely built because Steve was jacked compared to him, but he had some nice definition and tone to his body. Still he was nice to look at so she did that now, hoping that the smile on her face was an appreciative one and not an absent one.

"Ohh, you're not Kono," he said. "I got excited to see Kono in her special cooking outfit."

Adam raised one of his eyebrows in concern and turned that look onto Rowan. "Special cooking outfit?" he echoed.

Rowan smiled. She opened a drawer and handed him an apron and a pair of oven mitts. The apron turned him into a mermaid and the oven mitts were lobster claws. He saw them and almost laughed. "Ah, that's what you mean," he said as he went about putting them on.

"Geeze, no need to worry I have no interest in girls who could easily kill me with a flick of a wrist," he said as he crossed to Rowan. He kissed her cheek good morning and whispered: "Did I hear something about happy pancakes?"

"On the counter. They might be a bit cold," she told him.

"Don't even care. That's what microwaves are for," he said lunging for the plate. "I swear to god, if someone told me that you put crack in your pancakes I would just say _I knew it_ and then demand you make me ten more."

Rowan shook her head and began to measure up her flour. "What do you have lined up for today?"

"A noon shift," he answered absently shoveling another mouthful of pancakes into his mouth.

Rowan abruptly stopped, double checked the time on her phone, the new one Alex had bought her with Wo Fat's blood money. "But Alex, that's in thirty minutes."

Alex dropped his fork looked at the time on the clock and then yelped a string of curse words. He rushed out of the kitchen with his pancakes heading for the bedroom.

"Don't take those in there. I'll pack them up for you!" she called but was met with a hurried response of: "No time!"

She went into the fridge and pulled out the lunch she had made him and then waited patiently with Adam smiling on beside her like he was enjoying this thoroughly. Alex came rushing out of the room, all ready to go, looking dashing in his skinny jeans and tank top. He threw the plate in her direction that Adam snatched out of the air before she could fumble with it, and Rowan tossed the lunch bag at him.

"Bye babe! See you after work!" he called and then he was gone.

Adam put the plate in the sink and in the wake of the quietness of the apartment he said: "You don't have to worry. I won't tell Steve."

And then he clapped a hand to her shoulder.

Just that touch send electricity flowing through her. Immediately images were overwhelming her, videos were mashing up playing over one another. She lost her breath, it was just gone, she couldn't breathe. There were so many terrible things flashing in front of her eyes ending with one terrible bloody gunshot.

Rowan gasped and backed away from Adam who was trying to steady her. She looked up to him surprised but what she had just remembered. The memories of a TV show she was starting to forget. It had been four days since she had forced herself to have a vision and the one from Doris hadn't been even half as potent as this one.

"What is it? What's wrong?" he asked.

"You're going to kill your brother," she whispered. Adam took a step away from her horrified shock dawning on all of his features.

"No I'm not," he said in a shaky voice.

"You do. He's going to try and kill you. He's going to try to kill Kono. So you kill him first," she told him. "And then you go on the run."

"No. No," he said shaking his head. "You're wrong."

"I'm never wrong," she said her voice barely above a whisper. Adam shook his head. But he must have been able to see that she wasn't going to listen to reason.

"I need to leave," he said quickly taking the apron off and tossing it at the counter.

"Okay," she said absently. "But Adam… he's framed Kono for murder."

Adam paused at the door. He stared at her, his eyes wide with fear. He said nothing as he shut the door behind himself and then Rowan was left alone once again. Like she always was in this apartment. All alone.

She looked at the baking supplies on the counter. How was she going to back cupcakes with one arm? How was she going to save Kono from this? What came first? Doris' heist or Kono's almost arrest? Did it matter? This wasn't supposed to be her life anymore.

She wished someone would tell the visions that.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve walked shoulder to shoulder with Danny. Danny, who was down in the dumps because Gabrielle hadn't come back like she said she would, had been grumpy and sulky all morning. Steve was trying to be supportive. Trying to make him feel better. But he wasn't good at that sort of thing. This was a Rowan thing. But he didn't want to say to Danny: "Hey do you want to talk to Rowan about it? I can't make the call for you, but I'll cover for you if you guys wanna chat on the phone while the rest of us deal with the crime scene."

He couldn't do that though. He wouldn't. Because if he couldn't talk to Rowan, then no one else should. That was selfish. He knew it was. But it was how he felt. It upset him to know that Kono would be with her right now baking and laughing and asking her questions. He wanted that. He wanted Rowan's laughter. Rowan's smiles. It killed him that he couldn't get that anymore. More than he cared to admit.

"Did she give you a reason?" he settled on asking. Because that was pretty standard right? Someone didn't just up and stand someone up for no reason. And a nice person, which Steve thought Gabby to be, gave their boyfriends reasons for standing them up.

"A reason why she's staying in Morocco or why she stood me up at the airport?" Danny snapped back and Steve tried not to groan. Of course, Danny was going to make the question offensive in some way. His hand itched for his phone. Just to dial Rowan's number and go: "Here, deal with him." But Rowan wouldn't pick up his calls anymore.

He sort of deserved that. Not really, but he got it.

"Either," he said with a shrug.

"She got offered a fellowship, she decided to take it. I guess she didn't wanna hurt my feelings. I mean, I sort of thought we had something nice going, but if I cannot compete with sandstorms and artifacts, I guess it was time to re-evaluate anyway, right?" Danny said.

Steve frowned. That was bullshit. She could have talked to him. She could have said something. She didn't have to leave him standing in at an airport with his daughter looking like a dofus. If Gabby ever came back it was going to be hard to be civil with her after this incident. Especially now that Steve was going to be stuck dealing with a sulking, depressed Danny for the foreseeable future.

"Hey," they said together to Chin and Max who were waiting for them above a rather deep looking grave.

"So the victim's name is Chad Torez. He's a security guard with Kalauna Excavation," Chin told them. "They were out here searching for something. Not sure what for, just yet, but the Governor had them out here surveying."

Hmm… that was interesting. The Governor had sent someone out there to look for something. What the hell could the Governor could be looking for way out here?

But Chin breezed right on by that little tidbit. "According to his supervisor, Torez was out on patrol last night when he radioed in a report about some trespassers. Based on some footprints, it looks like he was chasing them down, he fell into the hole and the suspects circled back and shot him," he said as he pointed out towards the field.

Kono appeared from behind Chin and Steve nearly jumped out of his own skin. She was there? Not baking with Rowan? Well how was he going to get his answers now?

"H.P.D. just found some fresh tire tracks about a hundred yards over. They're getting casts," she said. "It's weird, I spoke to the foreman. He said these holes weren't here a couple of days ago. He says they were still trying to figure out if there were more bodies here."

"More bodies?" Steve asked.

"Yes. Turns out the Governor got some intel a week ago which led him to believe that this may be a Yakuza graveyard. He sent them out to confirm, but they hadn't started digging yet," she confirmed.

"Where did the Governor get this info?" Steve asked.

Kono shrugged. "He didn't say."

Great, he was going to have to call the Governor. He glanced at Kono again who smiled and said: "Don't worry, I sent Adam to bake with Rowan today. He promised to be discrete in asking his questions and then relay them back to me as soon as he gets some answers."

Oh God. He really was as transparent as a window.

"Uh… Alright… uhm… I'm going to go call the Governor, figure out what's going on here. In the meantime, we're going to need to start excavating. Max are you good to begin?" he asked.

"I'm already making the call," he said pulling out his phone. Steve turned away. His face red, and not from the sun. He was on fire. This obsession with Rowan was getting him burned. He was tired of being made a fool over it.

This had to stop.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve had not been able to get a hold of the Governor. Kono had heard from Adam and it had not been good news either. He had apparently asked Rowan about Wo Fat and the Governor and then she spouted some crazy vision to him, which scared him off and now he was radio silent. Add in Danny's bad news from the morning, and he was pretty certain the Five-0 team was curse.

He'd know for sure if something happened to Chin, of course, but at the moment that theory had not been proven. It was just a gut feeling.

Steve wasn't taking this whole situation well. Something had him on edge. Something about finding out the Governor had sent people to investigate a mass burial site and hadn't told them about it. Danny had a feeling he had jumped to the same conclusion as Steve. That the reason it hadn't been mentioned to Five-0 was because it involve Rowan and Steve was terribly sensitive on matters that involved Rowan.

So like all the many times before, when Steve was on edge, and Danny worried Steve was going to do something drastic that would put Rowan in an uncomfortable position and made Steve look batshit crazy, Danny would step in and distract him.

This distraction took him straight to Max's Coroner's office, as he had information for them. Or… at least he better, because if he didn't Steve may just storm the Governor's office to demand answers.

"Hey Max!" Danny said as cheerfully as ever. "Got anything for us?"

"Actually yes, I was just about to call you," he said smiling at them.

"Well, do go on," Danny pressed, pulling Steve into the room and letting him stand stoically by one of the evidence trays.

"There were 11 holes. Each appears to have contained one body. My chemical analysis of the decomposition fluids within the soil suggest the bodies have been in there from anytime between six months to eighteen years.

"All right, so somebody's been using this field as their own personal graveyard going on two decades. Assuming it's our suspects, I'm guessing they heard the Governor was looking for something up there so they figured they'd move the bodies before the Governor and his people found them," Steve said.

Lazer focus was on. Good. And it wasn't on Rowan. Even better. Danny tried to hide his smile. It was a good thing this was a case. Nothing shook Steve off of a case. Not even Rowan. Thank God. Or there would be a problem.

"The problem is, how did the Governor know? We would have heard of any intel, it would have had to go through H.P.D. first, right? What criminal goes straight to the Governor?" Steve asked.

Danny internally groaned. Aw no. This was a dangerous track. It was the right track to be on, of course. But it was a track that lead to the only person they knew that had gone to the Governor recently and had ties to a criminal that had links to the Yukaza.

"It's Rowan. It has to be," Steve said, almost as if he read Danny's mind.

"I fail to see how you could jump to that conclusion," Max said.

"Because Rowan's been hanging around with Wo Fat, Wo Fat had ties with the Yukaza, it is more than plausible that he knew about this burial ground, hell he probably put one or two of the bodies in there. Rowan just went to the Governor to get permission to continue to see Wo Fat, that must be how she got him to agree. She gave him the location of the burial ground," Steve explained.

Yes. Actually, that seemed to be the most logical explanation. But it was an explanation that meant Steve was going to pull Rowan in for questioning again. Steve was a wreck after the last arrest, Danny refused to deal with that again.

"Okay, but do we actually see Wo Fat telling Rowan Yukaza secrets?" Danny asked.

"The only other explanation is that Wo Fat turned state-side and I think we both know that's highly unlikely," Steve growled.

Touché.

"We don't even know for sure that this is a Yakuza graveyard. Do we have an IDs?" Danny asked.

But they did. And it was the Yakuza.

Danny said a silent prayer for Rowan. She was going to need it.

* * *

 **HEY So JP mentioned that they're having some trouble keeping up with Rowan's back story and plot twists. So since I don't wanna put up a chapter that is just a profile I figured I'd do a little cheat sheet here for you guys. And then if she gets a little more confusing I'll do a more detailed one later on.**

Rowan's Birthday is on January 21st, she is 9 years younger than Steve. She was 26 when we first met her in Chapter 1, she is currently 27.

Alex is 4 years older than Rowan, making him 30. In this world Wo Fat is five years older than Steve and 14 older than Rowan. Making him 41 when Rowan meets him for the first time.

Rowan is the youngest daughter of Trenton Pierce and his Wife Roselyn Pierce, who in the H50 world is Roselyn Carter. Trenton is a Cosmologist, which is a scientist that studies alternate realities, this has not changed in the H50 universe. Roselyn Pierce is a psychologist who no longer has a practice and just does charity work. It is unclear what she does in the H50 universe.

Rowan's older brother is Trevor Pierce. He is two years older than her. So when we meet him he's 29 almost 30. In both universes' he is a figure skating coach and choreographer. It is mentioned that he is a bit of a bad influence on her in her world, it is unclear whether or not he'd be in the H50 world too.

In the H50 universe, Trenton and Trevor performed an experiment that is ultimately how Rowan got pulled from her world to this one. It is implied that when Rowan was flickering and being pulled into the void that it was the Trevor from the H50 universe unconsciously trying to pull her to him.

Things that have been mentioned:

\- There is some incident in Rowan's past that had her parents worried for her mental state. She doesn't like talking about this incident but it happened when she was about 13 and it's the reason her family moved from Toronto, ON to Victoria, BC

\- Rowan has mentioned that she did a stint on Broadway - musical she appeared in is unknown but she was so home sick touring with the musical that her mother went with her - age this happened is unknown

\- it is implied that Rowan is a very good driver and that she did not use that skill for good.

\- In her universe, Rowan and Trevor were in witness protection after they get inducted into a robbery crew where Rowan was forced to be the get-away driver. This incident is how Trevor met his long term boyfriend Malcolm, an agent with the CSIS, which is the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. It is unclear how this came about, or how they got away, but it is mentioned that somehow, during this time, Rowan broke her leg which had ended her skating career. It is not mentioned whether or not Trevor had a similar experience in the H50 universe.

\- Rowan bakes when she's sad. She sings when she's afraid or happy. She's extremely loyal. Rowan has mentioned, singing and skating as her money makers, it is unclear at what level she was doing so and what kind of money she makes though she has implied that her family is rich and that she might have been rich on her own as well. It is unclear whether she is going to continue down that path in the H50 universe.

\- It is implied that Rowan did not do well in school.

 **That's all I can think about right now. Tell me if that helped :D**


	51. Chapter 51

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy New Years GUYS! Sorry this update is so late! Alright guys, I've got… I've got some good new and some bad news. So the good news is... you guys gave me so much inspiration that I have been basically writing for DAYS! The bad news is... I'm hella behind. So I just finished chapter 76 and I'm only on episode 7. Rowan and Steve get together at the end of episode 21. I don't think I'm going to be able to rewrite 14 episodes in 14 chapters... they definitely might be uhm... a lot longer than one episode per chapter. I mean I could do it but the updates would be over 20 pages long. So... uh... I don't think I'm going to have them together by chapter 90. But you know what I can tell you... without giving you too many spoilers... is that by episode 12 stalker Steve is on the out and he and Rowan are trying to working things out. It's not much and I'm sorry, but I'm going to try really hard to get us to the point when they get together as soon as possible. I promise! See you guys on Friday!_

Chapter 51 

* * *

Steve had every intention of going straight to Alex's apartment to interrogate Rowan. In fact, he was so immersed in the idea of seeing her again that his heart started racing, his palms starting sweating and he got a weird heartburn type feeling travelling up his throat.

But Catherine got to him first, and almost immediately the feeling went away.

"Hey, where are you heading?" she asked.

"Oh us? We're going to go try out a new bakery before we hit up a potential suspect," Danny answered and Steve almost jumped out of surprise because he hadn't thought Danny was following him.

Steve had to commend him on that one. It was a good lie, because it was mostly true. Today was Rowan's bake day, which meant there would be something freshly baked that she would most likely let him try. She could work for a bakery if she wanted to, so… yeah it wasn't a professional bakery but he was sure it counted.

And luckily Catherine didn't ask him anymore questions about that. Unfortunately, that was because something else seemed to be on her mind.

"Uhm, hey can I talk to you for a minute?" she asked.

Danny moved away from them. "Sure, I'll go wait by the car," he said.

Steve almost asked him to stay. There was a look about Catherine that made him worried. She was upset, he could see that. He knew he wouldn't be able to handle another _Rowan_ talk. If she started bitching about how distant he had been he was going to walk away and that would bite him in the ass down the road.

He was trying really hard to stay on his "right" path. His destiny with Catherine. She should acknowledge that, not chide him for it.

"Are you okay?" he asked despite his better judgment. He figured he'd get bonus points for acting the concerned boyfriend after all.

"Yeah, I'm okay," she said quickly. Almost too quickly. "I'm fine… uh. Listen, do you remember Kevin Hobbs from the Naval Academy?"

Okay. Weird. Where was this going?

"Yeah. Linebacker for the Mids," he said, because it was true. He crossed his arms over his chest almost immediately. It was a defensive maneuver now, almost like he was guarding his heart from whatever words she was going to hurl at him. "What about him?"

"Well, he's with the FBI now. He gave me a ring earlier because he knows that I have a direct line to you," she said.

Steve nodded he was following along so far. "Okay."

Catherine looked down again. Oh God. This was going to be a doozy, he could just tell. "Catherine, what's wrong?" he asked, trying not to sound too impatient. "What? You can tell me."

"Listen Steve he told me something off the record that I think you really need to know," she told him and then handed him a file.

What had Rowan done?

That was his first thought. Something had happened to Rowan or she had done something to get on their radar. Probably something to do with Wo Fat.

But when he opened up the file it wasn't about Rowan at all.

It was about his mother.

Steve read the file, eyes blinking in shock. His mother was about to get arrested. Fuck. While he had been busy worrying about Rowan he had completely forgotten about his mother. She had been left attended for too long and this had happened.

 _Fuck._

He thanked Catherine and then made a break for where his truck was parked. Right by Danny's Camaro. Danny opened his arms in his typical _what-gives_ fashion.

"Hey! Sorry. But… uh… I gotta take care of something. Just call me if you get any traction on the case all right?" Steve asked.

Danny shook his head as if the question confused him.

"Uh. No," he said. "You practically left a smoke trail from Catherine to here, what's going on?"

"Nothing."

"Oh, so it's nothing?" Danny snapped, grabbing the door of Steve's truck before he could shut it. "Is that the game we're playing now?"

"Look, Danny, it's better if you don't get involved in this one, okay?" he said. Because it was true. This was going to end badly. His mother was up to something and Steve was ready to go down with her over it. But he didn't want to take Danny too. Danny had a Grace to look after, and if Steve went away well… Dannny would have a Rowan too.

"See, that is where I strongly disagree," Danny said. Steve tried to pry the door out of Danny's hand but it didn't budge.

Steve knew that Danny wouldn't let this go. He knew that if he had to Danny would tail his truck and berate him until he told him, so he might as well knuckle under now and answer his questions.

He sighed long and loud before rolling his eyes and glaring at Danny. "Fine. Last month, the FBI's Computer Forensics Unit caught somebody hacking into the National Fingerprints Database. Now it took them some time but they think they finally have a suspect," Steve told him.

"So… what? Why are you acting goofy because of that?" Danny asked. And then his face fell. "Buddy, I don't think Rowan hacked the National Fingerprints Database. Unless you think Wo Fat had Toast do it? Though the kid swears he only hacked Five-0, maybe his brain is so fried he can't remember... I can ask him again fi you'd like?"

"Nope, no. None of that," Steve said, though he had to admit it was a valid concern for Danny to have. "Because their suspect is my mother."

He handed Danny the file and let him look through it. Steve continued while he did. "Apparently, she covered her tracks pretty well but now the feds have been able to trace an IP back to a Wi-Fi hotspot and they can put Doris there around the time of the hack."

Honestly, Steve expected something other than relief to wash over Danny's features and was none too happy to see it on his partners face as he handed the file back to Steve. "Okay. Do you have any idea why she's doing this?" he asked.

"I have no idea. All I know is that the Feds are closing in. I gotta go see her right now," he said. He hoped he sounded urgent. It felt urgent. He had a lot of things crumbling around him, people slipping through his fingers, he didn't want to lose his mother again.

Not over something as stupid as this.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve knocked on his mother's door and waited for her to answer. Luckily, he didn't need to wait long.

"Hey honey," she said in a sugary sweet voice with an equally sweet smile on her face. "What are you doing here?"

He wanted to believe she was sincere in sounding happy to see him. But all Doris did was lie. It was all anyone in his life did now.

"We need to talk," he said pushing past her and into her house before she could stop him.

"Really? Because I was just on my way out," she said, but he didn't believe that either.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah?"

"To some place that has free Wi-Fi maybe?" he asked. Doris had the smarts to look surprised by that comment. Maybe she was just surprised that he knew about her pastimes. "Because if you're planning on hacking into another highly secured government database, you should try to make sure you don't get caught on camera."

He then passed her the file with her picture in it and waited for her to say something to him. To lie again. Go ahead, he felt like screaming, go ahead and lie to me some more mom!

She looked at the file, looked back up to him and then back down to the file. But she said nothing.

"What? You got nothing to say?" he asked.

"Okay, for what it's worth, I did the FBI a favour. I identified their weak spots," she said with a chuckle and a shrug. Like this was some sort of game.

"Mom!" he cried. "Do you have any idea how serious this is? You're looking at jail time here."

His mother had the nerve to smile at him. The absolute nerve. "Oh, come on. This is circumstantial. It's nothing."

Steve was flat out floored by this. "Can you hear yourself right now?"

That seemed to get to his mother. "Okay, at least, let me explain," she bargained.

Steve nodded. "This should be good."

"Over coffee," she said hastily grabbing his arm and pulling him towards the door. "Come on. Let's just sit down and talk this through, please? Can we go?"

They were almost to the door when a thump was heard. Steve came to a stop immediately. Why the hell did his mother want him out so quickly? Huh? What was up with that? And now there were noises from further into the house.

"What was that? Somebody's here?" he asked. Because that was sure as hell what that sounded like. Was she in trouble right now? Was the FBI already here? Who was his mother hiding now?

"No one's here," she said. Her voice was shaking. She was lying. "Can we…?"

She didn't get to finish that sentence though because Steve had ripped his arm out of her grasp and started charging through the house. Cries of _Steve wait!_ followed him but he didn't listen.

He threw a door open, one that should have led to another bedroom but instead he found Mick, Wade and an entire room plastered in blue prints and surveillance photos.

"Steve," Mick said sounding amused.

"Commander," Wade said with not the same feeling.

Steve stared at everything on the wall and the table. Dread washed over him. He was looking at an op. He knew an op when he saw one, but he still turned to his mother and asked: "What the hell is going on here?"

And then he waited for the others to answer.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Doris had managed to drag Steve out to her balcony. But the cat was out of the bag. He saw everything. He knew everything, he wasn't stupid, he was well trained and very smart. He could tell what she was planning, he may not know specifics but he saw enough.

And if she found out that that Rowan bitch had sent him there, she was going to strangle the girl. Wo Fat's protection wouldn't keep her from Rowan if that was the case.

"Okay. No more lies, no more games. Just tell me what's going on," Steve ordered. Damn he was bossy. Just like her. But she knew as soon as she told him what was going on, he was going to demand to help, just like his father would have.

Worried mother or not. Steve wasn't going to let her lie to him anymore. She was going to have to admit what was going on and then hope to god she could dissuade him from tagging along.

"I was looking into who stole the microfiche. Mick and Wade have been helping," she admitted.

Steve thought this over. "That's why you hacked the FBI?" he asked. Oh… he _was_ good.

"Yeah, I pulled a print from the break-in. I needed an ID and I didn't want to get you involved," she said. Because that part at least was true. That and she wasn't very good at asking for help.

Steve thought about it, geared up for what would be a very long lecture, then let it all out in one sigh. "Okay," he said, his voice soft, his face conveying his disappointment. "Who's your suspect? Give me a name. I'll have them picked up in 10 minutes."

Oh, oh, he really was such a good boy. He was so willing to help her, so willing to do anything. But he didn't understand.

"You can't," she said.

"And why is that?" he asked. He looked so dejected… so defeated. She had done this to him. Him and Rowan. God. She should have pulled Rowan out when she had he chance. She should have just taken her from Wo Fat and given her back to Steve. They would have gotten together. Steve would have been happier. This wouldn't be happening right now. But she couldn't go back and change it now.

"Because they still have the microfiche," she explained. Because he had to understand that she needed it back. "You move in now, you'll blow any chance I have of stealing it back."

Now that put the anger right back into Steve. "Are you serious?" he thundered.

"Yeah," she said because she could see how he didn't get the situation. Mick and Wade understood… it had taken nothing to convince them that this was the only way. She didn't like the way Steve was looking at her, like he didn't recognize her.

"What happened to you mom?" he asked. Oh, the guilt trip. Trying to stab her right in the heart, he was. "What happened to the woman who used to make fired baloney sandwiches and was on the PTA? And who showed me how to paddle an outrigger? And used to teach me magic tricks? I mean, where'd you go?"

Oh, he was so angry. And so… upset. Underneath that hulking male exterior he was still her son, the boy she had left behind and apparently dealt irreparable damage to. She had broken her son. And it broke her heart to see it. To think that he thought she enjoyed this more than she enjoyed being his mother.

"You think I wanna be doing this?" she asked instead trying very hard not to cry. "Honey, I'm trying to start over but I can't until I know we're safe. You know without that microfiche we're vulnerable. I have to get it back. I _will_ get it back."

"Okay," Steve said after she had gotten it all out. "You think you got it all figured out. Talk me through it. Prove it to me."

He really was her son.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

"The prints I ran through the FBI database belong to this man," Doris said pointing to a picture she had printed out. A baby-faced looking idiot in a suit. "James Austin. He's ex-military, dishonorably discharged."

Steve stood across from the three older idiots standing in the small room covered in pictures in blue prints. He held the filed to him as he took this all in. He couldn't believe this was happening. "What's his interest in the microfiche?" he asked.

"No interest," Mick told him. "He was just a hired gun."

"Hired by who?" Steve asked.

"Tyler Cain. We were in the CIA together. After that he opened a private military company, supplying mercs to everything dictator with a check book," Doris told him. Wade handed Steve a photo to look at it. It was the profile of a grey hair old man in a suit. "But now he's about to be appointed Director of National Intelligence, which requires Senate confirmation"

Steve nodded. Oh, he had some theories about this. "Okay, so let me guess. While Cain was with the agency, he did some things that the Senate wouldn't approved of. The only evidence of that is on the microfiche."

"Exactly," Doris said with a nod.

"It begs a question," Steve snapped. "Why doesn't he just destroy the microfiche? Why is he holding on to it?"

"Same reason Doris held onto it for so many years," Mick answered for his mother. "Leverage. A lot of ex-operatives could get burned by what's on there. Cain could use that to his advantage."

"All right, you said you know where it is," Steve said, because it was true, they had.

"First Honolulu Tower. Cain keeps it in a safe in his office on the 16th floor," Wade told him.

"But getting it back won't be easy," Doris said. "The building is highly secure. There are at least 10 armed guards stationed inside around the clock. There are cameras at every entrance, in every hallway, every stairwell, and every elevator. And then there's the key cards. There's not a single door or entrance in the entire building that doesn't require one."

Doris then flashed a card, Steve instinctively knew that she had gotten access to someone else's security card and then cloned it onto the one in her hand.

Steve looked over the blue prints, over the pictures and again and then turned back to his mother. "Okay, what about the safe?" he asked.

"Well, that was a little harder," Doris admitted. "The safe is voice-activated. But with time and patience, we were able to record Cain's voice and cobble together his pass-phrase."

His mother shot a little glance to Mick and then to Wade, both of which were smiling as if they were the cats who caught the canary. All of them were so fucking proud of this crime they were about to commit.

"Honey, you don't have to worry. We so got this covered," Doris said. Her attempt to talk him out of coming of course. Which wasn't going to happen.

"Look, you guys have done your homework, all right? But once you're inside, something's gonna happen that you didn't plan on. Okay? You know that. And one mistake with this level of security could be deadly," Steve reminded them. His mother actually had he nerve to roll her eyes a bit at him and smile off into the distance as if she thought he were ridiculous. So, Steve drove home his point. "I'm sorry but this isn't a mission it's a suicide pact!"

"Oh, please," his mother sighed under her breath.

"Was he always this negative?" Mick asked.

"Well he didn't get it from me," Doris said. Oh, like he had gotten it from his father?! Actually, it was the Navy that taught him to be realistic… and maybe a bit of his dad too.

"This is crazy! You know what people your age are doing? They're not planning covert ops, okay? They're in book clubs!" Steve reminded them and got a round of disapproving comments from all the seniors in the room. Steve just kept talking over them. "What they do at night time? They play bridge at night! And besides, you two, you should not be enabling her!"

"Thank you for your input, Steve, but this is happening," Doris told him in her stern no-talking-back-mom-voice. "You wanna stop us, arrest us. Otherwise we're going in tonight."

Steve stood there. Obviously, he'd need to go with them. Obviously, he'd be going in with Doris, he'd have no choice. He wasn't going to watch from the sidelines, he wasn't going to arrest them either. They were painting him into a corner.

"Just curious, kid, but did Rowan tell you about this?" Mick suddenly asked.

Immediately Steve's head whipped up at the sound of Rowan's name. "Uh… no… why?"

"Cause she knows too," Mick said. "Figured she snitched."

"I'm sorry," Steve said shaking his head clear of the shock and turning a glare to his mother. "You got Rowan involved in this?"

"No!" Doris cried indignantly. "She broke in. She saw the blueprints. She knew Tyler Cain. Other than that, I don't know what she knows. Or why she broke in."

"Well did you ask her?" Steve asked.

"No. Her and I still aren't talking," Doris told him quite primly. The way she said it made Steve think that she was still upset about the turn in relationship between her and the younger woman. "She did have a bit of seizure when she was here. She touched my shoulder and I swore I got electrocuted by her."

"Yeah she's been doing that when she touches people," Steve said. "I think its her visions. Don't know about the electric shock though."

Steve then turned to Mick ignoring the way Wade and Mick were staring at him like he was nuts. They weren't briefed on Rowan and her… specifics and he wasn't about to do it now. "Don't you have a guy following her?" he asked, because he was paying for that still.

"Yes, and I followed her a bit too," Mick admitted. "She spends a lot of time in that prison, Kid."

Steve winced. Yeah, he had heard that too. "Okay, so she knows, does she know when?" he asked instead.

Mick and Doris exchanged glances. "We don't think so," Doris answered. "Is… uh… is everything okay with her? Does he… does he have something on her?"

The _he_ was obviously Wo Fat. "I honestly don't know. I don't know what's going on with her. She doesn't talk to me. She doesn't answer anyone's questions. She was so determined to keep seeing Wo Fat that she went above my head to the Governor to get approval. If he has something on her it would make sense, sort of, but I don't know what he could possibly have on her."

"Could be Stolkholm," Mick offered.

Steve nodded. "Yes, and I told the Governor that. He has her seeing a shrink. But I haven't heard anything about that either."

"Well… why would you?" Doris asked and Steve sighed, because she was right. He wasn't a part of Rowan's life anymore. Rowan had kicked him out, him and his mother. But not any of his friends, she had kept those for herself.

Instead Steve looked down to all the plans and then looked back at his mother. He had lost a lot in the last few months, and he wasn't going to let his mother go down for this, no matter how much she didn't want to include him. So, he sighed deeply to himself, ran a hand down the back of his head and said:

"So, when are we hitting this building?"

"No, No, honey, there is no way I'm going to let you do this," Doris said. It wasn't the first time she had said it either. But it wasn't going to change Steve's mind.

"Mom, somebody's gotta watch your back," he said loving the way his mother's mouth dropped open in shock. "This guy Cain isn't somebody you wanna mess with."

"I've got Mick and Wade, I'll be fine," she said and beside her the two older men nodded.

Steve shook his head. "Listen, three retirees launching a covert op? How do you think that's gonna go down?" he asked.

Doris was starting to get frantic. He saw it in the way she shook her hands at him. "No, no, you can't risk it. Steve, you've got too much to lose. Your job, your whole life here… Rowan." she said.

Oh, the dig there. Well, unless his mother hadn't noticed, he had already lost Rowan. He wasn't about to lose anyone else over this now.

"Just listen to me. Forget all that, okay?" he said. "I lost you once before. I'm not gonna lose you again."

His mother just stared at him so he said it again. "I'm going with you."

And Doris stopped arguing.

* * *

 **KAY JP This should clear things up about that two year old baby bit.**

The two year old Baby was in reference to Trevor, who was two years old when his sister died explaining why he hadn't realized he wasn't an only child until he was 10 and his parents were getting a divorce because they couldn't get over a stillborn baby. That whole chapter part, which is in Chapter 28 if you need to re-read it, is to explain what brought Rowan to the Five-0 universe, explaining why she didn't exist and how it affected her family, her brother and their lives. It also was to open up the story arc for Trevor because he needs to meet Malcolm somehow right? Feel free to ask me anymore questions :D


	52. Chapter 52

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: I'd just like to say thanks for not getting super mad at me over my under estimation of how many chapters it would take to get them together. Y'all are literally the best, I promise that there will be some fluffy chapters in between then and Steve and Rowan getting together. It's not all going to be angst. I tried really hard to hint that at you guys last chapter, that you know... they're not going to be in the same circumstances as now. Some major changes are gonna hit somewhere after chapter 80, not sure where yet, but MAJOR CHANGE is a coming. I know we're in the depressing part right now but there is some comedy to read both in this chapter and in the upcoming chapters. I tried really hard to make this one a little less sad and little more happy to kind of make up for Tuesday's angst dump. ALSO, we have some milestones coming up and when I reach them, I'll be posting 3 times a week. I don't want to tell you what those milestones are though cause I want them to be a surprise :D We're also one chapter away from the heist scene which was my favourite scene to write in this series of chapters. I liked writing the hospital scene in this chapter as well, too. So, I'd love to hear your feedback on that. Also, if you'd like to hit me up with any more changes you'd like to see go for it, I've changed a bunch of future plot lines, which of course you'll see… in the future but any other changes are welcome if I can fit them in. So hit me up with that inspiration and I'll see you on Tuesday._

Chapter 52 

* * *

When Adam had called that morning it had been to tell Kono that he was back from Japan. By then she had found out about the case and she had a favour to ask him. Adam had agreed, he hadn't spent one-on-one time with Rowan before, of course, and was understandably a little nervous to be alone with McGarrett's obsession.

Kono had thought things would go well. Rowan was nice to have around, she was easy to get along with… so long as McGarrett wasn't around because then she got super argumentative, and she knew from experience that Rowan made the coolest desserts and all her helper had to do was hold the bowl and hand her ingredients, Rowan did the rest. She figured Adam would have fun and eventually bond with her.

She at no point thought Rowan would send him away screaming, well maybe not screaming but she at least had him running scared, but then again she didn't think Rowan would get a vision off of Adam.

Adam had stopped replying to texts after he left Rowan's. She was worried that when she called him about the case he wouldn't respond. But he had. So she had gone over immediately.

Despite being worried about his trip to Japan and what vision Rowan had told him about that had scared him off, she was still really happy to see him. So instead of bombarding him with questions she hugged him, as tightly as she could.

"I missed you," Adam said into her hair.

"I missed you too," she said into his shoulder, inhaling his natural male scent and whatever spicy cologne he had decided to wear. She meant every word. She really had missed him.

"Hey, listen, I'm sorry about this morning," he said. "Rowan… she got really intense and it freaked me out a bit."

Kono smiled, Rowan could be intense, in the hyperactive way. "What did she even say to you?"

"She told me I was going to kill my brother," Adam whispered. Kono felt herself stiffen. Rowan's visions hadn't been wrong yet, except when she decided to go out of her way to change them. "But, she's been wrong before, right? No psychic is always right, right?"

Kono didn't want to say anything. She didn't want to tell him that Rowan was always right, because then she'd have to explain that Rowan wasn't psychic and that she instead thought this was all some TV show she had already watched.

"Why don't you tell me about Japan?" she asked instead.

Adam tried to smile at her, but she could see she hadn't put anything at ease. But honestly, she had no idea what to say.

"It was a business thing. There was a crisis and I had to go last minute," he said. Clearly he wasn't telling her something but she was holding something back to so she guessed that made them even.

"Right. So how did it go?" she asked.

This time his smile was genuine. "It should be okay," he said with a nod. "But it's just business. I'm sure you don't wanna hear about that."

"You met with Riku Sato," she shot back. Oh, that's right. He didn't know she knew about that! "Why wouldn't I want to know about that?"

Adam backed away from her. No longer smiling, no longer happy. "You were spying on me?" he asked sounding all sorts of betrayed? "So you've got a friend more than connected to Wo Fat predicting that I'll murder my brother and now you're spying on me?"

"Rowan's not connected to Wo Fat in that way," Kono argued.

"Are you sure about that, because the Yakuza have some theories about her that aren't so pleasant," he snapped back.

"Look, this isn't about Rowan and I wasn't spying, I was worried about you. I hadn't heard from you in days. So I came here and you were gone. And then two yakuza showed up."

Adam seemed to think about this before asking: "What did they want?"

"They didn't say but they were armed," she said. Now that made him nervous, she could see it on his face. "Adam, would you tell me what's going on?"

When he stayed quiet she kept pressing him. "Why are you being so secretive? And why are you meeting with a man like Sato?"

Adam scoffed and hen sighed. He looked at her, his eyes searching her face before he finally opened his mouth to tell her what was hopefully going to be the truth. "What's going on is… I'm trying to cut my family's last ties to the Yakuza."

Kono struggled to not get her hopes up. "Really? Because that's not what it looks like."

"I know, believe me, I know how this looks and I don't blame you for being suspicious but…" he said, finally bridging the space between them to reach out and hold her hand. "Look, I can't talk about it, okay?"

"Adam…" she started but he cut her off.

"You're just gonna have to trust me," he said.

Kono was quiet a moment. She stared into the face of the man she had fallen in love with. Oh how she wanted to believe him but she had been burned before.

"You want me to trust you?" she asked. "You're gonna have to give me something."

"Okay, what?" he asked. Clearly willing to give her… well… something.

"What do you know about a field off of H-2 where the Yakuza's been hiding bodies?" she asked. She might as well get to the reason she came here in the first place. Better now than never.

Adam shook his head, clearly surprised by either the knowledge of the field or the request. "Nothing… why?" he asked.

"You know _nothing_ about someone digging it up?" she asked.

"No, I've never even heard of this place," Adam told her. Well Kono didn't believe that. "What's this about?"

"Adam, just look me in the eye and tell me what you know about it," she ordered, finally tired of this game they were playing.

Adam took her by the shoulders, looked her square in the eye and said: "I know nothing about it. I swear." He looked her deep in the eyes, his hands travelling up to the back of her neck like they did when he kissed her. "You believe me, right?"

After a moment of charged silence she finally said: "Yeah."

"You know, uh, before you go, can I talk to you about Rowan?" he said. "I'm a little worried about her."

"Uh, yeah sure, why?" she asked. This was surprising. Everyone else was worried about her, but what had sparked Adam's worry?

"Because the Yakuza has interest in her, because of the lengths Wo Fat is willing to go for her. Because when I asked her about her interest in continuing to see a man like Wo Fat even after what he did to her, she told me he reminds her of her brother," he said. "Which I think is weird because you said she has no family. That's why she was staying with Steve, right? She had nowhere else to go?"

"That's what she told us," Kono said.

"Well, when she told me about it, she told me not to tell Steve," he told her. "It's all weird to me. Who is she lying to and why?"

Kono thought about it and she didn't have an answer. "I can try to ask her, but to be honest I don't know. Rowan doesn't talk about her past, we always figured it was because she didn't remember. Maybe now it's starting to come back."

"Well, someone should talk to her. Someone should get her away from Wo Fat, things are only going to get worse for her if she keeps associating with him," he said.

Kono nodded, it was great that he was worried about her friends. It was great that he was finally started to trust her with the truth. She left his place feeling happier, lighter, more girlish then when she went it. He had that ability on her, but all of that was shattered. Not seconds after she got into the car, the cloned version of Adam's phone began to ring.

She couldn't believe it. This must have been what Steve felt like when Rowan had been gone thirty seconds and had immediately called Wo Fat. She clicked the listen button and then waited. She heard Adam talk about her as if she were just some cop nuisance and then he was given a time and place to meet.

Kono sat there after the call was long ended trying very hard not to cry. She now understood how Steve felt, expect it was slightly different because Steve wasn't dating Rowan, nor was he in love with her. Actually, they had a bet about that, and when Steve finally admitted he did love Rowan and got together with her, Kono was gonna win a lot of money. But still, for the moment it was slightly different.

Still she got herself together, called Fong and got him to trace a call for her. He gave her a location within minutes and then Kono was on her way there, pulling a complete Steve and going off without back up.

It was all worth it though, because she found the missing bodies.

And then she got shot.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve, who was a little too stressed to have extra things added to his stressed-out list, brought his truck to a screeching halt and hopped out. He spotted Chin and immediately called out to him.

"How's Kono?" he asked. Because that was the primary stressor at that moment.

"She's fine. It didn't hit any vital organs," Chin told him. "But when she gets back on her feet, I'm gonna kill her."

He led Steve over to where Kono was laying on a stretcher. She had blood all over her hands and shirt. There were paramedics fawning over her and his heart cracked to see it. His poor rookie, laid out like that.

"Hey!" he snapped at her flying into protective-papa-bear angry because he was worried and not because he was actually angry. "What were you thinking?"

Kono had the smarts to at least look chastised as she said: "I'm sorry, Steve."

"What were you doing, going in there without any backup?" he thundered.

Rowan popped her out of the ambulance and said: "She was only pulling a _Steve_."

Steve nearly jumped out of his skin. He hadn't been expecting Rowan and yet there she was. In the back of the ambulance, her arm in a makeshift sling, her hands coated with blood.

"What the—? Rowan?" he cried. He ignored the fact that she was right and when straight to being angry at her. He then pointed a stern finger at her. "What the hell are you doing here? How did you know to come here?"

"I had a vision," she answered as if that was the only answer that made sense. As if it were completely normal for someone to have a vision that their friend was going to get shot. Though, to be fair, for her it was.

"Why are you in there? Were you here when… did you get shot too?" he asked before he could stop himself mainly because her hands were coated in blood and upon further inspection, he saw bloody hand prints on her pants and flicks of blood were splattered across her shirt.

Rowan looked down to her triangle-bandage sling and then back up to him. "Naw, I got here once everything was done, but I guess putting pressure on Kono's wound for so long kinda tired my arm out cause it went numb on me again," she told him. "Full 72 hours with full mobility though, that's a new record!"

"Yeah, that's actually pretty good," Steve agreed and when Rowan raised her good hand for a high five his heart leapt and he went to give her one, until he realized her hand was covered entirely in blood. Rowan seemed to realize it too because she pulled her offered hand away and then looked at it.

"That's not my blood," she said hollowly and then immediately started to gag. Steve watched her surprised. He had never seen that happen before.

One of the EMT's on Kono turned immediately. "Don't look at it," he ordered, pulling her hand away from her face. He brought out a squeeze bottle, probably filled with alcohol and went about rubbing the blood away. When Rowan continued to gag he looked up at her and ordered again: "I said look away."

Rowan made a strangled sort of sound in the back of her throat and Steve jumped into action before he could stop himself. "Look at me!" he ordered and her blue eyes turned to him. She had gone this ashen pale color that surprised him. "That's right. I'm mad at you. Let's talk about that huh?"

"When are you not mad at me?" Rowan asked, her voice still shaking but some of that color was coming back into her face.

"Well if you'd stop doing stupid things I wouldn't have to get mad," he argued. "Just tell me what you know about my mother and Tyler Cain."

That ashen color was back in her face, even though the blood was gone and the EMT was handing her out of the back of the ambulance. On her way to Steve Kono put out a shaking hand to Rowan's arm, leaving a big red handprint. Her eyes implored Rowan to do something but Rowan just smiled down at her and put her hand on top of Kono's shaking one.

"Don't worry, I'm still coming with you," she said and Steve's heart melted a bit. How sweet and supportive of her.

"I'm not done with you either," he said to Kono but as soon as Rowan was standing in front of him everything else in the world around him vanished.

He went to ask her again, went to ask her what she knew of Tyler Cain and his mother's heist but Rowan merely lifted her hand again.

He thought she wanted a high five, but instead she took her hand and put it in the middle of his chest. Even though her hand was on his blue button up shirt he felt the warmth of her skin, and felt that shocking jolt of electricity enter him as her eyes immediately rolled back in her skull.

Steve barely had time to register what happened, his only thought was to catch her. But as he gripped her he felt himself being plagued with static shocks. The EMTs came to him immediately, they tried to get to Rowan who was slowly coming back to but he clung to her tighter, pressing her to his chest.

"It's fine, it's fine," he said glaring at the two EMTs that were standing in front of him. Rowan's good hand gripped his shirt tightly, he felt her cheek against his chest and his arms instinctively tightened, good god he didn't want to let go.

"I'm okay," he heard her whisper. But when he still didn't let go, she added: "You can let go now."

Steve reluctantly did just that and put that distance back between them, trying to ignore just how much it hurt his heart to do it, how much it ached when she was away.

"I know the same stuff you know," she said. "Are we good?"

Steve shrugged, he guessed they were. Though he wanted to know why she wanted to know. But with this many people around, he couldn't quite ask without risking exposing his mother. So, he turned back to Kono.

"You didn't answer my question, why did you go in without backup?" he asked again. "And don't say you were pulling a _me_."

He shot a little smirk at Rowan who had her hand half raised to interject and was closing her mouth, good thing he got to that in time.

"I was chasing down a lead," Kono answered.

"What lead? Where'd you get a lead from?" he asked her.

"I got it from Adam," she admitted and then she opened her eyes to look at him and he saw the same kind of pain he was sure haunted his eyes from time to time.

"Kono…" he started but the EMTs interrupted whatever horrible attempt at an encouraging speech was going to fall from Steve's lips.

"Sorry Commander, but we gotta go," he said.

Alright, well he couldn't argue with that. "I'm going to go with them," Chin said. "Then I'll meet you back at HQ."

Steve nodded and then turned back to Kono. "Are you good?"

"Yeah," she whispered. Steve watched them go, watched them close the doors and then turned back to the warehouse where Danny was waiting.

"Did… uh… did you see her?" he asked. Steve knew what he meant, knew he meant Rowan. "Did you see her arm?"

"Yes, she had full mobility for three days," Steve answered.

"Yeah, she's doing pretty good, for a trouble maker," Danny said.

Steve needed to get off this topic. "So, what do we have?"

"So H.P.D. IDed the two men that had a shootout with Kono as Yakuza hit men," Danny answered immediately.

"Okay, what else we got?" Steve asked.

"Both had 9mm, same caliber as the shell casing we found at the body dump and out the back, we got tire tracks that might be a match as well," Danny said leading Steve further into the warehouse.

"So, these were the same guys who killed Chad Torez," Steve summed up. Good, wonderful. Now he wouldn't have to worry about going on an op and still having a case to solve.

"Check this out," Danny said leading him to a cluster of blue plastic barrels.

Steve looked inside at the mummified remains. "And here are the rest of our vics," he said triumphantly. Gosh everything was just lining up for him and this op.

"I'm thinking, the barrels of sand, they're waiting for the sun to go down so they could dump the bodies in the ocean," Danny said.

"Yeah, but these guys are just foot soldiers taking orders from somebody else," Steve reminded him. Damnit why did he have to find the loose end? He just had to keep digging.

"Yeah, Michael Noshimuri," Danny answered almost immediately. Oh, good. Good they had a lead. Bad that it was Adam's brother, but all else considering it was good for them.

"We will get him. Maybe not today but we'll get him," Danny assured him. Except Steve didn't feel assured. He felt on edge. But that could have been anything. It could have been the op, it could have been seeing Rowan again.

Max arrived and they left him with the bodies. But Danny wasn't letting him go that quickly. They found a quiet secluded corner to talk shop and not worry about being overheard.

"So… uh… what's going on with Doris?" he asked.

Steve sighed. Oh god, so much. "Well, It's not good. It turns out she lied to me—" "—What else is new?" "about more than just hacking into the FBI database," he said ignoring Danny's sassy comment.

"Okay, are you more upset about that or the fact that she's in trouble?" he asked. Oh, Danny and his questions Steve never answered them right and when he got them wrong Danny wore that stupid: _I'm judging you face_ for the rest of the conversation.

When Steve couldn't answer, when Steve looked away, Danny put a hand to his arm and said: "Okay, look, it's none of my business, alright? What she did, so what? She's your mother and she's in trouble, so you gotta help her. Make sense?"

Steve winced again. "She got Rowan involved somehow," he whispered.

"Fucking Rowan gets involved in everything," Danny snapped. "The girl, the girl can't stay out of anything. But if she's in it you're in it right?"

Steve shrugged. "I don't know. I don't know if she's actually going to do anything," he admitted. "She seems to be more interested with what's going on with Kono. Maybe she doesn't care about this?"

"Okay, cross Rowan off of this then. Forget she's involved. This is just about you and about your mother," Danny said. "Now what are you going to do?"

Steve just stared at him. He didn't have to answer the question. Danny could read the answer right off of his face.

Steve was going to help his mother.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan had royally screwed up.

Not seconds after they got Kono out of surgery did Catherine and the others show up. In a panic Rowan had thrown herself under the bed before Catherine saw her. Other than that day she had been arrested and she was forced to see her, Rowan had been avoiding Catherine. It wasn't that she was scared per say, or that she was afraid Catherine would be mad, it was that she felt bad. She wasn't supposed to be so imbedded in Steve's life, but so far she hadn't been able to cut away as easily as everyone, and herself, had assumed she would.

So, she was stuck under a hospital bed waiting for everyone to leave. Too embarrassed to admit she had hidden from Catherine. But she was lucky. They didn't stay long and but she still waited at least thirty seconds after Chin and the others left to pop out from under the bed. She smiled up to Kono who was just shaking her head at her.

"Thanks," she whispered. "You know… for not telling her I was here."

"You don't need to hide from Catherine," she said to her.

"That's true, but… well I feel bad… she has every right to be mad at me, I keep… you know… inserting myself where she's supposed to be," Rowan whispered. She folded her arms over the bedside and rested her chin on it as she stared at Kono.

"What exactly did happen? I know something happened between you and Steve, and you and Catherine. Danny said it was a complete mess and you just took yourself out of the equation but none of us can figure out why," Kono said.

Rowan opened her mouth ready to hit her with a carefully thought out lie and then promptly closed it. She eyed Kono carefully, what really could be the harm in telling her now? Rowan was the one who had anything to be embarrassed about. She sighed to herself before saying: "You'll keep it a secret, between you and me… and Danny, of course? Honestly, I'm surprised he hasn't already told you guys, I swear he's a gossip queen."

"I promise," Kono said.

Rowan opened her mouth to tell her but then they heard someone coming up the hallway. Rowan immediately threw herself back to the ground and then hid herself under the bed.

But it was only Adam at the door.

"I hope this wasn't some attempt to get out of dinner with me," he said. Obviously going for a joke, but the guilt was in his voice and probably on his face.

Rowan could have easily gotten out from under the bed at that point, but her arm was still a little weak and that was a lot of maneuvering and by the time she thought to wiggle out from under the bed they were having a full blown conversation and then it would be really embarrassing to just pop up at this point so she just stayed where she was, like the strange awkward wierdo she was.

"Adam, how did you…?"

She didn't even have to ask the full question. Adam was ready with an answer. "Chin Ho called. He told me what happened," he said, taking a few steps into the room. Well, Rowan definitely couldn't get up now. Now it would just be super-duper weird.

"Kono, I'm sorry. I feel like this is all my fault," he said. Well no duh! He's the one that sent her to that warehouse… inadvertently. Rowan was pretty sure he didn't know about the cloned phone… didn't he find out about that soon? Damn, what episode was that in? Why didn't that pop up when she touched Kono today? Or Adam? Fuck! That was important too! Or at least… to them… wasn't it?

"What are you talking about?" Kono asked. Rowan could hear the anger in her voice. Oh dear, she hoped they didn't get into an argument. Cause she'd pop right out from under this bed if he upset her, even if it did look weird as shit, Kono was supposed to be resting!

"I need to tell you something," Adam said finally coming to stand beside her. "After you came to see me, I called some people. I was trying to find out about that field you mentioned. You see, I think Michael's involved."

Yes. Yes he was. Rowan could have told him that. Hell she probably should have this morning when she got all those flashes. But she figured out of everything she saw he'd probably want to know that he shoots his own brother. Maybe she should have led with _Michael's gonna try to kill you first_.

"I should've told you," Adam continued seeing as Kono had stayed quiet. "Maybe if I had you would've held off. I thought I was protecting you but I was wrong."

Rowan nearly laughed. Kono? Hold off? HA! Wow, Adam really didn't know her well. But you know, the whole trying to protecting her thing was kinda cute.

"Hey," she heard Kono say just as Adam said: "I was wrong and I'm sorry."

He sounded heartbroken, tearful. It never occurred to her that Adam would have feelings like that. She didn't want the mental image of him crying in her head, it conflicted with the cool, suave image she already had going for him.

"It's okay," Kono said to him. "Hey it's okay."

Okay was that all she was going to say? Maybe now would be a good time to come clean about the phone? Or maybe say something other than: _It's gonna be okay._

"Adam, there's something I have to tell you too," she admitted and Rowan smiled. _Yes! Wonderful. You tell him girl!_ And if he got mad Rowan would just roll up out from under the bed and kick him in the shins or something.

A knock came on the door and then a Nurse came in. _What? Bitch! Couldn't you see they were having a heartfelt conversation?_

"Excuse me. It's time for your CT scan," she said, wheeling a wheelchair into the room.

But instead of sending her away, Kono got up. She got into the wheelchair and then let them wheel her out. All she said to Adam was: "Don't leave, okay? I'll be right back," and "We need to talk."

Kono wasn't gone a full minute when two phones started to ring. One for Adam, one that she had cloned. Oh fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

She heard Adam go for the phone, heard it and panicked. She rolled out from under the bed, lurched to her knees and grabbed his arm. "Uh, that's mine."

"JESUS!" Adam screamed jumping away from her and ripping his arm out of her grasp. "What the fuck? Where the hell did you come from?"

"From under the bed," Rowan said. She caught his look of shock and she frowned at him. "I thought you were Catherine."

A normal person would have asked why she would hide from Catherine. But instead he looked to both the phones he had in his hand and held up the cloned one. "This is yours?" he asked. Before Rowan could lie for her he added: "Why was it in Kono's stuff?"

"Well, you know, my arm kinda lost mobility briefly so I had to come here for some tests and I'm sure that they just mixed up our stuff," she said, she tried to take the phone back but he moved away from her.

"You cloned my phone? When? Why?" he asked.

"This morning," she said. "I'm sneaky, you just didn't notice."

"Rowan I'm not an idiot," he growled. "You're covering for her!"

"She got shot! Okay! She was about to tell you before the nurse came in, I know it!" she said. "She was just… worried about you. You keep secrets, your brother's like the freaking devil and she just wants to help you!"

"My brother is not that bad," Adam said. "There are worst people out there. Like your brother!"

"Excuse me?!" Rowan found herself shouting. Trevor would never hurt a fucking fly. Who did Adam think he was talking about " _My_ brother isn't going around murdering people!"

"Really? As opposed to your surrogate brother who's in maximum security federal prison because all he ever did was murder people?"

"Kay… well… he's… like… adopted. And… you know… I thought you meant my actual brother," Rowan admitted. Otherwise, yeah, it made sense. Wo Fat was ten times worse than Michael Noshimuri.

"Rowan, you said you didn't have family. You told Steve and the others that you don't have family," Adam reminded her and Rowan finally got frustrated

"Yeah well I lied!" Rowan shouted. "But this is NOT about me. Please. Please, don't leave. Just talk things out with Kono. _Please!_ "

"You know, you're with the right company, Wo Fat's the king of liars, my girlfriend doesn't trust me, and you're shaping up to be exactly like them," he snapped and then stormed out.

Rowan sat down on Kono's empty bed. She wasn't really that bad… was she?


	53. Chapter 53

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: WE HIT THE FIRST MILESTONE! GUYS! We hit 100 followers! OMGOSH I'm so happy! This is wonderful. Thank you, guys, so much for this, I love that you guys love this story as much as I do. So as a reward, because I love you guys, I'mma post three times this week! Also because I feel bad about how longs it's taking me to get them together, I've been trying to shorten things down AND I got one episode done in one chapter and episode 8 down to two… and I totally could have made it three! Isn't that great?! I'mma try to get them together as close to chapter 80 as I freaking can! ANYWAY, my favourite part of this chapter was the heist scene, well my most favourite to write anyway. What was yours? See you Wednesday!_

Chapter 53

* * *

Steve and Doris rappelled down from a helicopter that Wade was piloting and onto the roof of the First Honolulu Tower. From there they used the rooftop access to get into the building. Mick was already inside the technical room and wiring the cameras so he could have eyes for them.

They waited for the signal before moving in.

"Okay, McGarretts, the elevators are mine. You're good to go," Mick said into their ears. Immediately they went through the door and down the stairs. They said nothing but moved quickly. Doris used the stolen key card on the scanners to get in. But instead of using the stairs they pried open the elevator doors, hooked up their rappelling equipment and went down the shaft that way. All the way to the 16th floor.

Now all they had to do was wait for Mick to give them the signal to move.

They were silent a minute and then Doris said: "I want you to watch very carefully."

"What are you doing?" Steve asked. She wasn't going to do what he thought she was going to do… was she?

"Come on are you watching?" she asked holding the key card out towards him.

Holy hell she was. Right now? On an op? "Mom, no. Come on," he groaned.

"Just watch," she snapped.

"Mom, please. I'm not 9 anymore," he complained.

"You're never too old for magic," she said. "Just watch carefully."

The grown-up in Steve was horrified, but the boy in him was secretly super excited. "Ugh, fine, one trick, okay?" he said.

Doris hid her smile but he saw it there on her face. "Okay? Ready? Watching? Ready?" she said she palmed the card and then held out her two hands. "Blow!"

Steve looked up the shaft pretending to be preoccupied with the op. "I'm not going to blow," he said to her. And he wasn't. 100% he was not going to blow anything.

"Magic breath," Doirs ordered, holding out her closed fists to him.

"I'm not gonna blow magic breath," Steve argued. Jesus he was not a _child_ anymore, and her doing these magic tricks weren't going to make the parts of his childhood she missed come back.

But Doris didn't relent so Steve had no choice but to take a breath and blow quickly in her direction. As soon as he did she opened her hands and he could see that the card was gone completely.

The child in him squealed loudly but the words that came out of his mouth were: "How'd you… how'd you do that?"

Doris laughed at him and then pulled the card out of her pack and Steve couldn't help but grin. Okay, maybe it could bring some of his childhood back.

But then the elevator came to life and that grin was wiped right off his face. Doris and Steve threw themselves back against the wall but that wouldn't help them if an elevator came up, they'd get flattened. They needed to get back onto the floor.

"Hey, hey, Mick, we've got an elevator coming up the shaft," Doris said.

"I know, I know," Mick told them.

"Mick. Mick, can we move into the hallway?" Steve asked.

"Negative, I've still got one guard at the desk," Mick told them.

That was not good news.

"Mick, do something!" Doris ordered. Both she and Steve were watching that elevator steadily come up towards them. In a few minutes they'd be pancakes.

They could hear him clicking away at his computer when suddenly he cried: "Wait, wait, he's distracted… go!" Mick said and Steve pried open the door and they threw themselves into the hallway just as the elevator went past them.

"The lucky bastard got a cupcake delivery," Mick said when they were standing. "They look fucking delicious."

 _Rowan was making cupcakes today._

That should not have been his first thought. Rowan was not everywhere. Rowan wouldn't even know they were breaking in tonight… unless she got that from the flash this morning. But wouldn't she have said something?

Steve shook his head. He had to get Rowan out of it. She wasn't his concern right now. He could worry about her later.

He followed his mother through the hallways, watching her back as she froze out motion sensors and sprayed over cameras. They made it into Cain's office and found the safe easily. Hidden behind one of the paintings. Ugly thing really, but useful for hiding things.

Doris played the recording. The garbled words actually worked to get the safe open, but the problem was, the safe was empty. All it had in it was a single mug and stacks of office supplies. Sticky notes, boxes of staples and paperclips. A whole fucking ream of white printer paper.

"What the hell?" Steve said.

Doris tore everything out and felt at the safe for any loose bottoms or hidden caches but she found nothing.

"No… no… it was here… it was here…" she practically cried.

An alarm suddenly went off and Steve and Doris jolted. "What the hell is that?" Steve cried.

"We must've triggered a hidden sensor," Doris said starting to herd him towards the door. "Let's go."

"Mick, kill all the camera feeds to the guard's desk," Steve ordered. And got a: "On it."

"Wade, how's our exit?" Mick asked.

"Blown," he answered from the chopper. "Two guards with automatic weapons on the roof."

Mick was giving them directions. 12th floor, window washer outside one of the offices for them to use. Problem was there were guards. They weren't going to make it. So Steve stayed behind. He took out the guards, lead them away from his mother so she could escape.

Mick led him to a freight elevator. He jumped on top of it and rode it all the way down. He was home free. The only problem was, after everything he'd done to help her get away, they still managed to catch his mother.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Tyler had been alerted as soon as the alarm had gone off. He knew right away that Doris had to be the reason he was rushing back to his office. He walked to the supply closet they were using as a holding room and opened the door. He loved that he got to be cocky as pretentious Doris McGarrett sat in a chair, hands zip-tied in front of her.

"Doris McGarrett," he said as he leant against the door he had just opened. "Been a long time."

"Not long enough," she shot back. Oh, she always did have those mildly zingy comebacks. Nothing that penetrated his thick hide, but she tried.

He came into the room putting on the guise of an overbearing parent. "Somewhat disappointing," he taunted. "The Doris McGarrett I knew wouldn't have screwed up an op this bad."

"You're looking a little rough around the edges yourself, Tyler," she said. Oh there we go turning some heat up there. "You're so old you didn't even realize the safe was pilfered. Emptied before I even got here unless you think your paperclips are so valuable you keep them locked up."

In this office where thing constantly went missing, he had actually contemplated locking up his favourite pens, but he knew Doris was lying. He knew she was the one who had stolen the microfiche. There was no one else who could have done it. There had been no other breaches, he was sure.

"I didn't find the microfiche but she did have this, Mr. Cain," his head of security said handing him a receiver for a headset. Ah, she was talking to someone. She wasn't alone. Made sense.

He took it and spoke into it. "Well, whoever you are, I know you can hear me," he said. "It seems that we each have something the other wants. So let's keep it simple. Let's say five minutes, in my office. One second over, she dies."

Yeah that sounded fair. Of course, no one answered. Cain didn't think anyone would. But he packed Doris up, had took her over to the elevator where they then went up to his floor. But once they got onto his floor they found his door open and a flickering coming from it. Not his light, as per usual.

And it couldn't be Rose because she was off for the rest of the week. That was a good thing, if he knew she was in the building while all this was going down he'd immediately be worried. He wouldn't put it past the girl to run straight into one of the burglars and get herself killed or something stupid like that.

No, the person in his office was obviously Doris' partner. A younger man with brown hair in an outfit similar to Doris'. He looked familiar. Very familiar. In fact so familiar he was pretty sure he knew who this was. Either way the man had set a fire in his garbage can. Not nice, but whatever, and was glaring them all down like he alone could take them on. And in his head he probably thought he could.

"Put the gun down!" the head of security ordered.

"What are you going to do?" the boy taunted. Oh… cocky. Tyler's theory about this man's identity was being solidified here.

"I said put it down!" his head of security cried. They both had their guns out now, in an enclosed space with a fire. God, kids could be so dumb these days. So goddamn trigger happy.

"Alright, alright, easy, easy," Tyler said coming in between them. He hadn't pulled his gun so he could look harmless. He was anything but, but he wanted to appear that way. "Yeah, I was gonna call the police but I see they've already arrived."

The man finally turned his pale blue eyes to him and Tyler smiled. Oh yes, right on the money. He knew exactly who this was for sure. "It's Commander McGarrett, isn't it? Head of Five-0." When Steve said nothing Tyler ordered his head of security to lower his gun. Once his gun was down Steve lowered his as well.

Good now negotiations could start.

"Geeze, Doris, you involved your son in this?" he asked sounding incredulous. He wasn't. This worked out well for him. He could hold this above McGarrett's for the rest of his life. Five-0 was going to forever be in his pocket.

"It was my choice," Steve said.

"He never listens to his mother," Doris added.

God it was like having Rose in the room except instead of perky and happy he had cocky and sarcastic.

"I don't know what your game is here, kid," Tyler said. "But I don't buy the whole _the safe was empty before I got here_ line. It's the oldest one in the book. So you got three seconds to produce the microfiche."

Steve looked momentary blinded. For those few brief seconds he didn't move. Then all of a sudden there came the sound of feminine humming and then Rose breezed right on past them all. Right past the guy with the gun in his hand, the security guard and even him. She seemed oblivious to what was going on right in front of her.

Except her eyes clapped on that fire raging in the metal garbage can and she suddenly screamed: "Fire!" on the top of her lungs and then promptly dropped all of her cleaning supplies and ran away screaming. Jesus if he knew fire would get her out of his office that quickly he would have lit a match ages ago.

But not seconds after she ran off screaming did she return… still screaming and now carrying a fire extinguisher. Tyler instinctively knew that if she couldn't handle a vacuum this wasn't going to end well. Sure enough she pulled the trigger and the white foam went everywhere. All over his office. All over Steven McGarrett, all over him, his guard and the head of his security. The only thing she didn't hit was the fire.

Tyler had no choice but to reach over and help her guide the nozzle, only then did she finally put out the fire. Tyler ripped the fire extinguisher out of her hands and then Rose breathlessly look up to him fear alight on her face.

"Now, I know what you're thinking," she said. "But I didn't do it."

"I know, Rose," he said.

"Kay, are we sure you know? Cause if they find out there was another fire on another one of my shifts I'mma get in some deep trouble," she said. Tyler stared at her for a second as he digested that. There had been another fire on one of her other shifts? Why was he not surprised?

"Yes, Rose, I'm sure I know. You weren't even in the room when the fire was set," he assured her.

"Oh, okay," she said, sighing with relief.

"Alright," he said ushering her towards the door before she could do anything else. "Why don't you clean a different room?"

"Well shouldn't I clean this one?" she asked. She then took a proper look around and whispered: "Oh! Are you training new recruits?"

"Yes, Rose and we're very busy," he said and then shoved her out into the hallway.

He turned, he expected it to be over, but Rose surprised him. She came back into the room with a Tupperware container. "I made cupcakes. Cookie Dough Cupcakes, do you want one?" she asked him and then offered them up to him.

Tyler just glared at her but as per usual Rose was unaffected. When he said nothing she offered them up to everyone else. One to the Security guard, the head of his security, one to Doris and then one to Steve who was staring at her like she was some sort of celebrity, like he had seen a ghost. She turned back to him offered one last time and this time he snatched it up.

"Alright, I'll leave you to your training exercise," she said and then headed for the door.

Tyler spotted that star struck look on Steven McGarrett's face and frowned at it. "Don't even think about it," he growled. "She's juggling three guys as is it. And she's way too stupid to be allowed to procreate."

Steve's eyes narrowed at him but said absolutely nothing.

"Now, give me the microfiche," Tyler ordered remembering that that was the more important thing at the moment.

"What's a microfish?" came Rose's voice again and Tyler nearly jumped but instead he just groaned at her.

"Jesus Rose!" he cried.

"I was wondering if it was okay if I watched your training exercise, it looks awfully interesting," she said shooting a playful grin at the now red in the face Steven McGarrett. Aw fucking hell no.

"No. Now go," he said trying to shoo her out of his office again. Honestly, she was like a fucking puppy.

"Okay, but what's a microfish?" she asked again. "Is it a tiny little spy fish?"

"No, Rose, it's like a reel of film, it has pictures on it," he said. "Now go."

"Ohhhh! Kind like a roll of film for a camera?" she said and he nodded. "You had one of those in your training safe."

Tyler felt himself freeze. He looked down at Rose a strange sense of dread dawning over him "How do you know what was in my safe?" he asked.

Rose blinked her eyes at him. "Well, uh, remember that day you spilled coffee all over your papers?"

"You mean the day _you_ spilled coffee on my papers?"

"Let's not quibble about the details," she said waving it off.

"What about it, Rose?" he snapped seeing as he had no desire to argue and wanted her to stay on topic.

"Uh. Well you told me to clean _all_ of your office," she said. That sense of dread solidified into one huge knot. No. She fucking hadn't. "And your safe was open and it was so dusty that I figured that you wouldn't mind if I cleaned it a bit for you. But you know, some things were sticky and some of the stuff was like 20 years old so I just sorta… threw it out. Was that wrong? Did you need it for your training?"

Tyler just stared at her for a second. "You emptied… my… safe?" he asked.

"I didn't know it was for your training exercise, honestly I didn't!"

"You _emptied_ out my safe?!" he thundered.

"Well, I didn't think it was important!" she cried.

"Of course it was important, you _idiot_ it was a safe! Not a training safe! A _real_ safe!" he screamed. "YOU THREW OUT CLASSIFIED GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS!"

"I didn't know they were government secrets! I thought this was an accounting office," she cried. Tyler decided to breeze right on past that one. Accounting office? With guards and guns? What the hell kind of accounting did she think they did?

"And the gold bricks?" he groaned.

"I thought they were fakes."

"They were heavy!" he cried.

"I thought they were good fakes?" she said with a shrug. Tyler was shaking he was so angry. Goddamn it. This stupid fucking idiot had gone and ruined everything and he couldn't even get too mad at her because he was the one who left her alone with an empty safe.

"You're _fired_!" he shouted and Rose frowned at him.

"I think you're over-reacting a bit—," "—FIRED!" "Kay well I don't work for you so…"

"Someone escort this bimbo out of the building," he snapped. "And someone come with me, we have to dig through the dumpsters."

Rose gasped as if he had slapped her, tears welled up in her crystalline blue eyes. "You are such a _jerk_!" she hissed as if it were the most terrible of insults and then one the agents in the room with him grabbed her arm and began pushing her back out of the office.

He turned back to where Doris and Steve had been watching the interchange with wide eyes.

"You know," Doris said to him. "They emptied the dumpsters this morning. That microfiche is in a landfill somewhere by now."

Tyler Cain stared at her. He sighed. He couldn't bring himself to be that mad at Rose. She was a complete idiot and he had left her alone with an open safe. He was too old and too tired to make Rose McGowen his hill to die on. The girl was too stupid to be a real threat national security anyway.

"All right, you know what. Just go," he snapped. "Get the hell out of here. Before I change my mind."

He watched Doris and her son leave. And then he looked at the chaos and mess that was now his office. Maybe he should have fired Rose after she cleaned up the disaster she created in his office, but it was too late now, he needed her out of his office and out of his life. He sighed and then looked back to the cupcake that was still in his hand. He took a bite into the vanilla cupcake with the cookie dough frosting and found a nugget of cookie dough inside. Damn she really did make good cupcakes. That was probably what he was going to miss the most.


	54. Chapter 54

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanfics**

 _A/N: Hey guys! It's so nice to hear from some of my regular reviewers again now that the holidays are done! Welcome back guys! So we have the end of the episode here, and we'll be moving onto the second last episode of the season. Which means Season 4 is coming up guys and I have a really zinger for the season finale and the season 4 opener! It's also going to be the start to Steve's redemption arc which should start somewhere after episode 11. But before we get to that… uh… Steve is going to do something absolutely terrible at the end of this chapter. Under no circumstances would he regularly do this but he honestly thinks that he's protecting her by doing this, and in a few seasons this will open the gateway for a big reunion. So I know this was a despicable move, regularly Steven would never do this, but I needed it for the story so I'm sorry. Also this Chapter is a little sadder than the other, but it'll pick up in the next chapter on Friday. Kay! See you then!_

 _P.S. There's another little contest coming up. Please read the note at the end of this chapter!_

Chapter 54 

* * *

Steve and Doris got to the ground floor and out of the building without a hitch, considering the plan was to use the helicopter to escape. They had chosen this way because there were a lot of questions that both of them wanted to ask. The first one being: where the fuck did Rowan go? Because number one on their list of questions was: _what the fuck was all of that?_ And she had to be downstairs somewhere… right?

Nothing had been more surprising than Rowan walking right into Tyler Cain's office in a janitorial smock. After that the shock just kept piling on. From getting doused with a fire extinguisher, to Tyler knowing who Rowan was, to Tyler thinking her name was Rose. For a minute there, with the way she was acting all dopey eyed and vapid he thought maybe this wasn't his Rowan, but he knew her eyes, he knew her cupcakes, he knew it was her. And it took all of his willpower not to say… well… anything.

She had saved their lives.

Mick's surveillance truck drove up, stalling by the curb. A door slid open and Mick popped his head out. "Hurry up and get in here," he said to them. "We have a hasty getaway to make."

Steve and Doris both hesitantly stepped up into the back of the van, shut the door and then stared at the person who was waiting for them in one of Mick's chairs amongst all of the surveillance equipment.

Well that answered the _where is Rowan_ question.

"Hello," she said all too cheerily to them.

"Where's the microfiche, we know you have it," Doris snarled immediately. Right… well there were other questions Steve would have lead with, but he guessed that was a good enough starting point.

Rowan cocked her head to the side, there was a coolness about her that he wasn't familiar with she wasn't her usually bubbly self. "Somewhere safe," she answered. "I left in a hurry, I didn't think I had time to go back and get it."

"Left in a hurry?" Doris snapped.

"Yes. I wasn't planning to come into work today, you know. Mr. Cain, up there, is going to find out I quit two days ago, that I wasn't supposed to be upstairs, but by then Rose McGowan will have vanished so it won't matter," she said with a flip of her hair.

Doris half turned to Mick and said: "Drive to Alex's house, that's gotta be where it is."

Rowan blinked her eyes surprised. "I didn't say I was going to give it to you," she scoffed and Steve and Doris turned to her shocked by what she had just said. Steve shot a glance to his mother who looked far from pleased by this turn of events.

"Then why the hell did you steal it?" Doris snapped.

"Leverage," Rowan shot back. "The time is fast approaching when you're going to leave. I want to hold onto the microfiche to ensure that you come back."

Doris rolled her eyes and sighed. "I am not going to leave!" she shouted.

"Yes, you do! You take Adam and Kono somewhere safe. You promise Steve you'll answer his questions when you come back. And then, like the coward you are, you don't come back!" Rowan shouted back. "Well I wanted that microfiche to hold over your head to make sure you fucking come back! And I got it, before you even moved in. How's that for a civilian with absolutely no fucking training! I didn't even get caught!"

Doris had a sneer on her face so deep he was afraid of what she'd do to Rowan. So, Steve intervened.

"We can discuss this when we get back to Alex's place, okay?" he said. He then turned his attention on Rowan. "I have a few questions."

As soon as Rowan took her eyes off of Doris her whole demeanor changed. Gone was the ice-cold warrior woman with the same mannerisms as Wo Fat and back was his light and soft Rowan with her small smile and sparkling blue eyes.

"Shoot!"

"Uh… not that I'm not grateful but… uh… HOW?!" he cried.

"Oh, how did I steal the microfiche?" she echoed.

"Yes, Rowan. How did you steal the microfiche? How did you get past security? How did you do… any of what you just did?"

"Okay. Well, I remembered that Doris's microfiche got stolen and logiced out that sooner or later she'd be trying to steal it back. When I started spending more time with Wo Fat I asked what would be the easiest way to get it back and he and I came up with a plan," Rowan said.

"Okay…" Steve said, trying not to get stuck on the fact that Rowan and Wo Fat had come up with a plan together instead of her asking him for help like she used to. "And what was your plan?"

"Well, it started with getting me a fake name, 'cause he figured Tyler Cain wouldn't know my face but probably had heard of me in some way. So, he helped me get a fake identity, Rose McGowan," she said.

"Rose… like your mother's name?" Doris asked pertly and Rowan turned that dry glare to her immediately. Steve was just as surprised, Doris knew her mother?

"The pettier you are the less likely I am to remember where the hell I put that microfiche. I'm on a lot of meds _Doris_ I could easily forget where I hid it for the next couple of months," she threated.

To his surprised Doris actually sat back and actually shut up. And he made a mental note to ask his mother what she knew about Rowan's family.

"Okay, so you got a fake identity, then what?" he asked. He had unconsciously leant forward, this was the closest she had been to him since he had arrested her a few weeks before. Their knees were practically touching, and he had lent over his knees to get closer to her without knowing it.

"I applied for a job at the cleaning agency. I don't think they did a good enough background check, because I got the job," she said. "Then it was just a matter of making sure I got the right building and floor."

"Which is when you broke into my bungalow," Doris said.

"No, I did that once I realized I didn't know who I was going after. I already knew which building and which floor," Rowan said. "I traded spots with a nice lady who wanted to be closer to home anyways and then offered to clean floor 16 with all the creepy gun toting guys in suits because the other ladies were too nervous to do it."

"How did you break into my mom's place anyway? The security code is…"

"No important if you wipe it with a magnet and set it back to factory settings and then it's just 1, 2, 3, 4, to get in," Rowan said. Steve blanched at her wording. It was like a criminal was talking to him, like Wo Fat was using Rowan's mouth to get his words out.

"But my system wasn't reset," Doris reminded her and Rowan nodded.

"Yep, that seemed a bit too deviant even for me. You left a window open, I climbed in through that," she said. Really? She had climbed? With a bum arm? Bullshit, Steve was going to have to ask about that one. "Anyway, once I had the name, I went about making sure he thought I was the stupidest thing in existence. Took two days. I blew up a vacuum in his office. After that I wasn't a threat."

Steve nodded. He would never be able to see Rowan as anything other than the intelligent girl he knew her to be. And right now, in front of his eyes he was watching her become dangerous. Not just to his heart. She was becoming just as lethal as Wo Fat and his mother.

"The plan, a week ago, was to find the safe, figure out what kind of safe it was so Wo could tell me how to get into it," Rowan said. "But then Tyler just left me in the room with the open safe… so I cleaned him out. I'm guessing he didn't notice until you guys broke in."

"You've had the microfiche for a week?" Doris thundered. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Why did you leave me?" Rowan shot back.

The air around them crackled with intensity. Doris jerked as if she had been slapped. Her chin began to quiver like it did before she was about to cry. She glanced to Steve out of the corner of her eye as Steve's eyes whipped back and forth between them. What the hell were they talking about?

"I thought it was what was best," she answered in a small voice.

"Yeah well I didn't tell you out of spite," Rowan snapped back without any hesitation. "I'd say we're even, but we're so not."

Steve sat there totally out of the loop. Whatever had happened to them it apparently had been a lot worse than he thought it was.

"Uhm… how did you know we were breaking in then?" Steve asked.

For the first time Rowan looked more than a little embarrassed. "Uh… when I touched you this afternoon, I got a few flashes," she whispered. "But I didn't know it was tonight. Not till I had the dream."

Steve blinked his eyes. Dream? She was having dreams now? Steve found himself shaking, he had gotten closer to her during this talk. They were already pretty close, their knees almost touching but he had unconsciously started leaning forward to be even closer to her. He wanted to tell her that he dreamed of her too but it wasn't in the same way and he knew that.

"So… you're having dreams now?" he asked, his voice low, nothing but a mere whisper. The _of me_ was implied.

Rowan nodded. "Alex wasn't too happy with that development," she admitted.

"Why? Because he had to drive you here?" Steve scoffed.

"Oh… no… Alex didn't drive me, he was too tired. I took a cab," she told him. Steve's smirk fell off his lips. What kind of boyfriend let their girlfriend leave in the middle of the night to go to a heist? He had to know what was going on! "No, he was mad cause I woke both he and myself up screaming your name."

Steve's mouth immediately went dry. His tongue dated out to wet his lips and he caught Rowan's eyes following it. He leant a little closer. "My name?" he found himself whispered.

Rowan too had started to lean forward, his heart picked up pace, any closer and he'd end up grabbing her.

"Do you guys need to get a room?" his mother asked and Rowan jerked away from him. The spell between them broken and Steve was left more than a little disappointed.

"Yeah, uh, it was a pretty bad nightmare," Rowan admitted after clearing her throat. "He, uh, Tyler I mean, he was going to shoot Steve first to punish you. It's why I… uhm… it's why I came. I didn't want you guys to die because I took the microfiche."

She was avoiding his eyes now. He wished she wouldn't. He loved her eyes. He loved looking into them, loved getting lost in them. Even though they weren't his eyes to look into anymore. The truck came to a stop and Rowan sighed.

"I better go get the microfish," she said laughing a little bit at her own joke.

"I'll go with her," Steve said as she stood up and Doris stood too. He offered because Rowan seemed a bit startled that Doris had stood up with her.

"Why should you go? You're the one she wants to avoid!" Doris snapped.

"I'd rather have Steve, he less likely to try to kill me," she said softly and Steve felt his heart swell with happiness. She wanted him. _She wanted him._ Well it's not like her options were that amazing, but he was going to take it.

Doris rolled her eyes but she stayed where she was. So Rowan and Steve walked out of the van together. They walked up the stairs shoulder to shoulder. She smelt the same and it had the same effect as it always did. God why couldn't he turn this off? Really. He was supposed to want Catherine it shouldn't be this hard.

"I'm sorry you had a nightmare," he whispered.

"Why? It's not your fault," Rowan whispered. "I'm just worried that I'm dreaming to make up for the lack of visions."

Steve thought about this. "You know… you practically electrocuted me getting your vision today," he said. "My mom said the exact same thing happened when you touched her a week ago."

Rowan stopped walking and turned to look at him. "I'm still electric?" Rowan asked in a small voice. "I thought… I thought I got all of it out."

"What do you mean?"

"The energy, whatever I was using to open up the void. I thought when it stopped opening for me that it meant the electricity was gone, but if I'm shocking people then it's not," she said. When hope flashed across her face Steve felt the old fear come back. "What if that means I could try to go home again?"

Steve struggled to keep his hand from darting to her arm, an old twitch from when he thought she could vanish at the blink of an eye. "I thought we agreed we'd wait until we had more information…"

"More information? What do you mean more information? Where are we going to get more information about… about what's happening to me?" Rowan cried. "Steve the only person who can help me is across the world and to him… I'm not… I'm not…."

"Who?" he asked in a small voice. _Tell me the truth_ he thought. If she did, he'd tell her about her family. He'd tell her that a man named Trevor Pierce was on the island looking for her.

If it got them answers. If it got her away from Wo Fat, he'd gladly let her go to Canada.

Rowan looked away from him but for that brief moment she held his eyes he saw the deep sadness there. "Nothing, never mind," she whispered.

"I can't help you if you don't talk to me Rowan," he said. Couldn't she see how badly he wanted to help her? Couldn't she see how much he wanted to hold her?

Rowan turned those blue back on him and his heart lurched up into his throat. God if she hadn't taken a step up and away from him, he would have grabbed her, crushed her to his chest and gone about ravishing those lips until she was putty in his hands begging for more. Fuck. Fuck. That feeling was supposed to gone. The desire was supposed to be muted. Why did she do this to him? How did she do this to him? Why couldn't this be how he felt about Catherine?

"You can't help me with this, Steve," she answered. "I know you're trying to help. I know that, and I thank you for that. But this is something I have to do myself."

"But Rowan…" he started.

"I'm not going to travel, Steve," she interrupted. "I know it hurts you and I don't want to do that to you."

"For god sake Rowan, just give me something," he said. "I won't do anything about it, just tell me. My mom, she said your mother's name was Rose?"

Rowan just stared at him. He knew by the look in her eyes that she had no intention of telling him but still he held out hope that she'd trust him, that she wouldn't withhold information the way his mother and Catherine did to him.

"Wait here, I'll go get the microfiche," she said instead and Steve felt the betrayal stab into his chest like a hot knife.

Why the hell was she like this? Why was she just like every other female in his life? Why was Danny the only one who was truly loyal to him? He bet she had told Wo Fat. He bet she was telling him everything and then laughing at Steve who would never know anything about her. He was so angry. So goddamn fucking angry and frustrated.

When she returned a few moments later she had the microfiche. She handed it over without a single bit of hesitation. And as she did so though a small static shock jolted them both when her fingers brushed against his.

"I'm tired of being lied to," Steve suddenly told her. "I'm tired of always being two steps behind you, behind my mother, behind Catherine. I'm sick of being out of the loop. I'm going to give you one chance, Rowan, one. One chance to tell me something. Something true. Or I'm never going to talk to you again."

Rowan stared at him. She was quiet a moment as he waited. He wanted one of her secrets. Any of her secrets. Something that he could hold on to and say he always knew before everyone else. He didn't care which secret it was. He just wanted one.

"My middle name is Hazel," she whispered after a moment. Steve blinked his eyes. Rowan Hazel Pierce. She was named after two trees.

"Okay, uh, thank you, but that's not what I meant," he said softly even though he loved that he knew her full name now.

"I can't tell you the other secrets, Steve," she whispered to him. "Some of them hurt too much to say. It's why I don't talk about them. Some of them are so scary I'm afraid taking about them will bring them to be. And the others. Well, they're not my secrets to share."

"Rowan," he sighed. He hated her pretty words. He wanted tangible proof. And she knew that.

"Fine," she growled. "You want something real? Okay. I'm not over you. It hurts to look at you. It hurts to dream of you and wake up to find you're not there. It hurts to have you show up and act like I'm the villain when you're the one doing villainous things to me. I'm sorry I left, but I had to because inside, you're killing me!"

Okay. That was not what Steve wanted to hear. No, that wasn't it at all. He wanted a secret about Wo Fat. About his mother. About her life before she got here. Not that. Never that. He took a step back and almost fell down the steps. Rowan didn't notice. Rowan didn't stop.

"I can't get over you because you're still here. It's like you're haunting me. And I want it to stop. I do. But I also miss you and I want to see you. And now that I don't get visions I dream. I dream every night. Of a building falling on you and Danny, of terrorists cutting off your head. And I can't make it stop!" she half sobbed. "I'm surrounded by you and death and I'm scared and I'm alone and I can't go home cause I'm lost, or stuck and I'm hurting us both when I try. And the one person I can ask for help is a whole universe away from me, and the version of him here doesn't know me cause I'm supposed to be dead and he wouldn't believe me if I told him. So there. Are you happy? Is that what you wanted to hear?"

It wasn't. It wasn't what he wanted to hear. But there was something in there. Some of the things she said that was useful.

The most importantly being: _I'm supposed to be dead._

"I'm sorry," he whispered. She was right. He did hover. Still. It wasn't healthy for either of them. She was trying to save them both but he was stubbornly clinging to her.

So instead of staying he turned around and walked away. He left her on those stairs up to Alex's condo. He didn't stay to hear the door shut behind her. He just walked back to the truck, handed his mother the microfiche and then sat down.

As soon as the van was moving, he asked his mother a question. A simple question.

 _Tell me about Rowan and her family._

And for the first time in a long time. His mother didn't hold anything back. And she didn't lie.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Trevor sat calmly beside his father. He had been pulled into the Honolulu police department. He assumed it was because of the report he filed. Earlier that week he and his father had gone in to report that someone had stolen their daughter's identity. The point was that they'd arrest whoever was using the Rowan Pierce identity if there was someone using it. And bam, they'd find the girl they pulled in.

He assumed, being pulled in to the HPD headquarters, meant they found her.

But two hours later, having heard nothing, except being told to stay in that small interrogation room, had made him nervous.

Why were they being made to wait so long?

When Sergeant Lukela came back in the room he wasn't alone. He had the Commander with him. The one from the shark cage murder. The one who had stared at him like he was a ghost, like he was haunted by Trevor's eyes, his visage. The one who had been surprisingly interested in what they were doing and what they were looking for.

"I'm Commander McGarrett of Five-0," he said absently, his eye scanning the police report that Lukela had helped them fill out. "I understand that you've made a complaint that someone was using your daughter's identity."

"Yes," his father answered. Just as Trevor said: "We've met you before. On the boat, remember?"

McGarrett looked up to him. There was a coldness in his blue eyes, an icy sort of fire that burned in the irises and seemed to be directed at him.

"I'm aware of that Mr. Pierce," he said, his voice sliding over his last name is if it were something unpleasant. "Explain to me why you think someone's using your daughter's identity?"

Trevor stared at him as he stood in front of them. He pointedly didn't sit, he chose to stay above them. It was a power move. Something was wrong. Something was off with him. This wasn't a simple questioning, this was personal. But what the hell could he or his father have done to upset this man?

When both he and his father failed to give him an answer McGarret half smiled. "Do you guys have any tangible proof that someone in Hawaii is using your daughter's identity?"

"Well, no, that's why we came here. To have you guys make sure," his father said. "Have we done something wrong?"

"No, but you've done some interesting things since you got here," he said. "In fact, Trevor, you seem to be on a quest to find a body. Do you want to explain?"

How the hell was he supposed to explain that? How? _Yes Commander McGarrett my father and I performed an experiment where I tried to pull a person from one reality to another and I'm pretty sure the trip killed her and we're trying to find her body._ Yeah. They'd lock him up on the spot. Straight to a mental ward for him.

Trevor stuttered out a response, but he got two words into his not so carefully prepared lie when McGarrett cut him off. "You went to ten different hospitals, thirteen morgues, you asked the coast guard, you asked H.P.D. about bodies coming out of the ocean in the last year, and you even asked me about it. It maybe have been unofficial when you asked me but you're clearly looking for something. And it's not the science project you mentioned, I'd gather."

"We think we pulled someone from one universe to this one," his father told him and that hardness that Commander McGarrett had been wearing like an armour shattered and was replaced with an intense fire. He turned his angry eyes onto his father and Trevor shivered. "Travelling in the space between worlds is a hard thing to do, we don't think this person survived."

"So, let me get this straight. You think you pulled someone from an alternate reality?" McGarrett asked.

Trevor tried to shut up his father but Trenton Pierce was on a roll. "Yes. If we could find the body, we figured we could prove the experiment a success. When we couldn't find a body, we started looking for a live person. The coast guard confirmed that someone had been found lost at sea around the time of our experiment. We think that this person would have to have taken the identity of someone…"

Panic flashed across McGarrett's face so quickly that Trevor would have missed it if he hadn't been carefully watching this man. Why was he afraid? Why did it scare him to hear that the coast guard had confirmed that they had pulled someone from the ocean?

"Yes, but why your daughter? Why do you think this person would take your daughter's..." suddenly McGarrett trailed off. He sighed as he stared at the two of them with something akin to pity flashing in his eyes. Except it wasn't real, it was an act. Trevor was sure of it. "You think you pulled your dead daughter from one reality to another, don't you?"

Trenton seemed to realize that the conversation was gone to a place where they wouldn't be helping them. He fell quiet and just stared at McGarrett as the man in front of them nodded. "Okay, you've caused quite a bit of panic for nothing but delusion and grief," he said. "Something terrible happened to you, and that's tragic but you can't come to our state and stir us up into a panic over it. I think it would be best if you pack your things and leave tonight."

"I'm sorry, are you deporting us?" Trevor asked. He had never been kicked out of a country before. He did a lot of travelling with his skaters for tournaments, he couldn't be declined access to the States because of this of this.

"No, I'm politely asking you to leave our state," McGarrett said. "Leave Hawaii and don't come back."

He moved to the door opening it to reveal two officers and two men in S.W.A.T. gear. This didn't feel polite at all. This felt super hostile.

"These men are going to escort you back to your hotel, then to the airport. Your tickets have already been changed for you," he said. "I hope you enjoyed your stay in Hawaii. I'm sorry for your loss, truly I am. But don't you dare come back here… ever again."

As Commander McGarrett left Trevor felt his lip curl back into a silent sneer. Commander McGarrett was hiding something. One day, some day. He was going to figure out what it was.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

"So," Danny said. He was sitting across from Steve. On the other side of his desk. He had his _I'm trying not to judge you_ face on, his hands were spread in an open gesture as he thought how he'd phrase the next sentence that would come out of his mouth. "The Rowan that's supposed to be in our reality is dead?"

Steve nodded. "Yep. Still born. I found the death certificate," he said.

"And Rowan's known this for a while?" Danny asked.

Steve nodded again. "Since her first flickering incident. She had my mother help her use our smart table to look herself and her family up," he admitted.

"Why won't she talk about this? Does Doris know?" Danny asked. But Steve didn't have the answer. Neither did his mother.

"But it's why we couldn't find her when we ran her DNA," he explained. "She never actual lived. So, her DNA wasn't on file."

"But it should have brought up a familial match to her father, or her mother or her brother, right?" Danny asked.

Steve shrugged this time. "I told you. I ran her DNA against theirs. It wasn't a full match. There are some genetic markers that are similar, but it wasn't enough to make them related."

"But she told your mother they were her family," Danny clarified.

"Yes. No. Sort of," Steve said wincing, trying to think of how to phrase it so Danny understood. "They're this universe's version of her family. The version of her family that had to live with her being born a stillborn. Judging by the records I managed to dig up losing that baby destroyed the family."

"And you sent her father and brother away."

There it was. The thing Danny was judging him about. Yes. Yes, he had sent them away. At the time he didn't have a single doubt, but with Danny staring him down he had a million of them all of a sudden. When Duke had called him to tell them they had filed a police report he panicked. He figured he'd ask them what they were here for, ask them why they came and why they wanted her but as soon as he saw them, all desperate to find the little girl they had lost, he knew that if they met her, if they found her, they'd take her away. He figured he'd just tell them that they were wrong, that no one had been pulled, no bodies had been found and probably never would be, but once they told him the Coast Guard had confirmed her rescue, he knew they wouldn't believe him and he had to do something drastic. Then to make sure they couldn't go all the way back to Canada and search her up, he locked her file, top secret, only Five-0 had access to it now.

He had been forced to let her leave his life but she wasn't leaving the island. If she left the island, he knew he'd never see her again and that scared him more than he cared to admit.

"We sent away the people who pulled her here."

"They thought she was dead," Steve snapped. "They brought her here even though it could kill her. They didn't want her, they wanted to prove the experiment a success."

He didn't know if any of that was true, except for the part about them thinking she was dead. These were all lies he kept telling himself to make himself feel better. So, he didn't feel as much as an asshole as he knew himself to be.

Danny just stared at him. "You need to tell her what you did," he said in a quiet voice. "Not telling her is going to make things worse down the line."

"She doesn't want to see them," Steve said.

"You don't know that because you and her don't talk. Not about her family, not about anything anymore," Danny snapped. "You owe her that much Steve, she saved your life."

Luckily Steve didn't have to answer that guilt trip. Danny's phone was ringing. He pulled it out of his pocket. Looked at it briefly, pressed ignore and then slid it back into his pants. When he looked back up Steve was staring at him expectantly.

"It was Gabby," he said in lieu of an actual explanation.

Steve jumped on that. "Well, take the call, answer. You don't wanna talk to her?" he asked because maybe if he worked things out with Gabby, he'd leave him alone.

"No, she probably just wants to apologize again about how poorly she treated me, about her bad behaviour," Danny said with a forlorn sigh. Oh yes, poor hard-done-by Danny.

"Bad behaviour?" Steve echoed, earning a patronizing _mhmm_ from Danny. "You're just gonna punish her?"

Yes. This was a good topic. It got the conversation onto Danny's idiot behaviour and off of his own. Luckily the conversation couldn't slide back either because Max came into Steve's office looking a little bit more morose then his usual self.

Steve smiled up at him hoping that if he continued to do that Max would open up to them a little bit. "Hey Max, what's up?"

"What's up, buddy?" Danny added as if it were some sort of competition between he and Steve.

Max seemed to make a weird face, like he was steeling himself for something and then immediately just went into talking, his eyes focusing on a spot on the floor like he was afraid to look at the other two men in the room. "Last night I pulled a slug out of one of the bodies recovered from the warehouse."

Okay, that was pretty standard. It didn't explain why he was hear this early in the morning. "I sent it over to Ballistics and 20 minutes ago, it got a hit."

"Okay," Steve said. His interest was definitely piqued here. He didn't know why this was so important. This all seemed quite standard. But Max seemed genuinely upset by the news.

"The bullet was fired from Kono's gun," he told them and the room went a deadly sort of quiet.

No that couldn't be possible. Both Steve and Danny digested that information and then locked eyes with other another. Each coming to the same conclusion.

They had to go find Kono.

* * *

 **Alright guys! So I've decided that when we reach 350 reviews (which is only 16 reviews away!) I'm going to post a bonus chapter. I've also decided that the 350th reviewer will get to choose which bonus chapter they want! So for your reviews, please tell me which option from below you'd like to read. And if you're a guest Reviewer please give me a username/nickname so I can announce you as the winner. Kay guys! Enjoy!**

 **One. Brunch with Mary, Doris, Rowan and Steve (after Mary and Doris are reunited that one time)**

 **Two. Steve's real time reaction to last chapter's heist scene**

 **Three. One of the bake days with Kono**

 **Four** **. How Rowan accidentally shot at Juan Carolos**


	55. Chapter 55

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Friday guys! Well… we're almost there. Next chapter shit's gonna go down, things are going to be said, and lies are going to be revealed. I know Steve and Rowan are kinda in a good place right now, and it looks like they're heading in the right direction, but they have one more monkey wrench coming their way (that they will over come) and then the fluff is going to start. I gotta a sex scene lined up to hit somewhere around chapter 90 (to make up for the fact that they're not fully together). Both Rowan and Steve have a long way to go before they heal, so bear with them, they're trying their best to work through it. :P Also, I've only had two people voting on what story they want. Please remember to pick an option (1, 2, 3, or 4) so I know which one you want me to write if you win : ) I'll put them below for you in case you missed them on Wednesday. Anyway, back to our regular scheduled updates, see you Tuesday!_

 **One. Brunch with Mary, Doris, Rowan and Steve (after Mary and Doris are reunited that one time)**

 **Two. Steve's real time reaction to last chapter's heist scene**

 **Three. One of the bake days with Kono**

 **Four** **. How Rowan accidentally shot at Juan Carolos**

Chapter 55

* * *

Danny had let Steve drive the Camaro and as a result the car was doing all sorts of crazy tricks. Sliding through that turn onto Pohukaina street. The next turn onto Coral Street was a bit smoother but it still threw both Danny and Kono to the side.

They had three cop cars following them and they were driving on the wrong side of the road, but Steve was undeterred. He was determined to not get caught.

"Kono, give me your phone," he ordered and immediately she did as she were told.

Steve responded by throwing it out of the window. Well, peachy, just peachy, there went all of her cute pictures of her and Adam. Obviously, she knew it was necessary as they were probably tracking her phone so she said nothing.

Steve managed to lose them long enough so that he could stop. He got out and then pulled Kono out of the back. He handed her a phone but kept looking over her shoulder.

"Okay, this is a burner phone. Keep it on you but lay low while we sort this out. We're gonna find you as soon as we can," he promised. "You got it?"

Kono didn't have time to thank him, she could only say: _Okay_ and then run off into the shadows of the alleyway to hide. She ducked in behind wire fence and watched the Camaro speed away. She hadn't want to leave Steve but she knew, just as he had known, that this would make it easier for her to evade arrest. He was going to lead them on a wild goose chase, she would be able to slip away and try to prove her innocence.

She stayed hidden in the shadows as the squad cars raced by, sirens blaring and lights flashing. They were so distracted by the Camaro peeling off that none of them noticed her slinking away. She waited in her shadowed corner, waited to make sure that no one else was near-by.

She turned and then yelped throwing herself back because she hadn't expected anyone to be behind her.

"Jezzus!" Rowan cried, clapping a hand to her chest.

"Rowan, you scared me!" Kono accused. "How long have you been there?"

"I've been waiting all morning," she said. "I didn't know exactly when you guys would swing by."

Kono stared at Rowan. It was the first time she had seen her without her sling. She didn't have time to celebrate that right now as it had dawned on her that Rowan was here by design.

"You had a vision," she said.

Rowan shrugged. "Yeah. So sue me! Do you want a ride out of here or not?"

"Rowan you can't drive," Kono said.

"No… I can drive, Steve just never got me a driver's licence," she said primly. "But now I'm the proud holder of a G-2 or whatever you guys call it here. And in 6 months, and with a lot of practice I'll get my full G."

They did not call it a G license here. It was just a straight up regular license, but since Rowan was older than 18 hers would be unrestricted, not an intermediate one. Kono was trying to remember where in the world they issued G licenses but with all that was going on she couldn't think of anything other than the situation she found herself in.

"You coming or not?" Rowan asked.

She had led her to a car. A black Audi A8. A very familiar Audi A8. "Is that…?"

"Wo's car?" Rowan asked. "Yep, he told me where he hid it and how to get the keys."

"Really?" Kono asked.

Rowan nodded and smiled to her. "Turns out I'm the password," she said as if that were a good thing. She got into the driver's seat as Kono slid into the back seat sitting low so no one could see her. She had never been in a car with Rowan but she heard from Steve and Danny that she had been a reckless driver. Rowan better be careful driving with her hidden in the back seat. She didn't want them to get pulled over.

"Kay, let's get you hidden!" she said. Backstreet boys were on the radio. Rowan had aviator glasses on. And Kono couldn't help but smile. With Rowan and McGarrett on her side, she felt like she could do anything. Which included beating a murder and corruption charge.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

The bastards had caught them.

It took a road block to get them, but it still happened and he was a little ashamed that it had. Still, Steve had no choice but to pull over. Well at least Kono was no longer in the car.

Steve and Danny got out of the car, where Duke told the other officers to stand down so they wouldn't get shot. Duke looked absolutely livid about the whole situation.

He stalked towards them shouting: "Where's Kono?"

"No idea," Steve said and it wasn't a total lie. At that current moment she could have been anywhere.

"Steve, she was seen getting inside your car outside the Palace," Duke told him. Well wasn't that something? "Pop the trunk!"

Oh, yes, that was a good move. That was something an amateur would know to do. But Steve and Danny weren't amateurs. Regardless, Danny popped the trunk and Duke took a look inside. Steve already knew he wasn't going to find anything, he was just waiting for Duke to figure it out.

Duke shut the door and instead of being the bad cop he had put on the good cop front. Which made no sense because obviously Steve and Danny were immune. "I know you want to protect her but Kono's wanted for questioning in the murder of Victor Asanma. I gotta bring her in."

Danny rolled his eyes. "Come on, Duke. Do you really think she had anything to do with that?" he asked.

"The Crime lab matched the ballistics to her gun," he reminded them, as if Max hadn't brought them the new first. "How do you explain that?"

"Michael Noshimuri used her gun to pull off the murder. He set her up," Danny answered immediately. Oh yes, score one for Team Five-0, thank you Danny and his quick come-backs.

"Victor Asanuma was the star witness in Michael's manslaughter trial," Steve reminded Duke, ready to slam down some cold hard facts to back up Danny's claim. "Duke, you and I both know he's the one who pulled the trigger."

"That may be true, Steve, but Kono is in a relationship with Adam Noshimuri," he shot back. "His father was a Yakuza Boss for thirty years the prosecuting attorney thinks maybe she did her boyfriend's brother a solid by taking care of his problem."

Yeah. As if. Kono would absolutely never do that. Oh well Steve was having none of this. "Okay, you tell the prosecuting attorney we'll deliver him the real killer, we just need some time."

Duke wasn't pleased by this but after a second of contemplation he leant in and whispered: "I hope you know what you're doing, Steve." And then he walked away.

Once he was out of earshot Danny leant in too and asked: "You know what you're doing, right?"

Steve didn't answer him. His phone was ringing and he chose to answer that instead. And then he had two problems to worry about.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

The knock came on the door and Kono ducked behind the kitchen island, but Rowan went to the door. She leant against it, refusing to look through the peephole in case someone tried to stab her through it. She saw it in a horror movie once and she never forgot about it.

She had a feeling she knew who it was though.

"Password?" she called.

There was silence before Adam said: "You didn't give me a password Rowan."

"Oh? Didn't I?" she asked. Hmm… she had thought she had. "Alright, I guess I'll take that."

She opened the door and Adam came in. He had a plastic bag in his hand, he said nothing to Rowan, but as soon as his eyes found Kono, who was gingerly getting up from behind the kitchen island his whole demeanour changed.

Rowan shut the door, Adam made a move towards Kono and then someone knocked on the door again. Rowan wasn't expecting anyone else. No one had told Steve where Kono was, so there was no reason for someone to be here.

"H.P.D. Rowan, open the door," Duke cried from the other side. Kono moved into the back rooms, probably her bedroom, Adam going with her. Only when they were gone did Rowan go about messing up her appearance. Tousling her hair, pulling her shirt off her shoulder. She hyperventilated a bit and then opened the door to Duke.

"Hi… uh… what's up?" she said to him acting more breathless than she really was.

Duke stared at her, his eyes boring into her. "I'm looking for Kono," he said. "Have you seen her?"

Rowan put on a look of confusion. "Uh. Yeah. I was with her at the hospital last night," she said. "Is she not there anymore? I didn't think they sent cops after people who left before they were cleared to go."

Duke glared at her. "No. That's not it, Rowan. Kono's wanted for questioning in an active murder investigation. I need to know if you've seen her. Or if you're harbouring her inside."

Rowan gasped in mock outrage. "I had no idea this was happening, but she's not here."

"That's interesting, because we just watched Adam Noshimuri walk up these steps. Why is her boyfriend visiting you?" Duke asked.

Rowan pretended to be shocked and afraid. She then leant forward and said: "Look, I can tell you but you're not gonna like it. It's gonna put you in a bad place."

Duke blinked his eyes. "Rowan what have you done?"

"I'm kinda… uh… I'm kinda seeing Adam," she said in her best stage whisper.

Duke went an ashen color. "But you're with Alex…"

"Yes, and Adam's with Kono, do you see the problem?" she said. Duke just stared at her his eyes bulging out, so clearly he understood. "And it gets worse. Steve has no idea, and you know what he's like."

"Oh no, oh no, I don't want to be a part of this," Duke moaned.

"Yeah, well you're the one who knocked on my door during our hook up hour," Rowan snapped. "Look, I'm down to pretend that you don't know if you're down to pretend that you didn't witness this."

Duke glanced over his shoulder and then back to Rowan. "Fine, I won't tell if you won't. But you've gotta promise to leave me out of it if Steve finds out."

"Of course," Rowan said with a small smirk. "Bye Duke."

She shut the door as Duke walked away and then locked the door just as quickly. She leant against the door as she caught her breath. Damn she was good, but her heart was still racing. If and when Steve found about this lie, he was not going to be pleased with her.

She turned to find Adam and Kono coming out from her bedroom. Kono was smiling widely at her but Adam looked far from impressed.

"No offence, but you're not my type," he said to her. Rowan scowled at him. Obviously, she had been lying, why couldn't he had just said thank you for saving their bacon? But before she could very snarkily tell him that he wasn't her type either Kono jumped to her defense.

"Don't worry, you're not her type either. Steve is her type," Kono said shooting her a teasing grin.

"Who told you that," Rowan snapped, narrowing her eyes at Kono. "Did Danny tell you that? The Gossip Whore, I swear, I'm gonna feed Grace nothing but cupcakes every time he has her for the weekend."

"Is no one concerned that she lies that convincingly?" Adam asked as Kono moved to the kitchen island to get at the supplies he had brought for her. "I mean, she could be an actress."

"I did do a stint on Broadway," Rowan admitted. "Well… Toronto's version of Broadway mostly, but I did tour a bit and get to perform on actual Broadway for a night."

She looked up and found both Adam and Kono staring at her. Kono opened her mouth, obviously to ask her about what she had just said, but thinking of her musical career reminded her of home and how her mother came on the tour with her because she missed home too much when she was on the road. And how her father and brother came to every opening night she had and sent roses to every performance they couldn't make. Thinking about it carved a hole in her heart because here in this world none of that had happened and if it were to happen now there'd be no one to send her flowers at every performance.

"It's a long story and I'd rather not get into it. We have other, more pressing issues to deal with," she said. "Like right now. I'm pretty sure you've reopened your wound."

Kono pressed a hand to her injured side as if just remembering that she had been shot less than 24 hours ago. She turned her attention onto Adam. "Thanks for bringing this for me," Kono said, peeling the bandage off of her bullet wound. Immediately Rowan gagged and turned away. Kono ignored her.

"Whoa," Adam said wincing as if the injury hurt him. "Kono, you should still be in the hospital."

"It's not really an option," she answered. "H.P.D.'s looking for me. They think I killed Victor Asanuma."

Adam looked genuinely confused. "Why do they think you're involved?" he asked.

"Because we found his remains in a barrel in a dockside warehouse. Single tap to the head. Crime lab tested the bullet and it was fired from my gun," she told him. Rowan knew what happened of course but she firmly kept her mouth shut.

"What?" came out of Adam in a hushed whisper. Rowan waited for him to get it. For them both to get it. "How?"

Oh… he did not get it.

"Your brother."

And that was just dangling out there. Adam glared at Kono for a bit until Rowan raised her hand and said: "I already told you he framed her, this would be what I was talking about."

Adam turned to her slack jawed. He pointed a finger in her direction. "Just cause you had a vision doesn't mean it's true. I'll need a something more than that."

"Okay, how about this. After he got out of prison, we were under the same roof for a couple of nights." "—A stupid idea really." "—Not now Rowan." Kono snapped and then turned back to Adam. "Look, he must have taken my gun and then returned it to my holster."

It was a lot to take in. Adam responded by put a hand to his forehead like he felt the strongest of headaches coming and beginning to pace the small confines of the open concept kitchen. All seven steps from wall to fridge.

Kono wasn't done with him though. "Did you know he was going to do that to me?"

Adam opened his mouth to talk but it was Rowan who said: "Uh, no! He's crazy about you. He'd never let that happen."

"Did you get that from a vision?" he asked her.

"Nope, well sorta. Half just watching you two together and half cause I know y'all are so crazy about each other you get married," she said with a wistful smile on her face. Her B.C. accent must have come out because Adam and Kono were staring at her funny again. Or maybe it was just what she had said in general. She did just tell them they were getting married a whole two seasons before it actually happened.

Luckily Kono realized Rowan wasn't going to talk about that either because she just shook her head and turned back to Adam as if Rowan hadn't interjected at all.

"I don't know what to think," she said to Adam. "You haven't exactly been transparent with me lately."

"Hey if anyone should be questioning loyalty here, it's me."

"Yes, Rowan told me that you know about the phone."

"Did she tell you she tried to cover for you too?"

"Yes and that she failed," Kono said shooting Rowan a little bit of a smile. "I'm sorry about that, but you were hiding things and lying. I felt like I had no choice. Adam, I want to believe you. From the beginning you said you want out of the family business. But from everything I'm seeing you've taken over from your father as the Oyabun."

"Kono, I told you, everything I'm doing is to protect you," he repeated. Like a broken record. "Michael's putting together an army to fight me for control of our enterprises. I need our partners to think I'm still in charge."

"Mmm… I'm pretty sure Michael has the Yakuza on his side already," Rowan said absently as she opened the fridge looking for something to eat. "Does anyone want a pudding? I have Oreo flavoured ones."

Both turned her down.

"I thought you were trying to legitimize the business," Kono reminded him.

"Girl let the damn boy explain," Rowan said around a mouthful of pudding.

"Yes, thank you," he said to Rowan and then turned back to Kono. "I am. I'm trying. I promise you Kono. But it's not that simple." He took her hand now that she was done bandaging it and held it tightly. "My father's allies stand to lose a lot of money, so I need to make those moves very quietly. If they see me as weak, I'm dead."

Kono was silent as she regarded him. So, Rowan helped them speed this process along. "It's all true," she said to Kono. "Trust me."

"I swear to god if you believe the psychic over me, I'm going to lose it," Adam said. He wasn't serious though the smile on his face told her that. Rowan found herself smiling at him regardless of the situation. She liked Adam. She really did.

She was going to make sure that poor boy didn't end up in jail.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve didn't want to deal with a plane filled with dead bodies. He didn't want to deal with a terrorist with the National Liberation Movement running lose on his island. He didn't want to have to worry about the same guy having stolen his own young son and going on the run with him.

But that was his case. Which meant no time for Kono's case. And now there was a little boy in danger. Steve needed help.

This meant that he had driven all the way to Alex's and practically sprinted up the stairs. If Rowan had seen Kono's shooting maybe she saw the plane going down. He pounded on the door until she opened up. Her hair looked tousled, her shirt was hanging off of her shoulder awkwardly, and her cheeks were oddly flushed.

Had he interrupted something?

As soon as she saw him she began to fix herself up. "Sorry, I thought you were… never mind. What are you doing here?"

"I need to know about the downed plane," he said. No hello. Nothing. He wanted to ask who she thought he was. He wanted to thread his fingers through her hair and kiss her so he'd be the reason she was in such a state of disarray. But he had told himself he wouldn't do this anymore. He told himself that he wouldn't haunt her anymore and that he'd learn to move on, but this wasn't going to help him achieve any of that.

"The what?" Rowan asked. She looked confused, concerned. He didn't know if it was an act or if she actually just didn't know. Maybe she hadn't gotten the vision or had the dream yet.

"Look, we have a plane filled with dead bodies, I have an NLM Terrorist named Rafael Salgado who's stolen his four-year-old son and is loose on the island and there's an arrest out for Kono," Steve snapped. "You are always in my way over some stupid vision or dream so I need you to tell me what you know."

Rowan blinked her eyes at him. "In the way huh?" she echoed in a soft voice. Steve probably should have realized phrasing it that way would hurt her feelings but he didn't have the time to worry about her delicate sensibilities right now. "I haven't had a vision about a plane."

"Well I need you to have one right now," Steve said.

Rowan laughed, the sound nothing like what he was used to, and instead it was hollow and soft. "It doesn't work like that Steve. If I could choose when I had my visions I would have stopped Michael from using Kono's gun," she said.

Oh, so she _was_ having visions about Kono's situation but not about his plane. "Yeah but if I touch you… I can spark one, right?" he asked. He put a hand out to her and Rowan backed away from him.

"No," she said. "Don't. It hurts, getting them all at once, it'll knock me out. Please don't."

But Steve didn't listen. He grabbed her despite her protests, as soon as his hands met her biceps he felt the electric current travel up his palms but it wasn't the one he was looking for. That was a jolt of desire, he got it every time he touched her, not the _i-gave-her-a-vision_ shock. But when Rowan didn't react right away, he started to panic, maybe because she didn't want to it wasn't going to work. So be began to shake her, lightly at first but progressively getting more violent then he'd care to admit to get it started. Suddenly Rowan started to convulse and then he got that shock he was looking for. He gripped her tightly to keep her from dropping when her knees gave out.

"Let her go!" Kono screamed at him, appearing from somewhere. Steve dropped her into Kono's embrace and backed away as Adam came out from the back room and put himself in between two of them.

"What the hell man?" Adam snapped. "What the hell were you doing?"

"What are you guys doing here?" he asked. He knew why they were here. It was actually a good place to hide. But he didn't want to answer their questions, didn't want to admit how low he had stooped just then and that question seemed the safest thing to say at that point.

From the floor Rowan gasped and bolted up. She coughed as if she was gagging and put her head in her hands. "So much blood," she groaned.

"Do you need a garbage?" Kono asked. "Adam, go get a garbage or a bucket."

Adam seemed less than interested in leaving the girls alone with Steve and luckily Rowan said: "No, no, I'm good." With Kono's help she stood up. She glared at Steve. "You shook me like some fucking psychic magic eight ball!"

Steve hadn't thought about it that way. He didn't like the way she was looking at him, like he was the bad guy. He deserved it but he was panicking. He had so much to do, so many lives resting on his shoulders, and she wasn't cooperating.

He didn't even get a sorry out of his mouth before Rowan said: "I don't know where he is but I know he gets shot in front of his son. He's going to die."

Steve blinked his eyes. "Who shoots him?"

"The NLM people, they stole his son," she answered. She then glanced over to Kono who had a hand at the small of her back to keep her steady. "I know who you have to ask to get information, but he's not going to talk to you and I can't leave right now."

"What are you talking about?" Steve asked but Rowan wasn't listening, Rowan was looking at his feet and talking to herself.

"Kay, but is this like more important? I mean I need to stay here because I can help them prove it was Michael and maybe keep Michael from getting shot. Cause if he gets shot then Kono and Adam leave and so does Doris. But if I go with Steve I could maybe save that guys life. He's a bad guy though, so is it worth it? Like really worth it? Damn this is a shitty decision…" she murmured.

"I'm not going to shoot Michael," Adam said in a quiet voice and Kono and Steve turned to him. Was that what Rowan had been talking about? She had clearly told him that before but when.

"I already told you. Michael is going to try to kill both you and Kono, its self-defence," Rowan said absently. "I could give Steve a note to give to him, but that wouldn't guarantee that he'd help. He barely likes to help me as is."

"Rowan, I don't know what you're talking about," Steve snapped and Rowan turned her scowl up to him.

"Look. I'm going to help you and then you're gonna take me straight to them. I'm pretty sure they can get the proof without me," she told him. She then turned to Adam. "It's in some warehouse in the jungle. Look for a pair of gloves in a truck. They've got prints in them."

Rowan then turned back to Steve. "I'm going to help you, I'm gonna get him to talk to you and then you are never… _ever_ … going to touch me again. I don't care if I have to get a lobotomy I will never have another vision for you ever again."

Considering she had no control over when she got her visions Steve found that a bit unnecessary to say to him. So, he didn't agree, it wasn't a promise or threat she could keep and if she thought he was going to let her get an actual lobotomy she was out of her damn mind.

Instead he asked: "Who do I need to talk to?"

"You're not gonna like this…" she said with a sigh. "But you have to ask Wo."

She was right. He didn't like that at all.


	56. Chapter 56

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Alright guys, we're only 7 reviews away from that special chapter. As always, I've posted the options for the special chapter. PLEASE tell me which option you'd like to write, we're only a few reviews away from this one so any one of you could get it. If you're a Guest reviewer please give me a nickname so I can announce you as the winner too. So In this chapter, we've got some cute things happening, some interesting interactions between Steve and Rowan and Wo Fat and next chapter we have a MAJOR REVEAL. As for our future chapters, I finished rewriting episode 9, which took me to chapter 80 and that involved some large relationship changes, with a second one coming somewhere between Chapter 82-84 which means I'm essentially only five or six chapters away from getting Rowan and Steve on the road to redemption essentially opening up a world of fluff… all before Chapter 90 hopefully. ANYWAY, I'll see you guys on Friday and with any luck (if you guys review a lot) I'll announce the winner of the 350th review special story!_

 **One.** **Brunch with Mary, Doris, Rowan and Steve (after Mary and Doris are reunited that one time)**

 **Two.** **Steve's real time reaction to last chapter's heist scene**

 **Three.** **One of the bake days with Kono**

 **Four.** **How Rowan accidentally shot at Juan Carolos**

Chapter 56

* * *

Steve walked shoulder to shoulder with Rowan. She stopped at every guard they came across and handed them a cupcake from the box she had refused to leave behind. She knew most of their names but they all knew her. This made the walk down to Wo Fat's cell longer than he expected, because with each cupcake came small talk and pleasantries and Steve barking: "Come on" or some variation of it to get Rowan moving. They got to Wo Fat's door, where software used scanning recognition to ensure he was who he said he was and he wasn't carrying a concealed weapon. It did the same to Rowan before opening up.

"I didn't think we'd be seeing you today," the guard by the door said to her. "You still going to come tomorrow?"

"Of course," Rowan said to him. "I've just got a bit of a situation, that's all. Oh and I won't have cupcakes… I brought them today instead."

His eyes went to Steve who just glared at him. The guard eyed him carefully as if assessing if Steve was a threat. When the door fully opened Steve looked back to Rowan who was carefully handing the guard at the door one of her cupcakes.

"I want you to stay here," he said and then Rowan turned to him.

"What? Why?" she said. "I thought the whole point was to have Wo Fat talk to you."

The insinuation there was that Wo Fat wouldn't talk to him without her being present and Steve didn't want that to be true.

"I want to give him the chance to talk to me himself, without you doing… what you do," he whispered.

Rowan sighed but nodded and Steve walked into the room. It was nothing more than a steel and stone box, with a glass window instead of a wall so Wo Fat could be seen at all times. How did Rowan spend so much time in this stupid glass and metal box with him? He couldn't imagine someone as vibrant and wonderful as her hidden away in this drab depressing place.

Steve took two steps in and Wo Fat appeared, like a spectre in orange. Half his face was a mismatch of pink, the eye on that side was half shut, probably unable to open fully. He looked to be in a lot of pain. He looked like a monster. How was Rowan, who was terrified of horror movies, stomaching looking at him?

"You look tired, Steve." Wo Fat said. "Something keeping you up at night?"

Steve stayed quiet. Yeah, like this guy had the right to be making comments on Steve's appearance. He looked a hell of a lot better than Wo Fat did.

"A loss of nerve, perhaps? A sort of emptiness that sits in your belly knowing the one you really want chose to be anywhere you're not," he continued when Steve wouldn't talk.

"I sleep fine," he said between grit teeth a lie that he wasn't ever going to admit to Wo Fat. Steve put his phone up to the glass, the picture of their missing terrorist on his screen. He was going to do this without Rowan. He didn't need Rowan to make Wo Fat talk. "You know this man?"

Wo Fat took a few steps closer to the glass to look at the picture on his phone.

"Should I?" he asked.

"He's an NLM Terrorist. His name is Rafael Salgado," Steve clarified

"I'm familiar with the NLM," Wo Fat admitted. "They claim to be ideologically driven, but I think they're a bunch of thugs and peasants."

"Well this morning, Salgado killed five men and kidnapped his son," Steve told him. He purposely didn't go with Rowan's version of events because he didn't believe them at the moment, no evidence and all, and he didn't think that Wo Fat would care either way.

"I can't imagine what he has planned for the afternoon," Wo Fat taunted.

"A High-value target like this won't last long on his own," Steve said. "He needs friends, the kind of relationships you used to cultivate. So, if you were him, who would you go to for help?"

"You've come here to ask about a case?" he asked. He seemed very confused by this development. He narrowed his good eye until it matched the bad one and looked Steve up and down before asking very carefully: "Did Rowan send you?"

"Sort of," Steve answered hesitantly. Because it was true, it had been her idea. "The NLM took her too. She got herself involved, had one of her visions and got caught in the cross-hairs…"

"No. They wouldn't. They know better," Wo Fat said. "I pay the cell they have on the island a lot of money to look out for her best interests. Try again."

Steve opened his mouth to argue but Rowan was already walking in the room "Oh for Pete-sake," she sighed as she walked up to the glass. "If I knew you were gonna try and exploit me that way I would have never let you come in here by yourself."

She handed him the box of cupcakes. "I have one left, take it," she said and then turned onto Wo Fat, put her hands on her hips and glared at him. "You have a group of terrorists following me?"

"No. Not following, looking out for you," he said primly.

"Yeah, but you just called them thugs and peasants. You think you can trust them with me?" she asked.

"We can discuss this later, Rowan?" Wo Fat said. He turned to Steve who was peeling a wrapper off the bottom of his cupcake. He gave him a look one would give a cockroach, a look of completely and utter disgust. "Why have you brought him here?"

"More like he brought me here," Rowan told him. "He's here to ask you for help. You probably can't tell because he didn't use the words: help, favour or please."

Steve scowled at her, did she have to throw him under the bus like that? And did she really think that this was going to work? That Wo Fat would just do as she asked? That he'd just volunteer information for nothing? That was nuts.

"And why did he bring you?" he asked looking far from pleased with either of them.

"Because I thought you might be a bit more receptive if I was here," she answered, she avoided his eyes as if she were ashamed of the answer.

"You told him I'd listen to you?" Wo Fat hissed.

"Look, he shook me like a magic eight ball to get a vision out of me. I don't want to be a magic eight ball so can you just help him out, please? Please? _Please._ "

Steve had turned to glare at her. That was not necessarily what he did, even though that was sort of what happened. He didn't hurt her… he just made her sick… but Wo Fat didn't need to know that. And judging by the angry look on Wo Fat's face it upset him to hear that Steve had done that to her.

"I'll get you time in the exercise yard. Fifteen minutes a day. You'll get to see the sun again," Steve added hoping to appease him.

Wo Fat merely glared at him. "I burn easily."

"Oh, stop being sassy," Rowan snapped. "Yard time could be fun, we'd have more space for dance routines."

Steve turned to Rowan surprised. Wo Fat turned a pleading stare to him. "For the love of god don't you dare give me yard time," he begged. He then sighed, looked back to Rowan his hands on his hips and then he sighed again and turned his eyes to Steve pinning him with a very unimpressed stare. "There's a gentleman named Arturo Casey in Waikiki. He controls an international investment company called Outrigger Securities. Makes most of his money off the books."

 _Oh my god… it worked._

"Doing what?" Steve asked.

"He traffics in arms, explosives, chemical weapons, identity papers. Very resourceful, I'm told," he said. Steve was smirking. Wo Fat glanced to Rowan again. "You'll have to take Rowan. She'll be able to get you in."

"How?" Steve cried. If Wo Fat told him that Rowan was besties with this Casey person he was going to fucking lose it.

"She's the password," he said carefully.

Steve felt a chill run up his spine. "For what?"

"Everything," Rowan answered for him. She smiled at Wo Fat and added: "Tomorrow I'll let you pick the movie, okay?"

"Not tomorrow, Rowan," Wo Fat said suddenly, looking quite frantic for the first time throughout this entire exchange. "Don't come tomorrow."

"Nonsense, I always come on Friday," she said.

Wo Fat's mouth opened and then he quickly closed it and turned to Steve. "I'd like to talk to you privately, if you don't mind."

Rowan sighed. "Alright, I'll see you tomorrow," she said blowing him a kiss.

Wo Fat watched her leave a look of desperation on his face as he called out: "No, Ro, not tomorrow, not…"

But Rowan was listening and she left him standing there looking less than pleased. He turned his angry eyes onto Steve and sad: "You have to keep her from the prison tomorrow."

"Why?" he asked. Wo Fat merely held his stare with a dark glare of his own. "Fine, how do you expect me to do it? She doesn't listen to anyone, let alone me."

"I don't know, why don't you arrest her again? You seem to enjoy doing that." He cried. He then leant in closer to the glass and added in a low growl: "But if you shake her like that again I'll take away something very dear to you. Keep that in mind the next time you use her as a pawn for one of your cases."

Steve stared at him. Wo Fat was mad about the forced vision. Even Steve was a little upset that he had done it. But that threat. That threat was more than sinister. He didn't even know what to say to it. Because looking into Wo Fat's eyes, seeing briefly the way he interacted with Rowan, confirmed Steve's worst fears.

Wo Fat really was in love with Rowan.

Steve ignored him. He left him in his solitary cell. Left him there to rot. He joined Rowan out in the hallway and really looked at her. She seemed different. She wasn't the same Rowan he knew. Oh, she smiled the same, she looked the same, but she wasn't. He wanted to know what she was the password for. He wanted to know what Wo Fat had done in the name of protecting her. He wanted to know if she felt the same way for Wo Fat. But he knew he couldn't ask her, she wouldn't know, Wo Fat wouldn't have given her specifics. If he was smart that is. Also, if she looked Steve dead in the eye and told him she had feelings for Wo Fat too, he had no idea what he'd do but it wouldn't be good.

On the way out, after signing out, and collecting everything he and Rowan had to leave behind, the guard said to him: "That's funny you're the second McGarrett we've had here in 24 hours."

Both Rowan and Steve's heads whipped up. Rowan made a strange strangled sound in the back of her throat, while Steve just narrowed his eyes in concern

"What do you mean?"

"Doris McGarrett. You two related? She came in yesterday morning," the guard told him.

Steve looked at the logs. Horrified. His mother had done what? Behind him Rowan groaned. Like this had been inevitable. Steve struggled to swallow back his own groan of frustration. At this rate Steve was going to end up killing them both.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Luckily for Rowan, Steve knew exactly where Arturo Casey's offices were. He took her there and they walked calmly to where the secretary was. He wouldn't look at her anymore. Not since the prison. Like watching her interact with Wo Fat had made him look at her differently. And maybe it did. Maybe being around Wo Fat made her different. Turned her back into the person who could con an entire drag racing gang into releasing her brother from his debt. She hadn't been _the Professional_ in a very long time, but that didn't mean those tendencies weren't there lying under the surface waiting for her to tap into them again.

But then again, she was starting to realize she liked it better when he didn't listen to her visions. When he thought they weren't real. Anything was better than being treated like a vision generator. _Oh not cooperating? Shake it up a bit that should get it going._

Rowan was waiting for Steve to tell the Secretary that he was here to speak to Mr. Casey. He certainly started out his usually way. Flashing that debonair grin and smiling warmly at her as he showed her his badge and said: "Commander McGarrett with Five-0, where's Arturo Casey?"

There was nothing after that. The woman pointed to an office door and Steve walked past her and to it, leaving Rowan to trail behind confused. He didn't knock, he didn't introduce himself, he kicked the door in instead.

Rowan yelped, the secretary shrieked and on the other side of the door Arturo Casey jumped to his feet. Steve barrelled forward, gun in one hand handcuffs in the other. "Arturo Casey, you're under arrest for…"

"Stop, stop, stop!" Rowan was crying rushing forward to put herself in between him and the startled man behind the desk.

Too bad he didn't stay startled. "I don't know who the hell you think you are but you just can't walk into my office and arrest me for no reason. I'll have your badge, you hear me," he snapped to Steve.

Rowan bit back the urge to groan. Oh, for fuck sake. Couldn't this man just shut up?

"Okay, Mr. Casey, here's the thing…" Steve started but Rowan punched him in the gut to shut him up. Steve grunted, mostly with surprise, he didn't even double over, like her hit had literally dealt him no damage what-so-ever, but it did cause him to glare at Rowan.

Rowan turned to Casey. "We're not here to arrest you, I'm here to ask for help," she said.

"I'm not helping you," Casey spat out. "Get out of my office.

"Oh, that's where I disagree," Rowan said narrowing her eyes at him. "You're going to help for two reasons."

"And what are those?" Casey shot off scoffing at her.

"Well, for starters, if you don't, you'll have to deal with him," she told him hooking her thumb over her shoulder in Steve's direction. She could feel the heat of his glare on the back of her neck. She was gonna be in a lot of trouble after this. "And lastly… and probably most importantly… I'm Rowan Pierce."

Arturo Casey jolted as if surprised. He looked her up and down and scoffed again. "No way… you?" he asked pointing at her. Rowan nodded and smiled brightly because it was halfway working. Casey blew out his air between his teeth in a low hiss. "Damn, he did not tell me you came with a Five-0 escort."

"I don't usually," Rowan told him sitting down in a chair across from his desk. "I'm here because Steve wants to ask you a question and Wo Fat said you'd cooperate if I was here. I hope that's true because otherwise Steve's going to arrest you and I don't want that."

Casey looked back to Steve who was still scowling, not at anyone in particular but about the situation. Casey carefully sat down, his eyes never leaving Steve's face. "I'll answer your questions, but if Commander over here starts getting lippy both of you are out of here. I don't care how much he paid me."

Rowan immediately wanted to know what that number was, but she didn't think she could ask that in front of Steve without him freaking out.

"Rafael Salgado, where is he?" Steve asked his tone clipped and muted.

"Who?" Casey snapped back. Rowan _tsk_ ed at him and he frowned and sighed. "I don't know where he is. Honest. He was here, I helped him out, but I don't know where he's going or what he's going to do."

"Alright, what did you give him?" Steve asked. "I need something to track him."

"I gave him cash and a couple of unregistered guns," Casey admitted with a shrug. Damn, none of that would help Steve. She was gonna get shook again. "I also gave him a car. A sweet ride. A black 2010 Escalade. The licence plate is: AZ2531."

"Alright, thank you," Steve said getting up and leaving the room before Rowan could even register to stand.

"Hey! Wait for me!" she called after his retreating back, and she ignored the flash of memory from her childhood. Screaming those exact same words at her older brother's back. She had been working so hard on not thinking about her family but recently, she couldn't seem to get them out of her mind.

"Miss. Pierce," Casey called out halting her at his broken door. Steve was on his phone waiting at the elevator, she had some time to talk. So she turned back to him. "There's a lot of us in this network Wo Fat has arranged. This safety net he has spread out for you. But none of us are going to help you if you bring that man to all your meetings."

Rowan turned back to where Steve was impatiently pressing the button over and over again. She turned to him and smiled the brightest smile she could muster. "Thank you for the warning. Sorry we ruined your door."

She rushed over to Steve just as the elevator doors started to open. "Kay, you need to drop me off at Adam's, I was supposed to meet them at the beach but I don't think they've stayed there for me. This took a lot longer than I thought it would," she said. She pretended not to see Steve's scowl, the clear anger on his face. All that mattered was saving Kono and making sure that Adam didn't shoot his brother.

She brushed his arm as he went to press the button and another wave of episode flashes came over her.

 _You have literally never given me the whole truth. Ever in my life. And you want me to trust you?_

Rowan looked up to Steve who was staring at her expectantly. She must have shocked him again. She blinked her eyes and looked away.

"You're going to argue with your mother over the visits in the prison," she whispered. "You're going to say hurtful things to each other. After that she decides to leave."

Steve stared at her. He seemed to take it all in. He didn't argue. He didn't even look mad. He just turned his eyes away from her and said: "Not everything you see happens, Ro."

Rowan almost told him that it was because she was always intervening for him. But she kept her mouth shut. That particular path had already been set, she guessed. She didn't know how to fix it now.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

The doorbell rang. Adam shoved Kono away, told her to hide and he went to answer it. But there was no one there. Worry crept up his spine and set all the little hairs on her arm and neck standing. This wasn't right. This was a trap. He rushed back to the living room where Kono had snuck away to hide and found her there, a gun to her chin. Michael holding her in place, holding the gun to the woman he loved's face and glaring at him, his own little brother.

He threw her against the wall, where she hit it painfully and then slid down. Adam struggled not to run to her. He didn't have the upper hand. Not when Michael had a gun.

He smiled tauntingly at his little brother and help up a pair of gloves. "Thank you for finding these," he said.

Adam nearly swore. That was the only evidence that could save Kono. "Where did you get those?" she asked from where she was on the floor.

She shot a glance to Adam who had also glanced at her. "She asked you a question, Michael," he said.

"Your girlfriend tried to burn me," Michael snapped. As if it was perfectly fine for him to frame her for his crimes. "And you let her."

Adam shook his head. "You started this, Michael," he reminded him. "When you stole her gun to kill the man that put you in jail."

"He had to go," Michael snapped. "And so does she. I was only trying to save your life."

Adam glanced at Kono again, no he wasn't going to let his brother hurt her. "How does putting her away for murder save my life?" he asked, because he really didn't follow.

"Brother, you've had a target on your back ever since you crawled in bed with her," Michael growled. "And all I've done is try to protect you… well… not anymore."

Michael adjusted his stance but the gun in his hand didn't waver. "It stops now. Tonight, she dies. I take over the business and you're on your own."

He turned the gun on Kono and Adam screamed the only word on his mind, which was _No_ and charged. But before he got there, he heard a hollow thud and Michael dropped to the ground.

Rowan stood behind him, frying pan in hand staring down at the lump of a man at her feet. She looked back to Adam, who looked shocked to see her and scowled.

"I thought you guys were going to wait for me at the beach," she said. "If you did I could have stopped this."

"You did stop it," Adam said as he turned to where Kono was trying to stand. He went to Kono as Rowan carefully stepped over Michael. Kono was just starting to come around, but Adam never should have taken his eyes off of Rowan.

There was a yelp and a crash and when Adam turned Micheal was half on Rowan, having taking her down. He stood quickly, the gun aimed for the back of Rowan's head. Adam tackled him before he could shoot. They struggled for the gun, wrestling each other.

He heard Rowan cry out: "No! Don't!" but it was too late.

The gun went off in their hands and Adam and Michael came to a standstill. Both in completely shock. Behind him he heard Kono's worried whisper of his name but it wasn't him who was shot.

It was Michael.

Michael collapsed to the ground while Adam and Kono stared on in horror and Rowan behind them began to gag. As the blood pooled out of his chest and Adam and Kono stood there, the only sound that they heard, now that Michael had stopped gasping for air was Rowan as she rushed to the kitchen and promptly threw up in the sink.

He wanted to feel bad for her. But he only felt bad for himself. Guilty, distraught and sobbing, he suddenly understood why everyone on the Five-0 team listened to Rowan and her visions.

Rowan was always right.


	57. Chapter 57

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Still no winner guys! But we're almost there so keep reviewing, keep telling me what you liked in this chapter and which special chapter you want. Also please, if you're a guest reviewer give me a nickname so I can announce you as the winner. So this is it. This is the reveal. AND we have a very cute bunch of moments coming up. This chapter is gonna be slightly shorter than usual but it has a lot of action in it to make up for that. I've managed to get us to the SECOND big relationship change, which means I should have Rowan and Steve on route to redemption by chapter 90 :D Guys! I'm so excited. We're also only a few pages away from our next major milestone so I will keep you posted on that one. As always, thank you for reading, don't forget to review and I will see you on Tuesday!_

 **One.** **Brunch with Mary, Doris, Rowan and Steve (after Mary and Doris are reunited that one time)**

 **Two.** **Steve's real time reaction to last chapter's heist scene**

 **Three.** **One of the bake days with Kono**

 **Four.** **How Rowan accidentally shot at Juan Carolos**

Chapter 57

* * *

Fong had been stabbed. By Michael. Like Rowan had said Salgado was shot in front of his son. Also like Rowan had said Steve had snapped at his mother and said some pretty hurtful words to her. And now, the pièce de résistance … Adam had shot Michael.

Just like Rowan had said.

With Michael dead, and Kono proven innocent, there would be retribution from Michael's men but at least Kono wouldn't be going to jail. But they would take it out on Adam if they could get their hands on him. So now Adam was going to go on the run. And his mother was going to help him get to where he would be safe.

Everything Rowan had said had come to be. She hadn't said anything about Fong, but after finding out she was immediately wracked with guilt. She had was so upset that she didn't get that vision that she didn't get to save Fong from Michael. But since all her other predictions came true, including Steve's very loud interrogation of his mother, Steve had reason to believe that Rowan was also right about his mother's and her intentions to run.

She was going to take Adam away and then she wasn't going to come back because she didn't want answer her son's questions.

Everyone was there to see off Adam off, which included Catherine who was glaring at Rowan even though she had every right to be there, she was Kono's friend too. Rowan was obviously uncomfortable as well, she kept shooting worried glances at Catherine and Steve felt bad. She shouldn't have to feel like she wasn't supposed to be there or intruding, these were her friends too.

Doris finished talking to the Captain of the boat and then turned to the small group that had gathered for Adam's covert send off.

"Alright. Once we get to Shanghai, I'll take you inland," she said to him. "And don't worry, nobody's ever gonna find you."

His eyes went to Kono again and Steve found himself glancing at Rowan who looked to be in physical pain. Kono had mentioned that Rowan had thrown up in the sink at the house where Michael's body lay. That Kono had poured drain cleaner and then bleach down the sink to cover up Rowan's DNA but her finger prints were probably everywhere. But Steve knew, without a shadow of a doubt that he'd save her from that when the time came.

Adam turned to Doris. "How long?" he asked. He too was distraught. He had been unable to string together a full sentence since he had killed his brother. Steve didn't know firsthand how he felt, but he could imagine it.

"As long as it takes to put all your enemies behind bars," Steve said. Because that was his job. And as god as his witness he would be doing everything possible to get that done as quickly as he could.

Kono stared at Adam carefully before saying: "I'm going with you."

Steve winced but it was Danny who said: "Kono, you can't go with him, okay? We just cleared your name. Guy's about to go on the lam. It's not good."

"Yes, she can," Rowan said. "And she does."

Fucking hell. Couldn't that girl shut the fuck up?

She took in all of their faces, saw the anger on each one and then she said: "Can I borrow Adam while you guys try to talk her out of going and inevitably fail?"

Steve caught Kono's smile. He wasn't sure how it happened, maybe it was all the baking the two girls did together, but for a while now Kono and Rowan seemed to have this quiet understanding where they had one another's back.

She pulled Adam away and Steve watched her go. He watched her talk to Adam. She put her hand on his arm and he saw Adam get the jolt, saw her body twitch and his arm come up to catch her. Oh she wasn't going to have a vision for him but she would for Adam? Yeah that was fair. But considering what just happened, considering what Adam was about to do and that Kono was going to join him, he'd forgive her for giving Adam a vision at this time.

"Danny, don't try to stop her," Chin said. Shocking Steve out of the place in his mind that belonged to only him and his thoughts about Rowan and back to the argument he was supposed to be helping Danny with. "The almighty Rowan has spoken and we all know how that goes when we try to ignore it."

Steve then watched Chin pull Kono in for a hug. He heard him whisper _follow your heart_ to her and he wished he could add to do it no matter what pain she was afraid of. She tearfully went up to Steve next.

"It won't be forever," she said.

"Okay, I'll take that as a promise?" he said.

She nodded and tried to smile. "I promise." And then pulled him in for a hug.

She hugged Catherine next who said: "I'm seriously gonna miss you, sister" even though her eyes were on Rowan who was still talking to Adam.

"Can I go with you guys?" Danny asked, clearly going for the laugh factor that everyone needed. Smiling as the somber moment turned into something a little less sad now that everyone was laughing with him.

"Now that I support, I support that," Steve said putting his hands on his hips and chuckling with the rest of the group. His eyes found Rowan who was now being talked to by Adam, a strange sort of look on her face. Her worried look. Worried and concerned. What could Adam be saying that had her looking at him like that?

Steve glanced to his mother who was approaching them. Rowan was always right, what had Chin just said… _the almighty Rowan had spoken_. If she was right, Steve would have only this moment to fix it. He pulled her aside and away from the group to have a private discussion

As Rowan had predicted, he actually had argued with his mother that afternoon. He had pulled the video from the prison. What he got, wasn't all his mother. He got 95% of Wo Fat and Rowan being adorable. Dance routines, snuggling on a bed, watching something on a laptop, but worst of all, she had gone to him for information about the heist. Wo Fat had gotten her the job at the cleaning company, he had told her where to find the safe, he kept trying to talk her out of it but ultimately he let her do it and made sure she was safe along the way. He had done everything she should have got to Steve for, and he did it without screaming at her or making her feel like she was a burden or that she should have stayed out of his way. When Wo Fat realized Rowan couldn't be reasoned with, he made sure she'd be safe. A sociopath was kinder and more supportive of Rowan than Steve had ever been.

He had been furious. He had been ashamed, so when he finally got to the footage of Doris in the prison and found that everything was scrambled so he couldn't hear what she was saying he kind of lost it. So, if he had to apologize he would, if he thought anything he said would convince her to come home once she got Adam and Kono settled.

"Why are you doing this?" Steve asked her once she was away from the group.

"I get to help people you care about," she answered. "It's the least I could do."

"That's not what I'm talking about," Steve said. "Listen to me. You don't have to go with them. You make a phone call, get them squared away. You don't have to get on the boat."

"A phone call isn't gonna make people disappear. And besides my sources will only deal with me. Soon as they're situated, I'll be back" she said. Probably another pretty excuse, and an even prettier lie. She was running away from him. Rowan was never wrong. But he was too much of a chicken shit to say that to her. And he so desperately wanted her to be telling the truth. Out of all the lies she had to tell him, please God why couldn't this be the truth?

"Actually, that's a lie," Rowan said appearing beside him. Steve usually could feel her get close to him but this time he was so distracted that he hadn't noticed her show up. "You're going to go to China, go missing like you usually do, and then go back into active duty for the CIA."

Doris just stared at her and Steve sighed. "Rowan, please," she groaned.

"Fine, don't listen to me," she said. "How long do you think it would take to go to Shanghai and then come back? I need a ballpark Steve."

Steve blinked his eyes at her, he remembered how Wo Fat was with her and decided it would just be easier to go with it. So, he sighed and said: "I think about a week or two."

"Okay, two weeks it is then. So, if you're not back in two weeks, I'm going to tell Steve exactly who Wo Fat is to you and who you killed in Cambodia," she said with a taunting grin on her face.

The problem was, as soon as the word Cambodia dropped out of Rowan's mouth, his mother had pulled a gun and shoved it into her face. Rowan yelped, the happy chatter behind them faltered to a stop and Steve immediately put up his hands and got in between his mother and Rowan.

"Jesus Christ, mom!" he cried. From behind him he heard Rowan's horrified whisper of: _She pulled a gun on me._ He almost laughed. She didn't sound scared… sounded offended.

"She knows too much… you're not ready… you won't understand," she said.

"He finds out anyway!" Rowan cried stepped out from behind him. "I can't believe you were going to try and shoot me!"

Doris's gun pivoted to where Rowan had now appeared and Steve side stepped again to keep Rowan safely behind him but Rowan shoved him away.

"You really wanna test me Doris, with everything I have in my head. With everything I know. And everything you did?" she thundered. "Why don't we tell Steve why my injury was your fault? Shall we do that?"

Doris took a step forward, that gun getting closer to Rowan. Doris said: "Don't you dare," just as Steve stepped in between them again and Rowan shouted: "She left me with Wo Fat!"

Steve froze. He turned back to Rowan who was now staring at him with wide eyes of surprise. She hadn't meant to tell him that. No, no she had not. He turned back to Doris whose gun was drooping in her hand. Oh, she had not expected Rowan to say that either.

"What?" Steve said and both women looked away from him, completely opposite directions from each other but both away from him. "What do you mean she left with you Wo Fat? Mom… you left her with Wo Fat?"

"Steve you have to understand…" Doris started as Steve just stared at her. "I can… I can… explain…"

"Okay?" Steve said but when his mother could only stare at him with watering eyes and quivering chin Rowan stepped up.

"She found me two days before he shot me. She and him had a chat and it ended with her deciding to leave me there with him," Rowan said.

"You found her?" Steve asked his mother in a small voice. "You… you found her and you didn't bring her back? When you knew how… you knew I… How could you do that?"

"You should have seen them together. He was so… happy and… I… I…"

"And why does that matter?" Steve cried. "Your son was at home an emotional wreck worrying about her and you left her with a sociopath because _he_ looked happy? He shot her, mom, she nearly died. And I… I…"

He glanced at Catherine who was watching him with wide eyes and he forced himself to swallow all his disappointment and that burning confession. He glared at his mother. "Who the hell is Wo Fat to you?"

Doris said nothing. And even though Rowan boasted knowing the truth she said nothing as well. Steve shook his head. None of this should have happened. None of it would have happened if his mother had just brought Rowan home, or told Steve where she was. Rowan wouldn't have gotten shot, he would have gotten her back, told her the truth and he'd be happy. Happy with the girl he wanted. Behind him Rowan rested her hand against his back giving him the strength and the courage he needed.

"Okay mom, its fine, I'm… I'm done," he said. "You want to run off to China and not come back, go ahead. I won't stop you. Rowan won't tell me your secrets. I won't stop you, I won't bug you so just… just go. Go do whatever you want."

His mother looked tearful, Rowan's fingers were gripping him through his light cammo green jacket. It shouldn't have mattered but feeling her, having her fingers on him again made all of this a little better. His mother would leave, it was what she did best after all, but he'd have Danny, and Chin, and Rowan. No, and Catherine. But he knew, if actually needed her, if he actually needed to go to someone, Rowan would be there for him too.

"Okay," she whispered lowering the gun. She looked at him, those tears in her green eyes and her chin wobbling and then she pulled him in for a hug. "I'm going to miss you."

Of course she would. She wasn't coming back. But he didn't tell her that she shouldn't miss him if she was planning on coming back. Basically she just proved Rowan right. Fuck Rowan and her visions.

When his mother turned to lead Adam and Kono away Steve found that Rowan and Kono were in a tight embrace. "Be safe," Rowan whispered.

"Take care of these boys for me," Kono whispered back.

"I'll try," Rowan said and then let her go. Catherine's _tsk_ of disapproval was barely masked as she snuggled into Steve side. He knew what she was doing. Staking her claim on him but he didn't appreciate it in the least. Rowan already knew. Everyone knew. No one needed the reminder.

They all waved goodbye and then went their separate ways. Danny went home, where he found Gabby waiting for him. Chin went back to the office and called Leilani. Steve went home with Catherine glued to his side. Rowan went home to Alex who was waiting for her with a disapproving glare on his face. No one was ready for what tomorrow would bring.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Steve stormed through the hallway that would take him to Wo Fat's cell. Absolutely completely furious that the man had dared to do what he had just done.

"Thank you for coming, Commander," Wo Fat said to him.

"Don't flatter yourself," Steve snapped. "I was coming even if you hadn't asked."

"Yes, you want to know why your mother paid me a visit," Wo Fat told him. He then glanced to the side. "But we have a bigger problem right now."

"Oh and what is that?" Steve snapped.

"I told you to keep her from coming to visit me today," Wo Fat nearly growled and when Steve followed his eyes he finally noticed the person sitting on the small cot against the wall.

Rowan scowled at him but sat up. "I come and visit every Friday. And Commander McControl-Freak doesn't get a say on that anymore."

Her words stabbed him. He still felt the echo of her fingers digging into his side but that all went away with her scowl and her attitude. They had been fine yesterday, but clearly that had been a temporary truce that was no longer standing.

"She has a point, if Rowan wants to waste her time on you it's none of my damn business," he growled as he forced himself to look away from her.

"Yes, except now you've put her in danger," Wo Fat snapped.

"What are you talking about?" Steve cried. Even Rowan huffed, arms folded over her chest and glaring up to Wo Fat. "Yes what do you mean?" she asked him and it was when he turned to her, that look of pure distress on his face, that Steve realized that something was really wrong.

In the distance came an explosion. All three of them turned towards it. "Oh my god," Rowan breathed out. She then turned to Wo Fat with wide eyes. "That's today?!"

"You knew about it?" Wo Fat shot back. "You knew and came anyway?"

"I didn't know it was today!" Rowan argued smacking his arm causing him to yelp. "Why didn't you tell me it was today!"

"Because I didn't think you'd listen. You never listen. And then you were already here and we were out of time!" Wo Fat argued after smacking her right back. He turned back to Steve. "You have to get me out of here. Or at the very least her."

Steve turned back to him, his eyes were on Rowan though. "What is he talking about, what is happening?"

"People are coming to kill him," Rowan said. "I don't know which people…" "—the NLM." "—Yes, them. Wait, what? Really? And you trusted them with me?"

Wo Fat just stared, clearly not in the mood to argue. So while Rowan narrowed her eyes at him and put her hands on her hips again he just shrugged his shoulders as if that answered her questions. After a bit of a staring match Rowan turned back to Steve and said: "They're here to kill him you gotta help."

Steve glared at them both. No. No he did not need to help. He needed to get himself out of there, which would be hard because he had to leave his guns behind to get in here. He was perfectly fine to leave Wo Fat to be killed, it was Rowan he didn't want to leave. Except… you know… she had picked Wo Fat, this would be poetic justice for picking the wrong man.

"You two set me up," he accused.

"HEY!" Rowan cried. "I didn't know about this until right now!"

"Yes, but not in the way you think," Wo Fat admitted and Rowan smacked him. He turned to her and frowned. They shared some covert look as if they were communicating with their eyes alone and then he turned back to Steve and added: "She didn't try to set you up. She honestly had no idea I asked you here. Or at least, I didn't tell her. I don't know what dreams she's been having lately."

Oh, so he knew about the dreams too? Was there anything this asshole didn't know about Rowan? He was almost afraid to ask if Wo Fat also knew about Rowan and her family. Because if that was the case he'd fucking leave them both here to die. It wasn't fair that Wo Fat got everything of Rowan when he was desperate for a simple taste.

The door suddenly sparked. Someone was trying to cut through it. Well Fuck. He _really_ was out of time.

He glared at Rowan, his glare darkened as it turned onto Wo Fat. He didn't want to help either of them. Especially not Wo Fat. Yes, Rowan claimed to not be a part of this but he didn't believe it. With every second he spent with the two of them the more certain he was that they were in love with each other and it killed him to think that.

"Steve," she suddenly whispered. Her fingers had enclosed on Wo Fat's good arm, but her big blue eyes were staring right at him. He knew immediately that if she was on his side of the glass, she'd be clinging to him instead. "I'm scared.

And that did it. No more dithering. No more anger. Just simple calm and decisiveness.

"Get her somewhere safe," he hissed. "Stay back and out of sight."

Wo Fat urged Rowan to the side where he hid her under his small cot. Good choice considering there was literally nowhere else. But Wo Fat, thankfully did not climb under with her. Steve forced himself to fall back, his eyes on the door that was practically glowing now. His eyes caught one last look at Rowan who had her hands over her ears as if trying to block out the noise. He could almost feel her fear and it emboldened him, made him angrier.

He was ready. He was alert. No one was going to get to _his_ Rowan on his watch. No one.

And then the door fell.


	58. Chapter 58 - Bonus 3

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Guys I'm so sorry this is late, I had an assignment and forgot the damn thing was due. So JP, I am fine, my assignment got in on time and this chapter is READY TO ROLL! Anyway, I interrupt our regular schedule chapter to reward our Winner! Congrats to Steve's Girl for winning the bonus Chapter. She picked option number 4 so I have prepared a lovely chapter here that is filled with hijinks we missed out on in the past, though it's a bit short. Friday we'll be back to our regular chapters and the cliffhanger will be resolved. SO! I know we ended on a cliffhanger… and I feel bad, so if we get to 360 reviews by Thursday I'll post the next update on Thursday AND a third update (cause I'm pretty sure that chapter ends on a cliffhanger too) on Saturday! How does that sound? Sound fair? So tell me what you think, tell me what made you laugh or what you think is gonna happen next in the regular chapters and I'll see you soon!_

Chapter 58 – Bonus #3

* * *

Rowan sat in her plush bed surrounded by pillows. _Little Mermaid_ was playing in the background as she read her book. Her voice was better now, so though she had lost her book to write in, Wo Fat had not given her another one. To be honest, she was just surprised he hadn't throttled her when she admitted she had left it purposely for Steve.

And he hadn't moved them either. Probably because Rowan had absolutely no idea where she was. All she saw was jungle and she had been blindfolded for all the other excursions so she never saw any streets.

The door opened and Rowan turned expecting to see Wo Fat but it was Juan instead.

"You bored, chica?" he asked her and Rowan jumped to her feet.

"YES!" she cried. "Do you have something for me to do?"

"How about a dance lesson?" he asked.

"Naw, I don't feel like waltzing with Wo today," she said flopping down to the bed.

"Both your Oz and my Uncle are away. Oz had a very important meeting and my Uncle went to back him up," he said. He loved called Wo Fat by her nickname for him because he hated it. _Only Rowan can call me Oz!_ he'd shout and Juan Carlos would just smirk at him.

She was certain if he was Armando's dearest nephew Wo Fat would have slapped him by now.

Rowan sat back up. "Ohh… so you're gonna teach me?" she asked.

"I figure while the bosses are away, we could dance?" he said with a suggestive smile. She didn't have the heart to tell him that it wasn't the right saying or that he could flirt all he wanted her heart belonged to Steve and Steve alone.

Still Rowan smiled and got back up. "Sounds good, but if they ask, I'm telling them you coerced me," she said with a playful grin and then she followed Juan Carlos out of her prison cell.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Wo Fat walked into the compound with Armando beside him. It had been a lucrative deal, but they ended up only taking half of the merchandise. This meant that the rest of the merch was following behind them, being carried by his lackies like a profession and he was at the head of it.

Rowan was supposed to be in her cell, that was where he left her after all, so he expected quiet. But since Rowan had entered his life there was never quiet, so why he expected it that day was beyond him. And it was clearly too much to ask.

The sound of Latin music hit his ears and his pace picked up. Latin music meant dancing and the only two people who danced to that was Rowan and Juan Carlos. He had specifically told that idiot of a boy to stay away from her. If he wanted to play, he could wait for he and Armando to come back. He burst into the room and sure enough Juan and Rowan were dancing again. A very seductive hip hop version of the Merengue with a mix of Paso Paso. In other words, a dance that was way too inappropriate for him. It looked like they were trying to fornicate on the floor, with all that swaying and twisting and turning and dipping. It was unnecessary, and he didn't like it. He didn't like it one bit.

"Nope, nope, nope," he said waving his hands at them and putting himself in between them. He turned on Juan Carlos, who was probably the brains behind this, with his hands on his hips. "What did I say? What was the direct order?"

"Keep her happy," Juan Carlos recited and Wo Fat scowled at him because it was true.

"What did I say _today_?" he repeated because, clearly, he had to be more specific for him.

"Leave her in her room," Juan Carlos said glumly. "No outside privileges while you and my uncle are away."

"And what is this?" he thundered gesturing to where they were.

"Well… technically I'm still inside," Rowan said and he whirled around on her.

"Don't start with me, missy!" he snapped pointing a finger into her face. "I specifically said no dancing with him!"

"But I was bored," she said with a pout.

"You are not on vacation, you are my prisoner. You are _supposed to_ suffer," he growled but Rowan just pouted again. No! That would not work on him anymore. When he didn't budge, Rowan suddenly hugged him, her arms wrapping around his chest and holding him there. His heart rate started to pick up and his breathing hitched as a result. This was terrible. It was like he was having an allergic reaction.

"No, no, get off," he said pushing her away from him and then holding her at bay by keeping his hands on her shoulders. "Okay… you can stay out while we do inventory. Need to make sure that I wasn't ripped off."

He pushed her until her legs bumped up against a chair and then he pressed her down until she was sitting. "You… you stay here, okay, _stay here_!" he ordered.

Behind him Armando had grabbed Juan Carlos by the ear and was dragging him away as he yelped. "And you are going to stay here, very far away from each other to minimize the damage you cause."

With that dealt with Wo Fat turned back to the matter at hand, which was unpacking the boxes to count his merchandise to confirm it was all there. And god forbid it wasn't. He had laid out everything in one crate when he felt her beside him. He straightened and sighed, staring straight forward as he propped himself up on the table and waited to see if she would catch the hints he was dropping with his body language.

She did not.

"Rowan… was I not clear when I told you where to stay?" he asked with grit teeth.

Rowan glanced to him with a smile and said: "Oh no, you were perfectly clear."

At that he did turned to her and her big smile, noting the pistol she had in her hands. He snatched it away from her, pulled the magazine out and then handed it back to her before she could grab a different loaded gun.

"If I was perfectly clear why the hell have you moved?" he asked putting a hand on his hip.

"What kind of guns are these?" she asked him instead of answering his question.

"Illegal one's, Ro," he said to her. And she frowned at him.

"Don't call me that," she said sharply. "You don't get to call me that. That is for friends and family and you're a kidnapper and you're very clear about keeping that line very distinctly between us."

Wo scowled at her. But he couldn't say anything because she was right. "The gun you're holding is a Barretta 92," he said. "We also had a few SIG Sauers, a Glock or so, and I believe one submachine… I'll have to check my inventory to be sure…"

"And this really shoots?" she asked raising the gun and pointing out in front of her.

Juan Carlos ducked in his chair but didn't leave it. "We'll don't point it at me!" he cried.

"Oh, don't worry about that one, I pulled the ammunition from it," he said raising the magazine to show the frightened young man. He smirked at Juan, poor weak little Juan who would never be able to move into his Uncle's business if he couldn't stare down a gun.

He could open a dance studio though.

"Oh yeah?" Rowan asked smiling at him and then she took careful aim, lowing the gun a smidgen so it was level with Juan's head, one eye closed, her tongue sticking out of her mouth in her concentration. And she pulled the trigger.

The bang that erupted from the gun startled everyone. The box right by Juan's ear shook at the impact, the packing material inside erupted from the top and Juan, who had been perfectly still suddenly let out a frightened scream, well into the silence following the gunshot, and collapsed to the floor like he might have fainted. Armando rushed to his nephew's side and Wo Fat crowded Rowan.

He quickly ripped the gun from her hands and Rowan backed up horror on her face. She turned her wide accusing eyes to him. "You said it wasn't loaded!"

"It wasn't!" Wo shouted back at her. "There must have been… there must have been one in the chamber."

"An automatic weapon stores bullets in chambers?" she cried like learning how guns work would solve this problem.

Juan Carolos was still on the floor huffing, puffing and wailing like he had been shot, when really a bullet had just whizzed dangerously past him. Wo Fat scowled at him and then to Rowan who looked so afraid and worried that he was actually concerned she might run to him and confess some sort of emotion.

No that was ridiculous… this wasn't a romance movie, and the girl was obsessed with McGarrett, like he was obsessed with her. Wo Fat had had her for a month and he was still searching.

Still he wanted Rowan out of this room, and away from Juan before she could accidently kill the man, so he shoved her towards the door so he could get her back to her little cell.

"You said it wasn't loaded," she hissed again as he made her move. He said nothing because he thought it wasn't.

Leave it to Rowan to pull the trigger on a gun with no magazine and still find a way to shoot with it.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

He left her alone for ages. A man she didn't recognize brought her her dinner which was overdone mac and cheese and a glass of milk. What was she? Nine? The guy dropped off her food and managed to pick up the empty tray without making eye contact or falling for her attempts to talk to him.

She finished reading her book, she watched two separate movies and didn't pay attention to them, but tried to sing along and started coughing again. She had made a slushie and was almost finished it when Wo Fat showed up

"He's fine, since I know you're wondering," he said to her, leaning on the door. "Craving or sore throat?"

She looked down to the slushie in her hand and sighed. "Tried to sing. Didn't end well," she told him.

"You need to pace yourself on you're going to get worse," he reminded her and she looked away.

"I was bored," she said, for the millionth time and he sighed.

"Well… alright… would you like something to do, right now?" he asked.

Rowan turned to him, her eyes narrowed. Since the pool incident he hadn't quite trusted her, they hadn't quite been the same. He wasn't as cuddly with her, he wasn't as close to her, it was like that incident had taken all that hard work she spent on making him social, on making him like her.

He hadn't come for movie nights, they haven't been rough housing or playing around. It made her worried, and it left her very, very bored.

"What kind of thing did you have in mind?" she asked.

"Oh just get up and come with me," he snapped and she did as she was told. She grabbed his hand and held it before he could grab her arm. He glared down at her but when she just smiled up at him he looked away from her and decided not to complain.

He wanted to hold onto her anyway, but maybe if she kept up the cuteness he'd lower his guard again and she could try to escape him and get back to Steve.

Wo Fat hated it when she held his hand. It made him heat, not in the _I wanna fuck her_ kind of way, but it made him feel all warm and fuzzy and a smile would sort of tug at his lips. It was sort of like he had a fever or an illness and his main symptom was feeling this sort of urge to be kind. Even then, with her small hand in his all cool from the slushie she had been tucking into when he got to her, he could feel that warmth rising up out of the depths of his broken, shattered, blackened heart and spreading throughout him. He didn't know what he was going to feel when he brought her into the main hall.

But he opened the door for her anyway and ushered her in carefully watching her face. It had been a very long time since he had done something simply to please someone else, with no real benefits for himself. If it didn't pay off, he'd never do something like this ever again.

Rowan looked around at the fairy lights twinkling in the darkness, some pure white others pastel multi colors. A disco ball was handing and reflecting specks of light around them. A simple push of a button on his phone and a waltz was playing.

"I figure if you wanted dance lessons, I'd teach you to waltz," he said with a soft smile and when Rowan turned to him an excited grin on her face that warmth practically exploded.

"That's great, but can we try something different for today?" she asked and when he nodded a grin stretched across her face that made him nervous.

She snatched the phone out of his hand with her own devious smile and scrolled through a few options before settling on something and then dancehall music was thumping around them. Wo Fat frowned at her but it was too late. She had handed him the phone and then grabbed his hands to drag him into the middle of the room.

He didn't want to, but they were alone, so he decided to go for it. To dance in that silly club like fashion where she swayed to the music, jumped up and down at the drop of a beat. But he was going to do things his way. With her hands in his he went through several uncomplicated dance twirls that made her giggle and laugh which in turn made him smile.

The danced through two songs, it being more of a work out then he thought it to be when someone joined in beside them. Wo Fat started at Juan Carlos' appearance but as the man had slid behind him so he was trap in-between he and Rowan he couldn't move away.

"Gotta leave room for the Ozzy Spirit!" Juan Carlos cried over the music and that gave Wo Fat the strength to shove them away. But that just made them laugh louder and then they were dancing with each other

This was what started the whole drama this afternoon but he didn't care anymore. Rowan was smiling and having fun, and he was back on track with convincing her to stay with him. She may even give up McGarrett. Once again that warm feeling rose up in his throat. Just watching her twirl about he felt like that little boy again watching what he thought was his mother and father dancing in their kitchen. Why did Rowan always remind him of the old days before he was abandoned and broken.

Armando came to stand beside him. "This is what started this all," he reminded him. "But for now, this is cute. It better not last long though."

Juan Carlos and Rowan were no longer dancing but practically fornicating on the dancefloor. "Yeah, no, that's gotta stop," Wo Fat said and immediately rushed forward. Yeah. She was gonna drive him crazy.


	59. Chapter 59

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Alright, so we didn't get to 360 reviews but I feel super bad about that cliff hanger so we're gonna do the triple update this week. So we'll get two more updates this week. One today and one more on Saturday cause this one ends on an exciting little cliffhanger. Anyone wanna tell me what you think? Things are gonna get interesting from here on in and at the end of this episode there's gonna be another negative change between Rowan and Steve (I know, I know) I swear we're almost to the day that they start working it out. I SWEAR! Don't forget to tell me what to think and I'll see you guys on Saturday!_

Chapter 59

* * *

The men with guns stormed in. They had guns ready to go, all aimed in one direction, at Wo Fat. But the smoke cleared and it wasn't Wo Fat but Rowan in between them and Wo Fat, a box in her fucking hands.

"Hi. I'm Rowan. Want a cupcake?" she asked.

There was a beat of silence before that sentence and them opening fire. There was a yelp and when Steve poked his head out from behind the pillar he was hiding behind he saw that it was because Wo Fat had thrown Rowan back to where his cot was. He alone was staring down the gunmen as they attempted to shatter the bullet proof glass between them with bullets alone.

Steve stepped out when one of them stepped forward and placed a small incendiary device on the glass. Small or not that blast would break the glass, hurt Wo Fat but it was Rowan he was worried about. He attacked the man closest to him, knocked him out and then used his gun to shoot the others, and his body to shield him from the bullets flying.

With the other men down, Steve dropped the body in his arms and then turned to the frantic beeping. He practically threw himself at the bomb covering it with his hand, hitting the termination button before it could go off.

Wo Fat was wearing a smug grin on his face and Steve scowled. "I didn't do this for you," he growled.

And then Rowan popped up beside him. "Are they all dead?" she asked him. Her wide blue eyes surveying the carnage behind him.

Steve saw Wo Fat shake his head. His eyes imploring Steve to do something but he didn't know what. So he said: "Yeah."

Rowan nodded, her eyes finding the bodies behind him again, her face going that terrible pale he was still getting used to. There was one second between him saying that and Rowan's gag. He saw Wo Fat's scowl, watched him turn her around.

"Just don't look at them," he said. But Rowan gagged again, and now he was frantically pushing her towards the toilet in the room.

Steve cringed as she heaved. He glared at Wo Fat who knew, not just where to stand, but how to hold her hair back just right. His hand rubbed up and down her spine the way Steve had done for her back when her head injuries and accidental pill mix-ups made her sick. Wo Fat filled every void Steve's lack of presence had left in her life.

No wonder she didn't need Steve. She had Wo Fat.

Steve couldn't bear to watch them anymore. He couldn't bear to watch Wo Fat be so soft and caring with her, so he turned away and looked at the mess around him. He needed someone who was alive, someone he could question to explain why any of this happened. And he had one.

Steve dragged the one living guy through the hallway that had been decimated. He was covered in sweat, debris and dust from the explosion, flecks of blood and he was absolutely fuming.

Danny came running with Chin hot on his heels. "Steve! Steve are you okay?" he asked.

He couldn't answer that complicated of a question. Physically yes, mentally… fuck no…

"Get Wo Fat to a secure location. Get him off of Rowan…" "—Wait… Rowan was here for this?" "Bring her to the Palace, I'll meet you there."

He wasn't even out of the hallway where he heard the screech. Her scream was nothing but his name and everything in his body reacted instantly. He dropped his injured NLM operative and practically sprinted back to her, suddenly filled with a catatonic driving need to protect her from whatever the hell had made her scream for him like that. He hated that she had that power over him, he hated that his body was attuned to protect her in that way. And even though his brain and pride begged him not to his heart had different ideas.

When he got there, he found that Danny had gotten the door to Wo Fat's cell open, Wo Fat hadn't even tried to escape, he wasn't even glaring at them or smiling smugly. His eyes were on Rowan who had her head in her hands and was trembling. Her back against the concrete wall, her knees to her chest.

He looked up to Steve with nothing short of concern on his face and said: "She doesn't do well with blood or bodies."

As if Steve hadn't figured that out. Though to be honest it upset him to realize that he had never noticed that before. The ashiness of her face when she had visions, the way she paled when he spoke of injuries and death blows. All of those were signs. Signs he ignored.

Steve knelt down in front of her, took a hold of her wrists and slowly and carefully pulled her hands away from her face. She was crying. Violently. Steve's heart broke. He had never seen her so scared before and she had been in a hostage situation, and faced down a criminal in a prison riot that was three times her size. It killed him that this was what debilitated her, that the one thing he could have protected and saved her from he hadn't even tried to help her with. He had left her to Wo Fat. Maybe she did need him… because Steve had been certainly lacking in that department.

"Did they kill Brian?" she asked her voice small, tearful and fearful.

Steve didn't know who Brian was, but if he was one of the guys in the hallway he sure as hell wasn't alive. His face must have betrayed the answer because Rowan hiccupped into sobs again, her body shaking so hard he was certain she'd do herself harm.

Steve wrapped her up in his arms, forced her to her feet and then swung her legs up. It hit him that he was carrying her the way he'd carry a new bride. He felt that thought enter his mind and heart, the image of her in a white dress, him in a black suit smiling as he carried her to a bed. Their bed.

But this was nothing like that image and he forced it to the back of his mind for later.

"Close your eyes," he ordered. "Okay?"

Rowan nodded, but she didn't just close her eyes. She put her face into Steve's neck, her arms around him as she held herself there. As if pressing herself into him would save her from what he was going to walk her through. He walked quickly, got her as far away from the carnage as he could. He set her down facing the elevator that would take her up. He made sure she wasn't looking at anything behind her.

"Okay, go upstairs, wait for me there, okay?" he said.

"What if there are more bodies?" she asked in a hollow voice.

"Would you rather ride the elevator with him?" he asked gesturing to the injured guy who was trying to crawl away.

"If you're going to be with me, yes," she answered.

Steve tried to stifle his smile. She wanted him. Not Wo Fat. She wanted him to protect her from this.

"Alright, give me a minute," he whispered. And then went to go get the NLM idiot who decided to piss him off today.

Maybe today wasn't going to be as bad as he thought it would be.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve had been interrogating the NLM agent for what seemed like hours. Anything to not have to go upstairs and see Rowan in his office, head in her hands, still queasy from the attack. He'd have to question her later and he was putting it off purposely.

Danny knocked on the door and Steve left the guy there. Danny was waiting for him with a new shirt that Steve took immediately.

"I've handed Wo Fat off to the Feds," he said. "They've got him on the tarmac waiting to ship him off to his new maximum security facility in Colorado."

"Good, did he say why these people attacked him?"

"No, surprisingly he wasn't very chatty," Danny told him. "He did however tell me to commend you on your battle prowess."

"He said that to you?" Steve asked, very concerned that Wo Fat may have been trying to give him a compliment.

"No, he gave me a look," Danny snapped. Ah yes, because Danny was being sarcastic, of course. "To be honest the only thing he asked about was Rowan. He wanted to know if she was okay."

Steve must have pulled a face because Danny immediately tried to change the topic. "Why were you even there?" he asked.

"Before my mother left, she went to see him, I wanted to know why," Steve admitted as he stripped himself of the blue button-down shirt he had worn because in the back of his mind he had a feeling he'd see Rowan at that prison and she loved that shirt on him.

"I'm taking a guess, he didn't tell you anything," Danny shot off. "And Doris is conveniently unavailable to give you an answer."

"I have my theories. I just hope they're not right," Steve said.

"Okay, call me crazy here, but have you thought about asking Rowan?" Danny asked. "She was there. She knew the attack was coming, she mentioned at the dock that she knows what's going on between them, so she's gotta know why your mother went to visit him… right? Rowan's always chatty. Ask her."

Steve didn't want to ask her. He didn't want to know what happened in her TV show. So instead of answering him he finished buttoning him the white shirt and then went back into the interrogation room.

He kept asking the same questions, over and over. Promised to take the guy to the hospital to get his wound looked at but the guy either couldn't or wouldn't talk.

And then Chin called.

"Hey Chin, what have you got?" he asked. If Chin had an update on Rowan he was going to hang up.

"The man you're interrogating is Ricardo Cosi," Chin voice echoed out through the phone. The man in the chair didn't even stir. "He's known to be involved in drug trafficking and kidnapping for ransom and murder. He's linked to over thirty National Liberation Movement action in the past decade."

Fuck she was right. "Wait, so this guy really is NLM?" he asked.

Danny sighed. "I thought we were done with these guys."

Steve scowled. "Apparently not," he snarled. And of course Rowan was right. Wo Fat had just straight up offered her information like that. He had to fucking pull teeth to get either of them to talk.

"Ricardo Cosi is NLM Royalty. He's the nephew of the leader, Esteban Luna, a.k.a El Condor" Chin told them.

Steve just stared at this man. Why the hell had he been sent to dispatch Wo Fat? What the hell did they want from him.

"So that's why they went after Wo Fat. Because he helped us get Salgado and prevent the attack on San Francisco," Danny whispered.

"Well, now they're looking for payback," Chin agreed.

"Yo… has uh… has Rowan said anything of use?" Danny asked.

In the background came a loud groan that they knew wasn't Chin. "No, to be honest, by the amount she's groaning, I'm surprised she hasn't vomited."

Steve shook his head, though he mentally made note that he would need to get Rowan a ginger ale before he spoke to her. He needed to get them back on track. "This guy's got a blood tie to the NLM leader. Means he's going to have some serious intelligence value."

Finally, the man in the chair looked up. He said nothing but the look on his face said it all. He had no intention of talking. He had no intention of telling them anything. And he fully expected someone to come and rescue him soon.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Chin stared at the smart table watching the trajectory of the boat. He had heard from Adam and everything was fine so far, he'd get back to him when they were settled. Rowan was somewhere behind him, he kept hearing her groan as she hiccupped and heaved. Still sick from the scene she witnessed apparently.

But Chin knew she had never been that bad before. He wondered if something else was wrong with her.

"You shouldn't be tracking their boat," Rowan called from Steve's office, her head still in her hands.

Chin turned a scowl to her. "And why not?"

Rowan was silent a moment before she whispered: "I don't remember."

Chin shook his head. It would be helpful if she could at least give him a reason.

"God, why do I feel so sick?" she grumbled as she dropped her head to the desk. Chin immediately felt bad. The poor girl, she was sick and he wasn't being very nice to her considering what she had witnessed. But then again with the type of visions she had been having one would think that she was better with those sorts of things.

Then the gunshots started. Rowan's head whipped up immediately. "That's today?!" she thundered.

Chin Ho pulled out his own gun and he ran towards the gunshots. He didn't have time to decode that comment. He didn't have time for any of it.

"Stay down!" he ordered as he ran out of the room. He only had to take one look to realize that he was out gunned and outnumbered. Plus, they had put a bomb on the front entrance. If they were willing to do it to that one, they were willing to do it to all of them.

Chin quickly retreated and then picked up his phone. Steve answered on the first ring.

"Steve, we got a situation here," he said. But all he got was beeping. "Steve?"

Nothing. No signal. Fucking shit. And then two people came into the office. Chin ducked into Steve's office where Rowan was perched on the couch her eyes wide but she didn't seem afraid. She didn't ask what happened, she didn't ask why he was coming in there, gun drawn and getting ready to hide, in fact, she said absolutely nothing.

He pulled her off of the couch and out of sight. But there was something on Rowan's face that made him nervous.

"What are they doing?" she asked. "Are they at the smart table?"

Chin hazarded a peak. They were. He nodded and Rowan's face was almost set in stone with anger. "I know what they want," she whispered. The woman in red, obviously in charge at that moment was speaking on a walkie talkie, Chin was trying to listen, but Rowan was rooting through his back pocket, nearly startling a yelp out of him.

Good thing it couldn't be heard over the sound of them opening fire on the Smart Table. Chin ducked back down to where Rowan was cowering and covered her exposed parts from any stray or ricocheting bullets. Chin waited for silence and then the intruders were heading for the elevator. Rowan had silently pulled out her phone and crawled back to Steve's desk. She plugged her phone into his laptop and then stared at her phone.

As soon as the criminal were in the elevator and the doors had closed he could hear talking. He turned and Chin realized that Rowan had somehow managed to make a call.

"Hi… uh… I'm Rowan Pierce, Wo Fat told me to call you if I ever got into big trouble," she said into the phone. She raised her thumb up to gnaw on her cuticle like she did when she was nervous. "Yes. I'm in big trouble."

She listened once more. "Uhm… well I'm at the Iolani Palace in the middle of a hostage situation. Snipers would be nice but you're the expert so, uh, whatever you think is good," she said. She listened a little bit more and then said: "Okay, eta… great see you then."

She hung up the phone and handed it back to Chin. "Twenty minutes," she told him. "Twenty minutes and then we'll move."

"We had no service. How did you make a call without service?" he asked. He pulled out his phone and checked it. Still no service, he took her phone from her and saw that she had no service either. How the hell had she made a call?

"I called using the Wi-Fi," she whispered.

"I'm sorry… what?" he half cried still trying to keep his voice down. He didn't know if they were in the elevator or still waiting.

"I used an app to make a call over Wi-Fi, it's not this hard, Chin," she whispered back. But this just left Chin with more question. "They've gone down for that injured guy. I need to get to them before they get back upstairs. I need to know what they took."

"They probably took information," Chin told her, "We have hostages to worry about."

"No. Trust me. This is more important," she said. "I need to know what they took and who they're going to give it to. I feel like I should know but I'm so sick right now and I can't remember."

She had gotten up and slowly made her way to the elevator where she pressed the button and began to wait.

Chin wanted to ask her how she knew the number to an assassin or sniper. He wanted to know how she knew this was more important. He wanted to know what she planned on doing. Once she was sure the elevator was moving, she said: "Come on, let's take the stairs," and then rushed off before Chin could ask her any questions.

He followed after her as she rushed down the stairs. Sure, enough when they got down, they could see the two waiting by the elevator guns drawn and ready to open fire. Chin used his access card to get them out and into the hallway and then the two of them snuck up on the other two.

Chin took his eyes off of Rowan for two seconds, only two seconds, while he made sure the door shut quietly behind them. The villains were busy with the now open and empty elevator, they wouldn't have noticed him. But in that time, in those brief two seconds Rowan had left his side and was now standing behind the two of them.

Rowan drew herself up, straightened every inch of her vertebra, put her hands on her hips and set her face in a dark glare.

"What did you steal?" she asked, her voice level and clear. It wasn't her usual voice either, this voice was low and dangerous, it sent shivers up Chin's spine. The two turned, their guns raised into Rowan's face but neither of them fired. Immediately Chin felt his heart rate jump. If something happened to Rowan, Steve would kill him. He moved to get beside her, his own gun raised, but neither the woman in red nor the man with her looked intimidated by him and his pistol. When neither the woman in red nor the man answered her Rowan scowled.

"I'll ask you again. What did you steal?" Rowan repeated.

"You're not in a position to question me," the woman in red said. "You have no weapon, you have no…"

"I'm Rowan Pierce," Rowan growled and in both of their pocket phones chimed. "Now tell me what you just did or I'll make you suffer."

The woman in red stared at her for a moment before lowering the gun in her hand with a laugh. "You, you're the girl who brought Wo Fat to his knees?" she asked.

"Not just him, but you too if you keep testing me," Rowan snapped. But neither of them said anything. Rowan was clearly getting angry. She took half a step forward and the woman raised her automatic assault rifle up to Rowan's chest, but it didn't seem to scare her. It scared the shit out of Chin Ho, who raised his gun a little higher in hopes of maybe shooting one of them before they shot Rowan. But the odds weren't good for that.

"We're not a part of your little network anymore," the woman said. "We're not working for you, nor are we afraid of you."

"Pity," Rowan snapped. "You should be."

Now this seemed to actually scare the woman because she was suddenly staring at Rowan as if she had just told them she had two heads. Rowan's glare stayed on her face, all silent and dark. The woman actually took a step back.

"I will not ask you again. What did you steal? And who are you giving it to?" she asked. The woman just glared at her and Rowan suddenly growled. "Fine. Then you brought this on yourself."

With a quickness Chin didn't think Rowan had, she had knocked the rifle away from her chest and then gripped the woman's arms, suddenly and unexpectedly everything began to spark all over again. Rowan eyes glowed white, that orange electricity flew from her to the lights above them shattering the bulbs and causing glass to rain down on them. The woman jerked and screamed like she was getting electrocuted and maybe she was.

The man beside them threw himself back. He screamed a word _bruja_ and then raised his gun to shoot. Chin had no choice but to put two bullets in him to keep him from shooting Rowan. When she was done she dropped the woman in red to the ground and then collapsed against the wall breathless and bleeding again.

She caught her breath and then knelt down beside the woman. She rifled through her jacket and pockets until she found what she was looking for. She pulled out the data bank and then crushed it under her heel.

"They already transmitted it. I need a phone that works," she whispered but before Chin could ask her what that meant a voice rang out from the walkie-talkie attached to the woman's waist. Asking about progress. About the man they were looking for. Chin didn't have time to stop Rowan from picking it up and answering the call.

"The bitch is dead," Rowan said into the walkie-talkie. "And you're next."

She threw the walkie-talkie down at the woman and then glanced up to Chin. She clocked his horrified look and she avoided his eyes. "She's not really dead. She's just unconscious… I think…"

They were silent for a bit before he asked: "Are you okay?"

Rowan looked down to her arm which was bleeding, the look on her face clear, she knew she was bleeding in other places as well. She blinked her eyes and looked down at the woman. "I think I saved them. So, yeah, I think I'm okay. But we're not out of the clear yet. I need to stop them from shooting Danny… or Steve," she whispered. "It could go either way at this point."

"Can I ask how you did that?" Chin asked.

"You could but I wouldn't be able to answer you," she said. "I'm not sure how I did it myself, but right now, what's more important is getting these bastards out of the Iolani Palace and as far away from us as possible. Help me get her in the elevator."

Chin just stared at her. In this light, with that look on her face, Chin Ho Kelly realized that Rowan Pierce was exactly like Steve McGarrett and Wo Fat combined. That made her twice as dangerous.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Ernesto looked at the walkie-talkie in his hand. He didn't know that voice. His man had said that the offices were clear but now he wasn't so sure.

"I thought you said you cleared the offices," he said to the underling closest to him.

The man nodded. "We did," he said.

Ernesto indicated to the walkie-talkie in his hand. Where the woman's voice had told him that Flora was dead. Clearly they hadn't.

Above them came the distant chatter of another voice. A different voice. Ernesto glared at him.

"It seems you weren't as carefully as you thought," he said and then sent the guy back up there to deal with it. "If you find the bitch with the walkie, bring her to me."

The man nodded and walked away heading towards the office that held Five-0 the whole reason they were there in the first place. The conversation getting clearer as he got closer.

"…I'm trapped on the second floor in the offices of Five-0. They cut all the phone lines. They're jamming our cell signals. I think there's more hiding in the basement. Please, they'll kill everyone unless you do something. You gotta help. We got men here with guns…."

He got into the office but there was no one there. Just a cell phone on the floor playing a recorded message.

It was a trap.

He didn't realize someone was there until they dropped from the ceiling. One man, Asian, landing neatly on his feet, decking him immediately. The red-headed girl that dropped with him did not land on her feet, but crashed to the floor and then groaned.

The man struggled in Chin's arms, but Chin only needed to deck him and then get him in a choke hold to get him out.

By the time Rowan stood up the man was unconscious and the leader was on the walkie again. Before Chin could stop her Rowan had it.

"I told you. You're all going to die."

Chin glared at her.

"You have got to stop doing that," he snarled.

"Half the battle is psychological warfare," Rowan hissed back at him.

"You sound just like him," Chin said. Rowan didn't have to ask who he meant. "You better not let Steve hear you talk like that."

Rowan said nothing, but went back into Steve's office where she began to pull the unconscious girl out of the office and through the shards of glass.

"What are you even doing?" he asked.

"Well… she's still alive, and she wasn't supposed to be left here. I'm pretty sure I have to give her back to the dude calling the shots at some point," Rowan said.

"Or you could just leave her," Chin said.

Rowan looked down to the woman she was lugging and then dropped her. "True. I could. But I get a bad feeling when I try, so for now, I'm just going to take her. You gonna help me or not?"

"You better be right about this," Chin muttered.

"Hurry up before the second guy comes up," Rowan said and then picked up the walkie and started talking again. Chin tried to block out the words. Tried to block out the similarities. But every word that dropped out of her mouth sounded more and more like Wo Fat and less like Rowan.

 _What's the matter peasants? Are you afraid?_

 _… Good. You should be._


	60. Chapter 60

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: So here's Bonus update #2, with any luck you'll still be enjoying this chapter, I added a bit of humour to the whole situation so hopefully you find it funny too! If you guys still don't quite get whats going on with the network thing, I'll post an explanation on Tuesday just tell me in your review if you need clarification. I am also pleased to announce that Rowan and Steve are officially working things out as of Chapter 87, they're not 100% together but they're casually dating! Which, you know, is something great to look forward to because that's when I get to write fluff and what not. Anyway, please tell me what you think of this update, I know that this chapter also ends on a cliffhanger and I'm sorry about that, but I'm pretty sure things get wrapped up in the chapter after. See you guys on Tuesday._

Chapter 60

* * *

Danny found a body by the elevator. He found shards of glass from the blown light above the aforementioned body. He found evidence of foot prints in the glass but that was it. Nothing that told him where the screaming had come from. Nothing that explained the power flicker down the hallway. But it did explain the gunshots they had heard.

He checked the emergency exits next. Bomb taped to the door. Not good. No go. So he had no choice but to return to the supply area Steve was holed up in with their bleeding-out-NLM-ticket-to-freedom. He had been looking for a way to plug up that leak in their injured guy's shoulder when Danny went on the recon mission. He wondered if he had had any luck. He came into the room, he thought quietly but Steve must not have thought so because he drew his pistol on Danny.

Danny just glared at him, slightly startled at first but he had faith that Steve wouldn't actually shoot him. "What are you going to do you going to shoot me?" he asked, completely insulted that Steve had even pulled the gun on him in the first place.

"I considered it," Steve responded after he paused to put his gun away. Clearly deciding that Danny wasn't a threat.

"Oh, you did?" Danny said. "Well, do me a favour then. Put me out of my misery."

"Did you check the emergency exit?" Steve asked him clearly not wanting to argue. Well good, Danny only half wanted to argue, only because it would distract him from the situation, he was in.

"No, I went to get donuts," Danny snapped sarcastically. He then sobered up. "Yeah, I checked the emergency exit. Not an option. They got something rigged to the door. It is not cop friendly."

"And the screams?" Steve asked almost absently. Danny wasn't fooled though. The scream was female. Steve was automatically worried about Rowan. The flicker of power also worried him, what with Rowan's special powers and what not. But he saw no evidence of Rowan down there which meant she was somewhere upstairs in all of that chaos.

"There's a dead body over by our elevator. Light above it is blown. Other than that, nothing," Danny answered.

"Blown? You mean… like out?" Steve asked.

"No, numbskull. Blown, like blown to bits. Like power surge shot the bulb to hell," Danny said and Steve tried to not worry. The guy in front of him, who had been shallowly breathing suddenly stopped breathing entirely. Danny seemed nonplussed but still said: "Steve?"

"Yeah, I see it," he answered and then went straight to doing CPR. "Come on, come on."

"Buddy, we lose this guy, we got no leverage," Danny said from where he was standing a few paces away. Steve wanted him to shut up, anything to shut him up.

"You're not helping, all right?" Steve snapped as he continued to compress. Well, he had him there.

Danny raised his hands in surrender. "Okay. All right. You're right." He then thought for a minute. Thought about how his day had been going before he got the call that the prison had been hit. The prison he knew Steve was at, the prison he knew Rowan always visited on Fridays.

"Don't move. I'll be right back," he said under his breath. That stupid comment had not been what he wanted to say but he also wasn't sure what else there was to say. The alternative was too scary.

"What was that?" Steve asked as he continued to compress. Not that Danny finished or excelled at Boy Scouts but he was pretty sure somewhere in there, Steve was supposed to breathe into the victim. But hey, there was no mask to do that into so he got it if Steve didn't want to.

"Now's not really the time… uh…" he said but then he figured, why the hell not? There was no telling how long he was going to be in this situation for so he might as well just go with it… right? He knelt down beside Steve and the dead guy and began to tell his tale.

"Gabby, she's in town. Right? And for a minute there I thought I was actually happy. Which is a weird thing for me because I don't really know what that means, you know? But I had forgotten about Kono leaving, about Salgado and his son, about all the shit with Rowan, because I miss her and it's hard tippy-toeing around your feelings. I forgot about getting shot at. Again. And then the phone rang. I had to tell Gabby I'm going somewhere, so I turn to her and I sit her down and I say: 'Don't move. I'll be right back,'" Danny said. He was talking fast. He saw Steve's look of incredulous shock but he ignored it and kept on plowing through because, well, why not, it was better than just sitting there watching that poor mugs body jerk.

"Instead of what?" Steve asked and Danny almost laughed. Still trying to keep up the conversation despite doing CPR.

"I figure I could've said something better than that," Danny said with a sigh. Beneath them the man gasped coming back to and Steve lounged back and caught his breath. Danny pat his back appreciatively. "Okay, let's hear it for the Boy Scouts of America. Nice work buddy."

Steve merely nodded. He wiped the sweat off of his forehead and then turned to Danny confused. "Wait a minute…" he said. "What were you gonna tell her? You love her or something?"

Danny sighed as he thought about it. "I don't know. I mean, maybe," he said.

Steve just stared at him all confused for a second before half scoffing and turning back to the guy he was kneeling beside. "Okay, well, you know what? Maybe you should be sure, before you say something like that to a woman? Okay?" Steve said. "Because once you say it, you can't unsay it, you understand me? It's a serious thing."

Oh, that was rich. Coming from the guy who couldn't decide between two girls, had pushed one of them away and was working on alienating the other one. But Danny had already gotten away with mentioning Rowan once, he didn't want to bring her up again.

Instead he said: "I understand. Are you speaking from experience? Because, personally, I don't think it counts when you say it to a pistol."

Steve shook his head. "Look we gotta keep moving," he said. He looked down to the guy who was wheezing painfully. "You, get up. Up, up, up!"

He pulled him up when the guy proved either unable or unwilling to move.

"Do you really miss having Rowan around?"

"Yeah, you know, she always had a way of making us smile. But you, fuck, she could light up your damn face just by looking at you," Danny admitted. He probably shouldn't have, but it was true. He purposely ignored the way Steve half smiled just thinking about it and gratefully neither of them said a thing about it. They got two steps before they were interrupted.

 _Tomas. Flavio. Where's the girl?_

Steve turned to him surprised. Danny pulled the walkie he had taken off of the body by the elevators and showed it to him. "Forgot to mention I picked this up."

 _They're dead. Stop being a coward and come find me yourself._

That was Rowan. Fucking Rowan. What the fuck was Rowan doing on this walkie talking about killing people?

"What the fuck is she thinking?" Steve breathed out.

 _You're Five-0. Aren't you, little puta?_

 _Do I sound like Five-0 to you?_ Rowan shot back. Steve half chuckled. She kind of did. Just a more ruthless version.

 _You have our brother Ricardo Cosi. I'll give you one minute to return him to me, or I start shooting hostages._

Rowan didn't have a response for that. Concern pinched Steve's features. Danny could literally see the wheels turning in his head as he thought of a plan, any plan. Probably one that would cause Danny a lot of bodily harm

"Don't. Okay. Don't. She's not that stupid. She's probably with Chin, you know that. Rowan just can't keep her mouth shut," Danny said.

 _Just so you know I mean what I say…_

And then they heard a gunshot and screaming. Oh great. Just great. He was going to have to go with Steve to give up their one bargaining chip.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

The elevator dinged and Steve and Danny appeared. Holding up Ricardo Cosi. Glaring at the man with the gun and the walkie. He took them in but did not seem happy.

"Where's the girl?" he asked.

But Steve wasn't going to answer that question. Not just because he didn't actually know, but because even if he did, he'd never give up Rowan like that.

Steve and Danny dragged the half conscious man down to the oval foyer where one of the men there for Cosi took him from them. The man with the gun smiled in the cockiest of manners. Still Steve said nothing.

"On your knees," he ordered.

Steve and Danny obeyed. For the hostages they had no choice. He came up to the them, "I know there's more than two of you. Your girlfriend. She won't stop talking."

Steve half scoffed. Yeah that was Rowan for you. The gun was aimed at him and Steve didn't even flinch.

"Yeah, that's really not a good idea," Danny said. What the fuck. Just shut up Danny.

The man smiled again and he shifted. Now the gun was pressed flush against Danny's neck. "Are you offering to go first?"

Oh. Well if Steve was mad before, he was even more mad now. But he wasn't going to play with Danny's life. Maybe if he just called Chin down they could pretend he was being the girl to throw them off?

"Chin!" he called. Hoping he'd know the play. Hoping the man would come out. But that was not what he got. "It's all over, get down here."

A body crashed down towards them, bouncing against the marble steps painfully. When Steve dared to look up Chin and Rowan were standing at the top of the steps watching both with horrified faces. Mouth gaping and open, wincing with each sick crack of that body hitting the steps. When she reached the bottom Chin slowly turned to Rowan who was now covering her mouth with her hands.

"I thought you said you had her?" Chin asked.

"I was wrong," Rowan breathed out. She then erupted into a shaky laugh. "Whoo, she was a human slinky for a moment there. Uhm… is she still alive? Someone might want to check."

Beside him Danny began to snicker because Rowan would throw a bad guy down the stairs by accident. The muzzle of the gun pressed further against his friend's neck and no one answered Rowan's question because no one moved towards the fallen body. But the second that gun hit his first her whole demeanour changed.

"You're playing a dangerous game, asshole," Rowan growled. "I suggest you remove that gun from my friend's person or I'll make sure you regret it. Just like you're friend over there."

The leader stared down to the woman that lay in a crumbled heap at the bottom of the steps and then turned his eyes back up to her.

"Do you know who I am?" he asked her in a dangerous tone.

"Some NLM peasant or thug," Rowan answered with a chipper tone. Flat out quoting Wo Fat from the other day. She stepped over the body at the bottom of the stairs and then tilted her head to the side in an inquisitive manner. "Do you know who I am?"

"A dead girl?" he asked sarcastically and a smile widened on Rowan's face that Steve had never seen before. A dangerously glittering grin paired with a wide blue eyes that made her look truly mad.

"I'm Rowan Pierce," she said. All around them phones began to beep but none went to pick them up.

The man behind them let out his breath in a low hiss. "You're Fat's girl," he said softly. Rowan nodded quickly adding a cheery _mhmm_ to it. The man looked her up and down. God he hated it that that was her identifier. "You don't look like much of anything to be honest."

Rowan shrugged casually as if that comment didn't affect her. "I make up for it with a criminally insane ruthlessness," Rowan said. Which was a flat out lie but this guy didn't know that… maybe. Rowan shot a glance back to the woman she had dropped down the stairs. "Your girlfriend learned the hard way."

His eyes went back to his comrade and then back to her. "What did you do to her?" he wondered.

"She didn't answer my questions so I gave her a little zap to get her talking," Rowan said casually as if that was a perfect reasonable reaction.

But Steve had clocked the bandages that were wrapped around Rowan's arm and leg. The way Rowan seemed unbalanced and not in control. Like she always looked after interacting with the void.

"A zap?" Steve asked in a hollow voice.

"Try fried. White eyes, orange electric, electrocuted," Chin confirmed and Steve almost swore. What the fuck was Rowan thinking.

"I don't know what that means…" the leader whispered and Rowan took a step forward.

"It means take your bitch. Take your injured dude, and get the fuck out of here," Rowan snapped.

"We don't take orders from you," he growled.

"No, but the snipers I have waiting for you outside do, Ernesto" Rowan said in a dangerous tone. She knew their names? "You may have renegaded on his deal, but there are literally hundreds of others who haven't. Now you can leave of your own accord or I can order you all dead. Take. Your. Pick."

As if to prove her point a shot echoed out of nowhere and one of the men, who had been slowly raising his gun up, went down, blood spattering everywhere. Rowan jumped, obviously she hadn't been expecting that. She purposely turned her eyes away from the body and held the leader's gaze, but Steve could tell, she was shaken. She may just vomit then and there but she was doing a pretty good job at holding it in at that moment. The leader and the rest of his people forced themselves into corners and out of sight of windows. He turned a look so filled with rage on her Steve almost got up.

But Rowan just held his gaze with a coolness that iced even his veins. "Get the fuck out of here. Tell your Yakuza buddies that I didn't like their little trick and if they try it again I'll personally see to it that they have a very shitty year," she growled and then actually walked away. She paused by Chin. "I need your phone, I need to call Kono."

He unlocked the screen and then offered it to her. Rowan stepped over the body again and headed back up the stairs. "If I come back down here and any of you are still here, you're all dead, do you understand me?" she called down.

Once she was gone Ernesto went to Ricardo. They spoke briefly in Spanish and then he shot him. Shot him dead. Steve blanched. Upstairs he swore he could hear Rowan throwing up, but he couldn't worry about her now. Around him the remaining men were putting down their weapons even though technically they had the advantage.

"You're free to arrest us now," he said.

Steve could only blink his eyes. What was going on? On the second floor he heard the distinct sound of someone throwing up and closed his eyes. Great. Now he had that to deal with too.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve had seen to everything. He saw their friends, they talked shop and assured everyone waiting on the other side of the barricade for them that they were all fine. Chin told them about the breach in their drives. That Rowan had said it was about Kono and Yakuza, that part was clear, but he didn't want her to be right so he had Chin and Toast working on deconstructing the drives. But Steve was mad. Mad because Rowan was the one who called in the sniper. Rowan was the one who grabbed a woman and electrocuted her with her own two hands. Rowan was the one playing the psychological warfare game with the walkies. Rowan was the one who was acting just like Wo Fat.

"What the hell were you thinking?" Steve thundered as he stormed into his office. Rowan was back at his desk. Her phone in front of her, her head in her hands.

"They stole information. They were paid by the Yakuza to get Adam and Kono's location," Rowan said. "I was thinking _No one fucks with my friends_."

Steve just glared at her. "Are you out of your mind?" he hissed.

"Steve, please," she said. "Just… please…"

Steve took a good look at her. God she looked so terrible. Steve softened immediately, he came to kneel beside her, using his chair to swivel her towards him. "Are you okay?" he finally thought to ask.

Rowan half smiled. "Yes. I… I think so..." she whispered.

"How did you electrocute her?" he asked.

Rowan sighed. She threw her head back and once her eyes were off of him he looked at the rest of her. She didn't look too badly injured. A bandage on one arm, the opposite leg, one on each collarbone and judging by the redness under her nose she had had a nosebleed at some point.

"I've been electrocuting people every time I touch them," she said. "I know from experience that if I channel my anger I can use it to open the door to the void."

Everything in Steve froze. "You were trying to open the void?" he asked in a quiet voice. If she said yes, he knew he'd break. Every bit of him. Every inch. He'd cling to her and spout all his emotions at her until she had no choice but to stay with him to shut him up alone.

"No," Rowan said. _Thank God._ "I forced myself to get a vision from her. I was trying to force the electricity out of me and into her. And it worked."

Yeah it had worked. Very well surprisingly. This was not a good thing, though. Just by looking at her he could tell it had not been good for her.

"Oh you have got to be kidding me!" Catherine suddenly shouted and both Rowan and Steve jumped.

Steve jumped to his feet, Rowan jumped and fell out of the chair scrambling under his desk like a reprimanded child, or a hostage taking cover.

Catherine just glared at them, her arms folded across her chest. "I came to see if you were alright. I came because my boyfriend was just in a hostage situation. But clearly you don't need _me_ checking up on you, because you already have _her!_ "

Rowan popped up from behind the desk. "I wasn't checking up on him, he was checking up on me."

Oh that was not better. "Oh, My, God, that's _worse_!" Catherine nearly shouted. She then stared at Steve expectantly. But Steve was too tired, too worn, and too worried about everything to do this now.

"Can you take Rowan home?" he asked her instead.

Catherine scoffed in outrage and Rowan let out her typical _uhm_ of interruption. The _uhm_ she used before she negated whatever he said.

" _Uhm_ … not that I wouldn't love to go for a ride with Catherine but are you out of your mind?" she cried. "If you let me go with her, I'm gonna go missing."

Catherine scoffed again but said nothing to argue with her. Steve sighed. Oh, okay it was going to be like that, was it?

"Okay, look. I just want her out of my hair. I want her somewhere where I won't have to worry about her and what she's going to do next. Talking like she's Wo Fat and ordering hits!"

"I did not order a hit!" Rowan cried.

"And what do you call using an app on your phone to call a sniper specifically to take out the men that were holding us hostage?" Steve asked her, hands on his hips as he glared down at Rowan. She was still on her knees behind his desk, only her head was visible to Catherine.

"Uhm…. I'd call it asking for assistance?" Rowan offered.

"Rowan. You realize you're the kingpin of a criminal network now, right?" he thundered.

"I am not. I'm just the password!" she argued.

"Rowan! What does that even mean?!" he shouted.

"It means that I say the right code words and they help me!" she explained.

"That's just a fancy way of saying you're giving orders!" Steve cried. He put his hands to his temples and just sighed. He then turned to Catherine and said: "Do you see? Do you see what she's doing to me. I just want her to go home and sleep and you're the only one I trust to make sure she gets there and doesn't run off."

Catherine was softening, he could tell. Her lips twitched back and forth before she sighed and said: "I'll take her home only if you answer this next question correctly."

Steve shrugged his shoulders because really, what else could he do?

"Why is Rowan here?"

What the hell? How the hell was he going to answer that question correctly? There was no right or wrong answer. Actually that was a lie, there was a right answer, he just didn't know what it was because Catherine had already decided what the right answer was and he had no idea what it was.

"People came to the prison when I was visiting Wo Fat. Blew things up. Killed a bunch of my friends. Steve was there. Steve got me out. Steve brought me here for debriefing. Then I was in a hostage situation, I may have gone a little crazy with the psychological warfare and it ended with me throwing up in a planter in the hallway. I'm telling you it has not been my day," Rowan answered for him.

He glanced at Catherine's face and saw that she looked surprised. "Oh, really?" she asked. "So… you weren't like arrested… or forced here?"

"Well… I mean… having guys come and try to blow you out of a cell is kind of forceful," Rowan said but when Catherine just glared at her she said: "Nope, something legitimately happened and I had to come here to help fill out paperwork."

Catherine turned her eyes onto Steve who nodded. "Yeah, that was what happened," he confirmed.

"All right, fine, I'll take her home," she said. "To her home, right? Not yours?"

"Uh… yes, but if Alex isn't home take her to the hospital. I don't want her alone right now," Steve said. He went to his desk and pulled Rowan out from behind it. Once she was on her feet he pushed her off in Catherine's direction. He avoided her eyes. He didn't hug her like his arms itched to do. He didn't even look at her as she left.

Then. Once she was gone he collapsed to his chair. Put his head in his hands and tried to breathe out all the stress out of his shoulders.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

As soon as the car started moving Rowan was asleep. Head resting against the passenger side window. Out like a light. That was good for Catherine, because she hadn't wanted to make small talk with the girl that caused all the problems between her and Steve anyway.

They were on the road for only a few moments when the car started to billow smoke. Catherine pulled the car over to the side. She tried to turn it over but the car wouldn't turn. The stopping of the car woke Rowan up.

She stared at Catherine with bleary eyes. "Are we there yet?" she asked. She then looked around at her surroundings and groaned. "Oh my god! You can't make me disappear, you promised!"

"I promised no such thing," Catherine growled as she popped the hood.

"Okay… true… but you can't cause Steve would be upset and I'd haunt you and make your life a living hell," Rowan said resting her head back on the glass of the window. Clearly not as worried about disappearing as she originally acted to be.

Catherine scowled. She knew that Steve would be upset. He'd probably be inconsolable and then Catherine would be competing with a ghost, a memory, and that was worse. Catherine got out of the car to look at the engine, to try to figure out what was wrong.

She was out of the car for thirty seconds when a tow truck pulled up. Catherine smiled, how fortuitous. Maybe today wasn't going to be so bad after all.

"Hey do you need help?" he asked as he parked the truck.

"Yeah, actually," Catherine said. She turned back to the engine and saw that Rowan was awake. Fully and completely. Ramrod straight and staring at her… no staring at the tow truck driver that was coming towards her.

"Catherine, get in the car," Rowan hissed.

"Rowan stop it, we need help," she said and then she heard the click of a gun behind her ear. Rowan's face said it all. The man was jacking her.

"Get out of the car or I'll shoot her," he said to Rowan.

Rowan shook her head. "No. I don't want to," she said. "I'm tired. I'm sore and I'm done with you people. Get lost."

He pulled back the hammer of the gun, loading it immediately. Alright, not an automatic weapon then. "Get out now."

Rowan sighed but did as she was told, slamming the car door a little too aggressively. She glared at him defiantly and then said quite clearly: "I'm Rowan Pierce and I don't condone your actions."

In his pocked his phone beeped. He turned to look at it and then turned back to her.

"You're Rowan Pierce?" he asked scoffing at her. "Too bad we're not a part of that network anymore."

Rowan groaned. "Goddamnit what is the point of this stupid thing if y'all are gonna renegade on it? Huh?" she cried as she threw her hands up in the air in frustration

Regardless both of them ended up in his truck. Handcuffed together and told to be quiet. Catherine sighed. Rowan was right, this wasn't either of their days.


	61. Chapter 61

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: So Remember how I said I was gonna see you on Tuesday?! WELL I WAS WRONG! Over the weekend I hit our second milestone! I've officially written half a million words for this story! I KNOW RIGHT?! Take that in! Can you imagine? It's not all current chapters, I've written quite of a bit of matter for future chapters as well and possible spin off stories but let me tell you, this whole thing has been a wild ride! So to celebrate reaching half a million words, I'm going to post three times this week. Today, Wednesday and Friday. You guys are lucky! Two three post updates in two weeks! Are you happy? Tell me if you are! Also… JP… I put a line in there for you, tell me if you find it! See you guys on Wednesday!_

Chapter 61

* * *

The man who took them was on the phone with Steve. He had called him from Catherine's phone. Rowan, who had not been gagged still chose to stay quiet. She wanted Steve to do this for Catherine alone, like he did in the episode. She thought it might help them out, you know, in the relationship department.

But she didn't like the hitting and the kicking this guy was doling out on Catherine. As soon as the phone was hung up, and the guy reeled back to hit Catherine again, Rowan had decided she had enough.

Catherine was already on the ground, she was coughing and gagging because he had kicked her in the stomach. He didn't need to hit her again.

"Stop it!" Rowan shouted. "Just stop it! We get it, you're mean. She's learned her lesson, now stop it."

This guy had paid very little attention to Rowan up until this moment. Now that his eyes were finally on her she was afraid, really afraid. She saw unbridled anger and insanity in his eyes and she officially regretted getting involved in this.

"I know about you, Miss. Pierce," he said in a low voice. "But we no longer work with Wo Fat, the traitor."

"You know, I got it the first time. You guys don't have to keep telling me," she snapped. She raised the hands that were bound in front of her. "Trust me, I got the message."

"We're not afraid of you, we're not afraid of Wo Fat. You're on your own. No one is coming to rescue you," he said. "So I would suggest you start giving me the respect I deserve."

"You want respect?" Rowan scoffed. "You're nothing but a violent little peasant."

That was the comment she would regret, that was the one she never should have made. Trevor had always said her sarcasm and her wisecracking mouth would get her killed one day, and judging by the look on his face today was going to be that day. He crossed to her and back handed her quickly. Rowan's eyes stung, she yelped despite trying to hold it back.

"Do yourself a favour and shut up," he growled into her face.

But Rowan was either incapable or not willing to shut up because she turned that glare up to him and said: "What happens to me will be done to you ten-fold, so you better be prepared for an ass whooping when he finds out."

The man scoffed at her but he took a step away and he didn't try to hit her again. She was, however, shoved to the ground beside Catherine. Then they walked away to talk about their plan.

Rowan hunkered down and scowled at the dirt at her feet. When Steve got here, because she knew he was going to get here, she was going to make sure this leader guy got shot. Then she was going to make Steve take her straight to Wo Fat so she could yell at him over this stupid network that barely fucking worked.

"I should have listened to you," Catherine whispered.

"Everyone should have listened to me. Wo, Steve, you, that asshole who's slap happy," Rowan growled. "No point in crying about it now."

"Does Steve… does he…" Catherine started but started coughing again.

"Does Steve comply with the demands?" Rowan asked. "Of course he does. He loves you."

Something akin to grief flashed across Catherine's features. "We both know he's coming for you."

"Steve doesn't know I'm here," she scoffed.

"I was with you, Rowan. I left with you," she reminded her.

Rowan shook her head. "Mr. Slap-Happy never told him I was here. And besides you could have dropped me off before I they took you," she offered. "Trust me. Steve's doing this for you and you alone. I know it."

Rowan didn't know who she was trying to convince, Catherine or herself.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

They had Catherine.

That meant, they must have Rowan as well.

They hadn't mentioned her during the ransom call though. He hadn't heard her on the call, but he had a feeling. This terrible jittering that was trapped under his skin.

So not only did they have Catherine. They had Rowan. She had been with her at the time. It was logical to assume that they had gotten the two of them together. The fact that Rowan wasn't mentioned was something that worried him. She had just humiliated them. They could have easily have just shot her and left her for dead. But he didn't have proof, so he had Duke looking for Rowan, and he was acting as if it was only Catherine that was taken.

This really was not his day.

He drove like a maniac. He argued with Danny. Yes, this was stupid. Yes, this made no sense. Yes, he had absolutely no proof that this guy would do as he said he would and release the girls once he got the prisoners released but he had lost his dad to people like this. He wasn't going to lose Catherine to this, and he sure as hell wasn't going to lose Rowan.

He chased down the SWAT van that had taken the prisoners and then stopped the Camaro in front of it so they had choice but to stop. Then Steve was out of the car calling for the new SWAT commander.

"Grover, out, out," he ordered and luckily the new guy, Grover, actually listened. Steve wasn't sure what he thought of the new head of SWAT, they hadn't had time to learn about each other, but after this he was certain Grover was going to hate him.

Hell Steve hated himself, but this was what needed to be done.

"What's going on, McGarrett?" he asked.

Steve internally winced but he needed to be strong. He pulled his gun out and pointed it at Grover. "Hands in the air. On your knees," he snapped.

Grover put his hands out in surrender, but it was clear he wasn't going to listen. Also, Steve was running out of time. This had a deadline, Grover needed to move faster. So he kicked the legs out from under him.

"Don't move, don't move," he ordered. He snuck in, snatched up Grover's gun and tossed it away. "All right, everybody out of the van, everybody out of the van right now!"

They too were moving slowly so Steve shot into the air twice. That got them moving. "Show me your weapons," he ordered as they disembarked the van. "Put them on the ground. Weapons in front of you on the ground, weapons in front of you on the ground."

God this was taking too long. Catherine didn't have this kind of time. Fuck. _Move faster!_

"Side arms too! Everyone over here, on your stomachs, hands behind your backs," he snapped.

Danny was closing up the rear, he too had his gun out, he looked hesitant and upset, but that was Danny's natural look. He didn't want to do this, he thought it was stupid, had said as much in the car during the chase, but he had Steve's back and had come as back up.

Steve would forever be grateful.

"McGarrett, what the hell are you doing, man?" Grover asked from his place on the ground as Danny began handcuffing the SWAT team.

"No time, I can't explain," Steve said quickly. He shifted from foot to foot, he was getting antsy. He needed to know if they had Rowan, he needed them to let Catherine go. Safely.

He left Danny to the handcuffing and rushed to the back of the truck. Once the door was open he ordered them all out and then cut the zipties around their wrists.

The man Rowan had called Ernesto had a smug grin on his face. "So nice to see you again," he said in the smuggest voice Steve had ever heard, and he had been working with Danny for three years. "Where's your little girl?"

Steve nearly hit him for that alone.

"If anything happens to Lieutenant Rollins, you're the one I kill first," Steve warned. "As for Rowan, well, I can't say anything for what Wo Fat will do to you."

Ernesto just smiled at him. "Can I ask you something?"

"What?"

"Are the keys in the Camaro?" he asked.

No. No. Danny would never forgive him if the criminals took his car. Steve would never hear the end of it. But there was nothing Steve could do, so he just stood by and let the guys take Danny's car.

From the ground Lou called out: "You know, you just lost your badge, McGarrett. You're all done."

"You might be right about that," Steve answered absently but his phone was ringing and that was more important to him right at that moment.

Catherine's number. But he knew it wasn't Catherine.

"All right, it's done," he answered.

"You're a smart man commander," El Condor said to him. Steve tried to curb his anger and his worry. The need to ask about Rowan rose to his lips but he shoved it aside.

"Where is she?" he asked instead. He wanted Catherine. He wanted her to be okay. He wanted Rowan back. Even if he had to go to that airfield and tell Wo Fat himself, he would be getting Rowan back. But El Condor wasn't being helpful. He was being a dick.

"History doesn't have to repeat itself," he said, his tone dripping with smug condescension. "I had a feeling you'd listen to reason."

"I did what you asked!" Steve shouted into the phone. Finally way past his breaking point. "Now you tell me where she is."

And this time he was given an answer.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve had taken the SWAT van and disappeared, which made sense because the idiot had let the terrorists take his car. He had also confirmed with Duke that Rowan was not at Alex's.

So they had a missing girlfriend. A missing psychic. A missing Camaro. And four missing terrorists. And on top of that the new Captain of the SWAT team hated them now. So, you know it had been a good day for them. But Danny couldn't bring himself to be sarcastic with Steve, the boy was about to have an aneurism. So he tried to be positive.

"They'll be there," he whispered. "Don't worry. They'll both be there."

But when they got to that stretch of jungle there was nothing and no one there. But that didn't stop Steve from jerking the van to a stop, throwing himself out of the van and screaming her name.

But there were no cries, and there was no Catherine. The two of them wound through the trees. Looking for any sign of movement. Steve continued to shout for Catherine, Danny did as well. It occurred to Danny that maybe they should have called for Rowan, but he was still holding out hope that Rowan was with Alex. They had sent Duke to make sure that was where she was. Danny was sure Steve wasn't going to panic fully until he confirmed that Rowan wasn't at Alex's.

And then Danny spotted it. Movement in the trees. He recognized the hair, the walk. It was Catherine. But Steve must have not noticed cause he wasn't running in her direction.

"Steve," Danny called and then pointed in the right direction. "Catherine!"

Steve turned. Saw her and took off. Sprinting to her, jumping over roots and rocks like a regular mountain man.

"Catherine, are you okay?" he asked as he cut her free of the ropes that were around her wrists. As soon as she was free she hugged him and Steve hugged her back.

This went on for a long time. Their embrace. To the point where Danny was starting to get a bit uncomfortable, like he shouldn't be witnessing this.

"Okay… uh… I'm gonna go wait by the Van. If anyone needs me… I'm gonna… I'm gonna be by the van" Danny said but they weren't listening. So he turned around and pretended to be interested something else. Anything else. Maybe he'd go looking for Rowan. "Oh, wow, look at that it's a giant Amakihi. I think there are extinct, no?"

"Are you okay?" Steve asked again, having clearly pulled Catherine away to get a better look at her. She had some bruising on her face coming in. Not a good sign.

"Yeah," She answered breathlessly and then they were making out. Secretly this made Danny happy. Steve had been nothing but conflicted over Rowan and Catherine since they had found Rowan. Maybe this meant that he was finally starting to finalize his decision and things could go back to normal.

Once they were done kissing, there were tears in Catherine's eyes. Danny wasn't sure if it was relief or because of the pain. "You shouldn't have let them go," she said to him.

Steve shook his head. "Come on, I'm not gonna lose you," he said. He looked her up and down. "You sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, I'm good, but you let them get away. And they… they took Rowan," she told him.

Steve's eyebrows raised up in surprised. "Rowan… Rowan really was here?" he asked. "Rowan was with you?"

"Yes," Catherine said. Her eyebrows drew together. "You didn't know she was here?"

"We were hoping that you had dropped her off before you were taken," Danny said coming to stand beside them. They were done being mushy he felt like he could be around them now and not be interrupting anything.

"No, she was with me," Catherine said. "You really didn't know she was with me?"

Danny heard the implied question. _You did all of this just for me?_ It was fair. Steve did over react when it came to Rowan. It was nice to see he was just as determined to keep Catherine safe as he was to keep Rowan safe.

Steve, however, now that he knew that Catherine was safe but Rowan wasn't, was heading back towards the van. "They didn't get away. Chin's following Danny's car," he said.

"Danny's car?" Catherine echoed as she and Danny followed after him.

"Yes, Danny's car. He let the terrorists take my car," Danny answered bitterly.

"We've talked about his, we no choice," Steve grumbled as he got to the van.

"Do you know why they took her?" Danny asked Catherine as he helped her into the back. Because he sure as hell wasn't riding in the back like a prisoner.

"No. To be honest I was surprised when he didn't mention Rowan at all. I'm pretty sure he didn't take her to get at Steve," she admitted.

Danny nodded and then shut the door. He rushed up to the front to find that Steve was on the phone with Chin. He nodded and then put the Van in drive and got them onto the road.

"What did Chin say?" Danny asked.

"He lost them," Steve said. The speed of the van picked up. "Rowan was in the back. The girl in red practically screamed when she saw her."

"Well… Chin mentioned she pulled some void shit on the girl," Danny reminded him.

Steve nodded. "Yeah, electrocuted her with her own two hands. That's new even for her," he agreed.

He seemed cagey about something. Danny assumed that it was about Rowan. Rowan and her ever changing powers. "Does it worry you that her powers seem to be evolving?"

"No. I think they're devolving," Steve said. "She can't open the void anymore and she's not having visions."

"Okay but she electrocuted someone today with her powers," Danny reminded him.

"She's been shocking people when she touches them and the get a vision. I think because she's not having visions as frequently she's got a pent up store of energy which manifesting itself with static shocks. Today she focused the energy, forced a vision to come and then used all that stored energy to electrocute someone," Steve explained. Danny turned to him with wide eyes of shock. How was he not freaked out that she did that? "Her powers are devolving but Rowan's finding more and more creative ways to make them work for her. I'm not worried about her powers, I'm worried about her."

"So what do we do about her?" Danny asked. He was thinking himself because Steve was supposed to be leaving Rowan alone. But he also figured that Steve would feel left out if he didn't include him.

"We gotta find her first," he said. "She's a password. She has the ability to contact anyone in Wo Fat's network for assistance. That's probably why they took her. To use her to get off the island."

Danny nodded. Alright that made sense. "Uh, there's something I haven't told you," Steve said. He sounded hesitant. Danny was immediately on edge. He didn't like the sound of that.

"What?" he asked apprehensively.

"Well… uh… there's…. something happened to your… car…" Steve said.

Danny just stared at him. Of course it had. Of course something had happened to his car. He wanted to ask how bad it was but if Steve didn't want to tell him it had to be bad.

"It kind of… blew up…" Steve admitted.

Danny tuned him out after that. His poor Camaro could not be burnt, it just couldn't be, because if it was he'd kill Steve with his own bare hands. But they got to the scene and there it was. His beautiful perfect Camaro up in smoke and completely blackened out.

He hopped out of the van and went to his car trying to keep his tears inside. It wasn't manly to cry over a car, but he loved that car even if Steve barely let him drive it.

"I always thought it would be your driving that killed my car," Danny snapped.

Steve ignored him and focused on Chin who was coming towards him. "Chin you okay?" he asked avoiding Danny's eyes.

"Yeah, they must have been expecting a tail," Chin said with a shrug.

"This is terrible," Danny said in referenced to the car. He noted Steve's rolling eyes and chose to scowl at him. He then turned to Chin as well "Did you see the other car they were driving?"

"Late model SUV, Black, no plates," Chin listed off immediately. "They had Rowan in the back. I could hear her shouting when they opened fire on me."

Steve took that in stride too. He nodded and then went about ordering everyone around. "Call Lukela, have him put out an alert."

"Or you could just tell him yourself," Danny snapped before Steve could get any more bossy. Steve turned around as the squad cars surrounded them, lights flashing sirens wailing. He seemed surprised as if he hadn't noticed them getting louder and louder while they talked.

As soon as they stopped everyone got out of the cars and drew their guns on them. Grover got out of one of them and had a shot gun trained on Steve immediately. "On your knees! Guns on the ground," he ordered.

Well isn't this a tables-turned situation? Danny turned to Steve to see what he was going to do about this, but he just looked angry and quite confused.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Steve cried as if he hadn't seen this coming. Really? He hadn't seen this coming? "I had no choice they had Catherine."

"And in exchanged, you released four terrorists," Grover snapped. Danny thought that was a little unfair. Most people would react the same if a loved one was in danger. Grover apparently didn't seem to care about his loved ones the same way the Five-0 family cared about theirs.

"Yeah, well, I had a plan," Steve snapped back.

"Oh, you had a plan" Grover mocked. "Well, where the hell are they then? Because all I see around here is an epic fail the size of Texas."

"Easy, Captain, before this gets out of hand," Duke ordered. Yes, Duke Lukela the voice of reason.

"Look around you. This has already gotten way past out of hand," Grover said. "McGarrett and his merry band of do-whatever-the-hell-you-want should have considered the repercussions before jumping me and my men."

"They have Rowan too," he added in a small voice and Duke's eyes widened and then he nodded as if it all made sense. Like Steve would go to hell and back for her. Not a good thing for usually passive onlooker to put together so quickly in front of Steve's real girlfriend. Wow, look at Danny, calling her the real girlfriend, as if Rowan was the fake one. Not good. He needed to get out of that mindset.

But Steve didn't stay on Rowan, luckily. Danny wondered if it was because thinking about it made Steve panic too much. He merely looked at Grover with a look of confident disdain and very cockily added: "Look, the only thing that got hurt was your pride."

Why was he provoking him? Really? He had a fucking shotgun. Navy Seal or not, one just does not provoke someone holding a shotgun on them.

"Immunity and means, my ass. I want you and all your people to put their weapons on the ground now!" Grover nearly screamed, clearly not digging that comment Steve had just made.

"That's not gonna happen. All right? This isn't the mainland, it's Hawaii. We do things differently here," Steve growled. "So, the more time we waste, the more time the NLM has to escape with their hostage. So, what do you wanna do?"

"Those guys escape, that's it on you," Grover growled poking Steve in the chest.

Danny immediately panicked. He had been in that position and it had not ended well for him. It hadn't ended well for Steve's face either. Still he didn't want a repeat of that situation so he stepped forward.

"You're invading his personal space which is a very bad idea," he warned. He felt for Grover.

"You know, see this right here? We can do this later," Steve growled, his voice low and dangerous

"Count on it," Grover growled right back. Great the two of them were caught in a pissing match now.

"Good. I'll be there," Steve snapped, throwing out some smugness himself.

"It's a date," Grover said before walking away, effectively leaving with the last word. Steve's eye was twitching, he hated it when he didn't get the last word. Danny put a hand on his arm to keep Steve from running after Grover to get the last word, or a round of goddamn buckshot straight to the chest.

"Duke, we're gonna need air support and roadblocks, now" Chin said clearly eager to get back to the problem at hand. Rescuing Rowan. Again.

"Let's also call the Coast Guard, all right? Anything up in the air or in the water could be our guys," Steve added, finally done glaring at Grover and turning back around.

Duke looked uncomfortable. "Duke what's the matter?" Steve probed.

"News chopper was reported stolen this morning. Didn't even register with everything that's going on until now," he admitted. "Also, I should have told you earlier. Alex said she wasn't at home. Her cellphone's off and he got a strange call from an even stranger caller looking for her."

"It's gotta be connected," Chin said ignoring the Rowan talk. At this point it didn't matter. What mattered was finding her.

"H1 on-ramp's two blocks from here right?" Steve asked.

"Yeah I'm pretty sure that's where they were headed?" Chin answered

"The NLM is planning on using the stolen chopper as a getaway and there's only one place I can think of around here where they could land and take off again without drawing too much attention to themselves," Steve said. Danny nodded that made sense.

"Yeah, but why take Rowan?" Duke wondered.

"She's the password," Chin, Danny and Steve answered at once. They then raced back to Chin's SUV, ready to go after her, with Catherine trailing after them.

"Yeah, but what does that mean?" Duke asked but none of them answered.

It was too hard to explain something that they didn't quite understand themselves. Instead they had to focus on the task at hand. Saving Rowan. For like the millionth time. Silently Danny added, _and if she gets in shit again we're just gonna leave her._

But he knew that wasn't true. Steve wasn't going to let these terrorists take her now, and there was nothing anyone could do or say to keep him from rescuing her any other time she got into trouble. It was just his nature. Steve was a natural born hero, and it seemed like Rowan was going to forever play the role of his damsel.


	62. Chapter 62

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Okay guys! We're back for update #2! I'm glad you guys are enjoying the triple updates this week. Thank you for all the congratulations I received. Half a mill is quite a lot of words. We're also dangerously close to 1000 pages (which is milestone #3) and just as close to 400 reviews which is just mind boggling to me. SO next chapter… something bad is gonna happen. But I'm telling you it will be the downfall of everything. It's the catalyst to several relationship changes and other very important events. I understand perfectly if you get upset, but I'm warning you now that it's gonna happen so don't be too surprised on Friday. See you then!_

Chapter 62 

* * *

Rowan sat in the back of the car as the people around her spoke some type of Spanish. It probably wasn't Spanish, it might have been Cuban? Was that even a language or was it just a place? Fuck she should have paid more attention in school. Not that it mattered now.

She didn't know why they wanted her. She didn't know why she was useful. She only knew that they had taken her and left Catherine behind. Catherine had protested, weakly, and still got beat for it. Rowan felt back, but she had stepped in before they could get too violent and just told them to take her if they were that adamant about it.

Also, the woman in red was absolutely terrified of her. And it was hilarious to see.

"Magic hands?!" erupted from the El Condor who was driving. Oh great, they had been talking about her.

His eyes turned to her. "You think she has magic hands?"

Rowan scoffed. "Magic? She thinks I can do magic?" she asked. "Obviously I didn't just channel Thor and shock her, I obviously hit her with a stun gun."

"So why the tactic?" El Condor asked her.

Rowan made a big show of rolling her eyes. "Duh, psychological warfare," she told him.

He stared at her for a few moment "He taught you, but not so well I think," he said and she let out her breathe in a long, relieved sigh. Well thank Christ he believed that lie.

The _he_ had to be Wo Fat. She longed to tell him that psychological warfare was learned on the skate circuit where her and her brother ruled with an iron fist. Their speciality? Psyching out other skaters.

But she couldn't say that to him so she hit him with a noncommittal shrug.

He opened his mouth to say more but his phone began to ring. So, he fished it out of his pocket. Gave the screen a perplexed look. He answered it with an almost hesitant with _hello_ and then a smug smirk hit his face.

"I'm sorry, but she's unavailable right now," he said.

Rowan's eyes crinkled. Okay, that was either Steve or Wo.

"You can threaten me all you want, but we already know there's nothing you can do to us from prison," El Condor answered lazily.

Okay. Wo Fat. He was definitely talking to Wo Fat. Unless Steve got arrested for whatever he did to get these prisoners out of that SWAT van. After a moment of listening to whatever Wo Fat had to say, El Condor's smile widened.

"Quite insistent, aren't you?" he said. "She must be something special."

Rowan cocked an eyebrow at him and then looked at the phone he was offering. The last time she had been in this situation she could hear Steve on the other side. But Wo Fat was usually cool and collected, so it made sense that silence was coming out of it instead.

She took it gingerly and put it to her ear. "Hello?"

"Are you all right?" he asked immediately. There was an edge to his voice that she recognized. He was worried.

"No!" she cried. "I hate this network bullshit. It has not been helpful in the least. Except for that one sniper who shot someone before I asked him to."

"Yes… there have been some unforeseen drawbacks, but that wasn't what I was asking you," Wo Fat said. He didn't sound exasperated with her like he should have, like he usually did. He sounded cold and distant and nothing like the man she was used to.

Not good.

"Well, I mean. I'm freaked out. I'm scared. He's cuffed me a few times, but otherwise I'm all right," she answered.

There was a pause. "He hit you?" he asked. "How many times?"

"Uhm… only, you know, two or three times," she answered.

"Well what is it? Two or three?" he asked.

But before Rowan could answer, Flora, the woman in red, had grabbed her hands and then punched her. Rowan cried out, because she hadn't expected it. She hadn't fought them, she hadn't said anything bad, she would have totally handed back the phone if one of them had asked for it. The punch to the face, the one that had hit her square in the nose, had been completely uncalled for.

"Three," he answered for her as Rowan tilted her head back, her hand to her nose. Her eyes watered because _fuck_ that hurt. How did the boys get decked all the time and just take it? This fucking hurt like a motherfucker. She didn't want to cry but she knew she was cause she could feel the tears leaking from her eyes. She was more concerned with the blood coming out of her nose.

"Again, with the threats. This is to pay you back for your involvement with Five-0," El Condor said. "We will be sure to exploit your network quite efficiently."

Whatever Wo said to him after knocked the smirk right off of his face. He hastily hung up the phone and Rowan noticed that his eyes purposely stayed away from her. She glowered at him.

"I hope he kills you in the slowest way imaginable," she growled.

El Condor leant in towards her. "He's not going to kill me," he hissed. "Now, you're going to help us, not only get off the island…"

"Why do you need my help to get you off the island? You stole a helicopter?" Rowan asked before she could stop herself. This meant she had interrupted him, she had used a bit of knowledge from one of her visions.

El Condor stared at her. Everyone in the van stared at her. "How do you know that?" he asked.

"I can speak some Spanish guys," she lied. They all stared at her almost perplexed before she said: "Okay, let's breeze on past that awkward little moment. You said I'm not only getting you off the island. What does that mean? Have you even looked at me? What else do you think I could I do?"

"You're going to transfer all the money in that safety account he has for you, to us," he said. Oh! No one corrected her. They _were_ speaking Spanish!

Rowan blinked her eyes. "Okay, look, I don't know a lot about that app he created but like… I unno if I can do that?"

"Oh, you will. Or we'll send you back to him in boxes," he said.

"You're going to mail me in pieces to a Maximum-Security Prison in Colorado?" she asked, cocking an eyebrow. "Dude all my bits are gonna be totally confiscated by customs."

"Does Flora need to hit you again?" he growled.

"I mean she could, but it's not really going to help you," she said with a shrug.

He swore in Spanish but sat back and said nothing else to her. The got to the Aloha stadium to find cops waiting for them. Rowan brushed her hand against Ernesto who was sitting beside her, he yelped at the small static shock that hit them and Rowan got the vision she needed. And she did not like what she saw.

"Stop," she said. But El Condor didn't listen, he sped up. "Stop. You're going to kill us!"

El Condor answered her by ordering them all to "hold on!" But Rowan's hands were tied and she wasn't strapped in. The hit the spike strip and the car began to skid. Still he didn't slow them down. They hit the barricade of cop cars and flipped.

For those few moments after the impact Rowan's world was nothing but a buzzing white pain and complete darkness. The sounds were muffled by the ringing in her ears and the banging in her head. She was resting against the roof of the car, as she wasn't strapped in, there was nothing to keep her hanging. She was in an awkward position, she could feel shards of glass digging into her skin and through her shirt. And something warm and sticky was dripping onto her face.

This was bringing back memories. Bad memories. Flashes of things she'd rather forget. Flashes of a morning, of a car lodged upside down in a snow bank after rolling a few times. Memories she thought she didn't actually remember but were there none the less.

She opened her eyes and found it was blood. Blood from Flora who had been in the front but was now half hanging above her. Her neck twisted in a terrible angle. Her brown eyes open and glassy, just staring at her. She was dead.

Rowan immediately panicked. Bile rose up into her throat. She tried to push herself towards the open window, but she hit another body and that panic turned into out right terror. She was two seconds from screaming when something grabbed her by the back of her shirt and practically ripped her out of the car.

She expected Steve, but it wasn't. It was El Condor again.

"Oh, come on," she groaned and he forced her to stand. The bullets began to ricochet again and Rowan half ducked. "Just let me go, I'm going to slow you down."

But he didn't listen. He forced her to run, dragging her after him. They were heading into a building, probably to get to the field. Already she could hear the helicopter whirling in the distance.

A shot whizzed past her face. El Condor forced her to the ground and turned, opening fire with his bigger gun. Rowan already knew who was after them.

Despite the bullets flying around her she popped up crying his name and Steve answered her from where he was taking cover. Steve was here! Steve _had_ come to get her.

El Condor forced her up and into the building, shoving her over the turnstile and dragging her down many different hallways. They made it to the seating area and then she was being forced to run down stairs. She could hear Steve behind them, felt him closing in. But El Condor wasn't going to play fair. When he got them to the grass, the men in the helicopter opened up fire, using a Gatling gun to force Steve to stop his pursuit.

Rowan turned just in time to see Steve dive behind a row of chairs. He was effectively pinned.

Then there were two shots. Loud booming, terrible shots. The first took out the shooter. The second took out the pilot.

Then lastly there was one last shot. Louder than the Gatling gun, louder than Steve's and beside her El Condor's head practically blew up. Her face got coated with a mist of red, and since he was holding onto her when it happened, the blast from the shot blew both of them back, landing Rowan on her ass in the grass beside a headless body.

She just sat there, her stomach protesting, her breathing shallow. She heard Steve's cries for her, she saw him running forward but she didn't have it in her to react. She just kept sitting there, wide eyed and horrified.

She was going to vomit. Steve reached her in seconds, his hands on her shoulders, saying her name over and over again, asking if she was okay. Rowan blinked her big glassy eyes at him. No, she was not okay. Physically she was perfectly fine but she was covered in another people's blood and quite freaking out.

But the throwing up didn't happen until Steve left. He only left to turn the helicopter off, so that he could hear her talk and he could make sure that she was okay. Rowan had clumsily got to her feet, trying to put a distance between her and the bodies, to get away from the smell and the feel of blood. She stumbled a few feet away, slipping on the blood in the grass, and immediately started to vomit. Everything she had eaten that day, which wasn't very much that hadn't come out that morning, came out at that moment.

Steve had his hands on her back immediately. His gun lay discarded beside her, his hands went to her hair to hold it back. Once he had a solid grip on her hair, he rubbed her back soothingly. Rowan continued to heave until nothing else came up, until all that was in her mouth was stomach acid and phlegm.

"Excuse me," a voice said and Steve and Rowan both looked up. Above them was a man in full tactical gear, and not one of Steve's men. He was holding a giant ass sniper, like the kind that Kono usually carried around with her. Steve lunged for the gun he had discarded but this guy was faster. He stepped on it and then put both his hands on his own gun.

Steve fell back, both his hands rested on Rowan's shoulders, he was coiled with tension she could feel it leeching into her body but she was just so fucking tired that she couldn't care less.

The man stared down at them with unfeeling eyes. "Payment, please," he said.

Rowan blinked up to him and then to the phone that seemed to just materialize in his hand out of no where. She was supposed to do something, she knew that. Code, what was the code? "Now? Can't we do this later?" she cried. But when the man just continued to stare at them with those unfeeling eyes she quickly wiped her mouth on the back of her hand. "Uh… I'm Rowan Pierce and I approve this transfer."

The man took his phone out of her face and smiled at the screen. "Thank you," he said absently. He then looked up to her and gestured to his face. "You know you gotta little something…"

Rowan blinked her eyes. Blood. She had blood on her face, didn't she? She felt a strangled yelp rise up into her throat and already Steve was turning her.

"No, don't worry, don't worry," he said to her as his hands framed her face.

"There's blood on my face," she squeaked. "And it's not mine."

"Well, some of it is yours," he said as his fingers carefully wiped it all off of her. "Your nose is bleeding."

"Still?" she asked, her hand coming to her nose which still hurt. "I didn't think she had hit me that hard."

"… hit you… she hit you? What the fuck did you do?" he growled.

Rowan gave him a noncommittal shrug because she didn't know what she did. He was scowling at her but Rowan couldn't tell him and she refused to talk about it.

"Is it all off?" she asked instead. She didn't like staring into his eyes. She hated it how it made her feel. She hated how it made her stomach flutter and her pulse race. She was still feeling queasy so the butterflies weren't helping her situation.

"Yes, you're good," he said, quickly getting to his feet. Rowan let her breath out in a shaky sigh. "Can you get up?"

She nodded and took his offered hand and from behind her she heard a call of her name. "Danny!" Rowan called back, turning away from Steve and to the blonde man running towards her.

She accepted his hug, letting him pull her close and ask if she was okay. She said she was over and over and then Chin was beside him patiently waiting for his hug. Rowan threw herself at him too, they had gotten closer today. One didn't go through the shit they went through that afternoon and not get closer.

Once she had assured him that she too was okay she turned on Steve.

"Take me to the airfield," she growled.

"The airfield?" he echoed.

"Yes. Take me to Wo," she growled, her eyes narrowed at him and added: "So I can kill him."

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Wo Fat sat patiently. Eyes closed. Meditating. He needed to. He was on edge. Every synapse of his brain and body were firing at once. Worry was making him nauseous. Fear was making his chest hurt. His head pounded with the scenarios running through it on loop. Blood, dismemberment, screaming, not all of it Rowan's. And under all of that was anger.

Anger for the situation. Anger that he was stuck in this cage when he should have been out there dealing with it. Anger with the NLM who would be feeling the full force of revenge at his hand. Anger with Rowan for getting herself into this situation. Anger with McGarrett for not keeping her safe like Wo Fat thought he would be able to. Anger with himself for thinking that the man who lost Rowan to him in the first place would be able to keep her safe in any way shape or form.

 _YOU!_

Wo Fat's eyes opened and Rowan was barrelling down the empty plane at him. She was angry, she was pale, she was covered in blood but otherwise she looked like she was okay.

He stood to meet her. He almost smiled, a big huge grin of relief before he realized McGarrett was behind her and reminded himself to be subdued.

"You're okay," he whispered breathlessly once she was close enough.

"Yeah. Physically!" Rowan snapped. "I've had the worst day ever! I've vomited like twenty times. I've been shot at, I fell out of the rafters at the Palace, I electrocute someone with my own two hands, I got kidnapped, I was in a car crash and some guy shot a bunch of people without me asking him to and then made me pay him!"

There was a lot in that sentence that scared him. Electrocution, car crashes, someone let her climb into the rafters of the Iolani Palace? What the hell had happened when she wasn't with him? Oh, he would be having words with McGarrett after this.

"I don't like this system, Wo," she said. "It has done nothing but backfire. And quite frankly it scares me. They were gonna make me help them, make me transfer all of that money to them and then who knows what they would have done to me!"

"There are systems in place," he said. "Remember. If you're with more than one person they ask you to approve your companions. What happens if you say you don't?"

Rowan's lips twitched back and forth. "They get shot on the spot," she answered.

The look on Steve's face was worth it. The look of absolutely shock that hit his face when she answered him was enough to make Wo Fat laugh. But he kept his eyes on Rowan, she was what was important. Not McGarrett and his hilarious faces.

"But I don't like it, Wo," she said. "I don't like this."

"So yes, there are kinks I'll have to iron out," he admitted. "But you're fine. The man I sent down to get you did what he was told to do. You're safe, you're here, and the NLM will regret betraying me in such a fashion."

"Oh god, what are you going to do?" she groaned.

"That's not important," he said with a shake of his head. "What's important is that you're okay."

Rowan nodded. "I am okay," she whispered. "My nose really hurts though."

Yes. One of El Condor's lackies had hit her. Hit her to get to him. To make him angry. Well it had worked. It was because of that, that despite knowing Five-0 was on it, he still sent someone down to the Aloha Stadium to make sure not a single person in that SUV, other than Rowan, survived.

If Wo Fat's hands weren't bound, if McGarrett wasn't standing there staring at them, he might have raised his hands to brush the tendrils of hair behind her cheek. But that was not an option so he smiled at her instead.

Rowan was suddenly sad. He could see it on her face but he didn't know what caused it. "I had a really bad day and I really want a hug," she suddenly cried.

As Wo Fat looked at the cage bars between them, at the fact that his hands were bound in front of him, Steve stepped forward to give her that hug. Rowan put one hand to the center of his chest and pushed him away.

"Not you!" she snapped. She shuffled closer, put herself right against the bars and then put her arms in through the bars and pulled him against them. It was awkward and somewhat painful. But Wo Fat felt himself melt into it. Awkward or not this would be the last time he hugged her in what would be a very long time.

"I'm going to miss you," she whispered into his chest and that worry hit him full force. Who was going to take care of her if this network failed again like it did today? It wasn't like he could trust McGarrett with her.

He looked up to him and saw it. That look on Steve's face. He looked so pathetically disappointed and lovelorn that Wo Fat almost laughed at him.

"We're wheels up in 2 minutes," a soldier called to them.

Rowan turned back to him with a scowl. "Make it ten," she snapped and the solider just stared at her surprised. His eyes went to Steve who winced for them.

"We'll be done soon," McGarrett ensured as Rowan turned back to Wo.

"You'll call me every week, right?" she asked, those big blue eyes shining brightly.

McGarrett there or not, Wo Fat brought his forehead to hers, just like her brother used to do and smiled into her face. It was to calm her. To make her relax. To keep that worry at bay. It must have made Steve mad because immediately he snapped: "He's going to be in maximum security, Rowan, how is he going to call you?"

"How did he call me from here?" she shot back. "I'm sure he can find a way to phone me from Colorado."

Wo Fat put that distance back between them "Yes. Don't worry. I will call you every week," he promised. He then turned to McGarrett who was staring at them with expectantly glaring eyes. "But I think your Commander would like to talk to me."

"Okay," she said. "Uh… please be nice."

Her eyes went between Steve and Wo but he wasn't sure who it was she was talking to at that moment. Then she got up on her very tippy toes and pressed the softest of kisses on his good cheek, through the bars. Wo Fat found himself staring at McGarrett. He watched him, watched his reaction, the way he seemed to swallow down his words. The way he struggled to look at her. How it seemed to utterly horrify him that she had dared to show Wo Fat any kind of softness.

She waved to him as she walked away and his heart strings tugged. This was the kind of movie moment that made her cry and ridiculously he felt like he might cry too. Damn, what was this girl doing to him?

But as soon as she was off that plane and he was squaring with Steven McGarrett again all that mushy gooeyness left him. He sat back down and smiled up to him coolly and calmly.

"Coach is even worse than I imagined," he said smugly because he wasn't here to make it easy for Steve.

"Oh, why don't you cut the crap?" he snapped and Wo struggled to keep his smile from his face. Steve was unnerved. Either by his attitude change or how he was with Rowan, either way, Steven McGarrett was cracking under all the pressure.

"I just saved your life," he growled. "You owe me."

"And Rowan used her favours save your life, and the lives of your team. I used more of my favours and my own money to save hers when you saved Catherine and left Rowan to her own devices," Wo Fat reminded him.

"I did not leave Rowan. They didn't tell me they had her. They wanted her for you, not for me. How am I supposed to save her when I don't know she's in trouble?" Steve thundered.

"Either way, your debt is no longer owed," Wo Fat said with a shrug. "I have more than made it up to you."

"Saving Rowan was for you, not for me, so stop trying to use her against me," Steve warned. "Because I can do the exact same to you."

And then Wo Fat was standing. The threat. Slapping him right there in the face. It was enough to make him angry again, it was enough to put him in a fighting mood. "You have done enough to that girl," Wo Fat snarled. "No prison will be able to contain me if something happens to her because of you."

"You want me to look out for her, fine. I can do that. I am more than willing to do that, but you have to give me something," Steve said, softening. "Now, tell me, why did my mother come and visit you in prison? Why did she leave Rowan with you when you had her hostage?"

He stood there. Silent and stoic. He had a problem. He didn't want to tell McGarrett what Doris had told them those times she had visited. He didn't want to tell McGarrett who his mother was, really, to him. But he had more than self-preservation to worry about now. Someone else's life was in his hands and she was just as important as protecting himself.

"She came to apologize," he said. Part of it was true. It was the believable part of the story and the only part of the story he was getting. Steve didn't need the other details and he wouldn't be getting them from him. Especially not the story about why his mother left Rowan with him.

"Apologize for what?" Steve snapped. Okay, maybe that part was believable to him.

"For killing my father!" Wo Fat shot right back. Because, up until recently that was what he thought she had to apologize for. The fact that it turned out to be so much more than that was nothing of consequence at that moment.

Steve seemed to digest this before saying: "You killed her husband, my father, and then you hunted her for 20 years. Why would my mother ever apologize to you?"

Well he hadn't quite done it in that order, but yes, he had done those things. And at that moment, call it the lack of sleep, the lack of pain meds, the lack of food or proper washroom facilities for the last twenty-four hours, he was struggling to come up with a good lie to cover Steve's question.

"That is a question only she can answer," was the reason he went with. Total deflection. A total Doris move.

Steve nodded. "I was afraid you were gonna say that," he said, almost cockily. Wo Fat almost told him that Rowan had the same ability. To predict what people were going to say. But Steve grabbed him by the collar and slammed his face into the bars before he could say anything else.

He had just cracked his forehead open, he could feel the ringing in his brain, the stinging in the crest between his eyebrows and he beginning of sticky blood running down the bridge of his nose. He tried not to show he was in pain, but DAMN, what the hell man? He had collapsed to his seat and when he looked up again, Steve was swabbing the bar he had hit, taking a sample of Wo Fat's blood.

Aw come on, what was he doing now?

"What are you doing, Steve?" he asked. It was rare he said the man's first name let alone the man's name in its shortened form. It unnerved him but it didn't seem to do anything to Steve.

Steve barely looked at him. So, he asked: "What do you think you're going to find? The truth?"

Steve said absolutely nothing to him, he just capped his evidence and walked away. Well now Wo Fat was mad. Steven couldn't go looking for the truth, not when he needed to get to it first. "You don't want to know the truth!" he screamed after Steve's retreating back. But he did not turn back around.

Wo Fat struggled to get his emotion back under control. He sat himself down and closed his eyes again, repeating a mantra in his head, over and over again.

 _I won the girl._

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve got off that plane and found that Rowan had waited for him, and beside her was Danny. But Danny must have seen that lazer focus he had on Rowan, and he backed away. So that by the time he got close to Rowan, close enough to shake some goddamn sense into her, Danny had conveniently disappeared and left Rowan to her fate. But Rowan was undeterred and unafraid of the look on Steve's face. She just looked… sad.

"You didn't have to punch him," she said softly when he got closer to her.

"I didn't punch him," he said because there was a big difference. "I bashed him into the bars."

Rowan rolled her eyes at him and sighed in a frustrated manner. "Fine. You didn't have to get so violent with him, you happy?" she asked. No, he wasn't and she must have sensed that because she added: "I could have told you he's not really your half-brother."

"I told you not to tell me the future Rowan," he reminded her through grit teeth. After what he just witnessed he was so mad, so disappointed. That hug she gave Wo Fat, the kiss good-bye on his cheek, like she used to do for him. How dare she? Right in front of him, as if it meant absolutely nothing to her. As if that wasn't _their_ tradition. That was it. That was the last little bit of confirmation he needed.

Wo Fat was 100% irrevocably, unchangeably in love with Rowan Pierce. And she was just as in love with him.

They stood together and watched as the plane took off and Steve suddenly felt the guilt creep up on him. She was so obviously in love with him, and so clearly upset about the whole situation, the one that he had indirectly caused.

"You could have just told me you know," he suddenly blurted out.

Rowan turned to him confusion written all over her face. "You literally just reminded me that you told me not to tell you about your future," she said. "Jesus Christ, Steve, make up your fucking mind."

"No, no, not about that, about you and Wo Fat," he said.

"Yes, because me telling you I don't want you in my life anymore is perfectly followed up with _but I totally want to keep seeing your nemesis and the guy who shot me_ ," she snapped back with a shake of her head.

"You could have told me it was because you loved him, I would have understood," Steve whispered. When he gathered the courage to look at Rowan again, he saw something on her face that filled him with hope. She was wearing a face that said she was clearly fucking horrified by that sentence.

"What the actual fuck?" she asked. "You think I love him? Like… romantic love him? Like kissy faces and… and… _really_?"

"Well come on, look at the two of you," he said. "He fucking set up an entire network to protect you, you guys have dance routines, he will physically protect you, he knew all about your fear of blood and bodies before I did and he's just so damn nice to you all the time! Clearly the two of you are in love!"

"No, we're not," Rowan scoffed. "Not the way you're thinking."

"What?" Steve cried, because what did that even mean?

Rowan sighed again, a pained look crossed her beautiful features. "God Steve… it's hard to explain."

"Look, Rowan, I'm trying to understand. I am," he said. "But you're like my mother, for god sake. You keep things from me and hide things from me to protect me. But I don't need to be protected, I want to help you, I want to understand. You have to let me in."

"I'm not trying to protect you Steve, I'm trying to protect myself," she said. "It hurts to talk about and to think about this stuff so I just… don't."

"It hurts you to think about Wo Fat?" he asked because if that was the case Steve was going to make sure that asshole didn't come back from Colorado.

"No," she sighed and then looked at him. "If I tell you… you are absolutely not allowed to bring it up. Ever. No questions, no future talks, no going looking for them, nothing, you get me?"

Steve's eyes narrowed in surprise. He wasn't sure that was a promise he could keep. "Uhm… I mean…"

"Fucking Navy-Seal-Scouts-Honour!" she ordered pointing a stern finger in his direction. "Or I won't tell you a thing!"

"Alright," he conceded. If he wanted to know, to finally get an answer for something then that was a small price to pay.

"He reminds me of my brother," Rowan admitted after a few seconds of silence. "And you know, I didn't think I'd ever find anyone who acts like him and Wo Fat is pretty spot on. I mean, there are total differences, of course, Trevor wasn't a criminal mastermind, a murderer or a sociopath or anything like that. But when I'm with him it's like I'm home and I never thought I'd feel like that again."

Steve felt his heart drop out of his chest. Her brother? This was about her family? She missed her family and Wo Fat filled that void? Oh God. Oh no.

"Your brother," he managed to croak out.

"And I know I said that my family line probably didn't exist here. But as it turns out it does," she admitted. "They're not really my family of course, they're this world's version of them and I guess I could go all the way back to Canada to meet them but they wouldn't know who I was and that's probably worse than my family not existing."

Steve knew this, he knew about her family. Her confirming it was her family. Her confirming that she was from Canada was what scared him. Maybe he should have let them meet her, maybe they would have fixed her sadness and she wouldn't have needed Wo Fat anymore. But then they would have taken her away and Steve wouldn't be able to see her whenever he wanted, he couldn't go jet setting off to Canada every time he wanted to see her either. So maybe he was selfish about it but he couldn't tell her that now. They were on rocky territory as is. If she found out now, she'd never forgive him.

"You're Canadian?" he asked numbly because he wasn't supposed to already know that.

"Yeah. I'm from Canada," she answered.

"Uh… alright… okay…" he whispered. "Can I ask one more question?"

"Sure."

"Why wouldn't they know you?" he asked. "I mean, if they're your family."

"Because I don't exist here, Steve" she whispered. Her voice starting to tremble. "I died. I was still born. They don't know who I am because to them I never lived."

She was crying now and Steve truly felt bad for making her talk about this. "And it sucks, you know? Because my brother always had my back. And I had just started getting along with my mother and I was a total daddy's little princess and I'm none of that now. And I can't find my way through those stupid red strings to get home and I miss them all so much!"

She broke out in loud sobs her hands covering her face. Steve just stared at her not sure what to do. He was filled with a general sense that this was all his fault.

"It hurts so much to think about it that I just don't want to," she almost wailed. "Now I'm sad and I'm crying and I just want a hug."

Steve moved immediately. She had turned down his first attempt to hug her back on the plane, but he knew she wouldn't turn down this one. He wrapped her up in a tight embrace crushing her to his chest. The mere act of having her in his arms set his blood boiling but it also soothed his racing heart. She hugged him back, her slim fingers digging into his back through the fabric of his shirt and he welcomed the pain. He loved the feel of her, her loved her nails in his back, he loved holding her to his chest and being able to inhale that scent that belonged to her.

She pulled her head out of his chest, pressed her arms forward to get him to let go, but he only loosened his grip, he didn't let it go entirely. He kept his grip on her because he couldn't let her go, his fingers had frozen. She was stuck there permanently now.

"Sorry," she whispered to him. "This is was what I was trying to avoid."

Steve frowned at her, one of his hands moved to her cheek, cupping it softly. He tried to breathe through the realization that her fingers were still gripping his ribs and that his one hand was pressed softly to the small of her back.

"You don't have to avoid those things Rowan," he whispered to her. "When my dad died, I thought I'd never have a family again, but that's not true. I have my Five-0 family, I have Mary and… well I have you and you have us. If you don't want to talk to me you can talk to Danny or Chin. I'm sure Kono would listen too if she were here. You don't have to be happy for us all the time. You can be sad, you can miss your family but you're not alone. We're your family too."

Rowan smiled at him through her tears. She murmured a _thank you_ to him and his breath hitched. Her eyes sparkled in the waning light like diamonds in the night sky. She was so lovely and his heart was practically bleeding for her. That smile was on her face, warm and inviting, she even nibbled her lips a bit at him as she just smiled up at him. How could he resist?

But as he moved in to kiss her, before their lips could touch she ripped herself out of his grasp. She took a step away and so did he. He wasn't sure how he had read that situation so wrong but he clearly had.

"Steve… I… you… we…. We just can't," she said her voice hitched but sharp. "You're with Catherine. You _love_ Catherine."

Steve tried not to shout at her that it wasn't true. But instead he set his mouth in a firm frown and looked away from her. It sounded like she was trying to convince herself not him.

"Yeah. Sure," he snapped.

"Yes, Steve. I am sure," she said. "You're going to marry her. In like… uh… what season are we in? Four or five?"

Steve glared at her. How the hell was he supposed to know what season they were on? His life wasn't a TV show to him.

"Kay, I think this is the start of season four, so five years. At the end of five years you two are married," she said. "And right now I'm new, and glitzy and you think you're interested in me but you're not. You're going to get with me and decide that Catherine is right for you and I wouldn't be able to take that so, no. We can't do this. I don't care how deeply you glare at me or how handsome you look with your stupid chiselled jaw and your perfect abs and broad shoulders. I swear you were engineered in a damn lab!"

Steve couldn't help but laugh at her. He couldn't. She thought that he would get tired of her? That if he had her he'd choose to go back to Catherine? And what about her, with her eyes so blue he could drown in them, and her silken red hair with the faded to blonde tips, that cute button nose and luscious bubble butt she had going on?

But most importantly, she wasn't over him. She still wanted him. She was protecting herself from an assumed loss of him. He still had a chance.

"Just cause it was in your TV show doesn't mean it's going to happen. You've changed plenty of outcomes Rowan," he reminded her.

But Rowan shook her head at him. "No. We can't. I can't," she repeated. And Steve looked away because he had to respect her wishes and he didn't want to put himself on the line again have her reject him all over again.

"I better go," she said. "I have somewhere to go,"

By then Danny had come over, Steve knew instinctively he had seen and heard everything which just made his cheeks burn with embarrassment.

"Do you have a ride?" he asked and cursed himself for it. God why couldn't he stop caring about her?

"Sure do, it's called a cab," she said. Steve wrinkled his nose at her, he didn't want her to take cab alone, but he had to remind himself that Rowan wasn't interested in him taking care of her so he would have to let her go on his own.

Luckily for him Danny didn't say anything while Rowan was in ear shot but once she disappeared into the hanger Steve snapped: "Not a fucking word."

"Nope, nothing about your failed attempt to kiss a girl. A girl who's not your girlfriend. A girl who you think is in love with the man taking off in that plane. A girl who has her own boyfriend. A girl who…"

"Oh god, shut up, just… just shut up!" Steve snapped. "It was a stupid idea. It backfired in my face. Let. It. Go… God."

Danny raised his hands in surrender and then failed to hide his smile from him. "Alright, I'm sorry." The two of them walked towards his classic car, where Danny got into the passenger seat. "So what are you going to do with that?"

He meant the DNA sample he was clutching desperately in his hand. "I'm going to have Max run it right away," he said.

"Against what?" Danny asked.

"My blood," Steve answered.

"You… uh… you want to have Max run your DNA against Wo Fat's?" Danny asked as if it were the stupidest idea in the wold.

"That's right," Steve answered after clearing his throat.

Danny nodded as if thinking it over. "Why on earth would you do something like that?" he asked.

"Because I suspect that we might be half-brothers," Steve whispered. He didn't really wanna go over this but Danny wasn't going to shut up about it so he was going to have to.

"You and Wo Fat?" Danny asked. Clearly not following the thought process here.

"It's the only explanation I could come up with, okay?" Steve snapped. "Wo Fat, he's a sociopath, he's a terrorist, he had my father killed and yet my mother is protecting him. She's been protecting him the whole time. Why would she do that? I can't figure it out."

"But, just so I'm clear, you say he's a psychopath, he's a sociopath, so you just assume you two are brothers," Danny said with a sarcastic shrug of his shoulders. "Makes sense to me."

"I got nothing else. Give me something else!" Steve cried and Danny sighed deeply not liking that he had been put on the spot.

"Maybe your mother's just trying to protect you," Danny offered after some contemplation.

"From what?"

"Well, uh, the way I see it, this thing between you and Wo Fat, it ends two ways. Maybe three now that Rowan's involved," Danny said ignoring the clear wince of displeasure that crossed his face at the mention of Rowan. "One of those ways ends with you being dead. Uh, so maybe your mother, by visiting him in prison, she's trying to make peace. Maybe end the blood feud before someone else gets hurt."

Steve shook his head. "No."

"No," Danny echoed.

"Not my mother. You know Doris. She's up to something," Steve argued.

Danny just sighed. He then carefully turned to Steve and asked: "What does Rowan say about all of this."

Steve turned a dry glare to him and then busied himself with the keys to the car and struggling to get it into gear. "Shut up Danny. Just shut up."


	63. Chapter 63

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Alright guys, this is it. The last of it. The last major hump that Rowan and Steve will have to get over in this season… and yes that implies that there will be other humps in one of the following seasons (not season 5 though). After this chapter Steve is going to spiral, so be prepared for that, but it also marks the beginning of the end of several toxic relationships. The love triangle will be ending in the next 20 or so chapters. I can tell you that I just got to chapter 90 and I'm to episode 14, Rowan's birthday, and Steve doing something so adorable that if you don't go d'aww I've not done my job right. So bear with me, we're almost there! I swear! Next week we go back to our double updates but we got something special coming closer to the end of February so keep that in mind. See you guys Tuesday and don't forget to review!_

 _P.S. Don't worry JP, Wo Fat won't be going too far. We'll hear from him again._

Chapter 63 

* * *

Catherine had come out to the airport to be supportive but, honestly, she was feeling so betrayed right now. So, when Rowan got close to her, when she was certain Steve and Danny weren't looking, she grabbed Rowan's arm, pulled her into the shadows and shoved her against the hanger's wall as aggressively as she could. Rowan had guilt written all over her. Of course she did, she hadn't realized that Catherine was there, had witnessed her and Steve, the hug, the way they had almost kissed if Rowan hadn't pulled away in time.

It was a reminder that, while Rowan was effectively trying to keep her distance, Steve was not. And even then, both of them were finding reasons to see each other, finding reasons to be together. Almost like the two of them couldn't stand to be apart. Like they were magnetically attracted to one another.

Rowan stared up at her, neither woman had said anything, but she was cringing as if she expected a fight to break out. Maybe it would. But Catherine was going to try to be nice. Rowan had just saved her life that afternoon. She could have let Catherine take all the beatings, should could have used that network to leave Catherine behind, but she had chosen not to. So, Catherine was going to endeavour to not be too cruel.

"Look, I saw what just happened," she whispered. "Thank you for not kissing _my boyfriend_."

"I'm sorry," Rowan gushed. "I'm sorry. I'm trying. I am. But the visions… and Wo Fat… and I just needed a hug. It didn't matter from who. You could give me a hug and I'd be happy. A hug would be really great right now."

Rowan opened her arms as if to actually give Catherine a hug and Catherine moved away a look of disgust crossing her face before she forced it off. She didn't want to touch Rowan. She wanted her to go away.

"Of course, you're still having visions. Of course, Steve is too attached to you," Catherine said as if it made sense. "Neither of you are giving each other space."

"But… I moved out…" Rowan whispered.

"But it's not enough… is it?" Catherine tried not to snap at her.

"I'm trying, it's just… our path's keep crossing," Rowan mumbled avoiding Catherine's eyes.

"Yes, I know, because you're always around his friends," she said. "And then more you're around them the more visions you get and the more you interfere. Don't get me wrong. Thanks for all the help. Thank you for saving me. But I want you to be happy too, not just Steve. And right now, neither of you are happy."

Rowan glanced over her shoulder, if she peaked her head right out from behind the wall she could see him standing there talking to Danny. For a moment Catherine worried that Rowan would call her out on her lies, that she'd try to run to Steve who was still near-by. Luckily, she turned away from him and back to Catherine.

"What do you want me to do?" she asked. "Just stop helping?"

"No. But I'm thinking if you stop associating with them… with all of them… then you might stop having your visions. You could have a normal life. You could be happy. And Steve could let you go and be with me, like you said he was supposed to be," Catherine reminded her.

Rowan blinked her eyes. "You mean… stop talking to everyone? Danny, Chin, Kono?" she asked.

"And Max and Kamekona and whoever else you've gotten attached to." Catherine said.

Rowan frowned. "But they're my friends," she whispered.

"Make your own friends, have your own life. Stay with Alex, get a job, or go back to where you come from. I don't care, but stop hanging around my goddamn boyfriend," Catherine cried. "You're ruining everything. Can't you see that? Or do you just not care?"

Rowan blinked her eyes, tears welling up in her big baby blue eyes. If she thought she could blink her eyes and cry a bit and Catherine would change her mind she had another thing coming. Catherine wasn't weak like Steve. She was angry and she had finally had enough of Rowan and her bullshit.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, her voice thick with those unshed tears. "I'm not trying to ruin anything. Honest. I'm not. I'm just… lonely and they're my friends and… and…"

"If you actually cared about them. If you actually cared about Steve, you'd leave them all alone," Catherine growled. "You're just being selfish."

She left it there. Turning away and leaving Rowan there. Hoping that the words had actually affected her enough to make a change. To make her leave Steve alone. The next time they were all together she'd make sure Steve kissed her, no matter how much she hated that the gesture now felt empty and hollow. She would press herself into his side where she belonged and she would make sure that Rowan saw. That Rowan knew. That even though he had a fascination with her, Steve always wanted Catherine, always went back to her.

She had given Rowan all the chances Catherine could afford to give and then some. Now she was going to fight for him as hard and as dirty as she had to.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

The satellite phone rang and Kono picked it up.

"Hello?"

"Listen very carefully," Chin's frantic voice reached her. "There's been a security breach…."

"Yes, I know," Kono said, smiling to Adam who was driving their jeep through the jungle. "Rowan told us this morning."

This was met with silence and Kono tried not to smile. Poor Chin had probably been so worried and Rowan had beat him to it.

"Yeah, we turned the tables on the guys sent after us. They were sent by the Yakuza," she told him.

"Yes, that was our theory, that the NLM had sold your position to the Yakuza," Chin said.

"Look, we're fine. We've left the Zhejiang Province, we're going to find somewhere else to lay low," Kono told him. She caught Adam's eyes, and remembered the secondary info they had gotten from the one man left alive after the flawless ambush she and Adam had executed.

"That's not all we got, Chin," she told him. "It's about Rowan, we think she's in danger."

"Danger?" Chin echoed. "Naw she's fine, we rescued her from the NLM, she's good."

Rowan had been kidnapped again? Damn that girl had no fucking luck. "No, that's not what I mean. The Yakuza, they're heavily interested in her. They think she'll be useful in some way. They may go after her," she warned him.

"Thanks for the info, Kono," he said after a moment of silence. "And be safe."

"Okay, love you cuz," she said and then hug up the phone.

Adam smiled over to her. "You forgot to tell him your theory," he said and she groaned. That's right, she was going to tell Chin that she was 100% certain that Rowan was Canadian.

"Don't worry, we can tell him that later," Adam said. He smiled at her, and Kono found herself smiling right back at him.

"Is there nothing you can't do?" he asked. Well she had been pretty amazing. Fishing, fixing their car engine, seamlessly fitting into life on the run in the middle of a shack in a Chinese jungle.

"Cook and clean?" she said to him and he started to laugh. It was so infectious that she began to laugh too.

"Well that's a problem because neither can I," he admitted and her laughter got a little louder.

She gripped his hand and smiled at him as the made their way through the trees carefully in the power teal green jeep. "Where are we heading to now?"

"Hangchow," he answered immediately. Good, he had a direction. "About a hundred miles away."

"You think we'll be safe in the city?" she asked him. Not because she was questioning him but just because she was interested.

"I don't know," he admitted. "But it's got the closest airport."

"So, we're getting out of China?" she asked hoping her face and tone conveyed all the excitement she felt at being on the adventure with the man she loved.

"We're not," he whispered and then carefully looked her in the eye. "You are."

The smile fell right off her face. No, no he was not suggesting what she thought he was suggesting.

"Kono, come on, you saw those guys. If Rowan hadn't warned us, if we hadn't had a few hours a head of them it would have been a completely different situation. Rowan… she won't be able to warn us all the time," he said.

Okay, so Rowan had helped this time. That didn't mean she had to leave. They just had to be more careful, and they couldn't tell Five-0 where they were cause clearly it meant headquarters would be attacked, and Rowan would end up vomiting in the hallway plants.

"So, we fight them off," Kono snapped. "Like we did today."

"No, Kono," Adam argued. "There's no way too win this."

Kono just stared at him, willing him to see how much she didn't want to do this. "I'm not leaving you," she told him. He needed her to see how much it would hurt her if he made her go. How much he needed her with him as much as she needed him. "I didn't come this far to walk away from you."

"You're not listening to me!" he cried. "You say with me and we're both dead. It's just a matter of time. They'll find us sooner than later."

"So, we find them first," she said as seriously as she could.

Adam didn't seem to get it. "What are you saying?"

"We hit them before they hit us," she explained. "Hard. So, they don't get up."

Adam didn't seem to like that idea. But he saw the fire in her eyes, he saw the determination, he must have realized that she wouldn't leave. He was about to cave, she knew it. "I've never liked playing defense," she told him.

And that seemed to be it. He seemed to realize then that it would be harder to fight her on this because he finally sighed and said: "You're crazy, you know that?"

Yes. Yes, she was. Crazy for him. Crazy for believing in him. Crazy for believing this plan could work. Crazy in love with him.

She pulled him in for a kiss she held him there. She was not going to let him go. Not now. Not ever. She saw what it did to her boss and she was going to fight for the man she loved. For now, until forever.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

It had been a nice quiet day. The city was not filled with turmoil, so that meant McGarrett was detained somewhere else. This meant that Lou Grover could sit in his office and relax. He was still settling in Hawaii after all, yesterday had not been a good first day. It started off good, he loved getting thrown into the thick of things, but it was everything after that pissed him off.

But what was he going to do about McGarrett and Five-0? He obviously couldn't work with them, McGarrett was nuts.

The door to his office opened and jolted him out of his brainstorming. "Howdy Sam…" the woman in the doorway started and then trailed off as she looked at him. She must have been there to see the old S.W.A.T. captain.

"You're not Sam…" The woman said, trailing off. She took half a step out of the office and looked up at the sign and room number as if to confirm she was in the right place. She looked pleasant enough, with her waves of red and blonde hair, her black leggings and flowing blue tunic like shirt. Lou frowned at her, but noted that she was carrying a baker's box. He was always down for some free baked goods.

His guys had mentioned something about today being a good day, since he was a betting man, he'd bet money that this was what they were talking about. She looked familiar though he just couldn't place where he knew her from.

"Nope. I'm Lou Grover, the new Captain. How may I help you?" he asked realizing that he hadn't said anything in an unacceptable amount of time.

The girl looked confused. "Funny, Sam didn't tell me he was leaving," she whispered. She seemed to think about it for a moment, a frown donned her pink lips and then she shrugged it off. "Oh well. I'm Rowan. I get in trouble a lot and the guys tend to have to come rescue me, so since I'm such a bother I bring cupcakes in once a week. These were for Sam and his little girls, but if you like cupcakes you can have them."

Who the hell didn't like cupcakes?

"Well, I know my kids would love these," he said standing to accept the books.

"Alright, well that's one set of advance apology cupcakes delivered. Nice to meet you Lou," she said shaking his hands. A bolt of static electricity flew up his arm and Rowan's eyes rolled back a bit into her skull. Whatever the hell was going on it didn't affect her long because she regained her composure shook her head clear and then smiled widely at him.

"Be nice to Commander McGarrett, he's brash but he means well," she said. Commander McJackass? She knew him? And like hell he was going to play nice with that jerk. "Anyway, I better go, you're gonna have a busy day today."

Lou watched her leave, his eyes narrowed with distrust. Well what the hell did that mean?

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Danny smiled at his new car. The beautiful black Camaro that had just come in. He couldn't… _could not…_ wait to drive this beauty. He just couldn't.

He had purposely left Steven Control-Freak McGarrett inside while he hashed things out with his girlfriend over the ex-boyfriend that just showed up at the office a couple of hours before begging Steve to convince Catherine to quit the Navy and join the ex's new job. If he was smart, he wouldn't let that happen.

He whistled appreciatively at his car as he paced up and down the length of it. He just could not wait to share this with Steve. Whenever he decided to get his butt down here.

And then he was there, a smirk on his face and a strut to his step. Well that meant things with Catherine went well.

"Look at this," he said to Steve once he got into earshot. "Look what arrived. Beautiful, huh?"

"Looks nice," Steve agreed. And then snatched the key out of Danny's hands. He was in the driver's seat before Danny could even complain. Shooting a quick: "Let's go!" over his shoulder. The fucking sneaky bastard.

Danny stood there for a bit before slowly making his way to the passenger side as he muttered to himself. The engine revved and he sighed. At least it sounded good. He opened up the car door and leant over to ask: "You're not gonna let me drive my new car?"

Steve said nothing, he just stared at him and revved the engine a few more times. Danny sighed and got into the car. "You're a real jerk, you know that?" he snapped but Steve said fuck all. He just drove away. Danny sat quietly in the car until the gears started to grind.

"You're grinding the thing," he groaned.

"I'm not grinding the thing," Steve argued. "What are you talking about? This thing is an animal. Let me tell you about it. Zero to sixty in under five. Under five, okay? Takes corners like it's stuck on the road. It's a dream. I love this car!"

Well wasn't that just great? See Danny liked the car too, that's why he wanted to own it, that's why he was looking forward to driving it himself. "Are you enjoying yourself?" Danny growled.

Steve turned a smile to him, one akin to the kind a kid got in a toy store. "I am. I am," he confirmed. Danny couldn't help but smile too. Alright, so it was kinda great that Steve looked truly happy. The last time Steve had been truly happy… well… Rowan had woken up and told him that she had feelings for him.

"Okay, good. Are you enjoying yourself as much as you enjoyed having that conversation with your girlfriend's ex-boyfriend?" he asked. Better than talking about Rowan, as she always found a way to come back up.

Steve's glance at him told him that he didn't like the turn the conversation took. Oh well, that's what he got for stealing his fucking car… again.

"What are you talking about? Billy… Billy's opening a private security firm, okay?" Steve said to him. "He heard Catherine was leaving the Navy. He wants to offer her a job. He came to me out of respect to make sure it was okay."

Danny listened with rapt interest. "Aha!" he said. He knew where that conversation ended in real life. And it was not good for Steve. Danny was really rooting for Catherine and Steve to go the distance, and not just because he bet on them in the pool the rest of the Five-0s had going on who Steve would end up with. "Okay, well, uh, I'm gonna just take a stab here. Did he tell you that offering her the job had nothing to do with their past relationship, all due respect to you, and that she's the only person for the position?"

Steve nodded, confusion on his face. "Yes, that's actually exactly what he said."

Danny turned forward again. "Ha. That's funny," he said as sarcastically as he could possibly manage. "Did he also say that you should convince her to take the job? Which, by the way, is a terrible idea."

Steve shot a glance to him. Now he just looked mad. "Wait, wait, stop, stop," he ordered. "Billy's a solid guy."

" _Guy_ being the operative word here," Danny reminded him. Ready to launch into one of his patented lectures. "The guy who is gonna be working long, hard hours with your beautiful, intelligent, sexy, attractive girlfriend."

Okay, so he kept that one on the shorter side because he didn't want Steve to complain. Steve scoffed him. "Danny, Billy and I served together. We saw action together. He's all about integrity and character." he told him. Like that mattered. If Billy wanted Catherine there wasn't nothing in his past with Steve that would stop him from making a move on Steve's girlfriend. Especially silly little things like integrity and character.

"That is exactly why it is a terrible idea," Danny told him.

"That doesn't make any sense," Steve snapped.

"You see, that is why you will never see it coming, pal," Danny said. "You are complacent, okay? You need to fortify your position. At all times, at all times, you need to protect your queen like, uh, chess."

Steve made that squinting face, the one he made right before he corrected one of Danny's brilliant metaphors. "No, not like in chess, Danny," he snapped. Oh, here we go. "In chess, the queen is a fighting piece and you use her to protect the king. What are you talking about?"

Yes. Danny knew that. But that was not what Catherine was going to do. Catherine never did that. She didn't fight for Steve, she backed him up but she never went to war for him. Not the way Danny, or Chin or Kono did. Not the way Rowan would have… back before Wo Fat turned her into a perky carbon-copy of himself.

"Okay. It was a metaphor. It was a metaphor for you losing the best thing that ever happened to you," Danny explained. He shouldn't have had to but there you go.

Steve sighed. "There's nothing to worry about. Catherine turned the job down," he said, his voice flat. Clearly, he decided not to argue with him anymore. Danny loved it when Steve resigned himself to his lectures. It made everything easier.

"Good. Her decision?" he asked.

"Yeah, I told her to take the job," Steve said and then shot Danny an appraising look to see if he'd catch flack for that, but Danny was smiling. This was good news.

"Very good. Her decision. Makes you look like the confident, understanding boyfriend," Danny said with a grin. Confidence was abundant in Steve, it was the understanding part he lacked. So long as he could line the situation up to make it look like he was understanding then they were golden. "Everything is good."

Danny nodded. That was it. End of discussion.

"She's gonna need a job, Danny," Steve said.

Well there was that discussion open again.

"We'll get her a job," Danny said. "You know, there's gotta be a testosterone-free workplace somewhere on this island. I mean, we'll get her a job at a convent, nice women's charity, sell donuts, I don't know. Something."

He was getting that look from Steve again. The one where Steve didn't know if Danny was being sarcastic or serious. If asked Danny would say sarcastic, and probably add in a _you putz_ , but in reality he was serious. If Catherine got around normal guys, not in the navy type guys, guys that weren't hung up on a time-travelling-future-seeing-wanna-be-assassin, Catherine would dump Steve in a heartbeat.

"The point is, it is good that she did not take that job," Danny reiterated again. While Steve just stared at him with that same look. "Trust me. Trust me! As your friend, I know these things."

Steve went quiet again and then Danny turned to him. "You ready to talk about that little hand off between you and Max this morning?"

Steve had ducked him earlier but he wasn't going to let that happen again. Steve sighed, this time a sigh of frustration. He inhaled sharply and said: "I got the DNA test back."

"Okay? And?" Danny asked.

Steve pulled the crumpled-up paper out of his pocket and handed it to him. Danny opened it up carefully and then stared at it.

"Okay. So, he's not your brother," Danny said as he looked at the paper. "I feel like this is a good thing? Why isn't this a good thing?"

Steve turned that dry glare on him again and Danny nodded. "Ah, cause Rowan was right," he said. "You hate it when she's right."

Steve scoffed again. "Uh, no. That is not why. It's not good because my mother is up to something and I can't figure out what. I just wish to hell that I knew what it was."

Danny knew he was going to regret this. He knew it, but it didn't matter. He was gonna do it anyway. "You know, there's a way we can find out."

"How? My mother's not back from China and if Rowan's right…" Steve trailed off and shot another look at Danny. "I am not asking Rowan."

"Why not?" Danny cried. "She's right! She's always right. Just ask her. Ask her and if she's wrong okay, but she's never been wrong so I think you'll get your answers."

"I am not asking Rowan," Steve repeated.

"Why, cause your mother pulled a gun on her?" Danny asked. "We can protect her from your mother if we have to."

"Because, Danny, I feel like we're tempting fate," he whispered.

"Naw you just don't want to face her after she shot you down," Danny said. The face Steve made after that was worth it. Total revenge for him stealing his brand-new car before he could even drive it once. And then they spent the rest of the time in the car in silence. So all-in-all it was a win for team Danny.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Two nights after Wo Fat left the island, a day after getting confirmation that Wo Fat wasn't his blood brother and a few hours after finding a missing daughter, Alex had a pretty major gig. Usually Steve wouldn't have given a damn about Alex and his band. But Danny and Chin were going to support Rowan who was apparently singing backup vocals and Steve had invited himself along. Despite the fact that both men had tried to talk him out of it. He briefly contemplated bringing Catherine with him, but then he couldn't try to kiss Rowan again so he didn't tell her about it.

He arrived at the club, found where Danny and Chin were sitting with their beers and sat down with them. They nodded to him, both a little put off that he was there, but Steve couldn't have cared less. He wanted to see Rowan. He wanted to hear the lyrics that she had given Alex, wanted to watch her sing and pretend that she was his just for a little bit.

When they got onto the stage, the front tables, all filled with girls, started screaming. Okay, so they had a fanbase, this was good. And then they were playing and Steve couldn't take his eyes off Rowan who was wearing a black racer-back tee, distressed dark jeans, and had way too much eyeliner and wildly tousled hair. She looked like a rock-and-roll goddess.

 _I pray for the wicked on the weekend. Mama, can I get another amen?_

Her voice still haunted him. It shouldn't have been Alex's band. It should have been hers. Why the hell did she not want the lime light? Why did she want to be in the back?

They played three more songs. Girls were screaming for Alex and when they were done, Rowan carefully made her way to the back where the boys were waiting.

"Good job, little sista," Chin said pulling her into a hug. Rowan hugged him back tightly as if she were afraid to let him go.

"I didn't like a single song but you sounded amazing," Danny said as she hugged him with the same intensity.

"You're a really good singer. I'm surprised you're not keeping these songs for yourself," Steve said when she turned to him. He went to hug her but Rowan backed away. There was something on her face. Something scary. Some sort of angry determination but her eyes, they were full of pain and sadness. He didn't know what it was but it put a fear into his stomach. Something bad was going to happen.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, her tone clipped and angry.

"I came to support you," he told her, he couldn't understand why she was so mad at him.

"I didn't ask you to come here," she snapped.

"Well no…" he admitted but Rowan cut him off.

"I don't want you here," she cried.

Steve jerked like she had slapped him. She might as well have fucking stabbed him in the heart. He recovered quickly, dressing the pain up as anger and getting into her face. "What the fuck is your problem?"

"You!" she screamed. "You're my problem. Stop fucking following me! Stop getting other people to follow me! Just leave me alone!"

Steve found himself just staring at her. She was doing what he did. She was pushing him away. Had he gotten too close? Was this because he tried to kiss her? He apologized for that, she made sure it didn't happen. It was more embarrassing for him than for her. But if she wasn't careful, she was going to actually push him away.

"God, you're so pathetic. Get over me already," she scoffed.

That was it. That was what did it.

"Oh, you think I want you? You're a fucking child! You can't make up your mind, you're obsessed with an emo boy band singer who seems more interested in those groupies than you and your only other friend is a criminal on his way to maximum security facility in fucking Colorado! You're not all that great yourself!" he shouted back.

"Oh wow, is that all you got?" she asked crossing her arms over her chest.

"Okay, this is going a bit too far," Chin said standing up. "Look it's been a hard day…"

"Oh, shut up, I didn't want you guys here either!" she snapped to him and Chin blinked his eyes at her. She had never been so rude to him before. He cocked an eyebrow at her, clearly unimpressed but he said nothing. This wasn't like Rowan. Not the Rowan they knew. No one knew what was happening.

"Okay, what the fuck is going on Rowan?" Danny asked. "What the hell is your problem?"

"I want you all to stop following me. All you guys ever want from me is visions. And if you don't want visions your fucking spying on me for Commander McStalker over here," she snapped point at Steve who scoffed. "I want my own life. I want you guys to go away. Go away and let me be normal."

"You're not normal. You're a freak," Steve snapped. "Why don't you do us all a favour and jump back into that void you came out of and never fucking coming back. Cause we don't want you here either."

He saw the comment land, he saw it knock the anger right out of her. She was just glaring at him now, arms crossed, tears forming in her eyes. It was a low blow because he knew she couldn't go back, no matter how hard she tried. But she wasn't going to back down so he wasn't going to apologize either.

"Be careful what you wish for," she growled and then walked away from him, heading back towards Alex and the crowd of scantily clad girls he had attracted.

So, Steve did the same. He didn't wait for Danny or Chin. He walked out, his stomach roiling. He got two steps out of the front door and threw up in a near-by bush. He coughed until his stomach settled. He felt those walls coming back up. He couldn't trust anyone. He wasn't going to trust anyone with his heart every again.

She wanted him gone. Fine. He was gone. But if she got in his way again. If she caused any issues. Even the smallest fucking thing. She was going to experience the extreme force of Hawaii Five-0. Extreme prejudice. No more Commander McNice guy for her.


	64. Chapter 64

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: HEY GUYS! So, this chapter is a little bit of filler to see how everyone's doing. As I'm the queen of angst… well… there's gonna be a whole bunch of angst. BUT! It's not all bad. We have Rowan starting to straighten out her life, find her own source of income and starting to chase her dreams a bit. (Keep in mind Rowan has never been alone, she's always been with Trevor, and when not with Trevor she was with her friend Sarah or her parents so this is like a BIG DEAL). I'm also going start a count down. IN 9 UPDATES Y'ALL ARE GONNA GET TO READ THE FIRST OF SOMETHING! I'm making it a much bigger deal than it is, but as it's their first proper one I thought it might be fun to count down to when we get it. ALSO we got something big coming as of Feb 14th, be prepared people! See you Friday and don't forget to review!_

Chapter 64 

* * *

A week had gone by since she dropped all contact with the Five-0's. A week where she clung to Alex like glue because she had no one else. A week where she stared at her phone and wished she had text messages from the people who used to be her friends. A week where she wrote the most songs she had ever written in her life.

A week that almost ended her and Alex because she drove him up the wall because even though she was no longer talking to Steve she was still dreaming about him. Still dreaming about terrorists cutting off his head, of him and Danny getting stuck in a collapsed building. Steve getting shot. Chin being tortured and emancipated by a man with dominance issues. Kono's throat slit by Yakuza.

The nightmares got worse. And Alex didn't like being woken up every night cause his girlfriend was screaming another man's name. Especially if that name was Steve.

Alex no longer feigned understanding. He just wanted it all to stop, so she stopped talking to him about the dreams. She'd merely apologize and combine it with some sort of sexual act to mollify him. Usually a blow job. He loved her blowjobs.

But even though he was constantly upset with her, Alex still tried his very hardest to be a good boyfriend. Which was how, before going in for an audition with Atlantic Records, he was dropping her off at Governor Denning's office.

"I'll call you when we're done, sound good," he said as he leant in for a kiss. Rowan accepted it quickly and then hopped out of the band's van.

She wished them luck and then rushed into the town hall. She glanced around at her surroundings wondering if Steve could be lurking around any corners. She both dreaded and relished the thought of seeing him again.

It took a lot of willpower to remind herself that she needed to be strong. She couldn't run back to Steve whenever she was lonely or missed him.

She got to the Governor's office and let herself in. He was on the phone at the time, was slightly startled by her appearance, but when she just calmly sat down in one of the chairs in front of his desk, he adverted his eyes from her and continued to talk as if she wasn't there.

Once the phone call was done he pinned her with a stern glare and a sigh. "You know, I find it quite odd that you always end up in my office after you end things with McGarrett. What is this… the third time now? Ended things with the whole Five-0 team this time though… or so I heard," he said. Rowan blanched how had he known that? Why did he even care? "You gotta give that poor boy a break, I swear he's going to go crazy if you keep doing this to him."

Rowan shook her head. That wasn't important. Steve didn't need her, and he wasn't going crazy. He was just fine without her. They all were.

"It was necessary," Rowan tried to wave off but Denning was far from impressed.

"I doubt it, the boy's gonna get himself killed at the rate. He's been even more reckless since you cut him out… again!" Denning snapped. Even _more_ reckless? For god's sake was that even possible? "What do I have to pay you to fix this?"

"Sorry, not fixable," she said. "But I did come for a favour."

"Of course, you need a favour," Denning sighed. "You don't have the Five-0s anymore, Wo Fat's in Colorado so I'm all you have left."

The two of them stared at each other. Rowan didn't know what to say, it was true, obviously, but this wasn't going the way she wanted it to go.

"So what do you want?" he asked.

"A reference," she answered. "For my resume. Cause… well… I need one. I can't ask any of the Five-0's and… uh… well… I don't think an international criminal is a good reference… you know?"

Sam Denning just stared at her before a smile broke out on his face. "A reference? You're here for a reference? What job are you going for?"

"Uhm… well… all sorts, you know? I want to build up my experience," she said.

"Let's see that resume," he ordered. Rowan had expected this though so she brought it out of her purse and handed it to him. He chuckled at it. "I see you already have me down."

"I haven't handed it out yet, I wanted permission first," she said.

"It's quite sparse," he said. "No schooling, no previous experience, how do you plan to explain that?"

Rowan sighed. "I don't know. I plan to start small and go from there," she admitted.

He nodded. "That's a good plan," he said. "You know what, I can do one more than giving you a reference, I can give you a starter job. Tomorrow, you can be my receptionist. If you do good work, I'll keep you on a temp, you can fill in when we need it."

"Wow, really?" she cried with a big grin on her face. That was more than she bargained for. "I'd love that."

"Good, it will also help me give you an actually actuate reference," he said. "I take it that was all?"

Rowan nodded. She knew a dismissal when she heard one. She thanked him again and rushed out of the office. She wanted to call Alex and tell him it worked, but he was probably still in the audition. And with her songs she knew that they would be getting signed today. She went to the closest Starbucks, feeling good enough about herself and her situation that she felt like she could justify a six dollar sugary coffee concoction.

She didn't even get to the front of the line before her phone rang and Alex was demanding that she meet him and the van at the curb where he had dropped her off. She left Starbucks-less and more than disappointed but also excited to hear how the audition went. But once she got there she saw that it had not gone well.

"What happened?" she asked as soon as she was sitting in the front seat beside Alex.

"They were just a bunch of fascist sell outs who didn't understand our music," Alex snapped to her and Rowan frowned.

She wanted to say: "But they loved my songs before when I sang them," but she couldn't bring up the alternative reality she came from when Alex assumed that she had let that "delusion" go and she was perfectly sane except for the psychic visions. So instead she said: "Those bastards," to him winning her a bit of a grin from him.

"Well you have the EP almost ready to go, we'll advertise the hell out of it, maybe I can get a few more upscale gigs, and make them beg to sign us," she said giving him a stern nod. This won her a cheer from Alex and his band mates and Rowan forced herself to smile and keep her own good news to herself. She didn't want to see crass by flaunting her own successful endeavour, plus Alex hadn't asked.

But while they all complained around her about the unfairness of the music world and how they didn't really want good music around to compete with the pop garbage they were funding, Rowan was thinking of a plan. A way to make Atlantic Records sign her again. They had done it before, she was sure she could get them to do it again.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Two and half weeks had gone by since Rowan had left their lives. Steve was an emotional wreck, easy to snap, the first to throw a punch and twice as reckless as he usually was. Chin was sulky, missing both Kono and Rowan and well Danny… Danny couldn't care less about what Rowan was doing. Though everyone complained that he was twice as grumpy and sarcastic as before. She wanted to write them all off, fine. She can be an ungrateful brat, he didn't give a shit. But she better not come crying to them the second she got herself into trouble again.

Until Grace called him crying because Rowan had not gone to the Aloha Girls meeting. In fact, according to their Troop Leader, Rowan had quit. She was no longer responding to Grace's texts or phone calls and his daughter didn't know what she had done wrong. And that was when Danny got mad. Cutting him off was one thing, but why Grace?

Rowan was going to get one stern talking to, whether she wanted it or not.

Danny pounded on the door. He didn't care who answered so long as someone answered. He waited a few seconds before he pounded again. He then listened carefully to the sounds behind the door. He heard a soft shuffling, and an even softer whisper.

"Open the fucking door, Rowan!" he shouted at the wood and after the locks turned the door opened and a scowling Rowan was staring at him.

"You could at least have given me a chance to open the door," she said sulkily. Danny ignored her and pushed past her and into the apartment. Rowan sarcastically snapped: "Come on in."

"I have a bone to pick with you!" he snapped pointing at her. "Where's the clueless nurse?"

" _Alex_ ," she clarified. "He's at work. What do you want Daniel?"

"Don't you fucking _Daniel_ me! You didn't go the Aloha Girl's meeting last night, why?" he asked. Rowan's eyes fell to the ground. She looked upset. "I get you're mad at Steve. I get you're mad at me, but Grace loves seeing you and you're avoiding her now too."

"Because I have to," she whispered.

"You _have_ to?" Danny snapped. "No you fucking don't. Steve's not going to come anywhere near you, he's so mad if he sees you again he'll arrest you on sight. But my daughter doesn't know that. All she knows is that her favourite Auntie Ro won't go to Aloha Girls anymore or pick up her calls."

"I know, But she said… and I can't… and I just… I just had to okay?" she cried. She had tears in her eyes that were starting to flow down her cheeks. "I had to do something! She was so mad. And she was right about Steve and me and I tried to argue but she's scary and she said EVERYONE and I mean _everyone_ and I miss Grace and I miss you and I miss Steve and I miss Chin. I miss Kono and Adam and going to the food truck. I hate Alex's friends. I hate that I only go to band practices and I hate how his groupies look at me like I'm nothing or ugly or undeserving. I hate it. But I have to cause if I don't I'll make things worse so stop making it so hard for me!"

She was crying now. She wiped away her tears stubbornly and Danny stared at her. A lot of information was shouted at him right there. There were a lot of things to pick up on. Most importantly was that whatever had happened earlier that week had not been because she wanted to, someone had made her. The problem was who. Who told her to kick everyone out of her life? Danny had a theory but for her sake he better be wrong.

"Okay. So someone made you stop seeing all of us. Right?" Danny asked and Rowan blanched. "That's what I got from that."

"I can't talk about it Danny," she said.

"Yes you can. And you better. Or I'll hand cuff you to me and take you to work," he threated. "You wanna come to work with me and see Steve?"

"Danny, please," she cried, those tears forming again. "I'm trying to not make things worse. I'm trying to make everyone happy!"

"Rowan! Who told you to stop talking to us? Tell me!" he shouted.

"CATHERINE!" she shouted right back at him and then they stood there in the weighted silence of her confession. She caught her breath and wiped her tears away. "Look… she had every right to be mad at me. She saw what happened at the airport. She saw Steve almost kissed me. She brought up some good points."

"Fucking Catherine Rollins shouldn't determine who the fuck you choose to spend your time with," Danny growled.

"But she was right. I can't move on, Steve can't move on and all because I keep hovering. I shouldn't be friends with you or Chin, because then I'm infringing on Steve's life," she told him. Clearly she had bought that pack of lies, which was ridiculous to him because she didn't ever listen to him or Steve. But she'd listen to Catherine? It made no sense to him. "But I didn't know how to say that to you guys without flat out saying: _Yeah Catherine said I can't play with you guys anymore_. That would make her the bad guy and she's not."

"Yeah, but that made you the bad guy," Danny growled.

Rowan avoided his eyes and wrung his hands. "I thought it would make things easier for everyone," she admitted.

"That is the stupidest thing I ever heard," Danny snapped. "What about you? You deserve to be happy as well, Rowan."

Rowan looked away from him like she didn't want to tell him that she didn't believe that. Well, fuck this. He couldn't spend all his time making sure Rowan knew she deserved to be happy. This wasn't a one mad job. He needed support here. He needed to tell Chin what happened, Chin would understand, forgive her and help him out. But most importantly, he needed to tell Steve what his girlfriend had done.

"You can't tell him," Rowan said as if she were reading his mind. Danny scowled at her. "You can't. It'll ruin everything and she'll be twice as mad at me."

Danny sighed. Of course it would ruin things. Steve would be livid that Rowan did all of that just because his girlfriend got a little pissy. Maybe then Steve would just fucking admit to Rowan that he liked her, that he wanted to date her and the two of them would stop doing this crazy dance around each other. Of course Danny would lose out on that bet to Kono, but Kono had won all their other bets so it essentially it wasn't that bad to his already dinged pride. And Steve and Rowan's happiness was more important than him winning what should have been an easy five hundred dollars.

But Rowan looked so upset and worried that Danny knew he wasn't going to tell Steve. Rowan would probably have a heart attack and end up back in the hospital, and Steve probably wouldn't say anything to her and choose to stare at her from a far instead.

"Alright, here's the deal," Danny said. "You're not going to avoid me anymore. You're gonna continue going to Aloha Girls, you're gonna return Grace's calls and I won't tell Steve what happened it can be our little secret."

"She was very clear…" Rowan started.

"Catherine Rollins doesn't get to decide who I see, Rowan. And she sure as hell doesn't get to dictate who Grace gets to hang out with," Danny snapped. "You are my friend. Do you understand? You are my friend and I want you in my life. Alright?"

Rowan was crying again. He knew she wasn't sad, she was just happy, or relieved to not have this carry that weight around on her own anymore. She suddenly hugged him, and he almost chuckled at her as he hugged her back.

"I'm sorry," she sobbed into his shoulder.

Danny patted her back. "It's okay, Ro. I forgive you," he said to her. "But call Grace."

Rowan smiled weakly at him as she wiped her tears away. "Okay, I'll go shoot her a text, let me get my phone."

Danny watched her go. He had just entered a very dangerous territory, one that was going to be filled with lies and subterfuge. He was going to become a McGarrett all spies and lies, tricks and treason. And possibly a dash of betrayal if and when Steve ever found out what he was doing. He was going to have to keep this secret. He'd have no choice. Because if he told Steve what happened, Rowan was right, it would ruin everything. Steve would lose his damn mind, Catherine would probably beat her up and Danny didn't want to deal with that.

He was in a bad position, obviously. But he'd deal with it. He'd deal with it because Rowan needed someone other than Alex. Because Grace wanted Rowan in her life, and if he had to admit it, he actually kinda liked having Rowan around. She was loyal but reasonable, kind of like how he wished Steve was.

He'd make this work. He'd keep _this_ secret. Everything was going to be fine.

So long as Steve didn't find out.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve woke up to an empty bed and found himself frowning. Ro… no Catherine should have been with him. That was who he had gone to bed with last night. She may not have been on his mind as he fell asleep, he may not have dreamed of her, but she was the one he had taken to bed. She was the one he had rocked the world of before they fell asleep last night.

She should have been there. It was too early for her to have gone anywhere. Steve sighed and forced himself up and out of his bed. There was no urgency in finding her, not like there should have been, not like there was those times he woke up and Rowan was gone.

Fucking Rowan.

Four weeks of no contact and he was still no better. She still ran circles around his mind. Comparing Catherine to her. Thinking about her and what she could be doing at that moment. The answer was always Alex and he hated thinking about someone else in her, on her or touching her. Dreaming about her and the perfect life they could have had if he had just been smart enough or brave enough to tell her how he felt, or if she had just let go of Wo Fat.

Steve made his way downstairs and found Catherine on his lanai. Just sitting and staring off at the sunrise and the water. She was sitting in Rowan's chair again. God, he needed to move that fucking chair.

"Morning," he said as he leant against the back of the chair.

Catherine smiled up to him and whispered a: "Good Morning" back to him.

"You nervous about today?" he asked.

Catherine was quiet for a moment before saying: "I just can't believe after so many years, today's the last day that I'm going to be putting on a uniform."

Steve sighed again. He felt bad. He sort of knew what she was going through but he had something to fall back on. Not as great as what Catherine had, but at least he had something. "I'm not gonna lie to you and tell you it's an easy transition because it's not, okay" he said, because it was true, it wasn't easy. "But you're gonna be fine."

Catherine said nothing but just turned her eyes back up to him. Steve tried to look into her eyes but it made his stomach roil and he felt the grimace coming up on his face so he looked out to the waves to calm himself. "I mean, you should be excited. This is… this is like a new chapter in your life. It's the beginning of a new adventure."

He clapped a hand to her shoulder and then walked around the chair so she didn't have to crane her neck to look at him. She eyed him carefully before asking: "Are you sure it doesn't bother you?"

Steve had a feeling he knew what she was asking but he still countered with his own question: "What?"

"Billy being my new boss?" she reminded him.

Ah yes. He was right. That was what she was worried about. They had talked about this before. About how she was worried about working with Billy. About how Steve would feel. About how she was worried it would send him straight back to Rowan. Rowan's temper tantrum, the kicking of the Five-0's out of her life, had put an end to Catherine's worries about Rowan. Not Steve's, of course, but at least Catherine was at ease.

Now she only worried about how he was going to react with her working with an ex for a boss. God he should have cared a little more. Like Really. But he had to put on a show for her.

"Why, because he's your ex?" he asked. Catherine gave him a knowing smirk, one that told him she kind of wanted him to freak out over this. Well too bad, he was too tired for this. "No, it doesn't bother me. I'm fine."

There was on a beat of silence between that confession and her smothered giggles. "You're lying, you're totally lying," she said with this big huge grin on her face.

Steve found himself smiling too. Well alright then, if that was what it took to make her smile like that then he could do that. He could make at least one girl in his life happy. "Well, of course I'm lying," he said to her. "Look, I trust you, okay? That's all I need. Okay?"

Catherine nodded at him. She mumbled out a soft good. He waited. Waited to see if she'd say something like _we'll you'd freak out more if it were Rowan,_ but it thankfully never came. She got up instead, put her arms around his neck and moved in to kiss him. Except his phone started ringing. Saved by the case!

Exactly what he needed right now. Something to take his mind off of everything.

"I gotta get that," he told her.

She groaned but whispered: "Yeah I know," to him before she pulled his lips to hers. The kiss was soft and quick and then Steve was rushing off.

"I'll call you later," he shot his shoulder and then disappeared into the house to change. All he needed was proper change of clothes and he'd be on his way to another distraction.


	65. Chapter 65

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hey guys! Sorry it's late! For those people who like Catherine, you're not gonna like the end of the chapter. Let's just say someone is gonna get a major lecture. So guys, we're 8 more updates away from someone's first that I'm really excited for! And we're 6 days away from a SURPRISE! You guys got a lot coming for you! Don't forget to tell me what you think about this chapter!_

Chapter 65

* * *

Chin found Danny, or maybe Danny found him, not that it mattered. He was in a sour mood. This case was a sombre one. A child had lost its parents over whatever these people were looking for, which meant a stronger drive, particularly from Danny, to get this one solved as soon as possible. That and his phone call wasn't a good one either.

"What's up?" Danny asked him as soon as Chin looked up from his phone.

"Nothing, I just got off the phone with Kono," he answered. He didn't really want to go into detail about how he missed his cousin and he felt basically the odd man out. Steve had Danny, Chin had Kono, but with Kono gone… well he still had Steve and Danny, but he didn't have the Danny to his Steve, or the Steve to his Danny. He and Kono could never agree on which one they were.

"Yeah, is she okay?" Danny asked already concerned.

Chin nodded. "Yeah, she and Adam just made it to Hong Kong so they're safe for now," Chin said. "But she had this odd phone call from Rowan and now she's not picking up. And since Kono so stressed about everything right now I didn't have the heart to tell her that Rowan cut us all out, which I guess meant her too."

Danny nodded. He did that thing where he half pivoted to look around him before making sure that he was alone. Oh. He had a secret. It must have been a Rowan one. Kono loved Rowan Secrets, they were her favourite to sniff out and to keep.

"I uh… I actually just found out why that happened," Danny said in a soft whisper.

Chin's eyebrows shot up. "You did? When?" he asked.

"Yeah… I uh… I kind of accosted her two weeks back," he admitted. He had? He thought that was _just_ finding out? Why hadn't he told Chin earlier? Oh god that didn't bode well.

"Okay, well… spill… what is her big issue with us?" Chin asked.

"Uh… nothing… she has no problem with any of us," Danny said. Chin blinked his eyes, well that made absolutely no fucking sense.

"Well then… what the fuck is her problem?" Chin cried. Danny shushed him and he nodded. Whatever he was going to say next was going to be big, he could tell by the twinkle in Danny's eyes. Chin hoped his outburst didn't draw Steve.

"She was… uh… coerced into dropping us as friends," Danny whispered.

Chin blinked his eyes… she had what? Someone had actually forced Rowan to do something? Well damn, that was a feat in itself. But who would force her to stop talking to the only people she was close with… _oh._

"Catherine," Chin breathed out and Danny nodded. Chin frowned. "She had no right to do that!"

"That is what I said," Danny cried throwing his hands up in the air.

"Rowan has no one else on this island, what the hell did Catherine expect her to do?" Chin asked.

"She read Rowan this garbage about how she and Steve can't get over one another if Rowan is always hovering around us and helping us. Made her feel so bad about the situation that Rowan agreed to cut us all out and actually went through with it," Danny said with a sigh.

Chin shook his head. "Jeezus. Who would have thought that she could be that cruel?" he asked. He thought briefly about the situation before turning to Danny and saying: "So when are you going to tell Steve?"

Danny scoffed. "Oh hell no," he snapped. "No, do you know what he'd do? That freak out would shake the island and Rowan nearly had an aneurism when I hinted at the idea. I'm thinking I let him figure it out on his own, or let Catherine slip up or Rowan let it slip. Then neither of us have to deal with it."

"Until Steve finds out we knew all along," Chin reminded him. But Danny just waved that away. Great, okay, so they were going to have to out stealth McGarrett. He wasn't even sure that was possible.

"Look, the best thing we can do right now is keep our head in the game," Danny said and Chin nodded.

"Yeah. All right, so Van Horne's insurance company sent over photos of all the valuables in their home. CSU's cross-checking it against everything at the scene," he said to Danny as he led him over to their brand-new smart table.

"Alright, so if something was stolen we'll know soon enough," Danny summed up and Chin nodded again.

"You know… do you think that maybe Rowan caved a little too easily on the whole dropping us thing?" Chin asked. It was out of the blue but he couldn't help but wonder if maybe, a little piece of Rowan wanted them out of her life.

"You know, I thought that too, but Rowan… she's like Steve. She does everything to make other people happy and I think, in her own way she was trying to make us happier because _someone_ made her believe that her presence was putting a strain on all our relationships," Danny said.

Chin nodded, yeah that sounded like Rowan. And it sounded like Steve too. "Keeping this from him will be hard, Danny," he said to him and Danny sighed.

"Yeah I know. But if Rowan can isolate herself in a misguided attempt to make us happy, we can keep this a secret from Steve," Danny said. And Chin agreed. He could do this. He was definitely going to have a talk with her about never doing that ever again. And then he was going to make her call Kono before she left Adam in Hong Kong to find out what happened to Rowan. Oh, actually, maybe he wanted Kono to do that. Yeah, maybe he won't have her call Kono… just yet anyway.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Chin played with his phone, looking at Rowan's contact. He was in the middle of a dangerous game. It may have been easy for Danny to go behind Steve's back, but Chin knew all about McGarrett and his laser focus. A laser focus that was directed right at Rowan, sooner or later he'd figure it out simply because the he was obsessed with Rowan. Chin also felt that Steve had the right to know what Catherine had done. This was information he needed to hear, and not from him and Danny but from Rowan herself.

But Rowan was on her own. Which was another issue. Rowan didn't have anyone. And Chin didn't trust Alex. The tirade he threw at Steve, when they had been waiting to find out the outcome of Rowan's surgery, had not been welcomed. Steve didn't deserve that verbal attack and even if Alex thought he did there was a time and place. And it wasn't while they were waiting to hear whether or not Rowan would survive.

To be fair, Chin and Rowan hadn't been all that close. Steve sort of hogged all of her attention all of the time. But after her coming to break him out of prison and how well they worked together during that NLM attack he felt a lot closer to her now. At least it was confirmed that she liked and trusted him. To be honest, he and Kono sort of assumed that she preferred Danny and Steve, Steve in particular.

With his mind made up, he quickly dialed her number. It rang twice before her voice came at him in it's usually perky high-pitch.

"Hey, Rowan," he said quickly. "Danny told me what happened. I was hoping to talk to you."

There was a beat of silence before she sighed: "I knew he couldn't keep his mouth shut. Uh… sure… I'm at the Honolulu Museum of Art, why don't you meet me here in like ten minutes or something?"

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Jerry coming into the office. He thought carefully before saying: "Uh, could you wait maybe a half hour? We still have a case to wrap up. I should be done by then. And… uh… would you mind if I brought a friend?"

"Yeah, I don't mind," Rowan said. "I'll see you then."

And then she hung up. Chin smiled at his phone as Jerry came to stand beside him.

"McGarrett and Daniel went to go get the guys," he said to Chin as if he didn't already know that. But he nodded and smiled because it obviously made Jerry happy. "Who was on the phone?"

Chin turned to him, wondering if he could trust Jerry with this. He was a conspiracy theorist after all. "I can't tell you. Not unless you swear not to tell a soul!" he said.

Jerry nodded enthusiastically. "I swear, it won't even go into my files."

Chin nodded. "There's a little bit of history you missed out on, but the short of it is that there's this girl that McGarrett's kind of obsessed with, and we basically all stopped talking to each other to her to help save his relationship with his current girlfriend. But we haven't actually stopped and I'm going to go meet up with her once the case is over," Chin explained.

Jerry stared at him wide eyed. "I didn't follow that at all."

"I'm going to go see someone and if Steve finds out we're all dead," Chin summed up and Jerry nodded.

"Kay, got it that time," he said.

Chin's phone rang and Steve's voice came at him telling him what had happened.

"Send HPD to the Honolulu Art Museum, that's where the two guys are, to steal the scrimshaw key. We're going to need a full perimeter. Also, we found the statue just where you said they were," Steve said.

"Did you say the Honolulu Art Museum?" Chin asked dread settling around his neck like some terrible weight.

"Yeah… why?" Steve asked. Oh god, he was at a cross roads now. He was going to have to Tell McGarrett.

"Uh… because that's where Rowan is…" Chin told him. He didn't want to, but at the same time, this was Rowan. If she was there when something went down she'd get into the middle of it. She may have even gone there to get into the middle of something. But wouldn't she have said so on the phone… wouldn't she?

"Rowan…" Steve whispered. "How… how do you know that?"

Wow, only been holding onto the secret for less than four hours and already he was about to be found out. _Shape up, Chin!_

"That's not the point Steve. If they're there and Rowan's there, there's a good chance something's going to go down!" Chin argued.

Steve said nothing, and Chin held his breath hoping Steve glossed over the whole _how_ he knew and just dealt with fixing the situation. Then he heard Danny's worried yelps coming from the passenger seat and he let his breath out. That meant Steve was doing something wicked with the car.

"Tell Duke the situation. Tell him we're going to go in hot," Steve snapped and then hung up the phone.

Chin turned to Jerry with a shaky smile, surprised that he managed to get out of that so easily. "Wanna go see some sparks fly?" he asked.

Jerry shrugged, Chin took that as a yes and together the two left the Palace.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan hung up the phone in her hand and felt a little bit of a flutter in her stomach. A flutter of utter happiness. She was slowly getting her friends back. And that felt wonderful. To not feel alone, to not feel like the odd one out, the normal one in a room full of screaming groupies.

She didn't even care what Catherine thought. Danny was right, she had to think about her own damn happiness. And she was starting to think that maybe, her time here, in this world, was more about a second chance to do her life right. She didn't want to squander the universe's attempt to give her a second chance with worrying about stupid things like what Catherine, Alex or even Steve thought.

She put her phone in her pocket and turned to walk into the exhibit she had come to view. Simply because she wanted to get out of the apartment where Alex was still sulking. As she turned to bumped into a man, he put a hand out to her shoulder and a burst of images burst in front of her eyes. IT lasted only a few seconds but it was enough for her to know that he was a murderer, a baby was involved and he was here looking for a… a leaf? Why the hell would they want an oak leaf? They're abundant in Canada, just go there. No need to kill people over it.

He apologized for bumping into her, with a silken smooth British accent trying to hide a malicious undertone. She mumbled her own apology and then watched him walk into the exhibit that she was here to see too.

He was going to steal something from here. She had to stop him. Rowan slowly followed after him, debating this to herself. Did she have to stop him? She wasn't exactly equipped to fight him off. She'd have to be sneaky about it. But would this even be a welcomed action? Steve could handle this himself, couldn't he?

But then why get the vision? Why get it if it wasn't to be of some sort of assistance?

Before she knew what had happened she was beside him as he was staring at something. Well this was awkward. He turned to her again and Rowan forced herself to smile.

"Sorry, didn't mean to follow you there," she said hoping her smile was warm and not shaking. He merely nodded and turned away.

"Uh… I hope you don't mind me asking, but uh… where are you from?" she asked.

He turned to her again an eyebrow shooting up his forehead. For a minute there she thought he'd pull out the gun she knew was concealed in the waist band and shoot her. Instead he shot her a devious smirk and said: "England, luv."

Rowan let out her breath in a shaky giggle. "Oh, I thought so, I thought so," she murmured. She peeled her eyes off of him and turned back forward and there it was the oak leaf from the vision. HA! He was here to steal something from the museum.

If she could only distract him for a few seconds, she could snatch it out from under his nose. Luckily she didn't have to think of a distraction. The fire alarm suddenly went off and Rowan took that moment. She swiped the leaf, put it in her pocket and immediately turned around and walked away. She did her best to walk slowly, in an unsuspicious way, but she wasn't three steps away when she heard a sudden cry of: "HEY!" in that same British accent.

Rowan didn't even look back she just sprinted forward. Stairs, she needed to get to the stairs. But which stairs? This place was filled with stairs.

That momentary pause was all that was needed. The man slammed into her from behind and the two of them went flying. Once they hit the ground, Rowan slammed her elbow back into his stomach, he grunted but he didn't let go. The second time she did it, just like Wo Fat taught her but she did it harder and a fraction higher, she hit her mark. This time his grunt was a yelp of pain and he did let go.

Rowan scrambled to her feet and rushed down the stairs where Steve was coming for her.

"Go, go, go," he said to her, pushing her down the stairs while he sprinted up the steps. Rowan rushed out of the building to where she saw Chin coming out of his car. She slid to a stop in front of him and caught her breath.

"So much for a half-hour huh?" she said to him and he laughed.

"You have another vision or what?" Chin asked a clapped a hand to her shoulder.

Rowan shook her head, a big grin on her face. "Nope, was just here for a good time," she said. "The vision didn't pop up until we were off the phone."

Chin pulled her in for a hug and said: "I'm glad you're okay," he said, only to have Rowan swat him off.

"Stop, before Steve sees," she whispered. "Our reconciliation is supposed to be a secret."

Chin laughed again, "Alright, fine," he said. "Come over here and meet Jerry."

He led her over to where an overweight man with long curly brown hair was waiting for them. She smiled warmly, she was pretty sure she knew exactly who this was.

"Ro, this is Jerry, Jerry this is Rowan," Chin said. Rowan shook the offered hand as she smiled at him.

"Hi, it's nice to meet you," she said. Behind her came the roar of a motorcycle that then erupted out of the front doors. Not seconds later, Steve appeared, gun drawn shooting at the man on the bike. Chin shielded her, even though she knew Steve wouldn't have missed, that there was no danger that a stray bullet would hit her.

One bullet hit the back wheel and the motorcycle popped up and threw the man off of it. The one she had elbowed really hardly. She watched Danny come around the side and get to the guy first, kicking him in the head quickly and then leaning over him as he cuffed him. He probably had a ridiculous one liner that Rowan couldn't really hear, but wished she could.

Steve was stalking over to downed thief at that point, gun lowered a look of determination on his face. She loved watching him work. He looked powerful, like an apex predator on the prowl. She often dreamed of him stalking towards her, that same look of determination on his face but with a more wicked intent on his mind. Rowan stepped away from Chin so there was no way that Steve would think that they were closer than they needed to be.

"So she's the one we can't tell McGarrett about?" Jerry asked in a hushed whisper behind her. "How bad is it?"

As if to answer him Steve roared: "ROWAN HAZEL PIERCE!" on the top of his lungs and Rowan winced. She turned and the look on Steve's face put the fear of god into her.

"Oh it's that bad," Jerry whispered almost in reverence while Rowan did her best to look imposing and like she wasn't afraid of him though for the first time… she was actually worried about how this was going to go.

"What?" she called. "It's not like I ran."

Steve stalked towards her, that look of determination on his face but it was not the look she wanted. She wanted sensual and wicked, not furious and livid.

"Where is it?" he snapped. Rowan knew immediately what he was asking about but as she was fishing the leaf out of her pocked Jerry said: "Wait… Rowan Pierce?"

Steve and Rowan turned to him. "He knows you… how does he know you?" Steve asked her.

Rowan merely shrugged. "No, I mean, I don't know her, I just know her name," Jerry said. "Rowan Pierce. That name got broadcasted on every channel. Every criminal and underground black market heard that name. It came with a message too, a message that, when decoded, led to an app but no one can crack into it. You just download it and wait for it to open."

Rowan groaned. Awww fucking Wo Fat's safety net. She had no idea he had done that much. Steve's eyes were boring into her, like lasers to her skull.

She turned to him and tried to smile. "That wasn't me," she said.

"Yes, I gathered," he growled.

"You're not that Rowan Pierce?" Jerry asked and Rowan winced again.

"No… that… yea… that was probably me… or uh… about me," she said. "It's… it's complicated."

"Oh! Tell me about the broadcast. What about the app? What does it open? Why _you_?!" Jerry suddenly asked but Rowan didn't get to answer any of those question because Steve was still glaring at her and honestly, she didn't want to answer them either.

She blinked her eyes and turned back to Steve who was looking to the sky for guidance. She offered the white leaf that she had clenched in her hands. He looked at it carefully before pinning her with a dry glare. "Why did you even take that?"

Rowan blinked her eyes. "Because he was looking at it. I thought it might be important especially if it was worth murder."

"Oh my god you are such a freak," he growled snatching it from her. Rowan tsked at him and backed away. Luckily, he didn't seem to care as he was already walking away from her. It was the most callous he had ever been with her and after what had happened that night after her gig, she kind of got why he was being like that with her.

And it was for the best. She needed to get things back on track for him so he could be happy. And she needed to move on so she could be happy.

When she turned away from them Chin put an arm around her shoulder and pressed her to his side. "Just so you know, I'm not happy with what you decided, I think you should tell him, but I'll respect your wishes for now."

Rowan smiled up to him, she put an arm around his lower back and squeezed him to her. "Thank you so much," she said. "I've missed you guys by the way."

"And we missed you too," he said. "Don't let anyone intimidate you into cutting us out ever again. If it happens again, you tell us and we'll deal with it."

"Don't worry," she whispered. _It won't happen again_ she added silently to herself.

Chin offered to drop her back off at her place and she joined Jerry in the car. She purposely refused to look at Steve, but if she had she would have seen Steve watching her every move. And not with the usual loving look but with the discerning eye of an investigator searching for his next set of clues.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan walked off of the elevator and onto the posh floor of the Atlantic Records Oahu office. She went up to the receptionist sitting behind the fancy marble and metal accented front desk.

"Hi, uhm I'm here to see Pete Ganbarg," she whispered.

The woman looked her up and down before saying: "Do you have an appointment?"

"Uhm… no but… I think he'd like to see me," she said trying to sound as confident as she could. This wasn't like when she was 20 and singing her own songs at home and sending in CDs. She didn't have the time to wait. Pete wasn't going to be in Oahu for long.

The woman raised her eyebrows and puckered her lips like she had a bad taste in her mouth. "Sorry, Mr. Ganbarg is very busy."

She looked away from Rowan, back down to her computer screen where she was probably online shopping. Well that was her dismissed. Good thing she had a plan for this.

The problem was, if she went down this road again she'd be famous again. And she didn't want that. She didn't want reporters prying into her life because there was so much more to find. You know… instead of just drag racing and getaway driving and a gay brother dating a CSIS Agent.

She could just be a song writer, right? She could easily just be a really good song writer and let Alex stay in the lime light. But she knew if she went through with this, she was going to change all their lives, there would be no turning back. But she needed the money, the independence and she loved this. Why couldn't she get paid to do something she loved? So, she gathered her courage, closed her eyes and began to sing.

 _All you sinners stand up, sing Hallelujah. Show praise with your body, stand up, sing Hallelujah. And if you can't stop shaking, lean back, let it move right through ya. Say your prayers. Say your prayers. Say your prayers._

When she opened her eyes, Pete was standing in the doorway clapping for her. He looked the same as the Pete from her dimension. All fancy suits, slicked back copper hair and a wiry beard. Dollar signs were practically jumping out of his eyes. She had forgotten how much she had missed this, forgotten how good it felt and how good she was.

She smiled at the man that was her agent in a different time and said: "Hi, I'm Rowan Pierce. I'm going to be your new song writer."

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan had been sending him nothing but text messages. Cute photos of her and Grace as he had left her with babysitting duty so he could be here at this party and Rowan could make up her missed time with Grace. She had done Grace's nails, her hair up in fancy up-do braids and was in the process of doing her make up. They had bought pizza with the money Danny had left and were having a rom-com marathon. She had also brought over the accursed cookie-dough cupcakes that made Grace all hyper and had added at least six pounds to his hips. Danny knew Catherine had seen Rowan's name flashing on his phone. He knew Catherine had presumed that the suspicious behaviour Steve had clocked earlier that day from both he and Chin had something to do with Rowan. Neither of them was stupid, they knew he was acting squirrely cause of her. But he hadn't cracked under Steve's questioning glare yet and he didn't plan to any time soon.

They had all gone to a bar after Catherine's ceremony. They were sitting, eating, laughing and having fun. Danny, of course, was seething. The secret hew was holding onto burned under his skin. Telling Chin hadn't been enough. He was itching to tell Steve. To have him do what he will with the information. Anything to get that man out of major grump mode. But he knew he couldn't. It would ruin Catherine's night. But there was one other person he could tell.

Danny waited until they were all heading out for the night and they were exchanging small talk before making his move. He made sure he was shoulder to shoulder with Catherine, that everyone else was busy talking before he leaned in and whispered: "I know what you did."

Catherine turned to him surprised. She shot a glance at Steve before turning back to Danny and spitting out a shaky: "What?"

"I know what you did," he repeated. "I know what you did. I know why you did it. And I'm really fucking pissed you thought you had any right to do that."

Catherine stared at him, her pale face going even paler than before. "What are you talking about?" she asked in a hushed voice.

"Rowan," was all Danny needed to say to elaborate. Catherine's shock face faded into a scowl.

"Whatever that bitch said…" she started but Danny shook his head.

"No. You don't get to call her that. Not when she martyred herself so Steve wouldn't think any less of you. Not when I had to berate and threaten her to get the truth out of her," Danny snapped. "I get why you did it. I do. But listen to me carefully, Catherine Rollins, you had no right to tell her she can't see Grace."

She blinked her eyes as if she was surprised that Grace was what he was upset about. Yeah he was upset that she told Rowan to cut out him and Chin too but he understood the rationale of that. Cutting out an 11 year old girl made no sense to him.

"You don't get to decide who I see. You don't get to decide who Grace sees," Danny continued. "I haven't told Steve. Rowan had an aneurism at the very suggestion, so I won't do that to her. Or Steve. Or you. But don't you ever pull something like that ever again."

Catherine nodded and Danny put on a smile for her. Steve was looking at them, giving them an odd look so it was good that they resolved it when they did. "And apologize to Chin too, he's equally as unhappy with you."

And then he left it at that. He felt a little bit better now. He'd've felt better if he had told Steve, but right now that wasn't a possibility. This would just have to do.


	66. Chapter 66

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFiction**

 _A/N: Alright so we're back with another update, that I'm late to post again. We have 7 updates until we hit that special moment. We get to see a little bit of Steve's doing without Rowan, he's gonna get worse in the next chapter or so. We get to see how Rowan's doing and whether or not Danny's been able to keep a secret. Uh… do you guys remember how I said we had 6 days until we get a special update? Yeah, my math was off. It was 10 days when I mentioned it last update. NOW it's 6 days. Sorry. Math was never my strong suit. So, in 6 days you're gonna get a reward for being so awesome, and in 7 updates we're gonna see something super cute. AND we're almost to 400 reviews which just plain baffles me. So, keep on Reviewing, have a great Valentines day, and I'll see you on Friday!_

Chapter 66

* * *

Rowan rushed through the parked cars, skidded on the gravel and practically threw herself towards the picnic bench where the only two boys she had left were waiting for her.

Chin and Danny smiled up to her, beers in their hands, and food ready for her. A Rowan special, just for her. She smiled at them as she took her seat.

"Sorry I'm late," she said. "Got stuck in the office."

"Office… you're a hotel maid," Danny said pushing the container of food towards her and a bottle of ginger ale.

She hadn't told them about the music yet, she didn't want to jinx it. She had convinced the music execs to give Alex and his band another shot. Insisted that the songs were meant for them, no matter how much they wanted her voice instead. Well almost all of her songs anyway.

Alex had not appreciated what she had done. Even though they had agreed to go with him instead of her. He didn't appreciate that she had gone behind their backs. No one else in the band cared. They were going to be signed. That was a good thing. Rowan didn't get it either, but she figured it had something to do with the fact that she was still screaming Steve's name every other night.

Not because she wanted to, but because the dreams were getting more and more vivid.

Last night's nightmare had been the one about Kono and Adam, tortured, beaten and very, very dead. So, she had been happy when she heard from Wo Fat that morning. It meant she could get him to look into their predicament, it meant she could send help. But she didn't want to worry Chin and Danny about any of that until she knew whether or not Wo Fat had managed to fix the situation.

"I happen to like working at the hotel," Rowan reminded him. "It's a good job to have on a resume. Gotta start somewhere right?"

"Yeah cause you couldn't use your last cleaning job, right?" Danny teased. No, she couldn't. Seeing as she used a fake name and stole government secrets and a shit tonne of gold bricks which were still hidden in the boxes she had yet to unpack.

"Don't be a smart ass," Rowan snapped to him. "What are you guys up to tonight?"

"I have a movie date tonight, Me, Steve, Gabby and Catherine," Danny said and Rowan immediately got a flash of how that was going to go.

"I like how you didn't pair yourself or Steve with your girlfriends," Rowan said with a smirk and Danny started at her perplexed. "Yeah, not Steve and Catherine, or you and Gabby, but you and Steve. You two dating?"

"Yeah, we're dating, you'd love that wouldn't you," Danny snarled as Chin laughed beside him. "No, we are not dating, you putz. Our girlfriends roped us into a movie date, they thought a double date would be cute."

Rowan snorted into her special, which turned out to be some kind of spicy chicken combo on a bed of jasmine rice, she knew they weren't dating but she still loved teasing Danny about it. Sucked about the double date, it was going to get terribly interrupted.

"You are going to have a hard time at that movie," Rowan warned him. "Steve is not hardwired for rom-coms, he doesn't get them."

Both Chin and Danny looked at her, something akin to pity on their faces. She had asked them to stop bugging her about the offhand comments she was prone to making. The ones that made them worry that she missed Steve and then would problem them to ask about how she was doing without Steve. She was fine. She was fine because she had to be. And once things got solidified with the music deal, she was going to be even better.

She knew it was because of that request that instead of asking her if she was okay, Chin cleared his throat instead and said: "Yeah, I don't have much going on tonight, what about you?"

"Mm, nothing, date night with Alex if he's around," she said with a shrug. "Can't be out too late though because I got a shift tomorrow."

"Mm, how romantic," Danny said.

Rowan frowned at him. "At least my date isn't going to get interrupted by a dead wedding crasher," she growled and then winced. Ah damn, she wasn't supposed to tell them that.

Danny sighed frustrated. "What did I tell you?" he said throwing his hands up in the air and beginning to gesture wildly. "What… what did I say? I was so clear. Do not give us intel from a vision. Didn't I? It's like you didn't hear a word I said, which is funny to me because you agreed!"

Rowan winced again. "I can't help it. I don't choose what comes to me," she whispered. "I wasn't going to tell you. Really, it just sort of slipped out."

"Kay, well no more slip ups, cause now that you've said it you know it's going to happen," Danny said. Chin put a hand to his shoulder but said nothing and Rowan stayed quiet too. There was no point in telling Danny that it came true even if she said nothing, because it amounted to the same thing. She needed to not tell them.

But it wasn't just because saying it out loud brought it to fruition, it was because they knew she was always right. And that meant, if she gave them a lead, they felt like they needed to follow it and since Rowan was supposed to be out of their lives, they couldn't just bring a lead that came from nowhere to Steve and expect him to chase after it. And telling him it came from her was not in the cards either.

"I'll try, okay?" she offered. "I can't make any promises, but I'll try."

Chin leaned forward and said: "If you have anything about Kono though, tell me," he said. "That, you don't keep to yourself."

Rowan smiled, she had purposely been keeping the Kono stuff from him to keep him from worrying.

"I have an idea, since Danny has his date with Steve to get to…" she started which caused Danny to throw his head back in frustration and groan. "Why don't me you and go for a walk, or a swim, or a ride or something?"

"What about Alex?" Danny asked for Chin.

"Alex will be fine, he's probably busy at work anyway," she said. Which was a lie. Alex was out for a drink with the guys. In fact, she hadn't seen him go in to the hospital in a while. "Besides, I know it's going to get interrupted anyway, leaves time for Alex later."

The two boys shrugged. She would be stupid to think that they hadn't noticed that she was spending less and less time with Alex. They were still together, they were still attracted to each other… maybe, they were still okay, but Rowan felt like she was smothering him and Alex felt like she was still hung up on Steve.

So, she had started spending less time with him. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and all of that. She didn't know if it was working. She didn't know if she cared whether or not it did.

"Sounds like a plan," Chin said and Rowan smiled.

Danny rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, enjoy your date," he said. "I'm going to go enjoy mine. With Gabby, before you say anything, not Steve. My date with Gabby."

"The two of you end up shoulder to shoulder sharing popcorn, y'all might as well be dating," she mumbled and Danny lightly ruffled her hair.

"I love you, but I have nothing against popping you one in the jaw if I think it'll take that smirk off your face," he said and Rowan giggled again. Danny left them at the table and Chin smiled at Rowan.

"She's fine Chin," she whispered. "I made sure she would be fine."

Chin nodded. "I know, I mean I figured, but I want you to know, I need you to know, that Kono can take care of herself and neither of us want you to do something that will get you in trouble. That system he has for you, it's for you. Don't waste all your favours on others."

Rowan smiled. He had a point. But Rowan didn't care. She had all this power at her finger tips. She could really help the people she cared about. And she was going to do it no matter what happened to her. Because in the end, to her, they were all that mattered.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Kono and Adam didn't go to Hong Kong to have a good time. They came to take names and damage people and that was what they were doing.

Tonight, they were torturing Yakuza idiots. The guy they had tied to the chair had tried lying to them, had said that he was there to avenge Michael's death but he never worked for Michael. This was someone new, someone else.

Then he said something to Adam in Japanese and Adam just fucking lost it. Decked the guy so hard a tooth flew out of his mouth.

"What did he say?" Kono asked.

"I said we're going to have fun with you," he snarled. "before we cut you up into little pieces…" "—shut your mouth!" "And we're going to make your boyfriend watch."

" _Shut your mouth!"_ Adam bellowed and the gun came up and to the man's head. "Tell us who put a price on my head!"

"Kill me and you'll never find out who wants you dead," he said all cocky and smug. Adam lowered the gun from the man's face. He had something else to say, he opened his mouth to do so but then the man's head just blew up in their faces.

Adam and Kono stared at the body in shock. Adam's gun had dropped, and then he pulled out the clip to make sure that he hadn't actually shot the guy.

"What happened?" Kono asked bring her own gun out and then a man appeared from the shadows. He was tall and stocky with caramel skin, a tuft of curly brown air and the pair of brightest green eyes they had ever seen. He held a surprised rifle, wore black leather gloves and did not smile at them at all. Both Kono and Adam pointed their guns at him but he didn't flinch nor look even the slightest bit concerned.

"I've been told to identify myself as a _Rowan-gram_ ," he said to them and Kono immediately perked up. "But that is ridiculous and I refused to do so."

"Rowan sent you?" she asked.

"No. Wo Fat did. But I come bearing messages," he said and then quickly picked up his phone. "The man who put a hit out on you is the new Oyabun. Riku Sato. They're gunning for you too, girlfriend. Don't go to the police, he has ties with the triads and the triads own the police."

Kono turned to Adam, these were things that Adam knew. The two of them had lowered their guns at this point. "The next two make no sense, but I've been told you'll understand," he said, glancing up to them and then turning back to his phone. "Uh… don't fake your death… and… stop attacking the bad guys."

Kono blinked her eyes. One of those messages was meant for her, she knew it. "Mean anything to you?" he asked and both Adam and Kono nodded. "Alright, good, because I will not be coming back to save you if you two get in trouble. This is the last that he can interfere on this matter."

"How do you know that?" Adam asked.

The man looked up to them with his acid like green eyes, a brown eyebrow cocked in surprise. "Because I listen to the chatter. The more Wo Fat interferes the more interested in this Rowan person they become. If he's smart, he'll stop drawing attention to her. And everyone knows, Wo Fat is smart," he answered. "So, to sum up. Stop attacking the bad guys, I'm not going to come back to rescue you and don't fake your death. Alright. That's my job done. I'm out of here."

And then as quickly as he came, he disappeared again leaving Kono and Adam in the wake of what had happened.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Chin had said he was heading to Tantalus Drive to check for the missing bride. Chin said he had traced her phone's last known location to there. He said something other things but Steve was distracted, the reception was bad and he barely heard what Chin had to say. Steve was distracted by Danny's twitchiness. He kept looking at his phone like it held all the answers. He had been near frantic about the going to that hotel this morning. Kept trying to keep Steve from the case, and he wasn't sure why. Then there was the offhand comment about the wedding crasher on the drive over, before it was confirmed it was a wedding crasher. He was inclined to believe that Danny strange behaviour was linked to Rowan, but she had cut them all out of her life. Not just him. All of them.

He wanted to ask what this was about, but when he got to the Palace, when he was going to put the Camaro in Danny's parking spot he found something strange waiting for him.

"Oh, look, look, look. It's Catherine's boss-slash-ex-boyfriend, uh, Billy. Is that his name?" Danny asked.

Steve rolled his eyes. Fucking Danny and his sass. "Yes… you… you know his name's Billy," Steve snapped winning only a smirk from Danny. He got the car parked, and then he glared in Billy's direction. "What's he doing here? They're supposed to be working."

"Oh, maybe he's come to ask for her hand in marriage," Danny offered and Steve turned to him. What the hell? Why would he say that?

He looked into Danny's eyes and sighed. "You're actually enjoying this, aren't you?" he asked.

Danny shrugged. "Well, we all gotta be reminded of our mistakes, babe."

Steve had nothing to say to that. This was not a mistake. Did he regret it? Yes. Catherine and Billy had chemistry, anyone could see that. Steve and Catherine had been hella rocky and while he was working on paving that road, seeing as all the others had been maliciously destroyed and this was all her had left, now would be the perfect time for an ex-boyfriend to swoop in and steal his girlfriend. And he talked Catherine into taking the perfect job with the perfect ex-boyfriend.

But he wasn't going to say any of that to Danny because then Danny would be right and he would never live it down.

So instead of saying anything Steve got up out of the car and walked towards Billy trying to make himself seem imposing, and much like the alpha male.

"Billy. What's up?" he called as he walked over.

Billy moved away from the car he had been leaning on. There was a coolness about him and looseness in his stance, a coolness that was mirrored in his thin smile. "Cath's just headed up to see you," he said.

The two shook hands in what Steve assumed was supposed to be genuine comradery but had become something more fake. "What are you doing, keeping the car warm?" Steve asked.

"We gotta make it a short visit. We're on a job," Billy replied, chuckling softly as if Steve had made a joke.

He hadn't.

Well if that's how Billy was going to take it, Steve was gonna throw him a curveball. "Hey, you remember Detective Danny Williams? He's my partner," Steve said.

Yes. That's right. Enjoy Danny's sass and judging stares. Squirm under the scrutiny of Danny's gaze. _Squirm!_

Billy turned to him and actually smiled. "Yeah, of course," he said as they shook hands.

The smile on Danny's face was plastic, his grip, lethal. "Hi. Good to see you… again," Danny said. Stressing the again in a sense that said that Danny shouldn't be seeing him again. Yes! Go Danny go!

"Actually, I'm glad I ran into you," Billy said turning his eyes away from Danny and that million-dollar glare. "I never got a chance to thank you.

Danny turned to him expectantly and Steve almost grabbed his face and turned it back to Billy. That was who was supposed to be getting the stare, not him. "For what?" he asked Billy going for the playing dumb option.

"Uh, for being cool with all this," Billy replied. Yes. Steve was cool, and Billy should be grateful. Steve shrugged off the praise, though internally he was adoring it. "Catherine told me how you encouraged her to take the job."

Steve could feel Danny rolling his eyes from where he was standing. And the quick glance of discomfort on Billy's face meant that he witnessed it to. Steve tried to hide his smile. The curveball was working.

"Don't mention it," Steve said. No seriously. Don't fucking mention it. Why did he have to do it with Danny right beside him.

"Truth is, I'm lucky to have her," Billy admitted. Well damn straight. Catherine was a catch. Both for the job and as a girlfriend. Too bad Steve had taken that for granted. Too bad Steve didn't really seem to care. "We make a great team."

He and Cath used to make a good team too. But he had thrown all of that away for Rowan. He couldn't see it as a complete loss though. If things had worked out with Rowan the way the should have, before Wo Fat got involved, then he'd be singing a different tune. But he could fix this. He could make things better.

He had been silent for a bit too long, he offered his hand to shake and said: "Good. Great. It's good to see you."

"You too," Billy said and then Steve let go and jogged away, leaving him with Danny as punishment. Yeah have fun with that.

Steve found Catherine in his office. Look all sorts of fine in a pant suit. He whistled with appreciation drinking her all on. Ohhh… he doubted Rowan could pull of a look like that.

 _Fuck!_ He really needed to stop comparing the two of them.

"Looking sharp, Rollins. With the earpiece, the whole thing, huh?" he exclaimed and that won him a soft blush and a bunch of hair flipping from Catherine. Damn, one week out of the Navy and she was one of _those_ girls.

"Yeah. Billy and I are running a personal security detail on a visiting Saudi diplomat," she told him and Steve nodded. Ah she wanted something. She was here cause she wanted something. Oh how the tables had turned.

"Women, I know they dress modestly there, but, I mean, the way this guy looks at me, you'd think I was wearing a string bikini," she said softly.

Oh, her first client was making her uncomfortable? Well that was just not acceptable in his books. "What's his name? I'll beat him up," Steve answered immediately. He made it sound like he was joking but he was only half joking.

Catherine laughed and that smile lit up her face and that made it worth it. "Okay, see, that's sort of exactly what we're being paid to prevent," she reminded him and he smiled at her. Like he didn't know that. That was the whole point of the comment.

"So that would be bad," she summed up and Steve nodded.

"Got it."

"Which leads me to the reason why I'm here," she said, and there it was.

"Why, you're not here…? I thought it was to show me your new pantsuit," Steve said. He was joking, he was trying to make light of the situation and trying not to feel used. Seeing as he had been doing this to her for what… four years now?

"No, smart-ass!" she cried. "I need a favour."

"What'd'ya need?" he asked quickly.

"So, our client has a packed schedule tomorrow and Billy asked me to run some threat assessments on all the people he's meeting with, only—," she started.

"You don't have access to Navy intel anymore. So, you thought you'd come to Five-0 to run the background checks," Steve finished for her and she nodded happily.

"Look at you. You are handsome and smart," she said with a giant grin. Oh yes, flattery. Steve loved himself some flattery.

Steve pretended to be put off though. Put off and awkward. "Uh… hmm… I don't know how I feel about allocating Five-0 resources to a private security job," he told her, adding a few winces for effect.

He was lying of course. Of course, he was going to let her use his smart table. He just wanted to give her a hard time. To tease her like he used to before he got all obsessed with Rowan.

"Oh. Okay. Uhm. Remind me again how many satellites I have repositioned for you over the years," she ordered looking far from impressed. Okay maybe she didn't get the joke. "You owe me!"

Okay. She didn't get the joke. When he didn't answer right away, she started forward practically screeching his name.

"Okay, okay. Come on, I'll log you in," Steve said, leading her towards the smart table they used to do all their research and background checks. He pulled open everything that had been run before Chin left and noted that nowhere on that table did it say anything about tracing a phone.

So where had Chin gotten the information?

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Chin had gotten a phone call, right after the one he got off of with Kono and Adam, from Rowan. That morning, when they got called in on the missing bride case, Danny had been frantic. He had texted Chin a million times, so many times, to get him to get a hold of Rowan before they got to that hotel. Because of course their next case would be at the hotel where Rowan had gotten the housekeeping job at.

Chin had managed to get a hold of her, told her Danny and Steve were heading down for the case and to avoid if possible. Danny would work on running interference, all Rowan needed to do was stay away from the penthouse suite and the main lobby.

She didn't confirm, she didn't agree, she didn't even say she understood. She simply asked: "Is it the missing bride and the dead wedding crasher?"

Danny refused to answer her and Rowan didn't ask again. But Chin realized as soon as she knew about the missing bride before them that she had been having visions. Or dreams. Or whatever it was she was having.

The following phone call that came in that afternoon explained why.

Rowan had found the bride.

He didn't know how she did it, but she had. This made him nervous, because if Steve found out it was her it would not be good for her. Danny and Chin had been working so hard to keep him from the knowledge that she was back in their lives. Badly. They knew that he knew that they were up to something. They knew that he knew it had something to do with Rowan.

But Danny and Chin had been openly denying everything and Steve had no proof.

This would be the proof Steve needed.

Chin got on his motorbike immediately and went out to Tantulus Drive to meet Rowan, giving Steve a plausible reason why he was going out there in the first place. When he got there she was standing over a ridge and staring down at the bushes.

Chin dismounted and jogged over to her. Rowan just pointed and sure enough in the foliage he caught sight of a headlight.

"She's in there," she whispered.

"Are you sure?" Chin asked.

"She's not answering me. But I think she's unconscious," Rowan said. "I can climb down…"

Chin grabbed her arm. "No, let's not do that," he said. "Look me in the eye and tell me you're sure."

Rowan smiled at him, a wicked sort of grin. "100% positive. She's in that car… and she's still alive."

Chin nodded that was enough for him. "Alright, stay here," he said, heading down the rugged and dry hill.

"Nuh-huh, I'm coming with you. What if you need help?" she cried following after him.

Chin ignored her, there was really nothing he could do if she wanted to follow him. He wanted to remind her that this girl had been in a car accident and Rowan did not do well with blood.

He got to the wreckage and found the bride half out the window looking terribly pale. "Dahlia. Dahlia, can you hear me?" he asked as he got closer to her.

There was no response. Rowan rounded the wreckage and moved past him. She crouched by Dahlia's head and took her pulse. "I knew she was still alive," she crowed. She then took a good look at Dahlia and said: "Whoa that's a lot of blood."

Chin swept her aside and out of sight of the blood. As he pulled out his phone to call an ambulance to their location, he heard the first of Rowan's wretches. Well fuck him. That would be hard to explain if McGarrett noticed.

He'd just have to pray that he didn't.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve and Danny walked right onto the ward just as Nathan, the jilted groom, stormed away from his mother despite her crying after him. Steve and Danny watched him go before stepping up to play interference before she ran after him.

He knew how Nathan felt. Rowan had done the same thing to him. Okay maybe not the same, but it resulted in the same emotions.

"You know what give him some space. You can't help him right now.

"Are you really sure that Dahlia did those things?" Barbara Cotchin asked. "Because the maid… I unno. Why was I even listening to the maid?"

Danny went ramrod straight beside him. "The maid?"

"Yeah, the girl who cleans our room. Nice thing, super sweet. She did a lot of extra work for the wedding, she'd made us special cupcakes as a sugar pick me up before the ceremony," Barbara said with a sigh. "She came in this morning and when she heard what happened she… well… she said you guys were wrong. That even if those things did happen everything else that between Dahlia and my son was real."

Steve glared at Danny. Danny's tip. Cupcakes. Chin finding the girl despite tracing her phone. And now someone was saying Five-0 was wrong and make grand predictions. Oh, the pieces were coming together now.

"This uh... maid… she got a name?" Steve asked.

"This is not pertinent to our case, we have bigger fish to fry," Danny argued and Barbara turned to him surprised.

Steve ignored Danny. "Name," he snapped.

He didn't know why he was surprised when the name _Rowan_ fell from her lips.


	67. Chapter 67

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: HEY GUYS! So here's the count down. We have six 6 updates left before we get the special first I've been talking about. We have four days until you guys get something special and we're 4 reviews away from 400 reviews total. My God guys! That is A LOT. I've been getting a lot of questions about when it's going to end for them, and when Catherine's going to be gone and Rowan are going to be together. Well… by chapter 84, Catherine is gone. By chapter 88 Rowan and Steve are working on things. I know that's far away, but trust me I'm made it super cute! Chapter 92 is a 16 page monstrosity dedicated to cute fluffy d'aww moments. So we have a lot to look forward to, I promise. So for this chapter, we're going to watch Steve spiral a bit more, and I'm sad to say his spiralling is going to get worse from here. But remember by chapter 84 he's sorting himself out. See, we gotta a time line, only a little more to wait and we'll get there. See you guys on Tuesday!_

 _P.S. I'm not sure if I heard from JP last update. So if you're out there JP please review! Not gonna lie, I'm a little worried about you!_

Chapter 67

* * *

"I pulled a shoe print off the wreck," Chin said. "Tread pattern matches the shoe Dixon was found dead in."

He shot a side glance to Steve but he was still staring stoically ahead at the screen. Arms crossed, eyebrows furrowed, the vein in his jaw twitching away as he ground his teeth. Danny had texted him earlier with: _Steve knows_.

At first he was worried that Steve knew that Rowan and them had made up. But instead he knew Rowan was involved with the case. He didn't know that Rowan was back in their lives. Danny had texted him a back story and then texted Rowan to warn her that Steve was aware and full on livid. She had yet to respond and neither Chin, nor Danny knew if that was a good thing or not.

So far Danny and Chin were choosing to ignore the elephant in the room. Despite Steve's dark glare he had directed at them and the way his nostrils were flaring in a barely controlled rage.

"So Dixon, he, uh, follows his sister out of the wedding, and catches up with her at the scene of the accident," Danny starts.

"He's packing a gun for revenge but figures he can save a bullet and send Dahlia to her death in a fiery wreck," Steve finished. At least he was back on the case now. That was good. That was better for both of them.

"Okay, well, that's one mystery solved," Chin said. "But it still doesn't explain how Dixon ends up dead in a hotel room."

"Yeah, I don't get that either. If it's me, I'm out of there. I'm on the first plane out," Danny agreed.

"Well, why don't we do what you two did?" Steve asked his voice a fake saccharine sweetness that caused Chin to wince. Oh here it comes. "Why don't we just ask your source?"

"Source? Babe… what are you…"

"Chin found the girl without tracing her phone. You knew about the wedding before we even got to the hotel," Steve snapped. "Clearly you two are following the hunches of a psychic who works in the fucking hotel and fucking lying to me about it."

"Okay, she is just a maid…" Danny started but left it hanging there. Oh great, what a time for the great Detective Williams to run out of words.

"It wasn't like we went looking. Rowan got a hold of us," Chin told him, but that did not mollify Steve at all.

"She stopped talking to us," Steve cried throwing up his hands and then putting them on his hips to glare definitely at them. "Remember? She went crazy and turned on us all? We were all there for that, right? We all saw it. She doesn't get to decide to come back out of nowhere, and you guys shouldn't just let her!"

"Look, she has always had good intel, okay?" Chin said. "A girl's life was at stake and I wasn't going to ignore it simply because you're mad at her."

"Me? Me?" Steve cried. "Why is it just me? How are niether you not mad at her?!"

"That is not what he meant," Danny said and Chin added a quick, "No it was not." Danny plowed onward. "Babe, the girl, a girl who didn't want to talk to us, hunted us down to give us this info. Rowan is never wrong. So, we followed her hunches and look at us now, we're cooking through this."

Steve glared at them all. "We're going to the hotel," he growled.

"Aw, come on," Danny cried. "Babe. Babe, don't do this. Please. I beg of you. Don't do this."

Chin followed after them trying not to sigh. He picked up his phone and texted Rowan again. If the girl was smart, she'd throw her phone in the pool and run. Run fast and run far.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan came out of the hotel room, dropping the dirty towels onto her cart before pushing it towards the next room. She used her all-access card to open the door and then she propped it open.

She took one step in and heard a cry of: "ROWAN!" from the hallway and she frowned. She sort of recognized the voice. But why would he want to talk to her?

She stopped what she was doing and turned back around. When she poked her head out into the hallway it was Steve barrelling towards her with Danny trailing behind.

She mentally catalogued all the things he could have been mad at her about. There were so many things, what specifically had made him angry right at this moment?

"Uhm… how may I help you?" she asked as he got closer.

The expression on his face was dark. He was looking at her like he would look at one of his suspicious suspects. He was looking at her like she was evil, and maybe, after everything she had done, she kind of was.

"Cut the crap, I know you've been feeding Danny and Chin intel," he snarled. Rowan turned her eyes to Danny who merely said: "You don't have your phone?"

"It's in my locker," she breathed out.

"Oh, what you're on texting terms now?" Steve cried.

"No, come on, babe. We haven't forgiven her. She just… you know… she just…" Danny stuttered.

"I found the bride," Rowan said and Danny pointed at her and nodded.

"You found… oh is that all? You just found a car wreck miles away from the hotel, off a ridge, in the middle of an area that gets literally no reception?" Steve thundered.

"Yeah well, the visions always get reception no matter where I am," Rowan snapped. "What was I supposed to do? Leave her there?"

"We would have found her eventually," he snapped. He could have said that she could have called one of them to check it out, but she had done that. He also assumed that she had gone to the site to make sure Chin found her.

"Yeah. Dead," Rowan argued. She put her hands on her hips and glared at him. "Admit it Steven the only reason you're mad is because I went to them instead of you."

It was like she had landed a blow. The anger got knocked right off his face and he went straight to shock. Then his face went this strange red color she had never seen before and suddenly he was shouting: "No… no… NO! That's not even… I'm not… I don't give a shit what you do Rowan!"

Rowan gestured to where they were and said: "You came to harass me at work, clearly you care about what I do, Steve."

The redness darkened and for a minute Rowan was worried Steve was going to have an aneurism.

"Your visions are getting in the way of real police work," he snarled.

"Uh… by the looks of it my visions saved someone's life."

"Oh yeah? Then who killed her brother? You knew where she was. You knew he was a wedding crasher. You're so sure that she really loves that boy and not his money, then go ahead. Tell me. Who killed him," Steve ordered.

Rowan fell silent. Oh, oh dear. "Uhm… well… uh… that wasn't part of the vision so I… uh... I don't actually know," she said. Steve half laughed, the sound empty and hollow, he then turned a wicked grin to her.

"Well you knew about everything else, so I can get you on withholding," he said. "So, unless you want me to arrest you, you better think of a name."

Rowan scoffed at him. "You can't arrest me for that," she said.

"Actually he can," Danny said. "You know, because visions aren't considered real so you must have known somehow and we can logically assume that you knew because you were involved or a witness."

Rowan turned her eyes to Steve again. "Really?" she whispered. "But… you know I have…"

"Tell me who, Rowan," he growled. "Tell me who or I'm taking you out of here in handcuffs."

Rowan couldn't tell him, and when she was silent Steve surged forward, the second he made contact with her she knew. She knew who it was but it was too late, she didn't want to tell Steve anything, she didn't want to reward this behaviour. He forced her hands behind her back and hand cuffed her, not being even a little bit gentle with her like he had been before. He dragged her through the front lobby and even told her boss that they were taking her in regards to the recent murder in the hotel.

Well that was her fired. And she had liked this job. Only had it for a week. Wouldn't be able to use them as a reference either. So wasn't that just great?

Once outside she was thrown into the back of a HPD Squad unit. Then, right there on the curb, right outside the car, Steve and Danny argued over what Steve was doing. She didn't listen, she focused on Duke who was in the front of the unit looking all sorts of uncomfortable with the situation.

"Hey, uhm, Duke, can you give Danny a message? Only Danny. Not Steve." she asked. When Duke nodded she said something simple and easy, a quick message to relay that her boys would understand.

 _Head of Security._

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan had been right.

She was right about where Dahlia had been. Even the tip she had given Danny had been right. It was the Head of Security. But most of all she had been right about him.

He was angry she had gone to Chin and Danny instead of him.

He had gone with Danny, and Nathan, the jilted groom to the hospital to witness their impromptu wedding. And it was just touching. That two people could love each other that much and make things work. That this man, forgave this girl for lying to him, because despite the lies he knew she loved him and he loved her and in the end that's all that mattered.

It should have made him think of Catherine. He should have thought about how he wanted that with the girl he was dating, but all he thought about was Rowan and how he wanted that with her. It was wrong, he knew it was wrong, but he couldn't help it. The feeling just welled up inside him until he had no other choice but to act on it.

So he drove, recklessly behind the wheel of Danny's car, telling Danny he was just desperate to get to his truck which he had left at the Palace to get home and wait for Catherine. But that wasn't true. As soon as Danny drove off, he was rushing into the Palace, jogging through the hallways to get to her.

He had no speech. He was not prepared in anyway. His plan was to wing it and hope to god it went the way he wanted this to go. His heart was swelling up in his chest he was worried the emotion might cause him to float away, or that maybe he'd explode.

But when he got to the Five-0 head office, Chin was standing at the smart table, probably working on the paperwork to close up the case, a task Steve had left him with partially in punishment for taking Rowan's call. He looked up to Steve surprised and smiled warmly at him while Steve blinked his eyes surprised. He was hoping he'd be alone for this.

"What are you doing back here? Did the wedding go well?" Chin asked.

"Yep, it was beautiful. I think they'll be happy together for a long time," Steve said. "Uh… I'm just going to release Rowan…"

"Oh, I already did that," Chin said and Steve stopped walking towards the elevator and turned back to Chin.

"You… uh… you did?"

"Well we had nothing to hold her on," Chin said turning back to the smart table. "The withholding information was a stretch. There was nothing to tie her to the case. So I let her go home."

Everything deflated out of Steve and he was hit with a sudden moment of clarity. What the hell had he been thinking? He was really going to go down and tell the girl he had just arrested that he had feelings for her while she was zip-tied to a goddamn chair? Really how well did he think that was going to go? Rowan would have killed him the second he freed her and he wouldn't have blamed her.

"Right," he said. "Yeah, makes sense. Uh… I'm going to… I'm going to head home. Have a nice night Chin."

He left in a daze. Amazed that he actually almost went through with such a terribly thought out plan. He got in his truck, stunned that things went that far, and forced himself to remember that Rowan didn't want him. Rowan wanted Alex. And Wo Fat. Not Steve and all the stability and adoration he could offer her.

This was a close call. And what he needed to make sure of now was that he never lost control like that ever again.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

That wedding had knocked some sense into Danny. He did see a future with Gabby, but not one that had him in it. He couldn't keep having Gabby leave and come back, he wasn't going to move either, because Grace needed stability and Grace needed him.

That led them to a heart-felt conversation where Danny ended their relationship.

Gabby left that night. Not because Danny asked her too but because she wanted to, she felt less awkward about leaving then staying now that they weren't together.

Danny was perfectly comfortable with wallowing in his stupid dumb luck. With sitting in misery drinking beer until it was time to go to bed. He almost wanted to text Steve, knowing that he'd come over in a heartbeat to comfort him, but he didn't want to do that, he had his own life and things to deal with. And in those five minutes after the door closed behind Gabby, while he sat there staring at his phone and debating texting his best friend, he got a text.

A simple two-word text. From Rowan.

 _Open up._

Danny went to the door, not sure what to expect. Though really, he should have expected that Rowan would be standing there. Seeing as she was asking him to open the door. He wasn't expecting her to have girly alcohol and ice cream.

"Just saw Gabby leave, good timing I was worried the ice cream would melt," she said brushing past him to go to the kitchen.

"Uh… not that I'm not happy to see you… cause I am… but what are you doing here?" he asked her. Following her as she got out two bowls and spoon.

"Ice cream always made me feel better when I broke up with someone," she said in way of an answer.

"How did you… you know what? I don't care," Danny started and then sighed. "You're something else you know that? But… thank you."

Rowan smiled at him. "You're welcome. Non-Alcoholic or Alcoholic?" she asked.

Ohh, she really was good. "Alcoholic. As alcoholic as you can get."

Rowan poured a generous amount Bailey's into his bowl and then handed it to him. This was better than having Steve, he had a girl who understood feelings, who understood alcohol and post-break-up sugar binges, who commiserated in every single way.

A girl that stayed all night to talk to him, and agreed that he had done the right thing. A girl who ate as many bowls of ice cream as he did as a form of solidarity. A girl who made pancakes even better than Gabby for both him and Grace in the morning. A girl he realized he wanted to be happy, despite the bets he had with his friends and the amount of money he could make if things went the other way.

A girl who was quickly becoming a very good friend.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Catherine left Billy behind in the car without a second glance. He was a good friend and a good boss, and though she could tell he was vying for a deeper emotional connection, he wasn't going to get one. Despite everything that had been going on, Catherine's heart still belonged to Steve.

Speaking of Steve, her man was wearing a grey wife beater, showing off his muscles and those delicious tattoos and his pajama cargo pants made of soft fabric. It was like he got all rugged on purpose, just for her.

"I couldn't sleep," he said coming towards her. Except her wasn't waiting in his pjs because his pjs were just his boxers and sometimes nothing depending on how tired he was after their romps. "I wanted to make sure you got home okay. How was your first day?"

She looked him up and down. She wanted to believe that he was out here, really, because he wanted to see that she got home okay. She wanted him to want that, but she knew when Steve had seen Rowan, she knew in how it changed the way he moved and the way he spoke and the way the sparkle in his eyes would slowly die out.

He had seen Rowan today, despite promising her that he and Rowan were done. Despite Rowan promising that she would stay away from Steve and his friends and actually going through with that promise… well for a while anyway. He had seen Rowan and now he couldn't sleep.

"Uh… it's a big change," she admitted. She almost asked him how Rowan was doing. To prove to him how easy it was to tell the difference between a Steve that had interacted with Rowan and a Steve that hadn't.

"Yeah, I bet," he said with a warm smile. Already the sparkle she had seen in his eyes was starting to dull just a fraction. God, why did Rowan have such a hold on him?

"But in a good way," she clarified. Because this change had been good for her. She didn't miss the Navy nearly half as much as she thought she would.

Steve smiled at her and murmured some encouraging word that really meant nothing and she plowed on hoping to get him reinterested in her and his surroundings. "Yeah, Billy already got us another gig so I think… I think we're going to be busy," she told him.

"Good, I'm glad," he said and it sounded like he meant it. She only had to take one step forward and like a robot he leaned in for the kiss she wanted. The peck on her lips felt rehearsed and practiced, he didn't grab her and hold her. Instead he kept himself at a distance and seemed uncomfortably rigid.

Yeah, he had definitely seen Rowan today and not just seen. Fully interacted. He had probably held her, and argued with her and gotten all attuned to her again which meant it would take a few days to get him comfortably attuned back to Catherine again.

 _Fucking Rowan._

She pulled away and tried to not let the disappointment show on her face. "I'm gonna go wash up. Will you… uhm… open us a bottle of wine?" she asked heading for the front door.

"Yeah. Red or white?" he asked.

Extra attentive. Yeah, now he was trying to over compensate for being all distracted with her. Well, she could definitely use that to her advantage.

"Uhm… surprise me," she said and then disappeared into the house.

As soon as the door shut behind her she let go of that brave front she had been putting on. The truth was, being with Steve, while it made her heart light had fluffy, had gotten exhausting. Having to fight for him, having to fight a girl who wasn't really all that present, who could pop up at any point of time and made things strange and distant between then, was getting hard.

She'd have to shower with Rowan's shampoo again, or wear something that she knew Rowan would wear. Which was slightly ridiculous because Rowan's style was much more juvenile then her own. That, of course, made sense, because Rowan was nine years younger than Steve and six years younger than Catherine. It was like Steve was suddenly obsessed with a child.

She steeled herself, strengthened herself with the reminder that while Rowan may have gotten him distracted today, Steve was going to go to bed with Catherine that night. Catherine could undo the spell that Rowan had cast, she could bring Steve's mind and heart back to her, she could and she would. As many times as she had to until he was all hers and no one else's.

Rowan would not defeat her.


	68. Chapter 68

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Family Day Guys!So guys, I got something special going on this week. This week I'mma update… ONCE A DAY! Why do you ask? Well it's Alex Lover's birthday and because they're one of my frequent updaters and one of my staunchest supporters I figured we'd do something special for their birthday. So in honor of Alex Lover being a whole year older, we're going to have 7 update marathon this week. On top of that we have 5 updates left before we get to the cute first that I hope you guys will enjoy. I also have some 3 update a week postings coming up for milestones we've been reaching. So with any luck I'll get you guys closer to all really cute stuff I have lined up. So Happy birthday Alex Lover, I hope you like your b-day gift and I'll see you guys tomorrow._

 _P.S. I had a feeling that was you JP, I just wanted to make sure. Glad you're okay and I hope you get Tacos tomorrow!_

Chapter 68

* * *

They were up at Makapu'u point. Where a man was cheating on his wife. Garter belts, bare flesh, heated kisses and sensual noses. Night goggles and laughter came from the two people watching them, sent there by a suspicious wife. The man came out of nowhere. The man with the gun. The man that shoots John Cutler, the cheating husband.

Billy and Catherine react. They go to help. Together they round the house. Billy goes to stop him but this man in more than prepared. Bullets fly every which way, only Billy and Catherine care which way they go. A bullet hits Catherine's shoulder, but it's the one that tore through Billy's stomach that burned. The one that leaked, and consumed him, whittling him away to nothing in Catherine's arms.

"You're not going to die today, do you hear me? Do you hear me!"

Catherine's cry of his name was mirrored by Rowan's, except Rowan's cry was real and not a dream.

Rowan was sitting up in bed. Beside her Alex groaned, having been awoken by her scream. Not for the first time that week either. At this rate she would have to find somewhere else to sleep.

"Jeeze. Billy, Steve, Chin, Danny," he muttered sleepily. "The only name you don't scream in this room is mine."

Rowan smiled seductively and draped herself over him where she then kissed him solidly on the lips. "I was screaming your name like three hours ago," she whispered.

He murmured in pleasure at the memory, but clearly it didn't do enough to his libido for he was already rolling over to go back to sleep. Rowan took that as a chance to get to the bottom of this. This dream, it was ten times more urgent then any of the others. She knew, without a shadow of a doubt that it was happening tonight.

But it might not have happened yet.

She took her phone, wrapped herself up in a sweater she had stolen from Steve and had long since stopped smelling like him, and made her way out onto Alex's balcony.

She stared at her phone, wondering if she was really going to do this. And decided that Billy deserved a chance to live and that Catherine deserved to live a life without guilt.

So she dialed Catherine's number.

It rang for a long while. Rowan worried that maybe that was because Catherine was already trying to deal with the shooter. But she was probably just screening Rowan's call.

Either way she was very surprised when Catherine actually picked up the phone.

"What do you want?"

Oh well that was rude. Maybe that was because it hadn't happened yet. Maybe Rowan could still save Billy.

"I need you to listen to me," Rowan started, and luckily Catherine didn't interrupt. "I know you don't like me or believe me, but tonight Billy's going to get shot."

"Shot?" Catherine echoed. "Rowan we're on a surveillance job, no one is going to get shot."

"Yes! Yes, both you and Billy get shot. Except you live and he doesn't. Please, Catherine I'm not lying. You guys have enough evidence, please leave. Leave before the killer comes. PLEASE!"

"Rowan, I don't have time for this," Catherine said and then hung up the phone.

Rowan sat down on the chair and sighed. She tried. She could easily just go back inside and go back to sleep. Billy would die, of course, and Catherine would forever be plagued with the guilt of knowing she could have saved him, but that wasn't Rowan's fault. She had tried and Catherine hadn't wanted to listen to her.

But instead of going inside, Rowan dialed a different number. This time when the person picked up they sounded sleepy and concerned, because why else would Rowan be calling if not because she was in trouble again?

"Hey Chin, sorry to wake you, but uhm… can you come get me?"

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve woke up to the terrible sound of banging on his front door. His bed was empty, Catherine being at work and all that jazz and his immediate thought went to her having locked herself out. But as he got out of bed and padded softly down the stairs he realized that if Catherine was locked out she would have called him, or broken in. So, this wasn't Catherine this must have been someone else.

Now he wished had had taken his gun with him. He got to the door and just listened to the pounding and the voice that he could now hear practically hidden behind the frantic pounding.

"Wake up, wake up, wake up! _Wake up!_ "

Steve knew that voice. He was frozen at the door, hand to the knob. He shouldn't open it. He shouldn't. But she had come there in the middle of the night, to the person she hated. What if she was in trouble?

Steve opened the door to her and looked down into Rowan's frantic face.

"Where's Catherine?" she asked. Okay that was completely unexpected.

"She's uh… she's on a stake out…"

"Yes, I know that. But if I don't find her now, Billy's going to die and Catherine's going to get shot so WHERE IS SHE?!" she had gradually gotten louder until she practically screamed that last question. There was a lot to take in, but it sounded like Rowan had had another dream.

"Rowan… look… I know you think you're helping but it's almost dawn and Catherine's not here…"

Rowan groaned at him, frustrated, the groan was more of a low roar of rage. Before he could stop her she had lurched forward. Her hands came to his sides and though he was wearing a white wife beater he felt the electricity flow through them. His hands came to her elbows and without a second though he crushed her to his chest. It was like the contact with her had doubled the electric peel of desire that suddenly had control of him. Fuck. _Fuck_. Rowan and her hands, those fingernails digging into him. He could easily imagine being between her thighs, her legs around his waist, those finger nails biting into his ribs. The noises she'd make for him. The way she'd scream his name.

It wasn't just a secret dream. He could make it reality. All he had to do was kiss her.

"Kalaniana'ole Hwy and Honakua St.," she breathed out and then she let him go, forced herself away from his chest and turned away.

She pulled out her phone and dialed a number. "Hi. Yes. We have shots fired and two GSWs at Kalaniana'ole Hwy and Honakua St., a little cottage just up there." She said quickly he lost the rest of the conversation as she was rushing away from him. She hung up the phone quickly without once looking back.

"Thank you, Steve!" she called as she practically ran down the gravel pathway to the street where he finally noticed Chin Ho awaiting her on his motorcycle. Steve noted that she didn't even look back at him once, though his eyes couldn't be taken off of her until she was literally out of sight. He noted that his body was rock hard in anticipation for her, harder than Catherine had managed to get him in weeks. He also noted that the act of getting a vision didn't make her collapse anymore.

He noted that she was frantic to get to Catherine and Billy. But he refused to believe that anything was wrong because he'd know, Catherine would call him, and both she and Billy were completely competent. No. Rowan was wrong. She had to be, because he couldn't keep losing people. He just couldn't.

Needless to say, Steve did not sleep after Rowan left. He just kept hearing everyone's words bounce back at him, but Danny's words were on loop.

 _Rowan is always right._

Okay, so she was right about a lot of things, but she could be wrong about the shooting. Even though she was so sure about it that she came to him even though they were on terrible terms at that moment. She was so sure that woke him up in the middle of the night and she had called 911. She wouldn't have done that unless she was certain that she was right, that someone was going to get hurt.

Fuck. He should have gone with her. He should have told her to wait and then gone to get dressed so they could go together. Now he couldn't remember what address she had gotten off of him. He couldn't follow her every if he wanted to

He stopped tinkering with his dad's car and picked up his phone. Chin had not answered his texts, neither had Rowan. Catherine was not picking up, neither was Billy and Danny had no idea what was happening because he had been off with Grace at a cheer leading competition.

He couldn't even go looking for them because Steve didn't know where the cabin was and if they were going to the hospital, he didn't know which one.

Guilt and worry ate at him, so he went to work on his father's car. Simply because it would keep his mind off of everything until someone decided to get back to him.

"Late-night tune up?" a voice called and Steve straightened. He was so in the zone he hadn't even noticed Joe let himself in.

"Hey!" he called in greeting before turning back to the car. "Yeah, I'm just switching out the plugs."

He felt Joe walk past him so that he was on his other side closer to the bumper of the car.

"You know, I hear you can pay somebody to do that for you?" Joe teased. Steve sighed. If he had wanted sass he would have told Danny to home when he offered.

"What are you, crazy? You think I'm gonna let some know-nothing grease monkey get his hands on a classic like this?" Steve asked instead. He didn't want to show his former C.O. how rattled he was by Rowan's visit. He wouldn't have understood.

"Your dad felt the same way about this car," Joe reminded him. Yeah like he needed that right now. Another person he let down, another person he wasn't there for. "And that was before it was a classic, when it was just old."

Steve shook his head, and went back to the monkey wrench in his hands. "Don't overtighten," Joe chided, still as bossy as ever.

"I got this," Steve said because it was true and he wanted the man off his back. "Thanks for coming by."

"Sounded like it might be important," he said. That was true. He had called him a few days back and requested a meet. Joe hadn't gotten back to him, apparently going for the pop-by-surprise method.

"Kinda hoping you could tell me," Steve said and then the two exited the garage and went towards his lanai and the two chairs out by the beach he loved to sit in. "I'm having trouble getting a hold of my mom."

Just like Rowan said he would.

 _Rowan is always right._

"Well, how long have you been trying to reach her?" Joe asked.

"A couple of weeks. No luck," Steve answered.

"Well, your mother is a difficult person to pin down," Joe said as he folded his arms over his chest. He looked squirrelly, the kind of look he gave when he was hiding something but didn't really want to hide it.

And his mother shouldn't want to avoid him.

"I really need to speak with her," Steve urged. "I was kind of hoping… maybe… you could get in touch with her?"

"What makes you think she'll answer my call?" Joe shot back. Which was a fair point.

"Because you're not asking her any difficult questions," Steve explained.

"Steve, if Doris knows you're looking for information about her relationship with Wo Fat…" he started.

"She's going to avoid me as long as she can," Steve finished for him.

Joe nodded. "But if she's off the grid, it could also be for reasons that have nothing to do with you."

Suddenly Steve's interest was piqued. That was a hint, wasn't it? Why was he being so cryptic all of a sudden?

"I mean… you know something you're not telling me here, Joe?" he probed.

"No, I'm just reminding you that your mother's a complicated woman," he said with a smile. Why was he smiling? This wasn't funny, nor was this a happy moment. His _mother_ should answer her son's fucking phone calls.

"But I will reach out," he assured him when Steve's face twisted into something that clearly made Joe uncomfortable. "I will see what I can find."

Steve nodded. Kay that was fair. Joe looked serious about the undertaking so he believed he'd actually do it.

"Since I'm here… uh… tell me about Rowan Pierce," Joe suddenly ordered.

Steve tried to hide the wince, the automatic frown that creased his face when her name came up. "Why do you care about her?"

"Because her name's come up a lot recently," he said. "A lot of parties are interested in her."

Steve shouldn't have been worried, but he was. What did that mean? "What are you talking about?"

"Her name went out on all frequencies a couple of weeks ago," Joe told him. "Her name and an app. An app that no one can crack. Its voice activated. But not by Fat's voice and not by hers. No one can figure out what it is or what it means. But since then everyone, and I mean everyone, has been giving her a wide berth. One faction fully pulled out of Hawaii, a Spanish one, and they refuse to come back."

Steve inwardly swore. Wo Fat's safety net. The Navy knew about that?

"It's not what you think. It's just… it's a network," he said. "It was set up to protect her."

Joe stared at him… hard. "Do you know who set it up?" he asked. Yes, yes, he did and this was a test because obviously Joe knew too and he saw it on Steve's face.

"How does she access a network that her voice can't open? She got a code or something?"

"I don't know, I think you need her voice and her codes," Steve explained. "It's really not… it's not that big of a deal."

"A dangerous terrorist who has no emotions and no cares for anyone other than himself has set up a safety network for a girl you have close ties to," Joe snapped. "That may be part of the reason Doris ain't answering your calls."

Steve wanted to argue but he couldn't. Firstly, because Joe had a point. Rowan and Doris had bad blood, and while Steve knew the network Wo Fat had put in place was meant as a reactionary system and not precautionary, Doris did not. And secondly, because his phone was ringing.

Finally, someone was getting back to him. But it was a number Steve didn't recognize flashing on his screen.

Steve answered the phone and listened to the woman on the other side. That worry and guilt built up into a whirlpool in his stomach as everything was carefully explained to him. Once again Danny's words burned through his ears as he pushed past Joe and into his house.

Rowan is _always_ right.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Catherine came to.

White blinding lights. Slow beeping. A dull pain in her body, a hot fire in her arm. Head fuzzy, mouth dry and completely disoriented.

But out of every unfamiliar and painful aspect there was one thing that stood out bright against the white backdrop. Something familiar.

Steve.

"Hey," he said to her.

"Hey" she echoed back and then looked around. "Where am I?"

"You're in the hospital," he answered. She was? Why was she in a hospital? Mmm, yes, because she had been shot. She tried to shift, to force herself to sit up but she was too tired and it hurt too much. Steve put a hand to her restless feet. "Just take it easy," he whispered.

They were silent for a minute. She took him in, and how tired her looked. Big dark circles under his eyes, a soft grey sweater with a white teeshirt's neck sticking out awkwardly, signalling tha the had either worried it away from the sweater or he had gotten dressed in a rush. It was also sweater she swore he never wore. But even that unkempt she bet he was still the hottest guy on the ward. And he was all hers.

"Do you remember what happened Catherine?" he asked.

Actually no… she didn't… but as soon as she put her mind to it, it all came back. The shooting, the blood, Billy's body writhing with agony, her fingers trying to stop the blood and then the flashing of the red lights.

"Billy… God… how is Billy…" Catherine asked. She searched Steve's face and felt dread sink in her stomach at the look she saw there. "Steve?"

"He… well… they think he's going to pull through," Steve told her. "They say… they say the ambulance got to him in time. Any longer and well…"

The ambulance. The ambulance she never called. The ambulance Rowan must have called. Rowan had ignored her and sent an ambulance anyway. Rowan had saved him. Not her and the pressure she had been putting on his wound. Just Rowan.

Steve tried to smile at her. "It's okay Catherine, it's okay. He's okay, you're okay…"

"Rowan tried to tell me," she whispered. "Did she… did she…"

Steve lowered his head. "Yes, she uh, she sent the ambulance. She showed up at the house and demanded to know where you were and then… you know… I wouldn't tell her… and she… she got a vision off of me, for the address, and ran off. Heard her on the phone with dispatch."

"She woke you up in the middle of the night to get the address so she could send an ambulance?" she asked.

"Yeah, round 2:15," he said.

"2:15… are you sure?" she asked.

"Yeah, pretty sure," he said with a shrug. "Why?"

"Because none of it had gone down yet, I didn't even clock the shooter driving up until 2:20. I know for sure, it's burned into my brain," she said. "She called an ambulance before the situation even happened."

"Okay… well that's just Rowan, she's super prepared, she probably just knew you'd need the help right away," he said.

Catherine shook her head. She had a feeling that Rowan sent that ambulance because she knew Catherine wouldn't be able to save him. She did it because she knew Catherine would try and save the other man before she attended to Billy and the bullet in his gut.

Which had been where she had been found. Coming out of the house, dizzy and out of sorts. She didn't even get to tell them…

"The body!" Catherine suddenly shouted sitting straight up in bed. "Did she call HPD? Did she tell them about the body?"

"I… uh... no? I don't know," Steve said. "I haven't heard anything about another body."

"Then Rowan didn't tell them. Rowan called an ambulance for Billy, she didn't tell anyone about the body, maybe she forgot, maybe she didn't know… We need to get back there now, we need to get to the cabin," she ordered, already she was tearing out her IV and trying to stand.

Steve scrambled to stop her but couldn't.

"Listen to me, stop, stop, you need to stay here and you need to rest," Steve said but she wouldn't stay still. "I'll call Duke and get a CSU out to the cabin, alright?"

"Steve, where is Rowan?" Catherine asked. "She came to your house, she got the vision and then what? She just went home?"

"I don't know Catherine, she's not my concern," he argued. She almost scoffed. It wasn't like Steve to just not know where Rowan was, especially if there was a shooter involved. Catherine didn't believe that for a minute. "What does it matter where Rowan went?"

"What if she's at that cabin with the dead body?" Catherine snapped back. "Okay that didn't make sense, but what if she went to check on us and the shooter got her?"

"Well when she took off she was on the back of Chin's motorcycle so… I think if a shooter was gonna go for her she'd be okay."

"She's talking to Chin again?" Catherine asked in a small voice. Like she was surprised. Why would she be surprised?

"I don't know? Alex won't drive her places if he's been out for the night and they had a gig last night. So she probably needed someone to give her a ride and she roped Chin into it," Steve answered with a shrug. "You know how persuasive she can be."

Catherine stared at him. Why did he know that Rowan's boyfriend's band had a gig last night? Why did he know those specifics? She shook her head she had bigger fish to fry.

"Okay, I'm going with you," she said.

"No, Catherine, you're not going anywhere, you just got shot."

"Steve, I need to go. The guy who shot me, who shot Billy and killed Jason Culter is still out there. And I can't be in here. You of all people should understand that," she cried.

She saw it on Steve's face. Right then and there. She knew the second he turned those guilt laden baby blue eyes to her that she had won.


	69. Chapter 69

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: So I totally forgot to post this before I left! Yeah that means you'll get two updates today to make up for me forgetting to post before I left yesterday. Yeah, surprise little factoid, I'm posting this from VENICE! Yeah, I know, was it smart of me to choose to do a marathon of posts while on Vacation? Probably not, I'm hoping all my updates are on time but if they're not… I'm in Venice guys, cut me a bit of slack. But back to the marathon… How's everyone liking it so far? We're getting close to the part where Rowan's gonna finally start fighting back. Exciting right? Anyway, we have 4 updates left before we get that big change and I'll see you guys in a few hours._

Chapter 69 

* * *

They got to the scene and there was a fleet of police cars and a single ambulance. But no one was inside the house.

"What's going on?" Steve cried. "Why aren't you processing the house?"

"I thought you said he was dead," Steve murmured to her as he helped her out of the car. Catherine loved that he was being this chivalrous with her but some faith in her would be nice too. Catherine glared at him. She shouldn't have let him talk her into going home and changing. They should have gone as they were, they would have gotten there quicker, maybe prevented whatever this was.

"You better see for yourself," Duke said and Steve and Catherine pushed past him and into the house.

Nothing was there. No sign of a body, no sign of a struggle. No sign of a shooting. Nothing. It looked like nothing had happened there at all. And that couldn't have been right.

"Steve, there was blood here," she said to him, willing him to believe her. "This doesn't make any sense."

Steve had his hand on his hips. She loved it when he took that power pose, but not when he was directing it at her. "Look, you've been through a lot, okay? Is there any chance you got the address wrong?"

Catherine glared at him. "I was unconscious for hours. Somebody must have come in here during that time and scrubbed this place."

Steve didn't seem to believe her. "You know what, let's go check the ambulance. Clearly, they didn't find a body here, he must still be alive," Steve said turning his back on her. But that didn't make sense, because if he was alive there'd still be blood and signs of a struggle.

Catherine wanted to hit him. Why wouldn't he believe her? She bet he would have believed Rowan. Actually, he had. He believed all of Rowan's visions and had no proof what so ever, why couldn't he believe Catherine?

Steve got outside the door and swore. Catherine was only a few steps behind him but she knew what it was that got him so riled up. She could see the difference in his posture, in the way he had suddenly gone ramrod straight. She knew who was in the ambulance before she even got out of the building.

Steve was stalking forward and Rowan was staring at him with a pained look on her face. But Catherine had a feeling it had nothing to do with the sling her arm was in. Catherine immediately felt defensive, Rowan looked lovely, despite being in baby doll pink shorts, a matching pink tank top and a jacket that clearly belonged to one of the cops combing the area. Her red-blonde hair was up in a messy bun. Her legs were covered in mud, blood and minor scrapes, there was bruising along one side of her face. And yet, she still looked adorable while Catherine was sure she looked like hell warmed up

"Rowan, what happened?" Steve snapped glaring down at her with his hands on his hips.

Rowan glared right back. "I came out here to sit on the house and make sure that they wouldn't clean the crime scene up and steal the body," she explained. Catherine frowned, great, so Rowan knew about that too? Hadn't been able to stop that one from coming true though. "I was trying really hard not to vomit and out of nowhere I get _whacked_! Over the head. AGAIN! What does this universe have against my head, Steven? WHAT?!"

"Well, why didn't you tell anybody…" Steve started but that only had Rowan gasping with outrage.

"I did! I did tell people!" she cried. "I told so many people this was going to happen, I told Catherine. I told you, I told Chin, I told Duke… how many more people am I supposed to tell before someone LISTENS TO ME?!"

"It's true… she uh… she did tell me that someone was going to come and tamper with the crime scene, but… she also told us that the situation hadn't happened yet… and well… I didn't have the resources to send out on a vision," Duke admitted.

"Okay… so where did Chin go?" he asked.

"I'm here," Chin said popping out from behind the other EMT in the truck. "I was trying to call HPD, service is spotty out here and I uh… I got hit over the back of the head. Rowan woke me up when it was all done. I uh… never got inside though. So not sure if there was a body."

Well wasn't that just fucking peachy, huh? The only person he'd count as a credible witness had been out cold throughout the whole situation. He looked back to Rowan who was poking the arm in the sling and wincing every time she did so.

Steve looked down to her arm, it was the other arm in a sling this time. "What happened to your arm?" she asked.

"Well after they whacked me, they put me in the back of a van. Didn't tie me up though, guess they thought I was out for the count. But with the amount of times I've hit my head, I must be hella resilient, cause I so wasn't. Anyway, I jumped out the back," she said. And then just left it there. Like that answered the question instead of raising so many more.

"I'm sorry, you just jumped out of a moving vehicle?" he asked. "What? You think you're me now? Rowan, you have no training do that!"

"Sure, I do. Not like proper training, but I've got some. Wo Fat taught me the basics of a tuck and roll," she answered as if that was a good thing to say to Steve. Catherine turned and saw it, the anger clearly etched on Steve's face and the struggle he was having to keep it under wraps. "I tucked and rolled out of the back of a van. Tucked and rolled right out and into a fucking tree. And I really need this arm not to be broken. Like. I REALLY need it. For like… my job and stuff…"

"You work at hotel, I feel like they'll let you clean with one arm, Rowan," Steve chided.

"Uh. No. I don't work at the hotel. You got me fired, dipshit," she growled. Okay… whoa… how had he done that? When had he done that? "I'm waitressing now and this is my writing hand. Kinda need it for taking orders and carrying trays."

Steve clearly was uncomfortable with the fact that he got Rowan fired, so he cleared his throat and glanced back to the cabin.

"Are you sure someone cleaned this place up?" Steve asked. "You sure you guys didn't get the wrong address?"

"She got the goddamn address from a vision she got off of you. The ambulance picked us up from here!" Catherine snapped. She was angry that he didn't believe them but mostly she was angry that he was asking Rowan and not her. "Why don't you believe your girlfriend?"

"They painted over the blood spatter," Rowan said pressing her good hand to her forehead as if Steve's question hurt her brain. "Go check. It's still wet."

He moved to walk away, got to the front of the house when Rowan suddenly called out: "Or… you know… you could have just believed your girlfriend!"

Catherine found herself half chuckling. Never since Rowan had come back the second time did Catherine think that the two of them would agree on anything.

"If he arrests me for withholding information again I'm gonna kick him in the nuts and run," she heard Rowan mumble to herself as she lay herself back down on the gurney.

Catherine was surprised by two things in that sentence. One: that Rowan thought she could out run and escape Steve. And two: Steve had apparently arrested her recently.

Secretly she hoped that Steve would try to arrest her, just so she could watch Steve tackle Rowan to the ground when she ran away. She'd love to have video proof of that to rewatch whenever she needed a pick me up.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Alex was livid. She knew it the second he appeared in her hospital room.

"Uh… I can explain…" she started but Alex put a hand up to silence her.

"So you leave in the middle of the night. Find a dead body, and jump out of a moving van?" he asked. "And somehow managed to save a life?"

"Okay, kinda. It started with a dream…" she tried to start again but Alex had begun to pace and was no longer listening.

"It always does, doesn't it?" he snapped. There was so much venom behind his words that Rowan was taken aback. "Have you ever thought what this is doing to me?"

Rowan blinked her eyes at him. "I… I… I'm sorry."

"Are you?" he asked. "Rowan look at you. You're in here just as much as Steve is. You go off, get into danger and then I have to come get you from the hospital. Do you think I like getting calls telling me you're here again?"

"Uh… no?" she offered.

"No, Rowan, I don't," he answered his own question. "I don't like getting called in to work because my girlfriend got hurt again. I don't like rushing here wondering if it's worse than the last time, or why you didn't call me yourself."

"I thought you were sleeping, I wanted you to rest," Rowan answered in a small voice.

"Or did you not call me because, unlike Steve, I'm useless to you?"

Rowan stared at him in shocked horror. Is that what he thought of her? Is that what he thought she thought?

"No!" she cried. "That's not true… I… I didn't think you wanted to come… and it's dangerous…"

"Too dangerous for me but not for you?" he asked.

"I wasn't supposed to be in danger. I got there after the shooting, I didn't think anyone else would come," she said. "I got ambushed. It wasn't on purpose."

Alex nodded, he finally stopped pacing. He crossed his arms over his chest and glared at her. "You can't keep doing this, Rowan," he said. "You're not Five-0, you're not trained. From now on, if you get a vision you call someone and leave it at that."

She had tried to do that. She had. But Catherine hadn't listened. That was why she had gone. That was why she did what she did, but she could see that Alex didn't want to argue.

He sighed. "Look, you want to help people. I get it," he said. "I do… but Rowan… have they ever thanked you?"

Rowan just stared at him. No… they hadn't really, but she knew they were grateful. But Alex continued. "Do you know how they thank you? By not believing you and by arresting you. Steve… he doesn't want your help. Steve doesn't care about you, if he did he'd be here, but he's not because he has a girlfriend, you have me and a great record deal coming down the pipe. I'd like you to be alive to see some profit from your songs."

Steve did just arrest her a few weeks ago. He had been very mad to find her at his crime scene that morning. He never seemed happy to see her, or to have her involved with anything, even before she ripped that big gapping rift between them.

"I know it's selfish, Ro," Alex said coming to stand right in front of her. "But you really scare me. I don't want something bad to happen to you. I just want you to be safe and unhurt, just for a little while okay?"

That was fair. And he was right. Five-0 didn't need her. She could leave them alone and they'd be fine. Steve would probably appreciate it, her body, her stress levels and her mental health would probably appreciate it to. Maybe Catherine would stop being so intimidating.

She opened her arms and he came to her. Wrapping her up in his arms as she did the same to him.

"I'm sorry," she whispered again and she felt him press a kiss into her hair.

"I'm just glad you're okay," he said. "And I'm really glad that your arm is dislocated and not broken."

Rowan nodded yeah, she'd have a hard time writing songs for him if her writing arm was broken. The doctor chose that moment to come in.

"Are you ready to get that elbow back in place?" he asked.

Rowan nodded and he came to her, pulling her arm out of the sling it was in and braced it carefully. "Now, I'm not going to lie, this is going to hurt a bit," he said. Rowan merely nodded because she was already in pain, how much worse could it be?

The doctor counted to three slowly and then jolted her arm. In that one moment the world disappeared in a burst of white.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Danny had come back as a favour to Steve. He had his Navy buddy in the hospital, Catherine had been shot, not badly but it was enough, and Rowan hadn't kept her goddamn nose out.

He had told her not to do anything. That was what he said. "Keep your visions to yourself until I get back." Did she fucking listen? Course not. The girl was exactly like McGarrett. To a tee.

But his official reason for coming back was for Steve. Steve who was coming apart at the seams. Steve who was being pulled in two very different directions. Despite being mad at Rowan, his bleeding heart was conflicted. Danny was going to have to talk to him about that. Once things died down and they had time alone.

But that was not today, because Steve had sent Danny off with Joe White, who was essentially just like Steve but older and more obnoxious, with the lack of suspension in his van. Like he didn't feel a single bump, each and every single jolt of the car.

He was just saying no because Danny was complaining. He even brought up the whole married thing, just like everyone else did.

 _Is this what you a Steve do? Bicker in the car like an old married couple?_

God he hated those comments. They were _not_ married. He saw why people thought that, he didn't get why people kept bringing it up. Luckily Joe opted to change the topic and Danny was fine with that.

"Steve asked me to get in touch with Doris," he announced, just like that. Wow, what a subject change.

Danny nodded. "Okay, well, I mean, that makes sense. You know, he's got questions and she may have the answers," he told him.

"Yeah, well what I didn't tell him was I've been trying to find her for over a month."

Okay. Whoa. That's… that was not good.

"I haven't talked to her since she put Adam and Kono on that freighter. And the chatter is once she left the country old enemies came out of the woodwork," Joe continued.

Danny did not like how that sounded. "What's, she's on the run?"

"Or worse," Joe said and Danny's frown solidified.

"Or worse? Well, what are you gonna tell Steve"?

Already he was playing with his phone. Rowan knew things. Rowan knew things that she hadn't told Steve because he asked her not to. Things that kept "slipping out." He had a feeling she'd know. One quick text and Danny would know too. Then he could tell Steve and say he got the info from Joe or something.

"I can't tell him anything. I don't have any confirmation," Joe said. Okay fair, didn't want to give Steve rumors, have him worry over nothing. Made sense. "What I'm hoping is that you will tell him to stand down on this and let this go, because if we start turning over rocks God knows what might crawl out."

Danny took that in. "Yeah, okay, so I'll just talk to Steve. What makes you think he's gonna listen to me?" Danny asked. Because that too was fair point. Steve listened to no one.

"Because he trusts you," Joe explained. Laughable. And not… okay maybe that was true, but that didn't mean he wanted to betray his trust now. Well anymore then he already was. "He looks at me, he sees ulterior motives. He looks at you and he just sees a friend."

Yes and he wanted to keep it that way. "I could tell Steve whatever you want me to tell him, he'll say: 'okay sounds good' and he's gonna up and do whatever he wants to do," he reminded him. "And my advice to you is to please get confirmation on these rumors and get the truth, and share that truth with Steve because you know and I know he's not gonna stop until he get the answers. It was confirmed by Rowan and now that she's said it, it's going to happen. And Rowan is never wrong."

"Rowan… Wo Fat's girl? What the hell does she know about Doris?" Joe asked.

"Well, before she was Wo Fat's girl, she was our psychic. She knew things, still does. Rowan is never wrong. Said Doris was just gonna hide out because she didn't want to answer Steve's questions which was stupid because Steve finds out on his own anyway," Danny said.

"You believe in psychics?"

"And you should too. She's the reason that Billy's alive," Danny told him, he couldn't keep the hint of pride out of voice. Yeah he told her to avoid the situation but he loved, absolutely loved that she had actually saved a life with one of her visions. That she didn't just leave it up to fate when Catherine hung up on her.

"How did she do that?" he asked.

"She called the ambulance before the situation went down, it's why they got there so fast," Danny said.

"She could be in on it then, if she knew in advance," Joe argued.

"True, but this isn't the first time she's just known. But uh… you should go see her, see for yourself. I bet she knows things about you that no one else would know too," he said and then sat back in his seat.

The car jolted again and he bit back his curse. And the desire to complain once more. His back was going to be shot after this ride.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

The guy was dead. She could see them standing over them. Heard Steve's anger in his voice when Catherine just stared at the man bleeding out on the bathroom floor. The blood around him felt metallic against her tongue, already she thought she might vomit.

Then papers went flying and she was in a living room watching them comb for clues. Like blue's clues she saw red hand prints everywhere but Steve and Chin and Catherine were all ignoring them.

"Anyone got anything?" Steve asked.

Catherine's computer was so damn bloody red it was practically dripping with it but she still said: "No."

What? How! All the clues, they were right there at her fingertips. "We could ask…" Steve said. His mouth was still moving an argument was still going on but she couldn't hear it. His phone was in his hand and suddenly the world around her was shaking. It was like she was stuck in an earth quake but no one around her was reacting to it, she seemed to be the only one who could feel it.

What the fuck….

The shaking stopped and Steve pocketed his phone. "She didn't answer."

"Here, try my phone," Chin said handing it to Steve. "Maybe she'll answer to me."

"We don't need _her,"_ Catherine said. Steve and Catherine half started to argue but this time the shaking of the world came back with such a violent start that she was jolted awake.

The world was fuzzy and bright. Her mouth was fuzzy and heavy. Her words swam around her eyes in brightly colored spots. Her head hurt. Her arm hurt.

She was vibrating.

No. It was her phone. Her phone which was under her head. It must have slipped when she fell asleep.

Clumsy groping helped find her phone, she answered the call by accidently dropping the phone on her face. She picked it back up again, realized that she had answered the call and put the phone to her ear.

"Hi Steve," she murmured and was met by silence.

"How… how did you know it was me?"

"I know your voice," she said. "Hey. Hey. I was just in the living room with you guys playing blue's clues but with blood. There's one behind the TV."

The silence from the phone was so heavy she swore she could see it, covering her like a blanket. A cold blanket of uncomfortableness.

"… are you on morphine again?"

"It didn't pop right," Rowan answered. It wasn't the right question but it was one of the questions he was going to ask.

"What?" came back at her and Rowan frowned. Why was she on the phone right now?

"What do you want?" Rowan asked.

"I need to know what you know about the shooter…"

Rowan was silent for a moment before saying: "I think he's dead."

"Yes Rowan, yes, I know he's dead," he sighed.

"Then why did you call me?" she shot back

"I need to know who hired him," Steve finished. Ah that made sense.

"But… I don't… how am I supposed to…?" she stuttered.

"You had a vision about the shooting… you didn't get one about who hired him?" he asked.

"No?" Rowan asked.

"Are you asking me or telling me?" he asked and Rowan devolved into mumbling. She had promised not to intervene anymore. Was this intervening though? Was it considered intervening when someone was asking her to help?

Continuing to mutter to herself she put the phone down and forced herself to get up. The room swaying, the light played tricks with her, but she still managed to swing her legs over the bed and stand up. But she took three steps away from the bed and suddenly her arm was burning. She yelped out in pain, heard Steve's voice coming out of her phone practically screaming her name. She turned back to the bed and squinted at it. What was that thing that was hanging there? Swinging back and forth.

"Is that an IV?" Rowan asked herself. She looked down to her bleeding arm, a slow leak painting rivers down the inside of her arm from elbow to wrist. "Did I have an IV in me?"

Steve's voice continued to float up to her from her hand and she put the phone to her ear again. There were so many questions coming at her that she didn't know how to answer. It sort of sounded like he was speaking a different language.

"Yo no hablo español," she said to him and then there was nothing but silence. Maybe he couldn't hear her. "If you can hear me I'mma go find another vision. Give me a second."

Rowan didn't quite know where she was going, but she followed her feet which were following her heart. There were strings everywhere, white ones, red ones black ones floating all around her. They were curling around her, but none of them called to her the right way, not the way that yellow did. She grabbed it, used it to guide her until she found her way to a special room.

She squinted at the person in the bed, the one intertwined with a severed black thread and solid yellow. She had messed with the time line, she was watching the strings reconnect to him. This was Billy.

"Hi," she said realizing she was just standing at the foot of his bed as he blearily stared at her. "I'm Rowan."

She heard beeping but it wasn't the same kind she heard when criminals were around and the app was activating. She was met with an "Uh…" from Billy and Steve saying her name from her phone. Rowan put the phone back to ear and said: "King's Medical Centre Morgue, you stab 'em, we slab em. Eight Ball speaking."

"That's not funny," Steve intoned as Rowan began to giggle. It was hilarious to her. As she struggled to get herself under composure she took a good look at where she was and the amount of electrical objects around her.

"Uh… I have some doubts," she said to Steve. "What if I short fuse his EKG machine? What if I electrocute him and kill him or something?"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Steve thundered. "Where are you? What are you doing?"

Rowan handed the phone to Billy. "It's for you."

Billy put the phone to his ear and blearily talked into it. Rowan stopped listening. She was standing beside him, staring that the threads that were reattaching. She suddenly could name each and every one of them. Red for love, yellow for friendship, pink for family, black for death, that one was slowly getting longer and longer. Yes. He was gonna live. She had done it, she had done something amazing and saved a life.

She could help them catch his shooter. She should help. All she had to do was take his hand and then focus with all her power on making sure that static hit her and not him.

So she took his hand.

She felt that shock rebound into her, she felt her body pitch. She felt herself drop to the ground but she didn't get a name or a face like she usually did. Maybe it was because she was concentrating so hard on making sure Billy didn't get electrocuted all she got was a step by step directions on how to find the name. She just didn't know if she could verbalize them in that state.

"Yeah, she's uh… she's on the floor," came from above her. Rowan groaned and put her hand up so Billy could put the phone in her hand.

"The email's on the tour network," she said.

"Tour network?" Steve echoed. "What the hell is that Rowan?"

"I don't know!" Rowan suddenly sobbed. "You woke me up and you made me go places and my arm's bleeding and I made myself have a vision for you and now you're mad at me!"

"Rowan I'm not mad," Steve tried to say.

"Why couldn't you just say thank you? Huh? Would that be so hard?" Rowan asked him. "You're all so ungrateful!"

She threw her phone. She heard it clatter away from her. She hadn't hung up she could still hear Steve asking for her, his voice insistently calling her over and over. She put her hands over her ears to shut it out to make it go away. She squeezed her eyes tightly and hoped to god it would all just go away.

"Are you okay? Do you need me to call a nurse?" Billy asked from his bed, his voice muffled like he was speaking to her through his pillow. Rowan moved her hands. Oh maybe that was why.

"No. Yes. No? I don't know. I like the floor. I feel better when I feel floory," she told him.

"Are you, by any chance, the same Rowan that called Catherine?" he asked after a beat of silence.

Okay, well clearly he wasn't going to just let her lie there. He wanted to have a conversation. At that point Rowan forced herself to stand. She quickly got into Billy's bed settling in beside him. "Yes, I am she," she said as she snuggled into him. If Billy was protesting she either didn't hear him, didn't notice, or didn't care.

"You told her what was going to happen," Billy said. "We didn't believe you."

"No one believes me," Rowan said into his shoulder. "I called the ambulance anyway."

"I'm alive because of you," Billy summed up. Rowan answered with a sleepy _mhmm._ "She said you see the future. Do you… do you know what's going to happen to me now."

Rowan opened her eyes to look at him. "No. We're off script. But I think it's a chance," she whispered. "A second chance to do whatever it is you dream of. I hope you take it."

She wasn't sure what Billy said after that. The clouds came back pillowing her in a heavy sleep. This time she didn't dream of bloody hand prints and murderous emails. She dreamed of billowing snowy winters and a pastel purple car drifting in a storm of bright pink strings.


	70. Chapter 70

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Alright, we are officially all caught up. This here is the 3rd daily update and we've coincidentally have three updates left before we get to that First I'm so excited about. Are you guys getting excited too? Well, if you're not excited for the first, get excited about this. Someone… well two someone's… are gonna get into a fight at the end of this chapter. I had a lot of fun writing this part so I hope you guys enjoy it! As always, don't forget to review and I'll see you guys tomorrow!_

Chapter 70 

* * *

They caught the guy. Rowan's morphine induced vision had led them in the right direction. The Tour network she had been rambling on about had been in reference to the Tor Network which was better known as the Dark Web. From there they got emails, both on that network and off that lead to the lovelorn idiot who had hired a guy to kill the guys the girl he wanted was sleeping with. He figured if he killed one of her john's she'd stop hooking herself and they could be together.

On top of that he knew why those men had grabbed Rowan. The cleaners, they had found her in the house. She was a witness. They were going to take her back to their boss to decide what to do with her from there. He didn't know what a CEO that was okay with a husband spying on a wife would have been willing to do to silence Rowan and he was glad that he wouldn't have to ever find out.

Steve kept staring at Catherine because he was amazed how unaffected he had been when he found out she had been shot. Of course he was worried, of course he was scared, not as scared as he had been when he had sat by Rowan's dying body and held her hand. Nothing compared to that. Not even sitting beside Catherine waiting for her to wake up. He had been upset. Obviously. But not even his worry for Catherine was even close to what it felt like to stand by and watch as the body of someone you cared about pitched and twitched as they attempted to shock their heart back into a normal arrhythmia. And now she was somewhere in King's Medical Center, all morphined out and unaware how much he appreciated her assistance.

After arresting the guy, Steve went straight to the hospital. He wanted to check on Billy, he wanted to make sure that Rowan was okay, because she said somethings during that phone call that worried him. He wanted to know about the IV she may or may not have ripped out of herself, if that vision had knocked her flat to the ground like Billy said it had and to make sure that she knew he was grateful. But getting to the hospital, finding Rowan curled up to Billy was not what he expected to find.

"She just sort of passed out," Billy said to him. "She's a cuddler."

Yes, yes she was. "I'll take her from you," Steve said.

"You may want to get her phone, it's under the chair by the door. It goes off every couple of minutes," he said. Steve quickly obeyed. He didn't mean to open up the screen when he did but there it was all her messages. Alex, some guy named Pete G, Grace and Danny. She had a lot of texts from Danny. What hell was he doing texting her?

He pocketed the phone and then returned to Billy who was trying to pull his arm out of Rowan's grasp.

"Here, you gotta give her something else to hold," Steve told him putting a pillow to her hands that she immediately chose to hold instead of his arm. Once she had let go of Billy Steve rolled her over and then picked her up. The pillow dropped from her grip and her arms wound around his neck, she groaned out his name. He didn't know how she knew it was him but it made him smile to hear her say his name that way. He noted that one of her arms, the one that had been in the sling earlier that day was wrapped up by the elbow. Right where an IV would go. She had ripped open her arm, she really had ripped an IV out of herself.

"I promised," she whispered against the skin of his neck. Promised… what did she promise?

"I can see why Cath worries about you and her," Billy said and Steve turned to him surprised. She told Billy about _that_? Why? "I don't think she realizes that she's like that with everyone."

No. Catherine didn't realize that. And up until that moment Steve realized that he hadn't either. He looked down to the girl cradled in his arms and realized that she didn't treat him special. She treated everyone the same, well, the people she thought deserved it, that even included Wo Fat. She was the living embodiment of loyalty and kindness. He excused himself from Billy promising to return once he got Rowan back to her room and then walked away with the girl who held his heart cradled to his chest, his arms wrapped tightly around her.

He got to the room the nurse said it belonged to Rowan at that moment and carefully dropped her onto the bed. She murmured softly and then whispered: "Alex? Can we go home now?"

She had never confused him for Alex before, it had always been the other way around. It shouldn't have bothered him but it did.

"It's not Alex, its Steve," he said to her. It shouldn't have mattered but the frown that creased her face at the sound of his name bothered him even more.

"I didn't do it," she said, rolling over. "Whatever it is. I didn't do it."

He wanted to say that it wasn't what he was there for, but he didn't get a chance to do that.

"You got something going on with that girl you want to tell me about, kid?" Joe White said making his presence known.

Steve whirled around. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to talk to Miss. Pierce," he said. "That's her, right?"

Steve looked down to Rowan who was asleep holding her pillow tightly again. "Yes, but… uh… she's kind of out of it right now."

Joe came to stand beside him. "I can wake her up," he said and then he pinched the nerve in the back of the leg, right behind her knee. Rowan came to, sitting up howling in agony. Steve's automatic response was to grab Joe's wrist and twist it away from Rowan.

"Why?" she howled to the two of them.

"Wanted to ask some questions," Joe said ignoring Steve's glare his eyes focusing only on Rowan. Purposely. Rowan glared up at him as she rubbed the back of her leg and then turned her weary eyes to Steve and scowled.

"No. No more questions. Go away. Both of you just go away!" she said and then threw herself back down to the bed.

"I just wanted to know how you knew," Joe said. "You saved Billy, and I'm grateful. But I want to know how you knew."

Rowan sat up again, much quicker than she should have. "Say that again?"

"I want to know how…"

"No the other part."

"I'm grateful?"

"Yes. You're grateful? Really?" she asked.

"Well… uh… of course. Billy was one of my own and well… I'm very grateful you called 911 when you did," he said.

"Okay, I guess I can answer your questions," Rowan said primly turning only to fluff up her pillows so she could lean back on them comfortably. The smile on her face growing as she did so. Wow, what a turn around. "What was the first one again?"

"How did you know to call 911?" he repeated.

"Ah, yes, well, I was in the area, and I heard the shots…"

"You were in the area?" Joe asked. "The secluded area. In the woods?"

Rowan blinked her eyes. She clearly had no response for that, and she wouldn't. If she was still on morphine her mind wouldn't be quick enough to think up for something snappy to say.

"Doesn't explain how you made the call a whole ten minutes before the situation even went down," he said.

Rowan stared at him silently and then reached for her phone which Steve had left on the side table. She fiddled with it a bit ignoring the two men in the room, and Joe White waited patiently as she did so. She stared at it intently before she turned back to him and said: "Danny told you I was psychic. Why didn't you just lead with that?"

Steve hung back, just listening, because he couldn't believe this was happening. How quickly she bent to Joe's will. How malleable she became when he told her that he was grateful. Maybe that was what they were missing. He had taken her for granted and she had left. But how had she not known that he appreciated every single thing that she had done for him and his team?

"Because I don't believe it," Joe said.

"Okay… well… I saved Billy's life with a vision. Why don't you believe that?"

"Because I don't. I think you knew. You knew that shooter was going there and you tried to warn them," Joe said.

Rowan frowned. "Well, no duh, that's what the vision was about."

"That's not what he means, Rowan," Steve clarified and Rowan frowned again like she hadn't understood but had deliberately missed the point.

"You want me to prove it, don't you?" she asked. "That's why you're here."

Joe nodded and she huffed. "Why didn't you just say so?" she asked. "Do you get a kick out of making everything so much more difficult for everyone?"

Steve was inclined to believe that he did. Joe White just Shrug, his face staying passively the same like it always did.

"Okay. Uhm… oh! I know!" she cried. "He told Danny to get you off the whole looking for you mom thing."

Steve turned to Joe who had the decency to look shocked. He had done what now? Rowan then turned her eyes back to Steve. "She went missing huh? I told you she would."

Why? Why did she have to hit him with an _I told you so_?

"Danny told you," Joe growled. Oh so it was true?!

"Mm, true Danny was in the car and he's notoriously bad at keeping secrets," she said softly. Steve wondered why she didn't just give him the phone to prove that it wasn't in the text messages. Instead Rowan actually looked like she was thinking of a second thing to say. HE was slightly curious about what that secret could be. "Mmm… okay. He uh… he broke into your house today. Took something from your dad's tool box. Numbers I think from inside the tape recorder? Not sure what they mean."

Rowan put a hand to Steve her fingers enclosing around his wrist, he waited for the jolt of electric desire, and while there was no static shock, heat did travel up his harm. After a second of _hmmm_ ing she dropped his arm, turned back to Joe and then said: "Nope. Nothing. I got nothing… wait… wait… something about a zombie? And Max in an inflatable muscle suit? Okay… that can't be… uh… Why is he looking at me like that?"

Joe White was staring at her. While Steve glared at him. "You broke into my house?"

"Well to get to your garage," Rowan said.

"Shut up Rowan!" Steve snapped and then went back to glaring at Joe.

Joe merely shrugged. He didn't answer he didn't give a single explanation. He instead turned to Rowan and said: "Alright, if you're so psychic, where is Doris?"

"She's gone back to work for the CIA which is surprising because I didn't think they had a geriatric unit, but I guess it's like the whole RED situation. I love that movie."

"Is there something wrong with her?"

"Yeah, she's hit her head again, they gave her something for the pain. She gets a little loopy when she's on morphine. She's better than before so she must coming off it."

"The morphine was for my elbow, Commander McAsshat. They had to pop it back in place and it hurt like a mofo."

"Commander McAss… Okay, you know what, I didn't like McStupid, or McGrumpy or any of the other McNicknames you've come up with. It wasn't funny then it's not funny now. Stop it!"

"Sure thing Commander McKilljoy."

"I will arrest you," he threatened pointing a stern finger in her direction.

"You can't arrest me for lightly bullying you," she said sticking her tongue out at him. Why did she have to be so cute? He could barely hide his smile, nor the gaping hole in his chest that reminded him just how much he had missed this kind of interaction between them.

"Okay, let's get back on track. Okay, so she's a psychic. She knows about things she's not supposed to that she doesn't tell you because you don't want to know," Joe said. "So what is this thing with Wo Fat? He's your… uh… your what?"

"My aniue," she answered.

"What the hell did she just say?"

"Brother, she called him her older brother," Joe translated. Yes that made sense. She had told him that she felt for Wo Fat the way she felt for her brother.

"How is that sociopath like your brother?" Joe snapped.

"He's nice. Under it all. When we're alone," she whispered. "Trev… my brother… he… he was like him. Misguided and he felt alone. He was always better when we were together. Wo Fat's like that. He takes care of me the way Trev… my brother… did. You know… just with more bloodshed."

Joe turned his eyes to Steve who merely shrugged and said: "It's true. There are videos."

Joe looked perplexed. As if the information wasn't processing in his head. He didn't know what to do with it. "That can't be good, kid," he said to Steve. "There's gotta be something… she has to have something on him."

"True, I do. I have lots on him and lots on Doris," she answered as she settled back down in her pillows. "But that's not why he's nice to me."

"Oh? And why is that?" he asked.

"Because the first time in a long time someone cared about him. The way his surrogate mother did," she said as she held Joe White's gaze.

"He shot you," Steve reminded her. Why was he the only one who remembered that? Who thought that it was a bad thing that the man had shot her.

"A regrettable decision he made in the heat of the moment while afraid you'd catch and imprison him or kill him," Rowan answered like she had heard that sentence and rehearsed it over and over until it was time for her to spit it back at him. "He's apologized profusely, and he owes me big time! And I find that, despite recent setbacks, it's actually quite nice to have someone like that in your back pocket."

The way she said it, the way her blue eyes froze into pools of icy blue, shook Steve to the core. He was seeing a bit of that morally corrupt sociopath that Chin had told him about. The evidence that while she had rubbed off on Wo Fat he had also rubbed off on her.

"Can I go to bed now?" she asked. "No offence, but I'm tired of answering your questions."

After that they left Rowan's side but once they were out in the hallway Joe looked at him sternly and said: "You better watch that girl, kid. She's dangerous."

And Steve couldn't have agreed more.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

She knew Steve was off returning Rowan to her room. She knew that Rowan had been in there to see Billy and that Rowan was very high on morphine. Catherine wanted to see Billy to apologize. To tell him that she was sorry that she hadn't listened to Rowan that it was Rowan who called 911 and not her.

But when she got into the room, when she tried to say the words all she saw was Billy's lithe frame in the bed and realized that he was nothing like how she remembered him, she nearly broke down. He looked broken and battered and fragile all wrapped up in gauze and hooked up to a million machines.

Though anything had to be better than the dead he would have been if Rowan hadn't called 911 when she did.

"Don't look at me like that," Billy rasped. "It's not your fault."

Catherine tried to keep her tears contained but a feel escaped her. "I should have called 911, I shouldn't have gone to check if the other guy was alive, you were literally dying in front of me, you should have been more important," she hiccupped.

Billy reached out and took a hold of her hand. "Stop," he urged. "You did what you were trained to do."

Catherine nodded. She found herself laughing, wiping her tears away as she smiled at him. "I've been thinking…" Billy started. He shifted in the bed, pain crossed his features before he forced it aside. He swallowed carefully before finishing. "…about the business. About what I'm going to do next."

"Yeah?" Catherine asked suddenly very wary, especially of how he was holding her hand.

"I don't want this life anymore," he whispered. "I want to settle down. I want a wife. Kids. A house. I want a future that doesn't involve bullets. A job that doesn't always land me in the hospital. Do you… do you ever think about that sort of stuff?"

She did. She had been. She had seen that future for herself with Steve. But Steve would never stop working for Five-0. He'd never retire. He'd die on the job. Or be chasing criminals in his personal mobility scooter dragging Danny along with him. All that had gone to shit the second Steve's obsession with Rowan derailed them. Now she was certain she'd never get to see that future with him. Not unless she killed Rowan or somehow got her back home to her own world.

"Sometimes," she answered going for the non-committal response. She carefully pried her hand out of his grip and avoided his eyes.

"Kay, well I've been thinking about it a lot too," he replied. "And the person I always see myself with, is… well… I see myself with… you."

Catherine found herself wide eyed with surprise. He knew, he knew that she was Steve. He had said that… well… he knew that she wanted to stay with Steve, that she was mostly happy with Steve.

"I know what you're thinking," Billy told her. "And I saw them you know. Rowan and Steve. I… uh… I don't think it's her that's the problem."

Catherine frowned at him. "What do you mean?"

"The way she is with Steve… I can see… she's like that with everyone…" Billy started.

"To a degree… but with Steve it's different. I told you, she admitted she has feelings for him…"

"And with your insistence she's backed away," Billy reminded her. "I think you're just going to have to admit that Steve wants Rowan. Not you."

Catherine backed away from him. That hurt. It hurt her to hear him say that to her. About her. About she and Steve.

"Did she put you up to this?"

"No, not really," Billy admitted. "Cath, that girl, she saved my life. I should have died. And now… I've got this whole second chance, a chance she told me to go for. And I want to, I want to grab it with both hands and hold on tight. Don't you want that Cath? Don't you want someone that wants you, and only you?"

Billy was making good points. But all she heard was _a chance she told me to go for._

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan rubbed the back of her leg, where she was certain a large purple bruise was forming behind her knee. She wanted to call Wo, she wanted to tell him to get Doris to come back. She was going to visit him in prison, soon, right? Maybe if Wo told her that Rowan was sorry, maybe she'd come back and be Steve's mom again.

Ugh. Why did morphine withdrawal make her so sentimental?

"You fucking _bitch_!"

Well, that sounded an awful lot like Catherine. Rowan looked up and saw Catherine standing at her door. Rowan blinked her eyes. It was Catherine? But… what the hell could she be mad about? Rowan hadn't done anything recently… had she? Was she hallucinating again?

Rowan looked around the room to see if there was someone else Catherine could be shouting at but she was the only one in there. Rowan pointed to herself and mouthed the word _"Me_?" to her to which Catherine merely screamed: "Thought you could tell Billy to make a move on me so you could get Steve to yourself, huh?"

Rowan blinked her eyes again. She had? When? Wait… she didn't talk to Billy much before she passed out. So like… What. The. Fuck? "Uh….""—You thought that would really work? That I'd let Steve go just like that because Billy was interested?..." "—…Whaaa?" "—Don't you dare act innocent, it may work on Steve, but it won't on me. I know what you're like, you selfish brat! So, admit it! Admit that you told Billy to make a move on me. Admit it!"

Rowan just stared at her. What was happening? "Uhm… I'm sorry… I'm not sure… I don't think I… what are you talking about?"

Catherine stood in front of her, just a few short steps away. Nostrils flaring, eyes filled with a murderous rage. Rowan thought she had nullified her that maybe her question would show Catherine that she didn't understand what was happening but she was wrong.

Catherine roared with rage and charged her. Rowan could only get out the squeak of surprise before Catherine collided with her, sending her flying off the hospital bed and down to the floor.

Oh Rowan's head did not like that. Catherine was the first to recover. She got on top of Rowan and slapped her, hard. "Admit it!" she kept shouting. With each slap she said it again. Rowan kept trying to deflect her, but Catherine had more training and was much stronger. Which made no sense because she had just been shot!

SHOT! Yes! That was it.

Rowan stopped struggling with Catherine's hands and dug her fingers into the gauze that was just under her shirt. She dug into it until she felt the something snap and her finger sink into the wound. She kept on pressing even though Catherine was screaming and reeling back and Rowan felt like she might vomit at the mental images flashing in her head from the sensation under her fingertips.

Catherine punched her, coincidentally in the same elbow she had ripped the IV out of herself, and while that hurt like a son-of-a-bitch, it still gave Rowan the time to slam her feet into Catherine's chest. Effectively knocking her off of her. Rowan grappled onto the bed, forcing herself to pull herself up and then hoping over the bed so she could have something between her and Catherine.

"I don't know what you're talking about!" she shouted at her. "I barely talked to Billy and I sure as hell didn't tell him do anything to you! So stop it! Just STOP IT!"

Catherine roared again, she vaulted over the bed, but this time Rowan was ready. She set herself into the ground, she waited for Catherine to be close enough, and then she grabbed the arm that Catherine had out to grab her, forced Catherine low into the tackle and then dropped all her weight onto Catherine's neck and upper back.

The two of them went down in a second, but at least Rowan was on top. Rowan quickly got onto Catherine's back, straddling her down and forcing her hands above her head.

"I'm not letting go until you calm down!" Rowan shouted at her, but that was a lie. She was in the position for three seconds before a pair of strong arms wrapped around her and then she was thrown to the side.

She hit the wall and watched as Steve went to Catherine who was conveniently crying all of a sudden, like the snake she fucking was. Alex pushed past both of them to get to her, concern written all over his face.

"Are you okay?" he whispered.

"No, she fucking attacked me," Rowan hissed. "Out of fucking nowhere. It was self-defence, I tell you."

"She told Billy to make a move on me," Catherine hiccupped. She was standing, Steve's hands were on her shoulders, his eyes looking her over. So that's what it looked like when Steve did that. She had only ever been on the receiving end of that. "She did it to ruin us. She taunted me and everything."

"I did not," Rowan cried. "I don't even know what you're talking about!"

"Okay, let's just calm down a bit!" Steve said but Rowan was past calming down. She was just so fucking angry.

"No! I will _not_ be calm! Do you have any idea what I went through today?" she shouted, pushing Alex off of her and storming over to where Catherine was cowering into Steve's chest. "Yeah, yeah, poor you, you got shot! But if you had just listened to me when I called you _NONE OF THIS WOULD HAVE HAPPENED_!"

Steve put a hand out to ward her away, but Rowan slapped it out of her way. "Do you have any idea what I save you from? Do you? Fucking ask Steve. He knows," she cried. "I saved you from a life of guilt. Of spending every waking moment wondering what you could have done differently, or if you could have changed things. Do you wanna know why? Because if I hadn't intervened tonight, if I didn't go to Steve's to get a goddamn vision off of him, Billy would have died because your _dumb ass_ not only checked a dead guy's pulse before leaving, but you fucking try to drive him to the ER yourself! And you know what you didn't fucking say to me? _Thank you!_ "

Catherine's eyes were wide, but Rowan wasn't done yet.

"None of you, have EVER said thank you to me. I have put myself through hell and back trying to save you people, trying to stop the bad things from happening and not once have you said thank you. NOT ONCE!" she shouted. "Why can't you just say THANK YOU?!"

But even with that tirade, even with tears brimming over, and her chest heaving, not even then could they say thank you.

"Okay… uh… but what happened with Billy?" Steve asked instead.

Rowan struggled to keep her composure. She swallowed all the anger and disappointment, and glared darkly at Steve. "I went into his room, high off morphine because you requested a goddamn vision, I'm guessing cause dumb ass over there—" she indicated to Catherine who had hidden her face into Steve's chest and was now sobbing quietly. "—couldn't find the emails on the dead guy's computer. And we had a heart to heart. When I couldn't tell him his future, I merely said that maybe this was a second chance and that he should take it as such. If he took that as: make a move on Catherine that is not my fault."

There was silence for a beat and in that silence she heard Catherine whisper: "She's lying."

"Okay, you know what. Fuck this. And fuck you people," Rowan said. "Get the fuck out of my room or I'll tell Steve the real reason why I stopped talking to him and the other Five-0's."

Catherine pulled her head out of Steve's chest. She seemingly gauged Rowan seriousness. Steve asked a soft: "What is she talking about?" and Rowan snapped out a growl of: "Run," and only then did Catherine decide that Rowan was serious.

She tore herself out of Steve's grasp and practically threw herself out of the room. Steve faltered, torn between staying and asking Rowan what it was that had made her stop and following Catherine out into the hallway. He turned back to her, his mouth opened, primed to ask her a question but Rowan shook her head.

"Stay away from me," she growled. "Keep your girlfriend away from me. Don't talk to me. Don't call me for visions. Don't even fucking look at me. Just go away, Steven McGarrett. Just go the fuck away."

And he listened.

She stood there in the room, dangerously close to crying, when Alex came up behind her and hugged her tightly. "Don't worry," he whispered to her. "You did the right thing. They were ungrateful. They don't deserve your help."

Rowan didn't want to argue. She didn't want to tell him that even though Steve and Catherine were ungrateful, Danny and Chin weren't, and neither were the victims she often saved.

Instead she said: "Can we just go home?" her voice sounding tired even to her. She just wanted to go to sleep. And hopefully. This time. She wouldn't dream.


	71. Chapter 71

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFic**

 _A/N: So here we are. Update #4. For all of those who don't like Catherine, what did you think of that scene? For all of those who do like Catherine, don't worry, at some point she gets her own happy ending, I promise. For all of those who liked Billy… don't worry, we'll see him again. We've got two updates left. JUST TWO. And then we get to it. That part I'm so excited for. I promise, I know it seems like this is dragging on forever, but I have some really great scenes coming up. SOME REALLY CUTE HAPPY SCENES I swear, honest. Don't forget to tell me what you think and I'll see you tomorrow._

 _P.S. JP If you want a special chapter/marathon for your birthday week just tell me which special chapter you'd like or when you'd like the marathon!_

Chapter 71 

* * *

Alex may not have known the words to the Time Warp, but Rowan, Max and Sabrina were rocking it out and Alex was beside them attempting to dance along. He didn't know all the moves but he was trying and that was all that mattered

Rowan stopped singing and jumped over to Alex. "Are you having fun?" she asked draping herself across him, her arms around his neck. He was a sexy Prince Eric just for her and pulling off the look oh so very well.

Alex and Rowan had been seeing each other for about a year now. Her year anniversary in the Five-0 world had come and gone and she had rung it in with Chin and Danny, drinking vodka straight from the bottle and making pancakes for her boys in Danny's kitchen because she was too depressed to go out. And too afraid Steve would see her.

Not that he had come looking for her. Since she had almost beat up Catherine he hadn't come anywhere near her.

 _She missed him._

Their last Halloween together had been broken up when Duke pulled them over and arrested her on Steve's request. This year she didn't have to worry about that. Or at least she didn't think she did, she never knew when Steve would get mad and send someone to come arrest her, or worse… come himself to do it.

Alex had wanted to go to a party but Max had mentioned the Rocky Horror Picture show on the beach and she had freaked. Who didn't like Rocky Horror Picture Show? Alex apparently. But it was the first time in a month that Rowan had gotten excited about something, so he let her pick their costumes AND agreed to go on a double date with Max and Sabrina, despite him thinking that Max was odd and creepy.

She had gone as Ariel, of course, in the blue and black dress, and Alex was dressed as Eric, the regular Eric outfit. He made a wonderful Eric. Their costumes had gotten a lot of compliments. But Rowan could tell by the look in Alex's eyes that he wasn't having fun, but she also knew he wouldn't say anything.

Anything he was going to say was halted when Max said: "Sir, I'm a doctor, do you need assistance?"

Immediately his interested was piqued by whatever was happening over Rowan's shoulder. Rowan turned. The man dragging his leg through the sand, grunting and groaning and covered in blood was right beside Max. Max in his inflatable roman gladiator suit…. Wait a second… Inflatable muscles… zombie like exterior.

"WAIT MAX NO!" she cried, turning to Max but it was too late, the guy practically picked up Max and threw him. Rowan rushed over to Max just as Alex stormed past her to attack the guy.

"What's our problem, man?" he thundered, forcing the man to turn around. The man grabbed him and Alex tried to pull away, by this point, Rowan was aware that Max was safe, but Alex wasn't.

In her dream the zombie bit a gladiator, but in reality he bit into Alex instead. She heard Alex cry out. She saw the zombie man take him down. She heard the screams of everyone else. She even saw a cop rushing over to assist, a real one, not just some guy in a cop costume. But that didn't stop her. She didn't even think to stop.

"GET OFF HIM!" she thundered and then kicked the zombie straight in the chest and off of Alex. The zombie went flying and the cop picked him up. Alex was quick to his feet. His shoulder bleeding, pain in a grimace across his face, but still shielding Rowan and pushing her back to where Sabrina and Max were now standing, both had their arms out stretched, ready to grab Rowan and Alex and pull them safely away from where the Zombie and the cop were now wrestling.

The zombie was practically throttling the cop. On top of him with his hands on his throat. In the tousle the cop pulled a gun and shot him. Twice. Point blank. In the chest. Only then did the zombie collapse.

Max pushed past them, going to the zombie to administer first aid. Rowan followed after him. "Wait, don't put your mouth on him," she said but it was too late. Max had already administered breaths.

He looked up to her as he started compressing. "What's the matter?"

"Uh… he had a powder on his mouth and nose," she answered. He finished his first set of compressions and she watched him give breaths again. "It's uh… gonna affect you badly."

Behind her Alex groaned and she half turned to him. Right. Injured boyfriend. "Okay, I'm gonna go see Alex, uhm… when you collapse, it's not because you're turning into a zombie… okay?"

Then before Max could say anything she turned back to where Alex was propping himself up. God. She was not going to hear the end of this.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

So many things happened in a month. Billy went home to his family's farm and so far he was settling in quite nicely. Chin had lost contact with Kono, Adam had been taken by the Yakuza, and Danny and Chin had started acting very, very strange. In an attempt to mollify Catherine, Steve had agreed to stop calling Rowan for visions, had agreed to stop seeing her entirely. Which was made easy because Rowan hadn't wanted to see him anymore anyway, hadn't wanted to tell him about her visions. And he kept seeing that look on her face and hearing her voice on loop in his head: _just go the fuck away._ And it broke his heart more than he cared to admit.

Then the Doctors went viral. Or more aptly, Alex and the Doctors, went viral. There was no mention of Rowan and how she wrote the song that shot Alex to minute stardom, but hearing, _Thief_ , the song he knew she wrote on the radio, seeing posters for him everywhere had not been pleasing to Steve. He had learned, from Grace of course, that Alex was getting larger gigs, that Rowan was still singing backup vocals.

By walking into a conversation between Chin and Danny he learned that Rowan had been fired from the waitressing job, due to the arm injury and missing two days' worth of work for being in the hospital with no notice. The two day hold being because she had, in fact, hit her head when she fell off her hospital bed. Or more aptly, when Catherine had tackled her off the bed. Rowan could have fought her firing the way she had fought off Catherine, Steve wasn't sure if she had. By walking into a completely different conversation on a different day, he learned that Rowan failed her driving test so badly that it was recommended that she take driving lessons to teach her to stop driving so aggressively.

But other than those small things, for thirty days, Steve didn't hear from or see Rowan. And while he was doing much better, he still thought about her every day and he still had that PI following her, even though he rarely checked in with him on how she's doing. Mainly because he didn't like what the man had to say.

So, he busied himself Catherine who was not doing well. Even though her arm healed, despite Rowan attempting to gouge the stitches right out of her arm, even though Billy was alive, and they caught his shooter, Catherine was walking around acting like Billy had died in her arms or something. And Steve didn't know what to do.

He had been in that place Rowan had mentioned. Second guessing everything he did and what he could have done to make things end differently. But that wasn't where Catherine was. He figured, like himself, she'd feel better if he left her to her own devices, if he showed her that he was attentive and no longer interested in Rowan. But it was going on a month and that had not happened. Steve was officially getting worried.

She had gone for a run on Halloween night, while everyone was out trick or treating. She hadn't stayed to answer the door with him, she hadn't wanted to wear a costume, even though Steve offered to do a couple's thing. So, in solidarity he hadn't worn one as well.

He had just finished handing out some candy to some kids when Catherine came back. He smiled at her though she didn't return the courtesy. He was starting to understand what it was like for Catherine whenever he was in a funk over Rowan. He must have drove her crazy.

"Your costume needs work," he said to her as she walked past him, pulling her earbuds out. She didn't laugh at his joke so he asked: "Want some candy?"

"No thanks," she said moving into the kitchen at a rapid pace. Like she couldn't get away from him faster. He shut the door behind him, letting her take a drink of water and stand in his kitchen with no lights as she gasped for air.

She was pushing herself too hard. And he didn't get why. Billy was alive. He was fine. Why was she doing this to herself?

Steve turned on the lights and Catherine stood straighter. She was drawing her walls up, getting ready to fight him.

"Catherine, you can't keep doing this," he said. He was leaning on the cabinet across from her, instinctively knowing that she wanted space. "You gotta stop punishing yourself for… uh… for whatever it is you're punishing yourself for."

"Steve, please don't do this right now," she whispered, her voice hitching.

Steve shook his head. "Would you please just listen to me?" he asked. And only then did she turn to him, clearly not happy with him at all. "Look, I've been here. Okay? Well, not really, but Rowan… I know you don't want to hear her name right now… but Rowan's right…. I… I know what it feels like. I know both side of this."

Catherine rolled her eyes. Mentioning Rowan was something he shouldn't have done, but he was trying to explain just what it was that Rowan had saved her from. "Losing someone, the way you might have lost Billy, you start second-guessing everything you did, you start thinking about all the ways it could've been different. And you can't do that. You don't want to have to carry that kind of weight around, okay?" he said. "I'm not saying you forget what that can feel like, but I am saying that you're lucky. You're lucky that it didn't end that way. You're lucky you don't have to feel… the way I did after my dad died."

Catherine just glared at him. "Do you even know what's wrong with me?" she asked.

"Well… no… but that's cause you won't talk to me…"

"Your other _girlfriend_ ," "—Rowan's not my girlfriend." "—yeah, well whatever the hell Rowan is, she was right. Okay? She was right?"

Steve blinked his eyes. "Okay… but isn't that… isn't that the point? She was right. She called an ambulance, but you and Billy survived the encounter… this isn't the first time she's been right…"

"No! she was right about me!" Catherine cried. "When the ambulance got there, I wasn't even with Billy. I had left him there. Bullets in his gut, bleeding out, to check on the other victim."

Oh hot damn.

"And she was right. It hadn't even crossed my mind to get my phone and call an ambulance while I did that. I mean, I knew Billy was dying, I could see it, but I didn't… I didn't do anything to help him… If Rowan hadn't… if she hadn't called, he'd be dead. Don't you see that… he'd be dead and all because I didn't listen… because when he was dying I cared about everything else but him…"

"Okay, Catherine, you have got to forgive yourself here," Steve said. "I know you don't want to hear this but I've been there too. Do you have any idea how guilty I felt when I found out that Chin was in Halawa? Do you? I had Rowan on the beach, hours before hand, telling me that Chin had been kidnapped, that he was in Halawa and I didn't listen. I called her crazy, I dismissed her words, and Chin nearly got killed. Rowan nearly got herself killed trying to save him on her own because I didn't listen to her."

Catherine scoffed and rolled her eyes again. "I know you want to make yourself the bad guy here, but Rowan… she says things and you know… you just don't want them to be true. You don't want them to be true so you call her crazy, you think psychics aren't right 100% of the time and you dismiss it. But you know what?" he asked. "She's not psychic. Where she comes from, this is all some crazy TV show and she watched all the episodes cause she thought I was hot. And I've come to realize that… that… well… I need to listen to her. Because if she's says it's going to happen it will."

"So that's your plan?" Catherine asked. "Everything Rowan says is bible?"

"No. Catherine. No. I'm just trying to tell you that it's okay. You didn't listen to Rowan, that's fine, none of us do. But Rowan knows that. Rowan knows when what she's saying isn't being heard and she will act even if you don't want to… even if you don't want her to," Steve said. "So yes, you were going to make a bad decision. But Rowan saved you from the guilt. She saved you and you've owe it to yourself to try and move past this."

"I want to, Steve," Catherine said, fighting back her tears. "But… my whole life was the Navy. Knowing where I had to be every minute of the day, having a purpose. But I don't have that anymore. I don't have a purpose…"

"Right! Okay, that's why you gotta find something to do. It doesn't have to be a job, you know," Steve said quickly, already on the fix-it plan. There were so many hobbies she could pick up. Hell she was living with him now, why didn't she just surf every morning? She was good at it. "It doesn't matter what it is but you gotta find something."

"But that's not all I lost Steve. Whether he died or not, I lost Billy. He won't even speak to me. So now I don't have a purpose, a job, a best friend and… I don't have you."

"Catherine…" he started but she cut him off.

"I know, I know Steve, I know you're trying," she said. "But you shouldn't have to try. It shouldn't be this hard for you and that kills me you know. Because I used to be enough."

Steve nodded. That was fair. He got that. "I don't know what else you want me to do," he whispered. Behind him the doorbell rang and he sighed. More trick-or-treaters.

Catherine pushed away from him and sighed. "Yeah. And that's the problem." She walked away, heading up the stairs leaving Steve to answer the door to hand out more candy.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Grace was off with her friends doing Halloween stuff and instead of handing out candies he had been pulled in for a case. Chin would have called Steve but Rowan, of course, was involved and he would have been an idiot to call him on a case that involved Rowan.

So, after being briefed about the situation and how Rowan was involved, luckily not by a lot, Danny stood beside Chin staring at the victim's profile.

"Victim's name is Michael Besner," he told him. "He's the chief administrator at King's Medical Center. Toxicology came back with high doses of a powerful hallucinogen called scopolamine. He had traces of it around his nose and mouth."

Danny nodded. "Okay, that explains how Max and Alex got infected," Danny said. "Max from the CPR, Alex cause he got bit."

"You know, in places like Colombia, people use scopolamine to drug and rob tourists," Chin told him. "It leaves its victims very docile and very open to suggestion. People can actually be sent up to their own hotel room, empty their safe and then wake up the next morning with no memory of what happened."

Okay, huh, he wondered how that drug would work on McGarrett… or Rowan. Maybe he could use it to his advantage and have those two shmucks actually listen to him for once.

"Okay… if this drug makes people easier to handle, why did Besner here go off like a zombie craving brains?" Danny asked.

"Because it's highly dose-dependent," Chin explained. "You hit your victim with too much and they suffer a violent psychosis and given that Besner was found with no keys or wallet…"

"It's possible that he was drugged and robbed and then flew off the handle as a result of being overdosed," Danny finished with him.

Chin nodded. "Right. So the good news is Besner, Max and Alex are all in stable condition," he said. "But the bad news is whoever did this is still out there."

"Okay, we need to retrace Besner's steps. Work out how and where he was drugged tonight. And if somebody on the island is using scopolamine to rob people there could be other victims," Danny ordered.

Oh he liked doing that. Being the one in charge because Steve couldn't handle Rowan interactions. He needed more Rowan centered cases.

"There's one more thing we have to do," Chin told him.

"Oh yeah, what's that?"

"Someone has to call McGarrett," Chin said softly and then immediately, right after, he said: "Shoddy not."

Well… Fuck.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

"Okay but is Max okay?" Steve asked. Danny had just called him to give him the low down on the situation. Obviously the concern was for his friend who had been quote on quote infected.

"Yeah, yeah, he's thrilled. Zombie attack was on his bucket list," Danny said absently. He was holding something back about this case, Steve could tell.

"Ah, yeah, you're funny," Steve intoned. He wanted to ask what was wrong, but he couldn't, Danny was already talking.

"Anyway, listen, H.P.D. went by Besner's place and there was no sign of any break in or any robbery," Danny told him as Steve struggled to get his shoes on with his phone being held between his ear and his shoulder. "But we tracked the GPS on his car. It turned up on the other side of the island, like fifteen miles away from his house."

Hmm, weird. Steve got to the door, he knew Danny was coming for him, and with the atmosphere in his house he didn't want to stay in there. He'd wait on the porch. "Well, whoever robbed him probably dumped it there," he told Danny as he opened the front door.

"Well, either way it's a good place to start, I'm almost to your place… hey uh… question for you… how come we never take your truck?" Danny asked.

Steve blinked his eyes. "My truck-, uh, well, the Camaro gets great gas mileage, Danny," he answered. He winced, he knew Danny wasn't going to let that slide. He locked his door waiting for the inevitable slide back.

"Yeah, it's gas mileage that I gotta pay for," he reminded him. Great, so now Steve was gonna have to start sliding him gas money. Great just great.

Whatever else Danny was going to say was cut off by Steve's sudden cry of: "Son of a BITCH!"

"What is it?" Danny asked. "Everything okay?"

No everything was not okay. Someone had TPed his front lawn. AND HIS TRUCK!

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve was ranting. Full out ranting. Going on a mile a minute about how he didn't serve his country and his state for this long to have toilet paper, a fucking commodity when you're out in Iraq, strewn across his lawn like a fucking decoration. And how those kids better pray he couldn't lift a finger print of DNA from any of that paper flying about his lawn cause if he did, oohh they were gonna be SO ARRESTED.

Danny just thought it was funny that Steve was driving his car and that he was this upset. Because if it were the other way around, Steve would not have been as compassionate with him.

"You're right. Any way you look at it, it's a violation," Danny said. "But uh… you may want to hold off on arresting them, it was probably just a couple kids having fun on Halloween, Steven."

Steve just shook his head at him. "This is a gateway Danny. First step Tp-ing, final step, armed robbery," he growled.

Danny tried not to laugh at him. "Okay, alright, you're right. Well, I hope you do get some DNA or something. I hope you catch these hardened criminals," he said trying not to smirk or laugh. "And uh… I have a feeling… a strong feeling… that this is going to be a career case for you. Gonna be in all the papers."

"Are you making fun of me right now?" Steve snapped. "Really?"

"Yes, of course I'm making fun of you right now, you sound insane!" Danny cried.

Steve shook his head and glared at the road. They were coming up on the location of Besner's car, but the problem was… there was a field of cars here. Which one was his? Were all of these victims or scopolamine robbery?

Steve put the Camaro in park and they got out. "It's the middle of nowhere, what are all of these cars doing here?" Steve asked, and then the party bus drove up.

Well… guess they were going to a party.


	72. Chapter 72

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Kay guys, this is it. The last update before that AMAZING PART I was talking about. Okay, so it's not all that amazing, but it's the start of everything. I feel like I've said that before but I mean it this time. This is where everything will start to unravel. We're also only 12 more chapters away from the end. The end of a relationship I mean. And then all the cute things start happening. I'm so excited for that. For the miles of fluff I'm going to be writing from basically chapter 95 all the way through season 5. Are you guys excited? I swear it's going to make up for everything I just put you through. I PROMISE! Keep putting up with me. I'll see you guys again tomorrow._

 _P.S. What I mean, JP, is you tell me what week your birthday is and I'll do a marathon THAT week. Keep me posted._

Chapter 72 

* * *

"Get out!" thundered at her from the reddened face of her boyfriend and she stumbled out of the room he was in and she rushed away.

Okay that had not gone well. She had tried to explain that while she knew the zombie guy was going to bite someone, she didn't know it was going to be Alex. That did not get a good response. She should have warned him, he told her, she should have cared more about him than Max who wasn't injured at all.

Alex was so mad about getting bit, about that _I'm turning into a zombie_ scare that he hadn't seen reason. He blamed Rowan. For making them go to that screening, for going to Max instead of caring for him, for having a vision and not telling him about it.

She wasn't sure all of it was her fault though and it was kind of unfair of him to blame her like that. But she didn't want to make him worse so she aimlessly wandered around the hospital in her bloodied Ariel costume until she came across Chin.

"Oh hey!" he said pulling her in for a hug. "Zombie Ariel?"

"Regular Ariel, until Alex got his blood all over me," she answered hugging him back.

"And he was what? Zombie Eric?" he asked.

"Regular Prince Eric before zombie guy bit him," she answered. "What are you doing here?"

"Following up on a lead, what are you doing here? Why aren't you with Alex?" he countered.

"He kicked me out of his room," Rowan told him. "He's uh… he's mad at me."

"What for?" Chin asked, frowning at her. Rowan shrugged because she didn't want to tell him the truth. The Five-0's disliked him enough as is. Chin thought this over, looked at Rowan in her a light blue and black dress and her forlorn look on her face. "Do you… uh… do you want to come with me?"

"Where are you going?" she asked, already standing.

"Down to the morgue, to check on something," he said. "Uh, I gotta make a call to McGarrett, you gonna be okay if I do that?"

Rowan, who didn't like bodies and death, looked literally terrified at the mention of Steve, but she nodded to him. But she was following him silently, her shoulder right against his as they made their way to the elevator. Something was off, he just didn't know what it was.

"You not lying to me about Alex, right?" he asked staring at her as she looked straight ahead chewing her lips, a clear sign that she was nervous or overthinking something. Chin frowned at her, his anger growing in anticipation of what might have been done, what might be the real problem. "I'll go up there and make him wish is was a real zombie that bit him."

Rowan smiled at him. "Trust me. It's nothing to worry about. But thank you," she whispered.

As soon as they were off the elevator, Chin pulled out his phone and called McGarrett, waiting for him to pick up. As soon as he did Chin went off.

"Well we were off on the robbery angle," he said. "I checked Besner's credit card and bank accounts. Both untouched. But get this, his key card was used at the hospital at 10:21 p.m."

McGarrett was saying something on the other line but Chin was looking at Rowan. Rowan who had frozen in the spot, a strange sort of look on her face, one that he recognized. Rowan who was getting another flash. Except it was… stuck? It looked like she could feel it. She could feel it trying to come through but it wouldn't come. And it was hurting her.

"Are you okay?" he asked her, despite McGarrett being on the phone. Despite him not knowing that they were friends again. Despite not wanting McGarrett to know that he was with her. "What's wrong with you?"

Her head was killing her, her vision swimming, the world tilting around her, her chest tight. "I can't… I can't… breathe."

The phone clattered out of his hand. He didn't think to hang up, he didn't even think to put it in his pocket, he just dropped it and went to her.

"What's wrong, what's happening?" he asked, his hands touched her arms and that was it. That was that she needed. The second he made contact with her everything in her exploded. Literally, she felt the shockwave, energy so hot and strong it flung her back. The vision came in hot violent flashes filled with masks and headless bodies in cars and a monster in watery cave.

Her back slammed into a hard wall and for a while reality left her. But when she woke up she wasn't in the morgue. She wasn't at home. She wasn't in Alex's, or at Steve's. She was in the dark. She didn't like the dark. She didn't know where she was. But the shadows were moving. The water was dripping around her. And she was just too scared to move.

She reached for her phone but her purse wasn't with her. She had left it in Alex's room in her hastiness to get away from him and his temper tantrums. Okay. So, she didn't know where she was. She didn't have her phone, and it looked an awful lot like she was in some sewer.

She forced herself to stand, realizing she was on some sort of soft nest type thing. She took one step into… water? Rowan backed away. An indoor river or a sewage system, she didn't know and she didn't want to find out either.

"Okay. Okay, you can do this," she whispered and then carefully put her foot back into the water, where something promptly touched her ankle causing her to yelp and throw herself back. "Okay I can't do this."

She looked up and swore she saw a silhouette down the hall. But that could have been the lights playing tricks on her eyes right? She was just scared, and panicked and nope, nope it moved, it moved. SHE WAS NOT ALONE!

Her first instinct was to scream. Scream for Steve. But that was nonsense. Steve was nowhere near here and he wouldn't be looking for her eyes. Her second instinct was to scream for Wo, but he was in Colorado and his network couldn't help her in the sewers of hell. Not unless she had her phone, which she didn't, and even if she did it wouldn't have survived that forced trip through the void.

So, she settled with her third option: _dumb white girl in a horror movie._

"Hello?" she called to the silhouette that had reappeared and watched it retreat hastily at the sound of her voice. "I'm sorry. I think… I think I'm lost…"

There was no answer. In fact, the silhouette had vanished. Rowan tucked her skirt around her and squatted down low. She needed a plan. Really, what she needed to do was woman up and walk through that nasty ass water. Something chittered nearby and she nearly jumped into the water to get away from it.

Rats. She hated rats. Not as bad as snakes, but rats were only cute and cuddly when they were pets. Not vile vermin who would easily chew your face off as their next meal.

Maybe she could just… _wham!_

Rowan screamed that time, she screamed Steve's name, long and loud she couldn't help it. She wasn't expecting something to just appear, let alone jump down from god knows where in front of her. To be honest it didn't look like much either. Just a skinny looking guy in a hoody with a whole lot of crazy in his eyes.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. Tears immediately coming to her eyes. "I… I got lost and… and I just want to go home."

"You came out of nowhere," the man said. His voice nasally and nothing more than a whisper. "You appeared in a great light. Like an angel. Are you an angel, an alien or a spy?"

Rowan just stared at him. She couldn't quite see him in the shadows, or through her tears but none of that sounded good to her. "I'm not… I'm not any of those things. I'm just a girl. I'm sorry I crashed your place, or whatever this is, but I just… I just want to go home… can you help me get out of here?"

"No. It's not safe out there," he said, his hands coming up to his head like it hurt him. "I have to protect you from them. From the voices. From the spies."

"Please, please, people will be looking for me," she whispered to him. "Just point in a direction and I'll show my way out."

"No. No. No one will look. I'll make sure of it. I'll make us safe from their eyes," he said sounding feverish or high. She just stared at him not sure what to say because clearly he wasn't listening to her.

And then he grabbed her.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve stormed into the Morgue where Chin was standing. He heard briefly what happened on the phone but it didn't answer any of the questions he had in his head.

"What happened?" he asked, as he practically bowled poor Chin over.

"Uh, our victim has no head," Chin said. "Besner took it off of her."

 _That_ _was obviously not what he meant!_

"WHAT HAPPENED TO ROWAN?!"

Danny appeared at this point, stepping between Steve and Chin and pushed him away. Danny turned to Chin. "In the interest of getting through this faster, please explain to Steven what happened before the vein in his head pops and we have to put him in one of these drawers."

"Uh… Rowan made this really weird face. Said she couldn't really breathe. I put a hand to her, got electrocuted really bad, so bad I got thrown back and when I got back up, she wasn't here," he told him.

Steven began to pace. He had a case. He had a case. A headless victim. This wasn't about Rowan. This wasn't about Rowan and how she made his chest constrict. She had disappeared. She had used the void. She had used the void to travel. Which she said she wouldn't do anymore, that she said _couldn't_ do it anymore.

"You need to breathe, babe," Danny said to Steve which won him a dark glare. "And I don't mean that thing you do where you snort and flare your nostrils."

Steve stopped to glare at him. Hand on his hips, the fear he felt gripping every synapse of his body clearly on his face. "We'll trace her phone," Danny offered.

"You could, but I have it," Chin interjected.

Danny groaned. "Why do you have it?"

"She left it up in Alex's room…" Chin started but trailed off when Steve suddenly raised his hands and shook his head at them, like the words made no sense in his head. Alex? What the hell?

"Alex? What the fuck is Alex…. You know what? No. Just… just… start at the fucking beginning. Why was Rowan even here?" he asked. Chin glanced to Danny who was eyeing him too. The two had a conversation with their eyes before Steve sighed and growled: "She was involved. Wasn't she?"

"Not really," Danny answered.

"She… uh… she was at the scene of the attack," Chin admitted. "Alex is the second victim... uh… he was the guy who got bit."

Steve groaned. That's what they were hiding. They were hiding that Rowan had been a witness to the attack. That's why they had waited so long to call him.

"Okay. Fine. So why was she with you?"

"I went to check on Max and I found her outside of Alex's room. He had uh… kicked her out for some reason. And she looked so sad in her bloodied costume that I just… you know… offered to let her come with me," Chin said with a shrug. "I thought she needed to have her mind taken off of… you know… everything."

More questions came to his mind. Like why did Alex kick his girlfriend out of his hospital room? Why was Chin being so nice to her? Had his friends made up with Rowan and just not told him? They could have told him. He would have understood… sort of. Okay he didn't understand and he definitely didn't understand why they hadn't told him.

"Okay. So, she doesn't have her phone. We don't know where she went and we can't ever know because it's not like she left a trail," Danny said. "What about you? What do you feel? Any more chest pains?"

"No nothing," Steve answered.

"Well last time… last time this happened you could tell, right? You could tell that she was still you know… here," Danny remind him. "What do you feel this time? Has she left or is she still here?"

Steve thought about it. He felt anxious and afraid. Very, very anxious. He couldn't quite place it, but it didn't feel like it was all his own anxiousness. He felt like Rowan was in danger and very, very afraid, but he had no proof of that. Up until Danny had reminded him that he had felt something similar the last time she had been travelling he had just been assuming that all he was feeling came from him. But those feelings had been present as well when Wo Fat had taken her. So maybe… maybe what he was feeling was Rowan. Maybe he was somehow entuned to her.

"I feel afraid," Steve answered in a small voice. "She's here. She close, not sure how close, but wherever she is she's afraid. And that is making all of this so much worse for me."

Danny put his hands out again, his hands resting against Steve's chest in an attempt to calm him which was not working.

"Okay, listen to me. We don't know where she is. We have no way to track her but let's look at rowan's track record, okay?" Danny offered. "Steve, she always ends up tangled up in our cases. So I'm betting, nine times out of ten, if we continue to investigate she's going to pop up. Like she always does."

"But what if…"

"Yes, what if she doesn't? How's about this. If we don't find her by dinner time, case solved or not, me and you will get in the car and we'll follow that internal compass of yours until we find her," Danny said. "Fair?"

Steve didn't want to agree. He didn't. He wanted to go look for her now. But Danny was right. They had a case. They had a case and they didn't know where Rowan was and no straight leads either.

"Fine… yes… fine..." he said. "But we better find her. Cause if I have to feel like this until dinner you will not like my attitude."

"It should be easy. She's in a black and blue dress, her hair is curled and she has a matching black bow," Chin said. "If we put a BOLO out I'm sure someone will spot her in five minutes."

"Ah, so she did manage to convince Alex to do the _Little Mermaid_ couple costume after all?" Danny asked. "Ariel and Eric right?"

"Yeah, they looked like zombie _Little Mermaid_ when they checked in though," Chin answered a smile on his face. Steve's eyes darted between them, for a minute it looked like both of them had forgotten he was there.

"And you guys know that how?" Steve asked, his tone dry and angry. That brought them back to the present. They both turned to Steve and that time the look that was exchanged between them was a little shiftier looking but still neither of them said anything. So Steve growled but changed the subject because he couldn't handle this right now. "Okay. So what's our next lead?"

"I'm guessing its Lisa Mills," Chin said. "Our headless victim."

"Fine. Let's move," he ordered and then walked away. He needed to stay moving, he needed to keep this feeling under his skin from eating him alive.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Trevor had returned to Victoria defeated. He had dropped his bags in the doorway of his home and let out a deep sigh. This was where he belonged. In his swanky penthouse apartment with a bay view. Twenty minutes from the naval base. Five minutes from the bar scene where he could meet all the hot sailors he wanted. And a four-minute walk to the arena where he coached out of.

He'd feel better once he put the whole disastrous Hawaii Adventure out of his mind. He asked his friends not to talk ask about his trip or how things went with his father. Not that they were bad, because he and Trenton Pierce had never been closer. But Trevor wanted to forget that trip. He wanted to forget the sister he could have found and the Commander who kicked him out of Hawaii for a reason he still wasn't sure was true. McGarrett… the name and face would be burned into his memory forever and not because the man was gorgeous either… was hiding something. They had scared him, by asking those questions. Trevor was certain they had been on the right track, but McGarrett didn't want them to get there in the end.

It took almost two months to feel normal again. Two months to let go of the idea of the perfect sister that could have been his. Two months to have that burning resentment for the law enforcement asshat who had kicked him out of Hawaii simmer down.

That Halloween he had no plans. No party just sitting in his pent house, eating the candy cause he had no intention of handing it out and drinking his depression away. Drinking to forget how mad he was. When his door opened he should have been surprised because the door was locked, but he was too far into his pinot to care.

"If you're a robber I have nothing in the way of worldly goods. Just kill me and be done with it," he called.

"You're a disaster," came right back at him.

Ah. Sarah. It was only Sarah.

Sarah Isley was two years younger than him and she lived on the same street that he and his mom had moved to when his parents had split and people still thought he was going to go places in the figure skating world. She was his best friend, the only person he entrusted all of his secrets to, the only one who got away with treating him shitty and coincidentally she was the girl he used to test whether or not he was gay. He was, very much so. She had not taken that well, the fact that he used her as an experiment not the whole being gay thing, but their friendship had survived that hiccup.

She was the one person he trusted. The one who knew all about his family and his failures. She liked him for who he was and he liked her for who she was. A wild child who ran her mouth, said exactly what she wanted to say when she wanted to say it and got in more fights over other people's honour then she did over her own. She had this wonderful daughter, Evolet, who he was godfather to and he loved that girl more than life.

"Where's Ev?" he asked.

"With her father," Sarah answered. She was in his kitchen, probably helping herself to his food and his alcohol. Evolet's father had been in high school with them, he had been Trevor's age. The footballer had always been a complete and utter idiot and he followed the same pattern as a father, but at least he hadn't just cut and run. He attempted to be present for Evolet and that was all that really mattered in Trevor's eyes.

"What's going on with you, Trev?" she asked. "You've been in a funk since you got back from Hawaii. Did you fall for some hot Hawaiian piece of ass and now you're mourning the possible relationship you missed out on? Or do you just miss the sex?"

"Nope there was no guy," Trevor said. Not entirely true. McGarrett was a guy and the reason he was in this funk but there had been no romantic interest for him. And he didn't know how to tell Sarah about McGarrett without having to explain his dad's experiment and how he had briefly convinced himself to believe that he pulled his sister from a different reality to this one. "Just crippling disappointment."

"That experiment your dad was conducting didn't go well?" she asked. "Or is this because you missed Savannah Walker?"

The experiment had been a completely and colossal failure, mainly because it had been cut short before they could reach their findings. But the Savannah Walker thing, that was new. "Savannah Walker… she was in Hawaii?"

"Yeah, around the time you were," Sarah said. "She did this whole thing about this special Task force called Five-0, following around these hot cop guys who had special immunity and deal with terrorists. And the hottest guy, oh god, he had two girls. One was stunning and like his official girlfriend and the other was this like real life looking girl, like she was pretty but not like a blown-out model or anything. She looked just like any old regular joe, which gave me a sense of hope right, cause like… if a girl like that could get a guy like Steven McGarrett acting all crazy over her then there's hope for me, right? Anyway, even though she was completely nuts he was like completely strung out over her, you could tell."

"What are you talking about?" Trevor asked, his mind got stuck on the name. On Rowan. Because he had just spent all that time looking for a Rowan on Hawaii and now, on his favourite Talk show, there was a Rowan with a special task force and a guy named Steven McGarrett… like his Steve. But that was too much of a coincidence. Right?

"The girl on the talk show, the one that McGarrett was obsessed with. She looked normal but she was absolutely crazy. She got abducted by this criminal and was still on his side! Thought she was psychic and got visions and stuff," Sarah said.

"But you said Steven McGarrett, right?" Trevor asked his voice hollow. No, it couldn't be the same guy. Could it? He couldn't have bare faced lied to them about knowing a Rowan Pierce? He was a law enforcer. He couldn't be that corrupt, could he?

"Yeah. Steve McGarrett, I think his name was. Yeah, Steve and Rowan, or McRo as the internet calls them, not to be confused with McRoll" she answered. She pulled up a picture on her phone and showed it to him.

Trevor snatched it out of her hand because there she was. Rowan. Red and blonde hair, and a set of piercing Pierce blue eyes standing and glaring up at the same Steven McGarrett who had kicked him out of Hawaii. The same Steven McGarrett who had glared him down was glaring down at her like he knew her, like he was going to throttle the life out of her. But that didn't change anything because he was looking at his sister. The same face that had haunted him for months after that first initial experiment.

 _This_ was what Steven McGarrett was hiding. _This_ was why he got kicked out of Hawaii, because Steven McGarrett didn't want him or his father to learn the truth, he didn't want them to find out that Rowan really was there, and was with him. Trevor still wasn't clear what the motives were, but McGarrett and Rowan being together was something he just couldn't let go of.

Trevor threw himself up and off of his couch, threw the phone back to Sarah and then rushed back to his room.

"What are you doing?" she cried.

"Sarah! Find me a flight to Toronto," he called as he dragged his suitcase out from under his bed. "I have to go see my dad."


	73. Chapter 73

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Well what did you guys think of that? I know you guys were probably wondering why Trevor never said anything if Savannah Walker did a whole episode with Rowan in it… well that's cause HE NEVER SAW IT! HA! Plot twists! Anyway… onto the big ticket, the moment we've been waiting for, and it's come right at a good time because this is the second last update in the marathon we have running right now. THIS IS IT! This is the chapter with… the moment guys I'm so excited for this. TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK! I know it's something small but it's a start, from here on in, things are going to start changing :D I promise. Tell me what you think and I'll see you guys tomorrow for the last post!_

 _P.S. For those of you who are confused. Instead of Danny getting TPed, Steve has gotten TPed instead. There's a reason for that. I promise._

Chapter 73 

* * *

They had a lead. Someone with a certain level of skill that could plant untraceable camera's in the victim's house and car, and a certain level of crazy that was willing to cut off another person's head.

They think they had that person.

Someone had been leaving messages on Lisa Mills' phone. Messages of just breathing. That took a certain level of crazy too. They were thinking the same kind of crazy that pulled off everything else.

They had tracked that phone to this stretch of jungle off the high way that was a common encampment for homeless people.

Steve had been a nervous wreck since Rowan went missing, it was insane how being away from her for a month had done literally nothing to lessen the feeling of panic that attacked him when something even remotely endangering happened to her. But it had been steadily getting better. If he had to guess, Rowan was either out of danger and on her way home, or… she was calming down. But his chest still constricted, and his skin still felt like it was crawling, and the sense of calm hadn't blanketed him until he had gotten to this position, to this place, walking towards… where ever he was walking towards.

Walking down the trail following Danny who was looking at the dot on his phone to find the nutjob who had been leaving messages on Lisa Mills phone.

"Okay," Danny said turning the phone this way and that and slightly pivoting as if he were lost. Though he shouldn't be because the phone should have been showing him exactly where to go. He had assured Steve that he knew how to read that map, told him so over and over in the car. "The signal is triangulating in this exact area. He's gotta be around here some place."

Yes. Helpful. Steve wished he had the phone. His hands itched to snatched it out of Danny's hands, but he had been shaking since this happened. So bad that Danny also had to drive, so Danny wouldn't let him have the phone.

Steve's phone rang, crime lab flashed on his screen and he smiled. Yes, they had something. Anything to take his mind off of this. He answered the phone quickly.

"McGarrett."

Fong's voice came to him instantly. "Hey we got the tests back on your toilet paper."

"Oh good!"

"Well… not really. We could find any useable DNA trace matter," he admitted.

"Okay, what about fingerprints?"

"No… nothing useable. You have to understand this is toilet paper…."

"Okay but what about brand name?" Steve growled.

"Commander… it's just toilet paper… there's not specific formula to match to a specific…"

"Okay, well is it two ply or one, come on Fong you gotta give me something!" he thundered.

Fong sighed on the other side. "Sorry, Steve, I can't help you." And then hung up the phone.

Steve aggressively clicked the end call button and then looked up. Danny had stopped looking for any sign of their suspect and was just staring at him.

"You… uh… you actually had the crime lab run the toilet paper from the tree?" he asked.

"Yeah, Danny, yeah, I told you I was going to do that," Steve argued.

"Okay, yeah, you did, but I thought it was more of a _I'm gonna say I'm gonna do the thing but not really_ sort of situation," Danny said. "I didn't think you were serious. I thought I made it clear that doing that would make you nuts!"

"Okay, I'm a victim of a crime, here, alright, it deserves to be investigated," Steve snapped.

Danny chuckled at him. "You have literally just become the textbook definition of an angry old man," he said. "Mazel Tov."

"Hey!" Steve snapped snatching Danny's phone out of his hand so he could go back to hunting people. "These punks vandalized my home and my truck. I'm allowed to be mad. And if anything, I've gotten all of this from you so you're the original angry old man, Danny."

"Okay, hey! Listen here, I may be angry, but I am not old, okay?" Danny cried following Steve as he followed the coordinates on the phone.

They walked to the end of the path were there was nothing but vines and trees. "Alright this is it," Steve said desperate to get off of this topic.

Danny stared at him like he was crazy. "This is it?" he echoed.

"Yep, that's what the phone says, Danny," Steve answered patronizingly. He walked towards the vines and began to move them around there had to be something he was missing. And there was. "Some kind of tunnel in here," Steve called to Danny who had not moved at all. He turned back to Danny, moved the vines aside and then said to him: "Hey, let's go."

But Danny did not move. "Uh… I… I can't go. Sorry. Can't do it. Not happening," he said, actually shaking his head and taking a step back.

"Can't do what, Danny?" Steve asked, because Danny had done so many other things he didn't want to do, Steve didn't understand what was wrong this time.

"I can't do… uh… caves or tunnels or cramped spaces. Anything where I feel like a rat. I can't," he admitted. Steve actually took a good look at him. Yeah, he did not look good at all. He actually looked afraid.

"You're claustrophobic?" Steve asked. This really surprised him, because he had not known that. At all. Like this was literally new information for him and he thought Danny told him everything. I mean… he never shut up, how had this never been mentioned before?

Danny nodded. "A little bit, yeah."

How the hell had that not come up in the four years he'd known Danny. How? The man talked about everything. Had Steve just missed it? Suddenly that pulse in his chest fired up again and Steve glanced into the tunnel. Something about this place… Rowan was here. He could feel it.

"Rowan's here," he breathed out and Danny straightened. "I think… I think she's inside."

"So she's with the nut that spies on people and leaves breathing messages on answering machines in that dark ass tunnel?" Danny asked. "Well fuck, no wonder you're anxious. She hates the dark. She's probably out of her mind freaked out. Now I gotta go."

She hated the… why didn't Steve know that? Steve shook his head. "No. uh… no you don't have to worry about that. I've got this. You just, uh, wait here, and when I find her, I'll send her to you," Steve said. He didn't want two people he cared about in a panicked state in that tunnel. Especially since he didn't know what kind of state he'd be in when he found Rowan. He assumed it would depend on the state he found her in.

"Yeah, I can do that," Danny said. "Uh… I'm sorry I can't go… you know… she'll understand… she knows. It's like her and snakes. Or her and blood. Or her and you…"

That last one was uncalled for. Steve glared at him. "You're right that was a low blow," Danny admitted without Steve even having to say anything. "I'm sorry."

"No… it's… what are you gonna do, right?" Steve said. He took one step into the tunnel and then turned back and swept the vines aside again. "Hey Danny, how'd it take me four years to learn that about you?"

Danny made a face. A face he didn't like as he thought it over. "I don't know. Maybe you don't pay such close attention to me," he answered and Steve didn't like that either. Because it wasn't true. He did. Maybe not as close as he did to Rowan, but he paid attention to Danny too.

Well he was going to pay attention much more now.

But at that moment he had to look for a crazed suspect and his missing… uh… Rowan. The tunnels lead through a catacomb of flooded hallways. Boards were placed in haphazard zigzags for Steve to walk on. Water dripped from the ceiling, dried out alcoves served as small living spaces cramped with strange lights, hanging utensils and disgusting mattresses covered in dirty blankets.

His heart was beating wildly out of his chest. Rowan was near-by. He knew it. Every synapse of his body was screaming for her. He wanted to call out, but he didn't want to spook whoever had her.

Just a head was a sort of storeroom that wasn't flooded. He could see clutter and metal wiring shelves, and other random items just strewn about. He had no leads, this place was like a warren… maybe this crazy person would have their phone on them.

Steve dialed the number thinking, well, what else did he have to lose? And to his surprise the phone actually started ringing, close enough for him to hear. In fact, it sounded an awful lot like it was in the room up a head.

Steve looked up in time to watch someone get up off of something to the side and reach for the phone that was discarded on the chair in front of him.

"Hey! Five-0. Don't move!" he called but of course the guy didn't listen. He bolted, to the left. But that wasn't all that happened.

Echoing through the corridors came a cry of: "Steve?"

Steve, who was already in pursuit of the suspect actually faltered to a stop. He knew that voice. He'd have known that voice anywhere.

"Rowan?" he answered.

"STEVE!" came ricocheting back at him followed by sobs. Steve ran now, sprinted through the dark tunnels.

"Rowan! Keep talking! I can't find you if you don't talk!" he called. He skidded, nearly wiping out on another runway of boards.

"Steve please!" she cried. He could hear the fear in her voice and his heart clenched.

"Rowan I'm coming," he called back desperate to soothe her in any way.

"Steve, I'm afraid," came back at him and his heart leapt into his throat. He was coming, he was coming! He burst into one of the alcoves, she had to be close, he could hear her sobs, he could hear her near-bye. He used a chair propped up against the wall to hoist himself up and throw himself over. He landed in a different alcove, this one covered in soft blankets and found himself in a semi-circle of whirling heaters.

He landed and something to his left threw itself away from him. Steve lifted his gun but it was only Rowan. Rowan who's red and blonde hair was matted and wet. Rowan who's make up had running down her face, and had smudges of dirt on her checks and chin in the shape of finger prints. Rowan whose dress, the black and blue Ariel one, was grimy, blood splattered and ripped. Tears were in her big blue eyes, fear contorted her face, but he saw the exact moment she recognized him, saw the way her eyes widened and a shaky smile donned her lips.

He got the first syllable of her name out, his gun immediately in his hostler when she launched herself at him. Her arms wrapped around his neck and his wrapped around her waist, he held her trembling shaking form as he let her cry into his shoulder.

"I was so scared," she said to him. "Steve I was so scared. I can still feel… I can still feel his hands, I thought I forgot, I thought… I thought it was fine but it's there. I couldn't get out, I couldn't find home."

Hands? Someone had touched her, had this guy touched her? He couldn't even contemplate that right now. He couldn't even fathom that as a possibility cause he'd cut the man's hands off if that was what happened.

"It's okay," Steve whispered to her instead. "It's okay. I got you. I found you. It's okay."

He rubbed his hands up and down her back, but his words, though comforting for her, were mostly for him. His own heart was racing, his fingers itching to dig into her skin so he could feel her against him, to know that she was flesh and blood beneath his fingertips. He longed to kiss her, just once, just so he knew what it was like to properly and thoroughly kiss her. But at that moment, what they both needed was to hold on another.

As he did, he looked around. The guy had made a nest for her, everything in that little alcove looked to be the nicest cleanest things around. He could almost feel her fear bouncing around that little room. She must have been terrified. Lost, alone, in the dark with no way to get a hold of anyone with a crazy guy keeping her there. It was then he noticed the rope, knotted around her waist, it led to the radiator. Steve didn't care it if it was evidence. As she hugged him, as he held her with one arm, he used the other to retrieve his knife and cut it off of her. Throwing it as far from her as he could.

Rowan clung to him, her body shaking. He just stayed where he was, on his knees in that little room, the woman he couldn't get out of his mind, who had a frim vice grip on his affection, straddling him, her nails digging in through his shirt, her breathing running ragged in his ear. He wanted to tell her that he'd always protect her, he wanted to tell her that he had feelings for her and this knocked sense into him, but he wasn't sure if it really had or if this was all just a side effect of the fear of losing her. When suddenly, as quickly as she had tackled him, Rowan had pulled her head out of his neck and then kissed him.

Her fingers dug into the skin of his jawline, her lips, soft against his tasted like the salt from her tears. Her body still shook but now he was shaking too. He greedily took all she had to offer him, plundering her mouth with his tongue, pressing her soft body against his so he could feel every inch of her against him. Finally properly and thoroughly kissing her. He groaned when she ended it, disappointed that it had ended almost as quickly as it had started.

"I wanna go home Steve," Rowan whispered against his lips. And that jerked him back to reality. He was on his knees in some abandoned facility with a girl who jumped in and out of a void and got herself lost. He should have been pissed, he should have been angry she had kissed him when he had a girlfriend and she had a boyfriend and a Wo Fat and had told him she wanted him out of her life. And then had promptly stayed very much in his life. But all he could bring himself to feel was the desire to kiss her all over again.

"Yeah, okay, I can get you home," he said swallowing back anything else he might have said. "We can drop you off at Alex's on the way to the Palace."

Rowan pulled away from him, she sat back on the mattress she had been camped out on and stubbornly wiped at her eyes smudging the rest of her make up everywhere.

"I don't want to go to Alex's I want to go home with you," she said. Oh his heart. Oh how he had wanted to hear those words but… Catherine…

"I… uh… I can't take you home when I've got Catherine…" he started, fully planning on telling her that he'd have to tell Catherine to leave. He was totally willing to of course, but it might take a while and would she be willing to stay camped out at the Palace until he could take her home?

"Catherine…" Rowan breathed out. "I promised I'd…" and then she looked at him. She really looked at him. It was like he was watching a fugue state lift. The cloudiness left her beautiful blue eyes and he knew in his heart that whatever this moment was… it was gone.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered, scrambling back and off of him. "I'm sorry. I don't know what came… can I just… can we please get me out of here?"

Sorry wasn't the worst thing she could have said, but it was enough to stab him in the heart all over again. Still Steve nodded, he stood quickly, helping her stand too. His suspect may have gotten away but he got two things out of this.

One. He had found Rowan so he could stop being so anxious. Two. That kiss. It did absolutely nothing to assuage his obsessive need to have her. If anything, it fanned the flames of desire higher. Because he would never, ever forget that kiss, the fireworks that accompanied it and the way it made his heart sing.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Wo Fat paced the length of his cell. Four hours. No Rowan. After missing the first call, Wo Fat was worried, but he shrugged that off as him over reacting. She had been out the night before, she was probably sleeping, or hung over, or doing something he didn't want to think about with Alex. After missing the third call he got suspicious and decided to investigate.

That was when he heard about the BOLO. A BOLO on Rowan in her costume from last night. A BOLO that was put out by Five-0. What the hell had Steven McGarrett done now? Then there was the assault. Someone had assaulted Alex and he was in the hospital. The report labelled Rowan as a witness and now she was missing with a BOLO out on her. _What the hell had Steven McGarrett_ _done_?!

Wo Fat had immediately gone to work. He called out all his contacts on the island. Rowan had gone into the hospital with Alex. A Five-0 member, the Asian male, the one he helped a Delano put into Halawa… god he never remembered his name, either way, he went into the hospital. Then Steve and Danny had showed up and all three of them came out later, and went their separate ways, but Rowan never did. And minutes later the BOLO was released.

Except she wasn't in the hospital. He had someone check. And she wasn't at Alex's place. He had someone check. She wasn't at the Iolani Palace. She wasn't at HPD headquarters or any of their stations. _He had someone check._ She wasn't in Halawa or any of their other smaller female prisons or male prisons. She wasn't at the recording studio. She wasn't at the bar she worked at… someone was going to lose her side job again. She wasn't at that stupid shrimp truck she liked, nor was she at her favourite coffee shop or any of the other shops she enjoyed in the areas she frequented either.

By the fourth hour of calling her with no answer. By the fourth hour of his contacts saying: "We can't find her," he had basically decided that he was going to break out of prison _today_. And if Rowan had been taken by the Yakuza… like they had been threatening to do… well… they had better run.

And then his phone rang. Wo Fat lunged for it. Rowan's name on the screen. If this was a ransom call, he'd die. Well not him, a lot of other people would die, but death would be coming!

"Hello?"

"I'm fine."

Her voice. Oh god, it was her voice. And just like that he went from worried to angry. "Where the _hell_ have you been?" he screamed. "Four hours you've been missing. What did McGarrett do to you?"

Rowan sighed at him. "I wasn't missing, I just lost my phone," she said. She was lying why was she lying?

"Use tacos in the next sentence if McGarrett is there and you can't be honest," he ordered.

"He is here, and I can be honest," she said. "I wasn't missing I lost my phone."

She was lying. Steve was there and she was lying. He was probably on speaker phone. "Your boyfriend got attacked by someone, you went into a hospital and didn't come out, Five-0 put out a BOLO on you, and for four hours, not only were you not picking up your phone, none of my contacts were able to find you. Now _tell me what happened_!" he ordered.

"I was at the Palace," Rowan said. "You know dealing with the paperwork for the assault…"

"You weren't at the Palace, I had people check," he growled.

"You had people break into the Iolani Palace to look for me?" she asked and in the back ground he heard a cry of: "What?" from McGarrett.

"It doesn't matter what I did or didn't do. You're lying to me. Why are you lying to me? What the hell happened?!" he demanded to know.

Rowan sighed. "Okay… I maybe… may have been abducted…"

" _WHAT_?!"

"I'm fine. It's fine. Steve found me…"

"Put McGarrett on the phone," he said.

"He doesn't want to talk…"

"PUT MCGARRETT ON THE PHONE!" he shouted.

There was five second pause before he heard Steven's gruff: "McGarrett."

"I'm gone a month and she gets abducted?" he hissed. "Who did it? Was it the Yakuza? Was it the NLM again, cause I swear I paid a lot of money to have every last one of them killed."

"You had them… No. No, it wasn't the NLM, why do you think the Yakuza is after her? Do you know something?" he countered.

Wo Fat knew a lot of things. He knew that all his actions all the intervening he did in her name had gotten her noticed. Her asking him to intervene on behalf of Kono and her boytoy who was in trouble with the Yakuza, had not helped. That network he was maintaining had also become a problem. While the kinks in it had been mostly ironed out it had left one blaring metaphorical neon blinking sign pointing gin her direction that screamed: "That's the girl Wo Fat cares about." So far no one had tried to grab her to ransom her against him simply because he was a terrifying individual who had just destroyed a faction of the NLM out of spite alone and he had made sure everyone knew that Five-0 was on her like a fly stuck in glue. But he was in prison and Steve was clearly inept at taking care of her, so that effect would only last so long. He needed to get out of prison before that happened. Or he needed to get her better protection.

Either way he wasn't telling Steven McGarrett any of that.

"How the hell did she get kidnapped on your watch?" Wo Fat countered.

"She's not on my watch," Steven argued and wow, since when did the self-righteous Steven McGarrett become such a goddamn liar?

"Do you or do you not have a P.I. following her?" Wo Fat asked in a dry tone and got a: "That's not the point," from Steve.

Well what was the point of the P.I. then? "Look. What happened today was unacceptable. Answer the next questions correctly and I might forgive you…" "—forgive me? Excuse you, who do you think you are?" "…did you attack Alex? Did you put him in the hospital?"

Steven was silent for a moment before he said: "No. He got attacked by a guy who was overdosing on scopolamine."

"Wow. You are absolutely useless McGarrett. Here I was thinking that you finally did something worth while and it turns out you couldn't even do that." Wo Fat sighed. "Put the Little Mermaid on the phone."

He waited patiently until he heard her quietly repeat: "I'm fine."

"I need you to listen to me very carefully, Rowan," he said. "I… I'm rapidly approaching the time where I will not be able to help you."

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

"Rowan, the Yakuza has gotten a little too interested in you, I'm trying to dissuade them but… I'm worried that you might be in danger soon," he told her. "I… uh… I may be sending people to take you to safety. It depends. It depends how things go. I need you to… uh… I need you to stay far away from them. Can you do that for me? Can you stay away?"

"I mean… it's not like I hang out with them on the DL, Wo," she answered, she was trying to be funny but she wasn't She must have sense that the was exasperated by his answer because she sighed and added: "But… I'll try. Okay?"

"Okay. And you're okay, right? Steve got you, you're okay?" he asked, because he could hear it in her voice that she might not be.

"I… I don't know," she whispered and he heard that tell-tale quiver in her voice. She was going to cry. What had happened to her? "I… I keep remembering the… the… karaoke night and I'm too scared to go home. I don't want to be alone."

Wo Fat paused. He remembered the karaoke night too. He just didn't know how to soothe her. Especially since they had both agreed that McGarrett could never know what happened. That man was in the ocean getting eaten by god knows what, McGarrett would just freak out.

"Can't you go to see Alex?"

"Alex is mad at me," she whispered and Wo Fat rolled his eyes. My god what a tool. "It's… it's okay. Chin said that I can… I can come home with him."

Chin! Yes, Chin Ho Kelly, the Asian Five-0 male. That was his name.

"Alright. Uh. You call me if anything else happens, okay?" he asked. "And uh… always have your phone on you. At all times. No more repeats of this."

He heard her smile over the phone and he smiled too. "Okay. Sure thing. Miss you," she said, he said all the same back to her and then hung up the phone.

Good God what had his life become?


	74. Chapter 74

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: So Steve and Rowan have had their FIRST proper kiss. What do you think? I know it's a bit of a gyp… but guys… it still happened. We're almost there. Not very many chapters left until I have them working everything out! I can tell you that I've already written their first proper date, their first sex scene, I've written how they start making up and everything so there is A LOT to look forward to. Unfortunately though, this is the end of the marathon. But don't worry, I know this chapter ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, and we're all super excited to get to the cute parts, so you're getting an update tomorrow too. Since we've hit some milestones I'm going to posting three times next week. We've reached 400 reviews guys! So, to reward you guys for being such awesome reader's I'm gonna update Monday, Wednesday and Friday this week! Thanks so much for your continuing support, I honestly love all you guys! See you tomorrow!_

Chapter 74 

* * *

Steve stared at Rowan. She had hung up the phone call she was having with Wo Fat but still she wouldn't look at him. She hadn't looked at him since she had left the tunnels but he couldn't stop looking at her. Then she said that she didn't want to be alone. His heart was in pain. He wanted to stay with her. He wanted to soothe her fears. And most of all he wanted to know what the hell happened on this Karaoke night she mentioned. He assumed that since Wo Fat knew about it, and she hadn't been to a Karaoke night since he had rescued her from Wo Fat, that it had happened during her time in captivity. But it didn't explain why it upset her, why being in the tunnels had brought it back up. It worried him but he didn't know how to ask her what was wrong without it turning into a huge argument, or throwing himself at her to get another kiss.

"Chin's going to take you?" he asked instead pointedly staring at her.

Rowan looked up but didn't have to answer. Chin came in and did it for her. "Yep, can't get a hold of Alex, so I'm going to let her chill at my place."

The selfish part of Steve didn't want her to go, the selfish part of him wanted to know why Chin was just okay with letting her chill at his place when they were supposed to not be friends. Not to mention Chin needed to stay here to help with the case. So, what was he going to do? Just drop her off and leave her there alone.

It was the selfish part of him who said: "But she doesn't want to be alone."

"I know, Jerry's gonna Rowan-sit for us until we get a hold of Alex," Chin answered he was smiling down at Rowan, a hand on her shoulder. He was joking, he was trying to make her smile. But she didn't acknowledge it and Steve was too busy trying to not let his grimace be seen. He just wanted to keep her to himself, just a for a little while longer.

Rowan, who had been in the room for all of this exchange, looked the three men staring down at her with pain in her eyes.

"Please be nice to Marshall… he… he thought he was saving me," she whispered.

Ah yes, the man from the tunnels. A very troubled individual who was convinced Rowan was his saving angel. Danny had managed to snag him when he ran out of the tunnel. And by snag he meant tackled. The man had been all but uncooperative until Rowan came out with Steve and he got less cooperative and more screamy. It was at her request that he even cooperated with them at all. But the saving her by keeping her trapped in the scary tunnels was a stretch.

"He's not right, you know," she said pointing to her own head. "I uh… got a flash when he touched me, and guess what? No shocks. Anyway. He's been experimented on, it made him a bit loopy. You're looking for a doctor who's doing experiments on people with smaller than normal parts of the brain. I don't know which one but I think Max can tell you. If you guys move fast you can save the party guy's son from the so called cure the mad doctor's going to give him."

Danny turned to Steve. "Did you catch any of that?" he asked.

"Kind of," he said. He turned to Chin. "You… uh… you can go. Just uh… hurry back. I'll text you the location when you're… uh… done."

Rowan was already standing. He watched her walk towards Chin, going past Steve to do so. He couldn't help but watch her. The desire to reach out and snatch her up into his arms again. He wanted to kiss her again. A completely unreasonable desire.

"Are you going to be okay?" he asked instead.

"Yes. I'm… I'll be… yeah, I'm fine," she whispered, her eyes avoiding his. "Thanks for… thanks for saving me."

As soon as she was gone, Danny turned on Steve. "Alright, McGarrett," he said with a grin. "What happened with you and Miss. Pierce?"

"Nothing… I just… I just found her that's all," he said.

"Shut up," Danny said. "Something happened. I can see it on both of your faces. Tell me what happened."

"Nothing," Steve growled.

"I don't buy it. What happened?"

"Nothing happened," Steve repeated.

"For god sake, why are you lying? Look at you, the two of you are more on edge than before. Something happened. What happened?"

"Danny if you don't drop this, I can't be held responsible for what happens to you," Steve warned and Danny raised his hands in mock surrender.

"Alright, alright," he said. "But I will find out. One way or another. Come on, let's go check if Rowan's theory is right, alright?"

Steve followed him, yes he probably would find out. But until that happened, Steve wasn't going to breathe a word to anyone.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan's little hunch was right, as it always was. They saved the kid before the mad doctor put the parasite in his brain, but not before the kid slit the mad doctor's throat.

Danny would have been crazy to think that Steve was okay. He could see it in the way the man was holding himself. Something had definitely happened with Rowan and it was majorly affecting Steve's behaviour.

But Rowan was crashing at Chin's. Chin and Jerry had tried to get answers, about the karaoke night, about what happened in the tunnels but nothing would come out of her mouth. She had absolutely shut down. Chin said as soon as he got her home she passed out on his couch, out in the open in the light. And upon waking her up she had been easy to startle and seemingly wide eyed and terrified.

Danny wanted to bring her to his place, smaller, easier for him to watch her. Hopefully it would make her fell better, safer, too. But as Danny had Grace, Rowan was staying with Chin.

Cue to Danny rooting through his washroom cabinets because Grace had refused to change the toilet paper roll.

"Grace, when you finish a roll of toilet paper, you're supposed to change it," he called into his house.

Grace appeared at the door just as Danny found the empty plastic that was supposed to house a brand new bunch of toilet paper. How the hell had he gone through that much toilet paper in just two days?

Danny turned and saw a look that was all too familiar on Grace's face. "Uh… where's all the toilet paper Grace?"

Once Danny got the answer out of her, he had no choice but to taker her straight to Steve's. With Catherine out, whatever had happened between he and Rowan seemed to be affecting him less. Steve was more relaxed now, even though he stood ram-rod straight arms crossed watching as Grace collected every bit of toilet paper from off his lawn, out of his trees and off of his car.

"I don't get it, Grace. I don't understand. Why would you do this to your Uncle Steve?" Danny asked.

Steve shot Grace a pained look. "Yeah, come on, kid, I thought you liked me. Did… did I do something to upset you?" he asked.

Grace shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know," she said.

Danny shook his head. "That is not an answer," he shot back. "You owe your Uncle Steve an apology and an explanation."

Grace hung her head and sighed. "Well… its just… My friends dared me to do it, and I thought it'd be better to do it to my own house than to someone else's. Someone else's would be mean," she explained.

Danny looked around at where he was. What had his daughter gotten confused? "Yeah, but you didn't do it to your house, you did it to Steve's."

"I know. That's cause Auntie Ro called before I could do our tree and she said that you'd probably like it better if I did it to Uncle Steve's," she said. "She even told me the best way to throw the toilet paper to get it to go the farthest and unroll the most."

Auntie Ro. Oh that Rowan. Causing shit from Chin's house. What the hell was that girl thinking? Really. Well… actually she was right, funny really, if Grace had done it to his house he probably would have told her to do it to Steve's house next time. Danny looked at Steve and saw that the stiffness was back and the smile fell right off his lips. Fully and completely. He knew that look, had it catalogued in his memory. It was not a good look.

"Okay, now, babe, the girl has had a rough day. Okay. It's been a real bad day for her. Promise me, promise me that you won't go and arrest her," Danny cried.

"She committed an act of vandalism and she needs to be punished," Steve growled. Well that wasn't true at all. Rowan hadn't done anything but suggest a target. But that didn't stop Grace's eyes from growing wide, with panic.

"I'm sorry Uncle Steve," she cried going in for the hug. "I'm sorry I TPed your house. I won't do it again. Please don't be mad at Auntie Ro, I just want all of you to get a long!"

Steve shot Danny a look, a painful look, one that told Danny that Steve had been absolutely bamboozled by Grace's sweet demeanour and big tearful brown eyes.

"All right, all right, I won't do anything to Auntie Ro," he said. "Okay. But…. Uh… if she tells you to do anything to my stuff again you tell me right away. Okay?"

Grace smiled up to him and nodded happily. "Kay, go wait for me in the car," Danny said, handing Grace his keys. Grace said good-bye, hugged Steve once more and then skipped off and Danny turned back to Steve. "Man, I'm sorry about this."

"Naw, don't worry about it. Grace is a good kid. It's Rowan who's the bad influence," Steve muttered.

Danny half laughed. "True. Her and I will be having words about that let me tell you," he said. "I'll see you soon, eh?"

"What about tomorrow. Me and Cath, we were gonna do dinner. We can make it a thing, me, you, Cath, Chin." he said.

Danny thought about it. He couldn't. Tomorrow he had plans. Plans he couldn't tell Steve about because Steve still couldn't play nice with Rowan. Plans that included Chin, and Jerry and Max. Plus, he doubted Catherine wanted to do a group this, she probably just wanted a nice date night with Steve. "I wish I could but I got Grace," he said pairing it with a noncommittal shrug.

"So? Bring her," Steve said. Well damn, that's true, he could easily have done that, both Steve and Catherine loved Grace, hell it was what he was planning to do for tomorrow's dinner. So… how was he going to get himself out of this one?

"We'll see. After this stunt I don't want to reward her as of yet, you know, like taking her for dinner. But I'll keep you posted," Danny cried and then jogged back to the car before Steve could ask him anymore questions. God. So many secrets how was he going to keep track of them all?

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Trevor got to Toronto and went straight to UofT. He had to wait for his father to finish his lecture but as soon as class was done he practically pounced on his father.

Trenton actually smiled at him. This big huge grin when he saw him. "Trevor, my boy," he said pulling him in for a hug. "Not that I'm not happy to see you but what are you doing here?"

"I have something to show you," he said. "But not here."

Trenton nodded and together the two walked across the campus to where the building with his office was. They made small talk along the way. Trenton asked about his skating, and the girls he trained, whether anyone of them would be going to the Olympics that year. In turn Trevor asked whether any of his father's experiments had advanced. And they had not, in fact, his father had stopped experimenting entirely. He had not felt the desire to look into alternate universes since returning from Hawaii.

Trevor found this absolutely tragic. Yet another thing that Fucking Lieutenant Commander Steven McGarrett had taken from his family.

Once he got his dad sitting down in front of a computer, he pulled up the video and let it play the part, the part in the bar.

Rowan Pierce, red and blonde hair, a dull blue sling keeping one arm up, a struggling singing psychic that was way too close the man who had deported them from Hawaii. The girl who had the trademark Pierce eyes. His father seemed absolutely mesmerized by the photo. Maybe he recognized her too.

"Trevor… Trevor what is this?" his father asked. Okay, maybe not.

" _That_ … that is Rowan Pierce. Dad… Rowan Pierce!" Trevor cried. "That's the girl. She's there. She's in Hawaii. That's who we were looking for."

Trenton stared at the freeze frame on her face. He seemed skeptical. "Uh… how do you know?"

"Look at her!" Trevor cried. "She looks like us. She has… she has our eyes. And look who she's with. Dad, she's with McGarrett… the man who kicked us out of Hawaii. Savannah Walker, the talk show lady, said that Rowan was his ex but if you watch the full episode it's clear as day he's not even remotely over her. He's controlling and manipulative, he arrests her for no reason. So there's bad blood there. Really bad blood."

Trenton looked at him and then back to the computer screen and then sighed. "Trevor… I know… I know you're upset and I know that Commander McGarrett didn't leave a good impression…"

"He dated this girl… saved her from a known criminal, a girl who has the same name as the person we were looking for _and_ he never thought to mention the coincidence?" Trevor snapped. "Dad… come on… I said he was hiding something, that this couldn't have just been about us upsetting the locals. This was it. He was hiding _her_!"

Trevor stared at his father, his eyes pleading with him to believe him. "Please dad… please… I know I'm right. I just… I just know."

Trenton appraised him, his eyes narrowed in though. "I will admit that it's suspicious and that it _is_ one hell of a coincidence," he admitted. "But… I don't know… Trevor… McGarrett… he's a… he's a very powerful man and well… let's be real here. The odds that we actually pulled a real person through the void is very… well… low…"

Trevor sighed. He slouched against his father's desk. Trenton took in his son's slumped shoulders and dejected aura and sighed once more. "But you know what… I bet… I bet if we come up with a convincing lie, we can get some cops to request her DNA. A DNA test would prove her to be related to us. Then we could put this to rest."

Trevor turned to him, hope lit up in his eyes. "Really? I mean… yeah… that makes sense…" he said trying not to smile.

"Before we go to the precinct, why don't we come up with a story that doesn't involve alternate realities and ray guns hmm?" Trenton asked and Trevor went to pull up a seat. It was going to happen. He was going to get his sister back.


	75. Chapter 75

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Alright guys, we've got our Monday update. This is a resounding thank you for 400 reviews. Thank you so much for everything, for being such loyal and amazing readers. Which is why I'm so sorry for the next two updates. I'm not going to lie, these next two updates are going to be really angsty. HOWEVER after this, there are only TWO more terrible situations that Steve is going to put Rowan through before she finally knocks him off his feet. So yes, for those who are triggered easily these next two chapters are going to be hard for you, feel free to skip them. I did throw in some cute pieces between Rowan and the others thought. But onto good things to look forward to: in 9 more chapters Steve and Catherine will be done. In 13 chapters there's going to be a change in Steve and Rowan's relationship. From there on in they're gonna be absolutely adorable. I promise. I'm working super hard on the cuteness overload factor. Just a heads up, I'm flying on Wednesday, so the update might be late… either late at night or a day late. So if it is, don't panic, I'm either stuck at an airport, or passed out in my house. I will do my best to post again on Wednesday._

Chapter 75

* * *

Rowan had not been able to get a hold of Alex, though, she didn't really try.

After Chin Ho had dropped her off, and he had made sure that she and Jerry were settled, he had run off to help Steve with the case, not that she had noticed. Rowan had been so out of it that all she did was curl up on the couch and fall asleep. When she woke up, Jerry was watching X-Files on the tv, slouched in beside her feet with a pizza and a can of Mountain Dew. At some point Rowan and acquired a blanket that was tucked nice and neatly in around her. She was worried that without the right distraction but Jerry was great company. He talked about conspiracy theories, explained the plot of the X-Files to her, and generally kept her mind off of what happened and what memories had climbed up to the surface during the hours she had been confined to the catacombs.

The darkness and the close quarters had dragged up the trauma she thought she had dealt with. Though why she thought she had dealt with it when she had done absolutely nothing but ignore it and buried it inside was another matter entirely.

When she woke, she checked her phone. Nothing except a few messages from Grace asking if she were okay, and several from Danny about the case. Apparently, she had be right. But was she surprised? No.

She called Alex, but he had not picked up. And that was it. She stopped trying.

Chin Ho came home a few hours later. They shared cold pizza, he drank a cold beer, while she drank a ginger ale to settle her still upset stomach. He talked about the case and how they got to the kid just in time, about Steve's odd behaviour and though he didn't ask her straight out she knew he was angling to find out who happened between them.

Rowan couldn't bring herself to tell him what she did. That to keep her from devolving into utter panic she had closed her eyes and dreamed a pretty little dream in which Steve and her were together. But in her catanionic state, spending hours fantasizing that Steve would come to rescue her, seeing him vault over that wall for her she had momentarily forgotten that the dream wasn't real and he wasn't hers. In that moment, all that pretending had gotten to her and she had thought that he was truly her boyfriend come to rescue her. And that was a problem because he wasn't, and she probably shouldn't have attacked him the way she had.

And she would take that goddamn secret to the grave, because she managed to take Catherine once, simply because she was injured, next time she would not be so lucky.

Chin didn't make her call Alex again, when it was clear she wasn't going back there he let her have his bed, he'd take the couch, he said. But nightmares had been present before her eyes had closed, it only got worse when she tried to sleep. She had a night terror that woke her up screaming and had Chin Ho in the room. Her subsequent break down was how he ended up in the bed with her. Nothing happened of course, except that Rowan got a good night sleep.

Except for the dream. The dream about the man, a dead man, in an oil drum. A man she didn't recognize but she knew it was important because why would she dream it otherwise?

In the morning, Chin Ho had let her sleep in. In return she made him breakfast. And then she tried to call Alex again. And he once again didn't pick up. Well, she knew, if he had been released, he'd probably be at work, and if they gave him the day off then he would have been at home sleeping. Either way she decided that the best course of action was to surprise him at the hospital.

She got to his hospital room he wasn't there, which meant he had been discharged, and then she went to his ward, but she couldn't spot him. She assumed that he was probably with a patient, and if not he was at home. So, Rowan went to the nurse's station and smiled at the secretary. Janet was one of her favourites. She was a momma bear who had no interest in sleeping with Alex and therefore did not see her as a threat and was generally much nicer then the other nurses were to her. Janet smiled warmly up at her.

"What's up, honey? Here for a check up?" she asked. "I thought your arm was good now. Both your arms."

"Oh no, it is, they are" she said showing Janet both of her arms moving to prove that they were both still okay. "No. Uh. I'm here to see Alex. Do you know if he's with a patient?"

"Alex?" she asked. "Uh… did he not tell you?"

"Tell me what?"

"Oh Honey, Alex got fired last week," she said. "Conflict of interest."

She then eyed her up and down and Rowan froze. Oh god. She was the conflict of interest. She was a past patient she had gotten him fired.

"Oh. No… he didn't… I'm sorry," she said. Janet just shot her a _mhmm_ and then went back to her paperwork.

Rowan turned quickly and retreated back to the elevators. She waited until she got out of the lobby to have a mini mental break down. She cried behind a near-by bush, but only for a few moments before she made herself toughen up. She was sure this break down was due to her incident the day before. If she listened to her psychiatrist, she would not let this defeat her, but would just work through it. So she decided that if she was going to keep herself distracted, keep the bad feelings at bad, she had to do something to make it up to Alex.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve had been called down to the beach. A body had washed up in a blue oil drum. A lot like the ones they had found the Yakuza burial ground victims in. Filled with sand so it would sink. The partially water logged and decomposed body had been found half buried in the morning tide sand and found by a pair of very inquisitive teenagers with dreams of buried treasure. All they got was a face full of a really bad smell and nightmares.

Steve stood over it, hands on hips staring down at the mess of what would have been a human being if they had found it before it half way decomposed. All of the bodies in the Yakuza grave yard had all been accounted for. So, who was this?

Danny had not been able to come, he had Grace, and after late night last night where Grace had to clean up her Uncle Steve's lawn and his truck, he didn't want to wake her up and he couldn't have asked Rowan to babysit her either as she also needed the rest. Then Chin couldn't come either because apparently Rowan had stayed the night which meant he was still on Rowan-sitting duty. On top of that, Rowan had had a bad night and she was still asleep and Chin hadn't wanted to walk her. Then a murmur came from the other side of the phone, one in Rowan distinct sleepy voice followed by a hushing: Go back to sleep, from Chin and Steve realized that Rowan was in bed… with Chin.

Steve had tried to let go of that feeling of burning jealousy and resentment that had snuck up on him but he just couldn't. How could Chin have betrayed him like? Did Rowan just really crawl into any bed to cuddle? Because if so… maybe she hadn't cared about him the way he thought she did.

Max was the only one that showed up that morning and he had to because he was the coroner. Steve tried to be present in what Max was saying. But all he could see in his mind was Chin and Rowan in bed. How the hell had this happened? How had he not seen this coming? Fuck he felt like such an idiot. He never should have let her leave with Chin. She wanted to go home with him, he should have just kicked Catherine out and taken Rowan home with him. They had both wanted it, why had he fought it, why?

"Commander McGarrett?" Max asked and Steve jerked out of his thoughts and forced himself to actually look at Max. Despite being in the hospital the previous night, he was up and ready to go this morning. What a trooper.

"Sorry, Max, I'm a bit distracted today," he admitted. But Max was super understanding like he usually was.

"I assume it has something to do with Rowan's disappearance yesterday," he said. "Even though you found her you must still have some lingering worries about it."

"Yeah, you can say that," Steve said through grit teeth. Luckily Max was a man of few words because he turned back to the body and the matter at hand.

"As I was saying, this man has been brutalized. Just at a cursory view I can see severe bruising around the face, and judging by the warping of his legs I would say that they've been broken. But none of that is the cause of death. The bullet to the head seems to be prominent cause of death," Max told him.

"Wow, someone really didn't like this guy," Steve whispered.

"I won't be able to tell you whether or not the damage was dealt post-mortem until I get him back to the morgue."

Steve thought about that. "It looks like the guys hands are bound, be sure to get the rope to the lab for testing, maybe we'll be lucky and get some DNA off of it."

"Of course, Commander," Max said with a quick nod.

"Alright, uh… call me when we got an ID."

He left the beach, knowing that everything would be brought to the lab for examination but he didn't want to do this alone. He knew where he was going to go next.

To Danny.

Because maybe Danny could help him make sense of this whole… Rowan and Chin in bed thing. Because it was still throwing him for a loop.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Alex walked into the apartment, gently placed his guitar case down and when he looked up and then nearly jumped out of his skin.

"God, Ro. You scared me I thought you were still… uh… still with whoever you went with?" he said. God maybe he should have paid attention to those voicemails she had left.

"Chin," she answered for him. "Uhm, I went by the hospital today."

She looked so bouncy, like a puppy. She hadn't been this attentive or interested in him in forever, and quite frankly it was making him nervous. "You didn't have to do that they released me yesterday," he told her.

"Yes, I know, they also kind of permanently released you a week ago too, didn't they?" she asked.

Fuck, she knew he got fired.

Alex turned to her. "Look, uh, I was going to tell you…"

"You didn't want to upset me, I guess," she said. Yea something like that. Rowan looked around at the apartment, her mouth twitching back and forth. Oh god she had something else to say.

"They… uh… they said it was a conflict of interest," she told him. Of fuck the hospital and their toxic gossip pool. "It was… uh… it was me… wasn't it?"

Her? She thought it was… well that was better than the real reason. But then he looked at Rowan and the way she was staring at him. He thought about all the shit she had put him through with Five-0 and her need to help people who didn't appreciate it. He thought about the zombie bite he didn't need to have taken if she had just told him what was going on instead of caring about some creepy little coroner instead of him. And he figured… maybe a little guilt wouldn't kill her. Maybe a little guilt would get McGarrett out of her head and back on him. It hadn't before but it was worth a shot, right?

But that was still a little too low even for him. So, he tried to tell her the truth. "Ro…" he started but she cut him off.

"Ohhh! Ohhhh I knew it!" she cried. "Alex, I'm so sorry."

She threw herself at him, hugging him tightly. "I'm so sorry that I keep messing everything up for you. I'll make it up to you. I promise. I wrote… I wrote more songs… uh… they're not all finished but maybe we can work on them together?"

Holy shit. Rowan refused to collaborate. All of her music had to be hers and hers alone. Having rights to some of her songs… like the actual words to them… would be big for him.

"Wow… really?" he asked.

Rowan looked uncomfortable when she nodded but Alex was willing to ignore that to get what he wanted. "But let's start with lunch. Uh… I'll make us lunch and then we'll spend a day together and after dinner we'll look at music? Okay?"

Yeah that actually sounded great. "Yeah. Uh. Sure," he said trying not to feel guilty. "Uhm… I'm kinda feeling spaghetti."

"Sure. Yes of course," she said. She got up on her tippy toes and pressed a sensual kiss into his cheek. "And I think I know what to give you for dessert too."

Alex found himself smiling. Yes, he wasn't going to turn down that either.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Danny stared at Steve. Steve who was currently in a major mood. First Rowan goes missing through the void and Steve had to go find her. Then he wasn't allowed to arrest Rowan last night for being the ring-leader behind the TP assault on his house. And just this morning he found out Rowan and Chin were in bed together.

Not that he knew for absolute certain. Because he didn't see it himself. He just knew Rowan was still in bed, and yet he could hear her clearly threw Chin's phone. In Steve's head that meant that Chin and Rowan were obviously in bed together.

And from the texts Danny received from Chin about the situation… well… let's just say Danny knew that Steve's theory was right but it was his job to convince him that he was nuts.

To be fair, Rowan and Chin hadn't gone to bed together. Chin had been woken up by her screams in the night and Rowan had been such a wreck, and so afraid to be alone, that he had gotten in bed to comfort her. They had been an arm's length away from each other the whole night, except for the part where Rowan's fitful sleep kicked Chin out of the bed… literally.

Still. Danny had one job and he was doing it… not well.

"Seriously, you don't have picture proof," he said. "Chin's an early riser, Rowan was practically catatonic last night. If anything, he was just in the room to check on her."

Steve winced. Yeah. Danny had him there. "Chin… she's not Rowan's type. We know what Rowan's type is."

Yes. Her type was Steve. She was dating a douch-ie carbon copy of Steve. Steve nodded. "I don't know… I guess…. I guess I just thought… that…"

That she needed him. That was the problem. Steve was Rowan's protector. Before, if she had nightmares it was his bed she crawled into. But Rowan didn't have Steve anymore, and Alex had been mad at her last night. She needed someone to help her, what was she really going to do? Call Steve? No that's ridiculous.

"Why don't we go through what we know about this case? Huh?" Danny asked. It was the reason he had driven down the palace. That and the way Steve had said he needed someone to talk to. Actually… it was more the fact that he even said he needed someone to talk to at all. It wasn't like him to want to talk about his

"Alright, well, his DNA got a match in the system. His name is Miguel Costa, he's a low level gun-runner based out of Colombia. There's no record of him coming here, but his boss… Armando Dias, he was here. And he's a known associate of Wo Fat," Steve told him.

"We better talk to Armando then…"

"No point. Armando is back in Colombia," Steve said. "He left around the time we found Rowan again. Chatter said he was in Hawaii… not for business but to help an associate out. He arrived shortly after Wo Fat took Rowan, so you can guess what Armando had been brought in for."

Yes, to help control Rowan. Wo Fat was having problems with her… she was a difficult person, especially when she was trying to be. And according to all her statements and Wo Fat's claims… yeah she was trying really hard to be difficult for her captors.

"Alright, so it's reasonable to assume that Armando brought a few of his men to help Wo Fat out," Danny said. "But that doesn't explain how he ended up in a barrel at the bottom of an ocean."

"Yeah, well Max confirmed that he was badly beaten before he was shot, so it's safe to say that he was probably punished for something," Steve said. "The prints we found on the drum match the prints of the Yakuza that Kono shot when we found the other drums. There was no useable DNA left on the ropes that bound Miguel. And there is no one else tied to him on the island."

Oh… no. Fucking no. That meant the only person who had any ties to him for Steve to interrogate was Rowan.

"Babe… babe… no," Danny said shaking his head. "Not after she went through yesterday. Not after today. You're too… you're too raw."

Steve sighed. "I don't mean to arrest her. I just need to ask her a few questions. By all means, Wo Fat usually kept her locked up, she wouldn't have interacted with him. But maybe… maybe she knew something or heard something, it wouldn't hurt to ask her."

No, it wouldn't, if Danny thought Steve might actually just ask her something. But Danny had a feeling that Steve was a little bit more than out of sorts, what with yesterday's incidents and this morning.

"And I think that should be me," Danny said.

"It doesn't matter. Max found trace DNA under the victim's fingernails," he said. "Once we know who matches that, I'll have someone else to focus on. I'll only talk to Rowan if that's a dead end."

Danny doubted that too. Steve wanted to know more about Rowan and Chin. That's what this was all about. He wanted an excuse to go see her and figure out what was happening.

"When do you think he'll know?" Danny asked. Because sitting here in that office, with Steve on edge was not good for anyone, let alone Rowan.

"Right now," Steve said and then nodded towards the door. Danny turned to see Max coming in and a spear of doubt hit his chest. The last time Max came in person instead of just calling them down to the Morgue he had come to tell them that Kono's gun had been the one to kill their victim. So… yeah… this did not bode well.

"Max, what are you doing here?" Steve asked. He too looked concerned, probably thinking about the same thing that Danny was. "You could have called."

"I got the results back on the DNA," Max said.

Steve sighed. "Oh God, it better not be Kono," he said. "Michael Noshimuri could not be fucking with us from the grave."

"No… it's much worse than that," Max said and now both he and Steve were staring at Max with wide eyes. If the name Danny thought was going to drop out of Max's mouth actually did come out of him, he was going to punch a hole though the new pane of glass they had to install in Steve's office.

"The DNA belongs to Rowan."

 _Shit_! You could have heard a pin drop it was so quiet. Danny eyed Steve and saw that the man had gone absolutely stiff… and white. God he was so white. But this was not good. This was so not good. Steve stood his head immediately went for his phone. Danny groaned and did the same thing, but he wasn't calling Duke for an APB or a BOLO, he started sending message after message to Rowan. God. He hoped she got them, because if Steve got to her first, she was screwed.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve knocked on the door. No, he pounded. He pounded on the door until Alex opened it. All shirtless and sweaty. God she had gone from being in a bed with Chin to being in a bed with Alex. Fuck… when did Rowan become a bed hopper? She had always seemed so innocent…

And then he spotted her. Lacy tank top and a matching pair of black lacy shorts. Hair messed up, breathless and sweaty too. Marks still on her body, bruising from yesterday, fresh hickies on her neck. His blood shouldn't have boiled at the sight of her, he shouldn't have heated with desire and he definitely shouldn't have wanted to sweep Alex aside and ravish her.

"Who's at the…" she trailed off when she spotted him. She went a red color and looked away from him. "Oh… uh… Steve… what are you doing here?"

At this, he did sweep Alex aside. "I need to ask you a few questions," he snapped going for his phone. "We found a body on the beach today. I'm going to show you a picture, and I want you to tell me if you've seen him before."

"Oh… uh… sure… but I mean… I don't know if I can help you," she said. "I haven't been dreaming of anything useful."

"He was… uh… found in a barrel," Danny said. Rowan smiled to him but he didn't smile back which seemed to perplex her.

"Wait… like an oil drum? Black? White guy with like, light brown hair?" she asked.

Steve stared at her. She was dreaming about a different dead guy in a different drum? How many dead guys were floating around in drums? "No, a blue one… like the yakuza grave yard victims," Danny said and Rowan frowned.

"Oh… then yeah, I don't think I can help you."

Steve absently went about unlocking his phone as he said: "Yeah, well our Vic… Miguel Costa, he had your DNA under his nails," he said. "I want you to explain to me why."

Rowan looked confused up until he showed her the picture of Miguel. Before the beating for course. As soon as her eyes clapped onto that mug shot Rowan froze. Her eyes went wide, she paled before them and she scrambled back like the picture was repelling her.

"Rowan… whoa… whoa… are you okay?" Danny asked. He went to go to her side but Steve kept him at bay. Rowan shook her head back and forth, she couldn't speak, she was terrified of the photo.

"You know who this is?" Steve asked. "Tell me. How do you know him?"

Rowan's wide eyes didn't move away from the phone so Steve pocketed it and then made her look at him, forced her chin up so she would. "You're DNA is under his nails. If you don't tell me something, if you can't explain this… I'll have to arrest you for murder."

She blinked her eyes at him like she was seeing him for the first time. But she made no motion to answer him. Her mouth stayed firmly shut. She left Steve with no other option. And even though everyone protested, he still arrested her. Firmly aware that Rowan was the only one who didn't complain or protest, she was the only one who stayed silent.

Until she was put into the back seat of the Camaro.

 _Everything that happens to me will be done to them… ten fold._


	76. Chapter 76

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Well I managed to find an internet connection while in Amsterdam, so I did my best to get this up for you guys. Cause I'mma be hella tired when I get back home. For those of you who were curious about what happened to Alex, it'll be explained in this chapter when Rowan and Danny have a heart to heart. If you're still confused about all of that I'll post a little refresher at the end of the next chapter. This chapter does close up this little bit of drama, you will find out what happened to Rowan, you'll realize that you knew who that guy was the whole time, and Wo Fat's gonna be cute again. Keep me posted on whether or not you need a refresher. See you Friday!_

 ** _*Updated*_** _I accidentally posted the chapter twice with in this document, not sure how I did that. But it's fixed now. For the guest who asked who Alex is... uh... he's Rowan's boyfriend. I would suggest going back and reading any of the previous chapters, he's been mentioned before... he's been like a solid feature since chapter 3._

Chapter 76

* * *

"I'm not going to talk to you," she said for the fifth time.

Danny glanced to Steve who looked just about ready to slap Rowan. This interrogation was not going well for him. Usually he got the criminals to crack, but Rowan didn't crack under his intimidating gaze and instead seemed to be cracking him. Plus every time Steve made a move to employ his usual violent tactics Danny stepped in between them and made them back down. Rowan wasn't their usual suspect and Danny was certain there was a completely rational reason for her DNA to be under their victim's finger nails. And she might have told them by now if she hadn't been absolutely livid with Steve.

"You have to tell me something," Steve pleaded. "Because right now… right now… you're all I got in the way of a murder suspect."

Rowan's blue eyes stared forward. She took another deep breath and said: "I am _not_ going to talk to _you_."

It had been like this for the last thirty minutes. Steve groaned. "Fine. Fine, you want to be uncooperative? Fine… I'll charge you with murder! Since you don't want to tell me otherwise."

" _I refuse to talk to you_ ," she growled, her voice lower, more dangerous. Her eyes were finally on him and they were on fire. "I don't care _who_ I talk to. But it won't be _you_."

Steve roared. Clearly way past frustrated and Danny stepped in between them again. He hadn't listened before but now, maybe he would. "Kay… babe… why don't you get us some coffee okay? I'll get her talking, you get me coffee."

Steve glared at him. He glared at Rowan. But he seemed to realize that Danny was right. Rowan wasn't going to talk to Steve. But she'd talk to someone else. Steve was probably hurt by this, probably infuriated by this, but if he wanted answers he was going to have to leave. Steve stormed out and as soon as the door closed behind him Rowan's proud shoulders sagged and began to shake.

"Congratulations, you found a way to make him even crazier," Danny snapped.

When Rowan looked up, she was crying and Danny's heart melted. "I can't stop… it won't stop replaying in my head."

"Rowan you gotta tell me what happened," Danny said.

"I scheduled an early appointment with my shrink but… but… it won't stop. Since the tunnels… since the picture. Every time I close my eyes I see his face," she sobbed.

"Rowan…." Danny snapped. "Rowan… you need to tell me what happened. We can't help you if we don't know what happened."

"He's going to be so mad…" she sighed. Oh fuck. She had killed the guy. She really truly had killed him. How the hell was he going to tell Steve that?

"Just take a deep breath and start from the beginning," he ordered, leaning over and uncuffing her from the chair.

Rowan rubbed her wrists absently before clearing her throat. "Uh. Okay," she whispered. "Uh… back when I was kidnapped… there was… uh… a karaoke night. Some of Wo's helpers put it together, Juan in particular, he was trying to cheer me up…"

"Wait a second… Wo's helpers?" Danny asked. "Juan?"

"Oh uh… Juan Carlos Dias. He was kind of a friend I made when I was stuck with Wo Fat."

"As in Armando Dias?" Danny asked.

"Yeah, that was his uncle," she said. Okay… she was making friends with arms dealer's nephews. Nothing weird about that right?

"You made friends with a lot of Wo's… uh… helpers?" he asked.

"I had nothing to do Danny. They were keeping me company, most of them were really nice," she snapped.

"Alright, alright, talk to me about the Karaoke night," he said.

"Kay, well they had me sing a song," she told him. "And when the song was over I tried to slip away… you know… to escape. That's when… when he grabbed me and… uh… uh…"

 _He had attacked her_. That explained her reaction. That explained why she was shaking before and why she was shaking now. She also could have just been cold she was still in her pjs.

"Take a deep breath," he said to. "He can't hurt you anymore."

Rowan nodded and swallowed carefully before returning to her tale. "He uhm… he dragged me into the supply closet and he tried to, he tried to make me… but he didn't. Wo… Wo found me and kind of beat the absolute crap out of him. He told me he'd deal with it. He told them to make… he told them to make him suffer."

Danny took all of this in. He wanted to probe her for more, but at the same time he didn't. Because Rowan was scared, and any more info would send him into a rage. If he was this mad how was how Steve going to react?

"Okay, okay," he said. "That would explain the DNA under his nails. But I'm going to have to confirm this… do you think _he'll_ confirm?"

Rowan whose eyes were firmly lowered merely whispered: "Yes. I mean… maybe… I don't know…"

Danny took that in and then pet her leg which caused her to jolt. "Sorry. Sorry. Didn't mean to startle you. I have one more question to ask you, do you think you're up to answering just one more question?" he asked her.

Rowan swallowed her tears and nodded and he smiled sympathetically at her. "Can you tell me what happened to you and Steve in those tunnels, because… uh… he's been acting weird, and I wanna know what I'm dealing with."

Rowan sighed, those tears started up again and she looked away from him. "Uhm… I… I kind of… I kind of thought that I was… dating him… maybe… I unno. I just wasn't in the right head space at that time being so scared and all," she answered. But that didn't tell him what had happened. Rowan cleared her throat and added: "I… sort of… I kissed him. Just jumped on top of him and gave him no choice. I apologized, but I don't think it helped."

Not that wouldn't have helped. Steve had his obsession with her. It had probably made him worse, to have her kiss him, like he no doubt secretly wanted and then have her apologize and tell him that it was all a mistake. Steve needed to tell her how he felt, but every time he brought it up, he started talking about Wo Fat and betrayals and how Rowan was under the impression that he and Catherine were perfect so he was working on that, because didn't Catherine deserve to be abandoned. All the while Danny just glared at him and rolled his eyes.

Danny took all that in, smiled at her and pet her leg again, this time she didn't jump. "Just give me a couple of minutes to talk to him and once this is cleared up, we'll let you go. Okay?"

Rowan nodded and Danny left. Once he got outside, he found that Steve had not gone far. Instead he was right outside the door.

"Well?" he snapped.

"Wo's her alibi," Danny said with an apologetic shrug. "Sorry but we gotta call him."

Steve sighed. "Of course he is," he growled. "Of course."

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

It took more than an hour for Steve to get the permission to get Wo Fat in front of a computer monitor for a skype call, and for the prison to get all of that set up for them. But once he got him, he was ready. Ready to snap. Ready to figure out what was going on. Danny hadn't given him details on what she said, just that Wo Fat was her alibi. Said he wouldn't be able to handle the answer to how Rowan knew this man. They were just going to get him to admit he killed the guy and leave it at that.

But it was killing him that she wouldn't talk to him. Why didn't she trust him? Why was she doing this to him?

Wo Fat's face appeared on the computer screen across from them a scowl on his face, but once he saw who it was a smug grin spread across his face. "To what do I owe the pleasure, Commander McGarrett?"

"I need you to supply an alibi for your favourite person," Steve growled.

That smug face faded and then he was well and truly glaring at them. "What did you do to her?" he snapped.

"He arrested her," Danny said, edging in and pushing Steve aside. Wo's eyes swung back and forth between them before carefully settling on Danny.

"Why?" he asked.

"We found trace DNA under the finger nails of our victim. DNA that belongs to her," Steve growled.

"What? Did she get attacked by Catherine again? You gotta keep that girlfriend of yours in line, McGarrett! This is harassment!"

How nice of him to champion himself for Rowan. As usual. Steve scowled at him.

"No, not Catherine. But she might have attacked Miguel Costa," Steve said.

"And I'm supposed to know who that is?" Wo Fat asked in a dry tone. "Look. If a girl like Rowan Pierce felt the need to attack someone, you can believe that she had a goddamn good reason."

Steve ignored that comment and showed him the picture of their victim, before he ended up in that barrel. Wo Fat swore. "I told them to cut his goddamn fingers off," he snarled under his breath. "If she told you I killed the guy, then she's right. I did."

"What the hell…" Steve growled because that was way too easy of a confession. Danny shoved him aside again. "Alright thank you for that…"

"Wait why?" Steve cried shoving Danny right back. "You didn't just torture and kill a man for no reason. And why did we find her DNA under her fingernails?"

Wo Fat blinked his eyes and then turned to Danny. "You guys called me for an alibi but you don't know what he did to her?"

"Did to her?" Steve echoed.

"I haven't divulged the full story, as I thought…" Danny started but Wo Fat wasn't having it. He turned his unimpressed glare from Danny to Steve.

"He attacked her, McGarrett," Wo Fat growled. "I found him with his hands up her shirt and down her pants. So, I had his hands broken, his knees capped, ribs shattered, we all took turns fucking up his face, got pretty creative with a metal pipe and when he was nothing but an incoherent mess who couldn't even beg for his life, I put a bullet between his eyes."

Steve stood in the wake of that confession. He glanced to Danny and realized that this was why he hadn't told him. Because he had been right, this was something he couldn't take, his brain couldn't even fathom it. He was in shock. He was filled with so many emotions. So many terrible, violent emotions.

"Is that enough of an alibi for her?" he asked.

It was enough, more than enough.

"Yes, thank you," Danny said. He went to end the call but Wo Fat leant forward.

"Hey. She didn't sound okay when I finally got a hold of her yesterday," he said to them. "I uh… understandably couldn't have gotten her anything in the way of help. I tried my best to take care of her, of course, but she mentioned the karaoke night yesterday and with all this… I'm guessing you showed her the picture… I think… with this it might have gotten worse…"

Oh for godsake. PTSD. Rowan might have been having some PTSD type symptoms after this. Especially when it wasn't dealt with correctly. That explained the fugue state, the kiss, the desire to not be alone. But it didn't explain why she ended up in bed with Chin or with Alex.

"Yeah, uh… we know… we're dealing with it," Danny said and then the called ended.

"Alright. Mystery solved," Danny said to him.

"You knew that man attacked her and you didn't tell me," he hissed.

"Of course not," Danny growled. "Look at you." Steve looked away from him. His eyes foggy with the pain. Danny looked away too, his hand rubbing the back of his head. "I'm… uh… I'm going to go let her out."

As he left Chin came rushing in. "You arrested Rowan… again?!" he cried and Steve sighed. This day could not get anymore worse for him. It really couldn't.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Danny got to the interrogation cell and opened it. Rowan wasn't in the chair anymore but in the back corner curled up into herself. Her head was in her knees, her fingers in her hair. That was not the image of a girl who was doing alright. He crouched down in front of her but not even that got her attention

"Hey," he said softly putting a hand gently to her leg and she jumped again. She pulled her head out of her knees and stared tearfully up at him. "Hey… are you… are you okay?"

"I can't stop remembering," she said rubbing under her eye with the heel of her hand. "I was doing so good pushing it back but now…"

"Look, Chin just came in did you want to go home with him again?" he asked.

Rowan shook her head. "No… uh… no… Alex is already…"

"Screw Alex… this is about you," he said.

"No, I can't… I got… I got him fired," she admitted and Danny paused.

"What are you talking about?" he asked.

Rowan sighed, took a shuddering deep breath and said: "Alex got fired because he's dating me and it's a conflict of interest."

Was that what that shmuck had told her? Danny lowered himself to the ground and cleared his throat. "Uh… is that what he told you?" he asked, when she nodded he scowled. "Uh… sorry but he lied to you."

Rowan blinked her eyes at him. "I'm sorry… but… uh… what? How would you even know about that?"

"Because he called Five-0 to come get him out of getting arrested," Danny said. "I intercept that call, so I went and not Steve. Would have been a different story if Steve had gone."

"Arrested?" Rowan echoed.

"Yeah. He got clocked stealing meds with the intent to sell," Danny told her. "He told Duke to call us, said we owed him for all the bullshit we kept putting the two of you through. I went down. Found out what the charge was. I said they couldn't prove he was selling the drugs, so they settled with just firing him instead of firing and arresting him."

Rowan sat there, her eyes blinking rapidly. "He… lied to me…" she growled. It wasn't a question, he realized, the reality was just beginning to sink in. "How could he… how could he do that to me? I was so upset… I felt so guilty and he just let me think it was all my fault."

Danny didn't know what to say other then: "He's a jerk." He didn't think that would be a good thing to say about the guy she was dating, even if it was true.

Rowan rubbed her eyes, and got up a deep scowl on her face. "I'm fine," she said to Danny as he got up to, the question already on his lips. "I'll deal with it. Thanks Danny."

She got outside to where Steve was standing and Danny wondered how long he had been standing there. For a moment the two of them just stared up at one another, a million and one emotions playing across Steve's face. All the words Steve wanted to say were in his eyes but none of them fell off his lips.

"Unless you have something else to charge me with, I'd like to leave," Rowan growled and hurt flashed across Steve's face.

Danny knew that she was angry with the way Steve was treating her but he also figured that the current attitude was more because she was mad Alex.

Instead of saying anything, Steve stepped out of the way and gestured for her to go past her, which she did without a second though. As Steve watched her head towards the elevator, Danny walked to his friend's side.

"She could have told me," Steve said in a small voice. "She could have just said… I wouldn't have… I wouldn't…"

"None of that matters now," Danny said.

"Is she… you know… okay?" he asked.

Danny shrugged. "I don't know, but don't worry about it. She's got people who are going to watch her," he said and then pinned Steve with a knowing glare. "She's not our problem anymore, remember?"

As Steve nodded Danny hoped the guilt of his secrets weren't apparent in his eyes, that his shoulders didn't show the weight he was carrying. He wasn't sure how long he could keep this pretense up.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Alex hadn't been home when she got there. Unfortunate. That meant she was going to do this in public. Well too bad for him, he should have thought about that before he lied to her. She stormed into Barry's garage ready for a war. Ready to yell at him.

She waited for them to finish the song, she waited for him to smile at her as if he didn't just let her heap the guilt of him getting fire onto herself with absolutely no attempt to tell her the real reason.

"Anything you want to tell me?" she asked, her hands on her hips as she glared up at him. She was giving him a chance to tell her the truth. He did not take it.

"We're not sure of the key change in _Hallelujah_ ," he said instead and that was a whole other can of worms.

"I've already told you… _Hallelujah_ was not written for you and is therefore not going on your album," she growled.

"Yeah… you said that before… but you know you got me fired…" he said shooting the guys a grin over his shoulder.

"Really. You sure you didn't get fired because you decided to turn drug dealer on the side?" she asked and Alex's face fell.

"Aww fuck, really? Didn't take long for Janet to tell you the truth. Did she tell you about the other girls too?" he asked.

Rowan blinked her eyes. _Other girls?_ "No, because she's not who told me. You got Five-0 to convince them not to arrest you. Did you seriously think it wouldn't get back to me?"

"Uh… honestly no, because Steve wasn't the one who came, Danny did," Alex said.

"He's the one that can't keep a secret," Rowan complained. She folded her arms over her chest and glared at him. "So what other girls are we talking about here?"

When Alex said nothing, the pianist Paul added: "You're not the first patient he's dated. It's a habit. He picks up girls on his shifts. So… yeah… that's what he means."

Rowan turned her incredulous eyes up to him. Oh god, she was a pattern. Alex glared at Paul who merely shrugged and said: "We need her to keep writing dude. And if she breaks up with you we at least want her to know we're on her side…"

"Oh my god, you people are disgusting!" she cried and then stormed away, ignoring their cries for her to come back. Why had she done this to herself? Why?

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan waited until Chin came up on his bike before she left the bus-stop she had camped out at. She skipped up to him as he dismounted, he must have spotted her, probably before she left the bus stop. He stood there waiting for her and when she got there she stared up at him with her irresistible Pierce eyes and smiled sheepishly.

"What are the chances I can crash on your couch again tonight?" she asked.

"Uh… pretty high," he said. "But… uh… you know I'm not going to let you sleep on the couch right?"

"Pish posh, my back can survive a few nights on a couch," she said, following him to the door.

Chin half laughed and turned back to her. "Did you just suggest that I'm old?" he asked and Rowan shrugged.

"If the wrinkle fits," she said with a teasing grin on her face.

Chin shut the door after himself and frowned at her. "You're lucky you're a defenceless little girl otherwise I'd be taking you down." Rowan laughed at him already heading to the couch, with the big bag of clothes she brought with her.

"You crashing for the night or for the month?" Chin asked.

Rowan thought about it. She wasn't entirely sure. "Uh… more like until I get an apology," she replied. "So, you know… however long that will take. I will endeavour to not climb into your bed this time."

Chin frowned at her. In a way that told her Danny hadn't kept his mouth shut about what had happened to her. "Uh… you know… it's okay. If you have another nightmare… if you ever need anything, just wake me up… or call me… or Danny?"

As if summoned by the name alone the door opened and Danny walked in. "You can't believe what shit you caused," Danny said. "Do you have any idea what he's turned into? I almost had to bail on tonight to comfort him."

Chin frowned at him. "It's not her fault, you know," he complained. "But… I guess… if he needs someone one of us should go."

"Yeah," Rowan said coming to stand beside Chin. "We can have dinner at any time. If he needs you guys you should go to him. Run across the beach into each other's arms or whatever you two do when you're reunited."

"Okay, don't make this like a chick-flick," Danny said, the hands coming out of his pockets to wave around. "I have already told you we're not dating. Besides, I think it's a little bit more important to deal with the traumatised party, not the one who's upset because he feels like he couldn't protect the traumatised party."

Rowan frowned at Danny. "Protect me? I was kidnapped. How the hell was he supposed to protect me?"

Danny shrugged. "I don't know. He's unreasonable. You're unreasonable. We going to dinner or what?"

"Yeah, yeah, I just got to change," she said. She made the mistake of touching Danny, just a light pat on his arm and then the whiteness came.

It was like she was dreaming. Like she was sitting on a cloud looking down at the scene. Of a man with light brown hair begging a dark-skinned dark-haired demon not to kill him.

"Tell me where the money is Matty."

Matty why did she know that name? It was so familiar why was it so familiar? She didn't even flinch when the trigger got pulled. She watched passively as the body was dumped into the oil drum she recognized from her dreams

"Maybe his brother knows something. Let's go ask Detective Williams about it."

 _Detective Williams_? That was Danny. Oh my god. Matty. Matthew Williams, the guy who embezzled all the money and disappeared. That's was right, he was going to die.

She jerked out of the vision, as easily as it fell upon her. She blinked her blue eyes up at Danny who was frowning at her.

"You okay? You kinda went into your own world there for a minute," he said to her.

Rowan forced herself to smile and tell him that she was all right. As she went to change, she wondered to what length she'd go to save Danny's brother. Except, she had no idea where he was, and neither did Danny if she remembered correctly. How would she even start to go about saving someone when she didn't know where they were? God why was this so complicated?

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve sat in the lawn chair he had out on his personal stretch of beach mulling over what had just happened.

He had not been expecting a phone call from Duke this evening. He was definitely not expecting to hear the words: "TPS has called and requested a sample of Rowan's DNA." TPS, Toronto Police Service. The Peirce's had gone to the police. Duke couldn't ignore or deny the request so he had sent their on-file-sample down that afternoon.

Steve wasn't worried. He had already run their DNA against Rowan's and they weren't a match. But regardless of Steve warding them off and sending them away, they still managed to find out about his Rowan Pierce on the island. Maybe the failed DNA test would keep them away. Or maybe… like him… they'd realize that a girl from a different reality wouldn't have the same DNA as them. That it would be similar but not an exact match. Maybe he'd have to admit to Rowan just what he had done in the name of protecting her.

He couldn't imagine that going well for him, he just couldn't.

Catherine draped herself on him from behind, her arms around his neck as she pressed a kiss to his cheek. "Lost in thought?" she asked.

"You can say that," he whispered.

"Anything you want to talk to me about?" she asked and Steve shook his head. This wasn't something he could talk to Catherine about and Danny was at home with Grace who wasn't feeling well on top of being grounded. He also hadn't been picking up his phone. "How about we go out for dinner? Would that cheer you up? Picking the restaurant?"

"I don't feel like going to a restaurant. How about Kamekona's is that okay?" he asked.

Catherine smiled at him and he had a feeling that even though she didn't want to she was going to say yes anyway. To appease her, he agreed to make in a more than casual affair. He put on his fancy jeans, and a nice dress shirt while Grace wore a casual navy-blue flared summer dress. His first thought, seeing her with her hair braided back and her cute little dress that she was trying to imitate Rowan. He had shrugged that off as preposterous until he caught a whiff of her scent as they got into his truck. Rowan's familiar floral smell wafted off of her and he knew then, almost immediately that Catherine was trying to duplicate Rowan.

He knew why she would feel like she had to do that, but it made his skin crawl. It made him angry that this girl felt like the only way to make him interested in her again was to act dress like Rowan. It made him even angrier when his body reacted to it. God, he had really fucked this up.

Catherine had chatted aimlessly as he drove and he chimed in when he thought he could. But once he pulled into the lot, once the car was stopped, he froze.

Out of all the things he expected to see he didn't think he'd see a table of his friends. Danny, Chin, Max and Sabrina, and Jerry, all sitting at one of the picnic benches as Kamekona doled out meals and Flipper handed out snow cones.

"Didn't they say they were busy today?" she asked him.

Danny and Chin had both begged off on plans tonight for various reasons. Chin had something to do, Danny had used Grace as an excuse, but Steve could see her sitting between Danny and…

 _Rowan._

She was wearing a strapless black floral, empire waisted summer dress with her hair braided up into a crown. Even from where he was sitting, he could spot the white starburst scar between her shoulder blades and the dull red scar from the gun shot on her shoulder. Grace too was wearing a dress, this one a frilly little white one with big chunky straps and her hair had been done up the same way as Rowans.

Catherine let out a horrified: _oh_. She then looked at him almost scared, like she didn't know how he'd react and that stung. "Uh… I thought you said that she cut all of you guys out?"

Yeah, he had thought so too. But clearly she hadn't. Had it all been a show? Had they made up and not told him? Clearly whatever had happened he was not a party to it just like he had not been made aware that they were having a party tonight.

Steve put his car into reverse, his body shaking. He wanted to crash this party, he wanted to shout at them and demand what was going on and why he hadn't been invited. But he knew why. He hadn't been invited because Rowan was there and she didn't want to see him anymore. And apparently it was _only_ him she didn't want to see.

Catherine watched him. Watched as he shook, as he drove away. "Uh… is there… uh… Rainbows? Why don't we go to Rainbows? Or uh… uh…"

"I need you to calm down Steve," she said softly resting her hand on his arm. "I can see this has shaken you up."

"Of course it has. They're lying to me. Excluding me. They chose a side and they chose hers," he snapped.

"I really don't think that's what happened. I think they just didn't want to make their dinner uncomfortable, so this one time, you know… you weren't invited. How many times do the boys go out with you and Rowan is included?" she asked.

Okay she had him there. But it still hurt. It hurt a lot.

"You know… I've been thinking," she said softly. "You've been doing much better since she stopped talking to you…"

That was a flat out lie.

"Maybe… maybe things would get even better for all of us if you did the same," she offered.

Steve winced. She meant well, he knew she did, but he had a really hard time distancing himself. Though to be fair, he couldn't be any more distant than he was right at that moment.

"What you mean like… quit her cold turkey?" he asked.

He clocked Catherine's perplexed stare out of his peripherals. "Why you addicted or something?" she asked.

It wasn't a joke, she was serious, which was unfortunately because he was starting to think that he was seriously addicted to Rowan too. Still Steve laughed it off and told her no and that he cut Rowan out of his life completely. Knowing full well that he had just agreed to the hardest challenge of his young life and feeling more than a little discouraged and disappointed in his friends.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Chin had put up a valiant fight but in the end he took his bed and Rowan took the couch, just like she said she would. It took her changing and throwing herself down on the couch and refusing to move. They had wrestled a bit but Rowan was slippery now that Wo Fat had taught her some things so every time he lifted her up to get her off of the couch she could trip him up and get herself back to the couch. Luckily, he gave up but it took her agreeing, that if she were still at his place the following night, they'd switch. She really hoped Alex didn't take that long to apologize to her though.

She had told him that she was fine, but just in case he was a light sleeper she had waited at least an hour after he went to bed to get back up and sneak out the back. She carefully made her way to the beach in the dark, her phone illuminating the way. Once she was safely out of ear-shot she opened up that cursed app.

She may have hated that app and all the drama it had caused her but she loved her codenames.

 _E.T. Phone home._

Pithy and nostalgic references. Amazing. Made her smile every time she looked at them. Only she and Wo Fat knew the code but anyone who knew her could probably figure it out. She listened to a computerized operator tell her that her call was being connected and then she waited as it rang. It rang four times before she got a sleepy:

"Ro?"

Ohh… what was the time difference between Hawaii and Colorado?

"Hey…" she whispered. "Uhm… I woke you up, huh?"

"Yeah. You okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, I need a favour." There was an unfamiliar pause, usually he was down to do her favours. He owed her after all… for shooting her. "Are you still there?" she asked.

"Yeah… uh… I don't know if I can help you out, Ro… the Yakuza… they… uh… they're really interested in you right now and I'm trying to get that interest turned anywhere else at this point," he said.

"Okay, but it has nothing to do with them," she said. She had thought long and hard about that flash she got. And from her thinking she had started to remember things. "What do you know about Colombian drug lords?"

There was that pause again. "How could you have come in contact with one of those, Ro? I swear to god, you were literally _just_ with McGarrett at the palace? How could you have gotten into _more_ trouble in between him releasing you and now. What happens when I'm not there?"

Oh, he sounded so upset. "No, that's not… I'm not… I haven't met anyone like that. I'm fine. I had a good day today," she said.

"You got arrested," he growled.

"That's just Steve being Steve. Thanks for the alibi by the way," she said. "Seriously though. Do you have contacts down in Colombia?"

"Yes, Armando. Why? Why do you need to fuck with these people?" he asked.

"Uhm… there's a guy. He's missing and… I need to find him. I'm pretty sure this guy called Reyes running a drug cartel in Colombia has him and is going to kill him," Rowan told him.

"A guy?"

Oh, he was not impressed with that one.

"Uh. Yeah?" she said. "Matthew Williams."

"Would this be a relative of Detective William's correct?" he shot back.

"Well… yeah… but…"

"Then this is a Five-0 thing. Call Steve," he growled.

"Really? You… you want me to call Steve? After today? In the middle of the night?" she asked dryly.

"Of course not. Fine. Forget that. Call Danny. It's his brother he can tell Steve," Wo Fat said.

"See. I would. But the FBI can't find Matty, so I figured… you know… since you're in the world and not gonna arrest anyone that you could… you could find him," she whispered.

Wo sighed again. "Why is this so important, huh? Why does this matter?"

"Because they're going to kill him," she said in a small voice and Wo Fat was quiet. "Look… can't we just… I unno send someone? Not with the app? Like through Armando? Just too look for him or something? Please? It would make me feel better."

Wo Fat sighed again. "Alright. Alright… tell me everything you know."

Rowan swallowed her triumphant cry but didn't bother to cover her smile, she merely started talking.


	77. Chapter 77

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: I'm so sorry this was late. I'm terribly jetlagged and I fell asleep editing this chapter. Hopefully this chapter will make up for it. For those of you who were worried, you didn't have to be. Rowan wasn't going to let Alex take her songs. So we've got a bit of a break here. This one chapter we got here is going to be a cute little chapter before Steve does fucked up thing #1. Also in 2 chapters Rowan's gonna get a relationship change, so you know, things to look forward to. So I really hope you like this one, I have a lot of d'aww moments and there is a lot less drama. I know this is taking forever, but let me tell you, I'm currently writing chapter 95 and I swear, that chapter alone will probably make up for all the bullshit, it's super freaking adorable. Anyway, sorry I updated late, don't forget to tell me what you think, and I'll see you Tuesday._

Chapter 77

* * *

It was on days like this that he hated his family. Mary was down for a visit and her latest surprise was that he had just become an uncle. Some adoption agency had thought Mary was a great candidate to adopt an infant. He wouldn't have trusted her with a cabbage patch doll, but there wasn't much he could do about it now, now could he?

Everything had been going great until Mary had gotten sick and now it was up to Uncle Steve to take care of his new niece, despite the fact that he had a homicide of an undercover cop working with the ATF to take down Dekker's gun running ring.

Did he mention he wasn't too pleased with friends either? Mostly because they were lying about their friendship with Rowan and not inviting him places, AND he hadn't been able to get them to admit it yet though. Despite him dropping mad hints that he knew. Then it was the whispers, now that he knew that they were still friends, more of the gossip made sense.

According to the PI he had hired, Rowan was bouncing from job to job. Two he had gotten her fired from. But she seemed to be collecting jobs like stamps. She had been a waitress, a cleaning maid, a hotel bartender and was currently working in a doctor's office as a front desk admin assistant. It was from the PI he learned that Rowan had crashed on Chin's couch for a week following an argument with Alex and that Alex and his band had been signed to a label, hence their sudden traction in the music industry. He was unaware of anything involving Rowan, other than she was named as the writer for almost all of the songs on the yet to be released album.

But it was from Duke that the learned that Rowan had failed her driving test, apparently, she drove too recklessly, which meant that she needed to take lessons before they let her do the test again. She had somehow completed all of these lessons, despite Steve's interruptions and her various shifts at various employments, which meant all she needed was logged practice with an experienced driver. Which somehow came down to Chin originally, except for the fact that Rowan's habit to go fast in fast cars had been… shall they say… encouraged by Chin's car.

This all came out when Duke told him that Rowan had been pulled over doing 180 by a highway patrol. Chin got her out of that ticket and he passed Rowan off to Danny who was flat out refusing to let her behind the wheel of his new Camaro. All of which seemed would have seemed very odd if Steve didn't know that they were lying about remaining friends with Rowan

What made all of this worse? He had gone cold turkey from Rowan at Catherine's request and while he hadn't seen her since that night, listening to the whispers still felt like cheating. He had made his friends aware of the situation and Danny and Chin had complied without a fuss, in fact they seemed all too excited about the idea. But this meant that he would often walk in on Chin and Danny talking and the conversation would die on their lips. He had noticed this before, of course, but now that he knew it was because they were still in contact with Rowan he was noticing it more and more.

His friends, in their act to be very supportive, now had an excuse to talk about her and then promptly not tell Steve what was going on or pretending that they weren't talking about her at all. He had gotten better at not asking what they were talking about and even better at pretending he didn't care.

Then of course, Catherine was going on dangerous missions dressing up as a foxy vixen and getting into huge fights in her attempt to help Kono get to Riku Sato and help her find Adam who had been taken his prisoner. Which made him nervous for a number of reasons, like not wanting Catherine to get beat the hell up when he wasn't there to give her back up. And Captain Grover of SWAT was having threatening conversations with Chin about how SWAT won't come if Five-0 calls for back up and how he can't have that convo with Steve because he's not a cop and didn't act like a cop. When in reality, it was as clear as day that Grover was just afraid of saying it to Steve's face and getting his old grumpy butt beat up in a family diner. Grover then followed up his conversation with Chin by giving Steve passive aggressive sass at their shoot out scene and insinuating that he was the problem with Five-0.

But that morning, when he had caught his case and he had told Danny about the whole situation, his so called best friend had made all sorts of wild accusations about Mary and her newly adopted baby. Mostly about how Mary didn't adopt a baby _Steve_ did. He had no intention of taking care of a baby but then Mary got hospitalized and now he was Uncle Steve and Danny wouldn't stop fucking laughing at him.

He was only playing with Joan, she needed the stimulation, and she loved it when he talked baby to her and she liked to talk back to him. So, it gave him lots of satisfaction to then stick Danny with Joanie sitting duties. Mazel Tov, he was now Uncle Danny.

Now they were out on a balcony looking over the clue that Danny had found by following up with the real estate agent, Joanie still in Danny's arms, and still screaming. She had started screaming with Steve picked her up, so he promptly handed her back to Danny who was still struggling with her. She wasn't flat out shrieking but she was definitely crying.

"It seems like Matt was running surveillance on the lockers where we found the money," Steve said, pointing out the obvious because he couldn't think with all that crying. He glanced over to where Danny was standing bouncing Mary up and down in an attempt to calm her. He scowled at him. This had to be Danny's fault. It just had to be.

Steve went into the diaper bag on his shoulder and pulled out a hat. "You know what, if you're gonna hold the baby in the sun, okay, just ask me and I'll put a sun hat on her," he growled, he took the soft pink cap off of Joanie's head and plopped the sun hat on her. Danny could figure out the specifics on how to keep it her head.

Danny watched him do this with a look akin to confusion on his face but he said nothing. Joanie stopped crying for all of twenty seconds but Chin started talking and she started right back up again.

"The question is why would he be doing surveillance on the lockers?" Chin asked ignoring the exchange between Steve and Danny and ignoring the crying baby.

"Matt recorded all the times and dates of Dekker's weapons transactions. Right?" Steve asked.

Danny said nothing, Chin said: "Yeah." Joanie kept crying.

"The crew that was ripping Dekker off had that information," Steve reminded them.

Danny was the one who put it together though. "You thinking Matt thought that someone in the ATF leaked it?" he asked.

Yes that was what Steve thought, cause Steve trusted nobody. "I think he was building a case," Steve said. "He could have borrowed the money off of Dekker, planted it in the lockers to set up whoever was leaking that information. In that case, he would've planted the misinformation in one of his reports."

It was smart now all they had to do was go back to the palace and figure out which report it was in and who went to try and take the money. Steve turned back to see that Danny had moved away from he and Chin and was on his phone. He only heard the words: "Will yah just do it?" and then the call was over.

Danny put his phone back in his pocket and strange sense of dread came over Steve. "Who was that?" Steve asked.

Danny jumped, not high, not a lot, but just enough for Steve to realize that he was startled. That was not a good sign. "Jeezus, what are you sneaking up on me for?" he asked. But he didn't answer Steve's question.

"Why you startling so easy? Who was on the phone?" Steve asked.

"Back up, I've called in back up," Danny answered walking away and taking the crying Joan with him. Steve followed after him.

"What do you mean you called in back up? Danny? Who did you call? Who did you call?"

It also wasn't a good sign that Danny wouldn't answer that question either.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Even with a hollering baby strapped to his chest, Steve McGarrett looked both majestic and badass. Women were swooning all over him like he was the total package, but they didn't know Steven like Danny did. They didn't know how frustratingly stubborn he was, or how recklessly dangerous. But only Steven McGarrett could make a toddler throwing a temper tantrum look hot.

Which was kinda why he was going to like what was going to happen next.

At the sound of wailing Rowan had popped out of Danny's office to stare at the child strapped to Steve's chest. Steven McGarrett, suave, fearless, who had just been basking in the glow of appreciative female stares, froze to a halt. He stood, quivering at the sight of Rowan and her tilted-in-confusion head.

"What is that?" Rowan said pointing to the child flailing its little arms frantically in the air as she screamed. Yes, the first girl to not be swayed by Steven's looks combined with a small child. But unlike the other women… Rowan knew Steve.

"That is his niece, Joan," Danny told her coming out from behind Steve who looked like he had been turned into a statue. He began to unstrap Joan from the holster, taking note that Steve was shaking, like he wasn't breathing. Danny turned back to Rowan once he had the infant in his arms, still screaming.

"I can't get her to stop, I need you to do something about it," he said. He offered the baby to her and Rowan backed away like it was a plague-stricken rat.

"Uh… no… I don't do anything younger than 4. If it needs diapers, I don't touch it," Rowan said.

Danny stared at her. "Are you kidding me?"

"I keep telling you, I don't like kids," Rowan growled taking another precautionary step away. Joan's screams got more frantic, Danny waited for Rowan's motherly instincts to kick in but instead she just winced like she was disgusted.

"Maybe she's hungry again," Steve whispered beginning to rummage through the diaper bag of stuff Mary had made him bring.

"We just fed her," Danny snapped and turned his glare back on Rowan. "Kids love you. Grace loves you."

"The feeling is not mutual," Rowan growled right back at him. Danny jerked, what? She did not love Grace? She seemingly thought over what she had just said and added: "About the kids, not Grace. I love Grace. But she's over four so that's probably why."

"I can't find her extra bottle," Steve mumbled, clearly having a conversation of his own. Danny turned to find him floundering in the bag and he sighed.

"Take her," Danny ordered and then before Rowan could duck away, he dropped the baby in her arms.

Danny turned away for three seconds, pushed Steve's hands aside and found the bottle and then he looked up. Something was missing. It was suddenly too quiet. Danny found himself staring into Steve's eyes as surprised as he looked and then both of them swung their eyes to Rowan who was holding onto Joan, the two stuck in a terrible staring match.

Rowan looked so uncomfortable and out of her element that Danny almost laughed, except he didn't because he was certain that it would break whatever spell had come over Joanie long enough to get her to stop crying.

"What the hell?" Steve hissed and Danny silently echoed that sentiment. "What… what did she do?"

Rowan blinked her eyes and carefully began sliding towards Danny who, under no circumstances, was picking up that screaming terror again. "I think if I maintain eye contact it will stay quiet."

"Then _she_ 's staying in _your_ arms," Danny growled just as Steve said. "I'll take her."

He put one hand to Joanie's back to begin the hand off and the little girl started screaming again. He withdrew the hand and she stopped.

"Okay. What the fuck?" Steve snapped.

"Hey!" Rowan and Danny said at the same time. But it was Rowan who turned to him and said: "Watch her virgin ears!"

Danny and Steve waited to see, now that Rowan wasn't making eye contact, if Joan would start crying again, but the girl had grabbed a fistful of Rowan's hair and seemed intent on sucking on it.

Rowan caught that out of the corner of her eye and whispered: "Well it's a good thing I've been using organic shampoo huh? Does it taste like Coconut and pineapple?"

Joan made some cooing noises and slowly Steve and Danny stepped away. "I think she just missed her mom," Danny whispered. "Rowan's a female and it makes her feel better."

"You got another thing coming if you think you're leaving me with this kid," Rowan called as the two continued to step away.

Steve winced and took a hesitant step forward, but Danny grabbed him and held him back. They had a goddamn case. They couldn't take a baby on what would probably turn into an elaborate car chase and a regular chase.

"I'll let you practice in the Camaro," Danny offered.

Rowan turned immediately. "Really?" she asked.

"Yep. I'll teach you to drive like a civilian. Make sure you pass your test," he told her. "Just watch the kid."

Rowan narrowed her eyes. "Fine. Deal," she said, reaching out for the diaper bag that Steve handed over immediately. "But I'll tell you now, I'm a really bad influence."

As if either of them hadn't known that. Rowan turned to walk away from them and added: "And I'm staying in Steve's office."

Beside him, Steve went taunt at the sound of his name dropping from her lips. As soon as she was in his office, with his eyes staring forward like he could see her through the walls he said: "You shouldn't have done that."

Danny tried to hide his smirk. Maybe Steve didn't think he deserved it, but he did. He shot a glance at his partner and saw that his face was made of nothing but hard angles and anguish.

Ooohhh… Danny might have fucked up.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

A Sting operation. A fight with Grover. Rowan being in his office, looking fine as fuck with a baby in her arms, saying his name like it didn't burn him to hear it. This all added up to a very antsy Steve, which made standing in the shade of a tree by a Komodo Dragon enclosure at the Honolulu zoo super hard for him.

He may have agreed to stop seeing Rowan, he may have even stopped missing her and wanting her around but he was still attuned to her and the empty spaces her presence left. Which became more and more apparent the second she was actually in his presence again.

"Did you remember to give Joan her bottle?" Danny's voice called to him from the ear piece. Shit no he hadn't but he didn't need Danny knowing that.

"Of course, I did," he said as he pulled the phone out of his pocket. Rowan would know to feed a baby, right? She had to have some mothering instincts, especially if she could care for Wo Fat, right?

"You're texting Ro right now, aren't you?" Danny taunted and Steve scowled.

"No. I'm not," Steve answered absently. He shot the text off to Rowan and then waited.

Just as Danny said: "You're a terrible liar," Rowan responded with a selfie of her and Joan, Joan was eating her bottle and Rowan had spit up on her shirt. Joan looked as happy as an infant could be and Rowan looked far from pleased.

Under the photo came a caption: "Y'all owe me more than driving lessons."

Steve almost laughed.

"I got something. Guy in a black Hoodie, right in front of you," Danny told him and Steve put his phone away.

Time to take down a corrupt ATF agent.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve came back to the Palace after a successful bust to find Rowan on the floor of his office with Joanie on her chest, singing a soft softly and sweetly.

 _Baby mine, don't you cry…_

It was haunting and chilling and all Steve could think was that he needed to get Rowan out of this office before Catherine came back.

"What song is that?" Steve asked coming into his office and plucking Joan off of Rowan. Joan squealed and he smile. Yes, back to being the cool Uncle Steve.

Rowan picked herself up off of the floor and said: "You know, _Baby Mine_ , the _Dumbo_ song? She really likes it. Calms her down. As does _Someone's Waiting for You_ from the _Rescuers_."

Steve nodded. He needed Rowan out of his office. He needed Rowan away from him right now. Those old urges were quickly popping up.

"You guys so owe me, by the way. Look at this," she said indicating to her shirt. "That brown stain isn't baby food. And she peed on me while I was changing her diaper. She did it on your desk, FYI, I cleaned it best I can but uh… you may wanna go over it."

"Do you mean: Danny owes you," Steve asked because he didn't want to get in an argument when the two of them were finally being civil, and if he asked more questions… like… why was she changing a baby on his desk… and how could she not clean it right… they'd probably get in an argument.

"It's your niece," Rowan said.

"Yeah but I'm not in your life anymore, remember? You told me to get out," he reminded her.

Rowan nodded quickly like she understood. She said nothing about regretting the decision to kick him out of her life, or a better explanation for why she did it. After careful consideration she just smiled at him and said: "How about, in lieu of payment or actual favours that involve you having to interact with me, the next time you decide to arrest me… just… don't."

Steve wanted to smile, but a smile did not form. He wanted to say _deal_ but he couldn't get the words out of his throat. Sensing that he was stuck, Rowan smiled sheepishly at him. "Mary should be on her way," she said. "She called earlier, said she was filling out release paperwork and then she'd be on her way over."

Yes he had gotten the same call from her too. She would be here more than soon. He followed Rowan out into the main room just as Mary made her way into their headquarters.

"Oh Rowan!" Mary cried as if she hadn't known she was there. Mary liked Rowan so he wasn't surprised when she pulled her in for a hug. "So nice to see you. It's a shame you couldn't make things work, I was rooting for you."

Marry pinned Steve with a dirty glare and he rolled his eyes, she knew, she knew that things hadn't worked out and they were Rowan's fault. And Wo Fat's.

Rowan shot him a glance over his shoulder: "Yes, so was I," she whispered. Uh… whoa… what? But Steve couldn't dissect that information now. He didn't have the capacity, nor the time with Catherine downstairs interrogating someone.

Steve stepped past her, handing Joan off to Mary: "There we go," he whispered.

Mary took her, a big smile on her face. "Look at that. No dings or scratches. I'm guess that's because she spent all her time with Aunt Ro."

"Nope, not all me. Steve also passed her off on Uncle Chin and Uncle Danny," she said. Steve scowled at them as they all broke out in amused chuckles.

"I had a homicide to investigate. Did you want me to bring her along?" he asked.

"Well it looked like you had fun too. I just saw you," Mary teased.

"I... uh… I definitely had a lot of fun," Danny said. Stupid Danny the suck up.

"Yeah, she's a great kid, Mary," Chin added.

Yeah, yeah the baby was cute. Why was Rowan still there? Why was she standing with them like she belonged? She chose not to belong, and if she was carrying on a secret friendship with Chin and Danny she shouldn't be hanging around and making it obvious.

"Aw, thank you," Mary said like she had any hand in making her. She had adopted her! "Well the next time I need a sitter, I'll call on you three."

"Excuse me, for a minute here, please," Steve erupted. "Yes, we all contributed, but I was primary on this one, I'd like to say."

"You didn't change a single diaper!" Rowan growled which earned an eye roll from Mary who just said: "Okay tough guy!"

She then took a hold of Joan's little hand and waved it to them. "Say good-bye to your Aunt and Uncles," she said and then waved and mimed good-bye.

"What? Where you going? You don't… you don't need to rush off, do you? Just stick around for a bit," Steve offered.

"We just wrapped up this case. We got nothing on the board. We could…" Danny started for Chin to finish: "Go and get a bit to eat."

"Right," Steve whispered but that was not what he wanted. He wanted Joan all to himself.

"Sorry, but we got bouncing baby story time at the library in ten minutes," she told them. She began to wave Joan's little hand at them. "So say, bye Uncle Steve. Bye Uncle Danny, Bye Uncle Chin and Bye Aunt Ro."

Each and every person waved and said good-bye and then Mary called a thank you and they were both gone.

In the silence that followed Steve stood there, missing Joan. He didn't think he would but he did. Maybe he wanted to have a kid. Maybe. His eyes found Rowan again. Maybe he wanted their kid.

Rowan immediately turned on Danny. "Anyway… I demand a driving lesson."

Danny glared at her. "What? Now?!"

"Yep, let's go," she said grabbing his arm and tugging him away. Danny sighed but he went with her. They got all of two steps before they were halted.

"Oh look at that," Catherine said appearing from behind Steve. She had a purple bruise on her eyebrow, but she was topside which meant she was done interrogating the guy she had in their basement.

Ignoring her comment Steve turned to her, giving her his undivided attention before she could freak out. "How you feeling?" he asked her, mainly cause she got beat up not eight hours ago.

"Never better," she said with a grin. "Why is Rowan here?"

"I was babysitting," Rowan told her hooking a thumb over her shoulder and sliding in behind Danny. "I swear Danny called me here to babysit. The baby's gone now but I swear…"

"Yeah whatever," Catherine snapped and then turned her eyes towards Steve. "Got a location on Sato. Full surveillance package. Address, structural blue prints, security system, activity logs for his staff. Everything's there. It's all good."

Steve took this all in shocked she had gotten all of this done on her own. "You… uh… you do that all by yourself?" Danny asked and Steve was grateful that it came from him and not Steve she would have taken offence if he had done it.

"You trying to put us out of a job?" Chin teased

"No, of course not. But I did do this by myself and I didn't have to ask your pet psychic for help," Catherine answered proudly.

Everyone blinked their eyes at her. It was a comment they had not expected. Danny looked about ready to spit some shit, even Chin looking ready to say something eloquently worded with a hint of disappointment in his tone. But it was Rowan who popped out from behind Danny and said: "Uh… excuse you? Who said I'd help you? Ungrateful. Remember? You don't deserve my help."

Catherine was all wide-eyed and hostile with her nostrils flaring angrily at Rowan who was still half behind Danny. Rowan too, did not look happy, her usual face was suddenly shadowed in a dark glare, but then she caught whatever look was on Steve's face Rowan softened.

"But you know, even if I did want to I can't," she said quickly. "I'm on their watch list and I'm pretty sure I'm like one incident away from getting kidnapped, so it's probably better if I stay out of their business for a while."

Steve's eyebrows furrowed together. What now? "One incident away from… why the hell would they want to kidnap _you_?" he asked.

Rowan turned her wide eyes of surprised to him. "Hmm? What now?"

"You said you're one incident away from getting taken by the Yakuza, why would they want you?" he asked.

Rowan scoffed at him. "Uh… I didn't say that," she said laughing nervously.

Steven shook his head, a scowl forming on his face, why was she lying to him? "Yes, you did."

"No, I didn't," she argued. She then turned to Danny and said: "Driving lesson. Now."

Danny sighed but let her pull him away, waving over his head and calling out a good-bye to them. Once they were gone Steve turned his attention back to Catherine who looked far from please and was offering him up something.

The Five-0 badge he had given her last night when she had gone after Sato's money man at the casino. "Thanks for the loaner."

He took it from her and then noted the way her lips pursed. She didn't like having to hand it back… and well… she was looking for a job. He glanced to the badge in his hand and then back to the girl he was trying to desperately hard to make it work with. He could do better then his current attempts. And this would prove it.

"Uh… you know what? Here," he said offering it back. "Why don't you keep it?"

"What?" Catherine breathed out but she took the badge he was offering and then stared up at him like he had just gotten on one knee and pulled out a diamond ring. YES! This was the kind of brownie point he needed right now and it wouldn't just benefit him. Maybe Catherine would leave Rowan alone too.

"You need a job, we need some help," he said with a shrug.

Chin smiled, the motion strained but Steve thought it was sincere. "Don't think about it. Just say yes," he offered.

"Okay, yes," Catherine said without a moment's hesitation.

Steve nodded. "Alright, well, Welcome to Five-0," he said and she pulled him in for a hug. He felt her turn her head in his embrace. She was looking at the door, probably wondering if Rowan had seen but Steve already knew she was gone. He had felt it, that warm sense of calm he got when she was around, had left him when she had.

He pushed himself into the hug, desperately holding her closely to get some sort of semblance of the same feeling but nothing returned to him. He just had to hope that Catherine didn't notice.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Trevor and Trenton had come up with a foolproof back story before the went to the police. A tale of kidnapping and switched-at-birth-conspiracies. Not too complicated, not too serious, with back up stories for any plot holes the cops came up with. But they didn't have anything.

Trenton told them of his concerns. That this Commander McGarrett may have decided to keep her, maybe she didn't know people were looking for her. Either way, a DNA test would prove one of them wrong and then they could move on from there. The Toronto Police Services were inclined to agree.

A simple search pulled up a file. Rowan Pierce. Living in Hawaii. But the TPS couldn't view it. It had been locked. By Hawaiian-Five-0. Damn that McGarrett.

That put a halt in their progress, because they had to ask permission. Permission was denied. TPS immediately found it suspicious that the request for access had been denied, not by Five-0 but the Governor of Hawaii. So they passed it up to the CSIS.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service Bureau took this to the next level. Upon hearing Trevor and Trenton's plight, after reading the type of push back they were getting for Hawaii, they decided it was time to prove that while Canadian's were nice they didn't fuck around when it came to the care and protection of their citizens. A call was made, to the Governor, who was told that if he was harbouring a Canadian citizen against that citizen's will, they would be forced to file an injunction to get her back. Canadian's were polite, after all, but they weren't hockey champs for nothing.

The Governor agreed to the terms, and while the file was not unlocked, he said for Rowan's safety, a matter he said he could not discuss as it was deemed a State Secret, he did agree to have HPD send over finger prints and DNA for them to analyze.

Trenton wasn't sure they had her finger prints, he was certain they did that birth certificate thing where the prints were registered, but he didn't know what became of that. And under no circumstances was he going to call his ex-wife and ask for it. It would just bring up too many bad memories.

But the DNA came in. Trenton gave his DNA for comparison and then they had to wait. A whole four days because the DNA came in on a goddamn Friday and it would take the lab until Monday to process it.

Then Monday rolled around and Trevor and Trenton went into the CSIS offices to hear the news.

The girl they were dealing with, Angela, was waiting for them when they got there she had a smile on her face and a paper in her hand. Trevor practically ripped it out of her grasp.

Negative.

Angela went on to say how this was a good thing for them. They had closure. This was not their daughter or sister, just a girl in a bad circumstance with the same name. A girl that made no claim to be related to them, who, according to the Governor, said she had no family at all. But this wasn't good news. Because Trevor knew, he felt it in his bones whenever he looked at her picture, that that was his sister.

They thanked Angela for her time and took their results and left. Trenton treated his son to an afternoon at the AGO to cheer him up followed by a dim sum dinner at their favourite joint. He was treating Trevor with kid gloves and he hated it.

It was over Trevor's fourth steamed pork bun that his father finally said: "I know it's disappointing, but at least we know now. We won't always wonder."

"But it's her dad," Trevor complained. "It is. That is my sister. I swear it."

"She doesn't share our DNA Trevor," Trenton whispered. "She can't be your sister if we're not biologically related in some way."

Trevor leant forward, ready to spit some shit his father probably wouldn't believe. "After that first experiment, I dreamed I was in the void. Every night. I'd float there and I'd see this girl. This girl with red hair and our eyes and I wanted her. I wanted her so bad that I was dragging her to me with that stupid metal hook. I only had that dream for a week but for months after I'd see her. Out of the corner of my eye, in my peripherals, everywhere," Trevor explained. He pulled out the picture and showed it to his dad. "How could I have known exactly what she looked like before I ever saw her? Huh?"

Trenton looked down to the picture and then back to Trevor's face, the pity he in his father's eyes make his stomach turn and a bile rise up his throat. "I've been where you are Trevor," he said sadly. "I've imagined what your sister would look like for years, I see her on the face of every child, and every female student I take a shine to. But the mind can manipulate things, maybe this girl is just similar to your vision version of Rowan. And let's face it, I think part of the problem is McGarrett, you want so badly for there to be a reason he told us to leave so you've drawn a link to this girl. Unfortunately, it's time to face facts. The DNA doesn't match. She's not our Rowan. It's more likely that whoever or whatever you pulled here is at the bottom of the ocean."

Trevor wanted to argue. He wanted to remind his dad, again, of Steven McGarrett and the fear on his face when they told him the Coast Guard had confirmed they had found someone in the ocean around the time of their experiment. To ask him why, if that were true, did Steven McGarrett kick them off of those islands? But Trevor realized his father wasn't going to listen to him. No one else was going to listen to him because he would just sound crazy. Trevor went back to his dim sum and silently wondered if maybe… maybe he was crazy after all.


	78. Chapter 78

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: What?! A post on a Monday?! That's right. I reached another milestone! This story is officially 1000 pages long! *LE GASP* I know right?! So once again I'll be posting three times this week as well and next week we'll go back to 2 chapters a week. Which I know sucks for you guys, but I'm not writing as fast as I'd like to be writing and this will give me a chance to get a head again so I can run a few more chapter marathons in the future. So this is terrible thing #2. I was wrong, but there's only 1 more terrible thing after this and then Steve and Rowan are going to work on fixing their relationship. That should be in about 10 chapters from now. For those of you who are excited for this part, Catherine is technically gone by chapter 83. So in 5 more chapters. Hope that helps and see you on Wednesday._

 _P.S. We're relatively close to hitting 500 reviews and I wanted to do something special for that milestone. So I can do another 7 day marathon, OR we can do another special chapter where one of you guys gets to pick the subject. Tell me what you'd rather have in the reviews okay?_

Chapter 78

* * *

Sato glared up at the four people in black tactical gear and ski masks. They all stripped them off one by one and that original fear that had taken him when he was first grabbed by them dissipated immediately. This was just Five-0 and that bitch Adam Noshimuri had been dating and dragging around China attempting to run from his men.

They were a long way from Hawaii and none of them were resting under the wide basking shadow of Wo Fat's protection. In fact, Wo Fat would probably be so grateful with him for killing McGarrett that he'd probably indebt himself to Sato in an instant if he offered up McGarrett's head on a platter.

He glared at the people around them as the leader, McGarrett himself, began to talk.

"You weren't an easy man to find, Sato," he said. Tauntingly. As if to say, that it wasn't easy but he did it… so it would be best if Sato didn't fuck with him. But Sato wasn't afraid of them. He wasn't afraid of anyone who had morals and everyone in this room had morals, except for him.

"You should have left this alone," he told them, mostly the girl, cause she was the one who was causing shit.

"Where is he? Where is Adam Noshimuri?" she asked. Well, at least she was consistent. Adam would love to hear how devoted she was, but if he was smart he'd never show his face again. The pretense of being dead had been hard for Sato to rig up for him, and he didn't want to blow all that hard work on a piece of Hawaiian ass Norshimuri got himself involved with.

"We know you took him," the other man said.

"You know nothing," Sato spat out.

The girl drew her gun and took two steps forward pressing it against his neck. She was angry, she was sure Adam was dead and he did it. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned but McGarrett's morals were legendary. Sato knew he wouldn't let her shoot him, so he sat there through her threats and tried not to smile.

"I know that if I pull this trigger, there's a bullet that's gonna travel at 1,200 feet per second, blowing a hole the size of a baseball in your brain, killing you in a matter of milliseconds," she growled. He might have believed her conviction if her voice didn't waver when she said it. The poor girl looked like she might cry. Aw what feelings did to you. "Now taking that into account, I'm gonna ask you again, where is Adam?"

Sato glared at her. "You'll never see him again," he told her and then waited to see if she'd pull the trigger. Except, of course, she didn't.

"You killed him?" she asked. It wasn't what she wanted to hear, he could see that but it was her fears confirmed. When he didn't answer she shoved the gun deeper into his throat and repeated her question. "Is he dead?"

He was starting to get worried. Wasn't McGarrett going to step in? When he still wouldn't answer she shoved it just a little higher so it was under his chin and nearly shouted: "Is he dead," and then McGarrett put his hand to the gun and pulled her away.

McGarrett and her shared a charged look before he turned around and said: "If it was up to Kono, she'd put a bullet in you right now, but we're gonna do this… your… way."

His way was through torture and death. What the hell did he mean that he was going to do this _his_ way? McGarrett turned to the back of the building where a loud scraping sound could be heard in the distance. Metal against stone. It brought to might giant swords or large scythes being dragged by hulking brutes ready to slide and dice him until he talked. Death by a thousand cuts was not the way he wanted to go.

"We brought someone who can speak your language," he continued. He brought a translator? What good was that going to do? Sato spoke English quite well. "Our secret weapon."

He said that with pride, and the woman, the severe looking one with black hair rolled her brown eyes and stifled a groan of displeasure. And then from the shadows came his tormentor, dragging a chair behind her.

He recognized her the second the light hit that mop of red hair tied up in a bun. Unlike the others in the warehouse, she was in dark green sweatpants and a matching green sweatshirt that did not fit her right at all, instead it bared her mid drift where he saw the telltale signs of a tattoo… two of them peeking out from the waist band on the apex of her hips. She slammed the chair down and then sat herself in it as primly as one could in a metal chair looking like they just rolled out of bed and then she scowled at him, her blue eyes appraising him carefully and then a pleasant smile donned her lips, the kind of smile that hinted at a more devious motive.

"Hi, I'm Rowan," she said.

Yes. He knew that. Everyone knew her. Everyone knew that fucking with her meant dealing with the wrath of a sociopath. Everyone was coming to learn that she was just as bad as the man protecting her.

"Yes. I know," he answered. He tried not to show it but he was finally afraid. Because unlike Five-0 her morals were grey at best, and Wo Fat's morals were nonexistent.

"It's so nice to officially meet you," she continued. "I'd shake your hand but you seem quite tied up at the moment." She then laughed at her own joke and leaned in grinning wildly saying: "You see what I did there. It's a pun. About your circumstances!"

He got it. He just didn't think it was funny.

"Full discloser, Wo Fat has nothing to do with this," she said. "All this guy," she then pointed at McGarrett who scowled, scoffed, folded his arms over his chest and pointedly looked away from her. "Let me tell you, it has not been a good day for me. So I totally feel you. Me and you we're in the same situation here."

They were not of course. She may have been forced to be there but she wasn't tied up. She just had really shitty friends. "Are you just going to talk to me?" he asked her. "That's your plan? Talk at me until I break? Do you think that will work?"

Rowan blinked her eyes. "Uh… I'm like crazy annoying. Now don't interrupt me… where was I…" she trailed off as she thought about it. "Oh… right… yea, so, McKidnapper over there uh… DRUGS ME and then puts me on a plane. And let me tell you, it is not fun waking up off of a chloroform high more than 30 thousand feet in the air confused as fuck about what's happening and having all of your so-called friends tell you it was necessary even though I told them like two weeks ago that I promised I wouldn't mess with you guys anymore…"

"For the last time it wasn't chloroform and we're not your friends…" McGarrett shouted only to have the other man and Noshimuri's girl say: "Yes, we are," and be ignored. "And I asked you to come and you said no… so yeah, you left me with no choice."

"I said no because I didn't want to do this and I was supposed to be at a gig tonight and Alex is gonna loose his damn mind on me! Not that any of that should matter because I said no and…. NO MEANS NO!" she cried. A strange buzzing broke into the conversation and she glared at him. "Okay, I can hear my phone in your pocket, so I know Wo Fat's freaking out can you just give it to me so I can tell him I'm alright."

"Why the hell would he think anything's wrong with you?" McGarrett asked her. Sato watched in rapt interested. Wow. No wonder Wo Fat was so protective of her, look at who she had as friends. She needed all the help she could get.

"Because my phone went into international airspace on a day he KNEW I had an important gig and wouldn't be traveling. And now it's pinging in JAPAN which houses this guys' criminal empire so he's going to think that he kidnapped me…" Rowan then paused and turned back to Sato with a large toothy devious smile in his direction. He knew that look. He saw it on Fat's face one too many times. "He thinks you kidnapped me."

"So, it's fine for him to track you and not me?" McGarrett interrupted.

"Uh, he's not tracking me, the app is programed to send him alerts if I do something weird. As I haven't made travel plans, ending up in international airspace is considered weird, so he would have been alerted," Rowan explained. "I can use that to our advantage but he's probably already sent people to pick me up. Can you please just tell me what the phone is saying?"

McGarrett sighed but obliged her, pulling her phone out of his pocket and checking it. His eyebrows furrowed with confusion before saying: "Uh… ring around the rosie?"

"Oh my god we're surrounded," she whispered and then all of them were scrambling for their guns. Rowan launched out of her seat, raised her hands up and screamed: "I'm Rowan Pierce and I'm A-Okay!"

In the shadows came the dings of what had to be at least five phones. Rowan let out an exhale of relief. "Sorry, guys, misunderstanding… uh… can you guys come here? No fighting, I promise," she told them and they all came out… all ten of them. They too were in black tactical gear, loaded up with more weapons than Five-0. "Hi I'm Rowan it's nice to meet you," she said warmly to them all.

"Uh… would you guys mind just… uh… making sure the perimeter's fine… and maybe don't tell Wo that I'm fine yet?" she asked. They all nodded before disappearing back into the shadows and then Rowan was back in her chair ignoring the look of utter shock on her Five-0 companion's faces.

"Alright… where were we…" to her left her phone started to vibrate again. She didn't even look at McGarrett who was staring at the screen. "So… what am I telling him?" she asked. "Am I telling him that you kidnapped me and thus having him raze your entire empire to the ground in a matter of days like he did to the NLM or am I telling him that Steve did it?"

McGarrett offered her the phone and Sato lurched. "I'll tell you about Adam just don't tell Wo I kidnapped you."

"Deal. Start talking," she said ignoring the call coming in on her phone and putting it in her pocket.

"I'll admit, I wanted Adam dead," Sato said but when Rowan cocked an eyebrow, clearly unimpressed, he added quickly: "But out of respect for his father, I let him go."

Noshimuri's girl didn't buy it though. She glared at him over Rowan's head, standing directly behind her. "You're lying."

"Am I?" Sato taunted her. And Rowan kicked him square in the shin.

"Stop being a smartass," she ordered. "Or the next one is in the groin."

Sato stared at her incredulously but figured, like her protector, she would follow through with her threat. "I helped Adam fake his death so he could disappear," he told them. "If he's smart, he'll never show his face again. If you're smart, you'll let this go."

The girl and Sato had a glare off but it was interrupted by Rowan crowing in triumph.

"Ha! I told you! Pay me bitch," she cried extending her hand to McGarrett who glared at her.

"What… now?" he cried.

"Yes. I was right. You bet that I wasn't right about Adam faking his death. Give me my money, hoe!" she ordered. McGarrett sighed at her but fished out his wallet and put crisp bills into her palm and as he did so Rowan took a picture. "I'mma send this to Danny right away. He's never going to believe that you have cash on you."

McGarrett glared at her watching as Rowan pocketed her money and then stared at the phone in her hand. It buzzed again and she winced.

"I swear if I don't take this he'll lose his shit," she said. She got up and put the phone to her ear. "I'm okay… holy… calm down…"

She walked away and Sato couldn't help but watch her as she tried to calm down Wo Fat. Above him McGarrett was staring off at Rowan who was pacing back and forth some distance away. To his other side the black-haired woman was glaring at Steve. Didn't take a genius to figure out that Steve was obsessed with Rowan, the black-haired girl was obviously close enough to McGarrett to not like Steve's obsession with Rowan, and not even Rowan seemed to like his obsession with her. The question was, why hadn't Wo Fat dealt with the obsession yet? Why had McGarrett been able to grab the girl that Wo Fat was so protective over?

Rowan came back to Steve's side and offered the phone to him: "It's for you."

He rolled his eyes but took the phone. "McGarrett… don't take that tone with me!" he shouted into it and Rowan shook her head and sighed at him as McGarrett walked away arguing with Wo Fat about what he had done.

"He should have just left me in Hawaii… or let me call Wo when we landed," Rowan said softly.

"We didn't need you," the black-haired girl growled. "You shouldn't be here at all."

"That is, legit, what I just said," Rowan cried. The girl with the black hair took a step forward and Rowan's face changed into a mask of pure anger, a face he had also seen on Wo Fat. "If you don't think I won't tell Steve what you did, you have another thing coming. And if that's not enough of a deterrent… just keep in mind I have ten men outside that will end you at the snap of my fingers. So, I suggest you shut up and get the fuck out of my face _Miss_ Rollins. I am so done with your passive aggressive bullshit I could puke."

Rowan got up out of her chair and walked away as the two Asians, now shoulder to shoulder glared at the black-haired girl until she cried: "What?" and she too walked away.

Ah, so Rowan had the capability to be exactly like Wo Fat. That too was useful information to add to the information he had already cultivated about this girl. But Sato didn't want to fuck with Five-0, and seeing Wo Fat's reaction to an unconfirmed Yakuza kidnapping he didn't want to fuck with those odds either. Rowan could be of use to him but at what cost?

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

As soon as Rowan finished paying the ten guys who showed up for an impromptu rescue mission her phone rang and Wo Fat was ready to argue all over again. He was absolutely livid. Everyone was livid with her. As if this were her fault.

"I can't believe you are just okay with what he did," Wo Fat snapped for the millionth time.

"I'm not okay with it, Wo, but what am I supposed to do about it?" she asked. "And don't say kill him, because I will never agree to that."

"Well something should be done," he growled.

"I'll make his life a living hell for the next week, okay?" she offered. "As you no doubt remember, I can be super annoying when I want to be."

Wo Fat was silent for a moment before he said: "Do you have any idea how scared I was?"

Rowan could imagine. She felt bad, she did. "I know. I'm sorry."

"Yes I know… but it's not your fault… now is it?" he asked.

"Well… partially," she whispered. "Uhm… I sort of told Sato that I'd tell you he kidnapped me to get him to tell me about Adam."

"… Why the hell would you do that?" he cried.

"Because I didn't want to torture him… I'm more than a little squeamish," she replied.

"For fucksake Rowan!" he snapped.

"I know you said not to involve you, but you know what? It worked. He listened and I got my info!" she told him hoping he'd be proud of her.

"Great… just great…" he growled. "I'm going to have to do damage control now, you know that right?"

"You sent 10 guys with sub-machine guns and other heavy artillery to break me out of what you thought was a heavily fortified warehouse where he was holding me hostage… what sort of damage control would you have had to do for that little situation?" Rowan shot back.

"None, cause I would have also had him killed to set an example," Wo answered primly.

Rowan pinched the bridge of her nose. "I can't… I just can't even right now."

"That would be the Midazolam that McGarrett gave you," he replied. "It's a common knock out drug, since he swears he didn't use chloroform. Drink lots of water, and get something in your stomach before you get back on that plane. Don't… take… Advil or Tylenol, okay?"

"Okay… I'm sorry," she repeated.

"Yeah, yeah. Call me when you land in Hawaii."

"Deal," she said and then hung up the phone. She turned back to where Chin and Kono were talking. Steve and Catherine had been long gone, taking Sato to the drop zone. When she turned Kono and Chin were hugging it out.

"Hey! What's going on," Rowan asked immediately because neither of them was wearing happy faces.

"Kono's not coming with us," Chin said.

"What? Why? The plan was rendezvous at the plane," she reminded her. "I'm pretty sure Steve meant all of us."

"I'm going to go looking for Adam," Kono told her and Rowan winced.

"I mean… do you have to? He kinda left you behind. He did it purposely you know… to… uh… you know keep you safe. Going after him kinda defeats the purpose," Rowan said.

Kono sighed at her and pinned her with a dry glare and Rowan relented. "I mean, it's also your decision. So… like… you do you boo!"

Kono half laughed at her and then pulled her in for a hug. "Thanks for the support!" she said. "Thank you for coming, even if Steve had to drug you to be here."

"It's really not that I didn't want to help… it was more of that I shouldn't have," she whispered. "The Yakuza have enough interest in me as it is. This probably made it worse."

"Well thank you anyway," Kono said. "Any… uhm… tips you could give me?"

"Did you know… I'm not really getting visions anymore," Rowan told her. "But if I do get one, if one comes up, I'll get Chin to tell you ASAP, okay?"

Kono hugged her again. Rowan told her to be safe and to be careful. Kono thanked her for her Rowan-gram and Rowan smiled because she had almost forgotten about that. And then she got into Chin's truck and the left Kono behind to go meet Steve and Catherine.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan had slept on Chin's lap the entire way back. She wouldn't look at Steve, wouldn't answer his questions. But even though she ignored him, even though Catherine was there, it took Chin telling him to stop bugging her and let her sleep to get him to stop. Once they got to the airport, she separated from the Five-0s and took a cab back to the apartment she still didn't call her home. _Alex's_ not home. By the look Steve had pulled she knew he noted that.

Rowan opened the door to the apartment she shared with Alex. She was terrified of the conversation she was about to have. Alex was livid when she didn't show up for the gig. He was livid because he couldn't pull off the high notes that Rowan could hit, and he needed her for half of their songs. He had been angry to pull songs off the set list because Rowan wasn't there to help him fake hitting high notes.

Not that she wasn't disappointed as well. That gig was where she'd meet the other execs, to begin writing songs for other bands, to show case her skills and her talents. She also would have gotten the profits from the gig and they had sold out the small venue. But Alex had practically flown into a rage when he found out that Rowan had been technically kidnapped by Steve and taken to Japan. And that she was refusing to file a complaint or file criminal kidnapping charges.

She dropped her keys to the counter and kicked off her shoes. The apartment was quiet and that was great. Maybe Alex was still sleeping off the gig, maybe he was at someone else's place, or already out in Barry's garage practicing. Just as long as he wasn't there, she would be happy. She quietly made her way to the bedroom where she planned to flop on the bed and nap it out. But upon opening the bedroom door she found that two people were already in the bed. Alex and some blonde girl on top of him.

They stared at her wide eyed while Rowan blinked her eyes. Too stunned to actually move. She then regained her composure said a simple: "I'm sorry" then turned around and left the room.

She rushed to the door, scrambled for her keys and her bag and then shoved her shoes back on. She heard Alex scrambling behind her, trying to put something on and screaming her name and for her to wait. Rowan had no intention of waiting. She forced herself out of the door, with one shoe in her hand and slammed the door behind her. She took the concrete stairs down to the parking lot partially barefoot and then hid in the shadows as she got her shoe on just in case Alex came out to look for her.

Well. That was unexpected… now wasn't it?

She stood there catching her breath and waiting for the anger to hit her again, except it didn't. She didn't feel angry, she didn't feel wounded, she just felt relived because Alex always wanted to have sex after they argued, specifically if it was about Steve, and she hadn't felt up to that today. Now if they did have an argument, she would have great excuse to say no.

But what was she going to do now? Shouldering her purse, she carefully walked away going to the only place she could think of that had people who could make her feel better… or at least distract her.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Everyone was mad at Steven.

Rowan. Wo Fat. Chin and Kono. Catherine was so angry he was worried she might try to murder someone. And now Danny was mad.

He should have known it was a bad thing that Danny called him on their way back to the Palace from the airport. Rowan had only been out of his vicinity for… what? 10 minutes. She probably texted Danny as soon as it was safe to take her phone off of airplane mode.

"What did I say?" Danny cried for the millionth time. "What did I say, you savage? I said leave her alone. If she doesn't want to go she doesn't need to come!"

"I needed her help, Danny," Steve reminded him. "I needed her to talk to Sato, and it worked."

"You fucking kidnapped her, Steve!" Danny shouted. "How can you not see what's wrong with that? You drugged the girl and then put her on a plane and took her to Japan. THAT IS A CRIMINAL FUCKING OFFENCE!"

"Okay, you know what, this isn't all about me…" Steve said. "Obviously something has happened over on your end so why don't you tell me what happened?"

Danny was silent a moment before he sighed. Ah, yes Steve's hunch was correct. Suddenly Danny was ranting

"My idiot father, went out yesterday and came back with a goddamn corvette and my mother is losing her damn mind over this because they were supposed to go on some trip and now they can't…" Danny droned on.

"How old is he now?" Steve asked. Because he knew Danny had gone for his father's birthday.

"He's 60 Steve. He turned 60. I told you this, you know this, you signed his goddamn card," Danny growled and Steve rolled his eyes. His father was having a midlife crisis, clearly, or trying to relive his youth.

"Okay. No, that sounds about right."

"No, no it does not sound right. Because my mother is crying. My sisters think it's a goddamn joke. Eric keeps trying to drive the car, my dad's driving like a lunatic. It's like world war three up in my house and you're saying this sounds right," Danny ranted.

"Just relax, relax," Steve ordered. "Hey, just let him have his fun, okay. Look we just arrived. I'll talk to you later. Okay? Okay. Good-bye."

He hung up before Danny could complain some more either about the car or Rowan and when he turned Chin and Catherine were grinning at him. Well at least someone enjoyed that conversation.

"So, let me guess, his father bought himself a Porsche for his 60th birthday," Chin said.

"Corvette," Steve corrected.

"Oh, sweet. Nice," Catherine crowed. It was the most positive thing she had said to him since he had dropped Rowan's unconscious form to the seat in their private plane.

"A little late for a midlife crisis, isn't it?" Chin teased as he and Catherine walked away.

Steve's phone was ringing again and he picked it up and answered without looking at the caller Id. "Yo. What, did you forget to tell me how much you miss me?" he asked.

The Governor's voice came out of the other end and his heart dropped out of his chest, and the smile came right off of his face. "I, uh… No, I thought it was Detective Willaims," he explained to the Governor's unimpressed questions. He didn't think it was funny and it didn't look better as an alternative to asking if the Governor missed him. "Yes sir, absolutely, Governor. I'll be right there."

He hung up his phone and then turned. Called to the Governor's office. He wasn't sure if he was mad, Steve could never tell what mood Dennings was in, but no matter if it was good or bad he still felt like a child being called to the principal's office.

He meant to leave, right then and there, because the Governor was calling him and that was important but he stopped because there was Rowan. Having just come through the doorway and staring at him. He liked her in that green sweatpants outfit. Her mid drift still showing, those tattoos peeking out. He hadn't known Rowan had tattoos. Now he wondered what else was on her that he didn't know about.

"Why are you here?" he asked. His tone came off angrier then he intended it to. Probably because he knew she wasn't there to see him.

"I was going to ask Chin for driving lessons," she whispered. She looked pale, she was probably too tired to drive.

"You should go back to _Alex's_ and rest," Steve offered instead.

At the prospect of going back to the apartment that she shared with Alex, Rowan winced and shook her head. "Uh… no… no thanks. I'm… uh… I'm too hyper to sleep," she told him, but she was lying. And she knew that he knew too but before he could tell her that she was talking again.

"Look as fun as it is to have you pretend to be worried about me," Rowan said and Steve tried not to tell her that he actually _was_ worried. "I'm really only here to see Chin. So… unless you plan to apologize for last night's stunt, we're essentially done interacting until the end of time."

That too was a lie. Rowan couldn't stay away from him any more than he could stay away from her. But he wasn't about to apologize for doing what he thought he had to do to help Kono and achieve the mission objective, so he let her walk away.

He had his own life to worry about and if Catherine saw the two of them talking even more, she'd fucking kill him. God. To be fair he did just promise to end all contact with her… it wasn't his fault that he needed her, you know for work… for work. Maybe if he kept telling himself that it would become true.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

"All right, who wants to go first?" Dennings asked looking a file over.

Grover, who was sitting, and Steve, who had opted to stand, had the same confused looks on their faces. When both of them came up with nothing, Dennings slapped the file down to his desk and said: "Let's cut to the chase, gentlemen. What I have here is a complaint filed by the head of SWAT against the head of Five-0," he told them and Steve almost swore out loud.

 _Fuck you, Grover!_

"What the hell is going on?" Dennings asked. He was asking them both but neither were answering. Steve just wanted to read whatever it was that Grover had the nerve to write about him.

"You filed a complaint against me?" Steve asked Grover who was pointedly looking away from him.

"You brought that on yourself, man," Grover snapped.

Yeah well then Grover brought this on himself. He snatched up the file before Dennings or Grover could stop him. He was in the process of opening it when Grover complained.

"Governor, please, the complaint was filed in confidence!"

"Steve put that down!" the Governor ordered but Steve merely took a few steps away from the now standing Grover and the Governor's desk.

Yeah, well, fuck him and fuck his confidence, and the Governor's constant siding with everyone else. Steve didn't have to listen to them.

"Volatile," Steve quoted from the complaint. Oh yeah, they were gonna see a lot more of that. "Arrogant. Out of control. Irresponsible and reckless behaviour that puts the public at risk."

"See what I'm saying?" Grover said to Dennings who nodded as if he understood.

Steve continued reading. "A danger to himself and others?" he had had enough. He threw the complaint back onto the desk and rounded on Grover. "You son of a bitch!"

"Steve, enough," Dennings barked and Steve reluctantly backed down. He looked at them both and sighed. "I'm tossing the complaint."

Steve let out a sigh of relief and that smug grin Rowan and Danny hated so much slid onto his lips. Grover on the other hand was not so happy.

"You're tossing…?" he started but Dennings cut him off.

"Starting right now, slate's clean," he snapped.

Grover wasn't having it. "This is more than just a complaint! It's a problem!" he cried. "This is about the complete lack of accountability that allows this man's behaviour to go unchecked."

"Don't tell me how to do my job, captain," Dennings thundered jumping out of his seat. "Yes we do have a problem in that area that he and I will need to address, and I will be doing it today. But I have a full schedule, and I don't have time to play principal."

"I'm sorry… so there is a problem?" Steve asked.

"Yes. I got another complaint today that I can't ignore," Dennings told him. "But we're not discussing that right now…"

"You complained _twice_?!" Steve thundered and Grover just shrugged.

"Commander please!" Dennings shouted finally getting Steve to shut up. "Look, this is a small island. I expect you two to play nicely together in our sandbox. Understood?"

Once they had both said _yes sir_ , Dennings demanded that Steven sit so both he and Grover did so.

"Very good," he said patronizingly. "From this moment forward you will get along. And to start you off on the right foot, you two are gonna serve a warrant together," he told them. Steve stifled his groan, and beside him Grover sighed. Dennings ignored them both. "A 21-year-old up in Waimanalo has failed to pay several parking tickets. I want you to bring this man to the courthouse, make sure he takes care of his fine."

Immediately both he and Grover were complaining about how beneath them this assignment was. But Governor Dennings was already smiling.

"Look at this," he said cutting off their overlapping complaints. "You're already agreeing on something. Now, onto the other complaint, do you want to tell me what happened in Japan, Steven?" he asked.

Steve's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Japan? Nothing had happened in Japan to warrant another complaint. He and his team had done exceptional work. And was he really going to do this in front of Grover? "Uh… that was… uh… a personal favour… Adam Noshimuri had been kidnapped we went to help Kono…."

"No. I want you to tell me how going to Japan to help Kono turned into a kidnapping complaint?" Dennings snapped.

 _Fucking Rowan_. Steve scoffed. Oh. Yeah. That had happened but he didn't think that warranted a fucking complaint. She had already gotten Danny on his case. Wasn't that enough? "Did she complain to you sir? Because it's not as bad as she thinks. She's just… over reacting."

"No, I have not heard from Rowan, though I should probably follow up with her as well. No, the complaint came from Wo Fat and you have to understand how unnerving it was to have the situation relayed to me by a convicted criminal who is demanding that I personally see to punishing you for your actions. So, you better look me in the eye and tell me that you didn't drug that girl and drag her to Japan after she specifically told you she didn't want to go."

Steve stared at him wide eyed. Wo Fat had been the one to call? That fucking rat bastard. The Governor took one look at Steve's face and swore. Beside him Grover made a noise that told Steve he was trying to hold back laughter.

"What the hell were you thinking drugging and kidnapping her?" Dennings cried.

Steve looked at his shoes. "I needed intel, and you of all people should know that Rowan is an information highway when it comes to those people. They will literally tell her anything. She was just… she was just being difficult… she wouldn't have been if anyone else but me asked."

"I didn't think I had to tell you this, Commander, but if someone who is not a suspect in one of your cases says no… the answer is no. I have been far too lenient with you on this matter. You cannot use your power with Five-0 to harass that young woman, do you understand? Now, I'm giving you one last chance with this. If I hear of you abusing her one more time, Steve, there will be dire consequences, I may even revoke your badge and your command of Five-0. Are we clear?"

Steve stood there. Was that what he was doing? Was he using his power with Five-0 to abuse Rowan? He hadn't… he had never seen it like that.

They were dismissed after that, off to chase some punk with overdue parking tickets. They were in the hallway for two seconds before Grove cleared his throat to get Steve's attention.

"That girl Dennings was referencing, that wouldn't be Rowan Pierce, would it?" Grover asked and Steve narrowed his eyes at him.

"You know Ro?" he asked. "How do you know Ro?

"Hey I didn't say I knew her," he said raising his hands in mock surrender. And then as he was walking away he added: "Makes good cupcakes though."

Steve glared at his retreating back. Obviously Grover did know his Rowan. When the hell had the two of them even met? Why had his P.I. not mentioned that? And apparently, she was making Grover cupcakes. Why the hell would she do that? With old SWAT captain gone, he figured the cupcake trades were done? Goddamn it. Why the fuck did Rowan like EVERYONE else but him?


	79. Chapter 79

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: this one is A LOT longer than I thought it would be. It's 13 pages. Sorry for that guys! Hopefully it's not too long for you. I did ramp up the d'aww factor here, despite Steve pulling a pretty dickish move. He is starting to realize just how badly he's fucked up though so that's a start right? For those of you who are worried about Rowan and Alex, you get your answer to her decision about the whole cheating thing in this chapter. Tell me what you think about that. Also we only had 1 person vote on what you'd like when we hit 500 reviews. Do you guys want a 7 day marathon, or do you want a special chapter that one lucky reviewer will get to choose? Don't forget to tell me when you review! See you Friday!_

Chapter 79

* * *

All Steven McGarrett did was open a door. He opened a door and got shot in the arm. They had managed to drive away the attackers but they had lost the kid, Ian Wright, that they had tried to arrest over unpaid parking tickets. Now Steve was alone, with Grover, trying to figure out who took their kid, and how the hell they were going to get back now that both of their trucks had flat tires and they had no cell service.

While Steve was getting ink out of a ballpoint pen so he could get a finger print off of their one dead guys, Grover had been… actually Steve had no idea what he was doing. But as he was taking a picture of his thumb print Grover, while still mixing his disgusting looking orange slime, said: "This should stop the bleeding."

A poultice? Not two hours ago the man was going on about Steve should be held accountable for his actions and now the man was making him poultices? Steve looked at the nasty looking concoction and frowned. There was no way in hell he was letting the Witch Doctor from Chicago put anything on his arm.

"No, no, it's nothing, it's nothing," he said cause that was what he said to all his injuries, even the really bad ones and this one wasn't bad at all. It only Stung at most.

Grover continued to stare at Steve's arm. It was throbbing, but he wouldn't admit that. He had worse. He'd be okay. "That nothing you got is leaking pretty good," Grover snapped.

Steve finally stopped paying attention to his phone and turned to Grover to reiterate: "I'm fine."

Danny got it, Chin got it, Catherine got, hell even Rowan got it… sometimes, not all the time, but sometimes she got it. Why did Grover not get it? Steve did not like accepting people's help. End of story. Nothing to get offended over, it was just the way he was. But Grover did not take it that way.

Grover threw the spoon down to the bowl and turned away from him. "You know what? Fine," he growled. "Pass out, you stubborn son of a bitch. I don't care."

Yeah well, from the way he was acting he did care. And that was annoying. He was not going to pass out, Steve was strong and able bodied but if it would make Grover feel better, fine, he'd be the bigger man and use the damn thing.

"You know what? Give it, give it, okay?" Steve ordered, reaching for the blue bowl and the orange slime. He took the spoon and put it to his arm. "Here, here, okay?"

Fuck it was like being with Danny… except twice as moody and Steve didn't think he'd ever find anyone as moody and annoying as Danny. Steve eyed Grover who eyed him right back and then he spread a big huge spoonful of the orange stuff onto his wound and then immediately groaned in pain.

Oh holy fuck did that burn.

"Yeah, hurt don't it?" Grover asked him grinning at him like he had just won a commendation. Great so he had done that on purpose. The fucking asshole.

Still Steve refused to actually cry out and instead just let it sit there while he was in pain waiting for that terrible burning to go away. While he waited he ripped up a cloth towel and then went about trying to tie it around his own arm, with one hand.

It obviously was not going well and he really didn't need Grover carrying a conversation as if it were the two of them talking to really stick that point in.

"'Hey Grover, mind helping me tie this tourniquet?'…'Sure, buddy, no problem.'"

Steve did not need the fucking sass. Why couldn't he just have said: "Hey need some help?" like a normal fucking human being?

"Fine," Steve growled and then let Grover take over.

As Grover was wrapping and tying him up, he asked: "Now, why do you supposed these guys would want to kidnap a knucklehead like Ian?"

Grover tied it tight. Hella tight. So tight he thought, for a moment, he might actually pass out. Instead he focused on the question. "I have no idea," he told him. "We gotta get in touch with the H.P.D. as soon as possible."

Grover agreed, clearly but he still said: "Well, the kid's got no landline. Our cell service is dead up here."

Steve tried not to laugh at this. This was exactly the kind of moment where Rowan would show up with a smug smile on her face and way out of there. As if his body was attuned to her showing up he turned to the door and stared. Rowan had touched him today. If it was important, if she still cared, she'd be walking through that door looking for him.

"What are you looking at, man?" Grover asked.

The door never opened. So she either she didn't get a vision or he really had gone too far this time and she didn't care. Either way, Rowan, clearly, wasn't coming. Sighing Steve turned back to Grover and said: "We got to move."

For the second time that day. He and Grover actually agreed on something.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steven McGarrett attracted trouble.

That was the conclusion Lou Grover had come to today. Every single piece of crap he stepped in had something to do with McGarrett. From getting stuck with this punk ass assignment, to getting shot at and stranded and to make matters worse he was now on a horse, when he didn't really want to be despite all his years of training and practice he got when he was younger. He was older now and riding hurt. Especially when it was at a break neck speed chasing a car that moved a lot faster than a horse did.

Not that he was going to tell McGarrett that.

Especially after the asshole hinted that he knew exactly what it was that had brought Lou to this godforsaken rock in the middle of the pacific in the first place.

They rode. As fast as they could, urging those horses onwards. The truck whizzed past them and Steve shouted: "There they are!" as if Grover couldn't fucking tell.

They gave chase, the car drifting through the dirt. Steve lead them up and goddamn hill and through a pasture. A short cut he said. They were going to cut them off but that didn't stay that way, not when they turned the car around and now he and Steve were charging a car, shooting and charging but it wasn't going to stop.

The car was aiming straight for Steve when the sweet little red convertible with the white stripes running across the body swung out from behind it and practically forced the car off the side and away. Steve's horse was too close and as the little red convertible revved on by the horse spooked, rearing up onto its hind legs and throwing McGarrett off.

Lou had pulled his horse to a stop by the side of the road and turned to where Steve lay half on his back in the dirt, he was barely moving and seemed to be curling into himself on his side. Damn that one must have hurt. The little red car screeched to a halt, drifting through half a turn before it finally came to a stop. It was still for two seconds before a door swung open.

And there was Rowan, the same one the Governor said McGarrett was harassing, and boy did she sure look concerned for her harasser. Her red hair up in a loose bun but her hair was escaping it and was half falling down to her shoulders. As she ran to McGarrett, who was still lying in the dirt where the horse had thrown him, her green sweatshirt lifted up to bare a lot more of her mid drift than before, revealing a bit of a tattoo running up the side of her ribs.

"Steve! Steve! Are you okay?" she cried sliding to a stop in the dirt beside him. "Oh! Oh, your arm! You _did_ get shot!"

Grover felt his eyes narrow in surprise, how did she know that? How did she know he had gotten shot before she got here? But there was something else, something in the way Steve moved. His body had stiffened before she even got out of the car, he was moving to sit up at the sound of her voice. His eyes, as soon as they saw her went wide, his pupils dilating as they fixed onto her, like a crack addicts did when they finally got that hit they had been craving.

He sat up a lot quicker than someone who had just been thrown should have and then he had grabbed her. Crushing Rowan to him, his head disappearing into her chest as he practically clung to her. After a moment's hesitation Rowan held him back, her grip softer and more practical, her hands travelling up and down his back slowly looking for any bumps or breaks.

Lou carefully dismounted and snuck towards them, wanting to see more of this. Wanting to see just when and how that negative behaviour the Governor warned Steve against would pop up.

"What are you doing here?" he asked her, his head still buried in her neck.

"Oh… uh… well I was with Chin and got a flash. About a bank robbery and a plane and you… uh… getting shot. So I figured I'd try and come up here before that happened and I saw you and Grover on the horses so I followed the car and well… here we are," she answered.

Flashes? Bank robberies and planes? Was she some sort of psychic? Was that what she was saying? Steve finally pulled his head out of her shoulder, he looked at the abandoned car, then to Grover who was standing a few feet away, and then back to Rowan. That dilated happy look that had been on his face left him and then he was glaring.

Oh, here we go. It was coming.

Quick as a viper Steve had a handcuff on Rowan's wrist. "What the…" came out of her just in time to have Steve stand and then hoist her up over his shoulder. "Steve NO!" she shouted. "Put me down! Don't you dare. Steven James McGarrett, don't you fucking dare!"

But Steve did dare. He threw her back into the car and then cuffed her to the steering wheel. He glared down at her with all the malice of a man enraged and then he walked away leaving Grover and Rowan together.

"Damn, girl, that was the quickest mood change I've seen ever," Grover said, watching as Steve went to get his horse. "What did he even arrest you for?"

"Don't know yet," she said. "But let me tell you… he does this all the time."

Grover stared at the girl, the little redhead who had just saved McGarrett from getting run over, who had driven all the way out to Waimanalo to help them only to have McGarrett handcuff her to her own car. He didn't say thank you. He didn't ask her if she was okay. He just fucking arrested her. That was cold. There was only one thing Grover could think to say to that.

"Damn."

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve had managed to call an ambulance out to where they were, which was good because he wasn't going to let Rowan out of her cuffs and she couldn't drive Chin's car handcuffed to the steering wheel. He was getting bandaged but his eyes were still on Rowan who was sitting there in the driver's seat, her long legs sticking out of the side, dust coating the knees of her army green jump suit, looking up to Grover as he talked to her.

Steve didn't like that. He didn't like that at all. But he did like one thing. Angry at him or not, she had still come to help him. She may have been late but she had come and that meant a lot to him.

As soon as he was cleared by the EMT he went to rescue Rowan from Grover. If Rowan couldn't stand his grumpiness, Grover was gonna drive her wild.

"Okay, do us both a favour and just leave her alone, alright. She's had a rough day, she doesn't need your attitude souring her up," Steve ordered.

Rowan glared at him. " _You're_ _the reason I had a bad day, Jackass_!" she thundered. Steve just glared at her. "You arrested me Steven. Again! And you owe me! I babysat your niece and you said you wouldn't arrest me again."

"Seems kind of ungrateful to arrest the girl who saved our asses," Grover added. "And babysat your niece."

"Okay, do you have a proper licence?" Steve asked.

Rowan glumly answered: "No."

"And where is your experienced driver… you know… the only one you're allowed to drive with?" Steve asked and then added: "The one who owns the car you're driving."

"Okay. Yes I left him at Rainbow's but that means I loose demit points… not getting handcuffed to a steering wheel!" Rowan said. Behind her, her phone began to ring. "Oh, oh can someone… can someone grab that?"

Grover obliged her walking around the car to reach in through the passenger side window to grab her phone and then walked back around to offer it to her. She looked awkwardly twisted as she answered the phone while attached to the steering wheel.

"Hey Chin!" she cried. "Oh… uh… I don't know where I am. But Steve's here, he's arrested me again," she then waited patiently for Chin's reply. She nodded and then offered the phone out to Steve. "It's for you."

Steve sighed. Once again he was going to get yelled at via Rowan's phone. He took it from her. "McGarrett."

"Uh… wanna walk me through what's going on?" Chin asked her. Okay he sounded calm that was good for him.

"We're in Waimanalo," Steve answered. "Had a bit of a car chase, a truck was bearing down on me and Grover and uh… Rowan attempted to run them off the road in your car."

"Run them off the…" he echoed. "Is my car okay?"

"Yeah she didn't hit anyone just kicked up a lot of dust and freaked everyone out," Steve said. "Particularly my horse, which threw me."

"Your… horse?" Chin echoed.

"It's a long story," Steve answered. "Uh… I have a question… Why were you at Rainbows? I thought it was just a driving lesson."

"She was tired so we stopped for coffee… and pancakes… which I now have to pay for and pack up," Chin replied almost bitterly

"She told me she was too hyper to rest," Steve growled pointedly staring down at Rowan who avoided his eyes. Why was she lying? Who was she avoiding? Him or Alex? He'd like to think that it was Alex, but Alex hadn't drugged and kidnapped Rowan in the last twenty-four hours, Steve had.

"Uh… no she was pretty tired. Don't know why she told you she wasn't," Chin told him. Cause Rowan lied to him all the time. Just like Catherine and his mother. All the females in his life lied to him except for Kono and Grace. The only good ones in his life.

"Kay, last question… how exactly did you lose her?" Steve asked. "I mean… really… how?"

"I don't know what to tell you. I went to the washroom and when I came back both she and my car were gone. I thought I had my keys but I didn't," he said.

Steve understood that. Rowan was wily like that. "You… uh… you don't need to arrest her Steve. I didn't report the car stolen and I know I'm supposed to be with her but she's actually a really good driver… a little reckless but she's getting better."

"Yeah thanks," Steve said and then hung up the phone before Chin could say anything else and handed it back to Rowan.

Beside him Grover _tsked_ at him. "You know… I think this is the exact thing the Governor was warning you against," he said to him. "This is exactly what he told you to stop."

"Wait… what?" Rowan asked but Grover said nothing and Steve was just struck dumb.

He stared at Rowan. He was doing it. He was using his power with Five-0 over her. Rowan's eyebrows crinkled in concern. She should have been mad at him, but instead she asked: "Are you okay?"

He glanced to Grover and said: "Can I just talk to her for a minute."

"The girl is handcuffed, I'm not leaving her alone with you," he snapped.

"Its fine, I can take Steve," she said.

Steve shook his head and glared at her. "Excuse me? Take me? I'm a Navy Seal, Rowan," he reminded her.

Rowan turned to Grover. "See, he underestimates me. Trust me I'll be fine," she said. Grover grumbled a bit but gave them their space.

Steve crouched down in front of her, offering her the key to the handcuffs. "Sorry," he whispered.

Rowan rubbed her wrists and then looked at him. "What's wrong with you?" she asked. "You got that guilty worried face, what happened? Did the Governor get mad at you? I didn't complain… honestly. I mean I probably should but you know… I didn't…"

"Do I abuse my power?" he asked her. Just blurted it out. The questions confused Rowan clearly cause she just blinked her big blue eyes at him.

"What? No!" she cried. "Steve you do whatever you have to to save people and stop the bad guy. I mean… you probably shouldn't do half the stunts you pull cause you're getting old but like… no… I wouldn't call any of that an abuse of power."

Well that was super nice of her to say. But that wasn't what he was asking her. "I mean with you. Do I abuse my power with you?"

"Oh hell yeah," Rowan said immediately and his face fell. "All the time. It's kinda scary, but I'm mostly used to it now."

Steve felt his heart stop in his chest. _What_?! "I do? Like… you really think that?" he asked in a small voice.

"You really didn't think arresting me because you were mad at me was an abuse of your power?" she asked him.

Steve looked away from her. "That wasn't why I was arresting you Rowan. You broke the law…"

"You arrested me for association, which you cannot do. And then for withholding information when you knew I go the info from a vision…"

"Yeah, okay I get it," Steve said. "I crossed a few boundaries."

"A few boundaries? Steve… you got me fired," she reminded him. "Twice."

Steve hung his head and Rowan winced at him. She reached out, her free hand gripped his shoulder so he would look back up at her. "Look, I've never felt like you'd actually do anything that would hurt me, if anything I feel extra protected. I know you're there for me, you'll yell at me but you'll rescue me first. But you have gotten very controlling and that is a bit scary when you are the head of an immunity and means task force that can essentially do anything you want. It's kind of why I feel safe with Wo Fat."

"My controlling nature is why you're with him?" Steve hissed. Really? Fucking really?

"Okay, not the whole reason, but it is part of it. Did you know he's set up a plan to get me away from you if you go too far?" she asked him and Steve's heart stopped in his chest. "He even has a plan to breach the Palace if you were to ever take me there. And that makes me feel better when you get like this. If Danny or Chin don't let me out, Wo Fat will send someone to get me."

Steve looked down again. She had escape plans. She… his friends and Wo Fat thought that she was in such danger from him that they had to think of escape plans to save her from him.

"I'm sorry you feel that way," he said as he forced himself to get up and put distance between them. For the first time since his mother left he felt like he actually might cry. He had never felt so hurt and betrayed before in his life and he had literally just found out that his friends had continued to be friends with the girl he was pretty sure he was… uh… in like with… without telling him.

"Aw come on, Steve. I thought we were having a moment here," she said. "Don't be mad!"

"Mad is his default emotion," Grover said, sliding into the car seat beside her. Where the hell had he been hiding that whole time. Had he heard everything she said? Cause if he had Steve would have to kill him. "And I heard what he did to you last night. He wants to be mad at you when you could be pressing kidnapping charges, that's his problem."

"Okay, look, you know nothing about that situation okay?" Steve thundered. Glaring at Grover as he uncuffed Rowan. Where the hell had he gotten the keys?

"You're not going to apologize to me, are you?" Rowan asked him looking up at him, squinting to keep the sun out of her eyes.

"No, Rowan, because I asked you nicely and you said no. You were just being spiteful," he snapped. "We both know you would have helped us if anyone other than me asked you."

Rowan stared at him. "That gig was important Steve," she whispered. "I was supposed to meet these big execs who were going to sample my songs and sign me exclusively as their writer. That gig should have made my career. Now I look unstable and unreliable and I don't get any of my cut from the profits. That gig was important and everyone else understood that… except you."

Steve blinked his eyes at her, well how was he supposed to know that? She never told him any of that. She just said no. She shut the car door and Grover did the same. "Uh… excuse me… where are you two going?"

"I'm taking him back to the palace," she said sliding her sunglasses onto her face.

"What about me?!" he cried.

Rowan glared back at him, her sunglasses sitting primly on her nose doing nothing to block out the anger that was radiating off her. "You have a horse. Ride."

And then she revved the engine and in a cloud of dust both she and Grover left him behind.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan was supposed to go home. That was Steve's edict, when he finally got back to the palace all worn out and dusty, but Rowan wasn't ready for that yet. It wasn't that she was mad, it was that she was uncomfortable and if she was alone for too long she was left to wonder why the hell she really didn't care that her boyfriend was cheating on her.

Also… Alex had stopped calling and trying to get a hold of her hours ago. So… she figured he didn't care that much either.

Rowan had gone to get Wo Fat's Audi because she didn't have her own car and she needed one. She was supposed to have a driver with her but she didn't think any of them would come with her, and the guy she was going to see probably wouldn't want Five-0 in his warehouse.

She pulled the car to a stop and quickly got out. She was met by a big burly guy at the door and she just smiled at him.

"Hello," she whispered to him. "I'm Rowan Pierce, I'm here to see Kong Liang."

He stared at her, she knew she didn't look like a hacker, at this moment she looked a little bit like one of those high school hoes or a basic Starbucks Bitch. She was only missing the Uggs.

He repeated her request into a walkie-talkie and then the door buzzed open. "Thank you," she said as perkily as she could and then she skipped in through the warehouse.

When she got to the main floor where all his techies were working on their own computers, she found the man she knew to be Kong Liang, dressed an awful lot like Wo Fat in a nicely pressed light grey suit waiting for her with open arms.

"Rowan Pierce. The girl who started it all," he called as she walked towards him. She hugged him and got the feeling that he wasn't expecting that cause he stiffened but hugged her back. "I've heard a lot about you, let me tell you."

Rowan smiled up at him. "I heard a lot about you too. Thank you for putting that app together for me," she said.

"Mm… I didn't do that for you. I did that because a homicidal maniac threatened me and then paid me," he clarified and Rowan blinked her eyes.

"Uh… ohhh… sorry. He's a little… he's a little intense," she whispered.

Kong laughed loudly at her. "What a sweet girl, let's go into my office and talk about the real reason you're here," he said, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and pulling her through to the office.

"Ohh good, cause I have a favour to ask and I'm more than 100% positive you're not gonna wanna help me…" she whispered.

"Wow, you and your benefactor are a lot alike," Kong sighed.

Rowan laughed. "Yeah, but I'm a more kill them with kindness kinda girl… unless you piss me off than me and him get very similar very quick," she warned him.

"He did mention to keep you happy at all times," Kong admitted.

"It's a good plan," she said as he shut the door behind him she then smiled at him. "How would you like to be a good guy for the day?"

The look on Kong's face was priceless.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

A swarm of combined SWAT and Five-0 took the Honolulu international airport by storm. They sent the crowds running, people scrambling and shrieking as they went through with their bullet proof vests and automatic weapons.

It didn't take long for them to find Ian, sitting in one of the uncomfortable lounge chairs and listening to music on Grover's daughter's laptop.

He looked up, not shocked to find them standing over him guns trained on his person. Ian merely smiled smugly pulled the earbuds out of his ears and raised his hands in surrender.

"Crockett and Tubbs," he said looking at both Steve and Grover. "I knew you'd get my message."

Steve wasn't having any of this kid's bullshit. "Get up. Get up. Hands behind your head!" he ordered never once lowering his rifle.

Ian did as he was told and one he was up Steve continued to boss him around. "Interlock your fingers. Turn around. Turn around," when he did Steve grabbed him, kicked the back of his leg so the kid dropped and then handcuffed him.

As he did so Grover went for the laptop that belonged to him. "You don't wanna do that," Ian taunted them but he couldn't be farther from being wrong.

It was then that Grover noticed what was on the laptop. He called Steve over and the two of them stared at what was on the screen. A GPS tracker for a plane, running in real time. What the hell had this hacker done?

"You think I brought you here without a plan?" Ian taunted him. Oh this fucking kid. This absolute evil genius.

Steve said nothing and just turned to him. So Ian continued. "That is flight 408 out of Los Angeles. Three hundred five passengers, eight crew, two pilots. Schedule to land here in Honolulu in just over two hours," he told him. But he wasn't done. "See we've advanced so far technologically, we're no longer satisfied with a simple, _your flight's on time_. No, see, we wanna know every detail and we wanna know it now. You know what makes all of that possible?" When no one would answer his question he answered it for them: "GPS."

Steve knew the answer, he was sure Grover did too. But neither of them knew what the play was here. Clearly some sort of barter but in what world did this kid think he could ransom a whole plane for his release and not have Steve hunt him down to make him pay? In his pocked his phone buzzed as Ian kept talking Steve checked it. Rowan. He had already missed three calls. He ignored this one and put his phone on silent. He'd deal with her later.

"Most people don't realize it was created by the Department of Defense during the Cold War as a weapon. Allowed our subs to get an accurate fix on their target before firing off a missile. But when government opened it up to civilian use, they cheaped out. They didn't wanna spend the cash to encrypt civilian GPs like they did military, which means that everything that gets it data from civilian GPS is vulnerable to be hacked. Shipping lanes, trains, car navigation, and, of course, commercial airlines."

Oh this kid was so proud. So smug. He was about to get fucking smacked.

"What the hell have you done, Ian?" Steve asked.

"It's not what I've done, commander," Ian answered. "It's what I will do."

Ian got to his feet, hands still behind his back to stare Steve down. "I have control of Flight 408. If you don't do exactly what I say, I will drop it in the ocean," he threatened. "There's a flight leaving for Pago Pago in thirty minutes. Once I've landed and I know I'm not being followed, I'll send instructions on how to get back control of Flight 408."

"I'm not putting you on a plane with passengers, Ian," Steve told him, because he wasn't. He motioned for someone, anyone, hopefully Chin, to check on the flight, to see if they could get contact.

"We already have your money from the robbery. We know about the embassies. There's no play here," Grover told him. Ohhh good one. Yes. Steve endorsed that one. "You just need to stop this and we'll try to make a deal."

"A deal? I've committed acts of treason. There won't be any deals."

Kid also had a point. "It's 300 people. You gotta stop this, Ian," Steve told him.

"No chance," was thrown back in his face and Steve lost it.

He decked Ian before he could stop himself the force of the blow knocking him down to the ground. "Turn it off!" he ordered.

"You think I'm stupid?" Ian asked him. "The computer running the hack is somewhere else. This one just lets me keep an eye on it."

Grover went to pull Steve aside. Probably to ask him to figure out how to turn the thing of without caving to Ian. But Ian had more to say. "You know, we all got that broadcast a few months ago. I hear Rowan Pierce is very pretty. Maybe I'll you should include her in the deal. I'd love to go to Pago Pago with a beautiful woman with an unlimited criminal network at her fingertips."

The next hit Steve was sure shattered Ian's jaw, or at least one of Steve's fingers. He hit him so hard Steve saw spots for Ian. Ian collapsed to the floor laughing as he coughed up blood.

"Ohh… touchy…" he said. Steve opened his mouth to threaten him, to tell him if he even so much as looked at Rowan it wouldn't be Steve he had to worry about, one phone call to Wo would end Ian. Steve wouldn't even have to lift a finger. But he was interrupted yet again.

"Hi! I'm here to end your game of speed chess, boys. You can call this the real check mate," came Rowan's chipper voice from the computer, everyone turned to it and there she was on the screen. She waved at them like it was perfectly normal for her to pop up on Grover's daughter's laptop when it was being used to track the GPS of a plane that Ian had hacked.

"What the hell?" Ian cried, but Steve found himself laughing. Only Rowan would pull a stunt like this.

"Oh… he's hot. Has anyone ever told you that you look like a Jonas Brother?" she asked Ian. And just like that Steve wasn't smiling anymore.

"You're Rowan Pierce?" Ian asked her and Rowan nodded. "You don't look all that special."

Rowan feigned disappointment. "No? How about we try this on for size? School of Computer Sciences, 330 Carver Street, where you got all your parking tickets. Am I special now?" Ian went sheet white as he stared at her. "Yeah thought so. Anyone wanna turn me towards Steve?"

Steve turned the computer to him as he kneeled down in front of it. He looked at her eyes and swallowed down the urge to tell her how happy he was to see her on that computer screen. "What the hell Ro?" He wasn't even going to touch the comment she made about Ian's looks.

"You weren't picking up your phone and I didn't want you to let him go so we did something fancy with the computer to get a hold of you," she said.

"Uh… okay, what's so important that you had to hack a computer to get a hold of me?" he asked.

"Well… we're doing something pretty high tech with the computer next to me and essentially we're… what… 85% finished?" she said turning to the side to confirm with whoever was beside her.

A male voice… and not Toast's voice… said: "95% now."

"Okay, sorry. We're 95% finished jamming the signal."

Steve blinked his eyes. "I'm sorry… you're… what?" he asked.

"I already told you, Miss Pierce," the voice said again. "I am not jamming the signal I'm rewriting the code to shut it down."

"No… that's not possible," Ian growled.

"Who's with you Rowan? That's not Toast," Steve said.

"No. I have Kong Liang. Great hacker. He's the one who programmed my app," she told him.

Kong had been a suspect in a murder a very long time ago. Steve didn't think he'd see him again, but there was his face, poking out the side of the screen. "I coded the app, not programmed," he clarified. "And she kinda gave me no choice to help her with this. She's got one hell of a power of persuasion."

Steve half grinned in pride, yes, yes she did, didn't she? Behind him he heard Chin sending Catherine to 330 Carver St. Everything was coming together.

"Not going to comment on Ian's insinuation that you don't have the skill to best him?" Rowan asked, clearly just being a little shit at that point.

"Kids, they always think their shit is so hot," he said his face disappearing again. "Coding's done, the plane is in the clear."

Rowan turned back to the camera. "Did you hear that?" she asked him. "The plane's safe, don't let him get on any other plane. And definitely don't send him to Pago Pago, okay?"

"Are you sure it's safe? Like, he can't start up the program again?" Steve asked.

Rowan's smile faltered and he sort of felt bad, he knew how much it upset her when he wouldn't believe her visions. "Well, Catherine's on her way, would it make you feel better if she confirmed it?" she asked. Oh… and how had she known that?

"Actually yeah, it would," he told her and that smile fell of her lips entirely.

"Ohh… she didn't like that," Ian said from his spot on the ground. Watching as Rowan stood, so all he saw was that green she had been wearing and her stripe of bared tanned midriff. "Crushing your girlfriend's dreams over there, McGarrett."

"She's not my girlfriend," Steve told him and then sat down on the bench they had taken Ian off of and then waited for Rowan to come back on the screen, but all he got was voices.

"What are you doing here?" Catherine's angry voice came to him.

"I was stopping the program," she said.

Beside the computer, Kong stood up. "Actually, I did all the stopping and coding that she's talking about," he clarified picking up a suit jacket to put back on.

"True. He did all the programming, I just sat there and looked pretty," she said.

"Oh don't sell yourself short. You also got me coffee," Kong answered disappearing from the view of the camera.

"Aww thanks."

"Alright, we're done here. I'm going to go wait by the car or do you need back up?" he asked her.

Rowan told him that she was good and then it was just her and Catherine.

"What did I tell you?" Catherine hissed.

"Look, if this is another one of those _stay away_ conversations I don't need it. I only came because that asshole got Steve shot and I wanted to make sure he went to jail. And your rinky-dink little jamming program takes too long and he would have got away," Rowan snapped. "So save your self-righteous-leave-my-boyfriend-alone bullshit for another day. Okay?"

And then she was gone. Catherine appeared on the screen as she went to the next computer.

"Hey Cath?" he called and she started. She turned to the computer that was next to hers.

"Oh. Uh… what the hell?"

"Rowan. Don't ask," he said. "She said the program is shut down, is that true?"

Catherine disappeared for a brief moment before she returned on screen and said: "Uh… yeah… it is… she got herself her own hacker? Isn't that a little weird even for her?"

"I don't know anymore," he said. "Uh… wanna tell me what lecture she was expecting from you?"

Catherine's face paled and she shook her head. "I'm going to shut this down I'll see you back at the Palace, okay?" and then she was gone.

Steve turned to where Ian was still kneeling, mouth all bloodied, face in a dark scowl. "No one said anything about her using that stupid network to interfere with us. I don't think half of us would have agreed to this if we knew what she'd do with it."

Steve pretended to ignore him but that comment got him thinking… and worried. If Rowan continued helping him would that mean her network would turn against her? Was that why Wo Fat was worried that Yakuza was interested in her, was that why he told her not to help? And what the hell had Catherine said to Rowan and had it affected her relationship with him? There were so many questions but he didn't want to call her because that would make him look weak and he wasn't supposed to care anymore.

He wasn't supposed to care. And if he didn't care he wouldn't abuse his power trying to make her safe.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan returned to the apartment she shared with Alex completely trepid about opening that door. It had been hour since she had come back, and even though she had had a busy day and she wanted to avoid this conversation, she knew what she had to do, had made up her mind and this needed to be done. She couldn't avoid it forever. But as soon as the door opened, he pounced on her.

"God Rowan, I'm so sorry!" he cried.

Rowan clutched her bag. "She's not still here, is she?" she whispered.

"No, god no, she's… I… she's gone," he stuttered. He then looked at her strangely. "She's been gone for hours. You've been gone for hours. Why didn't you answer your phone? I've been calling and texting you since you walked out."

Okay not entirely true but she'd let him have it. Rowan exhaled. "Uh-huh… yeah I know," she said. "I've been busy."

"Doing what?" Alex asked.

"Just stuff," she answered illusively. "Look… this is no big deal. Really. I'm not mad or upset, or anything."

Alex straightened and stared at her. "No, I guess it's not," he said. "But you know… it probably should be mad at me. You should be mad you walked in on your boyfriend with another woman."

Rowan let out a string of dry laughs. "Yeah, I know. I just spent the whole day in a state of shock, first it was because of what I witnessed but that only lasted an hour. I'm oddly chill about this and that's quite shocking too," she said. "Honestly. I uh… I think we've been over for a while."

Alex half smiled at her. "Yeah, you felt that too huh?"

"Let's be honest here, Alex," she said. "I don't think we were each other's first choices."

"That's not true, Rowan, I did like you a lot, at the beginning," Alex admitted. "It's uh… it's just very hard to compete with Steve."

"And I get that, I do," Rowan said. "But I think, I think you wanted me to move in so you could have something to hold over Steve and I wanted to move in to run away. Don't get me wrong, you're a great guy, a bit selfish, but everyone has flaws. And the sex is great, but I think… for the last little while, that's all we've been. Company and sex. And you know, sex, it just isn't enough."

Alex opened his mouth to argue and Rowan just him off. "Okay, it's not enough for me. But seeing as you're becoming a rock star, I guess you're in that _fuck all the groupies_ stage. So being free, and single, and unattached is what you need right now."

Alex looked away from her. His eye hit the ground. "Uh… well… yeah, I guess you're right," he whispered. "Uh… how are we going to work together?"

"Well, I never wanted to be a part of the band. So you don't have to worry about that. I'd love to still do some live gigs with you, but no pressure there," Rowan said. But when Alex's worried eyes met her she realized that wasn't what he was worried about. "And I'll continue to write for you. Not exclusively. But I'll give you first crack at the ones I think will fit your style."

Alex's smile returned to his face and Rowan knew that, when it came down to it that was all Alex really cared about. And to an extent that was all Rowan cared about too. They had a symbiotic work relationship. She needed it as much as he did.

"I… uh… I guess I better get my things," she whispered.

"I'll help you out," Alex said. "Good thing most of your stuff is still in boxes huh?"

Yeah, Rowan really had dallied on the actual unpacking. "You don't have a car though," he said. "Is there somewhere I can drop you off?"

Rowan thought long and hard. Yeah there was somewhere.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Danny was not expecting the doorbell to ring after dinner. He wasn't expecting Rowan to be there, to have Alex unpacking box after box out of his trunk. Rowan was smiling softly, almost apologetically.

"Uh… hey. How was Jersey? I heard your dad bought a convertible? What model? What color?" she asked as she hugged him.

Danny hugged her back, confused. While it was nice to see her and he'd love to answer her questions, he figured there were more pressing topics of conversation they could be discussing at that moment.

"Uh… what's going on here?" he asked.

Rowan looked around at the boxes at her feet. "Oh… uh… I couldn't get a hold of Chin," she said. "Can I uh… can I crash here?"

"Did the shmuck dump you?" Danny growled just as Alex appeared from behind her and dropped off more of the boxes.

Alex straightened. "Do… uh… do any of your friends like me?" he asked.

"They're hard to please," she said to him he scowled and walked away and Rowan turned back to Danny. "To answer your question, the break up was instigated by me, but it's was pretty mutual."

Danny shook his head. "Okay, you can crash here, on one condition," he said. Rowan's eyes narrowed at him but he figured he had her attention. "You tell me if you really are okay with him… you know… kidnapping you last night."

"It was scary. Like really scary. My shrink is not gonna like that story, but I'm pretty okay. Chin was there for me when I woke up. It was nice that he was there," she answered.

Danny nodded he noted that Alex was making his way back with the last of the boxes. As Alex got closer and smiled and cried: "Course you can stay here," and then pulled her in for a hug. Alex moved forward, his hand brushed against Rowan as if he were interested in saying something to her or hugging her good-bye but Danny swatted it away. "Back off, bozo!"

Rowan shook her head against his shoulder. She pushed away from Danny and smiled up to Alex. "Thanks for the drop off," she said as she pulled him in for a hug the shmuck did not deserve. "I'll see you at the studio on Tuesday."

Alex mumbled a good-bye to her and as soon as he was on the way back to his car and Rowan had turned back to him, Danny put his hands on his hips and said: "You're still going to work with him?"

"Yeah… uh… do you think we can talk about this after we're done getting everything inside?" she asked.

"Talk while we move, I wanna know exactly why you decided to end things with him," Danny said. "And if I have to go beat him up, I totally will."

Rowan laughed and Danny tried to smile, but he was totally serious. Grace came running forward jumping up and down so excited that she and Rowan would be getting to have a sleep over.

"I'll tell you on one condition," Rowan said to him and Danny raised a hand to silence her.

"Let me guess… I don't tell Steve?" he finished for her. When she nodded Danny sighed. Now there were more secrets to keep from McGarrett, and he was already struggling with the first one.


	80. Chapter 80

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Alright guys, So we got to the first major change. What do you guys think? Happy? Not happy? Well, in 4 more chapters you're gonna get to the second major change you guys have been asking for. Three more and Steve finally learned the truth, so you know, bonus stuff to look forward to. We are almost there. We are almost to the promise fluffy McRo land. Also, I've written up to chapter 100, I wanted something really special for that chapter (aka Rowan and Steve's first sex scene) but that's going to be coming a chapter later. I did, however, make chapter 100 super cute and fluffy. So you know… other things to look forward to. We also have a consensus, so when we hit 500 reviews I will be doing a 7 day marathon for you guys :D So thanks again for reading this chapter, and I'll see you guys on Tuesday… for real this time._

Chapter 80

* * *

Rowan dropped the last of the boxes into the closet of the guest room and then shut the door. That was her half unpacked. This was supposed to be temporary… of course… but that didn't mean she wouldn't be there for a while.

Chin came into the room and looked around. "Well… other than the pillows and the comforter it doesn't look like you did much," he said.

"I've got so many down pillows," she told him. "Seriously, you need one I'll give you one."

Chin laughed at her. He came to her and put his arm around her shoulder. "How are you doing?" he asked. "You feeling okay? How's uh… how's the therapy?"

"I guess I'm doing okay," she answered. "I still get night terrors, but not as bad at the first night here. My therapist says I have trauma to deal with and that until recently I've been repressing the memories. She can't promise that I'll get better, I'll just learn to deal with it in a healthier manner. She thinks that healthier manner is dropping Steve cause he seems to aggravate the whole situation but… I unno… I just… I just can't."

That was a loaded statement so she wasn't surprised when Chin avoided it entirely.

"You gonna be good on your own?" he asked her. Chin had a whole thanksgiving thing going on with the Five-0 family. A family she wasn't a part of anymore and therefore wasn't invited. Well that's not true. They had all invited her, but Catherine and Steve were there and she didn't want to see them. Not together anyway.

"Oh yeah, trust me. I'll be okay," she said. Already the phone in her pocket was buzzing and she found herself smiling despite Chin pressing a kiss to her cheek and bidding her farewell.

"You call me," he said to her. "You call me if you need me and I will come right back."

It was nice of him to care, but she knew she wouldn't. She wanted to weather this out on her own. In all her life she hadn't actually stood on her own two feet. She had her parents, she had her brother, her best friend Sarah so it was only natural that she leant on Steve and the other Five-0's since she had got there.

She pulled her phone out of her pocket and answered it.

"Happy Thanksgiving," she cried into it and was met with unimpressed grumbling.

"Are you alone?" Wo Fat asked. Ah straight down to business.

"Yep no Tacos or taquito's following the Taco's orders here," she said.

"I thought we agreed you wouldn't be left alone for Thanksgiving," he reminded her. They had had a conversation to that effect but she never agreed to anything. "Your therapist said to not be alone. Being along brings… uh… it… back up."

"I'm fine, Wo. How was the prison's thanksgiving?"

"I got slices of cold turkey that I'm sure was stuffed with a sock soaked in chicken broth. The cranberry sauce was out of a can, I could tell by the ridged impressions in it and the assortment of vegetables were dismal. So not a lot to be thankful about this year," he told her.

She wasn't going to have a turkey dinner either. She was going to have pizza, cover her snow cones with vodka and watch all her favourite movies.

"You have me," she whispered to him.

"I'm in a super maximum facility, in a solitary cell, thousands of miles away from you."

"I'm with you in spirit," she said hoping he could hear the smile in her tone.

"I'd rather be there for real," he snapped. She answered that sentiment with: "Same," and then he added: "If one more thing happens to you Ro, if Steven McGarrett causes one more bit of annoyance to you, I will break out of here to deal with him. Whether you want me to or not."

"Oh don't be silly," she said. "If you're going to break out of prison you need a better reason than silly old Steven McGarrett."

"What he's doing to you is not silly. It's the kind of thing I'd do to someone to torment their lives in the hopes they'd kill themselves and save me the bullet," he told her. "I cannot for the life of me wonder why you'd be so alright with his behaviour unless you're either secretly courting it or someone isn't as over their precious Commander as they keep saying."

"Don't start with me tonight, Wo. I'm spending my first thanksgiving alone. You've had years of practice and I haven't, some sympathy would be appreciated and dare I say the appropriate response," she cried.

"Alright, fine. But one day you'll have to talk about your feelings, cause they are warping your relationship with…" "—Wo!" "—Alright fine! Tell me about what you have planned for your day. Please don't tell me it's pizza, alcoholic slushies and Disney movies."

"No," Rowan snapped. She sniffed primly before adding: "It's alcoholic snow cones."

"Ah, how could I be so foolish?"

"What about your day? Anything fun planned in your box?"

"Just working on my escape plan. Nothing too fun."

"Mm, send me a postcard when you're out."

"Of course. It'll be my first purchase," he told her, she could hear the grin in his voice and she wondered if he could hear hers. "I gotta go though. You'll be okay, right? On your own?"

"Course I will… I'm a big girl," she assured him.

"Call me if you need me," he ordered. It seemed to be everyone's order now a days. She appreciated the sentiment but it was starting to get a bit redundant. But still she told him she would to make him feel better. "Alright, well… I miss you…"

"Miss you too…" she answered and then he was gone and she was all alone again. She could do this. She was strong she could…

And then her phone chimed.

Like the pathetically dependant person she was she lurched for it, pulling it out of her pocket so quickly she was sure she ripped the lining of her jeans. It was a text message from Danny. He was willing to take her on an impromptu driving lesson today after the football game finished and before they had to go to dinner at McGarrett's. Rowan typed back her response as quickly as possible. Driving lessons meant she wouldn't be all alone, maybe he'd even bring Grace. She went to her laptop and pulled up her iTunes to organize a new playlist. Driving with Grace always came with its own playlist.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

"So… who won football?" Rowan asked Grace. Grace, who was sitting in the backseat singing along to the song Rowan had playing on the radio turned to Rowan with a smile.

"It was a tie cause Uncle Steve left early and we couldn't finish playing," Grace answered.

"No, Daddy's team won and Uncle Steve was a sore loser and declared a tie because he was leaving," Danny

"Oh, that Uncle Steven, he's such a wild card," Rowan said shooting a big cheesy grin in Danny's direction just to tick him off. Danny shook his head and turned his scowl to the window.

"You should have come with us," Grace said. "You shouldn't have to be alone on Thanksgiving. I'm sure Uncle Steve wouldn't mind."

"I've already told you pumpkin, it's not Uncle Steve's fault, it's mine," Rowan said. "It's better if I stay away."

Danny sighed and rolled his eyes. Yeah, better his ass. The only one benefiting from this arrangement was Catherine, or at least, she was supposed to be. Danny was pretty sure that Steve was even more distracted now than before Rowan was distant and unattainable to him.

They came to a turn in the bend and the Camaro went smoothly instead of drifting like Rowan was used to doing. He had guessed early on that Rowan would drive more carefully if Grace was in the car. Once that theory was confirmed Grace was in the car for every lesson.

"Good job," Danny said to her. "Keep driving like this and you'll ace that driving test next week.

"If Aunt Ro passes her test, are we still going to do sing-along-Saturdays?" Grace asked from the back seat.

"Sing-along-Saturdays?" Danny asked.

"Yeah, cause every Saturday, we go driving together, we sing along to Rowan's songs, get snow cones at the beach and play in the water. Are we going to keep doing that?" she asked.

Danny hadn't realized that it had been an every Saturday thing, but now that he thought about it, it was.

"Well… uh… that depends on Danno," Rowan said and Danny frowned, of course she'd throw that back at him. "I'm down if he's not on a case or has something else going on and if I'm not busy."

Ah that was actually quite considerate of her. To think of his schedule not just hers. "It probably wouldn't be every Saturday like it's been for the last little while either," he added smiling at Rowan and the shooting that same smile over his shoulder to Grace.

"Yes, we should reserve it for once a month and special occasions," Rowan told them with her own proud smile and Danny agreed. He liked that idea.

"We should really have Aunt Ro come to our Thanksgiving dinner. Aunt Catherine won't get mad if it we tell her I invited Aunt Ro," Grace said from the back.

Danny and Rowan exchanged glances neither of them had ever even hinted that Catherine was the reason Rowan was keeping her distance.

"Who told you Aunt Catherine was the problem, Monkey?" Danny asked and had she mentioned that to Steve? Cause if she let that slip Steve would flip.

"I'm not stupid," Grace said. "It's not Uncle Steve's fault, it's not Aunt Ro's, it's not yours and Uncle Chin wouldn't tell Rowan to go either so that leaves Aunt Cath… and Aunt Cath really doesn't like Rowan."

"Wow," Rowan breathed out but Danny ignored her.

"It's very important that you don't tell your Uncle Steve that. He's a bit irrational when it comes to your Aunt Ro," Danny reminded her.

"Like how he was going to arrest her because I TPed his house," Grace asked.

"He was gonna what now?" Rowan cried.

"It's fine. We talked him out of it," Danny assured her. He then turned back to Grace. "Yes honey, just like that."

"I couldn't come even if he invited me," Rowan told her. "I have a gig tonight, but thank you so much for thinking of me Gracie."

Danny couldn't get the grin off his face. Rowan saying she didn't like kids had thrown him for a loop because she was absolutely wonderful with Grace. "You wanna pick the next song?"

"Yeah! I want one of yours Aunt Ro!" she said.

"Oh yeah? Which one?" Rowan said going for her iPod. Danny swatted her hands away.

"Watch the road," he said. "I'll do it."

"I want C _heap Thrills_ ," Grace said. "I like your solos."

"Yeah? Cause I'm still not sure I've got them down, you know?" she said. Danny pulled up the track but no sooner than the song was the instrumental playing did his phone ring. Both girls groaned but Danny ignored them. Steve was calling which mean he either knew about Rowan or there was a case.

Danny turned the music down, took the call and then hung up quickly before Steve could sense that Rowan was with him.

"Kay, I'mma drop you off at your moms, and Aunt Ro off at Chin's and then I'm gonna deal with this."

"Are you gonna be done your case in time for turkey?" Grace asked.

"Of course he will, sweetie," Rowan said and he smiled. Yes. Great, he was glad that came out of her mouth, because Rowan was always right.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Danny had picked Steve up and his eyes had narrowed the second he got in the driver's seat. It was like he could tell that Rowan had just been there, had just been where he was now sitting. He tried to air out the car but he was sure her perfume was still lingering. So to distract him Danny decided to pepper him with questions.

After listening to the turkey debacle, he asked: "So… what are the odds of me actually eating turkey today? Like a ten percent chance?"

"Will you relax, okay?" Steve snapped as he took a turn a little too sharply. Oh yeah, he had noticed. He had been acting really strange lately when it came to Rowan. God forbid Danny or Chin mention her and he kept asking them what they did the night before and then glaring at them as if that would make them tell him something other than the carefully laid lies the two had put into place. "My Aunt Deb is there. She's gonna figure everything out."

Wow, really reassuring. But he wasn't going to say that. He needed Steve riled so he'd forget all about Rowan possibly being in the car before he came to pick up Steve. So he went for a real zinger.

"Oh, your Aunt Deb. Your father's sister. The one who took care of Mary after your mother faked her death?" he asked. Yeah he knew which one but he was going for the dig.

"There's something wrong with you," Steve growled.

"Me?" Danny asked feigning innocence.

"Do you like reminding me of that? Why would you like reminding me of that?" he asked. He genuinely sounded hurt and Danny felt a little bad. Maybe… just maybe… he might have crossed a line.

"It's the truth, Steven," he reminded him. They had reached the pier and Steve was parking the Camaro. Once he was done he turned a dark glare to Danny.

"Yes… yes it's the truth," he snapped. "Aunt Deb who raised Mary by herself because of my mother, you happy?"

"No. It must have been trying," Danny said because he knew Mary and she was a handful.

"You don't know the half of it. She walked away from a record deal when that kid got thrown in her lap," Steve told him. Whooo, just hearing about Rowan and frantic attempts to secure her own record deals, he knew that had to be a big deal. It was a big deal for Rowan and she was just the song writer.

"She was a singer?" Danny asked as they got out of the car.

"You didn't know that?" Steve asked as if he had already told him all about Aunt Deb. Him. The man who told people nothing.

"No, I did not," Danny answered. They weren't at the scene yet, where Catherine was waiting and he really didn't want the topic to turn to why his car smelt like roses if he and Rowan weren't friends so he racked his mind for another topic to go to.

"I got a question for you. Uh… how did Captain Lou Grover end up at our family football game, this morning?" Danny asked.

"I mean, his family's all in Chicago. He had no place to go," Steve answered.

"So… you invited him to our football game?" Danny repeated.

"Yeah, Danny, I did," he answered clearly not getting what the issue was.

"Look I understand you guys had a bonding moment while I was gone, but you are aware that's the guy that ratted you out to the Governor, right?" Danny reminded him.

"Yeah, yeah, Danny I get it," Steve said. "But it's Thanksgiving, I'm being the bigger guy here."

"I'm just saying, Rowan had no one and we didn't invite her. I figured you care more that she was sitting alone at…" Danny trailed off, fuck him and his big fucking mouth. Why hadn't he kept his goddamn mouth shut? Maybe Steve wouldn't catch that.

"Alone where? She's at Alex's… isn't she? Where is she if she isn't at Alex's?" Steve asked, well so much for him not catching onto that. His eyes bored into Danny, like he knew, like he already knew what was going on. But he couldn't know. He couldn't know that Rowan and Alex broke up and that in the absence of an actual place to stay she had moved into Chin's spare bedroom.

"Hey Catherine!" Danny called rushing forward to avoid Steve's questions. "What do we got here?"

"All right, here's what we know. So a four-man crew was out trawling for some skipjack when they hooked this," she said gesturing to the item that had drawn them down here.

They were staring at a large black oil drum. Rowan had mentioned having dreams about those. Steve was already fishing for his gloves.

"Forty-five gallon barrel. That's not your usual bycatch," he said. Oh like he was a fucking fisherman. Steven McGarrett and his need to show off.

"Let me guess there's a body in there?" Danny asked. "It's not another one of Rowan's is it?"

Catherine blinked her eyes. "Uh… excuse me? Rowan has bodies?"

"Naw, that one was blue, this is black," Steve said absently looking over the outside, anything to avoid looking in.

"She was dreaming about a body in a black oil drum after Halloween," Danny reminded him. "Maybe that's what this is?"

Steven straightened and turned to glare at him. "Well… when you were having that heart to heart with her in the interrogation room after Halloween, did she happen to mention if more than one person attacked her?" Steve shot back.

"I'm sorry. Someone attacked her? When?" Catherine asked.

"No, she did not Steven. She only mentioned the one," Danny answered primly. "But if her DNA is under this guy's nails, I vote we start with Wo Fat who apparently does her killing for her instead of traumatizing the girl and arresting her again." When Steve scoffed at him Danny added: "It is Thanksgiving. Call me crazy but the girl deserves at least one day's holiday from your insanity."

"A lot of information hit me there, guys, and neither of you are answering my questions," Catherine said.

"Not… not now," Steve said. He turned on Danny. "I am not that bad. I'm not. She and I… we've been great since Waimanalo."

"That was less than seven days ago, you putz. Of course, you've been great you haven't fucking seen the girl or had a reason to arrest her or handcuff her to a car," Danny cried.

"She got handcuffed to a car?" Catherine asked again.

"You see… you see how do you know that?" Steve asked.

"What do you mean how do I know that? I work with you. We have the same work place. You drive my goddamn car. I think I would have noticed if Rowan was in the back of it and we were taking her back to the palace," Danny snapped.

"Oh my god! Will you just admit it?" "—Admit what?" "That you're friends with her. Admit that you and Chin went behind my back and stayed friends with her." "How could we be friends? Why would you even think…" "—Because I saw you together. We saw you together. Me and Catherine. We… We saw all of you guys together. The day after Halloween."

Danny fell quiet. "You've known that long and you didn't say anything?" he asked. Steve's nostrils flared, oh he did not like how Danny had turned the tables on him. "What you wanted to play a game? See how long they can keep it up?"

"No! I wanted you to tell me the truth!" Steve thundered. "I wanted you to want to tell me the truth. But you and Chin were about to take this to your fucking graves!"

"Of course we were, you're fucking nuts and it would only get worse when you found out _why_ she cut us all out…" Danny trailed off and shut his mouth. Steve blinked his eyes.

"Wait… reason… there's a reason… she told you why she cut us all out? There was like a legitimate reason? One that would make me mad? Why? What was is it?" Steve asked.

Danny's mouth opened and closed, his eyes scanned the horizon like they did when he was flustered and didn't want to answer. Steve waited but nothing came out of him.

"Danny!" he urged, he would have been stupid to not notice how Danny's eyes flickered to Catherine. But he couldn't help himself, she was right there, sheet white, eyes wide. No one wanted Steve to find out what had happened that led her to that night in the bar, but Catherine had a personal reason to make sure Steve never found out

"Look. I promised alright?" Danny said. "She was very clear about not telling you what happened because… god… just because alright?"

Steve glared at him. "You're fucking ridiculous. The two of you! All of you!" he shouted. "I'm riding back with Cath."

As soon as he was gone Catherine shot him a glare and hissed a: "Great going," to him before chasing after Steve. Hey, at least he didn't find out Rowan had been in the car before him.


	81. Chapter 81

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hey guys! So we're back on the two post a week schedule for the next little bit until we hit 500 reviews. This chapter is a bit longer, sitting at 13 pages, but I have a lot that happens in this chapter, some of it is super cute, some of it is not. HOWEVER, we're only 2 chapters away from Steve finding out and 3 chapters away from Catherine being gone. In 8 chapters we're going to get to them trying to get their shit together. I've also gotten their first sex scene in the story (it's in chapter 101… don't worry they're doing very cute things way before that.) So enjoy this update, tell me if you enjoyed it, and I'll see you on Friday!_

Chapter 81

* * *

Steve didn't need this today, okay? He didn't. He didn't need a turkey crisis. He didn't need his best friend to literally go see Rowan and then come pick him up and then act like it was perfectly fine and nothing had happened. He didn't need Danny to not even try to pretend like he hadn't been going behind Steve's back, being friends with Rowan and withholding information purposely because he thought Steve couldn't be rational about it. He didn't need a threat on the President who was coming to visit Hawaii. He didn't need that stiffness that was now between he and Danny as they tried to do their job.

And he certainly didn't need his Aunt Deb getting arrested and needing him to go bail her out.

Duke led him to the cells and unlocked the door for him. "Hi!" he called to his aunt who stood up and half laughed at him when she noticed him behind Duke.

"Hi!" she said back. She was putting on a brave face but he could tell his Aunt was rattled.

"Thanks," he said "Can you give me a second?"

"Just a second," Duke agreed and then left them there.

Steve, with his hands on his hips stared down at his Aunt Deb. "You okay?" he asked.

She put her own hands on her hips and said: "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Good," he whispered and then carefully went about putting the next sentence together. "Do you wanna tell me what happened?"

He wanted to know, but he also didn't want to know. He was really worried about knowing.

"Well… uh… well I needed some grass," she said and Steve was sent reeling. She needed _what_?! "And uh… well... how was I supposed to know the guy was a narc?"

"What?" Steve cried.

"I wouldn't even be here if it weren't for those fascists at the dispensary," she continued. But Steve was still stuck on the whole Aunt-Deb-Buying-Weed thing. "They wouldn't take my card."

"The dispensary? WHAT?!" he thundered.

"Yeah, and the guy behind the counter told me where I could find some, and then I run into this narc…"

Steve put his hands up, he had gotten way too much info there and his brain still wasn't processing past Aunt Deb plus weed. "Okay, stop, please. For a minute," he said to her and she fell quiet and just stared at him like she didn't understand why he was confused. "Can we go back?"

"Yeah?"

"Why do you have a medical marijuana card?" he asked her. It _was_ the most important question.

And she answered that question so weirdly.

She drew herself up all regal like she was the queen and even added a little bit of British head waggle when she said "I have cataracts."

Well a bloody fucking hell to him too. "You have cataracts?" he echoed.

"Yes," confirmed the regal Aunt Deb. Wow, she was really insulting his intelligence here. "Cataracts, that's what happens when you get old."

And then she stared at him. The regal Aunt Deb deflated and fear and apprehension rested on her face. "Are you telling me the truth?" he asked her. She wasn't like Danny, or Rowan… or his mother. His Aunt Deb wouldn't lie to her favourite nephew.

"Look, half the people my age get them," she said. Okay, she would lie to her favourite nephew. Of course, it was true, except she was lying about having them.

Steve scoffed at her. "Deborah," he chided.

"Steven," she chided right back.

"I'm a cop. I read people for a living," he reminded her. "You're not tell me everything."

And then he folded his arms over his chest and waited. Aunt Deb sighed, she looked at him surreptitiously before sitting back down on the bend.

"Oh, this isn't how I wanted to do this," she sighed to herself, but it was loud enough for Steve to hear so he took a step forward and hesitantly asked: "Do what?" because this wasn't sounding good.

She cleared her throat a few times before she finally turned to him, she pivoted her body but her eyes avoided his. Steve's heart plummeted to his stomach. No, this was getting worse by the second. "Okay, uh, a couple of months ago I wasn't feeling so good, tired all of the time, nauseous, headaches. So I went to the doctor and they ran a whole bunch of tests, and uh… turns out I have a tumor in my brain."

Steve leant against the bars of the cell. His brain didn't seem to comprehend that. "You… you have cancer?" His Aunt Deb just nodded and his heart fell out of his chest and to the floor. "How bad is it?"

Please god, don't let it be that bad.

"It's bad," she admitted. _Fuck_.

Steve blinked his eyes, his knees were going weak. He carefully took a seat beside her as she just stared at him, waiting for her confession to be absorbed.

"Okay… uh… alright. What's the plan? What's the course of treatment?" he asked. They got beat this. McGarrett's were fighters. His Aunt Deb was a plucky little thing. She could beat this. He'd be there every step of the way. He'd move her to Hawaii, make sure she got the best treatment…

"Well, there is none," she said. What now? How could there be _no_ treatment? "There is none, it's… uh… it's too far along."

No, Steve wasn't having that. This was the only living relative, other than Mary, he had left. He wasn't going to lose her too. "No, but, you know, chemo, radiation…"

"Well… we talked about that, but I decided against it," she said.

Whoa. Hold up now.

" _Why_?!"

Steve just couldn't understand this. Why the hell would she just want to give up?

"Because they said it wouldn't work, so I…" she trailed off and Steve picked it up. "So you just… that's it? You just gave up? Is that what you're gonna do? You can't do that. Okay? No, you can't… You gotta fight this… you gotta…"

And then it was Aunt Deb's turn to cut him off. "Listen to me," she urged, her hands coming to his. Steve fell quiet. "I don't wanna spend whatever time I have left in some hospital, getting pumped full of poison and feeling crappy all the time, okay? That's not how I wanna do this. This is what I've decided."

Damn that McGarrett stubborn streak. Steve rested his elbows on his thighs and hung his head. He tried to breathe but he couldn't. It hurt. It burned. His chest was on fire trying to contain it all in. Aunt Deb put a hand to his back and rubbed him gently but it wasn't her fingers he wanted to feel. He didn't even know if he could go see the person he wanted comforting him right at that moment.

He knew he wasn't going to be able to talk her out of this, not without time to prepare a rebuttal, all he could say at that moment was: "Okay."

They were silent for a few seconds before Steve turned to her and asked: "That's why you're here isn't it? You wanted to come and say goodbye to us."

She nodded and his heart sank even further. He sighed and tried to blink back those tears. This wasn't what he wanted Duke and the other HPD officers to see.

"Listen… uh… you can't say anything to your sister," she told him.

Steve lifted his head up and tried to sniff away any sign of emotion. "Wait, what?" he cried. "You can't do that to me, Deb. That's not fair. You can't keep this from her"

"No, no, I'm gonna tell her. I'm just waiting for the right moment, okay?" she urged. Steve looked at her and he believe her. At least she didn't lie to him.

"Look, you better get back to work," she told him. "I've still gotta get booked."

"You're not getting booked," Steve groaned, like he was going to let that happen.

"I am getting booked," she repeated. "I don't want any special treatment, okay? I'm serious."

Steve sighed. "Fine, fine. You're getting booked," he groaned which caused his Aunt to grin. "I'll send someone to pick you up when you're through."

Deb thought about it a moment before saying: "Make sure he's good-looking, okay?"

Steve had to laugh at that one. He already had someone in mind, the most attractive cop in his unit. He let his Aunt kiss him on the cheek, and tell him that she loved him and then he was leaving her in the cell to get booked and texting Cath to come pick up his Aunt when she was done.

But he couldn't shake the feeling and his body was craving a hit of his favourite drug in human form. He pulled up Danny's contact and waited for him to answer.

"Williams," he said in lieu of a proper greeting.

"Hey you got a second for me?"

"For you, I got a whole minute," Danny said.

"I'm not on speaker am I?" Steve asked. And when Danny said _no_ he went into the favour he wanted to ask. "Hey… uh… look can you take me to see Ro?"

Danny was quiet a second before he sighed and said: "Look man I'm sorry… but I'm not going to…"

"No, Danny, this is about something a little more serious than your betrayal. I just… I just need to talk to her okay? Please?" he asked. His voice cracked, and it must have been betraying a little bit more emotion than he was trying to because Danny relented.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Danny had sent a text message. _Emergency. Call me._ And while she was reading that message he called an Rowan knew it had to be bad. It could have been Grace, it could have been that damn building coming down on him… she didn't once think it was Steve.

She had left the band practice, phone shaking her hand. She answered already worried. But then it was Danny on the phone talking about Steve. Something was wrong with him. He had been shaking, demanding to see her. Danny was worried that Steve was about to show him some sort of emotion, so he wanted to know if it was okay to bring him round to… uh… where ever she was.

So, she had said yes. And then hung up the phone and wondered why she did so. Steve didn't deserve her help. Steve hadn't even apologized for kidnapping her. But he was already on his way so there was nothing she could do about it, except not fall for his charms when he got there. That's right. She wasn't going to help him unless he apologized first. That seemed only fair, didn't it?

The Camaro pulled up to the garage and Rowan held her breath. But when they got out of the car that breath she had sucked in left her.

Fuck her, he was wearing blue. Fuck. She could never resist him in blue. That button-down shirt looked about ready to burst it was so tight across his chest, straining with every ragged breath he was taking. That was how she realized that something was very, very wrong.

She was faster after that and once she finally got to his side she looked him up and down. He was quaking. Her brave Steven McGarrett looked about ready to break down right in front of her. She immediately forgot to demand an apology. This situation was much worse than she thought was. She hesitantly put a hand to his arm, and snippets of words came to her. The most important being: inoperable and brain.

"Who's dying, Steve?" she asked. She didn't recognize the voice, or the face that came to her. The flash wasn't as strong as her others. They were getting increasingly less potent and harder for her to hold on to. Things were blurring, both in the future and in her past, she was having a hard time remembering her life before this and an even harder time remembering what was going to happen next once the flashes faded away.

Steve didn't answer her but that strength he had in him, that thing that made him impervious, shattered in front of her eyes. He was a boy again. Lost and upset. Crying, the holding it in shook him so hard she was worried he might come apart. Rowan went to him, wrapped him up in her arms and held him tight, held him together.

"It's okay," she soothed, her hand caressing his back the way he liked. She shot a glance to Danny and saw that he was just as shocked as Rowan was by this turn of event. Still they say nothing about to another. "You let it out. It's okay."

She kept on soothing him, trying to ignore the way his fingers dug into her back, and how tight his grip was on her. She let him hold her, she let him cry until he was empty and only when the hiccups subsided, his breathing levelled did she try to pry him away.

"A few more minutes," he whispered into her hair. "Just… just a few…"

Rowan let him stay there, his fingers flexing over her back, his breath hot against her neck. Until finally he let her go, wiping the tears away.

"Uh… I uh… I need your help. Both of your help," he said through his hiccups. "It's… uh… about my aunt."

"Mmm, brain tumour," she said.

Danny sighed. "Wow, uh… babe…" he said clearly at a loss for words. "I'm so sorry."

Steve nodded but it was evident that the sentiment meant absolutely nothing to him at that moment. He didn't want condolences he wanted a plan. "It's inoperable, but she's refusing any other kind of treatment," he told them. "And I don't… I don't know how to change her mind. I thought that… that maybe you could tell me…"

A vision he wanted a vision from her. Rowan frowned at him. Didn't he see that he couldn't change his aunt's mind? "Uh... I mean… I haven't been getting anything too clear lately," she admitted. "Uhm… but I know she's going to die."

Steve winced. "But what… isn't there something I can do? Maybe you could tell her that you see a different future…"

"I'm not a fortune teller, Steve," she reminded him.

"Yeah, but you've changed so much. You saved Chin, you saved Billy, you saved Catherine, why can't… why can't you save my Aunt Deb?" he asked, his voice cracking and the tears coming back in his eyes. Gone was her Steven McGarrett, looking at her now, pleading with her with those big blue eyes was that lost little boy under that hardened exterior who had lost his mom too young, his home and his family all with one car bomb.

Rowan's heart went out to him, she felt like she may just cry herself. She swallowed down the raw emotion in her throat and smiled sadly at him. "That's a lot to put on one person, Steve. I can't… I can't save everyone and I can't change everything, no matter how much I want to. If it were up to me I'd do whatever I thought would work to save your Aunt Deb but I think it just might be her time."

Steve looked away from her again and this time Danny stepped up. "This is your aunt's choice Steve, you have to remember and respect that."

And just like that the armour went right back up, that vulnerable little boy disappeared and the hardened tough guy Mr. McGarrett was back

"Yes, it's her choice, but she's not the only one that's going to be affected by this," Steve cried. "I mean Mary… Mary's gonna be destroyed if we lose her."

But it wasn't just going to be Mary. Steve was gonna be destroyed too. "First mom pulls her famous disappearing act again and now this?" Steve said. Ah there it was. See it wasn't all about Aunt Deb, his mother had helped with this.

Rowan hung her head. "I'm sorry, Steve. Maybe… maybe if I had just shut up, she would have… I unno maybe she would have come back," she whispered.

Steve turned to her confusion on his face. "Sorry? You're the only one who tried to make her stay. You. You who had the biggest reason to want her gone. You tried to blackmail Doris McGarrett into staying. There aren't a lot of people who are ballsy enough to do that," Steve said with a laugh. "No. You were right, Doris was gone the second I demanded she tell me the truth. It wasn't your fault. None of this is your fault."

It was nice of him to say it but she didn't believe it. Steve looked back to the two of them. "So… well… what do I do? How do I get her to change her mind?"

There it was, that question again. Rowan didn't know what to say, but luckily Danny did. "I don't think… uh… I don't think you… uh… yeah… I don't think you do try to change her mind," he said. It took a few attempts but Danny got the unpopular opinion out there.

Steve just glared at hem so Danny continued. "I know… I mean… look, if this is your last Thanksgiving together, you wanna spend it arguing?" he asked.

Steve's answer of: "No," was immediate. So at least they were getting somewhere.

"No," Danny echoed in agreement. "You wanna try to make memories, some good memories, something that's gonna bright you through whatever's coming. That's my opinion."

And for once his opinion had been asked for. Rowan watched her boys. Both leaning against the Camaro shoulder to shoulder. Steve was going to be alright. He had Danny. He had Five-0. She wouldn't have to worry about him.

"I think Danny's right," she said. "Don't waste whatever time you have left with arguing. Spend it being happy, spend whatever time is left together. No regrets. Nothing missed."

Steve carefully looked at her. "You're not alone, are you?" he asked. "For Thanksgiving I mean? Cause I'm… I'm having…"

Rowan cut him off before he could finish. "No, no," she said quickly, hooking her thumb in the direction of the garage where the boys were most likely watching. "We gotta gig tonight. To make up for… well… to make up for things. I'll be too busy with that to be alone."

Steve nodded. Rowan knew, if he had asked her to go to that party she would have been too weak to say no. Steve always made her weak. He wasn't hers, she had to remember, he wasn't hers and he never would be.

"You okay now?" she asked.

Steve nodded. "Okay. Well… happy Thanksgiving boys," she said softly. "I'll see you later."

She walked away trying her hardest not to frown. Not to wonder if Steve was still watching and trying her very hardest not to run back to him, throw herself at him and beg him to choose her over Catherine.

She shook her head clear of her fantasies. Steven McGarrett was dangerous. Steven McGarrett made her weak.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

When dinner was a bust Steve had to take out his contingency plan. It wasn't a complete bust. Yes they had no turkey but he, Danny, Grover and Chin had all met the president today to be awarded for their actions earlier that day. They had saved an innocent daughter who witnessed a crime from getting killed and now he got to spend time with his family.

Mary had been told the news and she had taken it exactly the way Steve thought she would. She had joked that Steve must have had some sort of pep talk with Danny that had fully cheered him up, which was when he admitted that it was Rowan who had helped him. Then she joked that Steve had better set up a meet for Mary and Rowan so she could be cheered up too.

Of course, there was still the problem of dinner. Luckily for them he had made an emergency standing reservation at a very special place. The La Mariana Tiki Bar.

Nicky "The Kid" Demarco was on the mic singing away and as they took his seat he finished his song and accepted his praise from the audience.

"Aw you guys are a great audience," he said. He smiled at Steve who gave him the nod to go ahead and Nicky's smile widened. "And because you're a great audience, I got a special surprise for you."

Chin leant across the table to Steve and asked very quietly: "Is he gonna tell that Sinatra story again?"

Steve smiled that secretive smile of his. "No, I don't think so," he told Chin, assuaging any fears he might have had that the Sinatra story would reel it's ugly, long-winded head again.

"Many, many years ago, my good friend John McGarrett used to brag about his sister singing in these legendary nightclubs in Los Angeles," Nicky told the crowd. Deb's back went ram rod straight and her surprised eyes found Steve who could only smile back at her. "Like the Trocadero, Ciro's and the Cocoanut Grove, and the beat goes on and on. Well, I never got to hear her. But as fate has it, right here tonight in this club, we have Deb McGarrett."

Ohhh she was wincing now. Still Steve couldn't stop smiling. She scowled at him and he merely shrugged and tried not to laugh. Nicky walked up to their table and offered Deb a hand. "Deb, would you please come up and sing a song for this marvelous audience?" he asked her.

The spotlight swung to them and while Steve could see she wanted to say no, she relented especially when everyone started clapping and cheering.

Before she left the table, she snapped: "I'm going to kill you," to him and then walked up and took a seat in front of the mic. Danny smiled at him. He knew what he was doing, that he had planned this. Make some memories, Danny and Rowan had told him, and that's what he was going to do.

"Oh boy," she whispered and then broke out into a nervous chuckle. "Well, I certainly didn't expect this. Uh… I mean, I haven't sung in, well, about a hundred years, and, well, these old pipes are pretty rusty. But, uh, since it's a special occasion, oh, what the hell."

That earned her a chuckle, and Steve draped his arm across the back of Mary's chair, while beside him Catherine dropped her hand to his thigh. It was a show of comfort he didn't need or want at that moment, not with a baby a seat away from him, but he was trying his damnedest to be better so he let her keep it there

"I'd like to dedicate this song to my family," Aunt Deb announced to the restaurant. "My little _ohana_ , Steve, Mary and baby Joanie. I love you all so very much. Here it goes. Bear with me."

And then she started to sing. It was a little shaky at the beginning but once she really got into it, oh boy did she light up the stage. He was watching her, enjoying this, enjoying every moment until that feeling draped over him. This sense of calm he hadn't felt since that afternoon when a certain someone had hugged the sadness right out of his tear-soaked body.

Steve froze, he saw her there at the side of the stage, arms crossed smiling softly at Aunt Deb as she sang. Rowan's gig was here? Damn he hadn't known that. He should have asked. The world around him froze, it blurred around the edges, everything was a soft glow around her, like a halo. And she wasn't even looking at him.

She had really come through for him today. She didn't have to comfort him. She didn't have to agree. But she did. She did even though he didn't deserve it. She did even though he had done terrible things to her. He had literally kidnapped her a few days ago, she had every right to turn him down but hadn't.

Aunt Deb finished her song and that was when Steve started to notice that a younger crowd was filing in. Younger musicians were replacing the ones on the stage. Nicky came back up.

"I see our younger audience has already begun to show up," he said. "Just give the band a couple of minutes and we'll get the show on the road!"

A smattering of cheers rose up, but Steve's eyes were still on Rowan. Her had was done up wild, giving it more volume then he was used to. Her eyes were framed with black liner making them twice as big and bright. Her lips were a bright red and she was wearing dark denim high waisted shorts with black fishnets and pointed black ankle boots with silver accents on the wedged heels. Her black shirt was a simple tee-shirt she had tied up to bare her mid-drift that read "Alex and the Doctors" and she was wearing a leather jacket a size too big for her and that he was pretty sure was Chin's.

Beside him Catherine sunk half an inch in her seat and sighed: "Oh you've got to be kidding me."

"I didn't know, okay?" Steve hissed to her. "I didn't know."

Luckily things didn't devolve, Danny quickly jumped to the rescue. "Yo, is she wearing your jacket?" he asked Chin.

Chin peered at her for a bit before saying: "Yeah… I think she is. I didn't know we were sharing closets."

The table giggled but the real laugh came after Danny's comment of: "I don't think anything in her closet would look good on you.

"Hey guys!" Rowan said into the mic. "We've got Alex warming up his vocals for you. Would you guys mind if I warmed up this amazing audience with one of my songs?"

Cheers went up from the gathering crowd, but none as loud as Grace who was grinning wildly at her and clapping so hard her hands must have hurt.

"Grace… uh… Grace really likes Rowan's music," Danny told them, clearly trying to not be embarrassed by Grace's sudden wild cheering.

Grace nodded. "She's the best!" She waved wildly at Rowan who smiled at her and sent her a small wave and blew a kiss in her direction before turning back to the microphone in front of her.

"Does anyone have any song recommendations?" Rowan asked the crowd and she pulled it free from the stand.

Titles began to rise into the air and Steve was surprised. He was unaware that anyone knew any of Rowan's songs, he was unaware that anyone would even know who Rowan was. But there they were, songs being thrown out at her: Hallelujah, Dancing with Tears in my eyes, Wildest Dream. He didn't know any of these but these people, clearly Alex and Rowan's fans, did.

Grace jumped onto her chair despite Danny's protests and screamed: "Cheap Thrills!" as loud as she could. And then she turned the table and had them start the chant. It started at their table but it swelled through the bar until everyone was chanting for the song and Rowan was laughing and shaking her head.

"Alright, _Cheap Thrills_ it is," she said.

The music started to play and Steve watched her. Watched the music ebb into her body making it sway to the beat. He hadn't heard this song before but he knew, just by watching her that whatever was going to happen was going to be amazing.

 _Come on, come on, turn the radio on. It's Friday night and I won't be long. Gotta do my hair, put my make up on. It's Friday night and I won't be long, 'til I hit the dance floor, hit the dance floor. I got all I need. No I ain't got cash, I ain't got cash, but I got you baby_

Steve tore his eyes away from Rowan to scan the crowd. To watch people swaying in their seats, to watch Grace singing along loudly and proudly to a song she knew every word to, to watch Danny mouth along too because he too knew the words. He watched Alex at the side lines seemingly uninterested in Rowan's performance and more interested in the tequila and groupie he found at the bar. And the table of well-dressed older men watching Rowan with rapt interested.

 _It's a second chance_ , she had said that afternoon. That's what this was. A second gig to make up for the one she missed out on. The execs she was supposed to meet were there, at that table, he would bet his badge on it. And he had crashed it.

When his eyes turned back to the stage he swore Rowan was staring right at him. Maybe it was fanciful to assume that, but he couldn't help it. Their eyes locked, electricity crackled in the air around him and Steve couldn't look away.

 _Baby I don't need dollar bills to have fun tonight, Baby I don't need dollar bills to have fun tonight, No, I don't need no money, as long as I can feel the beat. I don't need no money, as long as you keep dancing with me._

She did a call and answer, the audience knowing just when to shout: "I love cheap thrills" and every time she came back to that line: _as long as you keep dancing with me_ , her eyes would find Steve. It didn't matter where she was on stage and what she was doing. Her eyes found him and he knew that if the song was written for anyone, that one line alone was for him.

Her solos were filled with passion, coming straight from her heart and when the song was over, she stood there basking in the applause breathless and grinning this Cheshire grin he had never seen on her face before. This was what Rowan was good at. Singing. Performing. He didn't understand why she wasn't famous, why it was _Alex and the Doctors_ and not _Rowan and the Doctors_ , or better yet, just _Rowan_.

Rowan thanked the audience, hopped off the stage. There was a brief lull of silence but it didn't last long. The second Alex was on stage, in his grey skinny jeans and loose tank top showing off the crests of his abs it was cut so low on the sides, the screaming started up again.

He opened with what Steve knew was a crowd pleaser. _Saturday Night_ , which was the most popular song Rowan had written for their band. Steve's eyes were on Rowan though, following her through the crowd to where those nicely dressed execs were waiting to shake her hand and look her over like she was a piece of meat.

Aunt Deb leant in across Mary and put a hand to his arm to get his attention. "Steven, your girlfriend is staring," she hissed.

Steve jerked right back around. He hadn't quite realized he had turned almost his whole body to look at a table behind him. He smiled sheepishly at Catherine who was glaring at him.

"I didn't know," he repeated. "I swear. I didn't know."

He was saved from any further lecture by the appearance of a waiter and everyone simultaneously remembered they had menus at the same time. They looked at their choices, almost everyone settling for the turkey dinner option and Steve exercised all the will power he had left to keep himself from turning around and he did so well until the food came. He turned around, he told himself to look at Joanie, but his eyes found Rowan again and the meeting she was having with those suited men.

No one at that table looked happy. He couldn't fathom why, Alex had screaming fans, the song she had written was catchy and she sang it wonderfully. The only thing he could think they were mad about was her missing that first gig… but it wasn't her fault.

Catherine went to the washroom and she wasn't gone two seconds before Aunt Deb leant across the table and said: "Don't just stare at her. Go talk to her."

Steve blinked his eyes. "No… Aunt Deb…" he started. "She's not… she wouldn't want me over there."

"Oh, you know her?" she asked.

"It's complicated," Steve muttered, trying to avoid everyone's eyes.

"If you want to talk to her honey, and it looks like you really want to, you should," she said. "Take it from me, waiting is not worth it."

Steve looked around at the table, he didn't think he was going to do it, or going to listen to her until Chin added: "You could apologize for Japan."

He could do more than that. He did owe her for helping him when she didn't have to, when she had no reason to even be half as nice as she was. So he got up. He carefully made his way to the table, gathered up all his courage before it could desert him and then cleared his throat.

"Hello," he said to all of them and Rowan turned to him eyes wide in terror.

"Oh God. Please don't," she hissed.

"I'm sorry to interrupt," Steve foraged on, keeping his eyes off of Rowan. "I'm Commander Steven McGarrett of Five-0, and uh… I just wanted to make sure that you're not upset about that meeting she missed a few nights ago. I pulled her onto one of my ops, as a…. uh… as a consultant and I kept her longer than I was supposed to. I didn't realize she had an important gig… I mean she told me but I didn't realize how important it was… I just wanted to be sure that you knew that she is reliable, and she is responsible, and she wouldn't have missed that gig for the world if I hadn't strong armed her into helping me."

The men around the table thanked him for his testimony but his eyes were on Rowan who was staring up at him. For the first time since he has saved her from Wo Fat she was staring at him like he was the hero again.

She half smiled at him. "Thank you, Steven," she whispered to him and he nodded.

"Well thank you for your time," he said to the table. "And uh… lock her down… she's a real keeper."

He forced himself to leave her there. To let her finish her meeting and to get back to the table before Catherine got back from the washroom. But he felt lighter, happier and like he had used his power with Five-0 for good where Rowan was concerned. You know, for once.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve had been staring even before that girl was on the stage. Deb had noticed him staring at her even while Deb was singing. He had been watching her, but as soon as he saw the girl at the side of stage he couldn't take his eyes off her. Oh he tried, he would make himself look back at Deb, but somehow his eyes kept turning back to the rock-and-roll-red-head.

And he was staring at her like she was a tall glass of water out in the middle of the Sahara. When she got up on stage it was even worse. It took one look on Catherine's face for her to realize that this was a common occurrence.

But it wasn't until Steve confirmed that he knew the red-head, until he gave her the impression that he not only knew her but didn't get along with her, that she realized that he did this with _her_ quite frequently.

As his aunt, Deb immediately wanted to intervene. She just didn't know how. Catherine was a lovely young lady who seemed extremely interested and invested in Steve. Steve had seemed interested and invested as well but that was before she saw him looking at the red-head the way he did.

Part way through dinner, she had a fit of nausea and excused herself. Mary had realized almost immediately that she wasn't feeling well and followed her out of the front lobby where she had retreated to get a breath of fresh air.

They were there for only a few minutes, Mary arguing that if Deb felt sick they should go home, and Deb flat out telling her that they weren't cutting this family dinner short over her, when two people in their own argument entered the lobby. Instinctively Deb and Mary pressed into a shadowed corner behind a decorative tree to eavesdrop.

"Why are you here Rowan?" Catherine snapped. "Why can't we go anywhere without tripping over you?"

The red-head, Rowan, turned on Catherine who had been following her. "I'm here for my gig. And it was booked WEEKS ago. So you guys are crashing _my_ gig!" she cried. "And how was Steve supposed to know, huh? He and I don't talk! Thanks to _someone_!"

That someone must have been Catherine. "Oh yes, you don't talk to him," Catherine echoed sarcastically. "You are _constantly_ with him. You're everywhere, involved in every case, showing me up at every turn with your stupid visions!"

"They're not stupid. They save lives," Rowan cried. "They saved your life."

"You can't hold that over me for forever," Catherine snapped. "You're the one who agreed that following Steve and his cases was a problem. You're the one who was supposed to leave his life and live your own. But you weren't out of his life… ever. You couldn't even leave Danny and Chin alone, and you couldn't keep your mouth shut to them either. Bet you couldn't wait to blame me!"

"Danny _forced_ me to tell him. He told Chin, not me. So, talk to Danny about blabbing, because that wasn't my fault," Rowan snapped. "Actually, you're right. It is yours. You got yourself into this. Not me."

"You need to leave him alone. Do you understand? I'm not playing with you anymore. You need to go away or things are going to get more than uncomfortable for you," Catherine warned.

"Did you just threaten me?" she hissed. "Really? You know. I could tell Steve what you did. I can tell him you're why I'm not talking to him anymore."

"Oh yes the only thing you can threaten me with. What are you going to do if I tell him?" Catherine shot back. She was bluffing, Deb was certain she was bluffing.

Rowan crossed her arms over her chest and very smugly said: "Go ahead."

Catherine stared at her and Rowan's smile turned into something a little more sinister. "Go on then, Catherine. Go, go tell him. Tell him what happened," she growled.

"Tell me what?" Steve asked appearing behind Catherine. Both women jumped, both their eyes turned to him, clearly neither of them had seen him come up. "What happened?"

Rowan froze, her eyes on Steven. Catherine too had frozen, staring at him. His eyes narrowed at the two of them. "You're not arguing again, are you?" he asked.

"You have to admit it, Steven, this was very convenient," Catherine sighed and Steve sighed with her, his hands deep in his pockets and his eyes on the ground.

"And I was explaining that I was here first," she told him. "That's all."

Steve sighed at her too, and then put a hand to Catherine's lower back. "I know I promised, Cath, but don't take it out on her. I didn't know she had a gig here tonight and she didn't know about me showing up either. But if you're going to take it out on someone, take it out on me."

"That's not what we're doing…" Catherine started as Rowan said the same thing. "That's not… that's not… we're…"

Rowan came to a standstill her eyes darted between Catherine and Steve, while Steve just stared at her with his heart in his eyes. Damn that boy had it bad for this red-headed vixen, and judging by the position she was in she was about to break her poor nephew's heart.

"I'm just causing trouble again," Rowan told him.

Steve's eyes narrowed. That's right, her Steven was a cop, he knew when someone was lying, he'd spot that girl's bullshit from a mile away.

"About what, Ro?" he asked.

Rowan paused. "What?"

"You said you were causing trouble," he repeated for her. "What about?"

Rowan was floundering now. "Does it matter now?" she asked. "Do you always have to interrogate me? Haven't you done enough Steve?"

Steve lowered his eyes. "I said I was sorry Rowan."

Oh god what had he done?

"Yes well, drugging and kidnapping me will need a little more than a slight apology to make up for that," she answered. Deb blanched, he had done what now?

Steve straightened, his face went white. "You're crying, why are you crying?" he asked.

Rowan sniffed. "I don't know. Because I'm a girl? I'm over emotional? It's my time of the month? Take your pick of excuses, but please take your sorry excuse of an apology and your over-bearing girlfriend and have a happy Thanksgiving," she ordered.

Steve stared at her before lowering his gaze and whispered: "I really _am_ sorry," to her. He then took a hold of Catherine and began to lead her away. "Come on, Cath."

As soon as he was gone, Rowan stumbled out, past Mary and Deb where they were hiding in the shadows, to the parking lot where she leant against a completely marvelous top of the line Audi. She opened it up, and sat in the driver's seat, her legs out of the car, her hands shakily trying to light a cigarette while she continued to cry.

"I can't believe this," Mary hissed. "He told me their falling out was Rowan's fault, that she picked a fight with them over nothing."

So, this had happened before. Rowan had crucified herself for the sake of Catherine Rollins long before tonight. Oh Steven, how blind he had become.

"Well, come on then," Deb hissed pushing herself out of the shadows and to the still sniffling and… what seemed to be chain smoking, young lady.

"There are easier ways to kill yourself, honey," Deb said. Rowan jumped the cigarette fell out of her hands and she struggled to stand up, forgetting she was in a car and bashing her head on the ceiling. She yelped and fell back to her seat holding her head.

"Jesus, you… you startled me," she said. Her mascara was running down her face, painting think watery black lines down her cheeks, and her red lipstick was smudged creating a very vampy kind of look. Even a completely disaster she was stunning, no wonder Steve was constantly struck dumb by her.

"What the hell Rowan!" Mary cried appearing beside Deb. "My brother thinks you hate him. He thinks you don't want him, but it's not you. It's Catherine! Why the hell are you doing this to him?"

Rowan's mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water. She stuttered over her words and Deb cut both girls off.

"Let's all be calm here," Deb said. "If you don't already know, I'm Deb McGarrett."

"Yes, yes, it's very nice to meet you. You sang wonderfully tonight," Rowan said shaking Deb's hand. "I'm uh… I'm Rowan Pierce."

Well now Deb had the full name.

"And has Steve told you?" she asked, she had a hunch she wanted to see if it was right.

"About the cancer? Yes," she answered. "I think you're very brave."

She liked this girl. No condolences, just what Deb wanted. "He saw you today then?"

"Uh… yes… after… after you told him he came to see me," she whispered. "Danny and I convinced him not to try and convince you to change your mind."

Even better. Steven went to her in his hour of need _and_ he listened to her. "Okay, then you're going to forgive my bluntness," Deb said to her, pausing to gather herself and clear her throat. "Child. It's clear as day that you have feelings for my nephew. It's even clearer that he's head over heels for you. So… does Catherine have something on you? Because I don't get how you're letting a woman like that keep you from someone you care so deeply about."

"No," Rowan said quickly. "It's not… we weren't…"

"Save it, we heard everything," Deb said.

"I have half a mind to storm in there and tell Steve everything. Knock that smug grin right off her face," Mary snapped.

"No!" Rowan shouted, successfully shooting to her feet this time. "Okay. Look. Just. No. Steve… he doesn't… not about me. Okay? He loves Catherine. Really. He does. He… he just… well I think he feels responsible for me and he's got it confused with something else. I was… yeah… you're right… I care… I really… really care about him, and that was affecting him and Catherine and that wasn't fair. So, I said I'd stay away but…"

"But he doesn't," Deb finished.

"It's a bit of both," Rowan answered. "It's like everywhere I turn, he's there. And I wish I could stop it, but I just get tied up to his cases sometimes."

Rowan looked at both women who were clearly not buying it. "Please, don't. Just please don't tell him. He just got this terrible news and I don't want to make things worse. Please? I want him to have happy memories of your trip… of your last Thanksgiving. Please?"

Well Aunt Deb couldn't crush this girl. This poor delusional girl. She was just as blind as Steve. Just as hopelessly in love as he was. But she had a point.

She got in her car, started it up and drove away. Mary shook her head. "Screw this, I'm going to tell him," she snapped.

She whirled away but Deb grabbed her. "No. She was right we want this to be a happy trip," she agreed.

"So, we're not going to tell him that Catherine's keeping Rowan away from him and the others?" Mary asked. "You don't get it, Aunt Deb. This has really put tension on Steve and his team."

"No, I'm not saying we don't tell him, I'm saying we don't tell him right now," Deb corrected. "And I rather gathered that it was putting a lot of strain on him, but you're right, I don't get it because I don't have the whole story. But I think I know who we ask to get it."

Deb held onto Mary's arm and walked with her back into the bar. She had a plan. A good plan and if she played her cards right her nephew would be basking in happiness before she shed her mortal coil.


	82. Chapter 82

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Kay guys, one more chapter. One more chapter and Catherine's precarious house of cards is gonna collapse around her. Are you guys excited? Cause I'm excited! I can't wait to see what you guys think of that chapter. I also can't wait to see what you guys think of this chapter. Please tell me what you think! And I'll see you guys on Tuesday!_

Chapter 82

* * *

Gunshots peppered the air and though everything in his body hurt, and he could barely see out of his swollen eyes, Matthew Williams instinctively tensed. Marco Reyes wouldn't just be shooting up his own building so this had to be an attack and he was injured, tortured and tied to a chair.

The gunshots got louder, thumping and crashing echoed above him. He struggled against his bonds but they were just as tight as they were an hour ago and the day before and the day before that and however long ago it was they had taken him and tied him up down here.

There was one big bang a bang so loud it had to be a bomb or grenade. A bang that shook everything, even him, a bang that took the door off its hinges and then all there was was silence and the smoke drifting into his room.

From the smoke appeared a figure. A lone figure, in black tactical gear wearing a white plastic rabbit's mask. In his hand was the biggest gun Matthew had ever seen.

"You Matty Williams?" the rabbit asked, his voice muffled under the plastic.

"Uh… yeah?" he answered. Was it weird that this guy was calling him by his nickname? He was in too much pain to figure that out. The rabbit pulled out his phone dialed a number and said: "Yeah. Got him." Three words, that's all, and then the phone was hung up and back in his pocket.

He slung his gun over his shoulder and then pulled out a knife. He cut Matt free and then pulled him up. As soon as he was on his feet, he crumpled, so quickly that the rabbit had to lunge to keep him from hitting the ground. Matt knew then that they had actually managed to break his leg, it wasn't just in pain, like he was hoping, it was full out broken.

"I've been told to tell you I'm your Rowan-gram, but I refuse to do that," he said as he dragged him towards the door. "I'm to take you somewhere safe until she or her brother decide what to do with you."

Matt didn't know a Rowan or a guy with a sister named Rowan. He didn't like the sound of the whole _until they decide what to do with you_ option either. It sounded ominous but he didn't have many other options. They got through the door and all he saw was carnage. Blood, bodies, ash, and flames.

Any ol'powerful or smart person could take on Marco Reyes but it would take a formidable opponent to decimate him the way this Rowan had. That made him wonder what that kind of person could want with him and just what that meant in the long run.

Not for the first time since he had been taken by Marco Reyes, Matthew Williams wished for his brother.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan had woken up that morning with a lingering feeling of familiarity. Adam's face amongst a scenic area she recognized. A town she used to take a ferry to, where she'd go when she was skipping school. A diner that had the best malt milkshakes. Familiar mountains. Waters even more familiar because she used to swim in them, used to take kayaks and canoes out on.

She called Kono immediately. It was a social call, one where she could smile at the sound of her friend's voice and she ended it with heading. "Vancouver, BC."

Then a message had come through. "Package retrieved," and she nearly whooped with joy. It had worked. She had changed _another_ outcome. She had saved Matthew Williams. Which meant Danny wouldn't… uh… well she was saving Danny from something but she wasn't sure what anymore. She was sure it would come back to her… you know when the time came.

But though her day started out alright, it didn't stay that way.

She had returned the Audi to Wo Fat after the disastrous night at the La Mariana Tiki Bar and had been too afraid to go get it again. Lest Steve notice and flip his shit over her driving a car that was technically stolen out of the evidence lot. After that night she was on edge. For several reasons. For starters, she had taken that car to the bar because she didn't think Steve was going to be there, then he showed up. How he didn't notice it sitting in the lot was beyond her. Then, of course, his sister and his aunt over heard the argument between Rowan and Catherine, and now knew the truth about what had happened between her and Steve. Rowan now had to worry about when they'd tell him, she was waiting for the proverbial shoe to drop, waiting for Steve to show up and yell at her. Practicing her lies so he wouldn't find out what really happened. And it was because she had been looking over shoulder, expecting Steve to drop in out of the blue that she realized that someone actually had been following her. At first she thought it was just a cop following the car, which was why she hid it. Then she figured it was Steven waiting to approach her, but it wasn't someone she recognized and he followed her even if she wasn't in the car.

She saw him sporadically and after getting a good glimpse at his face she knew she had seen him before. And that worried her because that meant this man had been following her for a very long time.

So because she didn't have the car, because she was preoccupied with a mysterious man following her she ended up missing the very important band meeting with Pete and the other execs about Alex's new album and the track listings and the way the profits would be divided up. But it was when Pete was walking through her all of that that she learned just what Alex had done in her absence.

"I'm sorry, walk me through this again. He said what?" Rowan asked.

"The rights to your songs are shared," Pete told her. "He helped you write them."

"No, he didn't. I mean, I'd play chords and ask his opinion but that shouldn't mean he gets creative rights," Rowan cried. She didn't mind sharing on the songs that were going on the album but there was one song, one he was never supposed to get his hands on.

 _Hallelujah._

"Look, I don't care about the others but Hallelujah was never meant for him. I want it off the album," she said.

"It's your word against his, and he said you two had a really nasty break up," Pete told her. He said what now? "Said he found you with another guy."

He had taken their break up story and made her the villain. WHAT THE FUCK?! There was no point arguing though because then she'd look crazy. Which had to be why Alex did this. Any attempt to argue that the songs were hers and hers along after a break up like that would make her look like the evil ex out to punish him. Smart move. Definitely well played.

"Okay, so how do I prove it's mine then? What does it take to get the song pulled?"

"A waiver signed by him releasing his rights," Pete said and then he handed her the waiver, all typed up and ready to go. Well at least she knew who it was he believed, because it sure as hell wasn't Alex.

"Thanks," she said and then she left his office.

Alex and his bandmates were in the front lobby laughing it up but they stopped the second they saw her.

"Really Alex?" she asked her voice shaking. "A bad break up? _You_ caught _me_ cheating? AND you think you have rights to my songs? When the hell did you get so fucking selfish and greedy? Well guess what, after this, I'm not writing a single fucking song for you again, got me? Write your own."

She did wait for his excuse she ignored the calls for her to come back. She knew he'd never sign the paper in her hands, not without getting something first. Not without being scared first. But who could she call? Steve could help her, and he probably would if she asked him. She could but she wouldn't, wouldn't because then she'd have to tell Steve what happened and she was too embarrassed to do that. Danny and Chin would gladly help but neither of them was intimidating enough, Alex wouldn't take them seriously.

Rowan stormed out of the office, down to the elevators and down to the bottom floor. She pulled out her phone once she got reception and called the guy she missed. Screw the bus she'd walk back to Chin's.

"Hey," she said when he finally picked up. There was a bit of a pause as if he were assessing her opening line.

"What's wrong?" Wo finally asked. That surprised her, he knew from how she said _hello_ that she wasn't okay? How observant of him.

"I had a fight with Alex," she whispered, not even bothering to deny it. "He… he stole my songs."

She was dangerously close to crying. She could hear Wo Fat's scowl on the phone. "I told you not to work with him," he growled. "How does one even steal a song? Or do you mean he stole your book of song notes? Cause we can get that back no problem."

"He's claimed the rights to my songs. He's told everyone we had a bad break up and I was caught cheating on him so that when I complained I'd look like the crazy lying ex," she told him. There was a brief pause where she imagined him nodding along and mulling the situation over.

"Say the word and I'll have someone break his legs. Say the other word and I'll make sure he never sings another not ever again," he growled.

Rowan sighed but couldn't hide the smile on her lips. "I can't deal with everything by letting you kill or maim people," she told him and he growled at her. "Well you can't."

"But you called me for advice, right?" he asked. "Just like the microfiche, just like Matty."

"Oh, how is he?" Rowan asked. "You said he was pretty badly roughed up. Did you get a doctor in to look at him?"

"Last update said he was sedated. They checked for breaks, only two but they were extensive. One was in his left leg, he might walk with a limp even after it's healed. The second was a fracture to his jaw. He's been wired shut. Which has brought his house mates much joy," he answered. "Otherwise, he's fine. We'll patch him up and keep an eye on him until it's time to reunite the Williamses."

"That's good," she murmured.

Wo Fat sighed at her. "Alright, listen to me very carefully. You can get him to sign away his rights to the songs. You'll need the waiver for him to sign and you'll need something to make him do it. Since you don't want things to get physical, we'll have to use psychological warfare. Simply put, Ro, you'll have to blackmail him."

It sounded pretty straight forward. Rowan stopped walking, she had caught a glimpse of something in the store window, not something she wanted to buy but something moving slightly behind her but on the other side of the street. Looking at her reflection she saw him again. The man who had been following her.

"Wo… do you have someone following me?" she asked. It would be like him to have someone watching her, he didn't trust Steve to keep tabs on her properly, he didn't trust her out on her own.

"What?" came out of the phone, icy with fear. And not the _she caught me_ kind either. "Ro… where are you?"

"Answer the question," she ordered.

"No, Ro. No I don't have people following you. Are you being followed right now? Can you duck into a shop? Duck into a shop and call McGarrett… wait… McGarrett… damn he must not have…"

And then he trailed off. Steve? Steve had… had he…

"Finish that sentence," Rowan ordered already getting angry but when he didn't answer she shouted: "Wo Fat you finish that sentence right now."

He sighed. "You're not gonna like this, Ro, but uh… McGarrett's has had a PI following you since you got out of the hospital. But that might not be him so approach with—"

Since she… oh that rat bastard. Rowan inhaled sharply before snapping: "I'll call you back," and then ending the call.

She turned on heel and stalked towards him, the man now pretending to read the newspaper. As soon as she got close, ripped the newspapers out of his hands so he had to look her right in the eye and said: "Tell me who's paying you to follow me or I swear to god I'll scream."

His face went white, he tried to stutter out an excuse but when Rowan inhaled to scream just like she said she would the man hissed: "For god sake don't make a scene."

"If you don't tell me who hired you to follow me, you won't get a scene you'll get a whole Broadway musical!"

"Jesus Christ," he said staring at her. "Calm down. I got hired by Steven McGarrett. He's just looking out for you, kid."

Rowan let him go. Just thinking that he did it was completely different from hearing he did it. I mean, come on, not even Wo Fat had people flat out following her. What the hell was Steven thinking? The shock quickly left her and once again Rowan was absolutely livid.

"Yeah, well someone needed to look out for him."

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

There were a lot of things that Danny was expecting when someone insistently knocked on his door until he opened it but Aunt Deb, Mary and baby Joanie on his doorstep was not on the list of things he thought were rapping at his door that morning.

Danny stared at them not sure what this was but he had a feeling that this wasn't good. "Hello ladies, to what do I own the pleasure of this visit to?" he asked.

"You have answers," Mary said. "We know it."

"And we're going to make you talk!" Aunt Deb cried. Joanie cooed from Mary's arms punctuating the last remark and making it a little less threatening. Danny smiled down to her.

"Alright Capone," he said to them. "Come in. If you ask me nicely not only will I tell you all you need to know, but I'll throw in a frittata too."

"I've heard about your frittatas," Mary said following him into his apartment. "I'll pass."

"Steve's a liar. They're not as lethal as he claims them to be… the putz," Danny said moving back to the stove to finish off his breakfast.

"Speaking of Steve…. What's going on with him and Rowan," Aunt Deb asked. "Mary tried to explain and I don't follow. You're his best friend…" "I'm his partner…" "Whatever you wanna call it, sweetie. You're his partner you know it all."

"Best friend was better," Danny muttered to himself. He put the finished frittata onto a plate, turned off all the burners and then braced himself on the counter and said: "What do you want to know about him and Rowan."

"All of it." Aunt Deb demanded. "I want all the dirty details."

"Alright. We found Rowan floating in the middle of the ocean and that would be when it started," Danny said. "He… uh… he has some pretty complicated feelings for Rowan. He goes between being livid and being in love with her. Well… I wouldn't call it love, more like lust and obsession, but it's easier to say love…"

"So why hasn't he just told her that?" Aunt Deb asked.

"Wo Fat," Danny snarled bitterly. "Well that's not all true. First it was stubbornness, a refusal to admit it, and then it was Wo Fat. He kidnapped Rowan, held her hostage and then decided he wanted to keep her. When we got Rowan back she was almost dead and Steve broke. I had never seen him so devastated, so scared before. When she pulled through, when she woke up he told her how he felt and she said she felt the same way."

"But they're not together! What happened?" Aunt Deb asked sounding terribly frustrated. Yes, they were all very frustrated with Steve and Rowan's inability to find a way to work it out.

"I'm not sure how it happened, but uh… Rowan decided that she was derailing Steve's life, that he and Catherine were meant to be and she told him that even though she had feelings for him she didn't think they were worth wrecking things with Catherine and she wanted to move out of his place and in with her boyfriend at the time, which was Alex…" Danny explained.

"They're not together anymore?" Mary interrupted hope on her face, or maybe she looked like that because she had just been playing with Joan.

"Yeah, he was cheating. So she obviously broke it off with him before Thanksgiving, but she asked me not to tell Steve because she's been living with Chin since then and she's embarrassed about the whole situation," Danny said.

"Okay. So she moves out and Steve takes it personally," Aunt Deb summed up. "But that doesn't explain what we witnessed."

"Okay, what you have to understand is that Steve has not taken any of this well. Rowan moved out, he found out she's still in contact with that guy who kidnapped her, who shot her, who was instrumental to getting John killed too, and he just sort of lost all semblance of sanity. He has crossed some major lines, he's past obsessed, and its honestly quite scary to see him like that. We all know he's not normally like this but Rowan has this way of setting him off," Danny admitted. "Last week he drugged her and took her to Japan to help with this case we were working on the side. Normally Steve wouldn't do anything like that, but she said no to him and he just didn't see it as an issue cause he thought she was just saying no to be spiteful."

"Damn," Mary breathed out. "That's really strange behaviour for him. Like really unhealthy behaviour."

"Okay, can I hazard a guess here," Deb asked. "Catherine really doesn't like Steve's behaviour… or Rowan. Does she?"

"Well would you like it if your boyfriend was obsessed with another girl?" Mary shot back. "I mean it doesn't excuse what we witnessed but I mean… I kind of get it now."

"Wait… hold on a second. If you didn't mean the strange behaviour between Steve and Rowan what the hell did you witness?"

"On Thanksgiving, we heard Rowan and Catherine arguing," Mary explained. "A lot of things were said that we didn't understand."

"Fuck. Catherine went after her again? Rowan didn't agree to anything did she?" Danny asked when both women shrugged, he realized that he was going to have to do damage control with Rowan ASAP before she started another argument… wait… she had an argument with Steve last night. Fuck. That was what that was about then. He sighed to them. "Okay… well… did I clear everything up?"

"Not fully," Aunt Deb said. "When did Catherine tell Rowan to get herself out of Steve's life?"

"About a month ago. And it wasn't just Steve's life it was all our lives."

"And that's bad isn't it," Aunt Deb asked.

"Yep. Rowan has no one else on the island. Her family's gone. We were all she had. Catherine made her drop us all, which included my daughter, and all her secondary mutual friends."

"And, let me guess, Catherine got her to do it by telling her it would make everyone happier, especially Steve. Except it didn't. It made Steve worse which, by proxy, made the situation worse for all of you," Aunt Deb guessed and Danny nodded.

"Yep. They're currently at odds… again… even though they were on their way to getting better, all because Catherine had to be selfish," Danny grumbled. "It's like every time they start to fix themselves something happens to make it worse. Like after Japan, Steve realized that he fucked up, he fixed his mistake, he apologized and then after Thanksgiving dinner he and Rowan had another row, now… thanks to you…I know it's because Catherine got to her again. What did she say this time?"

"She told Rowan to leave him alone and if she didn't Catherine would make things uncomfortable for her," Mary explained. "And then Steve walked in and Rowan lied about what they were arguing about and made herself the bad guy."

"And then went out into the parking lot and cried," Aunt Deb finished for her.

Danny winced. "Yeah… Rowan… she has a tendency to crucify herself for the sake of others, especially Steve and his happiness… and… well… she really misses him…"

"No, she likes him," Aunt Deb clarified. "Probably as much as Steve likes her."

Danny sighed. Yeah, that was probably true too. "I know. We all know. The only people who don't get it are them," he agreed.

"If you know all this why hasn't anyone tried to intervene?" Mary snapped. "Why hasn't someone told Steve what happened? What Catherine did?"

"Both of them are pretty stubborn. Rowan and Catherine already got in to a fight once over this. And Rowan really doesn't want to tell him. Has a panic attack if we bring it up. And honestly, what we're really afraid of is what he'll do when he finds out," Danny told them. "So whatever you two are thinking about… don't. You don't have to work with him. You won't deal with what we deal with and Steve… when he gets really mad at her… he arrests her. So please… honestly, if he arrests Rowan again he'll get suspended from Five-0. No one wants to deal with that either."

Both women nodded and Danny's phone went off. McGarrett was calling him. Just fucking great. "Kay ladies, this is probably a case. Is there anything else you wanted to add?"

They both said no and Danny smiled. He answered the phone watching as the ladies let themselves out of the apartment he rented. He picked up the phone and tried to settle the knot of worry that had tangled up in his stomach. He could trust them to be quiet couldn't he?

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Chin and Steve had taken their suspect, an elderly Japanese man who attempted to kill a War Vet that morning, to the Honouliuli internment camp out by Waipahu. The place was gone, all over grown with grass and reeds, with only a few structures still standing and few stones still embedded in the ground to signal paths.

David, their suspect, had spent part of his childhood here. It was where his father was murdered. It was the case Steve had his team working.

He had been going through the place, he was there to jog his memory. To see if he could remember any other details about his father's murder.

He had just recounted his version of events from start to finish and how he came to believe that Ezra Clarke, the man he had tried to murder that morning, was the man who killed his father. Steve and Chin had been taking all of this in when David glanced behind them and asked: "A friend of yours?"

Steve turned around in time to see a flashy black Audi he would forever recognize slide to a stop kicking up all the dust around his blue truck. Rowan slammed the car door and barrelled towards him. Immediately he assumed something was wrong, but his eyes were on that car. The car that went missing out of HPD impound lot.

"Uh… whose car is that?" Steve asked once she got closer.

Rowan whipped off her sunglasses and he saw that her face was smudged with tear stains and her eyes were burning with an unchecked rage. He was in for an argument, he could tell but he couldn't figure out why she was mad at him. At this point it could be anything.

"It's Wo's car, he left it for me in case I needed it," Rowan snapped.

"That's stolen property, Ro," he reminded her.

"Yeah? You wanna arrest me again?" she shouted. Holy fuck she really was freaking out. Beside him Chin backed away. Smart move, if only he could get away with that.

"No, I don't but you should probably turn that in," he said. "How did you find me out here? Huh?"

"Danny told me!" she snapped. "But none of that matters because _you_ have had a P.I. following me for the last _eight months_!"

 _Oh shit_.

Steve tried to laugh it off. "I don't have a P.I. following you, I don't care enough about you to waste my money on that…"

"Really, so Mick St. Cloud's friend Thomas Magnum hasn't been paid, by you, to follow me around?" she asked. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

"Who told you that?" Steve growled wondering if it was Danny who also told her about the P.I. too. Cause if it was Danny, he was gonna kill him.

"The fucking P.I!"

Damn he should have picked up the phone when he called that morning, he just hadn't had the time to think about it. Steve looked down at the dirt and then back up at her.

"I didn't feel like I had a choice," Steve answered. "You were lying to me and I…"

And then Rowan slapped him. Right across the face. She hadn't slapped him since he inferred that he thought she wasn't pretty enough for Alex.

"Don't you see how twisted all this is?" she shouted. "Don't you see how wrong all of this is? How badly you're treating me?"

With a hand to his cheek, trying to rub the stinging out of it, Steve glared at her. "Well maybe if you'd stop lying… or cutting me out… or spending all of your time turning yourself into a carbon copy of Wo Fat… I wouldn't feel like I had to resort to such levels of subterfuge to get answers!"

"It is _my_ choice to have you in my life, _my_ choice to tell you about my secrets. You don't get to get mad at me for not wanting you in _my_ life when you're doing things like this! Why would I want you around huh? You've arrested me, you shook me like a magic eight ball and now you've had someone following me around for almost a whole year! That's an invasion of privacy, you asshole," she shouted, tears streaming down her face. "This is exactly why she… why she…"

"Why who what?" Steve snapped but Rowan had clammed up. She looked away from him and shook her head. When Rowan wouldn't answer he added: "Look I can't help you if you don't tell me what's going on."

"Why does it matter Steve?" she asked him. "Why? You're not going to listen to me, you don't even understand what you've done wrong, or why this scares me. Admit it, you don't want to help me, you want to control me."

Steve jerked like she had hit him again. Is that what she thought about him? Huh? Really? Was that really what it looked like to her? Rowan scoffed at him and turned to walk away.

"You need to return that car, Ro!" he called out to her but Rowan didn't answer him in words, she answered him by flipping him the middle finger over her shoulder.

"She was going to find out eventually," Chin added once she was in the car and revving it to go. They watched her peel out, dust and grass flying before she raced away. "And she's got a point about the behaviour."

Steve turned a glare at him. "Who asked you?" he snapped and then stormed away. He'd call the car into HPD. He wouldn't say it was Rowan driving but if they caught her in the car and arrested her well… he'd let her sit in a cell and rescue her once he was done with his case.

That would teach her. Now wouldn't it?

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Danny, Chin and Grace were sitting in the Drive Test center waiting for Rowan to get back. It had been a messy week. Danny had told Chin about Mary and Aunt Deb's interrogation of him. Chin had found it both hilarious and stressing that the two women knew about the situation and that it didn't bode well for either Rowan or Catherine. Chin told him about Rowan's blow up over at the remains of the internment camp, how she knew about the P.I. and how Steve had called HPD to tell them he saw Wo Fat's Audi which had been missing from the HPD impound for about eight months.

Turns out Rowan had it the whole time. Where the hell had she been hiding that thing? It was clear that Steve was hoping that they'd find Rowan with the car and he'd have to go and bail her out, but they never found her and that never happened. All that happened was that he got a call from his P.I. saying he quit. Danny practically begged him not to hire another P.I. and hopefully Steve listened.

"What do you think is gonna happen?" Chin asked. And for a moment he thought he was asking about the Aunt Deb and Mary vs Catherine situation they were sure they were staring down now. "Is she gonna pass or fail?"

"Well… if she drives the way she's be driving with me she should be okay," Danny said. That was an easy question, it wasn't as loaded as he previously thought.

"How did you get her to drive like that?" Chin asked. "It was like I was riding with a stunt driver every time I went out with her."

"I put Grace in the car," Danny said with a shrug. "It was like driving Miss Daisy after that."

"Smart!" Chin congratulated him and Danny nodded. "Think anything will come from the Aunt Deb and Mary conversation."

"Yeah I think they're gonna tell him and Steve's gonna lose it. It's just a matter of when they do it," Danny said. "He's not doing so well as of late so I don't think it's going to end well when it does happen. And here's a question… uh… none of you thought to put a stop to him dragging her to Japan?"

"By the time we realized she was there against her will, we were in the air," Chin said with a sigh.

"How? Her unconscious body wasn't enough?" Danny snapped back.

"No. Because she wasn't unconscious… or at least we didn't think that she was. We thought she was just sleeping. It wasn't until she woke up in the state that she was in that we realized what he had done," Chin explained. "Should have heard Catherine scream at him. I spent the whole time in the plane bathroom with her as she threw up. It was a terrible flight for all of us."

It was probably worse for Rowan. Poor Ro. Her test car drove up and everyone leant forward. "Ah, this is it," Danny sighed. And then they saw Rowan's head pop up, that mop of red followed by a giant grin.

Well that was a good sign.

They all went outside, big smiles on their faces to congratulate Rowan on her driving. As she hugged Danny he spotted a familiar blue truck driving away. They hadn't even told Steve she was going for her test. How the hell had he known to come?

"Can we go to the Side Street diner to celebrate?" Grace asked and Danny forced himself to look away from the retreating truck and down to his daughter.

"Sure thing, Gracie," he said ruffling her hair. "And congrats to you, Miss. Speed demon."

As he slung an arm around Rowan he sighed. Steve was only getting worse and he had no idea what to do about it.


	83. Chapter 83

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: This is it guys, the chapter that Steve finds out. See, I told you it was coming soon. I told you. In this chapter, we're going to see Steve's last terrible thing, we're going to see Rowan stand up for herself and next chapter you get to read how Steve and Catherine deal with the confession. After this we're on the road to redemption. Literally in a few chapters the fluff is going to start (I think it's 3 chapters) I gotta tell you guys, I got a lot of stuff happening in the 95-105 chapter range, all of my chapters are 13 pages long (some are more) is that too long you think? Do you guys want me to shorten them? What do you think? Tell me what you think!_

 _P.S. For the guest who was asking for the songs, yes, all of them are online. I'm not that creative as to create whole new songs for this story. The Hallelujah song she's referencing is actually by Panic! At the Disco._

Chapter 83

* * *

A whole day before Christmas and they had a murder. Guy wearing nothing at all dead in a junkyard car's trunk. Found by a very curious junkyard dog. A guy that turned out to be a serial burglar who may have gotten himself killed on his last job. There was an unspoken pressure on everyone to get this wrapped up by the end of the day. But that was the least of Steve's worries. Not when his Aunt Deb, Mary and Joanie were in his office staring at him like it was he who had cancer and not his Aunt Deb.

He loved having them in Hawaii, both having decided to stay on until after the New Years to keep him company, baby Joanie having no choice but to stay where her mother was, but they had made life a tad bit more hectic for him.

He shut the door to his office and stared at the three women in his life that mattered more than any case did.

"So what is the big issue?" he asked. They had practically scared him witlessly rushing into the office and demanding that he speak to them right at that moment about some sort of emergency. He immediately assumed that something was very wrong but he had only left them a few hours ago so he wasn't certain what could be the issue.

"We have something to tell you," Mary said. "Something about Rowan."

Steve's blood ran cold. What could have possibly happened now?

"We heard something Thanksgiving night, something we think you should know," Aunt Deb continued.

Oh, it had to do something with Wo Fat. They were concerned because Rowan was involved with him. Or something about him dragging her to Japan, all drugged up and partially unconscious. Damn it. He didn't want them to know far he had fallen over this girl.

"Something between her and Catherine," Mary finished. Steve found himself blinking his eyes. Rowan and Catherine had been arguing before he went up. He had a feeling that Rowan had been lying about what that was about. Had his aunt and sister heard the argument? Was he about to find out what happened?

"Okay, what did you hear?" he asked, leaning against his desk to get comfortable.

"We heard… well… we heard Catherine tell Rowan to exit your life," Aunt Deb told him and just like that Steve was standing again, erect and alert staring them down. "She mentioned that she had demanded she do so before but Rowan hadn't gone as far as Catherine had wanted her to and she was essentially demanding that she finish the job or Catherine would make life uncomfortable for Rowan."

"Yeah something to that effect," Mary said.

Steve stared at them. "Catherine told Rowan to get out of my life?" he echoed. They confirmed it but Steve was already lost in thought. It explained everything. It explained Rowan's behaviour, her sudden flip in attitudes. It explained why her and Catherine were at odds. It explained all those hints Rowan had dropped. It explained everything except why Rowan went along with it.

It also explained Danny's slip up at the dock. Danny knew. Danny knew Catherine had done this to Rowan and his best friend hadn't told him. But judging by Chin's complacency with all of this and his suddenly closeness to Danny and Rowan, Danny had told Chin instead of telling Steve.

Steve stalked to the door and poked his head out. "Danny, Chin can you come here a minute?" he called.

The both came in, he shut the door with a loud bang and then turned on them.

"The ladies have told me something very interesting…" he started but Danny groaned.

"Tell me… tell me you didn't want until Christmas Eve to break the news," he said to them. "I told you. I told you not to. Do you have any idea what he's gonna do now?"

"So, it's true then?" Steve snapped before either Mary or Aunt Deb could protest. "Catherine really told Rowan to get out of all our lives and you didn't tell me."

"She begged us not to," Chin said.

"Which one," Steve snapped.

"Rowan of course," Danny growled. "She martyred herself on the cross of your relationship with Catherine. Gave us all up so you and her could be happy."

"Well a lot of good it did us, didn't it?" Steve cried. He looked away from the men he thought were his friends when he looked up all he could see was the betrayal. "You should have told me," he hissed.

"Yes. We know. But she had a near heart attack over the mere thought of it," Danny replied. "And… well… we knew you'd over react."

"Over react?!" Steve thundered. "Really? Over react?"

"Yes. Steven. When it comes to Rowan you have a distinct tendency to over react," Danny clarified.

"Chin, you and Catherine are going to go to those houses we think Dobbs hit. Okay? One of them has to be the one he hit last night before he got murdered. And since you're so good at secrets, try to not tell her what we just talked about," Steve growled, turning for the door. "Danny, you're with me."

"And where are we going?" Danny asked.

"To Rowan," he snapped. "It's time to make her confess."

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Danny had directed him to the Atlantic Records Oahu building where Rowan was supposed to be working that day. It took a lot of arguing but he managed to convince Danny to stay by the car cause he figured that Rowan wouldn't lie as much if Danny wasn't there to cover for her. He thought she'd be in the back, watching Alex and his band record, he didn't expect to see her in the sound booth belting out a song. He couldn't get over the look on her face, enraptured, like this was where she needed to be. Her eyes half closed a small smile on her lips, her lyrics piercing him in the heart.

 _And there goes the alarm ringing in my head, like somebody said, "don't you trust him, no."_

He hated the way her smile faltered the second her eyes opened long enough to spot him. At this one of the execs turned around and spotted him. He motioned for Rowan to continue before he approached Steve.

"Hey I'm Pete Ganbarg, can I help you with something?" he asked.

Steve pulled out his badge and flashed it. "Sorry, I need to borrow Rowan."

Pete glanced over to Rowan who was no longer singing but glaring at Steve from the sound booth as she took the headphones off of her head.

"Yes, she mentioned she moonlights as a consultant for you," Pete said with a shaky laugh.

Rowan came into the room and moved up to him. "What do you want, Steve?" she asked.

"I need to ask you some questions," he answered.

"How about an apology first?" Rowan offered.

"You wanna talk about the car that was stolen out of the HPD lot in front of your new bosses?" Steve growled and Rowan frowned at him.

She turned to Pete and smiled at him. "I'm sorry, give me a minute. I'll uh… I'll finish the song when this is done."

She pushed Steve back out into the lobby and once the door shut behind her she pushed him fully away from her. "What the hell is your problem?" she cried.

"I just found out that you, Danny, Chin and Catherine are all in on the same lie," he snapped. "So I'm going to ask you one question, Ro. One question and if you lie to me, you're going to regret it."

"What the fuck are you talking about?!" she cried but Steve ignored her.

"Did Catherine tell you to get out of my life?" he asked and then he waited. And he watched.

Rowan's face blanked. She stared at him with her big wide eyes, clearly confused and afraid. She took a deep breath set her face into a mask of indifference and then said quite clearly and decisively: "No."

Steve blinked his eyes. Why. Was. She. Lying? "You realize I already know she did, right?"

Rowan shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know what you're talking about. She didn't tell me to do anything."

"Rowan... Danny and Chin confirmed it happened. _You_ told them it happened," he reminded her.

"I don't know what to tell you because that didn't happen," she said. "They must be lying."

"The only one lying is you!" Steve cried. "Why the hell won't you tell me the truth?!"

"I am. Catherine didn't tell me to get out of your life. She didn't tell me to drop all the Five-0's," she clarified which was hilarious because he didn't say anything about any of the other Five-0's so where did she get that from if it didn't happen? "I wanted to be out of your life because I hate you Steven McGarrett. You're an abusive monster hell bent on controlling me and I'd rather spend my time with a convicted criminal who tortured you and destroyed your family because at least _he_ actually cares about me instead of whatever the hell it is you're doing!"

The second she uttered the words _I hate_ you the rest of Steve's heart shattered into a million pieces. To hear her hurl those words at him with such a deadly accuracy had literally broken through that iron guard he had put around his heart and well… broken everything inside him. He could have burst into tears right then and there, but it was when she said she'd rather be with Wo Fat, despite of what he did, instead of him that he lost it. Everything in Steve froze over and then he stopped being Steve. Rage took over, before he knew what he was doing he had forced her arms behind her back and handcuffed her, dragged her down to the first floor and then out of the building. He found Danny waiting by the car, a look of horrified, painful shock on his face as he witnessed this latest arrest.

"Danny, keys," he ordered when he got close, shoving Rowan against the car and ignoring her grunt of pain, for a brief second he thought he felt Rowan's hands on his hip but the motion was fleeting so he was certain he was dreamed it up. Danny had not moved, opting to stay on the curb to watch Steve do this. He winced when Rowan hit the car, Steve was knew he was being aggressive but he couldn't find it in himself to either stop or feel sorry about it.

"Nope. I'm not doing it," he said and Steve turned back to him, anger painting his face in terrible grotesque expressions and bright colors. Why was Danny never on his side? Why did he always side with Rowan?

"Steve you're being ridiculous," he told him. "You need to let her go."

"She's refusing to cooperate," Steve hissed, hoping Danny would catch the hint.

"Yes, to a personal matter, you CANNOT arrest her for refusing to answer personal questions," Danny warned him. Steve let go of Rowan completely to whirl around on Danny.

"Immunity and means, Danny, I can do what I want," Steve scoffed and then he felt the cold of metal around his wrist and heard the click of a lock.

Rowan backed away from him as he turned back to the Camaro and found that she had handcuffed him to the car. What the fuck? How the hell had she gotten out of the cuffs?

He had been so distracted by realizing she had managed to handcuff him to the car that he didn't notice her dancing around him until he felt Rowan's hand in his pocket but he wasn't quick enough to grab her. By the time he turned around she had his phone. He turned and found her standing just out of reach, shoulder to shoulder with Danny as she fiddled with her thumb.

"What's going on with your hand?" Danny asked. Rowan didn't look up until they heard the soft pop of her thumb going back into place, which explained how she got out of the cuffs but not how she got him into them.

"I've been able to dislocate all my fingers on my right hand and my wrist since the accident," she said absently and then tossed Danny the cuff's keys, had she gotten those out of his pocket? Well that explained how she got him into them.

But out of all the questions he suddenly he had, the one that came out of him was:. "What accident?" She looked up to him but she didn't acknowledge him. "You won't get my password," he told her with a proud tilt to his chin.

She merely shot him a dark glare and then showed him the phone. There was his home page. She had guessed his password. "It's your Naval ID, it's on your dog tags," she answered absently.

"How do you know that?" Danny asked. Yeah Danny, good question. Rowan paused she looked up to Danny and then to Steve.

She blinked those impossibly blue is surprise looked back down at the phone and said: "I used to uh… I used to wear them, okay? Don't make a big deal out of it." Steve was suddenly filled with all of these images of Rowan wearing his dog tags, and was suddenly harder than he should have been in the given situation. He focused on watching as she went back to the phone. Pressing one button and then putting it to her ear.

"Hello Sam," she said and Steve's smile fell right off his face. Had she just called the Governor? "Yes, I know I'm calling from Steve's phone, because he did it again."

She was silent for a minute, listening to whatever the Governor was saying to her. She nodded to whatever was being said as Steve watched her. It wasn't fair that she could look so lovely while she spoke to his boss no doubt to get him in a fuck ton of trouble.

"He showed up at my recording session and arrested me in front of the executives," she told him. "No, it has nothing to do with his current case. I was refusing to answer questions of a personal nature."

There was a brief pause and then Rowan said: "Oh, he's currently handcuffed to the Camaro. But Sam, this needs to stop. He can't keep arresting me when he's mad at me." There was another pause and when her blue eyes turned up to him they weren't that warm sparkling blue that he wanted to dive into, it was a pair of steel blue eyes, cold and hardened glaring into him. And his heart cracked a little deeper.

"I think there should be some sort of punishment," she said into the phone. Didn't she know that she was the thing he cared about the most? "I think you need to take him off of Five-0."

Steve's heart stopped beating in his chest. Even Danny turned to her with eyes wide with shock. She'd take Five-0 from him? The job that meant everything to him? Wasn't losing her enough?

She listened for another few seconds before she handed the phone back to Steve. "It's for you," she said with a malicious hint to her usually sweet voice.

Steve took the phone and put it to his ear. He whispered his name, he barely heard the Governor talking, there was a static in his head. A complete blanket of shock took over all of his senses.

"Steven, I don't know what's going on but as of right now you've been suspended from Five-0 indefinitely until I can figure out how to proceed with this. For now you're going to hand your gun and badge to Detective Williams and you're going to come to my office, do you understand?"

He told the Governor that he understood. He hung up the phone and stared at the two of them, His face was a terrible red color. He felt hot. He felt sick. He felt like he could wring her fucking neck. He put the phone in his pocket and turned his dangerous glare to Danny.

"Give me the keys Danny," he ordered. But Danny didn't comply he just stared at him so he shouted: "GIVE ME THE DAMN KEYS!"

Danny jumped to uncuff him from the car and then let Steve snatch the keys out of his hand. He got in the car ignoring Danny who was asking him what was happening, if he was okay, and where he thought he was going. But Steve didn't listen. He revved the car and drove away, leaving Danny and Rowan behind.

Not that it mattered he couldn't bear to look at them anyway.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Chin pulled his motorcycle to a stop and called Catherine. He waited for her to pick up and then said: "I just finished my sixth house and got nothing. How are you making out?" he asked.

"Uh… just finished my fourth. I've got nothing too," she told him.

Whoa. Only four? How was that possible? "Only four houses? Aren't you the one driving around in a muscle car?" he teased.

"Hey, you saw my list. My houses cover a wider area than yours," Catherine complain. Ah excuses, excuses.

"Okay, then. What do you say the last person who gets to the bottom of their list picks up the next tab at Side Street?" he offered. Nothing to make the work go faster like a god natured bet.

"You're on!" Catherine said and then ended the call but already he could hear her engine roaring as she picked up speed.

Chin practically jogged up the front path to the front door of his next house. This was gonna be an easy free meal. He knocked on the door and smiled when it was answer.

The man in the plaid button down shirt stared at him with avid curiosity. "Hello, may I help you?"

"Aloha!" Chin said as cheerily as possible. "I'm Lieutenant Kelly. I'm with Five-0."

"Gary Nathan. What can I do for you?" the home owner offered him.

"Well Mr. Nathan, we're investigating a rash of break-ins in the area. We have reason to believe that your home has been targeted," he told him. Gary looked surprised and then concerned.

"Are you serious?" he asked.

"Did you have any cable or Internet work done here recently?" Chin asked.

Gary paused to think about it. "Yeah," he told him. "A few weeks ago I had a new Wi-Fi system installed. What does that have to do with being robbed?"

"Our suspects are using service calls to access people's homes," Chin explained. "A lot of our victims don't even know that they've been burglarized until days or weeks after the fact. Mind if I take a look around? It'll only take a couple of minutes."

Gary stepped away from the door. "Oh, of course. Yeah. Whatever you need."

Wow super accommodating, Chin loved it when people were helpful. It also meant that he'd get through this house quicker and be one step closer to a free meal at the Side Street Diner.

Chin started to look around. He didn't want to be awkward about the whole thing so he started to ask a few questions. Small talk, you know, easy stuff.

"Nice place," he said, meaning every word of it. "How long have you been here?"

"A couple of years," Gary answered.

"Before that?" he asked because Chin could tell that this wasn't a native of the island. Just by the way he dressed, like he was about to go onto an episode of Mr. Dress Up.

"Denver," Gary replied. Short answers. Chin decided to hurry up, he was outstaying his welcome, he could tell. Which was odd because he had only been there a few minutes.

"I used to vacation in Hawaii as a kid," Gary continued. "So when the opportunity came up, I moved here."

A lot of people did that. Who would pass up the opportunity to live in paradise, right?

"Denver huh? You a skier?"

"Used to be," Gary said with a shrug.

"If you ever get the urge, you ought to try Mauna Kea. It's on Hawai'i Island. Actually, snows there a couple times a year," he told him. "The locals call it _pineapple powder_."

"I'll have to check that out," Gary said following Chin around as he checked all the windows in the living room.

They got to kitchen and Chin wasn't seeing anything out of the ordinary. "Do you mind if I take a look at your wall safe?" he asked.

"How did you know I have a wall safe?" Gary asked laughing, but the way his eyes shifted told Chin Ho that he was a little surprised by that question.

"As part of the investigation we confiscated photos of the homes that were cased, and as I mentioned earlier, yours was targeted," he reminded him.

Gary nodded, but he was no longer smiling like he had been a few minutes before. "Yes. You did say that. It's over here."

He led him over to a painting that he then took off the wall to reveal a nice safe. There didn't seem to be any tampering but Chin had to be sure.

"Did it come with the house?"

"No, I had it installed," Gary said with a smile.

"I'm gonna need you to open it up," Chin said.

"Excuse me?" Gary asked with a big of a chuckled.

"Well I just need you to verify that everything's accounted for," Chin explained. Easy enough. It shouldn't be this much trouble.

Gary frowned at him. Ah, he didn't want Chin to see what was inside. Fair. He nodded and smiled. "I don't need to see what's inside," he said. "Go ahead."

He then turned his back on Gary and the safe, letting him open it while he looked around. As he heard the safe open, he found a piece of tin foil on the floor by a window.

"All good," Gary called.

"Okay. You can close it back up," Chin said and then stopped to pick the tin foil up. Their vic had used low rent techniques to get through some pretty sophisticated security systems. Like tin foil.

"What's that?" Gary asked.

"Tinfoil," Chin answered look up to the window above him.

"Probably a gum wrapper," Gary said.

Chin stood and took a closer look at the window in front of him. "Home burglars use tinfoil to bypass security systems," he told him. He turned just in time to have Gary hit him over the head and knock him right out.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Danny had been kind enough to collect her things from the recording studio before escorting Rowan to the Governor's office as she was too ashamed and embarrassed to go up there herself. When they got to the office he got to tell the Governor that Steve had gone MIA, with his gun, his badge and Danny's Camaro.

Sam had asked if Danny thought Rowan to be in danger. Rowan didn't want to think she was but Danny couldn't confirm. Steve had been utterly livid after what had happened, and while Steve had been deteriorating, she didn't think it was enough to assume he'd hurt Rowan for this. If anything, he'd just really abuse his next suspect.

Danny left her there and Rowan sat down in the chair, letting all of it sink in. Everything. She had been in shock since it happened. It was like she had an out-of-body experience, she watched herself do it, she watched herself slip out of her cuffs, steal the keys from Steve and then handcuff him to the Camaro. She watched herself break into his phone and call the Governor. She heard her own voice telling Sam what happened and that he should suspend Steve from Five-0. But she didn't feel like she was the one who did it.

But sitting there now, listening to Danny's plan to find Steve it hit her. She had gotten Steve suspended from Five-0.

"Are you alright, my dear?" Sam asked her once Danny had left and his secretary had put a mug of tea into her hand. She really was here a lot if his secretary knew exactly how she took her tea without having to ask her.

Rowan took a shaky breath before answering with an every shakier: "No." Sam nodded like he understood and Rowan half laughed at the ridiculousness of the situation. "He arrested me in front of the music Execs. They're never going to want to work with me now."

And Steve would never forgive her.

"I'll put a call into them for you," Sam said. "Now, I need to know how long this sort of behaviour has been going on."

"Since I moved out," Rowan answered softly.

"Rowan… that was almost a year ago," Sam sighed. "You've been putting up with this for a year?"

"Well… I unno… he had viable reasons at first. Today… today was the first time he arrested me over a personal argument we were having," she admitted. "I… I pushed him too far, I guess."

"He's the head of Five-0. If I can't trust him to be rational with you how am I going to trust him to be rational with anything else?" Sam grumbled.

"I don't think… I don't think he was in a right state of mind when we were arguing," Rowan whispered. "I think something really upset him today and my refusal to answer his questions… to admit I was lying even though he knew he was right… well… honestly… I said things I shouldn't have to hurt him."

Sam blinked his eyes at her. "I don't follow."

"Steven caught me in a lie and I refused to tell him the truth. And when he wouldn't stop pressing the issue, I hurled some pretty terrible words at him," Rowan told him. "As such, I don't think you should punish him that severely."

"Oh? You don't?" Dennings asked sitting back in his chair. "And what do you propose I do?"

"Well… I unno suspend him for a day maybe? Or two?" she offered. "I mean… Five-0 needs him, right?"

"Five-0 needs him on his game, not chasing down you instead of leads," Dennings snapped. Okay he had a point there.

"Okay… so… three days?" Rowan offered.

Dennings stared at her, he seemed to realize that Rowan wasn't going to relent. Clearly, he'd have to come up with his own punishment since Rowan had no ability to be objective.

"You really do champion the wrong people, Miss. Pierce. Be sure to tell your psychiatrist about that the next time you're in, okay?" he said. Rowan smiled at him. It was true she really did pick some winners, but Steve wasn't like her other cases, poor Steve was mostly her fault.

"It's a shame to suspend him now, what with the serial burglar case we just picked up," he said.

Rowan's head whipped up. "Burglar?" she echoed.

"Yeah. Serial burglar. The guy only hits houses with safes…"

"And uses low tech ways to break through high tech security systems," Rowan finished for him.

"Uh… yes… how did you know that?" Dennings asked.

Rowan was already getting up. "I… uh… I heard Steve and Danny talking about it before he went ape shit on me," she said, even though she was lying. "I… uh… I gotta go… okay? I've got… uh… I've got…"

"To go back to the music studio?" Dennings offered to finish for her.

"Yes, that one," she said bolting for the door. As soon as she got out into the hallway she forced herself to breathe.

She needed to remember this case. This was the case where Chin got tortured. She didn't want Chin to get tortured. He had been through so much he didn't deserve that. She had been dreaming about it for weeks but, when she had left that morning, she hadn't realized that that had been today. She would have warned him, would have called him.

She pulled up her phone and dialed his number but it just kept ringing until it hit his voicemail. He was already taken, she knew it. She just had to find him. She had to find him and save him.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Danny found Steve back in the palace. He was sitting on the floor of his office, behind the desk, his back against the wall. His knees were up, his hands were in his hair. Danny had been worried about this, what his eventually rock bottom looked like… well… this was it.

"Uh… you okay babe?" he asked. Steve's head should have whipped back up. But instead it stayed firmly planted in his hands. Danny slowly, and carefully, lowered himself to the ground, stretching out beside him. He nudged Steve with his shoulder and repeated this question.

This time Steve lifted his head and said: "No," very shakily. "She got me suspended."

Danny almost laughed. "Yeah, she did, didn't she?" he asked. He caught Steve's pained look and forced himself to stop smiling. It wasn't supposed to be funny but it was kinda funny. "Did… uh… did the Governor tell you for how long you're suspended?"

"Yeah. Indefinitely."

Hot. Fucking. Damn. Rowan did some damage. Smart girl. She hit Steve where it hurt the most. The only way she could have hurt him more was if she announced she was going to go to Colorado to marry Wo Fat.

"Look, I'm sorry about what she pulled, but, uh… you kinda cornered her, you know? When people get pushed like that… they… they lash out…" Danny said. "I mean, it kinda sucked that you left me stranded there too…"

Steve barked out a sarcastic laugh. "Yeah. That seems to be the pattern here."

Danny's eyebrows drew together concerned. "What are you talking about?"

"The pattern. I've been a shitty friend, a shitty co-worker and an even shittier boyfriend," he said. "I just… I just didn't realize that I was the problem until she looked at me like that. Like I… like I was the villain. She… she said she hated me Danny. She said she hated me and I didn't get it right at the moment, but when we got to the car, when she was on the phone… I got it.

Danny nodded as he took this in. "Uh… okay… well all of us know that you haven't quite taken this well."

"Yeah but that shouldn't be an excuse," Steve cried. "You guys have had to hide things, and lie to me, simply because I've been a tyrant. I've been an abusive asshole and you guys have had to hide things from me so I wouldn't become worse! That's not normal!"

Danny nodded again. That was true. "Okay, yeah, you know, you did kinda loose it a bit," he admitted. "But we all sort of got it. Rowan… she…"

"It's like as soon as I even so much as suspected that she had allied herself with Wo Fat I lost my mind," Steve breathed out.

"And she lied to you about it," Danny reminded him. "That didn't help the situation."

"It doesn't excuse what I've become," He breathed out.

"I think, and this is just me assuming here because you refuse to talk about this stuff, but uh… I think this is all because you're conflicted," Danny said. Steve turned to him. "You're trying to keep Rowan and Catherine and it keeps backfiring in your face. Firstly, because Rowan keeps picking other people, like Alex and Wo, and secondly, because neither of them would ever agree to be in any kind of sharing situation."

"I'm not conflicted, or, you know… I wasn't," Steve whispered softly. "Before all this happened… when she got shot… I had chosen. I had made my choice and I think, I think that's what started this."

Danny took that it. "Okay. But who did you choose?" he asked even though he thought he knew the answer.

Steve chuckled wryly, but ignored the question. "You know, there's another problem. I've haven't been too good to Catherine."

Danny nodded. Alright, he wanted to gloss over that. Well, he'd just come back to it later.

"You just need to stop leading her on," Danny said. "You need to decide who you want. Is it Catherine or is it Rowan?"

"I… I don't know," Steve murmured. "I don't, I don't trust her…" "—who?" "…Rowan… I don't feel like I can trust Rowan and after what happened with Catherine… I don't know if I like what she'd be willing to do to get her way."

"As opposed to what you did to Rowan when you didn't get your way?" Danny teased. Steve shot him a pained look and Danny struggled not to laugh. "Okay. Look, who are you leaning towards? Who do you want the most?"

Steve sighed, he looked torn, but Danny knew what was going to come out of his mouth even before Steve said it. "Rowan."

It was always Rowan.

"Then you got to talk to her," Danny told him. "You gotta tell her how you feel, tell her you're sorry and see if you can figure things out with her. Okay?"

Steve seemed to take this in but made no motion to move. Danny wasn't going to let this continue though. This had gone on long enough. "Come on," he said nudging Steve again as he lumbered to his feet. "Let's go. I'll drive."

And for once. Steve didn't argue, he just let Danny lead him out of the office, but once they got out into the bullpen, they saw a strange woman with a badge and in an all-black pant suit.

"Hey, can we help you?" McGarrett said, wondering why she was there and who the hell she was. If the Governor sent someone to escort him out of the building he'd lose it.

"Commander McGarrett? Detective Williams?" she asked. Damn, she knew their names.

"That's right and Captain Grover is around here somewhere," he said just as Grover came out of Chin's office. "How can we help you?"

"Special Agent Rebecca Conway, FBI," she introduced. Ah the FBI that did not bode well for them.

"How do you do?" Steve asked as he shook her hand. Why the hell was he talking like he was still on this case? The asshole was suspended indefinitely.

"HPD crime lab ran a search that flagged a case I'm working," she told him. Uh oh. Not good. They only had the murdered burglar. "Specifically, the tarp and firearm information that was entered liked to a series of murders that I'm covering. Our suspect's killed 14 people that we know of. Twelve on the mainland, two in Hawaii."

No that was not good at all.

Danny stared at Steve who had gone from moping to Super Seal in under a second. He knew what this meant but it didn't mean good things for anyone else.

"You're saying we have a serial killer on the island?" Grover asked.

That was a good fucking question. "Why are we only hearing about this now?" Danny asked. Also a good question.

"We've been after this guy for a long time," she explained. "We didn't want to scare him off."

"And you think we're chasing the same guy?" Steve asked. Also, a good question. Another good question, when was Steve going to leave?

"I'm not totally convinced, but that's why I'm here. To compare notes," she said.

Steve nodded and turned to the smart table. "Okay, what do you got?" Why the hell wasn't he leaving?

"Uh… Steve… don't you need to go?" Danny asked.

Steve looked up at him. "No," he said like he hadn't just been suspended like thirty minutes before.

When everything was set up she turned to Steve and said: "In every case, our suspect holds the victims for less than 24 hours. All are bound and tortured. The COD is always the same. A single gunshot wound to the head using 9-mm jacket hollow-cavity bullets." Already this was an issue because so far their cases were spot on. "We think this is a mercy killing after the horrific abuse that he inflicts."

"So, you're sure that the killer's a male?" Grover asked.

"The kind of atrocities associated with this killer seem to be a function of masculine traits, particularly the way he disposes of the bodies. He's very practical. He strips the victims of their clothing, wraps them in a plastic tarp and dumps them in random locations. The killer also likes to cut a single finger from each victim's hand, which he keeps as a souvenir."

"So, he can relive the fantasy at a later date, right?" Steve asked.

"Right," she agreed. "Now, what I can't figure out is that up until this point, all the victims have been females in their 20s, most likely targeted for those specific traits. Your victim is male."

"And he's not missing a finger," Danny added.

"Right, but other than that, the MO fits," she summed up. Yes. Quite the conundrum. "I'm just not sure why my guy picked Mr. Dobbs."

"Maybe your guy didn't pick Mr. Dobbs," Steve said. Danny groaned. Oh my god, just go home, Steve. "Maybe Mr. Dobbs picked him."

Yes. Yes. That made sense. Mr. Dobbs broke into his house and the killer had to kill him. Dobbs had forced the killer to change his MO.

"Okay, you cracked it, it's time to go home now," Danny said trying to push Steve away from the table.

"Do you have an address?" Mrs. Special Agent asked him which gave Steve all the excuse he needed to ignore Danny.

"We have people in the field working on that," he told her.

"Pull them back. Do it now," she ordered, a bit too easily considering this wasn't her OP and Steve was already a live wire over what happened. "If this guy knows he's cornered, he's gonna run or do what he does best which is take another life."

At that point Catherine walked into the office. "Hey where's Chin? The sore loser owes me a free meal at Side Street and he's not answering his phone," she called. She glanced around at all the tense faces and then paused. "Uh… what's going on."

Already Danny was calling Chin. "You don't know where Chin is, do you?" Steve asked.

"No… uh… I haven't heard from him in a while. Why is something wrong?" she asked.

Steve glanced to Danny who shook his head. "He's not answering."

"Okay, contact your people, tell them we've lost one of ours and we're gonna need all the help we can get," he told Rebecca. She nodded and pulled out her phone.

Danny's phone chirruped and everyone turned to him as he looked down at the text on his phone, but it wasn't Chin like everyone was hoping. "Fuck. Steve. Rowan just texted me. She found Chin she needs medic and 911 ASAP. No address."

That meant a lot of things. For starters Rowan not thinking to send an address meant she was rushing. Rowan sending a text and not calling meant that she couldn't talk yet which wouldn't make sense if she had gotten Chin out, unless she had literally _just_ found him and hadn't gotten him out yet. So, if Danny knew Rowan, and he did, that meant Rowan was in the Serial Killer's house, trying to rescue Chin. The Serial Killer who tortured young beautiful girls in their 20s. Like Rowan. Rowan was going to get herself killed.

Both Steve and Catherine swore and for completely different reasons. "Trace her phone," he cried having obviously come to the same conclusion as him.

"Babe… babe… you're not on this, you're suspended remember?" Danny called as Steve raced towards their tactical gear.

Catherine whirled around. "I'm sorry, what?"

"It's a long story," Steve said to Catherine and then turned to Danny with a dark glare. "The Governor can suspend me after we save Chin," The _and Rowan_ was implied. Danny longed to tell him that it didn't work like that but right at that moment all that mattered was finding Chin and Rowan before something disastrous happened.

The smart table dinged and they all scrambled. They had their address.


	84. Chapter 84

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Friday guys! Okay a lot of stuff is going to happen here. Catherine will be told off, and Steve's gonna have a stern talk with her too. So this is it. The chapter you guys have been waiting for. This is the beginning guys! The beginning of all the cute stuff. But keep in mind that we've still got a few more chapters of angst to go through before the cute stuff is full swing. This chapter has a little bit of fluff between Steve and Rowan, it does end on an unfortunate cliffhanger though so I'm sorry about that. But I can say that in 4 chapters Rowan and Steve are for the most part together, not like officially, but they're together kinda, aww you'll get what I mean you read it. Still that's pretty exciting! :D_

Chapter 84 

* * *

Rowan got out of the cab and looked around. In her heart she knew that this was the place. This was where Chin had last been but she saw nothing that would indicate where he had gone or what happened. She paid the cabbie and let him drive off as she stood in the street and looked around.

"You lost honey?" a lady asked from her porch behind her.

Rowan turned and smiled to her. Yes, with any luck this would be a nosy neighbour would could tell her everything she needed to know. "I'm just… I'm just looking for my friend. He was on a motorcycle…" she said. "Have… have you seen him?"

"A guy came around a while ago. Went to go talk to Gary across the street. Nice man, but mostly keeps to himself," she said pointing to the white house across from her. "Maybe he's still there."

Rowan thanked her for her time and then jogged across the street. She rushed up the walkway and then knocked on the door. The man who answered it looked at her like she was crazy, his eyes were wide his clothes were out of place, like he had been in a scuffle. But that wasn't what froze her. It was the same man from her dreams, the one she saw hovering over Chin as he sawed off a finger.

"Can I help you?" he asked her.

Rowan forced herself to smile. "Sorry. I'm looking for someone, his name is Chin Ho Kelly, he works for Five-0, he said to meet him here but I can't find him," she said.

"Yes… uh… he was here a while ago. He checked to see if my house was broken into but he left," he said.

That didn't feel right, he had to be lying, but she couldn't see how to prove it not when she didn't know where Chin was. Maybe he wasn't in the house. Maybe he was. She thanked him for his time and then turned away. What was she going to do? Did she call Danny and tell him what she knew? Would he believe her. She could call Steve but… you know… after what happened he probably wouldn't take her call… rightfully so. She took two steps down the path when she felt that pull of the void again, the hazy whiteness that took over. Just like before she saw that man, hovering over Chin's body, sawing his index finger off.

 _In his basement._

Rowan came to a standstill in the middle of the walkway. Chin was here. That man. Gary Nathan, yes that was his name. He really _did_ have Chin in that house. Rowan pulled out her phone and sent a single text to Danny

 _Found Chin. Serial Killer's basement. Send Help + Medic ASAP_.

Slipping her phone back in her pocket and steeling herself for what was going to come next, she marched her way right back up that walkway and wailed on that door until that asshole on the other side opened it up again. She knew his name now. She knew all about him. Chin was there she knew it, the vision confirmed it, but she needed the door open, she needed to keep him away from Chin and whatever other hostage he might have found because she knew someone else was there.

He opened the door looking far from pleased to see her again. "I already told you, your friend isn't here," he snapped.

He went to shut the door in her face, but she stopped him, putting half her body in the doorway to keep it from closing.

"Gary Nathan, right?" she asked him and his smile faded. He opened his mouth to ask her how she knew that but she had the lie out already. "You introduced yourself before? Look. I know this is annoying but I can get a hell of a lot worse if you don't just answer my last question. Just one more question and then I'll be out of your hair, I promise."

She smiled sweetly and batted her big blue eyes at him.

He sighed but said: "Go ahead."

And Rowan broke out in song.

 _All you singers stand up sing hallelujah!_

She waited, her eyes boring holes into him and from the basement she heard a resounding cry of: "hallelujah!" The right chords, the right timber, coming from somewhere below the house.

The man in front of her turned back to the sound as if surprised it had come from the basement. He'd probably have a clever lie for her, but Rowan knew. There was only a handful of people who knew the chorus of the song she had written. And one of them was in that basement. Seeing as she was looking for Chin she'd bet money that that was him and there wasn't a single thing that man could do to convince her otherwise.

Before he had even turned the full way around Rowan had gotten herself ready. Before he could say a single thing. Before he could lie or throw a punch at her. Rowan roared with rage and tackled him into his own house.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Chin heard the roar of a small woman and knew immediately that instead of getting help, Rowan had decided to attack.

God. Damn it. Rowan.

When he had answered her sing-along call he thought she'd go call Steve. Unless the serial killer who owned this house had grabbed her, he didn't understand why she'd try to attack him when she was 110 pounds when wet. He had no time to worry about this. There was no point to yell up: "Go get Steve" because he could hear the fight going on upstairs. The thumping, and clattering and yelping. He couldn't tell who was winning and he needed to get out. By the sounds of it they were in the kitchen and by the metallic bang he had just heard Rowan had probably found the pots and pans. There was another roar, a male one, yet another yelp of surprise and then a large bang.

Rowan let out a string of curse words and a strangled demanded of: _get off._ Chin immediately started to panic. Fuck. He started twisting himself to get at the pliers he had knocked off the table when Gary Nathan was too distracted with tying up the girl he had dragged down the stairs. If Rowan hadn't knocked on the door at that time he would have been screwed. He had already cut his feet free now he had to cut free his hands.

Gary Nathan had shown him a lot of pictures, and then done some pretty painful things to him. This man… this man was a serial killer, a pretty brutal one, Chin didn't want Rowan squaring off against him all on her own. Though, judging by the sounds up there she was doing pretty good.

There came this terrible crash and then two bodies flew down the stairs. The crack of them hitting the ground echoed in the silence of the basement. Chin stared at the bodies, letting his breath out in a shaky sigh when Rowan groaned and rolled herself off of the body she had landed on.

She rolled onto her front, both her hands threading through her hair and pressing on the back of her head. Oh god. Had she hit her head again?

Rowan carefully stood up she was swaying but she said to the man at her feet: "I hope you enjoyed your flight on _Air Rowan_."

"Rowan! This isn't the time to gloat." Chin cried and her eyes turned to him, or at least in the general direction of him. She took a hesitant step and stumbled to the side and then dropped to one knee. Like she was drunk and couldn't keep her balance.

"Kay, I'm seeing like four of you, which one is the real Chin?" she asked taking another step and stumbling in the other direction.

Chin got his hands free and put them out to grab her, but he had to lurch after her. "Holy fuck I wacked my head super hard on that trip," she said when he grabbed her. "But are you okay? Like…. Not a lot of torture, right? You didn't get stabbed with garden sheers, did you? Do you need help with the ropes?"

Chin couldn't help but smile at her. So many questions like she wasn't the one to fly down a flight of stairs. "Yeah, I'm okay, more worried about you to be honest."

"Oh no… I'm fine… I… uh… I texted Danny but it occurs to me that I never gave him an address… he'll uh… he'll just track my phone, right?" she asked. She had just shrugged off his concern for her, like McGarrett did. The similarities between them and their reactions to things was uncanny.

"You didn't give him an address?" Chin echoed. It wasn't like her to be that unprepared, but at least she had texted them, at least they knew something was going down and she was right, Danny probably traced her phone.

"Okay… I was panicking… don't judge me right now," Rowan snapped. "A simple thank you would suffice."

Chin leant Rowan against a work bench as he cut the girlfriend free. Once she was loose, she turned to where Nathan lay in an awkward position and gasped out an: "Oh my god, Gary!"

"He's not getting up, is he?" Rowan asked and Chin glanced over to where the man was still laying.

"No, Rowan," Chin said. "I'm pretty sure he'd down for the count."

He didn't want to tell her that she had probably killed him but he didn't want her worrying that they were in danger again either.

Rowan sighed and leant back against the workbench he had propped her up on. "Oh good. Cause, I know you remember that last one got up. And I am totally not up for a round two. You were totally gonna have to take round two."

Kaleo. Yes. He had gotten up. But Kaleo was a different beast entirely. And there shouldn't have been a round one between her and Gary Nathan in the first place but he was going to be eternally grateful that she came to rescue him, even though she was dreadfully ill equipped to do so.

Once the other woman was free and she was running up to the stairs to freedom and leaving them behind. Chin went to Rowan, pulled her against his side and began to lead her towards the stairs. "Come on Rowan. We better get you out of here. Get you to an ambulance."

"Yeah… I think I need one of those again," she whispered. She was leaning on him hard and he was too sore to actually support her weight, something he was loathe to admit. "Do you think we could get me in one before Steve shows up?"

Above them came the wail of sirens and then a shout of: "FIVE-0!" and the sound of a door being kicked in. Both Chin and Rowan's eyes went to the ceiling and Rowan groaned.

"Why did he do that? The door was unlocked," she mumbled under her breath. Chin just made her move forward and up those stairs. It was a bit too late for her to avoid Steve and getting her to an ambulance was more important right now.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve crashed through the door to get to Rowan… though if anyone asked it was to get to Chin. He was ready to kill whoever stood in the way. His worst fears were bouncing around his head. Chin dead, tortured, tortured and then dead, Rowan twice as dead and twice as tortured as she was the serial killer's type but nowhere in those worst fears did he predict that Chin would come up from the basement practically holding Rowan up. Chin looked like he came right off a battlefield but it was Rowan who needed the support.

He dimly remembered that he was supposed to be mad at her, but the anger didn't come. Instead he was afraid. Very fucking afraid.

"What's wrong?" he asked. "What's happened?"

Rowan slowly lifted her head, it bobbed and swayed like she couldn't keep it up right. Her eyes narrowed, squinting as if the sunlight streaming through the windows was practically blinding her.

"Oh no, not Steve," she groaned and he rolled his eyes. Yeah well he didn't want to see her either.

"She… uh… she fought with the guy. They took a tumble down the stairs together, she whacked the back of her head really hard," Chin told him. "She uh… she's acting more spacey than usual."

 _Don't be worried. Don't be worried. Don't. Be. Worried!_

"Why are there so many of you?" she said. "Three… four… five… too many. It hurts. Make it stop."

"I'm right here," he snapped to her.

"It doesn't help if all of you say it at the same time," Rowan grumbled her chin dropping to her chest. Oh _fuck_. Well that wasn't good at all, now was it?

"Why did you even come here by yourself?" Steve hissed and Chin shrugged as Rowan couldn't seem to do it for herself. "Okay, get her to the ambulance."

Chin winced. "Could you… uh… could you help me? I'm not gonna lie… I'm really sore… I don't think I can… I don't think I…"

It must have hurt to admit that, Chin's pride was almost as strong as his. Despite what had happened that morning that lead to him being suspended, despite knowing Catherine was either just outside or just behind him, Steve's automatic reaction was to grab Rowan and pulled her to his chest. He had her up in his arms before he could remember that he was supposed to be done with always rescuing her. But as soon as her arms wrapped around his neck, her head ducking into shoulder he didn't care about any of that anymore.

He passed Catherine on the way out. He heard her cry of: "WHAT THE—?" but ignored it. Getting Rowan to the awaiting ambulance outside was the only thing on his mind, he'd deal with the consequences later. Carrying her bridal style was not a good thing either, not for his heart which swelled with happiness and not for Catherine who looked like she had fire in her eyes.

"I feel so sick Steve," Rowan whispered into his neck. More like a whimper, her breath sticky against his skin. "I want to lie down. Please let me lie down."

Steve got her to the gurney and set her down. The EMTs were busy with the other woman who had been in the basement with Chin and Rowan so Steve stood in front of her, to make sure she didn't fall right out of her seat.

"Tell me what happened Rowan," he said, trying to keep her talking. Her eyes, god her eyes, they were so dilated and not evenly. She couldn't seem to focus her eyes were swinging every which way.

"Look at me," he ordered but Rowan shook her head.

"I don't know which one is the real you," she whispered, her hands reached out for him. He couldn't let her touch her. He just couldn't. It would ruin everything. All that hard work on tuning his body to stop reacting to her would all be undone. All the anger he was desperately trying to hold onto would vanish in a puff of smoke, the girl had gotten him suspended, she didn't deserve his comfort when she did a thing like that.

"It's me, I'm me, I'm right here," he said to her hoping that would be enough.

A single tear rolled down Rowan's face but she didn't flinch and she didn't even look like she was actually crying. Like the tear had escaped without her knowing. "It doesn't help if you're all talking to me at once," she near sobbed. She brought her hands back to her ears as if to block out the noise but she gasped out a terribly heart wrenching, "Make it stop hurting!"

Steve crouched in front of her immediately. He took her hands away from her head and put them to his cheeks where they then framed his face. As soon as she had his skin under her palms she seemed to calm down.

She smiled at him, shaky and crooked but he'd take it. "There you are," she whispered. His traitorous heart skipped a beat.

"Okay, yes, good, now tell me what happened."

"I've been dreaming of Chin, of these terrible things this guy was going to do to him. He was gonna emancipate him, make him subservient. And I had a vision today, that today was gonna be the day that happened, and you know, Chin's gone through so much, you know? He just… he just really doesn't deserve that," she said.

Okay, visions. Dreams. Great. Just great. Hadn't she said those had stopped? "Why didn't you tell me. Or Danny?" he asked. "Or Chin for that matter?"

"Because I didn't know. I didn't know who the guy was, or when exactly it was going to happen or what would set him off. I didn't call you because… well… after this afternoon… I didn't think I could or should. And there was no point telling either Danny or Chin anything until I had specifics," she explained. "But I had a plan. I swear I had a plan."

"Yeah? What was it?" he asked. They had gotten closer. Subconsciously he had moved closer to her. Fuck he still couldn't break that habit. Her eyes still mesmerized him, his heart beat still ran wild at her touch, and having her fingers running softly in the hair just above his ears was setting him on fire.

"I was gonna confirm which house he was in and then call you or Danny and make you guys come," she said. "But then it took too long to find him and I got more and more frantic. I just… I just didn't want him to have to hurt anymore."

"You attacked the guy on your own?" Steve asked, his voice hollow.

"I had no choice, he had Chin," she said. He was cataloguing the red welts and bruises that he hadn't noticed before. Red welts from finger nails raking gashes down her arms, how one eye seemed slightly redder then the other, like she had gotten hit on that side of the head, and a slight darkness under her jaw where a fist might have connected.

"One more question," he whispered to her. "One more question and then we'll get you fixed up, okay?"

Rowan nodded to him and he smiled. "What did Catherine say to you to make you fight with me and the other Five-0s."

The tears leaking out of Rowan's eyes fell a little harder, her lip trembled. "She told me to go away. That… that I was being selfish and ruining everything and to make you happy I needed to stop talking to all of you and I… I want you to be happy. You deserve to be happy and she's right. I was keeping all you from being happy. But shhhhh, don't tell Steve."

Steve stood there, staring at her. None of what she said was good. She had forgotten she was talking to him, she had a lazy smile on her face and a strange look on her face. But what really got him was that she believed her words. She actually believed that pack of garbage Catherine threw at her. He opened his mouth to tell her that none of what Catherine had said was true but the EMT came over and took over. He flashed his little penlight in her eyes causing Rowan to almost cry out in pain. Steve tried not to react, but he knew he flinched. If he hadn't had control of himself, he would have punched that EMT for hurting her like that.

Whatever that EMT saw was enough to panic him because suddenly they needed to be on the move. They were strapping her in and putting her in the back before Steve could say anything else.

"Once they clear you I'll have to bring you to the palace to fill out paperwork," he called to her.

"Great. I'm getting arrested again," he heard her mumble and he almost laughed at her.

"It's a necessary precaution," he teasingly called and he swore he saw her smile.

"Fine. You bring the handcuffs and I'll bring the sass," she called back.

Steve couldn't keep the smile off of his face. The doors shut in his face just as he was saying: "That's a date," and that smile fell right off his lips. Mainly because he knew what was coming next and considering what she had done he didn't think that he'd respond politely to what she had to say. He barely had to turn, Catherine was at his side almost immediately.

"Yet another head injury…" Catherine started but Chin shoved her so hard she actually toppled over and into Lou.

"HEY! I just watched her fly down a flight a stairs, taking our bad guy with her. Still don't know how she did it," Chin said, pointing a finger into Catherine's face. "All so she could save my life. So, don't you say a fucking thing about her behaviour! She was in major pain, and if Steve made her feel even a little bit better than it was worth it."

Everyone stared at him. Chin wasn't one for that kind of talk. He rarely swore, he rarely got mad at his team mates, but something on his face told them not to argue and for once Catherine actually looked hurt.

"I didn't mean it…" she started but Chin shook his head.

"No. Stop it. Rowan did do any of this to get to Steve, she did it for me. And Steve had her because I couldn't hold her up anymore. And I'm not sure what was going on over at the ambulance but I'm going to assume it's because she was seeing triple, or more or whatever," he argued. "So stop it. Let it go."

"Alright… I'm sorry…" she whispered and everyone let it go. She looked around at all of them carefully before picking her next words. "Uh… well… neither of us finished our rounds so uh… how are we going to determine who won our bet?"

"How about this?" Chin asked. "I got taken by the serial killer, you owe me dinner."

"Maybe, not tonight though," Steve said. He then turned to Catherine and tried to smile. "I was hoping to talk to you."

She smiled at him like it was a good thing. So, he tried to smile back at her even though it faltered on his lips. She was not going to like this conversation, but it needed to be done.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve got Catherine back to his house, he hadn't talked to her while they were driving and that was worrying. He could barely look at her. Which was worse, but that was what he was like when he was around Rowan. Not only was she injured, which meant Steve was going to be worried, she had been very forward with him, her hands in his hair, him carrying her like that. It would take a lot to get him to forget that, a lot of work that Catherine was going to have to do. She was starting to not think it was worth it.

"Are you going to tell me how you got suspended?" she asked him.

"It's a long story," he said with a sigh. "In one word. Rowan."

He pulled up into his driveway and got out of the car. Catherine followed him. "I'm sorry? How did she manage that?"

"Her and I got into an argument and I arrested her," he answered. He got into the house and shut the door after her. "She called the Governor, told him what I did and I got suspended, rightfully so."

It sounded fair. It was a pretty logically response to his behaviour and he was taking it surprisingly well. It sucked he got suspended but maybe this would be what he needed to finally get over Rowan. One last terrible betrayal.

"What did you and Rowan argue about?" she asked.

Steve turned to her, his face a mask of disappointment that tied a knot of dread in her stomach. "About you," he answered and her heart sunk. Oh god. Oh no. "About some things you said to her. Is there… uh… anything you want to tell me?"

"Look, she's a liar, okay? Whatever she told you I did or said… it's not true," Catherine said hoping she sounded the right amount of surprised and pleading. "She's just doing this to get between us. Okay?"

Steve nodded. "So, she was lying?" he asked his eyes searching hers.

"Yes," Catherine said with a sigh. Yes, he believed her.

"That's funny, because she told me you didn't say any of those things to her," Steve said and Catherine's relieved smile left her lips. "Yeah… she uh… she said, Danny and Chin, and my Aunt Deb and Mary, who heard you two arguing apparently, they were _all_ lying to me and you didn't say a single thing to her about leaving my life and never talking to any of the Five-0's ever again."

Oh, he had to be fucking kidding? _Rowan_ had covered for her while the rest of the people on Five-0 and Steve's family had thrown her under the bus. She kinda got Mary doing it cause Mary never really liked her, but she had picked Aunt Deb up when she got out of jail that one time. She thought she and Aunt Deb were cool.

"Look… Steve…"

"God Catherine, how could you do that to her?" Steve asked. "How could you do that at all? I mean… I get… I get that you're upset and I guess I get what you were trying to do but… god… Catherine. She had no one else."

God, why did he always side with Rowan? Catherine backed away from him. "Oh my god, you're finally doing it," she growled.

Steve's eyebrows furrowed. "Doing what?" he asked.

"You're leaving me for Rowan," she explained.

Steve blinked his eyes surprised. He hadn't been expecting that and maybe that was a good thing. "No I'm not leaving you for Rowan," he said. "I'm leaving you because of her."

WHAT. THE. FUCK. That was the same thing!

"Catherine… none of this has been fair to you, I honestly don't know why you stayed for so long," Steve said. "It's painfully clear to me that I… I definitely, 100% have feelings for Rowan. They're strong, they're crippling and they're affecting more than just me. They're affecting how I do my job, how I treat Rowan and how you behave."

"So, you're breaking up with me? After everything that happened? Do you think she's going to just jump in your arms when all you've done is arrest her the past six months? For Christ sake, Steve _just_ she got you suspended!" Catherine shouted.

"Catherine, I already told you, I'm not leaving you for Rowan," he repeated. "And yes, I'm very well aware that Rowan and I just won't fall into a perfect relationship. I have a lot to work on, I have a lot to apologize for but that's for me to worry about."

Catherine crossed her arms over her chest. She couldn't believe this was happening, that she had put up with so much, had fought so hard and it had all amounted to nothing. "This is ridiculous. I can't believe you're doing this to me."

She wanted to cry. She wanted to shout at him. But he was right. She shouldn't have stayed. The second she realized he cared for Rowan more than he cared for her, she should have left him.

"I'm sorry Catherine, I am," Steve said hanging his head. "I didn't mean for this to happen, I honestly thought that I could… let it go… my feelings for her, but I just can't. I can't stop thinking about her or wanting her and honestly… you don't deserve that."

No, she didn't. But she wanted Steve. She didn't go through of all of this to get _nothing_. "So… what? This it, me and you are over?" she asked, trying very hard not to cry, even though tears were in her eyes.

"Well… I mean… yeah…" he said. "Uh… I'm obviously not going to kick you out but…"

"You want me to look for my own place," she growled. "Of course you do. So we're not… we're not going to try and fix this? That's it? Everything you ever felt for me, erased. Because of… _her_."

"No… because of me," Steve argued.

"And your feelings for _her_ ," Catherine snapped back.

Steve sighed deeply. "Yes Cath… because of my feelings for her," he admitted.

Catherine wiped the first of her tears away and Steve put a hand to her arm that she didn't have the heart to move away. "I do care for you, Cath. I do, very much. But… Cath I feel like I've been leading you on for months now. Telling you I could stop seeing Rowan like it would fix things, telling you I could stop feeling what I did, when none of that was true, when I couldn't bring myself to stop… it was wrong," he told her. "And to be honest, what you did to her… telling her to cut all of us out her life. I know where it came from and I understand what you were probably feeling and how that might have worked for you but… that was a terrible thing to do to her. She had no one else."

Oh this again. Stupid Rowan, why couldn't she have just stayed away? "I felt like I had no other choice," she muttered.

"Yes. I get that. But you also shouldn't have felt like that and that's on me," Steve told her. "I understand why you're mad Cath, I do. I shouldn't have done this to you or Rowan. I should have just owned up to it. I'm sorry. I am."

There was no arguing with him. His mind had been set, and it hadn't been a single thing that Rowan had done, this was on her. Tragically enough. She tried to brush the last of her tears away. She smiled sadly up to him and whispered. "I'm sorry too and uh… you don't need to quit Five-0, we're mature grown ups, we can… we can work together still, right?" he asked and when she nodded, he added: "You don't have to leave tonight… I'll uh… I'll stay with Danny okay?"

Despite all the sadness she went to him and wrapped her arms around him. He held her back, but not nearly as tightly as she held him. She pulled herself away from him and turned away before she could see that the tears were starting to fall again. She went up to the room they were sharing to get her stuff out of his room.

But she wasn't defeated. She wasn't going to let Rowan win. He'd see. He'd have like four dates with Rowan and see. She was so embroiled with Wo Fat that he'd leave her.

She just had to be sure to be there when Steve needed someone's shoulder to cry on. She wasn't going to let go that easily.


	85. Chapter 85

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFic**

 _A/N: So there we go, this one's a shorter chapter, but we've got a long author's note today._

 _Catherine's officially gone. Well not gone in the sense that she's never coming back but she's not with Steve anymore so that is step 2 in the getting them together plan. I know some people thought he let Catherine off easy, but what I wanted to stress was that Steve has realized that a lot of what happened was because of him and he took the blame. Also, has Catherine really gotten off that easy? Because at the current moment, she has no friends, no boyfriend, no place to stay and everything at work is going to be awkward now… so… I unno, did Steve really need to rub it in or would we rather him try to mature a little? ANYWAY, Steve and Rowan are ALMOST to where they're going to work things out. I know it's taking a while, but I promise (it's like in three chapters) that once we pass that hurdle it's nothing but fluff. Okay, there's still going to be some angst, but the fluff will outweigh the angst. And for everyone who was worried Steve's just going to get what he wants. He doesn't. They still have a lot to work on, the pair of them, before Rowan just gives in. He's got a lot of apologizing to do._

 _Also, We reached 500 reviews. So thank you guys for that! I really can't put into words how much your continual support means to me. However, I'm kind in the middle of a crunch time at school so if you guys don't mind, can I do the 7 day marathon when the crunch is done? I should be good to go somewhere around the beginning of April. I also kinda wanna make sure that I have enough chapters banked up to be able to do the marathon and still post twice a week. Thanks guys! See you on Friday!_

 _P.S. YAY JP's BACK! I wondered where you had gone off to! Tell me all about your VACA! Don't worry about Catherine, I've got some nice things planned for her later, but she's going to be a bit of a bitch for the next little while, which is to be expected when something like this happens. I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as the others._

Chapter 85 

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Steve parked his car, slung his shoulder bag of essentials over his shoulder and then jogged up to Danny's place. He knew it was a lot to ask to crash at it his friend's place on Christmas but he hoped it wouldn't be all that bad, he'd love to spend Christmas morning with Gracie. He felt dirty about the breakup he just initiated though so he was hopping that he could shower the guilt right off of him. He let Catherine stay in his house figuring she wouldn't be that petty to destroy the place because he left her. He let her stay because he knew she had nowhere else and he didn't want to kick her out. But he also knew that if he stayed she'd have nowhere else to sleep but in Rowan's room because she wasn't sleeping with him. And no one went into Rowan's room… it was Rowan's room.

He knocked on Danny's door and waited, but no one answered. He knocked again, and once again nothing. It wasn't that late, it was only seven o'clock. Yes it was Christmas but Danny… Danny wouldn't be asleep this early… would he?

Steve dropped his bag and then checked the windows. Everything inside was dark. Not even the Christmas tree was lit up. So what the hell?

He pulled out his phone and dialed Danny's number. The phone rang but Steve didn't hear it ringing inside.

When he answered Steve was ready to go off on him. "I'm at your place, where are you?" he asked.

"My place?" Danny echoed. "Why are you there?"

"Because I broke up with Catherine," Steve answered. "I was gonna stay on your couch."

"Uh… if you broke up with Catherine shouldn't Catherine be looking to crash on my place, not the other way around?" Danny asked after a brief pause.

"Look, can we talk about after you let me in?" Steve shot back and he almost heard Danny frown over the phone.

"Wish I could, but I'm not there," he answered. Steve paused. Something was wrong. It had to be, why else would Danny have left his house, with Grace on Christmas Eve?

"Why not? Where are you?" Steve asked.

"I'm uh… I'm at the hospital," he whispered and Steve's heart dropped out of his chest. His first thought was Grace, cause if it was Danny he wouldn't have answered the phone.

"What happened?" he asked already stooping down to pick up his bag. He was almost to his truck when Danny finally answered him.

"It's… uh… it's Rowan…" Danny told him. The bag dropped out of his hand. The world disappeared in a blinding static white. The words went into his ears but he couldn't process what was being said. He was just in shock that this was all happening all over again.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Danny had Grace sitting in the waiting room, Chin was beside her, he too waiting. The only person missing, other than Kono was Steve and he was on his way. It had been harrowing to be settling down for Christmas Eve and then get that call from King's Medical hospital.

He and Grace had rushed over, he had called Chin on the way and he had met them there. Thankfully Chin stayed with Grace as the doctor talked Danny through everything and what was going to happen to make Rowan better... if she made it through the night.

Steve slid into the emergency room, his eyes wide, his chest heaving. "How bad is it?" he asked him. When Danny didn't answer quite fast enough Steve repeated the question, only louder. "Danny… how bad is it?"

Danny glanced to where Chin and Grace were sitting. Steve followed his eyes and saw a teary-eyed Grace staring up at him and now that his attention was on her she was ready to voice her own complaints. "Uncle Steve! The doctor said Rowan has a subural homeytony but no one will tell me what that means."

Steve turned back to Danny his eyes wide with horror and confusion. Danny merely sighed at Chin who understood the silent plea in Danny's eyes and quickly nodded before turning to Grace with a smile. He tapped her shoulder so she'd turn away from Steve and Danny. "Hey Gracie, how about we go get another hot chocolate?"

"Another one?" she whined.

"Yeah. I'll even let you pick something from the vending machine. What do you think?" he asked.

Gracie looked up at him and then back to Steve, she seemed to realize she wasn't going to get an answer so she got up and went with Chin. As soon as she was out of ear shot Steve had a hand on Danny's arm.

" _Subural homeytony_? Did she mean subdural hematoma?" he asked. There was no point lying, no point trying to soften the blow.

"Yeah, that's what she meant," Danny admitted.

Steve let his breath out in a shaky hiss and then ran his hand through his hair. "Is it… is it really bad?"

"Uh… you know what I'm not going to sugar coat this so… yes. Yes Steven, it's pretty fucking bad," Danny said. His eyes stayed firmly on Steve's chest because he couldn't look him in the eye and see that terrible pain on his face. Not again, not if it was anywhere near as bad as when she got shot. "The bleeding in her brain is extensive. She… had a pretty bad seizure on the way here and when she got here they… well… they drilled a hole into her head…"

He looked up at that point and the shock on Steve's face was more than apparent. "Did they… did they…"

"Yeah, they got most of the blood out except that wasn't her only bleed. They… they had to drill two more holes to deal with it all," Danny answered. "She did a lot of damage Steve… there's terrible swelling in her brain and they want her unconscious upside of a week to deal with it… that's if she makes it through the night."

"She'll make it," Steve said quickly he needed to believe it so Danny wasn't going to rain on his parade with everything the doctor had told him to contradict it. "She's strong, Danny. She'll make it."

"They have her on something called… uh.. dexamethasone… just you know some drip to combat the swelling. She's breathing on her own but they've induced her coma already," Danny explained. "She's not out of the woods yet and they're not very positive about her outcome."

"She'll be fine, Danny," Steve said again. "They don't know her. She's… she's stubborn. She's strong. She'll make it through…" He fell silent thinking about it, his eyes searching the rooms of the ICU no doubt for any sign of her. "Uh… when can we go to sit with her?"

"You sure you want to spend your Christmas Eve here with her?" he asked.

"She'd stay with me," Steve whispered. Well he had him there, so all Danny could think to do was point him in the direction of her room. Grace and Chin made their way back and she came running up to him with his favourite chocolate bar in her hand.

Chin glanced to Steve's retreating back and turned back to Danny. "So… how did that go?"

"As good as could be expected," Danny said. He smiled down to Grace and tried to smile. "Are you ready to go home, Monkey?"

"We're going to leave her?" Grace asked with a pout.

"Well… Monkey, Auntie Ro needs to sleep off this head injury," he told her. "She's gonna be asleep for a very long time. That would be boring."

"But wouldn't she know that we're there? You know… feel us there? Wouldn't it make her feel better?" Grace asked.

"You know… Uncle Steve's going to stay with her tonight. Why don't we come and visit her tomorrow, before go off to Japan to return the box, huh?" Danny offered.

Grace smiled. "Okay, and we can bring her all her Christmas presents right? And I can open hers here? The one for me I mean? Oh and we can get her a new stuffed animal, a unicorn this time!" she cried.

Oh god. More shopping. Still he smiled at his daughter and nodded. Chin added: "Yeah, it'll probably be a good idea to do this in shifts. And someone better go to get him a change of clothes and the necessities. If this is going to be anything like last time, we're going to have a hell of a time getting him out of here."

Danny nodded, clapped a hand to Chin's shoulder and they walked out together, ready to face this next injury that Rowan had incurred and what it would mean to their fearless leader.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Chin showed up in the early morning hours with a bag of clothes and essentials. Unlike the last time Rowan was in hospital they were all well and truly prepared, apparently Chin and Danny had come up with a plan of attack if this ever happened again. Chin also told him that they would be doing this in shifts and that was nonnegotiable. Danny would be coming later in the day for his turn and Steve was expecting to actually _leave_ the building.

Danny ended up having to come earlier, when the Governor called Steve and demanded his presence at his office. Steve had completely forgot that he was supposed to go in to speak to Dennings, and you know… get suspended. Luckily, he must have called Danny too because not only did Danny bring him a suit to change into so he would look presentable to present his case to not be suspended indefinitely and he brought in his badge and his gun for Steve to hand in to him. While he changed, Grace had carefully put a soft plush unicorn with a pink mane, a matching pink tail and a golden foil horn in the crux of Rowan's arm and then began unpacking wrapped boxes to put by Rowan's beside. Christmas gifts for her to unwrap when she woke up.

"Can we get her other stuffed animals from Uncle Chin's?" Grace had asked. Before Steve could even ask why her stuffed animals were at Chin's Danny had pushed him out of the door. Said he had to be quick because the Governor was waiting and he had a flight to Japan to catch. Turned out he had found who that puzzle box and the locket Grace found on the beach belonged to.

He didn't have the energy in him to fight Danny, especially when he was letting him his borrow car so willingly, so he changed quickly and took Danny's Camaro to the Governor's.

He walked in, dressed in the blue suit Rowan liked so much, ready to explain the error of his ways and how much he was going to change. He sat in the chair across from the Governor's desk and he looked over what was probably a file of everything that had happened between he and Rowan over the last eight months.

"I had to spin a very interesting story about you to the music executives you arrested her in front of yesterday," Dennings said without looking up from the papers. "You almost cost her her career."

Guilt hit him, straight in the chest constricting and twisting his heart. He hadn't been thinking about that when he arrested. God, he hoped he didn't ruin that for her, he go with any story, say anything he had to to make sure they didn't write her off. "I can talk to them, explain the misunderstanding," he said with a sigh.

"She said the argument was personal, is that true?" Dennings asked finally looking up.

"… Yes, it was a personal disagreement we were having," he admitted and Dennings' eyebrow shot up on his face like he was shocked Steve had just flat out admitted it.

"I'm at my wits end, Commander," Dennings told him. "I don't know what to do. I can't pull the head of Five-0 off of Five-0 permanently and then expect someone else to come in to fill your place. But you can't go on the way you have and while Rowan seemed certain that this would be enough to dissuade you from doing it again, I don't hold the same confidence."

Steve nodded, yeah that was fair. "I know I haven't given you reason to believe this… but… uh… I really have had a break through. I've pinpointed the cause of this behaviour and I have devised a plan to keep it from happening again."

Dennings glared at him. "And what would that plan entail?" he asked.

"Well for starters, I broke up with Catherine," he said and Dennings interrupted him.

"I fail to see how breaking things off with Lieutenant Rollins will fix anything between you and Rowan, in fact if anything it creates more strain on Five-0," he cried.

"The latest development with Rowan, the one that brought us to this moment, was… uh… directly caused by Catherine and a demand she made that Rowan attempted to follow through with. It made things clear to me, that I hadn't been fair to either of them and I am endeavouring to fix it," he told him.

"By ending things?" Dennings repeated.

"I can't begin to fix the damage I've caused with Rowan without first fixing the issues I have myself. Catherine… I was leading her on, I should have broken up with her right away, I took the blame for messing things up. I told her she can stay on Five-0 that we can still work together if she wants. She's uh… she's deciding still. Rowan… well… I have had a hard time… separating her from Wo Fat… and as such I sort of treated her like him. I'm going to work on remembering that she and him are not the same, no matter how close they seem to be," he said.

"All of this because she chose Wo Fat," Dennings said with a sigh. He pinned Steve with a dry glare. "Does this revelation have anything to do with the fact that Rowan is currently in the hospital with a less then positive prognosis on her survival?"

Oh someone had told him about that too? Steve had to swallow the lump that rose up in his throat before he could answer Dennings.

"No. You can ask Danny, I came to this conclusion before she even got hurt," he said.

"I will definitely pull Detective Williams in later this week to confirm," he said and then he looked carefully at Steven before saying: "Considering the situation, considering her condition, I have decided to take Rowan's advice on the length of your suspension."

Steven sighed, this was it, he was fired. "Let me guess… forever…" he said.

"No, she said three days," Dennings told him. His face must have betrayed his emotion because he added: "Surprised? Me too. That girl really went to bat for you. Said I should have just suspended you for a day instead of the forever I wanted to go for."

"She… wow… really? I didn't know she…" he trailed off. No, he hadn't known. He had no idea that, mad as she was, Rowan hadn't actually demanded a full suspension. A one day, that's what she wanted, he didn't deserve that. He didn't deserve her.

"Yes. You two, quite frankly, are absolutely ridiculous. I will not be suspending you for three days, that's too light for what you did. You will be getting suspended for the next seven days, unless there's a case I think we need you on," Dennings said and Steve nodded. Okay. Fair. A week… he could handle a week.

The Governor signed and stamped his suspension form and when he was done he looked back up to Steve with a strange look on his face. "May I be frank, Commander?" Dennings asked leaning forward. Steve gestured for him go ahead and Dennings smiled in this strange toothy way that made him nervous. "This time, when she wakes up, just tell her how you feel. I'm getting tired of cleaning up these messes. The two of you obviously like each other so work it out. And I don't mean, letting her move out or telling you to leave or whatever else it is the two of you do."

Steve smiled, he thanked him for his advice and he left feeling a little bit light. Questions still weighed heavy on his mind and he had a feeling that, no matter how he felt for Rowan, things wouldn't be alright between them until he got his answers.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve got back to the hospital, and with suit jacket slung over his shoulder he entered Rowan's room to find her whole little family waiting for her. Minus, Kono, Adam and for some reason Alex.

Steve glanced at Grover who was leaning against her bed with his arms crossed. He narrowed his eyes at him.

"Who invited you?" he asked and Grover scowled at him

"This Grinch act of yours has got to stop, you know you like me," he said with a big fake grin.

"No seriously… what… you worked one case with the girl and now you're besties?" Steve asked.

"Well, I mean… why not? You two worked one case together and you invited him to a family function, and Rowan's much more likeable then you," Danny said. Wow, either that meeting was longer than he expected or Danny's trip to Japan had been really quick. He was teasing, Steve knew he was, but he also knew that Danny was a slight bit jealous that he and Grover went on the typical McGarrett adventure. Like Steve should have waited to ride horseback after a truck until Danny came home to do it.

"Ha ha," Steve answered sarcastically which got the rest of the people in the room laughing.

"In all seriousness, the girl comes into my office once a week with cupcakes. It's the highlight of the guy's week. If we're not in the office when she drops by she leaves them for us. She always asks about our cases, she knows about our families, and she always had a nice thing to say about you," he said pinning McGarrett with a serious stare.

Steve let out a shaky laugh. "She does?" he asked, his mouth running dry and his eyes decidedly moist.

"Yeah. Kept trying to convince me how great a guy you were. Let me tell you that got hard quick after I witnessed you arresting her," he said. "You should have seen her face though. She'd say something about how your methods might be stressful or strange but you have great results and you're more loyal then a dog and I'd say: _Gurl, that man arrested you the second an opportunity presented itself_. And her face. Oohhh. It would scrunch up and she'd frown at me because I had her. I had her."

"Yeah… uh… yeah… I haven't really… I haven't really deserved her praise as of late. I'm really surprised she thought I was any good at all," he said.

"Yeah but that's Rowan," Chin said. "She's a lot like Steve. Recklessly loyal. She could be literally furious with you, talking up and down on how terrible you are but the second someone else has something to say she would defend you to death." Chin took that moment to pause. Steve hadn't realized Rowan was like that, that she'd defend even him when he didn't deserve it. It sort of explained why she was the way she was with Wo Fat. Chin got a small smile on his face and then he was saying: "Did you know, she took on a ring of convicted criminals simply so they wouldn't shank me? You think the computer trick was scary, imagine all five-foot-four of her perky self trying to talk her way out of a prison riot. And it almost worked!"

"Oh… or the time she tackled a fugitive bank robber down a flight of stairs?" Danny added.

"Oh, so this taking criminals on trips down stairs is a habit of hers? Someone better teach her how to do it without throwing herself down too," Grover said.

Yes, Steve should teach her better self-defence, so this shit wouldn't keep happening to her.

"Rowan does end up in the hospital a lot trying to help us," Chin agreed. "I think… I think we gotta start listening to her more. Maybe that will keep her from going off on her own."

"She didn't tell us about you this time, though," Steve argued. "She didn't tell us until she found you and by the time she had she was already in the house."

"Well… that's not strictly true," Chin said. He glanced carefully to Grover before saying: "She… uh… she dreamed about it. Every other night. She'd wake me up about it all the time."

"Wake you up?" Steve echoed. Danny pinned Chin with a glare, a dark glare Steve didn't understand. What could they be hiding now? He knew they were friends.

"Yeah… she'd uh… call me? Yeah, she'd call me. Ask if I was okay, tell me she had the dream again and make me promise not to go into any basements or chasing after fingers, which made no sense… until this case…" Chin said.

"Okay, y'all need to tell me what's going on with this girl. This isn't the first time I've heard about dreams and visions. She some kinda psychic?" Grover asked.

"Yeah, some kind," Steve answered. "She's a very long story, and I'm sure one day you'll get it."

"Geeze, you Five-0's and your secrets," Grover said with a shake of a head. "You guys have more secrets then the CIA."

They all exchanged glances and polite chuckles. None of them said anything because it was true. They all kept secrets. From the public, from the Governor, from Grover and from themselves.

"No one has more secrets then Rowan," Steve whispered softly. It came out before he could stop himself. And maybe she didn't have secrets, she seemed to tell Wo everything and Chin and Danny seemed to be in her confidence too. But Rowan didn't tell Steve anything. He didn't want her to die without telling her secrets, without her trusting him, with her thinking that he didn't care for her. He didn't want her to die at all.

He swiped at his tears hopefully before anyone noticed and luckily they didn't because Grover was talking again.

"Look, secrets or not, I want in on this whole rotation thing," he said to them. When they were all quiet, staring at him with their own versions of confused faces he added: "William's said that you guys are rotating staying with her until she wakes up. I want in. Put me into the rotation. I'll sit with her. I'll talk with her. Hell I'll serenade her if the doctors think it might help. And it might too, with my caterwauling she might wake up to shut me up."

The room broke out in chuckles. "Hey she came out of her last coma to tell Wo Fat to go fuck himself, it stands to reason she might wake up to tell you to shut up," Danny answered and Grover just shook his head.

"Y'all serious about this? This girl is something else. Someone better tell me that whole damn story!" he demanded.

As they fell into telling Rowan stories again, Steve's eyes focused on Rowan who had been smothered in stuffed animals at some point while he was gone. Gauze haloed her head, her red hair looked out of place against the paleness of her face. He wanted nothing more than for her eyes to open. He had already lived through this worry, of sitting beside her bed willing her to live. He could do it again, but that didn't mean he was used to the pain crawling under his skin.

He'd trade places with her in a heartbeat. But right now, with all his friends, plus Grover, in the room, this was good enough.


	86. Chapter 86

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hey guys, sorry the update is late. We've got a pretty interesting update here. Rowan's going to be fine, in the grand scheme this is just a small thing and there's going to be a bit of a monkey wrench that I'm throwing in in this chapter. But I promise, I two chapters it's all settled okay? I'm not going to lie I've had a real rough go of things recently. I'm really stressed at school and I think I've finally hit a road block with this story. I'm going to do my best to go through it. But I'm only 15 chapters ahead so I won't have a lot of chapters left over for when I do the marathon and I really don't want to go back to once a week chapter or… heaven forbid, not updating regularly. So we may have to wait a bit longer for the marathon. Sorry about that guys. I hate to disappoint you, but I'll see you on Tuesday!_

Chapter 86

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 _HAHA very funny. But seriously. Listen to me. You asked me if I had anything new. Well I do. Vancouver. Straight up. Been dreaming about it for days, and hadn't been able to figure it out until today. Vancouver. Bet you any money he's in Vancouver._

Kono got out of the cab and headed into the small diner. Rowan hadn't been able to give her much, but it had been enough. She had found intel, a man using Adam's mother's maiden name, working out of a diner off the airport strip… this diner. She was right, she knew it.

Pulling her hood down she looked around. A dishwasher, that's who Adam was now, he wouldn't be out in the front. He'd be in the back kitchen. So she followed a bus boy into the back.

Chin had left her a message while she had been on the last flight. Told her all about Rowan and about her condition. She felt bad, to be there in Vancouver, a stone's throw away from where Rowan's family was from, while Rowan herself was in the hospital clinging to life. Again. But it was Rowan's dreams that got Kono to where she was, she owed it to Rowan to follow this through, no matter how much she wanted to return to sit vigil by Rowan's bed.

No one in the kitchen had thought to stop her as she walked towards the back and then it didn't matter. Because there was Adam. Never mind his back was to her, she knew it was him, she could tell by his shoulders.

"Adam?" she asked, her voice barely carrying over the din of the kitchen but he heard her. Because he straightened, and glanced over his shoulder.

He had grown a beard. He was wearing a black wife beater, an apron, non-slip shoes, plain black pants and he had a beard. He looked nothing like the Adam she knew but it was him. Nothing would be able to change his eyes.

"Kono?" he asked as he turned to her.

She approached him slowly, afraid that if she got to him he wouldn't actually be there. He turned around fully to look at her, he too looked like he might cry. She put a hand out to touch that beard, if it were real, if she could feel it under her fingertips she'd cry, she knew it. His hand hit her shoulder and she could feel it, really feel it, over her coat. He was there. He was really there.

She started to cry and he pulled her in for a hug. A tight embrace that reminded her that he was there, that she had really founds him. That being away from Rowan in her time of need was validated by having her own arms around Adam's shoulder as she cried into his neck.

"How did you find me?" he asked once she had pulled away from him, his hands framing her face. "Did Rowan get a vision?"

He was teasing, so she wasn't going to tell him that Rowan had pointed her in the right direction. "It wasn't easy."

He frowned, clearly in pain for some reason. "You shouldn't have come. You might've been followed."

Oh the poor boy, he didn't know. He was still trying to protect her. "It's over, Adam," she whispered to him. "There's no loyalty for Michael anymore. Anyone who wanted revenge for his death is either dead or locked up. So you don't have to hide anymore."

He looked surprised and happy at the same time. "We can go home?" he asked, like he didn't believe it.

She nodded. "Yeah, we can go home," she told him, smiling just at the thought of returning home. She let him pull her into a kiss and tried to not laugh in giddy happiness. She was going home.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve was in one sort of a mood that day. He didn't want to be in this woman's house asking questions about the missing bar owner who was friends with Grover and coincidentally a wanted fugitive in a 20-year-old murder case, in fact he looked all but livid about being pulled on a case at all. Grover could guess why.

So before he went to interrogate the wife and Steve went to ask the kids some questions he pulled the man aside. "Something going on with girlie I don't know about?" he asked. Steve sighed like he thought he had been hiding his emotions, he took in Grover's glare and decided not to lie.

"She was supposed to be awake two days ago," Steve answered absently, his hands on his hips, thumbs hooked into his belt loops like he was trying to be casual. Like Grover couldn't see how distraught the man was.

"Girl had three holes drilled into her head and major swelling, I think we should be grateful she's alive and not just sleeping in," he said.

"Yeah, no, I know… it's just… she's always been punctual and last time… I unno she woke up early…" he said wincing as if his hearing the stupidity of his own words.

"That wasn't a medically induced coma, girl came out of a surgery," Grover snapped.

"Well I mean… yeah you're right. But… when she was shot… like… a few days after her surgery when they didn't think she'd wake up for weeks she just… she just woke up and she had a machine breathing for her and her surgery had been hellish and she… she woke up. I unno… I just thought… maybe…."

"Boy, it sounds like if anything you should be expecting a third act twist or for her to get worse," Grover said heading towards the wife. "Shit, I'll just be happy if she has a nice recuperation period before quietly waking up."

Scowling Steve went back to the kids while he interrogated the wife about what she knew of his past crimes.

He currently had her crying and coming up on empty but he didn't know if he believed her. "Fingerprints don't lie, Bridgette," he said showing her the print out from the computer. The warrant out for his arrest. "Your husband is wanted for murder back in Illinois."

She was looking at it but she wasn't believing it. "He would never," she growled a single tear falling down her cheek. "You know him. You know the kind of man he is."

"I thought I did," Grover admitted. "Now you listen to me very carefully. In a couple of hours, this whole islands gonna be crawling with HPD, FBI and Illinois State Police, and they're all gonna be looking for your husband. And there'll be some young, gung-ho, trigger-happy cops looking to make a name for themselves by bringing in a fugitive on a 20-year-old murder case. And they don't know Jack the family man. They only know Jack the fugitive, and they're gonna bring him in by any means necessary."

It was the harsh reality and judging by the dark glare on her face it was not appreciated. She wasn't gonna talk to the mean cop grilling her so Grover changed his tactics. "Bridgette, I know this is a lot. I'm sorry. But I'm gonna need your help. If you know where he might be, if he's tried to contact you, you need to tell me right now."

She shook her head. "I don't. I swear," she answered in a small voice. Steve was behind her now, so much for giving Grover a minute.

"Bridgette, the boys said that Jack came back to the house this morning," he said and she turned to him she looked surprised, like she genuinely didn't know.

"I… I must have been asleep," she said.

"That's what they said," Steve confirmed and she seemed to relax. Damn, Steve was good. "He made them promise not to tell anybody that he'd come back here. I guess he grabbed a rifle and some camping gear. He also told them that he might be away for a little while. You got any idea where that might be?"

She thought for a moment before sighing and saying: "He goes hunting in the Ewa Forest Reserve. Uh… he usually makes camp around the Waimano Stream."

Steve nodded. "Okay I know where that is," Steve said, like the good chipper boy-scout he was. "Thanks."

He walked away while Grove was assuring Bridgette that he'd bring back Jack safe, but even Grover her the cellphone ring. Heard Steve's excited voice. Clipped quick questions: "She did? When?" and he sure as hell heard the: "I'll be right there."

He joined Steve out on the porch as he was pushing his phone back out of his pocket and fumbling with his keys. "What's going on?" Grover asked, knowing already that it was about Rowan. By the shaking of his hands he reckoned Steve got bad new, but when Steve flashed him a roguish half grin he knew it was good.

"Rowan's awake," he said and then he was rushing for his truck. Grover couldn't help but be amazed, he had never see Steve smile like that before.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

This was not good, no, no it was not.

It had been Danny's turn to sit with Rowan. Grace had been sent off to cheerleading camp leaving him with strict instructions to be by Rowan's bed side in the evening so Grace could say goodnight, and to text her any updates. Danny had met a girl on the way back, a very nice girl that ended up getting hurt while driving. Shot actually. It hadn't taken him long to figure out what happened and once that was settled, he had returned to the hospital to sit with Rowan so Chin could help Steve with the case.

Rowan had been out of it for eight days now, eight days of rotating shifts, of Grace braiding and rebraiding whatever she could reach of Rowan's hair, of Grover reading the sports page to her, of Steve sleeping, his arms folded over the edge of her cot his head pillowed on his arms, and of Chin playing her scores of the songs she was still working on in hopes to cajole her into waking, but she didn't.

Until that afternoon.

Danny had been sitting beside her holding her hand, Grace had demanded to facetime Rowan, so he was holding his phone up to Rowan's face as Grace continued to talk to her telling her all about camp and how many videos she was going to show her when she got back, but suddenly she just went quiet.

"Daddy?" she had said in a soft voice. "Auntie Ro is looking at me."

Danny's head had whipped up and actually looked at Rowan's face. Her head had been turned to his phone, her eyes had been open but instead of smiling, she had been staring at her with narrowed eyes.

"Evolet? What did you do to your hair?" she had asked, her voice foggy and thick.

"I'm not… Evolet. I'm Grace," his daughter had said to her a pout on her face. "What's wrong with her Danno?"

Rowan's head had turned to him now, taking him in as he pulled the phone away from her and pointed it at himself.

"Hey, monkey, I'm going to call you back okay?" he had said and then hung up. He looked back to Rowan and found that she was staring at him with eyes wide with confusion and a distrusting frown on her lips. There was a sense of recognition but not in the way that told him she actually recognized him, not for him anyway.

"Scott Caan?" she had whispered when she got a good look at him. She had then turned away from him and began to scan the room, her eyes vividly searching for something. "What the hell? Where am I? Where are my parents? Where…? Mom?! DADDY?!"

That last syllable had been shrieked in absolute terror, her heart monitor had gone crazy with her panic, nurses had come rushing in and Danny had been forced out and told to stay out until she was stable.

Now with Steve rushing up to him, obviously angling to see Rowan right away, he would have to tell Steve what had happened. What the doctors had talked to him about.

Rowan didn't remember them.

"Hey, yeah, calm down," he said as Steve got close.

Steve was already craning to look into her room. "She's okay though? Right? I mean, she's awake that means she's okay?"

"Okay, yeah, physically, yeah, she's fine. She's stable, she's awake, but there is a problem," Danny said to him and then Steve's eyes whipped to him and a frown graced his lips.

"Problem?" he whispered. "What kind of problem?"

"Rowan doesn't remember us," he said. "She called me Scott again which is that actor guy from her world, has no idea how she got to Hawaii and keeps asking for her parents and her brother."

Steve blinked his eyes at him. A soft whisper of: "No," came out of him and then he was in the room. Danny stood at the door not sure how he went from in front of his friend to swept to the side. He watched as Steve stared down at Rowan who was much calmer with the nurses around her.

She had turned to him the second he walked in, her eyes widening when she saw him, her eyebrows skyrocketing up her forehead at the sight of him. "Whoa. Hello!" she said with a big grin. Danny almost breathed out a sigh of relief, maybe Rowan remembered. Maybe all she needed was to see Steve.

"You know who I am?" he asked.

"Course I do. You're Alex O'Loughlin," she said, an appreciative smile spread onto her lips as she looked him up and down. Nope. That wasn't it. "I love your show. Five-0… I mean Hawaii Five-0, you're great as Steven McGarrett. You were also great in _August Rush_ , and I hear great things about the _Back up Plan_ but I never saw it. J-Lo is not my favourite actress… except I love the Wedding Planner."

Steve didn't have to be facing him for Danny to know that a frown was on his face. Steve shoved his hands into his pockets, his eyes lowered to his shoes.

"I'm not… I'm…"

"You know, your partner in crime, Scott Caan, was just here, did I… I didn't crash the Five-0 set did I? Cause if I did it was a total accident… I think. Not gonna lie I don't quite remember how I got here."

"I'm not Alex, Rowan," he interrupted her.

Rowan's confident smile cracked a bit. "You know my name?"

"Of course I know your name. I've known you for more than a year, you lived with me for six months," he snapped.

"Whoa!" Rowan cried her hands raising up as if to ward him off though he hadn't moved. "I better not have! You're _married_!"

"No! Ro, I'm not. I'm not… I'm… I'm Steve. Remember? Steven McGarrett," he said, willing her to believe.

"Yes, I know you play…"

"No. Rowan. I _am_ Steven McGarrett. Steve. Your Steve. Remember? This isn't your TV show, you're not at home you're here, you're here with me. With Steve," he said but Rowan wasn't believing it. He quickly sat down close to her and reached a hand out to her, but she wouldn't let him touch her. She blinked her eyes and looked around the room carefully before her eyes settled on him and she let out a string of shaky chuckles.

"Okay… Trev, this isn't funny," she called looking over his shoulder to the door. "You can come out now! Guys? Come on."

"Your family's not here," Steve growled. "They're not here and they're not coming."

Ohhh that was a bit harsh but Danny could tell that Steve was starting to panic.

"Don't they know I'm here?" she asked.

"You're in an alternate reality, Ro, the version of your family here doesn't know you exist!" he cried.

And then Rowan was frowning at him. "Okay, now I know this is a joke. There is no way I'm in an alternate reality. Yeah, Trevor hit me with the particle energizer last night but that wouldn't send me into an alternate reality. So, quit with the games _Alex_ and send in my parents."

At this Danny stepped into the room and pulled Steve out. He got him back into the hallway and sat him down in one of the chairs.

"She doesn't remember…" he whispered.

"No, Steven she doesn't. The Doctor thinks she gotten her signals mixed up, that the trauma has her creating a different version of herself, though we both know that she's just got a slight bit of amnesia. He thinks she'll pop out of it in time, something will need to remind her and all of it will come back," he explained.

"She forgot me…"

"No, she forgot she came to our dimension," Danny reminded him. "She still knows you she just thinks you're the actor that plays you."

Steve glared up to Danny. "She forgot us all. She forgot everything and she wants her parents… god how am I going to get her parents here?"

"You're not going to. I've instructed them to hold her, to keep her from calling anyone, and we're all going to take turns visiting her and showing her things until she remembers."

"What the hell is a particle gun?" Steve muttered under his breath. "Really… what even is that?"

"You know what, that's a Rowan question. You'll have to ask her. You know… when she's up to it, but right now… right now I need you to go back and help Grover with the case, okay? Can you do that?"

Steve sighed. "Yeah… yeah… uh…."

"I'll keep you posted… I promise."

Steve gratefully nodded and, after shooting one look filled with nothing but longing at Rowan's room, he pulled himself up to his feet. He hugged Danny, thanked him for everything and then walked away. Danny sighed and looked back at Rowan who was lying in her bed staring out the window at the sea-blue ocean surf on the horizon.

The poor girl, what could she be thinking?

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

After watching Steve with Rowan, after watching them together, and watching more than a yearlong of yearning between the two, Danny decided that that life wasn't for him. He wasn't going to sit by and watch his chances pass him. So he had gone down to the intensive care unit to see the girl he had saved that morning.

She had just been sleeping but he figured if Steve could sit beside Rowan, when the two of them weren't on any sort of good terms, then he could sit with this girl, when they were just strangers. He was there for maybe an hour or so when she came too. As to not startle her he put a hand to her leg and let her turn to him so she knew he was there.

Like she had that morning when she realized he had followed her from the gas station to lead her to her destination, she smiled when she saw him.

"Hey, how are you feeling?" he asked, his voice soft as she has just woken up and whispers were the language of lovers.

"I've been better," she said.

"Yeah, I bet," Danny said with a smile. "Do you remember me?"

That was also a concern. And with Rowan upstairs thinking he was a TV show actor and not the Danno she knew and loved he thought it fair to ask if the girl who got shot at the base of her skull if she remembered the guy she met just moments before the whole shooting thing happened.

"Jersey," she said with a smile of her own. Danny nodded, yes, yes she did remember. "What are you doing here?"

Ohhh a valid question. "It's gonna sound made up, but I swear… I have a friend in here… not you… a different friend… she's uh… she's actually a few floors up on a special care unit… I've been visiting her and I thought that maybe… I'd come see you… see how you're doing," he said sounding all sorts of useless.

"I'm doing good… uh… yeah. I'm doing good," she whispered. She shifted a bit in the bed, the smile falling from her pretty lips before she softly added: "The last thing I remember, you were in my rear-view mirror. I thought you were headed the other direction?"

"I was headed in the other direction," Danny admitted.

"Well, what made you change your mind?" she asked.

"Uhm…" he said caught in an embarrassing moment. "I don't know."

That was a lie, he knew, he just didn't want to admit it to her. But she was grinning at him so maybe she did know what had really changed his mind. "I think maybe that smiles what did it," he said which caused her to laugh. "Yeah, that's definitely what it was. I know this sounds crazy, but I couldn't stop thinking about you when I was driving away, so…"

She smiled softly at him filling him with hope. "That doesn't sound crazy," she said to him and he found himself grinning again. "I don't think I ever got your name."

"Uh, I'm Danny. Williams," he answered, not sure why he did it like that but at least his name was out there.

"I'm Amber. Amber Vitale," she answered. Ah what a nice name.

Danny nodded. "Amber Vitale," he echoed appreciatively. "That's the best name I've ever heard. That's an excellent, excellent name. Sounds like an Italian movie star or something like that."

He sat forward in his chair, his hand finding her arm to hold onto as she held onto his own forearm and giggled. She found him funny. A plus. Maybe something good was going to come out of Rowan's most recent hospital stay. Now if he could only get Rowan and Steve to work things out too.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

She would have been stupid not to notice that Scott Caan was still out in the hallway but she couldn't figure out why. Why was he dressed like he came right off the set, why was both he and Alex O'Loughlin convinced they were Steve and Danny? Why was she in Hawaii when last night she had been in her own bed? Where was her family and why weren't they here? Why were her doctors talking to him like he was her medical contact, why weren't they talking to her?

Rowan wasn't supposed to be walking, she wasn't supposed to be up. Her head injury, they had told her, meant that she should be resting and not exerting herself too hard. But she didn't buy it. They didn't want her to leave, they didn't want her to make a phone call. All of this was really weird.

Luckily for her, her bag of effects was on the night stand beside her, and she could see her phone. Well not her phone… just a phone. She had snuck it out a while ago and now that Scott was distracted by her doctor she pulled it out and looked at the screen.

The lock picture was of her against a Hawaiian backdrop. The water cresting up over the rocks she was standing on making her look like little mermaid. That had not been her picture before, before it was of her on the ice having just landed a triple lutz, in one of her favourite flowing green costumes. If she put her regular password in and it worked she'd lose it.

She was proud of herself for keeping it in when her password did work on this phone she didn't recognize. She swallowed the cry of dismay that climbed up her throat when she saw what was set as her home screen. A picture of her and Alex O'Loughlin, He was standing behind her with his arms around her, his chin in her hair smiling at the camera in front of them. She had been with him and it looked like they were very comfortable with each other. Oh God. What had she done?

He was cute, okay let's be honest, he was past cute, he was walking sex, but she wouldn't have lost her head over that… right?

She checked her contacts but none of them were her family's numbers. What did she just cut out her family entirely? What the hell had happened?

Well it was a good thing she grew up in a generation before smart phones and her family only moved once and their number moved with them. She dialed her house number and prayed that someone would pick up.

As soon as she heard her mother's voice she started talking. "Hey Mom… don't be mad but I'm in Hawaii and I don't remember anything and I need someone to come get me cause I think I'm in trouble…."

"I'm sorry… but… who is this?" her mother asked interrupting her and Rowan's smile faded.

"Okay, I know you're probably mad at me but it's me, mom, it's Rowan… you know… your daughter…?" she asked.

Her mother was silent a moment before she said: "That's not funny. Whoever this is… you're not funny."

And then she hung up.

Rowan looked down to her phone and frowned. She redialed the number and when he mother answered again she said: "Okay… if you'd rather not talk to me can I talk to Dad or Trevor? Preferably dad if possible…"

"You're absolutely sick you know that?" he mother suddenly thundered. "You think it's funny to call a person and remind them of all they lost? My daughter is _dead_ she's been dead for years and everyone knows that! If you call me again I'll have you charged with fraud and harassment!"

That time when her mother hung up on her Rowan didn't bother to try and dial back. Dead? Her mother thought she was dead? What the hell? What kind of trick was this?

"What… what are you doing?" Scott asked coming into the room, he took the phone from her and looked at the screen that held her recent calls. "Who did you call?"

"My mom," she answered because why lie.

"Your mom… oh god, Ro," he whispered. "You shouldn't have… she doesn't know… she…"

"She thinks I'm dead," Rowan finished for him. "Uh… care to explain why my mom thinks I'm dead? Why you think you're Danny, why I have pictures of me and Alex looking like a couple in a catalogue when he's married?"

"Well he's not married… I mean he did have a girlfriend when we took that picture but he's really only interested in…" he started but Rowan shook her head and then interrupted him.

"Just get out of my room," she ordered and Scott nodded and did as he was told. Rowan sat back in her bed, fear climbing up her throat like a strangling ivy what the hell was happening to her?


	87. Chapter 87 - April Fools Chapter

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hey guys, I know it's a Monday and I'm posting early but I have some bad news. So… it is with a heavy heart that I'm going to be ending the story here. I know I promised they'd get together, but I just… I've been having such a hard time recently that I can't devote as much time to this story anymore. At the currently moment the story is going to end here and when I get to a better place in my life I may come back to finish it out. I hope you guys can find it in your heart to forgive me._

Chapter 87 

* * *

Danny had left her alone at the hospital. Never mind that Steve and Grover and Chin had this case and didn't need his help, never mind that Rowan had told him to leave, once she made a phone call to her house Danny shouldn't have left her alone.

So once he was done with the case, once he had showered the day off of himself, he had returned to the hospital to find that Rowan was in the process of discharging herself. She had changed into the clothes she had been brought in with, which were still flecked with blood including where it had trickled down the back of her neck and pooled. Steve stepped into the room and shut the door behind him.

"What are you doing? You need to be resting," he asked.

Rowan jumped and turned around, she looked him up and down before turning back to the bag she was zipping up and said: "I'm going home… well the consulate first. They'll help me get home since you won't."

"Rowan you are home," he said to her, he tried to reach out her but Rowan ducked his hands.

"No! I'm not. I want to go to my real home. With my mom and my brother and my daddy! I really, really want my daddy!" she near sobbed.

He wanted to soothe her, he wanted to hold her until she was better again but when he reached out Rowan slapped his hands away. "Let me help you," he whispered. "Let me tell you what happened."

"No!" she shrieked. "I'm not in a different reality! I can't be! I just got my life on track. I was skating again, Trevor and Malcolm were getting engaged, and me and my mom were _finally_ getting along! I am not in a different reality. I'm not dead! _I'm not_!"

Steve finally managed to get a hold of her, his hands gripping her shoulders. An electric current ran up his arms, his chest tightened like it usually did when she was about to jump. _No_! He was not letting her leave him. She screamed: "I want to go home!" and those orange electric bolts flew from her frying the medical machines by her bed. In a flash they weren't in the hospital anymore, they were in the void.

Rowan looked around, while Steve just stared at her. Her tears beaded up and floated away from her, swaying ribbon like strings hovered around her but it was the red strings, flying from his chest that wrapped her up. He watched Rowan struggle, trying to pull herself away from him, but the red strings kept growing and multiplying and tangling her up until she couldn't move.

He reached out his hands gripping those red strings, trying to pull her back to him but she was struggling with him. She screamed the sound both piecing and muted in the vast expanse of the darkness around them.

There was a flash of white, a man in a space suit appeared, scythe in hand. With one deft slice he severed the red strings between he and Rowan and it felt like Steve had been slashed across the chest. The burn spread through his limbs, he crumbled in on the pain. Across from him the space suit had a hand outstretch to Rowan.

He screamed her name. He begged her not to go, but her ice blue eyes, glowing hot white like the stars around them didn't see him, she didn't hear him, she put her hand in that gloved hand outstretched to her and in a secondary flash of white Rowan was gone and Steve was blown back into his own reality.

Without Rowan.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Danny rushed to the hospital. Steve's call made no sense, between hiccupped sobs and frantic screams of frustration Steve hadn't made much sense. All Danny had understood was that something had happened to Rowan.

But when he got there, Steve was crumpled into a chair, HPD was milling about him and other then the officers Rowan's room was empty.

Danny took in the scene and then looked at Steve who had his head in his hands, his nails digging into his scalp. That was not a good sign. No, no it was not.

"Hey bud… uh… what's going on… what happened? Where's Rowan?"

At the sound of her name Steve looked up, his face was pale, he was shaken, he had been crying. "She uh… she uh…"

Oh god, had she died? But she had been fine. She had been alive and fine when Danny had left. She hadn't remembered who any of them were but she was alive with no signs of taking a turn for the worse, so what the hell?

"She's gone."

Danny came to sit beside him, he put an arm around Steve's quaking shoulders as the tears started again. "I couldn't hold on to her. That thing came and it took her from me."

Wait… what? "Took her? Steve what are you talking about?"

"She went into the void and something came and took her from me before I could pull her out."

She had gone home. She hadn't died. Rowan had gone home.

"I can't feel her Danny. She's not here, she's gone and I can't… I can't breathe it hurts so much."

So that's why the cops had been called. To the hospital Rowan had gone missing. Only he and Steve knew the truth of what had happened to her.

"Well… maybe this is better. Maybe this will be good. I mean, she missed her family, now she's back with her family. She's out of Wo Fat's clutches…"

"She's not with me."

Danny turned to him. That's what this was about. Steve and his complicated feelings for Rowan. "This is going to sound cruel but… Steve, but you need to stop being selfish. That girl wanted to go home. You know, we all know it. She missed her family. She missed being home. We should be happy for her."

Steve sighed and looked away. "Yeah… you're… you're right."

"Maybe… now that she's gone and things can go back to normal, you and Catherine can figure things out."

Steve blinked his eyes. "Yes… uh… Catherine. Maybe. I'll have to… I'll have to think about it."

Danny rubbed his hand up and down Steve's back as the shaking started again. This was fixable. It wouldn't be the end of the world. With Rowan gone things could go back to normal, Steve would go back to normal, Danny could make this work for them.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Gasping Rowan came to. Sitting up in a small space she recognized.

Her father's lab.

"Ro? Rowan Hazel Pierce?"

Rowan looked up to her father wearing a hazmat suit and staring down at her with concern on his face. Rowan blinked her eyes where was she? Which universe was she in?

"Was I dead?" she asked.

"No, no, you were just in a different time line," her father told her, starting to strip of the suit. Rowan shook her head that didn't answer the question.

"No. Was I dead here? Was I still born? Are you and mom still together? Is Trevor gonna marry Malcolm? Is Evelot still okay… like her treatments worked? Did I qualify for worlds?"

"Evolet is in perfect health. You qualified and missed Worlds," Trevor said behind her. She turned and he was stripping himself of the space suit. The iced over helmet resting by his feet. "And in order for Mal and I to get married, he'd have to propose which he has not."

"I'm home…" Rowan whispered. "I'm… I'm home? Like really home?"

"It took us a while to pinpoint where you had gone," Trenton said coming to sit beside her, his hand gripped hers tightly as she took all of this in. "But yes, we finally brought you home."

"Uh… you mean I did," Trevor snapped. "Two years I've been going in and out of those white spaces, through a million different time lines trying to find which one she dropped into. Best believe you're going to give me the credit."

"Two years?" Rowan echoed. Exactly how long she had been in the Five-0 universe. She was hoping that time ran differently and she could come back to her original time line and start where she had left off. "Mal didn't propose? But… he was going to… I helped him pick a ring. Like literally… he was supposed to propose on your anniversary."

"Rowan what are you talking about."

"Are you telling me that I went missing and he didn't propose? That dick!" she cried.

Trenton and Trevor stared at her and then they stared at one another. "Do you think she's hit her head? She's always been prone to concussions."

Rowan scowled but it was her father who said: "It may be a side effect of the travel. She did do it all without a suit."

Trenton nodded as if that made sense but Rowan's scowl just deepened. That was not it, she knew it. Malcom Garbo was supposed to propose and the asshole hadn't. She was going to have words with him when she got the chance.

There came a cry of her name and when she turned she saw her mother on the other side of the glass. Oh God she had never been so happy to see her mother in her life. "Momma!" she cried jumping to her feet to run to her. Wanting nothing more than to hug her mother for the first time in two years. She was never going to take her mother's hugs for granted ever again.

The two men watched her go, rushing to where her mother was throwing aside security guards like she was a WWE wrestler to get to her daughter. Trevor turned to his father.

"She was exactly where we thought she'd be. Behind that wall of red strings. He was keeping her there."

"Maybe not purposely. It was emotions caging her, and from what we witnessed it goes two ways, both of them were creating those red strings of love, not just Steve McGarrett," Trenton whispered.

"She'll start to miss him, you know what they're like. Everywhere I went it was the same, once he's had her, once he's gotten a taste he'll never let her go," Trevor said with a sigh. "And now that she knows we can travel through the white spaces she's going to want to go back to him. Or he'll find a way to come here to her."

"Not if I close the door," Trenton said. "She's not going back into that place if I can help it. There's a Steven McGarrett here, we'll just introduce her to the one who plays him on TV."

"Do you think that'll work now that she's had a taste of the real Steven McGarrett?"

"I don't know, but we're going to have to try."

* * *

THE END

So it was a little shorter than usual and I'm sorry about that. I'd like to thank all of you for reading and supporting me. Again I'm sorry for cutting it short. So please don't be too mad with me. I hope to come back to finish it off very soon. Xx Love you!


	88. Chapter 88

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: APRIL FOOLS! Can I just say thank you! Most of you guys were so understanding, I thought you guys would be so mad if I ended it there! Maybe you were and you just didn't tell me. But of course I'm not going to end the story there. Could you imagine?! Hot damn. So yes I did let you think that we were going to end there for a whole day and I'm very sorry about that, but come on guys, I've been taking about all the extra stuff to look forward to for like… months, I'm surprised that more of you didn't catch that. Anyway, to make up for my terrible deceit I'm going to post another 7 days ONTOP of the 7 I owe you guys for reaching 500 reviews! Okay? Does that kind of make up for it? 14 chapters in a row? (That includes yesterday's chapter, so 12 more posts after this one) I feel like that kinda makes up for it AND it gets you guys through all the cute stuff. What do you think? :D Hopefully you forgive me. See you guys tomorrow!_

Chapter 88

* * *

Danny had left her alone at the hospital. Never mind that Steve and Grover and Chin had this case and didn't need his help, never mind that Rowan had told him to leave, once she made a phone call to her house Danny shouldn't have left her alone.

So once he was done with the case, once he had showered the day off of himself, he had returned to the hospital to find that Rowan was in the process of discharging herself. She had changed into the clothes she had been brought in with, which were still flecked with blood including where it had trickled down the back of her neck and pooled. Steve stepped into the room and shut the door behind him.

"What are you doing? You need to be resting," he asked.

Rowan jumped and turned around, she looked him up and down before turning back to the bag she was zipping up and said: "I'm going home… well the consulate first. They'll help me get home since you won't."

"Rowan you _are_ home," he said to her, he tried to reach out her but Rowan ducked his hands.

"No! I'm not. I want to go to my real home. With my mom and my brother and my daddy! I really, really want my daddy!" she near sobbed.

He wanted to soothe her, he wanted to hold her until she was better again but when he reached out Rowan slapped his hands away. "Let me help you," he whispered. "Let me tell you what happened."

"No!" she shrieked. "I'm not in a different reality! I can't be! I just got my life on track. I was skating again, Trevor and Malcolm were getting engaged, and me and my mom were _finally_ getting along! I am not in a different reality. I'm not dead! _I'm not_!"

Steve finally managed to get a hold of her, his hands gripping her shoulders. An electric current ran up his arms, his chest tightened like it usually did when she was about to jump. _No_! He was not letting her leave him. She screamed: "I want to go home!" and those orange electric bolts flew from her frying the medical machines by her bed. In a flash they weren't in the hospital anymore, they were in the void.

Rowan looked around, while Steve just stared at her. Her tears beaded up and floated away from her, swaying ribbon like strings hovered around her but it was the red strings, flying from his chest that wrapped her up. He watched Rowan struggle, trying to pull herself away from him, but the red strings kept growing and multiplying and tangling her up until she couldn't move.

Her eyes turned up to him as he stood there, arms outstretched as if still reaching for her, a million red strings cascading from him and in that instant he could see her give up on trying to get away. Her eyes seemed to clear, she seemed to recognize him for the first time since she had woken up, like properly recognized him and suddenly a cascade of red strings erupted from her own chest, tangling him up too.

When they finally came out of the void Rowan was in his arms, his finger nails digging into her.

"I'm never going home am I, Steve?" she asked and then broke out into loud sobs. She buried her head into his chest and if it was possible his grip tightened around her. The nurses came rushing in, responding to the frantic beeping of her EKG machines which look past burnt out. He held her tightly as they all swarmed around him trying to get him to let go so they could look at her. Despite the severity of the situation he couldn't help but be happy, because she finally remembered him.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve had stayed the night. He had barely slept and instead he spent his night watching her. After coming out of the void she was so distraught that she had to be sedated and they had to move her to a room with an EKG machine that wasn't fried. She hadn't woken up yet, but she had rolled onto her side to stretch a hand out to him. He had held it all night.

After visiting with Rowan the day before, Danny had gone to see the girl he had rescued. Amber Vitale. A nice girl, very appreciative for his assistance, who then accepted the offer to let him take her out on a date. Which was why Danny wasn't in the room when Steve and Rowan ended up in the void. Then Danny had called Grace to catch her up and found out that Grace had packed up her things and was demanding that Danny pick her up so that she could come home and see Rowan as soon as possible.

Cue to that morning, Grace had come skipping into the room, sliding to a stop beside Rowan's bed and standing up on her tippy toes to see if Rowan was awake. She was not. Danny had come in after that and told him to stretch his legs and grab something to eat.

He did as he was told because he was too tired to argue. But when he got back Rowan was waking up and he was afraid to go in and see her. What if she didn't want to see him? What if she didn't want to answer any of his questions?

Steve stood outside the door of Rowan's hospital room watching Danny and Grace. Both were perched on either side of the foot of Rowan's hospital bed. Despite being sedated only hours ago she had big purple bags under her eyes. Her eyes kept closing, longer than they were supposed to, before opening up again. Under one arm she had the unicorn plushie Grace had made Danny go and buy her, they had also gotten the red fox that Grace had bought her last year for Christmas too.

"Auntie Ro?" Grace asked and Rowan stretched an arm out.

"Hey Gracie!" she whispered to him a smile on her face. Yes! She really did remember them. She rolled off her side to her back, her eyes finding Danny. "Hey Danny… uh… how long have I been out?"

"Somewhere around 8 days," he answered. "How you feeling?"

"I missed Christmas?" Rowan asked instead of answering Danny's question.

"Obviously and New Year's," he snapped and she scowled at him. She turned back to Grace.

"Sorry, I know you wanted to do a special sing along but uh… I guess I was busy," she said to them, Grace just smiled widely at her. What the hell was a sing along?

"That's okay. I braided your hair… like every day… and I got you a new unicorn! It's super soft," she said watching as Rowan picked it up her eyes narrowing to get a better look at it.

"Thank you Gracie, it is super soft. He'll do great in the collection. Uhm… was Steve here?" she asked. "I could have sworn… I thought he was…"

"Yeah, I'm here," Steve said finally walking into the room. "How are you doing?"

Rowan looked around at the two faces other than his and he realized she didn't want to answer with them there. "I'm fine," she finally said and he knew she was lying.

"Okay… uh… would you be up for some questions?" he asked.

Rowan sighed, she shifted in the bed as Grace lay herself down against Rowan's legs. She shot Steve an untrusting look that made him feel even more nervous about this then he had been before. Was this a good idea?

"How many questions?"

"A few," Steve admitted sitting down beside her. "I… I don't want you to lie to me anymore. I think it's time you got me officially caught up on everything."

"Yes," Danny said sitting down in the chair on the other side of Rowan. "I'd like to be caught up too. I will also mediate when Steve inevitably freaks out over your answers."

The two men glared at each other, Grace breathed out an "Uh-oh" and Steve almost swore. Danny was the worst mediator ever. He couldn't even mediate the arguments that happened between Steve and himself, how was he going to do it for Rowan? Especially since Rowan and Danny seemed to be on the same page about everything these days and Steve was horribly out of the loop.

"Kay, so what do you want to ask me?" she asked clearly resigned to an interrogation.

"What is a particle energizer?" he asked.

"How the hell did that come up?" Rowan asked and then she sighed and rolled her eyes when Steve could only shrug. "I uh… I mentioned that when I thought this was a TV show again, didn't I?" she asked. Oh she remembered that too? When he nodded she sighed once more and said: "It's a ray gun my dad invented. It energizes particles of matter so that they can travel through the white spaces… well… the void, we call it the void… safely. My dad only tested it on objects, never anything living."

"You said Trevor shot you with it," Steve added and Rowan nodded.

"Uhm… it's a little fuzzy, but yeah, the night before I woke up in the air he had. But… you know… that shouldn't have been the reason why I got pulled here. Energizing particles doesn't make you jump into the void. It's just how I survived it… I guess…" she replied. Steve hung his head, he knew how she got pulled here, this version of Trevor and Trenton had performed an experiment to pull something through the void, if she was energized it was logical to assume that she would have been the thing to get pulled through. But Steve couldn't tell her any of that without admitting that he had sent her family away.

"White spaces?" Danny asked when Steve lapsed into silence.

"White spaces… oh … uh… cause he believed that the alternate universes stretch out in lines, or strings. The space between the lines… he always called them white spaces," she answered.

"Do you think this ray gun caused the side effects we've been dealing with?" Steve asked.

Rowan shook her head. "No. I think that was from the actual trip here," she said. "But I think the energizing has run out finally. And that is having some terrible side effects."

"Like what?" Danny asked.

"I'm losing my memories," she admitted. "I can't remember songs I wrote. Not the lyrics not the melodies. I can't remember things about my childhood until someone reminds me and my visions are fuzzy. I'm not getting them in advance any more either. It's why this happened, why I didn't call you or Danny. I got the vision late, by then Chin had already been taken and I was in a panic trying to get to him before anything too terrible happened."

"You're forgetting your life before you got here?" Steve asked because that's what had him feeling the guiltiest.

"Just… can we maybe not…" she said sniffing and rubbing her eyes with the heel of her hands.

As Danny said: "It's okay, we can change the topic," Steve said: "Alright. That night that Adam left… you took him aside… what did you two have to talk about?" Danny nodded, yes he agreed that was a good question.

Rowan narrowed her eyes at him. "I knew he was going to fake his death, I told him not to. In return he told me that Wo Fat's network would get me killed. Neither of us have listened to the other."

"Fair," Danny said. "Kono found him, you know. She's on her way home."

Rowan smiled lightly. "Oh good! My tip helped!" Oh she had given her a tip? Add that to the list of things Steve hadn't known.

"How about the assault. How did the assault happen?" he asked. When she got a pained look on her face he added: "If you're comfortable, that is."

Rowan glanced to Grace who was frowning and Steve frowned too, maybe this wasn't a good question to ask around Grace.

"I was trying to escape, he got a hold of me and got a little… handsy," Rowan answered. "Wo Fat got him off of me and dealt with him. I'm not going to say that I didn't know he was going to kill him, but he never said that was what he was going to do. He just said he was going to make him suffer."

Yes. That man had suffered. Quite a bit before that bullet in his head ended his life. Steve couldn't pretend to be upset by that, he knew that if he had walked in on that situation he probably would have just shot the guy on sight.

"But are you okay?" he wondered.

"Uhm… you know… I thought I was but… uh… no… I think I have some latent PTSD over it. My therapist is helping me with it and I've been doing much better. I can't do dark enclosed spaces anymore though," she whispered. Danny reached over and grabbed her hand and held it tightly.

He squeezed her hand and Steve found himself bitterly adding: "Let me guess you have Chin and Danny to help you with that."

Rowan and Danny exchanged glances. A small smile and then they sheepishly looked away. What the fuck was that? Steve purposely looked away from the intertwined hands.

"Tell me about the accident," he demanded so he wouldn't snap on them.

"That's a long and convoluted story… and I'm not… I'm not ready to tell you the whole thing yet," she whispered. "There's a lot to explain… and I just… please don't make me."

"Cliffnotes it then," Danny ordered.

Rowan sighed once more, pulling her hand out of Danny's grasp and folding them over her lap.

"I crashed a car going over 200mph. The car rolled four times. Killed everyone in the car but me. Completely shattered the Tibia and Fibula in my left leg and killed my skating career."

Steve drank all of that in… his Rowan had been in an accident so bad it destroyed her leg and her skating career. What skating career? "You don't limp though," he whispered instead.

"No, all of that happened years ago. I would have been twenty, turning twenty-one. I've had a long recovery road, and I had even started skating again before I got pulled here. Trevor and I had struck up a deal, he was going to choreograph just for me and I'd make us all famous… or well... even more famous than I was back then."

"How famous were you?" Steve found himself asking.

"Uhm… C list," she said after a moment's pause. "Or at least, that's what the agent said. I figured I was more of a D list. I didn't act. I just skated and sang. I wasn't too popular or anything. Or at least I wasn't when I was single, I always got a little bit more interest if I was dating someone more famous than me."

Steve was going to ignore that little bit and focus on the main point of that answer.

"Singing, you were singing?" he asked. "Professionally?"

Now that didn't surprise him. He had seen Rowan singing, he had witnessed the euphoria on her face. He couldn't understand why she hadn't gone for that here. She would have been able to do it no problem.

"Yes," she answered.

"Why not strive for that here?" Steve asked but hesitantly this time. He didn't actually want her to be famous. If she were famous, she wouldn't want him.

"Because I don't want that," she replied. "You know, doing it the first time, I learned. I learned what I liked and what I didn't. I didn't want to be famous. I didn't like it. I didn't like the reporters and the rumors and the lack of privacy. What I wanted to do was write songs and sing them. I saw this as a chance to, you know, do things right, a second chance to do things a way I'd like better."

That was a waste of talent, he wanted to tell her. She loved singing, she was better than Alex, she was better than half the artists he heard on the radio these days. But it wasn't his place to say any of that so he kept his mouth shut.

"Kay so no one wants to talk about the skating?" Danny asked. Steve did but he had certain questions he wanted answered and he figured that one he could wait for.

"Figure skating. I'd rather not talk about that yet," she answered oohh, good. Good he didn't waste his questions on that.

"Okay so that day you were driving Wo Fat's Audi and you crashed us... how… I mean… why did you do that?" he asked instead. Rowan blinked her eyes, maybe surprised at the sudden change in topic. She shifted in her bed, blinking her eyes rapidly as if thinking about it.

"I asked for driving lessons or shooting lessons," she said. "I knew there was no way in hell he'd put a gun in my hands, but I needed something to make sure I got the driving lessons. I said I wanted to learn how to drive defensively, and they were going to teach me. I made sure we took the Audi because Kamekona had seen me and Wo Fat in it already, I knew if I got that Audi back in his line of sight he'd call you and you could come and find me. The problem was he didn't want to let me go."

"Tell him why you sideswiped my car," Danny said in between his grit teeth. Oh… did he already know this story and he hadn't bothered to tell Steve?

"Because he was going to try and shoot Steve, but at his angle he would have ended up shooting you, Danny, so I hit your car purposely so he couldn't shoot you," she said pointedly to Danny who shot a smug smirk at her.

"I wanted you to find me," Rowan said in a soft voice. "But I didn't want him to shoot you either."

She wanted him to believe that she cared about him but he wasn't sure he believed that. Not with Wo Fat's words still bouncing around in his brain.

"Okay, what about the pool? How did you end up at that fight with the MMA fighter?" he asked.

"Oh, uh, Wo Fat needed to do business with someone at the fight, and he didn't trust leaving me alone with his men so he brought me along. He went to the meeting, I got to stay and watch the fight with one of his men with me," she answered. "When I saw what was happening though I didn't like it. I got into the pool and tried to knock that professional fighter girl out with a metal tray."

"And how did Wo Fat end up shooting one guy almost ten times?" Steve asked.

"Not sure," Rowan said with a shrug. "that girl they were attacking… I went to help her out, and because I wasn't getting my visions frequently, I got blinded by visions, the whole episode at once and when I came to I was surrounded by bodies. He said it was because the guy was gonna stab me but I'm not sure if that's true."

It was true. Steve knew it. Wo Fat had killed that man to protect Rowan. 10 bullets in the back, simply because he threatened Rowan. Another reaction much like Steve's would have been if he was there.

Steve nodded. "What about the heist, how involved was he in helping you get the microfiche back?" he asked.

"Geeze, how many questions do you have?" she shot back.

"Only a few more," he whispered lowering his eyes.

"Ugh, okay," she said softly. "Uhm, he was very involved. He's the one who got my fake identity. He told me which cleaning company to apply to. He told me where the safe most likely was, and he told me the best way to leverage Doris. I just didn't get to use that method cause I went to rescue you guys. He said that was a stupid move. He said you would have got your mother out of that situation somehow and I shouldn't have intervened."

It was true. He would have thought of something eventually. But Rowan helping had been greatly appreciated.

"And what about the Governor?" Steve asked. "How did you get him to agree to let you visit Wo Fat?"

Rowan's lips twitched, her eyes narrowed too. He knew that look. It was a look that told him she didn't want to answer that question. That he wouldn't like the answer. Still he pinned her with a glare. With a stare that told her that he needed to know.

"It wasn't all me," she whispered after Danny cleared his throat and the two exchanged a meaningful look. Oh god he knew about this one too. "The previous Swat captain, Sam, had been sending videos to, you know, Governor Dennings, and that helped."

"What do you mean?" Steve asked.

"Well, uhm. You see, the videos proved my point, which was that Wo Fat acts very… uh… very human-like, with me," she replied. This question was making her nervous. She was worried he'd be mad. But he already knew all about this, about how normal that psychopath acted with her. "And since it showed proof that he had the capacity to be normal, Dennings agreed for me to keep seeing him but it wasn't for free."

"Oh yeah and what did he get then?" Steve asked with a smirk. Because really, what else could Rowan really give him other than baked goods?

"Information," Rowan answered bitterly. "Sam threatened to deport me and Wo got upset, I think at that point he traded information to keep me on the island."

"Deport… he said he was going to deport you?" Steve hissed. Fear lanced through his heart. There was a point in time that Rowan could have been taken off the island without him knowing? Hell no.

"Yeah. He said that if I was your weakness, I'd have to go," Rowan said with a casual shrug. Except there was nothing casual about this.

"And Wo Fat stopped him," Steve whispered. "Do you know what he gave up?"

"Not then, but I know now. It's why the Yakuza are interested in me," Rowan answered. "He told them about that graveyard that got Kono in trouble. Now the Yakuza thinks that the best way to get to Wo Fat is to use me."

Steve sighed. Ah, so that's why she was trying to stay away from them. That's why she had said no when Steve had asked her to help him in Japan. At least Rowan knew she was in danger maybe that meant that she was getting the protection she needed.

"You know you can come to me… you know… if you're worried about them. I can protect you," Steve told her.

Rowan nodded. "Don't worry, babe," Danny said, seemingly sensing that Steve was distressed about this. "She's got me and Chin. She's got Wo Fat and his network. We got this, we got her. Don't panic."

Steve tried not to scowl. How much had Rowan told him? Why had she told Danny before him? And how had Danny, who could barely keep a secret to himself, managed to keep all of this from Steve? And did the others already know too? Was he the only one who didn't know?

"Okay, last question," Steve said. "Wo Fat said you were going to go to Japan with him. That's a lie right? He just said that to get at me… right?"

Rowan's face went a shade paler then it's normal pale. That did not bode well. "Uhm… well… uh… I was… uh… I was sort of considered…"

"No. Shut up. Don't you fucking dare finish that sentence," Steve snapped throwing himself to his feet. Danny protested, pointing to Grace but Steve was lost to the rage. "You mean to tell me that you were just going to go to Japan with him? After everything he did. After he kidnapped you, you nearly got throttled, nearly stabbed, were almost in a car accident and got sexually assaulted, you were just going to leave with him? Do you know what would have happened Rowan? I never would have found you again. You know that? If you had gone with him we never would have seen you again."

Rowan's lower lip trembled like it did when it she was about to cry but she said nothing to defend herself.

"Calm down, will yah?" Danny demanded but it didn't do anything but make him angrier. Why was he always on her side? _Why_?!

"He said he'd bring me back," she whispered.

"What?"

"He said, to just give it a shot," she said. "He had been so nice, and he had taken care of me and he was trying so hard to be something he wasn't. He said, if I didn't like it after a month, if I still wanted to go back, he'd let me go back to Hawaii. He was even going to let me call you from Japan so you wouldn't worry."

"AND YOU BELIEVED HIM?!" Steve thundered because there was no way that any of that would have happened. She had to see that he had lied. He wasn't going to let her call him, and he wouldn't have let her go.

"Yes," Rowan said her cheeks aflame. "I get that he's not so great with you, but… you know… he's always honest with me. He… usually tells me the truth."

"God Rowan, stop being so naive! The man is a sociopath! He had no intention of bringing you back, you idiot. He wanted to bring you to Japan to ruin me, do you understand? He doesn't give a shit about you, all he cares about is hurting me!" he cried. Which wasn't true anymore. At least, he was pretty sure he wasn't. He didn't know what the thing between her and Wo Fat was, but he was almost certain it had nothing to do with him anymore.

Danny stood up. "Hey, man, calm down!" he said. "What does it matter now? They didn't get to Japan, we got her back…"

"No, we didn't get her back. He shot her! And she still talks to him like they're besties. He's not your bestie. He's not your brother. And you shouldn't be giving visions to him either. You're supposed to save those for us…"

"I am not going to withhold a vision that could save someone just because it's not for you. My visions don't belong to you. I don't belong to you," Rowan shouted back.

Well she had him there. She was right in that aspect but he was too mad to see it as that. All he saw was that Wo Fat had turned her against him. That if he hadn't shot her, Rowan wouldn't be here with him right now. That because of Wo Fat and because of Catherine Rowan wasn't his and her loyalty had been given to Danny and to Wo Fat.

And it killed him.

"You know what, I have one last question. What the hell is going on with you and Danny huh? What you ruined my relationship and now you've got your hooks into him too? What? I wasn't good enough? Ruining me and Catherine wasn't good enough?" he snarled. He meant it as the insult it sounded like. And it shocked everyone in the room.

"That's it," Danny snapped. "Get out."

Steve glared at him. Of course, Danny would kick him out instead of answering the question. Of course Danny's idea of mediating was just kicking him out of the room. "You're being unreasonable. Leave now."

Steve scoffed but said nothing. As he stormed away, he realized that he was probably right. Rowan and Danny were dating. It was the only thing in his mind that made sense.

He kinda wanted to go find Alex and throw that in his face. But knowing how mad he was he figured the only way it would end was with a fist to either his or Alex's face. So, Steve left the hospital instead. Putting as much distance between he and Rowan as he could without driving his truck into the ocean.


	89. Chapter 89

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: THIS IS IT! This is the chapter where Rowan and Steve come up with their plan on how to get together! Exciting right?! For all of those who worried about Steve's reaction, he is going to realize that he's being dumb and yes, he still has a lot to make up for, and Rowan still needs to stop being so shady so we still have some way to go before they're happily together. There will be a few more bumps in the road (I think there's only one major speed bump after this) but I also promise that there is going to be a lot of fluffy bits for you guys to read so I hope you enjoy those._

 _So I had a guest give me all these plot ideas, and ask a lot of questions, a while back in a review for chapter 86. I just wanted to say thank you for all the ideas (I'm not really stuck though, I just said that to make the April fools update seem a bit believable) I will say that you called out quite a few future plot lines that will be coming up in later episodes. But you had a few questions that I'm going to answer today, but because they're slight spoilers I'm going to be putting them at the bottom so people who don't want to read them can skip them. Look out for that at the end of this chapter!_

Chapter 89

* * *

Rowan got released three days after their last case. Chin had taken her back to his place where she was told that the bar she was working out of had fired her… again and Alex was running wild trying to convince them that her music was his in the event of her death. Chin then had to admit that he had knocked Alex sideways when he attempted to break into Chin's place looking for her songbook while she had been in the hospital. It was now always on either her possession or Danny's… or Chin's. He and Grace visited Rowan every day, and when she was cleared to drive again by a doctor, they were going to go on a Sing-Along Saturday, because he couldn't drive, tradition dictated that Rowan had to drive.

But Steve had not come back to see Rowan. He was sulking, Rowan was sad, and Danny was completely fed up. So when he and Grace showed up to Steve's place for Sunday Night football, he was ready to tear Steve a new one. He had just convinced the idiot that he and Rowan belonged together. Why the hell was he pulling away now? All over a decision she made in the heat of the moment while practically brainwashed.

Steve met them at the door and sent Grace off to fend for herself to get food between Kamekona and Flipper and before Danny could ask him to talk privately a minute, Steve was already asking him a question.

"Hey how's Amber?"

"Uh… she's fantastic," Danny answered not sure why Steve was bringing it up now.

"Wow, nice smile, you perked up the second I said her name. You got a serious thing for this girl?" Steve asked.

Danny looked away with a sigh. "No, I mean, I got a thing. I don't think I perked up," he said, he then took in Steve's know-it-all smirk and decided that needed to go.

"How about you and your serious thing? How's Rowan?" Danny snapped and Steve avoided his eyes. "What's going on there Steve?"

"Uh… I hear that she's… uh… she's been discharged," he said. "Heard she's doing well…"

"Cut the crap, why haven't you two worked things out yet?" Danny cried and Steve winced again.

"Because Danny… I don't want to be with someone who was going to leave us for Wo Fat," he admitted. What he really meant was _him_. He didn't want to be with someone who was going to leave _him_ for Wo Fat.

"Okay, how long did Wo Fat have her at that point?" Danny asked. Steve muttered _about two months_ and Danny asked again: "And how many times did she try to escape him and fail?"

"Well she said about four times, but I don't see…"

"And how many times did that man save her from some guy assaulting her?" Danny asked.

"Twice… but you're not understanding…"

"No, I do understand, Steve. I understand how _you_ feel and I understand how Rowan felt too. She was alone, she thought you moved on without her, she got abandoned by your mother and this man was being nice to her and taking care of her and showering her with gifts. It's understandable that she got a little… confused," Danny argued. "And I happen to have it on good authority that Rowan has been seeing a shrink that has been assisting her with getting rid of those feelings."

"Well… I mean… she still talks to him…"

"Okay. Remember when she was in the hospital and how bad that felt?" Danny asked interrupting him again, Steve floundered with that question. "Remember she said that she hated you and got you suspended but you still wanted to make things work with her because you can't get her out of your head? Remember how it felt finding her in those tunnels when you thought you lost her?"

"Yes Danny, I remember," he whispered, his head hanging.

"So, why are you wasting your time dithering on something that could have happened but didn't?" Danny asked. "Cause me and Chin, we are DONE with this attitude of yours. You are fucking miserable, partner, but I'll tell you what. When things are going good with you and Ro, you're a fucking dream."

"Yeah, I'm a dream?" Steve asked clearly going for sarcasm cause the conversation got way too real there for a moment.

"Yeah a dream. So hurry up and fix it before she finds herself a new main squeeze and you get all pissy again," Danny said patting his friend on the shoulder. "Hey, one last question…"

"Shoot," Steve said ushering Danny into his house.

"What's going on with you and Grover?" he asked which one him a confused looked from Steve. "Well, first you invite him over for Thanksgiving. Then you guys, uh, partner up and now he's in your kitchen cooking chili and watching the game. People are going to think the two of you like each other."

Steve turned back to where Grover was serving out the chili he just finished making and then back to Danny. "He's not that bad."

"Oh no?" Danny said clearly going for the same sarcasm Steve had been using earlier. He had lowered his voice for this convo because he clearly didn't want Grover to hear him.

"No, he's not that bad. I mean, he's a bit… he's a bit thick-headed, but he makes a great chili," he said. Steve was the king of thick-headed people so Danny found this hilarious.

"Oh, that's good. So he's like you, but he can cook," Danny said and then Steve was frowning again.

He glared at Danny as he walked in. "You wanna eat? You wanna eat today?" he asked him.

"No I want you to call Rowan and patch things up," Danny said. "A happy Steve means a happy Five-0, and, since you probably don't know this, I'll tell you that she's happier with you too."

He smiled at his daughter who was sitting down with her bowl of chili now and ignored the aggravated sigh coming from his partner. He thought that went rather well.

"Got room for two more?" Kono asked appearing at the door and everyone turned around surprised. She stood there with Adam's hand in hers smiling at the ohana she left behind to go find him and everyone charged her at once.

They all exchanged hugs and kind words, Chin and Kono hugged long and tightly before she finally got him to let go and Danny was all smiles. His family was finally coming together. Now if he could only get Rowan and Steve on the same page.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

It had been a whole week since Rowan had been released from the hospital. A whole week of people hovering over her and wondering if she was okay. A week of daily check ins with Wo Fat because he had been out of the loop, only knowing that she was in the hospital and in a coma but he couldn't get updates because he wasn't about to call Steve for them. She solved that problem but giving him Chin's number and calling Kong so he could make a special patch that would connected Chin to Wo Fat if there was ever an issue. Other than the days when she snuck out of her doctor's appointments early to have some time to herself, the only rest she got was the Sunday Football day at Steve's like four days ago. She had not been left alone since. Set one ready-to-make oven pizza on fire because she fell asleep and forgot it was in the oven and that was it, you're branded for life.

She was looking forward to a nice night eating takeout food with Kono and Chin while watching TV. The doorbell rang, and since Rowan and Chin had ordered food a while ago, she assumed it was the delivery guy. It was not. Rowan blinked her eyes at Steve and wondered why he was at the door. Was he here looking for Chin? Did he know that she was technically homeless? She could see the Camaro parked outside and knew that Danny had brought him here, but it didn't answer the question of how much Steve actually knew.

"Uh…" was all she could get out of her mouth before Steve put a hand up to silence her. "I know I haven't had the best track record but I swear I'm not here to arrest you and I'm not going to yell at you either."

Oh well that was good. But that also meant that he was here to see her. "Uh… well… okay. But uh… what do you want then?"

"I was hoping that you and I, that we could go for a walk? Maybe talk some things out?" he asked. "Uh… I know you got a thing with Chin tonight but do you think he'd mind?"

Rowan once again was stuck on the "Uhh…" when Chin came forward and said: "Nope, I wouldn't mind. We're still waiting on the delivery and Kono anyway."

Rowan frowned to him. She wasn't sure she wanted to go on this walk, she was tired and her head hurt. But she put on her flip-flops, took the sweater Chin was handing her and then followed Steve out onto the porch and towards the back yard and the beach.

They paused for Steve to take his boots off at the sand's edge and then the two of them were walking. Rowan kept shooting covert glances at him. She wanted to know what this was about but she also was too afraid to ask him.

He brought her to a stop by a palm tree and then sat down under the shade tree, leaving her no other option but to stop and sit down beside him. As soon as they were sitting, he turned to her.

"I don't know how to say this right, but I'm going to try, bear with me okay?" he said. Rowan blinked her eyes at him. She didn't know if this was good or not.

"I… I don't like what's happened to us," he suddenly blurted out. Oh, my, god, what? "I don't like what I've become or how badly all of our interactions end. And I don't… I don't really know how we got here… but I know I want it to stop."

Rowan stared at him. "Me too," she whispered. "But you know… I know you like to blame me, and Wo, and Alex, but it's not all their faults. You helped too Steve."

"I know…" he whispered.

"You keep arresting me," she found herself whispering. "You… you've gotten really… abusive."

Steve looked properly upset by that. "I know. I do. But as soon as Wo Fat got involved, I lost my damn mind. There's no other way to explain it. I know it's not an excuse but… I just… he's taken so much from me… I didn't want him to take you too. He ended up taking you anyway."

"Wo Fat hasn't taken me anywhere," Rowan grumbled. "I'm still right here. I'm still me."

"No you're not," Steve cried. He jumped to his feet. "You have become more and more like him with each interaction. That network, the way you act… Rowan… you're one incident away from becoming him, you know that, right?"

Rowan sighed. "Okay, you know what? Sit down, I got a tale to tell you."

When Steve just stared at her she patted the sand beside her and repeated her command. "Sit, Steven."

Sighing as if it were the greatest burden Steve sat himself back down beside her. "This better be good," he muttered.

"Look, I don't tell people this. Not even back in my… uh… well wherever I come from, so don't go repeating this and seriously… don't laugh… or look at me weird. Promise?" she asked. Steve nodded and she took a deep breath. "Uh… well… There's another reason why Wo Fat and I get along so well. Why I seem to take to this whole criminal life…"

"No Shit you took to it," Steve mumbled and Rowan hit him to shut him up.

"Look… the truth is… uh… well there was a bit of an incident when I was younger and uh, my parents were obviously worried so they got me tested. Which was when we were made aware that I had sociopathic tendencies," she told him. Steve stared at her his eyes wide because he clearly hadn't been expecting that. "Uhm… you see… as it turns out… I tend to forget all about morals if I think my friends or family are in danger."

"Sociopathic tendencies…" Steve echoed.

"Mhmm… I know my rights from my wrongs, and in all normal situations I have a perfectly working moral compass. But threaten my friends or family and well… I throw that moral compass out the window. I still know right from wrong, I just don't give a shit anymore," she explained. "Obviously my parents paid a lot of money to try and fix it, but, really, all I learned was how to hide it. Other than that situation that landed me in a serious car accident, my friends and family aren't usually in life or death situations so it never really came into play… but here… you… Danny… Chin… you all get in danger on a daily basis and well… that side of me comes out more…"

Steve sighed and took a deep breath. "Okay… I'm trying to keep up here, but I'm having trouble."

"Which part are you having trouble with?" Rowan asked. "The part where I just admitted that I have the capability to be exactly like Wo Fat? Or the part where I say it's just sometimes and not all of the time?"

"No. I've seen your capability Rowan. I have no trouble imagining it. What I don't understand is how it brought you and him together?"

"I guess… I guess that's why we get along so well, Wo and I. I don't have to try to hide that side with him, he just… he just gets it and I get him. Sort of. I mean, I understand, I just don't sympathize."

Steve thought about her confession for a bit. He seemed to drink it in before turning to her. "I'm not going to lie, it scares me, Rowan," he said. "To see you like that. To see him mirrored in you. I mean, I feel a little better knowing that it's more a part of you and less his influence but still. You're not like him, you're not like me. You don't have what it takes to back up your rash actions. His safety network will only get you so far and you won't let me… you won't let me help you."

"The point of this is that I don't need your help," she reminded him. "I'm pretty resourceful. Even without Wo Fat. Even without my visions. I'm just as good at getting out of trouble as I am at getting into it."

Steve shook his head. "You're going to get yourself killed. And then you'll be another person Wo Fat has taken away from me."

Rowan sighed at him. "If I get myself killed it won't be Wo Fat's fault. It would be mine," she told him. "I'll say it again, he didn't take me away. Okay? He didn't. I am here. I mean, I chose to move out but I didn't move out of your place because of Wo Fat, I chose to move out because I wanted to do things on my own. And it wasn't really leaving you per say, it was giving you the chance to… you know… live your best life. With Catherine. Like you wanted."

"Like I wanted?" Steve echoed. "Who ever said that was what I wanted?"

"Uhm… well… everyone," Rowan said. "Alex, Wo, even your mother. They said as soon as Wo Fat took me you, she moved in with you. So I just… just assumed…"

"I didn't move her in, she… she chose to move in. It was to comfort me… I was a wreck when he took you Rowan. Ask anyone. Danny, Chin, they'll tell you. I was an absolute disaster," he admitted.

Rowan winced. She had a feeling he hadn't taken it well but what was she supposed to say? "It doesn't matter. You picked Catherine."

"No I didn't," Steve whispered. "That day in the hospital, after you got shot, when I told you that you had confessed that you had feelings for me, I was going to tell you that I had feelings for you too."

All air had left Rowan's body. Oh god. He… he… really?

"You… you were?"

"I mean, looking back, I definitely didn't lead into that conversation the right way. I often wonder how things would have ended if I just told you how I felt first," he admitted.

Rowan lowered her eyes to the sand. Yes, how would things have gone if he had told her? Would she have weakened? Would she have any of the things she had now if she hadn't been forced to stand on her own two feet?

"Why didn't you just tell me after? You could have told me the truth…"

Steve huffed as he thought her question over. "Well… you went off about how you didn't want me after all and all that stuff about Catherine and I guess… hearing you reject me before I could even tell you how I felt, rejecting me, wanting to leave me like everyone else I've ever cared about… well… that hurt a lot, Rowan."

Rowan put her arm around his shoulders and then rested her head against him. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry I keep hurting you."

"The problem is… is… well… I still like you and it… it really has me. You know? Whatever it is about you… no matter what happens or what you do… I still want you," he whispered to her, his head was angled towards her and when she looked up he was so close. Oh god, he was so close.

"I… uh… still like you too," she admitted. "But…"

Yeah there was a big _but_ for her, just like she could see in his eyes that he had one as well.

"You don't trust me," Steve finished.

Rowan nodded. "And you don't trust me."

"Well do you blame me?" Steve cried.

"And do you blame me?" Rowan shot right back. "A P.I. Steve?! You had a P.I. following me… for what? Eight months?"

"Yeah… I paid a guy to follow you for eight months…" he admitted. "But I had to! I was worried about you, I wanted… I wanted to keep you safe and you were being unreasonable. I didn't believe that things were done with you and Wo Fat. He came to visit you in the hospital. And I just... why? Why, Rowan? So he could give you a sympathy card? That didn't make sense to me. And then you proved me right at every turn. Every irrational fear I had, proven right."

"I wasn't really talking to him. Until he was in the hospital, he and I we weren't… we weren't anything. I didn't want to see him, he was… well… he was following me. Like you were," Rowan told him. "And then… well… in the hospital…"

"You forgave him."

"Yes, I… mostly did. He owes me… he's still making it up to me."

"How? How could you look that monster in the eyes and forgive him? After everything he's done," Steve growled.

"Sometimes, when people don't know any better, if they feel like they have no other option, they hurt the ones they care about," Rowan said. "Trevor… he used to do that to me all the time. Lots of terrible things. Not because he wanted to. Not because he didn't love me. But because he didn't think he had any other option and a little bit because he didn't love himself. To me… Wo is like that. And a little bit like you…"

"Like me?" Steve cried. He leant back and away from her and then glared at her. "Take that back."

"Just hear me out. He's like you, except the version of you that you would have become if you didn't go into the Navy. You see… Wo Fat lost the people who cared about him. But he didn't have a Joe White to look up to, and a backup set of people to help him stand up. He lost the people who cared about him, who cared what happened to him and he learned to trust only himself. And that if he wanted something, he'd have to get it himself," she explained. Steve hated to admit it but Rowan had a point. If Steve didn't have the Navy, if he didn't have Joe, or Danny or Five-0, he'd be a completely different person.

Steve shook his head. "You talk to him all the time," he said. "And you can say what you want but you have him helping you with my cases so that means I'm coming up. You talk to him, you're loyal to him and I can't trust you."

Rowan nodded. "That's fair, Steve, but you're a stalker and emotionally abusive," she told him and he winced. "You lead me on, you tell me you don't want me, then act like you do, then push me away and yell at me. You've arrested me, stalked me, and berated me. You tell me you don't want my visions and then come to demand them from me, going even so far as to physically get them out of me. I've done everything I can to tell you to leave and you don't listen. You know for a while there I was genuinely worried that if I had to get help that you would stop them from coming so you could come yourself? And I think… I think that's played into why I kept using that Network, even though it made me uncomfortable. Because if I had them, I didn't have to rely on you."

Steve made this horrified face, one of absolutely terror and shock and she realized she had hit a nerve. She was right. "You would have, wouldn't you?" she asked and then chuckled. "You would have sent Five-0 just to have something over me, wouldn't you?"

Steve sighed. "No. Not to have something over you. Mad at you or not, your safety has always been at forefront of my mind," he whispered. "Just like you keep having visions because you're worried about me."

Rowan grimaced, well he had her there.

"Well we're a right pair, aren't we?" she said with a smile. Steve smiled back at her, a saddened sort of smile.

"Do you think you could get over me Rowan?" he asked. "Like… if we cut all ties? Do you think we could…"

Fear lanced through her at the very thought. No point in lying now. "No," she answered in a soft voice. "Whatever this is… whatever we have… it's strong, and it hurts to ignore it, it hurts to be away from you. Do you think… do you think you could get over it?"

"I've been trying Rowan, so I can confidently say: not even in the slightest," he whispered, and then he kissed her. It was so sudden, one second he was sitting beside, shoulder to shoulder, his nose millimetres from hers, and the next second his lips were softly pressing against her. Fireworks went off in her head, every synapse of her body was on fire. Before she could stop herself or him she had let him pull her onto his lap. She straddled him, her hands on his shoulder kissing him as he clung to her, one hand at her jaw line ever conscious of her injuries. Steve had not complained a single bit about the indecency of the act, pressing every inch of himself into her and that insistent kiss.

"Wait… wait… Catherine," Rowan whispered against his lips, her stupid conscious coming back to her. Where were those sociopathic tendencies when she needed them?

"I know," he whispered, pulling away from her. "Not anymore."

"No?"

"I was leading you both on, I broke up with her that night… _before_ I found out about your injury," he whispered.

Rowan smiled softly at him, he was so insistent on the _before_ , that she knew that her injury hadn't prompted this change. "That's good," she said to him and Steve answered her by pressing another kiss to the edge of her lips and Rowan tried not to press herself into it. There were things that she still needed to figure out.

"So… uh… what do we do now? I mean… what do you want to do?" she asked in a small voice because she was afraid. Afraid of both outcomes. Whether he said he wanted her or he didn't, either option scared her. She couldn't stop herself from tracing the lines of his rippling sinew of his chest beneath his shirt.

"You have to see how much this is killing me, Rowan," he whispered. He lumbered off of her and sat back down in the sand. "I want you so badly, but Wo Fat… I just…"

"No, I get it," Rowan said quickly, sitting up as well. "I do Steve, I feel the same way about you. How do I know that if we get together you won't get even more controlling or abusive?"

"And with Wo Fat in your life, I might actually get like that, and I don't want to be, you know that, right? That I don't want to be that person with you," he whispered. He looked so distraught… like he didn't know what to do and they were both so terribly conflicted.

"Okay, okay, so how about this," Rowan offered. "Friends. Me and you. Friends that maybe, sometimes go on dates and make out. And maybe, maybe if we're better, if we get better and we start trusting… maybe it can go farther than that."

Steve smiled at her, his eyes searched hers. "Yeah. I think… I think I'd like that."

That time when she let Steve pull her head down to his so he could renew their kiss, they both had a smile on their faces.

* * *

 ***Spoilers Ahead!***

So here we have some questions answered, some of this is going to be spoilers, avoid this if you don't want to know what's coming up.

Rowan's family from this universe is going to be making an appearance when I get to season 6. _The Trevor missing his sister_ plot line will be officially closed somewhere in season 7.

Rowan's left behind family will be coming back, but they're a… after I'm done rewriting chapters kinda thing, essentially it's going to take them about 10 years to break through to get to Rowan, but they are coming back and there will be some travelling between realities for both Rowan AND Steve when we get to that point.

Catherine will be making all of her usual appearances, but the circumstances are changed around those times, and she is romantically attached to someone else. (I wonder who?!)

Rowan's low end jobs are for herself, she's doing them to build up a resume, and fo another reason which will be explained in season 5. Even at this moment, she actually is going to be working a very high end, and high paying job, Alex is going to be defeated by her very soon.

Doris will be coming back but that won't be until around Season 7 though she makes a few appearances in season 6.

Matty is coming in season 5 and will be frequently mentioned and around after that… he will also be getting romantically attached to a cast member, you guys can shoot me your theories on who that is going to be.

Gabriel is coming in soon and becomes and major player… except for the fact that he's going to piss off someone very powerful so he won't be as big of a thorn in Five-0's side as before.

Kono and Chin will be leaving but I am going to be bringing them back every now and then, and I am going to be changing a few plot lines around that. Both Tani and Junior will be getting their own OCs to fall in love with, and those characters have already been introduced to the story (bit parts only at the moment) and one of them is going to be a main character starting season 6. The other doesn't come around until season 7.

As for Rowan saying that Steve and Catherine get married, it's going to be revealed that she doesn't quite know the future of the team as seasons were still running when she left and she hadn't got to watch all of them. The Steve and Catherine getting married was a fan rumor going around at the time she was leaving, and she thought if she said it, Steve would be more willing to let her go.

I hope that answered all of your questions. If you have any more feel free to ask! Please tell me if you're super excited for any of these plot lines coming up, feel free to shoot me your theories and any wants and desires you'd really like to see in the story and I will do my best to try and fit them in if I can!


	90. Chapter 90

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: I'm really glad you guys seemed okay with the upcoming plot developments in later seasons (if you missed what I'm talking about the spoilers are at the bottom of the last chapter), you know except for that one person who didn't like Tani and Junior getting OCs… is that cause you wanted them together? Honestly I contemplated that but I liked the OCs getting with them better. Is there anything you guys are really looking forward to? Other then Steve and Rowan finally getting together? Did you guys want more Rowan and Steve particular spoilers? If so shoot me a line and I'll consider putting them out._

Chapter 90 

* * *

Chin had been sleeping when the screaming started. He bolted up at the first scream, but he got out of the bed when the screams stopped being just screams and instead took the shape of his name.

Rowan, who should have been in the guest room was already in the hallway, repeating his name over and over again as she rushed towards him. She reached him, his hands went to her shoulder to calm her down, while her fingers reached out and dug into his skin.

"What? What is it?" he cried. Her eyes were as wide as plates, the bandages were slipping over her brow again that meant having to rewrap her.

"You were dead! He said you were dead!" she cried. "You were in the back and you were bleeding and he shot you! HE SHOT YOU!"

"Who shot me?! Rowan… who shot me?!" he cried trying to shake her out of whatever vision had a hold of her this time.

"You can't go into ANY convenience stores, do you understand me?! None! EVER!" she cried.

Convenience store? Why did that sound so familiar? "Rowan… what the hell are you talking about? Rowan… come on… let's just… let's just…"

She took a few deep breaths and then blinked her eyes. "It was terrible," she said with a sniff. "There was blood everywhere, milk was on the floor and he kept saying: Lieutenant Kelly is down! And I just… I just panicked? Who does that? Who does that to their brother?"

"I don't have a brother…" Chin whispered but Rowan was rubbing her eyes and not paying attention.

"I unno… some guy named Gabriel… you called him your brother," she said.

 _Gabriel_. Oh my god. She meant Gabriel, Malia's younger brother. But why the hell did she think that Gabriel was going to kill him? Gabriel wasn't even around anymore, he was a contractor on the mainland and he never came home. And didn't she say that he was dead? So how had he called Gabriel his brother?

"Okay, you know what… let's… uh… let's get you back in bed," he said. Since her head injury, since making up with Steve her visions had been getting a lot stronger and much more accurate. She hadn't seen Steve in days, which meant that her visions were probably getting weaker again, hence all the fuzzy details.

He had half guided her back to her own bed when she suddenly turned and asked: "Can I stay with you?"

He stopped and turned them around. "Course you can, kid," he said leading her back to his bed. He helped her get in, tucked her in and then went around to his own side of the bed. The last time this had happened Steve had found out and been super uncomfortable to work with for a full 24 hours until something else happened with Rowan that was more concerning at that time. Chin didn't even want to know what would happen if McGarrett found out that a) Rowan was living with him; and b) was climbing into his bed at every nightmare. Though to be fair, she'd climb into any bed after a nightmare, she just didn't want to be alone.

As he lay himself back down, her eyes were already closing. Tomorrow she'd go to the doctor, they'd check her head, they'd see if the bandages would come off and then her road to recovery would continue. Probably with more meds.

As he closed his own eyes, he one of Rowan's hands reach out and grab his, and he heard her softly whisper: "I won't let IA crucify you. Even if I have to stab one of them in the eye myself."

Now wasn't the most worrying sentence he ever heard drop out of her mouth? And he had heard some real zingers.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

A case came through and Chin could no longer take Rowan to the doctor's appointment. Steve was with Chin, Danny had Grace, and Catherine was still MIA after the breakup which left Kono. And Kono couldn't be happier to take Rowan to her doctor's appointment. It just meant that they would be getting to spend some quality time together to make up for all the time they had lost.

Kono sat beside Rowan who was scratching her bandages again, she immediately pulled Rowan's hands away and made the younger girl look at her. They had been sitting in that doctor's office waiting for the results back from her latest CAT scan for at least twenty minutes and she was learning all about the new technology in Rowan's life.

"So like… let me get this straight, you say a phrase into an app and it sends an assassin to you?" she asked. She didn't quite understand Rowan's new network, just that Wo Fat made it, it made Steve really uncomfortable when she talked about it and really angry when she used it, and it usually just backfired except when she was using it to take care of other people, like her and Adam.

"No, no, it's more like, when I'm in trouble I say my name and it opens the app to anyone near-by who's on it as an asset," she said. "They decide whether to help me. But I can also open the app and scroll through the options and… you know… if I happen to need an assassin I can call one to me. Though I haven't done that yet. I sent one to someone else, I haven't called one to me."

"Yeah, you sent an assassin to me and Adam," Kono snapped and Rowan nodded realization dawning on her as if she had forgotten that happened.

"Right. Yes, then I called twice," she said.

"What was the other call for?" Kono asked. "The sniper outside of the Palace during the NLM hostage situation?"

It was bad that Kono had to clarify which hostage situation in order for Rowan to know which one she was talking about. Rowan thought about the question carefully before finally answering.

"Naw, he didn't wait for my orders, shot without me telling him to," she said.

"Then what was the second call for?" Kono wondered aloud.

Rowan shrugged. A noncommittal shrug that Kono attributed to any question about Rowan's past or anything about her feelings for McGarrett or what was going on with him. Now it seemed it transferred over to Wo Fat and his wonder app.

"A rescue mission," she replied and Kono could tell that was all she was going to get at that time. Time to change the topic.

"Okay, so if I'm in the middle of a shootout and I call out: "I'm Rowan Peirce," the guys will stop shooting?" Kono asked.

Rowan shook her head again. "Nope, it only works with my voice."

"Okay, but what if I get a recording of you?" Kono quizzed.

Rowan actually thought about it. "Uhm… you know what, I don't know. I'd have to ask," she said and that just brought up more questions

"Ask who?"

"Kong," Rowan answered absently.

"Wait… Kong Liang?" Kono cried. "The hacker from our teen hacker hostage situation?"

Seriously why were there so many hostage situations in their lives?

Rowan turned to her with big tired blue eyes, clearly done with all of Kono's questions. "You were gone for _way_ too long," she said. Kono smiled sadly at her and then wrapped her up in a hug.

"I know sistah, but I won't leave like that again," she said.

"You can you know," Rowan said. "Honestly. I'll be fine if you have to leave… just… you know… keep in better contact so we don't have to spend hours answering questions. Cause you've been back for a week and we're still not done."

Kono laughed. "Okay, okay, that's fair," Kono said. She cleared her throat as she thought how to phrase the next question. "Chin said you woke him up last night."

Rowan sighed and sunk into her chair. "He's gonna get shot. In cold blood. By his brother. Or his… Gabriel…"

Everything Rowan was saying after that disappeared. Kono didn't hear a single word of it. It was like her ears were ringing. There was only one Gabriel in Chin's life and that was his brother-in-law. Malia's brother.

"Gabriel Waincroft?" Kono asked in a hollow voice interrupting Rowan completely.

"Hmm? Oh… uh… honestly, I don't know. I haven't gotten a good grasp on this vision. It's all fuzzy and tinny. I can't get a clear picture and the words are all muffled. The only thing that's clear is: "Lieutenant Kelly is down!" and well… I only know one Lieutenant Kelly." Rowan said.

Kono sat back. But that wasn't the only Lieutenant Kelly that Kono knew. The doctor came back in the room, scans in hand and that ended their conversation.

"Alright, Miss. Pierce, it looks like we have a healthy brain on our hands," he said putting them up to the light box to see. Kono tried not to laugh but a snigger managed to escape her. She couldn't help it, she knew how Rowan thought, her brain wasn't anything even resembling healthy.

Rowan shot her a scowl and then stood up to look at her x-rays though Kono was certain she had no idea what she was looking at. "How healthy is healthy?" she asked.

"Well, the swelling has gone down, and it looks like the bone has grown back too, making your brain safe again," the doctor said circling places on the brain scans that just looked like smudge but there was Rowan beside him nodding along like she understood.

"So like… I can take the bandages off?" she asked to which the doctor nodded. "And I can start driving again?"

The doctor quickly flicked a pen in her face, it didn't hit her, but her reflexes were not ready, the hands that came up to block it were delayed by a good thirty seconds.

"That would be a no," he said.

"Aw come on! I wasn't ready!" Rowan cried. This time the doctor warned her and her reflexes were still thirty seconds delayed.

"Sorry sweetie, until your reflexes catch up, you're not driving," he said.

Rowan groaned again. "And how long is that gonna take?" she asked.

"Well… If you kept up with your exercises and your rehab, you'd be down to a 10 second delay," he said eyeing her over his glasses.

Rowan scowled at him. "Ain't nobody got time for that," she snapped heading back to Kono already unwrapping the gauze from her head.

Kono smile to the doctor for her. "Don't worry about it, we're on it," she said trying not to shake her head. Could Rowan get any more stubborn?

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

This new head injury was going to be the death of him. Really. Rowan had called him practically screaming, no intelligible words in that mess of a phone call except for a single demand. _Pick me_ up. He knew Rowan was freaking out about something, he just didn't think it was about… well… this…

"It's my car," she said for the millionth time. There was no point in reminding her that she never had a car in their universe. Because she was freaking out over this car. This old, light purple GTO that had rust peeking out from behind the custom color, with its cracked windshield and missing windows.

When he just stared at her and the car with a pained looked she sighed and explained further. "You don't get it. This is _my_ car. My first ever car. To be fair it was my dad's car first, but this one, all lavender and shit. It was mine. And me and my dad, we'd go driving every Saturday. Go for burgers, fries and malt milkshakes and then drive down to the water and he'd tell me all about the secrets of the universe. Every Saturday. And this is it. This is the car I would have done all that in here, and I want it. Danny I want it so bad I can taste blood in my mouth."

That was one hell of a statement. So essentially this was like Steve's Marquis. The two of them were just a pair of walking daddy-issues hell-bent on making Danny's life miserable.

"How did you even find this?" he asked.

"Well… when they had me at the hospital for observation, they wouldn't let me sleep, which got me to thinking about my car and what happened to it if I'm not around to buy it," Rowan answered peeling herself off of the hood where she had laid herself down to hug it like it were a long lost relative. "And look, I finally found it! Can you imagine how happy I was to find it _on the island_? Did some searching, It was listed on a junk it website. Problem is, he's asking way too much for the condition it's in."

"What the hell is he asking?"

"The _he_ , you're talking about is Emilio Cruz. And he's asking for 80 grand," he said. He looked her up and down and smiled. "Nice to see you lost the bandages. But being better ain't gonna get you a discount any more than being injured did."

Rowan turned a scowl on him while Danny choked on air beside her. 80 grand for this?! Was its frame made of gold? Also… she had been visiting here while she was injured? Fucking how? He, Chin and Kono had been on babysitting duty all hours of the damn day. Ever since she nearly set Chin's house on fire with a pizza she hadn't been alone. So how the hell had she managed this?

"And as I already said, in this condition it's not worth 50 grand. More like 45," Rowan said folding her arms over her chest.

Emilio with his webs of black ink spanning from his fingers up his arms and across his chest his coveralls were ripped and oily, his boots pristine though. The do-rag he had covering his probably bald head was unnecessary. He looked sketchy and that was a problem to Danny.

"This is a custom painted 1980 Charger, easily worth more than 80 grand," he said with a smug grin on his face.

"It's a 1968 GTO," Rowan growled. "Do you know anything about vintage cars?"

Emilio's smile was almost acidic, it could have melted the rust right off the car. "Then it's definitely worth a lot more than what you're trying to pay me," he said. Well Rowan should have just kept her mouth shut

"Alright, I think we can find a good deal for the little lady," Danny said stepping up.

Emilio turned to him his scowl dark, his large tattooed arms folded over her chest. "What? Did you bring that Haole to fight your battle for you? Fucking little blonde chipmunk of a man, get out of my face," he growled.

Oh, now that was uncalled for. Danny scoffed, he half pivoted, his hand going to the holster where he held his gun, but Rowan put a hand on his to stop him. "No need to call us names," she said. "I thought you might take me more seriously with someone else here."

"It didn't work, Chica," Emilio said.

Rowan just lifted her chin in a primly proud manner. "That's fine. I'll just find someone else more intimidating," she said and then turned on heel and marched away. Danny followed after her not sure whether he should be insulted or proud.

When he caught up to her he put an arm around her shoulder. "And to think you called me to be intimidating instead of Wo Fat," he said with a teasing grin.

"Oh, I tried him first, he didn't pick up. Actually… I haven't heard from him in a whole 24 hours," she admitted looking absently at the phone she had pulled out of her pocket. She sounded worried. Only that girl could be worried about a sociopath in solitary. Danny was just trying to not be offended that he was her second choice, hey she still picked him over McGarrett, that was something right? He could never tell Steve.

"I'm sure there's a good reason," Danny said as he delivered her into the passenger seat of his Camaro. He heard her absent _yeah_ come back to him and he shook his head. Great, now he was going to have to deal with this too. Just fucking peachy.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

The phone rang once Danny had dropped her off at Chin's. A long-distance number she didn't recognize. She assumed it was Wo Fat with a new phone, but it wasn't.

"Is this Rowan Pierce?" the woman asked.

"Yes…" she answered hesitantly.

"My name is Nancy with the ADX Florence," the woman said and Rowan's heart stopped. Why was Wo Fat's prison calling her? "You're listed as Wo Fat's emergency contact."

She was? He was in a state of emergency? Well wasn't this a tables turned situation, if she ever saw one? Was this how he felt every time he got a call about Rowan? Was this how Steve felt?

"Yes. Is he… has something happened?" Rowan asked.

"He was attacked two nights ago…"

"Attacked? He's in solitary… how was he attacked?" Rowan thundered, cutting her off.

"We're unsure of the specifics… he hasn't been conscious since it happened," Nancy said to her and Rowan tried not to scowl. They were a prison. He was surrounded by cameras. How the hell could they not know what happened?

"Okay… well what do you know?" Rowan asked between grit teeth.

"The stab wound to his abdomen was minor, compared to the damage it could have done," Nancy told her and Rowan tried not to flip out. There was no world in which any kind of stab wound could be considered minor. She might as well be talking to Steve. "He has finally woken up and wants to talk to you."

Rowan tried not to groan. Why didn't they just open with that? "Okay, let me talk to him then," she said. Nancy said something about transferring her and then the line was ringing again.

"ADX Infirmary this is Kathy," someone said and Rowan tried to remain calm.

"Hi Kathy, uhm… I'm Rowan, I've been told that…"

"Yes… he hasn't stopped asking for you. He's been quite insistent that we get a hold of you," Kathy said.

"Is it… is it really bad?" Rowan asked, because if it was, she'd fly down to Colorado in a heartbeat. She wasn't sure how she was going to do that without a passport, but by god she'd find a way.

"No, I think he's just shaken up. The meds might be messing with him too," she said. "Just give me a minute. Wo… Wo… no… no… it's okay, it's just Kathy…"

She was speaking to him, he must have been startled by her. He was rarely startled. What the hell was happening to him?

"It's your sister, don't you want to talk to your sister?" Kathy said. Rowan paused… he had listed her as his sister? Well it made sense, they'd ask the relationship, what else could he have listed her as. There was the sudden sound of struggling and then Wo Fat was talking to her.

"Ro… Ro… listen… The Oyabun… Ro… the Oyabun… they'll come… they're looking… go to St… go to… McGarrett… you have to… they know, Ro… they think… the Oyabun…"

Gibberish it was all gibberish. But he sounded so frantic. "Okay," she said to him. "I'll go. I'll go to Steve right now. Are you… are you okay? Do you want me to come to Colorado?"

"No Ro. Ro run. Just run. Run from me. The Oyabun… you can't let them… go Ro. Go!" The line disconnected and Rowan started at her cell phone.

She got a lot from that conversation but there was one thing that stood out. Oyabun. That was the leader of the Yakuza, wasn't it? That meant that Yakuza did this to Wo, and judging by his response, judging by his panic, they had threatened her too. But the Oyabun was supposed to be Sato and yeah… she had kinda embarrassed him a few months ago but she didn't think that he'd… she said Wo Fat wasn't involved with that, Five-0 had made her and she had been clear that she wouldn't do it again.

Rowan had options at this point, but none of the options were going to fix the situation. Steve couldn't help Wo Fat, and if the Oyabun really wanted to get her, he probably wouldn't be able to help her either. Her app was probably compromised, Wo Fat was injured so… what was she going to do?

Rowan didn't call Steve like she said she was going to. Instead she pulled up the app and scrolled through the options. After finding the one she wanted she waited for the call to be put through.

When the line went live she said as clear as she could: "Tell the Oyabun that Rowan Pierce wants to make a deal."

And then waited.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

18 million.

That was the price to save them both.

18 million and they would be free.

Rowan had thought long and hard about where she would get that money. She had options. She could use the money Wo Fat had left her, she could probably use the gold bullion she had stolen from Cain, but she didn't want to. But then she remembered Chin and his case, and just how much money Gabriel was trying to get back. She knew Gabriel caused a lot of problems, both with IA and maybe shooting Chin? Well… maybe she could take him out of the picture.

So she came up with a plan, which involved being four steps in front of everyone. So once she had set everything up she made her way down to the bank, waited for the woman to go into the safety deposit box room and then waited for her to come out.

Rowan stepped in front of the woman as she left the teller. The woman, who was shaking, stared up at her surprised. Rowan tried to remain cool and calm, but there was a lot riding on this and her ability to run faster than the mad man outside AND Steve who she knew wasn't far behind. All when she had little to no endurance and hated running. She may have bitten off more than she could chew.

"Give me the bag," she ordered. The woman's eyes widened in horror but Rowan was ready for this. "No, no, don't worry. Five-0 they got your son. He's safe. Now it's our turn to save you."

The woman looked her up and down. Oh god, please believe her, please. "If you wait, if you count to thirty once I leave, you can go outside and Five-0 will be there. Look for the girl, her name is Kono she'll be able to take you to your son. Just please, I'll deal with Gabriel. Give me the bag."

Thankfully she did as she was told. She handed over the bag and before the woman could change her mind Rowan turned on heel and then walked out of the bank. She stopped on the stoop and then waited. As soon as Gabriel made eye contact with her she suddenly had doubts. But his eyes were on the bag now and there was no going back.

He got out of his car and smiled warmly at her. "I think you have something that belongs to me," he said.

Rowan just smiled brightly. "Nope," she said causing him to frown. "I think this bag and the money inside it belongs to me now. Whatcha gonna do about it… Gabriel?"

It was when she said his name that his face changed. Gone was the human façade she was now staring down a demon in human flesh. Behind him she saw Steve's blue truck pulling up. Shit. They were early.

Gabriel was inching out of the car, she caught sight of the pistol tucked away into his waistband. It was now or never. This was her only shot to help Wo Fat, to save him from the Yakuza.

So, Rowan bolted and prayed to god her stamina was still there.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Gabriel was already halfway out of the car. His back was to them, his gaze intently set on someone else. Someone who had just come out of the bank, someone with a big black duffle bag. Someone with shockingly familiar features, and a mop of bright red hair.

"What the hell?" Steve breathed out but Chin already knew. Rowan. Rowan and her visions. Though how she got this one was beyond him they hadn't seen her all day, and Chin knew first hand that her visions only came in dreams now or if she was touching one of them.

They couldn't hear what Rowan and Gabriel were saying, Steve hadn't moved either too afraid to startle them and cause trouble for Rowan. They stood there watching, each holding their breath and in one second Rowan and Gabriel were in the middle of a stand-off and the next Rowan had bolted. Sprinting down the street, bag in tow, Gabriel sprinting after her. Pistol in hand, he slid to a stop and raised it, leveling it with Rowan's retreating back.

Chin heard Steve's bark of _no!_ intertwined with his own cry of his brother in law's name. The distraction worked, the shot went wide missing Rowan completely. He turned, clocked Five-0, each of them with their guns drawn heading for him and then he ran, chasing after Rowan just as she ducked down an alleyway.

Rowan had saved him from so much. She put up with tireless nights from dreams and visions that she didn't ask for and turned them into case breaking clues for Five-0. She had braved a prison riot to save him, she had taken on a serial killer and cracked the back of her head open for him. The least he could do was save her from Gabriel. He sprinted forward, gun back in the holster so he could move faster. He somehow got to the alley before Steve did, moving through the shadows in time to hear a door close. He followed the sound, followed the sound of heavy footsteps pounding after lighter ones.

But Rowan and Gabriel made it to the roof before he did. When he neared the top he heard a gunshot. Panic hit him because Rowan didn't have the gun, Gabriel did. He burst out. Ready to shoot. Praying to any god that he wasn't late to rescue Rowan like he had been for Malia.

And then froze. Because he literally had no idea what he was witnessing at that moment.


	91. Chapter 91

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: So, last chapter was purposely left on a cliffhanger, sorry about that. You do find out what happened at the end of this chapter and two chapters after this one, you guys get to read one of my longer, more fluffier chapters. Like I really amped up the cuteness in that chapter. There is going to be some cute things in this chapter as well, but Rowan is mainly focusing on Chin. So we've got some Rowan and the other Five-0 fluff. The Rowan and Steve stuff is coming. I promise! Don't forget to tell me what you think of this chapter, and any fan theories you have for what's going to happen next! See you guys tomorrow._

Chapter 91 

* * *

The atmosphere at the party was charged for many reasons though Danny assumed that it was for four main reasons. One. They didn't know where the money was and Rowan couldn't tell them. Two. Chin witnessed something on the roof but no one, not even Kono could get him to tell them what happened. Three. Internal Affairs was investigating Chin over this. Four. Steve had not been invited to the party and he had been blowing up everyone's phones to find out where they were. Team meeting he said. None of them had responded.

It was hard sitting there knowing that Chin was going to face an IA shit storm the following morning and neither he nor Rowan would budge on the matter.

They were all silent. Chin because he was worried. Danny because he was sulking. No one knew why Kono was quiet and well Rowan… she had been quiet since she came off that roof. Subdued and oddly way too calm. It was unnerving. Lou was the only one making noise, as he was in the kitchen cooking up his famous chilli.

Rowan cleared her throat and looked around at the people around her. "Did anyone remember to invite Steve?" she asked.

"Uh… no. We purposely forgot to invite Steve," Danny told her and she frowned and groaned at him. "Don't take that tone with me. We're trying to have a nice stress-free night and you and Steve together as a mix are stressful. You keep saying you're good and then neither of you talk to each other and just stare at one another with wide eyes instead. Makes the rest of us feel awkward."

"We're never gonna get any better if you keep me and him apart," Rowan grumbled. Kono smirked at him from her spot on the couch beside Rowan, well she had a point.

"Look, we wanted a quiet night in that didn't end in an argument, and wasn't peppered with awkward looks," Danny said. "Especially with Chin getting pulled in by IA tomorrow."

Chin made a face at Danny, upset he brought it up again, when they had all agred they'd leave him and rowan alone about it. Him bring it up again meant that this night would probably end in an argument anyway. Chin was putting a brave face on, pretending that he wasn't upset or worried but he was. On both accounts. He was upset that IA was after him again, and worried because IA meetings never went well for him. Rowan threw her head back, a bit too violently for someone who had their head bandaged up not 5 days ago, and groaned once more.

"He's gonna be fine. Gabriel escapes and some dude gets stabbed in the eye with a pencil but Chin's gets out of this fine," Rowan said and then all eyes turned to her.

"Uh… what?" Chin asked.

"What?" Rowan shot back. She had been doing that a lot recently. Spitting out a vision and then not remembering that she said it.

"Someone's going to get stabbed in the eye?" Danny promoted.

Rowan paused to think. "Uhm… I think… that mean IA guy is… he also insults Kono. Insinuates that love made her forget Adam was the enemy… or something like that. He's an asshole. Like… a real mean guy," she said. "I hope I don't see him tomorrow."

"Why would you see him tomorrow? You haven't been called in," Danny asked.

Rowan folded her arms over her chest and scowled at him. "I'm going to be there for solidarity," she answered. Danny silently added: "And because it's my fault," in his head for her. They were all thinking it but none of them were gonna say it out loud. No one was that stupid.

"When's your next check up?" Kono asked getting them off of the topic entirely.

Oh Kono, the only one who was working on Rowan's physio with her. Trying to help her with her out of sync reflexes. Danny thought it was hilarious to watch throw her something and then watch it fall and that hand come up with a 10 second delay to catch it. Then she'd scream Danny's name and Steve would descend like the over-protective guard dog he was and the two would just stare at each other like lovelorn idiots.

"Next week. If I'm lucky I'll be cleared to drive," she answered a large smile on her face.

"Oh lord help us," Grover said shoving a large bowl filled to the brim with chilli into Rowan's hands. "Now eat something, you're wasting away."

Rowan, who looked shocked by the sheer amount of food in front of her, turned narrowed eyes of suspicion up to Grover. "Who told him I wasn't eating?" she grumbled.

"I did," came from Kono, Chin and Danny at the same time. Well it looked like all of them had the same idea. Rowan not eating had not been good. She hadn't eaten a good and decent meal since the incident on the roof.

Someone knocked on the door and Danny got up, said that he got it and then went to open it. He didn't know who they were missing, everyone that had been invited was already there and they weren't going to order food. Unless Rowan already did and didn't tell anybody. When he got the door open and saw who was waiting for him on the other side he wondered how he didn't figure out who it was going to be.

"Danny… uh… what are you doing here?" Steve asked. He looked surprised, he looked around like he was confused about which door he had just knocked on.

"What am I doing here… what are you doing here?" Danny shot back.

"I'm here to talk to Chin," Steve answered. "Are you… uh… what's going on?"

"We're uh… we're… uh… I guess it's a little bit of a get together," Danny answered.

Steve glanced inside his eyes finding each of his friends. "I … huh… all of you are here," Steve said sounding so disappointed.

Rowan groaned from her spot on the couch and called out: "I told them to invite you!" Yeah what a help she was. But the way Steve straightened, his body immediately tensing at the sound of her voice, Danny figured he hadn't realized Rowan was there.

Grover peeked out of the kitchen where he was doling out more chilli into bowl and Steve's frown deepened. "Wow… even Grover… you invited everyone… including Grover…" Steve whispered.

"I invited myself along when I heard these mother fuckers talking about a party," Grover said to him and Danny almost swore at him. The look Steve's face could have killed him if it wanted to. "If I can invite myself along, so can you."

"Yeah, come on in Steve," Chin called from the living room. Reluctantly Steve crossed the threshold his eyes falling on Rowan immediately. He took the chair that Danny had vacated, much like he took Danny's car, but everyone knew he did it because the chair was closest to Rowan.

The two of them looked away from each other. Let the awkward staring begin. "So uh… Grover's your personal chef now?" he asked. He was going for a joke to liven things up. To make it seem like he wasn't completely and utterly betrayed by what they had done.

"Girlie won't eat. Thought some of my chilli might get her appetite back," he answered handing out two more bowls. One to Chin and one to Kono.

"Not eating?" Steve echoed, his eyes on Rowan but her eyes were firmly on the bowl in her hands and the spoon she was absently swirling about in it.

"Hasn't eaten since the uh… since the roof," Danny answered and Kono groaned. No, this was not a topic to get him on.

"Huh… yeah… got anything to do with the fact that you won't tell anyone the truth about what happened up there?" Steve snapped his eyes shooting deadly daggers at Rowan.

Rowan didn't look up from the bowl. "I did tell the truth."

"No… no you didn't! You're lying to me again!" he cried. "If you weren't feeling guilty about it yourself, you'd be eating normally. But you have a guilty conscience so you're starving yourself. And it would be fine if you were just fucking with yourself, Rowan, but now you're dragging Chin down with you!"

Rowan looked up to him, her eyes filled with nothing but sadness. Obviously very hurt that he had said that to her, and even he seemed to regret what he had done. But before he could apologise, Rowan carefully put the bowl on the table. "That was wonderful chilli, Lou," she said. "And I'm having a great time at this little fete, but uh… I'm not feeling too good so I'm gonna go lie down… okay?"

She didn't wait for anyone to answer, she was already walking away, as she went past Steve she put a hand to his shoulder, brushing against him lightly that caused his breathing to momentarily shake. He tried to shrug it off like it didn't happen but it had… and they had all noticed it.

"Have a nice night," she called to them as she disappeared into the bedroom that Steve did not know was hers. As soon as the door shut behind her they all turned to Steve was sighing as if expecting the lecture to start almost immediately. And it did.

"And that… that right there… is why you weren't invited," Danny said, but Kono felt bad for Steve.

"Well… now that she's gone… and we're all here, why don't we talk about her birthday, it's a week from now and we still don't know what we're doing," Kono interrupted before anyone could jump on the _pile on Steve_ train.

Steve's eyes narrowed in confusion. "I didn't know you guys were planning a party," he said in a small voice.

This time all eyes turned to Danny who had been giving the task of informing Steve. He was to figure out a time where Steve could join them for secret meetings, far away from Chin's house where Steve had no idea that Rowan was currently living. "Okay… I'm not the only person who just saw that display, I know I wasn't," he said to the people staring at him expectantly. "Do any of you want that repeated at her birthday party?"

It was an accusing question, one that put a dejected slump into Steven McGarrett's proud shoulders.

Kono's heart went out to him. "I'm sure Steve wouldn't do anything to ruin Rowan's birthday, right boss?"

Steve's eyes turned up to hers, hope shined in those baby blue watering eyes. "No… I wouldn't… I'd be… I'd…"

"And, I mean… she invited him… so she obviously wants him there…" Chin added.

"Yeah, but she also invited Catherine," Danny reminded them. "That head injury is affecting her decision-making abilities."

"No, it's only affecting her reflexes," Kono argued. "Rowan's just nice. Too nice. She invited the rest of us and she doesn't want Catherine to feel left out."

"We should take her skating," Grover said interrupting them all. He put a bowl of chilli into Steve's hands and then sat down in Rowan's abandoned spot. "She likes skating, so it's obvious. We taking her skating."

"Can't. They've got some competition at the rink all next week," Danny said. "I looked into that already. It was the first thing I looked into."

"How about roller-blading," Grover offered. "It's still skating, what's the difference."

"Uh, the kind of skating Rowan does is on ice and roller-blading in not on ice," Danny snapped which earned him a dry glare from Grover.

"Skating is skating no matter where we go," he said to them and Kono found herself shrugging.

"Yeah, and afterward we could go for Dinner. She loves Rainbow's, and I'm sure they'd keep it open for breakfast for her if we asked," she offered. Yes! Rowan loved breakfast for dinner, it was her favourite dinner food.

"Alright, alright, so Chin will talk to Rainbows, see about the breakfast-for-dinner, and I'll look for rollerblading places we can rent. The only thing we need to decide is if we're pooling together for a gift or each going for separate things," Danny said and they all nodded. But then nothing came out of their mouths. No one knew what to get her. What would Rowan like? Other than for things to work out between her and Steve?

The door to Rowan's room opened again and she came out, brushed past Steve again whose eyes were on her the second she even graced his peripherals. She reached over him to the bowl of chilli she had left behind.

"It's really good and I'm really hungry," she said to them as she picked it up and shovelled a huge heap into her mouth. She looked to all the faces staring at her and her eyes narrowed in concern. "What?" she asked them but they all just stared laughing.

Rowan scowled at them and then down to Steve whose hand had somehow snaked around her waist when they had been distracted, even Rowan. "Your lack of faith in me depresses me, Steven McGarrett," she said to him, the words shocking him ramrod straight and making his eyes blink a million miles per second.

She turned on heel and walked away, as his arm fell from her waist and he watched her go like a lovelorn fool in a romance movie.

When he turned back, he avoided all of their eyes, a pink tinge of embarrassment on his cheeks. "Uh… I vote we pool together… you know whenever we decide on something" he whispered.

"Of course he does," Danny said, he pointed a warning finger into Steve's face. "You're not allowed to sign the card until we get the cash for your part, McGarrett!"

And then they broke out into laughter again.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

 _A gun shot. Sprinting. Panic. Fear._

 _Chin burst out from the stairwell and was struck frozen by what he saw._

 _Gabriel was rolling on the ground, groaning and grunting in pain, holding his shin. Above him were two Asian men in black suits, wearing them like a uniform. One with a gun, the other taking the bag from Rowan. Tattoos on their hands. Yakuza. She didn't seem bothered by the shot. She didn't seem bothered by Gabriel's screaming. She didn't seem to notice Chin yet but when she does she smiled, a dangerous glittering, Wo Fat kind of smile. She turned to the writhing man at her feet, crouched above him. Put her hand to Gabriel's leg and he cried out in pain, Chin swore he saw a spark of orange fly from Rowan's hands but he couldn't be sure._

 _She said something low to him but Gabriel shook his head._

 _"Let him go Rowan," Chin ordered walking towards them, gun raised. The men in black were already retreating, disappearing down a fire escape. "Five-0! Don't move!" he ordered but was ignored. He turned to them, turned away from Rowan for two seconds, not enough for her to cause damage but enough for Rowan to cause some sort of drama._

 _"No, fuck you, you bitch!" Gabriel shouted and that was all it took._

 _"Admit what you did!" Rowan shouted and Chin whirled around. When he just glared at her she took her fingers and dug into the bullet wound in his leg and as he screamed in anguish, she shouted over him: "ADMIT WHAT YOU DID TO CHIN!"_

 _"I killed his father!" Gabriel admitted. "I killed his father. I killed Chin Ho's father!"_

 _Rowan wiped his blood on his own pants and then stood up. "Well that explains the dreams," she whispered. She took a step away. Chin moved in for the arrest and Steve made it to the roof. He went to Rowan first and Chin Ho Kelly exchanged a long meaningful glance with her._

 _And he knew that whatever he just witnessed… he could never tell anyone._

"Wake up."

Chin bolted up and stared at Rowan who was perched at the end of his bed, tugging on tje foot that she had freed from the blankets.

Chin looked at the time. "Rowan it's three in the morning, I have to be at HPD Headquarters for nine am sharp. What could you possibly have dreamed about now?" he asked.

"Your meeting," she whispered.

Chin threw himself back down to the bed. "Then tell me in the morning," he ordered. Rowan pinched the skin on the back of his calf and forced him to sit back up.

"Okay, but this is very important… he's literally gonna say the phrase _rolling around in bed with his sister_ so you gotta not react to that one. You got it? Just… you know… just don't. Don't stand up. Don't ask him to say anything else about your wife. Just sit there and smile. Ask him if he wants pictures cause no one's gonna jump up on his shriveled, useless old dick, but do not… DO NOT stand up and definitely do not leave!" Rowan said.

Chin just stared at her. "That is oddly specific," he said to her, almost drily.

"Okay sass-master. Just listen to me? Will yah?" she ordered and Chin smiled.

"Anything to get you back in bed," he said. Rowan looked around his room as if suddenly realizing that she was perched at the end of his bed like some kind of psychic owl.

"Right… yeah… I should do that," she said, she got up slowly, and turned around only to sink back down to the bed. "Maybe we should just tell them what I did."

Chin kicked the blankets off the bed and slide down to sit beside her. "No, no we shouldn't," he said. "You're not a cop Ro, they'll send you to jail and I'm not going to let that happen."

"They're going to try and crucify you," Rowan said turning to him. "You don't deserve that."

Chin put a hand around her shoulder and tugged her to his side. "You've saved me enough times, it's time to let me save you," he whispered into her hair. "Now… seriously… you should go back to bed."

Rowan sighed again but this time when she did get up she left his room disappearing into the shadows. Wow… how the hell had McGarrett lived with her?

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

When Chin stormed out of that stupid small little room absolutely livid, he wasn't thinking about Rowan's warning. Fuck this. Fuck them. Fuck everything. He was gonna go home and if IA wanted to crucify him, then fine. But he was done with this.

Steve, Kono and Rowan jumped to their feet as soon as they saw them, Kono and Steve called out words of encouragement, reminders that this was what IA was like but it was Rowan's words that stopped him.

"I told you not to leave!"

Yes. She had. She had told him not to leave. She had told him exactly what it was that man was going to say. Still he reacted badly, even though he knew it was coming.

"This is what they do," Kono added. "They get under your skin.

"You just gotta take the personal out of it," Steve said like he understood what Chin was going through.

"How the hell am I supposed to do that? There's no way not to make that personal!" he shouted.

Rowan put her hands out, both of them landing on the same arm. "You are better than this. You are better than them. They are sad little people who just want to blame you for everything. Stop proving them right. Stop handing them the rope to hang you. Walk right back in there, and fucking smile. Smile like a maniac cause they can't beat you… and seriously one of them is gonna get stabbed in the eye," she said. Chin looked up to where Steve and Kono were wide eyed and staring at her. Rowan seemed to not see how terrifying that sentence was. She then shot a glare to Steve who had his hands in his pockets as he regarded her. "And if _someone_ gave me my phone back it could be done earlier rather than later."

Steve shook his head. "You are not getting your phone back. Not until I'm absolutely one hundred percent certain that you won't call Wo Fat over this."

Oh dear that meant that Steve didn't know about Wo Fat and the attack. Not good. Or maybe good? It meant he didn't know Rowan's motives for what she did that day. Therefore making it hard to prove what she had done with the money.

Rowan held up her hand like she was in the boy scouts pledging an oath and put the other hand on her heart. "I solemnly swear that I won't use my phone to call Wo Fat to exact revenge."

Steve eyed her with narrowed appraising eyes. He fished her phone out of her pocket and handed it to her. It was in her hand for two seconds before she said: "I said nothing about using the app."

Steve lurched forward, pushing Chin out of the way to get to her. Though she twisted and turned her reflexes still weren't up to snuff and Steve got the phone from her. Thank god for large head injuries. Chin smiled watching them already feeling lighter and a little bit better. Watching as Rowan jumped up on her tippy toes, and up into the air at times, to try and get the phone out of Steve's hand actually put a smile on his face.

He held it up, out of reach, and poor tiny little Rowan couldn't get to it. At one point she was hanging off his bicep like a monkey and it didn't seem to strain Steve at all. She finally dropped to her feet and came to stand in front of him, huffing lightly from all the cardio of dancing around him glaring up into Steve's smirk.

"You're not getting it back. I'm too tall for you," he said.

Rowan sighed all dramatically, Kono, with her own phone in hand came to stand beside Chin. "Watch this," she said in a hushed whisper.

"You're right, you're just too smart for me," she said draping her arms around his neck. Immediately Steve was angling downward, his face so close to hers their noses were almost touching.

And then she kissed him.

Kono started snapping pictures. But Chin, who had no idea that they had started doing well… that… just stood there slack jawed. Did Danny know? Shock hit Steve's features for all of three seconds before he molded into the kiss, the hand with her phone in it lowering until Rowan snatched it from his hands and turned away. She disentangled herself from that kiss as fast as she had started it.

She got the first of her: "HAHA's" out. Steve managed to whisper: "What the fuck just happened?" and then Kono, who was closest to Rowan, ripped the phone out of her hand causing Rowan to whine.

"Don't worry, I got this," she said, probably to Chin because Steve was still processing what happened his eyes blinking a million times a second as he stared at her with shock written all over his face, and maybe, just maybe something a little softer, because he was somewhat smiling. Chin nodded to her.

"Yeah, I got this too," he said squaring up his shoulders and heading back to the room.

"Oh! Hey! Chin?! Would you mind if I borrowed Steve for a bit?" she asked.

Steve's eyes narrowed at her but Chin said that was fine and then sure turned a smile to the perplexed Steve who seemed to be having trouble keeping up with Rowan and her moods.

"Kay Kay! Good luck! Remember! You're better than them!" she shouted, quite loudly which he was sure both of them heard as he had just opened the door. "And the meanest motherfucker gets a pencil to the eye so in the long run he doesn't even matter!"

Chin shut the door behind him loving that that was the sentence Rowan ended on and put on that happy smile she told him to wear as they stared at him in surprise.

"Was that a threat?" the asshole with the smart responses asked, Chin thought his name was Coughlin or something like that.

Chin merely shook his head. "Naw… she's just psychic," he said as he took his seat.

That comment earned him a shaky laugh. "You buy into that crap?" he asked.

Chin's smile widened. "She hasn't been wrong yet."

Wow, now that face… that face was worth it.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

As soon as the door shut Rowan turned back to him. And Steve, who was still reeling from that kiss… my god that kiss… practically took a step away from her.

"So… like… I need you," Rowan said. Steve blinked his eyes are here. Uh… she what? Really? Oh my god he had waited so long to hear her say that. This was it. This was him getting everything he could have ever dreamed about. His face must have betrayed some of his frantic emotion because Rowan suddenly cried: "God, Steve, your help, I need your help!"

Oh. That made more sense. But it didn't fill him with the same kind of emotion.

"Uh…" he started. He wanted to say yes, oh he wanted to say yes. But should he? They hadn't really been alone since they confessed that they liked each other. They had been really awkward cause neither of them knew what to do next and that had made everyone else uncomfortable. And then that kiss… that kiss still had his head reeling and his body in some kind of overload. And Chin needed him. "Danny's available, or Kono, she's pretty scary…"

Rowan blinked her eyes. "Danny can't help me, he tried. And Kono might kill him. I need you."

Oh God. Why was Kono smiling at him like that? He needed to stay strong, he needed to be here for Chin. He looked down to Rowan and her big blue eyes and innocent smile and felt his iron will crumbling.

"I need someone intimidating," she went on to explain when Steve didn't answer. "To help me get this guy to be reasonable. And you're the most intimidating guy I know. No offence."

She said that last bit to Kono who shrugged with indifference and continued to watch the by play of the conversation with rapt interest.

She had grabbed the lapels of the nice suit jacket he was wearing and was trying to tug him into moving. He didn't move, of course, he brushed her hands away before she could wrinkle his suit but that didn't deter her. She grabbed his arm and then he was letting her pull him away. Why struggle right? He wanted to go. She finally wanted him with to do something for her. Why not just go with it?

"What about Wo? Why can't he help you?" he asked, he winced at the bitterness that even he could hear in his voice.

"He's in jail… in Colorado," she reminded him. "I don't think he can help me with this."

He could, of course, but whatever he did would have totally been illegal, or bloody. Steve realized that she wasn't picking the most intimidating person on the island, she was picking the person that would go about this in a legal manner and was the least likely to kill someone.

"Alright fine," he said finally relenting. "I'll go, but this better be quick."

They walked in silence. A silence that Steve wanted to fill with something, anything, but he was still nervous. They were on supposed good terms, but he wanted to kiss her and he wasn't sure what conversation he had to pick to get him to that option. He wanted them to be on the road to getting better but he didn't know what direction that was in. So they walked in silence all the way to his truck. He unlocked the doors, loving that she just hopped in like she belonged there. He followed suit, finally working up the nerve to say something to her. God, she made him that nervous teenager again, freezing up at the sight of the pretty girl he wanted to ask out.

"What is this about?" he asked her. Not where was she taking him, he was down to drive around a little bit, soak up this hit of her that his clearly addicted body so badly craved, before their time together came to an end. Maybe whatever this was would get him bonus points in her books, could be a way to prove to her that he was trust worthy, and not controlling… or emotionally abusive.

"My car," she answered immediately.

Steve blinked his eyes, actually stopped reversing his truck and turned to her. "You don't have a car," he reminded her. "And you're not allowed to drive yet."

"Yes, Steve, I know that," she growled and glared at him until he got the truck out of his parking spot and out on the road. "Turn left. This is about my other car."

"Rowan that makes no sense," he sighed.

"My other world car," she clarified. "It was the first car I ever bought with my own money. It was my dad's first car, well the model, the model was my dad's first car too. We'd go for drives on Friday nights with my brother in the back and we'd eat burgers, fries and milkshakes by the water. And I've found it."

"But it's not your car," he said as she directed him through another turn. "Not really. How do you even know it's the same one?"

"Because it was custom painted purple before I bought it, it was why I bought it in the first place and I had to have it shipped in to me. But I couldn't remember from where. But I found it. Here. On Oahu. I found it and this guy won't give me a reasonable price," she said.

Steve couldn't help but stare at her. She had a car shipped to her? How much fucking money did she have?

"How old were you when you got the car?" he asked.

"Uh, I would have just gotten my G licence so… eighteen maybe nineteen?" she said after some thought. "Turn right and it's the little garage on the left."

Steve finally stopped paying attention to her and turned his attention to the area. This was a sketchy area. Suddenly he was worried that Rowan had been hanging around this area and putting herself in danger. He parked the truck on the side of the road and immediately got his gun and badge out of his glove compartment. Just in case.

Rowan smiled at him a sort of toothy wild grin. "Oh yes, do that thing you do!" she cried. When Steve just glared at her she elaborated. "You know where you flash a badge, scream _Five-0_ and break down a door. That should help him convince him to give me the car."

He wanted to tell her that he didn't do that. But as he thought about it… he really did do that often, didn't he? Also he wasn't here to terrify some guy into giving her a car. Still Rowan rushed out of his truck before he could correct her and he had no choice but to follow her onto the lot. He had to walk fast because Rowan had rushed over to one particular car.

It was a 1968 Pontiac GTO custom painted a pastel purple color. The paint was in good condition in most places but the seats sure as hell weren't. They were actually missing. As was the steering wheel and the windows. Steve immediately thought _chop shop_ but he wasn't certain just yet so he kept his mouth shut. What had him really shocked was the model of the car and how expensive this type of car was.

"Rowan… this is an 80-thousand-dollar car," he said. "You bought an 80-thousand-dollar car and had it shipped to you when you were eighteen?"

Rowan seemed to think that all of this was normal because she merely shrugged and said: "Uh… yeah."

"Rowan what the hell were you doing to make that much money at that age?" he asked. He was pretty sure he knew. He thought it had something to do with the skating, but how the hell was she making money at that age just be skating?

"I'd tell you but you wouldn't believe me," she said.

Steve was going to press the issue but a man came up to them. He wasn't exactly oozing of legitimacy either. He was wearing the typical blue overalls most mechanics wore but he was covered in gang tattoos, prison tattoos and was sporting a nice red do-rag. Steve was trying to give this guy the benefit of the doubt but he was also giving him a super bad vibe.

"You're back again chica?" he said. "You better be ready to pay the price."

Steve didn't like the way he talked to Rowan. Like she was an idiot. Like she didn't know what she was doing. Like she was a nuisance. He looked Steve up and down in an appraising manner and whatever he saw didn't seem to intimidate him at all. Oh Steve could fix that.

"How many mens you going to bring to scare me chica?" he asked. "It didn't work with your blonde chipmunk it's not going to work with Mr. Muscles over here."

Ah, so she had already brought Danny and it didn't work. Steve immediately wanted to know if this man had called Danny a blonde chipmunk to his face. He was going to call him that every day all the time now. Danny was gonna hate it but Steve was already grinning just thinking about it.

"He's just here for moral support, Emilio" she said waving Steve away who remembered he was supposed to be intimidating and put his angry face back on. "He's going to help me negotiate a reasonable price."

"My price is reasonable," he argued.

"This car is not worth 80 grand," Rowan said and Steve blanched at the number. "It's a fucking shell. It has nothing in it." She squatted down in front of the car and reached under the right bumper where the level to pop the hood was. Holy shit. Rowan really did own that car. Unless someone owned a classic there was no way they'd guess that the lever was there.

"And look, all the engine parts are gone," she said. Steve looked at it and she was right. It had been gutted. Steve's suspicions were confirmed as soon as he saw it.

"This is a chop shop," he said out loud.

Rowan's eyes grew wide, she turned to Emilio with a wide grin. "Oh my god! You have to give me the car now!" she crowed.

Emilio glared at her he reached for something behind him, Steve automatically assumed gun so he drew his lightning fast. "I don't think so," he said. Ignoring the way Rowan's eyes were whipping back and forth between them in horror. She had been smart enough to back away as soon as Steve's gun came out.

"Okay, we won't tell anyone if you give me the car," she said.

"No, Rowan," Steve said, he never took his eyes off of Emilio who was glaring at the two of them.

Rowan turned to him and frowned. "What do you mean no?"

Steve pulled out his badge and said: "Five-0, you're under arrest," he said and Rowan groaned.

"Can't we just let me take the car, no one has to know it was here," she whined. Steve and Emilio turned a glare to her and she sighed dramatically. "Ugh. I should have just called Wo."

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Danny came to the lot to help Steve with the cars and the paperwork. Danny spread his arms out as he approached Steve with that familiar _what gives_ gesture and Steve scowled.

Before Danny could anything snarky Steve said: "How's my little blonde chipmunk?"

Danny stopped in his tracks, half pivoted and then turned to Steve and pointed one finger into his face. "Don't… Don't you ever call me that again," he snapped. He looked around the lot and said: "She asked you to be intimidating not to arrest the guy."

Steve sighed. "He's running an illegal chop shop, what was I supposed to do?" he asked.

"Help her get the car," Danny said. "That car represented something really important to her."

He knew that Rowan was upset. She had slapped him before the cops got there. Tears in her eyes. Swearing up and down she would never ask him for help ever again. He had just let her rail, let her yell at him and then eventually he let her walk away. Even though every word punctured his heart. So much for working things out, fuck, he had just made things so much worse between them. But this has been a good learning moment for him.

He still couldn't trust her, she couldn't trust him. They weren't good for each other.

But he didn't need the guilt trip from his friend.

"Look! What was I supposed to do?" Steve snapped pointing at them. "She brought me to a chop shop and I'm not above the law enough to ignore something as blatantly illegal as this. So I had no choice. She's already made me feel terrible about this so I don't need it from you too."

"You did too have a choice!" Rowan shouted appearing beside him. Steve jumped and half yelped cause he hadn't been expecting her then hung his head as she glared at him hands on her hips. "After all the times you abused your power to harass me you didn't think you could make it up to me by abusing your power to get me my car?"

"Rowan! No. It wouldn't be ethical to…"

"But it was perfectly fine to arrest me a bunch of times cause you were mad?" she shot back.

"No. No, it wasn't. Which was how you got me suspended!" Steve shouted back at her. Danny muttered: "Yeah only for three days," which won him a glare from Steve who didn't need that right now.

Rowan scowled at him. "You are absolutely useless. I should have called Wo Fat! _He_ would have helped me!" she cried and Steve jerked like he had been slapped. She then turned to Danny and said: "I will be at the Camaro, please give me a ride back to HPD Headquarters, I'd like to be there when Chin gets out."

Danny nodded to her and then waited for her to go before he piped up again. "That car meant the same thing to her as the Marquis does to you," Danny said. He caught Steve's glare and he raised his hands in surrender. "And that will be the last thing I say about the matter."

It didn't matter whether or not it was true. He saw the disappointment in his friend's eyes, the same type of disappointment that Steve had seen in Rowan's when he told her the car was going to be held as evidence. They wouldn't need to say anything, he knew what they were thinking, and the guilt wouldn't go away.


	92. Chapter 92

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Oh Gosh, you guys really didn't like last chapter. Can I say that Steve does make it up to her? He does it in the next chapter, which is coincidentally the cutest chapter I have written to date! Are you guys at least liking where it's going? I know both Steve and Rowan are being difficult, but they're both trying to make themselves better. And I promise that they do get together. It is happening. Remember, I have them officially together at the end of season 4, and the first episode of season 5 involves Steve and Rowan arguing about the label he has vs the one she wants so you know, not long to wait. Have I mentioned that I'm ALMOST done writing season 4? Seriously. I'm on episode 21 (which is a long ass motherfucker, I swear it's got to be at least 6 chapters right now, a lot happens in it) and then I just have rewrite episode 22. I'm so excited. I'm like burning through this story! So As always, please review cause I love hearing from you. Tell me what you're excited for! I'll see you tomorrow!_

 _P.S. JP it sounded like you were confused about something in your last review. If you need met to clear it up for you, just say so in your next review and I can do that for you. (That goes for anyone else who needs clarification about something, I'm more than willing to A any Qs you guys have)_

Chapter 92 

* * *

"Let's talk about the money," Rex Coughlin said to Chin who was suddenly not as suave and cool as he was before. He shifted in his seat and scowled at him.

"25 million that Gabriel hid, and the 18 million from the bag from the bank, both missing," he continued. "The area was searched, Gabriel was 100% certain that there were two shooters on that roof and he hasn't budged about that. Neither the bag nor the shooters have turned up."

"Is there a question there?" Chin Ho snapped.

"Well how do you explain it?" he asked.

"As I told everyone else," he growled, "When I got on the roof Rowan was alone, she didn't have a bag, and Gabriel was on the floor."

"And Miss. Pierce has confirmed this," he said absently which Chin Ho confirmed to be true.

"But you never brought her in for questioning… in fact… no one can tell me how she even ended up there. In fact that seems to be a pattern in a lot of your cases…"

"Rowan just turns up. Okay?" Chin said.

"Psychic, you said," Rex confirmed. Chin scowled. "You guys really do buy into that huh?"

"You don't know her… you don't know what she's like…"

"I think it's more likely that Rowan, who we already know has ties to a criminal mastermind that Five-0 personally saw to arresting, is more involved in the criminal world then you're giving her credit for," Rex growled staring Chin Ho down.

The man finally looked a little shaken. Asking about Rowan was the weakness, just like it was with McGarrett and Kalakaua, except in McGarrett's case it was the one thing that made that man explode. They knew something. They were hiding something. They were protecting someone. Rex had thought it was Chin, but now he had a different theory.

"Steven McGarrett vouched for her. Her attachment to Wo Fat is familial. She has no ties to any criminal organization. She's a goddamn song writer…"

"And yet she showed up at the bank, stole Gabriel Waincroft's money, and somehow took him down without having a weapon on her," Rex interrupted.

"Rowan knows things. Okay? She just knows. She's been doing it since we found her. Okay? Just knowing, just showing up. She helps. She saves lives, and she has never lied to us. So if she says Gabriel attacked her, that she wrestled the gun away from Gabriel, and somehow in the scuffle the money went missing and the gun went off then that's what happened," Chin Ho snapped.

Also exactly what the others had said. Maybe not word for word but close enough.

He knew then. He knew then that Rowan Pierce was the key.

"I think we're done here," he said to Chin Ho who was staring at him almost confused. "You can go."

Chin Ho stood up, he looked down at them with unfeeling eyes. "I wouldn't… if I were you… I really wouldn't," he warned.

"Wouldn't what?" Rex asked.

"I wouldn't threaten her," Chin Ho told him. "It's not just Steve that responds badly to that… that criminal we put away… yeah… he's very invested in her wellbeing. And unlike Steve, he's got no morals to stop him from doing anything… unsavoury…"

"Are you threatening me, Lieutenant Kelly?" Rex asked in a low voice.

"No, it's a warning," he said. "We have watched men far mightier than you fall to him in the name of Rowan's safety… Wo Fat doesn't play around when it comes to protecting his sister…"

He left after that. Left with those words hanging in the air. Rex Coughlin still turned to his partner and said: "Get Rowan Pierce in this office for questioning."

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Duke personally took her into HPD Headquarters. He was upset about this. Upset about having to parade Rowan in front of Steve and in to speak to the Internal Affair officers who demanded her arrest. He hadn't handcuffed her because Rowan had agreed to come quietly, that would help when Steve had his freak out.

They weren't through the door for less than two seconds before Steve's face whipped towards her. He was on his feet after taking three steps into the hallway and then he was coming towards them. Already Duke was stiff beside her.

"Duke… Ro… what's going on?" he asked.

"I'm sorry Steve they… they asked us to bring her in," he said.

"No. don't lie for them," Rowan snapped. "They called in a warrant for my arrest, Steve. They _arrested_ me. What the hell did you people say to them?"

Steve straightened. "No, she's not going in there. Take her home," he ordered.

"Oh, she's coming in here," an Agent said appearing at the door.

"Rowan is none of your concern. She's not a cop," Steve growled, sweeping her behind him trying to edge her back and away.

"Neither are you, Commander," he snapped not intimidated by Steve's muscles or his threatening glare. "We're convinced that the missing piece is Miss. Pierce. She will be questioned and if she is found guilty she will be arrested and tried for her crimes, no matter _who_ wants to protect her."

She could hear Steve's growling from where he was standing, she saw the coiled tension in his arms. He was going to make this worse and then they'd never get rid of IA. She darted out from behind him and put a hand to his chest.

"It's okay," she said to him. "Go sit down… I… I got this. Okay?"

Steve stared down at her. Just that look alone told her how much he believed that this situation was going to end in the _okay_ bracket.

"Just… come on Steve. Have a little faith, okay?" she urged. "Go sit down, I'll be out in a few minutes."

Behind her the Agent laughed. "I highly doubt that," he scoffed.

Rowan turned to him with a fake cracking smile on her face. "Do you want him to punch you?" she asked. He just scoffed at her, grabbed her arm and jerked her into the room, slamming the door in Steve's face just as he started to protest.

"You're really rude, you know that?" Rowan snapped at him. "And I didn't give you permission to touch me so get your hands off me, sir. At no point was I resisting, nor am I resisting now. "

He removed his hand and took a step away from her. "Please sit down Miss Pierce," he ordered and she primly jutted her chin out and then walked over to the chair and carefully put herself into it.

"So, to what do I owe this displeasure?" she asked them almost absently as she stretched a hand out to the video camera beside her and both agents barked: "Don't touch that."

"Oh geeze… I'm sorry…" she said making sure to make a big show of pulling her hands away from the Camera. She didn't see any old school tapes. It was a digital recorder. A plan was already formulating in her mind.

"What is that?" the nicer quieter agent asked. Rowan followed his gaze, there, behind them was a shadow passing back and forth. Someone was pacing outside the door.

Rowan turned back to them with a smile on her face. "Sorry. Can you give me one second?" she asked. The gestured that it was okay and Rowan bolted back to the door. She threw it open and Steve came to a halt in front of her his eyes searching hers, worry wrinkling everything on his forehead.

Rowan reached up and grabbed his handsome face, smushing it between her hands. "For god sake, stop pacing!" she ordered. "You're freaking me out Steve. I can feel your nervous energy through door. Just please. Please go sit down and do the leg tapping thing you do. Please? Please Steve?"

"I don't do a leg tapping thing," he said though her hands were squishing his face. She pinned him with a dry look and he sighed. Grabbing a hold of her wrists he pulled his face out of her hands to say: "Fine. Call me if you need me. I don't care what they say or do. Just… call me okay?"

"Yes. I will, now just go sit down," she ordered and this time she didn't shut the door until she was certain that he was sitting. She then returned to the table and smiled sweetly at them. "Where were we?

"You were about to tell us about the money?" he ordered.

Rowan sat back in the chair and smiled at him. "What money?"

"The money in the bag. The money you took from Gabriel Waincroft…"

"That money didn't belong to him," Rowan said in a soft voice. She realized that that was not a good thing to say and added: "And I don't know where it went."

"I think you're lying," the meaner agent said leaning forward. "I think you took the money. I think you're working with someone, maybe not Gabriel, but someone, and you've given the money to them. The question is who did you do it for? Was it Chin Ho Kelly? Was it your precious McGarrett? Or that Criminal Brother of yours?"

Okay that was enough of this.

"Do you want to know what your fatal flaw was?" she asked, her voice low and dangerous as she leant across the table.

He smiled at her like he didn't care. "Answer the question Miss. Pierce."

"Answer mine and I'll answer yours."

"Fine, I'll humour you. What's my fatal flaw?" he said leaning back.

"You broadcasted a warrant for my arrest… on an open channel," she said, his eyes narrowed with confusion and his phone finally started to ring. God it took long enough. Rowan straightened and lounged back a smug smile donning her lips. "I'd get that if I were you. I think your boss wants to talk to you."

He picked up the phone and listened to the angry droning of his boss and as he did so Rowan turned her eyes to the camera that was still recording. She pulled on whatever anger she had, whatever electricity she pulled from Steve and did her best to contain it to the one hand. She put her hand to the tripod and heard the static hiss of the camera dying and then smiled.

Not seconds after that was there a sudden scuffle outside and the door banged open behind them. Rowan turned to where Steve was standing, one hand still on the handle his eyes wide with frantic panic staring her down, his chest heaving as if he were about to have a panic attack. Ah, he must have felt that.

"It's okay," she said to him. "I'm still here."

He just continued to stare at her, it was on the tip of his tongue to ask her what was happening, what she had done, but she couldn't let him do that. "Leave Steve, I'll be right out," she told him and then turned back the IA guys. "We're done right?"

The meaner one threw down his phone and scowled at her. "For now."

"Oh no, forever," Rowan said. "By this time next year Gabriel Waincroft is going to kill you in your own personal cabin. And no, that's not a threat. It's a free psychic vision for you and I'm never wrong."

She then got up and crossed to where Steve was waiting for her. She got on her very tippy toes, grabbed his face, holding it there between her hands and then kissed him solidly. Just like before, the kiss blew his senses, his hands came to her waist keeping her their, but his brain went right out of the window.

"Thank you for coming to my rescue but I'm still mad at you and I wanna go home," she said. She pried herself out of Steve's tight embrace and turned to where Kono was covertly taking photos for her. "Come on Kono. Let's go."

And just like that the IA decided to stop investigating Chin Ho.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan had found Chin on the beach where he met Malia. He didn't ask her how she knew. He was just grateful for her presence.

"They'll leave you alone now," she had told him after a moment of silence. "I made sure of it. Rex Coughlin won't come anywhere near you. He won't even be IA for much longer. But I guess… I guess that doesn't really matter now." Chin sighed and Rowan lowered her eyes away from him. "Do you want me to tell you why he did it?"

She meant Gabriel. She was asking if Chin wanted to know why Gabriel killed his father.

"Is there a good reason?" he had asked her.

Her answer had been no and even though he knew she wasn't lying he asked for the reason anyway. Wrong place wrong time. His father had seen Gabriel's face. She was right. It wasn't a good reason.

By the time she got Chin back to his place the party was in full swing. She knew he wouldn't want this, not now, but it was to cheer him up and her Five-0 boys had such a hard time saying no to her. Kono, Adam, Danny and Grace, even Max and Sabrina, were all there. Kamekona and Grover were arguing in the kitchen about the food. Flipper was strumming a ukulele and beside him Jerry was swaying along. Duke and his wife were already on the couch drinking their coffee and talking to one another.

The only person missing was Steve.

Chin accepted all the love his friends had to offer. He took in their happiness and their excitement that IA had officially left. And as he did Rowan slid over to the kitchen to make herself a well needed tea.

Danny left Grace who was hugging Chin to come see her. "How you feeling, I heard… I heard they pulled you in."

Rowan nodded. "It's alright. The app picked up the call for my arrest. Wo dealt with it."

"Except he didn't… did he?" Danny asked. "Chin told me. Told me about him. It's all he told me… you know… that something happened to him…"

Rowan looked down, goddamn it, why did Chin have to tell Danny everything? "The app warned me about the call," she admitted. "I uh… I used the contacts on the app… found me a guy in a bad position. Kong made the actual call to him though… as I was… uh… detained by then."

"Guy in a bad position…"

"Director of IA… ain't so straight and narrow," Rowan told him. "Sort of helped me attain what I wanted."

Danny shook his head. "You got horse shoes up the ass," he muttered to her. "Never tell Steve, he'd die. Torn between turning you in and keeping you safe."

"Speaking of Steve… uh… where is he?" she asked softly, wanting off this topic something bad. "You guys invited him, right?"

"Of course we did," Danny said. When she pinned him with a stern stare, one with a cocked eyebrow that showed she didn't believe him Danny quickly added: "I swear, this time, I invited him. He's uh… he uh…"

"He's not coming… is he?" Rowan asked and Danny avoided her eyes.

"He had something come up, he's dealing with it. If he can he's gonna swing by."

Rowan tried not to be too disappointed. She was supposed to be mad at him after all. She knew she was being unreasonable. It _was_ just a car. And she could easily buy another regular 1986 GTO and just have it painted pastel purple. It was just that… that was _her_ car. She just knew it was. And if she hadn't been stillborn, she'd have been riding in that car with her brother, with her father, with her best friend. Rowan had thought that maybe… if she couldn't have her family and her friends, she might have the car. To make new memories in.

But having Chin go through this. Having that call about Wo Fat. She figured… well… there were worse things to be mad about instead of a car. Maybe she should have just told Steve that, but she had wanted him to suffer a little bit before she forgave him. After everything he had done she just wanted the boy to squirm for a bit.

Now he was avoiding her. Sort of her own fault, now wasn't it? She sighed again and then forced herself to smile. This party was for Chin, she was supposed to be happy for him and that was what she was going to do.

There was no point being sad over Steve McGarrett when there were other more pressing things in the world worth being sad about.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve knocked on the Governor's door, paper in shaking hand, ready to ask for the biggest personal favour he'd ever ask the Governor for.

"Come in!" came at him and he walked in.

Governor Dennings saw him, took in the apprehensive stare and the papers in his hands and sighed, "Oh god, what now?" he snapped. "If Rowan's done something, you're on your own and I mean seriously, don't include Five-0 and don't include me."

Steve stood there, surprised. He wasn't sure what to say to that. Because the request was about Rowan but he thought it was a good reason, a nice request.

"UH…."

"Oh god it is about her," Dennings growled. "What now? Did IA take her? Are you and her arguing again? What? What could be wrong now?"

"Nothing," Steve said quickly. "It's nothing… really. It's just that… well…"

"Spit it out Commander."

"I was hoping to get your help to buy Rowan's car," Steve admitted. That's right, rip it off like a band-aid. Dennings just stared at him surprised, like he didn't understand how it had come to this. "That raid on the chop shop… well the only reason I was there was cause Rowan took me to help her get a good deal on the car she wanted. It's uh… it's currently sitting on the HPD lot. Duke's already tried to contact the owners, but they're deceased with no next of kin. I was hoping that you'd uh… you'd sign off on me buying it."

Dennings reached out to him taking the paper from his hand and looking it over. "Wooo, that's a lot for a car in HPD lock up."

"It's uh… it's a 1986 Pontiac GTO. Worth three times more than what HPD wants," Steve said. "And well… her birthday's in a week and I was hoping to get it off the lot and get it ready to drive for her by then."

"Birthday huh?" Dennings mused. He looked back up to Steve who was angling just to get him to sign the paper but he was worried that maybe he wouldn't. "I can do one better."

He put the paper down, opened up a drawer and slamming down a check book. "Oh, uh… no, no you don't have to do that…"

"Nonsense, she's been a great asset… when you two actually get along," Dennings said. "Besides I know what you get paid and you can't afford this car. If a donation will keep you and Rowan happy, then a donation you will get."

Steve tried not to smile, he tried not to laugh with joy because he had been worrying about whether or not he'd be able to afford that car for her even if he convinced his friends to help him. When he accepted the check his eyes bulged at the amount on it. Holy hell.

"This is… this is…"

"Nothing compared to what that girl has done for you and Five-0… for free might I add," Dennings said to him. "And as I've already mentioned, I want things to remain smooth between you and Rowan."

"Thank you… just… wow… thank you," Steve said. "I'll uh… I'll keep you posted."

"You better," Dennings said. Steve rushed away from him but when he got to the door Dennings stopped him. "If there's a card I expect to sign it."

Steve just smiled. Now that was something he could do.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve rushed up to Chin's, up the driveway and into the house. He was late, he knew he was late, like he knew the party was over but he was still hoping that his friends were there. And he was in luck because when he banged into the house he found that his friends were all sitting together, like they might have been waiting for him.

Danny, Kono and Chin looked up from the couch where they were sitting with mugs of tea. "Steve… we uh… we didn't think that you were…"

"Rowan around?" he asked. He assumed she wasn't otherwise he would have spotted her, but he also could feel her near-by. A sort of pull that told him that she was there, that his body was inexplicably drawn to.

"She's in the washroom," Kono told him and he nodded. Alright so he had to be fast.

"Okay. I got an idea for her birthday present and I just… uh… I wanted you guys to help, maybe pool for it?" he offered.

Kono, Chin and Danny all exchanged glances before they shrugged and turned back to him. "I guess, it depends on what it is."

"Her car," Steve answered and then handed them the paper the Governor had signed for him.

Danny snatched it from his hand and together, Chin, Kono and Danny huddled together to look it over.

"Holy hell," Kono breathed out.

"27,000 for a Car, Steve… where are you gonna get that kind of cash?" Chin asked.

"From us," Danny snapped. "Asshole just said he wants us to help pitch."

"Yes, yes, I do. But I'm going to help pay too!" he complained. "Look, this is _her_ car and she was devastated when it got taken away from her, which was… okay I'll admit it, it was my fault. I want to do this for her, is that so bad? I need the help. I need it off the lot tomorrow so I can get it to a mechanic to get it driveable by her birthday. Can you guys help me or not?"

"Steve?"

Steve turned, Rowan was in the hallway staring at him. Was is it just wishful thinking or was she actually happy to see him?

"You're late… the party's uh… the party's over," she said to him. "Uh… I can make you tea if you're going to stay… or get you a beer?"

"No… uh… I was just… say how much of that did you hear?" he asked her. God he hoped she didn't hear anything about the car. He wanted that to be a surprise.

"Hear what?" Rowan asked moving towards the kitchen.

Okay. Maybe she didn't hear anything at all. It was like Rowan to be oblivious to the world when she was off in her own head and he had a feeling if she heard him talking about a car, she would have asked immediately to know what he was talking about. He also had questions he wanted to ask Rowan, maybe he could ask them now while his friends deliberated on the whole helping him buy the car thing. Get her out of the place so they could talk it over.

"Hey uh… do you wanna go for a walk?" he asked her.

Rowan looked up from the tea she was pouring, probably for herself and scoffed. "I'm not a dog, Steven."

Huh… had she been spending time with Mary? Secret time with Mary cause Mary had left long before he and Rowan had half mended things between them. He wouldn't put it past his sister to do something like that to him.

"I know that… I just… I thought it might be nice to…" he trailed off.

"Yes, you two go for a walk," Danny said appearing beside him, baseball in hand. "Or, better yet, why don't you two toss this around she needs to work on her reflexes."

Steve took the ball and Rowan sighed. She took a gulp of her tea before putting it down on the counter again. "Okay, be we better be quick. I still need to clean this place up before I head out for the night."

Steve nodded waiting for Rowan to put on her shoes before slowly helping her out the back door like she needed the help. She didn't, she was much better since the day she got out of the hospital, but having his hand to her lower back to help her guide her, to keep her balanced and well, just to feel her, made him feel more like the gentleman.

He made sure they were on the sand a far away from the house before he started his interrogation. "I know you're not gonna like this, Ro… I know you're mad at me…"

"Yeah about that," Rowan said stopping where she stood and staring up at him. "I shouldn't have gotten so mad at you over a car. I mean… it's just a car."

"No… that car… it meant something to you, and you're right, I abused my power against you, I see how it would look unfair to suddenly decide to not do it for you, but I'm trying… I'm trying to be…"

"Better," Rowan finished for him and he nodded. "I'm sorry I put you in that position and I'm really sorry I slapped you… I was just so mad, I shouldn't have… I shouldn't have over reacted," she said to him. Steve just stared at her. He couldn't think of what else to say other then: "Thank you" because at no point did he deserve a girl as understanding as Rowan Pierce was being with him.

"Well thank you," he said. "But… uh… that's not what I wanted to talk about."

Rowan frowned. "Oh no… Steve… Steve… please…"

"I just… I just gotta know, Ro… you gotta tell me, what happened on that roof," he said.

"Please Steve… you're not gonna… please…" she said shifting away from him.

"Ro… I can't… I can't help you if you don't tell me," he said. He just wanted her to believe him. He wanted her to trust him with this.

"You'll be mad at me," she whispered looking down at her shoes.

"Okay… okay… so I'll try… to be calm, okay?" he said, he didn't want to promise her cause he wasn't sure what she was going to say.

"Wo got stabbed," Rowan admitted. Uh… what? The man was in solitary how the hell did he get stabbed? "He got shanked and… well… when I talked to him he was frantic. Said the Oyabun was after me."

"Sato? Sato's after you… why didn't you call me?" he asked.

Rowan winced. "Because that wouldn't fix it. They were supposed to kill him the first time. Me going to you wouldn't save him from a second attempt. So I… well… I asked what had to be done so he'd forgive us."

It suddenly all started make sense. Why she had done it. But it didn't explain how. "There really were two men on the roof with you. You gave the money to the Yakuza."

"Yes… it was the deal. But uh… I didn't wanna do it with Wo's money and Gabriel… Gabriel's a bad man. I wanted him to admit that he killed Chin's father. I wanted him to suffer."

"And Chin saw. Didn't he? Chin saw and he covered for you."

Rowan nodded and Steve let out his breath. "Goddamn it, Rowan… you could have… you could have cost Chin his job."

"I was gonna come clean!" Rowan cried. "I was. But then Chin said I'd go to jail… and I can't go to jail. We think I'm a psychopath now! Jail would have brought it right out of me, and then what? How would I help you guys with cases from Jail? Huh? How?"

Steve groaned at her. She had a point. He didn't want her to go to jail any more than Chin did. But that didn't make it right.

"Are… are you gonna arrest me now?"

Steve put his hands on his hips and looked down at her. No he wasn't. He wasn't going to arrest her ever again. "Answer one more question."

Rowan shrugged. "Sure, shoot."

"Did you try to void yourself out of that interrogation?"

Rowan half smiled. She took the ball from him and took a few steps back, pitching it to him underhand. He caught it with ease and copied her pitch, soft and underhand. Rowan surprisingly caught it and then grinned at him.

"No I was not trying to travel. But I was pulling from the void," she said.

"Why?"

"So many questions, Steven," she chided.

"I can't help my curious nature," he answered catching her next toss and then carefully tossing it back. "Humour me."

"Fine… but this is the last one," she said to him as she tossed back the ball. "I wanted to hurt them."

"You electrocuted one of them?" he asked tossing it back.

Rowan caught it, the ball fumbling out of her finger tips when she couldn't enclose her fingers around it quick enough. She stooped down to pick it up and then looked at Steve. "No, not them. I uh… I pulled from the void for electricity to shock their camera. It's digital. I'm pretty sure, or at least I hope I'm sure, that I just destroyed all of their interrogations. Of you, and Chin and Kono. And me."

She tossed the ball back and Steve caught it easily. "That just means they have to come back."

"Maybe. But Coughlin won't," Rowan said. "It was part of the deal. He's getting fired or transferred or whatever. Not only does it save his life but it saves Chin a fuck tonne of future trouble too."

"You gotta stop doing that," Steve said. "You gotta stop putting yourself on the line for us. You're not… I can't… none of us can save you if you go too far. Okay? Not even Wo Fat."

Rowan nodded but he didn't believe her. She was just saying that to mollify him. She didn't mean it at all. "Alright, this one's gonna be a fast one, you ready?"

She nodded, hands out ready to catch but she wasn't ready. He had pitched that one, lobbed it over hand but it was too fast and Rowan's reflexes were too slow. As a result, the ball hit her square between the eyes.

And then she dropped to the sand.

"Oh Shhhh…. Ro, Rowan?!" he cried rushing towards her. He slid to a stop sand kicking up around her which did not help the situation at all. "Oh God, Rowan, Rowan. I'm so sorry I thought you'd catch it."

Rowan just groaned and rolled away from him her hands to her face. There came a flurry of voices and then Chin, Danny and Kono were around them, Danny practically shoved him away from her.

"Steve… what the hell?" Chin cried. "You knew she was working on her reflexes, why the hell would you think she could catch that?"

Steve's heart lurched. For starters, if they saw the pitch his friends were watching them, probably listening in. Lovely. Secondly… well when he put it like that, yeah he definitely should have known better. He felt terrible but he hadn't done it maliciously. He stuttered out an apology, no one was listening to him.

"Rowan, can you hear me?" Chin asked. His hands had framed her face and was trying to make her look at him but she wouldn't open her eyes past a squint and she wouldn't answer their questions.

"She's not concussed again, is she?" Danny asked and Steve felt the air leave his body. No… and she had just started getting better.

Rowan groaned loudly at them all. "No, no doctors or hospitals. I'm fine. I swear."

"We're gonna have to double check," Chin told them ignoring Rowan completely. She groaned a terrible haunting: _noooo._ But she was still ignored.

"I can take her," Steve breathed out. "You guys can think… about… it…"

"Do you think it's best that _he_ take her?" Kono asked the other softly.

Steve bristled at that. He could be responsible, they could trust him. Rowan lurched to her side, grabbing onto his cargo pants. "Please don't leave me," she whispered to him. "Can you stay? Can you stay please?"

Everyone's eyes turned to Steve, and Rowan's grip on him. "Well I guess that answers that," Chin said to them.

"You sure you can handle her?" Danny asked. Steve nodded scooping her up into his arms, right where she belonged. She snuggled into him and in response his grip tightened around her. "Kay well that answers that too."

"And by the way. We agreed, all of us. We put more feelers out to see who else is interested in splitting, easier to split it between many than just us four," Chin whispered causing Steve to grin.

"What are you talking about?" Rowan groaned against Steve's chest. "Is it Pizza? Can I be cut into the pizza deal too? I want two slices. Meat lover's pizza please, but I'll take a plain pepperoni. If y'all put pineapple or spam on my pizza you're dead to me."

"Sure thing, kid," Danny said to her and then turned back to Steve. "We'll text you about it tomorrow."

Steve just nodded, happy at the turn of events. Happy that for once, Rowan was going to get exactly what she deserved.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

The world was fuzzy and painful when he finally became aware of his surroundings. He was in the infirmary. Hand chained to the bed railing, fire in his belly like he had swallowed a peck of pickled Peruvian peppers, his head pounding like a jackhammer was at work on his temples. There was a lingering sense of urgency but he couldn't remember what it was about.

"Why, hello, Mr. Fat," a nurse said, a pretty little red-headed thing that would have reminded him of Rowan if she wasn't dusted with freckles and her auburn hair wasn't a mop of unruly ringlets. Also her eyes were the color of uninspired mud.

"What happened?" he slurred.

"Well you had a bit of an accident," she said in the most patronizing of tones.

Yes, cause he was shanked by accident. Just slipped and fell on his own handmade knife. "You actually woke up right on time," she said, handing him over the phone. "Someone just called for you. And Mr. Oya Bun? Says he's a friend of yours."

Wo Fat looked at the phone like it was a poisonous viper. That rat fucking bastard. He picked up the phone and put it to his ear.

"You got some nerve," he growled. "Calling me like you didn't put me here."

"Calm yourself… Fat… I'm just calling to clear the air," he said.

A flash of memory overcame his senses and suddenly Wo Fat was livid. "You threatened Rowan," he whispered. "That was where he said you were going next. I swear to god if you've…"

"Will you calm down, you and me are square," Sato said to him.

"What have you done?" Wo Fat breathed out. "What did you do… if she's…. if you've…"

"For god's sake man, she's fine," Sato growled. "If you'd let me finish, I could tell you what happened." Wo Fat stayed quiet and Sato continued talking. "Your girl came through, Fat. You're lucky. 18.5 million dollars in the bank, handed over by your little terror. You'd be proud of her. Your girl. Brokered a deal, got a man shot in the process, and didn't even bat a single eyelash."

Wo Fat just sat there taking that in. She. Did. WHAT? "I'm sorry… I'm sorry…" he stuttered. "She did… how did she do any of that?"

"Don't know, you'll have to talk to your girl about the specifics," Sato said to him. "I just took the money."

"Fine, then tell me one thing," Wo said. "Why now? What pissed you off _now_?"

"Are you surprised?" Sato asked. "Teaming up with a Mexican drug cartel, giving them info to jack me and my men and you're surprised that I retaliated?"

"Mexican drug…" Wo Fat echoed. "I'm in a Colorado prison and you think I'm helping a Mexican drug cartel? Have you had a stroke and lost all your faculties?"

"Well maybe you needed money to finance your "protect my girlfriend" fund," Sato said.

"She's not my girlfriend," Wo Fat growled. No she was so much more precious than that.

"Well whatever she is. I don't care why you did it, but I couldn't let it stand," Sato snapped.

"Then you've been taken… old man," Wo Fat told him with a half scoff. "I haven't been working with anyone. I haven't given anyone intel on your movements and that includes Rowan. But I'll tell you this… Sato. We're not even. We're not square. You better watch your back, old man. Cause now I'm coming for it."

He hung up the phone and then just sat there. He didn't know what to do. Didn't know what he was going to do. But he knew one thing.

He had to talk to Rowan.


	93. Chapter 93

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N:_ _Okay guys, this is it. This is the D'Awwww chapter. I wrote this one to be funny and to be cute. And it ends with not one, but two really cute moments between Rowan and Steve. However, this chapter be HELLA long! But it is WORTH IT! It's 16 fucking pages, I could have cut it in half but I didn't want to! I want to get through this as quickly as possible so if y'all get a 16 page chapter every now and then you'll just have to deal with it! But in all seriousness though, if this is too long tell me I'll make sure to half them next time. Okay?_

 _JP – Rowan having sociopathic tendencies is a thing. Not an April Fools joke. Her morals are loose at best, and when she's put into situations where she feels she needs to protect her friends they stop existing. So that is not an April Fools thing. The April Fools chapter was about Rowan going home, she didn't go home for realz, she is still in Steve's reality. Hope that clears things up._

Chapter 93

* * *

 _"What have you done Rowan?"_

 _"Uh, I guess that depends on what you're talking about?"_

 _"Sato said you squared him, how? What did you do?"_

 _"Oh… that… uh… I may have I stolen 18.5 million dollars from Gabriel Waincroft. I also may have made sure they shot him in the leg and then I may have gotten him arrested."_

 _"Do you have any idea who that man is? I've done research Rowan he's not… he's not a…"_

 _"It was the only thing I could think of. I didn't know how else to get that kind of money to get the Yakuza off our backs and I… just… I don't know… you saved me so many times that… I don't know… I just wanted to save you for once."_

 _"I didn't ask you to do that Rowan. That's not your job and quite frankly… you've fucked up hard!"_

And the phone was ringing. Rowan jolted out of the dream state and forced herself up. She hated dreaming about that night. Hated that they argued. That he wasn't proud of her the way she had thought he would be.

He hadn't spoken to her since that phone call a week ago. But he was calling now.

Rowan picked up the call almost hesitantly.

"Hello?"

"Good morning birthday girl!"

Wow, he sounded cheery for someone who had been avoiding her for the last seven days.

"You're talking to me again huh?"

Wo Fat was silent for a moment before he finally replied. "I uh… I figured we'd call a truce… for your birthday…"

"Don't bother," Rowan said. She pulled the phone away from her head to hang up on him, it would feel better if she could slam down the phone or flip it closed really aggressively, but you can't really do that with a smart phone.

He stopped her from hanging up though by shouting: "Wait, wait, wait!" over and over until she heard him.

"What?" she replied.

"Look… you… you scared me okay?" he said. "I'm the one that's supposed to broker unsavoury deals. I'm the one that's supposed to deal with low lives and criminals and you… Look. That Gabriel fellow… he's a really bad man. Like… you think I'm bad… well he's worse. He's not afraid of me Rowan, he threw me to the wolves. He nearly got me killed, he nearly got you killed and somehow you still managed to get the drop on him and fuck his shit up. And while I'm really proud of you… while I'm amazed you managed to do that for me… that you even wanted to do that for me… this man… if he comes after you again… I don't think I'll be able to stop him."

"Oh."

"Yeah. Oh," Wo Fat snapped. "So understandably I got a little upset when I found out what you did. Okay? Now can we go back to wishing you a happy birthday? Or do you just wanna fight today?"

Rowan sighed into the phone. "No, I don't want to fight with you," she told him. "Are you out of the infirmary yet?"

"They're transferring me tomorrow," he said. "Things calmer with the Five-0's?"

Rowan paused. She didn't know how to answer that. Her Five-0's were acting weird. Chin and Steve most of all. Chin who kept trying to distract her. Steve who was avoiding her. Kono and Danny who wouldn't stop grinning at her and wouldn't tell her what was so funny or what was making them so happy no matter what she did.

"No… I don't know…" Rowan sighed.

"And you're sure it's all of them, and not just Steve acting weird and you projecting it onto his friends?" Wo Fat asked.

"Don't psychoanalyze me, I get that enough from my shrink!" Rowan cried and he laughed at her.

"Alright, I'm sorry," he said. "But hey… I had something sent to you. If they did it right, it should be coming in today. You call me when you get it. I want to hear your voice when you open it."

"Ohh… a present! You didn't have to get me a present," she told him and even through the phone she could hear him smiling, like he no doubt could hear hers. "I'll call you the second it shows up."

From the kitchen came Chin's voice calling for her. "I gotta go okay?"

"No problem. Take lots of pictures. I wanna see everything you do today," he told her and then he had hung up the phone.

Smiling Rowan rushed out to the kitchen. She could smell the pancakes already. Chin was waiting for her in the kitchen, plate ready and decorated and big gaping grin on his face.

"There's the birthday girl!" he crowed as he pulled her in for a hug. "Now, we've jammed your day full with things to do. So, eat your birthday pancakes and then get ready for a swim."

"A swim!"

"Almost everything today is a surprise," he said. AH so that's what this had been about. They had been planning a surprise party for her. She should have guessed that was what was going on. But it didn't explain why Steve went white whenever he saw her, or he never wanted to see her or seemed interested in taking her out… especially since he was the one that wanted to be all casual and dating like. Didn't that mean he should… oh I don't know… ask her out?

Chin smiled and gestured to the plate he had put in front of her. "First up is a pancake breakfast followed by some ocean fun."

"Should I maybe not eat a big meal before going in the ocean?" she asked, teasingly of course.

Chin gasped in mock outrage and shock. "You don't want to eat my pancakes? But I worked so hard! Followed your recipe to the tee," he cried.

"Alright, alright," Rowan said like she were exasperated and humoring him. "I'll try them."

As she tucked in she tried not to notice Chin texting away, especially since he was trying to be discrete about it. It made her wonder what else they had planned.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

"Okay, I thought… you know… after last Christmas' surfing lesson fail that we'd… I unno… we had agreed that I suck at this and I should stop doing it," Rowan said panting as she lay in the warm surf off the beach by Chin's house.

She had wiped out… AGAIN. For the like… sixth time in an hour. Luckily this time the ocean deposited her back on the beach where she belonged instead of dragging her through the damn current by the board attached to her ankle.

Kono stood over her with a smile on her face. "Come on now Ro, you stayed on that wave for a good thirty seconds before you fell off."

"I didn't fall off, the ocean ate me," Rowan growled but she let Kono help her up.

"Well, we got a whole nother hour before we're done and you can go to your next planned activity," Kono said causing Rowan to groan.

"My birthday is supposed to be fun!" she cried.

"Just one more ride on the waves and if you eat it again I'll let you splash around in the water, okay?" Kono offered.

Rowan growled, picked up her board and threw it back down to the water before starfishing onto the board so she could paddle out again.

"If the ocean eats me again, it's a sign that the water gods hate me and we're leaving the beach," Rowan snapped and Kono laughed at her. Well good, at least someone was having fun.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

After two hours of ocean fun Rowan was dried off, de-sanded and dressed appropriately. Together with Chin she was taken to Kamekona's shrimp truck which was all roped off. Sitting at the table was Chin, Danny, Grace, Kono, Adam, Max, Sabrina, Grover and Duke and his wife.

"Ohh… are we having lunch? Cause like… I just had breakfast like three hours ago," Rowan said.

"Nope, we're going to fufill a lifetime goal of yours," Kamekona said. Rowan came to a blank, she couldn't think that was right in front of her that would constitute a life time goal of hers.

"You're gonna learn how to make good food," he said.

They thought that _this_ was a lifetime goal of hers? Cooking and serving it to her friends? Oh. My. God. Did they know her at all?

Rowan blinked her eyes. She turned to Kamekona who was smiling wonderfully at her like he was genius and she was going to fall to the ground wailing in her excitement so she forced herself to smile.

"Oh my gosh that is so exciting… uh… what are we making? Not uh… not sea food right?"

"Naw, we're going to make Rowan specials, for everyone. Rowan specials for our special Rowan on her special day," he said.

Well thank god for small miracles, right? Cause if she had to work with fish she might vomit and she didn't want to vomit on her birthday.

Rowan followed Kamekona up into the shrimp truck and let him tie an apron around her and then drop a chef's hat to her head. Outside everyone cheered and clapped for her and Rowan continued to smile. It didn't escape her notice that Steve wasn't there. He must still be mad at her over the whole IA situation, irregardless of the fact that she got IA off of Chin's back. She wanted to know why he hadn't come and if they could go get him.

"Alright little sistah," Kamekona said to her. "I'll fillet the chicken you wash the rice."

Rowan smiled up to him. Okay maybe this wasn't so bad.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Right after what turned out to be an amazing meal Max took Rowan to the morgue, despite Sabrina complaining. Rowan had been riding on a prideful high, amazed that, with Kamekona's help of course, she had managed to make her favourite meal for her and all of her friends. That it actually turned out great. And sitting there with them all enjoying it had given her a happy kind of rush. So when Max had announced that he got her for the next activity and it was going to be at the morgue, she had gone along with it assuming that he had something appropriately nerdy to show her.

He did not.

"Max… that is a pig…" she said looking at the body laid out on the table.

"It's a piglet," he clarified.

"A pig is a pig," Rowan growled. "Why am I looking at a pig?"

"Well when we got attacked by the zombie…" "—he was not a zombie," "—Let me have this Rowan. When we got attacked by the zombie you stated that you wished to get over your aversion to blood and other things that make you squeamish. So today, to help you conquer that fear, we will be dissecting the piglet."

Rowan looked at the poor dead thing. "But I don't want to cut up Wilbur."

Max stared at her silently for a moment. "That is in reference to the beloved children's book, _Charlotte's Web_ by E.B. White," he said.

It wasn't a question but Rowan still sighed and said: "Yes."

Max chuckled. "Yes quite clever. Gloves please."

As Rowan put the gloves on Max picked up the scalpel and offered it to her. "Would you like the honor of the first cut?" he asked. That was considered an honour? Really?

She took the scalpel looked at the poor little thing on the table and then turned her grimace to Max. "Uh… where… where should I cut?'

"Down the stomach, chin to butt if that helps," he said.

Swallowing her trepidation and the stomach contents that were rebelling at even the thought of what she was about to do. Closing her eyes she blindly cut, hating the way the scalpel just slide through whatever she was doing like butter.

"Good job," Max crowed and Rowan opened her eyes. Blood was everywhere, on her hands, on the table, intestines were spilling out as were other vital organs she couldn't identify. Rowan made a strangled noise in the back of her throat, struggling to keep the contents of her stomach down and then promptly passed out.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

After having to be roused by Max and then throwing up everything she had eaten that day, it was nice to have Sabrina ready with a ginger ale. They sat at Max's desk as he cleaned up his mess and they watched laughable romantic comedies while Rowan tried to keep down popcorn and ginger ale. After the movie was done it was Danny's turn to take her somewhere. So much for not vomiting on her birthday, but at least she had wherever Danny was taking her to look forward to.

Grace had chosen the aquarium. Thank fucking God. Though why she needed a bathing suit for the aquarium was beyond her. After hearing and laughing at her mishap at Max's morgue, Danny was nice enough to let her sit with her snow cone until her stomach was surely and truly settled.

"A pig huh?" Danny asked and her stomach rebelled again.

"Can you just… could you maybe not?" she snapped and he raised his hands in mock surrender all while smiling that smug little grin on his face. God he was trying so hard not to laugh at her. "It's not funny."

The first of Danny's chuckles came at her and Rowan scowled at him. Still he managed to get out a: "It kinda is," before he broke down immediately.

"You suck," she growled to him and beside her Grace, who was sharing the snow-cone with her, chimed in as well. "Yeah Danno, you suck!"

"Hey no turning my daughter against me," he ordered. But both girls just stuck out their tongues at him in perfect synchronization.

"Wow, matched up perfectly there, you been practicing?" he asked.

"Okay, why are we here?" Rowan asked. "Not that this isn't great, but I was hoping my birthday would be less pukey. So I kinda wanna go home and sleep it off before we go… I unno wherever I need to go next."

"No!" Danny cried which was oddly suspicious.

"Yeah, we paid for the mermaid encounter!" Grace cried. "We can't miss that!"

"Mermaid encounter?" Rowan echoed. "Wait… no… not the mermaid encounter where you put on a fin and swim in the tank? I looked into that when me and Steve were doing hang out nights. It was too expensive."

"I got a deal," Danny shrugged off. "When you're ready to go, you get to go get changed and I'll be taking pictures on the other side of the glass. But Grace is going with you, so you gotta make sure she doesn't die."

"Deal," she said downing the rest of her snow cone. "Ready to live the mermaid life, kid?"

"YEAH!" Grace cried and hand in hand the two ran off, ready to live out a dream Rowan had had since she was a child.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan sent off a boat load of pictures to Wo Fat. Pictures of her in the shrimp truck, surfing out on the water with Kono, pictures of her in the tank with Grace, a bright green fin covering her legs, wearing a purple sea shell intimidation bikini top looking like a real life _Little Mermaid._ She hadn't been aware they had a professional photographer following her today to get the best shots but once she found out she demanded all the pictures ASAP.

Her friends had really gone all out for her.

She had an hour break to herself before they were taking her to her last surprise before a breakfast-for-dinner special dinner at Rainbows.

"A package came while you were out," Chin called from the kitchen. "Left it in the living room for you."

Oh! Wo Fat's gift. It did come today, he'd be so happy to hear that.

"I'm gonna be in the garage, gonna give my bike a tune up," Chin said poking his head into the living room as she sat down in front of the brown paper wrapped up box. "Be ready to go in an hour okay?"

"Okay, thanks," she said but as soon as she was certain he was gone she whipped out her phone and called wo Fat again.

"Hey there my little Ariel, all dry now?" he asked.

Rowan smiled. "Yeah, did you like the pictures?" she asked.

"Course. A little weird that they got a photographer following you today… do they have McGarrett's ex-P.I. following you again?" he asked. He was teasing of course. Steve had fired the P.I. or the P.I. had quit. Either way he wasn't following her around anymore… or at least she was pretty sure he wasn't anymore.

"Very funny, don't you want to know why I'm calling?" she asked.

"I'm assuming your gift has arrived. And you haven't opened it yet," he said.

"How do you know?"

"Well, for starters, I asked you to call me so I could hear your reaction as you open it, and you're pretty considerate of things like that. And secondly, I know for a fact that when you open it up you'll be mad at me, and you don't sound mad yet sooo…"

"Mad at you… why the hell would I be mad at you?" she asked.

"Just open the damn box."

Well now she was afraid to.

"I don't hear paper ripping," Wo Fat said from where she had dropped the phone on the table. She was regretting putting him on speaker. Despite her reservations she picked up the package and began ripping it up. First the layer of brown packing paper and then the gift wrap underneath. Then she opened the brown cardboard box, dug through the packing peanuts until she found it.

A small black velvet box, the same size as her hand. She stared at it.

"You bought me jewelry?" she asked.

"Maybe. Open it up," he ordered.

So she did and she literally stopped breathing. It was the Midnight Planétarium timepiece by Après Cleef she had said she wanted forever ago. She said it was a lifetime wish, but that she'd never afford it. The thing was 370 thousand dollars. She couldn't justify that kind of purchase not that she ever thought she would have that kind of money for anything other than a house.

"Oh my god."

"Okay, don't freak out."

"Oh. My. God."

"Take a deep breath there."

The box with the watch in it shook in her hands. The galaxy blue and deep purple back ground blurring into the flecks of gold and tiny planets already spinning around the glorious clock face.

"OH MY GOD!"

"Rowan!" he shouted back and she finally took her deep breath.

"You… how did you… that fucking watch is worth…"

"I didn't spend a dime."

HE GAVE HER STOLEN PROPERTY FOR HER BIRTHDAY?!

Rowan must have begun hyperventilating because Wo Fat was calling her name again. "Breathe, god damn it! You're really over reacting there."

"You stole this watch and gave it to me? Possession is nine tenths of the law! If I get clocked with this I'll get the jail time," she cried.

"No one's going to send you to jail," Wo Fat scoffed. "For fuck sake Rowan. I didn't steal the watch, I had someone else do it for me. Those prices were criminal. Stunning watch, don't get me wrong, but I wasn't about to spend that much on something for you no matter how much I lo… like you."

Wow what a save there. Rowan continued to stare at the watch.

"I did some pretty terrible things to you. I know material things mean nothing to you, but I figured if I could fulfil a lifelong dream of yours… on your birthday, it might make me a better brother to you," he whispered.

Rowan paused. "Brother?"

Wo Fat went silent and Rowan nearly cried out in delight. She had called him her brother, she knew that he had had put her down as his sister on his medical forms so that she'd be contacted if something happened, and she knew that on the app she was listed as his sister, something he always maintained was so people would be less inclined to go for her. But he had never, ever, called himself her brother before. Rowan forged forward. "Do you see me like a sister Wo Fat?"

"No."

"Oh my god you do!" she crowed because his tone had made it clear that he was lying.

"Goddamn it Rowan!" he snapped. "Fine. Maybe. Maybe I feel a little bit like you might be like a little sister to me. But don't make a big deal out of it!"

Rowan kept her delighted squeals to herself. She took a few deep breaths before her eyes found the watch. It was with an extremely heavy heart that she said: "I don't think I can keep this watch."

Wo Fat sighed. "You can return it if you want," he said. "But I hope you don't. You deserve something magnificently grand for your birthday. It's been a rough year for you, what with me kidnapping you and Steve being a jerk and me shooting you and you know… Steve being a jerk. And Alex, who can forget that gigantic moron. I just… I just wanted to put a smile on your face."

She wanted to tell him that he put a smile on her face just by telling her that she was like his sister because he was right. Material goods didn't mean much to her, but the thought behind him giving her that watch sure did.

"No, it's okay," she said. "You know me well, I can't give something so beautiful up now that I have it."

"HA! Say what you want Ms. Pierce but you have a soft spot for material goods, just like the rest of us," he said proudly. "So, Birthday girl, what's left for the day?"

"I've got one more surprise and then breakfast-for-dinner with all my favourite people," she said.

"Except Steve, I've noticed that he's missing in your "all your favourite people" lunch, you and him still mad at each other?" he asked.

"How did… how did you know…?" she asked.

"Just cause I was mad at you didn't mean that I wasn't going to check up on you. I heard all about your IA arrest, and how you had to call Liang to get someone to call the IA director to broker your release. You're fucking lucky I sold him all of his dirty little secrets. I heard that you and Steve were at odds. Something about a car."

"Oh… yeah… my car," she whispered.

"You don't have a car," Wo Fat said.

"Yeah, I keep getting reminded of that," Rowan grumbled as Wo Fat kept talking. "I mean… you're borrowing my car, but that's _my_ car and one day I will get it back."

"Yeah no… that's not the point. The point is… it's my car. I remember it. I think… I think my family sold it," she said. That was a good lie? Right?

"Your family sucks," Wo Fat growled. That's right she had already told him about her family, how had she forgotten that? Well at least her lies matched up even when she forgot which ones she had told. "So you and McGarrett fell out over a car… and now he's not talking to you?"

"Well it's more than that. You see… I took him there to be intimidating and he arrested the guy for running a chop shop. I was upset and told him that he should have just given me the car and then arrested him, I mean… he abused his power _on_ me, why couldn't he do it _for_ me? Which was a terrible position to put him in…" "—I don't really think so considering all the terrible and awkward positions he got you in. Let's not forget he got you fired like… what? Three times?" "—Yes, exactly I knew you'd understand. And then you know… all that stuff with Chin. He witnessed the trade off and well… he got in shit with IA covering for me and Steve got mad cause I didn't loop him in or anything."

Wo Fat seemed to think this over for a moment. "You two are the most dysfunctional couple I've ever met. And I'm a sociopath who doesn't make emotion connections to people. Me and everyone I ever interact with should be the most dysfunctional couple I've ever met. Seriously. Why the hell do you like this guy?"

"Well because he's nice and he's loyal and he's the great, all around guy. He's warm and cuddly and usually he takes care of me and I like who I am around how. I like being with him. It makes me happy to be with him."

"But he's not loyal, Rowan," Wo Fat complained.

"Yes he is!" Rowan snapped because that was what he was like. He was a wonderful man, he was like a golden retriever or something. Loyal to death and soft and squishy on the inside.

"Yes, with everyone but you!"

"That's not true!"

"He's arrested you how many times now?" Wo Fat snapped.

"Wo…"

"Alright fine, fine, I'll let it go," he snapped. "But seriously. You two need to figure your shit out. Do you want me to send someone down to beat the crap out of him? I've already got a guy down there."

"What? To beat up Steve? Why?" Rowan cried.

"What? No. Not for Steve. For Waincroft. I needed to give him incentive not to throw me to the wolves again… and to keep him from spilling the beans about what you did," Wo Fat said. Wow, snitches really did get stitches. "I'm sure he wouldn't mind roughing Steve up a bit. I'd have to pay the guy extra for whatever damage Steve deals him in return, though."

"Don't do that," Rowan sighed. "I'm sure… I'm sure we'll figure everything out."

"He's avoiding you on your birthday. That's bullshit considering how much that man wanted you before," he growled. "Seriously. Couple extra thousand and my guy will knock some sense into him."

"No, Wo…" she said.

"Fine. I'll just have him threaten you. I'm sure McGarrett will rush to your side," he said.

"WO!" she snapped. "Look, thank you, but if Steven McGarrett doesn't want to see me, even for my birthday, well… then I'm not gonna make him see me, okay?"

"I mean sure… if that's what you wanna do," he said. "Just saying… it's an option."

"Rowan who are you talking to?" Chin called from the garage.

"Oh… I gotta go. Send you more pictures later," she hissed and then hung up the phone and hid the watch. Just as Chin came in the room. "I'm sorry, what were you saying?"

"I thought I heard you talking to someone," he said.

"Oh," Rowan said blushing furiously. "That was just me. I was talking to me."

Chin seemed to take that in and he clearly didn't believe her but he didn't press her either. "Uh… what was in the package?" he asked.

"Just a present from Wo," she said. "Nothing special. How's the motorcycle?"

"Good… uh… you know… I wanna show you something," he said, offering her a hand. Rowan took it and let him pull her up to her feet. "It's uh… it's about your present. From you know, me and Kono and well… all of us."

"Oh you guys don't have to worry about that," Rowan said. "You've done so much as is, with all those surprises."

"Oh… well to be honest, the surprises were… well, they were a distraction. I needed you out of the house to get this done. We uh… we just put the last piece into your… uh… the present we got you," he said guiding her towards the front door.

"Seriously, you guys, this is too much. You didn't have to get me a present," she said but her breath left her body when she saw what was waiting for her in the driveway.

"That's…" she whispered. "That's my car."

It had wheels. It was the first thing she thought. It wasn't on cider blocks anymore. It had seats and real glass windows and clearly working parts again. The paint had been done up, it was shiny as all heck and had a big red bow on the hood. Danny and Kono were standing beside it presenting it like show girls on a TV Show. Rowan still couldn't breathe. She couldn't believe it was happening.

"Yep, that's your car," Chin said. "And it works."

Rowan took a hesitant step towards the car. Her breath hitched. She was going to cry. It was right there. The car she drove to make everyone jealous. The car she wrote her songs in, under the warm Victoria night sky. The car she and her dad would sing oldies in. It was there. She had got it back.

"But how… it was in the impound lot… it was evidence…" Rowan said.

"Steve got the Governor to sign a release form," Kono said.

"Yeah and then everybody, and I mean everybody, donated to the "Buy and fix up Rowan's car" fund," Danny explained as he made a big flourish about presenting her with an envelope. "We signed a card."

Rowan looked at it and then back to her car. Hesitantly she reached out and touched the hood, the paint glossy under her finger tips. The tears started to fall.

"You guys got me my car," she half sobbed. She swiped at her tears but couldn't stop them from falling. They all encircled her immediately hushing and shushing and trying to figure out what was wrong. "Steve got me my car but he won't come to my birthday."

Danny raised his hands in mock surrender. "Hey we invited him, I swear," he said. When Rowan glared up at him he added: "He thinks you're still mad at him. Thought you wouldn't want him around."

Rowan wiped her tears and tried to stuff the tears back down. "I love you guys," she said pulling each and every one in for a hug. "Seriously… you've… you've done too much."

"After everything you've been through for us. This is the least we could have done," Kono said and they all nodded in agreement.

"Thanks… but uh… do you think you could help with one more thing?" she asked.

And of course, because it was her birthday they all had to say yes.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

She would have found the car by now. They would have showed her. He drove the car over just fine, polished it a bit and got the bow on right before leaving. He had to drive the Camaro back to his place, but Chin said Danny would get a ride to Steve's to pick it back up before going home.

She had been having fun. He had gotten the pictures from Kono. She looked fierce on those waves, proud at the shrimp truck and majestic and magical under water. His own little Ariel. He was glad that his presence hadn't put a strain on that. He was glad that she would have a great birthday, other than that mishap in the morgue. Seriously who thought letting Max teach her to dissect a pig was a good idea? It was all great and he was happy for her, really. Except he missed her. He selfishly wanted to be there with her.

His phone rang. Rowan's face popping up on the screen. He answered it before it got to the second ring. "Hey, you okay?" he asked.

Something had to be wrong, it was really the only reason she'd be calling him.

"No. I'm not," she said, her voice hitching. She sounded out of breath and panicked. Steve went from sitting on his couch to on his feet. He was already reaching for the gun he had resting on the table in front of him.

"Where are you? What's happening?" he asked.

"I just need you to come get me. Please," she whispered. Why was she whispering. What was wrong? "Please Steve? Will you come?"

"Yeah, no, I'm on my way, but you have to tell me where you are," he said. He snatched Danny's keys out of the key bowl and then rushed out his door not bothering to lock it.

"In your drive way."

Steve froze, he looked up and there she was. His Rowan. In his driveway. On her new car.

She wore this little black dress with lace for a bodice, a pair of suede black wedges and her hair was done up with crystal hair pins. She was leaning against the car all seductively. Steve found that he couldn't breathe, she was just that beautiful.

Also she had tricked him into coming outside. That was not fair.

"I see you found the car," he said taking a few steps towards her. He wanted to do much more than that but he knew he couldn't. He didn't deserve that.

"Yes. Thank you," she said, "Thank you for doing this for me."

Steve shrugged like it was nothing. Like he didn't just spend the last week getting all the parts for the car and having Mr. Chi help him put them in. A lot of work went into this car, sweat, tears and whole lot more blood then he should have lost. He car liked to bite.

"You could have… you know. You could have come. To everything. To the lunch or to give me the car, I don't know why you didn't," she said.

Steve lowered his eyes, he was in front of her now, her hands were on his arms, starting at the wrists and travelling upwards, instinctively pulling him closer to her. He couldn't concentrate on anything but those hands and the way they were moving. There was something sensual about the way she was looking at him, the way she was touching him.

He hadn't realized his hands were on her waist until he felt the lace under his fingertips.

"I didn't think that you… that you wanted me there," he admitted.

"You mean after you hit me with the ball?" she asked. Well that was one of the reasons. "No concussion and cover up can cover the bruise with make up now. We're good, Steven."

"And… everything else," he added.

Rowan's hands had found their way to his shoulders, winding around his neck and pulling her down to him. Bad move. He was closer to her mouth now. The heels made her taller, made it easier to kiss her. Made it easier to hold her closer.

"But I wanted you with me," she whispered to him. "I wanted you at that lunch, and… and… I got to be a mermaid and you weren't there to witness it."

Steve felt his heart constrict. She… she wanted him there? Really? "I just thought…"

"Why didn't you ask me?"

"I was afraid you'd…"

"You're silly, Steven McGarrett," she whispered, damn he loved it when she said his full name like that.

A strange sort of smile donned her lips and Steve lost it. He couldn't control it anymore. He needed her, he needed to taste her. His mouth found hers, pressing into her softness. She clung to him, kissing him back as ferociously and as possessively as he had. His body shuddered, how had he given this up? Why had he put this aside for so long? And what did he have to do to make sure that they were always like this?

When they pulled away from one another her eyes were shining his chest was heaving and someone said: "As romantic as this is, I gotta set up at the next venue, you good?"

Steve turned and a man with a camera was standing a few feet away packing everything away. Steve turned to Rowan confused. "Who is that?"

"That's the camera guy Kono hired. Remind me to send you the pictures," she said, she then turned back to him. "Yep we'll meet you there. Any chance you can tell me what the next stop."

"I get a premium for not telling you Ms. Pierce," he said and then turned away from them.

Steve's eyes were still on Rowan, taking in her beautiful features as she watched him walk away. She turned back to him her smile widening her pink lipstick smudged and no doubt all over his face.

"So are you gonna come with me to… uh… do you know where we're going next?" she asked.

"Yes," he whispered, because nothing could keep him away from her now.

"Really? Where are we going?"

"Oh… no, I've been told to keep that a secret too, I meant yes, I'll come with you. Uh… can you wait maybe? I gotta get changed," he said. She nodded and he took two steps away before turning back to her. "How exactly did you and the car get here if you haven't been cleared to drive. I refused to believe they let you leave with it."

Danny and Kono stepped out from behind the Camaro. "I drove," Danny said. "And I'm taking my car, and you by the looks of it. Kono's gonna drive Rowan to our next stop."

Steve stared at them blankly. "You uh… you guys were here the whole time?"

"Yep, and I got some great pics… you know… as back up," Kono said. Steve narrowed his eyes at them but when Rowan squealed and demanded to see them, he couldn't help but smile. He guessed that it was fine so long as she was still happy.

"Alright I'll uh… I'll be right back okay?" he called. They all responded with a quick okay before he turned and ran into the house. He needed to be quick but he wasn't panicked. He could hear Danny following him into the house. He'd help him pick an outfit. And thank god cause Steve didn't know what he was going to wear, but he knew it couldn't be cargo pants.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rollerblading may not have been her strong suit but she didn't care. Skating was skating and she might have been wobbly to begin with but she was rocking it out now. She had been skating with Grace, Rowan skating backwards holding hands with Grace as she led her about. Then she did the same for Chin and then for Danny.

By then Catherine had showed up with her friend, Crimson Bride from the Roller Derby team Catherine had joined briefly. Rowan had gone up to thank Catherine for coming and got nothing but stink eye from Crimson, who she now knew was actually Charlotte, and that did not bode well. But it was also her birthday and they wouldn't really do anything to her on her birthday right?

Steve had worn that damned blue shirt she liked so much. The dark blue button up with a pair of nice dark denim jeans. It should have been illegal for him to look that fine. But luckily for her, he was like a baby giraffe on ice in those skates. He had been clinging to the walls and refusing to let go, slipping and sliding everywhere. It offset the look, cause if he had looked that fine and skated well she might have jumped him there on the rink and that wasn't good cause it was supposed to be PG up in there.

She finished a last lap with Grace, sending her off before grinding to a stop beside Steve. "How y'ah doing there, Commander?" she asked with a cheesy grin. Steve went a red color, embarrassed. The man who was good at everything was finally bad at something.

"Uh… good I just… I just can't seem to find my balance," he said.

Rowan offered out her hands. "Trust me. I used to teach skating lessons," she said.

"You did?" he asked.

Rowan paused for a bit. Did she? Well before she said it she didn't think she had but now that she had said she could see herself clearly helping little kids learn to skate. Why had she forgotten that? Really? Well she should just be grateful it came back. "Yeah… I guess I did."

"You just remembered that, didn't you?" he asked softly and Rowan smiled wistfully.

"You want help or not?" she asked.

Steve put his hands into hers and she smiled, pulling him away from the wall and out into the skating area. His eyes stayed down, looking at his skates. "Don't look down, look at me," she said and his eyes whipped up. He faltered slightly, his grip tightened and she braced herself to help him stay up.

"How… how are you skating backwards so easily?" he asked, his blush climbing up his face. Rowan smiled she couldn't help it. He was so nervous, and so unsteady and so god damn cute!

"Practice," she answered. "You're doing good, just keep looking at me." When he faltered again she tried not to laugh. "Don't worry, you're still doing good."

They did one full lap and then Rowan changed tactics. She let go of one hand and then turned. That way she was skating beside him. Steve was still shaky but he was much better than before and at least he was off the wall. "I feel ridiculous," he muttered. "Next time we're going surfing, I can kick ass at surfing."

"Well we've all got things we're good at. This is mine," she said. "Thank you for being here with me."

He turned to her. A smile on his face for the first time since he had put on the rental rollerblades.

And then someone clipped her, not enough to send her down right away, but enough to unsettle her and therefore unsettle Steve.

Rowan and Steve went down not seconds later, Steve landing half on her, the plastic floor burning the palm of her hands. She caught a glimpse of the person who did it, even heard her call out an apology but Rowan wasn't paying attention to that.

"Oh, god. I'm sorry," Steve said, hovering over her. "Are you okay?'

Rowan just started laughing. She couldn't help it. And when she started laughing so did he. "Yes, I'm fine," she said. "Here, let me help you get up."

She got up first, easily at that and then offered her hands to Steve. "Just put the toes of your skates against mine and push up. Spread your weight on your foot like you would if you were surfing," she told him. Steve looked skeptical but Rowan just smiled at him. "Trust me. I can brace you."

She helped pull him up and when he was standing again she smiled. "Alright, Sailor, you survived your first fall," she said. "Let's see you skate on your own."

"You just don't want to skate with me anymore," he grumbled. "Too much of a hazard for you."

Rowan shook her head. "Naw, I just wanna see that ass in those jeans," she said and Steve broke out in surprised laughter, his face going pink again. "Come on, you gotta do it. I'm the birthday girl, you can't say no to me!"

He turned and shakily skated off while Rowan stood there actually appreciating the view. It was a good thing that his back was turned cause she was about to pull out the old Ice Queen.

She waited. Counted down the seconds, felt the hairs raise up on the back of her neck. She felt it, someone moving quickly behind her, like a wolf moving in for the kill, but Rowan was ready. She brought her elbow up and slammed it straight into the throat of the on coming person.

Crimson Bride, or Charlotte, went down hard. Rowan yelped and faked horrified surprise. "Oh my god, oh my god! Are you okay?" she cried bending down to help her up. When she got to her level she smiled dangerously and whispered: "If you try another hit like that, I'll make sure you never skate again, you got me?"

Charlotte just stared at her as Rowan helped her back up. "I'm so sorry, I didn't see you there. You gotta watch where you're going," she said. And then skated away.

So much for the two of them not pulling something on her. Maybe she shouldn't have invited Catherine after all, but she felt bad having a huge party with all of Catherine's friends and not inviting Catherine. They had been somewhat okay once. She found the exit and got herself out. She moved towards the shadows under the bleachers.

"Hey, hey wait," she heard calling after her and when she turned Steven was clattering towards her. Rowan smiled and turned to him.

"You done, Sailor?" she asked.

"Only if you are," he said, she put her hands out to him bracing him when he got close. "I know you're not gonna like this, but Ro… I got so many questions."

Rowan sighed at him. Steven McGarrett and his questions. "You get three questions tonight, that's all."

"Okay, uh… I gotta ask. How… how did you afford that car?" he asked. "That's an 80,000-dollar car Rowan and you had it shipped to you in Canada, as your first car when you were 18… just… wow… how Rowan?"

Rowan sighed. "I'm gonna answer but you're not allowed to ask secondary questions about it got it?" when he nodded Rowan sucked in a deep breath. "I was making a good amount as a figure skater. Winnings were always between 10 to 30 grand depending on where you placed and the competition. Trevor and I never placed below third. The year I bought a car I won worlds and almost made it to the Olympics. I banked twice the amount of the car. I was also running a con at the same time that was bringing in anywhere between 15-50 grand a night, as a… uh… drag racer."

"You… you what?!" he cried but Rowan shook her head and he swallowed the worry and the other questions he had about that and moved on his eyes avoiding hers. "Fine… I'll… I'll let that go. Uh… I've noticed you got tattoos…"

"Yes, I have six of them."

"Six?"

"Yep," she confirmed taking a step towards him. She took his hands and brought them to her hips. "I have two on my hips, right here. Two on my ribs, one under-boob and one on the back of my neck. The back of my neck is the newest, got it down after I survived the head drilling."

She had dragged his hands to the site of each tattoo watching his eyes carefully. "Could I see?"

"Some of them you'll have to wait for but I can show you my new one," she said and then turned, taking her shaking hand to lift her hair showing him the shaved parts of the back of her head and what tattooed on the back of her neck.

"What is that?"

Rowan knew it off by heart. Her family crest, a black shield, two yellow unicorns a band of white decorated with red and white plumage behind. And underneath a scroll with her family motto.

"Non Deficere. Nusquam dimittunt," Steve read.

"Never give up. Never let go," Rowan translated for him. "It's… it's my family crest."

She turned back to him and saw something in his eyes she wasn't sure she recognized. "I have one last question," he whispered. When she eyed him in a frustrated manner he added: "I promise. Last one."

"Okay, shoot," she said.

Steve smiled. "Would you, maybe like to have dinner tomorrow night? Like a proper dinner…"

"Like a date?" she asked.

"Yes. Exactly like a date. It's… it's… yeah. A date," he said sheepishly grinning at her. Rowan found herself beaming right back at him.

"I'd love that," she whispered. Steve swooped in almost immediately kissing her solidly and she let him kiss her back despite them both being wobbly on their skates.

That time when they fell, not only did they laugh it off, but they kissed the pain away too.


	94. Chapter 94

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N:_ _Hey guys! So we're onto the second leg of the marathon. So, the next set of chapters is all about Steve and Rowan trying to figure things out. I wrote these chapters to be mostly cute and funny at the same time. There will be some angst though, so be prepared, okay? Oh, I forgot to mention that this 7-day marathon is dedicated to ForeverTeamEdward13 who was my 500th review!_

Chapter 94 

* * *

Rowan opened the door to Chin's place to find Danny and Grace at her door step. She looked down to Grace and narrowed her eyes in confusion.

"Aren't you supposed to be at school?" she asked.

"Yeah, except she got suspended," Danny said ushering her in and answering for Grace.

Rowan gasped. "Our girl? _Suspended_? Well what the hell kid!" she said putting her hands on her hips. "What the hell did you do to Lucas?!"

"Oh, you knew about Lucas?" Danny asked.

"Well no duh!" Rowan snapped. "Us girls talk about everything."

"Really… so you… uh… told my daughter to punch Lucas in the face?"

"Punch him?" Rowan echoed. "No, I told her to emotionally destroy him."

Danny just stared at her and then down to Grace and then back to Rowan. "You what?" he thundered.

"Yeah. I told her to find his weakness and exploit the hell of it. Preferably something he's insecure about, and then taunt him until he cries… or pees his pants… or you know… quits the skate circuit cause he can't hack the heat," Rowan said. She must have made that face again, the glare/smirk that used to terrify her brother. She figured this because both Danny and Grace were staring at her like they were scared of her. Or… you know… it might have been the skate circuit talk. They probably had no idea that she used to run people off of her skate circuit.

"Jezuz," Danny let out in a sigh.

"I told you, Auntie Ro, that makes me a bully… like Lucas," she said.

Rowan stared down at her with the most serious of looks on her face. "Sometimes… to defeat a bully you have to become a bully."

"Okay, thank you for not listening to your Aunt Rowan, she's clearly a psychopath," Danny said.

"Sociopath. It's different. And I only ever use my powers for evil when the person deserves it," Rowan told him and then Danny was heading to the door. "Hey, wait. Wait a second, what are you doing?"

"We got a case," Danny said. "Grace is grounded, her mother is not on the island, she is staying with you."

"With me? The psychopath?" Rowan cried.

"You just said you were a sociopath," Danny reminded her and Rowan glared at him.

"There really isn't much of a difference… Danny," she snapped.

"Okay, you know what, both of you are grounded," he said.

"You can't ground me!" Rowan snapped and then she turned on Grace. "And who told Danny I was involved? What did I say? You wanna be a Pierce? Pierces ain't no rats!"

"You're where she got that from?" Danny thundered. Rowan paused, oh he hadn't known that? Oh dear. He didn't sound too happy and yet he'd be leaving his progeny with her. She shrugged to him and Danny looked down to his phone that was ringing again.

"I really gotta go. Grounded! Both of you!" he snapped and then left.

Rowan stood there in the silence, Grace standing beside her waiting for the edict. "Well I don't know about you, but I'm ungrounding us. What do you wanna do?"

It didn't matter what Danny would say to them when he came back. Grace's smile was worth it.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve shot a glare into the back of the Camaro through the rear-view mirror. This wasn't happening. On today of all days. Roy Parrish, the fugitive they had been looking for glared back at him, but his glare was paired with a smug grin. The kind of grin a criminal wore when he was sure that he was going to get away with whatever it was he was doing, in the case taking the leader of Five-0 and his trusty side-kick and second in command hostage. It was a look Steve knew off by heart because it was a look Wo Fat had patented.

But he didn't want to see it again.

Parrish had their guns and their phones. No way to call for help, no way to overpower him without getting shot. Steve didn't want to get shot, not today, not when he and Rowan were supposed to have their first proper date tonight. And Danny couldn't get shot either because he had a Gracie to return to.

Quite the conundrum. And it got worse when they pulled up to a lineup of cars leading to a check point that had been set up to find Roy Parrish.

"Alright Blondie, let's take a look at your phone," Roy said pulling the phone out from where ever he was keeping it.

He went through it, a smile creeping up on his lips. "That your daughter?" he asked. Inwardly, Steve swore. This was not going to go well. When Danny didn't answer Parrish showed him the phone where a picture of he and Grace was up and staring at him. "I say, is that your daughter?"

"Yeah," Danny answered.

"What's her name?"

Why the hell did he care? "Grace," Danny replied, looking straight ahead, but by the way his jaw was twitching Steve knew he was grinding his teeth.

Steve heard the ringing and realized immediately what Parrish was doing. All he could think was: _that bastard._

"Hi, Daddy," Grace called. There was wind whipping in the background. Steve thought Grace was grounded, what was she doing in a car? He could visibly see the same thoughts cross Danny's face, but they didn't have time for that now.

"No, honey, I'm not your daddy," Parrish told her. "I'm a good friend of your daddy's, and he asked me to call you, because there's a sound that he wants you to hear, okay? Hold on."

Steve wasn't liking where this was going, Danny looked even less pleased. Parrish put the phone on mute and the put the gun flush against Danny's side.

"Now listen to me. We don't make it through that checkpoint, she's gonna hear you die. You Understand?"

Steve flinched. What kind of psychopath was this?

 _Danno?_

"Nod if you understand me," he ordered and Danny obeyed. They were getting closer to the barricade, Steve had to do something but he didn't know what to do.

 _Danno, are you there?_

Parrish took her off of mute and said: "Here it comes, honey. You just listen up."

All sweet like sugar. Like he wasn't threatening them. Steve couldn't let this happen. He couldn't let this mad man shoot his best friend let alone let his best friend's daughter hear it happen. Grace must have realized that something was happening, that something was wrong because she just kept calling Danny's nickname.

Steve quickly fished out his phone and called Lou. He didn't care if the motion startled Parrish, the man could shoot him instead. It would suck to be shot hours before getting to go on that date with Rowan. It would be tragic if it killed him. But he wasn't going to let this happen to Danny and if anyone understood sacrificing like that, it was Rowan, who did it for them all the time.

 _Danno, are you there? I can't hear you, Daddy?_

Luckily Grover picked up on the first ring. "Lou, it's McGarrett," he said quickly. "Listen, our fugitive was just spotted."

"Where?"

"Service station in Wai'anae. We need all available resources there to start searching the area, okay?" Steve lied praying to god that Grover believed him.

"Wait a minute, that's halfway across the island. I'm not gonna abandon our perimeter on a hope that this thing is real."

Well, shit. And they were only one car away from getting checked. _Think McGarrett… think!_

"Listen to me, this is a solid, you understand? It's solid. One of Chin Ho's Cis called it in," he urged. Please, let him believe it, they were literally seconds away from getting caught. He could already see the gun getting closer to Danny's side.

"Now, the longer we waste time, the more time Parrish has to slip away," Steve continued, slowly pulling his car up. "I need boots on the ground up there right now. Do you hear me, Lou? Right now."

That must have done it because the cops got a message on their walkie and cleared out. Steve let out a breath of relief but Grover wasn't done.

"By the way, McGarrett, your girl was here in her flashy new car, looking for you," Lou told him and Steve held his breath. "She wouldn't tell me what was going on but she had that look on her face. You know the one. The one she pulls before she does crazy shit?"

The fact that Lou knew that look without really knowing Rowan was a bad sign. A sign that Rowan did this shit way too often. Often enough for people to notice the tells, for people to be able to pinpoint the pattern.

Steve thanked him, hung up the phone and then got the car as far away from that check point as possible. Parrish went to put the phone to his ear but suddenly there was a scuffling, and then Grace was no longer on the line.

"You put a bullet in my friend, and getting arrested by Five-0 is gonna be the least of your worries," a familiar voice announced and that smug grin was knocked right off of Parrish's face. "I better get them both back safe and sound or I'll turn absolutely monstrous. Consider that your first and only warning."

And then Rowan hung up on him. Parrish looked down to the phone in utter amazement and then he looked up to Danny, gun digging into his side once more.

"Who was that, huh?" he asked. "Who was that? Which one of you is talking to someone else."

"No one, neither of us," Steve growled. "I mean really… I was on my phone and you has his…"

"It was her babysitter… she must have… she must have realized something was wrong," Danny explained. "She's… uh… she's intuitive."

"Intuitive," Parrish echoed staring down at the phone in his hand like it held all the answers. Steve needed him off of this topic. He wasn't sure what Parrish would do if he thought a vengeful psychic was hunting them down.

"You didn't choose this car by accident, did you?" Steve asked.

"No, I didn't."

Beside him Danny nodded, the picture becoming clearer and clearer. "Okay, I assume, uh, you got everything figured out, so you wanna tell us what happens next?"

"What happens next is this: "You'll handcuff your partner's wrist to that steering wheel. Then give me his phone. Looks like we're gonna be spending a little bit of time together. Those things are trackable, so they gotta go."

Danny shot him a pained looked. Steve was already tossing his phone to Parrish. "Do it," he ordered letting Danny lean over and cuff him to the steering wheel. He could almost hear Rowan's voice asking: _how does it feel Steven?_

Not good.

"You know what Parrish. Clearly you're a smart guy," Steve told him. "I mean, getting out of the courthouse, making it this far, that's impressive. Here's something you might not know. Every single cop on the island now is looking for you. Plus TSA and the port authority have both been alerted, which means you show your face at the airport or any of the docks they're gonna be all over you. And it's only a matter of time before our team come looking for us." _Before Rowan comes looking for us._ "So, what I'm saying to you, is that with or without us, there is no way you're getting off this island."

Parrish didn't look bothered in the least. "But I'm not running. I got other plans." He paused to smash their phones with the butts of one of their guns. "We need some new wheels."

Steve kept his eyes forward and scowled to himself. If there was ever a time for Rowan to intervene this would be that time.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

"Okay, explain something to me. How is it that the same guy that testified against you is gonna be the same guy that clears your name?" Danny asked.

They had been driving in this new car for hours. Steve was tired. He was worried. He was still handcuffed to this goddamn steering wheel. Where was Rowan and her vision? She couldn't have got to them when they were carjacking that poor civilian? Parrish literally took the pants off the poor man. Or how about at the construction site. Why couldn't she have found them then?

Chin had mentioned that her visions hadn't been potent. Hadn't been on time. Was that what was happening right now?

"I wanna get him to recant his testimony," Parrish replied. Huh, now wasn't that something?

"Oh, right, with a gun to his head, I'm sure he'll admit to anything you want him to. Maybe he'll say he's Santa Claus or something"

Why was Danny being sassy right now. I mean really? Really? Did he want to get shot?

"The only way I'll ever prove I'm innocent is to have him admit that he lied under oath."

"Wait a minute. Why would he perjure himself just to get you convicted?" Steve asked.

"Because the whole thing was a massive frame-up from the get-go."

"Stop, back it up," Steve ordered, not sure if he believed it but things were starting to make sense. "Okay, what happened? Tell us what happened from the beginning."

"Listen, after my last little bit, I promised I was never gonna go up again. I needed a job. I answered an ad in the newspaper for a sales job, and I took it. I didn't know the whole damn thing was just a scam. They were just looking for some mope with a record to pin the whole thing on."

Ohh convenient. Steve watched briefly as Parrish continually shifted in the back seat, he just couldn't seem to stay still. "Who's _they_?"

"Dale Sullivan. He's the one that gave me the job. The one I went to when one of the investors was make big noise about the frame-up."

"Why didn't you go to the police?" Steve asked. Maybe it was a stupid question, but if it kept Danny from shooting out some more sass he'd do it.

"Sullivan said it was all a misunderstanding. The next thing I know, the feds are kicking my door down. The investor's shot in the had, they got an eyewitness on the scene.

"Archie Akama," Danny sighed. The construction worker.

"Paid off, no doubt," Parrish told them. "If that ain't enough, they planted the murder weapon in my place, okay? Soon as I saw that, I knew it was Sullivan from the get. They made sure all the contracts had my signature, they ran the cash through an account he opened in my name. You add that up with the murder weapon and the eyewitness, it was just the final nail."

Okay… so all of that made sense so far, if they believed Roy's theory. "What did the feds say when you told them all that?" If Steve had to guess, he'd say… nothing.

"The same thing the two of you are thinking right now, that I'm lying."

Everyone in the car went silent after that. Steve and Danny exchanged a meaningful glace and nodded. Steve was having a hard time thinking. At that moment, all that mattered to him was getting out of this and getting to his date. He'd be fucking livid if he missed out on that date over this bullshit.

"So, did they look into Sullivan?"

"They said he didn't exist," Parish answered. "By the time I got arrested, he was already out of the picture. I'll tell you one thing, that little rat Akama, he's still out there somewhere and I'm gonna find him."

"Okay, um, well let's say you do find him," Danny started and Steve tried to hold back his groan of frustration. Here comes the sass. "Let's say you're telling the truth. You put a gun to this guy's head, uh, and you get a confession out of him. It's not gonna help you, okay? I mean, he would've been under duress, and it'll never stick."

"Why do you think I picked your car?" Parrish asked. Yeah, Steve had been asking a similar question for the last couple hours. _Why me?_ "Word is, Five-0 are the only cops that'll give a guy like me a fair shake."

"Yeah, well, you know, our goodwill usually runs out when someone jacks our car and puts a gun to our heads." And there was Danny's famous sass. Goddamn it, he better not get shot over this.

"It was the only way you were ever gonna believe me," Parrish snapped. Well at least he wasn't waving around the gun anymore.

They pulled to a stop at the stop sign and suddenly the car door opened and someone slid into the back.

"This is not a cab," Parrish told the woman. The woman both Danny and Steve recognized was just grinning wildly at him. Rowan had turned to him and just smiled, like she wasn't afraid, like she didn't know this guy had a gun.

"You're a hard guy to find Roy, been waiting on that corner, like a high priced called girl, for ages for you guys to show up."

He pulled Steve's gun, a cry of panic flew into Steve's throat, but with a quickness Steve didn't think Rowan had, she had swatted the gun away and punched Roy in the throat. Well… her reflexes were definitely miles better.

As he fell back, holding his throat and coughing up a storm, Rowan cried out in pain and shook her hand. "Damn, that hurt. How do you people do that all day?" she asked them.

Steve and Danny just stared at her, watching as she fished something out of her pocket to toss to them. A set of handcuff keys. Bless that girl.

"Shouldn't have made that call buddy," she told Parrish. "I was all blissfully unaware until you made that call. Got a million fucking flashes, nearly crashed my car, and made me super fucking angry all in one go. Not a smart move."

Parrish pulled the second gun, Danny's gun and Rowan just stared him down. "You're not gonna shoot me. You're trying to clear your name, murdering me won't do that."

Steve got his hand free and Parrish lurched. "No one moves or the babysitter gets it."

"I literally just announced that you wouldn't be stupid enough to shoot me!"

And Steve took that gamble. He lurched snatching the gun out of Parrish's hand and turning it on him.

"I'd think twice before touching her. Steve is awfully protective of her," Danny warned Parrish who sighed and raised his hands in surrender.

Rowan smiled at her two boys, she reached out and touched Steve's shoulder and that familiar jolt of electricity travelled down to this finger tips. All Rowan said was: "Huh."

Danny ignored the strangeness of the situation and just pinned her with a dry glare and asked: "Where's Grace?"

"In my car about a block away," she said. Whatever look Danny shot at her caused Rowan to rolled her eyes. "Oh don't look at me like that. The windows are rolled down, she has a slushie, my phone and all her favourite music playing. Obviously I'm going to go back, I am still on babysitting duty, after all. Can you guys handle this now?"

"Yes, we can handle it, Ro," Steve sighed.

"Oh good. Seriously though… he's innocent," she said. "And that's not just a hunch. Promise me you'll look into it?"

Steve nodded. "Yeah, I promise," despite Danny shaking his head at him.

Rowan's smile widened by a mile. "By the way, don't get yourself shot on our date night. I'm not spending date night in the hospital. That will not be our tradition. It's Max and Sabrina's and we're going to keep it that way."

"Okay… thanks Ro. You can go now." Danny said trying to push her back out of the car while Steve just sat there bright red and grinning like a love struck lunatic.

But Rowan didn't go right away. She swooped in quickly kissing Steve on the cheek and then she did the same to Danny who made a big show of not wanting it but accepting it anyway. "Alright my boys. Be safe," she said. "By the way… the tan shirt looks nice on you. Makes your eyes pop. But uh… if you wear cargo pants to our date I'll quit."

Steve was too busy grinning so it was up to Danny to ask: "Quit what?"

"Life," she snapped back. "Alright boys. Have fun. Remember, he's innocent."

She waved to them both and then skipped off, no doubt heading back to where she had left Grace in her car. Steve waved back a delightful grin on his face, all wistful and adorable. It made Danny sick. As soon as she was gone Steve asked: "Hey… uh… did she ever get cleared by the doctor to drive?"

Both men froze and then turned to one another. They knew the answer to that. Well… shit.

Behind them sirens began to wail and Steve began to drive. Despite not wanting to leave Rowan behind, despite not fully trusting Parrish. Danny tossed Parrish handcuffs. "Put those on nice and tight," he ordered, he too had been given his gun back.

Steve continued to pull away from the cop cars. "Uh… buddy, just so you know, the brake's the square pedal on the left."

"Yeah, I know," Steve answered.

"Then what are you doing? Whatever you're doing, don't do it."

"Listen to me. Guilty guys, they run. They don't kidnap a couple of cops to prove they were framed."

"Oh no… no… Steve… let's just drop him off at HPD and we'll go chasing up leads."

"No. What are you talking about? You heard her. You're the one always going on about _Rowan's always right_. Besides, I literally just promised her that we'd look into it. I gave her my word."

"You have literally never… and I mean _never_ listened to her before. Why the hell would you listen to her now?" Danny cried.

Steve just shrugged. "I just gotta feeling."

"Yeah, a feeling that you wanna get laid," Danny snapped sliding into his seat. "It's your lucky day, buddy. You're lucky she vouched for you. Though to be fair she's also vouched for worse." He glanced at Steve again and said: "38 Olive Avenue, Wahiawa."

"What is that?"

"That is Akama's address. His boss did not say that he wasn't working. He said he wasn't working today, okay? Oh, don't give me that look. I've done the hard part all you gotta do it evade the cops.

Of course, Steve had no problem with that. They were on their way to another adventure.


	95. Chapter 95

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: – Okay guys, I am here to announce that I am one episode away from being finished Season 4. I AM EXCITED! However, between season 4 and season 5 I have some filler chapters I want to write, but I'm not sure what to write. So, I need your ideas for filler chapters. I wanna know what things you wanna read! Some ideas that I have, are: Grace going to work with one of her parents, and the argument that ensues when she picks someone other than Danny. Rowan and Steve on another date. Maybe a brief filler chapter into what Matty is up to. Something small about how Wo Fat is doing in prison. But that's all I got so hit me with all your ideas please! I also, will have something special for the 600th reviewer, which I will announce next chapter, okay?_

 _PS. To the guest who asked all those questions in a review for chapter 93. Yes, Charlotte is the skater that was the one in the office that Steve and Catherine saved. Yes there is a clock just like that, I recommend that you look it up it is stunning. And yes, I am doing an episode right now._

Chapter 95

* * *

Their suspect was dead.

Steve and Danny got into a shootout that Grover had to save them from.

And Parrish had gotten away.

All in all not a good day for them.

Steve and Danny came out of the house to the rest of the Five-0's coming towards them. Catherine pushed past Danny and threw herself at Steve. "Thank god you're okay!"

Steve awkwardly hugged her back while staring at Danny pleadingly. Hey, this was not Danny's problem, not in the least. This was all Steve and he was on his own. Danny wasn't going to touch that mess with a ten-foot pole. "I'm fine too," he snapped at her back because there had been two people in that house, not just Steve.

"How did you guys find us?" Steve asked, carefully prying himself out of Catherine's grip and avoiding her eyes.

"Rowan called," Chin said. "Gave us the low down including where you were probably going next."

Steve nodded but it was Danny who asked: "Did she happen to mention where _we_ should head next?"

"Maybe… just maybe, we should do real police work instead of playing _ask the psychic_ ," Catherine taunted, arms crossed over her chest.

Wow, rude much? It wasn't Danny's fault she went all possessive over Steve and drove all of them away. She could have just shut up and dumped him like any normal person and gotten out of it with her dignity and friendships intact.

Luckily for her it was Chin to the rescue. "What even happened to you guys?"

"Well, after we split at the court house, it uh… it turned out he was in our car. My car," why the hell did he keep calling his car _our car_ it wasn't _our car_ it was Danny's. Even though Steve drove it more than he did. "And, um, he's innocent also."

"The feds convicted the wrong guy," Steve confirmed before anyone could call Danny crazy. "This man, Dale Sullivan, he framed Parrish for the murder. He also paid off Akama to lie under oath."

"Yeah, Rowan mentioned that too," Chin said. "We also managed to confirm that theory. Kono's running down that lead as we speak. Hopefully she can tell us who Sullivan really is."

Wow… Rowan had been a busy girl today, and with his daughter in tow no less. He had grounded them, hadn't he? Not that he wasn't grateful, he made a mental note to tell her that lest she forgot again how grateful Five-0 was for her assistance, but she was supposed to be at home with his grounded daughter, grounded herself. Not driving around the city in a classic custom painted car, with his daughter in the passenger seat, when the doctor hadn't cleared her to drive yet.

"Yeah, well whoever he is, I'm thinking that he found out Parrish escaped, came here to kill Akama to make sure he didn't recant his testimony."

"Then he sat on the house, hoping that Parrish would come back here," Catherine finished for him.

"We need to ID these shooters ASAP," Steve said gesturing to the dead bodies lying outside the house.

"And uh… while we're at it we need to find Rowan."

As Chin rushed off to do as they asked and Steve talked to Grover about putting someone on daughter's house in case Parrish returned there, Catherine glared at Danny. "Why? I thought we agreed to do real police work?"

"Listen here, snippy," Danny snapped his hands coming up in a defensive gesture to point in her direction. "That girl is driving around without being cleared by a doctor with my daughter in the front seat. I want her found and taken off the road. And while we're at it, I think we'd all appreciate it if you took your unchecked aggression you have directed at Rowan and stopped throwing it around to make us all uncomfortable. You made your bed, lie in it."

Catherine gasped in outrage, clearly not expecting that and as she whirled around to help Chin with the IDs, Danny pulled out his phone. He dialed Rowan's number.

"Yo, what's up my main man?"

Oh god she was doing something terrible, he could tell from the tone of her voice, from the very words she chose.

"Where are you?"

"Driving."

"Okay, well stop. You weren't cleared by a doctor to drive, and don't try to lie to me about it either. If you had gotten cleared, we all would have gotten all-caps-texts about it. So, stop before you hurt yourself or Grace."

"No can do," Rowan said, sounding way too chipper. Almost fake chipper.

"Why?" Danny asked both weary and wary.

"You know what? We got a situation here…" "—Oh God, no, Ro, where are you?" "I'm gonna go see if I can deal with it. Talk to Grace."

And then Grace was on the phone. "Hi Daddy! Can I hear that noise now?"

"Maybe later, monkey, where… where did Auntie Ro take you?"

"We're at a garden," she answered.

Steve was on him now, as soon as Danny had gotten frantic, had said Rowan's name in that tone, he was worried. He stared at Danny with narrowed eyes of concern. He didn't ask what was wrong, he was listening, waiting to hear what they said.

"You're at a garden?" he echoed.

"Yeah, she went to check the cop in the car. I think he might be hurt."

"Okay, but which garden, which garden did she take you to?" he asked again but once again Grace didn't answer.

"I gotta go Danno," she said instead and then hung up the phone. Danny stared at the phone.

"Rowan's got some situation I have no idea what except that it's involving an injured cop, Grace couldn't tell me where they are. I don't know what to do," he sighed trying very hard not to panic. When they found Rowan he was going to wring her neck.

"Well when we're done here, we can go track them, or I can call Duke and ask him to look for her," Steve offered. "I mean injured officer, they've got to have heard about that, right? It doesn't mean they're in danger."

"We got something," Chin said coming forward with their bad ass mobile computer. Luckily interrupting whatever panic attack Danny was about to have. "Kono and I met one of our dead guys this morning. Posing as an FBI agent. He had a partner with him. We think he's Sullivan."

Chin went about pulling up a file on the computer and then continued. "Our other fake Fed is Julian Lynch. Arrest back in 2008 for securities fraud, but investigators couldn't make the charges stick. Seems this guy has a knack for staying one step removed from all the cons he runs.

Steve, who was nervous about Rowan, Danny could cell, was shifting from one foot to the other in an impatient sort of swaying. He wanted to be running someone down, whether it was Lynch, or Parrish, or Rowan was entirely up to what happened next.

"Yeah, by setting other people up to take the fall," he muttered.

"Look, according to TSA, Lynch arrived in Hawaii back in December of 2012. That's three weeks before Parrish responded to the job posting," Catherine said pointing to the computer.

"Right, that's when Parrish became Lynch's patsy."

Steve shot him a strange look that Danny ignored. "Did you say _patsy_?"

"I did. Been wanting to use that word for a while."

Chin wasn't having any of the idle chit chat either so before Steve could fire back at Danny, Chin intervened. "If Lynch is bold enough to pose as an FBI agent to track this guy down he's not going to stop now just because the heat's turned up."

Steve nodded. "That's why we need to find Parrish before he does."

Grover chose that point to come forward. "McGarrett. I heard you and Danny talking, I… uh… I reached out to the HPD unit we put on Parrish's daughter," he admitted. "I figured, if your girl was this close to the case she might have… I unno… picked something up. Any way, he called in a while ago to say that the daughter was leaving her house and he was following. And since about 15 minutes ago… around the time you put that phone call in to psychic-dearest, he stopped answering his radio."

Shit. _Shit._ This was so Rowan. He grounded both her and his daughter and she's fucking trying to take down bad guys. What was wrong with this girl? Steve only had to share the briefest of looks with Danny for them to get on the same page.

"Trace Rowan's phone, she's gone after Lynch," Danny called while both he and Steve ran towards Danny's car. They needed to find her ASAP.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Roy had called his daughter to meet him at a place that meant something to him. A conservation area that they used to go to together when she was younger. He was shocked that she agreed to come. He hit her with a speech about how he'd have to go away for a while and he just wanted her to believe him. Believe that he was innocent. But he should have known she wouldn't come for no reason. He figured that it might be a trap but he didn't think that it was because she had conspired with the guy who set him up in the first place.

At least Sullivan was kind enough to tell him that his daughter thought he was FBI. That made sense, she just thought she was turning him in. He really was proud of his daughter and her moral compass, glad that she just wanted to do what was right.

But he had bigger issues at that moment. Like three men with guns trained on him and his daughter.

"Listen, do whatever you gotta do, but let my daughter go," he said to Sullivan.

"Maybe, we'll see," Sullivan said. "You know, it didn't have to go this way. You could've just lived the rest of your life in prison."

"For a crime I didn't commit?"

"Does that really matter? I mean, come on, no offense but a guy like you, sooner or later you were gonna end up back there"

"Please don't do this," Lauren cried. Poor girl she didn't mean to cause this, she thought she was doing something good. Thought Sullivan was the good guy. Roy wondered if he'd get to tell her that he didn't blame her for this.

"Sorry, hon," Sullivan said with a casual shrug. Like this was nothing but a convenience store transaction. "I can't be constantly looking over my shoulder wondering if and when Daddy here is gonna pop up and get his revenge."

He took another step closer to Roy and the two men behind him hovered closer to his daughter who was frantically starting to cry. She was panicked and afraid and Roy wanted nothing more than to cross to her, hold her and tell her that everything was going to be alright.

"I'm so sorry daddy!" she sobbed. Roy turned to her, in his mind all he saw was the beautiful little girl he used to push on a swing, every Saturday he had her.

"Please, stop crying," he tried to soothe his daughter. "You're the only good thing that ever came out of me. Let's face it, I've made enough mistakes for two lifetimes. It's not your fault. Listen, this is between you and me. She doesn't need to see…"

They were about to pull the trigger he knew it and then someone slid in front of him. The girl from before, McGarrett's little girlfriend was standing in front of him, arms out stretched like her small frame could shield him.

Steve had called her Rowan, but mostly referred to her as Ro. He and his partner had argued about the validity of her statement. Called her psychic. His partner usually believed, Steve usually did not. The tables had turned today and it caused contention between the two. Though judging by the way the two had bickered, contention was a regular thing between them. So Roy wasn't too surprised that Rowan had showed up, but he was surprised she didn't have the two of them in tow.

"No!" she shouted on the top of her lungs. "I'm Rowan Pierce and I _do not_ approve!"

Behind them two phones went off, hell even Sullivan's phone went off. They all had faces of fear, even Sullivan looked properly upset by her appearance. Parrish himself was more than a little surprised because he knew that name. Everyone in jail heard that name. If this was _that_ Rowan Pierce they were saved. The two men, the ones behind them, their guns were drooping in their hands, they had their phones out staring at them, exchanging glances and freaking out poor Sullivan.

"What are you doing? What are they doing?" he cried. He raised the gun and pointed it at her. "I don't care who you're tied too, if you don't move, I'll shoot you."

"STEVE?!" Rowan screeched, and somewhere in the distance came a cry of response. It could have been _no_ but it also could have been a call of his nickname for her, _Ro._ He was too far out and she realized that. Unfortunately, Sullivan knew it too.

"Looks like help isn't coming," he growled to her

She looked around at all the bushes, she looked back at Sullivan with his gun raised coming for them, and then back to Roy before making up her mind and turning forward. It was that exact moment that Rowan Pierce stopped being that hyper happy little thing that had assaulted him in the car and became something a little more like the man everyone knew was protecting her.

"Ten grand to the first person to shoot Lynch," she ordered pointing right at Sullivan.

And they shot him. His own men. The men that had been watching. Both of them. Each fired at least two times and he went down immediately. Rowan stood there, stock white, eyes wide, like she hadn't expected that to happen.

"Oh god," she said and then she doubled over and promptly hurled. And that was exactly where she stopped being like the criminal who protected her.

Parrish stood just as McGarrett crested the hill, gun drawn, a laser focus on Rowan and a look on his face that made chills run down Roy's back. Danny cleared the two bodyguards, made sure they were no longer a threat while McGarrett went straight to Rowan. He pulled back her hair with one hand and rubbed her back with the other. When she was done throwing up, after he had offered her his shirt sleeve to wipe her mouth off on, and when she was standing again and not hunching over, he grabbed the girl and hugged her tightly. Only then did stern, scary Steven McGarrett melt away. With that girl in his arms he seemed almost human.

"If any of what you have to say involves visions and that goddamn network, so help me Ro, I'll strangle you myself," he growled into her neck.

Rowan let out a shaky laugh and said: "Then don't ask me," and then buried her face into his chest. Steve held her even tighter than before, cradling her like she was the most precious thing on the planet. And as Parrish held his own daughter, who was sobbing into his own chest, he felt like he understood the sentiment.

"Where's Grace?" Danny asked, while the two shooters got down on their knees and he was busy zip tying them. "She wasn't in the car, where is she?"

"There were killers about, Danny, I didn't want to leave her alone, so she's at the bottom of the hill," Rowan said from the safety of Steve's arms and suddenly Danny was crying out in horror and rushing down the slope.

"You know if he falls, he's gonna climb back up here and kill you," Steve said watching his partner go.

"And you're not going to stop him?"

Parrish watched Steve turn back to her a stern seriousness on his face. He didn't need to say the answer. As Detective Williams lost his footing and rolled the rest of the way down the hill, Parrish knew, without a doubt, that there wasn't a single thing Steven McGarrett wouldn't protect that girl from, even his angry partner.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

"Randall Parrish, on behalf of the United States District Court of Hawaii, I would like to apologize for the gross miscarriage of justice that resulted in your wrongful conviction. The record will now show that Randall Parrish was pardoned of all murder and fraud charges."

And then that gavel banged make it all real. Legally. Roy was officially a free and pardoned man.

Steve watched as Roy accepted his pardon from the judge with his daughter at his side with a hint of pride on his face. He had done this. Together with Rowan, they had delivered this man from death and proved him innocent in one go. All in all, a good day if she hadn't had to use the network to get her part done. He didn't even mind that they put off their date until this all got settled.

Still, sitting there watching this touching moment with Rowan sitting beside him with their hands intertwined, made this moment even more special for him. He had worn blue purposely. It was her favourite color on him. Just like she was in a black empire waisted, off the shoulder dress, because that was his favourite color and outfit on her. Though to be fair he loved her in anything and he felt confident that she felt the same about him.

With the pardon accepted and the judge signed off Roy and his daughter Lauren returned to where the he, Rowan and the rest of the Five-0's stood to greet them.

"Thank you all for coming," Lauren said to them. They all murmured their _your welcomes_ as Roy came over to Rowan. They each took a turn hugging both Lauren and Roy, and Kono took that time to return the letters they had borrowed from Lauren for the investigation. The ones Roy had sent her from prison. Roy's eyes were on Rowan.

"So, what are you thinking kid?" he asked. "Got any psychic predictions about my future?"

Steve winced, there was no way to explain to Roy what she really was so she just pretended to think about it and then said: "I think you're finally going to get that second chance."

"Yeah? You think," he said with a big grin.

Rowan nodded quickly. "Oh yeah! I think you're gonna reconnect with your daughter. I think you're going to do really well from now on. Hopefully on the straight and narrow."

"Oh, I'll make sure of it," Lauren said smiling up to her dad who kissed her temple lightly.

"Hey, do you guys mind if I talk to McGarrett real quick?" Roy asked and Steve tried not to be concerned. After the incident on the hill yesterday that derailed what would have been their first date he didn't really want Rowan too far out of his eyesight. But she and Lauren turned away linked arms and walked away from them. Steve swallowed the order to not go too far before it could escape his lips.

"You… you know what she did right?" Roy asked surreptitiously. Steve turned to him, the look was enough for Roy to get his answer. "Look, I'm not stupid. Her name. Rowan Pierce. We all heard it. More than once. She's… she's a fucking goddess in the joint. They say one job involving her can rake you in enough to live comfortable for more than a while. And her reach extends past these islands. She's the reason one of the new guys got wailed on. A complete surprise, he was some Mexican Kingpin or something, but he got the shit kicked out of him so bad he got sent to the infirmary."

"Wait? Who?" Steve asked, worried he already knew the answer.

"Some janky kid named Waincroft. The word on the street was he threw her benefactor under the bus. Used his name to gain connections on the island, lied about knowing him, getting help from him. Somehow, that put your girl in danger. Waincroft got a beating for it. As a warning, to everyone else, that whatever he said he'd do in the name of protecting her, he'll do it."

So that was what happened with that Yakuza. Someone had used Wo Fat's name in vain to garner connections and that put Rowan in jeopardy. Wo Fat must have sent someone to make an example out of Gabriel. Several someone's by the sound of it. Geeze he was lucky he wasn't just dead.

"Now, we had been hearing things about this girl. About her safety network. How she's always in trouble and how working with her is an easy cash grab. Always in trouble, always needing rescuing. They think it's funny cause she's always trying to use it for good. But… you know… up on that hill…"

Steve blanched. She had quite been forthcoming about how she got those two men to turn on their boss. But he had a feeling that he was about to find out.

"I mean… from where I'm standing, she sure as hell used it for good but there was something under it all. She uh… you know for someone so cute and peppy she had no problem ordering it done."

Steve nearly chocked on the air in his throat. "I'm sorry… she… she what?"

"She ordered it done. When she realized you weren't going to make it on time, she ordered them to shoot Lynch. _10 grand to the first person to shoot him,_ that's what she said _._ You know we were all assuming it was Fat that controlled the network, that he decided what contracts went out… but uh…"

No, it wasn't just Wo Fat. Clearly Rowan had some say in the matter as well. Hot. Fucking. Damn. Steve found himself staring at her. She was only standing a few feet away from him engaged in idle chit chat. She looked so lovely standing there, talking to Lauren, laughing with his friends. From where he was standing, she didn't look like a cold-blooded killer. She didn't look like the type of person who'd order a man shot.

All he could think was: _sociopathic tendencies._

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

He was to meet Rowan at the bar. They were stopping there for drinks with the Five-0s before he took her out on their very first and proper date.

He was excited.

He was also worried but he was going to ignore what happened at that god forsaken hill because he wanted to have a nice first proper date with the girl who made his heart flutter like a moth trapped under a glass.

He was just going to be excited and that was it. That was all he was letting happen. He was gonna go out with the girl he had been obsessing over, if he was lucky, he was going to get laid, and if he was even luckier, she'd stay the night. He'd take her staying the night even if he didn't get laid. Anything to wake up to her the next the morning.

He was also hoping to confirm what was going on between her and Alex. No one had really been clear about that yet.

He also still hadn't spotted her yet, but Grace was there and she looked super excited about something, so when she got close Steve was certain to stand to ruffle Grace's hair. Loving that giant grin she shot him even though he was messing up her wonderful hairdo.

Catherine, who was sitting awfully close to him, no matter where Steve moved at the table, turned to Grace and smiled. "Oh whoa, that is some serious bruising you got there," she said gesturing at her hand.

Steve knew all about what happened with that hand. He was also pretty sure she was grounded but clearly not much because she was here having fun on a roof top club. Same thing went for Rowan who, while not grounded, wasn't allowed to babysit anymore… until further notice or she proved that she could be trusted.

Grace glanced down to her hand and then smiled at Catherine, a small untrusting smile, but despite clearly loving her Auntie Ro best, Grace was still being polite.

"You should see the other guy."

That earned her a round of appreciative _oh_ s from everyone at the table and encouraged her to kiss her bicep like she had any real muscle there. As everyone laughed Catherine's hand dropped to Steve's thigh and suddenly he was standing.

"Alright guys, I'm going to go get another round, Danny come for a walk," he ordered and thankfully Danny just obeyed instead of commenting on what it was that had Steve standing so abruptly.

"What you need me to pay for it?" Danny asked, clearly being sassy.

"Naw, I got Chin's AmEx," he called back turning away as quickly as possible before Catherine made anymore wild grabs.

They got to the bar and Steve lifted up his glass. "Hey, hey, I need two more of these and a rye and ginger," he said nodding to the bartender who took his empty glass.

Danny was smiling at him in that knowing way. All because he put in a drink order for Rowan. Steve elected to ignore him and dipped into his wallet but added. "And what are you drinking."

"I'll take a longboard and a Shirley Temple for my date," he said and then clocked the cash in Steve's hand. "Oh wow."

"Wow… wow what?"

"You got money. That's amazing."

"Yeah, I work, Danny. I make money," Steve snapped. Danny took the bill and raised it to the light to make sure it was real. "Thank you. Don't touch it."

Luckily Danny put it down and the two of them turned back to their little party to watch them as they waited for their drinks.

"You're nervous, aren't you?" Danny asked and Steve faltered. He was nervous. Very nervous but he didn't want to admit that.

Instead his eyes landed on Grace. "You know… she's a great kid, Dan."

Wow… Dan, really? He never called him Dan. Way to make things weird, McGarrett.

"Yeh, she's got a mean right cross too." Steve turned to Danny with a smile, watching his friend's eyes lovingly stare at his daughter before he turned his eyes back on Steve. "She's nervous too, you know. But she's excited. Both of you have waited for this moment for a very long time and I think… I think it'll go well for you. At least I hope it will. To be honest I think we're all a little surprised it's actually happening."

Steve was honestly touched. Danny had never really been a big supporter of him and Rowan, he was bigger on keeping them apart. Steve was too volatile with her, he kept saying, it was nice to hear him say that to him. The drinks were ready and they were trying to figure out how they were going to get this all back to the table when Rowan finally appeared. Seemingly out of nowhere.

"Oh, got me anything?" Rowan asked appearing beside him. Steve started and turned to her. Oh god she looked so pretty standing there. Her hair curled nicely, her make up done in rosy shiny colors. She was in that grey and pink dress, the one from her dinner with Alex and Doris. The one he said she looked ridiculous in, the one that had stunned him speechless.

Well he was still speechless.

Danny was talking to her offering the drink Steve had bought her because Steve found that he couldn't move, while Rowan's carefully kept her eyes on Steve.

She smiled warmly taking a sip of her drink. "If you tell me I look ridiculous I'm leaving," she warned teasingly.

Nope, he learned from his mistakes last time. "You look beautiful," he said breathlessly. He meant it. With all his heart. "It's what I wanted to say the first time I saw you in that dress and it's what I'm saying now."

Rowan dropped the glass back into Danny's grip and then crossed to Steve. She was close enough to see him that he could see the sparkles on her face and the sparkle in her eyes. She lowered her eyes to his chest and began to play with the lapels of his grey suit jacket.

"You're looking quite handsome yourself, Sailor," she whispered.

"He's a Commander," Danny interjected.

"Lieutenant Commander," Steve corrected, his eyes still on Rowan, he was unable to take them off her. At the same time Rowan absently said: "Shut up."

Somewhere behind her there was the chime of a discordant set of bars. Steve looked up and saw Alex and his band setting up on a small makeshift stage.

"You guys have a gig tonight?" Steve asked. She had never mentioned that, just that she was going to be there that night and she had put all their names on the list so they could get in. Even Catherine.

Rowan shot a glance back at where Alex was setting up and nodded. "Yeah. Just a small gig. I convinced Alex to do small sampler in an intimate setting for some of our execs. He wants to go bigger. Wants to get that album dropped faster. I thought this might help."

"Did you ever sort that thing with the music?" Danny asked.

"What thing?" Steve asked.

Rowan's eyes turned to Danny a sort of coolness about her that iced everything in Steve's veins. He had seen that look before, that look did not mean good things.

"Almost. I think it's going to be settled really soon. Tonight, if we're lucky"

"What thing?" Steve asked again when it was clear neither of them were going to answer.

Rowan turned to him a normal smile on her face. "Would you excuse me a second, I need to schmooze," she said and then walked away. Once she was out of earshot Danny started talking.

"Alex is attempting to claim rights to her songs. She says she only cares about one song, but I think she's upset about it all."

Steve turned his eyes back to Rowan, who was at a table with older looking gentlemen who were all eyeing her like she was a walking buffet of everything they could ever want. Steve shook his head, why the hell was she with that asshole if this was the sort of shit he pulled? Though to be fair… why would Rowan want to be with him after the shit he pulled?

The girl had terrible taste in men. Which didn't really say much about her interest him, now did it?

Steve leant back against the bar and sipped his drink. His eyes darting between Grace and the other Five-0s and where Rowan was sitting and chatting up the older execs. He watched her walk away from them, jogging over to where Alex was setting up for their gig with the rest of his band. He didn't smile at her as they exchanged words in fact it looked rather heated.

Rowan handed him a paper, which he ripped up and threw in her face. Rowan looked shocked, she looked hurt and Steve threw his now empty glass down to the bar so hard it shattered. Which was how Danny knew to grab him to hold him back. If Alex thought Steve was going to stand there and let him disrespect Rowan like that he had another thing coming. And yeah, sure he had been told he was treading a thin line but the Governor said he couldn't use his immunity and means task force to harass Rowan, he said nothing about using it to force Alex to sign the rights to Rowan's songs back to her.

"Don't, stop, she needs to do things on her own," Danny told him.

"She's just going to tell Wo Fat to deal with it," Steve growled.

"Nope, not true," Danny said shaking his head. "She's too scared to call him. Too scared to ask for favours."

The glaring _since he got attacked_ hung in the air between them. It never occurred to Steve that Rowan might have a guilty conscience over that. It wasn't directly her fault, by all accounts the attack was Gabriel's fault and he had paid quite dearly.

Steve turned to help the bartender sweep away the mess, he turned to apologize, to pay for the damage, to get first aid because he had cut his hand.

"All Rowan wants is independence. She wants to be able to do things on her own, so, and I know you're not going to like this, but you're going to have to let her do it by herself," Danny insisted. "She said she has a plan let's just see what it is before we jump in to help her."

Steve nodded his agreement. He was busy ordering another drink and promising the bartender that under no certain circumstances would he be shattering another tumbler, when Rowan popped up again beside him.

"Hey, I'm just going to stay for the first set then we can head out… unless you'd rather stay here for the…" she offered she then took in the gauze he had taped to his palm and she gasped. "Steven! What happened to your hand?"

"What's going on with you and Alex?" he asked.

"We've been arguing over who owns my music," she answered quickly. "I don't see what that has to do with your hand…"

"Just got a little mad, is all," Steve replied. "Why… why are you with this guy?"

The music started up and Rowan turned away from him. She leant against the bar and folded her arms over her chest a pointed glare on her face directed directly at Alex. He was singing a song, one Steve recognized.

 _Saturday Night._

Steve knew that song. He remembered when Rowan was stilling trying to figure out lyrics and chords. He remembered her singing it in the shower. He remembered her sitting beside him on the couch while he tried to watch the game, her guitar on her lap trying to strum her way through the chords. That song brought back fond memories, hearing it in Alex's voice almost ruined them for him. It was Alex's show stopper though, he always used it to impress people. Showed off his vocal range. Showed off Rowan's better though.

But it was the look on Alex's face when he spotted Rowan in the crowd that caught Steve's attention. The look of absolute terror on his face when he confirmed that Rowan wasn't where she usually stood at the back up mic. Steve glanced at Rowan in time to see that smug little wave she subjected Alex to.

Alex was so shocked by Rowan's absence on stage that he botched a line, forgot to sing it entirely. Okay… not that Rowan wasn't a great singer, but why did it matter if she was singing back up vocals or not?

But Rowan was gesturing to him, making a scribbling motion with her hand. Signature, she was miming for him to sign. Alex's scowl deepened. Oh, he didn't like that at all.

"Uh… I feel like I'm out of the loop," Danny said. "Why is he upset that you're not up there?"

"Because Alex can't do high notes for extended periods of time. With all the shows, all the extra singing he's been doing recording for the up coming album, he's vocal chords are shot," Rowan explained. Alex was staring at her pleading with his eyes, his arms out stretched. But Rowan was just shaking her head.

"I don't see what that has to do with you?" Danny said but Steve got it.

"I'm his high notes, Danno. When Alex can't do them, I cover. I've been covering for the last week. Now we have a big show to prove to this potential supporter of a tour that he can go anywhere, sing anywhere, can fill any venue, and right now, right at this very crucial moment, Alex Lockman has no one to sing his trademark high notes," Rowan said.

Danny stared at her like he was horrified. Steve was just proud of her. "You're one twisted individual."

"No. What's twisted is the lies he told to get this far. He's lucky I didn't just sick Wo on him," she growled waving to Alex again who was looking past frantic at this point. Rowan half turned to Steve and added: "Or… uh… you…"

Steve half shrugged and tried to hide his smile, but something had hit him hard. "What lies did he tell?"

But Rowan was ignoring him again. She was miming for Alex to sign again and they were coming to the high note that he was dreading. It was then that he noticed the man to the side, the man in the nicely pressed suit. An Asian man.

Chin.

Chin with the papers for Alex to sign. He said nothing but just stood there. Rowan shrugged at Alex's angry facial features. Steve watched. Watching Alex crouch down, all while till trying to sing and signing the papers. As soon as he did, Rowan had a mic out, one of those headpieces. Which was right in time for the high note.

Steve and Danny shielded her from prying eyes as she belted it out. But as soon as she was done she had taken the mic off to let Alex finish his solo just as Chin came over.

"There you go," he said handing her the papers. "Sign them quick before he comes over and I'll deal with them. Make sure he doesn't make a play for the papers or a play for the song book."

"He made a play for your song book?" he asked but Rowan shook her head.

"I'm going to talk to the execs again, when I'm done we can go? Okay?" she asked ignoring his question and Steve nodded, yeah that sounded about right. Her ignoring his important questions. He got the distinct impression that she was still hiding things. But he wondered if that was because she didn't trust him at all, or if she didn't trust him with that part of herself.

Steve watched her skip off before turning to Chin and Danny and asking: "Do you guys wanna fill me in?"

They did not.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

They did end up staying to share drinks with the team before leaving. It was slightly awkward for Steve to leave with Rowan when Catherine was staring him down with a disapproving glare, but if Rowan felt awkward, she didn't say anything.

Dinner was at this posh restaurant a friend of his ran. A sushi joint. Rowan liked what everyone else called: "White people sushi." It was the only time she'd eat fish, and all she'd really eat was synthetic crab so long as it was covered in hot sauce. But Steve didn't care. He was just glad to be sitting across the table from her on an actual proper first date.

And though they had already kissed, several times since their first proper kiss in the tunnels, he felt that… if he did get a kiss tonight, he was going to be an absolute gentleman about it… it would be even more special then all the others.

And he couldn't wait.

By the time dinner was done, Steve realized that he didn't want to drop Rowan off back at Alex's door. He had dropped his truck off there before going to the bar, luckily Chin had picked him up from there. Even luckier for him, Rowan didn't want the night to end either. Rowan had been nice enough to let him take her car, except… she didn't let him drive it. Not her baby. But as he was standing there, both of them at their respective doors he noticed her dithering.

"Uh… so… question…"

"Yeah, I've got one too," Steve said interrupting her.

Rowan pinned him with a dry glare. "You always have questions, Steven."

"This one should be easy," he whispered. "Did you… did you wanna go somewhere else? Like… I unno…"

"Sure. Know any good spots?" she asked having perked up immediately at his question. "Like… a make out point?"

"I went to high school on the island. Of course I do."

Rowan tossed him the keys with a smile. "Good. You drive."

And Steve beamed. Behind the wheel of that car he finally understood her desire to own that car again. And while she looked absolutely marvelous and at ease behind the wheel there was something about her sitting in the passenger seat beside him, wind whipping through her hair that contented smile on her face. Something that made his heart flutter in his chest.

When they got to the point he parked her car and then turned to her. "You never did tell me if you got cleared to drive by the way," he said as they pulled up to Halona Blowhole.

"No, Steven, I didn't. Not yet anyway. The appointment is tomorrow. I'm sure I'll be fine. Nothing tests you better then driving around God's Hawaiian green acres looking for a black Camaro and then a beige sedan."

Steve laughed. Well, she had a point. And she hadn't gotten into an accident today at all. She really was a pretty good driver. Together they got onto the hood of her car and lent back against the windshield where they were faced with all the bright stars above them.

"This is very pretty," she whispered.

Out in the distance came the resounding crash of the blow hole and then light spritz of water sprayed down on them. Rowan squealed and sat up while Steve just smiled and accept it.

"Welcome to Halona Blowhole."

Rowan settled herself back down next to Steve her arm against his. What was the next move here? Normally he'd just swoop in and kiss her but he wasn't sure if that was what he was supposed to do. Rowan was so different from the other girls he'd been around, she didn't melt at his charms or throw herself at him, nor was she some navy marine, or sailor hopper he could impress with his active duty stories.

"This is awkward." Rowan said shifting onto her side so she was looking at him. She poked his arm as she stared at him. "Why yah being awkward McGarrett?"

Steve found himself blinking his eyes at her. Who the hell did stuff like that? "Uh…."

"Like… what exactly are you worried about?"

"I don't know… I guess… I've never been a really casual kind of guy," he answered.

"And what were you and Catherine? I mean, didn't you guys start out casual?"

"Well… I guess… I unno yeah I only saw her when I could but I was 100% committed to seeing her and only her."

"And you're not 100% committed to seeing just me?"

"No," Steve cried maybe a little too hastily. "It's just… I thought we were… I thought we were taking things slow, you know… cause I'm controlling and you're a psychopath."

"Sociopath," Rowan corrected. "Minor sociopathic tendencies. It is not my fault your hectic stressful lifestyle brings it out of me. Maybe if you'd stop getting kidnapped, or shot at, or nearly blown up or trapped in parking garages I wouldn't have to ride to your rescue like the sociopathic bitch I am."

That was a very loaded sentence, one that Steve didn't really want to dissect at that moment, so instead he said: "I haven't been trapped in a parking garage."

Rowan winced. "Oh…. About that…."

"No. No. I told you, I don't like talking about that sort of stuff. Don't tell me those things," he said before she could blurt it out. She nodded, lowering her eyes from his and then rolling back onto her back. Steven sighed, fuck he could have just kissed her there. Could have outstretched a hand and then pulled her down onto of him. He had done fucked that moment up.

"Sorry," she whispered all light and airy like. But he could hear the disappointment in her voice and it made him feel really bad.

This time it was he who turned on his side, one arm propping up his head as he stared down at her. If he move two inches forward and he could kiss her.

"Can you tell me what's going on with you and Alex?"

Rowan blinked her eyes and Steve realized that right now, was probably not the best time to ask about one of the other men in her life. "I told you Steve, we're arguing over my music. But it's settled now…"

"No I mean… what are you doing with him?" Steve interrupted. "I mean, you're with me, and we're casual, I think, honestly I don't know what we're doing…" "—That makes two of us." "—Not the point right now Rowan. So, you have me, the last I heard you and Alex were still together and very official, but he kicked you out of his hospital room, blamed you for getting attacked, he's stolen your music tried to steal your song books and he is way too chummy with the groupies, I notice that at every gig we're at. So, like… are you with him still? Like… what's happening Rowan?"

Rowan stared up at him, her eyes blinking. He could tell that she didn't want to tell him and that worried him. He _could not_ be the other man. He just couldn't be. "We're not together anymore," she finally answered. "He and I… we're not… we just…"

And then he kissed her. Solidly and firmly. She had broken up with Alex. Probably over the music. He'd like to think it was him, but he had a feeling it was about the music. Another spray of fine mist descended on him causing Rowan to giggle and Steve to smile. Both too giddy to actually continue kissing.

"It was over the music right?" Steve asked. "You broke up with him over him trying to steal your songs, right?"

Rowan was hesitant but eventually nodded and Steve went back to kissing her. This time two more spray from the blowhole covered them before Steve finally pulled away. This time when he lay himself back down on the windshield, Rowan snuggled closer to him, taking her fingers and sliding them through his own.

"Can I make one request?" Rowan whispered. Her voice low and silken. Steve nodded, his head already angling so he was resting his on hers. "Could I come home with you tonight. I don't want to… you know… go that far, but I'd really love it if we could just… you know cuddle. I feel safer when I'm with you and…"

Steve rolled back over kissing her until she got the answer, which was a resounding _fuck yes_. When she was smiling contently he slowly and carefully slid back off of her and together they turned back to the night sky.

As they lay back on the hood of her car, shoulder to shoulder, hands intertwined, Steve realized that there was no where else he'd rather be, no one else he'd rather be there with, and all thoughts and worries about what she did up on that hill to save herself and Roy Parrish melted away.


	96. Chapter 96

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: So for everyone who was worried about Rowan losing her music. SHE DID NOT. And she solved the dilemma on her own. What a little trooper. Are you ready for a set of really cute fluffy moments? Cause this chapter is nothing but fluff. Okay, there's some angst. But come on. I'm trying real hard to amp up the fluff. Also, we have our next contest announced at the end of this chapter. Please read it to know what to do to participate! See you guys tomorrow!_

Chapter 96

* * *

Steve had gotten used to a certain feeling when he woke up. A glowing wonderful contented feeling he got when he woke up with a mildly warm body pressed to his. It was a feeling he already knew, it was a feeling he had deluded himself into believing he didn't miss. But from the very first morning he woke up with Rowan in his arms again he knew he wasn't going to go back to waking up without her.

Except he did because, while Rowan slept over frequently, she wasn't there every night. So there was a quite a few mornings where Steve woke up without her but those mornings that he did get to wake up to her were the best mornings of his life.

They hadn't passed the whole _sex_ hurdle yet. To say he was impatient was an understatement. But he hadn't pushed her, hadn't even talked to her about it. They made out, they fooled around, and that was enough. Besides, he was more than enjoying the time he was having with her.

That morning when he woke up, sleepy and content, he didn't panic when she was cuddled up to his side like she usually was. That glowy content feeling hadn't left him so she had to be near-by. So he stretched out his arm and found her just an arm's length away. Well… not for long.

Steve got a hold of her and tugged her back to where she belonged eliciting a few sleepy giggles from the girl in his bed. He pressed a kiss to her shoulder, the one that had taken the bullet and she sighed happily at him.

"Any more nightmares?" he asked her. It was one of the main reasons that she stayed at his place. She'd call him, frantic, in the middle of the night, all scared and nervous, having just awoke from a terrible nightmare. The first few times she would talk to him about it and then she'd hesitantly ask him if she could come over. Steve had gotten into the habit of just asking her to come over the second he'd pick up her call.

"No," Rowan replied. She rarely had repeat nightmares when she was with him. "Did… did you get enough sleep?"

She always worried that she was ruining his sleep habits, but he didn't care. He slept better with Rowan beside him, just like she slept better with him.

"Of course I did," he whispered and then kissed her shoulder once more. The tip of his nose tracing lines against her skin as he pressed his kisses lower, higher, every where he could find until she was moaning and shifting in the bed.

"You gonna be okay if I go for my morning swim?" he asked when the moaning got to be too much for him.

Rowan nodded sleepily and whispered: "Course I will, Steven."

Steve couldn't help but smile. He loved when Rowan called him Steven. Something about her saying his full name like that made him feel all warm and fuzzy. Reluctantly Steve left the little nest of blankets they had made for themselves. And though he left Rowan peacefully dozing in his bed, she stayed in his mind. All through that 3k swim. With each and every stroke, with every kick, with every breath he took she was there with him, splashing around in his mind. Nothing but Rowan in a bikini giggling vivaciously and moaning in that way that always set him off.

Which was why, when he got back to shore, he was happy to see her curled up in that chair he always associated with her, wearing one of his sweaters like a dress, a mug in her hand. A mug he knew was filled with coffee just for him.

She started by throwing him his towel and he dried himself off, without never once taking his eyes off of Rowan who merely stared at him, her stare unidentifiable. He'd give anything to know what she was thinking but she was thoroughly annoyed with all his questions so he made sure not to ask her even though the question was on the tip of his tongue.

Instead she offered up the mug when he was suitably dry. He mumbled his _thanks_ to her and took a big swig.

"I went into my old room."

And just like that he was choking on boiling hot coffee. He couldn't say anything he just stared at her. Why the hell had she gone in there?

"It's real… dusty…"

It had been a shrine. He didn't let anyone in there. She must have seen that. God this was embarrassing. Steve looked down to his coffee not sure what to say to make this better.

"You just kinda… left it? I thought… I thought you'd…"

"I kept it the way you liked it," Steve muttered.

"Yes… I see that… but… why?"

He had been thinking a lot about why Rowan always lied to him. She said it was because there were things he didn't want to know, things he couldn't handle, things that hurt for her to talk about, things that well… she just didn't trust him to know yet. And then she said that he was the exact same way with her… still learning how to trust her with things. He figured that… if he was more open with her maybe… maybe it would be easier for her to be open with him. So here goes nothing.

"For… for… when you came back."

When he looked up Rowan was staring at him up. She didn't look upset or mad. She just looked… surprised.

"I guess I sort of always hoped that you'd… that you'd come back."

Rowan lowered her eyes from him and he swallowed hard. Was this the wrong thing to say? Did he just fuck everything up? Because he sure as hell hadn't meant to.

"Wow… I guess… I guess I always thought that you were glad to see me gone."

"Why would you think that?" Steve asked a frown crossed his features, he had a feeling he knew where she would get something like that. "Did Catherine say something?"

"No, nothing like that. I just thought… that with me always meddling… that you might be happier if I was out of your hair."

Steve knelt down beside her, putting the coffee back in her hands so he could hold onto hers around the coffee mug. "I know I haven't acted like it but I appreciate it. I appreciate that you meddle, I appreciate everything you've done for me and my team. And I am so sorry that I made you think that you or your meddling wasn't wanted," he said to her as sincerely as possible. Smiling when he caught her own sheepish smile. "What you have to understand was that I was worried for your safety. I take the role of your protector very seriously and well… I haven't been doing a good job of it. You've had more head injuries then a football player, you're in and out of the hospital… and hostage situations. Rowan I'm just scared you'll get yourself into something and I won't be able to save you. And let's be honest, you have on more than one occasion. I guess… I guess I got a little mean about trying to keep you safe."

Rowan's eyes narrowed at him. "When have I ever gotten into any kind of trouble that you couldn't get me out of?"

"Well for starters, I never saved you from Wo Fat," Steve whispered. "I didn't find you. I couldn't stop him from shooting you… in fact the only reason we got you back at all is because you slowed him down."

Rowan lowered her eyes and he did the same. They were probably thinking the same thing, that if his mother had taken her when she found her, none of that would have happened. And that if she had be a bit faster she'd be in Japan right now and Steve would have ever seen her again. Either way, they might have been on completely different paths.

"I guess that's fair. But that wasn't your fault, you know, you couldn't have stopped me and you definitely couldn't have stopped him. Sometimes things have to happen, and you know, despite the terrible things we originally had to put up with, I got a strong ally and a new friend out of it," Rowan told him with a sigh. "But back to the room… I guess I just thought, with you being so mad at me, with me hurting your feelings over moving out, with you arresting me and Catherine hating me… that… well you'd turn the room into anything else."

"Catherine wanted to. But she also knew she wasn't allowed in there. As I said… I was keeping it for when you came back."

"Okay, so would you rather I stay in there when I sleep over?"

Steve grabbed her, his hands on her waist tugging her onto the edge of her seat and into his chest. Rowan's hands hit his shoulders, her mouth within kissing distance. But he didn't kiss her yet.

"Fuck no."

Rowan smiled at him, casually draping her arms around his neck as she smiled down at him. "Just checking," she said sliding her lips onto his. Steve couldn't hold back the growl that escaped his lips. He couldn't help it. That low groan of pleasure, the way his body rose to meet her, how it burned to have he pressed against him.

How the hell had he ever thought that he could forget this feeling, how had he thought that he could live without it?

Back in the house the phone rang and Steve sighed. Goddamn it. Rowan pulled away from her and rested her forehead against his. "Go save the world."

"Hawaii… I'd really only be saving Hawaii," Steve answered standing. "You going to stay here?"

He was already heading back to the house with his mug of coffee in hand and his towel over his shoulder. He didn't have to look back to know that Rowan was following behind him.

"No, I have errands to run today," she said and Steve nodded. That meant she'd have to change, that meant she'd have to leave… Steve never wanted her to leave, he wanted to come back to this house and have her in it, waiting for him.

Steve went for his phone, answering the call, knowing it was Danny. He watched Rowan climb the stairs back to his room and he absently followed listening to Danny. It wasn't a case, it was a personal favour. Steve smiled. Yes he would go with Danny to pick up his mother from the airport, but first, first he was going to watch Rowan get undressed and if he was lucky, he'd get to make out with her again before they had to leave each other's company for the day.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

This open house was dead. Granted out of all the things she could be doing, spending her day looking at houses she wouldn't be able to buy at that moment, not until he career took off, not unless she used Wo Fat's emergency money to do it, wasn't the worst. And really, what would she do with all that space?

The real estate agent, who wasn't the one who invited her here, was speaking to someone else and she was milling around the living room space admiring a ridiculously sized piece of modern art strapped to the wall. Rowan was mesmerized by it. Simply because it was just broad strokes of primary colors on a white canvas.

She didn't get it. This wasn't art to her.

But that wasn't why she was staring at it. Her head was buzzing. She couldn't figure out why. But she felt cloudy and fuzzy like she was floating. The world began to swim around her, bile rose up into her throat, her arms felt heavy and suddenly she wasn't standing any more but had slammed shoulder first into the art work and both her and it tumbled to the floor.

People were around her immediately, Sherri, the real estate agent helped her up, a glass of water was shoved into her hands, someone was upset about the painting, Sherri was even more upset about the plaster that seemingly had come out when the painting fell.

Rowan was feeling heaving and buzzy again. She found herself turning to the wall where a hole was staring back at here. A hole and a strange grey texture she didn't quite recognize. She didn't realize she had pulled more plaster away until Sherri was screaming at her, and then she was screaming for a completely different reason.

Because Rowan was looking at a very dead, very mummified face.

And then Sherri was screaming because Rowan had thrown up but all the screaming went away again the second Rowan passed out for the second time.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve pulled his truck to a halt and jumped out. He could already see the ambulance parked by the front of the house, behind a barricade of police cars. Rowan was in that ambulance, Chin had said one had been called for her when he called only a few moments before. He wanted to rush to it. Mainly cause he didn't know what had happened. All Chin could tell him was that they had a probable murder and Rowan was involved somehow.

But on his approach to the ambulance he got stopped by some man he barely recognized but seemed to know him. This was not a time for him to be getting recognized, not when he wanted to check up on Rowan.

"Shawn Hutten. Honolulu Register," he said to him. Great. Steve hated reporters. Especially the ambulance chasing ones. "We met at the Governor's Christmas party last year."

Ah. That's why he was familiar. Well now he had to play nice. "Oh yeah, sure, I remember," he lied. "How are you doing?" he waited for Shawn to tell him he was good before plowing on forward. They were walking towards the crime scene, too slowly for Steve's liking, but he couldn't just take off like he wanted to with this guy following him. He wanted to keep Rowan as far out of the press as he could. "I can't give you a statement. I haven't seen the crime scene."

"No, I'm not here to talk about that. I want to talk about Lou Grover."

Really? Why? "What about him?"

"Well, I'm doing a story on our new SWAT captain. I wanted to see if you'd go on record about him."

Steve nodded like he understood, except he didn't. He and Grover rarely saw eye to eye, and that was no secret. If this guy was doing a puff piece he came to the wrong person for praise. "Ah, okay. Well, listen, we just started working together so there's not much I can tell you, okay?"

And that did not seem to please Shawn, but Steve didn't care if that man stopped walking with him, his eyes were on that ambulance. Chin hadn't said Rowan was desperately injured, he didn't sound upset or worried for her, but the fact remained that someone had felt the need to call an ambulance for Rowan and that meant she was hurt in some capacity, which meant Steve was on _protector_ mode again and this guy was stopping him from getting to where he wanted to be.

"Did you know he left Chicago under a cloud?" Shawn called out to Steve's retreating back. Well fuck. Now Steve had to stop.

Which he promptly did and then turned around to face Shawn. Judging by the way took a precautionary step away from Steve he was not wearing an encouraging smile on his face.

"What kind of story are you writing?" he asked, his voice low and dangerous. Shawn actually gulped down whatever his first response was going to be and seemed to contemplate before answering Steve's question.

"There was an incident, a hostage situation. And from what I hear, Grover screwed up and the Chicago P.D. buried it."

Oh. Shit. That's not good. Steve hadn't heard that story, but he had heard a similar story.

"Well, I don't know anything about that."

It was a lie, but Steve wasn't about to feed that bottom feeder anything about that situation. It wasn't Steve's business until Grover told him about it and it sure as hell wasn't Shawn Hutten's nor was it any of his reader's business. That statement meant the conversation was over. Steve should have been able to leave, but Shawn had gotten closer to him and grabbed his arm.

"I'm sure you don't. Because if you did, you would've told the chief of police and then Grover never would've been hired."

Steve just glared at the man. He pried his hand off of him and then half turned away. "Yeah, maybe. But if you're gonna go down that road Mr. Hutten, better make sure your facts are straight or you could ruin a good man's career."

The face Shawn pulled was enough to make Steve want to punch him.

"With all due respect, Commander, I don't need you to tell me how to write a story. Okay? And I'm gonna write this story whether you cooperate or not."

Steve actually laughed. It was like this man was begging him to punch him. Just right there. Right in his stupid fucking mouth. But he didn't have time for this.

"Then we got nothing more to talk about."

This time Hutten actually let Steve walk away which meant he could make a bee line straight to the ambulance like he wanted to in the first place.

As soon as he rounded the corner and found Rowan just sitting there on the tailgate enveloped in a blanket looking perfectly fine, he let out his worried breath. He actually found himself braced on his knees as he desperately took in a deep breath. He hadn't realized that he was that worried about her until he saw her. He noted that Chin was standing above her, seemingly taking her statement. For fucksake, they had only been separated for an hour at best. What the actual hell could have happened in that hour he was putting up with Danny's awkward family life? Errands. She said she just had errands.

"Who was that guy?" Rowan asked him. Like that was what was important right now. He gestured to the crime scene, to the ambulance and then to her.

"What the hell, Ro?!" he cried.

Rowan scowled at him. "I didn't fucking put his body in there now did I, Steven?" she snapped. Okay how did she even know it was a he? Huh? But he was distracted now by the warm spreading from his chest to the rest of him. Goddamnit she knew not to do that when he was working.

"Don't do that, okay? Don't do that to me when I'm mad at you."

Chin turned to him, a look on his face, a sort of curious grin. "And… uh… what is she doing?"

But Rowan had rolled her eyes and said: "Fine. I didn't fucking put his body in the way now did I… _Steve_?... Better?"

"Yes, yes, it is."

"Good. Now who were you talking to? It looked like you wanted to hit him."

"That's because I did want to hit him," Steve said which won him a confused look from both Chin and Rowan. "He's a reporter. He wants to write a piece on Grover."

"And that made you want to hit him?" Rowan asked. "Really Steven, isn't it a bit petty to be mad that he's writing a piece on Lou instead of you."

Steve put his hands on his hips and glared down at her. "That is not why I'm mad, Rowan. And what did I just say? What did I say?"

"Sorry, I'm just so used to using it," she said blinking her big blue eyes. "I'll try to stop… Steven."

God she wasn't even trying. And of course, like the sucker he was, he was grinning ear to ear. She smiled sheepishly at him. "Aren't you going to ask if I'm okay?"

"No. I know you're okay. I want to know what happened. Why are you at this…" "Open house," Chin supplied for him. "Okay, open house… wait… open hou… why are you at an open house?"

When Rowan didn't answer he looked at the house again and that back to her. "Are you… are you trying to buy a house?"

"Well… I unno… maybe?" she cried. "I was just looking. Getting an idea for the market… what I should be looking for… what I'd like..."

"Got a lot of room for just you," he said turning to the spacious house and sizing it up.

"Who said it was just for me?" she asked and Steve felt his blood run cold. Oh god, she was looking to buy a house with Alex? But they… they weren't together anymore and the man was trying to steal her music.

Why the hell wasn't here if they were buying a house together? Come on, that's the best part. Watching your partner's face light up when they see it, knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that this would the house they lived in together, simply by that smile. Steve wanted nothing more than to see that smile, to be with Rowan when she found the house of her dreams. To have that be a house they'd be getting together.

"Do… do you need a new place to stay?" Steve asked. "I mean… things must be bad between you and Alex after the fight for your music. If you need to move out fast you can just stay with me."

"No," Rowan said a little too quickly. Enough for it to sting Steve's pride. "I want to stand on my own two feet. You know. I want my own place, not someone else's."

Yes he had heard that before. Right before she moved out to be with Alex. Steve hung his head unable to look at her anymore and beside him Chin scoffed. Rowan shot him a warning look, Steve was just confused. Chin took in both their stares and then cleared his throat. "Uh… you were explaining to me how you found the body…"

 _She found a body_?!

At this Steve did look back up to see that Rowan was wincing, a grey tinge to her cheeks again. She was going to vomit just thinking about it.

"Uh… I was looking at this painting, an ugly thing really, trying to determine whether or not it was art. I'd say it wasn't, but you know those modern and contemporary painting…" "—Rowan!" "—Sorry, right, got off topic. Uh… I was looking at the painting and I got a bit woozy and sort of fell over. When I fell I took the painting down with me and some plaster came loose and that's when… uh… that's when we noticed him there."

"Would this be before or after you took more plaster out of the wall?"

"After."

"And you took more plaster out of the wall because…?"

"I unno… it just… it just looked weird, I didn't know it was a body, I just thought it was… something… and then bam I was looking at a mummified face."

Despite her throwing the offer to have her stay at his place back in his face, Steve was beside her in an instant, an arm around her tugging her to his side so he could envelope her in a tight hug. Rowan pressed herself into it and in turn he pressed a kiss to her hair.

"Why was an ambulance called?" Steve asked. "She's fine. Our Vic is clearly dead…" "—And still in the wall actually." "—either way an ambulance isn't needed."

"That would be because I threw up and then promptly passed out again," Rowan said to him.

"Did you hit your head?" he asked, his hands coming up to feel for bumps.

Rowan shook her head at him, but there was a narrowed look about her, one Steve didn't like. "What kind of story is that reporter writing?"

"One about Grover."

"Yes, I got that part. But is it a good piece or a bad piece?"

Steve didn't want to have her worry about it so he shrugged. But then Rowan said: "You said his name was Shawn Hutten right?" and his blood ran cold.

"Did I?" he asked, because he was certain he hadn't.

"Well you must have, how else would I have known?" Yes how else indeed? She wasn't supposed to be having visions anymore and he sure as hell didn't want her pulling in Wo Fat and his network over this. Especially after everything he had to do to make sure no one found out that she was the reason Lynch died on that hill top.

"Okay… well we have to go inside, are you… are you gonna be okay?" he asked. When she nodded he nodded too. "Just… that reporter… don't do anything okay? It'll be fine, I'll handle it. Just… please?"

"Really, Steven, what do you expect me to do?"

He didn't tell her what he thought she might do. He didn't tell her that he was afraid of the power she pulled and the damage she could cause when she decided someone she cared about was going to get hurt. And Shawn Hutten was definitely out to hurt someone. Instead he let Rowan blow him a kiss and he tried not to think of what was going to happen if and when Rowan found out what was going on with Shawn Hutton and Grover.

* * *

 **Contest announcement:**

Alright guys, so I've decided, that the 600th review will get two rewards.

1\. They will get to become a character in one of the chapters that gets to interact with characters of their choice, AND 2. You get to pick which filler chapter your character appears in.

I am currently in the process of writing 10 filler chapters between Season 4 and Season 5, hence why I'm doing the contest now. As a result, the chapters in question will be coming in later but I will be put up a reminder when I post them.

Chapter Options

Chapter on what Matt and Wo Fat are doing

Cook out on Steve's beach where he learns a dance

Grace's Take your kids to work day

Steve and Rowan on a Date

Rowan and Steve arguing – Five-0 betting on how it's going to end

Viral video – for can't stop the feeling

Rowan and Steve Hiking/camping

Double date with Amber and Danny

Game Night that ends in disaster

Doris checking in on Steve and visiting Wo Fat

Just some Contest rules

 **Contest Submissions = A review that tells me which chapter you want to be in.**

If you're a **guest reviewer** , please put a name on your review so I can announce you as the winner, if I get a review without a name, I'll move to the next person. Okay?

When we reach 600 reviews, I will contact the winner to get their character description and name. If you're a guest reviewer I will announce you as the winner and then ask for you to put your character description and name in your next review. If I don't hear from you within two chapters I will move onto the next person.

Sound fair? I think so!


	97. Chapter 97

Rewrite

 _AvalonReeseFanFics_

 _A/N: I'm so glad you guys are liking the fluffy parts of the story and there are SO MANY MORE in this chapter. So I hope you like all the fluff and all the funny stuff I added into the story. It ends on a D'Awww moment, like it should make you guys go aww please tell me if it does. See you guys tomorrow!_

 **For those of you who don't know here's the contest info.**

When we reach that 600th review, the person will get two rewards.

1\. They will get to become a character in one of the chapters that gets to interact with characters of their choice, AND 2. You get to pick which filler chapter your character appears in.

Chapter Options **(If you'd like more detailed descriptions of the chapter options please tell me so in your review and I will add it in next chapter.)**

Chapter on what Matt and Wo Fat are doing

Cook out on Steve's beach where he learns a dance

Grace's Take your kids to work day

Steve and Rowan on a Date

Rowan and Steve arguing – Five-0 betting on how it's going to end

Viral video – for Can't stop the feeling

Rowan and Steve Hiking/camping

Double date with Amber and Danny

Game Night that ends in disaster

Doris checking in on Steve and visiting Wo Fat

Just some Contest rules

 **Contest Submissions = A review that tells me which chapter you want to be in.** (You're allowed to change your mind, but I'll pick your most recent choice if you do)

If you're a guest reviewer, please put a name on your review so I can announce you as the winner, if I get a review without a name, I'll move to the next person. Okay?

Chapter 97 

* * *

Rowan pulled up to Kong Liang's new warehouse base of operation and smiled at the bouncer as she got out of the car. Already poor Andre was heading out to ward her off but that wasn't going to stop her from getting in to see his boss. Not even in the slightest.

She smiled at him widely and put a protein shake into his hand. "That's for you Andre, extra kale, to help you stay bulked up," she said and then slid past him as he got distracted with both trying out the drink she put in his hand and saying thank you.

By the time he realized he was supposed to have stopped her Rowan had already broken into the inner sanctum. She ignored him as he trailed after her trying to get her to stop, he couldn't even get her to not knock on Kong's office door.

When he opened it up he scowled at her and then to Andre. "I told you to keep the girl scout out."

Girl Scout. He called her that because she used what he called a network designed for chaos and destruction, for good. He called it a waste, that in her hands she had corrupted what could have been the next Dark Web. Rowan considered that a good thing in her books which just made him angrier.

"Aww… but then who will I share all this sushi with?" she asked indicating to the large brown paper bag she had brought with her.

"Are there green dragon rolls in there?" he asked, eyeing her and the bag with rapt interest.

"Uh… duh…" she said. He went to snatch the bag out of her hand but she stopped him. "Nu-uh… I need to initiate Black Cat protocols on someone, starting ASAP."

Kong sighed and glared at her. "What?"

Rowan pushed herself past him and into his office, she set the bag on his desk and then sat down. Kong shut the door in Andre's face and then came to sit in his chair across from her.

"Black Cat protocols. You know… from the app?"

"Yes, I know what they are, but why didn't you just use the app?" he asked.

"Because I need this done on the DL."

"So, you came to my office in a pastel purple classic sports car… to ask me to do it in person? Wow, you're a regular secret agent," he growled.

"Oh, shut up. Look. I need to ruin someone's life, I need hacked into his cloud… his everything. I need an article deleted, I need him fired. I need his bank accounts emptied, his car destroyed, his identify stolen. I want it to be so bad that he has no choice but to move back in with his parents on the main land. I need him gone. Like. Now."

"Holy hell, what did this person do to upset you?" Kong asked. It was the first time he had ever seen her so damn riled up before. Usually she was such a sweet thing, he was starting to see a bit of that darkness Wo Fat talked about. The capability to be almost exactly like her benefactor.

"He's writing an article that is less then kind on one of my friends. So naturally I want to destroy him before he can publish it."

A reporter. Wow. Okay. "And when is he planning on publishing it?"

"In 24 hours."

Okay that did not give him a lot of time. "Look I need Dirt. I need something dirty enough to rip apart his life, can you help me or not?"

Kong thought it over. He looked her up and down and then reached for the Sushi. "You may need to get more of this."

Rowan just smiled the motion acidic sort of gleam that made Kong wince. He liked it better when she was a girl scout.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

"My mother is really serious about this divorce thing."

Danny watched his friend carefully and noted the way his cheeks puffed out and he held himself tightly. Steve had bailed him out like Danny asked, giving him a chance to get away from his mother to think, but judging by how upset Steve was that he appeared he assumed that when Danny said he needed time alone that Steve was off the hook.

WELL HE WAS WRONG.

"Uh… okay," he said with a deep sigh. He clasped his hands together and braced himself on the desk in front of him to levy out his advice. "She's serious today, Danny. Give her a couple days to think about it, you know let it sink in…"

No. See. Steve wasn't listening. The man never listened. "I'm telling you, okay, she has made up her mind. My mother is singing in my kitchen. She's singing _I Saw the Sign._ You know the song, _I Saw the Sign_?"

"I don't know the song."

How the hell could he not know the song, what did the man grow up under a rock. He had in fact… a military one but this was inexcusable. "Okay, let me explain the song to you. It goes. I saw the sign, it opened up my mind. And now I'm happy living without you. You know the one now?"

"Sing me a couple of bars? Just the first…"

Wow. That son of a bitch. This was not funny. "You sing me a couple bars. You really gonna bust my chops right now?"

"Look I don't get it, alright? It's a song. It is just a song," Steve said leaning back and putting his feet up on his desk.

"It is a song that is about being happy and moving on in life."

Steve leant back and rolled his eyes. "Oh, the horror."

"Look, it's not just the song. She's saying disturbing things. She's talking about me time, right? Third act of her life, It's all very unsettling to hear from your mother, trust me."

"Next thing, she'll be dating."

What the fuck. Seriously. What the fuck? "Why would you say that to me?" Danny asked, too shocked to believe that Steve would actually think that was a kind thing to say to him.

"It's a natural—" "—Why would you say…?" "—You were getting there." "I was not getting there. This is my mother we're talking about."

"Yeah. Who, if we're being honest, happens to be a beautiful woman…"

"WHOA! _Hey_!"

"What, she's not gonna date again?"

"No! Enough. That's it. No more talking about it, okay?" Danny snapped. And then Steve changed. His whole demeanour changed. He went from frustrated and rolling his eyes at Danny again to suddenly ram rod straight and starry eyed. That could only mean one thing.

Danny turned and there she was Rowan, who locked eyes with him and quickly turned on her heels to run from him.

"You!" he shouted and Rowan froze. Even without her turning back around he could see or well rather feel the wince on her face, when she turned back, choosing to enter the room with that wince he had sensed on her face. "Why didn't you tell me it was this bad?"

"Uh, I did tell you. I told you this was going to happen, so stop yelling at me!" she ordered crossing over to where Steve was now standing and staring at her. She got with in arms distance and Steve's arm darted out and snatched her to his side.

He opened his mouth to ask her a question but Rowan had turned away from him and to Danny. "Why are you even here? Shouldn't you be with your mother?"

"Yeah, probably. I came here for advice. Though really, I should have my head examined for coming to this savage for advice on this matter. His mother couldn't even get divorced like a normal human being. She had to pretend she was dead to get away from your father."

"Hey!" Steve cried. "Take it easy!"

"Well, he's got a point," Rowan said and Steve turned a glare to her.

"Why do you always side with him—" "What? No… I don't… I don't always…" "—No. You do. You always side with Danny why do you always side with Danny?" "It's not that… I unno he's just bringing up some good points that's all."

"Okay, can you two stop distracting one another? Will yah, please?" Danny asked.

"Good points? Excuse you, I'm supportive of my mother… when she let's me." "Okay, but like, Danny was there when you brought her back from Japan. That was a hella awkward episode. You wouldn't look her in the eye, you wouldn't call her mom… you still don't." "Yeah, because Doris and I had some issues, okay, when she got back from Japan after 20 years. And then what happened? I was supportive." "Uh… no, you had a PI follow her, and you yelled at her to make her tell you her secrets and she chose to run away and play spy instead of answering those questions so like… ya'll still have issues…" "—Why the hell are you never on my side. Why can't you just once, just once be on my side." "That is hurtful, I am always on your side, Steven McGarrett…" "—What have I told you? Goddamn it, Ro, what did I say? Don't use my full name when we're arguing, it's an unfair advantage and I don't like it."

When they continued to ignore Danny to argue he shouted: "HEY! Ro? Any chance you can shut up and let us finish our conversation?" Both of them turned to him but the scowl that had been on Steve's face and directed at Rowan immediately swung to Danny as he put a hand out to ward him off.

"Hey! Hey! Stop yelling at her, Danny, this is not her fault," Steve ordered sitting back down in his chair and then tugging Rowan down to his lap, his attention and focus entirely on her now.

"Are those yours," she asked pointing to the medals on the wall behind Danny's head. Oh great, now they were off topic entirely.

Steve's eyes reluctantly turned from her to the wall and then back. "No those are my grandfathers."

"Oh, what about those? Are those yours?" she asked pointing to the ones behind Steve. Steve followed her gaze as if he didn't know and then turned back to her.

"Yes."

"Oh… so many. What are they for? I mean… what did you get them for? Can you talk me through what each one means and how you got them?"

"Rowan, did you come here for a reason? Or are you just hear to talk about my office décor?"

Rowan sheepishly looked away from him, and Steve's hand came up to play with her hair. God they were sickening together. Like holy hell, was this what Danny's life was going to become? Watching these two be disgustingly cute? Maybe it would be better if they went back to arguing. "I can't come visit you at the office?"

"No, of course you can, it's just… you usually don't come to the Palace to see me…"

"God Steve, if you want me to go, just say so, I'll go," Rowan said jumping to her feet. Panic swept across Steve's features and Danny almost laughed. My God, this guy was strung out on her, and they weren't even officially together.

"No. No. Not the point here," Steve said, grabbing a hold of her and tugging her straight back down and onto his lap. Rowan's arms draped across his neck leisurely and that smug grin slid right back onto his lips.

"Okay? Can we get back to me please?!"

"Oh your mother is going to be fine. She and your dad are gonna get back together in a few episodes, promise."

Both men froze and turned to Rowan who was staring at them like she didn't just spit out a prediction. "Really… when?"

"Oh I don't know... give me a second," and then her hand was under Steve's shirt. He started at the contact, his blue eyes burned with a sudden desire while Rowan seemed to concentrate on fondling his abs and his chest.

"What are you doing?" Steve managed to breathe out.

"Shhhh… maybe I need two hands," she whispered sliding a second hand under his shirt. Steve was lost to him now, his eyes wouldn't budge from Rowan, his mouth was partially open like she was doing all sorts of inexplicable things to him. Until he suddenly yelped and threw her hands away from him.

"Fucking hell that hurt!"

"Yeah, sorry that was a big one," Rowan said and then turned away from Danny and said: "Yes, two episodes, so I'm guessing anywhere between two to three weeks," and then she quietly added to herself: "And I need to turn it up a notch."

Steve turned to Danny and said: "See, everything's going to work out, Rowan said so. See, your mom needs you right now. Just be there for her." He tapped Rowan's shoulder but she was too busy looking at her phone to pay attention to him. "You wanna tell me why I just got electrocuted by you? Ro… Ro? What are you doing? Black Cat Protocols? What are those? Is that… is that _the_ app?"

Rowan bolted off of Steve's lap a strange sort of smile on her face. "What? App? Sorry, the shock? Right yes. Uhm… I've noticed that my dreams are stronger when I'm with you. That uh… I get really strong and accurate visions when I'm around or touch you and that last one was uh… was well pretty big. So… uhm… I must have shocked you by accident."

Steve took that in with a suspicious. _Uh-huh_. And then asked: "What are you doing on the App, Rowan?"

Rowan looked down to her phone and then quickly pocketed it. "It wasn't the app, it's uh… it's a little embarrassing but I was looking at a fanfiction."

"Fanfiction?"

"Yeah, Black Widow and Cat Woman smut fiction. It's uh… it's my guilty pleasure," she said. She quickly leant in and kissed him solidly and deeply. "I'll see you tomorrow, yeah?"

"Not tonight?" Steve asked clearly derailed from their previous topic of conversation literally immediately. Damn she was good. She knew how to play Steve well.

"Well I'm hoping not to have a nightmare tonight," she whispered kissing the very tip of his nose.

"Or you know… if you don't want to stay at Alex's you could just… you know… stay with me. I wouldn't mind, really. I'd prefer it actually."

Rowan just smiled at him, hugged Danny good-bye and then left the office. Steve sighed to himself and muttered: "She's never going to agree. Stubborn little…"

"You saw how suspicious that was… right?" Danny asked.

Steve nodded. "Oh, hell yeah, nothing I can do about it now… do you uh… do you still need to talk?"

"No. No I'm good," he said and Steve nodded. It was a nice distraction from the drama in his life. Danny… Danny needed that right now. He should have just gone to Rowan first though, she was always good for a distraction.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

There was a knock on his door and Steve put down his phone and waved them on in. Anything was better then staring at his phone and wondering if he should call Rowan. Grover had finally let him in on the whole Chicago incident. He had the man's side of the story and now he was hoping to get this reporter off of Grover's back, but he also had something nagging at the back of his mind. Which was, what Rowan doing with that damned app?

Shawn Hutten walked into Steve's office with an air of smug satisfaction and Steve's frustrations kicked up a notch. He really wanted to punch this guy.

Steve stood up and said: "Thanks for coming," as he offered a hand out for Shawn to shake which the man took immediately.

"Change your mind about going on record?" he asked grinning at Steve.

Alright then, right down to business it was. Steve put his hands on his hips and readied himself for what would be a very long argument no doubt, and an even longer negotiation.

"No. I'm afraid not Shawn." This earned him a strange stare and Steve felt completed to continue. "Listen, I know what happened in Chicago, alright? And your facts may be right. But you're way off base about Captain Grover. He's a good man…" "—Who made the wrong call and got a little boy killed."

Steve just stared at him. Wow… he really didn't understand, did he? Shawn continued. "I' surprised by your support for him, Commander. One of the first things that Grover did when he rode into town was file a grievance against you."

Yeah, one that Steve deserved. It didn't help that Grover's first impression of Five-0 and of Steve was of Steve shoving a gun in his face and taking Grover's men hostage. So, you know… Grover's reaction was warranted. Clearly Shawn didn't know that.

"Which was withdrawn," Steve said instead.

"So what? You owe him a favour now?"

"No that's not how it works."

"Why are you defending him? I don't get you!" Shawn cried.

"You don't get me? No, you don't get me. You non-operators, you sit on the sidelines and you judge us in the field. You have no idea what it's like. The hard decisions we have to make every day going downrange, and the consequences that we have to live with forever."

"Are you speaking for Captain Grover or are you speaking for yourself?"

Both. But at that moment… himself. There were a lot of decisions, specifically recent Rowan related ones that he regretted. Ones he made when he was in the navy that kept him up at night when a certain someone wasn't in his arms but he wasn't going to talk to Shaw Hutten about any of those.

"I'm speaking for anyone who's ever had to do this job," he said glaring Shawn down. "I'm also ask you, leave this one alone, okay?"

"So is that why I've been dealing with a string of suspicious bad luck all of a sudden? Are you trying to ward me off?"

Steve just stared at him. "I'm sorry… what?"

"Someone hacked into my personal cloud, deleted my running draft of the article. Someone, and I'm assuming it was the same someone, also broke into my house and smashed up my home computer. Then my work computer at the office turned up corrupted, the hard drive wiped and my tires have been slashed… twice today. Isn't that a little much… Commander?"

Steve blinked his eyes at him. It took all of two seconds for the light bulb to click in his head. Oh god… Rowan knew. Rowan knew about what was going on with Grover. That's why she was on the app, that's what she had been doing. She hadn't come to the Palace to see him, she came to give herself an alibi and to see what he had known. This was all Rowan messing with Shawn to make sure he didn't write the article. She's the only one who would go to such lengths, though to be honest Steve was a little surprised she didn't just order him dead. She must have listened to his lecture about Lynch, about how she needed to cool it cause he couldn't protect her forever.

This wasn't any better though.

"I don't know anything about that," Steve lied… again. "Sounds like you've upset someone. And besides, I just asked you to back off, clearly that's how I ward someone off. I don't resort to… petty acts of vandalism."

But Rowan sure did. She really, really did. God, he was going to have to talk to her.

"Well… say what you want, but you can tell which ever friend of yours that's messing with me that they can back off. It's not working. I'm going to post that story no matter how many times they slash my tires and break my computers."

Steve glared at him. "Uh… I just told you I'm not involved, but uh… what if I could make sure that it stopped? Would you think of pulling the story then?"

Luckily the asshole said yes.


	98. Chapter 98

****** **ANNOUNCEMENT** ******

 **For those of you who don't know here's the contest info.**

When we reach that 600th review, the person will get two rewards.

1\. They will get to become a character in one of the chapters that gets to interact with characters of their choice, AND 2. You get to pick which filler chapter your character appears in.

Chapter Options **(I have included a more detailed description at the end of this chapter so check it out.)**

Chapter on what Matt and Wo Fat are doing

Cook out on Steve's beach where he learns a dance

Grace's Take your kids to work day

Steve and Rowan on a Date

Rowan and Steve arguing – Five-0 betting on how it's going to end

Viral video – for Can't stop the feeling

Rowan and Steve Hiking/camping

Double date with Amber and Danny

Game Night that ends in disaster

Doris checking in on Steve and visiting Wo Fat

Just some Contest rules

 **Contest Submissions = A review that tells me which chapter you want to be in. (You're allowed to change your mind, but I'll pick your most recent choice if you do)**

If you're a guest reviewer, please **put a name on your review** so I can announce you as the winner, if I get a review without a name, I'll move to the next person. Okay?

* * *

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hey guys! We're almost done this marathon. Only two more chapters to post. This chapter also ends very fluffily so I hope you enjoy it. You guys really seem to like the whole fluff aspect so I'm glad you're enjoying it. I've noticed a lack of contest submissions! Please tell me which chapter you'd LIKE to be in if you were to win! I'll see you guys tomorrow!_

Chapter 98 

* * *

"Of course, I'm sad!"

Okay, maybe this was not the way he wanted this conversation to go. When his mother came back with Grace in tow, Grace's face looking clownish with that make up all over it, he had hoped he could talk some sense into his mother. That he could keep her from pulling Grace out of school and giving his daughter make overs every time she was a little bored. The goal was to guilt her into feeling a little bad about the situation she had created, leaving his father and all.

But having his mother come out and tell him that she was, in fact, sad despite the dancing and the singing and the make overs, broke his heart.

"You think because I have a song stuck in my head that I'm not sad?"

Danny shrugged and paired it was a nonchalant: "I unno."

It was like he was a teen again.

"I wanna cry all the time, honey," she said and then with a deep sigh she flopped down to the couch. "I'm sorry I took Grace out of school. It's just… when you left for work, I found myself extremely lonely here and wandering around with nothing to do…"

Danny sat down on the small foot stool in front of his mother and repeated: "Okay, I already said that it's fine. Ma, can we talk now? Please?"

Clara sat up a little straighter and though it looked like she'd rather chew nails she agreed to talk to her son.

"Ever since your father retired, he has a million different hobbies and interests. And not one of them involves being with me. You're here with Gracie. Matt's on the run somewhere, the girls are busy with their own families and I went from being the busiest woman in the world, raising you guys, cooking, cleaning, couponing, PTA-ing, to having absolutely nothing but time on my hands."

"Alright, so maybe you need a hobby too…"

"No, I don't need a hobby. Sweetheart, I need a life. Like a real life. A life with love and romance and companionship," she said and then she let that sink in. "Please don't think that I did not try to make this marriage work. I never worked harder at anything in my life. And I know this is hurting you, but…" "—No mom… it's… uh… it's…" "Yeah. No, I know it is. And I know that it doesn't really matter how old you are or how much your dad and I love you, it's still a tough thing for you to handle. The thought of us being apart. And I am sorry for that"

Danny nodded, now he sure as hell felt like the prized jerk. "Okay, well, I appreciate that, Mom, I do. And I apologize myself. I obviously have not been very supportive, okay? But just so you know, uh, the hardest day of my life was not when Rachel told me that she was leaving me, okay? It was when we had to sit down and tell Grace. That was, that was tough. And she… she… she, you know, she tired not to cry. And she was, you know, trying to be big about it, but I know that we were her anchor. Just like you and Pops are to me. That's tough, thinking about losing that."

His mother put a hand to his arm. "I know… I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry," he said. "and uh… here, I'm gonna give you a number. A number. To a very good girl. Great at distractions. She uh… she owes me one, and uh… she'll be at your beck and call, so if you ever get bored you can call her and not pull my daughter out of school. Sound good."

He handed his mother a paper and she looked it over. "Rowan huh? I thought you were dating a girl named Amber."

"I am. Amber I mean. Rowan… uh… Ro. Auntie Ro, if you're talking Grace, she's uh… she's Steve's…. uh… you know what none of us know what's going on between her and Steve, maybe you can figure it out huh? You can be the Rowan-Relationship-Status detective."

"You could just ask her you know."

"True, I could, but she lies and she's really good at avoiding questions, trust me, you'll… uh… you'll love her."

And for the first time Danny thought he saw the barest hint of a real smile on his mother's face.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan skipped back into the Palace and made a bee line straight to Steve's office where he was waiting for her. She didn't miss the stern and seriously look on his face but that didn't matter, she had a foolproof plan to skip over whatever lecture he had planned for her and go straight to either making out or him taking her out for dinner.

As soon as she got in there, as soon as those hands went to his hips in preparation for the lecture, she launched herself at him. Arms around his neck, lips on his. There wasn't a single pause between that motion and Steve's arms around her. He made a single noise, a groan of relief and then he was thoroughly going about kissing her.

He straightened to his full height, Rowan's sandal clad feet coming off the floor, but before she could wrap her legs around his waist he had dropped her onto his desk, sweeping whatever he could aside, ignoring whatever clattered to the floor. Rowan clung to Steve's shoulders, kissing him, tasting him, nibbling on his lower lip in that way that drove him wild. Steve was between her legs, his hands wandering her body. She wasn't sure they were at that point yet, despite Steve's silent desperation to go that far, and she wasn't sure she was willing to go that far simply to avoid a lecture.

Luckily Steve came apart from her, taking a few steps away from her, his chest heaving and his eyes burning. She couldn't help but smile at the man, he looked just about half undone. His hair was dishevelled, his lips plumped up and red from all her nibbling, his shirt was askew and he was desperately trying to rearrange himself so he could be conformable in his pants without her noticing.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes. No. _Fuck_. Rowan. Why did you… did you do that so I wouldn't… _FUCK_!"

Okay, maybe this wasn't such a good game to play.

"I was just happy to see you," she whispered to him. Which was also true. "I just wanted to kiss you… I'm… I'm sorry."

"No. Don't… be… just… give me… give me a minute," he whispered bracing himself on his knees so he could suck in as much air as he could. When he was ready he straightened, ran a hand through his hair and avoided her eyes. "I uh… I need to call off whoever you sent after Shawn Hutten."

Rowan blinked her eyes. How in the hell did he know about that… already? "Uh… who?"

"Don't play with me Rowan. He's had an uncanny string of bad luck. You were on the app today, I saw you. Call them off. Now."

"I honestly have no idea what you're talking about…"

"Rowan!"

"No! Okay! No! I'm not… he needs to… he's got it all wrong. Grover thought he could help and he's been torturing himself over that decision and Hutten's not gonna get it cause he's all high and mighty. Well his high and mighty ass is on its way to having to move back in with momma cause I did not shell out over 30 grand to ruin him and not have him ruined!"

" _Ruined_?!"

"Well… yeah… you said not to use the app to kill people anymore so I initiated Black Cat Protocols which essentially just means you're ruining someone's life and…"

"I told you to stop using the app all together. No more app, that's what I said. No differentiating between the different modes… no more app, Rowan!"

"Okay fine… I'm sorry, I was just trying to help. I can call them off…" she said. Steve lounged back and shook his head at her. "Are… uh… are you mad at me?"

Steve stared at her, his hands on his hips, looking fine in that dark brown shirt. Fuck why did he have to look so good, he was like walking sex. It wasn't fair. So much more unfair then her saying his full name when they argued.

"No," he answered. "I should be, but I'm not. I know you were trying to help but I mean it Rowan you have to stop using that app. I can't keep covering for you, okay?"

Rowan nodded and he sighed, pulling out his phone to look at it. Oh she knew what that meant. "Let me guess… you gotta go right?"

"Yeah, I do have a case, that I really need to stop getting pulled off of. Chin and Kono are downstairs working on a suspect I was gonna go see how they're doing," he replied and Rowan found herself nodding again. "But if you want, you can stay… we can do something once this is cleared up…"

"Alright fine. Go. I'll wait here. Call me when you wanna know about the second body."

Steve thanked her, pressed a soft kiss to her cheek and actually walked out of his office before he realized what she had said to him. Steve turned right back around and opened the door again getting her to look up at him. "Hey… uh… real quick… did you just say second body?"

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Gerrard Burns had given them the location of their wife's body coincidentally just before Steve came down to tell them that he knew where Burns' Wife's body was hidden. It had confused the hell out of Burns, and even Chin and Kono were confused for a minute, but they had all shrugged it off and headed to the original scene of the crime.

The last of the plaster came off and there it was the mummified remains of the missing Mrs. Burns.

Even Steve was having a hard time looking at it but the second he heard a muted: _oh god_ followed by gagging he knew someone else was having an even harder time with it. Steve whirled around immediately, to confirm that she was actually in the room and then inwardly swore at himself because, really, who else could it have been.

"Geezus, Rowan, what did I say?" he said, crossing to her. "I said stay in the truck." He shot a "For the love of god, someone book him" over his shoulder as he ushered Rowan out of the house before she could vomit.

One hand at the small of her back, the other in her death grip. "Oh god that was awful."

"Well… I told you to stay in the truck."

"I'm not a dog Steven," she snapped and he rolled his eyes, she knew, she knew he didn't like when she did that. Not when they were arguing.

Steve lead her back to the truck he had originally left her in and then sat her in the passenger seat, he pulled open the glove compartment and handed her what was a very warm bottle of ginger ale.

"You have a ginger ale in your glove compartment?" she asked him.

"Yeah… uh… I had us all stocked with them," he said, watching as she took her first sip. Her cheeks were still pale but she was smiling at him, that was good at least.

"Why?"

"Well uh… cause you're always around. And I figure, instead of trying to keep you away… because none of my methods seem to work, that we'd plan for the inevitable. The first being that you don't do well with blood or bodies so, something to soothe an upset stomach is necessary. And you don't like pepto… so…."

"Aww… that's so sweet of you."

Steve smiled. Yeah it was sweet of him. He was trying really hard to be better. To be worthy of her admiration, to be someone she trusted. So far she had done nothing but alienate him with her constant contact with Wo Fat and his stupid network.

"McGarrett!"

Steve turned and Grover was coming for him. He only had to shoot a glance at Rowan to have her say: "I'm fine, go see if he's okay," to him. He didn't want to leave her side, but he did, being sure to shoot her a glance whenever he could.

"Hey, you okay?" he asked Grover when he got close. The older man took a hold of Steve's shoulders and forced them to switch places which meant that Steve could still keep eyes on Rowan. "Thank you," he breathed out and the man held up his hand so Steve would say no more.

"I just wanted to come by and say thank you," Grover said.

"What are you talking about?"

"Aw come on, stop playing. Just talked to the guy. He says he's gonna pull the story."

"Well there you go, congratulations."

"Hmm… so what'd it cost you?" he asked.

Steve sighed, god, he was going to have to tell him what Rowan did. Well… he was going to try the lie first. "I just appeared to his better angels."

"Yeah, and when that didn't work, then what'd you do."

Damn it. Steve glanced back to where Rowan was sitting with her bottle of ginger ale.

"I promised to get a certain network off of his ass."

Grover followed Steve's gaze and when he did Rowan lifted a hand to wave at them. Both of them waved back and then Grover turned to Steve whistling lowly at him. "Girl put her network to work over me?"

"Yeah on over drive too. Something called Black Cat protocols. You should have seen the damage she caused. Got his home computer, his work computer, his cloud, his car. She was about ready to ruin that man for you."

Grover whistled again. "Damn that girl's scary. Good thing she's an ally, right?"

Steve nodded. "Look… uh… I'd appreciate it… if you could uh…"

"I ain't gonna tell a soul," Grover said. "I ain't stupid."

Steve needed off of this topic. "Uh… listen man, I really appreciate you telling me about Chicago."

Grover nodded. "Well, perhaps someday you'll tell me why you came back home. Or better yet, I could get a better story about your girlfriend other then she's psychic. Girl's more than that, I can tell."

Steve glanced back to Rowan who seemed to be leaning into his truck. Was she lying down? What the hell was she doing. Steve's panic must have crossed his face because Grover was just pushing him off. "Go on then, God knows you can barely concentrate when she's around, I'm surprised I got you away from the truck at all."

Steve smiled, because it was true after all, and then waved him off, rushing over to where Rowan was still in his truck. When he got there, he found that she had a small black box in her hand and his mouth went dry. She wasn't supposed to find that yet.

"What's this Steve?"

"Uh….."

"Was it… is it… for uh… Catherine?"

Steve balked at the idea, balked at the fear apparent in Rowan's eyes shining like a beacon, like she might cry right then and there. She thought this was an engagement ring. And now she was jealous. Aww… how cute.

"No, silly, it's for you."

Now she was afraid for a whole different reason. Her eyes whipped back to the box in her hand and then back to him. "Uh… why did you buy me… uh… not that this isn't…"

"Will you just open it?"

Rowan winced. "Are you sure you want to give me this now? I mean… don't get me wrong, Steven, I'm having fun…"

"Open the damn box, Ro."

And she did. There nestled against he soft fabric was a key. Her key. The key to his front door.

"A key?" "Mhmmm." "It's a key." "Yes, yes, it is." "What does it open?"

Wow… was she doing this on purpose or like…?

"My house, you idiot," Steve said with a warm smile.

"Your house," she echoed. "I thought you gave this to Catherine."

"Nope, I kept your key. Cath… uh… I never gave Cath a key."

"What? Really but she was living with you…"

Steve just shrugged, he looked down to the key in her hand and took a deep breath. "I want you to have that key back. I'm obviously not asking you to move in. I just thought you'd like to have a key, so you can stop by whenever you want, even if I'm not home."

"Aww… thanks Steve, that's so sweet," she said leaning forward to kiss him on the cheek. "Thank you."

"Now you don't have to wake me up to let you in. You can just let yourself in. And seriously. Any time you want to come over. Any time of the day or night."

"I get it… I get it Steve," she said with a big Cheshire cat grin. "I'll be sure to use it whenever I can."

"I had it all planned, I was gonna take you to dinner…"

"Were you gonna have the waiter drop it in my champagne?"

"You don't drink champagne..." "—Touche." "So no. I was going to take you to dinner, tonight, and then I was going slide it across the table…." "Whoa, tonight?"

Steve stopped staring at her hands that were twisting the key around and he looked back up at her. "Yeah? Why?"

"I'm busy tonight. I have plans with Alex."

Steve's eyebrows shot up his forehead. "You have plans with Alex," he echoed hollowly.

"Yeah. Last minute recording before he the album drops next week. He wants to make sure that everything sounds just right."

"I thought the album was in production already," Steve growled and Rowan shrugged.

"Me too, but what are you gonna do right?"

Steve wanted to hit him that's what he wanted to do. But instead he forced himself to smile, let Rowan plant a kiss on his lips and then he got into the driver's side of the truck and dropped her off at Alex's. He couldn't wait for the day would come when he could stop doing that. When he could start dropping her off at his place instead. Hell he'd rather drop her off at Danny or Chin's. But for today he'd have to take solace in knowing that Rowan had not just the key to his house but to his heart.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

The bed shifted and Steve was suddenly wide awake. A sense of calm was coming over him like a blanket. It was only Rowan. His Rowan.

He shifted, rolling over to grab her, tugging her down to him. She landed square on his chest, her fingernails digging into the skin of his chest and he couldn't have cared less. He arranged the blanket around her, her body shaking and shivering against him. He figured she was cold until she realized that she was crying.

Propping himself up above her, his arms encircled her as he searched her tear stained face. Had she called him and he hadn't heard the phone ring? No, he was certain she hadn't. He always woke up when she called. But how had he not woken up when she got into the house? That wasn't like him at all.

"What is? What happened?" he asked.

Rowan threw herself into him, burying her face in his neck. "It was awful." Ah a nightmare. "It was so real, I was so scared."

Steve ran his hands up and down her back. "It's okay. It's not real. It didn't happen. You're safe Rowan. You're safe, I'm here, and you're okay."

"Please don't go… please. Promise me you won't."

"Go? Go where?"

"To Afghanistan."

Steve froze, what the hell was she talking about. "Rowan… what are you…?"

"They're gonna capture you. They're gonna… they're gonna cut your head off, so please, please don't…"

Steve hushed her again, kissing her lips to keep the nonsense from flowing out of her, she whimpered against him, he felt her tremors shake through him. She was completely and utterly terrified and his heart yearned to soothe her in any way that he could.

"Don't worry. Rowan… I'm not going to go Afghanistan. I'm not on active duty I'm not gonna get deployed…"

"But you're still on reserves. Aren't you?" Well damn she had him there. "And besides I don't think that's why you go."

"Okay, then why do I go to Afghanistan?"

Rowan paused at that point and Steve realized that she didn't know. He smiled softly to her. "Okay, see, you don't know do you?" when she shook her head, he kissed the tip of her nose. "Okay, so, you see, it's gonna be okay. I can promise you, that I won't take a single mission that lands me in Afghanistan, okay? Cause I can do that. That's what being on reserves means, I get to pick and choose."

Rowan seemed to relax in his arms and he smiled at her. It wasn't really the way that worked, but if it made her feel better, he'd tell her the necessary white lies.

"Okay… yeah… okay," she whispered to him settling back into his pillows. "And you… you promise you won't go?"

"Afghanistan is a hell hole. You're asking me to choose Hawaii where I can have you in bed with me and that place, you and Hawaii are gonna win hands down every time," he told her. Rowan's grin put an even larger smile on his face.

He kissed her again, happy when she melded into him. He held her tightly to him until that nervous energy left her, until her body went slack in his arms, until she was too tired to stay awake and she fell asleep half draped over him.

He held her tightly because when he did, his own night terrors went away. Because when he held her, his world was a little brighter, a little better, and if holding her meant she wouldn't have nightmares, meant that she would feel better in the morning, then he'd sure as hell to never let go of her ever again.

Chapter Descriptions

Chapter on what Matt and Wo Fat are doing – this chapter will include where Matt has been hidden this entire time and a day with Wo Fat and Rowan, as he's broken out of prison at this point

Cook out on Steve's beach where he learns a dance – this is going to be a relatively shorter chapter about a weekend party that Rowan and Steve host where he is taught the Can't Stop the Feeling dance (It hasn't been mentioned in the story yet, you'll learn about that in chapter 107)

Grace's Take your kids to work day – this story involved Danny being very upset because Grace wants to go to work with _someone_ and it isn't him.

Steve and Rowan on a Date – This story is going to involve Steve getting Danny to help him plan a romantic night out for Rowan. All fluff, probably gonna end in smut.

Rowan and Steve arguing and the other Five-0's and Grover are going to argue over who's going to win.

Viral video – for Can't stop the feeling – a short chapter about Rowan planning a flash mob for a song she wrote

Rowan and Steve Hiking/camping – Rowan, who doesn't like camping or hiking, will agree to do both things with Steve and it will NOT go well.

Double date with Amber and Danny – This will be a look at Rowan and Steve's sickening cuteness from the point of view of Amber and Danny.

Game Night that ends in disaster – a night in which all the Five-0's go to Steve's for a game night which gets super freaking competitive.

Doris checking in on Steve and visiting Wo Fat – Doris back on Hawaii, visiting Wo Fat to see how he's doing, checking up on Steve who nearly died twice in two episodes. And _someone_ is going to find out and force a kind of reconciliation


	99. Chapter 99

***For info about the contest please read Chapter 98 for rules and more info on the chapters***

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: You guys enjoying this fluff? Cause I got more coming at ya! This one has more funny bits than fluffy stuff, but there is some fluff there for you guys to enjoy. I know this is gonna be a sad thing but we are coming to a close of the marathon, which is great for me cause I was running out of chapters to post! I've built my reserve up a bit since, but we're definitely going to have to survive on double posts for a while. Sorry about that. But as soon as I can I'll start up the three a week okay? For those who are confused, YES all 10 chapters I've listed are going to be written, I'm going to be doing 10 chapters of filler between season 4 ending and season 5 starting so it flows a bit better. What I need you to do is tell me which chapter you want your character to be in. I already have all of Season 5 mapped out, and partially written, so if you'd like spoilers on what's to come, leave a review saying so and I'll include that tomorrow. See yah then!_

Chapter 99 

* * *

Steve came to from his own nightmare to a pair of arms sliding down his chest, enveloping him in a warmth he didn't know he needed until he was surrounded by it. He was in nothing but a white wife-beater and a pair of his black boxers, he must have fallen asleep in his lazy boy after Rowan had left for the day.

He looked up to the woman who was draped across the back of the chair giving him a hug and let her smother his cheeks and forehead in kisses.

"I thought you had a meeting, some big diva pop star wanted to buy your song."

"Mhmm, I did," she said to him, pressing a kiss to the tip of his nose.

"Then what are you doing here?"

"I unno… it just sort of felt like you needed me," she whispered to him and he sighed. She came here because she thought he needed her? No, no, she had a big deal to broker, he shouldn't have come between her and that.

"But your deal…"

"Oh she bought the song. I told her I had a family emergency and she could either take the song or I'd leave with it. She bought it on the spot, didn't even listen to the demo," she said. "But that's not the important part right now. Are you okay? Did you have another nightmare?"

She had pivoted positions. Perched precariously on the arm of his chair, his arm around her waist lest she fall, a hand caressing the back of his head, her finger tips tracing patterns in the hair at the nape of his neck. Sending shivers down his spine. God, she gave him blue balls just by touching him now, this was ridiculous he needed to get a hold of himself.

"Uh… yeah… yeah I did…"

"Did you want to talk about it?" she asked. Steve never wanted to talk about his nightmares. He talked with Rowan about hers, assured her that at no point were insurgents going to cut off his head, that he and Danny weren't going to get stuck in a parking garage collapse, and other such nonsense. But this wasn't visions of a TV Show, this was something true and real that happened to him. That he couldn't let go of.

That he didn't want to taint her with.

But sitting there, breathless, panting, slick with sweat, his hands shakingly clinging to her, he saw something in her eyes that made him a little more than worried that she may already know.

"Uh… do you… do you know what they're about?" he asked.

"No?" Okay so that meant yes. Steve glared at her. "Okay, fine, Yes."

"How long have you known?"

"Uh… not long?" "Rowan…" "No really, not long, I promise…" "Rowan…" "Okay fine, I've known all along." Steve groaned and Rowan frowned. "I'm sorry. But… you didn't want to tell me and I didn't want to pry. It's not my fault I dreamed of it."

"Why didn't you tell me then?"

"Because you didn't want to tell me and I wanted you to _want_ to tell me," she answered. "It wasn't my place to know until you wanted me to know. Stupid dreams had a different plan."

She had a scowl on her face, one that almost made him smile. "Okay, what do you know then?"

"I know you feel guilty about Freddy," she whispered. "I know that you think you could have done more to save him."

"You weren't there Ro, I could have," he whispered.

Rowan shook her head. "I've seen multiple angles of this dream you keep having, Steven McGarrett. No, you couldn't have."

She used his full name again and suddenly he wanted nothing more than to pull her down to his lap and ravish her. God damn it, why did that have such power over him?

"I know you're hurting Steve," she whispered, her hands framing his face so he'd look at her. Unbeknownst to him his fingers had started to dig into her skin, he could have been hurting her but she showed no trace of pain on her face and he wouldn't find the welts until later a few days later anyway. "I know you're hurting and I want to help, but I can't cause I don't understand and you won't let me help you."

"Rowan…"

"You don't have to talk to me about it, Steven, that's not the point I'm making. I just want you to know that I'm here. I'm here for when you are ready to share that part of you with me, and I'm not going to run, or hide or push you away, or make you tell me before you're ready. But you're really hurting Steve, like really badly, the dreams are getting more frequent, even when you're with me. So, talk to someone, okay? How about Grover. Grover would understand… right?"

Steve found himself looking up at her. It was almost like he was seeing her for the first time, this halo of red around her head, that softness in her eyes.

"I don't deserve you," he found himself whispering to her. It was the truth but he never meant to say it out loud. He wanted her. Desperately. He didn't need her to know how damaged he was, how much she deserved someone, anyone, better than him. He didn't need to give her even more of a reason to leave him.

"That's for me to decide," she said kissing him softly. "You call Grover, I'll make the coffee."

She had to pry herself out of his grasp before she could stand up to do that. He looked at his phone and pulled up Grover's contact. He glanced back to Rowan who was humming in his kitchen as she made the coffee. God, what would he do without her?

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Grover accepted the coffee from Rowan and then looked out at the window where Steve was sitting in one of his chairs by the beach. He had his own mug in his hand but he hadn't lifted it to his lips to drink from it in all the time the two had stood there watching him from the window.

"How's your boy?"

"Looking all sorts of fine in blue today," she whispered and Grover felt his eyebrows shoot up his head. That was not what he meant. When he was quiet for too long Rowan looked to him and then she got it. "Oh… uh… he's not good. He's… he's hurting and he won't let me help him."

That was typical. Man like McGarrett who didn't trust people, didn't let anyone in. But it surprised him. The man was obsessed with this girl, he would have thought that out of anyone, she would have been the one he would end up talking to.

"I can do my best to help, but he's a stubborn sonofabitch," Grover said, taking a sip of the coffee. Together the two of them went out to the beach, Steve, who had been stiff, practically melted the second Rowan put her arms around his neck.

"I gotta go," she whispered to him.

A frown crossed Steve's face."Now?"

"Yeah, I got paperwork to fill out and rights to transfer over. You're good now though right?" she asked him and Steve nodded putting on a brave face.

She kissed his cheek, said bye to both of them and then Grover watched Steve as he watched Rowan leave. Each step she took away from him put a deeper crease into his already worried face.

"Man, if you're this strung for her, why are you two not a thing yet?" Grover asked.

Steve set a dark glare on him. "It's complicated."

"How so? You got feelings for her. She got feelings for you. Nothing else matters."

Steve wasn't having it though. He glanced to Grover said: "Well… thank you for coming…"

Okay if he was dismissing him he wasn't getting off that easy. "Well, I'm glad you called."

Steve picked up the cup off coffee again, fondling it but still not drinking from it. Grover had no problem drinking for his. Rowan made a mean cup of coffee.

"I've been thinking a lot about our last conversation…"

"Don't lie, she told me she made you call me," Grover said with a teasing grin that finally got Steve to smile.

"Okay, fine, so today she convinced me to call you, but I actually have been thinking a lot about our last conversation and how you wanted to know what brought me back to Hawaii," he said. He was avoiding Grover's eyes so he probably missed all the nodding he was doing. Grover stayed silent and put on an air of gentle understanding. He sensed that Steve was like a baby deer, and that he'd start easy. Staying quiet meant that he'd get through this quicker and easier.

"Well, a month ago, I would've told you it was to find the man that killed my father."

And that was it, he went quiet again. Grover nodded to him, Steve took in his face, he looked at the water, at the shoes, at the sand. Grover patiently waited.

"I realized it was about more than that." Well no shit. God, the master of suspense this boy was, he was spending way too much time with Rowan and Danny, he was getting to be just as dramatic as them. "I lost somebody. Somebody really close to me. He gave his life to save mine."

Well this was some heavy shit. Grover put the mug down. "What was his name?"

"His name was Freddie Hart. He was a team guy. We went through BUD/S together. We always had each other's back. He was my brother. More than anything else in this world, Freddie wanted to be a father. That was it. He would've been a great father too."

Steve paused again which left Grover waiting for the rest of it. It was clear as day that just talking about this was killing the poor man. "Anyway, after he died, uh, the Navy didn't feel the same. When the Governor offered me Five-0 I jumped at it."

Grover sighed as he took that in. "You ran away."

Steve thought about finally took a sip of his coffee, a million emotions passed over his face before he finally breathed out a shaky: "Yeah."

"We think the distance is gonna make thing better, and for a while, it kinda does. But sooner or later it catches up to you. But the real problem you're having is all up here," Grover told him pointing to his head. Steve nodded like he understood but said nothing else.

"You sleeping?" Grover asked. Steve couldn't answer the question. "When was the last time you had a good night's sleep?"

Pain hit his face, clear as day. The man wasn't sleeping, it was probably why he was such a live wire. But then he surprised him. "Basically, any night I have Rowan," he whispered.

"Well it's a good thing you have her huh?"

"Yeah, I guess.I unno… it's… sometimes not even she helps, but usually, if she's there… if I know she's there…"

"I can tell you, having someone like her on your side will be a god send, my wife is like that. She'll stand by me through anything, even when I don't deserve it. Rowan's like that, isn't she?"

Steve nodded again. Yes, anyone could see that Rowan was like that. She stood by everyone she cared about. He was convinced Steve could commit murder and she'd still stand by him. It made no sense why Steve hadn't locked her down yet.

"She'd be even more helpful if you let her in. Rene was so good once I walked her through what I was going through…"

"Yeah… I guess I don't… I don't really talk about stuff like that."

"You're talking to me."

"Yeah but you're different. You… you understand."

"And you think she won't?" Grover asked. "Boy, who hurt you?"

Steve half laughed at him and the two chuckled together. "It's one day at a time man. Just don't alienate yourself. Your greatest support system sleeps over at your place almost every other night, and you work with the other half of it. Use it."

Steve nodded he had reached his threshold for emotional conversations for the day.

"You better get going. You got a big day a head of you," Steve said. Ah there, now he was truly and properly dismissed.

"Yeah, true, but you know, as I said earlier, I'm glad you called," he said. Steve just smiled at him. It would be like pulling teeth, but at least the man was finally asking for help, even if he wasn't ready to accept it yet.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

His mom had made tuna salad. This did not bode well for him. His mother only did that when she felt guilty about something, which begged the question: What the hell had she done to feel guilty about. But when he asked her, she denied everything and spouted some crap about invading his space and wanting to do something nice for him like he'd buy it. And then he was distracted by something else entirely.

Rowan popped up beside her. "Her tuna sandwiches rock," she said around a mouthful of sandwich. Wow really, he thought she hated fish. Also, what was she doing here? When did she get here, and why did she too also look very guilty?

"Okay, so you're going somewhere with Rowan?"

"Yeah, we're going to do a thing together."

"A thing?"

The doorbell rang, and Danny began to panic. "Yes, you know that thing that I asked you to do with me but you said that you couldn't do?" his mother asked.

Oh _that_ thing. Rowan opened the door and hugged Grover and then turned back to his mother. "Clara this is Captain Grover, he's going to tell you to call him Lou."

"The little lady is right," Grover said shaking his mother's hand who smiled warmly up at him. He was in his full and proper uniform and everything like he was showing off.

"What are you doing here, Lou?" Danny asked trying very hard not to start shouting.

Lou donned a surprised look that Danny didn't buy at all. "McGarrett didn't tell you?"

"No, tell me what?"

He had a feeling he knew what but he wanted them all to squirm first.

"Well, remember when I asked you if I could see what you do and you said that I couldn't?" his mother asked again. Goddamn it. It really was _that_ thing.

"Oh, that's the thing?"

"Yeah."

"To go on a stakeout, which I said was a terrible idea. And you're taking Rowan, who's a walking disaster. All of Five-0 and a criminal master mind can't keep her in check, but you're going to?" he asked Grover.

Rowan frowned at him and crossed her hands over her chest. "I'm going to behave!" she cried.

"No, you're incapable," Danny snapped and then turned his attention back to his mother. "How did you… how did you set this up?"

"Well, I called your friend Steve…" "… Does he know you're taking Rowan? Cause I find it hard to believe he wanted Rowan anywhere near this little operation you got here." "…and he said he thought it was perfectly fine so he arranged for me to go on a ride along with this very nice gentleman."

And then his mother was looking Grover up and down like he was the last piece of pizza at the pizzeria. His mother kissed him good-bye before he could say anything which left him with Grover and Rowan.

Grover gestured to his face. "See, all this here, you're doing, that's between you and McGarrett," he said.

Rowan leant forward to give him a hug. "Look, if it makes you feel better, Steve has no idea I'm going with them. You can lord that over him, if you'd like."

Grover paused. "Whoa, I was under the impression he knew you were coming."

Rowan looked him up and down and said very clearly: "I lied."

Oh… wow. Yes, actually, that did make him feel better.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

They got to the crime scene and Steve had never been so happy to get a murder. Anything to get Danny to stop nagging him, stop arguing with him to just shut up in general cause the man wasn't listening to reason.

"Just stop for one second okay?" Danny snapped slamming his door shut. He had almost been so mad that Steve had lost his driving privileges. He almost hadn't given up the keys when he picked Steve up. Steve braced himself against the hood of the car to accept, yet another lecture from Danny. "All I'm saying is that a heads-up would've been nice, okay? That's all."

Yes, but then Steve would have had to listen to Danny bitch for days until he agreed to cancel the ride along. At this rate he was still going to have to listen to Danny bitch for days but at least Clara got to do something fun while she was here.

"You're so worked up about this."

"Oh, okay, listen, I know this may seem like a foreign concept to you, but the idea of my mother being in harm's way, it does not sit well with me."

"You gotta give her more credit, Danny. I mean she survived you," Steve said.

Danny frowned at this. "Uh-huh. You're not a good friend," he told him. Oh what? What now? That was rude… and a lie. "In fact, you're not longer my friend. I'm done. Good run. It's been fun."

"You're just mad she went behind your back. This has nothing to do with me," Steve called to Danny who was walking away from him. He knew Danny didn't mean it, they were still friends, he was just sulking cause he didn't get his way.

"I am mad because she has all these secret agendas. She's always been impulsive, but this just goofy. It's crazy," Danny complained as they walked towards the boat that was their crime scene.

"Thank goodness you're being level headed," Steve snapped sarcastically which Danny, the King of Snark picked up on immediately. Time to take him down a peg. Time to lord that little nugget of a secret Danny had been carefully holding onto for just a moment like this moment.

"Okay, well then it's a good thing you think it's such a good idea. I'd be more worried if you hadn't sent Rowan along with them."

Steve paused on the gang plank and turned around. "Excuse me?"

"Well I mean, that must mean you think it's gonna be safe. Because otherwise you wouldn't have sent Rowan with them."

"I didn't send Rowan with them. You think I'd let Rowan go on a ride-along, are you out of your mind?"

Danny was grinning wildly at the panic that was playing havoc on Steve's face.

"I heard someone's mom is going on a ride-along today," Chin said as they got closer to them. Steve already had his phone out. "I can't believe you let Rowan go too."

Steve made a noise akin to a growl that one would hear from a guard dog while he shook his head and listened to the phone ring. Rowan didn't pick up. "Oh he didn't know she was going," Danny said as Steve continued to got her voice mail, ended the call and then dialed Grover.

Kono and Chin exchanged glances that Steve ignored. He needed to get a hold of someone.

"Aw, come on babe, she'll be alright. I mean… she survived you, right" he said to him and Steve glared at him. Danny was laughing but it wasn't funny. Rowan was a completely different kind of trouble, she was nothing like the impetuous Mrs. Williams. Rowan on a ride-along could be very dangerous for everyone, not just herself.

He got Grover's voicemail and he dialed Rowan's phone again. "She can't avoid me forever," he snapped as the others made their way down to the boat where they had their three vics with multiple bullet wounds.

Rowan still hadn't picked up.

Steve leant over the side of the boat where something burnt black and metal was sticking out of the side. "What is that?" he asked.

No one was sure. Steve dialed Rowan no answer. The others were talking but Steve wasn't listening. He needed Rowan to answer the goddamn phone. He needed her off of that ride-along. "That looks like carbon graphite," Steve said to no one in particular. Danny asked if that was what a comet was made of but Steve just grunted. He was listening to dialling again. Fuck. Pick up the phone. He heard something about M43s and 7.62 slugs.

Steve turned. "Chinese and Russian military use that type of ammo," he said. "We could be looking at a foreign shooter.

His phone rang and Steve answered before a contact could even appear on his phone screen. "Rowan? Where are you. Put Grover on the phone. Right now. You're getting off that Ride…."

"Don't make any sudden moves, Commander."

Okay Male voice. Not Rowan. Panic subsided and anger returned. "Who is this?"

"Just be cool and turn slowly to your left."

Steve turned and there was Jerry just behind the barricade. Alright… things just got interesting.


	100. Chapter 100

***For info about the contest please read Chapter 98 for rules and more info on the chapters***

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Guys! This is chapter 100. Oh my god. I never thought that it would go this far, you know, I mean, I knew it would because I mapped out the story, but… usually I give up by now. I'm so surprised that this is still going, and I really got to hand to you guys for giving me the inspiration and the sheer determination to see this story through. Seriously you guys are the reason I'm still at this so thank you._

 _So for this chapter, I don't really have anything too special. It is another one of my long ones, it's sitting at 15 pages, but the last little bit of the chapter is a complete d'aww moment. I promise. So more fluff, but I wrote it mostly to be entertaining. Enjoy it for now because in two chapters we got some angst coming up. See you guys on Tuesday and if we get 9 more review I can announce the contest winner! Looking forward to that one!_

Chapter 100 

* * *

The phone rang again and Rowan jumped. It wasn't hers though, which meant it was Grover's again.

"Don't you pick up that phone," Rowan snapped. "If that's Steve don't you answer that call."

Grove winced at her, once again. "The man has called us both at least a hundred times. He's texted twice that. The man is gonna have an aneurism. For the love of God let me answer the damn phone."

"No, he'll just demand that I come home," she said and Clara couldn't help but laugh. She wanted nothing more then to actually see Rowan and Steve together, they sounded like fun. They sounded like the kind of relationship she wanted with her own husband, minus all the fighting and arguing and apparent threatening that they threw at one another. Clara had seen pictures of them though, Grace had hundreds of them together, same as Danny, but Rowan had thousands and they were absolutely adorable. They made the quite the couple.

But she had only seen Rowan and Steve separately at this point. Danny kept saying it was a good thing because them together was… well… a bit chaotic.

Rowan had been a godsend on this little ride-along, because Grover hadn't wanted to take them anywhere fun, but with Rowan's insistence they had ended up here and Clara was about to have some real fun.

"Gurl, if he traces one of our phones to find us, you are taking that argument on all by yourself. And I'm not gonna help you if he tries to arrest you again," Grover said to which Rowan just rolled her eyes. "Fine, you don't wanna listen to me, it's not my problem. You gonna come over here and try this shooting simulator, or what?"

Grover had just gone himself. He had done remarkably well. Now he was handing the reigns over to Rowan who was all smiles all of a sudden and ready to go.

The nice man helping them, restarted the simulator, Rowan levelled her gun and fired. The resounding bang sounding much louder then Grover's had been and immediately Grover was on her taking the gun out of her hand. The second they connected Clara swore she heard the zap of static shock, Grover even yelped at it, but both of them ignored it.

"Is that a loaded… you have a loaded gun? Why the hell do you have a loaded gun?"

"Isn't that what we're shooting with?"

"No! We've got a practice gun. It's sensored to go with the simulator. Where the hell did you even get this?"

"From Kevin."

The man who was helping them, Kevin, immediately turned to his empty holster. "What… how did she…?"

Rowan just shrugged. Grover scowled at her. "For the love of god, Williams' is right, you are a damn hazard. Sit your ass down, you're grounded."

Rowan scowled but did as she was told, throwing herself back into her chair arms folded over her chest. She sulked to herself as Grover got Clara ready to go, he double and triple checked that she had the proper kind of gun that didn't fire real bullets and then she was shooting at the screen, and he was giving her tips and pointers.

Clara enjoyed the fake shooting. She giggled and laughed when she shot the wrong people, in fact she just shot everything that moved. When they were done, they turned back to Kevin to see how they did.

"Captain Grover finished in the 98 percentile," Kevin said. And Clara teasingly congratulated him and then she got her score.

Bottom third. Well, damn. But what made it all between was Kevin's flirting with her. Prettiest girl to come and test their shooting skills.

Clara was all very flattered and about to accept the business card that Kevin was offering her when Grover interrupted their flirting. "Uh, Kevin, where's the girl?"

Clara followed Grover's eyes. Rowan was gone. Kevin turned back to the empty chair that once housed a young woman.

"Uh… she was just there."

"Oh god. Oh no. I can't have lost her, McGarrett will lose his damn mind if I lose that girl."

"Oh damn, that was McGarrett's Rowan?" Kevin breathed out. "Yeah… you're in trouble."

Grover scowled at him. Taking his phone out to call Steve. This was not something he wanted to do, but really… did he have a choice? Clara felt bad for him.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

He came out of the small house wiping the blood off of his hands, discarding the bloodied rags in the garbage before leaving the garage. He made his way to the end of the driveway where his car was and someone crashed right into him.

He hit the ground with the person on top of him, his hand going for his gun immediately but he didn't draw.

"Oh gosh, oh dear. I'm so sorry!" the girl said. She had a pair of stunning blue eyes and a dazzling smile. Clearly harmless, probably just a resident. "I wasn't looking where I was going, here let me help you up."

She was wearing a pair of denim shorts, a black sleeveless high low sweater and a white tee shirt. Her red hair was half up in a messy bun and she was still smiling. She helped him up, dusted him off.

"I really am sorry, you're okay, aren't you?" she asked him and when he nodded, she smiled, apologized for the third time and then turned and jogged away. With the number of apologies, he had gotten he almost thought her to be Canadian. But a Canadian this far off a resort was unlikely.

He crossed to his car, his hand went to his pocket, out of habit to make sure that he still had his precious cargo but it wasn't there. Panic lanced through him. His hands scrambled to each and every pocket he could think of but it wasn't any where.

He turned back to where he last saw the girl but she had utterly vanished. She obviously wasn't as harmless as he thought she was.

She had pickpocketed him.

She had the Unicorn's Hard drive.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

This was not a good day for Steve. First he was angry because Rowan was on that stupid Ride-along Steve was certain would end in disaster. Then Danny was still mad at him over not telling him he set up the ride-along for his mother. He had to deal with a real live Chinese Spy attacking Jerry. The Navy was stone walling him, _him_ , and Jerry acting like he was Steve's partner. And now there was a bomb under a dead body.

On top of all of those things he was dealing with, Grover had informed him lost Rowan.

So, when Grover showed up at the scene with Danny's mother in tow, he was not happy with him and neither was Danny.

"Hi Ma!" Danny said though he was far from pleased to see her.

"Are you okay?" she asked and then Steve turned on Grover, his hands on his hips.

"How is it possible that Rowan left with you, but you lost her? I mean… Lou how?"

Grover frowned at him. "Okay, listen here McGarrett, you lose that girl on the reg. If you and your team can't keep tabs on her, how the hell did you expect me to?"

Steve swore under his breath, he had a point. Not even Wo Fat could keep tabs on her and he had a whole network. He glanced back to the house where the bomb squad was entering with their giant green suits and then turned back to Grover.

"Why the hell did you think taking her along was a good idea?"

"I thought you sent her."

"Me? You thought I… me… that I would send Rowan on a ride-along? I don't even trust her to drive!"

"Well the doctor does."

Yeah well that was a completely different situation, he was surprised she past the drive test let alone her reflexes test to get cleared to drive again.

"Okay, but you have people looking for her right?" Steve asked.

"Course I do, I'm not stupid," Grover snapped. "But your girl left her phone in my truck, her car is in your garage still and she left no clue as to where she was going. Add this into the mix," he said gesturing to the house. "And obviously we're moving a bit slow on the whole locating thing."

Steve shook his head, he was gonna kill Rowan. When he found her again, god, the things he was gonna do to her.

Danny smacked Grover's shoulder and Steve noted that Clara was being taking away by a nice young officer. "What were you thinking? Bringing my mom here?"

"I told her to stay in the car, what do you want me to do?"

Wow, poor Grover was just getting it today. The bomb squad called out the all clear and Steve got his Chinese spy, Zi Chen, out of the back of the SWAT vehicle.

"Do you believe me now? Quan knew I would come here, he did this to set me up. To kill me," she snapped.

Steve did believe her, it was Danny who didn't. But Steve didn't have time for that. Despite Grover telling him that Rowan had left her phone in his truck, his heart soared when he saw her name on the screen. He answered it quickly but it wasn't Rowan's voice on the other line.

"I need you to tell me that you know Rowan's exact location at this exact moment."

Why the hell was Wo Fat calling him? How was he making it look like it was Rowan calling him? He was that worried about Rowan that he called him of all people? That didn't bode well, now did it?

"I don't have her exact location right now… why?"

Wo Fat swore, loudly. "Okay, follow up question. You're on an active case, correct?" When Steve confirmed that he followed that question up with: "And does it involve Chinese spies and something called the Black Unicorn?"

Steve mouth ran dry. "How do you know that? How…"

"Son of a bitch it _is_ her."

"Her?" Steve echoed. "What are you…"

"I just got an alert. A Chinese spy turned business man was looking to sell illegal data from a satellite that wasn't supposed to exist…" "Okay but what does that have to do…" "He just put out an APB on the dark web for information about a girl that matches Rowan's description on Oahu, specifically a location for her."

"Well… why the hell would he do that?"

"Well she's not picking up her phone, and my contacts are having a hard time locating her, so I don't know the answer to that question, now do I? But if it involves one of your cases I can be sure of two things. One. The description he put out actually is for Rowan. And Two. She's gone and gotten herself into a sticky situation to help you again."

"I didn't ask her to…"

"No, you never do, do you?" Wo Fat snapped. "Look, I've got my people looking for her. But she doesn't have her phone. I need you to find my sister, McGarrett, before that asshole does something to her."

Steve paused. "What did you just call her?"

"What?"

"Your sister. You called her your sister."

It was one thing to hear Rowan talk about Wo Fat as if he were actually a relative of hers. But it was something else entirely to hear that Wo Fat seconded the claim. It did something to him. Something bad. It made him feel slimy. It made him feel sick.

"Why does… what do you… why do you care?" Wo Fat stuttered and then he cleared his throat. "Does that really matter right now? Rowan's got a Chinese Spy after her and she doesn't have her fucking phone to call for help whether it be for me or for you. Are you going to do something or not?"

"Well, yea, of course, but like… what do you expect me to do? She doesn't have her phone and I don't know where she is…"

"She's on the fucking Island, McGarrett, she slept over at your house last night. How is it this hard to keep tabs on her? I mean, I can mostly keep tabs on her and I'm across the world. You can't be this useless McGarrett… you've had more practice with this than I have and…"

"I get it I get it," Steve snapped. "I'm on it, okay?"

"God. I never should have left her with you. I should have sent them to take her," Wo Fat growled. "If something happens to her McGarrett I'm going to hold you personally responsible."

And then he hung up the phone. Steve sighed, he didn't need the guilt trip from him. He was always worried about Rowan, always looking out for her. A text came through on his phone from Catherine, important intel. He read it over and let the info sink in. He had the distinct feeling like he was getting played. He looked up to Zi Chen and glared darkly.

"What the hell does your Fiancé want with my girl?"

She had the decency to look surprised.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve stormed out of the Palace. The goal was to get to the arcade to help SWAT storm the building to get the hard drive back before Quan could sell it. He was going to his truck to get his other gun, cause he'd need more than one. The situation had turned sticky since Zi Chen had come clean about her involvement with Quan. Her ex-fiancé had turned on his country and on her, now she was on the hook for stopping him, for retrieving the lost data or she and her whole family would be… wiped out.

That was a lot to put on Steve. That was a lot to ask him to help with. Especially since his concentration had gone out the window the second Rowan had gone missing and it had gotten worse with Wo's phone call. He might as well've had ADD because he hadn't been able to focus on the case since this had all happened.

"Steven!"

Steve turned and Rowan was coming towards him, sprinting in fact. His heart leapt into his chest. "Ro!" he cried. He opened his arms and Rowan jumped into them.

"I'm so happy to see you!" she whispered into his neck. He had lifted her up by accident, and she forced him to put her feet back to the floor. "We gotta go, now!"

She had grabbed his hand and was trying to tug him back to the Palace but he wasn't having it.

"No, Rowan, what's going on. Wo Fat called me cause a Spy is looking for you. Why is a Chinese spy looking for you? He's wrong, right? It's a mistake. They're looking for a different red-headed girl on Oahu?"

Rowan turned back to him surprised. "Wo heard about that? How did he… you know what? Can we do this inside?"

No sooner did she ask that did the car arrive. It peeled into the parking lot, all smoking tires and screaming breaks. All Steve saw was the gun, aimed at them out the back passenger window. He grabbed Rowan, tugging her out of the way of the oncoming vehicle, throwing her to the ground behind the truck before the driver could start shooting.

Rowan yelped under him, but clung to him as he shielded her with his own body. He fairly had to drag her to the front of the vehicle so she could have some cover. God he hoped his team heard this, because he only had one pistol which was no match for whatever the driver was shooting with, which sounded like it was bigger and faster than Steve's service pistol.

Bullets ricocheted off of his truck and he pressed Rowan further into his chest. "What is happening, Rowan? Why are we getting shot at?"

"Oh god, you're gonna be so mad!"

"Rowan what have you done?"

And then she was showing him. The drive. The drive with all the intel, it was right there in her hand. Somehow, Rowan had gotten a hold of the Black Unicorn's hard drive. That was why the spy wanted her. Rowan had stolen the item he was trying to sell. Steve stared at it and then stared at her. A bullet ricocheted a little too close to them and Steve instinctively pulled Rowan down and to his chest before she could get shot.

From the Palace came cries of his name. His team, they had come, they returned fire, taking Quan's attention off of them. Steve pulled Rowan out of his chest. "What the actual fuck Rowan?"

"Okay so I may have bumped into your bad guy this morning and it fell into my hand…" "—Rowan!" "—Ugh fine! I purposely bumped into him this morning and pickpocketed him, okay?"

"WHAT?!"

"Okay, now before you freak out this is something I learned, LONG before I met Wo Fat," she said. "It went hand in hand with the whole _Professional_ business I had, once I got roped into robbing banks I got pretty good at lifting things off of people…"

" _What?!"_

"We don't have time for this Steven!"

Steve glanced out to where Quan was pinned behind his own car. More shooters had piled out of the car, one faced in Steve's position, the other's busy keeping the Five-0 Team pinned and unable to get to him for help. He needed to get Rowan out of there. He needed her safely inside the building.

"Okay, you're gonna go for Danny's car…"

"No. I'm allergic to bullets. I'm staying right here."

Steve scowled at her. "Alright… fine… but you'll stay right here though?" he asked. "If I move on them, you'll stay right here?"

"Yes. Promise."

Steve nodded, he didn't want to do this, he didn't want to leave her behind, but he stood up and crossed two cars over so he could have a better vantage point to shoot. But no sooner did he do that, did the shooters pack up and drive away, disappearing as quickly as they had appeared.

It was then Steve noticed the second car. With all the shooting he hadn't noticed that it had driven in behind the first one. But he saw it now. Because there was a man dragging Rowan back to it.

Everyone opened fire, Steve sure as hell did, but the glass was bullet proof and he missed every shot at the tires he aimed at which was entirely not like him. Steve came out of his hiding place, watching in a panic as the car with Rowan in it drove away.

He looked down to his phone and pulled up that fake Rowan number.

He wasn't doing this today. He was going to let her _brother_ try and fix things for once.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Between taking her and getting her to this dingy worn out arcade, the demeanour of the men who took her had changed.

At first they were all, angry and slappy and yelling. Where is the drive, where is the drive? Hidden, HA! But that wasn't what she told them. In fact she stayed blissfully quiet about that. Kept saying she didn't know what they were talking about. But then they got that call. A single phone call and they all backed away from her like she had the plague.

They stopped asking her questions. Stopped slapping her around. But they didn't untie her. No they just kept a very wide berth.

But while the other men seemed intent on staying away from her, they were actually staring at her like she was a bomb about to go off, there was one guy, the guy she pickpocketed that morning, the Chinese rogue spy, who hadn't seemed to get the memo.

But every time he went towards her, the other guy, some white guy Rowan didn't recognize would pull him back and they'd start whispering all over again.

They had bound her to the chair she was in with rope. Rowan had already dislocated her wrist and gotten one hand out, she was currently working on the other.

"I don't care who he is, she took the drive, you don't get your intel without the drive and I don't get my money."

 _He._ A strange phone call followed by even stranger behaviour. Wo. Wo Fat had called. Wo Fat had threatened but it didn't look like it was going to help.

A gun came out. He pointed it in her direction. "She's going to talk…"

The white guy, with the thick Russian accent grabbed him again, aimed the gun away from her. "That man took out the NLM for her. Because a man dared to slap her…"

"Three times." Both men turned to her and Rowan just stared up at them. "Well actually, he slapped me twice and had one of his lackies punch me in the nose. He got a bit upset about that and somehow or other everyone ended up dying."

The man turned back to the Chinese spy and pinned him with a knowing look. "See. Now imagine what he'll do if you shoot her."

"I suspect he'd break out of prison. He'd probably start by killing your family. Then he'd hunt you down. But not with the intent to kill you. He'd probably run you ragged first, make you look over your shoulder for a few years, make you second guess everyone you usually trust, ruin your relationships, your businesses until you're isolated and alone. And then he'd move in for the kill. We call that Black Cat Protocols."

The Chinese spy stared at her. He seemed confused. Or shocked maybe. Rowan shrugged. "Wo Fat has the distinct capability to over react, and he almost always does so if the situation involves me. But he's not what you have to worry about right now."

"Oh no?"

"Nope," Rowan said with a shake of her head. "See the problem is, I'm dating the head of the Hawaiian Task Force that deals with you guys. Five-0, maybe you've heard of them? Immunity and means and all that jazz. Yeah. Y'all kinda took me from him and if you think Wo Fat's bad, you should see what he's like when he's upset, eh."

Rowan blew her air out as she thought about it. The white man backed away from her. It was like a double whamy hitting him. Rowan lifted her hands up and they both stared at her with shock on their faces.

"And besides. I slipped these ropes, forever ago."

Before the spy could react, and just as Steve kicked down the door to the back room screaming: _Five-0_ like he usually did, Rowan punched spy in front of her right in the crotch as hard as she could. The spy went down and Rowan threw herself out of the way as the shooting started.

Bullets were flying everywhere, Steve was calling her name telling her to stay down. But she couldn't. Sacking the spy hadn't help her, he was on the floor, level with her. Rowan rolled as he tried to grab her, pushing herself up, cringing as bullets whizzed by her and rushed for the back door.

She heard Steve calling for her, she heard Grover shout: "He's going after Rowan," but judging by the amount of volleying she heard between Steve and the bad guys he was pinned and she was on her own.

So Rowan ran, she ran as fast as she could, but when she got to the street she could see that there were no back up cars. Great, Steve had gone in with minimal back up again, also meant there was no one to run to. Still Rowan figured, if she ran far enough, fast enough, if she could duck into a building and then back out she could double back to Steve.

Problem was, Rowan's stamina definitely wasn't there anymore, not after that last head injury. So the spy caught her quickly, slamming her into a wall, and in their struggle they tumbled into the alleyway.

He had grabbed her, his arms encircling around her chest. Rowan pitched forward, he lost his balance and they tumbled head long into another wall, Rowan turned so their shoulders took the hit. She then pitched back slamming the back of her head into his face, which sent him spiralling backward. He hit the next wall back first, Rowan's vision swam, that last hit, that one had really, really hurt.

"Stop struggling and give me the drive."

Though dizzy and suddenly really sensitive to light Rowan did not stop struggling. "If I didn't have it when you took me, I'm not going to have it now."

"Then tell me where the hell it is!"

"Quan!"

He stopped trying to wrestle her and looked up. The gun came up out of nowhere. A woman was standing in front of them, she too was holding a gun. She spoke to the man holding her in a language Rowan didn't understand, Chinese probably.

He was distracted, he said nothing to her, but he wasn't paying attention to Rowan anymore. Time for her signature move.

Rowan planted her feet on the wall opposite her and pushed off it. Her body slammed into the spy's again, her head bashing into his, slamming him into the wall behind her. His gun went off and the woman in front of them cried out and went down.

He finally lost his grip, Rowan hit the ground the asphalt biting into her skin. The spy went down too, slid down the wall grunting in pain, but he was up quicker. He used his foot to force Rowan back to the ground and to hold her there. Then he had the gun pointing down at her, aimed right for her face.

"Tell me where the drive is."

Rowan didn't even get to open her mouth to tell him she wasn't ever going to tell him where it was.

 _Bang_.

The first gunshot got his foot off of her chest and let her roll away from him.

 _Bang._

The second hit him in the shoulder, forcing him away from her and to turn towards the mouth of the alleyway.

 _Bang._

The third hit him dead center mass. The spy staggered backward, starting to fumble, starting to collapse. His eyes found Rowan again. The gun in his hand raised. One last shot, one he'd make out of spite.

 _Bang. Bang. Bang._

The last three shot came in rapid fire. Two more taps to the chest and a final, right between the eye. The spy dropped, dead before he hit the pavement. That many shots meant Wo had sent someone, someone who didn't give a shit about warning shots like cops did.

"Rowan?"

Steve. Oh wow, that one was Steve. The last person to riddle a man with bullets for her had been a deadly criminal with no morals. Steve had done it despite his morals. He and Wo Fat were quite similar and it would distress both of them to realize that. She glanced to the other person in the alleyway with her, the woman who had tried to save her, maybe.

"Steve… Steve… she got…"

"You okay? You okay though?" he asked coming towards her.

Rowan nodded though she was lying. She was purposely avoiding both bodies that were flanking her because she didn't want to vomit Her head was pounding, she couldn't quite look up cause the sun was killing her and her vision was getting hazy… and doubled.

Steve went to the woman, the one who had tried to stop the spy. "Danny, I need an ambulance, alleyway off Queen and Alakea… yeah, no I got Rowan, she's okay but Chen got shot."

Rowan put her hand to the back of her head, her fingers coming back wet and sticky. Oh no. No that was not good. She should not have told him she was okay.

"Steven… we have a problem…"

Steve looked down at her, as she looked at her hands. "Bleeding… you're bleeding… were you shot? Where are you hit?" he was crouching in front of her, his hands on her shoulder his eyes wide in horrified shock, looking her over for any sign of injury.

"I hit my head again."

Steve looked down to her reddened fingertips and swore, pulling her head down to his chest so he could look at the back of her head.

"It hurts Steve."

She must have blacked out after saying that because the next thing she was aware of, she was in his arms as he carried her towards the street shouting for a medic.

He got her into the ambulance waiting for her and Rowan blinked her eyes up at him. The light behind him lit his profile up like a halo. Her knight in shining white armour. Her Steven McGarrett.

He was talking to the EMTs they were talking turns looking at her, she had something important to tell him but the pounding in her head was drowning it out.

Steve glanced back behind him and a sudden panic came over her. "Aren't you coming with me?"

Pain crossed his features. "I have to…. I have so much to…"

Rowan shook her head though it hurt to do so. "It's okay. I'll be okay."

"When I'm done, I'll be there. Okay? I'll meet you there, I promise."

Rowan nodded the EMTs lifted her gurney into the back and that panic came back to her but for a different reason "Hey! Cargo pants," she called to Steve who was watching her, his heart in his eyes.

"Yes I know, I only always wear cargo pants."

"No Steve… your… in your…. Cargo pants. Just… just… Cargo pants."

But Steve didn't get it. He said he'd meet her at the hospital, then she was boarded up into the ambulance and the doors shut behind her.

And that was the last thing she remembered.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

It had been a rough day. He had lied to Zi Chen. He personally had to call Wo Fat to tell him that Rowan was in the hospital again and he had been less than kind about the turn of events, going as far to tell him that he was a complete and utter waste of space with the managing abilities of a monkey. And Rowan once more had a concussion and bandages wrapped around her head.

When Zi Chen had woken up from her surgery he had said the hard drive was destroyed. Rowan, who had realized just what she had and what it meant, had mulched it, put it down the garbage disposal at his house. Steve showed Zi Chen the proof, said he couldn't get the intel off of it. He even gave her the destroyed bits and pieces of the hard drive to take back home with her. Proof that her mission was a success, in some way, so her country didn't punish her or her family.

But that had been a lie.

Steve had found the hard drive, exactly where Rowan had said it would be. He just hadn't gotten it right away when she was trying to tell him. He blamed the oncoming concussion for the miscommunication.

All that time and it had been in the back pocket of his cargo pants. She must have slipped it in when they were in the shootout. He had been so frantic about losing Rowan that he hadn't even thought to check his own pockets.

Steve sat beside Rowan's bed, tired, but refusing to move. He smiled at her, remembering his surprise at finding the hard drive in his pocket. His brave, smart little pickpocket. He was going to lecture her so hard when she woke up.

"Lieutenant Commander McGarrett."

Steve turned, Vice Admiral Graham Rhodes, the man who had the nerve to look him in the eye and tell him that he had no idea what Steve was talking about that morning, stood staring at him. He had his cap in his hands, his uniform was nicely pressed all his stars and medals were shiny.

Steve didn't bother to get up. He didn't even smile. He merely went into his pocket and pulled out the flash drive. The one Catherine put all that info onto for him.

"Catherine Rollins recovered the info for you. It's all there."

He then turned back to Rowan. As far as Steve was concerned the Vice Admiral had been dismissed but he didn't see it that way.

"And the hard drive?"

"Erased and then put down a garbage disposal. I returned it to Agent Chen… or well… the pieces of it we got back anyway."

"And she believed we were unable to retrieve the data?"

Steve nodded. "Have you met Rowan?" he asked, it was a rhetorical question, because of course he hadn't. "Trust me. Meet her once and you will one hundred percent believe that she's the exact type of spiteful that would shove a hard drive containing Government Secrets into a garbage disposal."

"You've done your country a great service, Commander. We now know what the enemy knows, and we can adjust accordingly. Job well done. Uh… to the both of you."

The Admiral gestured to Rowan's sleeping form. Steve's eyes lingered on her again.

"Three innocent people lost their lives, and my girl cracked her head open again over this one," he growled. He turned his disapproving glare onto the man shrinking away from Rowan's bed and back towards the door. "Make it count."

To his credit, the Admiral nodded to him. "Sorry about the runaround earlier. Nothing personal."

Steve once again said nothing. He just continued to stare at Rowan and her beautiful resting face. If she were awake, if Danny were here, a sassy remark would have been thrown his way, but Steve had nothing to offer him.

Luckily this time the man actually left. With a soft shake of his head, Steve let out a deep sigh and sunk into his chair. He just wanted Rowan to wake up. Just to tell him or show him that she was okay. He just wanted her to be okay, was that so much to ask?

And like she was answering him her eyes opened, slits of cold blue staring back at him. Steve straightened in his seat, leaning forward and towards her, he put a hand out as she rolled over to face him. She reached out for his extended hand and he gripped her tightly suddenly smiling. He was between laughing and crying he was so happy to see that she was awake.

She blinked her eyes leisurely. "Did you find it?"

"Yeah, yeah, I did… are you okay?" he asked.

She closed her eyes as if she were thinking about it, as if she were mentally cataloguing all the pain in her body before she opened her eyes and said: "I think so. Do I…"

"Have another concussion? Yeah. You also lacerated the back of your head."

Rowan groaned and Steve shook his head at her. "Yeah, well _someone_ decided to head butt a Chinese spy."

"I forgot my head was too fragile for head butts, okay?" she shot back she shifted again to get comfortable and Steve moved closer to her. "Have you slept?" Steve shook his head softly and Rowan scowled. "Why not?"

"Too worried."

"About me, or about more nightmares?" Steve faltered and from that she knew the answer. "Do you want to talk about it?" When Steve shook his head again tears formed in Rowan's eyes. "You still don't trust me?"

Steve put a hand to her shoulder as she began to quake. "No, Rowan… it's not… I just… I don't want to…"

"Would it help if I told you more about me?"

Steve's eyebrows rose up his face, Rowan rarely volunteered information. "You'd do that?" he asked.

She nodded. "I can tell you about the accident if you like…"

The accident was tied to so many stories, so many unanswered question in her past. Steve nodded and she slowly and leisurely blinked her eyes.

"When I was 18, and we were young and impetuous, my brother got me into drag racing. Which I know is illegal, I'm not doing it now so stop looking at me like that," she warned and Steve fixed his face accordingly and went back to listening. "It started off small you know, a race here or there, but I was good… really good… and Trevor… he liked to gamble. We came up with the Professional scam after he lost a few races and needed me to get him out of trouble with a debt. After that he did it on purpose."

"It was easy. Trevor would lose a bunch of races, eventually lose a car to them and then he'd call me and I come and 'bail him out of it'. The con was I'd show up in our parent's beamer and pretend to be stupid. I'd offer to race to pay off his debts, and lose. Then I'd offer both his pink slip and mine as a wager against all of theirs. And almost everyone would take the bet and I'd smoke them. Sometimes I'd let them buy the cars back, for those who needed more time, I'd send the cars down to a garage, owner was a friend of a friend, he'd give me a cut when payments came in. Sometimes they'd just be chopped up or sold off. Sometimes that trick would take months to set up, we were playing long odds essentially. We took our trick all through BC, Alaska and even as far as into Alberta. We were like ghosts, no one ever knew our real names, we'd go missing from the drag racing scene for months at a time, and we always raced with different cars. They started calling me the Professional. I got a real rush out of it."

"So you crashed your car during a drag race?"

"Uh… well… no… not really. So… when I was twenty, I stopped skating pairs with Trevor. It was a big deal, I had always only skated with him and without him… uh… I just took off. And he got it in his head that he… that he was holding me down, that he was my lead boots or something. Which I never said to him, but you know it got reported in the papers so… you know I got it. But instead of telling me he was upset that I was doing better without him, he started racing with his own car. Problem was… Trevor wasn't as good at racing as I was, so he just kept loosing and loosing. So, he tells me that he lost his car in a race, and asks if I can help him get it back. Which I did. The whole Professional bit and everything. It was an epic race, those assholes had no idea what hit them. Problem was, he owed a lot more than a car and somehow I ended up getting recruited to be a getaway driver for a ring of thieves."

Steve's hand gripped hers.

"That doesn't make sense Rowan, how do you just out of no where get recruited as a get away driver?"

Rowan blinked her eyes, she thought carefully before continuing again. "Okay, uhm, I got pulled out of my training session because this guy was with my brother and Trevor looked super uncomfortable and his nose was bleeding. We talked at the rink side, he told me my brother owed him well over 3 million dollars, and, like, I was making money skating but neither of us had that kind of change, and he said that he'd consider letting my brother out of his debt if I did some driving for him. Said he liked the way I raced the night before, and thought I'd be good at it. The driving turned out to be as a getaway driver for various bank robberies."

"I knew it was a bad idea, but I loved my brother and he needed my help, so… so I agreed. I went along with it, but one job turned into one more and then another and another and I… I was really liking it. Trevor wanted out but I had found something I was good at. Something not useless. I know that sounds stupid, but I was never good at school, my whole family is geniuses and then there was me who barely made it out of high school. All I was good at was skating, singing and baking, none of which were a viable career for me. And well… yeah… I just liked it. It was there they taught me how to pickpocket, it was there that my sociopathic tendencies really helped us. Then there was the murder."

Steve's heart stopped beating, Rowan stopped talking and that sentence just hung there.

"They were always really careful, you know? They had never killed anyone before. But this one heist went sideways and they shot two tellers, a hostage and a cop, the cop… the cop died. That's when Trevor and I knew we had to get out."

"We made a call to CSIS, told them we had info, and we got this hot shot from Ottawa who got in a car chase with us once and I out maneuvered the hell out of him. Like it was bad, I humiliated him and he was all for revenge. He did not like me. Like at all. But he took a shine to Trevor and he agreed to help us if we testified."

"They made me agree to do one more heist, one more heist where they would catch them in the act. And I was like, fine, I can do that. The problem after that was that the boss got word that we might be turning snitch and held Trevor back. Said if his men got arrested they'd kill my brother. So I warned Malcolm, he's the CSIS Agent that was helping us, and he said to go through everything as planned, don't let on and that he'd notify me when they got Trevor out so I could drive them into the trap. The next heist I got everyone in the car, the cops were chasing us, and I was just waiting to for the text. I got it, and crashed the car purposely. Rolled us four times. Killed everyone in the car except me."

"But you killed your skate career and you got really hurt… why… why would you do that to yourself?"

She turned her sorrowful blue eyes to him and Steve's breath left his body. "Because I'm a horrible person. My brother begged me to get us out. I had more than paid back the debt but I didn't want to leave. When Malcolm asked why we had stayed so long if we weren't forced to be there, I was forced to admit just what kind of monster I am. That I stayed because… well… because it was the only thing I was good at. I thought if… if I killed myself in that car accident… if I killed us all, no one would come after Trevor and I wouldn't be a burden anymore."

She actually thought that? She actually thought she was a terrible person? How could his wonderful, sweet, loving little girl think that?

"Rowan…"

"Either way it didn't work. The guy in charge… his father and his twin sister had a major grudge out for me and Trevor after that. And for the next…. Uh… almost two years we ended up having to be in witness protection… almost a full year in a cast and another six months of physio. But that was how Malcolm and Trevor met…"

"Malcolm is Trevor's…?"

"Boyfriend. Well Fiancé… he was supposed to be getting engaged when I left. I had been writing a song to sing at their wedding."

Steve nodded, he helped Rowan dry her tears as he smiled softly and sadly at her. "You're not a horrible person. You're not a monster. And I don't want you to ever think like that again, okay?"

Rowan nodded. "Can you…" oh here it came, she was going to ask him to tell her about Freddy. "Can you just get in bed with me. I really need a hug and… and I'd feel better if you were here…"

Despite knowing the nurses didn't want him in her bed, he hoped the gate and settled himself down beside her where she snuggled into his side and he held her close.

"You know… I was thinking…" he whispered. Rowan mumbled against his side and he smiled. "I was thinking that Freddy… Freddy… he would have really liked you."

Rowan lifted her head out of his side to stare at him. "Really? You think so?"

"Oh, I know so. He would have loved how you keep me on my toes, he would have laughed at a guy like me ending up with a princess…"

"A princess?"

"Yeah, one of those glitzy glamorous girls who didn't understand rough and tumble guys, and only wanted us in theory cause we're pretty to look at and they think they can domesticate us," he said. "You're not all like them, but you're mostly a princess."

Rowan smiled up at him and Steve's breathing hitched. Concern flashed over her features and he found himself dangerously close to tears.

"Yeah, he would have loved you…"

And then the rest of the story just sort of tumbled out.


	101. Chapter 101

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Thank you, you guys for all your support, again. I know it's annoying to have to wait for chapter updates, but I promise that we'll be getting another marathon soon just keep showing me the love! So this chapter here… it's going to be a fun one. I have a lot of cute things happening, but I also have a lot of funny things happening too. The chapter is ALSO super long it's around 13 pages. But I promise it's worth it because this is it, this is the chapter where they finally…. DO IT. So there is smut, I have a warning, if you don't want to read it skip that part when you get to the warning okay? And I will see you guys on Friday!_

 _Congratulations Guest Reviewer AJ for being my 600th review! **Read the next part very very carefully.**_

 _So, AJ, what I need you to do for your next review, is this: 1. Please Identify that it's you. 2. Please Name and Describe the character you want me to write. 3. Please tell me WHICH of the 10 filler chapters you'd like your character to appear in._

 _I know you really like the Game night with the bet, but I promise I'm writing all 10 filler chapters mentioned in chapter 98, no matter what chapter you pick, so the game night one is going to be written. So if you'd like your character to appear in a certain way, pick a chapter that will facilitate that. (I think you wanted to interact with Steve in a case of some sort, I would recommend the Doris chapter or one of the ones with Wo Fat as I plan to have him working in those, or the one where Rowan and Steve are arguing because that also involves him working it happens at the Headquarters.) If you need more info about the chapters you're interested in please say so in your review and I will post that info for you on Friday._

Chapter 101

* * *

Catherine knocked on the door to the little hospital room and then poked her head into the room. Rowan, with bandages wrapped around her head again, smiled up to her. She looked wonderfully excited for a visitor but as soon as she saw it was Catherine her smile turned upside down.

"Uh… hello… hi Rowan…" Catherine said slowly entering the room. "How… how are you feeling?"

Rowan's eyes narrowed at her. "I'm… I'm fine. Why?"

She obviously wasn't happy to see her and Catherine didn't blame her. "Well… I just wanted to check up…"

"Cut the bullshit, what do you want?"

Oh wow, she was much more brazen now. Look at Rowan, she didn't need a criminal backing her she just needed Steve's heart to suddenly grow some fucking balls.

"I wanted to ask a favour."

Those blue eyes narrowed even more. "What kind of favour?"

"Well… I'm sure you know its Steve's birthday tomorrow, and the guys are planning a little party," she told her.

Rowan perked up immediately. "Oh yes, Danny and I have been working on it for weeks. We're going to this posh restaurant, and he has to dress up all fancy, and when he gets there… BAM shrimp burgers done by Kamekona. And a couple of real burgers for me. Surprise cook out in a fancy restaurant."

"Yeah about that… is it possible that maybe… you might consider… not going…"

There we go, cat out of the bag. Rowan blinked her eyes at her. "Uh… but I was really looking forward to going and you know… I'm kinda the one that planned the whole thing... I didn't really want to brag or anything… mainly cause Danny wanted all the credit but I'm the one who did all the work…"

"Yeah, I know, and I get that. But… it's just that… things have been crazy awkward since well… since the break up… not just between me and Steve but between me and the others too."

"Uh… okay….?"

"And well its worse when you're around. And well… I kind of really wanted to go too… but with you there… I unno… I just… it's just hard to be around… when you know… when…"

"So because you feel awkward you want me to miss Steve's party… this is after you alienated me and attacked me and… and… are you crying?"

Yes, yes Catherine was crying. Because everything had been super hard for her recently. Steve had just breezed off, perfectly fine and worked things out wonderfully with Rowan. Kono wouldn't look at her anymore, Chin well… after Chin went off on her like that on Christmas Eve they hadn't been okay and she hadn't even tried to talk to Danny. She was in a basement apartment, because it was all she could afford, she had no one on the island, no boyfriend, no friends, and her job sucked because her coworkers hated her.

"Oh… geeze… Catherine… don't cry… I mean… come on… this isn't fair… I'm too concussed to deal with this…"

Catherine couldn't help it. She folded in on herself letting out weeks of pent up frustration and sadness. She had been trying so hard to be strong, to not let this get to her, but she couldn't take it anymore. She collapsed into one of the chairs by Rowan's bed and after a few minutes of crying she suddenly felt an arm around her shoulders.

When Catherine looked up, Rowan was out of her bed, a soft hand on her back petting her softly.

"I'm sorry," she whispered to her. "I guess… I guess since I kinda fucked up your relationship with Steve and the other Five-0's the least I could do is miss the party. I mean… its one party right? Who cares if Kamekona was making special burgers just for me… I'm sure he'll just… save them or something…"

Catherine smiled through her sniffs. "Wow… really? You'd… you'd do that?"

"Sure. It's the least I could do," she said with a warm smile. "Just uh… stop crying… you're freaking me out."

Catherine laughed and wiped away her tears. It was actually really nice of Rowan to agree but it was also quite naive. That meant she'd get the whole party to attempt to talk and work things out with Steve with no Rowan to distract him. And if she got her way, if she could convince Steve of the merits of her plan, after this, Rowan wouldn't be the only woman in Steve's life

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

 _What are you doing here Jerry?_

 _-Well I can't go back home…_

 _Why not?_

 _-I stun-gunned a Chinese spy in my mom's basement. I could be facing some serious retaliation._

 _Jerry the threats been neutralized. You're completely safe._

 _-You have no idea how this works do you? I need to lie low for a while. I sent my mom to her sister's and I thought I'd stay with you. You know, just till this dies down._

 _Jerry, I'm bringing Rowan home tomorrow…_

 _-Aw I love Rowan, how's her head by the way?_

"And that would be why Jerry is at my place," Steve said.

He heard Rowan's response, slightly muffled by the door. Something like: "Oh I see."

Chin had been kind enough to pick up a change of clothes for her from Alex's. No one wanted Steve to go over there, not with things being rocky with Steve and Rowan, and Alex still being a douche. Throw in Steve's over-protectiveness and Alex's penchant for mouthing off, they were all sure that if Steve went it would end in a brawl. Steve thought they were hiding something but he couldn't for the life of him figure out what it was.

Rowan came out of the washroom fully changed, she did a wobbly turn to show him her outfit and Steve put his hands out to keep her from falling over.

"What do you think?"

"Looking good," he whispered. She was looking past good. His whole body was taunt for her, but that wasn't really all the short short's fault. He had been hard for her the second he walked into her room, the second he got closer to her. He doubted it was going to stop even if he did manage to sleep with her soon.

She walked back to the bed and Steve followed her. As he stood beside her, he hoped she hadn't noticed but he was spotting her. She was swaying and he didn't like that. The doctor had cleared her, though he didn't know why he had because Rowan didn't look any better and she couldn't stand straight to save her life and she was still minorly concussed. But he wasn't going to argue because he got to bring her home and pamper her.

"It's good you have Jerry over, I'm sure it makes him feel better to have you there," Rowan said. "But as I mentioned before, you didn't need to come pick me up."

"Well, of course I did… you're coming home with me remember…"

Rowan froze and Steve frowned that was not a good response. "Well… actually… about that…"

"Rowan," he growled in warning but she still turned to him with that nervous smile on her face.

"I just think it might be a better idea if I stay somewhere else."

"Rowan, we agreed you'd stay over so I can take care of you… Remember? Cause you bashed your head into a Chinese Spy's face and cracked the back of your head open on his nose? Remember? You have a concussion and you've been ordered to rest for three days? Has it affected your memory now?"

"Okay… that's rude. No it has not, but you know… if Jerry's there maybe I shouldn't be staying over. Too many people right? I'm sure I can stay with someone else. Like Chin! Chin has lots of room!"

Fucking Chin. Why hadn't Steve sent Jerry over to Chin's? "Rowan…"

"Aw come on… I don't wanna ruin the Jerry and Steve bonding time. That boy… he just worships you, you know?"

Steve glared at her, arms folded over his chest. "Okay. Fine. I'll… uh… I'll drop you off at Chin's… on one condition…"

"Oh yeah and what's that?"

"You agree to be my date tomorrow night," he said with a smile. Rowan turned to him immediately a surprised look on her face. "It's my birthday tomorrow and Danny's throwing me a party so I wanted you to be my date. I'll even wrap my head up so we can match."

Rowan blinked her eyes. "They uh… they actually say I don't need the bandages anymore…"

"Oh even better, honestly I don't think I can pull that look off and I've always thought matchy-match couples were silly."

"And I'm actually busy tomorrow…"

Steve stopped smiling and frowned at her. "What?"

"Well… you see… I thought that I wasn't invited to the party so I… uh… yeah I agreed to babysit Grace so Danny could attend."

Steve took a step away from her. "Why the hell would you assume you weren't invited?"

"Because it's a work party."

"Rowan… you've literally been involved in every single case I've had since I met you. You dream of my cases…"

"But do I get paid?" Rowan asked him and okay she had him there.

"Well I don't think the Governor will let me put a psychic on the payroll," he muttered and Rowan crossed to him. She put her hands on his chest and he turned his disappointed frown on her and watched her wince under the weight of it.

"I'm sorry Steven. But… we can do something else, instead. Just me and you? What do you say? I'll let you taking me hiking."

"I can't take you hiking, you have a concussion."

"Fine a light stroll and then you can carry me the rest of the way up the mountain like Madame Zeroni," she said turning back to the effects she was still packing.

"Who?"

"You know? _Holes?_ It's a great movie, and even better book. Movie stayed pretty true to the book too, it's rare you see that."

Steve groaned at her and Rowan sighed again and turned back to him. "I am sorry Steven. I didn't think you'd want me to come to a work party. I thought you'd rather like to have a… private party… with just me. I thought it would be more fun that way."

Well when she put it that way... Steve struggled to hide his sudden wide smile. Instead he tried his very best to frown. He looked away and then back to her and sighed deeply like he was mortally wounded. "I suppose I can forgive you."

And that won him a large smile and her arms around his neck. She kissed both cheeks first before he cornered her and got her lips. He greedily kissed her as many times as he could before she dropped back down to flat feet, smiled up to him and went back to packing.

A private affair with his lovely Rowan was probably the best birthday present he could have asked for.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Danny was surprised for several reasons. For one, Rowan had not been taken to Steve's like he, and everyone else including Steve, had thought she was going to be, instead she was dropped off at Chin's who had not been expecting that. And then Rowan called him and told him that tomorrow she would not be going to the party she practically planned herself and that she'd be babysitting Grace, regardless of the fact that his mom would be doing that for him. She didn't give him a good reason, of course, but he sent Chin after that answer, which he literally had to wrestle out of her. He learned that it was because Catherine had asked her not to. So that was fun to find out. And then Steve showed up at the Palace, livid and locked himself in his office.

Danny had been there to finish paperwork, now he was going to have to fix Steven.

Danny knocked on the door but Steve didn't look up. He just sat at his desk with his head in his hands.

"Did uh… did you two have an argument or something?" he asked, figuring he'd forgo the polite small talk and just get it all out in the open right away.

Steve lifted his head up. "No, no we did not get into an argument," Steve snapped, he didn't even bother to ask for clarification he knew who Danny was arguing about. "Not… not really…"

"I can't help but notice you're not at home… like you said you would be," Danny said.

"Yes Danny, Rowan decided that she didn't want to get in between me and Jerry bonding time…" Danny couldn't help but laugh at that one despite the scowl that was on Steve's face. "And thanks to you she's not coming to my birthday."

"Uh… excuse me… because of me?"

"Yes, Danny. You needed a babysitter, I guess cause you don't trust your mom, and now Rowan's not coming. So thank you… thank you for that cock-block."

Rowan must have told him that her not going was Danny's fault. Uh… no, Danny was not going to take that kind of secret on again. Not after last time.

"No, no I did not ask her to babysit, she voluntold me that she was babysitting… this morning after you dropped her off at Chin's," Danny said. "Rowan is not coming to your party because Catherine asked her not to."

Steve sat up straighter. "What?" he asked in a soft growl that sent chills up Danny's spine. Oh dear… yeah… the over reacting… that was why they were keeping secrets from Steve. Fuck he forgot about that.

Steve fished out his phone quickly. Before Danny could stop him he had dialed Rowan and put it on speaker phone. Rowan answered not knowing what was going to hit her.

"Hey Steve, what's up?"

"Catherine told you not to come to my party?"

Rowan paused, Danny almost felt bad for her, poor girl had been blind sided. Instead of an answer they heard her call out: "Chin did you tell Danny about that… that thing I told you in confidence and you swore you wouldn't tell anyone, least of all Danny?" off in the distance came a soft answer of _yes_. Wow, Chin wasn't even going to flat out lie about, straight up just told her the truth, just like Rowan should have done this morning when she and Steve talked about the situation. Rowan swore. "Goddamn it, you swore you wouldn't!"

 _We have enough secrets thank you very much!_

DAMN CHIN! Why the hell had he said that. The crease in Steve's eyebrows furrowed deeper. "Secrets, you have more secrets?"

Rowan said nothing and then suddenly erupted: "Danny, you couldn't have kept your mouth shut?"

"No. We did that once, I'm not doing it again," he snapped to her.

"Thanks a lot Danny!"

"Okay, don't blame him," Steve cut in seemingly ignoring Chin's previous comment. "Why did you agree to that, Rowan? Don't you want to come to my birthday party?"

"Well of course I do, Steven…" "—Goddamn it, don't do that." "Steven McGarrett… Steven McGarrett… Steven…. McGarrett."

The last utterance of his full name had been done in this husky tone that actually made Steve make a strange face, his spine had almost arched like the sound of his own name from her voice was setting him off. Danny felt dirty just listening to it.

"Rowan," Steve growled, his tone one of warning and from the phone came a defeated sigh.

"Look… of course I wanted to come. Danny and I worked hard on this party, but… Steve… Catherine started crying… and I felt bad and I unno. I really meant it… the whole me and you, private party, anything you want. That wouldn't be so bad? Would it?"

Steve was melting, Danny could see it. He winced up at Danny. "She really cried?"

"Well yeah. She feels lonely, and like the others don't like her and I mean… things didn't really end well so she's kinda got a point and I just thought… you know… maybe if I was nicer…"

"So why lie to me then?"

"Well… because… I knew if I told you that was why you'd get mad, and then you'd keep asking me and I'd say yes…"

"So if I keep asking you'll cave?" Steve asked a grin forming on his lips.

"Steven James McGarrett, don't you dare!" Rowan cried, her tone exasperated and yet teasing at the same time. Steve was immediately grinning from ear to ear.

Steve mock sighed. "Alright fine, fine, I'll let you have this one, but next time just tell me the truth."

"Okay."

"And I'm picking you up for dinner tonight, don't argue," he said and Rowan just said okay again and then Steve hung up.

Danny stared at him. "Do uh… do you feel better now?" Steve nodded and Danny smiled at him.

"Glad to help. Wanna help me with my paperwork?"

Steve did not.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Letting Jerry move in had been a bad idea. Steve was a light sleeper. Every move sounded like a herd of elephants in his mind, not that Jerry was being loud purposely. At this point he'd rather have Danny and his stupid TV going at all hours. But the other issue was that Rowan hadn't wanted to come over with Jerry sleeping on the couch. She didn't flat out say that it was because of Jerry but Steve knew… he knew it was because she wasn't comfortable sleeping over and having Jerry there. So she dressed it up as not wanting to get in between their guy time. Like Steve and Jerry were going to bro it out or something.

That night, the sun setting into the ocean outside his lanai, Steve had gotten home to get ready for the party. A party that Rowan would not be coming to, all so that Catherine could feel comfortable again. So that was another birthday he would be ringing in without Rowan. And she couldn't even use the old: "Wo Fat abducted me" excuse this year. Yes they had had a nice little dinner last night, she had dressed up and then presented him with a nicely wrapped gift that he hadn't been expecting. She had gotten him a single picture frame. His favourite picture of them together, her in a Kevlar jacket using his hand to twirl around.

He immediately put that picture by his bedside for safe keeping, as soon as he could it would be going on his desk so he could look at it on the bad days and remember that there was good in his life and that he did his job so this island would be safer for people… and for Rowan.

But it didn't change that he wanted her there for his birthday. He wanted to be going to this party with her on his arm and it upset him that he'd be going without her. And then he heard it. The sound of someone else in the house. But not Jerry. Jerry was with the others helping to prepare for his birthday out at that fancy ass restaurant Danny had picked. Besides, the person in his house was too light to be Jerry. And he had left his gun at the front door. _Fuck._ Steve carefully made his way down the stairs as quietly as he could. His house was dark, the front foyer was covered in shadows, but he could still hear something moving, could see a dim light in his kitchen. Flickering like a flame.

Steve was in stuck in Super SEAL mode now. He didn't have time to go for the gun, he would just have to hope they weren't armed or that he could over power them before they got a shot off. So he silently and slowly made his way to the kitchen.

He got the doorway and something jumped out. He heard the beginning of the word, he half recognized the person, but all he saw was something flaming in their hands, heard that some sort of loud cry and his automatic response was to punch them. Right in the face.

The person crashed to the floor, the thing in their hands, splattering against the tiles and all over them, the light going out immediately. Their hands came to their face, pressed to their nose as they cried out in pain.

Steve froze. Holy shit. Rowan. He had just punched Rowan in the face. Oh. Fucking… balls.

"Bloody… fucking… hell!" she groaned in between wheezes of pain.

Steve knelt down beside her in the remnants of the cake that had smashed when she fell and tried to put a hand out to her to assess her injuries, but she smacked him away.

Steve's concern was replaced with anger. "Why didn't you tell me you were here, Rowan?" he cried.

"Because I wanted to surprise you. That's the whole point of a surprise party you twat!" she cried right back, she was sitting up now, only one hand to her nose. He passed her a cloth to stop the bleeding. He looked around and saw that no one else was with her. Okay so what was this… a party of two? Actually, he certainly blow off his Morimoto party if he could have party of two with her. Which didn't look likely now that he had punched her in the face.

He got up to go to the freezer. He needed to get her ice. "Why the hell would you surprise a trained Navy SEAL, Rowan? You had to realize that was a bad idea."

He could feel Rowan's glare on him even before he turned around. He grabbed the cloth from her, used it to wrap up the ice and then handed it back to her.

"For your birthday you Neanderthal. I baked you a black forest cake and got you sparklers," she snapped. She took the ice away from her face and put a few fingers to her nose prodding it softly causing her to wince. "I can't believe you punch me in the face!"

"I thought you were a burglar, Rowan," he growled.

"Who the hell would willingly break into your house," she growled. "You're clearly insane. And besides… you gave me a key! You told me to stop by whenever, even when you're not home!"

Steve helped her up, despite her trying to swat his hands away. He pulled her out of the kitchen and pushed her down to the couch. "Yes, but I didn't tell you to hide in the shadows to surprise me. Just stay here, I'm going to go clean up that mess."

He turned away before she could say anything else to him. He moved to the kitchen where the cake lay in splattered clumps on his floor. He couldn't resist himself. He found himself trying a piece, a top piece that hadn't touched the floor. It was pretty good. It kinda sucked that he had knocked the thing out of her hands.

When things were clean and he had made her a tea he returned to the couch where he found that Rowan's nose had stopped bleeding but she was lounging back with the ice firmly placed on her nose.

"How are you feeling?" Steve asked as he came towards her. He put the tea in front of her just as Rowan opened up her eyes and glared at him.

He could already see swelling and the spread of purple bruising under eyes. Holy fuck had he broken her nose? "Like I got punched in the face, you dick."

"Let me see it," he whispered and she moved the cloth filled with ice away from her face.

Her nose looked aligned, so maybe it wasn't broken. Maybe she just bruised really, really easily. "You may have to go to a clinic, see if it's broken."

"If you've broken my nose I will never forgive you," Rowan snarled dropping her head back to the back of the couch. "Punching people. What is the matter with you?"

"For the last time I thought you were a burglar. Let's talk about you… hmmm? You attempted to surprise a Navy SEAL. A trained Navy SEAL who has had issues with people breaking into his house and attacking him. You tried to surprise someone with extensive hand to hand combat training. What did you think would happen?" he reminded her.

"Uh, how about you just being happy I baked you a cake, you animal," she cried. "I mean, who else would break into someone's house to bring them a cake, how many home invasions start with cake and sparklers?"

Okay, he hadn't thought of that, but he had been stuck on Super SEAL mode. "I'm sorry Rowan, but throwing a surprise party for a Navy SEAL trained in hand to hand combat is the stupidest thing you could have done. However, I tasted a bit of the cake, by the way, it was pretty good."

"Oh good. I had left over batter and made cupcakes. They're in the fridge if you want some," she said. Steve immediately got up. Cupcakes? There were fucking cupcakes? Hell yes. From the couch he heard Rowan call out: "You're still not forgiven, though!"

Yes, he rather assumed he wouldn't be. But he could work on that. He quickly got one of his cupcakes out, put a single candle on it and lit it before returning to the couch. Rowan looked at the cupcake in his hands whispered: "Happy birthday, Steven. Make a wish."

That whisper came with an echo. His mother used to say that. Happy birthday, make a wish. Every birthday, it was the exact same. He hadn't had a birthday like that in a long while. That is was Rowan who gave that back to him made his heart swell with both happiness and pride.

Which was why, when Steve blew out his candle, he made the wish that was on his mind and in his heart.

"Don't tell me what you wished for," she said. "It won't come true if you do."

Superstition he was sure. He looked at Rowan who had moved the ice away from her face and was gingerly feeling at her nose. She looked so cute, so comfortable there on his couch. What he wouldn't give to have her there always. For this to be what he came home to every night, minus the punching of course.

"You know…" he said after a long pause. "You could help me with my birthday wish. Would you be willing to help me?"

Rowan turned those big blue eyes on him and his heart leapt into his throat. If she said yes to this proposal, he could die a happy man. "Sure," she said. "What do you want me to do?"

Steve was leaning in before he could stop himself. He had framed her face with his hands and kissed her. He wanted to be gentle, with an injured nose he should have been gentle, but he couldn't help himself. It was filled with all the passion and desire he felt, all those stolen side glances and secret smiles. Everything had brought him to this moment, where emotion was sweeping through him like a tsunami.

Rowan's arms had wrapped around his neck, she had pulled him down to the couch where he found himself on top of her. His hands left her face to wrap around her, to press her closer to him. He wanted to taste everything, feel everything, have everything. That wasn't too much to ask was it?

Until she pushed him away.

They came apart, breathless. Steve's mind had gone into hazy fog but even he knew to stop now that she wanted him to. Especially with the redness of her nose and the forming bruises under her eyes.

"Did I hurt you?" he asked. It was his main concern.

"No… it's not… I'm fine. It's just that… I'm not sure… you have a party to go to and I don't know if I…"

Steve didn't let her finish. He pressed the softest of kisses to her lips before saying: "I know. I do. And that's not what I'm asking you for. Do you think… that just for a few more minutes, I can pretend that you're truly and properly mine?"

Rowan's hand came to his cheek, her blue eyes were shining so bright as he searched hers. Good God let her say yes, please god let her say yes.

"Ten more minutes," she whispered and then they were kissing again. Steve shook in her embrace, he shivered and shuddered, molded into each touch, practically moaned into every kiss she landed on him. This was what he gave up when he didn't fight for her, this was what he was missing, this was what he was desperate for.

He didn't know how to get back to this. He didn't know how to make this a thing for them. Not with the way things were, with Catherine, with Wo Fat, and their lack of trust with one another. But for the next ten minutes he wasn't going to worry. For the next ten minutes he could pretend that things had worked out and that his birthday wish had come true.

For the next ten minutes. Rowan was his.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan returned to Danny's place, a goofy smile on her face. She couldn't help it, couldn't hide it. She had literally just had the best sex of her life. When she went over she had no intention of sleeping with him, she'd be lying if she said she wasn't thoroughly tempted. Steve knew just where to nibble, just what spots of hers to caress to get that fire in her burning wildly out of control. She had been having a hard time saying no to him just in general, but once he punched her, accidentally or not, she definitely wasn't going to sleep with him then. But on that couch, in his arms, knowing that his birthday wish was just to pretend she was all his, feeling warm, safe, secure, like she was home for the first time. Rowan stopped holding out and gave them both what they so desperately had craved from each other.

Clara, who had probably started the whole girl's night that Rowan had planned for them, called out: "When you were late we assumed you had gone to the party."

"Nope, just got slightly delayed," Rowan said kicking off her shoes. "Did you guys start the movie without me?"

"Yep and we ate all the cupcakes," Grace called from her spot on the couch. Rowan leant in and ruffled her hair.

"You're gonna have a hard time falling asleep tonight," she warned her but Grace only giggled.

Clara turned, however, and whatever she was going to stay dropped right off her lips. She gasped at her no longer smiling. "Oh god, what happened!"

Grace turned too and frowned. "Auntie Ro… your nose!"

Rowan put a hand to her nose which still hurt, was it that bad? She rushed off to the washroom, with Grace and Clara following her. Rowan gasped when she got to the mirror. She had two bruises forming under her nose, and the bridge of her nose had gone from red to purple. She looked like a boxer who just lost a fight. It looked like her nose might actually be broken.

"Holy shit I think he really did break my nose," Rowan breathed out.

"He… do you mean Steven?" Clara asked.

"Uncle Steve hit you?" Grace cried.

"Well… kinda… yeah… but it was my fault…"

"That is just not true, he may make you feel like that but there is no reason for him to hit you… ever," Clara complained and Rowan shook her head.

"No, no, I mean really, it was my fault. I let myself into his place and tried to surprise him. He thought I was an intruder and punched me. He was very apologetic."

"Did he hurt your neck too?" Grace asked.

Rowan's hand immediately flew to cover the marks she knew littered her neck, there were even more on her collarbone and her chest that were luckily covered. Steve really… really… liked covering her in soft suckling kisses, but in the throes of passion he had forgotten to let her go before the marks set in. Though Rowan had got him back with her nails, she'd have to cut them for next time, if there was a next time, they looked nice but they were deadly to his back.

"Uh… no… that one didn't hurt," Rowan told her. Clara had a knowing smile on her face as Rowan pushed past them.

"So uh… do you want to tell us how it went?"

"I mean… it went great, after we got over the whole thinking I was an intruder. He had one of the cupcakes and we uh…"

"Maybe shared a birthday kiss or two?" Clara offered.

"Yeah something like that."

"Ohh… does that mean you're Uncle Steve's girlfriend now?" Grace asked skipping out behind Clara. "Danno says you two are taking a long time to do that but both of you really want to and you're just being stubborn."

Rowan shot her a soft scowl, she was going to have to talk to Danny about how he needed to stop sharing info like that with his daughter. "No, that does not mean that Uncle Steve is my boyfriend, but it's a step in the right direction."

Both Grace and Clara shot a frown at one another before following Rowan into the living room where Rowan began to dig through her purse for her health card.

"Honey, why are you fighting this?" Clara asked.

"Yeah!" Grace cried.

"You clearly like Steven very much…" "Yeah!" "And he obviously really likes you…" "YEAH!" "It doesn't make sense that you two haven't figured things out with him by now!"

" _YEAH_!" Grace practically hollered.

"Alright, take it down a notch," Clara told her and Grace giggled again. Yeah she had eaten way too many cupcakes.

Rowan sighed and threw herself down on the couch. "Guys, it's not this easy. You don't know what he did to me when he was mad. He did some pretty shhhh… terrible things. He feels like he can't trust me and I'm worried that he's going to be twice as controlling if we start an actual relationship…"

"Rowan, that man stayed by your bedside until you woke up. I don't think I've seen a man so distraught to see someone in the hospital. The nurses kept telling him he wasn't allowed to sleep in the bed with you and he just threw _immunity and means_ straight back into their faces. Said that you asked him to stay with you and that the Governor could come in himself and tell him to move and he wouldn't," Clara said. "He's obviously trying to be better, and so are you, but you should be working on it together."

Rowan seemed to think this over. She really did. Clara had a point, maybe part of their problem was that they were keeping themselves separate. And the sex… wow… sex with Steve was like nothing she had ever experience before in her life and that was just a quickie. What would it be like if he actually took his time with her?

"Okay, I can't think about this right now. We have to take me to the doctor, cause I'm certain he's broken my nose."

Clara clapped her hand. "Ohh… let's take the GTO I've always wanted to drive a GTO."

Rowan sighed. "Sure, but if you so much as even put a chip in my car's paint I'm taking over."

"Sing Along!" Grace cried and Rowan groaned, she was in too much pain to argue. She reached for her iPod and followed the women out of the door.

Seriously, if Steve broke her nose she'd never forgive him.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve showed up at Morimoto, Masaharu Morimoto's flagship restaurant dressed to what Rowan called the nines. He was in his light grey suit with a freshly pressed black buttoned shirt, that she had helped him pick out before heading over to Danny's for a girl's night. Danny had gone all out, she had said, but that wasn't why he picked black.

Rowan had practically lacerated his back with her finger nails. He hadn't been expecting to go that far with her, least of all on his couch when Jerry could walk in at any minute, but one thing had led to another and suddenly he was gloriously inside her and those finger nails were digging into his back and her teeth with sunk into the tattoo on his shoulder spurring him faster, deeper and harder.

So despite the burning on his back, despite not wanting to spend his birthday in a fancy restaurant, Steve was grinning ear to ear.

Danny had picked him up and hadn't complained when Steve drove. And even though he wanted Rowan by his side he was happy to have the time he had with her that evening, he was even happier to have his friends all around him and was already planning what he would be doing with Rowan for his birthday.

They were all engaging in idle chit chat when Catherine dropped her hand to his knee. Steve turned to her, he couldn't help whatever look crossed his face that caused her to wince. He was so upset with her for what she had done.

"I was hoping, that you and I could talk. Would you be okay with that? Could we maybe go somewhere more…"

Steve took a hold of Catherine's hand and put it back on the table where it belonged. "It's really shitty that you guilted Rowan into not coming."

And he left it at that. Catherine kept her hand off of him and she didn't try to pin him down for that private talk she was interested in either.

Instead of sushi, Masaharu, along with Kamekona came out with all of Steve's favourites. Burgers, garlic shrimp, cold beers and Steve laughed. They had definitely surprised him.

And to top it all of there was an ice cream bar and a slice of black forest cake with his name on it. Turned out Rowan had baked a second cake for him for the party.

He opened presents, he joked with his friends, who were all nice enough not to mention Rowan or ask him why she wasn't there.

He got more than he bargained for, or even thought he'd get for his birthday. But there was one thing he didn't expect.

Danny getting piss drunk.

It was the end of the night, Steve's mind was still stuck on Rowan and what they had done on his couch. He had Danny draped against him, telling him over and over how much he loved him, while Steve just smiled down at him.

All he could think was that he'd get to see Rowan again. He'd have to drop Danny off and then ask Rowan to drop him off at his place… which meant he could convince her to stay over. He could convince her to try the whole couch situation out on a bed.

It would be better. Ten times better. Not that their quickie hadn't been amazing, it had been, but he could do so much better then that hurried impassioned coupling on the couch. He just had to think of a way to get her to agree without badgering her or begging her.

They were out on the curb waiting for the valet when Catherine came up to him again.

"So there are officially twenty minutes left in your birthday, so I was wondering if you'd be okay to talk now?" Catherine asked.

 _20 minutes left_. That was it.

"I'm gonna drop Danny off, uh… so maybe a different time?" he asked.

Catherine nodded, Steve got Danny into his car and then drove him home. In his mind he said the same thing over and over again: 20 minutes left.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

 ***This has smut, to avoid the smut skip to the next chapter***

Rowan opened the door, Danny was hanging off of Steve, partially unconscious. Well that was her staying here, because if Steve offered to take her home she'd have to admit that she wasn't living with Alex anymore that she was crashing in Chin's spare bedroom. And then he'd ask how long she had been doing that, and when she left Alex and why and her pride couldn't handle that at that moment.

"How was your birthday?" she asked lightly as they worked on getting Danny to his bedroom where he could collapse.

"It was good, how's your nose?" he asked.

"Doctor says it's not broken," she answered and he mumbled a: _good_ at her. Once Danny was in the bed, all nice and tucked in Steve looked at her, his eyes heated like they were that evening when he fucked her on his couch. The best fucking sex of her goddamn life.

"Can I talk to you?" he asked.

Talk. Right. He just wanted to talk. Probably wanted to tell her that he wasn't interested in anything solid, cause him and Catherine were on the road to getting back together, but can they keep having that amazing sex until that happened? Cause she wanted to… whether or not she'd fall deeper into the emotion for Steve was something completely different and something she would have to deal with.

Still she said sure, and followed him out to the back where he shut the door behind him and dragged her down to the beach. Moonlit stroll on the beach with Steve? Was he trying to be romantic?

"I have ten minutes left of my birthday," he said softly to her. Rowan reached out for Steve's hand. She took it and turned it so she could see the watch on his wrist. 11:50pm, yeah he had 10 minutes left.

"Yeah?" she asked dropping her grip on his hand which momentarily caused him to falter.

"Yes," he confirmed. "And… well… I want to spend that time with you."

Rowan bit her lip, the way his eyes were moving up and down her body was more than inviting it also told her all she needed to know about the time he wanted to spend with her. She crossed the space between them, and that was all she had to do. His hands grabbed her sides and pulled her to him. His lips came down on hers as she hopped up on tippy toes to kiss him first. Her arms wrapped around his neck and she let him drop her down to the sand. She opened up his button up shirt, not fully open but partially so she could press kisses to his chest.

He groaned at the contact, throwing his suit jacked down behind her, lowering her slightly so he could smooth out his shirt for her to lie on. He brushed the strap of her tank top aside so he could dust her collarbones with his own liquid fire kisses and Rowan felt herself melt for him even before his fingers found their way down her shorts and into her panties.

He groaned with appreciation when he found her. "So wet," he murmured to her just as she found his hardened member.

She shot him a wicked grin, nibbled at his jaw line and whispered: "So hard," right back at him. The chuckle that she had wrung out of him was soft and airy. His chuckle devolved into some kind of mix of a groan and a gasp as her hand jerked upwards.

"Fuck," he hissed, before his body came down on hers. His hand left her pants, his lips sought hers, his tongue delving into her mouth to search her. Rowan echoed every moan, every groan, mirrored every movement. She clung to him as his hands struggled to free them of their close, her nails bit into the skin of his sides causing him to pitch in that way she found sheerly delightful. Her teeth nipped at the skin of his neck, while his own teeth dug into her shoulder, in that way that made her cry out his name.

It didn't take him long to find her sweet spots, just like it didn't take long to find his. His hands skimmed her bared flesh, hot and heavy his fingers moved to brand her, to feel every inch of her and claim it as his own.

Words were lost to them. Rowan's fingers made quick work out of unbuttoning his dress shirt. She seemed to enjoy stripping him off it, just as much as Steve enjoyed peeling that strapless black bra off of her. It was when she was removing his dress pants, that she found his fingers tracing the tattoos on her side, before his hands moved to the ones on her hip bones. It was hard to concentrate but she managed to get him out of his boxers and then he was suddenly back on top of her and in between her thighs.

His eyes were on fire, burning in the night sky like the stars above her. The need that drove them onward, that had them writhing in the sand, tasting one another, demanding more, had completely consumed any rational part of their brains.

His fingers primed her. Unnecessary but a welcome feeling. She breathed out his name. It was all he needed. That one syllable against his neck and he knew she needed him just as much as he needed her. And then he was inside her again.

Their romp on the couch had been quick. Speed had been a necessity. They didn't know if Jerry would be coming back or if he was already at the party. But this. This was not their quickie on the couch. Here, Steve could take his time with her. And oh did he.

His pace was slow, slow but deep. With each thrust he shuddered, with each thrust she raised her hips. He shook. He shook like this was breaking him, like he might come apart at the seams. Rowan clung to him, clung to him so that passion swirling around their edges wouldn't sweep her out to sea. His mouth by her ear, her lips on his collarbone covering him in marks blending into his tattoos. Her fingernails digging into his lower back, that one hand he had pressed to her lower back to push her closer to him.

She took him in, all she could have and then ground her hips against him causing him to buck and cry out. When he came back down to her, his mouth against her neck, his back slick with sweat she heard his shaking voice calling out to her.

 _Don't._ _God. Fuck. I'll come apart Rowan._

But that's what she wanted. She wanted faster, harder, deeper. She wanted to watch him break into a million pieces in her arms so she could put him back together again. She nibbled his ear lobe and his back stiffened. Her fingernails found his side again, her legs wrapped around his waist to keep him delightful stuck in her.

They came to a standstill as he kissed her. Deep. Leisurely. Amazingly. How easily he had seared himself onto her very soul. How easily she found herself desperate to keep him. To stay here, in that moment for the rest of her life.

 _I'll put you back together again. I promise._

His eyes burned into her. As if asking for permission. So she answered him. _I want you_.

And those three words undid him. His thrusts sped up, faster, deeper, hard, just like she wanted. She arched her back in sheer delight, relishing in the contact, in the feel of him. Each stroke built up a well of emotions in her, desire, ecstasy, lust, and something she could only describe as intense liking.

Her legs wrapped around his waist, her nails bit into his sides again causing him to cry out once more. She wanted him as dangerously on the edge as she was, but Steve had other ideas. He grabbed her hands and pinned them above her head with one hand, he then took his other hands and pressed it to her lower back. He pushed them both up the angle meaning that he slipped even deeper into her and once that was achieved that was it.

Rowan lost all semblance of reality.

The world vanished, all that existed was her and Steve. And that amazing feeling he had built up inside her. His mouth found her neck and that was her tipping point, that soft nip to that sensitive spot just below her ear and just like that the star burst inside her, dazzling in front of her eyes, taking her breath away leaving her nothing but a panting squirming mess as she screamed out his name.

She felt her body constrict around him, but she was too far gone in the throes of passion to notice that it had been the tipping point for Steve too. His body went taunt above her, her jerked and grunted out a reverent whisper of her name and then the two collapsed into each other.

He breathlessly lay above her. The two laid entangled in one another, desperately panting to catch their breath. After a bit of silence, Steve propped himself up. He pressed kisses to her cheeks, her forehead, and the edge of her lips until she turned into him fully to kiss him again.

He lay his forehead against hers, the emotion in his eyes, foreign to her but completely breath-taking. It sent shivers down her spine.

"Cold?" he whispered. He pulled his shirt out from under her, helping her tug it on, before he found his boxers to put on. He flopped down to the sand and pulled her half onto his chest.

Above them the stars twinkle and Rowan tried to hide her sleepy smile but couldn't.

"Happy Birthday, Steve," she whispered to him feeling him smile into her hair. His arms came around her and held her close.

Minutes later the two were asleep.


	102. Chapter 102

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanfics**

 _A/N: Hey guys! Happy Easter Friday, if you celebrate that. If not, Happy regular Friday. So it's official guys! I officially finished rewrite season 4! All I have are the ten filler chapters and then we're moving onto season 5. This is so exciting. I also have some minor spoilers that I will be posting below detailing what's going to be going on in the upcoming seasons. If you don't want to know, skip it okay?_

 _I'm really glad you liked last chapter, I really hope that you've liked the fluff cause… as of this chapter… we're dealing with the angst again. So this chapter… but in particularly the next chapter, there's going to be some major drama and major angst as we've finally hit Hump #1. And right after it will be major hump #2. Everything after the next two chapters is going to be minor bumps. There will still be some fluff, I promise, but we've hit an angsty few chapters. I promise that in about 10 chapters it will be done, like, no more relationship bumps, they will be fully committed the only issues is them making it official and then getting a label onto Rowan. So please don't get TOO mad!_

 _P.S. AJ I have decided a way to put you in the story. I'll be combined two of your plot points. I've made you a bit of a badass too so I hope that's okay. All I need is a physical description of how you want your character to appear and then you'll be in appearing in Chapter 129_

Chapter 102

* * *

Well so much for getting her back in bed where he could show her all of the kinds of pleasure he had to offer.

But waking up to Rowan's on his chest, his arms around her, the lull of the ocean in the background and the general sense of being content as fuck had him waking up in a good mood. Except for the fact that sand was everywhere it shouldn't be.

He lay there basking in that moment, in the brightness in his chest. He hadn't felt this light in months. And all it took was one glorious romp with Rowan. His birthday was well and truly over now, though, which meant the pretending had to end here too… or did it? He didn't want it to end, obviously, and not just for the sex. He wanted all of this.

He wanted her to wake up so he could help her dress, brush the sand from her body and kiss her over and over. He wanted her to brush the sand out of his hair as he knelt in front of her to help her with her shoes, her eyes linked with his. He wanted to take her home and fuck her on his bed then make her breakfast. He wanted her to always look at him the way she had last night, with the stars reflecting back at him and utter wonderment in her eyes.

Somewhere in the sand a phone rang. Still a little out of it, Steve reached up and answered it. "McGarrett."

And then silence came back at him. Steve pulled the phone from his face… realized it was Rowan's phone and that a private number had been calling her. Ohh… Wo Fat.

He put the phone back to his ear in time to hear Wo Fat's weary voice ask: "Since I'm assuming she's still with you, can you give her the phone please?"

He nudged Rowan who groaned against him, her lithe body stretching out the kinks of sleeping in the sand. Her body against him, moving in that way, her fingers digging into his chest set him on fire again.

"Phone's for you," he whispered, handing it to her. Rowan sleepily took it and put it to her face. He slipped a hand under the dress shirt she was wearing, his fingers traced a pattern up her back that had her smiling into him and him smiling as well.

"Hello? No, no, I'm alright, we just… well… we stayed out on the beach," she said and then after a moment's pause she said: "Well I didn't know you'd worry, now did I? I was more concerned about getting laid."

That did not make Wo Fat happy which meant that they'd be arguing now. Rowan rolled off of him and onto her back and he sat up to get his pants back on. "His name is Chin, and I'm sorry he called you, but he was probably just worried cause I didn't come home."

Why was she referring to Chin's place as her home? Why would Chin get so worried that Rowan hadn't come back last night? Also how did he know how to contact Wo Fat? What was going on? He wanted to ask her that question but then Rowan sat up and leant against Steve, her chin on his shoulder, one absent hand brushing the sand away from his back and all thought processes left his mind.

"Okay, yes, I will call you when I get home, okay?" she said. "Yes. Okay. Love you too."

She hung up the phone and sighed against him and Steve struggled to keep his desires under control. "Everything good?" he asked her. Rowan smiled and pressed a soft kiss to the soft spot behind his ear. Steve groaned.

"Yep, all good. Except for all the sand in unsavory places," she whispered, trailing a set of kisses from behind his ear down to his shoulders, pausing to nip at the top of his tattoo, her eyes big and wide, filled with mischief and boring into him. Fuck me eyes, if he had ever seen them.

He wanted to kiss her, he wanted to tumble back into the sand with her but he could hear the din of people near-by and he really wanted their next sexual interaction to be on a bed. "You hungry," he asked, loving the way her fingers found all those spots that made his heart race, all while trying to clean him of sand.

"I could eat," she answered.

"Good, let's go to Rainbow's. My treat," he said.

"Mmm… Steven McGarrett footing the tab, I must still be asleep," she said as she got to her feet. She bent over to pick up her shorts and Steve couldn't resist a light tap on that inviting butt cheek. She gasped with mock outrage and then turned to him. "Keep that up Mr. McGarrett and we might not make it back to Rainbows."

He couldn't keep the smile off of his face. This was it, this was the day he finally got his shit together and figured things out with Rowan.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Breakfast at Rainbows had never been charged like this. He hadn't been this awkward with Rowan since… well… no that's not true he was usually this awkward with Rowan, it was his default mode with her. But he had a reason this time, a good reason. Asking her what he wanted to ask her, it had a lot of implications. And he did not have a good track record when it came to baring his heart to Rowan Pierce.

They had sat quietly across from one another, he looking like he just came back from a fabulous night out in his fancy suit, and Rowan looking like a beach bunny who still had sand in her hair. His hand holding hers, his thumb brushing against her soft skin, her own thumb doing the same to his. She kept sipping at her tea, her eyes meeting his over the rim of her mug. Those beautiful blue eyes doing unspeakable things to his heart… and his dick. He loved those eyes. He found that he was too nervous to ask her, too afraid of what to say so he didn't end up making his move until the food came.

"So do you like… like this?" he asked her.

"You mean the pancakes?" she asked, she had only taken one bite. "You know I love pancakes, Steve."

"No. This. Us. The beach and now here and like… I unno do you like this?" he repeated stumbling over his words. God, he was usually a bit better put together than this.

"Well, sure," she answered. "I like dating you. The sex is phenomenal. Though, to be honest, I'd rather do it in a bed. Cause I have sand in unsavoury places and my neck is all out of joint from the couch…"

"I like dating you too," he blurted out because all that sex talk was getting him horny again and if she kept going he may not be able to wait to fuck her in a bed and he was getting too old for bathroom quickies. "I want this to be like… an official thing… like no one else… just us."

Rowan's smile widened, her eyes lit up like blue sparkling sapphires. "Really? I mean... I'd love—"

"Great!" he interrupted again. "Just… you know… call Wo and tell him you and him are done."

"Uh… what?" she asked.

"Well I mean. You'll have me. You won't need him," Steve replied.

That smile was gone. Rowan tugged her hand out of his grasp and then her hands went under the table, a sure sign that she was now concerned or upset, because as soon as she was either of those things she fiddled with her fingers.

"What are you saying, Steve?" she asked.

"Uh… that I don't want you connected with Wo Fat anymore? That if you're dating me you won't need him cause I'm going to protect you?" he offered.

"So if I want to date you I can't be friends with Wo Fat?" she asked.

"Yes?" he said. Why was that so hard? Surely she had realized that there was bad blood between him and Wo Fat.

"So if I stay friends with Wo Fat then I can't date you?" she repeated.

"It isn't this hard Rowan. You just said… you just said that you wanted to be with me. And I want to be with you… isn't that what… isn't that you what you want?" she asked.

"So you're going to make me choose between the guy I see as an older brother and you, the man I have romantic feelings for? Why? Why do I have to choose?" she asked in a small voice. "Why do you have to dictate who I see and who I talk to?"

"I don't care who you see or talk to, Rowan… don't… don't you know what he did? He tore my family apart. He killed my father! He's killed my friends and my coworkers. He tortured me! I can't forgive that. I can't."

"But I'm not asking you to like him. I'm not asking you to be friends, or forgive him. I don't expect the two of you to interact, I expect to keep you separate. Why are you making my feelings for you and my feelings for Wo the same thing, when they are completely different entities?" she thundered. "Why aren't my feelings for you enough?"

"They… they are… I mean… they're important but you… I can't… I can't be with someone who's involved with him. I can't… I can't separate him from… everything… I just… can't," he admitted. "Because every time I look at you I'm going to see him and I don't want that. Okay? I want to separate you and him. Okay? Don't you get it?"

"If this is how you're going to show me that you're not controlling… by trying to control who I see and talk to… than I don't want to be with you either," she snapped.

"Wait… no… Ro… please… don't… don't leave… please," stuttered but Rowan was already shaking her head at him and gathering up her things. No this wasn't where things were supposed to go. It wasn't. This was supposed to a happy ending what had fucking happened?

She threw down a few bills from her wallet. "Good-bye Steve," she snarled and then she was walking away. Steve tried to call her back to him but she wouldn't listen, she left the diner and Steve sunk into the booth.

How the hell had he fucked this up so bad? How the hell had this happened?

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve made it back to his house, his stomach twisted in knots, his throat thick with the frustrated tears he was trying to force back, his body heavy with the crippling disappointment. He just wanted to go into his house, drink his beer, and call Danny. Danny could help him fix this. Danny could help him pinpoint where he went wrong.

He was not expecting Catherine to be sitting on his front stoop. Steve sighed, he didn't need this today. He just didn't.

"Hey, Cath… uh… what's going on, you okay?"

Catherine nodded, standing to approach him. "I uh… I wanted to talk to you, if that's… you know… if that's okay… cause you know… we never got to talk at the party…"

"Yeah, I know," Steve answered illusively. "I got uhm… I was busy."

"I know you were with Rowan, no need to lie to me," she said.

Steve hung his head. He probably should have been sorry. But he wasn't. There wasn't any way he was going to regret the decisions that brought them to that beach, but he sure as hell regretted what happened in the diner.

He unlocked his door and invited her in where she quickly walked over to the arm chair and sat down. "This is a lot for me to ask… so… please be kind." Oh Steve didn't like that. What the hell did that mean? "I have been talking to Danny, and well he may have mentioned that you and Rowan aren't like… official."

Fucking Daniel Williams. Why couldn't that man keep his mouth shut? He knew, he knew Steve was going to ask her about that soon, why the hell was he going around like he couldn't make things work with Rowan? Well there was no arguing about that now, seeing as he didn't quite know what they were any more anyway.

"Uh… yeah… we agreed… uhm… we agreed to a more casual thing until… uh… yeah… just yeah."

God why was he telling her this? She didn't care if he and Rowan got together, she was rooting for him to not. Like any good ex would.

"Good, uhm… well I mean, not good for you and Rowan, I mean for me," she said lowering her eyes. "You said before that you care… uhm… I guess I was just wondering if you still cared."

Steve blinked his eyes. "I mean, yeah Cath, course I care about you."

"Do you care enough to keep trying?" she asked in a soft voice.

"Trying? Trying what?"

"To make us work, did you… I unno since this with you and Rowan seemed to have stagnated, do you want to try us again?" Catherine asked her warm brown eyes staring at him unwaveringly.

Steve blanched. His heart quickened, his chest constricted. Did he? Did he want this. He knew he wanted Rowan. But he wanted Rowan unattached and all his. He wanted to trust Rowan and he wanted her to trust him but they weren't there yet.

"I don't… I'm not sure…"

"It's an easy question, Steven. You and Rowan aren't officially together and you left me for her months ago. Whatever it is you're trying isn't working."

Okay… it was like two months ago.

"I mean…" he said rubbing the back of his head. "I wouldn't say we're not working. Her and I… we've gotten much better, I mean, yeah we're still casual but that's cause we're still trying to get past our… issues."

Catherine's scoff was one of disbelief and derision and Steve didn't need that this morning either. She didn't know what happened yet… how could she?

"You know I'm just… guess I'm a little confused. You really want to be casual with me… after everything I did and how badly I treated you?" he asked her hands on his hips glaring down at her. "When you know that my end goal is to work things out with Rowan?"

"Look Steve, I'm lonely, okay? I feel isolated and left out. The only person who invites me places with you guys is Rowan. She's the only one who still thinks and worries about me and the girl… well… I mean… come one we're supposed to hate one another. I just… I just don't want to be alone anymore. But if you seriously don't care for me anymore, if you don't want to try and make this work, or even just be casual even for a brief bit, just tell me that," she snapped coming to her feet again. "I'll quit Five-0, I'll move off the island. But don't stand there and tell me you cared about me when you clearly don't."

"God Cath, you don't have to move off the island and we're not kicking you out of Five-0. You have a job and a home here and I did… _do_ care about you. You know that. It's just that… unno… I just… I just…" he paused there and thought about it. Really actually thought about it. About this morning disaster. He wanted Rowan. Yes, that emotion ran deep but he couldn't forgive the continuing to talk to Wo Fat, he just couldn't. Maybe… maybe things never would work out with he and Rowan. Maybe he should just face facts… "Alight," he whispered. "Alright. Fine. Then you and I. We'll do casual too, okay? Just don't… don't get your hopes up… Ro… if I can get things to work out there… then this will end, okay?"

Catherine nodded, smiling widely like he had just agreed to get back together with her. She hugged him tightly before kissing him. The feeling wrong, she didn't fit the way Rowan did, he didn't feel the same way as when he held Rowan. Their kiss was that and nothing more, no passion, and he didn't press for more.

"Okay then, how about Friday, we'll go on a date. A nice little dinner date at Side Street and we'll see how it goes from there, okay?" she asked when she pulled away.

Steve sighed but nodded. Not sure if this was a smart move

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Three days.

Three fucking days.

That's how long it had been since he had last seen or heard from Rowan.

She hadn't answered his calls, she wasn't at Alex's, none of his Five-0 friends could or would tell him where she was which left him worried, and slightly pissed off.

Yes, they had had an argument, but he didn't think it warranted her disappearing on him. If Danny and Chin had been more worried when he noted that he hadn't seen her in twenty-four hours he would have worried too, but they seemed quite calm about it, so he figured that they knew where she was.

How nice of them to have sided with her again.

The previous night, Steve had agreed to take Catherine out. He hadn't been looking forward to it but he had given her his word that he'd try so he had gone. It was surprisingly easy to slip back into old habits. The night started off quite rocky… with a farewell dinner prepared by Jerry who hadn't realized Steve had a date that night. It was a farewell dinner because Steve had asked him to back into his own place, for… well… his own reasons. After dinner he and Catherine had sat out under the stars talking and somehow, he still wasn't sure how, but he ended up in his bed, having sex with Catherine.

Nothing as glorious as the two encounters with Rowan, in fact he had a hard time concentrating on Catherine at all, but it was nice to get out some of that pent up frustration.

Steve had left Catherine in his room to go for a swim. Because waking up to a body that wasn't Rowan curled up next to his had not only startled him but left him feeling jittery and slimy. It made him realize that he didn't want casual with other people, he just wanted Rowan. But he knew, he just instinctively knew that if Rowan found out what he had done, she wouldn't see the reason behind it, she would just be mad.

So the plan, the one he thought about his entire 3k swim in the ocean, was to talk to Catherine, not just about how it wasn't going to continue between she and him, and to Jerry, to make sure that neither of them spoke to Rowan about the previous night or this morning.

He got back to the beach, out of breath but not tired or sore. He towel dried himself off, zipped up the blue hoodie that still smelt like Rowan, the last article of clothing he had that did, and then moved towards the lanai where Jerry was setting out what seemed to be a whole buffet.

"What's all this?" Steve asked coming towards him.

"A farewell breakfast," Jerry said "OJ or Papaya this morning?"

"Jerry, I appreciate this farewell breakfast and the farewell dinner last night and I think we both agreed is time for you to move on, right?"

"Was it the snoring?"

"No."

"Because I can get one of those breathing-mask things."

"Listen to me. It wasn't the snoring. Okay?" It was cause Rowan stopped coming over. It was cause he wanted Jerry gone for when he finally got Rowan to talk to him or answer his fucking calls. "It's not you at all. You didn't… it's me. You're a great roomie. I'm just… I like to live alone. Okay? You can understand that right?"

"Well you didn't seem to mind having Rowan over. You kept her room the same and everything…"

"Okay… Rowan's different… she's… all alone, she's got no one else…"

"And you can sleep with her…"

"Yeah, I can sleep with her… don't tell her I said that," Steve said quickly. "But you have your mom and your own home to go back to, Rowan doesn't really have…"

"Well I mean she likes staying with Chin…" "—Whoa wait she said that to you? She likes staying at Chin's… I mean… did you see her or something?"

Jerry blinked his eyes at him. "Are you sure it's safe for me to go home?"

Steve tried not to groan in frustration, everyone did that to him now. Instead of answering questions about Rowan they'd just change the topic. "Yes, Jerry. Yes. The Chinese government are… they got bigger fish to fry right now.

"Can we still be friends?"

"What are you talking about, we are friends. That's not gonna change."

"Good-bye hug?"

"Come on!" Steve said and then regretted it immediately. Jerry pulled him in for his hug and he was practically crushed by it.

"Aww look at you two, so cute," a voice he recognized announced. Steve pried himself out of Jerry's grasp and found Rowan sitting at the table, helping herself to food. "Does Danny know?"

The implication that Steve was cheating on Danny usually would have got a rise out of him but he was too panicked to care about that right now. Not when Rowan had finally showed up and Catherine was just upstairs.

"You know, if I knew we were going to have so many guests I would have made more food."

"You keep saying that, but it's just us here, Jerry," Rowan said, she turned to Steve who had winced at that comment because he didn't want to lie to her but he knew it wouldn't end well if Rowan knew he was doing casual with Catherine as well.

"What are you doing here Rowan?" he asked changing the topic before she could notice the look on his face.

He didn't do a good enough job because Rowan's eyes narrowed at him. "Well… I've been thinking about our argument…" "—It took you three days to think about our argument?" "… well I mean, yeah, and I was talking it over with Wo Fat and we came up with a counter offer that we think you might… uh… why exactly did you pull that face when I said me and you were the only ones here?"

Steve's eyes widened, she couldn't find out Catherine was here, not when she came up with a counter offer. Cause at this rate he'd take ANYTHING that minimized her contact with Wo Fat. But before he could come up with a convincing lie, Catherine was out on the lanai too.

"Good morning," she said crossing over to Steve and planting a kiss on his cheek. As he pulled his arm out of her grip and tried to move away Catherine turned to where Rowan was sitting in front of a waffle and a helping of scrambled eggs and said: "Oh Rowan… I didn't know you'd be here today."

Rowan's wide blue eyes swung from Catherine to Steve and he saw the realization of what he had done hit her. "Oh…" she said to him, pointing to Catherine. "That's why…"

"Okay, just uh… just give me a second to explain…"

"Nope, no, not necessary," Rowan said quickly getting out of her chair and moving away. "I uh… I just realized I have to go, band meeting and all of that."

"Okay, bye," Catherine said in a saccharine sweet voice. Steve shot her a glare before chasing after Rowan.

"Wait, wait, wait…" he called rushing past her and the throwing himself against her car door before she could get it open.

Rowan looked up to him, there were unshed tears in her eyes and his heart clenched in his chest. God, no this was not supposed to be happening.

"It's not… it's not what you think…"

"No? You didn't just fall into bed with Catherine the second you didn't get your way?"

"No!" Steve cried, horrified she thought that. "Me and Catherine are not together, okay? It's a casual thing, like you and me, it's just something… something to do…"

"You mean someone to do," Rowan growled and Steve froze because maybe that was kind of it. "So let's see if I got it. I wouldn't cave to the whole Wo Fat thing, and now you and Catherine are casually sleeping together, is that it?"

"Well… I mean… I don't know… I guess I thought a lot over the last three days too and I… I mean what if we never get over this, huh? What am I gonna stay casual with you for the rest of my life? And then Catherine… she was lonely and she offered and I unno, I just … I mean, it's not like we're official or anything, you know?"

Clearly none of what he just said was the right thing because she went from about to cry to absolutely livid. Her eyes crackled with an intense rage and Steve actually considered backing away from her except he couldn't because he was up against her car.

"Well… you know… you're absolutely right," she said, crossing her arms over her chest. "So you go a head and casually date Catherine, and you know, Alex has been wanting to get back together, maybe I'll juts casually date him too?"

"Okay now wait a second…"

"Oh no, _Steven_ , if you get to casually date, so do I. So if I want to see if I can work things out with my ex you don't get to say shit, now get away from my car so I can drive over to Alex's okay?"

"Okay… so we both know you're only saying this because you're mad at…."

Whatever he was going to say next was lost when Rowan punched him in the throat. Steve immediately couldn't breathe, he collapsed to his knees, coughing and sputtering as Rowan pushed him over and then climbed over him to get into car. She sped down the driveway the dust from the gravel spraying up and making it even hard for him to breathe.

Steve flopped down to his lawn struggling to breathe, rubbing his throat. He deserved that. He did. He knew it was a bad idea. Now he had made everything worse.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

The sobs took over a few streets over and Rowan was forced to pull over to the side of the road to let them out. She sat in her car, forehead to the steering wheel and just let it all out. After a few minutes of crying, Rowan forced herself to sit up.

She sat there, forcing herself to breathe, trying to will the tears away.

She wanted to talk to someone, but she couldn't call Danny, he was always on Steve's side. She could call Chin but he'd worry, besides he had been called in on a case before she left which meant Steve would be called in soon too. She could call Kono, but she was with Adam and Rowan didn't want to ruin her time with Adam by dragging her through Rowan's misery.

But there was someone she could call. He wouldn't take any of this well, not any better than she was at that moment but he was all she had at that point. Still she pulled out her phone, marshalled in her breathing and then she pulled up the app and called him.

He answered on the first ring. "I thought the deal was that you wouldn't be talking to me as much anymore."

Already the tears were back in her eyes her voice thick with her emotion. "I couldn't… I didn't…"

"Aw, Rowan, it's okay," he said to her. "I know how much you care for him… I'm fine with what we came up with… honest."

Yes, she did have strong feelings for Steven McGarrett, which was why this hurt so much. "That's not it."

"Are you crying? Why? What happened? Did he turn down the offer? I don't think I could negotiate much more…"

"No, that's not it, he… he…" "He what?!" "He had Catherine over…"

Wo Fat went silent as he listened to her distressed sobs and then sighed in the most aggressive way possible. "That's it. I'm sending someone to beat him up… _today_. Knock some sense into his thick…"

"NO!" Rowan cried as if the man hadn't just gone back to his ex.

"Then I'm sending someone to kill Catherine. I don't care who gets it but blood will be spilt today!"

"For god sake Wo, couldn't you just comfort me? I mean, it's great that you want to avenge every wrong that's done to me, but could you just say… I unno something comforting?"

He was silent a moment taking in that request. "Okay. You know I'm not good at that, but I guess I can try." He cleared his throat dramatically before saying: "He's a jerk. He's a jerk that doesn't deserve you and if he couldn't wait _three_ days for you then well… he's just… you know…"

Rowan narrowed her eyes. "Why did you say it like that?" she asked. She heard the first of his protests but she cut him off. "No. Why did you say it like that? You don't think I'm worth waiting three days? He said some pretty shitty things in that dinner, should I have just rolled over and called you to cut you out?"

"No, of course not, Rowan," Wo Fat cried. "Okay, well to be fair… I did tell you to go over as soon as possible…"

"Yes, but we didn't know that he'd run straight back to Catherine," Rowan shouted at him and when Wo Fat was suspiciously silent she frowned and asked: "Did you know he had run straight back to Catherine?"

"Uh… yes… I did, but I didn't think they'd move that fast," Wo Fat said and Rowan roared in outrage.

"What… when did you… how did you…"

"Well, I, uh… I don't quite trust McGarrett, and when Kelly called to say you hadn't come home I sent some people looking for you. I forgot to pull them after I found you. One stayed right on you the other stayed on McGarrett… and well… he may have reported that Steve met with another woman and that he was speaking about a relationship of some sorts with her…"

"When?"

"Does that matter?"

"Wo Fat…"

"Jeezus, fine, okay. Uh… oh god, you're not gonna like this, but uh… after he got back from the diner."

Rowan felt her mouth run dry. Really right after their argument? She turned him down and he went straight back to Catherine? Really? And he was mad cause it took her three days to think about their argument? He literally fell right back in bed with Catherine as soon as he didn't get away.

"Why didn't you tell me?" she asked in a small voice.

"I unno… he's so damn protective of you, and he kept going on about how much he wanted you. I never thought he'd… and I guess I just didn't want to worry you."

"And you were secretly hoping he'd fuck up?"

"And I was secretly hoping he'd fuck up," Wo Fat admitted. "Look, I just… I just don't like the two of you together. Okay? I'm sorry. I don't. He's controlling, he did terrible things to you, he's kidnapped you, arrested you and _now_ not days after using my goddamn network to save you, he wants you to cut all contact with me? That's not fair Rowan. I'm the only thing keeping you alive."

"Wo."

"Alright, fine, I'm sorry. To make it up to you I'll have someone cap her okay?"

"What's capping… you know what I don't wanna know, and you're not going to do it you got me?"

"Someone has to get hurt, Rowan, someone has to pay," he said to her and Rowan sighed.

"Someone has Wo. It's me."

"Yes, which is why you should let me…"

"Oz!" Rowan cried, hoping his nickname would calm him down. "Please. I just… I just want to lie down and die but I have to go to Alex's and beg him to cover for me."

"Alex? What… why… okay, no, not him… whatever it is you need him for, we'll find someone else," he groaned.

"Too late, I already told him I would get back together with Alex," she said. Wo Fat growled out her name but she ignored him. "It'll be fine, I know better this time. Just… just let me deal with it my way."

She hung up before he could argue, before he could hear the tears in her voice, before he could convince her to send someone after Catherine. The tears started falling again and she stubbornly wiped them away, at this point she wasn't sure if this was worth fixing anymore.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve got called in for a case literally seconds after Rowan left. Which was great cause he might have throttled Catherine, and Jerry. Why the hell didn't Jerry open with, _hey, by the way Rowan's over_? And then why the hell did Catherine have to hang off of him like that, like they were together. It was one date, one date that he didn't think had gone that well.

But then Rowan had gone off. Get back together with Alex, indeed. If she got back together with Alex, he'd kill the singer himself, he'd… he'd officially date Catherine… he'd… god he'd probably just cry.

When Danny picked him up he sense immediately that something was wrong. He opened with: "Didn't Rowan come over?"

Which told him that Danny knew where Rowan had been all this time and just hadn't told him, despite Steve asking him repeatedly. It also meant that he knew Rowan was coming over, but he had also known that he had a date with Catherine the night before. Why the hell hadn't Danny warned him? Why hadn't he warned Rowan? But he couldn't blame Danny, he could have easily just not let Catherine stay the night. He didn't want to talk about so he turned the conversation towards what Danny had done that day and boy, did Danny not disappoint.

"A divorce attorney? You sure?" Steve asked. He knew Danny didn't want his mother to go through with the divorce but she was only so patient, or in the Williams' case, not patient at all.

"Mm-hm. I'm positive."

"She told you that?" Steve asked. He was trying to be supportive but after the morning he had he was not a happy camper and even he could hear it in his voice.

"No. it's not what she told me…" "You followed her?" "I might have followed her."

Oh wow look at Danny, pulling a McGarrett, maybe Steve was rubbing off on him.

"You followed her," Steve echoed with a large grin on his face, he was just so happy that it wasn't just him who stalked his mother.

"I did, but she was being very suspicious this morning. Okay? She's sneaking all around the house. And you're not allowed to judge me. Okay, cause I know for a fact that you surveilled your own mother, and Rowan, and that makes us even, so…"

Steve made a face, a single grimace and just like that the conversation was back on Rowan.

"Seriously, what happened? She was all excited to see you this morning, but if you're this upset it can't have gone well."

Steve's already bleeding heart nearly burst in his chest. She had been excited to see him? Why did that inflate him like that? Especially in light of how badly things had gone. Because maybe it meant that there was still hope for them.

"You should have told me she was coming over," Steve growled.

"Why?"

"Because I wasn't expecting her and…" "Oh god, you weren't alone?" "No, no I was not."

"Well, fuck, McGarrett," Danny thundered thowing up his hands in frustration. "Why did you… with _Catherine_? I thought things were done, I thought you only wanted Rowan. You were literally dreading that date last night!"

"I was…and I did… I do… it was just… familiar, you know? Maybe I just wanted to feel like someone wanted me, you know?"

"You're a fucking idiot." "You're not helping, Danny." "Oh and what do you want me to say then? How bad was it? Was she really upset?"

"Yes," Steve said, "She wouldn't let me talk to her, wouldn't let me explain."

"Well why didn't you try to stop her?"

"Of course I tried to stop her. I got in front of her car and tried to keep her from getting in but she… she…"

"How'd she get away from you?" Danny asked. "You were blocking her car, how did she get away from you?"

Steve avoided his eyes. "She… she uh… she punched me in the throat."

Danny stared at him for a bit and then started to guff, Steve didn't see what was so funny. "She punched you in the throat?" he echoed. And Steve scowled and looked away from him. "You, the trained SEAL got taken out by that little girl?"

Steve put the car in park and shook his head. Yes, yes she had, because it never occurred to him that Rowan would hit him like that, but he was wrong, make her angry enough and she would hit him.

"Okay let's go back to you, okay?" Steve cried desperately needing off of this topic. They got out of the Camaro and walked towards the crime scene "Maybe seeing a divorce attorney isn't the worst thing in the world. Then your mother can weigh up her options, right?"

Together they ducked under the caution tape and Danny shook his head.

"No, no, no. Attorneys are never a good thing. Okay? They get a hold of you, and forget about it. It's not good."

"Alright, you'll wanna hope that this top-secret op you got planned for tonight works," Steve said.

"It will. I hope," Danny whispered.

They were going up the stairs when Steve heard it, the distinct inhale of a Danny about to lecture him, and considering how Steve had been lecturing himself since the incident happened, he didn't need it.

"So how are you going to get her out of the house?" he asked. He didn't need to turn around to know that he had derailed Danny and he now had to switch from lecture mode to answer questions mode.

"Day of beauty at the Spa Makani. Shiatsu massage, mani-pedi by the pool. The whole thing, it was not cheap. But if it works, it'll be worth it, you know?"

They got to the front door, and to the side of him he heard someone say: "Are you Commander McGarrett?"

Steve turned to the man beside him, he didn't know how he got up there, he wasn't in a cop's uniform, Chin who had been standing at the door seemed surprised to see him. He was just a dark-skinned male, local looking, dripping surfing wax and salt water and wearing a tribal puca shell necklace smiling at him warmly looking fully out of place.

"Yeah, uh… how did you… you can't be up here…"

"I'm your Rowan-gram," he said and Steve frowned. Rowan had sent him a Hawaiian surfer?

And then the man punched him square in the jaw.

* * *

 ***Spoilers***

 ***AHEAD***

 ***Be***

 ***Aware***

 ***Scroll***

 ***Away***

 ***If***

 ***You***

 ***Don't***

 ***Wanna***

 ***Read***

 ***Them***

Okay I think that's a safe enough distance.

So I want you guys to get used to the idea now, cause we have a lot of stuff that's going to be coming up.

For Starters, Season 5 is the season of fluff. It's going to be a lot of Steve and Rowan trying to get over their issues and find a way to make things work for them. So there's going to be a lot of over protective Steve, a lot of small dates, and cute things, and Rowan being a disaster.

Season 6, however, they're going to hit a major speed bump. Something terrible is going to happen to one of them and yes, there is a break up. And a lot of the chapters are going to be dedicated to Rowan becoming who she needs to be, learning to control her powers, and coming to terms with her past and how she came to the world. Which means there will be interactions with the other Pierce's I've already mentioned in the story and I will be introducing a new Main OC to the story. You've already met him, but in season 6 he becomes a main.

Season 7 is where Rowan and Steve finally get married.

So yes, after season five we will be going back to a season of all angst, and I'm sorry about that, but it's going to make sense in the long run. And after that, THAT IS IT! They're officially together, and then part way through season 7 they get married. So you know… things to look forward to!


	103. Chapter 103

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Thank you guys for being so understanding! I know Steve's being stupid, but he made a bad decision while being hurt and afraid. He is going to smarten up, really soon, I promise. And as for Wo Fat… if you guys liked last chapter, you're gonna love the next set of chapters. Trust me. He's only going to get better. In this chapter, there aren't really any fluffy moments, a lot of what I wrote was supposed to be funny. You do get to see that Rowan and Steve still care for each other and you guys get to find out what the whole Rowan-gram thing was about. Thanks for reading guys, I hope everyone had a happy Easter, and when you review tell me which part made you guys laugh the most! See you guys on Friday!_

Chapter 103 

* * *

His attacker was a man named Kevin Kalama, a low rent drug dealer. No one could tell Steve why a low rent, weed pusher went from selling on a corner or out of a surf shop to decking out the leader of Five-0. Not Duke, not his team, not Kevin himself, because he wouldn't say anything except that it was worth it.

But Steve had one clue.

 _Rowan-gram._

Was Rowan really that mad that she sent someone to beat him up? Obviously she had every right to be upset with him but… like… this was going a bit too far. Wasn't it?

Kevin was sitting in the back of a patrol car. A smile on his face like he wasn't just under arrest for the assault of an officer. He had hit Steve three times before Chin and Danny had got him off of him, and as soon as he was pulled off he just calmly and politely offered himself up for arrest. He didn't resist, he gave no explanation, just offered his hands up for the cuffs.

Chin was standing by the open door, talking to Kevin, who was just staring up at him. Steve stormed over, holding ice to his jaw, tape keeping his split eyebrow together, his nose finally no longer bleeding.

"Okay, what the hell. Someone tell me why the hell that just happened?"

"A contract went up this morning," Kevin said. "Easiest 20 grand I've ever made. I even get a bonus for the amount of shots I got in _and_ for getting arrested. "

Everyone turned to Steve. 20 grand. Someone shelled out 20 grand to have him beat up. For fuck sake, how mad was Rowan?

"Okay, and what is a Rowan-gram?"

Kevin shrugged. "I unno, that was part of the contract. Identify myself as a Rowan-gram and then punch you as hard as I can as many times as I can."

Steve glared at him. Great. Beside him Kono straightened. "Did he say Rowan-gram?"

Steve turned to her. "You know what that is?"

"Well… yeah… it's uh… it's someone Rowan sends. It's how you know they're friendly. It's how you know they're there to help you."

"How would… how would you know…?"

"She sent someone down to China to help me and Adam out once. He identified himself as a Rowan-gram too," Kono said. "But she's never sent an assassin before… well actually that's not true, she did mention that she called an assassin for another job but she wouldn't tell me what it was."

"So Rowan sent this guy to beat me up?" Steve asked them. Kono winced, Danny and Chin avoided his eyes. "Yeah, okay, sounds about right. Okay, I'm… uh…"

"Oh for the love of god don't arrest her again!" Danny cried as Steve headed back towards the Camaro.

"I think, for the first time, I have a legitimate reason to arrest her," Steve growled, but he knew he wouldn't do it again, even though she deserved it. Though Danny complained and bitched he didn't correct him, he let him worry.

He also let Danny drive, because he knew where Rowan was, and he was more than distressed to find out that right after they finished arguing she had gone straight to Alex's.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Danny had texted, asked where she was. Upon asking why he wanted to know, he mentioned that something had happened and Steve was looking for her. Ah so either chin or Danny had told him about the counter offer her and Wo Fat had cooked up and he wanted to bargain. Well… she had to be ready for that. So Rowan had told him that she was at Alex's and then she got back in her car and drove from the lookout point where she and Steve had gone for their first date and over to Alex's.

She had let herself in with the key she still had and then went to his room. She stared down at him, not even surprised that he had two girls in bed with him.

Leaning over the first girl, Rowan nudged him until he woke up. He started when he saw her hovering over him and before he could ask her what she was doing, or why she was there she said: "I need to ask you a favor and I'm willing to deal in songs."

Alex sat up, instantly interested. "Not _Hallelujah_ , but others," she quickly added and he immediately relaxed.

He thought it over briefly before asking: "Okay, what kind of favour?"

"Look, I just need to save face with Steve, so can you pretend we got back together?"

Alex blinked his eyes. "You're asking me to face what will most likely be either an ass whooping or an unjustified arrest, for a few songs?"

"I've got five for you to pick from, if he hits you, you can have all five," she said.

"Deal!" he said immediately.

"Great. Just uh… keep the girls in the room…" "Whoa… wait is he on his way here now?" "… and if things sound heated could you just maybe come out and say something obnoxious, you're good at that."

"Cool, can do."

Someone pounded on the door and Rowan tried to quell the nervous butterflies that hit her stomach. If Steve wanted to play the _get jealous_ game well, Rowan could do the exact same thing.

Despite being mad at him, despite needing to pretend that she was dating a guy she'd never date again to make Steven jealous, she was still excited to see him. She rushed to the door but waited to open it, waited until he pounded a second time, hitting the door so hard she could see it shaking. Damn, he was like twenty seconds away from breaking the door down.

Rowan primped herself up, messed up her hair nibbled her lips a bit and then threw opened the door and then gasped.

Steve stood there glaring down at her, his nose was red, he had suture tape keeping his eyebrow together, a cut lip and a bruise forming on his jaw.

"What happened to your face?!"

"Really? You don't know what happened to my face?"

Rowan frowned at him. "Okay, I punched you in the throat…"

"No, I'm talking about the Rowan-gram you sent after me," he growled pushing his way into the apartment. He looked around and then looked back at her pain ever so apparent on his face. So apparent that momentarily Rowan felt bad. "Tell me you really… really didn't get back together with him… I mean… please… why would you…"

"You literally waited three seconds to get back together with Catherine, so…"

"Okay, Rowan, you're not being…"

"Are you going to tell me what happened to your face? You said something about a Rowan-gram?" she asked wanting off of the argument that was clearly not going anywhere because Steve couldn't see what he did wrong.

Steve sighed and glared at her again. "I had a man show up at my crime scene, identify himself as a Rowan-gram and then hit me," Steve said. "I obviously was not expecting it."

Rowan stared at him. "And you think I sent him?" she asked, horrified that he thought that she would even think of doing that. When he just glared at her, she felt her heart crack a little. HE had such little faith in her… did he really think that she was that much of a monster? "I didn't send… that's not what Rowan-grams are for!"

"Oh really?"

"No, they're not. Rowan-grams are kindness, they… they're supposed to help people."

Rowan was digging through her purse for her phone when Steve asked: "And beating me up doesn't _help_ make you feel better?"

She turned a dry glare to him. Of course it didn't but she knew who it would cheer up. She pulled out her phone, and got the app open she pulled up the jobs listings.

There it was. Already paid out in full. 20 grand for assaulting Steven McGarrett of Five-0 plus compensation for jail time and an added bonus of 1000$ per hit, so an extra 3 grand. It didn't have her call sign on it, but Rowan-gram was in the description.

Fuck.

"Okay… so…"

"So it went through the app," Steve said, his tone dry. He was sarcastically humouring her and it wasn't appreciated.

"Yes, but here, look. See. M1, that's him. That's Wo. Calls himself the Master," she said, she scrolled down to the last time she put a job out. "And see, that's me."

"Pro?" Steve asked.

"It's short for the Professional," she replied. On her last morphine high she had told Steve all about her past life as a drag racer in Canada. He should know what that meant.

His eyebrows were still narrowed in confusion. "Rescue. You sent someone on a Rescue mission around Halloween. That couldn't have been Kono…" he said turning to her. "Who did you rescue?"

Rowan wasn't ready to tell him that. She quickly pocketed her phone. "Uh… that's really none of your business," she snapped to him. "Why don't we talk about how you think I'm a monster."

Steve suddenly straightened, the hands that were on hips fell to his side. "What are you…"

"You really think that I would do that to you? That I would get mad and ask someone on the app to beat you up? Is that what you think of me?"

"Well… no… but he said Rowan-gram and Kono said Rowan-grams are people you send," he argued. "I didn't want to think that you'd do that but…"

"Really, so if someone beat you up and said they were a Danny-gram, you'd just believe he sent someone to beat you up?" she asked when he opened his mouth she cut him off before he could lie. "No, no you wouldn't cause you know him and you know he wouldn't do that, and you'd have a stupid gut feeling telling you that he hadn't. But you didn't have that for me. Because you _still_ don't trust me! Which is _bullshit_ because I don't stalk you, or drug you and drag you over-seas, I don't hire PIs to follow you or tell you I care and then get back together with Alex! That's what _you_ do… with… with Catherine not Alex… you know what I mean!"

She had gotten quite shrill as she went on, realizing that she was a lot more upset about everything than she thought she was. Steve looked stricken like he was realizing that she was right. But as she asked, things sounded heated and Alex appeared, clad in nothing but a pair of black boxers, he rubbed his eyes like he had just woken up.

"Oh hey, Steve," he said coming over to stand beside Rowan. "I thought I heard voices."

Despite Steve's dark glare Alex slung an arm around her shoulder and pressed a loud smacking kiss to her cheek. "You gonna come back to bed soon?" he asked her.

Steve turned his disgusted glare from him to Rowan as she made a noncommittal noise in the back of her throat. Alex smiled smugly up to Steve and lightly punched his shoulder. "Thanks for fucking up. Not gonna lie, I've missed this little fire cracker."

Steve's eyes lit up with a sudden fire, his nostrils flared and his hands clenched. Rowan was certain she could hear his teeth grinding from where she was standing. She quickly pushed Alex towards the bedroom before Steve could hit him.

"Be there soon, honey," she said. Alex waved goodbye to Steve and as soon as he was gone Steve's accusing glare slid back to her.

"You have got to be fucking kidding me," Steve hissed.

"You can't say shit. _You_ picked _Catherine_!"

"I did not _pick_ Catherine!" he nearly hollered. Rowan instinctively took a step away and Steve looked away from her as he regained his composure. "Look. It was familiar. It made me feel wanted. You weren't answering my calls or texts. What did you want me to do?"

"Not. Pick. Catherine."

"Okay, fine. FINE but honestly, you falling back with Alex just cause I pissed you off is no better."

His phone chirruped in his hand and he winced. Rowan's smile was coolly detached. "Let me guess you have a case right?"

Steve nodded and Rowan gestured for him to go back to the door. He didn't want to, she could tell by the way he paused, how he hung his head and kept staring at her with droopy sad dog eyes. But he still turned and went back to the door. Steve had the door open and then he paused. Rowan thought it was because he was going to turn around and beg. Just like she wanted. Beg to have her back, promise her to never even look at Catherine again. But that wasn't why he stopped at the door.

"Are you Commander McGarrett?"

 _Oh shit._

"Uh…" came out of Steve but Rowan was already moving forward. Even before she heard the man at the door say: "I'm your Rowan-gram."

Holy hell he had hired _more than one_?! She pushed him away from the door and threw herself in the way screaming _no_. She had no idea that she was baseball bat involved until it was swinging before her. Luckily the man swinging it noticed her and was struggling to stop, and even luckier for her, Steve still cared, because despite being mad at her, despite her brother sending men to beat the shit out of his and despite being shoved away he had his arm between her and the bat to accept that blow for her.

The bad graced off his arm, and Steve yelped withdrawing the arm to shake the pain out if Rowan winced. Aw damn she was going to catch hell for that one. She turned back around to carefully assess the man looking mighty worried. He looked average enough, except for the leather, the giant white beard and the obvious biker tattoos.

"Oh Geeze ma'am, I wasn't trying to hurt you," he said. Well wasn't that nice of him? A sympathetic hired goon.

"Hi, I'm Rowan… Rowan Pierce?"

"Oh, hello Miss. Pierce, It's so very nice to meet you," he said shaking her hand in a tight jerky grip. Damn he was polite for a guy who was supposed to be beating people up. He then pointed over her shoulder to where Steve was standing, glaring at them both, nursing his arm and sizing his attacker up at the same time. "I'm his Rowan-gram."

"Oh wow, yeah, I got that and you're doing a great job… but uh… your services are not needed."

"Uh… no Wo Fat was clear. He said he needed some sense knocked into him, I brought my best baseball bat."

The man showed her the proper wooden baseball bat that he Had been ready to use on Steve's person, that had almost hit her had Steven not blocked the hit for her. Behind her she heard Steve's unimpressed and clearly very annoyed: "Oh wow…" and she inwardly swore.

"You know, that's a great bat, and thank you so much for getting over here as quickly as you did but uh… I don't need you to beat him up. You'll be paid for your troubles," she said. She then shut the door and turned back to Steve. "Uhm… so there might be the distinct possibility that he hired more than one person to beat you up," she said to him and Steve glared at her.

"No, shit, Rowan."

"Okay… just uh… maybe you should wait here… just until I see how many more there are and uh… cancel them, okay?"

Rowan picked up her phone and opened up her app, how many hits could he have called out? It couldn't be that many, right?

A whole page of them, that's how many.

Rowan sighed. She was going to have a stern talking with him as soon as she could, but at that moment she just needed Steve out of Alex's apartment.

She glanced up at Steve who had gone to Alex's fridge and put a pint of ice cream to his arm. Rowan tried to hold it back, he didn't deserve her worry or her care, he could go straight back to Catherine and get his boo-boo check out… but she couldn't hold it back.

"Is your arm okay?"

God she was pathetic. Luckily it wasn't broken. Unluckily for her… she still wanted nothing more than to have him wrap her up in his arms and hold her until she stopped feeling so shitty.

Too bad he was the reason she was feeling that way.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve was livid, he was so angry he was shaking. She had actually… she had actually gotten back together with Alex. She had gone through with it… he didn't think she would, he had hoped she wouldn't but… but she had.

He had put in a request to get Wo Fat in front of a camera so he could clear up a few things. Like, maybe don't use the network that was supposed to protect Rowan from danger to outsource hitmen when Wo Fat was mad at him.

Then he and Chin nearly caught their bad guy only to have the kid out wit him and have him crash his Silverado. Coming back to the office, without his car but with a bruised pride, a damaged ego and a broken bleeding heart, did not leave him in a good mood. Especially since no one had any good info to give him on where that kid was gonna go next or why he had decided to kill his girlfriend's father and then go on the lam with the girl.

The only good news he got was when he got the alert that Wo Fat was made available. So Steve who was flanked by Chin and Danny, who were staying for support as apparently he was putting out a vibe of complete instability, stood at the smart table waiting for it to connect to Wo Fat.

As soon as the video connected and Steve was staring at Wo Fat's smug looking face all that anger he thought he had caged inside him came out.

But before he could say anything…

"You don't look like someone beat you with a baseball bat. Either he hasn't found you yet or she called them off, which is it?"

"She called them off," Steve growled through clenched teeth.

"Aww, how unfortunate. I wonder if she got to them before or after Lieutenant Rollins got her visitor?"

Steve's eyes turned to Chin who immediately turned away, phone to ear, alright well… that was that handled.

Steve turned back to Wo Fat. "I don't know why you felt the need to send people after me…"

"You made my sister cry, McGarrett," Wo Fat snarled leaning forward so his face was closer to the screen. "And I don't mean a light little cry, I mean full on ugly crying and sure, it's not the first time you've made her cry but this time… you went too far. And after I was so accommodating..."

Steve didn't want to think about Rowan crying. About her crying so hard that Wo Fat felt the need to seek vengeance against him. So he ignored that comment and went straight back to arguing.

"Accommodating, what are you talking about? You are NEVER accommodating…"

"Yes, yes I am. Her and I spent the last three days, through tears, might I add, going over a deal that made both you and I happy, we came to an agreement last night. She was going to tell you about it before Catherine showed up."

That's right. The counter offer. He had completely forgot that she had mentioned that.

"What deal? No one's been able to tell me what this counter offer entailed."

Wo Fat sighed like Steve's questions were annoying him and he said: "Well maybe if you hadn't cheated on her with Catherine and then thrown it in her face…"

"It wasn't cheating! We're not official. Neither Rowan or Catherine are official, okay?!" Steve shouted which just made Wo Fat's eyes raise up with surprise before narrowing them at him.

"Fine. Slept with Catherine and then threw it back in her face."

"That's not what happened either. I wasn't going to tell Rowan it happened at all and then she surprised me…"

"So this was something you couldn't tell Rowan? Sounds like cheating."

"IT'S NOT CHEATING!" Steve hollered and Danny grabbed his arm to try and calm him down.

Wo Fat just laughed at him like he thought this was funny when it wasn't. Steve didn't need this. He didn't need Rowan thinking he cheated on her, that he thought she was a monster, that she thought he couldn't trust her. He was loosing it.

"Do you want to know what the deal was about or not?" Wo Fat asked and Steve nodded. "She wanted to make things work between you and her. So… I agreed to receive weekly updates, that did not have to come from her, they could have come from you or any of your associates, but I got to speak to her once a month, unless there was an emergency. And the app was to stay online because after the incident with the Spy I don't trust you to take care of her. That part was none negotiable."

Steve took that in… wow really, she had… she had actually found a middle ground for them. And he had gone back to Catherine.

"That… that could actually work. I'm okay with that."

"Uh… yeah, that deal is off the table now. That option dried up the second she found out you were sleeping with Catherine again. And now she's back with Alex… and as much as I hate you, I hate Alex more."

Yes, Steve hated Alex too. But not as much as he hated himself right now. He could have had everything he wanted, but no, no, he had to go and fuck everything up. But now… here he was… actually agreeing with Wo Fat on something, could his day get any worse?

"I can't keep doing this with you two. I want her to be happy and you have done nothing but endanger her life and make her cry. There's no talking sense into you, not by force or by logic… I wish I could just… actually… yeah… I'm sure I could find her someone more suitable. Rowan's a very attractive girl… I know many different men, they're all criminals of course, but I'm sure I could pay them to deal with the possibility of being arrested. I could find someone who's her type… it shouldn't be that hard. Just need someone tall with broad shoulders…"

"What are you talking about?" Steve asked a fear taking hold of him he couldn't understand.

Wo Fat looked up, his eyes seemingly focusing on him as if he had forgotten Steve was there. "I could easily replace you. Find a guy with your look, but more money, pay him to treat her right, move her off of Hawaii… never have to worry about anything ever again… yes… that's what I'm going to do… get rid of you for good this time…"

Steve's eyes narrowed at her. "She wouldn't let you do that and I..."

Wo Fat laughed. "You're already half way out the door. You put yourself in the grave the second you fell back in bed with Catherine. All I have to do is bury you. Have a nice day Commander," and then the screen went black.

Beside him Danny whistled softly. "Well… that didn't go well…"

"Shut up, Danny," Steve sighed, rubbing his eyes with the heels of his hands. He was coming down with a head ache, this was all so fucking much.

The door to the offices opened up and a guard was showing Jerry in and behind him came Catherine. She looked fine but confused, which meant he'd have to explain to her why Chin called. Steve sighed, he really didn't want to admit what happened because then Catherine would have been right and he didn't want that. He just wanted Rowan. Was that too much to ask?

"Jerry, what are you doing here and what are you doing with my father's toolbox?"

Jerry looked down at it and then back up at Steve. "I found it in your garage."

"You found it. Okay. Yes, you found it. Because it wasn't lost. That's where I keep it. In the garage. What were you doing in my garage?"

"Uh… this morning, before Rowan took off, she mentioned that your father left a clue in or on the toolbox, she figured I'd be able to crack it… help you out with solving something. Something to do with your mother and a body? I unno, she wasn't really talking sense but I figured I'd take a look at the tool box."

"Rowan told you… _my_ Rowan?"

As if either of them knew any other Rowans.

"Well she's not really yours after this morning now is she?" Danny asked.

Beside him Catherine straightened. "She's not? Oh no, it's not because of me is it?"

Steve had forgotten she was there and the way she said it, not in the least bit upset that it had happened, not sounding the least bit guilty caused him to turn a sour glare onto her. Catherine just smiled coquettishly and whispered: "Sorry. Did you want me to talk to her?"

"No!" Steve snapped before she could even finish the sentence. His sentiment was mirror by Danny who also shouted the same word at her, and it was Danny who added: "I think, and this comes from all of us, that it would be best if you just stay away from her. Okay? Thank you."

Catherine raised her hands in mock surrender, but smiled to herself in a small victorious little way like this was her plan the whole time. And Steve tried not to groan… maybe it was. He forced himself to turn back to Jerry. "Jerry, I thought this morning, we both agreed that you were leaving. You were leaving this morning?"

"Well, I was," Jerry said and Steve tried very hard not to groan in frustration. "But then I did find an anomaly."

Steve frowned. What… he had? Jerry showed him the toolbox.

"It's a giant mystery that's been sitting under your nose the whole time."

Okay, that was rude, no it wasn't. It was a toolbox, Steve got all the clues out of the damn thing, that stupid tool box filled with his dad's notes on his mother's supposed death got him tazed.

Steve sighed. "Okay, Jerry. What's the mystery?"

"What color is this?"

Steve just stared at him, this was what the mystery was? Really? He as going to kill Rowan, now _this_ was more like the kind of vengeance Rowan would wreak for Catherine coming over. She really was good at psychological warfare, he'd give her that.

"Well, it's red Jerry."

"That's a good guess, but it's actually American rose," he clarified. Okay, so what? "You didn't get it… did you?"

"No," Steve snapped.

"These toolboxes only came in one color, Alizarin crimson, not American rose," he said. "So the question is, who'd repaint a toolbox?"

"I don't know," Steve said sarcastically humouring Jerry. "Who would repeating a toolbox, Jerry?"

"No one. Not unless they were trying to hide something," he said. "Which means, Rowan was right. Which is slightly concerning cause she mentioned spies and bodies when she was talking to me about it."

He picked up the toolbox and showed him the bottom where something had clearly been scrapped away and Steve could barely make out hand written numbers. "And take a look at this. You'd be surprised what you can find with an active imagination and a little scraping."

Jerry clocked the look on Steve's face and smiled a little ask he asked: "This means something to you"?

Steve took the box from him and looked at the numbers a little more carefully.

0N-1 5-5-A

N-5-G-C-C-V

Holy fuck Rowan was right. He was going to have to admit it now. He was going to have to listen to everything she ever said about visions now, because she had been right… _again._

"Shelburne was a code name my mother used as a CIA operative," he admitted bitterly. "The other two lines, they don't mean anything to me."

"Hold on. Back up. Did you just say your mom worked for the Company?"

Steve sighed. "Yeah, and if Rowan's right… and she usually is… she still does."

"Whoa. Info bomb. I need a sec to process this"

"Shelburne is misspelled. There should be an E at the end of it," Steve whispered. "It's probably a mistake."

"Ohh… probably not," Jerry interjected, clearly done processing the _info bomb_ Steve had just dropped. "Look, I know you got a lot on your plate, but this is clearly some kind of code or cipher. So if it's alright with you, I'd like to dig a little deeper. I promise I'll stay out of your hair."

Steve turned a glare to him, an appraising glare, as he wondered whether or not it was worth it. Jerry added: "And you know… Rowan said I'd be the one able to crack it… so…."

Yes, and Rowan was always right. He did just say that.

"Okay, alright. See what you can do. Just uh, keep it on the DL but keep me in the loop" he said. Jerry reached for the toolbox and Steve added: "And don't you tell Rowan a thing. Her ego is too big as is. If she finds out she was right… again… I'll never hear the end of it."

"Are you sure she's even talking to you right now?" Jerry asked, seemingly not realizing that the topic of Rowan was probably still touchy for Steve. "You know… cause she caught you cheating on her with Catherine and she punched you in the throat."

"I am not cheating…" Steve thundered and then calmed himself down with a few breaths. "Can you… can you just get out of my hair please Jerry… please… cause I swear to god…"

Jerry took the toolbox and ran off leaving Steve to stand there, angry all over again over this morning's incident with Rowan.

Catherine called him over, a break in his case. Okay back to work. Steve muttered to himself: "I'm not cheating on Rowan," before joining her in the office.


	104. Chapter 104

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: HEY guys, surprise! So I'm posting early this week because I'm driving up to Ottawa tomorrow (which is about 4 hours away from me) and I foresee that I won't be able to post on time, so instead of being late… I'm gonna be EARLY! WOOT WOOT! So, no post tomorrow cause I'm giving it to you guys today. Alright guys, we have a series of really long chapters coming. This one is 13 and I think the next few are either between 13 and 15. So… I hope you guys enjoy that. But we get to see a little bit of Steve regretting his decision and being an ass. Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter too and I'll see you guys on Tuesday!_

Chapter 104

* * *

Steve opened the door to his office and was immediately in shock by what he saw. Big white numbers written on glass planes, sticky notes and paper stuck everywhere. And in the middle of it all was Jerry who was staring at him with appraising eyes, as if he was expecting Steve to freak out.

"Uh… hey," he said and Jerry looked around at the chaos he had created and then had the nerve to fucking smile.

"Uh… I know what you're thinking. _A Beautiful Mind_. I get it. Don't worry. Marker's erasable, and I can clean this in five minutes. You won't even know I was here."

Steve, with hands on his hips took another look at what he was surrounded by and then asked: "What is all this stuff?"

"Well, I was thinking about what you said, about Shelburne being misspelled. You see, a lot of codes use ciphers that don't repeat letters. Shelburne has two _e_ s but on the toolbox, there's only one. Now, one of the ciphers that eliminates repeat letters is called _Polybius Square._ I think that's what the _PS_ stands for in the last line."

"Polybius Square," Steve echoed walking around his desk and looking a all the numbers that and letters and crazy looking math equations.

"Boom. You see that? You and me, finishing each other's sentences!" Jerry crowed.

Steve turned to him. He was in a bad mood, his face was still sore from the beating he had taken, he was pretty sure his arm was fractured and he was just ignoring it, heart was sore from the emotional beating it had taken, and he just wanted this case to be over so he could go home and drink the pain away.

"Well, you just told me what…" he started and then trailed off. Jerry looked so excited and it wasn't really his fault that Rowan was being unreasonable, her brother was trying to seriously injury him or that Steve had fucked up his burgeoning relationship with Rowan so badly. "Oh, alright. I got it. Can we…? I don't have all day is all…"

He hoped letting him down lightly was better then whatever sassy remark was going to fly out of him before.

Jerry looked a little crestfallen but luckily he moved on. He sat down at Steve's desk and pressed a single key on the laptop he had borrowed. "I constructed this Polybius Square and I used the code name "Shelburne" to decipher the two other letter sequences on the toolbox, and it gave me these numbers. It's pretty cool, right?"

"Sure," Steve answered automatically, normally he'd be geeking out, but today, he wasn't feeling it. "It'd be cooler if I knew what the numbers meant though."

"The Q in the first sequence is actually the Greek Symbol Phi…" "… Phi… which is sometimes used to denote latitude."

Great now they really _were_ finishing each other's sentences.

Jerry was pulling up the maps on the Five-0 Tablet as Steve asked: "Wait… so these are geographic coordinates?"

"Exactly," Jerry said smugly handing over the tablet. "and your mystery location is…."

"Cambodia," Steve muttered and his heart sunk down to his stomach. "Son of a bitch. It's Cambodia. It's mother fucking Cambodia."

"Oh… did something go down with your dad in that part of the world?"

Steve sighed. "No… No Jerry… before my mom left… she and Rowan got into it, and she… she tried to shoot Rowan."

"In Cambodia?"

"No, over something Rowan knew about Cambodia," he sighed.

Jerry's eyebrows furrowed. "But… if Rowan knows about Cambodia, why didn't she just tell you? Why did she make me find a clue?"

"You know… Jerry… Jerry it's complicated. You know? Rowan… she's… she's just… a complicated girl…"

"Is she a spy too?" Jerry asked and Steve couldn't get the _no_ out of him fast enough.

"Jerry, can you do me a favour… can you uh… can you call Rowan and tell her that you've had an emergency and you need her here…"

"Uh… why don't you just…" "Because she's not talking to me right now, can you do it or not?"

"Yeah, sure," Jerry said with a shrug and Steve sighed in relief.

"Okay, I can give you her…" "—Oh, don't worry about it, I already have her number." "And how did you get her number?"

Jerry looked up from Steve's desk phone and just froze like a deer in the headlights. Great. Just Great Not only was Rowan right about Cambodia, but she was better friends with Jerry then she was with him. God.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

"Why did you trick me into coming to the Palace, if you were just going to put me in the Camaro?" Rowan asked. She ignored Steve's glare by pointedly not looking into the rear-view mirror. "Why didn't you just pick me up?"

Rowan finally turned her scowl away from the window and in Steve's direction but as he was driving he didn't notice. Before this they had been sharing covert glances through the rear-view mirror, now he wouldn't even look at her. When she answered Jerry's distress call she had assumed he was calling because Steve wasn't there, it was quite upsetting to know that he even had Jerry, sweet previously very loveable Jerry, doing his dirty work for him.

"We didn't think we'd get a lead on a case," Danny said. Steve took the corner terribly aggressively, so much so that both Rowan and Danny were slammed into their respective car doors.

"Slow down!" Danny yelled at him while Rowan struggled to get herself into a sitting up position that wouldn't land her in the next seat. Maybe she could double seatbelt herself in.

"What's wrong with you? What's the matter?"

"What's the matter with you?" Danny shouted back. "What, you're mad at Rowan so you're gonna get us all killed?"

"No. No. I am not mad at Rowan," Steve snapped and when silence met him he frowned and said: "Okay I'm a little mad at Rowan, but that doesn't explain your over reacting today!"

Steve took another turn a little too aggressively and this time Rowan gripped Danny's passenger seat very tightly so she wouldn't go flying.

"For God sake, you animal! Slow down!"

"What are you talking about? It's like your first time on a rollercoaster or something."

"No. Roller coasters aren't this scary. Okay? This is petrifying."

"Danny. Danny. Danny…" "WHAT?!" "—We've done this 118 times."

"And I have been petrified 118 times. Okay? I'm just verbalizing it."

"Verbalizing?" Steve echoed.

"Oh yeah, it means to be verbal," Rowan clarified and Steve scowled in her general direction via the rear-view mirror.

"I know what it means, Rowan," he snapped and then took a call from Catherine and Kono probably to stop himself from losing another argument against her and Danny. Rowan sat back in the car not really caring about what was going on. She wanted to know why Steve wanted her so badly he made Jerry call her and pretend to be in trouble.

"If she wasn't abused, why did she want to murder her own father?" Steve thundered, well that got Rowan's attention.

"For the insurance money," Rowan said before she could register she was talking. Was that true?

"What?"

"Actually, yeah, that's right," Kono said. "Her father had a platinum insurance policy and Kelly was the only beneficiary." Steve shook his head at her but ended the call. As soon as it was quiet Rowan leant forward.

"Maybe next time we should let me drive," Rowan.

"No… what… no way… what the hell are you thinking? You in a car chase?"

"Well I mean, I'm better than you," Rowan muttered.

"She's got a point," Danny said. "She's wicked smooth on turns, I was never as scared with Rowan as I am with you."

"Why do you always side with her, why do you two side with each other?" Steve suddenly shouted. "I mean really, you're supposed to be my best friend… Rowan's supposed to be my… I unno what she is right now but she's supposed to be something. Why are neither of you, EVER, on my side?"

"Really we're going to do this right now?" Danny asked just as Rowan asked: "You just got back together with Catherine. What do you think I'm supposed to be?"

Luckily for Steve he didn't have to answer either question, he just stared at her with a panicked look on his face through the rear-view mirror, but they pulled up to the crime scene and then he and Danny left her behind.

Rowan sighed, she slowly got out from behind the passenger seat. She slowly made her way to where Steve and Danny were standing. They were surrounded by cops. There was a single car sitting in the middle of the police barricade and Rowan had this ominous feeling that something terrible was going to happen settling in her bones. She made the mistake of putting her hand to Steve's elbow for comfort. This was a mistake for two reasons.

One. Steve was now aware that she was there. And he was telling her to go back to the car. Two. She got a vision.

That poor innocent, manipulated boy was literally seconds away from getting shot.

Rowan ignored Steve. She refused to move. She was staring at the scene unfolding in front of her. The girl who caused all of this, Kelly, had gotten out of the car and was now running forward screaming "Help! He's gotta gun," Steve was screaming "Don't fire, don't fire," and Rowan… well Rowan just ran forward and Steve's screams turned into something else entirely.

But Rowan couldn't get distracted by Steve's horrified cries of her name not when she was literally charging a young unstable boy with a gun. To be honest, she wasn't sure how she managed to do it in the first place. How she got past Steve. How she got past that line of cops with their gun's cocked and ready to shoot. How she had managed to duck all those outstretched hands that were desperate to hold her back. But she had managed to evade everyone that had tried to stop her and then she was running, fear budding in her stomach, worried they'd shoot her by accident, but she was lucky. Steve's frantic screams were now echoed by Danny and Duke.

 _Civilian. Don't shoot. Don't shoot. For god sake. DON'T SHOOT HER!_

Poor Tommy slid to a stop, eyes wide in horror staring at her so Rowan came to a stop as well. She raised her hands out to ward him off, to show him that she wasn't armed.

"Hi, hi, hi, Tommy… uh… hi… I'm Rowan. I'm Rowan Pierce. And… I need… I need you to just keep looking at me," she said to him, his eyes darted behind her to the cops with all their guns, to probably Steve who was probably having an aneurism. "They're not going to shoot you, not when I'm here, not when I'm in the way. Okay. Okay? So you're okay. But you're… not gonna lie, this is a shitty situation."

"She… she tricked…"

"Yes, I know. I know. Honey yes, you got tricked. I know what happened, but more importantly, that man behind me, he's got the impossibly blue eyes and the Kevlar that reads Five-0, he knows what really happened. Okay? And that's good cause Five-0… they help people, people in situations like yours. Okay? So if you give me the gun," at this point she edged forward, just slightly, arm outstretched to accept the gun. "If you give me the gun Tommy, me and Steve, Five-0, we're going to help you."

Tears were streaming down his face. His hand was shaking, the gun trembling in his grip, half raised, sort of in her direction. "His gun… his gun…"

At this Rowan turned, and there was Steve, less then five feet away from her, a determined angry look on his face that stupid pistol with the flashlight attached to it was raised and aimed at him. He must have been inching towards her, getting ready to back her up or shoot him if it looked like she was going to get shot first. Rowan put a hand out to him. "Back up."

"Rowan," he growled in warning and in that one word, that one utterance of her name, she knew that Steve was utterly terrified.

"Steve, you're freaking him out, put the gun away and back up now!"

His jaw was twitching. She could see it. A terrible fire burned in his eyes, he was ready, ready to move, ready to shoot, and if he did, if Rowan put him in a situation where he had to pull that trigger to save her, he'd feel guilty for the rest of his life. But Steve listened her to her, he holstered his gun, hands raised he backed away, his eyes holding hers. That angry fire, burning through her. Oh god she was going to be in so much trouble when this was over.

Rowan turned back and saw that Tommy had lowered the gun entirely. He was full out crying now.

"See, see, it's okay," she said to him. "He's lowered the gun. We're going to help you, but you have to give me the gun, you have to end this okay?"

Tommy shook his head. "I can't… I… I killed someone…" he sobbed.

"You thought you were saving her, okay? We know that, we know that now, alright? Just come on, please let me help you," she whispered. She slowly inched towards him, each step building up that nervous knot in her stomach, at any point in time this kid could change his mind at any point in time and shoot her. But she was lucky.

She got close enough and the gun clattered out of his hand and the kid collapsed into her. Rowan held him, she hugged him tightly as he sobbed into her shoulder. He was there, trying to soothe the boy with soft pets, for two seconds before she shouted: "Steve!" and he was there.

He peeled Tommy off of her and clapped the handcuffs on him. Rowan let out her breathe in one shuddering exhale and then her legs gave out. She collapsed to the ground, shaking and unable to get up. She had never been so scared in her life. She felt Steve above her before she heard him groan out her name.

"Rowan, Rowan, what are you doing on the ground?"

She turned up to him. "My legs gave out."

Steve looked between the guy he was handcuffing and her and then he shouted: "Danny!" on the top of his lungs.

"Yeah, yeah, you maniac, I'm right here," Danny said appearing beside them. He took the kid from Steve and the Steve had hoisted her up.

She couldn't help herself as soon as his strong arms were around her she threw herself at him. Throwing her arms around his neck and burying herself in his strong muscular chest and breathing in the soothing manly scent that belonged just to him. Steve held her back, his own grip just as tight, his lips against her neck so she could feel each shaking inhale and exhale he took. He must have been scared too.

"Thanks," she whispered and Steve pulled his head out of her neck to nod to her a sudden smirk donning his face. He was so close she could have kissed him and god she wanted to.

"You know… if you had been with Alex… you would have been shot."

Okay, and now she didn't want to at all.

Rowan groaned and then let go of him, putting a good three steps worth of distance between them. Steve just stared at her, like he didn't understand why she didn't want to be near him, with his arms outstretching in Danny's signature _what gives_ motion.

"Steve, we were having a moment… I could have kissed you…"

"Really? I'd take a kiss," he said a roguish rakish grin on his face. God now she wanted to kiss him again. _Be strong Rowan!_

"Well I'm not gonna kiss you now!" she shouted. "Not if you're gonna be a dick!"

"Hey! It was just the truth!" Steve cried, chasing after her as she headed for the line of police cars she had previous left behind. Steve had more to say, more lectures, but Rowan put her fingers in her ears.

She playfully turned to him, grinning as she did so. "I can't hear you," she sang causing him to shake his head. As she rushed away singing "La, la, la, la," to herself she could still hear and feel Steve jogging towards her, she wasn't fast enough to out run him but she knew he wouldn't tackle her again. God the man would have been perfect if he wasn't such an idiot.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

His heart had finally gone back to normal. With Rowan safely in his office surrounded by Jerry's mess, her eyes taking in all the numbers and papers, he could breathe right, he could stop seeing that moment he realized she had gotten away from him and the other cops and was sprinting towards Tommy Fa'aloa who had a loaded gun in his hand. Now Steve could stand back at the smart table and just watch her, be grateful that Rowan was alive, that nothing bad had happened to her.

Tommy had been arrested, he wouldn't get first degree murder, but he would be going to jail, just not for as long as he would have been going originally.

According to Rowan, if she hadn't intervened, if she hadn't gotten in the way, Tommy would have been killed. Steve was just grateful that no one had accidentally shot Rowan instead.

Steve let Kono take the daughter, she and Catherine really wanted to break the bad news to her. That she had killed her father for nothing because his policy had lapsed. He went into his office, loving that Rowan immediately turned, that long glance at him over the shoulder setting him off again. He wanted nothing more than to throw her down on the desk and take her then and there.

"Are you okay?" she asked him.

"I'm less freaked out now," he admitted.

"I'm sorry, it was just… he didn't deserve to die…"

"No I get it," he said quickly. "But that's not what I pulled you in for originally. Don't you want to know why I had Jerry bring you in?"

Rowan pinned him with a dry glare and gestured to the office. "I guess he found the clue on your dad's tool box."

Steve glared at her, why did she say that like it made absolute sense, when he had no idea the clues even existed before this afternoon. "Why didn't you tell me it was there?"

"Because. I was mad at you," Rowan said with a sniff. Ah so she hadn't known for long, probably just this morning. "And Jerry was always supposed to be the one to crack it. I thought it would help him with you shunting him out. He just wants you to like him, it wouldn't kill you to be nicer McGarrett."

He hated it when she called him by his last name. It was his full name or Steve, or nothing. And he had gotten rid of Jerry for her, so when would start coming over again, but he couldn't say that now because after this morning she probably wouldn't come over ever again.

"Okay, and do you know what I found?"

"Is it coordinates to an empty field in Cambodia?"

Steve glared at her. Steve handed her the screenshot he had printed out of the coordinates and where they lead. Rowan stared at it and then up to him. "I don't know what you want me to tell you."

"Do you know what's there?" he asked and Rowan nodded.

"Do you want me to tell you what's there? Is that why you had Jerry betray my trust by doing your dirty work for you?"

Steve stared down at her. He remembered his mother pulling a gun on her for just threatening to tell him about Cambodia. He wanted to know, but he wasn't sure he wanted her to be the one to tell him.

"Does it involve Wo Fat?" he asked. Rowan nodded again. "Have you told him about it?"

Rowan shook her head. "It's uh… it's bad… what's there. And I wanted to be sure before I drop that bomb on him."

Bad huh? That didn't bode well now did it? "And how were you going to confirm it?"

"Well, despite everyone telling you not to, you go to Cambodia to see for yourself. I think you take Danny with you…" "Okay…" "The CIA is going to get there before you though."

"The CIA?"

"Well… uh… uh I think you get in touch with some guy from the CIA, I think Joe White sets the two of you up. He's not that helpful though, he doesn't want to tell you anything," Rowan whispered.

"But I find out?"

"Yes. There's a lot of blackmail and other tricks but, yeah, eventually you figure it out."

"Then I don't need you to tell me, now do I?" he asked. Rowan's lips pursed and twitched but otherwise she said nothing to him. Which left Steve to lower his eyes from her and bring up a completely different conversation entirely. "I want you to leave Alex."

"Uh… excuse me?" Rowan snapped. She was no longer behind the desk but on the other side, arms crossed over her chest as she glared at him. He wanted to grab her and crush her to his chest, he wanted to smother her in kisses and beg her to leave Alex, drop to his knees and tell her how sorry he was. But he couldn't do any of that because he was too prideful and he was just too angry at her for getting back together with Alex to concede.

"Rowan, we both know you're dating Alex because you're mad at me," Steve growled. "The man tried to steal your songs, and he's all over his groupies all of time. Why are you doing this to yourself? Huh?"

"I don't want to argue about this anymore Steve," Rowan said with a soft sigh.

"Okay, you know what Rowan, you're right, I'm not arguing about this anymore either," he snapped which caused her eyebrows to raise up in surprise a playful smile donning her lips. Did she think she had won? Did she think this was a game? Well it wasn't. Not to him. "Leave Alex or I will continue to date Catherine. In fact if you don't break up with Alex right this second I'm going to take Catherine out again tonight."

Rowan was no longer playfully smiling at him. Her eyes narrowed, like a challenge had been thrown down. "You're still trying to control me, Steven," she growled.

"No… I'm not…"

"Yes, and this time you're doing it through blackmail. Once again, if you don't get your way you're going to run straight back to Catherine."

"Alright, wait a second…"

"Go ahead Steve," Rowan said heading for the door. "You want to go out with Catherine so badly I'm not gonna stop you. Have fun."

And with that the door to his office slammed shut behind her and Steve was left groaning in frustration.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

While Danny was getting his parents back together. Steve had gone to see a CIA operative that Joe White swore up and down knew everything there was to know about what his mother was up to. And just like Rowan had said, he hadn't told him anything of use, except that the field contained a grave.

So there was that. Why hadn't Rowan just told him that Wo Fat's father was buried there? Unless… unless it wasn't his father… but then who could it be? Steve was too afraid to ask her.

And of course he had larger issues to deal with where Rowan was concerned. He wasn't sure what to do with her, but he had a feeling that she wasn't as okay with the two of them seeing other people as she was saying.

So he was going to call Rowan's bluff.

It hadn't taken much to convince Catherine to come out again and he had purposely taken her to the club where Rowan was performing with Alex. He had worn the grey suit from his birthday purposely because she literally loved that suit on him, and it still reminded him of that night on the beach and he needed something to keep him going and all he had was that night burning in his mind to help him go on. He then purposely got seats at the table right in front of the stage. Front row and center, no way for her to miss them.

He purposely avoided Catherine's eyes when Rowan and Alex came on the stage, but he purposely held Rowan's eyes. Her scowl was enough to make him smile. Oh yeah, she was very angry that he had showed up with Catherine. So much for being okay if Steve dated her.

Alex was talking but Steve heard nothing until Rowan said: "I've got a few new songs, do y'all wanna hear it?"

The cheers nearly deafened him. Steve had no idea when Rowan even had the time to write a new song, she had been so busy with him, and having head injuries and messing with his cases.

"So this new one is called Attention and it's dedicated to everyone who's ever had an issue with an ex that just won't go away," she said and Steve's smile dimmed a little bit.

The music started, it wasn't like her usual ballady stuff, it was pop-ier and light. And it was great until it got to the chorus.

 _I know that new girl's karma, cologne: regret. You got me thinking 'bout when you were mine, oh. And now I'm all up on ya, what you expect? But you're not coming home with me tonight. You just want attention, you don't want my heart. Baby, you just hate the thought of me with someone new. Yeah, you just want attention, I knew from the start. You're just making sure I'm never getting over you…_

Oh that fucking bitch.

It was about him. Okay, maybe not, because this situation hadn't happened until like… this morning, but it was definitely directed at him. She was looking right at him.

And she was. Rowan couldn't help but be angry that Steve showed up at the bar, at this gig, looking like that, with fucking Catherine beside him. Fuck. He knew what that suit did to her. It was a good thing he wasn't wearing his navy blue one though. She might have jumped right off of the stage and into his arms.

He'd've caught her. She knew that much. He wanted her, she could tell, but she also knew that he was doing this to hurt her. To prove to her that he meant it. To punish her for not leaving Alex when he asked.

He had a point, because Rowan didn't want to be with Alex. She didn't even want to be faking it with Alex. What she wanted was for Steve to leave Catherine. For him to admit that he was wrong, that he should have just waited before falling back into bed with Catherine. For him to acknowledge that he had more than hurt Rowan, he had practically tore her apart. And she one hundred percent needed to know that it wasn't okay for him to try and control her with blackmail, ultimatums and threats.

Rowan left the stage, and before she knew what she was doing she was sitting in Steve's lap singing him the chorus of a song she wrote about him months ago.

 _I know that suit is karma, cologne: regret. You got me thinking 'bout when you were mine, oh. And now I'm all up on ya, what you expect? But you're not coming home with me tonight._

His hands had her waist before she even sat down. He had practically snatched her out of the air. She took his chin in her hand to squeeze it so he knew, he knew without a shadow of a doubt that she wasn't going to touch him with a ten-foot pole now.

He was scowling. That beaming, brilliantly smug smile that had been on his face when she first came on stage was gone. He was livid but he was also taunt beneath her, she had him right where she wanted him. And to their left Catherine sat forgotten, it was clear as day that Rowan's hold on Steve was stronger than pull Catherine had. With her point made she left him to go back to the stage, singing and dancing the whole way there.

She wanted to tell Steve that the only reason she agreed to this gig was so that Alex could test run the five songs that she was trading for this fake relationship she started with him. But then she'd have to admit she wasn't seeing him for real and that was the only thing she had over Steve right now and she couldn't give that up.

They finished the song. Alex, pressing a kiss to her lips before she could stop him. When she turned back to Steve's table he was on his feet, Catherine was practically hanging off of him trying to drag him back down. There was a fire in his eyes that both scared her and made her feel triumphant. It was working, now if only she could get the taste of Alex out of her mouth.

The song was met with a positive response from all except Steve, and then Alex was moving onto the song he really wanted. Treat you Better, which she had reworded so it fit coming from a male perspective and not female as she had originally written it.

Yet another song about Steve.

Rowan wondered if she'd ever tell him that all the songs she had ever wrote had been about him… you know… ever since she had come here anyway.

Rowan had gone to the bar because she couldn't handle the look in Steve's eyes. Beckoning and haunting at the same time. She wanted to go to him and kiss that pain away but he didn't deserve that right now, with Catherine sitting beside him when he wore the suit he had ravished her on the beach in. His eyes had followed her to the bar but he hadn't moved to come after her. It looked like he was going to stay where he was… until Alex got to the chorus.

 _I know I can treat you better, then he can. And any girl like you deserves a gentleman. Tell me why are you wastin time, on all your wasting cryin, I can treat you better… better then he can._

It was supposed to be her singing those words. It was supposed to be that she, Rowan, could treat him better then Catherine. But in Alex's voice, coming from Alex's mouth it was something else entirely. And then Steve was no longer at the table and bearing down on her. God, those eyes, those smokey blue eyes glaring at her. Fuck she shouldn't have been turned on. Why was she turned on by this?

"What a lovely set you seem to be having tonight. What was is? The _fuck-Steve_ set?" he asked when he got close enough to her.

"Why yes, yes it is. Just wait till you hear the others. But what do you expect? You showed up at my gig, purposely with Catherine to piss me off."

"I did not."

"Oh my god just admit it!"

"Fine, yes, I did it purposely. And it worked like a fucking charm."

"You're so pathetic you know that?!" Rowan cried and Steve half laughed at her.

"ME? Look at you. You put yourself _in my lap_ to sing to me. What you couldn't just stay on stage?! And might I add, Alex did not treat you better then I did, so that song is a flat out lie!"

"Uh… that song is a masterpiece and it's also not about you. But hey, if you feel like it's about you maybe someone has a guilty conscience."

"Really… a 'if the shoe fits' retort? Really, what are you in grade school? Grow up, Rowan!"

Their argument devolved from there, they just started shouting over each other, Rowan wasn't sure what she was saying anymore, and Steve wasn't making sense either. She was just so damn angry. For fuck sake, how dare he show up here looking that fine with Catherine on his arm and then act like she was the problem.

She couldn't help but appreciate him, the way his barrel like chest was straining against button up black shirt. The way the stubble was defining his chiseled jawline. Fuck she just wanted to jump him.

He must have read his mind cause suddenly his hands had reached out for her, gripping her so quickly she barely registered that she was moving until she was up against him and then somehow they were making out. Tongues down each other's throats. She practically climbed on top of him, and somehow, she's not sure how they went from by the bar to in a private bathroom stall.

He locked the door behind him and Rowan hooked her legs around his waist. No more talking, no more arguing, all she knew was the raw need beating wildly in her chest. She wouldn't be okay until they were joined together.

So despite the argument, despite the fact that he had come here with Catherine and she had shown up with Alex, despite the fact that she had three more songs to sing in this set alone, Rowan was going to take all Steve had to offer. Screw her pride. She was on fire, and only he could put her out.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve came apart from her, his body slick with sweat, his fingers still gripping her hips. He stood between her legs, his forehead pressed against hers, as her arms encircled his neck. He was tired and spent, they were breathless and still helplessly intertwined. He thought he was too old for quickies in a small bathroom but Rowan proved him wrong.

Just like she proved him wrong about being okay with her going on a date with someone else and she wasn't even on a fucking date, she was at a gig, she was essentially working. He couldn't do this. He couldn't. There was no such thing as sharing, he needed her to see that, that this was killing him, that he wanted nothing more than to take her home and keep her for his own.

"We should probably return to our dates," Rowan said to him once she caught her breath and Steve shook his head.

"No. Come home with me."

"We came here with different people, that would be terrible."

Steve shook his head again. No. He wasn't leaving here without her. He just wasn't. He couldn't keep doing this. He couldn't keep fighting this. She needed to cave, she needed…

"I need this. I need you. I've missed you so much."

Rowan pressed a kiss to his temple as he kept his eyes lowered. "I know. I miss you too."

"Then stop being difficult. Rowan, just… just…"

"Difficult? Steve you're being controlling again."

Steve raised his eyes to her, how could she think that? How could she? "You know what he did to me, you know what he's done, how can you…"

"But I'm not asking you two to be in contact. I'm not asking you to forgive him, or spend time with him. I'm asking you to let me keep the only family I have left."

"You have family…"

"Fine. The only family I have that knows I'm alive."

"What about Danny and…"

"The Five-0's are your family first and foremost, Wo Fat is all mine and not swayed by you."

"The others aren't swayed by me," he said with a frown.

Rowan shook her head, a look akin to grief on her face she wasn't going to back down and neither was he. "I want this as bad as you do, Steve, but not if you're going to try to control me. Not when you said you'd stop. Not when you… when you don't trust me."

"Okay, okay, I do. Rowan I trust you. I trusted you this afternoon when you were squaring off with an emotionally unstable kid with a gun. I could have shot him, I should have shot him, but you told me to back off and I did. I do trust you, I trust you with my life, I trust you with my he….." he faltered, he couldn't get that one out. He stumbled to a stop and just stared at her hoping she could fill in the blank herself.

Instead Rowan's eyes filled with this terrible sadness and lowered away from him. "You thought I'd hurt you..."

 _The Rowan-gram_.

"No. Rowan. I thought I deserved it. Don't you see?" he pleaded with her, taking her chin in his hand so she'd look at him. "I believed you could send someone to beat me up cause I believed I deserved it. I know you never would, I know you only use that app to protect people, I knew if anyone were to use that app against me it would have been… _him_ … but I deserved it Rowan. I deserved your anger and I thought… if it was you… if you were so angry that I warranted a hitman coming after me then… maybe… you still cared… that we weren't just… done."

Rowan pulled her chin out of his grasp and went back to avoiding his eyes again. Steve wondered if she felt what he felt. That aching pain radiating from his chest outward. He had done so much damage. Not just to himself but to her, he knew it, he was certain that his own heart was absorbing part of her pain. He needed to fix it. He needed to do something because he wouldn't be able to live with this pain for much longer.

"You had a plan, that counter offer, he said… he told me… and it… it would work, you know?" Steve asked. "Why can't we… why can't we do that?"

"Because, Steven. You haven't changed."

"But I have… I…"

"No, you haven't. You've gone straight back to hurting me the second you don't get your way."

"But I haven't…"

"But you did. I didn't cave to your demands and did the first thing you could think of to hurt me. You went back to Catherine."

Steve stared at her, that wasn't what he had done it for. He didn't think he had gotten back with Catherine to spite her but if he really thought about it… it made sense. Out of everyone he could pick to be casual with, he picked the one person Rowan had bad blood with. But what really got him was… that this really hurt her as much as she was saying. Really? He never thought it would… would hurt her that bad. He just wanted someone to want him… it never occurred to him that it would actually hurt her that much.

"I'm sorry…"

"We haven't changed, Steve. We're not better. I'm still a monster scaring everyone I get close to you. You don't… you don't want me the way you say you do. Because if you did… going to Catherine… you wouldn't have been able to do that."

Steve looked away from her and swallowed the ragged cry that rose up into his throat. She thought she was a monster. He did that to her. He made her think that. They were fixed, they were better and he had fucked them up again. How was he supposed to fix it now? God he'd do anything… with in reason.

"I think… I think… for now… it might be better if we… if we just stay separate."

"No," Steve barked. "No. No it would not be better. Us being apart is never better. Look… you… you still owe me for my birthday right?" Rowan sighed but nodded. "Okay. So we'll just… we'll just continue and we'll keep the whole other people part separate. I won't talk about it, I won't bring Catherine around you and you could… you could do that with Alex. That should… that should be okay? Right can we do that?"

Rowan sighed at him, her blue eyes looking deeply into his, and Steve immediately threw his pride to the wind. "Agree, please, just say yes. Say you can do that, say that it's okay, please?"

Rowan nodded again. "I think its time I returned to my date, and you returned to… Catherine."

Steve brushed his fingers through her hair. He didn't want to pull out of her, he didn't want to pull away, he didn't want to put that space between them again. But he let her push him away and as he fixed his pants she went about fixing herself up.

His eyes found her again, he watched as she adjusted her dress, how she fixed her hair. Everything she did, each move, dainty and perfect, ate him alive, set him on fire, left him nothing but a smoky ashy charred disaster.

He didn't know if he could fix this, he didn't know if he could fix what he had done to them this time. He just knew that he couldn't give up on her. Now he just had to make sure that she didn't give up on him too.


	105. Chapter 105

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hey guys so this chapter… I really like this chapter and the next ones coming up. You'll see that Steve and Rowan have lapsed right back into being cute stuff. We have a major twist/ surprise at the end which will be followed up but some Wo Fat antics in the next chapter. I did add a little bit about how Catherine responded to last chapter's antics I hope you enjoy that. For those of you who are curious, since I did change up Tommy's ending I can tell you that he will be coming back later in the story (closer to season 7 though) This chapter is quite a long one, it's another 15 pager. But I added a scene from a different episode so it fit better with the time line. I wonder if you guys can guess which one! Don't forget to tell me what your favourite part was! And I'll see you guys on Friday!_

 _P.S. PJ! I haven't heard from you in such a long time, have you been forgetting to sign your reviews again? Please drop me a line/review cause I'm worried!_

Chapter 105

* * *

 _DANNY_

Steve bolted up in bed, not sure what the screaming was about, just that he knew it had come from Rowan. Rowan was beside him sitting up as well, her eyes glassy and glossy and focusing on something that wasn't there. That meant whatever she was witnessing had not let her go yet. He put a hand to her back, taking the static shock like a champ and only then did the vision let her go.

Rowan was now heaving. She shivered and shuddered, but unlike the times before, when she'd curl up to him for support, she didn't.

Things had been weird since they had started this… open-relationship-dating-other-people thing. Steve was still seeing Catherine, out of spite, just like he was certain Rowan was doing the same with Alex. After the night in the club, where he was made aware that everyone had seen him practically mauling Rowan at the bar before the two of them disappeared together for more than thirty minutes, he thought Catherine might not be interested in seeing him again… seeing as she had been so mad at him for what he had done that she had slapped him, AND thrown a drink at him. Not only was she interested… which surprised him, but he realized that he really needed to work on the whole "quicky" aspect of having a quicky with someone. Since then he and Catherine had gone out on a few dates but he hadn't been able to sleep with her, and every time he tried, or even thought about it, he saw the look on Rowan's face when she saw Catherine out on the Lanai that day. He had no idea what Rowan and Alex were doing and he was too afraid to ask, he just hoped they were… obviously she was with Steve more than she was with Alex and that made him feel better.

Usually, they were okay. The deal was, never talk about it. Rowan didn't see him and Catherine together, he didn't see Rowan and Alex together. They didn't talk about it, they didn't think about it, they didn't argue about it. And for the most part they were okay about it, for the most part it was like nothing had changed because for the most part he and Rowan were together, to be honest he spent very little time with Catherine, just like he was certain Rowan wasn't spending a lot of time with Alex… outside of work.

But this night, despite him being beside her, his arm already around her shoulders, Rowan didn't mold to him like she usually did. She swung her legs over the edge of the bed, grabbed her phone and left the room.

Steve waited. Waited until he heard the click of the lanai door before he too got out of bed. He knew the routine. She'd call Danny, cause that's who she was dreaming about, she'd tell him about her dream, he'd assure her that he was fine, there was nothing to worry about and then she'd go to sleep.

He checked his watch, 6 in the morning. Seriously? He didn't really want to say anything, but it was hard to catch a goodnight's sleep when Rowan woke him up on the nightly. What could he say to her though? She couldn't control or stop the dreams, just like she couldn't control her reaction to them. And it wasn't like he was going to go to bed without her. Now that was just unreasonable.

He changed into something more suitable before heading down the stairs. He stopped in the kitchen to get the coffee going, he was going to need it, no doubt. He was leaving in a few hours to go to Cambodia anyway. He pulled a blanket off of the couch and then quietly made his way to the chair Rowan had dragged practically to the water's edge, taking his own chair and dragging it to meet her.

Rowan was sitting, legs up, arms around them, and a finger to her lip as she chewed her nail. One foot was tapping, she looked like she had been crying, but her phone sat on the arm of the chair beside her. Steve dropped the blanket on her lap before he went about making sure that his chair was set in the sand before sitting down.

"Did you get a hold of him?"

"Doesn't matter now, does it?"

Steve turned to her, surprised. He had never seen her this way but before he could ask if she was okay she whispered: "He didn't listen to me."

Steve sighed. "Well… to be fair… you never tell us anything good…"

Rowan's head whipped to him a scowl on her face and Steve sighed, god this was not going well. "Well I'm sorry, _Steven_ , that none of my predications have been happy ones, but you are your friends are surrounded by death and murder as your day job. And I'm trying really, really hard to make sure that your tragic endings are happy ones."

"I know, and we're grateful but…"

"Are you though?" Rowan snapped. "Cause I think… if you were really grateful you'd listen to me you'd…"

"Do you know when it's going to happen?" Steve asked and Rowan fell silent. "Okay. So you don't know when. You don't know case particulars. What do you know? Which dream was it? The collapsed building?"

But Rowan wouldn't answer him, she wouldn't even look at him. "We all listen to you Rowan, but sometimes… sometimes the things you say they're too much for us… too scary to contemplate and we just really want you to be wrong. And other times… well… we can't change our whole lives simply because you have a vision, not if we don't know when or how it's going to happen."

"He gets impaled on Rebar," she whispered. "I watched it go through him. It popped out of his chest like it was a flower blooming or some weird alien baby. I can't stop seeing his eyes and how surprised he looked."

Steve knew what that was like. He was haunted by stuff like that too. "And where am I?"

"Somewhere in the rubble unconscious. He… you don't… when you find him… he's already gone."

Ah so that would be the other part. Danny dies alone in her dream. That was definitely something that would upset Steve if this dream of hers ever came true. He sat silently until he spotted Rowan's swipe at her eyes. Damn, she was crying.

"Aw come on…"

"I just don't want anything to happen to him," she whispered. "He has Grace and Melissa…"

"You mean Amber?"

"Yeah, what did I say?" she asked.

"Melissa."

"Damn, I keep doing that. I don't know why I keep doing that," she sighed. She took a deep breath and sighed again, like the weight of the world was pressing down on her and he wanted nothing more than to pry that weight off of her and put it on his stronger, more capable shoulders. After a moment's silence between the two of them she turned to him. "I'm sorry I woke you up."

Steve smiled at her, he reached over to grab her hand and press a kiss to her knuckles. "It's okay," he whispered and meant it. "I Just… I worry about you… I want you to be happy, I want to protect you from these dreams but I don't know how…"

Rowan's smile was wistful and sad but there was a sudden hope shining in her eyes. "Well… maybe you could start by not going to Cambodia…" Steve groaned out her name, letting go of her hand to turn away from her. He didn't want to argue about this again. "I could just tell you… and then you don't have to go…"

"Rowan, we've talked about this. I don't want to know, I just don't. I need to find this out myself. Okay?"

"Fine, then let me come with you…" "…Rowan…" "I mean, you're already taking Danny, why can't you take me too?"

"Because, Rowan, if I take you I'm going to have to worry about you too. And you know… it's all hiking, you hate hiking and you wouldn't be able to keep up with me and Danny," he said. When Rowan frowned and looked away Steve took a hold of her hand against and kissed it until she looked at him again. Once her eyes were staring into his he added: "And besides, you promised Chin you'd be his date to his high school reunion. You've been talking this dress of yours up and down and I can't wait to see pictures of you in it."

Rowan smiled. "When do you think you'll be back?" she asked. "Cause… if you're back early maybe you can… I unno… see it in person."

"I'm not sure, but now I'm going to try extra hard to get home quicker," he told her, loving the way her nose crinkled in her happy excitement. "I do have just one request."

"Oh yeah? Do you want me to send you pictures while I'm getting ready?"

"Okay, didn't know that was an offer on the table. Now that I do you know I'm gonna want them," he said which caused her to giggle. "No, I was hoping, since I don't need to leave for another hour, that maybe… maybe you'd like to give me a send off…"

"You know, Steve, if you want me to take you back inside for good-bye sex all you have to do is ask," she whispered leaning forward, her voice low and sultry beckoning him even closer.

"Rowan… I'd like you to…" she silenced him by kissing him and that was all Steve needed to lurch out of his chair and pull her up into his arms. He carried back to the house, letting her kiss him and distract him from walking.

They never even made it up the stairs.

Which was why when Danny arrived an hour later and he declared himself to be in a bad mood, Steve didn't get it. Probably cause he was running on a high and a smile a mile wide.

"What's your problem?" Steve had asked and then immediately regretted it because he got a story filled with TMI and while his friend was very upset all he could do is chuckle. But it wasn't Steve's fault that Grace had caught Amber in nothing but Danny's shirt. It wasn't his fault that Danny felt awkward now.

"My daughter's been scarred for life, and you think it's funny?" Danny asked when Steve couldn't supress his chuckles. "That's great."

"What, you don't think you're overreacting a little bit?" Steve asked. He was more preoccupied with whenever Rowan decided to get her sweet ass outside to give him his good-bye and good-luck kiss. He wasn't leaving the house without it.

Danny didn't seem to notice. "No, I don't."

"Come on, man," Steve sighed. He didn't want Danny to take down his high. He wanted to float on it all through Cambodia. He wanted to hold onto it in case he got bad news. "The amount of time you and Amber have been spending together, those two were bound to meet sooner or later. Now you know, well, Grace will never forget it."

He devolved into chuckles again and Danny pinned him with a less than impressed look. "That's nice," he answered dryly clearly not liking what Steve had to offer him. "Look, uh, the last thing I need is for Grace to get attached to another woman. Okay? When Gabby took off, it upset her, granted we got Rowan in our lives shortly after so that helped, but still. I don't want to put her through that again."

Steve turned back to the door. What the hell was taking Rowan? Did she fall down the damn stairs? He offered Danny a weak _uh-huh_ because he was already moving back towards the door and away from Danny's Camaro. It was a real possibility that Rowan had fallen down the stairs.

"Uh-huh?" Danny echoed. "What does that mean?"

It meant Steve was worrying about Rowan, that's what. "Nothing."

"No, no, no, please," Danny cried following after him as he made it into the front foyer of the house. "If you have something to say, say it."

Well Rowan wasn't collapsed in a heap on the floor, so maybe she was still getting ready? Rowan was the kind of girl to take forever to get ready. She could also be taking too long so that he'd stay to get his kiss and then miss his flight. Except that wouldn't work cause he was going on a military convoy. "Okay," Steve conceded. "Maybe you should consider this is less about protecting Gracie and more about protecting yourself."

"Protecting myself from what?"

"From getting into another serious relationship."

"She's ten years younger than me. What am I gonna do?" Danny snapped as if that was a valid excuse for this self-sabotage.

"Danny, if she was the same age as you, you would come up with a different excuse, whatever you need, because you can't be happy," Steve explained. "It's impossible for you. It's not in your DNA."

"Oh, Wow. Well, I don't know what the hell I was doing getting relationship advice from you. What do you know?"

"I know people," Steve complained.

"No, you know how to kill people and alienate the one girl you want," Danny said folding his arms over his chest. "There's a difference."

Steve didn't even get to tell him that he hadn't alienated Rowan, she was in his goddamn house wasn't she? But Rowan appeared on the landing and Steve was no longer interested in Danny, and judging by her smile and the way she was looking at him she felt the same way about him. But before Rowan even got down to the bottom of the stairs, Danny pounced on her.

"Ah yes, you, you are what I came here for," Danny cried moving to Rowan who had been so distracted by Steven that she had barely registered his presence. She started when he touched her like she hadn't expected him to be there.

She looked him up and down and then turned back to Steve before asked: "Aren't you here cause you two idiots are going to Cambodia?"

"No I need to ask advice… about Grace cause she met…"

"She met Melissa last night? Huh, I could have sworn that was supposed to come later," Rowan said absently.

"Her name is Amber," "What did I say?" "But yes, essentially that's what happened."

"Okay, well, don't use this as an excuse to end things. Don't be afraid. Gracie is a sweet, smart loving girl and she will accept Amber? Amber right? Yeah, she'll accept Amber in your life, and Amber will love Grace and if you're really all that worried maybe you should just bring her along on a sing along and I'll mediate or something, stop you from self-sabotaging your relationship."

"A sing along?" Steve echoed. "What is that?"

"Wow, you and Mr. I-Know-People had the same advice, shocking. What you started sleeping with him and now you're not on my side."

"Now, now, Danny, you know I don't have a side," she said smiling primly at him. "Even though I know it's not in your DNA you should allow yourself the chance to be happy."

"Were you just, listening in or something?" Danny asked and Rowan nodded and then draped herself over Steve all dramatically pressing a million little kisses to his jaw and cheek before landing a large and long one on his mouth.

"Alright my brave, strong, super SEAL, be safe in Cambodia, and don't be too disappointed."

She waved Steve off, from the porch of his house looking like she belonged there. Steve was so filled with a terrible longing to have her back by his side and already more than excited to have her there when he got back home that he didn't even realize what she had said until it was too late to ask her.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

The limo pulled up and Jerry and Chin got out.

He and Chin had balled out for this reunion. They were wearing fancy shades, fancier suits and because Chin was good like that, he had convinced Rowan to come and hot fucking damn did she look hot. Both Jerry and Chin had taken pictures of her, in this beautiful high-low cocktail dress that was a midnight blue and bejeweled with a million sparkling crystals. She had diamond hairpins holding her fancy curls in place and high matching and bejewelled shoes that made her as tall as Chin if not a little bit taller.

She was supposed to be Chin's date but she had already agreed, since Jerry was more nervous than Chin was, that she'd be Jerry's date for the reunion. And he couldn't wait to rub all his old high school bullies' faces in that one. With Rowan on his arm he felt invincible. Like he could take on everything.

They got in, ready to tear shit up only to be interrupted.

"Sorry, you can't go in without a name tag."

Both Jerry and Chin moved over to the table. The woman eyed Rowan as if she didn't quite believe that Rowan was there. Rowan merely smiled at her in the most condescending way possible as she said: "I'm a plus one. And I'm not putting anything sticky anywhere near this dress. It probably cost more than your entire wardrobe."

Rowan turned away and Jerry and Chin exchanged glances. Wow. Jerry did not know that Rowan could amp up the ice-cold bitch vibe, but there it was. His old high school tormentors wouldn't stand a chance against her.

With their name tags safely secured Jerry and Chin returned to Rowan's side. "Uh… you in a bad mood, Ro?" Chin asked.

Rowan smiled brightly, so brightly in fact that Jerry was momentarily blinded. He could fully understand why this girl made McGarrett crazy. "Nope. I'm in a great mood. I'm just practicing for when those guys show up. If they show up. Gotta be ready to go to bat for my boy."

She started cracking out her joints like she was getting ready for war. Jerry didn't realize that Rowan would take the role of protector so seriously. Not after the blatant betrayal she told him he inflicted upon her. Obeying Steve's demand to lure her to the Palace so Steve could interrogate her. He definitely wouldn't be doing that again. He also felt like he was missing something and he'd have to get Chin to tell him what it was later.

They got into the gym, found their tables, took a look at the dance floor and then Jerry began to panic.

"Ugh… I think I'm going to throw up."

"Not on these shoes you're not, so do it over there," Rowan snapped and Jerry slid away from her just in case.

"Come on now, Jer. It's been 25 years, the playing field has leveled a bit. Just be yourself, you'll have a great time."

"Yeah, and you got me. I'm the hottest thing in here," she said. And then she smiled at her two boys. "Aside from you two of course."

"Yeah, trust me, the Ice Queen has your back."

"Ice Queen?" Jerry echoed. It wasn't the first time he heard this, it wasn't the first time he asked for clarification but this time Rowan answered him.

"It was my nick name in high school. For dual reasons. 1. I was a figure skater, and I was really good. And 2. I was a cold-hearted bitch who picked apart people's insecurities. I was all about that _No Mercy_ if you pissed me off."

Jerry stared at her on her other side he caught Chin nodding in confirmation. Oh god, she was one of _those_ girls. Impossibly pretty and completely heartless, she would have eaten him for breakfast if they met in high school. Hell… she could probably eat him for breakfast now.

She clocked his worried stare and she pet his chest. "Don't you worry, Jer, I only use my powers for good now."

Across the room Jerry spotted someone he recognized. "Oh hey, Laura's here. I didn't know she had come back."

"Mm, Jerry had a real thing for her back in the day," Chin told Rowan.

"Ohhh… go talk to her…"

"I'm supposed to be here with you, and besides It's not like that," Jerry told her. He waved when Laura waved to him first and then watched as she made her way through the gym. "Wow, she does look really good."

"Okay, so go say hi to her," Rowan urged nudging him forward. "Nothing says player more, then chatting up another lady while the little missus gets you punch."

"But I don't want to be a player…" "For the love of God, Jerry, go talk to the girl or I will use my Ice Queen powers on you. Do you wanna cry at your reunion?" "—Well… no…" "—Then get to steppin!"

Jerry took two steps away from them and suddenly someone he really didn't want to see was standing in front of him.

"Hairy Jerry Ortega. Long time, man," Tony Gibson said appearing from out of nowhere. "Hey I heard you wrote a book."

Jerry wanted to limit his conversation with the man so he simply said: "Nope, not me."

"Oh… Oh that's right. You invented that shave ice thingy. Good for you."

Jerry shook his head. "Nope, not me either."

Tony smiled, the same smile that he wore every time Jerry walked into one of his traps. "So what the hell have you been doing for the last 25 years?"

Op, and there it was.

Jerry glared at him. "What, since you last shoved me in a gym locker?"

Tony had the nerve to look pleased and disappointed at the same time. "Dude, you're not still pissed about that are you?" he asked.

Yes. Obviously he was. Why wouldn't he be pissed, he just humiliated him in front of the entire student body. What was there to be mad about? Luckily he didn't have to think of a witty come back because suddenly Rowan was beside him.

"Hey babe, I uh… I know you wanted a beer but they had these cute little punch cups and I couldn't resist. I hope that's okay," she said. Like Jerry would be mad at her for not getting him a beer, in fact he hadn't even asked for a beer so he wasn't sure what he was talking about. She turned to Tony as if she had just noticed him for the first time. "Oh hello…"

"Uh… who are…" he started but before he could even get the sentence out Rowan made a big show of reading his name tag

"Oh _you're_ Phoney Tony?" she asked as if she were surprised by this. She turned to Jerry and laughed, nudging him until he laughed with her. She then turned back to Tony, staring down her nose at him. "Jerry told me all about you and your over compensation issues. What are we over compensating for today? The receding hairline or the broken penis?"

Tony stared at her his eyes blinked as he took her in. "I'm sorry, who are you?"

"Oh, I'm Jerry's date," Rowan said, she then made a big show of looking around. "And uh… where's yours…?"

"Uh… it's a reunion you're not supposed to bring a date."

"Aww," Rowan said almost melodramatically. "You couldn't find a date huh? Tragic. But it's gotta be hard with that receding hairline _and_ the broken penis, right?"

She said the last two words as loudly as she could and now people were looking at them. Rowan faked surprise. "Oh gosh, was that too loud?"

"Okay… hey… there is nothing wrong with my penis, okay?" Tony growled leaning in close to them. Jerry wanted to put a hand out to ward him off and if he hadn't clocked the suddenly dangerous smirk on Rowan's face he might have, even if he was worried Tony Gibson might find a large locker to shove him into.

"We both know that you're classically overcompensating for something. A man your age, it's either the loss of youth, the loss of hair, the mourning of a body part not working right anymore, or the ever popular I peaked in high school. Just looking at you I've got a list of things to pick apart, I may even have enough to make you cry," Rowan growled to him. Tony looked absolutely terrified. "Run, Tony-boy. Run far, run fast."

And Tony did run, well he speed-walked, but considering Jerry hadn't seen Tony run from anything other then the principal he was impressed. Rowan straightened, that fake smile back on her face as she waved at Tony's receding back. "It was so very nice to meet you."

She then turned an actual genuine smile up to him. "There. Feel a bit better?"

"No. I'm petrified," Jerry said. "Did you really have a list of things to pick on?"

"Hell yeah, it's an automatic reflex, I do it to everyone," Rowan said. "Now, go talk to that girl before she gets away."

Jerry was just glad she was on his side, but he never did manage to talk to Laura, she had coincidently vanished.

For the rest of the reunion, Rowan played saving grace. She saved them both from every awkward interaction. She saved Chin from having to answer questions about being married, or Malia. She saved Jerry from looking foolish on more than one occasion.

The only person she couldn't save was Laura, who fell from the third floor and was impaled by her own stiletto.

She did, however, manage to faint, the second she saw the body and the blood pooling around it. And despite Chin telling him to hold onto her, because he knew it would happen, Jerry sort of forgot. Which meant Rowan hit the floor. And now it was up to Jerry to tell McGarrett how Rowan managed to earn this head injury.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve's phone chirped again. Another message from Rowan, this one asking if he had made it to the River. He stared at the message. How could she have known about the river. A secondary text came in, a single picture, her hair done up with crystal hairpins. Her make up sultry and provocative. She must have been getting ready to accompany Chin to his High school Reunion. Steve was only a few years under Chin, that meant soon he'd have to go to his own high school reunion. He wondered if, like Chin, he'd be going with Rowan on his arm.

A single line was waiting for him under the picture.

 _Just wait until you see the dress_.

Steve didn't know how to tell her that he probably wasn't going to be back in time to see the dress. He didn't respond, because he didn't know how to. Rowan was good about that, she was usually okay with him not responding to her text messages unless she had asked a direct question. He'd respond when he got to the grave, when he could determine whose body was in it.

When he had decided to go to Cambodia, of course he asked Danny to come with him. Granted he had to practically beg him to come, but it was nice to be out in the jungle of the Pursat province knowing Danny was in front of him. He would have been a lot more anxious if Danny wasn't with him, he also would have been moving faster, but he was okay sacrificing speed to have Danny along with him.

He would have simultaneously felt better and worse if he had brought Rowan with him. She had asked him to come, and if he hadn't been worried about her safety he would have agreed. It was only one day but he missed her. He didn't like being half way around the world where there was only Chin and Kono to keep Rowan in line. Steve and Danny struggled, he wasn't sure how the softer two of the team would be able to handle her. Not to mention, he had left Rowan there with Catherine. He would just have to hope that there was no reason for the two to interact.

They stopped when they got to the top of the crest, just above the river. The GPS in Steve's hand was beeping giving him a new heading. He had let Danny lead because it made Danny feel better, as long as Danny was still in his sight, he knew that he could save him if he had to.

"Uh… it should be just past that tree line," he said pointing off into the distance and Danny, who was catching his breath sighed. Great he was tired. Well… Steve was tired too.

He figured now would be a good time to ask that question he had on the tip of his tongue since Danny had picked him up to go to the airport that morning. "Did… uh… did Rowan say anything about this trip?"

Danny swallowed the mouthful of water he had just taken in and turned to him. "What?"

"Well she called you last night, right?"

"Oh, that was about the parking garage," Danny said and then turned away from him. Steve nodded, mumbling the words to himself. _Parking garage._ She had been dreaming about the parking garage for weeks now, but it was getting more frequent as of late.

"But nothing about us coming to Cambodia, right?" Steve probed again.

Danny sighed, clearly irritable. "Look, Steve, if you want to know about Rowan and her visions, maybe, maybe you should just let her tell you about them."

Steve sighed, okay Danny had a point.

When they got to the tall grass Steve let Danny take the machete to take his frustration out on the grass and not him. Just past the tall grass was what they were looking for. A grave. Freshly dug up, an empty coffin awaiting him. At least he was assuming it was empty. It wasn't like the CIA would just dig it up for him as a present.

"Looks like somebody knew we were coming," Danny said. Steve ignored the sass and rushed over.

Yep. Empty coffin. Great. Just fucking great. Danny let him look everything over. In the hole. Nope no body. In the bushes. Nope, still no body and no sign of the CIA.

"Your friend in the CIA moves fast," Danny said breaking the silence and Steve almost leant over to punch him.

Steve's phone chirruped again.

 _It's not totally empty. Look inside._

Fuck Rowan. Had she known it was empty the whole time? Why didn't she tell him that? I mean, obviously he had told her not to tell him, but like… fuck… find a way to drop a line girl.

Steve knelt down and pushed the lid aside. With more light in the crudely made coffin he could see dirt inside, and something stuck to the splintering wood at the bottom. He smiled, damn she was good. His so called friend at the CIA didn't plan for this, or for Rowan. Though to be fair, Steve would have found it regardless, he was going to take a better look at the box even before Rowan suggested it.

"Yeah, he moves fast, but he's a little sloppy."

Steve's phone chimed again.

 _Pack up the hair and hurry back, you're gonna wanna unwrap this… trust me._

Steve stared at the message, the picture that accompanied it was just of Rowan's chest in a low cut strapless chiffon looking navy blue dress. Yes he did want to unwrap her in that, but he wanted to know how long she knew that the coffin was empty except for hair. Because he'd be pretty pissed off if Rowan had known that before he left. Pissed off with her and himself.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Danny sat across from Steve buckled into the single seat on this Naval transport plane and there was nothing between them except silence. Steve just sat there, just like Danny, both had their arms crossed, but Steve was sulking and hadn't spoken to him since they left the jungle. Hadn't even looked at him since the plane had taken off. Danny didn't like this, he was bored, he was lonely and he wanted some kind of conversation from his friend.

"You're an amazing travel companion. Anybody ever tell you that?" Danny asked. Finally Steve looked up to him, jerking him out of whatever inner monologue he had been lost in. "I mean the time is just flying by here."

Steve ran a hand over his face and sighed but Danny wasn't done. "Maybe I'll go see if the co-pilot wants to play backgammon or something."

"I'm sorry, okay?" ouch that much have hurt him to say. "I appreciate you coming, Danny, I do. I'm just… I…"

"You're disappointed. I understand. It's a really long way to fly to find an empty coffin. Especially since Rowan probably knew it was empty before we left. Especially since Rowan probably knows who was inside," Danny snapped. "Uh… why didn't we just ask Rowan again, remind me again please?"

Steve scowled at him. "Because if she says it, it's true. Right? That's the theory. That maybe, things don't happen the way she says they will until she says they will? Right? Isn't that what you think?"

"No, I think our destiny isn't set in stone until she starts dreaming about it. Once she knows I think that's what's going to happen. Especially if it's something that she feels compelled to either tell us or act on," Danny clarified. "I get that you don't want to know your future, but… we could have avoided this whole trip and all the bug bites."

"I said I was sorry. Okay?"

Danny raised his hands in surrender. "You know there was no way, the CIA didn't know we were coming. And I'm betting there's absolutely zero chance that the CIA knew that whoever was occupying that coffin would mean something to you."

Steve nodded, leaning forward and bracing himself on his knees. "Yeah, or Doris."

Ah yes, the other issue. The first time Steve had heard the word _Cambodia_ it had dropped from Rowan's mouth and his mother had pulled a gun on her. Instantly. Rowan had said over and over that Cambodia was tied to Doris, and well… once Rowan put it out into their universe, Rowan was always right. Though… in this case, this was probably out in the universe long before Rowan even showed up.

"That's what this all about. I'm not stupid. I know it is. Rowan's been trying to tell me for months, and when I wouldn't listen she got the clues to me. This is about whatever it was Rowan was trying to lord over my mother to make her come back after she escorted Kono and Adam off our island."

God, why wouldn't McGarrett just ask her? Danny knew why he hadn't. Because he was afraid that whatever the answer was would be too big for him not to immediately _have_ to tell Steve.

"My mother is linked to that missing body somehow."

"Either that or she's responsible for the body being there in the first place."

Yeah that was a more reasonable assumption. Steve just stared at him and then slowly sat back in his own airplane seat. Ah that was it. That was the problem. That was what was upsetting Steve. That assumption right there.

"But you don't wanna go down that road, do you?" Danny asked already knowing the answer. Steve didn't even have to answer, which was great because he didn't.

They were silent for a few more minutes before Steve's phone chimed and Danny's eyebrows lifted in surprise. Great service if he was getting it all the way up here. Steve swore and then shoved his phone into his pocket again. "What… what is it?"

"I got five words for you. Rowan. Dead body. Head injury."

Wow… this just was not their day was it?

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan sat in the back of the ambulance with an ice pack to the back of her head. She had Chin with her up until Duke showed up, and then everyone was busy… except for Catherine who was then put on Rowan-sitting duty. As if that hadn't been awkward.

Rowan had wrapped herself up in the emergency blanket. And though the EMTs cleared her of any head injuries they were letting her chill in the back of the truck until someone came to get her, because she refused to leave with Catherine.

"I'm not going to attack you," Catherine said for the millionth time. She was leaning against the ambulance doors, arms folded across her chest. "I'm over it, you know."

"That's good for you but I'd rather not take my chances, thank you," Rowan answered primly. She pulled out her phone and texted Chin again. She ignored Catherine's roll of the eyes. "Is Jerry still sitting with Laura's body? Shouldn't you… oh… I unno move him?"

"No, cause I'm stuck here watching you, unless you want to come with me to get him?"

"Why so I can pass out again and you can make sure that this time I fall down the stairs and break my neck? No thank you," Rowan snapped.

Catherine shot her a glare. "That would require me caring about you. Which I don't. Because in case you haven't noticed… despite all your meddling, Steve still came back to me."

Rowan turned a glare to Catherine. She was asking to get smacked. "Oh, so mature. I'm sure Steve loves that. When was the last time you saw him by the way? Outside of work? Cause uh… I was there this morning… and yesterday and the ay before that…"

"Getting along ladies?" Chin asked appearing at the truck. Both Rowan and Catherine pinned him with a dry glare and he laughed awkwardly and took a hesitant step away from them. "How's your head?"

"It's fine. I've been cleared," she said. She turned to Jerry. "How you holding up?"

He shrugged to her and said: "I didn't even get to say hello."

Rowan sighed sadly. "I tried to get you to talk to her."

Behind them, Steve's truck screeched to a halt. Rowan's eyes narrowed in suspicion. Why was he here? Wasn't he supposed to be in Cambodia still? Why was he burning rubber putting his truck into park? Had someone told him what happened? Because she hadn't. "Why is he driving so fast?"

"Probably because, since Jerry was too upset about having to do it, I had to get a hold of McGarrett to tell him what happened… both about the case and your head," Chin said absently smiling at Rowan's offended face.

"Uh… excuse me… I was unaware I went to Daniel Williams' high school reunion. What the fuck Chin?" she cried. "Since when are you the snitch? You picking up bad habits from Danny?"

Chin just smiled at her as Steve broke through the ring of people around her and then looked her over. He raised his hands up in that what gives motion that Danny was famous for and scowled at her.

"What the hell Pierce?"

"Okay… like… this is not that big a deal!"

"What even happened?"

"Well… I may have watched a girl fall three stories and land on her own high heel. And then I may or may not have passed out."

"Oh, she definitely, 100 percent, passed out," Chin said.

Jerry hung his head and raised his hand. "And I forgot to catch her."

Steve closed his eyes as if the words hurt him. He sighed deeply before saying: "Can uh… can Rowan and I have a minute?"

They all nodded shuffling away from him as soon as they were gone he had a scowl on his face directed right at her.

"So… uh… how was Cambodia?"

"A massive fucking waste of my time. Did you know that the grave was going to be empty before I went?" he asked.

"Yeah, they got to it yesterday, oohh and they're gonna steal the sample too," Rowan said and knew immediately by the face that Steve was wearing that it was the wrong thing to say.

"And you didn't think to…"

"Steve you flat out told me not to. What the hell did you want me to do? Put it in a fortune cookie? Write it on your pancakes? Spell it out in Alpha-getti? Fucking psychic connection it into your fucking head? Steven? You won't let me help you, when I try you get mad at me, and I'm trying to not start an argument with you every time we talk."

"Fine. Fair, you're right," he said huffing.

"So… maybe now you'll listen to me about…"

"No, Rowan. I still don't want to know," he said stiffly and Rowan groaned in frustration and sunk her head into her hands. Why the hell was this boy so goddamn stubborn? Maybe she should make fortune cookies for him, maybe then he'd fucking listen to her.

Steve's hand came to her shoulder. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"It was a soft tap at best," Rowan said finally standing. "I got cleared like a half hour ago, I just refuse to go anywhere alone with Lieutenant passive-aggressive."

Steve chuckled at her, and then suddenly he stopped. Rowan had dropped the emergency blanket and when she turned back she found that Steve had been struck dumb. She blinked her eyes at him, he was staring at her, his eyes running up and down her body, he seemed to be swallowing over and over, his hands in fists.

Ah the dress. It really was a stunner on her.

She reached out and his hand came up to help her out of the back of the ambulance. As soon as she was on the ground she did a little twirl for him, fanning out the train of her dress so he could see all the crystals.

"What do you think?" she asked him.

Steve's eyes were blinking a mile a minute. "You look… you look… you look like the night sky all glittering and twinkling and… beautiful."

Rowan smiled and blushed at the compliment. "Full disclosure, Wo bought me the dress. It was what I was wearing that day in the pool… you know…" she mimed herself hitting something with a tray. "and with the _bang, bang bang_ ," that time she mimed finger guns even though Steve had gotten it with the first gesture.

"Uh… that's very nice of him to uh… let you… keep it…"

"Yeah, I think I looked better in it that night, he… you know… paid to have me all done up super pretty and all that… I think he has a picture I could ask him for it," she whispered and then when she looked up she found Steve staring at her with a pained expression on her face and she decided to change the topic entirely. "If you play your cards right, I'll let you take me home and you can take it off me, but you gotta be super careful with it cause it's…"

"Rowan!"

Rowan and Steve turned and someone she didn't think she'd be seeing today was quickly coming towards her, having been allowed past the barricade to get to her.

"Oh… my… god… Justin…"

Rowan tried to smile but she hadn't ever intended for Justin and Steve to meet each other. Justin had come to one of her gigs, liked her songs. He had asked for her number and she politely turned him down. Then he ended up being a guest at the hotel where she was working as a barista. He came in multiple times a shift until she finally agreed to a date.

They had been seeing each other for a week. She fully assumed that he'd go back to the mainland where he was from. New York, he had said, but he hadn't left yet and hadn't mentioned he was leaving any time soon. She was assuming he was there on business indefinitely. He was a sweet guy, he treated her right, always wanted to do something romantic and it was just nice to have someone like that taking her out. Made her feel wanted when Steve was off with Catherine or off solving cases and kicking bad guys asses.

"Justin… what are you doing here?"

A very important question cause she hadn't told him where she was and she had been very clear about not wanting to go out for dinner tonight. Firstly it was cause she wanted to wait for Steve to come but now that her head hurt she really just wanted to curl up in bed beside Steve. No where in that picture did it include Justin, the guy she saw when she was bored and needed a bit of romance in her life. The guy she saw when Steve was off at work or out with Catherine but not telling her that.

"Well when I asked you to go for dinner tonight you said you couldn't because you didn't feel up to it. And then you mentioned you had an accident and stopped answering your phone. I was so worried that I rushed right over to see if you were okay," he said. "Were you attacked? Why are the police here?"

Rowan's eyes widened, not only had he not answered her question, but he had basically just outted her to Steve. Her over protective, arrest-happy Steven. Fucking hell how was she going to get herself out of this? "Uh… do you know her? Rowan, do you know him?" Steve asked and Rowan faltered.

"Sorry, officer, I'm Justin Chau, I'm dating Rowan. If she's cleared and given her statement, I'd like to take her home. She's had an accident and I'd like to get her resting."

Oh well there was that out in the air. Rowan purposely glanced up to Steve who was staring at her with a horrified glare on his face. She bit her lip at him as she winced.

"To be fair… I didn't think you'd be here today… and… uh… I didn't know he was coming here either."

Steve's eyes bugged and his nostrils flared.

"Do you know him, Ro?" Justin asked and Rowan almost cried out in frustrated horror. God this guy was hammering nails into the coffin.

"Yes, I do. This is Steven, I mentioned I worked with him," Rowan said.

"Oh Steven McGucket right? It's so nice to meet you, she's said only nice things," Justin said offering Steve a hand to shake.

Steve took it, squeezing Justin's hand so hard Justin winced.

"Nice to meet you, Rowan hasn't spoken about you at all," he said. He meant it as an insult, clear as day with the tone he had used, Rowan could see that and judging by the look on Justin's face he realized it too. God, she knew he'd be mad, but couldn't he play nice to Justin's face, she was nice to Catherine's face for him.

"Alright, you know what. I am good to go, let's go Justin," Rowan said pushing him back towards his car. "Can you just give me one more second, I will meet you at the car."

Justin nodded, shooting a good-bye wave to Steve. When he was out of ear shot Rowan turned to Steve wincing at the look on his face. "Please, just… calm down. I'll explain later okay?" she pleaded. "And uh… save half… okay? Steven… save half."

Steve just continued to stare at her, a haunting pain in his blue eyes. This was his fault, she reminded herself, he chose Catherine. If he hadn't, they'd be together and Justin wouldn't have stood a chance.

The problem was, unbeknownst to Rowan, after she left in Justin's fancy rented Bentley, after Steve had talked to Max, and give him the hair sample he had brought back from Cambodia for analysis, Steve made a single phone call that affected them both.

"Hey Fong, do me a favour… can you run a name for me? Yeah? It's uh… uh… Justin Chau."


	106. Chapter 106

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hey guys. An update on a Thursday? What's happening? Well let me tell you. A year ago, during the month of May, I decided to write a little fanfiction. That's right. It's been a full year since I started writing Rewrite. It's officially a year old. So for the rest of month I'll be posting three times a week. On top of that, I want to write something special for the May 24th which is the day I started typing everything out. So we're going to have a bonus chapter for that day, the question is… what do you guys wanna read? Do you want to read some bits and pieces from the future chapters? I have their wedding scene all written out (from the proposal to the actual wedding) or the day Steve adopts Nahele. I'm mean its major spoilers but I have it written out. OH! I also have Steve's very first admittance of "I love you" to Rowan. Or maybe you want a clarification story. Tell me what you think! I'll be posting the third update on Saturday for these week and then next week we'll be doing Monday Wednesday and Friday posts. So see you guys Saturday and don't forget to tell me what you want to read as your bonus chapter!_

Chapter 106

* * *

Danny and Steve hadn't seen each other since they had split ways after returning from Cambodia. Chin had gotten Steve first, going around with him to question their victim's, Laura's, family. Danny was sent ahead to pick up their criminal magician so he had only gotten a few texts about the situation so he knew what to expect.

Chin hadn't known much except that Rowan was picked up from the crime scene by a young man named Justin who claimed to be dating her.

Chin hadn't said how badly Steve was handling the situation. He couldn't quantify it and that was fair. Chin just said that Steve was not taking it well, and he was certain the fallout from this would coat all of them. Chin had been clear that he wanted to pawn off Steve onto Danny as soon as possible.

At the current moment they were in Danny's Camaro, Steve was driving again, their Magician, who stupidly tried to escape them by using a smoke bomb and hiding in a trick box, was sitting in the back and Danny… well Danny was trying to figure out how bad the damage was.

"Okay, explain this to me again…. Rowan's dating some guy name Justin and you have Fong running his name through every known database."

"Yes. I don't understand what you're not getting."

"Uh… well… maybe… I unno if you remember because it was such a long time ago, but you did this before. Ran a background check on her boyfriend of choice and she dove out the window."

"That was… no… that happened because she was trying to leave or move out and I wasn't going to let her. And it was after I had her arrested on Halloween. That had nothing to do with the background check."

Danny nodded, yes he remembered the Britney Spears costume and how riled it up it had got Steven. He also remembered Rowan being forcibly evicted from Alex's house and that Alex had broken up with her briefly over the amount of police arrests in her life. About 12 hours later she had taken a dive out of her window. Ah the good old days when Steve's obsession was minor because he hadn't admitted he had feelings for her yet… mainly because he hadn't kissed her yet.

"Steven…"

"No, I got a distinctly bad vibe off of this guy."

"Yes, because he's distinctly interested in Rowan." Danny clocked Steve's scowl and decided that maybe he should stop teasing him. "What I'd like to know is how long they've been seeing each other, because she hasn't mentioned him to anyone and I'm a little hurt that she's been at my house almost every other night for the last two weeks and I haven't heard about this guy."

Danny's phone chirruped which meant he could distinctly ignore the way Steve was staring at him. He had posed the same question to the team too, to see if they knew the answer. Kono did.

"Oh… nope… looks like she told Kono. They've been dating a week."

Steve huffed. "I don't know if you think you're helping me, but you're not."

"Babe, I just don't think you've thought this through," Danny said. "I think… before all of this subterfuge and background checking… maybe you should just admit that you like her and…"

"No… no I've done that. Danny. I've done that. I've admitted I liked her, I admitted that I wanted to work things out and date only her, she's the one who refusing to be reasonable!" Steve shouted slamming his fist against the steering wheel.

Danny nodded. "Okay… but maybe you should try doing all of that again without throwing down an ultimatum."

Steve frowned at him. "I don't see the problem with just asking her to stop talking to Wo Fat… after everything he did…"

"You mean like saving her life?"

Steve's glare was so dark Danny wondered if the heat of it alone would bake him alive.

"He also shot her… and tortured me… and he's the reason my mom's gone…"

"Okay, yeah, but to her he's been a damn dream. A regular superhero."

"You're not helping again, Danny," Steve growled and Danny sighed.

"I thought we agreed you didn't care about that," Danny said. "Right? Remember, you were going to tell her that didn't matter."

"Yes and then she started dating Alex… and now this Justin guy…"

"Yeah, but was that before or after you started dating Catherine again?" Danny asked, because, to date, that had to be the stupidest thing Steve had ever agreed to when it came to Rowan. Steve shifted in his seat and pointedly kept his eyes forward. "I know you don't want to hear this, Steve, but I just want you to see how confusing this is for all of us… and probably for her."

Steve turned to him, that frown told him all he needed to know. Steve was so embroiled in all the drama that he didn't see it.

"That poor girl has no idea what you want, because you're saying one thing and then doing the complete opposite. It's no wonder she's looking for someone normal to date. You're a goddamn psycho. If you're not arresting her you're professing your love for her, none of us can keep up and I bet Rowan's just as confused."

"You're. Not. Helping," Steve growled.

"Uh… not to pry or anything but are you talking about Rowan, like bombshell red-head, complete and utter frigid bitch, Rowan?" their magician asked from the back seat.

Danny turned and despite Steve driving he turned too. That was actually a really accurate description of her. "You know Rowan… how the hell do _you_ know Rowan?"

"I met her at the reunion," Tony said and then shivered "Frightening girl. I knew she wasn't really dating Jerry."

Steve paused. "I'm sorry… WHAT?!"

"Oh Great, see what you did?" Danny said. "Couldn't keep that to yourself, could you?"

Danny knew where this was going, could guess rather easily what had happened and he hoped that Steve didn't ruin it for Jerry.

"Now she's dating Jerry too? Fuck… Danny… Justin I can compete with, but Jerry?!" Steve thundered. Wonderful. He got it too. Danny clocked Steve's smirk and tried to hide his own laughter.

Behind them Tony mumbled out a: "She really _is_ dating him," and it took all of Danny's willpower not to laugh at the poor star struck shmuck. He had seen pictures of Rowan's dress, her whole get up actually, and he fully and completely understood why everyone was so taken with Rowan. In that outfit she had looked like a celebrity.

After that it was pretty smooth sailing until they got to the palace. They had just gotten Tony out of the car when Steve got a call.

"Give me a second," he said to Danny and then answered the phone.

Danny didn't think anything of it until he said: "Are you sure it's him?... okay… yeah… send me the file."

Steve hung up and then stared at his phone. He waited for the chime and then he was reading something that had been sent to him.

"Son of a bitch."

"What, what is it?"

"Justin works for the Yakuza," Steve whispered. Oh well fuck him. Of course Justin had a criminal past. Rowan was so fucking screwed. "Justin is a high level lieutenant with the NYC Yakuza, he's suspected of being in Hawaii to meet with lieutenants here to create new revenue streams. And his known associates include Wo Fat. Do you see what's happened here?"

"Uh, no?" Danny said because it was true.

"He actually did it. Wo Fat sent a criminal to date Rowan to get me out of her life," Steve crowed, looking way happier about that then he should have been. "I've got to tell her."

"Well you can't tell her now, she's on a date," Danny reminded him and then Steve got that look in his eye. A look Danny knew and called Steve's Crazy Eyes. Those eyes did not bode well for him or for Rowan.

"No. Babe… come on… don't… please don't…"

"I'll be back," Steve said heading back to the driver's seat. Great, he was taking the Camaro? "Just… just hold off on interrogating him for a few minutes. I just gotta… I just gotta deal with this."

"She's going to jump out a window again!" Danny called after him but Steve still got in the car and drove off.

Great. Just great. When would this insanity ever end?

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan smiled at Justin, who hadn't left her side since picking her up from the crime scene. He had asked bare minimum questions about Steve, and once he realized that she didn't want to talk about him he dropped the conversation entirely. Steve could really take a hint from him. He had taken her to Chin's, stayed in the car while she changed out of the dress.

She hadn't been lying to Steve when she said she wanted him to take her out of that dress, which left her feeling utterly disappointed to be stripping herself of the dress when she had wanted to see Steve's face while _he_ took it off of her. Justin had offered to help her with it, she'd be stupid to assume a sexual request wasn't included in that offer, but she had declined. There were just something she'd rather just do with Steve.

Rowan hadn't been able to handle going anywhere, so once she was in more comfortable clothes she had brought Justin inside and they had curled up on Chin's couch to watch movies. She had even let him pick the movie and suffered through some stupid superhero drama she had refused to watch with Jerry and Chin. He wasn't as comfortable to cuddle with as Steven but she figured, if she had to, she could get used to it. She just wasn't sure she wanted to.

Once dinner rolled around she got herself dressed up again and let Justin take her to dinner. He had taken her to his hotel where he left her in the dining area to get himself dressed up. He had asked her to come back up to his hotel room, but Justin liked to make out with her and she knew that he was expecting to sleep with her soon. To be honest, she was surprised he stuck around when she told him she didn't sleep with people on the first date, which usually chased the fuck boys away quite successfully. And he had given her that fuck boy vibe initially.

Justin had come back down in a suit similar to what Wo Fat wore. Dark grey with a light blue dress shirt underneath. It made his lightly tanned skin look darker and for some reason his crooked smile a little brighter. Rowan didn't usually go for Asian's but there was something pleasing about his strangely square jaw and lean frame that caught her attention. But it was the sense of humour and personality that had her agree to a second date. The fact that dating him was easy, calm and predictable had her returning for the others.

She found she was actually having a really good time with him, and it helped to not have to worry about a ringing phone, especially since Justin never touched his phone when he was out with her.

They were halfway through their nice dinner when Steve showed up. Both she and Justin were so engrossed in their conversation, so lost in each other's eyes that Rowan didn't even notice Steve until he had put a phone in between their faces.

"That's you isn't it?" he asked Justin.

Rowan scowled at him. "Really, Steven, what is this about?"

Justin stared at the phone and his warm smile faded into a cool but smug grin that she had only seen mirrored on Wo Fat's face.

"I believe you haven't been as honest about the nature of your relationship with him, dear," Justin said to her before turning to Steve and saying: "Yes that is me."

Steve showed her the phone and found herself looking at a mug shot. Rowan snatched the phone from him as Steve and Justin continued to hold each other's dark glares. "What is this?"

"Press the back button and read the file," Steve order. "Specifically the part about known associates."

"He's Yakuza?" Rowan cried.

"That has never been proven, but even if I am I don't see why that matters…"

"You're a criminal," Steve growled.

"That has never been proven," Justin shot back. "Besides, I'm here on vacation. You can't arrest me for being on vacation."

Steve sighed and turned to Rowan again, "Look at known associates already, scroll down, look at the name."

"So he knows Wo Fat, so what? A lot of people know Wo, Steven. You can't give everyone who knows Wo a hard time… okay he only knows criminals so maybe you can…"

"Yes, but the last time I spoke to your brother told me that his plan to get rid of me was to send someone to date you and now, not two weeks after that threat…"

"Oh, whoa… now wait a second… no one said she was his sister," Justin said his eyes wide and suddenly afraid.

Rowan's eyes narrowed at him. "Uh… are you saying that Wo Fat did send you down here?"

"Well… yeah," Justin said. "But uh… but he didn't say you were his sister. And I got a whole file on you, your associates and life and nowhere did it say you were his sister."

Rowan's mouth fell open in shock even Steve seemed surprised by that. "You got a fucking file?"

"Well of course."

"Okay, someone's going to explain to me what the hell is going on? What? Am I on some kind of criminal Bachelorette? I'm gonna start giving out fucking leis instead of roses? What the hell is happening right now?"

"Rowan just calm down…" Steve started but she cut him off. "OH cut the shit McGarrett, you didn't come down here for a good time, you came down here to ruin my night. So sit down, and shut up so the man can explain to me how the fuck he ended up getting hired as my fucking boyfriend."

"Uh… well I wouldn't say hired. A sort of flyer went around asking if there was anyone interested…" "He fucking sent out a classified?!" "And a bunch of people responded. We were put through a few interviews and I guess I won cause I got sent down here to meet Mr. Liang." "Oh he got Kong involved. This hit list of mine is getting longer." "I was told the rules, what to expect, and how I was supposed to behave… okay maybe I was hired."

"Rules?" Steve asked.

"Yeah. Like terms and conditions. Full and one hundred percent disclosure. I tell no one least of all her. Treat her right. Five-0 is something to worry about… when to expect payment…"

"Oh… wait a second. Payment? He was paying you to date me?" she asked. Justin opened his mouth and Rowan slammed her fists down on the table. "He had to _pay_ someone to date me? I am not that undesirable! I could have found my own fucking date for Christ sake." Steve put a hand to her arm to try and calm her down but Rowan swatted him off. "So how much did he pay you to be here? Might as well know how much I'm worth to him, right?"

"Oh he hasn't paid me at all. I don't get paid unless Five-0 arrests me or I decide to marry you."

"Marry?" Rowan and Steve cried together.

"Yeah, if things work out, and I decide to lock her down he'll pay me 20 mill to legitimize my business, cause if I'm staying with Rowan I gotta be on the straight and narrow. I'm not going to lie, this last week… it's been amazing. I've just been waiting to score, you know, to see if the sex is worth it, and we have chemistry so I'm sure it will be amazing. It just seems like an amazing deal. I get a boat load of money, and this winner of a girl, I'd be crazy not to marry her."

Suddenly Steve was standing, handcuffs glinting in his shaking grasp. "Okay, no, I'm arresting you now."

"I haven't done anything."

"You're a low level Yakuza lieutenant, the FBI will love to have you," Steve snapped pulling Justin up and out of his seat.

Rowan just sat there letting Steven handcuff Justin and drag him out of the restaurant. She took a hold of the rye and ginger she had been drinking and threw it back as everyone watched her. Angry didn't even begin to describe the emotion she felt at that moment.

"Wow… wonderful date, really. Oh and I'm paying, best date ever. And now I'm fucking talking to myself. This is just fucking wonderful. Where's my phone?" she dug through her bag until she found it and then she was using the app to dial Wo Fat and using the other hand to wave for the check. Once they were connected he didn't even get to say hello.

"We. Are. Done. It was fun. We had a good run. You're dead to me."

"Uh…. What exactly are you…"

"You _paid_ a low rent Yakuza lieutenant to date me? What? I wasn't good enough for the Oyabun?"

"Uh… well… Sato's already married… he was interested in making you a mistress though but I turned that offer down."

"JESUS! That was sarcasm… you actually… to Sato? Are you out of your fucking mind?" Rowan thundered and Wo Fat fell silent. "What the fuck were you thinking? I'm fucking mortified. I had Steven interrupt my date to tell me what happened. To arrest my date in front of a restaurant full of people, a classy restaurant, Wo! Classy! I'm never going to live this down. You know that right? You know what? I'm gonna fly to Colorado tonight. I'm gonna make you wish that shank did the job."

"Are you done?" Wo Fat asked and Rowan huffed at him. "Okay good… if you're sufficiently calm, can I tell you what the plan is?"

Rowan found herself glaring down at her unfinished chicken parm as she told him: "It better be fucking good."

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Luckily for Steve, once he got Justin into his own interrogation room, giving Catherine the pleasure of calling one of her FBI friends to come and pick him up, he found that Danny and Chin had waited to start interrogating Tony.

Except it meant that Tony had spent a lot of time by himself.

No sooner did the door shut behind Steve did one of the handcuffs fall of Tony's wrist and Tony raised his hand up laughing triumphantly. "Let's see your average magician do that!"

Why was he bragging? He was still cuffed to the other side of the damn chair?

"That's pretty impressive, man," Danny answered sarcastically as Steve just handed the zip ties off to Chin to secure him properly. He didn't have time for this bullshit. It was only a matter of time before Rowan stormed the Palace to yell at him and he wanted to get his office ready. The last time they had a huge argument it ended in sex, he wanted his desk cleared and the blinds pulled down in case it happened again.

"How about jail cells? Good with those?" Danny taunted as Chin secured him.

"I don't play small rooms," he said. Except he was literally just performing in a motel bar. That's about as small as you get outside of children's birthday parties. "You guys think I belong there for some reason?"

"Yea, we do. And her name was Laura Richmond. Maybe you remember her?" Steve snapped. Ready to get down to business.

"Yeah," he yelped with the zip ties tightened around his wrists. "Of course. We all went to Kukui together."

"Alright, well, we would like to know why you went to the reunion and killed her," Danny said.

Tony took that in and actually looked appropriately shocked. "Uh… what?" he asked his voice soft and low like he might be actually afraid.

"Wow, that was pretty good," Danny said sarcastically, clearly calling him out on acting. "You ever think about giving up being an illusionist and maybe try acting?"

Tony was no long smug or brave, he was suddenly wide eyed and very afraid. McGarrett decided to pile in. "I hear Halawa Prison has a really good theater troupe."

"Yeah?" Danny asked a smile on his face.

"Halawa?" Tony echoed. "Guys, come on. I didn't kill anybody. Okay? I didn't even know Laura was dead." He stared at Steve and Danny who merely stared back. Danny's arms crossed over his chest, Steve's hands on his hips. Tony tried to turn to where Chin was standing behind him. "Chin, dude. You know me. We were lab partners all senior year."

Chin actually laughed a bit. "Yeah. As deep as that bond runs, I'm not about to look the other way when you murder one of our classmates."

Ohhh Tony was sweating now. Chin crossed to where Steve and Danny were standing and stared down at Tony. He actually looked terribly betrayed by Chin.

"Guys, I swear. I didn't kill anybody, okay? Why would I kill Laura? I liked Laura."

Steve put up his hand like he was answering the question. "I don't know. Personally, I think it's probably got something to do with blackmail, which is the same thing you're wanted for in Florida, right?"

Tony clearly didn't think that they knew about that because he hung his head and then it was Chin's turn to interrogate.

"So how did it work, Amazing? You got some dirt on Laura. You knew she had some nut money. You thought it was gonna be an easy payday, right? So she shows up at the reunion with all that cash, but somehow the deal goes sideways. You kill her, then you take off before we open the time capsule. That sound about right?"

"First of all, that whole blackmail business in Florida was a giant misunderstanding. Okay? And second of all, I only bailed early on the reunion because the hotel called and said their Friday night act cancelled and could I fill in?" he cried. "I needed the cash so I split."

Chin pulled out the evidence back with the card. "How do you explain this?"

"Seriously?" Tony scoffed. "Yeah, I planted those on a bunch of people, Laura included. It's my trademark."

When Steve and Chin were quiet Danny asked: "What do you mean, your trademark?"

"I was gonna do the spectator's pocket bit before the night was over," he admitted. "Because the chicks dig it." And maybe because Steve had mentioned doing magic tricks in his youth when he was arresting Tony, he nodded towards Steve and said: "This guy knows what I'm talking about right?"

Steve closed his eyes and shook his head. God this man wasn't trying to put them on the same level. "No, don't do that," he ordered and Tony turned away.

"Okay, look. I'll prove it. Chin?" he said and then closed his eyes tight and started to hum like he was actually making a card appear. "Check your left jacket pocket."

Chin put his hand into his jacket and then froze. Tony smiled at him. "Ace of Spades!"

Chin withdrew his hand and showed them all the card. "Uh oh! How does he do it?" Tony asked with a big smile on his face. "Yeah, I planted them on a bunch of people. Jerry has one in his right trouser pocket and I was gonna slip one on that Rowan chick but honestly… she terrified me."

This wasn't the first time Danny and Steve and heard this, which was probably why Danny turned to Chin and asked: "Seriously what did she do to him?"

"She went full Ice Queen," Chin said and then both Tony and Chin shivered. "It was… it was a very interesting display. Fun to watch but I wouldn't ever want it turned onto me."

Kono called them out into the hallway after that. She had given Tony an airtight alibi, he arrived at the motel long before Laura was dead and she had found the missing cash that Laura had taken out of the family trust fund. It was used to pay an entire hospital bill and she did so wanting to stay anonymous. They were all sure that this was tied to the reason she was killed, probably tied to the reason she came back in the first place.

They were going to head to the hospital to chase up the next lead, Steve had just gotten up to the main floor and that was where he found Rowan waiting for him. Well… that didn't take long. He tried to hide his smile, tried to not be excited she was there. God he hoped this argument went the same way as the one they had at her last gig. Already he was wondering if he'd have time to shut all the blinds in his office or if he was going to take her to the washroom down the hall.

"Oh no, no sir, I am not witnessing this. I told you not to do this you are on your own," Danny said abandoning Steve immediately to hide in his office, Chin choosing to go back down the elevator with Kono. Wow… the traitors.

"Can we take this into my office?" Steve asked in a low voice. As much as he was looking forward to possible angry sex, he sure as hell didn't want her screaming in the middle of the Five-0 office.

"No. No we cannot," she said primly. Okay she wasn't yelling yet, that was a good sign. "I would just like to know if tonight's display made you happy?"

"Made me… happy?" Steve echoed, not sure where this was going.

"Yes, Steven, did it make you happy? Did you enjoy waltzing into the restaurant to prove my brother hired a man to date me? Did you enjoy ruining my evening? Did you enjoy embarrassing me in front of that whole restaurant, cause I sure as hell can never go back there now, not even with you. Did you enjoy arresting the nice man I was having dinner with…"

"Well… he's a criminal Rowan, so I'm not sure how nice he really is…"

"That is not the point Steven. We know that you didn't come to arrest him because you thought he was a danger to me or your precious _Hawaii_. The only thing Justin Chau was a danger to was your goddamn pride. It must have been amazing that to find out that not only did Wo Fat send someone to date me, but that the man was a criminal, you must have felt like you won the fucking jackpot. Must have killed you to find out he picked a pretty good guy, just my type and treating me right, you must have died a little on the inside, you must have really thought him a threat to not be able to wait to arrest him..."

"I mean… was he really all that…"

"He was really cute. He was super romantic. He didn't pull his phone out once when we were together. He treated me like a gentleman the whole time. He paid for every date…"

"Okay now, I pay for our dates…"

"You don't take me anywhere Steven," Rowan cried. "And if you do, it's to a fast food restaurant or I'm left with the bill whenever you left early to go off on one of your cases. The only time we've gone out was your birthday dinner and I paid… cause it was your birthday. Sometimes… sometimes it's nice to have someone care for you, to have someone's undivided attention, to be someone's most important thing, cause let's be clear here, we both know that I will never come before Five-0."

Steve was blindsided by this. Completely and utterly blindsided. He had no idea Rowan had even felt that way. To be fair, she had a point. He did take her out, but he took her out to place where he knew he'd pay the least amount of money or he knew a guy who knew a guy who could get them in for free. He had no idea that Rowan thought Five-0 was more important to him than her, that she was upset that almost every single one of their dates was interrupted by a call or a case.

"I knew it! You aren't really dating Jerry!"

Both Steve and Rowan turned to where the now freed Tony was staring at them. God, that was right his alibi had checked out. Steve turned back to Rowan who was wide eyed in surprise, Miss. Psychic must not have known he was there. It was sure nice to see her blindsided by that.

And then Jerry came into the office took in the scene and then froze like a deer in the headlights.

"Hey there Hairy Jerry!" Tony cried. "Your so-called girlfriend over here is arguing with Mr. Muscles. Apparently _he's_ dating her. We all knew you couldn't land a girl like her!"

Both Rowan and Jerry turned pleading eyes to him and he knew he was going to have to do something he was going to regret.

"Alright, yes, let's clear this up, this man is under the impression that you went to Jerry's reunion _with_ Jerry, is that true?" he asked them.

From Jerry he got a: "Uh…" and from Rowan he got a sullen. "Yes Steven, I did."

"What… you actually went to… Jerry's reunion… Jerry Ortega?" Steve asked acting horrified.

"Now, to be fair, I didn't think I'd have to come here to give a statement, you know? Like… who goes to a reunion and gets murdered? It's just rude is what it is!" Rowan cried.

Steve shook his head. "How could you do this to me, Rowan? Jerry. Really?"

Jerry had appeared at this point. "Look McGarrett, I'm sorry…"

"No!" Steve cried before Jerry could finish the sentence. "Sorry just isn't going to cut it this time, Jerry!" Poor Jerry looked horrified and beside him Tony looked shocked by the turn of events. Jerry better not blow it for them. "She was mine, Jerry! She was mine and you took her from me. How could you do that to me? We… I thought we were best friends."

Jerry's confused eyes turned to Rowan who draped herself against him. "Steven, please, get a hold of yourself. Jerry and I didn't do it on purpose, we just… we fell in love. These things happen. Besides, you hadn't been treating me right for years. Jerry… he just… he's just the whole package. You're just walking talking abs, the novelty wears off after a while."

Steve actually found himself blinking his eyes at her for a second. Did she really just say that to him? That he was walking talking abs? Would his novelty eventually wear off for real? Because it sort of sounded like it was already wearing off. Still he brought out the misty eyes for the big finale and poor Jerry started looking around like he had no idea what was happening to him.

"I would have done anything for you… and now… what am I going to do? I can't compete with this. Look at him! I'm not even half the man he is!" he then shot a dark glare at Jerry. "I don't care what the Governor says, I don't care how much of an asset you are to the team. I'm gonna make sure you get removed from Five-0, Jerry, if it's the last thing I do!"

"Holy shit Hairy Jerry! You're the man!" Tony crowed and Jerry turned to him completely surprised that even came out of his old tormentor

At this point Chin showed up and shooed poor shocked Tony out of the offices and as soon as he was gone Rowan turned to him with a big smile and said: "There you go, Jer, now that's something people are going to be talking about until your next reunion!"

"I'm literally so confused," Jerry whispered.

Steve clapped a hand to his shoulder. "Rowan asked me to help boost your confidence and your image," he said. Which is hilarious because she hadn't, or at least not with words anyways. "And now she owes me double."

"Owes you double. Dude, you _just_ arrested my date. I either owe you nothing or just once."

"He's a career criminal!"

"Yeah, well I liked him, and he was totally willing to go straight for me. Or at least… I'm sure I could have convinced him."

"Yes. With Money. Cause Wo Fat was gonna pay him a ridiculous..."

"Nope, I'm not going to stand for this. You owe me the absolute decency to go out with someone else, and not have you ruin it. Just one date night. One date night where a case doesn't get in the way and you don't arrest my date!"

"Okay, fine, I'll pick you up…"

"No… not you… not you who has not even a modicum of romance in his body. I wanna be wined and dined, I wanna be swept off my feet and treated right. And I definitely don't want to witness an arrest…"

"Oh my god, Rowan. Stop it! It was one time and the guy was vandalizing a statue, I couldn't just let him do it!" When Rowan just glared at him he growled and said: "Fine, why don't you go with Jerry."

Jerry, who was wide eyed and trying to sneak away from them shook his head when Steve's eyes turned to him. He clearly didn't want to take Rowan anywhere, which meant Steve would have to convince him to do it but he didn't have to worry about that.

"Ha! I totally would but he worships you and he'll do anything you ask," she said she then turned. "Danny! Pick me up at 7 we're going on a date!"

"Danny?!" Steve thundered just as Danny poked his head out of the office and cried: "Uh excuse me?"

"You can't go on a date Danny he's with Amber!"

"Yeah!"

"Both of you owe me. Danny you're picking me up at 7. It's a date. Make it romantic AF and dress spiffy."

"Babe… 7 was like… an hour ago so unless you want me to go back in time..."

"Tomorrow at 7."

"That is better. Thank you."

Steve was suddenly reeling, with hands spread in the _what gives_ gesture Danny was famous for he pivoted between Danny and Rowan. "Whoa, wait did you just… did you just agree? What the hell are you…"

"Fancy, not fancy?" he asked ignoring Steve. "What are you feeling?"

"Fancy, I wanna wear the dress again,"

"Aw… come on… not the dress…" Steve cried. He still wanted to peel her out of that dress, he wanted to know what it would look like pooled around her feet.

"Alright, done, I'll start researching," Danny said and then went right back into his office.

Steve turned a dry glare to her. "You're evil, you know that?'

"Next time, wait until the date is finished before you arrest the guy, okay?"

"Or you could… just not date other people?"

"You gonna break things off with Catherine?" Rowan asked and when Steve was silent she smiled nastily at him. "Then no. No I will not."

Rowan shot him one last little look, a little smug smile over her shoulder before she disappeared entirely, a look that had him smiling despite the fact that they were arguing and she was going on a date with Danny… his supposed best friend.

"Uh… Steve?" Steve was jerked out of whatever deep thoughts he was having and turned to Catherine. "Hey… uh… so I called my friends over at Langley and they… uh… they've never heard of Justin Chau. So I ran him again to pull the info you pulled and nothing came up. Nothing in the FBI database and nothing affiliated with the Yakuza. They are, however, investigating a hack that happened earlier today."

Steve blinked his eyes. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying Justin Chau doesn't work with the Yakuza. The file you pulled doesn't exist but there was a highly sophisticated hack done today, twice and they're currently running diagnostics to see what was hit. I think… I think someone's playing you," Catherine explained.

Steve stood there taking all of that in, looking back at the door where that Rowan just exited out of. Yes. It seemed that someone was.


	107. Chapter 107

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hey guys! So we get to see what's going on with Justin AND we've got some really cute fluffy things going on with Danny's date with Rowan. Trust me you're going to love it. For everyone who's worried, they are unofficially together after chapter 110. They are officially together as of chapter 119. So don't worry, it's all going to be happening soon!_

 _Okay guys, don't forget! I need you guys to tell me what kind of bonus chapter you wanna read on the 24th. Do you wanna read a future chapter? (like parts from season 5 ie: Matty and Danny being reunited, Rowan and Steve at the Therapists, or season 6: like Rowan's big void moment, Rowan meeting her dad again, or season 7: like Rowan and Steve's proposal or their wedding, or Nahele's adoption celebration dinner) Do you want a clarification chapter? (How Rowan met Justin, what's going on with the Pierce's) Whatchu guys wanna read? AJ GIVE ME MORE INSPIRATION!_

 _See you guys on Monday!_

Chapter 107 

* * *

A lot happened the following day.

Steve went to see the CIA agent he was certain took the body from Cambodia, or at least told people to do it. And after a charged altercation where Steve told him that the only way to get him to stop looking was to kill him, the man agreed to meet later that night in a more private location. Coincidently around the time Danny and Rowan were going on their date, which meant he could follow through on not ruining another date night for Rowan. He was determined to do at least that much for her.

Steve went to pick up Danny, who had the nerve to actually walk him through the night he had planned with Rowan like he thought it was a good idea to tell him. According to Danny the perfect night started with a candle light dinner at a restaurant Steve knew Rowan was dying to try because she had been trying to get him to go there with her for weeks now. Then a moonlit stroll on the beach with her favourite flavor of shaved ice, and then he'd drop her off at home, where unbeknownst to them, Steve would be waiting to make sure Danny didn't kiss her goodnight. She could have the whole date, but there was not gonna be a kiss goodnight, not from Danny. From him maybe, but not from Danny.

Steve hated that Danny had planned a fucking perfect romantic date for her with apparent ease. Yeah it was romantic as shit but it was also a no brainer. Steve could have done this too, he could have gotten reservations at a fancy restaurant, bought her shaved ice and taken her for a walk on a beach. It was when Danny hinted that he had other smaller things planned, that he wouldn't tell Steve about, that he started to worry. He said that it was just small little things that he was doing because he knew it would make Rowan smile. Danny had finer details, Danny had other smaller things to pile on, and Steve was never good at that sort of stuff.

While they were discussing that, Kono and Chin had gone to visit Nina Johnson whose medical bills had been paid anonymously by Laura. There they found a connection. Back in high school Laura had been dating Nina's son, Corey, at the same time she was dating Alan Lim. Corey had gone missing in high school, supposedly drowned, despite being an amazing surfer and no one ever found his body.

The assumption was that Alan Lim killed Corey and Laura knew about it. They assumed that she felt guilty about it, which was why she payed Nina Johnston's medical bills. And if that didn't help assuage her guilt, she probably also was going to come clean, which meant Alan Lim was going to go to jail.

And that was motive for murder.

Except when Kono and Chin got to his house Adam Lim had been completely brutalized. Chin and Kono had followed the ambulance to the hospital, Danny, who had picked up Steve in the Camaro, met them there.

"First-on-scene thinks it was a home invasion," Kono told them as the paramedics wheeled Alan by.

"You believe that?" Steve asked.

"Well, Laura Richmond and Alan Lim were both at the reunion. Laura's in the morgue. Alan's in the ER. I don't think that's a coincidence," Chin told them.

Yeah, Steve thought that too. "Alright, both assaults were up close and personal with no weapons. They knew their attacker."

"Alright, so right now, Alan is the only guy who can give us an ID," Danny summed up. God he loved it when Danny finished his thoughts.

"Okay, I want an officer with him at all times," Steve ordered. "The minute he wakes up, I want someone to take his statement."

Chin said: "Copy that," and then he and Kono turned to walk into the hospital, but not before Steve grabbed Kono to get her to stop. He had a question on his mind and he figured now was as good a time to ask her.

"Hey… uh… Kono… real quick… Rowan told you about Justin… why didn't you…"

"It was none of your business," Kono answered quickly cutting him off. "Hos before bros, boss, sorry."

Steve nodded, yeah he deserved that, she didn't really sound all that apologetic but he wasn't about to argue with her about that. He watched her disappear into the hospital with Chin and he pointedly ignored Danny's disappointed stare.

"When did they get so close?" he heard Danny mutter and he wondered if Danny was upset that Rowan chose to confide in Kono and not him. To be fair the man could barely keep a secret, he was surprised he managed to keep the fact that they had made up a secret from Steve as long as he had. Well now Steve knew what it was like to be left out. But Steve didn't have time to comment on that like he wanted to, his phone was ringing.

"Give me a second, it's Max," he said and then before Danny could say anything he had answered it with a gruff: "McGarrett."

One look from Danny and Steve put Max on speaker phone for Danny to hear so he wouldn't feel left out. "Commander McGarrett, I'm so sorry to give you this news, but I don't know what happened."

God he sounded so upset. Steve was immediately concerned. "Max. Relax. What's going on?"

"That sample you gave me. I set it over to the lab for processing, but they say it never arrived."

Steve's eyes whipped to Danny just as he said: "Just like Rowan said it would."

Yes, just like Rowan had said. But Mac didn't hear him, he was too busy freaking out.

"I'm doing whatever I can to track down its whereabouts, but as soon as the sample left my office, it's as if it simply vanished," he cried.

Steve was upset, of course he was, but it wasn't Max's fault. And part of the reason he was so upset was that Max was so distraught over all of this.

Steve smiled to himself. "You know what, Max. Don't even worry about it. Okay? I mean, it's not your fault, alright? Thank you for the call. I appreciate it."

He hung up and then turned his eyes back to Danny who was staring at him with a very confused look crinkling his face. He went to walk into the hospital but Danny stopped him.

"What?"

"Why are you not upset by this news?"

"I would be upset if I gave Max the whole sample," Steve said and Danny smiled.

"Oh you stuffed a little on the side, like, for a rainy day or something?" Danny asked grinning like an idiot at him.

Steve nodded. "Wanna beat these guys, you gotta play by their rules," Steve said with a shrug.

"And you listened to Rowan."

"Yeah," Steve conceded. "Yeah, I listened to Rowan. I mean… she had been right about everything else so far, so I figured… I wouldn't take a chance with this. And you know… she was really upset that you didn't listen to her yesterday about the collapsed building… made her cry you know?"

"Okay, hey, don't do that to me. Don't guilt me like that," Danny ordered. "And it's a parking garage. A parking garage collapse she is getting more and more details about, which does not bode well, okay. So I may not be avoiding all parking garages yet, but I am listening."

"More details?" Steve echoed.

"Yeah, you putz, Chin and I… we've had a lot more practice with this then you have. Her dreams, they're fuzzy, until it becomes important. She says it's cause she's not energized by the void anymore so she doesn't remember the TV show until it starts happening, until she's right in the episode. But the dreams she gets, their like warnings, except they're fuzzy like a TV not getting the right signal. And as we get closer to the start of the episode her dreams get clearer… and more frequent."

Steve stood there taking it in, remembering what Rowan had said about that parking garage collapse and how she saw Danny die with a bolt of Rebar blooming out of his chest.

"How many times did she dream that collapse this week?" Danny asked him.

"Uhm… three times that I know about."

"Okay, and I got four calls, so I'm going to guess four times maybe more, because she doesn't always call me when she has the dreams," Danny said, probably once when she wasn't with Steve.

"Okay… and does that mean… does that mean we worry?"

"I don't know. Chin said, the week before the Gary Nathan case, Rowan dreamed of him getting taken by him every night that week. And she had scary details. Like, she knew what the guy looked like, knew that he tortured women, that he was going to cut Chin's finger off and take his girlfriend hostage as well. But before the case with Gabriel, Rowan only had one dream the night before we caught the case and it was about the night Chin's father died. So you know… it varies."

"Alright, so this is definitely more like the Gary Nathan case," Steve said. "So… I guess if she has five dreams in a row we should worry?"

"I think we should just worry," Danny said. "She says it happens when we're together. So we just shouldn't go into any parking structures together."

"Really? You think that's going to work? Me and you we just won't ever go into a parking garage together and that's it, dream thwarted? No, you said it yourself, Rowan's told us about it, it's in the universe now, it's going to happen, now we just gotta make sure we survive it."

Danny shook his head but followed Steve into the hospital. He didn't like Steve's plan, and Steve knew that, but in light of what they knew, it was all Steve had to offer. Right at that moment all he could do is just finish up this case and hope to god he didn't try to kill Danny before he tried to take Rowan on that date.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Returning to the palace after the arrest he just went through was both welcoming and not. It was a rough take down. Despite Danny being warned by Rowan, he still got hit with a shovel, but luckily, Rowan put Kamekona in the air and on their way to him to help track Bradley in the maze from the air. It was because of Kamekona's directions that Steve managed to catch Bradley in the first place, Kamekona and indirectly Rowan.

He didn't deserve the help. Not after what he had done, it was really nice of her take care of them like that, so when he got Bradley into the back of the Camaro he had shot her off a text professing the right amount of gratitude, so she never forgot how much he and the rest of the Five-0s appreciated her again.

 _I didn't do it for you. I did it because that man had the nerve to hit my date with a shovel._

Well that wasn't the response he was hoping for, but he deserved it and said nothing else about it. When he got to the palace he was excited to just sit down and rest his weary bones, except he wouldn't be able to. He had a video chat cued up in a few moments where he'd hopefully get some form of explanation as to what the hell was going on with Justin Chau who may or may not have been Yakuza.

When he got there he found Justin leaving and Catherine waiting for him. And that was when the Palace stopped being welcoming.

"Where the hell is he going?"

"We couldn't hold him Steve not after…" "After what?" "He's an actor Steve."

Steve straightened and stared at her. "What the fuck are you talking about?"

"Justin Chau, he's an actor. The profile you found this morning, it was put into the FBI database last night during the first initial hack. Once you arrested him, whoever hacked in the first time, hacked in again and took it down. Justin was approached by Yakuza, he was offered the job, given a makeover and then flown over here at the request of, what he was told was a rich benefactor, who wanted to set his girl up with a man he could control. He was fed lines, info about Rowan, was told how to behave with her, and was warned that he might get arrested, hence the large fee."

Steve just stood there staring at him. An Actor? Why? What the hell did that prove? What was the purpose of putting either Rowan or himself through that?

"Your call is coming in," Catherine said interrupting his thoughts. Steve moved over to the smart table and then just waited for the images to appear.

Steve didn't have to say anything. The second Wo Fat saw his face he was laughing at him.

"This is not funny," Steve snapped as Wo Fat collapsed against the table he was sitting at, wheezing and slapping his hand against the wood. "You hired an actor to date your sister, she's going to be livid."

"Oh god, look at your face! God, she's so mad but your face, it's worth it for that fucking face."

"It's _not_ funny," Steve repeated.

" _Yes it is!_ Is it true? She says you literally pulled the cuffs out the second he dropped the word _marriage_. Did you really? God I wish I hadn't missed that."

Oh god…. _He had_. It wasn't intentional but the second that man said he'd marry her Steve lost it… decided then and there that he _had_ to arrest him because he needed to be as far away from Rowan as possible.

"You've already… she already knows?"

"Of course she knows. I got a stern lecture, she nearly disowned me and I was informed that if I ever pull a stunt like this again, she will fly to Colorado to beat my ass, solitary confinement or not."

Yeah that sounded like Rowan, luckily for Wo Fat she didn't have a passport. Steve shook his head at him. "What the hell is the matter with you? What did you think you were going to gain?"

"Well, I was hoping she'd like Justin. She did not. He was sweet apparently, but not her type sadly enough. But I figured I wouldn't be that lucky on the first try, so I'll settle for making you upset, and since I have I'll say this experiment was a success."

Steve sighed, he rubbed his temples to try and keep the growing head ache at bay. "You have got to be kidding me."

"I assure you I am not. Though Rowan has her heart set on you I quite decidedly do not. I think you're not good enough for my sister."

"Wait… Rowan has her heart set on me?"

Wo Fat sighed as if completely aggravated. "You are hopeless. How I have become your relationship counsellor is beyond me. Here's my advice. Drop Catherine. Ask my sister out. Or I'll keep sending people to date her until one of them sticks."

"Didn't she say…"

"I'm a freaking criminal mastermind with nothing but time on my hands. And honestly, I'd love to have her visit Colorado even if it is to attempt to kill me in my solitary cell. Whatever gets her away from you eh?"

"Okay, yeah we're done here, good-bye you psycho."

"Bye to you too… Commander Twat."

Steve ended the call and then just stood there for a moment. He didn't know whether he should be mad at Rowan for letting him think that her brother has sent down a criminal to date her and she had been fine with that, or if he was madder with himself for proving Wo Fat right.

Steve knew one thing for sure, though… whatever he and Rowan had… it wasn't ignorable, it was transferrable, and he sure as hell didn't want anyone else anywhere near her.

Steve was going to have to cave first. Steve was going to have to let her win this one if he wanted to have her. He could do that right? It would be worth it in the end… wouldn't it?

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve's Silverado pulled up to the building where he'd be meeting the agent with all the information Steve needed and quickly made his way up to the office he knew belonged to him.

To say he was nervous was an understatement. Anyone would get jittery where they were finding out information like this. About their mother and why she was so attached to a psycho path. A psychopath who had an unhealthy interest in their girlfriend's love life, in their girlfriend in general.

The problem was, when he got up to the correct floor none of the lights were on. That didn't bode well, this was a horror film in the making. And then when he got to the office, the door was slightly ajar and it was pitch black inside.

Steve hesitantly pushed the door open reaching into the darkness to turn on the light. The office was empty.

Like literally empty, it had been cleared out of everything, it was like he had never been there in the first place.

"You son of a bitch," he muttered to himself and then the phone rang.

Shaking his head he crossed to the desk to answer it.

"You need to walk away," a male voice said to him once the phone was to his ear. God not this again.

"Who is this? Where's Sam?" Steve asked.

"Agent Connors doesn't exist," the voice told him. "The casket in Cambodia doesn't exist."

"You think making an agent disappear and cleaning up that mess in that field is gonna stop me?" Steve thundered truly offended that they thought he'd cave that easily. He was Doris McGarrett's son, that should have tipped them off to just how determined he was to get his answers. But they didn't have an answer for him, they just hung up.

Steve was left standing there in that office, seething. Today, had literally been a terrible day. Rowan was looking for normal people to date. Her brother was calling in actors to prove points to him, and sadly it had worked way too well. His best friend was taking Rowan out on a date and he had to pretend it was okay even though it so wasn't. And now, now the FBI was going to stop at nothing to keep him from finding out the truth.

Could today get any worse?

Actually it could, because he still had to post up by Alex's to make sure Danny didn't try to kiss Rowan goodnight cause he was really worried that he might try and then Steve would have to kill him. He was also very certain that Danny had no interest in Rowan in that way, that he had only agreed to this date to upset Steve. What he was really worried about was that Danny would kiss Rowan _also_ just to annoy Steve, and if he did he was going to get punched. Simple.

He made his way down to where he left his truck, checking his watch, if Danny's time line was right he would be taking Rowan to the beach. That meant if he went to Alex's now he'd probably have to wait about an hour before they showed up. Steve had just gotten the door open when the purple GTO pulled up and the horn honked twice. Steve blinked his eyes at it, even though he knew who it was because Rowan was the only one on the island with a car like that. Still didn't explain why she was there.

She rolled down the window and called: "Get in loser! We're going driving!"

Steve approached the car. "Really? Loser?"

"Oh my god it's a _Mean Girls_ reference. What did you live under a rock?" Rowan asked as Steve slid into the back to where Amber was sitting. It was the first time they were meeting and Steve was surprised. She was a really, really cute little brunette. Way out of Danny's league.

Had they taken Amber and Grace on their date? That was… awkward.

"What uh… what about the date?" Steve asked.

"I'm dating Amber, you putz," Danny said reaching back and smacking Steve's shoulder.

"Yes and Melissa would not approve."

"For the love of God, Rowan, her name is Amber. Ahhmmmbbuurrr," Danny drew out.

"He literally just said it," she said to her.

Rowan scowled. "Sorry! I will get it. I swear. I swear, one of these days I'll get it."

"So, what is this?"

"It's a Saturday Night Sing Along," Rowan said. "It's saved for special occasions, mostly, but we're making an exception tonight. Tonight it's because we all have disappointments we'd like to live down at the moment. And I'm told I'm supposed to make things less awkward with Grace and Amber." She then turned to Danny with a playful grin and said: "See I got her name right this time. "

Steve knew his disappointment, he was pretty sure he knew Rowan's, but what were Danny, Amber and Grace disappointed about? He turned to ask them only to have Grace say: "I'm not disappointed about anything, I just love Sing Alongs. And I'm not being awkward."

"No but your father is," Rowan said shooting Danny a teasing smile as everyone laughed at him and his discomfort.

Ah, well that answered one question.

The GTO roared to life and then the city lights were blurring around him as the songs thumped through the car. Everything about the car was original, except for the radio which was brand new and capable of being hooked up to Rowan's phone. Steve had also made sure to put a better sound system into the car for her so the music came out clearer.

That was ever so apparent as the words to _Cheap Thrills_ came out at him. But it wasn't Rowan's voice singing it.

"Did you…" "Sell the song? Yeah Sia bought it, that was the diva pop star from the other day, you know when I convinced you to talk to Grover about _your_ nightmares? Nice lady, said she'll buy anything I write out right if I think it's gonna fit her brand or voice. Pete was super pleased to hear that."

Steve blinked his eyes at her. That was… pretty amazing. It looked like Rowan had some good things going for her… you know… when he wasn't ruining her dates.

"Congrats," Steve found himself whispering.

"Hey Aunt Ro, have you finished that other song yet?" Grace asked suddenly.

Steve watched Rowan's eyebrows crinkle in surprise. "Which song sweetie, you know I'm working on a few right now."

"You know…" she said and then started to sing: _Let this promise in me start, like an anthem in my heart…_

That didn't sound like one of Rowan's pop songs, it sounded different, just those lines alone gave him chill. Rowan nodded. "Ah, _From Now On._ No sweetie, I still don't remember what note the high note is supposed to be and where it goes in the song."

Grace seemed to think for a minute before asked: "Okay, then can you and Danno sing the _Lips of an Angel_?"

"Oh you know how your dad feels about that one," Rowan said while Danny shook his head.

"Wait you guys sing a song together?" Amber asked before Steve could, she didn't sound too pleased about it either.

"Yeah, it goes too low for me to sing it," Rowan said. "Danny does a good job though but I don't think he'll do it with either of you in the car, though. Danny's shy."

Steve couldn't help but find himself grinning at Danny who was pointedly ignoring him up there in the front seat. "Well now you gotta sing it."

"Yeah Danno please?"

"No, not with him in the car. You know what he's like, Gracie," Danny said curtly.

"And he doesn't want to look silly in front of… uh…" "Amber, my name is Amber." "I'll get it I swear I'll fucking get it!"

"Don't swear in front of my kid!" Danny snapped smacking Rowan's shoulder causing her to yelp.

"Don't hit my girl," Steve snapped back slapping the back of Danny's head.

"No fighting in my car!" Rowan shouted as Danny turned to hit Steve back, probably harder. "I will turn this car around and go straight home, don't think I won't!"

Steve sunk back in his seat scowling as Danny turned back around in his seat, sending a death glare at Steve before he did so, he watched the scenery change outside the window wondering where Rowan was taking them.

"Uncle Steve won't tease you… will you, Uncle Steve?" Grace asked after a moment's silence and then turned that puppy dog pout up to him. Well damn, he couldn't very well break a promise to his little Gracie now could he?

"No, course not sweetie, I won't make fun of him."

"And Amber won't get mad right?" Grace asked turning to Amber who turned to her surprised.

She blinked her eyes a few times before hesitantly whispering: "No?"

It was more a question than an answer but Rowan took it as permission.

"Alright," Rowan crowed. She reached for her iPod but Danny swatted her hands away.

"No distracted driving," he chided and then turned to Steven in the back. "Listen here, if I even so much as hear a snicker we're dropping your ass on the curb and not looking back got me?"

"What happened to not swearing in front of your kid?" Rowan taunted causing Danny to smack her again and tell her to shut up. Steve moved forward his hands gripping Danny's shoulders very, very tightly.

Steve was already grinning and fighting the urge to laugh, he wasn't sure he could handle it but he kept his mouth shut, and would do his best to not laugh. But he couldn't wipe the smirk off his face.

As soon as Danny started singing Steve understood why Danny wouldn't want to sing it in front of him but it wasn't his voice that hit Steve in that way, it was the words. They struck a chord in him.

 _Honey, why are you calling me so late? It's kinda hard to talk right now. Honey, why are you crying, is everything okay? I gotta whisper 'cause I can't be too loud._

It was like the words were his, it was like she had listened to his inner monologue whenever he was alone with Catherine but what he really wanted was _her_. When they got to the chorus, where Rowan started harmonizing with Danny, and her eyes met his in the rear-view mirror that he knew, he just knew that this song was written for him, or at least about him.

 _Well, my girl's in the next room, sometimes I wish she was you. I guess we never really moved on. It's really good to hear your voice saying my name it sounds so sweet. Coming from the lips of an angel hearing those words - it makes me weak and I never wanna say goodbye, but, girl, you make it hard to be faithful with the lips of an angel._

He wanted to ask how it was possible that she knew. He had told her recently that the way she said his name, his full name, all low and husky set him off entirely, but she couldn't have possibly written this entire song and recorded it with a full band in the time between him telling her that and now. With Danny and Grace knowing every word she had to have written this song before they even got back together. But Steve couldn't bring himself to ask the question, he couldn't bring himself to break the spell. There was something magical about sitting in the back seat of a car he fixed up himself with three of the most important people in his life, singing songs in the Hawaiian moonlight, their words drifting out the open windows and onto the warm night breeze.

The only thing that would have made it better was if he knew the words too.

The song coincidently finished by the time they got to their destination and Steve realized Rowan had pulled up to a beach. Grace was already cheering, unbuckling herself and bouncing up and down.

She had climbed over Amber to get the car door open despite Amber's cries of pain. She had the door open and was half out of it by the time Danny called: "You know the drill, don't run off until you're Aunt Ro is ready."

Grace said _okay_ and then patiently waited, hoping up and down in excitement, but saying absolutely nothing as Rowan put the car in park, swung her impossibly long legs out of the car and then took off her shoes. As soon as that was done Rowan and Grace were running through the sand to the surf. They splashed through the water laughing and giggling, kicking water up at one another and practicing their cart wheels.

Steve and Danny moved to the front of the car and leaned against the bumper watching the two girls have fun. Amber stood beside them watching the show. Danny glanced over to her.

"Uh… you can go… you know? You can go join them."

Amber turned to him, clearly unimpressed. Uh-oh, maybe inviting her along on a sing along was not a good idea. "Are you sure? It kind of looks like they don't need or want me there."

"Hey Amber come on!" Rowan cried. "We're having a cartwheel contest!"

"Yeah! Come on!" Grace echoed and the two of them waved her over.

"See, they want you there," Danny said. Amber shot him one last glance before jogging over to join them.

As soon as she was gone Steve turned. "She's not too impressed with Rowan is she?"

"Well can you blame her? She's another woman. A very pretty woman that I sing duets with… that have nothing to do with me by the way, she just needed a male voice I have a feeling that anyone would have done… it doesn't help that Grace and Rowan really have a thing you know? I keep trying to tell her that these sing along's they're Grace's thing with Rowan. Grace loves Rowan's songs, she loves listening to Rowan sing and Rowan… despite saying she doesn't like nor is she good with kids, is really… really good with Grace. She's a bad influence but she'd never put Grace in danger you know? She's usually a pretty good role model."

Steve nodded as if that made sense. And then Danny added. "I have a feeling that she's going to be worried that Grace will never like her as much as Grace likes Rowan."

The two girls devolved into singing, a melody Steve didn't recognize paired with words he couldn't hear. But they seemed to be having fun except for poor Amber who looked out of loop. Well Amber wasn't the only one, Steve didn't know the song either.

"She's really close with you two now, huh?" Steve whispered and Danny nodded.

"You think it's bad with me, you should see her with Chin," he said and Steve turned to him. As if Danny could sense Steve's inquisitive stare, could feel the questions rising up in his friend, he sighed and added: "After she cut us out, after we figured out what had happened… all she had was me and Chin. And Rowan… I don't know if you know this… Rowan doesn't like being alone. I have Grace so it was harder for her to attach herself to me… but Chin… well… he needed company and Rowan needed someone."

Steve hadn't known that. He had begun to suspect it, but he had never actually had any concrete proof to make that statement true. "Yeah, it's why she's so determined to do things on her own. She's always relied on other people. Her parents, her brother and now us and Wo Fat. It's why her music is so important to her, it's why she's looking for her own place, and I think it's why she's constantly going out of her way to help us without directly telling us."

Steve watched Rowan jog up to them. His body instinctively reacting to her being close to him, but she didn't come to Danny or to him, she jogged right past them and to her car. She turned it back on and then she was fiddling with the radio.

"Oh God… Rowan… no… we're going to get another noise complaint again," Danny groaned.

"Oh, it's one song Danny," Rowan told him. "And besides she's asking, it's practically tradition."

Danny sighed out a dejected _god_ as a new song came on the radio and down the beach Grace cheered and called Rowan over. Not only did Rowan rush over, but once the song started, the two of them were dancing and singing.

This song was a feel good song meant to make people happy, meant to make people dance, which was what the song was about. Dancing. But what surprised him was that the dance Rowan and Grace were doing was synchronized and clearly practiced. But it wasn't until they were coming up to the second round of the chorus that Rowan came up, clearly with the intent to grab one of them.

Immediately Steve began to panic, he didn't know the moves. But it wasn't Steve that Rowan was coming for. It was Danny. She grabbed a hold of him and though he struggled to shake her off she still managed to get him out onto the sand.

And then they were all singing and dancing the same dance.

 _Nothin' I can see but you when you dance, dance, dance. Feel a good, good creepin' up on you so just dance, dance, dance, come on! All those things I shouldn't do but you dance, dance, dance and ain't nobody leavin' soon, so keep dancin'. I can't stop the feelin'. So just dance, dance, dance. I can't stop the feelin'. So just dance, dance, dance, come on!_

He watched them dance, he watched the giant smile on their faces, even Danny was grinning and having fun. And each and every single one of them knew the dance. A dance that he didn't know. A dance that he had never even heard about. Well, he didn't have to feel bad about it, cause Amber didn't know it either. She left the group and came to stand beside Steve.

"I don't know it either," he said to her when she leant back against the car. Amber smiled her thanks up to him. "I'm Steve by the way, I'm Danny's partner and Rowan's… uh… something. I'm dating her. Not Danny. Me. You know… just in case you were worried."

Amber nodded to him but shook the hand he offered to him. "I'm Amber, and I'm dating Danny… in case you were worried."

Steve laughed and they turned back to the group as they finished off their dance.

When the song was done, Rowan jogged up to turn the music off before it could go to the next song. Danny and Grace stayed out by the water and when Rowan was done in the car she came to stand in front of him all breathless and tired. She turned to Amber with a warm smile on her face and then glanced back to Danny and Grace.

"You know, Grace is the one who picked out those dance moves… she'd be able to teach you better than me," she said. "Why don't you go ask her? She loves showing off the moves."

Amber's eyes narrowed at her, but after a few silent moments of contemplation she thanked Rowan for the idea and walked back to the water where Danny and Grace were playing and then he and Rowan were gratefully alone.

"Uh… what's going on with your face?" she asked. "You have like… some really weird version of aneurism face."

Steve scowled, goddamn she was spending too much time with Danny. "I don't have aneurism face," he muttered. He stared down at Rowan who he cared about so deeply for. He thought about how upset he had been when he found she had been dating someone else, and why… why hadn't he just told her he didn't want to share her? That it hurt to see her with someone else because all he really wanted for her to only want to be with him. Why was he so afraid that she'd say no? Why was he afraid she wouldn't really want him?

"Well something's wrong, what is it?"

"So does… uh… does everyone know that dance, or just sing along people?" Steve asked trying to not sound like he was upset that he was left out.

Rowan smiled at him, a motion of pure pity and he just wanted it to go away. "When I wrote the song… when we started these sing alongs, you and I weren't friends."

"So is that a yes?"

"Yes Steve, but I can teach you if you're really upset about it," she whispered. Steve wasn't sure how it happened but his hands were suddenly on her waist pulling her towards him. The last time one of them was leaning against her car they ended up making out. Steve wanted to that now, but not with Grace and Danny teaching Amber that dance near-by. But at least one peck… they could get away with one peck.

"I'm not upset," he whispered. "I just… would like to be…"

But before he could finish his sentence, Rowan raised herself up on her tippy-toes putting herself altogether too close to him and suddenly they were kissing. Her hands splayed across his chest as his grip tightened to pull her closer. It was a chaste kiss, they didn't go too far, and as quickly as it started it ended.

Rowan opened her mouth to say whatever it was she was going to say before he cut her and himself off with that kiss when Grace suddenly interrupted her.

"Are you Uncle Steve's girlfriend now, Aunt Ro?" Grace called and Rowan winced. Steve wanted to say _not yet_ but Rowan turned away from him and beat him too it. Damn he needed to stop kissing her so much, it dulled his senses and slowed down his reflexes.

"No, sweetie, I told you… Uncle Steve and I are still uhm…" she called back and then froze. She couldn't finished the sentence and Steve realized that Danny was right. Rowan had absolutely no idea what he and her were, though to be fair neither did he. But that meant that Rowan was probably just as confused as Danny told him she was. Steve found himself staring at her as Grace groaned loudly.

"Aww… why not? Doesn't Uncle Steve love you?" she asked.

"Uncle Steve happens to care for your Aunt Ro very much," Danny explained. "But they're working on some things, okay monkey?"

Grace seemed to think this over before she said: "Well don't take too long," and then skipped away taking Rowan with her.

Steve watched them go as Danny joined him to apologize. She wasn't his girlfriend yet, but once he thought of a good way to put it, once he got her alone and he thought she might say yes to him, he was going to ask. Screw the Wo Fat thing, he could work around that. Grace was right, he didn't want to take too long, this had already taken too long.

Steve McGarrett had finally smartened up.


	108. Chapter 108

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hey guys, so this is it. At the end of this episode (which is in two chapters) Steve and Rowan will be unofficially together. In their minds alone, they're pretty freaking together otherwise, oh you'll see what I mean. I have also made the executive decision as to which chapter I'll be giving you for the anniversary chapter. As much as I'd love to give you the wedding chapter, it's got way too many spoilers in it for me to share it with you guys just yet. But I have gone for their proposal instead, which is even cuter okay?! I'm really excited for you to read it. Anyway, I'll see you on Wednesday!_

Chapter 108 

* * *

Dust settled.

Three bodies lay in a circle of debris, blood and death. The one who had been tied to the chair was dead, he was always dead, there wasn't anything she could do to help him out, and she had long since stopped trying to help him.

But it was the other two bodies she cared about.

In this version, one was already dead, the other… and the other… well he survives initially but he's not going to survive for long after this.

Rowan stood at the epicenter of the aftermath bile rising up into her throat. She waved a hand and everything set up again. Steve on one side, Danny on the other, the beeping starting. She took Danny and made him crouch down.

This time when the bomb went off, Steve was blown back. Danny was… crushed under a goddamn beam.

Screaming in frustration Rowan waved her hand and rewound it again.

Crouching didn't work. Moving him back didn't work it put the rebar through his lower spine, move to the right and he's flattened by a different stone slab that comes from above, move him forward and the rebar goes through his neck. Get them out the door and both of them are crushed to death.

Rowan ran a hand over her face. How long had she been playing with this time line? How long had she been reliving it, watching each variation trying so hard to find some way to fix it so both Steve and Danny survived?

Rowan sighed. She took Danny and moved him one step to the left.

That time when the bomb went off the rebar went through his stomach. Way off to the side. He didn't die immediately but she could see down the line, that pink string for Danny had stripes of black in almost all of the forks after that. But there was one, one fork off that lead to him being alive. She could trust Steve to take the down the path that lead to them surviving, right?

This time when she watched the scene play through, she focus on the man in the chair. The bomb erupted from behind him. She wasn't sure where and that wasn't the point. She focused on his face, watched the blast hit is body, watched the debris and shrapnel destroy him. He wasn't doing too good before the blast and there was a slim chance of survival even if the blast wasn't going to hit him. She forced herself to keep watching, her eyes following his body, watching as blood and bone flew, trying recognize him, trying to know why he was so damn important that someone would blow him up. But the bomb went off, the dust settled and she couldn't watch anymore.

Rowan came awake, her stomach already complaining. She rushed to the washroom, hoping to be as quiet as possibly. She threw up until she felt better and then sat back on the tile floor. Knowing without any certainty that it was today. This was all going to go down today.

Forcing herself up she returned to her room and picked up her phone. She wanted to call Steve but… well… he didn't want her help. He didn't believe in her dreams and she knew if she called him now he'd ask her to come over and she didn't want to cave to him again no matter how much she wanted to see him.

So she called Danny.

"Rowan… it's six in the morning… why…"

"Don't go to work today."

Danny went quite on the other side and then said: "Why?"

"Because it's… it's today…" Rowan said. "It's going to happen today."

"Are you like… one hundred percent sure? Do you know where the bomb is? Do you know when it goes off? Do you know what the case entails? Do you know…"

"Now I don't know all of that, I just know it's today…"

"Okay, look, you know nothing except a bomb is going to go off in a parking garage…"

"Or a basement of a building…"

"So now it's not even a parking garage?"

"I don't know, I thought there were cars, but now there aren't any and there's this small like… storage type area…"

"God Rowan we don't… I don't… this is getting to be way too much. There's nothing definitive about this there's nothing concrete."

Rowan struggled to reign in all the fear and the tears and the sudden urge to scream at him. She could practically feel all the strings vibrating around her, tightening their holds on Danny and Steve's lives and her heart. There was no stopping this now. This was it. Now she had to take preventative measures to minimize the damage.

"Alright, fine, if you're not going to listen to me… then… just… take one step to the left, okay? One regular step to the left."

"What are you…"

"Just say you will. When the time comes, take one step to the left."

"Alright, fine, I'll take one step to the left, better?"

No but she'd have to take it. "I guess."

"Good, now go back to sleep." And then Danny hung up on her.

Except Rowan didn't want to go back to sleep. She didn't want to see that stupid explosion again, she didn't want to be surrounded by dust clouds and blood anymore. But she didn't want to wake up Chin who had been up with her twice this week with her nightmares.

Especially when the person she really wanted to see was Steve. That time when she picked up the phone, that time when she dialed Steve's number butterflies filled her stomach and then kicked up into a wild tornado when he finally picked up, his voice low and husky from sleep.

"Hey babe, are you okay?"

"Yeah… I just… uhm… I…"

She heard Steve moving, heard him get out of bed and leave behind the sleepy murmurings of someone else who had been in bed with him. Ah, he had been with Catherine last night.

"Oh… you're with… I'm sorry…"

"No, hey, hey, no, it's okay," he said his voice slightly louder but still a whisper. "What's going on, did you have another dream? Do you need me to come over?"

He still thought she was living with Alex so that was a hard no. "No, I didn't. I'm fine, I just… miss you," she whispered.

She didn't have to see him to know he was smirking, she could feel it through the phone. "I miss you too."

"Uhm… maybe after Catherine goes home we can go for breakfast?" Rowan asked.

"You wanna go now?"

"But you're with…"

Steve blew out a raspberry at her. "I don't care. You wanna go now? I'll come pick you up."

"Naw I'll come get you," Rowan said quickly. "Or I can meet you?"

"No, it's alright, I don't mind you picking me up," Steve said. "ETA?"

"Uhm… thirty minutes maybe?"

"Kay, see you soon," he said and then hung up. Rowan couldn't help but smile. There were so many terrible dynamics between her and Steve, the relationship was far from healthy, but she had such a hard time stepping away. All she wanted was Steve. No matter how mad he made her, or what he did to her… he was all she wanted. And she really, really didn't want him to go to work today!

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve went to breakfast with Rowan, leaving Catherine in his bed with a note to meet them at the site of their next op. He had tried to tell Rowan that the only reason that Catherine was in his bed was cause she had gotten drunk last night while he was trying to tell her that he was done seeing her. He had let her sleep it off in his bed cause her new apartment was sketchy and he didn't want to leave her on the couch in case she had to throw up, and he wasn't putting her in Rowan's room so that was why she was in the bed. Problem was, as soon as he tried to explain she shut him down. They had promised each other they wouldn't talk about what they did with their other people, she had reminded him. So he had let it go.

Rowan had opted to sit beside him in the booth, nestled into his side, oddly quiet. He figured it was because she knew he had just been with Catherine. Or maybe it was cause she hadn't slept, the bags had all but taken over the space under her eyes.

But while Steve knew she wasn't sleeping. He also knew that Rowan hadn't been dreaming about the explosion as frequently as before. Or at least, she wasn't calling him or Danny about it. Maybe it wasn't going to happen anymore.

But it was when he announced that he needed to go, after he paid because he wasn't going to have her accuse him of cheaping out on their dates again, that things got weird.

She had grabbed him, she had held him tight and started to cry. He had asked her over and over what was wrong and the only answer she could give him was: _I'm scared_. And that scared him. She wouldn't tell him what it was, she wouldn't admit she had a dream, but she was scared, scared about what was going to happen on this next mission. But she wouldn't tell him why, so he had no idea what was going on.

Until they got to the building and Danny shook his head. "Nope, no I'm not going down there."

Steve glared at him. He was already nervous he didn't need this. "Okay, just because Rowan's had dreams…"

"Yes and she said it's happening today. So I'm not going down there," Danny growled. Fuck, really? Why hadn't she told him that? "You can go explode by yourself."

"Look, the perimeter was secured, there's no one here, we cleared all the cars," Steve said. "This tip, it's a solid tip. We need to act on this."

Danny sighed at him. Danny knew what happened if Steve when down without him. He couldn't get out on his own. Steve would die trapped and alone. Danny didn't want that to happen. But maybe Steve was right. Maybe Rowan was wrong. Rowan had been wrong before right?

He followed after Steve hating himself, praying that Rowan was wrong, that the bomb was going to go off in a different basement parking lot of a different building.

Steve immediately felt better with Danny by his side. He ignored the fact that Rowan had told him repeatedly that it happened when he and Danny were together. Still, this was his job it was risk he had to take… even though he would rather risk his own life and not Danny's. Maybe he should tell Danny to stay back.

But Steve didn't voice his concerns. He was too afraid to. Instead they all went down their separate stairwells. He and Danny in one, Lou and S.W.A.T. in another, Kono and Chin in the far one, Catherine on her own with extra S.W.A.T. in the other. They waited for Grover to be ready, waited for Steve's count and then burst into the empty parking garage where they found literally nothing, not even cars, the whole place was empty.

Panic rolled around in Steve's stomach, he wouldn't even look Danny in the eye. "Maybe it's just me, but aren't there supposed to be guns in a gun deal? Maybe a gun dealer or something like that?" he asked. Well at least he wasn't throwing around the _Rowan's always right_ stuff. He should honestly just get Danny a fucking tee-shirt with that printed on it so he could whip it out whenever he needed to… oh or a button.

Danny was very proud of himself for not shitting on Steve's parade, and though every synapse of his body was screaming _run before Rowan's predictions come true_ he stayed firmly rooted to Steve's side because Rowan's words still echoed in his head. _Without you he doesn't make it at all, blows himself up in like five minutes._

That was Steven fucking McGarrett to a tee.

"This doesn't make sense. This is where the deal was supposed to go down," Steve reminded him. Yes, but that tip came from a criminal they put in jail. Yeah he informed when he got info in return for a lighter sentence, but… you know… he was still a criminal… who had been put into jail because of them. Danny opened his mouth and Steve snapped. "No. Okay. Look, this is not a Rowan's right situation. Cause she could never confirm what case that bomb was tied to, what time of day, or anything important all she said was that we were together in a parking garage."

Danny gestured to where they currently were, which was together… in a parking garage… and Steve just scowled and turned away and to Grover who was coming towards them, flanked by his S.W.A.T. boys like he was heading a freaking goose formation, all vee-shaped and shit.

Under his breath Steve muttered: "I'm not living my life in fear of her visions unless she can give me exact details."

"Looks like you boys got some bad intel," Grover said to him. Steve tried not to be embarrassed.

"Well, maybe they caught wind we were coming and changed the venue," Chin offered and Steve almost smiled. Yes. At least someone had his back seeing as Danny was saying fuck all and seemed to be eyeing every shadow and every door out of there.

"Or maybe the time got moved up and we're late to the party," Steve offered.

Kono, ever the diplomat said: "Okay. Well, we'll canvass the area and see if anyone saw anything."

Steve turned to Catherine, and tried very hard to not make the next request awkward. "Alright. Catherine, do me a favour, call the ATF, alright? See if anything's come up on the radar."

Steve hadn't asked Cath for a favour since he had broke things off with her. Mainly cause the asking of a favour was kind of a precursor to sex or a date or something, and well… he had kinda pulled back from Catherine since establishing that he wanted Rowan and only Rowan he just hadn't told her that cause they were working together and, if he was going to go with Danny's descriptors, he was a Neanderthal idiot.

"Roger that," Catherine said with a flirtatious smile on her face, which meant she probably took that the wrong way but Steve didn't have time to deal with that right at that moment.

Danny waited for Steve to catch his eye before he pinned him with a judging glare. He caught it, and looked away. Good. Feel bad you putz. What the hell was he thinking, the Neanderthal, half flirting with Catherine when he was hellbent on figuring things out with Rowan.

"Thanks for the backup Lou," Steve said because he didn't want to deal with Danny.

"You got it," Lou said as he and his men turned away. "Alright fellas, let's pack it up."

Danny and Steve fell in step with one another and then they truly were all alone in that parking garage. Danny was trying to steer Steve towards the nearest exit.

"Maybe they moved up the time," Danny echoed not buying it for a second. "Can you do me a favour?"

"Okay… what… what did you want me to say?" Steve asked turning to glare at him.

"I unno… maybe that you were wrong?" Danny offered. He'd love to hear that. Steve rolled his eyes and looked away. He hadn't been wrong he had just hadn't be right. "How about, that we should've vetted this thing before we wasted everybody's time? Maybe listening to a convicted felon is not the right move. How about, come on Danny, let's get out of here before the place blows? I don't know, I don't wanna put words in your mouth, you know?"

"Okay… let me tell you something. That son of a bitch, he's laughing in his cell right now," Steve growled. Yes probably but that wasn't the big concern here. Still Steve wouldn't move. He kept pivoting, searching, as if the gun runners they were told about were going to pop out from behind the columns all like: "Ah you got me!"

Steve finally turned away, heading towards the exit as Danny followed him. "Just so you know, this is the same thing as admitting you were wrong."

No it wasn't cause he didn't say the words. They were heading back to the service tunnel they came down, Steve was in the process of throwing out some lame retort like _yeah, okay_ , when they heard a phone ring.

Steve immediately turned. It was neither of theirs. But a phone was ringing in the maintenance closet right next to him. Danny tensed, no he didn't like this at all.

"You hear that?" Steve asked turned to Danny again.

They got into their ready positions, and Steve opened the door letting Danny move in first with his gun raised. All that was there was a man tied to a chair with a bag over his with duct tape over his mouth. He was dressed sharply, like an accountant, and there was a phone ringing in his pocket.

Danny got in close. "He's alive but barely."

Steve ripped the duct tape off of his mouth. "What's your name, buddy?" he asked quickly. "Who did this to you?" He was getting a bad feeling about this.

The man, though heavily beaten up merely shook his head. He uttered a single word.

 _Bomb._

Steve didn't even get to say that Rowan was right. Danny didn't get to say _I told you so._ Steve didn't have time to duck, but Danny, Danny had time to do one thing. As soon as he heard the word _Bomb_ he took one step to the left.

And then it went off.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Chin's head was fuzzy, his ears were ringing he was all sorts of dazed but when he realized it was Kono asking if he was okay and trying to pull him up he had to act like he wasn't stunned by this at all.

"Yeah, I'm okay," he said to her when he got a chance and then looked around at all the chaos. Damn, he and Kono were lucky to be out of there alive.

"I've got a collapsed building," Grover said into his mic. "Address: 1085 Ahua Street. Expedite fire and rescue. I need all available units"

It was at that point that Chin realized that his phone was ringing. He pulled it out of his pocket and as soon as he saw the contact on his phone he remembered. He remember why all of this seemed to familiar

"Rowan?"

"They're down there," she said and Chin blinked his eyes confused. "The building collapsed right? Well it was a bomb, and they're in the parking garage dream I was having. It's happening. IT'S HAPPENING!"

"Parking garage dream?" he echoed. God damn that was no good at all. Beside him Kono swore.

"Shit they're down there?" Kono asked in a soft tone and Chin nodded. Panic swept across all of their faces but it was Catherine who jumped into action and it was up to Grover to stop her from doing something stupid. Rowan was still talking.

"Okay, look, they were in some maintenance closet last, Steve's okay, just a few cuts and bruises, maybe a burst ear drum or two. Danny's going to be hurt. Like. Really bad. So you gotta get people there fast!"

"Okay Rowan… slow down. Are you sure this is the right thing, cause… like… you haven't dreamed it that much, only a couple times, usually they get more frequent…"

"I lied Chin!" Rowan screamed and he fell silent. "I've been dreaming every night, but I… I figured it out. I figured out how to pause, how to see the strings, how to pull different options and see which ones work. And none of them work. Actually one works and I don't know if I set them on that path. Please Chin. I'm right. I know I'm right. They're down there. Danny's hurt. Get help. Get lots and lots of help before McGarrett tries to blow them out and kills them both."

"Okay, calm down, I believe you. But you have to believe in us too. Can you… can you tell me anything? About their position, about how they're going to get out? You said McGarrett was going to blast himself out?"

"It doesn't work though you gotta stop him Chin. You gotta make contact. Catherine makes a thing, have Catherine make a thing," Rowan cried.

"Okay, okay, Catherine will make a thing, and I'll keep you posted. We got this, just… just don't do anything rash."

He hung up the phone and turned. Turned to where Catherine was frantically trying to move rubble to get to him.

"Alright guys. Call in a rescue team. Get Catherine away. And get a medic here stat. She says they're injured."

Catherine turned. "Is Steve really badly hurt?"

Chin didn't want to say which one it was, he didn't want to worry them further so he shrugged his shoulders and hoped that that was enough. It evidently was, because they all went their separate ways to get everything done. It was up to them to save Steve and Danny for once.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

It took a lot for Steve to pull himself up. Everything hurt but he was pretty sure that nothing was broken and he wasn't mortally wounded. Well, his body wasn't, his pride sure was. His ears were ringing, he was covered in dust. He kept his hands over his ears trying to will them to stop hurting. He coughed the dust out of his lungs but it didn't help. He grabbed his pocket flashlight and used it to look around at the damage the bomb had caused. Trying to establish if there was a way out. Beams and metal creaked around him, his ears were still killing but Danny could only think of one thing.

Rowan was going to kill him.

And Danny was going to…. _Danny_. _Where was Danny?!_

"Danny?" Steve called out into the dark silence. He should have heard him by now? Unless he was unconscious. He forced himself to his feet, forced his eyes to clear so he could see through the hazy dust clouds.

He screamed his name even louder, not sure if he could be heard over the own ringing in his ears. Danny had been right by him when the bomb went off, his ears might have been ringing too. God he was never going to live this down. He was wrong about the tip, he was wrong about Rowan's dream. There was just so much he had been wrong about, and now there was a body to his left, a body crushed by a giant slab of concrete, a body that he didn't have to touch to know it was dead.

"Danny?" he whispered in a soft voice. Rowan had said that Danny would die alone in this blast. That was what she said, what if… what if that had been what happened. He… he'd never forgive himself if he had let that happen.

But as Steve got closer he could see a bit of the guy's face. It wasn't Danny. It so wasn't Danny. Thank god. But he had to find him soon. So he pushed himself foreword, trying to navigate the rubble. Calling for Danny and listening, hoping to hear an answer through the ringing in his ears.

He pulled out his phone, no service. That meant he couldn't call for help. But his team would have realized where Danny and Steve most likely were and if they didn't Rowan would have alerted them by now.

The sound of coughing hit his ears. He looked to the guy trapped under the rubble, but his eyes weren't open and his mouth wasn't moving. It had to be Danny.

Steve turned. "Danny?!" he called and a hand raised up from beneath what had to be a mountain of rubble. Steve had never moved so fucking fast in his life.

He moved, tripping over rubble, struggling to get to his friend. For every call of Danny's name, Danny answered. First with a reply of Steve's name, and then the rest was just grunting and coughing. As soon as he got close to him, Steve grabbed his hand and held onto him tight, not just so Danny would know that he was there, but because Steve needed to feel his pulse under his fingertips. He needed to know that Danny was alive.

Whether or not he was okay, remained to be seen.

"Hey. I got you buddy. I'm right here. I got you," he said.

And he got: "I told you so," in a slow wheeze right back at him. Steve almost wanted to leave him under the rubble.

But he couldn't really do that. So he dug Danny out, refusing to see the look of utter anguish on his face.

"My leg's pinned," Danny said and Steve could see that but he let Danny talk. "And I think I broke a rib."

Steve struggled with the hunk of column that had landed on Danny, he struggled to move it but it wouldn't go. Danny was obviously trying to talk himself to distraction cause he wouldn't shut up.

"Where's the other guy? Huh?"

"Dead," Steve answered. He gave up on the beam and reached for Danny's hand. "Okay, listen to me. This thing it too heavy. I can't lift it." Danny answered him with a grunt. Steve didn't know what that meant and he was starting to panic a bit himself so he forced himself to keep talking to calm both of them down. "We got no cell service here, so I can't call for help. I'm gonna go get something to give me leverage, get this thing off your leg. Okay, I'm gonna be right back, I promise."

Yes. Steve would never leave a man behind again. This was not going to be a repeat of Freddy.

Before he could move away though, Danny's grip tightened. "Alright. Whoa. Just… don't go just yet."

"Danny, relax, it's gonna be okay."

"Is it okay?" Danny asked that trademark sass back. Well at least this hadn't taken his sass from him. "Because I'm in a confined space with a bunch of concrete on top of me and given my present condition, that's not the best situation for me. You know what I mean?"

Steve nodded. "Right, right, claustrophobia." How had he forgotten that? Danny nodded in agreement. Around them small trickles of tiny debris began to rain down, the beams acting as a roof groaned. Steve needed to move fast. "Okay. Take a deep breath, okay?"

"That's no good. It makes it worse."

Fuck. Okay… what would Rowan do?

"Danny, I gotta get this off your leg. Alright? You understand me?" he snapped. That was most certainly not what Rowan would do but it was all that came to Steve's mind.

"Alright. Okay. Alright. Carter's behind the plate. We got Santana… Hernadez playing first. Backman's second base."

"What the hell are you doing?" Steve asked worried that Danny had just gone insane.

"Helps me relax," Danny answered, eyes closed and already slipping back into it. "I just recite the '86 Mets lineup. It helps me relax." He devolved into chuckling out the last sentence over and over like a broken record and Steve was a little worried that maybe this time he had gone crazy.

"That's good. No that's good," and then he laughed with Danny, smiling, glad he'd have something to keep him from panicking. "I'll be right back."

And then he finally let go of Danny's hand and went in search of something to help him get that beam off his leg. With Danny's ramblings echoing around him, reminding him that they were both alive, Danny was still alive, and Steve immediately went to work. He could get them out of there. Rowan wasn't always right.


	109. Chapter 109

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N:Happy Hump day my wonderful readers! We are almost there! One more chapter and our lovely Rowan and Steve take a huge step forward in their relationship. It's an unofficial thing, but I promise to you that it'll be very very cute. There's some cute stuff in this chapter too, but all the really cute things are coming up next chapter. Can you tell that I'm excited for next chapter? Cause I'm like… really… really excited. This chapter's a long one, it's about 15 pages long and the next chapter is about the same length. I'll see you guys on Friday and don't forget to tell me what you think!_

Chapter 109

* * *

Grover had the teams up and ready to go as soon as he could. The man in charge was asking a lot of hard questions that Grover had the answer to but had no way to explain how he got them. Damn Rowan and her powers. This must have been what McGarrett felt like on a regular basis trying to deflect that he had a psychic working for him. A psychic who was never wrong and had a criminal network to back her up.

"Do you have any idea where your boys were when the building came down."

"Yeah. Maintenance closet on the bottom floor."

The question was in the man's eyes but he didn't ask it. Instead he said: "That's roughly 300 tons of steel and concrete between us and them. We need to shut off water, power and gas."

Grove groaned. "That's already been done. We need to get in, get them out of there."

"Before I start bringing in equipment, putting my people at risk, I need to determine if this is a rescue or a recovery."

"It's a rescue!" Grover shouted. "We already know they're alive."

"Really? Have you had contact with them?" he asked. When Grover couldn't answer he softened to him. "I understand you've got a personal relationship with these guys…"

"You damn right, Hank. I know these guys. They're survivors. And the longer we stand around here waiting around the less chance they have of coming out alive," he snapped.

"Protocol is we don't dig until we've located bodies," Hank argued. "The sooner we pinpoint their location the sooner we can come up with a game plan."

"I told you Maintenance closet. Okay. The last we heard they were checking out a possible suspect hiding in a maintenance closet. But hey… if it makes you feel better, I bet if you get a listening device you'll hear them banging away."

All of this had come from Rowan. But he couldn't offer up her text messages, he couldn't offer up anything other than the word of a psychic. None of which would be concrete proof to Hank. Hank would probably just think he's crazy.

Off to the side Chin and Kono were having their own conversation.

"Any updates?" he asked.

"Nope, we're still trying to locate. Grover says Rowan's tip about the maintenance closet will help though," she said. "Any… uh… any more updates from you know…?"

He hadn't gotten anything past Rowan telling them that Steve was going to start banging on pipes soon to make his location know, so that they knew that at least he was alive. She wasn't sure if Danny was alive. She couldn't tell him if whatever plan she had had actually worked. But she knew Steve survived the initial blast, it was the second one he wouldn't live through.

Chin shook head and Kono looked away. Together they surveyed the wreckage and together they came to the same conclusion.

They had been set up.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

"Bonilla's playing right field… Bret Saberhag… Bret Saberhagen's on the mound…"

Steve followed the sound of Danny's voice back to him. He was ready. He was ready to get this stupid thing off of him. Ready to get him and Danny one step closer to freedom.

As soon as Danny saw him, Danny turned into a nagging house wife. "Where the hell have you been. I moved onto the '92 roster. It's a tough year."

"I found a flashlight," Steve said in lieu of an answer. He put it by Danny's head. "We're gonna need that."

Danny groaned again. "You gotta get this thing off of me, man."

Steve had found this massive bit of pipe. It took some maneuvering to get it out of the wall, but he got it. He slid it in-between Danny's leg and the column on his leg.

"Okay, when you feel the weight come off your leg, you roll out or slide your leg out," he told him like Danny didn't know what to do. He had to just hope that Danny could move the fucking leg. "But you gotta do it quick. I don't know how long I can hold this."

"That's very encouraging. I'm not even sure I can move."

"You can move," Steve urged because there wasn't any other options here. "You can. You can, alright?" Danny just nodded. "Alright, you ready? One… two... three…"

Steve put all his pressure on that pipe, forcing the concrete up and off of Danny. Danny cried out, he groaned and moaned but he pulled that leg of his out and then Steve let the concrete drop. Danny had rolled to his side, knocking some minor debris loose.

Steve knelt down beside him, he was almost happy that his friend was free but Danny was cupping his side and groaning again. That was not a good sign.

"Oh, that's no good," he said as Steve directed his pocket flashlight at the problem.

A piece of rebar poking out of his abdomen. Fucking. Hell.

"Stay still I gotta look at that."

But Danny either couldn't or wouldn't stay still. He groaned again. "God what is that? What is it?"

Well, this complicated matters. What was Steve going to do? What would Rowan do?

"Okay… so it's a piece of rebar…" Danny flopped back to the ground with a dismissive grunt. "It's just missed your vitals, but I gotta take it out. The tricks gonna be to stop the bleeding."

Okay. So, Rowan probably wouldn't have done it that way either. But hey, Steve was trying his best here, okay?

"Okay, maybe we don't take it out. Maybe we just leave it in for a minute," Danny said but Steve shook his head.

Steve was too busy stripping Danny of all the superfluous Kevlar and body armour so he could get a better look at what they were dealing with. And it was not good.

"Leaving it in is not an option. If this thing gets infected, sepsis sets in, then we got real trouble," he said, and he was not letting Danny go like that. He just wasn't.

"As opposed to our current situation?" Danny asked starting to chuckle nervously again.

"Well, we got one thing going for us and that's Rowan's predication about the rebar killing you was way off. So maybe she's wrong about everything else, huh?"

"One step to the left," Danny whispered to him and Steve. "She said… one step to the left. I'm alive because I listened to her and took one step to the left before the bomb went off. I would have figured that would have meant no rebar. Think she's punishing me for not listening?"

Steve swallowed back the worry that was overwhelming him. He needed to get that rebar out of his friend's stomach. "No, I don't think she's punishing us," he answered. "Okay. You stay still. I'm gonna be right back."

As he dug around the rubble looking for any kind of something, he could use for disinfectant as Danny kept talking.

"She's going to kill us," Danny said in a shaky laugh. "It doesn't matter if we survive this, Rowan's going to kill us. Maybe it's better if we don't get out, we won't have to listen to her lecture."

"Don't talk like that, it's going to be fine, chances are she doesn't even know…"

"She's going to know. How are you going to cover this up? I mean really? A whole building came down, it's gonna be on every news outlet," Danny whined throwing himself back down.

Steve ignored him, returned with a jug of cleaning solution. "This has peroxide in it, I can clean the wound with this," he said purposely turning the label away so Danny couldn't see what it was. He looked Danny in the eye for this next bit. "I'm not gonna lie to you. This is gonna hurt a lot. The really bad pain only lasts a couple of seconds. But you gotta stay conscious for me can you do that?"

He ripped up part of his shirt to use as a bandage wrapping it around his free hand so it was ready to go. As soon as he put his other hand to the piece of rebar sticking out of his friend's side Danny let out a shaky: _oh boy_.

And then Steve was counting again. Danny's nails dug into him but on three he ripped that thing out of his friend and the poured the peroxide on it for him. As soon as he was done disinfecting the wound, he put pressure to the bubbling bleeding wound as Danny screamed in agony and writhed in pain.

Steve winced but he knew this was what he had to do to save Danny.

"Okay, stay awake Danny. Who played left field? 86 Mets, left field, who was it?"

"George Foster, and he was replaced by Mookie Wilson after two seasons." The words came out through groans of pain but Steve was smiling cause he was still conscious enough to talk.

He was grateful he had done this to Danny cause if he had to snatch rebar out of Rowan's side she would have slapped him. And then probably gone unconscious at the sight of her own blood or just in pain. Just as he was sure Danny was glad that it was him down there with him and not Rowan, cause Rowan would have just slapped Danny to keep him awake.

"Midseason, right? That's my boy! Keep the pressure on it, help me while I tape this up," he said. He hadn't told Danny he found duct tape, and it was good thing because even though in a pinch that duct tape was going to save him, Danny would have bitched about it.

Once Danny was good, once he was duct taped up and he had wiped the tears out of his eyes, Steve helped Danny up, trying to take some of the pressure off of his leg for him.

"Hey, hey, keep pressure off your leg," he ordered noting how Danny seemed to cave in on his left where the injury was.

"Naw, naw, I'm okay. Let's get the hell out of here huh?" Danny held Steve's hand and tried to lead him out but all that was around them wall walls of destroyed concrete. "Which way?"

"We're not going anywhere, buddy. Place is caved in. We can't get out of here."

Danny took this in, Steve watched a million different emotions cross his partner's face before Danny turned to him and calmly asked: "Do me a favour, would you, please?"

"Of course. Whatever you need."

"Look at me in the eye, look at me and admit something to me," Danny ordered. Except he didn't tell him what he wanted him to admit thought he had a feeling he knew where this was going. "We should not have listened to Dekker. Hmm?"

Steve pulled the flashlight up and shined it in Danny's face. "You wanna do that now?" he thundered. "It was a lead we had to follow, Danny, okay? And by the way, you're welcome for saving your life."

Steve bend down and picked up a different piece of rebar. "What's that a souvenir?"

"Yeah, it's a souvenir," Steve sighed sarcastically. "The rescue team would have arrived already. They'd be listening in. Find something to bang on, make some noise."

They found their things to wail on, to take their frustrations out while they tried to make themselves known to the people searching above. They were quite for two seconds before Steve felt he needed to ask something

"Did… did Rowan say anything else when she gave you your tip? Like how we get out?" Steve asked. It hurt that she had tried to warn Danny, had given him a tip, but Steve had gotten nothing out of her except _I'm scared._ Though to be fair he told her on the regular not to tell her the specifics of her dreams. He really needed to start listening to Rowan and her dreams. Because it sucked being out of the loop like this.

Danny paused. "Actually no. She was really hung up on the whole… rebar thing," he said. He then glanced down to the side he was cradling "I can see why she was hung up on it."

"So what… she never dreamt the end?"

"Well… I mean… she was dreaming different versions. She had a version of what would happen if she kept me above ground and you below. You survive the initial blast and then kill yourself in like five minutes after that trying blast your way free, by the way. She had a version of what would happen if she was down here with us… it didn't end well… but she never had an option that lead to us both getting out of this alive. She didn't have an option that saved me."

"Well that can't be true, because that one step to the left sure as hell saved you."

Danny nodded. "Yeah but at what cost."

They went back to banging their rebar against metal shafts before Steve turned to Danny and said: "Hey… the uh… the option where Rowan was down here… why was it… I mean you explained the other one and you wouldn't… was it really bad?"

"Blast kills me and her. I'm dead before you wake up. She lives long enough to bleed out in your arms. You're overcome with grief, you try to blast your way out and fail. When they find our bodies, you're holding her to your chest and holding my hand."

Steve stopped swinging around his piece of rebar and turned to Danny a horror stricken look on his face. That was a lot to take in. That was a lot of nightmare inducing images to have rattling around one's brain. God Danny dying alone in the rubble had been traumatizing now he had to picture a battered and broken in his arms taking her last breaths right in front of him? He shouldn't have asked. He wasn't going to sleep for weeks over that one.

"You get why she didn't go with that option?"

Steve nodded. "Uh… don't tell her… don't tell her I…"

Danny just shook his head and that time when they went back to banging their rebar Steve didn't interrupt them with anymore stupid questions.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan honked her horn outside of the condo that Amber lived in until the girl poked her head out. She had been on a sing along she knew what Rowan's care looked like but Rowan didn't know what number her condo was so this was going to have to be honk until she comes out situation.

Once she spotted Amber's over processed brown hair, she waved her out. Luckily Amber came out, even if she was horribly suspicious of this.

"Uh… hi Rowan…" she said her arms folded over herself. Rowan knew that Amber was intimidated by her. That she didn't like that Danny and Grace were so close to her. She had tried to show her that Danny had no interest in her but that just left it open to her being worried that Grace would never like her because she had Rowan. Which also wasn't true but there wasn't anything she could do about it now.

"Danny is currently buried under what is probably 100 tonnes of concrete, they're working on digging him out, I thought you might like to come with me to go pick up Grace and then wait for the rescue on site," she said.

Amber seemed to take this all in. She went an ashy color before asking: "Danny's what?"

"Buried under a fuck tonne of concrete because a building collapsed on him. Come on now, keep up," she snapped. She didn't have time for this. "Now I have to pick up Grace, and we're going to go to the collapse site to wait for the rescue crew to pull his ass out of this predicament. Now. Do you want to come or do you want to stay here?"

"Just give me a couple minutes. I just need my purse," she said and then she rushed off. Rowan was a little worried that Amber would be more concerned with getting herself looking pretty or whatever it was girly-girls like her did, but a few minutes later Amber was out of her condo. A purse on her shoulder, and dressed in white dress with all these different flowers printed nicely all over it. Rowan was impressed, she really did rush to get out there.

Once Amber was buckled in Rowan put her car in drive and roared off towards Grace's school. Rowan waited until they were on the road before attempting to answer the questions that Amber had.

"So they're okay. Danny and Steve, I know you probably care more about Danny but… yeah… they're both okay. They're alive, there are crews who know that they're down there and they're trying to get them out."

Amber nodded. "You must be scared… you know… for Steve" she whispered.

"Yeah. I am. But he's resourceful. He'll… they'll both get out of this," she said.

"But they're a little hurt, aren't they?" Amber said.

"Well I mean, they survived an explosion…"

Rowan glanced over to find that Amber's shoulders were shaking and she sighed. Oh dear. Rowan didn't have time to apply comfort, she was driving for one, and Danny kept reminding her not to drive distracted.

They pulled up to Grace's school and Rowan turned to Amber who was wiping away her tears. "Okay… so… we have to be a united front on this Melissa…"

"My name is Amber," she said in a soft voice, like she was afraid but it wasn't for Danny anymore. It was like she was afraid of Rowan.

"What?" Rowan asked and when Amber opened her mouth to tell her again she cut her off. "What did I sa—… okay you know what? I don't have time for this today, okay? I don't. We got bigger things to worry about. Now put a goddamn smile on your stupidly pretty face, cause I have to go in and pick up Grace and we have to be super positive or she's gonna start crying. Okay?"

The school bell went and Rowan left the car, and walked over to the curb waiting for Grace to come down the steps.

Amber came to stand beside her, mimicking Rowan's pose. As soon as Grace spotted them she cried: "Aunt Ro!" and rushed towards them, when she got closer she added: "Hi Amber!" with a big smile on her face.

She let Grace hug amber first and then she grappled onto Rowan's side. "Are we going to do another sing along today?"

Rowan shook her head. "No, no, we're going to go to a crime scene," Rowan said cause Grace's face to wrinkle. She wasn't interested in crime scenes which was typical for a young girl.

"Are we going to go see Danno?"

"Sort of," Rowan said, putting Grace into the car. "Sweetie… something's happened… to Danno and Uncle Steve."

When she dared to look back at Grace she saw that she was no longer smiling. Rowan frowned, she was going to kill Danny for making her do this. If they survived, she was going to kill them both.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

It was literally instantaneous.

Catherine heard banging coming under the rubble, using her subsonic mic, and then Rowan was there. She had this pretty brunette in a white sun dress and Grace waiting by the medic trucks, a safe distance away, but Rowan was right up at the edge.

Catherine didn't know how she did it. Just appearing like that. Like she had been conjured by the sound of Steve making noise.

"Can you hear them?" she asked softly and Catherine nodded. "More… more than one?"

And that's when Catherine realized that Rowan didn't know if they were both alive.

God she wished she was still in the loop. Then she'd know which one Rowan thought was dead.

Grover crossed to Rowan and said. "I'm gonna need you to help Hank."

Catherine followed, Rowan was brought to Hank who was already looking over blueprints for the building.

"Alright, the noise seems to be coming from this area. My engineers are working on an extraction plan," he said showing them the place on the map. Catherine noted that Rowan was crinkling her nose, eyes blinking, like she did when she didn't think something was right. Her eyes kept assessing the map, drinking in the details.

"Okay, how long?" Catherine asked.

"It's a lot of guesswork here. GPR isn't giving us an image. Without knowing their precise location, it could take hours."

Suddenly Rowan was pointing at the map. "Maintenance room. Southside. They're there."

Hank turned to her surprised and then turned his suspicious eyes to Catherine who avoided his and then Grover who stared him down, waiting for a challenge.

"I'm sorry… and have you been in contact with them?"

Rowan turned her innocently wide blue eyes to him and said: "Yes." Quick and definitively like the little liar she was.

"Really… I find that interested because no one else has gotten through to them… so how did you?"

Rowan immediately turned to Catherine and Grover, her eyes begging them for help. Apparently, that was all she had in her little bag of lies. Grover leant forward. "Trust me… Hank… if she says they're there, then that's where they are."

"Okay, Lou, what is this?" Hank asked but Rowan was already walking away and heading towards the rubble. Grover waved Catherine after her and she was glad to leave Grover to explain Rowan and her psychic predictions.

Catherine watched as Rowan looked out over the rubble as if she were waiting for a sign, something that would show her were they were.

"Have you been… did you maybe…" she couldn't get the sentence out, she meant the dreams and luckily Rowan understood what she was trying to get at.

"I did."

"And did you warn them?"

"Course. But Steve didn't want to listen and Danny… I unno… Danny said he would but…" she gestured out to the destruction in front of them and sighed.

"But they get out, right?"

"I don't know," Rowan answered in a small voice. "I don't know if he's alive…"

"Who Steve?"

"Steve always survives the initial blast it's Danny who doesn't… Steve doesn't survive the rest without Danny."

God that was not good to hear. Rowan hesitantly took a step forward and Catherine put a hand out to stop her.

"I need to find where they are… maybe I can… maybe I can figure out if it's both or just one…" she whispered. She turned back when Catherine managed to snag a hand on the back of her shirt. She blinked her eyes at her like the contact had jolted her out of fugue state. She offered Catherine a hand. "I need you to come with me."

Catherine put her hand in Rowan's and together they made their way out across the carnage. They got to where Catherine had been hearing the banging when it happened. An electric shock ran up Catherine's arm so strong she yelped and backed away. She heard Rowan whisper: "They're both alive."

Catherine let out her breath but she didn't reach for Rowan again. She did not want to get electrocuted. She waited, watching as Rowan's eyes went to the ground, looking at the different pieces of concrete like they were see through. She took a few steps forward and then pointed down.

"They're right here…. Steve he's here… and Danny's… Danny's…." she moved a couple of steps over. "He's right here. Right under me…" when she looked up again she this look, this look Catherine couldn't describe as anything else but knowing. "Where's your cell thingie?"

"My what?"

"The cell thing? With the mic so they can get service?"

"Do you mean a cellular repeater?"

"Yes! Yes that!"

"Okay, yes, I can get that… Rowan can you… uh… just… you know before you fall through or something. We both know Steve will flip if you kill yourself looking for him."

Rowan reached out again, needing a hand for stability and Catherine took it. No jolt of electricity travelled up her arm this time and together Catherine and Rowan walked out of the rubble ready for phase two.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

They had been banging for what had to have been at least an hour with no sign of it working. Steve was tired and hot and he could tell Danny was getting past restless. It made sense the man was in pain after all.

"This is pointless. They can't hear us," Danny said, groaning as he sat down.

Steve banged one more time before turning to him. He made sure Danny was just sitting and not passing out on him and then he banged again which just got Danny to yell at him.

"Whoa, Whoa, Whoa," "What?" "Can I die in peace, please?"

Steve didn't want Danny to think like that. They weren't going to die. They couldn't. Danny had a Grace and now Amber. And Steve had Rowan and he was finally figuring things out with her. He couldn't die now when he was so close to getting to where he wanted to be. He couldn't die without telling her how he really felt.

How did he really feel? You know what? He could figure that out later, right now he needed to make sure that he and Danny got out of this.

"You're tired and you're hurting. Just take a break, alright?"

Steve banged the rebar against the downed air duct one more time and Danny interrupted him again.

"Hey. Do me a favour. For once in your life…" "What?" "… can you just pretend you're a human being, and take this situation for what it is. Can you do that for me, please?"

No, he definitely could not. That would lead to a lot of panic and a lot of worry, and he might cry because all he wanted at that moment was Rowan and there was thousands of pounds of concrete and steel between her and him and that just… and he just couldn't leave her with only Wo Fat to take care of her… okay?

Instead he said: "I'm keenly aware of the situation—" "—Really? Because the human response to certain death and the prospect of never seeing the people you love ever again is curling up into a fetal position and making a mess in your pants."

"Okay, and what good's that gonna do you huh?" Steve asked. Thankfully Danny didn't interrupt him again. "Fear is a state of mind, Danny, okay? You gotta fight through it."

"Oh, I disagree. I think that fear is actually your friend," he said and Steve scoffed and turned away. Yeah, Danny would say that. "It tells you when you're supposed to avoid a situation but you never listen to it. That is why we are here in the first place."

Steve had finally had enough. "That would be a compelling argument my friend, if you weren't afraid of absolutely everything. Were you not the one who had a near mental breakdown because your girlfriend met your kid? It doesn't matter what the situation is for you. You gravitate to the worst possible outcomes."

"And once again I was proven right! We never should have gone into this blind in the first place!" Danny yelled back. "And besides, I find that highly hypocritical coming from you when you have done nothing but think the worst of Rowan ever since she came in contact with Wo Fat!"

Steve turned away from Danny and picked up the rebar again. "That… that was something… I didn't think the worst of her…"

"Really? Because she moved out of your place and you decided she was in league with Wo Fat…" "She was in league…" "And that you had to personally exorcise her of him, but whatever means necessary."

Danny had gotten up, he had crossed to the body of the man that had been in the room with them when the bomb went off and Steve let him. That wasn't fair. It wasn't the same thing. And he was working on making it up to her, on making himself better so he wouldn't continually do that to her.

"You've seen her in action, Danny," he said in a small voice. "We both knew what she was like before him… it's gotten worse since they've made friends."

"Rowan has done nothing but care for you and try to save our lives," Danny snapped as he went through their dead guy's pockets. "And honestly, after this I wouldn't be surprised if she decided to write us both off. This can't be good for her. It's been killing her to dream this stuff, it must be worse having to live it."

He said that as if he and Steve weren't dealing with the worst of it, as if Rowan had taken the rebar instead of Danny. He was going to argue that they had the worst of it, and not Rowan when a sudden jolt came over Steve, a squeezing pain in his chest, so quick it winded him. The rebar slipped out of his hand to grip his chest. But as quick as it started it ended.

"Whoa… whoa… what… what was that?" Danny asked. "Was that a… did you just have a…?"

"She pulled from the void," Steve whispered. His eyes scanned the concrete above them like he could see through it. "I think… I think she's here. I think she's trying to find us."

"Kay, well tell her to beam us up or whatever it is she does. I don't care if she has to take us through the void, just tell her to get us out of here."

Steve shook his head, it didn't work like that but he wasn't going to tell Danny that. "Hey look at this," Danny said getting Steve's attention again. Steve turned to him to see that he was fiddling with the dead guy's shirt. "This guy is wired. He's wearing a camera."

Danny let that sink in and Steve half laughed in understanding. "That's how they knew when to detonate. That guy had somebody watching."

And then his phone rang.

"Is that you?" Danny asked in surprise.

Yeah. It was but… how was he… how was he suddenly getting service? Oh god, please let it be Rowan he just wanted to hear her voice, was that so much to ask? It was, because it wasn't her.

"It's Catherine," he said, he rushed over to sit beside Danny so he could put the call on speaker. And then he answered. "Catherine?!"

"Steve?!" she cried. "Thank God. Are you guys alright?"

"Danny's a little banged up, but we're okay," Steve said. Trying to down play everything, trying not to act too relieved to hear her voice, to know that they probably had people working to find them. "Everybody else get out?"

"All accounted for except you two stragglers," Grover said and he smiled, thank god, he had been worried that Chin or Kono… or Grover and his men… at least now he only had to worry about he and Danny. "We got the whole cavalry here working to get you guys out."

"Great. We got an ETA on that?" Danny asked. "I'm literally being held together by duct tape."

"Yeah, we're working on it. We need to know your exact location," Catherine explained. Yeah that sounded fair they couldn't just blindly dig.

"We're in the maintenance room, south side of the garage."

"Oh my god, she was right," Catherine breathed out and Steve knew, Steve knew immediately that she meant Rowan. Rowan was there? God. God he knew it, he knew he could feel her.

"Rowan... she uh… she…"

"More than that," Catherine said. "But we'll talk about that later."

More than that? What the hell did that mean?

"Hey, how's the oxygen down there?"

"It's running low," he whispered because it was true and he wanted them to move faster. "Anything we can do from this end to speed things up?"

"Just hang tight. Listen, the entire area is unstable. You go moving something you're not supposed to and the whole damn thing'll come crashing down." At that both Steve and Danny subconsciously turned their eyes up to the rubble above them.

"Ah… that's encouraging."

Great, Danny had got his sass back.

"Steve, what happened? You were right behind us," Catherine asked.

That was loaded question. "Listen, you think you can establish a video call? I wanna show you something."

Catherine hung up on him almost immediately and in two minutes he was getting a skype call, thank god.

He shifted to make sure both he and Danny were in the picture and then answered the call.

"Hi," both Danny and Steve said to Catherine and Grover's worried faces.

"It's not as bad as it looks," Danny told them.

"Thanks for trying to make me feel better," she said with a smile. Steve smiled back to, it was nice to see daylight even if it was artificial.

God where was Rowan? He'd've given anything to see Rowan's face at that very moment. Even if she was mad at him.

He took his time showing Catherine all of the evidence, hopefully she could take screen shots of it to send off. They figured the best way of figuring out who did this was to figure out who picked up this guy to be bait, and who this guy was linked to.

He almost asked for Rowan, asked Catherine to just find a way to bring her to him when Grover reappeared in the frame.

"Kay so I got… I got some news," he said.

"What no good news or bad news?"

"No, but bad news, good news and then worse news. But I didn't want to say that," Grover snapped which shut Danny right up.

"What is it?" Steve asked before Danny could snap anything back.

"None of the extraction points are stable enough for us to get the equipment we need to get to you. Good news is there's a mechanical room 30 yard from you guys that has a ventilation shaft that we can get you out through. Worse news, you gotta get over there some how."

Danny took this in. "Oh good. The old _escape through the vent_ trick. That's your big plan? That's what we're gonna do? Great." he growled. Well at least the sass wasn't suffering.

"It's our best shot."

"Okay, well, how are we supposed to do that when we're not supposed to touch anything?" Danny asked but Steve already knew the answer.

"Move very carefully," Grover replied. "It can still cave in on you. So, if you guys could… could you please… just be careful?"

Danny and Steve took that in. He could do it now. Ask Catherine to get Rowan here. He didn't want to do this without talking to her, but Danny beat him to it.

"Catherine, I need you to call Amber…"

"She's already here," Catherine said. Uh she was what? "Rowan showed up with Grace and Amber like…"

There came a sudden shout of: "GIVE ME THAT!" and Danny and Steve only had the barest second to exchange worried glances before the tablet was ripped out of Catherine's grip.

"I told you to wait for me before you called," she hissed and then Rowans angry red face was staring down at them. God that face, the face he so desperately wanted to see, he didn't even care that she was angry.

"WHAT diD I sAY?!" Rowan shouted so loud that the audio crackled unable to match her range. She was in such a panic that her inflection was everywhere. "I said NO PARKING GARAGES! What the hell were you THINKING?! I told you. I tOlD YoU BotH that it was GOING TO BE TODAY!"

What? No she hadn't. She hadn't told him anything.

"Okay, it's not as bad as it looks…" Danny tried to mollify, it had worked for Catherine but not for Rowan.

"Yeah Mr. Rebar? It's not as bad as it looks?" she shouted. Okay she had him there. "Why?! WHY?! Why CouLdn'T yoU JuSt listen to _ME_?!"

Well shit she was not taking this well. Steve ordered her to breathe and Rowan did. She took four of the angriest yoga breaths he had ever seen and then her eyes, which were still burning with a raging fire, bore into them.

"Kay so riddle me this did it go through your chest or your side?" she asked.

"My side," Danny admitted.

"Well that's wonderful, thank you for listening to that bit of advice. That was the best I could do by the way cause the other option was, that beam that trapped your leg, yeah, it was going to crush your fucking spine!"

Well that answered the question of whether or not she told him to go to the left to punish him. It really had been the only option she could find where they didn't die.

"Okay, Rowan, instead of freaking out could you maybe tell me how we get out of this?" Steve asked.

"No!" Rowan shouted. Steve's eyebrows furrowed in confusion and Rowan finally looked less angry and more afraid. She looked away from the tablet she was hold to whisper: "Cause I don't know."

"What do you mean, you don't know?!"

"I never got this far! I never got past Danny not fucking dying," Rowan shouted tears starting to leak from her eyes. "And when I did go past to see what happens Steve kills himself in an explosion trying to blow himself free, so you know… NOT GOOD THINGS!"

Steve took that in, damn, they did not think this through. Beside him Danny raised a hand. "Kay, I have a question, Catherine says you came with Amber and Grace… did uh… you know when I made you an emergency contact… it wasn't so you could pull her out of school…"

"Yes, Daniel, I brought Grace, because she was going to find out and it was better if she found out from me… and I picked up Melissa…" "Amber…" "—What?" "Her name is Amber, Rowan." "I don't give a FucK what her fucking name is! I picked her up so she's here too so that in the event that you guys don'T FUCkinG kiLL YoUrseLVes she'd be here to welcome you back to the surface with open arms!"

That was actually quite considerate of her, now if only they could get her to calm the fuck down. "Okay. Look. It's not all that bad. We're going to be okay," Steve told her, Rowan made a strangled noise in the back of her throat and Steve tried not to wince. "It's going to be okay? Okay? Just answer me this, the explosion that kills me…"

"It's not the explosion it's you getting hit in your stupid fucking face with stupid fucking shrapnel."

"Great. So I'll just duck better," Steve said.

"Like into Danny," Rowan said and Steve blinked his eyes at her. Before he could ask her to clarify she said: "You two are going to have to get really close to each other, like hugging each other for it to work. You're gonna have to go full bromace."

"Fine Rowan," Danny said. "I'll even wrap my legs around him if it'll get you to stop talking."

Rowan scowled at him but glanced over to the side. "Okay fine… as long as you agree… I'll uh… I'll get them to come here…" she said and then she was waving someone over.

Steve walked away as Amber came on the screen. "Hey Jersey."

God they had cute nicknames that was ridiculous. He tried not to listen to the conversation, to their pithy back and forths, he tried not to get emotional, but it got worse when Grace showed up. He couldn't help it.

This was what he wanted. He wanted something like that. Someone who, when they heard he was in trouble came through. And he kind of had it. Rowan was that something for him, she was livid right at that moment but he knew it was cause she was scared. She just wasn't… all the way his… yet.

When Danny was done with Amber and Grace he tossed the phone to Steve where he found Rowan's lovely face looking at him. She no longer looked angry, she looked afraid, she looked like she was about to burst into tears.

"I'm scared Steve," she whispered. "I'm really, really scared."

"Don't be," he managed to laugh out. "This is nothing."

"It's really not."

"No, but I promise, I promise it I'll be okay. Okay?"

Rowan looked down. "I wish you'd stop making promises you can't keep. I can't guarantee… I can't… I haven't seen a happy ending…"

"But that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Okay. Me and you… we're going to get that happy ending. I know it," he found himself saying even though he didn't know if that was true or not. Rowan carefully wiped a tear from her cheek and he thought, in that moment, she was probably the loveliest thing he had ever seen.

He had all the emotions he usually found so easy to ignore clawing up his throats, all these words he should have said to her long before now but never did. This might be the last chance he'd have to say them. "Rowan I…"

"No don't," she said. "Don't say something stupid like good-bye. Just… tell me what you need to tell me when you get back up here."

Steve nodded. "I'll see you soon," he whispered and then they ended the call. God he hoped he didn't just make himself a liar.


	110. Chapter 110

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Friday my lovely readers. It is with great pleasure, I mean immensely great pleasure that I get to announce to you, that after 110 chapters Rowan and Steve are finally together (And by chapter 120 it's a proper thing.) No more Catherine messing things up. This chapter is 16 pages long, which is MASSIVE, and I know that but a lot happens in this chapter. So I promise if you stick through this giant chapter it ends on a good note :D._

Chapter 110

* * *

Grace sat on the curb sandwiched between her Aunt Ro and Danno's new girlfriend Amber. Grace knew both women were nervous. Amber obviously cared for Danno very deeply which made Grace happy. And she knew Aunt Ro practically loved Uncle Steve. She could easily imagine how scared they were but they were both putting on brave faces for her so she was trying really, really hard not to cry.

When they first got there, Aunt Ro went around talking to people, while Grace waiting with Amber away from the disaster site. Uncle Chin was asking if she was okay. She said something about Chin using her name and someone named Wo with a prisoner, to force him to tell them the truth. Uncle Lou made her talk to officials, her and Aunt Catherine went out into the rubble looking for something. She got to talk to her dad and Uncle Steve on a video chat. But the video chat had been over what seemed hours ago, the had eaten hotdogs, Amber and Grace had gone to the washroom twice, Auntie Ro had drank her weight in tea to calm her nerves, then asked for another update, got nothing and then she was sitting back down beside Amber and Grace.

"Aunt Ro?" she whispered which caused Rowan to turn to her. She was resting her elbow on her knee and her chin on her hand, she simply pivoted to look her. "Aunt Ro can we sing another song?"

She and Aunt Ro had sung all the songs that Amber knew already and she didn't want to leave Amber out, but she needed to do something to keep her mind off of what was happening.

"Uhm… you know… maybe in a few minutes okay? Aunt Ro's voice is a little hoarse right now." That answer came after Rowan and Amber shared a charged look. She knew that Rowan was saying that so Amber wouldn't be left out.

Grace reached over to Rowan's bag and pulled out another snack. Rowan had filled her purse up with so many of Grace's favourite things and lots of Amber's too. Amber had asked how Rowan had known but Rowan had just shrugged and said she guessed, but that probably wasn't true. Rowan just knew a lot of things, before they happened, before people told her, this was probably another one of those times.

Suddenly there was a loud creaking followed by this terrible shaking. At the collapse site a bunch of the debris began to shift. There was one big deafening bang before it all fell silent and a cloud of dust settled around them.

Grace was already scared but it wasn't until she saw the look on Rowan's face that she started to cry.

"Rowan?" she sniffed out. "What happened?"

"Just… uh… just give me a minute, Amber do you… uh… do you think…"

"Yeah, I got her," she said slinging an arm around Grace's shoulder. Grace would have preferred Rowan but she had no qualms with pressing herself into Amber's side for comfort while Rowan rushed forward to ask the others what was happening. She got a hold of Chin first, literally pouncing on him, a death grip on his arm before he could get away from her.

He talked her through what happened, and Grace noted that he too seemed very afraid. Catherine and Kono were both on their phones, the rescue guys seemed to be running around with no direction. Chin finally managed to get Rowan to let him go and then she was returning to them.

"So… uh… they're uh… remember I said that they needed to move from where they were in order for the rescue team to get to them?" Rowan asked as she sat down again beside Grace. Both Grace and Amber nodded. "Well… uhm… the debris was kind of unstable, which… you know… we knew was a risk factor and it seems to have…"

"It caved in?" Grace asked, her voice small with her fear.

Rowan blinked her eyes and Grace knew she was contemplating lying to her, but she also knew that Rowan usually told her the truth, even if it was scary. "Yeah Grace it did. And… okay… and nobody panic here… they can't reach them on their cells anymore."

Both Grace and Amber gasped and Rowan was quick to talk again. "But that could just mean that they don't have service anymore. That the cellular thing they put down there got knocked out. Cause like… it's not ringing at all, just going straight to voicemail. So you know… it's not that bad. There's still hope here we just gotta… we just gotta be positive."

Amber nodded, pulling Grace a little closer to her side and for a while they all just sat there thinking about what Rowan had told them. When silence got a little bit too unbearable, Grace just had to break it.

"They… they're going to get out right? Like… you know things… and they're gonna…" Grace asked. She needed the silence filled because in the silence the fear grew. But Rowan didn't have an answer for her, Rowan who just knew things didn't know the answer to that. Grace started to worry. "What if… what if Danno doesn't…"

Amber pulled her into a tight hug as Rowan rubbed her hand up and down Grace's back. "Your dad would never give up on you, so you can't give up on him…."

"Wait… that's it. Pierce's don't give up. It's our family motto. Pierce's don't let go. Pierce's don't give up. You know what else Pierce's believe in? Making your own damn way. Today we're all going to Pierce's. We're not gonna give up. Come on guys, I've got an idea," Rowan said quickly and then got up.

Grace wasn't sure what it was that Rowan was going to but she trusted her to get her Danno out of this. So she put her hand into Rowan's and let her drag her away.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

The secondary collapse had taken out their cell service and blocked their way out. Steve had tried to move the debris that was in their way and well… he hadn't been able to. Now he just knelt there facing something he really really didn't want to face and was trying to avoid the inevitable. Behind him Danny was lounging cradling his injured side, he too was panting but that was because they were running low on oxygen and neither of them had had water.

"You know… she's pretty…" "What?" "Amber. Can tell she really cares about you too."

Danny sighed. "Yeah, well I'll probably screw it up like I do everything else. Right? Not in my DNA to be happy."

Oh god, why did he say that to him? Of course Danny didn't take it the right way. "I didn't mean that. That's not what I meant."

"No, I'm officially agreeing with you. There is something wrong with the way that I am built. I can't… I can't just enjoy happiness like regular people, you know?"

"You don't think you're being a little hard on yourself?"

"No. No I don't. When I was a kid, my parents would go out to eat dinner. If they were late coming home, I used to imagine that they died in a car wreck because they were 15 minutes late. I used to talk to God and beg him. I'd say: Please, just take my dad, not my mom, because I couldn't live without my mom. I mean, every time something good happens in my life I… I just I think of when it's gonna end. That's all I can think about."

Steve took all of that in with growing concern. "For real?"

Danny, who was breathless and slightly panting nodded: "Yeah."

"That's not normal."

"I know it's not normal!" Danny cried. "You think it's bad now, listen to this. On my wedding day. I'm looking at Rachel, just about to say _I do_ and all I can see is the day she's gonna serve me with divorce papers. No joke. And I… I don't know, man. The only sustained happiness I ever felt in my life so far is Grace. And, you know, it's just a matter of time before she turns 18, and then she's out the door and she marries some schmuck. I don't know."

"You gotta change, man. You can't live like that. You know what… maybe you should talk to Rowan's therapist…" "You know what, maybe we should talk about you and Rowan."

Steve froze. "What about me and her?"

"You're doing the same thing with her as I did with Rachel. You don't see a happy end, you see her betraying you, you see her leaving you…" "She has left me Danny…" "Yeah to make you happy because your psycho ex told her that everyone would be happier without her in their lives. Look the two of you are fucked up. Okay? She's got criminal tendencies you have control issues but that girl is still there, she still wants to be with you and you… god I don't even know what you're doing."

Well that made two of them. But down here, in the dark with Danny baring his soul, Steve felt like he could tell Danny his fears and maybe… if he let them out they might stay trapped down there instead of following him outside. "You're right, I'm afraid she's going to change her mind."

Danny blinked his eyes at him. "What?"

"You know… I just… I don't think I'm good enough. I don't think I deserve her. Wo Fat keeps saying so, and you know… I mean… she hasn't flat out said, but sometimes I swear I can see it in her eyes. And I keep doing these things, these terrible horrible things to her because I think I'm keeping her safe but really… the only person I'm saving is myself," Steve whispered. He wasn't certain if Danny understood but he seemed to get it.

"What are you saving yourself from?"

"The feelings," Steve answered honestly. "I… usually I've got a tight grip on my emotions but with her… I have no control over anything. And that scares me. It scares me to think she has that level of power over me you know? Especially because I don't think… I don't think she's going to stay with me, man."

"Well… why not? Rowan… she's definitely a ride or die kinda girl. She throws herself into all of these situations she's not equipped to handle, for you… for us… what about that says she's not going to stay?"

"Because she doesn't belong here," Steve whispered and Danny's mouth fell into a silent _oh_ of understanding. "What if the void opens up and she can finally go home? What if her family comes back to the island? What if Wo Fat decides he's done with my bullshit and takes her? What if…"

"Those are a lot of _what ifs_. You just told me I can't keep living my life on _what ifs_. Neither can you." Steve nodded. It was true. He really couldn't. "Now uh… let's talk about the current situation, what's going on, why you stalling?"

"Cause that slab is too heavy to lift," Steve said hooking a thumb over his shoulder at the concrete blocking their path. "She was right, I'm gonna have to blow us out."

"Ah. The part she said you always died at," Danny said. "I get it now."

Steve looked up and Danny followed his gaze to the bent pipe above him. "Oh god. Please don't," Danny whined but Steve as already ready.

"Break it off and seal off one end for me," he ordered.

Steve had his flashlight in his mouth as he went for one of the grenades he had in his pocket. "How does this not end in both of us dying? I mean, are really going to take Rowan's word on this one? That if me and you are together you don't get shrapnel to the head? Because… she admitted that she didn't know how this one ends."

Steve nodded. "That's why I'm doing this. She doesn't know the end, she hasn't sent a definitive end for us out into the universe yet," he replied. Danny was already banging away to seal one of the ends of the pipe. "Look, I'm going to make a direction charge. It sends the explosive energy in one direction. Anything that's behind it, theoretically, is reasonably safe."

"Okay, it's… what… what is reasonable in your language?" Danny asked and Steve tried not to chuckle. He could do this. He could get them out of there. In a few short minutes he'd have Rowan in his arms and his whole world would be right again.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Above them Rowan was dealing with a different kind of situation.

Alex had drove a hard bargain. He wanted more for a favour of this magnitude. Rowan had called the rest of the band, who all confirmed outright without need for her to give them anything, and decided she didn't need Alex Lockman headlining this event. But when he found out the others were going, and this was like a benefit concert for Five-0, he decided that the publicity would be enough and came anyway.

Rowan had helped the band set up, had roped Chin, Max and Kamekona into corralling the crowd to help her with some of the motions and movements.

She needed to be loud enough for them to hear her, so she had pulled in a favour with Pete as well, promising him that she would let him sell _Lips of an Angel_ despite her previous aversion to selling a song so personal to her and Steve. He had brought all the sound equipment and speakers she needed to be heard and the screens for the crowd to read the instructions and lyrics.

She had hastily written out the sheet music, let the band listen to how it was supposed to sound, let them run over their notes briefly before she turned to the crowd to address them. She was on a rickety stage, below her was Amber and Grace, the two women not understanding why she needed to do this but they stood ready to help direct the crowd since Grace had taught Amber all the motions, movements and words she would need to know. Rowan had made Grace the coordinator and she was really excited for the role.

She struck a chord with the guitar she had and silence came over the crowd. "Alright guys! I won't go into detail but we've got some people trapped in the rubble and we're trying to be as loud as we can so they know we're here. So we'll be putting up words for you guys to sing and we have people here at the front who will teach you what to do and when we want it done. I'm going to let them do that now."

Rowan turned away as they demonstrated what they wanted their sections to do. She confirmed that they knew what they we redoing and then turned to Alex.

"You're backup vocals, you got me? That's all I need you for. Actually I don't even need that. If you try to claim this song as yours, I'm going to let Wo deal with you, confirm you understand," she growled. Alex nodded his confirmation and with that she turned away.

When she turned back to the crowd she put on a big smile and they all started playing.

 _They've saved the lives of kings and queens, Our politicians praise their names. They let go of their dreams to become then men they became. For all these years, they've chased your fears, at the crazy speed of always needing more. But now that they're stuck, and we're all here, to remember what we need them for._

 _From now on, our eyes will not be blinded by the lights. From now on, what's waited till to tomorrow starts tonight. It starts tonight. And let this promise in me start, like an anthem in my heart. From now on… From now on._

 _They will come back home._

Below their feet, Steve paused rigging up his explosive and angled his head upward. "What is that?" he asked Danny who was oddly quiet.

He too listened for a moment. Something in Steve's pulse quickened and he had a feeling he knew exactly what was going on, he knew even before Danny said it, that it was one of Rowan's songs. And if his quickening heartbeat was to be believed then it was Rowan singing.

"It's _From Now on."_

"I thought she couldn't remember how it ended," Steve whispered.

"She can't."

It wasn't their main concern but Steve couldn't help but wonder why Rowan was performing a song she didn't know the end to. But he had a feeling he knew why she chose that one. She couldn't tell them what she saw, but she could sing it. She was telling them she saw that they got free.

On the surface they got to the call and answer. The instruments put away, the beat punctuated by either clapping or the stomping of their feet depending on where in the crowd they were standing.

Rowan was banging her hands against the guitar she had looking out at all the faces amazed but what she was creating. Grace and Amber were singing along with the crowd and Rowan felt her heart soaring. It was working, she could feel it, could almost feel the strings aligning to pull forward the one outcome she wanted.

She could do this. She could change their fates.

So she launched into her solos.

Below their feet Steve was ready. The music was gone but the pounding was shaking the roof above them. He was afraid but he wasn't. He was ready. Ready to go home. Home to Rowan.

"Whatever happens, I want you to know, from the bottom of my heart, I really, hate you so much," he said and Steve chuckled when he did.

"I love you too pal," Steve said before turning back to his makeshift bomb. This was it. He was about to either kill them or get them out of there.

"I guess there's a lot worse people to die under a big pile of concrete with," Danny said with a sigh and thins time Steve couldn't bring himself to correct him.

Steve lit his lighter and then turned to Danny as above them the music kicked up again. "You wanna do the honors?"

But Danny was distracted, his eyes staring heavenwards an absent smile on his face. "You hear that Steve? She remembers, she's gonna remember the end of the song."

Danny closed his eyes, mouthing the words to Rowan's solo, the song loud enough for them to hear it. The long note strong enough to give him the strength he needed to.

They listened. They listened to the apex of her song. The note she said she couldn't remember, dragging it out for as long as she could.

 _From Now On._

And meters below, stuck under mountains of rubble, seconds away from blowing themselves free, two men echoed that refrain straining through the rubble to get to them. He knew the words now, knew the music. So as Danny pulled him down to embrace him, his arms coming up to act as a shield for Steve's head both of them were singing along with the end of the song.

 _And we will go back home, and we will go back home._

And then the explosion went off.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

The blast ended the song abruptly. They didn't finish playing but instead turned to where the dust was rising up and beams were starting to shift. Rowan held her breath watching as the response team moved forward.

She heard the shouts of "We got movement!" and her heart leapt into her chest. She abandoned the guaitar, she abandond the stage and moved forward with Amber and Grace beside her. Danny came up first, helped up to the surface and handed off Chin and Kono. His arm look lacerated, bits of metal and concrete sticking out of his skin, Rowan knew immediately that he had taken the shrapnel to the arm to save Steve's head. Beside her Amber and Grace cried out and then they were pushing forward to get to him, Rowan stayed where she was staring at the hole. Watching another arm reach out, Steve's hand.

And then all of him was topside and Catherine was all over him.

Rowan wanted to rush forward too but she held back. This wasn't her family and Steve wasn't really supposed to be hers. She wasn't sure she was needed and with Catherine hanging onto Steve she wasn't sure she was wanted.

Danny rushed to where Amber and Grace were waiting enveloping them both in tight hugs. Steve lagged behind because Catherine had swooped in on him immediately to hug him and ask if he was okay, but that was just because she was closer. His eyes were still on Rowan who had hung back, he couldn't understand why she hadn't come over to him. He got three steps away to where Danny was with Amber and Grace and then Catherine was on him again, holding his arm like she thought he was going to collapse. Was that why Rowan hadn't run to him? His eyes were practically boring into her, why didn't she realize that it was her he wanted.

"Hey, Amber, you remember Steven McGarrett," Danny said introducing him. "The girl on his arm is Catherine, his ex, or as we call her _the other woman_."

"I'm not the other woman, I was here first, Rowan's the other woman," she snapped but Danny just rolled his eyes at her.

Steve said hi to Amber, and she said hi to him, neither of them liking the conversation that was happening at that moment as Grace hugged her Uncle Steve, Danny smiled to them. "Can you guys give me a second with Uncle Steve?" he asked. "And uh… can someone get Rowan over here?"

They both nodded and left him alone except for Catherine who still hadn't let go of Steve, even though he was trying to subtly pull his arm out of her grasp.

"Well, if this is the… uh… power of positive thinking, I like it. It's good."

"That's the same as you admitting that I was right, but I don't wanna put words in your mouth right now."

Danny rolled his eyes and then sighed. "When we were in there, you said… You know before you did the thing with the bomb, you said what you said. I want you to know I feel the same way."

"How is that exactly?"

"You're gonna make me say it?" Danny asked in an exasperated tone and Steve just smiled at him. "Come here," he ordered and then pulled Steve into a hug. "I love you buddy."

"Yeah, I love you too."

And thank god that hug got Catherine off of him.

"Yeah, you know I gotta go get this thing properly stitched up, but… uh… I'm not coming in to work tomorrow. Or for the rest of the week for that matter."

"Good!"

"Alright, I'm taking Amber to Maui. Heal up over there, relax. If that's okay."

"Nice beaches there."

"I'm not going to see a single one of them," he said with a smile and then he turned, pointed a single finger in Rowan's direction and shouted: "Get over here, you putz!"

Rowan ran to him immediately. Throwing herself into his arms calling him an idiot and all sorts of other names. Steve wanted to let her have that moment with Danny, he could wait… barely, but Catherine had a hold of him again.

Steve pulled his arm out of her grasp and absently whispered: "I'm fine Catherine."

He got disentangled from her and when Steve looked up again, Rowan was still hugging Danny, tears in her blue eyes, clinging to him like she was afraid he'd disappear. But over Danny's shoulder her eyes met his and Steve knew that he'd need whatever came next almost as much as she needed it. Danny let go and Rowan turned to Steve who had approached them silently and without realizing it. She didn't have to say anything, she didn't leap into his arms like she did for Danny she hesitantly edged forward her eyes on Catherine, but Steve didn't give a fuck about that.

He reached out for her, he got a hand to her arm, and then she did leap at him. Her arms wrapped around his neck, her sobs coming out in shaking breaths, or maybe that was him shaking. It didn't matter, all that mattered was his arms around her, holding her again.

He didn't care if Catherine was looking. He didn't care if Catherine would be upset, she didn't own him anymore. He pulled away to kiss her, to kiss Rowan with every ounce of emotion taking him over. He realized then and there that whatever he had with Catherine was dead and gone, because all he could feel was that overwhelming emotion for Rowan. As soon as things died down, as soon as he could, he was going to ask Rowan to be… well… his. He'd work on the Wo Fat thing later.

Rowan, with tears in her eyes separated from him. She tried to brush the dusk off of his face and he found himself laughing which caused her to laugh too. "You're… you're all dusty…" she whispered.

Steve tried to wipe her tears away but he just left grey smudges everywhere. "I'm sorry I'm so weepy I was trying to be brave for Grace but I was just… I was just really scared."

Steve pulled her close. "Yeah… me too."

"Please don't do that to me again," she whispered. "Please… it was… it was just really bad, please don't."

Like he enjoyed getting trapped in collapsed buildings, still he told her wouldn't never and then kissed her again.

"Kay good… uh… I know you need to be checked out and all that but would you maybe… take me somewhere when this is all done?"

Steve nodded. Though to be fair, he'd've said yes to anything she asked him at that point, he was just so happy that he had her there. That she was the person waiting for him when he got out of this. Danny was right. He wasn't going to be afraid anymore. He wasn't going to put this off because he was scared of what her answer might be. He wasn't going to wait anymore.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan had asked him to take her to Halawa. In particular she wanted to see JC Dekker though god knows why she wanted to do that.

She sat quietly in the interrogation room waiting for them to bring her in while Steve stood behind her. Rowan kept looking back at him and every time she did he'd smile again. His hand hadn't let her body since he had gotten topside. At the current moment it was on her shoulder.

"You should sit, you've got to be tired."

He should sit but he knew as soon as he did he'd fall asleep. He couldn't afford to sit down there was so much left to do. He didn't want to tell her that so he said instead: "I'm fine babe."

"Are you sure they couldn't do anything for your head?" she asked. "I mean… they didn't even clean up the blood."

Steve hadn't even gone to the ambulance to get checked out like he told her he would. He had gotten news from Kono about who was really behind the explosion and that had overridden the pain and the exhaustion. He didn't want to let on in case Rowan called Wo Fat to get to them before Steve could get his questions answered. The plan was to drop her off at his place, deal with the situation and then come back, to Rowan waiting for him and a conversation that he hoped would end in him managing to convince Rowan to go official with him… even if it meant her having Wo Fat in her life cause after today he wasn't going to play these games with her anymore.

The door opened and Dekker came in, a smile on his cut lip, Chin must have done that to him. "I see you got out from under the…" he paused, coming to a complete stand still, refusing to let the guard move him, the second Rowan turned to face him.

"No. Naw man! You can't be… I didn't do it. They proved I didn't do it!"

"I know," Rowan said she then tapped the table. "Would you mind sitting?"

Dekker let the guards bring him to the table and once he was sitting, eyeing Rowan suspiciously, Rowan leant forward with a smile.

"Firstly, I'd like to express my condolences for your brother," she said sounding as sincere as could be. Dekker's eyes narrowed at her before he responded.

"Thank you."

"And secondly, I'd like you to know that what Chin Ho said this morning was not something that came from either Wo Fat or me, I was not made aware that Five-0 thought you to be involved in the bombing and as such I never contacted Wo Fat about you or anyone involved with you. However, since this has been a trying day for you, and both I and my brother are partly to blame, we will be taking care of the funeral costs. An anonymous donation has already been made to your mother's church for the matter."

Dekker just stared at her, even Steve was staring at her. She had done that for this man she barely knew because Chin had said something? What the hell had he said?

"I don't know what to say…"

"A _thank you_ would be sufficient," Rowan said with a shrug. Steve just couldn't help but smile, he loved it when Rowan acted all prim and proper. It really got his blood boiling. "I really am sorry for your loss… and that Chin threatened you with me. I'm not really as bad as my brother."

Dekker turned his incredulous eyes to Steve and said: "Not that I'm not grateful for all this, but damn girl, you say you're not as bad but you gotta know that we've heard about what you do. You think we don't know that you could send out a text and have us all wiped out. And looking at you right now I can see some kinda poison reflected in those baby-blue eyes of yours. You can act all innocent with me but I know you and your type."

Steve didn't have to see her face to know that Rowan was wearing her glittering icy smile. "I think we're done here. Did you want to talk to him about anything?" she asked.

Steve shook his head and as they were leaving Dekker behind he called out: "Girls with smiles like that eat guys like you for breakfast, McGarrett!"

The door slammed behind them and Rowan's smile went back to normal. "Don't listen to him, I have no intention of eating you for breakfast. I might let you eat me though…"

Ah yes… he did love doing that. But he had other things to worry about at that moment, not including Dekker's strange warning about Rowan.

"I uh… I have some things to take care of, but I also really wanted to talk to you, I'm gong to drop you off at home…"

"I actually have plans tonight, Steven," Rowan said.

"Plans? Rowan could you… please this is kind of important. Who are you… is it Alex?"

"Yeah, of course," she said though it sounded off. "Sorry, unbreakable date, we have paperwork to sign and all that. Besides he promised me a romantic night and I deserve one after the hell I went through today because _somebody_ wouldn't listen to me."

Steve blood boiled at the thought of Rowan spending the night with Alex, maybe he could pick her up afterwards. Anything to have this conversation sooner than later.

"Fine, once I'm done with my… thing… and you're done with your date we can meet up…"

"You'll be in china town a lot longer then my dinner will be, and I plan to spend the night at Alex's, I'm sure you can see me tomorrow."

Steve froze. She knew about China Town? How the hell did she know about China Town? She saw the panic on his face and she suddenly backed away.

"Uhm… I know I probably shouldn't have… I know you didn't tell me that already…" she stuttered out.

"Did you tell him Ro… did you? Does _he_ already know?" he asked. Luckily he didn't have to explain who he meant because Rowan clearly understand what he meant.

Rowan shook her head. "No. I promise. I haven't sent anyone after your guy and you and Wo have the exact same knowledge. But he's not going to wait for an answer forever, you know, I will have to tell him eventually."

Rowan had his hands on his chest, he never thought well when she had her hands on him, but she was absently brushing dust and rubble off of him still even though he had changed his shirt.

"He'll have a gun under his desk," she whispered. When she turned to look up at him he swore he saw the poison in her eyes that Dekker could see. "When you shoot him. Try not to kill him. You're not the only one who wants to know where he is."

Steve was too afraid to ask her who the _he_ was.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

The blast was never about Five-0 it was about Cambodia.

Once he had dropped Rowan off back at where she had parked her car, he made his way to the China Town office of a consulting firm owned by an Edward Cobb.

Edward Cobb who was an ex-CIA operative who ran black ops missions down in South East Asia around the time his mother was there.

He waited right outside the door as the phone rang waiting to see if someone would pick up. And then did.

"Seems like you've had a bad day commander."

Steve could hear the voice inside so he moved away so he wouldn't be heard. "Not as bad as you would've liked. I know you sent me up to keep me quiet about Cambodia but I'm still here."

"Question is have you gotten the message?"

No. No Steve had not gotten the message and it was time they stopped playing these games. He quickly opened the door to the office, and shut it just as quickly behind him. He knew he looked ridiculous, his face covered in dry cuts, he was still covered in rubble. He should have gotten changed, he should have gotten patched up but he was rocking the crazy-guy-out-for-vengeance look. And he was in blue. Rowan loved him in blue.

Cobbs appraised him, through his wide rimed aviator glasses, it was like the guy was oozing the 70s. Like he never let them go. He hung up the cellphone in his hand and just stared at Steven, so he answered his question.

"No."

Cobb just shrugged. Steve's eyes turned to the TV going across from Cobb, reporting on the accident, Steve gestured to the TV with the gun he was carrying, he wasn't pointing it at Cobb yet, he just wanted him to know it was there.

"That's pretty clever. They would've pulled three bodies out of that rubble if it hadn't been for someone warning me in advance about that bomb. They would have assumed that Dekker's brother was killed for payback and Five-0 got caught in the middle. No one would have ever suspected that this was all about keeping me from asking questions you didn't want answered."

"And who warned you about the bomb?'

"I've got my secrets and you've got yours."

"Rowan Pierce isn't a secret."

Steve's gun came up immediately but Cobb just smiled at him like Steve had shown him his jugular… and in a way, he kind of had. "She mentioned the girl was a soft spot." Goddamn his mother. "She also mentioned who's backing her. It's an interesting parallel that the two most important women in your life are tied to him. But you should've listened to Sam and left his alone."

Steve snarled at him. The man also knew Wo Fat was backing her, maybe that meant she was safe. He needed the topic as far away from Rowan as he could manage. "An innocent man died today, for no reason. And dozens, dozens of innocent lives were put in danger all to clean up a mess that you made 40 years ago! Now, what happened in Cambodia? Who was buried in that grave?"

Cobb said nothing. He stared at Steve with cold eyes, Steve knew he wouldn't talk. It was time to turn up the heat. To prove his reflexes were still up to par despite being nearly being blown up and trapped under the remains of a building today, he shot Cobb's laptop and then leveled the gun back with his head in only a matter of seconds. Cobbs raised his hands in surrender, good he was listening now.

"I still got DNA from that grave and I'm going to run it. That's if Rowan keeps her mouth shut for that long. There's only so much that girl can take and she knows… as I'm sure you know… she knows a lot of things. And if my mother could have told you anything it's that Rowan's always right. So you might as well tell me who it belongs to."

That must have been it. That must have been what did it, because Cobbs took in the gun, the utter insanity in Steve's eyes and he finally gave in.

"Lei Kuan Fat. Wo Fat's mother."

Shut. Up. No. Not that couldn't be the answer. Rowan would have… Rowan would have... okay she couldn't have told him that because he wouldn't let her, but for god sake she should have tried harder.

"Why would you cover that up?"

Suddenly Cobb was looking angry. Whatever happened to lead to all of this must have been bad for Cobbs. "Because it wasn't supposed to be her in that grave. Our target was Wo Fat's father, but the op went bad. My agent on the ground disappeared, leaving me to clean up her mess."

"That agent was my mother." Steve said instead of asked. Cobb nodded. "But she went on to work for the agency while you were forced out. She didn't botch the job. You ordered an unsanctioned hit that went bad. Wo Fat's father is still alive, isn't he?"

That was the _he_ Rowan was talking about. Rowan knew that Wo Fat's father was alive and that Wo Fat would want to know where he is.

"Do you have any idea the fallout if that ever came to light?" Cobb asked.

"Well, I can tell you that Rowan already knows and I can't keep her from talking to him so you might as well tell me where his Father is before he comes looking himself," Steve growled to him. Cobb's eyes narrowed at him and Steve suddenly remember what Rowan had said to him.

 _There's a gun under his desk._

God, if he'd shoot Steve, they'd go for Rowan next. A slimy smile slid onto Cobb's face as he said: "Sit down. I'll tell you"

His hand disappeared under the desk and Steve knew immediately he was going for the gun. So Steve shot him, point blank in the chest. She had said not to kill him but that hadn't been an option, Steve was so used to going for the kill shot. He stood there staring at the dead body of Edward Cobb knowing he wouldn't get his answers any time soon.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve, had had a lot of time to think this through. He was mad, mad at himself, mad at Rowan, and at his mother. But mostly he was scared. Scared that his actions would get Rowan in trouble. That the CIA would move in on her to get to him. He was dangerously close to calling Wo Fat himself and telling him what happened, to beg him to protect her. But the closer he got to Alex's place the angrier he got that she was there in the first place. Why didn't he just tell her what he wanted when he got out of the ground? Why did he have to try and be romantic about it? Why didn't _she_ want to be with him after what had happened today? Why hadn't she cancelled her plans when he asked? He had almost been killed, didn't she _want_ to be with him, to never let him go, to be reminded that he was still alive? Yeah he should have listened to her, but to punish him by not staying with him after surviving the incident was a low blow. So by the time he got up the stairs he was way past livid. Steve didn't bother knocking, instead he kicked down the door to Alex's apartment and bared down on the young man who was on the couch with…

With…

Someone who wasn't Rowan.

Steve forgot he was mad at Rowan at all. He forgot that he was here to scream at her for not fucking telling him about the body in Cambodia. A body he was well aware she knew about because he told her not to tell him about it. He forgot to be mad that she had chosen to be at Alex's instead of at his home waiting for him because… well… she wasn't there.

Steve was stuck. Frozen. Staring at Alex who, who was well… was dating Rowan… and seemed to be perfectly fine fucking some random girl on his couch.

"What the fuck, Steve," he shouted at him as the girl cried out and ran her butt naked ass back into the bedroom he supposedly shared with Rowan and Alex tried to fix himself and his pants.

"You're supposed to be with Rowan and you're…" Steve answered hollowly. Yeah, she said they had an open thing, but he never really believed it. She still lived with the man after all.

Alex, pulled up his pants and just stared at him. "Supposed to be with Rowan… what the hell are you talking about?"

Steve suddenly flew into a rage. "She was supposed to be here… she said she was seeing you today that you and her had a date and you… you… How dare you?! Do you know what I'd give to lock that girl down, and you're fucking other women?" he shouted.

"Okay, you know what, the songs aren't worth it," Alex whispered and Steve backed away suddenly very confused.

"Uh… what do you mean? Are you… are you just dating her for songs?"

Cause if he was Steve was going to hit that boy so hard the punk rock would come flying out of him.

"Look, Rowan and I… we never got back together. She caught me cheating and we broke up… almost half a year ago. She hasn't lived here since we broke up, from what I've heard I think she's living with Chin. And as for us getting back together… she showed up a few weeks ago and traded new songs for a new album and all I had to do was cover for her, alright?" Alex snapped and just like that Steve wasn't angry anymore, and Alex suddenly had his full and undivided attention.

"Okay. Tell me everything, but start from the beginning."

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

The doorbell rang and Rowan rushed to answer it. It was movie night with the Kelly's which meant Kono and Adam would be there soon. This movie night had been months in planning, she had really wanted to stay with Steve but after the day she had she was dangerously close to caving on all of her principles to have him away from Catherine. Her pride wouldn't survive a blow like that. Since Kono usually just let herself in, Rowan assumed that it was the food they had ordered but it was neither the food nor Kono and Adam.

She smiled when she saw Steve on the stoop even though he looked absolutely livid with her and he was still covered in blood and dust. Why hadn't he changed? Why hadn't he gotten patched up? How had he known where she was? "Oh hey! Uh… how did you find me?"

"You live with Chin," he snapped and Rowan's smile faded. "You live with Chin and not only did you break up with Alex months before you told me you did, you never got back together with him either!"

"Oh goddamn it, Danny! Danny told you, right? How long were you underground before it came out?" she snapped and then shook her head. "I knew that man wouldn't be able to keep his mouth shut."

"No Alex told me, I saw a bunch of things I didn't need to see and I owe him for a new door."

He pushed past her and into the house and Rowan sighed but shut the door behind him. Fucking Alex and his fucking mouth. He could forget about that five song deal then. "Wait… why do you owe him a new door?"

"Cause I kicked his down," Steve snapped, but that just raised my questions. He turned back to her, he looked so devastatingly disappointed. "Just… tell me why…" he ran a hand through his hair before turning his eyes to her again. "Why didn't you tell me? Why did you lie?"

"What and admit that you were right?" she scoffed. "Steve I was embarrassed. I didn't want you to know that I caught him cheating, that… that I had nowhere to go… that he stole my songs… that he… he was everything you said he was. And of course I was going to say I got back together with him. You were throwing ultimatums every which way and you got back together with Catherine!" "—No, we were casual, just like me and you, I didn't agree to a relationship." "—you literally started up with Catherine again the very second you didn't get your way. There was no way I was just going to stand there and be okay with it. So I threw down a lie and hoped you got jealous and never found out. Okay?"

"You've been crashing at Chin's place since the breakup," Steve whispered. "And you were worried about your god damn pride?"

"Oh shut it, Mr. McGarrett, you've done stupider things in the name of your pride. Today, your pride nearly got you and Danny killed."

"That was not my pride, that was a bad tip," he growled. "But that's not why I'm mad."

"Oh, it's not?"

"No. How could you not tell me that it was Wo Fat's mother buried in Cambodia. That _she_ was the reason he and my mother have beef. That my mother killed his by mistake. How could you not tell me?" he asked.

"Because you asked me not to," she whispered back. "I tried and you told me not to."

"Alright. Fine. But… that's never stopped you before…"

"You didn't want to know, Steve, and how was I going to prove it? I didn't know the coordinates, I didn't know where they were. I only knew that Jerry was the key to unlocking them," she answered. "And you keep telling me not to meddle."

"Okay, well I'm asking you to meddle now. What else do you know?"

"Do you mean that? Do you really want to know?" she asked, searching his face to see if he was really serious or just saying all of this cause he was mad.

"Yes, tell me everything you know."

"Uh… his father is still alive. He's being held by the government somewhere. I know Wo Fat knows all that because I told him today and he is now looking for him. I was hoping you could maybe… help?" she took in Steve's dark glare and Rowan lowered her eyes and cleared her throat. "Okay, just thought I'd asked. Uh… and well… she's his mother."

"Yes," Steve scoffed. "We've established the grave belonged to Wo Fat's mother."

"No. Yours. Your mother is Wo Fat's. Or at least, the only mother he knew. That's the bad blood. Not that he thought she killed his father, though up I told him he didn't know that his father was actually alive. But really their bad blood stems from her leaving to have a family with John McGarrett which left Wo Fat abandoned and alone."

Steve stared at her with wide eyes of surprise. Oh dear, he did not take that well.

"No, you're wrong," Steve said. "That's not true."

"But… but it is…"

"No. That is _not_ true. Okay? It's not. It's NOT!" he shouted and Rowan took a step back. Steve forced himself to breathe, he wouldn't get anywhere yelling at her like that. He didn't want her to be scared of him.

"I just… I can't accept that, Ro," he whispered. "I just… I just can't. Okay?"

Rowan nodded and lowered her eyes from him, almost hanging her head. "I'm sorry… but you did ask."

"Okay… well I unask. Stop telling me things, I clearly can't handle them," Steve replied. "Remind me of this moment if I ever change my mind again."

Rowan nodded but she was clearly subdued. She felt betrayed. Like he'd never be able to like her for all of herself. Steve looked down again.

"I wish you had told me sooner," he whispered.

Rowan groaned. "You told me not to Steve."

"About Alex. I wish you told me sooner about Alex," he continued. He put a hand to her arm and she looked up to him almost confused. "I wish you had told me sooner."

She almost asked him why but he had pulled her to him and held her tight. "I would have made a move on you sooner if I thought… I unno I… I just…"

He was blabbering. Rowan kissed him to get him to stop. This would restart his thought process. He'd be able to remember where he was going before he lost himself in whatever emotion overwhelmed him and blocked up the words in his throat. As soon as he was reset the purpose of his ramble came out.

"Move in with me."

 _Oh my god._

"Move in with me again. I know you want to stand on you own, I know you want your own place, but… I mean… you still don't have one… and I can… I can charge you rent if you want. I just… I miss… I miss having you there, I miss having you near me. God I've missed it so much. Please, please say yes, please move back in."

"What about Wo Fat?" she asked. She had to. If moving back in meant no more Wo Fat, the only one she trusted not to lie to her or control her, she wouldn't be able to do it.

"I don't give a shit about him. I don't want to date him. I want to date you," he said. "So… we can table that talk for a while and… I unno… come back to it later. But right now. All I want Ro, all I need, is you. So will you please, please just say yes?"

"And Catherine?"

"Gone for good. I promise," he whispered against her lips. "I swear Rowan, after today… it doesn't matter I don't even want to be casual with her just to have something to do. I want to work this out. I want to work things out with you. Just… please… you need a place to stay and I'm offering. Move in with me. God, please, don't make me beg… please?"

Rowan smiled. She kissed him again, melting into his moan of desire, echoing with one of her own. When she could finally pry herself away from him she whispered her answer to his pleading request.

 _Hell yes._


	111. Chapter 111

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hey guys! Having a good Monday? If you're not hopefully this chapter will cheer you up. So I chose to do a fluffy little filler between the two episodes because the last one was a little anxious and the next episode is going to be a bit of a wild one. But you're going to see a little bit of how far Rowan's reach goes. And then after that chapter we're devolving into utter chaos guys. UTTER CHAOS. But I promise that you guys are going to LOVE how it ends. On an unrelated note… Guys, I've officially finished writing 130 chapters. Guys, this is the longest fanfiction I've ever written, and I'm still writing! Guys this just… this just amazes me! I'm two chapters away from starting Season 5 and if I'm lucky I'll finish writing that season this year! Wish me luck guys!_

 _P.S.: AJ, the chapter your character is appearing in has moved to chapter 130 cause I added an anniversary chapter. Hope that's okay!_

Chapter 111 

* * *

Rowan was not having fun.

Steve was like a kid in a candy shop, but Rowan… Rowan was like a kid in a doctor's office.

They were sitting on their surfboards staring back at the beach Rowan really wanted to be back on. They were waiting for the next swell. Well that was what Steve was waiting for, Rowan… Rowan was waiting for death.

That's what this had been. Death. The ocean had been trying to kill her for hours now, but Steven had picked surfing as his belated birthday activity so Rowan had agreed despite knowing that she was rubbish at this and that at every opportunity the ocean was trying to put her back where she belonged, which was back on land.

"Oh here it comes," Steve said shooting Rowan a big smile. God he looked so good sitting there on his board in nothing but those blue swim trunks. What was she really going to say to him? Well… she had tried, she had asked him to go back to land but he wanted a few more rides.

Rowan tried to be excited for him, she smiled warmly as he glanced over his shoulder to watch the swell. He turned back to her took in both her posture and her fake smile and almost frowned. "This time when you get up try to spread yourself evenly… okay?"

Rowan nodded like she didn't know for certain that this was going to be an epic failure. Still when Steve told her she began to paddle, following his lead, but once the wave crested, she was on her own. Steve flew away from her surfing that wave like the badass he was. Rowan managed to stand for three minutes that time before the ocean swallowed her up.

But this time she didn't bob up like she did all the other times that day. This time, much like her surf hour with Kono on her own birthday, her board popped up but she got stuck in an under tow that was sucking her outwards and downwards. She couldn't get out of it. She was stuck. She was going to drown.

Great… just fucking peachy. What a great way to go. A fucking tragic surfing accident with the man she wanted to make her boyfriend. It sucked that this was how it was going. Not the fucking Chinese spy, the gunshot to the shoulder, the numerous abductions and hostage situations or her copious amount of head injuries. Nope, she was going to be taken out by the ocean.

And then Steven was dragging her upwards and towards the surface. As soon as she broke the surface Steve pushed her traitorous board into her arms so she could float. He roped his own in board in and then put a hand to her back.

"Are you okay?" he asked as she coughed and sputtered.

Rowan smiled at him. "Yeah… uh… I'm fine. Can… can I go back to beach now?" she asked.

Steve glanced out at the incoming waves longing on his face so she added: "You don't need to come with me, you can stay out on the water."

"Are you even good to go back by yourself? You sure you can swim alright? Did you swallow water?"

 _No, no and yes_. But she couldn't say that to him so she just waved off his concern. "No, no, I'm okay," she said.

"Still, I'd very much like paddle back with you, it's the least I could do."

Well… he had a point so Rowan let him paddle her back. She let him help her back to her towel, let him unstrap her from the board. Then she let him sit beside her until he was certain she was okay. Together they sat in the sun, he looking like a beautiful bronzed glistening god while she probably looked like a less glamourous Ariel after she got her legs.

"I'm going to go back out there," he whispered to her. "You sure you don't want to come?"

"I am more than sure. That was not the first time the ocean has tried to drag me down in an undertow. I've learned my lesson. The next time I ride on water, it's going to be frozen and under a metal blade."

Steve kissed her cheek. "Mmm… I'd love to see that. Next weekend maybe?" Rowan just nodded knowing that she probably wouldn't get back on the ice any time soon, too many painful memories, of things she'd lost and things she'd never get back.

Steve picked up his board and ran off looking all sorts of fine and for a moment she just watched him as he paddled out to meet the waves. Damn, that man was fine. And for the current moment he was all hers. At least she assumed he was, it wasn't like he had brought Catherine over, but then again, in the last twenty four hours since agreeing to move in with him Rowan and Steve hadn't been apart.

"Hi… uh… excuse me?"

Well that pulled her right out of her thoughts. Rowan looked up, to find three girls standing above her. All blonde, all in fancy string bikini's staring down at her like she was disgusting. But the leader, the one who had talked to her was smiling at her in the same sort of way that Rowan used to right before she picked apart someone else.

"Hey, quick question… that guy… do you know him?" the blonde asked. She gestured out to the waves where Steve was sitting out on his board, he waved at her and she waved back… and so did the three girls standing above her

Rowan's eyes narrowed her eyes at them. "Uh… yeah… he's uh… he's with me."

The three girls broke out into loud laughter. "Oh honey… a guy like that… there's absolutely no way that _he_ would choose _you_."

Ah, so this was what it felt like to be Ice Queened. Normally that didn't work, because she was pretty tight lipped about her worries and insecurities, but they had hit dead-on on one of her insecurities. Dead on the mark. Because they had a point. What was a guy who looked like he had been photoshopped be doing with a girl like her?

"Hey! Who are your friends?" Steve asked, jogging up looking like he came straight out of a movie. A board under one arm, all glistening and abs. Damn that was fast. Had he sensed that she needed him and he came back? If so… how nice of him.

The leader of the three girls slid up to him, her hands on his chest halting him before he could get to her, conveniently stepping in between them as well.

"We're lost and she couldn't give us directions."

"Well, Ro doesn't know the area," he said as if that made sense of the situation but made no move to get out from under her hands though he did seem confused by the contact.. "Uh… where are you heading? I can point you in the right direction."

Oh her gentleman Steve, he couldn't see what they were doing. He thought he was just being helpful. She'd bet any money they asked him to be their guide.

"We'll we're looking for Waimea Bay to jump off the rocks," she said.

"Oh… uh… well you're not even on the right beach. That's two beaches over," he said suddenly much more confused and wary.

"Oh no, how terrible," she whined with a fake pout on her face, Steve was no longer smiling, his eyes had narrowed at her officially not buying her bullshit. "Do you think you could take us there? We'd love to have a big strong guide like you helping us. We'd feel safer."

Boom there it was. Pay the girl her fictional money.

Steve's eyes turned to where Rowan was sitting. She couldn't take her eyes away from the display. That plastic looking blonde beach bunny looked perfect next to Steve, like they fit together perfectly. He took in her stare, looked deep into her eyes and then said: "No."

The girl recoiled, her two friends gasped. "Sorry, I'm out with my girl today. But uh… if it's really that scary to you, I could suggest some other activities near-by. There's a waterfall you could hike to. You may like that better than rocks to jump off of… you're uh… not really dressed for it anyway… or a hike… maybe you guys would like to tan instead. More your speed. Have a nice day, ladies."

And with them dismissed Steve sat himself down beside her and together they glared at them until they walked away. "That was weird," he said but it wasn't. She'd be crazy if she didn't notice the stares they got. A lot of people thought the same thing as those girls.

"Yeah, so weird," Rowan blew off because she wasn't going to tell Steve what it was that worried her. They had enough problems as is.

"Are you sure you're feeling okay? You didn't swallow water? Bash your head on a coral reef?" he asked, brushing her stringy red-blonde hair back behind her ear.

"I'm fine Steve," she said. "That you for rescuing me."

"That's what I'm here for," his voice low and husky in her ear as he began to nibble her ear lobe and down her neck.

"Is there anything else you'd like to do today, birthday boy?" she asked. His smile widened in that playful way she adored more than anything.

"Yeah, I'd really like to get you under that waterfall. So dry off, I'll return you're board, we'll put mine in the car and get ready for a hike," he said standing up.

That was not where Rowan thought that would go. Not at all. She thought, with the way he was nibbling and kissing that he'd want to take her home for some R rated fun. Instead he was trying to kill her again. He wanted to take a girl he knew to be the clumsiest thing on the planet for a hike? Was he out of his mind?

Steve kissed her cheek picking up both his board and hers and Rowan blinked her eyes.

Dear god. Sure, she really, really liked him. And, yeah, she really wanted to build a relationship with him and most of the time he made her so very happy, but god, at what cost?

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Danny was in a full out panic by the time Rowan showed up at his place. He was trying very hard not to be angry but what other emotion could he be?

Rachel still wasn't back, opting to stay longer in Las Vegas with Step-Stan and Charlie leaving Danny high and dry and unable to go to Maui with Amber like he wanted to. It wasn't like he could just leave Grace unattended, and though he was angry, he was angry at Rachel, not Grace and he didn't want Grace to think it was her fault.

"What's going on?" Rowan asked as soon as she came into the house. "Grace texted said you had an emergency. I brought over ice cream."

"Ice cream… do you think I… me and Amber are still together!" he shouted at her.

Rowan nodded. "Oh, so not now then," she whispered to herself. Great, Rowan had seen their break up? Really? Thanks Rowan. "I'll just put it in the freezer?"

"Why are you here? I thought you were supposed to be moving in with Steve."

"I am… I did… he's just…"

"Insane? A control freak? Unbearable? Are you unable to co-inhabit with him?"

"No, I've done it before, I can do it again," she reminded him. "No, everything's fine on that front but I'm pretty sure he's trying to kill me."

"What?"

"He took me surfing… then hiking," she said. "The ocean nearly ate me, twice and then I practically fell down the trail on the way back. I have no coordination why did he think I'd like any of that? Anyway I just needed a bit of a break so I said I was going out to do a few errands."

"He's trying to share his interests with you," Danny whispered. He thought it was cute that Steve was trying to do all those things with her and a little bit funny thinking about Rowan rolling down a hill with Steve's frantically panicked face following her trying to save her.

"Okay, guilt trip not needed. I know what he was doing and I appreciated it… and I mean I enjoyed some aspects, like watching him out on the water all glistening and chiselled abs… and the sex was phenomenal…"

"I'm sorry… when did you two manage to…"

"At the waterfall up in Waimea Valley." Great, Danny was never going to go there again. "God if you're going to make that face at me I'll just change the topic. Why don't you tell me what's going on? Grace said it was an emergency, and if Amber is still with you I fail to see what could be your problem. So spill. Mr. Grumpy. Spill your problems so Auntie Ro can find a way to make you happy."

"Rachel's in Las Vegas, I have to stay with Grace, which means Amber and I can't leave for Maui tonight as planned."

"Ah. I see."

"Yeah. Don't know why Gracie texted you, what can you do?"

"Uh… babysit. Duh!" Rowan cried. "When does Rachel get back?"

"Well… she said tomorrow afternoon… but I don't think…"

"Kay, so you go to Maui with Mel… Amber, I got her name that time. Amber. And Grace can stay with me and Steve."

"Are you out of your mind? You think I'm going to trust either of you," he snapped. "You're both out of control. You're a bad influence and he's just a damn nut."

"You wanna go to Maui or not?" Rowan asked hands on her hips as she glared at him.

Danny sighed, he was trapped, and there was no other word for it. The man was absolutely trapped!

"Alright fine," he growled and from behind him came a squeal of utter delight.

"Yay! Girl's night! Girl's night!" Grace cried jumping out from the hallway and bouncing up and down. Oh dear god, poor Steve. "I'm already packed, let's go."

She grabbed Rowan's hand and practically attempted to drag her away. She clocked Danny's glare, knowing right away that he was upset that Grace was more excite to spend a night with Auntie Ro and Uncle Steve than staying with him, but all she could do was smile apologetically at him. It wasn't her fault that she and Steve were the fun Aunt and Uncle.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

It wasn't that Steve was mad. He was just surprised. When Rowan went out on her errand, purposely to avoid going for a run with Steve, even though he promised not to run her too hard or too far, he never thought she'd come back with a child.

Steve hugged Grace and then followed her and Rowan up to the second floor where Rowan put her in her old room. She told Grace to unpack as she opened the windows to air it out, and when she was changed into her PJs they could have cocoa on the lanai together.

As soon as she was back in the hallway Steve was on her.

"Okay… so uh… are you avoiding me or something?"

Rowan turned back to him a confused look on her face. "I don't know how you came to that conclusion when I'm literally moving in with you."

"Yes, and on night two of us officially living together you've brought home a child. Shouldn't you want all the alone time in the world with me? Especially right now? Isn't this supposed to be our honeymoon phase?"

Rowan didn't even bother to look back at him as she made her way to the kitchen so she could start on the cocoa she was famous for. "Okay, for starters we're not married. Secondly _I'm moving in with you,_ there will be plenty of time for alone time. And thirdly… you're reading way too much into this," she said to him with a smile on her face like she thought it was funny. "Steve… I'm doing Danny a favour. Simple. He wanted to go to Maui with Melissa… fuck Amber… I swear to god… why is this so hard for me?" When Steve shrugged, she waved off her mistake and kept going. "He wanted to go to Maui with his hot new girlfriend. Rachel is in Las Vegas is until tomorrow. And we want Danny to be happy… and you know… after yesterday…"

Yes. After yesterday. Yesterday had been a disaster, which was why Steve wanted her all to himself. There were so many things he wanted to do, so many things he wanted to say to her, so many ways he wanted to shower her with affection but he couldn't do any of that now that Grace was in the house.

"So… she's staying a night… right… a single night?"

"Yeah, I return her tomorrow after Rachel lands. We can handle this Steven, us together, between you having to wrangle me and me having to wrangle Wo Fat, we can handle a single 12-year-old. We just gotta keep her entertained."

"Right… yeah… entertained…"

Rowan looked up to him. She must have seen the ashen look on his face because she immediately asked if he was okay.

He was not.

He was worried sick. He hadn't spent long periods of time with Gracie without her friends or her father being around to act as a buffer. Now he was going to having to be more than the fun Uncle Steve who let her get away with everything and did the things with her her dad didn't want to do. What if he wasn't any good at it? What if she didn't like him after this was done. What if he wasn't fun Uncle Steve after this?

Rowan put a hand to his arm. "It's going to be okay, Steve. We're going to be great."

Grace came rushing down the stairs a big smile dawned on her face like Rowan was putting on a mask. "What do we think about s'mores?!" Rowan cried and Grace cheered.

Rowan turned that dazzling smile to him and Steve knew he was going to do whatever it was she was about to ask him. "Can you get a fire started?"

Yes. Steve could do that. Quite easily actually.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

After s'mores and cocoa Rowan let Steve teach Grace how to skip stones against the waves. They came in when it got too dark and they all sat together, Grace between Rowan and Steve, popcorn bowl in her lap and let her pick a movie to watch.

The whole time they were on that couch, Steve's arm rested along the back playing with the tips of her hair, and tracing patterns along the back of her neck and tops of her shoulder blades. For a while there Rowan imagined that this was what it would feel like if she and Steve actually got together and had a kid. This could be the future in store for her.

Which was why she kept glancing at Steve and smiling. He took it as something else. So when they went to bed, when Rowan had changed, making sure to be in the washroom and away from Steve's eyes so he couldn't see the bruises covering her body, Steve was expecting something a little… R-rated.

His hand were under her shirt before she even got in bed, he was already pressing kisses to her, trying to land her lips and missing. Rowan knew that if he started kissing her she wouldn't be able to resist him, but she was too sore and battered to go that far, and she really… really didn't want Steve to know about how badly she was hurt because then he'd worry and he'd want to get her checked out.

Usually it would be torture to try and resist Steve, who knew exactly where to press his kisses and how to move his hands to get her the right amount of turned on, but as his hands skimmed over her bruises it was easy to remember why she didn't want to.

"Not tonight, Steven," she whispered to him and that was it. Steve stopped completely, but now he was hovering over her with concern in his bright blue eyes, concern and hurt.

"Did I do something wrong? Last night? Or this afternoon? Did I… did I hurt you?"

"No of course not… it's just… you know with Grace across the hall…"

"Is that why you brought Grace over? So we couldn't have sex tonight? Why? What am I doing wrong? I mean… you seemed to like it before!"

"For god sake Steven," Rowan sighed trying to keep her voice down lest she woke up Grace. "What the hell is the matter what you? This has nothing to do with you or doing anything wrong. It's more to do with a twelve-year-old girl being across the hall, and knowing full well that our volume tends to be sound breaking when we really get into it and you know it! We got a noise complaint last night! Duke personally knocked on our door! Remember?!"

Steve's smirk returned and he quickly swooped in to kiss her, pressing his body against hers as he whispered: "Then we'll just have to be… very… very… quiet."

Rowan groaned, there was nothing more she liked that feeling him all against her, every inch of him hard against her. His chest… those abs, those strong broad shoulders. Fuck. She wanted to but her body… and she really didn't want to tell him that. She didn't want him to think that she couldn't keep up with his lifestyle. Rowan knew she couldn't but she could work on that… hopefully.

His hands skimmed the bruises again and that time she couldn't hide with the wince from him.

"Seriously, Steve, could you just… not?"

That paired with her wince was enough, it was all Steve needed to be concerned. "Are you okay?"

Well no point lying now, especially when she was trying to teach him to trust her. "No," she admitted. "I think… I unno… I'm just really sore… cause you know…"

"Shit, cause you fell," Steve breathed out. "Okay… uh… well where does it hurt the most?"

"If we're going for honesty right now, my legs hurt the most. I'm way out of practice and stamina so like… they're the maddest at me right now. I'm surprised you didn't have to carry me up the stairs. But… uh… honestly when you touch my sides it really hurts and I've got this tight feeling in my chest…"

Steve was suddenly lifting up her shirt, which, despite Grace being across the hall, caused Rowan to squeak in surprise. She lowered her voice to hiss out Steve's name but he wasn't interested in foreplay but was intently staring at the lyrical tattoo on her ribs.

"I can tell you what it says if you'd like…"

"You've got bruising, looks bad," he whispered instead his fingertips brushing again them softly. Oh… that's what he was looking at. "Does that hurt?"

"Well… uh…. Not really…"

"Oh good," he said carefully pulling her shirt down. "Your ribs aren't broken then. Probably just bruised. If the tightness continues we'll take you to a clinic okay?"

He settled himself down beside her and her hand came up to rest against his jawline, skimming his stubble. Her sweet man worried about her wellbeing. Why was he so good at making her heart flutter and swell? It was like he just knew what to say to her, like he didn't have to try.

"We'll go easier next time… and we'll get you proper shoes…"

"Or we could just not take me hiking," Rowan whispered. Steve's eyes had been closing but they opened when she said that. "Not that I didn't have fun up at that waterfall and the pictures we took turned out great, but... you know... I grew up in BC… I think if I liked outdoorsy shit Steve I'd be much better at it, don't you think?"

Steve must not have realized that she came from the province with the best hiking trailing, skiing, and camp sites, if she didn't do or like that stuff when she lived there it wasn't going to change now that she was in Hawaii. And her saying it now seemed to make it clear to him. "I'm a city girl, unfortunately. But… I'm sure we can find something to do together that we both like… you know… other than sex."

Steve had a strange look on his face that Rowan didn't recognize, but before she could question him on it he had buried his face in her neck, tugging her close to him and sighed like he did when he was ready to go to sleep.

"Okay, well… good night Steven," she whispered into his head. He breathed out a good by against her skin and Rowan couldn't help but smile. This was how she wanted every night to end.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

When Steve woke up Rowan was already out of bed. He knew immediately that she was working on breakfast so he didn't panic. He got up, being sure to put on more clothes then he usually would if it were just he and Rowan in the morning, checked in on Grace who was still asleep and curled up in the bed that used to be Rowan's and then headed down to see what she was doing.

He got to the kitchen, where Rowan was, for once, not wearing a piece of his clothing, but this time was properly and fully dressed. She was also putting together waffles.

"Mmm… no pancakes?" he asked sliding in behind her as she plated the last waffle. One for each of them. He wrapped his arms around her torso and pressed a kiss to her cheek. Rowan turned in his grip to wrap her arms around his neck and kiss him solidly. They exchanged brief good mornings before she turned back to her handy work.

"I thought we'd do something different this morning. I'm going to put out bowls of toppings and then we get to choose, I thought Grace might like that."

"Mmm… cute… she'll love it."

"Do you want to start on the bacon or would you rather cut up the fruit?" she asked.

Steve shrugged. "Whatever you want babe."

"Okay let me rephrase. Are we trusting me with the frying pan or the knife?"

Steve turned to her, a knife already in her hand, and his heart leapt into his mouth. For god sake she couldn't walk down a slightly inclined path without losing her footing and tumbling down.

"Yeah, you're going to take the bacon," Steve said immediately, as calm and cooly as he could, taking the knife out of her hand.

There was something soothing about how they went about making breakfast. Rowan made them the bacon, Steve cut up bits of pineapple, strawberries and bananas. And then when Rowan wasn't looking he put out a bowl of chocolate chips and a canister of whip cream right next to the maple syrup. So that when Rowan turned around to put the plate of bacon on the kitchen island where they would be eating, she was surprised.

"Ohh… I like it…" she said and then they both looked each other in the eye and said: "Don't tell Danny."

They broke out in laughter, Rowan wound her arms around his neck again as his arms settled around her waist so he could pull her close. They were about to kiss when Grace's giggles interrupted them.

"Good morning," Rowan said turned out of his embrace to greet her as Grace got up on the barstool to sit down. Steve tried not to groan but instead his own _good morning_ to Grace as Rowan cried: "Pick a waffle and then pick your toppings."

Grace let out an appreciative "Ohh…" and for a moment they were all quiet as they went about picking their toppings and passing them around to one another. Once the waffles were suitably topped, they all sat down.

They were eating for two seconds when Grace said: "Can we do something fun together? All three of us?"

"Uh… I unno, Uncle Steve do you work today?"

"I can call Chin and tell him I'm off. You know, not to bug me unless it's a big case," he said.

Rowan's eyes narrowed at him. "I thought you said you did that yesterday… because of the whole… you know… building thing…"

"Yeah, but I was only planning to take one day off," he said and then caught Rowan's look, the look she made when she was angry and trying to not show it. Her eyes got slightly wider and her nostrils flared. "Uh… don't you have a meeting today?"

"Yea but I can cancel it. I'll just say I have family stuff. Or tell Pete to sell the song without me and text me if anything comes up, we don't really need me there."

"Can we go skating?" Grace asked. No. He'd look like an idiot. It was fine for Rowan's' birthday but not just out on his own.

Rowan seemed to sense his worry about it because she quickly said: "Oh… sweetie… uh… Uncle Steve would only want to watch and we want to do something all together.

"How about we go surf…." Steve didn't even bother to finish that with the way Rowan's eyes bore into him. "Okay, no, or hiking?" When Rowan continued to glare at him his shoulders sunk. "Kay I'm out of ideas."

Rowan suddenly straightened, a huge smile spreading out on her face. "I just had the most brilliant of brilliant ideas!"

And coincidentally that was the one they went with.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve had no problems finding Rowan and Grace a go-karting place. In fact he knew a guy at the best indoor go-karting place in Honolulu… K1 Speed. He and Rowan had so far co-parented quite well. They had managed to share all the duties. They co-cleaned breakfast as Grace got ready. They agreed that Steve would drive to the go-karting place and Rowan would drive back. It was agreed that it would be Rowan's car they took because she had the back seat and because Grace had flat out demanded to be in that car. And when they got to the K1 Speed, since Grace was little they agreed that this wouldn't be like bumper cars and they'd play fair during their races.

The first set of laps Rowan played nice until Steve cut her off and then those goddamn drag racing skills came out of her. He lost every single race after that, Rowan didn't win many, she usually just screwed over him and other drivers to Grace could win instead.

In between the two sets of laps, they shared arcade pizza and sodas, they played some of the other games there. Then they found out that because of Rowan's aggressive driving there had been many complaints and she wouldn't be allowed out on the track again. Steve had been surprised, but Rowan hadn't been.

 _I swear to god this happens every time I go go-karting_.

Well wasn't that something to tell him before they showed up? Grace decided that she didn't want go again if Rowan wasn't coming with her and Steve agreed, so they blew that go-karting stand and this time Rowan got to drive.

Sitting beside Rowan, in charge of the music, as Rowan and Grace sang songs that Steve almost knew the words to, had him feeling all light and happy, like nothing was wrong in the world. How could it be when he had his girl beside him, the Hawaiian sun was beaming down on them, and a light breeze was cooling his body as he listened to her beautiful voice sing to him. He fully understood why Danny was so keen on going on every Sing-Along Grace and Rowan had. It made him feel all warm and fuzzy and undeniably proud to know that almost every song that gave him chills, or made his heart swell with each rising crescendo, was specially crafted by the girl who had his heart and were… most of the time… about him.

Rowan drove them to the Halona Blow Hole, the same place they had their first date. Steve went off to treat them to snow cones and when he got back they decided to sit nicely in the sand together, to watch the waves ebb and flow and to accept the refreshing mist that erupted out of the blow hole.

It was calm, it was serene, it was everything Steve needed out of that day. The perfect resonating harmony to make up for yesterday's distaster.

They were almost through with their snow cones, it was almost time for Rowan to take Grace back to her house when Grace suddenly blurted out: "I really like this. You and Uncle Steve together. I really like it. I wish you could stay like this forever."

Steve and Rowan glanced at each other over Grace's head. Rowan's cheeks went this pink color in her surprise but Steve could only smile at her.

"Yeah, you're right, it's nice," Rowan said turning away from him. "It's even more fun with you here, Gracie."

Grace giggled and pressed a little closer into Rowan's side. Steve wrapped an arm around both of them, and pulled them close to him. For a minute there it felt like this was his family, like he was seeing a bit of his future right then and there. If this was what he had to look forward to, Steve was going to make sure he got there sooner rather than later.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

After going back to Steve's place to drop him off and pick up Grace's stuff, Rowan went over to Rachel's place to drop off Grace.

She had walked Grace up to the door, smiling as Grace ran to hug her mother. Rowan smiled to Rachel too. Rowan hadn't had a lot of contact with Rachel, she knew Rachel didn't quite approve of her influence on Grace but she hadn't flat out forbidden them from seeing each other.

Rowan, who had carried Grace's overnight bag up for her, handed it off to Rachel.

"Was everything alright?"

"Of course," Rowan answered immediately. "Had a nice day out, kind of filled her up on junk food though, not gonna lie."

"That's fine," Rachel said waving it off, and letting Rowan come into the house. "I'm just glad she had fun seeing as Daniel couldn't be bothered to…"

"Hey… he went through something traumatic… and he didn't know you'd miss a plane and stay an extra day in Vegas," Rowan growled. Rachel's eyes bugged out like she hadn't expected that from Rowan.

She smiled nicely at her even though Rowan could tell that Rachel was not impressed with her. "You're right, I'm sorry, that was insensitive of me. Of course I'm glad that Daniel is alright and I am very grateful that you were there to take her in."

Rowan could sense that Rachel was upset. She got the distinct feeling that maybe Rachel wasn't over Danny which explained the way she snapped about his trip. She put a hand to her arm to comfort her and then immediately wished she hadn't.

Rachel yelped at the static shock that hit her and Rowan withdrew her hand immediately but the damage was done she had seen it.

"He's Danny's," she breathed out. Rachel stared at her horrified cradling her arm to her chest.

"What?"

At that moment the second child in the house, Charlie came running in crying "mommy, mommy, mommy," and hugging Rachel tightly. Rowan stared at the little boy, with his mop of blonde hair and familiar eyes.

Oh god. No. this was not a secret she was supposed to have, this was a secret that Rowan couldn't keep to herself.

"He's not Stan's," Rowan growled. "Is he?"

Rachel sent Charlie off and then turned to Rowan, ready to lie to her, ready to throw her off the scent but it was too late. "Now… Danny mentioned that you do this… psychic vision thing but…"

"He's Danny's. I know it, you know it, don't bother lying to me," Rowan snapped and Rachel's shoulders sagged. Great. She couldn't have even bothered to try to dissuade her? "Okay, look. I can't keep this to myself, you understand? Because if I don't tell Danny and he finds out I know he'll kill me. So you have to tell him, and I suggest you do it soon cause little boy is sick. Got some rare blood thing and he's going to need Danny's marrow or something."

"What are you…?"

"No. Don't argue. Don't ask stupid questions. Just fucking tell him. Tell him or I will!" Rowan ordered and then she turned on heel and stormed out. Already her chest was tightening around the secret, trying to put it out and away. With each step she took away from that house the vision got a little bit fuzzier. She didn't want it anyway. She didn't want to be in the middle of this and with any lucky she wouldn't have to be. With any lucky, by the time Danny came back she wouldn't remember the vision at all.


	112. Chapter 112

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Are you guys ready for the wild chapters? Cause they're coming up. The next 9 chapters are gonna be nail-biting, anxiety rides. This does not including ch 116 which is gonna be fluffy AF and chapter 121 where you guys are gonna get everything you've been asking me for since I started this fanfiction. Guys I honestly thought I'd never get here. We're a year in and I'm still going. No story has ever held my attention for this long and I love each and every one of my readers and thank you so much for sticking with this with me. You've made this whole experience fun. I'd like to say we're half way, but I don't think we are. Maybe close to it… but not quite there. I will admit there are going to be a few more speed bumps (an entire season of speed bumps) but after season 6 everything is smooth sailing. Don't forget to review, I love to hear what you guys have to say._

 _P.S. to the reader who was worried about Rowan swallowing water, she was just be dramatic, she wasn't actually in that much danger, she was probably underwater for less than 30 seconds before Steve went and got her, she always wasn't that far down cause the board was keeping her upish._

 _P.S.S. Great first aid knowledge AJ! I was a lifeguard for a very long time and everything you just listed off are things that piss me off in movies and TVs too. But sometimes you just have to let it go, it's just the move magic, it doesn't have to be right, it just has to be entertaining._

Chapter 112 

* * *

Spear fishing was supposed to be fun. Chin was having fun, he wasn't so sure about his companions though. He returned to the surface with the fish he had just speared to find Grover still in his little boat looking all sorts of unimpressed with the fish Chin had just bagged.

As he hoisted himself up into his own boat, Chin laughed. "Come on, Captain. Don't give up. You'll get the hang of it."

Grover shook his head. "You're wasting your time on this old dog. I'm a casting rod-off-the-jetty, sandwiches-and-beer kind of guy. This harpoon stuff ain't my thing."

Chin swallowed his laughter and the offer to set Grover and Danny up on a fishing date as the two of them seemed to like the same kind of fishing. Instead he said: "Spear fishing." Which merely caused Grover to frown at him.

"I stand corrected," he growled and then showed him the last fish he had speared which was about the size of Chin's wallet. Chin chuckled again and decided to change tactics.

"Ah, I guess McGarrett was right," he said with a sigh busying himself with getting his own fish off his spear.

"Right about what?" Grover asked suddenly sitting up straighter and not sulking anymore.

"Oh, nothing. He just said that you'd never catch on quite as quick as he did."

Grover looked mightily offended while Chin had to bite back his grin. Nothing worked better than pitting two macho men with an already built in rivalry against one another.

"Oh, so McGarrett said that, did he?"

Yes, Grover was playing right into his plan. "Oh, now, come on, don't let that get under your skin. The guy's a Navy SEAL. He grew up on the island. You're a city boy," he said. Grover was sulking again. When he was quiet for a longer Chin decided to dig in a little bit more. "He was a natural, though, I gotta say. He took home half a dozen fish on his very first time out."

"How many?"

"Half a dozen," Chin repeated already knowing where this was going.

Grover nodded, putting all of his gear back on again. "Oh, wait, wait, wait. Slow down. Hold on now. Remember that when you get over your target…." But Chin didn't get to finish cause Grover was already gone. He shook his head and behind him came the sound of someone else resurfacing. He didn't even have to turn, he knew exactly who it was.

"Chin! Chin! Chin!" Rowan cried hoisting the speared fish up above her head and to him. "Get it! Get it! Get it!"

Chin took it from her, got the fish off, and then added it to the rest of Rowan's ever growing pile. And then handed the spear back to her so she could load her gun again. That had to be her 15th fish, and it was pretty big too. She had taken to spearing fish rather well… you know, except for the taking them off the spear part. She had even managed to get 3 in one shot.

"Thank you," she said and then looked down at the crystal clear water below her already looking for her next victim.

Grover popped up again with another fish. He smiled briefly before glancing over and Rowan and saying: "Did she catch _another_ fish?"

"Uh-huh!" she cried happily. "I'm really good at this!"

"Yeah… strange, considering blood makes you pass out or puke," Grover growled.

Rowan, popping herself up on Chin's boat asked: "What do you got there?" and Grover was suddenly holding up a fish for them all to see, grinning happily.

"City boy, my ass. Take a look at that sucker!" Grover crowed. "Bigger than anything little miss has caught today."

Not true but one glance at Rowan who hid her smile by pressing her lips to her arm told Chin that both of them were just going to let Grover have it.

"How many did McGarrett get on his first try?" Grover asked.

"Half a dozen," Chin repeated.

Grover's face fell and Rowan said: "Oh wow! I did better then Steve!"

This was not going where Chin wanted things to go. "You know… I'll tell you what, that's three times bigger than anything he caught."

Grover was suddenly all smiles, beaming ear to ear. Rowan pushed away from Chin's boat and went to hers, he hoped to get out. At this rate Chin's boat was going to sink having to carry all of his fish and Rowan's.

"You got your phone?"

"Yeah."

"Take a picture and send it to him."

"Oh, come on." Chin groaned, really they were going to be that petty? "You sure you wanna kick up that hornet's nest?"

"Oh, hell, yeah, I do," Grover said.

"I mean it doesn't end well, but sure," Rowan said, swimming back to Chin's boat. "Are we leaving yet?"

Chin looked back to Grover who was frowning again and muttering to himself about Rowan and her spear fishing abilities.

"Uh… I think you got time for one more hunt," he said to her and she grinned.

"I'mma go for the big one I saw."

"Yeah a big one?" Chin asked with a grin on his face.

"Uh-huh, it's got weird looking stripes and it looks pretty big. It's fast and it's scaring away the other fish. It's like right at the bottom, so I'm… I'm gonna sneak up on it and see if I can get it."

And then Rowan was gone again.

Chin shook his head, for someone who didn't like the ocean she sure as hell took to spear fishing very well. At least she was having fun. And she hadn't gotten herself hurt or injured. Which was great because he hadn't told Steve he was bringing her out here… cause he would have worried and then Chin would have had to spend all of his time sending Steve pictures of her and giving him updates. Of course Chin had taken pictures of her, he had her with her first catch, with the picture of her with three fish on one spear, he had her looking fine underwater, he was sure Steve was going to love that one. Rowan looking like a mermaid in her purple topped bikini with green bottoms. A regular little mermaid.

He took the picture Grover wanted, sent it off to Steve and then watched Grover pull himself out of the water.

"How many does she have now?" Grover asked. Chin looked at the pile at his feet, guessed she had about twenty, looked back to Grover and quickly realized he didn't want to tell this guy that Rowan had out-fished them both. Hell she had out-fished, him, Grover and Steve combined. Instead he said: "Uh… I unno."

And then he paused. His mind replayed the last thing Rowan had said to him. It was stuck on something she said about that striped faster fish. _It's scaring the other fish away._

"You good?"

"Tiger shark," Chin breathed out. "She's gone after a tiger shark and she doesn't know it. Get to land, Lou, get to land. I gotta go get Rowan!"

Chin dove, straight under water, his own spear gun in hand, but he was too far away and Rowan had already shot the tiger shark. Chin swam as quickly as he could towards her, where she was hovering a few feet away from an angry bleeding Tiger Shark, she hadn't moved she was just floating there, staring at it as it thrashed.

And then it turned. Both Rowan and the Shark started moving at the same time. Rowan frantically trying to flap backwards, the shark simply charging her. Chin still wasn't close enough.

He raised his spear, raised it to try and shoot it before it got to her, but he never got a chance. He heard the humming, but he didn't know what it was coming from and then he got hit with an electric shock so hard it knocked him out. The world around him disappearing into an inky black for a moment before he felt a pair of hands grabbing him and pulling him upward.

Both Rowan and Chin broke through to the surface where their boats were waiting and an anxious looking Grover was waiting.

"What was that, I felt that up here…" he said.

Chin looked to Rowan, the only person he knew could cause an electrical current by herself. She wasn't hurt but she was scrambling to get back into the boat. Her spear gun was missing, it only took Chin a second to realize she had dropped it to the bottom. He glanced back down and saw that nothing was in the water with them.

The spear gun was sitting in the bottom of the sand by a dissipating cloud of red but not a single bit of marine life was swimming around them anymore. Well so much for fishing.

He looked around to all the face staring at him. Grover's concerned one and Rowan's fearful one. He knew what he had to do.

"No one tells McGarrett," Chin whispered and both Rowan and Grover nodded. This was an incident that was better if he didn't know about. Now what was he going to do with all those pictures he took?

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve was supposed to spend the morning with Rowan, and then he caught a case instead. He thought she'd be upset, she had been upset all the other mornings he had put off their breakfast date for a case, but she wasn't this morning. She happily told him that since he had bailed she could hang out with someone else. Steve naturally was quite jealous, especially when she wouldn't tell him who she had plans with.

And then she went radio silent.

Steve tried to stay calm, tried to stay focused on his case, but Grover had gone and caught a fish three time larger than anything Steve had caught on his first day spear fishing, and Rowan wasn't answering any of his texts so… you know… he was pretty fucking pissed off at that moment.

Which was why, when he got back to the palace and found Danny walking towards him he was not in a good mood. He was hoping Danny could make him feel better but… yeah… Danny hadn't sense that he was upset and therefore wasn't about making Steve feel better at that moment.

"Physical Therapy appointment?" he asked, because why else would Danny be leaving when Steve needed him.

"Yeah. Yeah. My mandatory hour of joy with Nurse Ratched, thanks to you," he growled. Oh great, he was in one of _those_ moods. Wonderful.

"Thanks to me?" Steve snapped and Danny nodded. "What you're going to blame that building collapsing on us on me?"

"Yes. Yeah. I am."

"And how exactly am I responsible?"

"Well, uh, about four years ago, you came and knocked on my door and told me I had to work with you, so I figure everything terrible that's happened to me since is your fault. You're like a cloud, a dark cloud, that never goes away," Danny explained. "And because Rowan told you not to go down there. I told you not to go down there, and you made me go down with you…"

"I didn't make you do anything…" "….uh if I didn't go with you, you were going to die, she was pretty clear…" "Yeah but she told you too and you didn't listen either so who's fault is that?"

Danny just shook his head and Steve sighed. "Do me a favour, when you see Nurse Ratched, have her check your head while she works the rest of you over, because you got damage there too."

Danny just nodded unfazed by Steve's rant. "Done? Good, cause Amber's waiting in the car."

"Amber's waiting in the car?"

"Yeah. Amber's waiting in the car. What did I say?" Danny asked and Steve just smiled. He liked Amber. He liked how happy Amber made Danny, he and Rowan were both rooting for Danny and Amber to go the distance. Rowan called them Damber, it was a ship name. She also said that after Samantha Walker aired that terrible episode that she and Steve had a ship name too. McRow. Not to be confused with McRoll which was the name people gave him and Catherine. There was also a name for Steve and Danny, which was McDanno, but it was all too confusing and distressing for Steve to think about so he tried his very hardest not to.

"Things must've gone well in Maui then."

"Indeed. They did. You look very surprised."

"Well, I mean… I'm a little surprised given your propensity to blow up relationships," Steve teased, a smirk on his face.

"My propensity to blow up relationship," Danny echoed. "This from the guy who's dating the girl of his dreams but is too afraid lock her down?"

"I've told you… I've already told you, I'm waiting for the right time to ask her… which is supposed to be at our brunch date, but between catching cases and babysitting your kid so you can go on vacation I haven't had the chance."

"Yeah, haven't had a chance… the girl lives with you."

"I want it to be perfect Danny. She keeps saying I can't be romantic…" "You can't, it's a scientifically proven fact," "and I want to prove her wrong."

"At this rate she's going to start dating someone else again."

Steve glared at him. That was uncalled for. No she wouldn't… or at least… he didn't think she would. Either way Steve was done with this conversation.

"Go to PT," he ordered. "Enjoy. I hope it hurts"

"Thanks, I will," Danny snapped turned away just as Steve did. As he rounded the corner he called out a "Love you!"

Steve was going to answer with: "I love you too," but instead he cried out in agony and found himself dropping to his knees a single hand clasped to his heart. His whole chest had gone up his flames, his heart tightened, black spots formed in front of his eyes and he suddenly couldn't breathe again. There was a ringing in his ears that blocked out the sounds of Danny rushing back to him, of Danny repeating his name over and over again.

Steve knew this feeling. He knew it like the back of his hand and he had hoped that he'd never have to feel it again.

"She just went into the void," he whispered once the attack subsided and he could breathe again.

"What?" Danny cried. "But I thought… I thought she couldn't…"

"She travelled… she… I felt it…"

"Okay… okay let's calm down. Do we know… do you know where she is? Can you feel her on the island?"

Danny helped Steve up, he watched as Steve blinked his eyes actually concentrating. Steve still found himself amazed at the link he had between he and Rowan, the strange compass in his chest that always seemed to point him in the direction of her, but at that moment it was failing him. The needle was spinning wildly round and round refusing to settle on a heading.

Steve shook his head. "No…. I… I can't."

Danny swore, well that was him not going to Physical Therapy.


	113. Chapter 113

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Friday my lovely readers! This chapter is a little longer than the last one and it's very interested. You guys get to see how far Rowan's network really goes. And you get to see Rowan and Steve being adorable, which is always a plus! The next 7 chapters are going to be harrowing. There are some cute pieces but for the most part the next seven chapters are nothing but chaos and action. But it's going to end wonderfully I promise! Don't forget to review and tell me what you think!_

Chapter 113

* * *

By the time Rowan got back to Steve's place he had called her five more times, making it a total of at least 12 calls.

She shot off a quick text.

 _Sorry. I was driving. What's up?_

She put her phone in her pocket and waited. If it was really all that important, he would just call her again and this time she'd pick up. Instead she heard the screech of tires and the sound of gravel flying everywhere which included pinging against her car. She scowled, why the hell was he peeling into their driveway? If he had chipped the paint on her GTO he was paying to get it redone again. She may make him wax her car just to have him shirtless and sweating in the drive way. She would just sit on the porch with an iced tea watching him work up a sweat.

Any excuse to get him in a shower with her.

She stepped out onto the porch in time to have Steve barrel into her, practically bowling her over. She might have fallen if he hadn't wrapped her up in a tight hug, his nails digging into her, pressing her deep into his chest as he panted into her neck.

 _What the hell had happened to upset him so deeply?_

"What's the matter, are you okay?" she asked noting that it was Danny's car in the driveway, with Danny and Amber stepping out of the car.

Danny waved to them. "See I told you she was here!" he called. "I'm going to PT!"

Rowan waved them off and then pet Steve's back.

"You're here," he whispered. "Thank god, you're here."

Rowan narrowed her eyes at him. "Where the hell did you think I went?"

"The void, you opened it, I felt it. Just like all those other times you tried to get home," he said. He pulled his head out of her neck to stare down at her. He looked traumatized, distraught, there were tears in his bright blue eyes and she realized three things at that moment.

1\. he had felt her electric attack on the tiger shark and 2. He thought she had travelled into the void so he couldn't tell the difference between the twinges and 3. he was absolutely terrified.

He looked her over, his hands gripping her shoulders, no doubt checking her for injuries. Rowan put her hands out and gripped his sides, as soon as she did Steve's head bowed to hers. She knew better then to dig into his ribs like that, she knew what that reminded him of, she knew what that did to him, but she wanted to remind him that she was there, to maybe soothe some of those fears reflected in his eyes.

She did her job a little too well.

When he finally looked up he was angry. So very angry. "Why did you open the void? Where were you going? What happened? Where you in danger?"

She had been in danger. Very much so in danger. She was looking a very angry Tiger Shark in the eye and had she not pulled an electrical current from who knows where it might have bit her right in half. Chin had said she had basically become a giant eel, but that electrical current also scared everything else on the reef away too. Rowan had no idea she even had that power, let alone whether or not she could wield it again. It was like the void had answered her frantic internal cry for help so maybe it was a one-off thing.

And she couldn't tell Steve any of that. He would be so upset to find out that had happened and he hadn't been there for her. He wouldn't let her out of his sight if he found out. She had learned her lesson, she wouldn't go back in the ocean after this, clearly her and the ocean were not friends. Message received. She wouldn't need Steve standing over her and making sure she didn't go past her knees when she went to the beach with him. If she ever went to the beach again.

"No, of course not, Steve," she said with what she hoped was a warm smile on her face. "I was over at Atlantic Studios, one of my songs was getting bid on and the buyers wanted to hear the chorus done a few different ways."

It wasn't a full lie, that had happened to her just a few days ago. Except she already had the chorus done up a few different ways and she just had to send the recordings over.

Steve's eyes narrowed at her. Like he didn't believe her. "Then why did I feel it then? If you didn't open up the void…"

"Well, it sounds like heart attack-like symptoms… how do you know you didn't just have a heart attack?"

Steve balked at the idea, he let her go to put his hands on his hips and glare down at her. " _I did not have a heart attack_!" he cried. "I am a young man, I'm in the prime of my health…"

"You're not that young anymore and you live a very stressful life, I bet your blood pressure is through the roof…"

Steve's mouth fell open. "You think I'm old? Is that what you're saying?"

Rowan laughed at him, god he sounded so offended. She hid her smile. "Course I do, you're practically ancient compared to me…" "It's a nine year difference, Rowan, it is not that big of a difference…" "…and you know… that the only reason I'm with you, you know… to cash in those pension checks once you eventually die of old age… which should be like… what? Three days?"

Steve realized she was joking now, she saw it in the way his smile grew on his face and started glowing in his eyes. He reached out for her with a playful scowl on his face. "Oh yeah? Is that it? That's all you want me for?" he asked as he hoisted her up over his shoulder. Rowan squealed his name but that didn't stop him from walking into the house. Rowan had to reach out to shut the front door as Steve was too busy taking her to the stairs.

"Really, sex, sex is all you want me for?" Rowan shot back. She said it in a jokingly tone but it was one of her insecurities.

"Well I mean… you do have other uses, like breakfast… I mean, I like first breakfast, but second breakfast is also good…"

Rowan hid her flaming cheeks in his shoulder. He was teasing her, she knew he was. He happened to love the first breakfast tradition, which involved him waking her up with his tongue, eating her out before she'd pull him up to her and demand he fuck her properly. It was an every morning tradition, except for the morning they had Grace, because Rowan liked to sleep in and he liked to go for morning runs or swims. There was nothing she liked better than waking up to him on her, glistening from the sweat or sea water, and he liked nothing more than to hear those delightful moans and squeals, he especially liked it when she'd say his name, his full name. Whisper it, scream it, moan it, didn't matter, if she said his full name he went wild.

He got to the second floor and Rowan used it, a husky moan of his name and suddenly she was up against a wall. His mouth slammed down on hers and Rowan intertwined herself around him, arms and legs.

God this man drove her wild. He drove her up the wall… in more ways then one… but she wouldn't have it any other way.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

To say Steve was distracted was an understatement. He couldn't keep his mind off of what had happened that morning. It kept bouncing between that terrible twinge and the time he spent with Rowan in his bed… and in his hallway.

If she hadn't traveled had he maybe… actually… had a heart attack?

It seemed unreasonable to him, that he, who was crazy healthy would suddenly have heart problems. Not when usually that type of spasm was directly caused by Rowan fucking with the void. He hadn't felt a large one like that in a very long time though which made him the most nervous. Mainly because he thought she couldn't open the void anymore.

She was supposed to be devolving not getting stronger. She was supposed to be out of energy. But he knew she could still pull from the void. She did it to get her visions, she did it to find him and Danny beneath all that rubble, and she did it to destroy the camera with their IA recordings. But those had been small, they had been flutterings. This had been… very, very large. Large like all those times she had travelled into the void, like when Hassan was going to cut his head off.

And then Grover started lording that larger fish over him like he had won the goddamn fishing Olympics.

It shouldn't have been bothering Steve but… you know… it really did. If he wasn't the best then what was he?

So maybe… just maybe… he was being a little too mean with Dawn Hatfield… a wanna be terrorist, an American grown white girl who thought she was a jihadist super star.

He was glaring down at her because he needed her to talk, he needed to know where the bombs were, he needed to know who else they were working with, who their masters were.

"There was enough hardware in that house to make three bombs, Dawn," he said to her. "Why don't you tell me your plan?"

But Dawn stayed quiet which meant Steve had to keep going, had to spitball ideas out there.

"Maybe detonate an IED on the road leading into the Air Force base? Wipe out some innocent soldiers, then a couple of secondary devices to shred up the first responders? That sound about right?"

It was the kind of attacks these people did on a regular basis, it was generic, just like this white bitch.

Dawn finally looked up to him, finally acknowledged his presence, she had an unimpressed glare on her face that Steve wanted to slap off. "Innocent soldiers?" she echoed. "They drop bombs thousands of feet in the air, killing innocent women and children like cowards."

"Cowards?" Steve snapped. Yeah like she was any better. "You wanna talk about cowards? You should have said so. Okay, let's talk about cowards. Why don't we start with your boy Nazaria, your mentor? Let's start with him. Where is he?"

Dawn scoffed at him and looked away like this was funny.

"He's hiding in a cave in the mountains of Yemen. You think that traitor cares about you? You think that piece of human garbage gives a damn that your friends are dead and that you're gonna spend the rest of your God-forsaken life rotting in some federal prison?"

He was yelling, like full out screaming at this girl and she was just laughing she thought this was fucking funny. It wasn't funny. This was serious. And knowing Rowan's propensity for just stumbling onto his cases, he wouldn't be surprised if she managed to find the active fucking bomb by stepping on.

"Muhammed Nazaria is a warrior," she growled. No Steve was the warrior, that man was a scholarly coward who never got his own hands dirty. "He's a soldier of God, pursuer of the truth and the light, okay? He is the leader."

"Leaders lead from the front." Like Steve did. "And I don't see him, do you? Where is he? Don't you get it, Dawn? They found you, okay? Because they look for people like you. They look for people who are vulnerable, people who are emotionally fragile, who have a big wound on the inside, who are trying to get back at somebody for something. Make you feel like you're an important part of something, a cause, a cause bigger than you. So big, in fact that it's worth giving your life for."

"I am a soldier for Allah and we must fight you as you fight us. Those of us that believe must fight in the cause of god."

"What are you talking about?" Steve thundered. "These words coming out of your mouth, they're not even your words. They're phrases that have been cherry-picked from a holy book and tailored to fit the lies they've told you."

Dawn wasn't listening to a single word he was yelling, he was going to have to try to kind compassionate route. He got down on one knee and tried to look like he didn't want to strangle her, Dawn wouldn't look him in the eye so that helped.

"Okay, listen to me. I get that it was rough growing up. Your mom was an alcoholic, your old man, he was never around, I get it. How old were you when he died? You were, like, eight or nine, right?" Oh, she was looking at him now. With nothing but contempt. She needed to realize that people's pasts didn't define them. Just like his past didn't define him. "I lost my old man too. I know what it's like to lose a parent." Hell he had lost both essentially and at no point did he turn to terrorism.

She was shaking now she was so angry. Oh maybe he had hit a nerve. "I didn't lose him. He died, okay? He died fighting your imperialistic war against the peaceful children of Allah."

Wow. This girl was very, very far gone. "You're wrong. Your dad was a hero, okay? He was a patriot, a soldier fighting for his country Dawn. You gotta remember him. What would he make of all this?"

She swallowed and looked away. "You gotta know, somewhere inside you, that this is wrong. Some shred of regret."

"My only regret is that you stopped me."

Steve just stared up at her horrified. Jesus Christ this girl was certifiable. The door buzzed and suddenly swung open. Steve would have been concerned if he had felt that blanketing sense of calm come over him.

"Hey Steve," Rowan said, sliding into the room and shutting the door behind her. "I see you're having some trouble breaking her. Would… would you, maybe, like help?"

Steve got up off his knees, surprised. He hadn't known she was there, he didn't know why she had come to visit either. Not that he wasn't glad to see her, but he was busy and he didn't have the time to dedicate to her that he wanted to. Dawn was abandoned as he turned to Rowan.

"Uh… she's uh… I don't think you can help her, Ro."

"Course I can't help her, but I can break her," she said confidently coming into the room and smiling prettily at Dawn who just scoffed at her. She turned her eyes back to Steve. "Sometimes you have to fight crazy with crazy."

Steve didn't want her involved with this. He couldn't rely on her to help him solve all his cases and selfishly he wanted to keep Rowan away from all the ugliness in his life. But Rowan was smiling up at him with a smile so sincere and wonderful that he couldn't turn her down.

"If he couldn't break me you won't be able to."

"Au contraire, mon amour," Rowan purred. "Why… this is my specialty."

"I think… I mean, thank you for the offer, but she might be…"

"Oh Steven, don't you remember the stories? They didn't call me the Ice Queen for nothing. You just need to find the right strings to pull. The right points to put pressure on," she said to him. Steve didn't have the heart to tell her that Dawn Hatfield didn't care about anything but her cause and therefore hand no points to put pressure on, but Rowan was staring down at her. "So what do you do when all they care about is the cause? Well… you take down the cause."

"You can't take down a cause, Rowan…"

"No. But I can take down her faction."

Steve stared at her. She could what now? Rowan carefully walked around Dawn like a lion sizing up her prey. "Let me guess, this leader of yours. He filled a void, right? That father figure you missed, that direction you seemed to be lacking. He gave you back a purpose and on top of that he made you feel beautiful, didn't he?"

Dawn said nothing, she shivered when Rowan propped herself up against the back of her chair, she carefully put her hands onto Dawn's head and suddenly Dawn yelped in pain.

"Oh I'm sorry dear, did I shock you there?" a vision, she had gotten a vision. "It must have made you feel special. Someone as charismatic as Zanarnia…" "Nazaria Rowan, it's Muhammed Nazaria." "Yeah, I'm never going to get that. Don't interrupt me Steven. As I was saying, my darling. It must have been wonderful to have someone like… him… paying you attention, telling you were special. All those moonlit strolls on the beach. Let's see if I remember, third island of the Socotra Archipelago? Nice little compound there. The Radical Leader and his chosen one…"

Rowan walked out from behind her and Dawn just stared at her horror on her face. "Follow the coast there's a trail that leads up the hills, the trees have markings… I'll draw them for you. They lead to a cave, which… when you go down… leads to an under-ground compound. He has…. Seven men, two of which are personal body guards and are with them at all times. Then there's one cook, the others keep the perimeter safe, they take turns going to town for supplies, they rotate so it's not the same person each time. There's a Ferrier, Karim Habashi, say the right code to him and he takes you to their personal dock, where one of the perimeter guards take you up to him. I believe this month, the code is: Praise Allah and go with strength to rain his words down like fire against the non-believers."

Dawn stared at her, the absolute horror that was painted on her face was enough for Steve know that Rowan had just gotten everything right.

"Your army… your soldiers… they won't…"

"Army? Soldiers?" Rowan echoed cutting her off. She laughed as if it were hilarious. "Oh no, darling, I'm not going to send in the army. I'm going to call up my own little faction and I'm going to turn his own men against him…"

"You couldn't… the cause…"

"Not even your noble cause can stand against the siren call of _money_. Don't you know who I am? I'm Rowan Pierce," Rowan hissed. Dawn's eyes had gone wide in horror, she knew the name. Everyone knew the name. Rowan had knelt down in front of her and was getting closer to her, her hands inching towards her thighs. "Do you know what we're going to do? We're going to turn his men against him. We're going to run through his compound killing everyone, and then we're going to torture them, we're going to make them give up every single member of your faction and then I will send someone after every member until each one of you is dead. And do you know what they're going to hear? When they beg us, when they demand to know why this is happening, the last thing any of them will ever hear is that Dawn Hatfield delivered them to their deaths."

And then Rowan's hands were on her, the girl screamed in terror and Rowan's shoulders slumped. Rowan looked back up to her, her eyes the darkest blue Steve had ever seen them.

"Say good-bye to your cause, Dawn."

Dawn started to scream, no words just a rage induced howls that echoed after them. Rowan left, taking Steve with her and when the door shut silencing Dawn's tantrum she turned and said: "I have more than just the location of Zanarnia. I know who's been helping her, and they have families, families they'll give up info for."

Steve nodded, smiling, he didn't even bother to correctly pronounce Nazaria's name. He smiled because without her, solving this case would have taken longer.

"I also have a long list of other names running around in my head, I should write them down before I forget them," she said. "I think they're the rest of the cell though if you get Nazaria he's got a master list hidden in a hole under his mattress. Wo has contacts in Yemen, competing factions who would love to muscle him out, so if you really want him to suffer say the world I'll send them down."

God, sometimes he loved that Rowan came from another world, but it was at times like these, looking into those blue eyes that usually shone lightly and brightly, he saw a little bit more of that sociopath and a little bit more of that ice cold poison that everyone kept warning him about.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve had taken a lot of pleasure in telling Dawn that Rowan had been right about everything. She had been right about the people who had been mentoring Dawn, about the location of Muhammad Nazaria who had already been captured, and they had already captured more of her faction.

Dawn had howled. Raged. Screamed and cried and Steve had left her there.

He had wanted to take Rowan home, wanted to wrap her up in his blankets, worship her body and forget the drama of the world. So he was quite disappointed when he was told that instead they would be going to dinner with his Five-0 family to eat the stupid fucking fish that Grover had caught.

Enough to feed all of them. Well, except Rowan didn't eat fish.

He sat at the table, wearing a white shirt with blue Hawaiian palm trees printed on it. It was a shirt Rowan had said she liked, but it was a shirt that meant they couldn't sneak off for a quicky, not when her nails were liked knives in his back. She was sitting back in a nice navy-blue summer dress with golden seaweed hems. her hair was half back leaving tendrils for Steve to play with like he liked and the two were playing footsie under the table. He had a beer in one hand and Rowan's hand in the other. He felt calm, he felt cool and collected.

Until the waitress brought over that fucking fish.

"Mm, have mercy. Will you look at my fish? She sure does clean up nice doesn't she?" Grover asked and Steve rolled his eyes. The waitressed dropped Rowan's pasta dish in front of her and she immediately let go of his hand. Now free, that hand went across the back of her chair, his fingers twisting into her lose hair almost absently.

"She sure does," Chin said. Rowan glanced to fish and went. "I can smell it from here and I think I'mma gag."

Grover scowled at her but moved the plate a little bit away from her. Steve shot Rowan a little smile of appreciation and she winked at him. God this girl, she had done that for him. What had he done to deserve this girl?

"Well, listen ladies and gentlemen, before we dig in, I'd just like to take the time to say a few words about my worthy opponent," Grover said standing up. Steve stopped playing with Rowan's hair to press his hand to his forehead, god, why wouldn't this man shut up? "To become so strong and mighty, you've spent many years in the depths of the ocean, avoiding the nets of the trawlers, dodging the fisherman's spear…"

Steve turned to Chin. "Did you write this?"

"Nope it's all him."

Danny smiled at Steve's discomfort and obvious jealousy. "That's good, I like it. Keep going."

Fuck Danny, he was _never_ on his side. Steve was starting to think he did it just to piss him off.

"You were not one to be fooled by the baited hook, or by the shiny lure, oh no. You knew no fear, for you were king of the sea, that is until that fateful moment, this morning when you swam around that reef and found yourself looking deeply into the eyes of a might warrior…"

"Stop. Stop there. We're done, we're bored, we're hungry," Steve snapped, because he was all of those things and he just… he just needed this nonsense to stop. "Pass the damn fish around the table."

"I'm not bored," Danny said with a teasing smile on his face. Steve kicked him under the table causing Danny to yelp and everyone else to laugh. Rowan immediately slapped his shoulder.

"Don't kick people," she chided. "You're not a mule."

"Actually, he is. He's a stubborn mule."

"Do you want me to kick you?" Rowan hissed to Danny. "Cause I can. And I'm wearing stilettos, I can impale you if I get the right angle and the right amount of strength behind it.."

Danny raised his hands in mock surrender and Steve smiled proudly at his girl as the fish got passed around. He gave the plate to Rowan who shook her head. "Nope get that thing away from me."

He meant her to pass it to Chin but clearly Rowan wasn't even going to touch the damn plate it came on. Chin snatched it up before Steve could drop it in her lap just to annoy her and Grover.

"Mm, it tastes so good," Grover said. "It's like liquid it just melts in your mouth. Go ahead," he goaded as Steve forced himself to take a bite. "Move that around in your mouth. How do you like that?"

Damn. It was good. Steve wanted it to not be good. But it was. It was really good. He tried to his scowl but it obviously didn't work. "You know what? It tastes like a suicidal fish who gave him life to pump up your ego."

Rowan leant back in her chair. "Oh, here we go," she said with a sigh.

"Yeah, you're just gonna keep right on flogging that dead horse," Grover said with a shake of his head.

"No, just keeping it real, man."

"Real? Let me tell you what's real. You, me, fish-off. This weekend."

Rowan was immediately sitting up straighter in her chair. "Uh, no. I've already called dibs on him for this weekend," she said pointing a finger at Grover. "No one's fucking with my weekend."

Steve actually thought the whole fish off was a good idea. It would put this argument to rest. "Uh… well… I'm sure we can set aside some time this weekend for a fish off."

Rowan scoffed at him. " _Set aside some time…._?" She echoed and then she threw down her napkin. "Okay, that's it, you know what? Enough of this. I can't take it anymore. Why are either of you bragging? This wasn't an extreme sport. Spear fishing was easy, both of you suck. Let it go," Rowan snapped.

Both Grover and Steve turned to her and started lecturing her on the intricacies and inherent difficult of spear fishing and Rowan answered by lifting a hand to silence both of them.

"It's not difficult and I can prove it. Me. Clumsy, useless me, also went spear fishing with Grover and Chin this morning, also on my first try, and managed to bag twice as many both of you together, and multiple fish twice the size of the one Grover caught," she snapped she then poked Steve aggressively with each word: "Spear. Fishing. Is. Not. Hard. Ya'll. Just. Suck."

For a minute the whole table was silent. No one could believe it. And then the noise started up again, laughter from everyone else and a loud "WHA?!" from both Grover and McGarrett. Steve blinked his eyes at her. "Wait a second, that's where you were this morning? You went spear fishing with Chin and Grover?"

"Yes, and I'm pretty good at it. I bagged like three in one shot," Rowan said she then turned to Grover and said: "You were there for that."

"You went spear fishing… you puke at the sight of blood!" Steve shouted. Grover slapped his elbow and said: "That's what I said!"

All eyes turned to Chin. "See… this is why I didn't want to tell y'all…"

"WAIT, it's _true_?!" Grover thundered. "She caught a fish bigger than mine?"

"She caught more fish than me?!" Steve asked appropriately horrified to have been out fished by his Rowan.

"I caught twenty-one fish in total, which is the same number as my birthday and my largest fish was over 50lbs," Rowan said primly. "I sold all of them for a profit of 350 dollars. And for your information, the blood doesn't really bother me if it like immediately dissolves into water but I made Chin reel in each and every single one of those suckers I caught cause I was not gonna touch them."

"She… uh… she's a sniper. Shoots from a far so fish don't think to swim away. Doesn't work for anyone but her," Chin explained and everyone groaned.

"Okay, fine, then she's definitely has to come to the fish off so we can out fist her," Steve cried. And then Rowan, Grover and Chin were all wearing the same face. One of blank determination, and they were all avoiding his eyes. Oh god. What had happened? He narrowed his eyes at her and asked: "You told me you were at Atlantic this morning… why did you lie to me about going spear-fishing? Why do you look so suspicious right now?"

"I didn't want you to worry. I didn't want anyone to know how good I was cause Grover was so proud of the fish and you were so proud of the amount of fish you caught…" "Why the hell are you lying to me?"

Rowan's eyes widened but she wouldn't look at him, Steve was now turning between Grover and Chin to tell him the truth. "Why does it matter? The point is this… I can safely say that I will not be going anywhere near the ocean ever again," Rowan said to him.

"I second her not going anywhere near the ocean," Chin said and Grover raised his glass to that too. Now that was definitely very suspicious.

"Wait… why… what happened?" Steve asked suddenly very concerned. "Guys…"

Grover shook his head. "No. We swore we wouldn't speak of it."

"Okay, you can't say shit like that and then not expect us to want to know," Steve snapped and Danny nodded as if it all made sense. "Does this have something to do with the chest pains I felt this morning?" Rowan made a face and Steve growled at her. "Oh my god, it does! Something happened out on the ocean, didn't it? That's why you lied to me about where you were! What happened? Rowan!"

All three guilty parties exchanged glances but both Grover and Chin were staring at Rowan. She was the one who brought up the fact that she was there, when the plan was to clearly never do that, because Steve wasn't supposed to know. So it reasoned that it would be fair for Rowan to be the one to break the news of the incident to her over-protective… whatever Steve was to her.

"Kay… so… maybe… I slightly… got confused about what kind of fish I was shooting at… and maybe, I kinda, sort of, accidentally… a little bit… shot a shark."

The table went silent. Chin glared at Rowan who went quiet and avoided all of their eyes. "And?" he prompted because she couldn't end the story there and she was going to have to admit what she did.

"And… it might have charged at me… cause you know… I made it mad. And… I may or may not have panicked… and I may or may not have accidently caused a bit of an electrical current…that nearly killed Chin but you know… at least it startled the shark." "It startled all the marine life off the goddamn reef." "Shut up Chin. The point is, I'm not going back in the ocean. It keeps trying to kill me…" "I think the fact that you shot at a Tiger Shark is why you nearly died today…" Oh My God Chin! Shut up! The point is I'm not going back in the ocean every again, you can't make me."

"You… you shot a tiger shark and tried to void away… and then you lied to me…"

Rowan turned to him calmly and asked: "Are you freaking out?"

Steve couldn't believe she asked him that. He threw up his hands in frustration as he turned fully in his chair to look stare at her with the panic he felt illuminating his face. "Of course, I'm freaking out, Rowan!"

"And that is why I lied to you."

She turned away from him like that was the end of the conversation while his friends and co-workers giggled around him like this whole exchange was funny and not fucking terrifying.

"Okay no, this is not funny. I was so concerned about this morning that actually set up an appointment to go to the doctor in case I did have a real heart attack!"

"And that's a good thing for your health, you should get a check up, just to make sure that you're okay. But babe, I promise, if you go on this bet with Grover, I will cheer you on from the safety of the shore. Kay? So Danny can throw down 40 bucks on Grover and I'll throw down 40 on you and we'll split the profits fifty-fifty," she said.

"Danny's gonna… Danny's gonna bet against me?"

Danny shrugged. "Well someone has to." And Steve narrowed his eyes them all.

"Look, this fish-off is clearly happening," Grover said ignoring Rowan's huff of indignation. "Biggest catch will be the winner, your girl can come but uh… little miss generator is staying on land and as far away from sharks as she can."

Steve turned to him and then looked back at Rowan who smiled prettily at him as if he wasn't going to scream at her the second he got her back to his place. She believed in him and that was enough.

"Fine, you're on," Steve said taking Grover's offered hand. When they were done shaking he turned back to Rowan. "And you… you are in a lot of trouble."

Rowan groaned and sunk down into her seat. As everyone around them laughed, Steve put an arm around her shoulder, wondering if he'd ever get used to that feeling he got when she came close to him, wondering if she'd ever stop scaring him. Rowan dropped her head to his shoulder and Steve decided that none of that mattered, this… this siting around a table with all his friends with Rowan pressed to his side… this made every scare worth it. This was all he was ever going to need for the rest of his life.

"Okay, now that we got that out of the way… someone wanna talk me through this void and electrical shit, cause I still don't understand?" Grover asked and Steve groaned.

 _Fuck._ He was not ready for this conversation. He just was not.


	114. Chapter 114

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hello my lovely readers! We've reached it… we've reached the chaos. This first chapter is not that chaotic, there's not much that's really going to happen other then we're setting it up for the chaos to come. We do get to see a little bit more of Domestic Rowan and Steve so I hope you guys are enjoying that. We're getting a little bit of more of Rowan's backstory, plus a little bit more knowledge of Rowan's criminal-esque history. GUYS! We're almost to 700 reviews. This is amazing to me! Really, I'm just so… grateful. Thank you for all your support, please continue to give me all your support and I will see you guys on Wednesday!_

Chapter 114

* * *

Poker night at McGarrett's was supposed to be a quiet night with his friends but somehow over the course of a week it had become a whole thing for charity. He was fine with that because it was for a good cause and because Rowan dealt with the planning and spacing and everything else for the event. He was originally supposed to help but they had a last minute case but she was more than capable of putting together that party. They were having great fun except for the fact that he was currently losing and his stubborn, competitive streak was coming right out. But what he did like was the amazing company and having Rowan sitting beside him.

She hadn't wanted to come originally; he had had to twist her arm into it. He had spent the hour before as they were busy with last minute set up teaching her some of the techniques but she hadn't seemed to get it. She was extra giggly today, acting extra vapid which was weird for her.

Catherine had come in and immediately said she didn't want to sit at a table with Rowan cause Rowan had won every hand the last time she had played her. Granted they were only playing for candy and their other player had been a 12 year old Steve had found at the HPD and helped find his missing dad.

For the last couple rounds though, Rowan had picked up the game. Quite well. Not only had she not asked him for any help, or showed him her cards and asked for advice, but she had won. Each and every single time.

Steve glanced to Rowan who was sitting staring doe-eyed at everyone, blinking her blue eyes and smiling in that strange way and then down to his cards. He had good cards this time. He just didn't have enough money to call Nick's insane bet.

Steve nudged Rowan. "Hey, uh… could you…"

"No," she answered quickly. "No I will not give you any more money."

Steve stared at her, a frown on his face. She had no problem footing him before, but now, now that she was winning big pots, she wouldn't share. He was going to say something about it but Rowan just had to pin him with that icy cold stare for him to turn to Danny and repeat the question just not as politely as he had attempted to ask Rowan.

"Stake me. I need some money for a rebuy."

"You've rebought three times already. That's not including all the chips you keep sneaking from Ro," Danny snapped, which won a: "He what?" from Rowan who was suddenly glaring at him. Steve ignored him and continued to stare at Danny imploring him to help. "Why don't you push that little stack and go all in?"

"I got a monster hand here, Danny," he argued and Rowan scoffed.

"Don't give him money Danny, he does not have a monster hand," she said.

Steve turned a glare at her, the girl didn't even know if her cards were good half the time, they were, but she had no idea. Who was she to say that his cards weren't good? "How would you even know that? You haven't seen my cards," he snapped instead.

"The laws of probability alone are enough to prove you're not a sound bid. Basic high school statistics are also against you. Not to mention your terrible track record. You are not a horse to bet on when it comes to poker, my darling."

"Laws of probability… Rowan you failed high school math, so excuse me if I don't take your calculations at face value."

Around the table their friends avoid their eyes but laughed to themselves, beside him Rowan gasped and then her smile turned into a thin lined frown.

"Why would you announce that to the table?" Rowan asked him instead. "Are you trying to make sure you don't get laid tonight? If so, you're doing a great job of it."

"Jesus will one of you just give him the money?" Nick cried.

"Why does it have to be _my_ money?" Danny and Rowan whined at the same time.

"It's for a good cause. It's for charity. It's for the HPD Bereavement Fund."

"Wait a second, I don't get to keep this money?" Rowan asked. And Steve turned to her, he had told her that, hadn't he? "You mean to tell me I memorized every fucking hand for no reason?" That seemed to be a rhetorical question because she leant back and sighed. "Kay, calm down. It's for a charity, can't be a monster all the time."

That last sentence was quietly said to herself. But Steve caught it. He had also caught all the times she had been muttering under breath, muttering numbers. Apparently… she had been memorizing what cards they had been playing?

Steve stared at her hard. A theory forming in his mind. "Rowan… are you… can you count cards?"

Rowan seemed genuinely surprised that he asked her that. She blinked her eyes at him and put on an air of innocence that Steve could see through now.

"What? Me? You just told everyone I failed high school math…"

"But did you really? I mean I haven't seen your report cards…" "Who brags about failing high school math?" "And you're doing surprisingly well for a beginner."

"Am I though? Am I doing well?"

"Rowan… look at your goddamn pile, you've practically cleaned us out. Are you hustling us?"

"I unno what'chu talking about McGarrett… but it's starting to sound an awful lot like you're a sore looser which is not an attractive quality in a boyfriend."

"I'm not… we agreed no labels," he reminded her quietly despite her hating it when he did that. He quickly changed topics before she could argue. "Don't change the topic. I think you're playing us because, to me, this looks and sound like, word for word, your Professional Hustle."

Danny's mouth fell open. He pointed at Rowan with a gobsmacked look and echoed: " _Professional_!" in a reverent tone.

Rowan glared at him. "I don't know what you're talking about," she said through grit teeth, her eyes wide in warning. It was how Steve knew he was right.

"It is. This is it, isn't it? You're not Rowan you're the Professional right now!" He crowed and Rowan threw her hand down and leant back in her chair glaring at him as she folded her arms over her chest.

"Someone explain this _professional_ business to me cause I ain't following," Grover ordered and Danny turned to him.

"It is where Rowan pretends to be an idiot and then smokes us all with her skills," Danny said and everyone at the table groaned as they realized that that was exactly what had been happening.

"And it was working until _someone_ opened his goddamn mouth," she growled glaring at Steve. "I wish Trevor were here, he would have just shut his mouth and split the fucking profits with me. But noooooo, someone had to be all high and mighty. You're definitely not getting laid tonight, asshole. Matter of fact, go home with Danny I've kicked you out."

Steve groaned and threw down his own hand, shaking his head. Fuck. "It's my house," at the same time Danny muttered: "It sounds like your brother is an enabler."

Rowan ignored him, folded her arms over her chest and sniffed indignantly at him. "Fine, I'll go home with Chin then..."

"Rowan!" Steve snapped knowing fully that he was not going to let Rowan go home with Chin tonight. That wasn't in any set of cards. He was fully and completely used to waking up with her in his bed, there was no going back now.

"I thought _the Professional_ was a thing you did with drag racing," Danny said to her before the two of them could get into an even louder or heated argument.

Rowan shrugged. "Well yeah that's what it evolved into. It was our most lucrative hustle. Actually, it started off with crazy eights… that started at Elphinstone… it's a sleep away camp that my brother and I went to every summer. Anyway, we'd play for candy, and we always acted like we had no idea what we were doing, really only worked the first three nights we were there. When we got older crazy eights became Poker, which is even easier to hustle at because I can very easily convince people that I have no idea how to play. You should see me at blackjack though, I'm lethal at blackjack."

"But you can really count cards."

"Uhm… I mean, if we're playing blackjack sure. But you can't count cards in Poker if you guys were to properly shuffle and you're not. I've got a general idea of what each of you has and I know all your tells. So I'm fairly certain that most of y'all have nothing that can beat me."

"You failed high school math but you can count cards?" Danny teased.

"Okay look, school never made sense to me. But when it comes to real world applications me and math get along quite well. I used advanced calculus to calculate the trajectory of a jump in a car once. Didn't even know I that I knew advanced calculus I never took it in school. Anyway… it used to drive my parents crazy," Rowan snapped.

"We need to take this girl to Vegas," Grover said.

Rowan shook her head. "Naw, I've been black listed in every major gambling house in Vegas, and all the ones on the east coast of Canada," she answered absent going back to color coding her chips. "The only ones I can gamble in are the illegal ones and their stakes are always much higher than just loosing a bit of money."

Everyone stared at her. She took in their stares and blinked her eyes. Steve wondered if she realized that in the world she probably wasn't blacklisted anywhere. "Did I never tell you guys about the six months my brother and I lived off of gambling in Vegas?" she asked. And when she got dry _no_ s from every at the table she nodded. "Oh, my bad. Uh, in the months between our last championship and me going solo, my brother and I lived off gambling for a full six months before we got bored."

"You sure they didn't run you out of town?"

"Or after they ran us out of town. Look we gonna play or what? Max has been shading his eyes so he's probably got above a pair, Kamekona's has been wiping his sweat off so he's got nothing, Nicky never has anything, Danny you're doing that thing with your lips so I'm guessing pair above five and Steve… well I managed to peek at his cards when he wasn't looking and it's a bust, whereas I have the jack and queen of diamonds making it a full house, now give me my monehh!"

They all groaned and threw down their cards proving Rowan to be right and she raked in the pot to her side. Steve shook his head.

"That's not fair, we should all get our chips back. You were cheating. That hand should be null and void!" Grover complained. "And get us a new deck of cards that home girl hasn't fucking counted."

"You want my chips, fight me for them," Rowan said and no said anything but no one was going to touch her with McGarrett sitting right beside her. They weren't stupid, they knew how that would end."

"You're not allowed to play anymore. You've been cut out, and dealt out. Take your chips and give them to someone so they know how much money they're getting," he ordered. "And then come back here and help me play."

"No, not fair," Danny said.

"How about I just come back, sit on your lap and cheer you on?"

"Oh, even better," Steve said, letting her kiss him before he swept her chips off the table and rushed off.

"You two are disgusting," Danny snapped. But Grover said: "Naw, they're just cute. A little too cute though, may wanna dial it down."

Catherine, who was sitting at the table next to theirs had suspiciously gotten a phone call right after Rowan and Steve had kissed. He would have thought it was ruse to get away from the scene but it was phone call in a different language that had her leaving the table behind. Steve was both curious and he felt bad. He probably shouldn't have been rubbing his happiness with Rowan in his ex's face.

He dealt himself out and excused himself. The plan was to go out to talk to Catherine, to apologise for the display she probably didn't want to see and to see if she was okay, but he walked into something else entirely.

She was speaking Pashto, a hill language in Afghanistan. She waved him off in time for Danny to catch a case for them which meant they had to leave.

When he got back into the house Rowan was there, she was staring at Catherine with a strange look on her face. "Where are you going?" she asked in a soft voice laced with fear. He was surprised, he didn't know what she had to be afraid of.

"Got a hit and run," he said. "We've been called in."

"Not Afghanistan."

"Rowan, of course not," he said to her, his hands resting on her shoulders and he tried to smile down to her reassuringly. "I told you, I told you that I wouldn't be going, okay?"

Her eyes found Catherine out on the lanai again. "Promise?"

"Yeah," he said kissing her forehead. "Don't gamble anymore, okay? I'll be back soon."

That one was a lie, he knew he wouldn't be back soon, but he didn't care. He left Rowan there hoping that everything would still run okay with her at the helm. With any luck he'd be back before dawn. With just enough time to curl up into bed beside her.

If he wrapped up the case, then he could spend the whole day cuddled up to her in his bed. Those were the kind of days he loved best. The pressure was on now to get this case wrapped up as soon as possible. Anything to get him back to Rowan.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve got back to the Palace with a game plan in mind. Find who stole the organ from the organ transplant carrier, avenge the death of their victim, get back to Rowan and spend the rest of the day cuddling, kissing and hopefully fucking.

Should be easy.

Should take no time at all.

But then he got to the Palace and Catherine was in his office, biting her nails and looking all sorts of worried. Steve immediately knew that this had to be about the phone call she had received.

He entered his office and tried to look nonchalant and not nervous. He noted that Catherine had taken the picture frame that housed a picture of Rowan and Steve together and placed it picture down so she wouldn't have to look at it. Rude. That was his frame and he liked that picture of him and Rowan, his arms around her from behind, it was the same photo she had as the background for his phone. Why did she sit in his chair if she didn't want to see the things he saw every time he sat down at his desk?

Before he could even ask her what was going on, she was out of her seat, out from around the desk and asking him for help.

"I need your help Steve. That call I got earlier it was from a man in Afghanistan named Amir Khan."

"I take it he's a friend of yours?"

"Yeah he is and he reached out to me because his fourteen-year-old son Najib was kidnaped by the Taliban. Now these guys don't do K&R, which only means one thing."

Steve nodded, this wasn't a rare story. This sort of thing happened all the time out there. He knew immediately what was going to happen to that poor kid. "The kid was recruited against his will."

"Or they're gonna strap an IED to him and turn him into a suicide bomber. Either way his life is over. Which is why I'm going over there. I'm going to find him and I'll bring him home to his family."

"What?" Steve snapped because that was happy ending that was uncommon in that part of the world. Not in a country where women had to cover themselves and had no rights.

"Okay, Steve. I know what you're going to say, okay? And I agree that it sounds crazy, but I'm going. Remember that recon surveillance op in '07 that went way sideways…"

"Your unit came under fire and you got separated from your group," he recited from memory. This had happened long before Rowan had come into the picture. This was back when hearing this story was the worst thing that he could imagine someone he cared about having to deal with. Rowan had shot that story right out of the fucking water with all the crazy shit she got into… with all of the terrible things she had been through before she jumped realities.

"Yeah, well here's the part I didn't tell you," Catherine whispered and Steve blinked his eyes. Oh wow, even more secrets and lies. Why did every woman in his life lie to him? Seriously, why? Every woman related to him, and every woman he was romantically attached to, did this to him. Why was this a pattern in his life? Why did no one think he could handle the tough stuff? He was a goddamn Super Seal. "After I got separated, I found myself in a field and I was badly wounded. I had a GSW to the leg, a broken arm, a broken vertebra. I had no sat phone, no radio. I was completely cut off. And that's when they found me. Amir and his son. They were Pashto and for reasons I didn't understand at the time Amir offered me his help and I accepted. They risked everything to help me Steve which Is why I have to go back and help them."

He understood her wanting to help. He did. He understood that she felt honour bound to help them, but there really wasn't much that Catherine could do as a civilian and she needed to know that. Steve needed to be the voice of reason here. Danny would be so proud.

"Catherine this is not the way to help them. You have to call the military you have to tell them what's going on."

"Come on Steve, come on, they're not going to do anything. Look I just… I was hoping that you'd…"

Aw fucking hell. This was why Rowan was so squirrely at the party when he said he had to go. This was the beginning of it all. That Afghanistan dream she made him promise to never make true. This was it. Well… he was going to keep his promise, he was not going to go.

"I can't go with you, Cath, I can't. Rowan… she's been begging me for months not to go to Afghanistan… she's got some crazy dream…"

"Oh her and her dreams," Catherine snapped. "I don't need you to come Steve I just need you to help me get there. Call Joe White and get him to get me into Afghanistan under the radar."

"Call Joe… Catherine you're not listening to me, this is insane!" he cried but Catherine merely shook her head at him.

"This is not up for discussion. Whether you like it or not this is happening. So you can help me or you can shut up."

Steve stared at her. He remembered Rowan's dreams. How with him there Catherine fails, and he dies. What would happen to Catherine if she went without him?

Steve didn't like where this was going, but he knew what he had to do.

"Alright. I'll call Joe."

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan had gone to sleep feeling uneasy. Which lead for uneasy dreams. She had long since stopped trying to dissect the beheading dream. There was no option that kept Steve's head on his shoulders, except for him not going in the first place. He had assured her over and over that he wouldn't be going to Afghanistan, but there was a single problem with that…

Steven McGarrett's words were worthless.

She knew if Catherine asked him, told him she needed him for this, he'd go. He'd go because he cared about Catherine, they had been on and off dating for a long time how could he not after all, and he wanted to help. Too bad it was going to get him killed.

So when Rowan woke up to Steve crouched beside her side of the bed, his fingertips lightly tracing her jawline, with that worried look on his face, she knew immediately that he was about to tell her that he was going to go to Afghanistan.

Rowan sat up in the bed and swung her legs over the side. Her hands went to Steve's shoulders as he stared up at her.

"Don't do this."

It was all she could think to say and it pained Steve to hear it. Immediately his eyebrows crinkled together and the anguish became ever so apparent on his face.

"What happens if I don't go with her, Ro," he asked in a small voice. "What will happen?"

Rowan winced. God she didn't want to tell him what was going to happen, she didn't want to admit it because then he'd leave for sure.

"I don't know," she lied. "I've only seen what happens to you."

Steve's eyes remained that soft blue as he continued to stare at her, she knew he was going to call out her bullshit before he even opened his mouth.

"I know you looked Rowan. Just like you looked at all the different options when me and Dannny were stuck in the rubble. You've been dreaming and you haven't been talking to me about them. You're forgetting you share a bed with me. I know when you wake up after one of those dreams cause the very first thing you do is check my pulse, and then you cling to me for the rest of the night. I'm not stupid. What have you seen?"

"Just please don't go," Rowan tried again. "Please, Steven… if you go… how can I help you if you go? When they take you… how will… please don't make me live through that, I don't want you to… I don't want…"

"What happens Rowan?"

"They're going to cut your head off…"

"What happens if I don't go with her, Rowan?"

She stared at him, knowing he wouldn't let it go and she couldn't lie anymore.

"They're going to rape and murder her." Steve fell quiet, and Rowan lowered her eyes from him to where her fingers were digging into the skin of his shoulders. "The rape takes a lot longer than the murdering part."

"Well… I guess that settles that," Steve said. Quickly standing but Rowan felt the tears already coming to her eyes.

"No, please, please I'm begging you not to go, please, please, please, please," she cried clinging to him.

Steve swept her up in a tight embrace pulling her off the bed and into his lap. "I know, I know, I'm sorry," he whispered. "I know I promised, but next time… next time I'll keep my promise. But I can't… I can't keep this one. I can't leave her to that fate, I need to help."

Rowan tried to hold back the sobs but they were shaking her body now. "They're… they're going to chop your head off…"

"Okay, you know what? Tell me everything you know about what's going to happen. And that way… that way I can avoid it…"

"Just don't go. Please, Steve. Please. Please don't make me tell you… please. Please Steve, I really… I really don't ask for much, I just… for once please pick me. Please?"

The tears were flowing down her cheeks as she cried, and when she finally looked up to him she saw tears in his eyes too. His hands framed her face, his thumbs wiped the tears from her cheeks.

"I have to do this Rowan. I'll never forgive myself if I let her go alone and something happens. I know you're scared, and I'm scared too but I'm going to come back to you, okay?" he whispered. Rowan looked back up at him, she wanted to believe him but the pictures were still vivid in her memory. "It doesn't matter where you go, how far apart we are, God could come down here himself and take you from me and I'd still find a way to get to you. Okay? Now please, please tell me everything you know about it. Everything you remember and I swear to you, I will do everything in my power to change it."

Rowan wanted to believe him. She wanted to trust him. She didn't but she also knew that he was going to go no matter what she said, and no matter what she did. So instead of fighting him, instead of making him stay, she simply told him everything she knew because at that point it was the only thing she could do.


	115. Chapter 115

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy hump day everyone! Only one more day before the SPOILERS chapter! I'm so excited I really hope you like it. Okay! For everyone who was wondering when Catherine would finally just go… well… here it is. This is the moment where she figures it out that Steve is all Rowan's. After this… Catherine will not be a problem… or at least not a problem again until the end of season 5. She does reappear, there will be a minor issue, but it's a minor issue between Steve and Rowan and not really Catherine, you know what you'll get it when you read it. I should really stop telling you guys so many spoilers. I'm sorry in advance cause this kind of ends on a cliffhanger, and the next chapter is kind of… off topic, but there's going to be so much fluff that it should make it worth it? RIGHT?_

 _P.S. JP! So glad to know you're still here! I can't wait until you have everything caught up! I hope you like it!_

Chapter 115

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Catherine stared at Steve as he fiddled with the satellite phone in his hand. She had been so relieved to see him when he showed up at the airport. That feeling had quickly left her. He had called Rowan when they landed. He had called Rowan while she negotiated a deal for the horses. He called when they got to Amir's town… well.. actually she couldn't be too mad at bout that one because during that call Rowan told them that Amir was injured in a field somewhere. After rescuing Amir and bringing him down he had called Rowan again and now he was sitting there, ignoring everything Amir and Farah were saying to him, to play with the phone in his hand.

Clearly, he had to call Rowan every other hour on the hour or he'd go insane.

Which pissed her off to no end.

She didn't ask Steve to come along. And she certainly didn't need him acting like he was there with her against his will. She didn't need him on the phone with Rowan every five seconds either. She had thought, when Steve showed up in the airport to go with her, that he might have had a change of heart. That maybe, maybe he still had feelings for her, that maybe, she'd have a chance to win him back.

But looking at him sitting there, his leg tapping away like he was anxious, his eyes never leaving that phone, she was starting to think that even this far away from Rowan, that girl still managed to have a hold on him. Maybe Catherine would never be able to shake Steve of it.

"She'll be fine if you don't call her right away," Catherine hissed to him.

Steve's eyes turned to her, a sort of pain she couldn't describe shone back at her. A pain she didn't understand. A worry she had never seen on him before, even when he was on active duty. What had Rowan done to him?

"No, she won't."

Catherine shook her head and suddenly Steve was on his feet. "Just… uh… just give me a minute."

He took his leave and Catherine turned back to Amir. He had just woken up, he was in a lot of pain, and very weak. But he had been telling her his tale, of how this happened.

"Do you know which faction took your Najib?" she asked.

"Yes. It was a splinter group, under the command of Umar Hassan."

"Hassan?" she echoed but all Amir could do was nod. But Catherine knew that couldn't be true, because Hassan was supposed to be dead.

"Amir, that's not possible. Umar Hassan was killed in a drone strike two years ago. He was a high-value target. It was… it was a major operation," she told him.

Amir grabbed her hand tightly. "He's alive… and his men take my son."

He felt back to his pallet and Catherine let him go. He needed to rest, and she needed a game plan. She left his side, letting his wife, Farrah, take her place and then walked the short distance to the back of the house. Steve was pacing by the well that Amir had hid her in eight years ago when the Taliban came looking for her.

She stood back trying to ignore the way Steve seemed so relaxed now that he had Rowan on the phone. Lighter, less… less anxious with a small wistful smile on his face. But try as she might she couldn't ignore it, just like she couldn't avoid listening to his conversation.

"Oh yeah? well… I'm glad you're staying somewhere… I guess…. No, you're right, I would definitely rather be there with you too," he glanced up and caught sight of Catherine. He put up a finger, just one more minute. Fine. She'd let him have it. "Yeah I gotta go… no… that's not… uh… has anything… anything changed? No? Okay, I guess that's good? Means I can still change it, right?" He glanced at Catherine again. "Yeah, I really gotta go this time though… yes… uh… have fun at Danny's don't… don't wear him out too much, please?" Steve said the barest hint of a smile on his face.

They never seemed to have long conversations, he and Rowan, nothing meaningful either. It seemed to just be small talk, meaningless small talk.

"Yeah. No. I miss you too. Very soon, I promise. Ro… Ro… I gotta go okay?" he glanced at his watch. "In three hours, before you go to bed, promise. Yeah, kay… bye…"

He hung up the phone and then walked towards her. Catherine tried to shove away her anger but she found that she couldn't.

"Do you really have to call her every time something happens?" Catherine growled.

Steve sighed, his eyes turning heavenward before he turned them back to her. "She's been dreaming every night for the last week and a half of the same thing."

"So?"

"It's of me getting my head cut off by the Taliban."

Catherine gasped. Oh god… but if Rowan… if Rowan was dreaming of that, why did he come to Taliban central? Rowan who was right about everything. "Maybe she's wrong… she's been wrong before right? About the timing? I mean… how long did she dream about that building collapsing on you and Danny before it happened? Like three months? She never could pinpoint when it was going to happen."

"Actually she did. She told me and Danny it was going to happen day of," he admitted and Catherine balked at him. Why the hell had he gone into that building knowing it was going to collapse on him. "I ignored her, brushed it off as unnecessary concern and I nearly got me and Danny killed."

Steve looked away from her and Catherine just glared at him. Seriously what game was he playing here.

"But uh… we figured it out. It's the frequency of them Cath," Steve whispered. "The more frequently she has the same dream the closer we are to it coming true. Every night for a week and a half, and where am I now Catherine?"

"Then why did you come? If you knew… if she told you…?"

"Because she's learning how to control the dreams, which means watching them play out with different endings. And every option that starts with me not going with you, end with you getting raped and murdered and… well… I couldn't let that happen, now could I?"

He looked away and Catherine's heart swelled with happiness. She knew he still had feelings for her, she knew it!

She crossed to him, she had her hands on his face, trying to pull him down for a kiss but Steve struggled, swatting her hands away. Once free from her grip he stumbled back and away almost wildly.

"Geezus, Catherine, what the hell was that?" he asked.

Catherine blinked her eyes confused as to how she had read that situation so wrong. "You just… I thought we were…" When Steve just shook his head Catherine found herself looking down to his boots. "I guess I was hoping, you know after you said you and her hadn't given each other labels… that it was a phase, that you'd get it out of your system if you… slept with her a few times, that maybe… being here with me might… but I guess…"

"This isn't a phase, Cath," Steve whispered. "I'm sorry but it's not. Do you know where I'm supposed to be right now?"

The answer was, _In Hawaii with Rowan_ , but Catherine couldn't bring herself to say it to him.

"If I was home right now, Rowan and I would be getting ready to go out. I'd be taking her to this fancy restaurant she's been begging me to go to with her, that I had to fight tooth and nail to get a reservation at, and somewhere around dessert I was gonna swallow all my irrational fears and worries and ask her to go steady, okay? That was supposed to happen tonight, but I'm here with you. In Afghanistan. Leaving the girl I want to be with at home, alone, worried about me because she's been watching my head come off my shoulders for 11 nights straight."

Catherine opened her mouth. To tell him once again that she didn't ask him to be here that he didn't have to come but he interrupted her, stopping her before she could do that. "I know I could have left you Catherine, I know I could have just let you come alone... but there's so much history there and I still care about you. That's just not going to go away because I've got growing feelings for someone else. I still care about you, I care about whether or not you're safe, and Rowan was pretty clear that you can't do this with out me, so… I'm here. I'm going to help, but that doesn't mean I have romantic feelings for you. So… please, don't do… _that_ … again."

He meant trying to kiss him and not only did she understand, she nodded. Of course, she wouldn't try that again, there were only so many blows to her pride that Steven McGarrett could land on her. But as they headed inside, Catherine felt like a part of her life was officially ending. She had foolishly not believed it before, but at this moment, a chapter of her life had ended and a new one was opening for her. She just didn't know where it was going at that moment.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan bolted up screaming Danny's name. In his room she heard him tumble out of bed, she heard Amber cry out in surprise.

The dream was fresh in her mind. It had changed. It had changed to whatever Steve's new plan was and then it changed back to way things were. But it didn't matter because Rowan knew 100% that it hadn't happened yet. She could still save him.

"What? What happened?"

Rowan tried dialing the satellite phone that Steve had called her on. He hadn't called her before bed like he had promised and now she knew why. He had been planning an ambush. She got nothing but dead air.

"Call Joe White," she ordered and Danny groaned. "No. Call him. NOW!"

"Has it happened? Is that the issue, did he get captured?"

"No, but he's going to. And I know where they're going!" Rowan cried standing up. "Call Joe right now. We need to get to Afghanistan, we need people at that compound before they get Steve there."

"Alright. Whoa. Slow down," Danny said grabbing her shoulders. Amber peaked her head out from the bedroom and sleepily asked what was going on but she was ignored.

"So… he's going to get captured but it hasn't happened yet?" he asked.

"Danny for the love of god, please don't fucking fight me on this. You fought me on the parking garage and look what happened!" she cried. Danny straightened and then nodded. Yeah she got him.

"Alright, you're right. I'll call Joe, but uh… I don't know what you want me to tell him."

"Tell him Steve's been captured. Tell him that they're on the way to the compound. I'll find it on a map for you. But tell him that if we don't get people there ASAP Steve's going to loose his head… literally…"

Danny nodded knowing he wasn't going to say any of that because then the Navy would want to know how he knew, would want to verify his info. No, he was going to have to tell Joe the truth and he was terrified to do that, but Danny also knew that Rowan was right. She was always right.

They both had to work together to make sure that this one vision didn't come true.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

 _It happens at night._

 _There are two pickup trucks and a canvas top truck._

 _Catherine has you distract the first two by having your camel stopped in the middle of the road._

 _She doesn't find Najib but she finds other boys, and frees them but one of them falls and that alerts the others in the pickup trucks_

 _There's a lot of shooting… she… she goes with the boys and you… you try to fight them off but there are too many. One's going to punch you, he's going to punch you really hard, right against your jaw and you just go down. When you try to get up they hit you with a rifle. After that you're unconscious until they get you back to the base._

Well.

He had changed a few things.

Instead of night time it was broad daylight. Instead of a camel he had a herd of goats. He figured… that would be enough right? Catherine was going to make sure that none of the boys tripped and that would be enough to make sure he didn't get caught, that he didn't get his head cut off.

Except it wasn't.

A kid still fell.

The guys got out of the trucks. Catherine frantically tried to shoot and Steve did the same. But there were too many, Steve was stuck out in the open. He tried to use the truck as cover but they threw a grenade.

There was nothing Steve could do to avoid a grenade. Plus he wasn't expecting it, Rowan had said nothing about a grenade.

It threw him back and into the windshield of a pick up truck where he rolled off and hit the ground. The world swam around him, it was nothing but ringing bells and clouds of spotted black. He barely realized it when the was grabbed and thrown into the back of a truck. He barely felt anything.

Except fear.

Rowan was right. And if he didn't survive this… like she kept telling him he wouldn't… he'd never be able to tell her the truth… that he… he'd… he'd never see her again. He was going to make her live through that dream of hers like he promised her she wouldn't have to.

And honestly that was much scarier than whatever was going to happen to him next.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

"We're wheels up in ten minutes," the soldier called and Danny nodded. He glanced to where Rowan was standing glaring at him, tears on her cheeks, and he winced.

"Don't look at me like that. Joe could only get one of us on the plane."

"Then it should be me going. I'm the one with all the info in my head."

"And you've told me everything, which means I've got it now. If it changes call me, okay?" he asked.

Rowan had practically fainted over the last vision. The one that confirmed that Steve had just gone through with his badly laid plan, that Steve had just got captured.

She said they had changed things, that they had moved up the bad plan. That they had changed some things but not enough. Steve had been blown back by a grenade. They didn't need to beat him, the grenade had done half the work for them. They were looking at possible broken ribs, she said something was wrong with his shoulder and he kept holding his head. Joe had said that was possible percussive damage done to his inner ears. Danny no longer doubted her. He didn't doubt her at all and by the way Joe White was getting all these people to move, he wasn't doubting her much either.

Rowan groaned and rolled her eyes. "Look, Kono's on her way, okay? She and Chin are gonna watch you, gonna sit with you, gonna make sure you're calm. I'm going to update you at every step, okay? Every step."

He knew this was word for word what Steve had said to her before he left. He knew that Rowan was in full-fledged panic mode. Tears were brimming over in her eyes, but she wasn't sad or scared, she was angry. The wet kind of angry, where she yelled a lot and cried even more.

But really what was she going to do? Stow away on the plane? If she was caught that could mean jail time and not even Rowan was that stupid.

"Just say okay so I can feel better about this?" Danny pleaded and Rowan's scowl solidified and she rolled her eyes.

"Fine. But I'm going to be calling you a lot. The dream keeps changing…"

"Are they ending up in the same place though?"

"Yeah, in the compound just inside the Panjshir Valley, little place outside of Nahrain. They'll have about thirty minutes before they decide to go between beating him up and cutting his head off so they will have to move fast."

"Got it Ro," he said and then pulled her in for a hug. "Don't worry, I'm gonna bring our boy back. And when he gets back to Hawaii I'mma let you lecture the shit out of him."

Rowan half laughed. "Good, it's what he deserves."

Joe White popped up behind them. "Time to go," he called over the drone of the engine. Rowan waved them both off as Danny headed down the tarmacs to the carrier plane that would take him to Steve.

He glanced back to be certain that Rowan was still there, in the hanger waving him off. He waved back and then went inside the plane. He had a best friend to save. Rowan was Kono's problem now.


	116. Chapter 116 - Anniversary

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hey guys! It's our anniversary! A year ago today I started writing this story! Can you believe that guys? Would you like to know the stats for this story? As of today I've written 136 chapters,_ _1,577 p_ _ages, and_ _804,515 w_ _ords since i started. Can you believe that guys? I mean really? Can you?! I'm honestly shocked by this mammoth of a story, and we're not even half way yet._

 _Kay, I know this is bad timing, cause I ended the last one on a cliffhanger… but I mean… this fluffy little chapter should make up for it. So what I've decided to do here is post up SPOILERS! This here… is Rowan and Steve's proposal! So just a little background this is going to happen in season 7 after episode 7. There is a bunch of filler between episode 7 and episode 8 (I think about 10 or more chapters of filler) and the proposal is one of them. A bit of the back story is Steve and Wo Fat had to go on a bit of a rescue mission to get Rowan back, (I know right? Wo Fat and Steve working together?) and as a little vacation, Wo Fat gave them a vacation at a romantic getaway. This is where the proposal happens. That's all you're getting for spoilers! Just a little bit of fluff_

 _Thank you, guys, so much for making this story what it is today. Thank you for your continual love and support. Thank you, AJ for all the inspiration that I will be using later in the chapters. Thank you, P_ _J and Alex Lover for always having a positive thing to say and sharing your emotional reactions to the story, I honestly love reading them. And thanks to Runningwyld for being my story soundboard, I love bouncing ideas off with you. And I hope you enjoy this little look at Steve and Rowan's eventual happily ever after (see I wasn't lying, I do have it planned out). Regular schedule updates will continue on Monday!_

Chapter 116

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The all-inclusive Paradise Island Romantic getaway was everything Wo Fat had said it would be. They had couples outings where they could swim with marine life, hike up and down the many trails, both with tours and without, they could go on boat rides, and kayak rides, go snorkeling, diving, all kinds of swimming, and go out for dinner at a different restaurant every night. In five days they had done everything there was to do and had as much sex as a pair of rabbits in the spring.

Steve fucked her everywhere. In the bed, in the bath, on the balcony, in every swimming pool the hotel had to offer, on the beach, in the ocean and against every tree he could find. They even fucked during one of their scuba diving sessions.

It was tricky but it was worth it.

That's what this incident had proved. That Rowan was worth everything. She was worth chancing his position with Five-0. She was worth going to jail over. She was worth dealing with Wo Fat for four days. She was worth every little bit of frustration she caused him over the years. Worth every fight, every scar and every shed tear. Because it all came down to one thing:

Steve McGarrett was nothing without Rowan Pierce.

So that morning, waking up shrouded in soft white, the sound of the surf lulling him into a sense of a serene calmness, Steve found himself staring at the sleeping face of the woman he loved. His heart sung, filling his chest with this glorious happiness at finding himself in bed with her and wanting nothing more than to stay just in this spot for the rest of his life. With the rising sun illuminating the highlights in her dark brown hair and playing across the features on her face, Steve McGarrett made what would be a life changing a decision for him.

He was going to propose to Rowan today.

This was a gamble for Steve. He had offered Rowan marriage earlier that month and had been shot down out of the sky. Wo Fat had helped him see that it was because Rowan had wanted him to be romantic about it. She wanted a proposal and a proper wedding, not have him turn to her while she was making breakfast and tell her that they should go to the courthouse that day and get married. And looking back at it now, it made sense. His girl had always been a romantic, how many times had he made Danny plan the perfect date for them? And if Rowan wanted romance, then Steve would just have to deliver. How often had she done something just to make him smile? All those hikes, for one, Rowan hated hiking, hated camping, hated being out in nature, but she went to be with him, because it made him happy.

But even though Wo Fat told him that Rowan would say yes. Even Rowan had told him that she wasn't against the idea of marrying him, she just wanted him to propose to her properly like he had been willing to do with Catherine. He worried. Irrationally he worried whether or not she'd say yes to him, whether or not she had changed her mind.

The ring Wo Fat had given him waited in the hotel safe. Nestled behind his badge, his gun and their passports. It had been in the back of his mind ever since Wo Fat had given it to him. The circlet of rose gold would look like bejeweled ivy on her finger. He kept imagining it there, he wanted to know if it would shine the way it did in his mind.

But it was obviously stolen.

He wanted to be mad, but Wo Fat was right, that ring was Rowan's. That ring would get a yes from her before he even asked the question. And there was no way in hell he could propose to her with the ring he had gotten Catherine and he didn't have the time to find a suitable ring for Rowan, or the money for one that she deserved.

Steve found himself looking at Rowan's face, his fingers entangled in her hair, remembering the words Wo Fat had told him sitting on that boat in the middle of the Tokyo bay.

 _When you decide to do things right, call me, I know everything she wants and I can make it happen._

He slipped out of bed, out from under her arms, and out into the cold world. He had a wedding to see to and he wanted it to be a surprise.

He slipped out into the hallway with his phone already to his ear. He shot one last look at Rowan who was still asleep in their bed and felt a twinge at leaving her. But once the call connected he shut the door.

"I've decided to do it. How quickly can you get it done?" he asked instead of saying hello.

There was silence on the other end and then a sigh. A smile crept up on Steve's face. He was really going to do this and he wasn't afraid at all… mostly.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan awoke to the bed shifting and Steve sliding on top of her. Immediately her arms came up to encircle his neck, her fingers brushed against the hair on the back of his neck. She moaned when he began to press soft but insistent kisses to the edges of her mouth.

"Mmmm, morning my baby," she whispered sleepily to him as his hands found their way under her to pressed her chest closer to his. She opened her eyes lazily and let her hands drift under his shirt. What was his shirt doing on? She made sure to throw that damn shirt as far away as she possibly could the night before. "Did you go somewhere?"

"I went for a run," he told her between kisses, his hands dipping lower causing her to lose her train of thought.

She found herself trailing a series of kisses down his jaw before she remembered to be mad that he left her alone in a hotel room to go for a silly old run. "Why didn't you wake me?" she asked.

Steve pulled his head out of her neck to stare at her, his eyes glimmered in the morning light, that breathtaking sky blue she was used to. His nose pressed against hers lightly like he was about to give her an Eskimo kiss.

"It was early, I wanted to let you sleep," he replied. Mm, how thoughtful.

He still needed to be punished though. She sunk her nails into the skin of his lower back and dragged them slowly up to his shoulder blades. The startled gasp that broke out from behind his clenched teeth warmed the skin of her shoulder as he pressed into her touch, arching his back up to get every inch of that motion.

When he could breathe again, when he was hovering over her again she found that the smirk playing across her lips was mirrored on his face. "You're playing a dangerous game Miss. Pierce," he warned her.

She licked her lips and then kissed him quick, pulling away before his tongue could delve into her mouth. The growl that echoed through the room caused her to laugh and for Steve to dig his fingers into her sides.

Rowan squealed as he tickled her. Her hips bucked against his as she struggled to get away from him, though she was only half trying. They laughed together until his mouth slammed down on hers and then there was a different reason for Rowan to be grinding against Steve's hips. Their hands found their ways under clothes, trying to pry themselves loose of any constraints.

His lips left hers so she could pull his shirt off and revel in his rippling chest. She was pantingly frantic to get her teeth into his shoulder, to feel him in places she didn't remember having until he awoke them. But there was something on his face, a sort of fear she only saw when he worried about losing her.

"I… I love you," came out of him and Rowan found herself coming to a standstill. It wasn't often that Steve said those words to her, yes he'd reciprocate if she said them to him first, but they very rarely came out of him first.

In fact the last time he had said it to her first he had thought they were going to die.

"What have you done?" she asked immediately and Steve faltered.

"Done?" he echoed.

"Yes, either you've done something to upset me or something has happened. Do we need to run? Is the Yakuza back?" she asked sitting up.

Steve's eyebrows furrowed, she could see his one track mind was frantically trying to find a way to get them back to what they had started.

"Rowan, I just wanted to say it to you," he said and Rowan had to think about that for a minute. Steve was very guarded with his feelings the way she was guarded about her family and her past. It wasn't like him to just volunteer emotions like that.

Looking into his eyes she knew then that he was lying. Something was wrong and he didn't want to tell her what it was.

"Oh… okay," she said softly being sure to watch his eyes. "I love you too."

His smile seemed genuine, his kisses seemed sincere but there was something he wasn't telling her. She thought of all the times he had pushed her away when his emotions got too much for him. And it was at that moment that she realized that Steve was thinking about breaking things off with her.

But she didn't want to argue with him at this moment. She wanted him over her, on her and in her. So even though she knew something was wrong she threaded her fingers through his hair and dragged him back down to the bed. His mouth like liquid metal against her skin, branding her, claiming her, finding those apex points and stroking the fire between them both. She tried to keep her mind on the task at hand, she wanted to lose herself in the pleasure, but her mind wasn't in it.

She was going to have to convince Steve to stay with her.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve had gotten a call while they were getting ready and he excused himself briefly to deal with it. When he came back he said he had something to do and he'd meet her for dinner in the hotel lobby. To her this was both a godsend and a curse. He had been distant since they had fucked that morning. He didn't take up her offer to join her in the shower, and he hadn't ever turned that down before. Sometimes he didn't ask her, he'd just step in and ravish her fully. He left the hotel room giving her a quick kiss on the cheek before rushing off.

He was definitely upset about something. Definitely worried. She couldn't help but think that it was because he wanted to end things with her.

She had wanted to cling to him. Tell him he wasn't allowed to leave. But this time apart would be good for them. They had just spent the last five days practically joined at the hip. Okay that wasn't true, they had been joined at the pelvic region. Maybe he would just need some time to himself and he'd be alright and it would give her a chance to think things over and make a plan.

Still she had to come up with a plan, a way to make him see that they were great together, and yes, this incident with the Yakuza had been scary but at least it was over. They were safe. Wo Fat had vanished with his Nurse girlfriend. He didn't have to be worried, for the next little while she was safe.

She would beg him if he had to.

A text came in, reminding her about dinner. Asking her to wear something nice. She hadn't brought anything nice with her, she hadn't brought anything with her at all. That meant going all the way back down to the lobby to ask where the best place to buy a dress was.

She was handed off to an in-hotel boutique. It was a good thing the royalty cheques were still rolling on in because these dresses were pricy. But it provided her with an opportunity. She could pick an amazing dress. One that would wow him and remind him that he wanted to stay with her.

She looked at all the options and found the perfect one, actually with the help of the cashier girl who had practically shoved that dress in her face. It was a white mini dress strapless dress. The fabric was gossamer underneath but the cotton fabric on top was punched out to look like daisies, the little holes in the fabric showing skin in all the right places. It was perfect. It was everything she needed, and it had matching white heels with a leather daisy on the toe.

Oh yes, he wouldn't be able to resist her in this dress.

Once the dress was purchased, she went back to her hotel room, hoping to bump into him there. He still wasn't back. She had another text from him. Telling her to go down to the restaurant to meet him at 6pm. He may be a bit late but he was still coming. Rowan sighed. She wanted him there now. She wanted to put on that dress and see his reaction. As much as she loved their inventive sex out in public, she preferred to be in a bed. Not perched precariously on a bathroom counter, sand in unsavory places from the beach he dragged her down to or getting splinters from the tree he had her up against.

Plus, she wanted to see Steve in whatever "nice" outfit he had picked. If he showed up at their table in a suit… she wouldn't be able to keep her hands off of him.

At 6pm she was nervous. She headed down to the hotel restaurant clutching her white clutch and glancing around for him. She had pinned half of her short hair up in an elegant do and was wearing a set of pearls she had bought just for this occasion. God was her bank account going to hate her when she got back. When she couldn't spot him right away she went to the maître d' and gave his name.

A strange smile lit up his face. "Ah, yes, follow me," he told her and then led her to a table that was right by the stage. There wasn't going to be live music was there? Because she hated live music in small environments like this. Steve knew that. In places like this she was too close to the music, she'd get distracted too easily, and hotel cover bands, even in fancy hotel restaurants, had a habit of covering her songs… badly.

She sat down and carefully opened up her clutch to check her phone. Nothing from Steve. But he had said he might be late. People started filing out onto the stage and Rowan tried not to groan. Good god it _was_ a live band. She was going to have to sit in front of them and smile. She tried not to glare at them, tried not to stare in an accusing way, trying to avoid making eye contact entirely.

But it was only one person on the stage. One person in a very nice suit. Rowan looked up and her mouth dropped open in surprise.

Why was Steve standing on that stage, dress to the nines and carrying a guitar? What was happening? Was she hallucinating?

She looked around at everyone else to see if they were seeing what she was seeing, and judging by some of the faces of the women around her were making she assumed they all saw him too. She turned back to Steve who smiled shakily at her and watched him take the mic.

"Hello," he said into it and a chorus of high-pitched hellos answered him. Well he was certainly the female's favourites already. And of course, he would be, dressed in a beautiful crisp navy-blue suit. God, she loved him in blue.

"It's been a very long time since I've done something like this," he told the crowd as he went about tuning his guitar. "And I've just learned the song today, so I'm sorry in advance if I hit any wrong notes."

This earned him a few chuckles and one drunken shout of: "Take your shirt off!"

Steve laughed himself, the microphone picking up the deep timber of his voice. That combined with the suit was a lethal combo alone, if he started singing she was going to have to fight girls to get to her own man.

"Not right now," he told them which got a chorus of _aw_ s. "Uh, so, this song was written by my girlfriend. She's uh sitting right there. This is… uh… this is for her."

He gestured at her and Rowan inwardly swore at him. All eyes were on her now, he knew she hated the lime light on her like this. What the hell was he doing? And then he started playing the guitar. She knew immediately what song he chose and her mouth went dry. Who had given him the music for that song? She had left all her sheet music at home.

"She recently told me I don't have a single romantic bone in my body," he announced to the crowd and that dazed smile fell right off her face and turned into a sour frown. Really? He was going to bring the whole restaurant into one of their arguments? REALLY?! "So I figured I'd take the time to prove her wrong."

Rowan knew Steve had a past history of not being able to perform in person. She wanted to launch up to her feet and tell him that he didn't have to do this. That when she said she wanted him to be romantic she meant buying her flowers, planning picnics on the beach or candle light dinners. She didn't mean she wanted him to face his fears or to make himself vulnerable in this way. But she didn't get the chance. He had already started singing.

 _Spent 24 hours, I need more hours with you. You spent the weekend, getting even, ooh ooh. We spent the late nights, making things right, between us._

Those were her lyrics. A song she wrote, once again as if he were speaking to her, and there he was singing it. His voice beautiful and rich, perfect like him. How had he ever thought that no one would like this voice? He kept his eyes focused on her and she realized that he wasn't being vulnerable to all these people. He was singing for her and her alone.

 _'Cause girls like you, run around with guys like me, 'til sundown. When I come through, I need a girl like you, yeah, yeah._

She could hear women swooning all around her. Hell, her own panties had dropped the second he started playing the guitar and she had thought herself completely immune to most of his charms. In the sense that he could flash her that dazzling smile and she could still remain mad at him. But with the dapper navy blue suit, the dazzling smile, the guitar playing and the singing she was helplessly enthralled with him. He could fuck her right here on the table in front of everyone and she wouldn't have given a shit.

A smile had stretched on his face as he stared at her. Tears were starting to form in her eyes. After this he could anything to her. Anything at all.

 _Maybe it's 6:45. Maybe I'm barely alive. Maybe you've taken my shit for the last time, yeah. Maybe I know I'm not fun. Maybe I know you're the one. Maybe I think I'm better with you around._

He had changed her lyrics. She had made them general, he made them specifically about them. He thought he was better when she was around? But the song was slowing and his eyes had focused on her and for the next few bars she felt like there was no one else in the world except her, Steve and that guitar.

 _'Cause girls like you, run around with guys like me, 'til sundown. When I come through, I need a girl like you, yeah yeah._

This was the part where it was just a few lines of music with no lyrics. She always left a few bars in her pop songs for where a rap interlude would go. For a collab, in case the artist wanted that. If they didn't she'd include a third verse. But she had yet to write the verse for this song.

She expected Steve to keep playing, but he carefully took the guitar off and handed it off.

TO ALEX?!

Rowan watched Alex take the guitar and start strumming along to the song. His band mates, Paul, Dan and Barry all joined him taking their respective instruments, but none of them had started playing yet.

Steve still had the microphone.

"These past few years and last week in particular have been very hard. I had to chase you around Japan wondering if the last time I saw you was going to be the very last time. Wondering if the last thing I said to you would be our last words. And getting you back, well it made me realize that we've wasted so much time trying to protect one another and ourselves from getting hurt. Well I'm done wasting that time," he said. He took the mic from the stand and walked off the stage. All eyes were on him at this point, women were reaching out to touch him as he went by like he was some rock star. Still Steve only had eyes for her.

He got to where she was sitting and he carefully arranged himself as he got down on one knee. A hand to his jacket as he unbuttoned it, the other hand put the microphone down on the table. Oh my god, if he did what she thought he was about to do, she'd scream.

"Rowan. You're my everything. Without you I'm worse than lost, I'm nothing. I've lost you so many times, Ro, I've let you slip through my fingers over and over, but I won't let that happen again," he said to her. He pulled a small black box out of his pocket and Rowan felt the air leave her body. She stared at Steve with misty eyes, oh my god she was going to start full on ugly sobbing in front of everyone and ruin her make up. She spent a lot of money getting this look done for me.

"Rowan Pierce, will you marry me?"

Though she could hear the people around them murmuring, some girls screaming with shocked delight for her, she knew that was Alex on the guitar, Paul on the Piano, Barry on the Base and Dan on the drums, Rowan's world had gone silent as she stared at the man she loved more than anything. Everything else was static to her. All she could see was that beautiful ring in that black box and she could hear was Steve.

Her ring. The ring she found in Venice. Where had he gotten that ring? She knew where he had gotten that ring. Goddamn Wo Fat. He told her he had returned the ring. But there it was, the rose gold ivy band she had loved so much. Twinkling out at her from the hand of the man she loved.

"Yes," she whispered, so quietly everyone else but Steve might have missed it. How could she say no to him when she wanted him oh so badly? All over the legitimacy of the ring.

"Yes?" he echoed.

Rowan laughed at him. "Yes, of course! Of course I'm going to say _yes_!" she cried. She was doing well at keeping herself composed but as soon as that ring slipped onto her finger she was crying. She just couldn't keep it in. Steve stood, sweeping her up in his arms and kissing her as the lyrics she wrote about him swirled around them and the people in the hotel restaurant all clapped and cheered.

Once Steve pulled away she whispered: "You know this ring is stolen right?"

"Oh of course, but I checked the price of it and it's not something I could afford. So, I figured I'd just overlook that little factoid," he admitted.

"Oh, Steven," Rowan groaned. Didn't he know that she would have said yes to any ring? He didn't need to get her an expensive ring.

"I know, I know, but it's your ring. I knew it the second I laid eyes on it," he whispered.

Rowan looked at the ring on her finger. She moved it about in the light so the diamonds set in the ivy leaves would twinkle and the fire opal gem that hung like a teardrop blazed against the backdrop of her golden skin. It really was her ring.

She put her hand to his cheek. "I could care less about the ring," she told him. "Anything would have been fine coming from my man."

He laughed and kissed her again as the song finished and it all died down. Steve's tight embrace was returned by Rowan. She clung to him as if he might trickle right through her fingertips and then once again looked at her ring.

How did she ever manage to land herself the most perfect man? She was the luckiest woman in the world.


	117. Chapter 117

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hello my wonderful Readers! Here are some questions I can answer about Friday's Spoiler post… you know, without giving away too much. 1. Wo Fat's girlfriend is actually going to be introduced in season 5. 2. I will be posting this in the correct order, so it will be posted again, as its part of a larger chapter, at the moment, that might be changing cause it might be too long. 3. The "would go to jail for her" comment is in reference to what he and Wo do to rescue her again. And that's all I'm saying about that. Okay, so here is the conclusion to the current cliffhanger. Next chapter will be some new drama that our love-birds will have to go through. We're still 3 chapters away from that relationship you guys are so desperate to see happen. And then I've got 10 chapters of fluff between season 4 ending and season 5 starting so you know, we have a lot to look forward to._

 _As a little added bonus, I've got a little poll for the 700th review! I'm in the process of writing out the next Halloween episode, and Steve and Rowan are going to have a couples costume. The 700th reviewer will get to pick. Here are the options: 1. Ariel and Eric (again) – the pink poofy version and Steve in the fancy suit version – 2. Batman and Catwoman - 3. Popeye and Olive – 4. Sandy and Danny from Grease._

 _You don't have to include the one you want in the review, unless you want to of course, just remember, the 700th reviewer gets to decide on their Halloween costume, so PLEASE if you're a guest reviewer put a name to the review so I know who to announce as the winner._

 _P.S. AlexLover! Please tell me if this makes you cry too! I tried really hard to convey the same amount of emotion as the episode. I hope you still enjoy it!_

Chapter 117 

* * *

Joe White looked to Danny who was beside him going over the maps. He kept pointing and then looking at a picture on his phone. It was a crudely drawn map, but it was almost identical to the aerial print outs he had got of the base in question.

He still couldn't believe that he was flying into an active warzone on the dream of a psychic.

"Okay," Joe said in a soft voice so the soldiers around them couldn't hear him. "Tell me again what she said is going to happen?"

"It has happened," Danny whispered. "Rowan felt it. He's been captured. They have him in a truck, travelling along… uh… this road," he pointed to one going over the mountains. "I think… I don't know if they've… uh…"

God, maybe he should have brought the psychic. The one who just knew the answers to everything. He could have tried a little harder to get both of them on the plane, she might have been helpful… if Joe believed in that psychic shit.

He thought her to be intuitive, not psychic.

"And how right is she?" Joe asked. "On a scale of one to ten, how right do you think she is?"

"Fucking twenty."

"Really?"

It was a surprising number, but Danny seemed to have nothing but faith in that girl. And she _had_ saved Billy's life _and_ known a lot of things about himself and his actions that she shouldn't have know. Hell, she even knew about Doris before he had confirmation.

Danny's phone rang, only because they had a cellular repeater on board and he picked it up quickly.

"Williams… Catherine… slow down… is this about Steve?" he waited listening in. "Yeah, I'm already on a plane… yeah I got Joe White with me… where do you think we're heading? Of course, I'm heading to Afghanistan I couldn't get Rowan to shut up until I agreed to get on this stupid fucking plane. I have a question… why didn't either of you listen to her?"

He was silent again before he sighed. "Look, we're flying towards a heading a psychic gave us, the Navy is _not_ going to like that. Can you please confirm where he's heading so I have some more concrete than _Rowan said so_ and _Rowan's always right_?"

He swept aside one of the pictures and then wrote down a set of coordinated. "Don't worry," he told her. "We'll get our boy back."

As soon as he hung up the phone, he turned his eyes to Joe White. "There we go, that's the call Rowan said was going to come in. She's confirmed where they're taking him, where ever that is…"

Joe took the coordinates and looked them over.

34-28-9 north by 70-22-31 east. He circled the spot on the map and sighed. It was exactly where Rowan had said they needed going to go.

"So, uh… since I sense that some things may have changed… would you like to brief me on what's going on with Steve and Rowan?"

"No one knows what the hell they're doing… not even them," Danny growled lounging back with his arms folded over his chest. "They're living together again. They act like they're dating but he's taking a very long time choosing to settle down with her, despite not wanting her with anyone else and vice versa. But they're ridiculously cute… like all of the time. It's sickening."

Joe thought that over. It seemed a lot like Steve to be taking his time settling with her, he was the kind of person to over think his relationships. It took a near death experience just to convince him to ask out Catherine, it would probably take the same for Rowan. Though, after that building came down on him… he figured that would have been the moment that did it. But Joe could tell that whatever Steve was feeling for Rowan was stronger than what he had for Catherine. That meant he was going to be extra cautious.

The two men lapsed into silence, both worried about Steve, only to have their silence shattered by a sudden scream from one of the other soldiers on the plane.

"HOLY FUCKING HELL!"

Danny and Joe both turned to where a soldier was jumping back from a box of what should have been supplies. A familiar red-head slowly appeared from inside and beside him Danny swore.

This was not happening. That girl had _not_ stowed away on a naval supply plane.

"God fucking damn it, RO!" Danny shouted rushing forward. He helped her out of the box while Joe hung back to watch. "What were you thinking?"

"I was thinking I need to be here," she said. "And you shouldn't have left me behind."

As soon as her feet were on the ground a soldier came forward with cuffs. Joe White turned.

"Really, son?" was all he needed to say to him. So at least that arrest was thwarted for now. He wouldn't be able to save her once they landed though.

"They've changed directions though," Rowan said. "They're on a different road now."

"Are they heading for the same compound?"

"I think so."

"Okay, so what happened to she's always right, 20 out of 10 always right," Joe asked.

Both Danny and Rowan's eyes swung to him. "I am right. I'm always right. But people make choices that change things. Right now, they're not on the road I first saw them on. But I know where that road is going to lead. Which is a man taking a fucking scimitar and cleaving Steve's head from his fucking body."

Joe blinked his eyes at her. Okay. Maybe he did believe this psychic shit.

"Okay, show me what road they're on, maybe I can get someone to intercept."

Rowan moved over to the pictures he had spread out on a make shift table. This girl better be right. Because Joe didn't want to lose Steve. Not like this. Not at all.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

As soon as they landed, Rowan was in cuffs. She didn't start crying until they took her to the brig. Apparently, she hadn't ever assumed that stowing away was a punishable crime.

She was looking at a five-year sentence.

The screaming, however, didn't start until they had locked her away. Despite her being in the brig three buildings away they could hear her. Loud and fucking clear. So when the staff sergeant in charge of the op told Joe that he couldn't confirm whether Steve was even in the compound, let alone alive, and therefore wasn't going to send his men in blind, Joe had to admit that, not only did he need Rowan, he needed her psychic knowledge.

As soon as he got into the brig, he walked into three very different takes of the same situation. Three soldiers were hanging outside, covering their ears. Captain Norrell was shouting at Rowan through the bars of her cell. And Rowan… Rowan was singing Backstreet Boys as loudly as she could and as badly as she could. Considering she was singer/songwriter for a living it surprised him that she was this off-key at that moment, and he figured the reason she was off-key was to be as annoying as possible.

God, she'd break a terrorist in ten seconds flat with that tactic.

"I got this Captain," Joe said and Norrell walked off, leaving them there alone. But Rowan was not having this, she was no longer that sweet little innocent this that he remembered. She was a seething ball of rage… in the body of a kitten.

"Let me guess, you can't find him."

Joe stared at her and then nodded. There was no point lying, there was no point trying to pretend, she merely nodded like she understood and he asked her what he was there to ask her.

"No. Do you know where…"

"Why no, no I don't. I've just been screaming for attention for no reason," she snapped sarcastically. "OF COURSE I KNOW WHERE THEY TOOK HIM!"

"Okay, alright, come on, I'm taking you out of here, and you're going to tell us where he is, okay?" Rowan nodded already on her feet. "And you're going to tell us what's going on with your phone."

Danny had asked Captain Norrell for Rowan's phone, he had declined, said it was malfunctioning anyway. Danny had gone real quiet and asked for a description. He hadn't like the description he got.

"Is it bright red?"

"The whole screen, yes."

"It's the app. I've uh… I've gone into international airspace and I didn't have plans to do that, so my phone is probably freaking out."

She didn't mean her phone, she meant Wo. Wo Fat was probably freaking out. He motioned for one of the soldiers to unlock her door. They seemed skeptical but they listened to him, letting her out. Her first thought was to hug him and that surprised him.

"If I don't get to it soon he'll send people to look for me," she said in a small voice. A hopeful voice.

Joe didn't want to tell her that there probably wasn't much Wo Fat could do to stop the Navy from arresting her. He led her back to the base of operations, he pushed her in through the flaps and then returned to where the staff sergeant was waiting for him.

"I think I may have new intel…" Joe started but was cut off.

"As I said before, we acted on the intel you gave us. We can confirm multiple hostiles, but we can't confirm if Commander McGarrett I there."

"That's cause he's not there," Rowan said. She was holding Danny's hand and looking at a map they had pinned up. "There," Rowan said pointing a stop on a map. A dusty shelled out disaster zone just outside of the small town of Godri, right in the shadows of the Hindu Kush mountain range. "They took him there when they figured out he was US something and they got word of an extra activity within the near-by bases. Thought their original place was compromised."

The guy in charge turned from Joe to Rowan who was just staring at him with wide blue eyes.

"Trust me kid, she's always right," he said.

"Alright… well if he was taken there, there's a good chance that he's already dead…"

"Nope," that came from all three of them. Rowan, Danny and Joe. All at the same time. "He's alive. I know he is," Rowan whispered. "I'd've felt it if they had cut his head off."

The kid in charged groaned. "There's no way she'd know that. Not without having access to some kind of Intel. And I'm not buying the psychic crap."

"Look. This is a lot to take in. I get that. But that girl stowed away on a naval plane because she was so sure about this. Everything we've got so far has come from her, so if she's been right up until now, why are we second guessing this hunch?"

He looked Joe over and sighed. "You vouch for her?" he asked. All Joe had to do was nod. "Alright guys. It's go time. Let's move out."

"There's just one thing, tell your guys, they gotta say something to him, he'll know he's safe when you say it. Trust me, it's our code word," Rowan said to him. "It's very important that you say it to him… so he knows…"

He didn't want to argue. Joe could see that. So he took Rowan's code word, relayed it to the team going to get Steve and then they all lazed back. Until it was time to put Rowan back in the brig. Joe found out then that the girl was really fucking good at escaping.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

They had put a bag over his head, stripped him of his extra clothes until he was in nothing except his grey wife beater and his cargo pants. They had dragged him into a small room, threw him into the dirt and then kicked the shit out him until he couldn't breathe anymore.

They left him there for a while and for those moments, however brief they were, Steve let the pain take him. Take him straight back to Hawaii. He wasn't in the dirt, he was lying in the sand and that pressure he felt in his shoulder? That was just Rowan's head resting against him.

They'd still be in their fancy wear, she'd have just said yes to going steady, she'd be his, fully his and… then the door opened up again and he was forced up to his feet and then down into a rickety chair.

They tied him to it, ripped the bag off of his head and he was staring at a man they didn't recognize but he knew was in charge.

One of the lackeys hit him and the Leader spoke to him in perfect English.

"Your name."

Steve glared at him. He said nothing. He was rewarded with another hit. This one hard enough to cut his mouth open.

"The woman? Where is she?"

He said nothing again. This time when he got hit, despite being tied to the chair, Steve found himself in the dirt again.

They picked him back up and put him in the chair.

"Where did she take the children?"

This time when he got hit, the other guy made sure that he didn't fall out of the chair. Great, that meant less time taken out of his beating to keep putting him back in the chair. God this hurt. This hurt a lot. But maybe… maybe if he was strong, if he didn't give them what they wanted, they'd spend more time trying to break him. Enough time for a rescue team to show up and for his head to not get cut off.

The door opened and two more men came in followed by a third one. A man who was supposed to be long dead.

Umar Hassan.

They pulled pictures out of a box. The two other men going through it until they found the one they were looking for. The one of him.

They handed it to Umar Hassan and he looked it over.

"American Navy SEAL," he said appreciatively and in good English. When Steve said nothing he turned to his men and gave them an order in Pashto.

 _Find out who this guy is._

They had a computer. Goddamn it, why did they have a computer? How would they even have internet to look him up? But they did, because they found something. The computer was turned to Hassan who looked it over, quite interested in whatever it was that was written there about him took it all in before walking back to get into Steve's face again.

"You're him aren't you? The policeman that took down Brother Nazaria's soldiers in Hawaii."

Steve stared blankly at him. "And I'm going to do the same to you."

"The soldiers. They spoke of a woman. Everyone who falls to you, they speak of the same woman. A Pierce. The destroyer. They say she is a divine profit, who speaks of the future before it happens. Who uses a network of evil to spread her insanity. Nazaria fell to her, like many other have. A red-headed warrior spilling rivers of blood for you. The American hypocrite."

Oh Rowan. His perfect, lovely wonderfully terrifying Rowan. These people… they knew her name. Even out here they knew her name. And they feared her.

He laughed at them, lazily, through the foggy pain. She had told Chin this once, and he might as well use it now. _Smile. Smile like you're crazy cause they can't beat you._

"She knows I'm here," he whispered. "She knows I'm here and if you think what happened to Nazaria was bloody… well… you should see what she's got in store for you."

He saw it then. The fear in his eyes. For a moment Steve wished for Rowan. Not that she was there, because he wasn't sure that even Wo Fat's network stretched this far. But just to see her, to tell her that she was known in all the corners of the world. She'd be proud of herself. He was horrified. But she would have been proud.

That fear didn't last. He gave an order and they wailed on him. Hitting him over and over at Hassan's command. No questions were asked, they just kept punching him.

After a while Hassan started talking to him again. "We'll find her, you know. The woman you were with," ah so he didn't mean Rowan. They definitely weren't going to go after Rowan. "And when we do, we'll kill her. But if you tell me where she is, I promise you she will be spared. All I want are the children."

Lies. All lies. He didn't mean that and Steve would have had to be an idiot to believe that. Steve wasn't going to let him take those children and turn them into his little clones to do his evil bidding.

Hassan continued to stare at him, and finally he realized that he wasn't going to get Steve to talk. "Very well," he said to Steve. And then turned to his men and gave them an order, an order he didn't recognize. But he didn't need it translated, because Hassan was still talking to him.

"Know this. Tonight you will die in this room. But how you die is up to you. If you confess your sins to the world, your death will be swift, merciful."

What the hell was this nutbar talking about? "My sins? What have _I_ done?"

He wasn't the one stealing kids and throwing punches.

"You've invaded our holy lands. You're guilty of countless atrocities against the righteous," aw no he had that crazy fanatic look in his eyes, and behind him a camera was coming through the door. Yeah… Steve wasn't going down like this.

"You strap bombs onto innocent children so they can go and kill more innocent civilians and you call yourselves righteous?" he asked.

And they hit him again and they continued to hit him as they got the camera set up. When that was done they forced him to his knees and held his arms, each putting a hand to his shoulders so he couldn't twist away from them. Not that he could of he was in so much pain he could barely move.

Than Hassan got behind him and started preaching. He knew then that his time was almost up.

"Peace be upon those who believe. And to those who do not, know this. Until you bow to his will, you will never be safe. We shall bring the fight to your shores. Blood will be spilt in your streets. And men like this, they cannot protect you. America is full of nothing but lies and debauchery. You are a nation without values. A nation of infidels. And now let this man's death be a lesson to you all. This is what…"

He never got to finish. Steve threw his head back as soon as Hassan got too close to him, effectively head-butting him in the nuts. He kicked them men off of him, slammed another into a wall, and kicked a fourth over a table. He made a mad dash for the door, hoping a nice football tackle would be enough to get him through it.

It was not.

He was thrown back, slammed into the dirt again and then everyone he had fought off took turns beating the absolute crap out of him.

Once they were done he was forced back up and then onto his knees, and he knew. He knew then what was going to happen to him. Hassan had the scimitar, he was coming towards him, and Steve knew it. This was the moment Rowan had told him about, this was what she had wanted to keep him from.

God why hadn't he listened to her? Why wasn't he at home in his bed with her? That was all he wanted. He wanted her. He wanted Rowan so bad he could cry. He just wanted to see her, just once, just one more time. To hold her. To keep her. God, who was going to take care of her now? Wo Fat? Fuck, she'd be a career criminal in a month.

Hassan grabbed him by the hair, and Steve cried out. It should have been from fear but it wasn't. Pain had fired up in his chest. Not from the ribs he was sure was broken, but straight from the heart, a void pain. Squeezing at his heart. He saw a single orange electric bolt flew from him, it shattered the camera in front of him. But it wasn't the only one, electric bolts hit the men around him, they got Hassan to let go of his head. He collapsed grasping his chest. He cried out, he had her name on his mind but he wasn't sure if that was what came out of his mouth. He wasn't sure if he was asking her to stop or just asking her to walk through the void to him to wrap him up in her soothing embrace and save him from this nightmare. She had used the void to save him before, to save his team before, she could do it again? Couldn't she?

Somewhere, somehow, he swore he could hear her screaming right back for him. Oh his knees in the dirt, his eyes closed wishing for home, wishing for Rowan, he felt it when Hassan stood atop him, felt the powerful swing as Hassan brought the blade down but it never hit him. It rebounded off of something, Steve didn't see what it was but he knew what it felt like. It was like he had been enveloped in a warm bubble that was the same kind of warmth he got when Rowan was near him, the same sort of feeling he got when her arms were around him. If he didn't know any better he'd have aid she was on his back, shielding him from what was coming, but she wasn't there, she couldn't be. The act of rebounding off whatever shield Rowan's void powers had put up sent Hassan and the two men that had previously been holding him in place, like an explosion had gone off in the room and everyone who had just managed to stand up, went flying into the nearest walls.

Just in time for the door to burst open. Gunshots peppered the air and Steve forced himself to crawl away and under the table to avoid all the bullets that were filling the room and killing everyone in there other than him.

He started when a pair of hands grabbed him, he tried to get away. Uniforms didn't always mean friendlies.

"Commander Steven McGarrett?"

His named seemed foreign to him, he hadn't been expecting it. When he confirmed his identity the man above him smiled. "We're your Rowan-gram, Commander. We're your Rowan-gram."

 _Rowan_.

She had sent people to come get him. Relief washed over him in waves, he stopped struggling against the soldiers and let them help him up. He felt himself laugh, felt the shaky sound escape him. Kono was right, having a Rowan-gram find him had definitely made him finally feel safe.


	118. Chapter 118

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: So there we go, you guys seemed to really like how that ended. I worked hard on it, can you tell? Well, Steve is safe, and he is going to have his own personal nurse, but the question is now, is Rowan safe? For the guest who asked, I did actually do some research and yes, it is an actual law. Stowing away on US naval/army planes comes with a five-year sentence at the Maximum. So we'll see how Rowan ducks that. Don't forget that the 700th reviewer gets to pick the costume that Rowan and Steve wear in the season 5 Halloween episode, which I am almost through writing, so don't forget to review._

 _Also, do you guys like this three updates a week I've got going on? Cause I have more than enough written to keep that going for the month of June at the very least… maybe even for the rest of the year. What do you think? Review and let me know!_

Chapter 118 

* * *

Steve's vision was hazy. But he knew he was safe. He knew a medical tent when he saw one, make shift and temporary. He was on a mobile base somewhere in Afghanistan. But he was safe and alive.

"Hey."

 _Danny_?

Steve turned towards the sound of his friend's voice absolutely shocked that he was there, but even with the hazy vision from a half-swollen eye he could tell it was Danny.

"Yeah, I'm right here. You alright?"

No he was not. He wanted Rowan, he wanted to feel her against him, he wanted her cool hands all over his feverish aching body.

"Is Catherine okay?" he asked instead. He didn't know what happened to her. He assumed she got away but he didn't know where she was. Whether or not she got Najib.

"Uh, yeah. I spoke to her when she called me about you, and we got disconnected. I tried her back a couple of times but it didn't go through," Danny said. He must have noted the panic on his face because he added: "Ro says she's fine. She's gonna go on a crusade to find the kid, but she'll be fine."

Then she hadn't found Najib. He saved some kids though, maybe not the one they were looking for but he'd take saving some lives over none.

Something shifted against his bed that wasn't him and Steve froze. Because he had felt it. A brush of something soft against his arm. He glanced down, he knew Rowan's hair anywhere, and there she was. Her head lying against her arms, fully asleep.

"What… but… how?"

"Rowan woke me up and had me get Joe White up before Catherine even called. She had us on the plane before we even knew where they were taking you," Danny tells him.

"You let her come to Afghanistan? Are you out of your mind?"

Danny's mouth dropped open to argue but Steve's loud outburst had woken Rowan up. She bolted up her eyes crinkled with sleep shouting: "They let me out!"

Danny smacked her and Rowan groaned. "There's no one here you dolt and they already know you're out."

Rowan merely groaned again and put her hands to her face to rub her eyes. Then there was the clink of metal against metal and when Steve actually focused on Rowan he saw a pair of familiar bracelets chaining the wrists together.

"What the hell is that?" he asked her, which turned her eyes towards him. She went from sleepy to awake in no seconds flat.

There was a sudden flurry of _oh my god_ s and _baby_ s coupled with soft pecks from her lips all over his face. He wanted nothing more than to tug her to him and kiss her solidly but everything still hurt so he wasn't going to do that… yet.

Plus he had something more important to deal with at that moment.

"Not that I'm not happy to see you, cause believe me babe, I am, but uh… why are you handcuffed?" he asked. Rowan sat back down, blinking her eyes at him before turning to Danny who just stared at her. The two of them sharing a moment where they just spoke to each other with facial expressions. This went on for too long before Steve stopped it. "Someone better tell me why she's in fucking handcuffs!"

"Uh… probably because I'm technically under arrest," Rowan answered. Steve's jaw dropped as he stared at her. She was _what_?! "Uh… I stowed away on a Military plane so they uh… they kind of arrested me over it."

Steve turned to Danny who shrugged and Rowan said: "Joe's working on… uh… on getting me out of that."

Danny suddenly straightened. "The CIA spook is back," he said to them and Steve turned. Through blurry vision he could make out the CIA spook in plain clothes and a man in army fatigues. Probably the captain of the base.

The Captain looked at them all with disdain.

"You're gonna need to step outside, and you," he growled turning on Rowan who was ramrod straight in her seat. Steve's good hand went to her leg, needing to touch her to know she was okay. "You're supposed to be in the brig."

Like hell she was.

Rowan raised her hands. "I'm handcuffed, doesn't that count?" just as Danny said: "Uh… I'm not a soldier, so you have no jurisdiction over me. I will be staying… right… here."

Danny was completely ignored.

"Considering your surprising ability to get in and out of locked cells and handcuffs, no it does not."

"Okay fair, but I'll be a lot less trouble if you just let me stay here," she said. "Seriously. I'm just going to keep breaking out to get back here."

Steve winced. "I uh… it's true, honestly, it'd just be easier…"

The CIA spook glared at them all. He was done with this conversation, clearly, because he swept onto the topic of his visit.

"I'm going to make this easy Commander. We know you weren't over here alone, so unless you wanna spend the next ten years in prison you need to tell me who else was involved and how you got your Intel."

"I told you," Rowan said. "Me. He got it from me. Just like they got all their intel on finding him from me."

"I refused to believe that a psychic predicted all of this," the CIA practically shouted.

Rowan opened her mouth again, but Steve put a hand out to stop her, grabbing her hand and holding it tightly. She had done enough to save him. It was his turn to step up. "You know, Hassan's boys, they knocked me around pretty good. My short-term memory's a little foggy. I'm sorry."

The CIA guy glared at him. "Let me ask you something. Who the hell do you think you are, huh? Because once you leave those little islands of yours, you're a civilian and your girl… she becomes a criminal. Now I want a name and the source of your intel, now."

"Oh, enough of this," Rowan snapped and then dug into her pocket. Her phone in her hand as she muttered to herself. "Criminal, huh? I'll show you, criminal."

Oh god. No. No, don't do it. Not now.

But Steve couldn't get the words out fast enough and Rowan was reading off what she had, "Leon Chase. CIA. Two kids, two different wives. Penchant for gambling. Prefers the ponies."

Chase backed away from her. Rowan turned that glittering smile back up to him and then showed him a screen where a big glaring accept was waiting for her to push it. "I press that button and your debt collectors are gonna come knocking. Starting on wife-y number one's door. That would be daughter number one. She's what, sixteen now? I bet she's pretty."

Chase took another step back.

"He may be a civilian, but my _criminal_ network goes where I go. So I highly suggest you run far, and you run fast," Rowan snapped. "Right now, asswipe."

The captain of the Naval base, a nicer man named Stan Norrell stared at them both. "How did you get your phone out of my office?"

"I got out of a locked cell. Getting my phone out of your desk drawer was nothing," Rowan said. "And besides, I had to disengage the alert on my phone. As I mentioned before, if it stayed up, he'd send people to the phone's location."

"He has no ties in Afghanistan. He knows no one. There is no one for your brother to send to save you," Norrell snapped and Rowan looked away from him.

"Well I'm sorry… but I didn't want to chance it."

"Okay, alright, listen up. Today you're getting a pass," he announced to them. "But these rogue ops of yours are over. Speaking on behalf of the entire US Military you ever set foot in this part of the world again and you are gonna be in it up to your neck. I don't care what you did in the service, I will personally throw you in the brig."

"Fair. I'm down to go home," Rowan said. "And I can safely say that I will never want to come back here… so…"

"No. Not you," Norrell snapped. "You've already been sentenced. Five years. Naval lock up."

Steve's heart ran cold. Rowan narrowed her eyes at him. "Really? After what you saw me do with my phone? Cause I mean… I just have to type your name in," she whispered looking down to her phone. "There's no telling what I'll find if I put your name in."

Norrell just rolled his eyes. Steve shook his head. "You don't understand what he'll do. I can assure you that if you let her come home with me, I will set her up with mandated Naval community service. Just you know… off base cause she gets into trouble real fast, and the farther away from guns, ammunition, bombs and tanks she is the better."

"Oh, yes, I like that idea…" she said with a big grin on her face.

"Community service huh?" he echoed. "Fine. You want to do some community service?" Rowan nodded eagerly. "Since you're so good at getting in and out of places, I've got just the op to send you on."

"I'm sorry, op? Did he say op?" Rowan echoed. Steve nodded. Yes, yes he did say op. Who the hell would want to send her on an op? "You want to send me… a wise cracking petty thief… on an op? Are you out of your goddamn mind? I'm gonna get shot immediately… probably by myself! That'll be a new one. Friendly fire, except its accidental friendly-shot-yourself-fire!"

"You're not going to have a gun…" "Great, you're gonna send me on an op without a gun." "You're going to retrieve Intel, that's all. A petty thief can handle that can't she?"

"You don't understand…"

"Oh, I do understand. It's this or jail time, what do you want?" Norrell asked.

"Well I mean… fine," Rowan said in a huff throwing up her hands in frustration. "But I'm keeping my phone. I'm expecting him to call and this time I better answer."

Norrell wasn't having that though, because he snatched the phone out of her hands, but he did, at least, uncuff her, as soon as he and the CIA guy were gone Rowan slouched in her chair. "He's going to fucking kill me when I finally get a hold of him."

"He's mad?" Steve asked because he still couldn't wrap his head around Rowan going on an op somewhere in Afghanistan without him.

"I missed 85 phone calls between me getting thrown in the brig and me getting out again… which was maybe… two hours?" she asked Danny who nodded for her. "Yeah about two hours. I'm sure that my arrest got broadcasted, which means he's knows I'm in Afghanistan and he knows I'm in trouble and despite my bluffing he has no people in Afghanistan and I know this. And to top things off I'm not picking up, which mean's I'm making him feel things that he's not comfortable with… so yeah… I'm in a lot of trouble when I finally get a hold of him."

When she looked up again Steve was staring at her. He couldn't help it, he still couldn't believe that either of them where there. "What? What is it?"

"I just can't believe you're here. Danny… you flew all the way here… and you… you fucking idiot… you stowed away on a plane?"

"Danny wouldn't let me come," Rowan said with a pout. She stood up, sliding into the bed beside him. Resting her head against his good shoulder, tucking into his side where she belonged. Just the act of her snuggling into his side had his eyes lowering, suddenly sleepy. God he only slept truly and deeply well when he had her beside him.

"I needed to make sure you were okay. You would have done the same if it were me."

True. Except he would have been the one bursting in through that door to that dusty compound if Rowan had been taken. Thankfully Rowan hadn't been that eager to get to him. He might have had a heart attack if it had been her that burst through that door.

"I second that, I too wanted to make sure that you were okay. Plus you owe me 500 dollars from that poker game."

"Mmmm true, and you owe me a grand," Rowan added snuggling a little closer to him. "I'm not hurting you am I?"

He wouldn't have told her even if she was. He angled his head downward and pressed a soft kiss to her forehead. "No babe, please just… just for a little while. I just need to know that you're with me."

Rowan lifted her head to his, those lips milometers from his. "Don't you worry. I'm not going anywhere."

His eyes fell shut again and his good arm tightened reflexively around her. "Thank you guys, thank you for being here," he whispered to them, not sure if they even heard him.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

They had brought Steve in on the helicopter and Danny and Rowan had gone to meet him. He was unconscious, he was badly beaten, but he had his head. Rowan put a hand to his shoulder, just to touch him to make sure it was real and a smile crept up on his sleeping face.

She knew then that he knew she was there. Even if he wasn't consciously aware of it.

Weird things had happened before the command center confirmed they had Steven. It was like Rowan had felt his fear, had felt that debilitating electric current coursing through her at someone else's command. Her chest squeezing tightly, stealing the air right out of her lungs. Was that what Steve felt like every time she messed with the void?

She had screamed, Danny said. She had screamed a name, but it hadn't been Steve's… she had screamed her own name, her voice deep and gruff like it hadn't been her talking. Rowan had no idea what happened, or how it happened, but she had a feeling that whatever had happened, it was because Steve was so desperate to see her one last time, so desperate to survive that he pulled the void to him.

She had prayed that it worked, and the void had done as she asked… which was to protect him.

And it had.

Steve had been returned to her. Maybe not in the same condition he had left in, but he was in one piece, he was alive and they would be going home soon.

If she survived this goddamn op.

Captain Norrell had practically ripped her from Steve's side that morning and dragged her away. To brief her, he said, but he wouldn't let Danny come with her and Steve was panicking. She was trying to be brave, Steve was injured, he couldn't help her, and her relying on him would make this harder for them both. She wanted him to rest and relax, he wouldn't be able to do it if she stressed him out about this. They had taken her phone ages ago, she really just wanted it back.

Today, today she was going to learn what they wanted her to do for her community service.

She was sat down at a table that had little plastic replica buildings and little soldier men standing around in strange formations. There were maps all over the walls, with pictures of aerial shots of a building and head shots of people she didn't know but must have been important to them.

She was handed a single headshot of a man in a turban attached to a file where everything seemed to be blacked out. His dark beard was defining his jaw, he had a pair of sunglasses covering his eyes.

"Meet Marik Gholam, the owner of the Ziarat night club. It's a night club just outside of the Pakistan border. He's a bit of a wanna be Rock star who's running supplies to the Taliban out of his club," Norrell told her.

"What kind of supplies?"

"Anything really, guns, ammo, bombs, food, everything goes through him and then it spreads out to all the different factions all over the hills."

Rowan nodded. "Right so he's like a one-stop-shop service center for anyone who wants to fuck shit up?"

"Exactly."

"Okay, great, and you want me to…?"

"He's recently come into some… information… that doesn't belong to him, that could be quite hurtful to our troops, particularly the ones in we have out in the field."

Rowan blinked her eyes. "You want me to infiltrate his club and steal back the data?" Norrell got half a nod before Rowan threw the papers up in the air and shouted: "Are you out of your damn minds?! I'm not a fucking spy! I'm a songwriter…"

"You managed to sneak onto our plane rather well much like a spy…"

"Okay, firstly, that was a matter of life and death for someone I really care a lot about, and secondly your security is stupidly easy to get past."

Norrell took that in, stared at her for a moment and said. "Well this too is life and death, except it's your life on the line this time."

"Well that doesn't matter, I don't care about _my_ life."

When silence met that comment, Rowan looked up to the men in the room. They were all staring at her completely surprised. It was often that Rowan said things like that without realizing it. She lowered her eyes again and looked down to the 3D map in front of her with all the soldiers and tanks.

Norrell cleared his throat and glanced down to the map as well. "We're obviously not going to send you in without assistance. There will be a team going with you, and we're going to have someone go into the actually building with you. We've come up with a plan, to get you two in."

"At night?" Rowan asked. "At a busy club? Where all the security is going to be ready to go at a moment's notice? Doesn't seem smart."

"And how would you do it then?"

"During the day. Less traffic, easier to slip in and out unnoticed."

"And if you get caught?"

"Come up with a quick, easy, convenient lie."

"Like what?"

"Uh… I unno, I guess I'll come up with something as the need arises," she whispered. She swallowed whatever fear she had. "So we're going to Ziarat and where are we?" Rowan asked.

"Jalalabad."

"You just made that up, didn't you?" He pointed to a spot on the map that stated the name of the town their base was in. "Ah. Never mind. Is it far from here?"

"Only a few hours."

"Oh, wonderful, do you have… do you have a plan? For like… getting me out if something happens?" she asked.

Norrell nodded and then pointed to a bulky blonde soldier standing beside him. "Rogers is going with you, he'll get you out."

"Rogers?" Rowan echoed. "Great I've got two Captain America's now. When are we going to leave?"

"We're going to iron out the data and the plan is still in formation. We will be briefing you on what you'll be looking for, and your entrance and exit strategies will all be solid by then."

"Yes, but when is _then_?"

"Tomorrow."

 _Holy crap balls Captain America_.

Norrell smiled at her again. "You'll be fine. Just do what you did to get yourself here and you'll be perfectly fine."

Did this man not realize that none of her plans went the way they were supposed to? _And she had insider knowledge of what was going to happen next_. How was this going to go when she didn't know what was going to come at her.

Rowan looked down at the little plastic representations of herself and the team of soldiers going with her. Suddenly more afraid than she had ever been in her life. And that included when she crashed her own car to save her brother.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan had been taken from him and he was immediately anxious. It was the panic in her eyes, a fear he couldn't soothe for her. He had wanted to move, had almost gotten himself up, but the pain meds kept him fuzzy and Danny kept him down.

Somehow, despite being worried about her, and wanting to stay awake until she could come back to him, he had fallen asleep. He suspected Danny with the morphine button had been behind that, but when he woke up again, it was because he had become aware of her curled up beside him.

His eyes opened, found her snuggled into his side, and saw that Danny wasn't sitting beside him. Steve wasn't upset about that, Danny couldn't sit by him 24/7 and he did want some alone time with Rowan. He wanted nothing more than to hold her tightly to grip her with both arms and keep her from this mission they wanted her on. If he thought he could safely sneak her out of that compound he would have by now but he… he was too injured to help her.

He had asked Danny to help him but Danny had refused. Steve wasn't good enough, he said. So, leave him behind. It made sense. What mattered was Rowan, Rowan and getting her to safety, but Danny wouldn't leave Steve behind to deal with that punishment by himself, and Danny knew that Rowan wouldn't leave without Steve, no point arguing about it. It just wasn't going to happen.

Steve looked back down to Rowan and suddenly her eyes were turned up to him.

"Am I hurting you?"

She was never hurting him. Even when it did hurt, even when he should have asked her to get off, he didn't care, he wanted her there with him.

"What did they say? Where are they sending you?"

"Some place called Ziarat," she whispered.

"The nightclub?"

"That's the place."

Steve's heart rate kicked up. "That's a Taliban hub, Ro, why are the hell are they sending you there?"

"They need me to steal back some data that the club owner stole or something," she answered, purposely avoiding his eyes, her fingers tracing patterns across his shirt. He'd be distracted if he wasn't so goddamn worried.

"They're going to send you into that place alone?"

"Nope, I'm getting some big burly blonde guy named Rogers…" "Calvin Rogers?" "I unno his first name, I call him Captain America."

Steve found himself frowning. "You call me Captain America." When she turned her eyes up to him surprised he just glared at her. "You may not say it to my face but I've heard you talk to Wo about me."

She hid her smile in his shoulder and that arm he wrapped around her shoulders tightened instinctively.

"You're the only Captain America for me, but since you're going to have to sit this one out… maybe it'll be okay for me to have a replacement… just this once?"

Steve sighed. She had a point. He couldn't go with her no matter how much he wanted to go with her.

"And their entrance and exit strategy?"

"I don't know yet… they… they haven't told me… I'm not sure if they have one yet…"

"They don't… Rowan!"

"Well I don't know!" she cried, sitting up and turning away from him. Not fair, Steve couldn't sit up after her, but his hand on her back was trying to use her shirt to tug her back down and failing. "They had this plan to send me in with Rogers' as a couple at night but that's the worst time to send me, so now they're looking into how to get me in during the day…"

"And they're sending you in…" "Tomorrow." "Tomorrow?!" "That's what I said…"

Steve's chest began to constrict this wasn't good. Not even in the least.

"I don't want to talk about this anymore, can we talk about something else?"

Steve reached out, his hand grabbing the back of her shirt of tugging her back down to him. He settled on his good side, and held her down beside him.

"I have something important to tell you," he whispered into her hair. Rowan tilted her head back up to look at him, blinking her eyes at him. "Are you ready?"

Rowan nodded and he smiled. "When I woke up, my vision, it was all cloudy and blurry. And you, you got up and you were kissing me all over. The way the light hit you, god I thought you were an angel." She just looked at him like she didn't get it. "And I want you to remember that. Whenever you think you're monstrous, or I do something stupid and you think that's what I think. I want you to remember that you're my guardian angel, my saving grace and the face I want to see every time I wake up. Okay?"

Rowan smiled at him, her eyes getting misty. She burrowed into his chest to hide the emotion but it was too late, he saw it. He smiled into her hair, hoping she held onto that, that she never forgot that he thought she was perfect, and divine. A gift from god meant to heal his broken damaged heart.

He cleared his throat to get her attention. "Uh… I also had a question."

"Yeah?"

"Did anything happen while you were waiting for me?" he asked.

"What are you talking about?"

"Something weird happened to me… Rowan… something void like…"

"Oh, that. Yeah… uh… I know, I felt that too," she admitted. "But uh… I don't think it was me. I mean, not really. I felt it, your fear, that absolute terror. I could feel it climbing up my throat… this sort of… cry. I don't think it was just mine though, you know? I think… in that moment… I think it was yours."

"Why would you say that?"

"Because I didn't scream your name… I screamed mine."

That was right. That was what he had wanted. All he wanted at that moment. He was about to die and the only thing he had wanted was Rowan. He wanted to see her one more time. He had thought about the void and all those times she had pulled on it to save others and maybe subconsciously he wanted her to use it to save him. And it had.

"You wanted me didn't you? You wanted me so bad you called for me," she asked and he nodded. "Well… I think… I think you wanted me so badly and I was so desperate to save you that a bit of me went to you, through the void… to… to protect you…" she lowered her eyes again. "It's kind of silly but I just envisioned that I had wrapped you up to protect you and put this big huge bubble around us. To keep them from you."

Steve half laughed, he hadn't seen it but it felt an awful lot like that was what happened.

"Well you did a damn good job," he said with a shaky laugh and Rowan let out a few shaky laughs.

"Did I?"

"Hell yeah, stopped the sword and threw everyone in the room a few feet back from me," he replied. "I uh… I didn't know I could pull from you…"

"It makes sense, you were the only one who could pull me out of the void in the first place. And you've always felt it when I tried to travel or use the powers from it. It would make sense then that you would also be able to tap into that same power when necessary."

Steve nodded again his good hand running circles up and down her arm. "Why do you think that is?"

"I don't know but I think it has something to do with all those red strings."

"Red strings?"

"Don't act stupid I know you've seen them. They tangle us up whenever we go anywhere near the void," Rowan said. "They connect me to you, and you to me. I think they're why you can feel it when I use the void. And I think those strings are how the energy went from me to you."

"We're connected," he whispered and Rowan nodded again. There was something about that. Knowing that he had a cosmic link to her, that made his chest swell with happiness only to have the reality of their present situation crash down on him and then his chest was tight with worry again.

He pulled her to him, rested his forehead against hers and just held her tightly. Those two words running circles in his head.

 _We're connected._

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

 _So. The plan is to have Rowan and Rogers walk up to the front and ask for water. Once inside, Rogers will distract, Rowan will let herself into Gholam's office, retrieve the USB with the file, and the two will be kicked out. If things escalate we will have a team outside ready to move in. In the case of heavy firepower, Rogers has been told to take Rowan out the back and then around. Easy._

No. No. Not easy.

Steve had dragged Rowan out of that briefing tent, practically shaking. That could have been because the only reason he was standing on his own two feet was due to a large amount of pain meds and pure will power, but he was inclined to believe that it was fear keeping him up, fear and a need to get Rowan away from these crazy people.

He tugged her back to the medic tent, with Danny in tow, trying to calm him down, but it wasn't working. It wasn't working because that plan was the shittiest thing he had ever seen and at no point was he going to let Rowan go into that building without him.

Rowan pulled him to a stop, already he could hear Norrell behind them, calling for him to bring her back. She turned to Danny and Joe quickly. "Can you just hold them off, please? Just for a few moments…"

They both nodded and turned to act as gatekeepers and when she turned back to him, he felt that fear climb up his throat again. "I can't… I can't let you go in there… not without me… not with me here… not with that plan. Rowan… please… I'm not… if something were to happen to you… I wouldn't be… I couldn't… I'm just not strong enough."

Rowan put a hand to his chest, he saw the fear in her eyes and his heart broke a little more. "I need you to tell me it's going to be okay," she pleaded. "I'm scared Steve. I'm utterly terrified and if you… if you're scared too… I'm going to be even more worried and then something really _will_ happen. So, can you… for both of us… can you just tell me it's going to be okay?"

She was right, of course. One of them needed to be strong. He could do that. He could do it for her. It was the least he could do as it was his fault they were in this situation. Had he listened to her, if he had picked her back when she asked him to, they wouldn't be here right now. He nodded his head to her, donned a serious but encouraging smile and whispered: "It's going to be alright."

With his good arm he pulled her shaking form to him, letting her cling to him. "You're going to be brilliant. I know you will. Just like you have been through every other hostage situation and shooting and… well… everything else. You are going to be just fine and as soon as this is over we're gonna go home and go to Rainbows and have pancakes and forget all about this."

Rowan smiled up to him, tears were leaking out of her eyes, his own jaw was trembling. He blamed the heavy pain meds he was on, yeah they were the only reason he was standing at that moment, but he was pretty sure that they were the reason he was about to cry due to worry and fear.

She pulled out her phone and Steve half laughed. That had been confiscated from her. He watched it happen. How had she got it back from Norrell? She looked it over briefly as if contemplating using it herself, right then and there but she ultimately decided to handed it to him. "Here. I want you to hold onto this… you know… just in case."

Steve let go of her to take it. "I… I won't need it, Ro," he whispered.

Rowan shook her head and refused to take it back from him. "Just… just in case," she whispered.

Behind them Norrell cleared his throat. Well clearly Danny and Joe couldn't hold him back for very long. He looked at them both carefully before saying: "It's time to roll out kid."

Steve reflexively put a hand to her arm. To hold her. A cry of panic clawed up his throat running it ragged. Rowan hugged him again, kissed him one last time and asked: "I'll be alright, right?"

Norrell grabbed her to pull her away and as she went he called out: "You'll be fine. I'll see you in a few hours!"

His heart hurt, his body tight with anxiety and anticipation, coiled and ready wanting nothing more than to rush back to her and bring her back to him. He needed to believe his words as much as she needed to. She was going to come back to him. There was literally no other option.


	119. Chapter 119

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hey guys! Happy Friday! This chapter's a little shorter but it's got a lot of interesting things in it. I got one vote on the three times a week updates? Do you guys want them or not let me know! So for everyone who's worried about the roller coaster, don't worry we're almost done. Just this chapter and then the next one you get what you want. I'd like to say it calms down but the next episode… also a wild one. But I can promise you, since season 5 is also quite wild, I have those fluffy little chapters in between season 4 and season 5 so that should even it out a bit. 9 more reviews until the 700th review! Don't forget to put your name on the review so I can announce you as the winner!_

Chapter 119 

* * *

The drive was, bumpy, hot and dusty, but the soldiers around her kept offering her water. She accepted each canteen offered to her out of nervous desire. And now she really, really needed to pee.

And there was nowhere acceptable to do that.

Instead she stood beside Rogers who would be going in with her listening to him go over the plan. Again. She was bouncing from foot to foot, trying not to wet herself. Which was how she blanked on every single thing he said until he asked: "Are we all on the same page?"

"Nope, we're not even in the same library."

Rogers turned to her, clearly not impressed, and she got it. It was her fault. She hadn't been listening. She had stopped listening after he told her that the little USA flag pin on her chest was a camera. Nothing else seemed important after that.

"Okay, we're going to go over, ask for water…"

"Does that usually work?" she asked.

"Well usually."

"And if it doesn't?"

"We fall back and think of a backup plan," he answered turning back to the team who would be covering them from the other side of the street. In an abandoned three-storey building. Coverage from all three floors. That was not a good plan. This sounded like a terrible plan.

Well. Rowan had a better one.

Adjusting the Sari on her head, she moved away from the men who were still cementing the plans and out of the building and across the street. She got all the way to the front door before she even heard Roger called her name.

The front door was locked. Alright, time to go around back. She heard Rogers following behind her, struggling to catch up to her before she could get to the back door.

He couldn't catch up to her.

Rowan rounded the corner to the back and ran almost face first into someone's chest. She took a step back and tried to smile at the man in front of her. The man with a rifle in Bedouin baggy, dirt colored clothes.

"Hello, I'm your new act, can you let me in please. I really need to pee."

The man stared at her, his gun raising as soon as Rogers rounded the corner. The poor man slid to a stop, took in the rifle bearing down on them and a hand went to her shoulder immediately.

Rowan let it rest there but she didn't let him tug her back. "Oh now, that's rude. Very rude to point a gun at a stranger," she said putting a hand to the barrel and pushing it away. "Look, I didn't travel all the way here to have a gun in my face. I'm the most desirable singer on the continent and I doubt Marik would be happy to know you turned me away. So, let's just move aside and let me use the washroom."

When he said nothing Rowan carefully stage whispered to Rogers: "Does he speak English?"

"I speak fine," the man snapped. "I no believe you."

"You don't… really?" she asked dryly. "You're going to make me prove that I'm a lounge act?"

He glared at her. He glared at Rogers behind her. Well, she chose this path, no turning back now.

 _Look me in the eyes, tell me what you see? Perfect paradise, tearin' at the seams. I wish I could escape, I don't wanna fake it, wish I could erase it, make your heart believe._

It was a simple chorus. The first song she had ever written for Sarah and the situation she had gotten herself into with her the baby daddy she never told was a baby daddy. But it was enough. It was all the man needed. He was staring at her wide eyes, mouth dropped.

Rowan merely smiled prettily, put her hands on her hips and said: "Do you believe me now?"

He did. And he even let her use the washroom.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

 _Oh, hush, my dear, it's been a difficult year. And terrors don't prey on innocent victims. Trust me, darlin', trust me darlin', it's been a loveless year. I'm a girl of three fears: Integrity, faith and crocodile tears. Trust me, darlin', trust me, darlin'._

She was an angel. A red-headed angel with the voice of a…. well an angel. Every word that came from her lips, those beautiful pink lips, were dripping cash money. Like a siren song she would draw them all in. And she didn't even have music to back her up. If she was this good A cappella she was going to be deadly with music.

He'd make millions off of her.

This surprisingly mouthy little thing who had self-proclaimed herself as the best singer on the continent. He hadn't believed it when she came it. He believed it now.

Marik Gholam was officially in love.

 _Oh, I've been askin' for problems, problems, problems. I wage my war, on the world inside. I take my gun to the enemy's side. Oh, I've been askin' for… Oh, I've been askin' for… problems, problems, problems_

Problematic lyrics, but judging by the rest of the men in the room none of them cared. All eyes were on that red head, mouths slightly opened, mesmerized by her and her voice. Except for his bodyguard. Sin Nombre, the man with no name. Or Conejo for the white rabbit mask he liked to wear as he killed people. He came at a heavy price, but Marik could afford it now that he was a very wanted man. Sin Nombre was very well connected and very good at his job. He never failed.

But his loyalty was based on who paid the most amount of money.

Marik made sure to make this job more than worth his while.

Sin Nombre had watched her for a while, a strange look crossing his features, almost like he recognized her. But it wasn't like him to stay quiet if he suspected foul play, actually it was. If he actually thought that this girl was a threat, she'd already be dead, no warning, no questions just a bullet in the brain. So Marik ignored his bodyguard's strange behaviour in favour of watching the girl.

When she finished the song there was an eruption of applause from the small contingency of men he had. Marik already knew he wanted to hire her, but he also wanted to low ball her. She was worth her weight in gold, of course, but that didn't mean he wanted to pay it.

"That was a very nice song," he said once the din died down. "But can you do a faster song? There is no point hiring a ballad singer for a night club."

The girl, whose name was given to him as Ro, simple and easy, nothing else, nodded and then thought it over. She moved over to the blonde companion she had with her, her own body guard she said, but he usually carried the equipment, equipment she didn't have because they had lost it in a fire-fight a few towns over.

Hence the need for a job sooner than anticipated.

She simply nodded to him, asked the drummer to count out a beat for her, which he did and Marik could see just how versatile she was. She was even better with fast songs.

 _This is my roaring, roaring 20's. I don't… even know me. Roll me like a blunt, 'cause I wanna go home, roll me like a blunt, 'cause I wanna go home. My roaring, roaring 20s. I don't… even know me. Roll me like a blunt, 'cause I wanna go home, roll me like a blunt, 'cause I want, I wanna go home._

Less problematic. More provocative. He'd take her home. He'd take her anywhere.

He cut her song short. Waving at her until she was silent. The microphone went back in the stand and she just stood there smiling happily at all of them.

"So how did I do?"

"Wonderful. Very versatile…"

"Kay, great, so like… I can start tonight. I'll need an internet connection to download my backing tracks though…"

"Now wait a second… we need to discuss your outfit…"

"Why, what's wrong with it?"

Goddamn she was lippy. He could fix that. He was going to have to fix that.

"For starters, you will need to cover your hair…"

"Uh… no."

Marik narrowed his eyes. Beside him Sin Nombre had given her his full attention, and he was smirking, seemingly enjoying the by play between them. Enjoying her willful stubbornness. "It is our customs, our religion…"

"Okay, we'll it's against my religion to wear one, so… no."

Beside him Sin Nombre let out a snort. He was trying to hide his laughter. He purposely looked away from Marik so he wouldn't see it but he did. And it made him angry. He would not be made a laughing stock by a woman, in his own club. Even if this woman was siren who could make him nothing but money.

"You will do as I say, you are a woman you are…"

"Well wouldn't a woman in a provocative dress, uncovered, so y'all Neanderthals can see everything, draw a larger crowd? I would have thought that you guys wouldn't care about illegal stuff like that when you're all Taliban… oh that's a lot of guns."

Everyone in the room had drawn them even Sin Nombre, but Marik held out a hand. A simple gesture which meant to let him ask questions before they shot her. He noted that while she looked scared it didn't feel like she was scared. She seemed to be treating the situation as if it were a game.

"Who said anything about the Taliban? Who do you work for?"

"Are we not in the middle of Taliban country?" she asked. "I mean… let's look at me, take a really good look at me, do I really look like a soldier? I swear I have no coordination what so ever, see this scar?" she asked pointing to a faint hairline scar running through her right eyebrow. "Yeah ran into a low hanging branch, and this one, on the other side, I tucked and rolled out of a moving vehicle and right into a tree."

"Why would you jump from a moving vehicle…"

"I was getting kidnapped at the time," she said with a wave of her hand. "It's a great party story but we don't need to go into it now. Look, you gonna hire me or what? I have three other auditions and I'm sure they'd love to have me…"

"You are hired… for now…" Marek whispered, looking her up and down again with that appreciative eye. "If you do well you will have… private showings… as well…"

She blinked her eyes. "Okay… uh… I guess we can discuss that when we get to it… but uh… I'm just gonna… I'm just gonna go find a place to download the rest of my tracks? You have wi-fi right?"

He let her wander off. Her own guard following after her. His men watched her leave and Marik had to shoo them out of the ballroom to get them back to their posts. When they were gone Marik glanced over to where Sin Nombre was standing, noting that the man had watched the siren leave and hadn't yet turned back from the door she had disappeared behind.

"You don't trust her."

"No."

"Why?"

"Because the man she came with is military. You can tell by the way he stands. Out here… if there's one soldier, there's others. They are never alone. They have a pack mentality."

"So she is a spy."

Sin Nombre turned back to him. "No. You've seen her. That girl, a girl like that, she has no business being out here. She's a hazard. Too flashy to be a spy. But that doesn't explain why she's here…"

"It could be a cover."

Sin Nombre shook his head. "No… she… she's something else. She seems… oddly familiar but I can't place where I would know her from."

Marik shook his head. He didn't have time for this. "Tell the others to be on the lookout, and someone keep tabs on our little siren. I want to know what she's really doing."

Marik let Sin Nombre leave him and he went to the bar to pour himself something to drink. He really hoped she didn't do anything too stupid.

He still wanted to have fun with her.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

They had put her in a room with an ancient computer they used for ordering supplies for the club. It had terrible dial up internet and this wasn't the room she needed to be. What she wanted to do was leave the room, but the bodyguard who was rocking a leather jacket in this kind of heat was still outside in the hallway.

Why the hell wouldn't he leave?

Rowan looked around, she needed something to distract them. Something loud. Something destructive. Rowan looked to the computer on the desk. Yeah… that would do.

"What are you doing?" Rogers asked as she started plucking wired out of the computer.

"We need a distraction, and I doubt you're going to give me a grenade," she said as she grunted.

She needed out of this place. She needed to be gone before they asked her to perform again. Private showings. Well didn't that just sound terrifying? Oh like hell she was going to do that. She knew what that implied and that asshole had other things coming if he thought she'd do that. The only person who got private showing was Steve and it was going to stay that way. Not that it mattered, once she got into his office and stole back the info she had been sent for she would be leaving. Hopeful she didn't get stuck there because she didn't put it past this Norrell get to make her stay if she hadn't found the USB yet.

So it was with that on her mind that she hurled the computer out of the second floor window as hard as she could.

It ricocheted off of the building next to them and then fell to the ground smashing into a million pieces.

"Check the hall," she whispered as she hid behind the bottom of the frame just enough to see if people were responding, and they were.

"He's gone," Rogers hissed and that's all Rowan needed. She moved through the building and down the stairs to the office Norrell told her the info would be stashed.

Except when they got there the door was locked.

Rowan pulled out the hair pin she had stashed in her hair for moments like this before she left home. No one had noticed it by that point which meant none of them had known she could use it to pick the locks they kept putting her in or behind.

Roger's chuckled. "So that's how you kept getting out at base."

"I've got a lot a hair to hide it in too, and it doesn't pop in a metal detector… too small," Rowan whispered as she worked. "My brother taught me that."

Oh good old Wo. He was probably so worried at that moment, but she didn't know what she was going to do about it when she finally got her phone back and managed to call him. Other than apologize profusely.

After a couple seconds of jiggling that felt like an hour Rogers hissed: "We've waited too long we should get you out of here before they come back."

Like Rowan hadn't just whipped a crusty ass box monitor out of a window as a distraction. How would they go back from that? The door clicked and she half laughed, yes, it had worked! She was starting to worry that she was too nervous to get the door open.

Ignoring Rogers, she opened the door only to have him grab her.

"Do you really think this is a good idea?" he asked as he glanced up the stairs they had just came down.

"Just shut up and keep watch," Rowan told him and then quickly shut the door behind her.

Rowan rushed into the office, running straight to the desk. She upended drawers, took out file after file and then dumped them on the desk. She had a feeling this would help with her alibi when that inevitably happened. Or at least to distract them on her true intentions.

She hadn't found anything and was starting to get quite panicked when the sounds of disaster hit her ears.

It started with the screams. Shouts of orders. First in English and then in a different language she didn't recognize.

Then came the gun shots, and her mouth ran dry. Where had those come from? She froze, completely unsure what she was hearing. Then the pounding on the steps, getting away from her. Where was Rogers going? Was he leaving her behind? But his running was followed by more shouting. The sounds of a rather violent fight, followed by a single gun shot. That gunshot kicked off a barrage of bullets and the volley of shots returning until there was one big explosion and then silence.

Except for one demand that was shouted so loud everyone in all four corners of the building could hear it.

 _Find the girl!_

Oh god.

 _She_ was the girl.

She knew it. She was the girl. She stopped going through everything and dropped to her knees, disappearing under the desk and staying there very quietly. Maybe if she was lucky they wouldn't notice her in the first sweep of their search and she could jump out a window or something. Or maybe Steve would come get her.

She was under there for two seconds before she spotted it taped to the under-desk above her. A goddamn USB. What an amateur place to hide something, seriously. She quickly ripped it free and then shoved it in the only hiding place she could think of before going back to being very… very quiet.

The door flew open and she held her breath. She sat there in the shadows, hoping no one came around the desk. She heard the person walk into the room and she was certain that the pounding of her heart would give her away. But after an agonizing five minutes of shuffling and searching the door slammed.

Rowan waited. Waited for any kind of sound that would indicate that someone was in the room and when she heard nothing, she carefully pulled herself out from under the desk. She stood up wondering how exactly she would escape this building now that it was on high alert, and what happened to Rogers… and whether or not she could save him when someone cleared their throat.

Freezing like a deer caught in the headlights, Rowan slowly turned to the sound.

She was staring at the body guard, the man who had hovered over Marik like a shadow. He was in rough looking black jeans and still wearing that leather jacket, looking something out of biker gang. Seriously wasn't he hot? His dark black hair was slicked back, his oaky brown eyes crinkled in her direction, a smirk of victory on his face.

Well, fuck. That was her captured.

Rowan just stood there. Watching the gun in his hands as it stayed perfectly leveled with her chest. She quickly spit out the only lie she could think of.

"Uh… Whoa… this isn't the washroom!"

He didn't buy it.


	120. Chapter 120

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hello my wonderful readers! So I'm posting on a Monday, so clearly I've decided to keep posting three times a week. Thanks for all that voted! We're 5 reviews away from announcing a winner so don't forget to review. I am sooo sorry for the cliffhanger. I fucking LOVE my clifhangers I just can't resist them. This chapter doesn't end on one, I promise. In fact this chapter ends with Steven and Rowan finally getting together… officially, so you know… took them long enough right? 2 more chapters and we'll be on the fillers which are all calm and quiet before we start with the season of drama and fluff!_

Chapter 120 

* * *

Danny followed Steve out into the hot humid air they had been exiled to outside of the tent the second Steve lost his shit and started screaming at them. These assholes who got _his_ Rowan into this weren't going to do a damn thing to save her. Not in time. A civilian casualty no one would know about because they would cover it up. All because she snuck onto a god damn plane to save him.

"Calm down."

"NO!" Steve shouted. "This is my fault! She told me not to leave! She knew, she knew I was going to get captured, and I left anyway. I left anyway and she came to save me and now she's in there and I'm here… and I'm…"

"Breathe," Danny ordered as Steve slumped against the wall across from the room. "Stop. Just… goddamn it… don't get so worked up. There was no way Rowan could have stopped you, just like I couldn't have stopped her, I tried and look at what happened."

Joe White came out of the room took one look at Steve's posture combined it with the look on his face and he sighed. "Their strike team is thirty minutes out."

"That's too long and you know it. She's not trained for this," Steve groaned.

"I know… but uh… doesn't Rowan have… oh I don't know… a list of contacts that might be able to work outside of official channels?" he asked.

Steve straightened. Rowan had left him her phone. She had purposely put it in his hands and said: "Just in case." Of course, this was what she meant. He pulled it out of his pocket and looked it over. There was already something on the screen a big red alert that said: "Confirmed Arrest. Confirmed Holding overseas. Possible sighting in active nightclub. Inactive for forty-eight hours. Danger deemed eminent Code level elevated to Red. Contacts sent to confirm situation. Waiting for Professional Confirmation. Confirm situation."

So Steve pressed the confirm button. And watched as the screen started glitching out with words commands and calls. Damn… they weren't going to know what hit them.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan sat in the chair looking at the two people in front of her. Marik Gholam was going over the file she had left out in the open, purposely, and behind him, his bodyguard with the severe dark brown eyes stared her down. She had a feeling if she tried to run, that man would gun her down so fast she wouldn't even feel it.

"My… the man… the men…"

"If you're referring to the men you had in the building across the street, you can be assured that none of them have survived," Marik told her and a bile rose up to her throat. What about Rogers though… what had happened to him? "And your personal little soldier is being taken somewhere to be dealt with separately. Both of you may prove to be quite useful to us."

Oh god they were going to torture him. What the hell where they going to do to her?

"So… let's talk about you. You're American, then?" he asked her.

Rowan shook her head trying to put on a brave face, hopefully the camera was still broadcasting, hopefully they were sending someone to help her, and hopefully someone was already on their way. God she hoped Steve wasn't watching this, he would be so panicked for her.

"Canadian," she answered once she found her voice.

"We have no quarrel with them," Marik growled.

Rowan nodded at him. "Yep. We're pretty chill."

"Who sent you?"

"Uh… US Navy? Not quite sure. I uh… I got arrested for stowing away and this was uh… this was my community service," she explained.

"I just asked if you were American," he growled.

"Yeah but I'm not…"

"You are spy!"

"I'm really not. Come on, look at me. I'd be the worst spy ever," she said. "This all a misunderstanding but if you just let me take the file and go, I can leave, the Navy or whatever won't blow you up and I think we all end up alive and happy."

She half got out of her seat and reached for it and he slammed his fist down on it causing her to jump. "Sit back down," he ordered and she did so immediately. "I don't think you know the kind of trouble you're in. I'm going to need you to tell me all you know, Miss. Spy. All the names you have, all the positions of teams, troops and stations. Or things are going to get messy."

Rowan blinked her eyes at him, she didn't have any of that. "I… I don't know… how am I… uhm… look, I'm really not a spy. I don't work for the army. I'm a singer slash song writer from Hawaii…"

"You said you were Canadian," Marik growled to her and she sighed in exasperation.

"Okay… yes… I'm originally from Canada but currently living in Hawaii. You can google me. I swear, I come up under writers for Atlantic Records. Just look it up, I just sold a song to Justin Timberlake. I'm Rowan Pierce, I promise."

"Oh. You," the bodyguard breathed out which just confused his boss.

Marik was now looking at her with a perplexed look on his face. "I know that name, how do I your name?" he asked her while beside him his bodyguard's phone chirped. Rowan and Marik both turned him. He was surprised, so was Rowan. She didn't think Wo Fat's web extended this far. But hope flared up in her chest. She may just be saved. His dark brown eyes surveyed hers for a moment before he lowered them.

Still he fished out his phone and stared at the screen and then back at her like he was in shock and then back at his phone.

"What are you doing?" his boss asked.

His bodyguard shrugged a strange sort of smile on his face. "I'm sorry, just reviewing a new job offer," he said, his gun back in his waistband as he typed away on his phone.

"You are on contract with me," Marik snapped, turning back to Rowan. "And best believe we're going to have a lot of fun cracking this little whore."

Rowan turned her eyes to his bodyguard, her eyes wide, pleading with him. He assessed her silently and in his hand his phone chirped again. His smile grew. "Hot Damn," he whispered. "He really _will_ pay anything to get you back."

"What are you talking about?" Marik cried. His eyes turned back to Rowan with a strange sense of dread and fear overcoming his features. "Nazaria was slain by a Pierce. Pierce the Destroyer. The warrior witch from Hawaii." Whoa… that was a lot to take in there. "It doesn't matter though. I pay him enough to keep him happy. There's nothing your brother could pay to save you now."

But that clearly that wasn't true because the body guard put his phone in his pocket and suddenly a gun was in his hand. He put the muzzle to the back of Marik's head just behind the ear and Marik's smug smile faded.

His body guard however, was grinning almost maliciously. "Sorry, boss, turns out he can pay me better," he said and then pulled the trigger.

Rowan screamed, she screamed long and loud because she just watched a head blow up and now she was coated in a mist of red. The bodyguard jumped over the desk to the door just as the two guards outside opened the door. They both took three shots to the chest. He dragged their bodies into the room as Rowan was still screaming.

He shut the door and turned back to her. "Stop it," he ordered. "Stop it or we won't be able to get out of here."

Rowan blinked her eyes and then lunged for the garbage can beside the desk. The assassin watched as she emptied her stomach contents out into the waste basket and when she was done she heard him sigh: "Really?"

"I don't like blood okay?" she cried. He looked her up and down quite carefully before he turned away. He went about destroying a bookcase and Rowan tried her hardest not to vomit again.

When he was done taking everything off of all the shelves he could find he returned to her. "Okay, so we need to go. I need you to suck it up or hold it in, or take the can with you, cause you're going to see a lot more blood before I get you out of here."

Rowan stared up at him, from the other side of the door he had barricaded with two bodies and a well-placed chair, came the sound of shouts and pounding and while she flinched he did not. He merely hooked a thumb over his shoulder and said: "That's literally only going to hold them back for a minute. So can we go, or do you want to get shot?"

Rowan scowled at him. Really? Really? Who the hell was this man? He didn't even flinch at the thought of hostile people on the other side of a flimsy wooden door. "Okay, I don't have time for this, and I don't get the money if you die," he snapped and then he tugged her to her feet. When she turned she saw that a passage way had opened up, hidden behind the bookcase.

"Wow that's smart," she said to him as he tugged her along the secret passage way. She thought about Steve who was watching and listening on that little camera and wire she had. She pulled the pin off of her lapel and looked into it as they ran.

"If you can hear or see this, I'm fine," she called. "I have the file. I'm on my way out…"

"Who the hell are you talking to?"

He had stopped, suddenly and unexpectedly, she ran straight into his chest as he turned into her. "Well… they're watching from this…"

He snatched it out of her hands and whipped it down the hallway, he looked her over and then began to paw at her as she cried out. He had the wire in his hands and ripped right the hell off of her before she knew what was happening.

"What the hell?!" she cried. "You don't get it, my boyfriend… he's going to be worried about me!"

"Boyfriend?" he echoed. "You have a boyfriend that let your untrained ass come anywhere near here?"

"Well he's not really my boyfriend… we're doing this like casual relationship thing," she explained though she didn't know why. The bodyguard was busy looking over her head at the way they came to see if they were being followed. "And he didn't want me to come, I kinda had no choice."

"Tell me as we run," he ordered, grabbing her and pulling her again. He seemed to know where he was going which was great, because she had no clue.

He stopped her in a shadowed corridor as he looked around it to determine the next move. "You know my name, what's yours?"

He turned to her, almost surprised, like he didn't understand the question, like no one had ever asked him his name before. He lowered his eyes to the thing she had carried with her that he must have not noticed before.

"Did you bring the garbage can?"

"Well… yeah, I'm probably going to vomit again gotta be prepared and all that. Don't avoid the question," she chided.

"Sin Nombre."

"No name?" Rowan translated. He turned back to her as if surprised she understood him. He then nodded. And Rowan laughed. "That's not a real name, what's your real name?"

"That is my real name."

"Lies. Your real name can't be _no name_ ," she whispered. "Everyone has a name."

"Well I don't."

"So you're like, a nameless assassin?" Rowan asked and then gasped. "That's what I'll call you then. Nameless Assassin… Oh! NA for short. Cause your name is not applicable, get what I did there?"

He was staring at her again. Rowan smiled warmly at him, proud of her word play and he just continued to frown at her. "You know… no one mentioned you were this annoying," he muttered. "They should have a warning label. Caution Extremely Obnoxious, now shut up and follow me… quietly."

He moved into the hallway and Rowan followed him. "This isn't as bad as I can usually be," Rowan said.

"Oh wow you get worse huh?" he asked absently. He was moving slowly, keeping a gun out and ready to go and push her behind him if necessary. "And here I was thinking being a Rowan-gram was the worst thing you subject me to."

"Rowan-gram?" she echoed. "Have you… have you taken a job from me before?"

"Yes, two. One for your friends in China, and I'm the one that got Matty out of Colombia," he answered absently. Rowan smiled at him.

"Really? That was you? And you think I'm obnoxious? I heard Matty was pretty bad, am I worse than him?"

"I'm also the one who got you away from the NLM."

Rowan straightened, completely forgetting that he had side-stepped her question, too busy staring at him in sudden realization. "That was you! OH! _It was you_! I literally vomited everywhere cause of you. Blowing up a man's head right beside me. That seems to be your pattern huh?"

NA just stared at her. "Okay firstly… I am an amazing shot, head shots are my specialty… and second… okay you know what? Do you think we can chat after I get you out of here?" he asked.

There came the sound of approaching feet and he pushed her into a small alcove. It was all great until the door he had her pushed up against suddenly opened startling both her and the man that opened the door. Before NA could turn to shoot him, Rowan took the bucket in her hand and hurled the contents at him. He fell back floundering and Rowan pulled the door shut as his horrified cries just started to bubble out of his lips.

NA took all of that in before carefully turning to her. "Did you just throw a garbage can full of vomit at that guy?"

Rowan blinked her eyes and then looked back to him. "I… I panicked…"

"Wow… I've done some pretty terrible things but that… that's pretty sick."

"Okay, don't judge me!" Rowan snapped. "You're a professional killer, I'm sure you've done some pretty sick things that are probably worse than that… and I just saved you from getting shot so maybe… just maybe… you should be thanking me instead of making me feel bad?"

He shrugged as if it didn't make sense to him but he let her have it. He edged her on, keeping her behind him. He half rounded a corner and shots came flying at him, he backed up pushing Rowan back as well.

"Here I found a door!" Rowan cried, but it didn't lead to anywhere useful and she couldn't see another way out.

"Really? You thought this was a good place to hide?" NA asked gesturing to all the boxes of munitions around them.

"Well… at least we won't be out gunned?"

"Yeah except none of these are going to be loaded."

"Wow… really?"

"What? Did you think that guns travel loaded? That would be so unsafe."

"Yeah… but its contraband. Do people really care about safety when it comes to illegally procured guns?"

"Yes Rowan… because they don't want their shipments to get flagged!"

The shots started up again and NA practically tackled her behind a box of useless machine guns. They were pinned, there was nowhere else to go. She looked around, a box of grenades sat in front of her. The box she was pretty sure said "stun grenades." In a language she didn't quite recognize. Her brother played enough Call of Duty with his macho friends for her to know what that was.

She picked one up, pulled the pin and lobbed it at their assailants shouting: "Flashbang!" on the tops of her lungs.

Nameless-Assassin turned, clocked the box she had pulled it from and shouted: "REAL BANG" and then tackled her back to the floor again. Just as the explosion went off, shaking the building all around them. There was two seconds of silence after that explosion went off before the cracking started.

Nameless-Assassin had her up, struggling to get her somewhere safe. She didn't quite understand what was going on but she understood what he was saying:

 _Fire! FIRE!_

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve had forced Captain Norrell to take him and Danny with the strike team in the helicopter bound to Ziarat. He sat with the team, in Kevlar and slings his leg bouncing in that nervous tick that he thought he didn't have but clearly had.

But when he got there the entire area was nothing but chaos and fire. The night club she had been in on was on fire and at some point had blown up. A building Rowan had been in. By herself. He should have been there. He should have been there to help her. This never should have happened. He should have let Catherine go on her own, he should have… he should have.

Danny came to stand beside him. "We don't know if she was inside when that happened," he told him seemingly reading Steve's mind.

But she was. Steve knew she was. Yes, someone was helping her to get out. Yes, one of Wo Fat's contacts had been there to save her from getting raped and tortured but even then, they could only do so much against an explosion.

"She has to be here," Danny continued. "She just has to be."

Steve shook his head. There were too many words and emotions clogging his throat. Too many pills to having him walking properly. He staggered forward, beside him Danny called Rowan's name. But no one responded to it. He tried again. And only then did Steve find the words.

Well only one word.

 _Rowan!_

Danny pulled aside people trying to flee to safety, asking if they saw a girl matching Rowan's description, soldiers were fanning out to secure the perimeter. To help civilians get to safety. Steve was starting to have a full out break down. He could feel it, the tears, leaking out of his eyes. Why… why had he let her go? Why didn't he find a different way to get her out of lock up? For God sake why didn't she just call Wo Fat?

 _Steve._

As soon as he heard her voice he turned. His body immediately intuned to her and seeking her out. She was soot stained, dusty, covered in blood but rushing towards him from down the street. She wasn't limping and she wasn't moving slowly, she wasn't holding onto any part of herself, she didn't even look that bloody other than the mist that was coating her face. She was fine.

Steve rushed to her, letting her run into his embrace. Letting her collide with him despite how much it had hurt his collar bone and his broken ribs.

"Oh God, thank God," he whispered into her hair as she hugged him tightly.

"I'm so glad to see you!" she sobbed into his chest. "I wanna go home Steve, can we go home now?"

Steve almost burst out into laughter. Yes, after this they should be able to go home. He was going to take her home, of course he was and then he was never going to let her go. From his chest pocket came the chime of her ring tone, Rowan pulled it out of his pocket immediately and answered it.

"Hello?"

Steve heard a frantic voice on the other side which he knew was Wo Fat and then Rowan was talking.

"No… I'm… I'm okay, I promise. I'm fine. I'm a little bloody and still a little sickish but… what? Oh… uh… well… I came because Steve… yes McGarrett… yes… Steven McGarrett got himself… oh… hold on…" she whispered and then looked up to Steve. "Well I mean… he's here but…"

Steve stared at her almost perplexed. "He wants to talk to both of us," she whispered to him. He nodded and she pressed the speaker button on her phone and then she said: "Okay… uh…"

"So let me try and understand the situation. You're both in Afghanistan, I've had to pay someone a ridiculous amount of money for saving her, he's reporting that not only was she absolutely the most obnoxious thing on the planet and I need to warn people about that but apparently she blew up a whole fucking building…" oh she had done that? Wow, that was extra even for her. "How did you even… why are you even… Rowan do you have any idea how lucky you are that I had anyone in Afghanistan to come save you? And now you're telling me that you've done this because McGarrett got into shit in Afghanistan? Are you actually telling me that the Super SEAL needed a psychic's help in Afghanistan? SERIOUSLY?"

"She… uh… I had been… she was…" Steve stumbled but Rowan cut him off.

"He was going to die, Wo. Insurgents got him and then were gonna… and I was the only one…"

"What were you going to do, Rowan? Sing him to freedom? FUCK!" he shouted

"I'm sorry!" she cried, actually sniffing and swiping at her eyes. No, that wasn't fair, Wo shouldn't have been making her feel worse, not after the day she had been through. Steve was ready to snap back but Danny, the king of sass did that for him

"Hey! The guilt trip is unnecessary," Danny snapped. "Look, she tried to keep Steve from coming to Afghanistan and failed. Me, Joe White, and Kono all failed to keep Rowan in Hawaii and you successfully got her out of a situation before a crazed terrorist shot her, so look at that, you're the winner."

Wo Fat was silent for a few moments before he said: "Don't ever let that idiot talk to me again. Okay, Rowan, how did you get to Afghanistan, I mean… you need permission to fly there and I doubt anyone gave you permission."

"She stowed away on a military aircraft," Steve answered. "She uh… she got… well she got caught stowing away. I managed to talk them down from jail time to uhm… well this. This was like community service."

"Community…" he echoed. "I'm honestly… Rowan, I'm honestly at a fucking loss."

"Oh, wait… I have the guys in charge coming up to me, I gotta go."

She ignored the beginning of Wo Fat's protests and looked up at the man who had trapped her in this situation, Captain Norrell merely stared at them as Steve swept her aside.

"Well this is an unmitigated disaster.

"Not fully… Rogers is alive NA has gone to go get him…"

"Well thank the lord for small miracles," Norrell growled. "But I said retrieve the data, not blow it up."

"It's not blown up," she said putting a hand into her shirt, jiggling around until it came out with an USB. "See. Nice and safe. Just like you asked."

Norrell practically snatched it right up out of her hands before she could hand it to him. Steve wrapped his good arm around her and tugged her away. "Alright you got what you wanted. Now it's time to let us go home."

Norrell looked up to them and the over them to the chaos she had single handedly accidentally created. It was after some consideration that he finally nodded, ushering them away from the carnage and the wreckage and back towards the helicopter they came in. Steve never once let go of Rowan. He was tired, he was about to crash, but that didn't matter, all that mattered was that Rowan was safe, and they were finally going home.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan couldn't have been happier to be going home to Hawaii. Sitting on the bed beside Steven as he got packed up and put into his own clothes to be sent home had her feeling all giddy and excited. His bruising had stopped swelling, he could see out of his eye again, and even though he only had one hand he wasn't letting her help him back.

They were all having fun until Norrell came back into the infirmary.

"Rogers has been located and he's on his way back here," he told them and Rowan breathed a sigh of relief. Thank the lords she got one of the men that went with her back safely. She only wished she could have done more for them. "Everything we needed was on that USB, and will be put to good use. And we hear that your little assassin took out the rest of Marik's men, so all in all a good-day's work."

"You're welcome," Danny snapped.

"But you're not done."

Silence fell over them. "What?" Steve whispered. "No… but…"

"You heard them. Pierce the destroyer. Backed by a network of evil. You saw how easy it was for her to get in with them, people just let her walk in. She's the best asset we've got."

Steve stepped in between them. "No. That mission… you said it yourself… was an unmitigated disaster… she…"

"Yeah! She did her community service. Now we're going home."

"Yes, you two will be going home, but Miss. Pierce is coming with me."

That was when Rowan noted the wall of soldiers standing behind Norrell, he must have brought ten of them. Why? What did he think was going to happen?

"You can't do this!" Steve shouted as Rowan began to inch away. Maybe she could run while they were distracted, maybe

"The girl stowed away on a military plane. You ran a rogue op and are refusing to give up the source of your intel. You I can court martial, but her… she's going to get jail time and as soon as that gavel pounds I can demand her back here helping me for a mandatory five years at minimum. You guys are stuck. She's staying here. You're going home. End of story."

Rowan bolted she made a beeline for the exit only to be snatched up by a soldier and then they were dragging her away from Steve. Five stayed to keep Steve and Danny back and the other five went with Rowan.

She was too panicked to cry. She could only shout for Steve as Steve shouted for her. She didn't want to do this. She couldn't do this. She had barely survived the one op and she had had a lot of help.

She was handed off to Norrell who was taking her towards a truck, instinctively she knew if he got her to the truck it was game over. Rowan dropped to the ground. Norrell, startled, went down with her. As soon as he hit the ground she twisted out of his grasp and tried to run again. One of the five soldiers grabbed a hold of her and while she grappled with him, kicking out at him trying to make him let her go, Norrell got up. Once he had a hold of her again that was it they were on the move.

Behind her Steve howled her name and she half turned. They had four soldiers on Steve to keep him from going forward. Injured shoulder and everything and it took more than two guys to hold him at bay.

"You can't fucking take her," Steve was shouting. "You can't."

"Are you kidding me? With Wo Fat backing her we're unstoppable," he called back dragging Rowan away. His grip on her arm was killing her, but despite all her struggling she couldn't get him to.

"I'll stop you know," she growled to him. "I swear to god. I'd rather _die_ before I let you exploit us that way."

And he just laughed at her. Even though she was digging her heels into the ground he was still tugging her and successfully pulling her to the truck. If they got into that truck she was screwed. She'd never get home.

She tried to twist out of his grasp but he had her. So she had to take drastic measures. She kicked at the back of his legs and he went down. As soon as he did that was it, Rowan was scrambling away and back to Steve. She got within arms-reach and he had her, his good hand tugging her through the wall of soldiers and to him and then he was pulling her away.

Norrell was up, heading towards them, Steve was trying to sweep her behind him to protect her. Rowan could hear her phone. She tugged it out of Steve's cargo pant's pocket. It was the App extension. Quickly she answered it.

"HELP ME!" she shouted into the phone and for a second there was silence before someone said: "Put him on the phone or put me on speaker."

That wasn't Wo Fat's voice, it was someone else's, regardless Rowan pressed speaker and then extended her hand. "Kay go."

"Alright Captain Norrell I've been contracted out as a Rowan-gram. I've got someone that wants to talk to you."

There was silence as he stared at them and the phone and then a very small: "Grandpa?" came out of the phone and Rowan's heart sunk. That was a child. They had taken a child? What the hell was Wo Fat thinking?

"Nora?" he asked staring at the phone in Rowan's hand.

"Grandpa I don't like these people. I want to go home."

And then the little girl was gone and the man was back. "Release Rowan to Steven McGarrett, or Nora's going to have an unfortunate accident and you can tell your son that you're the reason why his daughter's dead."

"Now listen here…"

"No. The terms are non-negotiable. Nora will be returned to your family when Rowan has confirmed that she's landed in Hawaii. If she isn't returned within 24 hours, if there's any fishy business at all little Nora's gonna get it. You feel me?"

Norrell glared at her while Rowan just winced and avoided his eyes. "I agree."

"Good. As mentioned before, when Rowan lands in Hawaii we will release your granddaughter. And not a moment sooner. The quicker she's on the plane the better. You can trace the phone, you can go to the cops, you can do whatever you want. But if Rowan isn't released, your grand daughter will die, even if Wo Fat has to send someone else to get the job done."

The phone call ended and Rowan carefully pressed herself behind Steve as she clutched the phone to her chest. She wanted to go home, but she hadn't wanted this.

"What have you done?" Norrell snarled to them.

"Did… did you broadcast your plans to anyone… on any open channel maybe?" Steve asked. "Cause the app went on overdrive when she hadn't responded, it started monitoring any and every frequency it could find in the phone's radius. He might not have taken it down after we extracted her… they might have heard what you were going to do next."

Norrell glared at them, she could feel it through Steve. She'd have to diffuse this fight. She'd have to do something.

She stepped out from behind Steve, and instantly his good hand had a hold of her shirt. "I can't stop something he's already put out," she said. Which was mostly true, especially since they had already taken the girl. "I didn't ask him to do this… but… you have been playing with fire. Wo Fat takes my safety very seriously… you're… you're going to have to let me leave."

Norrell continued to glare at her. He said nothing until he pointed a finger into her face. "My granddaughter better not get hurt."

"I will put that in the app the second the plane takes off," Rowan said and he nodded.

"Get the hell off this base. Get the hell out of the country. And don't any of you dare come back."

And none of them needed to be told twice.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

True to her word, Rowan had put in the app the order to not hurt the little girl the second the plane took off. Once she had landed she confirmed she was fine, and confirmed that she would call Wo Fat in the morning to explain in detail what had happened.

Rowan kept apologizing to him. For the two days of utter worry that she had put him through. Even Steve apologized. For letting Rowan get into this situation in the first place. For not listening to Rowan when she told him what was going to happen. Wo Fat had barely accepted those apologies, and he sure as hell hadn't accepted Steve's.

And though he was worried the navy might come back at any moment and snatch Rowan up again, Steve was very happy to be returning home to his house, with Rowan in tow. Both of them were alive and well and that was more than he could ask for. Steve was going to need some time to heal, but Rowan was, for the most part, in perfect health. And going on about how she was gonna take care of him for the foreseeable future. He was definitely going to look forward to that.

He let Rowan in first, loving how she just slid into his home like she had always belonged there. He shut the door behind them and tossed his keys into the bowl. He was already eyeing his chair. He was ready to sink in it, to close his eyes and begin the resting period, and as soon as Rowan got within arm's reach that girl was going on his lap and staying there. No matter how much it hurt his ribs.

Then his cellphone rang.

"Tell Catherine I say hi," Rowan called from the kitchen. "Also, I'm going to make you a tea."

"Sure, thing babe… but uh… if you could get me a beer too, that'd be great," he called. "And you don't know its Catherine."

Steve fished out his cellphone and looked at the number. Private long distance number. Satellite phone.

Fuck it probably was Catherine.

"Hey, Catherine, are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm okay. Hassan's men were searching the area and I had to lay low until they were gone," she said. Steve couldn't help but feel relieved. He glanced over to where Rowan was already making tea.

"You were right, it is her and she's fine," he called to her.

"Told you!" Rowan called back and Steve smiled.

"Well, I'm glad to hear that Rowan knew I was going to be okay, tell her I say thanks for checking her strings for me. Or dreams, you know, whatever they are."

"What about the kids? Did you get them out?"

"Yeah, they're safe."

"Was Najib with them?"

"No, no, but I got a lead on where he might be," Catherine admitted and Steve almost swore, damn Rowan had been right about that one too. "I think they might have taken him across the border."

Steve took that in. "You're gonna go after him, aren't you?" Steve asked.

"Yeah. Yeah I am. I have to. And I can't come back until I find him."

Steve was worried. He was. He couldn't help it. This woman had been part of his life for so long, he had cared for her for so long, just because they weren't together anymore didn't mean he wanted he running off into dangerous situations without the help.

"I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you for helping me with this. And I know you. I know what you're like. You're going to want to come back and help, but you can't do that. You… you almost died, Rowan was right and you almost died. I think… I think It's better if I do this alone… without you… so that I can… so that the distance can help me… fall out of love with you."

Steve sighed. God. She knew him well. Suddenly the phone was pulled out of his hand. He looked up as Rowan put the phone to her ear.

"You find him you know," she said. "It's going to take a while, but in every version of the strings you find him."

Steve smiled up at her, his girl. His beautiful wonderful girl who looked at the different fates so she could help Catherine. The woman who had tried to ruin her. By all means they should have been enemies, and usually they were, but in this time of need Rowan had put all of that aside and looked out for her.

"But uh… if you get in trouble… mention the destroyer. That's me by the way. I'm apparently hot shit over there. Isn't that cool?" Rowan crowed. "Seriously. I'll have them put it in the app for you and everything. Just use code name destroyer and that should get you out of trouble."

Steve wrapped his good arm around her and pressed a kiss to her midriff. "No more app for you," he whispered. "You promised."

Rowan handed him back the phone. "Whatever you say dear."

"Good-bye Steve," Catherine said to him. "I'll… uh… I'll never be able to repay you enough. Either of you."

"Just be careful," he said to her and then he let her hand up the phone.

He looked back to the kitchen Rowan had a mug of tea for herself and a mug of tea for him too.

"A beer would be better, Ro," he said to her as she put the mug in his hand.

"Not on the pain meds you're on," she said. "Trust me, I've been on that ride, you won't like it."

Ah that fateful Christmas dinner were a very drunk Rowan did a lot of really strange things and then threw up. Yes. What an entertaining ride to watch her go on, but she was right he did not need to go on it.

"Fair."

He let her perch on the arm of his chair, as he drank his tea. The house seemed different, quieter since they returned.

He thought about the night they had Grace over and decided that maybe what his house needed was more people. Preferably little mixes of Rowan and Steve.

"I have something to ask you," Steve said and Rowan turned to him with a smile on her face.

"Yesss?"

"Before I do, can I just say, I planned this out so much better than what you're getting right now," he said. "I swear. I had a swanky reservation in a private booth over at Le Cirque…" "Le Cirque… but it's like impossible to get a reservation there." "Yes, it is, it took a lot of wheel greasing to get that one…" "When are we going?" "Uh… you know the first night I was in Afghanistan?"

Rowan glared at him, deep and darkly. "Are you telling me I missed out on Le Cirque over that bullshit?"

Okay this was already not going well. "Okay that is not the point, can I get to the point please?" he asked and with a sigh Rowan gestured for him to go on. "Okay, the point is I had this great romantic evening planned with a fancy restaurant and a fancy outfit, all blue cause I know how you like me in blue, and then I was going to ask you something very important and hope to god you said yes cause my happiness relies on it…"

"What were you going to ask me?"

"To go steady."

"To go steady?" she echoed. "What are we in the 1940s?"

"Shut up. That's what I was going to ask you. Me, you, exclusive."

"But what about…"

"I can't really say shit about Wo Fat after Afghanistan, now can I? Not when he's the only reason you lived through it."

"That _is_ true."

"So… you know, I'm okay to look over the whole Wo Fat issue thing… so long as he leaves me alone," Steve said. "And you don't invite him to dinner or something."

"You think I'm stupid enough to put the two of you in the same room?" she asked and Steve half laughed, good girl.

"So… what do you say?"

"To what?"

"Going steady, Rowan."

"Oh, have you asked me already? Like was that you asking me?"

"Rowan," he growled in warning.

"Oh, of course I'm going to say yes," she whispered and then kissed him, lightly because his jaw still hurt and he smiled.

Happiness didn't even begin to describe how he was feeling at that moment.

"You still owe me a night at Le Cirque."

Fuck.


	121. Chapter 121

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Are you guys ready for a chapter of cute stuff before we head straight into the drama of the next episodes? It's really not that bad compared to the other drama I've cooked up, I actually had a lot of fun writing out this episode so I'm hoping you guys like it too. From here on in, Steve and Rowan are together all the way until season 6, but we'll talk about that fuck up as we get close to it cause I wanted you guys to be prepared and not freak out when it happens. We had our 700th review, and seriously, I still can't believe we've hit that many, I mean really, I really can't. Thank you so much guys for your constant support I honestly appreciate you guys soooo much! And Alex Lover, please read the private message I sent you, you have a costume to pick! See you guys on Friday!_

Chapter 121 

* * *

Steve shut the door to house, threw the keys into the bowl and then accepted the projectile that had been launched at him.

Rowan landed easily in his arms, her legs wrapping around his waist, her lips finding his almost immediately. Steve had one arm around her waist and the other gripping the back of her neck, partially to keep her in place so her could drown in her kisses and partially because he just loved the feel of her hair running through his fingers.

He had gotten much better at this routine. Of catching the woman throwing herself at him as soon as he got in the door, so now instead of getting knocked down, he only wobbled a bit before settling into the embrace he started craving the second he left his house. It was this moment right here, feeling every inch of his woman against him, this was his favourite part of coming home.

He kissed her deeply, softly, and for as long as he thought he could handle it without throwing her down to the couch and just having his dirty way with her. When they came apart, he smiled warmly at her.

A part of him still couldn't believe that it had happened. That Rowan was his.

"Hey there Sailor," she whispered huskily, encouraging him to echo her. "How was work?"

"Mmmm, let's talk about your day first," he said because he had had a bad day. Rowan seemed to get that and immediately changed to topic. He let her slide off of him, and he made sure that she was on proper footing before letting her go.

"I put down the vocals for Bad Liar," she told him.

"Mm, yeah?"

"Uh-huh, and Pete's awfully keen to auction it off."

"Are you going to sell it?" he asked following Rowan into the kitchen. She opened up the oven and pulled out a plate she had wrapped in cellophane and then handed it to him.

That was the other thing he liked about having Rowan around. She always had a meal ready for him when he came home. It was a good thing he was still keeping up with his work out routines or he'd be getting pudgy.

He had expressed that to her once, but she had waved it off. Said she'd like him even if he didn't have abs, that the abs weren't her favourite part of him. He hadn't got her to admit what her favourite part of him was though, but he was working on it.

"I don't know yet," Rowan admitted, pulling up a chair across from him. "It's an awfully special song to me. I kind of want to keep it for myself."

Steve nodded. He understood that feeling. He wanted to keep Rowan all to himself as well.

"Enough about me, how was your day?"

"I had to deal with a prison break," Steve sighed. Rowan perked up immediately.

"Who got out of jail?"

She was hoping for Wo Fat, Steve could see that but if that asshole had gotten out of prison he would have been the first person to know.

"Ian Wright."

Rowan's expectant smile faded. She looked worried. "Oh… oh no… no… that's not… no something… why can't I remember…"

"Rowan, what are you talking about?"

"I don't remember," she whispered. Her fingers threading into her hair as she frantically tried to remember whatever it was she had forgotten. "I was dreaming about it before…"

"Before?"

"The Japan trip, the one you forced me on… right after you met Ian Wright, right?" she reminded him and he nodded. "Okay, well the main reason I wanted to intervene so much is because I was dreaming of something else… something he'd do later… and I wanted to stop him before…"

"Before what? What the hell does he do?"

"I don't… I don't remember Steve… I don't remember but it's bad," she whispered turning to him. He saw the pain in her eyes and he dropped his fork and left his seat. He wrapped her up in his arms and held her tightly so she knew that he was there, not just physically but emotionally for her.

"It's okay, we're going to… we're going to figure this out," he whispered pressing a kiss to her cheek. "You uh… you haven't been dreaming anything about Ian?"

Rowan shook her head. That was because Steve knew what Rowan had been dreaming as of late. Of Wo Fat exploding.

She had dreamed it every night for the last week. But Wo Fat was safely in prison. It hadn't helped that he hadn't picked up the phone since she had checked in after Afghanistan. He was mad, she said. So mad that he didn't want to talk to her. Steve sort of understood, he didn't know the amount that Wo Fat had spent on that rescue but Rowan said it was somewhere in the eight-figure range.

"You still haven't heard from him?" he asked.

Rowan shook her head. "I got a postcard from Colorado though," she admitted pulling it out of her pocket and showing it to him.

She had been worrying it, he could see the creases and the bent edges she had put into it. He looked at it carefully and then handed it back to her. "It's probably not from him."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because it wasn't sent from the prison," he said. "You can tell from the postmark. Regular US postage stamp, if it came from the prison it would have the prison's name on it."

Rowan blinked her eyes and then looked back to the postcard suddenly shaking in her hand. "Oh."

"Does that mean something to you?"

Rowan blinked her eyes at him, and Steve swore he could see the moment that she decided to lie to him. "No… uh… no it doesn't. And he still hasn't picked up his phone."

Ah so that's what they were going to be doing now. They were going to be hiding things from one another. Wonderful. Well if she wanted the topic changed, he wasn't going to press the situation.

"It could have been confiscated," Steve reminded her.

"After a year?" Rowan asked. "No, I think… I think something's wrong. But no one's contacted me and I'm his emergency contact, and no one's contacted you to tell you that he's escaped so… I unno, what do we do?

That was a lot to take in. Rowan being Wo Fat's emergency contact should not have surprised him… but it did. That was much more… intimate then he'd like to believe Rowan and Wo Fat were. But after Afghanistan he couldn't complain, now could he?

"I'll make some calls tomorrow… okay?" he asked and Rowan nodded again.

She let Steve finish the rest of the meal she saved him in peace before they retired to the couch to watch TV but really, they just ended up making out, which lead to them up to Steve's room.

This led to the third favourite thing about living with Rowan, and once they were done with the wild love making Steve got to take part in the fourth thing: Falling asleep with the woman he cared deeply about curled up next to him.

Even though she was hiding something from him, Steve fell asleep sated and content. He had everything he could ever wish for now, he had everything he'd need to be happy in life and there wasn't a single thing that could happen to take this feeling away.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Oh, Steve had been getting it from Danny today. It wasn't his fault, but Danny was blaming no one else but him. First their bad guy had shot their tires out and Steve had to rapid fire find them a new car to chase him in. His choice of car, a small little red clown car, as Danny called it, got nothing but criticism.

"Can you please, please try to keep two of the three wheels on the ground?!" Danny cried after Steve jumped a curb.

"How many times have I told you, you don't like the way I drive, then you can get out of the car."

"I would love to get out. There are no doors!" Danny cried.

Steve didn't have time for this, not with that truck blocking the way.

"Duck!"

"What?"

"DUCK!" Steve shouted and they did. Just as the car went under the truck taking out the back boards of the little cart they were driving. Conveniently right where their heads might have been if Steve hadn't got Danny to duck.

The cart came to a screeching halt in front of the car they were chasing forcing him to stop and Steve and Danny were off the cart, guns in hands forcing the guy out of the car.

Their robber raised his hands and Steve could see the piece he had concealed in his waistband.

"Don't even think about it. there's two ways this can go, in both you end up dead!" Steve said and that was enough to put the guy on his knees so they could arrest him.

"You know that doesn't make sense?" Danny asked softly and Steve rolled his eyes. Why did Danny have to ruin everything all the time? Why?

"But it sounded good, right?"

It did in Steve's head. Steve got the guy in handcuffs and then handed their serial bank robber over to Duke who was ready to take him and then noted that Kono's car was coming towards them. Oh good, he could get a regular ride back to the palace. He kind of couldn't wait to tell Rowan about this, he definitely wanted Danny to take a picture of him in the cart to prove to her it really happened.

He may even call her when he got back to the palace, instead of waiting to exchange stories when he got home that night. Maybe she could come over with lunch while he finished up paperwork. That would be fun right? He, his team and his girl all having lunch at the office. All his favourite things in one place.

But both Chin and Kono were wearing faces that made him worried.

"We've got a problem," Chin said.

"The prison got back to us. Wo Fat escaped… two days ago."

Steve thought back to last night. To the post card. To Rowan's evasive behaviour, and how she had started to hide something from him. He pulled out his phone and dialed her number.

"Oh that's funny, see, what I thought you just said is that Wo Fat escaped, which would be impossible because he's in a supermax in Colorado. And everybody know you can't escape from those places."

"Another myth bites the dust," Chin said with a shrug.

"How?" Danny cried.

Rowan's phone went to voicemail. "Hey, babe, can you call me when you get this, it's important," he said before hanging up. Before Chin could answer the question, Steve said: "He blew his way out, didn't he?"

"Yeah… how did you… how did you…?"

"Rowan's been dreaming about him in an explosion all week. How did he even get access to explosives?"

"He's been taking nitroglycerin for a heart condition induced by that helo crash trauma that he suffered last year. He was actually stashing most of the doses," Kono started.

"Which he cocktailed with paint thinner and fertilizer he picked up from the prison yard to make an ANFO bomb," Chin added.

"Strong enough to blow a hole in his cell wall," Kono finished.

"I wouldn't put it past him if he had help," Chin added but then he saw the look on Steve's face. "But not Rowan. I don't mean Rowan. She obviously had no idea that this was happening, because she's been trying to get a hold of him, and she asked you to check in at the prison for her. She wouldn't have done that if she was in on it."

Steve thought this over. He didn't think Rowan was in on it, but he knew, he knew that she knew something. He saw the looks on his friend's faces. "I know what you're thinking but… I think she knows something. She's not answering her phone, she knows I'm looking into things with him, so she's not going to answer any time soon and I need a location on her stat."

Kono and Chin exchanged looked but it was Danny who said: "How sure are you that she knows something? Hasn't he not been answering her calls for the last three days?"

"She got a blank postcard from Colorado, expedited, without the prison post stamp on it," Steve replied. "It meant something to her but she wouldn't tell me what it was."

"That could mean anything," Danny complained.

"Look. I need to figure this out as soon as possible. If he's here, she'll know. He'll get in touch, he always does. Now can one of you please, please give me a location on her so we can figure this out sooner rather than later?"

"I don't like this, boss," Kono said and Steve realized he'd have to tell them the real reason he was worried.

"Look, he doesn't like that I'm dating her. And he told me once that he had planned to send people to grab Rowan. If he comes back to the island it'll be for one of two things. To finish things with me, or to grab her. Maybe both. Get me a location on her. Now."

Steve stared into his friends faces. He willed them to see how worried he was, how all he wanted was to keep Rowan safe. And he prayed they'd give him the info that he wanted.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan, with postcard in hand appeared at Kong Liang's door. She said nothing to Andre who tried to bar her entrance. She liked Andre, always had, but she didn't have time for this today, so when he put a hand out to ward her off, she hit him with a soft jab under his armpit that had him crumpled against the doorway and allowed her to walk by.

She stormed through the warehouse the look on her own face enough to keep anyone from else from stopping her. She slammed opened Kong's office door and then slammed it again behind her.

"Where is he?" she snapped.

Kong, who had been shocked to by the outburst stared at her with his mouth wide open.

"I'm… I'm sorry."

"Wo Fat. He hasn't answered my calls in three days. I just got a post card from Colorado without the prison mail stamp. It's our code. _Send me a post card when you get out_. Now where is he?"

Kong blinked his eyes. He looked at the postcard she had thrown down to his desk and sighed. "I told him not to send this to you."

"WHERE IS HE?!" Rowan shouted slamming her fists against a desk.

Kong jumped, he clearly hadn't expected that. He glared at her. "Your attitude will not be accepted. You can shout all you want but I don't work for you, I work for your brother…"

"And I'm dating the head of Five-0."

Kong stopped. He stared at her. As if he wasn't certain where to go from there.

"You've seen me in action, Kong. If you don't tell me what's going on, _now_ , I will be forced to turn absolutely monstrous with you with whatever means I have available at my disposal… which includes Five-0."

She shot him a dark glare he hopefully realized was a serious look. But he didn't answer her. He merely picked up his phone, dialed a number and then handed it to her.

She listened to the ringing, her eyes narrowed in distrust at him. And then someone picked up.

"Why are you calling me _now_?"

That was Wo Fat. That was Wo Fat's voice she was listening to.

"I got your postcard."

There was a silence before she heard the soft chuckles.

"I was pretty clear that he not tell you, yet…"

"You escaped prison, and you told them not to tell me? But you sent me the postcard?"

"Well… you always said… when I get out, I was to send you a postcard… so… I did."

"But you didn't tell me. I've been calling you for three days."

"Left that phone behind when I got out," he answered and she almost heard his noncommittal shrug on the other line.

"But you didn't want to tell me," she said in a small voice.

"Rowan. You're dating Steven now. I didn't want to put you in a position where you would have to withhold information from him," he replied, what a nice thought. Except to Rowan it felt a little bit like he thought that she'd snitch on him.

"I thought you blew up. I kept dreaming about it and… I was worried…"

"You had a dream about me?" he asked sounding almost honoured. "Wow, you don't usually get them about me."

"Shut up, the point is, it happened, and I was worried, and I couldn't get a hold of you. And you don't trust me… no body trusts me."

"I wonder why," Kong snarled under his breath but other than shooting him a glare she ignored him.

"Steve is literally going to find out I'm out in seconds, if he hasn't found out already, and when he goes looking for me, who do you think he's going to ask first?" Wo Fat asked dryly. "Really, Rowan, think about it carefully, who is he going to ask?"

"Me."

"That's right. And I know you're trying to work on things with him so I left you out of it," he admitted when Rowan just stayed silent he added: "And I guess, I was a little worried that if he pressed you, you might give me up."

"That's fair."

"You're not mad?" he asked sounding a surprised.

"No. I just want you to tell me the truth."

"Alright. We gonna talk about truth? Don't lie to me. Did you threaten Kong?"

"Yes."

"Do I have to compensate him for your threats?"

Rowan glance over to Kong who was glaring up at her darkly. "Most likely."

"Put him back on the phone."

Rowan smiled warmly and then handed the phone back to Kong with a bright: "It's for you."

Sighing and rolling his eyes and he took the phone from her. "Your little brat is swiftly becoming a pain in my ass and she didn't even bring me sushi this time." Rowan smiled apologetically at him but he was still glaring at her. "I know she was worried but that doesn't… okay… yeah… that would be great… no problem…"

He hung up his phone and smiled smugly at her. "He's going to deal with compensation. You… get out."

"That's fair. Next time I'll bring sushi," she said but left before he could say anything else. When she got out of the office, she found Andre glaring at her and she apologized once more. But he still escorted her out of the building.

As soon as she got outside, she found she had bigger problems. Because, leaning on his truck parked right by her car, was Steve and he didn't look happy at all.


	122. Chapter 122

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: This is it, the end of season 4. It's all one large chapter of drama and Rowan antics, 14 pages long to make up for our short one from Wednesday. After this we go to the 10 filler chapters from before, AJ's special character will be appearing in chapter 130 (I think). They're all going to be super cute, I hope you like them. As for this chapter, a lot is going to happen and a character we haven't seen in the flesh for a while is going to be appearing. As always, don't forget to tell me what you think!_

 _P.S. AlexLover, I didn't get the PM but I got your costume choice. Let me know if you change your mind._

Chapter 122 

* * *

The way Steve was staring at her, it made her heart sink down to her stomach. It was like he thought she personally broke her brother out of prison. Like he thought she was murdering people. Like he thought she was a monster.

He had said nothing to her, outside of the order to get into his truck, and then they were driving. She already knew he was heading back to the palace. Which meant her car was staying at Kong's until further notice.

"You didn't answer your phone when I called," Steve whispered.

"Yeah, I was in a meeting, sorry," she told him, when he wouldn't look at her, not even out of the corner of his eyes, instead his eyes kept on the road she added: "I was going to call you back when I was done."

"How long have you known that he escaped?"

Wow, just right out there. Nor foreplay just straight to the problem? Okay, well he knew about all of that then. Rowan lowered her eyes to her lap. "I had my suspicions last night, but Kong just confirmed it for me."

"You knew last night?"

"As soon as you said that it hadn't come from the prison… I put it together. It was an inside joke of ours. Every time something happened, he'd say he'd break out of prison to deal with it and I'd say send me a postcard when you get out and… well…"

"He sent you a postcard," Steve said with a sigh of understanding.

"I know why you're here," she whispered. "I don't know where he is. Honestly. I don't."

"I have a hard time believing that Rowan. I really do."

"I know. I know and I'm sorry," she whispered. "But it's true. I just… I thought that… after everything you might…"

Steve glanced to her almost surprised. "I… It'll be hard, but… okay. I'll trust you, with this. Just once. But Rowan, if you're lying to me, tell me now, because if I find out you're lying again to protect him I'll never trust you again."

He pinned her with a dark glare as they waited for the light to change back to green. He must have expected this to be hard, but for Rowan this was a no brainer.

"Cross my heart and hoped to die. I literally just talked to him but he didn't tell me where he was. Said he didn't want to put me in a bad position with you."

"Oh, how considerate of him," Steve growled. "Look… I'm… I'm going to need your phone, okay?"

Rowan held her breath. "But I… I mean…"

"He called you right? On your phone?"

"No, from one of Kong's," she replied. "It was just a burner…"

"Okay, well I'd still like to monitor your phone for when he does call you."

"Can't I just tell you when he calls?"

"No, because I won't be able to trace it, now will I?"

Rowan hung her head. She and Steve had been doing so well before this. They were having fun, they were barely arguing. Why, why did Wo Fat have to break out of prison and ruin things?

"Could we maybe… keep me out of it?"

The truck pulled up to the Palace and Steve put it in park before turning to her. "Rowan… you're the only person…"

"But I don't want to be in the middle," she cried. "Please don't put me in the middle again!"

"Put you in the middle?"

"You do this, you always do this. Me or Wo Fat, and if I choose Wo Fat, I like him more than you. You're smart. You're determined. You have caught him more than once, without my assistance. You can do it again. Just please, please don't ask me to choose, because I know you're going to start up with that, _if you liked me better_ bullshit again."

Steve stared at her like she had wounded him. He looked fully horrified that those words had come out of her mouth. He bowed his own head before raising it again. "Alright. Deal. But you can't tell him what our efforts to capture him will be, alright. If I'm not using you to find him, he can't use you to evade me, you got it? That means you can't warn him if I'm closing in."

"Okay… but… counter offer here," she said quickly despite the frown on his face. "I tell you guys nothing about each other, but I warn you if he's going to do something to you or the team and I warn him if you're coming in hot or something… does that sound fair? Cause… like… I'd very much like to keep both of you out of a deadly shoot out you know? Cause he's not gonna go down easy, he never does and…"

Steve cut her off by taking her hand, he was probably about to tell her something about how Wo Fat couldn't get him, but he had before, just like Steve had gotten Wo Fat before, but in a blinding static white suddenly she couldn't hear Steve talking. She heard someone else.

 _It's ghost money._

"Whoa, Ro, you okay?" he asked shaking her lightly. The vision let go and she stared up at him with empty eyes trying to focus on reality again.

"What's ghost money?"

"Ghost money?" "Yeah, what is it?" "It's funds that don't exist, the government uses it to fund black ops… why are you?"

"I unno… I think… I think that you're gonna…"

"A case?" he echoed and she nodded. He took that in but didn't let go of her hair. "Okay, well not important right now, so uh, before we were so rudely interrupted by that transmission, I was going to say that that was fair, but if you could maybe warn him… when I'm not right in front of you? Like… wait for me to leave…"

Rowan leant in to kiss him and Steve stumbled to a stop a devilish grin on his face. "Of course, baby."

"Yeah, okay, that's okay, uh… your car's back at…" "Kong's yeah." "Okay… uh… I could have Kono drop you off…" "Naw, Kong will probably get one of his guys driving it back here. You should go Steve, you have a case."

"I don't have it yet," he whispered leaning in closer to her, leaning in for a deeper kiss than the kisses they had been pressing to each other as they tried to talk. A kiss that was interrupted by his phone ringing. They both stared at his phone from the cupholder under the dash it was residing in but Rowan turned back to Steve first, knowing full well that he was going to feel guilty about leaving her.

"It's okay. I'll see you tonight. Don't get shot."

"I never do," he said as he left the truck which was not true at all. He kissed her cheek as she got out, before rushing off. Rowan watched him go, smiling at the man she called hers. She then looked back to her phone, at the number that had just texted her.

 _The app just went down. Stay with McGarrett until we get it back up. Don't know what the play is but someone's trying to isolate you._

Well that didn't bode well, now did it?

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Grover was distraught. Past distraught. He had been forced to do things, terrible things to appease Ian Wright who had his daughter. He hadn't wanted to get Five-0 involved and then he had to because that's who Ian wanted him to steal the money from. Problem was, the money they were supposed to be transporting wasn't there. Steve had managed to talk Ian down, he promised to get Ian his money and they had found the truck the FBI spook Novak had used to transport the money he took but the money wasn't there either.

Grover couldn't take it. He just couldn't. He needed that money, he needed it to get Samantha back. He needed to stop thinking about what Ian could be doing to her, he just wanted his little girl back. That's all.

When he couldn't handle it anymore, he left. He saw the look McGarrett gave him as he walked away, a wide-eyed look because Steve couldn't handle emotions. He hid himself behind the Camaro to cry, to let it out, because he was running out of time and he was running out of options. He didn't know what to do but he knew he would never survive losing his daughter, not his baby girl.

There was the sound of footsteps and Grover struggled to reel himself in. Danny clapped a hand to his shoulder and then sat himself down beside Grover.

"Listen to me," Danny said softly. "A few years ago, this guy I thought I knew, he took my daughter. And you know, I remember back then thinking I got two choices now. I could shut down and start mourning my daughter, or I could do anything and everything it took to run over whatever stood in my way to get my daughter back."

"I can't stop thinking about her. I can't stop thinking about what she must be going through."

Danny nodded, he understood that kind of feeling, Grover could see it on his face. He let Grove wallow a little bit more before saying: "Right now, you need to put that on hold. If you wanna see Samantha, you stay focused on ending this son of a bitch, you understand?"

"Yeah," he said even to him it sounded noncommittal.

"Okay, and might I add, when I was going through this, I had Steve, and yes, that was helpful, he was there, he helped me or tried to. But you, you have something more than Steve, and me and Five-0 standing beside you. You have someone else, someone who will literally do anything to protect the people she cares about which includes hiring hit men apparently."

 _Rowan-gram_

That's what Danny meant. Danny wanted him to call Rowan and ask her to hire out a Rowan-gram to deal with the situation.

"I unno if I should… with her and McGarrett… I don't want to rock the boat now that they're settled."

"Wo Fat blew that boat out of the water the second he blew up his prison cell and escaped." Danny said. "Trust me. Give her a call, see what she says. She's already partly involved, she knew about the ghost money before we got the call, it stands to reason she'll eventually learn about this on her own. Better to get her involved on our terms while we can keep track of her."

Danny stood up, leaving him there to think it over and as soon as he was gone, Grover pulled out his phone. He didn't really want to call for a favour, but Danny was right about one thing, if anyone could fix this situation in a hot minute, it was that girl.

So, Grover took a chance.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

They were talking about plans, talking about Novak who stole the money they needed to save Grover's daughter and what he had done and where he would go. They were working hard, on over time, the only person not involved was Rowan because Steve knew what she'd do and he didn't want her app involved in this.

They had been so absorbed they hadn't noticed the guard approaching them until he was speaking to them.

"Commander, he said you were expecting him," the guard said and then Ian appeared behind him. Visitor badge and all.

WHAT THE SHIT?! That fucking cheeky little prick.

All guns were drawn but it was Grover who grabbed him with a _come here, you son of a bitch_ , and threw him against the wall.

"Where the hell is my daughter?"

"Are you asking me if she's alive or where she is? Because you know I'm not gonna tell you that."

Oh, wrong thing to say, even Steve knew that. Don't poke the bear, kid, he longed to say but he was also kind of interested in seeing Grover strangle Ian with his own bare hands.

Steve got in between them because he had to, because killing him wouldn't help them get Samantha back.

"Hey, hey, hey, Samantha's alive, Lou, she's the only leverage he's got."

"That's why he's the boss," Ian said with a smile. Steve got Grover to let go, got him to take a few steps back then Steve punched Ian Wright as hard as he could in the stomach.

"Get up," he ordered after letting Ian collapse to the ground and cough out his pain.

"Oh, you still got it," Ian said between coughs and wheezed and Steve forced him up.

"What are you doing here?"

"You guys like the Beatles?" he asked. What the hell was wrong with this kid. "I do. My dad turned me on to them. Kind of primitive for my generation, but they got some good tunes."

"What's that got to do with anything?"

"John, Paul, George, Ringo. Arguably the best rock band in rock 'n' roll history. Kind of like you guys. You're the best cops in the world. Five-0. But with the Beatles there was this guy, the power behind the throne, Brian Epstein, who by all accounts was the fifth Beatle that's who I am today. I'm your Brian Epstein."

"Yeah, I don't think so. That would imply that you have brains… which you don't."

Ian turned and then yelped, practically throwing himself into Steve's arms for protection. Steve straightened he didn't know how he didn't feel it before, but behind Ian was Rowan. Staring up at him with an expression he had never seen before, but it filled his veins with an ice cold shock of fear. It was a fiery glare that clearly said: _how dare you._

"Why is he here?" she asked in a strange voice he didn't recognize. Her eyes turned on them, they were cold and appraising. "What has he done? He's done something hasn't he? I can't remember what it was but it's bad and it made me angry." She then turned on Ian. "The last time you made me angry I put you in jail, I wonder what I'll do this time."

Yeah, he needed her not to be angry. Not with Wo Fat in the wind and fully capable to make more than a little bit of trouble. Steve brushed Ian off of him, and put a hand out to her to get ice-cold attention off of Ian. "Hey babe… uh… why are you here?"

Ian perked up immediately. "Oh, you two finally banging?" he asked, all it took was one look from Rowan and Ian's smile faded and his eyes lowered to the ground. He even mumbled a fucking apology to her. Rowan turned back to Steve as if nothing had even happened, as if she hadn't just mollified a psychopath with a single glare.

"Grover called… he said he needed me for something. I was waiting for you guys but then I got hungry and went to get something from the vending machine. What the hell is going on?"

Steve turned on Grover. "You called Rowan? Do you know what she'll do?!"

"Well I was here anyway…"

"What? Why?"

"There was a bit of a situation and I was told to come here for safety reasons," she said and then waved it off like that was nothing. "Seriously though, what am I going to do? What was I called for? _What the hell is happening_?"

Ian was not having any of this though because before anyone could answer Rowan's question he practically shouted: "I know where my money is."

Rowan just rolled her eyes at him. She pinned him with a dry glare. "What a coincidence," Rowan growled. "So do I." When he just glared at her clearly not believing her, she added: "Makuakane Ice. Now they don't need you. What's going to stop them from shooting you?"

"And how would _you_ know? Your brother's on the run and your app is down."

It was? Was that the situation she was having? The knowledge of that didn't seem to worry her either. Rowan merely cocked an eyebrow at him. "So, it was you who took my app down." She then started to laugh at him which clearly made Ian very, very nervous. "Ooooooohhhhh… when I tell Kong he's gonna kill you! Do you have any idea how mad he is right now? He's going to terrible things to you, kid."

And that must have been the tipping point because Ian was officially done with them. "I don't have time for this, and neither do you. I suggest you people figure it out and get me my money," he snapped and tried to walk away.

When none of them moved, Rowan asked: "What is he holding against you?" in a very low and dangerous tone

Though it happened in a flash Steve saw it all go down in slow motion. He watched Rowan clock all of their faces, but I was when she looked at Grover that the realization dawned on her face, those glassy void-vision eyes. He watched her turn, watched her storm after Ian who had not gotten far, he watch as she grabbed the back of Ian's collar and practically ripped him off of his feet. Ian went down hard and then Rowan was on top of him, not holding him down but hovering over top of him in a crouched position. Much like a crouched tiger getting ready to pounce.

"You have something that belongs to me. Didn't anyone every tell you never to involve the kids?" she growled. Her eyes that light ice blue Steve recognized as her sociopathic eyes. Those eyes must have even scared Ian, because he didn't even try to get away from her.

"You can get them all twisted up but _I'm_ not playing your game. You get me? So, let me make this perfectly clear to you. I am going to give you two hours. Two. Two hours to give that girl back."

"Or what?" he growled putting on a false bravado.

"I'll have them kill you." Ian just stared at her and the glittering toothy grin spread on her face. "App or no app, I can have you destroyed. Do you understand me? You don't think there are plans in place for something like this, ways for me to get a hold of people if I don't have access to the app? One call and bye-bye Ian. No pay-day. No future. Just pain. Pain and suffering. Death will be a sweet release. You'll beg to swallow that bullet and I'm going to make sure they start by breaking each and every fucking bone in your hands."

Ian looked properly horrified. Rowan stood up and backed away. "You have an hour and fifty-eight minutes left. Ian. Tick. Tock."

Ian practically sprinted away from him. Steve swore, crossing to Rowan who was watching him leave. "God… Rowan…"

Those eyes turned back to him, those pools of liquid ice, freezing him into place. This was the Ice Queen. This was what had terrified Jerry, Chin and Tony Gibson. "Threaten the children and you deal with the monster," she growled. "I wasn't lying before. I know where the money is. It's with the Makuakane family."

Steve tugged her to him, letting her arms wrap around his chest as she added: "Figured you'd need proof, ask Toast to run a key search with Novak and those people you'll find emails, that's how Ian got the info."

Chin stepped up. "The Makuakane's are a local Samoan cartel run by Inoke Makuakane. Heavy in the ice trade. Everyone in his crew gets his wings in California, which is the equivalent of SEAL training for gangbangers."

"So that's how Novak's going to get him and the money off the island, using their smuggling infrastructure."

"Yeah, the problem is, they've been on the radar for years, but no one's been able to touch them," Kono told them. Yes, that would be a problem.

"Doesn't matter, we gotta look at the angles," Steve said before turning back to Rowan. "You guys get me a game plan I'm gonna talk with Rowan."

Rowan sighed but followed him into his office. He needed to know what was going on with her. As soon as the door shut, he pulled her into an embrace. He wanted nothing more than to hold her. This situation, with Grover and his kid, he couldn't help but wonder how far he'd go if the roles were reversed. He'd probably work with Wo Fat to get her back and that's how far he'd go.

"Your app went down?"

"Well now I know that Ian did it, but yes, I was told the app went down after our talk this morning."

"What does it mean though," he asked. "Is it going to go back up?"

"They're working on it I think."

"And you were told to stay here?"

"No, he said to stay with you, because he figured if the app went down it was so I wouldn't be able to call for help. So, he wanted me to stay with you cause he figured I'd be safer with you."

"He?" "Wo Fat." "Whoa, wait, what? Okay, so firstly… you said you weren't in contact with him…" "I wasn't at the time, I told you the message came in _after_ you and I spoke…" "Okay, fine, I'll give you that one, but he really said that? I mean really? He said to come to me?"

"Sure did, I can show you the text message."

Steve couldn't help but smile. So much for Wo Fat not thinking he could take care of Rowan. He must've thought so if he was telling her to stay with him when he thought she might be in danger. But there was still one problem.

"But I've been out on a case all day, why didn't you call me?"

Rowan pinned him with a knowing look. "Cause you had a case."

Something in Steve's chest constricted. She hadn't called him because she thought his case was more important? What if someone had stormed the palace to get her? He wouldn't have been there to help her, to save her. "Babe… you should have called me I would have come straight back."

"Then it's a good thing I didn't cause Grover needs you," Rowan said. Steve couldn't help but smile at her. It always amazed him how quickly she went to bat for his friends, granted they were her friends too, but it still amazed him and warmed his heart. And slightly scared him, cause she should really put herself first.

Kono stuck her head in the office and called them out. But she didn't start talking until Steve was beside her. "They've got ten-foot walls, CCTV cameras, guards, the place is a fortress."

"And I've gone up against this family before, if we go in hot it'll get bloody," Chin added.

"You're not doing it alone," Rowan interrupted before Grover could say anything. "Steve lives for this kind of mission. So, save that _it's my problem, it's my daughter_ stuff."

Steve smiled to Rowan who was still nestled neatly to his side. "She has a point," he whispered before turning to Grover and saying: "The only way we do this is together."

Steve saw the relief on Grover's face briefly before the reality crashed down on him again. "So how do we get in?"

"Fake bomb," Rowan said and Steve paused. He looked down to her, saw her smile and he knew that she had said that for a reason and a plan was already forming in his mind.

"Did that help?"

Yes, it did. He nodded quickly, told the others to suit up and then pulled Rowan in for a strong hug and a deep kiss. "Thanks babe," he said. Pressing a kiss to her temple. "Just uh… please don't do anything. Wait for us to find the money, if we don't get it… you do what you gotta do. And uh… can you stay here?"

Rowan smiled at him. "Don't worry Steve. I was obviously bluffing, I can't do anything with my app down."

Steve wasn't sure that all of what she said was true but he knew she was telling some truth. He believed her when she said she had lied to Ian, he just didn't know what she had lied about. But he didn't have time to argue about that right now. But he couldn't help but notice, as they team was getting ready to leave. Rowan… Rowan was on her phone. That glittering dangerous smile on her face again.

Steve knew Wo Fat wouldn't just leave her like that if the app went down though. He just really hoped that Rowan didn't have an assassin on speed dial.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Ian slammed the door shut and Samantha watched him as he locked everything and then went about walking around the house and checking out the windows.

Except that wouldn't help, because someone had already gotten in while Ian was out. He hadn't spoken to her or acknowledged her or anything. He just got himself into the house, and then sat down and waited with gun in hand. Watching the front door quietly and unwaveringly.

It was the clicking of the gun that alerted Ian to the other person in the living room with him. Other than her who was in the dog cage.

Ian turned.

"Whoa!"

He put his hands up. The man who broke in stood slowly, gun in his hand never once wavering. It was one of those guns you'd see an assassin carry in the movies, with this longer than normal barrel that she figured was probably a silencer. But that wasn't the scariest things about him. It was the injury, the burn that spanned half of his face down his neck and under his tight-fitting grey shirt, and the way it made that glare on his face look so much worse.

"Whoa! Two hours… she said… I still have an hour left!" he cried.

The man smiled and it was worse than the frown.

"She lied."

And then he pulled the trigger. Ian went down immediately. Half of that handsome face that had lulled her into a false sense of security missing now and Samantha started screaming. At that the man returned to the cage, shot the lock off the door and then opened it for her.

But though the door was open Samantha refused to move, even when he crouched down and offered her a hand.

"Don't mind the face. I'm not as scary as I look," he assured her. She turned to where Ian's body lay motionless a lake of blood forming around him. The man clocked her gaze and frowned. "Alright, maybe I am."

He carefully put the gun away, tucking it into the waist of his jeans and then offered her the hand again.

"Let's try this again, shall we? I'm your Rowan-gram."

Rowan. Like Aunt Ro? She had heard her dad talking about her, about the things she did, Samantha had never met her before but her dad had said that Rowan rescued people and helped Five-0 all the time _and_ she was friends with her dad. Maybe her dad had asked Rowan to help?

"Do you know what a Rowan-gram is?"

Samantha shook her head. "Okay, we'll… it means that Rowan… Rowan Pierce she sometimes helps your dad out at work…" "She's dating that McGarrett guy…" "—Don't remind me," he growled. "Yeah, that's her. She sent me to come get you. And now I'm going to get you out of here and somewhere safe."

"How do I know you really know her? And you're not just saying that…"

He pulled out a phone and then pulled up a picture. It was of her and him… before whatever accident ruined half his face, she was dressed up in this really pretty dress and looking at the camera and he was fiddling with the cuffs of his nice black suit and looking at her with narrowed eyes of distrust.

They were too close for that to be a coincidence. She could trust him… hopefully.

She put her hand into his but no sooner did she do that did he tug her close and say: "Not everything's for free though… there is something I'll want you to do…"

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

The fake bomb had worked. They got their money, Ian was willing to trade. They had driven out to Hikina Ranch Airstrip out of Waimanalo where all this started in the first place. But they had been waiting too long. They had the money, Ian was supposed to be there. Granted they hadn't been able to get a hold of Ian to tell him they got the money, but Samantha's phone had texted them and told them where to go.

Why was this taking so long?

"It's hard to believe that this guy's just running late," Danny said. Steve knew what he was thinking. That Rowan had done something, but she wouldn't, and if she did, they would have heard about it by now. Besides, Grover was nervous, as is, why was Danny making things worse with his pessimism.

"Hundred mil on the table, he'll show," Steve replied curtly.

Grover had edged away from them, and Steve got it, he was panicking. Just so long as he didn't fully freak out, they'd be okay.

But his phone rang and Grover practically tore his uniform apart trying to get at his phone. He answered it and Steve tried not to listen but Grover was just saying things like yeah, and okay, and really? Something had happened, something must have happened, but was it a good thing or a bad thing?

When Grover turned Steve couldn't read his face and he too began to worry. He didn't want this to have gone sideways, he would never forgive himself if he hadn't been quick enough to save Grover's daughter.

"Samantha just walked into an H.P.D. precinct and she said that Ian Wright is dead."

And that was all Grover needed to say about that.

They raced back to the Palace, Grover practically sprinting before them to get to Samantha. When Steve got in there, he could see that Rowan was standing back with the officer who brought Samantha to them as Grover hugged his daughter tightly.

Steve counted to twenty, letting them have their moment before he cleared his throat and got Grover's attention.

"Okay, Samantha. I'm going to need you to be a big girl. I need you to tell us what happened," he said to her in a soft voice. Steve nodded, that was great, much better than anything he would have come up with to say.

Samantha nodded. She turned back to Steve but Grover kept his arm around her.

"A man broke into the house, he shot him."

"You gotta tell us more then that."

"Okay. Uh… Well… he broke into the house, came in through a back window. And then he just waited, he waited for Ian to come back and… and he wouldn't talk about me, he wouldn't even look at me. But when Ian came back… he… he said that he was supposed to have two hours left and the guy said that _she_ lied, I don't know who the she was," she said. All eyes turned to Rowan, they all knew who the _she_ was.

"What? He was dead anyway! The second he took down the app he was dead. If Kong didn't get him, Grover was gonna get him, so I mean… does it matter who pulled the trigger in the end?"

Steve struggled to keep his groan to himself but he knew he let out a bit of a snort. He couldn't help it, fucking Rowan didn't have an assassin on her speed dial she had Wo Fat. That meant she had to know that Wo Fat was on the island, how else would she have known to send Wo Fat to Ian?

"He… he was actually kind of nice. He told me he was a Rowan-gram, and that Rowan and my dad had sent him to come get me… oh… so the she would be Rowan, yeah I didn't put that together before," she whispered. "Anyway, he asked me if I wanted anything to eat or something and then dropped me off at the precinct."

Steve sighed, great another person Wo Fat had managed to charm. Still he had to ignore the rolling distrusting in his stomach because he needed to know, from someone who wouldn't lie to him, if Wo Fat had done this just for Rowan or if he had an ulterior motive. "Did he say anything else to you?"

"He said to give you a message."

"A message?"

"Yeah… he said you and him need to have a talk."

"He's coming after you," Danny said.

"Yeah well let him."

"Okay, now wait a second," Rowan said. "What if he just wants to talk to you?"

Everyone turned to her. It was a stupid question. Wo Fat _never_ just wanted to talk to him. Wo Fat and him only fought, they fought and Wo Fat tortured him, and then Steve beat him up and escaped and arrested him when he could. The only talking that went on between Steve and Wo Fat was sarcastic remarks and completely unveiled insults.

Luckily Steve didn't have to say anything about that because Samantha added: "He had a message for Rowan, too."

Steve turned to her to where Rowan was standing back and avoiding his eyes, he guessed that she had already heard it.

"What did he say?" But Rowan stayed silent. When she didn't answer him, Steve turned back to Samantha and repeated the question. "What did he say?"

Samantha glanced to Rowan who was shaking her head and Steve who was glaring at him and finally whispered: "Now we're even."

Steve turned to Rowan, horror written all over his face. She still avoided his eyes, of course she would, Steve knew what that meant. Wo Fat was no longer indebted to her for shooting her a year ago. Steve didn't know what was scarier. That Wo Fat wanted to finish things between them or that Rowan no longer had a hold over Wo Fat.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Grover had been golfing every day for a damn week. He used to love golfing. Now he was tired of it. But still, there he was on the green, wearing green, cigar in his mouth, screwing up easy putts.

It was just by sheer luck that he even noticed them. The group cresting the hill. Each walking towards him with purpose except for Steve who had Rowan hoisted over his shoulder like a bag of potatoes. At least he figured it was Rowan. It was the only girl he figured McGarrett would do that to. And it kind of looked like her ass in those pink short shorts, and the bottom of her shoes flailing with each of McGarrett's steps.

"Hey way to rock out those lime green shorts," Kono called.

"What?! I'm missing lime green shorts?! Steve put me down." Oh yep, it was Rowan.

"There a reason why your girl is over your shoulder?" Grover asked pointing at Rowan who was struggling to twist around and failing.

"He's a Neanderthal, that's why," Danny snapped which won him a glare from Steve.

"She tripped twice, and then refused to let me carry her, and I'm not dealing with another fall down a hill, I'm just not…"

"Put me down!" Rowan shouted kicking her feet, one toe of her shoe catching McGarrett in the stomach. Steve winced but didn't let out that grunt like anyone else would have but he did put Rowan down who then straightened out her shorts and her shirt before turning, looking Lou up and down and saying: "Yep, those are lime green shorts. Your wife know you're out here looking like that?"

"Okay, you guys playing through, or you just, uh, fashion patrolling?"

"Oh, that's crazy man, you look like you should be on a can of corn," Danny said.

"Ho, ho, ho," he said with a grin mimicking the green giant.

"Hey, you got a sec?" McGarrett asked.

"Man, I ain't got nothing but time," he answered softly.

"How's Samantha doing?" Rowan questioned.

"Well, she's up and down, you know. She took some time off school. We're keeping her close. She needs to be with her family right now, you know."

"How's forced retirement?" Danny asked which caused Rowan to whack him.

"For Christ sake, could you be any more callous?"

"It's a fair question, Rowan!" Danny argued, raising a hand smack her back that was immediately caught by Steve.

"Don't fucking touch her, man, we talked about this in the car. Keep your hands off my girl."

"Yeah keep your hands off his girl!" Rowan chimed in sticking her tongue out at him. Steve grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her away and towards Chin.

"And you! Stop instigating. Just… you know what. Why don't you just go over there? Go stand over there with his clubs or something. Practice your damn golf swing for all I care, just… don't hit anything towards us and stay away from the edge of the damn hill."

They then turned back to Grover who was trying his very hardest not to smile. "To answer your question, Danny, the governor said that my actions were a gross abuse of power by a sworn officer of the law, and my misuse of HPD resources was unprecedented."

"So basically, nothing I wouldn't have done under the same circumstances," Steve offered and they all laughed. Though Grover knew, things would have been much worse for Ian if it was Rowan who was in that dog cage. It may not have been Steve who got him, but he had a feeling Ian would have lost a lot more than his head if the roles were reversed.

"You did what you had to do to get your daughter back, and that's that," Danny said just as a golf ball went flying past his face. "Whoa. Fuck."

"ROWAN!" Danny and Steve snapped at the same time. Grover turned and Rowan stood there, wide eyes and surprised, the club in her hand already dropping to the ground.

"Sorry."

"Fuck, I changed my mind, get back here," Steve ordered, offering a hand out to her. As soon as she put her hand in his, he had spun her around and wrapped his arms around her, leaning against the back of her, resting his chin on the top of her head. Rowan's hands came up to hold onto his forearms like it was the most natural pose in the planet.

"Alright, so what's next?" Chin asked ignoring the sickening cuteness of the couple in the middle of the group.

"I'm gonna start with smoking this cigar, and, uh, I don't know, maybe I'll play another 18," Grover said with a shrug. "Another eighteen," he added with a sigh. "Look, man, I love golf, but every day? I'm a cop. I've a cop for the last 30 years. I don't know how to do anything else."

"Well that's good," Steve said with a smile. "Because you don't need to. Ro… will you do the honors?"

"What are you talking ab… aw come on!" Grover cried just as Rowan pulled the badge out of Steve's pocket. She offered it up to him but he couldn't take it.

"We want you to join Five-0."

"Wow, man, I really appreciate that. I mean it from the bottom of my heart, but let's be real. I'm a disgraced cop. I've been fired. Nobody's gonna let me wear a badge again."

"That won't be an obstacle. Trust me," Chin said, and Grover nodded he knew all about Chin Ho Kelly and his past. And that was true, he was on

"Just say yes. He's not gonna take no for an answer," Danny said.

"Yeah and Rowan said that you say yes, and she's never wrong, so go ahead a do it," Steve added, Rowan nodded from within his embrace and added: "It's in the strings. Or the dreams. The point is you say yes, you work with them for like the rest of the nine or ten seasons, it's all good fun. Except for that other stuff… something about a jungle chase and an FBI informant turned dirty, but that's not for another year we can deal with that later."

The all stared at her, even Steve was looking down at her funny, but it was Grover who said: "Okay, that's it, someone's gonna tell me what's going on with this girl."

"All in good time, now take this badge it's killing my arm."

"Well I supposed if you insist… and the psychic says so," he said taking it from her and clipping it to the waist of his pants.

Grover went around shaking everyone's hands, before pulling Rowan in for a hug. "My missus wants to see you by the way. Wants you round for tea."

Rowan blinked her eyes at him, she seemed surprised or worried but she still said: "Oh… uh… sure? Give her my details and we'll figure something out, okay?"

"Sounds good," Grover said letting her go to shake Danny's hand.

"Hope you like getting shot at," Danny said which just caused everyone to laugh. They were all having so much fun that they lost track of someone they shouldn't have lost track of.

There was a sudden yelp and when they all turned they caught the last of Rowan, her damn feet, just as she fell back and down the hill.

"SHIT!" McGarrett screamed already rushing after her. "Tuck and roll, Rowan, tuck and roll!"

Danny winced. "FORE!" he called to whoever was at the bottom and they all laughed, except Steve who was already chasing after her. Grover shook his head. His life just got a little bit more exciting.


	123. Chapter 123

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanfics**

 _A/N: Happy Monday everyone. So here is the first chapter of Filler chapters. I wrote out nice easy, fluffy chapters to make up for all the drama that's coming up, because, let's be honest the first 8 episodes of season 5 are CRAZY with the drama. So this chapter is going to include a smut scene at the very end. I have put up a bolded warning before you get to it, so if you don't want to read the smut just skip on past it, okay? I worked really hard on this scene… so I hope you guys agree that it's very… steamy! I'm trying to not overpower you guys with smut, I mean obviously I could write a smutty section per chapter, but are you guys okay with the frequency in which we get smut scenes? Or do you want more? Let me know when you review and I'll see you guys on Wednesday!_

Chapter 123

* * *

Rowan woke up to Steve hovering over top of her. Not fully but off to the side, his eyes, just watching her, a glow in the morning light. He did that a lot lately. Ever since Wo Fat got out of jail, Steve just kept staring at her, like he didn't know her. Usually he did it while she was asleep, so she'd wake up to him propped up beside her, staring down at her.

It was starting to get creepy.

Rowan had been ignoring it because she knew what talk he wanted to have but she knew she couldn't put it off anymore. This had gone on for too long.

So she rolled over and onto her side, murmuring sleepy and whispered a nice good-morning to him. He answered her by kissing her, he always did. He'd kiss her with this sense of urgency, like he thought if he didn't she'd vanish, like it was the only thing keeping her there. Of course Rowan loved kissing Steve, but she needed to know what was going on in his head or they were never going to get past this.

"Okay, baby, what's wrong?" she asked pushing away from him. Steve sighed, after staring at her with those wounded baby blues he bowed his forehead to hers seemingly distraught.

"I don't want to fight today."

"I don't want to fight either, but you keep staring at me, and I'm starting to get worried that you're mad at me… or trying to break up with me… so I think we need to talk… calmly and rationally," she whispered. "We can do that right?"

"You think I'm trying to… are you out of your… no Rowan. I'm not trying to break up with you, it's just… ugh," he said and then sighed deeply in that way that told her he was both frustrated and nervous. He threw himself down the bed, laying on his back as he stared up at the ceiling. "I'm worried, Ro, I'm worried about what he's going to do. He's threatened us both…"

"Whoa, whoa? You think he's threatened me?" she asked, sliding so her body was against the length of him, a hand on that amazingly chiseled and muscular chest of his. She loved the feel of him beneath her fingertips, loved brushing against his chest hair simply cause it would make him shiver in that delectable way she liked so much.

" _Now we're even?_ Come on, Ro," he said and Rowan just frowned again.

"So what, just cause he doesn't owe me for shooting me anymore that automatically means he's done with me?"

"Yes, Rowan, that's exactly what I think. Have you heard from him since we got Samantha back?"

Rowan avoided his eyes. He knew she hadn't. "No," she answered glumly.

"Then yes, yes, Rowan, I think that he's threatening me and god, honestly I don't even know what's going on with you and him, but I think your alliance is over at the very least."

But Rowan didn't want to think that. Wo Fat was attached to her, or at least she felt like she knew he was. He called her his sister, even on legal paperwork, he seemed very interested in her life and her love life. He was always so desperate to save her from herself, from Steve, and whatever other bullshit she got herself stuck in. She didn't want to think he faked all of that just to keep tabs on Steve, or just because he felt obligated to do so.

"I have a question… something that's been bothering me," Steve admitted and Rowan, who hand been watching the way the tattoos along his hips moved when he breathed, looked back up to him.

"Yeah?"

"Why did you lie to me? You said you didn't know where he was, you swore to me. I told you I'd never trust you again, and you did it anyway. You still lied to me… because you knew, you knew he was already on the island."

"No, I didn't," Rowan said quickly. "I didn't, I really didn't know."

"Then how did you know to send him after Ian Wright?" he asked. "I mean, he went all the way to save Samantha at your request, you had to know he was on the island otherwise you wouldn't have asked him to go."

"But I didn't ask him to go," Rowan said. "Honest. All I did was tell him the situation. I told him that I needed Wright tailed and… uh… terminated, and that I needed the girl rescued. He said he'd get people on it. That, to me, made me think that he wasn't in town. I had no idea he was here until Samantha described who saved her."

"How was he going to get people on it if the app was down?"

"Just cause my app was down doesn't mean he didn't have access to his contacts. It was me that was out of the loop and unprotected, not him."

She took that time to lie back down. Steve was silent a moment before rolling back over and propping himself up beside her on bended elbow. He stared down at her, his worry seemingly soothed.

"And he told you to stick with me," Steve whispered with a proud tilt to his chin. Oh her handsome McGarrett with the stubble along his chin and jawline, with those marks she left on his collar bones, the only place he let her leave them, his blue eyes sparkling like clear blue pools of inviting ocean water. He was so proud that his nemesis thought of him to protect her.

"Yes, he did."

"Is there… is there a chance that maybe, maybe he's gone radio silent cause he's getting ready for something?"

"Like what?"

"Like a major move against me, or an attempt to get you off the island and away from me?"

He offered that last theory with lowered eyes and Rowan blinked her eyes, finally realizing what it was that had him up and staring at her. He was afraid she was going to vanish on him. She angled herself so she was directly under him, her hands splaying across his chest to feel his heartbeat running wild under her finger tips. She was both relieved and surprised to find out that the main thing Steve seemed to be worried about was Wo Fat taking her away.

"Babe… where did you… I mean… why would you think that? You think I'd just run off with him… after everything I went through just to get us here?" she asked, and he scowled, his eyes still avoiding hers.

"No… it's just…"

"Just what?"

"He said he would," Steve whispered. "He said… actually both of you have mentioned that he has people in place to take you away that… he should have done it even before I fucked up with the casual thing with Catherine. And I just… I unno. If he's looking to hurt me… the easiest way to do it would be to do something to you."

Fucking hell. The Captain America Contingency, Wo Fat must have gone into more detail about it or threatened to activate it, because all she had done was briefly alluded to it. It was a backup plan if Steve ever got too controlling again. To extract her out of the situation in a way that Steve wouldn't be able to trace. Wo Fat shouldn't have been talking about it, no matter how vague the reference, let alone threatening Steve with it.

"Look… that thing he's talking about. The people in place. It's a safety measure. A simple safety measure that _I_ have to activate. Okay?"

"Wait… hold on… you really do have a safety measure that involves people coming in and taking you off the island?"

"It's a getaway thing. You know, like with Kono and Adam? And how your mom got them on that freighter to China? It's like that. But only I can activate it. I need to be in enough trouble to use it," she whispered. That was a good lie, right? That made sense.

Steve semi relaxed, he nodded taking that in and the two lapsed into silence.

"I honestly don't know what he's doing," Rowan said to him. "But I know he just wants to know where his dad is. So… you know… maybe… maybe we can fix this without duking it out?"

"And how would you suggest we do that?"

"Find out where his dad's being held, Steve. If I can get him a location, we don't have to worry about you and him coming to blows, because he'll have what he wants."

Steve thought this over. It was a fair deal. It led to both parties leaving satisfied. Rowan thought she came up with a really great compromise.

"I'll do my best okay?" he whispered and Rowan smiled. Rewarding him with a big kiss. But just like always that big kiss turned into something more heated, where their limbs got entangled and he showered upon her nothing but pleasure and sensual liquid fire kisses all over her body while she dug her nails into the spots that arched his back and took generous nips at the skin of his shoulder. Where their sounds blended together making a different kind of music that she could only create with him until they were nothing but sweaty panting messes screaming each other's names.

It was the glorious, quiet after, when they'd lie, Steve half draped over her that Rowan would like best. Rowan would trace patterns into his shoulders and down to his lower back while his breathing leveled and Steve would doze, an arm languidly resting across her waist, his body half on hers. She would press kisses to his slick forehead and he'd respond with light sleepy kisses of his own to whatever skin of hers he could find or murmurs of approval.

It was at times like those that Rowan knew she'd do anything to keep Steve by her side. Because with each passing day her heart belonged a little bit more to that man and she was certain, that sooner or later she'd lose herself to him. Fully, completely and gladly.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Danny was not impressed to wake up in the morning to Steve rapping on his door a mile a minute. It was a good thing Steve didn't have a key to his place, cause he was certain Steve would have been rapping on his forehead to wake him up if he had a key.

Danny opened the door, fixed the shirt he had hastily put on and stared up at Steve who was staring at him with that worried _I fucked up_ look on his face.

"Whatever the hell you did with Rowan, it's too early for me to try and fix it. Come back later," he said trying to shut the door but Steve wouldn't let him.

"Why do you always think I'm here because I had an argument with Rowan?" Steve asked.

"Because that's the only thing you ever need advice about."

"That's not true," Steve snapped sweeping him aside and coming into the house. Danny shook his head. It wasn't like he had invited him in.

"You telling me you're here at this ungodly hour because you and Rowan didn't have an argument?"

"Ungodly hour…. Danny it's nine in the morning," Steve cried pointing to the glaring green numbers on the stove.

"It's nine am on my day off, Steven," he snapped. "Why are you waking me up, at nine am, on the only day I can sleep in because I'm off from work and Grace is back with her mother?"

"Because I need your help," he admitted and Danny groaned, oh here we go. "We _did not_ have an argument!"

"Then what? What do you need help with?"

"A date."

"Flattered, but I have plans tonight."

"Oh, ha ha, I want to take Rowan on a nice romantic date and I need help. You're constantly going on about how I'm not romantic and you are so can you help me or not?"

Danny cocked an eyebrow at Steve in surprise. "Oh really? I thought that you didn't need help in that department."

"Well I thought so, but apparently I can only take her to the blow hole so many times," he said. Danny couldn't help but laugh at Steve who looked so distraught to have to admit that. "She getting tired of hooking up in the back of her car ten feet from a naturally occurring spewing water feature every five to ten minutes?"

"Can you help me out or not?"

Danny sighed. "Alright, so what kind of night are you looking at?"

"Okay, prepared to be wowed. You know that Le Cirque reservation I gave up to go to Afghanistan? Well I got it back. But I need something… else…"

Le Cirque, the hottest joint in town. Also the most expensive. It was hard enough to get one reservation, the fact that he bailed on one res and got another was nothing short of miraculous. Danny instinctively wondered if Steve could help him get one for him and Amber.

"Okay, so uh… take her skating."

"I can't skate."

" _You_ can't…" "—Shut up, just give me something else to do that won't make me look stupid."

Danny blinked his eyes at his friend. Steve was so worried about this that Danny was actually quite surprised. Steve put up this whole front of being this player, of this suave, debonair guy. And while girls tended to trip over themselves when they saw him strutting around with his thigh hostlers, cargo pants and tight-fitting shirts that he was always taking off, Rowan wasn't one of those girls… anymore. It made him happy to see that Rowan derailed that cool guy Danny was so used to seeing.

Danny's look must have added to the pressure because Steve sighed. "I… I mean… we didn't really have an argument, we… talked, about… _him_ and the things that happened. And we clarified things, and I sort of felt better afterwards but… I mean… I can't keep thinking about myself. I want her to know she's special… that I'm trying to… trying to think of her too and you know, she joked last week that I always take her to Halona when I'm trying to be romantic so I mean…"

Danny put a hand to his friend's shoulder. "Everyone's moves get stale from time to time and to be fair you haven't ever done steady dating where your girl makes you do date night once a week. But don't worry, me and you… we're going to think up something amazing."

Steve nodded and he pulled Danny in for a bro hug. "Thank god, man, cause I've been wracking my brain for three days and I can't come up with anything good enough. I thought I might have been stuck because we were at odds… kind of… "

"Yeah, well… if we get really stuck I can call Chin… oh and Kono, Kono and Rowan got this girl thing going on between them, always talking about clothes and shoes and other things," Danny told him and Steve seemed visibly relieved.

"How long do we have?"

"Uh, she's off at the Grover's for a thank you tea, I think, she comes back around noon but I think she has to go into the office… or into work…"

"Work? Where she working now?"

"Retail at a clothing boutique on the boardwalk," Steve answered. Danny narrowed his eyes at him, Rowan was still bouncing from job to job despite her making money with her songs? How much did a songwriter even make? Not enough apparently.

"Okay, well figure it out and we'll go from there okay?"

Steve nodded and Danny thought about it. "And we're gonna need to figure out some things. I'll make a list, you tell me what you know and if you don't know I'll ask Kono. Girls a walking Rowan encyclopedia."

Danny had this. He was so going to get Steve laid.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan sipped patiently at her tea as Renee Grover settled herself down on the couch across from her. She had agreed to this because Lou had asked her to but she had been nervous about it. She knew that part of Samantha's issues with the situation she had been in was because Wo Fat had killed someone in front of her, she kept having nightmares about the whole ordeal. So far all they had done was exchange in pleasantries and discuss how Rowan took her tea compared to the way Renee did, Rowan liked more sugar than milk, Renee preferred more milk than sugar. Rowan was just waiting for the woman to tell her how mad she was that she put her daughter in a situation where she had to witness a death. It was inevitable after all, and Rowan already had her apology speech ready to go.

"I asked you here so I could talk to you about what you did," Renee told her and Rowan nodded, she knew that already, just like she knew what was coming next.

"I just want to say thank you. Thank you so much for what you did," Renee said, taking Rowan's hand. "Thank you for saving my daughter. Thank you."

Was that? She wasn't mad? She wasn't angry that her daughter was having nightmares because the man that went to save her from Ian killed Ian in front of Samantha? A man Rowan had sent with the express order to kill Ian.

"Oh… uh… you're welcome?" Rowan whispered not sure what was happening but willing to accept it for however long it lasted.

"You sound surprised."

"Well… I mean… Grov… Lou, sorry, Lou mentioned that she was having nightmares and I mean… that's kind of my fault… you know… I did order the hit… I forgot to specify that he not do it in front of Samantha. I was just so… pissed off about the whole situation…"

Renee held her hand a little tighter. "That bastard deserved what he got," she growled. "If it wasn't you it would have been Lou, you did what everyone else was afraid to. And for that I'm grateful. Very, very grateful."

Rowan found herself genuinely smiling. And Renee continued. "Lou said… Lou said that you've done stuff like this before. That it was you and not McGarrett… you got that nasty reporter off his back, that you helped with Ian the first time, and… this is going to sound crazy… but ever since you showed up it's like we've had this light shining down on us. Like you're some guardian angel or something."

"Oh I am definitely no angel," Rowan scoffed. "Look… I just want to help people, that's all. And I… I'm not about doing whatever I have to… you know… to get it done."

"Well, I'm just very thankful that you've gone to bat for my husband the way you have, not very many people would, you know?"

"Lou is a great guy. And he's family, officially now, so… you know… I'm probably gonna be doing a lot more of this stuff," Rowan admitted.

Renee smiled warmly finally letting go of her hand and sitting back. She picked up her own mug and smiled. "Not going to lie, I feel much better about him joining Five-0 knowing that you're going to be looking out for them."

Rowan tried to smile warmly back, she tried not to feel her phone burning hot in her pocket, a reminder that she hadn't heard from Wo Fat since he had dropped Samantha off at the precinct of her choice with his cryptic messages.

"I do what I can," she whispered.

"So, tell me about your psychic visions. Lou swears you're never wrong."

Rowan stifled her groan. She was really going to have to brief the two of them on her situation cause this was starting to get super-duper annoying.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

When Rowan came in, she hadn't noticed him. Standing there all prim and proper in the navy-blue suit of his that she liked so much, with flowers in hand. She threw her keys in the bowl and when she finally turned the whole way, she spotted him.

She stopped, surprised looking him up and down. "Oh! Uh... what…"

"I'm cordially inviting you out for a romantic night on the town," he said and then thrust the flowers out towards her. "And I bought your favourite flowers."

Rowan stepped forward to accept them, a soft smile on her face. "Black Dragon Roses," she whispered. She hadn't told Steve these were her favourites, she had told him regular white roses were, because Black Dragon Roses, while stunning and very much her favourite, were hard to find and very expensive. "How did you know?"

"Kono." He answered quickly. "Uh… how quickly can you get ready?"

"Uh… to match you?"

"I laid out a few outfits I thought you'd like. I didn't pick them Kono did."

"Ohh love it, thank you. Yes, give me… uh… thirty minutes I should be ready."

Rowan rushed off to get dressed, handing him back the flowers and asking him to put them in water. He did so, putting them in the one vase he had in the house and then displaying them on the kitchen island where she would see them tomorrow. Part of his plan included the tomorrow portion of the morning which was breakfast together, hopefully made by him but Rowan had a tendency to wake up before him in that matter. He was completely prepared to forgo his morning swim if it meant that he'd be making breakfast for his lady.

Steve sat down, and waited patiently, listening to the sounds of Rowan up on the second floor. He was purposely staying downstairs because he had a habit of grabbing Rowan when she was getting ready and ravishing her and they didn't have time for that today. He had a firm schedule to stick to, none of this winging it like he had been doing the last couple of weeks.

And if he screwed up, it wasn't just Danny that would kill him, if Kono didn't get him, so would Adam for ruining his own day with Kono when Steve interrupted it by asking for help with this, cause she had dropped him immediately to help out. Though really, if he fucked this up, they wouldn't have to bother cause Steve would just end it himself.

True to her word, Rowan came down the stairs after thirty minutes, in that navy blue crystal dress he had hoped beyond hoped that she would pick. God he loved that dress on her, and tonight, he'd be taking a picture of them together in that dress so the photo he had of it was no longer one of Rowan and Wo Fat together.

He escorted her to her purple car, knowing that he'd have to be the one to drive as she couldn't in heels. He opened the passenger side door for her, to let her in before taking his place in the driver's seat.

"So where are we going?"

"It's a surprise," he whispered and her smile faltered a little bit.

"You're not winging it again are you?" she asked with narrowed eyes of suspicion.

"Nope, I have a carefully crafted schedule for us to follow, I promise, it's just… the element of surprise is part of the atmosphere of the whole date," he told her which had her grinning again.

"Oh, sounds like you've really thought this through," she said with a teasing grin on her face. Steve had to forcibly remind himself to look at the road before he crashed her car. That would put a real damper on this date. "You're spoiling me."

"I don't think I spoil you enough," he whispered softly. Because he was still worried that if she actually rationally thought about everything, she'd realize that all they really had was phenomenal sex, and nothing else in common and that he wasn't worth the hassle he constantly put her through.

"Well we can agree to disagree," she said lounging back. The window was open and the breeze was flowing through but she hadn't done anything fancy with her hair that night, just a simple half up, half down in an even simpler twist to keep it that way. She had gone for a softer more natural look, but that eyeliner had her eyes popping.

In that moment Steve thought her to be the loveliest thing on Hawaii.

He parked the car and Rowan looked up at their first destination. She turned back to Steve with unimpressed eyes. "A bookstore?"

God she sounded so disappointed. This was supposed to be amazing, she was supposed to be excited. Danny and Kono had let him down.

"You love books," he answered in a soft voice and Rowan's disappointment relented.

"Okay, yes, I do. I love books. But why am I dressed up so nicely for a bookstore, Steven?" she asked.

Oh thank god, that was the only problem. He could deal with that. "The fancy dress is for after," he explained with a smirk as he swung out of the car and shut the door. He jogged over to the passenger side to open the door for her, and then helped her out. It was important that she got all the gentlemanly treatment he could give her, that too was part of tonight's experience.

Her smile was pretty and glittering as she put her hand in his and let him shut the door for her.

"Okay, good, cause I didn't want to stick out in this bookstore for nothing," she said.

They walked arm in arm, he held the door open for her and ushered her in. As soon as the door closed behind them, and the surprised eyes of the cashiers and patrons were off of them, Rowan turned to him with a patient smile even though she was clearly uncomfortable with all the attention they were getting.

"So what are we here to pick up?"

"Well, here's the thing. You really like to curl up and read on rainy days, or at night, and I always end up flicking on the TV and you get distracted and I know you haven't complained but I can tell it bugs you… and you told Kono it bugs you…" "God, I told her that in confidence, I'm going to kill her…" "Not the point, not her fault I kind of made her tell me. The point is. I want you, to go through the whole store. And I want you to pick up any book that you want, and any book that you think I'll like so we can read together."

Rowan turned to him shock on her face. But it was a pleasant sort of shock like she didn't believe this was happening.

"Wait… really?" she asked.

"Yeah. Really."

"Like, really, really, like… any book? Plus one for you?"

"Yes, Rowan. So, we can read together. I mean you'll watch football with me and you hate football at the very least I could read with you every now and then."

The way her eyes lit up, took his breath away. He wasn't sure how she did it, but she had just become the loveliest thing on the planet.

"Okay… uh… okay…" she said suddenly pivoting around the store her eyes as wide as saucers in her excitement. "Is there uh… is there a genre you want me to pick from?"

"Uhm…. Well… anything really, but uhm… action would be nice. Maybe… an army story?"

"How about a romance? There are a lot of Navy or soldier in romance novels."

"Babe," Steve said, taking her hands and forcing her to look at him. "Babe, I believe in you. You know me, you know what I like, you know books, you're gonna pick me out something great, I just know it."

Rowan's smile widened so far he thought it might fall off her face, she started bouncing her eyes excitedly scanning the shelves. So when he let her go she took off, and he trailed after her happy to watch her go.

Phase one was a complete success, hopefully nothing went wrong for phase two.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

It had taken almost a whole hour but Rowan had finally narrowed down the books for him to purchase and gave him the final pick. He had picked a series she had liked, a hard-core romance based on a Naval SEAL unit, and each book was dedicated to a different member of that team falling in love. She was happy to see Steve pick the one about the Alpha Male leader of the group who falls hard for a little shop keeper with a sordid past. The parallels were uncanny. She wondered if he'd notice.

Then they were driving to the next stop. The next stop being Le Cirque. She stared up at the restaurant front in a state of absolute shock. He had gotten TWO reservations? How the hell had he managed that? Normal people struggled with getting one.

She turned her surprised eyes to him and he just stared back at her passively as if he hadn't pulled off a damn miracle. "You got… another… but it's like impossible to get one?"

"Remember how I'm friends with Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto? Yeah? Well I called in yet another favour, to get our reservation back, same table, same time, _and_ a third surprise."

"And third surprise?" she echoed. "Steven… this is… this too much…"

"Well actually there's four… in total I mean… and no. It's really not. I rarely show you how much I appreciate you and… well… Halona… you said Halona was getting boring…"

"I didn't say it was boring. I said that I knew you were trying to be romantic if we ended up at Halona… which has quickly become our hook up spot, and I can't take Grace there anymore cause I get all turned on every time I do… which is awkward cause she _always_ wants to go now…"

"Yeah, well… to me that meant I had to switch things up… so… here we are."

She put her hand in his and tried not to cry. Dear god he was pulling out all the stops. If he was doing all of this just to get laid, he needn't have bothered. He could have fucked her in the bookstore.

The table he had specially reserved for them was in a shadowy back corner and it was more like a couch. Rowan and Steve sequestered themselves deeply in the shadows, shoulder to shoulder barely paying attention to anything else.

They ordered their meals, their drinks and she had already decided on dessert. It was while they were waiting for the food to come out that Steve was suddenly rooting through his pocket.

"I… uh… I have something for you," he said. "It's not… it's not much, but I think you'll like it."

He took her hand and put something in it. Something metal. Something with a chain. A necklace? Rowan opened her hands and was shocked by what she found in her palm.

"Are these your…" "My dog tags, yes." "You're giving me your dog tags? Why?"

Rowan searched his eyes, wondering if he realized that he knew how personal this was. If he gave her these, she'd be wearing him. His name, his unit, his blood type, his home town. She'd be wearing a bit of his past, something he wore daily when he was a SEAL. She lived in a Naval town, she knew what these things meant. He kept his eyes lowered to where the dog tags were resting in her hand.

"I remember you mentioned that you were always looking at them, back before… uhm… just before and I thought you might like to have them. That way… you know… in a way… I'm always there cause you'll be carrying a little piece of me at all times."

Rowan held them, gingerly, like she was afraid she would break them. She didn't take her eyes off of them until she had slipped them over her head. Just the fact that she had put them on made his heart fly a little higher in his chest, as Rowan herself tried her very best to not look misty eyed. This gesture. It had meant a lot to her.

"Thank you. I… I promise to take good care of them," she said.

"I'd rather you promise to always wear them."

Rowan laughed. "Oh that's a given," she said taking the tag and reading it over, reacquainting herself with his Naval ID, the way his name looked printed on that shiny but dented metal. These had been through a lot with him, these were a daily part of his life back when he was in the navy. Wearing this would always be like she was wearing him.

He may not have been able to tell but this… this had made her evening. But he wasn't done yet.

With dessert done, he said he had one more surprise for her. One last one. He led her out to the patio, where twinkling fairy lights were set up and the columns were decorated with sweet floral displays and a waiter was waiting to press play on a speaker.

The song that came on was _her_ song. She was going to dance to the song she wanted to dance to on her wedding day, in the arms of the man she was more than certain she was in love with.

 _Can't Help Falling in Love_ by Elvis Presley.

Rowan glanced up to Steve who was waiting to take her in his arms to dance and she felt the first of the tears start to fall.

"I know what this song means to you and I… well… I wanted to dance with you to it… if that's okay."

It was more than okay. Rowan pressed herself to him, slow dancing beautifully she didn't even care when he stepped on her feet. All that mattered was that moment, in his arms, the beautiful voice of the King drifting around them.

It was absolutely perfect.

And then there was a flash of a camera and she realized that someone had taken a picture.

She pulled her head out of Steve's chest to look up at him.

"I wanted a picture of you and me in the dress. Not that I don't like the other one, but… you know… _he's_ in it… and well… I wanted one of me and you… it's uh… it's going to go in my office."

Rowan half laughed again, he was collecting quite a collection of frames on his desk. He had one of her and him already, he had one of them and Grace on the beach. One of all the Five-0's together, to be retaken to include Grover now, and a family portrait of him, his dad, his mom and Mary. Soon he wouldn't have any room.

Rowan said nothing. She just stared up at the man who was becoming more and more precious to her by the day and thought to herself: _Oh, he was gonna get it when they got home._

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

 ***This is the part with the SMUT. If you don't want to read it skip to the next chapter***

Their sex, Steve thought, was quite predictable. He could list each moment with great detail and in order. Whether it be one of their quickies, in a back alley, a unisex/handicapped washroom, in the back of one of their cars, or in a bed, it always went the same way. Most would be upset about that, and sometimes he worried that Rowan would be bored of it, but sex as explosive as theirs even if it was predictable and practically routine, never got boring. Never failed to take his breath away.

His moves hadn't changed, but the emotion behind it had. His heart was in it, he lived for her sounds, her moans, to watch her reach that climax, needing it in that moment more than he needed the air to breathe. It was amazing how such deep emotion could change the act for him, like he hoped it changed things for Rowan too.

Tonight was different. He spent a lot of time taking that dress off of her. She had psyched him up for it before Justin Chau came and ruined everything, he had missed out that night, but not tonight. He took that dress off inch by inch and he had been right, it looked much better pooled around her ankles. He helped her strip of those flossy things she called panties and then he had her lying there in the moonlight with nothing but those dog tags carving a valley between her breasts, that piece of him glinting up at him from where it belonged. And it took his breath away.

He had let her unbutton his shirt as that was her favourite part and he liked indulging her if only to see that smile on her face. She bared his chest to her so she could fan her fingers against his skin and pressing kisses to him before it all became too much for him. He had to step away to strip himself fully and then he had come to hover over top of her, but Rowan flipped him. His back against his headboard her body on his lap. He rarely relented control to Rowan, he knew what he liked, he knew what she liked and he liked nothing more than to drive into her. It was his favourite feeling.

But Rowan on top of him elicited a new kind of feeling, so mirrored to their car sex he felt secretive and naughty all at once.

Her eyes burned in the night, she knew it, she saw it reflected in his own eyes. She held his face in her hands, her fingers at his jaw, feeling that erratic pulse beneath her fingertips and his stubble against her palms. She kissed him, kissed him so he could know, without her telling him how badly she wanted him.

The kiss had him wrap his arms around her, tugging her close to his chest. Her breasts against his warm skin, his hands skimming her body, his dog tags, warm from her body, against his skin again. He could never stay still for long, there was no such thing as just a kiss to Steven McGarrett, and at that moment, she didn't mind.

His hand dipped below her waist, played with the nether curls before he found her, ready and wet for him. She gasped as he slipped one in, letting him press insistent kisses to her neck as she clung to his shoulders for dear life, fully and completely lost to him and those wonderful hands. His fingers played her like a guitar. They stroked the chords that brought her to a crashing crescendo before he was even inside her.

It was enough, to have him roughly tug her mouth down to devour whatever cry she might have made. It was time to punish him, to stroke him the way he liked, but she also knew that Steve's foreplay was watching her squirm, so he was ready and impatient for the next part.

She reached down between her legs to where his cock was straining to get to her. She had him in her hands, a tight grip like he liked, jerking upwards causing him to pitch.

"No, I need you."

His words echoed in the room but she wouldn't let go. Like he had done to her she pulled his mouth to hers devouring any other words and unintelligible noises he might have made as she continued her rhythm until he was sticky in her grip, and practically begging her with groans to give him more.

Only then did she guide him to her. Only then was he allowed to sink into her, causing her to gasp and him to pitch.

It was the quiet sex that got him. The kind where there would be no sound other than his heavy panting breaths and her soft airy moans of delight and their hushing shushes when they got a little too loud and insistent. This came with soft touches, foreheads bowed together, eyes squeezed shut, lips bit and nibbled. Their bodies would be pressed together, every inch of them touching, not a millimetre of space between them. His hands would press into her back to crush her to him, her nails would bite into his shoulders, scalp and lower back. He would kiss her, he would whimper against her bites, gasping at each jerk, each thrust, each touch.

He would lose his mind and find it again.

He would sink his fingers into her hair and pull her head back so he could devour her throat and sink his own teeth into her skin. He'd leave branding marks against her neck, her collarbones and shoulders so everyone knew she was his.

She would make a noise, these soft little _oh_ s that would have been his name if she were in the right state of mind.

Her thighs would be clamped around him, her body just as tightly gripping his cock to keep him inside as he varied his thrusts. He tried so hard to remain consistent but so easy to lose control and become erratic. Rewarding her with deep thrusts just so he could hear the gasp of surprise, the moan of desire, to feel her clamp around him to keep him at that depth, to fill himself with that sense of great satisfaction to make her feel that way. He would hold himself there, her impaled to the hilt on him lettering her writhe against him, doing as much for him as he had done for her.

They lived off the friction. Setting fire to themselves. Painting their bodies with fingerprints and kisses. Their explosion silent but violent, clinging to one another as the blast shook them to the very core.

But he couldn't let her go. Rowan would slump against him, and he would lean back cradling her to his chest. Their heartbeats one and the same, for his heart was now in her chest like was certain hers was in his. For those few moments Steve would be lighter than he had ever been before. He would soar up into the clouds and get lost in fantasies of what would could be.

For those few moments, Rowan would be heavier than ever under the weight of the implications. How deep those emotions ran, and how afraid she was to hold a heart so fragile in her hands knowing that the wrong move could shatter it and she wouldn't know how to put it back together again if she did stumble and break it by accident.

And as his heart slowly ebbed back into his chest and hers returned to her they would change. Steve would feel that heaviness, those implications, and Rowan would soar, dreaming of their future happiness.

When they finally settled into bed, Rowan was wearing his dress shirt as her pjs and a pair of lacy panties, his dog tags somewhere nestled between her breasts, Steve in nothing but his boxers, Steve tugged her close to him. One arm under her neck, the other around her waist, he kept her back to his chest and his nose to her hair. She murmured happily at the contact pressing back into his hard body and that grip on her waist tightened around her.

She placed her hand over his, and he smiled. Everything about this moment was perfect, and neither of them wanted it to end. But they knew. In the morning. They could do it all over again. And it was that that they looked forward to. A never-ending paradise on repeat.

They'd never get bored so long as they were together.


	124. Chapter 124

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy hump day everyone! I'm glad you guys enjoyed the smut part. I'll be sure to put a few more in there for you, but I think I'm gonna go sparing on the smut scenes so they don't get too predictable. So for everyone who's worried about what Wo Fat is planning, it is all described here! Well at least part of it, he is going to get into some shit once we hit season 5. I'll see you guys on Friday!_

Chapter 124 

* * *

Rowan had parked her car, had taken one step towards the boutique mentally preparing herself to deal with snotty customers that morning when someone had grabbed her, and despite her kicking and screaming, she was thrown into a different car, a bag was put over her head and then she was tied up and promptly told to shut up.

A lot of things went through her mind at that point. Was Steve working a case? Was this tied to that case? Was she being taken to make the mighty McGarrett back off? Or was this Wo Fat finally pulling her in to tell her that they were done and to make the mighty McGarrett bend to his will?

Either way this situation didn't bode well to her.

Rowan tried to count the turns they made, she tried to log all the bumps, sounds and smells but try as she might she couldn't. This was something Wo Fat and Steve could do no problem, but she was too panicked to do it herself. It wasn't like she new the island enough to make that useful, even if she had counted turns and bumps she still wouldn't have been able to tell anyone where she was.

After a few minutes of driving the car came to a stop and she was dragged out again. Once again kicking and screaming. Someone had a hold of her upper body and someone was struggling with her feet, but even with that they got her into whatever building they had taken her too, and then she was sitting in a chair.

Not tied up. But she could feel someone hovering over her. And that someone ripped the bag off of her head.

Rowan blinked her eyes to get adjusted to the new light, but she knew who it was even before she could see clearly. And she was not amused so she kicked him in the nuts.

Wo went down, gasping and crying out in pain and Rowan glared at him as he landed in her lap.

"ROWAN?!" he cried. "It's me!"

"I know it's you. _You kidnapped me_!"

"You knew it was me and you kicked me anyway?" he asked looking up at her surprised and slightly hurt by her actions.

"Well… YEAH!" she shouted throwing her hands up in frustration much like Danny was prone to doing. "You kidnapped me!"

"Yes, of course I did. I wanted to see you."

"So… you decided to kidnap me?" Rowan asked again her eyes narrowed at him.

"Well… yes…" "You couldn't just text me like a normal person?" "I was afraid Steve would intercept…" "I had work today, Wo." "You don't like that job, nor do you need it." "What, are you monitoring my funds now? "Your last royalty check had six figures and that was before your last song went golden." "How do you even know that?"

"Well… because I care about you and I like to brag about my famous song writing sister and well… because you have you transfers set to half of what's deposited in on the first of the month, so all I had to was multiple whatever got put into the Vault last week by two and that told me how much you had..."

 _Oh_.

That's right. She had been transferring money into what Wo Fat called the Vault which was an untraceable banking system he used to launder money. It was where his money was stored, and now it was where some of hers was. She had it going in there to set aside retirement money the government couldn't tax her on, to help pay for Matt's safe house, supplies and guards and she had a certain amount of it transferring into an account for Tommy Fa'aloa so he could buy what he needed to while he was in prison. He was also under the strong protective wing of Wo Fat so he wasn't getting bullied or beaten in prison as well. He reported that he had made friends with Sang Min too, so you know, at least he wasn't all alone.

But more importantly he called her his sister.

"Right."

"I thought you'd be happy to see me."

"Well… I unno," she cried throwing her hands up again. "You went MIA after getting Samantha back, I haven't heard from you in like weeks, you left me a cryptic ass message, you threatened my boyfriend…" "Does he call you his girlfriend yet?" "Shut up…" "So that's a no…" "I said shut up!"

Wo Fat raised his hands in defense and lounged back on his heels as he crouched in front of her. "I told you, I thought Steve would intercept. So, I hung back a bit to let him cool off before scheduling a meet with you. Okay?"

"You didn't schedule shit, you kidnapped me."

"Why are you so hung up on that?"

"Because I was literally manhandled into a car. They put a bag over my head. There was no communication, no "We're taking you to meet your brother" just a fucking snatch and grab. When I don't show up for work, who do you think they're going to call?"

"They should call you."

"Yeah and do I have my phone? No! Steve's my emergency contact, and I'm sure someone will have seen that snatch and grab on the CCTV cameras, if they tell him what went down, he _will_ come looking."

"So we'll get your phone, and you'll call in a family emergency, okay?" Wo Fat asked. "And then you turn that sucker off."

Rowan nodded, that was kind of a good plan, and Wo Fat snapped his fingers. One of his lackeys immediately going off to retrieve the phone they had taken off of her. Rowan held it in her hands, not ready to dial her place of work just yet.

"You said you were done with me," she said in a small voice. "I thought… that maybe… you were only being nice to me to get at Steve…"

Wo Fat narrowed his eyes at her. "I didn't say that… I said I don't owe you anymore… why would you think that I was done with you? Or did Steve hit you with that little theory and you listened to him?"

"Well… I mean… Steve is the one who's worried about that… I didn't quite… but then you stopped talking to me and it started… you know… it makes sense…"

"How? How does that make…. Do you have any idea the kind of money I spent on taking care of you? I hired 34 separate people to do unspeakable things to him when he got back together with Catherine and made you cry. What about that says I'm doing anything just to annoy him… okay I hear it now and I get it…."

Rowan half smiled. "HA! See! How do I really know that you didn't just do all of this to get at Steve? I mean really?"

"And how do I know that you don't just love me for my Criminal Empire?" he shot back.

Rowan sniffed and tilted her chin up. "You don't," she answered primly and his smirk fell right off of his face. So she added: "Well because your criminal Empire is what you do and not who you are and I love you for who you are even if you are scarily, violently psychotic sometimes."

"Okay. See, well it's the same for me. I may have done a few things in the past to annoy him, but it was to annoy him into smartening up and asking you out," he clarified. "If you just gave me the word I'd've had him killed by now, but you never gave me the word and now you're dating him and… I didn't do all of this just to get back at Steven McGarrett okay? I did it because you're important to me… and I protect what's important to me."

Rowan nodded. "So, you don't owe me anymore? We're square?"

Wo Fat scowled at her. "You're the one going on about how we're family. Family doesn't do tit for tat like that. Or at least… that's what people tell me. That's what you tell me."

 _Oh._ He called her family. He really was attached to her. _Take that, Steve!_

"Yeah?" she asked with a soft smirk on her face. "Well I mean… it's true. We do usually just… do things for one another. Is that what we're going to do?"

"Of course. I am obviously more than willing to do what I have to to take care of you, just like I know you would just do the same for me. I don't need to owe you. You don't need to owe me. I mean… you said you forgave me for shooting you… doesn't that mean we're already square?"

"Course, doesn't mean I don't get to hold it over you, for like… forever. Cause guilt trips is another thing that families do. Or at least, mine does."

"Just you wait until I have something to lord over you. I will _never_ let it go!" he warned and Rowan just smiled. She hugged him tightly, the act surprising him. It caused him to half cough before he carefully put his own arms around her, patting her back lightly as if he didn't know what else to do.

Someone cleared their throats and he jumped away from her. He stood carefully, dusted himself off like the act of hugging her had gotten him dirty and then he fiddled with the watch on his wrists. Rowan narrowed her eyes at the gesture, he did that a lot when he felt awkward or nervous, maybe that was a nervous tick? Rowan looked down to the phone in her hand. Already she had a missed call from the boutique and five missed calls from Steve.

She shot him a quick text _music crisis, call you when I can_ , and then dialed the store. Once she had given them her excuse, and confirmed she was okay, she turned off her phone.

She turned back to Wo Fat who was shooing away the men in the room, all four of them and giving them orders in a language she didn't recognize. He looked so… normal. He was in jeans, khaki green work boots, and a simple long sleeved grey tee shirt. She had never seen him so casual, and she had seen him in an orange jump suit. Well… at least she wouldn't stick out beside him like she usually did.

"So what are we doing today?"

"Well… this is a karaoke house, and I have sushi coming in… and a Rowan special…"

"Oh no… tell me you didn't threaten Kamekona…."

"I made it worth his while…" Wo said but when Rowan just glared at him he relented. "And I have thrown in a light threatening of arson but I more than compensated him for it okay?"

Rowan sighed, great, now she was going to have to smooth things over with Kamekona.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

They sang six songs together between their meals and drinks. Four covers and two of her own. He couldn't really sing well, and Rowan couldn't sing well when she was drinking but they had fun, they got applause form the men who had to applause cause they worked for him, and she saw smiles on Wo Fat's face that she hadn't seen… well… ever.

Once lunch was done and Wo Fat realized that Rowan was a little bit more far gone then he had previously thought her to be he decided to take them for a walk on the beach to sober her up.

All it had really done was made her hyper. She was doing cartwheels in the sand, doing trust falls when Wo Fat wasn't expecting it so he had to dive to catch her or drop whatever it was he was holding, usually his phone, to catch her. And every time she did it, he'd tell her that next time he wouldn't catch her, but he caught her each and every time.

It was part way through the walk when she got the vision.

It was the way he had touched her, grabbing her upper arm before she could jog off after a puppy. And suddenly she wasn't on the beach anymore.

She was in a basement, looking at Steve. Strapped to a chair like he was a prisoner in an insane asylum, he wore no shirt, he was bleeding from his eyebrow, his nose and his mouth. He was soaking wet and Wo Fat was holding an electric cattle prod to his abdomen.

Rowan could feel the pitching pain like it was coursing through her but she hadn't realized she had dropped until Wo Fat was trying to shake her out of it.

Rowan looked up to him. She rarely saw that psychopath everyone told her he was. She only saw the guy who took care of her, who tried to make her smile, and yes, ran a criminal network and empire with an iron fist. But she hadn't ever seen him in action like that before, so cold and unfeeling. Unbridled frosty rage pointed right at the man she was sure she was falling in love with.

"What was that?" he asked her as her eyes cleared and she focused on his mismatched face. "What just happened? Are you okay?"

"You're going to torture him."

Wo Fat balked at that, he just stared at her. She wasn't sure if it was because she had guessed his plan or if he had no idea what she was talking about.

"You're going to torture Steve. Is that why you're here? Is that really what you're planning?"

"Who told you that? Which one of my men…"

"It _really is_ your plan?" she asked horrified and Wo Fat paused. She sat up and pushed out of his grip. She sat up in the sand and stared up at him, her big blue eyes filled with fear and betrayal… and of course tears.

"It's a back-up plan. It's an option I don't want to use. I'm here looking for information about my father…"

"Steve knows nothing about your father!"

"That you know of!" he snapped.

"Oh, Wo! This is not how you make friends with your step brother-!"

"Hey! I told you, it's a back up plan if I can't get anything from the Feds. I have no intention of going through with it, I just have to weigh all options, and that is literally my last resort." he grumbled. " _And_ I'm not trying to make friends with McGarrett. If we're going to be completely honest I'm not even happy that you two are dating."

"Well I'm happy, so you're going to have to let that one go," she said to him. He responded with an _ehh_ and a wince that had her smacking him to shut him up. She glared at him. "And you have to promise me that you won't go through with it. I swear Wo. You have to promise. Cause if you do… I swear to god… you'll be dead to me. Being 100 percent truthful. Dead. To. Me. Nod if you understand."

"I can do one better. I verbally confirm that I understand you. I promise, Rowan. I will not kidnap Steven McGarrett and then torture him to find out where my father is."

Immediately Rowan perked up. She hugged him again, tugging him tightly to her and squealing with delight. "Thank you! Thank you!"

He smiled once more into her hair she could feel it. Until he straightened.

"Uh… is your phone off?"

"Yes why?"

"And that Kelly man is entirely dependable?"

"Of course, why?" she asked stressing that _why_ so he knew that she wanted answers.

"Because I gave him access to a locator function on his app…" "Oh then he's told Steven where I am, guaranteed. Is that the problem? Is he here?"

She turned and immediately she saw him looking all imposing standing at a car she didn't recognize glaring at her. Goddamn it she was gonna get it now… and did he rent a car so she wouldn't notice him? Then why the hell had he gotten out of it?

"Oh god…"

"I'll talk to him."

" _You'll_ talk to him? Hell no, you two are going to get in a fight."

"You two are going to get in a fight too, at least I won't cry at the end of it," Wo argued already stepping up towards him. "I did this, I'll take the blame. If it looks like we're about to square off, come stop us. I'm more than 100% positive he won't throw a punch if you're in between us."

Rowan sighed this wasn't a good idea, she knew it wasn't a good idea, but if it got her two boys semi-getting along she'd chance it. Besides, she really didn't want to argue with Steve about the lies she had told and if she went up that was exactly what they would do. So maybe she'd just see how this played out.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve was not having a good day.

Rowan's work had called him. She hadn't shown up but her car was in the parking lot. So Steve had gone into the boutique, pulled their CCTV cameras and watched as two Asians, probably Yakuza, grabbed Rowan on her way into the building and then shoved her into the back of a car.

He was in the process of calling this in when she called the boutique. Told them she had a family emergency, something to do with Steve getting injured at work and then hung up.

Odd, cause Steve was perfectly fine, other than that panic attack he was having, and he was already at the boutique so they knew she was lying.

Then he realized she had texted him while he was on the phone with Chin who was in the office that day. _Music crisis, call you when I can._

What the hell.

Steve called her phone again, straight to voicemail. It was shut off.

He drove to the Palace as quickly as he could. Had she been kidnapped? And if so by who? He knew that Chin had a direct line to Wo Fat that was patched through his version of the app, which literally had nothing except a locator option and a call Wo Fat option. That meant he could call him and tell him what was going on, get him on trying to find Rowan.

But then again… what if it was Wo Fat who had grabbed her. Was he still working with the Yakuza? He was worried the Yakuza was going to kidnap Rowan to get to him. And the Yakuza had sent a man to shank him in his cell. But Rowan had paid them off with Gabriel's money so maybe they were good now?

By the time he got to the Palace Chin had a location on Rowan. First was the triangulation on the Palace's databases, on where Rowan's phone had last been located, which gave them a thirty-mile radius of an area that included downtown Oahu and some boardwalk locations. But the app, had a name.

Golden Lotus.

The place used to be a gambling den, now it was a Karaoke place. Either way it was still a Yakuza hub. So was this a kidnapping or was it just Wo taking Rowan away from him?

"Her phone's off… can you…?"

"Already on it," Chin said pressing the connect button. There was nothing but static for a few seconds and then the ringing started. For a minute Steve was certain he wouldn't pick up but then…

"What do you want?" Wo barked.

"Rowan's been kidnapped…" Chin started only too be cut off.

"No, she hasn't."

"Do you have Rowan then?"

"Are you standing beside Steven McGarrett?" he asked. Chin turned to where Steve was standing and the silence was enough of an answer. "I'll take that as a yes. You'll get her by the end of the day. Do us both a favour and get her car back to your place. She said you've got a spare key. And if you're smart you won't tell him where we are."

And then he hung up the phone.

Steve had been livid. Of course. But he had done as he was asked. He got her car back to the house, and then he asked Chin for another update. Rowan had moved. They were now on the beach.

But he knew Wo Fat would be smart enough to be looking out for him, so he couldn't go in her car, and he couldn't go in his truck or Danny's Camaro, so what was he going to do? He wanted to see it, he wanted to see this illusive human behaviour that Rowan was always going on about.

So Steve rented a car. Stupid, idea, a waste of money, but if it let him tail Rowan without her or Wo Fat knowing, he'd do it.

And what he witnessed, honestly scared him.

He had seen the videos, of course. The ones that the previous SWAT Captain had sent to the Governor. He had seen the pictures, had heard the evidence, but nothing quite came close to witnessing it first hand.

The way they played. How Rowan would do her trust falls and he would always catch her. Which included dropping an ice cream cone he had just purchased to the ground to catch her. He saw a smile on Wo Fat's face that he hadn't thought possible. Even Rowan looked happier than she had ever seemed to be with him or his friends.

And of course he saw the absolute utter panic on Wo Fat's face when Rowan dropped.

It was a vision, Steve knew that. And irrationally he was angry. Angry that a vision would come and it wouldn't be for him. Wo Fat shouldn't have been privy to that, he shouldn't be getting her visions, but that was him being selfish again. It took all his willpower not to rush over there. To shove Wo Fat aside and hold Rowan, to coax her back to reality and then soothe the fears she'd be left with.

But he stayed where he was and watched.

Wo Fat glanced around to check if anyone was staring at them, if anyone was going to come help him. No one did. So he just held Rowan to his chest, running his hands up and down her back until she finally came out of it.

They seemed to talk a long while about the situation and whatever had just happened and Steve just watched them. Which was how he saw the second both of their eyes swung in his direction. Well that was just fucking great. No point in running now, they had seen him.

He figured Rowan would come over, the mediator, the one who he was dating, the one who had terrified him this morning.

But it was Wo Fat jogging towards him.

Steve straightened, ready for a fight. Ready for Wo Fat to swing a fist, ready to beat the absolute crap out of him if he tried.

"Hello, Stalker."

Wow what a greeting.

"I watched your guys shove my girlfriend into the back of a car, of course I was going to come looking," Steve snapped.

"Oh, she's your girlfriend now? Have you told her that?"

"That is none of your business."

"I already know you haven't," Wo Fat said, folding his arms across his chest. "She would have told me if you had. She talks a lot about you."

Steve opened his mouth to warn him off but he waved at him until he swallowed his words. "Not about your cases, or anything else that happens with you. Just about… you know… her love life… and that's all about you. And a lot I didn't need to know."

Steve scowled at him and the grimace that was dawning on Wo Fat's face. "Okay. Stop talking to me like we're friends. You're not my friend. You're the guy who kidnapped my girl, chased away my mother, tortured me and killed my father and my friends."

"That's a lot of pent up aggression, McGarrett."

"Well, look at what you did today, of course I'm pissed off."

Wo Fat glanced back to where Rowan was sitting in the sand and then turned back to Steve, his arms folded across his chest. "They were supposed to grab her in transit, not when she got to the store. Was supposed to be a carjacking, not a kidnapping. My men screwed up on that one."

"And that makes it better? Carjacking her would have made this situation better?"

"I've spent a year over seas in a supermax prison, I wanted to see my sister…" "…she's not your fucking sister." "Well, she tells everyone I'm her brother, so I guess she's my fucking sister now, so get used to it. The point is I wanted to see her and I knew if I messaged her, I would have put her in a situation where she would have to lie to you and if you guilted it out of her you would have sent the cops to the meet point."

Oh. Okay fair. Steve sighed, he had him there. "See, and you know you would have done it too. So that is why I didn't tell her. That is when I resorted to kidnapping to see her. If you'd stop smothering her maybe things like this wouldn't happen to you and her all the time."

 _Smothering her_. Is that what he thought? Was that what she said? Did Rowan think that? That he was smothering her? He already knew that she felt like she couldn't tell him anything, that was clear from all the lying she did. But _smothering her_?

Steve didn't even dignify that with a response. This would be a conversation he had with Rowan, not Wo Fat. "Send her over, we're leaving."

"No, _we're_ leaving."

Fear iced through Steve's veins. He straightened, and Wo Fat settled in a fight stance so Steve did the same. "You're not taking her off the island. Do you understand?"

"Off the island…. I'm taking her to the damn movies, you paranoid freak."

"Movies…"

"Moving pictures, McGarrett. Where people go for entertainment and a night of relaxing. I hear it is a common date night activity."

"Shut up."

"Are you two okay?"

Wo Fat straightened a fake smile on his face. "Oh yes, of course. We're just discussing…" Wo Fat paused and turned to Steve. Okay, guess it was up to him to cover think of a cover lie.

"We're discussing your dinner plans and whether or not you're coming home at a decent hour."

"Well the movie's at nine so… probably not," she said. "But uh… you mentioned this morning that Danny wanted to have bro night…"

"You and Danny seem to have those a lot. I must say, bro nights are something I was unfamiliar with but when Rowan explained them it sounded an awful lot like dates."

Wo Fat smiled at him in that smug way and Rowan slapped his chest but it did nothing to fix the look on his face. Great now he was getting the _are you dating Danny_ jabs from his arch nemesis too. Rowan must have told him that he didn't like them.

Thanks Rowan.

"Ignore him," Rowan said. "Are you okay with that?"

"No, Rowan I'm not," Steve snapped. "He kidnapped you. You lied to me, you lied to your supervisor…"

"They know I lied?"

"You cited me as your family emergency, Rowan, and I was standing in the office with them. So yes, they know you lied."

"Well that's just wonderful."

"Hey! This is not my fault!" Steve cried and Wo Fat put a hand out as if to ward him away from her.

"Hey! Don't yell at her. She didn't blame you!"

Steve just stared at him. Why the hell had he done that? Did he think that Steve was going to hurt her? Really? As if Steve had a habit of injuring her. Wo Fat was the one who shot her. Not Steve.

"Okay, you know what… go over there. Go," she ordered pointing him towards a kiosk with many different sunglasses and souvenirs to pick from.

"I don't need sunglasses."

"I don't care. You're making things worse. Go pick us out a matching pair or something."

"I assume I'm paying for them then?"

"My wallet got left in my car… so what do you think?" she snapped. When he just stared at her she scowled at him. "Can you just… just… come on," Rowan cried forcibly turning him in the direction of the kiosk and shoving him away. He rolled his eyes but went and Steve turned his eyes back to Rowan who winced. "God. Okay, yes, I know. I was going to call you. I really was."

"I watched two men put you in the back of a car you didn't want to go into. I watched you struggle and I wasn't there to help you and…"

Rowan crossed to him immediately and wrapped him up in the hug he had needed, the one he didn't realize he needed, but seemingly had since he had seen that video.

"I'm sorry… I was hoping… I was hoping you wouldn't see it."

God. How did she not realize that they would have called him when she didn't show up? Rowan was never late, and never just missed a shift for no reason, her not showing up on time meant that something was wrong, and when they couldn't get a hold of her, of course they would call Steve.

But with his arms around her he was finally calming down and he realized that Wo Fat had a legitimate reason for doing what he did, just like Rowan had a legitimate reason for lying. He over reacted. All they had ever seen, all he ever did where Wo Fat was involved was over react. Rowan was trying to spare him his feelings and Wo Fat was trying to not get arrested.

So he changed the topic away from the argument and onto something else.

"You know… I never really believed it," he said glancing out to the kiosk where Wo Fat was trying on ridiculous looking glasses, seemingly taking the whole picking out sunglasses thing very seriously. "I never really believed that he could be… normal… but with you…"

"Yeah, it's weird isn't it? But let me tell you that psychopath snaps right the fuck out of him if it needs to," she said

"You know if I didn't know any better… just looking at you guys playing on the beach… I would have thought the two of you were dating."

"What? Ew? No way!" Rowan cried. "He's not my type… even before he burnt half his face off. Naw… I just… I like to do silly childish things with him cause… you know… he never really had a childhood. And it really makes him smile. Not just on his lips but in his eyes."

Steve half scoffed and Rowan lowered her eyes away from him. "We uh… we actually _are_ heading to a movie… I don't know if you want to come…"

Steve shook his head. "No," he said quickly. "That's uh… that's a really bad…"

"Okay, just asking. Do you trust me and him now?" she asked. "Like can we go to the movie and not have you tail us?"

Steve nodded and she smiled again. "Prefect, I'll see you when I get home," she cried kissing him solidly on the lips and then skipping off. Steve watched her go, he watched as Wo Fat presented her with the sunglasses he had picked. He had picked a pair of cat eye sunglasses with a tortoise shell patterned frame, he had the exact same frame but in the wayfarer style. Rowan immediately put them to her face. The smile that widened on Wo Fat's face was something Steve recognized. It was pride. He was proud that he had picked something that Rowan had liked. Just like him, Wo Fat was seeking approval and he took recognition in how Rowan acted, not what she said… just like Steve did.

She was right. It was really, really weird to see him like that. To see him as anything other than the heinous human being and mastermind behind all of the terrible things that happened to him. But it made him feel better about leaving her there with him.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

It had been a long road of recovery but after eight months Matthew Williams no longer needed a cast to keep his bone in place, or a cane to walk around. He still limped a bit, and he'd probably never run a marathon, but he had never wanted to run a marathon in the first place so he figured he could live with a bit of a limp.

Once he was stable, they had moved him, out of Japan and back to Hawaii at the behest of a guy, Matty only knew as the Master. The only thing he knew about the Master, after months of pestering his handlers, was that he was Rowan's older brother. Matty also had no idea who Rowan was, but everyone who worked in his villa was absolutely terrified of her. And the stories they told of her made her sound absolutely badass.

And those stories were the highlight of Matt's time there because Matt's life, was, for the lack of a better word, boring now.

They were hiding him in the Ikaliani Resort, he had his own private villa and a fleet of men to cater to his every whim. He had a chef… that literally catered to him, and guys to go and get him whatever he wanted, but he never went anywhere alone, which included to the pool outside his villa, and he was never allowed outside of the resort.

He wasn't allowed to have a phone, or an internet connection or a computer. He had cable and Netflix. That was it.

That meant his family had no idea where he was or that he was okay and he had really, really wanted to check in with them by now. Danny in particular because he was probably very, very upset about what he had done.

But it also meant that Reyes couldn't fucking find him. So he figured it was worth it.

It had been a regular night at his place. He had dinner, he watched Netflix, and he fell asleep on the couch.

And woke up to a man hovering beside his bed, standing over him.

Matt couldn't help it, he yelped.

The man was in a nice pair of blue cut jeans and a tight grey long sleeved shirt. He had shortly cropped which was nicely styled, in fact he looked quietly nicely dressed, it was just the fact that half his face was warped with burns.

Where the hell was his security detail? They freaked out over birds flapping over his head at the pool but this guy managed to get past all of them?

"Nice to see you're enjoying my villa."

 _Master._ This must be his mysterious benefactor. Did that mean that Rowan was with him?

He must have been looking around because the man above him folded his arms over his chest and growled: "She's not here."

"Uh…."

"You're nothing like your brother. Can't get Daniel to shut up."

"You know my brother?" Matt asked surprised.

"Adjacently. Rowan is quite close with your brother, actually," he said. "My name is Wo Fat, and we have terms to discuss."

Oh god. Money. He was talking about money. "Okay, so I do have an amount squirreled away but if you're expecting me to pay for all of this I may need to embezzle a bit more…"

Wo Fat looked around. "Rowan is covering your costs with me," he said bluntly. "I meant finishing things with Reyes."

"No. I'm good hiding forever. But uh… if Danny could come visit… or maybe my mother? That would be nice."

Wo Fat scowled at him. "Reyes is looking for you. Reyes is trying to hunt down who hired a hitman to come get you… and you know… torching his compound and stealing his merch…"

"Hey that was not my fault…"

"I know that. But he's looking and sooner or later he'll find you. Fear of Me and Rowan only mutes the siren call of money for so long."

Matt felt the fear climb up his throat. He meant his security detail would only take care of him for so long, that the allure of more money might convince them to turn them in.

"So, what do you want me to do, turn myself in, go to jail?"

"I doubt you'd survive jail," Wo Fat said with a sigh. "I'd say bargain but I don't know if you have anything to bargain with. Other then the money you took from Reyes, but he's going to kill you even if he gets his money. Teach everyone a lesson and all that Neanderthal old age junk. No, you need something bigger to trade."

"Sounds like you have an idea."

"Maybe. I'd need to find it though."

"So, what do you want me to do?"

"They say you're getting restless, that you've been sneaking out without your detail," Wo Fat said. Matty lowered his eyes like he was a chastised kid. "Okay. Well stop it. I also need you to decide what you're doing. If we need to go dig up your money, which I've been told is somewhere on the island, fine, if want to make a deal with the DEA I know a few agents on the morally corrupt side. But you need to tell me what you want to do."

"Do I have time to think about it?"

"Not long."

Wo Fat turned away heading towards where the rooms were and Matty called out: "Uh… how do you know the money's on the island. I never told anyone that."

"Rowan knew and Rowan's always right."

He left him then, leaving Matt on the couch in a state of shock. He expected more from his benefactor, since everyone was scared of him. But if that was what Wo Fat looked like, what was Rowan going to be like?


	125. Chapter 125

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Friday my readers. For those who are in Canada… and care… THE RAPTORS WON YO! I'm excited and proud, but that's more than enough gushing about my city's Team. We've got some really freaking cute things happening here. Like really cute and fluffy. I hope everyone enjoys it. Steve's gonna get a taste of his own medicine in this one. Also, as a little note, I've already written all the way to Episode 11 of Season 5. Which means the Matty and Danny thing has resolved, the Wo Fat and Steven thing has blown up, and there is some major angst and drama heading our way, but I also just wrote what I think might be my best sex scene yet! I can't want for you guys to read everything I have in store for you! Tell me what you're most excited for in your review and I'll see you guys on Monday!_

Chapter 125

* * *

It was Steve's mandatory day off. Rowan's orders. Danny wasn't off it as it was Take Your Kid to Work Day and Uncle Stan had her last year so this year it was Danny's turn to have Grace at his place of work. Steve wasn't sure how fun it was going to be to have Grace just sit in Five-0 headquarters while Danny did paperwork but he wasn't going to say anything. Not when his best friend was so excited about it.

Steve was supposed to have a full day with Rowan, but she had just been told that she needs to go into the Atlantic Records to facilitate a sale and negotiate her royalty and ownership rights for a song. Her plan was to go and deal with the situation and then she'd come back and they'd go out.

He was hoping for a quickie either before she left or when she came back… oh or both. Then he was going to take her for lunch, then they were going to go up Koko Head Stairs for some fun exercise and some cuddling with a view, except he wasn't going to race her to the top. In fact, he was certain he was going to have to carry her up and probably back down, but that was the part he was looking forward to because it meant she'd be in his arms the whole time. Then she'd treat for dinner, probably off of Kamekona's truck, and then back home for more sex and then falling asleep with her in his arms.

Nowhere in his day did it include Danny showing up with Grace in tow.

So now the quickie was going to have to be _after_ she came back and he was already disappointed.

"Uh… hey there buddy," he said narrowing his eyes at Danny but pulling Grace in for a hug. "Hey Grace, what's going on?"

"I'll tell you what's going on. It's Take Your Kid to Work day, and my daughter doesn't want to go with her Danno, she wants to go with someone else."

Oh. Oh no. She wanted to go with him. That's why they were here. Grace wanted to go to work with her super cool Uncle Steve. Damn, he wasn't going to let Danny ever forget that but judging by the look on his buddy's face, now was not the time to start with that line of teasing.

As much as he would have loved to take Grace just to piss of Danny, he had a whole day with Rowan. A whole goddamn day planned and a lot of it was supposed to be R-rated, not a good day to have Grace around, and he knew from experience that Rowan wouldn't go that far with Grace in the vicinity.

So, he crossed is arms over his chest and frowned down to Grace ready to lose the title of Super Cool Uncle in his favourite little girl's eyes. "Aw, oh no, no, Gracie… uh… I'm off today, so I can't take you in with me, okay? But uh… me and your Danno have the same job so…"

"Oh, that's okay, Uncle Steve," Grace said with a warm smile. "I wanted to go with Auntie Ro anyway."

And then she just skipped off into the house and up the stairs to where Rowan was getting ready in their room. Steve stood there completely blindsided by that. Wow, that assumption sure made him look like an ass.

Steve turned back to Danny. "Wow!"

"Yeah. I know, wow. Ditching me for someone fancier. Just cause Rowan has that fancy ass music job."

"Did she… does Ro…"

"You know… I don't know to be honest," Danny said scowling. "But let me tell you, she's gonna get an earful from me either way."

Steve scowled at him. He kept telling Danny that he wasn't allowed to yell at Rowan, especially if she hadn't done anything. And if she hadn't known that Grace wanted to come with her today, then this wasn't her fault.

He pulled Danny into the kitchen to make him a coffee and listen to him bitch about how all he wanted was a nice day at the Palace with his daughter, and how he felt like Grace was growing too old for him and Steve just leant back with his own cup of coffee praying that Rowan didn't run off with Grace today cause that would put a major kink in his plans. Was this how she felt when cases got in the way of _her_ plans for them?

"Uh… someone wanna tell me why I'm taking _your_ kid to Take Your Kid to Work Day?" Rowan asked appearing in the kitchen with Grace in tow. She had her hands on her hips as she glared at Danny. Steve lounged back just watching the show.

"Well… because she doesn't want to come with plain, old, boring Danno, she wants to go with you."

"Okay… and you're like… okay with that?"

"Do I look okay with it?"

"No."

"Well then there's your answer."

"Danny!" Rowan groaned. "This isn't funny, I have a very, very important meeting today! I can't take Grace with me!"

Yes, day, SAVED! Grace shuffled into the room, a frown on her face. "I'm sorry," she said to the adults, "I'll just go with you, Danno."

She sounded so disappointed and crestfallen that even Steve winced, but unfortunately it got to Rowan too. "Great, I'm a consolation prize," Danny snapped and Grace just hung her head a little lower.

"Okay. Alright. Okay. So… I may need the help of a masterful negotiator," Rowan said frowning down to Grace. "You any good at negotiating kid?"

Grace perked up immediately. "Yeah! I am! I swear!"

"Right we'll you've definitely master the manipulation techniques of a guilt trip so I'm down to take a chance you. Alright… I guess we're doing this. Let's go then."

"Uh… our day out?" Steve asked her and Rowan paused, though Grace didn't. She hopped right up to Rowan and grabbed her arm, trying to yank her out of the kitchen so they could head off to Atlantic records Studios.

"We can still have our day out. Why don't you and Danny chill and then when I'm done with Atlantic and with showing Grace around, we'll go out. It can be like a swap," she said with a grin, one that was pointed at Danny instead of him where it belonged. "I'll swap you Grace for Steve."

Oh, so she was implying that he was the child in his scenario, because if that was the case he could throw a big temper tantrum about her leaving on the day off she requested he take.

"Fine, we can do that… not like I have a choice in the matter," Danny growled. Rowan moved to Steve's side, pressing a kiss to his cheek.

"I'll text you!" she called as Grace finally succeeded in dragging her out of the house.

As the motor of Rowan's car fired up Steve sighed. Danny shot him a glance and said: "You took the words right out of my mouth."

So, this was what Rowan felt like when Steve bailed last minute on her and their plans for a case.

He didn't like it.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

As soon as the elevator opened, Grace's eyes widened. She knew her Aunt Ro worked for a recording company. Grace bragged about it all time. But knowing was completely different from seeing.

The office was glossy, it had a water feature and a pond surrounded by chairs for waiting, the front desk was made of marble and had gold inlay in stripes around the top. Everyone looked so fancy and there was Grace in her school uniform.

The lady at the front greeted them, to which Rowan cooly said good morning to and dragged Grace along. She knocked on an office door and then ushered Grace inside before the person answered.

The man behind the desk watched as Rowan directed Grace to her seat with avid interest. He was a nicely dressed man in a nice black suit, his fluffy grey hair was somewhat tamed back in a nice way, he had a salt and pepper trimmed beard going on and warm, but cool appraising green eyes.

"What's this?"

"Pete, this is Grace. Grace, this is Pete Ganbarg, he's my boss. And for your information, Petey, it's Take Your Kid to Work Day so she came with me."

"I didn't know you had a kid. I just thought you just had a Commander."

Grace narrowed her eyes. "Lieutenant Commander," she whispered and both Rowan and Pete turned to her. "Uncle Steve is a Lieutenant Commander, and he's very particular about people getting it right."

Rowan laughed and pointed at Pete. "She's got a point."

Pete turned his unamused eyes to Rowan. "You don't have a kid. She's Steve's niece?"

"No, she's Steve's partner's kid," she replied sitting back in her chair. Grace thought Rowan looked super pretty today. She was in a pinstriped knee length skirt and a light cream-colored blouse, her hair was pin straight and she was wearing a beautiful galaxy watch with planets spinning across her and a leather black band choker wrapped around her neck. Grace could also see a thin silver chain hiding underneath her shirt but Grace didn't know which necklace it was.

Pete wagged his eyebrows at Rowan who scowled and scoffed at him. "No not like that. His Cop Partner, the blonde one who argues with him every time he comes in here to arrest me," Rowan snapped.

Pete just laughed. "Sure, whatever, kid. What's she gonna do when we're in this meeting? Colour? I can tell you she ain't staying in my office."

Grace officially didn't like this man. She turned to Rowan who calmly stared Pete down as she said: "She's coming in with me."

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me, for one day only, we got the greatest negotiation expert in the state. Grace is coming in with me, end of story."

Pete opened his mouth to argue and Rowan just had to pin him with a look. It was a look she gave Danno or Uncle Steve whenever she didn't want to argue anymore… but they always ended up arguing with her anyway. Pete on the other hand, didn't want to argue at all.

"Alright, uh… where do you wanna do the deal?"

"Anywhere the client wants to go," she said. "You go set up I'mma talk to my negotiator."

Pete nodded and got up from his desk. As soon as he was gone Rowan turned to her. "Okay, my girl, so the song we're selling today is one of my more coveted ones. I know for a fact that three artists are interested in it and we've gone with the current highest bidder, but he constant tries to low ball me. Like all the time. Every time I write song. So really we've gone with the most popular bidder."

"Which song does he want?"

"Treat You Better."

Grace loved that one. She didn't really want her Aunt Ro to sell it and she knew that special songs, like this one, Rowan saved for herself. "Who's buying it?"

"Shawn Mendes."

Grace balked at her. _Shawn Mendes_. She loved Shawn Mendes. She was going to meet Shawn Mendes? Okay, she could sell the song so long as Grace met Shawn Mendes.

"Whoa, I can't take you in there if you're gonna do that," Rowan said pointing to Grace's face.

Grace frowned. "What am I doing?"

"You're fan-girling. You can't do that in there, you got me? I mean, we can negotiate a picture and an autograph into my price for the song, but you cannot freak out when you meet him, you got me?"

Grace nodded. She was going to negotiate her getting a picture with Shawn Mendes? This was the best day EVER.

"How much… how much do I tell him it's for?"

"We're selling this song for a ten fifty."

"10 dollars and fifty cents that's it?" Grace asked. WHAT THE HELL?! No wonder her Aunt Ro had to live with Uncle Steve, she was selling her songs for nothing.

"No, no, the song sold for half a million, we're bargaining for 10.5%."

"But… but… how do you… how do you make…."

"Well you see, it's called royalties. I'm going to negotiate a price, and the deal is, I get a 10.5 percent every time that song is sold, or played. They've already negotiated with Pete for the amount to purchase the song for, and I get a 50% cut from every one of those deals. Now we're discussing royalty rights."

"Every time the song's played?"

"Yeah, like on the radio, in movies, in TV ads, every time your friends buy it on iTunes or when they buy the album."

Oh. Okay so that was a lot of money.

"So I guess the more it plays the more you make?" Grace offered and Rowan nodded.

"That's exactly it."

"Except I might be negotiating for a lower price if you want your photo and autograph."

"I'd be fine with just a photo."

Rowan nodded. "Got it. So here's what we're going to do. We're gonna start high, with a crazy number I know they don't want to pay and they're gonna go lower, and then we're going to negotiate until we get the number we want, sound good?" Grace nodded. "Are you ready?" Grace nodded again. "Alright. Let's do this."

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan was supposed to get a hold of him about meeting up for lunch. Which she did not do. She did, however, send Danny a picture of Grace in a tight embrace with a tween pop star that Steve didn't know, but it pissed Danny off. Which would have been hilarious, had Danny not been ranting since Rowan had left with Grace in tow, effectively driving Steve right out his damn mind.

So, when they missed lunch, when Rowan wasn't picking up her phone and Grace wasn't answering hers, they decided to go over to Atlantic Records to see why they were taking so long.

Steve hadn't been back to this building… back on this floor, since he last pulled Rowan out of there in handcuffs. He had called and apologized to her boss, citing a misunderstanding that lead to his actions that day, and that had fixed things. But Steve hadn't wanted to ever come back.

And seeing the look of panic cross the secretary's face when he came off the elevator, he remembered why he wanted to stay away from this place.

"Uh… I'm just here to see Rowan… I was supposed to pick her up for lunch…" Steve said to her.

The secretary bobbed into some kind of curtsey. "She's in the recording room. They're laying down a track with her daughter."

Danny straightened at this. "Her what?"

"Yeah, it's Take Your Kid to Work Day, and she's brought her daughter in. She's super cute and they're scarily alike," she said and then turned to Steve looking him up and down in a suggestive manner. "She's not yours though is she? I mean… your relationship is too new for you guys to _already_ have a kid."

"Grace is _not_ her daughter!" Danny cried storming off in the direction the secretary pointed him in while Steve apologized for the outburst and then trailed after him. He decided to ignore the jab about how he and Rowan couldn't possibly have a kid together. Yeah, she had been right in this instance but he thought they'd have great kids together… and would be great parents _together_.

When they got to the sound booth, Steve found Pete, who he knew as Rowan's boss and the man who was constantly calling her and telling her to come to office to sign off on the sale of her songs, sitting in the chair listening as Rowan and Grace sang her favourite song together. Cheap Thrills.

Danny just stood there watching Grace's large smile as she got to sing along with Rowan, as Rowan let her take the lead vocals and essentially just took a backup vocal role for the song.

Steve smiled. He loved seeing Rowan in her natural element, which was here, with those big headphones on her ears singing her heart out, eyes closed as she did so.

Pete stood to greet them, assessing Steve's attire as if looking for any sign that Steve was there to arrest her.

"She uh… she wanted Grace to know what it was like to record, so we're recording as we speak and then we're gonna write it to a CD for you guys," he said to Danny who nodded happily.

"The words are different from the original," Steve whispered. "The chorus is different."

"Uh… are you sure?" Pete asked. "This was the only version she gave us."

"But the original was _I don't need no money, as long as I'm dancing with you_ ," he said. "That's what it was when she was singing it live…"

Pete seemed to think about that for a minute before asking: "You were in the crowd huh?"

"Yes… what does that matter?"

"Because Rowan has special versions of her songs," he explained. "Her originals are never for sale, of course, but she gives an edited version of the song that makes the lyrics… uh… a little bit more general for a wide range of audiences."

"All her songs are special," Steve found himself whispering, and wondered why Rowan changed all her songs.

"Of course they're special, they're all about you… or at least my big sellers are about you."

Steve and Danny both turned to Pete surprised. "I'm sorry, what did you just say?"

"Well, aside for Hallelujah which was written for her brother, and a handful of other songs, almost every song she hands in to me is about you. Didn't you know that? You're her muse McGarrett and I'm not complaining it's making all of us rich."

Yeah except for Rowan…. maybe… they never really talked about money… maybe that was something they needed to do.

Steve's eyes turned back to Rowan who was still singing, and to Grace who was now waving to them. He waved back, and then blew a kiss to Rowan whose eyes were open enough to notice him standing there. She pretended to catch it and then pressed it to her heart. The motion making him smile.

He even noticed the silver glint around her neck. She was wearing his dog tags, so far keeping the promise of never taking them off. Knowing she wrote all of her songs about him, having it confirmed that he was her musical muse, was kind of like she had handed him a set of dog tags that was hers and hers alone.

It made his heart sing. It made him feel warm and fuzzy. It made me feel a little bit too much. But he was too happy and proud to care.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

They had settled on ice cream.

To make up for the fact that Rowan had never taken Grace down to lunch as promised. She had treated them all to ice cream and then they were walking along the street towards the closest park to sit on the benches.

Grace was talking a mile a minute about the song she got to record and how she got to meet Shawn Mendes, who had let her mediate the negotiation for Rowan's song. And how Rowan's royalties were now gonna be a solid 8.5 percent of all proceeds.

If Steve had asked he would have realized that it was a lot for a song. That she got paid the most a song writer had ever been paid, but everyone wanted her songs. They were golden, people were saying. But she and Steve argued about enough as is, she didn't want to add the amount she made to that list, because she knew it was going to happen. She made so much more than him, he'd get intimidated. He liked being the bread winner and she didn't want to take that away from him, not when he felt so proud about it.

Luckily, he didn't ask about that… he asked a worse question.

"So all your songs are about me, huh?"

Rowan came to a stop, she blinked her eyes at him as he half turned to stare back at her. "Who… who told you…"

"Pete," he answered with a shrug. "I'm guessing he didn't know not to tell me."

Great. Course he didn't. Stupid Pete. Rowan turned her burning blushing cheeks away from him. "I mean… uh… yeah… they are. Everything I've written here, aside from Bad Liar, Hallelujah, Can't Stop the Feeling and the soundtrack I'm working on… yeah everything's been about you."

"Tell me… which ones would I know?"

"Well, for starters… _Thief_ … that first song I gave Alex."

"Fuck! No. Really? You gave your boyfriend a song about me?"

"Well I mean… it's a really good song, it deserved to be heard, you know? But… uh… yeah… he still thinks it's about him so uh… don't tell him."

Steve laughed, that smile widening on his face. "Okay… uh… what else?"

"Uhm… _Cheap Thrills_ , _Attention_ , _Treat You Better_ , _Lips of an Angel_ …"

"Wait… _Treat You Better_ , is that the one Alex was singing in the bar when we… you know back when Cath…"

 _I know I can treat you better… than he can._

"That's it!" Steve cried. "That… that's about me? But… But…"

"Wanna hear the original lyrics?" he nodded eagerly so Rowan did what she rarely did. She sang in front of him.

 _I know I can treat you better, than she can. And any guy likes you deserves a real woman. Tell me why are we wasting time, why do you have me crying, when you belong with me instead. I know I can treat you better… better then she can._

She finished and Steve was just staring at her. "You changed the lyrics cause Alex was a guy. That songs about you being better then Catherine, not the other way around."

"I told you the song wasn't about you, I wasn't lying. It's about me singing to you," she said with a shrug starting to walk again to catch up to Danny and Grace.

Steve interlaced his fingers with hers and smiled. "I can't wait to hear the other songs you write… now that we're together…"

Rowan smiled up at him. "As long as you're willing to continue to be my muse, I will continue to write songs for you."

Steve smiled, large and bright and clearly very happy to hear that. And Rowan smiled to. She had a feeling that Steven McGarrett would be inspiring songs in her for a long time to come.


	126. Chapter 126

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: HEY Y'all we had a great question from one of my readers last chapter that I'm gonna answer now. So Gajeel-rocks wanted to know if all Rowan's songs are plagiarised, even where she came from. The answer is no. Since this is fiction we're going to assume that Rowan's written them all, even in her own world. And that's just because… I'm creative but not creative enough for me to make up my own songs. I tried doing some of my own poetry stuff and it sucked so I'm sticking to her stealing songs for us. Sorry if that's a rip off, side note, if you have any songs that you think Rowan would write or Steve would sing to her, drop me a lyric or a song name! I'll see if I can work it in for you. Don't forget to review and I'll see you guys on Wednesday._

Chapter 126

* * *

Steve watched from the couch as Rowan rushed around his house. She was in a complete panic double checking everything. Even though it was before noon, Steve took a sip on his longboard. She was making him nervous just by watching her.

"Ro, everything's fine, can you calm down please?" he called.

"NO!" she snapped back without stopped. "Everything can't be fine. It has to be perfect!"

God why had he agreed to this? Why? It was supposed to be just a cookout, throw a few burgers on the grill, keep the beer flowing and everything would be fine. But Rowan was acting like it was tea with the queen.

Granted it was her first time at a cookout at his place, and her first time hosting one with him, so he got why she was so nervous, but like… she really didn't need to be. These were her friends and they were going to be happy with whatever she put out, even if the umbrellas on the cups weren't perfectly aligned.

"Babe, come on… you're making me dizzy."

"I think that would be the beer you're drinking at 11 am buddy!" she called back rushing from the kitchen and out to the Lanai. Probably to check on the decorations and the set up and the table for the hundredth time.

Steve took another swig of his beer. He wanted to tell her that she was driving him to drink but that would be cruel. Besides it was kind of cute to have her freaking out about pleasing their friends. Like their friendship depended on this cook-out going well.

When Rowan came back inside, Steve got up off of the couch, set aside his beer and then cornered her against the kitchen counter.

Rowan groaned, dodging his attempts to kiss her. "Steve I don't have time for this," she hissed, but Steve wasn't letting her go.

"Babe, everything's perfect, so stop it. Stop your worrying. Stop your pacing and your fussing, and stop avoiding me, you know you want me babe."

He said that last sentence with a smirk on his face, his trademark smirk and it was that smirk that got her, because she was on her tippy toes in an instant rewarding him with that kiss he so desperately wanted.

He devoured her hungrily pinning her between him and the counter immediately. He'd've gotten away with more too if she wasn't in a nice white summer dress and fussing about not messing up her hair. He let her push him away from her and then leant back and watched as she primped and pampered herself making sure her lipstick was fine and her hair was still perfectly curled.

But when the doorbell rang she jumped, and then pressed her skirt again like she was brushing off imaginary dirt.

"They're here, they're here."

"Well someone's here," Steve said moving away from the kitchen and towards the door, already sort of guessing who it was. Because the door didn't stay shut it just opened on its own. "Hi Danny."

"Hi Grace!" Rowan cried hugging her first while Steve bro-hugged Danny. Rowan took the plate of sandwiches from Danny as Grace hugged Steve and walked away to put the sandwiches in the fridge.

Danny looked at Steve hard and then said: "You got a little…" and then indicated to Steve face.

Steve felt at his lips. _Rowan's lipstick_. "Goddamn it, Ro! Do I have lipstick on my face?!"

From the kitchen Rowan laughed. "That's what you get for pinning me down to ravish me," she called and Steve frowned and swiped at his lips.

"Is it gone?" he asked.

"No, you've missed… aw just come here," Danny ordered, crossing to him and starting to forcibly rub the red off of Steve's face. "There… I think that's all of it."

Steve thanked him and then a pair of someones cleared their throats. Suddenly Steve remembered that Rowan and Grace were still near-by and had probably witnessed everything.

"Do you guys need a room?" Rowan asked and Steve and Danny devolved into complaints about how he was trying to get Rowan's permanent lipstick off. "Yeah, yeah whatever. Can you two start the grilling please, Grace would like me to braid her hair for today so we shall be upstairs. Can one of you also please answer the door as people arrive in case I'm busy with Grace's hair?"

"That's a lot to expect me to do, Rowan."

"It's grilling and answering doors, Steven. Please tell me I can trust you with that?"

Steve frowned at her and said: "Grilling is an art form it needs all of my attention," just as Danny nodded and said: "We got this."

"Thank you, boys!" Rowan called before disappearing up the stairs with Grace. Steve shook his head. He should have gotten a few more kisses in before she left. Even if he got lipstick all over his face.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

The cook out was in full swing.

Steve had burgers, sausages, and hotdogs going. Kamekona had shrimp sizzling away. He even had one breast of chicken for Rowan. He was flanked by Danny, Grover, Chin and Kamekona, they were all sipping on their longboards and arguing about the best way to grill all while micromanaging Steve's job

Rowan was milling around making sure that everyone was talking and okay. She made sure that glasses were refilled and bowls of snacks and plattered plates were never empty. She was going back and forth from the kitchen to the table handing out everything that had been brought.

Though to be fair, the boys mostly just brought beer. But Renee had brought a cake, Max and Sabrina had brought a potato salad, Flipper had brought a soundtrack, and his ukulele to serenade them, Duke and his wife had brought fruit plate, Kono and Adam had brought a baked mac and cheese.

Samantha was sitting with Renee, quiet and subdued, but her brother, Will, was running around wild with Grace who looked like a regular princess with her braided crown. Looking like Rowan's twin. Rowan had even been nice enough to braid up Amber's hair the same way when she came in. So they were the braid Triplets and Amber wouldn't feel left out.

Everyone was eating, except… you know her and Steve but she was fine with that. Maybe, Steve wasn't but she was.

She crossed to him and all she had to do was put a hand to his shoulder and that beer bottle was discarded so he could wrap an arm around her waist. Every time before this he had done so with the beer bottle in hand, but a drop of beer had gotten on her dress and that had been all she needed to freak out over it. After that the beer bottle was not allowed anywhere near her and her white dress.

"You hungry?" she asked and he shook his head.

"Your chicken's almost ready," he said instead.

"Mmm… okay so would you like me to make you up a plate?" she asked him and he pressed a kiss to her temple.

"Sure thing babe, get me all the good stuff."

Rowan smiled to him but had to practically move his hand to get him to let go. She left him with the others pulling together plates for all of them, and not just Steve.

Grace came running up tugging an uncomfortable looking Amber with her. "Auntie Ro, Auntie Ro!" she called. "Can we teach Uncle Steve the dance now?"

"Hmm… I unno, he's pretty busy right now, why don't you go ask him?"

Grace immediately abandoned her dragging Amber over to pester Steve. Rowan watched as he paused in his grilling to focus on Grace. Rowan walked over with her plates to offer up to the men just in time to hear him say: "I'd love that Grace, but maybe once I'm done grilling."

Grace's face fell and Rowan stepped up. "Couldn't one of the boys take over grilling for you? Just for a little while? For Grace?"

Steve stared at her, but he eventually sighed at her. "Alright, you guys can teach me the dance," he said. "Is it… uh… is it just me or are other people gonna learn."

"Ohhh yeah, that sounds like fun," Rowan said nudging Grace. "Why don't you and Amber get that started and I'll come join you when I get a chance, huh?"

Grace nodded happy to be in charge of this activity. Steve handed Danny the reigns… or the flipper in this case and went with them. They were soon joined by Grover and Kono, who dragged Adam with her. Sabrina and Max were next, and once the music was playing and Grace was going over steps Renee and Will joined in too.

Rowan sat down beside Samantha who hadn't seemed interested but was covertly watching from under hooded eyes. "You can go join them, you know," she whispered.

Samantha shook her head and Rowan sat back and thought about what everyone had told her when she had gone through terrible things in her life.

"You know, when bad things happen, people like to tell you that eventually things will get better. They tell you to talk about it, and not internalize what you're feeling. And they've got a point, but they don't tell you that talking doesn't actually make you feel better. At least… not right away."

Samantha turned to her. "What would you know about it?" she asked.

Wow, teenage sass at its best. Yeah, well… she kind of deserved that. "Well… I crashed a car once and ruined my life, my brother's life, and killed the three people in the car with me. I got kidnapped. I got sexually assaulted. My family have cut me out of their lives and I'm essentially halfway across the world from anyone I know and the life I had made for myself and I'm never going to get any of that back. And trust me… talking about it doesn't make me feel better. But neither does holding it in. Do you want to know what I do to help myself?"

"Sure."

"I keep living. I surround myself with things that make me happy. Like Steve, like singing… like all of you," she said gesturing to everyone around her. "These people are there for me. So what if I'm not ready to talk about things now? I know that when I'm ready they'll be there and until then they'll help me stay distracted."

Samantha glanced to where her mom and brother were learning dance moves. "It's okay... you know? You don't have to bounce back right away, you don't have to always be happy, but you do owe it to yourself to at least try to keep living."

Samantha looked down. "I never thanked you for saving me."

"Yeah well… to be fair I kind of also caused the emotional problems."

"Ian's done the damage… you… you… you kinda saved my life."

"True. But don't worry, the Five-0's don't say thank you either. I'm used to it."

"I think I'm gonna go join them after all," Samantha said standing up and Rowan smiled and watched her go.

Well that was one thing on the road to being fixed at least. Sitting there she stared out at the people who had quickly become her closest friends, to the man her heart belonged to. All of them dancing to a song she wrote. Though she missed her friend and family from her timeline, she couldn't help but be happy that she had met such nice people, that she was in the process of making herself a new family, a new life and a new her.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

"Thanks for staying back," Rowan said to the group that was sitting in front of her. They had Danny, Kono, Chin and Grover. Renee, Amber and Adam had agreed to take the children plus Grace out for ice cream so that they could have this private meeting. The whole reason that they had agreed to have the cook-out in the first place.

"Yeah… I mean, you said it was important," Kono said. "Is everything okay?"

"Oh yeah, no everything's fine. It's just that… uh… I… Steve and I… we have an announcement."

"Oh god they're getting married…" Danny said. "Two months unofficially together and they're gonna get married. I bet those dog tags were the engagement ring!"

"Naw, they're breaking up," Grover said. "They're breaking up and they need us to take sides."

Steve scowled at his friends as they all laughed at their jokes. None of that was funny. "We're not breaking up," he growled.

"And he can't get away with proposing to me with dog tags. It's a diamond or I won't say yes," Rowan and then waved off Steve's emerging protests. "No, we're going to tell you guys the truth. The whole truth. About me."

And just like that they all went silent. You could have cut the tension that blanketed the Lanai with a knife.

"So… some of you know most of the story. But uh… you know, we have a new person on our team who's out of the loop and with Rowan's ever growing and evolving talents, we thought it was best to just come clean about everything," Steve said. "But… you know… you guys… you gotta…"

"Not tell anyone," they all said together and then Steve turned to Rowan. She looked at Steve, who interlaced his fingers with her for solidarity. She took a deep breath and turned to the group in front of her.

"I'm not psychic."

Everyone just stared at her. Kono blinked her eyes. "But you… you know everything beforehand…"

"That's because you guys are my favourite TV show."

That earned her some strange looks. "Excuse me?" Grover snapped. "I'm on a TV show now? We being filmed right at this moment?"

"No, nothing like that," Rowan said.

"Rowan… come on… I thought that this was part of the delusion, I thought we agreed that it wasn't possible," Chin reminded them. Steve and Rowan exchanged glances before looking back at the team.

"We said what we had to," Steve told them. "You guys were asking too many questions that we didn't have answers for. So we… we came up with a clever cover up."

"What most of you know, is that two years ago, essentially I fell out of the sky. There was no record of me in any database, and we told everyone I had amnesia, and that maybe I came off a commune or something and the Governor got me a citizen ship card, Steve create a new kind of identity for me and we kind of just stopped talking about it."

"No, we talk about it, but you don't answer our questions, Ro," Chin told her and she again, waved that off.

"Kay… well… that's true… but uh… but that's not the point. The point is I'm not from here. Like this reality. I'm not from this reality. The me that's here is dead, I was… I was still born. Which is why I don't have any records and why my DNA didn't pull up any matches when you searched me up. I have a family, but I don't match their DNA… which I think is also because I don't come from here so our DNA is different… I mean… I've looked at the tests they're similar but not enough to be a familiar match, more like a distant cousin."

Steve turned to her surprise on his face. She had tested her DNA against theirs too? Holy. Shit. He had no idea that she had even looked into that. She didn't know that they had come to the island to look for her did she? Because if she did… he had a feeling he'd be in a lot of trouble for sending them home.

"You know… I don't know what I was expecting… but alternate reality wasn't it," Grover muttered when they all went quiet.

"It's a lot to take in. But essentially… my dad's a cosmologist…." "You're dad's into beauty?" "No smart ass," she snapped to Danny. "He's a scientist who studies the universe, he specializes in parallel universes with in the realm of String Theory. He was always creating new gadgets to prove the existence of them, specifically with contacting them and by opening up the space between them."

"So, what does that have to do with anything?"

"I got hit by an energizing particle gun, the night before I ended up here, and from my limited knowledge of what my dad was always babbling about, instead of taking over someone's body I just sort of… dropped in from the sky."

"Okay… so all this vision… dream… electric shit is because you're from an alternate reality."

"Okay, I'm not gonna lie, I'm not sure what the electric stuff is about," Rowan told them. "I can tell you that my dreams or visions or insane knowledge is cause where I come from, this is all a TV show and I watched all the episodes repeatedly."

"All the episodes huh? Is there a particular reason?"

"Him," Rowan said pointing at Steve just as he raised a hand and said: "Yeah, me."

He then shot her a proud smirk. "The reason we're telling you is because her powers are evolving," he said. "She's harnessing electric powers from the void she travelled through, she used to be able to open up the door between the worlds and go through, and we just learned that if I'm greatly stressed I can call the void to me too."

There was a cacophony of cries at that last one and Steve put out a hand to calm them all down. "It was in Afghanistan. Uh… I called up a shield, it kept my head on my shoulders."

"Okay, so little miss can travel through the worlds, is that what you're saying?" Grover asked.

Rowan shook her head. "I haven't been able to open a door to the void in a very long time. But once I lost the ability to open the door I gained the ability to electrocute people on cue. Like the woman in the Palace basement, or the tiger shark or all the IA tapes," she said. "I'm also forgetting things. Like… a lot of things."

"Like what?" Kono asked.

"My life."

Everyone stared at her. "I can't remember things from my past, until something jogs my memory. I've lost all the episodes, I don't know them off the top of my head, but I'm getting dreams, dreams and visions when I need them, when the events are starting to happen or are going to start happening soon. But now I _can_ look at the different options until I find one that works for us."

"This is a lot to take in," Kono admitted. "I knew things were going on but I just thought… I don't know what I thought."

Rowan nodded. "I mean, you guys were all fine with psychic, how is this any different? How were you guys explaining me generating enough static electricity to scare of a tiger shark?"

"We just figured you were some kind of mutant with amnesia," Chin said.

"My money was on government experiment that escaped," Kono offered.

"I knew what was going on, cause Steve told me, and cause I witnessed the whole flickering thing, but my money was on witch," Danny added.

"Y'all I just figured the girl was crazy and you were feeding into her delusions cause it was easier," Grover cried. "You mean to tell me she _really_ just dropped out of the sky one day? That she really gets psychic visions? That she really electrocuted a goddamn tiger shark?"

"Yes," Danny and Steve said at the same time. "She uh… landed in the ocean right beside our dinghy."

"We were stranded at the time," Danny told him.

"Okay… so uh… are we all on the same page now?" Rowan asked. "I'm not from your universe. My visions are memories of a TV show I watched religiously cause I had a celebrity crush on Steven McGarrett, and I swear, I'mma do everything I can to change all the terrible things that are going to happen."

"Uh… terrible things like what?" Kono asked.

"Well for starters I'm going to make sure that Adam doesn't go to jail, so that's like… my priority number one. I'm gonna make sure Grover don't get kidnapped by that Chicago mafia dude or something, I'm still fuzzy on that cause I think that's like… really far away in the future. And if I can get Charlie his bone marrow _before_ he gets super sick I'm gonna do that too," Rowan listed, she then turned to Steve and whispered: "I've already made sure that you won't get tortured."

Okay, that was worrying. And suddenly everyone was asking questions. _Mafia? Why the hell do you care about Charlie? Why is Adam going to jail? Wait who the hell was going to torture me?_

And poor Rowan stood in the middle of it all, eyes whipping from person to person clearly overwhelmed, so Steve stepped up.

"Okay, whoa, alright, lets calm down," he said. "She just told us things are fuzzy, we're not close enough to those things yet for her to know enough to inform us, but she will keep us posted right?"

"Well… I mean I'll try, but… you guys don't really listen to me…"

"Hell, girl, can't you dream the winning lottery numbers?"

"If it didn't happen on the Hawaii Five-0 I don't have it in my head, sorry,"

"Wait, Hawaii Five-0, is that the name of the show?" Steve asked and Rowan nodded. "Yeah. It's a remake of an oldie me and my dad used to watch back in the day. I was so excited when they rebooted it. Dad didn't like you though, thought you were too much of a pretty boy."

Ouch. Rude.

"Okay… so uh… other than to clarify visions are there any questions?" Steve asked.

Kono raised her hand. "Why do you think you came here? I mean… do you have a theory about what happened?"

Steve and Danny exchanged glances. See, they knew, they knew what had happened. But Rowan did not.

"The night before I woke up in the sky… falling… my brother shot me with my dad's latest invention. It's got a fancy name, but essentially, it's a particle energizing gun. It uh… it only shoots a special kind of lazer. It's essentially harmless. He had only ever used it on objects… never anything alive. I'm not sure what it was that brought me here… but I'm pretty sure I survived the trip because I was energized by that gun. I think it… I think… I think the trip itself kind of tied me to the void."

That was only part of the story. The other half… the other half was that her family here had performed an experiment, that they had tried to pull someone or something through and because she was energized it had pulled her through to another world. But… Steve couldn't tell her that without telling her how he knew that.

"And your family is here… like you're mom and your dad and your brother?" Chin asked.

Rowan nodded again. "They're not my real family. They're the version of my family that's in the world. The version of my family if I wasn't born. They… they wouldn't know me."

"Which is why when she called her mother, back when she was dealing with that amnesia from her head injury, her mother freaked out on her," Danny finished.

Grover raised his hand and Rowan nodded. "Look. I'm just gonna try and sum this all up here, see if I've got it straight. You watched a TV show and you like that version of Steven McGarrett. And then you got pulled here by some whacky science you don't understand and you've been helping us with our cases because you watched that TV show so you know what's going to happen beforehand."

"Yeah, that's about it."

"So we got Samantha back because you realized what episode you were in? And acted accordingly."

"Yes, that is what happened… but you know… with help… Wo Fat was a great help in that instance… I couldn't have done that without him," she said shooting a glance at Steve who avoided her eyes, his jaw pulsing in his annoyance, clearly trying to bite back a witty retort about how useful he thought Wo Fat to be.

"Okay, but where does Wo Fat fit into all of this?" Chin asked. "I mean… he just… I unno… I don't get it… did you void him into liking you or something?"

"Uh… do you guys remember back when Steve and I were still not admitting we liked each other?" she asked. That earned her a few groans and one: _How could we forget_ from Danny. "Kay, well I went missing. Right? And if you guys remember I came back kind of…"

"Skeletal," Steve finished for her.

"Yeah that's a good word," Rowan whispered and they all nodded. "Okay, well… every day… some times more than once a day, I was going into the void and trying to go home. I couldn't find the way back to my world, by the way. I kept getting tangled up in red strings and falling back here. Anyway. On one trip I basically landed in Wo Fat's lap and he kind of just… took me in."

"Just like that?"

"Yeah. I unno it was weird. He took me in but I got away from him and then you know… I fell out of that helicopter and he just decided to keep me," Rowan said with a shrug. "He says I grew on him. But uh… yeah, other than the void kind of dropped me in his vicinity, the void doesn't really have anything to do with what's going on with me and him."

"Okay, and you can't open the door to the void anymore?" Grover asked. "Like, you can't try to go home?"

"No. Uh… I haven't been able to open the void since my last trip through. I fell out… uh… into the ocean and I've lost the power to open the door," she told them and Steve and Danny exchanged glances. Out of curioustiy they had plotted the spot where he and Chin had gone to rescue Rowan. It was the exact same place she had dropped into their lives two years ago. It was the exact same place her father and brother had been trawling looking for whatever had dropped out of the void.

"I had one surprise trip when you guys had the zombie case, where I ended up in the tunnels, but uh… yeah… haven't been able to open any doors," she admitted she glanced up at Steve who was avoiding her eyes before she added: "Not that I've been really trying or anything."

Thank god for that.

"And what are the red strings."

"Uh… well… we've established that they're coming from me…" Steve admitted. Both to himself, and to all of them.

"Not all from him, I'm making them too. But they're connecting us together... and tie us together."

"Wait… so you two have red strings connecting you together?" Kono asked and they both nodded. "That's so funny. Cause there's this Chinese myth that says that soul mates have an invisible red string of love tied between them. And… like… you guys are pretty well… I unno, it's not love, obviously but it's something."

Rowan and Steve exchanged glances. Was that what this was? His feelings for her were keeping her stuck in this reality and vice versa? That… that wasn't fair… was it?

"Okay this is a lot to take in," Grover said slapping his thighs and standing up. "I mean… as an explanation it really just raises more questions… that I'm thinking none of you know how to answer."

"Uh… probably not, I mean… I can try."

"Have you thought of contacting the dad you have here?" Chin suddenly asked. "Maybe he would know what's going on? Or… does he not have the same job?"

Steve's heart froze in his chest as he glanced first to Danny and then to Rowan who was trying to answer the question. "Well… no he does… but…"

"How do we explain to him what happened? He'd think we're crazy," Steve interrupted. The panic on his face apparent because Danny rolled his eyes but added: "Yeah, he's gotta point. Crazy, or the government's going to swoop in and try to weaponize her. We already had the Navy try that over her network… let's just let things calm down before we start making any announcements about her abilities, shall we?"

They all nodded and then stood up to follow Grover. Steve kept his hand tightly around Rowan's. He didn't want her to make contact with her family. Not because he was trying to be controlling, but because he knew if he did, she'd leave and he wouldn't be able to survive that.

Maybe that was him being controlling. Maybe he could trust her to make contact with her family and not leave him. Maybe he could go to Canada with her and help her through this… maybe….

His heart constricted in his chest again. No. He'd have to tell her that her family came looking and he had them deported. He'd have to admit that they were here for her and he sent them away. That he locked her file so they couldn't look her up without contacting him for permission. That he told them she didn't exist and then made it impossible for them to ever locate her again.

Then he'd lose her for sure.

No. Steve couldn't chance that. He couldn't. Not when things were going so well. No. he'd… he'd just… wait. He'd wait and tell her later.

Much. Much. Much later.


	127. Chapter 127

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy hump day my wonderful readers! How are all of you today? I got a real treat for you here. We got some really cute moments, we got some back story, and of course, because I can't resist, we got some angst. But are you guys ready for more backstory on Rowan? Are. You. READY?! So we got cute fluffy stuff, Rowan being ridiculous, and more backstory. I promise it ends cutely. I promise. Don't forget to tell me what you think! See you guys on Friday!_

Chapter 127

* * *

The blue truck sped through the jungle and with each mile it travelled the farther they got away from the city she loved, the running water, the working toilets, the Wi-Fi she was addicted to, and all the modern comforts she didn't know why anyone would give up.

Rowan turned back to Steve who looked more than comfortable behind the wheel. He was in his favourite pair of tan cargo pants, a grey tank top and his tan dress shirt all unbuttoned with the sleeves all rolled up. He looked damn fine, even if he was in cargo pants.

This camping trip was a month in the making. Rowan had enjoyed the shopping aspect part of this trip. Getting herself hiking boots, and a pair of cargo pants that matched Steve's. She had got herself a backpack and a Patriots baseball hat. Which was an oxymoron and a half because they were a football team, but whatever. She had bought herself her own canteen, a flashlight, a sleeping bag, bug repellent, proper thick socks.

She had spent the last two weeks walking around in her hiking boots to wear them in, she had practiced pitching a tent, drinking from a canteen and she even slept the last few nights on the floor to get used to the ground, which was much easier to do when Steve's arms. She was fairly confident that she was ready for this.

Steve got to their drop point. He parked his truck and they went about getting ready. He was carrying all the heavy stuff, like the tent they'd be sleeping in and their water supply and most of their food, Rowan had the light stuff, like the pillows the blankets and snacks.

"Alright… uh… you ready?"

Rowan looked up to the mountain he expected her to climb. She saw no trail, just a wall of trees. She turned her confused eyes to him.

"Where's the trail?"

"Well… I'm going to make the trail."

And that's when she noticed the machete in his hands. Rowan blinked her eyes at him. "Steven," she growled. "You said we were going to go easy on me, remember? This was supposed to be a beginner's weekend to see if I like camping, this wasn't supposed to be you going Rambo in the jungle and dragging me along for the ride."

"Okay, calm down. I'm not going Rambo, do you see any guns or ammo on me? Look, you don't have to do anything but follow me. I'll make the trail, just stay behind me and everything will be fine, okay?"

Oh this fucking asshole, walking around like he was the Hawaiian Pathfinder. He knew, _he knew_ , that she didn't want to do this, he had had to BEG her to agree to this, and he had promised it wouldn't be that hard. But now expecting her to climb a mountain without a trail like she was Pocahontas or some bullshit, she got winded walking around the fucking block. She could already feel her legs cramping and she hadn't started walking yet.

"If I fall off this goddamn mountain, Steve, you're not getting laid for a month," she grumbled. He shot her an apologetic smile and though she much rather sleep in his truck she still followed him as he headed for the foliage, machete ready to hack them a path.

It was a good thing he was so goddamn hot, and she knew that as soon as he over heated he'd take that shirt off for her. Otherwise this whole excursion wouldn't be worth it in the end.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

"I'm out of water."

Steve turned. His eyes finding Rowan who was doubled over, huffing and puffing, her canteen at her feet. He'd accuse her of dropping it and spilling all her water if it wasn't for the fact that this was the fourth time she had run out of water.

"Again?" he asked.

Rowan's death glare found him and he frowned. Maybe this wasn't a good idea. She was sweating, she had tied up the shirt she was wearing to bare her midriff, he had taken most of the food from her already because her bag was too heavy and she was very much out of breath.

He thought she looked lovely. Except he knew, even though she hadn't said anything, that she was absolutely miserable. She hated this, she wasn't having fun and as a result neither was he. Why did he force her to come here with him? It wasn't like she forced him to all of her activities, she asked politely and when he said no she'd ask someone else to go with her, like Danny, Chin, Kono and now Jerry… or Max if she thought he'd like it… and Grover too if she was desperate. The problem was Steve didn't want her going with other people, so he'd cave and go with her despite her saying it was okay and that he didn't have to come.

It was a scam, he was sure of it. He just didn't have the heart to stop and there was no way to prove she was doing it on purpose.

Steve glanced back to the path he was making. They weren't even half way. At this rate they weren't even going to make it to the campsite before dark. But he didn't want to say that to her, he didn't want to make this situation worse.

"Okay… uh… here, take mine," he said handing her the canteen that he wasn't sure was his anymore because they had traded so many times and watched her drink it. He picked up hers but didn't go to fill it yet. He wasn't thirsty right now anyway. "Alright… look… I'm not gonna lie we're making terrible progress…"

Rowan groaned. "Steve… Steve I told you this was a bad idea. Maybe… maybe I should just go back…"

He noted that she suggested that she go by herself. He didn't want that. The point was that they were together. "No Rowan, that's not the point, okay, it's not," he snapped. "How about this. I'll go ahead, since I'm faster, carve open the path for you, and then you can follow at your own leisure, okay, you won't have to feel like you have to keep up with me. And when I get up to the campsite I'll double back for you okay?"

Rowan looked around. "You're going to leave me out here by myself? What if there are bears, Steven?"

"On Hawaii?"

"Fine. Snakes."

"Scream really loud I'll come right back" he answered, his tone clipped.

Rowan took in the tone, took in the stiffness in his shoulders and suddenly frowned. She lowered her eyes to her shoes. "I'm sorry."

Steve paused. Fuck. No. They weren't supposed to be arguing. This was supposed to be fun. This was supposed to be going better than it was.

"It's not your fault. Look I guess I can… I can go slower if you want… or maybe we can go back…"

Rowan set her shoulders and when her eyes found his again she was wearing a look of sheer determination. "No you're right. We can do this. You… you go ahead and I'll follow after. But I swear to god Steven you better come save me the second I scream for you."

He leant in to kiss her solidly, glad that she had changed her mind. "I promise, I won't be too far."

She tried to smile at him and Steve had to force himself to move away before he changed his own mind. He still wanted this to be a good night, he still wanted to make this worth their while. After this he'd have to really… really have to be romantic to make this up to her and he wasn't sure he could afford another Danny-inspired date.

He'd think of something though. He'd have to.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve had made it to the summit where they would be camping for the weekend three hours after leaving Rowan behind. Every now and then as he was chopping through the foliage he'd call out for her, and every time she'd answer, saying she was fine.

Problem was, Steve got the camp site all set up and ready for them, tent pitched, camp fire burning and dinner cooking and Rowan still hadn't found her way up there. It was starting to get dark what was taking this girl so long?

Sighing to himself, Steve made his way back down the trail he had forged with a flashlight in hand looking for the girl he never should have left behind. And the farther down he went the more nervous and angrier he got. God he never should have left her, she must have fallen off the damn mountain. He should have checked for her ages ago.

If something happened to her, he'd never forgive himself.

So when he found her he was understandably very relieved… and very annoyed because she literally hadn't gotten very far. What the hell was this girl's problem? She was just standing there holding onto a tree, her backpack resting beside her while she seemingly stared at the ground like she thought it held all the answers.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Rowan's eyes whipped up to him. "Oh, hey. Uh… am I almost there?"

No, no she wasn't but he didn't say that to her. Instead Steve took a step closer to her, very suspicious of her behaviour. "Why are you holding onto a tree?"

Rowan looked to the tree in her arms like she was noticing it for the first time. "I thought it was lonely," she said after a moment of silence. "I felt like it needed a hug."

Ah shit. That was a very bizarre and clearly made up excuse. She was obviously hurt and trying to hide it from him, otherwise she would have thought up of a better lie.

"Okay, what happened?"

"Nothing happened."

"Did you fall? Are you hurt? Did you see a snake? What is happening right now?"

"I said I'm fine Steven," she growled and he sighed back at her. God why was she being so difficult? He was there to help her, why wouldn't she let him?

Steve rested back on his laurels as he glared at her. He knew she was lying, so he just crossed his arms over his chest and issued a challenge: "Alright, walk to me then."

Rowan blinked her eyes at him. "Yeah… you know what, I really feel like me and this tree have bonded so… like… I wanna say a proper good-bye to old Willow…" "That's a Banyan tree, Ro." "Yes and I named her Willow, now if you don't mind? Some privacy would be nice."

"I'll just wait."

"Steve, just go, I'll be right behind you."

Steve sat himself down and then stared at her. Rowan sighed at him realizing he wasn't going to leave her alone there, so she let go of the tree and took one step. And limped.

It was her right foot, she couldn't put pressure on her right foot. Steve stood up immediately and crossed to her. She was already shaking her head and trying to ward him off. "It's fine I just have something in my shoe."

Steve knelt down in front of her and probed at her ankle. As soon as he pulled it up to his knee to rest her foot on him, her hands went to his shoulders to steady herself. He touched it briefly and her fingers dug into his shoulder, which was not a good sign. He could already tell it was swollen and he could see bruising but what had him more worried was the fact that his fingers were wet. "Ro… you're bleeding…"

"Oh… that's probably just the blisters," she whispered. Steve's eyes whipped up to her face. Blisters? She had blisters this whole time? Fuck… maybe she hadn't been stopping to drink all that water… maybe she had been stopping because her feet hurt and he hadn't noticed. "It's fine, I'm fine."

No Steve wasn't having this, he left her side only to shoulder her backpack before returning to her and scooping her up in his arms. She protested like he knew she would but that only last a few moments. She was tired and in pain, she needed him and it pained him that she had been on her own for so long needing him. Why hadn't she called for him, or had she and he was just too far ahead to hear her?

"You should have told me," he growled. "I would have stopped."

"I didn't want to slow you down anymore then I already was. You were so… I unno… upset about me needing to stop so much…"

Fuck. He shouldn't have said anything. He shouldn't have brought her here. This was doing nothing but making it more glaringly obvious that they had nothing but great sex in common. How long would it be before Rowan realized that? Before she realized that he had nothing to offer her except his battle-weary heart and battle-scared body? Mind blowing sex really only kept a girl occupied for so long.

"I'm sorry I made you feel like that," he muttered because that was all he could think to say. Rowan answered him by resting her head on his shoulder and his heart fluttered in his chest. "You should have called me, you know, I would have come to get you."

"I know. But I wanted to do it myself… and I didn't want you to worry."

As opposed to him worrying when she took forever to make it up to their campsite. How was she going to walk, when her feet were causing her that much pain? Still he gripped her tightly to his chest as he walked because his heart was still racing with the worry and holding her made him feel better. He made it up to their campsite and put Rowan into the tent he had gotten ready for them. All they were missing was the extra blanket he had her carrying and the pillows. As he set her down, he handed her the backpack.

"Okay, uh get your boots off. I have a first aid kid in my bag, you get everything out and I'll help you out if you need it."

"I can take care of myself. Why don't you start on dinner? I'm starving."

Dinner was already cooking, he had it in a pot on the fire already. But he diligently went to check it while she pried her boots off and hissed in pain under her breath. Steve tried to ignore it, he tried to let her do it by herself but she was wincing as she looked over her feet.

He just wanted to soothe her. He just wanted to make her feel better by any means necessary. But as soon as he got close enough to see the damage that was done to her, he was angry and afraid all over again.

"Fuck. Rowan."

She looked up to him surprised and then back down to her feet. "I mean… it's not that bad."

Her heels were lacerated on both feet, she had blisters along the outside of her feet by her big toe, but it was the fact that her right ankle was a dark purple and twice it's normal size that had Steve swearing like he was.

"Rowan… you… you fell didn't you?" he asked. She opened her mouth and Steve frowned at her. "Don't you fucking lie to me, Ro."

"Okay… yeah… I fell," she admitted. "I uh… not gonna lie I think I heard a snap. But that also might have been the branches of the bush I fell into. At least… I'm hoping it's the bush."

Steve felt at her ankle watching each wince and trying to feel for anything that wasn't supposed to be there. "It doesn't feel broken," he whispered after a moment of silent contemplation. That was a good thing.

"Okay, that's good."

"No, we're going home. Right now."

Rowan grabbed his shoulders before he could get up to put out the fire. "No, no we are not. You put a lot of thought and planning into this and we are already here. And let's face it, I won't make it down a mountain like this."

"I'm going to carry you."

"You're going to carry two backpacks, all our supplies and me?" she asked. Okay why was she doubting him? "No Steven. It's getting dark. Let's just stay here. At least for the night. And if it's not better by tomorrow we'll go back… fair?"

Okay so maybe she had a point. He was kind of tired. And he really was looking forward to sex in the tent… even though it was looking like he was going to have to settle with cuddling only tonight.

"Fine. But I'm going to wrap it up for you okay. That should help with the swelling since I don't have ice."

"Yeah? Would you? I mean… it's not too nasty or anything."

Steve looked down at her cute little toes with the cotton candy pink nail polish and then back up to her with a smile on his face. "You have cute toes. I've told you that before babe."

Rowan giggled at him and then let him wrap her up. He could salvage this. One night wouldn't be too hard and then tomorrow he'd take her home.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

It started raining while they were sleeping. It was pouring by the time they were both awake and then there was another problem. Steve couldn't get them home in this weather, not if he had to carry her, not when mud slides could happen. It wouldn't do to have both of them sliding down the mountain, now would it?

Both Rowan and Steve sat by the mouth of their tent looking up at the water falling down.

"Uh… how long do you think it'll rain like this?" she asked.

Steve sighed as he looked up at the clouds above them, dark as the night sky. "Uh… probably all day."

"Oh, well isn't that just wonderful," she grumbled. "Well looks like we're not going anywhere today. Good thing I brought a book to read."

She moved back towards the sleeping bags and pillows lying herself back down. She'd probably doze off, but he knew whatever book she brought wouldn't keep her entertained for long and then she'd be bored. And then what? More sex? Steve loved having sex with her, and she rarely turned him down, but he couldn't fill their whole day with sex. Not when she was sore from the hike and her ankle hurt.

Swallowing his anger and frustration he forced himself up and out of the tent ignoring Rowan's cries for him. He needed to move, he needed to do… something. Maybe the hiking trails weren't that bad, maybe… if he found a proper one near-by they could take that one down the mountain.

"Where are you going?"

Steve stopped and turned, Rowan was out of the tent, the boots that had lacerated her heels back on her feet. She had followed him out into the rain. Why? She was in so much pain, why would she do that?

She took two hobbling steps towards him before he remembered that he shouldn't be letting her walk. He crossed to her and tried to push her back towards the tent, but she wouldn't let him. "I'm going to look for a way down, just stay here, stay dry."

Rowan's fingers gripped his shirt tightly. "No. Steve. It's fine. We'll stay up here. Come on, baby, please. Don't leave me up here alone. I can't protect myself when I'm fine, you're gonna expect me to do it while I'm injured?"

Rowan could take care of herself just fine, he knew that, he just didn't trust her to do it, he'd rather take care of her himself. But they couldn't argue about this out in the rain so he followed her into the tent. He took the towel he had brought with himself out and immediately helped her dry herself off. She'd have to change again, and god he'd love to help her with that but he really needed to find a way to get them out of this situation.

"Okay, so stay here, Rowan… stay…" he tried to tell her but Rowan launched herself at him, her arms wrapping around his neck in a deathly vice grip. "Fuck, Rowan, let go!"

"No, not until you say you'll stay with me."

"I can't breathe."

Rowan paused. "Are you just saying that to get me to let go or can you really not breathe?"

"Rowan!" he wheezed and she let go of his neck but her hands stayed on his shoulders.

She looked so scared staring up at him with misting blue eyes that Steve knew she had already won. He wasn't going to leave her, but she might break up with him after this. Better to cherish the time he had left with her because once they got off this mountain he was going to lose her, he just knew it.

"Is something wrong Steven? Are we… in danger or something?"

Steve shook his head as he busied himself with taking off both her boots and his. "I just… you're hurt."

"True, but that's okay. I don't mind. With you here beside me, all wet and handsome, I don't even notice the pain." She said with a grin and he shot her a soft smile as he carefully took off the boot on her injured ankle. Once it was off and she was done wincing she put on a fake smile and an even faker voice to ask: "Hey… can we make tea maybe?"

"With what fire, Rowan?"

Rowan frowned again and Steve realized he had snapped at her, great. Just… just great. But Rowan was being patient with him. "I unno, I just thought… you being a super SEAL and all that, that if anyone could make a fire in the rain it would be you."

Steve shook his head. So she had faith in his survival skills but not his ability to get them down the mountain? "I mean, if I had dry wood, I could make like… a little alcove and get a fire going there, but our firewood is soaked."

"Okay… that's fine, I don't need a tea and I have you to keep me warm and I'm sure we can survive on the granola bar… and you brought your rations…"

Steve had turned away from her, sitting back down and facing the mouth of the tent. She was trying so hard but it didn't change anything.

"Hey… what's… what's wrong?" she asked softly. Steve pulled his knees up and sighed. Might as well get it over with now, before she did it to him.

"This isn't going to work is it?"

Rowan was silent a moment as she took that in. "What are you talking about?" she asked. "Where… where is this coming from?"

"We have nothing in common, Rowan. You don't like sports or hiking, or camping, I fall asleep in plays and ballets, and I hate musicals. We… I mean… what's going to keep us together?"

"Hey, hey!" she said draping herself against him, her hand on his shoulder. "Opposites attract Steven."

"Yeah but that doesn't keep people together."

"It does with magnets."

"We're not magnets Rowan."

Steve looked away from her, he had to. He felt like everything was coming crashing down around him. And she was so beautiful, knowing that they were going to end hurt more.

"You're being silly Steven," she whispered. "Okay, so you don't like plays, and I don't like camping, you know what we do have in common?"

She was going to say sex. But sex couldn't keep them together, sex wasn't going to save their relationship, which Steve was quickly realizing he wanted more than anything.

"What?" he found himself whispering.

"How much we care for each other… and other people." Steve turned to her, he looked deep into those clear blue eyes and felt his heart soar up into his mouth. "I care for you so much, I care for Danny and Chin and Kono, just like you do. There isn't a single thing I wouldn't do to protect you or them, just like I know you would all go to hell and back to protect me. I care enough about you, Steven, to try. Yes I don't like camping, yes this trip has been a disaster but Steven this was just too hard for me."

Steven laughed yeah, it really was, wasn't it? "You knew I was a beginner and you have us out here climbing up mountain sides and trail blazing. I mean, come on. You had to know that I would have trouble with this."

"I guess I was just so excited to get you into camping that…"

"Steve we should have started out by camping in your back yard," she interrupted and he found himself chuckling again. "I'm… I'm sorry I'm not like Catherine. I'm sorry I can't put on some fatigues and rough it out in the wild and maybe I'll never like camping but that doesn't mean I won't go with you. Maybe, once my boots have been worn in better, we can try some easier hiking trails. I don't mind hiking if it's with you, especially since you're always taking me pretty places."

She thought he wanted her to be like Catherine? No, that wasn't… that wasn't what he wanted her to take from this. Steve turned to her and took a hold of the hand that had been on his shoulder and held it tightly in his grip as he looked into her eyes. "I don't want you to be like Catherine, but I'm not going to say that I don't want you to wear the uniform cause I'm thinking about it now and damn that looks hot in my head."

"Oh I'm sure I can pull it off no problem."

"Kay, stop distracting me," he growled lowly, afraid they'd devolve into kissing and he'd never tell her what he wanted to tell her. "You're right though. I do care about you, very much and I guess… I guess I'm afraid that I'm not good enough and if we don't have anything in common you'll…"

"I had someone with a lot in common with me though, and Alex and I have not lasted, now have we?" Rowan asked. Of course not, because Steve had dedicated almost all of his time keeping them apart and screwing them up. "I'm sorry, but you're stuck with me Steven McGarrett, because I have not gone through two years of utter bullshit for nothing. You got me?"

At this Steve kissed her, tugging her tightly to his chest and growling into her giggling kisses. He realized that he was the most dangerous thing to their relationship. His paranoia and untrusting nature would be what got them in the end. He'd still worry, he knew that much, but for right now, right at this moment, he wasn't going to worry at all. All he had to worry about was how to have sex with her in that tent with an injured ankle.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Lightning flashed, thunder crashed and Rowan pitched up and out of their makeshift bed. So many things were running around in her head she didn't know what was real, where she was or what she was going on. Echoes of pain and terror had a hold of her and she was just trying to get away from it all. But it was all behind her eyes and she couldn't stop seeing.

That man's face hovering over her as his hands burned against the sensitive private parts of her. A twisted blonde smiling as she plunged a knife into her stomach. The darkness of a water filled tunnel as a man tied her to a radiator.

She twisted out of the heavy heated confines, and out into the rain, her ankle twisting under her. She collapsed to the mud and bit back her cry of pain. She wanted to go home. She was going to get home even if it killed her

"Rowan! What are you…? Rowan stop!"

Hands grabbed and she cried out. "No! Stop!" she lashed out at whoever was trying to grab her. _Leave me alone_ , she wanted to scream but whatever had her refused to let go of her no matter how many times she hit it.

The person grabbed her wrists and kept her from moving. Panic took her over.

"No! Stop it. Let me go! Mal! Trevor! _Help!_ " words hit her ears but she didn't recognize them as her own, all she knew was the fear, she didn't want to hurt anymore, she didn't want to be alone in the dark, she wanted the monsters to go away. Where was Trevor? Where was Malcolm? Where was… " _STEVEN!"_

"Rowan it's me, it's me, Rowan, baby, stop, stop it's me."

She was flat against his chest, his hands holding her wrists between them so she wouldn't hit him anymore. Belatedly she realized that she was out in the rain, tucked tightly to Steve's chest as he stared down at her.

And just like that she was properly awake.

"Oh… oh god…"

"Are… are you okay now? Are you good, can I take you... can we go back inside?" he asked.

Rowan didn't even get to properly nod before he had her up and back inside the tent. The towel came out again and he was quickly rubbing her dry.

She took a good look at him and realize that she had probably hurt him. He had scratches on his collarbones and a redness under his right eye. Her fingertips traveled to each bruise and scratch they could find, knowing that it was the same hands touching him now that had hurt him.

"Oh god Steven… I'm so sorry… I didn't… I thought…"

Steve stopped trying to dry her off and turned his eyes to her. "It's okay, hey baby, it's okay. But I gotta know what was that Rowan… what happened? What happened there?"

Rowan lowered her eyes. "I guess… I guess I got stuck in a nightmare."

"What the hell did you see that had you that scared?"

"No… not that kind of dream." He looked confused so Rowan decided to tell him the truth. "I was having a nightmare about… other things… things that I have been through."

"Like what?"

"A lot of things. A lot of little things I try to not remember," she whispered. "They're hard to talk about."

Steve sighed like she had disappointed him and for a second Rowan's heart cracked a little bit under the weight of it. "I'm sorry… I just don't like… talking about them."

"I can't help you if you don't tell me."

"Do you always have to help me? Can't you just hold me?"

"I tried and I'm pretty sure I'm gonna get a black eye for my troubles," he said pointing to the eye in question. Rowan winced, okay, he had a point.

"Why don't you want to talk about it? Is it cause you think I can't handle it, or because you can't?"

"A little bit of both…" she whispered and then glanced up at him. "They're like… my ugly bits. I want to keep them hidden for as long as I can."

Rowan looked down, missing the warm gentle look of Steve's that caressed her features. He took his giant warm hands and cupped her face in them. "There isn't a single bit of you that isn't beautiful, Rowan. And if you're ready, if it would help you… I'd like to hear all about your ugly bits. I'd like to decide if they're ugly for myself, thank you."

Outside their tent the storm raged, a loud booming peel of thunder that had Rowan clamouring back into Steve's arms. He held her softly his hands rubbing up and down her back as she shook against him.

"Okay, you're cold," he whispered, tugging at her shirt. "Let's get you out of these wet clothes, okay?"

She let him pull her shirt up, let him hold her to his chest so she could leech his warmth from him as he rooted through his bag. "Here you can wear my sweater…"

Or she could show him some of her ugliness.

She took the sweater dropped it to her lap and then took a hold of one of Steven's hands. Steve stared at her as she placed his hand to the tattoo on her left side.

"Babe… I… you're beautiful and I love your tattoos but you're cold and I'm not in the mood," he whispered but Rowan wasn't trying to fuck him right now. She found the part she wanted him to feel and then put his fingertips to it. "Wait… what is that… is that a scar?"

Rowan looked up to him, held his gaze and then very carefully said: "Mhmm… that's where I got stabbed."

"Where you got… WHAT?!"

Rowan pulled the sweater over her head, pulled the shorts she had been sleeping in, off and then got under the sleeping blanket that Steve hadn't wanted on him but dealt with cause Rowan needed it. She nodded to him and he just sat there staring at her a look of utter pain on his face.

"When did you get stabbed?"

"Before I came here. I… uh… it's… it's hard for me to talk about because up until that point… I was invincible… or at least I thought I was… and this," she looked down to where she knew the figure skate was tattooed to her side, she had used the scar as the blade. "This proved to me that I wasn't."

Steve settled down in front of her. "How did it happen?"

Rowan took a deep breath and looked away from him. "We were on our third placement with Protective Custody… we were in Ireland… I convinced Trevor to go out on a date with Malcolm, uhm if you don't know remember, Malcolm, Mal, was our handler. They had just started dating… kind of… and I convinced them to leave me behind so they could have a night out. I figured, we were safe… they hadn't found us yes and, you know, I had a cast on my leg and there wasn't any trouble I could get in and uh… Irina Stepanov proved us wrong."

"Why do I know that name?"

"Probably because her father, Victor Stepanov, is a very dangerous Russian Mafioso who runs alcohol, drugs and explosives. I uh… checked with ATF they uh… they all exist here and they…. haven't changed."

Steve just stared at her. "And why did his daughter have a problem with you?"

"That gang I was get-away-driving for. It was a gang run by Roman Stepanov, her twin brother." "Okay so you were going to testify against her brother…" "Roman Stepanov was one of the men in the car with me when I crashed it."

Steve stared at her taking that in. "She uh… she had met me before, she knew how good a driver I was and she guessed that if I crashed a car that I had done it on purpose. Anyway, she uh, broke in while Trev and Mal were out, and uh… she beat me up, made me admit that I crashed the car on purpose and then stuck a knife into my side. Trevor and Malcolm had an argument and came home early and found me and… yeah… once I was stabilized we moved onto our fourth placement, which was in Hawaii but I was so sickly after that I never went outside, by the time I was better they got word that we might have been compromised and they moved us again."

Steve blinked his eyes at her. "So that was the dream then?"

"Part of it," she whispered. "I just… I don't do well in the dark anymore and the rain… it just… it reminds me of things."

"Like what?"

"Like being tied to a radiator in dark musty wet tunnels not sure which reality I'm in let alone how to get out. Or being in a supply closet with someone's hands…"

She couldn't finish the sentence, because it hurt, because the tears climbed up her throat and cut off the air to her lungs.

"Every time I think I'm better I have one of these moments and I'm right back where I started."

The thundered crashed and Rowan jumped. Steve's hands came to her elbows. Just the act of him putting his hands out to her settled her almost immediately. "It's okay," he whispered. "It's okay to be afraid."

"It's not just that. Sometimes it feels like I'm still there. That I'm still tied to that radiator. That I'm back on the floor with a knife in my stomach. But what's worse is I… I can still feel his hands on me…"

"Where… where did he…"

"I don't want to think about it."

Steve inched a bit closer to her, getting to his knees. "Would it help if I touched you?" he asked. Rowan blinked her eyes at him, how would that help? "So that way, that way you can associate that touch or feeling with… uh… with… me?"

Rowan thought about it, Steve had touched her in the same places many times since then, but never after one of her episodes. And well… nothing else had worked so why not try this?

"I mean… I guess we could try it, but if I say…"

"Just say the word and I'll stop, okay?" he whispered as he shifted. His hands came up as if ready to go but they didn't move. "Uhm… so where…"

She took his first hand and brought it to her right breast. His hand covered it, warm against the cool of her skin. His thumb brushed against her nipple softly until it was taunt beneath him. "Is that okay?"

Normally, after one of these episodes, she could barely touch herself, let alone let anyone else touch her. Normally she would sit in the shower until she felt clean again. This was the nicest she felt after one of her nightmares.

"Is that…?" he asked unable to properly verbalize the question. Rowan shook her head and took his other hand. She too got to her knees and directed his hand down her pants. The look of pain that flashed over Steve's face made her want to cry.

His hands pulled away, swallowing back something and Rowan sat back down. "I'm sorry."

"No. it's not you," he said. "I just… I wish I had been there… I wish I had protected you from this. I wish I could do more to help you."

"Do you… do you still want me?"

Steve's eyes found hers again, the blue eyes burning in the night. "I will always want you."

"Then could you… could you maybe hold me? And just tell me It's all going to be okay?"

His hands snatched her up and pressed her to him. "It will always be okay. As long as we're together we'll always be okay," he whispered to her. "It doesn't matter what happens, or what you do. I will always want you. Always."

Rowan clung to him, burying her nose in neck, she held onto Steve like he was her lifeline. Because right at that moment, without him, she would have been drowning.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

It took a lot of planning and out of the box thinking. It involved him wearing a backpack on his chest, Rowan carrying a backpack on her back and Steve giving her a piggyback all the way down the mountain. It took almost eight hours, with countless breaks for water and to stretch out his back but Steve had actually managed to get them back to where he had left his truck.

He helped Rowan into the passenger seat, threw their gear in the back and then got into the driver's seat.

"I can't wait to go home," Rowan whispered. "I'm going to drink my weight in tea, order in some pizza and shower this weekend off of me."

Steve stared at her. They had really gotten close that weekend, in more ways than one. And while he had been happy to learn about her, to help her over some of her hurdles, and to have her help him over some of his, nothing made him happier than to hear her call his house her home.

She smiled at him, that smile fading a notch when she noticed the way he was staring at her. "Are you okay?" she asked.

"Yeah," he whispered, taking her hand and pressing a kiss to her knuckles. "If you're up to it I might get in that shower with you… conserve water you know?"

Rowan smiled deviously at him. "Okay, but you only get three minutes of my shower time then you're getting evicted."

She was joking and he knew that, a play on the Navy showers that he kept trying to impose on her. So he shook his head at her and put the key in the ignition. "Let's go home."


	128. Chapter 128

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Friday. Did you know today is my birthday… Do you know what that means? SURPRISE I'M DOING A MARATHON FOR YOU GUYS! We're going to have a 7 day marathon, which I thought you guys might appreciate. It's gonna get us all the way to the start of Season 5 if not farther. Do you wanna hear something crazy? I've written 155 chapters now. I've written all the way up to Episode 11, Nahele has officially been introduced, and I think you guys will like what I did there. But guys… I'm just a 45 chapters away from having written 200… that's… that's just crazy! CRAZY! This chapter in particular has some cute moments, we're going to see Wo Fat and Matty again, and we have some funny moments between Rowan and Steve and the other Five-0's. I had a lot of fun writing things one so I hope you guys enjoy it. I'll see you guys tomorrow!_

Chapter 128

* * *

Steve, Danny, Kono, Chin and Grover all stood there watching the display in front of them with rapt interest.

It had been any regular old day. They had gone into work, to finish up paperwork on their last case, to have lunch and shoot the shit.

Steve had the day off. He was supposed to be spending it with Rowan, so they were all so very surprised to have Steve show up at the headquarters with a man in handcuffs and a very angry Rowan, following him. The two of them embroiled in a very loud argument.

The poor man hadn't been taken down to the dungeon, he had been shoved into Steve's office to be dealt with later. And then Rowan and Steve went at it right outside the office door in plain view of everyone.

"He was robbing the store Rowan! Did you want me to let him shoot the clerk? Let him take the money and go?!"

"No! But you could have just passed it off to HPD once it was done, but no! Someone had to play hero, someone had to crash into an ongoing robbery to save the pretty girl…"

"Oh my god, Rowan I didn't do it for her…"

"Well you sure did accept her thank you, didn't you!"

"SHE ATTACKED ME ROWAN! She was distraught and jumped on me what was I supposed to do, knock her out of the air?!"

"How about NOT making out with the store clerk in front of me, how about that?"

"For godsake Rowan!"

"No! This happens every. Single. Date!"

"Really I save lives and single handedly stop robberies on every single date?"

"No! But something happens. You're either pulled into work, you have girls hanging all over you or you're finding work WHILE we're supposed to be out!"

"You are overreacting, so can you please calm…"

"DON'T YOU FUCKING TELL ME TO BE CALM!"

Shit this was bad. Grover had never seen Rowan look that angry before, he had never seen them argue like that before and he had watched Steve arrest her for no reason. He glanced to the others who were also watching but they didn't seem too shocked at all.

"Uh… how often do they…?"

"Like every other day," Danny growled which caused Kono to smack him.

"I mean, they argue but like… it's never been this bad," she clarified.

"Yeah… this one's pretty bad," Chin agreed.

"Yeah bad," Danny growled. "Though let's be fair it's gonna be worse for me."

"Worse for you?" Kono snapped. "They're the ones arguing!"

"Yeah but I'm going to have listen to him bitch when this is done!" Danny hissed.

"Yeah and I'm going to have to listen to Rowan cry, what's your point?" Kono hissed right back.

"And Steve…actually all of us… have to listen to _you_ bitch on a regular basis… about everything. So… I mean… it's the least you could do," Chin added and Danny glared at him.

"I WAS NOT CHEATING ON YOU WITH CATHERINE!" Steve shouted and they all jumped.

"Great they're back on that," Chin said with a sigh. "This is _really_ not going to end well."

"She needs to let that go," Danny growled and Kono turned a glare on him. "It was a mistake, he said he was sorry, he picked her in the end she shouldn't keep bringing it up."

"No… I get why she's mad," Kono said. "They were working things out. He threw down a ridiculous ultimatum and when she wouldn't agree he went straight to Catherine. The woman who made her life miserable and made her feel like in order for us to be happy she had to go. It was a low blow."

"Yeah but they weren't official," Danny reminded her. "And she made it sound like she was leaving him so…"

"Yeah but that doesn't mean he should run straight back to Catherine," Kono argued.

"So, what he's supposed to wait until she decides to be reasonable?"

"YES!" Kono cried just as Danny said: "NO!"

Both of them turned to Grover and Chin and said: "Can you believe this?!"

Both Grover and Chin shrugged. "She's got a point," Chin said just as Grover said: "He's got a point."

Oh great they were split right down the middle.

"NO! I will not be telling you where he is! I told you! Stop asking me to snitch on my brother!"

"HE IS NOT YOUR FUCKING BROTHER!"

They all shook their heads. "You know this is just going to end with Rowan apologizing to him right?" Grover asked.

"Why should she apologize? Steve could just… you know… not work for once," Chin argued.

"He can't help it if crime follows him around. She knows him, she knows he can't stay away from the drama. She's supposed to like him the way he is," Danny reminded them.

"Okay. You guys wanna bet on it?" Kono asked. "Twenty dollars says he has to apologize to her."

"Yeah? I'd throw down forty on her apologizing by tonight," Danny snapped.

"Oh I want in on this action. I don't think it's going to be tonight, but I'll throw down forty on him having to apologize."

"Yeah I'm good for forty on Rowan caving first," Grover said.

"Fine you guys are on."

"You know what! Don't bother coming home tonight! Stay at Danny's cause I'm done with you!" she screamed walking away from him.

"It's my house, Rowan!" he called after her but Rowan just flipped him off and stormed away without saying hello or goodbye to any of them. Steve roared with frustration throwing his door open to his office and shouting: "You fucking prick! You see what you just did? Ruined my whole fucking day! You better tell me where your _fucking_ accomplice went I swear to fucking god."

The poor man in the chair was so scared he actually threw himself to the floor to get away from the advancing Steve. Fuck Danny felt bad for the man, but at least he was smart enough to tell Steve everything he wanted to know. Now he just had to convince Steve not to make up with Rowan first but to make her come to him.

That wasn't cheating right?

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve returned to his house to find each of his doors barricaded and a gym bag with more than one night's worth of stuff waiting for him on the porch. He could have easily broken in but he didn't want to deal with that, not tonight anyway. He didn't want to argue with her… not when he was certain that she was over reacting, so if she wanted to sleep alone, let her. They both knew she'd come running the second she had a nightmare. The only problem was he didn't want her to have to come running, he wanted to be in bed with her, he never did sleep well without her.

Sighing, Steve reluctantly left his house and went to Danny's, who… for some reason… was very glad to see him.

They had drunk beer together, talked about how unreasonable Rowan was being and then Danny had retired to his bed and Steve had taken the couch. But he couldn't sleep. He was restless, he was worried, and he wanted Rowan. They had been going steady for at least three months now, and living together for four, he was no longer used to sleeping alone. Without her body tucked into his he couldn't sleep. Oh he could doze but it never lasted long.

Which was why he woke up the second he heard movement in the house. But he didn't sit up, there was no point, he knew who was in the house with him, knew by the way the sleepiness lazed over him, and how his heart seemed to relax suddenly. Steve turned just as Rowan walked around to his side of the couch.

She didn't say anything but he knew something was wrong otherwise she wouldn't have been there. He rolled off his back and to his side to look at her. He knew those eyes. She had had a nightmare.

"What is it, what did you see?"

"He sets the hotel on fire and you get stuck inside."

Wow, that was a new one but Steve was too tired to dissect that one. "Okay, avoid hotels, come here," he whispered opening his arms and letting her slid under the blankets with him. She tucked her head into his chest and his arms wrapped around her tightly.

Already he felt lighter and sleepier than he had moments before.

"I'm still mad at you," she whispered into the silence, her hands resting on his sides to tug herself even closer to him.

"I figured," he whispered right back his nose dipping until he could inhale the coconut and lavender of her all-natural shampoo. Her fingers gripped his sides a little tighter and he tried not to groan at the contact.

"Good night Steven," came out in a breathless whisper and his heart soared up into the night sky. Tomorrow morning they'd still be at odds, but for right now, with her in his arms, everything was right in his world.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

When Danny got up the following morning he was ecstatic to find that Rowan had broken into the apartment to cuddle with Steve. He took pictures of them and shot them off to everyone involved in the bet to prove that he and Grover had won. An easy 80 bucks for both of them.

They were in the middle of a giant text war about the legitimacy of the supposed "make up" when Steve said: "What are you doing?"

"Telling everyone you two made up," Danny said, already flipping open his camera to video tape their response.

"I haven't made up with him," Rowan answered sleepily. "So you can tell your friends that you haven't won your bet."

Oh fuck, who had told her about the bet huh? He'd bet major money that it was Kono.

"They're betting on when we'll make up?" Steve asked his eyes coming open.

"Mhmm… Chin says there's 80 bucks riding on which one of us caves first," Rowan said. Oh so Chin was the fucking snitch. Good thing he didn't put money on it. Danny watched Rowan roll off her side and stretch out beside Steve. As if he couldn't resist, Steve pressed a series of small kisses to her jawline. Rowan put a hand to his face and pushed him away. "Stop it, I'm still mad at you."

"Fine then get off," he snapped and shoved her right off the couch. Danny watched her hit the floor and just like that Rowan went from sleepy to awake.

"Oh my god! STEVEN!" she shouted and he sighed and finally opened his eyes.

"What?! If you're that mad at me you shouldn't want to be here, right?" he asked and she scowled at him. God, why did Steve do that? Now this argument was going to last even longer.

"Fine! You want me gone, McGarrett, I'll leave."

Steve groaned and rubbed his face quickly, getting up as Rowan did. "Come on, you know that's not what I meant," he called after her, but Rowan was already getting her shoes and her purse.

"Nope, you want to sleep alone, sleep alone. Or better yet sleep with Danny I'm going to go where they appreciate me!"

"Oh yeah? And where's that?"

"I unno, Wo's?!" she cried and Steve's cocky smirk fell right off his face which emboldened Rowan. Like she had forgotten that Wo Fat was Steve's weak spot. "Yeah! Maybe I'll go to Wo and maybe I'll let him take me off the fucking island. And maybe… MAYBE I WON'T FUCKING COME BACK!"

Panic hit Steve like a freight train, Danny could see it from where he was standing. "Don't you dare," he ordered. "Rowan… Rowan don't you…" but she was already out the door, and Steve launched himself over the couch to chase her. "Rowan Pierce don't you fucking do it! I swear to god, if you don't think I won't track your fucking location and send every HPD unit we can spare to arrest him you have another fucking thing coming."

Great now the argument had Steve out on his front lawn in nothing but a pair of loose grey board shorts. Wonderful. All his neighbours were going to see. Half the girls on the street would come a knocking hoping to comfort him. Danny was going to have to chase them all away. He'd have to move now.

Danny watched Steve duck as Rowan hurled her phone at him, had he not ducked it would have got him right between his stupid eyes. "Try tracing me without a phone ASSHOLE!"

As Rowan got in her car and drove away Steve retrieved her phone and came back inside. "Call Duke, put an APB out on Rowan. She's either going to be in her car or Wo's Audi. Have them trail her, and once they got a location on her, call me. If she's really gone to Wo I'm going to arrest him… that'll show her."

Danny sighed but refused to reach for his phone. Duke wasn't going to follow Rowan and neither were any of them. This argument was getting a little too out of hand… he may have to forego the bet to get them back together before they took this to a whole other level. Because they all knew what would happen if Wo Fat took Rowan off the island. Steve wouldn't rest until he got her back and Danny was not down to go on that ride.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Matt woke up and sighed. He could already hear Wo Fat in the kitchen, the man was always up early. He had been living with him for at least a month and a half now, and originally Matt had enjoyed the company. But Wo Fat was bland, emotionless, and not impressed by fucking anything. All he ever wanted to do was drink whiskey and smoke cigars. He also spent a lot of time talking to, or watching over his sister. So when Matt came in the kitchen and Wo Fat on the phone not sounding happy, he assumed that he was having another argument with Rowan.

"I've already told you, McGarrett, she's not here and even if she were here, I wouldn't fucking tell you," he growled into the phone. "And I really don't appreciate you using her phone to contact me."

Matt took that in. McGarrett could be Steven McGarrett who was Danny's work partner. But clearly Wo Fat had bad blood with him, as he didn't sound happen to be picking up a call from him. So much for him being on the phone with Rowan.

"No, I will not send her back if she does show up here. If she felt the need to run from you than she has a fucking reason, now doesn't she?" Wo Fat snapped. "Maybe you should be treating her right, instead of doing… whatever it was you did to upset her…. Yeah fuck you too buddy. You better hope you find her first cause if I find her, you'll never see her again."

And then he hung up the phone. "God, I need a drink."

"It's like 10 in the morning," Matt said but Wo Fat ignored him and immediately began pouring himself a whiskey on the rocks. "What's uh… what's going on anyway?"

"My sister is having relationship issues again. Her boyfriend… or whatever the hell he is… has lost her again. Usually this is not an issue but she threw her phone at his face so he could use his resources to track her and now I don't know where she is because I too need her phone to track her," Wo Fat answered. "So this is shaping up to be a fun day. I'm going to have pay a lot of people to do a lot of searching."

Matt nod. Rowan was his sister and he was very overprotective of her. He had hear whispers of what he was willing to do when it came to keeping her happy and safe. So he couldn't help but wonder why he didn't just deal with the issue? Ohh, McGarrett sounded like that cop partner that Danny had been constantly bitching about the last time he saw him three years ago… except he also secretly liked him cause he invited him to family dinner. Was his sister dating law enforcement? Ohh that must have made family dinners hella awkward.

There came a knock on the door and since Wo Fat looked busy with his phone and Matt was bored, he figured he'd answer. It was a private villa it was probably one of the guards locked out again.

But when he answered the door a red head was staring up at him. She looked like she had been crying, her cheeks were red, her eyes were this unwavering blue color and though he should have been concerned at her appearance he couldn't bring himself to worry about this tiny little package. She smiled warmly at him and said a happy and perky: "Hi!" and then shoved pasted him and into the house.

He probably should have been concerned but he hadn't seen a female in months since the last hooker he had snuck into the compound. Yeah, that was too much work to keep doing. Besides, this girl, while a bit too cute-sy to be his type, wasn't all that bad to look at.

"Uh… hi? Who are you?"

"Did you just answer the door?" Wo Fat called from the kitchen. "Like seriously? You're literally supposed to be under protection so a deranged drug dealer doesn't find you and kill you and you just opened the front door?" he stormed into the front area where the girl was taking off her shoes and Wo Fat paused, tumbler of whiskey on the rocks clinking in his hand. "Uh… what are… you really came here? I mean I know he called and said that you'd… is it really a good idea for you to be here?"

" _He_ called you? Who's… do you mean Steve?" she thundered putting her hands on her hips as she glared him down. "Well, Fuck, Wo! Why did you answer?"

Matt was impressed, Wo Fat actually took sass from her. Whenever Matt had sassed Wo he had just glared at him until he apologized. But under the stern glare of this girl he actually faltered, like he was being chastised.

"Well… cause he called me off of your phone and I thought it was you… cause, you know, someone whipped their phone at him so… I mean…"

"Whatever, where's the ice cream, I need ice cream."

"So wait… you're going to stay here? Why?"

"To piss him off!"

"Ro you can't stay here!"

"Wait… wait… Ro as in Rowan Pierce?" Matt interrupted. He couldn't help it, he was sort of thinking that this was the girl who rescued him, that this might be the Rowan Pierce, but she was also cute and she looked harmless so he wasn't sure. But now that it was confirmed he couldn't keep his excitement to himself. He pointed at her with a big goofy grin on his face. "You're Rowan Pierce?"

Rowan frowned at him. "Why does everyone say it like that?"

"Because the rumours make you sound very badass and in real life you look about as badass as a kitten," Wo Fat said moving back towards the kitchen, probably for the ice cream. "I was seriously though, Ro. You're trying to make sure the Five-0s don't find him, cause Danny can't keep a secret to save his life, remember? Steve will track you here."

"I threw my phone at him remember?"

"That boy is obsessed with you. I fully believe that he can track you with or without the phone. He'll go full super SEAL on you, or… or… hack a satellite to track you. It's scary his obsession with you, and we can't have him finding out about Matt. Remember? You're words, not mine."

Rowan groaned. "I don't want to go back. He's being an asshole. I'm not going back until he admits he was wrong," she whined. She started to cry a bit, bowing her head to Wo Fat's Chest and Matt just sat there staring at them. At the way angry resignation flashed across Wo Fat's features as he draped an arm around her.

"Fine. Fine, but we're going to have to be on high alert… or you call him and tell him you're here and you're fine."

Rowan pulled her head out of Wo Fat's chest and then shook her head. "No. I don't want to talk to him."

"Okay. I'll call him."

"No. He doesn't want to talk to you either. He'll trace the call."

"True. Hmm… wait… I have an idea."

Wo Fat pulled out his phone and dialed a number. Rowan asked him who he was calling but he stooped down to the freezer, pulled it open and put a pint of ice cream in her hand in response.

"Oh. Hello. Kelly? McGarrett with you? No? Wonderful. Can you please inform him that Rowan has arrived safe and sound? And that he's made her cry again. Yes that last part is very important. He's made her cry and she's talking about staying here indefinitely and I can't have that so he has to fix it… …Yes I know that's hard if he doesn't know where she is but that is not my problem, Kelly. Tell him to fix it or I will. I will be returning her tomorrow morning, if he hasn't figured out how to fix it by then I'll take her back. Got it? Yes. Thank you. Have a nice night."

He then hung up the phone. When he finally turned back to Rowan she had three bowls of ice cream in front of her. She offered one to Wo and then one to Matt. "And how do you expect him to fix it."

"By telling him I will," Wo Fat said opening a drawer to get the spoons. "He's terrified that I'll take you off the island. By insinuating that I will deal with it, he'll immediately come to the conclusion that I'm going to take you."

That and he had just threatened to do so like ten minutes ago. But Matt wasn't going to tell her that if Wo Fat didn't want to.

"Wouldn't that mean he'd come looking for me now?" she asked.

"I gave him a deadline."

"And you think he'll trust you to follow through with a deadline?"

Wo Fat paused, spoonful of ice cream and the spoon still in his mouth as he thought that over. "You're right. You'll have to go back now."

"NO!" Rowan cried. "Let him suffer!"

" _We're_ going to suffer if he kicks the door down to get you!" Wo Fat cried as Rowan picked up her bowl and walked out of the kitchen and towards the TV room.

"So… we'll just hide Matty in a closet or something. If you're right he'll only be interested in finding me anyway."

"Yeah, and arresting me…"

"Uhm… not to interrupt but uh…. Wo Fat said that you know my brother?"

"Danny, yes," Rowan said as she sat down on the couch beside him.

"Uh-huh… and how did you know I needed rescuing?"

"I'm psychic," Rowan answered as she picked up the remote. "I had a vision, we did some research, and sent someone down to go and get you. The guy's ruthless… and we paid him well to not tell anyone who sent him over."

"I also threatened to let Rowan annoy him…" Wo Fat added coming to sit on the other side of her. Rowan shifted immediately to rest against his shoulder. Matt knew from experience that Wo Fat didn't like to be touched, but he didn't seem to mind it when it was Rowan curled up against him.

But Matt had quickly realized that Rowan's power wasn't her intimidation, or even the network that stood behind her. No, her power came from her ability to take strong men and bend them to her will. She was the most dangerous kind of female around and he was very grateful that she was on his side.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

The night was hellish.

Knowing Rowan was with Wo Fat secreted away somewhere that Steve hadn't been able to locate. Having to trust that Wo Fat really would return her in the morning. Having the threat of that man taking her away from him if Steve couldn't find a way to fix things with her looming over his head had kept him up. Had turned him wild with fear, with anger, with a terrible debilitating need to have her again, to hold her, to never let her go.

After this he was going demand that Rowan never saw him again. He was going to make sure that network wasn't need. He'd handcuff her to him, he'd never leave her to her own devices again.

So when he got to The Mariana Tiki Bar and found that Rowan was sitting at the bar, he couldn't contain himself. He was at her side, sweeping her up in his arms and smothering her in kisses in seconds.

"Jeezus, Jeezus, okay, okay Steven, I missed you too," she said her own arms coming around his neck, he pulled away to kiss her properly. She melted into him and that kiss and his whole body went from tense to rock hard for her.

"Last night was pretty shitty," he whispered to her. "I didn't like it at all. I'm still mad at you, but I'm not doing another night without you so I need you to come home. Okay? We can argue when we get home."

Rowan pulled away from him. "I'm not going anywhere until you apologize."

"Rowan stop being stubborn."

"I'm not being stubborn. I'm hurt. I'm hurt by your actions and the fact that you refuse to apologize to me. So, if you want me to go home with you, you'll have to apologize," she said with a shrug.

Steve lounged back against the bar and glared at her. "Rowan. Be reasonable. You're mad at me for doing my job. You're mad because a girl tried to thank me and she got a little handsy. These are not reasonable reasons to be mad."

Rowan glared at him and picked up the drink the bartender slid towards her. "You still don't understand Steven," she snarled. "May I suggest you think of someone other than yourself?"

She then picked up her drink and moved farther down the bar. Steve sighed to himself. This wasn't good. He wanted to cave but what was the point. This was just going to happen again and then they'd be back in the same argument all over again.

"She looks very pretty today, doesn't she?"

Steve straightened knowing immediately who was standing beside him. He turned to Wo Fat who was sipping on a red and white striped straw that was sticking out of a coconut, wearing a pair of cat-eye tortoise shell sunglasses that matched the pair Rowan had bought a few weeks ago. Their Sibling Glasses she had called them. Cause they needed to match for some reason.

"What are you doing here?" Steve hissed, his hand moving for his holster. Wo Fat held up Steve's gun but when Steve went to take it, Wo Fat secreted it away again just like he had with Rowan yesterday.

"Calm yourself, you'll get it back when things are settled," he said. "Don't want a mishap that puts our girl in danger, right?"

Steve glared at him, he knew without a shadow of a doubt that he could overpower Wo Fat if he had to but he also knew that he didn't want to start a fight with him with Rowan so close by. Especially since he knew if they got into a fight, she would try to intervene. Wo Fat was right, Steve didn't want to have her hurt in her attempts to keep them from injuring each other.

"What are you doing here?" he repeated his voice nothing but a low growl.

"I am obviously here to make sure that she met you. I wasn't about to leave my girl in a bar by herself when she looks like that. And I'm also here to make sure you and her sort things out," Wo Fat said. "Which is ridiculous because I am the least qualified for this. Why do I always end up being your relationship counsellor? It's disgusting."

"There's nothing to fix. She's being unreasonable."

"Oh is she… do you see that man?" he asked pointing to the man across from Rowan who seemed very interested in talking to her even though she wasn't. "He's flirting with her, much against her will, but he's trying very hard."

Steve went to move because he was right. The man was leaning against the bar, a hand to Rowan's arm, who, while glaring at him, kept trying to move her arm, but everywhere she moved it, he moved his hand right back to her. Yeah, that man needed to go but Wo Fat put a hand out to stop him. "You see, your first response was to fight. Correct? You were going to go over there and intimidate him, right?" Yes, that was right but what did that have to do with anything? "Do you think Rowan can afford to do that? Women are a completely different breed from us and they are rarely intimidated by one another. That and Rowan is about as intimidating as a puppy."

Oh, he had a point there. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that Rowan Pierce is extremely self-conscious about how you and her look beside one another. And it upsets her when you let girls hang all over you."

Rowan self-conscious? Really? How could she be? How did she not know how much he liked her?

"I shouldn't have to tell you this, McGarrett," Wo Fat growled. "How do I know more about her than you do?"

"I don't know… she just doesn't talk to me about this stuff…" he admitted.

"You're with her all the time what do you two even do during all that time you spend together?" he asked. Steve opened his mouth to tell him that they mostly just had sex but Wo Fat must have realized that he had opened himself up to hearing things he didn't want to hear because he lifted a hand to stop him. "Never mind, I've figured it out."

"Look… I didn't realize it upset her that much…"

"She threw a phone at your head. I think whatever lead up to that might have tipped you off to her being upset."

"I thought she was mad at me for interrupting our date," Steve answered sullenly.

"Yeah, I mean, why would she be mad? You just promised her up and down that you'd spend the whole day with her and she had all of these things planned to do with you that wasn't just things that she liked. She was only extremely excited to be spending that time with you, to see if she found something you two might do together all the time. You're right it's completely unreasonable to be terribly disappointed that her boyfriend would rather be at work than with her."

She _had_ had a lot planned. Rollerblading on the boardwalk, holding hands so he wouldn't fall. Lunch at his favourite restaurant. Jumping off the rocks at Waimea Bay. She had been so excited that morning, her smile wide, her eyes sparkling, and they never even made it to lunch.

And he never really thought about it that way.

"Okay. So I fucked up, are you happy?"

"I had to babysit my sister yesterday. I'm pretty sure I ate my weight in ice cream and raw cookie dough in solidarity alone while she bitched non-stop about you. Do you know how much she baked yesterday? What the hell am I going to do with seven dozen cookies, two cakes and three dozen cupcakes? The brownies are gone though, they didn't last long at all. And yet here I am trying to get you two back together," he growled. Whoa. Wait. They weren't together? That was news to him! "So, no, McGarrett, I am obviously not happy."

"We never broke up," Steve said to him. "Yeah we were arguing but we never broke up."

"You two aren't properly together either," he shot back. "Not until you put that label on her."

"Okay… look… I mean… why are you… Look. I'm going to fix this, okay? I don't need you threatening me."

"I'm not threatening you."

"Oh? I have to fix it or you will? I'll take her and you'll never see her again?" Steve repeated.

"Okay, so I might have threatened a little bit," Wo Fat said. "But it's the only language you speak."

It was the only language either of them spoke to each other and he had a point, the threats had worked. It had gotten his heart rate up, it had him worried and anxious, it had him needing her back. But it was the explanation that worked the best with him.

"Okay, next time can you just explain it to me? Or better yet, have her explain it to me so you don't have to talk to me at all."

"I would love to do that my dear," Wo Fat said. "But you keep calling me. And stalking us when we're out…"

"Okay, easy fix. Stop putting me into situations where I have to contact you."

"Even easier fix. Stop fucking with my sister. You have gone through hell and back with her and for her, just fucking lock the girl down. What the hell are you waiting for?"

"For you to get out of the picture."

Steve turned to find Wo Fat glaring at him so darkly it almost scared him. "The only reason you're alive, McGarrett, is because I know killing you would greatly upset her. You want me out of the picture, fine, but it'll be at the cost of your life."

Steve laughed hollowly. "Oh, look at that, more threats."

Wo Fat finished his coconut and slammed it down on the bar. "Do what you want. But I promise you. If I lose the only family I have left, simply because you can't share, I will make your life a living fucking hell, McGarrett. So, keep that in mind."

Steve watched him leave before turning back towards Rowan and heading over to her.

"Get lost," he growled and the low-life that had been hovering over her, his eyes practically undressing her, nearly knocked the stool over trying to get away from her.

"That was rude Steven," Rowan said turning a glare on him. Yeah, they could argue about his bar-side manners later.

"I'm sorry I messed up our day, Rowan."

There it was out there, and he actually meant it. Poor Rowan was so shocked by that that she actually had nothing to say to him. She just sat there blinking her eye at him surprised.

"Yeah. I know, I tried to… I tried to make it about me, but you put a lot of time into planning that date for me and you were so excited to spend time with me and I went and found us a case."

"I mean… don't get me wrong I think it's great that you saved the day, but you didn't let HPD take over, you wanted to go find the accomplice that got away… and that girl…"

"Yeah, I uh… I didn't think it bothered you that much if other girls flirted with me, I thought you knew that you were the only one for me."

"She wasn't flirting Steven. She was flat out making out with you."

"Okay, fine, I'll give you that. But I'm serious Rowan. I don't notice other woman around me, I don't notice any attempts at flirting cause the only girl I care about, the only girl I want flirting with me is you."

Rowan glanced down to the drink in her hands and then back up to him. "I know, I guess, but it's hard. It's hard to always have girls all over you… especially since you seem so blasé about it."

"Well, yeah, that's cause I don't give a shit about them. But… I can try to be clearer about you being my girl with them so they'll go away."

"Yeah?" she asked sliding a little closer to him. Steve smiled and nodded. "Then I guess I can forgive you."

Steve quickly pulled her to his chest and kissed her deeply. "Can we go home now baby?" he asked his words nothing but breathless whispers against her lips.

"Course."

"Good, cause I got another day off… uh… well I will when I call in. But uh if you'd like a redo of our date day I'm down."

Rowan's smile widened and Steve knew that all of this would be worth it. And it got even better when he got to tell Danny that he lost his bet and he and Grover both had to pay out 40 bucks to both Chin and Kono. Just the icing on the cake.


	129. Chapter 129

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hey guys! How are you liking the Birthday marathon? I hope you're enjoying it. In this chapter we have some mention of above pg13 things, but it's supposed to be really cute so I hope you guys enjoy it. In other news I've figured out how to post chapters from the app on my phone, which is great for you guys cause I'm not at home for the weekend, I'm out partying up with my friends up north, so I'm posting this using data and the app! Hopefully it freaking works! See you guys tomorrow!_

Chapter 129 

* * *

Panting, Steve urgently pressed his lips to Rowan's to swallow the ragged cry of his name as she climaxed against him. Which was followed, no much longer after that, by his own climax and his own half, cry half shudder of her name against her shoulder.

Finished, spent, sweating and heaving he clung to the girl who drove him wild, bracing them both against the sink in his small ensuite bathroom. Rowan caught her own breath, her head tipped back against the mirror as Steve smiled lazily into her neck, pressing soft kisses to her skin. God he loved doing that to her.

"You… fucking… asshole…"

Steve smiled up to her, tugging her a little closer to her, the motion getting him hard again. "You loved every second."

"Well no shit, but you messed up my hair, and my makeup and we're probably late again… and I swear to god if you left marks…"

Steve carefully assessed her pale collarbones and neck. Nope. No marks. "You're mark free and you look stunning, my darling, as always."

Rowan rewarded him with a solid kiss and he growled grinding his hips against hers again. "Not again," she whispered to him. "If we bail on this date, Danny will kill us."

Reluctantly Steve pulled out of her and then helped her slide off of the sink. God she looked beautiful, with her hair all tousled up and her make up all smudgy and her lips all plump and pink from all his kisses and that stupidly seductive off the shoulder black dress making her look like a bombshell. Fuck what this girl did to him.

Rowan turned to assess herself in the mirror and Steve grabbed her hips again, pulling her back to him. "God you're beautiful," he whispered into her ear and he felt that atmosphere around them change when she smiled.

"Steven," "God I love it when you say my name like that." "Steven McGarrett!" "Yeah baby, like that." "Stop it this instant!"

Steve groaned against her but Rowan refused to turn around. Good thing too because he knew what would have happened if she did. He would have started kissing her again and they would have ended up back against that sink again.

"Seriously Steve I have to get ready. Don't you want me to look prettier than Amber?" she asked.

It wasn't a contest… but… hell fucking yes. His baby was gonna be the prettiest fucking girl in that restaurant, she was gonna turn all the heads and if anyone gave her too lurid a look Steve was gonna punch them out.

"Alright, alright, fine," he said to her, kissing her cheek again and finally letting her go. "But just so you know, you are absolutely gorgeous, no matter what you do and what you wear."

"You have to think that, you're dating me," she said quickly turning to Steve and kissing him on the lips. And then she shoved him out of the washroom.

Steve could only smile. God he loved being domestic with Rowan. It was everything he thought it would be and then some.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

This was a terrible idea.

When Danny suggested a double date with his best friend, and his best friend's girlfriend she had hoped and prayed that it wouldn't be Rowan and Steve. Kono and Adam… hell she would have taken Chin and Jerry but of course, it was Rowan and Steve. Amber had tried to be okay with it, but if she was being honest, she didn't like Rowan.

Rowan who knew things without any explanation as to how. Rowan who called her the wrong name. Rowan who could call Danny in the middle of the night and he'd not only answer but go to her if necessary. Rowan who was the cool Auntie Ro that Grace loved. And while she was at it she didn't like Steve. Steve who was too pretty to be as nice as he was. Guys with abs like his weren't generally decent guys, and they did date average girls like Rowan. Not without ulterior motives. Steve who was closer to Danny than any other living person. Steve who had the kind of arguments she and Danny were supposed to have. Steve who was Danny's work wife… and well… essentially his regular wife too.

Amber wasn't sure what use she was in Danny's life that Rowan or Steve didn't already fill… except you know sex. Because apparently Rowan and Steve were doing that with each other.

But Danny had asked her to go and she liked to make Danny smile so here she was sitting across from Steven and Rowan who were just as ridiculously, disgustingly cute as Danny had warned her they'd be.

She was still in shock over it.

Steve always had to have a hand on Rowan, either draped on the back of her chair, playing with her hair, holding her hand, or under the table on her thigh… or at least… that's where Amber was hoping his hand was going. She kept glancing at Danny who kept his hands to himself when they were together and wondered if they would ever be that cute.

She wasn't sure that they ever been even a fraction as cute as those two were now.

But this wasn't a competition. Or at least Amber didn't think it was.

"So how did you meet Rowan?" Amber asked trying to make conversation out of the awkward silences between Rowan and Steve's heated covert glances to one another. "I don't think I ever heard the story."

"Oh, uh… I dropped out of the sky and into the ocean right beside the dinghy they were stranded in," Rowan said. "They saved me from a tiger shark."

Amber blinked her eyes. What? "Like out of an airplane?"

"Sure, something like that."

Oh wow that was something ominous. Amber narrowed her eyes at her suspiciously. "And you survived?"

"There's a lot of things in my life that should have killed me, but I'm still living!" Rowan crowed and Steve smiled at her, wrapped an arm around her shoulder, tugged her close to his side and kissed her temple. Amber turned to Danny almost surprised, normally people… they didn't talk like that. Like being in and out of life-threatening situations was bragging rights, maybe it was when you were dating someone who worked with Five-0 though. Maybe Danny thought Amber was boring because she wasn't in and out of dangerous situations like that.

"That's my baby jumping into every dangerous situation she can find," he said with a proud smirk on his face. Oh wow… Steve was just as fucked up as her. What a perfect clusterfuck of relationship that must be. Why did Danny want to spend time with them?

"Yeah, to save your asses!" she snapped to them. She then smacked Steve. "Like you and Danny don't jump into every piece of drama, danger and terrorist act you guys can find."

"Okay, topic change. Steven, anything you want to ask?" Danny growled before Steve and Rowan could devolve into cute nuzzling kisses again.

Steve blinked his eyes at him, a confused look dawning on his face. Amber didn't know if it was because he was lost in Rowan's eyes again or if the question confused him. "Uh… no?"

"Steve, I think he means the safe conversation topics he gave you."

"Oh… right… uh… did you bring those?" he asked. Rowan went for her purse. "I think I have the text."

Danny put a hand to his forehead while he groaned with frustration as Rowan's phone appeared in her hand. "Oh yes, here it says under no circumstances should we bring up all the dangerous situations you two end up in. And my history… aw wait how come we can't talk about me?"

"Oh my god, Rowan."

"Does she not know what you do?" Steve asked him but Danny just put his head in his hands and braced his elbows on the table.

"I like it better when you two are arguing," he growled to them.

Rowan rolled her eyes and then said: "Fine, safe topic." She then turned to Amber, and smiled in this pretty little way that Amber did not find innocent or reassuring. "Amber how was your day at work? Where… uh… where do you work? No one's told me that yet."

Amber ignored the question and turned to Danny with wide eyes. "You gave them safe topics to talk about?"

"You don't know what they're like," Danny groaned. "They will literally say anything and everything. I'm trying to not scare you off and you're already intimidated by Rowan."

"How are we still on that?" Rowan asked. "I'm about as intimidating as a kitten. I would know, my brother keeps telling me so."

Amber just stared at her and then turned angry eyes on Danny. "You told them I'm intimidate by her?"

"Okay… so maybe… is shouldn't have mentioned it," he said to Amber and then turned to Rowan to hiss: "And it was on the list of things I put on the _don't mention_ list."

"You think!" she thundered. Just as Rowan asked: "Was it?"

"Oh, my god. I'm so embarrassed right now," she cried looking down at her hands.

Rowan, who had her phone in her hand suddenly said: "Oh yeah… there it is," and Danny kicked her under the table causing her to yelp and her phone to clatter out of her hand. "He kicked me!"

Steve was on his feet in a second, same as Danny about ready to start arguing, maybe even a fist fight, but Rowan grabbed the back of Steve's black dress shirt and tugged him down to his chair. "Fight him later, Rambo," she snapped before turning her attention back to Danny. "What the hell is your problem?!"

"Can't you see you've upset her?" Danny hissed, indicating to Amber who just sunk into her seat even more embarrassed then before.

"I think she's upset with you, not us," Steve growled but Rowan's attention finally fell on Amber and she tried to smile encouragingly.

"Aw… no… don't be upset," Rowan said, leaning across the table to take her hand. "I mean I'm sorry but really, if you think about it, I'm not the biggest threat to your relationship… Steve is."

"Excuse me?" Danny snapped.

"Yeah, I mean… if you think about it… Steve's the biggest threat to your relationship. Kind of like Danny is to mine," she repeated which just earned her confused stares from the boys at the table.

"Uh… excuse me, but I think that Catherine…" he started but Rowan waved that off.

"Oh don't get me wrong, Catherine was a big issue, like totally the number one problem to begin with," Rowan said with a shrug. "But… uh… now that's she's gone… well… Danny's my biggest threat."

Danny threw down his fork and shouted: "Excuse me?" again while Steve chocked on his sip of wine and managed to cough out a: "What?"

Rowan turned to Steve to explain. "Well… the only person closer to you than Catherine was Danny, in fact, I'd go as far as to say that you were closer to Danny than Catherine. If you're going to leave me for anyone, who isn't Catherine, it's going to be Danny. Your bromance is a borderline relationship… in fact, sometimes I'm certain you're more intimate with Danny then you are with me."

"Thank god you feel that way too!" Amber cried, and Rowan reached across the table to high five her. It was the first time Amber and Rowan had ever agreed on something.

"Okay. Now… wait a second… we… me and Steve…. We have never been _intimate_."

"No. But Steve knows all your secrets, and, Danny, you know all of Steve's secrets before I do. The two of you cuddle more then me and Steve do, and Steve has admitted he loves you, he won't even give me a label. You've got the label _and_ the _I love you_. So, I'll say it again. You're the only threat to my relationship with Steve. Just like Steve's the only threat to your and Amber's relationship."

Amber nodded. "It's true. As much as I'm worried that Grace will never like me as much as she likes Rowan, I'm probably equally if not more worried that you'll realized you're in love with Steve and leave me."

"See. Me too. Except the other way around. And with all the life-threatening situations they get in, I'm afraid they're one explosion away from realizing they love each other."

Both men stared at their women with shocked horrified mouth opened stares before they both devolved into arguments. The difference was, when Rowan turned her patient eyes onto Steven, he fell quiet and just stared at her.

"You trust him more than me," she told him. "You trust him implicitly in a way I don't think you'll ever trust me. You tell him that you love him. He's your best friend. In fact, the only thing you two don't do is have sex because that's the only thing I can offer you that Danny can't. You know… unless you two decide you're gay for each other and then you won't even need me anymore."

"I'm not… I don't… Danny… I…" he stuttered he then turned his eyes away from Rowan to Danny. "Help me," he implored.

Danny took a deep breath looked from Amber, to Steve and then finally to Rowan and said: "You are out of your mind."

"Yes," she answered immediately. "Doesn't mean I'm wrong about this."

"Rowan, come on," Steve sighed. "I'm crazy about you. Literally crazy about you. Danny can tell you how insane I am when it comes to you," he said to her and then pointed to Danny. "And I'm gonna pay you back for kicking her best believe," he then turned back to Rowan and said: "Danny… Danny's my best friend and you know that. But you know… I want to trust you… but you… uh… lie. To me. To all of us. And you know… your brother…"

"I keep telling you I do not tell my brother what you do…"

"No, you just talk about our personal relationship."

"Well I have to talk to someone! I can't trust Danny to keep his mouth shut! And Chin, and Grover and Kono they take everything I say and take it straight to you. I have no where safe to turn except to my brother, who I know tells you nothing."

Danny sat back in his chair and turned to Amber. "And now we're going to get to watch the have an argument."

"Wow, from really cute to an over emotional argument," Amber whispered.

"Yeah, just as long as they don't start making out or disappear into the washroom we're good."

"She's right though, you know?" Amber added. "Maybe you and Steve are just really good friends, but you are closer to him than anyone else. So, I don't just have Rowan to worry about, I have to worry about him too. Will you ever trust me like you trust him?"

Danny reached out and took her hand. "I don't know, but I'm more than willing to try and make it there."

Amber smiled and leaned in to kiss Danny on the cheek. Both turned back to where Rowan and Steve were done arguing and instead were staring lovingly into each other's eyes, their foreheads pressed together. A mischievous grin on both of their faces.

"If you two try to sneak off to the washroom we will leave you with the bill," Danny warned.

Rowan and Steve turned to them surprised as if they had forgotten they were there. They apologized and settled back in their own seats.

Rowan cleared her throat. "So I'm down to share a dessert. I'm thinking me and Amber cause Steve's all about that caramel and I'm all about that chocolate."

"Oh yeah, it's chocolate all the way," Amber said with a smile. Okay maybe there were more things that she and Rowan had in common.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Danny was walking shoulder to shoulder with Steve. In front of them Rowan and Amber were walking arm in arm twittering and gossiping away as they walked barefoot on the beach, every now and then walking into the water and laughing. Probably trading stories of Steve and Danny's eccentricies and laughing it up.

"I gave you one thing. Just one thing to do," he snapped to Steve. "Keep the conversation on one of the safe topics. I gave you like a list of ten."

"You gave me even more to avoid."

"For god sake, Steve. I wanted this to go well," he growled.

Steve shrugged. "It did go well. Amber and Rowan are finally getting along, isn't that what you wanted?"

"In what world, where Rowan looks us bare face in the eye and says that we're the biggest threats to each other's relationships, does that mean that things went well?"

Steve thought it over. "I mean… Rowan and Amber have something in common?"

"You are seriously a bad friend," Danny sighed. "How are you not more worried about what she said?"

"I am worried," Steve said. "But Rowan's irrational fears mean nothing. It never happened in her TV show so it's not going to happen now. Unless you're… you know…"

"Interested in…." "Me?" "You?" "Well, are you?" " _No_. Are… uh… are you?" "In you? No. You know how I feel about Rowan."

"Well I mean… I do… but why doesn't she?" Danny asked. Steve groaned but he wasn't going to let this go. "No, seriously, why Steve, why doesn't she know how much you care about her? Why does she still think that you don't trust her?"

"I do trust her… she just…. It's Wo. You know how I am about Wo. I've been trying… but… I still don't know if he's planning something. She sees him… and I never know when he just snatches her up off of the street…"

"Has he done that again?"

"Well no… he says he'll give her warning for the next time but… I don't know… sometimes it feels like she's on everyone's side but mine."

"Well she just announced at dinner that she feels like she can't trust me, or Chin or Kono or Grover… that he's the only one that she trusts because he won't run straight to you and you know… that hit me hard. I never thought about what it must feel like to be alone, to have no one to turn to or talk to that won't take everything I say straight to someone else… like a report."

Steve silently took it in. "I guess… I guess I never saw it like that."

"And if you think about it, babe, that man has put more effort and money into saving and taking care of that girl than you have," Danny reminded him and Steve just frowned. "I know you don't want to hear this but what if… and I'm just saying _what if_ here… what if Rowan's right about him. Okay? What if… what if she actually got to him. Like what if… he won't actually pull shit on you so long as he thinks it'll upset Rowan if he did."

"Well… he did allude to that…"

"You see. Look. Rowan said he's just looking for his dad, right? I get that, the dude just found out that the man's alive, he wants to see him, it's natural. Think of what you'd do if you found out your dad was alive… think of what you did when you found out your mom was alive. He's feeling all of that… except probably not properly. If you get him that info, he'll like… owe you…" Danny cried.

Steve sighed. "I'm trying but no one wants to give me that info and I don't even know where to begin, you know?" he admitted. "And do I really… really… want to make nice with him?"

"He's the adoptive brother of the girl you're romantically obsessed with babe," Danny said with a smirk. "You're gonna have to accept that he's a part of your life now."

"Ow! Shit! Ow!" Rowan suddenly cried. She was hopping on one foot and holding onto Amber's arm as Amber tried to help her stay up all while trying to look at Rowan's foot. "Steve!"

She didn't even need to call him name, the second she had cried out in pain he was moving towards her, having abandoned Danny immediately. "What is it, baby, what happened?"

"I stepped on something Steve… what… what if it's a needle? Is it a needle?" she asked.

Steve got down on bended knee and pulled her foot up to look at it. Rowan's hands were on his shoulders as he probed the injured foot and then felt at the sand at their feet. The water washed up and soaked one of Steve's legs, but he didn't notice, his sole focus was on Rowan.

Amber came to stand beside him, her arms wrapping around him. "Wow…"

"Yeah, he's uh…" "Yeah I can see," Amber whispered.

"It's a shell Rowan… you stepped on a shell," he said to her his eyes turning up to hers a smile on his face.

It was moments like these that Danny loved to see. The way they looked at one another like the world was in their eyes. The way the world around them always seemed to cease to exist and all that mattered was each other.

"Wow."

Danny smiled at her. "Yeah."

Steve stood quickly pulling her up into his arms, carrying her bridal style away from where Amber and Danny were standing. Danny knew that the world was lost to them now, they had all but forgotten that they were there.

He turned back to Amber who was smiling after them. "That looks…. You know… it looks…"

"Ideal," Danny finished for her. He smiled to her and the he too stooped down and picked her up. "Doesn't mean that we can't be just as… ideal with some practice."

Amber rested her head against his and pressed a single kiss to his lips. Yes. They could be just as amazingly perfectly dysfunctional as Rowan and Steve one day.

And maybe one day Rowan and Steve… with some practice… could be just as normal as he tried to be with Amber.

All they needed was practice.


	130. Chapter 130

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hey guys day three of our seven day marathon! Thank you so much for all the birthday wishes! You guys are great readers! Alright, you guys, this is the chapter where the lovely Guest Reviewer, AJ's character will be introduced. With the possibility of being brought back later, maybe, we'll see. So, to AJ I hope I did you and your character justice, I hope you enjoy the chapter and to everyone else, I hope you guys enjoy it too! Still posting from the app hopefully you guys are seeing this! See you tomorrow!_

Chapter 130

* * *

Rowan and Steve had so much to do today.

It was the first official Game Night at the McGarrett house. Where they were going to be hosting their very own game night like an official fucking couple. Which meant a lot to her because she couldn't get him to agree to put a label on her. And of course, in the midst of last-minute preparations that Steve swore he'd help her with, the asshole went and caught a case. It was Rowan's job to hand him off to Danny at the crime scene on her way to getting more supplies for the party.

"Come on Steve! We're running late as it is!" she called up to him.

"I can't find my shield baby! Where did you throw it?"

Rowan tried not to groan. Yes, they had gotten quite passionate last night after he had come home from work but she didn't remember throwing his badge any where. She had thrown his boxers across the room but not his badge.

"It probably fell off your belt again, try under the bed," she called again.

"It's not there," he shouted back. "I checked."

"Well check again, cause if come up those stairs and find it under the bed I'mma super glue that fucking shield to you hand!"

She heard him grumbling upstairs but she didn't have time for this. "I'm going to get the car started," she called but Steve ignored her this time. She opened the door and startled the other person on the other side.

Whoever she was, she had a hand poised and ready to knock on the door, and probably would have if Rowan hadn't opened the door when she had. The woman on the other side was wearing tan cargo pants and a black tank top. She had long dark brown hair and kind of looked a little bit like Catherine, the only difference was the green eyes.

"Uh… hi? Can I help you?" Rowan said. She didn't like this. This didn't feel right. Catherine was gone, but a Catherine look-a-like was now standing on her door step… why?

"Hi… I'm looking for…"

If she finished that sentence with Steven McGarrett Rowan was going to flip shit. "AJAX!" Steve shouted behind her. Oh. Fuck no.

"Stevie Wonder!" the woman cried out, shoving her way past Rowan quite effectively to enter the house Rowan had no intention of letting her into and hugging the man that Rowan was supposed to be dating.

"Man! It's been too long. Did you uh… did you ever get that FBI gig?"

Wait, hold on, she worked for the FBI? That was kind of suspicious. That someone who went way back with Steven McGarrett, who also worked for the FBI, would just show up out of the blue, with no prior notice or attempt to get in contact, only a few weeks after Wo Fat escaped prison and went under ground after doing her a series of favour… like killing a guy who had kidnapped her boyfriend's co-worker's daughter.

Okay she was just being crazy right? Like not everything in the world was about her and Wo Fat. Maybe this… Ajax person was just here to see Steve… that's totally plausible… right?

"Sure did, but look at you, with your own task force. Never thought I'd see the day that Wild Steven McGarrett quit the navy," she said slapping Steve shoulder.

He was grinning, ear to ear, actually he was beaming. Well… that was it, she was going to be late for dropping him off, she was going to get bitched at by Danny.

"Uh… hi… I'm Rowan… the girlfriend," she said. She heard Steve open his mouth, knew he was about to say that she wasn't his girlfriend yet, and she elbowed him in the ribs as quickly as she could as she threaded her arm with his. "Don't you dare," she growled to him and then offered this Ajax person her hand.

"I'm sorry, and your name is… uh… Ajax?"

"Naw, my name is AJ, short for Amanda Jean, but Steve used to call me Ajax when we were kids."

Rowan blinked her eyes as AJ took her hand and shook it. Ah an illusive childhood friend. So, they did exist. "AJ lived down the street from us and she'd come down to play with me like… every day. She was such a tomboy too, always getting muddy, had an amazing football tackle… and yeah. She moved away when we were… oh… we had to be ten." "Yeah, something like that." "And we sort of kept in touch over the years, but she's been, you know, in Washington becoming a big bad FBI agent and I was you know…" "Touring the world?" "Yeah that's one way of putting it."

They finished each other's sentences. Not even she and Steve did that… unless they were arguing.

"So how long are you in town for?" Steve asked.

"Only a few days, I was going to ask if you had some free time for your favourite childhood friend, but uh… I guess you're busy."

"Naw it's just a case," Steve said. Dear god if he blew off a case for this girl, Rowan was going to kill him. He never blew of cases for her… and he was fucking her. Hell he had promised her he'd help her with the supply run for tonight and he was blowing it off for a case right at that moment. "Hey… I know you're on vacation but uh… did you want to come with?"

"You want me on a case with you?"

"I mean… you don't have to help or anything but if you just wanted to passively watch on maybe?" Steve asked a cheeky grin on her face. "Besides it would give us the time to catch up."

"I'd love to!" Ajax cried with a big beaming smile on her face. Great she even smiled like Catherine.

"Oh, babe, she should come to game night, Jerry said that his… uh… his plus one can't make it so you know, we need an extra player."

"So, she's going to a crime scene with you and she's coming to game night," Rowan asked almost sarcastically. She then donned a fake smile and tried to be as enthusiastic as possible as she said: "Oh yay!"

What she really meant was: _Fuck me._

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Danny stood beside Chin watching as the Catherine look-a-like chatted up with Steve at the side lines of the murder. They were talking shop, talking about theories. Which was pissing Danny off because that was his thing, that was a his and Steve's thing.

Their body had been found at the bottom of an ice machine that morning. And then Rowan showed up, with Steve and this new woman, and then promptly dropped them onto Danny because she didn't want to deal with it anymore. Danny had almost forgiven her, she was taking tonight's Game Night very seriously and she was very annoyed that Steve wasn't staying home to help her. But he could tell that she was also pissed off about the amazing Ajax, on vacation from her cushy job with the FBI, showing up unannounced.

"I guess you can say… he was put on ice," she said and Steve broke out in loud laughter like it was the funniest fucking thing he had ever heard. Which was bullshit because if Danny had made that joke Steve would have just rolled his eyes and called him stupid.

Beside him Chin let out a breathy chuckle, just a single one, more like an exhale of amusement, but it still earned him a glare. The traitor.

"Oh, come on, that was kind of funny," Chin whispered to him.

Danny shook his head. He had a bad feeling about this. Steve kept mentioning childhood friends, but Danny always thought he made them up because Steve was neurotic and hard to put up with, and the only people who could do it successfully without trying to kill him was Rowan, Danny and the rest of the Five-0s. But maybe Steven wasn't as bad as a child as he was now. Danny doubted it, but maybe.

"So, tell me about this girlfriend who isn't a girlfriend?" AJ suddenly asked and Danny and Chin were suddenly very, very interested in this question and why she was asking it. They exchanged surprised glances, but Steve didn't seem to find this suspicious.

"Well… she's sort of, kind of, my girlfriend… I just… we don't do labels," Steve admitted.

"Are you sure cause I think she does labels," AJ told him. How astute of her to realize that Rowan was one of those girls who very much wanted a label. But Steve hated getting into that conversation and the scowl was enough for AJ to realize that and change the topic. "How long have you known her?"

"Two years," he answered. "What about you, you got anyone?"

"No," AJ answered stiffly. "And she's not from here is she?" when Steve just turned to her she added: "Come on now, I lived her long enough to spot a Haole. Where is she from?"

"Uh… Canada," he answered.

"And her family is there?"

Steve was suspicious now. Hell, Danny and Chin were pretty fucking suspicious too. Why the hell did she want to know all of this stuff about Rowan? Why did she care? About Rowan of all things. Was she after Steve, was that why she was here?

"Uh… she's estranged from her family…" "All her family?" "Why are you asking me all these questions about my girlfriend?"

"I thought she wasn't your girlfriend," Danny called and Steve turned a scowl to him and snapped an unimpressed: "Shut up."

"I don't know. I guess I'm interested to see what kind of girl tamed you. You know? You had high expectations, I guess I'm curious to see if she meets them… cause honestly looking at the two of you… it just looks like an odd match you know?"

"What the hell does that mean?" Steve snapped. Oh hot damn, she hit Steve's main insecurity when it came to Rowan right on the fucking nose. Danny knew he'd have to save Ajax from the argument that was going to break out if they stayed on this topic. And besides he wanted his case and his best friend back.

"Okay, you know what, no. No more chit chat, we have a case, buddy, so save the catching up for later."

"Oh yeah, we gotta wrap this up, Rowan was very clear if we miss game night because of a case she'll not speak to us for a week," Steve added with a sigh.

That actually sounded quite nice and the prospect of not having Rowan's nagging in his ear for a whole week sounded great. That must have shown on his face because Steve sighed and growled: "Yeah, smile, go ahead and smile, you don't have to live with her."

"I mean… if she gets really mad she'll probably make you sleep on my couch again…"

"Shut up Danny," Steve cried storming away and as he did Danny turned his attention back to AJ who was on her phone. Now who could she be texting with that look on her face?

Seriously… what was this girl after? Information or Steve? Maybe they could have another running bet on what it was.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Danny and Amber were the third couple to arrive, Amber immediately went to where Rowan was sitting with AJ and Kono and Steve was relieved.

"Thank-god you're here man," Steve whispered dragging Danny into the kitchen to get a beer. "Rowan has been nothing but frosty since AJ and Jerry got here and… like… I thought Kono would be the mature one and help smooth things over but Kono's on her side and they've like… frosted AJ out."

"I thought you said Rowan was fine with AJ."

"Turns out I was wrong," Steve said. "I came back after the case and she was livid. I think she's just mad at me for bailing on the prep for tonight but she's taking it out on AJ."

Danny nodded. "You know… uh… to be fair… she has been asking a lot of questions about her, maybe Rowan doesn't like that."

Steve shook his head but Danny wasn't going to let it go there.

"I'll bet you any money… any money that AJ is here to get info about Rowan," Danny said taking a sip of his beer. Steve scowled at him and Danny added: "Well you said the CIA knew about her, maybe they want to see how much she knows."

"That's the CIA, AJ works for the FBI."

"They live in the same house don't they?" Danny asked. "Look, AJ has an in with you already. Easy to send her in, lull you into a sense of security, get you to talk about Rowan."

"AJ is just a friend, Danny," Steve snapped. He didn't want to believe that AJ would do that to him, he just didn't.

"Yeah, a friend who spent most of the day asking you questions about Rowan, she even asked US questions about Rowan," Danny told him. "So either she's here cause she was to fuck you and she's trying to get Rowan out of the way or she's fishing for info."

"You're insane."

"Well you're so sure I'm wrong you wanna bet on it?"

"Bet on it!"

"Yeah, if AJ doesn't make a move on you, if the FBI or the CIA don't swoop in to arrest Rowan lunch is on me for a month." Oh that was a sweet deal. "But if I'm right, I'm driving during work hours for a whole month."

Less of a sweet deal. Still Steve was super confident so he shook Danny's hand.

They returned to living room area, with drinks for the people who had arrived and bowls of nibbles. Steve sat beside Rowan who happily put her head on his shoulder.

"We had a great idea," she told him. Amber nodded molding into Danny's side. "We're going to switch partners."

"Switch partners?" Steve echoed.

"Yeah! Cause we're always with the same people," she said. "We thought it might be nice to change it up get to know people."

Steve was already nervous because everyone at the table currently was very, very competitive… well… except for Jerry and Amber. And Steve was looking forward to playing with the girl who could count cards and cheat at everything. He was basically guaranteed to win.

He glanced around to the women who were all excited for this prospect and the men who didn't give a shit and asked: "Well how would we decide who gets who?"

"We'd draw names from a hat," Rowan said. Ah the luck of the draw, he could get someone good, he could still get Rowan.

"Alright baby, if that's what you guys wanna do then we'll switch partners up, okay?" he said pressing a kiss to her head. Rowan smiled and immediately ran off to get slips of paper, a pen and a hat. Steve just smiled at watched her go. As soon as she was gone AJ slid a little closer to him and whispered: "So does she like random games of chance then?"

Aww fuck. What if Danny was right? Huh? Steve might have been screwed.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

After everyone arrived they were immediately put into pairs different from their original pain. Steve got Chin, Amber got Lou, Kono got Jerry, Renee was with Danny, and somehow, and Steve could tell that both women were not happy with this, somehow Rowan and AJ got paired.

Everyone was so off put by their matches, claiming that none were a good fit, that they had all agreed on the bet. The team with the most points got to choose a dare for the team with the least points to complete.

And everyone had assumed that AJ and Rowan, the worst matched of the bunch, would be at the bottom but while neither of them had been impressed they sure as hell came together to dominate the games.

They had crushed at Pictionary; they had destroyed them all at charades and they had damn near slaughtered everyone at a card game called Kemps before they remembered that Rowan could fucking count cards.

They had quickly taken away everyone's points for the Kemps games they had played but that still left Rowan and AJ in the lead with an astounded 15 while everyone else was below 7, except for Danny and Renee and Chin and Steve who were both below 5. At this point all Steve needed to do was beat Danny and Renee.

"Okay so what can we play now?" Amber asked.

"How about Monopoly?" Renee answered.

"NO!" Steve, Danny, Chin and Kono shouted.

"What… what the hell do you people have against Monopoly?"

"NEVER play monopoly with Rowan, she has no mercy and takes no prisoners," Kono warned her.

"It was one game…"

"And by the end of that game she owned most of the board, had like five hotels on each piece of land and had bankrupted everyone!" Danny snapped.

Rowan huffed at them. "Aw come on now," she chided. "Monopoly isn't about making friends, it's about making real estate deals. Not my fault you guys didn't take it seriously, I told you I was going to."

They all shook their heads at her. AJ just laughed. "Wow, a girl after my own heart," she crowed which just won her a suspicious glare from Rowan. "How about we go outside and play grounders? Or do prissy-princesses like you not climb?"

She had addressed that question to Rowan who merely smiled coolly at her. They had been doing this all night, it was miraculous that they had managed to team up at all through all the shade they had been throwing at one another. But it was that question there that got Rowan, it was like right at that moment Steve saw something on her face change, like she had decided that that was enough.

"Or, how about we play truth or dare!" Rowan cried turning to Ajax with a sudden cool grin on her face. "Okay Amanda Jean, Truth: Did the FBI send you down here to see how much I know about Wo Fat?"

Ajax went a white color. As Rowan added: "Secondary Truth: Is it true that you took this assignment because you knew your friendship with Steve would get you through the door?"

Steve scowled at Rowan, she already knew all this was true or she wouldn't be doing this. He should have listened to her when she said she had a bad feeling but it never occurred to him that Ajax would betray him… he had thought they had been such good friends. Though, to be fair, it had been such a long time since he had seen her, people did change.

"Must be a career changer. Being the one who catches Wo Fat, probably gonna get that promotion you're angling for. What did he say it was? Senior analyst?" Rowan asked.

"You called Wo Fat about me?"

"Yep. Got your name and file back in twenty minutes," Rowan said proudly picking up her phone. "You wanna talk about your fuck up on the Budapest project?"

Ajax visibly jerked like Rowan had slapped her. "Okay you two, up and in the kitchen. Now!" he ordered.

Both of them followed him and when he turned Ajax was all ready for the lie. "She's got it all wrong."

"Here's a tip you probably didn't get in your file. Rowan's never wrong."

"This isn't a vision," Rowan whispered and he nodded. "Okay, that changes things…" "Wo Fat has a contact in the FBI and the forward me over the unredacted file… wanna see?" "Okay no it doesn't. Really AJ?"

AJ had the decency to lower her eyes, it was the first time he had called her by her initials all day. "Look. He just walked out of a supermax and then showed up on Hawaii and went under ground. We have no chatter on him, except for one incident where he ordered his men to kidnap her. And somehow she ended up not ransomed for information, but handed right back to you at apparently no cost. And now, now she's proven that she has direct access to him."

Steve realized what had happened immediately. She wasn't here because she thought she could get info from Rowan, she was here to get info from Steve about Rowan. The FBI had sent someone to get info about his girl from him.

"No reason… I wasn't kidnapped!" Rowan snapped. "I mean, technically yes, but that was cause he knew we were being surveilled and he didn't want them to think I know where he is."

"So, you're telling me you don't know where he is?"

"Of course not. Steve would have gotten it out of me by now if I knew."

"She has a point I'm really good at guilting her," he added. "But that doesn't change that you thought you could use me for information. I thought we were friends AJ."

"We are!"

"Then how could you…"

"He's an international criminal who kills people, all the time. He has absolutely no sense of morality," she argued. "How are you okay with letting him walk free? Why are you okay with letting your not-girlfriend-but-sort-of-is-your-girlfriend help him evade the law?"

"You've killed just as many people," Rowan added. "What makes you any different? The fact that you have a badge? You still killed people who had families, with people who would miss them. You're no better than him just you're on the other side of the morally grey law. It doesn't make you any less of a murderer."

Steve turned to Rowan horror painted all over his face. Was that… was that what she thought? That he was still a murderer… he did what he had to do to keep people safe, he killed murderers and terrorists, he killed people before they killed him. He was more than justified in every person he had ever had to shoot and she knew how, even though it was justified, sometimes it still haunted him. How could she say that to him? Or in front of him? Just to protect her psychopath of a brother?

"Notice she avoided the evading law question," AJ snapped pointing at her.

"How nice of you to avoid the whole point of this argument, which is that you inserted yourself into Steve's life again to spy on me!" Rowan shouted.

"Okay… both of you stop it! AJ I need you to tell me the real reason you're here. And Rowan… why the hell would you even think of going to your brother about this?" Steve snapped, needing them to stop bickering ASAP.

"I got suspicious about her showing up out of the blue," Rowan told him. "Especially after Kono warned me that she did nothing but ask questions about me, where I come from and what I do for work. So I sent her name off to Wo and he came back with a file like twenty minutes later. Even has a paper trail and an informant that confirms she got sent here to sniff him out, sniff out how much I know about him and how often I'm meeting with him."

Steve turned to AJ with hurt in his eyes. "Is that true?"

AJ's mouth floundered. "I mean… after Budapest… I had to do something and they were thinking of ways to get close to her without him figuring out… I didn't want to but I also fucked up really bad and I've been trying to make that better… and… I really deserve that promotion you don't know how hard it's been, how hard I've had to work just to get this far?"

But that didn't make things better with him. Not only had he lost his bet to Danny, his oldest childhood friend had become a snake.

"How could you?" he hissed. "Just how… God…"

He stormed away, leaving Rowan and AJ in the kitchen as he rushed out into the night. He didn't go far, he couldn't go far… he just needed to hear the lull of the ocean to calm him down.

He wasn't out there for ten minutes before Rowan and AJ had joined him, each taking a seat beside him in the sand, each on opposite sides of him. He sat silently waiting to hear what they had to say to him and he wasn't disappointed.

"Okay so me and AJ have talked it over and I may have gotten a tad aggressive…" Rowan said to him and Steve turned to her. She was on his left, closest to his heart. He couldn't believe what she had just said. Really? She had talked it out with the traitor? "I'm definitely angry about you ditching me today and I may have unnecessarily taken it out on her…"

"But you were right. The only reason she came here was to get information. Information about you."

"And Wo Fat," AJ clarified. "And Rowan has given me information to take back to my superiors that won't get her or Wo Fat in trouble and still makes me look good. Which was pretty cool of her."

Steve turned between the two of them. "Wow, really? Why did you do that? You don't have to do that."

"Course I don't," Rowan said. "But she's a childhood friend. You guys used to play on the beach here together. And… well… she was put in a hard position, you know? That Budapest project… I mean… I get why she'd do anything to try and make herself look better. And I truly believe that she's sorry for it. Aren't you?"

"Oh, I am!" AJ cried. "Yeah we may have lost touch, but you're still my Stevie Wonder and I hated having to trick you like that."

Steve sat there momentarily.

"Okay now that that's settled were going to go back inside. AJ has her eye on Jerry so I'm going to try and give her tips and pointers on how to land him…"

"Just tell him you're interested and give him your number," Steve listed out and Rowan smacked him.

"No duh, but we're going to try to finesse it a little bit," she said. "Don't be long, we can't wait to beat you at another game, we already have the dreaded task for the losers picked out!"

Of course, they did. And despite the set back, AJ and Rowan still won. What was worst was Steve and Chin lost.

But at least AJ got Jerry's number.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan stood beside AJ with a big giant grin on her face. She couldn't wait for Steve and Chin to come out in the costumes they had picked out for them. Rowan had her camera ready and AJ was going to take a video of it.

"You know… this has been the most fun I've had in a long time," AJ whispered to her, smiling over to Jerry who had brought food from Kamekona's truck including shaved ices for them.

Yeah Rowan bet she had fun. She had gone home with Jerry last night. But she wasn't about to ask because then AJ might ask what she and Steve did and Rowan didn't want to talk about that.

"Hey, if you ever need a break feel free drop on in, no one's gonna bug you if you're with me," Rowan said to her with a big grin and AJ just smiled at her. Okay, so maybe things weren't 100% perfect with AJ but it was much better than before. Much better than things between Rowan and Catherine too.

Luckily they didn't have to continue with the idle chit chat because Steve and Chin came out of the Palace in the outfits Rowan and AJ had picked up that morning.

Red and white cheerleading costumes. Both men looked livid but everyone else was laughing.

"Aw, now do you two lovely ladies look nice!" Grover cried, he too taking pictures of them.

They were in the white and red pleaded skirts, white sports bras with a red Redskin's logo just to rub it in that Steve at lost. They were carrying red and white pompoms and Kono had done their make up with bright white glitters and black brave symbols.

They both posed for their pictures but after a while Steve was obviously not happy because he asked: "Okay, can we get this over with now?"

"Nope, we need pictures with you guys first!" Rowan cried and then she handed her phone off to Kono who took pictures of Rowan and AJ with the boys and then a few separate ones including one of Steve and Rowan where the annoyance left Steve's features and he just smiled down into Rowan's large happy grin with a look of absolutely adoration on his face.

"Okay, okay, now for the cheer!" she cried picking up her phone to take more pictures.

Both Chin and Steve sighed but got into position for it.

 _Our Team is what! Dynamite!_

 _Our Team is what! Dynamite!_

 _Our Team is tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick BOOM!_

"DYNAMITE!" they all screamed together and then they all broke out in laughter.

"Okay, we're done we're going to change," Steve growled already turning away.

"Aw, no wait! Can't a girl get a kiss from her favourite cheerleader?!" she cried. Chin turned immediately to comply and Steve had to grab him by the back of his sports bra to pull him back with a deep growl of: "You know she means me". He then swooped in and kissed her deeply before turning around and saying: "You can get more once I'm change!"

Rowan watched him go, loving his ass in that uniform. Maybe she'd buy it and that would be their thing. She'd be the football captain he'd be the cheerleader and of course sometimes they'd switch rolls. Rowan returned to her friends, checked her phone and then secretly shot off a text to Wo Fat with a picture of Steve.

Steve would be super mad to find out she did that, but she figured, since Wo Fat sounded lonely these days that she'd give him something to make him smile. With any luck Steve wouldn't catch a case and they could all go off together. This was shaping up to be a great day. She wouldn't even mind if AJ came along.


	131. Chapter 131

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hey guys, so what did you think of AJ? AJ… did you like AJ? I hope so. I hope that chapter was GREAT. Anyway, after this chapter, there is one more filler chapter and we're onto season 5… not going to lie… for the first like 7 chapters there is quite a bit of angst. But it's just growing pains, and highlighting the problems in Rowan and Steve's relationships, they always make up, and I have some steamy moments coming up and a lot of fun and fluffy moments so don't get discouraged with the angst. I'm so excited. It's almost Season 5 time! Tell me what you're looking forward to seeing! Any episodes you're excited to see my twist on? Don't forget to review and I'll see you tomorrow!_

Chapter 131

* * *

 _*Two weeks ago*_

Rowan skidded to a stop in front of the counter and then stood there gasping. Kamekona stared down at her. He wanted to be worried but one of her mens came through yesterday and threatened him and his truck so he wasn't too impressed with her at that moment.

"Hey! Are you… are you okay?" she asked when he'd only glare at her she groaned and said: "I'm so sorry!"

Like that was going to fix things.

"He said he'd set the truck on fire, little sistah," he said to her and her smile faltered.

"Okay… yeah… I unno… he tends to go a little overboard…"

"Aren't you dating McGarrett?"

"I am. Wo's my brother, haven't I told you that?"

"Whatever he is he threatened to set my main source of income, my pride and joy, aflame!"

Rowan sighed. "Okay, yes, and I'm sorry about that but he said he compensated you… did he…?"

"Blood money!" he spat out.

"Yeah… but did you keep it?"

Kamekona had kept it, there had been a lot of dough stuffed in that envelope. He wasn't going to pass something like that up. She didn't need to know that though.

"You're banned for a month…" he snapped to which Rowan cried: "A _month_?"

"At the very least a month. No Rowan specials for you. You try and order them little sistah and I'll put in twice the fish and twice the spam."

Rowan made a face, a disgusted one and after a moment's contemplation she regarded him with a quizzical stare and asked: "Aww come on now… there's gotta be something I can do to make it up to you."

Kamekona smiled, but it clearly wasn't a good smile because the second he made that face Rowan started to wince.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

It had been a year since Savannah Walker had been to Hawaii…or at least, a year since she had been to Hawaii to work. She had been pulled in to record an event. It was a promotional event for Atlantic Records and some tiny little shrimp truck that must have won the lottery being lumped in with this event. They had the Alex and the Doctor's headlining the event, and a songwriter, with a familiar name putting the event on. She was wondering if it was the same girl that she knew from her last trip down here.

She got to the event site, which was a little beach area set up for picknicks. She asked security for Rowan and was pointed to a red-head over by the speakers that she recognized immediately.

"Oh wow, you lost the blue sling," she said to Rowan who was struggling with a speaker.

Rowan smiled at her, she let go of the speaker briefly to shake her hand. "It's so very nice to see you again. When Pete said he had got a talk show host to cover the event I was hoping it would be you," she said. She tugged a few more times at the speaker before she sighed and called out: "Babe! HELP!"

And then Steven McGarrett was beside her, taking the speaker from her, having appeared out of no where and not even looking in Savannah's direction. "Where do you need this to go, babe?" he asked. Oh, babe? It was babe now? He turned caught a glimpse of Savannah out of the corner of his eyes and then turned back a frown on his face. "Oh no! Not you again!"

"Oh, calm yourself. Atlantic Records has her covering the event," Rowan said. "Can you put that by the truck, we're going to try to hide them, tell Kame to put a grill in front of it or something."

He said thanks, he got a kiss on the cheek from Rowan and then he was off, not even straining over carrying that heavy ass speaker. For a moment both Rowan and Savannah just watched him go, appreciating the view, the bulging biceps and that sweet looking ass in those jeans.

Savannah cleared her throat first. "Uh… so you and him sorted your shit out." Rowan nodded still watching him appreciatively. "And Catherine?"

"Off on a rescue mission."

"Does she uh…"

"She knew before she left," Rowan said stiffly. "He broke things off with her months before she went off after that little boy."

Savannah nodded. That made sense. Well, it took a little longer than she thought it would. But she had a feeling, when they were shooting that last episode, that Rowan and Steve weren't going to be apart for long, especially since you could see how much he liked her and how much she liked him… and how much being apart seemed to be killing the both of them.

"We should do a follow up episode," Savannah said trailing after Rowan who was helping to direct the people moving the picnic benches. She turned to Savannah with a _hmm_ and, guessing Rowan hadn't quite heard her, she repeated the question.

That time Rowan said: "I don't think Steve would agree to that, and besides you wouldn't be able to get a hold of Catherine cause she's in Afghanistan until further notice."

"Okay, well do you know when things are going to be ready for this event?" she asked.

"Sure. We still have people arriving but we're set to go in about two hours," she answered. Savannah sighed and Rowan seemed to sense that that was a long time to wait. "If you need something to do feel free to talk to Kamekona, I'm sure he can bargain some more on screen air time for food or something. Or maybe you can interview him, I unno."

Well that was Savannah dismissed. Waving her camera crew onward she figured she'd get as many interviews done as possible because once the event was in full swing she wouldn't be able to talk to anyone, and afterwards everyone would be too tired afterwards.

She hoped Rowan had set up an amazing event other wise she was going to owe her something to make up for it… oh maybe she should hope Rowan failed cause she would love to have that follow up interview instead.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Savannah smiled into the camera, and waited for her audience to stop clapping before she started speaking again.

"This week I went back to Hawaii where we came across some familiar faces. I happy to announce that you McRow shippers were right. Rowan Pierce, a burgeoning song writer, the woman behind Alex and the Doctor's latest album and all your favourite singles, has not only made it to the top of the charts but made it to the top of Commander McGarrett's heart. In fact, in a recent marketing event, to support Alex and the Doctor's upcoming tour and some local businesses, we get to see the two lovebirds in action. Let's take a look…"

The music started and Savannah turned to the screen behind here where the camera was on Rowan who was on a tiki inspired stage with Alex and the Doctor's beside her. They were all dressed in Hawaiian shirts and shorts except for Rowan who was wearing a gaudy yellow shirt that read Kamekona's Shrimp Truck and a pair of dark denim capri's. She sung her lyrics, the music upbeat, the tempo quick, and the lyrics were cute and adorable.

 _I got this feelin' inside my bones. It goes electric, wavy when I turn it on. All through my city, all through my home, we're flyin' up, no ceilin', when we in our zone._

The camera panned out to the rest of the beach where you could see the crowd, people were on picnic benches, each and every person holding their own poses. When Alex took over for the chorus everyone started dancing in the exact same way. Revealing a flash mob that had been planned and staged perfectly.

 _Nothin' I can see but you when you dance, dance, dance. Feel a good, good creepin' up on you, so just dance, dance, dance, come on. All those things I shouldn't do but you dance, dance, dance  
And ain't nobody leavin' soon, so keep dancin'. I can't stop the feelin'. So just dance, dance, dance. I can't stop the feelin'. So just dance, dance, dance, come on_

Rowan moved through the crowd as everyone danced, coming up to a line. Anyone watching would know were her friends. The Five-0's and their children. There was a break in the music and then all of them were singing and dancing a long, perfectly in sync.

The final shot was of Kamekona himself at his shrimp truck, wearing a matching yellow shirt, just like Rowan's smiling and singing along holding up a sign for a special on his truck, only for the one day.

The song finished, there was one last close up of the Five-0's and their families where everyone was all cheering and Rowan and Steve were lost in each other's eyes before he planted one big kiss on her lips.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

As Savannah came back on Steve turned off the TV. "Wow… she really played up our relationship… did uh… did you tell her to… cause you know… Catherine already knew."

Rowan turned a dry glare on him. "No, I did not. She saw us together, asked us if we got together and I said yes. Face it we have shippers who were curious, now they know. It's a gimmick for her show that's all. And besides, as you so sweetly like to remind me, we're not in a relationship," she snapped folding her arms over her chest and lounging back.

Steve sat up on the couch and turned to her. "Excuse me? We are in the relationship…"

"Okay then, am I your girlfriend?" "Why do we have to…?" "Just answer the question am I your girlfriend?" "Why the hell do you need the label so much? I'm committed to you, you're committed to me…" "Cause I'm a girl. And we like the stability of a label!"

"Well… Catherine never needed a label."

"Really? That's where you're going to take this?" she snapped. "Isn't part of the reason you like me is cause I'm not like Catherine?"

This was not going the way he wanted to. He sighed. They needed to stop arguing about that stupid label. "Okay, you know what? Not tonight okay? We had a good day, not tonight?"

"You started it," she mumbled.

"Okay but I'm ending it, okay?" he asked. "Babe why don't you tell me why you did this? Huh? I mean, I love Kamekona but uh…"

"Wo threatened him… and his business so I owed him," she answered. And that would be why she didn't tell him about that before now.

"This was a lot for an apology."

"Well… it's not just an apology. Since it was a lot that he was asking for I bargained for something for you guys. So yeah, I've been forgiven but I also got him to agree to give you guys free lunch for a month. All Five-0's… me not included."

Steve frowned over that. He didn't like that deal. "Aw, babe, that's not fair. You should be getting something other than forgiveness."

"It's okay, I'm fine with what I got. Kamekona's happy, you guys get free lunch. I shouldn't be eating out as much anyway, I'm putting on the pounds."

Steve shook his head, pulled her close to him and held her tightly. "There is not a single thing wrong with you my darling," he whispered. "But I swear, if you didn't only order Rowan special's I'd just order two meals and give one to you."

Rowan kissed him quickly. "It's okay babe, honest," she said to him. "Want another beer?"

"Sure thing, I'm gonna check that you-video site thing you like so much, see if the video's up. See how many hits we're at," he said and then watched her go. He was not okay with that deal, and she didn't know it yet but he'd be fixing that as soon as he could.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Kamekona put the shrimp on the hot top stove loving the way it hissed. That video went viral and so did his business. He was raking in the cash now. Just like he knew it would. Rowan really did have the golden touch.

"What the hell is your problem?"

Uh… what? What the hell has happened? Kamekona looked up to find a very angry looking Commander McGarrett glaring up at him. What could he be mad about? He was getting free lunch for a month.

"Free lunch for everyone but Rowan? Are you out of your fucking mind?"

"Her mans…" "He's her fucking brother." "Her brudda then…" "He's not her fucking brother either." Fuck make up your mind McGarrett. "Point is he threatened me and my business."

"And that viral video has more than made up for it," Steve cried. "She deserves more than a _you're forgiven_ and you know it."

"She made her deal…"

"You're making her a better one, right now," Steve snapped. Kamekona looked at him carefully. Steve was much more over protective of her now that they were dating, and they thought there was no way that was possible.

"I mean… I can for a…"

"How much money has that video made you?" Steve asked. "Cause uh… Alex and the Doctor's or Rowan herself can ask for a royalty fee for getting it for you."

Was that even possible? Damn he didn't want to share the money just yet. "Fine. Rowan specials, free for lunch if she's with you guys."

"Deal, call her," he said. From the parking lot came the honking of a very aggressive Camaro driver and Kamekona tried not to laugh.

"You on a case?" he asked. Steve nodded.

"Thanks bud, we'll be by for dinner."

"Dinner isn't free though!" Kamekona called but Steve was already rushing off to placate Danny who was still wailing on that horn. It didn't really matter though, because Steve never paid anyway. Shaking his head, Kamekona pulled out his phone. Better to call her now before another one of her mens came after him.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Slamming his door behind him, Trevor sighed and just stood there in the wake of yet another failure. Why was he still doing this to himself? Why was he racing his shitty car and betting on himself when he rarely won a race? Because he was desperate, that's why.

Sighing he picked up the phone he left behind. So many missed calls several of which were from Roman Stepanov. He wanted his money. And Trevor got that, but he couldn't give it to him… not all of it anyway. God what was he going to do?

Sighing to himself, he listened to his messages.

Three about coaching tomorrow, three demanding parents who thought their kids were Olympic quality. News flash they weren't, but this was the only way he was going to get any money to keep the Stepanov's from capping both his knees. And then the one message he was dreading.

 _I heard about your last race. Unfortunate. Your deadline hasn't changed. Either you find me the money, or you find another way to pay me back._

Aw. Fuck him. Fuck him. Maybe he could hide out in Toronto. But even in Toronto the Stepanov's would find him.

 _Yo!_ Oh that was Sarah. She had called him? He hadn't noticed. Why did she sound so excited? _Your would-be galaxy sister was on TV again and you should see who she's fucking hooked up with. I sent you the link. WATCH IT!_

Telling Sarah about Rowan had been both a blessing and a curse. To be fair, she didn't call him flat out crazy, but he could tell that she was skeptical about his claims. But the worst of it was that as soon as she heard anything about Five-0, or anything about a Rowan Pierce, she came to him with it. Which was torturous, because Trevor was trying to forget her.

He pulled up his laptop out and logged into his emails. The video link took its time to load but when it did Trevor was surprised.

For starters she was on the Savannah Walker show again, maybe not in person but she's got another spot on it which is hard to do once let alone twice. It surprised him to find out that his would-be sister was a singer and a songwriter. He thought that was hilarious because he was working on a stage play… it was supposed to be a musical, it was how he always pictured it but he couldn't write songs to save his life.

And though Savannah Walker confirmed that McRow was a thing, it wasn't until he saw Rowan with her arms around Steven McGarrett kissing him that I realized he was right. This right there, this video, it proved it. Steven McGarrett deported him and his father because he was trying to keep them away from Rowan.

He itched to send it to his father. To tell him that this was the proof but the problem was his dad didn't want to believe it. Trevor kind of got it too, it hurt… wanting something this bad, knowing that he was right but he couldn't prove it… it really, really hurt him in ways he couldn't imagine. She didn't have his DNA, but maybe Steven McGarrett faked it, he was in law enforcement, he could totally do that, couldn't he?

Trevor glared at his computer. God what was he going to do? How was he going to rescue Rowan from a corrupt, means-and-immunity task force leader when he couldn't even save himself from his own debts? He needed help. He just didn't know where to go to get it.


	132. Chapter 132

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: This is it. The last of the Season 4 filler chapters. Guys! Guys… the season 4 document is 750 pages long and around 390,000 words. Though to be fair, season 4 ran from chapter 59 to chapter 132. That is a lot. But that was JUST season 4. I'm already somewhere in the 160s for season 5 and I've rewritten up to episode 15. So you know, it's moving a long quite nicely. I've got a lot of really cute things coming up… but uh… as preparation for season 5… we have a good set of chapters that are nothing but angst. There's about 15 chapters of angst with cute stuff mixed up in between and then after that it's essentially just fluff and funny antics. Don't get too upset! I hope you like this chapter though, it's supposed to be ALL cuteness. See you guys tomorrow._

Chapter 132

* * *

It had been a long time since Doris had returned, a long time since she had been on this island. It had taken a lot of planning to get her here. A lot of work, a lot of evasive maneuvers and a few fly-by-night operations. She was afraid that coming back to Hawaii would get her caught. She was afraid that coming back to Hawaii might get Steve back on her case. She loved her boy, her son meant everything to her, but it was hard to be enthusiastic to see him when he was asking her hard questions.

She was sure Rowan had told him everything by now anyway, which would have led to even harder questions he'd want answers to.

Besides, there was a more important reason why Doris was coming to Hawaii at this time. She had gotten word that someone was sniffing around the Fat debacle. She had heard what they had done to Steve to try and get him off of the scent and she was glad that Steve had killed her handler, because after nearly blowing her baby up and trapping him under a building, Steve was the least of that man's worries. Momma McGarrett had been up and ready to come at them all for that move. But she didn't have to because Steve took care of it nicely.

No, the sniffing around she was dealing with now was the location of Wo Fat's father. Not only had she heard that Steve was asking questions, but she knew Wo Fat was asking questions too. Hell she was asking questions about it and she had no answers. They weren't going to get any, all this probing was going to get the poor man moved again, or worse… put down.

Why hadn't little Miss Psychic told them where he was? Did she not know? Did the amazing Rowan Pierce finally not know something?

Doris had a plan. The first was to stop Wo Fat from doing something stupid. The second was to peak into Steve's place to see how he was doing, she wasn't going to actually see him… she couldn't quite face him and his questions but she figured she could look in some windows just to confirm her boy was alive. She had also heard that Steve and Rowan were _finally_ an item. Which meant she could kill two birds with one stone and get her third plan done which was checking on Rowan to make sure she was alive too. Especially since the FBI and the CIA and many different terrorist organizations were all very interested in her, but keeping a wide berth after Wo Fat did some damage to someone who went after her… apparently everyone who went after her.

Doris rolled up to the Ikaliani Resort and snuck in towards the villa she knew Wo Fat was holed up in. She had chosen day time because Wo Fat had always been a night owl and the men he had patrolling the site were all around and not isolated to the cabin.

She could slip in easily and she did. And then she was bearing down on Wo Fat who was pouring himself two glasses one of whisky and one of Gin.

Wait… two? And who did he know who drank gin.

Wo Fat turned, his gun in his hand poised in her direction. Quick as a rabbit she pulled her own gun and the two of them were in the middle of a standoff.

"What are you doing here Doris?" he asked, his eyes narrowed at her. "Come to apologize again?"

She shook her head. "I'm here to try and talk you out of a terrible mistake."

"And what's that?"

"You're looking for your father, you need to stop."

"I just found out the man is alive of course I'm looking for him," he growled. "He's my father. I thought he was dead."

She got that, she did, but he had to see that she was also trying to keep him safe too. She just wanted to keep both of her boys safe. Safe from the world, safe from each other, safe from a crazy psychic girl who could spill the beans unintentionally and ruin everything. Though, after how things were left with her Doris was surprised that Rowan hadn't just sold her out the second she didn't come back.

The fact that it took almost a year for Steve to find out about Lei Kuan Fat, that Wo Fat only found out after Steve had was shocking to her. Rowan had held onto that secret that whole time regardless of her being furious with her.

"You need to tell me what you know."

"I don't know anything."

"Lies."

Okay, fair. She had lied a lot. Her job was lying. It was all she knew how to do. But she wasn't lying now. Behind them a door slammed shut and suddenly Wo Fat was alert. So was Doris, because she didn't know who was coming in. But she had a feeling Wo Fat did because he looked worried.

"Okay, so I ditched him for the day. I left my phone in the car before I hitched a ride over here. We are set for at least two hours before he starts to panic. So I hope you got popcorn popped, my slushie spiked and movie picked out cause we are on a…."

Rowan rounded that corner and everyone froze. Rowan was stock still staring at them, blinking her eyes at Doris, blinded like a deer in the headlights. The purse fell straight out of her hands and hit the floor as she just looked between the two people frozen in the kitchen.

Oh they were in so much trouble. Doris for being there, and Wo Fat for not getting any of that done.

Rowan was frozen for all of two seconds before she shook herself free of the shock and suddenly shouted: "Doris… is that… like… WHAT?!"

She took a few hesitant steps forward. "Why do you have guns out? What the hell are you two doing? You're not going to shoot each other, stop being ridiculous."

Doris turned and Wo Fat's gun was no longer in his hands. "You were supposed to call me before you dropped in," he growled.

"And I did," Rowan said her focus no longer on Doris and solely on Wo Fat. She looked different. More vibrant. Well… having a relationship with her son definitely made Rowan happier, with any luck it made Steve happier too. "You didn't answer."

Wo Fat opened his mouth to say something but Rowan wasn't interested, she let out a sudden war cry that startled everyone and then tackled Doris.

She did literally no damage, Doris absorbed the hit and Rowan slid down her, her arms grappling around her and refusing to let go. God one of her boys really needed to teach her self defense techniques.

"Rowan what are you doing?" Wo Fat asked with a sigh. "I mean… I wasn't in any danger…"

" _Of course you weren't!_ " she shouted at him. "For godsake we can't let her leave. She's finally back on the island and I need her to go visit Steve."

Fear lanced through Doris almost immediately. This had been cute originally it was no longer adorable. She struggled to pry Rowan's hands loose but failed miserably.

"No… Rowan… I can't…"

"Well you can't just show up in Hawaii to see your favourite son and not go see your _real_ one!" she shouted.

Wow. That was a lot of guilt trips in one sentence, and Doris wasn't completely heartless, or she wouldn't have tried to raise him in place of his mother. And Wo Fat wasn't her favourite, he was just the one that needed the most help. Steve was fine on his own… he had… other people… he had other mother figures, and father figures and Rowan to take care of him. Wo Fat had… well he had Rowan now but Doris still wasn't sure how that was going for him.

"Rowan!"

"No! You have to go see Steve. You have to! He misses you…"

"He wants to ask me hard questions, now get off."

But Rowan refused to move, and Wo Fat was content to just sit there and watch the show until Doris moved to hit her and then he moved too. He caught her hand mid strike and then glared at her and for a minute Doris saw the monster he could become in the name of protecting Rowan Pierce. He stooped down and forced Rowan up and onto her feet.

She said no words, but moaned her distress at him and he turned to Doris with an unimpressed glare and said: "She's right. You're here. You should see your son."

"Your real son!" Rowan clarified again as if Doris had no idea that he meant Steve.

She looked between them as if she wasn't quite sure how it happened, or what she was witnessing, but it was enough. She knew that, in the long run, it would be easier. Seeing as she couldn't get rid of Rowan without retribution from Wo Fat, or really upsetting Steve, and she knew Rowan was going to tell Steve right away that she was on the island.

The united front between Wo Fat and Rowan was enough to help her make up her mind… and agree.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan and Steve had had an argument. It was a standard argument over something stupid and she said she'd go over to Wo Fat's. But the problem was that she went radio silent four hours ago. Her phone was off. Her car was missing. And Chin couldn't get a hold of Wo Fat on the app.

Steve was past panicking. Steve had straight up lost his mind.

Something was wrong. Something had to have happened because there was no reason for her to be silent. And it had to be something big because Wo Fat had gone silent too.

Or… Wo Fat had finally done it. He had taken Rowan and vanished.

He had personally put the BOLO out for her and Wo Fat, and a hit came back literally in ten minutes on her car. Sitting in his driveway.

Duke had not been impressed with that but Steve had checked the house first before going to the station to freak out over the situation until Duke put out that BOLO and she had not been there. She must have returned after he left.

But he didn't wait for the lecture he merely left and went straight home. And they were right her car was in the driveway. He hopped out of his truck and sprinted up to the front. He was used to her throwing herself at him the second the door opened, and Steve had never needed it more than right at that moment. But Rowan didn't throw herself at him, she came to him, he practically bowled into her and that was good enough.

He wrapped up in his arms and his heart finally began to calm down.

"God," he whispered to her. "Babe where have you been?"

"I… uh…" she whispered and then Steve pulled her out of his chest and took a good long look at her. She didn't look injured but she didn't have a strange look on her face. A look that surprised him, a guilty look that made him worried. "Okay before you freak out…"

And then he saw it, the shadow behind her, moving slowly towards them. Steve reached for his gun and the shadow did the same.

Wo Fat.

She had brought Wo Fat into his house.

Rowan got in between them, panic swept across Wo Fat's face, just like he was sure panic had swept across his. "Stop! Put them down!" she cried. God he couldn't shoot Wo Fat now, he wasn't even going to chance it. He needed help, but he couldn't help but stare at his Rowan and wonder how she could do this to him when she knew, she more than knew how he felt about Wo Fat.

"What have you done?" Steve hissed. She opened up her mouth to answer but he cut her off. "How dare you!"

"I can explain!"

"No! I'm done. Just get out. Just get out, take your stupid psycho with you and don't bother fucking coming back."

Rowan actually jerked like he had hit her. She looked him up and down like she didn't recognize him. And for a second Steve froze, because what the hell had he just said? Had he… had he just…?

"Really? After everything I did for you… you're going to end things just like that?"

"Just like that," he echoed. It was a good thing he was so fucking angry because his heart was ripping itself up into shreds right now.

"Wow," Wo Fat said holstering his weapon. "I mean… alright, that works for me. Uh, you pack things up and I guess uh… hey wanna go to Paris? I hear Euro Disney is like the same as regular Disney."

Rowan turned to him an incredulous look on his face while Steve glared at him. What a fucking vulture. They weren't even… was he really going to… the anger in him said yes but everything else in his body said no.

"You're not taking her!"

Wo Fat glared at him. "Well she's not staying here, you just broke up with her. Might as well take her somewhere fun! Right?" he said and then turned to Rowan: "Not Paris, how about California, we'll go to real Disney or whatever."

"Oh god will you two stop it."

"Break up or not you're not allowed to take her from me!"

"Are you serious? Listen to yourself! Do you know how crazy you sound? This is why I'm scared of you being around her!" Wo Fat shouted.

"I'm not the problem! _You are_!"

" _I'm_ the only thing keeping her alive!" he shouted.

"That is not true!"

"Give it up McGarrett! I'm better for her than you… I love her more than…"

Wo Fat hadn't even managed to finish the sentence. Just like that Steve and tackled him to the ground.

"Oh God! Steve, Steve stop! Stop it, get off of him!" Rowan cried rushing towards him. He and Wo Fat were grappling with each other. Both in defensive holds that they were trying to break out of. Rowan gripped Steve's shoulders and struggled to tug him off of Wo.

"Stop it! Stop it!"

And then suddenly someone reached down and grabbed his ear, twisting it while he yelped, forcing him to stand up. It wasn't just Steve though, the same person had grabbed Wo Fat by the ear and was pulling him up too.

"You two are absolutely ridiculous. I swear to god, nothing but a bunch of heathens!"

Steve's whole body froze. It was his mother. _His mother_. Doris McGarrett was in his living room scowling at the two of them.

"Both of you, couch. Now," she ordered and both he and Wo Fat slumped into the leather seats. Steve founds himself just staring at her, his eyes flying between his mother and Rowan.

Rowan had found his mother and brought her to him? _And he was going to break up with her?_

"What do you two have to say for yourself?" she asked, hands on her hips as she scowled down to them.

"He started it," Wo Fat snapped, which earned him a quick cuff from Doris and a glare of indignation from Steve.

"That is a pitiful excuse," she lectured but Steve was done with the lecture, he was done with all of it. Quick as could be he was on his feet and wrapping his mother up in a tight hug. He was just so happy to see her. So surprised that she was there.

"But… how?"

"She came to visit you," Rowan said but the way she said it sounded off. Which could have been because he had been about to break up with her but also because she might have been lying to him.

"Then why is he here?" Steve growled indicating to Wo Fat who glared right back at him.

"He's her ride," Rowan answered sullenly. "He was going to wait outside but you came home early."

"Look, we… we have a lot to talk about… and a lot that I can't answer for… but I'd like to spend some time with you if possible, if you're okay with that? Can you do that, spend time with me but not ask me any hard questions?"

Steve looked torn. He had so many questions he wanted answers to, questions only his mom could answer. But how could he say not to that?

"Sure. I can… I can do that."

He turned back to Rowan who was tugging Wo Fat to the door, a blind panic hit Steve so hard he thought his heart had stopped. "Wait… No… I… don't leave with him."

"Well I don't think it's a good idea to leave him here with you."

"Oh… okay… but… you'll come back, right? You'll… you'll come back?"

Rowan blinked her eyes at him. "You sure you want me to?"

"Of course I do," he said and though Rowan smiled Wo Fat groaned and rolled his eyes. "I didn't… I didn't mean to…"

"We'll talk about it when you're done with your mother, okay?" she said. Steve didn't fail to notice the way Wo Fat held onto her arm to tug her out of the doorway. "You won't have long… make it count… and I don't mean in the information way. Just… you know… spend time with your mother. Do magic tricks or something. I pulled them out of the storage space for you."

God this girl. That perfect, wonderful, sweet little girl. He really did not deserve that girl, and this had proven to him that Rowan and Wo Fat weren't the most dangerous thing to their relationship, it was him. If given the opportunity he would tank them so fast… but at that moment he couldn't worry about it, because for the first time in more than a year he had his mother back and there were so many things he wanted to tell her, advice he wanted to get and questions he wanted to ask. But, for the first time in his life, he was going to leave the questions for last.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

"And then I had to carry her back down the mountain…"

Doris smiled at her son. At the big goofy grin he had on his face. For a moment he looked like that sweet little boy she knew, that sweet little boy he was before she had derailed his life. That goofy grin no longer belonged to her though, that goofy grin on his face was Rowan's now. She made him happier, she made him lighter. But there was a darkness there too. She could see it. How quickly he was willing to throw that happiness away simply because Wo Fat had encroached on the edges of it.

She needed to help him past that if she could but she didn't know if she had the time.

"I'm so glad that you and her are… dating?" she said. "Is that what you're doing?"

"Yeah…" "But she's wearing your dogtags?" "Never takes them off." "I hate to break it to you, Steven, but I think maybe she might be your girlfriend."

"We're not ready for that," Steve said with a shake of his head.

" _We're_ not or _you're_ not?"

"Okay… maybe I'm not," Steve whispered. He caught Doris' look and winced. "You saw her with him. Right? You saw them… I can't… the man tortured me… he's the reason dad is dead… he's why you left us… and he keeps taking her from me… I just can't… I can't…"

"You're right I did see them together, and I can tell you it surprises me," Doris said. "And I can tell you that I have never seen him like that. He hasn't been a real human in a very long time and she just sort of… enlightens him, you know? And I know you don't like that but she does the same thing for you."

"Mom… what are you…"

"Okay, Rowan is like this light and you and Wo Fat are like the moths. You're drawn to her, she makes your lives better and brighter. Isn't that right? Aren't you happier with her? Because you look miles happier than before I left."

"Yes, of course I'm happy, mom, but that's not my point, is it? My point is how do I get past what he did?" Steve asked.

"You don't, Steven. What he did was terrible, it was unforgivable. Has she asked you to forgive him?" "No…" "Does she ask you and him to hang out?" "Well no…" "Has she asked you not to arrest him?" "Okay… no she said if I catch him again then I catch him again… but…" "Then but what, Steve? What is she doing?"

Steve scowled at her. "She's with him. She goes to him. About everything. About our love lives. About our personal lives. When we have an argument she hides in his safe house but won't tell me where that safe house is. And he's always… ALWAYS acting like our personal relationship counsellor."

"Oh… that's strange, why doesn't Rowan confide in her friends?"

Steve stared at her. His eyes blinking a million times over. "Was that a hard question Steven? Is that because her only friends are yours?"

Steve scowled. "They are not that… like have you been listening in or something?"

"Steve why was Rowan at Wo Fat's today?" Doris asked. "Because, if I'm going to be honest, that's where she found me."

"She said you came to see me."

"I did. Steven, I did… but I also need to stop him from making a terrible mistake," she said. "And honestly, I was afraid to face you. Don't avoid the question, why was she at his place?"

"She… we… uh… we had an argument." "About what?" "Kono and Rowan went shopping for possible gifts for a half-anniversary that I don't think we should be celebrating because we're not really together…"

"And which of your team told you about it?"

"…Chin did…"

"How often does that happen?"

Steve sighed, okay well that answered her question. "She doesn't talk to me mom. She doesn't talk to me and this is all I have left…"

"All relationships should have some secrets…"

"What… like you and dad?"

"Really. That's where you're going to go with this. You're comparing Rowan wanting to surprise you with a gift and with me being a spy for the CIA and faking my death?" "Mom!" "Well that's what you're saying."

Steve groaned and ran his hand over his face. "No she's obviously not a spy, but I mean… she lies to me… Like you do. For godsake why the hell are you so interested in Wo Fat? I mean, really?!"

"We said no hard questions…" "But you can ask me for them? Mom, I just want answers. Or advice. I don't know what to do…"

Doris sighed and took a hold of Steve's hand. "Steven… your heart has always been so very big and you love with all of it. And it kills me so much to see how guarded and afraid you now are, because that is 100 percent my fault," she whispered. "Maybe you don't see it yet, but Steven you love her. I can see it and I can see you're not ready to admit it and that is okay. But that girl has made you so happy Steven. I have been keep tabs, I have seen it on the reports. She does things because she wants to make you smile, but you smother her and you don't trust her and she doesn't feel emotionally safe with you."

"So you think you I should just let the Wo Fat thing go?"

"I think, unless she puts you and your team in danger, you should just let her and Wo Fat do their thing. Cause otherwise it's not really hurting you." Steve made a face and snorted in disbelief. Doris just sighed. "Both you and him have the same goal in mind. He wants her to be happy and you want her to be happy. I think you should be grateful that Rowan has such a strong person backing her when you can't."

It was in reference to the Afghanistan situation Doris had been briefed on and Steve sighed again. "You heard about Afghanistan." "Yes, yes I did." "You're right… I was very lucky that he had someone… anyone… to be honest… he had no idea the guy was even there… it was a lucky coincidence. If there hadn't been… I would have lost her…"

"Yes, you are lucky," Doris said. "And you need to appreciate that a bit more. Both that Rowan risked a jail sentence to get to you in your time of need, and that when you were unable to help her Wo Fat had a man in place and enough money to pay him to defect on his current contract to save her."

They lapsed into silence and then Doris cleared her throat. "I know you want an answer… about him and I… And I want to be honest, I do, but it's hard… so I'm going to give you one thing… okay?"

"Okay?"

"And you can't ask for clarification, I can't explain what really happened, but I can try…"

"Just tell me what's going on with you and Wo Fat."

"Whatever Rowan told you… she's right."

Steven stared at her hard because it was a cop out and she knew it. "No… mom… she can't be because then Wo Fat is…"

"Technically your step brother…"

"No… but mom… how…"

"He's not related by blood, but I was… I did… technically… raise him."

"So you fucked up two sons. Wow great."

Okay that was hurtful. Yes she had technically abandoned both her sons but she had had no choice. The CIA had swooped in and arrested Wo Fat's father and made her leave him. Just like the Yakuza came to kill her for her knowledge and she had been forced to fake her death to save her new family. But she hadn't done it intentionally.

"It's a long story Steve, and I wish I could tell you but…"

Steve just dropped his head into his hands. "I don't know what to say to you mom, I'm at a fucking loss… does he…"

"Oh he's always known. I mean… he didn't know I killed his mother… he didn't know his father was still alive, but he's always known you were my son… that you were like a brother essentially…"

"Wow… this is really… really… fucked up…"

"To be honest that's probably why Rowan's so comfortable around him, you and he have a lot in common and are surprisingly quite alike…"

"Don't you ever fucking say that to me again," Steve said pointing a finger at her. "I'm serious mom, don't you fucking dare!"

She raised her hands in mock surrender and smiled at the barest hint of a smile hitting Steve's face. She opened her mouth, not sure what she was going to say next maybe it was an explanation or another apology but there came a knock on the door and then Rowan's head was poking in.

"Sorry about this… but uh… they're moving quicker than expected…"

The door suddenly slammed open, wrenched out of Rowan's grasp and Wo Fat was standing there. "None of this Canadian politeness, I have to get her off the island _now_!"

Rowan had yelped, shaking her hand, probably getting hurt when the door was forced out of her grip. Wo Fat turned to her. "Oh damn, you okay?" he asked but she just glared at him.

Doris stood immediately ready to go. Steve stood too. "Shouldn't I help you? She's my mother… and all…"

Wo Fat glared at him, opened his mouth to say something and had Rowan clear her throat. He turned to her staring at her hard before he rolled his eyes. He turned back to Steve, plastered a fake toothy grin onto his face and said through grit teeth: "While I thank you for the offer, it'd probably be better if you weren't involved because what I'm doing is highly illegal, and you have morals… also you'll probably need an alibi so you know… call your boyfriend or something."

Steve turned to Rowan who was sighing, her eyes turned heavenward as if asking for guidance from above.

"Wo!"

"Okay, I'm sorry, but it was only one jab. One! It slipped."

She turned a dry glare to him and he just pulled her in for a hug as Doris neared them. "Be safe," she whispered to him and then let him go to hug Doris. "Come back when you can, he needs you."

Wow, Rowan really was good with those guilt trip.

"Try my advice see if it works," Wo Fat said to her and the pointed a finger at Steve. "Stop making me your damn relationship counsellor!"

Doris took one last look at her son. The pain in Steve's eyes ever so apparent. She wished she could stay with him longer, that she could be a better mother to him. She wanted to tell him she was proud of him, that she was and always had been proud of him, and that she missed him every day, but instead she turned away before she could say something stupidly sentimental and followed Wo Fat out into the night.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan shut the door behind them and thought about Wo Fat's advice. About being more honest with Steve so he could trust her more. To not get so angry about the little things. She took a deep breath, ready to tackle what would be another argument and then suddenly Steve was on her, holding her to his chest. She turned in his grasp to hug him back and the two melded into one another.

Steve held her tightly almost shaking. "I'm so sorry I freaked out… I'm so sorry… I should have listened to you… I'm… I'm sorry."

But Rowan wasn't ready to let it go. She was still shaken by what he had done. That ending things between them had been so easy for him simply because Wo Fat had been involved.

"You were going to just end things then and there… cause Wo Fat was in the house? I mean… I know you don't like him but you didn't think that if he was over here there was a reason?" she asked. Steve stiffened in arms and she pushed him away from her. He looked down to her surprised. "I'm obviously not going to bring him over for dinner or just to hang out… I know better then that, but Steven… come on… you didn't think that maybe something might have happened? Or that I might have been in danger?"

It was clear on his face. He had not thought about any of that. "No… I… I mean… I'm thinking about it now and yeah… I probably should have assumed that he was there because something was wrong… but I just… I don't know… I guess I still think…"

"I am _not_ your mother."

Steve's eyes whipped to hers and she realized she had said that out loud. Well… the argument was going to happen now so she might as well commit. "Okay. I get it. Your mother picked Wo Fat over you. She protects him the way she should protect you and I'm sorry. And maybe it looks like I do too, but I am on _your_ side Steven. I am _always_ on your side. I try my very best to keep you guys apart, but he's my safety net. Because if things go belly up with you, I'll have nothing. Do you understand? I'll be alone and that scares me. I am not good on my own, Steve, I do bad things and make bad decisions when I'm on my own."

Steve just stared at her and Rowan wondered if he was understanding what she was trying to say.

"I… I have never been on my own okay? I have always, always had my family, or my brother, or my best friend. And here… I don't… I don't have that. I'm cut off and isolated and I was spiralling until I met him. Okay," she said. Steve opened his mouth to argue and she shook her head at him. "Steve you told me to leave, remember? That's how I found him, you couldn't handle what was happening with me and you kicked me out."

He let out a sound that sounded like a strangled sob. "I said I was sorry… I didn't mean it… I told you I didn't… I was just scared… I was trying to protect myself…"

"But you still can't handle it. You keep trying to change me, to silence me. But I can't stop it. Whatever this is this is a part of me now and you can't seem to accept that."

"Is that what you think?"

"What else am I supposed to think Steve? _Don't tell me what you see_. You keep saying that to me. And then you get mad when you're out of the loop."

"Rowan… I just…"

"Look. I get it, it's hard to stomach, but I am trying to help you. That's all. I really don't think I'm asking for much. But if we're on things I'm asking for… I'd really like it if your team would stop repeating everything I say to you. I honestly have no one to talk to, because if I have something I'm not ready to tell you and I take it to one of them… well… they tell you. You want me to stop taking everything to Wo Fat first, then stop getting them to farm information about me for you," she ordered. Steve nodded and she was ready to hit him with the big one. "I asked Wo Fat to keep me out of the feud you two have and he agreed. Why can't you do the same?"

"You talk to him about me all the time."

"I talk about my love life…"

"You think that I want my arch nemesis knowing about my love life Rowan? You don't think that's embarrassing for me? That every time something's wrong between me and you, he intervenes."

"Steve half of our arguments have been settled by him…" "Because he threatens me Rowan. Don't you know that? Don't you know what he says to me? That he'll take you away? That I won't ever see you again. Do you think I like that? Do you think that makes things better?"

"I have asked him to stop doing it, but he sticks with what works," she told him and Steve frowned at her. "And to be honest… when he does that and it works… it's the only time I really feel special."

She lowered her eyes so she missed the surprise that hit Steve's face. "What… what the hell are you talking about?"

"I don't know… it's hard… to compete with Danny and your cases…" "Oh God, Rowan… not this again."

Rowan fell silent and looked away from him. Steve stared at her hard. "Rowan?"

"Never mind," she said quickly. "You're right. We're both forgiven right? I'm tired. Let's just go to bed…"

Steve put a hand out to stop her from walking away. "Babe… just… I'm sorry. You're right okay… I get it… I drop you for my cases all the time and I guess that bugs you, but you knew what I did for work before we started this, you know what I'm like and my job is…" "Important, yes I know."

Steve sighed. "But you are very important to me too… and you are very, very special. And I definitely need to work on making sure you know that. But maybe… maybe you could make me feel like you like me more than Wo Fat?"

"I can do that, so long as that doesn't include giving you info about him."

"Okay… yes… but can I make one request… if it's something big… that could get me or the others hurt… could you tell me that?"

"He's not going to do anything to you or the team, he promised me," she whispered. Steve couldn't find out about the possible torture that Wo Fat might have been planning. She had to believe that Wo Fat would keep his promise. Because if he didn't… if he did something to Steve, she wouldn't forgive him and she wouldn't forgive herself.

Steve nodded and she smiled at him. "Okay, and I'm sorry about the whole anniversary thing. To be honest I just wanted to get you something special and I was using the anniversary as an excuse."

"Yeah?"

"Mhmm…"

"What were you leaning towards, Chin never did tell me."

"Well it was a toss up between a tasteful nude or a gun with your name engraved in the hilt."

"Ohh… tasteful nudes any day, but wallet sized so I can take it with me and look at it when I need a pick me up."

Rowan laughed at him and let him swoop down to kiss her before he got serious again. "I know you like to keep things from me, mostly because you think I can't handle them… or because you can't handle them… and it bugs me when I don't know… but I'm going to make sure that the guys don't report to me about you okay?"

"That would be very nice Steve and seriously… the next time I bring Wo Fat into the house assume something is wrong. Like one of us has been shot, or I have the law or a bad guy chasing me and we're hiding at your place cause it's safer…"

"Or you brought my mother to visit?"

"Yes that too."

"Okay. I can do that," he said solemnly. "Now… should we go to Danny's or a very public restaurant for an alibi? My treat and your choice."

"That would actually sound super nice, can I get freshened up first?"

Steve nodded, saying he had to do the same thing and then they headed up the stairs together. Rowan knew they'd probably end up fooling around before leaving the house again just like Rowan knew this wasn't the end of the argument. Yeah both of them said they'd change but they'd slide back into old habits and this would happen all over again. But for right now the argument was over and they were okay, hopefully this time their grace period would last longer.


	133. Chapter 133

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: It's finally happening guys! Season 5 is upon us! And it's going to start with some very funny moments. I actually don't think the major angsty drama starts until maybe… another three chapters in. I'm going to have to do my research. I'll get a better number for you ASAP. Are you guys excited for therapy, and drama and eventual cuteness? I would hope so cause I'm pulling out all the stops for this season to make up for… uh… well… season 6. I will explain more about that once we get closer to it. Side note, a really long time ago I did a huge dump on info about Rowan. Since we got more since then, would you guys like another dump at the end of one of our chapters just so you guys know? Keep me posted on what you think and I'll see you guys tomorrow._

Chapter 133

* * *

"So… uh… we have… uh… been together for three years…" "Four." Danny sighed and pointed at Steve. "See this is, uh, specifically what I'm talking about."

Steve groaned. Why where they doing this? Why? This was so stupid. "I'm just correcting you," he said, wiggling in this stupid seat that was making him uncomfortable. He was in dress pants and that blue button up Rowan loved so much, while Danny looked… well like Danny.

He hated that he was in relationship counselling with Danny. He hated it. Because Rowan made more jokes about them being more together than he and Rowan which he knew where to mask the insecurity she felt about Danny being closer to him than she was. But he wasn't touching that with a ten foot pole because for the last month all he and Rowan had done was argue.

Over one stupid fucking thing.

"Okay. Uh… four years," Danny corrected.

"Well it's three years, eleven months, two days exactly."

Danny turned a dry glared to him. "And how long have you and Rowan been together?"

"Uh… a four… five… four… between four and five months?"

Okay maybe Rowan had a point.

"Wow… but uh… but you know how long we've been together _to the day_ , huh?"

Steve rolled his eyes and ignored him but their shrink, Dr. Carlin had other ideas. "Detective Williams asked you a question."

"When?" Steve asked cause he didn't remember a question, other then Danny's smart ass remark. I bet Danny couldn't wait to tell Rowan that he had no idea how long they had been dating but he knew how long he and Danny had been partners to the day.

"He asked if you knew how long you and your girlfriend were dating."

Fuck Danny. Steve faltered a bit. "I'm… I'm sorry, whose side are you on?"

"I don't take sides, commander. I'm an objective observer," she told him but Steve doubted that because she was taking Danny's side right at that moment.

"Don't feel bad he does it to Rowan too," Danny said to her.

"That's because she does, Danny, for every fucking argument we have, you have to run straight to Rowan to whine so she'll fight your fucking battles for you!" Steve cried.

"Okay… let's get back to this. As you know, the governor has asked me to oversee the annual psychological audit of personnel, and I was concerned by what Detective Williams had to say. And now that we're here, I'm growing increasingly more concerned for your girlfriend who seems to be at your place of work quite frequently?"

"Yes she is," Danny said while Steve put a hand out to ward him off of this topic.

"Okay… for starters… Rowan's not… we're not… we're dating, she's not my girlfriend," Steve said. "And she's not important… I mean, she's obviously important to me, but she's not important to this. So me and Danny don't agree on a few things…" "That apparently Rowan gets involved in?" "No, maybe, that's not important! None of this is big deal. None of it. Not me and Danny arguing… not Rowan's inability to side with me, nothing. It's just… it's all fine."

"Okay I'm gonna go a head and step in here," Danny said. "First we don't disagree on a few things, we don't agree on anything. And Secondly… I don't go running to Rowan to bitch, her and I commiserate, cause you and her can't agree on anything either. And then you ask her to pick sides and we all know that Rowan doesn't respond well to ultimatums and she picks me to piss you off. Don't know why you're complain you keep telling me how much make up sex is going on between you two and it's phenomenal…" "It is pretty fucking good, like out of this world…" "See so why are you complaining?"

"Because she's my girlfriend, Danny!" Steve cried. "She's supposed to have my back."

"See you just said she wasn't your girlfriend."

"OH SHUT UP DANNY!" Steve cried and Dr. Carlin immediately put her hands out to calm them down while Steve turned himself away from Danny so he wouldn't launching himself out of that chair and slap him.

"Okay, noting down that Rowan is a volatile subject with you Commander," she said and Steve scowled, she was not… mostly. "Why don't we back track. Detective Williams, you mentioned that you and Steve never agree about anything, why don't you provide him an example?"

"An example?" he echoed and then thought about it. "Okay. Uhm. I never get to drive my own automobile."

"And I don't understand why you're angry about that!" Steve cried. "I mean, I'd think you'd be grateful for being driven around. He get's driven around, all day."

"What? Who am I? Ms. Daisy?" Danny cried. "Sometimes I'd like to drive my own car."

"And sometimes you do drive," Steve said.

"Sometimes? Are you saying that with a straight face, in front of this woman?"

"Do you never drive your car? I don't always drive your car."

"No, you're right. I only get to drive my own car when you're not in it," Danny cried and Steve nodded. "When I'm alone, I get to drive my own car. Yeah."

"There, see, you get to drive your car. That's sometimes," Steve said. When Danny turned an incredulous look to Dr. Carlin who just sat there writing a mile a minute Steve shook his head. "Okay, Fine. You wanna know why you spend so much time in the passenger seat? You wanna know?"

"This should be fantastic," Danny said to Dr. Carlin and then turned to Steve and said: "Yes, Steven, why do I spend so much time in the passenger seat?"

"I get carsick if I don't drive."

And then Danny started laughing at him. Steve turned to him surprised, how dare Danny, Mr. Emotional Capacity, laugh at him and his car sickness.

Steve turned to Dr. Carlin, his eyes begging her to take his side for once. "And he laughs. And he laughs. First time I've told him that and he laughs."

"Cause it's ridiculous!" Danny cried "Okay, it's ridiculous. He's not car sick he's a control freak! He's a gigantic control freak. It has nothing to do with motion, trust me, please."

"Detective Williams," she started, and got a _yeah_ from Danny. "Commander McGarrett is sharing something very personal with you. Perhaps you could show him a little respect."

Steve turned a smug grin to Danny and waited for him to see it. That's right Danny, their shrink was siding with him. FINALLY!

"But he's lying."

"I'm not lying!"

"He's a Navy SEAL!"

"So what? What has that got to do with it?" "—Okay, okay…" "No seriously what has it got to do with it?" "Please stop. I don't really wanna be here, respectfully. I'm sure he doesn't want to be here either, but if you're not gonna be honest, I'm gonna leave."

"I am being honest, Danny," Steve snapped.

"Gentlemen…"

"Yes?" they both answered together.

"This is a mandated review. So let's continue shall we?" she asked and they nodded and voiced their agreements to move away from their last argument and Steve just hoped that Rowan didn't come up again.

"Why don't we shift gears a bit?" she asked and they both grunted their agreement.

"Describe how you two first met."

And there was Danny laughing again, cause their first time they met they had pulled their guns on one another.

"Four years ago, Governor Jameson asked me to start a, uh, major-crimes task force and Danno…" Danny held up a finger. "I'm gonna stop him…. See. He knows that I don't like that."

"You're right. Excuse me. Sir Daniel."

"This is going right off the rails. This right here…" "Come on, come on. I'm teasing, all right?" Steve waited to see if Danny was going to interrupt him again but he didn't so Steve started back with his story. "Right after I started the task force, Detective Williams was my first hire."

"Right. I personally wouldn't call it, um, a hire. It was more like a kidnapping," he said and Steve threw his head back and groaned. "A ransom. It was the kind of thing… uh… I didn't really have a choice."

"I liked his sense of humor, you know, his personality," Steve said which was a lie.

"When you're getting shot at it's nice to reflect on what a nutjob this guys is," Danny said.

"Why don't you tell me about the others on your team?" she asked before they could start arguing about the nutjob comment.

"Well, after Danny signed on, we recruited Chin Ho Kelly…"

"He was fired from the HPD at the time…"

"That's right. But we straightened that out."

"Yeah, and then, uh, Kono Kalakaua… that's Chin's cousin… she was next," Danny added.

"I'm told she wasn't even a police officer at the time," Carlin added and both Steve and Danny nodded.

"Yeah she was a few weeks away from graduating from the academy," Steven explained. "But we needed a female, you see, and she fit the bill. Oh and just recently, we recruited a former HPD SWAT commander named Lou Grover from Chicago."

"So five people make up the Five-0 task force?" she asked and they all nodded.

"Yeah, but we're uh, more than a task force, you see. We're ' _ohana_."

"Why the look, Detective Williams?"

Steve turned to Danny, he was making a look? Steve was getting all sentimental and Danny was hitting him with looks? "Oh, no, no, no look. Um… I guess I was just, uh, agreeing with him for the first time…"

"I think we're good…" Steve said but Dr. Carlin didn't think so.

"So where does Rowan fit into your little family. She's a part of your cases, all your friends' lives, but she's not a part of the _'ohana_?" she asked.

Aw fuck him. He felt Danny's eyes on him, he had Dr. Carlin's eyes on him and Steve could only blink… because he had no idea how to answer that questions… and maybe that was why the two of them were having so many issues right at that moment.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

They had gone to Jerry to find out more about the Drone that had been doing all the killing. Problem was, it was a government hushed-up project. Another problem was the thing was hijacked during a flight test and stolen by their real murderer. Another problem was someone had since then, attached military issued guns to the thing and went and killed two people.

Probably Steve's biggest problem right now was the conversation he had with Jerry about the bookshop owner who bought really old books that could be used as counterfeit paper. It had absolutely nothing to do with his case but it still stuck with him.

 _"No one reads hard cover books anymore," Jerry had snapped._

 _"Rowan does."_

 _"Rowan is a rare breed. She's like the unicorn of girls. If you don't lock her down can I date her?"_

 _"Jerry… I mean… do you want me to hit you?"_

He was still thinking about it because it surprised him. People thought he hadn't locked Rowan down? She was pretty fucking locked down. He was dating her, wasn't he?

Rowan came into the Palace, fresh after their mid morning argument ear to her phone as she walked towards them.

"Yes, yes, I just checked in," she said. Checked in was right she had a damn suit case with her.

"What are you doing?" he asked her. Obviously when she had said she would stay with Chin until Steve saw reason he thought she was bluffing because the argument was about toaster waffles and who had eaten them all.

For godsake, he was going to buy her more… what was she packing bags for?

"Yes. I promise I will stay inside until Steve catches the guy," she said. "Of course Steve is going to catch the guy, he catches all the bad guys… uh… yes he does catch you, he's caught you twice now."

Great she was on the phone with Wo Fat.

"No I am not taking my anger at Steven out on you, I am stating facts. The man has arrested you twice. You've been caught…. Wow really? Go outside and get shot? That's rude!"

"Okay give me the phone. If he's threatening you give me the phone," Steve said reaching for it.

Rowan ducked his hands, slapping them away and then glaring at him like she didn't understand why he was talking to her. "Don't talk to me," she snapped. "You know the exact number of days you've been dating Danny but you couldn't tell your shrink that we've been dating for four months. Fuck you!... what? No not you, Steven."

"DANNY!" Steve snapped as Rowan moved past him and into Steve's office. All eyes were on him now but all Steve could see was Danny, clouded in a red haze of anger. "Are you fucking kidding me, you told her? Why the hell would you tell her?"

"It was funny!"

"I'm going to kill you!"

"Your killer drone is heading to Waikiki Beach!" Rowan called and everyone, except Steve, turned away to gear up. Instead, Steve went to his office to stare at Rowan who was setting everything up at his desk.

"Are you seriously going to stay at my office until I buy you toaster waffles? Really? Don't you think you're being a tad bit unreasonable?"

Rowan glared at him as she put her guitar down on the desk. "Okay, firstly, it's not unreasonable. When we went grocery shopping and picked up the toaster waffles you said they were stupid and you only liked fresh ones, and I said that was fine cause they were going to be mine for the mornings I had to dash out and you put up a big stink about how you didn't want to waste _your_ money on _my_ toaster waffles so I bought them with my own money… AND THEN YOU WENT AND ATE MY WHOLE BOX!" she cried. "And secondly, I have been expressly told that there's a killer drone flying around Hawaii and Wo Fat would prefer if I stay inside until you catch him. Preferably at the Palace because he wouldn't put it past the guy to decide to target you and shoot up your house with me inside."

Okay… fair… that did explain a lot. Even why she was angry that he ate a few toaster waffles. But he said he'd buy more so _let it go._

"And how would Wo Fat know all of this?"

"Well I didn't ask, Steven, but I would assume it's because he sold the guy his hardware."

"So Wo Fat's running guns again?"

"I don't know!" Rowan cried. "He doesn't tell me those things. I don't ask. And even if I did I'm not supposed to tell you!"

Alright, fine, he'd give her that one too. She had done really well at keeping him and Wo Fat separate since his mother had left. In fact, if she was to believed, and she was cause it supported the chatter Jerry had picked up, Wo Fat was no longer on the island. Possibly Japan, possibly on a boat to stay near by Rowan in case of an emergency, but he wasn't here anymore.

"Seriously, Steve, Waikiki, killer drone. Go!" she ordered and Steve winced but went for the door.

"I knew we had been dating four months, Rowan," he said to her, pausing at the door to look at her.

"Yeah, yeah, that's why you told her that, right? Just go Steven," she said not evening bothering to look up and he knew he was dismissed.

Still as he walked away he couldn't help but smile because the sight of Rowan behind his desk warmed him in ways he couldn't even imagine.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve had come back ten minutes ago. She knew that. She had seen him. Had seen him look over at his office with a look of longing on his face so deep she thought he might come over but he didn't. Because his cases were always more important.

But that didn't matter because she was putting together the perfect event. She had a different theme on each wall, with options to go with each one.

Steve opened up the door and looked around all the pictures she had posted on his windows and walls.

"Uh…. What are you… what are you doing?" he asked her.

He looked nervous that look got worse when she said: "I'm planning a wedding."

Behind him the team began to laugh while congratulating him and clapping his back. Steve's frantic look of fear almost made her laugh, she wanted to tell him the truth right then and there but then she caught Kono's worried look and she knew she couldn't. Especially when Kono had sworn her to secrecy.

So when Steve said: "Uh… no… Ro… I haven't… we haven't…" she simply waved him off.

"Of course you haven't. I can't even get the girlfriend label. You don't even know how long we've been dating for," she snapped which won a scowl from him. She turned back to the wedding dress she was pinning up and knew instinctively that she couldn't tell them the real reason for her sudden obsession with weddings because it hasn't happened yet. So, instead, she said: "No, I'm planning my wedding to the guy I will eventually leave your waffle stealing ass for!"

Steve groaned. "God! Rowan!" he cried.

"Come on Steve, sometimes a girl likes to fantasize, that's all. Danny, you have sisters, am I right or am I right?" she asked pointing to him.

"Oh here we go again," Steve growled as Danny said: "Uh… I can confirm that this is a thing girls do. Granted they usually wait until they or one of their friends are getting married and it's never to this… uh… extent, but uh… yeah, sometimes they just like to look at the options."

"See," Rowan said. "Now why don't you go back to the case we all know is more important and I will stay in here with my bridal magazines."

"You know I don't like it when you say that you're less important…"

"I'm going to start looking at rings and wedding tuxes that will suit you if you stay in this room," she warned and she had never seen Steve run away from her faster.

The other's left but Kono stayed behind, which was great because Rowan had been planning all of this for her. She looked around at everything and then pinned Rowan with a dark, disappointed glare.

"Okay, so I know you haven't said yes yet… but look!" she cried showing her everything, "I have themes, and options, and I looked at flowers and I pulled all the dresses that would look good on you, and…"

"Rowan come on!"

"I know, I know, I know," Rowan said quickly. "But _I know_ you say yes. Really I do."

"Rowan," Kono growled in warning.

"No. It's true. You two get married and somewhere in season 8 you have a baby, it's a son. I'm gonna be a godmother…" she said but when she looked at Kono she didn't look excited she looked afraid. "Oh… I'm sorry… I guess that's a lot to take in. Just pretend I didn't say that or something…"

"Thank you for all of this Rowan, and trust me when I say that if I say yes to Adam you will be the first person to know, but you're freaking out me and you're freaking out Steve so if you could please take this all down until I'm ready… but uh… save this one right here cause that is stunning…"

Rowan pulled the picture of the wedding dress she was pointing at off of the wall and placed it specially in the books she had in her arms. "Saved for a rainy day!"

Kono looked like she was going to say more but Steve was in the doorway again, refusing to step a toe into his office with all the wedding stuff on the walls. He nodded at Rowan until he had her attention and then beckoned both of them out onto the main floor.

"So uh… Jerry's gonna make this drone thing that can take over the killer drone," he told them and Rowan nodded. Because that made sense. He focused his eyes on her and she knew immediately that he was going to ask her for a favour. "Okay… uh… well we need to be in 200 yards of the drone to hijack it. Which means we need to know where it's gonna be…"

"So like… you're asking for a vision…" she asked just as Steve asked: "Does Wo Fat know where it's going next?"

Rowan balked at the question. "No? How would he know that?"

"Well how did you know it was going to Waikiki this morning?" he shot back.

"You touched me…."

Steve reached out and touched her again and both Rowan and him yelped at the electricity. But Rowan clearly didn't see an attack cause she just went: "Awww… right on your front porch!"

"What?" Steve asked. And Rowan shook herself loose of the vision.

"What?"

Kono was glaring at her, that meant it was about the proposal again. Sighing, Rowan shook her head and stared at Steve with what she hoped were really cute puppy eyes. "Look… I'm not getting anything big on this, maybe you could just…"

"You're coming with me."

"Ugh, fine! But I'll have you know this is the exact opposite of what Wo wanted," she said as Steve dragged her out of the office.

"You'll be fine. I can protect you just fine, thank you."

"Well you better cause if you don't, I'm gonna haunt you for the rest of your life, which will probably be very short cause I won't be around to stop him from killing you," she snapped. She caught Steve's glare but he said nothing and neither did she, cause both of them knew she wasn't lying.


	134. Chapter 134

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hey guys, this should technically be the last update in the marathon, but I will also be updating tomorrow as well just to round it out. Keep you guys from ending on a cliff-hanger. How are you liking season 5 so far? The angst is coming, I believe it starts next chapter. So the chapter we have here is a little shorter than usual, but a lot happens. And I threw in a few funny moments, and some cute scenes so I hope you guys enjoy it. See you tomorrow._

Chapter 134

* * *

Their drone-jacker was a man named Jonathan Redmond. He worked for the company who made the drone, but had been fired for sealing hardware from them. Thieving seemed to be something he liked to do because he served 18 months for burglaries having just been paroled a few weeks ago. Kono found wire transfers between Jonathan and a textile company on the island that the FBI thought was connected to an international terrorist group called the SRS. Getting this info had been great, but that didn't help them much, because Redmond wasn't at home and they couldn't find him.

What it did explain, was why he was doing it and why Wo Fat had known to send Rowan inside before the second attack. But none of that was helping him because he had no idea where this guy was going to attack next.

And Rowan wasn't getting visions about this case. She got visions about a guy named Lawrence Turner.

With some digging Kono found him. An ex-military analyst that was wanted by the FBI for selling government secrets piece by piece to the SRS. He had gone missing before he could be arrested but they were pretty sure he was on the island.

Which was when Rowan remembered the case.

They were gonna land a goddamn plane in downtown Hawaii to get that guy out of the country and somewhere safe with a whole hard drive of stolen secrets.

She just didn't know when that was going to happen. Which lead to Steve and Danny driving around waiting for this stupid thing to attack them while Rowan was sent off to the relative safety of an SUV with Grover and Jerry. Before separating, despite being mad at Steve, despite him hitting her with the typical _stay out of trouble_ order, she pulled him in for a hug, a kiss on the cheek for good luck and gave him an order of her own.

 _Don't get shot._

This left Rowan sitting, Grover in the front seat, Jerry in the back with her, fiddling with his own drone. She was trying not to sulk but she couldn't help it, she had wanted to be in the Camaro… she had felt like Steve needed her but she couldn't remember why and he wouldn't let her go with him.

"They'll be alright," Jerry said to her and Rowan nodded again. Grover turned, put a hand to her knee and then both of them yelped.

He got a shock. She got a vision.

Of Steve being shot in the leg.

"Koa and Ocean, it's gonna attack them Koa and Ocean, Steve's gonna get shot, go!"

Jerry opened his mouth to argue, but Grover but the car in gear. But that wasn't the only thing she saw. In that flash she saw a plane coming down and people running away, and Steve and his injured leg chasing a man with nothing to lose.

"Our girl just called in the aircraft," Grover said to her as they drove after Danny and Steve who were getting chased by the drone.

"I told you, I'm never wrong," she said. "Now come on Jerry, do your thing!"

Jerry got his own drone in the air, and once it was down, he was out of the car. Lou kicked Rowan out with him, because he was going after bullets and Steve would kill him if she got shot.

As Jerry looked up the coordinates to the man behind the drone attacks, Rowan silently jogged away knowing that her man needed her help, even if he was a good-for-nothing-waffle-stealer.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

With the drone down and the plane downed by Jerry flying the drone into one of the engines, they all had no choice but to flee. Turner and the SRS men trying to help him. His team had all splintered off after their own people. Steve was chasing Lawrence Turner with an injured leg and everything. He was half his normal speed but he was keeping eyes on Turner rather well. Until Turner turned a corner. Steve turned the same corner, slamming into some boards, his leg complaining and he had to pause. Which was fine by him because Turner had found a dead end and was heading back his way.

"Lawrence Turner!" he called. "It's over!"

But Turner wasn't ready to go down. He turned from Steve and launched himself at the wall behind him, finding purchase to pull himself up. Steve winced, his leg was in pain, he wouldn't be able to climb that, not fast enough to chase him, he leveled his gun with Turner's leg, ready to shoot but he didn't have to.

Rowan popped up on the other side of the wall, cried: "Hello!" and then punched the man in the face. Steve wanted to cry out her name in anger, but he didn't. She was too busy pulling herself up over the wall, he didn't want her to get distracted and fall.

Instead he hobbled over, gun in hand to Turner who was on the ground, holding his very bloody nose.

"You're under arrest for espionage," he said to Turner who was groaning at his feet, and then lifted a hand up to help Rowan over the wall. "Can you cuff him for me?"

"Sure thing," she said, rooting through his black cargo pants for the cuffs before kneeling down beside Turner.

"Don't give the lady any problems or I'll shoot you in the face," he warned and Turner flat out offered Rowan his hands so she could handcuff him easily. Steve stooped down to pull him up and smiled at Rowan.

"I told you to stay out of trouble," he told her.

"I told you not to get shot," she shot back and he laughed again.

"It's a flesh wound I'm fine."

"Still doesn't mean you should be running on it, you nutjob."

God, were they ever going to stop arguing? But when Rowan shot him that smile, that teasing glittering grin, Steve figured he didn't really care that much so long as she always smiled at him just like that.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Kono got back from seeing Steve get out of the hospital to find Adam sitting and waiting of her on the front steps of her house.

"Hi," she said to him as she sat down beside him and she got a nice and happy: "Hi" back from him.

He sighed as she got herself settled and with a big grin asked: "Now, where were we?"

He meant from their talk that morning before she got called in to investigate the murder of two school teachers up at Diamond Head. Kono thought long and hard. She thought about the visions Rowan spoke about and the future she said Kono and Adam would have. She thought about how happy Adam made her and answered him with all that emotion tightening up her chest.

"Adam, there is nothing I'd like more than to be your wife," she said.

With a smile Adam took her hand in his and asked: "Then what's stopping you?"

And then that fear came back and she remembered how they had almost died, and he had left her behind. "It's just everything that we've been through. I just wanna know that we're gonna be safe," she told him and then looked into his concerned brown eyes. "I can't go through that again. Thinking I'm gonna lose you."

For some reason he smiled. He put an arm around her and pulled her close. "Hey. Hey, you're not gonna lose me," he assured her. He brushed her hair aside so she'd look at him, which she did even though she was certain she might burst into tears at any point now. "I promise."

She leant in to kiss him. "You promise?" she asked.

He kissed her softly and echoed it back at her. "Yes, I promise."

"Then yes, Adam, I will marry you."

She went to kiss him again but was interrupted by her front door banging open and Rowan shouting: "YES!" on the top of her lungs. She dropped to her knees and hugged them both tightly. "I knew it! I knew it! I call dib on godmother of your kid when he's born, and I call dibs on maid of honor!"

"Rowan!" Kono half laughed as Rowan squeezed them in a tight hug growling: "I'm just so happy for you guys!"

"What are you doing here? How did you get in?"

"I broke in like an hour ago," she said. "I wanted to make sure you said yes."

"Weren't you supposed to meet Steve when he got back from the hospital?"

Rowan scoffed and shrugged that off. "I left him a care package plus a note on where I am, he's probably on his way."

Which was when Jerry's mother's lime green mini-van came to a stop in front of her house. "Well speak of the devil," Rowan said. But instead of getting up to greet the man she was dating she lounged back on her heels and watched Jerry help Steve up and then watched him hobble up the walkway to her.

"What the hell Rowan?!" Steve cried. "Did you interrupt one of their dates?"

"You and your cases interrupt their dates all the time, so what if I do it once or twice?" she asked. Kono groaned, while it was true it wasn't the best defence Rowan came up with and the growl on Steve's face and falling from his lips told her that he didn't like it either.

"Rowan I got shot today, I had to make Jerry drive me up here! I have to go on a surveillance op with him now! You were supposed to be HOME to welcome me!"

"I left you soup and toaster waffles!"

"Yes, very funny!" Steve snapped glaring at her fidgeting again on his crutches.

"Did you want to sit down, boss?" Kono asked but he shook his head.

"No, I want to go home," he snapped glaring at Rowan.

"Well you haven't apologized so I'm going to stay here…" "Uh Rowan… not that we wouldn't love to have you but uh… we kind of have date plans…" "Then I'm going to Chin's."

Steve groaned at her. "For fuck sake Rowan. They're toaster waffles. I am not apologizing to you over toaster waffles. I bought you a month's supply. Let it go!"

Rowan stood up a dangerous glare on her face that worried Kono. Still she let Rowan step over her and Adam to approach Steve, stopping just out of arm's reach with her own arms crossed over her chest as she glared up at him. "Do you know how hurtful it was to hear that you can tell someone the exact number of days you've best besties with Danny but you can't tell anyone how long we've been dating for?"

"Four months, Rowan! I know we've been dating four months!"

"Yes, but both me and Danny had to tell you that!" she cried throwing her hands up. "Just admit that you like Danny more than me."

"Well right at this moment, yeah, yeah I fucking do!" he shouted and then regret painted his face as Rowan just gasped in shock and turned away from him.

"Yeah I'm just gonna go to Chin's…"

"No!" Steve snapped reaching out for her. "Rowan… there are so many dates, between you and I. Danny and I have one and it's just easier for me to remember, alright?"

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"It's been one year, eleven months and nineteen days since I first met you. It's been one year, seven months and one day since I admitted to myself that I had feelings for you. And, one year, six months, and eight days since I decided I was going to date you. It's been eight months and eleven days since we started our friends with benefits thing and it's been four months and nineteen days since we started dating officially…"

"We're not official yet, I don't have a label, remember?"

"Really? I spent my entire hospital stay calculating all our dates and that's all you have to say to me?"

"You're right, that was rude of me. I'm sorry. Thank you."

"You know what else I have? Every single date you either shattered my heart or my confidence. Do you want me to list those?"

"No."

"Well then…"

"I said thank you, Steve, what else do you want?"

"Well a kiss would be nice…" he started but he couldn't finish because Rowan had jumped up immediately to press a kiss to his lips. Steve dropped his crutches to cling to her and deepen her kiss, and mostly to lean on her.

"Okay, so if you guys are good… can we go inside?"

The two of them simply waved Kono and Adam away as they kissed and Kono shook her head. "I'd like to think we're a more functional version of them."

And Adam smiled to her.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Chin had gone to Halawa to see Gabriel. He walked in to find his brother in law looking good in orange, having healed up quite nicely from the beat down Wo Fat's men had put on him for what he had tried to do to Wo Fat and as a reminder to stay quiet about Rowan's involvement with the stealing of his money.

He sat across from him, letting Gabriel glare him down.

"When I heard you were coming to see me, I asked myself why," Gabriel said breaking the silence between them. "And then I realized. It's the two-year anniversary of my sister's murder which means you must be here to apologize for letting it happen."

"You remember the 25 million in an offshore account you tried to bribe me with?" Chin asked shutting Gabriel up now that got his attention. "Internal Affairs has been watching me ever since you were arrested. They think I have that money."

Gabriel shrugged. "It's not my problem."

"It is if Rowan gets involved," Chin said. He really shouldn't have, but Rowan really was the only way to get someone like Gabriel to listen. "And Rowan gets involved in everything."

Gabriel's face changed. But, unlike the other criminals who, when they heard her name would cringe, Gabriel just sneered.

"I'm not afraid of your little rat," he growled.

But Chin saw the way his eyes had winced at the mention of her and he didn't believe him. "I want you to sign an affidavit saying that the money never changed hands."

"And why would I do that?" he asked. "And give me something more than, telling Rowan dearest on me."

"Because maybe for once in your miserable life, you wanna do something decent," Chin offered.

Gabriel leant forward, the cuffs containing him clinking in the silence. "Let me think about it." He stood up, signalling that the conversation was done and for a guard to come and get him. "I'll get back to you."

As he walked away, he turned back to Chin and added: "You think that girl has power? You think her little network and that spineless little man she calls her brother are unstoppable? With each favour she pulls the less they respect him. Sooner or later that network is going to kill him, and when he's gone that girl will be unprotected… that's when I'm going to pay her back for everything that was done to me."

Though worry hit him, Chin merely presented his phone which had been recording everything and said: "I'm sure Wo Fat would love to hear that."

As the door opened and the guard pulled him away, Chin saw fear flash across Gabriel's features for the first time since that day on the roof. So much for not being afraid of Rowan Pierce, her brother or her network.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Danny came home to his front door already open and the TV on. Football. Grace didn't like Football, and she was supposed to be in school.

He called her name three times before someone came out of the washroom. Someone who wasn't Grace and who wasn't afraid of the gun Danny had pulled on him.

"I believe Grace isn't due back from school for another half hour," he said.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Stop," Danny ordered as he took the man in, sipping water out of one his glasses like he owned the fucking place. He was nicely dressed. Grey suit, light blue shirt untucked. But Danny didn't know who this guy was. "What are you doing in my house? Who are you?"

The man looked confused. As if Danny should have known who he was. "I'm Marco Reyes," he said like that explained everything.

"Oh!" Danny said playing like he knew the guy. When really… he had no fucking clue. "That supposed to mean something to me?"

Reyes, took a coaster, slapped it down and then put the drink down on top of it. Wow how considerate of him. Steve never even did that and that was his supposed best friend. "Your brother never mentioned me to you?"

Oh, that did not bode well. What had Matty gotten himself into now? "My brother? No. No, he didn't."

"Well, I'm hurt," he said clasping a hand to his wounded (emotionally) heart. "Matt and I were so close."

"What is it I can do for you?"

"Your brother took something from me, and you're gonna help me get it back."

Danny just stood there and took that in. He had never wanted that stubborn son of a bitch at his side more than right now.


	135. Chapter 135

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: So this is the last of it. The last update in the marathon. As of Monday we'll be back to the typical 3 updates a week schedule we have now. Did you like all the math I did for last chapter? It took a long time figuring that out guys. So we've gotten to the part where we find out what's going to happen to Matt and all of that._ _While there are some minor arguments, there's no angst yet. I'm pretty sure it doesn't kick in until the Reyes thing has been dealt with. I'm going to be changing things around to make them work, so it won't be exactly like the episodes. Okay? Tell me if you get confused and I'll try to straighten everything out for you._

 _P.S. I haven't heard from AJ or PJ in a really long time! If you guys are still around hit me up! I'm worried!_

Chapter 135

* * *

The quickness in which Danny had arrested Marco Reyes and then begged Steve to come down to the Palace, irregardless of his injuries and the morning date had planned with Rowan, was remarkable.

"So I ran you through Interpol," Danny said. "Clean record, prominent real estate developer in Colombia. Uh… but that's all crap, right?"

"I understand that you're upset with me for showing myself into your home. But I really saw no other way to reach out to you."

"Well, uh, you know, up here we have a device called the telephone," Danny said causing Marco to laugh like this was funny, like this was a game.

"Yeah, but some business should only be done face-to-face."

"Okay, well, let's talk, then."

"When your brother disappeared, he was in possession of a significant amount of _my_ money…"

Danny thought this over. "Okay, how much money?"

"Eighteen and a half million dollars."

God. Fucking. Damnit. Matty.

"Wow, that's a lot of money," Danny admitted, because, well let's face it, it was. "Well… I unfortunately, don't know anything about that. Uh… I haven't seen or spoken to my brother in three years."

The warm smile was no longer on Reyes' face. "I'm sorry to hear that, because I'm here for my money."

Danny shrugged at him. "Well, then, you've come a long way for nothing."

Reyes leant forward in his chair. "Detective Williams, you ran me through Interpol, so you know who I am. Do you really think that I'm the kind of guy who doesn't get what he wants?"

Danny shifted on his feet. "You're not listening to me. I don't know about your eighteen and ahlf million dollars!" he cried.

Reyes looked Danny in the eye carefully before sitting back and saying: "Well, then, you better go find it, detective."

Danny didn't like the tone, it was like he was implying something but Danny didn't know what yet. Behind him the door buzzed and Steve came in. He glared at Reyes and then back to Danny who just left Reyes behind and followed after Steve.

They were in the hallway for two seconds before Steve asked: "Why is he coming after you if Matt owes him money?"

"Well, I guess because he thinks I know where it is," Danny sighed.

Steve nodded. "We uh… we don't have time for this, we got a case," Steve told him.

"And what do I do with him?"

Steve glanced back to the door and then back to Danny. "Book him for burglary. Have HPD take him on a nice, slow walk through the system. Maybe a few days in the hole with help Mr. Reyes realize who he's dealing with."

Steve walked away and Danny nodded. Guess he just had to hope it worked on him.

They got up the stairs to find Rowan standing beside Grover and Chin.

Steve walked over to her immediately, pulling her in and kissing her cheek. "Babe, not that I'm not happy but uh… what are you doing here?"

"Uh well… you left breakfast, and I thought you might be hungry. So I figured I'd bring something over it might be nice to eat food around you while you talk shop cause it's the closest we'll ever get to eating a whole meal together."

"Okay, well uh… thanks for the passive aggressive guilt trip, but we're actually heading out," he said reaching for the Styrofoam container she brought with her. Rowan immediately pulled it back.

"Really? Wow? So we can't even pretend to eat a meal together? That is some next level avoidance, McGarrett."

"God! Rowan! I am not avoiding you! I caught a case!"

"Danny's B-and-B is not a case!"

"And then I caught a real one, on the way here, a missing kid, how can you get mad at that?"

"Easily. You were literally, JUST shot, Steven! If there was ever a case to sit out, THIS IS THE ONE!"

"God… Rowan… could you… just for once, just for once, shut the fuck up? I don't need this today? Okay? I just don't."

There was an audible gasp from everyone present. Rowan's mouth fell open and Steve groaned as if he had just realized what he had just said.

"Okay you know what?" she snapped throwing down the container she had been carrying on the smart table. She glared up at him hands on her hips, he wanted to be mad but she looked so cute when she was angry it was hard to take her seriously. "I'm going to say something terrible, and you just need to know that you deserve it!"

"Oh yeah and what's that?"

"I hope you crash Danny's car. With Danny in it. And I hope that Danny gets mildly injured but you're perfectly fine. AND I hope the car needs substantial body work done after!" she cried. "Yeah! Imagine that bitch fest!"

Steve gasped and stared at her like she had just insulted his mother. "That has got to be the worst thing you have ever said to me."

"Yeah and if we could please leave me and my car out of your… I don't even know what that was? A wish list? Just leave me out of it," he said but Rowan just shook her head and turned back to Steve.

"Yeah? And do you wanna know something else? I hate your cargo pants. They're hideous and they do nothing for your ass. You look like a PTSD fashion nightmare and I swear one day you're going to come home and I'll have lit them all on fire."

With that said Rowan whirled around stormed out of the offices and into the hallway.

"Damn!" Grover sighed. "That was some harsh shit. Shouldn't you chase after her?"

Steve shook his head. "After that display… hell no, going after her would just make it worse," he said carefully picking up the food she had left. He was upset, Danny could see that, but Steve quickly cleared his throat and smiled at his companions. "Are we ready to go?"

Danny sure as hell was ready to go, but he was on edge. He was worried about Reyes and now that Steve and Rowan had had their argument of the day he was pretty sure was going to be Steve on edge too. So wasn't that just wonderful? Bad guys look out.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Danny wasn't taking this case well, Steve could see that. A little girl was missing, a little girl from a military family. With dad on an op across the sea with no idea what was happening to his daughter. Danny had a daughter so he understood, he felt like a parent should know what was happening with their child. But Steve was from the Navy and he understood where the Navy was coming from too.

Danny, who had been all too quiet this whole drive, sighed for the millionth time, and Steve figured he'd try to help him feel a bit better, or at least help him understand.

"We take an oath, Danny," he said and Danny was ready with a comeback immediately.

"I understand that, but this is about the guy's family," he snapped. "You don't think he has a right to know?"

"Of course he has a right to know, alright?" he said, amazed that Danny didn't realize that he knew that. "But right now his team needs him focused and ready to lead. You tell him about his daughter, you could put all their lives in danger and compromise the entire mission."

"Okay so let me tell you something, okay? As a parent, when your child is in trouble, you sense it. You know about it. Like right now. Lieutenant Larkin, he knows that. He doesn't know why, but he knows it. Don't you think that puts him and his team in just as much danger?"

Steve couldn't imagine a feeling like that… well he sort of could because he could often sense when Rowan was in trouble but that was because Rowan being in trouble involved some kind of twinge from the void.

When he didn't say anything Danny continued. "Okay, how about this. You're on an active mission and something happens to Rowan…"

"No, don't do that, that's not fair," Steve snapped.

"Oh and why not? Why is not fair?"

"Because… firstly… I can't go on active cases without her freaking out, you think I'm going to be able to go on active duty? Fuck no she'd fucking have a heart attack. Secondly, if something were to happen to Rowan I wouldn't have to worry cause her _brother_ would be on it…"

"So you wouldn't want to know?" Danny asked.

Steve faltered. No he would want to know. "Of course I'd want to know. If something had happened to Rowan, if she needed me, I would want to know. But I know for a fact that my CO would never tell me cause I'd be fucking AWOL immediately."

"You'd go AWOL? You? The Super Seal, would go AWOL?"

"Yes Danny. If I was on active duty, and someone called me and said Rowan was in danger, or in trouble, or in the hospital, I would be on the next fucking plane home. I'd fucking hijack a military convoy to do it if I had to, I wouldn't even care about court martialling or dishonorable discharge, if she needed me… I'd be there."

"Okay, follow up question…. Does _she_ know that?"

"Rowan? Yeah, I mean… she should…"

"So you've told her that then?" Danny asked. "Like you've said those words to her? In that order? To her face? While she was conscious?"

"Danny… why would I need to do that? Huh? She knows I mean… she should know…"

Danny shook his head. "Girls like to be reminded that they're special, Steve. Girls like to be told romantic things, and what you just said to me, about her, is romantic. Guaranteed if you told her all of that you two wouldn't have an argument for like six months."

Steve thought that over briefly. He supposed that might be right, but he knew as soon as he tried to repeat that sentiment to Rowan it wouldn't come out the same way. It wouldn't come out right, and because Rowan deserved only the best of the best he knew he'd never try.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

They were driving in silence. He was crying, she was crying, the gun was shaking in his hand. Caroline was trying to keep the car steady but she was panicking. When she agreed to drop off the money for Five-0, she figured Hollier would take the money, give back the other woman's daughter he took by accident instead of hers, and this would all be behind them but that is not what happened.

He had taken her instead. That had been his plan. The whole time. And she had walked right into it. Now they were in that car, she was trying to not have an anxiety attack, and he was holding a shaking gun on her, he too trying not to cry.

"The little girl you took, that wasn't my daughter," she told him.

"I know. My brother-in-law grabbed the wrong girl, but it didn't matter. I knew as soon as you heard 1.6 million, you'd do whatever I said before you'd admit to killing my daughter."

Well just great. She thought he might have changed his mind if he figured out it wasn't her daughter he took, but apparently he didn't care.

"You have to believe me, I never meant for that to happen," she sobbed. Because it was true. She hadn't thought it would happen, it was one test out of a hundred. But that didn't mean it didn't haunt her.

"But it did."

Yes it did happen. But that wasn't going to bring his daughter back.

"And you could've stopped it."

She wiped a tear on her shoulder because she was too afraid to take her hands off the wheel. "The little girl, what did you do to her? She had nothing to do with this."

"I know that," he said again. "I wanted to take your girl so you could feel what it's like to lose a child."

Oh was that all? Really? As if she didn't feel bad enough, he wanted to inflict the same pain on her that he had felt?

"Pull over," he ordered. "Pull over here."

She did as she was told. He looked around, the tears coming back. "It never leaves me," he whispered. "What happened here. I relive it every single day. After the crash, I called out to Olivia but she didn't answer."

He turned to look at her, that gun coming up again, level with her chest. "The report said on impact the seat came loose. The force was so strong it broke her neck!"

She couldn't imagine that pain, the kind she saw reflected in his eyes. She couldn't imagine hearing that something that was supposed to keep her daughter safe had failed and she had died. Those were the things parents had nightmares about.

"I am so sorry."

But she knew it would never be enough.

"They said it was my fault. That I didn't lock her in right. But I did. I know I did. It was you! You killed my daughter. You did!" he shouted the gun jumping up to her head. Not purposely, not because she wanted to. It was one test out of a hundred, how was she to know it would happen again? It was fixed by the next batch anyway. She never dreamed that it could happen again, she had prayed it wouldn't… and when it did… she never should have covered it up.

But when that gun came up she yelped, she couldn't help it. "I'm sorry!" she sobbed. "I'm sorry."

"Okay, enough of this," a voice said and then suddenly someone popped up from behind the passenger seat. The red head threw off the blanket she had been hiding under and smiled a toothy grin at him as he just stared at her. "Hi!" she cried and then she took his head and slammed it against the dash.

She then turned to her and said: "Run please."

Caroline forced herself out of the car as quickly as she could as the screech of tires and the wail of sirens hit her ears. McGarrett was out of the car, and while his eyes glanced over her, he seemed more concerned with the car she was running from. She was ushered towards the cop cars, screaming for help and in the car the gunshots began to echo.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve saw Caroline running from the car and immediately wasn't as anxious as before. Or he wasn't until he saw two figures still in the car, clearly wrestling for something and what he hoped wasn't a mop of red hair.

"He's going to kill her!" she called as Steve got out of the car. And then he heard the gunshots.

Two car doors opened. Both on the same side. A body fell out of the back, the other stood up, gun in hand.

Steve already knew it was Rowan, and just like that he became a predator. A scream of her name roared out of him, behind him he heard Danny calling his name, telling him to be calm. But if Steve got there and Rowan was hurt Jason Hollier was going to die by his hands. His _bare_ hands.

Steve's gun stayed trained on him as he pulled up. Rowan was at his feet not moving, curled around herself, her arms covering her head. Hollier was just standing there crying. His forehead lacerated and bleeding, the gun still shaking in his hand and eventually dropping to the ground when he realized Steve was coming for him. Steve wanted to check on her, he wanted to shook Hollier and then pull Rowan up into his arms but he couldn't do that, not when Hollier was unarmed.

Danny appeared behind him, "Check on her, I got Hollier."

Steve dropped his gun to his holster and knelt down immediately. He rolled her over and Rowan squinted up at him, perfectly fine. "Did you get him?"

Steve half laughed. "Yeah we got him."

"Oh good, am I safe to get up now?"

She sat up and Steve just half laughed at her. God his stupid, impetuous girlfriend, what would he have done if something had happened to her? Huh? Well he knew what he would have done if had he been on active duty…

"If I ever went on active duty and something happened to you I'd go AWOL to get to you, you know that right?"

Rowan blinked her eyes at him. "What?"

Steve faltered, he hadn't realized it but those words had tumbled right out of his mouth. He just held her head in his hands looking into her lovely face not understanding why it didn't work. Danny said it would work. Danny sighed from somewhere beside him, having clearly witnessed this and had sensed that he would need to help Steve with this.

"Okay, I think the problem here is context… you picked a really bad time to uh… hit her with that…" Danny said from where he was standing behind him, evidently done arresting Hollier and Steve scowled in his general direction.

Rowan nodded in agreement, which of course she did, because she always sided with Danny. "Yeah, I'm confused, I need some context. Are you getting pulled off of reserves or something? Please say no."

"No. I'm not… I'm not going on active duty. I just. We were talking… and… I just…"

He was sinking, really and truly sinking. Why had he tried to do this? Why? He knew he was no good at this and now he was going to make a complete spectacle of himself in front of everyone.

"With Sophie's dad being a navy guy we naturally argued over whether or not he should be made aware of his daughter's kidnapping while on an active mission," Danny explained. "That lead to Steve telling me that if he was on active duty and knew something had happened to you, his commanding officers wouldn't be able to tell him about it cause he'd go AWOL to get to you."

Rowan took that in and then looked back to Steve with a smile. "Wow, really? You'd do that? For me?"

Thank god Danny was here to help him out. "Yes, of course I would."

"Awww, that's the nicest thing you've ever had Danny tell me."

She leant in and kissed him and Steve smiled into the gesture. Okay… maybe Danny had been right about the romantic words. But Steve wasn't going to tell him that.

"Just so I know… how did you know to be here?" he asked her once she was done kissing him.

Rowan smiled up to him, letting him pull her up to her feet. She took Steve's face in her hands. "Well baby, if you had had breakfast with me this morning I could have told you all about the dream I had last night."

"You know where the girl is?"

"Sure do, she's in the trunk."

He dropped Rowan immediately to fumble with the car to get it open. He didn't care if she got mad at him over it, that little girl needed him more at that moment than she did. But when he turned around with the little missing hula girl in his arms, Rowan was all smiles and Steve figured that, at last, they were done with their latest argument.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Danny leant against the HPD squad car that he was gonna shove Marco Reyes into and then personally drive the asshole to the airport. Anything to get him off the island.

Reyes came out of the HPD precinct with his slimy lawyer beside him. He smiled when he saw Danny standing their waiting for him. He waved his lawyer away from him and then approached Danny.

"Do you have my money?" he asked.

"Okay… look… I strongly suggest that you just get on a plane and never come back."

"As soon as I get my money, that's exactly what I'll do."

Danny scoffed again and then sighed at Reyes. How dumb was this guy? "Okay, I don't know how many times I gotta tell you, I don't know where it is. I don't have it!"

"That's a funny thing, because Matthew tells a very different story," Reyes said. Now he had Danny's full and undivided attention. "Of course, people tend to say anything when they have a gun to their head."

Just like that Danny had grabbed him by his stupid lapels, turned him around and then slammed him into the squad car behind him.

"Where is he? You got my brother? Where is he, huh?" he snapped.

"Someplace you'll never find him. Unless I get my money."

Danny's eyes narrowed at him. Oh that was a mistake. Reyes clearly didn't know who he had in his corner. So, with a smile on his face he knew he was pulling straight from Rowan's play book her snarled: "You wanna fucking bet?"

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve stared down at Danny not quite understanding what had just happened. Other than Danny letting himself in and talking a mile a minute about what Reyes had done and what he thought he was going to do and what Danny wanted done to help him.

"Okay… so this Reyes guy… he has your brother and you need to find Matty's money which Reyes says is somewhere on this island?"

"Yes."

"And you came here… not to get my help but to talk to Rowan?"

"Yes."

"Danny…"

"No Steve, this is my brother. How hard could it be for her to just put into her little app to take down this guy?"

"Because will we find out where Matty is? And what… what if it back fires? What if she doesn't kill him? Will it stop him from coming back?"

Danny blinked his eyes. "Okay look fine, I'm going to agree because you're clearly panicking for no reason. Seriously, no one she's told him to kill has stayed alive, but you're right, if we kill him we don't find Matty. So uh… what do you think I should do?"

"Look, you're here. I'll help you, we'll do this together. And if you want to ask her for a vision or something, go ahead, but for Christ sake, I'm trying to get her off of that goddamn app so if you could fucking keep Wo Fat out of this that would be great."

Danny looked Steve up and down. Steve had been trying, really fucking hard to make things work between he and Rowan all while ignoring all the shit going on with Wo Fat. He had been doing well but he still had reservations about having to rely on him so much.

"Look, if it looks like he's going to take it too far, by all means get Rowan and Wo Fat involved, but please… for right now…"

"Fine, fine, alright… fine…" he sighed. "But the second I think this is failing I'm asking her for a Rowan-gram."

"A Rowan-gram?" Rowan echoed coming in through the back and not the front like Steve thought she would.

"Babe… uh…"

Rowan kissed him on the cheek and then walked over to Danny who was staring at her with wide eyes. "What do you need a Rowan-gram for? And what kind? If you need a lethal one, that may take some time, I don't think I have approval for that right now."

"Wait what? Why?" Steve asked.

Rowan turned her eyes to Steve and calmly said: "You asked me not to tell you about that stuff, Steve, remember?"

Steve groaned and left the kitchen to go sit on the couch which left Danny standing in front of her with what he hoped was a nice smile.

"So… Hey."

"Hiii, are you here to ruin our night like you ruined our morning?"

"Uh… am I really ruining it? Weren't you two arguing?"

"We made up," Rowan said with a shrug, "We always make up."

"Yeah until the one day you don't."

Rowan frowned at him. "Why would you say that?" "No, I'm just saying statistically…" "Is that what Steve said to you?"

"What did I say now?" Steve called from the living room. Danny could hear the TV on, probably a football game re-run or something. But Danny knew that was just noise, he wasn't paying attention to the TV he was listening in.

"Apparently you told Danny we're one argument away from breaking up!" she called back.

"WHAT?!" Steve shouted. "DANNY?! WHAT THE HELL?!"

"No! I didn't say that… that's not what… I'm just saying that… you know… one of these days you two are going to pick an argument and you won't make up."

"Why the fuck would you say that?" Steve cried. "What the hell were you… can you just ask her your goddamn favour please. Without trying to sabotage our relationship? I mean, shit, it was crazy when you were ruining your own, but now you're trying to ruin ours? Jeezus Danny."

"Will you shut up?" Danny cried before turning back to Rowan who was just staring at him. "Look… uh… my mom… she's gotten into trouble with the feds… they seem to think she has Matty's missing millions, and I was hoping…"

"You need me to find the money."

"Okay, no, I'm not asking you to go on a treasure hunt," Danny told her, his hands waving every which way as he thought and talked at the same time. "I'm just saying… if you maybe touch me… or dream about something that would be great."

Rowan put a hand out and touched him. A static shock ran up his arm but it just made Rowan's face darken. "Are you sure that's why you need the money?" she asked. "Like… there isn't a different reason?"

"No?"

"Hmmm, must be later," she whispered. "Sorry, I didn't get anything. Uh… but if I get anything tonight, I'll let you know."

"Thanks," Danny said which was echoed by a: "Thanks babe," from Steve.

"Alright, was that all my lovely?" she asked him. Danny nodded and Rowan hit him with that glittering dangerous grin that made him nervous. "Good now get out."

Maybe he wouldn't tell Rowan to call Wo Fat, maybe he'd just leave Reyes and Rowan alone in a room and see which one came out alive… or see which of her men got to her first. Fat or McGarrett. Danny had his money on Steve.


	136. Chapter 136

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hey guys, for those that Celebrate it like I do, Happy Canada Day! We're getting to the dramatic parts so I hope you guys are excited. The chapters that are coming up are going to have parts that are short and sweet because time is of the essence here and I want you guys to feel the panic of the situation… please tell me if it worked! Also the actual episodes are not as important either, we're focusing on the Reyes situation. Don't forget to tell me what you think and I'll see you guys on Wednesday!_

Chapter 136

* * *

Matty was shaken awake way too early by Wo who was fully dressed and ready to go. He had been in a bad mood the last few weeks, if Matty had to guess it was because Rowan had stopped coming over, and had stopped meeting up with him, and Matty was a poor replacement for the wildly entertaining Rowan.

It wasn't his fault he didn't like Disney movies, it wasn't like Wo liked them either, he kept saying he only put up with them to please Rowan… but Matt had a feeling that wasn't true either.

But having Wo Fat wake him up that early when he usually left Matty to his own devices made him nervous. "What? What is it? Are we being attacked?"

"No. I need to know where the money is," he said. "The money you buried on Oahu. You need to tell me where it is."

He stepped away to fiddle with his cufflinks, carefully avoiding his eyes to concentrate on his hand movements. Matt rolled off of his stomach and stretched out. He had no intention of telling him about that money because it wasn't supposed to exist. It was his rainy day money, one day he'd get to pull it up today was not that day.

"I don't know…" he started and Wo Fat cut him off by punching him straight in the stomach. Matt cried out, curling up around the pain as he coughed and sputtered and eventually threw up some of his dinner from last night.

When he could breathe, when he wasn't in that much pain he glared up to Wo Fat. "What the hell did you do that for?"

"I don't have time for your lies. Tell me where it's buried, now."

There was a dangerous darkness around Wo Fat's edges that worried Matt. He only got looks like that when he thought Rowan was in danger. And Reyes wouldn't go after Rowan, not with who backed her, so if Rowan was in trouble and it involved his money it was probably because his brother was in trouble and she was stepping in to help him out.

So Matt told him all he needed to know.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Danny woke up to someone shaking him and urgently saying his name over and over and over again.

Beside him Amber groaned. "Danny what does she want?"

"I'm more concerned about how she got in," Danny growled.

"You gave me an emergency key, now. Wake. Up," she shouted half jumping onto him. God she was worse than a kid on Christmas. And this was not what he had given her an emergency key for.

"Fuck Rowan!" Danny snapped but she merely jumped on him again while ordering him to wake up. He glanced at the clock. Seven in the morning. "Look at what time it is! What do you want, huh? What the hell do you want Rowan? Does Steve know you're here?" he snapped as she knelt down beside the bed.

She was all wide eyed and excited. Her pupils past dilated, those blue orbs clear crystal blue and with not a speck of fogginess around the edges. She wasn't having a vision that was for sure but she sure as hell was excited. "I found the money," she whispered and just like that Danny was up and ready to go.

"Oh and you're gonna have to call Steve cause I didn't tell him where I was going."

Well fuck.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve didn't like coming back from his run and finding that Rowan was no longer in the house. He had left her in bed, went for a 5K or more run and then came back and she was gone. She didn't leave a note, but she left her phone which was pretty fucking shitty. Had Danny not texted him to tell him that Rowan had showed up at his place with the location of Matty's missing millions he would have flown into a proper panic.

He was annoyed, of course, but he understood why she might have forgotten to tell him she was leaving. She had been trying to dream about Matt's money for days and as Danny got more frantic so did she. He was going to ask Danny where they were so he could go help them, but he knew if he was actually wanted there she would have waited for him, or had remembered her phone so she could call him when he got home. Luckily right after confirming Rowan was okay he caught a case and now he was suitably distracted. He pulled his truck up to the crime scene and was met by Grover who was frowning at his truck. Okay so it wasn't a Camaro but it was still a nice truck.

"Where's the brains?" Lou asked once Steve was out and the door shut behind him.

"What are you talking about?

"Williams. He's the brains. You're the brawn."

"Okay. What does that make you?"

"Me? Come on, man," he said with a grin. "I'm the pretty face."

Steve scoffed and hid his amused smirk. "Danny's got some personal stuff he had to take care of…"

"The Reyes thing, huh?"

Steve nodded. "Sounds to me like that cat has a problem taking no for an answer," Lou growled.

"Yeah, well… he doesn't know Danny… who uh… who took Rowan with him this morning, so we'll see how well Reyes deals with that."

Except the only reason Steve let Rowan go out that door this morning was at the express request that Reyes and Rowan not go within three feet of each other. She couldn't know about Reyes, not when she had been dreaming two nights in a row about a man that looked like Reyes either getting shot, or shooting Danny.

He couldn't let Rowan know that Reyes was around, she'd call Wo Fat. She'd use that app. He didn't want Wo Fat or the app involved, there was no telling what that would do to Matt, or how this would rebound onto Rowan. After what Chin had told him Gabriel had said, that her using the app was rendering Wo Fat inept, he wanted her as far away from any situation that could have her on her app. Yes she was semi-involved right now, but this needed to be an internal Five-0 thing and he wanted it handled that way.

Besides, Rowan hadn't gone to intimidate Reyes, she knew where the money was and she was taking Danny to it.

"Ohh… the brains and the evil genius… not a good combination for you. My money's on he's going to say something stupid and you and Rowan argue for another three days."

Oh come on now, now Rowan was the evil genius? And another three day argument? Actually that was possible. Danny did like to say stupid things to Rowan that upset her and their arguments were getting longer. Steve ignored Lou's wagging eyebrows and turned away. They were just going to work and pretend none of this could happen.

But before Kono could even finish briefing him, his phone started to ring. It was a number he didn't recognize but he picked it up anyway.

"McGarrett."

"Reyes is on the island."

Steve blinked his eyes… that was Wo Fat's voice. Why would Reyes being on the island worry Wo Fat? "Uh…"

"Why is Reyes on the island, and why, if you know he's here, does Rowan not know he's here?"

"Why the hell do you care that he's here?" Steve asked.

Wo Fat started talking but didn't finish it. He seemingly thought about what he wanted to say before starting up again. "She mentioned him in passing, in relation to a dream," he said instead and Steve felt his lip curl in a baser animalistic response. He still selfishly felt like Rowan's dreams were only supposed to be for him and his team, not Wo Fat. "I've been watching him ever since. He has an interest in your bromance… thing. Who is currently with her doing god knows what with shovels… are they hiding a body?"

"She's helping him look for something."

"Is it a body?"

"No, I would not let Rowan go looking for a body, she'd puke all over the crime scene," Steve growled. "Look, what do you care?"

"Rowan fed me a bad cover story as a reason for her little treasure hunt. I presume you know the real reason why she's looking for eighteen and half million dollars and I would like to know, a, which one of you fed her that ridiculous lie, b, why you bothered lying in the first place if you were going to have her help find the money, and c, how it's possible she even bought that bullshit?"

Why the hell had he asked what they were looking for if he already knew the answer. Was he trying to see how much Steve had known? God, Steve didn't have time for this today.

"Why did you ask me what she was doing if you knew what was going on?" Steven asked. "How do you even know what's going on?"

"Reyes was an associate of mine. He had some of his money go missing, 18.5 million, asked me for a loan, which I was happy to give him and he has since then paid me back, however I know he's still looking for it. And now he's on the island and Rowan's on a beach with a bad lie and a shovel digging up that money, and I was giving you a chance to tell me the truth," Wo Fat answered.

Wow. Just… just… wow. Steve pinched the bridge of his nose. "Look, I was trying to keep you out of it," Steve snapped. "This is a Five-0 issue, and it's going to hit some grey territory… excuse me if I didn't want to make that grey even darker by getting you involved. And I just… I wanted Rowan away from him, alright?"

"Fair. I, too, would like to keep Reyes away from her, he's a little ticked off with me over a misunderstanding right now, and he has the habit of getting rather… violent…" Wo Fat seemingly mused to himself. "How badly do you want him off of the island?"

"Honestly? Pretty badly," Steve said. "He's uh… he's threatening Danny's family."

Wo Fat was silent for a moment before saying: "If it keeps Rowan away from him, I'll look into it."

And then he hung up the phone. Steve stared at the screen for a little while wondering when exactly he became okay with having casual conversations with his arch nemesis and asking him to deal with people for him.

He wasn't sure when it happened, but he blamed Rowan completely.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan had dragged him out to this remote area of Oahu, she had made him take this stupid ass postcard that Matt had sent him three years go. A little piss off postcard he was certain was sent to upset him. On the front of it was of a rock formation and a couple of palm trees and on the back Matt had written: wish you were here. This was where she took him.

They got out of the car and Danny looked around.

"Okay… so… what are we doing here?" he asked looking to her as she went to the back to get the shovels.

"Well… let's think about this logically, right?" she asked "So Matt got on a plane, and he had not a single piece of luggage right?'

"It scares me that you know that, but yes, go on."

"I told you it's on the TV show, season one. I think around the time you and Rachel started…"

"Can you stop. Please? Stop it. You know everything, it's scaring me, move on," he said following her out to the grove of trees where she stood in the middle of it. She shot a look at him that was both dry and unimpressed

"Kay, well he didn't leave with 18.5 million on a cheque… so that means it's gonna be on the island," she told him, which was all the stuff he knew already.

"Okay but why here, in particular?" he repeated.

"That postcard I told you to bring. Matt sent you that postcard… about a month after he disappeared right?"

"Again, scaring me that you know that."

"I'm going to ignore you every time you say that," Rowan said. "Well… this is on the postcard."

"Okay, so because my brother sent me a postcard… the money is just gonna… it's going to be here?"

"Yes."

"Rowan how do you…"

"Cause this is where you found it in the TV show and this is where you found it in the dream."

"Why couldn't you fucking lead with that?" he asked. "You really think my brother sent me a postcard as a treasure map."

"Yes sir, yes he did," she said. "And if we dig… uh… actually I'm not sure where I dig. You want to stand here for a second?"

She took a hold of him, her eyes closed an electric hum around him… not on him yet but around him. He felt it, this sort of shift in the atmosphere around them as she thought, and he swore, when she opened her eyes again that her eyes were a glowing hot white but it faded almost immediately so he wasn't sure.

"Found it."

Her voice was breathy and maybe he was crazy but he swore there was a fog descending from her mouth like she was cold or something in her mouth was cold. She left him, took four steps and then looked down at her feet and pointed to the ground.

"Three medium sized duffle bags, right here."

If they found that money where she was pointing… Danny was gonna shit bricks.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Marco Reyes was having a nice lunch at his hotel. He had Williams fully invigorated in the search for Matty's missing millions, and he had people searching for the missing Matthew Williams. He had purposely let Daniel believe that he had his brother and that Matt was in danger. If Williams found out that Reyes didn't have Matty all of this would be for naught.

But that wasn't all he was looking into.

He was more than 90% positive that Wo Fat had been behind the hit he took that lost him over 1.3 mill in drugs and Matty. The survivors of the night said that is was one man who cleaned them out. And Marco Reyes knew of only one man who could pull a stunt like that off.

Sin Nombre didn't work for free. And he did take a large payout from Wo Fat around the time of the attack.

The only reason that Reyes wasn't entirely sure about it was because Wo Fat's pet civilian had also gotten into a lot of trouble and he had an issued an edict to destroy the NLM around the same time. The payment also linked up with that. And there was also the fact that Wo Fat vehemently denied pulling it off and the drugs never resurfaced. And at the amount he was paying out to fund Rowan Pierce's rescue missions he needed it.

Still, if Wo Fat was behind it, it was probably because Rowan Pierce was connected with Five-0, the team Daniel William's worked with. Everyone knew that she was dating one of them, Reyes wasn't sure which one because he didn't give a shit. But if she was close with Five-0 she would have had an interest in Matty's wellbeing for Danny's sake. And she was prone to using that network to help Five-0.

Reyes knew Fat was on the island, or at least nearby. Since getting out of prison he had returned to Hawaii and done less work on building up his empire again and spent more time hovering around Rowan. Reyes wanted off the island before Rowan was made aware that he was here, because he was certain when she knew, Wo Fat would come knocking on his hotel room door. To be honest he was surprised Williams didn't run to her the second he threatened his brother.

"Marco Reyes, as I live and breathe."

Reyes looked up, surprised, he new that saccharine sweet voice. Knew that rich timbre and silent clipped accent anywhere.

Wo Fat sat down at his table, in a crisp black suit looking like a villain out of a batman movie with those pink scars across the side of his face.

Oh God. She had told him. This was a shake down. An extradition.

"What brings you to my neck of the woods?"

Or maybe it wasn't.

"Just taking care of some business."

"I don't remember approving that… Reyes," Wo Fat said carefully signalling for the waitress to bring him over a drink.

"It's not that kind of business," Reyes said quickly. "Besides, after what you pulled… the least you could do is let me send a little…"

"Please tell me you are not still on this," he sighed as he took his drink, an amber looking liquid on the rocks. Knowing Wo Fat, expensive whiskey. That better not be on his tab, Wo Fat better be paying for his own drink.

"Why don't you admit to what you did? Admit you hit me and tell me where you stashed the drugs."

"I keep telling you, if I hit you for any reason, you would have known about it both before and after it happened," he repeated. "Shall I give you an example?"

Reyes eyed him carefully as Wo Fat leant in close to him. "You are dangerously close to getting involved with my sister," he hissed. "And I can tell you right now, if my sister calls me about you, if even so much as get a whiff of ill intent aimed in her general direction, I will stop being courteous with you, my friend."

He stood up threw money to the table and then smiled dangerously at him. "There was the before. Wanna see the after? Keep going. But I would advise that you got off this island, Reyes. Or Five-0 will be least of your troubles."

Reyes smiled. "Whatever you say, my friend, but I must say… you seem to really care about this, you called her your… sister?" he asked. Wo Fat's face remained unchanged, but there was a moment where he narrowed his eyes briefly. Reyes knew then he had hit a nerve. "I would recommend that you be careful. In our line of work… having someone close to you… that could be considered… dangerous…"

Wo Fat smiled a dangerous glittering smile. "I'll be sure to tell Commander McGarrett you've threatened his girlfriend. Have a nice night Marco."

And just like that Wo Fat was gone and Reyes found himself sitting there a little worried. He hadn't realized that Commander McGarrett of Five-0, the most unreasonably persistent and resourceful pain in the ass to any criminal organization, was the man on Five-0 that Rowan Pierce was dating.

He really needed to get off that island.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve sprinted up the walkway to Danny's place, rang the door bell multiple times and then called Danny's name. There was no answer but the front door was open so he let himself in. He found a trail of dirt and sand leading him to the living room, which was coincidentally where Danny's voice was announcing: "In here!"

He rounded the corner and was shocked by it all. He hadn't seen this much money since Chin's ransom back when Hess was alive and Wo Fat was nothing but an enemy and that was all. Ah the good old days when everything was easier.

"Whoa," Steve found himself whispering, mainly cause it was a lot of money, but secondly because they had actually found the missing millions. Score one for Rowan and her visions.

"Where's Rowan?" he asked.

"I've got a room full of bags and money and you're asking me where your girlfriend is?" Danny shot back. When Steve scowled at him Danny waved off in the direction of the backyard. "She's out back on the phone. Pulling another favour."

"A favour?" he asked but Danny waved him off. Steve figured he'd just ask her when she came in so he looked around again and added: "Well… she was right."

"Yep, except for, uh… the fact that Reyes said that Matty owed him eighteen and a half million dollars. You see, this is only thirteen million dollars."

Steve looked around again. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, I am positive, we counted it three times," Danny snapped. Rowan was notoriously bad at math and Steve was about to mention that when Danny rolled his eyes and added: "And before you ask I did it twice without Rowan's help."

"So Matty must have taken some to help himself disappear."

"Yeah and now I'm five and a half million dollars short. Steve, I have two days to come up with all of it and if I don't I get Matt's head in a box," Danny said with a sigh. "I think he's not playing. I think he has Matt."

"Okay… so uh… what did you… what did you tell…"

"I told Rowan that we got most of it and we're short about five mill. And she said she might have that in the bank right now, but she uh… she's calling to check, hence…" he said trailing over

For a moment Steve went blank. "I'm sorry…she has how much in the bank?"

"You know I didn't really press her for details… do you guys talk about…"

"No," Steve whispered though he was starting to think he really should sit her down and have her explain her finances to him. Just so they could be on the same page, just cause at some point he was going to ask her to consolidate everything with his… just you know in the distant future.

The door slid open and Rowan appeared, looking at her phone. "Fucking asshole should have mentioned it when we asked him," Rowan was mumbling to herself. "Should let Wo teach him a lesson…"

"Teach who a lesson, Ro?" Steve asked. Rowan's eyes whipped up to him, a smile widened on her face that made his heart sing. She was always so happy to see him.

"Baby!" she cried crossing over piles of money without a care in the world to wrap him up in a hug and kiss him. "I'm sorry I wasn't there to meet you when you got home."

"That's alright," he whispered into her hair. "Who's Wo gonna teach a lesson to?"

"Oh never mind that," she said and then she glanced at Danny and said: "No go. I've got maybe half readily available, but the rest I'd have to uh… well… uhm…"

She kept glancing at Steve and realized that she'd have to ask Wo Fat for the money. Panic hit Steve's features. Wo Fat would know what the money was for. Wo Fat would tell her the truth. And Rowan would get fully involved, app and all. God, he wanted her not involved in this, that was the whole point. To keep her and Wo Fat out, and they were both too far in.

"It's uh… it's okay…" he said. "We'll uh… we'll think of something."

But Danny was wearing that look on his face and Steve had a feeling they were getting dangerously close to the point where Danny was going to ask for a Rowan-gram.


	137. Chapter 137

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Okay guys, this is it. Reyes is GOING DOWN today! But I'm warning you now… Steve the Jerk is going to be appearing after this chapter and he is going to be around for a while… I believe he's here for four chapters, then we get a break and then he's back for about 3 chapters and then gone for the rest of the season… mostly. Tell if you liked how the situation with Reyes went down and I'll see you guys on Friday!_

Chapter 137

* * *

Danny came out of the strip club, livid. He was ready to punch Rowan in the face. Or get Rowan to punch Wo Fat in the face. He just couldn't believe that he was denied a loan from a criminal organization, because he was tied to Wo Fat and Rowan and they were too scary to deal with. What happened if he couldn't pay back? Ko had asked. He'd never be able to collect, not without the fear of dealing with them.

But when he got out of there, Chin was waiting for him.

"Steve told me about the money… and how we're trying to keep Rowan and Wo Fat out of it," he said.

Danny nodded. "Apparently there's going to be a shootout, Steve's trying to keep her from it. Wants her to think that Reyes isn't here cause he thinks she might be dreaming about him. That and she'd have to ask Wo Fat for the money and he doesn't want her to owe him that much," Danny said. "Though after this turn down… I may go over there and tell her myself."

Chin half smiled. "I get it. Why he'd want her out of it, why you'd come here, but trust me you wouldn't want to owe to a man like Ko anyway."

"Yeah, well apparently he'd be too afraid to come to collect and he can't chance me defaulting on the loan and incurring the wrath of Ro," Danny growled. "I'd be proud if I wasn't so fucking angry. I'm short five and half million dollars, Reyes is going to kill my brother and Steve won't let me hire a Rowan-gram. I don't see any other way of getting this money, or saving my brother."

Chin sighed, a look of pain swept his features. "I may have one," he said.

Danny didn't know what that meant, but he doubted it was good.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Chin went straight to Halawa to talk to Gabriel. It was his hail Mary pass. Getting the money Gabriel had bribed him with to help Danny. If IA found out that would be the end of his career. But Danny was ' _ohana_ and that meant it was worth chancing an IA shit storm if it helped his brother. And he was secretly hoping that like last time, Rowan would just flip out and deal with it herself.

As soon as Gabriel saw him he was scoffing. This already wasn't starting well.

"Gas must be cheap these days because this is the second time in a week that you've come out here for nothing," he taunted.

"I'm not here about my problem with the IA," Chin growled.

"Right. Because if you were, you'd be on your knees, begging me to tell them you didn't take my bribe."

"Well if the truth still matters, I've got nothing to worry about."

"Good luck with that."

"Looks like you've been having trouble making friends in here," Chin said

"Yeah, Wo Fat's been a real wheel greaser," Gabriel snapped. "You snitched huh?"

"If had even so much as alluded to any of the things I have you recorded as saying, you'd be dead not beaten," Chin snapped.

"Then he must still be trying to prove a point."

"I can make it stop," Chin said. "All I have to do is ask her, and she'll tell him to stop."

"Ah, and what do you get in return huh? That confession?"

"No. I have a friend…" "and let me guess this pal of yours is in trouble? Needs some sort of financial assistance?"

Chin finally sat down he leant forward. "This isn't for me. And there's a clock on this," he hissed. "He's almost out of options."

"And your precious Rowan Pierce couldn't get you the money?" he asked.

Chin frowned at him. "Not without out telling big brother what's going on, someone's life is at stake, we don't want him blowing things out of the water."

Gabriel thought this over. "How much help does your friend need?"

"Five and half million dollars worth."

"Oh is that all? And if the money isn't there?"

"My friend's brother dies."

Gabriel smiled. "Tell your friend I'll give him five hundred for a black suit," he snarled and then he laughed. "We're done here."

Except they weren't, cause two hours later Gabriel called. Got another beating and was ready to trade.

Problem was… when he went to transfer the money… it was gone.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Danny and Chin walked into Steve's. Steve was still dealing with Valentine, a contract killer turned good guy, which meant they could do what they needed to do. After the hour they just had, almost getting the money but not getting the money, they needed Rowan. They had promised themselves that, for Steve's sake, they would try to ask her for to get the money from Wo Fat, without alluding to Reyes being on the island. But if that failed, they were going to straight up ask for a Rowan-gram.

Rowan looked up from the tea she was making surprised. She started to say hi but Danny cut her off.

"Look… I need crazy you right now, okay. I don't need Rowan the nice guy, I need the sociopath… I need the Professional," Danny said.

Rowan just stared at him. "What's going on?"

"It wasn't there."

"What wasn't there?"

"Gabriel's money."

"What money?"

"The money he tried to bribe Chin with?" Danny cried. "Come on Rowan keep up."

Rowan blinked her eyes not sure what he was talking about, probably because she hadn't been briefed on anything he had been doing. But Danny was stuck on irrational mode. Luckily for him a lightbulb seemed to go off in Rowan's head. "Oh the off-shore money? Yeah, I had that transferred out of that account months ago," Rowan said as she took a sip of her tea. Chin and Danny turned dumbfounded eyes to her. She took in their stares and began to squirm. "Well I mean… I told Wo Fat and he had people get it but uh… yeah… that's gone. I mean, unless you need it, I'm sure I can get it back."

"You have access to 5.5 million dollars?"

"Uh… I mean, not in my personal bank account but I have access to uh… certain business account… if it's an emergency."

"Rowan, can you get me that kind of money or not?"

"Okay what's going on?" she asked frowning at him.

"Rowan you can't ask me…"

"Okay, no, I need a little something more then that, Danny. You made me find you Matty's money and now you're asking me to get you more and that's… it's a lot… and it's gonna be… just… are you in trouble?"

"It's my mom, the money's not all there and the FBI…"

"And you're sure, you're sure that's all?" she asked. "There isn't anything else, it's just the FBI after your mom?"

It was like she knew something else was happening. But they both knew that Steve didn't want her knowing. So, they lied.

"Yes, Rowan… the FBI is going to arrest…"

"Whoa! Arrest? Say no more… uh… if I get you that amount… you're not allowed to ask me how I got it, okay?"

Well that was worrying. Still Danny gave her a curt nod. "Yeah, sure. Deal. Thanks."

"Alright. Uh… when do you need it by?"

"Tonight."

"Fucking really? Uh… okay, I'll have to leave now then… it'll be tight but I'll shoot you a text when I have it." She took one step towards the door before turning back to them. "Wait… wait a second… how did you know that the money was missing?" when both men just stared at her she got a little more frantic. "Chin? How did you know that?"

"I went and asked…." "NO!" Rowan suddenly shouted cutting him off. "NO!"

"Rowan what's wrong?"

"No, he uses that to escape. IA… they come back! They… they offer him up freedom cause YOU CAME AND ASKED FOR THE FUCKING MONEY!" she shouted.

"Whoa… whoa… Rowan!" Chin cried trying to calm her down. "Okay, you're right, this is fucked up, and I'm sorry… but M….my mother… the money…? Can we worry about Chin after?"

Rowan took a deep breath and then slowly let it out. "Yeah. Right. Money. On it. I'll… uh… god, don't tell Steve where I'm going, okay?" she asked and they both nodded. And that time, Rowan really left.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan was silent for an hour after she left before she sent him a text that simply said: _Taking longer than expected. Text me meeting point._ He did as he was asked but Rowan had gone radio silent after that. Danny had texted and called but nothing had come back and Danny didn't have time to wait for her. He went to the meet point, a dock at the Ko Olina Marina. He had purposely not brought Steve with him because he was expecting Rowan to show up, and he figured if she showed up with a bag of money Steve would have a lot of questions that he knew Rowan didn't want asked.

He was working on getting the money, which was pretty heavy, to where Reyes said to meet him when the man disembarked off and boat and smiled at Danny before taking in what he had with him.

"Only three?" Reyes asked.

Danny looked down at the bags. "I have another bag coming… it's… she's on her way… it's coming…"

"Coming?" he echoed. "You think I'm going to wait?"

Danny faltered, it wasn't like Rowan to let him down. She was never unreliable before and she knew… okay she didn't _know_ but he was really regretting not telling her now.

"Look… you've got most of it here, the rest is coming… really soon… can I please see my brother?"

"You're not seeing anything until the money is here…"

Behind them they heard the slam of a car door and then Reyes was glancing behind him. A look of fear crossed his face and he took half a step away, his brown eyes wide as he stared at Danny and then back to whoever was coming towards them.

Danny half turned to where Rowan was rushing towards him, the car she had been in was speeding away and she was struggling with her own bag of money. "Okay… I… I got it," she proclaimed breathlessly dropping it with the other bags. "Five point five million…"

Danny turned to Reyes with a smile. "See… I told you she was coming."

Rowan turned, took in Reyes and suddenly straightened. She looked him up and down as Reyes tried to smile confidently and was slightly failing and then she turned back to Danny.

"Danny… who… who is this?" Rowan asked looking at him carefully. "He looks like the guy I've been…" She bent down to pick up the money again, a sudden vice grip on the duffle bag full of money that he needed to save his brother. Danny reached over to grab it from her but she wouldn't let go.

"I am Marco Reyes, I'm sorry, I told your brother I wouldn't get you involved but it looks like Detective Williams had other plans," he said.

Rowan's eyes narrowed, and echoed the name before turning to Danny. "What did you say need the money for?"

"I get my money, he gets his brother back, it's pretty simple now hand it over."

Rowan's eyes widened, she gripped the duffle bag a little tighter even though Danny was tugging hard on it. "Nooo… you specifically said it was for your mother! I asked you to clarify… you told me…"

"I lied!" Danny shouted. "Steve didn't want you, your app, or your Wo Fat involved. But I needed help so I lied and if he doesn't get his money he's going to kill Matty."

Rowan turned on him. "No… see… he can't kill Matty… he can't…" her eyes were wide, like she was trying to clue him in on something but Danny was too worried about that his brother to figure out her subtle clues at that moment.

"Rowan this is my brother, I'm not going to take a psychic vision, or your knowledge of our TV show as bible here…"

He pushed past her and Rowan grabbed him again. "No. this isn't a vision. I'm serious. He doesn't have Matty."

"This is a bit ridiculous, don't you think? Do you not want your brother back?" Reyes called.

"No, he doesn't have him, Danny."

"There is no way for you to possibly know that," Reyes snapped taking a hesitant step forward, his eyes on the money at their feet.

"Yes there is!" Rowan shouted, tugging Danny so hard he practically fell backward. She got in front of him as she faced off with Reyes "I sent people to get him! You got me? I sent people to get him away from you months ago. Months! I made sure of it. I made sure you knew not to fuck with us, I had them destroy that compound. I had them take everything out of that building to ruin you!" She then turned back to Danny. "I _know_ he doesn't have him, because I do!"

There was a deadly hush across that marina after that confession. Danny felt sick to his stomach, he had gone through all of this… for _nothing_? Suddenly Reyes had a gun on her. Danny almost yelped, a gun aimed in Rowan's direction was not a good thing.

"I knew it!" he shouted. "I knew you did it. I knew you and Wo Fat were behind it I just couldn't figure out why, not when Williams knew nothing… how could you have even known I had him, huh? Do you have any idea what that did to me? I lost over 1.3 mill in drugs. That attack decimated me, I almost…"

"You were going to kill him! You were going to kill him, make Danny find his money and then give him his brother's body back in an oil drum!" Rowan cried. _The oil drum dream_. She had been having that dream… so long ago… but she had never brought it back up. Clearly this was why. She had figured it out and dealt with it. God Danny should have pressed her for more information but in October. "I did what I had to, to protect my family. And now I have Matty, I have your fucking money, and I am SO telling my brother you pulled a gun on me! You are gonna be so dead, you hear me? DEAD!"

"You've had Matty this whole time?" Danny asked in a hollow voice a hand was on her arm, ready to pull her out of the way as soon as he had to.

"I couldn't tell you, you can't keep a secret… like ever."

"You came down here to blackmail me and you didn't even have my brother?" Danny cried stepping in front of Rowan to block her from Reyes. Yes, good, now if he did shoot he'd shoot Danny who could take it and not Rowan who could not.

Danny had his own gun out as he was heading towards him. He couldn't see any other bodyguards before but he saw them now. Two guys heading towards them.

"Fernando, get the money," he said. "And the girl is coming with me too."

Rowan? He was going to take Rowan, probably to get back at Wo Fat for what they did. Danny couldn't let that happen though.

The two men took one step forward and without giving a single warning like he was supposed to, Danny fired. Three shots before either of them thought to fire back. He took out one, injured another. Reyes rushed forward as Danny hid behind the base of a lamp post to avoid taking fire. Rowan had thrown herself down behind the bags of money as Danny and the one bodyguard left volleyed fire.

Reyes, hiding behind big wooden boxes of supplies, crouching down and heading slowly towards where Rowan was, had a look on his face Danny didn't like. He tried to warn Rowan but she had curled herself up in a ball behind the bags of money and wasn't moving. Well… shit.

Danny kept returning fire, knowing he'd be out of ammo soon, only 7 shots left. He'd have to wait until he got a clear shot.

To his left Reyes pounced on Rowan and the money. He was on top of her wrestling with her, and she was doing quite well, fending him off, actually. Danny got his window, the bodyguard stepped out and he fired off two quick shots and got him in the shoulders. That was him done.

He got up from where he was hiding and practically tackled Reyes off of Rowan. As he did he got a glimpse of her. Reyes had managed to knock her one, the side of her head looking red. Fuck. He was screwed, no hiding that one from Steve.

In the scuffle Danny lost his gun and then he and Reyes were grappling with one another, each trying to land blows. Reyes didn't play fair though, he managed to hook an arm under his leg and he threw Danny to the dock. Reyes pulled a second gun from who fucking knows where and raised it. And for that brief second he thought he saw his life flashing before his eyes, or at least, just Grace's face.

Three shots punctured the air and Reyes jerked. He half turned to where Rowan was standing, Danny's gun in her shaking hands. Reyes half raised his gun in her direction, and quick as a rabbit she pulled back the trigger two more times and that time when Reyes hit the ground, he was dead.

Rowan stared at the body, her eyes blinking, horror painting her features a terrible white color. Danny stood, he took the gun from her and Rowan turned away from him.

"Is he… is he…"

"Well you shot him 5 times, dead center mass, so… yeah…" Danny said. "But uh… I'll take the… I'll take…"

The second the gun was out of her hand, her phone replaced it. Her hands shaking, the screen was that familiar red with the words: _shots fired_ in big glaring white letters. She pressed the confirm button and then put the phone to her ear. Within seconds she was connected to someone

"Hi. Uh… no… I'm not okay… I… I… I just killed someone."

Danny heard the cry of: "WHAT?!" through the phone and could tell from the voice that it wasn't Steve she had called. Oh great.

"I killed Marco Reyes and I'm freaking out… yeah… I'm on a dock out around Ko Olina M place… No, I'm not alone, Danny's here with me… okay, yeah…"

Rowan hung up the phone. "He… he's on his way."

Well great. Just great.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Wo Fat arrived, by boat, not ten minutes after Rowan put in the call for him to help her. With him came three men. Two of which were dealing with the bodies, one stayed on the boat, Wo Fat on the other hand went straight to Rowan who hugged him tightly and wouldn't let go.

"I thought you said you killed one," he said but she didn't answer him, she only shook her head at him. She didn't care if Danny was watching, she needed the hug. He held her tightly, stroked her hair and whispered: "Okay well that doesn't matter. It's going to be okay."

They were together for two seconds before Danny had shoved his shoulder. "Where the fuck is my brother?"

Wo Fat turned from Danny to Rowan who sighed and said: "Reyes came down telling Danny that he needed to pay money to get his brother back and… uh… well… I couldn't let him give him the money cause Reyes doesn't have Matty…"

Wo Fat took that in, looking back to Danny and said: "Did she announce to a very dangerous Colombian Drug Dealer that you weren't going to give him the money, because we had Matty?"

"I think her exact words were: _I sent people to get him and fuck up your compound_."

"Rowan!" he cried and she had the good grace to wince.

"I'm sorry! Danny wouldn't listen! He wouldn't listen and I got mad…" "And he pulled a gun on her…" "And he pulled a gun on me… and he hit me really hard."

She put her hand to her head and Wo Fat's hand followed, a redness was cresting out of her red hair he hadn't noticed. There was a hot pounding vibrating from it that made him frown. Wo Fat sighed deeply, looked around at the shadowed marina and said: "Where's McGarrett?"

"He doesn't know… I didn't tell him… I said I was going to the studio… cause if I told him I had to go to the Vault…"

"Wait? You took money out of the Vault? Wait, your Vault or the Emergency Vault…"

"The Emergency…" she trailed off when she saw Wo Fat's face and heard his scoff of derision. "Well Danny didn't tell me what the money was for, he said he just needed a loan…" Rowan said. "And I didn't have five and half mill in the bank… well not my regular bank… I didn't know Reyes had showed up… I didn't… I…"

"Okay. It's okay… I got this…" he said. He looked at the bags of cash. "I'm uh… I'm going to deal with the money and uh… why don't you… uh… why don't you take the boat down to Matty's get Danny met up with him."

Rowan nodded and ambled off and Wo Fat grabbed Danny by the arm. "Don't let her out of your sight, and get a garbage bin in her hand ASAP, once that shock wears off she's going to start vomitting, I know it. Oh, and don't you fucking yell at her either, she doesn't need it right now. And I don't think I need to tell you that we can never fucking tell Steve what happened here tonight."

Danny turned to him. "Does it look like I have a death wish?"

"You came to a money drop with no money," Wo Fat growled. "So… kind of answers your very sarcastically asked question, now doesn't it?"

"I had most of the money," Danny snapped. "Rowan had the amount I was missing… that's all."

Wo Fat just glared at him until Danny turned away. He let Danny trail after Rowan and then turned back to the body. He had done some searching… or well… Kong had… and found a pair of DEA agents, one of them a dirty agent who had told him to come down, had told him to come put the pressure on Danny to get the location on Matty and the money he had stolen from Reyes. They may not have been trying to go after Rowan but obviously she would get involved in the Five-0 drama, hadn't the DEA been briefed to Rowan's back story? Didn't DEA know that he was involved in her life?

He turned to the men who had come with him all awaiting their orders. "Anyone got a pen?" he asked. A marker was handed to him and pried open Reyes' shirt and began to write on him. "When this is done, hack him up, send him to the address I'm writing on the top of his chest."

"Shouldn't we sink him?" one of the men asked.

"Can't get the message across if we sink him," he said. "Hack him up. Send him to that address. I'm paying you to get bloody not questions my decisions. But the other two… sink them I don't care about them."

He left them there, knowing he was now going to have to go to the resort to oversee the next phase of this before the McGarrett got wind, or Danny told him. He smiled to himself, knowing his message would hit its mark.

 _What's done to her will be done to you ten-fold. Not even you are safe._

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Wo Fat had gotten a call, gotten really panicked, rounded up a few men, said Rowan had killed someone, he was going to deal with it and then left.

Matty… who had met Rowan multiple times now, knew enough about Rowan to know that she wouldn't have killed someone, herself, except under extreme duress, or by some fluke accident, and that if she had she was probably throwing up a storm.

He was worried for her, of course, because he knew his brother was very much on the right side of the law, even if it was family, or friends, or a best friend's girlfriend, so if he found out Rowan would be arrested. He wasn't sure what Rowan's boyfriend would do though. He had only met Steven McGarrett once but he seemed to be cut from the same cloth as Danny. Would he protect her if she killed someone? He sure as hell knew Wo Fat would.

It was almost an hour later, an hour of irrational worry, when his handlers opened the door to a very flustered Rowan who was looking for the bathroom and…

His brother.

For a minute Danny and Matty stood there in silence taking each other in. After the handlers shut the door, and they could all hear Rowan hurling violently off in the distance, Matty raised a hand and said: "Hi!"

Danny's chin did that thing where it wobbled and Matty knew he was about to cry and foolishly he was about to cry too. Danny rushed towards him, getting to his brother quickly and wrapping him up in a hug.

"I thought that asshole was gonna kill you," he said as Matty hugged him back. Danny pulled away and punched his shoulder. "Do you know what I just went through?"

The door opened again and Wo Fat came in with four men, each carrying a bag. "Matthew Williams, it is time to decide what you're going to do."

Matt's eyes widened. Oh shit. That must have been the money he had buried on Oahu. That could only mean one thing.

"You're kicking me out?"

Wo Fat sighed, peeled his jacket off, rolled up his white sleeves and then looked around. Everyone knew what he was looking for. "She's puking in the washroom," Danny snapped and he nodded and visibly relaxed.

"Yes," he said, answering Matty's question. "I can't protect you anymore. Reyes is dead, the DEA is going to come looking. I'm sure a deal can be made somewhere…"

"Reyes is dead?" Matty thundered. "Wait a second, was he here on the island?"

"Yes," Danny and Wo Fat answered together. But Wo Fat added: "He's been here for two days."

"Wait… did you already know that?" Rowan asked appearing beside Danny, and wiping her mouth. "Do you have ginger ale in the fridge?"

"Or course, it's on the door," Wo Fat said following her into the kitchen. "Yes, I knew he was here."

"Why didn't you tell me?" she asked.

Instinctively both Matty and Danny followed them, listening in on their conversation. Rowan sounded hurt, but absently so as she was also very interested in getting herself a ginger ale. Wo Fat always softened when Rowan was involved, so he wore a look of concern on his face as he trailed after her, no doubt wanting to make sure she was okay. Matt still wasn't used to watching that man cave to her, he always seemed so strong and impenetrable, but when Rowan was around… he was completely different.

"Well… I spoke to McGarrett… he wanted to keep you separate from him…"

"So you sided with Steve? You? His arch-nemesis, sided with Steven McGarrett? Did hell fucking freeze over?" she cried, throwing up her hands as Wo Fat took the bottle of ginger ale and poured it out for her.

"We had the same endgame, Rowan, that's all. Keeping Reyes from hurting you, keeping you uninvolved…"

"But we had Matty, if someone had just told us… we could have avoided all of this!" she shouted and Matt had to wince because that was probably true. Why hadn't anyone told them what Reyes was down for.

"Okay to be fair I didn't know he was ransoming Matty, I just knew he wanted the money…" "And you didn't think there was a _reason_ for Danny going through with it?"

"I don't know! McGarrett said he threated Danny's family. I figured that meant it was the daughter, or maybe Steven, since they're so close. I never thought Reyes would have the stones to ransom someone he hadn't had possession of in months!"

"Okay, whoa, wait, months?" Danny asked. "You had Matty… here… on the island… for _months_?"

The argument halted as they turned back to him and Matty like they had forgotten they were there. Rowan sighed like the answer to his question was going to spark a completely different argument. "Why don't we go sit down and talk this out?"

"No. Cliffnotes it, now," Danny ordered.

"Fine. Cliffnotes? Around Halloween when the dreams started getting real fuzzy I was dreaming about Matt in an oil drum. Except I didn't know who Matt was, and I didn't know why it was important. Flash forward a few days, I touched you, got a clear flash, realized who Matty was and what Reyes was going to do… which was…" "Giving Matty's body back to me in an oil drum." "Right. And I figured if I was getting the dreams this early it was because I was supposed to intervene now. Talked to Wo Fat and asked him to help me. Which got us Matty…"

"Wait, but he didn't know it was Wo Fat who did it. He said that neither of you claimed it…"

"It couldn't go through the app," Wo Fat explained. "Reyes is a very violent person and with me in jail and Rowan at odds with McGarrett I didn't want him coming after her. Yes, the Network was in place but it might not have help her against him. I went through my contacts in Colombia, got them to send someone down… who uh… is twice as violent but a freelance operator, he destroyed the compound and got Matty out, we sent in a secondary team to take the drugs out."

"From there I was taken to Japan where a bunch of really serious men helped me get better and once I was cast free I got transferred here."

Danny took all of that in and with his hands on his hips he turned to Rowan again. "And you didn't tell me?"

"If I told you I had saved Matty what do you think the first thing you would have asked me for was?"

"To take me to him," Danny said with a nod. "Okay, he's a wanted fugitive, you just stole him from Reyes…" "You can't keep a secret to save your life…" "You know I was agreeing with you until you said that."

"That's not the problem right now," Wo Fat said. "I've dealt with clean up, but we need to decide what to do about Matty. He can't stay here. The money's been spotted, Reyes was working with DEA, they'll know he's missing and they'll come looking. If we offer up Matty and the money it'll go away."

"I'm not going to jail. Nope. That's what's started this, it's not happening."

"Wo," Rowan said her eyes swinging to him and both brothers paused to stare at him.

"Aw, why do I have to pull in the favour?" he whined.

"Because if I call Steve to do it part of that conversation will be admitting I shot someone and that I contracted you out to hide the body!" Rowan cried. "Do you want to have that conversation with Steve? Do you want _me_ to?"

"Fine! I will see what I can do," he growled. "You're lucky! Lucky, Rowan!"

"I love you too," she said as he walked away from them and then Matty turned back to Danny. "Wanna catch me up on everything?"

And that's exactly what the two of them did.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

When Danny called him and told him to meet him at a marina he was surprised. Especially since he said Rowan was with him. Rowan had been unreachable for hours and he was worried. Very worried because her car was at home so he had no idea where she could have gone.

He was doubly surprised to see Matthew Williams walking off that boat with Danny, and Rowan with a giant bruise across the side of her face following him.

"What the hell?" he asked pushing Danny aside to get to her. From the boat someone cleared their throat and Steve was looking up into Wo Fat's face.

"Before you freak out, I am here to give safe passage and to deliver the money back."

"All the money?" Rowan's quiet voice asked pinning Wo Fat and freezing him on the spot.

"Five and half million of those dollars are mine, Rowan," he growled. Oh god, the missing money, she had gotten Danny the missing money from Wo Fat?

"I'll pay you back," she said. "He needs the full amount to give to the DA… you know? In return for community service instead of jail time."

Wo Fat glared at her but tossed the last bag onto the pier beside her and then straightened. "If he yells at you, don't argue, just call me."

Steve glared at Wo Fat darkly but instead of him being afraid he just laughed at him. "You look like you're about to have an aneurism."

"Wo… please?" Rowan asked weakly and that harsh glittering smile softened.

"Alright… I'm sorry… call me when you get home… so I know you're okay," he offered and then the boat was disembarking.

Steve turned back to Rowan who was looking up at him with watering blue eyes. "Why didn't you tell me Reyes was here?" she asked her voice breaking. "I could have told you… I could have… now Chin opened himself up to an IA shit storm and I… I…."

"You watched me kill Reyes," Danny filled in for her, glaring at her hard. Rowan flinched and nodded, bowing her head into Steve's chest and shaking.

Steve held her tightly to him, trying to get the shaking to stop. He turned to Danny to ask him what was going on, because he knew something was off, but with Rowan clinging to him and that look on Danny's face he couldn't bring himself to ask the question. Luckily, he didn't have to.

"Look… can I… can I brief you when this is done? I… I have to turn my brother and the money into the Governor."

Steve nodded, his arms still around Rowan. "I want to go home, Steve," she whispered to him and he held her a little tighter.

"I'm going to help Danny get the money into the car and then we'll go home, okay? Can you wait for me in the truck?"

Rowan nodded, taking his keys from him and then Steve, with Danny hoisted up two bags each. He had a feeling he was going to get a story later today… but he had another feeling that whatever story he was going to get… wasn't going to be the right one.

And that left him worried… and angry.


	138. Chapter 138

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Friday My wonderful readers. So this hopefully isn't a surprises but let's give Steve the Jerk a lukewarm, if not downright icy, welcome back! For this run he's only going to be around for about four chapters, then we get a break and we get to see some really, really cute things, and then he's back but that's only for about three chapters. So at least it's not going to be a full season of it right? And I promise I got some cute stuff coming up, like the Nahele chapters, oohh I hope you like those! Anyways, don't be too hard on Steve, he's got a girlfriend who's hiding things from him and he's trying his best with his limited, untrusting emotional capacity. Don't forget to tell me what you think and I'll see you guys on Monday!_

Chapter 138

* * *

Steve always got dressed up to visit his dad. Normally the act of getting dressed up excited him, because Rowan loved his suits. Except this time he had purposely waited for Rowan to leave before getting ready. They had been at odds since the Matty situation. Danny and Rowan had briefed him on what happened, but he knew they were hiding something. Especially since Rowan kept having strange nightmares and not the vision kind that she refused to tell him about. In fact she hadn't had a proper vision or dream since Reyes was killed.

Steve couldn't help but feel jilted. Rowan hid the fact that she saved Matty almost a year ago, and then hid him for months after in a safe house that Wo Fat owned. He got why she hadn't told Danny, he even got why she didn't tell him when it went down because they were far from alright at the time, but he didn't understand how they had gotten together and she still didn't think to tell him.

And while he was angry, he felt it was fair that she was angry at him as well. She was angry that he never told her that Reyes was on the island. That in an attempt to keep her separate from the Five-0 drama he had told everyone, even Wo Fat not to tell her he was there. When, if he had mentioned what was happening, she could have easily told him that she had Matty and all of this could have been avoided.

But they didn't really argue about how Steve felt jilted that she had called Wo Fat to help her hide a body instead of him. They didn't argue about how she was worried about Chin who was in for an IA shit storm down the lane for asking Gabriel to help. They didn't argue about how Rowan and Danny were clearly hiding something from him and it was nagging at him that he didn't know what it was.

They were quiet. They were awkward with each other and nothing had been the same since it happened. Steve wasn't comfortable with her anymore. He couldn't trust her anymore, and she felt like he didn't like her for who she was… and that he never trusted her in the first place. And could she blame him? Look at who her brother, by choice, was?

So he went to his father's grave alone, which he figured was fine, because Rowan had a meeting anyway. He had watched her get ready, not daring to get ready with her because then she'd ask where he was going and they'd get in a real fight. She still took his breath away, standing there, skirt on, in nothing else but a bra and his dog tags. She still sent his heart beating wild and set his body ablaze with desire, but he was too afraid now, afraid that he'd get burned. And to make matters worse, he was used to getting attacked while dressing up so he put his suit on and got hard in anticipation for what usually came and got nothing but frustration of his own creation.

Steve got to his dad's grave, carefully took his sunglasses on and brushed the leaves off of the cool and smooth marble.

"Hey dad," he started and then fell silent. He never knew what to say, his throat would get clogged with emotion, and he couldn't handle that. His dad wouldn't want him to cry, not over him, not over anything. He sighed, what would his dad like to hear about? "I spoke to Aunt Deb last week. Looks like she's gonna give chemo a shot. She, uh… she said to me: _the McGarrett's are fighters._ And Mary… Mary's good. You wouldn't believe it, dad, but she has… she's become such a strong woman. And she's such a great mother to that little girl. She sends me videos, like, every other day. I'm getting to watch Joanie grown up. It's amazing. Kid's starting to take her first steps."

He broke off there, he couldn't help it. He cleared his throat before moving onward.

"And uh… that girl? The new one I told you about? Well… it took three near death experiences, two for me and one for her, for me to really smarten up about her. We're uh… we're officially dating… sort of… it's complicated. Everything about her is still complicated… but… I unno… you should see me with her. Everyone says there's a real difference. I'm really different… and I think… it's because I'm happy… like she makes me really… really happy… when we're not arguing. I… I really wish you could have met her… she… she's definitely a trouble maker but I think you would have eventually learned to like her. She grows on you. Like mold, you know?" Steve half chuckled at his own joke and then sighed again. "I just… I really wish you were here for all of this. I think you would have liked being a grandfather… I think you would have loved Rowan."

He didn't want to tell his dad that he was having problems with her even though they were together. He didn't want to tell his dad that he saw a little more of that sociopath in her by the day and it was getting harder to distinguish the two of them. He didn't want to tell his dad that he was so afraid of the growing feeling taking over his chest that he was trying to push her away before she became anymore important to him. She already had enough power to wield against him to hurt him, he was certain if he lost himself to her even a little more, she'd have the power to shatter him. And he couldn't take another shattering. His heart was too battered as is.

He took a quarter out of his jacket pocket. That was enough for now, he couldn't take anymore of it. So he pressed a kissed to the quarter and then placed it in the middle of the cross engraved in stone before finally standing up.

"I miss you dad," he whispered before putting his glasses on.

Steve had managed to walk all the way back to where he parked his car swallowing back the emotion in his throat, without crying. He forced himself to call Mary and sound fine.

"Hey, Mary. Yeah, it's me. No, no, no I'm here now. I just… I wanted to call you guys and just check on you, see how you're doing," he said. He listened to Mary patiently and sighed at her next question. "No, I'm not arguing with Rowan… I mean… okay, I might… a little bit be arguing with her, but it's more of an awkward feeling and less of an actual fight. Can we change the topic?" luckily she obliged him and he was nodding again. "I know. Four years. No, it's crazy. Yeah."

He glanced out at his father's grave, just one last look and… who was that blonde woman putting flowers on his dad's grave?

He was so surprised by it that he missed Mary's question and had her asking if he was there. "No, I'm right here," he told her. He watched the blonde woman talk to his dad's grave, to stroke it lovingly and Steve frowned. Who the hell was this? How the hell did she know his dad? "Hey, Mary, listen, let me call you back, okay?"

He didn't wait for the good-bye he just hung up and then got out of his car. Quickly jogging after the woman in the nice-looking skirt suit to catch up to her.

"Excuse me. Hi," he called out getting her to stop before she got to her car. "I'm sorry to bother you. I saw you at John McGarrett's grave. Did you know him?"

The girl looked him up and down for a second before hesitantly asking: "You're his son, aren't you?"

She had an accent Steve couldn't quite place, but he was more surprised that she knew who he was. He nodded. "Yeah…"

"You have his eyes," she said with a warm smile. Okay this was getting weird. "Ellie Clayton."

"I'm Steve McGarrett," he said shaking the hand she offered. Even though she probably knew that. "And I'm still at a loss, I'm sorry."

"I can see that," she said with a laugh.

"Uhm… do you mind telling me how you knew my dad?" he asked.

Her smile faded and instead of answering his question she asked one of her own: "How do you like your coffee"

The answer was black with a shake of sugar and a spoonful of butter, but that wasn't what was important and that wasn't why he agreed to go with her either.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

They went to this little Tiki coffee bar on the beach, despite his unsure attitude towards being near what he called the Atlantic Towers but she knew as the Pauahi Tower, even though she knew Atlantic Records had their offices and private studio up there on the top floor. They were sitting under a picnic structure with their drinks. Both she and Steve had taken their jackets off. He was a very handsome specimen, Ellie couldn't help but notice. But she knew enough about men like Steven McGarrett to know that if they weren't spoken for at this stage they were too broken to fix. But she had a feeling he was spoken for because he checked his phone periodically as if waiting for something and she couldn't help but notice that his background image was of him and a girl with red-blonde hair, with their arms around one another in very fancy evening wear.

But Ellie couldn't worry about Steven McGarrett and his relationship status. He wanted answers and she was going to give them to him because maybe he'd be able to get her answers of her own.

"When I was a kid my dad owned a bar. One night, someone came in to rob it and he was killed. Your father investigated it."

Steve nodded, he too knew what it felt like to lose a father, she could sense that sort of sadness about him which was why she wasn't surprised when he said: "I'm sorry"

"He never found who did it, but your dad, he stayed in my life," she told him. "Every few weeks, he'd check in, and on the anniversary of my father's death, he'd take me to lunch. We'd get a shaved ice, we'd take a walk along this beach. It meant a lot to me. It made a difficult day a little bit easier. I'll always be grateful for that."

She looked down briefly and aware for the piercing gaze Steve had on her and cleared her throat before looking back up. "So now, on the anniversary of his death, I come to pay my respects, honor his memory."

Steve nodded like this all made sense. "When was the last time you guys spoke?"

"It was shortly before he died, actually," she admitted. "He called me to tell me that he might have a new lead in the case."

"Did he say what it was?" Steve asked suddenly less serious and more… interested. Oh, he was a curious one… just like his father.

"No." A short and simple answer. The truth. "He followed a lot of leads over the years. None of them ever came to much." Steve frowned and she immediately moved to sooth him. "You know, no matter how many setbacks, your dad, he never gave up."

Steve laughed, finally something other then grim seriousness. "Yeah. He was stubborn like that."

"Well I'm really glad I got to meet you. He talked about you a lot. He was really proud," she told him liking the way his eyes lit up when she did.

"Steve!" someone cried and Steve turned like a man haunted to the voice. Ellie followed the motion and there she was, the girl from the phone. She didn't look like much, compared to Steve, but she was pretty. Especially in the get up she was wearing. Her smile seemed to quiver as she came forward, and Steve was lost to her, statue stiff and looking her up and down like she was some goddess who had appeared from the surf.

"Steve… what… what are you doing here, I thought you had the day off?" she asked. She leant in for a brief awkward and stiff kiss as he whispered _babe_ mostly in surprise cause it was clear that he hadn't expected her to be there. Her eyes kept travelling to Ellie but Steve was too busy staring at her with these strange eyes, like he was torn between pulling her down to his lap and pushing her away, to notice that. It was like he had become lost to the world the second she graced him with her presence.

She too was dressed nicely, flowing pearl blouse, pin straight black skirt with sensible but moderately high heeled shoes. Even under the shirt she could see the outline of what was probably a necklace. Probably sentimental that didn't go with the outfit, otherwise why hide it? Behind her was a table of suited men and it didn't take long for him to figure out what she was doing here.

"Business lunch again?"

The woman nodded glancing back to wave at the men who all waved at them and had Steve waving lamely back at them. "Discussing royalty rights for the new song," she answered. When she realized that Steve wasn't going to introduce them, she offered her a hand. "Hi, I'm Rowan, his… partner?"

Oh, with the way she had said it you would have thought she wasn't sure. Didn't she know what they were? Interesting

"I'm Ellie Clayton," she said nicely. "I'm a deputy prosecutor."

"Oh? Are you prosecuting one of his cases?" she asked. "I didn't know you were going to be pulled into court…"

"No… uh… nothing like that. She uh… she knew my dad, she was one of his cases… I'm going to help her solve it," he said. Oh… he uh… he was?

"Oh… uh… how did you two… uh… I mean… I guess I just don't understand how you two… connected?"

Steve opened his mouth to answer but Ellie beat him too it. "It was actually just a coincidence. I went to visit John's grave, as I do every year on the anniversary… and this year we uh… we bumped into each other…"

Rowan didn't let her finish, instead she turned her eyes to Steve signalling that Ellie had been dismissed. Steve was frowning and avoiding both of their eyes and suddenly Ellie realized that she might have caused a bit of a problem.

Rowan, lowered her eyes, donned what could best be described as a watery smile and asked: "You went to your father's grave… well no wonder you're dressed up then… but uh… you said… you said we were going to go together…"

Oh. Uh-oh.

"And I thought you said you wouldn't lie to me anymore… so…"

Rowan's quivering smile fell into a quivering frown and Steve winced. "I didn't mean that…"

But it was too late Rowan had already taken a step back. "I'm sorry… I uh… I'm sorry, you're busy with a case and I'm yapping on about meeting your dad like it matters," she shakily laughed off. The blow hurt, Ellie could see it in the way his chest sharply inflated. It was clear he hurt her with his comment, so he deserved, but still... right in front of her? That was a bit uncalled for. Rowan turned her eyes to Ellie again and she could see clearly the crystalline tears in the woman's eyes, refusing to be shed and for a second she felt a little bad for Rowan. "I'll just… I'll just get out of your hair. I'm sorry about all this, Ellie. It was so nice to meet you."

Steve stood there watching her go with a frown so deep on his face he thought he was sure he could feel the wrinkles forming around it permanently.

"Okay… well…"

"Let's just move on," Steve said turning away from Rowan as she joined the execs she was supposed to be doing business with without a second glance at him. "Let's get started on this case. Why don't you take me to the crime scene?"

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Jerry had so many people helping him pack. Flipper and Kamekona, Max and Dr. Shaw, the intern Max was training up, and Chin. Jerry however, went upstairs when Dr. Shaw upset him over the diagnosis of OCD and everyone teasing him about being a hoarder.

Chin was hoping Rowan would show up soon, she was supposed to come, with Steve, to help out once she was done with her meeting. But Chin was hoping that Rowan would come without Steve, simply because they were so awkward and stiff around each other since the whole Reyes debacle that it made everyone else around them uncomfortable.

With Kamekona and Flipper wasting their tape and Chin being out he had gone upstairs to get more and found Jerry loafing around listening to something on his computer.

He snuck up on him and quickly put a hand to his shoulder startling Jerry entirely.

"What the hell?" Chin cried. "We're downstairs working and you're up here listening to…"

And then Chin heard the sound of someone else talking, from Jerry's computer. Chin turned to his computer, saw what he knew to be audio tracking software playing up on Jerry's screen and knew immediately what he had done.

"What are you listening to?"

"Nothing. It's a book on tape?" Jerry lied. Chin knew he was lying too. Though Jerry struggled, Chin still managed to rip the headphone out of Jerry's hands and put them to his own ears.

"You mean bookshop owner on tape?" Chin asked dryly.

Jerry was majorly obsessed with this bookshop owner, Farrow. So much so that he clearly had bugged the store trying to prove that he was a counterfeiter. He was so sure of him self that he had actually had an argument with McGarrett about it, in which Steve actually got so mad at Jerry that he snapped at him. Which led to Steve feeling so bad about how he treated Jerry that he ran a background check on him that came up empty. That had clearly not placated Jerry.

"Bookshop owner-slash-counterfeiter," Jerry snapped and Chin groaned.

I don't believe this," Chin cried throwing down the headphone to the table. "Is this live?"

"No. It's from a few days ago. I was just catching up between packing boxes."

Oh yeah, like that made this better.

"Jerry, are you aware that in the state of Hawaii, bugging someone is a felony, and carries with it a ten thousand dollar fine and a five-year prison sentence?" he cried.

"Are you aware of the consequences of flooding the market with counterfeit currency. This guy Farrow could crash a small economy if we don't stop him!"

"There is _nothing_ to stop! The Secret Service already cleared Farrow."

"Secret service? What do they know?" Jerry cried and Chin internally groaned, oh here we go with the conspiracy theories. "They still believe that Oswald acted alone!"

"Jerry! Enough! I already know for a fact that McGarrett asked you to back off twice and you didn't listen!" Chin snapped holding up two fingers like a mother reprimanding their child as if that would get it into Jerry's head. He pointed to the computer. "How are we supposed to trust you now?"

Oh god… he sounded just like _his_ mother. He needed off of this topic fast.

"How did you even managed to bug this guy?"

"Pulled a trojan horse move," Jerry answered proudly. And part of Chin was proud too, but that was not the part he was wearing on his face at that moment. "I hid the bug in a rare book and sold it to him via a third party. But don't ask me who because I'll never tell." Chin just had to glare at him and Jerry added: "It was Kamekona."

"Well I have to give you points for creativity. But you gotta get the book back," he ordered. "And you gotta shut this thing down!"

The door suddenly opened and Rowan burst in, threw her blazer jacket on the couch, and stormed past them. "Rowan?" Chin called but all her heard was sniffing and she ignored them. He glanced back at the door, saw her purple car in the driveway but no McGarrett. Uh-oh that wasn't good.

Jerry watched her go, a frown deep on his face. "Was she crying?"

It sure as hell looked like it. "I don't know," Chin said instead.

"Well it looks like she was crying."

"Just stay here, I'll go see what's going on."

Chin got downstairs, to Rowan shoving things into boxes and trying not to cry while everyone in the basement stared at her with wide eyes. Rowan cried over a lot of things, like movies, a good book, clips about baby animals, clips about any animals, but those were soft tears, the ones streaming down Rowan's face now were something else entirely.

As soon as he was downstairs all eyes turned to him. "Uh… why don't we take a break, guys," he offered

"Why would I take a break I just got here?" Rowan asked but Kamekona, Flipper, Max and Dr. Shaw all sprinted up the steps leaving Chin and the groaning Rowan alone. He inhaled, simply to ask her what was wrong but she snapped: "I'd greatly appreciate it if you didn't try to ask me what's wrong, cause we both know no matter what I say it's just going to go straight back to Steve."

And Chin let out his breath in one huge sigh. Oh that was a guilt trip and a half. Danny had sat he and Kono down earlier that month to explain that Rowan felt… well alone. Which saddened all of them, because they thought they were all friends. But when Danny explained that she felt like she couldn't trust any of them to keep her secrets from Steve well… they got it. And they had promised each other that they wouldn't do that to her again.

No one had conveyed that to Rowan though, and to be fair, if they had she probably wouldn't have believed him.

"So I guess you and him had another argument?" he asked. Rowan shook her head. "No? Okay… but he did upset you?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Okay," Chin whispered. "Except you're down here crying… Steve was supposed to come with you… and now you don't…."

"I said I don't want to taLK ABOUT IT!" Rowan suddenly thundered slamming her hands down on the newspapers. She must have been really upset because with that motion came a flurry of orange electric sparks and just like that the newspapers under her fingertips were ablaze.

Rowan yelped and scrambled back as the flames leapt up, the fire spreading down the stack very quickly. Chin rushed to sink nearby, filled up a small bucket and immediately doused the flames with it. The billowing smoke caught the fire alarm and it started beeping wildly as Rowan and Chin stared at the blackened, ashy aftermath.

"Don't tell Steve," came out of Rowan so quick Chin almost didn't catch it but that also could have been because he could hear Jerry scrambling to get to them.

Jerry came pounding down the stairs. Took stock of the damage and cried out in horror. "Wha? My evidence papers?! What… what did you do?" he cried.

"It was an accident…"

"OH! You've destroyed years of collecting… what did they ever do to you… you monster!" he groaned and Rowan inhaled sharply. Even Chin winced because he knew what Rowan felt like about that particular wording. But Jerry didn't know… he wasn't trying to be that malicious. Her eyes went heavenward, the tears came back and suddenly she was pushing past them both and storming up the stairs. Jerry immediately winced. "Wait! Ro! I'm sorry!" but it was too late, not seconds after she made it up the stairs came the bang of a door slamming shut.

Jerry winced again. "Ohh… oh dear… I didn't mean to upset her…"

Chin clapped a sympathetic hand to Jerry's shoulder. "It's not all you man, she and McGarrett are out of sorts… so both of them are kind of… on edge…"

Jerry looked back to the smoldering mess and sighed: "Well she didn't have to take it out on my stuff."

"It was an accident," Chin snapped as he directed him towards the stairs. "We better let this sit, we'll open up some windows and air it out."

They got to the top of the steps to Steve knocking on the door. Wow… what timing, he had literally just missed Rowan.

"Don't tell him about the bug… or that I made Rowan cry," Jerry whispered as Steve let himself in. "Hey there Commander! I thought you were supposed to be coming with Rowan?"

"Sorry buddy I'm not here for the packing…" "Oh God! _You know!_ I'm sorry I made her cry!" Jerry suddenly shouted and Chin turned a glare to him but nothing could shut up him now. "I don't know what set her off, though to be fair I think she was crying when she came in here…"

Steve blinked his eyes. "Wait… do you mean Ro… Rowan was here?"

"Not important," Chin brushed off. "If you're not here to help us, what are you doing here?"

"Oh, I came to ask you a few questions," Steve answered absently before turning his eyes back on Jerry. "You said she… she was crying?"

"Okay why don't we go outside?"

"Why?" Steve asked carefully.

"You said you wanted to ask me some questions, let's go outside so you can ask me them," Chin reminded him, trying very hard to keep off of the Rowan topic.

He ushered Steve outside and once they got on the lawn, and Steve seemed preoccupied with scanning the streets for signs of Rowan, Chin asked: "What's up."

Steve jerked like he was being dragged out of a trace. He turned back to Chin to address him. "Hey, listen, did my dad ever talk about a cold case back in '95? It was a robbery-homicide. Victim's last name was Clayton," he asked.

Chin took that in. That's what Steve had done on his day off? He had gone and caught a case? Is that why he and Rowan were at odds today? Because usually she just yelled at him when he did that, they didn't do… whatever the hell was happening now.

"Yeah. Yeah, that case haunted him," Chin admitted, figuring it would be easier to give Steve his answers then to withhold them, especially since he was going to be ignoring any questions about Rowan.

Steve sighed and handed him a green matchbook. "I found this in his toolbox. I never understood why. Then this morning, I met Clayton's daughter..." Oh was that what had happened? Steve was flirting with another girl in front of Rowan? "…It started making sense. My dad kept in touch with her. What happened?"

"Well, there had been a string of robberies in the neighborhood. And Clayton was closing up this place when the killer came in and shot him in cold blood. Grabbed the cash box and took off. Meanwhile the daughter was upstairs in the apartment that they shared when the whole thing happened. Poor kid heard the shot."

Steve sighed. "What about suspects? They ever have any suspects?"

Well damn he was in full investigator mode now. He wasn't going to come out of that until he figured this out. Which was not good because this was a cold case for a reason.

"Yeah, for a minute. Homeless guy. Uh… Ned Burrows. HPD found him during the canvass. Lab tested a sweatshirt he was wearing and it came back with traces of GSR. He claimed that he found the sweatshirt in a dumpster a couple of blocks from the crime scene. No one believed him at first. But then he alibied out. But after they let him go, your dad became convinced that Burrows knew more than he said. So, he went back into that neighbourhood every night for a month, looking for the guy but never found him. Even over the years, he kept up the search. They guy was a ghost."

Steve thought this over, Chin briefly thought about asking him why this mattered, but Steve answered the question before he could even ask it. "A couple of days before my dad was killed, he called Paul Clayton's daughter and told her he might have a new lead."

"Maybe he finally tracked him down," Chin offered.

"Do me a favour, go to my house, go through my dad's stuff. Tapes, journals. See if you can find anything on Burrows. In the meantime, I'm gonna call the property clerk at HPD have them pull up the evidence."

Chin narrowed his eyes at him. "You want to reopen this case?"

"Obviously this meant a lot to my dad. I owe it to him to try and solve it."

Chin nodded, Steve turned away and got two steps away from him before turning back. "Was she really crying?" he asked. Well, so much for getting him off of the Rowan topic.

"We agreed not to tell you stuff about her, anymore, remember? So she'd feel safer with us?"

Steve frowned and grimaced. "So that's a yes. Did… uh… did she say why?"

Chin sighed and looked away from him. "Look… you obviously got a guilty conscience, why don't you just call her and ask her to talk?"

"Because she's not going to pick up," Steve snapped. Oh shit, it was that bad?

"What the hell did you do?" Steve winced again and Chin's eyes narrowed. "Should I call Danny?"

Steve shook his head. "No, Danny's got his hands full with Matty's bargain… there's no need to bother him with this. I'll… uh… I'll figure it out. Uh… call me when you get to my place."

And then just like Rowan, Steve was gone.


	139. Chapter 139

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanfics**

 _A/N: Okay, so I know that Steve's get annoying. But I promise, I promise it's going to get better. We just have one more chapter after this and then we're going to get a break from his douchieness, but after that episode I believe there's only two more chapters of him being a jerk and then they're all okay. Obviously their relationship has it's issues, but they will eventually work through it, it does take all of season 6 for them to work out their issues though so be patient. I promise that there are cute fluffy scenes from Chapter 141-145, and then we get angst from 146-148. But after that the cute fluffy moments take over and during chapter 149 and there shouldn't be anything super angsty after that. Hope that helps prepare you guys better. And I will see you guys on Wednesday!_

Chapter 139

* * *

Rowan got home late purposely. She had stayed at the studio hours after everyone went home, laying down beats, lyrics, and guitar chords. She recorded, and re-recorded, and when she couldn't sing anymore, she wrote until she had more to sing. But she couldn't avoid going home forever, sooner or later Steve would come looking for her… right? Honestly, she was a little surprised that he hadn't come already.

Rowan returned to a silent, dark, empty house. A house, she felt, mirrored how she was feeling. She knew Steve was home, his truck was in the drive way and he _had_ left the porch light on for her. But everything on the inside was off.

That's how they were now. On the outside, he was still there, but inside… inside he felt miles away from her. She thought nothing could be worse than standing on the outside of their little family, of all the Five-0s and not being able to join in, but that was nothing compared to having Steve go through the motions with her, half-heartedly and dejectedly all while staring at her with those harsh accusing eyes like she had murdered someone right in front of him.

Logically she understood why he was mad. She hid things from him. She went to Wo Fat in her time of need. She hadn't told him the truth about the night with Reyes. She was having nightmares she couldn't share with him. But that didn't excuse him looking at her like she was the walking nightmare.

And then he was at that little coffee shop on the beach, smiling with a beautiful blonde, wearing a beautiful suit and looking so fine and perfect. The first real smile she had seen on his lips since that night with Reyes and it wasn't for her, but for that new girl. A girl he had met at his father's grave. A grave he went to visit on the anniversary of his father's death… without Rowan.

As quietly as she could Rowan made her way across the living room and up the stairs. But despite the slow and quite trek she found herself in the doorway of the room she shared with him and couldn't bring herself to go in. She stared at Steve as he slept in their bed. He lay on his side, a hand outstretched to her side of the bed, like he was waiting for her, like he was waiting to put that arm around her.

She still couldn't move. She couldn't bring herself to go to him.

She couldn't forget the look in his eyes. He kept looking at her like she… like she was a monster. He didn't trust her. He didn't want her to go to his dad's grave. It was starting to feel a lot like he just didn't want her.

Unable to stomach staring at him, no matter how serene he looked, or how much she wanted to just curl up into his embrace, she turned back to the room that used to be hers. Though the place was musty and dark she still kicked off her shoes and slipped out of her outfit, resting it onto a chair she hadn't sat in in months. She changed into the odd ends she had left in that room, her shark sweater, still riddled with burns and holes from all the times it had gone into the void with her and a pair of old shorts. With a heavy sigh she pulled back the covers and slipped herself into a bed that was cold and uncomfortable, now that she was used to Steve's plush mattress and his strong arms around her and his body keeping her warm. Curling into herself to keep herself warm. She was so used to sleeping with Steve who always produced heat that she was cold when he wasn't in bed with her.

She closed her eyes and tried to sleep, but her eyes burned, burned with the tears she couldn't stop shedding, with tears that wanted to escape now. But she didn't want to cry with Steve right in the next room because she'd wake him up and then he'd ask her what was wrong and she couldn't face those eyes… not again.

She must have been trying to sleep for a good ten minutes before she felt him in the room. She wondered if he'd ask why she was there and not with him, she wondered if he'd just leave her there, but after a few charged seconds the bed dipped and he slid in behind her.

It was both a relief and curse having him slide up to her, his arm slipping around her like it belonged there. On the one hand she needed to feel him on the other hand it hurt more to have him act like everything was fine when things were so clearly fractured between them.

"You know I can't sleep without you," he whispered into her neck. Rowan said nothing, despite herself she pressed into his embrace figuring well… if she lost him tomorrow at least she'd have this night.

That time when she closed her eyes finding sleep wasn't as hard as before.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve was asleep when Rowan came home. But barely. His eyes had opened when she closed the front door, no matter how quietly she had done it. He had waited, debating whether or not he get up to meet her before deciding it was best to wait for her to come to him so they could talk about what an idiot he was and how he was sorry for being so callous. But she never came into the room. He had lay there, counting silently in his head each step she took up the stairs, waiting, not wanting to get up, not wanting to argue with her right away, or see her tears. All he wanted was for her to slip into bed so he could hold her tightly to his chest and pretend like everything was okay again… just for the night.

But she never came.

Steve was sitting up in bed the second he realized she had gone into her old room. She… she had never done that before. Not even that night where she and him were arguing and she sent him over to Danny's. They had been apart the night after that but she hadn't physically been in the house. She had slept over at Wo's safe house, which he now knew was housing Matty.

Since then he had moved safe houses. Somewhere else on the islands of Hawaii, at least she didn't dare lie to him about that this time.

The problem was, Steve couldn't sleep without Rowan. He knew he had hurt her feelings that morning, he hadn't intended too, but he had. He had thought he could come home after working the case, apologize to her and they'd go back to pretending that the other issues didn't exist. But she didn't come home. And now she had chosen to not get into bed with him.

He didn't want to think that he had hurt her so badly that she didn't want to be with him because that meant her actually leaving wasn't too far behind. And that hurt way more than her picking Wo Fat over him.

Steve got out of the bed they shared together and padded across the hall to her room. One peek into the room confirmed she was there but she didn't look relaxed. She was curled into herself and shaking like she was cold, but he also knew that she did that when she was trying not to cry, which happened often after her dreams, particularly the ones she had been having since Reyes had been murdered. But these dreams weren't visions. They were just plain old nightmares. Rowan hadn't had a vision in a week.

Well… Rowan may have wanted to be alone, but Steve didn't. He crossed to the bed and slowly got in behind her. He had wrapped her up in his arms, held her tightly to him willing her to feel just how badly he still wanted her and then whispered: "You know I can't sleep without you."

Sleep found him moments after she relaxed in his arms. And sleep left him as soon as he realized he was once again in an empty bed.

She hadn't left the room though, he knew that, he could feel her milling around, probably getting ready for work. He didn't think she had work to go to today. She hadn't taken a smaller job this month, opting to just write songs, but, to be fair, she had been pretty busy at the studio… and she had been pretty busy lying to him too.

"Hey," he murmured sleepily. He checked the alarm clock by her dusty bedside table. Five in the morning, she was never up this early. "Hey, you okay?"

A soft: "Mhmmm," came back at him and he frowned. An upset Rowan was a Rowan that didn't talk. Was this still about yesterday or had something else happened? He couldn't have upset her in his sleep, could he?

Steve sat up and sure enough she was fully dressed, that nice suit skirt he liked so much and a pale blue linen shirt. She was working on putting earrings in, her eyes focusing on the mirror in front of her and not him allowing him to just watch her.

Looking like that… she was lovely. And that ache in his chest fired up. His heart begged him to concede, anything to keep her, but his pride and fear wouldn't let him.

"Where you going?"

"Work," she answered, still clipped. She never went to work this early, and she didn't have one of her odd jobs either. He knew, right then and there, that she was avoiding him.

"Hey… uh… about yesterday…" he started but she suddenly turned, that iceness he attributed to her sociopathic side was covering her face like a war mask and glittering in her eyes.

"Did you find the poker chip?" she asked, cutting off his dying words. She clearly didn't want to talk about that.

Steve's eyes narrowed. "No… I… uh… are you dreaming again?"

"Maybe," she said with a shrug. "Are you sure you didn't find it? It's all black… it might… it might be on a card?"

"I found a black business card with markings that could be a poker chip on it," Steve said. She made the mistake of coming closer to the bed, instinctively, his hand reached out of her, snagging her waist and pulling her closer to him again. She let him do it, but she didn't meld into him like she usually did, she didn't wrap her arms around him she just stood there, stiff as a board with her hands resting softly on his shoulders, as if ready to shove him away.

He couldn't keep himself from pressing a soft kiss to the space between her breasts, even if it was through her shirt. Anything to have her close to him, to get back a little bit of the distance he had put between them. A shaking hand came to the back of his head and he almost groaned at the contact. To have missed this in such little time… it reminded him of why he was being so distant with her in the first place. But he didn't want to go back to that. To that feeling knowing she was in the door and she chose to walk away from him.

"That's the one," she said softly. "It should help you… I think…"

Steve nodded nuzzling into her again. "I don't have to go right away," he whispered but before he could ask her to stay Rowan twisted out of his grip.

"I do though," she said quickly heading for the door. "Good luck with your case."

And just like that she was gone and Steve was left perched on the bed, his chest cracking under the weight of the fear and the panic. Because he was certain, absolutely certain that he couldn't feel the dog tags in that hug.

Rowan had taken her little piece of him off. And he couldn't help but feel like maybe… maybe that was a sign. And he realized he, more than anything, that he didn't want things to end with her, not like that… not ever.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Taking Rowan's lead, Steve had given the weird card to Kono who took it and ran it through the HPD symbol and images database. And she got a hit.

Just like Rowan had said, it was a poker chip.

It was a membership card to an underground card parlour called Paradise Den. It had a reputation for being merciless when it came to people who defaulted on their debts but the guy who was running it was Dominic Alonzo, had been dead ten years. This left Steve having to run down people who used to work for him to see what they knew about Paul Clayton.

They combined that knowledge with the bullet fragments they got from exhuming Paul Clayton's body, got them a match.

Tony Malua. The gun belonged to him. He was an ex SVL which was a Samoan street gang, and a very brutal one at that. But Tony had told them that he had given the gun to Jimmy Sykes, the same guy who Paul had been trying to save that boy from. The drug dealer.

The problem was proving it.

Steve had come up with the great idea of sending in Jordan, the same kid pushing meth outside of Aces High that Clayton was trying to save. Jordan was doing great, he got Sykes to admit that he killed Clayton but he went way off script, smashing a bottle over the man's head and shouting at him.

Paul Clayton had believed in Jordan, had been trying to save his life. And Jordan had not been able to take Sykes telling him that Jordan was the reason that Paul was dead. He attacked Sykes with a bottle and while they got into a tousle Steve and his team moved in on them before anything too bad could happen.

But Steve was late. Sykes pulled a gun on poor Jordan, getting a shot off that Steve would find out got Jordan in the shoulder. And when Steve got through the door, Sykes pulled that gun on Steve too and he had to shoot him. Got him, too, in the shoulder, instead of killing him like the man had deserved. Now he would get to rot in jail.

Steve pulled Sykes up off the ground and found that the man was laughing.

"Malua got the word out, you know. Said you'd be paying me a visit," Sykes hissed. "I gotta question for you commander. Do you know where your girlfriend is?"

Steve straightened, looked down at Sykes and found himself asking: "What did you just say?"

Sykes just laughed again. "I said… do you know where your girlfriend is? You know that pretty little redhead you've got as the background on your phone."

Steve didn't have time to digest how he got that information he just knew that, without a shadow of a doubt he needed to know where Rowan was… now.

"Chin, use your phone to locate Rowan. Call me when you got it," he ordered dropping his arrest to rush for the door.

God if something happened to her and that morning had been the last exchange they ever had; he'd never forgive himself.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan was officially bummed. Like properly depressed. To the point where she couldn't even stomach going to work. The last time she had gotten like this she was in witness protection, she had gotten Malcolm and Trevor together, and she had just been told that her leg would heal right… not in a way that would lead to her skating again.

She eventually proved that prognosis wrong, but the months after she got that news had been bad for her. It was like she had lost a piece of her and she hadn't been able to function. This was a lot like that time, except the damage wasn't just on the outside, it was all inside her.

She had gone to the beach to sit on the rocks and watch the waves. She thought it might make her feel better, but all it did was open up the free time to think about everything. To try and figure out what to do. All those crazy hair-brained schemes she pulled out of nowhere in a time of need, and she couldn't think of something to fix this?

"Hey."

Rowan jumped and turned to Wo Fat who had just appeared beside her. How the hell had he found her? Oh her phone. That stupid network. He had called her that morning, his weekly check on her. He had noted that something was wrong with her, she had thought she had deflected him but she was clearly wrong.

"What… uh… what is all this?" he asked pointing to… well… all of her.

"What?"

"You look like you're contemplating drowning yourself, what's going on with you? This isn't like you…"

Great, the sociopath couldn't read her emotions. Explaining it was going to make her cry. "I'm sad Wo," she snapped resting her chin on her pulled-up knees.

Wo Fat looked around at the beach and then carefully sat down beside her, even though the sand and the rocks were going to ruin his dress pants.

"When you're sad you cry. You're not crying," he said.

"There are different types of sad."

"Different types of… wow women are exhausting. Or is this just a you thing?" he asked her. When she just stared at him he nodded his head and then turned his gaze out to the ocean. "Fine, what kind of sad is this and how do I make it stop happening?"

"The kind where I give up. And I unno. That's the problem I don't know how to fix this."

"Give up? Isn't your family crest literally _don't give up and don't let go_? Or something ridiculous like that?"

Rowan rolled her eyes at him. How dare he throw her own family crest back at her. "That's it. I'm jumping in the ocean."

She moved to get up, a bluff really, Wo Fat had a hold of her shoulders and tugging her down even before she got an inch off the ground. "No, you're not. No guy is worth that. Not even the Great Steven McGarrett, which is clearly not so great." She turned a dry glare to him and he returned it. "Don't look at me like that. He's clearly not if he's this big of an idiot. You would have thought after Afghanistan he would have just proposed."

Rowan shrugged. "Well you'll be pleased to hear that we probably won't be together much longer," she told him and when Wo Fat turned his shocked eyes to her, she added: "He thinks I'm a monster."

Now a dark glare was coloring his face. "He said that to you? Those words? In that order?"

"No…" "Then how would you…" "It's in his eyes. He looks at me like I'm a monster."

Wo Fat scoffed. "You are so clearly not a monster. You're the nicest person I know."

"You're a criminal. Everyone you deal with is a bad guy. Of course, I'm the nicest person you know."

"So? There are still some villains with good intentions. Your intentions are always good and your actions are well… they're mostly good with a tad bit of villainous mixed in. But all in all, you're a decent human being and an upstanding member of the community."

Rowan turned to him, no smile on her face she just stared at him and Wo Fat stared back not sure what to do. They were silent a moment before real actual concern crossed Wo Fat's marred face.

"Okay… now you're scaring me," he whispered. "What do I need to do? Is this an alcoholic shaved ice situation? Unlimited spending spree in a bookstore of your choice… or at the Disney store? A kitten? I could get you a kitten, you like black cats, right?"

Rowan turned back to the ocean. "I just want to be good enough."

Wo Fat sat back and looked back out to the ocean too. Well, fuck, he didn't know how to give her that. How could McGarrett not think she was good enough for him? How was he supposed to make that idiot see that? After a moment's silence he whispered: "You're good enough for me."

Rowan half smiled again, a single tear fell from her eye and she dropped her head to his shoulder. "That's nice, Wo," she whispered to him. "You're a good big brother."

He wrapped an arm around her and tugged her to him, resting his head against hers. They were like that for all of two seconds before someone ripped Rowan out of his arms. She had yelped and Wo Fat was up on his feet in a defensive position ready to attack but it was only McGarrett who was uncharacteristically red and shaking.

"How nice. Got yourself in trouble and immediately called your brother, isn't that just like you?"

He was gripping Rowan too hard, Wo Fat could tell by the whitness of the skin under his grip. He had a hold of Steve's arm before Steve could even look at him and twisted it until Steve let go, and continued to twist until Steve was down on his knees. Steve cried out mostly in surprise and lashed out catching Wo Fat just above the knee and he too went down. Once they were at each other's level Steve lunged at him, tackling him to the sand and trying to strangle life out of him.

"Stop it, stop it!" Rowan was shouting trying to pull Steve off of him. God the only reason Wo Fat hadn't gone for his gun was cause she was there. He brought a leg up and managed to shove it between he and Steve, kneeing him in the chest and sending him sprawling back.

Rowan rushed to Steve's side, helping him to get him though he didn't need it, leaving Wo Fat to get up on his own. But Steve wouldn't let Rowan touch him. He got up, shrugged off her hands and then glared at her while she backed away from him. And that right there must have been the look that had her thinking that he thought she was a monster. Wo Fat got it though, the way Steven was looking at her was the same way he looked at Wo Fat, and everyone knew how Steven McGarrett felt about him.

"You two deserve each other," he snarled to her and Wo Fat shook his head in surprise, ready to jump to her defense like she was prone to doing for him.

"What the hell is your problem McGarrett?" he shouted, sweeping Rowan aside. The words had stabbed into her like a knife straight to the heart, even as he was sweeping her aside she seemed to be crumpling around the emotional wound. "We haven't done anything. We were just _sitting_!"

"I'm running around worried about her and you two are off staring into the sunset!" he shouted back.

"Worried about her… she was on the fucking beach! And it's like the middle of the day! The sun is high above us not setting, what the fuck are you on?!" Wo Fat snapped actually legitimately concerned for Steve's sanity.

Steve half turned away only to turn back and shout: "You're ruining everything! Why can't you just go back to hell, or crawl into a hole and die, why can't you just _go away_!"

"I haven't _done anything yet_!" he shouted back at him. Then he remembered Rowan and how she hated it when the two of them argued and fought so he forced himself to take two deep breaths and then said: "That's it. You clearly need to calm down. I'm going to take Rowan…." he turned to grab her but she wasn't behind him anymore. Wo Fat did a full three sixty scanning the beach before he thought about calling her name, but she wasn't on the beach anymore. Or at least, he couldn't see her.

"I don't have my keys," Steve whispered and then turned and ran off. She had taken his truck? She kept saying the truck was too big for her to drive. Wo Fat followed after him ready to take Rowan away from all of this and find some Steven look-alike for her to fall in love with instead. But Steve's truck was empty. His keys were in the ignition, the driver side door just wide open and on the seat was her phone.

Steve took it. "Her phone… she… she left her phone."

So she wouldn't get tracked. She realized that Wo Fat had tracked her location, and that Steve had done the same to find her… for some reason. She had left the phone to go off the grid.

"Oh god… she's gone… she… she's gone…"

Wo Fat was ready to shout that all of this was Steve's fault but Steve suddenly collapsed into himself. Suddenly struggling to breathe, his chest heaving and he was making terrible gagging noises. Wo Fat wasn't sure what was happening or what he was supposed to do to make it stop.

"Are… are you going to vomit?" he asked taking a precautionary step away from Steve who was now braced on his knees and trying to breathe. When Steve didn't answer but just kept heaving Wo Fat took a hesitant step forward wondering if he was supposed to offer comfort. He put a hand to Steve's back and pat him twice punctuated by: "There, there."

Steve turned a glare up to him and Wo Fat immediately withdrew his hand. "I don't know why I did that, Rowan doesn't like it either."

"Why are you even here huh?" Steve asked him. "Why does she always call you first?"

"She didn't call me… I called her this morning to check up on her and she sounded upset, and even though she told me she wanted to be alone, I traced her phone and found her," he explained. "Why did you… uh… why are you here?"

"Sykes threatened her. I had Chin track the app to find her," Steve added. "Do you know where she'd go now? I mean… who else does she have? She wouldn't go to my guys she doesn't trust them, would she go to one of your contacts?"

"Wait… hold up. Sykes? Jimmy Sykes the SLV meth dealer… the wannabe club owner… threatened Rowan?"

"She's in the pastel GTO right? Maybe I could just put a bolo out on that?" Steve mused to himself. "Maybe she'll go home? No, she's mad at me she's not going to do that."

"No, no. You don't get to gloss over that. Rewind," he ordered getting Steve to look at him. "You're telling me that low life threatened her and now she's on her own, without her phone, driving around in a giant pastel purple beacon?" When Steve nodded Wo Fat groaned in frustration. "Might as well have taped a bullseye to her back."

"No, no, she's fine… I took him down…"

"Fine? You call this fine? She's sitting on the rocks talking about giving it all up cause you're being a baby, she's been threatened by a low level drug dealer who thinks he's bigger than that, and now she's run off because neither of us would leave her alone and she does that thing where she runs from her problems when she's upset… AND THAT! All of this! Is _fine_ to you? What the hell is the matter with you?"

"Giving up, what are you talking about?" Steve asked as Wo Fat turned to walk away.

"No. I'm done with you," he snapped heading back towards where he had left his Audi with Steve trailing behind. "You're an absolute moron. You know that? You're just… you're pathetic."

"Pathetic? You think _I'm the pathetic one_?"

"Yeah. I said it. Sulking because she called me. Asshole, look at what your goddamn job is!" he thundered whirling around to face Steve. "She's gonna call a cop to help her hide a body? A cop that has, in the past, arrested her for things that weren't fucking crimes? You fucking nutjob, of course she's not, she's not stupid. And while I'm at it, she is not a monster and if I find out that you actually uttered those words to her, so help me I'll rip out your fucking voice box with my own bare hands."

It was amazing how truly violent he got the angrier her got about Rowan. As he stormed away Wo Fat wondered… where else would Rowan go? Maybe she'd go to Kong, maybe she'd go… he didn't know. This was the first time Rowan had ever tried to run from him on purpose. He wasn't sure he liked it. In fact, he was entirely sure that he didn't like it one bit. And he blamed McGarrett fully.


	140. Chapter 140

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Alright guys. This is it. The last chapter of Steve being a jerk. After this there will be five chapters where things are normal, and then chapter 146 we start up with Steve the Jerk again. I know I've been counting down the chapters for the last three but I want you guys to be prepared. This chapter is gonna end on some cute stuff… and I mean… one of their standard make ups. And then we got the Halloween episode to look forward to next chapter. So you know, we got some interesting things happening. Side note, we're almost to 150 chapters. Do you guys want something special for the 150th chapter? Maybe a cute future chapter? Tell me what you think! See you guys on Friday!_

Chapter 140

* * *

Grover had gone home after a long day of police work ready to sleep it off. Their bad guy had been caught, had threatened Rowan and Steve had been given her location and had gone to pick her up. No distress call had come so he assumed it was safe to relax. But he was only home for a half hour before someone start rapping on his door rapid fire. He opened up the door to a sobbing Rowan just staring up at him. He immediately looked over her shoulder for McGarrett but he wasn't there.

"Uh… Hi… uh"

"I don't have anywhere else," she hiccupped. "I don't have anyone who won't tell him…"

Uh-oh, another argument with McGarrett and a bad one by the looks of it. He put a hand out to her and ushered her into the house.

"Come on in, little momma, let's get you a tea, and some tissues and we'll talk it out."

"Please don't tell him I'm here… I know that's a lot to ask but I have no…"

"I ain't gonna tell McGarrett nothing. You forget I liked you before I liked him."

Renee popped her head out of the kitchen and blinked her eyes at Rowan in utter shock and then took her from Lou who just couldn't stand to see that poor girl cry. She was always so… happy, he had thought there wasn't a single thing in the world that could make her cry like that… but Steve McGarrett had proved them wrong.

Lou's phone rang and he went to grab it. Steven's name flashed on the screen and Rowan audibly gasped like she could see it was him from where she was.

"Don't you worry," he said, turning his back on the two women but he didn't take the call until he was on the porch and away from Rowan's voice so Steve couldn't hear her by accident.

"Grover."

"Lou!" came Steve's frantic voice. "Lou… I can't… I can't really explain but uh… have you seen… have you seen or heard from Rowan."

"I thought uh… I thought you pinged her location… she was at the beach, wasn't she? Did Sykes' guys grab her or something?"

"No. God. I don't know…"

"Okay can you slow down and explain from the beginning?"

"No, Lou, I don't know where she is. I have her phone…" "So you did find her?" "LOU! Look I've called everyone she would have gone to you're all I have left… have… you seen her or not?"

"Course I haven't, why would she come here anyway?" Grover asked.

Steve was silent, a groan may or may not have escaped his lips, though it might have also been a growl. "If you see her can you tell her I'm worried and… that… I'm sorry?"

"Shouldn't you tell her that yourself?"

"I'm FUCKING trying!" Steve shouted and then hung up the phone.

When Grover returned, Rowan was frantically unloading his pans and mixing bowls all while still crying. Apparently getting herself ready to bake. Renee, who had clearly been trying to calm her down and failing miserably, evidently gave up and was helping her find everything she was looking for.

When she was done Renee walked over to Lou and hissed: "She said something about being a monster and then she just declared that she was going to make cookies so like… is she having a psychotic break?"

"Don't know, I've never seen her like this," Grover said. "Far as I know her and Steve are just having another argument."

"Their arguments do _that_ to her?"

"Well… I mean… not usually… this is a whole new spectrum I've never seen before. Usually they just yell at each other and then make out," Grover said.

Renee shook her head. "He must have done something awful."

"Look, he can't know she's here," Grover said. "If he knows he'll break down the door to get her. So we gotta keep this hushed up."

Grover sighed, watching as Rowan, without a recipe began to bake. He figured, if it would help her out, the least Grover could do was let her stay until she calmed down. How long could that take?

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

The doorbell rang and Steve lunged for it. Lou was standing on the stoop staring at him carefully. He handed Steve a pan of brownies. "Wanna brownie?" he asked as he let himself in.

Steve looked down at them. "Did uh… did Renee bake or something?"

"Or something," Grover said sitting down on his couch. Steve didn't have time for this, not when Rowan hadn't come home. Not when both he and Wo Fat couldn't fucking find her. This was the longest she had gone without being in contact with either of them and he didn't know what to do. Wo Fat was monitoring the channels but there was nothing about her being grabbed by anyone and none of Steve's friends had reporting seeing her… unless they had lied to him.

"I mean… tell her I said thanks," he said. "But uh… I kind of have a situation…"

"A missing girlfriend, yeah I know. How long has she been gone for?"

"I unno, all day, six hours? Okay… well… uh… unless you've seen her…" "What exactly were you two arguing about that sent her running this time?"

Steve paused, he slammed the brownies down on the coffee table and glared at him. "Nothing! We… we're fine…" Grover just stared at him. "Okay maybe we've been distant and weird but you heard what she did!"

"You're right. I did. She saved Danny's brother. She saved Danny's life. She got that missing 5.5 million when we couldn't…"

"Yes, and none of that seems… weird to you?"

"The girl comes from an alternate reality and that's what's weird to you?" Grover shot back. "Look… I don't know what's going on with you and her, but whatever it is, it's gone on long enough don't you think? Maybe… just get over your issues, McGarrett and apologize?"

"And how am I going to do that?" Steve snapped. "I can't fucking apologize if I can't fucking find her!"

He then paused and looked down to the pan of brownies on his coffee table and then back to Grover as if he had finally put it all together. "Rowan bakes when she's upset," he murmured. He then glared at Grover. Hope sung up into his heart. "You have Rowan don't you?"

"If by _have_ you mean the girl showed up at my house sobbing and going on about how you called her a monster and then began to bake what is going to be a life time of baked goods in the span of six hours, then yes, I do have Rowan."

Sobbing. Oh god. Sobbing? She had been sobbing? He didn't need to hear that. He felt guilty enough as it was.

"Now, I'm not handing that girl over to you until I know for sure you're gonna fix this," he said. "Cause if I bring you over and you pull that usual shit you pull when you and her argue and nothing gets better Renee's gonna have your head and then mine."

But when Grover looked up into Steve's face and saw nothing short of panic and relief residing there, he knew that Steve needed to see her.

So, Grover let Steve get in his truck giving him all the tips and points that he could about what Steve needed to say to make all of this better. Steve practically sprinted up the walkway and up to the door but fell short at the door. He stood there staring at it like he was afraid to go talk to her.

So, Grover walked past him, opened the door and let him go in. Steve carefully made his way after Grover but when they got to the kitchen confident, suave McGarrett was just gone. He stared at Rowan with all the longing in the world. Watching as she cried and stirred the next round of batter she was making.

"Ro?" he asked weakly and she stopped stirring to look at him.

She blinked her teary eyes, the red tracks in her face bright red from all the crying and wiping she had been doing. "Steven?" He took half a step forward and her wide angry eyes turned to Grover as she shouted: "What happened to liking me before him?" Rowan snapped and Steve took a step back.

Renee, obviously responding to Rowan's cries, walked in, clocked Steve standing there and shouted: "Aw hell no! I better not be seeing Steven McGarrett in my kitchen because if I am you best go pack a bag Lou cause you're sleeping on that man's couch!"

"Now baby… baby…" Lou started.

"Naw, he's got the girl up here crying into fucking cupcakes and you bring him into the house? What happened to McGarrett can never know, huh? Where is your loyalty Lou?" she thundered, when he opened his mouth to argue she shut him down with the shake of her head and a: "Nuh-uh. Get out."

Steve actually took a step away, as if the big bad super seal was scared of Renee. "Baby. Think about what you just said. The girl's bake-cried her way through an entire bakery. She's made six dozen cupcakes, twelve cakes, ten batches of cookies and I don't even know how many bars and brownies. I think, if we ever want the baking to stop, she has to talk to the boy?"

"Why? So, I can be called a monster again and be told that I can't be trusted because my brother's a criminal? But it's perfectly fine for you to use the app he made for me to trace my phone whenever you need me?"

"Girl, he traced your phone cause you got threatened by a Samoan street thug," Grover cried.

Rowan threw down the whisk and glared at him. "What?"

"Wo's dealing with it," Steve answered in a soft voice and Rowan threw up her hands in frustration.

"Yeah but when I do it, I'm betraying you."

Steve blinked his eyes at her. "I never thought you were betraying me… it was just that… in your time of need you went to him and I… I felt like you… you didn't need me," Steve suddenly blurted out.

Rowan blinked her eyes at him and then narrowed them. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me. You were in trouble and you called him instead of me and I thought… I thought you didn't need me, okay?"

Rowan hastily peeled off Renee's apron and threw it down on the counter to storm around it to face off with Steve. Grover grabbed Renee and backed her away knowing full well what kind of arguments Steve and Rowan got into.

"How dare you!" Rowan snapped. "I called my brother to help me instead of you and you got jealous? That's what this has been about?"

Steve opened his mouth and Rowan put a hand up to stop him. "Shut up! I called my brother to help me with something _illegal_ you fucking idiot!" she shouted. "I'm sorry, if I thought asking you to help me hide a fucking body might get you in trouble at work. I mean… you're just _law enforcement_."

"She needed a body hidden?" Renee hissed. "Did she kill someone?"

"Naw, witnessed a murder," Grover hissed back. "Just… just listen."

"Okay… that kind of makes…" he started but Rowan cut him off.

"This is not a competition Steve. This isn't a, well if I asked Wo Fat for this it means I don't need Steve anymore," she snapped. "He's my brother and there are certain things that he can help me with better than you can and vice versa. But that doesn't excuse your behaviour."

Steve nodded. "You're right."

"You went to your father's grave without me and then made me feel like I had no right to even be upset about it because I wasn't invited at all, that there was no way you were going to take someone like me to see him…"

"I was mad, okay? And I was scared and…" "Scared?" "Yes, Rowan, scared." "Of me?" "No, of this, of everything. I'm scared that body's gonna float up, I'm scared there will be retribution, I'm scared that I pushed you away a bit too far cause my feelings got hurt and I won't be able to fix it, I'm scared because I know you and Danny are hiding something and I don't want this to be like the Chin incident but today, today I was scared cause a man I was arresting asked me if I knew where you were and I didn't."

She stared at him a bit and then he added: "And a little bit of you…. If I'm being honest."

Both Grover's held their breath, he was doing so good until he spit that out. Rowan took a step away from him and Steve immediately put a hand out to her arm keeping her from getting too far from him.

"I'm scared of what you do, because I'm afraid I won't be able to protect you. I don't want to be in a position where me or my team has to arrest you. And I feel like… with every interaction, with every Rowan-gram I loose you a little bit more to that network, like you step a little bit further into the grey and closer to the dark side. And honestly… I'm seeing more of the ice queen then you these days."

"The app protects…"

"I know it does. And it's great when you use it for that, but that's not all you're using it for anymore. Don't get me wrong, it's great you saved Matty…" "I didn't use the app for that. The payment went through it cause I had to authorize it, but the actual order when through a middle man, not the app." "Oh. Oh. I guess I missed that part."

"Too busy freaking out about the body dump I guess."

Steve half laughed, a hand coming up to her face to brush some flour off of her cheek. "I don't want anything to happen to you Ro, that's all. And when you go out and find trouble… when you need me to rescue you from it… well… you know… with all the added stress I might actually have a real heart attack."

Rowan laughed. "You are old."

"Nine years, it's only nine years," he groaned, pulling her into another hug. His arms tight around her like he couldn't bare to let go. It was the softest of whispers but they all heard it: "You took off my tags."

Rowan pulled her head out of his chest, her eyes blinking at him. "No I didn't."

"You weren't wearing them this morning."

"Yes I was," she said, pulling them out from under her shirt. "See, they're right here."

"Oh… but when I hugged you… I couldn't… I couldn't feel them. I thought… I thought that meant you didn't… that you might not…"

"Well that's cause I had tucked them into my bra while I was getting ready. I forgot to take them out," she said. "I said I wouldn't take them off, and I meant it."

Steve smiled at her, tears of happiness almost falling. "Can you… can we… go home now?"

Rowan glanced back to the batter she had left and Renee quickly said: "I can finish it." And then Rowan looked around to all she had baked and Renee added: "I'll have a bake sale."

She pushed out of his grip and looked back up to Steve with those tears in her eyes. "But you won't stop looking at me like I'm a monster… you went to your father's grave without me…"

"I've been an idiot," he said. "I felt jilted, I felt unneeded, I'm trying not to see him in you but you do things and it's so much like him that I get scared. It doesn't feel good to know that you think I can't protect you."

"But you do protect me," she cried. "You're the one who's there when I have nightmares. You're the one who kills the spiders for me and helps me get down when I climb up on the counter and can't get back down. So there's been a string of situations I needed Wo Fat for, that doesn't mean I don't need you for everything else." She was silent for a moment before adding: "And Danny and I are not hiding anything, can you just… I mean I know you can't trust me, but can you trust him not to lie?"

Steve nodded. "I do trust… I'm trying to trust you more… and I wanted to take you today… but with us being so weird… and you know… it's my dad… and it's hard for me. I didn't want it to be even harder… you know?"

Rowan nodded like she understood but no one in that room was sure if she actually did understand.

Renee leant in as Steve suddenly just wrapped Rowan up in a tight embrace that they both seemed to be melded into and asked: "So like… are they good… cause I'm not sure they really fixed…"

"That's how all their arguments go… a lot of talking not a lot of fixing…"

"Great… so there's a good chance that she'll be back here in a week…" Renee muttered and Lou tried to hide his smile he looked around at all the baked goods filling up his kitchen and figured, eh, it wouldn't be so bad. Maybe for his waist line but his stomach would be really happy and so would his kids.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Jerry's mom had finally done it. Had finally moved. He had had a few friends come over to help, but after Rowan's little fire they hadn't really gotten much done, and he didn't want to call them down for a second round of packing, he was amazed he got as many people as he did for the original day. He made his way down to the basement to continue packing up on his own and found Farrow standing there.

Jerry came to a standstill because holy shit why the hell was he in his basement? How had he gotten in? How much did he know?

"Hello Mr. Ortega," he said. Oh god, he knew who he was.

"What are you doing here?" Jerry asked, trying to act like he was surprised, like he didn't know who Farrow was.

"Why… I'm returning your book," he said. "Did you ever read it? No? There's a passage in here that warns of the perils of meddling in someone else's affairs."

And then as if the guy couldn't get even more pretentious, he actually quoted the passage: _he who does will face retribution._

Jerry didn't know where the bravery came from but he puffed out his chest and asked: "Do they have one about messing with people who have friends in high places?"

Farrow just laughed and as the bag went over his head, he heard him say: "Not even Five-0 can help you now."

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve woke Rowan up early with a quick shake. They weren't all the way better yet. He was much less distant with her, as she requested, but he could still tell she was a little sad and he wanted her to be happy. So that morning, after spending the night, not worshiping her like he wanted to, but holding her to him because he was afraid she'd leave him in the night. He woke up sporadically, with each movement she made, and after confirming she was still there with him, he would bow his head to her shoulder, inhale her scent and tighten that grip.

By morning he had made up his mind. So, he woke her up, despite the early hours with a plan to make them better again.

"Oh god, why do you hate me?" she groaned and Steve half laughed because she knew it wasn't true.

He kissed her cheek and she rolled to him letting him kiss her, pulling him down so the length of him was against her. Her hips pressing up against his and that was him lost to the moment. They went on like this, for far too long before he managed to pull away and breathlessly whisper: "I want to take you some where special, can you get dressed up?"

She reluctantly let him go, and even more reluctantly agreed to get up and get dressed. It wasn't until they were both dressed up, he in his black suit and light blue dress shirt, and Rowan in her go-to meeting skirt, knee-length and black, and a light blue low-backed blouse did he realize that they had dressed to match and neither had noticed.

It occurred to him to ask her to maybe change her shirt, or just change his own, but when he looked at them together in the mirror looking like they belonged together for the first time… ever, he couldn't bring himself to do it. No matter how much he hated those couples who dressed to match.

He got Rowan in his truck and though she asked where they were going he didn't tell her. So, when they pulled up to the gates of the National Cemetery of the Pacific Rowan was suddenly unhappy.

"Oh no! No, you're gonna take me to see… but I'm not ready!"

Steve turned to her surprised. "What? But you were all sad cause I didn't go with you yesterday…"

"I know! But that was when I was mentally ready… I'm not mentally ready for this anymore!" she cried.

"Rowan… I'm taking you to a grave… you know you're not really meeting him, right?"

Rowan scowled at him. "This is a very big deal, Steven McGarrett… I need a few minutes to compose myself… and you should have told me, high heels and grass are not a comfortable mix."

Steve sighed but let her sit in silence as he parked close to where his dad's grave was. After a few moments, he deemed her ready and helped her out of the car. They walked along the rows of graves, Rowan clinging to his arm and walking slowly because her heels were getting stuck in the ground and she was teetering back and forth on the uneven grass.

She came to a full stop just two graves away.

"What if he doesn't like me…"

Steve turned to her not sure if she was joking or not. "Seriously, you know you're not _really_ meeting him, right?"

But when she looked up at him with that defiant glare, he knew that she was serious, she was taking this all too seriously in fact.

"It may not be… _really_ … meeting him. But it might as well be," she snapped. "And what if he like… doesn't like me and like… shows us a sign or something?"

"Like lightning flashing across a clear sky?"

"I was thinking more of the _remember who you are_ scene with the clouds, except he'd be saying: _dump that bitch!_ "

"I doubt my dad would call you a bitch, even in cloud form," Steve said. "Trust me, I think… I think we'll be fine."

She grumbled but otherwise didn't complain as he finally managed to bring her to the grave of his father. And then the two of them stood there, staring down at him before Steve cleared his throat, suddenly quite nervous.

"Hey dad, I uh… I know I don't usually visit this often but uh… I brought someone with me that I wanted you to meet," he said. Rowan stood beside him, her heels sinking into the group, she held onto his arm tightly and looked down at the grave at his feet. "It's the girl I told you about. Rowan."

"Hello, Sir," she said softly. "It's uhm… It's nice to meet you."

Despite her being in a black knee length skirt, and three-inch stiletto heels she knelt down in front of him.

"There that's better," she said softly. She arranged her skirt around her and then smiled down to the marble slab with his father's name inscribed across it. "I would have really liked to meet you in person," she told it as she leant forward to carefully brush the leaves away. "I'm not sure if you would have liked me right away, I'm a bit lippy and I often get in trouble, but Steve says I'm like a mold and I grow on people."

She shot him a warm smile and Steve smiled back at her, certain he was going to cry. Rowan turned back to the grave and continued to talk like his father was right there with her, like he could hear everything she was saying, just like he did. And Steve liked to think that he could.

"Uh… I'm sure you're up there, looking down so I best not lie to an angel, but uhm… I'm not from here… I know funny joke, but uh… I uh… I write songs for a living… I guess I make good money off of it, so you know… don't worry I'm not trying to leech off your son. Though he does let me stay at your place rent free… well not entirely free, I make a mean breakfast… and you know… other things," she whispered. "I probably shouldn't tell you about those things though… not very lady like."

Steve half laughed, and knelt down beside her. "She's a very good girl, dad, she likes to pretend she's not… but she is," he ensured him. "And she's treating me very, very well, even when I don't deserve it."

"Mhmmm," Rowan chimed in quickly. "I know you might be worried that I'm not good enough… well I think I might not be good enough… at least to your standards… but I'm trying. Really hard. The last thing I want to do is hurt Steve… or leave him."

They shared a look there and that emotion he felt whenever he was here with his father clogged his throat again. This last week had taught him one thing, and that was that he could never, ever let her think that he thought she wasn't good enough for him, not when it was so clearly the other way around.

"Well that's enough of the serious talk. Let's talk about the fun stuff. Did you know, that your son, took me camping, but like, Rambo style? Look at me! Do I look like a camping girl to you?"

As she continued to talk to his dad like he was right there listening to them Steve couldn't help but stare at her. The sun streamed down on her setting that profile ablaze, looking like something out of some renaissance painting, Steve wondered how he ever could have thought that his girl was a monster.


	141. Chapter 141

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hey guys! Happy Friday! So today we have a cute little chapter filled with Rowan's shenanigans, and Steve's reactions. We're going to get a break from Steve the jerk here because essentially the two of them are fine now… for now. So enjoy the cuteness of the next few chapters. Also AlexLover got to pick the Halloween costume mentioned in this chapter, so I hope you like it. Also haven't seen you in awhile AlexLover are you still there? Review soon cause I miss you! On an unrelated point, we're 9 chapters away from 150, do you want a special chapter? Do you want to read a special future chapter? I have Steve and Rowan's wedding. Steve adopting Nahele. Rowan adopting Nahele. Rowan telling Steve she's pregnant. What do you want to read? Kay, guys, enjoy the chapter, leave me a review if you thought it was cute, don't forget to tell me what kinda of chapter you wanna ready for the special 150 and I'll see you guys on Monday._

Chapter 141

* * *

Once they were done at the grave and they were supposed to go home for a day of rest, but they had only been changed into their lounging clothes for three minutes before Rowan had checked her phone, got a strange look on her face, told him she had something to deal with and then left. Steve had waited to hear from Danny, who was supposed to be back by now but never called him. Which was obnoxious cause this was his best friend.

Sensing that something was wrong, he went looking. Steve found Danny right where he thought he would. In the spot Danny liked, that made him feel calm. He had just gotten back from the mainland, had just gotten back from Matty's negotiations, Steve wasn't sure if a trial was involved or not yet, Danny hadn't talked to him about it so he didn't know. He didn't like not knowing, he didn't like seeing Danny like this either.

"Hey!" he said as he approached Danny who was sitting on a ledge on the shoulder of the highway looking out onto the ocean. "I uh… you landed hours ago and I hadn't heard from you… I remembered you mentioned this place and uh…"

"But you couldn't figure out that if she had nowhere else to go Rowan would end up at Grover's?"

Steve frowned at him. He didn't need that right now. "We made up," Steve growled. "I explained… she explained… and we made up."

"You told her you're afraid of her. Don't you know how much she worries she's a monster?"

Steve hadn't, but after that argument, Chin had called him to explain that. More like a giant lecture in which Chin kept calling him an idiot. Wish his friends had explained that sooner.

"She's going to be traumatized for the rest of the relationship," Danny snapped. "She's never going to forget you said that…"

"Okay… what's going on with you? Did something happen with Matty? What's going on there huh?" Steve asked needing off of this topic like… instantly.

Danny immediately shifted gears. He got all serious and quiet and Steve realized it couldn't be good news.

"Well the good news… the goods news is he's doing community service. Under the watchful eye of my parents."

Oh! That was good news. So then…

"So… what's wrong then? Huh?"

"He had all these details of Reyes' operations, you know? And uh… I got to sit through the deposition where he explained… he explained what Reyes was doing to him before… before someone came and got him out," Danny said. "And it… uh… it was pretty horrific. They think he's going to limp for the rest of his life and If I had just stopped my brother from getting on that plane…"

"Danny, you can't do that," he said. "You can't second guess every decision you've made. I did it with my dad, I did it with Freddy. The truth is I could never have saved either of them. Don't do that to yourself, because you got to save Matty."

"But that's the thing… isn't it? I didn't save Matty, Rowan did," Danny said. "Rowan saved Matty and she didn't think she could tell any of us without blowing her rescue mission out of the water. And to be fair, when it was going down, neither me nor you would have believed her and you know it and with the way things were between you two you might have just arrested her the second she told you about it. But maybe… I unno this all could have gone down so much differently… and now everyone I care about is suffering."

"Okay, you can't do that you know? Catherine was doing this to herself too, torturing herself over what could have happened to Billy if Rowan hadn't intervened," Steve snapped. "Rowan saved you from all of that. That's what she does, she realizes that we won't listen and goes out and does it herself."

"And now she hasn't dreamed right for what… two weeks?" he asked. Steve sighed… well… that much was true… was it bad that he hadn't missed that aspect? That he liked not waking up and having to soothe her, he liked getting a full night's sleep because she wasn't bolting up and waking him up too. At least now when she had a nightmare it was about Reyes' murder and not some future event he couldn't save her from.

"Yeah, glad you're pleased," Danny snapped once he saw the smug smile on Steve's face. "How do you think she's going to feel if something happens to one of us and she didn't dream about it in time to help us?"

Steve frowned. Yeah, he hadn't thought about that but he had a point. "Okay… well… maybe part of the problem is you two are hiding something from me."

It was just like the Roof incident with Chin again. Rowan and Danny sworn to secrecy over something and keeping Steve out of the loop. That pissed him off even more.

"For fuck sake. We are not hiding anything. We told you, from start to finish what fucking happened."

Except Steve knew in his gut that that wasn't true. But he didn't have time to argue about it, in fact he didn't even want to argue about it, not when he and Rowan were finally in a place where they were okay. But he didn't have the time to force it out of Danny at that time because Rowan had sent him a text.

Danny knew Rowan's special ring tone, a text tone version of _Under the Sea_. "She still bugging you about picking a costume?"

"Yeah, I was taking too long, she said, so she gave me three to choose from as if that's going to help. I don't know why she needs us to go…."

Steve trailed off, as he read over the message. Those three little words setting him ramrod straight, like an electrical current had fired up in his veins and had control of his moments.

 _Gunshots. Help me._

Steve must have reacted badly because Danny straightened and perked up, asking: "What, what is it?"

"She in or near a shooting," he snapped, jumping up and rushing to his truck. Danny swore and crossed to his own car, ready to follow Steve into the eventual battle he would be facing to save Rowan… again.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Farrow returned from handing out candy to trick-or-treaters, with his bloodied apron back on and approached Jerry and his beaten-up partner. He smiled calmly at Jerry and his wide eyes of terror and then he ripped the tape off of Jerry's mouth.

He yelped, of course he'd yelp, duct tape hurt when removed and poor Jerry had a beard going on. He let Jerry breathe a bit and he was rewarded with some good old-fashioned begging: "Okay, Message delivered. I won't say a word about anything. Just, please, stop hurting him."

"Such compassion. But you see, while you were just following your natural curiosity, my associate here failed to do his job. Which was to protect our interests from prying eyes."

"Well, consider my prying eyes diverted," he cried. "Look. I get it. You just want to run your nice, friendly counterfeiting operation out of your antiquarian bookshop."

Farrow just shrugged. "We all have hobbies."

"Exactly. Ours just happen to intersect."

Farrow shook his head. "Excuse me one moment." And in exactly one moment he returned with a gun.

Before Jerry could say anything else, he had shot the man beside him.

"Oh my god you killed him! Why would you do that?" Jerry asked and then the gun was turned onto him. "Oh God please don't!"

"Now, I want to know everything you told Steve McGarrett," he ordered.

"Everything! I told him everything but he didn't believe me!" Jerry cried. "Besides… besides… It's not what I told Steve. It's what I told Rowan. Rowan… Peirce. Yeah, you know her. Its about what I told her and what she told her… her…"

"Her brother?

"YEAH! Me and Rowan are like… tight… we're friends now… what do you think is going to happen if she finds out you… you…"

"Rowan Pierce is nothing more than a button-pushing waste of space. And her brother? Everyone knows he's got his bite. But he's whipped, that's what he is. I'm not afraid of her, her brother or her network. I could take them apart with one blow."

"Wow… one blow huh?" someone asked and Farrow turned around to woman he instantly recognized as Rowan Pierce coming out of the kitchen with a big giant bowl. Farrow already knew what was in that bowl. She put her finger in it, and licked it off. "You know if you put a little bit of honey in this, not only does it make it a little sticky but its great added decoration to zombie cupcakes? And it'll taste better too," she said and then put her hand in it entirely and began to smear herself with the fake blood. As much as he was concerned about her appearance in his house, he was also very confused as to what the hell she was doing with a bowl of what she clearly knew was fake blood.

"So, what's this about one blow? Do you wanna take your shot at it now or should I call Wo and have him join me? I'm sure he'd love to hear all about you…" she had to maneuver a bit, but she managed to get her phone out of her back pocket while cradling the large metallic bowl of fake blood to her chest. She made a big show of pulling up something on the scree, probably her app and reading it before saying: "Uh….let's see. Voice rec says that you're Major William Corrigan, Former British Special forces, court-martialed in…. uh… 2004 for excessive force in combat. Which seems silly, it's combat… isn't all combat considered excessive force?" Interesting, a girl after his own heart. She then looked at her phone more carefully: "Mmm… I got my phone all bloody, that's gonna be a bitch to get off."

She slid her phone into her back pocket, she walked over to where Farrow was standing with the gun, just in front of both Jerry and the body that his partner, Helms, was pretending to be dead, and then poured some of the blood on the floor, rubbing it around with the toe of her shoe.

"What the hell are you doing?" he asked.

"Hmm? Oh, I'm going to need that later," she said finally putting the bowl down on the table. She turned to Helms and then scoffed at him. "Oh, get up you're not fooling anyone."

She knew he was faking it? No, that would ruin everything! Farrow pointed the gun at her and she just laughed. At him. "Nice one, is that a real one this time? Or is it just a fake with blanks?"

"Do you want to take the chance?" he growled.

"Do you?" she shot back. "I may not look like much, but everyone that comes up against me has issues. In fact most don't make it," she warned him walking over to Jerry but keeping a wide berth of him and the gun. "Just like you, I don't walk into a situation blind, which means I had to have thought this through. Must mean I have a plan. And I mean… do you think I made this mess for no reason? You look like a man who likes to have his ego stroked, thinks he's smarter than he is. I'm guessing…. With the hair loss and the smaller stature that you've got a Napoleon Complex. Ohhh look at that face," she said with a laugh as he glowered at her. "You did not like that. No you did not. Well come on then, Mr. Smart guy, what's my big plan here?"

"You've obviously used your app to rustle up some back up. I'm guessing your brother."

"Good, that's the most obvious choice, except I know Wo Fat's on the other side of the island and can't get to me fast enough. I did call for back-up I'll give you that, but not with my app." Outside there came the screech of tires and the slam of a car door. "Opp, there's the cavalry now. Wanna see what happens when my boyfriend gets upset?"

Farrow didn't have to guess what that meant. He lunged for her, hoping to grab her to use as a hostage, but she lunged back. For a second they grappled for the gun before she managed to point it to the ground and use his finger to pull the trigger as soon as the gun went off she just screamed, so loud he actually put his hands over his ears and then then she dropped right into that pool of blood she had created not moments before

Across from him a door got kicked off his hinges and then Steven McGarrett of Five-0 was bearing down on him, gun in hand, no tactical gear, but a look of worry and anger on his face. He took sight of the two tied up men and then Rowan lying on the floor, realized there was blood and that she was lying in a pool of it and something in his face changed.

He let out a terrible roar and then before Farrow could think of shooting him with the real gun, McGarrett had charged him and tackled him straight to the ground. Winding him immediately and as if that was bad enough, McGarrett got on top of him, his hands to his neck literally throttling the life out of him.

There were cries of his name, but it wasn't until a hand covered in fake blood gripped his shoulders and someone cried: "Steve let him go!" did Steve actually pause and look up.

Rowan, half her face covered in fake blood smiled down at him as his eyes narrowed at her. "Is that… are you…?"

"Fake blood. Perfectly fine. I want you know that I could have called my brother but I called you," she said and then swooped in and kissed him solidly on the lips. Leaving two fake blood hand prints on either cheek "You're the absolute best babe."

She then skipped off to Jerry and began cutting him loose. At that point everyone was just staring at her, and though Farrow seconded the outburst, it was Steve who shouted: "What the hell just happened?!"

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

With Farrow in custody, with a guy that looked like he had gotten shot but hadn't been shot, Steve went outside to where Jerry was waiting in an ambulance and Rowan was sitting in Danny's Camaro all bloodied up and wrapped up in a blanket. He wanted to go to her, to wrap her up in a hug but he was also absolutely fucking livid with her over the stunt she just pulled. So, he went to Jerry first to get an explanation.

"Okay explain to me what happened because if I go over there to talk to her and she uses any trigger words, like app, Wo Fat, fake blood, or counterfeiter, I'm going to throttle the life out of her," Steve snapped, his hands on his hips as he glared down at Jerry who had the good grace to look upset to have Steve angry with him.

"I called you instead of Wo!" she called from Danny's Camaro and Steve shook his head.

"And there is one of those trigger words. Why does she keep saying that like that fixes what she did," he growled and Jerry lowered his eyes as Steve took his glare off of where Rowan was sitting looking like a lovely little zombie and back to Jerry. "Can you just tell me what happened please?"

"Sure. When I got home last night, Farrow was waiting for me…"

"Okay Farrow, the bookshop owner that you were surveilling, even though I told you not to, showed up at your place,"

"Yeah you just took him down."

"Great, I took down a bookshop owner," Steve cried throwing his hands up in the air.

"He put one of those Guantanamo hoods on my head and took me this house and was questioning me. Kind of like _Marathon Man_ but without the dental abuse. And instead of torturing me he was beating on that other guy," he said gesturing to the other guy in handcuffs being taken away by Danny.

"That other guy? Why?"

"I don't know his name but he's in on the counterfeiting," Jerry said. "Farrow shot him right in front of me."

"Except he's alive, Jerry."

"Yeah, turns out Farrow's gun only had blanks in it."

"Okay… so… wait… Rowan crashed a fake interrogation, with a fake body… and had me take out Farrow… who wasn't doing anything…"

"No, no, he kidnapped me! He was trying to scare me off…"

"Jerry what have I been telling you from the beginning? I told you to back off! What were you thinking?"

"I unno, that I was right and you were wrong!" Jerry cried. "Look I only did it for a couple of weeks!"

" _And y_ ou got Rowan involved!"

"Well actually… I don't know how she found me… I didn't have time to get a distress signal out. She just sort of…"

"Fuck she just showed up?" Steve thundered throwing his hands up in frustration. He sighed again. "Great, she's dreaming again. That's all I need."

"Are you going to hold Farrow?" Jerry asked and Steve sighed again. Well yes, yes, he was going to hold him because blank or not that man held a gun to Rowan's person and he wasn't going to just get away for that. That and he was sure if word got out that he held a gun on Rowan, fake or not, Wo Fat would get him before dinner.

"For now, yes, yes I will," Steve snapped. "But if I find nothing again you _have_ to leave him alone."

Jerry nodded and then Steve turned. That was all he had to do, he turned towards Rowan, watched her hand come out from under that scratchy brown blanket and waved at him and his whole heart started to swell. He was furious but he still wanted her, still cared about her.

His head was still stuck on that moment. He heard that gunshot, that piercing pitch of a silenced gunshot, and then her screaming… god that scream. That scream was going to haunt him for the rest of his life. But walking into that scene to seeing his girl lying in a pool of what he thought was her own blood was an image he would never get out of his head for a long time to come.

But he couldn't put this off. He needed to know why the hell she had done this to him. He walked over to the Camaro loving that she was smiling at him in that beguiling way. Even with fake blood coating half her face all he wanted to do was kiss her senseless.

"Did you decide on a couples costume yet?" she asked once she got close to him. Steve actually paused, stunned into immobility by the pure audacity of that question.

"Really, that's what you're going to ask me? After the stunt you just pulled? Costumes are the only thing that's on your mind?"

"Oh… so that's what we're going to do today? We're going to argue?"

Really that's what she was going to do to him? Really? After what she just did to him she was going to ask him if he just wanted to argue with her? For. Fuck. Sake.

"Rowan!" Steve shouted before he turned his eyes heavenward and swallowed every word he wanted to hurl at her. He growled a bit before turning his eyes back down to her. "You do know what you just did to me right? Do you? Can you not see that maybe… maybe you might have actually really scared me?"

Rowan nodded, thought it over and then winced. "Okay… yeah… I guess… I guess I could see it, but uh… I needed Angry Steve not you know, ask-questions-tackle-later Steve. But uh… I may have gone a little too dramatic… uh… sorry about that."

"Gunshots, screaming and a puddle of blood. It was like you were trying to recreate my worst nightmare."

"Uh… happy Halloween?"

"You are going to owe me. So, help me Rowan, you are going to owe me so big."

"Kay, well I'm not done yet. Farrow isn't his real name. Kong used Voice recognition and got me a hit," she said showing him her bloodied phone. "He really is a counterfeiter. Oh! And his plan was to make Jerry look crazy. So, you wouldn't believe him. I just uh… stopped him."

"Ex military…"

"He's got a shrapnel scar on one of his arms. I saw it when we were wrestling. You know… if you don't believe me."

Steve pinched the bridge of his nose. They were wrestling? The man had a gun and they were wrestling? What the hell was she thinking? It was like she was trying to give him a heart attack where he stood.

"God Rowan…"

"Just hold him please? And look into it?" she pleaded. Steve glared at her and she sheepishly smiled. "Please? I know was bad, but… you know… I'm just so cute."

Steve cupped her face in his hands. "Yes, you are lucky you're so fucking cute," he whispered to her and then kissed her solidly. "You're going to be up with me all hours over these nightmares, I hope you know."

"I will be… one hundred perfectly… fine with that," she said between kissing him. Steve smiled but while he took Farrow away, he couldn't stop seeing that scene. Farrow standing there with a smoking gun and Rowan on the floor in a puddle of blood.

He wasn't going to sleep well for a month.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

When Jerry got out of the hospital Rowan was waiting beside her pastel purple GTO, having clearly showered. She was in a pair of suede ankle high boots with her toes peeping out, and this black tutu like skirt a blood red blouse and a grey off the shoulder knit sweater. She smiled at him and opened the door for him once he got close. How the hell had McGarrett not give her a label by now? If that girl was interested in him, Jerry would have proposed by the third date.

"Your chariot awaits!" she called.

He looked around carefully before asking: "No McGarrett?"

"Naw, he's dealing with another case, but he promised me he'd hold onto Farrow until he confirmed whether or not he was Corrigan," she told him. She smiled warmly at him but after he still hadn't moved to get into the car her smiled cracked a bit and she looked down to her shoes. "I know I'm not your first choice, but I promise I'm going to take us somewhere really cool."

Jerry actually paused in his thinking to look at her. "Not my first choice? Dude, this is great. I get to drive around in a muscle car! And we're going somewhere cool."

"Oh yeah, we're going to go find the money."

"Wait what?"

"Just get in the car Jerry," she ordered finally walking away from him. She crossed to the driver's side and slid in looking like an 80s movie bombshell and Jerry got himself into the passenger side. Once the car was moving she turned the radio up to a medley of Elvis songs.

"Whoa, wait, you like the King?"

"Like?" she asked. "More like love! I live and breathe the King. I did my first ever winning skate routine to _Hound Dog_."

"Whoa, no way!"

"I'd leave Steve for the King in a heartbeat."

Oh wow… whoa… really? Jerry knew they were having problems, but… she sounded so serious. Jerry sat there in the car as is flew down the highway.

"Uh… you know… I just wanted to say thank you," Jerry said.

Rowan just waved it off. "Pshh, naw, it's nothing. You're a part of the Five-0 _o'hana_ now, that means we look out for each other."

But Jerry hadn't done that for her. He had been struck starry-eyed by Steven McGarrett and his inherent awesomeness and he had betrayed her to him.

"Besides, I know what it feels like when Steven McGarrett doesn't believe you, so I made sure to keep an eye out on that guy… and uh… you know… one of my peeps caught him grabbing you, which… you know… not making a fat joke, but you probably could have just dropped to the ground and crushed them both, and wow what a way to go."

Okay, liking her a little less now. Farrow had a gun that was why he cooperated. He didn't know it was fake, it looked real to him.

"And I'm sorry about your newspapers," she said. "I fiddle with things when I'm nervous, and Steven and I had had a pretty bad argument. I shouldn't have been playing with that lighter cause those newspapers sure did go up fast."

"It's okay. I know you didn't do it on purpose."

"Maybe if we do some internet searching we can find the ones you're missing?" she offered. "I'll pay, obviously."

Jerry was already shaking his head. "Naw, it's okay. If I need 'em again there on the internet for free view."

"Mm, true."

"Uh… so where are we going?" he asked as she took a turn out of the city.

"Didn't I already tell you? We're going to get the money."

"No, I know… you said… but… I'm not sure which money you're referring to?"

"The counterfeit stuff, we're going to go get it back. Steve needs the evidence, and we're going to get it for him."

"Wait you know where it's hidden? How would you..."

"My Network," she said quickly. "Once Kong confirmed who he was I simply put out a request for who he was working with, and any information on where the cash was. Had like six people give him up."

"Whoa guess he wasn't well liked…." Jerry mused but Rowan just shook her head.

" _Well liked_ has nothing to do with it. I've learned very quickly that in his world, loyalty and likeability mean nothing where money is involved. If you pay the right price, they'll give you anything you ask."

Jerry sat back and thought about it. He had never been in the position to broker those kinds of deals but he wondered, with Rowan at his side, just how many conspiracies he'd be able to prove true.

She eventually took the pastel purple GTO off of the road and into the jungle where they came upon a little warehouse half hidden in the trees. Jerry did not have a good feeling about this. He spotted two buff looking men by the door, each clutching what looked to be automatic rifles. They were looking at the car, looking it up and down and Jerry was suddenly very afraid.

"Wait… maybe we should call McGarrett."

"Naw, he's of no use in these situations, we'd get into a gun fight for sure," she told him as she put the car into park. "Just stay behind me and make no sudden movements until all these IRA guys are out of sight."

"Whoa. IRA? Like Irish Republican Army. Like that IRA? What the hell? No, no, we should _definitely_ call McGarrett!"

Rowan slapped the phone out of his hands. "Don't be such a baby. I've got this," she said and then got out of the car.

Well Jerry didn't want her to face these people alone so he just got out and followed her. Two guys that had been at the door were gone. Jerry had no idea where they had gone but it left a terrible opening for Rowan to walk right up to that front door and throw it open.

The warehouse was filled with men. Big burly red-headed Irishmen who were all up in arms, quite literally, at the disruption. Jerry had never seen so many guns pointed in his general direction in his life. And while he was terrified, Rowan didn't seem phased at all.

"Hello my lovelies. I am Rowan Pierce!" she announced like she was a rock star her arms outstretched like she was welcoming praise. Except they didn't do anything, they just stared at her with wide eyes of surprise as all their phones began to chime around them. Rowan blinked her eyes at them, frowning and lowering her arms. "Wow… do I need to say it again? Come on guys, Rowan Pierce… _that_ Rowan Pierce?"

And they all scattered.

Jerry watched as fully-grown IRA terrorists sprinted away from her, ditching guns, tripping over one another, one man literally jumped out the window and into the jungle, and Rowan stood in the middle of it all, legs crossed and twirling slightly waiting for them all to be gone.

"Alrightie there, bit of a delayed reaction," she said turning to glance over to him she gestured for him to follow her. "Come on."

Reluctantly he walked into the warehouse jumping at every shadow and every creak. He wondered how McGarrett dealt with this, because if she were dating Jerry and he knew that this was the sort of stuff that she was running off doing, he'd be having heart attacks right left and center.

"So, like… you say your name and…"

"If the app detects my voice print using my codes, it pops up on any near-by criminal's screen, tells them it's really me. Most use it as a way to avoid me, Five-0 or my brother," she explained. "Now where are those… ah… there they are they must have just finished packing them."

She walked over to a set of oil drums. "Come on, let's get one of these suckers open."

They went off in search of tools and when they came back, she had a crowbar and he had a stick. They went with her crowbar, obviously. She pried the lid off of it with Jerry's help and then they were looking at a barrel full of fake hundreds. Rowan smiled up to him. "See, I knew you were right."

And right then and there, Jerry's loyalties switched. He'd never give her up to McGarrett again.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

God fucking damn it. She had been right. Steve had taken the name he had gotten from Rowan's file and given it to his friends over at the MI6 office.

What he got back was a redacted version of the file on Rowan's phone, but enough to prove that the man in the Palace's basement really was William Corrigan, and that he hadn't been trying to defraud the States and ruin their economy, but was instead funding a war against his own country. It also begged the questions… how had Rowan gotten an unredacted version of a file Steve couldn't get?

But she was off picking up Jerry from the hospital, and knowing how Jerry liked to talk people's ears off, she'd most likely be there for the next couple of hours. At least he'd know she was somewhere safe, not plotting the next nightmare inducing stunt against him.

Steve opened the door to the dungeon they were holding Farrow/Corrigan in and was immediately met with a very unhappy citizen.

"I should press charges. Your friends broke into my house… coated it with fake blood… and that girl you were kissing… she brought a gun…"

"That girl I was kissing… is not allowed near fire-arms everyone on the island knows that, even the people on her app. And she gave me the file she had on her phone. Only had to look up the name she had to get the proper one," Steve said showing it to him. "Major William Corrigan, Former British Special forces, court-martialed in 2004 for excessive force in combat, never showed up for the trial, instead you disappeared. And here you are, living in Hawaii under a false identity and counterfeiting money to stay afloat."

Farrow was silent and Steve smiled. "Yeah, extradition order just came in. We'll be transferring you into the very capable hands of the MI6 in a few short hours."

"Bravo Commander, a civilian and a crack pot did your job for you," he growled to him.

"Wow… it must really being killing you," Steve said with a laugh. "Taken down by that button pushing waste of space."

Farrow's mouth twisted into an ugly scowl and Steve couldn't help but laugh at him.

"Yeah, see, Rowan… she wouldn't have given a shit about you… she wouldn't have cared at all, probably would have let you counterfeit your money to your heart's content, but uh… you see… you pissed her off. You pissed her off by taking Jerry, which meant she dedicated all that anger to finding all the best ways to hit you. You basically made her your own worst nightmare," Steve said.

The door buzzed again and Steve turned, he had been letting Danny run background to figure out where Farrow had hidden the money that must have been him coming to tell them that he had found it. Steve had not been expecting Jerry.

Jerry stormed into the room, right up to Farrow and then tucked a stack of hundreds into his now-wrinkled vest snarling: "Check mate."

They glared at one another and after a moment of charged silence Jerry picked the stack back up and stormed off. Steve followed him out, content to let Farrow/Corrigan stew and found that Rowan and Jerry were out there waiting for him.

"Money's upstairs," she said. "All of it."

Oh, well, that wasn't worrying. Steve turned to Jerry who was all grins and said softly: "Can you give us a minute?"

"You're not gonna yell at her, are you?" Jerry asked.

Steve shook his head but only with Rowan's okay did he leave her there with him. Steve turned to Rowan who was leaning on the wall across from him looking so fucking fine in those suede boots and skirt combo. It should have been illegal to look that good. "So, who found it, Jerry's researching or…?"

"I made the mistake of walking in on a few IRA guys trying to move all of Jerry's stuff out of his basement this morning," she said to him. "They gave me information and in return I didn't tell Wo Fat they pulled their guns on me."

Steve's blood ran cold and Rowan turned to look up at him that iceness in her eyes again. "So no… still not dreaming right."

"Rowan…"

"I know I said I wasn't going to ask for help anymore but I put people on the Farrow and Jerry situation before that promise. So, when they messaged this morning to report suspicious circumstances, I went to check it out. And then you know… my phone picked up the gunshot… and the screaming and it put out an alert. He called to make sure I was okay. I asked him to look into where Corrigan would hide the money and he got me a location before I went to pick up Jerry from the hospital. Oh! And I sent him a lot of funnily posed pictures of me covered in fake blood. He too did not find it funny."

She pulled up a picture of her pretending to be dead in the driver's seat of her car. Great now he was going to have to help her get fake blood out of the interior of her classic muscle car and he was going to have nightmares about her dead in her car. She took in Steve's frown and she frowned too. "Kay… I get it… I'm not funny…" she whispered. And then muttered to herself: "Trevor and Sarah would have laughed."

"You promised me Rowan. You promised me. And not even after a full day you've broken that promise."

"He had Jerry, Steven. He was going to make Jerry look _crazy_!"

"And the money?"

"It was either I get it or Wo Fat takes it. Which would you rather?"

Oh. She had him there. Steve narrowed his eyes at her. "Last time I promise," she said to him. "Unless there's a real emergency."

"Mhmm…" he said knowing she was forgiven already.

"Could I maybe… just… just for a second?" she asked pointing the door Farrow/Corrigan was behind and Steve obliged her by buzzing it open for her.

She quickly opened the door just a crack and stuck her head in to grin at him. "Oh, good news, I relayed the _take her down with one blow_ comment, along with all the comments about how he's weak and whipped and Wo is really looking forward to having a little chat about it. We also had a chat about why you pointed a gun at me but silly me, I might have forgotten to tell him it was loaded with blanks… be sure to remember to mention that to him when you see him."

She then shut the door behind her and turned that dazzling, stone cold smile up to Steve. "You told Wo…"

"Of course not," she said. "He'd be dead by now if I did. But it'll be fun to let him think I told him," she said that wicked grin and ice blue eyes staring up at him. When he didn't smile back her grin faded. "Last time I promise."

Yeah, he had heard that before.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve stood in front of the mirror fixing the collar of his leather jacket up all while making sure the tight black skinny jeans were sitting on him right so it didn't look like he had a giant boner. He was glad Rowan let him pick the costumes, because he thought they'd make a great Danny and Sandy from Grease. She may not have gotten the blonde wig but he knew she had teased and permed her own hair into a bushy red and blonde version of Sandy's. So, while he wasn't too happy to be going to a party this late at night, even if it was with his Five-0 friend's, he was happy that she had been happy with his choice. Even if he had to be matchy-matchy with Rowan. He hated matching couples, but if it put a smile on Rowan's face and it was only ever now and then, he was okay with it.

"Okay, so I need your help," Rowan called from the washroom and Steve sighed. She had purposely kicked him out of the washroom because he had this habit of getting way past turned on while they were getting ready and fucking her against his sink. Which, she enjoyed, he knew that, she told him that, but she also wanted them to be on time for this party.

"Yeah? What's up?"

She opened the door and came out in a skin tight pair of black shiny leather pants and that off shoulder black corseted like shirt. Steve could barely breathe, he could see _everything_ outlined on her body. "Okay so this is the first version, which you know, obviously is the sexy version… I need to know if I should wear this one, or the normal one which is skin tight but not like, fully skin tight cause I like can't breathe in this one really but does that matter…"

Steve had snatched her up before she even finished the sentence. Crushing her to his chest and urgently devouring her blood red lips. Rowan pressed into the motion, hopping up off of the ground so Steve could pick her up and take her to the bed. Which he did.

He threw her down easily causing her to laugh as he jumped on top of her.

"You can't wear that to the party. This… this is all for me…" he said to her as he kissed her again, already attempting to pull down that skin tight leather legging to get at the bits of her he loved most. The wet, warm inviting lips that were oh so ready for him and didn't need the fingers he had plying the opening but got them anyway.

Rowan moaned under him, her hips raising into the motion and he kissed her deeper, harder, his tongue exploring her like he didn't already know every inch of her.

"We're going to be late," she whispered huskily to him but Steve was too far gone to care about time constraints.

"Then you should have thought about it before you came out in this…" he whispered and she smiled into his next kiss and her hands slipped to his own tight black jeans to get him ready for her.

When he finally managed to slid into her, it was like sliding into home. They slipped into those familiar rhythms and Steve clung to her, desperate to feel every inch of her under him and against him. Needing her, in that moment, more than he needed the air to breathe. His Sexy Little Sandy his perfect match.


	142. Chapter 142

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Monday! So I've made the executive decision to actually not post anything special for 150th chapter. I think I'm going to save it for 200, cause we just did a special chapter and I think you guys would rather move through the plot then get random chapters of spoiler right now. If you don't think that LET ME KNOW! Alrightie-then, moving on. This here is the "alternate drugged out reality" episode… I worked really hard on this, and there are some cute little surprises in this set of chapters… and some really dark things going on. A relationship is not going to survive this set of chapters okay? You need to know that._

 _So you guys now, if you see: **DS-DS-DS-DS** in the chapter then that means that Steve is ENTERING the DREAM SCAPE. When you see **RR-RR-RR-RR** Steve is RENTERING REALITY. If the **RR-RR-RR-RR** is combined with **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O** then that means it's REALITY but SOMEONE ELSE'S POV._

 _Okay. Hope that helps! This chapter's a little shorter than the others but a lot happens. AND we're starting off already in the dream scape okay? That's where we are right now in case you're confused. Don't forget to review and I'll see you guys on Wednesday!_

 _P.S. AJ and AlexLover are both back! YAY! I missed you guys and I'm Glad you enjoyed the last chapters! Can't wait to hear from you again!_

Chapter 142

* * *

The truck rolled through the jungle terrain easily. The whole convoy was moving at a good pace. Steve was already interrogating Anton Hess. Screw waiting until he got to secure compound, he was four days late on returning to Victoria and he had a very grumpy wife who was waiting for him. A very grumpy, beautiful wife that he loved more than anything and he couldn't wait to see.

"You're gonna tell us everything. Every terrorist cell you and Victor helped arm, every supplier you worked with all your trafficking associates, everyone you've ever sold weapons to."

Anton merely stared at him with his cold blue eyes. A smug sort of look on his face.

"Chasing my brother and I around the world for five years, like a little doggy looking for a bone. I bet the wife didn't like that," he said. The Hesse's had met his wife once a very long time ago… and in both instances in which they had to deal with her it had not ended well for either of them. But it was because of that first mission that put the Hesse brothers on his radar in the first place, that he had met his wife, so he couldn't really regret the whole thing. Even though he'd rather have met her under different circumstances that involved having to rescue her out of a Colombian jungle.

Steve's eyes narrowed at the implied threat but his wife was on a Naval Base in Victoria at that very moment… okay not true, but she was living twenty minutes from one. And if Joe White, or his CO thought her threatened, they would have gone in to get her, he would have been notified. Okay, maybe he wouldn't have been notified, given his track record with going AWOL to get to her in her times of need. No… his wife was fine… he knew she was fine…

Steve just smiled at Anton to mask the increasing worry, his fingers itched to pick up his phone, maybe they could stop the convoy to let him call, cause he sure as hell wasn't going to do it in front of Anton, but he knew he was going to have to wait until they made it to the holding facilities to call her.

"You didn't think we'd do our homework on you?" he asked.

His phone started to ring and panic hit him. But when he pulled it out it wasn't Rowan's number calling him, it was his dad.

"You should get that," Anton said. "You don't speak to your father nearly enough."

Oh god. No.

Steve answered it. "Dad."

"Hey, champ," his dad said. What, his dad never called him champ.

"You alright?" he asked cause he knew that he probably wasn't.

"Who are these people, Steve?"

No. No. _NO!_

"Now I know where you get it from. You got a tough old man here."

Fucking Victor Hesse. Couldn't fucking get at Steve's wife so he went after his dad. Fuck, Steve never even thought his dad was in danger. His wife, sure, she was always getting into something, but his dad, no.

Steve motioned for a pad of paper and a pen and was handed one immediately. He wrote down his father's address with a note for someone to send HPD there ASAP.

"I'm offering you a trade. Your father for my brother," Victor said.

"Come on, Victor, you know how this works," Steve said. "We don't negotiate with terrorists."

"Aw… and would you say the same thing if it was your wife we had?" Victor asked. "I'm sure she'd love to come to Hawaii, meet your dad, she still owes me some… fun…"

Steve hastily added: "And send VPD to my wife," to the list of the things that needed to be done.

"You're not going to touch her, not unless you wanna lose another chunk of yourself to her. And you're not going to hurt my father. Because if you kill him you get nothing."

"Give me the phone," Steve heard his father say. "Please. I can get him to help you. He'll listen to me. He's my son."

Listen to him? What the hell? But… like… Steve didn't listen to anyone. How hard had his dad been hit?

The phone was put to his hear and Steve could hear his dad's fear in each panting breath he took. "Listen to me, champ," he said. There was that goddamn champ again. He had never called him Champ before in his life and now it was twice in one day.

"Dad, I'm gonna get you out of there, alright? Don't you worry about it," he said.

"I love you, son."

Oh god that was worse. His dad rarely said those words to him. To be fair Steve also rarely called his dad.

"I didn't say it enough. Whatever these people want, Steve, don't give it to them. Don't you give it to them!"

His dad was abruptly cut off, Steve heard the yelp of pain and fear hit him. They were beating his father? "Dad?" he called and got no answer. "DAD!"

"No more games! I'm taking my brother now!" Victor shouted and that was when the helicopter appeared and the truck in front of them blew up.

A small tactical team rappelled out of the helicopter, shooting down the marines that were left. Steve knew he had to get Anton out of there, so he got him through the roof of the Humvee and forced him to jump off. But as Steve fended off the tactical team, Anton tried to escape making Steve chase after him.

He slid to a nearby body of a marine, pulling the gun out of his holster.

"No, don't. Don't do it, put the gun down."

But Anton didn't listen, he turned, gun drawn, aiming it right at Steve and Steve had no choice but to shoot him before Anton shot him first.

Problem was, Steve had done his job too well, because Anton went down. And he was bleeding. Badly. Despite Steve trying, despite Steve putting pressure on the bullet wound Anton died underneath his hands.

And if Victor found out his father would be dead.

His phone rang again and Steve picked up despite knowing what Victor was going to want and not having a plan.

"Put Anton on the phone." But Steve couldn't do that for him. "My brother's dead, isn't he?"

"Victor, listen…" "Isn't he?" he thundered and Steve went quiet again. He didn't know what to do, he didn't know how to help his dad. Where was HPD?

"Then so is your father!"

Steve heard the gun shot, a ragged cry of _no_ escaped him and then he heard the other gunshots that that followed. Why were there other gunshots? There should have only been one. He waited to hear anything else, if anything just to hear Victor Hess but he got someone else.

"Commander McGarrett?"

"Hello?" Steve asked cautiously. "Is my father dead?"

"No, he's alive and he's gonna be fine," the voice told him and Steve let out his breath in relief.

"Who am I talking to?"

"This is Detective Danny Williams…"

"Thank you, Detective Williams, Can I speak to my father, please?"

"Yeah, of course, John?"

And then it was his father on the phone again. "Hello Son."

Steve half smiled. "Dad."

 **RR-RR-RR-RR**

Everything went hazy for a moment and when Steve opened up his eyes he was in an all white room. He didn't know where he was, or what was happening. But his shoulder hurt, he was barefoot and bleeding. There were halogen lights buzzing above him and no fucking door.

He pounded on the walls but there was no sound, no give, and no one answered him

Steve wanted his wife. He wanted his dad. He just wanted to go home.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve hadn't shown up to their sting operation. That was clue number one that something was wrong. It wasn't like him to be late to something this important. And then Danny got the call and the mystery was solved.

Steve's Marquis had been found abandoned, riddled with bullets, windows shot out somewhere in the downtown center. When Danny got there, with Kono, Chin and Grover they had all rushed to the car. There was blood spatter, his phone was left behind and had a bunch of missed calls from Danny and Rowan, and there was a box of malasadas upturned on the ground beside two empty cups of what should have been one coffee and one tea. And a few feet away was a set of tire tracks. Steve had been taken.

And after that was confirmed there was really only one place Danny could think to go to get answers.

He burst into Steve's place and found Rowan in the kitchen with a mug of tea in her hand and a mug of coffee sitting abandoned beside her, clearly meant for Steven. She smiled thinly at him clearly not in a good mood.

"How was your sting op? Did Sang Min help you get the guy?"

"Yes, he did," he said quickly. He was ready to hit her with all the questions when he noticed that she was staring at the door with a narrowed look.

"Where's Steven? He send you in first to see if I'm in a good mood or not? Let me answer that for you… I am not," she snapped at him and Danny paused. Oh, oh no. That was not good.

"He's not with you?" Danny asked. He had so hoped that Steve had gotten free and come straight to her. Which was clearly not what happened.

"With me?" Rowan echoed. "Course not… when he didn't come back with the Malasadas, he promised me, I figured it was cause he was on a case. You guys did have that sting op this morning… right? Isn't that where he went?"

"So, he's not here?"

"No… he's not… is he not with _you_?"

"Okay, I was hoping I wouldn't have to tell you, I was hoping he came home," Danny said and suddenly Rowan wasn't smiling anymore.

"We uh… we found the Marquis downtown. It was uh… shot up… glass smashed. Blood in the car."

Rowan shook her head. "No."

"Okay let's calm down here. It wasn't a lot of blood, so he's not fatally wounded…"

"No… see… no, none of that has happened. It can't have. You're wrong."

"Okay what are you talking about? Rowan… what do you mean we're wrong, how would you know?"

"Because he promised me!" she shouted slamming her hands down on the counter "He promised!"

"Who promised?" Danny asked even though he had a sneaking suspicious who would have promised Rowan not to grab Steve. But the poor girl was already holding her head in her hands, a frantic look about her face as her fingers combed through her hair.

"Oh god… I can't… he wouldn't… what do I do…"

"Rowan…." He asked carefully.

"I can't remember?! I had it, I was dreaming it, but it wasn't supposed to happen and now I don't know!"

She sounded so frantic and so upset. Okay, maybe she didn't know about this beforehand, maybe she wasn't a part of this.

"Rowan do you know who grabbed him?"

She turned those big blue eyes on him. All wide and filled with horror. "I can't… I haven't been dreaming right…"

"It's okay, okay, we're looking for him," Danny assured her. "I promise, okay? We're going to find him, I'm going to keep you posted. But you have to promise to keep us posted too? Okay? Any dreams, any app info, you gotta keep us in the loop."

Rowan nodded she let Danny leave and Danny amazed himself by actually leaving the house… even though he was 100% certain that she was lying to him.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve must have pounded on the walls for a solid half hour straight before the lights went out and a projector whirled to life. It was a home video of him and his father, and Mary and his mother on the beach when they were children. He had just found a sea shell and he was so excited to show it to his dad, his mom, his sister.

And then the lights flicked back on and a smoke drifted out of the vents. Fuck they were going to poison him. This was a gas chamber!

Peeling off the blue shirt his wife liked so much she slid to the walls and trying to block his mouth and nose, but it didn't work. Steve took in too much of it, and coughed himself into unconsciousness. As he lay on the floor, he saw a door slide open and someone walk in in an airtight suit towards him.

These were the people who took him. He didn't even know what they wanted from him, but he figured he was going to find out. But not right at that moment because his eyes were sliding shut and already, already he was back to dreaming. Again.


	143. Chapter 143

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Alright guys, Happy Humpday! In this chapter we get to find out who Steve's dream_ _wife is, and I doubt any of you will be surprised. BUT I do have a surprise for you guys that I think you'll like! We officially hit 100 likes for this story, it took a long time, but I guess I upset some of my readers with all the angst… but oh well. We are sitting at 100 likes so to reward you guys for being such GREAT readers I'mma do a….. 7 DAY MARATHON! YAY! This could not come at a better time, because the document I have the running story in right now just told me it's too long to continuously edit. So this should help! The seven updates in a Row should help us with get through the rest of the angst too so at least you guys won't have to wait for those updates! KK, don't forget to leave me a review and I'll see you guys tomorrow! Just so you guys now we're **starting off in the Dream scape again!**_

Chapter 143

* * *

Steve flew all the way to Hawaii to see his dad. It had been a long time since he had been there. He had tried to call his wife and gotten her voice mail a bunch of times, which would have worried him if he didn't know that his wife was with his sister, Mary and her brother, Trevor. Besides, he had called Joe White and he had said that his wife was fine and reminded him that if there really was an issue, her brother, Trevor, would have called by now and since he hadn't Steve was okay with leaving voicemails until he got a hold of her. At least for now, Steve could only go so long without hearing her voice and seeing her face.

He climbed up the steps of the HPD head office, with his hat under his arm, trying not to remember that the last time he had been in this suit he had married his wife, and then he had let her peel it off of him. Thoughts like that wouldn't help him, not before seeing his father for the first time in years. But, by God, did she love his dress blues, she would have liked them better if they were actually blue but she liked them anyway.

At the top of the stairs a man in all purple golf gear was yelling at Duke over golf clubs and while Steve watched the world went a little staticky, a little bright until he forced himself to look away until Duke was done.

"Commander? Can I help you?" Duke asked brushing off the giant in purple.

"Yes, I'm Commander McGarrett, I'm looking for my father," he said as if Duke didn't know him. And maybe he didn't? Did he? Wait? What?

"Commander McGarrett, aloha," someone said and Steve turned. A shorter blonde man in a black Hawaiian shirt with orange flowers all over it was smiling up at him. Steve sort of recognize the voice but he didn't recognize the person. HE felt like their clothes were… off… like he was supposed to be wearing a suit too, a suit and a tie… but that was silly, who'd wear tie every day in Hawaii? Steve shook his hand anyway.

"Detective Williams. We spoke on the phone. It's nice to see you."

"Yes, thank you," Steve said quickly.

"Oh, no, that's not necessary, and _mahalo_ for that tip you phoned in. Had you not called us twenty minutes before about your suspicions we wouldn't have been ready to be wheels up when it was confirmed."

"Wait... Tip? Suspicions?" Steve echoed Williams was moving on.

"We say Mahalo around here, don't we Duke?" he asked. "Did I say it right?"

Duke nodded behind him. Okay, Steve needed to just see his dad now, that was what he needed " _Mahalo_ ," he repeated. "Okay, can I see my dad now?"

"Of course, of course. He's in a debrief with the captain. Come on," he said taking Steve's arm in a vice grip and leading him to the office. Danny didn't even bother to knock he just let himself in.

"Hey Cap," he said waving to him. And Steve followed in after them and froze.

He could clearly see his father sitting in front of the desk, and on the other side of the desk, the police captain, Chin Ho Kelly sat there smiling at them. Wait a second… that wasn't right either, was it?

But Steve was frozen for a different reason, because when his dad turned around, so did someone else. Someone he thought he left in a different country, but he recognized that mop of red blonde hair and those stunning blue eyes anywhere.

"Ro?"

"Steve!" she cried jumping out of her seat and into his arms. Steve was more than ready to accept her body flying towards his. It took nothing to wrap his arms around his wife's frame, holding her tightly to his chest. So glad that she was okay, even more glad that she was there.

"How did you know I was here?"

"Well Joe White called after what happened with your dad," she mumbled against his chest. "I figured Mary and I needed to come down and help out. We are family after all."

She pulled her head out of his chest to smile at him and he bent down to kiss her, he didn't even care that his dad was watching. Oh no… his dad… this could be problematic. He had never actually told his father anything… about anything involving Rowan.

He let go of Rowan to let his dad pull him into a hug. His dad's face looked a little bloodied but other than that he was perfectly fine.

"Welcome home, son," he said and Steve smiled, okay maybe he wasn't going to get the lecture yet.

"You alright?"

"Oh yeah, this was nothing," he waved off and then turned back to the Captain. "Steve, uh, I want you to meet Captain Kelly."

Didn't Steve already know him? He turned to shake Chin's hand. "Commander," he said cordially.

"How do you do," Steve answered, because clearly, he was wrong and he didn't know Chin Ho Kelly like he thought he did.

"He was a trainee under me and I'm proud to say he's going to be the next chief of police."

"What can I say? I learned from the best."

Steve reached out and tugged Rowan to his side where she belonged, immediately she had an arm around his waist and her head tucked under his arm. They had been separated for so long and there were so many things he wanted to do, none of which he could do in a police station in front of his father. So, he settled for just having her beside him. And with the way his heart was beating in his chest he already knew that it was more than enough.

"You've got a nice girl there, Steven," his dad said focusing his eyes on the image of his son with his arm around his wife. "Would have been nice if you told me about her… especially that you married her."

Rowan turned her eyes to him. "I was also quite surprised to find out you hadn't told him… or that he didn't know I existed."

Steve's eyes darted between his father and his wife. "Uh… well… I've been on active duty for two years..."

"Yes… Joe White told me. As punishment for going AWOL," his father said sternly clearly disappointed.

"She was dying. She needed me," Steve growled between grit teeth, his fingers tightening, digging into Rowan's side. Rowan just had to put a hand to his chest and already he was a tad bit more relaxed. She had that effect on him.

"Yes, Joe White also told me that too. Except neither you nor him mentioned you married her and you failed to mention you had anyone special in your life.."

"Well… to be fair, it wasn't really a wedding. Got married in a Naval office, by a Naval Judge, and then an hour later he was sailing away, so like… you didn't really miss much."

Okay so it wasn't a picture-perfect white wedding, she wasn't in a white gown, she was actually in all black as she had stood with him as he got tried for going AWOL. She had been shot days before, her arm was in a sling, and he had literally just been in that court to be court martialled not a half hour before but it was how they got married and Steve hadn't minded. It wasn't the first hint Rowan had dropped about her not quite liking how they had gotten married and wanting a real wedding and she was going to get it... now that he was off active duty and he could take the time to properly marry her.

But it was when she turned her perfectly beautiful little face up to him and said: "Not sure why didn't at least tell you we were dating. Are you embarrassed of me Steven?" that he lost it.

"What? No! No, I just didn't… I barely talk to the man Ro!" he cried before turning to his face to everyone around them. He was starting to hyperventilate. This needed to not be a thing right now. "Okay… can we uh… can we do this at home?" he asked and both of them nodded. "Uh… where's Victor Hesse?"

"He's uh… he's at lock down at the hospital," Williams told him and then turned to Rowan. "And I am a really, really big fan of your... uh… skating."

It wasn't that often that people recognized his wife for her figure skating career, and no one ever used to recognize her for her singing one, until her ex, Alex Lockman of the Doctors had pulled her in for vocals and then kept her on without telling her. It had worked to their advantage of course, a tour to promote the album that song would appear on got him and Rowan together last, and helped tide him over for the last leg of his enforced active duty. Still he was always very, very proud when someone recognized his wife, she deserved fame, she was an amazing singer and an even more amazing skater. She always acted so humble about it, but he bragged about her all the time.

Rowan smiled to him. "Oh, thank you."

"Your last Olympic routine it was just… breath-taking… do you think you'll go back?"

Rowan glanced up to Steve and then shook her head. "No, that chapter of my life has closed and I'm moving onto better things."

It was no secret between them that she had quit skating because of him, he felt like she might resent him for it but she didn't think she would and called him crazy whenever he insinuated that she might.

"Yes, my daughter loves your newest single. She'd uh, she'd love…" he said offering her paper. Rowan immediately took it to sign for him.

"Of course, what's your daughter's name?"

"It's Grace."

Steve smiled as he watched his lovely famous wife sign her name to a piece of paper. Steve loved Rowan's new single too. _Cheap Thrills_ had been a song she wrote for him, and sung to him at a benefit. It had been the last time he had seen her in person, the last time he had been between her legs, what four months ago now?

Once the paper was signed Steve got Williams' attention again. "Did Victor say anything?"

"Well, as per your request, we're leaving that to you."

His dad took that in. "Steve what's going on?" he asked.

Steve looked at all the faces and then said: "The only people who knew was transporting his brother were the men in my detail. Alright? There was no way that Victor could have found out not unless he had help."

He let all of them take that in, he tucked Rowan back to his side where she belonged and then found himself looking out the window again where everything suddenly things got very, very bright.

 **RR-RR-RR-RR**

The brightness subsided and suddenly Steve was looking at another hanging halogen light. He was in a different room, a supply closet by the looks of it. He was soaking wet and strapped to a wooden chair by leather cuffs. That… that didn't bode well for him.

A black woman came in wearing an interesting leather get up. Was this a dominatrix thing? Because he was married, and he liked being the one to pin her down… not the other way around. Though he also did love it when she got on top of him and took control… just you know, without tying him down to something.

Steve watched her, as she ignored him to take an overturned bucket and prop a bag full of god knows what onto it. She took a flashlight out of it and flashed it into his eyes, god was she a doctor or something?

"Who are you?"

He got no answer. She went back into her back and came back with a bar of… something. "Eat this," she ordered and that was it. When he just glared at her she added: "With the chemicals we're giving you, you're going to need to keep your blood sugar up."

He looked her up and down and then begrudgingly took a bit. How wonderful his favourite candy bar, how had they known?

And then he spit it out at her. She wiped some of the spittle off of her and then just glared at him. Steve couldn't have cared less.

"You gonna tell me what the hell is going on here?" he asked but she ignored him. "What do you want? What do you want from me?"

She walked around him to something behind him. Out of the corner of his eye he saw… bags? IV bags? Filled with… I unno Coca-Cola or some bullshit. What the hell was that stuff?

"What have I done to you?" he asked. Still no answer. But the bags began to bubble. "What are you doing?"

He got no answer and he switched tactics.

"I'm a cop, you know that?" he asked. He glanced down and spotted something in his arm. There was an IV IN HIS ARM?! Why the hell hadn't he noticed that before? Why hadn't he noticed? Shit… god. The fluid… already he was getting fuzzy. "I'm a cop. They're gonna… he's going to come… looking for me."

Everything distorted. And just like that he was dreaming again.

 **DS-DS-DS-DS**

Steve and Rowan were hand in hand as they walked down the stairs towards the car Detective William's was going to drive him to the hospital in.

"A white Camaro, nice," Rowan said. Mmmm if his baby needed him to buy a car like that to be happy, he wouldn't complain.

He leant in to kiss her quickly. He wanted to do more than that but he couldn't at that moment. "You'll be okay with my dad?" he asked. Rowan just nodded. "Kay, I love you, I'll see you at home, I'll bring you malasadas, trust me you'll… you'll love 'em."

Rowan looked down to her stomach and put her hand to it before shaking her head. "Naw I'm putting on too much as is, so I'll pass."

Steve made a big show of looking her over. She was wearing a pair of dark denim jean shorts and the grey sweater that was supposed to be his but he loved so much on her he just let her have it. He especially liked the way the sleeves covered her hands. She looked partly like she had fallen out of bed, and partly sultry like she had done it purposely. She had put on a few pounds since he had last seen her four months ago but he didn't care, he still found her absolutely beautiful.

"Naw, baby, you looking as fine as always," he said encouraging her to do a little spin for him. Oh, he loved his baby in her black leggings but there was something about her in jean shorts that got his blood pumping. Damn.

She smiled happily and he added: "But you know, if you're worried, we can always start going for runs together. That would be fun, right? Something we can do together?"

And just like that, Rowan wasn't smiling anymore. In fact, she was frowning. "Are you calling me fat?"

Steve's eyes crinkled in surprise. No, he hadn't been. Had she had never been so mood before so why was she being moody now? "Babe… no… I was just saying…"

"What that I need to go running with you because I'm getting too fat? Is that it? I'm not good enough if I put on a little bit of weight?"

"What the… No! Rowan… you said you were worried! I think you look fine."

"Wow! Just… wow. Thanks a lot Steve," she snapped storming away and Steve sighed not sure what was happening right now, just that that wasn't normal.

His father pulled him aside and told him not to worried. She had been sick that morning, had thrown up after breakfast, he figured her out of sorts after the flight, or maybe she had a cold. Maybe but she had flown many a times and she had been fine… actually he didn't know if she was fine, he had never flown with her before. He had been on a destroyer with her, and she did not do well with being on the ocean, did she fly bad too? He'd have to figure it out. Instead of chasing after her like he wanted to, he said good-bye to his father and then got into the passenger seat of the white Camaro, which felt strange to him but he let it happen.

Luckily Williams was quiet, until they stopped at a red light and he clocked Steve looking at a homeless man. The big guy with the mounds of shoulder length curly hair was twitching and mumbling about people watching and telling them to stop. Why did Steve think his name was Jerry?

"Well I guess if you're gonna be homeless, this is the place to be, right?" Williams asked after letting Steve watch him for a while.

"I guess so," he agreed and then they were on the move again.

 _Love is in the air. Everywhere we're going…_

Steve glanced to Williams who was taking his phone out of his pocket. "Excuse me" he said before answering it and talking happily to the other person on the other end.

"Hey, baby doll, I'm kinda in the middle of something can I call you back? Yeah? Love you too, talk to you in a bit," and then Williams hung up the phone.

Wow, must be nice. He had been in his wife's presence for all of twenty minutes, got a hug, a kiss and then apparently pissed her off.

"I take it you're married?" Steve asked.

Williams broke out in a big grin. "Yes, yes, very, very married," he said happily. "I got lucky. Pretty much the greatest woman on the planet."

"Right on. That's something."

His woman was great too… usually… maybe they were only good over the phone. In which case their relationship was gonna take a terrible turn for the worse now that he was off active duty and fixing to come home. Home being, of course, anywhere Rowan was.

"What's her name?"

"Rachel."

God that didn't sound right either. Why was he thinking Williams' wife name might be Amber… or Melissa, though that didn't sound right either.

"You got kids?"

"Yeah, I do. One little girl. Grace," he said with a proud grin creeping up onto his face. Now that did sound right. Steve wondered if he and Rowan would ever manage to have kids. He would love to. Would love to be father to a pair of boys, maybe a little girl in there, with her eyes and his hair. That would be a killer combo, prettiest kids on the planet. But every parent thought that right?

"But enough about me, huh, what about you?" he asked. "Rowan Pierce. _The Rowan Pierce_. That's just… wow… how did you land her?"

Steve tried no to smile a little too proudly, he had landed quite the catch and sometimes he couldn't believe it either.

"Uh… yeah… I was there when she fell," he said. "Kind of a love at first sight kind of thing."

"When she fell?"

"Yeah… she was hiding up in a tree and she fell out of it and uh… onto me," he repeated.

"So, _you're_ the Seal who found her when she went missing out in Columbia? I thought I recognized the name," he asked. "My family and I were watching that story like a hawk."

"Yeah, I'm the Seal who found her."

"That's just amazing. What's it like? Being with her? Is she down to earth? She seems real sweet but uh… I bet she can be a bit mean, huh? A bit of a diva?"

Steve thought back to the scene outside the hospital. "No… she's not usually a diva," he whispered. "She's… you know… she's nothing like you'd think she'd be… she's just... you know… perfect?"

"No shit huh?" he said and then turned away a big grin on his face. "Rowan fucking Pierce, my daughter's gonna flip."

Yeah. If he managed to get Rowan to calm down, he'd flip too.

 **DS-DS-DS-DS**

Steve and Williams got to the hospital and Steve was having a hard time concentrating. Between the woman at the counter who seemed familiar and was looking for her fiancé Josh to the commercial on the TV where a surfer named Kono was advertising for a lip balm… who also looked very familiar… Steve could barely concentrate on Hesse.

Williams unplugged the TV and Hesse sneered at them.

"I was enjoying that."

"I'm glad you were enjoying it, because that's probably the closest you will ever be to a pretty woman for the rest of your life," Williams shot back.

Hesse merely scoffed. "You underestimate my resources, detective," he snarled. "You'd be surprised what a man can do with the right friends in the right places."

"Well, that's why we're here. To talk about one of those friends."

"Specifically, the man who ordered you to kill my father," Steve added.

Hesse seemed to think about it for a second before saying: "Maybe I came up with that on my own. Maybe… when your pretty little wife got away from us in Victoria, I decided I wanted to bury your father just because well… that's better than nothing. I hear little Rowan Pierce is on the island. You sure you two are married? She sure as hell didn't want to take you name then."

Steve's lip curled. Rowan _was_ married to him. He had gone with her personally to make sure the damn licence got filed when he found out she had held off because she thought she had forced him to marry her. She had not. And there was no way that Rowan had been taken on Victoria because someone would have told them… or would they?

After going AWOL to rescue her that one time… maybe they wouldn't… it definitely wouldn't have been smart to tell him.

Steve wasn't going to let that get to him though because that's what Hess wanted. "Right. Yeah, you see, I know you loved your brother, but I also know that you didn't come up with that all by yourself. You got entry into this country. You got our comm links, you got my extraction route. That came with a price and that was my father's murder, right?"

Hesse was not going to answer though. "Gentlemen, I'm afraid I won't answer any questions until I've retained counsel," he said and then he smirked up at Steve. "Or unless you want to let your little wife ride me for a bit. That's a fair trade, I never did get my money's worth did I?"

"Okay, now you've gone too far," Williams said. "What does this do?"

And then he ripped the IV out of Hesse's arm. Hesse immediately cried out the machines around him began to beep unnecessarily loud.

"What are you doing? You can't do that!"

"He's right you can't do that," Steve told him but Williams didn't care.

"No, you see, I can do that. Right? Because Bono here is not a US citizen. And that means he is not subject to our constitutional protections."

Steve immediately pulled this crazy cop aside. "Listen, you are incorrect. Okay? He's been arrested on US soil. He's allowed those rights. You know that, right?"

"Yeah, but he doesn't know that," Williams said. "Now lock the door."

"Lock the door?" Steve echoed. "What?"

"Never mind," he said sensing that Steve was going to be absolutely useless in this manner. He pulled out his gun, pulled the pillow out from behind Hesse and then used it to mask the gunshot as he shot Hesse in the leg.

He then took the pillow and shoved it into Hesse's face as he started to scream. The door flew open and the doctor came in, a skinny looking Asian guy who looked like he should be wearing glasses… and be in the morgue. Though how one could look like that Steve was having a hard time understanding.

"Hey! Hey! Hey! Don't be rude, we're trying to have a conversation here!" Williams cried to him, he then turned to Steve and said: "Hold this pillow, would you? Do me a favour." Steve took his place, though he wasn't sure why he did and followed the Doctor out into the hall. "Also, while you're out there can you tell the coroner to get a table ready?"

Williams locked the door and then came over as Steve glared at him. "Okay, stop, stop. What kind of cop are you?"

"The kind of cop that gets things done. Excuse me," he said as he removed the pillow. He smiled down to Hesse as if he hadn't just shot him in the leg. "Hey. Hey, look at me. Right here. Look at me, right here."

He kept snapping in Hesse's face, he kept tapping his cheeks and then pointing into his own face. But Steve was done, he dragged Williams away from him.

"Okay, that's it, enough."

"Enough? No. no. It is not enough. You told me that man is a terrorist, and he seems awfully interested in Rowan Pierce, who is the greatest gift to ice skating since Michelle Kwan. If he was talking about my wife the way he was talking about yours that bullet would have been in his head."

And then just like that he turned around and shot Hess in the other leg.

Hess started screaming again, Steve stood there in a stupor and Williams cried out: "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I didn't ask you the question this time. My bad."

There came a knock on the door and Steve went to get it but Williams stopped him. "Hey, hey, no. Don't unlock the door. Do not unlock that door. If you don't like what I'm doing, you can wait in the toilet, okay?" he said. Steve ran his hands over his face. "This man, he tried to execute your father yesterday, and he's just inferred that he would have done it to your wife if he could have gotten her instead and then flat out asked you to let her fuck him. Alright? Now I would have slapped him for less and I don't think he's gonna talk without a little friendly persuasion."

The knocking and banging continued and Williams called out: "Hey give us a minute, please!"

He then turned back to Steve. Steve turned to Hesse, remembering all the nightmares he had of the things Hesse had once told him he wanted to do to Rowan. All these terrible, terrible things he couldn't get out of his head. HE thought about how much eh loved her, how afraid he had been when he heard that Hesse was at his father's house.

"Do what you gotta do."

Williams went straight to Hesse who was miraculously ready to talk. "I'll tell you what you want to know."

"Who told you about my op?"

"If I tell you you're gonna wish I hadn't," he warned but Steve didn't care.

"Yeah? I'll take that chance. Who told you about my op?"

But before Hesse could tell him that whiteness took over in three bright pulsing blasts and just like that he wasn't dreaming anymore

 **RR-RR-RR-RR**

When the brightness subsided and Steve stopped grunting and crying out in pain, he tilted his head back to try to breathe right. To try and stop his eyes from swimming. God this was starting to really, really hurt, maybe he should have eaten that chocolate bar she gave him. Through squinting eyes, he managed to watch someone walk into the room.

Steve's eyes cleared and he could see who was standing in front of him he couldn't help but just laugh.

"God," he found himself saying, though he couldn't really understand why. "She's going to be so mad when she finds out what you've done."


	144. Chapter 144

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Alright guys. Day 2 of seven days and we're getting there. We're getting to the end of this. Just one more chapter and Steve is rescued. Are you guys excited to see Rowan's response? Are you worried about what's going to happen next? I did warn you that after this episode, which will be in 2 chapters, Steve the Jerk is going to be back. But only for 3 chapters and then everything's all cute and fluffy until the season 6 drama. I need you guys to be PREPARED you know? Anything you guys are really looking forward to? Personally I'm excited for Nahele. I think you'll like what I did there. Anyway, in five chapters everything's going to be settled, and with the marathon you won't have to wait! See you tomorrow!_

Chapter 144

* * *

 _God. She's going to be so mad when she finds out what you've done._

An unnecessary dig and if Steve could see clearly, he would have seen Wo Fat flinch. He hadn't even said her name, but just the mention of her, the thought of what she would do when she found out what was happening in the basement of that laundromat was enough to unnerve him for a second. But only a second.

It was regrettable of course, he had promised he wouldn't do this, but he was running out of time, options and patience. This was all he had left and Steven had such a terrible habit of being stubborn.

"Good. You're up," he said to him rolling up the sleeves of his silk blue shirt carefully. "Let's begin."

Beginning, of course, with waterboarding. An easy and effective measure of torture. Steven struggled, as one did, his toes curling, his finger nails digging into the wood of the chair, he coughed and sputtered and effectively choked and Wo Fat turned a deaf ear and a blind eye to it.

His stomach wasn't in it anymore and he blamed Rowan. Stupid Rowan and her stupid feelings. She'd be disappointed when she found out and he wouldn't be able to blame anyone but himself, but he was going to try to blame everyone else. Starting with, of course, why did Steven have to make this so difficult?

They finished with the current bucket they were on and he watched as Steve threw up whatever water he could and struggled to breathe. He fought the urge to pat his back and utter: _there, there_ , like he had on the beach that one day the man had a panic attack about losing Rowan for the millionth time. Considering how often the man chased that girl away, Wo would have thought that he'd be used to the feeling.

After a few moments of coughing and wheezing, Steve had the nerve to look the man in the eye and say: "You're never gonna break me."

Well fuck. Come on. Couldn't Steve tell that his heart wasn't in this whole torture business? Clearly, Eris was more interested in it than he was. He just wanted Steve to cooperate, just once in his life. But Wo Fat knew the only way to get Steve's implicit and immediate cooperation was to actually put Rowan in this chair. He'd just have to flick water in her direction as a precursor to actually waterboarding her and Steve would break in an instant. Problem was, he'd never be able to put Rowan in that chair, she'd turn those big blue eyes up at him, ask him what he was doing and then he'd be the one breaking down. Quite pathetically.

Wo Fat calmly walked away though he was nothing but calm. He busied himself with getting more water because that was easier then sitting down in front of Steve and leveling with him like he wanted to. If he thought Steve would listen to reason, if he thought Steve would take into consideration cooperating simply for Rowan's sake, he would have done it. But Steve didn't care about Rowan the way Wo Fat did, he was selfish and controlling when it came to the woman they shared. And Wo Fat knew that if McGarrett realized he could use Rowan against his nemesis he would.

"Behavioral engineering works, Steve," he warned his step-brother instead. He turned on the hose to fill up the bucket again. "You know that. It just takes time."

He caught a glimpse of the hatred in Steve's eyes as she slapped the towel back over his face and he almost cringed. It almost stopped him from pouring the next bucket of ice cold water onto him. Almost. Because those were the eyes of a man who wasn't going to forgive him.

After this… well… if Rowan wanted to continue dating Steven, Wo Fat was going to have to lay low… and hope that she got into some major trouble that Steve would need his help to rescue her from before he'd be allowed back into her life.

He wasn't sure he wanted to go through all of that. He liked Rowan. He didn't trust Steven to protect her like he could.

"Now, tell me, where's my father."

"I don't know."

He was lying of course. Well… he might be telling the truth, Rowan had said… had said that he would do this and Steve wouldn't have the information. But she wasn't right about everything… okay so maybe she might be right about a lot of things… but Wo Fat needed to be sure that he didn't know.

"You expect me to believe that?"

"No."

Ohh, so smart. Not smart enough to lock down Rowan when he had the chance though.

"But it's the truth."

Wo Fat didn't even have to ask Eris to put the towel back to his face. She just did it. Wo Fat poured more water into him, counted to ten very, very slowly and then stopped, letting the poor man breathe again.

His gasps were getting more painful to hear. With every second this continued Wo Fat knew he was pushing Rowan farther and farther away but he couldn't bring himself to stop. He needed to know where his father was. He _needed_ to know, more than he needed his sister.

"All you have to do is tell me what I want to know, then your suffering can end."

He panted a bit before looking up to Wo Fat and carefully saying: "If you're gonna kill me, just do it."

But Wo Fat couldn't do that. Torture was forgivable, flat out kill him and Rowan would never speak to him again. Not unless he just took her of the island right afterward and told her Steve went back to Catherine. He could just never let her come back to Hawaii after that.

"Steve, if I wanted to kill you, I would have done it long ago," he told him. "Think about it."

"Yeah… okay… You wanna know where your father is, yeah?" he said finally seeing the light. Ha, see, Rowan was wrong Steve did know. "Ask Doris. I know about her trips to Colorado to come see you. I know about… I know about us being…"

Oh, hell he knew that? Had Rowan told him? Or had Doris?

"You should have asked her when you had the chance."

"I asked our mother. She said she didn't know," he said. "So, who told you? Doris or… or…"

Steve shook his head. "I wouldn't let her… she tried… I wouldn't… Doris did, parts of it. I don't know it all, I don't how it happened…"

"Enough of this," Eris said. "Why are we wasting our time with him? Just grab the girlfriend. She's the quickest way to bring him to his knees."

Panic lit up Steve face just as it had lit up Wo Fat's. No, Rowan was not coming down here, and no one was going to grab her. And though Wo Fat knew this clearly Steven did not.

"No. Not Rowan. She's not a part of this. She doesn't know," Steve suddenly shouted. He turned to Wo Fat who knew exactly what he was thinking. "Okay… maybe… but psychic visions aren't proof!"

This was getting out of hand. Grabbing the needle from her he stabbed Steven in the neck before he could say anything else damning about Rowan Pierce. The drugs coursed through him and Steve raged, he thrashed and struggled, the fight in him renewed at the thought of Rowan being put in his place, of him being forced to watch it happen to her. But as the drugs took him over and his head bowed to his chest he kept repeating the same thing over and over until he was finally down for the count.

 _Not my Rowan._

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Wo Fat had been ignoring her calls. Of course he would. Because if he had done what she thought he had done, he wouldn't be able to admit it to her. He'd avoid her until he was finished, but Steven didn't have the information he was fishing for, not yet, not unless he killed Wo Fat. Only then he'd get to meet Wo Fat's father.

That's what the dreams had been about. Because both of them didn't come out of that basement alive. It was one or the other. And it almost always ended with Steve putting a bullet between Wo Fat's eyes.

But Rowan didn't want it to come to that. She didn't want Wo Fat to die, he was a little misguided but he didn't deserve to die. At least by Steve's hands… she was flat out going to kill him with her own bare hands when she found the little shit. Still she knew she needed to get there _before_ Steve managed to escape on his own and _before_ Five-0 showed up which meant she couldn't tell them what she knew. Which honestly wasn't much.

She had started by going to all of his safe houses, you know, once it was clear that he wasn't going to pick up the phone. But he wasn't there. She called Kong, he hadn't seen or heard from him, she went to Kong's warehouse, but Wo wasn't there either and that's when she discovered that his phone was offline entirely.

But she got something when she was there. A little bit of a flash. A slight bit of memory.

Dry cleaners and a man named Anthony Shu.

And somehow… she wasn't sure how… but somehow that was all connected to Adam. So she had called him, called him and asked him to look into the name. She hadn't told him about Steve and Wo Fat, she just said she was looking for a certain dry cleaner that he owned. Adam said he'd get back to her, and an hour later, he had.

The phone rang and Rowan had lunged for it, lunged like her life depended on it, but it wasn't Wo Fat finally calling her back. It was Adam.

"Hey I looked into that name like you asked me to. It looks like you were right, Anthony Shu bought a chain of dry cleaners from one of our subsidiaries."

"Yes, yes, I'm always right, can you tell me where the only one left is, please?"

"You know the more I watch and hear you do it the cooler it is?" Adam said and Rowan tried to bite back the anger and worry all while remembering that she couldn't tell Adam what was happening.

"Yes, yes, my visions are the bomb. Address please?"

"Well the only one left is on Makaloa. It's a twelve hundred square foot facility…"

"OKAY THANKS!" she shouted and then hung up the phone. She knew where she was going now, all that mattered was getting there before everyone else did, before Wo Fat did the unforgivable, and before Steven put her brother in the ground.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

When Steve came to again he was pressed up into a corner. He was cold and shaking, his body burned and ached and all he wanted was Rowan. He wanted to press her up to him, he wanted her cool hands to soothe the burning aches in his chest and flowing through his veins. He wanted to kiss her, he wanted to hold her, he wanted to go home.

The projector was whirling again. The news reel about his mother's fake accident. He barely paid any attention to it. Wo Fat was just taunting him now. The lights flashed on and for a moment he was blinded, but he could hear, quite well, the hissing of the gas coming through the vents again.

Steve was on his feet, though it burned him to do so, and rushing towards it, peeling off the white wife-beater he had been wearing and pressing it to the grates trying to keep the gas from getting in.

But it didn't work and once again he was out, and once again he was dreaming.

 **DS-DS-DS-DS**

He had asked Williams if he was okay to stop off somewhere while they were tracking down leads on Wo Fat. Williams had been kind enough to oblige, which had Steve rushing up his dad's front steps desperate to get inside.

He knocked on the door until someone answered, that someone being Mary. He pulled his kid sister into a tight hug and smiled at her despite all the worry he felt.

"Hey Mary, is Rowan here?" he asked and she nodded. She already knew all about Steven's one-track mind when it came to his wife.

"Yeah, I think she went to go nap for a bit cause she wasn't feeling well, but she also might be with Dad, he seems to have taken a real shine to her."

Oh! that was good. Steve nodded. "Hey… uh… I just interrogated, Hesse, he uh… said something interesting to me…"

"Oh yeah, like what?"

"That he tried to grab Rowan in Vic," he said. "But that isn't true. Because you were with Rowan in Vic… and you would have told me if something happened… I mean… and if you didn't… if Trevor didn't… the Navy would have…"

"I think your CO's exact words were: _McGarrett can never know_."

"Wait… so… she did get grabbed?"

"Oh yeah, we all were," Mary said. "Me, her and Trevor. They showed up at her door, told her that you had been wounded in action and that your CO was agreeing to take her there. And then they put us in an SUV and somewhere along the way Rowan and Trevor realized what was happening, did some weird shit with their eyes and attacked the guys holding us. It was super cool. She has some sick driving moves."

Super cool? Sick driving moves? _Hesse really had grabbed Rowan_?

That explained the tip Williams had mentioned. Rowan must have realized that if Hesse couldn't get her and Mary he'd go for someone else. Logically that meant his dad, he was the only one left. Which meant, when Rowan was safe she had gotten word to the HPD that John McGarrett was in danger, before Steve had called. His dad was alive because Rowan had sent word.

But that didn't change the fact that Hesse had almost succeeded in grabbing Rowan. If he had succeeded it would have been a completely different situation, because if it had been Rowan on the phone that morning, Steve would have done everything Victor asked to get her back. And even though it hadn't happened, just thinking about it had him panicking. He needed her. _Now_.

"ROWAN!" Steve shouted and from the kitchen he heard her call his name back. She had a big smile on her face as she approached him ready to pull him into a hug, but Steve couldn't get distracted by that now.

"Okay, hold on," he said deflecting her hug and causing her smile to crack a bit. "So, Hesse told me something interesting and Mary just confirmed that you…"

"MARY?!" Rowan suddenly shouted. "You told him I was pregnant! You promise to let _me_ tell him!"

Steve froze as he stared at her. Weight gain and mood swings, throwing up and feeling sickish, holy shit… it all made sense now.

Mary poked her head into the kitchen and said: "Noooo... I told him we got grabbed in Victoria."

Rowan took that in, blinked her eyes and said: "Oh. Yeah… that… uh… well… I didn't tell you about that because I didn't want to worry you."

Yeah, Steve was going to come back to the Hesse thing later. "I'm sorry. You're pregnant?"

"No?"

"Rowan!" Steve and Mary shouted at the same time and she cringed, his brave strong Rowan actually cringed, like she was afraid of him. Holy shit.

"Okay! Okay! Fine. Yes, I may be… uh… a little pregnant right now…"

"A little?" he echoed. How was someone only _a little_ pregnant? "What? How? Ro, I haven't been home."

"Are you accusing me of cheating on you?" Rowan thundered. "Really?! That's what you're going to say to me? Really? You wanna go there Steven James McGarrett, when you were getting jumped by girls all the time!"

"It was one girl. Lynn and I were in a near death situation… she was around me all the time as my handler and she got a little mixed up. That is all. And you know that kiss sent me straight back to you, so why are you complaining?" he cried. When she just glared at him, he sighed and continued. "No, I am not accusing you… I just… I just don't understand how this happened when we were so careful?"

"Really? We've been careful? You do remember that charity benefit thing I did where me and Alex came to Afghanistan and we were singing you were there…" "Yes, Rowan I remember." "Kay, well remember when you I told you that I had a cold, and I was taking cold medicine…" "Oh my god." "And you never have condoms on you and we didn't have time to go to my bunk to get mine because you didn't want to wait and I figured it was one time what's the worst that could happen and well… uh… here we are and I can't believe you made me tell that story in front of your father."

Okay so that explained the how… but…

"Rowan that was four… almost five months ago…" "Yeah, I'm just about four months along right now." "And how long have you known?"

"Well… I mean… honestly? Uh… pretty much right away cause my morning sickness hit hard and it hit early," she admitted and his heart practically clenched but he couldn't understand how he had not known this… unless his C.O.s made her keep it from him because they knew he'd find out and then BAM that's him AWOL again. He'd've just quit. Immediately.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Suddenly there were tears in her eyes. "Because I wanted to tell you in person. I wanted you to hug me and kiss me and tell me that everything was going to be okay."

"Okay but aren't you hap…"

"NO! I'm not happy! I'm fucking terrified!" Rowan shouted. "You're never home and I don't want to do this by myself!"

"I… I… but I am home now… you saw me this morning, why didn't you say anything then?"

"You were supposed to be home days ago. You were released from active duty last week and instead of coming home you went off to chase Hesse. And I didn't want to tell you in front of your father, who had no idea you married me in the first place let alone that I existed or was a part of your life in a goddamn police precinct when all you cared about was questioning Hesse. Now here we are, and these stupid hormones are making me cry and _this wasn't how I wanted to tell you_."

She whirled away from him and disappeared. Steve found himself sitting at the table. He braced his arm along the edge and for a minute Mary's voice became nothing but static and he was suddenly gripping the table very tightly as If he couldn't help it. As if something was coursing under his skin and making him clench.

He tried to brush it off, he tried to stay where he could still see Rowan, walking out towards the waves. God he loved her. He loved her so much, she was married to him and she was going to have his baby and he didn't want to let that go.

But the static came back and then she was gone.

 **RR-RR-RR-RR**

He was shirtless.

He was soaking wet.

They were electrocuting him.

"My father. Where is he?"

The woman threw another bucket of water on him. If he ever got out of those cuffs, he was gonna shove that bucket up her ass.

"I already told you, I don't know that."

There was a beat of silence between him and Wo Fat before the other man said: "Very well."

He nodded to the woman he was stabbed again. Everything went fuzzy around the edges. It was so hard to hold onto everything, to hold onto reality. The fuzziness turned into strings. All these different colored strings.

Strings of black and yellow splitting off of Wo Fat and joining to him. Strings of red binding up his chest, practically filling the room, edges of them probing the walls and windows and doors as if trying to sniff something out. The woman with the syringe had nothing but one short black string waving in the wind.

"I can't tell you what… what I don't know. What I don't know."

 **DS-DS-DS-DS**

For a minute he was on the docks in a gun fight with Wo Fat. They were duking out, both trying to come up on top. But Steve was stronger, faster, and smarter.

He pretended to be downed by a shot, let Wo Fat come to stand on top of him to be sure that he was down for the count and then shot him five times to the chest.

As he died gasping for air Steve stood over him shouting the same thing. "Why did you try to kill my father? What did he ever do to you?"

But Wo Fat couldn't answer because he was dead and all Steve could think was that Rowan was going to be so mad when she found out. Which made absolutely no sense, because Rowan didn't know this man.

Then in a flash he was back in the HPD HQ back in his dress blues and heading for Captain Kelly again.

"Commander!" Williams cried and Steve turned towards him. "I'm not sure if you know this but uh… we're in Hawaii and we don't usually wear a uniform unless we're going to a ceremony."

Steve nodded. "Yeah well… I uh… I'm heading over to see my girl and she loves me in my dress blues. I'mma try to… convince her of a few things and this will help."

"No girl can refuse a man in uniform huh?" Williams asked with wagging eyes and Steve nodded again. "Well I was thinking about how well we did together, and uh… you know… if you ever change your mind about the Navy that you might be interested in a career in law enforcement."

Steve thought that over. He thought about Rowan who wanted him home and wondered if she'd be okay with him trading in the Navy for this. Probably not. "Well… maybe…" he said instead cause it was the most polite option.

"Alright, you think about it. You ever get homesick, I'll put in a word with Captain Kelly and maybe we'll put you to work. What do you think?"

"Tell you what. I could get used to being chauffeured around all day, that's for sure."

"That's right."

"See you around, Danny."

"Hey, call me Danno," he said as he shook Steve's hand and Steve could only nod and wonder why that sentence hadn't felt right.

But as he was walking away the static came back and just like that he wasn't in happy sunny Hawaii, he was back in that goddamn basement.

 **RR-RR-RR-RR-H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

They had run out of options. The detail Danny had called to sit on Rowan, had lost her almost immediately. How? They didn't know. She was in a purple GTO, how could a car like that go missing? So, when they came to the conclusion that the only person, who had the resources and the motive to do something like this, was Wo Fat, they all assumed that Rowan was purposely missing and avoiding them because she was aware of the situation and her brother being behind it. In the absence of Rowan, after hours of Steve missing and not turning up, they figured her involved somehow or trying to deal with the situation and having a problem Maybe Wo Fat had finally snapped and he had taken Rowan and Steve. Either way, they had no choice but to call in someone from that world that could help them figure out where Wo Fat might have taken Steve.

So Kono went off to fetch him, since he had been with his family after he had helped them with the sting operation that morning that Steve had missed. But when Sang Min got into the office and looked at the picture of Wo Fat on the screen and he just frowned.

"What's he doing up there?'

"We believe that Wo Fat abducted McGarrett this morning."

"Nu-uh, I doubt it," he said with a quick shake of his mulleted head.

"Oh? And why is that?" Grover asked.

"Well… cause of X-men."

"The comic book?" Grover asked dryly.

"No, he means Rowan," Kono translated and Sang Min nodded. "Yeah dat's the girl, you know lightning bolts and flashy powers? Tells the future. Her eyes go white like that chick from x-men."

They all took that in and then exchanged glances with Chin who had been there when Sang Min had witnessed the travelling, the only person other then Steve who had. Chin blinked his eyes.

"Yeah, can we get back to that later?" he asked.

Danny nodded and put them back on track. "Okay… and why do you think that huh? I mean, I get that he likes Rowan and all that, but the beef with Steve predates Wo Fat's weird obsession with her."

"I get what'chu saying but I tink you got it all wrong," Sang Min said. "There are tree tings everyone knows about x-men…" "Her name is Rowan…" "Whatever. One. Wo Fat cares more about her dan his money and his empire. Which is fuckin big considerin' dat was all he ever cared about before. Dey say Gabriel Waincroft caught a beating so bad he had to be sent to solitary for protectin… simply for lookin' at her the wrong way."

Not true, he did much more than that, but they let him continue believing that because the truth could get her arrested.

"Two. Everyone knows she's wit McGarrett… is dat shit official do? Cause like… we got some major bets inside about if dey are or not and I could win some major dough if…" "Can you stay on topic, please?" Chin snapped and he nodded. "Fine, everyone knows she's wit McGarrett, so messing wit her means either you get her crazy ass brother, or dat crazy ass _haole_. And Tirdly, and I bet you guys don't know this, but getting one of her jobs is like a fucking treasure trove. And she's is constantly hiring people for shit. She's also got a shorter fuse dan Fat and McGarrett combined and she's all about dat no mercy. Dey say she ordered a whole faction of the NLM dead… and deir families."

Well the NLM thing was new, but that no mercy, yeah that was straight up the Ice Queen.

"So yeah. I don't tink he'd grab McGarrett cause Fat wouldn't want to upset her."

"I don't think he's factoring her into his decision-making paradigm," Danny snapped but Sang Min merely shrugged.

"Actually, from what we hear, yeah… he kinda does now."

When everyone glared at him, he sucked his teeth while he thought and then stared into each of their faces carefully before asking: "What you tink you know where he is?"

"Naw, you're too low on the food chain to be even on his radar," Chin said and Sang Min shook his head at him.

"Kick a man when he's down, eh?"

"Look, associates, we need the names of the people who enough resources to help Wo Fat pull this off."

Sang Min thought it over and then said: "Sometimes, when he's doing business in the US, he uses a different name. Anthony Shu…"

They did a quick cursory search and pulled up a file with barely anything attached to it, no picture, barely any assets. A man that invested with Adam's father. They didn't have to say anything Kono was already moving.

Kono pulled out her phone and dialed Adam's number. "Hey, do you know someone named Anthony Shu?" she asked the second he picked up.

"Yea… actually… this is really weird, Rowan asked about him earlier today."

"Rowan asked about him?"

Everyone's eyes turned to Kono. Had Rowan not known that Anthony Shu was one of Wo fat's aliases? Well, she knew the name enough to ask Adam about it.

"Yeah she was looking for the address to a dry-cleaning company. A company of his, it was a subsidiary of mine…" he said but Kono cut him off.

"When did you give her the address?"

"I unno, uh, maybe a half hour ago? Kono… what's going on, Rowan sounded weird and now you're sounding weird…"

"I promise I'll brief you when I can," she said quickly. "Can you give me the address?"

Kono got the address from him and then quickly hung up the phone. "I got it but we gotta go fast, Rowan already knows."

And just like they were all suiting up to save Steve from Rowan and her crazy fucking brother.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve just slumped in his chair. Everything hurt, every inch of him, every bit of him. He wouldn't be able to take much more of this. He couldn't breathe, it was so hard to breathe. God. Why didn't this man get it?

"The Navy's taught you well."

Steve looked up to him so past done. "I don't care what she thinks. I'm going to kill you," he snapped and Wo Fat almost smiled at him. The fucking bastard. "And then I'm gonna find your father and I'm gonna kill him just for having you."

"Then you're going to have to kill your mother too."

God fucking damn it. With this again? Why because she liked him best? Yeah, Steve got that already. Everyone preferred Wo Fat to him. Or at least, everyone he loved did.

"What are you talking about?"

"Your mother is more responsible for who I am today."

"Stop talking in circles and just tell me what happened!" Steve shouted at him and was rewarded with the cattle prod to the chest.

When he was done, he turned away from Steve who had slumped so hard that time his chair had wobbled. He wasn't cemented to the ground, that… that was good… he could use that to his advantage. Wo Fat put the cattle prod down, picked up a different bucket, upended it and then sat down in front of him like this was fucking story time.

"You know nothing about the real Doris McGarrett. Do you?" he asked. Well no fucking shit. Fucking Rowan knew more than he did. That was what he had been trying to tell him.

"I know that she was assigned to kill your father," Steve told him. "But instead your mother died in that op. How does that lead to whatever this is?"

"Yes. And she never forgave herself for murdering an innocent woman who had just become a new mother. That pain and anguish caused her to do something quite remarkable. She took in that child and raised it as her own for several years. Until her superiors discovered this and forced her… they forced her to abandon that chid."

Wow. Doris McGarrett abandoning children long before she did it to Steve and Mary. God fucking damn it, Steve hated it when Rowan was right.

"You see… Doris McGarrett was my mother too," he said. Yes, Steve had gotten that part. "If Doris knew where my father was, she would've told me. But with your persistence, and your… girlfriend's intuition, I can't help but believe you know where your government is holding him."

"I don't. And neither does _she_. She's not dreaming right anymore."

"Yes, I believe she mentioned that," he said. Great they… they were talking? Did she know about this? Did she know that he was going to do this to him? He didn't want to believe it, he didn't want to believe that she would let this be done to him, but he didn't know what to believe anymore. "And that all may be true. But I need to be convinced."

Wo Fat got up and walked away from him and as he did, Steve kept calling out to him. "I'm telling you the truth. I don't know where your father is."

Wo Fat merely nodded and then left the room. Steve looked around he needed to get out of this goddamn chair, he needed to do something before the girl stuck him with those stupid drugs again.

And then someone started wailing on the door.


	145. Chapter 145

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Friday my lovely readers. This is it. This is where you find out what's going to happen. I hope you guys are okay with what I went with. I know it's a big change but I think it's a good direction we're moving in. As I said last chapter, Steve the jerk will be back next chapter, so BE PREPARED! Don't forget to drop me a review and I will see you tomorrow!_

Chapter 145

* * *

Rowan charged into the laundromat. She didn't stop until she hit the stairs and then down. No one stopped her. No one dared to even try. The men with guns all turned and scattered when they saw her. That feeling of dread, of anxious, noxious fear was still burning in her stomach and climbing up her throat like she was about to vomit.

She turned the corner following that feeling, that feeling she knew was leading her to Steve. She stopped, when a flash of white caught her eye. She looked into a sterile white room, vents on the walls, projector hanging from the ceiling. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

"No!" she cried. Kay so he wasn't in there, but part of her dreams were coming true, just please, please let it just be a drugging and a kidnapping and not a drugging, kidnapping and a torturing. She rushed to the giant metal door at the end of the hallway.

She frantically banged on the door. "Wo, let me in! Let me in!" she practically shrieked but he didn't answer and the door was locked. She jiggled the handle to no avail. She just wanted it to be open, she _needed_ it to be open. And it was from that need that she felt the electricity that skated under her fingertips. For a second she swore she could see the strings around her, heaps of red ones frantically swaying straining to get a hold of her and in the swaying tightening strings one simple black one, striped with flashes of white and yellow. She focused all her energy on it and with her mind she pulled on it. just like that the locking mechanism just swung open.

Yeah, she'd have to digest that later, cause she was pretty sure she just pulled on a string to fix the situation and she wasn't even sure she knew she could do that and that was freaking her out but she didn't have time for that right now.

She threw the door open with only one thing on her mind. She wasn't worried about startling anyone, she wasn't worried about what might be on the other side, all she knew was that Steve was there and she needed to get to him.

And there he was. Strapped to a chair, chin to his chest, shirtless, wet, blood coating his shoulder tattoo, little circular burns on his stomach and his chest from a tazer or something. He wasn't in that nice blue shirt that he had left in anymore, he was barefoot but luckily still in his jeans. He looked absolutely destroyed.

"Steve," she breathed out and he looked up to her, his blue eyes foggy with pain and something else, but he recognized her.

"Rowan?"

She took one step forward and a woman erupted out of the shadows to her right.

Rowan managed to duck the knife that was aimed for her face but couldn't avoid the Nubian warrior that slammed into her taking them both to the floor. Rowan kicked the knife away figuring that they would at least make them more even in a fight now. She was wrong.

With a roar the woman threw herself on top of Rowan. "Gah, get off!" she cried struggling with the woman's hands. In his chair, Steve was howling for her, struggling to get himself free. She kicked the woman off of her and she went to scramble away. The woman, with a completely different knife in her hand this time came at her again, and Rowan tripped over a bucket.

Steve screamed her name, this animalistic cry of terror that ripped from his very chest, she turned in time to see one arm snap free of the wristbands holding him to the chair and to watch him fall to the ground still strapped into the chair by one arm and two feet and still screaming for her. The woman was over her now knife ready to descend on her.

And then…

 _BangBangBang…. Bang._

Three rapid fire and one for good measure. Rowan didn't have to guess who that was. Steve was howling from where his chair had upended, still struggling to get free and to her. Screaming her name in utter anguish, practically choking on his sobs for her. But Wo Fat got to her first, pulling her up despite her trying to swat his hands away. He glanced down to the body she was ignoring because if she didn't she'd throw up and she didn't have time for that right now.

"Eris was a good subordinate," he said, obviously talking about the woman he just shot. "I didn't want to have to kill her."

Well how very nice of him to do that for her. She'd have been more impressed and proud of him if he hadn't just utterly betrayed her. Rowan swatted his hands away from her, actually shoved him back causing Wo Fat's eyes to widen in surprise and then she turned and rushed to Steve, wanting to help him get disentangled from the straps. As soon as she got close his free hand gripped her and she managed to catch a glimpse of his eyes. His pupils looked way past dilated.

"Please run, please," he was sobbing to her but when Wo Fat put a hand to her shoulder his cries became more frantic. "NO! No, please, not my wife! I'll… I don't know but I'll… I'll find him, just please not my wife."

"Wife? You and Steve got married?" Wo Fat asked sounding hurt. He had no right to sound hurt after what he had done.

Rowan crinkled her eyes in surprise. "No! I would have told you if I had…"

"Please, please, she's pregnant. You can keep me, I'll help you find your father, but please just let her go."

" _You're pregnant?!"_

Oh, for god sake of course she wasn't. She took Steve's face in her hands and made him look at her. Oh god, his eyes, they were so fucking dilated.

"What is he on?" Rowan asked but when Wo Fat just went quiet, she let Steve's head fall back to her chest as he continued to tell her to run and to beg for her to be let go in soft hiccupping mumbling sobs, and turned a terrible glare onto him to repeat the question. "Wo… what is he on?!"

"Uh it's a mix of Sodium thiopental, flunitrazepam and amobarbital," Wo Fat told her as she got his other arm free. When Rowan just glared at him he quickly added: "It's a homemade truth serum… but uh… he refused to eat and if his blood sugar goes down… well… it looks like he might have been hallucinating."

"He hallucinated that he married me and got me pregnant?"

"I have no control over what he dream,. Rowan."

"OH JUST HELP ME!" she shouted and he jumped into action, quickly hoisting Steve up so he could walk, he had him so securely that Rowan barely need to help him.

He didn't have to ask where she was taking him, she was leading them up the stairs. Wo Fat came to a halt. "I'm not done getting information from him yet…"

Rowan turned a glare so dark on him he actually contemplated letting Steve go and watching him plummet to the ground. Of course he had seen her angry before, but never _that_ angry and never directed at him. Was that face what Kong had stared down after Wo Fat escaped from prison and didn't tell her? It would explain why the man had caved so fast when he came up against her.

"Get him up the stairs. Get him into my car and then drive us to the closest fucking hospital," she growled her voice so low and dangerous that Wo Fat didn't even think to argue. Instead he pressed Steve's hiccupping, soaked and bloody form to his side and helped his sister get her man up the stairs.

He helped Steve into the back of her car and then watched Rowan climb in after him and press Steve's head to her chest again. As soon as she was close enough she was wrapped up into Steve's arms again, in this tight vice grip.

"It's okay, I got you, it's okay," she kept saying as she ran her hands up and down his bare back.

"The baby… please Ro… just leave me, save yourself, save the baby… please… just go… please…"

Wo Fat shot a glance over his shoulder to where Steve was clinging to Rowan, how was she supposed to leave or save herself? He was holding her so tightly she wouldn't be able to go anywhere. "Seriously… are you pregnant?" Wo Fat asked from the front as he got himself ready to drive.

"No, obviously not, you idiot," she snapped.

"Ah so he just dreams that he got your pregnant," he mused. "Interesting fantasies… considering how hard he's fighting you on giving you a label."

Rowan glared at him. Yes, her and Steve had been arguing over a label but them arguing over that wouldn't have excused this. How could Wo Fat be so calm when he had literally done the one thing, she had asked him not to do? How did he not know how bad this was, how upset she was?

"Can you just drive please?" she snapped and he nodded, putting her car in gear and pressing on the gas.

Steve buried his head into her chest, his arms gripping her tightly. "I can't lose you, I can't, I… I love you…"

Wow… Great… their first I love you and he was high out of his mind in a dream land of his own creation. Could this day get any worse?

 **DS-DS-DS-DS**

Everything went bright one last time.

His wife was on top of him. They were in his father's Marquis. His naval cap was resting on the back dash, his pants were down, the skirt of her dress was up around her waist and they had just had his favourite kind of sex. The quiet and quick kind. She had jumped him the second he came home in that get up, she loved him in this uniform, and didn't just love her in those empire waisted dresses she was always wearing to make him smile, he loved her. There wasn't a thing he wouldn't do for her, which including putting that monkey suit on whenever she wanted him to.

They came to their silent climax, where her head tipped back, her mouth in a silent _oh_ and he buried his mouth into her shoulder, his teeth digging in, but not enough to break skin, to keep his own cry caged behind his teeth. He slumped back against the seat as she slumped back against the back of the driver's seat. Both of them panting, both slick with sweat. His hands fisting the fabric of her dress to keep from digging his fingers into her. His eyes kept sliding down to that stomach.

Her hands always liked to wander. Across the shiny medals and ribbons pinned to his breast, through his hair, across his cheeks and chin. She really liked his jaw line. Her eyes were foggy but his heart was swelling in his chest because after two years they were finally together, he didn't have to leave first thing in the morning and she was carrying his child.

His grip shifted his palms resting on the belly where his child's heart beat was not yet detectable. When did babies start kicking? Did his baby even have legs yet? He'd have to do more research. OH! He'd get to go to Lamaze classes with her to teach her how to breathe! He wouldn't even call it stupid, he'd just be happy to go. But they had to settle some things first.

"Are… are you really not… happy…"

"Of course I am Steve, Steven," she said with a sigh. "I'm happy, I'm excited, but I'm also afraid. I'm afraid that I'm not going to be good at this, that… that I'll have to do it alone."

Steve's hand came to her cheek, she was already crying and his heart hurt just watching it happen. "Baby…"

"I'm sorry I don't mean to be so weepy I swear it's just the hormones," she said with a shaky laugh. "I know what you do is important, and I think you're so brave, but… but… it's dangerous and I worry about you and you're never here, and… and…"

He pressed a finger to her lips to quiet her down. "I know, I'm so sorry, baby," he whispered to her. "I know you worry, and I know you're proud of me. But I love you, my darling, I love you more than anything which is why… after we spoke this morning… I put myself on reserves."

Rowan's eyes whipped up to him, and frown crossed that lovely face of hers. "No, no! Steve… no. I'm sorry. I'm sorry I made you feel like you needed to… it'll be alright, honestly, it's just… it's just hormones."

Steve straightened, sitting up so he could pull her mouth down to his, he kissed her until she quieted down and once she was just silently crying against him he whispered: "I love you, Rowan Pierce. I love you so very much, and I realized, when you told me you were afraid to do this alone, that I never wanted you to feel alone again. I put myself on reserves because it was the least I could do. Two years you've dealt with my bullshit and now it's my turn to make it up to you. So if you want me around more, you've got it, cause here I am, officially retired, officially a civilian."

Her tears were now happy ones, he could tell but that didn't change the fact that she was crying. She thanked him by covering him in a million tiny little kisses and he accepted them with smile, dangerously close to crying himself.

"I… I know this is a lot to take in, but uh… I got a job offer here, as a detective with the HPD, and uh… you know if you want… we could move here? Or… we can go back to Vic and see what I can get there too… huh? I mean… you don't have to decide now, but uh… what do you think?"

"Well… I mean, now that I'm not skating… I can pretty much write and sing songs no matter where I live. I've never really been that far from my family before… but uh… you know it might be good for us to uhm… to get away from them? And it would be nice to be close to your father. Especially after this," she mused but then she smiled prettily at him and his heart leapt into his mouth. My god he loved that woman. "As long as we're together I don't really care where we go."

God, yes that was just how he felt. Anywhere was home so long as Rowan was with him. Everything was nothing without her.

"Could I ask… for just one favour?"

"Anything, Steven," she said to him and his smile faded a bit, afraid of what was going to come next.

"Can… can you please take my last name?" he asked. When a confused look graced her features Steve hastily added: "I know it's archaic, I know it's against women's-lib and all that, and I swear it's not about owning you. It's just that… I want everyone to know you and this baby are my family and to me… I always thought my family would be… just…"

She silenced him by kissing him and he figured that was a good way to stop him from rambling, of putting his foot even farther into his mouth. He didn't even get to tell her that he was willing to just have it hyphenated.

"Oh Steven McGarrett you silly, silly man," she said against him and that was when he realized she was laughing at him. This wasn't funny, it was a serious request. "I already took your name. I did that the day after we filed our marriage licence. I picked up all the paperwork when I was there with you."

And then it was Steve's turn to laugh. "But… but… on the skate circuit… and your single…"

"Well yeah, Rowan Pierce is a stage name now. But I wanted a private life too, and that's Rowan McGarrett," she said with a shrug. "I thought you knew I took your last name… is that why you keep introducing me as Rowan Pierce?"

"Well yeah… I thought… why did you think I was doing that?"

"Well I thought you were still doing that cause you wanted to show off that you married the now famous Rowan Pierce…"

"I don't give a shit if your famous babe, I'm proud, don't get me wrong but that's not why I'm with you," he told her and her smile practically blossomed. _Fuck he loved her so fucking much._ "Did you really take my name?"

"You wanna see my new driver's licence or what?" she asked with a playful scowl on those beautiful pink lips. He answered her by pulling her down to his. Her hips ground up against him and he was instantly hard for her again, and ready for quick and quiet round two.

Steve pressed into it. Happiness not even covering what he was feeling at that moment. Finally. Finally he was getting the family he always wanted. Life didn't get any better than this.

 **RR-RR-RR-RR-H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

He drove like a mad man, simply because the look on Rowan's face was scaring him, and the way that Steve was mumbling and groaning meant… well… not good things.

They got to the hospital and Wo Fat went in to get her a nurse to put Steve onto a gurney. Steve hadn't want to let her go, and Rowan looked like she hadn't wanted to let him go without her either but she had stayed behind and Wo Fat felt like maybe… maybe there was a reason for that and that didn't bode well for him.

Rowan wouldn't turn around to look at him and as that fear hit him, he suddenly realized that he had… well… he had fucked up. He had promised her he wouldn't do this but he couldn't get the information and he just wanted to see his father. She'd understand that, wouldn't she? Because now that he was facing down the inevitability of her cutting him out of her life, he was suddenly very afraid and suddenly willing to do anything to convince her not to cut him out.

"This was the only way, Rowan," he said to her and she finally turned around to him. "It was."

"You promised me," Rowan said in a soft voice and Wo Fat felt his heart constrict a little bit.

"I know but…"

Her eyes whipped up to him and he saw that she was crying. "No! I asked you not to do this and you looked me right in the eye and promised me that you wouldn't."

Wo Fat saw what was coming, he knew it, and immediately those guards were going up. "I needed to know and he had the information."

"No he didn't! I told you he didn't! I DO! He's in fucking Morocco, YOU HAPPY?!"

No he wasn't but he said nothing.

"We were doing so good! He stopped trying to make me stop seeing you! And you promised me! YOU PROMISED!"

She was sobbing now and Wo Fat stood there not sure what to do, not sure how to take care of her when he was the one who had done had made her cry. Usually it was McGarrett who made her cry. How did the man stomach it? Wo Fat had literally carved a man up once, and he had stomached that better than this.

"I mean… if he's mad at me… I know he's going to be mad at me, but if he's demanding you let me go… that's fine… we can dial it back… Keep it quiet again…"

"No. It's not going to be a problem. We're done."

Wo Fat actually felt himself jerk, felt himself recoil from those words. He had been expecting it. He was certain that he didn't even come close to caring about her the way she seemed to care about him but he was proven wrong. By those simple words.

"I'm not doing this anymore. I'm done with you. You're dead to me. Leave."

Logically this would have been a good thing. He'd save so much money and waste so much less time trying to put her emotional state and her relationship with McGarrett back together. Illogically he was upset and he wanted to hurt her back. Not physically of course, but emotionally like she had just wounded him.

"If we're done, then we're _done_. No more network. No more help…"

"I NEVER ASKED FOR THAT NETWORK!" she shouted. "I _never_ once asked for any of this!"

"Well it doesn't matter now, because you don't get it and without it we both know you're going to be dead in a week."

Rowan folded her arms over her chest and growled: "I'll take my chances, thank you. Now get off of this island or I'll tell Steve where your safe houses are."

It was a low blow. It wasn't necessary but it got Wo to walk away. He tried to remind himself that he didn't care. He was strong. He was… dangerously close to crying and if anyone asked… well he'd never tell them that as he walked away, he actually had cried a little bit. But he'd never admit that. He'd go to his grave with that knowledge.

If anyone ask he'd say that he didn't care. That it hadn't affected him. That he had felt freed from a burden. But that was a lie, because Rowan Pierce had taught him to care. Rowan Pierce had brought that broken heart of his back to life, and now it was breaking all over again.


	146. Chapter 146

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hey guys so what did you guys think? For those of you who might be a bit worried, this is not the last we're going to hear from Wo Fat, he will be back later in the season. Also… A WILD JERK MCGARRETT HAS APPEARED. Before you guys freak out, he's only here for this chapter and then the next two and I promise he is gone after that. Once we hit Chapter 149 it's nothing but cute little moments._

 _But on to other news… what did you think of the alternate reality? Well, unless you guys couldn't tell, there's an extensive back story that went with the alternate reality… that I have written. That's right, I've been writing alternate realities. The question is now… are any of you interested in those? I'd post them in separate stories of course, but what do you guys think? If you're interested tell me and I'll include some of the plots I have planned out as alternate stories in the next update. So hit me up with a review or two, be sure to tell me if you're interested in learning about the alternate realities I've started writing and I'll see you tomorrow._

Chapter 146

* * *

Five-0 had raced to that dry cleaners, but Wo Fat and Rowan were gone, obviously with Steve cause he hadn't been there either. The tip off should have been when the pastel GTO wasn't in the empty parking lot but they searched the place anyway and they saw first hard the kind of carnage Rowan and Wo Fat had left in their wake. A dead body, a sterile white room with gassing vents, an upturned chair with leather straps, a soaked floor, a large metal bucket on its side, an ivy filled with who knows what left to drip on the floor and a discarded cattle prod.

It was during that walk through of horrors that they got the call. A single call from a hiccupping Rowan, crying so hard, talking so frantically that Danny barely understood her. But he got the gist. Rescue, Steven, drugged, hospital. Together the little Five-0 team stormed that hospital, found Rowan sitting by a sedated Steven. Danny stayed behind to get a detailed list of his injuries, while Kono and Chin interrogated Rowan and Grover called Duke to inform them that they had found Steven and needed a protective detail on him.

The very first question Kono had asked Rowan was: "Where's Wo Fat."

Her answer? "Gone."

 _She had let him leave._

That had brought up all the other questions. How much had she known? Why did she let Wo Fat take Steve? How could she have let him go? Why didn't she tell Five-0 what was happening when she figured out what Wo Fat had done?

And all she did was cry. She didn't answer those questions, they stopped asking her those questions after hearing her sob one simple sentence.

"I'm sorry… he… he lied…"

That was all they needed to know. Combine that with the fact that she hadn't been aware Steve was missing and they had figured it out. Wo Fat had lied to Rowan, they didn't know to what extent, but they were willing to look over that since she was the one that got him. No shots fired, no deaths, nothing. She just walked into that basement and pulled him out.

None of them could have done that.

They others had waited while Steve was tended to. His lungs drained, his wounds bandaged, the slash through his hairline stitched and his body drained of the poison Wo Fat had been pumping through him to get the truth out of him. Once he was out of danger, once he was just sleeping in his room at the hospital the others trickled out, but Rowan stayed.

And Danny made her tell him the truth.

She had not known that Wo Fat had grabbed Steven until Danny had shown up at the house looking for him. She had been dreaming about the situation months ago, but she had made Wo Fat promise not to, and she had thought the situation neutralized. Since the Reyes situation she had not dreamed right so she had not sensed oncoming danger otherwise she would have said something to him or the others. When she was made aware of the situation she had started trying to call him, his phone was off. She went to Kong and found out that the phone was offline entirely, she couldn't even use the app to locate or get a hold of him. Kong had no information on his location or plans either. She had called Adam because she had remembered a name, not what it meant, and something about a laundromat and Adam being the key to unlocking more info. With him on the hunt for her information, she purposely lost the HPD tail that Danny had put on her, and then hit up every one of Wo Fat's safe houses. He was not there.

The reason she hadn't told Five-0 was because she needed to find Wo Fat without them and before Steve attempted to escape on his own. She knew that her dreams had all ended the same way. With one of them dying, usually Wo Fat.

If she hadn't intervened, only one of them would have come out of that basement. And it probably wouldn't have been Wo Fat.

After getting all the answers from her, Danny had left. Only Rowan stayed by Steve's side. Stoic, quiet and weepy, curled up to his side despite what the nurses said to her, his cheek resting against the top of her head.

Danny returned in the morning and Rowan was back in the chair beside his bed, still awake, giant bags of exhaustion under her eyes. He offered to sit with him while she went to get a coffee, but she shook her head. Danny was officially concerned. She had never been this quiet before but Danny and Chin had established that the more upset she was the quieter she got.

So, Danny got her a tea that she didn't touch, handed her a tuna sandwich that she also didn't touch and the two of them sat together by Steve's bedside until the man finally decided to wake up.

When Steve's eyes opened, both Rowan and Danny had flanked him, her on his left, Danny on his right. Steve's eyes swung from Danny to Rowan, smiling more than warmly when he saw Rowan and then he looked around the room again his eyes suddenly narrowing, panic sweeping his features.

"Hey, you're alright, you're alright," Danny said trying to soothe him.

"Yeah," he said softly. "Hey… uh… hey… where's my… father? I want to see my dad. Where is he?"

Danny looked up to Rowan who just looked sad again. He thought his father was alive? Why hadn't she told any of them that?

Steve's eyes swung to Rowan, a hand coming to hers. "Are you okay? And the baby? Do we know the sex yet? You can get that at four months right? Do you want a boy or a girl? I want a boy… I'm not going to care either way… but a little boy I think would be… cute… right?"

Danny turned wide eyes to Rowan in complete and utter shock. _Rowan was pregnant?_ She glanced to Danny who was glaring at her, and then back to Steve and his hopeful blue eyes and winced at him.

Steve's eyes narrowed at her. "Why are you staring at me like that?"

"Steve… your dad… he… he died, remember? Four years ago?" she said and Steve suddenly blinked his eyes as if remembering everything then and there. "Are you… okay?" she asked.

"Yeah… yeah…" he said quickly, clearly digesting that information and then he started to sob.

Rowan perched herself at the edge of the bed. She wrapped him up immediately and he let her do it, clinging to her like she was his life raft. "It's okay," she said to him. "I know, let it out. Just let it all out."

He cried silently into her for a little longer before he asked: "We're not married, are we?"

Oh wow, what the hell kind of drugs had Wo Fat given him? What ride had he gone on in the basement?

Cradling his head to her chest Rowan shook her head. "No, Steve, we're not. And I'm not pregnant, but as long as we're talking about it, I was hoping for two kids in my future, a boy and a girl, but I'd be happy with anything…"

Steve pulled his head out of her grasp and she trailed off as he stared up at her. He searched her face for a brief moment before he suddenly growled: "Your brother kidnapped and tortured me."

"Yes… Wo Fat did do that."

"Where is he?"

"Gone."

"Gone?"

"Gone," she repeated with a curt nod.

"You let him leave?"

Rowan bowed her head. "Yes. I don't know where he's going or where he will go. We're no longer on speaking terms. I did tell him that it would be best if he got off the island."

Danny's eyebrows skyrocketed up his forehead. She had cut Wo Fat out of her life? Had she really?

"Did you know he was going to do that to me?"

"I… uhm… well… I mean… sort of… but uh… but it wasn't supposed to happen…" she whispered. Well that didn't sound good.

"What does that mean, Rowan?" Steve growled.

"I… well… I had been dreaming about it… before" she said softly.

"Why didn't you tell me about it?" he asked sounding very betrayed.

Rowan just bowed her head again. "Because he told me he wouldn't go through with it."

"So, you took that information to him and not to me?"

"Well how would you have stopped it?" Rowan asked. "By putting a bullet between his eyes? I thought if I got to him first, and convinced him not to do it then no one would have to get hurt, no one would die."

"Yeah and how did that work out for you?" Steve snapped and Danny winced. God, couldn't he see that Rowan felt guilty enough about the situation? Now that he sort of understood what happened he understood her panic when he told her what had happened yesterday morning. She had been under the impression that Wo Fat wouldn't do it, but he had and clearly hadn't told her.

"Obviously not well," she admitted.

"And you expect me to believe that you just dropped him? Like that?"

"Yes Steven. He promised he wouldn't take you, he wouldn't do… do… any of that stuff to you. He promise and he did it anyway. Wo Fat and I are done."

"But you let him leave."

"Yes, Steven I let him leave. Just because we're done doesn't mean I wanted to see you two go at it again," she snapped. She took in the anger and she stood quickly. Immediately that anger turned into sudden panic flashing over Steve's face, a hand raising ready to dart out to grab her. "Clearly you don't believe me, I should go… I'm just making this worse…"

"No!" And there was that hand, darting out and grabbing her. "Don't, no, please. No, I'm sorry…"

"You need your rest," she said softly and he shook his head. "I'm upsetting you, you're mad at me… you're not gonna rest…"

"I don't sleep without you, you know that."

Rowan continued to stare at him. "Are you sure you want me to stay?"

"One hundred percent. Please. Just. Please?"

Rowan answered by settling herself down on the bed beside him just like she had in Afghanistan. "I'm sorry," she whispered to him. "I really am. I didn't think he'd really do it… I didn't…"

"You're the one that saved me, aren't you?" he asked softly and she nodded against him and he sighed. "Then I guess I should be the one thanking you, huh?"

Rowan just nuzzled into him. But unlike all the other times, though he held her to his side, he didn't press into it. Danny predicted troubled waters ahead for the sickeningly cute couple. Just so long as it didn't put a permanent rift into them, they should be able to bounce back… because if this ended them… ohh Danny didn't even want to think about how bad that would be.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve was cleared to leave the following day. Rowan had stayed with him the whole time and part of him was both grateful and angry. Angry because she knew what Wo Fat was going to do and she had let him do it, but grateful because having her with him soothed him, soothed the lingering worries and fears, and kept him calm and firmly grounded in reality.

 _He promised me._ That was what she had said. _He promised me he wouldn't._ The man was a professional liar, how the hell had she thought that he would have kept that promise? Any promise at that fact? But he was also too afraid to argue with her because that dream world lingered in the back of his mind.

A world, an amazing world where he and Rowan had met under normal circumstances. Where she hadn't been psychic, she didn't have magic void powers, she wasn't going to leave him to go back to her world because she had married him and he had gotten her pregnant and he… he loved her so very, very much.

And that terrified him.

Of course it would. It terrified him just thinking about making her his girlfriend, but his subconscious took him to a completely different level. Married, baby on the way, every other sentence he thought was _god I love her_. He'd have done anything for her in that dream world, he gave up the Navy for her in that dream world, and coming to, being in reality, he had quickly realized that none of that had changed. He'd still do anything for her, whether Wo Fat was still her brother or not, whether or not she knew what he was going to do and let him do it. He knew… if asked… if she actually looked him in the eye and asked him to leave Five-0 for her and a baby that may be on the way he'd do it.

His heart was already lost to her. That was clear as day. He was well and truly screwed. His heart was given away all right, given away and in the hands of a woman who would let her brother torture him.

Returning home, on a regimen of pain meds, with a grumble in his chest from all the water he inhaled and a puffer to help him breathe, Rowan behind him having come out of the car last, Steve was relieved. Relieved because he wanted his own bed. Wanted to sit out on his Lanai and figure all of this out. He needed to smother that ache in his chest, the one that shoved those damning words up into his throat.

He had a whole speech choking him at that point.

 _Don't leave me. Please. I'll give you that label, I'll marry you. Just please, if that door to the void opens, don't leave me._

But the most damning words were: _I love you_.

Every time they rose up into his throat his whole body would sway with the desperate need to shove them back down. Which was what he was dealing with just at that moment. She had just come through the door, and the light was hitting her just right.

He'd have been stupid if he thought she hadn't noticed his strange behaviour. Hell, Danny and the other Five-0's who had come to visit him the night before had noticed. She felt guilty, they had told him, she hadn't known about the situation until Danny had told her and she was already killing herself over what happened, stop making it worse for her.

But it wasn't Rowan who had been strapped to a chair and water boarded. She hadn't been soaked with water and then electrocuted. She hadn't been drugged. And… well… thank god… because if it had been her Steve would have broken instantly, just thinking about her in that situation was crippling. But it didn't change the fact that he was the one who had been through something traumatic… not her.

"Are you okay?" she asked, coming to his side.

He was clinging to his dad's recliner, the leather in a vice grip under his fingers. The swell, that need to spout those stupid words to her, was strangling the life out of him. Her hands went to steady his shaking form but he knew, he knew if she touched him, he'd spill all of that nonsense to her and he wasn't ready to admit that. Not yet.

"Don't!" he barked before her hands could touch him. He turned away from the pain in her eyes. Turned away before the guilt could smother him. Hated that her hands darted away from him. "Just… stop it, Rowan. I'm fine."

"But you're… you look like you're about to fall over… if you'd just let me help you…"

Those hands reached for him again and he struggled to take a step away. "No! Stop it. Just… Just go. Just go away, Rowan. Leave me alone!"

He stood there heaving, refusing to look at her, just knowing that her hands had retracted, she had taken a step away and she had gone quiet.

Problem was, when he finally turned to her, finally got himself under control and he knew he'd have to apologize, tell her that he just didn't want her to hover, that he felt smothered or something stupid like that and that he didn't really want her to leave, Rowan was no longer standing beside him.

His front door was wide open the house was empty.

Rowan was gone.

Again.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

She hadn't taken her car. She hadn't taken her keys or her wallet. She had taken nothing because in this world nothing belonged to her and she wanted nothing Steve or anyone else could trace her with.

She had done this before. She had run. Gone underground, or had tried to but it hadn't worked because Steven had found her.

He always found her.

No matter where she went and who she hid with. Someone always told him where she was.

She didn't think he'd go looking this time. She knew he was mad at her for what happened. She understood that. She figured he thought she liked Wo Fat more, as that was the usual complaint he made, that she had chosen to warn him instead of warning Steve. She already felt guilty enough over what happened, of not seeing the signs in time to stop the whole situation from happening. But she didn't think she deserved… well… this.

 _Just go away_.

Those words kept echoing in her head. Those were words he promised he'd never utter at her again. They were the words her brother shouted at her when he found out she was going to go solo. They were the words her best friend shouted at her when she suggested that she tell her baby's father the truth. They were the words her mother shouted at her when she did something that didn't fit the perfect image her mother wanted to create for their family.

 _Just go away._

Were the words that burned her. They were the words that hurt her more than anything, because all Rowan had ever really wanted was to belong. To be wanted.

But as the criminal of her family, her mother hadn't wanted her. As the idiot of her family, her father had been embarrassed by her. As the successful one in the family, her brother had resented her. And here, well… the one person she trusted to always want her, simply because he promised her he always would, had just told her he didn't want her anymore either.

What she really wanted was Wo Fat. The one person who had wanted her no matter what she did had been Wo Fat, and he was the first person she wanted call as soon as Steve uttered those words. He would have understood, he would have taken her in with open arms and told him Steve was stupid and she deserved better.

But she couldn't call him now. Not anymore. Not after what had happened two days ago. Not after what he had done to Steve. Which meant Rowan was alone.

Rowan did not do well when she was alone. She did really, really bad things, made really bad decisions when she was alone. The sociopath came right out of her when she was alone.

It was why she tried very hard, not to be alone.

Not to mention, she had no money on her person, no mode of transport, no passport to even fly out of the country if she wanted to try restarting somewhere else. All she had was the clothes on her back and a need to put as much distance between Steve and herself as she could with such limited means.

And she needed somewhere to hide. Somewhere Steven wouldn't look. Somewhere quiet where she could figure out her next move, wait until Steve had a case, and then return to his place to retrieve everything she had left and maybe enough money to buy a fake passport… oh where the hell would she get that? She couldn't go to Kamekona, he'd just call McGarrett and tell him what she was doing.

So Rowan went to someone who owed her a favour. She had to wait for the one of Steve's main Five-0's to leave but once he was gone she calmly walked out from behind the trees she had been hiding behind. She walked up the path way, certain that she was done crying and quickly rapped on the door.

By the time she heard footsteps the tears she had thought were done were back. They had started bubbling up and she couldn't stop them. By the time the door opened she was full out sobbing, shocking the person who had opened the door.

"I have… nowhere… else… to go…" she cried and then folded in onto herself and let the pain take over as he hugged her quickly and then pulled her inside before anyone could see her.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

The first thing Steve did was call Chin with a simple order: Use the app, find her. Except the app was all greyed out, Chin was unable to use the damn thing. Well wasn't that just peachy? First Wo Fat tortured him, then Rowan went missing, and now the app wasn't working for the only person on the team who had access.

Her phone and wallet were in her car, all her cards were accounted for. He didn't know if she had cash on her. He had gone personally to each of his friend's houses, starting with Grover and including Adam's to search for her, none of them had seen her. Well, he went to all the houses personally except for Jerry's because Chin had been there when Steve had called and she hadn't shown up while he was there.

Steve was descending a little bit more into a frantic panic with each minute she was missing.

Danny hadn't left his side since Steve had called him frantically looking for Rowan. All his friends had asked what had sent her running this time, Danny more frequently than the others, as they all knew by now that Rowan didn't just run for no reason. But Steve couldn't bring himself to admit what he had done. That he had said something worse than accusing her of being monstrous. If he looked his friends in the eye and told them that he had told her to leave again they'd all just tell him he was an idiot.

And he knew that. But none of their lectures that would bring her back, now would it? And he couldn't apologize if he didn't know where she was.

But when Chin confirmed that the app was permanently down for him, Steve lost it. Because now he knew for certain that Wo Fat was involved. And if Wo Fat was involved and he had Rowan it was only a matter of time before he took her off the island and if he did that Steve wouldn't see her again. So he made Danny drive him to Kong's and, yes, he had let Danny drive because he couldn't operate heavy machinery under the influence of his pain meds.

He kicked down the door to Kong's office and bore down on the man who looked very surprised to see him.

"Where is she?!" he thundered into the man's surprised face.

Kong Liang blinked his eyes. "Uh… who?"

Steve practically launched himself at Kong, and he would have got him if the man hadn't thrown himself back and out of his chair and Danny hadn't grabbed him.

"I know he has her, you took Chin's access to the app away," he shouted struggling to throw Danny off of him. "WHERE IS SHE?!"

Kong's head popped up behind his desk looking like a gopher poking its head out of its hole. He stood carefully, concern on his features. "Do you mean Rowan?"

Steve roared and threw Danny off him. As soon as he was free, he had jumped the desk and tackled Kong, pinning him to the wall. "I know he has her. I know you're involved. You're going to tell me where she is," he growled into Kong's frightened but confused face.

"That's quite the obsession you have for that girl, Commander," Kong hissed and Steve felt everything in him tighten. "And I'm not going to talk to you until you get off me. Now get off."

"He's not taking her from me," Steve growled, keeping Kong pinned by the lapels of his grey dress shirt. "He's not taking her off the island, he's not activating that… that… option… whatever it's called."

"Get him off me," Kong said to Danny, who was still trying to tug Steve off but Steve wouldn't let go.

"Steve he's not going to answer if you're manhandling him, let him go, and he'll talk, right?" Danny asked. But even though Kong had agreed, Steve still didn't let him go. It wasn't until Danny actually, physically uncurled one of his hands for him did he finally let go of Kong and let Danny pull him away and back in front of the desk where he belonged.

"Alright, here is what I can tell you. We have not activated the Captain America Contingency Plan…"

"Whoa… wait… what? Captain America Contingency Plan?" Danny asked.

Kong nodded. "It was an option that only Rowan could activate, if she needed to get away from _you_." Kong spat at Steve who looked away from him. He then turned back to Danny. "Wo Fat specifically put that in after your friend over there arrested her the third time without probable cause."

 _That's_ what that was for? She hadn't said told him that the Captain America Contingency Plan was to get her away from him if he went on another one of those power trips. She said she had one for getting off the island in general. He had no idea that they had an escape plan to get away from him specifically? That was an option on the app? Wo Fat had thought that necessary? Why… why was that a thing?

"Was?" Danny asked.

"Yes. Was," Kong confirmed. "I got the orders yesterday to shut the app down."

 _What_?!

"This was only the greatest piece of work I had ever managed to create, and sure, the two of them have a disagreement, she kicks him out of her life and he's all well if I'm leaving so's the app and now it's gone. So now to answer your question, Commander. I don't know where Rowan is. I don't have her. Wo Fat sure as hell doesn't have her. There's no tracking her, and there's no way for the app to be activated to find her, or help her."

"You're lying," Steve hissed.

Kong shook his head. "I'm sorry, Commander, I don't know where your girl is. And with the app down there's no way for her to call anyone for help."

"Call him," he ordered.

"Uh… I don't think that's a good idea," Kong said. "He uh… he hasn't been taking this well."

"CALL HIM!" Steve shouted and Kong flinched. He pulled a phone out of a desk drawer, a burner. There was silence as he dialed a number and waited for the phone to ring.

After a second he said: "Hey. I've got a visitor that wants to talk to you."

He then handed the phone to Steve who took it. "Where is she?" he said once the phone was to his ear.

Silence was met by that. "What the… McGarrett?"

"Don't play dumb. Where is she?" he repeated.

Silence followed that question and then he heard the laughter, the same kind of devious malicious deep chuckles, that raised the hair up on the back of his neck. "Oh this is rich. This is absolutely fucking hilarious. I haven't been gone a full fucking day and you've _already_ lost her?!"

"I know you have her…."

" _I have her_?" he echoed. "You think I have her? Have you no idea what happened?"

"What are you…?"

"She dumped me McGarrett," he spat out. "She finally did it. She chose you. After everything I've done for her, she kicked me right out of her life… _for you_."

"She… did?"

"You've won, McGarrett, Rowan is all yours. The app is down and I'm gone. She is no longer my problem. So whatever you've done this time… well… it's up to you to fix it yourself."

And just like that the phone call was over. Kong took the phone from Steve's numb fingers before it could drop from his grip. He couldn't believe it. She had actually cut Wo Fat out of her life. She had been that mad over what happened that she ended things?

Was that because she felt guilty, or because Wo Fat acted against explicit orders not to, like she had said he had? He didn't know and couldn't ask her because she had left. But if Wo Fat really was gone, if the app was really down then… then she had actually done it. She had finally picked him. Steve had gotten what he had wanted since Wo Fat had kidnapped her just a little over a year ago. Wo Fat was finally out of her life. And he had thought… he had told her to leave.

 _What had Steven done_?

"Have I sufficiently answered your questions McGarrett?" he asked his voice as oily as his hair. "I assume I have, so I'm going to ask you to leave my office, I'll be sending you a bill for the door."

Danny grabbed Steve and tugged him towards the door. "Let me just leave you with one thing, Commander McGarrett… without us backing her, that girl's gonna be dead in a week. I would recommend finding her as soon as possible and then keeping her under lock and key because once they know she's not under his protection everyone's going to come out of the woodwork to pay her back for all the misery she caused."

Danny scowled at him but managed to tug Steve out of the office and then had to lead him, practically holding him body up, out of the building. Luckily Steve's legs didn't give out until he got to the car, but Danny still had to help him get in. Steve's numbness had taken over, he couldn't believe that this had happened. She had… she had cut the problem out of their lives, she had fixed the problem, without him having to ask her to and he had told her to leave.

Where had she gone? If she didn't have the app, if she didn't have Wo Fat… where had she gone? She couldn't have jumped into the void he would have felt it if she had, and she hadn't been able to open the void since Wo Fat had kidnapped her.

"Okay… okay…" Danny said as he slid into the driver's side of the Camaro. "We have to think. She's got no app… she doesn't have Wo Fat… is it possible that she's gone back home?"

"I told her to leave," Steve uttered into the silence that followed all of Danny's questions. It didn't answer any of his musings, but it answered the question both Danny and the rest of the Five-0's had been asking him since rowan had vanished. Danny turned to him with wide incredulous eyes and though Steve wasn't looking at him, he shrunk under the gaze.

"I'm sorry… you did what?"

"I… I told her to leave." He repeated.

"Are you out of your fucking mind?" Danny thundered. "Steve! You know how she reacts to that. You know what she's like when she's alone! You know how _you_ are when she's gone! Why the hell would you say that to her?"

"Because it wouldn't stop choking me," Steve sobbed. "I couldn't breathe, I couldn't stop wanting to say it, and I'm scared of it, I'm scared of how much it hurts and how deep it goes and she knew. She knew he had me!"

Danny took that in, took in Steve's shaking body and the panic in his eyes and Steve could see that he had no intention of asking him to clarify the utter gibberish that had just come out of his mouth.

"I've already told you this, but I'm going to try telling you again and maybe this time you'll believe me. When I went to see Rowan that day, to see if she knew where you were, she had no idea you were gone," Danny told him and Steve's heart practically stopped beating in his chest. "Until I told her that we found your car, shot up and without you in it, she thought you ditched getting her malasadas and having breakfast with her for our sting operation."

Danny had told him this before, but he thought it another lie. Another thing people were telling him, Danny and Rowan already had an understanding after Reyes, it made sense that he'd cover for her again. But knowing now that she had actually dropped Wo Fat, he was starting to see everything in a completely different light. Add in the fact that she had believed that he abandoned their breakfast date for work was absolutely heart wrenching. He kept telling her that she was just as important as work clearly she still had not gotten that.

"Okay. So. She's feeling isolated. She thinks you want her gone. Which means she's not going to come to any of us, cause she thinks that we're on your side and will give her up. She doesn't have her app, she doesn't have Wo. So, I ask you again. Where would she go?"

Steve turned to Danny. "She'd go home."

"She can't, she doesn't have a passport, unless we think Fat got her a fake one," Danny said.

That was true. And she didn't have her cards either. Which meant she couldn't go out and buy one.

So where would she go?

He didn't know.


	147. Chapter 147

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hey guys! Happy Sunday! Poor Jerky-Steve, no one loves him. SO…. And don't freak out here, but I was wrong about how many chapters this angst is going to be around for. Instead of two more chapters, it's only going to be one, cause this chapter has absolutely nothing to do with Steven and Rowan, it's all about someone else, and you'll see who that someone else is very soon. So maybe there's only two chapters of Steve being a mean, and Rowan being stubborn, and the following chapter will be the end of it. But hey, for those who care, he's some cute moments with Wo Fat. Let's see what he's up to huh? Also… GUESS WHO YOU GET TO MEET THIS CHAPTER?!_

 _Side note, any interest in Alternative reality stories? Like the back story to the drugged out dream Steve was having last chapter? Let me know!_

Chapter 147

* * *

He was not taking this well.

It was actually distressing how badly he was taking this.

Wo Fat thought leaving Hawaii would numb this pain he had residing in his chest. He thought putting as much distance between he and Rowan as he could would make it hurt less. It had not.

But he had also only gone to Japan. He could have gone farther but part of him was hoping that something would happen and she would need him. And when she needed him, he wanted to be near-by. He wanted to be able to make a quick entrance.

And something _had_ happened. Not in the sense that she was in danger, but something had happened between her and McGarrett and now he couldn't find her.

Immediately the guilt he had been so good at turning off before hit him full force. She and McGarrett were having problems because of him. He'd've blamed her for what happened, no doubt. She had known in advance, and while she had talked to him about it, she clearly hadn't talked to Steve about it. But why would she? She had thought the situation dealt with, a non-issue once he had promised her he wouldn't go through with it.

Too bad he had lied.

Now, not only had he fucked the relationship up with the only family he had, he had fucked up her relationship with McGarrett.

He'd've felt worse if he didn't blame McGarrett for the whole situation.

He could have just cooperated… just saying.

With Rowan gone, he could focus on his empire, and without having to spend all his money on rescuing her, or helping her with her quest to save McGarrett from his stupidity he'd have money to actually fund his empire. And for twenty four hours he had actually done that.

But then McGarrett had called and told him he had lost Rowan and thought her with him and he just… god. He worried. Why was she missing? Why had she run? Was she okay? Was she safe? But she wasn't his problem, he wasn't supposed to care. Except he did. A lot.

It was one day after that call that got into a shootout with a rival Triad gang over who owned what territory and got nicked by a stray bullet. This left him angry. Angry because it had ruined his suit, angry because he thought taking out a small crew of Triads would have helped with the pent up frustration, but it did not. Even angrier because he was in pain, and bleeding, and he really, really wanted his sister to hold his hand through getting it stitched like she had held his hand every time his burns had opened up and needed to be flushed.

Instead he went to his favourite Mob Doctor in Osaka hoping to get himself stitched up and tended to and then he'd sequester himself in the nearest sake hole to drink until the pain went away both in his arm and in his chest.

Dr. Ko had been his go-to mob-run-doctor for years. Anytime he was injured in or around Osaka that was where he went. Dr. Ko was old school, because he was old, of course, but he got things done quickly, efficiently and he was reasonably priced. It also helped that his preferred choice of anesthesia was alcohol.

But it wasn't Dr. Ko who walked into the small back office. The woman in question wore the white coat of a doctor, had her black hair pulled back in a no-nonsense pony tail. She was tall, his height or maybe a bit shorter, not in heels either. He hadn't gotten a good look at her eyes but he was getting a good look at her rack. Reasonably sized, not too big, just the right size for his hands. He'd even bet that her as was the same, it would be round, firm and fit perfectly into his hands. If he got her out of that lab coat she had on he'd know for sure. He was also rather certain that once that hair came down she'd be a wild woman.

She had barely looked at him as she mulled about the space. Wo frowned at her, pretty or not, he wasn't sure who she was or why she was there. He didn't like strangers, didn't know if he could trust her, and if he was going to get medical care, he'd have to trust her to some degree.

"Where's Ko?"

"Dead," she replied. "I am Dr. Hui, I will be tending to you today."

Wo Fat didn't like change, and he was already dealing with too much change as is. But she was pretty and his arm was starting to go numb so… you know… beggars couldn't be choosers at this point.

"What ended up getting him in the end?" Wo asked.

"Cancer," she answered and he nodded, the man liked to drink, smoke and gamble, cancer seemed like an easier way to go over the other options he had, seeing how often he defaulted on his debts, or tried to pay them off in medical procedures. She seemed as no nonsense as her ponytail. "Please take off the jacket and your shirt."

And then she finally turned to him, her eyes finally meeting his face and she stopped. His face was gruesome, he understood that. The burns that covered half his upper body were extensive and they would never fade, not even with cosmetic surgery. And while she seemed genuinely surprised by what was on his face, he was lost in pools of honey brown, the same color of the whiskey he loved to drink.

Still as she took him in, he stripped himself, first of his suit jacket, and then the vest, it was while he was unbuttoning his shirt that she stepped closer to him.

"And how did you manage this?"

Not understanding her question, he glanced to the arm that had been hit. "Got shot. Not fully, I'm thinking I was grazed, it's bleeding a lot more than I thought it would though."

She went silent and when Wo Fat looked up again she was all together to close to him and he realized that she was talking about his burns.

"Oh, these old things?" he asked trying to smile in that way that Rowan had always said seemed friendly. "Crashed my helicopter."

She nodded, and then for some reason, she helped him peel his shirt off so she could assess the damage. Something about her fingers brushing against the scars on his shoulder made his heart leap in his chest. That had never happened before, he didn't know what it meant either, but it definitely surprised him. Especially since she was only doing it to look at his bullet wound.

"Well, it's not a graze. Looks like you have a bullet in there."

She turned back to the cabinets across from the table he was sitting on and then opened up one of the doors revealing shelves of bottles. Thank god she hadn't changed that.

"Your preference in alcohol?"

"Whiskey please," he whispered.

"And how do you take your whiskey?"

"On the rocks, thanks," he said as she opened a cabinet closer to the floor to reveal a fridge. When she turned back to him, she had a glass with ice cubes in it and a bottle of whiskey, the good stuff too. She handed it to him and he went about pouring out the liquid so he could get himself drunk.

At least he could still enjoy a nice cold drink in Dr. Ko's office like he used to. Maybe the alcohol would help him chain down everything fluttering about in his chest.

He downed the first glass quickly ignoring the harsh bite of the strong liquor before pouring another drink.

"How long have you been doing this?" he asked her.

She looked young. She looked too young, too beautiful and very bitter about her situation.

"Only a year," she admitted.

"Paying off school fees or debts?"

The question seemed to surprise her. She peered at him hard like she didn't know how to answer before turning her eye back to his injury. "My brother's debts, actually," she admitted. Wo Fat threw the tumbler back and then poured a third one.

"What a dutiful sister," he murmured and she scoffed. "Not because you want to be, I guess?"

"No. My parents offered me up in lieu of losing the precious son they so love so dearly," she whispered. Wow. Savage.

"Mmm, family m'I'right?" he asked, downing his third glass and shakingly pouring a fourth. "My sister just picked her boyfriend over me. Kicked me out of her life for him." He raised his glass in toast to their mutual family problems. "So, cheers to shitty siblings."

He downed the fourth and she finally moved towards him a pair of sharp, needle headed tongs. She put a fifth glass in his hand and his sipped it dutifully, trying very hard not to squirm, wince or cry out as she dug in his bicep to pull out that bullet. He had finished the fifth glass and the bullet was out and was on the sixth when she started stitching him.

Wo Fat didn't remember anything after downing that sixth glass of whiskey. So, you could imagine how surprised he was to find himself in someone else's bed the following morning.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Jian Hui had a simple rule. Don't sleep with the clients that came through the back door. And that had never been an issue before last night. But there had been something about that face, about those sparkling brown eyes that betrayed a lifetime of pain and anguish that had set her off. Something about the way he spoke, like she was a real person, and not just some tool, some pawn under the Yakuza.

He was the only one not get handsy with her. The only one to not ask how a girl had become a doctor. The only one to ask about her circumstances in a way that one who cared about her might have asked.

She normally limited the amount her backdoor clients had to drink. But she wanted him to be in less pain so he let him have glass after glass. Because as he drank, she could watch him. Watch the way his jaw moved with each swallow, watch the way the muscles rippled in his chest, watch the way the scars moved and twisted. His scars, to her, made him more beautiful. It made no sense to her, seeing as half his face was unsymmetrical because of them, but they endeared him to her. Because scars or not he was handsome, and he knew it. Not in the sense that he flaunted it, but he was confident and his aura oozed with it.

So when she finished stitching him up and he had asked her how often she got hit on by her patients, she had answered him truthfully.

All the time.

A shame, he had said. And then he had carefully brought his fingers to her cheek, soft against her skin as he brushed his fingertips against her like he wasn't certain she was there, like if he put any more pressure against her she'd break. It was so different from the way the other back door clients acted that she not only was surprised, she pressed into the contact.

 _It's a shame because I really want to try and kiss you but I feel like that's uninspiringly unoriginal._

It was, but she had let him do it anyway.

And then, stupid her, had brought him home with her because that kiss, that kiss had been something else. Soft, but insistent at the same time. He demanded and commanded her with such a simple motion and she had been powerless to him. It had been months since any man had stirred that sense of longing in her, but no one had ever done that to her just by kissing her. She hadn't been able to resist him.

And the sex… well… let's just say it had been worth it. More than worth it. Crazily worth it. The things he had done to her had been… fucking criminal, and the man had been wasted. Imagine what he could do to her sober?

Except she wasn't about to find out because he'd be leaving. This was a one-night stand. Obviously. She wasn't that stupid. He'd be gone the second he woke up.

But until then, she was content with sitting on the edge of the bed, green tea in hand and watching him sleep. Like the little creep she was. But once he started stirring, she quickly got up and made herself look busy. She checked her watch again, in a few hours she'd have to open her clinic

She came back into the room, maybe to prompt him to wake up a little faster, but when she put a hand to his shoulder to nudge him awake, he grabbed her quickly and pulled her down to the bed.

"Go back to sleep, Ro," he murmured sleepily and then seemingly went back to sleep.

There were a lot of things wrong with this picture. Starting with, Ro was not her name. Granted he had been in pain, and then very drunk last night and she had only given him her last name, but, you know, Ro… Hui… not even close. Then there was how he was holding her. Granted he had taken her back down into the bed, but he hadn't pulled her into a tight embrace, she was an arm's length away with his hand gripping the side of her coat quite tightly.

"Who's Ro?" she asked and just like that his eyes opened.

They crinkled in surprise before he rolled onto his back groaning his hands coming to his eyes to block out the sunlight from the window.

"Who's Ro?" she repeated when he didn't answer and then was rewarded with a gruff: "My sister."

Ah that would explain things. "Wo and Ro," she murmured, his parents must have been really cute. Then she thought about what he had said and was immediately confused. "Your sister gets into bed with you?" she asked.

He lay there, his chest slowly and majestically rising with each breath, an arm draped over his eyes. "She's prone to nightmares and I was prone to letting her stay with me until she felt better."

How nice of him. The caring older brother at least she was assuming he was older, she felt like he was older. The kind of caring relationship she had always wanted with her own brother, but he had never cared about anything other then himself and their parents had only cared about him. She had to pay her own way through University and Med school because her parents were saving money for him, money he spent on gambling, drugs and geishas. And when he spent it all, he started taking loans, and when he couldn't repay his loans, both he and their parents had sold her to the Yakuza to save him. But hey, being a mob doctor was actually not that bad… not anymore anyway.

He turned to her his eyes narrowed slits. "Dr. Hui… sorry… I don't think I know…" "It's Jian…" "How very nice to properly meet you. I'm Wo Fat."

He offered her a hand to shake that she took, repeating his name in her head. She had heard it before, she couldn't place it, of course, but she knew he was, at the very least, a major player with the Yakuza. He must have been good at what he did, because she had never seen him before.

"I see that you're dressed already… are you…?"

"Late for work? Yes."

Not true but… the more distance she put between them now the easier it would be for her when he finally left. He nodded and then forced himself up turning his back on her. Jian forced herself to get up out of the bed to give him the privacy to get dressed by himself. He was out of her room not moments later, fiddling with the cuffs of his shirt.

He silently went to the door, silently stood there as she locked it. When she turned he was still fiddling with those cuffs, so she took his hands and quickly fixed them for him. Afterwards they just stood there, he looking at his sleeves his eyes blinking as if he hadn't known what had just happened.

"I…" he started and then stopped. "Well… uh… thank you," he whispered instead and she nodded.

They made awkward work of a kiss good-bye, not sure if one another wanted to hug, or kiss. They eventually settled on a kiss to their cheeks, but that brought him close to her again and then he was with in proper kissing distance. She had three seconds of briefly wondering whether or not he'd kiss her again before he slid his lips to hers, his hands framing her face, her hands gripping his sides, hungrily and greedily kissing him back.

He had her pinned against the door, his hands wandering down her body, her arms around his back pushing him back between her legs when she realized that fighting whatever pull she had towards this man was a losing battle.

"I could call in sick," she whispered against his lips. It wasn't really a gamble, he wanted her, and she could feel that much pulsing against her inner thigh. It was just that she wasn't usually the one who did stuff like this and her pride was smarting for offering herself up to rejection like that. But she needn't worry because he just smiled against her.

"I could make breakfast," he offered.

And while he did eventually make her breakfast, first she got to experience just how good the sex could be when he was sober.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Jian was resting in the bed behind him as he sat in a chair on her balcony, his shirt gone, his pants not done up, phone in hand. She had been a wonderful distraction. Everything he had guessed about her was right. Her breasts and that perfect globe-round ass of hers had fit quite nicely in his hands and the fact that once her hair went down, she was wild. He'd never forget the hours they shared in her bed, he'd never forget how it was to lay back and watch her ride him, that proud smirk on her face, her eyes half closed in ecstasy, her finger nails digging into his chest. He'd be able to live on that memory alone for a long time before he'd need another fix.

But as great a distraction this had been, the aches and pains of the day had come back to haunt him once the night fell, and she was dozing beside him. This left him on the balcony with his phone in his hand staring at another memory that was never going to leave him. It was a picture of him and Rowan from their day on the beach, wearing their matching sunglasses.

Why did it hurt when he thought about her? Why was he worried that McGarrett had lost her again? She wasn't his problem. She had left him, she had chosen Steve, just as Doris had. He should have hated her, but all he could think was that with her app down, if Rowan was in trouble he'd never know and McGarrett wouldn't get to her in time.

Behind him the bed shifted and he quickly closed his phone. Jian draped herself along the back of him, pressing a kiss to cheek. "Why are you out here?" she asked.

"Just wanted some air, give myself some time to think."

"About what?"

She liked to ask questions, his little doctor, his personal little nurse. He turned to her as she took the chair beside him, wearing his shirt. It barely covered that ass of hers but he didn't care, there was something primally claiming about a woman in his shirt. She looked sinfully delicious sitting across from him, her shiny black hair draped over one shoulder, all messed up from their love-making and her lovely legs curled up under her.

He realized then why he liked her so. She had Rowan's mannerisms. The way she moved was eerily similar, but she had none of Rowan's looks which made the attraction to her easier. But she also had this way of getting him to open up, like Rowan had. She was beautiful, and she reminded him of his sister, hence soothing the ache in his chest.

"I got word that my sister's boyfriend has lost her again."

"Again?" she echoed. "She goes missing frequently?"

"She uh… she runs away when she's upset," he said. "It's a thing she does and he has a habit of telling her to leave and not meaning it. I've always been able to find her, but uh… he never knows where she is."

"I see… and you're worried about her despite her deserving the situation she's in right now?" she asked, her tone clipped and full of disapproval.

But Wo Fat wasn't sure she did deserve the situation. Rowan had cut him out of his life to appease Steven's eventual anger and because what Wo Fat had done had been unforgiveable. That didn't mean she deserved Steve's anger in place of Wo Fat. Jian didn't quite know the full story.

"Uh… well…" "She cut you out for this man she's run from," she interrupted. "If he was that big of an issue, she should have picked you… unless you did something…"

"Yeah…" "You did, something I mean, didn't you?" she asked and he nodded.

"Well… how bad was it?"

"I kidnapped, drugged and tortured him after strictly promising her I wouldn't."

Jian took that in her eyes boring into him, she then let out her breath in a shaky sigh. "Okay, maybe you deserve her anger."

Wo scoffed. "Yeah… I never said I didn't. She… she has always forgiven me though… I shot her once, accidentally, of course, but I nearly killed her and she wasn't even half as mad then as when she found out I had taken Steve. I guess… I guess I thought she'd forgive me… eventually."

If she was surprised that he had shot his sister once, she said nothing. In fact, she was good at avoiding questions about his criminal misgivings in favour of asking the really hard emotional questions instead.

"And now she's missing."

"Yes."

"And you're worried."

Not a question, a statement. "Yes, of course, she has a habit of getting into trouble. Usually she has me to back her… she doesn't have that anymore," he admitted. "I… well… when she cut me out, I took that safety net away with me…"

"So, if something happens to her it'll be your fault."

Wow. That was cruel. He turned a glare to her and she shrugged. "It's how you'll feel. Whether it's true or not. It's why I agreed to my… side job. I could have easily told them no and let them scalp my little brother. My parents have over looked me for him all my life and he's always just assumed I'll give up everything for him, I could have easily let them kill him. But I didn't, because my parents wouldn't have forgiven me and I wouldn't have forgiven myself. That's how you'll feel."

Wo thought that over. That _was_ how he'd feel. If something happened to Rowan because he took her safety net away, no matter it was McGarrett's job to take care of her now, he'd feel guilty, he'd blame himself, but he'd blame Steven more.

She stood up. "Shall I make us something to eat?" she asked and he nodded, taking her hand as she walked by to kiss her knuckles just so she'd smile at him with that silken way.

As soon as she was gone though he unlocked his phone and called Kong.

"Liang," he answered on the second ring.

"Has he found her yet?" Wo asked.

"Uh…. Well… I didn't think you cared, so I haven't been keeping…"

"You put too much time and money into keeping her safe to not care. I heard you when Wright took your app down, your first worry was Rowan being unprotected. So, I'll ask you again, has McGarrett found her yet?"

"The whole point of the app is that she's protect so of course I'd…" "Kong." "No. Steven has not found Rowan yet."

Wo Fat sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, how was that possible? "It's been two days…"

"Yeah and she's really not that hard to find. I found in her in four hours."

"You found her?"

"It's as you said… I spent too much time looking after her to not care," he admitted. "I swear that girl's like a parasite, she's grown on me."

Wo Fat laughed at that. Yes that was exactly what Rowan was like. "She's okay though? Someone hasn't… taken her?"

"No she's hiding out in someone's basement. Last I heard she's just crying, writing songs and eating junk food. He's running around like a chicken with his head cut off, has no idea where she is."

"Okay… good…" he whispered.

"He's not very good at this, is he?" Kong asked and Wo Fat sighed. No, no Steven really wasn't and Wo Fat had left his sister's life and emotional care in his hands.

"Yeah, he's a fucking idiot. Uh… I want the app to stay offline… she can have no access but… but do you think there's a way to have it run… automatedly?"

"Well…"

"Are you already looking into that?"

"Uh… well…"

"Okay, you know what, do what you have to do and just don't tell me. Just bill me for it and leave it at that."

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"Positive."

"Okay, and do you want updates on the whole… situation… we got right now?"

"No…"

"Okay do you want me to give you updates without asking?"

"…. No…"

"Yeah, okay, sure thing buddy, copy that."

"Thanks," he whispered and then hung up the phone. There, conscience assuaged. Now he could focus on the important things. Like the empire was trying to rebuild and the woman in the kitchen he wanted to bend over that stove and do some terrible things to. He was going to start with his woman though, that was going to be more fun.


	148. Chapter 148

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: So we finally met the girl who will eventually start dating Wo Fat. What do you think? Cute? I think they're cute. And here we are. The last chapter, where they're being obnoxious. Steve is going to smarten up, Rowan's going to explain and then the two of them are out of Angst-ville and driving straight to Cute-tropolis... like literally immediately. I liked how this one went, granted they don't really fix their problems, but at least they're going to be addressed. But what do you guys think? Are you ready for all the cute stuff? Don't forget to leave me a review, and I'll see you guys tomorrow!_

Chapter 148

* * *

 **Clue #1**

Steve and Danny came out of Rowan's bank, finally getting them to give him info on her bank records. They wouldn't let him see them, they could only verbally confirm his questions. No activity since the day before. Steve wouldn't be able to report her missing for another 34 hours.

If he actually got to the point where he had to report her missing, he'd have a mental breakdown.

They were walking back to the car when they spotted Jerry coming out of a music store, he had a guitar case strung across his back, a book of music paper under his arm.

"Hey! Jerry!" Danny called. Jerry turned and then froze like a deer in the headlights. They came up to him, looked him over.

Steve, who was trying his hardest not to break out into tears, tried to smile. "Hey, since when do you play the guitar?"

Jerry blinked his eyes. "Uh… I'm trying to learn," he said. Then stared at them really awkwardly before saying: "Kay, well bye."

He tried to walk past them but Danny stopped him. "Oh hey, probably a weird question but uh… you haven't seen Rowan today, have you?"

Jerry turned back to them his eyes twice as wide. "Seen Rowan? Why would have I seen Rowan? Well this was nice see you guys later," and then he rushed away. Steve, for a moment, thought it was weird, but he had already checked Jerry's house, he was still moving out and into Chins, he hadn't gone over himself but Chin had checked while helping Jerry move boxes. Rowan hadn't been there.

"Come on, let's check Atlantic Records, maybe she's gone there," Danny urged tugging Steve along. And Steve let him do it because standing up right was becoming too hard for him, but he didn't want to go home, not to get the pain meds he needed, not for anything, not unless he knew she was there waiting for him.

 **Clue #2**

The night had been hellish. The only time Steve had slept was when the meds had knocked him out. But even then, he woke up, startled, afraid, from terrible nightmares and Rowan wasn't there to soothe him. Which had made everything worse because the nightmares were about her.

By morning he had become a shaking mess. He was running out of options, out of theories, and he couldn't report Rowan missing for another 24 hours. When Danny saw the state that Steve was in the next morning, he took him to Kamekona. To ask if Rowan had been by that morning or the day before after they left, she had not, and where one would go to get fake passports. He had been acting weird, cagey, like he hadn't wanted to talk to them, but it was McGarrett that glare was pointed at.

Kamekona had thought about the question carefully. "So, you're looking for someone from Wo Fat's Network of people that Rowan would know to go to if she needed a fake passport?" he asked.

"Or maybe… if you saw her, you may have mentioned someone she could go to?" Danny offered.

Kamekona scowled. "I already told you, I ain't seens her in a while." He thought a little longer. "But the only man I know who Fat knows who deals with trafficking peoples and knew her too was Arturo Casey but the word on the street is that he doesn't like her too much, you know? Something about Five-0 owing him a door cuz-uh her."

They thanked him for his time, grateful for the familiar name and then turned around. Ready to go and knock down Arturo Casey's door again only to find a familiar face behind them.

"Hey Jerry," Danny said and once again Jerry froze but said _hi_ to them in that same awkward way as the day before.

"Oh, you back again, bruddah?" Kamekona asked and Jerry pointed up to him.

"I'm doing a shrimp run," he said answering a question that neither of them had asked. "Uh… you guys find her yet?"

Steve sucked in a hard breath, the burning ache where Rowan had been fired up as soon as Jerry asked about her.

"No," Danny answered for him.

"Kay well keep me posted," he said and then turned back to Kamekona.

"Come on, let's go see Arturo Casey," Danny said pulling him away and even though Steve was almost sixty percent certain Jerry said: "One Garlic Shrimp and One Rowan Special," to Kamekona, he quickly brushed that aside.

You couldn't order a Rowan special without Rowan being with you, not unless Kamekona knew it was for Rowan. But they had just been asking about Rowan and he hadn't mentioned Jerry ordering Rowan specials before. No, it had to be Steve's subconscious seeking Rowan out everywhere.

 **Clue #3**

By the third day, Steve was running on 5 hours of sleep combined over an almost 72 hour period. He was a mess. But Duke had finally agreed to file the missing persons report on Rowan and cops were officially looking for her. Five-0 was not allowed to be involved in this one, conflict of interest since she had run specifically from him.

But that didn't stop him from looking.

They were now chasing down shadows. Anything that could have led him to her, which meant places he knew she liked to go. Like the bookstore downtown, three blocks from the music store, two blocks from her favourite coffee place.

They were walking in when they spotted Jerry, coming out, a bag of books hanging off of him and that shocked look back on his face.

"What are you doing here?" they all said together and then they paused.

"Looking for Rowan," Steve answered as Jerry said: "Buying books."

Danny peered into the bag and frowned. "Young Adult?"

"It's all action man," Jerry said. "It's my guilty pleasure but uh… I gotta go, I promised my mom I'd be home to help her move the rest of her stuff."

And then Jerry pushed past them and left.

But Steve didn't stop thinking about it. Because that was the third time Steve had gone looking for Rowan and found Jerry instead.

And if he actually added it all up, the Rowan Specials, the guitar, and the young adult books Rowan was always reading, it equalled the same thing. Rowan was with Jerry.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

It didn't take much to convince Danny to go to Jerry's, once Steve had put it together. They were out of leads. It was worth a shot, Danny had said and then drove him over. He was humoring him, of course, Steve was a wreck, anyone could see that, Steve himself could see that, and if going through Jerry's place again would make him feel a little bit better, Danny was going to let him do it.

"Okay, now don't get your hopes up. We've had a few coincidences but that's it. Kamekona wouldn't confirm if he's been selling Jerry Rowan specials and everything else we got is circumstantial. There's a good chance she's not here," Danny warned him as they walked up the drive.

Steve didn't believe Kamekona, he figured him in on it. The two of them colluding together. It was his eyes, the way he'd look at McGarrett like he was the villain of the piece that had him believing that. Problem was, as soon as he put it together, as soon as he figured she was with Jerry everything in him came alive, like his body knew she was there, and had been waiting for his brain to catch up. Nothing short of tearing that house apart would convince him that she wasn't there.

They knocked on the door and then waited. Jerry opened the door, but not all the way, already suspicious behaviour, Steve was right. He just knew it.

"Oh hey guys, what's up?"

"Is Rowan here, Jerry?" Danny asked.

Jerry blinked his eyes, suddenly becoming a bit twitchier than usually. "Uh… I thought you guys already checked… remember Chin came by…"

"She could have come by after he left," Steve whispered. "You bought a guitar, and bought _blank_ sheet music, Rowan writes songs and left all her song writing stuff at my place. You bought her favourite kind of books and I know you've been buying Rowan specials which you cannot do without Rowan. I know she's here Jerry."

"Well I mean for starters, I rented a guitar, to see if I liked it you know? And the blank music was a mix up and… why am I explaining myself to you?" he asked. "All of this just sounds very circumstantial… wouldn't hold up in court you know? And as much as I'd like to hang, I've got packing to do, and I don't feel like letting you in after you accused me like that… and I don't see the police or a warrant…"

That was it. He had her. He one hundred percent had her. But then that didn't matter because a familiar haunting voice echoed up from the basement and all three men froze.

 _I'm running outta patience, I wanna be a great one. And when the spirt calls me, I wanna throw my hands up, ready to be saved, yeah. And when my day's done. I hope I die faded. When they take me way up I hope I fly faded._

That was Rowan's voice. He knew that voices anywhere. Beside him Danny groaned but Steve… Steve growled suddenly becoming something less than human.

"Let me in Jerry."

His face had darkened. He was angry, he was seconds from her, he knew it and Jerry, who was usually on his side, was standing against him. Though Jerry was clearly scared of the face Steve was pulling, he shook his head, Steve had to brace himself against the door to keep Jerry from shutting it in his face.

"I can't do that McGarrett," he said standing firmly in the way.

"You shouldn't do that Jer," Danny warned him. "Steve tends to get a little… unhinged when it comes to her."

"I don't care," Jerry snapped. "I promised her, okay? I promised that you'd stay away until she felt better, and she hasn't felt better, all she does is cry. You didn't want her, McGarrett, you told her to leave. Why should she go back?"

Pain overwhelmed him for a minute, so much so that he stopped trying to push against the door to get inside. He hated hearing about her crying over him. He hated that she was in pain, pain that he caused and he couldn't wrap her up in his arms and soothe it. He hated that she was here the whole time and he hadn't figured that out. He hated that Jerry, who had believed in him who had trust him and looked up to him, no longer saw the man he idolized but the shitty person he seemed to always be to Rowan.

Steve pushed the door again. "I'll fix it. Let me in," he ordered but Jerry wouldn't move.

"She believed in me when no one else did, not even you," Jerry reminded him. Goddamn that Farrow situation, that was why Jerry had been so complicit in this. "I'm not going to let her down."

And then with one big shove the door slammed shut in his face.

"Okay," Danny said. He had a hand to Steve's arm. He knew better than anyone how close Steve was to a mental breakdown, he knew that this wouldn't be good for him. "We know where she is, if we call Duke, he'll come with the cops and pull her out, alright? Okay? So I'm going to call… WAIT!"

But Steve didn't wait, he had stormed away, stormed around the house until he found the back door and then kicked it right open. Jerry was there, shouting at him words Steve didn't understand because he wasn't in his right mind anymore. Something primal had taken over and it was going to get him to Rowan if it was the last thing he did.

He followed the sound of her voice, down the stairs to Jerry's pad, where he found her sitting at a keyboard, giant headphones on her ears, her fingers moving slowly over the keys as she sung, surrounded by his packed boxes.

 _What is life? What is love? What is lies? What is trust? What is everything?_ _Everything is nothing without you._

She was wearing one of Jerry's shirt's like a dress. Literally she had put a belt around her waist to make it more dress like. The black Hawaiian shirt with the palm trees on it went down to her knees. She was barefoot, her red-blonde hair was piled up in a messy bun up top her head. There was a blanket on the couch, where there were scattered containers from Rowan Specials, a collection of mugs with half-drunk tea in them, papers with notes and words scrawled across them haphazardly, the guitar that he had rented propped up against the side of the couch. The key board was new, he hadn't known that she could play the piano, but her fingers were moving slowly through the notes, basic and easy, maybe she didn't _really_ know how to play then.

But Steve's eyes stayed on Rowan. Standing behind her unable to move, afraid to reach out for her afraid she'd run again. He was shaking, desperate to feel her but too afraid to try.

 _What is life? What is love? I hope I am enough. What is everything? Everything is nothing without you_.

Everything was nothing without her.

He reached out for her, a single hand to her shoulder and she turned. Her cheeks were red from her tears, her eyes actually had tears in them, those clear blue eyes he had missed so much. She wasn't wearing makeup, she wasn't dressed up or fancy, she looked sad and surprised at once but Steve had never thought she looked more beautiful.

"Steven."

She stood, the headphones ripped off her head. "What are you… how did you find me?"

He had been so afraid. So afraid he had lost her for good. That his stupidity and fears had chased away the only good in his life. And all of that came crashing around him the second she said his name.

Everything was _nothing_ without _her_.

He collapsed into her, knees hitting the ground painfully, his arms wrapping around her waist and refusing to let go. He sobbed into her, relishing in her fingers digging into his shoulders. He heard her say his name again, asking him what was wrong.

"What's wrong? What is happening? What is he on?"

But no one answered, and Steve was lost to the world. The exhaustion quickly caught up with him and with Rowan in his arms again, his head pillowed on her stomach, Steve passed out.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

It was dark when Steve woke up. It was dark and he was alone. Panic hit him so hard he was sure he was having a heart attack. No. He had just had her, where was she? Still at Jerry's? No. She'd run. He knew where she was now and she'd have to run again. No. No. NO.

He bolted out of bed. It dawned on him to be surprised that he was still dressed, but he was too busy sprinting down the stairs, he got the door part way open, had one shoe on and was struggling to get the other on while he was searching for his keys which weren't in the bowl when…

"Where are you going?"

Steve turned, there she was, _his Rowan_ standing in his kitchen. Wearing his grey sweater that he loved so much and a pair of black leggings. Two mugs in her hand. She was making tea, for both of them.

He shut the door his breathing and heart rate slowly returning to normal or at least it was until he saw a packed suitcase sitting by the couch.

"Why is there a suitcase at the door?"

Rowan, who had been making her way towards him with the two mugs suddenly avoided his eyes. No. _no._ "Rowan why is there a suitcase at the door?"

"Because you told me to leave, Steven," she told him and his heart slammed straight up into his throat.

"No."

"Actually, you did."

"I know what I said but that wasn't what I meant."

"Except you said it. You told me to leave."

"And you let your brother torture me," Steve shot back. It wasn't what he wanted to say, he wanted to tell her that he was willing to forgive her for that, because nothing made sense when she wasn't with him, but he couldn't get that out of his mouth.

"I did not _let_ him torture you!"

"You knew he was going to do that to me, don't lie, you told me you knew."

"I did know, but that was a vision. That's not the same as him telling me he was going to do it and me just letting him go a head with it. I dreamed it would happen but I never thought he'd actually do it because he promised me that he wouldn't!"

"Why the hell did you believe him? Rowan, he's a professional liar."

"Not to me…" "When he kidnapped you, he told you I didn't want you back and I did." He shouted and she fell back. "You were dreaming about it. You knew it was going to happen and you said nothing!"

Rowan had tears streaming down her face and he wanted to feel bad about it but she wasn't the one who got tortured. She slowly put the mugs down on his coffee table and then when she straightened, she looked at him with all the pain and hurt in her eyes blinding him and made his own pain triple.

"He promised he wouldn't do it. So when I dreamed about it, I thought it was just because it was supposed to happen soon but I had already fixed it and then… and then Danny told me what happened and I knew he had done it and I went to find you…"

"So, you really didn't know he had grabbed me until Danny told you I had been grabbed?"

"Of course! You think I would have just let it happen if he had told me what he was going to do? I told you Steve, if I thought he was going to hurt you or your team that I'd tell you, I wasn't lying. If I thought he was going to do it I would have stopped you from leaving that morning. But he knew that too, so he didn't tell me, he just did it and hoped I wouldn't find out, like I wasn't going to find out, the asshole."

Steve watched her sniff. She used the heel of her hand to wipe her tears away and he was brought back to that stormy night in the tent and he was suddenly filled with the desire to grab her and crush her to his chest. Call him crazy but he believed her.

"Then you got mad and I get it, but I didn't know, really and you told me to leave and I didn't have anyone…"

"I know, the app's inactive and he says you've cut him out."

"Wait what… you called him?" she asked. When he nodded she blinked her eyes. "Alright, we can circle back that later but… yeah… that's right, I cut him out. Which means I don't have Wo, I don't have Kong, I don't have the app, and then you were gone and the Five-0s would go with you and I just… I just…"

She really had dropped him. "You… you really ended all contact…"

"Of course," Rowan sulked. "I told him if he did it, we'd be done, and he did it anyway, despite promising me he wouldn't and now…"

"You're not alone, okay?" he said reaching out for her to pull her close. "I'm sorry, I am…"

Rowan threw his hands off of her. "But you told me to leave…" "I was mad, I was being stupid…" "This isn't the first time you've done something like this."

Holy shit she was actually still going to leave him. They were about to break up. No, no he couldn't lose her.

"Okay, okay, I… I'm going to tell you something and I need you to just… to just let me explain and don't panic… can you do that?"

Rowan nodded and he nodded too amazed that he was going to do this… like for real, but it was the only option and she'd… she'd understand… right? "Okay… look… part of my problem is that dream world I was living in. Remember, where my dad was alive and we were married and you were pregnant?"

"Yeah what about it?"

"Well part of that dream world… in fact every other sentence I said to you in that dream world, every time I saw you, I thought the same thing and that was _I love you_ ," Steve paused there and let that sink in. Rowan just stared at him and blinked her eyes. "Now… I'm not saying that now… and I don't know if it was my subconscious trying to tell me that that's how I feel, but I'm not ready for that Rowan… I'm not ready and it scares me to think that… I may… it's just… that's a lot for me… but I keep staring at you and remembering that world and how happy we were and I want it so bad but I don't know if we…"

She put up a hand to silence him. "That's what this has been about? That's why you've been so weird?"

"Well… mostly…"

"So, you're telling me that when things get to be too much for you, you pull a Danny?" she asked.

Steve blinked his eyes, oh god… that was what he did. He sabotaged his relationships if he thought people were getting too close. Holy fuck. "Okay… yeah… well… I thought that I was falling for a person who would let their brother torture than me and I was more than willing to forgive you for it and… and… why are you judging me?! You run when things get to be too much. You pull disappearing acts, which I think is way…"

Rowan threw herself at him, pressing her lips to his to shut him up and he practically melded into it. God he had needed this, had needed her against him, with him.

"You are so silly, Steven McGarrett," she whispered against his lips and he practically growled into the next kiss.

"You could have told me that was your problem," she whispered. "You got a little mixed up in that dream world, it happens, I'm not ready for that step either but it doesn't mean that we can't try to make that happy ending our own, you know, at a reasonable pace?"

Steve nodded. "Do you think… you might be ready for a different step?" she asked.

"And what's that?"

"Giving me that label I really want?" Steve grimaced and her hopeful smile faded. "Well it was worth a shot."

"I really like you Rowan, I do. I care for you, I really, really do. Like a lot. Like a lot, a lot, but this is way too much for me, you know? It's too much for me to take. I just need some time to breathe, to just let things stay the way they are just for a little bit? Can we do that? Is that okay?"

Rowan sighed. "Is it because… uhm… do you still think that I'd…"

"No," Steve whispered his hands gripping her elbows tightly. "I know you wouldn't… I just… with the evidence… and… and even with it… I didn't think you'd… no… that's not why I… I just… I'm really overwhelmed, that's all, it's really more a me problem."

He stared at her, his eyes softening to her as she just lowered her eyes away from him, clearly disappointment. He cleared his throat. "Can I ask for something?"

"Oh something else?" she asked a hint of bitterness in her voice even though she was trying to tease him. Well he figured he deserved that.

"You don't have the app anymore Rowan, you don't have his protection… what are the chances of you not getting yourself into every dangerous situation you find?"

"What are the chances of you listening to my dreams?" she shot back.

"Are you dreaming again?" he asked her.

"Well… no, right now, not recently, but if I do start dreaming again, what are the chances of you listening to me?"

"Pretty high if you've got enough information for me to do something with what you're dreaming," he snapped and Rowan smiled.

"Then I guess I won't have to go behind your back to get help then," she said and he pulled her close again.

"Can we go to bed, Ro? I know I just woke up, but I'm tired and sore… and I haven't slept right since you ran off."

She didn't answer him, instead she took his hand and led him towards the steps. Good. Great. Maybe now, with Wo Fat gone and finally out of the picture, he and Rowan would be better...


	149. Chapter 149

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Alright guys, so this is the last of the marathon. I know, so sad. But how did you like how the last chapter ended? I hope it was cute enough for everyone. But there we go. The last of really big angst for the season, that is, until we hit season 6. All we have now is all the cute stuff. Seriously, they're going to be nothing but sickeningly adorable for the next couple of chapters. I'm personally looking forward to all the fluffy stuff. I can't wait for you guys to read it all. I hope you guys are excited as I am. Please enjoy this chapter of cute domestic adorableness and I'll see you all on Friday._

Chapter 149

* * *

Steve smiled as his Aunt Deb came off the gangplank and headed towards them.

"Aloha, Stevie!" she cried pulling him into a hug once she got close. She then turned to Rowan. "Oh and Aloha to you too, though I must say I'm not the least bit surprised to see you here."

Steve smiled and then pulled Rowan to his side, so happy he'd get to do this officially. "Aunt Deb, I know you two have already met, but let me formally introduce you to Rowan Pierce, my girl."

As Aunt Deb pulled her into a hug, he heard Rowan whisper: "Notice he won't add _friend_ to the end of it?" and Aunt Deb laughed. "Talk some sense into him Aunt Deb!"

Steve pulled Rowan back and wrapped his arms up around her, her back to his chest and then dropped his chin to her head and just smiled as his Aunt Deb lit up at the sight of them.

"Oh, so you two…"

"Are officially dating, yes," Steve said loving the way Rowan dropped her smile into the hold he had around her, those lips twitching up against the skin of his arms.

"Well isn't that just wonderful?" she asked she then turned to Steven and added: "And, honey, before you ask, I don't know where your mother is. Your sister said that you called. She doesn't know where Doris is either."

"For the love of God Steve, I thought you let that go," Rowan hissed and Steve winced. Well they needed off of that topic like ASAP.

"Tell me about your trip, was it good?" he asked instead.

"It was amazing. Here I was a little worried because we booked it after my last round of chemo and I didn't know if it'd be up to the trip but, sweetheart, that sea air is just what I needed."

"Treatments were rough, huh?"

"Kiddo, _rough_ doesn't begin to describe it but the doc says the tumor in my brain has shrunk half its size. So I guess the poison works."

Steve smiled but it was Rowan who said: "Well, you look great."

"A little makeup and a good wig hides a multitude of sins."

"Amen sister," Rowan said. She then leant forward and stage whispered: "Steve still hasn't seen my real face."

"And don't you show him until you're good and married," Deb warned playfully and Steve shook his head. He had seen that girl in the hospital, and naked countless times, which included in the shower, he had too seen her real face, and he fucking loved every inch of it, and her, and he was still struggling with not telling her that.

But he needed to get off of this topic like ASAP so he said: "Listen, I'm so glad you decided to fight back, Deb."

"Well you can thank Leonard for that. He's the one who talked me into getting into the ring," she said failing to notice Steve's face fall a little bit as she turned around. "Where is he by the way?"

She waved off to a nice man in a blue Hawaiian shirt giving a guy legal advice. Steve's eyes narrowed at him.

"I thought you said your boyfriend was a shop teacher? Why's he handing out legal advice?"

"Well he just likes to be helpful, that's all," she said before turning to Leonard and cooing: "Sweetheart" to him and sharing a kiss on the cheek once he came to her side.

Rowan squeaked with excitement in Steve's embrace. "Ah, I love it!"

Great. Good. Well he did not love it. He now had a bad feeling about this Leonard.

"Honey, this is Steve and his lovely… _girl_ … Rowan," she said and Rowan waved to him as Steve still hadn't let her go and didn't plan to since they were this close to a dock and she could easily fall off or subject herself to some sort of other disaster. "Steve, Rowan, this is Leonard Cassano."

"Nice to meet you," Rowan said offering him a hand to shake. "Sorry about the restraints, Steve doesn't trust me with heights."

"You fall. You know this, we all know this, the state of Hawaii knows this," he said to her, letting go briefly to shake his hand. "Sorry, yes, it is very nice to meet you. Ignore Rowan, she thinks she's funny."

"That's alright, I have the exact same problem."

Steve offered to carry their bags but they declined and as they walked away Steve let them walk in front of he and Rowan, he still held Rowan's hand, loving her fingers intertwined with his. They were walking for five minutes before Leonard very loudly whispered: "Honey, we've been on land for five minutes when are you gonna give him the news?"

"Uh-oh," Rowan said, shooting a grin up to Steve but he ignored her. "What news?" he asked.

Both Deb and Leonard paused and turned back to him. She glanced to Leonard before turning to Steve and saying: "Well, short version. Leonard popped the question and I said yes.

"YESS! LOVE IT! I call dibs on maid of honor, unless Mary's coming then I call dibs on music. Actually, either way I call dibs on music!"

"You're engaged?" he asked his aunt but as soon as Rowan started going on about planning a wedding he rounded on her. "They're engaged not getting married right this fucking second," he snapped to her before turning calmly back to his Aunt Deb and try to smile encouragingly to mask his growing concern. "You guys have only been dating for a couple of months. What's the rush?"

"Oh Steven, some people jump right into things," Rowan said coming to stand beside Deb. "Unlike you who only jumps into danger and terrorist plots." She turned to Aunt deb. "Seriously, we've been living together for five months and he still won't call me his girlfriend, I mean… how slow does this boy need to move."

God. Fucking. Damnit. Not this again.

Aunt Deb turned to him. "Oh, my pragmatic nephew. Never one for romance or the grand gesture…"

"Hey that's not true, I'm romantic with Rowan all the time, Rowan, Ro tell them!" he ordered but Rowan just went _eh_ and shrugged. Okay well fuck her, no more romance for her then.

"Honey you know that country western song, _Live Like You Were Dying_?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, it makes more sense when you're actually dying," she said. "I've got my tumor. Leonard is stage four leukemia. We've got no time to waste."

"And I knew Deb was the one. The moment I saw her at that cancer support group."

"Okay, so you're gonna have a nice long engagement though, right? Make some plans…"

"Plans are made. We're tying the knot tomorrow at 6 pm," she said turning away from Steve who looked about ready to have an aneurysm.

"Whoa, whoa, now wait a second. You can't… because Mary will be devastated…" "Your sister gave us her blessing already. And besides she can't come cause little Joanie has an ear infection."

"Yes! LOVE IT!" Rowan crowed again following after them. "Not the ear infection, that sucks. But the tomorrow thing, that we can swing. I've already got some planning started for Kono's wedding that we can use to our advantage. I have some friends in the photography world that can do all the video taping so little Joanie and Mary can see too. Oh! Oh! We need to go _dress shopping._ Like ASAP."

Wow what a help his girlfriend was… his girl was… fuck he had to stop slipping up with that.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve let Rowan take control of the wedding as he didn't want to think about it. He went back at the Palace to talk theories about the case trying to figure out who out of 250 people would want their victim's dead, while Rowan took his Aunt and Leonard out around town to help set everything up. They were just establishing who had the most motive out of 250 people when the doors opened and in a flurry Rowan was there throwing her arms around him and Steve was devouring her in kisses. His girl. God his girl and what she did to him.

"Okay so we're not stopping in long," she said to him once she managed to pry his lips from hers and at that he looked up from her and found his Aunt Deb and Leonard looking at them both with knowing smiles.

"Oh hey, hey guys," he said to them. Trying ever so hard not to blush and failing miserably. "Uh… what are you doing here?"

"Sorry to pop in unexpectedly, but we were across the street at the courthouse getting our license and we thought we'd come by and say hi."

Steve's smile must have faded a bit because Rowan nudged him between the ribs… hard. "Oh that's great, I'm glad you did. And Rowan's still with you, with shopping bags, babe, shopping bags? I can't fit any of _my_ clothes in _my_ closet as is…"

"Oh it's just a dress. Well it's two dresses, but it's my dress for the wedding, and you know Aunt Deb's dress, that Leonard is not allowed to see right now," Rowan told him and he nodded, oh great.

"And she was such a dear helping me pick it out. And she got us into this really chic spa, where we got treated like royalty."

"Deb insisted we both get "mani-pedis" before the ceremony," Leonard chimed in. "I got one with her on the boat, but apparently we both needed touch ups."

"Oh yeah, and where did she get you in?"

"The Grand Hyatt or something… was that's its name?" she asked Rowan who nodded in confirmation.

"Wait, she got you into The Kauai Resort and Spa?" Steve thundered. He put his hands on his hips and glared down at Rowan. "That place is hella expensive and really hard to get into… not without the right connections … how did you get them in there last minute?"

"I write songs for Atlantic Records, I had Pete's secretary call in the appointment and tell them that they were wining and dining the next new talent. They gave your Aunt Deb the star treatment," she told him pinning him with a sultry hooded stare. But he caught the double meaning there. That she used her own connections and not Wo Fat's because they were still not speaking. Were never going to talk again.

"So that explains the soft hands," Danny said to Steve and he almost leant over and slapped him.

"Don't let Danny bust your chops," she said quickly and Leonard smiled and Aunt Deb laughed.

"Well, I don't care. This is our one and only wedding and I just figured we ought to look our best, hands and feet," Deb proclaimed.

"Oh and massages, I got them in for massages," Rowan added. "I'm like the wedding fairy! I swear to god this should be my side racket."

"Wow, could she have made that sound anymore criminal?" Danny asked from the other side of Steve and Steve elbowed him so hard he almost fell over. He turned a glare to Steve and then smiled at Deb brightly. "Well that makes perfect sense, doesn't that make perfect sense, Steven?"

"Complete sense," he agreed.

Leonard smiled at them both and then tapped Steve. "If you're free for lunch, I'm buying," he offered.

Rowan turned a bright smile up to him. "Aw, please, I know you have a case, but… maybe they can spare you? Just for lunch? Please?"

"Oh, I'd love it for my two favourite guys to get to know each other better, huh?" Deb added. Wow the double whammy.

Luckily for him Grover came over with a lead. "Aw, see, I would love to, but I'm in the middle of this case right now, and we got a lead…"

Rowan's smile faded. And his heart sunk. He belated realized that it looked like he was trying to avoid her, but what he was really avoiding was this impromptu wedding that was making him nervous. He just didn't want to have anything to do with it.

But Rowan lowered her eyes away from his face. "Of course," she said obviously trying not to seem disappointed though it was clear she was.

"I really want to, I do," he said to her. "But work…" "It's more important. Yeah I know…"

"That's not what I…" he tried to say but Rowan shook him off dawning a very fake but very bright smile. "You're gonna love this dress. Trust me. Just you wait until you see me in it. Maybe I'll give you a preview tonight?"

"Yeah, I'd like that," he said. "You'll keep me posted… you know what I like."

Since the network went down, the hourly texts were something he wanted, just to always know where she was. She nodded, smiling at him in that sad way she had when he disappointed her. He hated that look, but she'd see him that night, and he'd find a way to make it up to her. He always did.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

He thought he hated it when she woke him up screaming over her dreams of an always bleak and bloody future, but that was nothing compared to what was waking her up now. Whatever it was… it wasn't dreams of the future, it was just straight nightmares and they were just like the ones she had on that camping trip she had.

But Steve was better at them now, he knew how to duck her hands, to trap them to him and keep her still, shaking her until reality came back to her. Until the dreams let her go, when her cloudy blue eyes would focus on him and fill with tears, and her arms wound come around him neck and she'd sob into him.

The dreams he hated the most were the ones that made her shake, her tears wouldn't stop for hours after, and she'd always ask him if he thought her monstrous, if there was anything that could possibly change his mind. He said no. Every time she asked. But when he asked what they were about, she never answered. Sometimes she was so distraught by what she saw she wouldn't be able to stomach him touching her, she wouldn't be able to sleep.

So when Rowan bolted up in bed, coughing sputtering and crying out, not in words but just these painful unintelligible sounds, Steve was ready. But it wasn't one of her monstrous dreams, this… this was something else, something new. She had gone quiet, ramrod straight in his arms, her body vibrating beneath him. Her eyes wide but unseeing and rolling back into her head, her teeth clenched together, jerking like she was having some sort of seizure.

"Rowan, snap out of it," he ordered trying to shake her out of it, but whatever had grabbed her was stronger then both of them tonight and he was helpless. All he could do was watch as her body shook in his arms and hold onto her for dear life, praying to any god that could hear him for this to let his girl go.

When she finally went limp he cradled her to him, repeating her name. He had turned his face back to his, but her eyes were closed, and though her mouth was open she wasn't breathing.

 _WHAT?!_

"No, Rowan, Rowan, breathe goddamn it!" he shouted, struggling to wake her up. He dropped her to the bed, he'd have to CPR on her, he'd have to start her breathing again. Oh god she was going to die in front of him.

But when he bent over, ready to seal his lips over hers to breathe into her for her, she suddenly gasped and started coughing. Steve let his relieved breath out in a few shaking chuckles, he tugged her to him and held her tight.

He pressed kisses to the side of her head, his cheeks, her hair as her fingers gripped his arms and she whimpered against him.

"Are you okay?" he asked but she shook her head.

She suddenly threw his arms off and ran off, he knew what was going to happen next. As she threw up, he knew enough to grab her a ginger ale. She he quickly went down the stairs, grabbed a can for her, and one of the blankets from the couch for her and then headed back upstairs.

When he returned to her side, she was sitting on the floor by the toilet, staring off into space the back of her hand to her mouth. He handed her the can of ginger ale that she took but didn't open and he settled himself down behind her, draping the blanket around her.

He wrapped his arms around her, pressing her back to his chest and inhaling her scent. Glad that she was live, glad that she was okay, glad that he wasn't starting his morning by taking his girlfriend to the hospital in the middle of the night.

"I'm fine, really, really, I'm fine. I'm sorry I woke you up, you can go back to bed."

Steve held onto Rowan a little tighter, making sure the blanket was around her keeping her warm. "No, no don't apologise, I'm just glad you're okay."

When she just nodded, Steve pulled her a little closer to him until she was all the way against him, trapped between his legs. He brushed a tendril of that silky red hair behind her ear and carefully thought over the can of worms he was about to open.

"You gotta tell me what's going on, Rowan, cause that one… that one was really bad," he whispered.

"It's not important."

"Rowan you stopped breathing after that one," he complained. "I mean… that's like the textbook definition of important!"

Rowan shifted, her eyes pointing everywhere but at him. "It was just a bad dream."

"A bad dream that stopped you from breathing?" he repeated. "Rowan. Please. That one really scared me. I don't know how to help you if you don't tell me what's going on. I told you I'd help you with your visions if you told me what they were, I promised I'd listen, but you won't… you won't talk to me."

Rowan sighed and closed her eyes. Maybe she was tired, maybe he shouldn't have been bothering her about this now.

"I haven't been dreaming about the future," she whispered. "I'm stuck in the past."

"Yeah? Dreaming about Stepanov again?"

"No. About you," she said and Steve frowned. "He water boarded you, right?"

"Yes," he answered softly.

"And then electrocuted you a few times?"

More than a few times, but he didn't tell her that. "Yes… is that… is that what you're dreaming about? About what he did to me."

She nodded softly and his heart went out to her. He dreamt about that too but it made more sense if he did it, he was the one that lived through it.

"Why are you dreaming about that, baby?" he whispered and though she shrugged he had a feeling he knew why she was dreaming about it.

"I guess… I guess I feel… guilty…" she replied after a moment's silence. "I… I should have done more to stop him. I should have… when the dreams started again, even if they were just flashes, I should have known it was because he was planning to grab you… but I stupidly believed he wouldn't break his promise to me… I stupidly believed that he wouldn't… I don't know why I would, not even my real brother kept his promises to me, why would my fake brother? A confirmed sociopath who has a history of torturing you. I'm an idiot."

Steve brushed her hair back behind her ear again, and then tilted her chin to him. "You are not an idiot. You put your trust in someone who let you down, that's not your fault," he whispered to her. "I don't… I don't blame you, you know? You thought you had protected me from it, from him and he lied to you."

"I should have known better."

"No. Up until then, he had been keeping his promises, he treated you differently and we all saw that. And you… you like to see the good in people, it's one of the things I lo… like about you," he admitted hoping she didn't hear the little slip up. Well he knew she heard but she had this wonderful habit of never asking him about it. She knew he still wasn't ready and never questioned him about it.

She sat silently his arms around her, letting him press kisses to her shoulder through the blanket. He waited, watching her, wondering what was going on her head.

"That's not all is it?" he asked after a heavy silence between them. She opened her mouth seemed to think over what she was going to say and then fell quiet again. God no, not this again. "Please… please don't hide things from me, don't shut me out, okay? I can see you're hurting and all I want to do is help you…"

Rowan half turned to him, she regarded him with those big blue eyes for a moment before she bowed her head and whispered: "Sometimes… sometimes it's not you. Sometimes it's a different basement, with different people… and it's me in the chair."

Steve felt the air leave his body, because that explained the coughing, the sputtering like her mouth was filled with water and the way her body had been spasming. She had been living through his pain… and not wearing any of the scars to prove it. For fuck sake. His poor girl, and to think… to think he might be the reason she was dealing with that.

"That… uh… that actually might be my fault."

"Your fault? You don't control what I dream, Steve."

"No… but… we are connected right… and when I was scared before I pulled a little bit of you to me… what if I'm pushing a little of my nightmares out and into you?"

Rowan turned fully, straddling him to the floor. He was hard for her immediately, but this was not the time to be thinking about that.

"You dream about me getting tortured? Why? As… punishment?"

It was interesting the places her mind went. It scared him that she thought him so mad at her that he would want to see what was done to him done to her. Especially since he wasn't mad anymore, he hadn't been mad for weeks.

"No. Of course not, how could you say that? No, it was something that woman…" "Eris." "Yeah, that cunt. It was something she said when I was being uncooperative. That… that they should have grabbed you. I guess it kind of stuck with me."

"Well that's silly, what would grabbing me have done?"

"I would have cracked Rowan."

Rowan blew her air out at him and he realized that she didn't believe him. "No you wouldn't have. You didn't have anything to give him. And besides I'm not…"

"Don't you finish that sentence," he snapped. He hated it when she told him that she wasn't important, she was everything to him. _Everything was nothing without her._ "Rowan. I don't know how you don't already know this, but you're important to me. Very important. And if I came to after one of their druggings and found you in a chair in front of me, with them threatening to do even half of what they were doing to me to you, I would have cracked instantly. You hear me? Instantly, Rowan Pierce. I would have agreed to partner up with Wo Fat to find his father if they took you. So yes. Those are the nightmares I'm having, they're not punishing anyone but me and it seems like I might be sending them to you which makes no sense cause I don't want that happening to you, I don't want anything to happen to you… at all..."

When she just stared at him, he pressed his lips to her neck and she murmured in appreciation. They were quiet a moment, his arms around her waist, her hands holding him in place, just resting against his neck, her fingers running through his hair in a soothing fashion as he pressed soft kisses to the skin of her neck and shoulders.

After a while, when his heart finally slowed down, and she seemed to be calmly resting against him he asked: "You okay now, babe? Do you wanna go back to bed?"

Rowan nestled closer to him and his arms tightened around her instinctively. He took that as a yes and hoisted her up in his arms to carry her back to his bed.

"I'm gonna try not to dream about you in… that situation can you try not to dream about me… like that?" he asked.

"I can't control what I dream Steve," she whispered to him and he bowed his head to hers.

"We'll work on it," he said settling down beside her. "Just try to remember that we're both safe. You saved me from him, just like I'd save you from your own basement, okay? But right now, let's just try to sleep, okay?"

She murmured again, pressing a kiss to his forehead before tugging him to her side and wrapping her arms around him. That time when they fell asleep, the only thing that woke them up was his phone ringing.


	150. Chapter 150

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Guys… Guys… I forgot to update today! I'm so sorry! It's been a wild week, in the sense that I've got a lot of work, and volunteer hours and summer classes that are all coming together at once to swamp me. So we're here. We're at 150 chapters and I think I picked a pretty cute one for the 150. Not going to lie, this one's a little shorter but it's got a stellar ending… okay… sort of… there's a real gruesome part. But over all it's adorable. Don't forget to tell me what you think and I'll see you guys on Monday!_

Chapter 150

* * *

Steve had been struggling with this. Struggling with his Aunt Deb just jumping into this whole marriage business without thinking it through. He wanted her to be happy, of course, but Leonard made him nervous. There was something off about him and after running a background check he figured out what it was.

Leonard Cassano was a lawyer for a mob family who had gotten rid of evidence for his client. This guy couldn't marry his innocent Aunt Deb, not when he was lying about who he was to her.

So that morning, after waking up Rowan to make sure she was still breathing, after being late to the Palace in favour of fucking his girl senseless before heading out to work and once he got confirmation about Leonard, Steven called his Aunt and asked her to meet up. And he actual took time off his case to meet her. Here's hoping she didn't tell Rowan cause he rarely took time off work for her and he had a feeling she would bring that up in every argument they had if she knew.

He met his Aunt at Kamekona's shrimp truck here Kamekona was trying to feed her a shrimp casserole. He sat down at the picnic bench, and tried to smile, but honestly he wasn't looking forward to this.

"Hi," he said quickly.

Deb frowned at him, a hand reaching out to hold his. "Is everything okay? You sounded pretty serious on the phone."

"Well I didn't mean to worry you, Deb, but it is serious. It's about Leonard. He's lying to you," he blurted out and then Deb was staring at him her eyes crinkled in surprise. "He's not… he's not a shop teacher from Queens."

"I know. I know. I know exactly who he is," she admitted and Steve froze. Oh, so they were just lying to him? Great. "And Leonard isn't lying to me. I've been lying to you."

And there was the confirmation of just lying to him.

"What?"

"I was afraid you wouldn't approve if you knew who he really was."

"Deb, he's involved with some very bad people. You know, there's allegations that he helped destroy evidence."

"Well… isn't Rowan involved with some very bad people too?"

"Okay, firstly, not anymore, and secondly… okay yes she was but uh…."

"See, and I love her! I've given her the benefit of the doubt, why can't you do that for Leonard?" she cried. "Look, Leonard says he didn't destroy evidence and as for the rest of it, his clients, all of that, it's long over."

Steve sighed, Deb lent over and took his hand. "Honey, I know you're worried about me, but I can take care of myself. And I know from living through disappointment. I thought I was gonna have a singing career. It never happened. And then I thought maybe someday I might get married and have babies. But it was never the right time. But you know, it's okay. I have no regrets. But, Steve the one thing I never gave up on was love. And I guess it never gave up on me, either, because here he is. At long last. And now, you know, I can leave this earth knowing that I have experienced the most profound and life-altering thing a person can."

Steve took that in, he couldn't help it, all he could think about at that moment was Rowan and how everything deb just described was everything he felt for her. "Which leads me to this question," she said. "Do you feel even a fraction of that for Rowan?"

Steve half laughed. Oh god, if only she knew. "A fraction and then some," he admitted.

"Good," Aunt Deb said with a smile. "Good. Don't let her get away Steven. You're so willing to risk your life. When are you gonna be willing to risk your heart? I know it's scary, but once you give in, it'll be the best feeling in the world."

"It's not that easy for me, Aunt Deb," he whispered. "Rowan… she comes with a lot of baggage, and I can see your face I don't care about the baggage, or the less then squeaky clean past she has and the criminal network she used, and still might have ties to. She has the kind of baggage that means she could leave, and everyone I care about… they leave me Deb. I'm afraid… I'm afraid that if I let myself fall in too deep with her… that I won't survive it when she leaves."

"Steve the first time I met your girlfriend, she was outside in a parking lot, sobbing because the girl you were calling your girlfriend at the time had forced her out of your life. I saw anguish in that girl's eyes so deep and painful it made my own heart hurt for her and I saw that mirrored in your eyes every time you looked at her and couldn't go to her," Aunt Deb told him and Steve felt his own heart squeeze in response. He never really thought about how much Catherine's edict had hurt Rowan, how painful it had been for her to go through with it simply because she wanted him to be happy. All he had ever thought about was how it had damaged him, how it had made him miserable. It had proved to him that his feelings for Rowan were so much more than what he had been shrugging them off as. It had proved, when he was livid that Catherine had taken her from him that he wasn't capable of letting Rowan go.

Deb watched the emotions play on Steve's face before continuing.

"I am so happy that you two officially got together. Seeing her with you now, listening to her talk about you, all those pictures she has on her phone of the two of you together, of just of you, makes me happy. Not going to lie though, she has a lot of pictures of you without your shirt on… is there a reason? Are you allergic to shirts Steven?" she asked. Steve couldn't help it, he laughed, Rowan did love taking pictures of him when he was shirtless. "I think you're letting your fear blind you. That girl isn't going to leave you unless someone comes and drags her away, though I am a little afraid that she had no idea how you feel for her. That you might be the person who drags her away… well… actually pushes her away."

She was right. Rowan really had no idea how much he cared for her, last night's talk had made that perfectly clear to him. He wasn't sure how to make it anymore clearer to her though.

"There is something I need from you," Deb said changing the topic.

"Yeah and what's that."

"Someone to walk me down the isle," she offered and Steve smiled. "You know anybody?"

"I do, I do know someone," he said. Because obviously it was going to be him.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

It was only a half hour after he finished talking to his Aunt that Leonard had called and requested that Steve come to meet him. He figured that meant that Aunt Deb had told them about the conversation. Great. Which meant this was either going to be an argument, or this man was going to throw a heap of terrible excuses at him. But he, he went because he loved his Aunt, and he owed it to her to try.

"Hey," he said once he spotted him.

Leonard shook his hand with a lukewarm smile. "Thanks for coming."

"Yeah, what can I do for you?"

Leonard clapped his hands and sighed at Steve. "As soon as Deb told me what her nephew did for a living, I figured we'd have some issues."

"I got no issues with you being a lawyer, Leonard."

"You just don't like my client," he summed up.

"I worked for Gino Leone, yeah, but I felt like my real job was to keep the government accountable. There were times they overreached trying to put Gino behind bars. "

"Yeah, because they knew he was guilty."

"But if Gino Leone doesn't have the same right to privacy and self-incrimination as the rest of us, sooner or later, none of us will have those rights. So I gave him my best defense. And I find this all quite an interesting argument considering everyone on the wrong side of the law has heard about that girl you're so fond of. The Great Rowan Pierce and her Network of Mayhem."

Okay wow, that was a new one. They were getting quite creative with their nicknames for her.

"Okay, watch where you throw your threats there, Cassano, Rowan's your staunchest supporter."

"And a really great girl, am I right?" he asked and Steve looked away. She was, anyone could see that. "You don't see a criminal when you look at her. And Deb doesn't see one when she looks at me. And for the record that was not a threat."

"Yeah well. Rowan's not mixed up in that anymore. And if you knew the kind of shit she was doing to help me with her cases before… that _man_ got involved, you'd understand why a network was necessary. But you, apparently, you gave Leone more than your best defense. The word is you helped him bury evidence. I checked you out."

"I knew you would. That's why I brought this," he said and then stooped down, went through his travel case and brought out a brown wrapped package. "One morning an envelope was dropped at my office. Inside was a key to a locker in Penn Station and a note that read, _Destroy anything you find_. This box was in the locker."

"What's in it?"

"I don't know. If I had opened this box and there was evidence morally I would have been compelled to share it with the prosecution. So I didn't open it. But I didn't destroy it either. I would never do that," he told him and then offered Steve the box.

"What do you want me to do with it?"

"Do whatever you think is right." He said with a shrug. "I ended my treatment the day before Deb and I got on the boat. There's nothing more they can do for me. I'm feeling pretty good right now, but in a month or so I'm gonna take a turn for the worse. All I really wanna do is spend whatever time I have left making your aunt the happiest woman in the world. We're getting married tomorrow, your girl bought a new dress just for you, she's got a list of songs she wants to sing, but I know it wouldn't feel right to Deb unless you were there. I appreciate you hearing me out."

And then he just left him there. With what was probably damning evidence and one hell of decision to make.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve and Danny sat in his living room, waiting for the wedding to start. In between them on his coffee table was the box that Leonard had given him that may or may not have held evidence to a murder.

"So what are you gonna do with that thing?" Danny asked. Only because he was desperate to open it and see what was inside.

Steve took a deep breath as if getting ready to go on this huge rant and instead said: "You know what? I think I'm gonna put it in a locker for a couple of months and accidentally forget about it and then I'm gonna give it to the New York D.A."

Danny nodded. "Ah. That's very nice, I think. You know, Leonard never has to deal with it."

"You know what, man? You were right. My Aunt deserves to be happy. She does," Steve admitted.

The front door opened and two people came in. Grover in his best tux followed by Rowan, in a lovely white Hawaiian print dress, all white and pink flowers, a lei of purple orchids around her neck. God damn she looked beautiful. She always looked so fucking beautiful.

"Come on, now. We gonna do this thing or what?" Grover cried. "I got on my best monkey suit, man. I'm ready to party, baby!"

Rowan rolled her eyes and then clocked the box. "Aw come on now, what are you doing with this?" she cried. "Don't you dare ruin this wedding with the gun in that box!"

Steve and Danny groaned at her. "It's a gun? It's a fucking gun? I knew it!" Danny crowed while Steve swore and said: "I have to tell the D.A. about it now."

It was Grover who said: "Isn't she not dreaming right anymore? Isn't that what you said? She can't help us with cases cause she's not dreaming right at the moment?"

Rowan picked up the box and shook it. "Eh… you're right, my dreams have been a bit faulty as of late… could be knife… could be a gun do…"

"Whoa… wow," Danny said to her. "The Canadian just jumped right out of you there."

"Yeah, it'll do that sometimes, eh?" she said. "Come on, let's go my big toasted marshmallow filled with testosterone."

Steve stood, Danny finished putting on his shoes and left him and then it was just he and Rowan together. He was just staring at her, and how lovely she looked while she was fixing his suit lapels and the collar of his jacket and smiling at him like he was the only man in the world. All that mattered was that he was the only man in her world.

"Danny says you went through a sky light today?" she asked.

"It was the only way, babe," he said but she shook her head.

"Oh so you did it purposely? Really? There wasn't like… a door? Or a window? Maybe a set of stairs?"

Steve looked down at the girl he cared about and tried not to sigh at her. "I literally just said it was the only way for me to take the guy down."

"Okay, okay," she said. "I mean… I know what you do, Steven, and I love that you're so brave but I'm telling you I really don't like the recklessness, I worry so much about you…"

Steve quickly took her face in his hands and kissed her deeply. "I know I don't say this stuff enough, I know you're frustrated with me and I get it, but I just… I just really need you to know how much I like you."

Rowan's eyes narrowed at him. "Babe… what are you talking about? Where is this coming from?"

"Just a talk I had with Aunt Deb this afternoon…"

"Oh, you didn't tell her what Leonard was up to… did you?"

"I did…" "AW Steven!" "It's alright, she already knew. The point is… I'm not good at saying it and sometimes I don't show you… but you… you're the most important thing to me. And I just really need you to know that. You know that, right?"

Rowan lifted her hand up to the red scar running through his hair line, a memory of what they went through at the hands of the man she had once called her brother.

"I know you tried to stop him," Steve whispered. "I know you tried, and I adore that you see the inherent good in everyone, even a man like Wo Fat… even in me when I don't deserve it, but I need you to let this go, my darling. I don't blame you and I need you to stop blaming yourself cause I can't go through another night like the last one."

She smiled up to him and then kissed him quickly. "Okay, enough of this mushy stuff, you're gonna make me cry and ruin my make up," she told him swatting at his shoulder like she was bothered and he just smiled. She went to walk way but Steve still had a hold of her hands and then tugged her back to him for one last kiss. "You really do look stunning, Rowan."

Rowan did a little twirl for him before disappearing out the front door and making him follow after her.

Fuck his girl was pretty. He'd do anything to always have her. Absolutely anything.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

They had the wedding at the Royal Waikiki. Rowan was singing a beautiful rendition of _Tale as Old as Time_ as Steve walked his Aunt Deb down the aisle. Rowan had gone all out on getting his Aunt Deb her favourite flowers, and a guy to video tape everything so they could share it with Mary and eventually little Joanie.

She had taken his Aunt Deb out to get her a dress she knew they'd love. She had Nick DiMarco get ordained on the internet. She had proof read the vows and cried over them both and she was going to cry when they said them anyway.

She cued up music for his Aunt Deb to sing her vows to Leonard, and while she didn't sit with Steve but instead stood on the outer edges making sure everything was running smoothly, Steve couldn't keep his eyes off of her, as per usual.

This wedding meant a lot to him. That she was involved. That she had done this for his aunt simply for him, and for her without either of them asking to take this responsibility on. And watching his Aunt Deb sing to her husband-to-be he couldn't help but feel like this was his future. He was going to marry Rowan one day, she'd be in a stunning dress with a long train, flowers in her red hair and she'd sing her fucking vows to him, he just knew she would. And he'd make sure his vows had a Disney reference in them, cause his girl loved Disney.

Yes. That was his future. And he wasn't going to let anything, not even Wo Fat and his stupid network, or Steve's own fucking fears and stupidity get in between him and that.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Trevor walked into the back office of the garage with an envelope. Roman was sitting behind the desk chain smoking like he usually did, he smiled at Trevor like he always did but Trevor knew not to trust that smile.

Roman was beautiful on the outside, the perfect blonde and blue eyed Russian child, he looked like a perfect chiseled Adonis. He preferred light blue jeans, plain white shirts and leather jackets, but everything on him was designer in some way. He stood tall, he had no posture issues what so ever. And if Trevor didn't know just how ruthless and insane the man was he'd have had a major hard on for him.

"Trevor Pierce," he said warmly, standing up his arms spread as if he were ready to hug him. "Where's my money."

Trevor offered up the envelope and Roman just stared at it. "There is no way that little envelope has 24 million dollars in it," he said.

No, no it did not. Not even a little bit. "Look… about that…"

Rowan's smile faded into a glittering toothy dangerous smirk. "That better be a cheque Pierce."

"Look, I can't… uh… I can't come up with that kind of money right away, you know? I thought… that we might be able to do like… an installment thing, maybe?" Trevor offered.

In his life he had always been able to smile his way out of trouble. He was always the good boy, the one that people never expected anyway. He was good at flashing a bright smile and getting people to see things his way.

But Roman Stepanov had been blind to his charms since day one and that cherub like grin was doing nothing for him right now.

"Oh… Pierce-ie, you see, the thing you liked about me… was that I'm not a bank," he said. He snapped his finger and two of his cronies grabbed him and forced him down into a chair they had brought with them, one held him down by the shoulder the other wrapped roped around his chest to hold him there.

"I didn't do a background check. I didn't ask about your credit. I gave you more and more and how do you repay me?" he asked. He picked up the envelope and the cash tumbled out. "What is this?"

"It's ten grand," Trevor whispered.

"You owe us 24 million dollars and you came here with ten grand?" a female voice asked and then there she was. Irina Stepanov. Roman's twin sister. Absolutely stunning girl, a beautiful Russian blonde, but she was absolutely insane. Ten times as worse as her brother.

She came from behind the two men that had him tied to the chair. She was in leather pants, high heels and white off shoulder capri top. She smiled prettily at him.

"It's a good thing you're pretty," she whispered.

Yeah, and she was into him.

"I keep telling you, you're not my type."

That smile faded. "Pity."

As she walked away to join her brother where he was leaning against the desk, Trevor finally noticed that he had a blow torch in his hand that he kept flicking it on and off. Oh god. Oh god. Think fast, think fast.

"Okay, look. You're right, you're not a bank. But that just means the payment plan is up to you!" he said. "I'm not trying to be disrespectful… but… ten grand was all I had and I thought… better than nothing right?"

The Twins exchanged glances and then started laughing. "Oh it really is good that he's pretty otherwise he'd just be useless."

She reached behind her and pulled out a metal pole with a strange looking end. "Do you know what they do to you, in the Russian Gulag, if you default on your debts?" she asked.

Of course Trevor wouldn't know that and he was about to snap out a witty sassy comeback, but that died in his mouth the second Roman lit up the end of the metal pole with the blow torch in his hand and Trevor realized that it was a branding iron.

"You have got to be shitting me!"

But Irina just smiled at him. "In the gulag we tattoo couples having sex on you. But we're looking for quick and painful, so this will do."

One of the cronies bent down and forced his jacket sleeve up and then the other slammed his hand down on the arm of the chair and kept it there.

She approached with the red hot branding iron and Trevor frantically struggled but got nowhere. "Wait, wait, but… I'm not defaulting. I can pay, I just can't pay it all right now."

"Unfortunately, the Bank of Stepanov wants you to pay it all upfront and in full," Roman told him just as Irina said: "Brother, you've taken too long and it's cooled off, heat me please?"

Roman turned, blow torch ready but Trevor was not going down like this. "Wait a second here! We're reasonable people here! There's gotta be something I can do, right?"

He winced cause he just opened himself up for a bunch of sexual requests from the woman who was obsessed with him. And when the twins exchanged glances, proud smirks on their faces, Trevor knew whatever they had cooked up was not going to be easy or fun for him.

Roman squatted down in front of him with a smile. "Congratulations, Trevor, you're going to join our gang."

Trevor squinted at him. "Uh… don't I need to be Russian? Cause I'm really not!"

Irina cuffed him and Trevor winced but Roman just smiled at him patiently. "Our heist gang, you nitwit. We need a new player and you're going to be it."

"Me? Heists? Oh, I don't know… I'm not really good under pressure."

"I've seen you skate, you'll be fine," Irina said twirling the brand in her hands.

"See we need a conman, a distracter of sorts..." Roman said. "And look at you with that charming smile and winning personality we think you're just the man for the job."

Oh god, his stupid charismatic personality. It was great in high school, it wasn't doing him any favours now.

"And if I say no…"

"I brand you before we cut you up into tiny little pieces. We'll be sure to mail all the identifiers to your parents… so they have something burry."

Oh, how nice of her.

"Alright, well… I guess it could be fun," he said with a shaky smile. "You guys got good benefits? Dental maybe?"

"He's funny," Irina said with a grin while Roman just shook his head. He lit the torch again and she went about heating up the branding iron again.

"What are you doing?" Trevor asked, noting that no one had let him go yet.

"You belong to us now, Trevor Pierce," Irina told him, her voice low and husky as if this was a reverent moment. "You shall be marked so everyone knows who you belong to and just how low on our totem pole you are."

She turned to him and Trevor started to panic again, struggling to get away but failing. "No… now… wait a second here, I agreed to your terms…"

"Yes, we know, but you still need to be punished," she told him with a terrible wicked grin on her face painting her in a more grotesque light

As she walked forward Trevor kept shouting: "No, but… I agreed! I agreed!" but nothing stopped her.

The brand hit his forearm and just like that everything disappeared in a blanket of black. All he knew was the burning pain and the echoing piercing scream that he dimly realized was his.


	151. Chapter 151

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hello my lovelies. Christmas in July! I know, weird but this is the Christmas episode so guess we're having Christmas in the summer. I hope you guys like it cause I tried to really amp up the cute stuff. Don't forget to leave a review to tell me what you think about the cute stuff or if there's any other cute scenes you'd like to see and I'll see you guys on Monday._

Chapter 151

* * *

The Camaro sped down the road with Steve behind the wheel and a giant illegally harvested Christmas tree strapped to the roof. And Danny couldn't have been angrier, except it wasn't his regular angry, he was just resigned, resigned to the fact that he was probably going to get fucking fined.

Danny glanced to Steve who was pointedly avoiding his eyes to look at the road and then just shook his head at him. This was his best-friend, everybody. The man who wouldn't let him drive his own car and convinced him to cut down trees in protected forest preserves.

"I cannot believe you made me an accomplice to a crime" he muttered.

"A victimless crime," Steve shot back a little too quickly. That meant he had been thinking about it too and it did not bode well that he had already come up with a justification for his actions.

His justification sucked.

"The evidence to which is strapped to the roof of my car right now," Danny snapped to him.

"Okay, Danny, no one's gonna know where this tree came from. Alright?"

" _I'm_ gonna know where the tree came from. Okay? Every time I look at it, I'm gonna think about how we broke the law to get it," Danny cried. "That's it. You've tainted Christmas. You know what you are?"

Steve sighed. "Annoyed with this conversation?" he offered up.

"Wrong. You are the ruiner of Christmas. You are a scrooge."

Steve glared at him and hit him with a very dry: "Bah humbug"

And Danny shook his head again. "You know who I feel bad for? I feel bad for Rowan, who knows what you've done to fuck it up for her."

"Okay, firstly, Rowan is fine," Steve snapped and Danny scoffed. Yeah the two of them might have gotten over their little hiccup that had her staying at Jerry's for three days and had Steve a neurotic mess, but everyone knew it was only a matter of time before they blew up again. "Secondly… I have not ruined anything she's trying to kill me."

"Kill you?"

"Yeah. She made me buy an ugly Christmas sweater, she keeps roasting marshmallows and chestnuts, she's made a lifetime supply of those Estonian cookies, which are really just gingerbread cookies, don't know why she has to call them something else. Oh! And she's constantly making cocoa, I swear she's trying to give me heat stroke and diabetes all in one," he said. "But, I'll tell you this, we went out and got our Christmas tree like two weeks ago, it's already all decorated and we've got Christmas presents under the tree. I got her a really douzy of a Christmas gift, trust me she's gonna… she's gonna love it."

Danny though it over. Steve wasn't too good at getting Rowan gifts, but she always acted like they were the most amazing things on the planet. Which was a problem, because Steve never learned that he was a shitty gift giver. Still Danny had some wisdom to impart on Steve which was probably going to blow his mind.

"You uh… you know what she's doing right?"

Steve turned to his friend with eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Getting ready for Christmas in her own weird way?"

"Buddy, she's bringing in Pierce Family Traditions, guaranteed."

"What? No, she would have said something."

"Really, would she? The girl who doesn't like talking about her family or her past would have said something?" Danny asked and Steve huffed. "Think about it. She's used to a Canadian Christmas."

"She lived in Victoria, its warm there."

"BC still gets snow, and she spent a lot of time in skating rinks," Danny reminded him. "Point is, and this is my guarantee here, the whole ugly sweater, Estonian Christmas Cookies and pints of hot cocoa are all Pierce traditions, traditions she's trying to recreate with you on your first ever, proper, Christmas together with her."

One where she probably wouldn't be unconscious, or in the hospital for.

Probably.

Steve turned to him a sort of realization dawning on him. "Huh…" was all he managed to say. "I guess… uh… I guess…"

"That instead of spending all your time in bed with her you probably should have tried talking to her?" Danny asked. It was a sore spot. He knew that. Steve was very worried that he and Rowan only had good sex in common… no… sorry… phenomenal sex in common. And that comment hit it's mark, Danny knew, the second Steve turned an angry glare at him.

"I talk to her," he snapped. "I talk to her, she just isn't very forth coming, and you know that."

Danny nodded, he did know that. Steve scowled at him. "Just… just shut up."

Danny couldn't help but smile, now Steve was just as unnerved as he was. Sometimes it was fun to give a little bit back to Steve that Steve gave to Danny. It just sucked that he had to use Rowan and Steve's fucked up relationship to do it though, it sort of took all the fun out of it.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan came out of Danny's place to a cop looking at his car. Danny had asked her to get the tree up so he and Grace could decorate it, which she had done, with quite a few problems. She kept trying to tell him that just because she was Canadian, which was the land of snow and pine trees, didn't mean she was good at getting a tree into the stand.

She'd just replace all the frames she shattered. Hopefully before he noticed.

"Uh… hi… are you looking for Danny?" Rowan asked heading towards the cop who was interested in Danny's Camaro. "He's not here right now, they have a case somewhere… did you want me to call him to ask where?"

But the cop just had a big blank look on his face. "Miss. Pierce…" he started and Rowan tilted her head, surprised. Did he know who she was because she was with McGarrett or because of Wo? "I… I was unaware you'd be here."

"Yeah, I was just helping Danny with some last minute Christmas prep," she said. "Do I know you? I mean have we met before? I'm really sorry if we've already met, I'm just so terrible with names."

"No, no… Commander McGarrett… I mean in passing…."

Ah so he knew her from Steve, but that didn't explain why he was so nervous and afraid.

"Are you looking for Steve too?" she asked. "He's in meetings with the Governor all day but I'm sure if I text him and tell him it's an emergency he'll come by… granted you'll have to deal with him being freaked out and angry but it should do the trick…"

"No, no!" he cried.

"Okay, would you like me to tell him you were…"

But he had already walked away. Rowan let him go wondering what that was about. She quickly texted Steve telling him about the cop that was sniffing around Danny's car and then pulled up Danny's contact to call him.

As soon as he picked up she was talking. "Okay, like I need you. I helped with your Christmas emergency you have to help me with mine."

"Christmas emergency… Rowan I'm on a case!"

"I don't care, just tell me where you are and I'll come to you…"

"I'm on Hawaii Island."

"What do you mean, Hawaii Island? Isn't this _all_ Hawaii?" she asked.

"Rowan, I don't have time for this," he snapped and then hung up the phone. Okay, first of all RUDE. Secondly, after _everything_ she had done for him today the least he could have done was listen to her before telling her he didn't have time, actually… after _everything she did for him ever_ he owed it to her to at the very least listen to her utter meltdown.

Besides, she needed help now. Like right now. And Hawaii Island was just Hawaii right? How far away could that be?

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve walked into the office, fresh out of meetings, unhappy he had a case, and unhappy that Rowan hadn't been answering his calls. He wasn't really needed on this case, he didn't really want to jump in half way, and he had called Rowan because he thought she might like to spend the rest of the day together. He knew she definitely would have loved that he was picking her over one of his cases. But she hadn't picked up so begrudgingly Steve had turned himself in at the Palace to report for work.

"Hey!" he said to Chin who called out the same sentiment while he was coming out of his office. "Danny filled me in on the case. What's the latest?"

"Well, Hawaii P.D. located Keone Maka's truck about a mile from the Mars training site…" "Okay?" "…Looks like he lost control, and it went into a ravine. I'm thinking that the poison must have kicked in while he was driving."

"Well, it makes sense. He gets disoriented, he… uh… he crashes into the ditch, and then goes looking for help on foot."

"Their CSU is processing it now," Chin told him and Steve nodded. "In the meantime, I think I might have a lead."

Chin was taking his time pulling it up and Steve shifted again. He checked his phone, still nothing from Rowan. It wasn't like her to do that to him. Since the App went down, she had been pretty dutiful on checking in with him, either whenever she was going somewhere or leaving somewhere, or when he asked. He couldn't help but be nervous about it.

"Have you heard from Rowan?" he asked before he could stop himself. Since her last run-away attempt, they had all agreed that, to make her feel more secure, they'd stop telling Steve Rowan's secrets. Unless… you know… unless she really needed help or Steve was about to do something stupid. It wasn't his business what she talked to his friends about, and they all agreed to stop reporting things to him.

Steve wasn't sure he'd get an answer but Chin just shrugged.

"No. Kono mentioned she called Danny about a Christmas emergency, but she's been acting squirrely this Christmas so we just chalked it up to not having enough Christmas lights or something."

God, they did not need more Christmas decorations at the McGarrett household.

"Did she make any more of those gingerbread cookies by the way?" "You mean Piparkoogid?" "Yes, they're delicious, I'm already done my tin, and I was hoping to get a few more… you know… since she was pretty clear that they're only a Christmas thing…"

"I'm pretty sure she was getting ready to bake another batch this morning before I left with Danny, if I ever get a hold of her I'll ask."

The skype line started ringing and as if that reminded him Chin added: "Oh, by the way, Pua stopped by. He was looking for you and Danny."

"He say why?" Steve asked hoping to sound surprised.

"No, but he was acting weird."

Weirder than Pua usually was? This better not be about that Christmas tree, Danny would never let him hear the end of it if it was about the tree.

Chin answered the video call and then Danny and Kono were on the screen.

"Hey, what's up coz?" Kono asked warmly as if she wasn't the one to call him.

"Hey, so I pulled Keone's phone records, and I found something interesting. In the 48 hours before his death, he exchanged nine phone calls with a man from Los Angeles by the name of Jeff Harrison. Now, right after the last call, Harrison booked a flight from LA to Kona that arrived at 1 am this morning."

"Okay, let me get this straight. So nine phone calls in two days. Then the guy shows up, and a couple hours later, Keone's dead?"

Someone came to stand beside Danny and all of a sudden, Steve and Chin froze, because at no point were either of them expecting Rowan to be on the screen.

"Uh… what the…?" Steve cried which caused Danny and Kono to notice that Rowan was standing right beside them her eyes boring into Danny's head.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Danny cried turning to her. "What the hell are you…? How the hell did you get past the cops?"

Rowan glanced to the cops milling around her and then turned her patient eyes to him. "I unno they just let me walk by."

"It's police precinct, what do you mean they just let you walk by?"

But Steve knew all about Rowan and her ability to just walk by people without them noticing and he was more surprised that she was no longer on the Island he left her on that morning, and she hadn't even told him she was leaving.

Rowan crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him. "I think the bigger question is why _you_ of all people told me you don't have time for my bullshit? I _always_ have time for yours the least you could have done was listen to me! Especially since I always have to listen to you… and I really, really need your help"

"Help with what?" Steve asked.

Rowan finally turned to the screen and then stared at him with a warm smile like she had no idea he was there. "Oh! Hey baby! Are you done with meetings already? Why didn't you call me?"

Obviously he was done. Though her hopping islands was probably why he hadn't been able to reach her, the question was did she fly or did she have Wo's network get her to Hawaii Island? He knew she kept saying she didn't have the network anymore but he didn't quite believe her. And when she acted sketchy like she was acting now it only made him more suspicious. "I tried to… what the hell is going on Rowan?" he cried.

Rowan's smile did that thing where it widened and he knew, he just knew that whatever was going on she wasn't going to tell him. "Nothing, I just needed to talk to Danny and he was being difficult so I came here."

Steve narrowed his eyes at her. "What the hell could be so important that you had to fly to Hawaii Island to talk to Danny?"

"Okay, can someone please tell me why it's called the Hawaii Island? Isn't this all Hawaii? Aren't they all islands?"

Avoidance, nope, that wasn't good. "Rowan… are you in trouble? Is something going wrong… do you need me to come… I'm just gonna come, stay there!"

"NO!" Rowan shouted and then she donned a shaky smile. "Babe. Naw, psh, I'm fine, okay. I just… I need to talk to Danny, can I please just talk to Danny without you like… breathing down my neck for like… two seconds?"

Steve blinked his eyes at her, unsure he warranted that level of response. He was just worried about her. "Alright… I'm… uh… I'm sorry."

Rowan winced. "I didn't mean for that to come out so… bitchy…" she said to him. "I'm just… I'm just a little frazzled right now about last minute Christmas things and I didn't want to waste your time with them…"

"Oh but it's fine to waste mine?" Danny asked as Steve murmured: "It wouldn't be a waste of my time."

"It's okay, Danny will help me and everything will be fine, I'll be home later… okay? Hey if I catch a ride with them can you pick up my car from the Hawaiian Airlines parking lot? It's the only pastel purple GTO in the lot."

Holy fuck she really had gotten on a plane. Granted she didn't need a passport to hop islands, she's just need her driver's licence, but FUCK, she had actually left Oahu and not told him.

"Sure thing babe. Text me if you need me to commandeer a helicopter to come and get you, okay?"

"Sure thing, miss you!" she called before letting Kono push her away.

As soon as she was gone, Steve looked down to avoid his friend's eyes for this next request. "I know we all agreed you guys would stop telling me things, but Danny, if she's in actual real trouble, you gotta tell me, okay?"

"Course, but I doubt it's that," he said. He then turned to Kono. "You… uh… you got this? Good, I'mma deal with his psycho girlfriend."

"She's not psycho!" Steve snapped but Danny was already walking away.

Kono smiled at him knowingly. "But she's your girlfriend now?"

"Can we stop talking about my personal life please? We… we have a case!" he cried. "What… what do we know about Harrison?"

Chin immediately changed topics thank god, "The guy's a horse trainer," he said pulling up the file. "No record, but he did end up in the news last year when his racehorse, Urban Myth, went missing. He was a favourite for the Kentucky Derby, night before the race, horse disappears. Nobody ever heard anything. No Ransom demand. Nothing."

The computer beeped at Chin's fingertips and he looked down. "Oh, hold on a second," he said reading it over. "I just got a hit back on Harrison's credit card. Looks like he's staying at a motel in Hamakua and he just returned a flight back to LA that leaves in a few hours."

"Got it!" Kono said. "He's going to miss that flight."

She completely ruined that amazing one liner that she could have ended on by adding: "I'll get Danny and send Rowan your way ASAP boss," before hanging up the call.

Steve glanced back to Chin who was smiling at him. "Don't you wish you had that app now?" he asked in a taunting voice and Steve scowled at him.

"Shut up, Chin," he snapped before storming off. But he was right. He really did wish he had that app right about now.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Danny fairly dragged Rowan out of the bullpen where he and Kono had been sequestered and into the front lobby.

"This is insane," he snapped to her. "You can't be having a Christmas Emergency, Rowan. You're not Santa, you're not Rudolph… what the hell could be this important that you got on a plane to come find me… why couldn't you call me…"

"Uh, excuse me?" Rowan cried pointing a finger in his face. "I did call you, you hung up. And this _is_ emergency!"

"Fine! What? What is this crisis that has _you,_ the person who's literally not phased by anything, freaking out?"

Rowan sighed, her lower lip trembled, she put her hands on her hips and told him: "Steve's present got lost in the mail."

Danny blinked his eyes at her. He stared at her like she was nuts. "Are you freaking kidding me? His present got lost in… I've seen your tree, it's covered in gifts for him."

Rowan groaned. "NO! The big ticket! You know? The big gift that's all meaningful or super expensive or both! That one! That one got lost in the mail! All I have are the little stupid ones that are like… gag gifts or the useful ones that people want but aren't excited for!"

"Okay, so his gift got lost in the mail? I don't see the emergency here, just tell him it's lost…"

"I can't do that! He's been going on for weeks about the amazing gift he got me, and the one I got him isn't going to be here for Christmas, Danny!"

"What do you want me to do, Rowan? I'm Five-0, I have nothing to do with postal service, and don't you fucking tell me you want me to track that sucker down because I am not that kind of detective."

Rowan shook her head. "No, I need ideas. What should I get him… what can I get him that will be amazing… and nothing I have to ship to us cause it won't get here in time."

"This is what you tracked me down for?" Danny asked. "Gift ideas?"

He couldn't believe this was happening. This. This was not an emergency.

"Okay! Look! I didn't bitch when you needed help with that Christmas tree. I don't bitch when you need me to look after Grace last minute and I don't bitch when you don't pay me for babysitting or English tutoring!" Rowan snapped. "I don't bitch when Steve's out late cause you guys had to go for Longboards after a case. I don't bitch that Steve's closer to you than me…" "Uh… excuse me?" "Okay I bitch a bit, but I could bitch _so much more_ and I don't. So please, please! Stop being sassy and help me out here!"

Danny sighed. "Rowan, he's going to like everything you got him. He's going to like it because it came from you. I honestly know of nothing you could get him that we haven't already picked out for him, aside from some kind of weapon and we both know he's got your picture in every gun and ammo shop with a giant _do not sell to_ over your head."

Rowan sighed and Danny put a hand to her arm. "Just tell him the truth. He's not going to care. The biggest gift to him is that he finally gets to spend a proper Christmas with you, where you're not unconscious, avoiding him or accidentally drugged up."

Kono came rushing out of the bullpen with a man in a HPD coat behind her. "We got a lead, and we both know she's not coming with us," she said to Danny and then turned to Rowan. "This is Detective Dean Alawa, he's going to keep you entertained. Maybe he can help you with your Christmas Crisis huh?"

And then Danny was letting Kono drag him away. He figured, if Five-0 couldn't keep Rowan in line, this poor detective sure as hell wasn't going to be able to, but really… what could she do? She was miles away from trouble on an island she wasn't familiar with, and she wasn't getting visions anymore.

Maybe Rowan was finally neutralized.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Alawa had actually been quite helpful. She ran a few ideas by him for Christmas gifts, he helped her settle on a decent second place prize to make up for the missing place holder gift until it came in the mail. He helped her set it up, he helped her wrap it and that had only taken an hour.

Danny and Kono had rushed their suspect to the hospital, but no one would give her any details other than that and then he was left attempting to entertain her at the precinct as Kono, Danny and Grover were all detained with the case. But after a small _accidental_ fire set in the break room, Alawa decided to take her to the rodeo and let her watch some bull riding and maybe let her pet or ride some horses, except when they got there the rodeo was in the process of being shut down.

Rowan could tell that Alawa really didn't want to take her back to the precinct, and she was dangerously close to calling Steve and asking him to commandeer that helicopter like he said he would and have him come get her. But upon seeing her forlorn face about missing the ponies in particular, the rodeo master, Al Mokuau, offered to have her and Alawa go up to the ranch to meet some of his horses.

And Rowan graciously agreed for the both of them. She rode up to his ranch with Alawa and then he let her loose in the stable. He said she could pet any horse she wanted, and if she wanted to ride one, just tell him and one of his boys would saddle a horse up for her and he'd take her down a trail.

Which left Rowan going to each pen to pet each horse to try and pick one to ride. And then she got to the chestnut horse, more of a copperish color than chestnut. Reminded her of Secretariat but leaner and not as tall. As soon as she was at his stall he had his head out to greet her.

The problem was, as soon as she put her hand to his nose to pet it, suddenly she wasn't in the stable anymore. She was in a field beside a back hoe looking down into a giant hole where the horse lay, it's brains blown out. Two words echoing in her head. _Urban Myth_.

What the hell did that mean? Rowan came back to reality to the horse nickering and shaking it's head at her. She must have shocked it.

"Oh gosh, oh baby, I'm sorry!" she said to it, offering up her hands to it to try and calm it down. Luckily she didn't shock it again. She glanced to the where the owner and Detective Alawa were talking and then she looked back to the horse. Someone was going to kill it… and soon. Well she wasn't going to let that happen.

As silently as she could she opened up the stall and slipped inside. She quickly unhooked the simple bridle from the wall and walked towards it's side. "Alright boy… let's see if I still remember how to ride bare back."

And then she hopped onto it's back.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

A lot had gone down since they had left Rowan at the precinct. They went to catch Harrison before he got on a plane and found the man suffering from poison shock. Max and the Coroner he had major beef with, Dr. Dhawan, found the source and determined the poison, liquid nicotine, and managed to save Harrison. They figured out that all of this was linked back to that stolen horse, _Urban Myth_ , and that it had to be on the island because Keone had come into contact only a few days ago, and was likely the reason he died.

And then they figured that the guy who tried to point them in the wrong direction, Al Mokuau was probably the horse thief and the murderer and went to his ranch to get the horse back and arrest the guy, but they didn't Fine Mokuau they found something worse.

The Five-0 SUV pulled up to the ranch and Danny got out, dread creeping up his spine. Why the hell was Detective Alawa here? He was supposed to be with Rowan.

"Please tell me, you did not bring that girl here with you to arrest this guy!" Danny ordered but Alawa just stared at him.

"No… I didn't know you guys were coming," he said. "I mean, I called for an arrest, but I didn't think you'd come so quick, we haven't even found her yet."

 _Her?_

"Okay, wait a second. We're here because we're pretty sure that Al Mokuau is in possession of a stolen horse…"

"Naw the only stolen horse is the one your girl rode off with."

Rowan rode off with a horse? Oh, son of a bitch! Kono and Danny exchanged glances and then Danny pulled out his phone. "That horse?" he asked showing the guy the photo.

"Yeah. One of Mokuau's studs, he was awfully upset to see her ride off with him, took my car to chase her down."

"Which way did they go?" Danny asked but when Alawa couldn't answer him in time he snapped and started shouting. "That horse is stolen property and Mokuau is willing to kill over it. Which way did they go, damn it!"

"I unno… west?"

"It doesn't matter, Rowan doesn't know the island, she could be heading anywhere, we gotta find them now," Kono cried already on the phone for air support and to probably track Rowan's phone. Damn did anyone know if she actually had it?

"I am not calling McGarrett," Grover said quickly heading back to the car, Kono echoed with a "Me either," and that left Danny with the job of calling him.

Great. Just fucking Great. Cause that was going to go well.


	152. Chapter 152

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hello my lovely readers. So this is that chapter is a lot longer. It's sitting at 14 pages, but it's cute. It's cute and it's Christmasy and I hope you guys like it. Don't forget to leave me a review and I'll see you guys on Friday._

Chapter 152

* * *

Rowan hadn't forgotten what it felt like to have the wind whipping through her hair, she hadn't forgotten how much she loved to go fast, how there was something about the wind her face that made her feel calm and secure, like nothing could hurt her because she was too fast for her problems to catch up with her. But she had forgotten what it felt like to feel all of that on the back of a horse.

A very fast horse.

With a truck trailing behind her, trying to run her and the horse off the road… or at least spook him into throwing her, which so far hadn't happened.

The car swerved at them again and the horse she was on swerved too, but didn't correct, running off the path and into a field. Rowan just held on for dear life, the horse knew where it was going, Rowan just didn't want to fall off.

Until she did.

The car swerved right in front of them and the horse reared to a stop to avoid hitting the hood. Coming up on it's back legs and swinging around. Rowan tumbled right off the back, hitting the ground. Oh wow… that one hurt. That one hurt a lot.

She got up to find the horse sort of standing over her kind of in a protective stance as Mokuau got out of the truck and approached them.

"You stole my horse…"

"You stole him first!" Rowan snapped back. "He's not yours… and you're gonna kill him!"

Probably not the smartest thing to say, because that gun in his hand, the one he brought for the horse and not for her originally, was pointed at her.

"You're not gonna shoot me," she said in a soft voice.

"And why not, I've killed two people already what's a third?"

"You poisoned those people… you didn't shoot them," Rowan whispered and his eyes narrowed at her.

"You know way too much!" he whispered pulling the hammer back on the gun.

Rowan cringed. There was a loud gunshot, the horse did scream, but Rowan felt no pain. Above her Mokuau grunted and dropped his gun and Rowan scrambled away just as Grover and Kono came up to them and Danny went to Rowan.

"Mokuau you're under arrest," Grover snapped, coming towards him, cuffing him instantly.

"She was stealing my horse!"

"Funny, seeing as you stole him first," Danny said and Mokuau stared at him surprised. "Yeah, that's right, we know who this horse really is."

"Okay… okay… but all you really got on me is stolen property."

"Oh! And animal cruelty he was gonna shoot this poor guy!" Rowan cried, but Danny swept her back again. He turned to her and growled: "Stay with the damn horse," and Rowan finally walked away.

"See, that's where you're wrong. On the way over here, we got a phone call," Grover growled. "Local crime lab, seems they found a travel mug inside Keone's truck. Still had some coffee in it. So they tested the mug and the coffee, and guess what they found. Traces of Liquid nicotine. So now we're thinking that he got dosed when he came by your ranch this morning."

"Lab also found a fingerprint on the mug. And I'm guessing, once you give us yours, it'll match."

"Oh and might I add, when her boyfriend finds out you pointed a gun at her, he's going to be less than kind," Danny said pointing to Rowan who just waved.

Grover scowled at him. "It was a gutsy play. You know, you steal Urban Myth, bring him way out here, putt him out to stud."

"I think it probably would've worked if Keone hadn't recognized this horse," Danny said.

"He was gonna blow the whistle on you and somehow you got wind of it. And you took him out before he had a chance to," Grover snapped.

Kono stepped up and added: "And then you went over to his place and you discovered he'd already contacted Harrison. So now, Harrison had to go too."

Mokuaua looked to Rowan and the horse she now knew was named Urban Myth and then to his bleeding shoulder and then back to Grover with a sigh.

"Keone always went on about how much he loved horse racing. When I saw him on my security feed sneaking around, taking pictures of him, I knew he recognized Urban Myth. Why couldn't he just leave well enough alone? No one was looking for that horse anymore. Urban Myth got to retire to a big ranch while the owners they got their insurance payout. Everyone had moved on. No one cared."

"Except Keone," Grover finished for him.

As Grover grabbed him Kono turned back to Rowan who was soothing the horse by running her hands up and down it's neck as it hung it's head over her shoulder and nibbled on the back of her shirt.

"Great she's the goddamn horse whisper," Danny snapped but Kono just smiled.

"Do you think they'll let me keep the horse if we can't find the owner?"

"Oh I am not telling her," Danny cried walking away. "I had to call Steve you guys get to tell her about Harrison!"

Kono shook her head, telling Rowan they already had the owner on the island would be nothing compared to Danny having to tell Steve that they had lost Rowan and she was in the middle of a high-speed chase on top of a stolen horse. She merely put an arm around Rowan's shoulder ready to burst her little bubble.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Harrison recovered quite quickly, only needed a night to recover. A night that Rowan spent relaxing in a hotel with small bottles of rum poured into a can of coke while Kono sat beside her in the hot tub drinking something strong and sprite. Danny and Grover ended up joining them with their own beers but once Rowan got a little too tipsy they had her quarantined to the room she was sharing with Kono. Especially once she and Steve got on the phone. No one wanted to hear them baby talking to each other about how much they missed each other and none of them had wanted to hear the phone sex that started up almost immediately either.

As soon as Harrison was cleared to leave they all took him to the ranch where they had Urban Myth penned up until it was time for him to go home. As soon as they got there, they found Alawa and Rowan waiting for them. At least this time she hadn't rose off with the horse.

Harrison approached them to lean over the railings like Rowan was to see the horses as he explained why he never gave up on finding his horse.

"Urban Myth was just a foal when I started working with him," Harrison said approaching the pen. "I've trained a lot of horses over the years, but Urban… well, let's just say that some mean more to you."

He leant a little closer to get a better look at him and Urban Myth looked up. As soon as that horse saw Harrison, he nickered and galloped across the pen to meet him. They all watched it, it was a nice sight to behold, and beside them Rowan was just letting it all out, sobbing quietly to herself.

"Geezus," Danny sighed. "What is going on with you today huh?"

"I'm fine, it's just… it's just so sweet you know?" she sniffed.

"And you were hoping you could keep the horse," Kono added and Rowan sighed but nodded.

"Yeah… I was hoping I could keep the horse."

"Where would you even put it Rowan?" Kono asked. "I doubt McGarrett's going to let you keep a horse on the beach… or in the garage."

"Well… since I can definitely afford stabling now, I'm confident that I could totally afford to buy a horse," she said wiping her eyes.

Well that got everyone's attention. Danny turned to her, his curiosity clearly piqued. "You can? Since when?"

"It's impolite to ask a lady about her income, Danny," Rowan answered primly and that was that conversation shut down.

Grover was ready for a new topic, however, because he nudged in between Danny and Rowan before the two of them could devolve into an argument that may or may not have ended in a physical altercation. "How did you even know that horse was stolen? I mean…"

"I got a vision," Rowan said. "I was petting the horse and I got a vision that he was going to get shot and buried. I even got his name."

She looked at them smiling proudly. "Looks like I'm finally back in business."

"Great, that's all we need."

Harrison approached them with Urban following closely behind him. "So which one of you is the infamous horse rustler Wild Rovin' Rowan?" he asked with a teasing grin. Rowan raised her hand.

"That's me, though I'm not that good… I did get thrown… and caught…" she admitted.

"Well… every cowgirl needs practice, even the infamous horse rustling ones," he said smiling warmly. "I just want to say thank you, I'll be indebted to you for a long time to come. Your friends mentioned how fond you are of him, so the next time he sires a foal, I'll let you have first pick."

"He's going to let her buy a horse from him?"

"No, I'll give it to her for free. Call it a finder fee," he said.

Danny nodded. "Oh that's worse."

"Well… maybe one day I'll take you up on that… you know… when I have my own place. And more spare time than I have now."

He handed her a card. "Hit me up if you ever want a foal, or if you just want updates and pictures."

Rowan practically snatched the card out of his face. "Yes! Love it! You have just opened yourself up to a lot of annoying emails."

"Well emailing me will open you up for a weekly, sometimes hourly, horse pictures… so… we'll be even."

Rowan hugged him reaching over the bar and pulling him up close to hug her. Well, at least Rowan's Christmas had gotten better. Now if only they could get home in time for Christmas, then all their Christmases would be saved as well.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

They were finally going home. Finally and on time. Steve was waiting for Rowan at the helicopter pad for her. Danny and Grover were arguing over who got shot gun when Dr. Dhawan came barrelling up to them in a little red cart like thing.

"Hold on, wait, wait," he cried putting it in park. "Hold on. Just a moment."

"Oh here we go, round 15," Danny sighed.

"Don't ask," Grover added once it was clear that Rowan and Kono were desperately out of loop.

"I… uh… just wanted to thank Max for… uh… his assistance on this case," he said quickly coming up to them.

Max stepped forward to meet him.

"Your skills as a wingman are unparalleled," he added.

"Happy to assist, Sanjeet."

"Hey, you know, us working together, it's given me the opportunity to make things right between us," he said going into his side satchel to pull out a hastily wrapped gift for Max.

"Merry Christmas," he said offering it to them and suddenly Max was rushing over.

"Wait… is that…?" Max hurriedly ripped it open and then showed them all.

"OH HEY! A Janice Rand doll," Rowan said and just like that Max and Sanjeet were staring at her like she was a goddess.

"Well to be a bit more specific it's an original limited-edition 1974 Yeoman Janice Rand action figure. Rowan, I have to say, I'm quite surprised you know what this is."

"Really? Why? Because I'm a girl? I know my Old School Star Trek," she said. "Come on guys, my dad's a cosmologist, he was all over Star Trek, it wasn't scientifically sound but he loved the creativity about it. Now wrap this up I wanna go home."

She then left them to climb into the helicopter.

"So uh… let me get this straight here, this whole beef between you two… this whole time… was about a Barbie doll?"

"It's an action figure," came at him so fast from three separate people. Max, Sanjeet and Rowan, all at the same time.

"Ah, okay. I'm done," he said and then turned to the helicopter where he found Rowan in his seat. "What the… move!"

"No," Rowan answered primly.

"McGarrett ain't here to save you," Danny said. "I called shotgun now move."

"The rules of shotgun are simple, Danny. You can't call shotgun until you're touching the vehicle." She said and then Rowan put her hand on the outside of the helicopter, looked him dead in the eye and said: "Shotgun."

Danny stared at her for a few seconds before starting forward. "If you put hands on me, so help me I'll kick your nuts right up into your throat," she snapped and just like that he chose to take the back seat.

Max was unphased by all of this, of course. His eyes were on Grover and Kono who were still listening to him, barely. "You see for many years I have been collecting the original Star Trek: TOS action figures and Janice would have completed my collection."

"But then, you know, I swiped him in an internet auction. I should've been the bigger man, but I had a thing for the actress, and in this instance, I kind of thought Max should've you know, stepped aside, but… it's fine."

Kono couldn't take it either choosing to leave Grover alone with the two nerds.

"You do have a point. I mean…" he said staring at the doll in his hands. "If you wanted her back…"

"No… no… I insist. You should have her."

"But it's..."

"No seriously it's meant to be," he said and then turned back to the helicopter "Any way, enough about Janice, you can get me her?" Sanjeet asked his eyes pointed in Rowan's direction.

Max followed his gaze and shook his head. "She is currently engaged in a romantic relationship with Commander McGarrett of Five-0 who is quite… possessive of her. I wouldn't recommend attempting to begin any courtship with Rowan Pierce."

"Yeah, he's a real animal when it comes to her. Look this has all been very touching, but it's time to go. Dr. Dhawan, thanks for your help, we couldn't have done it without you," Grover said silencing whatever else could come out of their mouths and like that they were on their way home.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

As soon as the helicopter had touched the ground, Rowan was out of it and rushing towards him. Steve didn't even care if it wasn't safe for her to be running around before the helicopter had killed its engine. He just wanted her to be in his arms again, he wanted to hold her and never, ever let her go again.

She got within range and she jumped into his arms and he held her tightly happy to see her like she was happy to see him. But it turned out her excitement wasn't just for him.

She pulled her head out of his neck, for what he thought was a kiss, but she just stared up at him with that excited grin on her face and cried: "I had a vision! Steve, I finally had a vision!"

Steve, of course, was not happy about this. He didn't want her getting visions and running off into danger and trouble, he didn't want her nightmares plagued with terrible things that could happen to him or his friends. He wanted her happy, he wanted her sleep patterns normal, he didn't want to wake up to her screams and then spend the rest of the night soothing her while he tried to calm his own worries. He wanted her to be normal.

But when she saw that stricken look on his face her happy smile fell right off of her. Steve felt his heart lurch, she had been so happy and he had just ruined it for her. He was a ruiner, not just of Christmas but of happy emotions. She dropped her hold on him, her arms coming away from his neck as she fell back to her feet and took a step away.

"I'm sorry," she said softly. "Why did I think you'd be happy for me? That was stupid… you hate my visions."

"No! No! I don't hate your visions, I hate that you get hurt over them. I hate that they keep you up at night and that they scare you and I can't protect you from them," he whispered.

Rowan's lips twitched and he whispered: "Is that why you went to Hawaii Island then? Because you had a vision, was that the emergency?"

"No," Rowan answered sulkily and Steve frowned. "If you're not upset about the vision then what are you upset about?"

Steve frowned at her. "You know I don't like it when you have an emergency and you don't come to me… it makes me feel…"

"I couldn't go to you because it was about you."

"Me? But babe… if you had picked up your phone when I called we could have had lunch! So there's no way you could be mad at me for jumping into a case…"

"What?"

"Yeah, I was done the meetings early and I was gonna blow that case to spend time with you, cause there was no point me jumping in half way, but you didn't pick up and I…"

"What really? Fuck me… I mean that wasn't my emergency but… wow really?"

"Seriously babe, what is this emergency, what did I do?"

"It's not that you did something, it's just… your gift… your big ticket… it got lost in the mail and I wanted to get you a replacement but everyone's already got you everything you want and I only had like… less than a day to figure out a replacement…"

"That's what this has been about?" he asked. When Rowan nodded he smiled and hugged her again. "Babe, I don't care about that. I get to spend Christmas with you, that's what I care about."

Rowan turned her sparkling eyes up to him and his heart melted. It amazed him that that was what she was worried about. That her gift for him wouldn't be coming on time. No wonder none of his friends had briefed him, it wasn't really an emergency.

"You're really not going to care?" she asked. "You promise?"

"Of course baby," he said kissing her again. "At the risk of me sounding cliché… all I wanted for Christmas this year was you."

Rowan smiled happily up at him while trying to smother her laughter. He didn't even care that she was laughing at him. He just tugged her to his side and got her to his truck. He just wanted to take her home and take them to bed before they had to show up to Danny's for a Christmas Eve decorating party.

But as soon as they got home, Rowan clocked someone waiting for them, hidden in the shadows of a neighbouring house. Someone she recognized as one of Wo Fat's general workers. But he wasn't on the island anymore… was he… was that mad at her that he had sent someone to get back at her? A little late though… it had been almost a full month since she had seen or heard from him.

She got into the house, realized the man had moved towards the mouth of their driveway and Rowan frowned. She wanted to deal with this, but she didn't want to chance Steve getting hurt.

"Hey, I forgot something in the truck, give me a second," she said letting him toss the keys at her and catching them with only one fumble and then a triumphant smile. She wasn't good at catching them but she was getting better.

As soon as she got out the door she rushed to the end of the driveway and pushed the man behind a bush.

"Okay buddy, the head of Five-0 is just inside, so you better not be up to anything stupid," she warned. "Cause if he finds out you're up to shit you're screwed."

"I'm a Rowan-gram."

Rowan blinked her eyes. No he couldn't be. Her app was down and she hadn't put an order for anything in months. "Uh… excuse me?"

"I'm your Rowan-gram or at least… delivering it."

And then he handed her a package. A nicely gift wrapped package. He was delivering her a gift? For a second Rowan just stared at it, and as if sensing that she was confused, he moved on. "I was told to inform you that it was purchased before, he said you'd understand."

Ah.

Well that explained that.

But… what was she going to do about it? Was she really going to accept a gift from Wo Fat? To be honest, she really wanted to see what he got her. And it was nice of him to send it anyway when they were on such bad terms right now, though she was certain it was for practical reasons not sentimental ones. He probably just wanted it out of his closet. But if he was going to give her a gift she couldn't just leave him empty handed right?

"Okay, wait here," she said and then took off, but she didn't go in to the front. She rushed around the perimeter, in through the back and then scaled up the trellis. Something she hadn't done since Steve had told her to leave a year ago. She got herself into her old room and then listened to make sure that he was still downstairs before sneaking into the room she shared with him. She opened up the closet that she had slowly taken over and reached into the back of it where Wo Fat's Christmas gift, something she had purchased long before she had cut him out, was hidden in one of her other purses.

Once she had it she snuck back to that musty room that had once been hers, scaled down the trellis, luckily not falling off of it again and rushed back to the bush she had shoved the delivery guy behind, being sure to avoid all windows and move as quietly as possible. As soon as she was on the ground she rushed back to where she had left him and handed him a gift.

"Please deliver that to him… with uh… the same message. He'll get it."

He took it from her with a sigh and then she watched him leave. Rowan then caught her breath forced herself to smile and then made her way back into the house shoving her new gift into her bag.

When she got in Steve was on her immediately. "That took a while…" he said.

"Yeah, I hid it good."

"Hid what?"

Rowan reached into her bag where luckily Steve's replacement gift was also hidden. "Well… because your main gift is going to be late I uh… I got you a runner up…"

Steve snatched it out of her hands before she could even finish the sentence. "Babe you didn't have to do that."

He went to open it and Rowan stopped him. "Wait a second Mr. McGarrett, it's for Christmas."

"Aww come on, you can't tell me you got me something to make up for my big gift and expect me to not want to open in it," he said with a boyish grin and already Rowan was dithering. "Aw come on… just one?"

Rowan scowled playfully at him. "Okay, but everything else… tomorrow you might be…"

"No, I won't, babe, I won't," he swore to her and she sighed.

"Fine, but only if I get to open up one too!" she bargained and he smiled. "And you have to pick which one you want me to open."

"Deal."

The two of them went to the tree, Steve picked out a small wrapped box and put it in her hands. They then sat together on his couch. Rowan waited, her gift unopened in her hands, waiting to watch Steve open his, nibbling on her lips and hoping it was enough.

Steve got it open and then looked at the box. "A digital picture frame?" he asked.

"Uh huh… uh… I know you got me something absolutely wonderful… so I hope it's not too disappointing for you… I thought it would be good for your desk… uhm… cause it's getting kinda cluttered with all the frames. I uhm… I already put the pictures on… I chose some of my favourites and some of yours… I hope it's… okay?"

As she blabbered he had opened it up and started it up staring at the pictures that slid across the screen. "The uh… the instructions are inside… if you don't like any of the pictures you can use the cord to connect it to your computer and switch it out."

Steve stared at it, his eyes focusing on each picture that came on the screen. Rowan couldn't tell if he liked it or not… until he suddenly frowned.

She winced at him. "Oh, oh no, you don't like it… oh, I'm so sorry. I thought it was cute… your real present is…"

"What are you talking about? Rowan! You got me the gift of family for Christmas, how could you think this wasn't good enough?" he asked. "I'm only wondering how my real gift could be any better than this."

Rowan grinned at him. "Really? It's okay? You do like it?"

"Mine's going to seem stupid in comparison."

But Rowan didn't care she immediately went about tearing the wrapping paper up. A little Tiffiany's box as staring up at her.

She knew it wasn't a ring. They weren't ready for that yet. But she had a feeling that whatever was in this was going to be expensive.

Rowan carefully opened up the box and found a golden charm roughly the size of toonie staring up at her. It was a Nautilus shell, like Ursula had used to steal Ariel's voice.

"It's a locket," he said, reaching over and opening it for her. It fell open and on one said a fire opal was glinting up at her and on the other was a picture of her and Steve from one of their selfies at Halona. "I uh… I picked the fire opal cause Kono said it was your favourite… and… it represents _your_ voice and how beautiful I think it is… and uh… on the back uhm… on the back…"

Rowan flipped it over and on the back was his last name, his naval ID and their Anniversary.

"I've noticed that uhm… that my dog tags clash with the fancy outfits that you wear for your meetings at Atlantic so I uhm… I thought that this would be a good compromise. You can wear that instead, have it match your outfits and still have a piece of me with you…. Uhm… you know… if that…"

Rowan launched herself at him, kissing him before he could finish the sentence. "I love it, thank you," she said against him as he held her back. "Though I don't care if your tags don't match my outfit. I will wear them with anything."

"You're just too good to me," he said to her, but Rowan was too busy kissing him to care. Right now, she was about as happy as she could have been.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

After exchanging the Christmas gifts, Rowan and Steve retired to his bed, where they made love, and then promptly passed out. And since neither of them had intended to do that, neither had set an alarm. Which meant they didn't wake up on time for Danny's party and when they did it was a mad dash for the door.

They were late for everything these days, but Steve didn't care. He loved watching Rowan get ready to go out, he loved all the care and time that went into it. Though he found her beautiful no matter what. They got to the party with more tins of Piparkoogid for everyone, which were met with great excitement, and then he let her mill off to do her own this while he went over the Christmas music options with Grover. Rowan was at the Christmas tree, smiling as they all went about decorating the tree, in this black _Home Alone_ sweater that said: _Merry Christmas you filthy animal_ while he got stuck with a navy blue ugly Christmas sweater with a giant seal on it. He was literally wearing a Navy Seal, right at that moment. He was doing it for her. He just had to keep remembering that he was doing it for her, because with every joke he got he was less and less for these stupid sweaters.

Steve masked his distress about his itchy warm sweater with the minor inconvenience of finding out that Danny only had one Christmas album. What kind of heathen only had one Christmas Album?

"Hey, why do you have only one Christmas album?" he asked, in what he thought was the most polite way he could without insinuating that there was something wrong with Danny.

"It's Andy Williams, what more do you need?

"Wait… hold on there, chief. How about Bing Crosby? How about a little Nat King Cole?" Grover asked.

"Hey, Dean Martin's _A Winter Romance_ is a good one!" Kono added.

"I've always liked Elvis. More specifically anything by Elvis," Rowan chimed in.

"I don't have them, I apologize," Danny said in the least apathetic voice anyone had ever heard.

"I we need additional accompaniment," Max offered. "I'd be happy to go home and fetch my keyboard."

"I can get my trumpet," Chin offered as well.

"Okay, if we're going to be going off the CD here, the only person allowed to try and make music is Rowan," Danny said with his hands up winning a scowl from Rowan.

"Why me?" she cried.

"Because you're the professional song writer, Ro," He said. "You're the only one qualified."

"Uh… excuse me… I'm not just going to serenade you for free and I don't come cheap, you know!"

"Oh how bad could it be?" Danny asked.

"Well my last song sold for 300 thousand," she said and just like that Steven was choking on a Piparkoogid

"Excuse me?" he coughed at her.

"What?"

"You made how much?"

"My last song… Bad Liar, I sold it to some punk band, Imagine Dragons I think. They paid me 300 thousand for the song up front and we're still trying to negotiate royalties. They don't want to budge of 5.4 and I don't want to budge off of 8.5, we'll see who caves first," she explained to him.

"You have 300 thousand dollars in the bank?" he asked.

Rowan seemed to think that over and then said: "It's rude to ask a lady about the state of her bank account, Steven, especially in front of guests."

"These aren't _our_ guests, they're Danny's!" he thundered but Rowan merely turned away from him and refused to answer so it was up to Grover to save the party before Rowan and Steve got into an argument in front of everyone.

"You gotta tell me about these Estonia Gingerbreads," Grover said, shoving another one in his mouth. "Girl, where did you even learn how to make these?"

Rowan smiled softly. "Uh… my mom taught me how."

"You Estonian?"

"No… uh… well… she did a year abroad, as like a fun year. Did all her electives and easy courses over at Tartu University in Tallinn. And uh… there was one day that she bumped into this uh… this TA who was on loan to them… working in the astronomy department tracking some meteors and performing his own experiments on the side. And uh… he asked her out for dinner and she said no because she had to go home to help the family she was staying with make cookies, and when she got home that night, he was already in the house… helping them make Piparkoogid. And uh… well… she and that man started dating… and then she went back to Canada, and he stayed on and they did a long distance thing… uhm… and a year later he got a transfer back to Toronto, she went to meet him at the airport and he proposed then and there… and uh… they made Piparkoogid every Christmas ever since. They were also decorations on their wedding cakes. So yeah… that's how I learned how to make them."

Everyone around her nodded and Danny turned expectant eyes to Steve. And that was Danny proven right. Well damn. That meant the ugly Christmas sweaters were also a Family thing. Well, he was going to stop complaining about that.

"But uh… if it's easier for you, you can just call them pepper cookies," she announced and that won a couple of laughs and exclamations that it was easier

The doorbell rang and a smug Danny, assuming it was just more guests went to answer it. He wasn't expecting Pua to be on his door, simply because he hadn't been invited, in his uniform wearing a stern look on his face. He handed Danny a yellow ticked which he took and then looked over.

"What's this?" he asked even though he knew what it was and he was far from pleased to see it in his hands

"It's a citation. You and Commander McGarrett stole a pine tree from a protected reserve," he explained. I have the evidence to prove it, and I also have a witness."

"This is uh… 1,200 dollars," Danny read out.

"That's the mandatory fine," Pua explained. "And I have to confiscate the tree."

Danny balked at this. "You're gonna take… are you serious?"

"I'm afraid so,"

"Tonight? It's Christmas eve, you're gonna take my tree?"

"Oh hey! He's back. I see you found Danny, wanna cookie?" Rowan asked a box of cookies in her hand and being offered out to him

Pua immediately went for his gun. Danny swept Rowan aside and shot him a glare of disbelief. It was one thing to be fining him and confiscating his tree on Christmas eve, but now he was gonna pull a gun on innocent Rowan? Had the power gone to Pua's head? "What the… why are you pulling a gun… it's a girl with a box of cookies?"

"Everyone knows Rowan Pierce and her criminal network,"

And just like that Rowan swept even further aside and Steve was standing there glaring at Pua from over Danny's shoulder. "Did he just try to pull a gun on my girl?" he asked in a low voice.

"I only asked if he wanted a cookie," Rowan's sad little voice came out at them and if it was possible Steve's glare darkened and Pua's face paled in fear at the sight of it.

"That, I'm assuming, was a misunderstanding. What's not a misunderstanding is that he's here because he's confiscating my tree," Danny said to Steve and that won him another scowl.

This was his fault, it had been his idea to cut down that tree for Danny. But as the two of them locked into a deadly glare before the inevitable start of their argument, Pua came a little further into the house, and saw all the happy Christmas faces. And just like that he stopped being a grinch.

"Well... you know… maybe I can take it back tomorrow," he offered. "So long as I get one of those cookies"

"Okay. Come in, you want an eggnog?" Danny asked. "But if you point your gun even remotely near Rowan, this Neanderthal here will literally strangle you with his own bare hands, you know that right?"

Steve continued to glare at him and Pua nodded. "Misunderstanding, that's all," he said coming in, Steve, who had Rowan's box of cookies for some reason offered it to him so he could take one and then they all congregated in the living room by the tree.

"Where's Rowan, Kamekona wants to start with the carolling," Grover said.

Danny and Steve looked around but neither of them could spot her. "Uh… she was just here."

Steve sighed. The pulling of the gun must have spooked her. "I'll go find her, give me a minute."

He was hoping that Rowan would be in the washroom but instead he found the back door slightly ajar. Fuck she better not have run. But when he got to the door he realized that she was just on the phone with someone. He had missed most of the conversation but he could tell from her tone that she was… well… sad.

"Well… I just wanted to say Merry Christmas, and thank you. Yeah… yeah… I miss you too. Bye."

As soon as she hung up she turned around and then jumped when she fond Steve in the doorway staring at her. "Christ Steve, you scared the crap out of me."

"Who was that?"

"What?"

"On the phone Rowan, who was on the phone?"

The thing about dating Rowan was that Steve was starting to learn her tells. Like Steve knew that when she was lying, her face would go blank, and her eyes would do this shifty thing as she thought about a good lie to tell. It never too her long to think one up, like her brain went into over drive when it came to thinking up a lie so it happened in warp speed.

So when she said: "Oh that was just Pete, wishing him a Merry Christmas," he knew she was lying.

"You miss Pete?"

Rowan blinked her eyes. That was another tell. Having a lie questioned so soon after spewing it always unnerved her. The blinking was her resetting. If she smiled he'd know she was hiding something that she knew he wouldn't like.

Rowan grinned at him. "Course, my negotiations would be done by now if he wasn't off in Colorado skiing," she said. But what sealed the deal was when she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. "Let's go back inside, the sooner I'm done singing, the sooner you can continue kissing me under the mistletoe."

That right there gave him all he needed to know. Rowan always got super affectionate when she felt guilty about the lie or if she thought the lie wasn't working and she wanted Steve off of it, because once she kissed him his brain went fuzzy. He knew this, she knew this, it was a problem.

As she withdrew her hands he caught sight of something glinting on her wrist. A gold bar bracelet he didn't recognize.

"What's that?" he asked.

"It's a gift," Rowan said with a smile. "From me. To me. I unno weird, but yeah…" She showed it to him, in nice calligraphy writing it said her name and then she flipped it over to show him the coordinates on the back. "That's the exact coordinates to my house. I used the smart table to look it up. I just… I guess I miss my family and I thought it'd be nice to get me something as if they were giving it to me, I don't know it's stupid… lets go inside."

Steve let her walk away tried to smile. There were a lot of things wrong with that whole conversation. Starting with the only reason he could figure Rowan would lie about a phone call was if she had called Wo Fat. And ending with the coordinates on her bracelet weren't anywhere near Victoria, BC, they were on Hawaii and he had a feeling that if he ran with the Wo Fat theory, then they'd be to a spot that meant something to them. But he didn't know what, or how she would have received the gift let alone wear it.

But most importantly… she wouldn't betray him like that… would she?

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

 _I'm just calling to say thank you for the gift and Merry Christmas. This doesn't change anything._

That was how that call started. He knew when he sent her that gift that it could have gone one of two ways. Unfortunately for him, it did not lead to the road to redemption, it led down the second path, acknowledgement but essentially nothing had changed.

He hadn't had a good day today. Other than Rowan's confirmation of nothing changing on their end, Jian Hu had opened up his Christmas gift early because she couldn't wait and hated the necklace he had picked out, and then he had opened hers to find floral multicolored tie that he detested. Granted that had a much happier ending. Tomorrow they would be going to the mall together to exchange their gifts and pick up ones that they would like better.

Now, with the phone call with Rowan ended, he sighed, put the phone down onto the countertop and then stared at the package they had expedited to him. Her gift to him. The very last Rowan-gram he'd ever order and pay for.

Jian, who had been patiently redecorating the tree by casually moving ornaments around, returned to his side.

"That sounded rough," she said pressing herself against his arm. Not in a sensual sense, she wasn't overly affectionate with him, instead she would just stand beside him, enough for their arms to be pressed together and right now that was what he needed.

"She's still mad at me."

She nodded like she understood. "I'm sure she'll come around. She accepted the gift AND called you to thank you for it," she added. "She didn't have to do that."

That was true, but Rowan wasn't the kind of person to turn her nose up at a gift, nor was she the kind of person to receive a gift and not say thank you. She did that because she was polite, simple, but it filled him with hope to think that maybe Jian was right so he let her have it.

"So, what did she get you?"

"I haven't opened it," he said not taking his eyes off of the package. When she was silent he turned a smile to her to show that he was teasing her. He got a scowl and a: "You're not funny."

Rowan would have laughed.

"I was going to open it tomorrow, or… maybe not at all," he said.

"Oh you can't do that to me. I want to see what she got you," she said going for the box. Wo Fat swatted her hands away and then, just for her, opened it.

He was looking at three novelty ice cube trays with a note that said: "Don't forget to have fun."

"Well that was disappointing I thought she knew you…" she started but Wo Fat cut her off by breaking off into amused laughter. More like soft chortles.

"Wait… you… you actually like these?"

Wo Fat shook his head, she probably wouldn't understand but he'd still try to explain it. "Well… uh… I drink a lot of whiskey on the rocks, and she got me these… so I'd remember to you know… have fun in life," he said. "Look, she got me bullets, little skulls and this nautical one is probably because we used to watch _Muppet Treasure Island_ all the time cause it was the only one of her movies I could stomach so… yeah…"

"Remember to have fun…"

"I didn't have a very fun childhood, she tries very hard to remind me to not always be serious."

"Well… I see… so… wait… but wouldn't you have had the same childhood?"

He and Jian had only been dating a few weeks, a month if you asked her, but he never really went in detail about his own past, how he had met Rowan, or what he did for work. These were things he didn't want to talk about when he was with her.

"I… uh… I'm adopted," he said. It was partially true. She had adopted him just not while they were children. The thing with Rowan was already weird, explaining it would make it even weirder. And he wasn't sure if their burgeoning relationship could survive something like that. And would it really matter? Rowan was never going to forgive him so Jian would never meet her.

She finally brought her hand up to play with the hair above his ear, not once flinching against his scars, so he'd turn to look at him. "Did you want to fill them up so you can have fun whisky tomorrow?"

He smiled at her, it was great that she was just as willing to indulge him as Rowan was. It made missing her less painful. He was going to have a great Christmas this year, he just knew it. The first good one in years.


	153. Chapter 153

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Long Weekend Friday. So yes. Rowan has lied again. That is going to be a recurring problem and is one of the things she will have to fix and will be addressed in the season 6 portion of the story. I'll be heading up north on Saturday and I'm coming back on Monday, so Monday's chapter might be late! But don't worry! I'll get it up before Tuesday! There's a bit of angst in this chapter, but the episode on a whole ends on a really cute note. Monday you're gonna get a SURPRISE! So don't forget to leave a review and I'll see you guys on Monday!_

Chapter 153

* * *

Chin had just woken up and was walking through his kitchen, mug in hand enjoying the coffee and the morning when he heard voices in his living room. That was unexpected, since Jerry usually slept in so he figured he'd check it out. Chin stuck his head in to find Jerry in a nice suit sitting beside a child talking about… coding?

"Uh… hey Jer," he said to him.

"Morning, Roomie," he answered as if all of this was normal. Chin definitely wouldn't have let Jerry move in if he thought that this was going to be the norm.

"What's all this?" he asked indicating to the suit.

"Oh, just prepping for my interview at InoTech," he said like that answered the question instead of raising more. "Ani here is my IT consultant."

"Wait a minute," Chin said check the watch on his wrist. "Shouldn't you be in school, little man?"

While Ani straightened, Jerry just shrugged. "Why? Just to be force-fed more misinformation? It can waiting. Ani and I have more important things to worry about. This new gig I applied for requires programming skills, and I know nothing about programming."

"Well, maybe that means you're not the right man for the job."

"That's the problem, I'm not the right man for any job," he said and Chin took a sip of his coffee to mask the pity in his eyes. "And since my mom took off to Maui, I figure I need at least 50k a year to move out of this place and get my own." Okay, well… that was fair. "Oh! And I need a small loan."

"You know what Jer, why don't you ask Rowan? Rowan has lots of money to spare apparently, maybe she'll lend you the money to buy a place."

Jerry shook his head. "Nope, that's blood money… not to mention… I think McGarrett's still mad at me… you know… for hiding her… and not telling him…"

Steve had been upset but he was over that now. In fact, he and Rowan were doing surprising well considering, no major arguments in a very, very long time. Which mean a big one had to be on the rise sooner or later.

"It's just 20 bucks," Jerry whispered when Chin didn't answer. "To pay said IT consultant."

"The financials that we discussed are non-negotiable, Jerry," Ani said and Chin shook his head.

"Don't worry Chin's good for it!"

"OR!" Chin interrupted. "Or maybe, I just call your parents and let them know you're ditching school."

Ani looked up at him and nodded appreciatively. "Shrewd negotiator," he said picking up his bag and getting up. "Good luck, Jerry."

After Ani left Chin just pinned Jerry with a knowing glare but he was already moving and ignoring him. "Well, I gotta get going anyways. Oh, listen. If InoTech calls, I was a coder at your company for seven years."

"What Company?" Chin asked.

"Your global import-export business," Jerry explained, but Chin had never had an import-export business. "By the way, you're incredibly successful."

"Jerry… I'm not comfortable…"

"Why not, Rowan's okay with lying for me," he said.

Oh, so he got Rowan to lie about Jerry's CV but he didn't want to ask her for money. "Okay, well Rowan's really good at lying… like scarily good…" "Yeah she's really good." "And she's also totally up to morally grey activities where I'm not…"

"Just please Chin?" he asked as he headed for the door. Chin let him go and smiled into his coffee. Oh that Jerry, such a character. And now he was getting Rowan in on it… or the other way around. Either way, having those two joined together on common projects, might not be good for Five-0 or the island.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve had gone boxing with Ellie and she had been great. A wonderful work-out, a great boxer and he had even let her get a few jabs. Though to be fair he felt a little off kilter having to box a woman, he didn't want to hit her too hard but he didn't want her to think that he was going easy on her either. It wasn't like he didn't hit her at all, he got a few jabs in.

The bell rung and Steve backed away, sweating and ready to throw in the towel. "Lucky me, saved by the bell," he said taking off the protective gear and the gloves to head towards his towel and his water.

"So, you ever gonna give me an answer?" she asked.

About his hips telegraphing his jabs? What was she talking about? Unless this was about…

"About your friend?"

"Yeah."

Goddamn. "You're not gonna let that go, are you?" he asked.

Ellie shook her head watching as Steve took a drink from his water bottle. "No, no, I'm not. I'm telling you, you and Jess are perfect for each other."

"Yeah, but you know I'm with Rowan."

"Not officially according to you," Ellie said with a knowing smile he didn't like. "Still not your official girlfriend, just…"

"We're officially dating, I've told you that."

"Officially dating is completely different from officially being a girlfriend. Officially dating has a lot of grey area, a lot of room to wiggle," she told him and Steve scowled. He didn't see it like that, but apparently a lot of girls sure as hell did. "Come on, her favourite movie is _Guns of Navarone_ , she supports the Second Amendment and spends weekends surfing. You see. Perfect."

Steve shook his head. His perfect girl, the girl of his dreams was Rowan and he didn't understand why that was clear to everyone.

"Not to mention that she's drop-dead gorgeous."

"Drop dead Gorgeous," he echoed he then looked her up and down and said: "I've never seen _Guns of Navarone_."

"Come on, Steve. Say yes. If anything, it'll help you out with the old lady," she said and then someone cleared their throats behind him.

Steve turned immediately and found Rowan standing there. Considering you needed to pay to get access into the gym he was surprised she was standing there. But knowing his girl, and how easily she got in and out of places, he quickly shrugged it off as he had more important things to worry about.

"Babe, what are you doing here?" he asked immediately moving towards her, immediately putting the least amount of distance between them. Very concerned about how much of that she had heard. "I thought you had uh… I thought you had a job interview today."

"Yeah, I did. Had barely an interview, sat down, sang a few bars, played the guitar, bam job, they want me to start training ASAP. And… uh… I got your late Christmas gift in the mail today, you know that big ticket I was talking about, so I thought I'd surprise you by bringing it to you, but you also left your phone in my car and Danny keeps calling.…" she said as Steve hopped out of the ring, he took the phone she offered up to him with a smile and went to kiss her but she ducked him to approach Ellie who was still in the ring looking all shades of uncomfortable.

"Yeah… so perfect for him?"

Ah fuck, so she had heard a lot more than he would have liked.

"Uh… yeah… my friend Jess…"

"Drop dead gorgeous and perfect for him, I heard," Rowan said. "Uh… he did tell you that he and I… that we're…"

"Label-less?" Ellie asked. "Yeah… I unnno… I thought maybe he might like a little variety..."

"Wow, liking you less and less," Rowan muttered to herself and then shot Steve a patient glare. "And at no point during her attempts to convince you to take someone else on a date did you think to say _I'm already dating someone_?"

"I actually have said that every time she asked," Steve said and then pointed to Ellie. "Isn't that right, didn't I say that?"

"He did, he does, you come up every time I mention it," she admitted but Rowan who had been regarding Steve carefully put the mask of the Ice Queen up, clearly not believing one of them maybe both of them. She turned back to Ellie with that dangerous glittering smile on her face and asked: "Got anyone perfect for me?"

Steve dropped his water bottle and moved towards her. "Now wait a second… you're with me!"

"Am I though?" Rowan asked with a patronizing grimace on her face.

"She has a point your arguments were getting weaker and weaker in regards to me setting you up with Jess."

"No, they weren't," Steve snapped. "Rowan I'm not going to see this Jess girl, I don't care about this Jess girl… we're going steady…"

" _Going steady_ died out in 1940, am I your girlfriend Steven?" she asked and when Steve couldn't answer she turned back to Ellie, took her phone, programmed her number into it and said: "Have him give me a call."

She then turned back to Steven, slapped a package to his sweaty chest and smiled up at his angry and frustrated face and said: "Enjoy your case, Steven."

And then she left him there with Ellie in the ring and his phone going off in his hand. Fuck, what was happening right now?

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Danny came and got him from the gym. Steve did well keeping that mornings disastrous encounter to himself. He did, however show off the _signed_ Tom Brady jersey which was the main gift he was supposed to get on Christmas. It was only a few weeks late. He might have squealed if he opened that up on Christmas, he definitely managed to pair it down to a manly yelp when he opened it outside of the gym. Damn his girl knew him well. He still loved his picture frame, he had it on his desk running at all times, but he wasn't surprised that the jersey had been her main gift for him. It was pretty amazing. He had wanted to wear it but he also didn't want to get it dirty. He had chosen to hide it in the Camaro's trunk because Danny kept eyeing it with a greedy longing look.

The jersey kept Danny and Steve distracted. He got all the way to the ME's office and didn't say anything. They got the HPD impound lot and found a PI that wanted to help them with the case as the dead girl was the daughter of his friend and he had said he'd look out for her. So that had kept him from saying anything as well.

He tried so hard to let this not get to him, to let the case take up all of his attention but what had happened that morning was nagging at the back of his mind. He didn't want to date Jess, and he didn't want Rowan being set up with someone else, what if that guy _was_ perfect? He wouldn't have Steve's commitment issues, or battle wounds or unresolved parental issues. He'd have a stable job, he'd like more things that she did… Steve wouldn't be able to compete with that. Not even a little bit. So he figured… he figured that he'd talk to Danny about it, see if he had an idea on what he should do.

The man was always yapping on about something he had to have _some_ good advice. Right?

"So, let see if I got this… Rowan walked in on Ellie trying to set you up with another girl and she walked out of there with a possible set up of her own?" he asked after Steve had explained what had happened that morning.

"It's not funny Danny."

But Danny was already laughing. "It kinda is." When Steve wouldn't do anything but glare at him Danny relented. "Why the hell didn't you just tell Ellie that you're with Rowan? Huh? That shuts down the argument quick."

"Well I did, but then she said that… you know… officially dating isn't the same thing as being her boyfriend, I swear, her and Rowan have got to be in on this together," he sighed but the noticed he face Danny made. "What the hell does that face mean? That face you just pulled what the hell was that?"

Danny just shrugged. "I mean, they're right. Officially dating is completely different from an official relationship, you know?"

No, no he didn't know, he did not get it. To him it meant the same thing. Just one had a label and the other didn't. Why was it so bad that Steve didn't want to put a label on her? He said he needed time, fucking give it to him!

"And besides, there's no way I'm going to let you go on a set up. I got two words for you: Patty Fitzgerald."

"Who's Patty Fitzgerald?"

"Patty Fitzgerald is someone my aunt set me up with when I was 19 years old, okay? I was single, I was young. I figured why not?"

"Big mistake?" Steve asked.

"It was a colossal mistake."

"What happened?"

"Trust me you do not want to know, all you have to know is that I'm not going to let that happen to you."

Harry, the P.I., had been left told to go home so they could investigate without him getting underfoot, though Steve had a feeling it wasn't going to be the last time he saw Harry and then he and Danny walked back to their smart table where everyone was waiting for them, except for Chin who seemed to be off in Danny's office on a call. Together they watched a video of their victim Brooke from the Hula Company's website that she worked for.

"Okay, so what do we know about the Manoa Hula Company?" Steve asked after the video was done. He was looking at a picture of all the hula dancers in their traditional hula garb, all long dark brown hair, flowers and grass skirts. All beautiful women of the same or similar age.

"Well, on the surface, everything appears to be Kosher. They hire these dancers for private events corporate outings, graduation parties et cetera."

"But according to the PA's office, the clients in the know go to the website, where all the dancers have a profile page just like the one we saw," Kono explained.

"It's like a menu. You pick the dancer you want, you call up the hula manager, she sets the whole thing up for you," Grover finished, just as Chin came into the room.

"So, I ran the GPS that your man Harry planted on our vic's car. It shows that she left her place around 2 am and went to Pier 54. Which would be impossible, since Dr. Shaw puts TOD right around midnight."

"So the killer was driving her car," Danny assumed.

"That's what I thought too, so I had CSI do one last sweep of her car, looking for any fingerprint or DNA evidence. They came up empty. So I'm having them canvas all the boats in the marina and checking video surveillance."

"Yeah, but why dump Brooke in the marine pod?" Grover asked. "When you got the whole Pacific Ocean out there?"

They all thought about it for a moment before Kono murmured: "A marine pod guarantees that she'll be found. That's what our killer wanted."

"We have to go to that Hula place and talk to the owner, see who she left with last night. Chances are her… client… was the last person to see her alive… or is our killer," Steve said.

"I'm glad you said that, because Kono and I… may have found your way in," Chin said. "We've already got a hold of her and she's willing to play. But she's in the dark right now, only knows to pretend to not know you when you show up."

"What are you talking about?" Steve asked, not liking where this was going. Kono smiled brightly at him and that just made the worry worse.

"Turns out they have a new recruit, just hired today," Kono said pulling up a webpage. "No video yet, says it's pending, filed under professional singer to accompany the dancers or to be booked out for solos. A new market they're burgeoning into."

But Steve froze once the photo was up on the screen. Because smiling out at them at was Rowan. Oh god, her new job! Why the hell didn't he ask her about her new job?

Danny turned to him, snorting he was so excited and cried: "Well… I guess she doesn't need Ellie to set her up huh?"

Steve didn't find it funny.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Logically the next stop was to the Manoa Hula Company where they pulled the owner Kiana Thompson out of her office and made her speak to them. Well they didn't have to pull her out of the office, she just came out and refused to let them back there, which was suspicious but you know, when your company's under investigation you don't trust people so Steve was willing to let it go. Plus it worked with the plan, it meant they were out in the open and there was a good chance she'll clock him staring at Rowan. He was supposed to really play up being attracted to her, worse than usual, Danny had said. Steve didn't think it would be hard.

They told Thompson what had happened and she acted the appropriate amount of shocked and distressed. If she was lying she was a good liar. But again… her company was under investigation and she _was_ maintaining it was all lies… so….

"Have you gotten in touch with Brooke's father?" she asked. "They're extremely close. He's going to be devastated.

Steve, who couldn't keep his eyes from scanning the lobby and the windows where the girls could be seen practicing, absently answered: "Yeah, we're reaching out to him now."

"Are you looking for something Commander?" she asked him, turning her eyes to the window where the girls were practising their dance routines. "Are you interested in booking us for one of your functions?"

"No, not at all," Steve snapped but was still unable to tear his eyes away because he had finally spotted that red headed vixen who should have told him she was trying to get a job at a fucking hula company! Why did she even need this job, her last song sold for 300 thousand dollars, what had she fucking spent it on? Not the mortgage or utilities cause he was covering those and letting her stay rent free.

"Ms. Thompson, when was the last time you saw Brooke?"

"Just last night we had a corporate event at the Modern."

Tearing his eyes away from where Rowan was learning dance moves Steve opened his mouth to ask her a question and then paused and turned back to the window. Wait a second… dance moves? What? Why? She wasn't supposed to be a dancer.

"Are you okay?" she asked as Danny dug his elbow into Steve's side.

"I'm fine," he snapped his cheeks coloring in embarrassment. "Okay, we're gonna need a list of everybody who was there."

She nodded, so at least she was willing to help out in that aspect. Steve's eyes found Rowan's again, she was in an off the shoulder white cap-sleeved crop top, she had flowers in her long wavy red-blonde hair and she was wearing a grass skirt. Yep. He was attracted. Like… fully and completely. No need to fake that shit.

"Do you know if Brooke, uh, took any work home with her last night?" he heard Danny ask, but Rowan was laughing, and smiling and distracting him to old hell and back. Fuck him he just wanted to go over there, kick that door down and then kiss her. But he wasn't going to stop there, no sir, he was going to do terrible things to her in front of those goddamn windows. He didn't care who saw.

It was when Thompson snarled: "Excuse me?" to Danny that Steve turned his eyes back to the conversation. He may not have been paying attention but he knew what Danny had said just by the tone of her voice.

"Ms. Thompson, we know your company's under investigation," he told her.

She raised her chin haughtily after rolling her eyes. "That is nothing more than jealous competitors trying to slander my name."

"So, you're saying that your dancers, they never have relationships with clients outside of work?" Danny asked.

Steve's eyes slid back to Rowan whose blue eyes were finally on him. God, he hoped they were doing this right because if this didn't work, he was going to drag her out of that office with him right now. Screw having a mole inside the company. And she was keeping the hula costume.

"I did not say that," she said with a shake of her head and when that won her silence from the two detectives she continued. "My dancers are beautiful women. If a client calls asking to meet one of them, I am not above making an introduction."

Steve who had been staring her down purposely turned his eyes back to Rowan. "Yeah, of course not."

"Matchmaking has been around for thousands of years, gentlemen," she told them. "It's an ancient tradition that kings and queens used to set up their children. There's no money exchanged. Nothing illegal about it."

"But you do charge four times more than your competitors. Right?" Danny asked.

Rowan smiled at him, twittering behind her hands as the other hula girls gathered around her, all their eyes pointedly staring at him. Well that was him caught staring by them as well, so he waved back placidly.

"Quality comes with a price," she said and then turned her eyes to Steve. "Shall I give you a demonstration?" she asked.

Steve barked out a _no_ and stammered some lame excuse that not even he would have believed as Thompson waved Rowan over. Rowan was confused as first, but the girls pushed her out of the room and she slowly approached them.

"Ma'am," she said when she got closer her eyes sliding to Steve who had lowered his eyes to look properly sheepish around her.

"Rowan, this is Commander McGarrett of Five-0, Commander McGarrett, this is Rowan Pierce our new singer. You have great timing I just hired her today and had her filling out paperwork and meeting the girls," she introduced and the two shook hands like they were strangers. Rowan blinked her eyes at him in that coquettish way he loved and he hit her with that half smirk that always got her excited.

"I would like you to show him around."

"Me?" Rowan asked clearly surprised. "Am I really the best choice?" she then turned back to Steven. "As she said, I've only been hired today, you see, I won't know as much as the other girls… did you want me to get one of them?"

"No, you," Thompson said in a strange voice, which had Rowan turning back to her confused. The two shared a charged look before Rowan carefully said: "Well, okay, If you insist," and then motioned for him to follow her.

Steve did so letting Danny take over the whole investigation aspect of the case and turned his attention solely to Rowan.

"Privacy, now," he hissed to her and she nodded. She pulled him into a small windowless room with a ballet bar against one wall that was all mirrors.

"Okay. I can hold them out of the stretching room for like ten minutes. What the hell is going on?" Rowan asked.

Steve shook his head, went to the mirrors knocking on each until he was certain that they weren't two way or fake, he then looked around for any bugs or cameras and once he was certain there weren't any he turned back to her.

"You're working for an escort company," he answered absent still looking around for any signs of recording devices.

"I'M _WHAT_?!"

"Rowan come on, how did you _not_ know that?" he thundered turning around to face her.

"Are you fucking shitting me?! How was I supposed to…? Pete had them at our last function, mentioned they were looking for a singer and since I'm not trying to sing to be famous I'd be perfect…" she snapped at him. "I had absolutely no idea it was… do you think _he_ knew? Oh I'm gonna kill him!"

Steve rolled his eyes and sighed and dug into his pocket. "Okay… whatever, it's working out for now. I have a bug for you, I need you to keep it on you at _all_ times, can you do that?"

"I mean… maybe?" she said taking the bug from him and then hiding it in her waistband. "So like… is this part of the case? You're investigating the escort service?"

"No, murder, one of the girls got murdered last night we don't know if it's involved."

"Oh so I'm working for a pimp and a murderess? That's what you're telling me? Well this is just great, I'm gonna go quit."

"No!" Steve cried grabbing her arm and tugging her into his embrace. "We need you here right now. I just told you that we don't think it's connected to what's happening here… or at least in the sense that she was killed to stop it or something. I wouldn't leave you here if I thought she was a murderer."

"Okay… so what do you want me to do then? Plant the bug in her office and then quit?"

"I don't want you to quit at all!"

"Wait a second, what are you saying? You want me to be a spy, after Afghanistan? Were you not there, Steven? Do you not remember how big of a clusterfuck that was?!"

"Of course I remember, I still have nightmares about it but that is _not_ what I'm asking you to do," he said holding onto her arms tightly. "All we need for you, babe, is to listen and report. Like you always do. She doesn't know you're dating me… actually why does she not know that? Aren't I your emergency contact?"

Rowan blinked her eyes at him a million miles a second and he frowned. Before she could open her mouth to lie to him he asked: "I'm not am I?"

"No, I put Jerry," she admitted and stupidly he felt his heart shatter like she had just told him she was cheating on him or something.

"Jerry?" he hissed. " _You picked Jerry over me?_ What the actual fuck Rowan!"

"Well it was just cause… you know… you're busy and I didn't want them to distract you if you were on a case so I put down Jerry… who's rarely busy and has no problem dropping everything to come get me from the hospital…"

Steve stopped listening after that. She _still_ thought that his work was more important than her. What the hell was her problem?!

"Rowan," he snapped ending her long winded argument. "Rowan. Baby. I swear to god. I don't know how many more times I have to say this, but… you are more important than my goddamn job. For fuck sake if a hospital called me and told me that you had been admitted I would one hundred percent leave a case to come to you…"

"I was more worried about them not being able to get a hold of you if you're like chasing a perp or getting shot at," Rowan muttered but Steve just sighed at her and she winced under the weight of his disappointment. "Why are you complaining, it's working out for you now isn't it?"

She had a point there. She then turned that puppy dog pout up to him and his heart squeezed in his chest. "Please don't make me stay here Steven what if she wants me to go out with a client?"

"Oh she is definitely going to send you out with a client," he said and Rowan opened her mouth to complain. "God Rowan, it's me, she's going to ask you entrap me guaranteed, with the way you were staring at me… and how I was… uh…"

Now Rowan was smiling, a big cheesy grin as she looked up at him from behind sultry hooded eyelashes. She bit the side of her lip in that seductive way that always set him off. "You were ogling me pretty hard."

"I mean… look what you're wearing Rowan can you blame me?" he hissed, leaning in close to press a kiss to her cheek, his hands framing her midriff. "And I was supposed to put it on thick remember…"

"You couldn't just leave it at that could you?" She asked clearly angry with him but he didn't care. She had her arms around his neck and her lips nibbling his own and the world was gone to him for a moment

"Still… be careful about what you say, kay babe?" he whispered. "I've got a bug for you, just keep it in your bag or something… keep it on you at all times. But uh… please babe, just be careful."

"I thought you said I wouldn't be doing anything too dangerous…"

"You're not, I wouldn't be asking you to do this if I thought you'd be in danger," he whispered. "I just… you know… I worry about you."

"I'll be careful Steve, I promise."

"So help me if you take an actual, real fucking client…" he hissed against her lips.

"I don't think you get to care when you're planning dates with… Jess."

Steve growled against her jawline the sound rumbling through her. Her hands went to his sides to dig her fingernails into his and that time when he growled she knew it was because she was turning him not, not pissing him off.

"I'm not… I'm not going on a date with Jess, alright?" he snapped. "I have no intention of going anywhere with Jess. I am with you. Okay. I am _with_ you!"

She pressed him into a deep kiss just as Danny appeared at the door. He took them in and groaned.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" he asked and Steve jumped away from her.

He went about pretending to be embarrassed to be caught kissing her and then glared at Danny. "What?"

"We gotta a name, are you good to go?" he asked making a big show of eyeing Rowan with eyes of disgust, she just shot a glare at Danny until he looked away.

"Yes, uh… Rowan… thank you for the tour… uh… I gotta…"

Rowan smiled flirtatiously at him and waved at him in a coy manner as she called out: "Bye," to him.

Not seconds after he was gone was Kiana Thompson in the room with her. She looked her up and down while Rowan grinned at her like a love sick idiot. She didn't even have to pretend, Steve and his kisses just did that to her on a regular basis.

"He was cute," she sighed.

"And he clearly liked you," Kiana said appreciatively. "Which means I have a job for you."

"Oh yeah?" she asked already knowing where this was going. She bent down, tucking the bug Steve had given her into her sock hoping to god that it was on cause she was about to get the orders to seduce Steve in the next ten seconds.


	154. Chapter 154

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Okay, so this is hella late and I'm so sorry about that. But it's okay, I got something in this chapter that should make up for it's lateness. We're going to have another one of those steamy chapters and I really, really got steamy for this one, like I really tried to amp it up for you. Don't forget to tell me what you think and I'll see you on Wednesday!_

Chapter 154

* * *

As soon as he planted that bug at Kiana's Hula Company he knew that he'd have to tell Ellie. He hadn't known that she was on that particular case he just knew that the PA was on it. So it worked out. It would be easier to explain what he had done and how he had found himself in this situation to her and she's probably sympathize with him too. He'd also be able to convince her to go along with his plan a little easier than anyone else, and she'd probably get a judge to see things his way too.

But it wasn't going too well at that point.

"Look Steve, there is nothing I would love more that to see Kiana Thompson indicted, but she's got the best defense attorney's covering her ass," Ellie said as she walked beside him.

"I understand that. All I need is her client list," Steve said. Since they had established that both his vics, Brooke and the John she had been seeing, Warring, were probably murdered by the same person, Warring for an unknown reason, and Brooke because she had witnessed Waring's murder. The running theory was that a different client of Thompson's was involved in both, since it all tied back to her anyway.

"If it was that easy, don't you think I'd have it already?" she asked. "I have a feeling there are some pretty powerful people on it that don't want their names getting out."

But that didn't help him or his people. He had a man who owned the boat that was used to dump Brooke's body in the marine pod that Waring had owned. So far he wasn't connected to either of them, but if he could prove that he was also a client of Thompson's he'd break the case and Rowan could get herself out of that fucking Company.

"Okay listen, Sheridan is a prime suspect in two homicides. Right? Brooke Waiakea was a dancer at the Manoa Hula Company and David Waring was a client. That's gotta be enough for a judge to sign off on a warrant."

When Ellie just made a face at him, Steve sighed. Time to confess. "Alright, alright, how about this… what would you say if I could get you information… all that proof you want… what would you say then?"

"How would you be able to do that Steve?" she asked, folding her arms over her chest to glare at him.

"Well… uh…I may… I may have a man on the inside right now, and they're ready to bug the place if you want to move forward with that."

"You've got a man on the… what?"

"Yeah, but you gotta move fast, cause she's already bugged and uh… they're gonna send her to seduce me soon. Like this afternoon."

Ellie balked at this, clearly not understanding what was happening. "Steven what are you talking about?"

Okay, time to start at the beginning. "You know how Rowan mentioned she landed a job today?"

"Oh God, I think I know what's happened… alright… yeah… I remember her mentioning a new job…" Ellie asked a smile sneaking onto her face.

"Well, turns out it was at Thompson's Hula Company."

"Oh god I was expecting it but it's still… seriously? You've got to be shitting me!"

"I have Rowan bugged right now, I already know that they want her to show up at my office, hide a camera there, record us having sex and then take the evidence back with her," he said. "We're going to put a tracking bug on the SD card so that when she accesses the file, we'll have access to her computers… what are the chances we get a judge to sign off on that little covert op?"

"Not high Steven."

"Okay… but what if the Governor said it was okay?"

"And he'd do that?"

"He does a lot of unexplainable things where Rowan is involved… uh… that used to be because she could get info from a known terrorist though… not sure if he'll do it now."

"Well ask him, this may be just the break we need," she said as Steve pulled out his phone.

Steve nodded, turned half away and then turned back. "Uh… just a question."

"Sure?"

"You didn't really have someone perfect lined up for her right?"

"Steven… your girl is working for an escort service I doubt my pick is going to matter when she has rich guys wining and dining her all the time."

"Uh… excuse me, Rowan is not that kind of girl. She doesn't care about money and that sort of stuff…"

"Every girl cares about that, Steve, most of us just don't tell our men about it," she said which caused Steve to frown. He made money, of course, he wasn't destitute but he wasn't a millionaire. He couldn't provide for her the way one of Thompson's clients could. But Rowan didn't really care about that… that's what she had always said… she lied about a lot of things but she wasn't lying about that… right?

"And Jeff is perfect for her. He plays guitar, he volunteers at animal shelters, and he's got that physique that she likes so much."

Well that the hell did that mean? Physique, Rowan had a physique she liked best? "Okay, can you please, please stop talking about my girlfriend like that, and don't you fucking give that Jeff guy her number."

"Oh… so now she's your girlfriend?"

"She's always been my girlfriend I just… you know… I don't like labels, I'm not at a place where I'm comfortable with them so could you just… please. Fucking stop it. And don't you tell her either," he warned and she just smiled but agreed. She raised her hands in mock surrender and then Steve finally put his call in to the Governor and Ellie went to go see about convincing a judge.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

 ***This scene contains smut that might be considered offensive, this is not how they'd normally act but they're playing a part so please remember that. Please Skip to the next scene if you don't want to read it***

 _Every man's corruptible, and you're his weak spot. If you can seduce him… if you can get that on camera… we'll be untouchable._

She had put up a valiant fight, she cooed on about morals, and about how she'd never sleep with him for money, no matter how fucking cute Steven was. And then she dropped the amount on the table, reminded Rowan about her so-called debts, which didn't exist but she let Kiana think she had, and then she graciously accepted.

She was then supplied with a small camera and then was told to get into his office, hide it, seduce him and then have him fuck her in front of the camera. She could then hold it above the high and mighty McGarrett, have Five-0 in her pocket and then _never_ have to worry about the popo ever again.

So, Rowan got herself into the Palace, went into Steve's office. Dimmed the lights, closed the blinds, and then changed into the hula outfit he had liked so much, minus the flowers cause she had forgotten them and if they actually ended up having sex they'd probably just get crushed anyway which was a waste.

Once that was done, she hid the camera, turned it on and then waited for Steven. And since they planned it, it only took sixty seconds for him to come into his office, realize she was there and then come to a complete standstill, being sure to close the door entirely.

Rowan knew she had a job here, Steve hadn't been able to call her about it, but she had received an email from Kono with instructions. No set lines, but they were treating this as a scene, they had to go about being natural and all that, and she had to get him to say he'd pay to fuck her. Which was ridiculous cause the man was cheap and he could get her for free. Which was why she was never worried Steve was going to cheat on her with a prostitute.

Still she put on her best inviting smile and hit him with a: "Hey there sailor."

"What are you doing in my office?" he asked as he locked the door quietly and then took a step towards her.

"Well… Mrs. Thompson wanted to thank you for your discrete questioning today and since she noticed you… eyeing me…"

"Oh, she noticed that hmm?"

"Oh yes. She thought you might like a… private dance…"

"Interesting," he said regarding her carefully. "But you're not one of the dancers.

"Oh, but I've been learning, would you like to see?" she asked with a grin.

Steve reached out for her, his hands snatching her by her sides and tugging her to his chest. "I think I want a little more than a dance…"

Rowan flattened her hands to his chest to keep him from ducking down to kiss her. Because if he kissed her, she'd forget the rest of her lines. "Now… I don't know what you've heard…"

"I know that Manoa Hula Company is a front for an escort service," he whispered huskily, burring his head into her neck so the words came out hot against her skin. "We both know what she sent you here for."

Rowan pushed away from him, putting the desk in between her and him. She bit her lip in that way he liked so much already he was growling at her. "I was sent to give you a preview of our… services… if you want a full show, you'll have to… pay."

Within seconds he had her pinned against the cupboards behind his desk, conveniently blocking the camera. For a moment he just kissed her, and she almost let him have her then and there, but they weren't done with their scene yet, that wasn't where it was supposed to end.

She managed to wiggle out of his grip, but he caught her from behind again, pulling her back against him and then pushing her onto his desk, she could feel him straining to get her and already she was wet for him.

He leant forward caging her between his chest and his desk, his hands moving off of her hips, one up to her chest and under that red tube top she was wearing but probably wasn't going to be on her for much longer while the other disappeared under that grass skirt she was wearing.

Once his fingers were inside her that was Rowan's mind gone. One hand pinching her nipple, his mouth running hot against her skin, his breath warm and panting in her ear and those fucking fingers. Two fingers, as deep as they could go, quivering against whatever they could reach, pulling out and sliding back in in a rhythm that only they knew. She had spun out of his grasp to kiss him before she could stop herself, sitting herself up on his desk and pulling him in between her legs.

She gave him a few free more minutes before she finally pushed him away from her. Steve, who had never been pushed away from her before, blinked his eyes in surprise and shock.

She smiled at him, gave him her best fuck me eyes and said: "Preview over."

Steve swore, the word primal and animalistic against the silence of the room. His chest heaving as he looked her up and down. "Alright… and how much for the rest?" he asked. "How much for a full show."

Rowan pulled him back to her, her hands making quick work of unbuttoning that black shirt she fucking loved on him, with his chest bared she ran her hands up and down them, moving with each heaving breath he took. She looked up, her nose millimetres from her, but she refused to let him kiss her, even if he was leaning into her petting. "For you… you I can do half off for," she whispered to him. "Say… three grand?"

He seemed to think this over, he faltered against her, his eyes blinking. "Are you uh… worth it?" he asked.

Rowan smiled at him, her hand slipping down his pants to grip him in her hands, he was so hard, so hot and already sticky for her, just the way she liked him. Steve gasped and pitched forward, collapsing into her grasp, which let her whisper: "Why don't you try me out and find out for yourself?" against his ear.

"Done," he answered almost immediately and like that he was on her, his lips claiming hers, his arms coming around her, pinning her to him. All the work was already done, her thighs were already parted for him, her panties, thin and easily moved, had been pushed aside by his fingers long before this. One button and a zipper and he was in her.

This was like nothing else they had done before. The frantically hurried and quickie was a mastered and well-liked move of theirs. But this time was different. There was something about this that got her blood pumping. She felt naughty and wild and a little dirty but with Steve doing sinful things to her with his tongue she didn't quite fucking care. She forgot all about that camera recording them and lost herself in his erratic thrusts and his suddenly harshness, she didn't even care when he got a little rough, in fact she welcomed it.

Her legs clamped around him, her hands resting at his sides, her nail digging into his ribs as he liked. His mouth was leaving marks she could feel them, all over her neck, her shoulder, burning biting marks but she didn't tell him to stop, he angled her, lowering her closer to the desk and he went deeper into her and a small cry of delight escaped her.

A hand clamped over her mouth to stop the rest of it and then he pushed her the rest of the way down until her back was against the desk. He kissed her then, to keep her from making another noises, his tongue swirling about her in a leisurely manner. He had slowed, slowed to kiss the sense out of her head and it worked but she wanted that speed, that depth back.

"Stay there and stay quiet," he ordered, his hands going back to her waist. She obeyed him, she was his to command, his eyes burning down on her branding her better than any of the marks did. He tugged her, her body sliding back to his and then he thrust. That single thrust went deeper than anything else had, her mouth opened and he quickly slid out.

"No, no, no," she moaned and he laughed at her as her hands travelled to his hips to bring her back to him, but he swatted her hands away and pushed her back to the desk before she could get back up.

"What did I say?" he taunted "Stay down, stay quiet, or I won't pleasure you." Oh, how cruel. He'd be getting words about this once he was done with this case. But at that time all she could do was bring her hands to her mouth, putting her knuckles between her teeth so that when he did it again nothing escaped her but she did almost break skin biting back her cries of ecstasy. He continued to thrust, deep fast and hard, he had her wrap her legs around him to keep him there so his hands could explore her. Traveling up the creamy skin of her things, her stomach, before settling at that soaking wet pearl right above. One touch of it and her back arched, it was too much, too much combined, if he did that again…

And then he was massaging it, thrusting deep and massaging her watching her writhe and arch on his desk in front of her until that starburst exploded inside her, her back arching so far of his desk she was certain she was doing a gymnastic move.

After collapsing back to his desk and there was a resounding growl of "Fuck," and that was all she needed to know that just watching her had set him off, combined with his hands grabbing hers and forcing them above her head while he slammed his body down on hers was the signal that he was about to come too.

He looked into her eyes, nothing short of heated desire and wonderment dazzling in those baby blues of his, and then he kissed her. He kissed her hard, her hands trapped in his grip, her legs tightly around him, his cock deep inside her and in four more varied thrusts he too came to that explosive crescendo. His own cry swallowed up in their kiss.

This would be where they would cuddle, normally. She wasn't sure what was supposed to happen next. But he let go of her hands, slowly and carefully stood himself up, letting her sit up. He was still between her legs, but he braced himself against the desk so he could catch his breath so she lounged back and did the same.

"So, what do you think?" she asked. "Was I worth it?"

He looked up to her a smile on his face, and he kissed her nose. "You're always worth it," he whispered and Rowan groaned.

"Steven!" she cried. "Now we have to make the movie again!"

Steve just laughed her. "God babe you know I'm always up for round two," he said as he pressed kisses against her jaw line. "But I think… I think I'm gonna need more time to catch my breath after that…"

Rowan scowled at him but sat back and watched as he fixed up his cock and straightened up his pants. Reaching past her to get tissues for himself before handing her some to let her clean herself up. Usually they would take a shower together, he liked cleaning her off, though it also usually led to shower sex too. God, they had a lot of sex.

Still, this was the most detached he had ever been after one of their trysts and she wasn't sure she liked it or was handling it well. She was sure if it was because the camera was still on, as Steve was pulling it out of the hiding spot and fiddling with it, or if it was because of how good that sex was, sometimes he got a little distance if there was too much emotion in something. Steve couldn't handle emotions that strong.

So, she opted for a joke. "Well if I'm that good maybe this is the job I should be in, maybe I've found my real calling,"

Steve looked up at her, his eyes blinking as he took that in. "I swear to god Rowan… if you get actual clients…"

"For godsake Steve you're my only client," she snapped putting _client_ in air quotes. "I was obviously joking. But seriously are we going to have to do that again?" her hand went to her neck which was starting to sting, god how dark were the marks on her neck? "I don't know if my neck can handle it."

Steve brushed her hair aside to look at the damage. "Holy shit, babe… I didn't realize… I left a lot of marks," he whispered.

Rowan waved it off, it had been part of the experience, besides she had a lot of practice covering Steve's hickeys.

But Steve wasn't going to let it go. "Seriously, did I hurt you? I got a bit rough there… you know with the character I was playing, are you sure you're okay?" he asked, god he looked so concerned. But she had liked him being rough with her, granted she didn't think she handle it as an all-the-time thing, but she didn't mind it every now and then.

"Don't worry, I'm fine. I actually liked it," she told him and h turned his sheepishly proud grin away from her. "But seriously, Steven, do we have to do it again… you know to get the ending right?"

"No… uh… I'm just gonna have Toast scrub it… make it look like the video file was corrupted or something…" he said.

"Oh… but if you're going to do that… why did we… you know go all the way?" she asked. "I could have just given her a corrupted SD card, I played up the whole ditz thing she'd totally believe I'd fuck this up"

"I know, and I wasn't going to but uh… you put your hands down my pants and I kinda forgot…" he said. "Though to be honest… that whole… finger banging from behind fuck… I think you had me there… probably would have agreed to Ten grand to get the rest of the show."

"Oh yeah that good?"

"Course… I can't resist you, you know that," he said kissing her again and Rowan grinned at him. That was right! This amazing, perfect, so handsome it sometimes hurt to look at him, man wanted her, couldn't resist her. Take that!

"Mmm," Rowan agreed, letting him kiss him a little bit longer before they moved forwards. "So uh… how is this gonna…"

"Well... uh… Toast is gonna destroy the sex part of this, all she'll have is the me agreeing to it, and then it'll appear corrupted, when she opens the file it will launch the tracking software as well and from there, we'll be able to get the client list…"

"So, you're going to make Toast watch..." "Hell no…" "He's just going to scrub it?" "Yeah" "What if he… maybe… kept it… for us… you know… not for him. For us…"

"Uh… and why would we want that?" Steve asked sliding up to her again, his arms wrapping around her as her hands came to his shoulders.

She smiled huskily up to him. "Uh… well… I thought… I thought it might be nice to maybe… keep it for us. To watch back? See the high lights? See if there's any room for…. uh… improvement?"

Steve nibbled at her lips and she almost lost her fucking mind again. To torture him right back she sunk her own teeth into his lower lip and for a minute the two lost themselves to their kisses.

"Uh… well… I don't think there's really anything we need to improve, but uh… I can make sure he saves a copy for me if you'd like."

"Yes, I would."

"Well alright then."

"Are you uh… maybe up for…" She didn't even get to ask him, once again he had her up against his desk her thighs parted so he could be between them once more.

"I thought you'd never fucking ask," he growled into her neck and Rowan answered by clamping her legs around his waist and stripping him of that black shirt that had his eyes standing out in ways that should have been illegal, properly that time.

God, they needed to do stuff like this more often.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan returned to the Manoa Hula Company sore all over and on a complete and utter high. She was grinning like an idiot she couldn't help it. Even if she was sore, even though she was certain that by tomorrow she wouldn't be able to walk. Though, if she was this sore, how did Steve feel?

She stumbled into Kiana Thompson's office and just sat down in front of her with that grin on her face while the older woman just stared at her.

"Well I take it our plan worked," she said as she took in Rowan's messed up hair, her giant grin and the dreamy look on his face.

"Oh god, he was so… good…" she said to her. "The things he did to me. Fuck. I swear. They were… oh god. Just so fucking good. And his body… oh my god when he took his shirt off…"

"Okay, yes, yes, where's the camera?" she snapped and Rowan pulled it out of her bag. She had originally wanted to give Rowan a webcam of sorts to get a live showing, but then they figured, since they were aiming for this to be done in his office, that Five-0 would detect a rogue Wi-Fi signal and shut them down, or at least… she wouldn't be able to get footage, and if they found out she had put a camera in his office, McGarrett would never trust them again. They'd never get another chance if they got caught, no matter how much McGarrett wanted her.

So the camera Rowan had was a standard video camera, smaller, compact, and all Rowan had to do was distract him enough to not notice where she had hidden it. Which didn't matter cause Steve had known it was there. But Kiana didn't know that.

She handed her the camera and Kiana happily pulled it out of her grasp. She had the SD card out of it seconds later and then Rowan was watching on bated-breath as she slid the SD card into her computer.

As soon as she clicked the file Rowan sat back let the SD do all the work of tracking. She clicked play and then Rowan could hear Steven talking to her. There would be a lot that Kiana would witness, at least the finger fucking, before he agreed. Actually she wasn't entirely sure how much Toast would scrub out.

"Ohh, it's dark…" Kiana said as she watched. She heard Steve pinning her against the cupboards and she knew what would come next.

"I uh… I thought the dimness would hide the camera better… isn't what he says more important anyway?"

"That's true," she said as she watch Steve pin her to his desk. "Wow… he really was keen on you wasn't he?"

Rowan nodded… right so she was going to see all of that then… she tried not to be embarrassed but she couldn't help it.

 _For you… I can do half off… say… three grand?_

"Three grand? You thought three grand was half off?" Kiana asked. Steven said _Deal_ and just like that it cut out.

"Wait… what?!" she cried, "What happened?"

Rowan quickly stood up and crossed to the desk where the video had ended and a large popup said video corrupted. "I… I don't know… I didn't touch anything… I swear!" she cried. "Oh… no… I did… uhm… I did… kind of… maybe drop a drink on it…"

Kiana turned a groan at her and then sighed. "Okay, no, this is okay, he agreed to pay, we have that on camera, plus he fairly attacks you a few times, so where's the money?"

"The money?" Rowan echoed.

"Yeah, the three grand. Where's the three grand?"

"Oh… I was supposed to grab the money?" she asked.

"You didn't… you didn't…" she echoed. "You let him fuck you for free?"

"Well… no!" Rowan cried. "He agreed to three grand… I assumed he'd settle that up with you?"

And then Kiana went off about how stupid she was and all of that, but Rowan's eyes were on a book beside the computer. It wasn't open but Rowan would recognize an illegal ledger anywhere. The Stepanov's had had one, so did Wo.

The client list wasn't on Kiana's computer. She had gone old school, it was sitting right there. Rowan quickly turned back to Kiana, donned a chastised face, kept repeating that she was sorry and then waited for her opportunity.

When Kiana stood up from her desk Rowan made a show of trying to move out of the way but she stayed fully in Kiana's way so she had no choice but to sweep her out of the way. Once she had stormed past Rowan and the desk, Rowan quickly snatched up the ledger, slipped it into her bag and then followed her out.

"I really am sorry!" Rowan cried. "I could try again! You know? I'm sure he wouldn't…"

"No, we'd need to get him here, get him in my office, he still has to pay after all, since _someone_ forgot to take payment," she snapped.

Rowan winced at her. "I didn't know that I had to do that, I thought you would? Besides he didn't have cash on him."

"Of course," she snapped. "Rule number one, until I see the green, no man gets in between."

Ew. That was a shitty rhyme. "You didn't tell me that," Rowan reminded her but Kiana was already storming away and ordering her to go home. _She'd_ fix this, she said, she'd get McGarrett agreeing and paying for round two on camera and then Rowan could see him again, and not a moment later.

So Rowan left. Precious cargo still in her bag. Kiana none the wiser, only expecting her back for practice that afternoon.

It had been a long time since she had had to do that. Apparently she hadn't lost her touch.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

It didn't take long. Once Steve had the ledger, once Steve had a name he could throw at Sheridan, he caught the man who killed both Waring, and then Brooke who had witnessed that first murder. But it left one string dangling, the question of who told him that Brooke had been there? He hadn't known before, he hadn't killed her when he killed Waring, he hadn't known she was there. That left them with the question of who had told him, but it was easy to get that out of their murderer too.

Steve, Danny and Ellie all returned to the Manoa Hula Company, and found Kiana Thompson just leaving her office, dressed up nicely but she looked quite frazzled at their appearance, but she might have been frazzled in advance.

"Hey, you uh… you heading out?" Steve asked her stopping her in her tracks.

"Yes, I'm heading to a venue. I hear you enjoyed your private hula… show," she said with an acidic sort of smile on her face. "Heard you upgraded to a full show as well. Now, law enforcement or not I'll expect you to pay… in full. And, of course, whenever you want another showing, you can call me up, same girl or different, doesn't matter."

"Yeah I don't think I'm going to have to do anything."

Ellie stepped out from behind him and proudly said: "Kiana Thompson, you're under arrest."

"For what? What, your office couldn't make a case against me, so you bring your bulldogs here to try and scare me?" Kiana scoffed.

"Actually, it's got nothing to do with our case, though I have a feeling I'm going to make a break in mine really soon," she said shooting Steve a playful grin.

"Yeah. You're under arrest for conspiracy to commit murder," Danny added and Kiana scoffed.

Ellie shrugged and smiled at her. "I just wanted to be here to see you get taken away."

"Now, you see, when Brooke witnessed David Waring's murder, she went home and she called you," Steve told her. "You told her you were gonna protect her, take care of everything. But instead you called Robert Young."

"I mean I get it," Danny said. "Brooke wasn't worth you losing two clients in one night."

Steve went for his cuffs and Kiana took a step away from him.

"Oh, I don't think so. You're not going to do that Commander," she warned. "With what I have on you… I could ruin you. You hear me… I'll take you down with me."

"And what do you have on me Kiana?"

"I have video evidence of you paying to sleep with one my girls."

Steve nodded. "Yeah, well… that's going to be really hard since the actual sex part of the video was corrupted," he said which caused Kiana's smirk to fade. "And really, all you have is me having sex with my girlfriend in my office. But you can feel free to bring that up with the Governor, I'm sure I'll get a reprimand for that at least."

"What? Girlfriend… Oh I see? So you slept with her once and now she's your girlfriend? How much are you paying for that? Or do you fancy you saved her from the life of a call girl?"

"Nope, actually we've been dating for six months now, she's lived in my house for about 8, would you say it's 8 months now Danny?" he asked. Danny nodded and added: "Maybe around nine. Almost a year I'd say."

"Yeah, and that's just how long she's been living with me. I've known her for longer," Steve said. "Sometimes when I'm really stuck she helps me with my cases."

"Helps you with your…"

"I needed access to your office and your files, Rowan was already here and she's good at getting in and out of places. You never even saw it come did you?"

"Nope, she didn't even notice me snatching up her client list book, she's been looking for it for the last three hours, and it's been hilarious," Rowan said coming out from the back office fanning herself with a fan made of money. In her arms was stacks of it, and a secondary book, Kiana was staring at her horrified but Rowan was just smiling. "Don't look so upset Kiana, it wasn't all fake. Up until this morning when he showed up to question you the first time, I had no idea what was happening. I honest to god really just needed a job and I was super excited to work for you… you know until you decided to pimp me out. Oh! I still have the bug in the waistband of my skirt, I have the whole conversation taped."

"It's live Rowan, we heard it already, it was how I knew you were coming to my office to hide a camera…"

"Ah… right… Well anyway, you picked a really good time to show up cause my full profile went live and she was talking about a client list. It's apparently quiet long as I have a lot of interest"

Steve scowled at her but Rowan just smiled. "Are we good?" she asked. She then took the money and handed it to Ellie. "I have a feeling you've been having a hard time with a money trail?" she asked. Ellie just stared at her. "Well it was in her safe."

"You got her safe open?' Steve asked. Rowan blinked her eyes at him and then cocked her head to the side and said: "You told Kiana Thompson I'm your girlfriend… in front of people."

"Okay yeah it was just easier than explaining..."

"So, I am your girlfriend then?"

"Rowan can we not talk about this right now?" he asked, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and pulling her close. "You know what I want to talk about? Do you get to keep that hula girl outfit?"

Rowan shook her head at him and Steve tried not to smile to large. At least that was that conversation deflected for the time being.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve thought everything was fine. He and Rowan went home and played out the _naughty Prostitute in a Hula Costume and the Dirty… in more way than one… Cop who had arrested her_ fantasy a little longer. He even got his cuffs involved. She really would do anything to get out of another arrest, but she still spent time in jail… with him… and his dick… and hot damn that night had been past amazing. They needed to roleplay more often. And he needed to cuff her up more often, fuck he'd even let her put the cuffs on him if she got herself sexy cop outfit.

But then she disappeared in the morning and didn't come back until after dinner. Steve had been surprised, she hadn't answered any of his calls that day.

"Where have you been?" he asked. "Keep in mind, if your next words aren't: _I was looking for a suitably slutty cop costume and failed because none of them were slutty enough_ I'm going to be very angry with you."

"I was practicing with the girls," she said like that didn't raise more questions. "I was gonna call you at lunch but I got a call from Jeff…"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, JEFF?" he asked. "She actually gave… did you talk to him?"

"Yeah he asked me out."

"WHAT? _Rowan_!" he cried, but she was already across the living room pressed into his embrace and for a moment he forgot to be mad because she was kissing him and he was kissing her back with all the passion he felt boiling in his blood to remind her that she was with him and not Jeff.

"You gotta get ready though, we gotta dinner and show lined up for us, oh and I invited Ellie so you can yell at her. So, my dangerous, sexy, dirty, dirty, dirty cop, go get yourself all prettied up."

She then pushed him towards the stairs, slapping his ass as he went and for a while he completely forgot that he wanted questions until he was sitting down at one of the picnic benches with all his friends and Ellie while Rowan was… god, he didn't know where she was, but Kamekona was bringing out a large platter for them to share.

"Kay, the last time she brought us here for a show we were in a flash dance mob," Danny said to him once the platter was in front of them. "What's this about?"

"Well it is a marketing ting, since the last one did so well, but this time I'm paying her not the other way around," he said. "All of y'all are getting free meals for a month."

Aw Rowan and her trade-offs, why didn't she ever ask for _money_?

"What is she doing?" Steve asked.

"You know dat girl, she got herself another song to sing," he said.

Grace, sandwiched between Danny and Kono began to bounce. She then turned to Ellie who was between Steve and Chin. "You're going to love this, Rowan sings the best, best songs!"

"Oh the best?" Ellie echoed and then Steve grabbed her attention.

"You gave Jeff Rowan's number after I explicitly asked you not to?" he growled.

Ellie faked innocence. "No. I gave it to him before you asked me not to. I told him not to call her, but I showed him her photo before he agreed to take her number and I guess he figured he'd give it a shot. She is quite the catch."

Steve sighed and shook his head at her. This wasn't funny. None of this was funny but she was smiling and he was trying to not strangle her with his own two hands.

The crowd around them cheered and girls, that all looked very familiar, came out in cute little hula outfits, except their grass skirts were really short. They all climbed up onto the benches and that was when he noticed Rowan climbing up on theirs, using Steve and Jerry's shoulders to get up. Once they were up she waved to the crowd.

"Wait a second, aren't those Kiana Thompson's Hula Girls?" Ellie asked but Steve was too busy watching Rowan who was purposely avoiding him. She had a one of those headset mics and she was finally addressing the crowd.

"Alright, Welcome to Beats on the Beach sponsored by Kamekona's Shrimp Truck. We're going to hit you with a few tunes and for the next hour Shrimp platters will be half off, so go and get them while they're hot."

Rowan then signaled to someone and a light poppy beat filled the air.

 _I ain't worried 'bout nothin'. I ain't wearin' nada. I'm sittin' pretty, impatient, but I know you gotta. Put in them hours, I'mma make it hotter. I'm sending pic after picture, I'mma get you fired._

God this song, this song was pretty good. Grace liked it, she was swaying along and he was okay with her skirt being a little too short that he could almost see up it at that angle. The real problem was when it got to the chorus and the real sexy moves came out.

 _You don't gotta go to work, work, work, work, work, work, work, But you gotta put in work, work, work, work, work, work, work. You don't gotta go to work, work, work, work, work, work, work. Let my body do the work, work, work, work, work, work, work, work. We can work from home, oh, oh, oh oh._

Steve stared her in horror. Those moves, the way everyone around was just ogling her and the girls on the table. Why the fuck would she think this was a good idea to do, in front of him… _in front of a beach of people._

Steve wanted nothing more than to reach up and pull her down, cover her up and let no one else see her. But she was mid song and he couldn't do that to her, so he was forced to let her finish. But once that song was done and everyone was clapping and cheering for the girl, Steve grabbed her and ripped her down and into his arms. She was all smiles as soon as she was in his lap.

"Hey there sailor," she whispered to him but he just shook his head at her. "Did you miss me?"

"I'm gonna kill you," he growled against her lips.

"Why?" she asked kissing him softly like she didn't know why he was angry with her.

"Those are mine… all of that, that dance, this… everything… how dare you share that with the world…" he said.

"Well… sometimes… I'm going to share it… especially if it get us free food… besides, it wasn't that bad, remember in your office… now… would you like to share that?"

"Fuck no. How could you… just… never again, you understand me, that… that is for me, and me alone and so help me if you go on a date with that guy Ellie gave your number to… I'll… god… just… so help me..."

"Aw Steven we've talked about this. You're the only client for me. I obviously turned him down flat," she said with a grin and then slid her lips onto his before quickly parting and shouting: "Time for the second set!"

"Wait what?!" Steve cried but it was too late, Rowan was skipping off to jump on a proper stage. Okay, that he was fine with. So long as she did the rest of her show up on that stage he'd be happy.

He sat himself down and Danny opened his mouth, Steve didn't even have to look away from Rowan to lift a hand up and put it in Danny's face to stop him. "Shut up," he said absently.

Danny turned to Ellie with a frustrated, dry glare and said: "And that it what it's like with them."

Steve didn't even care. All he cared about was his precious, perfect Rowan, singing to him from the stage. Jeff was gone, they had a new sex routine and now they had a new sexy hula girl outfit to break in, this was the best day ever.


	155. Chapter 155

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Alright guys, two posts in a row. Though to be fair it's accidental cause I didn't get a chance to post on Monday. I hope you liked the steaminess of the last chapter and how cute everyone is. This chapter is also quite cute but it's someone else being cute. We're also going to see the resurrection of an issue in the next chapter so I'm quite excited to see your reactions to that. I'm going to tell you guys right now, I've hit writers block again. I think it's cause I'm also to season 6 and I'm really worried y'all are going to be really mad when we hit that section. I'm going to try and get my mojo back this week and I'll update you on that when I post next! As always thanks for reading, don't forget to leave a review and I'll see you on Friday!_

Chapter 155

* * *

Two months he'd been doing this. Two months of undefinable… whatever this was… with Jian Hui. Thank god she was patient with him because he had no idea what he was doing.

After the Christmas debacle with the terrible gifts they had exchanged lists of things that they were okay with the other buying for them. Since then it had been easier to surprise her with things. She still didn't ask him the hard questions about his work, though he knew that she _knew_ what he did. He was always asking her about her work, because she loved to complain about the stupid patrons and their silly questions that came into her work.

They didn't have much in the way of having things in common except they were both emotionally aloof, he more than her, and the sex… wow… the sex… he still wasn't used to having sex the way they did. It felt… it felt like nothing he had ever felt before.

"So I was thinking… and call me crazy here… but I was thinking… _vacation_."

Wo Fat who had been sitting across from her, business magazine in one hand propped up on the knee he had crossed, and whiskey in the other, stopped reading to look up to her. She was across from him, practicing her sutures on a stuffed tiger, her favourite animal, a stuffed animal he had gotten her just for this purpose and thought about it.

"You know travelling for me is… hard…" he said. "You'd have to be okay with going without me and meeting me at our destination."

"No. I know. And I'm fine with that… if you are… I just thought… we both work so much, it might be fun to go on a vacation. See how compatible we are in enclosed spaces."

A trial run for living together. Oh lord. It wasn't like he didn't spent a lot of time with her. She'd come to the lavish apartment that he had rented, he'd go to her place, but they always left to go to work. They never spent a whole day together. Just whole nights. This was a big step and she had carefully paired it with trigger words. Like fun. Since he had opened up about how Rowan had always reminded him to have fun and not be so serious, she had been trying to do the same.

"Alright, and where would you like to go?" he asked, determined to do this. He spent almost a whole three week period dealing with Rowan day in and day out, if he could do it for her he could do it for Jian.

"Hawaii."

The _no_ came out of him so fast she was actually so startled she slipped and stabbed herself with her suture needle.

She yelped and shook her hand, while he winced. It occurred to him to get up to help her, but she was the doctor not him. Instead he watched her get up and rush to the kitchen to run her finger underwater. He waited until she went into the bathroom for a plaster before he got up to follow her. He leant against the doorframe with his hands in his pockets as she dealt with her injury. Was he supposed to say sorry? He sort of felt like maybe he should have, but he didn't know how to say it without damaging his pride or sounding sincere. Besides… he was sort of used to Rowan just demanding an apology from him and then taking whatever he said as the apology. She was also very big on trades.

 _I will forgive you, but you'll owe me like… so many favours._

Literally a sentence she said to him once. He kinda wanted Jian to be like that. He needed direction. Like a lot of it. But even he knew it would be weird to say: "Can you act more like my sister" to the girl he was trying to have his very first sincere relationship with.

"What was that about?" she snapped once her finger was suitably treated. "What the hell do you have against Hawaii? It's near-by, it can be affordable… it's beautiful?"

"It's where Ro and Steve live."

Jian fell quiet and just stared at him, standing in front of him staring up at him with those caramel colored eyes. She was obviously surprised, Wo may not have talked a lot about Rowan and Steve… that was a lie he talked a lot about them, and how he didn't like Steve and how his sister was too good for him, but he had failed to mention certain things.

Like how Rowan and Steve lived in Hawaii. How Wo Fat was the reason Steve's father was dead and that he and Steve shared a mother and not well at that. That Rowan had adopted him a year ago, and she was a little white girl. Yeah, Jian was assuming she looked like him and she was going to be surprised if he ever showed her a picture of his sister. Not to mention, he wasn't sure Jian knew that Rowan's name was Rowan, he always called her Ro. Probably because, like Jian like to tell him, he thought it was cute that she was Ro and he was Wo.

He hated that pity in her eyes so he reached out for her injured hand and brought it to his lips, kissing the plaster softly. Good-bye pity and hello fuck-me eyes.

She cleared her throat and whispered: "I didn't know that."

"Steve… uh… Steve runs a special tactical unit and he's on the rampage for me. Getting back to Hawaii will be… uh… hard… staying there would also be hard. If he gets wind of me on the island, he'll hit hard… I don't really want you caught up in our uh… feud…"

"No doubt… I mean, we can… uh… I guess we can go somewhere else… I just… uhm… it'll be fine."

But it wouldn't be fine. He could tell, something was up.

"You just what?" he asked. "Something's bothering you, tell me?"

"I don't like planes," she whispered. "Hawaii is about as far as I can handle on a plane."

She blushed as she said that to him and he realized that this was something that embarrassed her though he didn't know why. Everyone was afraid of something. Hers was planes.

"You know the flight to Hawaii straight is 8 hours right?"

Jian blanked. "Wait… is it? I thought it was closer."

"Nope, Hawaii is 8 hours," he repeated. "It's longer if you do stops. 14 for one stop, if we're going to Honolulu though I'd prefer we go to a different island…"

"But if I do stops it won't be as long right?"

"Wow you really want to go to Hawaii don't you?" he asked. When she blushed and looked away again he sighed to himself, not because he was mad but because he hadn't wanted to return but he could figure this out, he could avoid Rowan. "Okay, alright. We're doing this. We're going to Hawaii…"

"But your sister… and Steven? Won't you get arrested?"

"Well I'm going to assume that due to my falling out with my sister he won't expect me on the island. If I stay out of his world while I'm there there's a good chance I won't fall into his scope."

"How can you assure that you're not in his scope? It's all island…"

"Well, he and Ro live on Ohau. So, if we avoid…" he noted a strange looking wince on her face and he sighed. "You want to go to Ohau… why?"

"There's an art convention in two weeks and… uhm…"

"You want to go to the Pacific Art Forum," he said. "You know that's for… uh… very serious art collectors."

She blushed again and he quickly realized that this was just something she wanted to do. Rowan had things like that, bucket list items of unreasonable things she wanted to do or experience. Like the festival of Mask in Venice, waltzing on the Disney cruise as Ariel and Eric, things to do with Steven they both know would never happen cause there was no way way Steven would ever take a shift off. But this must have been a bucket list thing for Jian and he could help her realize it. He already knew he liked doing small things to make her smile, how would it feel if he succeeded in something bit like this?

"Alright, we'll you're in luck, I know a few people in that world. I'll get us in, you book all the trip details and I will meet you there."

"But it's on Oahu," she muttered. "I don't want to chance…"

"Well… so long as no one gets murdered at the forum there's no reason for Ro or Steve to be there. So just pray that no one gets murdered."

"Wait you're really good to do this?" she asked. "Are you sure, I could look into something else…"

"If you have your heart set on art on Oahu then that it what we'll do," he said taking her hand and kissing the inside of her wrist. "I'm more worried about you and your fear of flying."

"Oh don't worry. I'll do the one with the most stops, then it's not nonstop and I'll get myself something for the nerves, something pill like, what do you think?"

"I think if that's what you'd like to do, I'll support you, okay?"

She squealed happily, something she rarely did and then hugged him. "Oh thank you," she said to him. "I'll make it worth your while, I promise."

He just smiled a nodded wondering if he should have told her that the smile on her face had already made it worth it to him.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Strange things were happening on Oahu. Some poor guy got shot in his hotel room and one single bag was stole. Their vic was holding on by a thread and they were trying to figure out who on the island could hold a grudge against this guy, so much that they'd shoot him in the chest and steal a carry on.

Also, what was in that carry on that could be worth killing a man?

After asking the wife about the state of their financials and how they could afford a trip if he had been fired. Steve had casually remarked to Grover that he couldn't imagine a husband not telling his wife something that important. Grover had then hit him with speech about pride, and how scary it was to be the man of the house and not be able to take care of his family. But it was the: _And I don't see how you can say that when you and Rowan hide more secrets from one another then the fucking FBI_ that got him though.

He didn't think he hid things, not as much as Rowan did, but he was sitting on a few whoppers. Like that _I love you_ he had sitting in the back of his throat that had yet to come up. But Rowan's lies were different, she still wouldn't admit she called Wo Fat at Christmas, and when he did catch her lying it was amazing because she was so fucking good at it, he had a hard time figuring out if she was lying or not.

This left him distracted. Not by Nicole Booth, the agent the insurance company had sent to find the missing 5-million-dollar painting that had been stolen and possibly smuggled in their vic's suitcase. Not by the fact that this was about a stolen Vincent van Gogh's painting. Not by the conversation they were having about the art show happening on Hawaii that he had no idea about.

Was that something Rowan would have liked to go to? It's expensive, of course, they'd have to dress up… he could probably not afford it, and she knew that which means if he had asked she would have lied. God this was a conundrum, that was what had him distracted, what else was she convincingly lying about?

"Steve," Kono said nudging his arm so he'd look at her. "Did you hear? We have our middle man."

"No, sorry… I… uh… I spaced out… who…"

"Gerard Hirsch," Nicole said, if she was annoyed, she was hiding it well. Great another wonderful liar like Rowan. "See, on paper he's clean. A respected art appraiser. But to insiders, he's a black-market facilitator dealing in stolen art and high-end forgeries. He's also a notorious perv."

"Good. We'll be able to get some leverage on him," Steve mused crossing his arms across the Navy blue polo he had put on specifically for Rowan that morning that made her smile so brightly at him. "We just need some bait."

"Oh no," Kono said and then turned a playful glare right back at him. "What about Rowan? Can't Rowan go, she deals so much better with this sort of stuff."

"You think I want my girlfriend anywhere near that perv, I don't think so," he said.

He thought that was the conversation done, but Chin just smiled. "Let's tell the truth, huh? We all know he'd say the wrong thing and you'd punch him out and ruin the op."

Steve scowled, they all laughed and then they moved on. All forging forward to plan this strategic op that would catch Hirsch in their net and as they did Steve put his phone on silent so nothing else would distract him that day.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

They were watching Kono flirt with Hirsch, the poor man was so blinded by Kono that he wouldn't see it coming until it hit him. Nicole had made a comment about how nicely he and Grover cleaned up with her eyes coolly appraising him in particular but Steve didn't care. Before he had finished getting changed he had snapped a few pictures and sent them off to Rowan.

Rowan loved him in this suit. Fucking loved him in it. He was going to love her attacking him over this when he got home. He wanted her to rip it off of him, he wouldn't even care if he had to buy a new dress shirt cause she fucked up all his buttons.

He turned to Chin who was sitting in the bidding section, making insane bids on a piece of art that he better not win cause they could not afford to pay for it.

Grover was standing beside him with an amused smile on his face, both of them focusing on Kono now. "Look at her, she's reeled him right in," he murmured and Steve smiled proudly.

"What do you mean I'm not on the list," someone cried and Steve turned. There was Jerry was standing at the entrance trying to gain entrance with…. Fuck… with Rowan.

Rowan patiently took the list of guests, pointed to a name and went: "And that would be us, party of two. I shall be sure to tell my benefactor that you gave us a hard time,"

And then she and Jerry were walking in, ignoring the apologies of the woman behind them, and Steve was rushing towards them. Rowan's eyes found him immediately, concern coloring her face, Jerry however spotted Kono and almost blew her cover.

Steve grabbed both of them and forced them onward.

"What are you doing here?" both Steve and Rowan hissed at the same time.

But it was Jerry who answered with: "Researching my book on the CIA's use of art sales to covertly fund a moon colonization project. Rowan had a bad day and was looking for a distraction so I asked if she'd come along."

Steve's eyes turned to Rowan. She was having a bad day? Why was he only finding out about that now? "Why didn't you call me?"

"I did. Check your phone," she answered sulking at him. Steve fished out his phone and sure enough five missed calls and a bunch of texts.

"Ro I'm sorry I was…"

"You were on a case, yeah I've figured that out," she snapped she then turned to Booth and looked her up and down with those cold Ice queen eyes of hers. "Why is it you never tell me about your cases when there's a pretty girl involved?"

Steve withered under the intensity of that cold glare not sure what to do about it, clearly everyone around them was just as awkward because Grover immediately forged forward.

"Nicole this is Jerry and he girl who looks like she's about to eat Steven and not in the good way would be his girlfriend, Rowan."

"Ah," Rowan said quickly. "Not girlfriend. Just his girl. Isn't that right Steven?"

Steve glared at her and she turned a smug look to him as she hissed: "Yeah not so nice when I do it, is it?"

Nicole offered them both her hand and said: "Nicole Booth. Bishop and Copley Insurance." But only Jerry shook her hand.

"Really, Bishop and Copley? Wow you must've worked the Pordenone case."

"Yes, I did."

"If you have time I'd love to interview you for my book."

"Ugh, I need a drink," Rowan snapped already turning away from them.

"All they're serving his is champagne, Rowan," Steve snapped as she tried to walk away.

Rowan snatched her hand out of his grasp. "I happen to know that events like these have unlimited hard liquor. It's just the fancy gold flaked shit. Now if you don't mine, your pervy little art dealer has taken the bait. So, go do what you do best which is ignoring me for cases."

And with that she stormed off. "Whoa… what's wrong with her?" Grover asked.

Jerry shrugged. "Uh… I unno. All she said was that she had it rough over at Atlantic today. I mean, I got her to admit that she and Alex were arguing about something and well she's been a super bad mood since she came over."

"Great. Thanks Jerry," Steve muttered watching his girl go to the bar. But she was right, Kono was disappearing with Gerard Hirsch

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

They got Hirsch, caught him in the act of agreeing to sign off on a forgery. To keep himself from going to jail he had agreed to work with Five-0. Which was what they wanted so it worked out. After capturing Hirsch, Steve had gone to go get Rowan from the bar and found her drunk as hell in the middle of the day. She had fought him, but a drunk Rowan was a loose Rowan, so while she was basically about as limp as wet noodle but squirming like a snake, Steve still managed to pick her up and get her into the back of the Camero.

He got everyone back to the Palace, had to struggle through carrying a girl who didn't want him touching her. He nearly dropped her twice. But he got her into his office, gave her water and ginger ale to drink, and then shut the lights off for her. He left Rowan, sleeping it off in his office, and they were talking about next moves when he got a call from Jerry who was being weird again. Still he didn't tell anyone he was in the hallway and he went out to see what Jerry was being so secretive about.

Turns out he had something big. Nicole didn't work for an insurance company. Not according to the information that Jerry had managed to dig up.

He took Jerry's intel and took Nicole into his office immediately to accost her with it.

"Now, just hang on a minute… and I can explain."

"What there to explain? I know who you are. You're a bounty hunter who tracks down lost and stolen pieces of art for massive rewards, right? And based on the warrants out for your arrest in Athens and Budapest, it's clear you don't have a problem bending the law."

"Look this isn't just a pay day for me, alright?" she cried.

"Actually, it is," Rowan said that was exactly when Steve remembered she was in the room. "Her plan is to make off with all the other stolen paintings, but the one we're currently looking for she's going to leave behind and you give the reward money to the injured guy… I think… I unno… everything's fuzzy right now," Rowan said from where she had been at his desk, arms folded on top and her head resting on her arms. Yeah that was probably the alcohol talking… or the fact that her visions and dreams hadn't come back as strongly as they had been before.

"What is she talking about?"

"Ignore her," Steve snapped and then turned back to Nicole.

"Look. I track these pieces down, and I return them to their rightful owners. So what if I have to bend the rules sometimes?"

"Hey, Bryan Wallace is laying in a hospital room fighting for his life. And while I've been out there trying to catch the guy who put him there, you've been lying to me."

"Oh my god, what are you still arguing about this? She does the exact same thing you get paid to do except instead of catching terrorists and murderers she saves artwork. The only difference is you have the governor of a state standing behind you."

"Rowan," Steve snapped. "Stop. Helping!" He turned back to Nicole with a scowl on his face. "You wanna know what the really crazy part about all this is? I still need your help. There's dozens of artworks and buyers who need to be I.D.'d. So here's the deal. We get Janssen you get to return the van Gogh and collect the reward. The whole 1.5 million of it."

Nicole tried to hide her smile and failed. "Girl's gotta eat right?"

"Yeah, flying private can't be cheap, either," Steve growled sarcastically.

"Look, thank you, really," she said blinking her light blue eyes at him. She had nice eyes but they were nothing like Rowan's. "I promise I'll be up front moving forward, and help any way that I can, really."

"Alright, good," he said as they shook on it.

"Of course, you're going to make the pretty girl stay. She's gonna screw you, she's gonna screw you so bad. You're gonna look like the stupid goodie-good-doer you are."

Holy fucking hell. Steve rounded on Rowan his eyes wide with horror. "Okay, you're next," he snapped pointing a finger at her.

He then turned back to Nicole and just pointed her out the door. "You're going to go out there… not alone… I'm going to put Jerry on you cause you can't be trusted, but right now I need you out of my office."

Nicole stared past him to where Rowan was still at his desk, head down and grumbling. "Can you handle her? Or should I send in back up?"

Steve opened his mouth to clap back at her but Rowan was the one who snapped: "Oh just get out you cheap Evil Lara Croft knock off!"

Nicole scampered out of the office and Steve rounded on Rowan again. He went to her side, kneeling down beside her.

"Okay that's it. What the hell happened at work today? Okay? What?" he snapped. When she didn't look at him he turned her chair to force him to look at him. She sighed and rolled her eyes but she finally pointed those bleary watery eyes at him.

"Alex happened okay?!" she cried. "He's turned into this little drama queen straight off of his first tour that sold out, and he fucking served me with papers"

"Wait he served you?"

"Yes, he's suing me. Saying I used Five-0 and a criminal alliance to blackmail him into signing his rights away, he's saying that all my songs are his, every single one of them. So if he wins, I have to forfeit all profits, all the songs I've sold and royalties will go into his name, and he'll own my songs. All my songs. That includes the book of singles I haven't sold because the songs mean too much to me to sell."

Steve took at that in, he took in his girl's watery blue eyes, and the anguish on her face and in her voice and remembered that she had called him and he hadn't answered. The guilt hit him like a sledgehammer and took his breath away, but it also made him angry. He was going to fix this and he wasn't going to be nice to Alex about it either.

"I'm going to lose everything I worked so hard to build and I really, really needed you. I called you over and over and you didn't answer," she sobbed and Steve's heart just broke in his chest.

"Baby I'm sorry, I am… I didn't…"

"I needed you and you chose work over me."

"That's not true, babe, I didn't even know you called my phone was on silent," he said coming to kneel beside her. "Babe, I'm sorry. If I knew I would have left, I wouldn't have stayed on the case, I promise."

She sniffled a bit and he tugged her to his chest, letting her cry on the nice suit he had on. He didn't even care so long as she gained some sort of comfort from this.

"Want me to beat him up for you?" Steve asked as he held her tightly. Rowan melded into the embrace, her cheek resting against his shoulder.

"Could you? Or arrest him? Or make him disappear? Hawaii has a Guantanamo Bay, right?"

"No, it doesn't," Steve whispered pressing a kiss to her head, which wasn't entirely true. It kinda did… and it was the Palace. "But you know what, I can definitely think of a way to fuck him over though, we can get you out of this. I promise. Even if I have to deport him myself, okay babe?"

Rowan nodded and pulled away, she let Steve brush her tears away and then she let him kiss her. "I'll help you fix it okay? I promise. You gonna be okay to sober up here or do you want to call me a cab?"

"Are you leaving right now?"

"No probably not… why?"

"Could I stay with you? Until I feel better…"

"I wouldn't mind but I'm going to be on case stuff."

"That's okay, I just… I just want you to stay with me."

"Anything," he whispered offering her a hand that she took. Holding it tightly he let her fix her makeup and her hair before joining everyone out in the lobby. They had an op to plan, but until she felt better he wasn't going to let her go.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Kono and Chin sat calmly beside Gerard Hirsch was freaking out. They had only way to describe this and it was cold feet.

"You don't know what this could do," he cried. "If people find out I'm working with you… I'll lose all my business… I'll ruin my reputation… _they could demand refunds_!"

Wow. Those were his concerns huh? Well, clearly money was all that mattered to him.

"We're going to do our best to make sure they don't find out," Chin assured him but Gerard shook his head.

"And if things don't go well what happens? This Janssen guy has had no problem shooting a civilian what do you think he'll do to me?"

Or them, when he found out they were cops.

"Well, we could just arrest you for forgery and ruin your reputation that way," Kono offered and Hirsch just frowned at her.

"Either way I'm screwed, doesn't matter which way I go does it?"

Steve finally came into the conference room with Rowan still beside him. They were still in their fancy outfits, having not had the chance to change. Rowan still carried the ginger ale which meant that she was still de-sobering.

"So… what's the problem?" Steve asked, as he pulled Rowan in front of him and then wrapped his arms around her. Something had to be wrong, otherwise he wouldn't have been holding her like that. They were usually more professional than this in front of other people.

"Hirsch works on money and rep," Rowan said, surprising everyone. "Everyone knows that. So if he goes down for this, if they think he's working with the good guys, everyone he's sold to is gonna come after him and everyone he could potential sell to is going to walk in the opposite direction. No rep, no sales… and sometimes no life."

All eyes turned to her, even Hirsch. "Do I know you?" he asked, he narrowed his eyes at her, his eyes moving up and down her body which caused Steven to scowl. "I feel like if I did… I'd remember."

"You worked with my brother a few times," she said with a wave of her hand. Rowan couldn't see it, but Kono caught it, the look Steve gave her when she called Wo Fat her brother, as if they weren't done, like she hadn't taken that name away from him.

"Your brother."

"Sure, you called him Anthony, or Mr. Shu."

" _You're Rowan Pierce_?!" he shouted shooting to his feet looking her up and down in a different light.

"Wait… wait…" Nicole said moving towards Steve's side. "Wait. Rowan Pierce? Rowan the Destroyer. That's her. The Rowan Pierce who rules a criminal empire with an iron fist, that's you."

Rowan blinked her eyes and then sighed in a frustrated manner. "Jesus Christ. Why does everyone say it like that?!" she cried. "I can be very intimidating!"

She looked not even the slightest bit intimidating in a black polka dotted flared skirt dress. Her hair in waves of curls pinned to one side, though slightly messed up from when Steve had been carrying her.

"No. Of course I can see that," Nicole said. "But I think… when people hear of the things you do they see someone… a bit more butch and a little less girly."

"Like what?" Kono asked. "What sort of things did you hear?"

But before she could answer the question Steve stepped in to wave her off. "Okay… can we get off of this topic please?"

"I want her to come with us," Gerard interrupted. "No one's going to do anything if I have her on my arm."

Steve blinked his eyes, Rowan tilted her head back, which made no senses because she was just looking at his chin, as if waiting for a response. "My girl is not touching you," came out of him in a growl so low Kono almost missed it. That possessive darkness masking his face, twisting it into something that put the fear into Gerard… and everyone else in the room.

"But he has a point," Rowan whispered. "I could help… if you let me."

"You think I'm going to put you in the middle of a sting op, are you insane?" Steve hissed to her.

"Well, why not?" she asked. "You let me spy on a known pimp… had me steal her client list from her…"

"Rowan… that was special circumstances and you know it… you were already in… this… and with everything… you and him aren't even…." He stuttered he then turned to Gerard. "Chin and Kono are more than capable. Besides… could you even get a third person in?"

Gerard shifted and answered with a sullen: "No."

"Then that answers that, because we're not subbing out one of them for a girl with no training," Steve snapped. "It'll be fine, we'll be outside ready to move the second you spot Janssen and the painting. All you have to do, Hirsch, is get them in."

He nodded and then turned to Rowan. "And you need to go home."

"Can you come with me? Just for a bit. Just until you have to leave for the op?" she asked, something akin to panic in her eyes.

But it was Steve. Steve who brought a hand up to brush her hair behind her ear, his eyes caressing her in this soft way, painting her with some emotion Kono had never seen on him before that took Kono's breath away. "Yeah, course baby," he whispered and when Rowan smiled, a proud sort of grin hit his face, lighting him up, taking all the years off him.

Kono wondered, as the two left, if she should have worried about Rowan's lack of arguing about being denied access to the op. It had never led to good things when she didn't argue, when she just knuckled under. But she was hungover, not well, and having a bad day, so if Steve didn't worry, Kono wouldn't worry either.


	156. Chapter 156

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hello my lovely readers and happy Friday. I want you guys to know that I had last chapter set up to end on a cliffhanger and I chose NOT to do that to you. It hurt me to do it but I did it for you guys. I deserve props. So in this chapter, all the action happens at once, we see the return of something and someone we thought was gone, but for those who are worried about Alex's lawsuit, don't worry! That will all be settled next chapter. As always, thanks for reading, shoot me a review to tell me what you think and I'll see you guys on Monday!_

 _P.S. Alexlover, AJ and PJ, I haven't heard from you guys in such a long time! Are you guys okay? Shoot me a line as soon as you can!_

Chapter 156

* * *

Getting in had been easy. Getting in was always easy. Chin was in his finest suit. Kono in a fancy silver dress. Gerard in a nice suit and bowtie acting very, very twitchy. The problem was, all the paintings in the room they were seeing were all legit, not a single one stolen.

But it turned out they didn't have to worry. Gerard introduced them to the host, said a few choice words to him, made a strange eyebrow wagging gesture with his eyes and that was them in to the other sale, the less than legal one.

Tom Emery, the host of the event showed them into a small room. A panic room of sorts where the walls were covered in stolen artwork. There were already people milling about but none of them were the killer that Kono and Chin were looking for.

"I'm told it's human nature to want what you cannot have," Emery said as they looked about the room. In their ears, Nicole was listing all the different heists these paintings came from. "Thankfully, I wouldn't know."

"This is quite the collection," Kono mused. "I'd ask how you put it together but I'm guessing you'd rather not say."

Emery nodded slightly. "Discretion is key. But what's the point in owning something so rare and expensive if you cannot show it off to your friends?"

He turned to his right, where a woman in a hunter green mermaid dress was standing and admiring a painting. She had waved of cascading red-blonde hair pinned in this glamour up do. "Just give me a moment," he said to them before turning to her and putting a hand to her shoulder.

Kono's eyes narrowed, why did that woman look familiar? That red-blonde hair… that couldn't be her… could it?

"Miss. Shu, how are you finding things?"

The Woman turned around and Kono was right, she knew it, it _was_ Rowan. She was done up, four times as beautiful as she usually was. Her winged eyeliner dark, her eyes that piercing ice blue they all knew was the telltale sign of the Professional at work. And in their earpieces all they could hear was Steve's sudden cries of her name, first painted in horror and surprise and then in just plain anger.

Rowan smiled prettily up at Tom who seemed to just melt at the sight of it. "Well… I don't quite know how this works, Tom," she said resting against him as if they were the best of friends. Chin and Kono both winced at the sound of Steve's loud swearing in their ears. "My brother said to pick one I like and you'll do the rest, but I don't know which one I like best, they're all so pretty." Great, she had something up her sleeve, otherwise she wouldn't be playing the ditzy, stupid girl card. "Which would you recommend?"

He opened his mouth to answer but a guard came and put his hand to his shoulder and whispered something in his ear.

"I'm sorry, Miss. Shu," he said taking her hand and pressing a kiss to the inside of her wrist. It was a good thing he wasn't looking at her, because those Ice Queen eyes had darkened on him. "I have business to attend to, I shall leave you in Gerard's careful hands. He has a good eye for pretty things."

He then turned pinned Gerard with a dark glare and a low hiss of: "For the love of god keep her happy, no one wants her brother crashing the party."

That would have been worrying except Janssen was finally there. Their mark having just walked into the room.

Emery turned a dazzling smile to both Chin and Kono who were not supposed to know Rowan, or her brother, and said to them: "Just one moment, just a spot of business to attend to and I shall be back."

And then he headed off into a secret room with the guy they came all the way here to find. But Steve was freaking in their ear, and Emery and Janssen was behind closed doors.

They knew Steve would be moving in and there would be better times to do this but Kono couldn't help it. She was pissed.

"Rowan!" she hissed coming towards her. "You were told to stay back."

"Yeah, I know, but Gerard said he'd feel better if I was here, and I knew I could get in without you guys so you know…" she whispered trailing off because Kono was glaring at her. She had thought it was suspicious that Rowan had given up the argument so quickly, now she knew why.

"She's right, I do feel better now," Gerard said but he was ignored.

"How _did_ you get in?" Chin asked.

"Really? You have to ask that. Emery called her Miss. Shu. She must have known that Wo Fat did his business as Anthony Shu, and we already knew that she knew of that alias because that was how she found Steve in that laundromat," Kono snapped. "That's what you did, didn't you?"

Rowan nodded. "Yep. Used his name to get me in here, and I also used it to get me and Jerry and into the auction."

"Obviously I knew that," Chin growled. "I mean how did you get his name on the list?"

"Simple. It was already on it," Rowan said with a shrug.

"What? Why?"

"Well… I can think of two reasons off hand. One because they have his name there as a standing reservation out of respect, I mean he did steal a few of the pieces in here. Or two, because he's on the island and was going to come."

She had said that as if that wasn't a terrifying prospect. Wo Fat unencumbered by a strangely placed loyalty to Rowan would be a very dangerous and unpredictable man.

"Though if it's the second one he's going to be _pissed_ when he found out I took his reservation twice."

That was also a terrifying thought to behold but Kono didn't get to tell her that because suddenly an alarm started blaring and the doors all shut, save for one which was the door to Emery's office. Where a group of masked men all came out, all masked except for Janssen. They opened fire on the guards killing them, getting everyone down on the floor.

And then to make matters worse they had Janssen announcing: "If it wasn't already obvious, this is a robbery."

God if Steve heard that they were all screwed.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan was inside.

Steve was outside and Rowan was inside. In the middle of the robbery. With guns. And bad guys. _She was supposed to be home_.

Nicole watched him pace back and forth, like a caged tiger. His eyes never once leaving that house. She had never seen someone like that before.

"Is this… normal?" she asked Grover who stood beside her watching.

The older man just sighed. "What you mean Steve pacing outside of a hostage situation while his girl's found a way inside when we were certain we left her somewhere safe?" Grover asked. Nicole turned to him well that answered that question. "It's gonna get worse. When that girl's in trouble that boy almost always does something stupid to get her out of it."

He then left her side to approach Steve. "SWAT's established a perimeter. Every entry point in the house is locked down," he told him and Steve finally stopped pacing but his fingers twitched and his foot tapped in a nervous fashion. It wouldn't stop until he had Rowan safe in his arms again.

Steve shook his head. No. Not what he wanted to hear. "There's got to be a way to breach."

"Not without calling attention to yourself, and that endangers the hostages," Grover said. "You wanna chance that with your girl inside?"

No, no he did not.

"You guys see what's happening here, right?" Nicole asked appearing with Jerry beside her. Jerry had promised he wouldn't leave her alone, which was great, because Steve didn't trust her to be on her own. "Janssen's trading up. The van Gogh was just his way in the door so he could boost Emery's collection."

"Yeah and judging from the gunfire, he's got at least four or five accomplices with him armed with automatic weapons," Steve growled. Four or Five people who could put a bullet in his girl either on purpose or by accident.

"I don't get it," Grover sighed. "We had eyes on the place. Every guest was checked going in. How did he get a bunch of guys in there with guns?"

"How did Rowan get in? None of us saw her enter and I think we all know Steve would have spotted her the second she showed up," Jerry added. Steve shook his head, he doubted Rowan went in the front door, she probably just did something sneaky, though he was surprised that no one had turned up her car yet. "But a better question is: How is he planning on getting out?"

Everyone turned to him and Jerry continued: "After that alarm went off, this place became as impenetrable as the Dreadfort." That last comment got him some looks so he had to explain: " _Game of Thrones?_ Anyone?"

Clearly not.

"Okay, I don't know what he's talking about, but I do know that this is all by design. If the alarm went off, it's because Janssen wanted it to. And you can be certain that he's got an exit strategy."

"Well, the guy's best card is the hostages," Grover reminded them though he didn't need to, not when Rowan was one of those hostages. "Maybe he's gonna play that to negotiate."

"Yeah, and if he finds out that Chin and Kono are cops they're the first ones he's gonna try to leverage," Steve snapped.

"And what about Rowan?" Nicole asked.

"What about Rowan?" Steve shot back his eyes narrowed at her.

"Well… what happens when he finds out she's dating you?" Nicole asked.

"I think a better question is what's going to happen if she tells her network…"

"Oh Yes! The infamous network. Do you think she's already activated it, I've always wanted to see it in action. They say that it's even transmittable through a cell jammer that it piggy backs on connections. Is that true?" Nicole cried

"Okay firstly. They're not gonna use her against me because not a lot of people know about me and her in the first place. Not to mention she's not that stupid to go throwing my name around in that situation… but uh… as to her network… uh… the network is down," Steve admitted. "He's not her brother anymore. She's in there blind and she's not going to do something stupid."

"Stupid is exactly what your girl does when she's cornered and you know it." Grover reminded him when he really didn't have to.

They all took that in and then Nicole suddenly piped up. "I could reach out to my contacts at the security companies. If we can track down the schematics, there may be a way that we could remotely override the alarm."

"That's smart. Okay, thank you, Nicole."

"Listen, even if SWAT could breach this place right now, I wouldn't make the call. Not without knowing where the hostages were, how many shooters we got in there. We'd just be going in there blind," Grover said.

Which was true. And not good for Rowan at all. God, fuck, why did Rowan have to get involved? Why?

"Jerry there's gotta be a way to re-establish communication with Chin and Kono," Steve cried. He tried not to add the _and Rowan_ part because it was implied. Rowan was with Chin and Kono when this went down, she'd still be with them… right?

"Well, theoretically speaking, I suppose there is a way to crash a signal jammer…" "Okay?" "If I could tap into the frequency…"

Steve had to stop him, he just had to. "Jerry, Jerry, Jerry, I don't care how you do it. I just need you to do it. Can you do it now?" he cried.

"Copy that," he said returning to the truck.

But the problem was he was only gone for a few moments before he had stuck his head out of the truck they had been using to surveil the op and keep in touch with Chin and Kono and called: "Uh… McGarrett?"

"What Jerry? What?!" he practically shouted, though he was trying to remain patient with every second Rowan was in that hostage situation the more panicked he became.

"I think you need to see this."

Well wasn't that ominous. Still he did as Jerry asked, jogging over to the truck and coming inside. All the screens were blank with green words flashing across them quickly like there were processing data.

"What's going on Jerry? Did you just start? Is that what you wanted to show me, cause I have bigger things to…"

"I didn't do this," Jerry said. "All of this is running on its own."

What? What the hell did that mean? "What are you saying, Jerry? Who's running this?"

 _Hello and welcome to Sanctuary. You may call me Sandy._

Steve balked at the sudden computerized voice. "Jerry… what the hell is happening right now?"

"I don't know… I don't know what this is… Is it possible that this is…" he asked looking up to Steve who just watching with rapt interest and horror. No. It couldn't be.

 _Sanctuary has lost contact with Professional._

Fuck. No. Professional? That was Rowan's codename on the app. But her app had never been able to do this before and it was supposed to be down.

"That doesn't explain what it's doing," Steve snapped not sure if he was talking to the app or to Jerry.

 _I am searching for a device to pair to in order to regain contact with Professional._

Fuck. Was it just going to answer all of his questions for him? Steve stared at the computers watching as they quickly blinked and data flew across the screen. Jerry kept going from watching him to watching the screens. Steve just watched the screens as if Rowan, or this Sanctuary app's face was going to pop up on the screen.

 _Sanctuary has detected that a signal jammer is in use. In order to regain contact with Professional, signal jammer will have to be deactivated. Analyzing options._

Between that automated response and the next sentence was only ten seconds.

 _Options Analyzed. All equipment needed already under Sanctuary Control. Deactivating Signal Jammer._

Holy fuck. It was working. A progress bar appeared on the screen starting to fill up rather quickly. Steve wanted to be worried. He wanted to know if Rowan knew her app could do this, if she knew it was up and running again and it seemed to be twice as smart and twice as strong. But he was afraid of the answers. And honestly… he was willing to ignore all of that right now if it got her out of that hostage situation and back into his arms.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Jian rolled away from him, sleepily searching for a cooler spot to lie in. Fair, it was hot, but he had liked having her draped across his chest so he hadn't complained or moved her.

So far this vacation had been… amazing. If he had known vacations were this… fun… he would have taken one long before now. He had had to leave a week earlier to sneak his way back to Hawaii on one of the boats, a fly by night operation and then there were five days of sitting in a safe house waiting for things to die down. But there was no chatter about him being on the island, no chatter from the Five-0 end either but that was because they were busy.

Since he was early and he had time to wait, he had done a drive by the McGarrett house just to check up on Rowan and managed to catch them eating dinner. Shoulder to shoulder talking to one another just being… domestic.

She looked happy, she looked safe… she looked good and he guessed that was… good? He wasn't sure what he was expecting but uh… maybe a little sadness? He was definitely hoping that he'd find them mid argument and he could sweep in, maybe jump through the window or break the door down and rescue her from Steve, like a big brother should. But she didn't need him.

When Jian's plane landed on the island, he went to the airport to meet her, limiting his exposure by waiting by the car instead of going inside, it was a big risk but it had paid off. Having her run into his arms, hugging him tightly because she was so happy to see him had sent his heart fluttering so fast he was worried he might have been having a heart attack. They retreated to the hotel she had picked, decided they hated it and then moved to the Prince Waikiki which was the most expensive place on the island. She kept saying that the price didn't matter but the look on her face when he got her into the honeymoon suite told him that price was quite important after all.

Then it was all about exploring. She wanted to see pretty things but didn't want to hike, which was great because neither did he. They had a surfing lesson, jumped off the cliffs and into the water at three separate points and on the first night he pulled a leaf from McGarrett's date-night-notebook and took her to the Halona blowhole for making out and light showers.

The rest had all been about sex, art, and fine wining and dining his girl. But for the last two days they hadn't left the bed. She, because she was sick, he because he didn't want to leave her.

A bad batch of shrimp at a market had took her out of commission. They missed the art auction she was so excited for and today they would be missing a party in which he knew several illegal paintings would be sold off, had had been looking forward to showing her which ones in that collection he had stolen and sold off. Wo hadn't even been angry. He held her hair while she vomited, ordered pay-per-view and room service for them, and when she just wanted to lie down and sleep he lay down beside her and held her close.

She was much better the following morning, but not enough to want to leave. Turned out she liked to cuddle, much like Rowan did… maybe it was a girl thing. So instead of the party they had stayed in bed, cuddled up next to one another, simply dozing.

She decided she didn't want to be cool and had just finished draping herself happily across him when his phone started going nuts beside him.

She groaned against him, her arm tightening around him as he reached over quickly to shut it up. It better have been an alert saying that he had been compromised and had to leave because otherwise there was no point for anyone to be contacting him that many times in a row.

 _Sanctuary Alert. Professional. Red Level Situation._

Holy shit.

Wo Fat bolted up in bed.

Jian cried out as he had jolted her off of him and she hadn't been expecting it. She groaned his name at him but he didn't feel guilt, he felt fear and anger. What the hell kind of situation could she be in? Where the hell was McGarrett? _He knew he couldn't trust McGarrett with her safety._

He opened the alert and read it over. Address, Emery's house… the illegal art sale… why was she at an illegal art sale? Unless Five-0 was involved… yeah Five-0 was probably investigating something involving the illegal art trade. Good thing he wasn't there… but then… why did McGarrett let her in? No, that wasn't the pattern, McGarrett would have stashed her somewhere safe so he could work on his case, Rowan would have left the safe place and gotten herself embroiled in the midst of whatever case Steve was working. So, the question was, how the hell did she get into that party? He had once given her a list of people she could go to for assistance with notes on how he knew them and what they would be good for. Had she… had she used him to get in?

But what was making this alert a red one?

 _Hostage situation. Multiple guards armed. Contact between Sanctuary and Professional lost._

Yeah that would do it.

"What is going on?" Jian asked sitting up and leaning against his shoulder. "What's the matter?"

He showed her the phone with the alert and she squinted her eyes at it as she read it. "I don't know what that means."

"It means Ro is in danger."

"Ro is the Professional?" she asked.

Wo Fat nodded. "It's a codename. Sanctuary is that app I was telling you about, tracks her wellbeing…"

"I thought that meant like… her sleep or like… if she gets emitted to the hospital… this says she's in a hostage situation. With gunmen… and a signal jammer?"

Her tone went up with that last one, meant she was asking him what that was. "It's a device that blocks all cellular and radio frequencies," he said. "She uh… she gets into situations like this a lot."

"What? Why?"

"Because she tries to help Steven with his cases," he answered. "I… uh… I gotta… I'm going to need to…"

She pressed a kiss to his cheek. "It's alright, Wo," she whispered to him. "Go save your sister."

He smiled to her, turning to kiss her properly, holding her face in his hands. They kissed for a long while until he finally separated and jumped out of the bed. He had a rush, a sudden sense of lightness… he had never been so happy to run to Rowan's rescue before. God he was fucked up.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

It took less than five minutes for Sanctuary, or Sandy, to get the signal jammer unblocked. Which she very happily announced for all to hear. But she went quiet with an ominous: _Searching for suitable device to pair to._

From what Jerry could tell, it hadn't left the computer it had just gone dormant. He had no idea how it had breached them in the first place and honestly Steve didn't want to know. All he wanted to know was if everyone was alright.

Which was why, when they managed to get video and audio to Chin and Kono he was immediately very, very happy.

"Hey guys! We got you back," Steve cried maybe a little too loudly. He could tell because Kono winced. "Alright guys, just listen to me, don't say anything. We don't want to draw any attention to ourselves."

With that order done he moved onto the more important parts. "Kono nod if all the hostages are okay?" he ordered which won him a soft discrete nod from her. Alright, onto the part that would calm his racing wild heart… at least a bit. "Chin… I know we have bigger issues but can you get me…"

Steve didn't even need to finish, Chin turned his head and there was Rowan. She sat there, awkwardly on her side due to her fancy ass fucking gorgeous as shit, he was gonna tear her up when he got her home, satin hunter green mermaid dress. She looked calm and collected looking around and surveying things, but her hands in her lap were wringing her fingers like she did when she was upset, like she did when she was thinking.

God he was just glad that she was okay but his chest tightened with the desire to wrap her up in his arms and soothe her fears, tightened with the knowledge that the house was on lock down and there were five men with guns standing between him and getting to do that for her.

"Just one last thing. Could you… uh… could you just hold her hand? She's nervous, I can tell, just hold her hand for me?" he asked he avoided everyone's eyes when he did it but Chin did as he asked slowly taking Rowan's hand and running his thumb over her knuckles.

For a moment she just stared at him as if not understanding and then she peered a little bit at the glasses, which she clearly knew were spy glasses despite no one telling her… probably… before smiling in that knowing way and then breaking out into a funny face. Steve couldn't help but smile, she had done this last time too, made funny faces from a window a shooter had put her up in during a completely different hostage situation.

God that felt like light years ago.

"Okay," he said taking in a shaky breath. "Chin, I need you to show me the shooters and where they're positioned."

He watched as Chin did as he was asked and they could take in all the different people in the room.

"Okay, stand by guys," he said and then left the truck to find Grover. "We've got six threats all armed with Steyr machine pistols. Three at the north watching the hostages, the other three packing up the artwork."

Grover nodded. "Alright. I'll have SWAT ready as soon as we can make entry," he said. "Uh… word on the street is your girl's network popped up with a new face, a new name and a new voice."

"Yeah… I don't know what that's about but it unjammed our signal jammer so right now I'm not complaining."

"Thought that thing was down."

"Me too," he said with a sigh.

 _Device paired._

Oh holy shit. Jerry turned up to Steve because they both recognized that familiar voice coming out of their feed. Seemed like someone had found themselves that new device they had been looking for.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

 _Device paired._

Everyone in the room went quiet. No one knew where the voice was coming from. No one knew what that had meant, but it had been loud. Very loud.

 _Welcome… Professional… to the newly automated Sanctuary Network. You may call me Sandy._

Chin and Kono turned to Rowan who was wide eyed and mouth open staring at the keypad where the voice was coming from. Janssen turned to it as well, not sure what was happening. No one seemed to know what was happening. Which included Rowan, who, judging by her face, clearly hadn't been expecting that.

 _Professional is in a confirmed Hostage crisis. Threat level Red. Danger imminent. Analyzing options._

"What the hell is this?" Janssen shouted waving his gun around for everyone to see. But no one spoke up. Rowan shot a glance to Chin and Kono, the only two who would know what this was. Worry highlighting her face. Oh god, she wanted to speak up before someone got hurt.

"For the love of god keep her quiet!" Steve cried into their earpieces and Chin reached out of her hand to her again, giving it a quick squeeze. She turned her big blue eyes to him so full of fear and worry and he gave her a quick shake of his head so she knew not to say anything.

 _Options Analyzed. Nearest players have already been activated and are on-route for extraction. Isolating incident._

And just like that all the doors shuttered shut. His men dropped their positions, dropped the art they were wrapping up and putting into protective cases to check all the doors. But the door to Emery's office was shut and the door to the panic room would no longer open, even the man on the other side couldn't get them out.

They started pounding on the door, Janssen kept hitting the password into the keypad, but after three unsuccessful attempts the voice spoke again.

 _Override declined._

"What the hell is this shit?!" he cried turning to Emery. "This wasn't an option in any of the security logs I read. Turn this shit off."

But Emery just sat there blinking his eyes. "This isn't… I didn't… it's never…"

"If this isn't part of your programming what the hell is this?" Janssen shouted.

 _The Sanctuary network is a safety network designed for the protection of the Professional. As the situation has called for immediate intervention Sanctuary has taken full control of all automations until back up can be sent to her location._

They all took that in for a second. Silence hit the room because the app was talking to him, the app answered his question. It was listening. It could hear, it could adapt, it could respond. Had her app always been able to do this?

"HER?!" Janssen suddenly shouted and then turned to his men. "If it's a woman that eliminates quite a few people here now doesn't it?"

Chin and Kono kept looking at Rowan who had no idea what was happening, just that this was somehow tied to her app, an app she said was down. Well she clearly lied.

"Okay. Which one you bitches is Professional?" the Janssen shouted, his gun coming up. "Give yourself up OR I'll start shooting people."

And then as if to prove his point he unloaded a few rounds into the ceiling. Everyone yelped at that, even Rowan jumped. Both Kono and Chin jumped, not because of the shots but because of Steve's shouts in their ears. He was definitely panicking, but it wasn't just him they had to worry about because not seconds after the bangs hit the air the app was talking again.

 _Sanctuary has detected gunshots._

 _Threat level elevated. Analyzing options._

One of his cronies came up to Janssen. "The police have taken out our signal jammer and we've rounded up all the phones and turned them off but I'm still getting a signal only it's radio, not cellular."

Janssen took the reader from him and looked it over. "It's coming from inside the house," he murmured to them. He seemed to think that over, scanned all of their faces and then turned back to the keypad.

"Ah… so we have cops in here… is this all part of your game. A little voice to get me scared?" he taunted. "It's not working. You're going to have to try harder than that."

And Sanctuary more than delivered.

 _Lukas Janssen. Art Thief. Occasional Murder. Illusive, but low level, stupidly easy to identify. Too unsophisticated to be a worthwhile partner. Only talks in money. Rash actions to be expected if Pride is questioned. All others are hired guns. No one of big significance. Easy to buy, easy to replace, even easier to take down._

Now that seemed to scare him. That the voice knew his name. That it questioned his pride. That it called him stupidly easy to identify. That it called them unsophisticated and insignificant.

 _Choosing best course of action._

"That's it!" he snapped taking the reader and going around to each every one of them. When he got to Chin, Kono and Rowan they beeping intensified and he smiled dangerously at them. "So it's one of you three…" he said, his gun leveling first with Kono and then with Chin. It was the glasses, they were tracking the glasses.

That gun turned to her and she knew that if Steve lost visual when this guy was pointing a gun on them he'd be past upset. So she decided to do something about it.

"No, no wait! It's me… Not them," she said putting her hands out to ward him off as she tried to stand up. She fell back down and then sat there. "Actually, could one of you help me up, this dress… it's hard to move in…" and one of the men actually moved in to do it. He offered her his hands and easily tugged her up.

"Thank you," she said warmly. "It's really going to suck when they kill you."

Janssen swept him aside, the gun pointing haphazardly in her direction again. "No one's going to kill us, no one can get inside. How are you doing this?"

"It's… it's my phone… it… it emits a radio signal… even if you turn it off…"

"We took your phone."

"I just… I just told you… it emits a signal even when you turn it off." she told him. "And before you ask, now that she's paired up to the house not even my phone can turn her off."

He looked at her carefully, his eyes sliding up and down her body, god she hoped that they didn't call her bluff. Steve was silent in their ears thankfully but both Chin and Kono knew, they knew that he wouldn't be happy when they got out. He'd be livid that they couldn't keep her quiet.

"Who are you?" he asked. "You don't look or sound like a cop."

"Nope… I'm just me… the Professional…" she said with a laugh while he just glared at her.

"Fine. Be that way. Get it to open the doors," he ordered gesturing to the keypad with his gun. Rowan let out her breath, wow they uh… they believed that huh? He lowered the gun to grab her arm and she slapped his hand away hitting it over and over with her clutch until he let her go.

"Don't you touch me you slimly little French toad!" she snapped. "Just… give me a second okay? It takes a while to navigate in a dress like this… and in heels, I'd like to see you try it!"

"Just go!" he ordered roughly pushing her and Rowan huffed at him but she walked to the key pad, carefully stepping over people while he followed behind her.

She cleared her throat carefully before perfectly enunciating the following words: "Codename Professional, activating an override."

 _Override denied._

"What? No! I _am_ the Professional. I'm ordering you to override!" she cried.

 _I'm sorry Professional but the override function is not available at this moment._

"What do you mean it's not available? Override, goddamn it! OVERRIDE!"

 _Override denied._

"WHY?!" she cried.

 _Force field protocols have been activated._

"Yes… but I didn't activate them! You're supposed to be DOWN, and you can't activate things on your own when you're down!"

 _Force field protocols have been activated by Master. Until orders are given Sanctuary will act in the Professional's best interest._

"Okay but you locked me in the room with the bad guys and now he's threatening to kill me, so how is that working out for you?"

 _Force field protocols have been activated by Master. Until orders are given Sanctuary will act in the Professional's best interest._

Rowan groaned and a gun clicked behind her ear and she just sighed. "I am trying!" she cried to him.

She half turned to him to find him glaring at her and she groaned again before turning to the computer and stifling yet another groan. "Sandy, can you please open the door?"

 _Force field protocols…._

Rowan turned to him again. "Okay, I know you're mad… but you can see that I'm trying and it's not listening and it's not even supposed to be on, I didn't even know it could do this… this is… new!" Why the hell was he implementing upgrades to a system that was supposed to be turned off?!

Janssen leveled the gun with her face and Rowan pressed herself further against the wall.

"And what happens if I blow your brains out?"

 _Black Cat Protocols will be initiated immediately._

"And what are those?" he asked the computerized voice.

 _Black Cat Protocols if activated as a means of punishment and at it's highest alert level, will activate players who will be paid to hunt a subject down but not eliminate right away. If Professional is harmed, or is killed, the killer will be marked. The protocol will not be considered complete until all family is murdered, all assets are stolen or lost, all connections are compromised, all business is taken or put out of business, until all trust in fellow man is destroyed and the killer no longer has the will to live. If a player is terminated while Black Cat Protocols are still in place, another will be hired in it's place and so on and so forth. This will continue until the job is done and the killer has committed suicide or killed. Though suicide is the preferred form of death._

They all turned their eyes to Rowan who stood there wincing as if the words hurt her to hear. That was a lot to take in, especially since Rowan had activated Black Cat Protocols on a journalist who was going to ruin Grover with a terrible piece on him.

"I uh… I didn't come up with all the punishments… my brother really likes psychological warfare. And he's ridiculously patient for a man with his temper."

"Who are you?" he asked, she opened her mouth up to tell him her codename again but he lifted the gun and said: "Who you really are."

Rowan just stared at him she didn't want to do the name reveal, she just didn't. But that gun didn't move so she had no choice.

"I… uh… I'm Rowan Pierce."

And just like that they all took a step away from her. Rowan just let out a shaky laugh and waved. "Hi."

"Oh my god, do you know what he'll pay to get her back unharmed?" one of his cronies asked.

"Do you know how many people he had killed for just thinking that sentence to themselves?" she shot back. "It's uh… it's uh…"

 _76\. 76 people have been killed in the pursuit of keeping the Professional safe._

"Oh my god she had a number," Rowan breathed out. She hadn't been aware that that was the amount of people he had killed for her.

Janssen looked at her up and down like he was disgusted. The gun came up. "I don't fear a girl with a computer voice. I don't fear a man who's not here to protect her. Where is your brother now, Pierce? How is your network going to save you when the only people in here with guns work for me?"

"No," one of the other guys said, forcibly pushing the gun down. "I'm not going down like this. We all know what he'd do, you just heard what happens if she dies. I'm not going to be apart of that."

"Well then it won't be you who pulls the trigger."

"No!" another shouted. "He won't differentiate, we were all involved, he'll go for us all."

"You are all cowards!" Janssen shouted. "She is one girl. He is one man. No one has that much power!"

He raised the gun again and Sanctuary started talking again.

 _Threat level reduced to Orange. Activate Hide and Seek Procedure in five… four... three… two…_

What the hell was that? Okay… all she had to do was think. What had they said Hide and Seek was… oh… oh… shoot out… she was about to be in an ambush.

Rowan turned her frantic eyes to Kono, trying to will to her to understand what she was saying with only her eyes. Kono took Rowan's wide-eyed stare and knew, what was going to happen. "DOWN!" she shouted just as the automated voice got to one and Rowan threw herself into the corner.

The door to Emery's office flew open and someone, or a bunch of someone's opened fire, killing everyone with guns in the room for a second time.

"STOP! STOP! STOP!" Rowan kept shouting until finally the gunshots stopped and a man with a ballcap over his eyes stepped over everyone to get to her.

"Rowan Pierce?" he asked her as she stood in the corner hands over her ears and staring at him. She knew that face, she knew it anywhere. Shit he really was here. What the hell was he doing back on the island? Why the hell did he say her name like he didn't recognize her? "Confirm you're okay."

Rowan took the phone from him and scowled at it. She pressed a single button and with that he nodded at her like they were strangers in the dark.

"She's raised up the barricades and we got Five-0 coming in through the front door, so we gotta go, you're good now, yeah?" Wo Fat asked, his voice carefully low. When Rowan nodded, he leant down to growl: "And I won't be doing this again." and then he left her there, disappearing into Emery's office. Rowan slid down to the floor and not seconds later Steve was coming through the front door with his gun drawn.

 _Professional has confirmed rescue. Sanctuary shutting down. Have a nice day, Professional._

Steve stared at the keypad and then turned a glare back to Rowan. "Your network's down huh?"

Rowan stared at him for all of two seconds and then promptly started to laugh and cry at the same time. Steve watched her for a moment before abandoning his gun, kneeling down beside her and pulling her into a tight embrace.

And he didn't let her go for a long time.


	157. Chapter 157

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Monday my wonderful readers! I'm glad that you guys enjoyed the last chapter. We've got some cute things happening in this chapter and a little bit of angst as well. We also get to find out what happens to Alex. After this we got some really, REALLY cute things coming and I'm really excited for you to read them. We're also getting closer and closer to season 6, or at least my writing is. I'm already 180 chapters deep y'all. Also I'm really happy that AlexLover is back. AJ and PJ if you're still there hit me up! I miss you guys! Don't forget to drop me a review and I'll see you guys on Wednesday!_

Chapter 157

* * *

The paintings Five-0 had rescued from Janssen's men had all been fakes. They found out that Emery had a safe. A secondary safe where he kept all the originals. But when they got to it, the place was empty save for one painting the one that started it all. Van Gogh's sunflowers. The painting that started it all. Clearly Nicole had known about this safe, had known about the paintings. Rowan had been right. Nicole Booth had played them.

And while that upset him, he still got to hand a reward cheque to their vic who took a bullet for that painting without knowing it. No what had him really upset was the app. The app Rowan had said was down. She kept saying that she didn't know what happened. She didn't know why it was active, let alone why it had suddenly evolved.

But it didn't explain why the fuck the app was still on her phone or why hadn't she deleted it.

Never gotten around to it, his ass. He had a theory as to why Rowan hadn't deleted the app. He was just too afraid to voice it lest it be true.

"I'm sorry we have to do this," Rowan said to him but Steve just shrugged at her. They were in his truck heading to the one person who could answer their questions about the app. Steve said nothing because he didn't know what to say, he didn't know what to feel, but mostly he was feeling betrayed. Rowan took in his silence with a heavy sigh. "I know you're mad at me… and I'm sorry… I am… I didn't know it was active again…"

Yeah but she had kept it on her phone. "I'm not mad at you."

"Well you're upset about something."

Yeah, that Rowan was getting sued. That Rowan had been in a hostage situation again. That her app was up and running again and worse than before. That she never deleted the app off her phone. That Nicole had played him like Rowan had said she would and even with Rowan telling him it was going to happen he was still taken by surprise.

But he couldn't say half of that to her without starting an argument so he went with the one thing he had left, and luckily for him it was actually the one of the main things that he was pissed off about at that moment.

"Uh… turns out… turns out the paintings are all fakes," Steve said to her. Rowan blinked at him but very luckily didn't hit him with the _I told you so_ he so clearly deserved. "Emery had a secondary vault where he kept all the originals. Nicole didn't inform us about the vault so I had no idea it was there. But uh… she left us the Van Gogh and we gave the reward to our vic, who's uh… going to make a full recovery."

"That's very nice of you," Rowan murmured and Steve sighed again.

"Go ahead, hit me with it," he said. " _I told you so_ , I know you want to say it. I fell for it, just like you said I would."

"I know… it's too bad someone didn't do something… because they knew you'd fall for her charms," Rowan said illusively and Steve turned to her.

"Oh god, what did you do?"

"Are you sure you want to know? After the day we had I don't know if you can take it," she said to him.

It was that bad? Fuck. "Just… just tell me. Rip it off like a band aid."

"Well as I mentioned, I used Wo Fat's name to get me in the door, right? Well, that's not quite all I did. What I did was call Emery earlier to say I was interested in seeing the pieces first. Which he was more than willing to do for the sister of an old friend who helped him collect a few of those pieces he was trying to sell. When I got there, we had a chat about how I had heard, while my brother was doing a deal, that the man he was selling to was going to come and rip Emery off. So, we agreed to a back up plan."

"Which was what?"

"Two sets of fakes and hiding the originals somewhere no one else would look for them," she said.

Steve continued to glare at her. "Which was where, Rowan?"

"In the trunk of my car," she said with a grin. "So both Janssen and Nicole got fakes, she left the one original behind for you to do a good thing with and I got to stick it to that red-headed British liar! HA!"

Steve laughed at her. Really? The originals were all in the trunk of her car which was currently parked in the Palace's parking lot? Fuck, that was amazing, that meant… that meant that he could return them to their rightful owners after years of being lost to the world of illegal art trade and Nicole Booth wouldn't profit from it. Teach her a lesson or two, now wouldn't it.

He parked the car in front of Kong's warehouse and then turned in his seat to grab her and kiss her. He had spontaneously doing that a lot since he getting her out of that house. He was still trying to establish if she had betrayed him or not, but even if she did he couldn't keep his hands off of her and his lips away from her.

Rowan kissed him until she had had enough and sat back, turning to silently regard the building. "I don't know how this is going to go," she said. "I don't know if I'll be allowed in."

"Well… either he lets in you or he deals with a Five-0 raid," he said. "I'm sure he'll pick you."

Rowan smiled stiffly, and he tried to smile encouragingly at her. He didn't want to do this either but he also wanted answers.

They got out of his truck and walked to the door.

"Hi Andre," she said. "I uh… I brought you protein powder to make up for my last… uh…" she handed him the package of powder which he ripped out of her grasp. "Can I see Kong, please? I've had a bit of an emergency and I was hoping to ask for help."

Andre continued to scowl at her, but he let her by. As she walked away from him she added: "I'm really sorry I punched you." But he ignored her.

"You punched him?" Steve asked, keeping his voice at a hush as they walked through the hallway towards his office.

"Yeah, uppercut to the underarm, he went down immediately," she answered. "Try not to remind him of it, huh?"

Steve just stared at her, wondering if her eyes were that Ice blue he was used to seeing when the Professional in her came out to play. But she wouldn't look at him, so he didn't get a chance to figure it out, though if she pulled the Ice Queen out of hibernation he'd be greatly appreciated.

Rowan knocked on Kong's door and waited for him to tell her to come in before opening it. Which was much better than what he had done the last time her was there, he still owed Kong for the door he had broken down. The invoice was still sitting on his desk back at the palace. She tried to smile at him but he just glared at her.

"I don't a see a sushi bag," he said and Rowan winced.

"I didn't have time to stop," she told him as he took a seat across from her.

"Andre says you have an emergency. Must be huge if you've brought the Commander with you," he said.

Rowan nodded to him. "I met Sandy today."

Kong took that in carefully no doubt gauging where in that statement was the question. After a moment's silence he bowed his head to her and said: "Yes I heard about the hostage situation, nasty business, but then again, Janssen never was very smart."

Rowan glared at him. "What the fuck, Kong? My app's supposed to be down."

"Yes, I'm aware of what Wo Fat ordered me to do."

"Okay, so you were told to take down her app… and instead of doing it, you… you upgraded it…?"

"I made the necessary adjustments to have it run without needing her prompting," he said.

"Why the hell would you do that?" Rowan cried. "He told you to…"

"He told me to take it down, yes, but both he and I have worked very hard. Me on this app, and him on keeping you safe. A lot of time, a lot of effort and quite a bit of money went into this. While I was content to leave you to your devices, McGarrett came in here in a panic demanding that I put him in touch with your brother and it became clear that we couldn't entrust your wellbeing to him. Not when he lost you in the span of the two days you were out of the app's care and then failed to find you for a full 72 hour period when it took my contacts less than four."

Steve scowled at him. What the hell did that mean? Kong and Wo Fat had known where Rowan was the whole time. The only one that had been out of the loop had been him? That was why this had happened? He had come to demand help and they had upgraded the app.

"Your brother was quite ambiguous about the whole matter, but I took it as he wanted me to make it so you couldn't directly access the app but still be able to run it if you came into certain issues," Kong explained. "The Newly upgraded Sanctuary network, or Sandy as I've called her, monitors your state through the microphone on your phone. She is set up to stream herself through any connection to keep up with you, which includes downloading herself onto any mainframe. She is a firewall chipper except she has a sledge hammer instead of a chisel, and she has been programmed to detect certain codes and sounds and to react accordingly. Though anything big will be sent to your brother for confirmation."

"Did… did he have to confirm todays actions?" Steve asked noting that Rowan had a strange look on her face that was purposely turned away from him.

"Yes. He had to confirm the activation of the Force Field Protocols and activating the nearest players because he had to approve payment," Kong said. Steve remembered how Rowan had said that the reason she had gotten into the auction and the private party had been because Wo Fat's name was on the list. He wasn't on the island, was he?

"And he can do that from anywhere?" Steve asked, a sinking feeling in his stomach, and it got worse when Kong carefully looked at Rowan and then back to Steve.

He sighed. "Uh… yeah, he can do it from anywhere in the world," he said. Okay… okay… so he didn't have to be near-by to use her app, to confirm anything. He could be anywhere, he wasn't on the island, Rowan was probably acting weird because she was worried. Worried about how he was going to take this.

Fair.

But he was going to take it graciously because it had saved Rowan's life and it got his bad guys. And it was clearly done without her knowledge.

"Okay. Well thank you for all of this… but uh… turn it off," Rowan said and Steve turned to her surprised that she had said it and not him.

"No can do…"

"Okay, yes. Yes you can do. You programmed her, you can turn her off," she snapped.

"I could, but I take my orders from your brother and not you, and he wants it running… sooo…"

"Kong it locked me in a panic room with the bad guys," Rowan growled.

"Yeah… uh… I can try to program that out of it but she was simply trying to isolate you…"

"KONG!" she shouted and the man actually flinched. "Stop! I didn't ask for this… when he left, I knew… I knew this was going to go down, I knew I wouldn't have an app anymore and I am FINE with that. Now please… this was all just so… and he's going to be… and Alex… being tied to a criminal network is going to make it easier for him to… god will you please?"

Steve put a hand to her arm finally realizing what it was that upsetting her. It was him. She was upset about him and whether or not they'd argue over this. And of course… about Alex, but he had a plan for that… or at least, he did now.

"Alright," Steve said. "Okay, it's okay. I'm not… I know you didn't… ask for this… and by the looks of it he's not going to shut down, but that's okay… you know… cause he's right, I lose track of you a lot and that app uh… it kind of… you know it definitely saved you today."

Rowan turned to him. "You're not mad at me?" she asked her chin warbling. "Cause with everything with Alex I really just… I can't have you mad at me on top of that…'

"That's the second time you've mentioned him. What did Alex do now?" Kong asked.

"It's none of your business," Rowan snapped.

Kong sighed and rolled his eyes and Steve just pulled her into a tight hug. "No Rowan, I'm not mad at you," he said to her, kissing her hair. "But uh… I know what you're like with that app so if you could possibly… uh… limit your interactions with Sandy that would be greatly appreciated."

Rowan nodded, hugging him tightly. Steve glanced over to Kong who was not paying attention but was instead looking carefully at his computer, his eyes clearly reading something.

"I uh… can you give me a second?" he said to her. "I want to confirm some things." When Rowan hesitated he added: "I'm really not mad, I just want to know what we're working with here, okay? Can you please, uh... meet me at the car?"

Rowan sighed but did as she was told, leaving the room and as soon as she was gone he turned to Kong and said: "How much would I have to pay to convince you to set up Black Cat Protocols on Alex?"

Kong half smirked. "What's the matter, McGarrett, can't figure out how to get rid of the lawsuit by yourself?" he taunted and when Steve just glared at him he scoffed and looked away from him. "I can do something much better and much quicker than Black Cat Protocols, besides, you wouldn't be able to afford Black Cat Protocols, not on your salary. Just uh… you head home and wait for the call."

Steve nodded to him and then turned a left. He could never tell Rowan what he had done, not when he got mad at her for using the app. But he figured, the best way to get Alex off her back for good, would be to use the app to shut him and his lawsuit down.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve wouldn't tell her what it was he talked to Kong Liang about. But he wasn't distant or mad with her. They unpacked the art out of the trunk of her car, ready to send off to where they needed to go, and then he and Rowan went home. Home for a long needed bubble bath, where he had her put back in that dress so he could purposely strip her off it and she made him wear his suit without his tie, his dress shirt partially unbuttoned.

For the night they were high class, rich as fuck, pretentious lovers. Celebrating the purchase of their newest piece of art.

They had _really_ gotten into roleplay as of late. But nothing topped the naughty prostitute who'd do anything to keep from getting arrested and the dirty (in more ways than one) officer who had put the cuffs on her. And damn did Steve like putting cuffs on her.

The following day was the shrimp fest, where Rowan had agreed to go to support Kamekona and that was all. All the others got to eat unlimited shrimp and Rowan got a shaved ice. But Kamekona had won and she was glad to be there to share that victory with him.

Since Rowan hadn't had a chance to eat anything, they had all decided to pick up burgers from the Side Street Grill and then go back to the palace where they could finish up paperwork and physically send off the paintings Rowan had single handily rescued. None of them were eating much but they all had a little bit of something so Rowan didn't feel too bad about devouring an entire burger, large fries and chocolate milk shake.

They were all laughing and having fun when Steve got a call. A strange one judging by the look on his face. And when he was done, he turned to her with a frown to say: "I've been called out to the airport by TSA, not a full team thing just a me thing which is weird, but it shouldn't take long. Are you good to stay here while I deal with whatever that was?"

"Sure," she said with a shrug though she didn't really want him to leave. "Just uh… don't take too long."

He swooped in to kiss her, before promising to not be that long, and then he left her there. After that, though everyone was still trying to have fun, Rowan wasn't as into it as before. She knew that Steve had to work and that it could call him in at any time but she would have loved, if for once, just once, he could have said that he'd pass it off to someone else to stay with her.

But she also loved that Steve was off rescuing people all the time, she was very proud of him and his team of what they did and how good they were at what they did. So she always did her best to put on her best and bravest face and just go with it.

Besides, he always made it up to her somehow. Maybe this time she'd get breakfast in bed, or they'd swing by Halona for some hot and heavy make out sessions as the water drifted down on them. He'd make it up to her, she knew, he always did.

And then she got a phone call of her own. Private number. One guess who that was.

"Give me a second guys," Rowan said. "Music emergency."

She then quickly rushed out of the offices and into the hallway, looking for a corner she could hide in that wouldn't echo and they wouldn't notice her if they came looking for her, or if Steve came back faster than expected.

She answered the phone with quick: "Hey." There was silence on the other end and she sighed. He must have been too afraid to talk to her… her poor brother. Her heart went out to him. "I know it's you Wo."

"I know," he whispered back to her. "Are you… okay? How did… _he…_ take it? The app's resurrection, I mean."

"Surprisingly well… considering neither of us knew it was a thing…" she whispered. "Why… why did you do it? I thought… that… we… we weren't…"

"Yes. I know. That's what I was going to… uh… do… but then _he_ lost you again and I realized that I couldn't trust him to take care of you and you're…. uh… you're still my sister even if I'm mad with you and I…"

"Wait a second? Mad at me?" Rowan echoed. "Are you fucking kidding me?"

"Yes Ro… yes…. I'm…"

"You're mad at me? Wo… you kidnapped my boyfriend and tortured him!"

"He's not your boyfriend. He refuses to give you that label. I on the other hand was more than willing to give you any label you wanted. Which has graduated all the way up to sister…" he snapped. "I've done a lot of things I didn't want to do for you. I put up with a sub-par potential mate who has a long history of stalking you, arresting you, making you cry and pushing you away. I put together a network to protect you and you use it to solve cases, and alienate me from the people I try to do business with, and I said nothing about the damage it was doing to me because it made you happy to help your so called friends, who are still more than happy to sell you out to McGarrett the second they need to. And the thanks I got for doing all of that for you, for taking care of you, for listening to you cry about a man I'd rather put a bullet in then let anywhere near a fucking dog let alone you, was having the only family I considered myself to have tell me to get out of her life!"

Rowan stood there in her corner absolutely horrified. She felt an awful lot like she was going to cry, probably because she already was.

"I'm sorry."

"No. don't do that. Don't you dare," he growled.

But Rowan didn't know what she was doing to upset him so she just repeated it again. Though she couldn't stop her hiccupping sob from accompanying the repeated "I'm sorry!"

"No! Stop it. Stop sounding so sad!" he cried. "I can't stay mad at you if I think you're crying. So stop it."

"I'm trying," she hiccupped and she heard his aggravated sigh. "I'm sorry, Wo, I really am. I'm sorry I made you feel like that. I'm sorry I ruined your rep. I'm sorry I made you deal with Steve so often. I'm sorry that I can't just forgive you."

Wo was silent a moment before he suddenly whispered: "Why not? What's so different about this? You forgave me for shooting you… so I tortured him a little bit… it wasn't nearly as bad as the time I nearly killed you…"

"Because it's different Wo. I don't care about what happens to me. But I care about Steven. I think… I think I'm falling in love with him and it kills me that you did those things to him… that you made him suffer like that. And he's just so… so mad at you for it… and you knew how upset I'd be if you did it, don't you tell me you didn't know. You never told me what you were up to, you hid it from me, you avoided my calls, you knew if I found out I'd be angry and you did it anyway. He was going to kill you Wo. If I hadn't got there when I did. Only one of you was coming out of that basement and almost every option led to you dying. We were doing so well… he had stopped asking me to choose between you two. He was finally at a place where he could accept you being in my life and then…"

"He blamed you for it, didn't he?" he asked. "That's why you ran isn't? Right after he got out of the hospital. I was gone and he took it out on you. He thought you were in on it, right?" when she was quiet he sighed again. "Rowan if he knew you… if he really knew you… cared about you in the same way you cared for him, he would have known that you would have _never_ let me do that to him."

He was right of course. But looking at the evidence simply for what it was and add in Steve's untrusting nature it wasn't surprising that he came to that conclusion.

"Wo. Please. Please don't make this any harder for the both of us," she whispered. "I'm grateful for every single thing you did for me. I'm grateful that you care, that I'm that important to you. And I miss you. I do. I miss you so much. You're the only one who liked me the way I am, crazy psychic visions and sociopathic tendencies and all and I really wish there was a way to make this work. But I trusted you. I trusted you and you broke that trust. And I know, where Steven is involved… I'll never be able to trust you again."

They were silent for a moment and she wiped her tears away from her face. "Thank you for saving me again. Thank you for updating the app. Thank you for being my brother, no matter how short a time you were. But it's okay. You can let me go. You don't have to martyr your reputation for me any longer. You can shut the app down, and if something happens… it won't be your fault, okay? It'll be mine… or hey… you can just blame Steve if it makes you feel better. Just… it's okay. It's okay if you let me go. I'm not worth all this anyway."

"You know, you know that you're worth a lot more than that to me. But if that's what you want… Ro…" he said with a sigh. "Good-bye… my imouto."

She couldn't even whisper good-bye to him. She just hung up the phone and leant against the wall behind her. She slowly slid down it, crouching down behind one of the potted plants, rested her head on her knees and for a long while she just let herself cry.

And not a single one of her so-called friends came looking for her.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

When Steve got to the airport he found out that TSA had not called him because he was the head of Five-0 and they had a situation that needed to be dealt with. No. Steve got called down because _someone_ had called him, the head of Five-0, down to help clear his name.

After getting briefed on the situation Steve walked into the holding cell/interrogation room and then smirked down at the young man who was holding his head.

Alex looked up at Steve, that forlorn puppy dog look on his face doing nothing but making Steve smirk a little harder.

"You have got to be fucking kidding me," Steve scoffed and Alex sighed and looked away from him.

"Look man…"

"No, you've got some nerve," Steve interrupted. "You're fucking trying to sue my girl for all she's got… which is not a lot… and you have the absolute gall to call me to get you out of this?"

"Because I didn't do it, McGarrett!" he cried.

"So you're telling me that your suitcase just spontaneously filled up with cocaine?"

"YES!" Alex shouted. "You seriously think I actually packed a suitcase full of drugs and decided to go across America with it? You think I'm that stupid?"

"I mean you're threatening to sue a girl who's tied to Five-0 and a criminal network… both of which could easily make you disappear and then you have the stones to call her boyfriend to get you out of jail time… so yeah… I fucking think you're stupid."

Alex narrowed his eyes at Steve. "That's what this is, isn't it?" he asked. "That maniac found out that she was getting sued by me and thought this would get me off her back, right?"

Steve sighed at him. "No. If she had told Wo Fat about this he would have just killed you. He's more of a shoot first, ask questions later kind of guy. I on the other hand am more reasonable. So here's what I'm going to do for you…" he said bracing himself self against the table and glaring down into Alex's face. Loving that he was handcuffed to the table and unable to get away from him at that moment. "I'm going to figure out who did this to you. But whether or not this asshole gets booked depends on how quickly you can call off that lawsuit."

"Well I mean…"

"I'm literally not going to do shit for you unless that lawsuit is off the table. With a sworn affidavit that you won't be suing her again, you understand me?"

Alex stared at him. He sighed. "Look, do you know how much she makes?" he asked. He did not but he figured not enough for someone as famous as Alex Lockman of the Doctors to need her income, even if it was just some extra padding on the side. "I haven't been able to write a single thing nearly as good as the stuff she puts out and she's so pissed at me for my last stunt that she's refusing to write me anything else. At least… you know for free. I just wanted her songs, you know? A maybe at least a little piece of what she makes."

"You're a headliner in a band that's selling out stadiums… and you're telling me you want a piece of what she makes? She can't be making… that much… Alex I mean… come on, you're doing this to be mean, you're being a piece of shit and you know it."

Alex just stared at him. "Wow, you don't know what she makes," he said mostly to himself and then he shook his head. "Look, I'll sign whatever you need me to, just fucking get me out of this McGarrett."

Steve slammed a piece of paper and a pen down for him. "Write out a declaration, saying you'll never sue her again and sign it while I'm out," he ordered and then slammed down Alex's phone. "And call that lawyer. When everything's done shoot me a line and I'll get you out of this."

He then left Alex in that little room. He stepped out told them his suspicions and asked if he could look around. When he was out of their line of sight he glanced back to his phone. A single text read: "Sketched out guy. Grey sweater. Men's washroom. Terminal G."

Wow what service. Was this what Rowan felt like? Being ten steps ahead of everyone else because she had an app that told her everything, and people who could set up takedowns like this. How the hell had Kong even managed to switch out the suitcases? He had a feeling that he'd never know. Besides, he had a part to play.

He made sure a lot of people could see him as he walked around but until Alex called him he didn't go anywhere near the Terminal G men's washroom. The sketched out grey sweater man who had switched out the bags had given himself up to him way too quickly, but Steve figured the guy was getting paid a lot of money to go through with this.

He handed him off to TSA and then collected everything he needed from Alex before finally returning to his truck. He waited a few minutes before pulling out his phone and dialed the number he figured was Kong's.

He waited for the call to connect before saying: "It worked like a charm. Thanks."

Kong was silent for a moment before saying to him: "I don't know what you're talking about, McGarrett. Now please, do me a favour and leave me alone. God, if this is what you did to Fat every time you had relationship problems with Rowan no wonder he kidnapped and tortured you."

He let Kong hang up the phone and though the comment rang true and kind of hurt him a bit, he still smiled to himself. He had fixed his girl's problem, and she would never have to know that he got help from her contacts to do it. Could his day get any better?


	158. Chapter 158

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Wednesday my lovely readers. I unno about you guys, but that part with Wo Fat made me cry when I wrote it. So we've gotten to the chapters that I think will be VERY cute, we're going to meet another minor character that I'm going to turn into a major character. I hope you guys enjoy the next set of chapters as much as I enjoyed writing them! Don't forget to drop me a review, I love hearing your opinions! See you Friday!_

Chapter 158

* * *

Grover had called that morning and Chin had remarked that he was lucky because Chin had chosen to go fishing that morning and otherwise wouldn't have been awake when he called. He thought Grover would have laughed, but he didn't. He was all serious, requesting to come with him to fish, but not actually fish, so he could have a serious conversation about some issues he was having and what Chin's opinions of them were.

So Chin fished, fiddling and casting and bringing in fish after fish while Grover sat there talking about his problems. Lucky for him Chin could fish and listen at the same time.

"It's been a few weeks now since the last one. I was beginning to think maybe she's ready to get past it, but last night, man, it just…" Grover trailed off. Chin glanced over his shoulder to him as the man shook his head. He was clearly beaten up by this. "It was awful."

"Another nightmare, huh?"

"Yeah. The whole thing, the abduction, and being locked up in a cage, and watching Ian die and…" he trailed off again and Chin sat down beside him his fishing pole in his hand. "It just plays over and over on a loop in her head. And she can't… it just never ends. That son of a bitch Ian, man, he got under her skin. She can't shake it."

"You know… uh… Rowan and Steve… they both suffer from the same thing you know… Steve was saying her last round of nightmares… they were so bad she stopped breathing…"

"Yeah no offense to them, but they don't think like regular people. Steve maybe, but Rowan… she's on a whole 'nother level… like sometimes I swear she ain't human, no one thinks to do the things she does… you know?" Grover snapped. "And to be perfectly honest I don't want to go to either of them…"

Chin sensed a bit of hostility there. "Uh… is everything okay?"

"Yeah… I guess I'm just a little frustrated because Rowan is part of the reason this is happening. Obviously I'm grateful. But I'm both grateful and livid," Grover said. "She saved my baby… but she also sent Wo Fat there in the first place… I mean… I know not personally, I know she thought he was off the island, but she never thought to tell them not to kill someone in front of Samantha?"

Chin nodded. "Rowan makes rash decision, and those decisions aren't always the best when she's angry. She wanted Ian to pay for what he did, I guess she thought not doing it in front of Samantha was a given. She sometimes forgets how they think…"

"Forgets how they think… _she thinks like them_!"

"Yeah, also scary," Chin said. "But uh… the alternative was Ian having Samantha a lot longer than he did. The truth is… if Rowan hadn't intervened we would have been on the hook for a lot of money, and Ian could have double crossed us…"

"I guess…"

"Look we both know what it's like to not what to close our eyes, even Rowan knows what that's like," Chin said sitting down beside him. "But the only cure for that, though, is time."

"This is killing me," Grover announced after some silence. "I feel utterly helpless. Every night, I pray to God to take this thing off of her and put it on me because I can handle it. This is my little girl. She shouldn't have to carry this."

"You know what Lou? Let me tell you something. You're doing the only thing you can do. You're being there for Samantha. Knowing she's got a father that loves her and will do whatever it takes to keep her safe… which includes letting his crazy friend sic her even crazier brother on the bad guys. That's exactly what she needs right now."

Grover nodded and Chin stood up to fish some more. He turned back to him, thinking carefully before tackling the next subject. "Look… uh… please don't uh… don't let Rowan know you're mad at her. She's really worried about her monstrous side, that's what she calls it, and we all know what she does when she's upset."

Grover scoffed. "I'm not stupid, I know Steve can't take another running…" he said shifting on the bench he was sitting on. "I won't say anything to her. I'm not that mean."

Chin nodded again and threw out his line once more. God he hoped Grover didn't let on that he was mad at Rowan, her reaction may not have been as bad as if it had come from Steve but it sure as hell wouldn't be good either way.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Grace knew that her Uncle Steve was super happy that she had asked him to help her with this. Grace knew, before she asked, that he'd say yes because her Uncle Steve always wanted to help her out. But as he ran beside her forcing her to keep going, she both loved and hated him.

"Dig deep. You got this. Keep breathing!" he called as she pushed herself. She was tired and her legs and lungs hurt, and it was annoying that Steve was running beside her not even breaking a sweat. "Just a little further. Alright now, push yourself now. Push yourself! Straight away, push yourself. Go, grace! Go!"

She was sure he let her pull forward, she was sure he slowed down purposely to make her feel like she was going faster. But it worked and she made the rest of the distance without needing to stop.

He let her stop across the street at the stop sign they had originally started at and she doubled over and braced herself on her legs to catch her breath. He smiled happily at her, having stopped on the other side of the crosswalk as he checked his watch and made his way over to her.

"Hey! That right there I'd what we call a six-minute, 19-second mile," he said with a grin and then hit her with a high-five as she panted and tried not to die.

But since her Uncle Steve had started running with her, she had been getting faster, and this had been getting easier.

"That President's Physical Fitness medal is in the bag. You hear me?" he said. Grace tried to smile at him, he was so excited, but she was worried about what was going to happen if she didn't make it. He'd be devastated. She didn't want to disappoint her Uncle Steve.

"Good, because I didn't do so hot last year," she reminded him.

He just waved that off. "Forget about last year. This year's gonna be different."

"Thanks for helping me Uncle Steve," she said for the millionth time. "Danno says the only thing he hates more than swimming is running."

He waved that off too. "Don't worry about Danno. You know it scares me to think what that guy's gonna be like when he actually is a grumpy old man."

Grace was too breathless to laugh but she couldn't help it. "I know."

"You know, if it makes you feel better, when I asked your Auntie Ro to come with us, she just said: _Why? Are we being chased?_ So you know… you've got a grumpy old man, I have a sarcastic old lady…"

"Auntie Ro's not old, she's like twenty years younger than you," Grace told him, word for word just like Rowan had told her to say, and he frowned.

"It's _only_ 9 year… did Ro tell you to say that?"

Well she had, she said it was a teasing thing and that Steve would laugh, but he wasn't laughing right now. Luckily Grace didn't have to answer that question because there was the peel of screeching tires and that got her attention. "That looks just like your car, Uncle Steve."

They both turned and watch a Marquis drive right past them. Steve's eyes narrowed as he watched it swerve through the road past them. "That's because it is my car!" he cried. He turned back to her panic lighting up his features. He clearly didn't want to leave but he also really wanted to chase the guy.

"Okay, listen, you don't move from this spot, okay? You don't talk to anybody…" "I won'!" "Just don't move!" "I won't I won't, I promise, Go!" she ordered, but he didn't leave just yet.

He tossed her his phone. "Call Ro." And then he disappeared chasing his car.

Grace waited for him to go and then unlocked his smart phone. The background on his phone was this cute picture she had taken of Rowan and Steve on the beach. Rowan was in Uncle Steve's lap and he had his arms around her and he two of them were looking down at each other like they saw nothing else. She loved Aunt Ro's smile in that picture, she looked really happy.

But she wouldn't be happy now.

She dialed Rowan's number and she picked up on the third ring. "Hey baby!" she sang, and then before Grace could tell her it was her and not Steve, Rowan was talking again. "Are you done your run already? Ohh… are you all sweaty? You know I like when you're all sweaty. ETA on coming home? I can't wait to get you in the shower and help you wash it all off …"

"It's Grace, Aunt Ro…"

Grace heard nothing but silence. "Aw…. Shit-sticks… God why didn't you just inter… okay, you know what, I'm sorry, I'm sorry you had to hear that. Don't tell your father about any of this…"

"Hey, don't worry about it, it's okay…I won't tell Danno anything," she said even though she was traumatized.

Rowan blew out a heavy sigh of relief. "Where's Steve… he's not having a heart attack is he?"

"No, his car just got stolen…" "What? But he took the Marquis, who would want to steal that?"

"I don't know but someone did."

"Huh… probably to junk it. Don't tell Steve I said that either. Where you guys at I'll come pick you up."

She gave Rowan the number and hung up just as Steve came jogging up. Okay… he didn't catch the guy? "Aunt Ro says she's coming," she told him and he nodded.

He had his phone in his hand for all of two seconds before it started ringing. He answered quickly, said his last name in that gruff tone that meant he was angry. He listened. Said he'd by right there and then said: "Hey, wait, don't hang up. I need to report a car stolen," he said and the growled. "Yeah, mine!"

Ohhh she felt bad for whoever stole his car. They were in for it when Steve caught them.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

His car. His father's car. The only thing he had left from his father had been stolen right out from under him. He was angry, he was upset, he was about to fucking cry, but best believe when he found that thief they were going to feel a lot worse than he was feeling right now. He had wanted to stay home, he had wanted to stay with Rowan and hold her close because he knew she would make him feel better. He didn't want to go on an active case with Danny who wouldn't understand and often made him feel worse about how he felt. And considering he hadn't been too happy to find out he left Grace unattended to chase down the car thief he had a feeling he would be in for an argument when he finally saw Danny face to face.

He got out of his truck, saw Danny waiting for him, clocked the look on his face and sighed. Yep, he was in for an argument. Still as he approached he said: "Yo!"

"Hey! Let me ask you a question. Okay? At what point did you think I that it was a good idea to leave my innocent 12-year-old daughter alone in a deserted street by herself? When did you think that was okay?" Danny cried and Steve found himself sighing. And there it was. He didn't even get a good morning.

Steve clapped a hand to Danny's shoulder. "Good morning. I'm fine. How are you?"

"No. No, no, no. No. Don't do that, okay. Answer the question," he ordered.

"What? It's not like I left her in the middle of Makaha."

"Oh right, right. Because deviants and nut jobs and psychopaths, they only hunt victims in high-crime neighborhoods!" Danny cried.

"She was never in any danger, Danny. I left for, like, not even five minutes. She had my phone, she was on a call with Rowan the whole time. Okay. I mean, you're overreacting like usual."

"I'm overreacting," Danny echoed.

"Yes, you're over…. I'm sorry I don't obsess over every possible worst-case scenario in life."

"No, just when it comes to Rowan."

"Okay, hey! Don't do that," Steve snapped coming to a stop to glare at him. "I'm working on it. I swear it's because of you, I picked it up from you."

"You also do it with Catherine and your mother."

"Shut up. Just just…"

"No, you're right, you just obsessed over a death trap on wheels."

"That car is a classic, mind yourself," Steve warned.

"Please. With the sales pitch. It's a classic piece of junk, that car!" Danny cried.

Steve knew he was just upset and trying to hurt Steve, but that hurt a little bit too much. "You know what that car meant so me, do you not?" he shouted whirling around to face him. Danny came to a standstill and just stared at him.

"Okay, don't do that. You do something wrong, and then you turn it around and I'm the bad guy."

"You are the bad guy!" Steve cried. "You can't see how you're the bad guy in this?"

Luckily the argument was interrupted by Chin who simply asked: "Are you guys still seeing that therapist?"

They were but that was not what he wanted to hear today. Chin took in the silence and the dark glares between them and said: "Alright you guys need a few more sessions."

Yeah he didn't need that today either.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve had tried to be focused on the case, it shouldn't have been that hard. They thought they were dealing with Delano again it was hard for Chin so Steve had stood beside him for it. But it became clear that it wasn't even about Delano, but some cold case. All cases deserved his undivided attention but when they called in an update on his car… well… let's just say the case didn't have his full attention anymore.

They had found his car up in Waiane, in the Ma'ili Beach Park area.

Up on cinderblocks. Windows missing, hood up and an entire car door gone.

Steve looked it over about ready to cry and Pua and Duke were purposely giving him distance as he took it all in, hands on his hips.

"Son of a bitch," he swore at them and they both winced.

"It's not that bad, McGarrett," Duke said.

"It's not that bad? There's no wheels on my car."

"There's no physical damage other than parts missing and those are all replaceable," Duke told him. He was trying to be helpful. He was trying to soothe him. Steve appreciated the effort but it didn't work.

"They're not replaceable!" Steve cried. "Everything on this car except for the windshield is original from the factory. Just like the day my dad brought it home."

He went about taking pictures of the damage, while Duke and Pua took in the real reason he was upset. His dad's car was torn up. His _dad's_ car, the car they spent so much time working on, sometimes together but most of the time alone, had been taken apart.

"There's a homeless encampment on the beach not far from here. Maybe somebody saw something," Pua added and Steve sighed. Great. His car was being sold off piece by piece for food or drug money. Just fucking wonderful.

"Listen I want any spare units canvassing the area for anybody who many have seen somebody driving her. I don't care what you gotta do, we gotta find this guy."

"You may also want to look at this," Duke said and then let Pua take over.

"Whoever's been stripping the car left their tools behind. I'm thinking they'll probably be back for more."

"You know what? Let's leave it just where it is. Duke I want around-the-clock surveillance on it. Contact Auto Crime. Have them canvass the area for all the body shops around here, see if we can find the jackass selling my parts."

"Will do," Duke said moving off to make those calls as he said he would.

"Do you want me to get CSU to process it first?" Pua asked.

Steve thought back to all the times he and Rowan had fucked in the back seat of that car, how it would probably light up under black light. He shook his head. "Aw, it's just gonna attract unnecessary attention," he said instead.

"Ma'am, you're not allowed back there…" an officer called and when Steve turned he found that Rowan's purple GTO was parked beside his truck and she was quickly moving past the officer who was trying to ward her off.

"It's fine she's with me," he called and Rowan came up to the scene of the crime. He watched her take in the damage, looking back at the car he loved so much, knowing she felt the same way about it as Danny did.

If she told him it was junk he'd pick her up and deposit her in the waves crashing against the beach just a few feet away from them.

"Ooooh," Rowan groaned as she came up to the car. "Damn it is bad."

Steve gestured to Rowan and Duke and Pua groaned. "See!" he cried. Yes, his girl got him. She looked it over before turning back to him, reaching out a hand to hold his. Just that motion alone made him love a little more than before.

"Okay… so like… the best place to offload stuff like this is this little garage just a few minutes from here so Duke… you should totally…"

"How do you know that?' Steve asked interrupting her.

Rowan paused and then blinked her eyes at him. "Do you really want that answer?"

Steve shook his head at her instead of pressing her for more information. He moved towards the back of the car and opened up his trunk. "What is all that?" Pua asked.

"It's a vintage car survival kit," Steve answered absently.

"Yeah because the thing barely runs," Rowan answered. Steve glared at her again and she just shrugged. "I told you not to take it today, I'm surprised you made it all the way down to… where were you today?"

"Stop helping," he snapped instead of answering her question.

He went about fiddling with things and Rowan sighed but followed him as he did. "What is he doing?" Pua asked.

"Showing off," Rowan snapped just as Duke said: "Not needing CSU."

They went to the hood where Steve had sprayed his concoction on the glass and was using the water bottle to wash it off. After a few seconds prints appeared on the glass.

"Pua, run these prints through AFIS see if we get a hit."

"Uh… are those possibly mine?" Rowan had gotten up on her tippy toes to whisper that into his ear, Steve, the second she had put her hands to his shoulder to pull herself up to him had leaned down to get closer to her. Steve paused. Crap, he had fucked her up against the hood of the car once… or twice… or more… and recently too. Fuck that had been hot. And if the situation hadn't been so dire the memories alone might have hit him a little harder.

"Yeah those might be hers," he told them "Just uh… yeah… if they're hers I know how they got there and it's not in relation to this."

"How did they get there?"

"Uh… well… Pua, that's private…" he said shooting him a little bit of a smirk. Duke's eyes widened, Pua's mouth fell open and shock and suddenly Rowan was blushing and digging her elbow into his side in retribution for the comment that he never should have made.

Rowan scowled at him. "Really, really Steven?"

"What? They all know how they would have got there, it's pretty obvious."

"Uh… I wasn't thinking that," Duke offered.

Pua nodded emphatically. "I just assumed she was helping you fix something up," he said. Damn… why didn't Steve think of that… maybe because he knew Rowan's hand prints wouldn't be in places that would make sense if she were helping him fix the car? He paused for a bit before adding: "Now I'm thinking about it though… was it comfortable like that? I feel like no."

"Oh my god," Rowan growled. "That's it. Never again."

Panic hit Steve's body quicker than he cared to admit. She wasn't talking about withholding sex was she? Because their sex life was too amazing for him to lose it now. "Ro, we both know…"

"I meant in the car. Never again, near, on or in the car. ANY CAR!" Rowan shouted.

"Whoa, whoa, wait, let not be rash here!" he cried but Rowan was already shaking her head and walking away while repeating: "Nope. Never again."

Steve glared at Pua with a darkness that scared him. "If I seriously don't get to have sex in any car cause of you I'm going to end you," he warned before storming off.

Pua just stood there, shocked and afraid. God, he just wanted to know… you know… for his girlfriend. Now there was a good chance he was going to die.


	159. Chapter 159

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Friday my lovely readers! So this is it, this is where we're meeting the new main character. And oh my gosh, there are going to be SO MANY cute things coming involving these three! Can you guys believe that I've written this much? I barely believe it, and we are just chugging along through this season. I can't wait for you guys to see what else I have coming up. Thanks to AJ and Alexlover for getting back to me! I'm glad you're both okay! Don't forget to leave a review I'd love to hear what everyone's thinking of the new developments and I'll see you guys on Monday!_

Chapter 159

* * *

The case was hard. Thinking about what those poor lost kids had gone through, how they had died. It killed him that he had no idea at this moment how to pin it on who did it. So when he came home he was happy to have Rowan jump into his arms.

He had held her to him and felt the stiff anxiousness leave his body with every second he had held her. She had made him dinner, had a beer in his hand and had doted on him all the way up until they were getting ready for bed.

He liked getting ready for bed with Rowan. He liked that she would get changed with him, and that her PJs always incorporated some item of his clothing. She'd pile her red and blonde locks up on top of her head, they'd brush their teeth and floss together shoulder to shoulder before slipping into his bed and he'd get to hold her tight. There was just something about being that domestic with her that made his heart swell up in his chest. Not all the time, of course, but sometimes they'd be just doing some every day task together and it would hit him all at once. That he loved this, that he loved having her beside him, doing these things with him.

She dropped her toothbrush to the holder she had bought to replace the simple cup he had been using. She moved back to the bed to get changed and then called out: "So uh… how are you doing with everything? You seem a little down."

Down didn't describe what he was feeling. He was upset about so much. About what the boys had suffered through, both from the system and at the hands of the guards at their juvenile facility. About his poor car, and how upset his father would be to see what had become of it.

"Yeah… I'm not… it's just been rough you know?" he said to her and Rowan nodded. "That was my father's car, and seeing it like that… having it taken from me like that… it was like losing him all over again… which is stupid, I know that, I know it's just a car…"

"No, no, I get it," she said to him "That car means a lot to you. But uh… not gonna lie I don't know whole a lot about your model of car. So like… how bad is it? On a scale of one to ten, how bad is it?"

Steve scowled, spit out the toothpaste in his mouth and then stormed out of the bathroom to get changed purposely not looking in her direction. Danny had said that to him, word for word, but when he did it he meant it in a taunting way, he didn't want to think that Rowan would do the same thing but he was in a bad mood and took it that way.

"Why do you and Danny gotta do that? Huh?" he snapped.

"What are you talking about?"

"You two… with your one out of ten scale… don't trivialize my suffering," he ordered moving away from her.

Rowan's eyebrows furrowed in concern. "That's not what I'm doing," she said quickly. "It's like the pain scale the doctors use, it's a one to ten reaction too, I'm merely trying to determine how bad the car is to figure out how bad you're hurting so I know how to react and how best to comfort you."

Steve paused in his getting ready. He turned back to Rowan to where she was sitting on his bed in his softest grey sweater. He knew that underneath it would be one of her tank tops and a pair of lacy booty shorts. God, he loved her booty shorts.

"Oh," he said softly. "Uh… I guess I'm up at like a seven."

Rowan's look of pity that dawned on her face was worse than the pain he felt. "I'm so sorry Steven," she said and then pet the bed beside her. He crossed to her immediately and let her wrap him up in a tight hug. "I'm so sorry that this happened to you, babe."

He pulled her onto his lap, loving that she just mounted him immediately. He held her tightly, their arms wrapped up around one another. She stroked the back of his head in that soothing manner he loved so much.

"Don't you worry," she said to him. "We'll find the guy who did this, and we'll get your parts back. And when the car's all back together I'll let you take me for a spin in the back seat. What do you say?"

Steve smiled at her. So much for never letting him fuck her in the car again. He pulled his head out of her neck to look up at her. She was really way too good to him, god, he just didn't deserve her.

"It's not just the car," he said. "This case… it's just so…"

"Which one is this?" she asked. "The brain surgeon?"

"Well yeah, it's the brain surgeon, but she got murdered to cover up the fact that at a juvenile hall like thirty or forty years ago, these boys… well they were murdered. And I mean, they got locked into this room with ventilation, no food and water and they just…" he whispered. "Who could do that to a bunch of kids?"

"Well… why is this only coming to light now?" Rowan asked.

"Because, until this career convict was dying he didn't tell anyone what he witnessed and there was no one… they had no one to miss them…" he said. "And I guess… I guess it hits me a little harder because… well… you know… in that dream world we were expecting and I'd hate… to think that could happen…"

Rowan stroked the back of his hair softly, looking down at him with soft eyes. "I know, it's always harder when it's children. To think that they could slip between the cracks, that they could be lost or forgotten, it's hard," she said to him. "And with everything going on, I get it. Stuff like this… it piles on."

He smiled at her. He loved that she was so considerate and understanding with him. God he had to do that for her more often, he had to stop flying off the handle and refusing to bend.

"Thank you," he whispered. "Thank you for understanding."

She lowered her lips to his, the one hand against his jaw holding him in place, his own hands gripping her lower back tightly so he could press her closer to him.

"This is why the world needs people like you, you're not going to let these boys stay forgotten, and you wouldn't have given up until you found them," she whispered. "And don't worry, I know you'll get him. You always get your guy."

Steve just smiled at her. He loved that light grey sweater on her, loved that the sleeves covered her hands, but he liked taking it off of her more. His hands slipped up her sides and their kiss deepened until he couldn't handle it anymore and pinned her to the bed.

He felt like, so long as Rowan was with him, so long as he knew he was coming home to her, he could do and survive anything.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

The following morning, he left as he had a call from Duke. News about his car. He had left Rowan behind, who had a busy day of song writing and job searching, though why she needed a new job was beyond him. He had told her that, if he could manage it, he'd see her for lunch. She had smiled at him but he could tell that she didn't really believe him.

He met Duke at the Five-0 office doors and Duke immediately started to explain what happened.

"Your thief came back this morning," Duke said following Steve in through the doors, walking towards his office where his thief was being held. "There was a chase. We caught him hiding at the homeless encampment near the beach. And the prints from the Marquis were a match."

Steve got into his office expecting some homeless bum. Someone he could yell and get mad at. He wasn't expecting a dirty, crying kid. Damn he couldn't be more than thirteen.

The kid glanced up at Steve before lowering his tear filled eyes again and Steve all about melted. Well fuck. There went the mean McGarrett.

"Hey, hey," he said in what he hoped was a soothing manner. Though he didn't know why he tried it, it never worked on Rowan. He hoped maybe the kid would look at him, but he didn't. "What's your name?"

"Nahele," he answered, his voice quite deep. Okay maybe more than twelve.

"I have to call your parents, alright?" he said, because you know… he had to the kid was obviously a minor.

"My mom is dead and my dad is in prison."

Well fucking shit. He was just like those boys they just dug up. There was a complete possibility that this kid could end up just as lost and forgotten as them. This kid didn't deserve a fate like that, especially since he had a feeling he knew why this kid took his car.

"When's the last time you had something to eat?" Steve asked, though he had a feeling he knew when.

He tried to wipe his eyes but just smeared dirt around on his face. The handcuffs clinking against his wrists. "I don't know."

Yeah that sounded and looked about right. Sighing he pulled out his wallet, dug out a few twenties and then handed them to Pua.

"Get him some food, some new clothes," he ordered and Pua went off with a _Yes, Commander._

The kid hung his head his tears returning as Steve went behind his desk. "I'm sorry. I… I've never stolen anything before. It's just that… I was so hungry."

Yeah hunger could do that to a man, and this was just a boy.

"It's alright, just take it easy," Steve said and then sat down in the chair beside him. "How long have you been on the streets?"

He tried to wipe at his tears again but the handcuffs were really hampering him there. "A few months," he answered. "They tried to put me in one of those homes after my mom died, but I couldn't stay there. So, I ran away."

He looked up to see Kono at the door telling him they got a break and that Max wanted to talk to them. Steve nodded to her and then turned back to the kid who was still avoiding his eyes.

"Get him fed, get him cleaned up and then just keep him here until I get back," he told Duke who merely nodded at him. And then he just left him there, he couldn't help it. He couldn't look at that kid without seeing the shrivelled corpses of those teen boys they had unearthed the day before. He didn't want anything like that to happen to this kid. He wasn't going to let this kid get swallowed up by the system. No, he was going to change the pattern.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve had told her that he wanted to have lunch with her. And then of course the case ran overtime and they hadn't gone for lunch. She had expected that so she hadn't gotten her hopes up, but he was trying, which meant she could try for him too. The plan was to meet him at the palace and go out for dinner, hopefully just her and him together, not the whole team.

She was on her phone at the time, knowing he was probably in his office, the lights were on so someone was there. She wasn't paying attention but she ducked something, probably the door and then while she was texting and without looking up, she started talking.

"Alright, I know we skipped lunch but I thought we could go for…" she trailed off as she looked up because she wasn't looking at Steve. It was just a kid. A kid in a multicolored button up plaid shirt and khaki shorts. He looked like a brightly colored Steven.

"You're not Steven… who the hell are you?" she asked.

"This is the car thief," the Pua said. Rowan jumped cause she hadn't realized that anyone was in the room with them. What the hell, where had he come from? She hadn't even seen him.

"What? Pua? What are you doing here? Seriously… why didn't you stop me from coming in…"

"I did, you ducked past me," he said.

Rowan turned back to the tear streaked kid who was sitting there with a container of food in his hand. "Who is this again?"

The kid mumbled: "M'name's Nahele" keeping his eyes low while Pua repeated: "The car thief, he jacked McGarrett's Marquis."

"No shit huh?" Rowan said with a grin on her face. "Damn kid didn't you know to strip it all right away… some garages do that for you now, you know."

He just stared at her with big wide eyes not sure how to react to what she was saying. Alright, too much of the Ice Queen for the kid to handle. So she turned back to Pua. "Kay so what is he doing here?" she asked him.

Pua just shrugged. "McGarrett said to hold him. Get him food, some new clothes and hold him."

Rowan's eyes furrowed. She looked back at the kid, why was he so damn familiar? She hesitantly reached out and brushed a leaf from his hair. The static jolt startled him but it gave Rowan what she needed.

"Ah. So we finally found you huh?" she murmured. "Alright… uh… no parents, right? Dad in Halawa, mom's dead, didn't like your first foster home in the system."

Nahele just stared at her with those wide eyes still not sure what to say. She looked down to the clothes that had been picked out for him. "Geezus did they let Steve pick the clothes or did Steve set the budget?"

"He set the budget."

Rowan shook her head, she loved that man but he was a cheap son of a bitch. But it meant that this kid dressed like Steve. He was a mini little Steve if Steve had had a kid with a native.

"Alright, I got this," Rowan said. "Come on kid, let's get you some real clothes… like clothes you'll actually like to wear, and then I'll take you home."

Nahele whispered: "But I like these clothes." To himself while Pua said: "Now wait a second, McGarrett told me to keep him here."

"Really? You're gonna argue with me?" she asked him. Pua opened his mouth and she just held up a hand. "Kay, look, if Steve catches an attitude just say I got a little bit of a shock, and I know what he wanted to do and I've done it. Okay? Trust me, he'll understand."

She then turned back to Nahele who was standing and staring at her as if waiting for the next order.

"Come on, we got a lot to do and there's a lot you gotta tell me," she said, she put a hand out to his, just to usher him forward but he took his hand in hers and just like that her plan changed.

Ohhhh…. Steve wasn't going to like this. And neither would Dennings.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve got back to his office ready to make the deal of a lifetime for that poor little homeless orphan kid before he was shipped off to his new foster home. Problem was, when he got there Nahele wasn't there. He didn't even have to say anything to Pua who was waiting for him nervously beside Duke. All he had to do was put his hands on his hips and turn a glare to the younger officer and he cracked.

Rowan. Rowan got a shock. Knew what Steve was going to do and did it.

Well. Okay… maybe that was good. It was a little annoying, but uh… good. It raised a lot of questions, like… was Rowan having visions again, like proper ones, or why was she at his office? But he figured he could just go home and ask her, which would be great because he missed lunch and he really, really wanted to treat her to something, whether it be a late dinner or a shaved ice and a walk out on the beach under the stars.

So, he was very, very happy when he walked through the front door and Rowan launched herself into his arms. It was something she tried to do every time he came home after her, but with all their arguing as of late and his really late nights, she hadn't gotten the chance. He was starting to think that maybe she didn't want to do it anymore.

So he caught his girl in his arms and then let her take his face in her small hands and cover him in kisses.

"My amazing." _Kiss._ "Perfect." _Kiss._ "Smart." _Kiss_. "Handsome." _Kiss. Kiss. Kiss._ "Man." And then she landed a really big one on him.

Steve knew then she had done something that she thought would upset him. "What have you done," he growled against her lips and found her smiling.

"Uhmm…. Something bad…" she admitted and he pulled away from her to look into her eyes suddenly very very, angry, disappointed and worried all at once.

"God fucking damn it. Is Wo fat in this house? He better be dying or you better be about to be assassinated, because so help me…"

"What? Wo? What part of _I'm no longer speaking to Wo Fat_ are you not understanding?" she asked. When Steve opened his mouth to reminder her about her mysterious Christmas call and the spontaneous evolution of her app she hushed him quickly. "We're not arguing about this again… I didn't bring _him_ home but I did bring someone else home… a cute little stray… per say."

Good god she had got them a pet? Fuck. It had better be a cat. Steve liked cats that was it. Nothing against dogs, he just preferred cats, and he knew Rowan had a preference for black cats. Ohhh a little black cat that would be cute.

"Hi again," came a voice from the kitchen and Steve dropped Rowan immediately. Luckily, she was expecting it so she landed on her feet. Fuck that was not a cat that was not a cat at all.

Steve was looking at Nahele, his little car thief. Steve turned to Rowan with eyes wide with shock and his mouth partly open.

"Guess who's a new foster mom?!" she asked with a big grin.

 _Foster mom_?! What? That… that wasn't what he had in mind… that wasn't even close to what he was going to do. His plan was to show him the arrest forms, that weren't signed by him, and tell him that he was going to do community service with him, helping him fix up his car. What fucking vision did she have?

"Ro… Rowan… what… what have you done?"

"Well… the kid has no home, and he needs a home, and I figured why not here?"

"Why not…. Rowan… we… I'm not… for kids?!" he stuttered. "I'm not…"

"You're not doing anything. It's all in my name."

 _She had become a single foster mom_? WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK. So not only did she decide to do this but she had decided to do it without him. And she and the kid were going to live with him? Wait… she wasn't moving out with the kid, was she?

"How did you even… Rowan there are processes…"

"Which are shockingly easy to get through when the Governor vouches for you and makes the judge he was eating dinner with sign off on it," she said. "I mean, I still have CPS walk throughs to go through, but until further notice I've been approved as a temporary guardian so I could take him home tonight."

Steve just stared at her. He couldn't… he couldn't believe that this was happening. Rowan sighed and looked away. "Look. I thought this would be great, you wanted him to find all the parts he sold and then have him come by once a week to help you fix up your car, right? I mean… you weren't going to press charges."

The fact that she knew that already should have scared him, and it kind of did because it meant her visions were coming back and he wasn't sure he wanted them back. He wasn't going to say that to her though.

"Okay… yeah… you're right, I was going to have him come and help me put the car back together but that doesn't translate to wanting him to live with me," Steve growled.

"Okay… okay… but… he needs us," Rowan said and Steve softened. Because that part was true. "Think of those boys. Lost. Forgotten. Steve, you were _meant_ to find this boy. Don't you see…?"

Steve sighed again and she smiled, realizing that he was about to cave. She put a hand out to his arm and he had to look away to mask his emerging grin. "And having him will make everything easier. Now he can help you with the car whenever you work on it, cause he'll be here. Oh, once he's done his homework of course. That reminds me, I have to enroll him in school…" she mused.

Steve groaned out her name. It was clear as day that she didn't see the problem and now that he was over the initial shock of the situation, Steve was starting to warm up to the idea. Didn't mean he didn't have major reservations. This was a lot of responsibility, and though he knew that Rowan be shouldering almost all of it, but that didn't mean that he wouldn't be helping, that didn't mean that he didn't want share that responsibility with her. He had found the kid first after all.

"Just so you guys know… I can hear everything you're saying," the kid said and Steve finally turned his eyes back to him. Nahele was in a set of PJs that Steve knew right away were brand new. He was sitting in front of a bowl of something, with a glass of water beside him. He turned to Rowan with sad eyes to say: "I told you he wouldn't want me to stay."

Oh. Fucking ouch. "No, that's not… it's not you… she didn't tell… this was just a big surprise okay…"

Nahele just lowered his eyes again. "It's okay," he whispered. "You can send me back. I won't mind. I get it… I do…"

Rowan turned her eyes to Steve who just groaned again. For the love of god. Like he was really going to send this kind back. He turned to Rowan with a dark glared and snapped: "You should have told me _before_ I came home!"

Rowan just stared at him and then scoffed. "If I did that you would have tried to talk me out of it."

Her mind was clearly made up, and she was just as stubborn as him. Which meant that even if he had tried, it wouldn't have worked. Still it hurt that she did this without him. That she didn't think to include him, that she didn't think he'd be supportive of this. Okay he might not have been as supportive if she had told him at first, but at least he would have been prepared.

Steve sighed. "Alright, so we're doing this," he announced to the room, it was both a question and not, but he nodded both Rowan and Nahele nodded and Steve realized he was going to have to relent. "Okay, I've got ground rules. Okay?"

Nahele suddenly perked up and nodded quickly, almost eagerly.

"Alright, number one, no more stealing cars. You need something you ask me or Rowan. We'll give you a reasonable allowance, and we will discuss what that will be later. Number two you're to come straight home after school, unless otherwise specified and your bed time is non-negotiable. 10pm, you got me. Special considerations can be made for special occasions, like football games, and holidays. Three, you're going to help me with that car whenever I need you to, once you're done your homework of course. Four, you want spending money you gotta earn it. We'll give you reasonable chores and a reasonable allowance. Five, we need to know where you are, at all times. Obviously, we'll get you a phone, but if you're going somewhere and its not on your regular schedule, you have to tell both of us, or at the very least one of us. Six, I work in law enforcement, do not, ever, touch my gun or any of my team's guns. Seven, my job… look it's dangerous kid. Don't go with anyone I haven't cleared with you, okay? Yeah I may send someone to come get you if I think you're in danger or if me and Ro are tied up, but I'll only send certain people. I'll introduce them all to you soon, but if it's not one of them don't go anywhere with them. Lastly, you need to make, at the very least, all Bs at school. Extra curriculars cannot get in the way of that. If you need help ask us, we'll get you a tutor if we can't do it ourselves," he said he then stared at Nahele. "Agreed?"

"Yeah, totally, I can do all of those things," he said with a big grin on his face.

"Okay, so I'll start on a chore chart to get that allowance started," Rowan said, "We can have that up by the weekend. Oh and we're going to need to de-girl-ify his room."

"Room?" Steve echoed and then understanding dawned on him. "Oh, you've put him in your old room."

"Yep. It's okay for today but not permanently. And we have a walk through in a few days, so I need the room up to par. I thought that might be a nice project for you two? Me and the kid go to Ikea and home sense and pick some things out, then you guys put them together?"

Steve turned to Nahele who was eyeing him with wide eyes waiting for his response. "If I don't have a case, sure," he said to which Nahele actually smiled in this excited way that had Steve smiling too.

Oh… maybe… maybe he'd take a few days off, just to help get the kid settled in. But that was it.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

A week later Rowan and Steve were walking hand in hand to Kamekona's shrimp truck where their friends were waiting for them.

Though they approached together, it was Steve who said: "Well, guys, I have some bad news and some good news." They all turned to him waiting for the news, all concerned. "Delano has been officially released from the ICU and is expected to make a full recovery."

Delano was the originally reason they thought the doctor had been murdered, and because of that Chin had to face the man who put him in Halawa and was related to the man who murdered Chin's wife.

Rowan nudged him. "Tell him the good news," she hissed.

"I was getting to that," he snapped. "The good news is, when I went to see how he was recovering, I brought Rowan with me and the man literally crapped himself when he saw her."

"It's true, he actually defecated all over himself and I figure… if there's anything that could be a small consolation, that would be it," Rowan said to Chin who raised his beer to her.

"Well thanks for trying. I guess I'll just have to hope for stomach cancer," he said before taking a swig.

"Ohh, that's harsh cos, I'm hoping for a shiv in the lunch line," Kono said.

"What's a shiv?" Grace asked turning her eyes up to her Uncle Steve and Aunt Rowan assuming that one of them would explain, probably Rowan.

Rowan actually opened her mouth to tell her but Steve elbowed her and turned her words into a cry of pain. "Look at who's sporting the hardware!" he cried.

"You are looking at the number one girl in her age group on the entire island," Chin bragged for her and Grace nodded happily accepting a high five from Steve and a hug from Rowan.

"What did I tell you, huh?" he said to her. "No thanks to Marathon Man here, though, right?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, listen. I helped with everything except the running part, okay?" Danny snapped.

Grace turned to Steve and winced. "Yeah that's true," she admitted.

"Okay, I guess we can cut him some slack then, huh?"

"Cut me some slack," Danny echoed with a shake of his head. "You know what, you, how's fatherhood treating you."

"Fuck you," came out of Steve so fast it had everyone laughing. They knew he was still adjusting, but Rowan… Rowan had fucking taken to this like a fish in water. Nahele adored her but he was still awkward with Steve.

Rowan put a hand to his arm and smiled up at him. "He's doing just fine with it, thank you very much," she said primly. Though he knew it wasn't real fatherhood. This was fatherhood by proxy because the kid was living in his fucking house but, legally, all the paperwork was in Rowan's name.

"How is the kid doing?" Chin asked.

"He's doing good," Rowan said. "We let him do up the room, so the boys got to do painting and the whole moving the furniture around. I let him pick out the décor and what not."

Steve nodded, yeah that hadn't been too bad. "Yeah, I think he'd doing alright… still a little awkward around me, but uh… I think he's okay, he seems happy."

"I bet he is," Kono said. "Kid's finally in a happy home…"

"Yeah until they start arguing again," Danny snapped and that time Rowan cuffed him. He put a hand out to smack her back but Steve stepped in to deflect it.

"What did I say? Don't touch my girl, Danny!" he warned again.

"She hit me first…"

"I don't fucking care, don't touch her, Danny!" he cried but before the two could get into a real argument over it, Rowan started squealing as Nahele was coming towards them in a Kamekona's shrimp truck apron carrying the food for the table.

She let him set it down before pulling him in for a hug. "Oh my baby's first under the table job!" she cried kissing the top of his head over and over as she squeezed him.

"Rowan!" he whined in the same way most kids said _mooOOOmmm_. "Steve can you… please?"

"Just look at this cute but strikingly handsome face, you are gonna charm all the ladies at your new school aren't you," she said squeezing his cheeks.

"Ro, stop it," Steve ordered. "Come on now, give the boy some space."

Rowan smacked him away. "Whatever you do don't go to Steve for relationship advice, he's hopeless, you come to me or Danny," she said to him. He dropped his head to her shoulder and agreed breathlessly like it was a chore and she sighed again.

"My baby, all grown up and serving people food," she said watching as he straightened. She grabbed his cheeks again and then mushed them around. "Seriously, you're not allowed to grow anymore, if you grow taller than me, we're going to have issues."

Nahele turned a look to Steve which could have been nothing other than a cry for help and he stepped forward again to get her off of him.

"Of course, he's going to grow taller than you, look at him Rowan," Steve cried. "Now seriously let him go, you're embarrassing him."

Rowan just squeezed his cheeks a little tighter. "That is legit my job."

Steve grabbed Rowan's hands and pried them off of him. He tugged her back to his chest and wrapped his arms around her. "Run before she gets a hold of you again," he warned and Nahele, smiling up at Steve thanked him and then quickly scrambled away.

"Awww, they grow up so fast, already embarrassed of me," Rowan said as if she were proud. As if she had actually watched him grow up.

"Rowan… It's been a week," Steve reminded her and she smacked him.

"Let me have this, McGarrett," she growled and he shook his head.

Across from the happy make-shift-family on the picnic bench the Grover's SUV pulled into the parking lot. Grover had brought Samantha with him but he wasn't too sure about this. Especially with Rowan in attendance.

Samantha moved to get out of the car but Grover stopped her with a quick: "Hang on a second."

She stopped and turned back to him. She seemed to sense that this was a serious moment because she asked: "What is it dad?"

"Sweetheart you know I love you right?"

"Of course, I do," she answered immediately.

"Alright… and you know that if I could have, I would've done anything in the world to keep that stuff from happening to you," he told her. She didn't answer him with words but she did nod to him so that was good. "I'm afraid there's nothing I can do to change that now. The only thing that can change now is you, and that's gonna take time."

She nodded again and Grover thought about it very carefully before continuing. "Just like your body had to heal, your mind has to heal too, and you might have another bad night or two. I'm not gonna promise you you're gonna forget all about this one day, but I can promise you it's gonna get easier."

She just continued to stare at him, pain in her eyes and he hated that he could do nothing for her in this sense but she needed to know that they were going to get through this. "You know, I can promise you that we will get through this… as a family. Your mother, your brother, me and you. And I want you to know that whether I'm in the next room or not, I'm always there for you, little mama. Always."

She answered him by pulling him into a big hug. "I know Daddy," she whispered into his ear before pulling away. "But uhm… I do have a question, about Rowan…"

Oh, here we go. There were going to be real issues if she asked never to see that woman again. Especially with her dating Steve.

"She had a similar talk with me at that barbeque that Steve had and she mentioned that she has night terrors all the time, cause she got kidnapped once… and stabbed… and sexual assaulted… and crashed a car killing everyone inside but her…" Holy. Shit. That… that was a lot to take in right there. Like, a lot, a lot. Did Steve know about all that? Did this happen before she fell into their universe?

"So… what's the question baby…"

"Well… she said that the great thing about having family, is that they stand with you even when you're not ready to talk… so like what you just said about getting through it together. And well… you said that when she and Steve argue she runs away and she doesn't go to the people who are close to him because she thinks they're his friends and not her own, right?"

"Yeah and?"

"Well it got me thinking… that maybe she feels like she doesn't have a family… and if she feels like she doesn't have a family then… well… who's going to stand by her?"

Grover looked over to where Steve and Rowan were standing, her back to his chest and his arms around her, their default position because the man could barely stand to let Rowan go. He thought about what his daughter said and then carefully said: "You know, Rowan… she's a very special, very scary young lady."

Samantha nodded, and he could tell that she really was worried about Rowan and her wellbeing. "She likes to act like she's very strong… but uh… if you remember the day of baking…" he said trailing off. Samantha's eyes widened, she too remembered. "You see, the problem with Rowan is that… she thinks she's too scary for anyone to truly care about her. She thinks Steve's and his friends, and well… even us… won't like her for who she is. Which we know is not true, of course, but uh… she's just used to dealing with that sort of stuff on her own."

"I guess her real family didn't like her much?"

"Something like that," he murmured.

"Well… we should tell her that if she has nightmares, she should talk to us too," Samantha said. "So, she doesn't feel alone, you know?"

"You know… that's the best thing for Rowan. She may run, she may push us away, but you can't give up on her, because she's the one who needs us the most," Grover said and Samantha smiled at him.

"I'm going to go tell her," she said. "You coming? I'm starving, what about you?"

Grover got out of the car after his daughter, moving towards the table. He was there just in time to hear Kamekona discussing Nahele with his new Foster parents. Or well Foster parent, and boyfriend of foster parent because, just like he was with Rowan, Steve was not officially anything with Nahele.

"He's a good kid, eating through my profits like mad, but I don't mind," he said to them.

"Well seriously, thank you for giving him a job… I'll be sure to run another music night for you, okay?" she offered.

Steve turned to see Samantha getting ready to pull Rowan aside so he let her do it. Once Rowan and Samantha were off having their talk, Danny swooped in on him.

"Do you know what you are?" he asked.

Steve sighed and folded his arms over his chest like a shield. "This ought to be good," he said with a sigh.

"You're a half-baked cookie. All warm and gooey on the inside," he said. "That kid should be in juvenile hall, and you go and adopt him."

"No, now wait a second… Rowan is his _foster mother_ that is all, he's staying with us temporarily…" Steve answered but Danny just shook his head.

"You can act like you don't like it, but I can see it. You're loving this. You're loving being a father, officially or unofficially. That kid's not temporary and you know it. You took a whole three days off to get him set up in that room, Rowan's been buying things for him right left and center, you got him a job. Naw that kid's staying and you love it, look at you, you love it."

Steve lowered his eyes… he had rather gotten attached to the kid. But he wasn't going to say that to Danny, and least of all Rowan.

"Well that's why I love you babe," Danny said slapping his shoulder. "You love fixing broken toys."

Steve looked back at the table where all his friends and family were sitting having a good time and whispered to himself: "Yeah… I guess I do."


	160. Chapter 160

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Wow, I'm so glad you guys liked the cuteness of last chapter because we have MORE coming up today. Oh yes, we got some good stuff coming, let me tell you. Just an added note: I probably should have mentioned this in the last chapter, but I've made Nahele younger than in the TV show, he's going to be 14 in my version. Keep that in mind okay? We're getting closer to the 200th chapter. So you guys gotta tell me what kinda of special chapter you want. Do you want a chapter of all smut? Do you want a future part of a chapter (ie. Nahele getting adopted? Steve and Wo Fat bonding? Rowan meeting her family again?) Do you guys want me to elaborate on a past chapter, or write out an entire chapter on Rowan's past? Is it something I haven't listed? Leave me a review and tell me! See you on Wednesday._

Chapter 160

* * *

Nahele looked up at the woman he was starting to grow more than fond of. It was hard not to like Rowan, she was kind, she was thoughtful and she was a lot of fun to be around. He cared about her opinion of him, he wanted her to like him and keep liking him so he caved to her every whim. Today, today they would be finishing the enrolling process so he could start school tomorrow. That meant filling out the rest of the forms, picking up his timetable, getting an orientation of sorts, and then Rowan was going to drop a crazy amount of money to pay to have him go to that school.

There wasn't anything wrong with Hanalani Preparatory school, it was a ten-minute car ride away, forty minutes on the bus, it had a great football team and even better courses that would eventually help him land a better collage. No, the problem with Hanalani Preparatory was that Nahele was not a private school kid. He was the poor kid, the foster kid. He wasn't going to fit in with these kids and it was going to be worse since he was enrolling mid semester.

He wasn't sure Rowan understood how mean fourteen and fifteen-year-old freshmen were. Especially when they thought they were better than you.

But she was so excited to see him in his new uniform. She was so excited to have him in a good school and go to football games, or soccer games, or lacrosse games or music recitals or plays or whatever it was he wanted to do. And she was paying so much money. He just didn't know how to tell her that he didn't want to go.

Still, he followed his new foster mom through the hallways to the headmaster's office where they sat in small chairs waiting for him to be ready to see them.

Rowan turned to him absently. "Do we have enough for you to start school tomorrow, or should we do another supply run? I can't remember if we were missing anything?"

They weren't. But there was no point telling Rowan that. She was going to overload him with everything he could ever want, even things he didn't want. She kept saying she wanted him well provided for, but he didn't need all that stuff, she had already given him so much. "I think… I'm okay," he said to her. Rowan nodded.

"Are we all good for lunches?" she asked finally turned to look at him. She then frowned at his face. "What's the matter? Are you okay?"

Nahele looked around, just the office alone looked fancy. He hadn't been doing well in regular school before he dropped out because he had run away from a home and the CPS was looking for him, how was he going to handle a Prep Academy? "I'm nervous," he admitted to her. "What if they don't… what if they don't…?"

"Oh, don't you worry about that," Rowan said slinging an arm around him and pulling him close to her. "I did the whole new school things all the time. Just put your best foot forward, and don't take any guff… but maybe don't do anything I did…"

"What did you do?" he asked suddenly interested. Rowan made a face and for a moment he thought she wouldn't answer.

"The point is I got expelled once or twice, just don't do anything too… uh… violent… and you should be okay," she said.

Nahele blinked his eyes at her. She said stuff like that sometimes. A lot of the times. And it was terrifying, in a cool kind of way to think she wasn't as good as Steve was. They were a good contrasting pair. And obviously, despite Steve being on the right side of the law and Rowan not being as uh… lawful as she should, they very clearly loved one another. It also made him feel a little better and comfortable with them, because if Rowan had a less than shady past and had the tendency to walk on the illegal side, Steven, the law enforcement in the family, would be more inclined to forgive him if Nahele were to make a mistake.

The door opened and the headmaster smiled at them. Rowan pet his leg a few times and then stood, and sighing Nahele went with her. Well… no turning back now.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan had finished enrolling Nahele in school and decided they needed more for his lunches. They had gone grocery shopping, where she bulked up on candy and stuff for Steve more than she bulked up for him, and they headed home for the most stressful part of the day. He could tell she was nervous because as she handed him the groceries she was shaking but still smiling.

"Here you go, put these away and I'm going to set up for the CPS," she said. "Have you heard from Steven?"

Nahele picked up his phone and checked but he hadn't and neither had Rowan. Great. Just great, he knew this was mandatory. Nahele seemed to sense that Rowan was getting more and more nervous by the second because he said: "Don't worry, Brenda's great, she's going to love you."

Rowan just smiled at him. Yeah, no, authority figures tended to really not like her. Like they could automatically sense that she was a trouble maker. Still they went about getting ready and then as soon as the doorbell rang Rowan went ramrod straight and began to fix up her appearance.

"Oh god, how do I look? Not to juvenile? Does this outfit say _I have a good paying job_?" she asked.

Nahele's laughter came at her in soft chuckles as he went for the door. "You look fine, Rowan," he said and then opened the door. "Hi Brenda."

The little Asian woman standing across from him merely frowned up at him. "Nice to see you back in the system Mr. Huikala," she said and swept him aside and Rowan approached hopefully smiling in a friendly way. "You must be Mrs. Pierce. I'm Brenda Dean, his case worker. We spoke on the phone."

She shook Rowan's hand who getting more and more nervous by the moment. "Yes, it's so nice to meet you in person."

Brenda made a big show of looking around before saying: "And your husband…"

"Steven… uh… he's… he's a cop and he's uhm… he was supposed to be here but I think he's caught a case and uhm… yeah he's not my husband…" Rowan said as she ushered her into the house. She clocked the surprise on Brenda's face and immediately turned away and tried to move on as if she hadn't just admitted that. "Did you want to see the living spaces and Nahele's room?"

Brenda stared at her. "He's not your husband?" she growled.

Rowan faltered, aw shit. She didn't like that, not good, not good. "Uhm… no, Steve, Steven's my boyfriend. Is that… uh… a problem?" she asked but Brenda merely scribbled something down on her clipboard and Rowan struggled to keep herself from peering over the edge to see what she was writing. Probably nothing positive.

"Uh… so is there… anything in particular that you want me to show you?" she asked.

"Why don't we sit down, I can look at the living space later," she said moving off towards the kitchen table where Rowan had all the forms ready for her. Rowan turned to Nahele and waved him off.

"Why don't you start reading over your course syllabus's hmm? And getting everything ready for school tomorrow…" she offered but she knew as soon as he got upstairs he'd start playing with the Playstation that Steve had gotten him and installed in his room. Rowan knew from her own brother's experiences, that TVs and game systems in rooms meant her boy staying up all hours, but Nahele had been good with it so far.

Nahele gave her an encouraging smile before heading up the staris leaving Rowan to follow Brenda, sitting down in the chair adjacent to hers. "Alright, why don't we learn a little bit about you, hmm? What do you do?"

"Oh, uhm… my main job is as a song writer for Atlantic Records, but I take small jobs on the side every now and then," she said.

"Hard job writing for Atlantic Records, paychecks unstable, I presume."

"Actually no," Rowan said. "I uhm… Alex and the Doctor's breakthrough album, _Heartbeats_ … I wrote all those songs. I've written a few other hit singles so I'm making… uh… quite decent money mostly in royalty cheques. You can see my financials if you'd like."

She flipped open the manila file folder and flipped through it until she found the right page. "Here… that's uhm… that's the current state of my financials, you can see I have more than enough stashed away in my savings for uhm… a rainy day. And I'm making more than enough to put him through private school, which I enrolled him in today and to pay for anything medical that comes up…"

Brenda looked at the numbers on the paper with her eyes bugged out. "Oh… okay… uhm…" she said pushing the papers back and clearing her throat.

"Yep and because I'm a song writer I can work from anywhere and my hours are flexible," she said. "So I can always be home…"

"And your boyfriend is a…"

"He's uhmm… okay he's Commander Steven McGarrett of Five-0. His job is a lot less forgiving," she said. "He works long hours, he's called away at a moment's notice, uhm and it is dangerous, but I'll be here. I'm always here."

"Five-0. Hawaii's special task force?" Brenda asked.

"Yes, that's the one. He's uhm… he's the team leader," she said. "So he… uh… he's making money too, but I'm not dependant on him."

"And if you two break up?"

Rowan blinked her eyes. "Uh… I mean… we're not having any relationship problems," she mumrumred, even though that wasn't really all that true, she and him always had some issue to get over, maybe not recently but uh… before they did. She wasn't going to tell Brenda Dean that though. Brenda pinned her with a dry glare. "Well, if I were to break up with him Nahele would obvioulsy be coming with me," Rowan said. "I'm doing this… Steven and I just live together."

"Oh, and is there a reason why Steven is not a part of this?" she asked.

Rowan blinked his eyes. "Uh… well… uhm…. Steve's not very… good at commitment…"

"But this is his house."

"Yes?"

"So, you just decided to bring a foster kid home?" she asked. "How did you get him to agree to that if he's not good with commitment?"

"Uh… well… I've learned that it's better to just sort of spring things on him, cause he adapts better to surprises where as if I tell him in advance he can uh… tank it… he says it's not on purpose but it can't all be subconscious, at some level he must know what he's doing..."

Brenda was silent a moment before she snarled: "Are you telling me that you just went through with all of this without telling him?" Rowan frowned. Oh this was not going well. "You just expect him to be okay with this strange child in under his roof, just because you're pretty and currently sleeping with him?"

"Well… I mean…"

"Well I guess that explains why he hasn't shown up today huh?" she said with a sigh and then looked back at her clipboard. "So when this inevitably breaks the two of up you'll have to move out."

"He… he had a case today… I think… he usually calls… but you know… he doesn't control crime on Hawaii and sometimes the bad guys need like immediate attention…" Rowan said with a pout. "But I mean… if I had to… I… I unno… do you want me to show you my financials again? I can afford to move out to a good area if I have to."

Brenda was scribbling away again and Rowan felt her stomach begin to tumble about in a nervous fashion.

"Am I… uhm… am I doing okay?"

"Don't worry about that _Miss._ Pierce. Why don't you tell me why you've decided to foster Nahele? Why now, why him and why the urgency?"

Rowan brought her hands to her lap fiddling with them. She wished Steve was here, she wished she had him there so he could reach over and hold her hand. But he hadn't shown up. He wasn't there for her when she needed him. How typical of him.

"Uhm… well I'm sure you know that Steven arrested Nahele after he stole his car. And uh… I met him at the office and was told his background a bit. And I unno… I just fell in love. He's a sweet kid and he needed a home and… well… he ran away from the last one so I felt like this was time sensitive, if he had run off again who knows how long it would have been until we found him."

With her app not long at all, but she wasn't going to tell this woman that. Brenda sighed wrote all of that down and then looked back up to her with a smile that Rowan would have called Ice Queen-esque.

"Why don't you show me the rest of the house?"

Rowan nodded quickly standing up and offering her the file she had asked for. God, she was going to kill Steven when he got home.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan had been livid when Steve came home. He had missed the meeting, he had had a case, obviously but he had shown up for the meeting, nor had he called and she had been upset because she really needed him there. Steve had figured, since the Governor had signed off on her already that it didn't matter. But Rowan was terrified that CPS was going to take Nahele away from her. Though why would they? They were responsible adults who wanted to give him a home, a home that Nahele seemed uninterested in running away from like he had from his last home. Why the hell would they want to take him away?

But just her saying that had set him ablaze with a sudden nervous fear. What if they did take him away? He didn't want Nahele to leave. Rowan would be miserable, Nahele would be miserable, he would be miserable… maybe he should call the Governor, see what he could do to make sure that didn't happen.

But that morning. He wasn't worrying about all of that. He was worrying about Nahele, who had his first day at Hanalani Preparatory School that morning and he could tell he was nervous. And while Steve was nervous, the fact that Nahele came to him to help learn how to tie a tie made him proud, and happy.

It was… heartwarming to stand there, side-by-side with Nahele as they tied their ties together. And he was very glad that Rowan got a video of it for him.

They took Rowan's GTO which was flashier and would therefore impress the kids and parents more and they drove to the school and then parked outside. Together they all stared at the giant all white brick school. After a moment of silence Rowan turned to the back seat.

"Okay… are you ready?" she said to him.

Nahele turned to her with those big brown eyes of his wide in fear. "Do you want of us to go in with you?" she asked. Nahele turned from her to Steve and she said: "Why doesn't Steve go? He's uh… cooler looking… eh? With the gun and the badge and the muscles and the tattoos and the… cargo pants? Wow really McGarrett? Cargo pants? Okay he lost some of his cool points for me but maybe the other kids won't notice."

Steve ignored Rowan's dig about the pants and turned back to him at that point and looked Nahele in the eye. "Yeah, I mean, if you want, I will totally go in with you."

Nahele nodded and the two go out of the car, Steve first and then pushing the seat forward so Nahele could clamour out.

"Alright, don't be nervous, you're going to be great!" she called as they walked away and up the steps together.

Steve got him through the front door to where all the kids seemed to be gathering, some paused to look at them but most went about their normal mornings. Steve glanced down at Nahele who was staring at them all clearly very nervous and afraid.

Steve put an arm around his shoulder and whispered: "Alight, I'm going to pull you in for a Bro-hug cause it's cooler okay?" Nahele nodded and he let Steve pull him in, but as soon as he had one arm haphazardly clapped around him Nahele just grappled onto him. Steve put his other arm around him and hugged him tightly. "Hey, hey, kid, it's going to be okay, okay?"

Nahele looked up to him, clearly on the verge of a break down and Steve just smiled at him. "Rule number one…"

"Don't steal anymore cars?"

Steve half laughed. "Yeah, don't do that," he said. "But no. New rule number one… never let them see how scared you are."

Nahele nodded and straightened finally letting Steve go. "Okay, so you got this, okay?" Steve said. "You're going to be fine. And if you're not, you just give me a call, case or no case I'll talk you through it… or if it's really bad I'll come get you, okay?"

Nahele nodded again, waved him good-bye and disappeared into the crowd with Steve watching him go. He felt, for the first time, like a real father seeing his kid off to school. He was so full of nerves and worry… god how did Danny do this day in and day out?

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

To appease Rowan he had called Brenda Dean to set up another appointment for her to speak with him. He picked a time where he was at work, and since she was across the street from his office he figured it would be easy for him to make it over there. And then he caught a break in his case and had to call her an hour later to tell her he couldn't make it. But she had sounded so… frustrated with him, that he told her to come down to his office so they could talk there.

She had not been impressed but agreed and a half hour later a little Asian woman in severe dark clothes was being escorted into the Five-0 offices. She looked like she was about to spit brimstone and fire all over him like a little dragon.

"Are you Steven McGarrett" the little dragon woman asked him and Steve swallowed the lump of nervousness that flew up into his mouth. What if he fucked up this for Rowan, would she ever forgive him?

"Yeah, I'm Steven," he said offering her a hand to shake that she took after staring at it with disdain. "You must Brenda, thank you for agreeing to come here. I uh… caught a case yesterday… it's uh… it's why I wasn't there..."

"Shall we take this into your office, Mr.…?" "It's Commander, actually," Steve told her but when Brenda Dean just glared at him, he lowered his eyes cleared his throat and said: "Yeah, my office is just over here."

He led her over, held the door open for her but he wasn't even in his seat, she had just barely got into her own, when she suddenly just went off.

"Let me just start this by saying what your girlfriend had done is deplorable," she said and Steve frowned. What the hell?

"I'm sorry?"

"Having the Governor fast track her through foster placement so she could take a kid in like he was a puppy? Not even bothering to tell you that this child was coming into your care," she snapped. "Quite frankly I'm concerned that she's one of those more-money-than-brains-princesses and once she gets bored with Nahele he'll be back in the system. That's not good for a kid like him…"

"Hey, now wait a second," Steve growled. "She didn't just take home a stray, okay? She saw a kid in need and wanted to give him a home."

"It doesn't change that you clearly don't want this child in your home," Brenda said and Steve glared at her.

"And how do you figure that?"

"Well, the girl you're living with brought him home without telling you, went through all of this without telling you, and didn't even put you on the forms. You seem to think he's not even worth the time to take off work…"

"Excuse me?!" Steve thundered. "Do you not know what I do? I am the head of the Five-0 special task force, and I _DO NOT_ control crime on Hawaii but _I DO_ have to fight it. I'm the reason that you're living in the safe city you have right now, and as much as I'd love to take days off, sometimes I just can't, okay?"

He leant over the desk to glare at her. "And as for Rowan not telling me, she did that because she knew telling me before hand would scare me off. It takes time for me to warm up to things. She knew I'd need to adjust and he was a goddamn flight risk okay. We wanted him off the street and she didn't want to chance him getting housed somewhere else and you guys _losing him again_. He was out on the street for what? Almost six months before I took him off it, what does that say about you, huh?"

Brenda actually jerked as if she was surprised Steve leant back in his chair and folded his arms over his chest. "At least if he's with us, we'll know where he is at all times."

Brenda seemed to think this over and then clicked her pen and began writing on her clipboard. It wasn't until the pen hit paper that he realized that maybe… he didn't approach this the right way. "Okay… look… that came off a bit… aggressive… but you have to admit you goaded me…"

"Are you easily goaded, Commander?"

"Not normally, but you just insulted my girlfriend, and that's a bit of a sore subject for me okay? I'm kind of… a little… overprotective of her. Rowan may be rash at times, she may be impetuous and a little wild, but she just wants that kid to have a happy childhood. She wants to share our home with him because she knew that we'd be good for him, she knew we'd be able to help him, and that's all we want to do, okay?"

"That's a very kind sentiment, but knowing the Governor and having good intentions don't make you qualified to raise a child," she said, primly getting up. "I think it's time I speak to the rest of your team. Both you and her have listed them as references."

Oh god… he had just failed them… and if he didn't, Danny sure as hell would. Rowan was going to kill them both.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve had managed to avoid the whole _how did it go_ conversation with Rowan by not coming home until it was time to pick Nahele back up from school. Though both of them wanted to get out of her car and actually go in the school to pick him up but they both realized that would be a pretty embarrassing thing to do to a teenager on their first day so they anxiously waited in Rowan GTO scanning all the faces that came out of the doors once the bell rang.

As soon as they saw him running towards their car, Steve got out so Nahele could slip into the back. As Steve slipped back in, he heard Rowan ask: "So how was your day at school?"

"It was okay… uh… if anyone asks… uh… Steve… you're my dad."

Steve stopped fiddling with his seat belt and turned back to Nahele. "I'm sorry… but… what?"

"Yeah, they uh… they thought you were so cool… and the girls thought you were hot… and they kept asking if you were my dad… so uh… I just uh… I just went with it," he said.

"Who do they think I am?" Rowan asked clearly fishing for a fake-mom title.

"Oh uh… well… they noticed that I don't quite look like you… and… uh… that Steve was a lot older than you, so you're my new step-mom, but I told everyone how great you are, and how you're more like a real mom to me…"

"I am not that much older than her," Steve snapped, this wasn't the first time he got mistaken for a parent, apparently he looked old enough to have teenager for a kid and that was upsetting but Rowan was clearly liking it.

"Oh my god, your fake-son has told everyone I'm your trophy wife," Rowan said with a big grin and Steve shook his head. She punched his arm while she laughed happily, almost triumphantly. "I love it. I am totally trophy wife material, just dress me up and I'll hang off your arm at every and any occasion."

"You two are ridiculous… you can't lie to everyone, 'Hele," Steve said.

"It's just until I get settled… you know? First days are hard…" Nahele said with a pout and Steve melted. Luckily for him Rowan turned around in her seat to pin him with a disapproving stare.

"Okay, I get that… but uh… you gotta set them straight as soon as you can," she said to them.

Nahele sighed and sat back loosening his tie probably because it was stuffy. The kid looked like a mini stockbroker, all nervous and stressed. Today had been hard on him, Steve could tell and his heart went out to him because Steve hadn't been that much older than him when he got shipped off to military school.

"Hey uh… what do you say we go for shaved ices huh?" he said. "Just a little bit of a pick me up before we go home, to celebrate all of us surviving this big day?"

Nahele immediately perked up and Steve felt his pride swell up too. Two weeks in and he was already doing so much more than his father had ever done for him.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

After finishing his homework, Nahele and Steve retired to the garage where they were putting the car back together. Last week they had put all the wheels on. This week they were working on the door.

It was a lot easier to take off than it was to put on.

Nahele's job was to hold the door in place while Steve screwed all the screws back in. He had finished what had to be… like two of them… when Steve, with three screws sticking out the corner of his mouth said: "So, Nahele… why don't you tell me a little bit more about you?"

"Uh… like what?"

People didn't really ask about him, and he didn't really like answering questions. He didn't want people to pity him, but he knew… he knew Rowan and Steve pitied him, it was why he was there. And he was really afraid it was all going to end soon cause this was all too good to be true, like some _Annie_ situation and they were the Warbucks, they were super rich and just… perfect.

He figured if the state didn't take him away, they'd decide they didn't want him or he'd fuck up somehow. He was just waiting for the other shoe to drop at this point so he was trying super hard not to get attached to these people.

"I unno… uh… why don't we start with your birthday?"

Oh, okay, that was an easy one. "March 9th."

"Shit, no way," Steve said. "Mine's March 10th."

"Whoa! Cool! Uhm… When's Ro's?"

"Hmm?" Steve murmured focusing on the door.

"Her birthday, when's her birthday?"

"Ro's?" "Yeah?" "It's uh… its coming up actually. January twenty first. But if she asks, tell her I didn't know, cause she thinks I don't know when her birthday is and her believing that is key to her birthday party right now."

It was such a weird request that he couldn't help it, he started laughing except it came out more like heavy breathing as he was also straining, he shifted his grip and Steve went back to screwing the screws in again, when he thought Nahele wasn't paying attention, Steve shifted his leg so the door was resting on him more and Nahele didn't have to lift it up as much, Nahele was grateful for all the help but said nothing since Steve was trying to make him feel like he didn't need the help. He shot a few covert glances at him and then cleared his throat.

"You were on the street longer than a month, weren't you?" Steve asked and Nahele straightened.

"Uhm…"

"You can tell me," he prodded fitting another screw in place.

"I crashed at a few friends places the first couple months… but I was in that… uh… camp… for about two months."

Steve nodded. "I thought so," he said. "Your file said you went missing from foster care six months ago."

"Did you run a background check on me?" Nahele asked, that time he won a cheeky grin from Steve. He got the door screwed in then cleaned off his hands to test how it opened and shut.

Once he was done and the door was shut he turned to Nahele and put his hands on his hips.

"Rowan uh… Ro constantly tells me that invades people's privacy… but uh… I felt like your story had holes and I didn't want to pry so I just uh… did some research… don't tell her that either, she'll kill me," he said. He offered a hand to shake.

Nahele took it with a warm smile. "Don't worry, I won't tell her."

"Great. Uh… so I think we're good for the night," he said. "We'll tackle the engine tomorrow if you don't have too much homework."

Nahele nodded. He was ready to go back inside and wash up so he could sit on the couch beside Rowan and Steve. He and Steve would watch football, Steve drinking his beer and Nahele drinking Rowan's famous Hot Cocoa. Rowan would be sitting beside them, decaf tea beside her, with a book in her hand that she'd be reading or writing in. Though his favourite nights were the nights out on the Lanai where he and Steve would practice their fishing casts, the fire would be roaring in the fire pit, Rowan would be playing chords on her guitar, and if he was lucky, they'd make s'mores or Rowan would make her famous, super addicting hot cocoa.

"Just… uh… one last thing," Steve said. "Are you happy here?"

Nahele paused. He blinked his eyes and then actually turned his eyes up to Steve. He had his shoulder's set, his arms crossed over his chest, on the outside he seemed calm and composed but Nahele had a feeling he was anything but.

"Yeah… I'm really grateful…"

"No, I know you're grateful, I want to know if you're happy. Here. With us?" Steve repeated.

Nahele felt everything freeze up in his chest. They were going to give him back. He lowered his head so Steve couldn't see the tears that were forming in his eyes. "It's okay… you don't have to feel bad if you guys want to… you can give… I can go back…"

"Whoa. Hey. What? Go back where?" Steve asked, a hand darting out to Nahele's shoulder. Surprised Nahele looked up. "No, 'Hele… no. That's not what I'm saying. I'm simply asking if you're happy. I want _you_ to be happy. If that's not here with us, that's okay. But I want to know how Rowan and I are doing. Is there anything that… I unno… you need… or want? Anything we could be doing to make this all easier on you?"

Nahele just stared at him. What more could he need or want? Physically they had provided everything for him, food, clothes, items, a roof over his head, his very own room and more. And they were trying to give him the emotional stuff too… he just wasn't ready. He wasn't ready to let go of his mom. He wasn't ready to replace her just yet. But he really appreciated that they were trying.

"No, I'm good," he said. "I am. I'm happy. I promise."

Steve nodded, smiled himself and the put an arm around Nahele. "Alright, let's get you washed up and then we'll watch some football huh?"

Yeah, Nahele thought, his smile growing on his face, he was definitely happy here and he figured he would be for however long it lasted.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

The following day, after Steve and Rowan had picked Nahele up from school, they went to the CPS office across from the main parliament buildings where they were told to sit and wait for Brenda Dean to call them in.

The little would-be-makeshift family sat in those uncomfortable chairs each nervous. Nahele, who couldn't focus on his math had put his books back into his bag, Rowan was chewing her nails and Steve's leg was bouncing.

Steve glanced over to Rowan and carefully took her hand away from her mouth and held it tightly in his. "It's going to be okay… you know?"

"How could this be okay?" Rowan snapped. "They think I'm a spoiled princess and you yelled at her!"

"True," he mused. "And Danny did speak to her for almost two hours."

Rowan groaned. "Oh god… fucking Danny… we've failed… that's it… they're going to take him…"

Steve scowled and glanced over to Nahele before putting his arm around his shoulder. "I mean… they can't really take him from us."

"What are you talking about?"

"I mean physically. They can't physically take him from us you know?"

"Steven… these people decide where he lives. If they find us unsatisfactory, they'll take him from us. So yes, yes they can physically take him away, Steven."

"Okay? And how do you propose they're going to do that? Hmm? Rowan, how? How are they going to take him from me?" he asked. "HPD isn't going to come knocking on _my_ door and with the amount of cupcakes you've been feeding SWAT over the years we both know if you ask they'll probably surround the house to keep them out, so I ask you again… how are they really going to physically take this kid from us?"

Rowan thought that over. "Yeah I guess that's true."

"Hey, guys, no need to get SWAT involved, if I get taken away, I'll just run away… and straight back to you guys," Nahele said which got both adults to smile at him.

Steve turned back to her and said with a cheeky grin on his face. "And you know… hear me out here… if worst comes to worse, we could just… you know… activate the app."

Rowan turned to him. "Excuse me?'

"You heard me. If we have to, I would totally support you if you called him for a favour, just don't tell him I'm involved."

Rowan just laughed and slapped his shoulder and Steve smiled too. Happy that they at least had options.

"Miss Peirce? Commander McGarrett? You can come in now," Brenda said and they both jumped. This was it, they were going to find out if they were taking Nahele home. "Oh and you brought Nahele, hello there, you stay there, we'll be right back."

Steve stood, helped Rowan up though she didn't need it and then ushered them both into the room first. They took their seats and then just stared at her while she looked over their papers.

"So, we've had time to review your case file…"

"Okay he's sorry he yelled at you," Rowan said. "He won't say it because apologies are not in his vocabulary…" "I apologise to you all the time, Ro.." "—Shut up, Steven. But he is sorry and we're usually not like that but you know… you seemed dead set against us before you even got here. Which I think is prejudicial or at the very least bullying and I think we need a different caseworker who will give us a fair shake."

Brenda stared at her with unimpressed eyes. "You can calm down, Miss. Pierce, you've passed."

Rowan blinked her eyes and then looked at Steve and then back to her. "Wait… what?"

"The fact of the matter is that you're not doing this for the money from the state, you're providing him a more than decent education, a roof over his head, and all the essentials of life and you got glowing recommendations from every single person on this list."

"Wow… even Danny?"

"Though Detective Williams spent most of his time explaining to me what a Neanderthal Commander McGarrett is and gave me a distressingly long lists of character flaws, he did tell me that once you're _o'hana_ there isn't a single thing he won't do for you. And that Nahele was definitely already _o'hana._ He also explained that you took three days off and brushed off a minor trafficking case to help Nahele move in and set up his room, but for the meeting you caught a nasty murder… and then, I guess he didn't believe that I believe him, because then he showed me pictures…"

"Yeah he shouldn't have done that," Steve said. "Uhm… but if you're interested, I caught the guy. Jealous husband did it."

"I didn't need to know that, Commander. But on top of all the glowing recommendations I got a very nasty call from the Governor," Brenda said coolly as she glared at Rowan.

"Why are you looking at me, I didn't call him," she said.

"That was me," Steve said raising a hand and wincing at Brenda. "Sorry… I uh… I called him last night."

"Really?"

"Yes, this was important to you," he said and then after a moment's pause he glanced at Brenda and added: "Oh, and for me too, obviously." When Rowan just stared at him and he sighed and said: "Okay, look the kid said he was happy with us, I couldn't let a bad first impression throw him in a juvenile home, so… you know… I called Dennings."

"What did you even say?"

"Hmm? To the Governor? Oh, I may have told him that if CPS takes Nahele away from us cause I fucked up, you'd probably break up with me and that, if he remembered, the last time you left me ended quite badly for everyone involved. And I think he said something along the lines of: I'm not going through that shit again, and I guess he made a call."

Brenda sighed. "As nice as this is, this pass is conditional."

"On what grounds?" Rowan asked.

"Commander McGarrett, as the primary home owner, Nahele can't live with you unless you sign off as a legal guardian as well."

And then she pushed a paper towards him. Steve stared at it, oh god, this was… wow… it was a lot. He blinked his eyes at it knowing that Rowan and Nahele were staring at him.

"You will be considered an approved foster parent. Only Rowan is Nahele's official legal guardian," Brenda clarified and Steve let his are out. Oh, okay, he could do that.

He quickly sighed the paper watching as she then stamped it with her big black _passed_ stamp. "Congratulations, you're officially foster parents."

For a moment Rowan and Steve just sat there. Brenda blinked her eyes at them and then added: "You can leave now."

Immediately Rowan and Steve jumped out of their seats. They mumbled their hurried _thank you_ s and quickly moved out of the office before she could change her mind.

Nahele stood up, took in both of their faces and frowned. "What is it? What did she say?" he asked.

But Rowan couldn't answer him, and instead grabbed his arm and tugged him out of the office with Steven quickly following after them. She was afraid if they stayed too long, if she spoke the words out loud it would all come crashing down around them.

"Oh god we failed, didn't we?" Nahele asked as they dragged him back to Rowan's car. But they walked in silence, all still in shock that it had happened. As soon as they got to the car Rowan paused.

"Okay, stop, we need to stop," Rowan said. "Steven… uh… did we just… in the office… did I hallucinate all of that?"

"Not unless it was a collective hallucination," he said.

"Okay… but like… what does that mean?" Nahele said throwing his backpack in the backseat. "What happened? Seriously! Did you pass? Did you fail? Do I have to pack my things? Am I going back? What is going on, guys?"

A leisurely smile donned Steve's lips as the reality settled in on him. And Rowan was suddenly bouncing with utter excitement, absolutely stunned that it had happened, it had worked out.

Her grin became this utter beaming smile that she lowered only to step out of her heels. "This is going to be loud and ridiculous but I just… I just can't hold it in." As soon as the heels were off and her purse dropped to the ground she promptly began to jump up and down as she screamed: "We passed! We passed!"

"We did?!" Nahele asked as she held his hands and got him to jump with her. She quickly hugged him as they continued to bounce and cheer. After a moment of hugging they pulled Steve in and he too got to hug them and bounce and cheer with them too.

When they were done, Rowan stepped away, breathlessly putting her shoes back on. She grinned to both her boys as she said: "Oh god I was so worried I'd have to have her killed."

Nahele's smile faded a fraction and while he was hugging her asked: "Wait… what?"

Steve came in between them and just draped an arm over both of their shoulders. He pressed a kiss to Rowan's cheek and then one to the side of Nahele's head as he happily said: "Welcome to the family kid."


	161. Chapter 161

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Hump Day my wonderful readers. Are you ready for EVEN MORE cute things? Cause they are COMING, they are in this chapter! I swear, adding Nahele to the mix really brought out the cuteness. So that 200th chapter is still creeping upon us. And I still need to know what you guys want for your special chapter. Do you want a chapter of all smut? Do you want a future part of a chapter (ie. Nahele getting adopted? Steve and Wo Fat bonding? Rowan meeting her family again?) Do you guys want me to elaborate on a past chapter, or write out an entire chapter on Rowan's past? Is it something I haven't listed? Don't forget to review and tell me what you guys wanna read or I'll have to decide for you! See you guys on Friday._

Chapter 161

* * *

Steve had awoken right away. The second Nahele started vomiting. He had gone to the kid's side, finding him bent over the toilet in the shared washroom, he went to help but Nahele hadn't wanted Steve's comfort, he had wanted Rowan's. Steve had tried not to take that to heart, Rowan had spent more time with him, she was the mother figure, it would make sense that he wanted Rowan instead of him. Steve had always wanted _his_ mom when he was sick, no matter what age he was… even when he thought her dead and gone. He'd catch a cold and immediately wish for her, the soup she'd make, how she'd tuck him in a little tighter and how her hands always felt cool against him.

But lying there, knowing Rowan was still in the washroom with Nahele, listing to Rowan's soft singing punctuated by pauses where Nahele would throw up again, left him feeling… strange. Oddly between so fucking attracted to Rowan who was going to one day mother _their_ kids just as efficiently and lovingly and feeling shitty for being in bed, not wanted or needed by either of them, unable to go back to sleep. Kicking the blankets off, he piled them up, picked up their pillows and then went into Nahele's room to pick up his.

He had done this before. He had slept on the bathroom floor with Rowan. He could do it again, no problem. He banged into the room as Nahele hunched over the toilet again. Rowan turned bleary eyes to him as he dropped the bedding on the floor beside her.

"You wanna take shifts?" he asked. Rowan shook her head and he smiled. "Yeah I figured. Well… we both know I don't sleep without you, so I guess we're staying in here."

Rowan absently pet Nahele's back until he finished vomiting and once he was sitting back down, she put a glass of water into his hand as he coughed and wiped his mouth on the back of his hand. He looked at the two of them his eyes slightly weepy, clearly in as much distress as a sick teen could be.

"I'm sorry," he whispered. Rowan opened up her arms and he folded into them, resting his head on her lap.

"It's not your fault," she whispered. "How's your tummy feeling now?"

She had her fingers running through his hair and an arm haphazardly draped over his body. "Better… I think…"

She turned to Steve with a sleepy smile. "He's be saying that all night," she whispered. Steve settled down beside them and she dropped her head to his shoulder. "I think he's got one of those twenty-four-hour bugs. At least… that's what I'm hoping it is. Either way he's staying home from school tomorrow or… today. What day is it?"

"We'll call in the morning," he whispered. He wrapped his own arm around Rowan, his hand sliding down her arm until it rested on Nahele's back and the kid started grumbling. Steve withdrew his hand, worried that the grumbling was because he didn't want Steve bugging him. But as soon as he withdrew his hand Nahele's grumbling was even louder so he dropped his hand back to his shoulder figuring it didn't matter either way. But even then he grumbled, until Rowan started grumbling herself.

"What's the matter? Do you need more water?" Rowan asked him, her voice very low, but Nahele shook his head. "Then what? What do you need?"

"Can you sing me to sleep again? Please?" he asked and Steve felt his smile oh yes, yes this was going to be good.

Rowan started singing, that soft lullaby she had once sang Joanie. Steve fell asleep, his head pillowed by Rowan's head, listening to her hauntingly beautiful voice as it sang _Baby Mine_ and then woke up to the sound of his phone ringing.

They had all ended up in some strange sort of position. Rowan was against his chest, Nahele half in her lap, and Steve was up against the bathtub. They were surrounded by an explosion of white sheets and abandoned pillows.

"Steve your phone," she groaned, as Nahele shifted and groaned with her.

"I know, I know," he said reaching for it. He looked at the contact. Joe. Great. He answered it quickly with a sharp: "Just give me a minute."

He pressed a kiss to Rowan's forehead and then leant over to press his hand Nahele's forehead, still warm.

"Since you're up can you call his school and tell them he's not coming today?" she asked.

"Sure thing," he said kissing her cheek that time. She turned and kissed his lips and his heart soared up into mouth. It was on the tip of his tongue to tell her he loved her. Instead he said: "I'll get breakfast started for us, plain toast for him, hopefully he can hold it down."

She mumurred appreciatively which just made it harder for Steve to leave her side. But he forced himself up and then out into the hallway. He shut the door behind them so he wouldn't disturb them and said: "Joe, what's up?" There was silence on the other end, so long, that Steve actually check if Joe hung up, which he hadn't. "You there?"

"I am, but I'm a little concerned I called the wrong number," he said. "Uh what's… what were you…?"

"I've had some changes to my family," Steve said. "I can brief you later. Uh… what are you calling for? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, but I have a favour, I'm going to need your help transporting a marine name Lange," he said. "We're flying in today and he's really sick and contagious, we're transporting him to a Tripler Army Medical Center to get his vaccine and cure him. I was hoping you could help me secure armed transport."

Steve sighed he glanced back to the washroom. He didn't want to leave. His kid was sick and Rowan was exhausted. They needed him.

"Negative, I have a bit of a situation at home that I have to deal with."

Joe was quiet a moment. "A situation…" he echoed. "Steven what's… what's going on?"

"Look… the kid… he's not well and Rowan was up all night with him so I don't… you know… they need me here, okay? I can set you up…"

"I was really hoping to have you on point, son, but I understand. Nothing is more important than family…" Joe said trailing off. Steve groaned he could hear the disappointment in his mentor's voice and it was killing him.

"Alright, alright," Steve growled. "Fine. I'll set something up, I'll drive point, but if the kid takes a turn for the worse before I leave, if they call me to come home, I'm out, you got me?"

He could almost hear Joe's smile. "I'll shoot you the coordinates for the landing…" he said and then Joe had hung up the phone. Groaning Steve shoved his phone into the waist band of his sweat pants and then went back into the washroom.

Without Steve there to support her Rowan had slumped down to the tiles, her hand still on Nahele's forehead who was across from her. Carefully he reached in and grabbed her wrist, pulling her sleepy form up and maneuvering her so he could carry her in his arms. She obviously wasn't fully asleep because the second he had her up and she wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her head on his shoulder.

He carried her into his room, dropped her onto the bed and then pulled her face to his, kissing her deeply. Rowan groaned against him and it took all his willpower not to lock their bedroom door so he could ravish her. Since getting the kid sex had been sparse, and while that was frustrating, he wouldn't have traded his new life with Nahele for anything.

"Babe… I… I'm so sorry but Joe called and he…"

"Pulled a favour," she finished for him kissing the tip of his nose causing him to smile. "It's okay."

"No, it's not okay. Nahele's sick, you're exhausted, I should be here to help you… and it was supposed to be my day off," he whispered against her lips. God, just tell him not to go, if she asked him to stay he'd call Joe back and tell him he wasn't coming.

Rowan just shook her head. "Joe wouldn't have called if it wasn't important," she said. "And we both know you want answers."

God, she knew him oh so well. Fuck. It killed him, that his poor tired Rowan would be that considerate. "Trust me," she said resting her forehead against his. "I'll be fine. We'll both be fine. You can go. Save the world."

"Hawaii, we've talked about this, I really only save Hawaii," he reminded her and then straightened. "You'll call me if something goes wrong though, right? Like anything, if you need me, I want you to call me. None of this, _I didn't think you'd pick up_ crap. Leave me a message and I'll call you back. Okay?"

Rowan nodded, lying herself down on the bed that had no sheets or pillows. So tired that she was already checking out. Steve couldn't help it, he watched her for a bit. Just marvelling at how lucky he had gotten. With this perfectly wonderful beautiful girl dappled gorgeously by the morning sun and a pretty great kid too. It was like everything was lining up for Steve to get his dream family.

Still he got ready, kissed Rowan's cheek one more time being sure not to disturb her and then went into the washroom again. He knelt down beside Nahele and softly ruffled his hair until his eyes opened.

"Hey, hey, It's just me," he said when the kid tried to sit up. "Look, uh… Ro's passed out in her room, and I had… uh… I had something come up. You're staying home from school today, okay? And uh… if anything happens or you need me or anything I want you to just call and I'll come straight home, okay?"

Nahele nodded, smiling sleepily at him. "Kay, have a nice day at work," he mumbled before rolling back into the blanket and Steve sighed. He checked the kid's temperatures again, still a little on the warm side and then left the washroom for good.

As he went down the stairs he dialed the number of the school to inform them that Nahele was sick and not coming in before waking up his team to tell them what he needed.

Today was going to be a long day.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Things were awkward. How couldn't they be? Steve was annoyed. Annoyed because he believed Joe to be on everyone's side but Steven's, most importantly his mother's side instead of Steven's. Annoyed because he didn't want to be leading this motorcade, he wanted to be home with Nahele, who, at Rowan's last text, was up, had managed to hold down toast for all of an hour before it came back up again. He wanted to make sure the kid was eating something, other than the ginger ale slushies Rowan kept making him to soothe his throat, and he wanted to take turns caring for Nahele so Rowan could actually get some fucking sleep.

Joe glanced at him again, the heavy awkward silence had graduated to oppressing by now. Clearly, he wanted to say something but if Steve was lucky, he wouldn't. "So, how's Mary?"

Okay, so he wasn't going to get lucky today.

"Good," he answered, his tone clipped. Not in the mood for this bullshit.

There was an awkward silence where Joe cleared his throat. "And your team, how's your team?"

"Good," he said, being sure to check his mirrors as the awkward silence continued to plague the car. "Got a new guy from Chicago."

"And let me guess… he's good?"

Oh wow, gonna comment on his lack of social skills right now? Really? When Joe had been conveniently AWOL since the whole Doris and Wo Fat situation went down. Well Steve could play along with that.

"Yeah, he's great actually."

"You know, Steve, if I didn't know better, I would swear there was something on your mind," he said. Well the man knew him well.

Steve sighed. "You wanna do this with me? You wanna talk circles with me, huh? You know I got questions."

"And I'm not going to duck them anymore," he told them and then blinked his eyes. "But before we get into that, how's Rowan, I hear she had your kid."

Steve glared at him. He hadn't briefed Joe on Nahele yet, which meant the asshole had dug around and got information. The wrong information at that.

"Had my kid? That not what I told… he's fourteen. He didn't pop out of her fully grown. He's… she's a foster mom, she's fostering him," Steve snapped. "And she's good too, thank you very much."

"So, you and her are doing the official dating thing, now? No more Catherine?" Joe asked.

"Stop avoiding my questions, Joe."

"That's a real shame, I liked you and Catherine together. Honestly… don't trust Rowan much, she's… scary. And I don't say that about people often," Joe said ignoring Steve entirely. "And I just don't see you two staying together, you're all cammo and outdoorsy and she's like… satin, glitter, plus she's a one hundred percent a city slicker there's no way a girl like her could handle the great outdoors…"

Steve turned a glare to him. "Do you wanna shut up?" he asked. "Like seriously… shut up."

"Ohh… touchy subject. You and Rowan having problems son?"

"JOE!" Steve thundered. "For the love of god! What happened to not ducking my questions huh?"

"Well I meant it… besides, you haven't asked one yet," Joe said and then carefully turned so he was looking at Steve. "Now… fire away."

Steve glared at him, but this was his time to get some sort of answer. "Did you know about my mother and Wo Fat?"

Joe nodded. "I knew that she took care of him after his mother was killed, until the CIA found out about it and they forced her to abandon him," he admitted. "And I promised her I would never tell you that."

"So why are you telling me now?"

"Because you deserve to know the truth."

"Okay. Here's the thing, I already got the truth from a very surprising source."

Joe sighed. "Was it Rowan… or Wo Fat?"

"Well… Rowan tried to tell me but I didn't believe her. Doris actually stopped by a few months back, she gave me the cliffnoted version. But I got the whole truth… from Wo Fat."

"Well… wow… I bet that pissed you off."

"Yeah… and if Rowan hadn't intervened, apparently I would have put a bullet in his head."

"Intervened? Intervened in the… in the…"

Ah so he knew about the attempted kidnapping. Wonderful. "In his kidnapping and torturing of me. Yes, she intervened. She got me out."

"She knew that he was…"

"No, she made him promise not to, and he did it anyway without informing her. When she figured out what he had done she went looking for me. Got me out before I could attempt to escape on my own. Apparently, she made him drive us to the hospital. And then she let him leave."

He tried to mask the bitterness in that last sentence but Joe caught, he knew he did.

"Wow… and I bet that pissed you off too…"

"It did. Yes. But she also cut contact with him."

"And you believe that."

He didn't, but he still said: "Yes," to Joe.

"Well… Steve… I believe that your mother always did what she thought was right."

"What my mother did was self-serving and it was all to cover up the murder of an innocent woman. Wo Fat's mother was innocent…"

"Doris had an assignment," Joe said very loudly to cut off whatever else Steve was going to say. "That death was collateral."

"She covered it up and that is a crime."

God, Steve could hear the bitterness in his voice. But Joe didn't comment on it. Not right away anyway. "So, I tell you where she is and what, what are you gonna do then?" he asked. "Are you gonna go arrest your own mother? Really? When you didn't arrest Rowan for covering up her murder."

"How do you know about that?" Steve cried. "Joe. How do you know… and she didn't murder anyone, she was just there when it happened!"

"Don't worry, that piece of intel came from someone off grid and it was pure speculation, nothing was proven… until you went off like that. Did she really cover up a murder?"

"I mean… sort of…"

"Well I can tell you that they didn't cover it up well, they found the body… or well pieces of it," Joe said.

"Pieces?" Steve echoed.

"Yeah. Pieces got mailed back to his handlers…"

"Handlers?" Steve repeated. "Oh no, then it's not the right guy. Rowan's guy got sunk and he was a Colombian drug lord, he didn't have handlers."

Joe blinked his eyes he opened his mouth to argue when suddenly the truck was slammed into by a wrecking ball. The SUV popped dup into the air, rolled, landed on its tired only to roll once more time.

There was silence, the SUV was upside down, Steve was struggling to breathe, struggling to get his bearings when suddenly…

 _Captain America has been in a collision_. _Assessing damage._

Oh, Jesus Christ is was the app. Sandy was talking through the GPS.

"Steve… what is that…"

"Sandy… Sandy not now…"

 _Judging by the bleeding coming from your head, and the laceration in your friend's leg, immediate attention will be needed. Dispatching EMS to your location._

"Steve…."

"It's her app. Okay, it's her app."

"The app can talk?"

 _I've detected movement. Men in masks and guns. Heading your way. Six in total. Analyzing options._

Steve looked up and saw them through the splintered glass of his car window. They were coming towards his SUV guns drawn ready to finish them off and Steve was struggling to get his gun out but he was stuck in an awkward position and he couldn't reach it. He was certain they were done for but suddenly all the panic alarms started going off on his SUV.

 _This vehicle and all personnel inside are under protection of the Sanctuary network. Any incurred damages or deaths will be forwarded to Pierce the Destroyer and Fat the Enforcer to determine level of retribution._

The six men all took a precautionary step back and then abandoned the vehicle entirely. Steve was in too much of a panic to thank Sandy.

"You gotta stop them from taking Lange," Joe wheezed as Steve managed to get a hold of his gun.

"Sandy, Sandy… stop them… stop them from taking Lange." He ordered hoping to god it would work.

 _Sorry code name Captain America, my programming is only set to recognize already existing files. As… Lange… is not in my files… Lange… is not my concern._

Well fuck Sandy. Steve busted open his window, cutting his arm in the process but there was nothing Steve could to do stop them from shooting their guys, and taking Lang. He got one guy but everyone else got away.

 _Subjects have retreated. Situation neutralized. Immediate evacuation of vehicle is recommended._

God why couldn't that app shut up? "That's what I'm trying to do, Sandy," he snapped. "Joe… can you move?"

"The fucking thing talks now? No one told me it talks…"

"It's a new feature," Steve said trying to get Joe back on track. "Can you move Joe?"

"My leg is pinned."

 _The right side of your vehicle has been crushed. Evacuation will need to be done from the left side. Immediate evacuation of vehicle is recommended._

"Okay, Sandy, I'm trying, if you could please…"

 _I estimate that the vehicle will be on fire in…._ Why did she stop like that, what the hell did that mean?

"Sandy?" Steve asked. "Sandy… how long do you estimate on the fire thing?"

He was fiddling with his pockets trying to get to his knife, his hands were shaking it was hard to see, everything was swimming and there was red washing over one of his eyes.

 _Priorities reassessed. Professional is en route._

"What? No. Sandy Stop her!"

 _Professional has ignored all alerts and recommendations. Car unhackable. Analyzing other options_

Fuck she was in the GTO. Steve cut off his seat belt and struggled to pull himself out of the car. The glass cut his hands and his arms but he got himself up and around to the other side where he got something to pry the door open so he could get to Joe.

 _Nothing en route to barricade her from situation, not without causing casualties, or injuries to Professional. Asking permission to stop Professional at all costs._

What the fuck did that mean?

"Sandy… Sandy no! It's fine. I can take care of Professional," Steve cried but it didn't listen to him, much like Rowan herself.

 _Request to stop Professional by any means necessary has been declined. Unable to stop Professional from arriving at scene. ETA 5 minutes._

Great just great. Well… at least Wo Fat had the sense to decline the _by any means necessary_ request. Maybe he'd call off Sandy helping him now that he knew she was doing that. Still Steve got Joe out of the truck, leant him up against it and then fished for his phone. Joe took stock of everything around him, all the bodies, the blood and the damage.

"This was a coordinated attack," he told him even though Steve already knew that. "And it looks like the Calvary's already here…"

The purple GTO skidded to a stop just meters away from the second upended SUV that had been the tail of their motorcade and Steve straightened watching as Rowan rushed to his side. There was something soothing about that, about watching her run to him. That hug he was so desperately craving, that he didn't realize he needed until he saw her, was so close to him.

"Oh my god. Baby, baby!" she cried as she slid to a stop in front him but she didn't hug him. She put a hand out to his sides, as if to brace him, as if she could keep him up. She took stock of all the injuries and all the blood. God she hated blood. He didn't want her vomiting right now.

"I'm okay," he whispered to her, "I'm fine. It's fine."

"It's not fine you're bleeding!" she snapped to him. She then half turned to Joe. "Hi Joe. Thanks for this. This has been a great morning. Did you know this was supposed to be Steve's day off?"

"Can you not?" Steve snapped to her. "Could you… please Rowan? Please? He's bleeding why don't you take my shirt huh…"

"Oh you're gonna take it off?" she asked with a devilish grin. She then looked around. "Not that I don't like it when you strip tease but is this really the time?"

Of course it wasn't the time, he looked around at all the carnage and then back to her in disbelief. Really? She needed to ask if this was the time?

"Rowan… we have bigger issues here…" he said as he stepped off the button up blue shirt and ripped it up into strips. Rowan gasped like he had hit her.

"Steven!" she cried. "That was my favourite shirt."

"You're not the one who wears it," he reminded her shoving it into her hands so she could help Joe with his injury. She tsked at him but knelt down to help Joe as he asked and Steve finally made the call he wanted to make.

"Steve, what's up?" Chin asked when he picked up.

"Chin, our motorcade has been compromised," he told him. A team of six guys with fully automatic weapons hijacked the transport vehicle and are now on the move with our patient."

Beside him Rowan finished helping Joe, held up a hand and then rushed to the bumper of the car to vomit. Great. Just fucking great.

"Can you… she doesn't do well with blood," he whispered to Joe who nodded and hobbled off to help hold her hair back and pet her back.

"Alright, it's a government vehicle, it should have GPS," Chin told him, and Steve heard the smart table whirling up to life. You guys okay?"

"Yeah we're alright… uh… Sandy's sending personnel to us apparently… maybe check in on that?" Steve offered.

"Sandy? Sanctuary's acting for you now? Did Rowan send her down over or something?"

"No. I don't know. When she's done throwing up I'll ask her."

"Oh… and Rowan's there?"

"Chin… the van?" Steve reminded him and Chin went silent for a second.

"Alright, I got them. They're heading up on Nimitz," he told him.

"Joe I gotta go," Steve told them. Joe straightened, Rowan straightened too. There was a wildness in her eyes he didn't like seeing.

"Steve, sit tight and wait for EMS. I'll get HPD on the sprinter," Chin called but Steve shook his head.

"There's no time," he said. "Rowan I'm taking the GTO."

"Like hell you are," Rowan cried. "You may have a concussion… or you may be bleeding out. Either way you're not driving my car."

"Rowan… I need to get this guy back, he's sick… he needs help. Give me your keys."

"No!" Rowan snapped. "You're in no state to drive, I'll drive."

"No. Rowan… no…" he said shaking his head. He wanted Rowan very far away from everything contagious.

"Okay, Steven this is what I'm good at. Trust me, Steven, I can drive. Trust me. Please, you're injured, let me help you," she pleaded. He knew that she wouldn't relent and the bad guys were getting farther and farther away from them.

"Okay fine," he growled. "But you better drive fast, so help me."

Rowan's smile was glitteringly beautiful and it made him smile in the midst of such stressful moment. He followed her to the car, letting her take the driver's seat while he took the passenger.

"Buckle up," she warned him and then before he could actually get it done the GTO was squealing forward racing away from the chaos that Steve had been embroiled in it.

Steve couldn't help it, he frantically struggled with the seatbelt because he had never gone this fast in her GTO before, had never gone this fast and not been at the wheel of the car. But one glance at Rowan, seeing that look on her face that he attributed to her focused driven side and he calmed down. This was her element, she wasn't panicked, or worried, she was fully and completely proficient at this and she knew it.

"Take Pacific to Iwilei and that should cut them off… oh and Steve… if you're letting Rowan drive… hold onto something… especially on the turns."

"Got it!" Rowan and Steve said at the same time. Steve clutched onto the grab handle a little tighter as Rowan put the gear up and pressed down on the gas so they GTO leapt forward once more.

"Ro… Rowan… maybe… maybe just slow down?" Steve whispered, his hand now gripping the passenger side door.

"Nope, we wasted too much time arguing about who's driving, we gotta catch up," she said not once looking away from the road.

Steve opened his mouth to argue with her but Rowan flipped gears and they drifted way too efficiently through the turn. She didn't lose a single second of speed.

Steve turned to her his eyes wide, a proud grin on his face. "Holy shit… you really are good."

"They didn't call me the Professional for nothing Steve," she said finally shooting him a smile.

"Wait a minute… they've stopped. North King and Iwilei."

"I got it!" Rowan said again and Steve frowned because up above them, on the street he figured she was going to turn down, was a truck.

"Ro… Ro… Ro… slow down," he said.

"Hold on!" she replied instead and Steve tried not to cringe and cry out but did as she did some clever maneuvering that got the car around the corner and away from the truck with what looked like minimal effort from his girlfriend.

She pulled the GTO up to where they could see the van parked by an abandoned warehouse like building.

"No, stop here," Steve said a good twenty feet from the van. Rowan opened her mouth to argue but Steve shook his head. "The guy is highly contagious and they had guns, stay here."

Rowan sat back but kept the engine idling as Steve got out, gun drawn and made his way up to the van. He checked the driver's seat first to make sure he didn't have anyone up at the front of the van and he didn't. He moved back towards the back, knowing what he was going to find but hoping beyond hope that he was wrong.

But he was right. Because there was no one in the back of that van. Lange was gone. Steve sighed that was not good.

"Steve?" Chin asked and Steve groaned remembering that Chin had been on the other line. That meant he had heard Steve's squeal of fear when Rowan nearly took them out with that tractor trailer truck.

"I'm here, it's empty," he answered.

"There's only one reason they'd take that patient… the virus."

"Chin, contact homeland security and CDC, I think we're looking at a major national security situation here," Steve said. Chin said he'd do just that and then…

"So what did he have?"

Steve heard that his gasp paired with a yelp of surprise and was very glad they were alone for that moment. He blamed the accident it had him jumping at everything. "Fuck. Rowan… I said stay back."

"I know, but it's clearly empty and I mean… just look at you, you're bleeding everywhere."

Her hands went for him again, turning over his left arm so she could look at the gash, her fingertips brushing against the laceration above his eye which had his left eye squinting a bit, and then went to his sides, under his shirt.

"That's not mine," he whispered to her, when he noticed the patch of red blood that had seeped through his shirt. "At least I don't think it's mine."

Rowan lifted up his shirt to reveal the beginnings of terrible bruising but no puncture wounds. Rowan made a noise in the back of her throat, this strangled kind of groan and despite knowing better Steve pulled her to his chest for that hug he had been craving.

"I'm fine baby… I'm fine."

"I know… but Steve it looks awful…" she said against his chest. "Like it looks really, really bad."

Steve pressed a kiss into her hair and thought about how it felt when that wrecking ball hit his car and sent them flying.

"Can… can I ask a question?" he asked softly. "You don't have to answer, I just… I'm curious."

Rowan lifted her head out of his chest. "Sure, what's up?"

"How did you… having just gone through something similar… how the hell did you survive rolling that car four times… I mean… is that one of your nightmares? Is that… thinking about it now, Rowan... having just gone through it… I'm very worried that you felt something similar to what I just felt."

Rowan was silent for a bit. "That was more than one question... and uh… I'm not even sure what you were asking," she whispered. He opened his mouth to tell her it didn't matter. "Well uh… to answer one of your questions… yes it is a nightmare I have… that I'm still in that car. As for the others… uhm… well… if you remember… when I crashed that car I wasn't trying to survive… the plan was to kill all of us. And uh… after I rolled the car, I uhm… I was still conscious for a bit… and I was upside down… and I was surrounded by dead bodies in weird angles and with lifeless, blame filled eyes all staring at me… and my leg was caught and I kept crying out for help… and then things kind of go black and from there on in I get flashes… but uhm… that incident is why I don't do well with bodies or blood, though it's always been an issue, it just got worse after that. It's why I don't like small spaces, which has since then gotten worse since the attack and the tunnels… but uh… yeah… you probably felt something similar to what I was feeling at the time, except I feel like with your training you're probably trained to take situations like that much better then me… and the way I handled it. I just had a panic attack."

Steve took all of that in and when Rowan's eyes, which had been carefully looking everywhere but at him for that whole speech, finally turned back up to him she winced. So that meant whatever look he had been making was not a positive one.

"Don't look at me like that," she whispered, looking away from him. She tried to push out of his grasp but he wouldn't let her go. He needed her to hold onto him, he needed to hold onto her. Because thinking of her in that situation scared him a lot more than what had just happened to him. And there was nothing he could do to change it, to protect her from it, because it was something that had already happened.

But he knew one thing. He knew that if he could he was going to make sure that nothing like that ever happened to her or him again.


	162. Chapter 162

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Friday my lovely readers. How is everyone liking all the cute stuff we got? Is it cute enough? It's gonna get even better just you wait! I'm so excited for some of the chapters coming up. Also, we got a vote on the special chapter, a amped up smut scene or Steve rushing to an in-labour Rowan. For the amped up smut scene I have Rowan and Steve's first time as a married couple, which is very, very steamy I promise, but a bit short. As for the rushing to Rowan who's in labour, I have the scene for Rowan giving birth to their second child Royal. Now that I've clarified, does that sway which one you guys want? What do you think? Don't forget to leave me a review about what you wanna read for the 200th episode and I'll see you guys on Monday._

Chapter 162

* * *

Danny rushed into the Tripler Army Medical Center looking for Steve. And the further he went into hospital all he saw, instead, were the people who had been with him and Joe during the accident, all of them were in critical condition or worse, which made him wonder what condition he'd find Steve in. When he finally found Steve relief washed over him, and he could finally breathe right again because Steve's injuries were all minor.

Steve had Rowan curled up to his side regardless of the fact that he was getting bandaged up at that moment, so he hadn't noticed Danny's appearance which meant Danny could catch his breath and put on a sour face because he sure as hell didn't want Steve to know that he was worried.

"You know what? Why don't you get an apartment, next door, because you're here so often, huh? How about that?" he said instead, announcing his arrival that way.

"Hi Danny," Rowan whispered in a subdued quiet way that made him actually look at her. The girl was deathly pale and clinging to Steve.

"I'm fine, thanks for asking," Steve snapped and then watched Danny, clocking his stare and added: "Nahele's sick she might have caught it… also saw a lot of blood and bodies, not sure which it is," he too glanced down to her to where she was nuzzling into his shoulder, a death grip on his uninjured arm. "Also, she was up most of the night with the kid cause he was throwing up, I think it's catching up with her. You can take her home, right?"

Sure he could do that, he wouldn't mind doing that, but Rowan shook her head and stifled a yawn. "No. I'm good. I'm fine. Can I stay with you?"

"Who's staying with Nahele?"

"I put the hook on Mrs. Norris from next door until I get back. Besides, last I checked he was half eating soup and playing with his game thingie… he'll be fine," she said and then turned those big blue blinking eyes at him and with a little pout asked: "Please let me stay with you?"

Just like that Steve melted, Rowan wasn't going to leave his side now, a team of wild horses wouldn't be able to take her away from him. He didn't flat out say that she could stay, but she knew she was getting her way, they all knew it. "It's a PS3 Rowan," he reminded her weakly and she just shook her head against him again and he smiled in that way that Danny knew, just knew, that Steve was lost to the world now.

Danny shook his head. "Let's just make sure the doctors punch his card, right?" he asked which earned him scowls from both Joe and Steven.

"Don't look at me like that," he snapped. "Neither of you made smart decisions to day. I expect them from Steve but you, Rowan? Why the hell would you even think of driving your pastel purple, highly noticeable, bullseye of a car into that situation… and why the hell would you then chase after the guy at the behest of this idiot?"

"Danny, don't yell her, we've talked about this, don't fucking yell at my girl," Steve snapped a hand out to ward Danny away from Rowan who had curled herself even more closely into his side.

"He's Five-0 and he commandeered my car. It was either I drive or him… and I'm better at it."

"Better at it… I mean you're good but I wouldn't say you're better than me…" Steve said but Danny shook his head.

"No, Rowan's better, hands down, she takes turns like she's Picasso at the wheel," he said. "Trust me, I have always felt safer with her."

"Okay if you two ladies are done," Joe snapped before turning to the doctor and very politely saying: "Could you give us a minute, please? Thank you."

Once they were gone, both Joe and Steve stood up, except for Rowan who just lay down on the gurney, and reached a hand out to Steve. He took her hand without question and then asked: "What do we got?"

"Not much. We got traffic cams showing your guys taking Lange from the sprinter and putting him in a cargo van, no plates, last seen heading north. HPD's trying to run a background on the patient right now, to see if maybe there's some sort of MO."

Steve awkwardly went about collecting his things with one hand, refusing to let Rowan go, of even saying to her that he needed his hand.

He glanced at Joe before saying: "Well, I'll tell you something that was a well-executed hit. This wasn't personal, I'm thinking… I'm thinking this could be an act of terrorism."

"If their goal is to weaponize the virus, that's a hell of a threat," Joe said with a sigh.

"Well… look the whole island is on lockdown, okay? CDC's setting up screening systems at the airports, harbors, everything is being monitored. There is zero chance those guys are leaving with Lange," Danny said.

From the gurney Rowan suddenly gasped, this wheezing sort of noise and Steve sort of winced. Oh… did that mean she had just gotten a vision.

"Is she okay?" Joe asked.

"I don't know," Steve said turning back to her, focusing on her properly.

"Did you get a shock?" Danny asked. He peered over at her, noting that she had curled up around her chest her knees coming up like she was in pain. "What did you see Rowan, what did you see?"

"That was a big one," Steve whispered kneeling down beside her. "Babe, babe look at me…"

"Barn," Rowan gasped. "He's in a barn. With bee. Barn. Bees. Carson."

Oh, hot damn she had a vision but it wasn't a good one. She was wheezing, she had started sweating and Danny finally understood what Steve had meant when he said her visions were gripping her a little too tightly recently. "Everything's blurry, I can't… they're wearing blue suits… I can't… I'm so hot and everything hurts and I can't breathe…"

Steve's hands went to her face. "Let it go Rowan, I don't need it, let it go!" he said shaking her until she started breathing right.

"What was that?" Joe asked. "That didn't look like one of her regular visions."

"She's been having trouble with them recently… for a while actually… they're affecting her badly," he whispered, stroking her cheek as Rowan's own hands reached out to him, one hand playing with his hair, the other stroking the creases by his eye.

Danny put a hand to his shoulder. "I'm gonna get her home, okay?" he said to Danny but Rowan surprised them all but sitting up. Steve stood, helping her off the gurney though she didn't need his help. His hands were fisting the fabric of her shirt by her sides. She tried smiling up at Steven but he was still frowning at her.

"I'm good, you guys are busy. I can get myself home."

"Are you sure? Now that the adrenaline's gone, should you be driving by yourself?" Steve asked. Rowan just tried to smile at him and nodded enthusiastically. He clearly didn't want to argue, he bent his head towards hers as he whispered: "Okay, well I'll walk you to the lobby then… I uh… I have something I need you to clear up."

Rowan nodded, Steve told Joe and Danny he'd be right back and then he was escorting his girl through the hallway and towards the main entrance.

"So uh… something happened in the SUV, after the crash… something I'm going to need you to explain."

"Okay?"

"Sandy popped up on the GPS and assessed the situation," Steve told her and Rowan turned to him surprised. "You didn't know she was tracking me too?" Rowan shook her head. Okay that was reassuring at least. "Do you know why she's tracking me now?" Rowan winced and he sighed, oh no that was not good. "What have you done?"

"Okay, well, I can tell you what I've not done, and that's tell him to do this," she said. "But I… uh… this might be a direct reaction to our last conversation."

"Conversation? What after you rescued me… outside the hospital? I thought you just told him that you two were done," Steve reminded her.

Rowan winced again and dread crept up his spine raising the hairs on the back of his neck. "Well… uh… yes, I did say that to him, but that wasn't our last conversation. Our last conversation was uh… more recent."

"You've talked to him recently?"

"Uhm… yes… maybe once or twice."

"Rowan…"

"Look, it was only twice and it's really not a big deal. The first one was Christmas, I just said Merry Christmas, thanked him for the gift…" "HE GAVE YOU A CHRISTMAS GIFT?!" "That's not the issues, Steven, uh… yeah, all I said after that was that this doesn't change anything and that was the end of conversation. The second time was after we found out about Sandy, he called to ask me if I was okay and I said I was and then asked him to take the app down and he shot me down… and you know… we talked about things."

"Like what?"

"Well… he was a little upset, he misses having me around, I guess, and I was the only family he had left… so… you know… yeah…" she said clearing her throat. "And I supposed this all sort of got sparked by him asking me why I'm more mad about what he did to you than I was about him shooting me."

"You said it again, didn't you?" Steve growled. "You told him you don't care about you, you care about me, right?" her face was answer enough. "Fuck… Rowan…"

"Well we had a heart to heart about how I feel about you, and how you're important to me, and how I couldn't possibly have him back in my life because I couldn't trust him with you and now the app's tracking you… so… yeah…"

"So, he's got the app making sure _I'm_ okay, because you told him I'm important to you and you can't let him back into your life until _I'm_ okay with him?"

"I suppose."

"So, if he saves me a bunch of times, I'll have no choice but to forgive him because I'll owe him, right?" he snapped. "Like… saving me a few times will make up for torturing him, killing my father and chasing away my mother, and if he does it enough times I'll have no choice but to bend to his demands?"

Rowan paused and blinked her eyes. "Why do you have to make it so…. nefarious? Couldn't he just be tracking you to make sure that you're okay, because you're important to me and your job is dangerous?"

"BECAUSE THE MAN IS A PSYCHOPATH AND HE HATES ME ROWAN!"

Rowan flinched and took a step away from him and Steve immediately frowned. He didn't want her scared of him, he didn't want to be arguing with her about her brother. He just wanted to hold her but she was too far away for him to reach.

"I'm sorry… it's not… I didn't tell him… it was just one conversation."

Yeah one conversation and one extra phone call that she felt the need to lie to him about. But that got him thinking.

"Wait… that Christmas talk… that's the phone call you said you were having with Pete… where you said you missed him?"

"Oh… uh… yeah…"

" _You miss him_?!"

"Well… yeah… he's the only one that really gets me, Steve!"

"That _gets_ you?" Steve echoed.

"Yeah… like… I unno, you're going to think it's stupid," she said folding her arms over her chest and staring down at her shoes.

Steve put his hands on his hips and glared at her. "Try me."

Rowan huffed at him rolled her eyes to the ceiling and then had the absolute nerve to say: "He just accepts me for who I am. He just… understands me. He understands me, he accepts me and he cares about me. Okay? I feel like I don't have to hide who I am, or change or try to be something I'm not. I can honestly say that I could kill someone and he wouldn't look at me any different."

Steve blinked his eyes at her, absolutely horrified that she had the gall to say that to him. "Of course none of that phases him, Rowan, the man's an international criminal who murders and tortures people for fun."

Rowan looked down at her shoes again with a sigh. "I'm going to go home."

She went to turn away, she was going to offer up no hug to him, no good-bye, she wasn't even going to look at him. No, he couldn't let that happen. Steve reached out for her again, pulling her back to him. He kissed her before she could apologize again or ask him what was going on.

"I'm not mad. I'm a little hurt, not going to lie, but I don't want you to go off with a bad feeling. I don't want you to leave here thinking I'm mad at you" he told her. And silently added: _and I don't want you to run._ "I just want to ask one more question, do you plan on speaking to him again?"

Rowan quickly shook her head. "No. I swear. The Christmas call was because he called me first. I know I shouldn't have answered but everything that had happened between me and him… it was fresh and I just… you know… it was Christmas and then the second one was about Sandy, I swear that's it," she said. "None of it was social, strictly business."

Steve smiled at her. "Well alright then," he whispered. He kissed her again and then bowed his forehead to hers. "Text me when you get home and keep me updated on Nahele."

"Will do," she whispered kissing him lightly before stepping away. "And don't you catch anything contagious, Steven McGarrett."

Steve smiled at her watching her as she walked away from him. He may have told her that he was okay with finding out that her and Wo Fat had remained in contact, even if it was briefly and only for business, but he was lying. He was not okay with it, he just wasn't certain what he was going to do about it just yet.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

A lot had happened in the time between Rowan going home and Steve taking the case. They figured out that someone had hacked the CDC which was how they got the info about when Steve and Joe would be transporting him and what route they'd take. He found out that the only person who could take the virus out of Lange's blood and weaponize it was missing, his wife had been held hostage no doubt to make him do what the kidnappers wanted him to do. It was becoming clearer that this was a terrorist plot, they just didn't know who they were going after or who they were.

Rowan had texted him updates about Nahele as requested, like how he was apparently quite worried that Steve had gotten in an accident, the kid hadn't thrown up since breakfast, and his fever was finally going down. But it was the four missed calls from her paired with a _Come home ASAP_ text that sent him in a panic back to his own house.

He threw the door open shouting Rowan's name with Joe following after him. Steve was already heading for the stairs, ready to take them by fours if he had to.

"Hey, hey quiet, he's sleeping again," came from the living and he practically wiped out as he turned towards her voice. As soon as he spotted her, pushing herself up off of the couch, he was heading for her. He noted that she was also eating soup and drinking tea. And a bottle Advil was beside her mug.

"Are you getting sick?" he asked but Rowan shook her head. His hands were already at her elbows, to pull her to his chest, to quell the nervousness that had taken over by touch alone.

"I think its PTSD queasiness from this morning," she whispered. "But that's not why I got you to come down here."

Steve sighed. "You better have a good reason for panicking me like that," he warned her and she just smiled at him.

"I do," she said proudly. "I found the barn, the bees and the Carson."

Steve stared at her and then so did Joe who now had her rapt attention. She brought something out of her pocket, her phone, fiddled with it a bit and then showed him the screen. It was her app, he knew that much but the image on the screen was of someone's face. Black hair, cold green eyes, big bushy black beard. Rowan just smiled at them like they were supposed to know who that was.

"Michael Carson, I think you know him," she said to Joe and Steve turned to Joe surprised. Wait, he did?

Joe sighed, good god she was right. "Ex-CIA profited off the war in Afghanistan. He got caught trying to smuggle illegal gold into the USA."

"Well he got released from jail a year ago, started buying up means and men, that's how I got him," she said. She fiddled with the screen again and pulled up an address. Fuck she had a whole fucking file. "That is the address to his compound where he's bought a crap tonne of bees, you guys know what that's for right? Cause up until I read this, I had no idea bees could be used to cause mass pandemics."

Yeah it was a real surprise, but these were things that people like Carson would have got briefed on as part of his training. Just like Joe. Steve glanced to his mentor and noted that his eyes were going from Rowan to the information on her phone.

"And how much of what that man has was provided by your brother?" Joe asked.

Rowan glared at him. "Everything except the science stuff, the virus and the bees," she said. "He's already got his money so he's not going to care if I send you guys to kick down the door… or at least I don't think he will, I'm sort of just hoping he doesn't find out."

Steve glared at her, Rowan avoided his eyes and Joe just stared at the app with rapt interest.

"Why is it all grey?"

"It's running automatedly now," she said. "I've been uh… we're not talking right now…"

"Ever again," Steve muttered.

"Ever again," Rowan amended. "But he has the app running independently because he doesn't trust Steve to take care of me."

"If it's running automatedly how did you get access to all this?" Joe asked and Steve nodded. Yes that was a good question.

"Wo Fat had files for me, contacts and people. Uhm… most of it was for blackmail but also so I'd know who I could go to help and what they'd be able to help me with," she admitted. "Automated or not I still have access to his files. I just put in a search for the last name Carson and a farm, and I got a hit."

There was silence for a moment before Rowan clicked something and then an aerial shot of the compound in question was on her screen. She held it out for them to look at and Joe took it out of her hand immediately. She cleared her throat and said: "He's got a little village type thing over in Hau'ula, all the buildings are red, and they have a barn like structure they've turned into a lab, which is probably why I got stuck on farm. It's not really a farm though. There are bees, and I'm about 95% certain that they have your guy there."

Steve smiled at his girl. "Alright, thanks, babe, text me the address."

"Whoa, wait a second, I'm coming with you," she said. Steve opened his mouth to argue but Rowan shook her head. "Nope, you need me to come with you."

"Why?"

"Well for starters all the information about people, ammo and back entrances are on my phone and you're not taking my phone. And Secondly, there's a 75 percent chance that you're going to need someone who can drive smoothly and quickly. And that is me and you know it."

"You can drive a truck?" Joe asked surprised.

"I had to learn how to drive all sorts of vehicles when I was a getaway driver. Trust me, I'm the girl for this."

And for some reason, for a reason Joe didn't understand, Steve not only trusted her, but he agreed. And then poor Mrs. Norris was on the hook to watch Nahele as he slept again.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve had one rule for her. Stay back. Stay away until Kono called her to drive the van. The plan was she would be left behind in the tall grass, and she wasn't supposed to move, ever, unless one of the bad guys was coming for her. If that was happening, she was to keep to the tall grass and call for Steve. If he couldn't get to her one of his Five-0s would.

They all snuck in through the tall grass, splitting ways once it came to going after the men. But Rowan, despite being told to stay back, despite promising she wouldn't move, was on the prowl after them. She let them deal with the situation but she was being pulled towards a blue truck that said it was a honey distributor's truck. She'd need this truck, she knew it and once the bullets started flying, she had locked herself in the van, figuring that she wouldn't get in too much trouble cause she was relatively safe at least.

Rowan had kept low, only peeking every once and a while, which was how she saw them. The two men coming for the truck. Aw fucking hell. One went around the passenger side, the other came for her.

As soon as he opened the door, however, she kicked him square in the chest, sending him flying, but she completely forgot about the other guy until he had his gun jammed into her neck, right below her skull. She couldn't turn to face him, but she could see his face reflected in the window across from her.

Rowan blinked her eyes at the face reflected back at her but stayed quiet. She wasn't sure what to say or what to do at this point, but there came a shout that she knew was in Joe's voice and then more bullets came at them. She cringed and he decided she was useful. Still standing beside her, in the door between the cargo hold and the driver's box, he pressed the gun deeper into her skin, which she didn't think was possible.

"Drive bitch!" he ordered so she did. She pressed on the gas so fast she saw dirt kick up, she heard things topple over and she watched that poor man with the big bushy beard go flying. Haha, serves him right. When he got up again, she took a hard swerve and watched him fly into the wall. She waited until he got up again before swerving the opposite direction and he went flying again.

She smiled to herself. God, she forgot how much fun it was to drive like this.

She got distracted by a turn in the road and heard a gun click behind her ear. "Pull over…" was the start of the command but something, or someone grabbed him from behind and dragged him away. Rowan hazarded a peek over her shoulder. That would be Joe, coming to her rescue. How nice of him.

The man slammed him into the wall and Rowan swerved again the momentum sending them sprawling in the opposite direction so Joe could slam him into the wall.

"Thanks Rowan," he called out as she heard a few punches land, though she wasn't sure who was winning at this point.

"I mean, you're welcome, but I'm really freaking out right now, Joe," she said. There came two-gun shots and then silence. She called Joe's name and got no response. "Okay, freaking out even more now."

Joe came into the driving area being sure to shut the door tightly behind him. He looked at her quickly and then added: "Don't panic…"

"Are the bees loose?" she asked.

"Yes, they are."

"Did you get stung?" she asked.

Joe looked at her. "That's not how… you know what, no, no Rowan I have not been stung, we're both going to be okay," he said to her and she just nodded. She didn't dare look at his face in case he was lying, but she checked. He was injured and he was lying. Well. Fuck.

"You're bleeding again," she said gesturing to his face. "And I can hear Steve screaming from here." Joe put a hand to his face and then looked down to the comm link that had fallen from his ear in the fight.

 _Joe. Talk to me. What's going on? Where's Rowan_?

"She's here, she's fine. She's magic, behind the wheel kid, we could have used her in Afghanistan, let me tell you," he said. "Carson's dead though."

Oh, so that man was Carson? Well he was shit anyway. She turned the van out onto the road and as they went over a bridge Joe gestured to where he wanted to go. Rowan just nodded.

"Are we doing what I think we're doing?" she asked him and he nodded. "Like you're sure, you want me to go…"

She gestured to the pier and he nodded again. Rowan nodded too. Alright. She was really going to do this… again… her goal? Don't roll the fucking truck.

 _What are you doing?_ Steve's voice came at them from the ear piece.

"The bees are loose in the van. I can't let them get out Steve."

 _Joe stop the van we'll call CDC._

"There's no time Steve, I have to neutralize the threat. You know that," he said to him and then turned to Rowan. "You better go faster, little girl."

"Little girl?" Rowan echoed and that got him a few wry laughs. "You better hold on old man.

 _No… Joe… stop the van. You have Rowan in the van with you._

Rowan took the turn as sharply as she could, and as she predicted the Camaro struggled to keep up with her. She then leant into Joe to say: "Don't worry Steve… I've done this before… remember?"

She then floored it and let the truck fly right off into the pier and into the water.


	163. Chapter 163

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Monday guys! We have the wonderfully cute ending to this one, I hope you guys like it. We have over-protective Steve, we have Rowan-isms and some funny moments. I'm currently up north at a spa, and posting this from my phone, hopefully it goes through. We got some more cute moments coming up after this, including a steamy moment and a birthday surprise. But we are going to come up on a few really dramatic moments. Don't forget, we have the 200th chapter coming up and I need you guys still need to tell me what kind of chapter you'd like. We got a steamy one, or a fun little scene for when their second child is born. Don't forget to leave me a review on what you wanna read and I'll see you guys on Wednesday!_

Chapter 163

* * *

 _Don't worry Steve, I've done this before… remember?_

Yes. But that had been a suicide attempt by crashing a car. Why the hell would she be doing that now? She had survived that first one by sheer luck and what had to be a fluke. FLUKE!

What the hell was she thinking? Was she out of her goddamn mind? This was Joe's fault, this was Joe's influence. He had promised himself, told himself he'd keep her from getting in another accident like that had broken her leg. But despite shouting at Joe through the earpiece there was nothing he could do from stopping it from happening. That truck they were chasing with Joe, the bees and Steve's girlfriend flew off the pier and crashed into the water, sinking way too quickly to be fair.

He slammed the Camaro to a halt, and was half out the door without even putting the car in park. Panic had rose up into his mouth like a bile. No one had resurfaced, that wasn't good. At all! His throat was closing around the scream of her name. He ripped the Kevlar off of him and sprinted the short distance between he and the water and then dove.

Right into the water and into Rowan who had been in the process of resurfacing.

He plowed into her, heard her yelp and then wrapped his arms around her to take her back to the surface where his girl coughed and sputtered and slapped him a bunch of times half-heartedly. "Geezus Christ Steve! You dove right fucking into me!"

"I'm sorry!" he shouted trying to get her hands away from hitting him and hugging him instead. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I panicked!"

"Well… I'm clearly fine!" she shouted back at him and then pushed him away.

"Well how was I supposed to know that? You're driving a truck with contaminated bees in it, fucking crashing it into the water…"

"If I can crash a car going over 200mph and roll it four times and live that shit is nothing!" Rowan said leisurely swimming away from him.

"That was LUCK! You survived the first crash by sheer dumb _luck_!" he snapped at her but she just ignored him and continued to swim away. Steve treaded water watching her go a scowl on his face while beside him Joe laughed. The two of them were going to give him even more grey hair.

"Could you have been any more dramatic?" Steve growled to Joe. "And did you have to take my girl with you?"

"Well…. I was gonna hold her underwater for another thirty seconds but I figured coming up quicker would mean you wouldn't have to get wet. But you jumped in anyway so I guess that didn't matter. But uh… you know… both me and her could be contagious. And uh… now you too since you just had to jump in for her."

"Wait what?" Rowan cried, halfway up and out of the water. "Aw shit. Really? I don't want the bird flu. Birds creep me out. Well actually pigeons creep me out. But they are birds… am I gonna have to do one of those shower things? Or is this a needles thing? I hate needles Steve."

"Then you should have stayed home Rowan. I shouldn't have let you talk me into this. The two of you trying to get yourselves killed. What if something had happened to you? And then what Rowan? Who was gonna look after Nahele you get yourself killed in this wreck huh?"

Rowan scowled at him and said: "Well you, of course," as Joe said: "We only did what you would have done yourself."

Rowan immediately perked up while Steven sighed internally. "Oh, that's true. We did pull a Steve. Or I guess, a Joe cause Joe trained you," Rowan said lowering herself back into the water. She swam back towards them, but closer to Joe and not him. "Makes more sense to stay here, you better go back to shore before we—"

But Steve had already swam to her side and pulled her up into his arms. "No way, if you're getting taken out by Bird flu then I'm going with you," he said to her pressing a kiss to her despite her protesting.

"But Steven! Think of the children!" she cried but let him kiss her anyway. "Eh, its fine, Danny can take Nahele for us."

"Oi!" Danny called. "What was that? Was that Danny take…? Guys. No. Don't you fucking dare. Are you listening? Stop making out in the water and fucking listen to me please!"

But neither did. Not until CDC showed up to quarantine them.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

CDC determined that as soon as they hit the water the virus was essentially not contagious at the time Steve was exposed to it. Which meant Steve was in the clear. Unfortunately, that meant that since Rowan and Joe had been exposed to the virus in its raw form that they needed to be quarantined. And though Steve wanted to go with her, they wouldn't let him stay, no point, they said, the point was that Rowan and Joe needed to be quarantined, tests needed to be done to determine whether or not they had the disease and to administer the cure at the first sign of illness.

But Rowan had been crying for him as they took him away and his heart was blistering at the thought of leaving her behind, of not being able to be there for her. So he had gone with them, despite the CDC officials not wanting him to and stood on the other side of glass and containment units to make sure that Rowan was okay, to have her at least be able to see him and in hopes, settle her.

That hadn't lasted long either. Soon Rowan was moved out of the clear containment units with the glass windows for Steve to watch her through and Steve was forced to make one of the CDC nurses at Tripler Army Medical Center take a message to her saying that he was going home to get dinner into Nahele and that he'd be back in the morning for her.

He had returned home, sore and upset. He just wanted to sink into his couch, drink beer and watch football but the second he opened the door, Nahele was on him.

It was almost exactly like when he came home and Rowan jumped on him, but instead of getting kissed, he had a child's face pressed into his chest and a little voice repeating: "You're okay, you're okay!"

Steve wrapped one arm around him and pat his back. "I'm good, I promise, I'm fine," he told him. Nahele turned his caramel brown eyes filled with nothing but fear staring up at him. He remembered that he had a cut running up from his eyebrow, and that he had cuts all over his face and neck. Yeah, he probably didn't look fine. "This is nothing, I promise."

Nahele nodded, seemingly realized that he had been holding onto Steve for too long and quickly let him go and backed away. He made a big show of looking out the door behind Steve, no doubt looking for Rowan.

He turned his confused eyes to Steve again and he sighed. "Okay, you may need to sit down," he said and that confusion and fear doubled in his eyes. Still he did as asked sitting on the couch and Steve stood above him wondering how to word what he had to tell him "So I don't know what Rowan told you…"

"She said that you had a case… that uh… that you got into a car accident and this really sick guy got stolen and that you needed her to drive the escape vehicle. She said she was coming back… she said that we'd have pizza if I was feeling up to it…"

"Well we can order a pizza," he said. "We can totally…"

"But where's mmmm…. Rowan, I mean, Rowan, where's Rowan?"

Steve blinked his eyes, completely shocked. Nahele had almost called Rowan mom, he… he had almost asked Steve where his mom was. He knew the two of them were getting close but he didn't realize it was… that close.

"She's over at the Tripler Army Medical Center, in the Containment unit," he said. He was going to tell him what happened except…

"She… is she…"

God he meant dead. Nahele was asking if Rowan was dead. Steve shook his head. "God no. She may be infected, though, with a deadly strain of the bird flu. But the chance of that is minimal. So long as she doesn't show any signs of illness she'll be good to come home."

Nahele visibly relaxed and he smiled at Steve. "When… like tomorrow?" he asked. "Could I stay home and welcome her home?"

"Uh… well… actually… I don't know how long they'd have to quarantine her for," he admitted. "But yeah, you can stay home tomorrow and we'll go visit her in the hospital, how does that sound?"

"That sounds great. Can I pick the toppings for the pizza?" he asked. Steve smiled, he fished his wallet out of his pocket and tossed it to him.

"Order whatever you want, okay, kid?" he said to him. "Do you mind if I just veg out on the couch? Not going to lie, I'm really tired."

"No problem," Nahele said jumping up to his feet and rushing off to the kitchen where he clearly left his phone. "You want a beer?"

"Yeah, thanks, kid," he said finally collapsing to the couch. Steve was so tired that as soon as he was sitting his eyes started to close. He wondered if Nahele would ever accidentally call him dad… and if he did… how happy would Steve be?

Probably very.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

He led Nahele down the hallways of the Tripler Army Medical Center. He'd be dumb not to notice that Nahele kept looking into each doorway as if expecting Rowan to be ready to go. But Steve knew that if she was good to go, he would have heard by now. He did, however, hear that her containment was going to be ridiculously long, like almost three weeks long. He also heard that Rowan had a list of things she wanted delivered to her. The top of the list was her guitar.

He took him down to the bottom floor and was taken to the room that they had put Rowan and Joe in and stepped in. He had handed off all the things that Rowan had asked him to bring, to the people who would sterilize and deliver them to her and while he did, he let Nahele go into the room first. As soon as Nahele's eyes had clapped onto Rowan he was running forward.

"Ro! You're alive!" he cried.

"Nahele!" she squealed jumping up and rushing to the windows. "You're not throwing up!"

"Yeah, you were right twenty-four-hour bug," he said. "What about you? Is yours a twenty-four-hour thing too?"

Rowan's eyes narrowed, a slight wince marring that smile she had. She hadn't even noticed Steve standing in the doorway. "Uh… I think it's going to be a little longer than twenty-four hours, sweetie, I'm sorry."

"That's okay, Steve mentioned that it would probably take longer," he said with a shrug. Rowan's eyes finally turned to Steve and he nodded to her. "Do you know how long?"

"Twenty-one days," Rowan said and Nahele's smile faded. "Yeah… uh… it's a while, but uh… but uh…"

"What's going to happen to me?" Nahele asked shooting a glance at Steven who was giving them their space and waiting in the doorway. "Am I going to… am I going to have to…"

God what was with this kid and his obsession with being sent back? It was like Rowan's obsession with being a monster. They must have similar emotional damage to be like this.

"No, no, it's going to be okay," Rowan said. "You'll stay with Steve, right, Steven tell him!"

Steve moved towards them put an arm around him and said: "Yeah, of course, of course you're going to stay with me. Seriously, you gotta stop assuming you're going back, I'm starting to think that you don't want to stay with us."

He ruffled Nahele's hair until the kid pushed him away. "No, no, I want to stay."

Steve glanced to Rowan, whose blue eyes were staring at him as if trying to convey some sort of message to him, but he wasn't getting it. He quickly fished out his wallet and pulled out a few bills and handed it to him. "How about you get me a coffee, and then you can get yourself whatever you want, okay?"

"Oh my god is that money?" Rowan asked and Steve scowled at her. She kept teasing him about how he never spent any money but he was always throwing cash at Nahele, like the kid didn't have an allowance.

"Oh, okay, I can do that, do you want something to eat?" he asked.

"No, I'm good."

"Kay we'll I'm starving, I'll be back soon!" he said disappearing. As soon as he was gone Rowan groaned and threw herself against the glass

"Twenty-one days, Steve. Twenty-one fucking days, Steve," Rowan cried. "How the hell am I going to go twenty-one days without sex? It's not even like I can say we did it recently and that may hold me over, I was literally hoping to send Nahele off to a friends' house so we could go crazy this weekend. So what am I going to do, huh? And you? How are you… I swear to god if you go out and find someone else while I'm trying to fight off Bird-flu symptoms… so help me!"

"Of course, I'm not going to go find someone else, Rowan, don't be ridiculous!" Steve snapped.

Rowan had her hand against the glass and without thinking about it he had put his own hand to hers, just on the other side of the glass. "What about Nahele? Are you going to be okay with Nahele for twenty-one days, Steve? It's a lot of responsibility…"

"Yeah, we'll be okay. I got this, I promise." he asked. "Just you know… don't get sick."

Rowan stared up to him. "I'm scared," he heard her whisper and he bent his head to the glass. "I'm afraid I'm going to have nightmares and have no one… what if… if I?"

"Hey, the stuff they got, I put your phone in there, you just call me. I don't care what I'm doing or what time of night it is, if you're having a nightmare you call me. Do you understand? Call me. I'll get you through it, and if something's too strong or too scary you let it go. Okay? I don't need your visions, Rowan, I need you."

Rowan smiled at him in a watery kind of way and he tried to smile back her. They'd be okay, it would be tough but it would be okay. "It's going to be okay, I promise. Twenty-one days are going to fly and then you'll be out and we can make up for lost time." Rowan nodded and then he gestured over to Joe "Can I talk to him for a second… privately?"

Rowan looked back at Joe and then around to the small room they were going to share. It looked like an apartment at best. It wasn't much considering what Rowan was used to, and there wasn't any walls or doors per say either. "It's a small room Steven."

He nodded. He understood the ludicrously of what he was asking but still said: "Will you just walk away?"

Rowan did as she was asked, sitting herself down on a small couch and picking up a book, Steve noted that a man in a hazmat suit had let himself in through a different door carrying things and Rowan practically attacked him for them. Alright well, that was Rowan suitably distracted for the time being then. He turned his undivided attention onto Joe. "So… I like what you've done with the place."

Joe looked around. "Not too bad for a 21 day stay, couldn't ask for better company… even though… I think her endless chatter will eventually drive me loopy," he said.

Steve smiled. "She'll grow on you, trust me. Twenty-one days huh? When was the last time you had three weeks' vacation?"

"Never, I don't know what the hell I'm gonna do with myself. Your girl's already talking about song writing and I'm worried, can she even sing Steve?"

Steve proudly smiled to where Rowan was already strumming happily on a guitar. "You're in for a real treat… she's a fucking song bird, my girl… but uh… I'm sure you heard her mention nightmares, right? Yeah well… she uh… she has a lot of those… usually… usually I'm there…"

"I got it, son," Joe said. "I'll keep an eye out."

"No seriously, please do, sometimes they take a hold of her and she kinda lives through it… there were a couple dreams a while back that stopped her breathing and I just…"

"She really takes these visions seriously then, huh?" he asked jokingly but when Steve frowned he donned a serious stare so Steve knew he meant this. "I got this, son. I'll watch her real carefully."

"Thank you… and you know… you'll be fine. Rowan's very entertaining. And you won't have to do it alone, either, I'm coming down every day to visit. I promised the kid we'd swing by after school so he can see her, and she'll want to see me too… so you know… maybe I'll set up a chessboard huh?"

Joe just nodded. So Steve cleared his throat and asked the really worrying question. "What do the doctors say?"

"So far, no infection, but your girl's running a fever," he said at Steve's panicked eyes he added: "They think it's the 24-hour bug your kid had, if she starts throwing up tonight we'll know for sure. They're going to keep sticking us with needles for the next three weeks, just to make sure. Which will be hilarious to watch Rowan go through because she doesn't want them. She had this really funny knee jerk reaction."

"Yeah and what's that?"

"She slapped the last three nurses who poked her with a needle," he said and Steve laughed.

"It's not funny, it's an actually subconscious reaction," she called out from where she was sitting digging through her freshly decontaminated goodie bag and Steve smiled at her.

"Have Joe hold your hand, baby," he called back and then turned back to Joe and pinned him with a bit of a glare and he just nodded and winked to Steve, signalling that he'd do it.

"Well, your sacrifice has been worth it."

"Why? What did you find out?"

"Carson's endgame, it was D.C.," Steve told him and Joe swore while he took that in. "He co-opted a local company, they have agricultural clearance to ship their honeybees across the country. His financials tied him to a new terror group out of the Middle East. DHS got them at Dulles airport waiting for the bees to arrive. We saved a lot of lives, Joe."

"What did _you_ do? We're the ones who crashed the truck with the deadly bees in them. I'm the one who got the info off an app you don't even want me to have!" Rowan called.

And Steve turned his eyes heavenward as he groaned inwardly. "Rowan… what did I say about helping me…"

"You will ask me for help, if you want it," she repeated dryly in a sort of mocking tone. It was a mantra he made her repeat but she never remembered.

Steve shook his head but noted that Joe was smiling almost fondly at her. "We both know you won't ask for help," he said to him and Steve just shook his head. "Tell you the truth, when I was on that pier, I wasn't thinking about all the lives at stake, I was thinking about you."

"Me?" Steve echoed.

"Yeah. You're the closest thing I ever had to a son, Steve, and there's nothing I wouldn't do to protect you," he said. Steve just stood there taking that in, not sure what to say. There was a resounding cry of _awwwww_ and then Rowan had Joe wrapped up in a hug.

"You are just like my Steven, hard crunchy exterior, but warm and gooey on the inside. You are a half-baked cookie, my friend," she said to him and Joe just stood there letting her hug him.

"And, while I'm admitting things, I was also thinking that if I survived and your girl didn't, I wouldn't have to worry about Wo Fat, I'd have to worry about you killing me. But most of all I didn't wanna let you down again."

"You never let me down, Joe. You just kept a whole lot of stuff from me."

"Well, that stops now. I have news of your mother."

"Oh yeah?"

"I heard from my contacts that Doris was supposed to check in with her handlers 36 hours ago but she never did."

"What happened?"

"They don't know. It can only mean one of two things, either, she's dead, or she went off the grid, and knowing your mother if she doesn't want to be found she won't be."

Steve thought about this and then turned to Rowan. He didn't even have to ask her, she saw his face, saw the worry lining it and said: "She's fine babe. She's gone underground again. I promise."

"How long does it take to find her again?"

"Uhm… we're in season five… the rescue in Morocco is… season seven, I think? So I'd say somewhere round two years, maybe less. But she wasn't supposed to stop in this summer, either, but she did it anyway, so maybe she'll do a little pop by or something," she said.

"Season five… Steve what is she…"

"It's a long story," he said cutting him off. "Is uh… is that all you got on my mother?" When Joe nodded Steve added: "Well… sounds like someone tipped her off that we were looking for her."

And then he just stared at Joe with an expectant glare until Rowan whispered: "I think he thinks that you were the one who tipped her off."

"Yeah I got that," he stage whispered back. "Is she right, son? You think it was me?" Steve just shrugged and Joe sighed. "After all these years, you don't trust me?"

"Well… I mean… you knew the whole time that his mom was Shelbourne and didn't say anything to Steve… or John…"

"Rowan… with the helping," Steve muttered and Rowan frowned but stormed away from him. Great now she was mad at him. He then turned back to Joe no longer impressed. "She's right. You've been playing both sides of the fence, Joe. Can you blame me?"

"No, no I don't. But I promise you, when I get out of here, you and I are going to go find Doris together."

"Rowan?" Steve asked. "A little help here?"

Rowan turned to him. Blinked her eyes and said: "Oh you want my help now?" he only had to growl out her name and she sighed again. "Fine. Not that I remember, but you know how everything's been going lately."

"My psychic… who is never wrong… doesn't believe you," Steve said dryly despite knowing how ineffective her dreams had been as of late.

"Oh that's not fair," Rowan said. "I've been getting my dreams late, maybe that one's a late one."

They both ignored her. Joe merely held Steve's gaze as he said: "I'm not going anywhere. Trust me."

Well, considering everything, he would just have to take it for now. "Okay."

"Let me hear you say it."

"I trust you, Joe," he answered automatically.

"Oh… that works?" Rowan cried running back up to the window. "Steve. I'm your girlfriend, right? Let me hear you say it!"

But Steve just smiled patronizingly at her. "I'll see you tomorrow, Ro," he called as he walked away already hearing her groaning following him.

Steve left because he had to. He was storming away for effect mostly, but also because he knew, if Rowan asked him to, he'd break her out of quarantine, or break himself into it and then who would take care of Nahele?

He got outside to the Camaro quicker than he expected. He had a nagging feeling that he was forgetting something but he chalked that up to not having Rowan with him and quickly got into the car. He shut the car door and then turned to Danny who had waited in the car for him with a very specific task. "We online?" he asked.

Danny handed him the tablet where he saw the hacked feed of the quarantine room that Joe and Rowan were in.

"You have any problems?" he asked.

Danny shook his head. "Nope. Well that's not true. Our hack wouldn't work," he said when Steve turned to him surprised, he added: "But Sandy got me in, ain't that right Sandy?"

 _That is correct, codename Jersey. Connection with Professional stable. Download to Tripler Army Medical center Databases complete. Fever detected. As this is a common symptom with most colds, and not just the N1H5 virus, an alert will not be sent to the Master until further symptoms are detected. Also, as requested by Jersey, the MOV file_ _Professional Slapping Nurse_ _has been filed away as hilarious and has been emailed to your personal email address._

Danny smiled up at him with a big grin but Steve was just glaring at him horrified. "You linked Sandy up to this?"

"She got me in in five seconds flat."

 _That is quite flattering… codename Jersey… but the actual hack took thirty-four point six seven seconds for me to complete._

Steve sighed. Goddamn if Rowan found out about this, she'd kill him. There was a bit of a silence and then Danny asked: "I thought you said you trusted him."

"I lied… of course I lied he's in there with Rowan," Steve snapped. "I want eyes on him and I want to make sure she's okay too."

But that wasn't the only reason for this. He wanted the video feed because Rowan had her phone and he wanted to see how often she was in contact with Wo Fat, if at all. Though he doubted she'd do it in front of Joe, and now with Sandy monitoring her, he was worried that Sandy would tell her that she was running surveillance on them. He'd have to worry about that when it came up though.

He put the car into gear and Danny put out a hand to stop him before he could drive away.

"Are you forgetting something?" Danny asked and Steve just stared at him.

"Uh…. No?" he answered, though he was starting to feel like he had. He then checked the back seat and found it empty and gasped. "Shit, Nahele," he cried jumping out of the car and running back to the hospital. Fuck. He'd get this. He'd get this. He'd have to, since Rowan was out of commission for three fucking weeks.


	164. Chapter 164

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Wednesday my wonderful readers! How did you like last chapter? Was it cute enough? Gosh I hope so. So guess what? It's January 21st in the Rewrite world, which means… ANOTHER BIRTHDAY SPECIAL! Kay, so this one is going to be a little bit longer but it's filled with all sorts of cute things, I PROMISE! Ohh… and we got a real steamy scene too, I hope you guys LOVE IT! Don't forget to leave a review, don't forget to tell me what you wanna read for the 200th special chapter, and I will see you guys on Friday!_

Chapter 164

* * *

They decided, that twenty-one days was overkill but fourteen would be just enough. Which was exactly what Rowan wanted. When both Rowan and Joe showed no signs after a week, they were more than positive that they weren't going show any signs of the dead strain of bird flu that they were certain Joe and Rowan had contracted. And with all the annoyance Rowan had caused, between using her void power to short out security measures and cameras to slapping people when she got pricked with needles, the quarantine nurses just wanted her gone.

So, on a Friday morning she and Joe were going to be released and she couldn't wait. She couldn't wait to be in Steve's arms again, all wrapped up and warm. She couldn't wait to kiss him, to run her finger through his hair or to feel his breath and teeth against her skin. She couldn't wait to see Nahele, which she assumed she would once he came home from school. Starting half way through the school year meant that he couldn't join any of the teams, but he also opted not to join any of the clubs, leaving him extracurricular-less. But Rowan didn't care so long as he came straight home and let her hug him. She was excited for real food, and Steven had promised her SO MUCH food when she got out. Everything she was craving. He'd have to be off for a week to take her to all her favourite spots. She was excited to sleep in her own bed, to smell something other then the stale hospital air. She wanted to smell like Steven again, was that so bad?

They opened up the doors and Rowan rushed out, the air smelled different out there, stupid but to her it did. It smelled fresher. A tingle went up her spine and she knew what that was. She turned, took two steps out into the main hall and practically bowled into Steven.

They were a tangled mess, a mass of limbs, scrambling to grip one another. His lips slammed down onto hers and in turn she practically climbed him to get closer. It look all of two seconds to get her in her favourite position, legs clamped around his waist, her arms wrapped around his neck, her tongue down his throat, while one of his hands was sunk into her hair, the other was wrapped around her waist to keep her to him as they made out.

"I missed you so much," she whispered against his lips and he answered her with a deep growl. Great he was past words that was just the way she wanted him. Where was the nearest supply closet?

"Uh… guys…?"

Rowan froze. She pulled away recognizing that voice. She stared down at Steve who was now staring up at her wincing. "Did you bring the kid?" she asked him.

"Well… he uh… he missed you too…"

"You let him stay home from school?"

"Well… yeah… he… uh… he wanted to…"

"STEVEN!" she cried and he winced again.

"Yeah, I'm starting to regret it now too."

"I am standing right here, you know," Nahele said but Rowan held out a single finger to him. She meant give them one minute but he took it as be quiet.

"You knew, you knew… fourteen fucking days, Steven and we haven't…"

"It's been seventeen actually," he clarified. "And I know but he gave me that puppy dog look and I couldn't say no."

"Oh my god, god forbid we get a dog," she growled she then turned to Nahele and smiled to him as she said: "Baby I am so glad to see you, but you're going to need to give me and Steve some space to uh… calm down, can we do that?"

Nahele nodded and walked away and Rowan turned back to Steve and scowled down to him. "Really, Steven?"

"Yeah I didn't think this through," he said with a sigh and Rowan bowed her head to his.

"I can't believe I'm saying this right now but… put me down, Steven."

Steve winced again, his lips nibbling against her trying to start up their kisses again. She could feel him straining against his pants to get to her and though she wanted nothing more than to feel him inside her, they couldn't cause he had brought their foster kid.

"See the problem with that is I'm stuck now," he whispered. "So, you're just going to have to stay there…"

"Steven James McGarrett you put me down this instant," she ordered but at his full name he merely groaned and sunk his teeth into her shoulder. She pressed into it and then remembered that they needed to stop. "No. Steven. Stop it. Put me down."

He groaned again, and she moaned back at him. "I know, but you brought our kid, now put me down, let me go and fix yourself up."

Steve slowly put her down. Once her feet hit the ground, she straightened herself out, fixed her hair and then moved out of Steve arm range before he could snatch her up once more.

"Fix yourself," she hissed and he scowled trying to discretely fix his pants while Rowan moved with a big grin towards where Nahele was waiting with a get-well teddy for her.

"Hey baby!" she cried pulling him into a tight hug. "I missed you boo!"

He handed her the teddy bear and she took it and clutched it to her chest. "It's so cute!" she cried and his grin grew.

"I picked it out myself," he said. "And spent my allowance on it!"

Steve let him buy this with his own money? For god sake the cheapskate. She pinned Steve with a dry glare but his proud smile was all she needed to see to know that this was probably Nahele's idea, something nice that he wanted to do just for her. "Well that just makes it extra special," she said solemnly. "Alright, enough of this mushy stuff, can we get me home please?" she asked and Steve wrapped his arm around her again and Nahele just smiled.

"Yes please, can you make pancakes? Steve kept trying but he can't do them right," Nahele said. Steve shook his head.

"I swear to god, Rowan, I followed your recipe to the tee, I don't know what I was doing wrong," he growled.

Rowan just smiled at her boys and nodded. God, she had missed them.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Nahele shoved another pancake fully into his mouth. Steve laughed at him, as Rowan scowled and cried: "Geezus kid, chew your food."

Nahele just shook his head and with his mouth full of pancakes said: "It's just too good."

"Breakfast for dinner has always been my favourite," she agreed and Steve just smiled at her in that sultry, silken, half smirk debonair kind of way that always got her blood boiling. Rowan's responding look, a half hooded, tongue partially between her teeth, side glance hit him with so much desire and regret it was ridiculous.

How could he have forgotten how hot he was for her on a regular basis. Add a fourteen-day forced separation, where the previous three days they hadn't been able to act on their desires, and he should have realized that they'd be panting for each other.

After a long moment of them just staring at each other Nahele cleared his throat again and they finally tore their eyes away from each other.

"Okay, you know what," Nahele said to them. "I'm… uh… I'm gonna give you guys a gift."

"Aww baby, you don't gotta do that, my teddy bear is more than enough," Rowan said tapping the head of the stuffed animal she had sitting on the kitchen island beside her.

"Oh, trust me, you two are going to want this," he said. "So, I'm going to go upstairs, cause I have a lot of homework to catch up on and all that, and I'm going to shut my door, and I'm going to put my headphones on and listen to very loud music."

"That's not good for your hearing, though," Rowan whined completely missing what Nahele was giving them.

"Trust me, I'm going to need it," he said before turning to Steve. "And I'm going to take these pancakes upstairs, with the rest of my cocoa, and I'm going to be up there… say… an hour?"

"Maybe longer?"

"Two hours? Is that enough?"

Steve nodded. "Yeah we'll be done by then."

"Done, what are you talking about?" Rowan snapped. "I just got home and he's going to go up to his room…." She trailed off catching Steve's eye. "Oh, oh… aw Steven… why did you…? Okay never mind, are you sure you're okay with this?"

She had posed that last question to Nahele who was nodding grimly. "Yeah, clearly you guys need it," he said.

"Thanks kid," Steve called as he packed up the food and headed out of the kitchen. Immediately Steve was moving closer, his hands reaching for her.

"Steve, this feels wrong… sending him up so we can…." She started but Steve already had a hold of her and was pressing insistent kisses to the edges of her lips. "I'm sure… I'm sure we can wait for him to go to school tomorrow."

"Tomorrow's Saturday," he whispered against her and he felt her silent oh against his own lips. Slipping his hand to the back of her neck he tipped her head back so he could kiss her properly and he hungrily went about devouring her.

He had missed this. He had missed having her in his arms, he missed how she tasted, how she so easily melded into his touch like she was his missing piece filling all those empty cracks both in his heart and against him.

It didn't take much to convince her to go with it. Her arms wrapped around his neck and his arms wrapped around her, picking her up and dropping her on the edge of the counter behind her. His head disappeared in her neck, while her hands impatiently attempted to tug off his shirt. He had forgotten how much she liked him shirtless.

He stopped sucking on that spot of her neck where it met her shoulder briefly, only to let the shirt come up and over his head and then he was attached to her again like he was vampire and he was trying to feed off of her. Her nails dug into the skin of his lower back and he almost sunk his teeth into her. God she always knew just where to dig into him. They shifted, digging into his sides and he nearly lost his mind then and there.

He needed those shorts off of her. They looked good on her, of course, but they would look better on the kitchen floor. His hands struggled with the button simply cause he couldn't stop shaking with anticipation, but Rowan, Rowan rarely shook. She made quick work of her own shorts as Steve covered her in kisses, his tongue dipping into her mouth, and then her hands were working on his own pants.

He was hard, he was ready, he wanted her more than anything in the whole world at that moment. The thought of sinking into her, of having her under him clinging to him, had kept him up for the last two weeks. But he wasn't ready. She wasn't ready. He wasn't done with her yet.

But before he could get a hand between her thighs, she had him, gripped in her smooth cool fingers, jerking only twice before he was pitching against her grip. Okay, maybe he was too ready for her. At this rate he'd come before he got inside her.

It took one move, his hands on her hips and one tug and like that he was there, right there, the right spot. His lips fell away from hers as he stared up into those inviting pools of blue. He had already jumped into them, he was already helpless lost to her and willingly so. Those words, on the tip of his tongue, desperate to be heard, to be reciprocated.

She rested against him, her arms around his neck, her eyes searching his as if wondering why he had froze. And he knew why, because he was about to bare his heart and soul to her and he knew, he knew that if he went that far he'd never be able to go back. And he felt that if he was going to say any of that to her that she deserved something a little more romantic than an _I love you_ before they fucked.

She seemed to realize that he was stuck, that he was unable to move because she simply lowered her lips to his, kissing him softly. Nothing too demanding, a simple, easy, soft kiss. And just like that he was jump started again.

He thrust up and she gasped against him as he sunk deep into her body. Oh god how her body clung to him, how it felt so good to be back in that snug, wet warmth of hers. Burying his head into her neck again he fell into that familiar tempo, each thrust just a little deeper, just a little faster. She clung to him, her fingernails digging into his lower back, scratching welts up to his shoulders, fingers dug through his hair as his breath ran hot against her collarbones. Her legs clamped around him to bury him even deep into her, she was off the counter entirely but just pinned to it so they could get closer, until they were nothing but skin to skin.

Her lips pressed hot kisses to his forehead, to his jaw line, to anything she could find while he forged forward desperate to find solace inside her. When he finally came it was mere moments before her own climax, a climax he had brought on by slipping his fingers between them to help her along as he had sensed that he was going to shoot off long before her. He blamed the distance. He had been separated from her too long, getting a taste after pining for it for so long had turned him wild.

But he knew, he still had another hour and half to show her just how long and well he could pleasure her. They were both tired though, he knew that, but he wanted more, needed more, needed to make up for lost time. But at that moment he was content to cradle her to him as they both caught their breaths.

God there was nothing he liked more than having her against him, and nothing he wouldn't do to make sure she never left his side.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Oh, the sex they had.

Two full hours of everything goes. Her on top, him on top, from behind, from the side, all the oral sex they could manage, and then they had collapsed a sweating panting mess certain that they had had enough sex to last a century. That they had had enough to make up for being away from each other for fourteen days. But it had been longer since they had had sex, there had been three days before she got put into quarantine where their schedules had kept them from that, so really it was much longer since she had had him like that.

But after dinner, after Nahele had gone to sleep and Steve was showering, Rowan found herself irresistibly drawn to him again. They fucked four more times, twice in the shower, once in the washroom and then a fourth time in their own bed before they finally fell asleep again.

The fact of the matter had been that she missed him. Going to sleep without him beside her had been awkward and hard. Not to mention she was having nightmares again. The car dream except the dead bodies around her were all Steve. She had never slept more soundly in her life with Steve's arms around her, but then again, he also might have fucked her comatose.

The following morning when she woke up, she was well rested and happy. She had rolled over to find Steve still asleep, probably exhausted, as he had done a lot of the work last night, and she marveled at how peacefully beautiful he was lying beside her.

And he was all hers.

For a short while she had trailed her fingers along the tattoos on his bicep and then down the skin of his ribs. He shifted in bed, his arm wrapping around her and tugging her a bit closer so he could burry his nose into her hair. He murmured in his sleep, shifting closer to her to try and flatten her against his chest. Her hands rested against the planes of his chest, marveling in the muscle and the feel of his heart beat beneath her hands.

It was in that moment, lying in his arms, in his bed, inhaling his scent while pressed up to his chest his heart beat echoing in her ears that she realized it. She was done falling. She had landed.

She was in love with Steven McGarrett.

And that just made today even more special than before.

It took some maneuvering but Rowan finally got herself out of Steve's grasp. She put on her favourite pair of burgundy shorts and lacy black tank top, she did the barest of makeup, ran a finger through her tangled waves of hair and skipped downstairs. She made pancakes the way Nahele liked them and then waited for her boys to wake up.

She heard Steve's phone ring and for a moment she was worried he'd take a case, but he wouldn't do that on today of all days, especially since she had just got home yesterday. Surely, he'd pass it off, right?

But less than ten minutes later, Steven was pounding the stairs and heading towards her in cargo pants, a devastatingly dark blue polo that brought out the blue in his eyes, his shield on one hip his gun on the other.

He winced when he saw her standing there with pancakes ready for them. "Hey babe, I'm sorry, you're gonna kill me, but… I caught a case."

He had come to stand beside her, pressing a soft kiss to her cheek. He picked up his plate and began to shove it into a plastic Tupperware container. Obviously to go. Rowan tried not to frown at him. "A case? Today? Couldn't you let HPD…"

"It's a possible bomb threat so, no," he said. He swooped in to kiss her again and she let him, she couldn't really be that mad about it, it wasn't really his fault. "I'll drop Nahele off at school."

Rowan blinked her eyes at him. Nahele? At School? Today? "But it's Saturday, he doesn't have school on Saturday."

Steve turned to look at her, he opened his mouth to answer her but Nahele came crashing down the stairs fully dressed. "Are you almost ready?" Steve asked him as the kid made a mad dash to drop as many fruits and water bottles into his bag. "I've gotta leave, like now."

"One second I'm almost ready."

"But… it's not a school day," Rowan whined. "And I made breakfast!"

"Oh, I know, it's Saturday, duh!" Nahele said, kissing her on the cheek as he brushed past her to put toaster waffles into the toaster. Steve was already pouring him a glass of milk and handing it to him with a stern: _chug this._ Before he moved on to packing Nahele's pancakes for him too. Great they were both leaving her.

"He's not doing so hot in math or science so I got him a tutor. Every Saturday I drop him off at school to get extra help," Steve explained.

"Oh… well… I could drop him off today, since you have such an important case," Rowan offered.

Nahele turned wide eyes onto Steve who shook his head. "It's kinda like… a… uh… me and Nahele time," he said with a wince. "Sorry, just… we need to bond more, you know?"

Rowan nodded and Nahele softened. "I mean, it's on his way, you know? And you just got home so I don't want to bother you with driving me places, I just want you to rest."

Rowan just nodded again. Feeling jilted and disappointed and a little annoyed. "You guys better go you're going to be late."

They both kissed her cheek one more time before calling good-bye and rushing out the front door. Okay, so her two boys were busy, she couldn't really blame them, with the quarantine, and everyone thinking that it was going to last another week, it made sense that they'd forget what today was. And maybe Nahele didn't know, it wasn't like they had ever talked about it before, but Steve should have remembered. He remembered last year.

Pulling out her phone with a sigh, she dialed the next person who should also have remembered what today was and as it rang she picked at her pancake. When the call connected, she was surprised to get an angry: "What?" from Danny.

But that didn't stop her from hitting him with a cheery: "Good morning! What's crawled up your butt?"

"Hey is this an emergency?" Danny asked her after a brief pause. "Cause I'm kinda really busy."

"Oh… well… no… I just… what are you up too today?"

"We have a bomb threat and I have to drop Grace off at Amber's…"

"Oh, it's a Grace weekend? I could watch her if you'd…"

"And normally I'd be all for that, but you got exposed to that crazy bird flu thing and they were supposed to hold you for twenty-one days but you went and annoyed your way into an early release, so I'm going to hard pass on having you anywhere near my kid," Danny snapped. "And you know, I want Grace to like Amber more. You get it right?"

Rowan said nothing, because all of what he just said, though true, was kind of hurtful cause she realized that he didn't remember either. "Did all of you get called in?" she asked in a small voice.

"Yep."

"Chin and Kono and everyone?"

"That's what all of us means, Rowan."

"Grover too?"

"Okay I don't have time for this. We're all working a case, do you need something, Rowan? Are you feeling Bird-flu-ish? Do you need me to call Steve?"

"No, I just… it's just that… today's my…"

"For fuck… Okay I've got the governor on the other line, I have to go!" Danny cried and then hung up the phone.

Rowan sighed. Okay. So, her Five-0s were all busy, she could call someone else right?

She dialed Max, next cause he was entertaining. But he had a body to put back together… a body he was very certain might be more than one body. He sounded very excited to put together that gruesome puzzle. Kamekona and Flipper were running a special over at the shrimp truck so they were busy.

The only person who picked up and wasn't really all that busy was Jerry. Sure, he wanted to go on a surveillance op, but hey, at least he invited her along.

But it hurt. It hurt that none of her friends, or the man she was in love with had remembered her birthday.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan had gone to pick up Jerry in her pastel purple car and he had not been happy. It stood out too much, he said, and she told him if he wanted a ride this was the one they were taking. So he got in with all his equipment and his cameras and he made he drive out to the other side of Oahu so the could sit down the street to watch a hotdog vendor he was certain was a dictator who had been reported as dead but Jerry was certain the government actually just flipped and relocated to Hawaii.

Rowan had gone up twice to get a hotdog. The first time because Jerry wanted better pictures and he put a spy cam on her, but the second time was cause she was hungry and she had let Jerry eat the first one. She kept checking her phone to see if she'd get a message from anyone but it was two hours since she left the house and _still no one remembered_.

She sighed again and Jerry stopped taking pictures and turned to her. "What's up? You seem sad."

She wanted to snap back at him, but it wasn't his fault he didn't know when her birthday was. Instead she shifted in her seat to turn to him and asked: "Do you know what today is?"

"It's the 21st. It's also Martin Luther king Jr. Day, National hugging day, and my favourite National Banana Bread day. Oh, and the pagan's celebrated this day as the very first day of the Rowan tree moon," he said. "They would get together and perform initiations, or carve charms or create magical items because the Rowan tree was considered the tree of magic and during the Rowan Tree moon it was extra potent. They also associated it with an astral travel, personal power and success. Which I think is pretty cool, cause, you know, your name is Rowan."

Rowan nodded. Wow… that had… uh… a lot of meaning to her and her life. She wondered if her mother knew that when she named her. She definitely knew the part about the magic tree.

"Yeah, okay, cool, but do you know what else today is?"

"Uh… National Squirrel Appreciation day?"

Rowan scowled at him. "No. Today's my birthday."

"Whoa no way! Your birthday is the first day of the Rowan Tree moon?" he asked and then he gave her shoulder a little fist bump. "And Happy birthday by the way."

"Thanks," she whispered, tearing up a little over her first and only _happy birthday_ of the year. "Did you know that everyone else forgot? Last year they planned this big thing and surprised me with my dream car and this year they all forgot."

"Well… to be fair… aren't they dealing with a bomb threat right now?'

"Well I mean… sure… but I'm supposed to be dating Steve, we live in the same house, he could have easily said happy birthday before he rushed off," she said sulking. "I know I'm being irrational, but it's my birthday and I'm upset so just let me have it."

"No, I get that," Jerry said. "My dad died like a month before my birthday and it was the worst birthday ever. My mom tried to make it a happy day for me but we were all too sad to celebrate. So… you know…"

"But did your friends ever really forget your birthday?"

"Uh… no," Jerry said. "Didn't really have friends though."

"Okay we're both depressing, let's call it a tie," she waved off.

"I wasn't making it a competition," Jerry muttered. "You know, my dad… for special occasions and stuff would take us to this beach for like a little family day type thing. Was there any traditions that you had your family?"

"Uhm… yeah. Birthday person picks the restaurant," she said. "Brother would give me birthday beats, but my mom and I used to go for mani-pedis as a little… uh… girls only thing. I was always most excited for that."

"Oh? Yeah? You liked the mommy daughter stuff?"

"Well yeah… I never… uh… my mom never liked me best, she liked Trevor, so any alone time I got where she wasn't terribly disappointed with me over something stupid I did was rare… and special. And she wasn't allowed to be disappointed with me on my birthday no matter what I did previously. She'd have to pause it."

Jerry stared at her taking that in. A lot of people did when she talked about her family. They'd always say the same thing, that they were certain it wasn't true. Her mother loved her, really she did. But they didn't live with what Rowan did, the only people who'd understand and know all of that to be true were Sarah and Trevor.

He seemed to think about everything she had said and after a moments contemplation he said: "Well hey, what about we wrap up here and go get mani-pedis huh?"

Rowan blinked her eyes surprised. "Really? You'd do that with me?"

"Well… I mean, I've never done it before so like… why not try something new?" he said with a roguish grin and a shrug.

"Awww, that's really sweet Jerry. Trust me, you'll love it your hands and feet are going to be so soft after this," she said going for her keys. This was the most excited she had been that day.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Jerry followed Rowan up to the front door. His nails had been buffed, his cuticles cut and then they put a clear gloss on his nails making them shinier then they'd ever been. But Rowan's were a light purple to match her car with her ring finger a shiny light gold as what she called a: bling finger.

"You sure Steve isn't going to mind if we go for dinner?" Jerry asked, almost bouncing with excitement.

"Asshole abandoned me on my birthday. My birthday, my rules. He's getting left behind!" she said. "But I don't wanna leave Nahele behind so if he's home we're picking him up and then we're going to Side Street."

She got the door unlocked and Jerry held his breath. He had been given a very big job that day and he was excited to see it pan out.

The door finally opened and from all corners of the living room came shouts of: _Surprise!_

Rowan cried out in surprise her hands flying to her face. "NO!" she shouted. "You guys you said you had a bomb threat… you… you tricked me!"

The living room had been done up in pastel purple balloons and streamers. There were platters of food, none of which were fish based, brought by Kamekona, and standing around were her friends. Steve, Nahele, Chin, Kono and Adam, Kamekona and Flipper, Duke and his wife, all the Grover's plus the children, Danny, Amber and Grace, and of course Max and Sabrina. Even the Governor was there. They were all smiling happily at her, while Rowan half turned away only to turn back to laugh at them.

Steve came forward, in dark jeans, and a black button up shirt, he quickly put a tiara onto her head and then hugged her to him as she cried into his chest. "And you thought I forgot!"

He hugged her for a bit before they all came around her to wish her a happy birthday. All joking with her about how they had all gotten her at the end.

But they weren't done yet. After everyone got to go around and wish her a happy birthday Steve ushered her upstairs so she could change, cause everyone knew how Rowan liked to dress up. She came back down ten minutes later in a knee length pink tulle skirt and a grey corset shirt with no sleeves. She had braided her hair back in a crown and put the tiara on top. She had a golden seashell glinting around her neck that had Steve beaming.

"Okay, so now that we're all ready, I'd just like to say thank you guys for doing all this for me," she announced to them. "I'm very grateful that for the second year in a row I get to spend my birthday with my new family, especially since it's grown a little bit since last year. I love each and every one of you so very much, and I just wanted to say thank you for celebrating my 29th birthday with me."

She had gotten a little teary during her speech, in fact it seemed to hit everyone. When she was done they all clapped and Steve returned to her side to hug her again before standing beside her and tugging her to her side.

He gestured to someone and then Nahele was coming out of the kitchen with a sparkler covered chocolate cake and they were all singing happy birthday to her. Rowan clapped and smiled and blew her candles out and, in the crowd, Jerry smiled, happy that her birthday was even better than she thought she would be and that he had got to help make it that way.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

"Stop cleaning!" Steve snapped from the kitchen. "I can see you cleaning. You're the birthday girl you're not supposed to clean when you're the birthday girl. Now stop it."

Rowan, in the process of picking up the paper plates that were left over promptly stopped and glared at him. "If I don't clean you guys aren't going to finish it up."

Steve threw down the platter he was carrying on the kitchen island where he then leant out of the kitchen door to yell at her. "Rowan. Stop being stubborn. Why don't you make us all your famous cocoa? Huh?"

"Really? You want me to make more of a mess?"

"Yes, you make the cocoa, the kids going to get the fire started, I'm going to finish up in here… by myself… in a timely fashion," he said to her. When Rowan only stared at him with unimpressed eyes he sighed. "Don't make me kick you out Rowan."

She rolled her eyes but moved into the kitchen to start making cocoa and though Nahele was supposed to be setting up a fire and cleaning the living room he stepped into the kitchen and asked: "Can we do it now?"

Steve came to a halt and turned to him clearly exasperated with all the interruptions but Nahele knew he wouldn't yell at him. All he had to do was bounce a little and Steve know what he meant. "We agreed we'd get to that once we were out on the Lanai."

"But I want to do it now. I wanna know if she likes it," he whined.

"We're busy 'Hele, we'll do it once we set up outside, okay?" he repeated.

"Okay, why are you two talking about me like I'm not here," Rowan asked, she then turned to Nahele and asked softly: "What's the matter boo?"

"I know we said we'd open all the gifts on the Lanai together but I want to give you my gift now. Can I give you my gift now?"

"Of course you can!" Rowan cried which caused Steve to groan but Nahele was already sprinting towards the pile of gifts that had been left for her. He pulled out his gift and Steve's and then rushed back to the kitchen and placed them right beside her.

He then turned to Steve who was trying to pack the left-over food into Tupperware containers and cried: "Come over here! We have to watch her open them together."

"What?" Steve snapped slamming the container down. "It's not Christmas! I said we'd open them later we'll open them later."

Rowan shot him a glare over her shoulder and snapped: "Don't yell at him, just put the food aside for three minutes and come over here… now!" Steve groaned and she added: "Don't take that tone with me, it's my birthday, I'm demanding your presence so bring you and your cute butt over here, please."

Steve glared at her until she turned fully around, abandoned the gifts, Nahele and the cocoa and she went over to him, as always, the second she was within arm's reach his hands snatched her up pulling her close.

"What's wrong with you?" she whispered. "What's wrong, why are you so grumpy."

Steve glanced around at the house and she smiled at him. "For godsake Steve, it's a lot to clean, it's okay to be overwhelmed. Both Nahele and I are here, and we can help you…"

"But it's your birthday…" he muttered, but Rowan just shook her head at him. "And… I unno… I just wanted it to go a certain way…"

"And I want to open my gift now," she said to him. "At least those two. And besides you know nothing goes to plan where I'm involved."

"Ain't that the truth," he said with a scoff and then he sighed. "Alright, fine but just these two." As she led him back he heard Steve ask: "Do you really think my butt is cute?"

But as she was more interested in the gifts she ignored him. Once she was back by the kettle. Steve went to stand beside Nahele as he pushed a gift forward. "That one's mine," he said. "And the other one is Steve's."

Rowan picked up his and his heart swelled up with a nervous excitement. When he had picked out her gift he was so certain she'd like it, but now that she was about to open it he was worried she wouldn't. But Rowan picked up the small box, got the wrapping off quickly and then was opening it up.

"Oh, is that what I think it is?" She brought out the little baggie of pastel purple guitar picks with a smile. "Does that say… is that my name?"

"I heard you complaining that you're always losing guitar picks and how you wanted to write your name on them so you could prove people were stealing them from you," Nahele told her and Rowan laughed. "Now… now everyone will know they're yours… and so will you."

"Awww, you are so sweet," she said pulling him in for a hug while she looked them over. The gold cursive spelling out _Pierce_ glinting in the light. He didn't tell her that they were expensive and Steve had to pay a lot for them, he was just glad that she liked them.

"And, this one is mine," Steve said. "And is also practical… I figured… you know… I got you the car last year that it would be okay if I went small this year."

Nahele turned to Steve surprised. Rowan's GTO was his birthday gift from him last year? Rowan smiled at him in an odd way as she opened up his gift, which was just casually wrapped in sparking silver paper. "You didn't get me a car, it was a group gift, everyone pitched in, it was just your idea, and you got it out of the HPD impound lot. But we both know if I tell the others you're taking sole credit that they'll kill you."

She got the paper off and under it was a simple black leather bound note book, she opened it up to reveal song paper. "Look at the spine," he whispered and she closed it and turned it. And there across the spine was golden print _Songs by Rowan Pierce Vol. 2_. Steve took it from her and turned it to the back cover and opened it up. "And it has this little flap at the back for slip in all those napkins or random pieces of paper you scribble notes on sometimes." He glanced up to her to see her staring at him and he frowned. "I know it's small but uh… the one my mom gave you is almost full so I thought… you know…"

"These are absolutely the best gifts I will get this year," she said. "They are practical, and beautiful, and completely my aesthetic and I can't wait to use this book or these guitar picks… and this was just… wow… I love them…"

She pulled them both in for a hug before sending them off to finish their chores. She made three mugs of cocoa while Nahele was outside getting the fire started. With Nahele's help both he and Steve managed to clean up the living room and get all the food in the fridge. While they did that Rowan made a platter of all the essentials for s'mores. Steve took the gifts outside, while Nahele got the s'mores onto the table so they'd be ready to roast them, and Rowan, Rowan went upstairs to change into her lounging clothes, and came back down with her black wooden, white seamed acoustic guitar and Nahele smiled, he loved listening to her strum away.

She got her book, her favourite chewed up writing pen and a few of the guitar picks. When they were all done with their chores, Rowan sat herself down by her chair by the water, a cup of cocoa beside her, her book open on the small table beside it.

"You boys start roasting your marshmallows, I've hit a bit of inspiration and I want to capture it before it goes," she said.

Steve shook his head, but shoulder to shoulder he and Nahele stood, spearing their marshmallows to put over the fire. "That's our girl," Steve said to him. "Lightning in a bottle, that girl."

Nahele shook his head. "I'm thinking more like fireflies in a jar," he whispered. Twinkling and fragile, a piece of a starbound night sky that a jar would never do justice to.

Steve purposely put on two marshmallows on his roasting spit clearly to make a s'more for Rowan. Already Rowan was strumming away, a certain lyric repeating over and over in different keys, different tempos, different chords. She had a lyric, she had a bit of a tune, this was a song forming, and he marveled at the way it took form under her gentle care.

 _You'll always be the home I wanna come home to, cause there ain't no place, no place like you._

Nahele looked back to Steve who was patiently roasting his marshmallows while watching Rowan with this look of loving awe on his face and then back to Rowan who, in the firelight looked like another being, like a fairy or something. He had spent so long wishing for a dad, a real one instead of the waste of space he had called dad so he could have a real family. When his mother died he thought that that was it for him. There was going to be no family until he got old enough to marry and make his own. But there on that beach with a man who may have needed some time to warm up to him but had more than warmed up in the short span of time Nahele had lived with them and the woman who had taken one look at him and decided she wanted to give him a home he felt like he was in a fairy tale.

Steve the strong warrior prince, and Rowan the fairy princess. This beach front home their little kingdom. Nahele couldn't help but feel like, for the first time in a long time, he had a family, that he was home.


	165. Chapter 165

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Friday my lovely readers! Is everyone excited for the long weekend? I'd be more excited if I was actually off! But that's not important let get onto the next chapter. Not gonna lie we got some angst in this one, but it ends very, very cutely I promise! Don't forget to review, don't forget to tell me what you'd like to read for the 200th special and I'll see you guys on Monday!_

Chapter 165

* * *

Adam had gone out to the balcony of his spacious lavish home to get a bit of fresh air as he got ready to go to work. Kono joined him not long after, in her silken bathrobe marvelling at the view with a mug of coffee in her hand. He loved it when she looked domestic in his house. He just loved her and he couldn't understand how they weren't married yet.

So, even though he swore he'd never ruin a magical moment between he and Kono he just had to know what was going on in that pretty little head of hers. "Hey, you know what today is?" he asked her.

She smiled at him in that wondrous way he still wasn't used to, she didn't know the answer but she just seemed happy to be there with him. "No."

"Think back, one year ago," he prompted. When she couldn't come up with anything he added: "Vancouver."

Realization hit her face. "I found you in that diner," she whispered and he nodded to her. "That feels like a lifetime ago."

"You know, after we got home, those first few weeks were an adjustment. Not having to look over my shoulder anymore. But slowly, life got back to normal and I started thinking about the future and where we'd be in a year," he said and then he sighed and hung his head. "I thought, for certain, we'd be married."

"Uhm…" she started no longer smiling but he interrupted her.

"Hey, look. I made a promise to you. I said you wouldn't lose me and you haven't. Here I am. Everything is good so, what's the problem?"

"Nothing, there is no problem," Kono said but Adam shook his head.

"I have Rowan on my back about setting a date…" "She's on my back more, you know…" "…and I really want her to stop harassing us, she's getting more rabid by the day…"

Kono put her hands on his chest. "I can deal with Rowan."

"Okay, good… but… something's wrong. I can tell. You gotta tell one of us, cause I'm really worried Rowan's gonna have an aneurism at this rate," Adam told her which caused Kono to laugh. "And you know… I'm curious too."

"Look, it's nothing, okay? Everything is just so good right now. I don't want it to change."

Adam shook his head. "That's not it."

Kono took that in, her smile officially gone. She knew Rowan was getting her visions again, slowly but surely getting stronger by the day and the dream. It was only a matter of time before she found out. And Adam deserved to find out from her, not Rowan.

"It's your father's company," she admitted.

He recoiled from her in surprise. "I'm sorry?"

"Look, I know you've worked so hard to clean up the business, but there are still a few things about it that I have a problem with."

Adam shook his head and scoffed. "Kono, I…" he started just as she said: "Adam, just…"

He stood up and turned away from her and she continued. "Look, it still has tied to the Noshimuri clan… investors who were once connected to the Yakuza Up until a few months ago, Wo Fat had a stake in the company!"

"Really, Wo Fat? You wanna walk down that road with who your maid of honor is supposed to be?" Adam cried turning around. Okay. Yeah. He had a point there. "I had no knowledge of Wo Fat's business, _Rowan_ knew more about it, _Rowan_ was the one that put me onto it," he snapped at her. She tried to tell him that she knew that but he just steam rolled over her. "Every day, I fight to keep our holdings legit, to make sure the business doesn't go back to what it was."

"Okay, but still, the money that your father used to build the company, where that came from… Adam, no matter what you do, it's a business that was born out of corruption. And as long as you're tired to it…"

Adam braced himself on the table finally understanding what she wanted. "You want me to sell the company," he whispered and then she just stared at him. He nodded. "Have I ever asked you to quit being a cop? Every second of the day, I worry about you, but have I ever asked you to give up your job?"

Oh… now that was a low blow. A very, very, low blow. "No," she admitted, because he was right, he had never done that to her.

"But now you're asking me to give up mine," he recapped though he didn't need to. "Kono, I am fighting to change my family's legacy. I walk away now, that will never happen. And let's say I do sell, okay? What then? What do you expect me to do with my life?"

"Look, I don't know… but we could figure it out."

Adam scoffed again. "Yeah, right. We'll figure it out. Like it's no big deal."

Kono sighed. "Okay, maybe you're not in a place you can hear me right now," she said to him and he just turned away from her. "I should go."

And for some reason Adam let her go. Both of them were confused. How had a morning that started so perfectly gone so very wrong?

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

They had one serious case on Hawaii that day. Steve and the others had been called in when Dekker had been shot attempting to _break back into prison_. Now, they had heard of guys getting themselves arrested to go back to prison but no one had ever tried to climb the goddamn fence to get back in. But it had brought up the question of how he got out in the first place? They doubted that he snitched his way out, he was supposed to be in for a long time. It didn't help that Dekker couldn't remember what had happened to him. Though Five-0 was sure he was faking it. And then Morrison from ICE appeared and gave them the answers.

They had a dangerous Bulgarian gun runner on the island, that no one had ever seen in person before and Dekker was pulled out to try to sell to him and catch him. But they had lost contact with him and he ended up shot outside of prison.

Five-0 and Morrison had put the faked amnesia theory to test but he had passed, he didn't recognize Morrison at all.

Which left them with the problem that the one person who knew what Roman Zednick looked like couldn't remember meeting him in the first place. So Steve had done the only thing he could think of at the time. He called the only person he knew who had ties to that world and could help him.

Rowan showed up all in a tizzy throwing herself at him. He held her back and holding her tightly to his chest. God he had missed this and he had only left her company like an hour ago. He bowed his head to hers kissing her softly. "You're okay, thank god!" she whispered to him and he mentally winced.

Oh… maybe he should have specified that he was fine. "So if it's not you in the hospital, who is it? It's not Danny is it?"

"No, no, it's Dekker."

Rowan blinked her eyes at him. "Who the hell is that?"

"Remember… after the explosion… you paid for his brother's funeral?" Steve offered and Rowan scowled at him.

"Why the hell did you call me down here for that? I don't give a shit about him," she snapped. Steve opened his mouth to explain but she had already let him go and turned her angry eyes onto Kono. "Kay since all of you are alive and this is not an emergency, let's move onto a more pressing topic? Why did you tell Adam that you can't marry him over some silly company? He's making it legit… why isn't that enough?"

Kono glanced to everyone with eyes filled with wide surprise before whispering to her: "Rowan… not now…"

But Rowan wasn't having it. "No. now. Cause I'm trying to plan a wedding and you're giving Adam the impression that you're never going to marry him! What the hell? Do you know how hard I've been working?"

Kono sighed. "Rowan I've told you a million times, you're not my wedding planner…"

"You're also not hiring a wedding planner and doing nothing to actually plan your own wedding. Don't avoid my question what's going on with you?"

"Okay, look it's great that he's working so hard to make his father's company legit, really, Rowan, it _is_ great. But… from where it started… what it was founded on…"

"But… he can't change that. That… that's part of his history… you can't change history just because you don't like it…"

"I don't think that's what she's saying," Chin said coming to Kono's defense. "I think she's saying that since it came from something dirty no matter how clean it is nothing will ever change where it came from."

Steve nodded, definitely getting where both of them were coming from.

"Yeah… so like… that is all people will see," Steve added. "Like, no matter what they'll always know what it was born out of and always sort of wonder if it ever really did go legit, you know?"

"Yes exactly," Kono said. "I knew you guys would understand."

Rowan looked to all their faces. She looked horrified. "Is… is that… is that what you all think?" she asked and all of them essentially nodded their heads. "So it doesn't matter how much good someone does, because if their past is less than spotless, because they come from something dark and illegal, they can never be good?"

"Okay, now wait a second, we're talking about a company, not a person…" Steve said but Rowan was just glaring at them all. It was like all of them collectively realized that Rowan had taken everything they had said and applied it to herself. And it was never good when Rowan did something like that. But Steve could also see why she had taken it that way, how easily one could take that philosophy and pin it on Rowan, because that was what they were doing to Adam. His company was dirty, ergo he was dirty.

And judging by the look on Rowan's face this was spiralling quickly for them.

Grover was the one who stepped forward to try and diffuse the situation. "That's not we called you down here for, though, right?" he said to the others. "We were sort of hoping you could help us get a hold of someone who runs guns."

Rowan recoiled from them all, shaking her head like the question had stunned her. "Who runs… what?"

Steve stepped forward at that point. "We're looking for a Roman Zednick can Kong put you in…"

He reached a hand out to just try and soothe her, so he could hold her there and try to explain the mix up but she took a step away from him before she could, scoffing to herself. "Wow," Rowan breathed out. "Did you seriously call me down here to use my app?"

"Well… we just… we're on a timer here…"

"The absolute hypocrisy coming out of you people is ridiculous," she snapped. "After everything you said about Adam, about his company… You're just going to ask me to use an app that was literally created by the king of criminals, and connects me to all sorts of unsavory people?"

"Okay now wait a second…"

"You know… if that is how you feel about Adam and his company, I wonder how you feel about me and my app when you're not interested in using it for your own gains," she growled and then turned away.

"Wait, where are you going?" Steve called but Rowan didn't stop she just stormed off.

"Well… that uh… that was not good, now was it," Chin asked. When Steve turned he caught Kono's eyes and realized that she had realized what he had realized earlier. Rowan… Rowan had a point. If they thought all that stuff about a company and was pinning it onto Adam, logically it would stand to reason that they felt the same way about her and her network. Which would make them all hypocrites, just like she said.

Today wasn't going to end well for him. Steve could tell. Today wasn't going to end well at all.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Despite being mad at Steve, Rowan had scoured her app for any information on a Roman Zednick who ran guns out of European countries but mostly Russia. She got nothing. Nothing of use anyway. Just that he was illusive, was a competitor of Wo's and was very, very dangerous, and that Sandy was refusing to actually give her anything as Zednick was considered too dangerous for her to actually interact with. It didn't help that she had been kept up with dreams of torture. Of a family a woman and a little girl getting grabbed. Getting tortured. And then getting buried, both very much dead.

And she didn't know why she was dreaming that until she hugged Steve. Until she caught sight of a slightly chubbier man in brown hair down the hallway talking to a nurse.

 _They were his family_.

Rowan didn't know why it mattered. She didn't know why her dreams were showing her that. But she got an address and that was all she cared about. She didn't care about the why anymore, all she cared about was saving them. And after Steven had been so shitty she was determined to do it without him and with her app. Just to fucking spite him.

She picked Nahele up from school, received her customary kiss on the cheek from her foster kid and then offered him an adventure which he gladly took up. Together they drove to the little white brick house at 2756 Kalawao St. where toys were littering the perfectly green lawn. And across the street from it an unmarked black vehicle with two very serious looking bald men.

Rowan parked her car in the driveway and then both she and Nahele went up to the front door. She knocked quickly where the woman with the plain brown hair answered the door with an infant in her arms.

"Hi, I'm Rowan I work with your husband."

"Oh, you work with Jeff?" she asked.

Rowan nodded brightly, she checked back behind her again at the car that was just barely visible. "Yeah, sure, and uh… not going to lie but we have a bit of a situation. I'm going to deal with it but I was hoping that you could just watch Nahele for me?"

"Wait… what situation?" Nahele asked fear crossing over his face briefly.

"Don't worry about it," she said to him pushing him into Morrison's home. "Just uh… shut the door and don't open it until I come back."

She shut the door on them, pulled out her phone, dropped her purse by the front door and opened her useless grey app as she stormed over to the car. She forced that Ice Queen mask of anger onto her face to mask her own nervousness. She hadn't done this in such a long time, she wasn't certain how this was going to go, but hopefully it worked.

She looked down to her phone and said: "Hey Sandy I'm about to accost two unidentified men in a dark sedan posted outside a house on Kalawao street. I'm pretty sure they're mafia or at the very least dangerous."

 _That is not advisable until I have done a complete background search and analyzation of situation._

"Well move fast, Sandy, cause I'm not waiting."

She got to the car, rapped on the window and gave the driver the international signal for roll down the window which he obliged. He opened his mouth, probably to ward her off but Rowan put up a hand to silence him.

"My name is Rowan Pierce," she said to him. Their phones beeped and they both looked at them before looking back at them.

 _Device paired_ came from their GPS and Rowan smiled. "Oh good. Sandy, care to introduce me to who we have here?"

 _Certainly. The driver is Andrei Kabanov, a low level hired grunt, ties to both the Bulgarian and Russian mobs, he has no current ties to any organization listed, but he has three children of varying ages that we have identified as good blackmail material, especially the youngest girl. She's his favourite._

Rowan nodded. "Good to know. And who's his friend?"

 _Stoyan Botev, fairly little is known, used to be a lawyer. Addiction to cocaine, fast women, and bad gambling choices has left him in debt to the Estonian mob. He is pimped out to whoever the Estonian's feel like selling him to. It was either this or death. He is a bad shot and a bad driver. They use him as a patsy most of the time. He will take the fall for several murders if he is ever caught._

"Wow sucks to be you," Rowan said as she leant against the window of the car.

"What do you want?" Andrei asked, his eyes narrowed at her so Rowan did her best to smile prettily at him.

"I want you to drive away. Far away. And then I want you to tell your boss that I'm coming for him."

The two men held her eyes carefully. The passenger, Stoyan, shakingly brought a gun up towards her but Andrei put a hand out to force it back down. Oh, smart move, she liked Andrei.

"I am more than prepared to let you guys go easy," she told them. "But I'm not impressed with the whole _hit the family_ move. It's a low blow and it was uncalled for. We're not savages, we're supposed to be sophisticated. But I'm telling you right now it's going to get real savage up in here if he pulls that gun on me. So I'm going to tell you one more time. If you know what's good for you, you'll drive away and forget all about this. You hear me?"

"As you wish," Andrei said.

Rowan straightened, watched as he turned the car back on and then stepped back to let him drive away. Once they were gone and she couldn't see the car anymore, she looked down to her phone.

"Sandy?"

 _Yes… Professional?_

"What are the chances of you tracking down Roman Zednick for me?"

 _Roman Zednick is not a target we suggest you going after. Roman is illusive and 90% lethal. Master has attempted raids on Roman's operations and none have been successful._

Sirens hit the air but Rowan couldn't care less she was heading back the house where Nahele was standing on the stoop asking who those guys were. The woman with her two children behind him. Roman had gotten children involved. Roman had gotten involved with Five-0. That made Roman her problem.

"I'm not hitting his operations. I'm going to hit him. Get me all you can get on Roman Zednick, please and thank you."

HPD units swarmed the street, screeching to halts and hopping curbs. Well, that meant that Steve was going to find out what she had done. Wonderful, she'd just have to add that to the list of reasons the Five-0s thought she was a monster.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

They had found the house that Roman was thought to be renting and stormed the fortress. Steve had taken out two men, Chin had got the other that almost killed him but Morrison, he moved in on Roman, had his family threatened and then got hit over the head.

Steve had also found a girl shot up in one of the rooms, freaking out, so she was being dealt with elsewhere and when she was ready they'd ask her the important questions. But at that moment, Steve was more concerned with Morrison's health and sanity, because he knew no ambulance or head injury would contain him if he thought Rowan or Nahele was in danger. He figured Morrison to be the same.

Morrison shook his head again as the EMT put an icepack to his head.

"Roman was probably bluffing," Morrison said again. "I should have taken him down, I should have…"

"Hey, you played this thing exactly the way you should've," Steve told him. Which was true, because it's what he would have done if Roman had him in Morrison's place.

Grover came up an odd look about him, especially when he was looking at Steve which did not bode well for him. "I just heard back from HPD," he said. "The officers who responded have confirmed that your family is fine. They uh… the guys got chased off."

"Chased off?" Morrison echoed.

"Yeah. Got scared off by a woman in a pastel purple muscle car," Grover said eyeing Steve who sighed in the most aggressive way he could muster. God. Fucking. Damn. It. Rowan. "They're uh… they're bringing her… and the kid… down here for questioning."

"She had Nahele with her?!" Steve cried but Grover just shrugged.

Okay it was one thing for her to put herself into dangerous situations, but dragging his son… his foster son… along for the ride was _not_ okay!

"I'm going to kill her," Steve muttered to himself as Grover walked away and Morrison looked up to him.

"I uh… I guess you know who the pastel purple girl is?"

"Yeah, my girlfriend," Steve said with a sigh.

"Yeah? Shit, no way I didn't know you had tried your hand at settling down," Morrison said to him with a cheeky grin on his face.

"Yeah, I'm trying… now if she'd only stop trying to get herself killed," he said with a wry chuckle.

It wasn't long after that that Rowan, with Nahele beside her was ushered down the sloping green lawn towards him. He abandoned Morrison immediately, who had the gall to ask who the beach bunny was, to approach her. Nahele was still in his school uniform, the grey slacks and the white dress shirt, but Rowan, Rowan was in her burgundy shorts and a frilly grey tank top, while he was aware she looked like an irresistible beach bunny, he didn't need Morrison commenting on how his girl was… well a hot as fuck beach bunny. He walked away from Morrison so he could talk to her almost privately. He wanted to dig his hands into her hair and pull it out of that ponytail while he kissed her so thoroughly that she couldn't stand any more. And he might have if he wasn't so goddamn pissed off.

"Hey, 'Hele, are you okay?" he asked him pulling him in for a hug.

"Yeah! It was so cool, Steve!" he cried. "They just drove away! Like… serious mafioso dudes were so scared of Rowan that they drove away! And I thought you were the intimidating one of the family."

Oh, wow, what a blow to the ego right there. He turned a dark glare on Rowan who had the good grace to wince at him. "Kay, why don't you go see Uncle Chin, hmm?" he said pushing the kid towards his teammates before turning on to Rowan. "What the hell were you thinking?"

"I was thinking that they were going to take his wife and daughter and then torture and kill them," Rowan said. "And I figured neither of us would like it if that happened to us so… you know… I went and stopped it."

Steve groaned loudly at her. "But Rowan, you took Nahele with you! Why the hell would you take Nahele? What if something had happened huh? And you're supposed to not be dreaming! That's what you said, you're not dreaming right, right? So are you lying about that now too?"

"NO!" Rowan snapped. "I thought it was just a bad dream, cause I didn't know who they were, but you know… I hugged you today and got a bit of a flash…"

"But that's not useful! So that's what you're going to do now? Dream things that don't matter?" Steve cried.

"Really? Their lives don't matter?"

"No… I mean… they do… but I asked you about Roman Zednick not Morrison's family," he said with a sigh. "Did you… I mean… since you clearly used the app to scare off the people sitting on Morrison's house… do you think you could use it to find Roman?"

"Uh… no?" Rowan cried. " _You_ don't like my app, remember? _You_ don't get to decide when you like it and when you don't. It's either all bad or all good, pick."

"Okay you are being ridiculous, Rowan. Stop being unreasonable!" he cried.

"I am not. You said it yourself, Adam's company's past matters. It was created out of blood money, it will never be clean. Well my app was created and is run by criminals, so it will never be good. Right? So if it will never be good, and because I use it neither will I, why are you asking me to use it? Doesn't that, by proxy make you a bad guy?"

"What the hell is that logic?" Steve shouted. "Obviously not! Cause you're using it for something good!"

"Then why do you get mad at me when I use it?"

"Because you _shouldn't need it_!" Steve hollered. "Because you should be at home making me dinner and helping our kid with his homework. Or maybe, maybe I don't like it because now, because of that app, your name is synonymous with death…"

"What are you talking about?"

"I went to talk to someone, Odell Martin, he… uh… he's got his ear to the ground. He knows all about your app, he knows all about you. About all the things you order done on that app of yours. About how you and Wo Fat aren't talking but he hasn't stopped looking over you so everyone thinks it's a trap, that he's trying to separate himself from you and his app so he can seem more trustworthy to them. That it's an act."

"I don't… I don't even know who he is…" Rowan stuttered.

"But that's not the point is it? The point is when people hear your name, they're afraid. They're afraid because you can pull up that app and destroy them with a single voice command. Because to them, to them, you're a goddamn monster!"

He had shouted that last sentence at her. He couldn't help it, speaking with Odell that morning, hearing about what the unground said about his girlfriend on the street had fucking terrified him. But he paused when he saw the look on Rowan's face. Her face was stricken, her tear-filled blue eyes blinking up at him like she didn't recognize him, like he had become the monster in this situation. Okay… maybe he had gone too far.

He opened his mouth to apologize but Rowan turned and so did Steve. The black haired girl they had found shot was being brought towards him. He didn't want to deal with this, not when he had to give her an apology but he half turned to her and then said: "Just uh… just give me a moment, okay?"

He left Rowan's side, trusting she wouldn't run off this time, simply because she couldn't leave Nahele behind, and approached Danielle. "Hey, uh, now that you're patched up I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions."

She nodded and Steve pulled up his phone and showed her the photo of one of the men. She nodded, okay so knew them that was good.

"That was Nicolai, Nicolai Krause," she said in her thick accent. "And the other two were Vicktor and Julian. But I didn't get their last names."

"Alright, what about the fourth guy in the house, the one who got away?" Steve asked.

She winced a bit and then said: "Gatsby?"

"Gatsby? That's what he called himself?" Steve asked because wow that was stupid. Not that he ever read _the Great Gatsby_ but he knew enough to know that Roman was not him.

She shook her head. "No, that's what Lindsey called him. They never told us his name. She just called him Gatsby because he stayed out of sight while we all partied."

"So, you never saw him?" Steve asked, cause that would just be his luck.

"No, oh, uh, except for a few moments last night," she admitted. "I went for a quick swim and when I got out, there he was."

YES! A lucky break! "Did you see his face?"

She winced again and shrugged. "Well, yeah, I guess?"

"Okay, we're going to transfer you to a secure wing in the hospital, then I'm going to set you up with a sketch artist there. Is that okay?" he asked when she nodded he nodded too. "Alright, good."

He was also going to have TSA track down that friend of hers, the one she said had flown out early that morning, leaving her behind with these guys to party, just in case she saw Roman's face too. He was the kind of guy to kill everyone who saw him to keep his identity a secret. And he'd need to tell Kono to watch it as well, because if Danielle had seen Roman's face it would be motive for him to go after her as well.

But at that moment he had bigger issues. Like the fact that he had just used the _m_ word in reference to Rowan and he knew how she felt about that.

He noted that as Danielle walked away Rowan's eyes followed her and when he finally approached her she asked: "Who was that?" right away.

"Danielle. She uh… she might have had eyes on Roman, she's the closest thing to a witness we got."

Rowan blinked her eyes. And then looked over her shoulder again at the retreating woman. "I've seen her before."

Steve narrowed his eyes at her in surprised. "How is that even possible?"

"I don't know… but I swear… I swear I feel like I know who she is," she whispered. "I think… I don't think she's a witness."

"Of course, she is."

"No, I mean, I think she's in on it."

"Oh don't be ridiculous, and don't tell me you were dreaming about her, clearly the only thing you're dreaming about is secondary info. Just my luck. huh? I finally get on boards with the constant visions and now you're not getting them… or any good ones anyway," Steve snapped at her. "Look, can we talk about this when I get home? I promise I will be rational and… you know… I… I mean the monster comment… I don't think you're…"

"No just everyone else right?" Rowan snapped turning away.

"Ro… I'm sorry, okay, I'm sorry? Can… I know you're mad at me… but maybe… could I maybe…"

She turned back to him, crossed quickly to give him the hug he needed and then kissed his cheek. "I'm still mad at you," she whispered to him.

"Fair," he whispered back tightening his grip around her. "Just uh… one more minute."

She nodded and let him hug her. Next he was going to hug Nahele, just so he knew that the kid was okay. Then he was going to make it up to her. Buy her flowers… no… a book… yeah… he'd buy her a new book that would be better.

Just you know, after he found the Bulgarian gun runner that seemed to be ruining everyone's lives at that moment.


	166. Chapter 166

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hey my wonderful readers! Do I have a surprise for you! I did a little tally of the stats for this story and let me tell you do I have one HELL of an update. As of this chapter, I've written over 1 million words and over 2 thousand pages! I KNOW RIGHT?! Isn't that just… wow… just wow… and I'm not even half way yet. Okay, that's not true, as of season six I can safely say that I'm half way through everything I want to happen. So reward you guys, for putting up with all of the plot twists and ridiculousness and the angst, I'm going to give you guys a MARATHON! That's right, this is day 1 in a 7 day marathon! YAY! So I hope you enjoy the next seven chapters as much as I liked writing them. This particular chapter is a littler shorter but a lot happens in it. Don't forget to leave me a review and I will see you tomorrow!_

Chapter 166

* * *

The bell above the door tinkled and Odell, who was busy sweeping up the left-over hair from his last client called out: "I'll be with you in a minute," and got a: "Are you Odell Martin?" back.

He turned, because that was a woman's voice, and was mildly surprised to find a woman standing there staring at him, which was strange because he was a barber, this was a barber shop and she did not have a guy with her. Not one who needed a cut, nor did she have one that was sport a do by him that she didn't approve from. The woman standing at the door had a pleasant looking smile on her face, but her eyes… they were this ice white-blue. A wolf in a pretty girl's clothing, if he had ever seen one.

"Uh… yes… I'm…"

She turned and quickly locked the door, slammed her purse down on the floor and when she turned that pretty and pleasant smile was gone, the ice blue eyes were a dark stormy blue and the glare on her face had him take a step back. On the outside she looked like a surfer girl. Waves of red blonde hair cascading over her shoulder, shorts, tank top, converse, it was the high end purse she had just dropped on the floor that told him that this girl had serious money. Didn't explain why she was in his shop though. Or why she was so fucking mad.

"Okay, what the fuck is your problem buddy?" she snapped storming forward. "What the hell did I ever do to you huh?"

"I'm sorry… I'm not sure…"

"I'm Rowan Pierce!" she near hollered and he collapsed to his barber chair in a shocked panic. He looked her up and down, surprised. Because when he pictured Rowan Pierce, this doll like figure was not what he saw in his mind. "And don't you fucking ask me if I'm _really_ Rowan Pierce because I'll slap you silly if you do."

He took in that warning and nodded. This was because he talked to law enforcement about her, they must have come for her… which made no sense cause he thought that she worked with Five-0 not against them. And he had said literally _nothing_ to incriminate her, he merely offered them a shortcut. Instead of farming out info from strangers, why not go straight to source?

"Now I want you to look me in the eye tell me everything you told my boyfriend this morning and I want to know why you did it."

 _That was her boyfriend_.

Aw shit.

Wait… which one was her boyfriend? The tubby one or the hot one? Neither had mentioned a girlfriend, but he was pretty sure the tubby one had a wedding ring. Plus, pretty girl like her, would obviously be with the hot one… unless she went for a different type. Either way he didn't have enough info to make a sound judgement on which guy she was talking about.

"Okay… now wait a second… I didn't know that was your… he never mentioned that he was romantically attached…"

"Yeah he never does," she said with a huff.

"Well that doesn't seem right, pretty girl like you, he should be proud to show you off," he said feeling actual sympathy for her.

But instead of her agreeing with him her eyes narrowed at him instead. "Yeah, well when people like you go off about how I'm a monster and the whole underworld is terrified of me, he gets a little… freaked out. Now stop getting off track. What did you say? Why did you say it? Why did I come up? Go."

"Okay… uh… well… for starters… you came up cause he was looking for someone in particular, and everyone knows that Five-0 and you are… you know, working together or whatever. So I asked why he didn't ask you. And then his partner asked what a girl could do and uh… well… you know he needed to be taught some respect. So, I told him a few of the rumours I heard."

"Like what?"

"Like… that even though you and your brother aren't talking right now he's still looking out for you cause you have this inability to stay out of Five-0 cases. That uh… that… Wo Fat can be reasoned with, but you are merciless and more ruthless than him. That… that saying your name can clear a room… that… that people left the island so they wouldn't bump into you…"

"You told him I was a monster."

"I didn't use those words."

"No, you just implied it."

Odell stared at her. She was really hung up on that monster thing. Which meant one of the law enforcement guys had said that to her, had taken his words and put that label on her. He quickly realized that… well… the girl was upset. He had obviously caused relationship problems. And well… he figured it was fair that she was upset at him for that, and he also figured he could easily talk her down, provided she hadn't put his name into her app already.

"I'm sorry. But you know… none of that is a bad thing. That's all really impressive," he offered. "I mean… look at you. You look so unimposing… or at least you did until you started yelling at me, that's a major asset, having that kind of rep and looking like you. No one would ever guess you were _the_ Rowan Pierce."

"None of that really matters when the people you care about think you're a monster," she answered bitterly. And there was that word again. Who the hell had called her a monster, cause he hadn't. Her phone chimed and she picked it up. She half laughed. "I knew it. Ha, I knew she was Zednick! That bitch… she's at the… with Kono… and the one guy who knows who she is. Fuck. Great… now I gotta deal with this." She went to walk away before turning back and pointing him. "Keep your fucking nose out of my business and don't you ever talk to Steven McGarrett about me again. I swear I will go all _Godfather_ on you if you do!"

Odell watched her leave and let out his breath surprised he lived through an interaction with Rowan Pierce, not many could say they had done that. But now he knew. He was right. Rowan Pierce was dating the hot cop.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

They were talking shop about Emil Hossa the man Roman was pretending to be. They were hoping that when they learned more about him, they'd learn more about his network. It was into this conversation that a guard with a dog walked in.

"Sorry, Commander, this guy says he needs to speak with you."

Steve turned to see Odell, their informant/Steve's hairdresser for the day, coming in with the guard and the dog that seemed very, very interested in him.

"Hey," McGarrett cried as Odell struggled to keep the dog at bay. "Marcus, what's with the dog?"

"He cross-trained in explosives and narcotics and while we didn't find either on him, I suspect he may have had some pakalolo in his pocket at some point."

Odell turned to Steve completely offended and Steve just sighed. "Relax. Okay, I got him," he said and Marcus nodded and took himself and the dog out of the offices. "Thanks Marcus!"

Odell looked around. "Five-0 Bat cave, huh?"

"Guys, meet, uh, Odell Martin," Morrison announced to them. They all said _hi_ but Steve wasn't in the mood.

"What's going on?"

"I hear you boys took down some big target this afternoon, huh? That right?"

"Where'd you hear that?" Steve asked.

"I got my sources," he answered illusively. Steve just scowled it better not have been Rowan. "So is that true? You guys bag Roman?"

"We are confirming, but, yeah, it looks that way," Morrison answered for them.

"And let me guess, he was using the name, Emil Hossa?"

"Okay, wait a minute. Seriously, where are you getting your information?" Steve snapped but Odell just shook his head.

"That's not important," he said. "What is important is that you guys know that there's chatter going around that Roman's using a decoy. And the decoy's name is Emil Hossa."

"So, you're telling us the guy we took down ain't Roman?" Chin asked.

"That's what I'm telling you," he said and then he turned to Steve. "Hey by the way, I really don't appreciate you telling that Pitbull that I gave you info…"

"Pitbull? What… what are you…"

"Your girl. Rowan. Swung by my shop like half an hours ago. Chewed me out for mentioning her to you, said I caused some problems or something. And I gotta say… what the hell dude? If I had known you'd snitch to her, McGarrett, I wouldn't have told you a thing."

Steve just stood there staring at him. "I'm sorry… did you just call my girlfriend a Pitbull? Do you need me to punch you?"

"What else are you gonna call a girl like that. She has bark and bite! Everyone knows not to call that girl's bluff cause she doesn't fucking play around. That girl has an unlimited network at her fingertips. She says my name to any of her brother's friends and I'm a goner, and you're going around accosting her over things I said. Are you trying to get me killed?" he cried, and then he got real serious for a moment as he added: "And which one of you assholes called her a monster huh? That got her really upset, and I never said she was monster, so whoever said it is gonna have to tell her that they didn't get that from me!"

Everyone was staring at them now. Morrison looked surprised. "Wait… this is… Rowan… red haired, purple-pastel GTO, beach bunny Rowan? That Rowan. That Rowan is _the_ Rowan. Brutal, Ruthless, crazy don't fuck with cause she'll get her brother's friends to kill you, Rowan. That Rowan. That Rowan is _your_ Rowan?"

"Yeah you better watch what you say cause she's the reason your family's alive…"

"And word on the street is she's gunning for Roman."

Steve turned to Odell again eyes wide. "WHAT?!"

"Yeah, uh… I told her I wouldn't talk to you again, not about her, and I don't know what she means by _go Godfather on you_ so if I tell you what I know, you gotta keep it on the DL," he warned. When Steve nodded he said: "I already knew that she put an alert off on her app for info on Roman, with the direct message of she's gunning for him."

"What does that mean?" Morrison asked.

"That's she's mad. Generally if Rowan's felt the need to look into you she's either trying to hire you or kill you, those are the only two options. Or at least, the only two options she's ever used. The last guy she sent out a request for info on ended up with a bullet in the skull. Kidnapped some girl, we heard," Odell said and everyone turned to Grover. They all knew exactly which guy that was. "Anyway, she came by the shop, got an alert on her phone, went on about how she knew it and that _the bitch was gonna get it_. A couple of minutes after she left a last message was sent out, no one is to help Roman, she's been officially excommunicated. Everyone on the island and on that network, which is like… almost everyone… isn't going to touch her with a ten-foot pole."

"I'm sorry, she put info for Roman through her app? She said she wouldn't do…" Steve suddenly trailed off. "Wait a second. Did you say she? As in, Rowan said _she was gonna get it_?"

"Yeah, that's what she said. Pretty sure that meant…" Odell trailed off, because Steve was shaking his head. He already knew what that meant. He checked his phone, missed call from Rowan. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

"Danielle," Steve whispered. "Oh god. It's Danielle. Rowan recognized Danielle and couldn't remember from where."

"Wait… how would Rowan recognize her if she doesn't do business and Roman is one of Wo Fat's competitors?" Morrison asked but was ignored.

"Fuck. Fuck. She _was_ dreaming right and I ignored her," Steve cried. "We have to get to that hospital NOW!"

"What the hell is happening?" Morrison called as Steve raced for the door.

So it was up to Grover to say: "Well, if her previous patterns are anything to go by, I'm guessing the beach bunny's going after our illusive criminal."

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Kono got off the elevator, threw her coffee cup in the garbage unable to stomach any more with the weight on her shoulders and when she looked up she saw Dekker being pushed very quickly down the hallway by Rowan.

A lot of questions came to mind at that moment. Starting with how Rowan got onto a secured floor and ending with what the hell were they running from that got her so scared?

"She's here! Roman is here!" Dekker called as they got close. Kono thought they'd stop by her but Rowan pushed him right past her and to the elevator.

"ROMAN IS A WOMAN!" Rowan shouted at her. "ROMAN IS THAT BLACK HAIRED CHICK!"

Kono didn't need to be told twice. Firstly cause if Rowan felt she needed to intervene then whatever vision or dream she had was real and happening now, and secondly because Danielle… or apparently Roman appeared gun drawn ready to shoot them. Kono pulled her gun and fired off a few to keep Roman from shooting at them. And for a while it worked but eventually Roman began to shoot back and then they were all scrambling to get into the elevator.

Rowan got the door open pushed Dekker in and then tugged Kono in after them. She frantically pushed the close door button as bullets narrowed missed them as they ricocheted off of the doors. When the doors finally shut they all took a deep breath.

Kono turned to Rowan. "What are you doing here?" she asked. She wasn't impressed, having to worry about Dekker who was injured was bad enough but now she had to worry about Rowan too and she didn't really want to deal with app shenanigans or her visions today.

"I… well… I used the app to get info. Got confirmation on who Roman was, once I had that I realized you would need help."

"So why didn't you call Steve."

"I did but he has a case so obviously he didn't pick up. And before your ask, neither did you."

Kono sighed. Yeah she was really regretting not picking up that call now, but she thought that Rowan was going to annoy her about Adam or the wedding and she hadn't wanted to deal with that either.

"Okay, well I'm going to need you to play this one safe. You're going to stay with Dekker, get him to McGarrett, and I'll…" she had more to say, but suddenly all the lights went out and elevator jerked to a stop. They had just lost power.

They were stuck in the elevator. Dekker began to hyperventilate but while Kono was looking for a way to get them out, Rowan, Rowan stepped forward.

"I think… I think I got this," she whispered.

Rowan put her hands to the door and though Kono saw flashes or sparks of that electric orange she was terrified of the doors didn't open. Instead the elevator dropped causing all of them to jostle, and for Rowan to practically fall over.

Once the elevator stopped moving Rowan let out her breath. "Okay… that wasn't supposed to happen. I must have… I must have pulled the wrong string."

Kono didn't have time for that. She pried a handle bar off the wall, swept Rowan aside before she could do anymore crazy electrical shit and used it to open the door. The elevator was floor level, which was not where they fell, if Kono had to guess, the electrical shock Rowan had set off must have put them on the ground instead of being stuck half way. But she didn't have time to thank her, Rowan was already pushing Dekker out of the elevator. They ran down the hair together, Rowan pushing Dekker in his wheel chair to the nearest exit but the doors were all locked.

"I could try…" Rowan started but Kono barked: "We don't have time for your void shit, Rowan."

And Rowan fell silent, hurt shining in her eyes. She said nothing, but Kono knew she had hurt her friend's feelings, in fact, Kono was certain she had never yelled at Rowan before.

"What the hell is void shit?" Dekker asked, breaking the silence, but was ignored as Rowan looked away and Kono struggled with the doors.

"She must have crashed the entire wing," Kono murmured.

"What?" Dekker snapped, his arm cradling the side that had been shot… twice. He was being irritable and rude but he was in pain and scared and they got that.

"The hospital's prison section has it's own security system. If a lockdown is triggered, then all the entrances and exits automatically lock.

"So we're trapped?" he asked and Kono nodded.

"We need distractions…" Rowan whispered. "You… uh… you get him somewhere safe, I'm going to distract her."

Rowan went to run off but Kono grabbed her. "No, wait… if something happens to you…"

"Oh don't worry about it. This isn't my first hide and seek game with a deranged killer. It's time to put my monstrousness to good use," she said and then ran off, disappearing into the darkness. Kono watched her go, her heart cracking under the worry, because in no way did she want something to happen to Rowan and for her to think that they all thought she was monstrous.


	167. Chapter 167

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hey my lovely readers! I hope you're enjoying the marathon. I know this is a little later in the day but it's been quite busy for me today. School started and I've got those dreaded 8am classes. We've got the wonderful conclusion to this chapter which I thought was super cute, I hope you guys think so as well. Don't forget to leave me a review and I will see you guys tomorrow!_

Chapter 167

* * *

Roman Zednick was livid. Past livid. This day, was not going the way she wanted it to. First she got shot and had to play up the wounded victim with a stupid but quite attractive cop. Then she found out that all the men she hired had been killed, but at least she had managed to convince the stupid cop that Emil Hossa was the real Roman. She was about to be released, about to escape when she hit the problem. That black gun runner, the snitch, the one working for ICE, she had ordered him dead but he wasn't dead. He was alive and wheeling around her ward. That would have been bad enough except for the appearance of the red-head. She body checked Roman while she was attempting to chase her wheelchair bound witness and then sprinted away with him shouting exactly who she was to the other cop on the ward.

Anyone else would have just turned tail and run but Roman hadn't gotten this far by playing nice. She wasn't going to let any of these people get away with what they knew. So she had cut power to the ward, locking them down in the elevator, now that they were trapped all she had to do was kill them.

She got to the elevator and paused by the wall. She heard hissing, she saw a strange white like mist escaping from… something and when she turned the corner gun ready to go, she tripped a wire by her ankle. She glanced down, confused as to how she had missed it in the first place, it wasn't even transparent or thin, just a stretch of gauze across the space, she wasn't sure how she missed it. When she looked up it was in time to watch an unknown chemical drop into a bucket of something else entirely, the source of the white ebbing mist. And with a large flash and a big bang it exploded in her face.

Stunned, Roman staggered back. That was a homemade flash bang. Not enough to cause damage, but enough to blind her briefly, to cause her ears to ring and to knock her back a bit.

Clever.

Someone on this wing with them was very resourceful. She'd have to be careful.

It was while she was waiting for her vision to return that she spotted it. The trail of blood leading away from the elevator and out and down the hallway. Someone was bleeding. Someone must have been hit by one of the bullets. Wonderful.

She followed the trail of blood. It lead to a closet but when she opened it all the supplies came crashing out at her knocking her to the ground. Once everything was done falling on top of her, she stood up, inspecting the door she found that a roll of gauze had been tied from the inside handle to the shelving unit inside the room. That way when she opened up the door everything would fall out.

Great. So she was dealing with a clever saboteur. She'd have to be more careful. She glanced down at the blood on the floor. Realizing that it was probably a trap of some sort. She was hoping that someone was actually injured but she was starting to think that someone had made themselves bleed deliberately to create a trail to follow. Devious. It also showed a certain cunning and a level of determination she had only seen in herself.

Too bad they were on the wrong side.

Still she followed the blood trail because it was all she had. That stupid blood trail led her to a door where walking through tripped a wire that turned on a fan and blew a powdered chemical into her face. She followed that trail to different door that when opened a bucket of something else fell down onto her. That liquid mixed with the powder she had left in her hair and she felt the burn, but wasn't until she caught sight of herself in the mirror that she realized it had put blonde spots into her black hair.

When she found this little saboteur she was going to shoot them so many times.

So she abandoned the blood trail and looked everywhere else that the blood hadn't led her to. And she found a room, door moving as if someone had already gone through. She stepped into the darkness and found a simple observing room, but the problem was the second she stepped into the room the door slammed shut behind her.

Roman rushed to the door trying to open it but something was blocking the door and no matter how many times she hit it with her shoulder it wouldn't move. Roaring with frustration Roman slammed herself against the door wondering if it would help if she got her arm through that small glass window and then there she was.

The red head. Across from her. On the other side of the glass just staring at her with those cool blue eyes. They stared at each other for a moment and then she smirked and Roman realized that this was by design. She had been herded by this… god… how did one describe someone so unimposing until this moment?

Yeah well, joke was on her, cause Roman had the gun.

She brought her hands up and fired, but the girl had thrown herself to the ground and with all the angling in the world, Roman couldn't get eyes on her, couldn't shoot her, she didn't think anyway. She stuck her hand through the window to try and get a better angle on her and suddenly the girl popped up to the side, grabbed her arm and slammed it down on the jagged glass sticking out of the pane that hadn't shattered. Roman cried out, dropped her gun and the girl let her go.

The gun was scooped up and the girl ran off, leaving her there howling more with rage than pain, rattling the door, each movement jostling whatever was blocking the door.

When she got out of there, and she would get out of there, she was going to make that redhead suffer.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Kono had gone to the only part of the ward that would have an independent power, something she learned when Rowan had been in surgery and she had let off an electromagnetic blast. The operating theater.

She had put Dekker in the laundry room to hide him from Roman, and judging by the sounds she heard in the distance, Roman was not having fun with Rowan.

But it was six gunshots that broke the charge silence as Kono tried to get a message out to Steve, even if it was just: _Rowan in danger_ , that worried her. She had turned, worried that Rowan had just got shot, knowing that if she got shot on her watch, Steve would never forgive her.

But she didn't need to worry. After a few quiet moments a scuffle was heard and like that Rowan slid into the room and slammed the door shut.

She whirled around a wild look about her. "I've got her trapped, but I don't think it's going to last…"

"Are you bleeding?"

Rowan paused looked down to where her arm was slowly leaking blood and hit her with a surprised: "Huh, yeah, I guess uh… I guess I hit something."

"What?"

"It's a thing that… you know needle full of blood, hold it perpendicular to the floor and let it drip, voila, fake a blood trail? Never done that before? Kay well I used to be better at injecting myself with a needle…"

"Why would you be good at that Rowan? Did you used to do Heroin?"

Rowan blinked her eyes. "Sure?" but she was lying. Kono knew she was lying but clearly Rowan didn't give a shit about that because she just said: "So uh… we gotta get out of here, what's the plan?"

Kono nodded. "Working on it, trying to get a hold of Steve."

"Maybe uh… if we got a connection… maybe I could get a hold of…"

She didn't get to finish. Kono noticed her first. The appearance of Roman, looking less than flattering, whitish blonde spots marring her black hair, chemical burns trailing down her cheeks and along her forehead, blood seeping from one of her arms had startled her as it had been so sudden, and Kono's look of surprised had silenced Rowan. Rowan half turned, managed to take a half step back and then Roman slammed the door open and bowled right into her.

Yeah that wasn't going down on her watch.

Kono round house kicked her square across the face dislodging her off of Rowan and letting her scramble away to relative safety.

"Fight someone your own size," Kono ordered.

But when Roman stood she had a surgical knife in her hand and Kono nearly swore. She deflected the first jab and the next oncoming slash. She hit Roman, one good jab to the jaw, then grabbed the arm before she could stab her. Kono hit her with one quick jab to the wrist and that was the knife gone, but Roman grappled herself to her, trying to leech onto her and slam her into everything hard.

Unfortunately it worked. She got Kono trapped on her back against the operating table while Roman got on top of her trying to strangle the life out of her with one hand while trying to reach for a knife to properly stab her with the other.

The table with the knives went clattering and that was when Kono realized Rowan was standing but she wasn't doing anything, in fact all she did was grab the paddles to the AED and suddenly the thing was super charging leaving the machine stuttering trying to keep up.

 _Charg… char… fully charged._

Roman looked up and so did Rowan. She half let go of Kono in her surprised because she sure as hell wasn't expecting Rowan's eyes to be full wide and completely white. "Clear," she snapped and then she hit her with paddles. Paddles that that shouldn't have been charged but were.

The electrical current that hit her seemed to be tripled by the sudden orange electric bolts she swore were erupting out of Rowan's arms and into the paddles and in that moment all went a mix of orange and white.

Kono looked up just in time to watch Rowan press the paddles into Roman's chest. The resounding blast was accompanied by a high pitch whine and threw both Rowan and Roman back. Roman slammed into the wall opposite them so hard her body dented the wall, Rowan flew across the room, hit a counter and collapsed.

Coughing Kono rolled off the operating table she had been pinned to and rushed to Rowan's side. She was still… too still but when she put a shaking hand to Rowan's back she groaned.

"She's dead right?" she asked and Kono shot a glance over her shoulder to where Roman lay on the ground.

"Yeah, you got her," she said. She tried to pry Rowan out of the curled up position she was in but she cried out, coughed a bit and blood spattered out of her mouth.

"Please stop touching me," Rowan groaned and Kono withdrew her hands immediately. "Where's Steven? I want Steven!"

Kono backed away, she wasn't sure where Steve was but clearly Rowan was really hurt.

"Oh god… Rowan… why did you…"

"Because you needed help," she said the grimace back on her face. "I wanted to make sure she didn't hurt you."

Kono took that in. She remembered what she said to her friend that morning, she remembered what she said to Adam and realized how wrong she had been. "Rowan, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry I said those things. You are the nicest person I know, and it doesn't matter if you've got an evil app or an evil brother, you have done nothing but do your best to keep us happy, to keep us safe and we just take you for granted."

"That's nice," Rowan said to her clearly not paying attention. She curled up around her side again groaning a little more loudly. "God it hurts to breathe," she heard her whisper and that worry hit her full force. Oh shit she was _really_ hurt.

"Okay… we… we have to get you up," Kono said but Rowan just shook her head. "We have to get you help."

Down the hall came a crash and Rowan's eyes whipped open as Kono went for her gun. Kono had a feeling that she knew who it was but it was confirmed by Rowan's ragged sob of Steve's name, and doubly confirmed when Steve echoed back with a frantic cry of her name. He too slid into the operating theater not two seconds later leaping over the overturned Rowan before crouching down beside her to put his hands to her.

"What happened?" he asked her but she just groaned and slapped his hands away. He then turned to Kono and shouted the same question again.

"She got thrown," Kono admitted. "She got thrown across the room."

"I hit the counter hard Steve, it hurts to move… it hurts to breathe... I'm pretty sure I can taste blood in my mouth," she groaned to him and Kono watched a flurry of emotion cross Steve's face. Rowan lurched up and gripped his arm while she stared up at him with wide eyes. "Steven. If I have internal bleeding again just let me die. You hear me? Just let me die. I don't wanna live through that shit again."

Steve's eyes went wide watching as Rowan dropped back to the ground. He blinked his eyes glanced up to Kono and then turned his eyes to each of the people in the doorway and then looked back at her.

"She's fucking delirious," he growled hoisting her up to his arms despite her cries of pain as he did so. "Like I'm going to fucking let her die, the fucking psycho."

Kono watch him as he cradled the girl he cared so much for to his chest, desperate to get her to any of the doctors on the ward to care for her. Kono knew that Rowan was in good hands. She knew that Steve wouldn't let her die, wouldn't ever give up on her and Kono never would either.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Despite needing medical care herself for her own injuries, Kono had left the hospital as soon as the scene was cleared by HPD and went to the other person she shouldn't have been giving up on either. He was up in his board room and even though she shouldn't have his secretary let her into the meeting. She didn't interrupt but instead, let her man talk, clearly talking about how he needed to sell the company, even if it was selling it off piecemeal and her heart melted, because damn her man was good to her. Doing as she asked even though he shouldn't have to and she never should have asked him to.

She must have been a right state because all eyes fell on her at the side of the room which got Adam's attention too. Adam turned and spotted her, took in the damage on her face and panic lit up his features. He turned, excused himself and then rushed to her side.

"Kono… god… what happened? Are you okay?"

All of that was cute, and appreciated, but she had something to say to him and she needed to do it right at that moment.

"Can we go talk for a second?" she said and he nodded and took her out onto the balcony overlooking the water.

"Okay… what happened?" he asked, clearly steeling himself for the worst.

"It doesn't matter," she said to him because at that moment it didn't really matter. "What matters is, I love you. And I can't imagine my life without you."

Adam smiled at her, clearly surprised, clearly not expecting it and too full of emotion to properly convey that to her.

"I… you have Rowan to thank, by the way," she said which earned him a strange look. "She reminded me… well… all of us… that someone's past doesn't define who they are, and that I can't pick and choose the pieces of you that I love… like I can't pick and choose the pieces of her that I utterly adore. I love both of you, even your pasts, because they formed who you are today…"

She trailed off, she kind of lost the point there, but Adam just smiled softly. "I uh… I bet Rowan was really happy to hear that."

"Not sure if she heard me to be honest, she had to be taken to the ER," she said. Adam balked at that panic hit his face again. "Oh no, she's okay," she explained quickly. "I mean, we thought it might have been internal bleeding, but she just bruised a few ribs, Steve's got her on bed rest so… we should get a few quiet days from her."

Adam let out his breath in a sigh and Kono forged onto the point of this entire conversation. "I wanna be your wife, Adam.

A few wry chuckles of disbelief came out of him before he managed to ask her: "Really?" Already his hands were reaching out to frame her face to pull her in for a few kisses so all she had to do was nod and then his lips gently found hers, no doubt afraid of hurting her further.

"I picked a date," she whispered to him after he had kissed her thoroughly. "And before you ask… yes… I already told Rowan. Well… I wrote it in her get-well card so when she's sober enough to read it she'll know."

And just like that he started laughing and soon they were both laughing and kissing like nothing was wrong in their world at all.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Nahele had quickly realized that living with the Pierce-McGarrett's was hazardous to his mental health. Because having Uncle Chin pick him up and tell him that Rowan was in the hospital with severely fractured, possibly broken ribs had taken years off his life in stress alone.

Still he packed up his homework and let Chin drive him to the hospital where he found Steve getting a list of things that Rowan would need and learning how to administer her meds while Rowan sat in a wheelchair her head lolling to one side. Nahele bypassed Steve immediately to go to her side, kneeling down beside her.

He put her hands to her knees and her head jerked up, those blue eyes he was used to clouded and squinted, like she could barely see him. She smiled when she recognized him, her fingertips resting at his jawline as she whispered: "Hi baby."

He nearly cried right then and there. But he needed to be strong. Strong for Steve who never handled her hospital trips well. Strong for Rowan who was clearly so out of it that she wouldn't be able to function. Strong for himself because he was really afraid that if something happened to her, he'd be alone again.

He helped Steve get her into his truck. He helped Steve get her into the house and then convinced Steve to leave him with Rowan so Steve could pick up her GTO which had been left in the hospital parking lot. When Steve came back, Nahele had Rowan tucked into the blankets of the couch, she was sleeping, while he had made them mac and cheese to eat together.

Steve took his bowl in the kitchen but Nahele had taken his to the couch so he could sit beside her. Rowan slept through dinner, Steve had checked on her periodically, before disappearing to the garage to work on the Marquis leaving Rowan in Nahele's capable hands.

Maybe an hour later she had woken up, starting first with a few low groans and some squirming. She must have been uncomfortable. He carefully laid out two of the pain tablets by a glass of water and then waited for her to properly come to.

As soon as her eyes opened, the first thing that she saw was Nahele's face. And she smiled again in that soft happy way and said: "Hey baby, what's the matter?"

The matter was his new mother figure was in and out of the hospital, just like his real mother had been before he lost her. The matter was she had been so drugged out when he saw her that she hadn't been able to keep her head up. The matter was, that morning she had walked up to a car filled with dangerous mafia men like it was the easiest thing in the world. The matter was she and Steven were arguing so badly recently that he was certain they were going to break up, he wasn't sure CPs would let Rowan keep him if she was on her own, but if they did he knew who he'd be going with if they broke up, and that was Rowan and he wasn't sure Steve would survive losing both of them.

"How are you feeling?"

"Like I got hit by a car," she whispered. "Am I… how did I get home?"

"You got discharged like three hours ago," he said. "Me and Steve got you home."

Rowan nodded like she understood. She attempted to sit up, winced in pain and Nahele moved to help her maneuver into a sitting position. Once he did he gave her the pills to take and then made sure she swallowed them.

Once she was sitting back the pain ebbing away from her Nahele too sat down and then asked: "So uhm… maybe not the best time to ask… but uh… if you and Steve break up uhm… where are we going to go?"

At that Rowan's eyes opened and turn to him. "I'm sorry what? Where… where did that come from?"

"Well it's just that… you know… you and him have been arguing, you know? And my mom dated enough people for me to know what the end of a relationship looks like, and it starts with arguing. So… if you guys break up we're going to move right? Me and you? And then, well, I like Steve… would you be mad if I visited him? Cause like… he might need it I don't think he can survive living without you."

Rowan just continued to blink her eyes and then just like that she had stood up without any help. She moved, stumbling over her feet a bit, heading towards the door that would take her to the garage with Nahele moving after her, trying to help her, to heed her, to get her back on the couch to rest. She was supposed to be on bed rest until she could breathe without being in pain.

But she banging into the garage and approached Steve. "Hey," Rowan cried to him causing Steve to stop and straighten. He took in her face, seemed to think it wasn't a positive one but he put down his tools, toweled off his hands and turned to her.

Moving hurt so he noted her wince and he suddenly frowned. "Are you okay? You should be lying down…"

"Kid asked if we're breaking up," she told him and Steve blinked his eyes, fear dawning over his features as he glanced from Nahele and then back to her. "Asked if me and him were going to be moving out."

That wasn't all he had asked but apparently that was all she got from his list of questions. She folded her arms over her chest and stared at Steve. The implied question hanging in the air around them.

"Is… I mean… where did he get that, Rowan?" he asked. "Is this something you and him were talking about? Is that like… the plan?"

"Well I mean… if nothing I do can change my past… and you're always going to see me as… well… criminal… do you, with your absolute idea of good and bad, really want me to stay?"

"For the love of god!" Steve cried. "For the last time, we were talking about a company! Of course a person can change, of course a person's past doesn't matter…"

"But a company's past does and working at that company is directly tied to whether or not a person would be considered good?" Rowan shot back.

Steve groaned and Rowan looked away from him. "It's not fair, your sense of absolute rightness. When I use my app you get mad at me, but it's perfectly find for you to get into a situation and ask me to use it for you. And even though I save lives, even though I've helped you guys countless of times, sometimes… sometimes I do things and you guys just stare at me like I'm…. like I'm…."

 _A monster_.

She didn't say it, but Steve knew what she meant.

"Okay, you're right, you're right Rowan. It's not fair to ask you to use the app to help me when I'm mad at you for having it in the first place," Steve said to her, he tried to reach a hand out to her, but she pulled away from him and he stopped. "I understand you can't use it properly now, and I understand that it's saved countless lives, our lives, and your life over and over but that app is a constant reminder of him, and you using it just makes me feel so useless. Like if you have that app you won't need me, and I need you to need me, because if you don't need me anymore what's going to keep us together huh?"

Rowan sighed at him. "We've gone over this." She growled which got a curt: "Yes I know." From him. And she added: "And it really doesn't change the way you look at me when I tell you things, or when I do things…"

"Okay, now wait a second. I don't look at you like you're a monster. Sometimes you scare me, I'm not going to lie but the Ice Queen is intimidating and you know it," Steve said pointing at her. "But I have never once thought you were a monster, you understand me. I know you think differently, but you have never actually gone out of your way to do something evil just for the hell of it."

Rowan nodded again and he moved forward, this time she let him capture her hands in his.

"When you tell me things… things you've been through… look… I get like that when you tell me about your past because I'm horrified," he told her. "Not because you did it, but because… well… because those things shouldn't have happened to you. And it upsets me that I wasn't there, I wasn't there to protect you, or to soothe you and I know, I know you faced that all on your own. Because your brother sounds useless and your parents didn't understand you and you shoulder the blame and the pain all by yourself and every time I'm reminded of that I feel sick. You're kind, Rowan. You are kind, and gentle, and selfless and you don't realize that because you've been brainwashed into thinking you're this terrible horrible person and I just wish you could take that away from you. It kills me that I can't just go back and make sure none of those things happened to you."

She had tears in her eyes when she asked: "Really?"

"Yes, Rowan, really? My car flipped once and it was a terrifying moment, I can't even imagine you flipping over four times," he whispered to her, taking a hold of her face and pressing a kiss to her forehead. She nodded to him and for a moment they just stared at one another. "Are we good now?" he asked when she just quietly stared at him.

Rowan blinked her eyes, cocked her head at him and then said: "Steven… I don't think I can get back to the couch by myself," and then she collapsed into his chest.

A relieved smile hit his face, his arms tightening softly around her form. "Alright, bed time for you, young lady," he whispered picking her up gingerly. "'Hele can you get the door please?" Nahele nodded and rushed off to do what he was asked. Really glad that Rowan and Steve seemed to have patched things up. Now, if only he could convince them to let him stay home to help her, then everything would be golden.


	168. Chapter 168

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hello my Lovely readers (and welcome back AlexLover), how were you guys on Wednesday? Guess who forgot to update? This dumb writer! So we're onto another episode, which is going to be more on the cute side, we do still have the drama, and we do still have some Rowan-isms that are going to happen but most of it is going to be Valentine's cuteness. Don't forget to tell me what you think, don't forget to leave me a review, and I will see you guys tomorrow!_

Chapter 168

* * *

Steve, humming to himself, made coffee. Danny had messaged saying he was coming over so he figured he'd be a good host and have coffee ready for him. He had ground his own beans and was putting them in the French press, still smiling over the morning he had with Rowan, when Danny knocked two times and then promptly let himself into the house.

"Dead… he is dead…" he snapped as he slammed the door shut behind him. Steve was in the process of asking who Danny wanted dead when he said: "Oh dark Navy blue, had a nice morning with Rowan then?"

"Yeah, managed to fit in a quickie after she got Nahele to school and before she went into the studio," he admitted offering him the pot of freshly brewed coffee as he came into the kitchen. "And good morning to you too."

"I swear. I think I'm gonna kill this little punk," he said, then clocked the coffee, clapped and said: "Nice," and then went for his favourite mug.

"Who we killing?" Steve asked.

"This kid in Grace's math class, his name is 'Apane," he said. "And he's been texting her nonstop. Text, text, text. Texttext, text, text."

"How do you know he's texting her?"

"Because I bought her a new cellular phone and somehow in the family cloud share plan, whatever you call it, got mixed up and I'm receiving all of her text messages."

Steve took that in. "So you've been spying on her?"

"I'm not spying on my kid. What'd I just say?" Danny snapped." Number one. Number two, it's called parenting, so you know. And don't even lie to me if you could have constant eyes on both Rowan and Nahele you'd be fucking doing it. So shut up."

"I did the whole spying on Rowan thing, remember? No one can keep eyes on her for long, and when she found out she nearly cut all contact which killed me," Steve snapped cutting off a chunk of butter and then stirring it into his coffee. "And Nahele's a good kid, I don't need to spy on him… though I'm pretty sure Rowan had him added onto her people to watch list on her app."

"What are you…? What the hell is that? What are you doing?" Danny cried. And Steve looked up confused.

"What?"

"What do you mean, _what_? You just put butter in your coffee!"

"Yeah, it's grass-fed butter. Try it," he said sliding the butter dish towards Danny and his mug. It was a fancier butter dish that Rowan had picked out, because his hadn't been good enough apparently. He had been doing that a lot recently, replacing his plain things with fancier, prettier things, not for function but for the aesthetic. He hated to admit it but, since she had started doing it, his place had started looking more… homey.

"You out of milk? You out of your mind? What's the matter with you?" Danny cried heading for the fridge.

"No, it's a teams guy thing," Steve explained. "We do it to boost energy, enhance brain function. Hey! Enhance brain function, you should try it! Maybe you'll think more clearly."

"No, thank you. I think I'll have my heart attack the old-fashioned way."

"Suit yourself," Steve muttered leaning back and sipping his own coffee while Danny's phone chimed again.

"This kid again," he said with a sigh, going for his phone. He read over the messages shaking his head and ignoring Steve's sighs. "He's relentless," he growled watching more messages appear. "He is completely relentless. Listen to this one, I think you'll like it."

Steve tried to not smile at Danny and his insane paranoia and asked: "What'd he say?" in a humouring fashion, though he knew if anything sexual came out of Danny's mouth, Danny was going to have to hold Steve back, cause 12 year old or not, he was gonna catch Uncle Steve Hands if he was getting fresh with his Grace.

" _Hey G_. Her name's Grace, first of all. _What's your favourite kind of candy?_ She says: _Hershey's Kisses._ He says: _Awesome. Me too._ " Steve couldn't help it, he started laughing. "Yeah. You know what? You think it's funny? Because you don't understand subtext… alright, and you've got a boy. If he was pulling this you'd be all proud papa bear."

Papa bear. Steve's newest nickname, given to him for the quickness in which Steve was prone to jump to Nahele's defence, respond to his messages, and the general willingness to do anything for that kid. Rowan did not get the nickname Momma Bear, though Steve would have thought that matching nicknames would have been cute, except for the fact that cute did not describe Rowan's ice cold fierceness when I came to protecting that kid. No unfortunately Odell's nickname of Pitbull stuck for her, especially when it came to things involving Nahele.

And Danny was right. If this were Nahele he just would have been proud.

"They're two kids talking about candy the day before Valentine's Day. Romance is in the air, Danny."

"Romance is in the air? No, romance is not in the air," Danny said waving his hands about as if trying to dissipate the cloud of romance. "You know why? Because she's twelve. There should not be any romance in her airspace, period."

"Would you listen to me for a minute please? Relax. Just relax. She's a great kid. You raised her right. Trust her."

"Okay… and I want you to do something for me. I want you take a minute to imagine that Nahele was a girl…" Danny ordered and Steve blinked his eyes. Nahele a girl… already he was anxious. "Buddy's fourteen, right? Imagine your fourteen year old little girl, getting texts with a lot let subtext and a lot more…"

"Shut up!" Steve warned him. "You want me to go down the road? You want me to get upset, you wanna deal with that? No, then shut up. Besides. Besides, Nehele, as I keep telling you, is a good kid, whether he's a boy or a girl, he's a good kid. And I trust him, and if I could do that, you can trust Grace, okay?"

"I do trust Grace. It's him, this little thug I don't trust."

Steve sighed. "Alright. Let's take him out."

"Okay now you're talking," Danny agreed and luckily Steve didn't have to tell him how much that was not going to happen because his phone was ringing and he chose to pick it up instead of getting into with Danny.

"McGarrett… we're on the way," he said and then hung up. "Come on, it's a murder, we gotta go."

And then he pulled Danny out of his kitchen.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan had got a message from Grace during the day about how she needed help with a date that was going to be after school. Rowan was immediately defensive. The girl was twelve what was she doing on date? But she figured, since Danny would freak out over this that it'd probably be better if Rowan dealt with the situation. She'd be more subtle about it in the long run.

So she picked up Grace after school as she was driving to pick up Nahele she got some details.

"His name is 'Apane, he's in my grade and he's really cute."

Okay, standard pretween stuff.

"We talk all the time, and he's always looking for reasons to spend more time with me and stuff," she explained. "And we're going for gelato tonight."

"Okay, what do we need me for?" Rowan asked. "Are we asking me to be a responsible adult cause we both know I got problems with that, and neither your Uncle Steve or your Danno think I'm responsible."

"Well… I was hoping that maybe, you could do my make up? And give me some tips?"

Rowan turned to her surprised as she pulled up to Nahele's school.

"You want me to what?" she asked. Grace blushed and Rowan sighed. "Sweetie… you don't need make up for this date, trust me. If he likes you in your school uniform he will like you no matter what, okay?"

Grace looked down to her lap and Rowan sighed. "And Danno knows…"

"Nothing. I uh… I didn't want to tell him… he uh… well you know what he's like…"

"Wonderful," Rowan sighed. "He's going to kill us you know."

Grace turned a half smile to her and whispered: "Not if he doesn't find out." Great, Rowan really was a bad influence.

Shaking her head she leant past Grace to watch as Nahele ran towards the car a big grin on his face, which faltered a bit when he spotted Grace in the front seat.

"Uh..." he said as he looked down to her. But Rowan waved off his surprise. "Nahele this is Grace, Danny's daughter, Grace this is Nahele, our foster kid."

She waved up to him as she got out of the car. "Did you want the front…?"

"Naw I'll take the back," he said. "Uh Rowan… maybe… could we go to the mall?"

"What a coincidence, I need to go to the mall, Grace and I are gonna hit up Sephora, what do you need at the mall?"

"Uh… I have a… you're not going to freak out are you?" he asked.

"No promises, what's up?"

"I have a date tomorrow and I wanted to get her a present… uh… if you could…" he trailed off because Rowan was squealing. She quickly calmed herself down and took a deep breath putting on the air of being cool. "Yeah, sure, I can spot you a few dollars for a gift… does uh… this date have a name?"

"I need you to be cool," he told her as he slid into the back and Grace got back into the front.

"Hey! I stopped squealing," she said. "Alright, but I'm gonna need details, and we'll need to tell Steve who's going to be sooo excited and… and… okay, I'm being cool, I can see that look I'm being cool."

From the back Nahele laughed and Rowan let Grace pick the music as they headed to the mall. As soon as they got to Sephora Rowan turned to Nahele, fished a few twenties out of her wallet and handed it to him.

"Alright, babe, go pick a gift, you're getting a forty dollar limit that is it!" she told him. "I know I'm supposed to play it cool, but one of those light up roses would be pretty cute. That is the last thing I'll say."

Nahele hugged her quickly before scampering off and leaving her behind. Rowan watched him go for a moment before she remembered what she was there fore and lead Grace into Sephora.

"Alright, I'm sure they'll tell me not to, but I'm going to grab a bunch of stuff and deck you out okay?" she said pulling Grace along the aisle to pick out the trial options. She got eyeshadow, blush, and a lip gloss before putting Grace into one of the tall chairs. As she got started Grace was smiling to herself and Rowan was busy paying attention to what she was doing.

"Do you have any tips Aunt Ro?" she asked as Rowan applied blush.

"Hmm," Rowan mused for a moment. "I do. This is the number one date tip every girl, every boy, every person should live by, okay?" she put down the blush and Grace nodded. "Be yourself."

Rowan picked up the shimmering pale eyeshadow and brushed it against her eyelids to give her a bit of a glow to her eyes but nothing to serious.

"That's it?"

"Yep, that's it," Rowan said. "If that boy doesn't like you for who you are he is not worth your time, okay?"

Grace nodded and Rowan abandoned the eyeshadow to put on a little bit of mascara to widen out the appearance of her eyes. She was applying the shimmering lip gloss when her phone started to ring. Rowan finished up and then sent Grace off to fragrance with a Sephora employee with the order of: Find her a scent that is sweet but not overpowering cause she's like… twelve. Once Grace was busy she answered the phone.

"Pierce."

She smiled to herself, she couldn't help it. That was something she stole from Steve and she loved it. She'd never tell him that because he'd never let her live it down but it gave her a thrill to answer with only her last name, no wonder Steve did it all the time.

"Hey it's Pete, where you at, kid?"

"I'm at the mall, what's wrong?" she asked because he only ever called her when something was wrong.

"Nothing. I just need to pretend to see you to argue a price, you got time to meet?" he asked. Rowan laughed at him. "Yeah, I'll meet you by the south doors okay?"

Rowan told Grace where she was going and then went and found Nahele in the card shop, the light up fake rose in a bag specially wrapped up already and she pulled him aside.

"Hey, Pete's called, he wants me to meet him," she said. "Grace's date is around the corner at an ice cream shop, uh… Via's Gelato, here's more money. If I'm not back just take her over, and then sit down order some ice cream and make sure he doesn't get handsy."

"The kid's twelve…" Nahele said with a smile but Rowan just shook her head.

"I'm putting you on big bro duty here, 'Hele," she told him. "This is serious business. If you think he's doing anything shady, INTERVENE, you got me?"

Nahele nodded his head sharply. "Done! Keep me posted on the ETA and everything," he said.

She hugged him, held him close for a brief moment before heading out of the mall. She finally managed to shoot Steve a quick text about Nahele and his date and was waiting for him to respond when Pete finally showed up. She smiled up to her boss/agent and hugged him.

"Playing hard to get?" she asked and he nodded.

"You know how it is. Sometimes they need some space. Some time to figure out that what I'm offering is all they're gonna get," he said. "Just got let them sweat it out."

"Which song is this for?" she asked, he was trying to sell several of her songs at that moment, she wasn't sure which one he was negotiating today.

" _Work from Home_ ," he said. "We've got a girl band who wants it, but also thinks that because you are also a girl you should be more forgiving and give them a discount."

"Four percent is the discount," Rowan said and he laughed with her. He glanced at his watch and smiled. "I figure, that's enough time, care to help me flag a cab?"

Rowan followed him to the street, watching as he flagged down a green cab. It was a brand she didn't recognize but she waved it off as not really knowing about Hawaii's types of cabs cause she was too busy driving her own car.

"Okay, well… good luck," she said to Pete as he slid into the back.

"I'll keep you posted on any developments of course, but I fully expect to be done with them within the hour," he told her and she just smiled at his confidence.

"Get in the car," the driver said, Rowan glanced to him, noted his look of anger and winced. Mmm, she was holding them up, not a nice thing to do.

"Oh no, sorry, I'm not going with him," she said and then turned back to Pete. "Okay so just keep me posted, I'm kind of busy tonight so while I might be able to swing by the studio if you need me to sign things, I'd very much like to not be called in so keep that in mind."

Pete opened his mouth but the driver interrupted him by near shouting: "Get in the car!" Rowan was ready to snap at him, ready to turn back and give him a piece of her mind but when she turned all she saw was the gun in his hand.

Blinking her eyes she quickly pushed Pete further into the back. "Okay, okay, okay," she said sliding into the seat. "Okay… I'm… I'm in the car… what… what do you want?"

"Shut the door!" he ordered and as soon as Rowan obeyed the cab was moving leaving the mall behind.

Rowan watched it a little bit before turning back to him. "Look… if you want money, I have lots of money, I can give you… I can do one better. I can take you to it, but uh… we gotta be quick cause my kids are at the mall and…"

He abruptly stopped driving and turned back to them, leveling the gun with Pete's chest and then firing without saying anything. Rowan couldn't help it she shrieked Pete's name, half clamouring onto him to both shield him and help him. But their crazy driver had just gone back to drive, giving her no reasoning or orders or anything.

Rowan was too busy trying to save Pete so she completely missed him dialing a number on his phone and saying: "This is Roko Makoni, I want to speak to Commander McGarrett."

And both of them were busy with their own things, neither of them noticed as the taxi's radio frequency slowly changed stations on its own.


	169. Chapter 169

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Thursday my wonderful readers (And welcome Back AJ). We're getting a double update today to make up for me missing yesterday, which I think is great cause I'm a bit worried that the last chapter ended on a bit of a cliffhanger but, here we have how it ends. Isn't it great to not have to wait for the next bit? So this is the part of the story were things get really cute! It's down there at the end. We're coming up to some really interesting things too, and a revelation that I'm sure you guys will love! Don't forget to leave a review and I will see you tomorrow!_

Chapter 169

* * *

This case had been terrible. It had led him down past roads that made him… just… angry. Having a kid now, thinking of child soldiers enraged him, because if that had happened to Nahele he'd… uh… he'd…. god he didn't even know. The man who had caused such suffering, Roko Makoni, was supposed to be dead. He wasn't, he was alive, he was on Hawaii, and their first murdered victim had figured that out and was going to report it. Their second murdered victim had been a previous child soldier who had come to Hawaii with his younger brother for a better life and had recognized him. He had been a part of that story their victim was going to tell, now he was dead.

This had all culminated to Steve attacking Roko Makoni with all he had and painting the guy into a corner. He was so out of options he had gotten into a cab he had wired with C4, taken hostages, a man and a woman, shot the man and was now demanding an exit strategy. A fully gassed up helicopter that he was going to take to escape.

The cab was parked at Kapuni and Cleghorn, a wide berth had been given to it. Steve had been called in, by Makoni himself, called to negotiate, to get all that Makoni asked for. Steve just wanted to get the injured guy out of the car.

"How are we going to play this?" Danny asked.

Steve was antsy. He could tell. Steve couldn't figure out why though. But something had a hold of his heart and was playing with his heartstrings.

"Have you got a hold of Rowan yet?" he asked instead.

He hadn't heard from her since she had texted saying that Nahele had a Valentine's Day date. He had asked for more details and got nothing. Then the antsiness started and Steve immediately tried calling Rowan. She didn't answer, which… which was totally like her. Never answering when she was needed, making him more and more uneasy.

"No, you know that, and neither have you or anyone else. Is that what we're going to worry about right now? We got a man bleeding out and a Warlord in a cab filled with C4," Danny snapped.

But Steve's heart wanted Rowan. Until he knew that she was okay he wasn't going to stop being this antsy. He was going to be of no use to them like this. Suddenly there came a static hissing as the radio in the cop car they were standing beside flared to life.

 _Look. This isn't going to end well for you, you know that right?_

That was Rowan's voice. Danny too looked at it. "Is that Rowan? Is she the… we never did confirm who the second person was, did we? Does he have Rowan in the car?" he asked.

Obviously he did. Obviously it was her. This was why his heart had been racing and his body had been shaking. This was why he was antsy, he had sensed that she was in trouble, but he hadn't been able to see her clearly, he hadn't know that she was there, not consciously then.

"I said shut up." Makoni ordered.

"Yeah, that's not going to happen."

God, why…. Why was she sassing him? Why? God, she didn't have the advantage, why couldn't she see that?

"I'll shoot you… I'll shoot…"

"You go ahead, you fucking asshole, but best believe, if I get hurt they're going to rain down pain and suffering until you beg them to swallow a bullet."

Fuck, fuck, fuck. Stop talking Rowan. Stop talking.

Steve called him up immediately. Anything to distract him from Rowan and her inability to fucking stay quiet. "Makoni, it's Commander McGarrett again. I need to know who you have in the car with you."

"That doesn't matter. They don't matter. Understand me Commander McGarrett. If these people die, it's on you. You know what I want."

That wasn't true. It did matter. It mattered at a whole bunch, but he knew that if Makoni figured out that he had Steve's girlfriend in the back of his cab things would get worse for the both of them.

"The helicopter is being fueled as we speak," he said to him, hearing his voice coming from two different places was killing him. "And everything you've asked for is in motion."

"Did you say Commander McGarrett? Did you call Five-0?" came a voice both from the squad car and the phone.

"I said shut up," Makoni barked but there was a sudden scuffle and an order of: "Give me that!"

Steve glanced to the car in time to see Rowan struggling with the Congolese Warlord, she slammed his face into the steering wheel so hard the car horn beeped and then she breathlessly sat back.

"You hit me I hit you back now sit down and shut up, I'm just going to talk to him," she said and then the phone was to her ear.

"Hey, so I'd like it on the record that I didn't go looking for this one it just sort of found me," she said to him and Steve half laughed. "But since it found me I've been getting some… uh… intel. Do you need to be caught up or do you know everything?"

"I know everything," Steve said. "You okay?"

"I'm fine, Pete's not. I left Nahele at the mall, kinda anxious to get back to him," Rowan told him. "And Pete needs a doctor."

"Give me the phone!" Makoni ordered and just like that Rowan's voice was gone.

"So, you know her then, Commander," he said to him and Steve sighed. "If I were you, I'd be less worried about her a more worried about the C4 in my trunk.

 _C4 is on a remote detonator. Unhackable. Awaiting confirmation for Sniper._

That had also come from the cop car, great so Sandy was behind the linking up of the radios, Sandy was involved. Sandy had called in a sniper. Steve turned to Danny who immediately turned away to address their com-link. "Be advised we may have a rogue sniper near-by."

"Yes. I know them. And I am worried, okay? I am worried. But I also want to send a doctor out there to check on that man's wounds, and I want to get you out of the open before her guys start shooting."

There was a long pause before he said: "Her guys?"

"You don't know who you have in your backseat do you?" Steve taunted. "Well, the way you're going you'll find out. Now, Pete has nothing to do with this, he doesn't need to die."

"Alright, you care so much, you come."

"No, I'm not a doctor."

"Well, today, you'll have to be," he snapped and then hung up the phone leaving Steve with options. He knew what he wanted to do. He knew what would be smart to do, it wasn't what he wanted to do though.

"Sandy care to weigh in here?" Danny asked the cop car sensing that Steve was about to do something stupid to get Rowan out of that cab.

 _Roko Makoni is a Congolese Warlord that has done business with the Master in the past. File notes claim him to be ruthless, and merciless. Makoni does not respond well to threats or psychological warfare and I have been operating silently as to not upset him and put Professional in danger even though she has ignored every alert and recommendation to stop antagonizing him. He is cornered and afraid, he will not hesitate in killing either Professional or Captain America if he feels he will get away with doing so._

"Don't worry about me, Sandy," he told the police car as he began to strip himself of his protective gear.

 _I am not programmed to worry, Captain._

"Okay, but I am. Steve? Hey, you sure this is a good idea?" Danny asked moving forward ready to grab him if he had to.

"He has Rowan," was all Steve had to say.

And Danny sighed and nodded. "Yeah that was a stupid question."

Steve threw his Kevlar to the hood of the squad car. "Please be careful," Grover called but Steve ignored him as he approached slowly and carefully. He did a full three sixty in front of the car, with his hands up to show Makoni that he wasn't armed.

"Your girl told me about her brother," he said when Steve leant in. "But I know he is her brother no more. She chose you, they say, and he took his name and stopped backing her."

That wasn't good. Liang had mentioned that sooner or later everyone would know that she wasn't quite protected by Wo Fat. Yes, she had her app but it needed approvals from Wo, and who knew what he'd approve and wouldn't.

"I need to open the back door, please. Okay, can I open the back door?" he asked deciding to ignore that jab.

The door unlocked and then Steve was back there where Rowan was putting pressure on Pete's wounds. He was alive but barely.

"Are you okay?" he asked her. Rowan just nodded. He looked at the damage, at Pete's pale face, his eyes barely open, barely breathing. "Okay, it's okay. I'm going to fix this."

"You better Steve… cause I don't know how long she'll wait."

She meant Sandy. Did she not know that Sandy didn't have approval for a sniper?

"I need to get this man out of here right now," Steve he said turning his attention back to Makoni. But he shook his head. "You'll still have her, and trust me, that's a good hostage to have."

"Close the door," he ordered and when Steve paused, so he repeated his order but louder. "I said close the door."

Steve did as he was told and moved to the passenger window by Makoni where he was ordered onto his knees. Steve didn't move but when Makoni pointed that gun at Rowan and Steve did as he was asked.

"You think I'm a monster, don't you?" he asked. "That makes it simple for you."

"Monsters aren't real. You are."

"You see, I wasn't born into the privilege of your country. I was born in a place where there is no living. You survive or die. I gave those children a purpose. A cause. Something to believe in."

"A cause?" Steve echoed. "That's what you call kidnapping and rape? Murder? A cause?"

"Our enemies are swayed more by fear than reverence."

"You put guns and machetes in the hands of children and turn them into killers."

"I turned them into soldiers!" he shouted. "Do you know why you're here? Because I wanted you here. I wanted to look into your eyes and hear you say you agree to my demands."

"Okay, well, I've done everything you asked," Steve reminded him.

"I have seen many men cower under the shadow of a blade or the barrel of a gun. Your actions may be that of a brave man, commander," he said taking his gun off of Rowan and pointing it at Steve. "But your eyes tell me that you are a liar."

But before he could pull the trigger, before anything could happen, a computerized voice was talking from Makoni's radio.

 _Income Voice note from… Master._

Makoni turned to his radio, surprised. "What is…"

Steve didn't know what to expect, but he shouldn't have been surprised when it was Wo Fat's voice coming out at them this time.

 _I told you, Makoni, when I sold you your hardware. That there were things I could forgive. But hurting my sister, even accidentally, was not one of those things._

At that Rowan smiled, like there was a code embedded in there that only she understood. Makoni turned, his gun raised in her direction but she didn't even flinch. "It's time to end this."

The gunshot echoed around them, but didn't come from the car. Rowan ducked, not to avoid a bullet but to avoid the spray as the bullet hit Roko Makoni right in the temple and a red mist coated the car.

Steve wasn't stupid. He knew that wasn't Kono's shot. Because Kono wouldn't have killed him. Kono would have kept him alive to suffer. No, that had been one of Wo Fat's snipers. Clearly he had given the approval to shoot. But Steve didn't have time to care about that. He quickly rushed back to the back of the car to help Rowan get Pete out and onto the gurney so he could be taken care of, but once they had him, Steve had Rowan in his arms.

Right where she belonged.

 _While it's wonderful that you two have been reunited, the trunk is still wired with several blocks of C4 primed for detonation._

Steve thanked Sandy for her reminder and then slung Rowan over his shoulder so he could bring her safely back to the rest of his team and out of the blast zone.

Once they were done and Rowan had managed to wash all the blood off her hands she turned to Steve who had not left her side once and asked: "Did anyone call Nahele?"

"No, we didn't know he had you until five minutes ago," he said and Rowan nodded.

One of the bomb squad men brought over her bag and she thanked him kindly for it. "I'm sorry, I know you had a rough day and I scared you but Nahele's all alone and he's probably freaking out, so I'm going to go get him and when you're done here, you and I can hug it out at home, okay?"

Steve nodded grateful that she understood, happy that the only reason she was leaving was to get the child he was quickly starting to care for as if he were his own. But that happiness feeling faded almost immediately because as soon as Rowan left Danny's phone was going off again and now that he didn't have a hostage situation to worry about he could give it his full and undivided attention.

"Oh god, I mean… really," Danny muttered to himself and Steve turned to his best friend. He wanted to be comforting but honestly the man was insane.

"What, what's he saying now? Is he offering to carry her books, what?"

"No… he's uh… he's taking her for an ice cream…" Danny said. "And… wait a second…" Danny's eyebrows furrowed and he suddenly looked up and looked around. "Where is she? That fucking bitch? Where is she?"

"Who? Danny who?"

"Rowan! Where did Rowan go?"

"She went back to the mall to get Nahele," Steve said. "What? Why?"

"Cause she's in on it. Son of a bitch she's in on it," Danny said. "She picked Grace up from school today, she's giving Grace a makeover for her date. SON OF A BITCH!"

"Okay, now wait a second… she was right here... she didn't mention that to either of us," Steve reminded him even though it was just like Rowan to casually forget to mention something like that. They both knew what Danny was like. "Why don't we just calm down a bit, I'll call Rowan…"

"No! Rowan _never_ picks up her phone and Grace is lying to me now. I bet your girlfriend got her in on it," Danny snapped. "Grace told me she was going over to a friend's house to study, who do you think fed her that one huh?"

"Okay, Danny let's just… let's just calm down… Rowan… Rowan loves Grace and she wouldn't put her in danger… you know that…"

"No, she is rubbing off on my daughter! My daughter will _not_ be a monster like her, do you understand me?"

"Hey! Hey!" Steve said grabbing Danny by the arm and forcing him back. "Don't you ever say that about her again, do you hear me? She is not a monster. She has never been a monster, and you're the one who keeps reminded me of that, so don't you fucking dare."

But Danny ripped his arm out of Steve's grasp and stormed off. Steve rolled his eyes and followed, he had to he had to make sure that Danny didn't blow this out of proportion… or tell Rowan that he thought her a monster.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Danny couldn't get Steve out of the car. But he said nothing as they drove to Via's Gelato ice cream shop not a five-minute walk from where Rowan had said she had left Nahele at the mall. The stormed up to the shop together but Danny didn't go inside and Steve stood beside him.

It wasn't hard for Danny to spot Grace. Sitting at the back laughing and playing a hand game, like patty-cake with 'Apane, trying to teach him the moves. In between them was a sundae that both were ignoring. She wasn't doing anything crazy, she was just smiling and having fun, same as 'Apane.

Grace didn't deserve this. She didn't deserve to have her first date ever ruined by him and his inability to be rational.

"Is that…" he heard Steve whisper and sure enough three tables away, hidden out of sight but clearly staring down Grace and 'Apane, were Rowan and Nahele. Both Nahele and Rowan, who had blood splatters running up and down her shirt, were sitting with their backs to the window, each with their own ice cream cone, watching Grace intently.

Danny's heart swelled up with pride. Rowan was chaperoning Grace's date. She knew Danny would have been pissed to find out that she was on a date and to make up for not telling him she had gone in his stead to make sure that all was okay. Considering how Grace was at the age where she didn't want her dad hovering around… yeah… that was a good compromise. Grace wouldn't be angry, and her date was still supervised. She… had found a way for both he and Grace to get what they wanted… and he had called her a monster.

"You're right," Danny whispered. "I was overreacting." Steve merely inclined his head. He had known that all along, of course, so he wasn't surprised in the least by this revelation. "And you were right about Rowan. She wouldn't have ever done anything to put Grace in danger. I should have known that she'd… I mean… you can't even tell she put make up on her. I can see shimmer, that's it."

He turned back to Steve who was smiling at him. "She's a really good girl, Steven," he said. "I never should have doubted her."

"Well… I'm down to never tell her it happened…"

"Thank you and uh… lock that girl down before she leaves you," Danny ordered as they walked away and back to the car. "Seriously. Give her that label. You already tell everyone she's your girlfriend, why can't you just tell _her_ that. It would make her so happy, best Valentine's Day gift ever. You know?"

"Okay, calm yourself, Romeo," Steve said sliding into the driver's seat of the car. Danny sighed, well Steve had been nice enough to let him drive there it was only fair to let him drive back. He felt better, he felt like everything was right in the world because had the best friends a man could have.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve had never been prouder to drop off a child at the movies. He had never been that proud for another human being in his life and his sister was raising a child herself quite effectively. He had not been a big part of the whole getting Nahele ready, Rowan had picked his outfit and then effectively gave up on life when Steve came down the stairs in jeans and flipflops. She had just shook her head and said: "And that is why you don't take fashion advice from Steve."

But Steve did get to help him with hair styling, not that much could be done with Nahele's curly mop of hair, and leant him some sophisticated cologne that Rowan had bought him for Christmas cause she had liked how it smelt.

But once it actually came to the drop off, it wasn't Rowan Nahele wanted out of the car walking him to the door, it was Steve.

"Okay, so… I know Ro said not to listen to me when it came to this stuff, but I'm the king of playing it cool," Steve told him, an arm around his shoulder.

Nahele nodded, a patronizing smile on his face. "Yeah, Steve I can tell."

Steve messed up Nahele's hair in a teasing fashion. "Shut up," he snapped though he grinned at him. "Just, you know, don't appear too eager, but if you think you have a window, go for it, you know?"

"You mean like… if I think I can get away with like…"

"A kiss, kid, I'm telling you to go in for a kiss. Like a peck. Like, seriously nothing more. You're fourteen. You should be going for kisses and that's it. No tongue."

"You and Rowan…"

"Okay, stop it. Me and Rowan are grown adults and we clearly need to stop making out in front of you," he said. "You'll get there one day though, just not today, Rowan and I will discuss proper age for those moves, but until I have an answer, you do nothing, got me?"

"Sure. But how do I tell if she wants to?"

"Uh… you know each girl is different. But uh… look for, lip chewing, lip licking, or a lot of eye contact and blinking eyes," he explained. "Once you know your girl better you'll be able to tell better."

"So most girls don't just throw themselves at you as soon as you walk through the door?" Nahele asked a teasing grin on his face but Steve was in serious-business-dad-mode so he only gave Nahele a small smile for his joke.

"No, Rowan's special. And that's her being needy, just don't tell her I said that," Steve warned. "Her usual tells are this little half turned up smile, blinking or hooded eyes, and lip biting, usually the lower lip, if the tongue's sticking out I know if I wait it out she'll jump me." Nahele just stared at him and Steve smiled. "See, and I know that cause I've known Rowan for…"

"Three years," Nahele said as if Steve didn't know. He must have gotten that from Rowan.

"Okay, the most important thing, is be yourself," he said. "Just be you, try to breathe through the nervousness, and uh… be confident. And text me if you need advice or something."

Nahele half hugged him and walked off towards a tight jeaned, strawberry glossed blonde girl. Steve stared a bit, watching as Nahele hugged her, and then they moved towards the ticket counter. He finally remembered he wasn't supposed to stick around, so he stepped back and away, quickly moving off towards the car he left his girlfriend in.

He slid back into the GTO noting that Rowan was craning her neck past him to try and catch a glimpse of the girl Nahele had asked out.

"She looks sweet," Steve assured her. "But uh… he'll notice if we hover…"

"Did you see what movie they were going to? Maybe we could sneak in…"

"Ro, the boy is fourteen and will never forgive you if you're caught spying on him."

"It wouldn't just be me, I'd be dragging you with me. We'd be going down on that ship together," she growled but she started the car and drove away. They got to Grover's where the Five-0 Valentine's Day Picnic was taking place and the two of them separated. Steve on drinks Rowan on food. Easily because Steve knew what she wanted to drink, no matter what it was she was craving, he always just knew, and Rowan got food, because she was picky and Steve ate anything, but she always knew what he was in the mood for that day.

"You see Danny, raising kids is a lot like grilling burgers," Grover said while Danny just stared at him with an unimpressed glare. "You can't poke them and prod them too much. All you can do is watch them closely and be there when the flames jump up."

Danny just laughed at him. "Wow, that's it huh? That's fantastic. Steve?"

Steve turned away from Rowan, trading his plate of food for her drink and then walked towards his friend. "Yeah?"

"You gotta hear this. Grover is comparing… uh… raising children to making hamburgers," he said.

"And what's wrong with that?" Grover asked.

"Yeah, I like it," Steve said as Rowan came to stand beside him. She just had to bump her shoulder with his arm lightly and just like that his arm went around her. It amazed him how easy it was to slip into those habits, sometimes he wondered how he had lived without her for so long when life just seemed to be so much easier and happier since she had become his girlfriend… or the girl he was dating on an official level.

"I like it too," she said. "But I'd say they're more like ivy, give them all the essential nutrients, a little bit of love, a little bit of space to grow and they'll shoot up like weeds."

Danny glared at the two of them. "Oh, and what would you know the two of you have been parents for like a month, suddenly you're experts? You got lucky with a good kid, you did absolutely no raising!"

Steve shook his head, it was typical Danny to be jealous. Rowan's phone went off and Rowan quickly tugged it out of her pocket. "That's weird, it's Nahele," she said and then answered it.

"Hey Swe…. Hey, hey, are you okay?..." Steve stopped drinking his beer and turned to her. She looked up to him with big blue eyes filled with fear and his papa bear instincts kicked in immediately. "Okay, okay, just stay there, I'll come back to get you just wait outside the theater please."

She hung up the phone already turning away with Steve following her. "What's going on?' he asked.

"I don't know he wouldn't tell me but he's obviously upset and he's asking me to pick him up," she told him. "You can stay if you want."

"No, no, if he's upset we'll go together," Steve assured her. They called out that they'd be back to their friends and then Steve let her drive all the way back to the theater to get their kid. Noting that she was above speed limit by at least 20 mph at all times and driving as aggressive as he or Danny. Danny and Chin had said that Rowan was an aggressive driver but he hadn't ever witnessed it before today.

When they got back to the theater, Nahele was just out front like Rowan had asked him to be. Steve got out, went to ask him what was wrong but Nahele just said nothing and then climbed into the back seat. Rowan asked him what happened but he wouldn't answer. After a silently charged moment where the two of them held each other's eyes, they both decided to stop asking him. Instead, Steve asked if he was okay to go to the BBQ with them, to which they got a very apathetic _whatever_.

So, they drove back to the BBQ, everyone got out of the car and Nahele stormed off. Rowan and Steve joined their friends again, got their heart shaped burgers, Rowan made sure Nahele got one of his own and then he just sat in the corner alone.

Rowan, who was sitting at the table with the rest of the adults, not paying attention to any of them in favour of just staring at Nahele, sighed for the millionth time and Steve turned to her. "I'm sure it's fine. He'll talk to us when he's ready."

Rowan turned her eyes to him. "But he just looks so… devastated. Maybe… maybe you should go talk to him?"

"Me talk to him? I thought you said only go to you or Danny for relationship advice?"

Rowan pinned him dry glare. "Steven! Will you please… he's upset… can you just…?"

Sighing Steve put his beer down. "Fine," he said. He straightened his shoulders up, cracked his neck out like he was preparing for a battle and then walked over to the kid sitting at a chair in the corner just staring at the heart shaped burger on the plate sitting on his lap.

Steve tapped his shoulder and Nahele looked up to him. He didn't look all that surprised and it was with a heavy sigh that he asked: "Ro send you over?"

"Yep," Steve said quickly sitting down beside him. "Look, you don't have to tell me what happened. But we can tell you're upset, and that's making Ro anxious and if she gets any more anxious, she's going to annoy it out of you. So we're going to sit here for a bit, you're going to pretend to talk to me and then I'mma tell her everything's good but you swore me to secrecy… which she'll probably try to annoy out of me so I guess I'll think of a clever lie and then brief…"

"It was a joke."

Steve paused. "A joke? This was a joke? Are you pranking us right now?"

"No, she pranked me," Nahele said. "It was a joke. She said yes as a joke, she showed up with her real date and all of his friend and her friends to laugh at me cause there was no way a girl like her would want me. Then they all went in to the movie, her date took my ticket and the food I bought for us and I was left there looking stupid."

Steve blinked his eyes. Fuck. They were starting that early, he thought that was an older kid thing. Really they were doing that at fourteen now?

"Okay… okay… so… uh… kids are…"

"They hate me."

"That's a strong word and I'm sure it's just…"

"No, you don't get it. Steve, I'm the _poor_ kid!" he cried. "That's all they see when they look at me. The poor kid. None of them like me… I don't fit in there. I thought… I mean… Victoria was the only girl who'd talk to me… or be semi nice but it was all just some… joke to her… I don't have any friends, they all make fun of me and I just… I just…"

A single tear rolled down his cheek and he hastily wiped it away. But Steve saw it and his heart crumpled in his chest. "Why didn't you tell us? We could have…"

"I didn't want to say anything," he said. "She spent so much money getting me in last minute and she was so excited… I didn't… I didn't want to disappoint her."

Steve glanced over to Rowan who, instead of interacting with the rest of their table had her lazer focused eyes on them. She was sitting there, poised to move, those blue eyes unblinking and unwavering. He had a feeling that he was looking at a face similar to the ones his suspects saw when he was chasing them down or trying to make them crack. Damn if that was what he looked like all the time no wonder the bad guys were afraid of him.

"Has she been staring like that the… uh… the whole time?" Steve asked.

"Yeah… it's a little unnerving," Nahele whispered and Steve almost laughed before turning back to him.

"Okay. Look. She's worried about you. Okay, that's what that's about. Just uh… don't make eye contact or she'll come over," Steve warned him and Nahele turned away. He put a hand on Nahele's knee before continuing. "You know… if you tell her what's happening. If you tell her you want to move schools… she won't be disappointed. She wants you to be happy. That's all."

Nahele shook his head so Steve moved his hand up to his Shoulder. "Here's what we're going to do, we're going to go over there, and you're going to tell her what's going on."

Nahele shook his head a little harder. "No, no she'll be mad."

Steve scoffed. "She will not be mad," he said. "Come on, we'll do it together. I'll go with you, I'll have your back, alright?"

Nahele looked up at him with that worried look on his face and Steve smiled encouragingly. "Look, worse comes to worse I'll start an argument with her and she'll forget all about it, okay?"

He finally sighed but got up and the two of them walked over to Rowan who had stood up the second they did. "Hey he wants to talk to you about some stuff," he said and then both he and Nahele pulled Rowan aside.

"Okay, what's up?"

"I'm getting bullied at school."

The Ice Queen mask slid onto Rowan's face immediately, a frosty: "What?" came out of her as her eyes shot back and forth between he and Nahele.

"The girl I asked out… she only said yes to make fun of me… it was a giant prank… and the kids they do stuff like that to me all the time. I… I'm the poor kid… the foster kid…"

Rowan struggled to pull her phone out of her back pocket. "Good Christian school my ass," she growled. "Oh, they are going to hear about this, let me fucking tell you. I'm going to hit that school so hard…"

"No!" Nahele shouted startling everyone near-by and getting Rowan to look up at him. "No," he repeated more softly. "I just… I just don't want to go to school there anymore."

Rowan blinked her eyes. "Okay… I mean… it's the semester just started though and like past the mid-year mark… switching makes no sense right now…"

But then she looked at Steve who was hitting her up with what he hoped was a stern but knowing look but she just stared at him with her own look of misunderstanding so he sighed and said: "Ro, he's obviously very unhappy… I'm sure… I'm sure we could find him a better school that might be closer to home… where he might be happier."

And just like that Rowan's head tilted to the side. "Where did you go to school?" she whispered.

"Me?" Steve echoed. "Kukui High School why?"

"You went with Chin right?" she asked.

"Well yeah, Chin went there… but he was a few years older…"

"Yeah but he graduated… you didn't, you got shipped off to military school… he could get him in right? If he makes a call?"

Steve frowned. "Well I mean… so could I…"

"I don't care who calls Steven so long as he's in by Monday," she snapped and Nahele suddenly hugged her.

"Thank you, thank you," he cried and she put a hand to his head to pet him.

"Don't thank me yet, I've got to get you in first," she said to him but he didn't let her go so she just sighed and hugged him back.

Steve looked on smiling, happy that things had worked out. With hands on his hips he asked: "Are we good to celebrate Valentine's Day now?"

Nahele smiled. "Hey, Uncle Lou, can I have my burger reheated? Mine got cold," he called and Lou jumped up to get back on the grill before Kamekona could get a hold of the flipper.

Then they all sat down the party going back to normal and when he thought no one was looking he handed Grace the light up fake rose he had bought his own date and clearly hadn't given her. But Steve saw, and so did Danny. Luckily for them all, Danny had calmed down a bit about Grace and boys, but Steve knew, he knew sooner or later Danny was gonna come at him over that smooth move of Nahele's.

But even with the hiccup, even with Steven kind of forgetting to get Rowan a gift and giving her a box of chocolates from the convenience store down the street and a promise for a better gift later, Steve couldn't help but think that this was the best Valentine's Day he had ever had.


	170. Chapter 170

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Friday my wonderful readers! (And Welcome back to Gajeel-rocks) All of my regulars are coming back and that just makes me all warm and fuzzy! We're onto a new chapter, we got more Rowan-isms coming up and personally, I just really liked this chapter, I think Rowan and Steve are super cute in the next few chapters. I hope you guys agree! I'm trying to over-load you guys with the cute things to make up for future events. Is it working? Do you guys feel over-loaded yet? Don't forget to leave me a review, I'd love to hear how you guys are feeling about the upcoming chapters and the previous ones and I'll see you guys tomorrow._

Chapter 170

* * *

Grover watched Steve hit his ball and then watched the little white golf ball fly right off the course and into the water trap. Beside him Steve let out an exhale of frustration while Grover tried not to laugh. He shouldn't have found this so funny, but it was great to see the amazing Commander McGarrett suck at something.

"Brother you're playing what we like to call military golf," Grover told him. "Left, right, left, right,"

Steve just shook his head. "What am I doing wrong?"

"Well for starters, you're swinging like a gorilla," Grover snapped. "Don't you remember what I said in the parking lot? This is a game of finesse. The easier you swing the further the little white ball goes."

"Okay, that doesn't make any sense to me," Steve complained. That wasn't how physics worked. Hit hard, balls go farther that was how it worked all the other times.

"See if this makes sense," Grover said pulling Steve towards him and pointed him in the direction of the green. "You see that little white thing way out there in the middle of the fairway?"

"Yes, Lou…"

"Well, that's swinging easy. Now where's your ball?" he asked and Steve sighed, he didn't need the attitude, he really didn't. "I'll tell you where your ball is, all the way at the bottom of that little pond. Partner, partner, listen. I'm just trying to help you, okay? Half the HPD is gonna be out there for that charity even next week watching you tee off. Is that how you wanna represent Five-0?"

"Hey guys!" A woman called and both Grover and Steve turned to say hello but Grover, Grover damn near tripped over himself when he got a good look at her.

Steve looked at her too, he didn't see anything too special about her. Asian and Caucasian mix, relatively pretty, tall, nice body if you liked them lean, with harsh angles and kind of flat. But Steve had a type and that was Rowan.

"Hi, how are you?"

"I'm good, how are you?" Steve asked.

"Uh… Ms. Wie," Grover stuttered. "I know we're playing a little slow. We'll pick it up."

"No, no, no, that's not the reason I came over. You guys are fine," she said smiling at Steve. "I'm actually here to see one of my friend's hit. We call her our one hit Wonder cause she's the queen of holes in one."

"Even on a curved course like this one?" Grover asked.

"Yeah it's unbelievable. But she says it only works when there's something riding on it so we always have to wait for a negotiation to see it."

Steve paused. Wait. That sounded a little bit like Rowan. Granted he had Rowan on the brain but still, amazing hits that only work if some sort of bet was riding on it… yeah that sounded like his girlfriend. "Uh… who exactly is your friend?" he asked.

"Oh, here she is now…"

Steve turned and damn, there she was, in her nice skirt, dismounting from a golf cart with no shoes on, shedding her blazer jacket and putting her hair up.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me," Grover growled.

"Michelle!" Rowan cried when she noticed her and the woman cried: "Ro!" and went to hug her.

Once the hug was done Rowan turned smiled to Steve and said: "Babe can I borrow your clubs?"

Steve swooped in to kiss her cheek the second she got close, noting that three more golf carts were pulling up, one cart filled with men in nice suits and the other held kids in baggy jeans. "Uh… sure but what is going on?"

Rowan merely walked away with his clubs and Pete grabbed Steve and Grover and pulled them away from Rowan who for some reason licked her finger and then put it up in the air like she knew anything about wind pressure and what not.

"Okay, Pete, what is happening right now?" Steve asked as soon as he realized that he wasn't going to get an answer from Rowan who was squatting down over the tee and squinting out into the distance while mumbling about ratios and wind speeds and how she shouldn't have done that in her skirt.

Pete had made a miraculous recovery after being shot. The bullet had missed all his vital organs, luckily, and his spine. He had done negotiations from his hospital bed, said it was the only thing keeping him alive. Rowan kept telling him to go easy, but it was like that shooting had invigorated him somehow.

"We got a bet riding on this hit," he said. "If she makes a hole in one, they sign off on a 12% royalty on all forms of media involving her song or any of its lyrics or music. If she doesn't we sign off on 8%."

Fucking really? "And uh… how often do you do this?"

"Not often, though it's getting more frequent," he admitted. "It's a lot like a party trick now."

"And how often does she miss?" Steve asked.

"She hasn't missed yet," he said almost proudly and then turned back to the group that had come with him, "Alright, one from my team and one from yours should go down to the hole to confirm legitimacy of the shot."

One man in a suit and a designated baggy pants kid both climbed into one of the golf carts and drove off and when Steve turned back around Rowan was doing weird things with her hands like she was pointing and talking about differentials, and angles. She did that when she was thinking, talked things out in half sentences cause it only made sense to her.

"How long does this usually take?" the head kid in jeans, the buyer obviously, asked. Steve turned back to Rowan who was still mumbling but not clearly as she had the locket he bought her sticking out of her mouth. He smiled, fuck she looked stunning.

Rowan turned to him a dangerous glare on her face and spit out the locket. "A lot longer cause you threw me off and I gotta start calculating again!"

Rowan turned away and started muttering again and beside him the woman who had originally came up to them leant in to speak to him.

"Oh," Michelle whispered, "Once things are done here, I'll give you pointers on how to hit better, that was the other reason I came over. You know if you wouldn't mind."

Steve smiled to her. "Yeah that'd be great."

She smiled to him and then moved off. "How do you not know who that is?" Grover hissed. "That happened to be Michelle Wie, the LPGA 2014 US Open Champion."

"Wow, really? No wonder you were drooling," Steve said with a teasing smile that just got Grover to frown at him. He opened his mouth to argue but Rowan cut everyone off.

"Okay, I need to hit the ball at a thirty-five-degree angle, with a slight rotation for curvature, so I'm going to need a 7-iron and a swing going roughly 95 miles per hour," Rowan announced to no one in particular as she returned to the golf clubs. She pulled out a tee, a ball and then the club and set herself up.

But before she swung, she spun the ball on the tee so it was spinning like a top. She straightened quickly, drew back and swung. The resounding _thwack_ shocked him because he had been unaware that she could hit anything that hard. An actually audible gasp went out amongst the people watching as everyone watched the arc of the ball.

Steve had a feeling that Grover was going to lose it if Rowan got this in.

The ball hit the fairway, rolled past Grover's ball and then straight into the hole. Behind them a cheer went up and Rowan turned to them all and bowed. Like she was accepting the praised after a performance.

"Thank you, thank you, now sign the papers and give me my 12%!" she ordered.

She handed Steve back his golf club and he grabbed her hand to keep her from walking away. "How did you do that?"

"Oh… that?" Rowan asked indicating to the ball she just sunk. "It's basic physics Steve."

"You failed high school math, but you can do basic physics?"

"I can if I have something important riding on it," Rowan said. She clocked his confused stare and she smiled at him. "Yeah, it used to drive my parents crazy too."

"Gurl… you gotta golf with me one day I'd love to see that…"

"No, nope, no. I hate golfing. And that trick only works once. I can't repeat that hole to hole," she said.

"You used to golf?"

"No, I used to caddy for my dad, who played golf with physicists and engineers, hence all the math equations. They were terrible to play with, took forever to get them to make a shot. Wayne Lee was the lead engineer for the Mars Rover and that asshole used to pull out a protractor to measure shit out. Though, Dr. Cooper used to use a sextant to chart movements so you know… it wasn't just one person holding everyone up."

Wow. What she had to grow up with. She turned that smug look on her face and rushed up to him. "Ohh, look at you in the light blue and the nice grey not-cargo-pants and the Michael Jackson glove," she said. "Mmmm, we you get home can we play naughty golfer? I unno how it would work but I'm thinking it'll have something to do with your club and my hole."

"Ew, my god, girl, there are people here!" Grover cried moving away from her. Steve just kissed her deeply and held her close. He wanted nothing more than to do that, and maybe one day when they both weren't busy and Nahele was at school they could figure out how to act that out.

"Kay, well thank you for the sugar, Sugar, I gotta go seal my deal. See you at home?" she asked and Steve nodded. As she walked away, heading for the golf cart with a swagger in her step and sway in her hips, Steve noted that one of the buyer's entourage was practically bending over to get a better look at Rowan's ass.

Steve found himself standing beside him almost immediately watching as Rowan walked back, she leant against the golf cart as she bent over to put her high heels back on. Steve stood stoically beside him, arms crossed over his chest as the man beside him continued to stare, hand in a fist to his mouth, sucking in his breath in an appreciative sort of way. Steve's smile was a pandering one, he wasn't happy he was about to break bones, and not his own either.

"It's a nice view, right?" he asked him.

The guy looked at him, took in the unimpressed glare, and looked back to Rowan who was finally in her heels and was now putting her blazer back on and fixing her hair while she talked with Pete. "Look, I get it, you and her have a thing, but I'm just looking man."

Steve smiled in a dangerous sort of was at him. "Yeah? Well, you've got a point. Her and I definitely have a thing… but uh… you're going to stop."

"Hey! It's a free country I'm allowed to look."

Steve quickly took his shield out of the pocket he hid it in and flashed it at him. "You wanna try that free country thing again?" he snapped.

"Seriously, man? You can't arrest me for staring, there ain't nothing wrong with appreciating the view especially when she'd bending over and practically asking for it.

Steve nodded, yep he was done asking nicely. "Alright, let's put this in a way that you'll understand. Keep looking at my girlfriend like that and I'll break your fucking jaw," he growled. The man stared at him eyes wide and he shot him his most aggressive smile. "We good now?"

The man ran off and beside him Grover snorted. Steve just shook his head. "Shut up."

He really hoped that didn't get back to Rowan… or worse… Danny.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

After golf Steve got called away on a case, so Rowan went to pick up Nahele by herself, and after a short homework break she took him to the Shrimp truck to start his shift.

"Okay, you have a good day at work," she said hugging him tightly as he half-heartedly hugged her back.

"Okay, okay, I will," he said, "But you gotta let go or you're gonna make me late!"

She watched Nahele run off to get his apron on and to clock in for his shift. The plan was to pay Kamekona for all the food Nahele was eating at his truck so he'd stop bitching about how his _employees eat free_ policy was eating into his profits cause Nahele ate so much. But when she turned he was already with a customer and she didn't want to intrude. So she hung back and tried not to eavesdrop but totally did.

Kamekona must have offered him something because the man was in the process of turning him down. But Kamekona wasn't about to just leave and let this go. The man had better cave so Rowan could get home. She sort of wanted to make dinner for Steve but if she was here she might as well pick up food for the both of them.

"Hmmm, you've been waiting a while," Kamekona said. "I know because I saw you sat down about thirty minutes ago. And you still haven't bought nothing."

Oh, Rowan knew this talk. Benches for paying customers only.

The man laughed. "Yeah, I'm sorry," he said with an accent Rowan couldn't place. "Uh… I was supposed to meet my girlfriend for lunch and I was late, and now she's not picking up any of my calls."

Kamekona shook his head. "Sounds like you might be in the doghouse, dude. And I'd hate to pile on, but these tables… paying customers only, bruh."

The man looked around before smiling back up to Kamekona and saying: "Yeah, fair enough. Fair enough. I'm sure you do a very good lunch trade. My girl, she raves about the food here," he said as he got up. He went for the phone in his pocket and then turned it onto Kamekona asking: "Maybe you know her? She's a regular here."

Kamekona must have recognized her because his face changed. He glanced back at the man then to Rowan behind him and then back to the phone.

"Yeah, I see her come around," he said. He made a big show of looking around before saying: "But not today. But if she does come by, who shall I say was waiting for her?"

"Uhm… John, but don't worry about it. I'll find her."

There was something ominous about the way he said that. A sort of pressure built up behind her eyes like a dark cloud of some sort.

He turned around spotting her for the first time and Rowan paused because she was getting discordant flashes across her eyes. Of that man screaming, and Amber's face all purple and red with bruises, and Danny getting hit over the head but mostly of a bloody knife, dripping blood onto the floor clutched in someone's shaking grip. And she got a name. Well actually she got Amber's voice begging, all directed at someone named: Frank.

"What are you looking at?" he asked her and then veered away heading towards a car.

Kamekona pulled out his phone, saying something about how he needed to call McGarrett about this, cause Amber might be cheating on Danny but Rowan wasn't listening. She followed this man, this Frank, to his car stopping him from the shutting the door.

She leant in really close, put on a look of utter rage and glared in at him. "Hey buddy, let me impart you with some advice. If you so much as go anywhere near my friends, _Frank_ , I will do to you what you did to her. You got me?" she snapped. His eyes widened, realizing she knew who and what he was. "Now I'm going to shut this car door and I'm going to let you drive away, but I would highly suggest you get the fuck off my island before you get yourself hurt."

And then she slammed the car door shut. When he didn't move Rowan, but instead glared at Rowan with a look of ugly anger on his face, she pointed in the direction of anywhere away from them and growled: "Drive, bitch!"

Frank finally drove away and when Kamekona cleared his throat she realized that he drove away because he was behind her. How nice of him. "What was that about?"

Rowan quickly put on her glasses so she could hide the look in her eyes from him, turned around to pin him with an icy smile and said: "Can I have one order of your garlic shrimp and one sweet and spicy Rowan Special?"

He stared at her a little longer but said: "Alright, coming right up," to her. Thank god he let that go, she wasn't sure she could explain. She just knew that if she done her job right, she had gotten the heat off of her friends and onto herself.

Personally, she'd love to have him come at her. He'd have a lot of fun with a guy like Steve.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve had been having a bad day. An ATF agent named Kathy Millwood had taken over his crime scene and annoyed the shit out of him. Rowan was sending him sexy pictures since leaving him at the golf course, as if he needed to be hot and bothered on an arson case. And he was just made aware that Hawaii had a Fire Bug killing people and setting up nanny cams with live feeds to watch.

So he wasn't happy when Kamekona had called early that day to tell him what happened. A guy showing up looking for his girlfriend. A girlfriend that was also Danny's girlfriend. He had a photo on his phone of the two of them together looking quite cozy. Kamekona, had told him the name of the guy, whom he called a perp, and then sent over a picture of a license plate for the car the man was driving. But that wasn't all. Kamekona also said that Rowan and this guy got into it. He got straight up Ice Queened, but instead of being scared he had gotten angry. Had a look on his face that spoke of anger issues and violent tendencies. But Kamekona had scared him away and the guy drove off.

He couldn't tell Steve exactly what it was she had said to him but it was something along the lines of: _If you go anywhere near my friends, I will do to you what you did to her. So, get in your car and get the fuck off my island._

He said that he thought Rowan might have addressed him by his name, but it didn't sound like she had said John.

So when he finally got home he was not happy to have her poke her head out of the house, crane past him as if looking for something and then ask: "Is his car still outside?"

"His car…?" Steve echoed as he ushered her back inside in case someone was sneaking up the drive to attack them. He shut the door behind him and quickly locked it. "Rowan… did someone follow you home?"

"Well I would hope so I made it super easy to follow me, I drove slow and signaled for every turn and everything."

Steve glared at her and then went to his front door, looking out the small window beside it, sure enough, the bumper of a car was hanging out just past a bush.

"Stay here," he ordered and then opened up the door. Gun in hand he walked down his driveway ready to pull his gun on whoever was in the car but it sped away before he could get close enough to ID the driver, but he saw the licence plate. Same one that Kamekona had sent him.

That fucker was following Rowan now? Why? Angry, past angry actually, he stormed back up the driveway to where Rowan was waiting for him by the door. He ushered her inside, shut the door and immediately armed the security system.

"What's going on Ro?" he hissed when that was all done.

"I don't know."

Absolute fucking lies.

"That guy was looking for Amber this morning, and now he's following you. You know something. Now what is going on?" he growled.

"That's all I know. He was looking for Amber and I got a bad vibe. He's obviously not above stalking either, cause he's been following me since our show down, but I'd much rather him follow me than have him find Amber with Danny."

What the fucking hell was that logic? "Rowan… are you… are you out of your mind?"

"No, cause I know if he tried anything you'd kill him," she said wrapping her arms around his neck. Steve stared down at her. Really… that was what she was going with? The ol' _Steve would protect her_ plan. Kind of stupid if he was at work.

"Okay… obviously you're not thinking straight…"

"Steve, I think he's going to do something terrible. If I can keep him away from Danny and Amber… or if you could scare him off the island or something, everything will be fine," she said to him, taking his face in her hands and kissing him softly.

Steve's hands rested against her hips. "Do… did you get something?"

"I don't know… maybe… I think… I think it's trying to come back but…" she whispered looking away from him. "I know it's stupid, Steven. I know you want them gone, but… what if something happens to… you… or Danny… or Kono… or anyone else we care about. What if something happens to them and I could have stopped it?"

"That's a lot to have on your conscience babe… and you know… your dreams… they've been… they've been hurting you more than helping… it's like… they're punishing you or something and I can't help but feel that… that might be my fault…"

"Your fault?" she echoed.

"You think, I know you think, that I don't like them, that I don't want you to have them. And uh…. Basically ever since we became official… your dreams…" he trailed off.

"I don't think that's it."

Steve swallowed his worry and looked back at her. "Okay, and what do you think the problem is?"

"I think… I think I've been feeling so guilty about everything that happened with Reyes that I blocked my dreams from coming," she whispered. "Don't get me wrong a few have escaped, a few have slipped through, but barely."

Rowan leant against him, her head on his shoulder and he figured, time to ask her the next question. "What have you been feeling guilty about?"

Rowan turned to him, and he swore, he swore he could see just how badly she wanted to tell him the truth but instead she lied. "I guess, that I didn't realize that you and Danny were lying to me… that I didn't realize that I was dreaming of Reyes for a reason… that Danny had to kill him…"

Steve nodded knowing that she wasn't being truthful, trying not to be sore that she felt that she couldn't trust him. "Okay, well, I think… in the long run I'd much rather wake up to your screams instead of those spasms you've been having. So… do what you have to do, you know? Whatever it is, let go of that guilt and just… move forward, you know?"

Rowan nodded to him and he kissed her again. "It doesn't matter what you dream, whatever it is, you and I will get through it together."

Rowan just smiled at him. "I saved you dinner," she whispered and he figured that was where the conversation was going to end.

"Good and while I'm eating you can explain to me the enigma of how you can calculate the factors to make a hole in one but failed high school math," he said to her and together they went to the kitchen. Both mentally preparing for whatever the night that lay before them held.


	171. Chapter 171

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N Hello guys! Only two more days in our marathon, it's so sad that it's coming to an end. But what's great is that you guys won't be left on a cliffhanger! I know how much you guys don't like them but I can't help it. I LOVE THEM! We got more Rowanisms going on in this chapter so GET READY, it's all meant to be funny, and you get to see Steve being an even more supportive boyfriend (which I think is great cause he was pretty great last chapter too), well unofficial boyfriend. Don't forget to leave me a review, I can't wait to see how you like the upcoming chapters, and I'll see you guys tomorrow!_

Chapter 171

* * *

In the morning, across the island another couple was having an equally as important conversation. Danny had been unable to sleep, he had wandered the house for a bit so he wouldn't keep Amber awake with his fitful tossing and turning. He had gone out to the back, to sit in the hammock and watch the stars, but he had fallen asleep out there.

He woke up to Amber reading a book in a chair beside him. He smiled warmly to her and explained why he had ended up out there and not in bed with her, so she knew it wasn't her fault. She didn't seem put off by it, she merely climbed into the hammock beside him.

She was all comfortable and cozy and Danny was feeling great until she asked: "Who's Reyes?" oh god, what? Why was she asking about him? "You mentioned his name in your sleep last night."

"I did?" he asked, sounding more annoyed then surprised.

"Yeah."

"Ah, well… okay… Reyes… Marco Reyes was the man who tortured my brother," he admitted.

Amber blinked her eyes. "Why were you dreaming about him?"

"Uhm… well… it's kind of complicated. The situation I ended up in. You see… Reyes he came to the island and he uh… he told me I had to get a certain amount of money together or he'd kill Matty."

"Oh god, Danny, that's awful."

"Yeah, so while I'm running around like a chicken with its head cut off, unbeknownst to me, Rowan had saved Matty from Reyes months ago and just never told anyone cause she and Steve were fighting, we don't trust her brother and she doesn't trust me to keep a secret."

"How did she save Matty?"

"You know, I never got all the details from her, but it involved pulling a favour in with her brother…" "Ah, the criminal brother…" "Yep that's the one. From what I understand he did all the work."

They were silent a minute and he admitted. "That situation ended badly and Rowan was involved, and I guess… uh… I guess I feel bad cause if I had communicated with her, instead of lying to her like Steve wanted me to, everything could have ended differently. And now she's hurting, and her and Steve's relationship has suffered, and I'm peachy keen with my good girl, and my brother off doing community service and… yeah…"

"Well… what happened to Reyes?" she asked and Danny froze again. He couldn't tell her what happened, not really and he didn't want to tell her the same lies that he had told Steven and the police. That the last time they saw him he was sailing away with his tail between his legs when Wo Fat and his men showed up to protect Rowan.

"Let's go swimming, you wanna go swimming?" he asked.

She propped herself up to stare at him, she knew he was avoiding the question and she was going to let him have it. "You have the water," she reminded him.

"I don't know if I _hate_ the water. I was just thinking if you were wearing something skimpy, maybe it would be a more pleasurable experience, you know?"

She laughed at him a little bit before saying: "I'm happy to oblige."

"Alright, let's go," he said and then let her kiss him a few times. But when she went to move he tugged her back down. "Wait come back, let's not go yet."

She fell back to his chest smiling at him and he smiled to. He didn't think there was anything that could happen to ruin this trip. Not Steve, not Rowan and her visions, and not even his own stupidity.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan hadn't dreamed in the night. She had waited. She had asked the void to give her something, anything. She was ready now, hit her with it. But with Steve's arms around her nothing had come to her. Like he was shielding her with his embrace.

Steve had left early. A case. She had heard him murmur all of that to her, felt his lips hovering near her ear, felt the soft butterfly kisses he had pressed to each of her eyes and eventually her lips. Had felt the cold of the absence of his presence and it was in that cold that the first proper dream came. In shattering clarity and high definition. And it was about a fire.

That had not been what she wanted to see. That… that had been terrible. But she kept seeing the same room, the same woman tied to a chair. Doused in accelerant and then set on fire. It took a lot of pushing, she had to dream that dream the whole way through to finally move on and get to the dream she wanted. The dream that mattered most to her.

Frank Simpson. He had abandoned her this morning, realizing that he was better off not chasing after a girl who had a man like Steven McGarrett in her stack of cards. He had also left that morning to go and find Amber. He had a hunch. He had gotten an address from her boss. But the joke was on him because she had dreamed the conversation he had and she had the address now too. And on top of that, she also knew his game plan which meant she could react accordingly. Though really, her plan was to beat him there.

And she knew. She knew if she couldn't get a hold of Danny, if she couldn't get to him first. Frank was going to kill Danny and then kill Amber. And that was not going down on her watch.

So, after she had dropped Nahele off at school, Rowan had taken her GTO, got on the highway and started making her way towards Danny who was literally on the other side of the island. The rat bastard. Why couldn't he be closer?

It was after a half hour of driving that she realized that she had promised that she wouldn't run off into dangerous situations anymore and that she may not be back in time to pick Nahele up from school. So she called up her man, and surprisingly, despite he had a case, he picked up on the second ring.

"Morning babe, I know you were sleeping so you may not know but we caught another arson…" he started but Rowan cut him off.

"No, no, that's okay. Hey so uh… Danny's in danger, and I'm going to get to him before the danger hits, but he's far so I might not be back in time to pick up Nahele, could you do it?"

"I've got a case, Ro," Steve reminded her.

"Keep him in a squad car or something. You know, like you used to do to me," she snapped back. "Also, not sure how important this is but uh… Room number 1827. Please remember that. I had a few dreams this morning after you left and I got one about a woman on fire in room number 1827. I think… your cases have been about fire's right? Something like… Éclair? But I also may just be craving Chocolate Eclairs."

Steve was silent a moment before saying: "Okay I'll keep that in mind, but you be careful, you don't know if that guy is following you."

"No, he's gone," she whispered. She hoped he didn't ask about that. She'd feel like she'd have to tell him to the truth but Steve didn't ask her about it so she could move on.

He told her that he he'd keep trying Danny and that had Chin looking up the guy and that when he got anything, he'd text her. She promised to keep herself out of trouble, and to text him if anything got too dangerous. Once they ended their phone call she had put in a call in with Duke to tell him the situation, he couldn't spare a guy but when he could he was going to send someone over to the address she had to make sure everything was okay, he put out an APB on Frank and a note to not pull over a pastel purple GTO that was flying down the highway.

And then she was driving.

Canada was a big country. She did a lot of driving, she had loved long drives, sun on her face, wind whipping through her hair, good tunes that she had either sung or written floating on the air. And this ride would have been so much more entertaining if she wasn't so damn worried about Danny and Amber.

Three and half hours later Rowan had come upon the house, too late though. Took a wrong turn, ended up at the wrong house. Not good. And she could see that. Frank had Amber pinned against the wall and Danny was on the floor. Turning quickly she rushed back down the stairs. She grabbed a handful of pebbled from the gravel driveway, shoved them into her pockets and then rushed back to the house to quickly climb up onto the roof.

So, she came to the party late, a party she wasn't invited to, that was fine, just meant she had to sneak in. She had crashed many parties in her youth, she could crash this one too.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve, still at a crime scene, had sent Chin to pick up Nahele from school and then hold him at the office. He had already talked to Nahele on the phone, first at lunch to tell him that Rowan had a something to deal with and couldn't come get him and that he'd be sending Chin to pick him up, and then again after school to confirm that he was in the car with Chin and to ask if he wanted anything for dinner. And then he made Chin pick it up for him on the way back to the palace.

So, to have Chin calling again meant that either something was wrong with Nahele or this had something to do with the case.

"Chin, what's up?"

"So that plate that Kamekona gave you came back to a car rented by a Frank Simpson out of New York City. TSA has him landing here a week ago," he announced.

"Amber's from New York, and Rowan did say that she was pretty sure his name was Frank. Damn I hate it when she's right," Steve sighed. "Okay, okay, so maybe he's an old boyfriend?"

"He's more than an old boyfriend. He's her husband."

Steve went silent. Oh. Holy. Shit.

"Turns out our Amber Vitale was actually Born Melissa Armstrong. Her married name is Melissa Simpson."

"Did you say Melissa?" Steve echoed after a bit of a pause.

"Yep, guess we now know why Rowan kept calling her Melissa by accident," Chin said and Steve shook his head. Fucking Rowan and her visions. She had subconsciously known that Amber had been lying about her name the whole time. "Okay, so she travels five thousand miles, she changes her name, and now the husband shows up? She had to have been running from him."

"Yeah, and for good reason," Chin told him. "NYPD arrested Simpson back in 2013 for felony assault. Amber, AKA Melissa Simpson, was the complainant victim. He nearly killed her. She's got an order of protection against him."

Jesus Christ and _that guy_ was following Rowan last night? God fucking damn it what had she gotten herself into? What was she driving into now?

"Yeah, well alright. You and I both know that thing's not worth the paper it's written on. I bet Amber knew that too."

"Yeah, I tried calling Danny and Amber as well," Chin admitted. "Both phones went straight to voicemail."

"Danny told me that he was going off the grid. He wants to spend some time with Amber. They must have turned their phones off.

"Well that explains why I can't ping their locations. Did he tell you where he was going?"

"No. Have you tried Rowan? She said she was going up to get him out of harm's way."

"Is she dreaming again?"

"I don't know, I think so," he said. "She didn't tell me about it this morning though. Just give her a try alright? Maybe if you can get her location we can send HPD to her before this all blows up."

"Okay, if that doesn't work, I'll reach out to friends and work and see if anyone knows anything," he said.

Steve just nodded. "Have HPD help. Put out an APB on Simpson. If he's going after Amber, and if Rowan's right he is, she and Danny… and Rowan could be in danger. And… uh… Chin…?"

"Yeah?"

"Maybe don't let the kid in on this, huh? He worries enough as it is," Steve said. Chin agreed and hung up the phone. Steve called Rowan quickly and it too went straight to voicemail but that could just mean she wasn't in an area with cell service. Despite himself, despite the more logical explanations, Steven found himself worrying. Worrying that something had happened to her and his best friend.

God, he didn't need this today. He just didn't.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Danny came to, head pounding, eyes swimming, to find Amber pinned against a wall with a man asking her if she loved him. Well. Shit. He wasn't quite sure what was happening, but he knew some things. She was scared. He was yelling. And Danny felt queasy. He had been around Rowan enough to know what that meant after getting hit in the head.

"Frank please," Amber whimpered.

Frank, the man, screamed in rage, stabbing the wall beside her head with a knife while she closed her eyes and sobbed, flinching with each hit the knife point made with the wood finish.

"All I wanted to do was take care of you. To love you!"

"Love me? You put me in the hospital twice, Frank!"

Okay what now? God why couldn't he center himself to get back up? How the hell did Rowan function so well after getting hit in the head? Okay maybe she didn't exactly function that well but she was much better at it than he was, maybe it was cause she had more practice?

"I know, I know I did, baby," Frank said brushing her hair back behind her ear while she tried to duck his hands. "I made a mistake. I told you I was sorry about that."

"Put the knife down," she ordered. But he didn't listen. "Put the knife down, Frank, please."

"I want to, but I can't. I need you to tell me that you still love me," he growled.

"I can't," she whispered to him. "I can't anymore."

"Why? Why not? Because of him? Are you going to tell me you're in love with him? Because I didn't fly five thousand miles for you to tell me that it's over!" he shouted at her. He was about to raise the knife, he was about to stab her and it was at that point that the sound was heard. The sound of stones hitting the roof and then falling to the ground. Frank turned, he took half a step towards the back door, and Danny felt the air pressure change. Someone had opened the front door.

Someone stepped over him, he heard Amber squeak and when he looked up, Rowan, with frying pan in hand was quickly and soundlessly stepping over him again and sneaking up on Frank. He couldn't see her face but he'd bet all the money in his bank account that she had ice blue eyes and a glare on her face.

"I told you to get off my island, bitch," she growled, breaking the silence and when Frank turned she smacked him, right across the face with the frying pan. The resound bang echoing through the house, the force of the hit was so strong that it knocked Frank right over. He hit the wall across from him and then slid down it, collapsing to the floor.

But Rowan didn't stop there. She stood over top of him and hit him, over and over and over again, all over his body, not just his face, his shoulders, back, arm, legs, hell it looked like at one point she was aiming for his dick.

"I told you…" _bang_ "…If you…" _bang_ "….Touched…" _bang_ "…My friends…" _bang_ "…I'd do…" _bang_ "…to you…" _bang_ "… what you did…" _bang_ "…to her…" _bang_ "…I…" _bang_ "…wasn't…" _bang_ "…lying!"

Danny forced himself up, he wrapped his arms up around Rowan's chest and pulled her away. As he did she roared with all the rage pent up in her small little body and hurled the frying pan at Frank one more time. Catching the guy right in the chest.

He put Rowan down and forced her to look at him. "Rowan, stop, stop Rowan."

"Oh my god," Amber said coming towards them. "How did she know… where did she…"

"She does this, she does this," Danny said trying to get Rowan to look at him. "What are you doing here, Rowan?!"

"Trying to save _you_!" she snapped. "Asshole showed up yesterday looking for girlie over here with plans to stab you both, so I came up here save you! Do you know how many fire dreams I had to wade through before I got to this one? I had to climb to the fucking roof and I swear I got a splinter. AND I got lost on the way up here. Could this place be even more remote?!"

Danny blinked his eyes. "Are you dreaming again?"

Rowan blinked her eyes and suddenly broke out in a large grin. "Actually yes, yes I am," she said but then her eyes caught something behind him and her smile faded away. With a strength he didn't think she had she shoved him aside, his body slamming into Ambers knocking them both down, just as Frank charged them, leaving her open to take the attack. Rowan tried to deflect his hands but she wasn't trained like Danny or Steve was.

The knife that Frank hadn't let go of sunk into her, a sort of grunt of pain mixed with a gasp of surprise escaped her lips and both Danny and Amber cried Rowan's name. But it was Danny who grabbed Frank by the shoulders and pulled him away.

As Rowan crumpled and Amber went to her side, Danny found that his head was no longer pounding and it was no longer hard to center himself in the world. He got on top of Frank and beat the ever living shit out of him. He hit his face over and over until he was certain that the bastard wouldn't get up again. Doing as much damage as he thought McGarrett would do in that situation without actually strangling the life out of him.

"Danny, Danny, stop, she needs a hospital!" Amber cried and only then did he get off. Turning back to where she was trying to pull Rowan up, Rowan who was cradling her right side, her face an ashen white beneath her tan. He pushed Amber aside to scoop Rowan up together they all rushed out to his Camaro where Danny got into the back with Rowan to put pressure on her wounds.

"You're going to have to drive, can you do that?" he asked Amber who just nodded. He looked back to Rowan to find her breathing dangerously shallow, her fingers gripping her side, her blue eyes going a bit glassy. He had seen that look on her face before, right after Steve had pulled her out of the water, bullet wound to her shoulder. He was _not_ living through that again.

"Look at me you bitch!" he cried to her when her eyes started to droop. "If you die cause of me Steve will never forgive me!"

"Steven?" she whispered.

"Yes that's right Steven!" he cried. "Steven's going to kill me if you die, so don't you fucking die!"

"I want Steven," was all Rowan could say to that wincing as he put even more pressure on the knife wound.

"Yeah, yeah of course you do, you always want Steven. And we're going to get you to him," he said. "Move us, fast Amber!"

She nodded, putting the car in the right gear and pressing on the gas, but Frank slid in front of the car.

His nose was all bloody, half his face was swollen, he had a limp and his shoulder wasn't in the right place but he was up and in front of the car. Geezus, why couldn't this guy stay down?

"Where do you think you're going? You can't run from me!" he shouted at her. Rowan let out a whimper, just the smallest barest whimper that Danny could tell would have been a cry for Steve if she had the energy to make it that loud and before he could encourage Amber to just mow him over, she did just that.

She gunned it, sending him flying up against the windshield and then breaking so he'd come crashing down. He hit the ground and this time didn't get up. Danny almost said go around him, but she gunned it again and went right over him. Well… well alright then.

Danny turned back to Rowan who was half in his lap, her eyes half shut, a hand gripping his. God, she just had to stay alive, cause Steve really wasn't going to forgive him if Rowan died cause of him. Hell. If she died because of him, he wouldn't forgive himself either.


	172. Chapter 172

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: So today's the last of the marathon (don't worry you're still going to get a regularly scheduled Monday post). I know I've had a really hard time posting during the day it's just because school started and I'm WAY too old to be doing 8am classes. I swear, too old. I hope you guys have been enjoying reading these chapters as much as I've been enjoying writing them. This chapter in particular is super cute and we've got some mildly angsty ones coming up that will be followed by probably my most favourite moment of this season. I swear, it think you guys will really like the scene I added. Don't forget to leave me a review and I'll see you guys tomorrow!_

Chapter 172

* * *

Their firebug, Duclair, which was eerily close to the Éclair Rowan said they were looking for, was not at his house. This man was crazy and set up to set another fire, on top of that he was getting bigger and bolder. They had done an extensive search and found a reservation for a hotel and figured that to be his next target. Steve had been forced to take Nahele to the original scene with him, as the kid wouldn't let go while he was suiting up until he agreed. Then he absolutely refused to be taken back to the palace, having shut himself in Steve's truck and refused to get out. So, he had already mastered Rowan's annoyance tactics when attempting to get his way.

He had left Nahele in the truck with a sworn promise that he was not going to move and then left Kathy, his rogue ATF agent, with him to coordinate fire and rescue with HPD and the Fire department. When Millwood went missing and their fire bug, Duclair, was found to not be in his room, there was panic as the team realized that Duclair must have taken Millwood to complete his vendetta against her. And that panic remained until Steve remembered the phone call he had with Rowan.

"Come on guys, room 1827," he had told his team.

There were looks of confusion, Grover asked how he knew. So, Steve told them the truth. "Rowan's dreaming again."

And that had been enough for his team.

They had rushed down to the room, where a convenient blood trail was waiting for them to follow. A blood trail that lead them, you guessed it, straight to door 1827. Steve had listened in at the door and heard Millwood's voice on the other side, talking to someone. Yep, Rowan was right. Millwood and Duclair were in there, and he had to make sure that he got her out before she got set on fire. He went to the room next door and knocked on the door. The person answered and Steve motioned for him to be quiet. And he nodded, and then followed Steve's finger as Steve pointed to the Five-0 part of his Kevlar, where his name and designation were printed. He then gestured to be let into the room. The man stepped aside immediately.

Steve moved through the suite carefully. He got to the balcony and silently crossed over. He just needed to find the right time to jump in. He could hear Millwood sobbing and when he glanced in Duclair was pouring oil on her. Okay now was the right time.

He let himself in and tackled him, grappling with the firebug, knocking the lighter out of his hand before he could set a fire and slamming him down to the ground. "I got him, Grover now!"

Grover broke down the door and then the whole team was barreling in. Grover helped him with the collar, while Kono and Chin got Millwood untied and up on her feet. He let Grover pull him up and then Millwood was squaring off with him.

"Look at me," she ordered but he kept his eyes down. "Look at me you son of a bitch!" she repeated and that time he looked up. "I promise you you'll get exactly what you want someday. You will burn in hell."

Grover took Duclair away, Kono had a hand to Millwood's side to keep her upright and to usher her out of the room and Steve, who had been holding his breath stood back and caught it, not sure why he was suddenly filled with this terrible anxiety. The pulsing ebbing worry that was both in his chest and his abdomen. He felt as if something were terribly wrong but he couldn't place what it could be. He had the bad guy, he had saved Millwood, why was the anxiety still there?

And then his phone rang. Danny. What could he want? Was he okay?

"McGarrett," he answered and then listened to Danny's frantic voice on the other end. It was all a scramble but he got the gist of it. Rowan. Stabbed. Hospital. "What, when? How bad is it?" Danny tried to answer but Steve cut him off. "Which hospital… I'm on my way."

And then Steve ran out into the hallway. "Chin, Rowan's in the hospital, take the kid home!" he cried as he rushed, not for the elevator, because that would take too long, but the stairs. He ignored all of his friend's shouts for him and an explanation and disappeared into the stairwell. He needed to Tripler as quickly as he could and nothing was going to stand in his way of getting to her.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Danny called Tripler Army Medical Center on the way to the hospital, so by the time they got there the team was waiting for them. They got Rowan out of the back of his car put her on the gurney and took her away. She was rushed immediately to surgery and a nurse came out to tell them a brief assessment of the situation. Moderately deep stab wound, evidence of a previous injury already in the area, unsure the amount of damage done, but, so far, the bleeding seemed about normal for a stab wound to the lower abdomen so they were operating under the assumption that nothing was internal right now. They'd have more as the surgery progressed.

Then Danny had to do the thing he hadn't wanted to do. He had to call Steve to tell him what happened. Steve hadn't yelled at him on the phone, but Danny could hear the fear and confusion in his voice. That meant when the fear wore off, the yelling and screaming and _how could you have let that happen_ s would come out. But until Steve got there, until the doctors told them how Rowan was doing, Danny had nothing but time to kill and questions to ask.

He crossed to where Amber was standing, tears running down her face, and put a hand on her arms. "It's okay, you know, it's okay, this isn't even half as bad as some of her other incidents."

Amber turned her eyes up to him all red and watery. "Yeah?"

"Yeah? Did you know she survived getting shot by her own brother? She uh… she's hit her head so many times… one time she had to get her head drilled to drain the blood that was leaking, they had to induce a coma and thought she'd die, and she didn't," he said. "So yeah, this is uh… this is nothing."

"Jesus," Amber breathed out.

"But uh… Amber… I kinda need to know what just happened," Danny said. "Who was that guy? Huh?"

Amber looked down at the ground. "My… uhm… my husband…"

Danny blinked his surprised. "Uhm… I'm sorry… what?" Amber started to cry again and Danny forced himself to calm down. "Alright, okay, Alright, let's just… let's just calm down here. Why don't you… uh… why don't you explain it to me, from the beginning?"

She sighed at him, tried to wipe away her tears and failed. "Okay… uh… well… I didn't have much of a family as a kid and when I was nineteen, I met Frank. And he was older and charming, and he was the first man who ever made me feel special," she admitted and Danny nodded seeing where this was going. "A year later, we were married, and everything changed. He wanted to control every aspect of my life and when I stood up for myself, he got violent. One night, he, uh…. He almost killed me, so I left the city and ran as fast and as far away as I could. And then I met you."

Danny took that in. "I got lucky, huh? Right, babe?"

"Well I wouldn't call it lucky," she said looking around at where they were.

"No?"

"No… I mean, I was afraid you would think I was damaged goods. That you wouldn't want me with all that baggage."

Danny shook his head and held her hand a little tighter. "Baggage? Look, I got…uh… I got plenty of baggage myself, you know? I think between the two of us, we may be able to open up a luggage joint one day, you know?"

He got a few sniffling chuckles from her before they lapsed into silence and Danny felt the need to fill it again.

"Look, um, I say that part of your life is over with now. You know? It's finished. I mean, we can start over right now. What do you say?"

She looked surprised but she smiled that watery smile at him and nodded. "I'm… I'm Melissa Armstrong."

"Melissa Armstrong," he repeated. "Wait… Melissa? You mean to tell me that Rowan's been getting your name right this entire time and I've been giving her shit for it?"

He meant it as a joke but her smile fell and she glanced back to the door like she expected an angry McGarrett to appear immediately.

"About Rowan… how did she know my real name by accident? How did she know where we were?" Amber or Melissa now, asked.

"I'm going to admit something to you and you can call me crazy but I swear to you it's true… but it's like a Five-0 secret and you can't tell anyone," he said and she nodded. "Rowan's psychic."

It was the old fall back, because he figured she could take psychic better than _Rowan's from another world_.

"Psychic," she echoed almost in a disbelieving tone.

"Yeah, call me crazy but the girl's always right," he told her. "Her dreams haven't been working for a while but she uh… she clearly got her shit together in time for this."

"You know… that explains how she knew my name… I always thought she might have been taunting me… that she might have known all along that maybe… her app and her brother had told her about me. I was afraid of her, and that was part of the reason I didn't like her… but she… she was always so surprised when anyone corrected her. She hadn't realized she had said it. And she was always so nice to me, always trying to include me. And now… well… did say she drove all the way out to us because in her dream she saw both you _and_ me getting stabbed."

"Rowan's like that. She's a ride-or-die kind of girl. Once you're family that's it. She will stand behind you through anything," he said. "Though I think all of us would like it better if she'd stop getting hurt, it really upsets Steve and an upset Steve is a Steve none of us want to deal with."

She laughed again and then like he was conjured by his name being said so many times in a row, a door burst open and a frantic looking Steve was barreling towards them. Danny held out his hands to ward him off.

"She's fine, she's… she's going to be okay," Danny said. "She's in surgery, but they said it didn't look too deep and it didn't nick anything internal."

Steve let out his breath and thought all of that over before growling: "How the hell is it that she got stabbed huh? How Danny? Where the hell were you?"

"Ready to take the knife myself until she shoved me out of the way. I tried, Steven, you know what she's like."

Steve growled again, he paced a bit before asked: "Well how long until she's out? Huh? Can you tell me that?"

"I don't know," Danny said. "Any minute I'd guess."

Steve shook his head his eyes falling on Melissa who was crying. "I'm sorry. I'm so… I'm so sorry. I should have told you guys…"

And only then did Steve soften. "No, it's okay. I understand," Steve said letting her pull him in for a hug. Behind him someone called his name and they all turned to see Nahele rushing up to them, his bookbag hanging off his shoulder.

"What are you doing here? I told Chin to take you home!"

"But she's in the hospital _again_ ," Nahele cried. "Shouldn't we be here?"

"I am here," he said but when Nahele opened his mouth to protest Steve put a hand to his shoulder. "Look, I get it, I do, I really do. But it's going to be a long night and you have school tomorrow… and there's no telling when she'll wake up okay?"

"Then I'm definitely staying."

"No. It's a school night, 'Hele," he said. "Look, Danny's going to take you home, and he's going to stay with you okay? He owes me so he has no choice."

He added that so Danny knew that he was right, like Danny was going to argue with him. He got Rowan into this, he didn't protect her, the least he could do was babysit for one night. But Nahele stubbornly shook his head and crossed his arms over his chest.

"She'd be here. If it was me, if it was you, if it was either of them, she'd be here. So, I'm going to be here too."

Kid had a point. Rowan was that kind of faithful

Someone cleared their throat and asked: "Are you all here for Rowan Pierce?"

They all turned around and found a Doctor in a white lab coat and a clipboard was just standing behind them all staring at them. Steve practically shoved Danny and Amber aside to face him.

"Yes, she's my girlfriend," he said.

"Really?" came from all the people present but Steve just scowled and said: "What? We're going to do that now? Right now?" he then turned back to the doctor. "Is she okay? Is she…?"

"Yes. She's made it through surgery. She's in recovery. She's lucky, the knife didn't go that deep and she had scar tissue already in that spot, lessened the damage," he said. "It's definitely going to take some time, her ribs are still bruised from her previous injuries but barring and further injuries or infections we believe she's going to be okay."

"She's going to be okay?" Steve echoed and the Doctor nodded.

"See, see, I told you. She's tough as nails, our Rowan, she's going to be fine," Danny said as they all expelled their worried breaths and exchanged hugs.

The doctor then turned to Steve. "I don't know what you have that girl doing Commander but I suggest you keep her on bed rest by any means necessary," he warned and Steve nodded.

He got that, he did. He really did but this Doctor didn't know Rowan like he did. He'd have to handcuff her to the goddamn bed to keep her from running off when he told her not to.

"Can I see her now," he said and beside him Nahele cleared his throat. "Can _we_ see her now, sorry."

"Yeah, I'll take you over," he said. Danny and Amber watched as the two trailed off after the doctor. Danny went to go too but Amber stayed behind.

Noticing that she wasn't with him Danny turned back around. "Hey uh… what's uh… what's going on?"

"I'm not… she wouldn't want…"

"That is absolute nonsense," Danny said. "Rowan likes you. She has always liked you. She didn't drive all the way up there to just save me, she did it for you too."

"Are you sure… after everything? Steve won't be…"

"Just come on," he said grabbing her hand and tugging her along. "I already said it. You're family, we don't give up on family, not Steve, not Rowan and not me. You are stuck with us, now come on."

That time when he pulled her, she went with him willing with a big watery smile on her face.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

When Rowan woke up, her mouth was fuzzy, her eye sight blurry, her head pounding and her side in painful fiery agony. Well… that meant that she… she had been… what had she been? Oh that's right. Stabbed. She was stabbed by Amber's husband Frank. She had been stabbed…. Uh… uh… she had been stabbed…

Forcing herself to sit up she threw off the blankets and pulled up the dress. She found the gauze taped over half of her figure skate tattoo. Son of a bitch. She carefully pulled the gauze back and sure enough she had been stabbed in the _exact_ same place that Irina had stabbed her.

"AW come on!" she moaned and a hand slapped into her shoulder followed by three soft shushes.

Rowan turned and Nahele was curled up to the other side of her. Awww, the kid must have stayed the night… wait. What time was it? Wasn't he supposed to be in school? Turning to the other side of her she found Steve, half propped up on an elbow resting on the arm of a chair, completely asleep.

"Steve," she hissed, trying to get his attention without waking up Nahele but he merely mumbled in his sleep. So she tried again, but louder. "Steven!"

When that didn't work she groped around until she found another one of those get well teddy bears. It was a tradition, if Rowan was in the hospital Nahele bought her a bear. But today it was going to be used for something else. She picked it up quickly and then tossed it at Steve, the bear hitting him right in the face.

"Jesus!" he yelped awake immediately. She smiled at him as he blinked his eyes blearily at her but he didn't seem to realize that she was awake. He picked up the teddy and lobbed it back at Nahele. "What are you throwing things for?" he snapped. Nahele yelped too when the bear bounced off his head and he sat up. His eyes bleary and narrowed into a sleepy glare right at Steven's face. He glanced back and what hit him and then gasped at Steven.

"What are you… did you throw her bear?"

"I didn't throw it, you threw it!" Steve cried.

"Throw the bear _I got her?_ I am not that disrespectful! Now stop it, you're gonna wake her up!" Nahele hissed.

"No you're going to wake her up, what did I tell you! Get out of her damn bed!" Steve hissed back.

"Actually, I threw the bear," Rowan said raising her hand. "Cause you wouldn't wake up, and if you didn't want him in the bed, Steven, you should have sent him to school."

Steve sat up straighter immediately a cry of her name falling from her lips. But it was Nahele who cried: "MOM! You're awake."

Rowan's eyes widened. Had he just… did he just… Nahele had called her mom. When she just stared at him with wide eyes and his sleepy eyes narrowed at her. "What?" he asked.

"You just called me… mom…" she said and the smile fell off his face.

Nahele's eyes glanced between her and Steve. He let out a shaky laugh as he shook his head at them. "No I didn't… I said Rowan…"

Steve's eyes were narrowed at him. "Nooo… I heard it too… you said mom," Steve said which just made Nahele more flustered.

"No I didn't… you know what… stop… she got herself stabbed saving Uncle Danny, yell at her," he said pointing into her face. Steve merely stood up and shoved him right off the bed.

"He's right, I should yell at you," he said leaning over her and kissing her softly on the lips. "But I'm just happy that you're alive." He kissed her a little more before softly whispering: "When you get out of this hospital, and Nahele goes back to school, so help me, Rowan, I'm gonna lecture you so goddamn hard."

Rowan just smiled against his lips, she was happy she woke up to her two boys there with her.

"Whoa, hey there sleeping beauty," a familiar voice cried and both her boys turned, or in Nahele's case popped up like a gopher, to shush the incomers.

Danny and Amber stopped in the door, but Grace, who had come with them, rushed forward, another stuffed animal in her hand, this time a plush tiger.

"Thank you!" she said hugging Rowan tightly pressing into her stiches. "Thank you for saving my Danno."

Rowan only had to grunt before Steve grabbed Grace and pulled her off. As soon as she could breathe again, she said: "You are welcome," and then turned to Danny. "Did you know I got stabbed in the exact same spot as the last time I was stabbed?"

"When was the last time you were stabbed?"

"Uh… when I was twenty-three. Long story. All we gotta know is that when this is all done and over with I'm going to have to retattoo a blade on a skate," she told them after a moment of carefully consideration she turned to Steve. "Babe, how much morphine am I on?"

"A lot," he answered and then she nodded. Yeah that would explain the chattiness, and the fuzziness and why everything in the room seemed to have a vague white halo.

"Did we uh… did you figure out her whole thing?" she asked pointing at Amber. "I uh… not gonna lie I had it but it's gone now."

"That's okay. Her and I did have a chat and everything's out in the open," Danny said. "And I think, she has something she'd like to say to you."

"Yes, uhm… well… you see, I gave you a really hard time when we first met, and I know I played it off as a bit of out-of-place-jealousness, but uhm… you see, you kept saying my real name, and I thought you were taunting me or something…" she whispered. "The point is, I am sorry. I'm sorry I thought all of those terrible things, and complained about you to my coworkers. And thank you, thank you for driving all the way up to that remote cottage to save me and Danny, thank you for giving me the strength to stand up to that abusive jerk."

"You complained about me to your coworkers?" Rowan echoed.

"I did," she said with a nod. "But I am more than willing to do whatever you ask me to to make it up to you."

"Aww… I mean… that's not why I do… whoa, wait! Did you say I was getting your name _right_? Like really? Your name's Melissa? I've been right this whole time and her name's Melissa?" she cried and then turned to Danny. " _And you gave me shit for being wrong_!"

"I'm never going to live this down," Danny said shaking his head. "She's going to bring this up till the day I die…"

"And it'll be a part of your eulogy!"

"I'm sorry to interrupt," someone said coming into the room. They all turned and someone Rowan didn't recognize was standing at the door. A woman with curly brown hair and worry flecked hazel eyes carrying a bouquet of flowers clearly for Rowan. "I just wanted to come and see how your girlfriend is doing."

"Did she just call me your girlfriend?" Rowan asked with a big grin Steve opened his mouth and she pointed at him. "Don't you ruin this for me, McGarrett. I'm highly medicated and in a lot of pain don't you take this from me."

Everyone around them laughed as Steven just rolled his eyes at them but otherwise didn't correct her. He stepped forward to take the flowers from her.

"I'm uh… you haven't met me but I'm Kathy Millwood," she said to Rowan. "And I'm told that you dreamed up a tip that saved my life."

Rowan blinked her eyes. She glanced to Danny and then to Steven and then sighed. "We gotta stop telling people I'm psychic," she announced to the room. "I swear it's the worst kept secret in the world."

"Well if you stopped pulling shit like this, we wouldn't have to tell people why a crazy person appeared with a frying pan to take out a man who had knife when they hadn't been told where we were in the first place," Danny snapped.

"Wait a frying pan?" Steve asked.

"I said I'd brief you later, and I will, but now is not that time," Danny snapped.

Shaking his head Steve turned his eyes onto Kathy and tried to smile warmly. "So what's the plan? What are you going to do with yourself now that Duclair's crossed off the list?" Steve asked.

"Uh… walk away, retire, start over. Try to let go of all that guilt. You know, I spent the last two years of my life just existing but I don't know if I can start living again," she admitted.

Rowan pet the empty side of her bed. "Come on over," she said to Kathy who eventually, after some prodding from their friends, moved over to her side. As soon as she sat down beside Rowan she put her hands out and Kathy carefully put her own hands into Rowans.

As soon as she did, Rowan got a few flashes of the future but she wasn't concerned with that. She was concerned with all the strings that were floating around. As per usually she was surrounded by the red strings between her and Steve, she had a pink string that was new and flowing between her and Nahele, her and Steve and Nahele and Steve. She was surrounded by the yellow strings attaching her to all her friends. But what she was focusing on was Kathy Millwood and her strings.

This was going to be an experiment, but she figured, if she could pull on strings to make a reality where the door in front of her could unlock she could pull on strings to fix this poor woman.

"Hmmm… okay, so…" she whispered, almost humming to herself as she focused on the strings behind her. White for happiness, floating in the wind, she focused until it reattached to her and then watched the red string of love reattach too. That was probably enough for now. "I think… that you're going to find love and you're going to be happy. Very, very happy."

Kathy smiled at her, a sort of watery weepy smile. "Thank you…"

"And she's never wrong," Danny added and they all laughed.

"Y'all joke, but you forget I've been through something like this," Steve announced. "Look, just… don't look back, okay? You can't change the past, no matter how much you dwell on it, and if you're even half as lucky as me you'll land yourself something that eventually takes away the pain."

He glanced down to Rowan who reached up to hold his hand and for a moment the world disappeared in her man's eyes.

"Seriously though, the doctor's put her on bed rest, I swear to god if she ends up back in this hospital the doctors are gonna kill me so, we're all gonna go, and she's going to sleep so I can get her home ASAP," he said ushering everyone to the door.

"Steven?" she called out getting him to turn around. "You won't be gone long will you?"

"Course not babe, I'll be right back," he promised and then he left the room. And though her eyes were heavy and she soon fell asleep, with Nahele at her side and Steve due to return at any moment.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

For two weeks, Steve was off work. He drove Nahele to and from school, he made sure Rowan was in bed and entertained at all times and he was generally a very good stay at home dad/husband, for someone who wasn't supposed to be either of those things.

But there was something about laying back in his bed with Rowan pillowed against his side that seemed to just soothe him. There was something about waiting outside his old high school in his blue pickup truck waiting for Nahele to come rushing out that door to see him that had him grinning every time he saw him. And there was something about making dinners, helping with homework, and force feeding his girlfriend medicine that just made him feel a strange sense of pride that his life had become so goddamn domestic when he thought he'd never be suited for that kind of life, no matter how much he wanted it.

Of course, he had time off. He had hours where Nahele would watch Rowan and they'd bond some more and he go off and practice his golf swing with Michelle Wei, or go into the office to check on the team and the cases they had or, his personal favourite, go to Danny's for some bro time. But he liked coming back home where he got to had out stars for Nahele's chore chart, or pick up half drunk mugs of tea and cocoa cause Rowan was on morphine for the pain in her abdomen and forgot she had drinks and made new ones, or to the sound of his name being chirruped in happy welcome in two very different and distinct voices.

When the day of the tournament arrived Steve was nervous. For two reasons. Firstly, he wasn't a good golfer and he was afraid that he'd make a fool of himself. Secondly, Rowan had refused to stay home. She needed to cheer her boo on and there was no keeping her away from the Kapolei Golf Course to watch Steve compete in the HPD Charity golf tournament. He had got her to agree to stay in the club house and out of the sun, but she rarely followed rules. She had appeared on the three holes in. Leaning against Nahele who was carrying a chair for her to sit in that she was refusing to sit in.

He had messed up the shots for the third hole because spotting her in the crowd had unnerved him, well it had made him more angry than unnerved but that wasn't the point. When he was done, when they were supposed to be heading to the next hole, he had approached her immediately. He had asked her nicely to go back but she said that Nahele had wanted to watch him golf, and she wanted to watch too. Then she blinked those big blue eyes at him asked him every so sweetly to let her stay and cheer him on, just so she could be as supportive of him as he had been for her the last two weeks and his heart shot straight up into his mouth. He knew that he wasn't going to say no, he wasn't even sure why he had tried to send her away in the first place.

So, he made Danny watch her. Any sign of distress or fatigue she was to go straight back to the club house.

And that was how it was for the rest of the tournament. Like all the holes before this one, his eyes found his Rowan the second he got out of the golf cart, and stayed on her while he walked up the green with Michelle Wei who had agreed to Caddy for him and give him great advice, and Grover and his caddy, Samantha. There was Rowan, in that cute little white polka dotted and red dress, for his last shot, sandwiched between Nahele and Danny a big smile on her face. God his baby, she was supposed to be on bed rest. Instead she was driving him crazy. He waved to her and Nahele and the two waved back both of them smiling encouragingly which just made him beam with ridiculous pride.

His golfing outfit consisted of him in all blues. And just judging by her eyes, he could see how much she liked it. if she didn't still have stitched in her side he had a feeling after this game he'd be getting sex even if he didn't win. Maybe they still could if he was super, super careful with her.

He was so engrossed in holding Rowan's sultry gaze that he didn't even hear Grover's trash talking, but he heard Danny calling out: Yo, buddy, if you ever play golf again, which you shouldn't, the idea is to get the ball close to this little… uh… pin thing!"

"He means the flag!" Rowan corrected and Danny turned to her, he had a hand raised to smack her but all Steve had to do was shout _oi_ and take half a step forward for that arm to drop. Melissa reached over and hit him for Steve and then shot him a thumbs up which he reciprocated. He really did love that Melissa seemed to be on his side when it came to the keeping Danny from hitting Rowan, no matter how playfully it was.

"You gonna tell me about them now?" Michelle asked and Steve sighed. He had been dreading this, cause he felt like bragging about it would take it from him faster, but he also really wanted to brag about what he had in his life now.

Steve turned to Michelle. "Yeah, the blonde guy, Danny, that's my partner and uh Ro, you know Ro, well she's my girlfriend, but don't tell her I said that."

"Ah, so you're the Steven she's constantly bragging about. Got it… and the kid?"

"Oh that's our kid, uh… not our kid, but our foster kid. Technically Rowan's foster kid but I'm helping… you know it's complicated?" Steve said and then turned back to Danny. "That's very funny! Well done! Why is Rowan here, you were supposed to take her back to the club!"

"Well I happen to know that the doctor told her to get fresh air and she and the kid wanted to watch you humiliate yourself on the golfing course here…"

"Wow, if these are you friends, I would hate to meet your enemies," Michelle said. And Steve sighed.

"Yeah one of them is her brother," he muttered.

"What?" she asked but Steve ignored her for Rowan who was also calling out to him.

"Don't listen to him babe! You're doing great for a beginner!"

Yeah that was not helpful. She meant well, he knew that but that wasn't helpful.

"She's right, you know. And I know it doesn't look like it but this is a very makeable putt. You got this," she said. Steve nodded, it was his turn to go first. And he was about to set up when his phone started ringing. Grover. What the fuck was he calling him for they were six feet apart, he was only a little way up the fairway from him.

"What?"

"Listen, I didn't want to shout this out and embarrass you in front of all these folks, but would you mind if I make this little short putt to win it before you miss yours?" he asked. Which was ridiculous because he was closer to the crowd which meant he heard everything. And while everyone else was laughing, Rowan was just scowling at him.

"That's rude!" she snapped but Steve, while annoyed didn't really care.

"Knock yourself out."

Grover went about doing his thing and hit the ball… and came up short. Rowan's grin was giant. "HA! KARMA!" she cried, and immediately every single Five-0 plus Nahele and Melissa put a hand out to calm her down.

"Oh I'm not going to bust my stitches, back off," she snapped to all of them which won her grins from all of her friends. Steve shook his head, it'd be funnier if she hadn't popped her stitches twice since getting home. Once by stretching too much after waking up and the second time while they were making love, in which she didn't tell him it had happened until he realized both of them and their bed were covered in blood. Since then he had been too afraid to have sex with her in case they popped again. God once those stitches came out he was going to fuck her so hard.

Steve turned to Michelle and said: "That's my girlfriend," with a big stupid, cheesy grin on his face. "Sorry. Excuse me a second."

He pulled out his phone and dialed Grover's number and got a "What do you want?" when Grover answered.

"Oh, hey, buddy," he said in a patronizing tone. "Listen, uh… from way back here, it was hard for us to tell, but did that go in?"

Grover just hung up on him nudged the ball in the hole and got a round of polite applause.

"This is it," Michelle said. "Last hole, last putt. You make this, you win."

God that was a plot of pressure on him. He needed something to take the edge off.

"Babe, can you… uh… can you come and help me?" he asked.

"It's a putt Steven, just hit the ball," she called back.

"Babe, come on, please? I want a good luck kiss," he said and Rowan sighed but trudged over to him. The second she got close he had an arm carefully around her waist, being mindful of her stitches. She got up on her tippy toes and kissed his cheek as the crowded _awwwed_ at them and once they were done kissing, he leant in really close to her and whispered: "Any chance you can do that math thing? Cause it looked so cool."

She looked at him and then looked at the ball and then the hole and then back to him.

"Steven… you're like ten feet away, how much math do you need?" she asked but he just had to turn his pleading eyes to her for her to relent, but barely. "Is that even allowed?"

"I unno, Grover, do you mind if Rowan does her Rain Man-math thing?" he asked. "She won't hit the ball for me, so you know… not like it's really going to help me."

Grover just shook his head and waved it off and Steve turned to her with a grin while she playfully rolled her eyes.

"I mean alright, but it kind of takes the fun of out of the game, you know? Uh… what do we have riding on this?" she asked.

Steve stared her dead in the eye and said: "My pride."

"Oh… that's a heavy handed bet," she whispered and then looked around. Her hands came up, to put her hair back, once it was done she absently pulled his dog tags out from under her dress, her fingers fiddling with them as she just stared at the putt he was supposed to make. After a moment of silence she turned back to him. "Do you want me to talk you through the math or do you want me to just do it?" she asked.

Steve shrugged, "I unno surprise me."

"Okay," Rowan said and then licked her finger and put it up into the air. "Slight westward breeze, will have to curve to make up for it. But the ball is slightly uneven against hole so that might make up for the breeze," she whispered putting her foot just in front of the ball and lining her toe up against the hole. "About a 15-degree differential, maybe 10 feet away from the hole." She carefully walked heel to toe to where the pole was and then did some mental math as she walked back to him. "Alright, I was right, we're ten point three feet away from the flag. So, if we factor in your heavy hitting cause of those massive guns of yours… I'm thinking if you hit with a lob wedge at about a 20-degree angle at around 5 mph you'll land it in the cup."

Steve stared at her. He didn't understand a thing she had just said, was he supposed to pull out a protractor to measure? When he continued to just stared at her she rolled her eyes and stormed over to his bag of clubs. She grabbed a golf iron and put it into his hands and then pointed in a direction and said: "Hit it with that club, in a that-way direction and hit that ball like you're smacking my ass."

"Smacking your ass, huh?" he said.

"Yeah, a love tap, Steven, don't go all gorilla hands on it."

Steve sighed and Rowan and Michelle fell back, shoulder to shoulder. "I got this," he said. And just like Rowan said he gave the ball a love tap.

And it went in.

He had just won the charity tournament trophy!

Steve couldn't help it, he cheered. He lifted his hands above his head, club still in his hands and smiled widely at Grover who just looked horrified. And while he celebrated, he noted that his little family's smiles had fallen. He got a mix of cries. Some of his name, some for Rowan, but it was the soft grunt he knew belonged to Rowan that had him turning around.

She was hunched over her injured side and immediately he was done celebrating and was instead rushing to her side.

"God, Rowan what is it? What's wrong?"

"I think I got a little too overzealous in celebrating your win and I may… I may have popped my stitches."

" _No_! Again?!" he cried. "Rowan!"

"Don't yell at me! I was just cheering for you!"

"Okay, alright, I'm just going to take a look," he said dropping to one knee immediately and going for the skirt of her dress.

"Steven!" she hissed. "You can't go _under my dress_!"

He blinked his eyes at her not quite understanding what was happening or why she was complaining but he took in the red flush of her cheeks and realized that putting his head under the skirt of her dress on a fair green of a fancy golf club in front of all of their friends and other people who were there for the charity golf tournament was probably _not_ a smart or appropriate thing to do. "Alright, I guess it's inappropriate, but it has to be checked out ASAP, if you have busted stitches again, I'm going to have to take you back to the hospital."

Rowan groaned, more out of annoyance instead of pain as Steve hoisted her up in his arms. She wrapped her arms around his neck and smiled down at him. "My hero. The HPD Charity Golf Champion."

Steve shook his head. Now if only his girl could be healed, cause he sure as hell couldn't fuck her tonight if she popped stitches. He just wanted her to be healthy again, but for that moment, he'd take having her head tucked into that soft spot under his chin as he carried her into the club house with Nahele trailing beside him asking her a million questions. Just that moment alone was worth a million trophies and he'd trade all the trophies in the world so long as he always got to have moments like this with Rowan and his new family.


	173. Chapter 173

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hey guys! So this is our regularly scheduled Monday post. I apologize in advance cause this one is quite angsty. I know it's not what you wanted to read but it opens up the door to some very funny chapters which will be coming up quite soon. Starting on Wednesday actually. So hopefully you guys are okay with one chapter of all angst and I promise the funny cute chapters will return in the next update. Don't forget to leave me a review! All my regulars are back (AJ, AlexLover, Gajeel-rocks and countryheart I'm looking at you), so tell me what you'd like to read for the 200th chapter update, we can either do Rowan and Steve's first night as a married couple (it'll be all steamy cause it's all smut) or Steve rushing to the birth of one of his children (that one will be mostly comedy). And I'll see you guys on Wednesday._

Chapter 173

* * *

Rowan shut the door to the house, happy to see Steven still home and not at work like she was worried he might be. The second she got close enough to him she jumped into his arms. Kissing him solidly on the lips and letting him groan into her. It had been hard going from having him all the time to both of them going back to work. She missed being able to pull him down for kisses at any moment and she knew that he missed it too.

She smiled up at him as she pulled away, being sure to pepper him with kisses all over, his neck, his jaw, everywhere. This would be a hard conversation to have with him, but today, today she wasn't going to take no for an answer. "Do you know what today is?"

"It's February 21st," he answered absently, one of his hands had sunk into her hair so he could tip her head back to get at her neck, he too was pressing kisses all over her focusing mainly on her neck, specifically behind her ear as that was her soft spot. She knew Nahele wouldn't be home from school for a few more hours, he no doubt was expecting sex, he'd get it… you know, if he answered correctly. "Why?"

"Well… I don't know if you know this, but uh… we started doing that unofficial-official thing nine months ago. Well nine months and fourteen days. And I thought, since I suck at remembering dates, and you owe me a better Valentine's Day present, that maybe we might want to make this, us, thing official, today. Cause I'll remember our anniversary if it's a month after my birthday… you know?"

Steve stared at her, the hand that had been in her hair fell away and the hand he had to her him carefully pushed her away until her arms fell away from his neck and she knew then how that conversation was going to go.

"Rowan… come on, I've asked you to be patient…" he whispered. "Bringing it up once a month isn't you being patient."

For a second the two of them stared at one another, he seemed to sense that this was going to end badly for him, he seemed to sense that this was going to blow up in his face because he lowered his eyes and tried for romance.

"You know I care, you know I have very… deep feelings for you…" "You can't even tell me what those feelings are…" "… Rowan I'm just not ready for labels. I just… I don't think that it's necessary, okay? I don't. I'm committed to you, you're committed to me, we're both very committed to raising Nahele, so you know… what more do we need?"

"The label, Steven!" Rowan suddenly thundered and sighed again. "Steven, that's what I need. I _want_ to be your girlfriend, not in this unofficial capacity you have me in. if I'm going to do all the work I should get the goddamn label!"

"Okay, now you're just being unreasonable…"

"Okay, you know what, enough of this," Rowan snapped and Steve's confident smirk fell off his face. "Steven, this is ridiculous. It's a word, a single word. Why can't I have it, and don't give me that _I'm not ready_ shit because it's been over nine, almost ten months, that is just two months shy of a year. We live together. We're practically raising a goddamn child together. You're ready, you're just being stubborn. And it's killing me cause you gave it to Catherine… why are I… why aren't I good enough?"

Steve sighed opened his mouth to argue but Rowan lifted a hand to silence him.

"Steven, I'm done being patient with you. If you don't give me that label…"

"You'll what? Leave me?" he asked letting that anger take him over because it was better than the fear that she'd actually do it. Anger would save him and his pride, cause if his fear got a hold of him he'd just cave to her unreasonable demanded.

"What? No! Is that what you want me to say?"

"No!" Steve spat back already relaxing but not showing it visibly.

"Good," she said. "Now as I was saying. I'm not going to sleep with you until I get that label."

What? So what, she was going withhold a goodnight's sleep from him? Have him sleep deprived and weak? "You know I don't sleep right when I'm not with you and what are you going to do? Sleep on the couch?"

"Sex, Steve, I'm talking about sex!" Rowan cried and finally Steve understood. Yeah, that was worse.

"Oh, is that all?" he asked. "Well I mean… you can, but we both know you'll cave first…"

"Oh will I? Really, when anything sets you off?" she asked.

Steven shook his head, naw, that wasn't true. "No, I'll be okay. A fucking color sets you off, obviously this is going to backfire in _your_ face."

"Oh is it? Is it _Steven McGarrett_?"

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. No, she was right. She was definitely right. Steve stood there trying to reel in that desire to cross to her and pin her against his fridge and she sashayed past him making sure her butt was swaying in those fucking black leggings he liked so much. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

A hand darted out and grabbed her before he could stop himself. "This is a dangerous game you're playing," he warned her.

She got up on her tippy toes, her lips millimetres from his, one kiss, one kiss and he'd be lost to her and she to him. Fully and completely. One kiss and she'd forget this stupid ultimatum.

"Just give me my label and all your suffering ends," she whispered back pressing herself against the length of him, taking stock of his hardness and stealing the breath from his very lungs.

The fact that she had just accidentally quoted her brother from that basement he had tortured Steve in was his saving grace. It gave him the strength to say: "No." is a harsh growl between grit teeth.

And just like that Rowan wasn't against him anymore, but instead walking away. Steve had been so pressed into her that feeling her separating from him had left him off balanced and unready, it also filled him with a terrible coldness and a longing he had a feeling he'd be drowning in from now on.

"Then, from now on, you're soloing… _Steven McGarrett_."

She paired that utterance of his name with a lip bite, and he nearly tackled her right then and there. As he watched her sashay her way up the stairs and away from him, Steve groaned. God the next few days were going to be hard.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Wo liked Jian. Wo liked Jian a lot. She didn't ask him hard questions, he didn't insistently bother him about Rowan and how she was doing or whether or not she had forgiven him. She didn't ask why he was monitoring her safety if he was supposed to be done with her and the girl wasn't talking to him. She didn't ask about his childhood or his past. She didn't care about what he did for a living, she didn't care that half his body was riddled with scars. It always surprised him when he realized or remembered that Jian Hui liked him, all of him, his past, his scars, his inability to show emotion correctly, she just liked it all.

Or she hadn't told him how annoyed she was.

They had actual fun. All that time spent with Rowan had paid off. Turned out everything Rowan liked to do was considered prime date night material. So he was okay with cuddling as they watched movies he thought was stupid, though Jian _loved_ horror movies which were infinitely better then the sing along Rowan used to make him watch. Especially because he didn't think they were scary, but she'd curl into his side and hide her face in him when she got scared and he got to drape arm around her shoulders and hold her close like he was protecting her from the on-screen terror. He knew all about long strolls holding hands, and sharing ice creams. He knew all about romantic gestures, though he got that mostly from watching Steven make up to Rowan literally all the time.

He found that, the more time he spent with her, the more time he spent learning about her, like how she liked cheese burgers but hated plain cheese, or how when she was nervous she would tuck her hair behind her ears repeatedly. Like how her smiles were small and austere, and he only saw the large smiles that bared her teeth when she thought he wasn't looking. She played at acting serious, shoulders back, head held high, chin up, it was her armour. That way no one could see the damage she was hiding, the desperate desire to win her parents respect and love.

She was patient when emotions confused him, or when he missed the point of something. She was quick to ask him what he meant, learning that he sometimes just didn't understand what he had said wrong. She spent a lot of time explaining her reasoning's behind her emotions as he understood better when she did. He didn't even mind when she'd say that she knew what she was feeling was unreasonable, because girls were like that. She was fine when he'd ask her what she wanted him to do, because she knew that he'd do what she wanted without question until she specified otherwise.

But what was most surprised was that, for the first time in his life, Wo Fat was actually trying, very, very hard to be a good boyfriend. It was strange, and he blamed Rowan. Rowan who taught him that cracks and all he was still worthy of love. Rowan who had showed him, slowly, piece by piece how to care for someone, how to love someone and not expect anything back.

Like with Rowan, he had catalogued the things that made Jian happy so he could surprise her with them. Unlike Rowan, it was sometimes hard for him to tell when Jian needed those little surprises to make her happy. But also, unlike Rowan, Jian's emotions weren't as complicated. She was happy, she was sad, she was angry, and even though he might have deserved it, she never, ever, told him to leave.

Because he like Jian so much, they were spending more and more time together. After the Hawaii trip, they spent more over night time between their two places then they did apart. But not even the strangeness of domesticated life had chased him away yet. He liked sharing a bathroom sink with her, knocking elbows accidentally or sometimes purposely during morning or evening routines. He liked coming home to her, wine glass in hand, ready to take him by the tie and help him strip into something more casual. And she seemed to like coming home to him, with wine glass ready to offer her, food already cooking, and in her favourite grey sweater and blue jean combo.

But not even the grey sweater and jeans were saved him during their first big argument. He still wasn't sure why she got so mad. All he did was tell her that he wasn't sure he was ready for such a big step. Moving in with someone, consolidating things, it was something he had never done before, and he was very, desperately worried, that if she lived with him and the good cops came sniffing they'd fry her for association. And for some reason she didn't seem to understand that. She kept saying that it was no different than living with Rowan, but she didn't know that living with Rowan was the two a half months he was holding her hostage and that was something entirely different.

He had been afraid to call her after that argument. He hadn't gone over, and instead waited for her to tell him that she wanted him to come back over, like she usually did. He'd apologize and attempt to explain his positioning again. But after three days where he hadn't heard from her he had decided that he'd just apologize and then agree to move in with her. A surprizing revelation, considering he rarely backed down on anything, but he figured Jian worth it and, like Rowan, she wouldn't shove it in his face.

But they were four days into the silence and he was honestly contemplating just going over to talk to her since she didn't seem to want to call him first.

He decided the best courses of action was two dozen blood red roses and to surprised her at work. But when he got there, it was surrounded by police cars and she was being hauled out. He could think of only two reasons why anyone would try to arrest her. He side business as a mob doctor, or him.

He had Sandy on it, immediately. It was him. They pulled her in to question her about his whereabouts.

 _Unacceptable._

Instantly Wo Fat had gone to Sato. The man had all the best lawyers in his pocket and he owed him after the Waincroft mix up. He didn't even wait for an appointment he just let himself in. Throwing the roses for Jian into Sato's wife's arms before corning the man in his home office.

"Send a Lawyer to the Osaka-fu Nishi Police Station and get Jian Hui out of questioning."

Sato sat there for a few moments confused. "I know that name… how do I know that…"

"Dr. Hui. She took over for Dr. Ho. They've pulled her in for questioning over…"

"Let me guess you're burgeoning relationship with her," Sato guessed an amused grin on his face. Well, so much for keeping it out of the underworld. "Am I correct?"

"Yes," he replied through grit teeth. "She's quite loyal, Sato and she doesn't like you at all. There are a lot of files in that office of hers, which of your men will she give up to save me do you think?"

Sato just laughed. "Her loyalty to that no-good brother of hers is what drives her, and she knows giving up my men to the police will be a death sentence for him. But I can see that this girl must mean a lot to you for you to be this frantic to get her back."

"Just send a damn lawyer to get her out," he snapped instead of answering him.

"Wow… you're just surrounded by good looking weaknesses… I mean women."

"Very funny," Wo Fat snarled. "I wouldn't be commenting when you parade your weaknesses around your garden in fancy dress."

Sato shot a glance over his shoulder to where his son and daughter were throwing fish food to the koi he had in the pond just out back. He seemed to contemplate them for a moment before turning back to Wo.

"They're children," he said stiffly as if that would change mattered. Wo Fat merely tilted his head.

"When have I ever cared?"

Sato stared at him, his eyes unwavering no doubt judging how serious Wo Fat was. "I took a shank over your misinformed tirade and I calmly allowed that to slide as a simple mistake, so you owe me. You have an hour. If she's not home in an hour, I'm coming back here. And whatever it is I decide to do to them… I'll make you watch."

Wo Fat didn't wait to hear what the man had to say he merely turned around and walked away, making sure that Sato saw him pay attention to his wife before turning an icy dark glare onto him.

He wasn't play games anymore. He needed to protect Jian Hui. From Sato. From the cops. And from him.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve slammed the door shut and waited. He got a call from Nahele in welcome, but nothing from Rowan, and she didn't run and jump into his arms either. He hadn't had a Rowan projectile in his arms after coming home in four days and it was bugging him.

Not as much as it was bugging him that they hadn't had sex in four days though.

"Ro!" he shouted trying to establish where in the house she was. But there was no answer. So he tried again. "ROWAN!"

"WHAT?!" came at him from up in his room and he sighed. He pounded up the stairs to his room.

"You said you were making dinner," he snapped as he slipped in. He shut the door and immediately took his shirt off. Rowan could barely keep her hands off his chest, and he had purposely worn jeans as she hated his cargo pants now he just needed her to come out of the washroom so she could be stunned into surprise and cave, cause he wasn't sure how much longer he could take this.

"I did make dinner, I made grilled cheeses, but you came home late, as per usual…"

"I can't control crime on Hawaii, Rowan, we've talked about this."

"We do have a police force, Steven, and you can choose when you come home," she shot back. "If you had bothered to check, which I know you didn't, you would have found yours in the oven, where I put it to keep it warm. Which I usually do when you come home late."

Steve sighed, yeah, true, that was what she usually did. But he didn't want to check where his food was he wanted to see her, he wanted to kiss her and hold her and god he really wanted to fuck her. He wasn't hungry for food he was hungry for her, damn near starving actually.

The door went to open and he got himself in the most natural position he could think off that showed off his biceps, or guns as she called them, which he knew she loved and then smirked waiting for the reaction. But when the door opened that confident smirk fell right off his face.

"Hey there Sailor."

Oh good god what was she wearing?

That white and blue stripped bra had to be two sizes to small the way it was pushing up her breasts like that. The navy blue booty shorts with the gold buttons in all the right places was hugging to her like it was painted on. She had her thumbs hooked onto suspenders that weren't holding anything up so why she had them attached to her booty shorts made no sense. Her blonde hair was in two messy braids, and she was wearing his naval cap up top her head. To complete the look she was in knee high sheer white stockings and Steve had about swallowed his tongue his mouth had been hanging open so long.

"What… what are you…?"

"Well I went to look at the sexy soldier costume you wanted but none of them had the right amount of umph you know? And I saw this one and figured we could play the same sort of fantasies out, right? Just instead of being holed up in a fox hole on a battlefield somewhere, I figured I could be in the brig, and that this big, strong, Lieutenant Commander, was going to teach me a thing or two… maybe give me a few lashes and then teach me about knots?"

She had slid up to him and Steve had been powerless to move. But once her hands pressed to his chest he got that mobility back in all the wrong ways. He crushed her to him instantly, his mouth possessing hers before she could say or do anything to stop him. He had her feet up and off the floor, pivoting her to the bed, but she wouldn't let him put her down, she kneeled stopping him from getting where he wanted.

He knew, he knew if he got her on her back, if he was on top of her doing all sorts of sinful things to her, she'd crack. She'd forget all about this ultimatum she had going and she'd let him back between her legs where he belonged.

She put space between them and the cool air shocked his system. Her fingers threaded into his hair, her mouth trailed liquid fire kisses up his jawline and for a moment he didn't quite understand what she was saying.

"I know you want this, right?"

He did. Oh god he did, so much he did.

"And you can have it, I want you to have it, I want you to fuck me."

A growl escaped his lips, he couldn't help it. God, yes, all he had to do was kiss her and then fuck her and then not stop fucking her until the burning in his veins had all but subsided. No more talking, just instant relief for the both of them.

"All you have to do is give me that label and this is all yours…"

Steve froze. Thank god for the fear because if he didn't have it he'd probably have caved right then and there.

"No."

Rowan's hands fell away from him and he took a step away.

"Aw come, on Steve," she said. "You don't want this?"

"Not for that price, thank you very much," he growled. "It's not worth it."

The second he said it he knew it was a mistake. It was the way her face fell into that mask of utter emotional pain that gave it away. That was a blow he never should have landed, and besides it was a lie. She was worth everything. He was just too afraid to give in.

"I… I'm going to go for a swim," he stuttered, quickly rushing past her to get his trunks and a towel before sprinting from the room before he could do or say anything to make this situation worse.

But swimming didn't clear his head of her, it never did. And the cold ocean water did nothing to cool his heated blood. Fuck that outfit. God what he wanted to do her, the images and fantasies he wanted to play out most of which had her on her knees or on that bed in nothing but his hat and dog tags.

So he wasn't surprised to find that Rowan had followed him out to the beach.

Steve came out of the water to Rowan sitting in her chair on the beach in that grey sweater of his and a pair of jean shorts. Her hair was pulled back into a simple but messy side pony tail. He watched her eyes appreciate him. God how had he forgotten that she loved him sweaty or wet? He was going to have to go for more runs and swims maybe that would crack her more quickly.

She offered him a mug and he just stared at it. "Cocoa? Again?"

"He asked, I couldn't say no," she answered and he nodded.

"He's going to get sick of it, Rowan," he snapped and she just shrugged. Fine. "How's he doing?"

"Good, got an A on his last science test, his math mark's been bumped up to a C minus so the tutor is working and he wants to try out for the football team next year so he wants to go to more football games to learn plays," she said. "That last one will need to be a you thing cause we both know I know nothing about Football and I'm probably gonna fall asleep."

Also true. "If I don't have a case…"

"It wouldn't kill you to make time for him," Rowan said avoiding his eyes. She went for the towel instead, picking it up and then crossing to him, he knew then she was going to help him dry off.

Normally he'd love to that, but he knew he wouldn't be able to resist her if she got too close. But nothing stopped him from putting his hands to her elbows the second she had pressed the towel to his chest.

"I didn't mean it."

Rowan just cocked her head to the side. The fading sunlight was doing things to her face, highlighting every inch of it that he loved. Her cute little button nose, the globes of her cheeks, that pointed but subtle jawline and it was putting sparkles in her blue eyes he had never noticed before. She was more lovely and beautiful than when she was in the sexy sailor suit and she wasn't even trying.

"Then why did you say it?"

"I…"

"You do that a lot. You say hurtful things to me and then say you don't mean them," she said. "But I think… if you didn't mean them, you wouldn't say them. If you didn't meant them, they wouldn't even be in your head."

"That's not… that's not…"

"I think… somewhere in there, you do want me to leave, it why you keep telling me to go," she whispered and his grip tightened. "And I think at some point, you've thought about my worth and what you're willing to give me and decided I'm not up to snuff." She fell quiet for a moment looking away before turning those blue eyes up to him, a single question in her eyes, a question he knew she'd ask. "Why am I not enough Steven?"

But that wasn't it. She was enough. Everything she gave him was more than enough. But he didn't know how to tell her that she had given him everything he had dreamed about. He had a family, her, him and a pretty good kid. She seemed to just accept all his faults and love him regardless and up until this week she had been more than patient with him.

When he didn't answer she sighed. "You gave Catherine the label. Why can't I have it?"

 _Because I didn't love Catherine the way I love you._

 _Because Catherine leaving me wouldn't have crippled me the way you leaving me will._

But none of those things were the things that came out of his mouth. "Because Catherine's brother didn't torture me." "I'm not talking to him…" "Catherine's name isn't synonymous with death and destruction. Catherine isn't the head of a dangerous underground network. Catherine…"

Rowan backed away from him. "Catherine isn't a monster, right?"

Steve flinched. No, that wasn't what he wanted her to think but it was too late, Rowan's face had changed. That mask of indifferent anger slipped onto his face to hide the hurt he had dealt her.

"Sleep on the couch," she snapped and then stormed away leaving Steve to dry off by himself.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Getting arrested and carted out in front of her clients and employees had been embarrassing. Having her relationship with Wo Fat questioned was also embarrassing. But she had sat in that precinct, with cops shouting at her about what she knew about him, throwing down pictures of the things he had done, and took it all like a champ.

She had lied through her teeth. Told them she had no idea what he was actually doing, he had only told her that he was in investments and trades. But they hadn't believed her, they meant to crack her and they might have had the lawyer not shown up.

As soon as he was there, the interrogation was done. They stopped asking her questions, a lot of legalities and other loopholes that essentially all added up to the same thing. She was free to go, and they had no choice but to allow her to leave.

It took a while, they had wanted to hold her, of course, but eventually they let her go and she and the lawyer left together. She was put into a car and driven back to her place. She was given the Lawyer's card and told to call him right away the second something like that happened again. There was no mention of payment, or who sent him though Jian could guess who would have sent such an expensive lawyer to her defence.

She climbed the steps, her phone shaking her hand. The shock of the situation finally hitting her. Why couldn't it have waited until after she got home? She was shaking to hard for her to make the call to the one person she wanted to talk to. It made opening her door hard as well, but she finally got it open, shut it behind her and then someone cleared their throats.

Jian looked up to find Wo Fat in the middle of her living room, the sleeves of his dress shirt rolled up unevenly, his tie loosened but still around his neck, his hair messed up on one side where he must have been fretting it and she just couldn't hold it in anymore. She burst into tears.

Like all other displays of emotion, Jian thought that this might confuse him. He would pause, he'd momentarily think about what he should do, weigh his options and then attempt something. It would be wrong of course and she would correct. But this time, this time she didn't have to correct anything.

There was no pause between her tears falling, her hands covering her face in her embarrassment, and Wo Fat scooping her up in his arms and pressing her to his chest.

"It's okay," he whispered. "I got you."

And he did didn't he? He had got her. Like the hero she knew him to be, he got her out of that precinct, and in his arms where she felt that she belonged.

"I'm so very sorry, Jian, I'm so sorry they did that to you."

"It… it wasn't your fault," she hiccupped into his shirt, belatedly realizing that she must have ruined it. He didn't seem to mind but she knew she was going to buy him a new one to make up for it.

"They arrested you in connection to something I did," he said. "I did my research."

"I didn't tell them anything," she assured him. "I didn't. I promise."

He carefully brushed her hair behind her ear for her. "I know," he whispered before carefully pressing the softest of kisses to her lips. Jian melted into the touch, needing him in that moment to strip her of all her fears and make her feel safe again.

For a long while they just stood there, his hands framing her face, their foreheads bowed together. And then suddenly he was separate from her, his hands slid down to her shoulders, he pushed her away and then he took a step back.

Jian blinked her eyes surprised. She saw something on his face that frightened her and for a moment she wanted to cry all over again just to have him wrap her up in his arms again.

"Obviously, we cannot have that happen again," he said, slowly starting to fiddle with his sleeves, rolling them back down to play with his cuffs.

She thought about his job and what he did and wondered what he could mean by that. "I understand… but… with what you do… are…"

"How much did they brief you on?" he asked suddenly. When he finally looked up to her she found she didn't recognize the man looking at her. She had never seen him look so impassive or unfeeling before.

"Uh… I guess… whatever it was you were working on here," she said. "A lot of… murders… mostly… uhm… some threats of extortion… but mostly dangerous contraband coming through our ports and vanishing into thin air?"

He nodded. "I assume there were pictures?"

"Yes?"

"Unfortunate," he whispered. "I'm sorry you had to see that."

She didn't like how this was going. She didn't like that he wouldn't look at her. She didn't want this to end, she didn't want to lose him. She opened her mouth to tell him that she was okay with what she saw, she knew that what he was doing was less than legal, she knew that guns were involved and that people like him had no problem killing others but he beat her to it.

"I think… I think it might be a good idea if we… take a break."

"A break?"

"Yes. A break," he repeated now working on the other arm fiddling with the cuffs of his sleeves. Though the words had pierced her very heart, though Jian was a very proud woman, she found herself taking a step forward to take his hand and fix his cuffs for him. When she was done though, she didn't let go.

"I don't want to Wo," she said softly. He stared at her hands, the two that were gripping his wrist and then looked away, a slight crinkling around his eyes, and watched him swallow down the words that he wanted to say.

"It's for your safety," he told her, still refusing to look at her. "If we continue down this path, if you continue with me this will happen more and more often and I don't want that for you."

"Well I don't care," she snapped. "I don't need you to protect me. I just need you to stay."

Wo Fat turned to her and she saw in his eyes that he had made up his mind. "I want to stay, but the fact of the matter is because of me you got arrested and I just… don't make this any harder alright? It's just a break, I'll be back when things die down."

But she didn't want that. She didn't want him to leave and come back. She wanted to fall asleep in his arms, she wanted to come home to him already there and waiting for her. She wanted to move in with him, she wanted to marry him.

Angry and no longer willing to play nice, Jian dropped her hold on him and scowled. "This is because you don't want to move in with me, isn't it?"

"No, that's not it, Jian… you just got arrested because of me!" he cried but she wasn't listening to him anymore.

She crossed her arms over her chest to guard the heart that was breaking because of him. It would be better, she realized, to end things now instead of having them crash or burn later when it he properly and finally confirmed that he'd never settle down with her. He just wasn't compatible with a domestic life and she was starting to see that he probably never would be.

"There's no point going on a break, it's either you're staying or we're breaking up, that's it. Choose."

He stared at her, his eyes blinking. "That's it?" he echoed. When she just glared at him he lowered his head. "Are you sure that's what you want? To break up?"

That was what he was going to pick? She gave him a choice and that was what he was going to pick?

"No. I want you to pick me, but if you're hell-bent on leaving, don't bother coming back," she growled. His eyes narrowed.

"I am picking you. I'm picking to protect…"

"Just get out, Wo!" she shouted. "Take your self-protecting lies with you."

Wo Fat was always so obedient when it came to her requests, so even though she didn't really want him to, he bowed his head in inclination and walked away. The door shut behind him and once the quiet and the realization of what she had done settled around her the tears started to fall. She never should have fallen for one of her back-door clients.


	174. Chapter 174

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hey guys! So this, is, it. This is the episode that ends in the CUTEST relationship change, EVER. I don't think you understand how excited I am to get to this set of chapters. I worked really hard to make these cute and funny so I hope you enjoy them! Don't forget to tell me what you think and I'll see you guys on Friday!_

 _P.S. Alexlover, as funny as that suggestion was, I think that might be a bit too much even for me. But I'll think of something._

Chapter 174

* * *

Fuck Steve hated the Therapist. He hated it. Hate. Hate. Hate. Hated it. But here he was, mandated back to this place with Danny, being forced to get all touchy feely with a man he didn't want to get all touchy and feely with… with a man he was already too touchy feely with.

But if he didn't try they'd both get taken off Five-0 so… he kind of had no choice but to sit there and deal with it.

"Daniel, sometimes I feel that you could be a little overly sensitive," Steve told him.

He waited for fireworks, but Danny took a deep breath, sighed out all his frustration, nodded along like he understood and then asked: "Okay. Why is it that you feel that way?"

The rat bastard playing nice for their shrink. Bullshit. That asshole… he wouldn't… if there were anyone else Steve would have been hit with so much fucking sass. Now, instead of the argument he thought he was going to get, Steve was expected to come up with another answer.

"I don't know," he muttered. "I guess it's the way you are. I mean, you'll take the most benign comment and you'll take it as a personal insult. It's extremely annoying."

Danny made the face, the face he made before every argument and turned back to Dr. Carlin who immediately said: "Positive language, Commander."

Steve paused, sighed himself and then said: "Okay. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. When you do that, it's the opposite of pleasing to me. Is that okay?"

Clearly not, judging by the face that both she and Danny were making.

"Okay, I think that the reason that you, uh, think that I am so sensitive is because I'm an actual person. I mean, I have feelings. I'm not an animal, I'm not a killing-machine robot."

"Active listening, Detective Williams," Dr. Carlin chided and Steve smiled, finally she was on his side. "Don't deflect."

"This… this is stupid. I'm sorry, but can we move on? I don't…" he said pulling out his phone and checking it again just in case Nahele had an emergency at that school sleep away thing he was on or Rowan needed him at work or something.

"Gentleman, when I conducted your psychological audit back in September, you agreed to check in with me and share your progress," she reminded them. "And Frankly, I'm not seeing any. Which makes me wonder if you guys should be coming here more regularly."

Steve was immediately sitting up. "Okay, now wait a second. I didn't mean to give you that impression."

"In fact, Commander McGarrett, I'm most worried about you. Since our last visit in September you seemed to have become more closed off and aggressive than before… and from my understanding, with the new addition to your family you should be happy…"

Danny turned to him, a shit eating grin on his face. "Go on, Steven. Why don't you tell Dr. Carlin why you're so… agitated?"

"Shut up, Danny," Steve growled.

"This is a safe space Commander…"

"Not with him in it, it's not," Steve snapped but Danny was already talking.

"Along with his inability to speak about his emotions, he has an inability to commit."

Dr. Carlin straightened and repositioned herself. "I don't see how that can be true, taking on a foster child…"

"Yeah he lied. The Foster Child is Rowan's legally, kid just lives in his house. Legally, on paper, Steve's got nothing to do with that kid, but that's not what I meant," Danny said causing Steve to scowl. Just because it was true didn't mean he had to tell her all of that. "No, what I meant, is Rowan asked for that label again and when he said no she started withholding sex. They have been aggressively arguing… with everyone… not just each other for… uh… how long has it been Steven?"

Steve stayed quiet and when he didn't answer Dr. Carlin prodded him. "Detective Williams asked you a question."

"About two weeks," he grumbled.

"It's been ten days," Danny clarified "Ten days. Ten days and he's acting like…"

"She is purposely goading me and you know it. You've seen her parading around in her short skirts, and that thing she does with her eyes. And the low cut shirts and the singing, she knows I can't resist her in a short skirt and she's been wearing nothing but short skirts for ten days!" Steve snapped.

"And you haven't been walking around shirtless for ten days?"

"She happens to like my chest," Steve growled. "She'll cave… I know she will… she can't keep this up forever…"

It was true, he knew that she wouldn't be able to hold out much longer, because Steve couldn't hold out much longer. They had been trying to goad one another into caving. Rowan was doing things he knew turned him on and vice versa, but most of the time he was just so goddamn desperate for her that everything she did was attractive, everything set him off. He was panting for her constantly, he hadn't jerked off this much since he was fourteen and he had learned what that was and how good it felt. Though nothing compare to her on top of him, him inside her, and he was slowly going crazy without it. The only reprieve was that she had been picking fights with him to keep him on the couch and out of their bed. But it was often that he ended up back in that bed, holding her, cause he couldn't sleep if she wasn't with him. It was hard to wake up beside her, holding her, wanting her, and not being able to do anything about it.

"It seems like the lack of physical intimacy is causing a lot of problems for you Commander. Is it possible the relationship you have with Rowan is based mainly on… that?"

Steve glowered at her. Yes, he was starting to believe that the only thing keeping them together was sex and that the only reason they hadn't broken up yet now that it was gone was because of Nahele. And because she knew Steve was an absolute disaster when it came to her leaving.

"Yes that is a problem," Danny answered for him. "But I think we should focus on his commitment issues."

Steve didn't like this anymore. He didn't want to talk about what he was afraid of. He wanted to get a text from Nahele or Rowan, telling him to come now, preferably Rowan cause what he needed at that moment was a hug.

"Do you think you have commitment issues, Commander?"

"No," he growled. "I just… I don't think… I don't think I'm… ready…"

"You've been dating the girl for ten months. You've been practically obsessed with her for three years. How are you not ready?"

"Will you stop it, stop it Danny!" Steve thundered. "You know why, you know. I've told you. Stop it."

"You told me like a year ago when we were under a collapsed building and the two of you were doing that unofficial thing and you were half dating Catherine to spite her. You've been official with her for ten months, she has every right to be impatient with you."

"You see," Steve said pointing at Danny and glaring at Dr. Carlin. "You see what he's doing? He does this, they do this, and they purposely side with one another to get at me. Purposely! He doesn't even like me and Rowan together, he keeps betting on when we're going to break up."

"Now wait a second, I didn't say that… You're right, I'm betting that you'll break up but that's cause you guys are so volatile it's bound to happen. But everyone thinks that when it comes to Rowan you're a bit crazy and I'd be much more actively attempting to break you two but I happen to know that you're crazier when you're apart, and her leaving the island isn't a possibility…"

"Leaving the... leaving the island?! What the hell have you and Rowan been talking about? What the hell are you telling my girlfriend, Danny?"

"GENTLEMEN!" Dr. Carlin near shouted to get their attention.

"Who's the sensitive one now?" Danny asked her but she pinned him with a glare and he let it go.

"It is very clear that a lot of your issues seem to stem for a lack of communications… and apparently your relationship with Rowan…"

"No, it doesn't," Steve growled

"Can we get back to the control issue thing?" Danny asked

"As much as I'd like to continue this, we're out of time, gentleman. We will have to get to that next time," she said.

"Whoa, next time? What next time?" Steve asked. "Aw come on, please, don't make me come back here."

"What, me, him, us?" Danny asked instead.

"Both of you, for this moment, though if I don't see some improvement I may want to see you by yourself Commander," she said and Steve's scowl deepened. God. He was going to kill Rowan. "And I'm giving you both something to take with you."

She offered Danny the book first and the smile he got on his face was not a good one. "That gentlemen, is your homework." She said and Danny showed him the cover. _The Perfect Partner's Workbook._ Fucking shoot him now. "Since you saw fit to waste almost the entire hour attacking each other and complaining about your girlfriend, Commander…"

"Oh no, she's not his girlfriend," Danny said just as Steve snapped: "She's not my girlfriend…"

"Okay well whatever she is. Either way, now you're going to do a little conflict counseling on your own time and I expect that to be completed by our next session," she ordered and Steve rolled his eyes. God. He was too old for homework.

"And for you Commander McGarrett. On top of the workbook, I want you to do some soul searching. I want you to look deep inside of yourself and find out why you're so afraid to put a label on someone you are clearly have such strong feelings for."

Steve turned a glare to Danny noting that he was smiling like he won the greatest prize. Could this day get any worse? Could it?

Yeah, he shouldn't have opened that up to the universe. Because the call he got right after that internal question told him it could, in fact, get worse.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan was not having a good day. She sat in the ambulance shaking. Her hands were coated in blood but she was done her vomiting over that. Now she only wanted one thing, but her phone was in an active crime scene, or at least in her locker at the back so she couldn't go in to get it.

But Lou had told her that Steve had been notified and was on the way. She just needed him to get there faster. Instead she sat in the back of an ambulance, hunched into an emergency blanket, ignoring Grover's questions, asking if she were better now. She'd be better when Steve got there.

"Lou!" she heard his voice carry over the din. "Lou where…"

But he must have spotted her cause he trailed off. Rowan caught a glimpse of him vaulting over decorative flower bushes to get to the ambulance. Rowan was crying before he got to her, her arms opening to him because she needed him to hold her and tell her that everything was okay. His hands had snatched her up within seconds, pressing her to his chest as he held her tightly.

"Are you okay?" he kept whispering to her but Rowan could only cry into him, listening to his heart beat running wild in his chest, as he tried to soothe her sobbing.

"She's suffered no external injuries except from the nasty bruise she got from the gunman, she's just in some major shock. We tried to take her from the scene to calm her down but she's been waiting for you," the EMT told him and beside him Grover nodded stoically to prove that it was true.

"Okay, thank you," he whispered, before carefully prying her away from him. He looked down at her face and seemingly winced at it. Alright so it wasn't a good look on her.

"He pistol whipped me when I wouldn't move fast enough," she whispered and Steve growled. He pressed the softest of kisses to her forming bruise and then carefully looked her over.

"Did you get a good look at him?"

"Not today. He was… uh… wearing a mask today," she whispered.

"You've been dreaming about this?" he whispered. "You're supposed to tell me about this stuff, Ro…"

The guilt rushed back at her and Rowan bit it back. "Yeah well I forgot, okay? I've been distracted. You won't stop wearing blue and taking your shirt off and you're constantly swimming and running and… and… we're not really talking… so I just…"

"Okay, okay, let's calm down here," he whispered.

"Mike… he died, Steve," she whispered. "He died in my arms and I couldn't fix the strings to keep him alive and it's… it's my fault… he came in hot to save me…"

The tears of shame leaked hot against her skin and Steve crushed her to his chest. "Fix the strings?" he echoed but Rowan couldn't answer him again because she was crying again, so he changed the topic. "This is not your fault. Okay? Okay Rowan. This is not your fault."

But it was. She just couldn't tell Steve why it was her fault. She didn't want him to know what she had done, what she had let happen.

"Steve!" Danny called and Steve half turned but his grip on her didn't loosen.

"Please don't go, please Steve," she whispered. She knew they weren't okay at that moment, she knew that they were still arguing and she was still so mad at him for not caving by now and giving her that label but she needed him to put all of that side and stay with her.

She felt him stiffen, but he didn't move to push her away. He was clearly dithering. "Babe, I've got… I've got a case…"

"Just please, just a few more minutes… please? I just need…"

"Oh you need me huh? What about that label? Do you need me more than you need that label?" he asked and Rowan froze. She pushed her head out of his chest to glare at him and his cocky smile faded.

"Really? Really Steven we're going to do that right now?" she asked.

"No, I'm sorry…"

Rowan pushed him away. "No. Forget it Steven. Just… just go to your case…" "—Rowan…" "… No, you obviously don't want to be here, so just go. I'm fine now, just… just go."

She turned away from him so she wouldn't have to watch him leave but he surprised her. "When's Nahele back from that sleep away biology thing he's at?"

"I've told you this a million times Steve, he'll be back by the end of the week."

"Right. Well, I'll be home before it gets dark, okay. You're still shaking and I know how you are about being alone, okay?" he said.

Though Rowan was mad at him she couldn't help but turn her watery eyes to him and whisper: "You promise?"

"Yeah, promise," he said swooping in and kissing her forehead. "I'm going to send you to the Palace with Chin or Kono to get your statement, and maybe pair you up with a sketch artist, you can do all that in my office, would that make you feel better?"

Rowan nodded. He took her face in his hands to look at her, his blue eyes searching her as if for any sign of injury other than his eyes found that bruise again.

"Hey. Hey. I'm really glad you're okay," he whispered and she smiled at him.

"STEVEN!" Danny near hollered and Steve growled.

"I am _COMING_!" he shouted back at Danny before turning away. Rowan hunched herself into the blanket and tried to stop herself from shaking. From remembering what it felt like to have someone's blood leaking through her fingers as she tried to keep them alive. For knowing that if she had just done this right… Mike would still be alive.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

They had found one of their thieves. The partner. The girlfriend. They knew she had tried to double cross her boyfriend and it failed. This was good because before they found one of their thieves, they found out that Rowan had keys to the shop, the code to the safe, knew about the new shipment of diamonds, and had come in early to help despite not being asked or schedule to do so. Steve had told them to look into Rowan's financials to prove that she didn't have a financial motive for robing the store but with the discovery of Emma Mills, Rowan was off the hook. And then they had also found the perfect place for their stake out that just added a little bit of icing on top of his cake. Their perfect stake out place was a little unit across the street owned by a little old Agnes who was obsessed with cats. Steve had shoved the landlord out while Danny had gotten the equipment into the apartment. Once the door was shut Danny looked around at all the little old-lady stuff and with a grimace on his face.

"Uh it smells in here. It's like loneliness and despair," Danny said as he sniffed the air.

"That's mothballs," Steve told him. Yeah, he didn't need it defined. "Hopefully, Anders will show up soon and we can call it a day, huh?"

But Danny wasn't listening to him he was looking at the collection of little glass cats, sitting just below a ridiculously large painting of a white cat named Mr. Pickles. "Guess who's the queen of QVC?" Danny asked snorting at his own joke. He looked up at the painting again and then down to the center piece of the all the cats, a white one with jewelled blue eyes. "Oh, I get it. I got a match."

Out of nowhere a white cat jumped out of the shadows. Danny yelped, dropped the figurine he had in his hands, going for his gun to possibly shoot whatever it was. The figurine smashed into a million pieces and it just turned out to be a cat, the Mr. Pickles from the picture clearly. Great. Steve was definitely not going to let him let that go.

"Hey, hey, hey! What are you…? "Steve asked jumping just like his friend did to watch the cat run away. "What is the matter with you?"

"The matter with me?" Danny echoed. "That thing jumped out of nowhere. I got scared. What do you want?"

"What do I want you to do? Maybe react like a grown man. How about that? It's a cat."

"Let me explain something that you do not know," Danny snapped. "I don't…" he started and then realized he was gesturing to himself with his gun. He quickly put it away. "I don't like cats."

"Well I love cats," Steve announced.

Danny sighed and rolled his eyes. "Of course you love cats."

"Yeah, I love cats. Who doesn't love cats, Rowan loves cats. Why? Cause they're awesome!" Steve said. "They're like adorable ninjas. They're smart and they're fast and they're cute and cuddly at the same time! Can you help me with this?"

Danny nodded immediately crossing the small space to help him move a table covered in more glass and crystal cat out of the way without question. Mainly cause he was still on the whole cat thing.

"Okay. Just so you know, cats are disloyal, all right? They would eat their owners if they could. They'd turn on them and kill them."

"Yeah, they would. And you wanna know why? They never lost their predatory instinct," he said. Once they were done he added: "And let's move the couch too." As they moved for the couch, Steve kept talking. "For instance, a dog. You take a dog. Take, like, a domesticated canine, you put it in the wild. Twenty-four hours, that thing's dead. Okay, but a cat, they never forgot how to hunt and kill."

"Well I guess that's why you two get along, then," Danny said as the pivoted the couch to their desired position. When Steve just stared him he elaborated. "That's why you like cats."

Steve got it. The whole killer instinct thing that Danny was getting at but just nodded and half smiled determined to not laugh at Danny's joke. "Yeah, that's funny. That's good," Steve said and then stood there for a minute.

"Oh, we got a problem," Danny said moving towards the window where they could see their perp clearly getting changed and spending a lot of time undressed in just her bra and panties. "I mean what do we do? What is the protocol here, I mean… we watch…"

Any normal red-blooded male would have been all for watching a beautiful girl disrobe, she wasn't getting completely naked, she was just stripping down to her bra and panties. And whoa what a view, he wouldn't mind putting up with the cat and the smell of loneliness and depression if he got to stare at that all day. It really sucked that she was a criminal and sooner or later they would have to bust her.

"Eh," Steve said turning away even before the girl pulled the curtains closed. Wow. He hadn't even been interested the man really did only have eyes for Rowan. With the show properly hidden Danny turned back to find Steve standing there, hand on his hips staring at the couch like it held all the answers.

"What's the matter with you?" Danny asked.

Steve turned, took stock of everything they had and then turned back to Danny a look of confusion on his face. "I feel… I feel like I'm forgetting something."

"What? We got the view, we got the couch moved so we can see the view, and we got all the gear, what could we be forgetting?"

Steve blinked his eyes. "I don't know. Uh… I'm sure it'll come to me."

And with that the two hunkered down for their stakeout.


	175. Chapter 175

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Friday my wonderful readers. Did anyone else realize what Steven forgot? Well Gajeel-rocks got it, but did everyone else figure it out? Well don't be too worried if you forgot, I mean, Steven forgot too right? Either way in this chapter he's made aware of a few things, which includes something he forgot to do… and a promise he made to a certain someone. Might I also add that we're almost to what I think is probably one of the cutest chapters I had ever written. I believe we are two chapters away but I'll tell you guys when we hit it, as per usual. So don't forget to leave me a review, I'd love to hear what you thought about this chapter, and I'll see you guys on Monday!_

Chapter 175

* * *

They found out that their injured thief was Radomir Ivanovich who was ex-Serbian Military and Emma's ex-boyfriend, or at least they were assuming he was an ex since she had tried to kill him that morning. Not good for little Emma Mills who thought he was dead. After the Bosnian war he had repurposed his skills to become a high-end jewel thief. He surfaced a few years back in Hawaii under the name Jacob Anders, hooked up with Emma Mills, who helped him with his heists until she got pinched. But she didn't roll on him so she did 10 months jail time and then, for some reason, once she got out, they did one more heist and she shot him.

It was confusing and they weren't quite certain they understood what had happened to cause this turn of events. But they couldn't get answers without blowing their cover and asking her. So they'd have to wait to figure out what was going on with their heart-less blonde.

In the meantime, Steve had gotten hungry so he had made himself a bagel while watching the feeds. Emma did nothing interesting, all day. All she did was sit, scantily clad, and watch TV. Even Danny, who had appreciated the view, had finally gotten bored. Frankly, Steve's view at home was much better than this one so he had been bored from the start. When he finished the bagel, he tossed the empty plate to the couch beside Danny and it was only there for ten seconds before Danny snapped.

He didn't even say anything he just glared at him with this look that Steve knew was going to be paired with a lecture so he hoped to defuse the situation before the arguing started.

"What? I'm doing her a favor. The food's gonna go bad."

"What the hell is the matter with you? What are you, an animal?" he asked. "Okay, I know you're lazy. You don't wanna get up but I don't need your disgusting bagel plate in my work space!"

Steve glared at him, not sure how this could be a thing. God forbid he'd ever have to actually live with Danny, he might kill the man if he had to live with him. "It must be exhausting, projecting that much contempt on a piece of porcelain."

"It's ceramic, putz," Danny snapped as Steve picked up the plate. "And you wouldn't do that at home, you wouldn't do that to Rowan."

"Sure, I would, I do. I do it all the time," Steve said as he walked towards the kitchen.

"Really, you just throw dirty dishes around your girlfriend?"

"Yes I do, and she doesn't say anything, she picks them up and puts them in the sink for me," he explained. "And she's not my girlfriend."

"Apparently not, apparently she's your maid."

Steve shook his head determined to ignore Danny and he luckily got his distraction in the form of a little white kitten. Mr. Pickles chirruped to him in his cute little meows and Steve smiled down at him.

"Hey, Mr. Pickles. Want something to eat, buddy?" he asked stooping down to pick up the cat. He draped the cat over his shoulder before going through the cabinets to find his food. But it wasn't cat food he found.

Picking up the package he chuckled at it, not believing what he was seeing. "Whoa, Hey Danny. Look at this," he said showing him the giant bag of drugs he had just found. "That's a lot of weed."

Danny just stared at him, not sure what to do with that information, because he even he was surprised. Why would Agnes need so much weed? But then someone knocked on the door and the two of them were in move fast mode, needed to get rid of this visitor as soon as possible. Steve stashed the weed, and then, with cat still draped over his shoulder he answered the door.

It was just a little old lady in a fuchsia and flower patterned muu-muu and a platter of cookies. Steve offered a soft hello, not sure what she wanted but she was already talking and trying to slide her way into the room

"Aloha neighbours! You must be Agnes's nephew. I heard you were hose-sitting," the woman said letting herself in.

"No that's me," Danny said. "News travels fast around here."

"I'm Ruth Tennenbaum from 2D I made you a batch of my signature macadamia nut cookies," she told them showing them off but not relinquishing the grip on the plate.

"That's nice," Danny said letting her go to their small kitchen table.

As she walked slowly over, she looked around, taking in their surveillance equipment. She smiled nicely at them "Oh I see you boys like to snoop too," she said. Damn they should have hidden that stuff.

"Ruth, hi," Steve said but she ignored him. "Uh, Ms. Tennenbaum. I'm Steve McGarrett. This is my partner, Danny Williams."

She nodded. "Mm, I see," she said softly before sitting down.

"We're trying to keep a low profile, so if you could keep this to yourself, it'd be nice."

Steve nodded. "We don't want anybody else in the building to find out." As he stroked Mr. Pickles.

"Oh, I understand. Some of the Alta cockers in our building are so small-minded. Just so you know, I full support…" she trailed off and then whispered: "Gay Marriage."

Steve came to a standstill, completely shocked. What the fuck was she… he and Danny? Oh, come on not this again. Steve turned to Danny who was chuckling and then turned back to Ruth. "No, no, we're not gay… I have a girlfriend… I can show you her picture," he said taking out his phone and showing her the lock screen. Which was a picture Nahele took of Rowan on his lap, his lips to her shoulder her face turned towards him. "See that's her, that's my Ro."

"Oh, she's very pretty."

"Yeah! Thanks, she's a singer and a song writer and she's written uh… a few…" he started, he had been flipping through the pictures showing Ruth more, ones of Rowan on the beach, of her sitting on his lanai in her beach chair hunched over her guitar, of them in their fancy dress dancing out on a restaurant patio when he caught the look that Danny was giving him and he came to a faltering stop. He cleared his throat and changed the topic. "Uh… we're Five-0 ma'am," he explained. "We're actually working undercover here. That's why we can't let anybody else find out about it, you see? It's very important. Ms. Tennenbaum, you can keep a secret, right?"

"Of course. To tell you the truth, I feel much safer knowing you boys are here."

"Good, that's good."

"There's been a lot of crime in this building. Just the other day, a plant was stolen from right outside my front door," she told them. Both Danny and Steve were horrified to watch that little old lady start to cry. Goddamn it now they were never going to get her out of the apartment. "While you're here, maybe you can catch the hoodlum who did it."

Both Steve and Danny exchanged glances before Steve turned back to her. "Yeah, we'd love to help, but we're, you know we're kind of tied up."

She deflated in her disappointment and then sighed as if she carried a heavy burden. "Oh I understand. You're busy with important police work. I'm just an old lady with a stolen fern." It was amazing that she had gone from crying, to perfectly fine to crying again, in such a short amount of time. "Oh, did I mention that it's a fern? Six years I had it!"

Steve and Danny exchanged their exasperated looks again and she added: "I don't mean to bother." While she put the cookie to her mouth and stared him down.

Sighing Steve grit his teeth and decided to be proactive about this since Danny was content to just stand there with his hands in his pocket, smiling at Steve like he was enjoying himself. "You know what, um, I'm gonna send somebody over to look into that," he told her as he helped her up and out of her chair. "Is that okay?"

Ruth smiled warmly at him. "Such a sweet boy, that girl of yours is lucky."

"Yeah she's really hit the jackpot," Danny agreed, a shit eating grin on his face. That was sarcasm and Steve knew it.

But Steve ignore the sharp jab to his already crumbling belief in he and Rowan's durability and smiled at Ruth as he led her back to the door. "Okay? So you go home and you'll expect to see somebody soon. Alright?"

"Be sure to return the plate when you're finished with it," she said letting Steve usher her out the door and into the hallway.

"Okay, thank you very much for the cookies," Danny said waving to her as Steve struggled to say his goodbyes to the elderly lady and shut the door. Once it was firmly shut and locked, once Steve turned he could tell that whatever was going to come out of Danny's face was going to upset him.

"So Ro's your girlfriend now?" Danny asked. Yep. He was right.

"Shut up, Danny, just… shut up," Steve snapped. Danny just shrugged.

"Okay, well, I personally would've gone with the gay thing to keep our cover."

God why wouldn't he just shut up?

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Later that evening Steven and Danny had gotten another call from Kono who had been told to do the background checks on the two jewelry shop employees. Mia Price, the store owner and Rowan Pierce the employee who had been in the store at the time.

Kono had started with the easy stuff, the stuff they had already knew. Like Mia Price was in debt to her eyeballs and her store was about to go under. So you know, lots of motive. And then there was Rowan. Rowan had access to the safe. Rowan had access and keys to the store. Rowan knew all about the delivery date because Mia had told her and Rowan had come in early to help out even though Mia hadn't scheduled her. She was just helpful like that.

To anyone else that would be very suspicious, and while they didn't trust Mia, they all knew Rowan. They all knew that if she were going to rob a store, a gun would not have been involved, she would have found a way to just walk out with them. But knowing Rowan wasn't an alibi. No, the determining factor to ruling Rowan out as a suspect was her financials. He figured her financials weren't very good, as she was back to taking odd jobs again, but money was never tight between the two of them, so he had told them to look up his financials as well as proof that she wouldn't need anything even if her financials were bad. He was prepared to take himself off the case if he had to vouch for her, he just needed to hear what Kono had to say about her financials first.

"So we did get her financials back from the bank and I can safely say that uh… yeah… she doesn't need to hold up a jewelry store for their diamond stash," Kono said.

"Okay, so her financials were okay?"

"Okay? They were ridiculous!" Kono cried and Steve just shook his head.

"What are you talking about?" Steve asked and then Kono paused.

"It's not important, they were okay, she doesn't need to knock off a jewelry store, let's leave it at that," Kono said almost too illusively. Steve narrowed her eyes at him.

"What's going on with her financials? You're hiding something, I know you are…"

"Now wait a second…"

"Send over the report."

"I don't think that's a good…" "Send over the report Kono!"

Kono did as requested but when the file came up he found himself staring at it in surprise. "No… no this can't be right," he said quickly. "Are you sure this is the right Rowan Pierce."

"Yep… that's it. That's her back account," Kono confirmed.

Steve looked back at the totals and found himself completely frozen. "Okay… but it can't be, because, if this is right… it means that she has 22.9 million dollars in the bank."

Kono nodded. "Her last royalty cheque went in last week and it was 2.4 million. She's been getting upwards 1.5 million in royalties since December. She sold her last song for 150 thousand a month ago, but I'm guessing something spiked in sales because her royalty cheques almost doubled this month."

Everything in Steve's body froze as he just stared at Kono on the screen of their laptop. Danny leant against the back of the couch.

"I'm sorry. I think I misheard… how much did she have in the bank?"

"22.9 million."

"And how much did she get in royalties?"

"This week? 2.4 million."

"Your fucking girlfriend's a millionaire?" Danny asked Steve.

Steve turned his eyes up to Danny because he had no idea Rowan was making that kind of money. "I… uh… I guess?"

"Wait… boss… I mean I guess I figured it cause she asked us not to tell you but did you really not know how much she makes?" Kono asked. "I mean, I get not knowing exact numbers, but you had to think she was making some kind of money?"

Steve's mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water. No, he didn't. It never even occurred to him that she could make that much.

"No… did you?" Steve shot back.

Kono shook her head. "Well, I mean I knew she was making money… but… you know I'm not the one dating her…"

Wow what a low blow. Steve shook his head and looked back at the bank statements.

"What is uh… what is VD Charities?"

Kono shrugged. "I don't know, but half of her deposits go to it," she told him.

Steve nodded. "Okay, could you uh… could you look into it for me?" he asked to which he got a sharp nod from her. Steve was silent a moment longer as he stared at the bank statements still not believing what he was reading. "Thanks… uh… thanks for that Kono. I've got to go." And then he ended the call.

For a while Steve just sat in a stupor. How could Rowan not have told him how much money she was making… why was that something that never came up? Granted… with everything going on recently he got it, but they had been dating almost ten months and he had no idea that she was a millionaire. Wasn't that… strange?

"So, you two never had that talk about money?" Danny asked coming to sit beside him. Steve just scowled at him.

"No, we've been busy with… other things…"

"You mean too busy _not_ fucking?" Danny asked and Steve's scowl darkened. "Or arguing about how you're not fucking?"

"Do you enjoy tormenting me?" Steve asked and Danny just raised his hands in defense.

"I mean, you could just give her the label," he offered and Steve turned away.

Why the hell would he give her the label now? If she was willing to hide something as important as this, from him, what else was she willing to hide?

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

They were luckily quite quiet until dinner. No arguments, nothing, probably because, since finding out about the state of Rowan's finances Steve had been lost in his head.

That was until, Steve got hungry and then he was all talk.

"You hungry? Let's get some dinner," Steve offered. "You choose any place you want. What do you want?"

Danny thought about it a moment before saying: "Chinese sounds good."

"I get a headache from the MSG," Steve said with a scowl.

Okay, fair, hmm, what else was Danny feeling like having today? What could he go for? "Okay. How about, uh, that pizza place that doesn't suck?" he offered but Steve was already sitting up a big grin on his face.

"Oh, I got it. I got it, I got it," Steve said excitedly. "You ever had Indian food?"

Danny sighed but he let Steve order the food and vowed to say absolutely nothing. But he seethed while Steve ordered, and stewed while they waited for delivery. He was down right livid when Steve had him pay for the meal and just about ready to slap him as the two of them tucked into their meals.

Which was why, when Steve said: "You're doing it wrong." Danny nearly snapped then and there.

How the hell does one eat wrong? Seriously, someone explains because Daniel Williams was lost. "I'm doing it wrong?" he asked sarcastically, not expecting an answer. He got one anyone.

"Watch me. Get a piece of naan. You dip it in the masala, okay?" Steve said showing him, to humour him Danny followed along, because if he didn't Steve would bitch and Danny would bitch back and this op would get blown cause they were trying to kill one another. "We got a little chicken there. Get your chicken. Put it inside, make a little meat pocket, however you wanna do it. Then you go mango chutney. Put it on top." He waited for Danny to follow through and then said: "Go."

Danny put the concoction into his mouth and chewed. Goddamn it, it was delicious. Like wow, holy, that combo… it was like nirvana for his taste buds. And what was worse, was Steve knew it too. He could see it on Danny's face. Great. Now he'd have to fucking admit that Steve was right, he had been doing it wrong.

"That's how you do it," he said through his mouthful, Danny could see the food rolling around as he talked. God the animal how to Rowan eat with this savage? What the hell did she see in him? Danny scowled at him and Steve's smugly confident smile faded from his lips.

"What's the matter you don't like it?" Steve asked.

Danny swallowed his mouthful before saying: "No I like it very much. It's probably one of the best things I've ever tasted in my entire life. In fact I don't know how it is that I've gone this long in my life without experiencing such exotic flavors."

"Alright so what's the problem?"

"The problem?" Danny echoed.

"What with your face?" Steve asked.

"Well the problem might be because you said I could choose where we eat."

"What?"

"You said: _you choose_. You said: _you pick_. I picked a bunch of places, you knocked them all down and then you picked a place that you want…" he noted Steve laughing and quickly trailed off. He pinned Steve with a dark glare that did absolutely nothing to get him to stop laughing and said: "I'm glad you think it's funny."

"Are you kidding me?"

"No."

"It's dinner Danny what are you talking about?"

"Well, no, that's the thing. It's not just dinner, okay? This is what's called relationship dominance. It like you always got to drive my car, you gotta be in control, Steve…"

"You get that from your workbook?" Steve asked.

"I did get it from my workbook, okay? It's a very enlightening chapter, okay? It's all about personality types. And if I read the personality types, it explains why you and I argue, it explains why you're having problems with Rowan. Cause she's a conflicting type from you and you're smothering her."

"What?" Steve snapped and then looked at the book in Danny's hands. "What are you gonna read it to me?"

"Tell me this doesn't sound like you, okay?" Danny said: "ESTJ, or Guardian types, are confident, dependable, loyal. Natural leaders. Tend to put forth much effort in fulfilling their duties and obligations."

"Okay, can I stop you for a second? Am I supposed to be offended? Cause you just made me sound awesome."

"Well those are some of the strengths. Now I'll get to the weaknesses," Danny said. "Not naturally in tune with what others are feeling. Difficulty expressing emotions. Difficulty accepting criticism."

"Hey can I eat my meal?!" Steve thundered, proving Danny and the workbook right. "Can I eat my food in peace please?"

Danny put the book down and stared placidly at Steve who was tucking back into his meal with gusto to avoid the conversation. "In simple layman terms. You are a whacked-out control freak, okay? But I love you, and I really think Rowan could love you too if you would just stop driving her away."

Steve sighed again. He glanced to the book before asking: "Does it say anything in there about why my girlfriend didn't tell me she's a fucking millionaire?"

Danny stared at him. He knew that it was bothering Steve, the knowledge that Rowan made so much more money that him and that she hadn't told him. While he had been doing his homework he had come across a personality type that sounded like Rowan. He just needed to see if Steve agreed.

"Uh… INFJs, or Counsellor Types, are visionaries and idealists who ooze creative imagination and brilliant ideas. They like to help people who are in need because they are compassionate and empathetic. They're good at reading people and can sense other's emotions. Sound like Rowan?" he asked. Steve nodded, yeah that was her to a tee. Danny continued. "Counsellor types, are sensitive towards other people's feelings, more so then their own. They are stubborn. They don't back down when their beliefs and principles have been questions. They also tend to be secretive and it takes time for them to learn to trust people, even going as far as to test them before spilling their secrets."

Danny watched Steve take all of that in, and though Danny saw Steve come to a realization or some sort of understanding, but even though Danny had witness Steve go through all of that, Steve still said: "So that's a no."

Danny scowled at him. He was being stubborn on purpose and it wasn't cute anymore. "It means with the amount you two argue she probably felt it not best to tell you that she makes heaps more money than you do."

"I wouldn't say heaps."

"Her last royalty cheque ended in six zeros. She's making _mountains_ more money than you."

"Eat your Saag panneer, please. Just…" Steve said turning back to the food, wanting this just to be over. Danny let it go, but when he finally checked his phone later that night he had a missed call from Rowan. If she had called him three times, how many times had the poor girl called Steve?

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

The following day had been slow for Steve. They met the owner of the weed they found in the cupboard, a very chilled-out stoner boy, Ricky from 2F downstairs. He had collected his weed, offered more than just weed to Steve and Danny, apparently having a hook up for everything up to ferrets and snakes which were illegal in Hawaii as they're an invasive species and then he left. Steve had microwaved an omelet and got yelled at.

Granted he knew that he should fry an omelet up, but he was used to Rowan making breakfast, and he wanted to be quick about it so Danny didn't bitch about being left on monitoring duties for too long, nor did he want Danny to get too excited and try to make one of his frittatas. But Danny had freaked on him anyway over the smell the microwaved omelet had caused. At least he didn't burn the place down or set any smoke alarms off like Danny did when he was making his famous frittata.

Then Grover came by, he too commented on the smell, while Barry, Emma's fence, went over to talk to her. They had caught Barry yesterday, he was how they learned all about Radomir. They needed him to stall so they had him go over there and lie to Emma, and it was because of that lie that they found their missing link. The one they had no idea they were even looking for.

Mia Price, Rowan's old boss, the owner of the jewelry store. She was in on it. she was more than in on it. When she showed up later that evening, the two girls talked for all of two minutes before they started making out and five seconds later those curtains were closed, so they couldn't see, but the mics were picking up the moans no problem. They were having sex.

The novelty had worn off for the boys almost immediately. Probably quicker for Steven than Danny. Steve was still stuck on what he had found out yesterday.

His Rowan was rich.

Like rich, rich.

Like… didn't need him funding her at all, rich.

Like she could buy a house, a new car, a horse, and a new man to replace him, rich.

And she had never told him.

He should have known when she was illusive about the amount she made as a song writer that something was up. He should have pressed for more info, he should have asked Pete any of the time they bumped into him. He should have done… something. What he shouldn't have done was ignore all the times she called him yesterday.

She was probably just wondering where he was, he hadn't told her that going on a stakeout, he just hadn't come home. He should have called her, he should have answered any of her calls, at least to tell her where he was, but he knew if he picked up that call he'd get mad at her. He'd get mad at her for hiding this from him, and if Danny's workbook was right, he'd make everything worse.

Because it was totally like Rowan Pierce to test him to see if he could handle it and it was just like her to run if she thought he was too upset with her over it.

When the doorbell rang, thirty minutes into the girls' ongoing sexcapade Steve was surprised. Neither of them had order food and they weren't expecting anyone. Danny got up and threw the blanket over their surveillance equipment while Steve opened the door.

And he was not expecting to see _her_ at the door. Especially since he never told _her_ where he was.

Steve stared at Rowan, as she passively stared up at him. She didn't look upset, she didn't look mad, but she also didn't seem excited to see him either. "Uh… what are you doing here?" he asked trying to gauge her emotional state at that moment.

"I brought pizza from that place Danny doesn't think sucks," she said showing him the box. "Since we both know you steamrolled him with the Indian food last night."

Beside him, Danny crowed, Steve jumped not realizing that Danny had been beside him but stepped aside as Danny moved forward. "Yes. Love this girl. Love your visions," he said reaching for the pizza snatching the box out of her hands and turning away with it.

"That doesn't explain why you're here though," he said as she moved past him and into the small apartment, he shut the door behind her, and Rowan turned back to him, her eyes nothing but narrowed glittering slits of ice blue. Ice Queen eyes. Shit.

"Well if you remember… yesterday… I was in the back of an ambulance crying…" she said and Steve frowned. Oh. Oh no, he had a feeling he knew what was happening right now. "And you promised me you'd be home… to keep me company… and then you never showed up."

Fuck. _Fuck_. That's what he forgot. "Oh… oh… oh god… I'm sorry…"

"And then you didn't call. And then neither you nor Danny picked up your phones when I called and I had to call Chin to find out where you were and what was going on," she said. "So you know, thank you for the night of nightmares, McGarrett."

Oh god she was last naming him, she _was_ pissed.

"I'm sorry… I forgot to call you, okay?" he lied, but judging by her scoff it most certainly was not okay. "Alright… well uh… you're here now and I'm here, I can…"

"Oh I'm not here for you," she said turning away from him and walking over to where Danny was sitting with the pizza. "I'm going to stay with Danny."

She plopped herself down on the couch beside Danny and both men turned to stare at her with incredulous eyes.

"Stay with… we're on a case Rowan," he growled.

"Really? Sitting here listening and watching as two girls fuck is you on a case? You can do that at home, Steven," she snapped. "Besides, I need someone to cuddle, and I picked Danny."

"Uh… I have a girlfriend," Danny said and Steve pointed at him. "Yes, he has a girlfriend."

"Already dealt with," Rowan said proudly. "I already talked to Melissa she okayed it. If you check your phone you should have a text saying so."

Wow how thorough of her. Danny did in fact checked his phone and with the absent: _huh_ Steve knew that Melissa had texted him. Steve glared at Rowan as she slid up and into Danny's side like she belonged there. No, she didn't belong there, she belonged with him. For fucksake. Danny looked at him then back to Rowan and then back to him and Steve swore he saw the gears turning in that man's head.

"Uh, I think I know why Steven didn't call you yesterday," he said breaking the silence. "And it all can be answered with a question he wants to ask you."

Rowan turned her skeptical eyes to him before turning to Steve. "A question?"

"Yes, a question," Danny said as Steve said: "No." and then the two scowled at one another.

"Just ask the question Steven," Rowan ordered and he sighed might as well get it over with now.

"I uh… I guess I was wondering when you were going to tell me that you're a millionaire."

Rowan blinked her eyes and straightened. "They told you about my financials. God damn it Kono," she muttered to herself. She sighed and said: "Is that really why you didn't call me yesterday? Or pick up any of my calls? Or call me back? Or answer my texts? You left me alone, not hours after surviving an robbery and watching as a man I knew and called a friend died in my arms, because you were mad about the money I make?"

"No! I didn't call you cause I was upset you didn't tell me and I didn't want to argue with you. Is that why you didn't tell me, because you thought I'd get mad?"

"No, I just honestly I didn't think it was that important."

"Not that important? Rowan, you're making millions, like literally! Your last paycheck was 2.4 million dollars!"

"Well that's because _Heartbeats_ just went double platinum, and with the sold out tour and the merch… you know I got a big bonus, that's all, I usually get a lot less then that…"

"Rowan…" Steve growled in warning.

"Okay what? What do you want me to say Steven? I make money, a lot of it, what do you want to know? That my regular royalty cheques range anywhere between six hundred thousand dollars to 1.8 million depending on the sales that month. That the number is climbing cause I'm Atlantic's golden goose who only writes hits? That I'm the only writer who gets away with demanding more than 5% in royalties for the same reason? Is that what you wanted to hear? Are you happy now?"

No. He wasn't.

"But why didn't you tell me?" he cried. "Why, at no point while I've been paying for everything, did you not think to say: _oh by the way I make quite a bit a money maybe let me cover_?"

"That's why!" Rowan cried. "Because I knew you were so cheap if you found out you'd never open your goddamn wallet again!"

"Oh my god, wow, I just… I just can't with you right now."

"Okay, I'd like to ask some questions," Danny asked getting her attention. "I'd like to know why you're still doing the odd menial jobs. You don't need the money, so you don't need to supplement your income, so… like… why?"

"Uh… well I have two reasons for that Danny," she said primly. "When I broke my leg and was told I couldn't skate anymore it became perfectly clear that I wasn't suited for regular jobs and I had no schooling or experience for an office job. All I could do was skate and sing and bake. Not the hallmarks of a big paycheque you know? So I take the small jobs to create a bit of a resume so that if the song writing doesn't pan out, I at least have something on my CV other than, song writer. And secondly… if I didn't have odd jobs, I'd be home alone, cause _someone_ is never home. And we all know how I feel about being alone. Now eat your pizza and both of you stop asking me questions."

Both Steve and Danny took that in. Danny seemed good with those answers, and Steve had to admit that they both made sense. Rowan didn't like being home alone, she didn't like being idle. So the jobs were something to keep her from being bored. But collecting odd jobs, where she worked for two to three week or more, for her CV wasn't going to help her. Especially if all of those jobs were small and menial.

And Steve had another question. One Kono had yet to get back to him about.

"Why does half your paycheque go to something called VD Charities?"

"I said no more questions."

"Fine, but… what is VD charities?" Steve asked. "No one can tell me."

"What about no more questions did you not understand?" Rowan sighed reaching for a slice of pizza. "You weren't interested in me when I need you to be, you don't need to be interested in me now."

Danny turned to Steve to see nothing short of anguish on his face. It was clear that the man had no idea what to do and it was killing him. Danny almost felt bad, but he felt the tremors that were plaguing Rowan when she tucked into him and he realized that the poor girl really had just needed someone, she had needed Steve. She was taking this one a lot worse that he had realized. Steve should have realized that, he should have thought of something other than himself.


	176. Chapter 176

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hello my wonderful readers! Remember how I said the cute stuff is coming. Well it's here! Part of it anyway. I promise that, even though this chapter is gargantuan (15 pages long) not only do we see some more of Rowan's back story, we get to see Steve and Rowan be super cute. And that will only be eclipsed by the next chapter, which, I think, is probably the cutest chapter I've written to date so I really hope you guys like the next two chapters! We're also coming up to the 800th review soon, which seems altogether too many and I'm still in shock about it. I was thinking of running another contest for this one, with a dedication and Character insert for the winner. What do you guys think? Don't forget to leave me a review and let me know! I'll see you guys on Wednesday!_

Chapter 176

* * *

When Danny woke up again it was super dark, the place was quiet, there was a blue light coming from the monitor and he quickly realized that what had woken him up was Rowan's shivering form draped over him. Danny got his bearings, glanced around and out of the corner of his eye caught Steve staring, his eyes on Rowan of course, with a strange look on his face.

"I fell asleep," Danny announced, on top of him Rowan groaned again and shuddered. Steve immediately looked away, no doubt not want to get caught. "I miss anything?"

Instead of answering him, Steve turned the volume up on the laptop and the moaning coming from the other apartment got louder. Danny sighed. "Apparently not."

"They stopped for a water break about half an hour ago," Steve said, his voice low and quiet. He seemed unimpressed, which was great because Danny was unimpressed too.

"That's good you gotta stay hydrated," Danny said sarcastically.

"Very important," Steve agreed.

"See this, this is bad for us men in general," Danny snapped, ready to stop being sarcastic and ready to actually get into the lecture. "This is what gives us a bad name. Twenty, 30 minutes, that includes a drink. They're at three hours, makes us look terrible. We can't do this."

Groaning Rowan shivered into him. "God, what is going on with this girl, she's shaking so hard she's vibrating."

Immediately Steve was shifting, his hands moving towards Rowan. "She's just cold, let me take her."

"Cold? We're in Hawaii how can she be cold," Danny snapped, slapping his hands away. "She doesn't want you, remember?"

A darkness passed over Steve's face and for a moment he thought Steve might attack him for her, but they were interrupted. Rowan groaned, her body began to quake and she pressed her face into Danny's arm. "What the hell is…" Danny found himself asking but Steve knew what that was, and Danny realized that the second he saw Steve's face.

"That's a nightmare, she's having a nightmare," he said, watching as Rowan's hands gripped into Danny's side so tightly he actually yelped. Steve, however, was used to that and knew what to do.

With Danny distracted, Steve stood up, he grabbed Rowan by the shoulders and tugged her away from Danny. With Rowan back in his arms he settled back on the couch, draping her against him in that way she liked. He leant back, let her rest between his legs, her fingers digging into his side her cheek against his chest. His had a hand stroking the back of her hair and already she was more settled. With his arms around her she had stopped shaking, as if the mere act of encircling her in his tight embrace had dispelled the nightmare that had been sinking in.

"It's okay," he whispered into the top of her head. "I have you now."

He ran his hands up and down her back for a moment until her was certain that she was okay and then he smiled to himself. "See… see you just didn't have her right. This was all she needed."

Rowan murmured against his chest and he smiled absently, when he looked up at Danny he was wearing an expression he knew wasn't going to lead somewhere good for him.

"See… why… look at you two… just look at you two…"

"Danny, stop. Okay? I don't want to do this right now. She's tired, just let her sleep, please?"

Danny settled down again, ready to let Steve be delusional when he noticed something on the table beside him. Danny glanced down to where his workbook would have fallen had he fallen asleep with it and then back to Steve who probably hadn't touched his workbook let alone packed it.

"You uh… reading the workbook?" Danny asked.

"No."

"No?" Danny echoed. "It was over here. Now it's over there. You had something to do with it."

"When you fell asleep, you dropped it on the floor. I moved it for you," Steve answered. Oh, how nice of him.

"You didn't look at it?"

"Did I look at it? Maybe, yeah, I looked at it a little bit, to get a feel on how to answer the questions. I only skimmed a bit cause I was bored."

His main focus was still on Rowan. He kept shifting her, trying to settle her in some position, she had her nails digging into his side, but Steve hadn't flinched once. Danny wondered how often Steve ended up in that position, wondered how many nightmares Rowan had that he didn't hear about, but Steve dealt with, soundlessly. Clearly often enough for him to be that good at soothing her no problem, in fact it looked to be second nature.

"What did you think?" Danny asked.

Steve looked up to him. Looked to the workbook. And then he just shrugged and turned his eyes back to Rowan.

"That's it? You're unbelievable. I mean, I have personally seen you put yourself in every conceivable life-threatening situation without batting an eye, like it's nothing. But when it comes to talking about your feelings, forget about it you'd rather chew cyanide. Huh?" When Steve said nothing, Danny sighed. "Forget it," he snapped throwing himself back down to the couch. "Wake me up if they stop or do something interesting or open up that curtain."

Steve looked down to Rowan. The way her hand gripped his shirt like he was the anchor in her sea of nightmares. He wanted to be better, he wanted to be able to talk about things like this with Rowan. He wanted to trust people, to trust her.

And if he couldn't do it with his best friend, how could he do it with Rowan… how would he expect her to do it with him.

"Do you wanna know why I don't play guitar anymore?" he uttered into the silence of the apartment. Hoping Danny would just sulk and say no.

"Yes, I would like to know why you don't play guitar anymore," Danny said to him. Well so much for sulking.

"Tenth-grade talent show. I signed up to perform," he told him. Already his mouth was running dry at the memory like he was back on that stage once again. "I practiced the song every day for months and months, and the day finally came around. I was standing in the wings. My guitar was in tune. They called out my name, I walked out on stage. I turn around and look at all those people," he whispered his eyes closed and he was there, back on that stage with his heart running wild and his lungs constricting, refusing to take a single breath for him. "And I couldn't do it. I couldn't do it, so I walked off and never played guitar ever again."

For a while they were silent. "That's it?" Danny asked.

"That's it."

"In Tenth grade, you had stage fright, so you never played guitar ever again?"

"I didn't have stage fright, it was bigger than that," Steve whispered. "I'm telling you, man, it was a, uh… you know, I guess it was an existential crisis. I just, in that moment, I couldn't handle the vulnerability that I was experiencing. I couldn't handle how exposed I felt. I felt like I couldn't breathe and I thought it was gonna kill me."

All he got was an hmm, from Danny and when he turned to his friend he was just lying there, staring at the ceiling.

"Look, man, I was raised differently than you, okay? I wasn't raised in a house with a supportive family, encouraging me to share my feelings. Or in your case every feeling," he said and to his surprise Danny just nodded. Rowan shifted against him her breath exhaling across his chest and for a second he just held her accepting her soothing presence. "The McGarrett men are a different breed. They… to them, showing emotion is like showing weakness, you know? I mean it's stupid, but its just the way it is."

"I understand that. Uh…" Danny started his eyes falling on Rowan. "I just thought that after everything we've been through, you know, your father, my brother, everything, I figured maybe I was, you know… somebody that you could open up to, is all, you know? And if not me, then at least Rowan. I mean… after everything you went through to finally end up with that girl… I would have thought… I mean I know I joke about it… but we all just want you two to be happy, me included… so what is going on with this Steven, why are you fighting her on the label so hard when you two are clearly insane for each other?"

"Because with her… with her… sometimes it feels like I'm right back on that stage…" he said. "That's how she makes me feel. Vulnerable and exposed and I'm just… I'm overwhelmed."

"By what?"

"By how I feel. Nothing has ever felt this way before," he whispered. "Nothing in my youth, not even what I felt for Catherine comes close to… this… and that scares me, Danny. It scares me because everyone I have ever loved, they leave me. They _choose_ to leave me. And I know… I know I won't survive it if she leaves me too, Danny. You saw how bad I was before… and back then she was just an option. I've had a taste… I have… I have everything I want. I have a pretty fucking domestic life, with the perfect girl and the perfect kid and the perfect job and friends and… and… I'm not… I'm not going to survive losing that, and if I lose her… if I lose her Nahele will go with her and then I'll… I don't know… I just won't survive losing it now I know how much I like it. Okay. I just won't. It will literally kill me and I don't… want…"

"Then you have to tell her that," Danny urged. "None of this _you're not ready_ shit you've been giving her. She knows you're ready, look at you, you're ready, but you're scared and she will understand that, but you can't just _not_ tell her and then pull this shit and just… you know? Because she needs you, hey? She needs you as much as you need her, and I bet you dimes to the dollar that she is just as afraid of you leaving her too. By the way, has she stopped shaking yet?"

Steve ran his hand from the base of her neck to her lower back, she murmured against him and pressed a little closer to him. "She's not shaking now."

"Obviously she needed you," he said and then left that there as if Steve didn't feel guilty enough.

"You two need to stop talking about me like I'm not here," Rowan murmured into the silence that fell between them.

"Come on," Steve whispered, "I'm going to get you to the bed okay?"

"No."

"It'll be better for my back."

"Your back deserves it."

"Will you please… just let me, I'll carry you, you won't have to move okay?" he said and with a giant sigh she sat up, let him disentangle herself from him. As she sat there she rubbed her eyes, wincing and hissing in pain when she agitated the bruise that he could see had darkened nicely into her hairline. He bent down, moving her hands away to look at it. He had forgotten it was there, he probed the sight of the injury softly which just cause her to wince and smack his hands away. When he straightened, she lifted her arms up so he could easily pick her up and carry her to the bed.

Once they were lying down, once he had her nicely tucked in, his nose millimetres from hers, he lay there staring at the girl that overwhelmed him. She was usually so strong, she usually took things much better then she seemed to be taking this, but he knew something about this incident had unnerved her. Not just the fact that a man had died in her arms, she was taking this more personally than she should have, then she usually did. And then there was the money. Why hadn't she told him about the money? How could she hide something like that from him, was it really because she was afraid they'd argue, that she didn't trust him with the truth and if she was hiding that what else was she too afraid to tell him?

Her breathing leveled out, she was probably asleep but Steven needed answers, so he brushed his fingertips against the edges of her lips, the sensitive soft spots at the corners until she started moaning and brushed his fingers away.

"Mmmmstopit," she murmured.

"Tell me the truth. Tell me why you really didn't tell me about the kind of money you were making," he ordered.

Rowan's eyes opened, those sapphire blue eyes burning in the darkness. His hand continued to brush her hair back being conscientious of the bruise she had forming just by her eye. "Honestly?" she whispered and he nodded. "With the way we were arguing… I didn't… I just didn't… I didn't want to make things worse."

"You thought I'd argue with you over the money you make?" he asked.

"Well… most guys are intimidated by that sort of stuff, you know?" she said. "And I was afraid that… with everything else… it would just pile on…"

"Babe, I'm not… I'm not mad I just… I want to share in your success… I'm already so proud of you… I just wish that you… you know… you wanted me to…"

"I did, and I was going to tell you… but… we've just been arguing so much… and when we were good we were like… _really_ good and I didn't want to ruin it with what I figured would be an argument. And then it just got to be longer and longer and… I… I unno… I just never found the right time, you know?"

So she had been making good money from day one then. That's what that meant. He nodded and her eyes began to drift closed again. "Wait, just… just one more thing…" those eyes opened up again, so blue he almost lost himself in them. "You're feeling really guilty about this one, I can tell, and I just wanted you to know that it's not your fault. I know you would have told me, but I've been difficult…"

"That's not… that's not why," she whispered and his heart lurched into his chest. There was something else? How could there be _another thing_ she hadn't told him? "I… I told him the wrong day."

"What do you…?"

"I've been dreaming about it, I have, but I dreamed the wrong day. It was supposed to be… it was supposed to be next week," she said. "I told him to take the wrong day off… I told him the wrong day… he would have been… I… I'm why he's dead…"

And then she started to sob. Immediately Steve pulled her into his arms. That was why she felt guilty. That was why she hadn't told him. It had nothing to do with their argument, she simply hadn't dreamed the right day.

"Rowan… that's not… that's not your fault… You had… you had the wrong date, that's fine," he said. "You didn't do it on purpose… you know? And we always knew… or at least I always knew that this wasn't an exact science, you know?"

"But I…"

"You did what you thought was right. You tried to help, and I know, I know you would have told me about it if you thought it was happening, but just because you got the date wrong, doesn't mean it's your fault," he said forcing her to look up to him. "Sometimes things just have to happen right? That's what you said about my Aunt Deb, right? That you can't changed everything, no matter how much you want to? Well… clearly this is one of those times. Okay?"

Rowan nodded and Steve held her close to him again. "You just… you just go to sleep, I'll be here, I promise, the whole night. For real this time."

She snuggled into him and Steve held her a little tighter. As he fell asleep he dreamed he had put a forcefield around his girl, something to keep the dreams at bay… or at the very least, some kind of filter so that if they did come, if they absolutely had to be there, that they were going to be right. He never wanted his baby to hurt over her dreams ever again.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

When Steve woke up, Rowan was gone. That was the first issue. The second issue was that Danny had left the window open and the cat had gotten out. The third issue was that their bad guy, Jacob or Radomir or whatever the hell his name was, had gone into a gun and ammo shop the night prior and stole enough hardware to start a war. But since Steve was so upset about the first issue he was blowing the second and third issues right out of the water.

They finished their call with Kono who had been tasked to find Radomir and put him down with any means necessary and someone knocked on the door.

"I'll get it," he said throwing a blanket over the monitors.

"You'll get it? Were you expecting someone?"

Ricky, the drug dealer who had been hiding pot in their borrowed apartment, was at the door. "What up, playboy?" he said as he came in. He immediately walked past them both to go into Agnes' room.

"What the hell is this?"

"A cat's sense of smell is 14 times stronger than a human's," Ricky said coming back with an armful of Agnes' clothes. "And that sweet scent of Agnes is gonna bring Mr. Pickles back home. Stay frosty!" and then he was gone and Steve was shutting the door.

Danny scowled at him, but Steve just hit him with a dark glare and said nothing. The true hallmarks of a McGarrett man who was upset. Steve walked past him not even bothering to say a thing, as he pulled the pineapple print blanket off of their gear and threw it back onto the couch.

"You called the drug dealer to find Mr. Pickles?"

"And why did I have to do that, Danny?" Steve snapped back.

"No, no, no. Don't do this, okay? It's not my fault, it's your fault," Danny snarled pointing a finger at Steve.

"Oh! How is this my fault Mr. Pickles got out?" Steve cried. "You're the reason the window was left open!"

"Well I wouldn't have had to leave the window open if you hadn't decided it was a good idea to make a microwave omelet!" Danny cried back.

"Okay, this whole passive aggressive thing? I'm done. It's tired."

"Oh alright, okay. Let's do aggressive-aggressive."

From their feeds came the distinct sound of someone knocking on a door and both Danny and Steve turned. "Who the hell can be visiting her now?" Danny snapped just as Emma Mills opened the door.

Steve knew exactly who it was the second he heard that _hi_.

"Hi, I'm Rowan, I'm dating one of the cops that are watching you across the street," she said.

Steve and Danny stood there, mouths open watching as Rowan pointed at their window and Emma Mills followed her stare. That fucking cunt had sold them out.

"Fucking hell I knew she was mad at you but I didn't think she'd throw an operation just to piss you off… what the hell did you say to her last night?" Danny cried. "I thought you said you and her had like… a moment or something."

Steve just stood there, looking past betrayed. Emma stuttered but Rowan had already pushed past her and into the apartment.

Two floors below came a scream and with the binoculars Steve narrowed in on it. "We got a male accosting a female," he said but Rowan's was talking again and his eyes peeled away from the other girl and back to her.

"Help me with the couch," she ordered but Emma wouldn't move.

"No, now wait a second…"

"No, not wait a second, that guy you and your little girlfriend ripped off for the diamonds is still alive. Yeah, surprise, and he's a little mad that you tried to kill him to get a bigger share of the cut. Now he's on his way up here to kill you and take the diamonds, NOW HELP ME WITH THE COUCH!" Rowan shouted and Emma jumped to help her. Together they moved it across the door just as someone started knocking. Already Steve had binoculars.

"She's right, it's Ivanovich,"

Rowan turned to the camera. "I'm gonna find us an exit point. Steven, if someone's throttling a girl a few levels down it's a distraction. Ignore that and come help me please!"

Yeah, like Steve was gonna go after someone or something else when Rowan was in danger. She already had Emma's hand and was dragging her to the balcony, just as Ivanovich opened fire on the door.

"SHIT!" Steve screamed and then he and Danny were sprinting out of their apartment, down the stairs and across the street. "It looks like they went across balconies," Steve called to him as they sprinted up the steps. "I'm gonna go high, you go low, try to cut them off!"

Danny split ways from him, watching as the man sprinted up the stars, dashing off this snarl on his face like a predator chasing his prey, anything to get to Rowan on time, it seemed.

Gunshots echoed a floor above him, there was the sound of a few high pitched feminine yelps and then two bodies practically clamoured down the fire escape and onto his floor. Danny got a hold of Rowan, who was still holding hands with Emma, and practically threw them both behind him, just as Ivanovich came into view. Danny raised his gun, shouted something about being Five-0 and freeze, but Ivanovich had a bigger gun and he was raising it in their direction. There was this warrior cry and Danny didn't even have to shoot. All they saw was Steve's boots as they collided with Ivanovich's chest and then that was the man over the railing and crashing two storeys below.

Panting Steve got up, he went to renew chase but Rowan let out a strangled sob of his name and he faltered.

Danny turned and Rowan was flat out and properly crying. Steve immediately stopped what he was doing, jumped off of the fire escape and went to her.

"What's wrong, are you shot? What happened? Where are you hurt?"

But once he got close she just hugged him and the sobbing stopped. He didn't even get the first syllable out of her name when Danny clocked the remote in her hand. He yelped, tried to reach for it, but it was too late, Rowan had pushed the button. Across the street from them a car blew up and everyone cringed. Steve dropped his hold on Rowan and she let him do it. He went to the balcony, standing shoulder to shoulder with Danny, watching as the fires burned and a body lay motionless in the street, they couldn't tell if it was Ivanovich or not, but it was singed and smoking.

Steve turned back to Rowan to find her face impassive, and to her calmly wiping away the fake tears. "Did you just…"

"Break into his car, find his stash of weapons and explosives and wire it to explode, yes," she said as if it were perfectly normal for anyone to do that. "Don't worry. He wasn't in the car… I think… though after what he did to poor Mike, honestly, I don't really care."

Danny and Steve turned back to the wreckage just a few floors below them. Danny glanced to Steve, to be fair, he was very, very proud of her. It was scary but hey, she hadn't used the app or got Wo Fat involved. But Steve, Steve looked like he was going to be sick.

"Who the hell are you people?" Emma cried, which reminded both boys that they needed to arrest her.

"We're your worst nightmares," Rowan growled, clearly not knowing exactly how true that was.

Steve and Danny, though, exchanged glances. Well… that wasn't how they wanted that day to end, but at least they had gotten the bad guy.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve, with Rowan's hand in his, walked slowly towards where his friends were waiting at their picnic bench right in front of Kamekona's shrimp truck. Emma Mills, who was supposed to be dead, was alive. The fleet of squad cars they sent to the Jewelry store to pick up Mia Price, also suffered no casualties as Ivanovich hadn't gone to storm the place as planned. All because, while he had held Rowan last night, she had dreamed of Ivanovich, what he was going to do, and where he was going to park his car in the morning when he went to kill Emma.

And his girl had done something with that dream.

"I know you don't like questions, Rowan, but I gotta know. How… how did you know how to rig the car to explode?"

"Well… uh… when I was in WitSec, Malcolm taught us how to check for car bombs. All the types. He also taught me what to look for if something had been tampered with, like doors, or trunks or hoods of cars. That lead to me just asking him how it worked, which meant, in theory I could set one myself… he also taught me how to jimmy things and steal cars, but that was more for if we were compromised and needed to run. To be honest I didn't think I'd remember how to do it, the plan was just to steal all his stuff, let you rough him up and bit and then tell you where his car was and where he planned to go next. But when I grabbed the C4 it all came back."

Steve nodded. Well at least she didn't say that Sandy gave her instructions.

"I know it was awfully… monstrous of me… but I…"

"Rowan, it wasn't monstrous. Just a little… criminal," he said. "But I covered for you. I said I shot at the car, must have nicked the C4 in the back. So, you know, you're good, but uh… there's going to come a day when I can't cover for you babe. You know that, right?"

"I'm going to be better," she said quickly. "I promise, I'm really… I'm really going to try."

"Okay… uh… I'm going to say something," he whispered taking her shoulders. "And it's very important that you hear this, okay?"

Rowan nodded and he took a deep breath. "Alright. So… I like you the way you are. Alright? I like every bit of you, which includes this tendency of yours to jump head first into the grey area of law. What I meant, my comment before, was on my ability to save you from it. Okay? Babe, I'm afraid you're going to cross a line I won't be able to get you back from. And I really. Really don't want to see that day. Okay?"

Rowan nodded eagerly stepping up to her tippy toes to kiss him deeply. From their table they got wolf whistles and the like.

"Aw sweetie, your girlfriend's just as pretty in person as she is in the pictures," came a call from who Steve knew immediately as Ruth. Why had Jerry brought her there? Why?

"Did uh… did that old woman just call me your girlfriend?"

God fucking damn it. "No. Rowan…" he tried to tell her but Rowan had already moved away from him and towards the table smiling warmly at Ruth.

"Excuse me, hi, I'm Rowan, did uh… did Steve tell you I was his girlfriend?"

Ruth blinked her eyes surprised. "I'm confused, are you not his girlfriend? I mean I know he said he's not gay but you didn't hear those two arguing all the time. I swear, no one who argues like that isn't married."

Rowan turned back to Steve and his eyes rolled up to his skull. God damn it. He was not _gay_ with Danny. He just wasn't. There was no McDanno. It was McRow or nothing.

Before Rowan could say anything he just pushed her towards the food truck. "Okay, babe, why don't you go, uh… why can't you go order something…"

"Why?" she asked. "Danny's here."

She nodded to something behind him and when he turned Danny was there. Half out of the Camaro and waiting for him. "Oh, that means it's time for me to go."

"Oh… the marriage counsellor?" Rowan teased but he frowned at her.

"You know it's not, babe, I don't like it when you do that," he growled and Rowan's smile widened. Kay so she was teasing, didn't mean that he liked it. As he moved towards Danny he noted that Rowan was following him. "So you go back to the table, Danny and I will take care of business…"

"She's coming with us," Danny said just as Rowan said: "I'm coming with you."

"Why the hell would you want to do that?" Steve asked but Rowan just shrugged and suddenly Danny was tugging on his arm.

"Hey I got you something!" he said moving around the trunk of the car.

"Wow, Really?" Rowan asked skipping over to join him.

"No not you, him," Danny said, shoving Rowan aside to show Steve what he had in the trunk.

"Whoa… what is that?" Steve trailed off, taking it out

"What is that? It's a tuba, you shmuck!"

"You got me a Tuba?" Steve cried as he opened up the guitar case. He smiled as he took it out to look at it.

"Wait… you play guitar? Why didn't you tell me that?" she asked him sounding surprised and disappointed at the same time.

"No, I don't play, I used to play, I'm thinking of getting back into it," Steve said. "And now I can…"

He strummed a few chords and suddenly Rowan's eyes lit up. Okay. Maybe he was definitely going to get back into it. Anything to keep that suggestive smile on her face.

"You like it?" Danny asked. Steve nodded strumming a few more chords surprised he still remembered how to play any of those chords after so long. "Alright, well I like this but we gotta go."

Rowan immediately bounce towards the back to get in but Steve frowned. "Wait, no Ro, you stay with Chin and Kono they'll drive you home," he said as he put the guitar back into the case so they could put it back into the trunk.

"But I want to come with you," Rowan said frowning up to him.

"Ro… come on now, what are you going to do? Wait outside? Wouldn't you rather wait here with Chin and Kono and Jerry?" he asked. He noted then that, for the second time since he had asked her to stay behind, that she and Danny shared a covert look. When they were done with that she turned back to him and hit him with her most innocent of looks.

"Well I was hoping I could sleep in the car, would that be okay?"

"Why would you wanna do that?"

"Cause it'll still smell like you…"

Steve's heart swelled up into his chest, he melted literally immediately. His poor girl, waiting to sleep in the car that smelled like him. Still he sighed, loud and heavily as if this were a great imposition. "Alright, alright," he whispered. "You can stay in the car."

He shut the trunk and moved over to the passenger side throwing Danny the keys. "Here buddy, you drive," he said.

Danny caught the keys and then just stared at him surprised. "Me drive?" he asked. "Whoa, that's some improvement…"

"Yeah don't get too excited, I'm still controlling the music," he said as he slipped into the passenger side. He glanced back at Rowan who was already curling up in the corner, no doubt to ready to try and sleep. He couldn't help but smile because having her there just made him feel better. He had a feeling that things would be better with all of them for now on.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

They had left Rowan in the car. It was hard to do, like really hard to do, he had wanted to slip into the back and hold her, to cradle her while she slept and catch up on some sleep as well. But Steve left her in the back of the Camaro to go up for a Therapy session that he didn't want to through with.

But they were only in the chairs for ten minutes, had already slipped into one of their arguments, over who was to blame over the cat escaping, when someone knocked on the door. Dr. Carlin told whoever it was to come in. At first Steve was in shock that she would do that, normally she'd just tell them to wait, she had never invited anyone into their session before, but once the door opened and he saw who was coming in he was shocked for a different reason.

Rowan was still in her short shorts and flowing hunter green blouse. She smiled warmly at him as she pulled up her own chair. Steve turned back to Dr. Carlin. "What… uh… what is she…"

"I had Detective Williams, invite Rowan here, because I think she's part of the problem. Detective Williams was supposed to inform you, I'm sensing that he did not."

That little shit. That meant both Danny and Rowan knew she was coming in here with them, they had blindside him with this, on purpose. Well that explains the looks the were giving each other at Kamekona's shrimp truck.

"Wait… I'm the problem?" Rowan asked softly and Steve scowled. He didn't want her thinking that she was the problem, she had a habit of separating herself from him if she thought that she was causing issues for him and he didn't want her to do that again.

Dr. Carlin spoke before Steve could stop her. "Steven, has voiced some displeasure that you always seem to agree with Detective Williams…"

"What? Are you serious?" Rowan cried, but the question wasn't directed at their shrink, it was directed at him. "Really? You came into therapy and told this woman that you're picking fights with Danny because of me? Really? Because we both know that the fights are going on before I even get there…"

"Yes… yes, and we've talked about that, and my controlling nature and Danny's pessimism, but you… you come into one of our arguments and you're immediately and always on Danny's side. It doesn't matter what we're arguing about it always ends up being you and Danny versus me."

"That is not true! I side with you… and I defend you too all the time…"

"No, you don't!"

"I do too! You just… you know most of the time you're not around," Rowan answered sheepishly.

Danny nodded. "Actually ,that is true. She defends you a lot. And you are not around." Steve rolled his eyes and gestured to Dr. Carlin, that _this_ , this was what he had been talking about. "But uh… he did have a breakthrough. Remember? Remember on the couch? I said you had to tell her, well… now is probably the best time to do so."

Steve eyes bore into Danny, his glare was so dark. How dare he throw him under the bus like that? "Is that true…?" Rowan asked.

"I mean… kind of… I did… I did tell Danny… but that was in confidence," he growled.

"You can tell her here, in a safe space, or I can text her… one day. Some day. When you least expect it."

"Now Detective Williams… blackmailing Commander…"

"I'm overwhelmed."

Silence met that comment and Steve realized that it probably hadn't been a good idea to just blurt that out there. Rowan was staring at him but Steve continued to stare forward at Dr. Carlin's shoes and he didn't move to explain. He wasn't even sure he could not without it coming out like nonsense.

"Go on, Commander," Dr. Carlin prodded and he realized that no was going to let him just say that and not elaborate. So he turned to Rowan.

"I really, really, really like you."

"I know that."

"No, I know, and that's great. But I mean… I _really_ like you. Like more than anyone ever before. And… you know… I just… everyone I've ever cared about, anyone that's been close to me, they leave. Not on purpose, not because they want to, but they do. They leave. And you… with you… that feeling… it's ten times stronger than anything I've ever felt before and I feel… I feel vulnerable to it, like… if you were to leave me…"

"But I'm not leaving you Steven!"

"But you do leave!" Steve snapped. "When you get mad at me, when we have problems you run and I have to go on this scavenger hunt to find you!"

Rowan blinked her eyes and nodded. "Okay, you're right, that is something I do. But that… that predates you, I've been doing that for years. My uh… previous shrinks think I run… and have an obsession with things that go fast, because I'm running from my problems. They thought it was strange that I do everything except actually physically run. So, you know… that's not really something I'm doing to punish you… you know? That's something I do when I uh… when I do something bad and I think the people I care about are mad at me. Or when the people I care about tell me to leave…"

Steve stared at her. That actually explained a lot. Like a lot. Because every time she had run before, they had been arguing over some stunt she had pulled. And every time before that she had been running to keep herself from ruining a relationship Steve hadn't been trying to save at all. "I mean, I guess that helps a little… but I mean… why do you do that?"

"Uh… it's tied to an incident in my past, that I'd rather not talk about here… can we do that at home maybe?" she asked and Steve nodded. "That's not all is it though? There's something else?"

Steve lowered his eyes and whispered: "Yes… I guess I worry about… that… well... what happens if it… if the _door_ opens again. You'll just… you'll go _home_ … and then what am I going to do?"

Rowan blinked her eyes and finally understood. There it was, Steve's darkest fear laid out for her.

"Okay, you know what, you're right. You're right, Steven, if that door opened up for me again, I would definitely consider heading home, just cause I miss them and I kind of want to at least tell them I'm okay, but Steve… I wouldn't just jump into it. Maybe I would have before but now… I have you, I have Nahele, and Danny, and Chin and Kono, and I mean… I have a whole life here now. I'm not just going to up and leave it without knowing whether or not I can come back."

"Why wouldn't you be able to come back?"

"It's complicated," Rowan and Steve answered at the same time.

"That was very good Commander. And you see Detective Williams, Rowan was very supportive and positive, she listened to him, she didn't take it personal and really tried to understand what he was saying and accepted responsibility for the part she played and then explained her standing in a way that he'd understand," Dr. Carlin said to them causing Danny to scowl again. Ha take that Danny.

"However, there is one last thing I'd like you and Rowan to discuss. This other issue I'd like to acknowledge is that, from my sessions, I have gotten the impression that Commander McGarrett feels a bit insecure in your emotions for him," Dr. Carlin said and Rowan turned to her again. "He hasn't said it out loud, but it is something both Steven and Detective Williams have alluded to, that he thinks you two are unmatched… that he's not good enough for you."

Rowan turned to him surprised. "You not good enough for… Steven! Have you looked in the mirror? Steve you're fucking photo shopped. Girls trip over themselves trying to get your attention… do you even notice that?" Steve shook his head. All he ever noticed was her. "You don't think that's intimidating? Standing next to you looking like me and having girls question why someone like you is with me?"

"That's different," Steve said softly. "I only have eyes for you, you know that. But you… and I… we really only have sex in common. Granted it's phenomenal sex, but… like… that's only going to keep you with me for so long…"

Rowan groaned. "Ugh, Steven, we've talked about this. We have plenty in common and I'm always willing to try new things with you. You just have to remember that I need to be baby stepped into outdoorsy stuff, you can't just throw me into the thick of it and expect me to thrive!"

"But just look at us Rowan! You withheld sex for eleven days and we nearly broke up, how many times? If we're not having sex…"

"Of course we're arguing, we're pent up. That's a lot of sexual frustration, Steven," Rowan reminded him. "And besides, if you had just caved…"

"Why do I always have to cave, why couldn't you cave for once?"

"Oh my god! This is ridiculous, Steven! You literally just told all of us how much you care about her, just give her the label. She's not going to leave you, you tell everyone she's your girlfriend anyway, so just do it already!"

"Wait what?"

" _Danny?!_ "

"Well it's true!" he cried and Steve lashed out at him, only to have Danny block it.

Rowan put a hand to his other arm and he stopped trying to hit Danny and turned to her. "Do you really tell everyone I'm your girlfriend?"

"Literally everyone," Danny growled. "I mean like all the time. It's always my girlfriend this, and my girlfriend that and I swear to god if you don't stop looking at my girlfriend I'll break your jaw…" "I only said that once, and that guy was practically bending over backwards to look at her ass. I can't believe Lou told… you weren't even there!" "He literally never shuts up about you and how you're _his girlfriend_."

Steve shook his head, but Rowan was smiling at him almost in a tearful way. "Why didn't you tell me that?"

"Because… Rowan… I was afraid. I was afraid if I opened up anymore to you and you eventually left… I wouldn't survive it," he whispered.

Rowan looked down briefly before turning back to him. "I can't promise that I'll never leave Steven. But I can promise, that if I do leave, it won't be of my own free will," she said to him and his eyes narrowed in surprise. "Steven. I want to be with you. Only you. I like the little family we've created. You me and Nahele. Door or not, I wouldn't just leave all of that behind. I know this is scary, I know that this is a big step, but it would make me feel better, it would make me feel more confident in our relationship, in your feelings for me, if we could do this together. Labelled and all."

That made sense, it made complete and utter sense and he realized that he wanted it too. Almost desperately, to be able to brag about her, to show her off, to make sure that all those guys staring at her knew she was his, and he'd kill for her.

Rowan smiled at him and Steve tried not to blush. She reached out to him, her hand grabbing his and squeezing tightly. "Okay… uh… I guess we're doing this then…" he said.

Rowan squealed and launched herself across from him, kissing him tightly as he smiled up into the motion.

"Great. Now they're going to be even more disgustingly cute," Danny muttered. But Rowan just smiled at him.

"Are we good now? Do you feel better? That includes you too Danny," she asked.

"How would I feel better, we didn't talk about me," he growled.

"Ohh that's true. Alright, well, Steven, I will try not to side with Danny in your ridiculous arguments as often, if that will help you," she said and he nodded. "And Danny, you and I should have a weekly bitching night where you can get all your frustrations out about Steve and so could I and then we don't take it out on him collectively."

"That's fair," Danny said. "Now, if you're done derailing our appointment, I'd like to show Dr. Carlin the homework…"

"Actually, we're out of time," she said.

"You've gotta be kidding me," Danny sighed. "We gotta come back don't we?"

"We'll schedule something for next week," she said and Danny sighed again. But Steve didn't care. What he cared about was that Rowan was holding his hand, and smiling up at him in that coquettish way, his blood boiling knowing that when he got home, he'd be getting everything he had been craving and more.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

After making up for eleven days of holding out, a sweating panting Steven had flopped back down to the bed beside his newly official girlfriend. Though he was hot and sweaty he didn't care when Rowan rolled over to drape herself along side him, a single hand covering the heart that so clearly belonged to her now. He smiled warmly and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. His arms coming around her his heart beating wildly in his chest.

He knew he didn't want to do this, get into this argument now, but he wanted to know why she ran. He wanted her to open up more to him.

"Okay. I know you don't want to hear this… but uh… we're home now… and it's later."

Rowan sighed and rolled away from him. "Steven…" she groaned.

"No. Rowan. It's later. I need to know why you run from things, what happened huh?"

For a moment she was silent. She sighed heavily and Steve was worried that she wouldn't tell him.

"Do you know who the first person to ever call me a monster was?" she asked softly and Steve shook his head. She kept her eyes staring straight up as she whispered: "My mother."

Steve was silent for a bit and she couldn't bear to look at him so she kept talking. "Sometimes, she'd ask me if I was trying to be a monster, to try and get me to act better… but she'd usually just say: _stop being a monster_. I think the worst of it, was after the incident… after I was diagnosed… I heard her talking to my dad and she said… she said… that she didn't know what to do now that she had a monster for a daughter and I realized that… it was real now… it wasn't a joke anymore, I really was… a monster…"

"That's pretty shitty…"

"I wasn't diagnosed… you know… as a sociopath until I was 11, though. And uh… well… Trevor would have just turned fourteen. He had just come out. And uh… well you know he was a figure skater, you know I don't know why anyone surprised. But uh… yeah… he uh… he… was late coming out of practice and I still hadn't found… you know… boys… they were just… I unno I was young. I knew gay was bad but I didn't know what it was. Not that it's bad, like you know that it's something prepubescent boys shout at one another until one of them cries?" she said and Steve nodded cause he got it. "But uh… I walked into the men's change room to get him and these bigger hockey boys… you know… I don't know why they'd… making someone blow you doesn't prove you're not gay… but… you know… I walked in… saw what I saw… picked up a discarded skate and sliced a sixteen-year-old boy's dick off."

She turned to Steve at that point and saw the shock on his face and sighed. "Yep. I always get that look when I tell people what happened. Look, I was 11, you know, I didn't think it'd come like… off… I just knew my brother didn't want it in his mouth."

"Yeah, sure…" Steve murmured.

"The point is. That happened. And then you know… police got involved, but you know… they asked me… they asked why I thought to do that and I just shrugged and said that it seemed like a good idea at the time and then you know… I got tested and turns out I'm…. uh… yeah… mild sociopathic tendencies."

"Okay… so that explains… but the running… where does that…"

"My mom… she uh… she had us move across the country to get away from that situation," Rowan said. "And then… you know… after that… every time I did something and I knew she'd be mad I'd just… uh…"

"You'd run."

"My problems can't catch me if I'm faster than them," she whispered. "The problem is… I'm… well the problem is _me_ , so when I'm alone… I'm worse… It's why my mom always had someone with me, it's why I caddy for my dad on the weekends, so she could have some time to herself. It's why she went with me when I got that part in the musical. It's why Trevor and I did so much together, though he was pretty much an enabler. It's why… I just… never…"

"Okay, wait… so your mom is why you don't like being alone either?" he asked. "Really? Fuck and I thought my mom fucked me up."

"Mom's doing numbers on their children is the bread and butter of the psychology world," she said and then she laughed. "It's actually really funny but my mom is a psychologist, leading female in her field. Never thought once that I might have had something psychologically wrong with me, and that was part of the problem. I made her look stupid. Doesn't help that like all typical parental-problem child relationships, I always felt like Trevor was her favourite, and she sort of always did things that… well… that proved that theory true."

"Like what?"

"I unno little things… I don't want to talk about this anymore, Steven."

"Just one example," he whispered. "Just to gauge the damage."

"You're dating me, you can use our relationship to gauge the damage," she said dryly but he just smiled at her encouragingly and she sighed. "Fine. Uh… well… when the news hit about what we were doing with you know the get away driving… Trevor and I… mom gave a sworn statement into the police that if Trevor had gotten mixed up in this, it was because of me. Trevor was a good boy and he probably went to save me or I forced him to go along with it as I was the bad influence."

"But that's not true… Trevor was the gambler…"

"My parents didn't know that at that point, they didn't know until after we came back when he admitted to it. You see… he never had to go to them for help, I usually covered his debts. And she was right to a point," she whispered. "I didn't have to keep driving once he was debt free. I just… you know… did and he stayed so I wouldn't be alone with them."

That wasn't the first time she had said that. She didn't seem to understand that once you were in there was no leaving. The Stepanov's would have never let her just, leave the gang. And even if they did, that didn't make Rowan the bad person in that situation. She had gotten into that situation because of her brother, because _she_ had to save him. But how the hell did she think that her mother putting in a statement that Trevor was innocent and Rowan was the problem, was only a _little_ thing that proved her theory. Trevor Pierce was clearly her mother's favourite. It made him wonder what her father had to say about it.

"You never would have been driving if it wasn't for him though," Steve growled. Damn if he ever met her mother he'd have some choice words for her. Maybe it was a good thing he had sent her family away. Even if they weren't the same people technically and had never done anything to her at all.

"Now I'm sad," Rowan uttered into the silence and Steve froze. He pulled her back to him, draping her across him and holding her tight.

"Tomorrow we'll so something happy. Your choice, my treat," he whispered. "Even though you should be treating me, Miss. Secret-Millionaire."

Rowan merely smiled into his chest. "Let's argue about money tomorrow, okay?"

"Deal," he whispered rolling onto his side so she could snuggle into his properly. As he pulled her close and Rowan let out a string of giggles, he sighed contently to himself. He was right, things were going to be miles better between him and Rowan from now on.


	177. Chapter 177

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: It's Wednesday my dudes! Gosh I miss vine sometimes. So remember how last chapter ended super cute. Well this chapter… this chapter is EVEN CUTER! How is that, you ask, well you'll have to read to find out but I think you guys will like this chapter. Now, heads up, shit is gonna fly in the next set of chapters. A lot is gonna happen but it ALSO ends quite cutely, especially for the people who like Wo Fat. I also haven't heard if you guys wanted me to run another contest? Alternatively I could also just run another marathon. Don't forget to leave me a review on what you think and I'll see you guys on Friday!_

Chapter 177

* * *

When Rowan woke up that morning she found the bed to be empty. This didn't really surprise her, Steve usually went for a run or a swim in the mornings before she'd wake up, though usually he roused her a bit to at least tell her where he was going. She didn't remember him waking her up. And usually, once he was done he'd shower, and the shower would wake her up, and she'd get in and join him. If the shower didn't wake her up, he would.

None of those things had happened.

He… he hadn't gone back to work had he?

They hadn't really talked about it, but she assumed, after the last case, after finally getting over what she figured was their biggest relationship hurdles that he'd at least stay home one day with her.

Rowan got out of their bed, pulled out that soft grey sweater of his she liked wearing so much and pulled it over her head before heading down the stairs. It no longer smelled like him, which meant that she was going to have to get him to wear it a few times so that the next time she wore it, it would smell like him. When she hit the main floor she could hear a guitar, which made no sense because Rowan wasn't playing.

 _Steve had just got a guitar._

Rowan let herself out onto the lanai and sure enough Steve was sitting on the love seat she had recently forced him to buy strumming away hitting all sorts of wrong chords and wearing a face of frustration. Rowan tried not to smile, but she loved seeing Steve out of his element, usually he was way too confident and good at everything he tried, these moments reminded her that he wasn't a god, he wasn't perfect.

He was perfect for her, of course, but he wasn't perfect at everything.

She didn't have to say anything, his eyes had turned to her the second she took a single step towards him. He put his new guitar down and smiled sheepishly at her.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you…"

"You didn't wake me up," she said quickly. "You were doing good, what song are you trying to play?"

She had a feeling she recognized the song but she'd've liked it if he could confirm. The look on his face told her he wouldn't be doing that for her. Steven always had to do things the hard way. It was a good thing she loved him or that would have become annoying fast. Okay it annoyed her a lot, but she loved this idiot, annoyingness and all.

"Doesn't matter, I uh… I've forgotten a lot…" he said softly.

"You haven't played since you were what? Nahele's age?"

"16 actually," Steve murmured and she sighed at him.

"Alright, so you haven't played in like 50 years…" "More like 20… you know I don't like it when you call me old…" "—You're right, sorry. So like a hundred years ago you were playing guitar, its fine to have forgotten a few things."

Steve sighed at her, still not enjoying the old jokes so she smiled encouragingly. "Here, here, I'll go get my guitar and we'll go over finger placements," she said rushing into the kitchen to grab her guitar. She always left it by the back kitchen door because Nahele liked camp fires and her singing songs. It was also where she wrote her best stuff.

She joined Steve pulling out her guitar, happy to see that he had also picked his back up. "Okay, so we need to pick a song, which one would you like to practice with?"

"I uh… I unno…" he answered sheepishly.

"Okay, we'll I'm writing a slow song right now, it has some simple chords why don't we try that one?" she asked and Steve nodded.

Rowan slowly went about showing him the chords, and the tempo watching as he played them back, correcting where necessary which wasn't that often. She put it all together, playing it through once and then waited breathlessly as Steve copied her.

God her panties were soaking immediately. That handsome, wonderful man playing guitar was probably the sexiest thing she had ever seen in such a long time if he started singing she may just swoon. He smiled up at her when he finished and she clapped for him.

"See, see that was good," she said which had him smiling a little more widely. "You just gotta practice you know, you practice and you'll be amazing, even better than me I imagine."

The compliments seemed to be a bit too much for him cause he went bright red, lowered his eyes from hers and then simply asked: "Does this song have lyrics?"

"Mhmm," she said. "Did you want to hear them?" he nodded to her and she smiled again. "You know, I was thinking, now that you play, maybe you could play the music and I'll sing?"

Steve nodded and Rowan sighed. "Just uh… just give me a second to breathe…"

She loved Steven, but she always got a little nervous singing just for him. There was something more intimate about singing just for him that made her more nervous… made her feel more vulnerable.

She nodded to him, holding his eyes as he started playing, waiting for the right moment to hit him with the lyrics she had.

 _… but you'll always be the home I wanna come home to, you're a wild night with a hell of a view. There ain't no place, ain't no place like you_

He finished playing, she finished singing and then lowered her eyes from his. "So yeah… it's uh… it's not done yet, but that'll be the chorus once I figure out what else I wanna write."

"That was…" Steve started blowing out his air, his hands left his guitar to hold her hands. "How… how do you do it?"

"Do what?"

"Sing in front of people. I mean. I can tell that you're nervous… you don't like singing for just me, it unnerves you… I can't imagine how you feel going out on stage. So how… how do you just do it?"

Rowan thought about it for a moment.

"Well uh… that's not the problem. I can sing for just one person, I only get nervous when I'm singing for uh… for you…"

"You do? Why? I love everything you write and your singing… you have to know how I feel about your singing… I've been telling you since you started that you should be the recording artist… not Alex… you…"

"No, I know. I think it's because your opinion matters to me and I unno… I just feel like… well these songs most of them are very personal and most of them are about you… so it's like I'm baring my heart to you which is very… uh… I unno intimidating?" she whispered "But I uh… yeah, I have away to get over that. So uh… when I get scared, I sing for one person," she said being sure to hit him with a hooded stare so he understood the double meaning. "When I was in the twelfth grade I sang a song I had written by myself for the first time in front of the whole school. I was so nervous but when I got out there, Sarah was in the front row waving a homemade sign for me like she was a group front row center at a concert and I just… I just took a really deep breath and sang the song for her. That song eventually became Bad Liar. With some reworking."

Steve sat back and thought about what she had just said. No doubt remembering all the times Rowan had sang and her eyes had been on him. She couldn't help it, she never got lost in a crowd if he was in it cause her eyes were only on him.

"It helps if the person you pick is someone you care about," she said. "Back home… Sarah came to every gig, when Evolet was born… well let's just say that soon I was only watching her. That little girl really loved my music… and my skating."

Steve put a hand to her knee. "You must really miss them."

"I do. Yes."

"Do you know if… uh…"

"Yep, they're here. But the Sarah here isn't my best friend and Evolet isn't my goddaughter either, so there's no point in going back no one would know me and I think… I think that's worse than them not being here."

She carefully brushed away her tears and smiled up at Steve. "Let's talk about something happier, okay?" she asked.

Steve dropped his guitar to the floor and pulled her into his lap to cover her in kisses until she was giddily lapping them all up, her fingers in his hair and his hands under her shirt.

"The kid comes back tomorrow," he murmured against her lips. "Did you uh… did you want to take advantage of his absence… like now maybe?"

Rowan hopped up off his lap, jolting him, his hands gripping her wrist to keep her from going too far. She hit him with that sultry smile, took his hands in hers and tugged him up and back towards the house. Thank god for overnight biology camps.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Despite not wanting to, Kono had agreed to going dress shopping with Rowan. She did need to pick a wedding dress, as the wedding was slowly creeping up on them, but that wasn't why she had agreed. After their last therapy session, Steve had asked her for help with something and while she was certain that if it had happened it would have been broadcasted to all of them by now, she wanted to see if Rowan had any inkling of what was going on, if maybe it had happened and the two of them were going to be low-key about it.

But as Rowan's best friend, an accolade that Rowan had given to her, she figured that low-key or not, Kono would, or should, know about it.

They had gone to a different dress shop from the last one Rowan had taken her to for her last attempt to pick a dress. Rowan had let Kono pick this time, and Kono had thought that this one would be a little more affordable but very certainly was not. Rowan had picked out a few dresses for her before Kono shooed her away to pick out her own wedding dress and let her look at Bridesmaid dresses again. Once selected the two girls retired to the dressing rooms.

They were on their third set of dresses, Kono was wearing a giant fluffy monstrosity that she had picked and was completely regretting. Still she came out to Rowan already outside and waiting for her, admiring herself in the tall mirrors.

"What do you think of this one? This seafoam one isn't that bad…" Rowan said twirling in front of Kono and looking down at the skirt as she did so. "It'll look good while we're dancing."

"I unno, it kind of clashes with your hair," Kono said with a wince and Rowan looked up. Kono tried not to snort but it looked so weird to see Rowan so dolled up with that big purple bruise streaking from the corner of her eye up to her hairline. Like she was some punk rock princess who just got into a fight or something. Rowan took in the puffy princess dress Kono was in and then suddenly snorted. Now Kono didn't feel so bad for wanting to laugh at Rowan.

"Says the woman who looks like a fucking cupcake, what are you wearing? I didn't pick that, did I?" she asked.

No this was the one that Kono had thought was nice but Kono didn't want to tell her that. "Yep all you," Kono lied so Rowan didn't know how hopeless she was at this. Tell her to pick out the right kind of ammo or the right kind of gun and she'd be able to no problem, but this was a completely different beast. "You're picking all sorts of bad dresses today."

Rowan looked back down at her dress. "Okay, I know this doesn't look good with my hair but what about your other bridesmaids? Huh?"

"Well I want you to look good too. I liked the rose-blush one you had last time, with the rose-gold accents or that periwinkle one you had on."

"Kay, I'll put the periwinkle one back on, you, try that one I picked, the one with the little silver leaves, it's all flowy and cinched and I think you'll like it better, try that one," she said heading back to the dressing room.

Kono went back into hers and then called out: "So uh… just a question… what's going on with you and McGarrett?"

"Uh… well… what do you mean?" Rowan called back.

Kono had to wait to answer her as maneuvering out of the giant cupcake dress was taking up all her focus and attention.

"Just well… we all know you and Steve had a break through…"

"Oh, Danny told you guys about that? Why am I asking, of course he did. Well, we talked about our feelings and our emotions and what his commitment issues and fears were all about and I think we settled it."

"You think?"

"Well I mean, he didn't flat out say I'm his girlfriend, but I'm pretty sure that's what we agreed on," she said. "At least, I said let's do this and he said, sure, so like… okay I can feel you judging me through the door, stop it!"

Kono couldn't help but laugh as she slipped into the dress that Rowan had wanted her in. "I can't help it. Why don't you just ask him? Have him confirm?"

"I unno, cause we've been so good for the last couple of days and I don't want to ruin it. You know?"

Kono got that and she was going to say more but she found she was at a sudden loss for words when she caught sight of herself in the mirror.

Rowan had been right, this was tight in all the right places and loose in all the places she wanted it to be flowing and lose. It had layers of gossamer white, a cinched waist accented by silver studded leaves. The dress was flowing and light and looked like a Grecian toga. She finally looked and felt like a bride.

"What's going on are you stuck again?" Rowan asked and Kono didn't even have it in her to get mad at Rowan over the quip. She got stuck in a dress once, just once. Come on. Let it go. But even Rowan's teasing couldn't ruin this moment for her.

She left the dressing room trying to hide the tears in her eyes. She knew it before she got out there, knew it before Rowan put her hands to her lips to hide her happy exclamation.

"Oh Kono, that's it. That's the one," she said and Kono smiled because she was… she was right. This was the dress she was going to marry Adam in.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

In the course of their relationship it seemed that Steve was always going to Danny to plan some sort of big gesture for Rowan. He had remarked that to Danny and his best friend had the nerve to say: "Then stop fucking up so much."

The absolute cheek of that comment… had not been the fact that Danny had said it but that Danny had been right. He had to keep doing stuff that over the top romantic because he fucked up, royally, all the time, and he had to do _something_ to make it up to her. Why the hell had this girl stayed with him so long? He really, really didn't deserve her.

But he planned for tonight to make it up to her.

Since surprise was part of it, instead of getting all fancy Steve dressed casual and then treated to her to all her favourites. He wore a dark blue denim, those combat boots she liked on him and his best button up blue shirt, partially open so she could see his chest. She was in one of her summer dresses. An off shoulder rose-pink flower spotted dress that went to her knees, her hair up in a braided crown again, that golden seashell around her neck. They had gone to Rainbow's for breakfast for dinner, her absolute favourite kind of meal and while she sat across from him absolutely glowing Steve remembered the real reason why he did these things for Rowan.

He did them because they made his girl happy and she deserved to be treated like a queen. Now he just needed to do it more often, and not just when he fucked up.

After their dinner of waffles, eggs and bacon, Steve took her down to their favourite place, Halona blow hole, for some making out and staring at the stars on the hood of her purple GTO.

They were quiet for a moment before Rowan, who had been pressed to his side, his arm under her shoulder, turned, draping herself against him.

"Steven, can I ask you a question?"

Steve turned to her. Her cute little button nose millimetres from his as she was looking up to him.

"Of course you can, Rowan."

"What… uhm… what exactly are we doing now?"

"Well, we were staring at the stars, is there something you'd rather be doing?"

She smiled, a good moment for a kiss if he ever saw one, but Rowan lowered her lips away from his before he could distract her with yet another make out session.

"That's not what I meant. I meant…"

"Actually I have something for you," he said, slipping her off of him before she could ask her question. He had a feeling he knew where she was going and he wasn't ready for that yet. He had a script, Danny had given him some ideas and he wanted this night to go a certain way.

He rushed over to the trunk of her car where he had stashed his new guitar and quickly pulled it out. "I uh… I practiced a lot today and I think I'm ready to uh…to sing you a song… you know if you're okay with that."

Rowan smiled at him, clearly very surprised and very happy. "Really? You want to sing me a song? You won't be too nervous?"

"Well I might be," he answered truthfully. "But uh… I'm going to try the whole, singing just for you thing, and maybe that will help me so maybe… bear with me?"

Rowan nodded, sitting primly on the hood beside him as he got ready. He was going to try it, singing just for her, he figured, being the only person there it would be easier for him. And it was, because he was strumming singing like it was the easiest thing to do in front of her. She just didn't like his choice of song.

 _So you tell your friends and I'll tell mine, we both know what's coming it's too hard to hide_ …

Rowan slapped his shoulder. "No! You are not singing one of Alex's songs to me!"

"Why not, it worked for him right?" Steve said with a teasing grin. Rowan slapped his shoulder again, pushing the guitar out of his lap and climbing into its place kissing him solidly. For a while they just sat there, straddling Steven to the hood of her purple GTO just making out, tongues dueling, his hands wandering, her hands threading through his hair.

When he figured her solidly and firmly kissed senseless he pulled away to breathlessly whisper: "I know you didn't like the song, but uh… I have something for you, uh, for real this time, and it comes with a question. Any chance you can hop off?"

Reluctantly his girl slipped off of his lap, even more reluctantly Steve let her go. They switched places, he carefully put her up on the hood again and then dropped to one knee.

"Steven what are you doing?" Rowan squeaked as he went into his pocket to pull out the grand gesture to make up for his most recent fuck up. What Danny called the worst decision Steven had ever made, but made Kono squeal, hop in excitement and had her all teary-eyed.

"It's occurred to me that after being such a jerk about this step that I better make it up to you somehow," he said. "So with that being said, will you please, do me the honour, of becoming my girlfriend?"

Rowan stared down at him and the ring box in his hand. She was quiet for too long and for the millionth time that day, since he had decided to do this, he was certain she was about to say no to him.

"Rowan?"

"I'm sorry. I'm just confused."

"About what?"

"Well… for starters I thought we agreed in your therapist office a few days ago that I was your girlfriend," she said and he let out his nervous breath in a shaky laugh. "But I think what's really throwing me is that ring box."

Steve nodded. He got up off his knee and opened the box and then offered it her where she could see the silver tiara ring he had picked out with a sky blue sapphire centerpiece cut into the shape of a heart. He watched carefully as his girl took it in, her eyes a matching blue, shining so intently with emotion that it took his breath away and he had to clear his throat a few times in order to get his voice back.

"So I picked this out, for two reasons. Firstly I thought the gem matched your eyes, and secondly because I want you to always know that you're the Queen of my heart and you're my future, or at least, when I think of the future I always see you with me… if that makes sense."

Rowan took the box from him, taking the ring out and sliding it onto her ring finger and then stared at it on her finger. "You… the man with commitment issues… bought me a promise ring? And don't you try to tell me it's not a promise ring, cause it is."

"No it is. It's a promise ring, like 100% a promise ring," he told her, taking her hand and holding it tightly. God if just seeing a promise ring on her finger could twist his gut up with that possessive pride, what the hell would an actual engagement ring do to him? "It may take a while, cause I suck at this, I really do, but I promise, by this ring I promise, that one day, even if it seems like I'm taking too long or being stupid, you're the girl I'm going to grow old with. You're the girl I'm going to eventually marry."

Rowan smiled up at him tears in those beautiful sky blue eyes of hers. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him down for a kiss. "You're really kicking up the romance these days, McGarrett," she whispered. "Did Danny help you?"

"No," he growled against her lips, but when Rowan just smirked he said: "Okay, he may have suggested that the song would be a good joke but Kono encouraged the buying of the ring. Uh… I picked it out though…"

"Oh yeah?"

"Okay, Kono helped me pick it out," he amended. "But that was just the type of ring, she suggested the tiara part, I was always going to get that sky blue sapphire for you, cause you know… your eyes…"

Rowan just _mhmmm_ ed at him and kissed him all over. "Keep this up McGarrett and I'll let you pull out the cuffs tonight," she whispered and her lips trailing down his jawline to his neck and then his collarbones. Fuck his girl. She knew just how to get him going.

"You didn't answer my question Ro," he whispered to her, after he managed to pull her mouth back up to his so he could claim her.

"What question?"

"I asked you to be my girlfriend, and you've kind of left me hanging…"

"Of course I will," she said to him. "You didn't need a ring to get me to agree to that. I was going to stay even if you didn't want me to."

She kissed him again and Steve swore his heart had tripled in size. Why did he think she'd say anything else but that?

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Nahele had been clear, he had wanted to carpool home with his new friends. Though both Steve and Rowan had wanted to go and meet him they had played it cool and stayed home like he wanted. Steve wanted to say that he was playing it more cool than Rowan, on the whole waiting for Nahele to come home front, but the fact of the matter was that she was sitting on the couch reading a wedding magazine and flagging pages for Kono while he kept going to the door every time he thought he heard a car.

"He will get here when he gets here," Rowan said absently as Steve pulled back the curtains again to check if there was a car pulling into the driveway.

"The school's not that far away, why is it taking so long?"

"Uh… the kids have to get off the bus, collect their bags, say bye to all their friends, the parents have to make idle chit chat while the kids pile into the car and then they'll head off. Patience, McGarrett, he'll get here when he gets here, and you checking the windows every ten seconds will not make the time go faster."

Steve huffed at her but came away from the window to sit beside her. She curled into his side and he peered over at the magazine she was looking over.

"Is that all for… uh… Kono?" he asked.

Rowan smiled up at him. "Don't worry I'm not planning anything involving me and you," she told him before kissing him quickly and then turning back to her magazine. They were settled for five minutes, Rowan calmly reading and Steve's foot tapping away while his fingers twisted the ends of her hair around, before a car door slammed and Steven nearly threw her off of him to jump towards the door.

By the time he was disentangled and standing up, Nahele was in the house, dropping all his bags to the floor. Steve pulled the boy in for a hug and once he was done Rowan was sweeping him aside.

"Let me look at you," she was saying. "I swear you grew three more inches while you were gone."

"I was only gone a week, mo… Ro," he said covering his slip up quickly. He had been slipping up on that a lot since Rowan's last injury. And just like when Steve slipped up with that _I love you_ he was still uncomfortable with, Rowan just let it gloss on past like it hadn't happened.

Nahele still hadn't slipped up on calling him Dad, and though he tried not to be upset about it, he couldn't help it, because no matter what he did, Rowan was always the person Nahele was the most excited to see.

"Wait… what… what happened to your face?" Nahele asked, his fingers coming up to Rowan's face. Rowan winced before they even got there.

"Oh that. That's a work injury. Got brained by a door," she said. Nahele opened his mouth but Rowan waved him off. "Don't worry about it. I don't work there anymore. Figured once the doors were trying to take me out, it was time for me to move on."

He seemed to take that in, before turning to Steve for confirmation. Rowan and Steve had decided to tone down the stories of their daily activities, especially if they were life threatening as they had noticed it was giving Nahele anxiety. Problem was, the kid had figured out that they were doing that and now no longer trusted what they said to him. But Steve smiled and he seemingly dropped it. Well, for now at least.

"You hungry?" she asked him but he shook his head.

"Naw, I'm tired actually," he answered. "I know I just got back but I was hoping I could just go to sleep?"

"Sure thing."

"Did uh… did anything interesting happen while I was gone? You know other than the… work injury?"

Rowan and Steve exchanged glances, immediately concerned about what had been reported and what he had heard. "No, not really why?"

"Oh I unno, cause Rowan's sporting some sparkly knew hardware."

Rowan looked down to the ring on her finger and laughed. "Oh no, this is a promise ring. He just made me his girlfriend, like officially," she said. "It's pretty though isn't it?"

Nahele looked down at it, took in all the sparkle and shine and then turned a patient smile back to her as he agreed on the prettiness of the ring, and then turned a sarcastic smile onto Steven. "Oh look at you, settling down, took you long enough. It's uh… it's not an apology for something is it?"

He pinned them both with a dark glare and Steve realized that Nahele thought that he had hit Rowan. What the actual fuck?

"No… eh… well kinda," Rowan said. "Since Steve was such a pain in the ass about getting to this steps he thought a pretty ring would make me feel better. And it totally does."

Steve scowled at him but at Rowan's giant smile Nahele seemingly relented. "That's great. Seriously congratulations." He looked at the two of them. "Can I go to bed?"

"Sure, but take your bags up with you," Rowan said and he did as he was told, as he was up the stairs she called out: "And put anything dirty in the wash ASAP."

He called out an _okay_ and then as soon as he was out of sight she turned onto Steve with a knowing stare and said: "Steven, go talk to him."

Steve was confused, why would she want him to do that? "What? Why? He just got home. He's said he's tired, if you wanted me to talk to him why did you send him upstairs?"

"He's covered in hickeys, Steven."

Oh hot damn, had he been? Fuck Steve hadn't noticed. Yeah that was a big-ticket item. Though to be fair, he remembered getting some necking action on his overnight trips with Kukui High too when he was Nahele's age. It would also give him the time to talk to Nahele about why the hell the kid thought he would hit Rowan, though he had a feeling it had something to do with the guys his mother used to date when he was younger. "Oh… yeah, okay, on it."

As he headed up the stairs, he couldn't help but smile. He had himself a proper girlfriend. He had the kid that he got to play dad to, he was even excited for the little chat they were going to have. He couldn't wait for the groans when Steve would point out the marks on his neck. Steve found that even though he hadn't been doing it long he liked where he had ended up, and he hoped things stayed like this for a long time after.


	178. Chapter 178

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Friday my lovely readers? How is everyone feeling? I'm personally quite sick and falling into a polluted river has not helped me. So here we have the chapters that I personally loved writing. They're not really angst ridden as they are filled with UTTER DRAMA! I hope you guys enjoy them, I threw in quite a few areas where it was supposed to be funny and at the end of this we're gonna have some really cute and fluffy bits. I promise! Don't forget to tell me what you think, leave me a pretty little review, AlexLover I haven't heard from you in a bit and I'm starting to get worried, and I'll see you guys on Monday!_

Chapter 178

* * *

Steve threw the football straight towards Nahele in a perfect arc. Nahele had to sprint to catch it, and Steve couldn't help but smile as he watched him take off after it. Steve was supposed to drop Nahele off at school that morning but the kid had been a little out of it and Steve had offered to take him out for the day, a Nahele and Steve day, where he called Nahele in sick and they did whatever Nahele wanted to do. It worked out because Rowan was off doing some presentation on her job for Grace's class, with Danny and Max, so she didn't have to know what they were up to until tonight. Besides, every now and then, a guy just needed a little time to unwind.

He had assumed Nahele was having problems with bullies again. He had proposed the day out to try and get to the root of the problem, but Nahele was just overworked and a little overwhelmed with all the assignments coming up, and a little out of it because instead of studying he had stayed up playing online video games. Steve was gonna have to put a black out period on the Wi-Fi if Nahele kept that up. Either way a nice day of relaxing was just what his kid needed and he was glad to hear that he was settling in quite nicely at the high school Steve used to go to.

"Nice!" he cried when Nahele caught the ball he had lobbed at him. "Nice hands, man. Awesome hands! Right, now let's see your arm."

Nahele wound up and threw it but the ball wobbled in the air, not in the right arc, not in the right spin. It dropped out of the sky and hit the sand. The kid winced and jogged forward, as Steve did the same.

"Sorry," he said sheepishly.

"Don't worry about it, come here," he said. He showed Nahele the ball. "See the laces? The laces are there for a reason, alright?"

He showed him where his fingers were supposed to go. "See, use them. Now show me."

He handed the kid the ball and he mimicked the hold. "Very good. Find the grooves, find the grooves," he said helping him position his hand a bit better, loving that proud smile that hit Nahele's lips when he found it. He never thought he'd like teaching someone something, he had never thought he'd take to this whole parenting thing the way he had, but he had. And he was having so much fun doing it. He couldn't wait to teach him how to shave.

"Alright, let's try it again," he said jogging away from him, and Nahele doing the same. "Let it roll through!" he called and that time when Nahele threw the ball it was straighter and actually made it to Steve instead of falling dead in the sand. "That's right. That's right. Nice! You feel that? You feel the difference?"

Nahele nodded and so did Steve. He threw the ball again, and Nahele caught it effortlessly. His phone started to ring and he picked it up, just as Nahele threw the ball again. He had to drop to one knee to catch it with the one arm while he was on the phone and Nahele jogged towards him once he realized Steve was busy.

"Hey Joe," he said into the phone.

"Steve, where's Danny?" Joe's voice came back at him a sort of frantic edge to his voice.

"He's a Grace's school for career day, why?"

"Your girl with him?"

"Uh… yeah… why?" Steve asked getting more concerned by the moment.

"Get them out of there, now!"

"Why? What's going on?"

"There's no time to explain, just get them out of there!" he cried and then hung up the phone.

"Come on, we gotta go," he said to Nahele pulling the kid to him and getting him to jog back towards his truck.

"Is everything okay?" he asked.

Steve winced but nodded. He really didn't want to tell this kid that something had happened with Rowan… again. God, they better be alright. He was tired of doing this. Both he and Nahele couldn't keep dealing with this constant anxiety over Rowan's wellbeing.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Danny had gone with Max and Rowan to his Grace's Career Day, she had been so excited to have all of them arrive even though they had promised her up and down that they would. Rowan had spoken first, and got slammed with a million questions, then Max had gone and gotten a few questions and now it was Danny's turn and he thought he was doing a good job.

"So, like, uh, I said our job is to uphold the laws of this great country. Without policemen, without policewomen, there'd be no order. And order is, uh, it's the backbone to any civilized society," Danny told the kids before adding: "And yes, I like doughnuts very much."

That earned him a chuckle.

"If anybody has any questions, please, you can ask them now," he said. He barely got the question out before a hand was raised. "Yes?"

"What's it like cutting up dead people?"

"Uh… I don't do that…"

"I was asking him…" the kid said nodding to Max. Great. Max. Kid was asking Max.

Max didn't seem to notice Danny's annoyance, he merely stepped forward to answer the question. "The Vivisection of a once-living organisms a scientific necessity can be quite rewarding if it yields forensic results."

"Is it yucky?"

"Quite the opposite. Thank you for asking."

"Okay, anybody else? Who else?"

"How many artists have you worked with?" a boy asked. Danny inwardly groaned, he knew who that question was for.

Rowan shot Danny an apologetic look. "Uh… I don't really work with the artists, I just do business with them, you know agreeing on the price of sale and royalties and what not…"

"Grace says you've met all the big artists," A girl said.

Rowan's eyes fell on Grace who winced and sunk in her seat. "Oh, did she?"

"She says you worked with Shawn Mendes," the girl said.

"I negotiated with him, yes," Rowan answered. "Why? Didn't you believe her? She has a picture."

"It could have been photoshopped…"

A darkness crossed Rowan's face that made the girl asking the question's eyes widen. Danny shook his head. Rowan was about to throw down with a pre-tween. Dear god. "Uh… anybody have any police-related questions?" Danny asked desperate to get that conversation ended before Rowan attacked a kid less than half her age. Even now she was still glaring at her.

The door suddenly opened and a man wearing a shield came in. He didn't look like HPD. Had Steve sensed him failing with the kids and sent someone to make him look more cool and in demand? Cause if so… he was a fucking genius.

"Detective Daniel Williams?"

"Yeah?"

"My name's Deputy Knox, U.S. Marshals," he announced, a second man came into the room. "Can you please place your hands behind your back?"

Uh… what the fuck? Still he knew better than to fight. "Sure. What's this about?"

Beside him Rowan groaned. "Ohhhhhh… that's today?"

He turned to her quickly. "Wait a second… you knew something like this was going to happen and you didn't tell me?"

"Well… maybe… kinda… a little… I thought I dealt with it when I…. you know thinking about how we told the story… maybe I didn't fix it like I thought I did."

God this girl, He was going to kill this girl.

"Are you two done?" Deputy Knox asked.

"No we are not done! You can't arrest him for murder!" Rowan cried. Well great cause they hadn't told them that yet.

"How did you…." Knox asked and then narrowed his eyes. "Are you Rowan Pierce?"

Rowan blinked her eyes. "Uh… no?"

Both men exchanged glances and the second one started forward. "Rowan Pierce you're under arrest as an accessory to murder."

"You can't do this," Max cried stepping forward only to be swept aside, as Rowan groaned and tried to step away. The man had Rowan before she could duck his hands.

As the cuffs went on she asked: "Okay… but uh… can I get my phone?"

The girl didn't have her fucking phone?

"No, we've been told to keep you away from all electronics," they said and Rowan frowned. Danny frowned too. Shit that wasn't good. Danny turned to Grace, to tell her he'd see her at home once this was all settled and saw panic on his daughter's face. Yeah, he wasn't going to play nice after this.

"Steve's going to kill me," he heard Rowan murmur as they got dragged out of the room and Danny sighed. Yeah, he got that feeling. He got it entirely.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Chin had been having a good relaxing morning on his day off when Steve called him in an utter panic. Chin, sensing Steve's distress, went into over drive to get ready and get to him, to offer some sort of support and to rescue Danny and Rowan from whatever shit they had landed themselves in this time.

"They give you any other details?"

"No. Max said that they walked right in, they cuffed him and Rowan and hauled them away. Said something about keeping Rowan away from electronics."

"Well that's not good. They must be trying to avoid the app."

"They must not know about her and Wo then," Steve added.

"Who's got Grace?" Chin asked. "And Nahele, doesn't someone need to pick up Nahele?"

"Max is going to take her to Rachel's place," Steve answered. "I had Nahele, but I've dropped him off at Grover's, he said the kid could stay with Renee and the kids until this is settled."

"Alright, I'm out the door. I'll meet you at the Federal Detention Center in ten," Chin said. He hated hearing the panic in Steve's voice. His two most important people arrested on the same day. Not good. Not good for anyone.

But once he got out of the door. Coughlin was standing there, smug look on his face, leaning on his car, two suits with him, clearly to outnumber him.

"What's your rush, lieutenant?"

"Coughlin," Chin answered coldly as he went down his steps. "I thought Rowan got rid of you."

"Next time I better make sure she does the job right, huh?"

"I don't know what you want, but now is not the time," he told him trying to go past but he was grabbed by the two suits before he could make it to the car door.

"Unfortunately for you, it is," he said. "Grab some hood."

"What? You're arresting me? Right now? You've got to be kidding. What's it for this time?"

"Bribery, tax evasion, criminal misconduct and my favourite, conspiracy to commit murder," Coughlin said. "And even better, is your girl is going down for conspiracy as well… so there ain't no one who can save you now."

Well fucking shit. This was not a good day for Five-0.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve stormed into the Homeland Security's holding center and then knocking against the front desk's window incessantly until the guard inside turned to him. Whatever he saw on Steve's face made the man sigh in dreaded anticipation.

"I need to see Detective Daniel Williams. He was just brought in here?"

"I'm sorry the prisoner is being processed. And there's no visitors," the guard said.

Prisoner? _Prisoner?_ Yeah, well, Steve wasn't having that. "Okay, look. I'm Five-0, alright?" he said showing the man his badge but the man just shook his head.

"Fine! Rowan Pierce, the other one, she's my girlfriend, okay? She's going to be afraid and she doesn't cooperate well when she's afraid. Can you please make an exception?"

"I'm afraid I can't do that," he said. "Besides, she's fine. She's a smart ass with a mouth but she's holding up fine… and slipping her cuffs every three minutes."

Despite himself Steve laughed. Yeah that sounded like his Rowan. But he wasn't about to give up just like that. Not with the anxiety swirling under his skin and constricting his chest. He couldn't breathe, he needed to just _see_ Rowan, or Danny, preferably Rowan.

"I want to speak to the watch commander, then."

"He's going to tell you the same thing, no visitors. I'm sorry, but here, you can have your girlfriend's effects. She's been squawking since we took the ring."

He handed him the bag and Steve took it quickly. No phone, no purse. Just her jewelry and her keys. Her fancy watch, the golden shell and that little sapphire promise ring she loved so much. Clearly that was all he was going to get so he stormed out. Maybe he should find her phone, activate the app. Wo Fat would get her out wouldn't he? No... he wasn't that desperate… yet.

He took out his phone and called Chin. "Hey Chin, I'm here and there's no way they're going to let us see Danny. Yo, man, where are you? Call me alright? Call me when you get this," he said and then hung up. It wasn't like him to be late.

A car horn honked and Steve turned. Joe in a jeep appeared screeching to a halt beside him. "Joe what's going on?"

"Not here. Get in," he ordered and that was all Steve needed. He hopped in and Joe sped away. It was time to get answers.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Chin sat in the HPD interrogation room, really pissed off that he was there. He had asked to make his one phone call and had been denied. Which meant that no one knew where he was, and poor Steve was already running around ragged dealing with Rowan and Danny's arrest. This was half the team out of commission… if they counted Rowan has part of team, which Chin kind of did, unofficially. The door opened and Coughlin came in, sipping something out of a Styrofoam cup, good they hadn't given him the good mugs. Still, Coughlin was wearing a shit eating smug grin, Chin was nervous, of course he was nervous, but Chin was taking Rowan's advice, so he was smiling as if he weren't afraid at all. Coughlin comes in. Cup of coffee shit eating grin.

"So tax evasion, huh?" Chin asked going for Rowan's method of not taking anything seriously and pissing Coughlin off with his sarcasm. "At least that's a new one."

"Don't knock it. That's what took down Capone," he said to him as he stopped to fix up his appearance in the two way mirror of the room. Chin shook his head, nothing was going to fix him "Only you're no Capone, Mr. Kelly."

"That's Lieutenant Kelly to you,"

"Mm… not after today. You're done being a cop. From here you're going to a cell, the courtroom, than a concrete box for 20 years."

He stared at Chin carefully as he took a sip. Waiting for Chin's response. Chin gave him nothing but a pitied sigh.

"Whatever you think you have on me, it's not going to stick. I'll be out of here on bail soon enough."

"Bail? There's not gonna be any bail," he said with a scoff. "You're a flight risk. Given that the 25 and a half million your brother-in-law gave you is still unaccounted for." Chin must have made a face, must have let that smile falter because Coughlin said: "What? You didn't think we were gonna find out about that?"

The money. Rowan had grabbed the money. But he wasn't about to throw that girl under the bus. She didn't deserve that. She was already in enough trouble as is.

"Your name is all over the Halawa visitor's log and don't tell me Waincroft's helping you out with an investigation because I looked into that as well," he snarled and then took a long sing. "Mr. Kelly, you went to him for money."

"I did, among other things," Chin admitted. "But by then the money was already gone."

"How convenient," Coughlin growled. "And I don't believe you. I know that in exchange for the money he was offered a private cell in the country club wing."

Oh also true, but also not what happened. "That didn't happen because of the money. That was because if I didn't have him transferred they were going to kill him."

"Oh and who was that?"

"He needed protection from Wo Fat. He had been hitting Gabriel hard. Gabriel tangoed with Rowan and he didn't come out of it the victor. He asked me to talk to Rowan for him. Said he'd give me the money if I did and the only reason that I agreed was because Danny needed the money to save his brother. And I only needed five and a half, so I got him transferred but…"

"That must have been quite the fee… just for talking to little Rowan…"

"I didn't take money. The money wasn't there. It was gone. I got nothing," Chin snapped. "And besides, I never talked to Rowan about it. Even if I did there would have been no point. Rowan wasn't the one who wanted Gabriel dead. Fat was. If he was willing to pay for beatings without telling her, her asking him to stop wasn't going to fix things."

"And out of the kindness of your heart, even though you didn't get the money, you moved him?"

"Yes."

"Then how did you get the money to ransom Matthew Williams?"

"Rowan…"

But Coughlin was laughing. "Amazing how everything goes back to her. We checked her bank records no withdrawals at that amount. She wouldn't have even had the money to cover it at the time. So where did she get the money, hmm?"

But Chin didn't know. He assumed, when Rowan came up with the cash that she had just gotten it from her own account. But she had also gotten it in straight cash… had she gotten it from Wo Fat instead?

"So we have Gabriel's missing money, that we're certain you took, we have Rowan on accessory to murder and we have you here also being charged with helping to facilitate that murder. So you can understand why I'm a little skeptical."

"It's not about what you think. It's about the truth. But then again you were never really interested in the truth, were you? All you want is to see me behind bars."

"That's where you belong, Mr. Kelly. You took drug money from a cop killer. No matter how it was used, that's still a crime."

"I can't take what's not there!" Chin snapped.

"Well… again… Mr. Kelly, I don't believe you."

Chin watched as Coughlin got up, still smiling that smug shit eating grin and realized that he was in a lot more trouble than he had previously thought he was.


	179. Chapter 179

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: How's everyone's Monday? So if you guys haven't figured it out… that's right guys, we've reached the Finale of the Reyes plot arc. Now, a lot of stuff is going to happen, both last chapter and this chapter are shorter than the others but next chapter is 13 pages long and A LOT happens in it so that should make up for it. So it's been decided that you guys are gonna get a marathon when we hit the 800th review, but I've also decided to hit you guys with a surprise at the same time! So don't forget to review to get us there quicker and I'll see you guys on Wednesday!_

Chapter 179

* * *

Rowan sat at the table, her hands cuffed, they had moved her from three different rooms because they had been having audio and visual issues. That was because Rowan was blowing speakers and cameras every time she voided out of her cuffs. She knew she should probably stop but she couldn't help herself. She was scared. She wanted Steven. She thought messing with things would give him time to get to her, but she had sensed him near-by and then he was gone. She realized then that Steve probably couldn't get to her and she was just prolonging the inevitable.

So Rowan sat there trying not to cry, trying to seem brave, trying to make Steve proud of her waiting for someone to come in to talk to her. After a few minutes of waiting a man did appear, he was in a baggy suit and had thinning red hair. He was looking down at a file folder instead of paying attention to her.

"My name is Sam Alexander and I'm..."

"OH… I know you. Of you. I think. CIA right?" she asked. Alexander blinked his eyes. "God I wish I had my phone. I swear… I bet it's on there… it was important too. Gosh. Sam Alexander…" she turned to him laughing almost hysterically. "I swear this is gonna drive me crazy until I figure it out…"

"You don't need your phone, not after we're done with you, not where you're going," he growled to her and she fell quiet. He sat down across from her, opened up his files and then looked at her carefully, his look cold and guarded with a smug sort of smile on his face.

"Do you know what you're here for?"

"You think I helped murder someone," Rowan answered. "I'm not stupid, I heard what the guy said when he grabbed me."

She brought her hands up and the cuffs clattered to the table. His eyes found them and for a moment he looked unnerved.

"Who do you think I murdered?"

"How did you do that?" he asked instead pointing to the cuffs on the table.

"Magic," Rowan snapped back. For a moment he actually looked surprised. Like it might be true, and considering she had pulled from the void to do it, it kind of was. "I'm double jointed you twit. I'll behave I promise they're just making me anxious."

He said nothing, but instead leant forward and zip tied her to the table instead. Once he was still done, he settled himself down in his seat again and began to flip through a file folder. "You are here about the murder of Marco Reyes. And if you help me with what I want to know, I'll set you up with a deal. One that will keep you out of jail and in Hawaii, how does that sound?"

Rowan wasn't paying attention to his words, he had combed through a file, putting pictures in front of her. Rowan's eyes clapped onto the pictures and then went wide. Oh god. Oh… oh god. That was a lot of dismembered pieces and so much… so much blood…

"Oh my god…" she whispered and then gagged. "What is that?"

He had gotten up, being sure to push the pictures closer to her so there was no where she could look to get away from them. He walked around the table, to stand beside her, hovering over her side and pointing to the pictures. "That is what's left of Marco Reyes."

WHAT WAS LEFT?! Oh my god. Oh my god. What had Wo Fat done? She told him to SINK the body not cut the fucking thing up…. wait… the Sweeny Todd Protocol. Dismemberment. He must have…

Rowan gagged again. She tugged at her bonds, too frazzled to get the void to work for her. "I… I think… I'm gonna… I need a bucket… or a garbage can… please…"

"No, you can sit there and suffer…"

"Okay I'll just puke on you," she said and then turned towards him and just let it all come out. Alexander yelped and threw himself away but it still coated most of his legs.

"JEZUS!" he screamed but Rowan was still gagging.

"I think I'm going to do it again…"

She had never seen a man run for a garbage can so fast in her life.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve sat in the car beside his mentor his leg tapping away his fingers to his lips as he struggled to keep himself from bursting into tears or to scream in frustration. He figured now, that the fear wasn't just his own anymore, he could sense Rowan's and it was making him feel ten times worse. Joe had just explained bare minimum about what was happening but he didn't get it. Because it wasn't making sense.

"Okay, Joe, help me understand," he snapped. "Why would the CIA care about getting justice for a drug-dealing scumbag like Marco Reyes?"

"Because he was more than just a drug-dealing scumbag, Steve."

"What are you talking about?'

"Marco Reyes was an Agency asset. Our government invested a lot in him and they don't care who Danny is, or who Rowan is tied to, they just want someone to pay for the murder. I will tell you this though, they were so afraid of that app the order to get Rowan came in person, the only reason we guessed that they were going for Rowan was because she was involved in the first place."

"They're adapting to her app?"

"I think so."

"I can also tell you this, Colombia doesn't want her. The order was for Williams, when she got mentioned the Colombian government freaked out. She know someone in Colombia?"

"I don't think so," Steve answered but the truth was he didn't fucking know.

Joe parked the car and together they walked into the Palace. They were silent until they got into his office. Joe went straight to the smart table and plugged in a USB. Immediately all these files popped up. Steve stared at them not understanding what he was looking at.

"Reyes was helping the CIA with an operation called Sandpiper."

Joe turned to him, this was a CIA op? "Where did you get all this?"

"Don't ask," he said quickly. "Here's how it worked." He pulled up documents and pictures and began to flip through them giving Steve a snap shot of what was happening. "Wall Street invested in the expanding housing market in Colombia. What they didn't realize was they were actually buying into a cocaine cartel's laundering scheme. When the Colombian government made a stronger push toward drug enforcement, U.S. banks, all of a sudden, started taking huge hits, indirectly affecting the stability of our economy. So the CIA felt that they had no choice but to step in, keep the drugs flowing to prevent a potential market crash."

"And Marco Reyes was moving the coke," Steve summed up.

"That's right. He's been on their books for years. CIA had him under surveillance, which is how they knew he came down here. It's how they knew that Danny and Rowan were the last to see him alive but the body showing up in Langley in ten pieces was how they knew he was killed."

"Pieces…" Steve echoed. Fucking Wo Fat. He didn't hide the body he mutilated it and sent it to the CIA. What the hell was his problem? "Alright, alright, so they also knew that Reyes had Danny's brother then."

"Do you think they care about that?" Joe asked. "Matthew Williams was a fugitive wanted by the FBI for fraud, money laundering, criminal conspiracy. As far as the CIA's concerned, his holding and torturing was the cost of doing business."

Steve sighed that was a pretty callous way of thinking about this and even though it was and Joe relented. "But someone cared, didn't they?" Steve looked up. "That girl of yours, she caused this."

"How is this _Rowan's_ fault?" Steve snapped.

"Cause Rowan sent Fat's men down to Colombia to get Matty, didn't she?" Joe asked. Fuck. Matty's rescue. All of this started because Rowan had Matty rescued.

"Now, when Fat hit Reyes, he hit hard. He took a whole load of guns, stacks of cash, all the drugs and killed everyone on site, including the CIA guards. They lost a lot, and it affected the CIA payouts. At first it looked like a rival gang hit, but they didn't kill Matty, they took him and that was tipped Reyes off to Fat being involved, of Rowan probably being involved. Because otherwise, why bother? They knew that Matty was tied to Danny, who was someone Rowan cared about. Which meant it was reasonable for them to assume that if she got wind of Matty's predicament, she'd send someone to get him, and that if she were to send anyone it would be Fat. Except there was no proof. The order didn't go through her app, Fat was in solitary so it wasn't like there were any witnesses and neither Matty, the drugs, the money nor the guns ever resurfaced. So he had nothing to go on and no one was going to confront Wo Fat, and there was no way in hell anyone was going to go after Rowan… not without proof."

Proof that was it. That was the key to this. That was how Reyes got into the States. The CIA had gotten him there. Had sent him there to get the proof from Rowan.

"The CIA let Reyes come down here to put pressure on Danny because they assumed, with Rowan tied to Danny and being the common denominator between Wo Fat, Danny and Matty, she'd give up the location," Joe said. "And she did, or at least the location of Matty."

"So… because Rowan had Matty they think that Rowan knows where the drugs are."

"Well does she?"

"No!" Steve cried. When Joe just stared at him he realized that his mentor knew that Steve really had no idea. "Look, he does things without telling her okay? She only cared about Matty. She wouldn't have wanted the drugs and the money and all the other stuff. So if Wo Fat took those things he did it for himself, not for her."

Steve found himself locked into a heated stare off with Joe. It was true, he knew it was true, Rowan didn't know about the drugs, she didn't care about that stuff, she had a lazer focus and she was prone to leaving most of the details to Wo Fat. She didn't care what he did, so long as what she needed done got done. Luckily their stare off was interrupted by Kono, who, quite flusteredly, rushed into the main office and got Steve's attention.

"I just got a call from Duke. Chin's been arrested by Coughlin."

"What?" Steve snapped. No this couldn't be happening, he had so much to worry about he didn't need this added to the list of things. "I thought Rowan dealt with him."

"Who's Coughlin?" Joe asked.

"He runs internal Affairs for HPD and he's been after Chin's scalp for the better part of a year. Rowan did have him transferred, but he's been working Chin's case on his own, got a lead and apparently some evidence and the permission to come down and get Chin," she explained.

"First Danny, then Chin, and they put Rowan out of commission so she can't access her wonder app. This can't be a coincidence."

No, clearly _someone_ was trying to fracture Five-0. But Steve didn't have time to worry about that, not with his best friend arrested for murder, and his girlfriend arrested as an accomplice.

"Wait a minute, did Duke say that he thinks Coughlin has something…"

"Well it can't be another one of his shakedowns, cause Rowan ran him off, so yeah, Duke thinks he's got something. He said that Coughlin wouldn't have booked Chin unless he had something rock solid."

Fuck he didn't need this today. He just didn't.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

They had un-ziptied her, and then shoved a garbage into her hands so she could throw up. The pictures were neatly put away and a drink was retrieved for her once the sickness had passed. Alexander had gone to get a change of clothes, but even though he had changed his pants, he hadn't been able to change his shoes, he still reeked of vomit but that was his own fault.

Rowan took another sip of her ginger ale and then shook her head. She was still in shock over what she had just been shown. "In pieces… wow… in… just… that is so… so like him…" she said to Alexander. The man just stared at her. "He never listens to me. But even that's… Jesus what did you guys do to upset him so bad?"

"That is so like detective Williams?" he asked. "That is his M.O?"

Rowan stared at him. "You think Danny did that?" she asked pointing to the file where the pictures were.

"Yes, and we know you were there. And the Colombians are going to make him pay for what he did, they're going to extradite him and make him stand trial for the murder. And you too as an accomplice. But if you help us, you won't have to go down for what he did, but if you say nothing you'll both go. All you need to do is confirm what you witnessed and we'll clear you and you can go home to your boyfriend and your kid."

"But what about Danny's kid?" she asked softly. "Who's going to go home to her?"

"He should have thought about that before he murdered a Colombian citizen and then used his Five-0 connections to sweep it under the rug."

"Okay… but what if you got proof that Danny didn't do it…"

"He'd be free to go, but we know he did it, it was his gun that fired the bullets."

 _Really_? He couldn't have gotten the bullets out _before_ he send the body to the CIA? Or just not sent them the part with the bullets in them? Rowan nodded. "Okay, okay, I'll uh… I'll tell you what happened…"

"Great, go on…"

"I shot Marco Reyes, five times in total. Three in the back two in the front with Danny's gun. Though in my defence he was going to kill Danny, so he sort of deserved it." She hazarded glance up to find Alexander staring at her with eyes wide with disbelief.

"How very convenient."

"Yes, I know… and it's true. That body… was it in ten pieces… and uh… by any chance… was it sent to you like… directly?" she asked. He glared at her. "Did any of the pieces have writing on them? Like… Whatever happens to her will happen to you, ten-fold?"

"How did you… how did you know that?" Alexander asked

Rowan winced. "Oh I knew it. Stupid Sweeny Todd Protocol. Yeah, sorry. Uhm… I told him not to do that," she whispered. At the look on his face she looked back down. "I uh… I panicked and called my brother… he uhm… he disposed of the body… ten pieces… tenfold… he thinks he's pithy… and he is, that's a good one, really, but uh… I told him not to… I told him to hide it… he was supposed to sink it like the others."

"Like the others?"

"Mhmm, he had other men with him, uh… lackeys I guess. There were three, maybe? I don't know the guns started going off and I hid behind the bags. I called my brother… he dealt with it."

"You called your… brother…" he echoed and Rowan nodded. "Your brother the convicted criminal…"

"Do you know of anyone else who would cut up a body and send it back to someone in pieces? Cause Danny did do it, and I sure as hell didn't, otherwise there'd be vomit all over that body."

He didn't answer right away and Rowan stared at him. He seemed to think a moment before saying: "So hold on… how did you get involved in any of this in the first place? What you just went down the pier and got a little trigger happy?"

"Uhm… Danny was short the money to pay off Reyes, I gave him a loan," she whispered.

"Pay him off for what?"

"What do you mean for what? Don't you know what happened?" she asked. When he just glared at her she sighed. "Reyes ransomed Matty which they really should have told me cause I would have dealt with the situation…"

"And how would you have done that?"

"Well if they had told me what they needed the money for I could have told them that I had Matty…"

"Wait, _you_ had Matthew Williams, not your brother?" Alexander asked with narrowed eyes

Rowan nodded. "Well I didn't have him per say, I mean I knew where he was, of course, but it was Wo Fat's safe house."

Alexander sat there staring at her like she was nuts. "Okay and I'm to assume that you told Wo Fat to bring Matthew to Hawaii? To put him in the safe house."

Rowan nodded. "Well… yeah, we needed some place to hide him until we figured out what to do with him. He also had a healing process to go through, poor boy's leg was really badly broken granted we didn't know that when we got him out, we found that out later…"

"Wait… got him out of where?" Alexander asked.

Rowan cocked her head to the side as if she didn't understand. "Oh, uhm, out of Colombia? Uhm… did you not know that I was the one who… that I was … sort of… the one who had him pulled out of Reyes' compound."

"It _was_ you!" he thundered jumping to his feet as if he had solved some great mystery. He smiled down at her while Rowan stared at him with big eyes of surprise, why was that such a big deal? "What about everything else?"

"What do you mean?"

"The drugs, the compound had…"

"Oh, well, Matty was my only concern, right? So I'm not sure… but I think… I think Wo mentioned that he had made it look like a hit from a rival gang… so I guess… he took them. I'd know more if I could get at my phone… the order is there… there might have been a… uh… report on the situation but I don't know… we did everything over the phone… Uhm… if I think about it I think he mentioned grabbing a few things… uh… I think he took cash and uhm… guns maybe… oh! Drugs! Yes he took drugs, guns, cash and uhm… some little black book and it was super important or something but I can't remember why…."

At that his eyes lit up and suddenly a phone was slammed down in front of her.

"Call him."

Rowan looked at the phone and then back to him. "I uh… I can't…"

"Why not?"

"Well for starters, he kidnapped and tortured my boyfriend and I ended my association with him, so uh… yeah it's be really awkward if I were to call him now. And secondly, I don't know his number off by heart and thirdly, you left my phone in the car which is at Grace's school so I can't retrieve the number or uh get access to the app."

Alexander stared at her. "You ended… okay, okay, here," he snapped picking up and piece of paper and sliding it in front of her. "You want us to let Detective Williams go? Sign it."

"What is this?"

"It's a form to waive extradition rights."

"Oh, ew. I don't want to go to Colombia," she said, sniffing primly like the paper offended her. "I don't even have a passport."

"Fine then we'll take Williams…"

"NO!" Rowan cried. "No, I'll… just stop. I'll sign it… just give me a…"

He handed her a pen before she could even finish the sentence and she took it gingerly. Signing this meant Steven would know what she did. But if she didn't they'd take Danny and she did not save Matty and go through all this shit with Reyes for Danny to end up in the situation she had been trying to avoid. So even though she really didn't want to, even though she had no idea what was going to happen to her and even though her heart was hammering in her throat and her hands were shaking she signed the paper.


	180. Chapter 180

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Wednesday my wonderful readers! Remember how I said this chapter was going to be 13 pages? Yeah I got the wrong chapter. Don't get me wrong this one is longer than the last one, but uh, it's next chapter that's 13 pages. Sorry for the confusion. We got so many interesting things going on in this chapter that I'm sure that's gonna make up for it. Don't forget to leave me a review and I'll see you guys on Friday._

 _P.S. AJ: To answer your question, this is not the kidnapping I was talking about, that is coming later. This is more of an arrest, cause you know… Rowan did actually murder someone. Trust me… when she gets kidnapped you'll know._

Chapter 180

* * *

Steve was heading towards his truck with Joe, the plan was to go to HPD to see what they could do about Chin. That plan changed the second Ellie showed up in her fancy car, honking her horn to get Steve's attention. Steve turned to her immediately and rushed over to her side of the car, leaning down to address her.

"Hey Ellie, what's up?"

"If anybody asks, this fell out of a truck," she said as she handed him the file. She waited for him to take the file and open it before saying: "Steve, you should know the hearing's being held today. An associate close to the judge told me that someone waived extradition, I don't know who yet. The paper works' all in Danny's name, so I'm going to assume its Danny."

"Hold on… he's voluntarily surrendering to the Colombians? Why would he do that?" Steve asked.

"I don't know, but as soon as the judge signs that order, Danny's gone."

He thanked Ellie for the information, holding back all the desire he had to ask if there was anything in Rowan's name, but he knew they wouldn't be that stupid. Nothing was going to be in Rowan's name, then the app would pick it up and then they'd be screwed. Or at least they'd think they'd be screwed, no one knew that Rowan and Wo Fat weren't a thing anymore, and Steve wanted to keep it that way.

He stood up with the file looking it all over when the cab showed up beside them. Steve expected a lot of things, but Danny getting out of it was not it. He tossed the file back at Joe and then jogged over to hug his friend.

"Geezus!" Danny cried, only to be thrown aside so Steve could look inside the cab, no Rowan. What the hell? Where was Rowan?

Steve turned on him. "What's going on? Are you okay? How did you get out? Did they drop the charges? Where's Rowan?"

Danny blinked his eyes, that was a lot of questions to have thrown at him, but he only answered the one… with another question. "Rowan's not with you?"

Oh no, that… that didn't bode well.

"No… I haven't seen her… the last I heard you were waving extradition. But you wouldn't… you didn't actually…"

"Yeah, of course I signed the paper, they vaguely threatened Grace. I was all ready to go, but they turned me loose and told me I was free to go. I figured you did something tricky… or Rowan got out and to her phone," Danny said. "You really didn't get her out?"

"No…" Steve answered carefully.

"So what… where…" and then Danny trailed off and swore.

"What?"

"They've got her then. But they wouldn't let me go… unless… oh… oh no… she must have… aw… shit…"

"What are you talking about? They can't have her, she's a witness Danny, why would they want the witness?" he cried but Danny just shook his head.

"We have to get to them… now!" he said and together the two of them ran to his truck. Steve's heart was up in his throat, he both wanted to know but he didn't. He had long suspected that there was something Danny and Rowan hadn't told him about the Reyes incident he had a feeling he was going to find out what it was.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

The first judge they had taken Rowan to see looked at her, looked down at the paperwork, looked back at her, then looked Sam Alexander in the face and said: "Nope, not touching that with a ten foot pole," and then left the court room, possibly even the court house.

The second judge they brought in must have been bribed, because she saw the fear in his eyes but he still signed off on everything and sent them along on their merry way. They were just coming out, Rowan's arms being firmly gripped because she had slipped three more pairs of handcuffs and eight zipties before they realized that they would need physical contact combined with the restraints to keep her contained, when Steve and Danny appeared, both sprinting to get to them.

She had both wanted him and didn't. Right now, she most definitely didn't want him there, not when he had no idea what she had done.

"Stop!" he shouted, practically bowling all of them over. God she knew he'd find out but she didn't think she'd be there when it happened.

Steve ripped her out of their grasp and safely putting her behind him where they would have to go through him to get to her. "No, you're not taking her."

"She signed the papers…"

Steve rounded on her. "Why the hell would you…" he started and then turned around to face Alexander and the US Marshalls. "That doesn't matter she didn't do anything. She's a _witness_!"

"Actually… no she's not. She's confessed to murdering Reyes and covering it up…"

"No… No… she wouldn't, because she didn't do it…"

"Actually uh… I did…" Rowan said before Steve could make things worse. "I… I did… I shot Reyes three times in the back and twice in the chest and I panicked and called Wo to fix it. And then we… he…"

Steve's eyes just bore into her, shock panic and horror alit on his face and she carefully lowered them as the realization that she had _actually_ done this dawned on his face.

"Alright," Alexander said carefully and slowly edging past him to try and grab onto her again. "Now that we've cleared that up, and you're aware of the proper paperwork…"

Steve suddenly snapped. "No!" he thundered. He slapped Alexander's hands away and began backing her away from them before they could reach out for her again. "No. You're not taking her. _Look at her_! She's so… fragile… she wouldn't survive jail. Not regular jail and definitely not Colombian Jail."

Hands went to hips, hovering over holsters, ready to draw. No. She was not going to let Steve get into a shootout with these people and make it so much worse.

"No, Steve," she cried coming out in between them, her cuffs came off and she handed them to Sam as she turned back to Steven. "It's fine. It's going to be okay," she said to him as Alexander said: "Again? How the hell do you keep getting out of these?"

"Fine? Okay?" Steve cried, ignoring Alexander behind her. "You getting arrested is not FINE. You getting arrested AND taken to Colombia is DEFINITELY not OKAY!"

"Okay, Steve, Calm down," she said eyeing him as the agent behind her took a hold of her again. Steve's eyes were watering, his face was stricken, he kept saying _no_ over and over. "Just… I need you to get to Chin. Worry about Chin."

"Chin… what… are you… what…"

"IA is going to grab him too, they might have already. Over Gabriel's money and there's going to be extra problems cause it's gone."

"Why… where did…?"

"I took it," she said with a wince. "I took it. Actually that's not true either. I told Wo to get his people to get it out and they did. I've been sitting on the 20 mill and I can transfer it back if they want it so damn badly. Just Tell IA I had my brother get it out of the account and I'll give it back, and do it BEFORE they get Gabriel out of jail! Please, that man cannot escape again."

"ROWAN!" Steve shouted and she flinched.

"I thought there would be less problems if I got the money. Gabriel couldn't fuck with us, if he had no money to threaten Chin with, and then _you_ didn't tell me that Reyes was here and ransoming Matty and Chin went to ask Gabriel for a loan and now HERE WE ARE!"

Steve's eyes went wide and she realized what she had done. She had blamed him for had happened. And to be fair… he was partially to blame. Well… their inability to communicate was really what was to be blamed.

"Okay, as sweet as this is, and as much I'd love to listen to her incriminate herself further we have a plane…"

Steve grabbed her arms. "No. No. No. No," he snapped shaking his head and pressing her to his chest. "I'm not letting them take you."

Rowan instinctively turned to Danny. They tugged Rowan out of Steve's grasp again and his face turned into a mask of frantic panic, so terrifying that Danny actually grabbed onto Steven to keep him from lunging for her.

"Danny, hold onto him, okay?" she said. "It'll be fine, I promise. Just uh… take care of Chin, Chin needs you more than I do…"

And then she was dragged away. As she disappeared down the hallway she heard Steve call her name a few times before his voice disappeared entirely. She had a feeling that what these people wanted she could only get from one person, she wasn't exactly on good terms with that one person either. This left her alone with two strangers and a nagging question.

 _Who the hell was going to save her_? _Cause Wo Fat sure wasn't._

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve didn't wait to watch Rowan be shoved into a US Marshall SUV to be taken away from him. He and Danny raced through hallways of the courthouse until they got to where Steve's abandoned truck had been left that still had his flashers on. They got in quickly and Steve took off returning to Grace's school where Rowan's GTO was still parked, right beside Danny's Camaro. Luckily he had Rowan's car keys from the bag of effects the Marshalls had given him back.

Steve found Rowan's phone first, sitting at the bottom of her ridiculously expensive Tory Burch purse, but Danny ripped it out of his hands.

He held it tightly and said: "Codename Jersey reporting a Professional emergency."

Steve glanced up to Danny, he didn't know that was a thing. He didn't know that Danny had been briefed in on her codes. Why had he been briefed and not Steve? Immediately the screen came to life and Sanctuary's voice was speaking to them.

 _Sanctuary has not been able to make contact with Professional in over four hours and cannot detect Professional in the vicinity. Name your emergency._

"She's been arrested," he said and for a moment the app was silent.

Steve glanced over the edge of the phone to stare at the interface that terrified so many terrorists. Just by saying her name. It looked surprisingly easy to use.

 _I have conflicting evidence to support that claim. Many voice notes have been entered in this regard but there has been no warrant issued or paperwork to confirm this._

No paperwork? That meant… that meant the CIA really had gone off grid and off radar to grab Rowan. They knew that her app would have picked up the order for arrest… that wasn't good. They were adapting just like the app did.

 _Does the Captain America Contingency Plan need to be activated?_

"NO!" Steve cried. But it was Danny who said: "We need to contact Wo Fat."

"Are you uh… are you sure he'll pick up?" Steve asked. "They're not talking… remember… cause he… uh… she stopped talking to him because you know… of what he did to me…"

 _That command is not recognized._

Okay so maybe that didn't matter.

"Okay… her codes. Sandy must only recognize her codes," Steve whispered. "Do you remember any of them?"

"Uh… well there's the Captain America Contingency…"

"That's the option that gets her away from me," Steve grumbled. "Uhm… force field protocols… that was the protection one. And uhm… hide and seek was uh… hide from an oncoming ambush?"

"She used Black Cat Protocols to help Grover once, didn't she?" Danny asked. "God this isn't helping… hey… uh… Sandy, can you give us a run through of Rowan's options?"

 _I have been programed with over a hundred protocols. Listing them will take too long. Instead I will list the most frequently used protocols and the ones with high priority._

 _Alert Text_ _is used to send notifications of importance to any player activated on the app._

 _Beam me up Scotty_ _, is for immediate extraction._

 _Doctor Damn It_ _is for medical concerns and emergencies._

 _E.T. Phone Home_ _connects her with the Master…_

 _Force Field Protocols_ _are set rules and guidelines meant to protect the Professional and can be altered per situation_

 _Set Phasers to Stun_ _, is to come in defensive mode when going to rescue._

"Wait, the one… two before, E.T, something!" Steve cried. "Wo Fat reminds her of her brother. He reminds her of home. And his codename in the app is Master!"

"Well alright, Sandy can you activate the E.T. Phone Home thing?" Danny asked.

 _Why certainly, Jersey. Activating the E.T. Phone Home function. Please wait while I connect you…_

And then it began to ring.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Wo Fat sat back in his pool chair. He was bored. He was lonely. He missed Jian. He missed Rowan. But he wasn't about to call Jian after their break-up. And there was no point in calling his sister for advice about the situation because she couldn't get McGarrett to take their relationship to the permanent level… and uh… he had crossed the line and now his defacto-sister no longer wanted him in her life.

He was quite conflicted about the whole matter. On one hand he missed Jian so much that it was a kind of burn, the empty sort of longing he got when he was in bed alone and he missed her body pressed against his side. He the strange heaviness he'd feel when another woman took that space beside him that was supposed to be Jian's and he became very aware of the fact that she didn't feel or fit right. But he wasn't about to comprise his pride no matter how much he missed her and wanted her back.

Then there was Rowan. She had annoyed him, she had been a nuisance and a pain. She drained his resources, she worried him and kept him on edge. Logically he should have been happy to lose her. But nothing involving Rowan Pierce held even a fraction of logic which left him, months after losing the happy bubbly sibling he never thought he wanted, still mourning the loss of her. Not even spending time with Jian Hui had muted that ache in his chest… it was just temporarily forgotten when around her. But he was also angry. Rowan was the one who adopted him, she was the one who gave herself the title of sister and forced the responsibilities of older brother onto him, and _she_ had the nerve to kick _him_ out of her life?! He hadn't wanted to be in her life in the first place! … So why did he miss her so much?

He had gone to Colombia to get away. To hide from the cops, the FBI and the CIA and anyone else looking for him, who had gone to Jian's place of business to harass her about him. To avoid, Jian, who was angling for a step forward in their relationship he wasn't comfortable going to yet, and then throwing temper tantrums when she didn't get her way. He retired to Armando's mansion compound in Bogotá and drowned himself in expensive whiskeys and expensive girls, he touched the whiskey a lot more than he touched the girls. But that was almost a month ago and though the coast was clear he was too afraid a depressed to go back.

He was stuck counting days. It had been four months since Rowan had cut him out, two months since he had last seen her. Her app had been going wild to the point where he couldn't handle it, it made him even more worried, so he had turned over his access first to Kong and then to Armando when he got there so he wouldn't have to see it. The last month had been quiet, if something had happened since Roko Mikoni had taken her hostage, he didn't know.

He was sitting by the pool, girls with no clothes, whom he held no interest in, were swimming near-by, a glass of thousand dollar whiskey was in his hand and getting warmer by the second. He sat in the shade staring at his phone. It wouldn't take much to just press the button beside Rowan's contact and call. And he might have if he wasn't deathly afraid she wouldn't pick up, or that she would pick up and tell him that she was 100% done with him and to just stop already. Not that he didn't deserve it, but he wasn't sure he could handle that kind of rejection from the only family he considered himself to have.

And then the phone began to ring, Rowan's name popped up on the screen and his heart lurched into his throat. For a second he thought he pressed the dial button but he hadn't because she was calling him. Like the sheer will of missing her had conjured her call. But this was not a happy moment, because he knew that this phone call could only mean two things.

Something was wrong. Or she was calling to forgive him and he was leaning towards something being wrong because it was a call from her app.

He went from lounging back to sitting up immediately and he forced himself to calm down, he needed to sound nonchalant and cool, like this was an annoyance to him. He let it ring two more times before accepting the call and calmly putting the phone to his ear.

"What do you want," he answered crisply trying to mask the fear, apprehension and hope in his tone.

"It's McGarrett."

McGarrett was using her phone and her app to call him? The man who was the reason Rowan left him. The man who lobbied until she had agreed to drop contact. The man who couldn't keep her safe… not the way Wo could. Was this a trap? Had she betrayed him or was the situation so bad that McGarrett was calling him for help? If the latter were the case… what a hypocrite.

"What the hell do _you_ want?" he repeated.

"Rowan's been arrested."

 _What?_

A lot of questions came to mind. Starting with why the hell was Steve calling _him_ if Rowan got arrested? Steve had so much jurisdiction on Hawaii that he only answered to the Governor and God, he couldn't get her out of lock up on his own? Unless it wasn't HPD that had her.

"What happened?" Wo Fat asked before he could stop himself, his voice nothing but the basest of growls. "Start from the beginning."

"You sent Reyes' body back to the CIA in pieces!" Steve shouted. "They're understandably pissed."

"CIA," Wo Fat muttered. Yes. He had done that. It didn't explain why they wanted Rowan. What good did arresting her do? Except for the fact that it made him very, very angry.

"They came to arrest Danny and she sacrificed herself," Steve continued.

He kept telling her to stop being so noble. Look at where it got her now. "Rowan is not my problem anymore," Wo Fat said primly, though anxiety swirled under the calm front he was trying to put forward.

"This isn't a game," Steve snapped. "It's not a trap. I need your help." He and his _brother_ seemed to think a lot alike.

"Help?" Wo echoed. "The Great Steven McGarrett needs my help? Why, whatever for? And why would you think I'd help you?"

"Because she's your sister," Steve said. He had never admitted that before. He always maintained that they weren't related, because they weren't by blood. Only by Rowan's determination and say so.

"You've made sure that that statement is no longer true," he reminded him.

"Wo. Please. I can't… I can't do this by myself. If you don't want to do this for me, do it for her," Steve pleaded, his voice shaking and then Wo Fat realized that this was worse than he thought it was.

"So they took her for revenge for killing Reyes and my stunt with the body. Where are they holding her? Do you need resources to break her out? Is that why you're calling?"

"They extradited her…"

Wo Fat knew where to. Steve didn't have to tell him, but he did anyway. Rowan had been extradited to Colombia. Colombia was corrupted. Colombia was dangerous. Most Colombian gangsters had a healthy fear and respect of him, all the way up to the Government corrupts, it didn't make sense that any of them would put through orders to grab her. Not when they knew he was currently in the country.

"I have contacts in Colombia," he answered.

"So you'll help me?" Steve asked.

"I didn't say that," Wo Fat answered quickly. "I'll think about it and then call you back. Keep her phone on you."

And then he hung up the phone. He sat there in his pool chair and thought very very carefully about what was going to happen next. What was he going to do? If he were to intervene there would need to be a strategy. He needed to know where in Colombia they were going to take her, who was going to hold her.

Armando came to sit in the chair beside him. "That looked like an interesting call," he said.

"McGarrett called me," he admitted. "He had news about Rowan."

"Had to be bad if _he_ made the call," Armando said sipping his iced tea, his wife had him on a diet and even through the sunglasses Wo Fat could see him eyeing the whiskey tumbler in his hand.

He handed him the glass and watched him pour what was left of the whiskey into the iced tea. "She's been arrested and extradited."

"Back to her home country?" Armando asked.

"To Colombia," he answered.

Armando slammed his drink down to the metal table in between them. "Here? Why? Why does Colombia want her?"

"I hacked up a Colombian Drug Lord on the CIA payroll and sent his body back to his handler… in pieces. They've most likely taken her to avenge their prides," he answered. He got a unamused _hmm_ from Armando who picked up the empty whiskey glass, Wo Fat just stayed quiet, knowing that once he was done thinking, which he was doing while spinning the empty whiskey glass between his hands, he would fill him in on whatever was in his head.

"That doesn't sound right," he said, he said after a moment of careful contemplation. "They wouldn't chance that, not with her background, with her knowledge, _and_ with you in her corner. No one in Colombia would go for her after what happened to Reyes. Even if this was about Reyes. No. This has to be about more than that, something else is in play here."

Wo Fat nodded that made sense. "Can you see what you can dig up?" he asked.

Armando stood quickly, downing the rest of his drink and placing it back on the table. "And what will you do?"

Wo Fat didn't know. He wasn't sure. But he knew that his heart hurt with worry about this. He wanted her to be safe. He wanted her to forgive him… and saving her from this would open the door to communicating again at the very least. He glanced back down at his phone and took a deep breath and said: "I'm going to get my imouto back."


	181. Chapter 181

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Friday my wonderful readers! Here we are! We're onto the chapter that's 13 pages. We're gonna see what Steve's up to, we're gonna see how Rowan's doing and we get to see what Wo Fat plans to do. I will tell you that I'm one episode away from being done season 5, and let me tell you it ends so cutely (cause you know Kono's wedding) and then season 6 opens with utter disaster. I'll warn you guys when we get closer to it so you're more prepared. If you want at the end of one of the chapter's I can give you a rundown of what to expect in Season 6! Leave a review and let me know! Enjoy your weekend and I'll see you guys on Monday!_

Chapter 181

* * *

After the phone call with Wo Fat, that did not go as well as either of them hoped, Danny and Steve returned to the Palace where Joe was waiting for them. Steve had a long list of questions that he was too afraid to ask, that he was certain Danny didn't want to answer, so Steve was content to ignore it until further notice. Especially since at that moment they were all panicking. They still had to worry about Chin and now Rowan was being taken out of the country.

Steve didn't know what to do, but he knew he had to make sure he got to Rowan _before_ they got her on the plane. He knew he'd lose it if they took her off the island right now, he had her promise ring burning a hole in his pocket as a reminder that he was without her and on a clock to get her back. He was running out of time and he was looking to his mentor to help him solve this, but Joe had nothing for him, nothing of use anyway.

As soon as Joe saw him, he got off the phone and turned towards Steve. "I just talked to my contact and apparently no one's happy right now," he said. He then nodded to Danny "Colombia's just been made aware that they're getting Rowan instead of you."

"Unhappy enough to send her back?" Steve asked suddenly filled with hope.

"No, they've got a new plan. CIA's promising to back them if it goes down badly," he said.

And that was that hopeful feeling gone. Great, just great. "Joe what are you talking about?"

"There was more to this arrest then just bringing one of you two to justice for the Reyes murder," he said.

"What else could it be about?"

"It's a ransom of sorts," Joe explained. "Reyes was in the middle of a big deal when Rowan had Wo Fat hit him. And then he came down here to locate what went missing except he died on the CIA's watch. That meant what they were looking for… well it's still out there. Now they know Matty has no idea where any of it went and they've been trying to locate it ever since. Granted they wanted Williams' help with that instead of Rowan's, but as I said, they've got a new plan."

"How big a deal we talking about?"

"1.3 billion dollars of cocaine never made it to the market," Joe said. "They think Wo Fat made off with it, but again, as it never came back to the market they couldn't prove it was him. They are operating under the assumption that he's been sitting on it."

"So that's the play, then?" Steve asked. "They're going to ransom Rowan… to Wo Fat… for the drugs?"

"Yep, that's their plan."

"That's not going to work, she's not talking to him and I'm sensing that he's bitter about it," Danny argued. "We don't even know if he's going to help _us._ He didn't sound too happy when we called him… didn't seem too phased by us telling him she got extradited either…"

"Wait a second… have you made contact with him?"

"Yes. Rowan's phone got left behind. I used it to make him aware that Rowan's been extradited," Steve answered and then stared Joe down as if daring him to say something about it.

"What did he say?"

"That he'd think about helping us and get back to me."

"Must be some kind of whopper of a fight if he didn't just jump to go to her rescue," Joe mused. "I mean… he's helped her much more quickly in the past…"

"It's cause I asked," Steve growled. "It's cause I contacted him. If it had just gone through her app, if she had managed to call him before they grabbed her, he would have acted already."

Joe took that in and Steve avoided his eyes. "It's a lot you're asking him," Joe whispered. "To take on the Colombian government and the CIA, that's a lot…"

But Steve didn't care about that. He knew Wo Fat would have done it in a heartbeat had it been Rowan's frantic voice on the other end of that phone call. There would have been none of this: _I'll think about it and call you back._ Joe waited for anything to come out of Steve but after a moment he asked: "Do you think he'll call back?"

"Probably," Steve said. "I have her phone, I know her codes now which means I know how to get in contact with him. Maybe if I can get him to tell me where the drugs are…"

Suddenly Steve had a flash. God why had it taken him so long to figure this out? "I know how to get Rowan back," he said. "You guys come with me."

After telling Kono to get a location on Alexander, they all rushed back to Steve's truck, who then sped down the motorways and streets until he found Alexander's SUV and practically ran him off the fucking road. Steve didn't care who he hurt at that point just so long as he had Rowan back.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Alexander snapped coming out of the car. Steve peered into the vehicle and saw no sign of her. No. No. No.

"Where's Rowan," Steve growled.

"Already on the plane to Bogotá," he growled back, something primal in Steve snapped and if Joe hadn't grabbed him to haul him back he might have snapped Alexander's neck.

Joe forced Steve back, trying to get him to breathe but he couldn't, he couldn't because he had failed. Rowan was gone, to Colombia of all places, where he couldn't protect her. While Joe dealt with Steve Danny stepped up to deal with Alexander, and it felt much better going up against that man now that he was free and capable of hitting him back, if not physically at least with his words. Especially since he had practically tried to climb onto the hood of his SUV to get away from Steve's hands.

"As you can see, when it comes to Rowan Pierce it's not just her app you have to worry about," he said. He glanced back to where Steve was still standing there Joe in his way, eyes wide, nostrils flaring as his chest heaved. His eyes never once leaving Alexander, who actually looked intimidated. "We're here to make a deal."

Alexander glanced to Steve and then to Danny, clearly interested. "Deal? What kind of deal?"

"Her freedom and exoneration for that shipment of cocaine you've been looking for," Danny told him, when Alexander hit him with a sceptical look he added: "Yeah we know all about Sandpiper and the drugs you're missing."

"Then you'd also know that her _brother_ made off with them," Alexander said with a scoff. "We've been looking for months. Fat could have had it shipped anywhere in the world. He could have already sold it."

"I can get him to tell me what happened to it," Steve said pushing past Joe to get to Alexander. The man actually flinched like he thought Steve was going to hit him, which was fair, he might of if he thought he could get away with that.

Alexander put on a brave front and scoffed again. "Nice try, your girl told me that she's not talking to him anymore, cut him out for you I think she said…"

Steve's face remained the same. "Yeah, except she still has that app. And I have her phone. All I have to do is report the situation, and he gets to decide if he'll help."

"And when he declines?"

"He hasn't declined a request from her yet."

They all held their breaths. They hoped that Alexander didn't catch the slip up there. That Wo Fat has never declined request from _Rowan_. Because it wasn't Rowan who was requesting help. It was Steven.

"Fine, you find this cocaine and uh… the Colombian government will approve her release and uh… exoneration."

Thank god. He hadn't caught it. They could do this.

"I'll need 48 hours," Steve said.

Alexander shot him a smug smirk, like he didn't think that Steve would be able to get it done. He hit him with a sarcastic: "Done. Good luck!" before heading back to his car and driving away.

They all watched him go, both Danny and Joe turning to Steve, they each had doubts, obviously, but Joe was the one to comment about them. "So… you're going to get Wo Fat to cooperate?"

Steve glanced at Joe. "Even if I have to get on my hands and knees and beg him."

Steve stormed back to his truck Danny and Joe exchanged glances. That was a big thing to hear from Steve, Joe looked a little more shocked than Danny was. Danny knew how Steve felt for Rowan, Joe had just found out how deep that emotion ran.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

When they got back to the Palace, Kono met them at the office door. Coughlin was there, looking for something in Chin's office. She was flustered, she was upset, and Steve was not in any mood to deal with Coughlin's smug stupidity. He stormed towards Chin's office where Grover was waiting for him, holding the door open to let Steve in.

"Guy came in with a warrant, nothing we could do," Grover said opening the door for him. Steve took two steps into the office and Coughlin turned to him, yep that smug grin better get the fuck off his face before Steve hit him because Steve was _not_ in the mood for this today.

"Hey, I don't care what your warrant says, you got five seconds to leave this office," Steve warned.

"He's not in a good mood," Danny warned Coughlin. "I'd listen."

Coughlin just smiled. "Yeah, I have a warrant, and there isn't anything you can do about that," he growled showing him the paper. Steve just stared at it with disgust, was that little piece of paper going to stop him from slapping him silly? Coughlin chuckled at him and Steve cocked his head in surprise, what the hell was so fucking funny huh? "I heard your girlfriend's been arrested. Little monster's getting what she deserves."

In a flash Steve had Coughlin by the lapels and had him slammed into his desk. "Let me go," Coughlin warned but Steve just held on tighter.

"Say it again," he growled into his face. "Go ahead, you think you got balls, you go ahead and you fucking say it again."

"Let him go, Steve," Danny said, his tone blasé and clearly uncaring, he wasn't really trying to help Coughlin but he had a point. Steve really shouldn't be hitting him but Steve was past reasoning. He was livid and someone, _someone_ , was going to get it. He didn't care who at that point, he didn't care what it did to him, someone was getting hit, and at this rate it was going to be Rex Coughlin.

"Well isn't this interesting," a smug voice said. Steve looked away from Coughlin's face to the oily looking man in a suit who had appeared in the doorway. Steve would recognize a lawyer anywhere, that man, was a lawyer. Question was, why was he here? "Am I interrupting something?"

Coughlin roughly pushed Steven off, but before he could say anything to Steve about tying him up with an IA investigation the man in the suit had said: "Are you Detective Rex Coughlin?"

Coughlin hadn't been expecting that. He blinked his eyes in surprise. "Uh… yes?"

"Hello, I'm Indigo Montoya with Coleman and Golde," he said handing him a fancily embossed business card. "I've been assigned to the Kelly case."

"Assigned the…" Coughlin echoed but Montoya was still talking.

"And as we've established this to be a gross miscarriage of justice and a terrible perversion of the law we're going to ask you kindly to leave the premises," he said.

"Leave the… I have a warrant here…"

"Oh can I see it?" he asked pulling the paper out of Coughlin's hands. He didn't even look at it. He ripped it up into tiny little pieces and then blew the pieces into Coughlin's face. The poor man was outraged.

Montoya went into his briefcase and pulled out a stack of his own papers. He handed him a letter. "This is a harassment suit. Anything and everything you've collected, including anything you've gotten from my client will be inadmissible in court. We can prove you've been pulled off this case, and that you have been stalking Lieutenant Kelly in a personal vendetta against him."

He handed him another letter. "That is a subpoena for your so called witness which we believe will prove that you twisted the course of justice and his words to fit your needs."

He then handed him a completely different file that said: "And that is proof that Gabriel Waincroft, himself, transferred his money to an exclusive underground banking ring known simply as the Vault for safe keeping. We believe he did so with the help of the Yakuza and the money is being bounced around to keep us from locating it. But all you need to worry about is that it proves my client innocent."

Montoya tapped Coughlin's shocked face and said: "Now take me to my witness." Coughlin stood there mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water as he gasped and stuttered. He was lost, clearly, so Steve took that as the opportunity to throw the man, literally, out of Chin's office, taking him by the back of his suit and shoving him roughly out of the door.

Montoya watched him do it and just smiled at him in a way that made Steve a little nervous. Now that he was closer he could see that his eyes were a strange pale brown he had never seen before, nor did he like the way he was looking at him. Steve narrowed his eyes at him. "Coleman and Golde were Yakuza lawyers last I checked."

That smile on Montoya's face just widened. "Uh-huh… and don't you have a girl to get out of Colombia, Commander?" he shot back and then left the room.

Hot damn. Maybe Wo Fat was going to help. But who told him about Chin?

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

They had come up with a plan of attack. Kono and Grover were going to stay back in Hawaii to wait for Chin's release now that there was supposed evidence of Gabriel's lies. Danny would be going with Joe and Steve to Colombia to get the drugs and then pick up Rowan and bring her home.

Steve had gone home to pick up essentials for Nahele and then let Joe there to make the necessary arrangements while he was out. Steve went to the Grover's to see Nahele, to fill him in on the situation and soothe his fears. Steve had tried to water it down, but Nahele understood that this was serious ad that Rowan had been taken far away from both of them as a result of a bad decision, but it was going to be okay because Steve was going to go and get her back. Nahele asked how long this would take, and Steve had told him two days tops. He was worried, Steve could tell, but he promised they would both come back and that seemed to calm him down. He had promised that he'd call Nahele every night and every morning until he came back, and that no matter the time in Hawaii, he'd let Rowan call him the second Steve got her back.

Danny had gone to Rachel's to calm Grace down and to assure her that he hadn't been arrested for murder. Joe White, who had agreed to stay and help as Steve was full out panicking and he needed someone to help calm him down, was waiting for Steve when he came back at Steve's place.

Steve had gotten back first, and had went about packing hoping to calm his nerves, but it hadn't taken that much time to pack and he was no longer distracted. Which meant, as soon as Danny was in the house, though, Steve's anxiety kicked up because he couldn't look at his best friend without remembering that he lied to him.

Steve paced, waiting to get the green light from Joe to head down to the army base to catch a plane to Colombia, even he though no one had any idea where they were going or if Wo Fat was going to help them. Danny sat on the couch, far from calm, his foot tapping away watching Steve pace. Finally Steve couldn't take it anymore.

"How could you not tell me?" Steve thundered. "How could you not tell me what _really_ happened?"

Danny sighed but Steve kept talking. "I mean it makes sense, who else would Wo Fat calmly hide a body for? If he had done it for you, even if it was because she asked him to, there would have been more bitching. And the nightmares, the fact that she felt so guilty about the situation she stopped dreaming right! I should have put it together."

"He didn't hide the damn body he hacked it up and sent it back to the CIA," Danny reminded him and Steve grimaced and went back to pacing. "Neither Rowan or I told him to do that, by the way. And he didn't tell us he had done it either, so I'm guessing she had no idea."

Yes he knew that. But that wasn't the problem right now, now was it?

"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked again. "Why did you cover for her…?"

"Because we didn't know what was going to happen," Danny said. "He was going to kill me, Steve, he had a gun on me and she shot him five times, center mass, no warning. Three times in the back, two times in the chest. That's not accidental anymore, that's over kill."

"But she shot him with _your_ gun? How did that happen?"

"He was on top of her. I knocked him off of her and I must have lost it in the scuffle," Danny said. Oh god… that bruise on her face… that was how she got it. "Look… she… she wanted to come clean but I… we… both of us didn't want to put you in a position where you might have to arrest her for murder. So Wo Fat dealt with the body, and I took the blame… all the way up until the CIA showed up and she stupidly admitted to what she did. I should have known she came clean the second they let me go."

Steve collapsed to the couch and put his head into his hands. This explained so much. The nightmares. The guilt so strong it stopped her visions from coming. The pact she and Danny had. But what hurt him was that Rowan chose to suffer alone instead of coming to him for help that she had been afraid to tell him the truth because she thought he'd arrest her, that she was afraid he'd be mad at her if he knew the truth.

"What we should have done, what _you_ should have done was told her that Reyes was on the island. If we had briefed her on what was going on she would have told us not to bother because she had Matt," Danny snapped. Steve shook his head, they had already had this argument, over and over.

"What you should have done was tell _me_ that she had killed someone. Someone should have told me what happened. But she didn't trust me, she didn't think I'd back her up or help her… she thought…"

"She thought she was a monster, Steve," Danny explained. "That sociopath came right out of her the second she saw the gun pointed at me and she didn't…"

"She didn't want me to think she's a monster," Steve finished. This wasn't new to him, it was why she tried to hide her past, it was why she wasn't comfortable telling him everything yet.

"Well… she kind of is a little monster though, isn't she," Joe suddenly asked and Danny and Steve glared at him.

"She is not a monster!" Steve snapped. "She protects people…"

"She apparently kills people too!"

"So do we!" Danny cried. "What because she doesn't have a badge she's a monster? She's not running around killing everyone, she's doing what she has to to protect us. She's saved lives. She saved Billy's, she saved Catherine's, and she saved me and Steve's lives a million times over. She'd save yours if she had to because that's who she is. That is not a monster… even if her ways are a little unorthodox or… you know… illegal…"

Danny's rant was cut off by Rowan's phone ringing distinctively. Gangnam Style. Steve lunged to pick it up.

"McGarrett."

"You're trying to locate 1.3 million dollars in cocaine connected to Sandpiper correct?" came Wo Fat's voice. No _hello_ just straight to business.

"Yes. How did you know that?" Steve asked. Danny straightened beside him, and Joe White was staring at him.

"I made a few inquiries," Wo Fat answered. "And that would be the amount of drugs I took from Reyes when I hit him. The drugs you're looking for are in an Oil Refinery out in the country side of Ortega, I've already sent you the coordinates. They have been told to hand it over to you along with a book. That book is imperative. You need to deliver that book and the drugs to my associates. I will send you the address when you confirm that you've picked all it up."

"What about Rowan?" Steve asked. "She won't be able to handle Colombian jail."

"Don't worry about her. I've dealt with that," Wo Fat said and then he hung up the phone. This left Steve staring at the empty screen the phone trembling in his shaking grip.

"I don't like the idea of you working with him," Joe said to him for the millionth time. Since Steve had confirmed that he had gotten a hold of him and asked him to help.

"He's the easiest and quickest way to get Rowan back," Steve answered. "He's also the only one who knew where the drugs were. And by the sounds of it he's gift wrapped them for us."

"He'll want something from you," Joe reminded him, but Steve already knew what it was that Wo Fat would ask for.

And he didn't know if it was something he'd agree to, but at that moment he'd do anything he had to if it got her back in his arms, even let Wo Fat come back into Rowan's life.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

The flight was hellish. Rowan bounced, she tapped her leg, tapped her fingers against the tray, fiddled with the cuffs around her wrists. She couldn't help it. She was so scared. So nervous. She wanted Steve. She wanted Nahele. She wanted to go home.

To distract herself she had spent the whole time trying to think about where the hell she had heard Alexander's name before but try as she might, for the almost whole day she was on the airplane, Rowan couldn't remember why the hell she thought his name was familiar.

They landed in Bogota, where she was forced into a truck. They drove another insane amount of hours, the dust pouring in through the cracks. Rowan was tired, hungry, thirsty and terrified. She had no water in her to even cry. She was sure if she did it would just leave tracks in the dust coating her skin. She felt disgusting. She had never wanted to go home more in her life.

Straight to Steve. Have a shower. Preferably with him. And then sit out on his lanai, in their beach chairs. He would be drinking beer. She would have tea, a blanket wrapped around her and a book to read. Maybe her guitar and her notepad filled with lyrics. Nahele roasting marshmallows, playing in the water or doing his homework. God, she would never take that for granted again.

When they finally came to a stop, Rowan desperately needed to pee. She held no hopes that the next bathroom she came across would be sanitary… or a toilet. She was dragged into the yellow stained building with the words Peniteniaria National in big blocked letters stared down at her. Once inside two, Colombian officers, were waiting for them.

They stared at her with fear in their wide eyes. The Marshal with her handed her off to the guard who looked terrified to even touch her. They didn't take her to a cell, they took her to an office where a man in a nicely pressed light army green suit was waiting for her. He shot up from behind the desk when he saw her, watching in shocked horror as she was sat down in a chair across from him.

He merely continued to look down to her with horror painted across his face. Everyone around her started speaking quickly in their native tongues, she had no idea what they were saying but clearly they were talking about her.

"What's the problem?" The agent asked in English and they all glared at him.

What was probably the Warden or at least the Colombian Jail equivalent pointed to her. "That is not Williams."

"No. But she admitted she's the one who shot Reyes," the agent told them. "Didn't someone call you?"

"Yes they did but I didn't think that you'd actually bring her _here_! And a confession doesn't mean _we_ wanted her. With who backs her she can shoot the president of our country and she'd walk out free," the warden snapped.

"We've got confirmation that she and Wo Fat are not together anymore. So she's not under the umbrella his protection. You wanted someone for the murders, here she is," the Marshal growled. Rowan's eyes whipped up to him. How could he do her like that? She never should have told them that. "Agent Alexander will be here soon, by the way, so stash her somewhere… convenient. He'll want to see her when he get here."

"She already admitted she shot him, what else could she tell you?" the man asked.

"It's not what she can tell us. It's what _he'll_ give up to get her back," he growled and then left her alone with those men. Rowan didn't know who they were talking about and she was too tired and scared to try and figure it out. She just wanted to go home.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Warden Rodriguez had spent a long time with the infamous Rowan Pierce as she sat in his office. He had fed her tamales, got her ginger ale, let her use his personal and clean washroom and then peppered her with questions about Wo Fat. He did that because he didn't believe that this cutsie, sweet, wide-eyed-innocent little girl who kept spontaneously crying was the same Rowan Pierce that a whole network of criminals was terrified of.

But once she had proven that she was, he knew what he was going to do next.

He had sent her off to a private cell, and then pulled up his phone. He tried to keep his hands from shaking as he dialled the most dangerous man in Colombia.

Wo Fat must have had something better to do because he didn't answer the first call, or the third, or the fourth.

He picked up on the sixth attempt to reach him with a curt: "What?"

"Wo Fat, I am Warden Rodriguez…"

"I know who you are. What. Do. You. Want."

"I have your sister…"

"I know you have Rowan. That doesn't tell me what you want."

Hot damn this man was in a really bad mood, maybe this wasn't a good idea. "Well, I'm assuming that you wish her to be…"

There was silence for a moment and then Wo Fat cleared his throat interrupting him. "Are you telling me, that you're calling me to ask if I want my sister to be comfortable?" he asked in a dangerously low voice. "Is that what this call is? Am I to expect her comfort to come at a price?"

"Well… that's how things work down here… first time is free, but she's been here for…"

"Too long," Wo Fat growled. "Alright, here, how about I make this easy on you cause I can tell this is baffling you. If you put my sister in an interrogation cell with that American asshole, I will decimate him and then I will come after you. If my sister is injured, mistreated or made to feel uncomfortable in any way, I will personally kill your family, everyone's family, right down to the fucking dog."

Rodriguez stared at the phone in horror. Oh god, why… why had he agreed to this? The Americans weren't paying him enough for this.

"But it's not all bad. If you keep my sister happy, if you keep her safe and _comfortable_ , I will pay you handsomely," he told him and Rodriguez perked up. Now that, that he could get behind.

"I can do what you ask, but I will expect payment by 6 o'clock tonight."

It was a brave move and he could tell that Wo Fat was not impressed because he just scoffed at him again.

"You'll get your money when I see fit."

And then he hung up the phone. Rodriguez just sat there, well that was unacceptable, it also wasn't how things worked down here and Wo Fat knew that. Well… if he didn't get his money by 6pm like he requested… Wo Fat only had himself to blame for whatever happened to his sister.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

After dinner which was chimichangas and lemonade, Rowan was taken out of the little bunker they had put her in and took her for what they called a walk. The man holding onto her arm a little too tightly was smiling a little too meanly at her and she was suddenly quite nervous.

So far they had been treating her well, much to her surprise, but it seemed to have run out now. He took her down the hallway to where the gate to the main courtyard was and then he went about unlocking it. Why the hell was he going to put her in there? The sun was setting, what was the point of it now?

Once the door was open he shoved her into the courtyard. She whirled around as the gate slammed shut in her face. "Tell your los hermano dat what happens to you tonight is because he didn't pay up."

 _Wo Fat didn't pay up_?

Well was she surprised? They were fighting right now, she had kicked him out of her life. That didn't mean she thought she deserved to be thrown to the wolves but really… she had no one to blame but herself at this point.

There came a few shouts and when she turned around men were filing out of the cells to catch a glimpse of her. She was still in her fancy outfit, which was ruined now. But being in a dress was not a good thing around men like these.

She found herself, back pressed against the wall staring as man after man poured out and encircled her. She turned and jiggled with the door, this was not the time for the void to leave her. The loud chatter and catcalls began in a language she should know but was too panicked to translate and above it all came a shout of: _El Alto!_

Someone was telling them all to stop? Rowan hazarded a glance behind her and watched as the crowd, who had gone silent, moved aside to let a giant bear of a man come forward. A man she sort of recognized.

When he got there, a group of smaller man fanned out behind him as he stared her up and down.

"That isn't our little Rowie Pierce, is it?"

Rowan straightened, she looked at him carefully, narrowed her yes and suddenly smiled. "Sunny?" she cried and he smiled and opened his arms for a hug.

Rowan launched herself at him. Juan Estefan had been one of the men Armando brought from Colombia with him to help Wo Fat out when she had been kidnapped. He was one of the men who had been nicest to her, not that she really spent all that much time with him.

"I'm so happy to see a familiar face," she said into his neck as he hugged her. He straightened to his full height and her feet came off the ground for a brief second before he put her back down.

"Does your brother know you're here?"

"I think so," she whispered. "I think… he uhm… may have refused to pay ransom? I unno, I have money… I don't have access right now but I have…"

Juan Estefan hit her with his trademark big booming laugh. "Don't you worry, little Rowie, we know all about your brother, and I don't think he'd leave you to this, not by yourself. And don't you worry about them, they're not going to touch you."

Rowan let out a sigh of relief that was a weight of worry off her chest. She almost burst out in tears right then and there.

She must have gotten a little watery because he slung an arm around her shoulder. "Oh now, no time for tears," he said. "I'll have my guys put a few calls through, we'll figure out what's going on. But for now, let's get you set up away from the guards, okay?"

Rowan nodded letting the man lead her away. And while she was grateful, this wasn't the man she wanted to sweep in and rescue her. Rowan wanted Steve. _God_ , she thought to herself. _Steve, where are you?_

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Wo Fat had been on the phone for what seemed like hours. He had Sandy tracking Rowan's plane and progress, so he heard when her plane landed and when she arrived at the Jail. An all-male jail. That had set off so many red flags he almost stormed the place to get her right then and there. But he didn't have the tactical advantage, he didn't know what the true motives were, but he didn't have to wonder about that long because the Warden actually had the nerve to call him up to attempt and ransom Rowan to him. And he had straightened that man out very quickly.

Starting with if she ended up in an interrogation room, he'd decimate them. If she got hurt, if she was mistreated or uncomfortable in anyway, he'd personally go after his family and the families of anyone else involved. But keep her happy and they'd be paid. He heard dollar signs in the man's voice when he agreed, and ignored him when the man said he needed his money at a certain time that night because he was in no way in a good position to argue or bargain with Wo Fat.

He had Sandy do a deeper search into what had been going on before Rowan was arrested. He found out that everything had been in Danny's name and then out of nowhere it changed to hers. He found out that codename Shotgun had been taken by IA. He had to figure out who that was, normally Wo Fat didn't care about Chin Ho Kelly, but he did find out that Gabriel had something to do with it and he cared a lot about Gabriel, especially since he was paying a lot of money to have Black Cat Protocols enacted against him. So he had sent someone off with the fake money trail and the forged order from Gabriel to transfer money that Wo Fat had stolen forever ago, with the order of find Gabriel, who had been holed up somewhere with IA, and break something of his. He would just have to hope that would be enough to get Kelly out of lock up.

Then he made the calls to the people who had given the drugs to for safe keeping. He made it clear that people in uniforms would be coming to pick them up, because he figured Steve would go in his fatigues, or at the very least heavily armed and they were to hand over everything, the drugs and the book, without a single incident.

When Sandy reported that Steve was on a military plane to Colombia, and that Joe White was involved and had contacted friends looking for a helo to borrow, he knew he'd have to make another call. That call was to the right people with the air force telling them that he'd have people flying in their air space in the next 24 hours and he will have provided them a code for them to recognize them by.

By nightfall he was all called-out, but he wasn't settled. He figured Rowan to be reasonably safe, safe enough for him to get some kind of rest but he didn't get any. He had stayed up, drinking in his room, pacing back and forth trying to get worry the worry out of his body and failing miserably. Steve still hadn't landed, Rowan was still in lock up, the agent who arrested her was still on the way, there was nothing for him to do but pace and worry.

Which was why he was surprised when in the late hours of the night Armando let himself into his room. Armando, too, had been on the phone all day, making the same kind of calls that Wo had been making, just in a different manner. While Wo Fat had been throwing around threats and money while trying to keep Steve on track, Armando had been collecting information and setting up people and resources to enact their plan.

Armando was wearing a face that made him nervous. Wo couldn't handle anymore nervousness in his system. "Are we good to move in on the prison tomorrow?" he asked.

Armando nodded. "The plan's going to change though," he told him. "I know it."

The plan was to drive up, grab Rowan, put her in the car, and then put himself in the interrogation room with the Agent who arrested her. Find out firsthand what his problem was and whether or not he had a death wish. It was a good plan, Wo didn't see why he'd have to change it.

But his mind went to the first reason any of his plans would change. "Something's happened hasn't it? To her? What is it?"

"They put your girl into general pop around dinner time, just after six," he said. Everything that had come alive in him at that point solidified into a stony rage-fueled center.

"They put Rowan, a rather attractive female, into the general population of a male penitentiary?" he echoed.

"Yep. She's uh… she's doing okay. I put in a few calls once I found out, hoping to minimize the damage but turns out I didn't have to. She got picked up by one of my boys who met her in Hawaii when we had her last. He went in a few weeks back, had to sacrifice him, he recognized her and grabbed her, figured we'd be grateful. Which we are so in return I'll spring him earlier then his release date dictates. From my understanding she's having a blast. Sang a few songs, braided some hair, told a few stories and they gave up a cell for her, she crashed pretty hard, they're guessing the stress got to her."

He was relieved but Wo Fat was also angry and Armando was right. It did change his plan because now he had to factor in killing the Warden into his plans.

"On top of that, I've got news that Sam Alexander has landed."

"Why do I know that name?"

"He's the man who arrested her."

"Ah… that's a good reason, but not it. I know his name from something else…"

"He's in Reyes' black book," Armando answered immediately. Ah. Right… So this wasn't about the drugs. This really wasn't about Sandpiper but about Alexander's payouts instead. "If you haven't got it, they took her because of…"

"His payout, this is about the money he's missing out on," he mused. "He's taken her to get to me. To get his drugs and his payouts back."

"Yes… apparently your sister confessed not only to murder, but to being behind the hit that took Reyes' drugs, ledgers and Matty..."

"Wait… she actually _confessed_ to the murder?" he thundered shooting to his feet. McGarrett had never told him that she had confessed, he had assumed that she was taken to convince Steve and Danny to properly confess to Reye' murder, which he was certain they had covered up. He sighed this heavy aggravated sigh. "For the… what was she thinking?"

"You'll have to ask her for yourself, but my money is on her confessing to save Matty's brother," he said. Yes that did sound like her. Wo pinned him with a glare and Armando bowed his head to him. "The original arrest warrant and extradition waiver was for him. That's why they weren't equipped to put her into a female jail, they didn't have enough time to bribe anyone to take her. So they took her to the original jail they were taking Williams' to. Apparently they had to come up with a quick plan the second she confessed."

Wo Fat stared at him. "All of this to take Williams'? Over the drugs? How would that have worked? I don't give a shit about Daniel Williams."

"But your sister does."

Wo Fat straightened and stared at him finally understanding. Their plan was to take Williams, to get Rowan to call Wo Fat and make him give up the drugs. It was such a terrible plan that he couldn't believe that was their play. Or at least it was until Rowan confessed and gave them the ability and ammunition to ransom him directly.

That fucking girl.

Now he needed to do something save her from the murder charge. Something to ransom against the CIA. Something to get them to back down.

"We need that book," Wo Fat growled.

"And when her boyfriend picks it up we'll have it," Armando told him and then both men fell silent. Already a plan was forming in Wo Fat's head.

He thought carefully for a moment before turning back to Armando. "You said you had access to a tank? I assume you actually do and it's not just a hollow brag?"

"I am insulted you would think so low of me."

"My Apologies. How quickly can you get it to the jail?"

"… You want to take a tank… to Bogotá's penitentiary? Isn't that a bit… over kill?" Wo Fat hit him with a glare and Armando knew better than to argue and with a sigh, relented. "Fine, if I get a hold of them now it could be there as soon as midday tomorrow."

"Not quick enough but it'll have to do. We're going to go in hot by the way. I'm going to iron out a few things, I'll have the new plan by morning."

"Heaven help them," Armando said making the sign of the cross before leaving the room. Wo Fat said nothing, but he knew, not even god himself could come down from the heavens and stop him from getting his sister back. But he might open up hell on earth on the ones who put her in harm's way in the first place.


	182. Chapter 182

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hello my wonderful readers! So we have another long chapter here. A lot happening in this chapter again, a full 12 pages of drama. We get to see Wo Fat's big dramatic rescue, and we get to see how Rowan's faring on her own, and what Steve's up to. We got a few people who are nervous about season 6 and let me tell you I'm nervous too! I promise that once season six is done and the main character growth has been completed it is literally nothing but cute stuff from then on in. Like a wedding, and an adoption, and someone's going to be forgiven, trust me it's gonna be worth it. On an added bonus WE HIT 800 REVIEWS! Adelaide2647 was my 800th reviewer but for some reason the review isn't showing on the website so I'm very confused but it says we have the stats so I guess FanFic is acting up! Anyway, Adelaide2647 won something special, but I can't message you about it, so when you see this MESSAGE ME! We're also getting a 7 DAY MARATHON! Starting today! So 7 days of posts I hope you guys enjoy it cause we got a lot of drama and cute stuff coming up! As always, don't forget to leave a review, don't forget to tell me what you think and I'll see you guys tomorrow._

Chapter 182

* * *

Today was the day. Today, Sam Alexander, was going to pull off the impossible. He was going ransom the infamous Rowan Pierce to Wo Fat, he was going to get that guy to cave and crack and give up in order to keep his sister safe.

It was a daunting challenge but he knew if he pulled it off he'd be untouchable, he'd get a promotion, and a raise. This would make or break his career. So it was understandable that he was both nervous and excited when he got to the Penitentiary she had been left in. Though he found it strange that the Warden was waiting for him when he came into the building. A little suspicious.

He had only spoken to Warden Rodriguez a handful of times, to confirm payment and protection from Wo Fat if things went sideways, and to confirm the plan of action with him. He had never met the man in person before. He was a short but stout man, with a handlebar moustache and an oily completion that went straight up into his thinning black hair.

They shared pleasantries, the _how are you_ 's and _how was your flight_ 's before Alexander broached the topic of his trip.

"I take it the girl's doing well? Not too comfortable I hope," he said with a grin but the man winced and turned to his companion, who was head guard there. They spoke in Spanish and his smile faded.

"Have you done something to the girl, or have you lost her?" he asked, no longer happy. "Cause if you handed her over before…"

"No, no, she's still here."

"Okay… so where is she?" he asked with his hands on his hips as he glared at them much like a disappointed father would.

Rodriguez winced. "Well… that's the problem…"

"Problem?"

"We uh… we put her in General pop last night…"

Sam's face dropped, he couldn't help it. He was in shock. "You what?"

"Well… she was…"

"Are you out of her mind? They'd eat her alive… her boyfriend… if he… do you know how crazy the men in her life are?" he thundered. "You were the one that didn't want to deal with her brother!"

"Well he didn't pay up, so obviously he doesn't care about her the way you think she does," he said and Sam glared at him. They tried to ransom her to Wo Fat… ALREADY?! But Rodriguez merely shrugged. "So we gave her to the boys to teach him a lesson… but uh… they uh… they took a shine to her."

"Of course they would… some of them haven't seen a woman in YEARS!"

"No… I mean… uh… that is to say…"

"What, what is it? Spit it out!"

"They _like_ her. They just sort of… rallied around her. My boys can't get her out."

Holy fuck they had taken her in. They had put her general pop and the boys had taken her in as one of their own. Who the fuck was this girl?

"Where is she?"

"In the yard."

Sam stormed away from him, looked out the window and sure enough there she was. Sitting in a beach chair, her dress folded up beside her, in nothing but a bra and shorts he was certain weren't hers, just fucking tanning. Firstly, the fact that she was half naked and unafraid told him just how safe she felt in that yard with those men pacing about her, and secondly how did she get a fucking lawn chair? That was contraband!

Fucking. Hell.

He turned back to them. "Your men, with all the authority and guns, can't get her out?"

"Not without possibly hurting her, no," the head guard told him with a shrug. "Every time we try to go in, dey swarm her and we lose her in the crowd. We'd need to get her to come to us, but she's uh… being difficult."

Of course she was, why would she be cooperative? Alexander glanced back to where he could make out Rowan in the yard and then back to them. "Alright, have your boys come with me, I'll get her out."

It took a while of coordinating, apparently the other guards hadn't wanted to come with him, hadn't wanted to try and get her out. They were afraid, he could tell by their whispers, they were afraid of her.

Fuck, who wasn't afraid of her? Maybe this was a bad idea. Maybe… maybe he should have just taken Williams.

Still he got them out into the courtyard, they took two steps in Rowan's direction and those pacing men, led by a giant bear of a man with a giant loping happy grin formed a tight circle around them. Cries came from the holding cells, the guards were trying to keep them at bay, but Alexander wouldn't have long before they stampeded towards them.

"Rowan Pierce!" he shouted over the din, but Rowan didn't move. She merely sat back kept her eyes shut and answered with a condescendingly high pitched: "Present."

This fucking bitch.

"Very funny, call them off and get over here."

"No thank you," she answered primly. "I'm working on my tan until further notice."

Alexander groaned. "If you don't get over here…"

"What?" she asked suddenly sitting up and turning to him. "What are you going to do? Fly back to Hawaii and get Williams? You're gonna double arrest me? You got nothing…"

"I've got info on Steven," he offered. "Don't you want to know how he's doing? What he's doing to get you out?"

At that Rowan straightened. He had a feeling that Steve and Rowan had the same weakness… and it was each other.

"That's right your precious McGarrett is running around helplessly trying to get you out of this, and you're making it harder for him. Do you think this is making it easier for him to get out you?" he asked. "If you come over here now, I'll let you call him, I'll let you call Nahele, wouldn't you like that?"

Rowan blinked her eyes at him but she finally stood up, she picked up her dress and pulled it over her head before shimmying out of her borrowed shorts and slipping back into her shoes. She put a hand to the bear's shoulder but still he didn't relent.

"Hey Sunny, it's okay, you can stand down," she whispered to him. "I'm going to go with them…"

"If you go with them, we can't stop them from… hurting you," he said back, his eyes staying on Alexander, boring into him in an untrusting manner, as if he knew that he didn't have anything good planned for her.

Rowan seemed to realize it as well but she smiled encouragingly, albeit quite shakily, and told him that it was okay. She knew what she was getting into.

She hugged him tightly, thanked him for helping her and then surrendered herself to Alexander and the guards. And not a moment too soon, because as soon as they got the gate locked behind them, the rioting men all broke free chanting the same phrase over and over.

 _Activar Santuario._

Alexander didn't need a translator for that one. They were calling for the activation of Sanctuary. He had absolutely no idea what Sanctuary was, but if it made Rowan smile like that it couldn't be good for him.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Gabriel had been surprised when Coughlin showed up with a man in tow he was certain was not the lawyer he claimed to be. There was something about those cold unfeeling brown eyes that sent a shiver up his spine. Paired with a wolfish pointy grin, like the man couldn't wait to devour him, made him more than nervous.

But it was when Coughlin slapped the papers down, a paper trail for his missing money that said that _Gabriel himself_ had transferred the money to someone else for safe keeping, months before Chin even came to speak to him that first time, that Gabriel knew he was screwed. Fully and completely screwed.

Coughlin had chewed him out. Said that he was going to refuse to let Chin go. So long as Gabriel could swear he came to ask for the money, they could still get Chin on bribery. The lawyer, Montoya, who was supposed to be Chin's lawyer said nothing, didn't even seemed phased.

In fact, he seemed interested more interested in Gabriel. He had asked Coughlin to leave but he refused so Montoya had turned to Gabriel and asked: "Hablas español?"

"Si."

"You can't talk to him…" "—Are you going to leave?" "… Well… no…" "Then shut up."

And from there the conversation was in Spanish.

"Do you know why I'm here?"

"To clear Chin's name…"

"No, I'm here because they couldn't find you in lock up and you were due for a beating," he said and Gabriel felt his mouth run dry. Damn, alright, so Fat _had_ sent someone, the question was how was he going to beat him here under the protection of IA? He must have noted the panicked look on his face because Montoya leant close to him and snarled: "That's not the plan anymore."

"What is the plan?"

"I'm waiting for further instruction," he answered clasping his hands together. "I guess it will depend on how much of this deal of yours is connected to Rowan Peirce's arrest."

"Wait! Rowan?" Coughlin suddenly interrupted in English causing both of them to look at him. "You just said Rowan Pierce? What does she have to do with any of this?"

Montoya turned an icy glare to him and Coughlin stared him down, while looking quite nervous. Man, this guy had no backbone.

"Can I question my witness please?" Montoya asked. "Without interruptions? I mean, you hid him so you wouldn't get any interruptions, sorry I couldn't be as underhanded as you…"

Coughlin scoffed at him and said nothing. So Montoya turned back to him.

"How much of this involves her?" he asked him in Spanish again, Gabriel almost wanted to answer in English, but there was a dangerous Edge to Montoya that worried him. He figured playing nice would work out for him in the long run so he made sure to answer in Spanish.

"Other than I'm sure that bitch stole my money, nothing. Well other than the IA man wanting to sync it up with Williams' arrest, cause he figured that they'd be… distracted…"

Not a smart move if they asked him, but it got him out of lock up and one step closer to escaping as planned he'd take it. But now with this man being sent by Fat to find him, he wasn't certain if that was going to go to plan now.

"That may just save you," Montoya said digging into his pocket to pull out a phone. No doubt to report that to Wo Fat. "Right now, his main concern is her, but he's still upset with you for your past transgressions. We'll see what he has me do."

"Who… who are you?"

"I am no one. No one of your concern anyway," he answered quickly. "You should be more concerned with how mad he is, cause after the stunt the CIA pulled he is far from a good mood."

Gabriel sat back. He had no doubt that informing his IA guards that Montoya wasn't a lawyer wasn't going to help him. This man, was confident enough to make it his far, he no doubt could take them all. But the good thing was that this was a hired gun, which meant, if he could, he could probably convince him to turn on Fat, he just needed the time to do it.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

 _Slap_.

Rowan bit back the cry but couldn't help but cringe.

Sam Alexander was nothing but a liar. She never got to phone Steve, or Nahele. All he did was take her to an interrogation room, cuff her to the table and slam a phone in front of her. It was almost like a burner phone except it was an iPhone and on the screen was her app. Where the hell had he gotten her app? And what could he want with it?

First he wanted her to use it to find the drugs. And she refused because she wasn't a snitch like that. Then he wanted her to contact Wo Fat, and she refused because he had left her to go into General Population and she was certain he was angry with her and wasn't about to help. And let's be honest, she didn't want them to exploit her, her app or her brother like that.

 _Arrest by CIA confirmed. Location confirmed. Possible abuse and torture. Rescue team on Stand-by. Confirmation needed._

Poor Sandy. She was freaking out. But that didn't mean that Rowan was going to confirm anything.

"Tell her to connect you Wo Fat," he ordered again but Rowan shook her head. He raised his hand to slap her for the sixth time and she ducked away from him.

"No! I'm not doing it!" she snapped. "I don't care how many times you hit me I'm not calling him!"

"Do you know what we're going to do to you if you don't?" he asked. "Do you know what I can do?" She knew what he could do, she knew what he was threatening, and while she was afraid, while she was certain that if he brought out actual torture techniques and tools she'd probably buckle and call for Wo Fat but that didn't mean she was going to tell him that. Alexander glared down at her. "If you don't start cooperating things are going to get more… uncomfortable… for you…"

"Things are already uncomfortable," she whispered. "Like… you really need a breath mint. And you still smell like vomit… maybe you should just buy new shoes."

For a moment he just glared at her and then, quick as a viper, he back handed her. That time he had hit her so hard she felt her cheek split against his knuckles. That time she couldn't help it, she yelped.

"This little act you have has stopped being cute," he growled. "If you don't want me to get violent with you, if you don't want to get a little… shock therapy, then shut her down and call your fucking brother."

Rowan stared at him almost shakily before turning her eyes to the phone where Sandy was waiting for her commands.

"Fine… you want me to talk to her?" she said and he smiled, smiled happily at her like he had won. "Sandy, it's Professional. I'm A-okay time to go night night."

 _Situation neutralized. Shutting down Sanctuary. Have a nice day, Professional._

And then the app closed. Alexander stared down at the phone in shock. "Did you just… did you just shut her down? Are you out of your goddamn mind? Do you think this is a game? Do you think I won't torture you or that I won't leave you alone with the guards as a play thing? You don't think they've been eyeing you? You don't think they don't want a taste of the Great Pierce the Destroyer?"

That was a heavy handed threat. It made her stomach turn and her heart heave. She just wanted to go home and to be honest she wasn't certain how to answer his questions. But luckily she didn't have to answer.

The door loudly banged opened as a man let himself in and then shut the door behind him. He turned, a warm grin on his face, as he took in the surprised faces all turned in his direction. But Rowan couldn't help but let out a string of shaky laughs because she recognized the man who had just walked in and she had never been happier to see Armando in her whole fucking life.

"Who the hell are you?" Alexander asked as the man approached Rowan, who could only stare up at him with watering blue eyes, so happy and exhausted. But if this really was a rescue where was her brother?

"I'm Miss. Pierce's attorney," he said coming to stand over her. He turned that fake warm smile away from him and back down to her, becoming a softer smile the second he was looking into her eyes. "Are you okay?"

"No. I'm freaked out, and scared. I'm dirty and hungry. I really need to pee and he keeps hitting me," Rowan whined.

"Interrogation rules are a little different in Colombia," Alexander said with a smug grin.

But Armando had her chin in his hand and seemed to be looking her over, inspecting her tear stained face for damage before he turned his dangerous glare onto Alexander who actually frowned. "How… how exactly did you know your client was here?"

"Got an alert," he said quickly, pulling Rowan to her feet. "And a call from a concerned citizen. It's time I took Rowan home."

Alexander was slowly going for his gun. "You're not taking her anywhere…" out in the hallway came three gunshots. Two quick, one on its own a beat after the two in quick succession. She knew that pattern.

Alexander shouted something in Spanish that Rowan didn't catch but clearly Armando did because he just laughed. "They're not going to come help you. They gave you up to us the second we crossed the threshold."

The door opened again and someone else came into the room. Rowan turned and there he was his hands absently fiddling with the cuffs of his nicely pressed grey suit. A motion she now knew was a nervous tick. He looked up to her, the look on his face more than intimidating. Oh Wo Fat was not happy. And all she wanted to do was hug him but she didn't cause he had his serious business face on.

"I've done what I can but we'll have to go with Plan B," he told Armando who just nodded. Wo Fat walked past him, his cold dark eyes on Rowan "I can take it from here. Why don't you see to the… car?"

Armando nodded to him and turned away. It was at that moment that Wo Fat turned his angry eyes up to the agent in front of him and Alexander swore, his gun properly drawn and aimed at them.

"Am I taking her now?" Armando asked unaffected by the gun in Alexander's hand. It took a shake of her hands and a small bolt of void power for the handcuffs to clatter to the table, they all turned to her, Wo Fat and Armando unaffected by it, albeit a bit curious, while Alexander groaned, but before he could edge towards her to get her contained again she got up. Immediately she was in between them, in front of Armando and behind Wo Fat and safely away from Alexander.

Wo half turned to him. "I don't want to chance gun play with her in the vicinity, she'll stay with me for now," he told him. "We'll be out in just a moment, have the motor running."

Armando smiled to her but made sure she stayed back and behind Wo Fat who glared at Alexander whose gun was now shaking in his hands. With Armando gone Rowan slowly moved towards him, just slightly peeking out behind him, only to be swept safely behind him and out of view.

"You've got to be kidding me!" he cried. Rowan reached for Wo Fat who was slowly heading towards Alexander and his shaking gun, leaving her in the corner of the room. "She said you two were done. They said…"

"That we weren't talking?" Wo Fat taunted. "Fight or no, she's my sister. I had a body chopped into pieces and mailed to you because you dared to send a puny little drug pusher down to threaten her friend and she just happened to get involved. It didn't cross your mind that I'd have no problem breaking into a Colombian prison to get her back?"

He slowly, with his hands raised, crossed the room towards Alexander who's gun had started to waver and wobble in his hand. "But that was the play wasn't it? You wanted me here, you wanted me to know you took her, because you knew I had the drugs. You figured you'd take my sister make me cave, right? Well, you've got what you wanted. Here I am. Go on. Throw out some ultimatums. I want to hear what you thought I'd agree to for her."

For a moment Alexander was silent. Rowan sort of felt bad for him. It was something completely different, thinking you're going to negotiate with someone like Wo Fat and then actually having to do it. She bet he thought he'd be able to do it over the phone.

"No? Nothing? None of this _give me the drugs or I'll keep her here_?" Wo Fat taunted. "Is that because you know if I got in, I'll get out and I'll be taking her with me? Afraid? Sam Alexander? Are you afraid that you may have bitten off more than you can chew? Well I'm a merciful man, Alexander. You tell me what you have to offer and maybe I won't end your life for even thinking of ransoming my sister against me."

"Offer you… I think… I think it's the other way around…"

"Are you sure? Take a look around you. General population bowed down to her simply because they knew I wouldn't be happy if any of them touched her, what do you think they'll do for me? All I have to do is open that door, throw you into the pen and let them do the rest. What's stopping me, hmmm?"

"Killing me won't save her. Not since she confessed."

"Yes, I had heard about that," he mused. And then turned to her. "How many times have I warned you about being noble? How did it work out for you this time?"

Rowan just stared at him. Really they were going to do that now? "I want to go home, Wo," she said starting to cry a bit. "I just want to go home."

Wo Fat seemed to think about it. He looked back at Alexander with a sigh and once again turned away from him, having no issue with turning his back on a law enforcement agent and his drawn gun. "Alright, I'm bored with this anyway," he said, crossing back towards her. He got a good look at her and suddenly paused, his eyes narrowing at her. "What happened to your face?"

"He hit me," she whispered to him. "Six times, he's hit me six times!"

Wo Fat slowly turned back to Alexander, the look on his face enough to have Alexander take a step back. "Okay we're not going home yet," he growled, quickly taking off his suit jacket and handing it to her. "There's candy in the inside pocket, pull 'n peel twizzlers, your favourite," he said to her before turning around fully, that dangerous glare back onto Alexander who was backing away from him. "I'm going to make sure you regret that... ten-fold. "

Alexander raised that gun again but it was too late, Wo Fat had thrown the first hit. A quick swing towards Alexander's gun hand. The gun clattered out of his hold and then Wo Fat truly decked him. The thin red-headed man went down immediately. Rowan merely watched it all uninterestedly, there really was candy in his pocket for her and she was busy pulling it apart as her brother beat the shit out of Alexander.

Beside her someone began pounding on the door. Wo Fat stopped kicking Alexander and turned to her. "Uh… barricade that," he ordered and then he knelt down, his knee literally in Alexander's chest, grabbed him by the front of his shirt and then slammed his fist into his face ten more times. As he did that Rowan picked up the chair she had discarded and then put it up under the door handle. That was about the best she could do.

It was the loud gunshot that got her. She yelped and whirled around, but it was only Wo Fat, carefully putting his gun away, leaving Alexander on the floor.

"What did… did you just…" she cried.

"No. It was only the shoulder. I'm going to kill him later, just want him to suffer a bit… if I'm lucky he'll bleed out," he said.

"What? But… that's what got us in this mess in the first place!" she cried. "And this is not going to prove me innocent!"

"You're not innocent, which is why I'm so surprised that you confessed in the first place, what were you thinking?"

"That Danny had a kid to go home to…"

"Don't you too, isn't that the new intel, that you adopted a kid?" he asked.

"Foster, I'm fostering a kid."

"Again… how noble of you," he drawled and she just scowled at him.

"Wo this is serious!"

"Yes, I know, which is why I have a plan to fix your noble stupidity, but right now, right now I need you to be calm, and just listen to your _aniue_ , so we can get out of here. Can you do that?"

 _Her big brother_. Awwwww. Rowan nodded and all was quiet for all of two seconds before the pounding on the door got her attention again, especially since it sounded like the thing was going to come off its hinges. "And how are we going to get out of here if we've barricaded the door? I thought you said that general population was going to bow down to you."

"Yes, and they would. But the guards are probably more than a little pissed off that I shot their illustriously corrupt Warden. Now, we're not going to walk out the door, we're going to walk out the hole in the wall," Wo Fat growled. It was then she noticed the phone in his hands. Ah no… no… that couldn't be good. But she didn't get a chance to complain, he had already thrown her into the corner and braced himself over her.

Just as the explosion shook the building, decimated the room and the rubble caved in above them.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

They had called Grover on the way to the airport, Coughlin was refusing to release Chin, but it was clear his one defence had been blown wide open by finding out that Gabriel had transferred the money himself. Which was shocking to them, because Rowan had confessed to doing it. That must have meant that Wo Fat had made it look like Gabriel had done it which would have been ingenious if someone had told Rowan that. Then his girl wouldn't have tried to take the fall for it.

The flight to Colombia was hellish. It took WAY too long to get there, and then way too long to get off base to where they'd be allowed to rent a helicopter to get to the drugs. He had entrusted all those details to Joe which lead to his mentor taking them to Ortega to meet Frank Bama. The same Frank Bama who had got them the bird last time to rescue Steve from Wo Fat two, maybe three, years ago. He had a new bird but the same attitude, and he was the one who was going to get them to the refinery.

It had been a full 24 hours since Steve had last seen Rowan, had had her in his arms and it was showing. He hadn't smiled, his face was in a permanent frown and he had gotten so fucking twitchy you would have thought he was withdrawing off a very strong drug. He had changed into his battle outfit, all black. Black tee-shirt, black unmarked Kevlar, black cargo pants he couldn't wait to catch hell for wearing, and the thigh holsters she loved so much. He was sporting enough hardware to start a war, they all were.

They were in the air for ten minutes when the chatter from the ground started to fire off in their ears. When he had landed Rowan's phone had gone crazy. He had briefly looked all the alerts over before his eyes glazed over and figured that he'd check it the list of instructions as needed.

"Steve, I got radio contact with the ground asking us to identify ourselves," Bama called from the cockpit.

Steve pulled out Rowan's phone where a list of instructions were awaiting him courtesy of Sandy and Wo Fat, good thing he was ready for this. He read it over and quickly and sighed. Fuck. He didn't want to say any of this out loud, he was starting to think that Wo Fat had designed this whole list to humiliate him.

"Uh… uh… tell them… tell them… We come in Peace and uh tell them we're… we're… god I don't want to say this. Tell them we're Master sent."

He avoided everyone's eyes when he said it, it embarrassed him too much to have to say it. But Frank Bama repeated it no problem and as soon as he said it the chatter all but ceased. He guffed at the silence and half turned to where Steve was sitting with Danny beside him and Joe across from him.

"Well shit. They've never done that before. Got anymore magic codes?"

Steve shook his head and glanced back at Joe, waiting to see if he was going to make another comment about Wo Fat's pull and how this was an awful lot of power to be flexing for a girl that was no longer a part of his life. Steve believed Rowan when she said the two of them weren't talking, or at least he did… until this had happened.

To soothe his fears he fiished the ring out of his pocket. He also had his dogtags for her too since he knew how much she liked it. But it was the ring he was fiddling between his fingers, letting it twinkle in the light, that he was desperate to get back to her. It should be on her finger, she should be with him.

"Is there something you wanted to tell me kid?" Joe asked.

"She's not talking to him, okay?" Steve snapped bitterly. "She said that she wasn't in contact with him, that she hadn't forgiven him for torturing me and I believe her."

He sunk in his seat, fisting the ring in his grip and glared at Joe who smiled at him. "I know," he said. "But that's not what I'm talking about, I was talking about that ring you got in your hand. You gonna propose to someone, son?"

Steve glanced down to his hand and then showed him the ring. "It's a promise ring," Steve answered.

"We all told him not to do it," Danny said and Steve scowled at him.

"That's not true, everyone else was super on board, only Danny wasn't… and he's just pessimistic and… okay you know what? Rowan loves this ring," he said. "And when I get her back I'm gonna give it back to her."

Joe seemed to nod as he thought that over. "You and her are really serious then?"

Steve nodded and Joe seemed to think that over. "Okay… well… then I can tell you that when I was with her for two weeks in a small quarantine room, not once did she get a call from him, or any suspicious calls at all. All she ever did was call you, or Nahele." Whoa. Wow, that… that actually made him feel better. "But uh… talking about quarantine… you know that I know you were survelling me while I was in there right?"

"Oh it wasn't just you, he was surveilling Rowan too," Danny said, crossing his legs as if he didn't just throw him under the bus.

"Okay… yeah… I figured…"

"How did you find out?"

"It's _her_ app. You had her own app tracking her. It fucking updates her Steve, she knew the second she got the phone out because it said told her that someone named codename Jersey had linked it up to the hospital feeds."

Danny raised his hand as if he were answering a question. "That would be me."

Joe nodded as if that information meant something to him. Steve merely scowled at the two of them. "She didn't say anything…"

"Probably because she got why you did it. Just like I do. Or maybe it's because when she found out I told her you were surveilling me but her app was probably the easiest way to get it done. But just like you should be trusting her, you should be trusting me."

"Okay, just give me a reason, Joe?"

"Well how about I tell you how I knew Rowan and Danny were about to get arrested. I can tell you who gave me the Sandpiper file?"

"Sure? I'd love to know who owes you, Joe," Steve said with a sigh, because really that didn't matter to him.

"Well it's not about who owes me, but who owes you," he said. But that didn't make sense. "It was your mother."

Well that was… that was… surprising… that his mother was looking out for Rowan.

"She didn't do that for…"

"Oh yes she did. She did do that for you. She knows how important that girl is to you, how important Danny is and she uh… she stepped up."

Steve thought about that a moment. That was very nice of her. It didn't excuse what she did, that she let Wo Fat torture him, or that she still hadn't come back or attempted to talk to him but at least she, you know, tried. Steve sat back and thought about everything, purposely ignoring Danny's questioning gaze and Joe's calm and patient one. He didn't know what to say, he was too busy worrying about Rowan to really digest that information.

Luckily they left him alone with his thoughts until they had to land. The list didn't say anything about having to land elsewhere so they chose to land outside the facility. Frank Bama cut the engines, and with guns at the ready they headed towards the oil refinery. But it turned out that they didn't need to worry about that either.

The drugs were all neatly packaged and ready to go. Not a single shot was fired. The men all watched as they loaded the drugs into the copter, hands raised in surrender. They didn't move. They didn't say a thing. The leader of the outfit had approached them with extreme caution, a simple black-leather-bound ledger in his shaking hands offered out to them.

"Tell him we cooperated," he said, his accent thick his voice shaking. "Tell him we did all he asked."

Frank Bama half laughed. "Shit man, never seen them do that before either. Who the hell are we working with and uh… can I always work for them?"

Steve ignored Frank and nodded to the leader as they went about packing. Once they were done, once they were up in the air again he got attacked by Joe.

"I thought you said the two of them were done kid," Joe reminded him.

"They are," Steve growled.

"One doesn't do stuff like this for someone they're done with. Especially an unfeeling sociopath like Wo Fat," Joe snapped right back as Steve got into the driver's seat.

"Yeah, except Wo Fat found feelings when he found Rowan," Danny reminded Joe. "You wouldn't think it was true, but trust me when I say I've seen it."

They were quiet until they got back to the airfield. They were quiet as they got the drugs into the van. And they were quiet as Steve started driving. But he wasn't on the road out of the airfield for more than thirty seconds before Rowan's phone began to ring. He answered it quickly, knowing exactly who it was.

"Have you picked up what I needed?" he asked.

"Yes and Rowan?" Steve asked.

"She's… detained," Wo Fat said and Steve swore loudly.

"You said you were going to get her," he reminded him.

"I am not taking on the CIA and an army of corrupt Colombian prison guards on my own," Wo Fat snapped. "Now that we have what they want, I can barter for her. Less of a chance that any of us will get killed in a shootout, and an even less chance of Rowan getting stuck in the crosshairs."

Steve stayed silent. Wo Fat had a point but that didn't mean he liked it. He wanted Rowan to be safe, he wanted Rowan out of that god damn prison. He wanted her unharmed and back in his arms again and he wasn't going to be okay until that happened.

"Now, I'm going to text you an address, bring the stuff there, then we'll make a play for Rowan, okay?"

"Wait are you… are you in Colombia?"

"Yes."

"How long have you been here…?"

"The whole time," he answered and Steve scowled.

"And you couldn't come get the drugs you stashed yourself?" he snapped. Wo Fat just laughed at him which infuriated him further. "Stop laughing! This isn't funny…"

"I can't be everywhere at once. I told you, I was dealing with Rowan."

"You've haven't done anything!" he shouted. "She's been in that prison for more than 24 hours! And you've got me running all over Colombia…"

"I don't have time your hysterics, McGarrett. Bring me the drugs, bring the book, and we'll get that girl of yours you refuse to call your girlfriend, but seem to care _oh so much_ for," he growled.

Wo Fat hung up the phone and Steve threw his phone down violently. "When the text comes in tell me," he snapped to Danny who was snatching it up.

"Any chance I can talk you into calming down?" Danny asked.

"No," Steve growled and that was enough to keep both Danny AND Joe were quiet for the rest of the trip.


	183. Chapter 183

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hello my wonderful readers! I'm hope you guys are enjoying the 7 day marathon. This is the second last chapter in this saga. I know this is going on FOREVER! But this has a lot of cute stuff for you guys to get excited over, like Rowan and Steve being reunited. And once this episode is done we get to look forward to Steve and Nahele's birthday which I promise will be adorable! Hopefully you guys are looking forward to this as much as I am. Side note, would you guys be interested in a smutty sex scene between Wo Fat and Jian? Tell me what you think! Don't forget to leave a review, and I'll see you tomorrow!_

Chapter 183

* * *

Rowan had slept during the ride back to Armando's and Wo Fat didn't care. The poor girl had been nothing but stressed for the last 32 hours or more, he was surprised she didn't collapse earlier. The whole ride was reminiscent of the first day he had met her, where Rowan slept on his lap and he had an arm draped over her shoulder while she clung to his leg. He was still shaking. Still absolutely shocked he had managed to pull it off, but he limited his twitching to his fingers that played with the ends of Rowan's long, very tangled and dirty, red-blonde hair.

When they got back to the house, she was roused, put into a shower were she washed off 32 hours of dirt, and then she was put into clothes that he had picked out the day before for her. He had called McGarrett to check on progress and was informed that he had picked up the shipment and was on his way to Armando's compound. They were one step closer to ending this situation. One step closer to Wo Fat getting his sister back in his life.

When Rowan bounded out onto the back patio she was in dark blue denim shorts and an off the shoulder green sweater. She did like her baggy clothes, so he had more than delivered. He smiled happily at the girl he now lovingly called his sister and let her jump into his arms for a proper hug.

He smiled into her hair, fully remembering why it was he liked having her around. Because with her, he was normal, he was human, and he was loved.

"I've never been more happy to see you in my life," she whispered to him and the grin on his face widened.

He let her go to take stock of her. She had all her parts, a few scrapes, a few bruises but otherwise she looked to be in perfect health. It hit him again that this could have gone a completely different way. That had he not been called at the right time, something terrible could have happened to her. And that, of course, trusting Steven McGarrett with her safety had been the stupidest decision he had ever made.

"Alexander said Steve was doing something to get me out," she said to him and just like that that happy feeling was gone. "I don't want him doing the CIA's dirty work, can I call him? Can I tell him that I'm okay?"

"No need, I've done that for you," Wo Fat said, which was a complete and utter lie. Steve thought her to still be detained, but he _was_ on his way with everything Wo Fat would need to get Rowan out from under the CIA and the murder confession.

"Really?"

"Well of course," he said calmly. "I've been in contact with him since you were extradited. The little hypocrite called me through your app the second he realized he'd need me…"

"Of course he'd need you, you took the drugs."

Wo Fat stared at her calmly. This had taken its toll on her, he could tell, by the way she stood arms crossed over her chest in a protective stance and the bags under her eyes. He took her immediately to the pool side lounge chairs where he sat her down and poured her what he hoped was just a regular lemonade and not one of Armando's heavy handed concoctions. He took a sip before handing it to her, yep no alcohol in that one.

She thanked him as he sat himself down in the chair across from her.

She carefully looked up to him, tears in her big blue eyes. "Not to be ungrateful," she whispered. "But… I told you to hide the body… not cut it up into ten pieces and mail it back to the CIA."

Wo Fat nodded. "Yes. I know."

"So why did you…"

"Because they sent Reyes down for a reason. And that was to put pressure on William's to put pressure on you so you'd put pressure on me. It was an indirect ransoming and I took exception to it."

She sighed and nodded and he nodded with her. "Granted it opened up the door to them directly ransoming you against me," he admitted. "But until you confessed, the plan was to once again put pressure on Williams, to put pressure on you to put pressure on me. You should have never confessed, _imouto_."

"Okay, you know what, I don't need this right now, okay?" she snapped. "You fucked up, I fucked up, let's move on huh?"

Wo Fat half smiled, but decided to take her advice. "Alright fine. Want to explain how to me how it came to be that you and Steven now have a fourteen year old child?"

Rowan's smile immediately widened and he found himself smiling too, because this kid made her happy and he liked his sister happy.

"So Nahele stole Steven's car…"

"Wait, the kid stole Commander Steven McGarrett's Silverado and lived to tell the tale?"

"No, his Marquis…"

"What? Why? That car is…" "A piece of shit," they said together and they both laughed.

"Don't tell him I said that, it was his father's and well… he loves that car," she whispered. "But yeah, Nahele stole it, Steven found him, heard his back story and was gonna let him off with a warning but then I met him and thought… you know… I could make this child's life better so I went through the steps to become a foster parent, and he's my foster kid now."

"Wait… _your_ foster kid?" Wo Fat asked picking up that she hadn't included Steve in that. When she gave him a wide eyed guilty look he knew he had heard that correctly. "Wait… so… wait… Steve's not… he let you do that by yourself?"

"Well… you know… you know how he is with commitment…"

Wo Fat scowled at her. "You've got to be kidding me, you're telling me that man _still_ hasn't locked you down _and_ let you take on a foster kid without him? What… what the hell is wrong with him?"

"Now wait a second!" Rowan cried. "I chose to do this by myself, because I didn't want Steve to freak out. He's been very supportive and very helpful, he's a foster parent in every way except on paper. And he did too lock me down. I'm his official girlfriend and everything now. He even gave me a promise ring."

She flashed him her fingers, her empty, ringless fingers for a few seconds before realizing he was looking at nothing. She lowered her hand sheepishly and muttered: "I forgot they confiscated my things. But I did have a ring, I swear. It's a tiara, with a little sky blue sapphire…"

But Wo Fat was far from impressed. Instead he rolled his eyes and asked: "And what exactly is he promising to you with that ring?"

"Well that eventually we'll…" "I doubt its marriage, because if he was promising to marry you one day why not call it an engagement ring?" he interrupted and Rowan scowled at him. It took 8 months to get a label, she wasn't going to push him on a marriage, or propose. The man was an emotional flight risk and they both knew that.

"Okay, you know what, enough about me. What about you, what have you been doing?" she asked him.

Wo Fat shrugged. "I haven't been doing anything…"

"Lies," Rowan said shooting him a prim look. "You showed up on Hawaii, after being done with me, and set up several date like activities for two in the art world. Who's the girl and how long you been fucking?"

Damn she was observant. He had hoped that when she stole his reservations she hadn't wondered why they were in sets of two. No point lying to her now though. With her there, maybe she could help him with his dilemma.

"Her name is Jian, and I've been… or, well, I was dating her."

Rowan squealed excitedly and grabbed his hand. "You were _dating_?!" she cried. "Okay, so like, how did you meet her? What is she like? What does she do?"

Oh Rowan and her questions. "She's a doctor, that's how I met her, I got shot and she tended to me," he told her. A flash of panic crossed Rowan's face and he put a hand out to her to calm her down. "I'm fine, it was a flesh wound at best. She owns a small clinic, and she's a mob doctor. Not by choice though. She's a very practical pragmatic kind of woman, she's often stoic and unfeeling, sort of like me, but she has her moments where she is a bit like you."

"Like me? Why would you want her to be like me?"

"Well… that's not what I meant. I mean in the sense that she makes me feel emotions and like she doesn't try to… it's just a natural sort of reaction with her. Or in the way she is unflappingly supportive of everything I do, and accepting of me no matter what I do. You don't have to worry, she looks nothing like you, she sometimes has similar mannerisms, but I assumed that to be me missing you and seeing things that remind me of you everywhere. I'm told that that is a frequent side effect of a break up."

That seemed to lessen her worry because she was suddenly bouncing and crying: "Awww, I bet she's pretty, is she pretty? Can I see a picture?"

All the pictures of him and Jian were on her phone. He shook his head. "No, I don't have one," he told her causing her to frown. "But she is pretty, very pretty. Not classically pretty, she's very tall and very lean, but her hair is just a little past shoulder length, and pin straight and her eyes are these pools of amber gold, you know if the light hits her right… and she's got this smile, you know? Just like a… why are you looking at me like that?"

Rowan had gotten this smile, this soft like smile like she was in absolute awe of him, but her eyes had started to water and he couldn't fathom what he had said to cause her to cry.

"You just… you sound really happy, like you really like this girl, like real emotions and everything and I just thought that… maybe… you'd never have that and I'm just really happy that you found it," she said smiling at him and he smiled too because he was glad it made her happy, she then pinned him with a serious frown. "Now tell me why it's a past-tense relationship. What happened? What did you do?"

Wo Fat's eyebrows raised up in surprise. Goddamn he had forgotten how good she was at reading him.

He let out a big heavy sigh. "I unno, it was just a fucked up situation," he said. "Jian, she wanted me to move in with her and, I just, that scared me you know? I mean, we had only been seeing each other few months and I… I didn't want to do but she was insisting so I was willing to cave. Then she got arrested in connection to something I had done, because the local law enforcement had, I guess, figured out that we were connected and I… well… I got scared. I realized that, well, while I liked her very much, I was dangerous for her…"

"Oh my god, you McGarrett'ed her!" Rowan cried.

Wo Fat straightened and blinked his eyes. "Excuse me?"

But Rowan was too busy laughing at him. He didn't find it funny at all.

"Oh. My. God! You two _really are_ related! You pulled a McGarrett!" Rowan crowed. Wo Fat scowled, no, no he was not like McGarrett, he was more sophisticated, stronger, he was suave and debonair, while McGarrett was nothing more than a caveman in cargo pants, no, she was wrong.

"Take that back," he said frowning at her but Rowan just laughed louder. He let her laugh it out, glaring at her until she was calm enough to talk to him.

"Look, you did what Steve did to me. Your emotions got too real and you ran. You ran all the way to Colombia."

"No! I didn't… I didn't want to go to Colombia, I merely proposed a break, just to lay low until law enforcement got off her back and then I was going to come back. Jian was the one who said move in with me or get out of my life."

Rowan blinked her eyes. "I mean, okay, I get what you're saying. She could have been a bit more supportive of the situation, you were trying to keep her from getting arrested, so that was definitely her being unreasonable, but it doesn't change the fact that this all started because you caught feelings a little too quick and you ran away cause they scared you and you couldn't handle it."

Wo Fat blinked his eyes at her. That was what he had done in a sense, the realization must have been on his face because Rowan was smiling again. "You, my friend, pulled a classic McGarrett," she said that smug grin on her face, a smile he thought he'd never miss but clearly had. "I am glad to see that it runs in the family."

Wo Fat shook his head. "I'm going to ignore that vicious attack on my character, and I'm just going to ask you what you would do to fix it?"

"What would I do?" she echoed. She didn't even think about it, he didn't even complete the nod, she immediately spit out: "I'd apologize."

"Okay, what would you do to apologize and not damage your pride?" he rephrased.

Rowan hit him with a condescending smile. "Yeah… there's no saving your pride for this one…" she said. "Oh, oh, you could go for a joke? Something corny, like oh… how about: _hey Doc, you got a cure for a broken heart_?"

Wo Fat couldn't help it he let out a scoff of derision and shook his head. "See!" Rowan cried. "So corny it put an instant smile on your face. It should do the same for her, and then you can hit her with an explanation of what was going on in your head, kinda like you just did for me, apologize for being stupid and either knuckle under or come up with a compromise."

Wo Fat nodded. "So… like every time Steven fucked up and you would accept his mediocre apology and then knuckle under for him?"

"Okay, don't be mean, we're talking about your fucked up relationship not mine," she said shoving him playfully.

"Hey, as long as you know it's fucked up, eh?" he offered and she shoved him again. As they devolved into play fighting, as they usually did, the smile on his face grew larger. Because he had missed having his sister in his life and he was very glad to have her back in it.

When they were done wrestling, which coincidentally was when Sandy hit him with a message that Steve was on the road and getting closer, Wo Fat pulled her up to her feet to get her inside.

"I was hoping to use the phone to call Nahele," she said softly and he nodded.

"I can definitely set that up for you, but first I've set up a surprise for you," he whispered, taking her back into the house and leading her towards the ballroom. The surprise was essential as he had a plan of action for when McGarrett got to the house that was meant to keep the two of them apart until he was done.

"You do? Why?" she asked, her tone as suspicious as the narrowed look on her face.

"Just thought it would be nice to have something to perk you up since I know you've been anxious, and to keep you busy while I finish things up," he said. He opened up the doors to a darkened ballroom where there were flashing lights, a punch and snack table, and an uncoordinated JC was already dancing to the loud music.

Wo Fat had created this little dance/rave thing because he needed her suitably distracted, and he needed her unable to hear Steve when he eventually went wild and started shouting for her. She had always had a flirtatious sort of thing with JC and he was sort of hoping if he left the two together again it might start up again. He may not have liked JC but he could control the boy much better than he could control McGarrett.

Rowan squealed with happiness and rushed to hug Juan Carlos who was equally as happy to see her. Wo Fat smiled, already the plan was working.

"Alright, you enjoy your dance party, I will call for you when Steve gets here, alright?" he said, though he knew if he could swing, she'd never know that Steve came. "Just uh… promise me you'll stay here? I don't want a repeat of the karaoke night incident, okay?"

Rowan waved him away already going for the snack table, poor girl was probably starving and he shut the doors behind him. But he was smart enough to wait for the music to start playing before locking her inside. Just to be sure, of course, that she would stay where he told her to. He checked his phone again, in a half hour this would be over, in a half hour he'd get what he'd want, or Steven McGarrett would never see Rowan again.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

They were pulling into the driveway when Joe got a call. He took it out of the van, as men with submachine guns came at them to get the drugs out of the back. Steve and Danny stood with their arms raised as these men took their weapons and then pointed them in the direction of the giant Tuscan looking mansion standing before them.

Where the hell had Wo Fat sent them? It looked like a Colombian Playboy mansion.

Joe came back, no longer on the phone looking all sorts of suspicious. He too had given his guns to the men surrounding them but Steve had a feeling that wasn't what had him so frazzled at that moment.

"What was that?" Steve asked because if Joe had sold them out, to get the drugs into the hands of the proper officials, before he got Rowan back he was going to lose it on his mentor, no matter how much Steve saw him as a father figure.

"Got some intel that's gonna… well… as Danny calls it… set you off," Joe said.

"Then I vote we don't tell him," Danny said interjecting as usual.

"What kind of intel?" Steve asked ignoring Danny and expecting Joe to do the same.

Joe turned to Danny who was shaking his head and said: "I gotta tell him. He's gonna find out regardless," he said and then turned back to Steve and said: "That prison they were holding Rowan in… uh… were either of you aware that it was uh… male?"

Steve stared at him as that digested, panic quickly taking over him. "I'm sorry… they took Rowan, _my Rowan_ , to a male penitentiary?!" he thundered.

"Okay, so you didn't know that…"

"Did HE?!" Steve cried pointing off to the house clearly meaning Wo Fat.

"I unno, son, but that's not the big issue here," Joe told him. Steve recoiled because how could there be a bigger issue than Rowan being arrested, extradited, and then held in a male prison? "Son… it blew up this afternoon. Countless dead, even more missing. Rowan's one of the missing."

Steve stood there the words digested in his brain and then he entered some sort of fugue state. Somehow he went from standing in the courtyard surrounded by men with automatic weapons to standing in an office holding Wo Fat by the lapels of his shirt. He had him half pinned to the desk and a larger Colombian man with an open button shirt, many tattoos and his thinning brown hair slicked back, had his hand on Steve's shoulder effectively holding him back.

"Get your boy off of me before I call off this deal," he growled and Danny rushed forward to pry him off. When he had let go Wo Fat fixed his dusty blood flecked white dress shirt and glared at him. "Anyone want to tell me why he attacked me like that? Thought we were on the same team McGarrett?"

"The prison, it blew up," he growled. "You waited too long and it's blown up! _Rowan's listed as missing._ "

Wo Fat leant back against the desk and appraised Steve and his heaving chest and the fact that he was disastrously on the verge of tears. "Did it?" he said. "Interesting."

Steve's eyes narrowed at him. Why wasn't he more freaked out about this? Did he really just not care about Rowan? "Did you bring the ledger?" he asked and Steve nodded pulling it out of his jacket.

Wo Fat's smile was wickedly sharp. "Very good. I'm assuming the drugs are in the courtyard?"

"You already have her, don't you?" Steve asked as Danny nodded in answer to Wo Fat's question. "That's why you don't care about the explosion. That's why she's listed as missing. You don't care cause she wasn't in the prison at the time."

"Oh no, she was in it when we had the tank roll through the barbed wire fences and blow a hole into the side of the building," he said taking the ledger to a printer where he started photocopying pages that were dog-eared. "Fear of me and my associates got us in the door, but once in the building… well… I knew they wouldn't just let us walk out no matter how afraid they were of us, not after I killed the Warden. The explosion was a necessary distraction."

Steve froze. "Wait… did you know it was male… did you know the whole time that she was in a male prison?"

"Of course I knew…" "— For god sake why didn't you get her out of there when you found out?" "…because I made it very clear when they took my sister that if she went into a cell, if they let anyone interrogate her, I'd decimate them. I figured that would keep her reasonably safe but not only did they let her go into a cell with that American idiot, I found out that they let her go into general population without any sort of protection…"

"Wait… wait… where… they put her… they put her…" Steve stuttered suddenly so fucking afraid for her that his heart might have stopped in his chest. His girl. All alone. In an all-male prison in Colombia. What… why… was she okay?

"Stop panicking. She's fine. It went swimmingly, couple of Armando's boys recognized her, took her under their wing. She sang a few songs, braided a few heads and worked on her tan I'm told. They generally waited on her hand and foot, but when she got put into that room with Alexander… well he wasn't being all that nice and made her cry, so… I followed through," he snapped. He then thought it over and said: "Well I was going to kill the warden either way, putting her in gen-pop even if she was taken care off, was never supposed to happen and he knew that. But uh… taking out Alexander was technically unnecessary, but he pissed me off so he had to go."

Steve groaned. "You killed… you… god… you blew up a prison while she was _inside_ it? Are you insane?"

He probably should have cared more that Wo Fat had killed Alexander, but he didn't cause Steve understood how Wo Fat felt. If he could have killed Alexander, he might have.

"I was in there with her to make sure she didn't get hurt," Wo Fat answered as if that made it okay. Steve groaned again, he pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration and then glared at Wo Fat who was still calmly perched on the edge of the desk like this was just a regular old day for him.

"Where's Rowan?" he asked. "Just… where is she?"

"As I told you on the phone, she's detained," Wo Fat snapped handing the ledger off to a man he didn't recognize.

"What do you mean?"

"Did you know… in my short time knowing Rowan, I have had to rescue her from several hostage situations, killers, robbers, terrorists while you swan about doing whatever it is you do. Quite frankly I think you provide little to no support, absolutely no protection and, if I'm going to be honest, McGarrett, you're a god damn hazard. Rowan will be safer with me," he said and then scoffed, "Which is laughable because I'm a wanted career criminal."

Steve growled at him, he wanted to slap the man, hit him, pound into him. He wanted to shout that it wasn't true but some of what he said did ring true. He hadn't saved Rowan from going to prison, Wo Fat had to get her out. It was Wo Fat's contacts she called when she needed help, not him. What if Wo Fat was right and Rowan would be safer with him? Could he really be all that selfish about Rowan and her safety?

Suddenly the side door opened and Rowan came rushing in. She had clearly been cleaned up, she was in a different outfit then when she left but Steve couldn't have cared less. Rowan cried his name but he couldn't get anything out of his mouth other than a strangled noise as she rushed across the room and launched herself into his arms.

He held her tightly, his heart beat returning to normal, thanking every god he could think of for her safe return to him and then clung to her as she gripped him so hard her finger nails broke into his skin through his shirt. He could safely say that he could be that selfish, because he wasn't letting her go, and there was no way in hell that Steve was going to let Wo Fat keep her.

Behind her Wo Fat sighed. "Uh… Rowan where did I tell you to stay?" he snapped.

The door slammed open again and a younger Latin male came sprinting in all breathless and huffing. "Sorry boss, she got away from me," he told Wo Fat who was glaring daggers at him. "She's much wilier then I remember."

"It doesn't help that she's not injured this time," the other man said and Steve realized that it must have been Armando. And if that was Armando then the younger man was Juan Carlos, the Colombians who had helped Wo Fat detain Rowan the first time.

Rowan pulled herself away from Steve, she turned but he didn't let go, his arms encircling her waist and tugging her back to his chest. "You told me to stay in the ballroom," she answered. "But Steve's here…"

"How did you even know he was here?" Wo Fat snapped.

Rowan shrugged. "I don't know, I just did," she said and then turned back to Steve who was hungrily awaiting her kisses. Her hands came to his jaw, softly bringing him down to her so he could cover her lips with his, just once before he pulled away and forced her away from his chest.

He looked her over, she was covered in jagged little cuts, small ones that were already scabbing over. As he did that her fingers went under his shirt. "Are those my tags?" she asked already pulling them out. "They are my tags!"

She quickly got them off of him and put them around her own neck and he smiled, because that was where they belonged. But when she turned her face back up to him he could see a little bit of the damage she had incurred. God, why was her face that red color? His fingers probed the larger of the forming bruises, the split in her cheek and she winced. Oh god, it hurt her, those would bruise bad then.

"He wouldn't stop hitting me," she whispered.

From his spot leaning against the desk, Wo Fat said: "Bastard got what he deserved."

"Which was what?" Steve asked.

"If we're lucky, death," Rowan answered and silence hit the room. For a moment they all stewed in that silence before Rowan turned her beautiful tearful blue eyes up to him and said: "Can we go home now, Steven? Please?"

His heart broke a little bit but he nodded and Rowan molded herself to his chest again. God. He was never letting her go. Ever again.

"I need to speak to your precious Commander first, could you possibly go back to the ballroom?" Wo asked, his question obviously directed at her.

Steve looked up at him, a glare on his face, his grip on Rowan tightening. Rowan glanced at him over her shoulder, her cheek against Steve's chest. "But I don't want to go…"

"You're not keeping her, I'm not letting you," Steve growled.

"Keep me!" Rowan cried. "Oh no, Wo, please, I wanna go home."

God she kept calling his place home, and it was doing terrible things to his heart. He thought it might swell to the point of bursting.

"I'm not gonna keep you, I can't now that you both know each other is here. But that doesn't change the fact that I need to talk to him. It's important to me that I talk to him, so can you please go back to the ballroom with Juan Carlos. Please."

"You promise? You promise you won't run off with me?" Rowan asked him and Wo Fat raised his hand and said: "Scouts honour."

"Were you ever a boy scout?"

"No."

Oh wow. What a fucking liar. Steve looked down to Rowan as she pushed out of his grip. She rounded on Wo Fat and stuck a finger into his face. "Listen here, if you try to kidnap me again, I'll never forgive you," she warned. If Wo Fat was intimidated his face didn't show it, instead he smiled in a patronizing way.

"Why doesn't Detective Williams go with you? Hmm? Would that make both of you feel better?"

"No," Rowan said at the same time Steve said: "Yes."

"No, because I don't trust you two alone," Rowan said shooting a glance between them. "I don't want you two to fight."

"His mentor is here," Wo said indicating to Joe who was quietly standing by the door, having watched all of this silently.

"Oh, hi Joe!" Rowan said waving to him which got a little nod back from him

Wo Fat reached out for her, most likely just to poke her to gain her attention but Steven slapped it away before he could. Which ended up getting Rowan's attention anyway. When she turned back to him whatever negative emotions that had been coloring Wo Fat's face after Steve's disresceptful hand slap disappeared as he smiled at her.

"See, we'll be fine. Go with Williams, and I will see you soon, okay?"

Rowan nodded stepping away from Steve so that time when Wo Fat reached out for her Steven couldn't intervene. There was something oddly intimate about the way Wo Fat had stretched out a hand to pinch the tip of her chin. In the way Rowan had just smiled and let him.

"Oh wait," Steve said as she tried to move away. He dug into his pocket and pulled out the ring that had been taken off of her when she was arrested by the US Marshalls. "Here, I brought this…"

She snatched it up out of his fingers immediately. "Oh thank goodness," she cried putting it back on. She then turned back to Wo Fat, shoved the ring in his face and said: "See!"

"Yes it's very beautiful," he said in the most patronizingly dry tone ever. "The Ballroom. With Williams. You can continue to have your dance party."

She reluctantly joined the young man who had chased her in there, with Danny following after, leaving Steve almost alone with Wo Fat, who smiled warmly at Rowan until she was gone. Once that door closed behind her he turned an icy glare onto Steve that Steve merely returned.

"You're a hazard, McGarrett."

There it was again. That accusation. "Between you arresting, harassing, stalking, and generally fucking your relationship with her up, I've had to worry about hostage situations, Chinese Spies, the NLM, and now Colombians!"

"I was trying to keep track of her. You know that. She's… you know… you've seen her, she's hard to keep track of. Even you have trouble keeping track of her and you have an app connecting her to you."

"Yes. I understand the problems with her and her one-track mind and desire to protect you and your friends. But out of everything I worried the most about… _you_ were the most dangerous factor in her life. You. Steven McGarrett."

"… Me?"

"Yes. You. How many alerts did I get saying she had been arrested by you? Hmm? How many phone calls did I take, Rowan in tears, scared, afraid, because you were acting strange or you were mad and she didn't know what you were going to do next? How many times did you throw her to the wolves for your cases? Shaking a psychic vision out of her, asking her to help, putting her in a situation where she would have to intervene? How many hospital trips has she taken because you didn't watch her correctly…"

"I haven't arrested her in almost a year. I apologized for all of that. I know that it was wrong and I have more than made it up to her. Rowan helps me and my cases whether I ask her or not…"

"But it wasn't you who saved her today, was it?"

"Well… no… but I could have…"

"And how long do you think it would have taken you to get to her?" Wo Fat asked. "Do you know what he was doing to her?" when Steve couldn't answer because thinking about what was happening to her hurt his chest so badly he thought he'd might faint from it, Wo Fat continue as if that proved his point. "He was beating her, McGarrett. I got there before he got creative. She got a few hard slaps and that was it. If I had left this to you, what do you think he would have done to make her talk, here in Colombia where he could have done anything he wanted to to her?"

Steve blinked his eyes and looked away from him. He didn't want to think about it, but it was true. If he hadn't gotten Wo Fat to help, there was no telling what Rowan would have had to endure before he got her out of their clutches.

"You are the greatest danger to Rowan and not just to her safety, but to her heart. Not me and my network. You. You who tells her to leave and doesn't mean it. You who refuses to give her a label…"

"I gave her the label. She got the label… I gave her a promise ring…"

"It took you ten months to give her a label and a rinky-dink little ring." Wo Fat scoffed. "May I remind you that you also thought that _she_ would actually let me torture you and it's you who lets her run amok in Hawaii, you who has severed the only safety tether she had…"

So that was what this was about. He wanted back into Rowan's life. He wanted Steve to stop imposing the end of their relationship on them. When she was gone and he was relying on Wo Fat to get her back he would have said yes in a heartbeat but now that he knew she was safe and he was staring that option in the face…

"No."

Wo Fat fell silent and stared at him.

"No. You tortured me. You killed my father…" "Hess killed your father. You really need to get that straight. It's been four years. You can't still be mistaken over this." "YOU ORDERED HIM TO DO IT!" "Okay… yeah… that's true…" "—You chased my mother away. I'm not letting you back into her life."

"Yes, except now you owe me."

"You're not keeping her. She won't let you. I won't let you…"

"You're being ungrateful. Considering what I did for you…" "You didn't do it for me. You did it for her!" "Considering what I just went through for both of you, I deserve at least some compensation. Asking to be allowed to contact my sister is a small price."

But it wasn't. It wasn't a small price. He and Rowan argued all the time over him, Rowan was a monster when she was with him. He wanted his sweet, kind, Rowan who wasn't throwing around hits like a mob boss. He liked the way they were now. He liked how much better he was when Rowan and Wo Fat weren't synonymous.

"No," he repeated.

Wo Fat sighed. "Fine. Then you owe me a favour McGarrett, and trust me, when I call it in, I will make sure it breaks every single moral code you hold… _brother_. Just to make you suffer."

Steve glared at him, but Wo Fat was walking away. Steve jogged to keep up with him. Wo Fat silently lead him through to the house where they found Danny in a ballroom holding a small cup of punch while Rowan and Juan Carols danced and sang Spanish songs in the middle of a ballroom that was set up for a prom. Steve took in the provocative moves he didn't think Rowan knew, slightly concerned that she was doing that with someone other than him… not that he could dance like that. But he didn't have to break it up.

"Nope. No. I don't like that at all," Wo Fat said stalking forward.

Steve found himself side by side with Danny watching as Wo fat slipped in between the two dancing fiends and pushed them apart, which lead to him being smushed in the middle of a dance party.

"You gonna go help him?"

"Nope, I wanna see how he deals with this," Steve said. "Uh… how long has she been…"

"Since she got here. Those lyrics she's singing… they're uh… they're real racy."

That's right Danny could speak Spanish. "Should I be concerned?"

"Nope. She'll dance like that with anyone, just look at her and Wo Fat."

To get her away from Juan Carlos Wo Fat had grabbed a hold of her and was in the process of waltz spinning her away and towards McGarrett. In one big flourish Wo had spun her out and then Rowan was right in front of him.

"Steve!" Rowan cried falling into Steve's awaiting arms. He noted Wo Fat's eye roll and he tugged her to his chest before he could change his mind on keeping her. "Can we go home now?"

Steve's eyes fell to the darkening bruises on her cheek and jaw line from the smacks she had gotten in prison. He wanted nothing more than to take her home. He glanced up to Wo Fat wondering if the man was going to let her go after all. He was a professional liar, he may not keep his word.

"Sure, let me set you up with your emergency package and then I'll send you on your way," Wo said and Rowan turned to hug him.

"You're the best brother ever!" she crowed and Steve tried not to feel guilty about denying them the right to be together. He just wanted this situation to be over. That's all. Was that too much to ask?


	184. Chapter 184

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hello my wonderful readers! So we're finally done with this episode. This is the conclusion. Took long enough huh? I promise it ends on the cutest note ever. I know this update is late but I've been working so much lately that I just got too wrapped up to get it edited and up. I'll trying to get tomorrow out quicker. Don't forget to leave me a review, I love hearing what you guys have to say, and I'll see you guys tomorrow!_

Chapter 184

* * *

It wasn't until they were ready to go that Wo Fat pulled her aside to talk to her, forcing Steven to go to the van he drove up in and leaving her behind.

She had already called Nahele to soothe him, to tell him she was fine and that they were on the way home. He was okay, thankfully, but she could tell he was desperate for both of them to come home, and quite frankly so was she. She had let Steve talk to him too so Nahele knew for certain that both of them were fine.

Wo Fat had given her a package she would need to hold onto, they had partaken in a meal at Armando's insistence and now, now they were finally on their way out of the compound. Wo Fat clearly wanted to give her a proper good-bye, he could tell that Steve didn't believe him, but Rowan had shooed him away so they could have some privacy.

As soon as Steve was a good distance away she hugged him, tightly. Because she had missed him, and she was going to continue to miss him. Despite being warm she was wearing Steve's jacket, it smelt of him and she needed that reminder, even though he was there, she could see him, his jacket, still holding his warmth and his smell reminded her that she was finally safe, because he had come to get her.

"Alright, do you have the package I gave you?" he asked. Rowan nodded. "Good, and if you see Alexander again, what do you do?"

"I give him the package," she answered automatically.

"I'm already researching other employers for him, be sure to mention that when you see him, and I'm sure you will if he's still alive," Wo Fat said. "Remember, that package gets you in the clear, okay? I've been told the Colombian's have already approved your exoneration and your exiting of the country, you call me right away if there are any problems at the border."

"I got it, Wo, I do," she said to him. "I promise."

"Speaking of promises, let me see it again?" he asked. Rowan immediately held out the hand with the ring on it and smiled at him. Wo Fat cocked an eyebrow at her, clearly unimpressed. "And this… promise ring… you're okay with that?"

"Yes why?"

"Because judging by his track record alone, I'm going to guess that it's going to take him years to actually propose and even longer to actually marry you. In fact, I wouldn't be surprise if he doesn't marry you at all and just ends up calling this promise ring, a symbol of your hypothetical marriage," he growled. "And I don't think you'd like it if he did that, but knowing you and your track record you'd let it stand because you…"

"Love him" she finished for him, glancing back to where Steven was leaning against the van waiting for her, his stormy blue eyes not leaving her once. It took her breath away the depth of the emotion, and how happy it made her to see him there, to feel his predatory glaze on her, ready to pounce if it looked like Wo Fat were to try and make off with her again. Her eyes caressed his features before she repeated it to Wo Fat, so he understood how real for her it was. "I love him."

Wo Fat balked at that confession. "Since when?"

But instead of answering she turned back to him. "Did you hear about Chin?"

"If that codename Shotgun on the app, then yes I did." he asked and Rowan nodded. "I had a feeling you'd be interested in his situation. Actually, I have someone in place to deal with the situation, I did provide him with the documents to clear Kelly, but I don't know if he's been released yet. I should check in see what info he's managed to dig up. But this is more your area, and since I have you here I might as well ask… is there anything specific you wanted done?"

"I want him unarrested," Rowan said and Wo Fat nodded as he took his phone out of his pocket. "And uh… I unno… I unno what's been going on with that… I've been kind of worried about myself. What do you think we should do, you probably know more about it than I do."

"You know how I like to deal with things, but this is your jurisdiction so your call."

"Why don't you get info and then update me and we'll go from there?" she offered and he nodded. That was fair. "You're also gonna update me on how things go with Jian, right?"

At that Wo Fat frowned and shook his head. "No… I…" "Why not?" "Because… despite all my hard work and effort, despite him needing me, he has not given me permission to continue to contact you, and… well… you _love_ him and I don't want to… I strain an already strained relationship…"

Rowan glanced back to Steven. She loved the man, she did, but it wasn't Steven who had a tank roll up into a prison courtyard. It wasn't Steven who called up every Colombian favour he had to get to her. He had gotten the key to her keeping the CIA off of her back, but it was Wo Fat who did all the actual saving.

"Steven doesn't get to make that decision," she said quickly turning back to Wo Fat. "But uh… until I get him on board we're going to need to be low-key, sound good?"

"Deal," he said probably a little too quickly for someone claiming to not want to strain their relationship. He then pulled her in for another hug. "You send me a message the second you land in Hawaii, I want to know that you're safe."

Rowan nodded, kissed his cheek softly and then rushed back to Steve. The second she was turned in his direction he went from leaning to rigid, his hands reaching for her the second she came within arm's reach.

"Are we good to go?" he asked and Rowan nodded. But the second she touched him she got a jolt. And new destination in her head.

Steve, who was now almost desensitized to her shocks, merely glanced down at the arm that received it and asked: "What was that?"

"Do you think we could stop off somewhere?" she asked and he nodded. She tried to smile encouragingly at him as he handed her up into the van where Danny and Joe White were waiting for her.

As the van left the compound, she watched in the side mirror as Wo Fat got smaller and smaller, but she didn't feel like he was getting father away from her, and when Steve handed her her phone, she knew her brother would never really be that far away from her.

Not anymore.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Maybe it was because he had just recused her. Maybe it was because she looked fine as all hell in those short shorts and green sweater combo. Maybe it was because he had been so afraid, so worried he'd never get her back again. Either way, when his baby asked to be taken to a hospital, despite her not being injured enough to need one, he simply did as he was asked.

Danny and Joe White had waited in the van as Rowan had disembarked with him in tow and together they walked up to the front of the hospital. But they didn't go in. Instead they just stood there. As if she were waiting for something and Steve stood there just watching her.

Even before Steve had gotten her in the truck, Rowan had asked for his black jacket, and he had complied instantly. She wore it much like a cape, her hands disappearing underneath it to keep it closed and around her. He was certain she didn't need it for the warmth, because when he wasn't looking she would drop her face to her chest and he knew, he was 100% certain that she was simply inhaling his scent. Well if it made her feel better he wasn't going to take it away from her.

It wasn't until she straightened, and that Ice Queen mask of hers slipped over her features that he realized that whatever she was waiting for had arrived. And she was going to war.

"Hello Sam Alexander," she said in her fake perky voice. "You'll be glad to know that I finally figured out where I know your name from."

Poor Alexander had not been expecting her clearly. The man's face was practically swollen, he had his arm in the sling and looked as if a building had been dropped on him after being shot, and if Rowan's story was to be believed, that was what had happened to him. He continued to stare at Rowan as if he couldn't fathom how any of this had happened, or why she would be standing there smiling at him as if this were a normal social visit. When he couldn't do anything but stare at her in complete and utter shock she smiled and took a step forward, causing the CIA man to stumble back.

"Surprised? Yeah, me too. I had a feeling you were still alive," she said sounding quite disappointed. "Can you just… give me a bit of a moment, I need to make a call."

She then picked up her phone, dialed a number and then waited. "Hey. Yes Oz, I'm fine. No, I'm still here. No, everything is okay. I'm just calling to tell you that you didn't actually kill him. He's alive," she said and then waited for a response. "Yes, yes I'm sure. I'm looking right at him. No I have it. Yes I will. Oh did you get the info I asked for? Yeah? Oh… really? So he actually came back then? And after we were so kind to him last time. You're right it's unacceptable and very disrespectful. I agree, he should be disciplined this time. But you fixed the... uh… the problem, right? Oh… waiting for my say? Well… I say… tell him to do what he's gotta do… yep, love you too, bye."

Rowan turned back to the Alexander who was just standing there with panicked look on his face and she smiled widely at him.

"Sorry about that. Just dealing with some business, now, shall we tie up our loose ends?"

"You really do think this is all just some game, don't you?" Alexander asked. "You murdered someone Miss. Pierce. You bombed and escaped federal prison. You shot a U.S. Marshal…"

"Wo Fat shot you actually, I'm the reason he didn't finish you off," she said.

"Oh yes that makes it better, doesn't it? The point is, unless I get what I want, you'll never be able to go back home, not without getting arrested."

"You wanna bet?" Rowan growled, her eyes narrowed in that challenging way of hers.

"We found the coke," Steve snapped stepping in.

Alexander's face lit up. "Where is it?"

"It's gone," Steve said showing him a picture of Wo Fat and the drugs. "He's sending it somewhere where you won't be able to get it. Probably going to sell it, which I'm not comfortable with but it got me my girl back so I'm prepared to ignore it."

"You just signed their death warrants. And this time… this time when we send you back to prison, you're going to stay there… and Williams is going with you."

"Oh that was just a wonderful show, but you've misread the situation darling. I've already gotten a lovely apology from the Colombian government. Apparently I never should have been brought down here, I've been fully exonerated and they've practically begged me to go home. I love the bravado though," she said, that same smile on her face and that same saccharine sweetness to her voice that was totally and one hundred percent fake.

"This isn't a game. You tell me where your brother is taking those drugs…"

"Oh calm yourself, you're practically foaming at the mouth. You were never getting those drugs," she said. "They went to the people who helped get me out of that prison in lieu of cash payment."

He glared at her while Rowan continued to smile. She brought a small black bound leather book out of her jacket. "Oh and to rescue this book…. And now it's not in my hands."

She looked up to Alexander who had snatched book right out of her hands. "Alright, alright, if you want it so much. You can have it. But uh… I'd make sure everything's in it," she said sweetly and his eyes whipped up to her again. Rowan blinked her eyes in the most innocent of manners. "You know… because I'm shady… and honestly I'm very vindictive."

He flipped through the pages and as he did so Rowan stared at him quite sweetly.

"You know, I knew I recognized your name. You see, when that journal was first found, my friends they went through it with a fine-tooth comb. And then they showed me. Your name, with big red letters saying CIA. Granted I had no idea what Sandpiper was, or why I needed to know that all these Colombian officials, US officials and well you… were getting paid off. But they wanted me to keep it, to use for later, but I never stored that information anywhere. Because, usually, I have morals and that was something I figured someone with morals wouldn't need. But then… oh… then you sent Reyes down to Hawaii to intimidate Danny over the missing drugs, and you figured, hey put enough pressure on Danny and he'll run to me and then I'll run to Wo and you'll get what you want. And sure, maybe you didn't think it would really affect me all that much, but it did and well… Wo took offence and sent you back the body in pieces when I told him to dump it. Regrettable, yes, and I can almost forgive you for putting us in that situation in the first place. Except that you then had to show up and arrest Danny in front of his daughter and her class. And then me. And you took me to Columbia, which, if I may remind you, no one wanted me to come to, and then you just wouldn't stop hitting me. And you know, somewhere along the way I got so mad that those few loose morals I have, yeah… well… they've flown out the window. And that… that does not bode well for you my darling," she said.

He was done looking through the book. Clearly something was missing, he watched her, something akin to fear on his face. Rowan carefully went back into the jacket where she pulled out a little manila envelope. She then carefully pulled a set of papers out and then she dangled them out for him to snatch up from her. Which he did, the second he saw them.

"Yes, and you may have those too," she said primly.

He looked them over for only a few seconds before he whispered: "these are copies."

"Oh yes, the originals have been secreted away. Somewhere even I can't get at them. I'd have to send someone," she told them. The next sentence was said with nothing but malice. "So, they're safe… for now."

Alexander glared at her. "What do you want?"

"Oh I don't want anything from you," Rowan said. "Precious thought though. But I will tell you that we have options."

"Options?"

"Mhmm. I like option A best," she said. "It's the one Wo is researching right now."

"Option A?"

"Oh yes," Rowan said happily crossing the distance towards him, her hands clasped neatly behind her back. "Option A is I take these documents, the ones that prove that you're a traitor to your country and I ruin you."

"Oh, you're going to ruin me?" he echoed. "You think I'm scared of you. You think I'm going to go to jail over you? I will vanish before that happens."

Rowan laughed, her sound her normal melodious laugh, but there was an edge to it that sent shivers up Steve's spine. She was circling him now, like a shark circled it's prey in the water. Her grin was just as toothy. "Oh sweetie, who said anything about jail time?" she asked and that smug smile dropped off of his face. "No, no, no, I'm going to do something so much worse."

Rowan straightened herself up, looked him up and down like he was nothing but a piece of dirt and said: "No, I'm going to copy these documents and send them to the most powerful dictator I can find that needs an CIA informant on their payroll. Though, with these documents, you won't be getting paid. I suspect that whoever we pick can convince you to do the job for free… blackmail is like that." She then picked up her phone and stared at it absently. "In fact, in a few short minutes Wo will provide me with the name of your soon to be employer."

He looked shocked. Like Option A was obviously not the option he wanted. "And option B?"

Rowan looked up from her phone. "Hmm? Oh. No. Option B isn't any fun for anyone. I mean, it's a win-win situation for you and me, but Wo gets to have no fun and I don't want to take that away from him. He had a rough time with Steve and he's in a bad mood, Option A will cheer him up..."

"What is option B?" he asked between clenched teeth.

Rowan sighed. "Fine. If you must know. Option B is run." She snarled, no longer even pretending to be sweet. "You're going to get your sorry bribe-taking-ass out of the goddamn CIA. You're going to come up with a lie to cover up the missing drugs, I don't care what you tell them, you're a professional liar, come up with something pithy. You're going to retire and then you're going to forget about me, you're going to forget about Danny but you'll remember that if you so much as even whisper in our direction, if you even thinking about coming near me or my family again, I will take these papers and I will destroy you. I will send them to villain after villain until your hole is so deeply dug that you have no choice but to swallow a bullet. You get me?"

Sam Alexander stared at her. He glanced to Steve, who had made sure his face stayed stoically the same, despite being terrified by his girl, and then past Steve to where Steve assumed Danny and Joe were waiting. They must have gotten out of the van the second they realized that it was Alexander Rowan was squaring off against.

Those collective faces, and the weight of Rowan's threats, crumpled the man. He simply bowed his head and scampered off. Once he was gone, Rowan turned, Ice Queen gone entirely, to smile at Steven and the two other men waiting for her to be done.

"My mother called that the door-in-the-face manipulation technique," she said to Steve and then turned to Joe. "Remember how when we were in quarantine you remarked that it would be scary if I ever tried to use my powers for evil, well there it was, what did you think? Scary?"

"Absolutely fucking terrifying as always Rowan," he said and she smiled proudly and then turned back to Steve as if any of this could be a good thing.

When she focused on Steve she noticed the look on his face but other then looking concerned she just sighed. "I'm angry. I was left alone with criminals for too long. You know what I'm like," she said but when he just stared at her she said: "What? What's the matter?"

"What's the other problem?"

"What?"

"The other problem. You asked if he fixed the other problem, what were you talking about?"

Rowan's face changed. The Ice Queen which had been melting was back in full swing. "How are things going with Chin? Did you get IA off his back?"

"I was a little busy with you Rowan…"

"Yeah. I thought you'd say that," she whispered.

"What did you do Rowan?"

She just shrugged. "I made sure it was fixed. Forever." She then smiled her normal regular smile at him. "Can we go home? I wanna see Nahele. I wanna hug him and make s'mores and cocoa and then when that's done I want to get in a shower with you."

Steve half smiled at her. "Yeah, we can do that. Come on. Let's do that."

He decided to ignore the Chin thing, he figured, whatever Rowan did, would keep her in the clear and Chin out of trouble. And besides, Grover would have called if something had gone down, and with Rowan on her way back, he had a feeling that IA would just drop him. Because with the way things were looking for them, IA probably wasn't going to want Rowan and Steve knocking down their door to get back Chin. But they'd deal with all that when they got home.

When everyone got to go home.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Montoya left to take a phone call four hours ago and never came back. From Gabriel's understanding Chin was still in holding until further notice and Coughlin was scrambling to keep him despite having proof that Chin did not have the money. Gabriel had a sneaking suspicion on who Montoya really was and he was hoping, hoping it wasn't who he thought he was.

But he had a feeling if someone as infamous as Sin Nombre was on the island he'd've heard by now. Also, Sin Nombre took only high paying high profile cases, this couldn't be either of those things. Could it?

Coughlin returned, paper in hand, and sat across from the couch that Gabriel had camped out on. He put the paper on the table in front of him and then smiled in that smug oily way that he had.

"It's all there," Coughlin said pushing the paper towards him. "Everything we agreed on, all it needs is your signature."

And then he offered Gabriel a pen. Gabriel looked it over. It was exactly what he said it was, the deal Gabriel had lied about being okay with. A safer, nicer prison, with a shorter sentence all he had to do was sign that paper to confirm that Chin came and asked him for money. Too bad that wasn't Gabriel's plan.

He twirled the pen in his hand, switched his grip on it and then lunged at Coughlin, shoving him back in the seat, the pen poised to go right into Coughlin's eye. But he never got a chance.

In a flash the man calling himself Montoya appeared, sliding into Gabriel, grabbing his arm and twisting until he let go. The pen dropped out of his grip and with one hit Gabriel was on the ground with stars in front of his eyes.

He rolled onto his back and then carefully looked at Montoya. He was still in the suit pants, but he was wearing black combat boots, a leather jacket with a black cotton shirt underneath. But it was his hands, he had leather gloves on his hands, and blood flecking up from his collar towards his cheek. His eyes narrowed at the something sticking out of the pocket of his jacket. Half a mask. Rabbit looking judging by the ears. It was then that he knew for sure who Montoya was.

He really was Sin Nombre.

He just didn't know whose side he was on. Because if he had to guess, just by the fact that he wasn't dead yet that Sin Nombre might not be there for him.

"Thank you… thank…" Coughlin started but Sin Nombre had his gun, and was carefully dropping garrotting wire on the table, dripping with blood.

He stared at the garroting wire, his eyes blinking as if not understanding. He turned his eyes back up to Montoya's impassive face. "Who are you?"

"Well, I'm not Indigo Montoya, I'll tell you that. I got that from a movie. Well… his name was Inigo, surprised you didn't catch on," he said. "No. I have no name."

And that confirmed it he was really Sin Nombre.

"Derrik! Jenson!" Coughlin shouted.

Sin Nombre laughed. "Your men are dead. I've killed them. No one is going to save you."

"What do you want? Why are you here?"

"I'm here because _someone_ in the Yakuza has an invested interest in Kelly. I'm here because that same someone is finally out of a Colombian prison and has given me orders," he said. "Well that's not true, she just said do what I gotta do to make it go away, cause she nice like that. Her brother is not as nice. You see… I think… and this is just judging by the message, I think that you were told, Coughlin, you were told to stay away from Rowan Pierce and her friends."

Coughlin let out a strangled sob but Sin Nombre wasn't interested in him anymore. He turned on Gabriel, and the man actually flinched. Maybe he was here to off them both.

Instead he surprised Gabriel by tossing him the gun. "You, on the other hand, I've been told to spare. Something about no daughter deserving to live without a dad or some sentimental bullshit I'm certain came straight from that stupid girl," he said with the roll of his eyes. "But I do have a message for you. Run away, Gabriel Waincroft. Run far away and never ever come back."

For a moment Gabriel just stared at him, but Sin Nombre had turned back to Coughlin. As Gabriel got back up, Sin Nombre pulled the mask out of his pocket and slipped it back over his face. The white plastic rabbit face already flecked with blood, contrasting against everything else. It occurred to him that, now that he had the gun he could shoot him and not have to worry. He stood, gun in hand pointed in his direction and Sin Nombre merely shot a casual glance at Gabriel and scoffed.

"If you know what was good for you, you'd take that advice and run. She forgave you this time, but you're on thin ice. That girl is not as forgiving as her brother. You fuck up again, and you won't live to tell the tale."

He figured he'd cut his losses at that point, it would be easier to run instead of fight. Gabriel scrambled away from him, the gun in his hand, and his freedom in front of him. He was half way out the door when he heard Sin Nombre say: "Now, what's that catch phrase of hers? What is it that everyone says about her? Mm… that's right… _Rowan Pierce is always right_."

And then Gabriel disappeared into the darkness, Coughlin's screams chasing his heels.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

When they landed, Rowan had made a phone call. She wouldn't say to who, just that it was important. Steve had figured it was to Wo Fat. A courtesy call. To tell him that she had gotten home without a hitch. He figured he'd let her have it because Wo Fat had been a big help in her return to Hawaii but that would be the last time he'd be okay with her calling them.

Grover, Kono and Chin were all waiting on the porch for them, and the second Rowan got out of the car, Kono was rushing forward to hug her. Rowan let out a string of shaky laughs as she opened up her arms and let Kono bowl into her.

"We were so worried about you," she whispered and Rowan just hugged her back.

"I was pretty worried about me too," she said.

As soon Kono let her go Grover took her into his arms with a warm: "Welcome back little mama," and then Chin was across from her. He smiled happily at her and then he too had her wrapped up in a tight up.

Rowan got a little weepy as she was hugging Chin. But he was all smiles.

When he let her go he said to her: "I uh… I heard that you sent a lawyer my way."

"I did?" she asked glancing at Steve who nodded to her. Immediately Steve put a hand out to her, taking her hand in his and interlacing their fingers so she was close to him.

Chin didn't seem to notice her confusion about the appearance of the lawyer and just kept on talking. "I mean, it was a Yakuza lawyer, which doesn't make me look all that innocent but thank you for trying. I hear he was a pain in Coughlin's ass."

"Uh-huh… uh… where is…" Rowan stuttered. Steve knew she was asking about Rex Coughlin, but Steve didn't know the answer. When they had landed he had been told that Chin was free, and that he'd be briefed when he got back, so this would be when that was going to happen.

"He's dead," Kono told her and everyone went still.

Steve's eyes turned to Rowan, a look of shock on her face, her blue eyes blinking rapidly. But he was there when she told Wo Fat to do whatever he had to do in regard to the Coughlin and Chin situation. Dear god, what, what did he do? This was the whole Reyes situation all over again.

"Rowan…" he started but she cut him off with a wince and a: "Oh dear."

"No, they're 100% positive Gabriel did it. He killed Coughlin and escaped. But with no Coughlin and no Gabriel there's no case against me," Chin said quickly. Steve stayed quiet and didn't correct him and luckily Rowan said nothing too. If that was what HPD was going with he wasn't going to correct anything. Hopefully this one couldn't be traced back to his girl.

Maybe he'd use her phone to call Wo Fat to confirm.

"Pen to the eye right?" Rowan asked after a bit of silence.

"Well yeah, but you've were having dreams about that long before this," Chin reminded her and Steve had to nod along with that, that was true she had warned Coughlin about it when they first met.

Rowan scowled she shot a glance at Steve who was staring at her in what he thought was a concerned look but judging by the face she was making she must have taken that the wrong way. "Can I talk to you a moment?" he asked dragging her aside.

As soon as they were away from the she winced up at him. "I didn't say kill him, but I am regretting telling Wo Fat about that dream, even if it was months ago and I didn't think he'd remember."

"I know, I know but you have to see how bad it is that he just… you know… does these things. Uhm… you know… I know I said I didn't want you talking to him anymore but we may want to call him and just uh… confirm that this one can't be traced back to you…" he said and she nodded. He then looked down at where his hands were holding hers. "I… uh… I wanted to talk to you about something else actually…"

"Okay? What… uh… what is it?"

"Remember how I said that… there was going to come a day when you did something and I wouldn't be able to save you from it?" he asked. Rowan nodded. "Okay, well… this… this was it."

She winced again at him, tears forming in her eyes. "I know… I know Steven…" she cried.

"No, Rowan, you don't know. You don't know what it felt like to watch them take you away from me, in handcuffs, sending you half way across the world, not even regular Hawaiian jail, Rowan they extradited you and that… and that killed me. And I know that's selfish, I know I'm thinking only about what I felt but I can't help it, Rowan. Cause my job is to protect you and I failed…. I just keep failing…"

"I'm sorry," she near sobbed and he suddenly grabbed her, holding her tight to himself, just so he could feel her. To chase away the echo of that pain he had felt, drawn forth by the memory of them dragging her away from him.

"I know. I know that, but please, god, Rowan, please, please don't make me go through that again."

"I'm trying, I am," she whispered. "But I… the problem is when I get like that… I don't have a right or wrong, all I saw was that gun on Danny and I thought about Grace and Charlie and how they needed their dad and how you'd be so mad if something happened to him and I just… I just shot him. And then I kept shooting until he dropped…"

"Rowan, that's not what I mean," Steve said. "I understand that part, Rowan. I do. I saw a Chinese spy holding you down on the ground with a foot to your chest and a gun in your face and I saw red. I shot him more than five times and I didn't think twice about it. I get what happened on the pier, Rowan, because if it had been me I would have shot him 5 times myself. What I mean, Rowan, is that you didn't tell me it happened. You didn't tell me so I couldn't protect you when the time came."

Rowan hung her head. "I just… I…"

"You what?"

"I didn't want you to look at me any different. I didn't want you to look at me like I was…."

"Rowan, no. No. I told you. I told you, I don't think you're a monster. Those looks when you tell me things are cause I'm afraid. Of what's going to happen to you. I'm upset about your past because those things never should have happened to you. I have never once though you were monstrous, you are my saving grace… most of the time."

When she wouldn't look at him he took her chin in his fingers and forced her to look at him. "Rowan. All I want to do is protect you. But you need to trust me."

"I wanted to tell you, I did. But Danny… and I called Wo First… and I knew you'd be mad about that and… and you were… we nearly broke up simply because I called Wo Fat instead of you…"

"No, no, that is not why I got mad. Yes, you're right I was upset you called Wo Fat to help you instead of me, but I was mad because something happened, I knew, I knew something had happened and you, and Danny and Wo Fat knew what it was and you wouldn't tell me. So I know. I know that you were worried about what I would say and I get that because I've been pretty shitty and I am so sorry about that. But you should have told me that you pulled the trigger, just like I should have told you that Reyes was on the island. We're both at fault here," Steve said and Rowan let out a shaky laugh. "What I think… what I think we need… is to trust each other more. Okay? We really, _really_ , need to start communicating better."

Rowan nodded. "Okay."

"And as much as I'd like to say that this won't happen again, I know you, and I know you can't make that promise. So what I want you to promise me instead is that if something like this happens again, that you'll tell me, I don't need to be the first person you tell but you _have_ to tell me. Okay, and me and you, we'll figure it out together. Without your brother."

"I didn't call Wo, Steve, you did, remember?"

"Yes, I know but I called him cause I didn't have a choice. They had you, they wanted the drugs and he had them, and contacts in Colombia… and… I couldn't do it by myself, Rowan, I just couldn't. I told you Rowan, you're important to me. And there isn't a single thing I wouldn't do for you, which includes working with Wo Fat to get you back."

Rowan smiled up at him as if she didn't believe a word he was saying. But he knew, if he kept saying it sooner or later she'd believe him.

There's a sudden cry of her name and they both turned. Nahele had erupted out of the house and was sprinting towards them, jumping at Rowan.

"You're back, you're back," Nahele cried into her shoulder and Rowan held him a little more tightly. Properly crying this time as she hugged him back. He pulled his head out of her shoulder and looked up to her. "Can you maybe… just for a little bit, can you maybe stop getting into so much trouble?" he asked her. "You've been in and out of the hospital, you've been sick, stabbed, and now arrested… couldn't you… just please?"

"I second that," Steve said wrapping an arm around her. Nahele didn't drop the hug he had on her, but he did grip Steve's shirt which warmed his heart.

Rowan smiled at her two boys. "Alright, well do you want to get your stuff packed and we'll go home? Maybe I'll make cocoa?"

"YES! Mrs. Grover tried and I was super polite about it, but your cocoa is the best and nothing will beat that," he said. "Also my stuff is like right by the door, so like, let's go home. Oh… and can we go like… straight home? No stops at the Palace, no rescue missions just… go home right?"

Rowan turned to Steve who rolled his eyes and sighed. "Yes, fine, straight home we'll go, but I'll have you know the rescue op I had planned at the Palace would have been spectacular. I had rappelling gear, and lasers and smoke bombs… and… you guys are just missing out, you know?"

Nahele laughed rushing off to get his bag from the Grover's house while Rowan nudged Steve in the ribs shooting him an amused smirk. He wrapped an arm around her waist and tugged her to his side. God, after this he was going to have a hard time letting her out of his sight.


	185. Chapter 185

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hello my lovely readers! So here we are with one of my favourite chapters I've ever written. We get to see some really, REALLY cute thing, and honestly I think Steve and Rowan are in a really good place right now and it's going to show! Please tell me if you enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed writing it! As always, I look forward to all your reviews and I will see you tomorrow!_

Chapter 185

* * *

Rowan rushed around the McGarrett household trying to get everything ready to go. She had the ice cream cake in the fridge, the presents on the counter, and the pizza on the kitchen island beside all their sides and the pop options.

All she was waiting on were the boys.

Nahele had requested a camping/sleep over/paintballing party for his birthday, and who was Rowan to deny that request? Steven had taken the boys paintballing and she had gotten everything else ready for the food and sleep over part of the party. Before the boys had left Rowan had made Steve help them set up the tents the boys would be sleeping in, and they were going to trust the boys to light the fire and roast their own marshmallows.

The door opened and a gaggle of extremely excited boys came in, each toting their own paintball guns, Nahele's was a gift from Steve while Rowan had gotten him a specialty helmet. Top of the line for her boy. He got to open his birthday gifts from them that morning before his friends came. Obliviously they had more to give him but those were the two big ones.

Now two of the boys Rowan knew and had already met. Kai and Makani were in his English class and had similar interests and likes. They had been over to the house multiple times, and were of Hawaii Decent so they looked a lot like Nahele but with a different haircuts. Kai had the Mohawk and the shaved sides while Makani was rocking the shaggy surf doo that was so long she was worried he couldn't see half the time. The other two boys, were new and apparently self-invited. From what Rowan knew, Aaron was the most popular boy in the grade, who took a shine to Nahele when he found out that his foster parents were _the_ Rowan Pierce who wrote _Heartbeats_ and _the_ Steven McGarrett of Five-0. He was a typical, popular, mean, white boy whose only saving grave was that his parents were moderately rich and his friend Kevin whom he had brought a long for the party was a complete and utter follower.

"Hey boys, how was paintballing?" she asked noting that Steve seemed to have paint flecked along his jawline and was moving a bit too stiffly. Had he gotten injured? She made him promise no trick stunts but maybe he had jumped off one of the structures despite her asking him not to.

"Hey! Yeah, it was great!" Nahele cried, with Kai and Makani agreeing with him.

"Yeah, with Steve's tactical plans we whooped EVERYONE!" Makani cried.

Kai nodded animatedly. "And then we did a round of him against us even though we outnumbered him!"

"Yeah and then he lost. We smoked him! For a SEAL he's not very good," Aaron said. Beside him Nahele winced, his two closest friends winced too. But Aaron and Kevin the two outliers were just laughing and smiling smugly up at Steve. "Maybe Five-0 needs to make you take one of those aptitude tests for your shooting."

As soon as they had told her that Steve had agreed to a versus match between them, Rowan knew what Steve had done, he had let the boys win. He could have slaughtered them all and didn't. But Rowan didn't want to cause a scene by pointing that out her baby had gone easy on them as they were children. She could tell Steve was annoyed, but he plastered a fake smile to his face, for Nahele, so she could do the same too.

"I'll be sure to mention that to the Governor next time I see him," Steve said. Rowan winced for him and decided to change the topic.

"Okay, well we have pizza, pop and snacks if you boys hungry?" she asked. And three of the five boys rushed forward to get to the island with food. But Aaron and Kevin were not as eager.

"Do you have any healthy options?" Aaron asked.

Who the hell asks for the healthy options at a birthday party? Rowan pinned him with a dry glare. "I've got carrot sticks, feel free to munch out bugs bunny."

The three boys already tucking into their pizza snorted and Steve had to turn away to hide his amused smirk from them. Rowan, however, held his darkened stare with her very best daring Ice Queen stare.

"Are there any artists coming to the party?" he asked instead as he reached out for a slice of pizza.

"Oh yeah, I've invited Bono, and Shawn Mendez and Fifth Harmony…"

"Wow Really?" Kevin cried.

"Hell no!" Rowan snapped. "This is a birthday party, not a meet and greet, thank you very much. Just eat your food, play your videogames and try to have fun."

Rowan ruffled Nahele's hair as she headed towards Steve. "Call me when you want cake," she called. She crossed to Steve and he pulled her towards the steps. She shook her head at him. "I'mma slap that kid," she hissed.

"Calm yourself it's fine," he whispered as they went up the stairs.

"You know you have paint on your neck?" she said pointing to it. A hand went up to it, but his fingers probed the reddening skin instead of trying to rub it off.

"Yeah, I can't prove it but I think that little shit, Aaron, shot me," he said. "And… I mean purposely where the armour wasn't protecting me."

Rowan stood up on tippy toes to see that dark bruise forming where Steve's neck and shoulders met. She pressed a soft kiss to the bruise forming and he leaned into it. "That kid _is_ a little shit. As soon as he's gone I'm talking to Nahele about the dangers of toxic friends."

"He's the cool kid, I can tell that Nahele's not happy with his behaviour though…"

"Whatever, we're talking about it. Aaron's gotta go."

Steve laughed at her, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and pressing kisses against her cheek. They promised Nahele space for the party so she was fine hiding out in her room with Steve but he wasn't going to get some until tomorrow… which was his birthday. Gosh this was going to be a busy weekend.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Aaron and Kevin were ruining everything. Aaron had taken the ice cream cake out of the fridge and tucked in before they could sing happy birthday to him, he didn't even get candles. Rowan was livid, he could tell. She had come down to see two kids with slices of cake and her eyes did that ice blue bugged out thing she did before she snapped. She asked short, tense questions about how the cake had managed to end up out of the fridge between clenched teeth and Aaron had sassed her. Nahele was surprised Rowan didn't flip out right then and there. But she was trying so hard to not snap at Aaron and make a scene, but he knew if he made a big deal Rowan would stop being nice. So he had pretended it was okay even though he had really looked forward to hearing Rowan singing happy birthday to him.

But after playing rounds of Halo, where they realized they had to let Aaron win or he got sulky and violent, and frequently had to cheat, they had gone outside for s'mores and sleeping in the tent. Aaron had not been impressed with the tents, so after Steve had reminded them to put out the fire before they went to bed, and Rowan wished them all a good night, Aaron brought out a bottle of straight cherry rum. Leftovers from one of his older brother's parties.

He had said it was the only way to save Nahele's boring ass party. Aaron and Kevin were really the only ones drinking. He, Kai and Makani took careful sips as Aaron in particular kept drinking was getting worse and worse as he got more and more drunk.

He had passively let him shit talk Steve, and about how bad ass he was not. He had passively let him shit talk Rowan, for apparently not being cool enough, and not getting some head-lining star to come to the party. He did it because if they got into an actual argument Nahele might have punched his lights out and he figured if he just let Aaron get it out, sooner or later he'd shut up, or if they were luck he'd pass out. But it wasn't until Aaron looked at him and said that clearly his foster parents did love him enough to house him in the actual house that Nahele went inside, claiming the need to go to the washroom, to find Rowan.

Rowan was sitting on the couch a book in her hands and a blanket on her lap. He knew then that she had been spying cause the blanket was still perfectly folded still and the book was upside down. But he was going to ignore that because he needed her at that moment.

"Kay… so uh… mom… Ro… sorry…" he said, he had to stop calling her mom, she wasn't his mom and calling her that still felt like a betrayal to his real mom. Though he was clearly getting attached and he was certain Rowan was attached to him too, he was still certain she might change her mind about him and send him away. Still Rowan said nothing about the slip up and looked up to him like she had no idea he had come in the house. "I need your help…"

"Yeah? What's up?"

"It's Aaron…"

"You need me to cut a bitch?" she asked a little too eagerly. Nahele blinked his eyes and calmly said: _No_ which caused her to sink back into the couch cushion with a sigh of dejection.

"Look… he… he brought alcohol and I unno… I don't want to snitch per say but I also just… he's getting really mean…"

He thought she'd be more upset about the alcohol, or at the very least she'd act shocked. Instead she just blinked her eyes. "He's a mean drunk huh?" she asked and he nodded.

"I just… I unno… I don't want to ruin the whole party's vibe… I don't want him to get that mad…"

"Say no more. You go back outside, I got this," she said. Nahele nodded and went back outside while Rowan crept upstairs to where she had exiled Steve once she realized the kids were drinking and he'd spoil their fun.

When she came into the room he was shirtless, having just showered, she saw purple welts painting him which she knew were from the paintballing that afternoon. She crossed to him and wrapped her arms around him, resting her cheek against his back.

"You don't get to come up here and snuggle when you literally just kicked me out of the living room… my own living room might I add."

Rowan pressed a kiss to his spine and he inhaled sharply.

"Don't do that when I'm mad at you."

She kissed him again and he turned quickly, snatching her up and kissing her properly and thoroughly. His mouth hot and heady against hers.

"You're uh… you're gonna be even more mad in a minute…" she whispered to him and he sighed and pressed his forehead to hers.

"God… what… what have you done now?"

"Kay… so like… this good cause I need you to be mean McGarrett right now…"

"Rowan what are you talking about?" Steve growled.

"You know… buzz kill McGarrett?" she asked and he frowned at her. "The kids are drinking, the other boys are uncomfortable and Aaron and Kevin are getting worse. Can you… could you... maybe… break it up?"

"Rowan they're fucking fourteen! You're telling me _now_ that they're drinking?" he thundered and then he paused. "Oh my god, you knew! That's why you sent me upstairs. Rowan! You can't… why would you do that? Do you have any idea how irresponsible that is?"

"Aw come on! Weren't you ever fourteen once? Sneaking alcohol, trying your older brother's weed or cigarettes and setting off illegal fire crackers with your friends in the woods?"

Steve stared at her. "Your childhood causes me _daily_ concern," he snapped regrettably putting his shirt back on and being sure to turn his shield out on his belt, in clear sight for anyone before storming past her to deal with what she didn't want to deal with. She smiled as he stormed away, loving the way his ass moved in his jeans. She was really lucky to have him. Maybe he'd get laid before tomorrow.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve had broken up the boozefest immediately.

He had confiscated the alcohol and called the kid's parents. Kevin's mom had picked him up immediately and given him an earful as she dragged him away. Aaron's dad on the other hand hadn't wanted to come get him, it wasn't until Steve suggested he put Aaron in the drunk tank that the man had agreed to come and get his son.

Still he had to wait another 20 minutes before Aaron's father even showed up. And the whole time he waited, every two minutes or so Aaron would mutter: _he said you were cool_.

Steve hated that. He _was_ cool. He was the guy with the cool job, and the gun, who chased bad guys and brought them to justice. But now, this little shit had him worring that he wasn't as cool as he thought he was. But what was worse was that he was actually worried that maybe he had ruined Nahele's party.

When Aaron's dad showed up, all puffed him in a penguin suit and a fancy silver car, Steve's anger at the situation was about ready to explode.

"I don't see what the problem is, you agreed to keep him for the night… I know being a parent is new to you, Commander…"

"Okay, for starters, cut the shit. Your kid smuggled alcohol into my house. Cheapy shitty alcohol, might I add," Steve snapped. "Secondly, he's been making the kid's unconformable, he's a bad influence, and honestly he's been rude all fucking night."

He took Aaron by the neck and shoved him at his father. "I was willing to look over the blatantly obvious insults and the physical violence and the temper tantrums when he doesn't get his way, but the alcohol is unforgiveable," Steve finished.

Aaron's father just laughed at him. "Look at you, so judgemental. What, you think being a foster parent for what, two months, makes you father of the year? You're not a real parent, you're just play acting. You're a man pretending to be the dad of a kid no one else wanted. Your kid is pathetic! Aaron did him a favour showing up here tonight. You don't think the parents heard? We know all about your kid and what he's like. I better make sure all of Aaron's things are in his bags, I hear your kid likes to steal."

"Okay, that is _it_ ," Steve said getting right into that stupid man's face. "Yeah, you wanna talk about pathetic? Let's start with the alcohol I smell on your breath. Guess that's where your kid gets his drinking habits huh? I have a two year old niece who has better manners than him. AND he sucks so bad at videogames he has to cheat and throw temper tantrums to win! My girlfriend is better at Halo then him and she doesn't know the name of the game or any of the weapons!" he shouted towering over the man who had started cower under the wake of Steve's anger. "But let's not forget that I'm the head of Five-0 and if I put in a call about a drunk driver in my neighbourhood you're going to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, you want that on your record? No? Then get the fuck off my porch and keep your sorry excuse for a human being away from my son!"

As Aaron and his father rushed away from him Steve called out: "And for the record! I _chose_ my kid! You're stuck with yours!"

He waited until the car was out of the drive way before returning inside and slamming the door. As soon as the door shut Rowan was in his arms, jumping at him the way she usually did when he came home. Despite himself he groaned at the contact because he was covered in paintball bruises, but he welcomed her kisses either way and held her tightly. Pain or not he would always want her.

"You are so brave," she whispered to him. Really? She thought that outburst made him brave? "I'm sorry I made you the bad parent… it's just… you know… I'm the cool one… with like no rules… or like barely any rules… and I unno… I know that's stupid."

Steve stared up at her. "It's probably a good thing I went, with the way Aaron was rubbing you, you might have tried to kill him."

"Ohh true, I was thinking of sticking him on a skewer and roasting him like a marshmallow. But I figured that would be the worst tasting s'more ever."

He chuckled with her, with her legs around his waist he had started walking, he wanted a beer and usually when he started moving around Rowan would clamour off of him, but she didn't do it that time.

"And I also think that it was really sweet… and oh so sexy, that you just called Nahele your son."

"I did? When?"

"When you were yelling at his dad! You said: _get the fuck off my porch and keep your shitty kid away from my son_!" she echoed and he blinked his eyes.

"Oh… huh," he murmured. "I hadn't realized that."

"I bet he'd like it even better if you told him that," she offered but Steve just had to make a face for her to shake her head. "Yeah, what was I thinking huh? You tell him that, it took you ten months to tell me that you refer to me as your girlfriend to other people."

Steve scowled at her but she smiled in that way that always turned him on and climbed down from him. "And uh… if you promise to be really quiet… we can uh… have some fun of our own."

She sauntered away from him and Steve slammed his beer down on the counter, he didn't need to be offered twice.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

In the morning, Rowan made pancakes with sprinkles. She gathered the boys up, stuck a lit candle into the stack of pancakes and together they sung happy birthday to Nahele. She had been so upset when Aaron had eaten the cake and she could tell he was upset too, but she had figured this compromise would make up for that mishap. With the party officially over they all had breakfast, cleaned up the back yard and waited for their parents to pick their kids up.

And it was during this waiting period that Steve finally came down, his badge on one hip and his gun on the other. Wearing one of his dark polos and his beige cargo pants.

"Oh… no… where are you going?" Rowan cried. "I made you a pancake… with sprinkles… and we were going to sing you happy birthday…"

Steve paused at the door, he wasn't even stopping for breakfast? Oh no. Nahele stopped playing his game with his friends and came towards him.

"You're leaving?" he asked, his best puppy dog pout on his face.

"Uh… yeah… I gotta case, nasty murder up at a bait and tackle shop," he said looking back between both of their faces.

"But it's your birthday, Steven," Rowan whined. "You can't work on your birthday!"

"I worked on my birthday last year," he reminded her.

"No you didn't I made you take it off!" she snapped at him. "And last year's birthday was an unmitigated disaster. It ended with you throwing down ultimatums and cheating on me with Catherine!"

Nahele's eyes turned between them surprised and Steve scowled. Great he was now the un-cool one, the one that ruined Nahele's birthday and the bad guy in front of the kids cause who in their right mind who get Rowan and then cheat on her?

"Oh my god, I wasn't cheating! _Neither of us were official._ Not me and Catherine and not me and you…"

"Doesn't matter this year was supposed to be better now call them back and say you're not coming."

"Rowan, the Governor called me himself…"

"Then give me your phone, I'll call him," Rowan said sticking her hand out for it.

When it became clear he wasn't going to fall for that, Nahele stepped forward. "You said we'd do birthday stuff together, remember?'

Steve turned to him. "And we still will, we'll open presents together when I get home, okay?"

He swooped in to kiss Rowan on the cheek and then ruffled Nahele's hair, knowing better than to try and kiss his forehead good-bye with his friends around and then he was rushing out of the house, just as Danny pulled into the drive.

Both Rowan and Nahele watched him go, waving at him from the front door as he and Danny peeled out of the drive way.

Nahele and Rowan sighed in unison. "What are we going to do now?" he asked

"You go play your game I'll worry about the birthday plans," she said absently, ruffling his hair in the same way Steve did.

He half turned away before coming back. "Hey, uh… Rowan… why does Steve always drive Uncle Danny's car?"

"That question leads to a long, complicated list of reasons," Rowan said. "And we will get to that later okay buddy?"

He nodded rushing off to play his game with his friends and Rowan stood there the wheels of her head turning, a plan already turning in his mind.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

The murder he had responded to had been the murder of a girl who reminded him too closely of  
Rowan. Thrown under the bus by her family, working three jobs to please a mother who only loved the younger daughter, trying to work off illegal debts that the youngest daughter had incurred and getting murdered by her own youngest sister when she didn't have the patience, the money or the time to do anymore for her.

That could have been his Rowan. If she was back home with her own family, who would have stopped them from doing the same thing? She didn't have a version of him in her world, the one she did have only played him on TV, and according to her he had been through one marriage and was on his second, and had two kids of his own, and a step-kid with his second wife. He had been flabbergasted. How had this version of him not found Rowan by now? But he was filming in Hawaii, Rowan was skating in BC, and running around in WITSEC so it made sense to her. But it didn't to him. How was any version of him married to someone who _wasn't_ Rowan Pierce?

When the team, weary from having to chase the younger daughter and make her confess, from fighting off the mother who swore that the elder daughter deserved it, they were all ready to go home. He had waited to go into the Palace, letting his friend go in before him as he opted to call Rowan to see what her and Nahele were doing and if they were willing to meet him for a late dinner. But Rowan hadn't picked up her phone and neither had Nahele.

Now, Rowan was prone to putting her phone down and then not looking at it for a while, but Nahele was glued to his, so why hadn't he picked his up? He figured the two of them mad at him for running out on the birthday plans they had been secretive about and sighed. Yeah, he could see why they'd be mad, but it was still his birthday and it was pretty shitty that they would be that petty on his birthday.

He made his way up to the office but when he got there the lights were dim and he could make out a shadowy figure. He pulled out his gun and moved forward letting out his nervous breath when he realized it was just Rowan, standing in the middle of the room where the smart table was, guitar in hand, in his favourite black polka dotted dress and high heel shoes.

"Seriously McGarrett? You're going to shoot me?" she asked him and he sighed and put his gun away. "I purposely didn't pop out to surprise you this time… don't punch me and definitely don't shoot me."

He shook his head at her. Punch her once by accident and she never lets it go.

He looked around the room, at the cammo printed balloons and streamers and he smiled. She had moved his birthday stuff to the Palace so he could work and they could still celebrate his birthday together. And he thought she was being petty, he was literally about to cry.

He looked around, where was everyone else? Why did she have her guitar? And was that his guitar propped up beside her?

"Okay, so everyone is waiting for my signal to come in, but first I wanted to give you my birthday gift to you, which is a song," she said to him. She then picked up his guitar. "I want you and I to perform it together, just me and you, that's why they're waiting outside, okay?"

"No, that's not fair, I don't know what song it is…."

"It's _Freedom_."

Steve paused, his throat clogging up and his mouth running dry. How did she know? How did she know that was _the_ song?

"I called Mary and asked her about what song you were playing a lot before you stopped," she whispered. "Which confirmed that the song you've been practicing recently was in fact, _Freedom_. So this year, my gift to you, is finally being able to perform that song. It may not be for a big audience, it may just be for me, but all you have to do is play, I'll do the singing, you can join in when you're ready to, okay?"

Steve just stared at her, taking the guitar from her with shaking hands. Could he do this? Could he go back to that moment in time and try again? Cause he was already panicking about it. But when he glanced up to Rowan, took in her encouraging smile and those beautiful blue eyes and he figured if he could try with anyone, it would be with her by his side, or in this case in front of him.

"Okay whenever you're ready," she said settling her own guitar in her hands.

He nodded took a deep breath and counted them in. Together they played the intro, Rowan's playing masking any mistakes he could have and probably did make and then it was her voice singing that song to him.

She was marvellous as usual, but it got better when he was finally willing to join her. He joined her on the first chorus, and they sung a few lines together and then she stopped to let him sing by himself. He got half the line out before faltering and he came to a stop but Rowan kept playing.

"Aw come on now, don't give up," she whispered to him. He looked away from her, unable to open his mouth, he couldn't do this… he just couldn't. It was too much.

 _I won't let you down, I will not give you up. You gotta have some faith in your girl, I'm one of the best damn things that you've got._

How did she do that? How could she just change lyrics to fit her needs? But it gave him the strength to pick back up his guitar and start playing again, and then he had a different problem because other voices had joined him.

Carefully a harmony could suddenly be heard, and all of his friends filed out of the different offices, snapping along with the beat and singing with them. His heart was in his mouth watching them all as they all flanked Rowan like a choir.

 _All we have to do now, it take these lies and make them true somehow. And all you have to see, is that you've got to trust, your family, hey yeah!_

He must have looked frightened because suddenly Rowan was edging towards him.

"No, don't panic, just look at me," she said and he peeled his eyes away from the crowd and down to her. "That's right, look at me, you can do this, just sing with me. Listen to the song and trust me."

It took all his will power but he did it. He focused on her and just sung to her which was how he noticed that she wasn't singing with him. She mouthed to him: _keep going_ , and despite being afraid he did which just got her to smile even wider.

When they got closer to the end she stopped playing a put a hand out to him. "Alright," she said to him softly, "We're going into the solo portion and what I need you to do is just solo it out, I'll be doing it with you, I promise."

He nodded, trusting her, listening and following her as they hit that solo section suddenly all voices had cut out instead of his.

He fell quiet staring at their faces as they all smiled at him and Rowan who was all smiles and practically crying finished the solo section for him. He couldn't believe that they did that, but he had managed to hit a solo on his own he could do this.

So as the song finished, as they came into the last chorus, he and Rowan were playing together and it was his turn to sing just to her.

 _I won't let you down, I'll never give you up. I've got to have some faith in my friends, you're the only family I've got. I will not let you down, I will not give you up, you're the only good that I've… got._

When he finished they all clapped though he still only had eyes for Rowan who smiled at him and pulled him in for a hug. He had done it. He had finally conquered his fear. Okay maybe not fully cause the thought of having to do it again was making his stomach knot up, but she was right, it was easier to do if he just focused on one person. And it definitely helped if that one person was an encouraging and supportive as his Ro.

After that he was passed around the group, saying thanks to everyone as he accepted his happy birthdays and presents. Rowan had made him a cake, black forest, his favourite. Kamekona had donated food for the party, and Rowan had ordered in pizza for everyone who didn't want seafood. Nahele hugged him and held him tightly, while wishing him a happy birthday and thanking him for making his own birthday the day before so amazing, which was probably the best present Steve had gotten at that point.

Then while everyone was milling around, and he thought them suitably distracted, he carefully pulled Rowan aside and into his office. Where, with the lights dimmed, the blinds drawn and his door locked the two of them began to make out.

"This was, absolutely, the best birthday ever," he whispered to her. "Thank you for doing this, for being at this one."

Rowan merely smiled at him. "Nothing could have dragged me away. Did you like your song, baby? I know that's not a lot for a present but I really didn't know what else to give you… I tried getting a custom gun, but Danny was right, you really put up a warning in every gun shop saying not to sell to me."

Steve laughed at her, of course he did. His baby shouldn't be handling weapons. Still he trailed a set of kisses along her jawline.

"I loved the song, Rowan," he said to her. "Thank you for giving that to me."

"My pleasure my darling and Happy hundredth…" "Rowan I swear to god…" "—Fine, fine, happy 30th birthday baby."

"You do know I'm 38 now, right?" he asked as he kissed her over and over again

"Yo I was willing to pretend that you were 30, why did you have to bring that up?" she asked him and he smiled again goddamn his girl was good to him. They kissed for a little longer before she whispered: "And by the way, you have a secondary present from me… except you don't get to unwrap it until tonight…"

"Why can't I…" "—Cause it's me, Steven, I picked out a lacy new outfit for you… it's me you're unwrapping."

"Oh god yes," he growled into her, loving the giggles that escaped her lips as he did so. This was by far, the best birthday ever. He couldn't have asked for anything more.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Jian had cried a lot over Wo Fat. And not the cute movie kind of tears, fully on ugly, cry yourself to sleep tears. She kept hoping he'd come back but they were going on almost a month and he still wasn't back. She had told him to leave, and the ever obedient man was actually going to stay away.

Could she have called him? Of course. Was she going to? Hell no.

She was too prideful and too angry with him to do that. He should have come back to her by now, and if he cared about her he would have. Even if it had been her who had told him to leave. She had realized by now that she had been over reacting, that it was actually very sweet that he had been trying to protect her, that he was willing to go underground simply to protect her reputation, but she couldn't tell him that now.

Jian had never ached over a man the way she had ached over Wo Fat. Her body missed the feel of him, and not just the sex, it had missed the soft touches as he brushed her hair behind her ear, the way he'd hold her hand, the way he'd hold her after they made love. She missed coming home to him, she missed meeting him at the door, ready to hug him and hold him close. She… she just missed him.

Jian had stopped caring about life. All she did was work, and then return home where she'd curl up on the couch in a blanket she bought him, and she'd drink wine with the stuffed tiger he had bought her what seemed like eons ago.

That was the plan for this evening too, but that was derailed because when she came home she found someone was waiting for her. Standing in her living room, a guarded look on his face, in her favourite outfit. A plush soft grey sweater and dark blue jeans. He looked tanned, like he had been out in the sun, but she could see scabs along the scarred side of his face which meant he had been injured or in some sort of danger. Her first instinct was to worry that he was there for medical assistance, but she saw nothing about him that would lead her to believe he was badly injured.

"Hi…" Wo Fat said softly, he cleared his throat, lowered his eyes and asked: "Got uh… any medical advice on how to cure a broken heart?"

The line was so corny, so cheesy, she was still so shocked that he had just appeared, that she couldn't help it she snorted, both in humour and derision. He smiled up at her. "Yeah… she uh… she said that would work…"

 _She_?!

Jian frowned and Wo carefully took in that look before quickly adding: "I mean, Ro. Ro suggested that I… she gave me the line…"

Jian blinked her eyes. Fuck he was so handsome, she had forgotten how handsome he was, had forgotten what his eyes did to her. She was fighting the urge to run to him. He kept taking steps closer to her, but if he got any closer she'd just jump him and she didn't want to do that… yet. There were so many things that she should have been asking him, like where he had been, why he was back, would he be willing to compromise and maybe… stay with her? Instead she asked: "You're talking to your sister again?"

Wo nodded. "Mhmm, we've made up," he said. "I was right, just needed to uh… to rescue her from something big. Also uh… it helped that Steven wasn't around at the time. Would have been a different conversation with that man hovering around her."

"Wait… you had to rescue her?"

"Uh-huh, she got extradited to Colombia over something I did… and uh… I went and got her out," he said. Jian just stood there blinking at him. Ro always seemed to get into the weirdest situations and Wo was forever moving to rescue her from something. "But we can talk about that later, I uh… I talked everything out with Ro… and she was uh… very helpful and insightful… you know?"

No she did not know. She folded her arms over her chest and glared at him and he swallowed hard. He took another step towards her and he was altogether too close. She took a step back simply because if she didn't she knew she'd move forward and he paused, stared at her hard and did the same. Fuck she hadn't wanted him _that_ far.

"And what wisdom did your sister impart on you?" she asked in a sarcastic tone to hide the worry and longing she was certain would be visible on her face and in her voice if she let it.

"Well… that while I pulled a Steven and ran when things got too real for me, you were completely and utterly unreasonable."

Jian's mouth fell open. It was true. She had been unreasonable but… fuck his sister, she didn't need to tell him that! " _I_ was unreasonable?"

"Yes. You. I wasn't trying to leave you, I was trying to protect you. It's the nature of my job, that sometimes, when things are getting hot and heavy, I'll have to hide and it wouldn't look good on you, who very much wants to live a civilian life with a civilian job, if you went missing with me, you know?"

That was true. She had acknowledged that too. Not to him, but it was true.

"If you want to be with me, Jian, you have to understand that sometimes… sometimes I'll have to go underground, just until things die down."

Fair. She had said she wanted him, despite his job, and all its downfalls and inherently illegal acts. She glanced down to her shoes. "You're right. I was being unreasonable," she whispered.

"Good, thank you for admitting that," he said taking another step closer. "That means I can admit that you were right, I didn't want to move in with you because I was afraid and I used your arrest to put distance between us because well… you got too close to me in a short amount of time… and uh… that scared me."

His hands were on her shoulders, warm and reassuring. Wo Fat had never talked about his feelings for her _with her_ before, and she found herself breathless under the implication that she had shaken his confidence enough to try and run. He must have really cared about her.

"Ro helped me see that… and well she helped me come up with a compromise," he whispered. "If you're willing to play this down-low simply to keep you out of the cop's purview, I'm willing to unofficially move in with you. Where you and I… we have our own place together but it's all in your name and legally I live somewhere else…"

He had more to say, more rules and stipulations and she knew that. But she didn't care. She launched herself at him, kissing him solidly, letting him wrap her up in his arms and holding her tightly to him.

"Yes. Yes. All forms of yes," she whispered between kisses and he smiled into her kisses, deepening it immediately.

God, she would have to get a hold of Ro's number to thank her because hot damn did she owe that girl. She hoped Ro stuck around this time, because if all she had to do was talk to Wo to get him to see sense, Ro was going to be their saving grace.


	186. Chapter 186

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hello My Wonderful Readers! How did you like the last chapter? Cute right? So we're onto the next episode and I had a lot of fun writing this one too. I think this episode is only three chapters but the drama is gonna keep coming, what can I say they went for high dramatics for the last ten episodes in the season! We're also getting closer and closer to season 6 and let me tell you, it's gonna JUMP RIGHT IN to all the angst. But I promise I will make it up to you guys okay? I promise! As always, don't forget to leave me a review and I'll see you guys tomorrow!_

Chapter 186

* * *

Steve sat in the barber's chair getting a cut and a shave. His eyes closed, leaning back as Odell went about shaving him. He was chatting on aimlessly about how the barber community was getting killed off by everyone's relentless need to be in a hurry.

Steve was just happy to be getting some shut eye. Rowan had been keeping him up, and not in the sexy way either. He didn't know what was going on but her dreams had both him and her up at all hours. They were bad and he sympathized, but they were also exhausting him. He was dangerously close to sleeping on Danny's couch just to get one night of good sleep.

Problem was he didn't sleep well without Rowan. Wasn't sleeping well with her currently either. Quite the dilemma.

He had just started to doze when Odell asked: "You with me, Commander?"

Steve forced his eyes open, forced himself to be awake. "Yeah. I'm with you. I'm sorry. I'm just, uh… it's… it's been a tough week."

"Hey, you got the couch, I'm here to listen," Odell told him. But there wasn't anything he really wanted to talk to him about "You having issues with the Pitbull?"

"No, Rowan and I are fine," he said even though he was lying. Rowan had been dreaming of a child murderer, one that would eventually grab Charlie, Rachel and Stan's kid. A man who would sadistically torture him until Charlie's murder was eventually a mercy killing. She had woken him up screaming about it every night that week, which meant… it was going to happen soon. Rowan had been so sure about it she convinced Rachel to pull Charlie out of school and keep him at home.

He glanced up at Odell and smiled. "I'll tell her you were asking after her."

"Oh good, I'd love a social call from my favourite song-writer. Just don't tell her I called her a Pitbull," he said quickly. "Something's on your mind, McGarrett, come on… let it out."

"No. No, no, no, it's nothing," he said. "It's nothing."

"No, no, no," Odell mimicked. "Nothing's nothing, this is about something, if it's not you and the lovely Miss. Pierce, it must be about work, is it about work?"

Other then he caught hell from the Governor about whatever had happened with the CIA and their Sandpiper operation, about going down to Colombia without permission at the direction of a criminal to get his girlfriend back, nothing was wrong at work. To be fair, he hadn't even gotten in that much trouble. Governor Dennings was just surprised that Steve had _only_ handed over 1.3 million dollars worth of Cocaine to Wo Fat and his associates. What was worse, was Wo Fat had given those drugs to Armando, and now he was the drug runner replacing Reyes in the Sandpiper operation. What a wonderful connection for Wo Fat to have.

But he didn't want to say any of that to Odell, so he went with the only other thing he was willing to talk about. "No, not work. It's about… it's about my mother, is what's it's about."

Odell sighed. "Oof. We all got them."

"Yeah, not like this one, we don't," Steve warned him. His spy mother had done all she could to save Danny and Rowan from what was happening, she had funneled Joe a lot of information she couldn't afford to give up. But it didn't make up for her skipping out on him again, for aiding and abetting Wo Fat who had tortured him twice now and was the reason his father was dead.

"Ah, I hear you," Odell said and then immediately backtracked into conversation about him and his new place. He let Odell talk and then put a cold towel on his face, already he was anticipating Rowan's hands on him, she was going to love the cut, and the shave. She loved his stubble, but it had been tickling her while they made out recently. Too much stubble, almost full-blown beard. Rowan didn't like beards.

Once the towel had cooled off his skin, and closed up his pores, according to Odell, he was sat up in front of the mirror to appreciate Odell's work on him so far. "Mahalo, nue loa," he said quickly as he looked himself over. "You open up early, you sacrifice your morning paddle all for my schedule. I appreciate it, Rowan's going to appreciate it. I'm touched."

"Hey, man, my grandpa Jack always said: this is a people business," he told him as he shook Steve's hand "You clean up nice McGarrett."

"Not bad, huh?"

"Yeah, I can see why that girl of yours is so attached to you," he said with a smile and Steve smiled too. "I like to think of myself as an artist, but some canvases are better than others. Speaking of which, I would love to get my shears on that partner of yours. That cat's got a hell of a head of hair."

Steve raised his hands in defence, of course everyone liked Danny's poofy fluffy hair, even Rowan seemed to like playing with it, she said it was because there was more of it to play with, so Steve had been sure to grow more for her, but he had been in the Navy so long that it bugged him when it got so long. He had thought he had found a happy medium, but Rowan still complained it wasn't long enough.

"I've been chasing him around with a pair of scissors for five years now. He's very precious about that 'do. Trust me, but he'll be back in a week. I'll tell him you offered."

"Solid," Odell said with a smile. "So, what are we gonna do today?"

"High and tight," Steve said.

"And don't touch the burns, right?"

"Right? Also, can you make sure the front still has some length, Ro likes to play with it," he said trying very hard not to blush but Odell just smiled.

"Should have opened with that McGarrett, I ain't about to do anything that will have that Pitbull in this shop chewing me out for messing up your 'do," he said with a grin.

Steve shook his head. "Keep calling her Pitbull and she's going to be in here bitching about the nickname, cause I will sell you out if you keep at it."

Odell raised his hands in surrender a cheeky smirk on his face. Steve tried not to shake his head as the shaver had come out and he wasn't certain when Odell was going to start when the bell above the door rang in the silence. Both Odell and Steve turned a kid was standing there, heaving, sweating, his leg bleeding leaning against the front counter. He couldn't be more than two years older than Nahele.

"Please, you gotta help me. They're coming to kill me!" he cried.

Steve was up and out of the chair immediately, he went to the kid and threw his arm over his shoulder. "Come on, come with me, let's get you sitting down," he said. When they started walking together he added: "That's right, keep your weight off it."

Steve got him sitting down in the chair that he had just vacated and then knelt down to assess the damage. Odell just stood beside him, doing nothing just watching them. "It's bleeding really bad," he said and Steve shot a glare at him.

Not. Helpful. Fuck it was like having Rowan around except instead of vomit he was getting useless info in a monotone voice. "Get me a towel," Steve ordered. Odell ran off to obey. "What's your name, kid?"

"It's Eran."

"Eran? Who shot you, Eran?"

"I… uh… I don't know. These guys." He stuttered. Great. Also not helpful. But he had just been shot and was in shock, so Steve got it.

"What guys?" Steve probed.

"I don't know, they had guns." Well, no fucking shit, kid. "I saw them shoot someone. They killed him. And now they're after me."

"Call 911," Steve ordered his eyes on Odell.

"I can't do that," he said and Steve almost swore at him.

"Why can't you do that?"

"I had a falling out with the phone company years ago and I don't do cell phones, okay?"

No, not okay. What the hell is wrong with this guy? Steve quickly got his keys out of his pocket and tossed it to him. "Blue Silverado across the street. My cell phone's in there, all right?"

Odell went to the door but didn't leave, instead he stared out the window and then said: "Commander I think we may have a problem."

Steve didn't need this right now. "What? What are you talking about?" but Odell didn't answer, he kept staring out the window. "Here, keep putting pressure on this," he told the kid and then joined Odell at the window.

Okay, a big black SUV with four guys with large guns coming out of it was a good reason for Odell to be freaked out. Maybe they were different guys, not the same ones who were after Eran, maybe they were just here to rob the store next door.

"Yeah we definitely have a problem."

"Oh no, that's them!" Eran cried from his seat and Steve groaned his luck was not holding out for him today.

"Take him behind the wall there, and stay down, stay down," he ordered going for his gun. He went to the door and opened it eyeing up the four men.

"Stay where you are!" he ordered. "This is Commander McGarrett of Five-0. Drop your weapons!"

There was a pause before they opened fire on him and he had to dive out of the doorway and behind the front counter. He waited, crouched down, as glass shattered and bullets ricocheted off of everything and ripped through the drywall. Once it was quiet again, he popped back up and returned fire, forcing them back behind their SUV.

That's when he noticed the OTHER SUV that had pulled up behind them where another four men poured out from. Well FUCK HIM!

"We just want the kid!" a man called out to him "Hand him over and we walk away."

"Yeah that's not gonna happen!" Steve shouted back and then popped up to return fire until they forced him back down with their quicker, larger guns.

This went on for a while, the volleying back and forth getting shorter on his side as Steve was running low on ammo and trying conserve his rounds, where as these guys had all the time and bullets in the world to keep him pinned.

"How could you not have a phone?!" he shouted at Odell who was behind a wall with Eran. Odell carefully popped up from behind the wall, the window between them had been shattered allowing Steve a clear view of the top half of Odell's head.

"All my regulars have standing appointments, the rest are walk-ins, okay? How could you leave yours in the car, Commander?" he shot back before ducking down.

"Because this is the barbershop. This is where we come to unplug from the rest of the world, do you remember?" he snapped repeating Odell's rant from before.

"Oh, yeah. Now you're gonna use my words against me? Nice," he said popping back up just to glare at him before ducking down once more.

He heard Odell ask Eran if he had a gun, but he didn't. Steve shot at the bad guys again to keep them from advancing on them.

"Some days are just born bad!" he heard Odell cry and he scowled to himself. Fuck. All he wanted was a hair cut and a shave so he could surprise his girl. How did that go so fucking wrong? Huh? Maybe Danny was right and Steve was a danger magnet.

"How's his leg?" he called to Odell

"Still bleeding, man," came back at him. Goddamn it.

"You gotta pack that wound and then put more pressure on it," Steve ordered

"Pack with what?"

"I unno, what do you got in there. You got gauze out there?"

"What?"

"Cotton balls?" Steve asked and hen looked around. "Look, Cotton balls, right there, on the counter."

"Well bring them in!" Odell cried. But Steve didn't have time for that.

"Just come and get the cotton balls!" he ordered and then stood up to return fire. When he was forced back down he noted Odell scampering back behind the wall leaving a trail of cotton balls behind him. Good at least the asshole listened to him.

Steve listened to Odell talk nervously to the kid. Kicked out of boy scouts for smoking weed. Danny got kicked out too, he couldn't remember what for at this point, but he figured he'd love Odell for this. Kicked out of boy scouts bonding time. If they ever got out of this, that is.

"You must be running low on ammo, Commander," the main guy called out, taunting him. Well fuck you too buddy. "You can't hold us off forever. Save yourself. Give us the kid."

"HPD's gonna be here in a minute. And trust me they won't be low on rounds," he shouted back even though he didn't know if that was true or not.

At that Steve got up and ran back to the back of the shop where he could hide behind a wall that was closer to Odell and Eran.

"I don't think they bought that," Odell told him, popping up briefly and Steve scowled at him. He did not need the pessimism right now. But he needed other options.

Steve looked around, spotted a door. "Where's this door lead?"

Odell popped up again. "Hallway to the back door," he answered.

"Alright, we gotta get Eran to the hospital, okay?" he said. "I'm gonna lay down cover fire, you guys get out of here."

"What are you insane? You're not gonna come with us?" Odell asked. And now he was acting like Rowan. "Their guns are bigger than yours, man."

"The minute I turn my back and stop firing on these guys, they're gonna come in here and they're gonna kill us, you understand. They're gonna track us down and kill us. By now, somebody would have called in these shots fired. I got enough ammo to hold them off until HPD arrive."

"What if nobody called the cops?"

What the hell was this man's problem? Why didn't he just shut up and go, Steve would be fine, he was _always_ fine. "Why are you arguing with me?" Steve snapped. "This kid's loosing blood while you're arguing with me, he's gonna die if you don't get him to the hospital."

Odell rolled his eyes at him and hit him with a passive aggressive. "Alright, okay, jezzus," fuck it really was like he was with Rowan. "I guess we're going, kid. You okay?"

They counted down to three to together and when they hit three, Odell got up and dragged the kid away while Steve moved forward again, gun blazing going in hot to lay down cover fire while they got away. He had a feeling that as soon as Odell got out of the building, he'd get a hold of Rowan or at the very least called the cops.

Probably was, Steven wasn't alone for more than a minute when Odell came back into the view. He left Eran in the back and then rushed towards the front where McGarrett was taking cover, sliding to a stop beside him. Dear god, if Odell did something noble and took the kid along for the ride, Steve was going to kill him.

"What are you doing back here? Why are you here?"

"I came to say goodbye," Odell answered, so sarcastically that Steve nearly pistol whipped him. "They got guys out back. I secured the door but we can't go out that way."

The gunshots started up again and Steve and Odell cringed. He stood when he could to return fire and when he ducked back down Odell asked: "How long till those cops you were talking about show up?"

"I don't know. It's a commercial area. You're the only store open right now. The closest residential isn't for a few blocks. I'm thinking the HPD's gonna take a few minutes to pinpoint our exact location."

Odell didn't like the sound of that. "Seriously? I think it's safe to say we're the only shop on the island that's under siege right now!" he cried and suddenly the shots fired up again. Odell cringed and shouted over the gunshots: "Call the Pitbull! Call the Pitbull!"

Steve had been thinking that as well. He hated Rowan's app, hated the way she was when she used it, but right now, it'd be really nice to throw Sandy and Rowan at them and see how smug they were after that.

"I don't have my phone I'm going to call her? How the hell am I going to call her?" Steve cried back as another volley of shots came at them.

"Yeah, but just cause you don't have your phone, doesn't mean they don't. That network's following you around too, ain't it?"

It was. Wo Fat did have it following him. Rowan was still certain that it was because she cared about him so by proxy Wo Fat cared about his wellbeing as well, but he didn't buy that for a second. He popped up to return fire, only to be forced back down when they started shooting again.

Yeah, he didn't have a lot of options at this point. No phone, running out of ammo. God, he was going to have to bite the bullet and get Sandy involved.

Steve waited for silence and then shouted: "This is Captain America activating the Sanctuary Network!"

And for a long while there was nothing but silence and Steve wondered if it would work. He peaked over the wall, to see them looking at their phones and speaking softly to one another. Was it working? Were they going to go away? But one guy, obviously the leader, roughly shoved the men closest to them barking orders and reluctantly all of them put their phones away and the guns were once again trained on Steve and the building. Steve immediately ducked back down. Okay. Maybe it hadn't worked.

"You know the story of the three little pigs, Commander McGarrett? Well Sanctuary isn't your brick house! You give us what we want and we'll go away. If you don't… then… not even Rowan Pierce can save you," the man called out. Jesus they wanted Eran bad but Steve wasn't about to give him up.

Steve and Odell exchanged glances, no one had ever, _ever_ said that to him before. So much for everyone being terrified of his girlfriend.

"Well fuck… when her brother finds out they said that… they're _dead_ ," he growled. Not that that helped them now. He glanced at Steve. "How you doing on ammo?"

"I think I got about three rounds left."

"Well can we recycle these things? There's like a million of them in here," he said showing him the spare bullet he had in his fingertips.

Steve didn't know what to say. If it were Rowan, he would have snapped at her and then kissed her to apologize, and Danny wouldn't have said that to him at all. "I'm gonna pretend you didn't just say that."

"Okay, I'm just trying to help."

"Okay, you want to help? Find us a way out of here."

Odell thought for two seconds. "The gate. We can secure ourselves inside."

Steve stared at him. The what now? "What gate?" he asked.

"I got a security gate outside," Odell said sounding quite happy. "It rolls down at night to keep the undesirables outside of my shop."

Wow, really, that had been an option this whole fucking time? "Okay, I'm going to ask you a question. What do you call these uh, what do you call these guy out there with the big guns?"

"Okay, forgive me for not mentioning it sooner, alright?" Odell snapped. "I'm not exact thinking straight, it's not every day I have bullets flying at my head. And honestly, I thought that network would kick in by now."

"It's not set up to automatically respond to me, Odell!" Steve cried. "It's gotta get approval from her stupid brother to respond, all it's probably done is report the situation to him. Wo Fat ain't going to do shit for me unless Rowan asks him to!"

The two of them glared at one another and Steve decided to change the topic. "Is the gate automatic? Tell me it's automatic."

"What do you think?" Odell snapped back. The sass was not appreciated right now. "All I need is to open the front door, pull the gate down, that's it."

Steve nodded. "Alright. Move fast, keep your head down."

"Inspiring words, thank you," Odell said as Steve got in a crouched position ready to stand up and lay down cover with whatever bullets he had left.

"On my mark."

"I don't know what that means."

Fuck him.

"It means when I say go, go."

"Well, say that, then," Odell said primly and Steve almost slapped him. Fuck he'd rather have Rowan here, at least he expected that shit from her. And she would have understood what _on my mark_ meant.

"Okay, so when I say go, go," Steve repeated and Odell nodded. God if he survived this he was going to need a vacation.

They both got ready. Steve counted to three and then got up, shooting at the guys at the guys as Odell got up, got the door open and pulled the chain. The gate descended quickly and as Odell slid to the safety beside McGarrett the bullets pinged off the gate.

"Fast enough for you?" he asked Steve who just sat there catching his breath.

"That was good, that was fast."

"But you didn't say _go_ ," Odell told him. "You said _one, two, three_. You said you were gonna say _go_."

Steve glared at him. He had never wanted Rowan more in his life.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

A few days after coming back from Colombia, Nahele had announced to them that he wanted to learn how to skate. He had never learned before, he wanted to try, and a girl in his grade, whom he wouldn't admit he had a crush on but Rowan was assuming he did, skated on the regular. So Rowan and Nahele had gone and bought skates, and then she had taken him to the best rink in Hawaii, a rink she was used to as she had performed in that rink in her world. The dimensions, nor the quality of ice had changed between the two realities which was wonderful.

Nahele, despite being nervous had learned quickly. She had held his hands and taught him how to move forward, while she skated backwards, had taught him how to turn, how to stop and how to speed up. This week he was learning how to skate backwards.

The problem was, Rowan had honestly forgotten how much she loved to skate. She had forgotten how fluid she was on the ice, how moving had always seemed easier to her when she was skating. She had deluded herself into thinking she could just teach Nahele how to skate and not want to practice, to see if she could remember her old moves. Oh how wrong she was. The second she was out on the ice, she wanted nothing more than to twirl, to jump, to spin. So when Nahele would go off on his own to practice, or when he had had enough and wanted to go home she would practice.

And while she was still rusty, she was still as good at skating as she remembered. And she had certainly remembered why she loved it so much, why it had hurt her to think she'd never skate again due to her injury.

When she finished practicing she found that Nahele was waiting for her by the side. She skated over to him, hopping off the ice. She knew he'd want to go home, and she got that. He had a lot of videogames to play with his friends.

"Sorry," she said to him. "Let me get out of my skates and we'll head home."

"Naw, it's no rush," he said to her. "I only came over cause your phone was going off."

Rowan sat down on the bench by their stuff and peeled off her first skate. "Yeah?" she asked. She then dug out the keys and tossed them to him. "Go start the car I'll be out in a minute."

He nodded and Rowan quickly got the other skate off and stowed away before she fished out the phone from her bag. She was surprised to find that she had a bunch of alerts from the app and a single text from Wo.

She hadn't been in trouble so she didn't know why the app would be active at all, but she figured it out the second she read the alert. She looked over everything, from the activation, to the ignoring of Wo Fat's claim of protection. No one had ignored the app since the NLM, why would anyone ignore Wo Fat's order to walk away when everyone who did died?

She finally looked at Wo's text which had no form of explanation and instead just read: "Garig is waiting for you."

Panic hit her harder than she had ever experienced before. She didn't know what was going on, but she'd have to find out, once she got Nahele home and had someone over to babysit. Rowan quickly got up, rushing out towards her car, her head still reeling because at no point had she ever expected a Red Alert to read: _Captain America has activated Sanctuary._


	187. Chapter 187

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hello my wonderful readers! I'm glad you guys are enjoying the chapters so far! For all of those who are worried about Wo Fat and Rowan and whether or not cute brother and sister moments will be happening again… don't worry. For those who are worried about Wo Fat's obsession with getting Rowan away from Steven… well… you have good reason to worry. This chapter is going to include one wild ride and hopefully you guys are up to it. Steve's gonna say something mean in this chapter, but I promise in the next chapter it's explained so don't worry too much about that one. Also it's brought to my attention I got a little factoid wrong. I'm so sorry everyone, I had absolutely no idea that Alex had only been married the one. I'm not as OCD about him as others are so I'm sorry but I swear I checked that before I put it in. Either Wikipedia lied to me or I just read it wrong. My bad. We can just chalk this little mix up to Rowan not realizing that either, hopefully that reduces a bit of the OCD triggering there. As always don't forget to review and I'll see you tomorrow._

Chapter 187

* * *

Once the gate was down and Steve had double checked the back barricade and that there were no other ways to get into the shop, he turned his attention back onto the kid. The kid was bleeding badly and he had to do something, so he had Odell find him a styptic pen, which was usually just used to deal with small nicks one would get during a shave or a trim, but would have to do. He had told Eran that this was going to hurt, and then jabbed the pen into his bullet wound. The kid had groaned, had cried out in pain, had almost fainted, so Steve endeavoured to distract him.

He got him talking about what happened. How he had gone to work at the bakery, gone outside to throw out some garbage and witnessed a few men shoot another one, execution style. They had spotted him, he had ran, and Odell's barber shop had been the only thing open so he went inside looking for help and that was how this had all happened.

But it wasn't until he mentioned that the guys behind the execution, the same guys who had them pinned in here, were Armenian gangsters that ran his neighbourhood, did Odell pull him aside. You know, once Steve had plugged up the leak in the kid's leg and duct taped a towel to him.

They went over to where the front desk used to be and they both lowered their voices so the kid couldn't really hear them.

"You, uh, ever hear the name Garig Dobrian?" Odell asked.

Steve shook his head. "No."

"Used to be a major player in the Armenian Mob in LA," Odell explained. Okay, good for this guy. "He moved down here a few years ago to hang his own shingle. Word is he's ruthless. Drugs, shakedowns, insurance scams, got his hands in all of it. He owns the Rainbow Valley Supermarket over on Palolo Avenue, but, uh, that place is just a front."

Steve glanced back to the kid before turning to Odell and asking: "You think Dobrian had something to do with this guy getting killed?"

"Well, kind of like your girl's app, nothing gets done without him giving the order," Odell said. "And if he's the one who told these guys to come after Eran, they ain't gonna stop till he's dead… or they get orders from some a little… higher up on the food chain."

Steve scowled. "We already talked about this, I don't have my phone and they're ignoring Sanctuary," he snapped. "I'm not sure how you expect me to get a hold of her to fix this."

"Well what are the chances her app will tell her that you tried to activate it?" Odell asked.

But did Steve want that. He didn't want his girl flying into this situation blind. And he had a sneaking suspicion that Wo Fat might… you know, not alert her to this situation to get back at him for not allowing him to contact Rowan on a regular basis. He wouldn't put it past Wo Fat to be hoping that this situation killed him so he could swoop in to snatch Rowan up again.

But Odell was panicking, and Rowan and her app were like this little silver lining of hope that he was holding onto. Steve didn't want to take that away from him.

"I unno how it works, but I don't think we should hold out for that… you know?"

Odell nodded and then focused on something over Steve's shoulder. "Oh that can't be good," he breathed out and Steve turned. On the little CCTV feed he had running on a black and white TV. They can clearly see one of the guys heading over towards them.

"He's coming over here," Odell said almost panickedly as if Steve couldn't tell that. "I'm going to open the gate you shoot him."

"What am I gonna shoot him with? I don't have any bullets."

There was nothing they could do except watch as he cut the wires and the CCTV screen went black. Great. Now they had no view of the outside. They had just been blinded.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

It was a day that was supposed to be filled with tragedy, not for other people but just for him. Now he was dealing with a kid who was supposed to be dead by now, a hostage situation that had Five-0 involved, and now that Sanctuary had been activated he was dealing with an old friend who was very, very angry.

Garig had explained the situation to Wo Fat. The man had patiently listened and then sighed. It was out of his hands, he had said, his sister was emotionally attached to the man protecting Eran. That man wasn't going to give the kid up, and his sister, the notorious Rowan Pierce, was practically lethal when it came to protecting Steven McGarrett. And Wo Fat, despite having nothing but respect for Garig, would back her in every way, would come down hard if told to do so to avenge any accidental deaths or injuries, and would come down twice as hard if that accidental death or injury actually happened to Rowan.

Garig had thought that fair, so he had calmly told him to send the girl over. He promised to be nothing but courteous, as his only intention was to explain the situation and try to convince her that this was what needed to be done. Wo Fat had told him that he would get in touch with her, give her the option, and then they could speak, but if Rowan remained unconvinced Wo Fat would take matters into his own hands.

Garig had thought that to be fair as well, agreed to the terms, and then waited to hear if she would accept the invitation to meet.

She had and now he was just waiting for her to arrive.

There was a screech of tires, the sound of small feet pounding against the pavement, the bell tinkled above the door of his super market and then: "YOU!" was hurled at him with such deadly aim and aggressive loudness that he knew that could only be one person.

He knew that Wo Fat's little terror was coming, the man had said that she was on her way to speak to him, and he thought himself suitably prepared to handle a monstrosity such as her. But when everyone spoke of Rowan Pierce, no one every mentioned how she looked. Probably because she was so… cute looking?

The girl practically looked harmless. Her red-to-blonde faded hair was up in a pony tail, she was wearing black leggings and a loosely fitted graphic tee-shirt that simply read: _Run? I thought you said Rum._ The only sign of the dangerous and lethal woman everyone proclaimed her to be was the ice in her blue eyes and the glare on her face.

"You Garig Dobrian?" she asked him

"Yes," he answered calmly.

"Kay cool. Call your guys off and you can go to sleep alive tonight."

He bowed his head to her. And there were the threats she was famous for. "As much as I would like to do that… I cannot," he said and that glare on her face got worse.

"Listen here, asswipe, that's my boyfriend you got trapped in that barber shop, and I want him the fuck out of there and I'm not particularly happy that your guys ignored my warnings," she growled. When Garig opened his mouth to try and talk to reason with her, she cut him off. "And don't try to tell me it didn't happen either."

She slammed her phone down on the counter where he could see her app, alerts were running down the screen, but he could tell it was fully active and clearly running some sort of program, he just didn't know what it was doing. Instead he read the alerts.

 _Yellow level warning: Shots fired._

 _Captain America is being shot at, no active case on file, not a work event. Threat level raised to Orange_

 _Captain America has activated Sanctuary. Threat level promoted to Red._

 _Captain America is unreachable._

 _Captain America is locked in Moki Cuts with codename Surfer Dude and one unknown friendly._

 _Hostiles are Armenian. Contracted under Dobrian. Master has contacted Dobrian to confirm situation._

 _Hostiles ignoring repeated attempts to warn them away from Captain America._

 _No chatter to suggest hit is on Captain America._

 _Lost closest visual to situation. Acquiring closest feeds to keep tracking situation._

 _Awaiting further instructions or contact with Captain America._

"You did this. I want Steve out of there. I want my barber out of there. I want the unknown person out of there. I want _all three of them_ out of there. Call your guys off. NOW!"

Garig would have been foolish to not hear the fear in her voice, to not see the silver tiara ring on her ring finger. She loved the man who was in there, the man who was protecting the wrong person, he could use that to his advantage. "I do not want your Captain America, or your barber. I merely want the boy."

Rowan leant back and crossed her arms over her chest. "Well tough shit cause you can't have him."

He was starting to get frustrated with her, she was being so unreasonable. She didn't know the situation, hadn't been able to make contact with her previous Steven, but she was still backing him, blindly at that. "You don't understand. You have to let them finish the job."

"Why?"

"Because he is a monster!"

That seemed to get her attention because she tilted her head to the side, a narrowed calculating look dawning on her features. "Oh yeah and how would you know that?"

"Because that boy is my son, and only a father would know their child that well. What kind of father would call their own son that?"

And then he stood there and watched as she thought that claim over.

Rowan thought back to her mother, who called her a monster constantly, both as an insult and as a pet name. Normal parents didn't say that about their children, or at least that's what Rowan had been told. She didn't know how it was in criminal's families. Maybe monster was a pet name. But she had a sneaking suspicion that this was about something else. Because most of the time when Sanctuary got activated people knuckled under, they didn't request a meet up.

"Okay, you're going to stop dancing around the subject. You tell me what's up and if I believe you… I'll help you. But if I don't, I'll activate counter measures that _no one_ is going to enjoy, you got me?"

"I can do one better… I can show you."

And even though she was untrusting and worried, she agreed because right now, she had no other option. And Steve was running out of time.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

The kid wasn't looking too good. Steve wasn't feeling too good either. He didn't like being trapped in there, he needed a way out, like ASAP.

He had gone into Odell's back office, while Odell paced the place taking stock of everything that was broken or damaged. There was a vent in the ceiling.

"Where does that lead to?" Steve asked interrupting the philosophical rant he was going on about how this was all things, so Eran wouldn't feel bad about being the reason half of Odell's shit was broken.

"The AC unit," Odell said. "I'm telling you, there's only two ways out of here."

Not helping. Way too much pessimism, just like Danny.

"Listen to me, alright? It doesn't look the HPD is going to be coming anytime soon. I can't get a hold of Rowan. I activated Sanctuary and they didn't back down. We are on our own," he snapped. "Waiting, in here, any more is no longer an option. The longer we stay there, the better the chance we all end up dead."

Harsh but necessary truth.

"Okay, what are you gonna do? Crawl through the air duct?" Odell snapped back. Actually that was exactly what he was going to do.

"Yes, if I have to, yes," Steve explained. "There's a store next door, right?"

"A florist," he confirmed.

"Okay, well I'm thinking this connects to the florist and if I can get over there, maybe I can use their phone to call 911…"

"Or the Pitbull…"

"Call her a Pitbull one more time, and so help me, Odell, I'm going to call her just to have her come here and kill you herself," he growled, roughly tugging the small desk away from the wall. Odell was right of course, if Steve got to a phone the first person he was going to call was Rowan, let's see how smug that man's face was gonna look when she fucking rolls up with her own little personal army. She still had one of those right? Like if she asked, she could get access to one, still, right?

Problem was, when he tugged the desk away from the wall something clattered off of it. Odell shook his head and sarcastically said: "Careful. Please."

"I'm sorry, okay?" he said stooping down to pick the picture frame up, and was shocked to find that it was a fucking certificate for a law degree from Fordham Law school. Odell was a lawyer?

"What is this? You're a lawyer?"

Why had he never told Steve that before?

"Yeah, I'm a lawyer. Is that so hard to believe?" he asked. Actually… looking at him. Yeah it fucking was.

"Well, I mean, it's a barbershop, so yeah, kind of," Steve admitted.

As Steve went about clearing the little side desk off so he could stand up on it Odell asked: "I just blew your mind, didn't I?"

Steve just sighed. "I mean, most people hang it on the wall," he said. With the desk clear he climbed up on it to start unscrewing the grate to the vent.

"Yeah well, I'm not too fond of mine and I just haven't had the nerve to toss it in the trash where it belongs, okay?"

"There's a story there," Steve answered absently. Clearly Odell wanted to talk about it, damn he was a lot like Danny.

"There's a long and boring story there one that ends up with me owning a barbershop on a rock in the middle of the Pacific."

"Do me a favor, you got a Philips?" Steve asked after examining the grate. He'd need one of those to get the screws off.

Odell nodded, going into the back where the back door was to find his tools before coming back with the screwdriver in question.

When he came back Steve asked: "So what you spend 100 grand on a degree but you realized you like breaking the law more than practicing it?"

"I think we're done talking about this," Odell said in way of answer. Well that wasn't like Danny at all. usually Steve could goad him into shouting his feelings at him. It felt odd that it didn't work this time.

"What are you talking about, I told you about my mother," Steve reminded him.

Odell shot him a look of narrowed confusion. "You didn't tell me anything about your mother."

Steve thought about it a moment, well, that was true, maybe he hadn't gotten to that part yet. "Okay, well she aided and abetted a man who was trying to kill me for years and then she went into hiding so I couldn't call her out on it. Your turn."

Odell blinked his eyes. If he asked him if this was the same man who also called himself Rowan's brother, he was going to get thwacked with a screwdriver handle. Instead he got he story he asked for.

"My father's a big-shot defense attorney. Park avenue penthouse, summers in the Hamptons, first-class everything. But that's not where he came from, and he resented the fact that he was a barber's son. He didn't consider that a noble profession. All that matter to him is how much money you make. He sent me to all the best schools. Horace Mann, NYU, Fordham law. Didn't matter what I wanted. He was calling the shots."

Well that was shitty. Didn't explain how it was he came to be on Hawaii. Other then running away. Maybe he should have Odell talk to Rowan, Rowan knew all about running away from one's problems. Steve got the grate off and then looked into the duct, of course it was cylindrical and tight fitting. It couldn't just be easy, could it?

"After I graduated, I had enough, wela ka hao," he said proudly.

"Life's too short, huh?"

"Yeah and getting shorter by the minute," Odell remarked. He watched as Steve shut the grate back up and went about screwing the screw back in. "That is not encouraging."

"No, it's uh, too small a space for me to fit into," he admitted.

"So what are we going to do?"

Steve didn't have an answer, and in the silence of the absence of his answer they heard a horn honking.

"Did you hear that?" Steve asked, jumping off the table and heading for the front of the shop, towards that metal gate. He thought he heard it again, paired with a call. A call he swore he recognised. He heard Odell clamouring behind him, Steve raised a hand for silence. The silence was heavy around them until he heard a soft call of his name.

No. No it couldn't be. If the app had warned her… why would she come alone? Was it possible that Wo Fat had stopped the app from reporting to her? Was she thinking she was just visiting him at the shop? He had told her where he was going this morning and she did have a habit of showing up to surprise him. Was she here to take him to lunch? Did she not know what she was walking into?

He heard it again except louder. "Steven?"

 _Rowan_.

Oh god. Rowan. No. No. No.

Despite Odell's cries of warning, despite knowing there were gunman somewhere outside, and he had no idea where cause the camera was down, Steve scrambled to the gate and pulled it open to get to her. Problem was, Rowan was heading back to her car, which she had left idling in the middle of the street.

"Rowan!" he hissed and she turned around surprised. She took him in, standing at the door, watching him as he tried to wave her forward but she didn't move.

"Oh hey babe. What are you doing in there, it looks closed, it's not closed is it?" she asked him. She clocked the gun on his hip but didn't seem to catch the frantic look about him. "Did you seriously take your gun into a barbershop but not take your phone?"

He caught sight of movement, a man coming out from behind one of the black SUVs and suddenly everything went white around the edges. Steve's mind went into autopilot, he had one directive, protect Rowan. He charged forward, and despite her cries of confusion or attempts to back away, he had grabbed her, pressed her to his chest and then whirled her away from the man with the gun. He held her, the woman he loved, and waited for the gunshots to rip into him.

But they never came.

Instead, Rowan's arms wrapped around him, wrapped around him tightly. "I'm so sorry," she whispered to him but he didn't understand why.

Until he saw the other men, the ones with bigger guns heading into Odell's barber shop. He tried to pull away from Rowan, only managing to take half a step forward but got tangled up in her. He tried to move Rowan to the side, but she had a tight grip on him. The men that had not gone inside, but had instead gotten in between him and the shop, all turned their guns on him and he froze. Despite being confused, despite being certain that Rowan was in on it, his arms came around her again to hold her, ready to shield her if necessary.

From inside the barbershop came shouts of worry and confusion and Rowan turned in his grasp, finally letting him go. She tried to step away from him but Steve wouldn't let her go, not with that many guns around her.

"The barber is with me," she announced and Steve felt the anger return to him, he dropped his hold on her entirely in his shock.

"Rowan what are you doing?" he hissed.

Rowan turned to him a strange sort of smile on her face. An urgently guilty one. "Can you get in the car, babe?" she asked. "Let's get in the car, hmm?"

"Get in the car?" he echoed. "I'm not going anywhere until I know what's going on. Are you… are you with them?"

"Steven, please, I know how much you like answers and I would love to give them to you, my darling, but you _have_ to get into the car, can you do that? For me?"

But Steve shook his head. Odell was pulled out of the shop and brought to them. But Eran, Eran had not been brought out.

"There's a kid in there, Rowan, a kid who needs our help, and I'm not leaving without him…"

But Rowan, who had been carefully looking Odell over, turned back around to face him. Her eyes, oh god how light her eyes were. No. No this wasn't happening. "I'm sorry Steven," she whispered to him. "But this is part of the deal…"

"What?" he asked his voice low and full of surprise. "What do you mean… what deal?"

"You activated Sanctuary," she said softly. "You activated Sanctuary and they ignored our demands and you were running out of time and I… I didn't know what else to do…"

But that didn't answer the question. What was happening? What deal? Why was Rowan making deals with these people when normally she just had people storm in? What was the plan? She never did anything without a plan!

"Rowan what have you done?" he asked.

 _Bang_

The scream of _No_ ripped through him so quickly he was sure it burned his throat. Rowan winced at it, he didn't need it confirmed that Eran, the boy he had been trying to save all morning, had just been shot, had just been killed.

"No!" he shouted his eyes turning on Rowan. His heart fracturing in his chest. "No!"

Rowan put her hands out to him. "I know, I know, I'm sorry, but if you had gotten in the car…"

What and just not be there when the shot went off. He stared at her horrified. The men came out from the shop and Rowan shot a glare at the lead man with the smug smile. "I told you to wait for us to leave," she growled.

"I don't take my orders from you."

Rowan's unfeeling eyes stayed on him, they seemed to scare him so badly that the smug smile fell off his face and he actually moved away from her. He had wanted that exact reaction once, only a short time ago, but Steve didn't have time for that now, he stormed back to that shop, took in Eran's lifeless body, the bullet hole between his eyes and then stormed back to Rowan.

"What have you done?" he thundered to her and she had the good grace to wince at him "Rowan! How… how could you? That boy! Do you know what I've just been through for that boy, _what I promised him?!_ "

"I do know, Steven," she said turning her tearful face up to him. But he wasn't having it.

"I went through hell for that boy! We've been here trying to protect him all fucking morning! _I promised to save him, Rowan_!" Steve shouted. "And you just gave him up? Why? Why would you do that? Why would you do something so _vile_ when _you're_ the one who so worried about everyone thinking _you're a monster_!"

He regretted it the second it came out of his mouth. He had been doing so much better at not saying hurtful things he didn't mean. The problem was, at that moment he meant it. Rowan flinched. She flinched and his heart, his wounded bleeding heart, was dealt another cut.

She lowered her eyes from him. "I have my reasons… I do… and I wish… I wish you would just trust me and my decisions. Because you know… you activated Sanctuary and she gave me a play-by-play. Do you have any idea what that meant to me? How terrifying it was to find out you were in a situation you were so scared of that _you_ of all people activated my app? An app you hate? Created by a man you can't stand?"

Okay… she had a point there. That was probably very scary. But it didn't excuse _this_.

"Look… it's not… it's not my place to explain, and I know you're mad at me right now but can you trust me when I tell you that I can take you to your answers?" she asked. "You just have to get in my car…"

"NO!" Steven shouted again. "No, you tell me right now! Right now! You look me right in the eye and you tell me _why you let this happen_!"

Rowan winced again, her eyes narrowing like she had been dealt a blow. He must have emotionally wounded her, he'd give her that much.

"Steven. If I could have, if I really wanted to, do you not think I would have gotten all three of you out?"

"Okay… yeah…" he answered because it was true.

"So if I didn't there had to be a reason right?"

"Okay, but what is that reason, Rowan?" Steve cried.

"See, that's why I need you in the car. Because Garig Dobrian is going to tell you why this had to happen, and it's only going to make sense if he tells you… and he shows you what he showed me… okay?"

Steve stared at her, watching as she turned to Odell and added: "And I negotiated a lump sum for you for maintenance to your shop. But it looks like I got here before they tried to chainsaw their way in from the other shop and you guys had to make a molotv cocktail, so maybe don't tell him that… cause I said there was a small fire and building damage."

She just spit out a vision to Odell, who had no idea she was supposed to be psychic. But Odell didn't seem to care past the mention of a lump sum being given to him

"Aces, let's do this," he said heading for her car. Rowan turned back to Steven with a look on her face he hated. She looked so hurt, so upset, like he had no right to be mad at her. Yeah she had saved his life but at what cost? At the cost of another kid's life?

"I know you spent a lot of time today protecting that kid… but you didn't know him… you don't know what he did…"

Steve glared at her. She was alluding to something but he didn't know what and he knew she wouldn't tell him if she asked. "But if I go with you… it will be explained?"

Rowan nodded and he sighed but headed to the passenger side of her car. She better have a fucking good explanation.


	188. Chapter 188

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Sunday my wonderful readers! Here we are. This is the last of the marathon, you'll still be getting your usual post tomorrow but officially the marathon ends here. On this really cute note I think. Yes, Steve did say something mean last chapter, but he is forgiven this chapter, you gotta cut the boy some slack he had to feel a lot of emotions all at once and we know how bad he is at emotions. The next few chapters after are meant to be more funny and less angsty, but if I've done my job right in the next few chapters you should notice some tension between Steve and Rowan. That is there for a reason. I'm not gonna lie, I'm super behind. I've only got up to chapter 196 written right now, I've hit a major block, but I think it's because I'm super busy in school and I'm basically about to enter into season 6 and I'm soooooo afraid you guys are gonna be super mad when you read what's gonna happen. But I'm going to push myself through it for you guys! Gotta keep those three posts a week coming! As always, don't forget to leave me a review and I will see you guys on tomorrow!_

Chapter 188

* * *

She took him to a house. Just a simple bungalow where a man in a black dress shirt and grey slacks was waiting for them. His beard was wiry and peppered with greys, he had unfeeling grey eyes and a thin mouth. Steve was angry, and he was sure the only reason that his welcome wasn't warmer was because of the glare on his face.

Rowan lead them up to him and then carefully said: "Steven, Odell, this is Garig Dobrian."

"Shall we take this inside?"

They nodded, going into the house that stood silent and dusty. Obviously no one was living here, but he could see patterns in the dust. Places where footprints had been. The house, much like Steve's had the kitchen to the back of the house which was where Garig had lead them. Steve looked around for any sign that would explain what had happened today and saw nothing. Garig stood with his back to a door to address them, as if baring entrance to a coveted club.

Garig bowed his head. First to Steve and then Odell. "My condolences for your shop," he said. "I will give you names, people who owe me, they'll do good work, and I will cover the costs."

Well wasn't that just peachy for Odell. "Mahalo," he said quickly shaking the man's hand, then Garig turned to Steve.

"She said that you would want answers," he said to Steve.

"Yeah, I wanna know how it's possible that your men executed somebody this morning, and yet you managed to convince my girl that the witness to that execution needed to die."

He stared at Steve calmly. "The murder this morning, it never happened."

"Shut up! That kid! He was a witness! He puts your men at the scene!" he nearly screamed, because unlike Rowan he wasn't going to let this man lie to him.

"No, Commander, you don't understand. My son, he lied to you."

Steve went very still as he took that in. "What did you just say?"

"My son lied to you. Eran. The boy you were trying to protect at the barbershop, that was my son."

Steve glanced from Garig, to Rowan and then back. "Your son? Why would you want to kill your own son?"

"Eran is…" he started and then faltered. For a moment he was silent until Steve lost it.

"ANSWER ME?"

"He was a sick boy, touched by the devil," Garig shouted back.

"What… what are you talking about?"

"You're police, correct? So you must have heard about those children who went missing from my neighbourhood."

Dread crept up his spine. No. Oh god… no. "What does that have to do with Eran?"

"If you stopped asking questions he could tell you," Rowan said to him just as Garig said: "Those missing children have everything to do with my son."

"He… Eran took them. Then he murdered them."

"Why should I believe you?" Steve murmured.

"Your girl believed me."

"Rowan would have demanded proof and I know you showed her something. So, what was it? What did you show her then? What did she see to make her believe?"

Instead of answering he moved out of the way and showing him the door he had been standing in front of the whole time. "Everything she saw… is down there."

Steve glanced to Rowan who just stared at him. "You go. I'll stay here," she said. "I promise."

"Yeah, and I'm gonna get Garig's contacts, set myself up with the workers to get my shop up and running," Odell said.

Steve carefully and slowly went down the steps. He half expected an ambush when he reached the bottom. Instead he found shadows and a single bulb with a chain to pull to illuminate the darkness of the basement. Other then empty and dusty washers, it looking like a normal basement. Except for the wooden door covered in unlocked padlocks, clearly forced open recently. And inside was just… kids toys. Clothes, necklaces, shoes, precious items to a child all laid out like trophies and in the middle of all of those things was a shoe box. Steve knocked the top off of it and found a stack of polaroid instant pictures. His heart sunk in his chest, because the stack was so much larger then he though it was going to be, and it was filled with children's faces, dirty, scared, tear streaked.

 _There were so many pictures._

Steve couldn't help it. Those children those poor children. Their little faces dirty, tear streaked, fear in their eyes. The tears came but he couldn't look away, he couldn't stop flipping to the next picture, and the next picture, and the picture after that and the picture after that. He was shaking trying to hold it all back, understanding once and for all why she had let Eran die. Because this, this had all been described to him before, in frantic detail.

"Are you crying?"

Steve turned around, to Rowan standing in the door way refusing to come closer. She must have taken his look for one of embarrassment because she immediately became flustered. "Oh. Sorry. Not crying. Allergies. A lot of pollen, and dust, and dander and… and peanut butter in that room!"

He wasn't allergic to anything and she knew that. Still the outburst made him laugh. He was grateful for her attempt to make him feel more manly, but he was more grateful for her presence, for her just being there with him.

"This is it then. Your dream. I'm standing in your nightmare, aren't I?"

"This is just the trophy room," Rowan said. "The things I saw… they were worse than this. But uh… the ones about Charlie and Danny. They were always in here. Charlie's picture would be on the top. And uh… his uh… his favourite toy firetruck would be right beside the tiara. Danny… he'd be crying…"

Steve looked around. He knew now why she had done it. He understood. "I'm so sorry I didn't trust you… I'm…"

"You spent the whole day protecting that kid. It didn't help that he lied to you, that he made himself look innocent. I got it. Honest. It was just… you know… a little hurtful…"

"Can we chalk it up to the shock?" he asked. "I went from terrified that those people were going to kill me, and Odell and that kid and then you showed up and I thought they were going to shoot you and then you were on their side and it was just… it was a lot all at once… I'm not good with emotions normally and I went on a fucking roller coaster over the span of like… two minutes, you know?"

"No, I know, I get it. I'm just saying, I understand but it still hurt. You know?"

"Okay. You're right, and I'm sorry. Can I get a hug?"

"Can you get out of that room first? It's filled with nothing but black strings and I just can't go down that path again… I saw a lot of things that I don't want to relive."

Despite having questions Steve moved out of the room and into her arms. She held him as the tears started up again. He couldn't help it, today had be so trying.

"I know you hate when I ask you this stuff, but what did you mean by black strings?"

Rowan pushed herself out of his grasp and then looked at him carefully. True to her word, after Colombia, she had tried to be more open and truthful about the things that had happened to her from her past and the things she thought about. So even though he could tell she didn't want to, she still answered his question. "Okay, uh… well… you know how there's that theory of the universe where everything is made of strings, and all connected by strings?"

"String theory, I know of it but not a lot about it."

"Fair, me too," she said with a smile. "Okay, well uh… remember how I said I've been controlling the dreams?"

"Yes?"

"Okay, well I've been doing that by trying to select the right strings. And at first that only worked in dreams, and then I started noticing them if I was really, really high. Like when Billy was shot and I said I was going to follow the strings?" she asked and he nodded. "Yeah, I actually followed the strings. But you know, being high… or in a state of danger or injury isn't really a viable way to see the strings, not in the long run anyway… so uhm… I've been kind of practicing."

That was terrifying to think of. He kept telling her he didn't want her to mess with the void, but as someone who wanted answers right away, Steven definitely understood her desire to see the strings without having to be in danger or injured or high. If he had the ability to just look at a string and know the answer, he'd take that power in a heartbeat.

Rowan sighed at him which brought him out of his thoughts. God he hoped that he wasn't making a face. Rowan always thought his faces were negative. Still she continued. "Recently though, I've found that if I focus, if I really look for them, I can see them everywhere. The red strings that take over any room we're in. The white strings for safety. The pulsing vibrant alarm red for danger, and the black ones… of death. If I touch them… I can see what path it leads to. That room…" she said pointing to the little room behind her. the one he had just come out of. "It's got nothing but black strings and all of them lead to death. Everything in there is tied to it and that's just… a lot… a lot of little kids all crying and screaming and begging for it to stop."

Steve didn't want to think about that. He didn't want to know if Rowan had only heard this or if she saw things as well, because he didn't want to think that she had that sort of stuff stuck in her head right now. Steve nodded looked back at the room and then put a hand to her arm. "We don't need to stay here," he murmured. "Come on."

"I would have told you Steven. I just… I just didn't know you were going to meet him that way. I didn't… I don't know why but I didn't dream of the episode. I don't know why I dreamed everything else instead."

Great. Was that another evolution of her powers? Yeah cause he needed that right?

"It's okay," he said instead of complaining. "Let's… let's just go home, okay?"

"Uhm… Steven," she whispered as they were heading up the stairs. She turned around while she was part way up making her taller than him. He wasn't used to looking up to her like that. It felt like he was looking at her in a whole new light. "You know how you want me to always tell you everything?"

"You've done something else haven't you?"

"Yes, that man, the one who shot Eran and then said that he doesn't take orders from me, remember him?" she asked. Yeah he was the leader. Steve nodded. "He's been killed."

Steve paused on the steps. "Why?"

"I didn't like his attitude. He ignored Wo Fat and Sandy's orders to leave you alone. He said I couldn't help you and then shot Eran even though I told him to wait for you to be gone… so… you know… I told Wo Fat, who told Garig and he's either already dead or is about to be."

Steve blinked his eyes at her. "Wo Fat told those guys to leave me alone?"

"Yes. As soon as you activated Sanctuary. Wo Fat put an alert out to them telling them that you and the shop were under his protection and if they went forward with the attack he'd deal with them accordingly."

Wow. Really? He did that for him? Wow, he really would do anything to get back into Rowan's life.

"When they didn't listen, he contacted Garig who is a friend of his, they spoke and then I was invited over for an explanation… which I got… and then I went to get you out. The only problem was, part of the deal was that Eran had to die and I… I unno… I figured…" she gestured to the room behind him and he nodded. Yeah, he got what she figured.

"But you're not actually talking to Wo Fat though?"

"No, but I'm going to have to say something, he'll want to know if I'm okay."

"You weren't in danger, Rowan," he reminded her. "But fine. One update on how we're both doing, tell him I say thank you but that is It, you hear me? No more contact after that."

Rowan smiled happily and kissed him solidly. He hated the Wo Fat had him right where he wanted him. But for Rowan's smiles, for her kisses, he'd put up with it.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan and Steve had made the executive decision not to tell Nahele what had happened to Steve that morning, but unbeknownst to him, the media had picked up the story and he found out at lunch, that Steve had been in a violent shoot out that resulted in a death. Which meant he returned home at the end of the school day worried that something had happened to Steven. He had just burst through the door, saw Rowan first, seemed to take her surprised look as negative one and cried: "Is Dad okay?" It was his first slip up in calling him dad and Steve could not have been happier about it. Fuck he had actually kind of shed a few tears over it. In the privacy of the washroom.

Like Rowan he had let the slip slide, because as soon as Nahele realized that Steve was just sitting on the couch completely fine, just a little bit out of Nahele's eye sight, the kid had gone bright red. He had hugged him, asked if he was okay, and once assured that he was went straight to the kitchen to ask Rowan for an after school snack and to start his homework, all while avoiding both of their eyes. With Rowan he played it off as it didn't matter but once he was by himself he did a happy dance, shed a few happy tears and then hopped into the shower to wash the day off.

The following morning, he was happy for more than one reason. For starters, for the first time in ten days, Rowan had not woken up screaming about a child or Charlie being tortured. He was still on a high over _finally_ being called dad, and he got to partake in his favourite morning breakfast routine. First breakfast, that had Rowan's back arching, her fingers digging into his hair as his tongue did sinful things between her thighs.

They had learned to be quiet, so Nahele wouldn't have to hear and it was those quiet moments that Steve had learned to adore. He liked nothing more than having her teeth sink into his shoulder to keep her cries of ecstasy at bay, and he loved leaving dark marks along her neck and collarbones to keep himself from screaming her name. And nothing quite made him cum harder than when her back would arch and her eyes would roll back, her pump pink lips open in a silent _O_ as he rocked her world.

It was after second breakfast, which was an omelet for him, and scrambled eggs for her and Nahele that Rowan announced that she had a surprise for them. They weren't allowed to know what it was just that everyone had to be there. Steve had gone about calling all his friends and giving them the address of where Rowan wanted them to meet him. But it wasn't until they got to the destination that Steve realized they were going to a skating rink.

"Rowan… uh… what are we doing here?" he asked. He knew that Nahele had wanted to learn to skate but he didn't think he'd want to put on a show.

"You'll see," she said ushering them inside. The arena was cold, and Steve wasn't dressed for this and neither were any of their friends, but all of them were silent about it, mostly, Danny was bitching up a storm.

They huddled around the bleachers until Rowan finally showed up, in this dark green outfit. The collar and sleeves were made of this sheer thick skin colored fabric no doubt to give her warms, there were little crystals covering the sweetheart bodice, all the way down to her waist, her legs were clad in skin colored sheer stockings made of the same fabric as the sleeves of her dress. Her hair was up in a tight ballerina bun, her make up looked thick and crazy, she had little crystals dotting the skin by her eyes but it was the jet-black skates that surprised him. Weren't girls supposed to wear white skates and boys wear black?

Her outfit got a flurry of comments, phones were whipped out and Rowan posed for all the pictures and smiled at all the jokes that were thrown at her.

"Seriously what are we doing here, though," Danny asked, clearly ready to move on and get out of the rink.

"Well, as most of you know, I used to be a nationally ranked figure skater," she said which got a round of nods and one: "What the hell? No one told me that!" from Grover.

"Well I was," she said to Grover before turning on the others. "I haven't really skated since I came here, and when Nahele asked for skating lessons I… uh… well I re-remembered why I liked skating so much. I've been practicing for about a week and I may have put together a bit of a show for you guys. So if you wouldn't mind sitting down, I brought each of you blankets and thermoses of my famous cocoa, I'd like to show you guys what I can do."

She gestured to bags that Steve hadn't noticed before and realized that she really had brought everything she said. The blankets were passed around, the thermoses handed out and when they were all set, Rowan was on the ice, staring at all of them.

"Okay so I just wanted to remind you guys, that I haven't done this in like… years," she told them. "So I'm uh… I'm not gonna be that good okay?"

"Alright, we will manage our expectations," Danny said.

"Just skate fast it's way too cold in here, gurl," Grover added and Rowan nodded. She turned away from them skated out into the middle of the arena where she gave some sort of cue to someone else. There was a brief pause where Rowan got herself into position and then the music started playing.

Steve would have recognized _Hound Dog_ anywhere. Beside them Jerry pipped up: "She told me once that her first winning routine was to this song." And Steve found himself frowning, simply because Rowan had never told him that.

He wanted to be angry but as soon as Rowan started moving on the ice Steve couldn't feel anything but awe. She was like fluid, moving quickly and seamlessly through twirls and spins, her arms twisting and turning. She did a series of quick maneuvers where she ended up doing little hops through a movement.

Beside him Nahele leant in and whispered: "She said those are called The Pierce Pops. Apparently, there were a few moves her dad's physics friends cooked up for her and her brother to do, that's one of them. Doing that movement wrong can break an ankle… oh… oh… here comes the first jump."

True to form, Rowan's first jump ended up being a triple twist, and if Steve remembered anything from dating Catherine and watching the Olympics he knew that the triple jump was a show stopper, not a show beginner.

Steve glanced around to all his friends, and they too looked just as surprised and amazed by Rowan's skating. She did another set of those Pops that Nahele was talking about, spun out into one of those spins where she spun for absolute ever, starting from a crouched position, to standing up, then she had a hold of her skate first out in front of her and than to the side and then behind and fuck he had no idea his girl was that flexible.

They were going to be using _that_ in bed tonight, best believe.

Rowan used an elaborate flourish to break out of the spin, skating backwards picking up way too much speed and beside him Nahele began to bounce. "Oh, here it is, here it is," he said. "Come on mom, don't fall…"

Whoa! Wait a second she had been FALLING?! Fucking what? Was she okay? Steve turned his eyes back to the ice in time to watch Rowan launch herself into the air. Managing to complete and land a six spin jump. Steve hadn't been unaware that he had leapt to his own feet until Nahele was putting a hand out to pull him back down.

Steve couldn't keep his eyes off of her as Rowan finished, this big huge smile on her face, holding her position, that Y-pose as she caught her breath and smiled at her friends.

"Holy shit," Steve found himself whispering as his friends around him clapped and cheered for her. He just couldn't believe it.

"I know right, if that's her out of practice how good was she when she was on the top of her game?" Nahele asked and Steve frowned.

He was right of course. Rowan had mentioned once that she could have gone to the Olympics. That if Trevor hadn't sucked her into the Stepanov's crime ring, if she hadn't broken her leg, if she hadn't had to go into WITSEC, she would have made it to the Olympics that year. It was another reminder that if they had met under regular circumstances, in her own time, Rowan would have been so far out of his league she wouldn't have given him the time of day.

God.

It was a good thing she fell into his world and not the other way around.


	189. Chapter 189

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Monday my wonderful readers! Hopefully none of you are having the Monday Blues, but if you are, I hope this cheers you up! We've got a pretty cute chapter going on here. We're going to focusing a little bit on other things and not so much the episode as Rowan's going to be MIA for most of it… oh you'll see what I mean. And I know next chapter is going to be SUPER cute cause we get to see a small Rowan and Steve reunion. Hopefully this makes you giggle, I know I giggled a bit when I was writing it. Don't forget to tell me what you think and I'll see you guys on Wednesday!_

Chapter 189

* * *

Danny walked past Pua and into the swanky office of this ridiculously high up building. He was already not in the mood for this today, but he smiled at Dr. Shaw and let her walk them through everything. Their vic's name was Glen Hurd, 34 years old, and the leasing agent of the building they were in, killed in the office.

Danny had responded, the only one of his team to respond as they were all helping Lou at that moment with some other case which was apparently more important than this one, and because Danny was nearby anyway, rescuing Rowan from what should have been an arrest.

But he knew Steve couldn't take another arrest, not so soon after Colombia, so Danny was prepared to hush it up until they could tell Steve and not give him a heart attack.

He had left Rowan in the hallway to enter the crime scene, it was simple, Rowan didn't like dead bodies, or blood, she'd stay outside. Pua was supposed to keep an eye on her while he did what he had to do investigation wise. So, he felt it was okay to chat it up with Dr. Shaw. They talked a little bit about why they were short staffed and then went straight onto the body. A GSW to the chest, shot around 1 a.m.

That was as far as they got before someone interrupted him.

"Ew… ugh… is that… a body?"

Danny turned to where Rowan was standing a few feet away, staring at the body with concern in her eyes.

"Seriously? I told you I was responding to a murder, Rowan. I said stay in the hallway. Why are you in here acting like you had no fucking clue what was going on? It's not cute, none of us think it's cute," Danny snapped.

Rowan frowned at him. He really shouldn't have been giving her a hard time, she had not had a good morning. "Usually when you guys go to scenes the bodies are gone, and for your information… I knew where I was supposed to wait but… I got bored."

Danny rolled his eyes but Dr. Shaw perked up pinning her with a confused look. "Why, if you have a problem with dead bodies, did you come with Detective Williams in the first place?"

Rowan shot a surprised glance to Danny before turning back to Dr. Shaw. "Oooh, so proper," Rowan said smiling at her which got Dr. Shaw to blush and lower her eyes which was a surprising reaction. "To answer your question, I am not here of my own free will. Danny made me come."

"Yes, and do you want to tell her _why_ I made you come with me?"

"No," Rowan answered sullenly and he nodded. He turned back to Dr. Shaw and bid her to continue even though she seemed very confused by the recent interaction.

When she said nothing he said: "Well, we better hurry up and get this body to the morgue and get the bullet out," he had to pause there because Rowan was gagging, which was ridiculous because they hadn't done anything yet. "Are you good?" he asked her but Rowan waved him off. He turned back to Dr. Shaw. "Are you good too, or do you need help?"

"No, no, I'll just ask officer Kai," she said waving him off but Danny was shaking his head at her.

"He's gotta stick around to secure the crime scene. I'll help you out."

"No, no, no, I'm out, I'm going to wait out in the hallway," Rowan said finally going back to where he had originally told her to stay in the first place.

They watched her go with, Danny with a smile on his face, Dr. Shaw staring at her as if she were an alien. Together they got the body in the bag and on the gurney. They were outside in the hallway where Rowan was waiting a look of disgust on her face. But they didn't have an issue until it came to actually moving a body.

They had to use the elevator at the other end of the building, the complete opposite direction of the crime scene as it was the only one big enough to fit the gurney. But Rowan, being Rowan, was whining, as per usual. All through walking she had kept a safe distance from them and the body but now that she had to actual get into the elevator with them, she was having a real conniption.

"Aw… come on… please don't make me," she said hitting Danny with a puppy dog look that only worked on Steven. "I'll be good, the building is teaming with cops, what trouble am I really going to get into?"

"Rowan, don't you think you need to get over this fear of yours? I mean… you're around it so much as is…"

"This is different. Being in an enclosed space with a body is different from just being able to be around one. What if he starts moving?"

"He's dead," Dr. Shaw reminded her and Rowan shot a scowl at her.

"I know that! But it would be just my luck that the asshole turns out to be the first zombie."

"Okay, think of it this way, how proud will Steven be if you conquer this?" he asked. And Rowan's lips began to twitch. "Don't you think he'd be very proud of you, wouldn't you love to tell him that you did this?"

"I mean… maybe… but honestly… I think he might just be pissed off that you took his girlfriend to a crime scene."

"Considering the alternative, I think he'll come to forgive me," Danny answered drily, reaching out and tugging Rowan into the elevator.

But Dr. Shaw had perked up at the mention of Steven as if she had just realized something. "Oh, so you're Rowan Pierce, Commander McGarrett's girlfriend," Dr. Shaw said. "He speaks of you a lot but I think this is the first time I've met you."

"Oh yeah, that's me… wait… he talks about me a lot? Like Really? What does he say?"

"Oh my god, Rowan, the man never shuts up about you. About your sleeping habits, your sex life…" "—he tells people about our sex life?!" "…he mostly tells me about your sex life. Everyone else gets to hear about your arguments and whatever cute or hot thing you had done, and he's forever showing people pictures of you. Do you have any idea how often I have to listen to him brag about his amazing girlfriend, the song writer? I mean seriously, how do you not know this by now?"

Rowan got all smiley at that and he found himself smiling too. He liked reminding her of that, because Steven was terrible at it and she needed all the reminders she could get. Steve was gonna get laid tonight all because Danny had spit that out.

There was a break in silence between the trio in the elevator. "Uh… well… so, you know, I really owe you one," Dr. Shaw said to get off of the awkward topic. Danny turned to her.

"Yeah, just don't ask me to help with the autopsy," he said going for cheesy jokes cause they were easier than telling her that he was going to help her no matter what.

"I wasn't talking about this. Although I do appreciate the assist," she admitted. "I, uhm, I wanted to thank you for suggesting I take up surfing. I've been catching waves every morning, just ankles snappers, but, um, it's been therapeutic."

Rowan scoffed at them. "I'm sorry, Danny Williams, _this_ Daniel Williams, suggested you surf?" she asked her. When Dr. Shaw nodded Rowan turned to Danny. "You hate the ocean, you hate surfing, what are you doing recommending surfing as a therapeutic hobby?"

"You know what, when we get out of here, I'm going to call Steven. I'm going to tell him what you did today," he growled. Rowan was half way through complaining when the elevator suddenly jerked to a stop.

"What just happened?" Rowan asked.

"No, no, don't panic, it's fine," Danny said pressing the emergency button and getting no response. "You have got to be kidding me."

Dr. Shaw pulled her phone out, no signal. The two of them exchanged glances and came to the same conclusion. They could make noise but they were too far from the crime scene for anyone to notice and the building was on lock down due to the murder. They both glanced to Rowan who was pressed up against the wall, farthest from the body eyes wide in terror.

Shit, this was not going to go well.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

It wasn't long for Mindy Shaw's two comrades to fall to shambles. After Rowan pressed the alarm button so frequently and so hard that it broke and Danny put dents into the metal of the door pounding on it for so long, the two of them broke down in separate ways. Danny went between pacing and checking for a signal on his phone, but Rowan seemed to lose her mind. Her back was against the door, her head in her hands, and she had announced to both of them that she was going to try and connect with Steven, her boyfriend Steven, _the Great Steven McGarrett,_ through some psychic connection she seemed to think the two of them shared. At no point in Steven's bragging had he ever mentioned that his girlfriend was insane.

As crazy as it was, it kept her quiet and out of the way, so Mindy went along as it seemed to keep Rowan distracted from the situation. Danny, however, was a completely different story, pacing and muttering to himself.

Mindy had sat down as well only because she had gotten tired of being on her feet. She stared up at Danny as he seemed to whirl around as if he'd see a new way out as if by magic. She sighed at him. "I think we just need to accept the fact that we are stuck in here until someone finds us."

Danny turned on her a wild look in his eyes. "Oh yeah, when's that gonna be?"

"Hopefully before the body starts to get ripe," she said laughing at her own joke. But Danny didn't laugh and Rowan, who's head was to her knees at this point, gagged. The sound muffled but completely distinguishable. Well, her fear and disgust of corpses had clearly not been conquered by this.

"That's funny. Let me explain something. Doing nothing is not an option. You think it's funny? It's not funny. I've heard of people getting stuck in elevators for days and days…"

"I really don't think that's going to happen," she said interrupting him.

"Really? My phone doesn't work, your phone doesn't work, her phone's in the car so we can't get a hold of Sandy. The alarm doesn't work, and we're not going to get it to work thanks to Hulk hands over there. No one's coming to look at office space because the office manager is dead…"

"Yes, but won't Commander McGarrett come looking for her?" Dr. Shaw interrupted pointing to Rowan.

Danny turned back to Rowan who was crouched up against the door with her head in her hands _still_ trying to telepathically get a hold of Steve.

"True, if she doesn't check in a few hours he'll come looking but he doesn't know where she is because we didn't tell anyone…" Danny trailed off and went back to pacing. "We've got to be proactive."

"Or we can conserve energy."

"We've got no food, we've got no water. The Oxygen level in here is getting very low."

"There's plenty of oxygen."

"Then why can't I breathe?" Danny cried.

Mindy was officially worried. "Detective?"

"I can't stay in this place," Danny was rambling as she got up.

"What is happening?" she asked him.

"He's claustrophobic," Rowan said, her voice low and garbled but still in very contemptuous way.

Danny rounded on her. "Why are you saying it like that? You can't do small cramped spaces either since the sexual assault."

Mindy's eyebrows shot up to her hairline, holy shit that was harsh and a very blasé outlook on such a terrible thing to have happened. Mindy might have lost her mind if someone had said that to her but Rowan calmly looked up to Danny clearly aware that he was just panicking and probably didn't mean it and said: "Okay, that makes me traumatized not claustrophobic, and I'm still handling this better than you."

"Really? Because you've been trying to psychically link to Steve for thirty minutes, isn't that a bit crazy?" he cried.

"Well I mean… he's sensed me in danger before," Rowan said to him. "Maybe I should be doing this out loud. Maybe he just can't hear me and I need to be louder."

"What?" Danny cried only to be answered by Rowan suddenly screeching Steve's name.

"Okay, okay, stop it!" Mindy cried and Rowan fell quiet. Mindy turned her attention back to Danny, having stood up to address him. She put her hands to Danny's shoulders to make him look at her. "Alright, listen to me. Everything's gonna be okay. Right now, neurotransmitters in your brain have sent the wrong signal. Activating your sympathetic nervous system. You just need to ride this out until your parasympathetic nervous system can restore your body to a normal state."

"That's good," Danny said sarcastically. "Can you do me a favour and repeat all of that in English?"

She shot him a little smile. "Okay, your body is lying to you. It's telling you you're in danger, but you're not. You're not. "

"So, it's like a glitch?"

"Exactly. It's a glitch. That's all. Just a glitch. There's no danger."

"No danger," he repeated.

"There's no threat. Okay? You're completely safe. Now just relax and breathe."

"Thank you…"

"You're welcome. It's not often I get to use my medical knowledge to help living people," she answered. She realized that she still had a hold of Danny's shoulders and for a moment she lost her self in his eyes. Wow they were really… blue…

"Ugh, if you guys start kissing, I'm gonna hurl," Rowan growled and just like that Mindy jumped away from him and he whirled onto Rowan, yelling at her about how unprofessional that was while she just stared up at him with calm and unfeeling look on her face. After that she had another problem: Rowan and Danny's bickering. Unfortunately, there was nothing Mindy could do to stop that. She just had to hope that they got rescued soon before the two argued each other to death.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Grover had called Steve for a personal situation. Steve had been having a good morning up until then. He got to take Nahele to school and waved the kid off. He got to come home to Rowan getting ready, and he got to derail her from getting ready for a quicky in his washroom. He just couldn't resist her in her pencil skirt and bra, his dog tags around her neck and it made him twice as hard to push that skirt up to her waist to get into her.

She had a meeting to go to, but she had promised to call him for lunch and since it was his day off he was fully planning on ignoring any case that came up to actually go out for lunch with his girlfriend. Originally when Lou had called Steve had assumed it was for support, he had heard that one of his friend from Chicago who had been vacationing in Hawaii and celebrating their anniversary had died. But that was not what Lou wanted. Lou had a theory, it was a dangerous theory, and if he was wrong he could ruin a friendship years in the making.

Clay had started when Grover had. They were best buds, had walked the beat together. They were understandably very close, and Clay's wife of 25 years had just fallen off a cliff while on a hike and died and Grover thought that Clay had done it.

Lou had asked for Steve's opinion and backing and Steve was more than willing to give him both. They were now heading back to the Palace, in their separate cars, Lou in his SUV and Steve in his truck, to find a way to prove that Clay had done this to his wife. Everything had been going well until all of a sudden he was filled with such a terrible welling panic that had him slamming on his breaks in the middle of traffic.

He couldn't understand what just happened to him, it felt like he had just had an anxiety attack out of no where. The kind of chest pain he got when Rowan tried to use the void but it was paired with panic, and he didn't usually feel that unless she was in some sort of danger. He didn't know what had brought it on but despite the honking behind him he flipped on his flashers and dug out his phone. He needed to hear from Rowan, he had a feeling something was wrong, he had the strange feeling that Rowan needed him, and it wasn't going to go away until he talked to her.

But Rowan didn't pick up when he called her, her phone went straight to voicemail. She could still be in her meeting. But the panic wasn't going away so he called the one person who was always so good at talking him down. But when he called Danny his phone, too, went to voicemail.

Steve sat back in his truck. Something was wrong, he knew something was wrong but he didn't know what. Taking the flashers off and flipping on his siren and lights he quickly sped off towards the Palace. The quicker he could trace their phones and get his friends on finding Rowan the quicker his girlfriend would be back in his arms. His heart wasn't going to stop racing until he knew that she was safe, and he wasn't going to consider her safe until she was with him again.


	190. Chapter 190

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Guess which dumb-writer was so tired yesterday that they forgot to post! This girl! Gosh guys I am SO sorry! But here's the chapter and I promise you will still be getting one tomorrow too! Are you ready for a cute little reunion I got lined up for you? For those of you who were curious about what Danny had to save Rowan from, you'll also find out what that was. We're getting close to that 200th chapter too, are you guys excited? I think I picked a few cute part to post. Don't forget to leave me a review, I love to hear what you think of the story and I will see you guys on Friday._

Chapter 190

* * *

Steve stormed into the Iolani Palace hoping to get a location on Rowan ASAP. What he found was Chin at the smart table quickly closing things which was a very suspicious thing to do.

"What are you doing here?" Chin asked.

"I'm looking for Rowan, what are you doing?" Steve asked his eyes narrowed at Chin who was groaning.

"Oh no, you've heard then, someone's told you," Chin said which stopped Steve's heart in his chest.

"What? What happened?"

"It's okay, Steven, it's okay. Kono's in with Hobbs, and I've got some pretty solid evidence to clear her so you don't have to worry…"

What the fuck, had Rowan been arrested again? "Okay, wait a second, did she get arrested? What are you talking about?"

"Well wait a second… if you're not… Okay… why are _you_ looking for Rowan?" Chin shot back.

"I'm looking for Rowan because I'm pretty sure I had another one of her void twinges, and I'm convinced she's in danger. You haven't answered my question. Has she been arrested again?" Steve asked.

"Not really. But we do have Gordon Hobbs attempting to charge her with assault right now."

"I'm sorry… what did you just say?" Steve asked, his voice low in a dangerous sultry sort of way.

"You heard me," Chin replied. "He wants to charge Rowan with assault."

Steve just turned to stare at Chin who just stared back. "Gordon Hobbs is a visiting Sports Agent. He's here to sign a deal with a few major players. Not sure the details. Just that he's an obnoxious jerk."

"And why the hell was my girl assaulting a sport's agent this morning?" he asked his arms crossed over his chest.

"Well according to her, he attacked her first," Chin said. "And the video and witnesses confirm that."

Steve shook his head. "What."

Chin nodded. "The barista at her regular coffee place said that Mr. Hobbs spotted her while she was in line and attempted flirting. Rowan shot him down, like hard, he insulted her and she Ice Queened him, humiliated him in front of his corporate friends and probably one of the athletes he was trying to sign."

Chin pulled up a file. "This was caught by the security camera of an ATM across the street," he said letting it play.

Steve watched Rowan come out with her coffee, playing with her phone. Gordon Hobbs came out after her, grabbing her from behind and tugging her into an alleyway, disappearing into the shadows. Steve's heart kicked up, wanting to jump into the screen to save her. Though the picture was vague, once they were in the shadows, all they could really make up was a bit of a struggle. After a few charged moments the person who came out of the alleyway was Rowan, putting a shoe back on her foot. She carefully picked up the cellphone that had dropped out of her hand and walked away.

Steve turned back to Chin. "She stabbed him with her stiletto didn't she?" he asked.

Chin was smiling. "Yep. She kicked it straight into his shin. She also punched him in the throat, broke his nose and then pulled the stiletto she had imbedded in his leg out before leaving." Steve sighed out the pent up fear. "Kono's in with him now. She's trying to get him to admit that he attacked first, but he's maintaining that Rowan started it and needs to be dealt with."

"What time did this happen?" Steve asked.

"Uh… this morning, round ten am… why?"

"Cause that's not when I had my attack," Steve said. "So she got arrested what… down the block from there?"

"Yeah, everyone knows your girl, Steve, Duke realized who he was filing against and he picked her up and handed her off to Danny," Chin said.

"See I can't get a hold of Danny either, do you know where he is?" Steve asked.

"Uh… no but I can put out a few feelers… where are you going?" Chin asked as Steve headed for their elevator.

"I'm going to go talk to Hobbs," Steve said.

"Is that a good idea?" Chin asked but Steve wasn't taking no for an answer. He made his way down to the basement where he let himself into the interrogation room. Gordon Hobbs, a beefy looking man with a bald spot and a fancy sport coat was basically screaming at Kono who had him cuffed to one of their small chairs.

He was going on about money, and connections, and how he was going to get her fired. He looked smaller on the video feed, but looking at him in the flesh his stomach roiled at what might have happened to his Rowan if that man had gotten the upper hand.

"Kono, I got this," he said to her softly. But Kono wouldn't move.

"Have you been briefed…."

"Yep, I know everything, I've seen the video, heard from the witnesses and I got this, so uh… why don't you head upstairs," he offered.

He could see the doubt in her eyes but she left him with Hobbs just like he wanted. Hobbs had a pant leg rolled up and wrapped in gauze, his nose was purple and swollen, with big purple bruises under both eyes. He couldn't help but smile, that's right, his little Rowan had done that to him.

"Who the hell are you?" Hobbs asked.

"I'm Commander Steven McGarrett, you uh… you wanna give me your version of the story?"

"That little bitch humiliated me and then attacked me when I was trying to apologize. And you know what I got for my trouble? Stabbed. The fucking psycho stabbed me with her fucking shoe. And you have me down here like I'm the fucking criminal!" he snapped.

Steve nodded. "Oh so that… that was an apology?" he asked and then sort of half laughed at him. "I think that's funny cause the video I watched… uh… it looked an awful lot like you grabbed my girl from behind and drag her into a dark alleyway… you call that an apology?"

"Your… _your girl_?" he echoed.

Steve just smiled at him. "I'm guessing you didn't think she'd fight back huh?" he asked. "You didn't realize who you were picking a fight with huh?"

"Look…"

"No it's pretty clear what happened, Gordon," Steve said. "My girl humiliated you, just like you said, except you didn't go after her to apologize, you went after to her to get some payback, teach her a lesson, and my girl handed your shit right back to you. You see, you probably didn't know she was dating the head of Five-0 or that her brother is a pretty well-known and violent criminal mastermind."

"A… a… criminal…?"

"Mastermind, yes. In fact, I can't be certain cause we never could quite prove what happened to him, but I'm pretty sure the last man to attempt to sexually assault her ended up at the bottom of the ocean," Steve said crossing his arm over his chest. "I wonder where you'll end up."

"Now wait a second!" Hobbs cried. "I didn't… you can't let that happen to me…"

"I don't have to do anything," Steve told him.

"You can't just let him _kill_ me!" Hobbs cried. "Don't you know who I am?"

"No and quite frankly I don't care," Steve said. "You want my support? You're gonna drop the charges, and you're gonna clear off my island, cause if you go anywhere near my girlfriend again it won't be her brother you'll be staring down you understand me?"

"Anything, anything okay, just…"

But Steve was already walking away from him. He couldn't be in a room with that man, not when he wanted to strangle him himself. When he got out he found Kono waiting for him.

"You can't find Rowan?" she asked and when Steve nodded he watched the concern flash across Kono's face. "We all thought she was with Danny."

"Well I can't find Danny either," Steve said, starting to think that maybe something had happened to the both of them.

"He responded to a murder after picking up Rowan… is it possible that they're still there?" Kono asked.

Steve thought it over. "Yeah, send me the address," he said. "I'm gonna try and track them down. But uh… get Gordon out of this building, when I come back he better be fucking gone cause if he's still here I can't be held responsible for what I do to him."

He couldn't stay still, he couldn't just sit there and wait for them to show up. He needed to find his girlfriend, he needed to find his best friend. He needed to do something… anything. And if Gordon was still in this building when he got back Steve was going to turn absolutely monstrous.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan was not having a good day. She got verbally accosted and then nearly assaulted. She never got to her meeting and Pete was absolutely livid with her and her arrest record. At this rate she was going to lose her writing job and she didn't know what she'd do if she lost the job that made her this happy. To make matters worse she was stuck in a small little room with a dead body, a dead body that the fucking corner, Dr. Shaw, had half autopsied. She had listened to music and had faced away but she still knew what was happening and that was terrifying.

With their clues found or whatever, they had zipped the body back up and were now attempting to find other ways out. This led to Dr. Shaw being up on Danny's shoulders trying to get the ceiling grate off so they could get up into the elevator shaft.

But she gave up all too quickly. "It's not working. It's sealed on the other side," she said quickly dismounting. Rowan glanced up to the ceiling, she could do something about that.

"Let me try," Rowan said. Danny, who was huffing, having apparently had a hard time keeping Dr. Shaw up.

"Rowan that top is sealed from the other side, you're not going to be able to open it," Danny snapped but Rowan had turned a wild look on him that actually scared him.

"Listen to me Williams," she growled. "I am stuck in a small dark space with a _dead fucking body_. Lift. Me. Up."

Sighing he did as she asked. She got up on to his shoulders and he stood slowly to keep his balance. As soon as Rowan got up she put her finger tips to the grate and began to concentrate. She could do this, she could do this.

"See, the screws…" he started but there was a sudden electric crackle and a pop and the panel was hitting the floor. Both Danny and Mindy watched it hit the floor while Rowan busied herself with getting a good grip to try and start pulling herself up.

"Oh my god," Mindy whispered to herself.

"How did you open that?" Danny asked. He would have said more had Rowan not dug her heels into his shoulders just at that moment to get herself out through the roof and up into the shaft. He noted that she hadn't answered his question and instead ignored him during her ascent. Once she was up there though he asked again. "Seriously, how did you open that?"

Rowan's head popped back into the elevator and looked down to Danny. "I'm sorry did you say something?"

"Yes, I want to know how you got this open, the grate was sealed from the other side."

"Well clearly it wasn't," Rowan answered.

"I don't think Mindy…" "— Kay, stop it. Life found a way. Leave it at that," Rowan interrupted and Danny went quiet with a quick huff. "I'mma go get help."

"Yeah? And how are you going to get the elevator doors open?"

"Fucking life will find a way Danny," Rowan snapped. "Why are you questioning me? Just shut up and be grateful." She was silent for a moment before he heard: "Aw fuck I have to climb?"

"No, Rowan, don't you dare, cause if you fall and kill yourself Steve will never forgive me. He still hasn't forgiven me for the stabbing!"

"She got stabbed?" Mindy asked him in a low voice but he waved her away.

"Well we can't stay here!" Rowan cried down to them and then she shushed Danny's burgeoning complaints. "Wait… wait do you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

There was a pause again, where she was clearly listening but Danny couldn't hear anything. But she must have because she suddenly called: "Steve?" Oh god not this again. "STEVEN?"

Except that time even he heard a response to that call, in a familiar voice and timber. Danny's eyes flew up to the hole in the ceiling that Rowan had climbed through, in complete in utter disbelief. "Son of a bitch… no… how did he know we were here?"

There was a sudden grunt and a scraping sound, probably of Steve prying open the elevator doors to get to her and then a worried call of: "Ro?"

Yep it was him.

"Steven!" Rowan cried sounding so utterly excited to see him. "Steven get me out of here!"

"What? How did you… how did you even get down there?"

"We got trapped in the elevator and I climbed up…"

"Danny let you climb up?" he heard Steve cry. Great. Throwing him under the bus already. "No, no, Rowan stay down there!"

"No! I was stuck in a small dark space with a dead body and Danny's sass and… and… SHE DID HALF AN AUTOPSY IN FRONT OF ME! I need you to hold me and I need you now so shut up and _help me!_ " she cried. After that all Danny heard was grunting as Rowan climbed and Steve's encouraging words. When she evidently reached the top they went silent and Danny didn't have to be up there to know that the two of them were making out.

"They've forgotten we're down here," he said with a scowl but Mindy shook her head.

"They couldn't possibly."

"Yeah, you don't know them like I do," he snapped. "Hey!" he called up to them. "Forgetting something?"

"Shit," came from Rowan and he shook his head. Well that answered his question, they had forgotten after all. It was Steve who called down: "We're coming Danny, give us a moment."

"No! Make out with Rowan later, get me out of here NOW!" Danny screamed up, there was a beat of silence before Danny shrieked: "STEVEN?!" on the top of his lungs.

"For fuck sake Danny, I am coming, will you calm down?" Steve called back but Danny just shook his head. Had his best friend forgotten that he was claustrophobic? He wouldn't have been surprised if he had, he tended to forget everything where Rowan was involved.

At that moment he didn't care how annoying Steve was or how his habit of putting Rowan before everything and everyone else seemed to keep him from doing things in a timely fashion, so long as the man got him out of that elevator he'd be his favourite person in the world. But once Danny was out, once he had calmed down about the situation, Steven was gonna get a lecture. A fucking lecture, for forgetting him down there. They both were.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve hadn't let her go, hell he'd probably still be holding onto her now if he didn't have to drive. His eyes kept darting to her. But Rowan, who was finally calm and no longer in a perpetual state of panic, just stared calmly out of the passenger side window watching the buildings go by. She knew they were heading back to the Palace. Steve was on a case but he also didn't want her to be out of his sight and after the day she had she didn't want to be out of his sight either.

He had just parked his car in his customary spot right outside of the Palace when he suddenly turned to her.

"Are you okay?"

Rowan turned to him almost absently like she had been jolted out of a dream. "Yeah, Steven, I'm fine, I'm just tired. It's been a stressful day…"

"Yes I know. I saw the video."

Rowan blinked her eyes at him, narrowing in confusion. "Video? What video?"

"The video of Gordon Hobbs dragging you into a dark alleyway this morning," he answered softly and Rowan's heart stopped in her chest.

Goddamn it who told him about that?

She thought over all of the options she had for things to say, that didn't make him feel bad or made him think poorly of her but nothing came to mind other then: "You found out about that?"

"Yeah, you didn't think I'd find out that some guy was pressing an assault charge on you?"

"Hold on. That asshole actually pressed charges… ON ME?!" she thundered.

"Well not anymore, not since I've had words with him…" "Like actual words or did you hit him?" "Just words," Steven clarified. "I wanted to hit him but I figured it wouldn't look good if we both assaulted him. No, he and I had words, we discussed how he had no grounds to be pressing any charges on my _girlfriend_ and he chose to walk out of there or well limp… you really impaled him, huh?"

Rowan smiled at him, he sounded proud. "Yep, kicked him with all my might."

"Smart move."

"Thank you, Wo Fat taught me that," she said before she could stop herself. She noted that Steve's proud smile faltered a bit. He cleared his throat and looked down.

"You should have called me."

"Yes, I know. I was going to, but you know… after Colombia… I just… I knew if I called you, if I had told you what happened, you'd panic or at the very least worry about me. I was going to tell you in person, so that when you heard about it you could hug me right away and be sure I was fine," she told him and Steve smiled, glad that her only reason for not telling him had been because she was concerned about worrying him. "Then you know… I got stuck in the elevator… thank you for finding me by the way."

"You didn't make it easy but… did you uh… did you try to void out of it or something?" he asked. "Cause I got a pretty big twinge this afternoon."

"Wow, really? You felt that?" she asked a small grin growing on her face. She knew it, she knew they had a psychic link.

"You really tried to void out of there?"

"Nope, but I was trying to link up to you through the red strings, I wasn't sure you were getting them but you must have heard a little bit of the call otherwise you wouldn't have known to look."

Steve shook his head. "I'd prefer it if your distress calls came from the phone from now on, okay?"

Rowan nodded. "Though… you know I had no service right?"

Steve just smiled at her, taking her hand in his and kissing her knuckles softly. "Well when you have service, just call me normally please," he said to her and she laughed. "You good to go inside? Hobbs should be gone by now, if he's smart he'll have gotten on a plane."

Of course Rowan wouldn't mind. She wouldn't mind sitting in Steve's office while he worked. She followed him briefly, getting derailed when both Kono and Chin converged onto her. She stopped, happily excepting a hug from both Kono and Chin who had been worried about her while Steve went into his office to make some sort of call involving whatever case he was working on.

"You want to sit in my office while you wait?" Chin asked but before Rowan could tell Chin that she wanted to stay in Steven's office, Kono shook her head for Rowan.

"Didn't Lou want her?"

"Lou?" Rowan asked Kono. "What does he want me for?"

But they both shrugged which left Rowan heading down to the basement where Lou was interrogating someone. She purposely took the stairs though because she didn't want to chance the elevator again. Though if she were to get stuck again, at least her friends and boyfriend knew where the hell she was.

She hadn't even managed to knock on the interrogation room door when it suddenly flew open. Grover must have been leaving, but he changed his mind the second he spotted her. He smiled, this big beaming grin on her and then grabbed her arms and tugged her into the room.

HE stood her in front of his suspect, a black man who looked far from impressed, dressed in a Hawaiian shirt and shorts. He glared up at them while Rowan stared back, she didn't know what was happening, she didn't know why she was in the room. But Grover was already talking.

"Alright Clay, meet the magic maker. This girl is going to look you inside and out and she's going to find all the ugly bits of you and she's going to turn them out to the light. There ain't nothing you can hide from her and none of this: _you can't prove it_ , shit either," he said taking Rowan by the shoulders and then putting her down in the chair in front of him. "Kay little mama, do your magic."

Rowan stared at Clay. She then blinked at him and then turned to Grover. "Uhm…."

"Do you need me to leave you alone with him? I'll leave you alone with him," Grover said and then despite her jumping out of her seat and following after him, and weakly trying to protest, he still shut the door.

Rowan stood there staring at the door. "He shut the door on me…" she whispered. But she knew, unlike the elevator, she could get out of this place.

She turned back to Clay who was just staring at her she took the chair that Grover had left for her and sat down.

She stared at him long hard until the strings came into focus and then looked at them all. She cleared her throat carefully and started with the most prominent string.

"You're cheating on your wife…"

"Lou could have told you that."

Alright, fair. Rowan brushed that string away, it didn't matter anyway. It was the motive, of course, but Rowan knew that wasn't how they got him for the murder. She didn't know how Lou got him for the murder. And nothing was popping up for her either.

"Why is the car in the garage?" she suddenly asked he straightened. "It's winter but the car's in the garage… why is it in… something about… a bust? Drugs maybe? No… that's not it… something stolen… and then the garage… why is the car in the garage?"

But try as she might she got nothing other then those snippets and she knew Grover wasn't going to like that. The strings went out of focus again and she sighed. She couldn't help it, she just couldn't hold on to them, she must have been tired. Well if the strings weren't going to work she could get him a different way. She pulled out her phone and looked over the app, she clicked the black cat protocols, and then took his picture.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm putting you into my app."

"What app?"

"You're from Chicago you wouldn't know about me and my app," she answered absently and then went back to typing the information in. She may not be able to get him in Hawaii but her criminal network was vast, someone in Chicago would pick this up, she was sure.

She sent in the requested, went to put her phone away but suddenly her phone was chirping again. Rowan pulled out her phone and blinked her eyes surprised. Well… she hadn't have been expected that response.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Grover was sure when Rowan appeared just outside the door that his case was about to be busted right open. The girl who could get anyone to talk, who saw the future and ran a criminally organized app, would see through Clay in a heartbeat. But it seemed like not two minutes after he had shut the door on her she was back outside. Which was odd because he hadn't buzzed her out but h was prepared to ignore that if that girl helped him pin Clay Maxwell with the murder of his wife Diane.

"Whoo, that was quick!" he crowed. "He must be hella guilty! So go on, what is it? How do I pin him?"

Rowan just stared at him, eyes wide and worried, she turned her eyes towards Steve who was walking quickly down the hallway towards her. He took in her stare and his pace picked up until he was flat out jogging towards her.

"What is it babe, what is it?" he asked sliding to a stop beside her, a hand to her elbow the other to her cheek as he looked her over. Well damn, what had gotten him in protective mode? Was this still about the assault from that morning, cause between him and Rowan, Gordon Hobbs had more than been handled.

"He shut the door on me…" Rowan whispered and then Steve's accusing eyes were boring holes into Grover.

"Wait did you lock her into an interrogation cell? Lou, she got trapped in an elevator today, I literally just got her out of it!" Steve snapped and Grover blinked his eyes.

"Damn little Mama, I didn't realize… but uh… this is kinda important, so I'll ask again. Did you get anything?"

Rowan winced. First at Steve and then to Grover. She lowered her eyes and said: "A car."

"A car? What, a car he used to transport the body? See that can't be right cause he _pushed_ her off the cliff. So… what's a car got to do with this?"

Rowan shook her head. "Oh… that's what this is? Why did I think that happened later… okay, I'm confused, cause this car is uhm… well it's in a garage… and it's not supposed to be in a garage? In the winter? So uhm…. I think it's back in Chicago…"

Grover blinked his eyes at her as he took that in. He then frowned at her and put his hands on his hips to glare down at her. "Little mama, how the hell is a car in Chicago gonna help me?"

Rowan winced again, taking a step closer to Steve as she lowered her eyes from him. "Uh… it doesn't… yet… I think you need it for… uhm… for later?"

"LATER?!" Grover thundered.

Rowan flinched pressing herself into Steve's side. "I'm sorry… it was all I got," she whispered and Steve moved immediately shielding her from Grover like he thought he might attack the girl.

"Lou, Lou, stop," he said. "This isn't her fault. She tried…"

"Well can she activate Black Cat Protocols or tell Sandy to dig up some info or stalk a bitch or something?" he asked.

"I tried, Wo Fat said no," Rowan said with a frown and Steve turned on her.

"Did you call Wo Fat?"

"No, I tried to put it through the app and he hit me with a straight up DECLINED! No more helping Five-0," she said to him and Steve rolled his eyes. "You had one grace and that was the barbershop… but that was also cause you might have been killed and I don't think he thinks this is serious enough…" she glanced up to Grover who was glaring at her and she winced again. "I'm sorry. He… he's never declined anything before… I'm kind of insulted actually."

He sighed. "No, no, at least you tried, huh? Thank you for trying."

Steve wrapped an arm around her again and pulled her back towards the elevator. "Come on babe, we're done here, let's get you home, okay?"

Rowan nodded and Grover let them go. He was going to have to apologize, and once he calmed down he would. But right at that moment all he could think was that he had let Diane, who had been his friend too, down.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve got her home and all he wanted to do was curl up in bed with the girl who had worried him that day. No sex, no fooling around, just lying there with her in his arms, her fingers tracing patterns over the skin of his chest, his sides or tracing whatever tattoos she could reach, while his fingernails dug into her skin to remind himself that she was there.

But Steve got her home and she immediately went to the kitchen to make dinner and he had to go pick up Nahele, whom they agreed did not need to know what had happened that day, and then they all sat together at the kitchen table, Steve cleaning his gun, Rowan flipping between reading wedding magazines and writing in her song book, and Nahele working on homework.

It wasn't until Nahele had gone to bed, and it was time to take her up too, that Steve finally gathered the courage to do something he knew she wouldn't like.

"Rowan, can I ask you a question?" Steve asked as Rowan was putting their dishes from dinner away in the dishwasher.

Rowan glanced up to him. "Sure, what's up?"

"Okay so uh… uh… Danny gave me the low down of what went on in that elevator and he said… Danny said…"

"Fucking Danny told you about the ceiling panel, didn't he?" she asked dryly. When Steve nodded she scowled. "That rat bastard! He really can't keep his mouth shut."

"Yeah, I know, he's a snitch. But uh… I gotta know, you know… how did you open it?"

They had both been doing so well when it came to opening up. He had gotten better at talking about his feelings, and she did her best to answer his questions quite truthfully. Granted there was always a moment where she would seemingly pause to think over whether or not she would answer that had him worried that she might not tell him, or that she might light to him instead. Which was what she did in that moment before seemingly deciding that she would tell him after all and then coming to stand in front of him.

"You're not going to like this," she said to him. "This is void heavy and I already told you about the psychic link call I did this afternoon to get your attention… so I unno how you're gonna take this."

"Okay, thank you for the warning, but I don't need it, it's fine, just tell me, please," he assured her though she didn't seem encouraged or reassured by his words.

"Okay… uh… you know the strings? I said I could see them? Well it turns out I can pull on them too."

"You can… you can what?"

"Okay, okay, okay, here, how about I show you? It's easier if I show you," she said quickly. "Here, I'm going to go outside, you lock the door."

"Rowan…" he started but she shook her head already going to the front door.

"Trust me, just… just do it," she said, unlocking it. He watched her open it and close it behind her and he sighed. He might as well humour her. So he walked towards the door.

Steve locked the door as requested and then waited. Sure enough about thirty seconds later there was a sudden crackle, a slight pinching in his chest and the lock on the door unlocked on its own. Rowan opened the door and stared up at him. Normally she would have smiled, whenever she had a new power she had always been so excited to show him. It pained him to realize that he had worn her down to the point where she didn't want to tell him things, he had done this to her. He had reacted badly to every void related incident and now she was afraid to show him her new abilities.

"So yeah. I can do that now," she whispered. "Well I've been able to do that for a while. It's how I slipped all my cuffs. It's how I got the elevator to drop when me and Kono were stuck and Roman was after us… uhm… but… uh… how honest do you want me to be right now?"

"Totally honest."

"Kay. Well I developed this power when you got kidnapped… by Wo…" Steve's eyes widened he couldn't help it. Had she… had she developed it… for him? Rowan missed the smile that dawned on his lips as she was looking down and talking again. "You see… once Danny told me what happened I went looking for you two but I couldn't find him and then… you know… I kept thinking, that if this were a dream I could just look at the strings and pull on them until I got the right ending. And uh… when I got to the cleaners, when I was in that basement looking at a locked door and knowing you were on the other side I just… well… I pulled the right string."

Steve's hands went to her shoulders and when she looked up that worried look on her face almost hurt him. She was so afraid that he'd be angry but he was anything but. "You forced your powers to evolve because you were so determined to find me?"

Rowan thought about it a minute and then nodded. "I Mean… I guess… I keep telling you… there isn't anything I wouldn't do for you…"

Steve's lips slammed into hers because he had never loved her more in that moment, in that moment where she proved without a shadow of a doubt that she was _exactly_ like him.

"You know… there isn't anything I wouldn't do for you either… you know that, right?" he whispered and though she smiled against him he had a feeling that she didn't know. "Like… when the CIA took you… I was about to get on my hands and knees to beg Wo Fat to help me. Why am I lying? I did beg, I verbally begged that man to help me. I swear, I was about to do anything that man told me I had to do to get you back. He could have told me to kill the Colombian President, and I would have."

Rowan stared at him hard, her own weepy happy smile forming on her face. "Really?" she asked him. Damn she had no idea what he'd do for her and that always surprised him, he thought he was so transparent in that aspect. When he nodded she lowered her eyes and whispered: "Well it's good thing he sent you on a retrieval mission then huh?"

"So uhm… so I know… this new power… it uh… it basically just opens things right? Like you can't… you can't change the future or anything big right?"

"Well I mean, I haven't tried to do that Steven," Rowan said. "I uh… I don't try to use it all… unless... uhm… I panic… or I'm annoying the CIA. You should have seen how annoyed they got constantly having to re-handcuff me or how it got worse when zip ties couldn't hold me either."

"Is that also how your containment unit kept getting shorted out… you know when you were being quarantined?"

Rowan winced in that cute little way of hers and tried to shrug away her embarrassment at being caught. "I wanted to be home for my birthday, so sue me."

Steve kissed her again. "Thank you for telling me."

Rowan smiled again leaning into their kiss. "Anything for you, babe." That time, when his lips hit hers, they didn't stop kissing, in fact, he let her clamour up into his arms, wrap her legs around his waist, sink her fingers into his hair and essential demand a deeper more insistent kiss. After that, Steve was lost to the world.


	191. Chapter 191

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Friday my wonderful readers! This episode, I believe, is going to be wrapped up in just two chapters. We're going to start to see that resentment and annoyance from our two love birds but they're still gonna be cute, well I think they're still being cute. We're almost there guys! We're almost to that special 200th chapter. Are you guys getting excited? I know I am! Don't forget to leave me a review and I'll see you guys on Monday!_

Chapter 191

* * *

For the last week things with Rowan had been quiet which was a nice changed compared to her usual dramatic nature. In fact, everything in Steve's life was quiet and calm… suspiciously so.

Nahele was getting into exam prep as by the end of the month he'd have his final exams. He was getting extra help as he had transferred in mid semester to catch him up on everything he had missed. Rowan had nothing but meetings and demos and practises so that helped in keeping her out of trouble, while Steve's case load was light and he could spend more time with Nahele helping him study or with homework or working on his football throw. Sometimes it still amazed him how domestic life seemed to suit him, how quickly he took to it, and how dependent he seemed to be on it now.

But that day, with Nahele at school and Rowan off at some event, it left Steve open to pick Grover up from the airport.

When Rowan's visions and network failed, when they couldn't find any real evidence that Clay Maxwell had killed his wife, Grover had gone back to Chicago to tear into Clay's life. But it hadn't helped, it hadn't worked and Clay had gone free despite everyone knowing he did it.

Steve had asked him about his trip and how it went and Grover had told him how it had not worked and everyone, including his old friends had all stone walled him. Steve had been sympathetic but Grover had brushed that off and then told him about the six deep dish pizzas from a pizza shop that was such a big deal for him and his family that he had smuggled them in through customs in his suitcase. It sounded like something Danny or Rowan would do, but as he got to know Grover he was starting to realize that he was more like those two then he was like Steve.

Then the two of them got called in on a case, or at least, Steve did, and since Grover was in the car with him when he got the call, he had no choice but to come with him. But if Steve had realized that Grover was just going to hit him with not-so-witty quips he would have dropped him off at his house

"The King is Dead. Again."

Both Steve and Max turned to Grover with incredulous eyes at the fact that he had made that joke. Granted they were standing in a hotel room where a dead Elvis impersonator was lying on the floor, dead, still in his costume, in the midst of an Elvis convention that the hotel was hosting. So the joke had context, it just wasn't funny.

He calmly took in both of their stares before adding: "Come on, man, somebody had to say it."

Steve decided to ignore it. "Alright, Max. Tell us exactly what happened."

"Well, a few months ago, Jerry invited me to attend the convention with him. He already had his Elvis costume, so I decided to go as Presley's long-time manager, Colonel Tom Parker."

"Can you skip ahead to the part where this guy died?" he asked. "Please."

"Oh, of course," he said. "Well Mr. Collins was in the middle of a rousing rendition of _Burning Love_ when he suddenly got disoriented and collapsed."

"I was brought back here and found him unresponsive. And despite my best efforts, I was unable to resuscitate him."

"Alright, well, we got pills, we got liquor. We can see what toxicology says, but I think this guy partied too hard and paid the price for it."

"Looks like a classic rock n 'roll death to me," Grover added.

"Except the pills are a commonly prescribed allergy medication. And he hadn't ingested enough alcohol to warrant such an adverse reaction."

"If there's a point, get to it," Grover ordered. "I have a bunch of pizza's in my suitcase and they need to be eaten and since McGarrett doesn't want any I'mma give share it with everyone else… starting with that wonderful girl of his so she can rub in his face that she had some and he didn't."

Steve shook his head and rolled his eyes. Luckily he was saved from any more of Grover's melodrama by Max. "The point is this was not an accident," he announced. He looked like he wanted to say more but suddenly there came a shout for Max and their coroner was suddenly distracted.

"She won! Max, MAX she won! She won!" Jerry said sliding into the room and past the cordoned off area due to the dead fucking body.

He paused when he saw Steve. "Oh, hey, how's in hanging McGarrett?"

Max however, had dropped the stern coroner look and was now smiling at Jerry. "How well did she win though? Is this a second place…"

"Nope! She literally won the whole contest!" Jerry cried. "She sang an acoustic version of _Can't Help Falling in Love_ that had tears in everyone's eyes including the Judges!"

Steve sighed. "Rowan's here?" he asked, though why he did he had no idea, obviously she was here, obviously she had just won a singing contest.

"Oh this is excellent!" Max cried. He shot a less than covert look at McGarrett before saying: "I can't wait to congratulate her on her success…"

"You sure you don't mean pick up your winnings?" Rowan asked coming into the room. She too completely ignoring the crime scene tape that was supposed to keep her out. She was dressed just like Jerry but in black. She had her guitar strung on her back and she was wearing a sash that read: "Wailani Hotel's #1 King." But the most prominent change was her hair. Her hair was jet black and done up in this elaborate wavy do that was supposed to mimic Elvis' famous hair.

"I saw you guys putting bets in with the bookie," she said and then smiled up at Steven. "Hey baby. Ohh the blue button up, you know I like that blue button up on you." When Steve could only stare at her, taking in the change she narrowed her eyes at him. "What? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Your hair… what did you do to your… it's black…" Steve stuttered.

"Uh-oh, tread lightly Commander," Lou hissed into his ear but Steve swatted him away. When he left that morning, Rowan had red and blonde hair, the hair he was used to. What the hell had she done?

"That's a wig, right?" he asked reaching out to touch her hair. Nope silky soft, that was Rowan's real hair.

"No, it's a temporary dye, it'll wash out in one to two showers, though with the black it might take more like four to five" she said to him. When he just stared at her she sighed at him. "I can't be an Elvis impersonator with red hair, Steven, I obviously had to dye it. So, stop panicking it'll wash out eventually…"

"No, no, I'm not saying it's bad," he said quickly.

"I didn't say that either," Rowan said with narrowed eyes. "Do you think it looks bad?"

"Oh boy… you've hit dangerous waters, my friend," Lou hissed into his ear again and Steve practically shoved him away."

"No, I like it, I just didn't realize… you didn't tell me this was happening so I was surprised, it looks good… I think it looks good. I…. uh… hey, I hear congrats are in order," Steve said pulling her in for a hug. "Look at me, dating Wailani Hotel's #1 Elvis Impersonator." He pressed a kiss to her temple as she melded into his side. "And Grover has pizza for you that he smuggled through in his suitcase."

"Oh… deep dish from… uhm… Malnati's right?" she asked him suitable distracted from Steve's insinuation that he didn't like the new hair. "I can't wait to try it!"

"So you can psychically get the name of a pizza shop but you couldn't find anything I could use to lock Clay up?" he asked her and Rowan frowned.

"No! I did not psychically get anything about a pizza shop, you talked about it non-stop before you left," Rowan snapped. "And I tried. Lou. I tried. I tried really hard and there just… wasn't… did you check out the car in the garage?"

"The car in the garage is just an old beat up jalopy that Clay was trying to fix up. He's had it for years, it's got nothing to do with Diane," he said.

"Yeah but why is it in the garage in the winter? Hmm?" she asked him.

"Okay, we keep going on about that car, the car is not helpful, don't know why you're so fixated on it. But thank you, for looking, thank you for trying," he said. "Now, I got a very important question for you… little mama what are you wearing?" Grover asked her.

Rowan looked down at her outfit.

"This is Elvis' black Butterfly Jump Suit. He wore it through his '72 engagement in Vegas from January to February," she answered. God why did she know Elvis trivia?

"Oh, yes, and there were two slightly different versions, Rowan is wearing the gold one, the other was lined with yellow."

"Oh REALLY?! Wow, you really know your stuff," Rowan said turning an appreciative smile onto Jerry. "I have never been so attracted to you before."

Jerry blushed and Steve recoiled. "Hey, babe, standing right here."

"Yeah but you don't look like Elvis," Rowan said still smiling at Jerry who had gone bright red and was avoiding both of their eyes. Steve continued to glare at Rowan but her eyes never turned back onto him.

"Okay, that's it, both of you out, actually no," he said grabbing Rowan. "You stay with me, Max, body, why is this a murder?"

Rowan's eyes fell down to the body at their feet and he felt her eyes go wide with shock. "Is that a…"

"You know what, go outside, but try not to run off with Jerry on me," he said shoving her away.

"I mean… I'll try… but if he can sing like the King, I'm gonna have a hard time keeping my hands off him," she said as she walked away.

Steve turned his eyes heavenward and groaned inwardly. This girl was KILLING him. He liked it better when she couldn't keep her hands off of _him_. It was why he was wearing blue anyway.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

While Steve and Grover were talking things over with Max and Duke, Danny, who had been enclosed in the back stage like area with a bunch of fake Elvises got stuck with Jerry who hit him with a lot of Elvis trivia as if Danny was going to be quizzed on it later. Like the plural of Elvis was Elvii. ETA stood for Elvis Tribute Artist. The green shag carpet they were standing on, was a close copy of the one in Elvis' jungle room, except it was a shade too light. And lastly, like the jungle room was a lounge of Elvis' that he turned into recording studio, you could even hear the waterfall in the background of some of his later tracks.

None of this was useful information but Danny couldn't get Jerry to shut up. Luckily he was saved by Steve and Grover finally coming over to them.

"Alright guys, here's what we know. Uh… victim's name was Lane Collins. He died from cyanide poisoning. Delivery system was a bottle of bourbon in his dressing room."

"The organizers say the access to the backstage is pretty limited," Grover added. "The only people allowed back there are crew and performers."

"Okay so what are we thinking? One of these guys slips him the bottle, figures he'd thin out the competition."

"Makes sense," Jerry asked. "Collins was a big up-and comer on the scene. He's also a local boy, which made him the favourite to take down the title tonight."

"Yeah, the problem with that theory is that it makes my girlfriend the top suspect again," Steve announced which caused a flurry of cries to rise up from the little group of Five-0's. "She was one of the tribute artists… and she won… and apparently no one is happy about that. They're saying Collins would have won if he hadn't been disqualified for collapsing on stage."

"Wait… she won?"

"Yep, my Rowan, the underdog was FemElvis, don't ask me why I know it's called that, I blame Jerry and Rowan. Anyway, she managed to win the competition, despite being female and not having the trademark low voice," he announced when he got stares from them he added: "I don't know, I'm still trying to figure it out."

"The song she sung, though not in Elvis's trademark low twang, was done so wonderfully, and filled with such emotion, that they had to give it to her. Their official reasoning was that she was singing as Female Elvis, who would not have had the low voice. I've got the video, actually, if you'd like to see how she did."

"Actually yeah, can you send me a copy of it? I'd love to see it," Steve said except he sounded very sincere, like he actually really wanted to watch it.

"Yeah, me too! I love watching her performances, I bet this was the best one yet," Kono added and then they were all seconding it.

"I could just set up a screen so we could all watch it," Jerry offered and they all nodded, they had liked that idea.

"Okay, so the big question is… how much money did she win?" Chin asked.

"Twenty K in cash," Jerry said, "And since McGarrett wouldn't let Max or I cash in on our illegal winnings from the bets we put on Rowan to win, she split it between us."

"I'm sorry… she gave you the money?" Steve asked.

"Uh… yeah… said she didn't need it," Jerry said and Steve growled. Okay maybe Miss. Millionaire didn't need it, but he would have liked to keep it.

"All kidding aside," Jerry said quickly. "I don't think Rowan has anything to do with this, my conspiracy radar is picking up some major bad juju on this one."

"Of course Rowan isn't in on it, Jerry, she made seven figures on her last royalty cheque," Steve said with a groan.

"WHOA!" Jerry cried. "She's making that much? No wonder she was okay with giving us her prize money!"

Steve shook his head again but Danny stepped up. "Uh… why are you sensing some juju on this one?"

"Oh, right, up until the point when he collapsed and died, Collins' performance was spot-on. At least that's what I thought. But later, when I went to the video, I realized he made one ginormous mistake," he showed them his phone which was zoomed in on Collins' outfit. "Check out the jumpsuit. It's a classic sunset design, only the color scheme is more from Elvis' American Eagle suit. Blue and red instead of yellow and copper."

He then paused like that blew the case wide open. "Okay, so what?" Danny asked.

"So! That's like Superman flying around with a purple cape," Jerry said. Dany nodded like he got it but he didn't. "It's unnatural. It's unholy even. Elvis never wore anything like this."

"Oh, alright, I get it. So our victim was not Elvis," Danny said and Jerry scowled at him.

"No, but he was a professional ETA. And considering that points are awarded for wardrobe it seems a little odd that he'd make such an unforced error."

"Yeah, totally. You know, to have a conspiracy theory, you need to actually need a theory, though," Danny said and then turned to Steve. "Is uh… a messed up suit enough to get Rowan out of the clear?"

"I think the fact that she gave up the money which is like… everyone else's motive, puts her in the clear. That and she wouldn't have used cyanide, if she wanted to cheat to win she would have involved the app," Steve said with a sigh. "Just gotta you know… rule her out somehow that isn't just _we know Rowan and that's not how she would have offed the guy_." He then turned to Jerry. "Well, Jerry, thank you. We will explore the costume angle a little later on. But I think, right now, we should focus on our suspect pool…"

"Yeah but that suspect pool includes Rowan…"

"Yeah it's not the first time she's been a suspect," Steve said. "She knows the drill. I'll tell her you were worried about her though, how about that?"

"Besides, we have to find whoever gave our vic the bottle," Grover said. "We find them, we find our killer. Did Rowan go to his room? Did you see Rowan with a bottle of Hartigan Bourbon?"

Jerry shook his head. "She made me and Max watch her purse, she didn't want to leave it back stage. The only thing she took in was a make up bag, a hair brush and her guitar. Also, she didn't know anybody here and none of them were uh… being very nice to her… she was sticking mostly to herself."

"Whoa, whoa, what do you mean not being nice to her?" Steve asked.

"You know, new girl, pretty girl, making a take on Elvis that no one was really supportive of. They uh… they were kind of icing her out. She played it off like she didn't care, put out the whole Ice Queen vibe thing but I think it bugged her a bit."

Steve and glaring now, the look on his face was downright animalistic. "Okay, babe," Danny said putting a hand to his arm. "I know you like to jump to Ro's rescue, and we're down for that, but maybe we should clear her for murder before you go standing up to the ETA bullies, huh?"

Steve turned to him. "ETA?" he echoed.

"Elvis Tribute Artists," Danny said pointing to Jerry who had given him that info in the first place.

Steve nodded and then they all fanned out, each took an Elvis to question, except for Rowan. She was getting questioned by HPD to avoid a conflict of interest. Didn't mean that Steve didn't have his eyes on her at all times. The black hair was definitely growing on him.

" **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Max had just unzipped the black bag to reveal the Elvis Impersonator's body. He had just gotten back to the morgue and was going to begin an autopsy to prove that he had been poisoned when Rowan suddenly rushed into his office. Knowing how she felt about blood and bodies, he half covered the body up and moved to intercept her before she saw the body and vomited.

"We need to go," Rowan said, beating him to the Autopsy room door. "Oh… that's a body," she said with a gag and then shook her head. "No, don't got time for this, we need to go out the back… NOW!"

"But Rowan…"

"No, we need to wheel this guy out back, right now!"

Above them they heard gunshots and Max straightened and so did Rowan.

"Right, plan B," she said as she crossed to the body and dropped her phone in the bag. She gagged while she zipped it up, but otherwise, Max was surprised at how well she held her composure considering her track record. "We need to go…"

"We should call 911," Max said as Rowan struggled to push him towards the back exit.

"No need, the phone picked up the gunshots, Sandy will deal with the rest."

But Max didn't know who Sandy was and he didn't move fast enough. Three men in all black wearing ski masks burst into the room. Large guns trained in their direction had momentarily froze them. That pause had been their downfall.

"Freeze! Don't move!" the lead guy shouted. "Down on the ground."

"I can't freeze and get down at the same time," Rowan said even though Max was already dropping to the floor in compliance. Oh god, why was she sassing the men with guns? She had no weapon or no way to stop them from hurting her and if she get hurt… well… Commander McGarrett would lose his damn mind and Max didn't want to be part of the reason that happened. It was okay and mildly entertaining when he yelled at the others for letting Rowan get hurt but he had a feeling he wouldn't enjoy it as much if that angry lecture was turned onto him.

The lead gun man came at her, gun first in her face and then lowered down to her stomach to shove it into her skin Rowan didn't flinch.

"I said get down."

"Not in this dress or these heels," she answered back. The man half scoffed at her.

"I'm not playing games with you, bitch…"

"And I'm not playing games either. I'm Rowan Pierce."

All the monitors in the room, all the electronics whirled to life, all firing up with discordant, unsynchronized computerized voice saying the exact same words.

"Welcome to the Sanctuary Network."

There was a beat of silence between that greeting and the next set of computerized words.

 _Threat level Orange. Three gunmen, Two gun shots. Eyes on Professional prove her to being held at gun point. Threat level now red. Activating nearest players._

Rowan calmly stared at him. "Go a head. Shoot me. But she has eyes on all three of you now. How far do you think you get before the people he sends someone to catch up and kill you? And if you do get away, who do you think he'll go after to get you? Your friends? Your family? Your loved ones? No one's safe when Sandy's operating under a code red."

"Turn her off."

"Why should I?" she asked.

"Because if you don't, I'll shoot your friend."

Max didn't have to look up to know that the gun was now pointed at him. He felt Rowan take a step in front of him and he really wished she hadn't. He happened to love Rowan, they may not have been good friends, but she was one he had never felt awkward around and he was certain that he wouldn't be able to stand under the scrutiny of Commander McGarrett's disappointment if something were to happen to the woman McGarrett loved because of Max.

"Fine," she said quickly. "Fine. Sandy, this is a misunderstanding, I'm perfectly fine."

There was a pause before the system came back with: _Reconfirmation needed._

"It's a misunderstanding, Sandy," Rowan repeated. "I'm perfectly fine."

 _Confirmation accepted_. _Have a nice day Professional._

The other gunmen were busy, busy wheeling the body out, the lead gunman was staring at her now as if thinking over the next move.

"You're coming with me."

"What? Why?"

"So you can't activate it again," he said, grabbing her arm. "I'll figure out what to do with you later."

He went to tug her away and Max got up, "No!" he shouted. "You can't take her!"

He reached out, grabbed her wrist and tugged hard. The gunman said nothing, he just took the butt of his gun and bashed into Max's face. As he went down he heard Rowan's cries of distress, not knowing that they were for him and not her situation.


	192. Chapter 192

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Well that's is this episode coming to a close. Nice and quick this one. I believe the next one will be quick as well and a little cute. But we're moving quite quickly towards the end of season 5. I now know that Season 5 is set to end at chapter 203, except I'm still writing that last episode out so it might be a bit longer. But if it stays the way I've got it planned, the end of Season 5 will only be 11 chapters away. Guys! This is moving too fast for me! I can't believe we're almost to the end of this season! I can't believe I've written 200 chapters and I'm still going! Do you guys think I should start posting a new story called Rewrite pt.2 with the rest of the seasons in it? Cause you know… this one is getting a little long. What do you think? Don't forget to review and I'll see you guys on Wednesday!_

Chapter 192

* * *

Steve jumped out of his truck, sprinting towards Max who had a gauze pad taped to the center of his forehead.

"Max, are you okay?" he asked, even though that wasn't the real question he wanted to ask. Immediately Max looked frantic.

"They took her, Commander, I tried to stop them… but they…"

Steve growled, not because he was mad, even though he was, not because he was worried, even though he was, but because he just couldn't believe that this was happening. _Again._ "They really took Rowan?"

"Yes. I… I should have done more to stop them… I'm sorry… I tried..."

"It's okay Max, this isn't your fault. I'm just surprised, is all. I mean, why take her? Everyone knows about the network, why are people still chancing her activating it?"

"Well she did activate it originally," he said and Steve's eyebrows raised up.

"She activated Sandy and they still took her?" Steve asked. He sounded shocked. Of course he was, the absolute audacity. He hadn't known of anyone who had _ever_ had Sandy chirruping in their ear about threat levels and options being analyzed and then decided to still fuck with Rowan. And no one had ever activated Sandy and then _taken_ Rowan. Usually they just tried to get Rowan to shut her down.

"Well… No. I don't know who Sandy is, but, yes. She activated the app and it came online and well, they told her to turn it off. When she wouldn't obey… they… they threatened to shoot me," he said. "It was after that that she agreed, and actually followed through on taking the network offline."

Oh god, that's why they took her, she had turned Sandy off for them. To save Max. He wanted to be mad about it but he couldn't be. Rowan had done what he would have done in that situation, she had saved their friend and given herself up. It was both of them to a tee, it just had an unfortunate side effect and that was the utter worry and panic it left Steve in.

Except today. Today it just fucking made him mad. Why couldn't they just have one week where something wasn't happening to Rowan! One?! Was that too much to ask? He didn't think he was being unreasonable.

"This is going to sound crazy, but I need to know what she said," he told Max staring at him imploringly. When Max just stared at him he tried again. "This is very important Max, I need to know exactly what she said and exactly how she said it."

"Uh… I believe she said that it was a misunderstanding and she was perfectly fine."

"Whoa, whoa, she said _perfectly fine_?" Steve asked.

"Yes why?"

"Because that's not the code. The code is _I'm Rowan Pierce and I'm A-Okay_."

"Maybe the app has new codes now that it's been upgraded," Lou offered.

Steve shook his head. "No, everything's the same. The only change is the automated aspects and that Wo Fat needs to approve everything," he said as he thought about the situation. Yes Rowan hadn't used the right code, but she must have used _a code_ otherwise Sandy wouldn't have shut off. He tried to think, but he didn't know how her app work and he hadn't bothered to ask her to brief him in on it. After Colombia he was added to the list of people who could open her app off of her phone if something were to happen and Wo Fat had given him a direct number that would directly link to him off of Steve's won phone. Sort of like a speed dial option to talk to him through the app. Only if something were wrong with Rowan of course.

But none of that told him what code she used.

After a moment's thought he whispered: "A long time ago when the network had just been set up, the NLM took her, they were going to use her to liquidate his assets and get off the island…"

"Okay… so what?" Grover asked.

"Well he said… when Rowan complained that the network wasn't working, he reminded her that there were safety nets in place for those situations. Things like… if she shows up somewhere, with other people that weren't specified in the app, the person she's working with have to ask her to confirm that they're with her. If she says no, they're shot dead."

"So, you're thinking this is one of those times?" Grover asked. "You think she used a different code to make it look the app was shut off so they wouldn't shoot Max. Any chance you can call up that Brother of hers and ask."

Yes, he could. He did have the number. Was he going to?

"Yeah, I'm all out of favours with Wo Fat. If I ask him for help with another rescue mission it won't be pretty for me," he said.

Which loosely translated to: _Hell fucking no._

He was interrupted by a call from HPD that had him and Lou back in his truck and driving off to a secondary scene. But they only left once they were certain that Max was alright with them leaving, and after promising to keeping him updated and that they'd call him when Rowan was found.

And they had found something at least.

The body had been found. Three blocks from the ME's office, didn't take their thieves long to strip that jumpsuit off their corpse. And, of course, no signs of Rowan in the vicinity. HPD was looking, of course, widening the net to see if she had escaped and was near-by but Steve knew she wasn't near-by. He'd know if she was there, they would have found each other by now if she was.

Steve and Lou stood over the body, he was kneeling, looking through the black cadaver bag they had left behind, as Lou rambled on being of no real help at all in the situation.

"Okay, I get the costume switcheroo and all that, I've had that the same thing happen to me at the dry cleaners. But normally when I get somebody else's pants, I don't go on a violent killing spree to get them back."

He turned the bag inside out, the first thing, at the bottom of the bag, was easy to spot. Rowan's phone, but with it he spotted something smaller, something shinier. He tossed Lou the phone.

"Try to open the app," he said, "If it gives you trouble hand it back."

Lou fiddled with the phone a bit as Steve fished out what was left in the bag. A single solitary diamond, from the jump suit. Except… well… it just looked way to shiny to be a fake diamond.

"Check this out," Steve said absently as he took out his phone to take a picture of the diamond. He then showed it to Lou who seemed unimpressed.

"Kay so it must have fallen off the jumpsuit," Grover said as he looked over her phone. "Looks like she had a tracker function open, by the way. Smart move, she definitely had a play here. Looks like she wanted to get Max out, let them take the body and then track it on her phone, too bad she couldn't get them out on time."

"Yeah, she usually has good plans, just wish she'd let me in on them," he said. He looked at the photo he took and smiled smugly before showing Lou the diamond again. "And this here… this is a real diamond."

Lou scowled at him. "Now, how could you possibly know that?"

"Because generally fake diamonds don't have serial numbers," Steve said showing him the enlarged picture he took on his phone. Where the serial number on the side of the diamond could be seen.

Lou nodded, obviously trying very hard not to be impressed, though he clearly was. "Well alright, that's a good one. But I think I got something better. You wanna see what I got?" he asked.

Of course, he did. Steve nodded and only then did Lou turn Rowan's phone to him. It had a big red alert on it.

 _Tracking Professional. Will report when location pinpointed._

"Looks like you were right. She used a code to shut her up, Sandy's still active and still tracking."

Steve smiled brightly. Yeah, that was his girl. His smart, brave girl who had a million and one back up plans up her sleeve. Those robbers better look out cause the second, the absolute second he found out where they were he was gonna kick down more than just a door to get that girl back. He was going to flat out steamroll anyone who got in his way. They better watch out.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

When Steve and Lou got back to the Palace they found out that his team had been busy chasing up leads. So that when they got back, Chin and Kono, who had pulled Danny in as well for him once they knew that Rowan had been taken, had a suspect for them.

"You guys are gonna love this. Remember this mug?" Chin asked.

"Radomir Ivanovich, he knocked over a jewelry store for a bunch of diamonds, pistol whipped Rowan, killed a mall cop friend of hers and she blew up his car," Steve recited. "He's in jail right now, what about."

"Yes, exactly," Kono said. "And according to the serial number you found on that diamond, it was from that heist."

Chin nodded and added: "Turns out, before Rowan practically blew him to kingdom come, Emma Mills hid the diamonds, and despite facing jail time refused to give the diamonds up and HPD's been trying to recover them ever since."

"And damn if it didn't just turn up in the most unexpected place," Kono said showing them a still of bedazzled Elvis suit.

"Well, we got us some pretty creative diamond smugglers," Lou said.

"Yes, and they have Rowan," Steve growled.

"What's her phone saying?" Danny asked. Steve took it out of his pocket.

"Still says locating. It's narrowing down though," he said showing them the radius it was searching. "The search radius has gotten smaller."

"It uh… it doesn't usually take that long to locate her though," Chin said and Steve paused.

"What do you mean?"

"Uh… well, when I had access to the app, if I picked the: Find Rowan option, it found Rowan," Chin said. "Never took more than 30 seconds."

"Yes but she doesn't have her phone," Steve reminded him waving the phone at him.

Chin opened his mouth to argue when suddenly a blaring Static erupted from their table and then suddenly everything went red briefly.

"What just happened," Kono asked but Steve felt like he knew.

 _Welcome to the Sanctuary network._

"Hi Sandy," Steve said. "Do you uh… do you have something for me?"

 _Hello Captain America. Yes I do. Kidnappers have been located in Hotel Room 1615 of the Wailani Hotel but Professional is not with them._

"Whoa, whoa, wait a second if she's not with them then, where is she?"

 _I am unsure of her exact location. I cannot find her within the range of any online device or camera._

"Well Jesus Christ, what do we do then?" Danny asked Steve.

 _The kidnappers will need to be questioned in order to get location of Professional. I am activating nearest players to do so._

 _Captain America, Codename Jersey, Codename Badass, Codename Shotgun and Codename Smokey, do you accept?_

They were the nearest players.

With each name came a picture, their picture, each with Rowan's codename for them printed underneath like a wanted poster. He knew everyone's nickname except Grover, he had no idea that she called him Smokey. Steve didn't even have to ask his friends to help him they all just said: "I accept," to her altogether without a second thought.

 _Confirmed._

 _You will have to move fast. Secondary players are moving in on a secondary target. They will most likely kill everyone before you can get to them. You must intercept at all costs._

"Uh… who else is coming?" Danny asked.

 _Radomir and Adrian Ivanovich._

And then their pictures were replaced with two different pictures on the screen.

 _Radomir has recently escaped prison. He spent a lot of time, bragging to the wrong people of all the things he'd like to do to Rowan to pay her back for his recent disfigurement. He was broken out by his brother Adrian, who is also ex-Serbian military. He has his fingers in everything from extortion to kidnapping and murder for hire. He has recently been brought up for War Crimes in Bosnia, which he has run from. They are looking for missing diamonds. If they find Professional before you do, they'll kill her. If they find the kidnappers before you do, Professional will also die._

"When was the last time you saw her?" Steve asked the computer as he and his team scrambled to suit up, Danny was already on the phone to get HPD to the hotel.

 _Last trace of the Professional is a street camera across from where they dropped the stolen van. They shoved her into a car that is now parked in the hotel parking lot. She's been dark ever since._

"Bet money she's in the trunk," Steve said.

"On a hot day like this, she'll fry," Kono said already turning to get bottles of water.

"Alright Sandy, we're on the way," he called as they all headed for the door. It was time to get his girl back.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Despite having real bad guys to look for, despite needing to find murderers, jewel thieves and their Smuggling Fake Elvis, Steve sent most of his team ahead and he and Kono went to the parking garage. He had a lot of time to wonder how, with Rowan's new powers, she hadn't just gotten herself out of the trunk. She may have been too panicked to get it to work, she had admitted that sometimes she pulled the wrong strings or that when she was really flustered it didn't work. But Steve hadn't been feeling her panic, he usually did feel something when she was in a situation like this, and it was that that had him worried that she was injured, or dying, or… god… if she was dead… what was he going to do if she was dead?

They found the car they were after and Steve immediately went for the trunk, it took all of two seconds for him to jimmy the thing open, the problem was, Rowan was just lying there that mess of black hair covering her face.

Oh god, what if he was too late?

His hands reached for her, touched her shoulders to roll her over and a static shock ran up his arms. For the first time ever he was the one who got a vision. A clear picture of her struggling with them as they tried to take her out of the back of the car. And of one of them hitting her so hard with a gun across the back of her head that she went down.

Steve blinked himself free of the vision and looked down at his girl whose eyes were opening groggily.

"Steven?" she murmured and a whisper of a laugh of relief escaped him.

"Hey, yeah, hey," he said, brushing her hair away so she could see him. Rowan lurched for him, her arms wrapping around him tightly while his did the same to her. It took him standing fully and taking one step back to have her out of that trunk. Kono was standing by with a bottle of water for her, but Rowan was too busy crying into Steve's neck.

"It's okay, I've got you now, I've got you."

"They hit me," she whispered to him.

"I know back of the head," he whispered putting a hand to her to feel the growing bump. "Do you feel woozy? Like you might throw up?"

"No," she answered. "Don't make me go to the doctor…"

But he knew she'd have to go. After cracking her head open and needing drilling, they had been very cautious about head injuries. He didn't make her go after the jewel heist, only because he had broken a promise to her and couldn't find it in his heart to force her somewhere she didn't want to go. But this time she would have to go, just to make sure she hadn't aggravated a previous injury.

"No, not now," he said to her. "Later, but not now."

"Steve, Danny and the others have confirmed the room number, they're waiting on you to storm in," she said. Rowan turned her bleary eyes to Kono and said a brief and lethargic hello to her, before relinquishing her grasp on Steve to accept the bottle of water Kono was offering her.

Steve looked at his girl, who was swaying slightly and guzzling down a bottle of water like her life depended on it. He didn't want to leave her.

"Chin is also reporting that gunshots have been heard coming from the room…"

Shit they were too late.

"I'm fine," Rowan said to him. "I'm fine, you go. Save the day."

But she wasn't fine and he wasn't leaving her. "You're coming with me," he said to her. When she turned her foggy eyes to him he knew she was going to complain. "Don't worry, I'm going to carry you, alright? Then I'll leave you with Duke, get you checked out, okay?"

Rowan said nothing but lifted her arms up so she could drape them around his neck and he could pick her up. She rested her head on his shoulder and Steve tried to not let that arouse him as he and Kono jogged up to where the others were.

True to their word, his team was waiting for him. They all watched Steve with Rowan, all of them breathing out sighs of relief when they realized that she was okay and just a little out of it. Jerry, who was clearly still at the convention, spotted them and headed over which was great because now Steve had someone to watch Rowan for him.

"Hey what are you guys doing here?" he asked, the others responded by unholstering their guns.

Steve responded by dropping Rowan onto her feet in front of him. "She's got a head injury, keep her with you and away from trouble, possibly near a garbage can, I'm positive she's going to start vomiting soon."

Rowan hit him with another weak: "I'm fine," and Steve took hold of her chin to make her look at him.

"I'm going to be right back," he said to her. "Okay? Do you hear me? I'm going to be right back."

"Okay, don't get shot," she answered immediately leaning against Jerry. She closed her eyes briefly, just briefly but when she opened them again Steve was gone and Jerry was half ushering her towards stairs.

"Do you think you're going to throw up again?" he asked her.

Fuck, again? Maybe she was concussed. They accidentally bumped into someone, Jerry said sorry to them and Rowan looked up. She recognized those eyes, recognized that face with the scar patterns on the left side, from an explosion she had rigged.

Radomir Ivanovich had escaped from jail?! God why hadn't Sandy told her that? She had no problem reporting that the man wanted to torture and kill her, she didn't think it was big news that he had fucking escaped?

She watched as recognition dawned in his eyes while beside her Jerry was whispering: "Sunset design, red and blue… that's the suit!"

What suit? What was she missing? A gun was pointed in Jerry's direction, Radomir had a hand gripping her arm, backing away from Jerry who had his hands up in surrender, the man beside him, dressed like Elvis was backing away with him.

"I spent a lot of time dreaming about what I'd do to you," Radomir growled as he dragged Rowan away. Rowan found herself rolling her eyes. For the love of god she was just not having a good day.

"Steve! Steve! The Suit! They have Rowan!" Jerry suddenly shouted diving behind a pillar in case they shot at him.

In the brief seconds in which silence hit the little foyer after that shout, Rowan saw Evil Elvis take a machine gun out a guitar case, she felt Radomir put a gun to her head, she heard Steve roar out her name and then Evil Elvis was shooting at everyone.

She heard the police return fire, but she wasn't sure which one of them clipped Radomir. She only knew when he went down because she went down with him. The problem was, her concussion decided to act up _now_ which meant she was too dizzy to get back up, to get away, which might have been good considering all the bullets flying around. She must have been on the ground trying very hard not to throw up for a few minutes before Evil Elvis' gun jammed and suddenly he was dragging her up to use as human shield.

She could hear Kono and Grover talking to him, trying to get him to let her go, but Rowan's head was buzzing, an electrical current was travelling up her spine. The buzzing she figured was the concussion, but the spine-tingling feeling… yeah, she knew what that was.

"Shoot him, Steve! Shoot him!" she shouted, near sobbed actually and he did as he was asked.

The first shot got Evil Elvis to let her go and Rowan dropped to the floor once more. The following five were probably just because Steven was mad. And she got that, she'd be mad too if she had been in Steve's shoes.

"Nice shot boss," Kono said coming forward, Steve was already kneeling down beside Rowan, his focus back on her now that the threats were neutralized.

Rowan turned to him, with tears in her eyes. "I'm sorry," she whispered to him. "I'm sorry I didn't call you when I realized they were going to the morgue. I meant to, I did…"

"It's okay, Rowan," he said his arms encircling her so he could get her standing up. "It's okay."

"And they didn't listen to Sandy," she added and he nodded and added a: "Yeah I know…"

"I think I'm gonna throw up," she whispered and suddenly everyone around her was scrambling. Grover went looking for the nearest something to throw up in and brought back a fern, Kono went for her hair and Steve wrapped an arm around her waist to keep her standing.

God. She just wanted to go home. She hoped, after this, Steven just brought her home.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Luckily for Rowan, it turned out she wasn't all that concussed, turned out most of her problem was the dehydration from being locked in the trunk of a car on a hot Hawaiian day with little to no airflow. However, due to her medical history it was recommended that she be on, what Steve called, Concussion Watch. If she showed any further signs and symptoms she was to go straight to the hospital to get a cat-scan.

After getting Rowan home, after taking a bit of a nap with her, just to calm both of their nerves, Steven was woken up to a reminder of an outing he agreed to only to get Jerry off his back while he was waiting for Rowan to finish getting checked out by an EMT. A staff social at the Rumfire bar that everyone had apparently agreed to.

While he lounged in bed with his girlfriend tucked into his side, he sent a few texts to check if everyone had, in fact, agreed to it and then sent a single text off to Nahele. In a bid for more freedom, now that the boy was fourteen, they had been letting Nahele take the bus home from school. He was supposed to text when he got home and they weren't there, but Steve didn't have one from him.

His _where are you_ text was immediately answered with: _I'm in my room. You guys were asleep and I didn't want to wake you up_.

Sweet kid. Very thoughtful of him. After that, when it was confirmed that everyone was going, Steve sighed to himself and got himself out of bed, trying to not wake Rowan and failing miserably. She had wanted to go, Steve wanted her to rest, and somehow that ended with Rowan getting ready. Steve had stopped arguing.

Until they realized that they didn't have anyone to watch Nahele. So they decided, since he was trying to be an independent fourteen year old boy, and he had always been a good boy, that they were going to try trusting him home alone. It was his one chance, and Steve made it clear that if they came back to a raging house party that boy was going to be grounded until he had grey hair and he'd never be left unattended ever again. No matter his age.

Steve got to drive Rowan's GTO as she had a possible head injury and he hadn't wanted to take his truck. He knew that Rowan knew that the real reason was because he felt dashing and cool behind the wheel of her car, even if it was that girly pastel purples, and luckily she said nothing but sat in the passenger seat as the wind whipped her hair around. God, even with the black hair she was lovely. He didn't think there was a single thing she could do to herself that Steve wouldn't find attractive.

They parked, met his friends in the lobby and they all headed towards the bar where they'd be drinking. Jerry was already there, mingling with the crowd of other Elvis Convention goers, their party having to be moved once Five-0 and the Ivanovich brothers started shooting everything up. They had just been seated and after Steve was certain Rowan was sitting comfortably, he figured he could get straight down to business

"Can I please have a longboard, when you're ready?" Steve said to the woman who had just sat them down.

"Hey she's a hostess not the waitress!" Danny complained.

"Same thing," Steve snapped back immediately.

"There's a big difference. I'm sorry for him, but if you do get him a beer, I'd like one too," he said to her which Kono seconded.

"I'll have a strawberry daquiri," Grover said which got an immediate: "Me too from Rowan."

"One, you're not drinking anything little lady, you're still on Concussion Watch," Steve snapped to her ignoring her scowl at him, as he turned to Grover and said: "Really, Strawberry Daquiris?"

"I'm comfortable with my manhood, brother," he said proudly while Rowan sulked and said: "Fine then you're not drinking either, designated driver." She then turned to the hostess and said: "I'll have a ginger ale and he'll be changing his order to a root beer."

All around them the table laughed but Steve said nothing but put an arm around his girl's shoulders and lounged back. Someone cleared their throat, quite loudly and when they turned towards the stage where they saw Jerry standing in front of the mic.

"They say when a star dies, its light continues to travel for hundreds of years. Tonight, both the reigning King, or shall I say Queen, of the Wailani Hotel Elvis Convention and I would like to dedicate this song to one of our own, Lane Collins. Though he's gone, his light will keep shining on us all."

Immediately Rowan was standing, but Steve had a hold of her.

"No, no, you were told to rest," he said to her but Rowan just smiled at him. She pressed a kiss to him, slipped his grip and rushed off to where Jerry was waiting for her, guitar in hand. Steve sighed but let her do it, knowing better then to try and get her to stop when she put her mind to something. But he didn't lounge back, even though their drinks had come, he sat on the edge of his seat ready to swoop in if Rowan got dizzy or woozy.

She took the guitar that Jerry offered. For a moment the two of them whispered to one another before she nodded. He turned to the band said a little something to them as well and then Jerry turned back to Rowan where they shared a bit of a moment. He counted her in and just like that Rowan was strumming away on her guitar. Acoustic, just like her first performance but it was Jerry singing.

 _Treat me like a fool. Treat me mean and cruel but love me. Break my faithful heart tear it all apart, but love me._

The glow on Rowan's face as she stared at Jerry was worrying. Steve was ready to jump up and intervene if things got a little out of hand or if it looked like she was getting a little too excited. Damn if singing to her did that to her face, maybe Steve should practice singing with her more often.

The next set was for Rowan and when she hit them with her own smoky version of that song Steve's breath was taken away.

 _I would beg and steal, just to feel your heart, beating close to mine. Well, if you ever go. Darling, I'll be oh so lonely. Begging on my knees, all I'm asking please, please, love me._

"Well I guess that explains how she won," Kono said shooting a smile at them but Steve was lost. His girl and her magical voice. How had he ever gotten so lucky?

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Chin was running late. He knew he was running late and he was expecting one of his friends to call wondering where he was. It wasn't that it had taken him longer to get ready, he just, hadn't quite been motivated to go.

But one well placed text from Rowan that said: _If you don't show up I'm gonna come and drag you out_ was all he needed to get his butt in gear. She and McGarrett had been really good at that recently, of sensing when he was really doing bad about Malia and intervening. When it was fresh, Steve had been very good at checking in on him, after living with him and seeing first hand that the pain was still there, living under his skin, Rowan had been even better.

So he knew not to argue with that text. He was almost to the hotel when the phone rang.

"Hey, I'm pulling up to the hotel now," Chin said, assuming the call was his friends wondering where he was.

"Hello, Chin," came back at him in Gabriel's trademark smug voice. "It was good seeing you this morning."

"What do you want, Gabriel?"

"Oh, a little gratitude, for starters," he snapped. "If I hadn't killed that IA detective, you'd be behind bars right now."

Chin scoffed. "I've spoken to Rowan, Gabriel, I know all about the assassin Wo Fat sent down who was supposed to off you and didn't. For some reason I don't understand, she spared you. Granted she also told him to spare Coughlin, but that order clearly got ignored."

For a moment Gabriel was silent and Chin added: "I've also been told that you were warned. Stay away from me, stay away from her, get off the island. Not smart angering Wo Fat again, not when he so kindly spared your life."

"Well isn't that the problem then?" Gabriel shot back. "He's stolen my resources, turned my connections off of me, and now I have no way of doing as he's asked."

"And what do you want me to do about it?"

"You're gonna help me get off this island. Or my blood will be on your hands."

"And why do you think I'd care about that?"

"Because I have something you're gonna wanna see," he said. "Information that affects you very directly. And as a show of good faith, I'm prepared to give you a little sneak peek."

"Where will we meet?"

"That won't be necessary. It'll be waiting for you when you get home."

And then he hung up. Chin panicked. He immediately pulled a u-turn and then called Duke telling him to send the bomb squad to his house cause he was sure that Gabriel had done something to his house. But when he got there, the bomb squad had already gone through his house and only phone an envelope.

They offered it to him, told him it was clean, and then let him open it. Duke glanced over his shoulder, as Chin went through the pictures that had been inside. All of Adam and someone one else, both dressed like businessmen walking through a garden. They certainly looked like they knew one another.

"What is this?" Duke asked.

Chin didn't know, but he knew who he was going to ask


	193. Chapter 193

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Wednesday my wonderful readers! Guys, I've got some… news and some good new. For starters… guys… it's absolutely 100% official. I have finished writing season 5. I am officially on season 6. Isn't that both exciting and terrifying? So as I predicted Season Five ends at chapter 203 and then chapter 204 we're thrown right into the thick of it season 6. The good news is we hit 150 followers! Since that was one of the milestones I was counting down to, usually that would mean a marathon, except I'm short on chapters and I'll be focusing on another project in November that I'm saving chapters for, I'm going to be doing the marathon in December. Hopefully that's okay. Don't forget to tell me if you guys want me to put season 6 and onward into a different story! As always, please leave a review and I'll see you guys on Friday._

Chapter 193

* * *

 _Where the hell are you? I called your room ten times. Pick up the phone, you selfish son of a bitch. I knew I shouldn't have let you go. Wild boar, my ass! You know what? Enjoy yourself, jackass, because this is the last trip you will ever take. Do you hear me? I swear to God, you're on the couch when you get back._

Poor Mickey Dickson, his wife… his wife was clearly not happy.

The recording stopped, taking the angry wife's voice and the screaming child in the background away and Danny and Steve were left in the heavy silence after listening to that message to stare at one another.

They had one hell of a case. Three guys from Cleveland had come to Hawaii to cheat on their wives with college girls on spring break, drink a lot, take a bunch of drugs, and get absolutely no women. You know, except for the one they found dead in their bathtub the following morning with no recollection of how she got there.

But instead of calling to inform HPD of what happened… they tried to hide the body.

Steve was shocked about all of it. Shocked that it happened, that anyone could get married and then decide down the line that they wanted to stray, just cause things got boring in their domestic lives, just because things were a little stale. Maybe he couldn't imagine it because he wasn't there yet… maybe things really did change once you put a ring on it, bought a house and had kids. But he still couldn't imagine it. Because he had all of those things with Rowan and at no point did he think that things were stale… though now he was worried that Rowan thought that.

"Really seems like a catch, this lady," Danny said to Steve who was trying to smile but was honestly super worried at that moment. He itched to pick up his phone and text Rowan.

 _You don't think we've gone stale, right?_

But he knew if he did he'd put that worry into her head and he didn't want to do that to his girl, not if they were perfectly fine. And he was about 90% certain they were.

"Six messages just like that, all from this morning," Danny finished and Steve nodded taking that in.

"Hmm," Steve said softly. "Is uh... is that normal? I mean… is this what I got to look forward to?"

Danny balked at the question. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, buddy, you thinking of popping the question?"

"I mean… yeah… the thought's crossed my mind…" Steve admitted.

"You and our Ro, wooo that is gonna be one spicy marriage, not gonna lie with her temper and your stubborn stupidity… yeah you might get a few of these calls," Danny admitted and Steve sighed. "So like… have you picked a ring?"

"Picked a ring? I gave her a ring already," Steve complained.

"No, you gave that girl a promise ring. She's gonna expect a completely different rock for her engagement ring," Danny said.

"Fuck… really?"

"I told you that promise ring was a bad idea," Danny said and Steve sighed again.

"I guess… but you should have seen her face when I gave it to her… and it always makes her smile you know? Like sometimes I catch her look at it and she's just beaming… and you know… I feel great that I did that for her."

God the softie. "She would have done the same thing for a real ring, Steven, should have just proposed right off the bat."

They were interrupted by the next voicemail message playing. The same angry wife was yelling again.

 _I hope your plane crashes on the way back, you hairless, ball-less loser._

For the moment the two were quiet taking that in. "Yeah I don't think she'd do that to you either," Danny said. "With her app it might take her seriously and down your plane."

The two shared a rare laugh and then sobered up quickly. They still had a murder to solve after all.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Natalie Morris was wanted by the FBI for kidnapping and sex trafficking. This was a total Five-0 type case, but the trafficking and kidnapping wasn't what brought it to light. No, Jerry had witnessed a man force Natalie Morris into a car, and had chased after them in hopes of saving her. What he found was the man stabbed to death and Natalie missing.

The man that had been killed, turned out to be her unidentified co-conspirator. When Natalie had been featured on a FBI's most wanted episode, he had decided she was getting too much heat and tried to off her before she brought him out into the limelight. Now she was up in the air and they had no idea where she would go next.

Kono and Chin had tapped out all of the FBI contacts to see where Natalie would go, and who else she would go to on the island for help, but they got nothing. Nothing except for: _She used to be partnered with Wo Fat._

They hadn't wanted to but once they had no other leads and therefore no other choice, they had done what they knew Steve would get mad at them for doing. They had called Rowan.

"So, let me get this straight," Rowan said looking down at the picture Kono was showing her. "You want me to call Wo Fat and ask him if he's heard from her?"

"No, we want you to ask Sandy if she's got any recent info on her. Or if it knows where she'd go. Like if she had any other contacts on the island," Chin explained.

"I thought you guys didn't like my app," Rowan said her eyes narrowed at them both. And that was a good point. They weren't supposed to like, or encourage Rowan's use of the app.

"Well, I like your app," Jerry said. "I'm the one who started this. I witnessed her abduction I found William Malo's body. If you don't want to use it for them can you use it for me?"

"More worried about Steve finding out," Rowan snapped hitting both Chin and Kono with a dark untrusting glare. Kono was hurt, she was supposed to be Rowan's best friend and besides, Chin was the one who snitched, Kono only snitched about things so long as Steve was using the info for a date, or romantic gesture, that was it.

"I'm not going to tell him," Jerry said not catching that her glare was directed at the two cops standing behind Jerry's chair.

"Again… not what I was worried about," Rowan said with a sigh. She looked down at the picture again and then back at Jerry with an appraising sort of look on her face before asking: "Alright… and what's her name?"

"Natalie Morris," Kono said watching as Rowan took a picture of the mugshot Kono had given her.

"And what was her MO?"

"Luring young women from South America with the promise of lucrative modeling careers," Chin told her. "Once they were here on their temporary work visa's they'd vanish."

"Hm… alright, I'll put it through the app, see what pops up," she said. "But uh… if you want me to do this… y'all gotta get out. The less of you guys here, the less you can tell Steve… that includes you Jerry, not that I don't love you, but you're a conspiracy theorist and well… this app is gonna freak you out."

The three exchanged glances but they all got out of the office as requested.

"Do you think it'll work?" Jerry asked.

"Well Rowan's mentioned before that Wo Fat loaded the app with profiles of people he worked with, so she'd know who she could go to for help and in what area they'd be good for," Kono reminded them. "We'll just have to hope that he has Natalie loaded into the app."

They were in the hallway for two minutes before Rowan's head poked out of Chin's office, her phone trapped between her shoulder and her ear. She snapped her fingers at them until she got their attention and asked: "Hey uh… are you sure this is a sex trafficking ring?"

"Yeah, why?" Chin asked.

"I unno… cause it's not coming up. You said she had a partner right?"

"Yes, William Malo," Kono reminded her. Rowan blinked her eyes and nodded before shutting the door again. She returned the desk and the three of them carefully watched her as held the phone to her ear and talked animatedly.

"Is she uh… is she on the phone?" Chin asked.

"I thought the app was a… you know a point and click thing," Jerry said. "Does she have to like talk to it?"

"I mean, you can, but it's more like how you'd talk to Siri or your Cortana," Chin said and Jerry nodded.

"So, Apple has Siri, Windows has Cortana, and Rowan has Sandy," Jerry said as if the fact that Rowan had the criminal equivalent to a personal assistant application made sense. But both Kono and Chin had come to the same understanding. If Rowan wasn't using the app, if Rowan had in fact called, _someone_ , they both knew who she'd call to get info from.

Rowan came out of the office after hanging up, not five minutes later, and smiled at them: "William Malo was the guy he mainly did business with. Says that they usually holed the women up in a farm where they grow the beans for Island Spirit Coffee on the island of Hawaii. Is that enough? Or do you want more? I think I can get you guard position and defense tactics…"

"That's great Rowan thanks!" Kono cried and Rowan shut the door again.

Chin and Kono left Rowan behind with Jerry to get on their Kevlar and pick up their bigger guns before heading out to the address Rowan had given them. They were silent for only a few moments.

"You realize she was on the phone, right?" Chin asked her as they headed for their gear. Kono just nodded. "That means she wasn't on the app… she called him directly…"

"Well… she did say she couldn't find anything, maybe the app was taking too long so she called him directly…" Kono said.

"Isn't she supposed to be… you know… not talking to him?" Chin asked. "I'm pretty sure McGarrett's under the impression that the two of them aren't talking."

Kono thought that over. It was true. Steve was under that impression, but Wo Fat had also saved Rowan's life, and without her asking, had sent someone to clear Chin. Besides Rowan was always happier and safer when Wo Fat was in her life.

"Well I'm not telling him otherwise," Kono said stiffly. "And after what he did to clear your name, you probably shouldn't either."

"I wouldn't do that to Rowan," Chin said instead, making his loyalty to Rowan the point that mattered there, not that he owed Wo fat for saving him.

All Kono could think was: _God. Steve better not find out about this_.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

A few days after the takedown, the little Five-0 family was invited down to the Police headquarters, and this time not for an investigation, or an interrogation. This time they were invited down, quite cordially for a ceremony in honour of Jerry and his role in catching and stopping Natalie Morris.

"Big day for you, Jer," Grover said as Kono and Rowan went about fixing Jerry up. Just last minute touches so he'd look super great up on the podium accepting the Honolulu Police Department's Civilian Medal of Valor.

"Look at you in your nice suit, you look so handsome," Rowan said noting that Jerry looked quite nervous.

"It's a rental," he mumbled but Rowan waved that off.

"No one can even tell," she said.

"Don't be nervous," Kono urged. "You deserve this. What you did was really brave."

"Thanks Kono… and Rowan…," he said. He smiled at the little group of people that had congregated around him.

Kono, Chin, Grover, Danny and of course, Steven, Rowan and Nahele. Rowan who looked absolute stunning in her Navy blue get up, both having decided that today, they'd go as a matchy-matchy family. Nahele was standing beside her in a navy blue, short sleeved button down and navy blue pants. And they actually looked like a family.

"Hey, how's our hero holding up?" Steve asked, his arm firmly placed around Rowan's shoulders. "Look at you buddy. You look great."

"Got some fashion tips from the ladies," he said hitting Rowan and Kono with a head nod. "Gotta give them credit where it's due."

"Congrats, Jer. Everyone's really proud of you," Chin added and Jerry struggled to hide his smile.

"I'll take that badge now," he said and they all laughed despite Jerry being completely serious.

"Ah, pump your breaks there superman we're not that proud," Grover said just as Chin said: "Don't you worry Jerry, good things come to those who wait."

"Oh honey, I had three holes drilled into my head and I didn't get a badge," Rowan reminded him. "You're better off cutting your losses and working for a more appreciative team."

Steve nudged Rowan. "You know I can't put a psychic on the pay roll," he reminded her but she just stuck her tongue out at him playfully and he shook his head.

They devolved into idle chit chat briefly before Kamekona joined them. He barely got a hello out at them before Rowan's eyes zeroed in on the yellow plastic bag in his hands and was suddenly pointing a well-manicured finger into his face.

"Whoa. No. Hell no. I know what you're here for and you put that shirt away," Rowan snarled to Kamekona who merely stared at her with large wounded eyes. "Jerry wants to look good in his photos while getting his medal and that gaudy yellow monstrosity is not gonna ruin it for him."

Everyone exchanged glances before they realized that Kaemkona had one of his typical promotional shirts, with his name, and his face on it. Ah, he was looking for some free advertisement again.

"But the bruddah owes me for failed delivery," Kamekona said. Ah so he meant to guilt him into it. Kamekona was all about that emotional and monetary blackmail. "And I'm willing to forgive any future monetary debts for similar transgressions of the same nature."

Rowan stared at him, her dry glare unmoving, one perfectly sculpted eyebrow arched in disbelief and heartlessness.

"Okay… you know what? We're not doing this today, how much you want?" Rowan asked rifling through her purse.

"I'm not looking for a few songs to bring in a few more customers you know?" Kamekona asked.

"I'll drop three grand, cash, right now, is that good enough? Is that gonna cover his future monetary charges for now?" Rowan asked revealing a roll of cash. Like an actual thick roll of bills being held by a single blue elastic.

"What the—" Kono cried as Kamekona snatched it out of her hands clearly liking the deal they struck.

Steve put his hands on his hips. "Uh… why you carrying around that kind of cash?" he asked.

"Oh… honestly? I was gonna buy a pair of really expensive shoes, but I don't need them," Rowan said.

"What pair of shoes costs three grand?"

"Uh… seven grand actually," Rowan admitted. Whoa she had seven grand in her bag? "And uh… they're Louboutin red bottom heels, all black suede and crystals in the heels. I've uh… I've always wanted a pair, but, uh, this is more important then a pair of shoes."

Steve's eyes crinkled she sounded so forlorn about it. He was surprised, she hadn't mentioned this to him before.

"How much are they retail?" Steve asked. They had an anniversary coming up, maybe he'd surprised her.

"Ten grand," she answered. Okay that was a HELL NO on the surprising her. Rowan glanced back up to her friends and clocked all of their shocked stares. "What? Why is everyone looking at me like that?"

Jerry winced. "Geeze, Ro if you want your shoes…"

Rowan blew out a raspberry at him. "They're only shoes. I wasn't really getting them from a reputable source, you know, so this is probably for the best. Besides, I've never been comfortable spending that kind of money on stuff like that… specially since I can only wear them to really nice occasions and let's face it, with who I'm with all my fancy occasions are gonna get interrupted by terrorists and murder plots or hospital trips…"

Steve laughed half-heartedly at her joke as the other chuckled but her desire for a pair of expensive shoes worried him. Ellie had said once that all girls wants the finer, more expensive things in life. He had thought Rowan wasn't one of them, but Ellie had said _all_ girls and now he was seeing that even his Ro wanted nicer, finer things. He wasn't the kind of guy who could give her that though. Would she eventually want to trade him in for a finer, more expensive guy? One who could give her all she wanted?

Chin took that time to tap Steve's shoulder and pull him aside. A quick chat, he wanted. And Steve wouldn't have minded except for the fact that he didn't want to be away from Rowan. He half-heartedly listened to Chin as he explained what the photos on his phone were, letting Steve skim through them.

They were just of Adam. And though he was only partially listening, as his eyes kept trailing back to Rowan with every movement she made and every time he heard her voice, he understood why Chin was worried about these photos.

"Gabriel left these photos at your house?" Steve asked. He glanced over again to Rowan who was standing next to Kono. "You talk to Kono?"

"No, you're the only one… but you know… I think we both know whose opinion I'd like on this…"

"Aw please, please don't get my girlfriend involved in this," Steve groaned but Chin scowled at him. "Look, Gabriel's a convicted killer, alright? I mean, he's not…"

But Chin raised up a hand to silence him. "With all due respect, I know exactly who Gabriel is and I understand your concern but might I remind you that you said the same thing about Reyes and that nearly took down, Danny, me _and_ Rowan, when it all could have been avoided by going to her first."

Steve groaned and rolled his eyes. "Fuck. Fine," he then turned to Rowan and whistled which got her to turn around to him. "Come here."

Rowan scowled at him. "I'm not a dog, Steven," she snapped.

Steve's sigh was an aggravated one. "Will you just… Rowan… come here please!" he cried.

"No," she snapped again. "You don't get to put on a navy suit and leave a few buttons undone so I can see your chest and do that thing with your hair I like so much and just except me to jump at your command, Commander."

"You like me in blue, you know you like me in blue, just like I like you in dresses, now will you come here, I need you beside me please."

Rolling her eyes and sighing Rowan tore herself away from Jerry's side to join Steve. As per usual as soon as she got close, he had an arm around her waist and that girl pressed solidly to his side. He pressed a kiss to her temple as one of her hands flattened to his chest and she tucked her head into him a big grin on her face.

"Sorry to bother you babe, but Chin's got something he wants you to take a look at," Steve said. "Something hush-hush you know?"

"You been dreaming anything lately?" Chin asked.

"You mean other then the…" "Yes, Rowan, other then the storm," Chin interrupted.

Rowan had been dreaming of Kono lost in a storm on and off for the last week. They assumed the dreams were about Kono's impending voyage, but they weren't taking them that seriously at the moment. Especially since Kono hadn't set a date to sail yet.

"Uhm… no… wait… wait… maybe… I unno if it's happening yet, it might I don't think it will…"

"Is there anything on your app involving… Adam?"

"Adam?" Rowan echoed her eyes suddenly narrowing at him. "No… I mean… other then I added him to the app to track… no… it hasn't reported anything? Why did something happen to Adam? He didn't get arrested, did he?"

"No, but I did get a visit from Gabriel…" "Impossible, I gave him very clear instructions. It's very hard to misunderstand the command _Run_ , you know?" "—Well, he's got no contacts and no money, so how was he going to get off the island, Ro?"

Rowan crossed her arms over her chest and growled: "Swim."

Chin and Steve took that in, that was a very chilling, very Wo Fat-esque thing to say. They both exchanged glances before Chin shook his head and moved away from the topic. "Okay… the next time he makes contact, I'll tell him that. In the meantime, he sent me this…" he said showing her his phone. "These uh… these pictures have been authenticated. They're real, and they were taken recently, now I don't know who he's with in them but…"

"That's Shioma," Rowan whispered, swiping through the pictures. "No, that can't be… it can't have already started… I put so much in play to stop it how is it still happening…" she said, mostly to herself.

Rowan was like that, she sometimes said her thoughts out loud, but it wasn't those words or the panic playing over her features that scared Chin, it was the breathless whisper of: "Maybe I shouldn't have let Gabriel live…" that got him.

Because if these pictures worried Rowan, they couldn't mean good things.


	194. Chapter 194

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Saturday my wonderful readers! Guys I forgot to post again! I'm so sorry, I've been so swamped with school and work that I just freaking forgot! So the people have spoken (or at least two people have spoken) and y'all were pretty clear that you want it to stay in the same story, so that's where it's going to stay. So this next episode is only two chapters long, but I worked hard on making it a little bit more fantastical. But guys… we're 9 chapters away from the end of this season. GAH! I'm both so excited and so nervous. I've been working on season 6 for like… A YEAR. I have more than half of it written already, how cool is that? So I hope you guys are at least a little bit looking forward to the new season, and as always please leave a review and I'll see you guys on Monday! Have a great weekend guys!_

Chapter 194

* * *

Steven didn't grab Rowan's hand when they were walking on the beach, no, he had a hold of her hand the second they got out of the car, and refused to let go. She knew why he did it, of course, which was not because he wanted to be romantic with Rowan but because he didn't trust her to not try some kind of sabotage.

Rowan had been so determined to keep Kono from leaving, her trip had actually been postponed at least a month. First they had caught a case that Rowan insisted they wouldn't solve without Kono. Which was not true. When they had a second case roll in and they were no longer listening to Rowan and her fake visions, Rowan had faked an injury. Said she fell down the stairs, called 911 and had the hospital call Steven to say she had been admitted. The whole team had rushed in to find the acting emergency room doctor livid and demanding to know which one Kono was. The hospital charged her double for faking her injury but she hadn't cared.

For Kono's third attempt at sailing off, Rowan had _actually_ thrown herself down the stairs the night before she was meant to go, as she had realized that she wouldn't be able to fake it again. Too bad she had fractured her wrist and had given herself a concussion so bad her doctors had no choice but to induce another coma. This one was only overnight so by morning she was fine and she had gotten what she wanted, Kono had postponed her trip, but Steve was so mad at her he yelled at her for forty-five minutes straight, threatened to break up with her, threatened to chain her to the bed, and then the poor stressed man actually collapsed into a small hospital chair and broke into tears.

Which was why on this day, Rowan had done absolutely nothing to stop Kono from sailing, because she knew poor Steve couldn't take any more stressful accidents… real or fake. And a little bit because of the heart to heart she and Kono had had. But it was mostly because she didn't want to break down Steve like that anymore.

They had missed three storms, with Rowan's avoidance techniques, granted none of them had been during the time Kono was set to sail, but Rowan had been religiously watching the weather network and no storms were on the horizon for the next few days. Though her dreams were still consistently bothering her, Rowan just shoved them aside.

Surely, _surely_ delaying her a month had done the trick… right?

Rowan could tell, as they neared Kono, Chin and the little wooden raft thing that Kono was going to set sail on, that Steven wanted to move faster, wanted to be there to check the small hand-made wooden craft that Kono's mother had slaved over and Kono had finished, but he didn't want to let her go. His eyes kept narrowing at her, but she also knew he didn't want to call Nahele back who had gone to walk with Grace. Nahele couldn't be on Rowan-sitting duty forever.

"You can go," she whispered to him, but his dry glare, his blue eyes narrowed in distrust told her how he felt about those words. "I promise, it's okay, you can go."

His eyes narrowed a faction more but sighed, no doubt realizing that he could probably trust her here. So he let go of her hand and approached Kono and her hand crafted outrigger.

"Requesting permission to come aboard!" he called in his best Naval Command voice.

"Permission granted, commander," she answered standing at mock attention. "Just don't let Rowan touch my boat."

As Steve told her to stand at ease, Rowan groaned. "I'm not going to do anything," she complained to them. "Since you've insisted on going despite my dreams warning you of disaster, I've made the executive decision to let you go off and drown. And when you do drown, as I have come to accept that you most likely will, I will write you a wonderful funeral song, filled with a great many _I told you so_ s. I might even choreograph a dance."

Kono laughed at her. "Why thank you, Ro, how very thoughtful of you," she said.

"We thought we'd see your fiancé out here today," Steve said trying to change the topic.

"Naw Adam wants to watch her come home, not watch her leave," Rowan answered absently from where she stood in the sand watching her boyfriend and best friend look over the boat.

"What did I say about doing that, Rowan? Remember, it makes people uncomfortable when you say things for people before people say them," he reminded her with a groan but Kono smiled at him.

"No, I told Rowan that this morning. I promised to update her at all points of the trip," she said and Steve sighed out an embarrassed: _oh_ as their friends all laughed at him.

"Hey, you're gonna have to come down off the ship if you want me to say goodbye," Danny called and like that Kono effortlessly got off the boat. As soon as she hugged him however, he held onto her tightly and called to all of them: "Hey! I got her. Open the trunk, we'll throw her in!"

"Oh that's the plan? Down, Steve give me the keys!" Rowan cried turning to him. Luckily everyone took that as part of the joke and not an earnest response to Danny's sarcasm.

"Okay, not to be a downer, but little mama's been so frantic about a storm she chanced a coma, and we got some weather…"

Rowan's head whipped up. Whoa. Wait. What?

They all shot a glance to her. "The storm front's moving south, and I'm heading east to Molokai," Kono said glancing at Rowan again. "It's fine, Ro. I promise. If I leave now, the only ones getting hit by the rain are you guys."

Worry clawed up her throat like a bile. They were all staring at her, trying to determined how crazy she was gonna be about this. But this was Kono's farewell and there'd be no stopping her now. She didn't want to ruin this, well, she didn't want to be the one to ruin it anyway. So Rowan just stood there saying nothing and trying to look encouraging and not like she was about to burst into tears.

"Friend of mine's got a pretty sweet storm shelter if anyone's interested," Jerry offered getting the tension off of her. "It's got Wi-Fi."

They all turned him down and they all went quiet to allow Kawika to bless both Kono and her boat. Steve came to stand beside her, a reassuring arm slung around her shoulders, pressing her into his side for much needed comfort. And, as an added reassurance, Nahele stood on her other side, his hand in hers. Her two boys, out to take care of her, it made her feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

"This craft appears to be quite sound and stalwart, Officer Kalakaua!" Max exclaimed after Kawika was done. Both he and Steven had finished assessing the boats moments before Kawika started but he had the good graces to not interrupt the blessing ceremony. "If you ask my opinion, you'll have no trouble circumnavigating the islands."

Rowan looked around to all her friends. All the people who cared about Kono just as much as Rowan did. These people all showed their worry in different ways. Steve and Max by checking out the boat's suredness. Chin by helping her pack. Danny with his sarcasm, Kamekona brought food. Rowan… Rowan had thrown herself down a set of stairs. Everyone was different, but she was the only one stupid enough to put herself in the hospital over this. Over something no one else believed but her. Why couldn't she have just been supportive like everyone else?

"I can get you the same trip for a hundred and fifty dollars and they'll give you a bag of peanuts," Danny snapped. Oh Sassy Danny, at least she knew she wasn't the only person who thought this was stupid. Still he didn't end up in the hospital he was just being snarky.

"Flying is easy," Kono said with a laugh. "Our ancestors, they connected the islands on a _wa'a_ like this one."

Yeah, yeah, but they had planes now, making that hand carved dinghy redundant.

"Where's your sense of adventure?" Kawika asked Danny who merely smirked at him and shook his head.

"Adventure? No… I… I work with this guy," Danny said gesturing to Steve. "I don't need any more adventure. Thanks though."

As everyone laughed at the continuing joke of Steven being of constant source of annoying danger to Danny, Grace moved towards Kono.

"This is for you Auntie," Grace said and then she turned to Nahele and gestured for him to join her. Grace put the lei made of white and blue flowers she had brought Kono over her head and around her neck, while Nahele had something more practical. It was a piece of carved wood with fishing line.

"You know in case you get hungry and you want to fish the old way," he said. "I uh… I made it in woodshop. Got an A. I'm rambling, someone stop me."

Kono moved in to hug him where Nahele suddenly gripped her tightly and whispered something softly into Kono's ear. When she drew away and said: "Don't worry. Everything will be fine. I promise."

Once she had let go, Steve put a hand out to Nahele's shoulders to draw him back to them. Once he had backed towards them he leant a little on Rowan, despite Steve's hand being on his shoulder. Nahele always felt better if one of them was near-by, but he usually wanted Rowan.

Kono looked about ready to speak to them, probably some grand _don't worry_ speech, when she noticed something, back where everyone had parked their cars. They all turned as she drifted off towards them. A red sedan where a man was helping a woman get out of the car. Rowan smiled and let out a breath of relief at the sight of them. She was worried, and she was sure Kono was worried too, that her parents wouldn't show up.

Rowan had called them to make sure they were coming. Asked if they had wanted any help, but her dad had been certain he could do it on his own.

Chin looked around at the confused faces as her mother was unloaded into her wheelchair and he answered their unasked questions. "Her mother had an aneurism a few years back."

Rowan knew this of course. Kono had her had talked about her mother years ago during one of their girl's nights. And then they had talked about why this trip had been so important after she had woken up from her coma. It was Kono's explanation and Steven's fearful tears combined that had convinced her to stop her sabotage. But she let Steven think that it was just him.

Kono accompanied her parents to the beach where she finally faced Rowan. The two women smiled at one another and Rowan realized that she was shaking. Kono quickly moved in to hug her.

"Don't worry," Kono whispered to her. "I know you've been dreaming… I know you're worried, but I took every precaution and I will update you, every day, right away. Okay?"

Rowan wasn't listening to her though. Now that she had a hold of Kono she was focusing. For Rowan couldn't stop the flash of angry visions that hit her system, but she did push them away as she held Kono tightly.

"Seriously… be safe," she whispered to her. "I really haven't stopped dreaming and they're getting worse by the night."

"Don't worry, sistah, I'll be alright."

Rowan tried to focus on the strings around her, tried to arrange them so Kono could come out of this safe, but she tore herself out of Rowan grasp before she could finalize the switch. As they all stood on the edge of the water, watching Kono's _wa'a_ sail further away from her, the happily waving Kono becoming nothing more than a speck on the horizon, Rowan sent a silent prayer out into the strings.

 _Please let the delay have been enough._

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

The storm had hit almost out of nowhere. And to her greatest shame the first thing she thought about was Rowan and her dreams.

When Rowan had thrown herself down the stairs she had been shocked. She knew, she knew that Rowan had been trying to keep her from going on that trip but she never thought that she'd… you know, hurt herself over it. But Rowan spent a night in another induced coma, Steven was so stricken by this that he had actually broken into tears in front of them, in front of Nahele, and Kono felt terribly guilty about that.

But Rowan had been dreaming about a storm. About Kono lost in that storm. About Kono dying either in that storm, or adrift on the ocean. And when no one would listen to reason, Rowan took things into her own hands, like she was prone to do. Kono was just grateful she didn't put it through her app. Who knows what would have happened then.

The first storm that hit Kono took out her _wa'a_. But she wasn't too worried. She had saved her emergency phone, she had managed to save her surf board and a bag of rice. And if Rowan's visions were still bugging her, someone would figure out where she was very soon. Or at the very least her phone would dry out and she'd be able to call someone.

Not Rowan who would probably just scream I told you so a bunch of times before getting Kono help.

She had paddled all day, trying to use her water sparingly, but she was hot, she was tired and she was oh so fucking thirsty. She had started remembering. Remembering times with her mother. Her mother teaching her how surf. Reminding her that if she were to follow the _koa'e_ she too would head back to land with long graceful strokes.

 _I'm flying mom!_

She liked to think that her mom could see her, could hear her, and was lending her some of her courage and bravery to get through this.

Kono had paddled until she couldn't paddle anymore. And then she slept. A helicopter went past and hope hit her system so hard her heart almost burst. Rowan had sent her help already? Damn that girl worked fast.

But the helicopter went past leaving her behind and she was left with nothing but the ocean and her memories. Of her mother speaking of this trip, and how she wanted to go on it. Of the conch shell marking the beginning of the journey, like one had done for the beginning of hers. Of Maui hooking something deep in the ocean and pulling Hawaii out of the sea.

With Nahele's homemade fishing line and one of her oranges, Kono managed to hook a fish to eat. Something to give her some sort of energy to keep going.

She knew. She knew that Rowan would find her. And if she couldn't come herself, she'd send someone else. She'd send a Rowan-gram. Or just Steven McGarrett as Rowan no longer used her app… or at least she said she wasn't using it. None of them were ever were sure how true that was.

But it was the second storm. The one that hit later on the second day of her trip. It was this storm that ruined her. She had managed to get a sort of distress call out to Chin but she lost her phone when a swell hit her. She dove in after it but couldn't find it. She didn't want to stray to far from her board because she could lose the phone… she wouldn't survive without the board.

She struggled with her board. Struggled to stay on the surface, as the water pitched, the thundered rolled and the lightning flash. _Don't like the weather in Hawaii? Just wait ten minutes._ She tried to laugh it off. She tried to be brave, but the water was throwing her, the storm was raging and her bravery seemed to fail her. She couldn't help herself, she couldn't keep it back. She screamed for Rowan, because out of anyone who could come out of nowhere to save her, it would be Rowan.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan bolted up in bed, outside the window thunder crashed and lightning lit up the sky.

Rowan had been nervous all day. She kept trying to focus her strings, focus on Kono but she was too far and the strings around storms were too wild and plentiful for her to get a clear gist of what was going on. Steven had been clear, the first storm had been small and Kono had promised to go around it. She had a plan, she knew what she was doing.

But Kono didn't pick up her phone. And Rowan's agitation grew stronger and stronger. She tried not to bother Steve with it, he did have a meth case that he was working at that time, but he could see it on her face and hear it in her voice when she called him.

He was still so upset with her over the stairs incident that she could tell that this was annoying him. She didn't want to annoy him but if it got Kono out of danger maybe it would be worth it.

When Steven had come home that night she had jumped on him. Kissed him all over. But that wasn't just for Kono. Steven had been in a shootout, Steven had rescued a meth cook who thought he was cooking meth to save his son, Steven had to arrest that son who made up the whole threat to get back at his dad, to get what he thought was owed. That arrest had hurt him, because Nahele was in a similar position. Nahele could easily do that to one of them. It was the strangest fear of Steven's but she let him have it only so she could soothe him.

Soothing him led them straight to bed, where she let him sweat out his worries on top of her. Let him command her in a way that only he could. Let him rage a heavenly storm onto her as she clung to him for solace and when he was done, when he was shaking so hard in the aftermath that she thought he might come apart, she held him close and kept him together with well-placed kisses and a tight embrace.

And they both fell asleep.

It was the storm that woke her up.

The storm and the distant echoing cry of her name, that didn't come from this world, but vibrated through her from the strings.

 _Kono._

"What is it?" Steve asked, sleepily and groggily. He always woke up when she did, especially when she threw herself up into a sitting position. Usually that meant a nightmare, and maybe this was one, a waking nightmare. Thunder answered him and he bolted up in bed too. He looked at the storm raging outside the window and then back to Rowan's stricken and angry face. "Shit."

Already his phone was ringing, but she knew it was Chin. Chin calling about Kono.

"I told you," she snarled, jumping out of the bed. "I told you but you wouldn't listen. Why don't you EVER listen?!"

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

They all went to the Coast Guard Air Station up at Barbers point. Her, Steven, Danny, Chin and Grover. Each and every one of them. Steve had tried to keep Rowan home, _stay with Nahele_ he had said. But Chin didn't want Rowan to stay home, he had wanted her there with them. Rowan had been able to pinpoint on a map of Afghanistan exactly where Steven was. She was going to do that for Kono too.

Except. She couldn't. Or wouldn't.

He had offered her maps to look at but she just stared at them like they were unreadable. He had asked her, repeatedly, what she saw or what she knew, but she would only stare at him, and stutter. He realized then that there were too many variables, the storm was tripping her out, she couldn't focus on the one thing that they were looking for. Kono and all her visions about her were lost to Rowan, and the more frantic she got the harder it got for her to concentrate.

Steve kept trying to put an arm around her, kept trying to tuck her to his side, but Rowan ducked his hands every time. Kept snapping _Don't touch me_ to him. Chin could see that that too, was affecting Steve, was throwing him off, was unbalancing him. Which meant the two most useful people to what was now a search and rescue, were both emotionally tapped out and useless to him and Kono.

"Sir, we're observing storm force winds, 45 to 50 knots, gusting to 60. Swell are at 30feet and building. Reporting lightning strikes in vicinity of the airfield," one of the men said reading charts and numbers and read outs like they were written in regular English.

"Kono's outrigger doesn't stand a chance in those conditions," Chin told them.

"She's not on the outrigger," Rowan said in a small voice. "She lost it in the first storm."

"Rowan, we don't know if that's true," Steven snapped to her and Rowan turned her angry weepy eyes on him.

"Yes. I. Do," she growled. "I've been telling you guys for weeks. This is the parking garage all over again."

Chin's eyes found Rowan. Her arms stayed firmly folded over her chest. She was wearing one of Steve's sweaters, a soft long sleeved grey one. She had denim shorts and her red hair piled up in a bun on top of her head. She had been crying. Steve was in his clothes from this morning, green-grey button up and dark jeans. His hair was messed up, he had love bites half hidden by his collar and bags under his eyes.

They had been fucking. Then they had been fighting. Their relationship was on another rollercoaster and this time it was their faults.

Chin should have listened to her. They all should have. They were the ones who kept saying that Rowan was always right. Why didn't they ever listen to her when the time came then?

"We're launching the alert cutter," the Station master, Captain Nelson announced. "We've notified the B-6 unit to get underway as soon as possible. Four boats will be in the water within the hour."

"But you don't find her," Rowan hissed. "In every version they don't ever find her alive."

"Rowan!" Steven thundered startling everyone. "GET OUT!"

Chin knew why Steve wanted her gone. She was making things worse, she was making them all feel bad and that wasn't what they needed, they needed to focus on Kono. But shouting at her. Shouting at her didn't make things better either.

Rowan said nothing, she merely whirled away and stormed out. They all turned back to the Captain, where Steven, Danny and Lou all began to argue the need to use aircraft despite the storm conditions being too bad to do so. Chin, on the other hand, followed Rowan out of the base.

She had gone to the rocks, Chin chased after her, worried about her all alone in the rain staring out at the ocean like it held all the answers.

"You shouldn't be out here," he called to her and she shook her head at him, her eyes never leaving the storm. "Ro, come on. Let's go inside…"

"Why don't you ever listen?" she asked turning to him tears leaking down her cheek. "I know it's hard to take some times, but is _this_ …" she gestured to where they were. "Is this better?"

No it wasn't. But admitting that wouldn't bring Kono back.

"I know it's a lot to ask… but is there anything…" he started and Rowan turned to him once again.

"Did you know that I can see all the strings, now? If I really focus, I can see, I can see which ones are which. Except Kono's too far for me to really focus on and I can't find the right one that sends the storm away and I just feel… I feel so useless," Rowan snapped. Chin stared at her, he had no idea that this was something she could do. That she could see the strings of fate, or that she had been playing with them. "What is the point of my dreams, or visions or powers if I can't do anything to help the people I care about? What is the point of having this power if I can't do anything with it when I need to the most?"

"You did help, Rowan. You were so certain about this dream that you threw yourself down the stairs. That should have clued us in, but it didn't. That's not your fault. That's ours. We should have listened to you and now Kono's out there and we don't…" he said trailing off. He turned back to her. "Was there any version you saw where she makes it out of this."

Rowan turned to him. "Yeah. I mean… yeah. It gets harder once she leaves the island but yeah…"

"And you could… you could pull that string? If you tried. Could you make that one the one that's Kono's?"

"I… I don't know."

"Could you try?"

Rowan seemed to think about it, before turning her eyes back to the storm. She seemed to blink, a sort of calm chill descended upon her and then she started squinting. Her hands came up, moving like they were trying to push curtains aside, but it mustn't have been working because she kept repeating the motion.

"No, stop," she said to herself. "Just let me see… stop moving!"

Her hands fell away and Chin realized that she mustn't have been able to do it.

"It's okay," he said to her. "It's okay, they're going to get boats in the water, we know what route she was taking and they'll search that area. And when the storm settles…"

Suddenly Rowan roared with rage. Just this raw peel of angry screaming erupting from her tiny frame. She folded in on herself, and that was how Chin saw it. The glowing white that seemed to be creeping out from inside her. When she threw herself back a bolt of orange electric came with it. It was like she had been wrapped in some sort of tornado, her hair came free and blew around her as if she were in the wind, her blue eyes glowed that hot white and her screaming continued as if the electric current was trapped inside of her and warping her to it's needs.

Those orange electric bolts flying from under her skin, ripping her open to gain freedom, shot off into the sky, they attacked storm clouds as if Rowan's fury alone was chasing the storm away. A bolt of lighting hit a little too close to them and Chin scrambled back, watching that transformation in abject horror. He didn't know how to stop it, he didn't know how to get to her, not with the field of electric wrapping around her now.

But he didn't have to worry about it.

Steven practically tackled her. His chest slamming into her back, his arms surrounding her, caging her in his embrace, and like he was the lid to her powers all the orange electric bolts disappeared and Rowan's cries silenced. She fell limp in his arms and Steve buckled with her, holding her to him as he turned angry accusing eyes up to Chin. As if he knew that Chin had asked her to try, had asked her to do something void like to save his cousin.

"Don't ever let her do that again," was all he said, his voice low and dangerous. The same sort of white heat he saw in Rowan's eyes briefly flashed in Steve's eyes.

Chin said nothing but he was suddenly certain that Steve had some sort of void power too. He had a feeling that Steven was Rowan's off button. Steve was stopping Rowan from using her powers right.


	195. Chapter 195

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: How are my wonderful readers on this Monday? So we're here, at the end of this episode, yes I know they never listen to her when they really need to but that's them being difficult. The next chapter is absolutely adorable, so hopefully it makes up for some of the bullshit we've been through and what will be coming next. Don't forget to leave me a review and I'll see you guys on Wednesday._

Chapter 195

* * *

They had no choice but to turn back after hours of searching because the helos needed to refuel. Everyone was in a panic. They had found the wreckage of Kono's boat but no Kono. At first they were worried, but then Danny confirmed that the paddle board wasn't there and each and every single one of Rowan's dreams and visions had Kono on the paddle board. Discovering that had given them some hope that Rowan's visions were correct and she survived the initial storm and that they'd find her soon.

But being forced to go back had taken that hope away.

Chin had been so upset that when he asked Steve if Rowan was awake, if he could go to wake her up and ask her help, he reluctantly went home to check on his girlfriend even though he wasn't ready for that magnitude of argment.

He had taken Rowan home after her incident. After confirming with Chin that Rowan's use of the void had been simply because she was trying to isolate the strings and find Kono, she was not opening portals or trying to leave. He left her home, after tucking her in and kissing her lips softly simply so he could feel like she was there and got Nahele to promise to watch her, which he was certain resulted in the kid curled up in bed beside her. He had also briefed Nahele on the situation and promised his kid that they'd find Kono and bring her back.

He had waited for some sort of text message, he had sent one to Rowan for when she woke up. A simple, _good morning text me when you get this_. And had got nothing though he did hear that Nahele had gotten to school, so either he hitched a ride or Rowan was up and ignoring him.

When he got home he found that Rowan was, in fact, awake, having dropped Nahele off at school and was, in fact, ignoring him. When he got in through the front door, she barely acknowledged him and well… after his outburst last night… he kind of deserved that.

That and Rowan seemed utterly distracted by a bag she seemed to be packing in the kitchen. A bolt of worry ran through him, she wasn't trying to leave him again right? Cause she knew he'd never let that happen.

As soon as he darkened the doorway of the kitchen Rowan said: "I don't want to argue with you."

Well good, cause he didn't want to argue either. "What are you doing?" he asked instead.

"Care package… for Kono," she said and he nodded, good, not leaving him, just being a thoughtful friend.

"You uh… you remember anything from last night?"

"Like you yelling at me?"

"I thought we weren't going to argue," he said softly and she turned her wounded blue eyes to him. Okay, so maybe there were arguing today. "You weren't helping the situation, you were making us feel worse, and we didn't need that, that didn't help Kono."

Rowan turned her eyes away from him. "Fair."

"I shouldn't have yelled at you… but… Rowan I was afraid… I felt… I felt helpless and you… it was like you were trying to make it worse."

"I get it Steven," she said and then turned her back on him. But he didn't want her back turned to him, he wanted her in his arms. Because that simple act of turning away from him brought back visions of a stormy night, his chest constricting tightly and seeing his girlfriend firing bolts of electric energy out into the storm.

He crossed to her quickly and wrapped her up, his chest to her back just like last night, and for a moment he just held her tightly.

"You really scared me," he whispered. "I thought… I thought you were trying to leave…"

"I wasn't," she answered.

"Then what were you doing?" Steve asked because Chin had not been able to explain it in a way that made sense to Steve.

"I was just trying to find Kono. Do you know how frustrating it is to stand on the side with all this knowledge and power and to not be able to use it to help? I could see it, one pink string for Kono lost in that tangle of storm strings and I couldn't get to it and I just… I don't know… I got mad. I got mad and then… I unno… it was like something else took over. It took over and was showing me what to do and then it just all went away."

He knew what sent that away, him, him making contact with her. Because Chin had been clear about one thing and that had been that Steve shut her powers off, which meant all those times Rowan hadn't been dreaming right was probably because of him. As if her feeling guilty about Reyes had nothing to do with it, as if Rowan hadn't admitted it was the guilt over Reyes that caused it.

"I'm guessing since you're here you haven't found her?" she asked.

Steve shook his head and Rowan sighed at him. She went to move out of his arms but he held her a little tighter and pressed a soft kiss to the soft spot behind her ear.

"So what would someone need?" Rowan asked squirming out of Steve's grasp. "She's been lost at sea for what? How long would you say? Okay, so she lost the outrigger not last night but yesterday night. That means she was out all of yesterday and last night and I think… I think most of today…"

She was rambling, that wasn't good. A rambling Rowan was a freaked-out Rowan. Steve reached out and grabbed her hands. "Rowan we have search and rescue teams searching for her, both on the water and in the air. They're out there now. And if you come with me, you can help me. I'm positive that if you were in the bird…."

"No, we don't find her in the air. I know that much," Rowan said prying her hands out of his grip and turning away from him. Steven sighed. Goddamn it. He hated it when her visions were right. She had been so upset they wouldn't listen, he had been so angry with her for taking matter so far into her own hands that she purposely hurt herself, but now, with Kono in danger and Rowan freaking out… well… he wished they had listened to her. He wished they had stopped Kono from sailing.

"Now, I have already put water in the fridge, and got a cooler and ice to put it into when we go off to get her. I have aloe vera for the sunburns, I was thinking of packing some of your rations for her, cause they have all the nutrients she'll be missing and it'll be hard to gorge on those, right? I figured I'd take a few of those disgusting protein bars you think you've hidden from me. I also have a change of clothes, all my softest stuff, cause of the burns right, and then shoes cause she needs shoes, I picked my moccasins cause I figured they'd be the comfiest, and a blanket for the shock. What am I missing?"

Steve just stared at her. He crossed to her, grabbing her hands and forcing her to stand still and just as he suspected the second he got her to stop moving tears flew into her eyes.

Steve pulled her to his chest and held her tightly. "It's going to be okay, we're going to get Kono back, okay?"

"I know, but I don't know when we find her and I want to get her back now and I'm just… what if something happens? What if something already has? What if I'm wrong again?" she said wiping away her tears.

Steve pulled her into his arms. He felt so guilty about last night. Rowan had been trying to help them, had been trying to make them listen, but as per usual they had ignored her. She had been working tirelessly for weeks to avoid this, had put herself in harm's way to stop Kono from going through this and what had he done? He had yelled at her because she made him feel guilty, like he had completely forgotten what she was like when it came to protecting the people she cared about.

But the second she flattened against his chest, the second he put a hand to the back of her head to soothe her, a shock ran through them both and he knew then that Rowan had gotten a vision.

So much for Steve stopping her powers, she just got a vision from him!

She pushed herself out of his grasp, immediately going for the fridge to empty out a bag of ice into a cooler and drop waters in afterwards. "Come on, lets go. We gotta go to the beach."

And that time, Steven listened to her.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

One ferry later and Rowan had them on Molokai. He had called Chin, told him that Rowan had a heading but not to hold out hope. If this turned up nothing he'd be back to help search. He'd bring Rowan with him. Get her to have some sort of vision, get some better heading out of her. He'd've been crazy to not hear the excitement and hope in Chin's voice when he found out. Despite himself, Steve was hopeful as well, Rowan had never been wrong before.

But they were on their third beach and Rowan was standing around looking confused. He realized then that while Rowan had gotten a vision she had absolutely no idea where she was going.

"No this isn't right either…" she murmured to herself and then turned back to head for the truck.

Steve tried to not be mad at her, she wasn't doing it on purpose, but this, this wasn't helping them. This wasn't helping Kono.

So when they got back in the truck, before turning the key so they could start to drive what was probably aimlessly he turned to his girlfriend and asked: "Do you know where you're going?"

"Well… I don't know the name of the beach but I'll recognize it when I see it," she said. "Maybe just drive up to the next area?"

Sighing Steve did as he was told and Rowan looked at him. He was so angry with her, but she wasn't sure what was really wrong. Was it the whole situation? Was it because she had used the void? Was this still about the coma. She wished he would just tell her, and she wanted to ask what it was she had done to make him so… upset… with her but she didn't want to argue. Not now. Not when she needed him to drive cause he had insisted on taking his truck.

Still he did as he was asked, driving to the next beach. He let Rowan get out and then watched as she rushed down to the surf. But he stayed behind, leaning against his truck, effectively leaving her to do this by herself, clearly believing that she'd be asking him to drive again.

Rowan looked out to the horizon, craning her neck to see over the swell of the surf. The sun was high in the sky, she didn't know the time she was supposed to come but she knew it was soon, she knew it. This was the right place she was just early.

"Rowan," Steve called. "I get it, okay?" he said coming to stand beside her. "But your dreams haven't been very… uh… accurate recently, okay? And you're worried, you're worried about Kono. Now I think this is great, that you want to do this that you want to rescue her so badly, but as you can see she's not here."

"She's not here _yet_!" Rowan clarified and Steve groaned.

"Rowan! We don't know where she is, okay? We could actually be out there looking for her, but instead you have me here wasting our time!" he snapped.

"Fine. Then take the care package out of the truck and leave it here, I will call you when she washes up."

Steve just groaned, "Fine, fine!" he snarled storming away from her. Rowan just stood there, arms cross over her chest watching the waves, waiting, waiting for Kono. She was supposed to be here, this was the beach, she just knew it.

She ignored him as he dragged out the care package to her. When he was done getting everything to her he sighed. "Come on Ro, let's just… let's just go back to the Coast Guard and get you up in the air or on a boat. You'll have a vision for sure, a real vision. It'll be better for Kono then you waiting here on the off chance she washes up."

Rowan shook her head. "She's coming here. There's no point in leaving if she's just going to end up here."

Steve groaned, clearly past frustrated with her. He took four steps away before stopping and saying: "Last chance Rowan, I will leave you here," he snapped but Rowan just stayed facing forward trying really hard not to cry.

"Do what you gotta do, Steven," she whispered. It actually physically wounded her when he walked away to go back to his truck.

She waited to hear Steve's truck door slam and for him to start it up and drive away, but it never came. Instead she spotted something out on the horizon. She squinted at it, forced herself to look at the strings and sure enough a little speck of pink was waving in the air leading straight to that little black dot on the horizon. _It was her!_

"Steve!" she screamed turning back to him. Steve, who had paused at his truck apparently torn on leaving her after all, looked up. "Look, look there."

He stepped way coming back towards her his eyes looking out to where she was pointing. Shock and understanding dawned on his face. "It's her, its Kono!" she cried running towards the water and waving her arms while calling her name. She was far out but Rowan could see her waving her hands back at them and calling out. She couldn't hear what she was saying but Rowan was pretty sure it was her name.

In seconds Steve and crashed past her, shoeless, shirtless, tossing his phone to her. "Call 911 tell them we'll be bringing her to the nearest hospital. I'll go and bring her in!"

Rowan left the surf, she immediately tore into her care package, she ripped out the blanket, the water, the aloe vera and the slippers. She dropped it all in the sand and then waded into the water, to watch as Steve reached the board. While he treaded and checked Kono out Rowan put in that call to 911 as requested before calling Chin and sending a text off to Adam to tell them that they had found Kono. By then Steve was pulling Kono and her board back to land. Rowan waded a little farther, water bottle ready in one hand, bottle of aloe in the other ready to slather Kono in it.

But as soon as she got close, Kono's sobbing form hit hers. "I knew you'd find me, I knew it!" she said and Rowan just held her back silent tears streaming down her face as she held her friend. Looking up to Steve and his glorious shirtlessness who had doubted her and had almost left her behind.

"I told you," she growled, she meant it for Steve, who had the good grace to turn his eyes away from hers, but it was Kono who said: "I'm never going to doubt you again."

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

 _Between Rowan's incidents and arrests and Steve's job I don't think I could handle anyone else in my new family getting hurt or lost. Please be careful Auntie._

She was already breaking that promise. Poor Nahele, who's life had been marred with tragedy and fraught with stress, was going to get another pile of it heaped onto his young, frail shoulders.

But it was worse for her, out there in the terrible darkness, no stars to guide her, crying for Hawaii. Crying for anything familiar to return to her.

 _Where are you Hawaii?_

 _Where are you Rowan?_

Somewhere in the distance came a cry. A cry supernatural and unreal. She was hallucinating, she knew it but she swore she saw a burst of orange electric right before the clouds cleared above her and there they were.

The stars.

Oh, that had to be Rowan. Rowan you beautiful, wonderful electric goddess! Sending help in the strangest ways. After this, when she got home. Kono would never, ever doubt Rowan again. She'd never give Rowan up to Steven again. She'd be the best goddamn best friend anyone had ever seen. She'd deserve the title Rowan had bestowed upon her.

Before she knew it, the sun was high in the sky. She was burning again, she was thirsty and she was hallucinating her mom again. Her mom showing her the way. But that wasn't all she saw.

Kono saw land. Kono saw people. Kono saw a familiar red head waving out to her from the ocean waves orange electric sparks flying from the halo of light around her head.

That beautiful electric goddess. She knew. Kono knew that Rowan would find her. She always knew.

It was Steven who paddled out to get her. Kono was deliriously happy to see him. He looked her over, put a water bottle in her hand and then let her greedily drink it down while he swam her back to shore. For those few brief moments she could rest. She could lie back on that board, her hand over Steven's to remind herself that he was real and not a hallucination. She was safe. She was found. And she could finally relax.

She fell into Rowan's arms as soon as she hit the beach. Rowan who held onto her, crying happily for her return. Kono would have cried too if there was any water left in her.

After that everything was a blur. She was sure it was Steve who carried her back to whatever vehicle they had taken that day. But it was Rowan she remembered, slathering her in cooling creams and wrapping a blanket around her. But Kono wasn't afraid or worried anymore. She happily let sleep take her, knowing that Rowan and Steve would get her home.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

 _I found her Chin! I found her!_

Why had they doubted her? They had all raced to the hospital. Where Kono was sedated and given fluids. Steven waited for them out in the hallway, but Rowan sat cross legged in the hospital chair still in that grey sweater, Band-Aids littering her arms, chest and legs, her eyes never once leaving Kono's face.

"She's dehydrated, badly burned, malnourished, but alive," Steve told them. Immediately Adam had pushed past him and into the room where he took a seat by Kono's bed to hold her hand. The others stared at Steve, Chin in particular. "She talked a little bit… got a little bit of the story out of her… Rowan was uh… was right… about everything."

"And you should have listened to me," Rowan said moving into the hallway. Though Steven's hands stayed firmly rooted in his pockets Rowan absently attempted to lean against him, clearly too tired to stand up on her own. When Steve didn't sling an arm around her, liked he usually did, she straightened. "Just… listen to me next time please."

That got her a few nods from the others but Chin, he swore he'd always listen to her. He was _never_ going to doubt her again.

"I'm uh… I'm gonna go home," she said, not looking at Steve but instead walking away. "I'm pretty tired and… Adam's here… and all her family. I'm just gonna…"

She didn't even finish the sentence she just shuffled away. They knew that look, that tone, something had happened, with her and Steven probably. Had he told her that she wasn't family again, had he somehow put the idea that she didn't belong with them back in her head? And why wasn't he following after her, why wasn't he making her stay?

"Kono would be dead if it weren't for her," Chin growled to Steve. "I don't care what bullshit argument you two are having, get her back here. Kono will want to see her when she's awake."

Steve said nothing, but went after Rowan. Chin turned back to Danny and pinned him with a dark glare.

"Make sure they both come back," he ordered and then headed into the room to sit with his cousin. He didn't want to make this about Rowan and Steven and he was getting really tired of them getting into arguments like this and taking all of them down with them.

They either needed to figure their shit out or break up.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Two days after being released from the hospital, two days after spending her time bouncing between Adam's arms and Chin's watchful eyes, Kono was finally allowed to do something fun. The Five-0s had hit her with so many good ideas on things to do on her first official night out with her co-workers and friends, but she picked the one thing everyone seemingly forgot about.

To be fair, though they were reminded frequently, a lot of them forgot about Rowan's Focus groups, they were always busy with cases and their own lives. Though Steven really had no excuse for missing as many as he had. Rowan hadn't even offered her Focus Group as a thing for them to do, in fact she hadn't even planned on coming to the outing. And well… Kono wasn't having that, so she forced everyone go to the La Marina Tiki Bar.

She got them in a seat by the stage where Rowan was in the middle of a set. Kono knew probably a bit more about the gigs Rowan called Focus groups. She knew that her players were kids that wanted the chance to play but didn't have a full band yet, or just wanted the practice. She knew she picked the songs she was iffy about, would present them to the crowd and see the responses. And she knew that Rowan wasn't expecting it so she loved the happy smile that dawned on her face mid line.

 _I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies. This is the dawning of the rest of our lives. On holiday!_

This set was from her punk rock stream that Kono knew was a request from Alex. Kono had assumed that Rowan wouldn't write for Alex anymore after the attempted law suit for the rights to her song, but if she were practicing them she must have been.

Kono looked around to all her friend's faces. Particularly Steven who had always loved Rowan's punk rock look with those ripped up fishnet stockings, the dark high waisted denim shirts, and this grey tank top with a million cut outs and safety pins stuck into it. Her hair was wild and frizzy, her eyes were smoky, and she was shades paler then she usually was.

Rowan finished her song and the music changed to a slower version. "Alright my wonderful listeners. We played this song last week but I think I've fixed the issues with it, don't forget to tell me what you think!"

The crowd around them cheered and Rowan slipped into the next song.

 _I walk a lonely road, the only one that I have ever known. Don't know where it goes, but it's only me, and I walk alone._

"She does this every week?" Steve asked as if surprised. Did he not know what his girlfriend did?

"Yeah, unless she's in the hospital or she's too sick or injured to come up here," Kono said. "Didn't you know that?"

Steve stayed quiet but instead let Rowan's voice serenade them as they ordered drinks. Kono tried not to scowl at Steve. She had come to realize that all of them took Rowan for granted, they mistreated her and her network and generally made her feel like an outsider all the time. But no more, at least from Kono. Kono would do everything she had to to protect Rowan from Steve, Rowan could run to her in her time of need, and if she could swing it she wouldn't miss a single gig. From now on Kono was _never_ going to take Rowan Pierce for granted again.


	196. Chapter 196

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hello my wonderful readers how is everyone's Wednesday? So we're taking a bit of a break from Rowan and Steve's dysfunctions and we have a cute little chapter about Steve and Rowan's first year anniversary. I've got a cute little song in here too that AJ suggested. She did suggest this song a while ago as a song that Steve would write for Rowan and I agreed, I just chose to save it for their Anniversary chapter. This one is gonna be a bit shorter but it's super cute, and it's got some smut! So hopefully you like it. Don't forget to leave me a review and I'll see you on Friday!_

Chapter 196

* * *

Rowan woke up to Steve being on top of her and she smiled. He hovered over her as she stretched out all the kinks of sleeping on Steve's hard mattress. When she was done stretching she traced her fingertips down from his shoulder to his chest and then down as he pressed kisses to her jaw and edges of her lips.

"Mmm morning baby," she whispered to him and smiled into his insistent kisses.

"Happy anniversary my beautiful wonderful girlfriend," he whispered right back and Rowan smiled happily to him. Yes that was what today was. A whole year of them dating. Was it bad that she was absolutely amazed that they had gotten this far?

"Yes happy anniversary to you too, my sexy Commander," she said to him, going to kiss him again only to be distracted by the sound of his phone ringing and then suddenly his phone was in his hand.

Rowan looked at him and then back to phone in his hand. "Is that work?" she asked, noting it was Duke calling him.

He nodded almost smugly and then, just as Rowan whispered: _don't you dare_ , he answered the phone.

"McGarrett."

Rowan scowled at him, how dare he take a case when he knew what today was! He smiled down at her scowl like he wasn't crushing her very heart as he spoke.

"No can do, Duke, it's my anniversary with Ro, so you'll have to do this one without me," he said and that scowl of Rowan's fell way to a mouth open look of shock. _He was turning down a case for her_?

"No I won't be coming in today. Unless you'd like to ask Ro permission… no… thought so. Yeah thanks I'll tell her, bye Duke."

He hung up his phone and Steve smiled at her. "Duke says congrats," he said to her, and despite trying so very hard not to she had to sniff back the emerging tears. "Are you crying?"

"That was the best gift you could have ever given me," she said, a few tears escaping her eyes. She tried to hide herself in Steve's shoulder so he wouldn't see how emotional she was which just caused him to laugh at her reaction. "I can't make it stop."

Steve continued to laugh, his lips in her hair, happy to make her so happy that she had started to cry. "Well if this is how you're feeling now how are you gonna react when you get your gift?"

"Gift? We agreed no gifts!"

"Did we? Cause I happen to know there's a Victoria secret bag in the closet…"

"Aw you peeked!" Rowan cried, slapping his shoulder. "That's supposed to be for tonight… and a surprise!"

"Exactly!" he shot back, finally managing to pin her down to kiss her. "See, you got me something I got you something."

Rowan wound her arms around his neck to pull him closer. "No, I got _myself_ a new bra and pantie set, if you happen to take it off of me with your teeth that's still more a gift for me than for you."

Steve laughed lowly before slowly and leisurely kissing her. They might have gone a little farther had there not came a cry from downstairs of: "Can you two stop cuddling and come down the damn stairs please!"

The two broke apart snickering trying hush one another, both collectively hoping that Nahele wouldn't hear them and if they ignored him for long enough they'd have time for a quickie.

Instead they got: "I can hear you two laughing and if you don't come down the stairs I'mma come up!"

"Son of a bitch," Steve snarled into her neck.

"I told you to get a lock, didn't I?" she shot back.

"I swear to god I am going to Home Depot today!" he snarled into her neck. After pressing a kiss to her he groaned and rolled over and off of her. Holding her hand he dragged her out of their bed so they could both head down the stairs.

When they got there Nahele was standing there grinning at them, a feast of perfectly made pancakes set in front of them.

"Happy Anniversary you crazy love sick psychos!" he cried and both Rowan and Steve laughed.

"Come on now kid, it's not this big of a deal," he said to him but Nahele shook his head.

"I swear it's been touch and go like every other month with you two, and that's just since I moved in here, I don't even wanna know how bad it was before I showed up!" he said. "Besides, you guys do nice stuff for me all the time I figured it wouldn't be that unheard of for me to do something back. So I made pancakes, and bacon, but not eggs cause I tried and I don't know what happened but it didn't go well and you might have to get a new pan cause I burnt the omelet to it."

Rowan was already tucking in while Steve helped himself to the coffee Nahele had made. Rowan just shrugged.

"Its fine we'll buy a new one."

"You mean _you'll_ buy a new one," Steve said.

"It's _your_ kitchen."

"Okay, true, but _your kid_ ruined it," he reminded him.

"Speaking of _your_ kid," Nahele said stopping the argument before it could get out of hand. "Along with having fun stuff planned for us today, I have a proposition for you guys."

"Kay shoot." Steve said around a mouthful of pancakes.

"Alright, so I know tonight's a school night, but I need you guys to call Makani's mom and okay me staying over for the night."

"No go," Rowan said immediately. "No sleep overs on a school night, one of his rules, hands tied, sorry kid," she added pointing to Steven who shook his head.

"It's a good rule. Can't have you too tired to stay awake at school."

"Okay, yeah, but if I stay at Makani's tonight, you guys can get as… uh… loud as you want… cause you'll have the house to yourself and I'll get a goodnight's sleep before school tomorrow. Plus Makani's mom can drop me off at school."

Steve's eye brows went up at that but it took Rowan a while to get it. "Oh!" she cried when it finally dawned on her. "For godsake we're not sending you away so we can have wild sex," she snapped but when she glanced to Steve, she could see that he was actually contemplating it.

"Ew. Steven. No! That's not good parenting."

"But it's good parenting to keep him home while we get it on?" he asked. "And you know we are, I saw what's in that Victoria secret bag, you put that on and we're having sex."

"Okay… ew… can we stop…?" Nahele asked but Rowan and Steve were full blown into that argument and ignored him.

"So, I just won't put it on. Problem solved"

"Aw… no… but… it's all lacy and it has chains and… ROWAN!"

"Oh my god," Rowan sighed and then held out her hand. "Give me your phone… and what's his mom's name again?"

Steve and Nahele shared a little happy glance at one another, a shared smug grin because they had both gotten their way. Not his kid her ass, Nahele was becoming more and more like Steven by the day.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

The first thing they had done as a family was go skating. The idea was that Steve could stay on the side and cheer them on, while Nahele and Rowan practiced but he hadn't wanted to. He got on the ice, he let Rowan help him out a bit before trying to wobble off on his own and then wiped out. After that he was forcibly benched and told to rest in case he had hit his head.

He had weakly cheered them on from the sidelines. When Nahele was all skated out, he went to join Steve and Rowan free skated. Just doing whatever felt right to her at that time. She didn't realize anyone was videotaping her until she skated up to see both Nahele and Steve with their phones out and trained on her.

Once Rowan was changed, once they were certain Steve wasn't suffering from a concussion they had gone to the beach so Steve could give Nahele tips on surfing and they could play some football, which was essentially just throwing the ball around, then throwing it at Rowan and tackling her. She was certain that Steve was doing it so he could be on top of her.

Once they were set to surf, Rowan got to sit on the beach, soak up the sun, rest and watch her boys surf. Being sure to wave to them whenever she thought they were looking. Sometimes she got waves back sometimes she didn't but she didn't care.

It was really nice of Nahele to put this together for them. A day where they could all do what they wanted to do but Steve didn't _have_ to skate and Rowan didn't have to surf.

Rowan hoped Steve was having just as much fun as she was and he looked to be, running up to her with Nahele beside him, both with boards tucked under their arms.

"How was it? Were the waves good?"

"Oh so good!" Steve said throwing his board down and accepting a towel from her.

"Yeah! Did you see that monster wave we caught? Well Dad caught it, I fell off…"

"No, no, don't sell yourself short kid, you were on it a good chunk of time before you got knocked off!" Steve said having completely missed Nahele's slip up, even Nahele had missed it. That was starting to happen more, slipping up and calling them mom or dad, and not correcting himself. It made her feel all warm and fuzzy inside, even if it was just Nahele calling Steve dad.

They weren't standing there for more than two minutes when one of those beach bunnies who had been eyeing Steve out on the waves sauntered up to them. She was a beautiful strawberry blonde, with sun kissed sandy and dewy skin and a bubble-gum bikini that was essentially just a bunch of floss

"Hey, I'm so sorry to bother you, but uh… we were watching you out on the waves and I was wondering if you could help me and my friend with our form," the beautiful blonde girl said being sure to bounce a little so her barely covered boobs jiggled in Steve's face a bit. "We'd love for you to… get your hands on us…"

Steve usually didn't notice the blatant flirting but even he noticed it this time except he just stood there, his mouth open in shock that any of that had ever come out of her mouth. Well at least her man wasn't jumping at the offer, and was instead, apparently struck dumb by it instead.

Before Rowan could say something catty Nahele stepped forward. "Hi, I'm his kid," he said offering a hand to shake that she took with wide eyes of shock. She let him shake her hand vibrantly as he grinned happily at her and turning to Rowan. "And that's my mom."

The girl's eyes swung to Rowan who waved patronizingly at her. Nahele let her hand go. "So… do you still want help with your form?"

The girl didn't say anything she just turned away from them and walked away. "Nice to meet you!" Nahele called waving her off. Rowan caught Steve's impressed looked and then two of them started laughing.

Steve wrapped an arm around Nahele's shoulder. "Come on, you little shit, let's get dried off and go for lunch. I think we're all about hungry now," he said. "You good to clean up shop here?"

Rowan nodded and Steve smiled happily at the girl he had begun to accept that he loved more than anything. He didn't even care if Nahele was picking up Rowan's brash sociopathic tendencies. He just loved that this little family was his and he wouldn't have given it up for the world.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

 ***This part has smut in it. If you don't want to read it skip to the next part***

"So uh… I got a question…"

God, the worst four words in the universe. Especially coming out of Steven's mouth.

They had just had a nice dinner, Nahele was off at his friend's place, when Steve wasn't looking she had put on that lacy, chain draped contraption for him to take off, they had been having a nice nigh. Now he was going to ruin it with questions. He looked so handsome sitting across from her, having slaved for hours over homemade asiago chicken for her. He was in his grey suit with the black dress shirt. She loved him in blue but damn the black was doing something crazy to his eyes tonight.

"What's the matter Steven?" she asked primly sitting back at the patio table. She had worn a dress he had picked. A dark grey little number that had a knee length mermaid skirt and showed off all her curves.

"Nothing's the matter, I was just wondering… since you know… technically we're celebrating the date we started going steady, does this mean, since our official relationship started at a different date, we're going to celebrate our anniversary twice?"

Rowan smiled at him. Her poor Steven worried about breaking the bank.

"Just for this year," she said. "After that we can just do the official date."

Steve smiled. "That's a good compromise."

"So… my gift… when am I getting it?"

Steve laughed at her. "Really Rowan?" he asked. "Couldn't be a little patient?"

"You can't dangle the existence of a gift in front of me and not expect me to want to see it, come on, let's go. Where is it?"

Steve sighed, pulling the nice napkins she had forced him to buy months ago out of his lap and throwing it on the dinner plate he had practically licked clean. "Fine, fine," he said heading into the kitchen. "But you gotta come inside."

Rowan quickly got up and followed him back into the house. She noted that he had taken out one of his kitchen chairs while gesturing for her to take a seat on the sofa.

By the time she had maneuvered herself and her tight skirt into another sitting position he had appeared, had sat himself down on a chair and had his guitar out. Rowan found herself sitting a little straighter in her seat, her gift was a song?

"So uhmmm…" he started as he went about tuning his guitar just right. "You're the song writer, not me and I'm not… you know, I'm not ready for that yet. But I found this song… that's a lie, Nahele found the song and I liked it, so I uhm… I've been practicing in secret for you…"

Rowan couldn't help but smile she loved his singing, she loved having him play her songs so she could concentrate on her vocals alone. It was a good arrangement and it usually ended with them getting laid, because he loved her singing and there was something about him playing a guitar that drove her wild.

He started singing, his voice low, husky, and Elvis like that always had Rowan wet immediately. The song was essentially about her getting ready, and how she was always beautiful. But the words didn't matter, it was the voice. His voice. Singing to her and only her that got her.

 _I'm speechless. Staring at you, standing there in that dress, what it's doing to me, ain't a secret. 'Cause watching you is all that I can do, and I'm speechless. You already know that you're my weakness. After all this time I'm just as nervous, every time you walk into the room. I'm speechless._

Well she was speechless too. Not only was the man fine as all hell in that grey suit she loved on him, looking twice as fine with that guitar, but he could sing like the King and he was all hers.

She climbed up into his lap once the song was done, pushing that guitar of his aside, letting it clatter to the floor. She had to hike her skirt up but it didn't take much to do so, all so she could straddle him to the chair. She framed his face as she kissed him, letting him frantically devour her in return. She stripped that grey suit jacket off of him and let it drop to the floor, his hand sunk into the knot of hair at the nape of her neck, tugging it out so her red-blonde hair could cascade down her back and he could wrap it around his hands so he could tug her head back.

His fingers struggled with her dress, as her fingers streaked through his hair, tugged his shirt out of his pants so her hands could touch his feverish skin. Sinking her nails into his skin undid him.

His hands stopped holding her to him, stopped wandering, and went straight to her skirt, hiking up the skirt so his hand could dart under.

It was a signature move, slip her panties aside, get her wet, get himself inside. Except once he put his hands down there he froze.

"Are you wearing…" he asked, his eyes still hazy but surprise was coloring his features. Rowan just grinned at him. Immediately he had that dress over her head and thrown aside.

Rowan smiled, biting her lip as the man she loved surveyed her body. His hands tracing the hanging chains that had once been cold against her skin. The black lace standing out against the white of her skin. His eyes kept darting to each embellishment, up and down her body as if he didn't know where to start.

"Do you need help?" she asked, clearly teasing. He answered her by snapping the clasp of her bra open. Oh he so did not need help. He tore that bra off of her and lobbed it somewhere in the kitchen before his mouth latched onto her. God he always knew how to do sinful things with his tongue, flicking her taunt nipple around before sucking softer then harder. Spending enough time on both. Rowan loved his foreplay, he knew that, so she indulged him by squirming against him as he lavished her breasts with much needed attention. He was rock hard between her legs in more way than one and the friction was making it worse. Her man lived off friction.

Suddenly and almost violently, Steve pulled himself off of her chest.

"Up," he ordered moving his hands to her side so he could push her away. "Up. Now."

What? He wanted to stop? Rowan moaned. "But… why?"

"Cause I'm taking those panties off with my teeth and I'm not waiting to get upstairs, up, now," he growled fairly shoving her off of him. Once she was standing on shaky legs he got on his knees in front of her, eliciting an echo of the memory of him on his knees on a beach giving her a promise ring. But when his hand gripped her hips with his mouth began to brush at the skin just above her panties that memory was gone and she was all in the moment.

True to his word, his teeth nipped at her once or twice, he left a hickey despite her protests beside the tip of her skate tattoo, and then they gripped her all lace panties and torturously slowly pulled them down her by the skin of his teeth. Well, part way, Rowan did the rest once he got to her knees, by then he was distracted by pressing kisses everywhere.

She was ready for him, ready to have him in her, she was ready to slip back onto his lap and ride the fuck out her man, but he wasn't done with her, he was never done with her when she needed him to be.

He had her leg up and over his shoulder before she was ready, she was still precariously off balanced when his mouth found her, his tongue slipping in between those wet folds to play with her opening. By the time she had a firm grip, one hand on his shoulder the other cradling his head, his tongue was thoroughly inside her.

 _Oh. Oh. Oh. God Steven. Yes Steven. More Steven._

She couldn't help it, he always took her on a wild ride through foreplay. She could do nothing but cling to him as he devoured her. When his tongue hit that swollen pearl, she hit the rocky waves of a building climax, when his fingers slip into her, one first following quickly by a second that pulsed and vibrated through her, that building climax burst inside her.

It was a good thing he still had a hold of her, because after that climax her legs were more like jelly and less like legs. She was deliriously happy, practically catatonic after that ride of ecstasy he had taken her on, that she barely noticed when he had gotten him and back in the chair, until he was tugging her on top of him and back into his lap.

She didn't need to be told twice.

It took little to no effort to get that man inside her. For a while he need to do the work but once she got her breath back, once she had her feet braced against something, she was writhing upon him and it was Steve's turn to moan and pulse beneath her.

His lips found purchase against any piece of skin they could reach. Her shoulder, her nipples, her neck, she was raw with the suckling marks he left on her. His hands dug into her back, leaving welts she knew she would have to hide but didn't care about, she knew her fingernails were doing the same to his shoulder blades. The rode out the waves together, she knew when to dig into every shuddering groan that fell from his lips, knew when to tease him with slowly languid strokes and a hovering awayness that kept only the tip of him inside her. He wouldn't get rewarded, which was allowing his cock to slam up into her quickly and deeply, until he was growling his own orders.

 _Deeper. Faster. Fuck Rowan._

When his climax hit his mouth clamped down on her neck to hide his own cry of pleasure she suddenly found herself in a tight bear hug as he clasped her to his quaking body. Rowan held him back, she too was breathless, having climaxed more than once during this experience she wasn't even mad that they didn't cum together.

For a long while he just clung to her, his body heaving as if this had taken everything out of him, shaking like he might come apart, so Rowan held him tightly back, pressed kisses to his sweaty temple to try and calm him, to keep him together. Until suddenly she was shaking too, for a completely different reason.

Because for the first time Rowan had heard him clearly. That breathless panting _I love you_ that came from him as his head stayed bowed to her shoulder. She knew he wasn't ready, that's why he'd whisper those words sometimes in the moments after while their panting masked them, sometimes in the silent afterwards when he thought she was asleep, and to be fair she had been certain for a long time that she had been dreaming it all.

But it was real.

He loved her. She knew it, and what was more he knew it, he just wasn't ready to say it to her.

Steve pulled his head out of her chest again, tilting his head back to look at her with wonderment in his eyes as Rowan smiled down at him, her fingers tracing his jawline.

"Would you like me to put the set back on so you can do it all again in our bed."

For a moment Steve just laughed which was followed by: _Fuck yes._

Of course he did. He was as addicted to her as she was to him. Enough was never enough when it came to them.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

It had taken a lot to get them to this point.

He had no idea when he and Jian started looking at apartments that it would take this long to find one that they liked. Mainly because Wo Fat was fine with anything but Jian was insanely picky. She wanted windows in a certain place, the bedrooms and washrooms to be behind walls but everything else to be open concept. Then, of course, it couldn't be too far from her clinic. It didn't help that Wo Fat couldn't go to these places in person. He got to see pictures and videos of them instead that Jian so carefully took for him, so it was almost like he was walking through the place himself.

When they did finally settle on a place, it was wildly out of budget. He could have easily extorted the family selling it, but he didn't want that staining the place he was going to share with Jian, so he asked Rowan for a loan. And his sister had been more than happy to comply.

He had transferred the money into Jian's account, she made a bid on the place, and the sale finalized within the hour.

Wo Fat had thought that meant that they would move in as soon as possible but that was not what happened. He had handed over all of his things to Jian and then she went about decorating the place to their tastes, all while telling him that he had to stay out until she was done.

Wo Fat would have thought she was in the process of stealing all his possessions and money, but he knew his girl better than that… or he thought he did, and instead trusted her to do what she wanted to do. This left him open to do a little bit of a business, and went about terrorising the downtown Osaka gangs and setting up partnerships and deals that iced out the current rulers of the street and put him on top again.

When things were ready he got a text from Jian and for the first time since buying the place a month ago he was officially allowed to return to a place he could call home.

The first thing he thought was how bright it was. The open concept kitchen, dining and living room area had always had high ceilings, and from the beams above she hung a tasteful chandelier which illuminated the entire area quite nicely. Everything was either white or silver so god forbid he ever came home bleeding. She had accent pillows in vibrant reds and dark blacks and sleek looking decorations on most surfaces.

She had dinner ready for him.

She looked every bit the house wife, in her little polka dot apron and her little seventies looking navy blue dress. He shut the door behind him quietly, dropped the expensive bottle of wine he had picked up to the counter and crossed to her.

Before she could push him away he had her up in his arms, her feet off the floor, pressing kisses to her bared collarbones while she squealed for him to put her down. When he did they both had big grins on their faces, though hers was paired with an embarrassed blush while his was wide and toothy.

She smoothed out her outfit and then cleared her throat.

"How was work?"

"Work was fine," he answered returning to their brand-new kitchen to open the bottle of wine he had left behind. He would have to take pictures to show Rowan where her money had gone. "How was work for you?"

"Took today off to put the final touches on the place," she replied coming to stand beside him. As he poured himself a glass and then one for her, she draped against the side of him. "Do you like it?"

"I love it," he answered honestly because it was true. It was just like he'd picture it to be. "It's very much to my taste… is there anything in here that suits… yours?"

"Well… the chandelier does," she said. "I want you to remember that this is all your taste… it's very important for when you see the master bedroom."

Wo Fat tried to hide his amused smirk. That meant that the master bedroom was done up to her taste. Which would mean pastel colors, stuffed animals, and lots and lots of pillows. Wo Fat didn't even care. So long as he got to strip Jian out of her clothes, worship her body and then spend the night holding her close he wouldn't ever complain how it looked.

"You've been busy," he whispered. Jian fingers brushed his hair behind his ears, his hair was getting long again he'd have to cut it. But she wasn't playing with his hair because she liked it.

"You're bleeding!"

Damn he had thought he had plugged it up. He sighed as she peeled the wine glass out of his hand and dragged them to their new washroom which has the largest tub imaginable for best bubble bath experiences. It too was half her taste and half his. She had picked a pastel pink so light it could have been white, with silver accents. Though the tub was already covered with all her girly products.

She sat him down on the edge of the bath tub and opened up the medicine cabinet. When she came back she had alcohol swabs and a plaster to press to his hairline.

"How did that happen?"

"Got hit with a crowbar last week," he answered. "Bruise is gone, but I keep picking at the scab, I must have scratched it in the car."

"Someone hit you with a crowbar?" she asked him sounding horrified. To be fair, he had been in the process of breaking into someone's home with the intent to beat the shit out of them, so he sort of deserved it. Too bad the crowbar didn't do the job, cause after that, Wo Fat had decided to kill them. A different message he had wanted to send to the leader of that gang, but an effective one none-the-less.

But Wo Fat didn't want to tell her that so he just shrugged. He winced and hissed when the alcohol hit his wound and to distract himself he wrapped his arms around Jian's waist to pull her close.

"Don't distract me while I'm administering first aid, Wo," she chided but he was far from listening to her. His fingers were tracing patterns up her thighs and towards the curve of her butt cheeks. When she put the plaster onto his head he gripped both cheeks in his hands and squeezed causing her to yelp and press into him.

"Would you be terrible mad at me if I were to blow off dinner for… something a little more… appetising for the both of us?" he asked his voice low and husky.

He knew she wouldn't be mad but it never hurt to ask. When she answered him by sliding her lips onto his he smiled into the gesture. As much as he loved her cooking, he loved sex with her more.

Maybe Rowan was right. Maybe, with enough practice he could live a normal domestic life. And he was certain he had found the right girl to do that with.


	197. Chapter 197

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Guys I've been working so hard on this story, I'm officially at 216 chapters. How ridiculous is that? I've been working extra hard this month on completing chapters as I'm competing in National Novel Writing Month and I want to focus on that. Obviously I'll still post, which is why I wanted all the chapters set for November ready to post, but I also wanted some extra so I'd be good to post for December and not run out, you know? If you're interested in being my NaNoWriMo buddy hit me up and I'll send you a request or something. As always, don't forget to leave me a review and I'll see you guys on Monday!_

 _*Edit: There was some formatting issues, I thought i fixed it, but i guess I didn't. It should be fixed now. Thank you Quinn and DeliriousPrincess for pointing that out for me. Hopefully you guys can read it now._

Chapter 197

* * *

Rowan had told him someone was going to knock on the door, he didn't know why he was surprised when they did. Maybe because he just, for once, wanted her to be wrong. And maybe a little bit because he didn't want to deal with anything else. He just wanted to go to bed, cuddle his girlfriend, and sleep. So he was not happy when someone started to knock on his door late that night after Nahele had gone to bed and he had just gotten into the perfect cuddling position with Rowan.

Steve had gone down the stairs on his own, Rowan had asked him, before she fell asleep, for Steve to wake her up when Chin came to the door, but he hadn't because he wanted her to be wrong. He was mentally praying it wasn't Chin, but luck was not on his side. Sighing Steve let Chin come into his house offered him a beer, and then got straight down to business, asking why Chin why he was at his house this late. And he didn't enjoy listening to what stupidity Chin had willingly got up to that night either.

Meeting with Gabriel's people without any fucking back up. The nut job.

After the story was finished Steve just looked down to the pictures and evidence that Chin had collected and sighed. "Why didn't you loop me in, I would have gone with you?"

"They said no chaperones… and they specifically said no Rowan. You would have constituted as both."

"Yeah, they said no Rowan cause Rowan's hella involved and they're afraid of Rowan getting dragged in any further. The joke's on them though cause I had Sandy tracking you on the app and people on alert so that if something had happened. Let's just say they would have _not_ liked what my response would have been if something had happened to you," she said coming down the stairs. She was wearing Steve's favourite grey sweater, he liked it on her much more. Her hair was up and she was rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. "Thank you for waking me like I asked you too."

"I didn't know it was him," Steve growled.

"I told you the midnight knock tonight would be him, why don't you listen to me McGarrett?" she snapped as she headed for the fridge. God he hated it when she last-named him. "You boys need another beer?"

"Sure," Chin called over his shoulder just as Steve called: "Thanks babe." He then looked down at the pictures Chin had brought with him, all of Adam and with a man Rowan called Shioma. "Was the intel worth it?"

"It was," Chin said with a nod. "The man with Adam in these photos is Goro Shioma."

"Told you," Rowan said from the kitchen where she was opening their beers. Both men ignored her.

"He works in Tokyo finance, or at least that's his day job. According to sources in the Japanese underworld, he's also the Oyabun of a major Yakuza syndicate and looking to take over more space. They say he's gunning for Riku."

"He's got a legitimate job, its possible Adam didn't know about the Yakuza connection."

"Oh he knows," Rowan said handing them their beers. "This is about the money."

Steve turned to Chin who was staring at Rowan, blinking his eyes. "What money Rowan?"

"Okay, so you heard nothing about money?" Steve asked.

Chin sighed. Since rescuing Kono they had all looked to Rowan as if she were a god. Her visions were bible now. But Steve knew how often the flickerings of the future changed, how there were a million different versions of outcomes and his girlfriend was just picking strings to get the best options. It wasn't uncommon for her to pull the wrong string.

"Well, I know he knows Goro is Yakuza. There are rumours going around that Goro and Adam's father were really tight, and that after Wo Fat killed Hiro, Goro put a price out on his head."

"That is true, he did," Rowan said. "He and Wo Fat are still not on good terms. In fact I don't think he's on good terms with anyone in the Yakuza. Riku's on thin ice, for sure."

Steve frowned at her. That was it, that proved she was still talking to Wo Fat, despite promising him that she wouldn't. "How do you know that?" Steve snapped.

"The app updates me on which connections are safe. Anything Yakuza has been grey for a while," Rowan said absently. "So you don't know if this is Adam attempting to buy his company free of the Yakuza?"

She asked Chin that question, and Steve found himself staring at Chin who just seemed confused. When Chin didn't answer Rowan looked down at the pictures before her with a sigh.

"If this is really about the money he owes the Yakuza then it's farther along then it's supposed to be," Rowan said. Chin's face answered her question. "I need to call him. I need to get people on the island."

"Whoa… whoa…" Steve said, coming to stand in front of her. "People on the island?"

"This is war Steven," Rowan said as if that all made perfect sense. "Gabriel knew what would happen if he stayed. If he touched my family again… this is a flagrant slap of disrespect right across our…"

"But I don't know if Gabriel is even involved in this," Chin argued but was swept aside by Steve who had a more important question.

"Are you still talking to Wo Fat?"

He had been avoiding that question for weeks. She was getting a weekly call, one that she was very secretive about. She had been lying to him about who it was, but it always came from a private number and he couldn't prove it was Wo Fat or that she was lying. But after those calls she always sounded and acted a lot like Wo Fat. And right now, in that moment, she had never sounded more like him.

Rowan chose not to answer him. Instead she just stared up at him with those beautiful blue eyes of her filled with nothing but surprise. "Because you promised me you weren't. Remember? You said you wouldn't forgive him for what he did to me, that you wouldn't stay in contact. You promised me Rowan…"

Rowan faltered. "Well I haven't really… but we need his help… I can't do this alone and things are going to get messy…"

"And we will deal with it. You, me, the rest of Five-0, but not Wo Fat. Do you understand? Promise me Rowan, promise me you won't get him involved."

"He's already involved… he's been dealing with Gabriel up until now…"

"Fine. Promise me you won't get him even further involved."

Rowan blinked her eyes and just stared at him for a bit before she finally sighed and said: "Alright. I promise."

Steve visibly relaxed but Chin, Chin was not relaxed at all. "My cousin marries Adam in three days, what do I do?"

Steve and Rowan exchanged glances. "Well, I say, until we know what these meetings are really about… you do nothing."

"Exactly, you guys are _not_ allowed to ruin Kono's wedding with this… or bombs."

It wasn't the first time she had said told them that bombs and service weapons were not allowed at Kono's wedding and Steve was starting to worry that there might actually be a bomb at the wedding. God he hoped Rowan was wrong.

"Alright, y'all talk it out. I'm tired and heading to bed. You'll be up soon?" she asked Steve leaning in to kiss him. Steve hungrily lapped up all the kisses she had to offer without making Chin too uncomfortable and told her that he'd be right up.

He noted that as she walked up the stairs her phone was in her hand, the back light lit up in the darkness. He was trying so hard to trust her but he couldn't help but feel like she was lying to him. It'd be catastrophic if she lied to him… he'd probably never trust her again.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

They barely slept after Chin left. Steve had tried to sleep beside Rowan, but he had a hard time lying there pretending that he wasn't unnerved by the last night's conversation. As a result he had tossed and turned and in turn had kept Rowan up too. In the morning Steve was pulled in for a case, which left Rowan on kid-duty for the morning and he had pulled Danny in for it as well hoping to get some sort of advice from Danny about the situation he found himself in but Danny had his own drama and that had taken over the conversation that morning.

"Wait a sec, wait a sec," Steve said as they got out of the car and walked towards their crime scene. Rachel had been blowing up Danny's phone with all sorts of cryptic messages and Danny couldn't tell him why but it was making him nervous. "Did you do something wrong? What did you do wrong?"

"I don't know. I've been thinking about it, I'm wracking my brain, I can't figure it out. But Rachel is definitely upset about something."

"Why, are you thinking it's Amber-related?'

"Melissa," Danny correct. Steve half smiled, must have been weird having to correct it the other way now.

"Oh that's official now?"

"Well, yes, it is her name, so I think it's official and that's not what it is, I don't think so anyway," he said as the two of them walked forward. "You know. And I had to lie to her this morning."

"Rachel?" "No, Melissa." "Whoa, wait, I'm confused again."

"About the text messages, I'm getting all these text messages. She asked me what's gong on, I had to lie. Said it was about work."

"Why? Why would you do that?"

"Because its drama with my ex-wife. I don't want to get her spooked thinking that there's a problem with a crazy ex-wife then she feels like she's gotta take off."

"Hold on, hold on, I distinctly remember Melissa having drama with her ex and you being understanding about the whole thing," Steve reminded him.

Danny mulled that over before smiling proudly and puffing out his chest a bit. "That's true. I was very cool about that. Wasn't I?"

"Are you kidding me? Very cool? The guy hit you over the head, was threatening to kill you. Hell if he hadn't stabbed my girl he would have stabbed you. And you know… Rowan could have died. So yeah, you were cool… I probably less so, but I tried man…"

"I mean… you didn't yell at Melissa, or me, or Rowan over it so yeah… I'd call that being pretty cool about the situation," Danny said.

"Fuck I never did yell at Rowan over that did I?" Steve asked. "Damn I knew I was forgetting something. Did I tell you she told me that, she saw that guy had Amber, sorry Melissa. She saw that the guy had Melissa and her thought process went to, grab a bunch of rocks, scale the trellis throw them over the roof to make a distraction and hope that was enough to get her in the house and get armed with a weapon before taking on the maniac with a knife. I mean… she had service on her phone why didn't she call 911?"

"Yes, you did tell me Steven, we all heard the same story when she had to give her statement. And I must say you did very well in that room with the not just jumping on that bed and strangling her then and there, though we were afraid that vein in your neck would bulge out so far it would burst."

"I was just so grateful she was alive at that point and she was so fragile after… I kept putting off the yelling until after her stitches came out but then… you know… other things happened… and then Colombia…"

Danny nodded and once again they fell silent. They needed off of this topic. He briefly contemplated bringing up his issue but his mind had remembered what his girlfriend looked like dwarfed in that hospital bed after taking on a maniac to save Danny and Melissa, and now his worries seemed silly. Rowan was so loyal to him and his friends she was constantly putting herself into harm's way to help them, he was lucky to have a girl like her and he should have been grateful not nitpicking.

"Okay, you know what you do? Here's what you do. Call Rachel, I'm sure it's nothing. You call Melissa, you just be straight with her. I'm telling you."

Danny shook his head. "You should have been a therapist. You're great."

Steve shook his head deciding to ignore that jab at him and instead turned his attention onto the crime scene in front of them. He needed to stop trying to give Danny advice, Danny was never appreciative.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Their investigation took them to a small apartment. The guy they were looking for was supposed to be living here, but they had a feeling he'd be gone, seeing as he had just killed a bounty hunter looking for him. They had broken down the door and gone in guns blazing but there was no one there and the place looked like it had been sacked.

"So much as twitch, I empty your heads on the carpet," a voice said and the two of them froze, mainly cause that order came with the cocking of a shotgun. Fuck.

"Fuck we should have answered the phone," Danny snarled beside him and Steve sighed. Rowan had tried calling both of them twice but they were busy with the case and suiting up to come in here. He should have picked up, he should have let Danny pick up. God she was going to kill him.

"You're not him," Steve whispered ignoring Danny's jab. The _him_ he was referring to was Pelham, the fugitive cop who was also a fugitive serial killer… and now a cop shooter and a bounty hunter killer. Guy was really moving up, and quite serious about not being found or being sentenced for his crimes.

"Nope," the guy behind them said. Steve had gotten a glimpse of him. He was a beefy guy, big hands, big beard. Scruffy. Another bounty hunter no doubt. His shotgun looked big, and not sawed off. "But if he ever shows, I own his ass. I was here first."

"Another bounty hunter. Hello," Danny said. Well at least Steve's hunch was right, too bad he couldn't brag about it.

"Alright, buddy, just take it easy. We're cops, alright?" Steve told him but the man just laughed.

"Okay. And I'm the Dalai Lama. Now drop the hardware. And do it slow."

"Well, you see, those two actions, they don't really go together," Danny said, ever the smart ass.

"He's right. You can't… it's impossible to drop something slowly," Steve added, but that was cause he was trying to get a good visual on this guy, see whether or not he had an opportunity to turn the tables.

"Okay, how's this? Gently put your guns on the…" And then he paused. Why did he pause? There came a soft shuffle and a sort of electric current ran up his spine. Son of a bitch it couldn't be. "Who the hell…"

 _Bang._

Steve and Danny turned as the guy sputtered and dropped to the ground. Rowan looked up to the two of them and puffed out an angry gust of air that blew the hair in her face up and away. She pointed the bent out of shape frying pan in her hand at them. "Y'all really need to start answering your phones."

"I was busy, Ro, I was busy," Steve snapped moving forward to zip-tie the guy.

Danny shook his head. "What is it with you and frying pans, huh?"

"What? They make for good weapons."

"Most people use them for pancakes," Danny offered and Rowan stuck her tongue out at him.

"And usually I do… just sometimes the occasion calls for being a little bit more creative."

Steve, having got the guy's ID out of his pocket and established his name was Richie, he _was_ a bounty hunter and from New York, finally took a good long look at Rowan. It obviously wasn't a recording day because she was still in his favourite grey sweater and a pair of plain light blue jean shorts. What was worse was he recognized the bent-out-of-shape pan in her hand. "Aw is that _my_ frying pan?" Steve cried.

"Well it wasn't like I was gonna find one here!" Rowan cried, and Steve groaned again. "For god sake I will buy a new one, okay? A better one that actually is non stick."

"That one was non stick."

"No it wasn't, not even if you sprayed it with non stick spray!" Rowan cried. "Everything got stuck to the bottom of this thing! Even butter!"

"Maybe I like it that way, huh?!"

Rowan was probably going to say something about how it was ridiculous to want a pan that things stuck to but their argument was interrupted by Danny's phone going off and the man swearing like he had just gotten really bad news.

"It's Rachel. _At the park now, it's really important_ ," Danny read out and then looked up to Rowan pointing the phone at her. "You getting anything about this."

Rowan blinked her eyes like she had been put on the spot, which apparently, she had. Which was new because usually she was just filled with psychic advice. She thought really hard and then frowned. "No… I mean… I had something… but I can't… I can't remember it now…"

"Fine, its fine, don't hurt yourself over it. I'm gonna go… I'mma go figure it out," he said turning towards the door, he paused and turned to Steve. "Can you interrogate him without me or do you need me to stay?"

"Naw I'm good," Steve said absently as Rowan had come to his side by then, her hand going to his shoulder so she could pull herself up to him to kiss him on the cheek. As soon as her lips hit his skin he turned to kiss her properly.

"I gotta to go too," she whispered. "Nahele wanted to know if we could get dinner, what do you think?"

"If I'm done with this, then sure," he said softly. "I'll call you, I promise."

"Okay, well… have fun," she said to him, she kissed him one more time before leaving and he felt a little bit lighter after seeing her again, as if everything from the night before had been forgotten or, at least, no longer weighed so heavily on him anymore.

But that annoyance came right back as Steve really didn't enjoy the interrogation, choosing to end it when Richie asked: "Hey quick question… was I taken out by a really cute red-head with a frying pan? And what are the chances of me getting that piece of ass's number?"


	198. Chapter 198

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Monday (or Tuesday cause I never post on time anymore) my wonderful readers. We are 2 chapters away from a really cute chapter that I believe you will love, but we're also 5 chapters away from the season 6 drama! Are you guys getting excited? I know I am! Not gonna lie, my goal for this week is to not have formatting issues when I post my story! Sidenote Adelaide! You won a prize, answer my message please! Tell me what you'd like! Don't forget to leave me a review and I'll see you guys on Wednesday._

Chapter 198

* * *

Danny would have been lying if he said he wasn't afraid to meet his ex-wife at the park. He kept trying to think of what he could have done to upset her. He was really afraid that she was going to try and take Grace away again and he was ready for a fight, but he was also trying very hard not to fly straight to the worst case scenario. Rowan hadn't been having any visions about this meet up so it couldn't be all that life altering… right?

"Hey!" he said as he came to sit beside her on the park bench.

Already Rachel was smiling. That was a good sign, right? "Hi! Thanks for coming!"

Together they turned, Danny couldn't help it, watching other kids play always made him smile. It was nice to see Charlie out playing on the monkey bars with a grin on his face. "Oh, I remember this. I used to have a panic attack every time Grace got to the top of the monkey bars." The two shared a smile until Danny couldn't take it anymore. "So what's up?"

"It's Charlie… he's sick, Danny," she said.

Okay. Why was that his problem? Obviously he cared but…

"What do you mean sick?

"He has something called HLH. It's a disease that affects his immune system. It's rare."

"How serious is it?"

"It could kill him," she whispered and Danny nodded understanding that fear. "We caught it early… thanks to Rowan…"

Oh Rowan and her dreams. She really cared a lot about this kid.

"…The good news is there's treatment. His best option is a bone marrow transplant. But the problem is finding a match and usually sibling are the best ones."

"So what? You want my permission for Grace to get tested, or what?" he asked.

"We've tested Grace, she's not a match," she said. Well that shot the permission factor out of the water. Then what did she need Danny for? "But every parent is called a half-match. It's not their first choice, but doctors can use that bone marrow. The point is, one parent is usually a better half-match than the other."

Danny still didn't get it. "Why are you telling me this?" Rachel gave him a look and the understanding dawned on him. He looked out to Charlie. No, she couldn't have done that to him. "My kid?"

She gave him another look and his heart fractured in his chest. No. no. "How long have you know this, Rachel?" God she had lost the ability to talk, so it was great that Danny could read her faces. "You've known the whole time?"

"Danny I…" "—Why would you keep something like this from me?"

"Because… your life and the chances that you take…"

"The chances that I take?"

"If anything ever happened to you, I didn't want two kids growing up without a father."

Oh my god. All because he was a cop. He missed out on three years of his son's life because she didn't like that he was a cop? "You had no right to do that. You understand that? You had no right keep that from me, that I got a son."

"I know that you hate me right now, and I don't blame you for hating me. But I am telling you now. We have a son and there is something wrong with him. Something that could kill him. So he needs our help."

Danny immediately stopped, he was still angry but she was right. His son was sick and they needed to get on top of this now. They could argue later. "Okay. Okay so what happens now?"

"You need to take a blood test. It won't take long. A few minutes, twenty four hours to get the results and then the doctor scan decide how to proceed from there" she said.

"And then you'll set everything up then?"

"Yes," she replied and then laughed. "I do believe… if she's right and you say she's always right, that you'll be the stronger match."

Rowan knew. Goddamn it Rowan knew. She had said that they caught the illness early thanks to Rowan but that had been eclipsed by Rachel's confession. Now it had his attention, because if Rowan knew about Charlie, how had she _not_ told Danny before this?

He'd circle back to that later "How about Stan? What does he know?"

"He knows now."

Oh well that was just great wasn't? She wasn't just blowing a hole into his life, but poor Stan's as well. Though he was slightly comforted by the fact that Stan hadn't been aware the whole time, at least he was sort of in the same boat as Danny.

Danny didn't know what to say he could only sit there and try to digest everything that had just happened. He didn't know what to say or what to do just that this was terrible and he wanted to yell at Rachel. Except Charlie had come running up to them and Danny found he could just stare at the little boy, finally noticing all the similarities between them. The same hair, the same eyes, the same nose. This was his son and he had had no idea. Some detective he was.

"Mommy I'm hungry," Charlie said in that cute, three year old way, that three year olds had.

"Well, okay, sweetheart, we'll get you something to eat. Oh, Charlie. Do you remember…?"

"Do you remember me, buddy?" Danny asked.

"Grace's dad," he answered.

"Yeah, I'm Grace's dad."

"Danno."

"Oh, he doesn't like being called…" "—No, no," Danny said quickly before Rachel could ruin anything else. "You can call me Danno whenever you want. It's okay. What? Did your sister teach you that?"

"Uh-huh"

"Yeah that's good." He said offering out a high five. "Good to see you again."

He watched as Charlie ran off to go back to playing and then turned to Rachel, determined to get some sort of closure on at least one of the bombshells Rachel had dropped on him

"And… when did Rowan come into this? Huh? What she just show up at the door one day…"

"No she dropped off Grace, caught sight of Charlie and sort of made a funny face. Then she just sort of said it, almost absently, I almost missed it. All she said was: _He's Danny's_. She told me he was going to get sick that I would need to tell you. And I just… she really never told you I honestly figured she would… or that you knew and you were mad at me or something. I mean… she was so upset about those kidnapping dreams…"

Oh My God. He was going to kill her.

"Okay… so this was before the kidnapping dreams… when exactly did Rowan tell you that she knew? Huh? When?"

"The weekend you went to Maui and she babysat Grace."

Danny blinked his eyes. Maui. She knew about Charlie being his kid when he took Melissa to Maui? That was only a few days after the parking garage collapse. That was… that was almost a whole fucking year ago!

"She really didn't tell you?" Rachel asked and Danny sat back. No she hadn't but she was definitely going to pay for keeping something like that from him.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve, though he didn't want to, left the crook chasing to Kono and Chin and actually took a break off of the case to have dinner with his family. He had called Rowan up, his intention was to ask her to come to the palace with Nahele so he could be near-by when they got a break in the case. Problem was, Nahele answered the phone and he really, really wanted shrimp from Kamekona's so Steve had caved, leaving a note for Chin and Kono to text him if they caught a break in the case.

As soon as he got to the beach, to those picnic benches where Rowan and Nahele were waiting for him, he was happy he took the time off. Both of them looked so happy to see him that he couldn't help but smile as well. Damn he should take more time off cases.

He had hugged both Rowan and then Nahele before taking their orders up to Kamekona. He had stood back and waited for the food, just smiling at the two people he now called his immediately family. They were both talking animatedly and smiling and generally looking cute and Steve was happy to finally be a part of that.

"What did you do today?" Steve asked as he sat down beside Rowan. He put her Rowan special in front of her and Nahele's platter in front of him.

"I had a math test that I think could have gone either way. I either knew everything and aced it or I fucked up hard and failed it cause the test was easy. Like suspiciously easy," Nahele said. "And Rosie Callaghan asked me out again."

"Oh Rosie Callaghan… is that the…" Steve asked but Rowan shook her head.

"No, no, he likes her friend, Noe Kaialani," Rowan said. "Which I already told you is not going to happen. Girls have a code and all that, don't date the guy that your bestie likes. And if Noe agrees to date you even though Rosie has a thing for you she's not a good friend and will probably be a shitty girlfriend."

Steven shook his head while Nahele visibly deflated. "No harm in trying. The worst she says is no," Steve said. "And even if she says yes, and it messes with her relationship with Rosie, it just means she thinks you're worth it."

Nahele smiled, happily at that and tucked into his food. Steve ignored Rowan's unimpressed glare and smile his roguish grin at her hoping to mollify her annoyance. "And what did you do today?" he asked his girlfriend.

"Mmmm, more wedding prep and practice," Rowan said. "Kono hired this wedding planner cause she thought I was getting too stressed with everything. Me and her nearly came to blows."

"Wow… can you take her?"

"Oh hell yeah. Would have totally won."

Steve smiled and nudged her shoulder and she nudged him back. She smiled at her two boys before moving to get up. Now that Steve was back she didn't feel too bad about slipping off to get herself a snow cone.

"I'm getting myself a shaved ice, you two want one?"

"Naw, dad… Steve… sorry… he got me a pop," Nahele said trying very hard not to blush as he showed her the bottle beside him. Steve turned his large grin up to Rowan, not because he wanted something but because he accidentally got called _dad_ again. She ruffled his hair and he kept a grip on her shirt until she had to tug it out of his grasp to go.

She gave Flipper her order and then waited for her shaved ice to be handed to her. And it was while she was waiting that it happened.

"ROWAN!" was shouted at her from a distance and she straightened immediately.

Rowan turned to where Danny was storming towards her. Despite the obvious anger on his face Rowan smiled at him. "Oh hey Danny!"

"Don't you _hey Danny_ me! You knew!"

Rowan paused and blinked her eyes. She didn't know what he was talking about. "I did? What did I know?"

"About Charlie."

In a flash it all came back to her and the smile dropped off of her face. "Oh… Charlie… she told you about… oh is he sick then? You better get yourself tested you're the ma…." "I'M GONNA KILL YOU!"

Rowan yelped throwing herself back to avoid his lunge. Had he just tried to strangled her. Danny righted himself and lunged for her again which cause Rowan to stumble away as he struggled to get a hold of her and she struggled to shake his grip on her.

In her panic she couldn't keep her strangled, fearful cry to herself. "STEVEN!"

She raced back towards him, already her man was on his feet, hand by holster ready to draw just in case but he faltered when he saw Danny chasing after her.

"Don't let him kill me, don't let him kill me!" she cried, Steve swept her aside and then stopped Danny from reaching her by simply putting his hands out and shoving him back and away.

"What the hell, Danny?! What have I said, what do I always say? Don't fucking touch my girl, what the hell is the matter with you?"! Steve cried, having to shove the man back two more times as he kept trying to get past Steve to get to Rowan.

"She knew Charlie was my kid! She knew! Rachel told me, she's known for months! She knew since the parking garage collapse. She knew and she didn't tell me!"

Steve turned to Rowan, his eyebrows raised in surprise. Rowan's eyes were wide, that meant it was true, but he couldn't understand why this was something she never told him… or Danny, but mostly him. Fuck he had never liked Rachel and now he liked her even less. "Okay… that's true. I did know. Kind of, but it wasn't my secret to tell. And honestly… I did tell her that she had a month to tell you and then I think I kind of forgot."

Danny roared once more and lunged for her again and Steve threw him back. "Danny, stop it! You know how the visions work. You know!"

That time when Steve threw him back, Danny didn't try to lunge again. But still Steve stayed on alert in case Danny tried again. Set into a low position ready to slam him down to the ground if Danny tried again. Steve shot a glance back to Rowan who was still behind him, her hands on his sides, gripping his shirt. A position that usually filled him with such potent lust, now he was just annoyed. Couldn't her visions, just for once, not fuck with things? Was that too much to ask?

She glanced up to him, caught his unimpressed glare and then lowered her eyes once more, pressing her forehead to his back. "Don't look at me like that, we weren't all that good back then, we had just started dating, I had just moved in. I didn't want to rock the boat," she mumbled.

Steve shook his head. God fucking damn it. Okay she had a point, and he did know that she forgot her visions once she stopped having them. "Alright, look, I'm gonna, we're gonna go somewhere and talk it out, okay? You good to get home?"

Rowan nodded. Steve shoved Danny away trying to usher him back to the Camaro and then pulled her close. He kissed her cheek carefully before resting his forehead against hers. "You okay?"

"I mean… I actually thought he was gonna kill me," she whispered. She sounded hurt or betrayed as if she really had any right to be so. She should have told Danny right away about Charlie and they wouldn't have been in that situation right now but he also didn't want to rub it in, so instead he kissed her softly, rested his fingers against her cheek momentarily just to make sure that she wasn't shaking and she was okay.

"He's just upset, I'll get him to apologize… once he calms down. Text me when you get home, so I know, okay?"

Rowan nodded again. He kissed Rowan's lips one more time before leaving her side to go hug Nahele good-bye. He asked if he was okay, got a strong _yes_ from him before letting go. He jogged after Danny who had stormed back to his car hoping to get all of this settled sooner rather than later. Because he was not very happy that his cute little family dinner got interrupted over this bullshit.


	199. Chapter 199

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: One more Chapter until our special edition! Gah I can't wait for you guys to see the cute stuff I have in store. Hopefully it makes up for the bullshit that will be season 6. As for this chapter we have more cute things, we get to see more Rowan shenanigans and a little bit on Steve's emotion. As always please leave me a review, I love to hear what you guys are thinking and I'll see you on Friday!_

Chapter 199

* * *

Steve had let Danny drive, even though Danny was super emotional and shouldn't have been driving. He let him do it because Danny was clearly very upset and he thought this might have calmed him down a bit or at the very least he might have thrown a fit if Steve had insisted on driving.

Danny had taken him to his favourite thinking spot, a look out off a highway shoulder. The two sat together on that stone wall. Danny told Steve everything Rachel had said and what she had done and he understood why he was angry. He even understood why he was mad at Rowan too.

"Do you know how many times that I've dropped Grace off? You know how many times I picked her up and that kid's been sitting in the room? Rachel too, sitting there?" Danny asked. Steve could only imagine. He didn't understand, he hadn't experienced something like this, his own flesh and blood, withheld from him. But the fact that his best friend was sitting there with him listening to him rant it out was a godsend, cause Danny was fucking spiralling.

"Danny, no matter how misguided this was…"

"Please, don't," Danny snapped interrupting him causing his friend to sigh. "Do not say anything that sticks up for this woman. Okay? What she did is unforgiveable, and that is the bottom line. And because of what she did, I missed out on three years of this kid's life. Huh? And what about your girlfriend?"

"My girlfriend? What about her?" Steve asked.

"She knew! Steven. She knew that kid was mine, 24 hours after we got pulled out of that parking lot she knew and she didn't tell me. Who does that Steven? Who finds out someone's got a hidden kid and says nothing?"

"Well for starters you were in Maui with Melissa when Rowan found out and you know… me and her… we had just reached stable ground in our relationship and you of all people know how precarious those first few months were with her…."

"You know what really bugs me? I should have figured it out, you know? The second she started doing all that dreaming about Charlie getting kidnapped. You know, I asked myself: why did she care? I mean, don't get me wrong, knowing the kid, it would have meant something, but the way she acted like it was going to be the end of me. I should have realized that it was cause she knew he was my kid and I'd care. Otherwise why would it matter? I would have been upset but it wouldn't have crushed me, not the way her dreams were saying it would."

"Her dreams aren't… you know… they're not solid proof though. And you know, both you and I know that they haven't been all that accurate recently and she's been forgetting things… She didn't do it on purpose Danny… she's highly offended that you went after her today."

Danny took that in and sighed, yeah, he pulled a classic Danny and over-reacted. Took his anger out on Rowan. He was gonna have to apologize.

Steve was silent a moment. "So, what happens now?"

"Now… now I take care of the kid," Danny said matter-of-factly. "About Rachel, I don't know what I'm gonna do. No way I can get past this."

"You're right, man," Steve conceded.

"I know I'm right. Thank you."

"Do me a favour and listen to me for a second, okay?" Steve pleaded and Danny turned back to him. "These feelings you're having, this anger, you gotta put it aside. That's all I'm saying. How many decisions are you guys gonna have to make from here on in? And you and Rachel, you gotta make the decisions together. Danny, it's not gonna do Charlie any good having his parents fighting. That's all I'm trying to say."

"I know… I know you're right," Danny said. "So uh… you gonna take your own advice?"

"Own advice, what the hell are you talking about?"

"We're not stupid Steve, we see that you and her are arguing… and distant," Danny said. "Can't be good for Nahele, you know?"

"We haven't been arguing that much," Steve muttered. "Just our usual amount. Its fine we're fine."

But Danny knew that they weren't. They weren't at all.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Their guy got bagged by Richie Malloy, the bounty hunter Rowan had whacked over the head that morning. The guy had appeared out of nowhere, shoved their guy in his car and took off before Steve could stop him. The son of a bitch had taped a burner phone to the Camaro to track them after Steve had so graciously let him go. Well if Malloy could play dirty so could Steve.

So when he got a tip from Dog, he went and picked up his secret weapon. They got to the little airstrip and over to the Transair hangar where they found Malloy just like they were told they would. And they had had to book it because they had one plane leaving soon and they had stopped off to pick something up. Something very important to the next interrogation.

The Camaro screeched to a stop and immediately Steve was out of the car and heading for towards Malloy who very nicely just stood there watching both he and Danny approached him, instead of running away. Steve hit him with a cocky grin as he approached his arms spread in a welcoming motion though he was set to give chase if he had to.

"Malloy, man… you're a piece of work, buddy," Steve said approaching him.

Malloy, with hands up merely smiled at him. "Hey, listen, I can understand if you're a little upset about getting punked back there…"

And then Steve decked him. Hard, knocked the bigger beefier man over.

When he recovered he said: "Uncalled for!"

"Hey you let that monster go!" Danny snapped. "You're lucky he didn't put a bullet in your ass."

"You aided and abetted, alright? And quite frankly you pissed me off. I'd threaten you with jail but I got something worse."

He moved aside to reveal Rowan who was on her phone and not pay attention. "I'm not sure he let Pelham go," she said. "The wire transfer didn't come from an account linked to any of his aliases. Do you know a: Leddy?"

Steve had heard of a Leddy but at that point he couldn't remember where he had. He'd send a text to Kono when he got the time but at that moment he was going to focus on getting Rowan to use her magic on Malloy, cause after the stunt he pulled he deserved. The problem was the second he had revealed Rowan to Malloy the man was grinning ear to ear. The man was way too happy to see Rowan again.

"Oh look it's the cute redhead. No frying pan with you this time? What are you a Lab tech?" Malloy laughed and finally Rowan looked up at him. He turned to Steve with a big grin and pointed at Rowan. "You're threatening me with a lab tech?" he then smiled down at her. "And what are you going to do Tinkerbell? You gonna hit me with a different kitchen utensil?"

"I'm going to ask you nicely to answer our questions," she said sweetly. Malloy chuckled and then turned to McGarrett.

"That's it? That's what you're gonna do? Man are your feelings going to be hurt when I tell you to go fuck yourself."

"No? We're going to do it the hard way, here baby hold my phone," she said handing it to him.

Malloy was still chuckling. "She's your _girlfriend_?!" he cried slapping his knee like he thought it was hilarious.

Steve wasn't really sure how it worked but he figured Rowan would have done something by now. Something app related, anything app related to get this man to talk. Instead Rowan just blinked her eyes and then geared up and slapped Malloy right across the face. The resounding thwack echoed through the little hanger and shocked everyone, but not as much as Rowan's reaction to it.

"OW!" she shrieked as if she had been the one who had just got slapped. "Why would you hit me?!"

 _Professional in possible assault. Assessing._

"What the hell is that?" Malloy cried pointing at the phone Steve was holding. But Steve knew what it was and he was impressed that Rowan had come up with the plan of attack and a little worried about how quickly she came up with that one.

 _Voice recognized. Richard "Richie" Malloy. Bounty Hunter. Works with Codename NA from time to time. Big. Hairy. Dumb. From New York. Easily intimidated. Activating necessary back up._

Malloy turned wide eyes of surprise to Rowan. "You're Rowan Pierce."

"Yes I am!" she said proudly.

"Call it off, call it off!" he shouted to which Rowan sighed softly and called out a: "Stand down Sandy." And got a _Standing down._ From her phone.

Rowan stared at him for all of two seconds before she growled: "Start talking or I'll let her fuck your shit up."

"Look I didn't let him go!" he said quickly. "I delivered him to Malcolm Leddy."

"The first victim's father," Danny explained to Steve, having apparently already texted Kono and Chin about it for the information when Rowan first mentioned the name.

"Where is he taking him?" Steve asked but Richie could only shrug.

"Man, I don't know," he said and Steve sighed because he believed that. Problem was he was going to have to ask Rowan to do another one of her things for him.

He turned to Rowan who had taken her phone back and seemed to be playing with it once more. "Hey babe, what are the chances that you could…" he asked gesturing to Malloy with his head. Rowan looked up from her phone, looked to Steven and then to Richie.

"Oh you need info?"

"If you could get an address that would be great," he said.

Rowan nodded but Richie was shaking his head. "Whoa, wait a second, I can't tell you what you don't know."

Rowan quickly handed Steve back her phone and approached Richie again with a big toothy grin beaming in his direction, a dangerous sparkling smile that actually had the bigger man backing away from her.

"Oh don't worry sweetheart, I know that," she said her hands outstretched for him, but he danced away from her. "Come on now, this will only hurt… a lot…"

And then she lunged at him. She got a hold of his arm, Steve saw sparks of orange electric fly between the two of them, poor Richie jerked, cried out and then fell to the ground. Steve watched the man drop and then watched as Rowan winced before turning to him shaking her head like she was trying to clear it.

"He's got a number on his phone, and I'd call him now, he's probably started torturing. I've got an address too, send someone to Waimanalo right away, he's not planning to walk out of this alive."

Steve glanced down to Richie again who was clearly down for the count. "What did you just do?" he asked pointing to the heap at Rowan's feet.

"I shocked him, come on now, I did that to the NLM girl, this shouldn't surprise you," she said stepping over Richie's body.

"Okay, but why did you do that?"

"Payback," she answered seriously, she was right in front of him now. He could see the ice in her eyes clearly. "He disrespected you. Now he knows not to."

She went to walk away but Steve was still holding her phone, he went to hand it to her when he caught sight of something familiar on the screen. Before Rowan could take it back from him he turned the screen back to him to read it over. He then turned a dangerous glare onto Rowan who had been in the process of asking for her phone back.

"Why… why is the ET phone home function up?" he asked her and then he stood there carefully studying her face.

Rowan tilted her head at him and then looked at her phone screen. "Oh, no that's just the home page. See, it's got a search bar and different menus to choose from. You're just looking at my frequently used protocols. See Alert text is my number one used function. Cause I'm always asking for info."

Steve took that in. "Okay, then why is the function that connects you to Wo Fat number two on that list?"

He was watching her, carefully trying to determine any tells that she was lying but he saw nothing but that mask of iciness.

"Well how many times did you call him when you had my phone Steven?" she shot back. "And besides, you don't want me using my app all that often, so if I don't use any of the other functions, how is it going to go back down after you used the option so many times in a row?"

Steve nodded that made sense. "So, you're not talking to him?"

"Steven…"

"No. Swear to me you're not talking to him."

Rowan sighed and shook her head. When she looked back to him all he saw was the ice in her blue eyes. "I swear. You happy now?"

No. Because he couldn't tell if she was lying or not. Instead he said: "Sure."

"Good cause you have a bad guy to go get, right?"

Right yes he did have one of those. "You good to get home on your own or did you want to come with me?" he asked as he handed her her phone back.

"I kinda just wanna go home," she said. "But yeah, I can find my own way back."

Steve nodded, leant in to kiss her cheek softly and then thanked her for her help. Rowan just smiled absently, and let him walk away. Steve tried not to take that as a sign, her sudden distantness, that she was lying to him. He wanted to trust her, he did, but when it came to Wo Fat, Rowan never told him the truth. And Steve couldn't help but be paranoid about that man.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve was such a hypocrite.

Danny knew this.

But after catching Pelham. After finding that he had almost taken out Malcolm Leddy and had tried to then take out Steve to escape. Steve went all soft on them. He had waited until Malcolm was being taken away in the ambulance to speak to the man.

"I'm gonna take him and I'm gonna put him away so he never gets back out," he said to Jenny's father. He meant Pelham of course, Steve had also talked to Ellie to help get Malcolm a reduced sentence. The man gave him a weak thank you before Steve went on to add: "And I got a girl. She's a really great girl, with a few tricks up her sleeve, and trust me when I say… he's gonna suffer. Okay? Just… trust me."

Danny had scoffed at him. Cause Steve sicing Rowan after someone, when he hated her app and hated how she was when she used it, was such a slimy thing to do. But Steve never saw it that way. So long as the app was doing something for him he didn't care. He probably thought it was poetic justice.

And Danny had his own issues to deal with, so he didn't have time to dissect Steve's.

When the two ambulances went away, one with Pelham and one for Leddy, Steve had returned to Danny's side and then asked what was one his mind. So Danny told him the truth.

"Yeah I was just thinking about what that guy's been through… losing a kid… there's nothing worse you know?" Danny said. Before taking in Nahele Steve would have agreed but not really known… but now… he knew… and Danny knew if someone had done that to Nahele… _his Nahele_ … well Steve would have had no problem using Rowan's app to make that guy suffer. In fact, the guy wouldn't have ever gone on the run, he would have turned himself in to get away from Rowan and her app.

But this meant that Danny knew what he was going to do that night. He knew where he was going to go next and he didn't have to tell Steve either, because Steve knew too.

And so did Rowan.

He didn't know why he was surprised when he showed up at the hospital to find Rowan waiting for him by the door. She looked nervous, like he might attack her again or be mad that she was there. But he wasn't. He was glad that she had come, glad that she had probably seen the future and decided to show up.

As he approached her Rowan put her hands out as if to ward him off and his heart hurt a little bit to see that she was now afraid of him. He'd have to spend a lot of time making it up to her, getting her to trust him.

"Okay, so don't freak out," she said quickly. "I just wanted to be here for moral support."

Danny's eyebrows raised up in surprise, because he sure as hell didn't deserve Rowan's presence for moral support. Not after his display that afternoon.

"Look, I don't have to… you know… go in, I can stay outside if you'd like me too. I just thought… you might like to have someone here… and if you need someone to get sassy with Rachel… just uh… you call me up… I'll be your girl."

Danny immediately pulled Rowan in for a hug. The girl stiffened at first, no doubt expecting some sort of attack. After a moment, once she realized that he wasn't going to hurt her or strangle her, she loosened up and pressed into the hug.

"Thank you for being here," he said to her. "I don't deserve your kindness. I… I was a shmuck."

"No… you were right, I should have told you as soon as I found out… but you were in Maui…"

"No seriously, thanks for not ruining Maui for me," he said. "And I get it, I do. A lot was going on at that time and we all know you've been forgetting things. I know… if you had remembered you would have told me."

Rowan smiled softly at him and he let her pull away but he kept an arm slung over her shoulder. "And while we're at it, of course you can come in. You're gonna be Auntie Ro to Charlie now too, he might as well get used to you."

"I'd love that," Rowan said softly to him as they walked through the doors.

"And if you happen to sass Rachel or make our displeasure for her known with one of those Ice Queen glares, I wouldn't be mad at you," he added and that won him one of Rowan's laughs.

They'd be okay. This wasn't the end of the world. If he just stayed positive, if he kept focusing on the good things, like having good friends like Rowan and Steve, everything would turn out okay in the end.


	200. Chapter 200 - Bonus 4

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _Happy Friday everyone! Guess what's here! That's right, It's the 200th post! It's finally here! The coveted 200th chapter. Can you believe that we've got this far? After this, we don't have much longer left before we hit the drama of season 6. It's going to be in 5 chapters. And I hope that this little bit of future cuteness will help you guys get through what's going to happen next._

 _So here's what we have for this 200th chapter. Since you guys wanted something smutty and something baby related I figured I'd show you two different moments. So we have Rowan and Steve's first night together as a married couple, which is going to happen in Season 7. After that we have Rowan telling Steve that she's pregnant which is taking place somewhere in Season 8. So I hope you enjoy this chapter. Don't forget to leave me a review and I'll see you next time!_

Chapter 200

* * *

 **Part 1 – So remember that proposal you saw? Well shortly after that we have a wedding scene and shortly after that we have their… FIRST NIGHT as a married couple, so it had to be super steamy, so I tried my best to amp that up for you guys. This will be taking place after Episode 7 in Season 7, just to give you guys a bit of a time line.**

 ***This part contains smut, skip if need be***

Exhausted didn't even begin to cover it. Rowan couldn't wait to get back to their hotel room to get out of her shoes. So much so that in the elevator she took them off entirely. Sinking three inches immediately.

She had lost her veil at some point during the party. One of her pearl earrings was missing, the hotel staff on the hunt for it. Her lips stick was faded from all the times Steve kissed her, and her mascara was slightly smudged from the happy tears she had cried. Steve's hair was sticking up funny from all the times Danny, Chin and Grover kept putting their arms around Steve's neck and giving him congratulatory noogies. His lips stained a light pink from all the times he had kissed her. His bowtie had been untied and left hanging, his shirt was already part way undone. His jacket was off and slung over his shoulder and he too was as exhausted as his new wife.

They got to their room and quietly made their way through to the bed. Rowan threw her shoes on floor and went about taking her jewelry off. Steve threw his jacket on the bed, and unbuttoned his cuffs. He glanced over to where Rowan was standing by the bedside, her back to him as she took off her pearls. He could see the white starburst scar between her shoulder blades. A constant reminder that the reason he had her was because fate dropped her in his lap.

Rowan nearly jumped out of her skin when his hands found her shoulders. The length of his body pressed against her back, his breath hot against her neck. She felt his hands on the back of her dress, felt the zipper go down and then her dress slid off her body pooling at her feet.

She turned to Steve, his hands skimming down her sides. His eyes on her white bralette and matching lacy underwear. His fingers traced up and down her sides, one hand came up to cup her cheek as she went about unbuttoning his shirt.

He let her peel his shirt away from his shoulders and down his arms. She got to his buckle, managed to undo it and suddenly his hand had clasped behind her neck, pulling her to him. Her body hit his, her hands splayed across his chest as his mouth slid over hers.

His hands framed her face. Her arms encircled his neck, jumping up to her tippy toes to get closer to him. A sound escaped him. A strangled moan. Her fingernails dug into his shoulders and that was when he pulled away from her. Her blue eyes searched his. Her fingers traced the outline of his jaw.

His hands shook as he unhooked the bra so much so that he couldn't unhook it. His body trembled as her hands pushed down the waistband of his dress pants. He kissed her again, this time softly, holding her to his chest, feeling of inch of her against him and the shaking vibrated through her.

He poured her onto the bed, coming to hover on top of her. His eyes cloudy with passion, staring at her as if he were seeing her for the very first time. She raised her finger tips to his jaw, her thumb running over his lower lip. Tears were welling up in his eyes, his chest was heaving as if he had just come back from a run. She knew this look, knew it off by heart.

She pulled him down to her. Pulled his hot body down to her cool one, pressing up until every inch of her skin was against his. She held him as he quaked. She pressed kisses to his shoulder, to his neck. Nibbled on his ear until he groaned.

His hands slipped under her back. Her bralette finally came undone. Thrown across the room before Rowan could slip it away. His mouth came down on her freshly bared skin, hot and hungry. She squirmed beneath his wandering hands and suckling mouth. One of his hands skimmed down her body, over her stomach and down her thighs, before travelling in between her legs and then down her lace panties.

She stifled her moan by sinking her teeth into his tatted shoulder. Steve's groan of pleasure vibrated through her breast and he rewarded her by both sinking a finger into the liquid heat pooling between her legs and by nipping the taunt nipple he had captured in his mouth.

Rowan writhed in earnest. Her fingers threaded through his hair, her other hand gripped his ribs, hanging on for dear life. He pulled his head away from her breasts to kiss her. Slowly and leisurely like he had all the time in the world while she was desperate to feel him inside her.

"Please, Steve, now," she whispered to him as his lips travelled down her jaw to that sweet spot on her neck, right below her ear.

"Soon," he replied, a second finger slipping into her causing her gasp.

She shook her head. "No. Now," she breathed out.

Steve kissed her again, his fingers slipping out of her. He moved away, his hands framing her hips. She raised them so he could pull the panties off of her. While he was distracted with sitting up to throw her panties across the room, Rowan sat up too finally managing to get into his boxers. He came free in her hands and the gasp that echoed through the room as her mouth took all of him almost made her laugh.

She ran her tongue over the tip of him and his hands came to grip the back of her head.

 _Oh God_ s filled the room as she bobbed up and down. But it wasn't until she heard the _fuck_ escape him that she stopped. Slowly letting him fall out of her mouth and then tilting her head back to smile up at him.

A hand cupped her chin as he stared down at her with wonder. As if he couldn't believe she was there with him. She helped him get rid of the rest of his clothes and then once they were free of all barriers she gently pulled him back down to the bed.

He came between her legs, she spread them for him, enveloping him in her arms as he hovered above her. She was ready, she was practically on the verge of begging him for it, but there was something in his gaze, something that made her stomach flutter.

He kissed her again, deeply. His tongue duelling hers. When he slipped into her she was expecting it, her hips raised to take all of him, her head thrown back disengaging their kiss as she reveled in the ecstasy he could bring her by just being inside her. When she brought her eyes back to stare into his he slowly began thrusting, she understood then. This wasn't like their usual fervent love making, this was something softer, meant to savour every inch of her.

Her arms wrapped around his neck, her hands felt each ripple of his back muscles with each delicious thrust. Each one deeper than the next. A hand travelled to her thigh, fingertips dinging into her skin to get that leg she threw over his lower back to go even higher and so he could get even deeper.

There were no words to describe the feeling. The way they came together, body mind and soul. The way they became one. One heart beating in two different chests. Their love encompassed them, it became everything, stretching until it filled up every nook and cranny of their bodies. When they reached their climax it was together, as one, their lips together swallowing each other's cries of ecstasy.

Finished Steve collapsed beside her, pulling her to his chest and sighing contently into her ear. Their hands linked. Their wedding bands clinking silently as they rubbed together. Rowan found herself staring at them, the way the rings looked on their fingers. The way they looked when they held hands. The onyx band a stark comparison to the sparkling rose-gold of hers. Different but the same. Like them.

"I love you Rowan Pierce," he whispered into her ear, his voice thick with sleep. "I love you more than anything else in this world."

Rowan turned in his arms, her nose a hair's breadth away from his. "And I love you Steven McGarrett in this universe and all the others," she whispered to him. She put a hand to his cheek. "But you got something wrong."

His eyebrows drew together in confusion. Fear passed over his handsome features. "I'm not Rowan Pierce anymore. I'm Rowan McGarrett."

Steve laughed and pulled her closer. A hand took the back of her head and forced her to look back up at him. His mouth hot and heady taking hers fully. Moments later they were asleep. They fell asleep pressed together. Noses millimetre's apart, intertwined heart, body and soul.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

 **Part 2 – This isn't solidified yet, I haven't watched the episode the whole way through so aspects of this may change, it may be part of a bigger part, it may go longer than this. When we get to Season 8 Episode 8 you'll get to see then, but this is essentially the gist of what's going to happen.**

Steve got out of the plane, to the congratulations of his team and defacto pit crew, completely amazed that he managed to land the plane after clipping the pylon. Damn he was just too good. He didn't even care that he came in dead last, okay he kind of did, but he was going to graciously let it go.

However their celebrations were cut short by the appearance of a very very angry Rowan who announced her arrival by shoving him quite roughly.

"Did you fly the fucking plane?" Rowan shouted and Steve flinched. The flight suit was a dead giveaway so he couldn't quite lie to her, but it also meant she was giving him the option to do so which was throwing him off and a little underhanded of her.

"Well… I uh… I had to… uh… I had to…"

"Did you clip a pylon?" "Okay… now…" "DID YOU CLIP A FUCKING PYLON SHOWING OFF?!"

Steve's eyes went wide in shock. God she was just flying off the fucking handle. What was her problem? "Okay… just calm down…"

" _DON'T TELL ME TO BE CALM!"_

"Uh… he did… he did hit a pylon, and he did almost go down but he did also pull himself up and as you can see he's fine," Danny said and her wild eyes turned on him. That look alone was enough to send Danny back clearly not willing to take on Rowan himself and leaving Steve to deal with her crazy mood swing on her own. But before he could try to calm his wife down she was shaking her head and taking a step back and away from him.

"That's it," she growled. "That's it, we're done. I'm divorcing you."

All eyes turned to Steve whose heart stopped in his chest. What the fuck had she just say? "Whoa, wait a second, hold on, what are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about you! You promised me you wouldn't get in that plane. You promised me you'd pick me up," she said suddenly crying and Steve stared at her confused. Fuck he had forgotten about the doctor's appointment and that he had promised to pick her up from it.

"Aw Ro… I'm sorry, don't cry," he said, but she was moving away from him not letting him grab her as she swiped away her tears, she was definitely frazzled and that was worrying him. "Is it bad news? Is that it? Are you sick?" he asked fear climbing up his throat. He wasn't sure he could handle her being sick but he couldn't say that, he'd need to be strong for her if that was the case. And that was the only reason he could think of that would have her that upset right now. "Whatever it is we'll get through it, just tell me what it is, okay?"

Rowan went into her purse and pulled out a paper. "I'm positive," she said handing it to him.

"Positive? Positive for what?" Steve asked, she handed him the paper that his panicked mind couldn't read and didn't understand. "Rowan what were you tested for? What's positive?"

"I can't do this. Stay at Danny's, I don't want to see you ever again," she cried storming away from him.

Steve called her name, kept calling after her asking what she was positive for and as he did Danny ripped the paper out of his hands. He looked it over for two seconds and then sighed and looked back at Steven.

"What the hell just happened… is she like…is she leaving me? What does she have? Do you know what that says?" he asked starting to get more panicked by the moment.

Danny nodded and Steve groaned. "Then what, what is it?"

"Okay, let's see if you get it. She's got crazy mood swings, she's got strange cravings and she's been sick," Danny said while Steve nodded.

"Yes I know, I know, I've been with her every morning as she throws up, I just don't know what's wrong with her."

"Steven. Mood swings. Cravings. Morning sickness," Danny snapped clapping his hands with each symptom as if the clapping would get it through his head. All around him he saw everyone else getting it, like those words clicked in their heads. What wasn't he getting? When Steve just stared at him Danny added: "She's just tested _positive_ …"

He knew all of that already. But that didn't help him because he didn't know what test someone who was having mood swings cravings and morning sickness would do except for…

 _A pregnancy test._

"She's… she's…" "Pregnant, yes," Danny interrupted. Shock knocked Steve a few steps back from Danny as he took that in. Steve found himself running his hands through his hair as the dots all connected in his head and the reality of the situation sunk into his brain. "Oh my god, she's pregnant."

"Well don't just stand there," Danny cried, and Steve glanced back to where Rowan had been storming away to go to her car.

He glanced back to them as if needed permission but all his friends shouted the exact same thing to him, or some version of: "Go after her!" and then Steven was sprinting to get to her before she could drive away. He slid to a stop by the driver's side door, and struggled to get the door open. Once he had it open he half yanked her out of the car to look at her. He gripped her by the shoulders to look her over looking for any sign that she was different but she still looked like the same old Rowan to him.

"You're pregnant?" he asked her even though he knew she was. She half nodded to him a weepy smile growing on her face and Steve held her a little more tightly. "You're pregnant!" she nodded again and he suddenly broke out in a giant grin and hugged her tightly.

Dear fucking god. She was pregnant.

She pushed out of his crushing hug and put her hand to her belly, Steve followed the motion placing a hand to her stomach as if he would be able to feel his child inside her. "I'm barely even showing, but he's in there, they say he's healthy but small…"

"Wait _he_? _He_? How do you know… is it a vision…"

"Oh, no that would be the other thing," Rowan said, going for her purse and rooting through it. "I'm uh… I'm about four and a half months into this whole pregnancy thing."

 _And she was that skinny_?! Steve had so many questions, like how either of them had missed the signs for that long, when Rowan distracted him by handing him a picture. A print out of an ultrasound. A print out of their baby.

"They uh… they can tell he's a boy, see, right there," she said pointing to a smudgy bit. She then leant back. "He uhm… he has your nose."

Steve couldn't help it he started to laugh and then tears of happiness started fall. He was going to have a son. A son. Another son.

"Are you okay?"

Steve nodded taking a hold of her and pulling her to his chest. Fuck, he had never been so happy in his life.

* * *

 **I would like to thank each and every reader, every commenter, every follower and every favouriter, for your patronage to this story. I appreciate each and every single one of you and I hope that you guys continue on this journey with me and you enjoy it as much as I enjoy sharing it with you. We're half way there guys! We're half way finished! (Unless season 10 gives me inspiration, pray that it doesn't, otherwise we'll be done after season 9). Again, thank you for being here with me through all of this and I hope you're still with me when this story finally comes to an end!**


	201. Chapter 201

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N:_ _Happy Monday my wonderful readers. Can you believe that we're 201 chapters in? Honestly I'm shook that I got us this far! This is the longest fic I've ever written. And we're almost there! In two more chapters things are going to HIT the fan. I want you guys to be very prepared for what's going to happen. I don't want you guys to freak out. I'd like to say there are some cute parts to the next two chapters, but there isn't all that much, other than Kono and Adam getting married. This is where it's going to become very obvious that Rowan and Steve are heading down hill._

Chapter 201

* * *

The day before Kono's wedding was an eventful one.

Chin finally confronted Adam about the photos of him with Goro Shioma. And he got a pretty good explanation and one confession. Goro Shioma really _was_ asking him for all of his money in return for freedom from the Yakuza. And the only reason Goro Shioma was being patient with Adam's reluctance to turn over all his money was because Adam and thrown around Rowan's name. But both of them knew only that would last for so long.

Grover and Danny found out that Gabriel really was still on the island. Still on the island, still alive, and putting down drug smugglers. They came to the conclusion that with Wo Fat running him ragged at Rowan's behest, Gabriel had branched out into low level organizations trying to take down the competition to garner a bit of a name for himself, maybe get a little bit more money. Gabriel was either going to climb ranks, or he was going to find himself back on Rowan's radar and get beaten down or if they were lucky… put down. Only time would tell on the outcome of that one.

But it was what happened at the Pierce-McGarrett house that started the problem.

Steve had gone for his morning swim. Rowan had taken Nahele to school, as the poor boy was frantically trying to get himself prepared for his exams in two weeks. The plan, for when Rowan came back, was to go to brunch and discuss strategies to help Nahele with his growing stress. But when Steve came out of the water his towel was missing. Now that didn't make sense, he was certain he had brought it out with him. And he knew Rowan wasn't home, because if she was she would have been with the towel ready to help him dry off.

Steve tilted his chair back, the one he was certain he left the towel on, and then went to look under Rowan's when he heard a voice.

"Looking for this?"

Steve's head whipped up. Out of everyone he expected to be out on that beach with him, he never would have guessed Catherine. Nor would he have guessed that seeing her again would have filled his stomach with a typhoon of nervous butterflies.

Geeze, what the hell did that mean?

She was wearing ripped light blue jean shorts, a white tank top under an open light blue plaid long sleeved button up. Her hair was braided to the side and she was just standing there holding his towel and smiling at him. Steve couldn't help but notice how pretty she was, like he had almost forgotten that he once had found the woman in front of him attractive. His blood heated for all the wrong reason and though he knew he shouldn't have he found himself suddenly very happy that Catherine was there on that beach with him, and sort of filled with a stupid desire to kiss her.

"Hey sailor," she said when he could only just stand there and stare at her like a big buffoon.

Steve forced himself back into reality, forced himself to do something other than just stand there. "Catherine?" he said quickly. Which was stupid because obviously it was Catherine.

She took a few steps towards him, biting her lip in that way that really used to get him going, and seemed to be getting him going again. "Look, I know, I should have called and I wanted to, I just… I didn't know what to say. So I figured if I just came in person that it would just be…"

She got too close to him and without thinking he had reached out and grabbed her, pulling her in for a hug. Wet or not, she didn't seem to care but instead let him have it, hugging him tightly back.

The touch was what did it. What reminded him. Because her touch felt nothing like Rowan's. Electricity didn't skate under the surface of his skin leaving him tingling where Catherine touched him. She didn't fit right to him, she was altogether too tall, or he was too used to Rowan's height. Either way, it was all wrong and it was that that reminded why he was with Rowan instead of Catherine.

He pulled out of the hug and frowned at the sound of someone clearing their throat. He hadn't even seen Rowan arrive let alone heard her, and he usually at least felt her get close to him. It was like the second Catherine came around whatever connection was between he and Rowan was severed or at least muted.

Rowan glared at him, nostrils flaring, fire in her eyes, her lips set in a thin frown. She was dressed sort of like Catherine. Light blue jean shorts, white tank top. The only difference was the button up she was wearing was one of his. His black one. Fuck he loved that girl in his clothes. Now he was heated in all the right ways.

"Okay…" Rowan said. She grabbed the back of Catherine's shirt and tugged her away from Steve. Once they were separated, she ripped the towel out of Catherine's hands. "When I shut the door in your face that did not mean sneak into the back yard to see him."

Oh great… So she knew that Catherine had showed up and not only had she turned her away, she probably wasn't about to tell him that Catherine had shown up in the first place. That was not a good thing. But Steve didn't want a fight today so he put out a hand to mollify Rowan. He took the towel from her to dry himself off, once suitable dry he reached out to tug Rowan to his side.

"You get the kid to school on time?" he asked softly hoping to distract her.

"Of course," she answered as he stooped down to press a kiss to her cheek. She accepted it though her eyes never left Catherine. Eyes that were narrowed into challenging angry slits.

Steve glanced back to Catherine. She had just shown up out of the blue, but that didn't mean he didn't want to talk to her. He just knew he wouldn't be able to do that with Rowan hovering.

"Do you think you could give us… uhm… some space to talk?" he asked Rowan. In that moment he saw Catherine bite back a triumphant smile while Rowan's face descended into something even darker than her usual Ice Queen mask.

"You promised me brunch, McGarrett," she growled in a low tone of warning.

Steve winced. "Rain check?" Rowan said nothing. She merely glared at him. "I just wanna catch up. Come on."

Rowan rolled her eyes, huffed out a very aggressive and aggravated sigh and then said: "Whatever."

"Babe, come on, don't be like that!" he called after her, but Rowan had already turned on heel and begun stalking away from him. As soon as she was out of ear shot he sighed: "I'm gonna catch hell later…"

"You're a grown man, Steven, doesn't she trust you?"

"I think we both know it's you she doesn't trust," he said. That earned him a pained look from Catherine and now he felt doubly guilty. Time to change the topic. "When did you get in?"

"This morning," she answered. Ah, so she hadn't been here long. He was probably her first visit. That shouldn't have made him as happy as it did. "I just came straight for the airport."

 _Ah-ha! He was right!_

She smiled happily no doubt encouraged by his own grin. "I wasn't going to miss Kono's wedding, come on."

"Well, I hear it's going to be great. Rowan's been doing a lot of planning, that I have not been a part of," he said with a cheeky grin.

"Yes, I'm surprised she's not planning her own wedding with that rock she's got on her finger."

Damn her promise ring. Was it bad that Steven had sort of hoped that Catherine wouldn't notice that?

"Naw, we're not there yet," Steve said instead. Hoping that would be enough and he wouldn't have to explain. "Uh… well, how about I dry off, I throw some civvies on and take you out to breakfast… with Rowan of course, it'll be her treat, did you know she's a millionaire?"

Catherine blinked her eyes. "I'm sorry, what? Did she win the lottery?"

"Naw, she just gets really large royalty cheques. Turns out she's really good at writing and selling her songs," Steve said. "Just uh… give me a moment to kinda talk her down. Not gonna lie she's probably gonna be a bit pissed."

"Yeah that sounds exactly like Rowan Pierce."

Steve tried not to let that get to him. The problem was, that really was his girl. All they had done over the last week and half before Kono's wedding was argue. She was getting a call, same day, around the same time, once a week. She always brushed it off. Always had a good excuse. But Steve had a feeling he knew who it was. Because Wo Fat had always liked getting weekly updates from Rowan. And the more he felt in his gut that Rowan was in contact with her brother again, the more agitated he became. He kept trying to catch her in a lie, but she had gotten good, and he could no longer tell when she was lying to him. That sociopath was also coming out of her quicker. Another clue indicating that she was once again in contact, because she always got worse under his influence.

So they argued. And they fought. And then had amazing make up sex. But it was exhausting. It was starting to wear on him. And now with Catherine in front of him, he was reminded of when things were easier. When he was dating a girl who wasn't from another world. Who didn't get psychic visions. Who didn't have a psychopath for a brother.

But Steven didn't love Catherine. He loved Rowan. And that wasn't going to change just because he got a few butterflies around Catherine.

"Just don't go anywhere, I'll be right back," he assured her before jogging towards the house.

He must have snuck up on Rowan because this time, when he caught her on the phone she didn't say: _I gotta go, call you later_ , and then hang up the phone like she usually did. In fact he actually caught a little bit of her conversation.

"No I'm serious, he's currently outside… _with Catherine_. Yes, that Catherine, Lieutenant Catherine Rollins, Catherine. Ex Catherine. Yes I know she was supposed to be in Afghanistan. Well I didn't know she was coming back! I thought you would know that… you were supposed to be watching her, how did you not know she came back to Hawaii?!"

"Who are you talking to?" Steve asked and Rowan whirled around.

She glanced to her phone and then said: "Kono." She put it to her ear and said: "Talk to you when I get to the venue, we can bitch then."

And then she hung up and hid her phone before Steve could see the screen. Yeah like that wasn't suspicious.

"Were you on the phone with Wo Fat?"

Rowan scoffed at him. "You got water in your ears? I just said I was on the phone with Kono."

Steve gave her a dry glare. "Rowan… are you lying to me?"

"You know what, I'm not doing this. Why the hell were you outside, with Catherine, whomst you know is to me what Wo Fat is to you, for that fucking long?"

Steve shook his head. "You're being ridiculous."

"Oh now it's ridiculous. When you've been giving me the third degree for every private caller I get?"

"Okay look, baby, I know how you feel about Catherine, but we both know I've only got eyes for you," he said and then tried very hard not to feel guilty or a little bit like he had just lied to her. "And she did just come back… and we do have a lot to catch up on."

Rowan knew him well, she understood where this conversation was going, because she was suddenly groaning and whining like a little child, which she knew he didn't like. At all. "No you did not invite her onto our breakfast date."

"Uh…"

"Oh my god Steven!" Rowan snapped. "Are you serious? I literally slammed a door in her face and now I gotta play nice?"

"Well you shouldn't have slammed a door in her face," Steve chided. "I'm gonna shower and get dressed. What are the chances of you joining me?"

He tried to pulled her into a tight embrace, to kiss her, to get her excited, to feel some sort of heat for her, but she pushed him away. "Catherine Rollins is on our beach and coming on our date. Chances are slim to none."

Fair but at least she had relented on Catherine coming on the date. He kissed her cheek, which she let him do, but didn't press into and then rushed away to get ready. Somewhat relieved that Rowan had turned down the offer to join him because now he could get ready even faster without Rowan distracting him.

Problem was as soon as he got to the stairs his phone rang. This was not the day or the time to catch a case, but he couldn't control crime on Hawaii.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Homeland security had gotten in touch with Grover about the plane that had landed in Hawaii with a dead pilot. They told them that the plane came from an area where unknown assailants had attacked a military transport convoy that was loaded with six W80 nuclear warhead, they had five out of the six, and it was it thought that the nuke had been on the plane. They had a Geiger counter brought in to confirm it and while it did prove that the nuke was on the plane Steve tried to look on the positive side of the situation. At least it was only one nuke on Hawaii.

"Rowan's gonna be so pissed that the bomb vision is coming true," Danny said with a sigh and Steve grit his teeth. He had been thinking it, but he didn't want her to be right, he couldn't take any more gloating about her visions being right.

"Now wait a second, I'm not entirely convinced this is the right vision."

"It's an explosive device the day before Kono's wedding. Guaranteed this is the vision she was talking about."

"No it's not. Rowan said bomb not nukes," "—Does your girl even know the difference? I sure as hell don't." "—And we're not at the wedding yet. There's a good chance it won't even effect the wedding."

"So call your girl and get a vision," Danny said. "You know, to be absolutely certain that this isn't going to be pulled into Kono's wedding."

Steve winced. "I… uh… can't."

"What why not? Rowan in the hospital again? She mad at you again? What? What happened to Rowan?"

Steve really didn't want to tell Danny about what happened that morning. Especially since he had been going to Danny every other day to bitch about Rowan and their constant arguments. But he knew he couldn't just leave it at that, Danny wouldn't let him. So he bitterly admitted: "She's fine… she's just… mad at me."

"That is old news, she's always mad at you," Grover said and Steve frowned. It was true recently, the two of them hadn't really bounced back from what had happened the night they were searching for Kono and her missing out-rigger. But that didn't mean Steve liked hearing his friends point that out, because that meant it was obvious and Steve had been hoping that it wasn't.

"What did you do this time?" Danny asked and once against Steven bristled against the question. Another side effect of arguing with Rowan. Everyone's questions agitated him. But nothing agitated him more than being asked what _he_ did, like Rowan wasn't being irrational. It wasn't always his fault, Rowan contributed to those arguments more than he did.

"I didn't do anything!" Steve cried even though that wasn't true. "It's just… Catherine's back…"

"Oh hot damn! That's not good!" Danny said with a laugh, completely contradicting his statement. He sounded way to happy about this turn of events for them not to be good. "So… how long is she staying?

"We didn't discuss that," Steve told him.

"Uh-huh… was that because Rowan was in the room at the time?"

It was but that Steve didn't want to say that. "No cause I caught a case, Danny."

"Okay, well, between the two of us we could probably reason it out. Was her suitcase big or was it small?"

"It was… uh… medium," Steve admitted.

"Medium. Is she staying with you or is she staying at a hotel?"

"Uh… she's at my place till Rowan finds her a room elsewhere," Steve said.

"Ah so Rowan won't let her stay, huh?"

"Rowan slammed the door in Catherine's face this morning, course she not going to let Catherine stay in the house," Steve grumbled. He noticed Danny's perplexed look and reminded himself that he shouldn't sound so forlorn and grumpy about Rowan not letting his ex-girlfriend stay at his house.

Danny seemed to recognize that the look on Steven's face was a guilty one because he immediately straightened and then clasped his hands on the hood of his car and leant forwards towards Steve. Danny could see it in Steven's face, both of them knew that whatever Danny was going to say next wasn't going to be well received. But that wasn't going to stop Danny from saying it. It never did.

"Look, I like Catherine very much, but I happen to hate how the way that she left things with you in fucking Afghanistan, and you know, we're all going to hate how annoyed Rowan is going to be over this," Danny said. "And now she comes back without so much as a phone call. Your girl is dropping not so subtle hints that she's not happy and you're ignoring them. That just doesn't bode well, you know. You and Rowan have been kinda… rickety recently. You know with your paranoia…" "—It's not paranoia I know she's talking to him again, Danny, I just can't prove it right now!" "… and you're constant arguing, and I just… I don't want this to be what ends you two, you know? Cause… you got a good thing going for you, and we both know if Rowan goes the kid will go…"

Steve turned a dark glare to Danny. "Shut up. For fuck sake. Danny. Shut up. We're not breaking up, she's not taking my son…"

"Whoa, your son?"

"Nahele, she's not taking Nahele, I will not let her take Nahele from me. Let it fucking go. Not another word, you got it?"

Danny leant back and digested the metaphorical bomb that Steve had just dropped on him. Steve thought of Nahele like a son. That was something they had all sort of assumed, but Steve had never voiced it before. It was gonna fucking suck if the two of them broke up and he lost Nahele and Rowan all in one fell swoop. Danny was gonna have to do a lot of damage control if that was the case. Just meant he was going to have to work extra hard to make sure that the break up never happened.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

After Steven had left, giving Catherine the direct order to not go anywhere, Rowan was left with a choice. She could kick Catherine out and into a hotel or she could be the bigger person and have her stay… at least until Steven came back or until she had to go pick up Nahele from school. She had even been nice enough to personally find Catherine a hotel suite in the hotel closest to the Royal Hawaiian Golf Club where Kono would be having her wedding tomorrow and she paid for it herself. Only fair since Steve had been adamant on letting Catherine stay with them and it was Rowan who wasn't letting Catherine stay in their house.

It had been awkward with Catherine walking around like she owned the place, and Rowan sitting on the couch and trying to work on songs. They weren't talking to one another, except to ask close-ended questions like: _would you like more tea_ or _is it alright if I sit here_? It was stupid, but Rowan couldn't help but be jealous. Here was the girl that eased through everything with Steven. She got the label Rowan wanted and fought for without even trying. She just seemingly fit with Steven, like people saw them together and thought, yeah that makes sense, they didn't think that when they saw her and Steven together. But she kept reminding herself that in the end, she won. Steven had chosen her. So why did she feel like she could see the regret on Steven's face when he looked at Catherine? Why did she feel like he was regretting fucking things up with Catherine to be with her instead?

That feeling got worse when Steven called Catherine about his case instead of Rowan. Rowan couldn't help but stare at Catherine almost accusingly as if it were her fault Steven went to her when he needed help in his case and not her, and it was because of that glare that Catherine put the call on speaker so both of them could hear what Steve was saying even though it was clear from his tone that Steven hadn't wanted Rowan involved.

"Look, whoever is behind this had to know that we would track that plane back to Garrison and learn about the stolen nuke," Steve told them after explaining the situation a second time so Rowan knew what was going on.

Steve really didn't appreciate her: _So it's the bomb dream_ comment either.

"Okay, so either they don't care about getting caught…"

"Or they're not planning on sticking around very long," Rowan finished for Catherine. The two women shared a bit of a charged stare. Rowan wondered if Catherine thought she was being rude. Really she was just trying to be helpful.

"If their goal is to sell, I'm sure they're not gonna have a hard time finding a buyer," Danny said. "Ro, what's your brother up to?"

"Uh… last I heard he was going dark," Rowan answered before she could stop herself. She really hoped that Steven didn't catch that. "And he wouldn't bring a nuke on an island I'm on. He's not stupid."

Before Steve could say anything or ask her how she knew what her brother was up to, Catherine forged forward. "Alright, so Wo Fat is out as a viable option. I'll try and gather some intel, see if there's been any chatter about transportation or sale of a nuclear weapon."

Rowan opened her mouth to add something, and as if he sensed her about to do so, Steven suddenly snapped: "And don't you use your app!"

Rowan paused, she was literally about to pull Sandy up. "Why not? I could get better intel more quickly…"

"I told you, I've told you repeatedly that I don't want you on the app. It's just going to end badly."

"It never ends badly."

"It usually ends with you in the hospital!"

"Because you don't listen to me! You promised that you'd listen to me, McGarrett."

Steve's heavy sigh was a frustrated one. One that had Rowan's lower lip trembling and her eyes avoiding Catherine's knowing and smug stare. "Rowan. Please. Just once. Just once can you just sit at home and worry? So I don't have to worry?"

That was the shittiest fucking thing he had ever said to her. And she knew exactly why he had said it. Because he had Catherine now and he didn't need her.

"I hope you get shot," she snapped and then hung up the phone for Catherine. She glanced up to Catherine's shocked face and tried not to scowl. "Since you two wanna be team McGarrett so bad, go ahead. Why don't you go meet him at the Palace, lord knows he'd love to have you back on the team."

Yeah, let Catherine go off. Let Steve have his capable ex-girlfriend back on the team. She was just going to sit home, figure out where the nuke was, and see exactly how long it would take the so called Wonder team to figure it out.

As she stormed upstairs to her room, she brushed the first of her frustrated tears away just as her phone started ringing. Problem was, she didn't want to talk to Steven. She wanted to talk to someone who understood and appreciated her. Too bad he had just gone into a no-service zone for the next two weeks… if not longer.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

It wasn't an hour later that Catherine called him back. He was at the Palace with the rest of the team, including Kono who refused to take the day before her wedding off. Citing: if you're working, then I'm working. Steve got that so he said nothing but just let it happen. He didn't want any more arguing in his life anyway.

They had identified one of the people on the plane. Joshua Bennett from Ohio. On the outside he looked normal. Worked a nine-to-five, had a wife and two kids. He didn't look or sound like the kind of guy who would steal a nuke and transport it to Hawaii but he had. He also had attempted to get into the military almost 20 years ago only to be turned down for being a mental case. Yeah, like that boded well for them.

But then Catherine called and their lead got a little more solid.

"I think I found a buyer, I just sent you a file," she said just as his phone dinged again. Yes she had sent him a file. He pulled it up onto the smart table for everyone to read.

Sameer Hadad.

Kay well, his team didn't know who he was, but Steven and Catherine did.

"He's a high-ranking lieutenant in al Qaeda," Steve told them. "He's also on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists list."

"Yeah, and six months ago, he tried to purchase a nuke from a group of Chechen rebels. CIA was all over it. They sent in a SEAL team. We recovered the warhead, but Hadad got away," Catherine explained.

"Right. And now, Bennett's gonna sell him one," Danny summed up with a sigh.

"Looks like it. Credible sources confirm chatter that puts Hadad on Oahu."

"How the hell's a guy like this get on the island?" Danny asked. Yeah that was a good fucking question.

"I got my guys looking into that. There may be a connection with a local shipping company," Catherine said. "Listen, this is the real deal, guys. Hadad made threats against the US, Israel, Europe, Jordan. We cannot let him get off the island. If he gets his hands on that nuke, you can bet he's gonna use it."

There was a moment of silence before Catherine added: "I know you don't want to hear this, but uh… we could really use Rowan right about now."

"Rowan? What the hell could she do?"

"I didn't really want to tell you this, but uh… not gonna lie, having Pierce the Destroyer as a name to throw around… that really helped when I was in Afghanistan. That app of her really is an information highway, Steven, and her name is like god over there. The school I was teaching at… we changed its name to Pierce's school, Taliban forces were so scared of offending her by accidentally catching the school in the crosshairs, they moved out of the area indefinitely. Gave us a twenty mile radius in all directions."

Why did hearing those things still surprise him? Was it because he never saw that in his girl. Sure he saw how capable she was, he saw her as Pierce the Destroyer, but most of the time she was just Rowan. His Rowan. Who baked cookies for Nahele's school craft sale and had to bake more mid-day as they had sold out so quickly and the demand for more was near riot-worthy. Who sang songs and danced around his kitchen in his shirt, short shorts and a pair of socks. It was hard to see that girl as the same person as Pierce the Destroyer.

Though he didn't want to get her involved he still said: "Okay so… so I guess we call her and ask…"

"Yeah I tried that. She's uh… she's not really cooperating."

"What she's screening your calls?" Steve asked. God he hoped that wasn't true because he was pretty sure Rowan was screening his too. She hadn't answered him since she had told him that she hoped he got shot. She had never said that to him before and it hurt to hear those words come out of her mouth, even though he knew her to just be mad, but not made enough to mean them.

"No, she's answered. She just wasn't very… uh… nice."

Goddamn it. Why couldn't Rowan just play nice for once? Just… for once?

"Okay, I'll uh… I'll see what I can do… might even be able to swing you an apology," he told her though he knew that was a hail marry pass.

He ended the call with Catherine and ignored the stares he was getting from both Chin and Kono. Neither of them looked impressed either and they were shifting that unimpressed stare between Steve and Danny. Danny, however, just stood there with a look that said: _the shit I put up with_ on his face that Steve didn't appreciate.

Instead, ignoring all of them, Steve called Rowan. It rang twice before it went to her voicemail. Great, she was ignoring his calls too. "Call me when you get this, it's important," he said to her voicemail.

He was smart enough to know that she'd ignore that message and feign not knowing, so he also sent her a quick text. Just a quick and easy: Need Sandy's help with the nuke, ASAP. He figured, like the call he'd get ignored, but not seconds later Rowan had replied.

 _Your access to Sandy has been restricted. Get your help and intel from Catherine._

It was at times like these that he really, really hated his girlfriend.


	202. Chapter 202

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Wednesdays my wonderful readers. Guys. Guys! I'm FREAKING OUT guys! Do you know what Friday is? Friday's post will be the last chapter in season 5. Guys! I can't believe I've already rewritten two seasons and a half. I can't believe we're going into my third rewritten season. Can you believe that we've gotten this far? I'm still in shock about it. I hope you guys don't get too mad over the next 20 chapters… cause uh… they're pretty high on the angsty meter. Don't hate me too much for what comes up. We have been getting a few reviews about Steve's abusiveness. The whole Catherine feelings things will be explained in a further chapter (like somewhere in season 9) there is a sci-fi void explanation for that. And for the person who was wondering when Steve and Rowan get to be happy again, literally two episodes into season 7. So we got a whole season of this, but next post I'll go into more in depth about that. Don't forget to review, and I'll see you guys on Friday!_

Chapter 202

* * *

Despite Rowan being uncooperative, Steve managed to find the shipping container that Hadad came to Hawaii in on and evidently planned to leave in too. He also managed to find and capture Bennett, the man behind it all. The problem was, by the time Five-0 got there, both Hadad and the Nuke were gone and no one, not Bennett, not homeland security, or naval intelligence could tell them where Hadad had gone or how he got off the island.

Steve needed help. He needed Rowan and the amazing Sanctuary Network. But Rowan was pissed at him, having completely forgotten to be reasonable the second Catherine showed up at their house, and she was refusing to help. Which was fair, he had told her, when all of this started, that he didn't want her on the app. What he should have said was can we save it for a last resort… which Steve had obviously reached. But that wasn't what he said and, if he knew his girl, she wasn't going to let him reword that morning's statement.

So Steve went home, intent on wooing Rowan into helping him find that Nuke.

It backfired.

They argued. They screamed. A lot of really mean things were hurled at both of them. Steve accused her of talking to Wo Fat again. Rowan accused him of regretting picking her over Catherine, of wanting to go back to her now that she was here again. And then Steve got stuck sleeping on the couch, he never found out where Hadad went with the nuke, and at no point in the night did Rowan come down to cuddle with him like she usually did. He had gone up, once he established that he couldn't sleep on his own, but she had locked him out of his own room. Yeah, he was really regretting installing that lock on his door now.

In the morning, breakfast was not made ready for him, coffee was not brewing and his kid was not at the kitchen island eating toaster waffles. Once he had established that his kitchen was empty, he went upstairs. Nahele was in his room getting ready to leave. And he was happy to find the door to his room finally open but surprised to find Rowan in the process of getting ready. She had the muted navy blue chiffon dress already on and was rolling on her stocking when he got there. Her hair was already done up in an elegant twist, her make up was already done, after this all she would have left was accessories and shoes.

He had stood at the door watching her, wanting nothing more than to cross to her, to derail her getting ready like he usually did, but before he could cross the threshold she snapped: Get out. And that was him banished to lower floor pretending it didn't hurt to have his girlfriend not want him near her. She left not long after that with Nahele in tow. She was in charge of wedding prep, being both maid of honor and wedding planner apparently. Nahele had gone with her, he said to help but Steve suspected otherwise. Since the arguments had gotten more explosive, Rowan and Nahele had gotten closer. Steve had a feeling if they were to break up, Nahele would let him know who he wanted to go with… and it wouldn't be Steven. He tried not to think about it because honestly it hurt to realize that the kid he thought of as his own would want to be with Rowan in the event of a break up instead of him. And for a long while he let that bum him out. You know until it was time to get ready.

Steve stood out on the beach in his nice suit, his bowtie done up elegantly just staring at the ocean as if it would answer all of his questions. Seriously where had this bomb gone? Why was he suddenly feeling things for Catherine again? He had a feeling it was because Catherine had come just as things with Rowan had gotten rocky, very rocky, but what if that wasn't it. What if he actually just had lingering feelings for Catherine? What if he wasn't over her? What would he do about Rowan? Did he want to end things with her simply because his heart was still torn between her and Catherine, especially when he knew Rowan held a larger piece of his heart? Factor in the fact that if Rowan went he'd loose Nahele too and he was doubly conflicted. He wanted to talk to Danny about it, to any of the Five-0's actually but he couldn't. They'd take it to Rowan, or call him crazy and that wouldn't help.

Damn he really wanted to call his mother.

"Yo!" Danny said appearing beside him and startling him out of his thoughts. "What's up? You ready?"

This could be the moment where he got his advice. Danny would steer him right, right? He also couldn't keep his mouth shut either, so Rowan would know that Steve was thinking of going back to Catherine within the hour, and he didn't want that because he was more than 85% certain that that wasn't going to happen.

Steve sighed deeply. "Catherine spoke to naval intel," he said. "There's been radio silence on Hadad."

But not Sandy silent. If Rowan would just look for him, he'd have an answer. But Rowan was being selfish and being petty. She wasn't thinking of the greater good of everyone in the world, she was thinking of herself and one-uping him and Catherine.

"Yeah, well, look, we pinged his cellphone. Last signal we got was 3 miles out," Danny told him and Steve shook his head. The man was already off the island. "That was yesterday. Navy did a grid search. The guy is gone, Steve."

Yeah but that didn't make him feel better. That terrorist was out there somewhere with a nuke. It was only a matter of time before he detonated it somewhere.

"We locked this island down, okay? We locked this entire island down," Steve reminded him. "How did he get out? How did he get past us?"

"How does Rowan ever get past us, huh?" Danny asked. That was a dangerous path to go down, because Rowan got past them using her app and her own ability to be unseen and undetected. Danny also could be implying that she used her app to help Hadad, but Rowan wasn't that petty, was she? "Look, I don't know, I don't know, but every intelligence agency on the planet of Earth is looking for this guy, okay? When they find him, we will have our moment with him. And if you've made up with Rowan by then, maybe she'll let you put a few orders in through the app huh?"

Steve sighed again and Danny turned back to the ocean view. "Can we just take this time to be happy about something? Like the fact that we got Bennet and his crew. Can we take that win?"

The fact that Pessimistic Danny was lecturing him about finding the silver lining was ironic but Steve just nodded, he did have a point. Shockingly.

"Yeah, let's take the win."

"Yeah? Okay, good, things better with Rowan this morning?"

Okay not talking about happy things anymore. "I slept on the couch. She locked me out of my own room. She didn't make breakfast for me this morning, she got ready with out me and took Nahele with her…"

"Okay well most of that could just be wedding related. She's taking Kono's ceremony very seriously and I hear she has a lot to set up. Not sure what that means but she's been very stressed about it," Danny reminded him and Steve forced himself to nod, because if he didn't he'd have to tell Danny what he felt and why he felt it and he didn't want to do that.

"Okay, well I'm gonna go get Grace. She's getting ready over at Rachel's. See you at the wedding," Danny said to him.

"Hey, listen, if things are weird with you and Rachel, let me go get Grace," Steve offered, cause maybe some Uncle Steve time would help him feel a little bit better. "It's not a problem."

"No, no, no, nothing, uh… nothing's weird. It's fine."

"You're lying."

Danny didn't even pause before saying: "Yes, I'm lying to you, okay? She lied to me and didn't tell me I had a son. I don't think I will be forgiving her anytime soon. But I got Grace to worry about, and I don't want her to see us arguing. She went through that before the divorce and I don't wanna put her through it again."

"Hey listen, speaking of your son, how is Charlie? How's he doing? What are the doctors saying?"

"Well… like Rowan said I would be, I'm the better match for bone marrow. Also, apparently since Rowan got Rachel on it, they caught it really early on. So, procedure's gonna be next week and the doctors are saying good things. They're optimistic."

Ah his Rowan. Helping out Danny. Wasn't helping him at that moment, but at least she was helping someone.

"Well, that's great new, Danny."

"Yeah. I'm making Rachel tell him that I'm his father. Sticking to that."

"I'm proud of you, Danny."

"You're proud of me? I'm not doing anything. Look, I got the easy part. I go in, I'm in and out I a couple hours. This kid's got some kind of recovery, you know? I'd trade places with him in two seconds."

Yeah Steve got that too, because if Nahele was that sick, and neither he nor Rowan could help him, best believe Steve would ask Rowan to pull a string and put him in Nahele's place.

Luckily their somber conversation was brought to halt by a woman in a bright royal blue dress.

"Hey!" Catherine said as she came towards them while Steve smiled and appreciated her for just a moment. Yes Rowan always looked good in her glossy, glittery, fancier get ups. But there was something about Catherine's simply plane A-line dress, and her simply straightened hair, that one single silver pendant and her subtly done make up that looked just as beautiful, if not a bit better.

"Wow," was all that could come out of him.

Across from him Danny shook his head while Catherine just stared at him. "Oh, so you approve?"

"Yeah, no, I think what my ape-like friend meant to say is that you look great, right?"

"Wow," Steve repeated because he couldn't get anything else out of his mouth.

"And he said it again," Danny said with a dejected sigh like Steve was some major disappointment. "Okay, well I'm gonna let you two talk. Maybe he'll come up with more than one syllable."

He took two steps away from Steve before turning around and adding: "May I remind you that your _girlfriend_ has told us all to be punctual and she's in a bad mood so none of us want to make it worse. Oh, she's also told me to make sure you're there on time even if I have to strap you to the hood of the Camaro to get you there. So you know… I've got the rope in the back…"

"Just go get Grace, Danny," Steve ordered and only then did his friend leave him.

Once he was gone Catherine approached him, reaching out to smooth out his suit much like he was used to Rowan doing. She even gripped his lapels as she smiled warmly up at him. God, why did he want to kiss her right now? Fuck he should have pressed Rowan for a quickie before she left. How long had it been since they had fucked? A week, maybe ten days. Too long. That's why Catherine was affecting him… right?

"Wow. You look very, very handsome. Rowan's very lucky."

"Thank you, you look very beautiful and I'll uh… I'll be sure to remind Rowan of that when I see her."

"She's not here?" Catherine asked almost innocently. Steve wasn't stupid she knew Rowan wasn't home, that was how she got in in the first place.

"Naw, she uh… she took on a big role for Kono's wedding…" "She's only the maid of honor." "—And the wedding planner, and in charge of the music and… yeah, I unno she's just taking this very seriously. She uh… left this morning to make sure set up was happening."

Catherine nodded but didn't move her hands and Steve didn't move them for her either. "So, after the wedding… how long you planning on staying?"

Catherine smiled coquettishly up at him and asked: "How long do you want me to stay?"

And just like that there was ice in Steven's veins. She was flirting with him. That meant she had assessed what was going on between him and Rowan and guessed that things weren't good, probably heading for a crash and burn break up. And she had decided to swoop in on him before the relationship was even over.

Telling Catherine he wanted her to stay indefinitely would mean that he was accepting that his relationship with Rowan was over. And he didn't want that. He didn't want that at all. But he also didn't want to tell her like a week or something and have her go, not when he wasn't sure what he was feeling for her.

Luckily he didn't have to answer because his phone rang. While Catherine laughed at his luck, and the bad timing of his call, Steve answered it.

They had found Hadad's body washed up on the beach. Beyond dead. So, if Hadad was dead, where the hell was the Nuke?

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Once Steve shot the man they were interrogating in the leg, Danny knew he had to do something. Anything to get this man back onto the road to sanity. He wasn't sure if it was because Catherine was back, or because Rowan was driving the man crazy, but something had derailed Steven and he was twice as aggressive as he usually was.

So, despite knowing that Rowan didn't want to help and had been ignoring both Steve and Catherine's requests for help or any form of communication from them, Danny had sent Rowan a text.

 _Steven's having a meltdown. Palace ASAP._

And amazingly, Rowan had come. Though he didn't want to, he had excused himself from the interrogation room to go and get her. He took Rowan down to the basement floor, letting her ask him over and over again whether or not Steve was alright and how bad it was, without answering her.

What he said instead was: "Look, we need you. _Ice Queen_ you right now. So, put on that war mask of yours and let's scare the crap out of a terrorist."

And then he shoved her into the room.

It was an utterly ridiculous plan. To shove Rowan, who was done up in a navy blue knee length, chiffon dress with an empire waist decorated in little silver ivy branches and a pair of matching navy blue high heels that were crystal studded all down the heel, into that small room, hoping their bad guy would recognize her and shout out the location of the nuke.

Steve had put a gun to the man's head and it hadn't worked, why did he think putting Rowan in the room would?

But Steve took Rowan's appearance in, as she stared at the man, cuffed to the chair in front of her, with blankly rapt interest. Her face betrayed no emotion, but her head was tilted to the side as she took him in, seemingly ignoring Steven who was staring at her like she was the answer to all their problems. He reached out for her, his hand gripping her arm and then put her right in front of Bennett.

"Meet Rowan Pierce," Steve said. "I believe you know her brother. Wo Fat."

"Wo Fat knew Hadad not him," Rowan snapped. She then looked at him and then back to Danny. "He's not having a meltdown, why did you bring me here?"

Danny sighed and shook his head. "Because we need you."

"I don't see why you would. You've shot him in the leg and he hasn't cracked, my network isn't going to do shit."

"Okay, then do the shocky thing. Where you electrocute him and get a vision. Do that."

"What's the matter, McGarrett, couldn't your precious Catherine get the intel for you?"

"Rowan this is a nuclear warhead, not a petty game!"

"Well it's kind of a game… of hide and seek," Rowan said with a shrug. "And you picked a loosing team. So No, Steven. I will not be doing the shocky thing for you."

Steve whirled onto Rowan, completely forgetting that his gun was out. "Rowan. We have a nuke on the island that this psycho is going to detonate. Do you understand me. This isn't about me and you. This isn't about me and Catherine. This is about the hundreds of thousands of people on Hawaii who is going to _die_ , innocent people, women children, families… everyone! They're going to die if I don't find this bomb. You are _always_ in my way, you are _always_ interfering and now that I actually need you to be do something and you're refusing. Why? Because you didn't get your way? Because Catherine's here and I wanted legal help and not whatever black market shit your phone has? Well I'm sorry Catherine's kind of intel comes from legal channels and you're a black market knock off. Are you happy now? Stop being a brat and DO SOMETHING!"

Steve had no idea he had been gesturing at her with the gun until Danny stepped half into the way and put his hand out to put it down. She blinked her eyes at him, as if she couldn't understand what had just happened. That mask of Ice Queen indifference was still on her face but something akin to hurt and agony shone in those wavering blue eyes of hers.

"Calm down," Danny urged.

"Yeah calm down, I don't need a vision I already know where they put the nuke," Rowan said.

Steve blinked his eyes. "I'm sorry… you already know where it is? What did you dream it up last night?"

"No, I got it through the app," Rowan said. "He may not have been working with him, but Sandy monitors all incoming threats. She's been watching that nuke since it touched down on the island. She doesn't report the small things but I can look them up if need be which is how I figured out where they were holding it on the island. She upgraded the threat to orange yesterday when they set it and armed it. Went red this morning when she finished calculating the blast radius and the estimated time of detonation. She's advising we get off the island."

Steve stared at her, almost too calmly. "You've known where that bomb was the entire time… and you didn't tell me?"

"You told me not to use the app, Steven. You wanted _Catherine_ to help you, not me," she reminded him and something ugly passed over his face.

"Where is the bomb, Rowan?" he growled darkly.

Rowan actually took a step away from him, and he realized it was because he had raised his gun up again. That time, Danny took it right out of his hand.

"It's on a Waikiki Shopping trolley. Pink line. Heading down Kalakaua street straight into the heart of Waikiki. Cart number 34."

Steve stepped around her and went for the door. Danny watched her wince. "Steven…" she called and he actually came to a stop. "The driver's one of them. He's going to have a gun. I know I told you to get shot… but please don't get shot."

Steve came back to kiss her softly and lovingly before heading out the door. As soon as she was gone she turned back to Bennett and said: "If my family gets hurt over this, my app is set to kill your wife and kids. That's even if I get killed in the blast. So you better hope they find that nuke."

Well hot damn. And she said she wasn't going to do anything to help them. Rowan had done it all.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

The bomb was right where Rowan said it would be. But Steve couldn't shut it off. Bennett had disconnected the Permissive Action link. Which meant there was no way to stop it. There was a team waiting at Pearl Harbour to defuse the bomb, but Pearl Harbour was a half hour away and they didn't have that kind of time. He had to get the nuke off the island right away.

He had decision to make, so he made it. Chin and Grover were left behind to deal with the body Steve had dropped. Which left the girls to act as an escort for the trolley. Kono too had come along. No wedding if they're not all there. Yeah, Steve got that too, so he didn't even bother arguing as she suited up. But he did like seeing Catherine working with the rest of the gang again, fitting in easily like a cog that just fit with their crime fighting machine.

Maybe he just wanted to work with her again. Maybe that was what all this confusion and butterflies was about.

Danny and Steve had stayed in the trolley to get the nuke to Kamekona's who had very graciously allowed them to use his helicopter had it ready to go for them just as they arrived.

They hadn't told him what it was for so he was very surprised to see a nuke come out of the trolley.

And no one had told him that Rowan was there until she was trailing after him as he and Danny carted the nuke as gently as they could towards the awaiting bird.

"What are you doing here?" Steve asked her.

"Well, I thought I might help… like maybe I could…"

Oh now she wanted to help?

"No," Steve snapped before her hands could get past him. The last thing he wanted was Rowan in the blast zone of a bomb, or close enough to catch even a bit of radiation. She had enough powers thank you very much. "No void stuff near the nuke. Not when we don't know what it'll do."

Rowan fell back, leaving Steve and Danny to load the helicopter. Steve wanted to hug her goodbye. He wanted to at least kiss her once simply because he wasn't certain if he'd make it back, but he didn't have the time.

But he sure as hell had the time to notice that in this time of utter need, his eyes were only on Rowan. His heart, only wanted Rowan in his arms at that moment, and it was her embrace he wanted to have when he got back… if he got back.

"Alright, we're airborne. How far offshore do we need to be?" Steve said into his headset.

Chin answered him immediately. "Well, according to Los Alamos and Sandy, you gotta dump that thing 50 miles offshore and at a depth of 2,000 feet to neutralize any threat of radiation.

"That shouldn't be a problem, right?" Danny asked.

"No, but there's a tricky part. Based on the mass of the nuke and the rate that it sinks, you're gonna have to drop that package in the water with no less than two minutes to spare on that timer. That might not give you enough time to get out of the blast zone."

Steve didn't buy that though. Because Rowan's bomb dream never ended in him dying. It ended in Kono's wedding being postponed. But with all the arguing they had been doing lately there's a good chance she just might not have told him if she was dreaming about him exploding or getting knocked out of the sky by a jet stream of water.

Danny actually took that revelation rather well for a few minutes.

"Well I guess the good news is that dying would be better than looking at your bald head for the rest of my life."

"What are you rambling about now?" Steve snapped, so not in the mood for this right now.

"I got a nuke at my foot, okay? What am I rambling about? If we don't die, which is a gigantic if, I'm gonna be microwaving eggs with my finger, okay?"

"Nobody is gonna die, Danny."

"Oh, really? Look. It's Dr. Strangelove. Aren't you the one who said the residual radiation is not so bad, but it's the direct contact that is?"

"No, I didn't say that exactly."

"You implied it," Danny accused and Steve sighed, yeah and he sure was regretting doing so now. "And now I'm standing on this thing…"

"Listen to me alright?" Steve cried cutting him off. "One kid is one thing, Dany, but two kids is something else, alright? And guess what, you got two kids now. You got two kids now, and one of them needs you to go home and do something really important for him, alright? So, you don't get to die today, even thought it would make my life a lot quieter."

For a minute Danny didn't say anything so Steve added: "And Rowan never predicted our deaths, you know? That wasn't ever something that worried her. She was just worried about the wedding running on time."

Danny nodded. Steve wondered if Danny would wonder the same thing. That Rowan thought the wedding running on time was more important than their lives. But he figured that not to be true, because Rowan would have told Danny to move up his procedure for Charlie if she thought there was a chance that Danny wouldn't be there to help him. And being mad at him was one thing, but if she knew Danny would be going in the helicopter with him she would have warned him. And Danny would have told him because Danny can't keep a secret.

They hit that 50-mile mark and Danny opened the door and shoved the fucking thing out of the helicopter and into the water. He shut the door, got into the co-pilot seat where he sat beside Steve bracing for impact.

"Say it again," Danny ordered.

"Rowan never saw our deaths," Steve said as behind them something began to rumble.

Back on land, watching the helicopter try to turn around in time, the three woman all stood there, hand out stretched to one another, interlacing fingers as they held on tightly. There was no bickering or fight. Catherine didn't pull away when Rowan offered her a hand to hold. They just held on, the girl giving them each a bit of silent comfort.

And then the bomb went off.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

They came out of that helicopter, and even though the blades were still going down and Rowan's hair had already been done up and she could risk it flying out of place, she let out a squeal of happiness and rushed him. Jumping into his arms.

"Oh look at you, a regular James Bond!" she cried and he couldn't help but smile. She kissed him solidly and Steve smiled into the gesture because having her back in his arms made him feel better, made everything in his body feel better. Like the mere act of holding her put everything back into place, putting everything back into perspective. In fact, he had no idea that Catherine was still there until she hugged Danny beside him.

"Thanks my brothers," Kamekona said once Rowan's feet were back on the ground and both Danny and Steve had exchanged hugs with Catherine and Kono.

"What? For saving your life you mean?" Danny asked, clearly expecting some sort of complaint to come out of Kamekona's mouth.

"For destroying my business."

And there it was.

"What are you talking about?" Steve asked the same time Danny echoed with: "Destroying your business? Thing's in perfect working condition!"

"Yeah!" Steve cried, he too gesturing to the helicopter just like Danny was.

"Yeah, but nobody's gonna wanna eat fish for the next three months." Okay, yeah he had them there. "But on the bright side, it allows me to concentrate on this."

He showed them a flyer of a catamaran with a giant red sail with Kamekona's face on it. Well wasn't that frightening? And it would be worse if there was a fleet of them out on the water, which no doubt would be Kamekona's plan.

"Huh, what is that? Fun Kine Catamaran Tours," Steve read out.

"Spread the word, twenty percent off for law enforcement, and any celebrities my favourite musical little sista wasn't to send my way," he said.

Rowan just shook her head. "On your maiden voyage you sink the ship and get stranded on a not so deserted island."

Steve just put an arm around her and tugged her to his side. He pressed a kiss to her temple loving the way Rowan's arm snaked around him as she half hugged him back. God he had missed this. How had he forgotten how much he loved having her near him. He didn't even care that she spat out a prediction that no one wanted. But he filed that prediction away, a reminder to never get on a boat with Kamekona.

He absently checked his watch and then balked at the time. He turned to the other two girls with his famous roughish grin spreading over his face. "Hey, uh… Kono… you're getting married in five minutes!"

Beside him Rowan straightened as if she had completely forgotten about the wedding she had been working tirelessly on for the last two months. The wedding all of them, including the bride, were currently late for.

"Oh yes! Yes! The wedding!" Rowan cried. "I worked way to hard on this wedding for us not to go!"

Steve let Rowan take his hand and pull him away smiling as she did so. Okay… so maybe he had been over reacting. Maybe he wasn't so conflicted after all.


	203. Chapter 203

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Friday my wonderful readers! This is it! The last chapter in season 5. (Though I will admit it has a few moments from the season 6 opener.) This is the last little bit of cute before the angst happens again. But don't worry, once we get through the season 6 angst, it's nothing but cute things. Like weddings, adoptions and babies. I promise. I can go into a little bit more detail here, but if you guys would like some major spoilers I can post them at the bottom of the next chapter. But essentially, yes, there are a lot of things wrong with Steve and Rowan's relationship, most importantly that she has a penchant for lying and he's emotionally abusive. Rowan's lying stems from her past, and Steve's emotionally abusive tendencies come from his inability to handle the emotions he feels. This season apart is going to address Rowan's past, Rowan's fears and her powers, while Steve will be going through his own things to fix his own issues. I will be adding a new main character into the mix, and we're going to see a lot more of Wo Fat, who will also be getting some character growth. So it's a lot that I'm going to be tackling for season 6, and the season 7 reuniting is gonna be cute AF. Don't forget to tell me if you'd like to have spoilers at the bottom of the next chapter, don't forget to review, and I'll see you guys on Monday._

Chapter 203

* * *

They made it to the Royal Hawaiian Golf Club in record time. Rowan, who drove Kono back, managed to get her back there before the others made it. They did their last minute touches and then they all headed to the fairground where the wedding would be taking place. Steve had Catherine on his arm, as she needed help to stay stable on the grass, while Chin, Grover and Danny all jogged towards their prospective dates. Grover got his wife, Danny found Grace, and Steve, once he got Catherine off his arm found Nahele already sitting down. Chin, went to Adam to assure him that Kono was, in fact, coming.

And then she was there.

Kono was coming towards them looking all sorts of bridely in that flowing white gown with matching silver ivy around the waist. Behind her came Rowan who was somehow managing to carry her own and Kono's bouquet as well as Kono's wedding train. They walk towards the group together, Rowan's eyes narrowing at Catherine who was still holding onto Steve while Kono beamed at Adam who was ready to receive her with open arms and a ready kiss. That lasted all of two seconds before Rowan shoved him away.

"You have your whole lives to canoodle," she warned him. "Don't mess up her make up! I gave up a lot in royalties to get the make up artist that I did. Don't mess with me!"

Adam backed away immediately and Rowan turned back to Kono immediately and frantically going about making sure everything was right as if the short walk could have put everything out place.

"Okay are you ready?" she asked her and Kono nodded.

"Rowan breathe," she ordered. "Calm down, everything is going to be great."

Steve couldn't help but smile Rowan was probably more stressed and excited about this wedding then Kono and Adam were. He stepped away from Catherine to gather up his anxious girlfriend so Kono could down the aisle this century.

"Hey babe," Steve whispered reaching out for her but Rowan had dodged his grip.

"Don't hey baby me, like I didn't just see you walk up to this wedding with Catherine on your arm."

"But… it was grass… and she's in heels… and _you were with Kono_."

"Excuses, excuses, go sit with our kid, go, go with Nahele," Rowan snapped shoving him down the aisle to where their seats were.

She had left Chin and Kono to talk, but it was time to go. She was to walk down the aisle with Chin. As she was the only brides' maid and he was the only groomsman.

"Ring me," Rowan said holding out her hand to him. She had entrusting Chin with the rings, a big deal for Chin, for Rowan to relent such an important part of the wedding to him when she had been in full control freak mode over the whole ceremony. It didn't bode well that he was wide eyes and staring at her as if this were the first time he was hearing of the rings.

Rowan scowled at him. "If you tell me you left those rings at home, so help me boy…"

"No, no, I left them in the car."

"You have less than thirty seconds to get those rings or so help me… Chin… I won't be held accountable for what I do to you…"

"Calm down, calm down I'm going!"

Chin turned and literally ran to the parking lot. He passed Rowan's car, Catherine's car, and Kono's car before getting to his. Luckily the rings were in the glove compartment because if he had to turn back and tell Rowan they weren't there… well let's just say he didn't want to face down her wrath. He didn't think he could stand up to it anyway.

"Hello Chin!"

Chin turned immediately. He knew that voice. He just couldn't believe he'd show his face. Still Chin turned around to face Gabriel and the gun he had leveled to Chin chest. "What are you doing here?"

"Came to apologize. I was wrong about Adam," he said. But when Chin would only glare at him Gabriel shifted. "I never meant to hurt you Chin. Everything aside, we're still family."

"Really? This is how you treat family?" he asked. "You stick a gun in their face? You try and send them to jail."

"It was the only way that I could get to Coughlin, to get IA off your back." Wow Gabriel was really going to pretend that he did that for him. "And now I need you to repay the debt."

"Repay the debt?" Chin echoed.

"Do you know what Black Cat Protocols are, Chin?" Gabriel asked. "It's a function on her app that one of them activated. It's suffocating the life out of me. Every time I think I'm out from under him he does something else to knock me down."

"So what? You want it turned off. She's at the wedding go ask her yourself."

"No. I know she keeps sparing me, something Wo Fat doesn't seem to want to do. I know there's no point in asking for her help in the matter, and I'm not stupid enough to show my face when her patience with me is waring this. No… now I'm annoyed. Now I'm going to hit him back, and I'm going to hit hard, right where it hurts, and when I do, when I knock him down. I'm going to take over," he said. Those were some heavy handed threats he was throwing around. Chin couldn't wait to personally tell Wo Fat what Gabriel had been saying. "I'm here to offer you a deal. You know what I do, and that I'm good at it. it's only a matter of time before you and your friends get in my way again. Everything I make, you get half. fifty-fifty. You just need to stay out of my way, and since I know you're so fond of that girl, get her and that app off my back."

"That's not a deal. That's a bribe."

"Before you say no, just think about it," Gabriel told him. It would have been imploring had his tone implied that, or if he wasn't waving a gun about. Instead it came out the way Chin assumed Gabriel had wanted it to. Like it was a theat.

"Everyone looks at you like you're a dirty cop. Everyone. Even your friends."

"You don't know my friends!" Chin cried.

"I don't? While they were off getting little miss Pierce out of jail in Colombia I was the only one helping you," Gabriel snapped. "You're not family to them Chin. But you are to me."

Chin's smile widened. "Ah see I know that's not true. Rowan sent a Rowan-gram. He killed Coughlin, not you. So… you know… I'm family to her, and that's clearly enough."

For a second Gabriel just stood there. "Rowan Pierce isn't going to always been around to save you. Who are you going to turn to then?"

That was a good point. But he'd still have his friends, he'd always have his friends. But the thought of not having Rowan around… of having her app to come in and save the day filled him with worry. Maybe they were all a little too addicted to Rowan and her wonder app. Instead he ignored the jab and decided to jab Gabriel right back.

"As soon as you put that gun away, I'm going to arrest you," Chin said. "Or I'll just hand you off to Wo Fat. Sounds like he really wants to have some fun with you."

"After all I've done. Not even a thank-you?" he snarled. "I'm really disappointed in you, Chin. Turn around."

Chin didn't want to, of course, but he had no choice. Gabriel had a gun and Chin was unarmed. Slowly he did as he was told and as he did Gabriel and that gun shifted closer to him. Well Chin wasn't going to go down without guilt tripping Gabriel first.

"This is who you are now? You're gonna shoot a man in the back?"

"You wouldn't be the first Kelly I've killed."

"Well, then you better take the shot. Because if you don't, there's nothing that's gonna stop me from finding you and putting you down. That's if Rowan doesn't get you first."

For a moment there was silence and then…

"Chin?" Rowan called, her voice carrying over the air. He jerked, turning back to where Gabriel had been with the gun, ready to attack him in case he turned that gun onto Rowan but he wasn't there. Chin looked all around him to make sure Gabriel was gone before he turned to where Rowan was jogging up to him, moving a little stiffly due to the heels she was wearing. "Dude, what's taking you so long, you said they were in the car. Were you lying and had to drive home?"

"No… I… uh…"

"Oh did Gabriel leave already?' Rowan asked peering past him. "Shame, I would have loved to speak to him."

Chin stared at her, not sure he liked the look about her face as she said it. There was something very Ice Queenish about it.

"Are we good to go?" she asked and he nodded. Shutting his car down and pocketing the rings. He decided that after the wedding, he and Rowan were going to have a long chat about the negative effects of her app.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan had to stand behind Kono for the whole wedding, just as Chin had stood behind Adam. The two had handed the couple the rings when requested, and Steve had found himself staring at Rowan the entire time with a loving smile on his face. She looked so pretty standing there, her eyes misting with happiness as she watched Kono get married. He wondered, when it was their turn, if she would smile at him the same way, or if he'd shed a few tears himself. He was getting a little choked up just thinking about it right now.

When the ceremony was finished the bride and groom went off and Rowan could return to Steve's side. She let him pull her close and kiss her which she welcomed whole heartedly. They then went as a group to the banquet area where Rowan left him immediately to set up the music. Steve had milled around with his friend, heard from Chin why he was so late, and gathered the others around to hear the tale, so he hadn't kept his eyes on Rowan.

When he saw her next she was in the middle of the dancefloor with a microphone and Kono's cousin beside her. Makana had been in charge of all the singing during the ceremony, though it looked like they were going to share the duties now. Why was Steve even surprised that his girl was providing the entertainment for this wedding?

"Hello, ladies and Gentlemen," she called getting everyone's attention. "I hope everyone's doing well today. Today, both I and Kono's cousin Makana have the great pleasure of entertaining you, though I have brought in a few professionals to help us. But first, I'd like to introduce you guys, for the very first time, Mr. and Mrs. Noshimuri."

As Adam and Kono came in, holding hands and waving to all their guests, Rowan took her place on the small makeshift stage. As they got into place on the dance floor, Rowan got herself set on the stage. Steve found himself torn between who to watch. The couple about to complete their first dance or his beautiful girlfriend.

And as soon as she started singing Steve was no longer torn. Though Adam and Kono were dancing beautifully, nothing could compare to Rowan standing on that stage singing a song he had no idea she wrote, except that it was absolutely beautiful and perfect for the couple.

 _I thought sooner or later, the lights up above, will come down in circles and guide me to love. But I don't know what's right for me. I cannot see straight. I've been here too long and I don't want to wait for it. Fly like a cannonball, straight to my soul. Tear me to pieces, and make me feel whole. I'm willing to fight for it and carry this weight. But with every step, I keep questioning what it's true._

 _Fall on me, with open arms. Fall on me, from where you are. Fall on me. With all your light. With all your light. With all your light._

Adam took Kono through another turn effortlessly loving that smile that grew on her face when he did so. He took another glance at Rowan who was singing so nicely. He had known that she was good, but he hadn't quite been aware that she was that good. Even though Kono kept telling him.

"Wow," he breathed out after one of Rowan's inflections. "I'm really glad we put her in charge of music. Best wedding gift ever."

Kono laughed at him, opened her mouth to say something else when the familiar lilt of a male voice began to resonate around them in flawless, rich Italian.

 _Presto una luce ti illuminerà. Seguila sempre, guidarti saprà, tu non arrenderti, attento a non perderti. E il tuo passato avrà senso per te. Vorrei che credessi in te stesso, ma sì, In ogni passo che muoverai qui. È un viaggio infinito. Sorriderò se. Nel tempo che fugge mi porti con te_

Both Adam and Kono couldn't help but turn. They both missed a step but they couldn't help it. Not when they were in the process of recognizing exactly who was up on that stage with Rowan.

"Is that Andrea Bocelli?" Kono asked.

While pulling her in for another turn, his mouth open in shock, Adam said: "That _is_ Andrea Bocelli…"

"I mean when she said she got your favourite artist… I thought she meant herself…" Kono said watching as Rowan joined into the song, officially singing _with_ Andrea Bocelli. She knew that the second their first dance was done, Adam was going to want an intro because Andrea Bocelli was one of his favourite artists.

When Rowan had said that the music for their wedding was going to be their wedding gift, Kono hadn't told her she didn't care, the fact that Rowan was going to be there and had already done so much that should have been Kono's wedding gift. But Rowan had been adamant to make the music aspect her gift, knowing Rowan's flare for the dramatic she assumed that meant that she'd get a show, you know… that features only Rowan. But this was one hell of a show with real actual headliners.

 _Fall on me. Ascoltami. Fall on me. Abbracciami. Fall on me. Finché vorrai. Finché vorrai. Finché vorrai._

"Wow this really is _the best wedding gift ever_ ," Adam exclaimed and Kono smiled.

Jesus Rowan had really come through for them.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

It took a very long time for Steve to finally get a chance to pin Rowan down. Between Rowan putting on more shows, Adam practically fawning over Andrea Bocelli, dinner coming to the table, and everyone taking turns dancing, he hadn't had a chance to talk to her. And after the incident before the wedding both he and Chin were desperate to talk to her. Gabriel had said some things, dangerous things and he wanted Rowan warned. But they had to wait three sets before Rowan hopped off that stage to come towards them and let Makana take over the singing.

"Hey there sailor," she said when she got close. She jumped up on her tippy toes and kissed him solidly. Steve melded into her embrace and almost forgot what he needed to talk to her about. "Let me grab some water and me and you can cut a rug!"

"No…"

Rowan whirled around on him before he could even finish his sentence. "No? Okay, excuse you, I've been watching you dance with Catherine all afternoon and now that I'm available it's a _no_?"

Steve shook his head. "No, that's not what I mean, we're definitely gonna dance, I just wanna talk to you first."

"Oh cool, just let me grab some water I am parched!" she cried heading towards their table. A place had been set for her, of course, but no food had been brought out to it, just glasses of water. Steve and Chin followed her back.

"So uh… Gabriel pulled a gun on Chin…" Steve started only to be cut off by Rowan.

"I know," she said between gulps.

" _You know_?"

"Well yeah, I went to go see what was taking Chin so long. I obviously saw him," Rowan said. "And did you see how fast he ran when he heard me coming?"

Oh she sounded so proud, why couldn't she see it was a bad thing? "Rowan… okay, that's great… but he said some things to Chin I think you should hear…"

Rowan turned to Chin expectantly. "Like what?"

"He said that you and Wo Fat have been running Black Cat Protocols against him…"

"Wo Fat is, not me," she clarified. When both Steve and Chin just stared at her she sighed and said: "Sorry… please continue."

"Okay, well he said he's annoyed and that he's going to start hitting Wo Fat back hard… where it hurts," Chin said. Rowan just nodded, clearly not understanding the implications of that.

"Rowan… if he's going to hit Wo Fat hard, it means he'll go after you."

Rowan just scoffed. "No it doesn't. The man's not that stupid."

"Rowan!" Steve groaned watching with horrid curiosity as her hand went into her the bust of her dress and returned with her phone. Immediately she was typing something in while Steve was momentarily stunned that her phone had been hidden there the whole time and he couldn't tell. When he realized she was typing he frowned. "What are you doing? Who are you calling?"

"No one, geezus Steven, I'm just gonna log the threat into the app," she said. "Sandy's been monitoring all of Gabriel's incoming threats towards me and Wo Fat for months. The man is digging himself a grave."

Steve and Chin exchanged glances let Rowan finish typing and then hide her phone, once more somewhere in her cleavage. "Now, not to down play how serious it was that he showed up at this wedding with all of us so near by, but we _are_ at a wedding. And we should be celebrating Kono and Adam not letting Gabriel get us down."

"She has a point," Chin said and Steve nodded.

"I would very much like to take my girlfriend out for a spin, and I know Nahele would like a turn too," he said as Chin milled off to find himself his own dancing partner.

Rowan smiled in that devilish way he couldn't help but find cute. "Uh… but first, you know, I was wondering… since you look all fine in that suit… if you'd like to uh.. I unno play out any James Bond fantasies…"

Steve's eyebrows shot up as his grin widened. "I've been here hours so I know where all the washrooms are and well… I know I've been busy lately with the wedding but we're almost through it now and I was gonna reward you tonight… I've got the anniversary panties on and everything but I thought you might like…"

"Yes," he said interrupting her before she could blather on any more, taking her hand the two of them slipped out of the dining hall where the wedding reception was being held and immediately made a bee-line to the closest private room with a lock on it. Like she thought he'd turn down sex when his girl looked like a goddess singing on that stage. The girl was crazy.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

The party was dying down but Rowan wasn't done yet. The happy couple were sitting at their table of honor and Rowan still had one last gift for Kono.

She took the microphone again and taped it to get the attention of the crowd.

"Hello again ladies and gentleman, Rowan again. You know, before I took on the duties of Maid of Honor, I gave my friends the option to sign the card that goes with my wedding gift and everyone, including my boyfriend turned me down. And I really need you guys to remember that for this next bit," she said catching the table of scowls pointed in her directions. She blew kisses at them all before turning back to the crowd who was staring at her like she was crazy. "For those of you who don't know, the first song we performed today was a wedding gift for Adam, who, I've been told, loves Andrea Bocelli, but if I have a song for Adam that must mean I have a song for Kono too. And that's what we have coming up right now. So if you don't mind, I've got one last performance for you guys."

She received a smattering of polite applause before the music cut it all out. She loved this song, had worked hard on this song for Kono and she couldn't wait to dazzle her friend with it.

With the music came the drill team she had booked out for this. All in army fatigues. They got into formation and as Rowan began to sing, they began to perform with her.

 _Ladies all across the world. Listen up, we're looking for recruits. If you with me, lemme see your hands. Stand up and salute. Get your killer heels, sneakers, pumps or lace up your boots. Representing all the women, salute, salute._

This was the part of the song she loved the most. Getting to mimic Steven and his salute. Gosh she had been practicing for so long she hoped it made him smile, she hoped she did it right and didn't offend him.

 _Attention (salute). Attention (salute). Attention (huh). Representing all the women, salute, salute._

She caught Steve's eye as she moved into the next verse, he was smiling, proudly at that. Good she had done it right.

With the first verse and second repeat of the chorus done, she called out: "Ladies, places!" and like that all the woman close to Kono got up out of their chairs. Makana went for Kono taking her hand and pulling her up to the stage while the women of the venue all found their place in between the all-female drill team to start the last part of the song.

This last part had been practiced for hours separately and together. Even Catherine had gotten lessons from Grace so she could be a part of it. Why Rowan was so worried about including her still when the girl was all over Rowan's man was beyond her, but she figured being the bigger person would win her bonus points with Steven.

When the women were all in place, and Kono was beside her, everyone turned to the stage and they started dancing as Rowan hit the chorus one more time.

 _Ladies all across the world. Listen up, we're looking for recruits. If you with me, lemme see your hands. Stand up and salute. Get your killer heels, sneakers, pumps or lace up your boots. Representing all the women, salute, salute._

That time when they were saluting they were saluting the most badass Five-0 on the team Kono. Makana came up to finish off the song for her.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, the newly weds would like to thank you for joining them. We hope you enjoyed the show. Please feel free to stay, be merry and make friends. And remember, Five-0 did not help with the music! Have a nice night!"

The music died, the drill team left with Adam and Kono and Rowan smiled smugly at Steve who frowned at her.

"I told you to put your name on my card, but you said you didn't want to," she reminded him and that was true he had said that. He was regretting it now though.

"So I spoke to Danny, he's taking Grace home, and he's going to drop Nahele off too," he said. "I thought me and you could go out and get a drink, what do you think?"

Rowan glanced to where Catherine was hovering just behind Steve. "Do you mean you and me, or me, you and Catherine?"

Steve lowered his eyes. "I still haven't got a chance to talk to her and I just figured… you know… instead of going alone you'd like to come?"

Rowan sighed. She took his chin in her hand and smiled up to him. "You're lucky you're so damn cute, McGarrett," she said. "Come on, let's go."

And with their hands linked they walked out of the venue and into the night.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

The following morning, Steve woke up to a pounding head and the wrong girl in bed with him. He frowned at Catherine, both because he was hung over and too old to be experiencing that kind of pain and because Catherine wasn't Rowan and he wasn't sure how Catherine got into his bed when he was pretty sure he went home with Rowan.

"Morning," she said sleepily to him, a languid smile creeping up on her face. Yeah let her smile, she wasn't the one who was gonna get screamed at. "What a night huh?"

"Yeah the night was epic," Steve agreed and then someone interrupted them.

"Who's the hussy?"

Steve practically threw himself out of the bed landing at Nahele's feet. The teenager just calmly stared down at Steve, a bowl of cereal in one hand, the other hand slowly shoveling a spoonful of cereal into his mouth. He calmly stared down at Steve like nothing was wrong with what had just happened while Steve was recovering from a heart attack.

"Jezus, Nahele you scared the crap out of me."

"Seriously, who's the uh… the girl who isn't mom in your bed?" Nahele asked again clearly very, very unimpressed.

Oh god, he really didn't want Catherine to catch the mom slip up. That was just too hard to explain. Catherine just groaned at him. "Steve… why is there a kid in your room."

"Catherine, Nahele, Nahele Catherine," he introduced. "Catherine is my ex, she's in town for Kono's wedding. Nahele is my foster kid."

Catherine nodded like this made sense. "Let me guess… Rowan's idea?"

A frown touched Nahele's face and Steve frowned in solidarity. It was true but she didn't have to say it like that. "No, my idea too," he lied.

"Is she why Ro ran out of here so fast?" Nahele asked and Steve inwardly swore. Son of a bitch.

"Ro's gone?" he groaned.

"Yeah, she booked it out of here like a half hour ago," he said with a shrug.

"I didn't even feel her leave the bed," Steve sighed.

"Oh she wasn't in here. She passed out in my room. I slept on the couch," Nahele said and Steve looked up. Dear god she hadn't even been in bed with him? Fuck how drunk were they?

Steve groaned and dropped his head into his hands while above him Nahele continued to munch away on his cereal. "So like you gonna chase after her or…?"

Steve just groaned louder. He didn't want to argue when his head pounded like this. He'd deal with Rowan later.


	204. Chapter 204

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Monday my wonderful readers. All of y'all were so worried about Steve and Catherine. No, he didn't cheat on Catherine, he just fell asleep beside her. I thought you guys would remember that in season 6 episode 1 he and Catherine woke up in the same clothes as the party before which I kept in, but I totally should have explained that. And as for what happened to end up in that situation, we're going to get a cliff noted version of it from Steve later in this chapter. More importantly, today we're officially starting Season Six here and a lot is going to get changed time-line wise, but when we get to the time line changes I'll tell you. There's a lot that's going to happen in the next 10 chapters and I know you guys are gonna be annoyed so I'm sorry in advance, but I promise, we're going to get character growth and at the end of it, it will be made worth it. And if you remember the 200th episode, literally 5 episodes after Steve gets Rowan back, he's gonna propose so we DO have good things coming we just need to get through season 6 first. So please bear with me._

Chapter 204

* * *

Their honey moon was supposed to be romantic and wonderful. Their very first day as an officially married couple started with Adam making her breakfast. Of him telling her that one day he'd love to have a family with her. She had been trying to tell him that she might not be ready for kids yet when the doorbell rang.

And that would be when Gabriel showed up and tazed Adam and then took her down too. Now they were both tied to chairs. Kono, having woken up after Adam did, awakening to Gabriel beating her new husband senseless.

"Stop it!" she cried once she realized what was happening and then Gabriel turned onto her.

"Nice of you to join us."

"Let him go!" she ordered as if she had any place to do that, as if she wasn't tied to a chair too. "Please. He's done nothing to you." Gabriel answered her by punching Adam again. She struggled against the ropes holding her there. "What do you want from him?"

"She's a little late to the party. Wanna catch her up?" Gabriel asked Adam who she could tell was struggling to hold in his grunts of pain.

Gabriel moved away from him and after Adam had composed himself, he said: "Gabriel wants me to transfer all my assets to a holding company he controls."

"Shouldn't be difficult, right?" Gabriel said to Kono. "He was scheduled to transfer all that cash to his father's ex-partner in three days. I'm just asking him to move that money now."

But Kono knew why Adam hadn't agreed to Gabriel's demands. "If he does that, the yakuza will kill him."

"If he doesn't, what do you think I'll do?" Gabriel growled to her.

God Kono had never wanted Rowan and her wonder app more. She wished she could just throw that at Gabriel, but she had no idea how Rowan would even know they would be in danger or whether or not she and Steven would be on good enough terms to join forces and come and rescue them. Maybe Rowan would just send Steve and Chin.

And then suddenly the front door opened and everyone froze. There was a beat of silence before they heard the door close again, already one of Gabriel's lackeys was heading towards the intruder. No gun in his hand, just that tazer that took down both she and Adam.

"I understand your concern, but unfortunately, it's too late I'm already in the house," someone said everyone turned. Rowan was turning the corner, both Adam and Kono shouted the same word that was falling from Gabriel's lips. But though all three of them shouted _NO_ at the same time, Gabriel's lackey still tazed Rowan. The poor girl jerked and went down. The phone with the bright red screen clattering from her hands and skidding across the floor.

That was not good for anyone.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

When Rowan came to, Gabriel was sitting in front of her eating something. Her head was buzzing and everything in her felt like it was on fire or just plain heavy. Gabriel smiled at her and then turned to Adam.

"This was good. What is it?"

Before he could answer Rowan grumbled: "It's quiche."

Gabriel turned back to her. "How did you know that? You didn't even see it!"

She got it from a vision but she wasn't going to tell him that. "I've been the sounding board for his practice quiches," she said and then turned to Kono. "Do you know how many shitty quiches I had to taste before he put something that tasted passable in front of me?"

"Enough!" Gabriel shouted which caused Rowan to jump, simply because she hadn't expected it. He put the phone in front of her, the screen red with alerts flashing all over it. "Turn it off."

"Mmmm…. No."

"Turn it off or I shoot your friend."

"I mean… I get that Kono loves Adam, but like… I don't really care… we're not all that close…" Rowan said and then Gabriel pointed that gun at Kono who was sitting there with duct tape over her mouth. "Oh… well I mean… I love Kono too, don't get me wrong but like… she almost died cause she wouldn't listen to me and I'm a little bitter…"

And then Gabriel slapped her. Rowan bit back her yelp and then shook her head free of any more pain. "Well damn Waincroft, I sure as hell don't wanna turn it off _now_."

He crossed to Kono and stood there as Rowan just narrowed her eyes not sure what the hell he was going to do. Before she could stop him, he had back handed Kono and Rowan yelped for her.

"Ah, okay, okay, JESUS! Sandy, there's been a misunderstanding…"

"No!" Gabriel interrupted her. "You use the real code."

Rowan blinked her eyes. "What?"

"The real code. The one you used in Colombia. Use the right code," he ordered. Rowan blinked her eyes a little more rapidly. How the hell did he know about that? "That's right, I've been watching you too and I know exactly which codes do what. Now. Use the right code, or next time I hit your girl it'll be with my fist."

Rowan glared at him. She really didn't want to do this but she really had no choice. "Fine. Fine… Sandy, it's okay, I'm A-Okay."

 _Confirmation needed._

"I'm A-Okay, Sandy." She said again this time a little bit more shakily. "Uh… make sure someone beams up Scotty, okay? Time to go night night."

 _Thank you. Have a nice day Professional._

"Beam up Scotty… what does that…"

Oh, so much for knowing about all her codes.

"She had people on the ground heading here. I pulled them back," Rowan said. "I didn't have to but I figured a good will gesture would do well in my favour."

Before Rowan could say anything else duct tape was put across her mouth. "Now that ought to keep you from activating it again, since I know destroying the phone so soon after having you take it offline is a red flag."

Great he knew that too? Who the hell had given him all this information?

Gabriel then turned onto Adam. As he asked Adam, again, to give him the money Rowan concentrated on the strings around her. Not the ropes around her wrists but the strings attached to them. She pulled the right one and bam, knots undone.

She quickly ripped the duct tape off of her mouth and said: "Yeah but what you're asking him to do is not possible. And I know he's told you that. The money belongs to the Yakuza and whoa everyone's got a gun…"

Rowan was surrounded by them. Gabriel had his gun out, his two men had his gun out the only one that didn't have a gun was her. Rowan had stood, stood to approach Gabriel, to maybe throw him off but now she couldn't do that so she just sat back down.

"How the hell did you do that?" he asked her coming to stand in front of her again.

"Do what?"

"How did you slip the ropes?"

"I'm double jointed," she answered with a shrug because that was the only answer she could offer. What was she really told him that she pulled a different string to get a different outcome? Yeah cause that didn't sound crazy.

"Tie her up again!" he ordered which his lackeys quickly did. Once he was certain that she was tied up properly he turned back to Adam.

"Now I'm trying to be professional about this. There's absolutely no need for anybody else to get hurt," he told him and over his shoulder Adam and Kono linked eyes. Kono slowly shook her head no. Well that was where she stood on that.

"Now, all you have to do is give my friend Damon here the account codes."

"Oh my god who knows that shit off the top of their head?"

Gabriel turned to her and the man who was hovering close behind her. "Why isn't she gagged."

"Well for starters you didn't tell him to do that and by the looks of it my man over here he doesn't wanna come near me again… so…"

Gabriel turned accusing eyes to him and the man actually bowed his head and moved around the couch, around Kono to sit by Damon with the computer.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Gabriel growled.

"I just uh… I don't wanna go down with you, you know. We should have turned her lose the second we realized who we tazed."

"Ohh he's a smart man," Rowan said. "It's gonna suck when they kill you."

Gabriel whirled around to her again and that time when he hit her it was a full-blown punch. Rowan couldn't help but cry out when that hit landed.

When she had composed herself, she turned a dangerous glare onto the man heaving in front of her. "I'm growing impatient with you Gabriel Waincroft," she warned and when he just scoffed at her she donned her best Ice Queen smile and asked: "How's Sara by the way? When was the last time you went home to see her?"

For all of two seconds he recoiled and then he slapped her. It hurt, but instead of crying out that time she just laughed. When she looked at him again, she was proud to say that the Ice Queen mask had not slipped off of her face.

"Ohh touchy subject. What's the matter, didn't think I knew about that? What thought you had some secrets?" Rowan spat back at him. "Someone told me once, that living and operating in your world means having no weaknesses and anyone who gets close to you is a weakness. Sara is such a pretty… little… _weakness_."

"Shut up!" Gabriel warned. "Shut up."

"Or what Gabriel?" she asked. "What are you going to do to me? Kill me? You do that… well If Five-0 doesn't get you Wo will. You thought Black Cat Protocols were bad now? You've had them on low level, what do you think it's going to feel like when he cranks it up to extreme?"

"Low level…"

"That's right, I bargained him down from straight up killing you to a low-level Black Cat Protocol. But if you had just left when I told you to that wouldn't have mattered, we would have pulled back. Now… well… now it's just going to get worse for you."

That time when he hit her, he punched her in the stomach effectively winding her for a while. And while she coughed and sputtered, he turned away, beginning to pace. Her words having finally affected him.

"You know Gabriel… I got a little song for you, you wanna hear it?"

He turned to her and Rowan didn't even hesitate she launched into a song from a comedy sketch she saw years ago.

 _Kill yourself, it'll only take a minute. You'll be happy that you did it. Just go over to your oven and shove your head in it. Kill yourself, really you should do it, there's really nothing to it. Just grab a mug and chug a cup of lighter fluid._

He hit her again to get her to stop and then hit her a second time no doubt to stun her and then a third probably for good measure.

Rowan leant back against the chair everything fuzzy and in pain. "Just do yourself a favour, save me the money, and kill yourself. You're walking dead anyway."

"Is this a game to you?" he asked. "Do you think I'm playing a game?"

"Well it feels like a game," Rowan said with a grin similar to Steve's roguish one on her face. "And it feels an awful lot like I'm winning."

"Winning. You're tied to a chair. I have Adam and Kono locked down and in a few short minutes I'm going to start by extracting a little cooperation by extracting…"

"Kono's teeth," Rowan finished for him which had him frowning all over again, because how could she have known that. She had had a dream that morning. But she wasn't going to tell him that. And she wasn't going to let him.

She caught a brief flash of movement and Rowan paused. She leaned past Gabriel to look out the window. Gabriel turned and followed her gaze. "What are you looking at?"

"How many men did you bring?" she asked. "There were three outside when I got here, very easy to get past by the way, and two in here… do you have more?"

"What does that matter?" he asked. Outside the window, just behind a tree she saw a splatter of red fly into the wind and a body drop before being dragged out of view. Oh… oh… she was saved. Thank god because she really, didn't think that she could take getting hit again.

Straightening Rowan looked up to Gabriel with a patient smirk on her face. "Are you sure you locked the front door?" she asked. Gabriel just glared at her. "And all the windows?"

"No. you're not going to trick me. No one's coming. You turned off your app."

"Did I?" Rowan asked with a patronizing wince on her face.

"I know your codes…" "—All my codes?" At that Gabriel paused. He stared at her as if she had grown two head. "Do you want to know what the Beam Me Up Scotty Function really does?"

Swearing, he left her, quickly rushing to the front door while Rowan smiled and leant back. He was screwed he was so fucking screwed. There was twenty seconds of agonizing silence as Gabriel went to the front door. Twenty seconds of silence that ended in Gabriel getting hit with god knows what and going down.

The two men inside never even stood a chance. By the time the man in the white rabbit mask had come around the corner he had shot them both dead where they stood. And Rowan, Rowan just sat back and exhaled out a few breathy chuckles of relief that rose into loud laughter.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Wo Fat had given him one task. And he gave him a lot of money to complete that task. He had told him that this task would probably be the hardest mission to date. But he hadn't believed him. All he had to do was sit on Rowan and make sure she didn't get in trouble. It was one girl, how bad could it have been?

But Wo Fat had been right.

When he had gotten that phone call that morning, he had excepted the issue to be small. The girl had been out at a wedding, then out all night drinking, there wasn't anything he could think she would need him for, other than killing the girl she probably found asleep in her man's bed. He was immediately reminded that Rowan always called him NA. He was also made aware that she had found a fucking hostage and torture situation and she was dead ass going to walk into it to stop a crazed psychopath from hurting her friends.

NA had been horrified. For one, she had no back up. Well he was supposed to be the back up, that's what she had called him for, but he was on a different island thinking her safe and sound and he wouldn't be able to get there fast enough. But she wasn't going to wait for him either. He had been unable to stop her, had been powerless as he heard someone taze her, and then pick up her phone and end the call.

Dear god Wo Fat was going to kill him.

NA had stolen the fastest boat he could find to get to her. And on the way he got an alert that her app had been force closed and she was calling for an immediate extraction. Great. Double great. He didn't need this kind of stress right now.

When he got to the beach outside of Noshimuri's place he expected to find more resistance. Instead he found three men guarding the entrance, easy to take out. He managed to take out all three of them without using a gun. Silence would make it easier to surprise the remaining two men inside and Waincroft. Damn he should have just put Waincroft down in that cabin. Why did he listen to Wo Fat when he was told that Rowan didn't want him dead? He saw the murderous insanity in the man's eyes, he recognized that lethal streak in him, but noooo he had listened to them and now they were in this situation and he was panicking.

This girl was too sentimental. It better not have gotten her killed either cause he did not want to have to be the one to report that shit to Wo Fat. Not since he kinda liked working with the man, other than this op, all the others had been very interesting.

When he got inside, he knocked Gabriel so hard with his brass knuckles the man went down and would stay down. NA wouldn't have been surprised if he had caused actual permanent damage. Then all he had to do was take out the last two, and with the surprise officially in mid swing it was easy. Two bullets at the other two and they both went down, heads blown. Then he was checking the perimeter to make sure no one else was inside before getting to the crux of the matter. To the reason why he was so out of breath and panicked.

"You absolute fucking moron!" he shouted at her as he climbed over the bodies he had dropped to get to her.

"NA? Is that you?" she asked and he scowled.

"Who else would it be, Rowan?"

"Why are you wearing that mask?"

"It's my calling card, you twit, didn't you read my profile on the app?" he asked her.

"Not really, I skimmed, I mean…" she started but NA couldn't hold it in anymore.

"I had one job, Rowan!" he shouted at her. "One job. To keep you out of a situation like this. And you fucking WALKED RIGHT INTO IT!"

"NA… NA… I know you're upset but do you think you could…"

"Why the hell did you do it, Rowan?! I mean… you knew! You knew that it was happening and you knew you didn't have back up cause I was ON A DIFFERENT ISLAND… why _in the fuck_ did you walk in here?"

"Well cause they were going to take Kono's teeth out and I was fairly certain I could distract him long enough to have you get here…"

"That was your plan? Are you fucking _kidding me_?!"

"Kay, can you untie me please. Could you… come on now…"

"Yeah fine… fine…" he said kneeling down in front of her, a giant knife that still had blood dripping off it appearing in his hand. Immediately Rowan gagged. NA looked up again probably to sass her but then his eyebrows furrowed. "What happened to your face?"

"God could we use a clean knife?"

"Fuck the knife what happened to your face?"

"Oh he hit me a bunch of times," she answered off handedly. As if it were perfectly normal for someone to be tied up and slapped a bunch of times.

"He hit you? He _hit you_?" he cried standing up completely forgetting to cut her free. He returned to Gabriel's body and kicked him a few times as if that would make her feel better.

Rowan was nice enough to let him get more than a few kicks before she shouted: "NA! Ropes!" and only then did he come back to her and cut her free.

"He's gonna kill me," NA whispered, rubbing his temples. He sat back and let Rowan rub her wrists free of the red marks. He couldn't believe this had happened on his watch. "How do I explain this? I mean he told me that you were crazy and you run off if a case comes up or if you think your _papi_ is in danger but I didn't think it was this bad. Where's your boyfriend, can't he control you?"

"Wo Fat can't control me, why would Steven be able to?"

"Well everyone knows Fat is blind where you're concerned. I just figured Five-0 man lives with your shit on the reg and would be able to control you better," NA said. Rowan just glared at him. "Or is he still passed out with that other girl?" Rowan hit him with a dark glare and he nodded. "That's a yes then."

"Can you put Gabriel in the chair please? Tie him up or duct tape him or impale him to it, just you know… make sure he can't get out."

"Why am I doing that? Can't I just shoot him?"

"Maybe, but first I want him to suffer," Rowan said and behind that mask she was sure NA was grinning.

"Now that I can get behind. Give me a minute," he said running off to do as he was told. At that Rowan turned to her two friends who were both in their chairs staring at her.

"Uh… I'm totally gonna cut you free… but uh… I gotta do something first, y'all okay with that?"

Both Kono and Adam and glared at her, denoting that it was clearly wasn't fine but Rowan had already turned away. NA had dragged Gabriel's body to her. Though she tried to assist, it was all NA who got Gabriel into the chair that she had previously been in, and it was NA who strapped the man to that chair, Rowan just supervised.

"Alright, he's in the chair, now what?" NA asked her.

"Uh… well he needs to be awake…" "—Well I hit him pretty hard so that might take a while…" "… Okay but I'm on a timeline here so like… is there a way to get him up faster?"

"Sure," he said with a shrug, that knife coming out again. Before she could stop him he had put the knife to Gabriel's arm and in one twisting slicing motion, he had lacerated Gabriel from wrist to elbow. Rowan immediately cried out, her cry drowned out by Gabriel's sudden scream of agony, as blood gushed everywhere.

"Oh my god! What did you do?" Rowan cried.

"Oh… I only filleted him a little bit," he said. "If I did it right I've separated the muscle from the bone in at least one spot." Rowan gagged, immediately moving away from him which caused NA to scowl. "Really? Really? You're going to throw up?" he called as she ran to the kitchen to do just that.

For a moment she was silent, simply because she was throwing up into the garbage can, the sound of her hurling slightly muted by Gabriel's hisses and whimpers of pain. Oh, so he can dish it but he can't take it huh? The baby.

"Well I didn't know you were gonna fillet him, what the hell man?!" she cried before she turned away to hurl again.

"If you're this bad you shouldn't be here for this," NA said to her and Rowan frowned. "Why don't you go home to your cop? Hmm? You'll just be a hindrance if you stay here and I'm sure you'd like to kick that other woman out of his bed."

"You want me to throw this trash can of vomit at you?"

"Don't you fucking dare!" he ordered pointing the bloodied knife in her direction.

Rowan narrowed her eyes at him. "I'm going to get a drink. Try to contain yourself."

NA shook his head and then turned his unsympathetic mask down to Gabriel tear streaked face. "This is bullshit. I should be on a beach relaxing but no, you had to completely disregard a direct order to run. I mean… how do you fuck that up man? It was so fucking simple."

"Well clearly Gabriel is not a smart man," Rowan said returning to NA's side with a glass of what he figured was ginger ale. "Which is unfortunate cause I am _so_ fucking mad right now that you're really, really gonna wish you listened when I told you to run."

"It's true. She had been so nice to you," NA said with a patronizing shake of his head.

"So, uh… in case you can't tell. That game you said I was playing. I won it. Fucking knocked that shit right out of the park. And for your information I lied about what Beam me up Scotty means. It doesn't pull people back, it's for immediate extraction. And you know, I've been really nice to you Gabriel, this was all so uncalled for, that you know… you know what I'm gonna do… I'm gonna send NA over to Sinaloa and since Sara likes bunnies, NA is gonna…"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, who is Sara?"

"His kid," Rowan said which got Gabriel straining against his bonds, a look of panic on his face.

NA's rabbit mask stared at her but she swore she could feel the confusion behind it. "How old?"

"I unno, little. Like… seven or eight. Hey Gabriel how old is Sara?"

"I don't do kids." He snapped before Gabriel could answer.

"Really? Didn't you kill a nun?"

"Killed a whole convent, actually, they were standing in the way of a housing development and I got paid a lot of money… You remember that but you didn't remember that I wear a rabbit mask? Kay, not the point, the point is just cause I'll kill nuns doesn't mean I do kids. I'll kill the wife. Hell, I'll kill the wife in front of the kid. But I don't do kids."

"Your morals are confusing," Rowan said before turning back to Gabriel.

"Okay, luckily for you, even though I'm really mad and I'd totally do it, my retainer will not be going after Sara. Which means we'll just have to have fun with you instead."

"You think I won't get you back for this?!" Gabriel shouted at her. "You don't think I'll come after you even harder if you even go near my Sara? You have a kid now, you wanna know the shit I'll do to him. I'll make you beg to save him and then I'll shoot you in the face!"

NA took that in, clearly unimpressed, the gun lifted immediately. "Okay and now you die."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Rowan cried putting a hand out. "What the hell are you doing?"

"He threatened you so I'mma put a bullet it him," he said again, putting the barrel of his silencer flush to Gabriel's forehead.

"NA! No! Stop it," she said going for the gun that he immediately put out of her reach.

"No! The app was clear, don't let you handle a loaded weapon."

"Oh my god. One accidental misfire and I'm marked for life. I didn't even shoot anyone!" Rowan cried. "Look, just put it away you're not killing him."

"That's a bad idea," NA said. "Keeping him alive when he harbours ill intent invites him to act on his threats. It'll be safer in the long run if you let me put him down."

"But then Sara grows up without a father and that's kinda sad."

"Then he should stop running his mouth."

Rowan turned to Gabriel. "Look man, I'm trying to keep you alive here, but I gotta go get my peeps to a hospital and Adam to the bank, so like… if I leave you here with him… and you run your mouth… he's gonna kill you. So, you can do that right? Not run your mouth?"

Gabriel just stared at her, hatred burning in his eyes. "Right I'mma take that as a yes. Oh, and don't worry, I'll tell the Yakuza that I've taken that pesky money you want so much and put it somewhere they'll never get it…"

"Oh, also not a good idea," NA said and Rowan turned to him. "Yeah, if crazy people want the money you don't put that money in your name. It means the crazy people will come after you… you're not listening to me, are you?"

"No. NA, you're going to stay here… and you're going have some fun… starting with a few… extractions…" Rowan said a smug grin on her face while beside her that blank blood-flecked white Rabbit mask loomed ominously over him in an almost taunting way. "I'm gonna go to the bank."

After that, with NA's rabbit mask staring down at Gabriel, keeping him still and quiet. Rowan finally cut them free. She helped Adam get up, as he had received most of the torture, and then they were heading for the door, leaving Gabriel alone with the man she called NA. She smiled brightly, showing no trace of the demonic woman she had been before.

"Come on, both you and Kono need a hospital, and you need to transfer that money to me," she said. Both Adam and Kono stared at her and Rowan seemed to realize that something was off. She glanced back to where NA was making slowly agonizing work out place each and every tool he had brought with him out on the table beside Gabriel, in plain sight for him to see. "Oh, don't worry about that. He's had this coming for a while. And NA will be sure to clean the mess up. Won't you?"

She got a thumbs up from the assassin and then she turned back to them. "Sufficient?"

There was no point in arguing apparently this was going to happen. So, both Kono and Adam relented. They followed Rowan out of Adam's house. But it wasn't until the door shut behind them that Gabriel started screaming.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve wasn't having a good day.

Last night, he had wanted to go somewhere nice, talking things out with Catherine about where she had been and if she found Najib and how. He wanted to know what she did after finding him, because he doubted she needed to be away for that long, which meant she had to have been up to other things. But Rowan had taken them to a bar. And then invited all the other Five-0's. Which had them drinking and partying all night instead of talking like he wanted to. He wanted to be angry about it, but he couldn't be that mad cause he _had_ had fun. Though he was still at a loss as to how he ended up falling asleep beside Catherine and not Rowan last night.

He figured that he could talk to Catherine in the morning, with Rowan at his side, and everything would be okay. But any conversation he wanted to have with Catherine about what the hell had happened in the morning was interrupted by a case. A case that started as a murder and turned into a pirate treasure hunt. In Steve's case if they found the killers, they also found a treasure. So, you know. Win-win situation.

He had tried to get a hold of Rowan a few times, just to talk to her, to make sure she wasn't mad. To explain that no physical cheating had happened. But she hadn't answered. Which told him all he needed to know about how she felt about this morning's slip up.

Even Nahele was ignoring him. He was livid. Absolutely livid with Steven and he kind of got that because he knew how much Nahele loved Rowan, and it looked an awful lot like he was cheating on Rowan with Catherine. Which he was not. He really was not. He didn't think.

Those butterflies he got around Catherine were still persisting and as a result he was feeling conflicted, but only a little. Because every time he thought of Rowan, thought about them ending, about her leaving his house and taking Nahele with him, he felt sick to his stomach. He didn't want to lose what he had. He loved everything about what he had. And he knew he loved Rowan. But if that were true… would he still be feeling something for Catherine?

The call that derailed his day, and would eventually derail his life, came after the case was nice and closed and it didn't even come in on his phone. Chin had gotten a call from Kono and he had answered with a cheeky: "What are you doing calling me on your honeymoon?"

Steve found out then that not only had Kono and Adam been ambushed by Gabriel, not only were the two of them in the hospital, but Rowan was with them. And Rowan had gotten most of the beating.

Steve had rushed to the hospital. The bruising along Rowan's face was extensive. A single black eye, bruising along her cheeks, a split lip. It could have been worse. It could have been much worse. She could have died.

So, while Chin ran to Kono and Adam, Steve ran to Rowan. He held her tight, relieved that she was alright and suddenly angry because what the hell had happened?

Between her and Kono he got a story. Rowan had stormed out of the house after discovering Catherine in her place in Steve's bed. She had picked up the wedding gifts, with the intent to drop them off and bitch to her bestie… even if it meant disturbing their honeymoon. What she walked into was Gabriel torturing Adam.

Rowan got Tazed and then she mouthed off to Gabriel who hit her a couple of times. Luckily the abuse triggered Sandy who activated the nearest player. The man who had saved her in Afghanistan. A man in a white rabbit mask. A man she called NA. He had dealt with Gabriel. Rowan brought Adam and Kono to the hospital. Duke had gone to the house. Gabriel was in an unstable condition at the current moment having been beaten within an inch of his life and was apparently missing four back molars on each side.

Steve had a feeling that there was more to this. He had a feeling that someone was lying to him, but he didn't have it in him to argue. He just wanted to hold his girl and reassure her that he wanted her not Catherine. Though, when he was with Catherine he wasn't nearly as stressed out, nor was he this often in the hospital. And when he was in the hospital it was work related not because his girlfriend had gotten herself embroiled in some sort of crime or drama.

Across from him Adam couldn't stop staring. Adam couldn't help it. Watching Steve with Rowan, knowing what she had done and what road she was heading for, he felt like… if it were him, he would have wanted to know. So even though Kono told him not to, even though he had promised Kono he wouldn't. Once Steve got to the hospital, once Steve was certain that Rowan was alright, he pulled Steve aside for a chat.

"Hey uh… how are you doing?"

"I'm fine," Adam said before glancing back to Rowan who was busy with Danny. "They gave you a bit of a story, right?"

"Yeah Rowan came to drop off wedding gifts and…"

"No, she didn't," Adam said. "She came in already on the app. She knew Gabriel was there and what he was going to do to us. She came to stop him."

Steve took that in. "Why did she lie to me? Why is Kono…"

"Because Rowan was on the phone when she came in. She was on the phone with someone who sent an assassin to her location. Kono didn't want you two to argue so she agreed to lie to you, and asked me to do it as well. I've gotten the feeling that this wasn't the first time Kono's done that."

Steve blinked his eyes. "Adam, what are you saying? You think she's been lying for Rowan for a while?"

"I don't know, not for sure anyway," Adam admitted, "That that's not the real problem. The problem is what she did."

Steve stared at him, his eyes haunted as if he could already guess what happened. But Adam told him anyway. "The guy that came in to get her, he tortured him at her order. Granted she just told him to have fun, but she also told him to pull out teeth so you know… that's not… that's not normal behaviour and honestly I didn't think that would just come out of her you know?"

"It doesn't… not normally, but he hit her a few times and she gets angry…"

"She sounded exactly like Wo Fat."

Steve paused at that. He ran a hand over his face as he took it all in.

"Now… I didn't want to… but she made me go to the bank… made me transfer my assets out to her…"

"Why would she do that?"

"To keep them safe until it's time to transfer them to Shioma. She figured them safer with her since it was what Gabriel was after. But when we were at the bank I gotta good look at where she was sending the money to. It was a holding company I recognized... it's one of Fat's. And while she was there, she placed a call, I don't know who to but it didn't sound good. I… I'm afraid she's got herself in a very dangerous position Steve. I think she's going to go to war with the Yakuza, and if she does… I think we both know who's going standing behind her and just how violent it's going to get."

Steve turned his eyes back to Rowan and Adam followed his gaze. He felt bad telling Steven this when Kono had distinctly promised he wouldn't. But he couldn't keep this to himself. Rowan was heading for a disaster that could spill over onto all of them, that could get her killed. He wasn't going to lose anyone else over that money or to the Yakuza. Even if that meant causing an epic fight between her and Steven to do so.


	205. Chapter 205

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: I missed an Update! Oh my god I missed an update! I am SO SORRY! So here's the late chapter, I will do my best to make sure that doesn't happen again. So here, we get to find out what breaks up Steve and Rowan, I don't care if that's spoilers I want you guys properly forewarned. It's not really Catherine though, you know, in case you were thinking it was her. Before we go onto the chapter, I just want you guys to know, that everything I've been writing for season 6 has been in the making for a while, I've been writing bits and pieces of it for the better part of a year. Everything I've got planned has been basically set in stone for a long time coming. A lot of thought and planning went into this so I don't want you guys to think that this was just some sadistic whim. What's going to happen next is tragic, and angsty, and I know you guys are getting tired of it, so again, I apologize. I do. But please trust me, I've got this going somewhere. I swear. Just have a little faith! Don't forget to leave a review and I'll see you guys on Friday!_

Chapter 205

* * *

The ride back to the McGarrett household was quiet and charged. Steve was mad at her, she could tell. He didn't like that he had to come and pick her up from the hospital again. And that was fine, she got how that would be draining to always do, but Steven was always getting hurt at work and she was going to get him, so you know… she figured it was a fair trade. Not to mention he had looked super cozy with Catherine in _their_ bed that morning. She had every right to be as mad as him.

But Rowan was too tired to argue. So she stayed quiet, and Steve had done the same. He pulled up to the house, put the car in park and the two of them sat there for a moment not moving. Rowan turned to him wondering what was going on in his head and saw a look she recognized. He was going to ask her questions she just knew it.

He turned his stormy blue eyes to her and Rowan caught her breath. They had been so distant and awkward recently, and now… with Catherine back… was he going to tell her he wanted to go back to something easy? Did he want to end things to go back to Catherine? She wouldn't blame him if he did, but she sure as hell would yell at him for it.

"I could have lost you today," he whispered. "Gabriel could have and probably would have killed you. Do you realize that?" Rowan nodded and he leant back to look at her. "There are uh… holes in your story Rowan."

Oh here we go. It wasn't the breakup she expected, but he was either going to bombard her with question or accuse her of talking to her brother again.

"Rowan… I'm going to give you one last chance to tell me the truth," he said after a moment. "Did you call Wo Fat to rescue you from this?"

And there was that accusation.

Rowan was glad that she didn't have to lie to him this time. "I swear to you. I didn't call Wo Fat."

Steve nodded. "Okay… so when you came into Adam's and you were already on the phone…" he said and Rowan held a hand up to silence him.

"Whoa wait a second… how do you…"

"What? How do I know that you didn't go there to drop off gifts? How do I know that you were on the phone when you came in, or that you already knew what you were walking into and you didn't tell me? Or how I know that you transferred all of Adam's money into a shell corporation that belongs to Wo Fat for safe keeping?" he asked while he was glaring at her. Rowan could only stare at him, how had he found that out _already_? Who had snitched? "Adam told me what you did!" Steve snapped and Rowan hung her head.

"Goddamn it, Adam," she hissed.

"You called Wo Fat… you called him to deal with Gabriel…"

"No! Okay! I lied about the other stuff… but I didn't lie about that! I didn't call Wo Fat. I knew what Gabriel was going to do and I needed him not to, so I called NA directly. I saved Adam from losing his money and getting shot and Kono didn't lose any teeth!" she cried.

"Why did you go to him, why didn't you tell me?"

"Well… you were a little busy with Catherine, weren't you?" she asked. Well great, so she had seen that morning's slip up and she decided to what? Punish him for it by going to get herself beat up by Gabriel? Yeah that would show him, wouldn't it?

"That's why you did this? Because I was with Catherine? You know I don't remember how that happened, right? I was drunk, I probably thought she was you! And so what if that is what happened, we were sleeping, that's it. That doesn't mean you can just go and run off into a hostage situation and call your fucking brother!"

"Okay, but that's what happened. You were busy with Catherine, and I didn't have time to wake you up and argue with you about whether or not it was happening. So I went off on my own to deal with it. And for the last time, I did not call Wo. I called NA. Now Gabriel's been dealt with and that's what matters," Rowan said. "Now if you don't mind. I'd like to actually go inside, can we do that? You know what I don't care, stay in the car if you want. I'm going inside."

She got out of the car as if that had fixed everything. As if everything was okay. Steve followed her out of the car and up to the house.

Steve slammed the door after Rowan, livid. So livid that this had happened. Firstly, she should have never run off on her own and into that situation. Secondly, the fact that she TOOK Adam's money for safe keeping like that wouldn't make her a target, was probably the stupidest thing she could have ever done. And thirdly… he knew without a shadow of a doubt that she had called Wo Fat, someone she had sworn she wasn't talking to, instead of him.

"We're not finished!" he cried stopping her from going any farther into his house.

"Okay, Steven, I get it, you're mad at me, but I've had a very busy and exhausting day and I'd like to not argue, so can we just sit down and cuddle? I'll make the tea, get you a beer, and you can find us something to watch… that is not sports..."

"No," Steve growled. "No, we're not sweeping this under the rug, not again."

Rowan groaned. "God Steven…"

"No!" he thundered. "Rowan, you could have _died_ today. Do you not get that? This isn't a game to Gabriel, okay? He is out for blood!"

"My God, Steven, I was fine," she snapped. "I had the app active, I knew NA was on the island long before I let myself into Adam's house, okay. I knew what I was doing. Give me some credit, okay?"

"You and that fucking app," Steven growled. "That app is part of the problem." But Rowan just rolled her eyes at him and that anger climbed back up his throat. "I know you're lying Rowan. I know you called Wo Fat to help you…"

"No I'm not lying! I couldn't have even called him if I wanted to. He's in a Colombian jungle with no service for the next two weeks at minimum, so there's literally no way for me to have contacted him, okay?" she cried and Steve balked.

"How do you know that?" Rowan paused. She blinked her eyes as she realized what she had said. Oh yeah, she hadn't meant to tell him that. Not even a little bit. Steve glared at her. "How do you know that Rowan?!"

"Okay so…I may have called him… two days ago," Rowan admitted. "But I swear I didn't call him today."

Steve glared at her. "You called him two days ago?"

"Just to bitch about Catherine… and because he asked me too… to tell me that he was going dark for a few weeks and to not get into trouble… but you know, in case I did he sent someone to the island to sit on me… and that was NA…"

Steve laughed, low wry chuckles of understanding. Yeah, that sounded a lot like a weekly update. "How long have you and Wo Fat been in contact?"

"Not very long…"

"Don't you fucking lie to me."

"UGH Fine since I left Colombia."

" _ARE YOU SHITTING ME_?!"

"No, Steven… he's my brother…"

"No he _fucking_ isn't!" Steven hollered and her mouth slammed shut as she stared at him with wide eyes of surprise. Like she had just realized that she had reached a territory of angry with him that she had never seen before. "I don't know how I could be any clearer about how I feel about that man. But I'll try again. Rowan. He tortured me twice. He is the reason my dad is dead, he's the reason my mom is gone. He has created an app that I know you think it helping you but it only gives you an inflated sense of power that _you do not have_. I have tried to be nice about this, I tried to ask you nicely but you constantly break your promises where it comes to him and you lie to me all the fucking time… and… I just don't want you talking to him. I don't want you on that app. And I _will not_ tolerate you being involved with him any longer."

"Excuse me?" Rowan hissed. Her tone dangerously low. It was a warning, a chance to make him take it back but Steven was just so angry about the whole situation that he was past reason.

"You heard me. I _will not_ accept you being on that app, or in his life anymore. So that's it, it's either me or him, Rowan," he snapped. But Rowan just laughed, a low scoff of disbelief. "I'm not joking!"

"Yeah, no, I can tell," Rowan said, folding her arms over her chest. "May I remind you, that if he hadn't come to get me in Colombia, I'd probably be dead… or raped… or severely beaten?"

"You also wouldn't have been taken to Colombia if he hadn't _sent Reyes' body back to the CIA in pieces_!" Steve cried. "I'm done arguing about this. It's me or him. Choose."

Rowan shook her head again. "You are being absolutely ridiculous."

"I don't care what you think," he snarled. "Choose Rowan. Choose right now."

Rowan shook her head and headed for the stairs with Steven following her. "I'm not dealing with you like this. You may sleep on the couch."

"ROWAN!" he shouted. "Don't you walk away from me! You get back here right now! We're not done with this conversation. Now you tell me which one of us you're going to choose right now. Or we're over!"

Rowan, part way up the stairs turned back to him, shock on her face. "I'm sorry… we're what?"

"You heard me! If you don't give me an answer right this second, we're done. Do you understand? We're done!"

"You're going to end this relationship… which we've been in for a whole year, simply because you want me to stop talking to my brother?'

"He is _not_ your brother!" Steve hollered.

"Are you sure, Steven? Are you sure you want to make me do this, cause you're not going to like my answer…"

For fuck sake, she was going to pick Wo Fat. That's what she meant.

"Don't you fucking dare," Steve warned her. "This isn't a bluff. I swear to god Rowan… if you pick him I'll… I'll…"

"You'll what? Take my phone away. Arrest me again? What?"

"I'll marry Catherine."

The words came out before he could stop himself. He didn't mean it. Of course, but if it got her to listen to him he'd let her think it was true.

"You'll _marry_ Catherine," Rowan echoed. "Wow… really? So we're going right back to this are we? Steven McGarrett doesn't get his way so he's going to run straight back to the woman he cheated on me with…"

"I DID NOT… _"_ he started and then trailed off and forced himself to calm down. "Look. It's not this hard. Either you want to be with me…"

"Two can play your game McGarrett," Rowan snapped cutting him off. "If you don't stop trying to take my brother away I'm going to leave your stupid sorry ass and join Wo Fat."

Steve balked at that counter offer. "You wanna go join Wo Fat?"

"Well I mean, there's no point in staying right? If you're gonna be this controlling, if you're gonna just threaten me Catherine every time you want to get your way then I might as well just go to Wo, take Nahele with me…"

"You're not taking _my son_ ," Steve thundered but Rowan just laughed again.

"Oh, I'm not? He's not _yours_ , Steven, _you're_ not even on the paperwork, remember?" she snarled and Steve felt his heart snap in his chest. For fuck sake, she really could take Nahele from him. "Now… are you going stop?"

"No." Steve growled. "It's me or him, and if you leave Rowan. I won't be here, I won't wait. I'll propose to Catherine, and I _will_ marry her. And then I'll go straight to CPS to make sure they know you're an unfit parent so I get Nahele!"

Rowan laughed at him. "Wow! True colors are coming out aren't they," Rowan snapped pushing past him to get off the steps. She stalked back to where her purse was, picking it up and fishing out her keys. "You want to marry Catherine so badly, Steven, you go ahead and marry Catherine. She's better suited anyway, right? More in common, you two can go pretend to be Rambo in the mountains."

"I don't want Catherine, Ro, I just don't want his Wo Fat's influence in my life and it's there, every day, because it lives _in you_. Don't you see what he's turning you into? You were fine before him, you were normal! Don't be this petty, you know if given the choice between you and Catherine I'd pick you… I always want you, you know that…"

"Are you sure? Are you sure I know that? You'd really pick me? Really? Because she's only been back seventy-two fucking hours and not only did I find her in _our_ bed this morning but now you're already ready to propose. Which is fucking bullshit cause it took you nine fucking months to call me your fucking girlfriend. I don't think you ever wanted me. Not really. I think you wanted the idea of me, didn't you, the version of me if I were more like Catherine. More normal, right? And don't you try and say that isn't true because if you didn't want her, if you really cared about me the way you say you do, it wouldn't even have crossed your mind to threaten to marry Catherine!" Rowan growled. She was shaking, her tears were watering, but she wasn't relenting. She tugged the promise ring off of her hand and then threw it back at him, he had to duck so it wouldn't hit him in the face. "Why don't you give her my promise ring too since you seem so intent on making her your sloppy fucking seconds!"

She then stalked to the front door and ripped it open. "Where are you going?" Steve asked following her, knowing full well where she's going. He got a little more frantic when she didn't answer right away. " _Where are you going_?!"

"To a safe house!" she shouted. "I'm activating the Captain America Contingency Plan and you will _never_ find me again! Go ahead and call CPS Commander Fuck-tard! When I get settled… wherever the hell that happens to be… I'll have an unlimited fucking network at my finger tips and at a press of a button that boy will be gone and you'll never see _either of us_ again!"

"I'm not going to let that happen Rowan!" Steve shouted after her but she was already in her car, peeling out of his driveway ignoring any of his other shouts. He meant letting her leave, but it could also mean just her taking Nahele away. But as her car disappeared he slammed the door behind him. Fine, let her stay out all night, he knew she'd be back at some point, she could no less sleep without him then he could sleep without her. On his way back to the stairs he picked up her promise ring and put it in his pocket. He'd give it back to her tomorrow.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan parked outside of the small airfield, and pulled out her phone. The command to activate the Captain America Contingency was still flashing on her phone, but she couldn't bring herself to press it. Instead she pulled up Wo Fat's contact and pressed dial as she sat there in her car.

It went straight to voice mail.

That was to be expected, of course. She knew he was in some jungle somewhere helping Armando take back some territory from a different drug lord that had gotten uppity. Still… she had wanted to hear his voice, wanted him to comfort her, and talk her through what to do because she was still in absolute shock that she had actually broken up with Steven.

"Hey, it's me. Uh… Steven and I had a pretty big argument and I think… I think we've broken up. I'm uh… I'm going to stay in one of your safe houses off island. Maybe Hawaii Island, maybe Japan, I unno I'll figure it out. I know you're still off helping out Armando in Colombia and you don't have service, but uh… when you do get service and you get this message can you call me… I really need my big brother right now."

She then hung up the phone but her hands were shaking too much to keep a grip on it. It clattered out of her hand and fell to the floor of her car. Sighing she got herself out of her car, and bent over to try and find it. Too bad it was too dark for her see, and she didn't have her phone to illuminate the area for her. She had only been stooped over for what had to be thirty seconds when a hand suddenly clamped over her mouth, a strange stinging pain rushing up her nose and filling her mouth. Within seconds the world went black and fuzzy before she could even register to be afraid.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan had never come home.

He had woken up to a tearful Nahele, crying because he had heard their argument last night and was afraid that Rowan had actually left. Steve wasn't originally that worried, because this was just like Rowan. She did runners when she was upset. She was hiding out somewhere but this time he wasn't going to go looking, Rowan could come home when she felt like it. And they could either argue again or she could drop Wo Fat.

He had sent Nahele off to school with the promise of figuring out where Rowan went, only to keep the boy from being worried and upset at school. He was sure to assure him that, no, because Rowan was MIA, he wasn't going to go back into the system, that he would get to stay in the McGarrett house. He had no intention of looking for her, of course until Duke called.

Rowan's car had been left, overnight, at a small hangar for a private airplane charter. They were going to tow it. He wanted to know if they wanted it towed to Steve's place.

Steve let that sink in.

Rowan's car had been left outside a private airplane charter.

Rowan's car had been abandoned and she was not with it.

Rowan had gotten on a goddamn fucking plane.

No. She wouldn't have. She wouldn't have actually left him. She wouldn't have… no…

Steve had told Duke to take it to the impound and that Rowan could pay for it later. He then rushed to the Palace before any of his friends could get there and traced her phone.

It wasn't online. Oh my god. She had actually taken herself off grid. Pulling out his phone he ran the app, using the locator function. Why was he surprised when it showed her location to be a bay in Japan?

That bitch had actually… ACTUALLY gone to Japan. She really had left him for Wo Fat.

Livid Steve exited the app and dialled Rowan. Her phone went straight to voicemail. Roaring in anger he hung up and then dialled the number that connected him to Wo Fat through the app. It didn't even ring but went straight to a voice mail that simply said: _Messages checked sporadically. For emergencies activate Sanctuary._

"Okay, tell your fucking sister we're over. Don't bother coming back to Hawaii. I'm marrying Catherine. I'm keeping Nahele and if I see either of you on my island again I'll arrest you both. Have a nice life. You two deserve each other."

He hung up the phone and then just stood there. A strange nervous feeling rolling around his stomach, the same kind of feeling he felt when Rowan was in trouble. But she wasn't in trouble, she was with Wo Fat. She was his problem now. Not Steven's.

 _They had broken up._

The knowledge of that hit him like a freight train. He had broken up with Rowan.

And as he forced the tears back, to stay in his eyes and not fall, he knew that he'd give anything to have Rowan be his problem again. But he wasn't going to lose a second more of time or a fraction more of his pride, his time or his heart to Rowan Peirce and Wo Fat.

* * *

 **Spoilers**

 **Ahead**

 **If**

 **You**

 **Don't**

 **Want**

 **To**

 **Read**

 **Don't**

 **Go**

 **Down**

So we got there, we got to the break up. I know that's not what you wanna read but we've reached the inevitable.

As we can guess Rowan has not just… left him either and what's going on with her will be revealed very soon.

Essentially, Wo Fat is going to do something very, very bad. He'll be doing a lot of lying to both Rowan and Steven, but also to himself.

As I mentioned Rowan is going to make a new friend and he will be joining the cast. You guys have already met him, he's been around.

Also as I mentioned season 6 is going to be focusing more on Rowan, so less the episodes and instead we'll be focusing on whatever is going on with her and there will be a lot. Rowan will learn how to use her powers, she is going to come to terms with who she is and come up with healthy ways to deal with her traumas and tendencies, she will reconnect with the version of the family she has in this world, and she will gain a stronger bond with Wo Fat. While she's doing that, she's going to be travelling, so there's gonna be Rowan shenanigans around the world.

Though we're not going to be seeing a lot of Steve, I promise that we're going to get those Danny and Steve carguments and funny moments. When we do see Steve, we're going to watch him learn how unhealthy his behaviour was, and how he was most of the problem between he and Rowan. He will come to terms with his emotions and will learn how to healthily express them. Lynn will be making her regular appearances in season 6, Steve will attempt to move on and fail miserably.

Wo Fat is also going to get some character growth. He's will have done something terrible, and he will have to live with that guilt for a long time before he acknowledges what he's done. He's going to spend most of the season doing everything he can to keep Rowan safe and happy and somewhere along the like he's gonna learn how to be a human being and will also learn how to care for someone else, properly, not selfishly.

I'm trying to not give away too much, if you guys want more specifics tell me. Hopefully that gives you guys a little bit of a view of what's coming up. I promise it won't be all angst, I've already written up to chapter 225 and some fun and cute things have happened too. If you guys stick with it, a lot of questions are going to be answered, Rowan's gonna do some really cool things, and literally 7 episodes into season 7 they get married so after season six there is no more conflictions, no more angsty insaneness. So it will be worth it I promise!


	206. Chapter 206

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Friday my wonderful readers! Thanks so much for being okay with me being late with the chapter. It's been a rough week. My regular laptop is in the shop until further notice and I've been working crazy hours and I just fell asleep. Right, so we've gotten to the part where it's going to be a bit confusing. This is considered the "Summer months" when the episodes aren't airing, and honestly we don't really need the episodes right now. So at the current moment we're going to be jumping back and forth between the first five episodes and episode 8. We are pretty much skipping episode two and all the case stuff in episode three (though I may add them in later) and we're going straight to episode four with a lot of episode one thrown in. Though to be honest, episode four has kinda been split up and thrown all over the place. You'll see what I mean soon enough. So yes, for those of you who are confused I've really, really messed with the time line here. Yes. Shit is going to be messed up for the next couple of chapters. If you need clarification please leave me a review and I'll try to lay a time line out for you. See you guys on Monday!_

Chapter 206

* * *

Catherine rolled off of him and for a moment Steve just lay there dazed, slightly confused and feeling more than a little dirty and not in the sexy way. She smiled happily at him as she pressed kisses to the spot beside his lip and towards his jawline.

This was wrong, this was all wrong. Because the after-sex moments should have been quiet, with Rowan nestled in beside him tracing patterns down his ribs or through his chest hair. She'd know better than to try and plant kisses anywhere near his lips because that would get them started again.

It had been seventy two hours since Rowan had left him for Japan and Wo Fat. And this was all moving way too fast for him.

Catherine had been more than accommodating when he offered starting something up again. In fact as soon as he told her that he and Rowan had broken up she had gotten excited. But Steve… Steve hadn't shared the same excitement, not fully. Last night they had had dinner at his place where Catherine got to meet Nahele. He had already explained that, though Rowan was the one who took him in and it was all in her name on the paperwork, Nahele was very near and dear to Steve and they were now a package deal. Nahele had played nice at dinner though he was thoroughly confused and before he went to bed he had confided that he liked Catherine, which meant, Steve could go forward with the next part of his plan.

That wasn't supposed to include Catherine staying the night, but it had. And it had resulted in surprise morning sex. Which usually was his favourite.

Problem was all of this felt wrong. And that nausea, that had been affecting him since Rowan had left, was back hitting him in waves. It tightened is muscles, it made him react. He stiffened and Catherine thought him to be getting excited but he wasn't. It was dread that was creeping through his body, dread and anxiety. Fucking hell what was going on with him?

"I'm sorry I woke you so early," she said but he shook his head.

"That's fine, I'm glad you did," he lied.

He wanted to know how early it was, and if Nahele was in the house or at school for extra exam prep.

"Okay, go back to sleep cause I'm gonna make us some eggs," she said.

"No need, already did it for you. I'd actually prefer it if you _went home_ ," Nahele called from the doorway. Well that answered his question.

Catherine yelped tugging his white sheet more securely around herself as Nahele continued to glare at them from the doorway. Steve leant forward, craning his neck to stare at his kid and his angry face. "Buddy, I love you, but could you maybe shut the door."

Nahele rolled his eyes but did as he asked and only then did Steve lounge back in his bed. "Sorry about him… he uh… he isn't taking Ro… uh… leaving… so well… you know."

"To be honest, I'm surprised you seem to be taking it so well…"

"I told you Cath, it's done. She's gone, she's where she belongs now…" "—She belongs with an international Criminal?" "You know what I mean. She's gone to be with Wo Fat and I… you know… I get to have a second shot at the real girl I should have ended up with."

Catherine smiled proudly at him and another wave of nausea climbed up his throat. She had believed his lies, he had almost believed his own lies. She kissed him again and Steve struggled to keep his stomach from rebelling.

"As much as I'd like to stay… it uh… it kind of feels like I'm not wanted…"

Steve sighed. Goddamn it Nahele. "He just needs some time, okay? Just give him some time," Steve whispered to her and she kissed him again.

"I got some stuff to do anyway," she said. "I'll see you tonight?"

Steve nodded letting her get up and leave the bed. He found himself looking at his phone. Still nothing from Rowan. _God why did that matter?_ No, he wasn't supposed to care.

He threw his phone away from him and got out and changed as quickly as he could. He escorted Catherine down to the door where he got to kiss her again before she finally left. From the kitchen he heard Nahele's groaning and gagging. Steve groaned in frustration but Catherine just smiled and kissed him a little longer before finally saying goodbye.

Steve closed the door and turned a dry glare onto Nahele who was just standing at the kitchen island smiling at him as if that would make up for his shitty behaviour. He couldn't help it though, it was the first big smile he had seen on Nahele's face since Rowan had left. He'd take it, even if he was flashing him a guilty grin.

"That was uncalled for you know," Steve chided because he couldn't let the kid just get away with it. Nahele winced slightly but otherwise said nothing.

"I really did make eggs," he whispered handing him his plate. Steve noted that there were two plates and not three, which meant Nahele had purposely not made enough for Catherine. Wow that would have been one hell of a message right there.

But Steve didn't want to get into that right now, not when he had a pretty big bombshell to drop on this kid. He dug into the food and pulled out of his pocket what he had purchased the day before.

"Hey I uh… I got something to show you," he said and then showed him the ring box. He opened it for him and let Nahele take that rock in.

The show girl had not been impressed with Steven when he had come to purchase the ring. Probably because he was the most apathetic engagement ring buyer she had ever met. He had picked a ring that he knew one hundred percent Rowan would have never chosen. It was a mid-range ring, no embellishments, and it still took a chunk of money out of his pocket.

"What do you think?"

Nahele looked it over and immediately brightened. "Whoa! Nice. A little plain but it'll do the trick," he said. "So when are you going to Japan to give it to her?"

He thought this was for Rowan? Steve shook his head. "No, bud… buddy… this isn't… No. This is for Catherine. You know, Catherine?"

"Who?"

"What do you mean who? Catherine? You know who Catherine is. She was just in the fucking house. You met her after the wedding, remember, we had dinner together last night. Do I need to take you to the doctor to get your head checked or are you just fucking with me?" Steve said and Nahele nodded.

"Oh, you mean that black haired chick I've never met before yesterday? Except for the morning I found her in your bed when you and mom were still together? Sorry I didn't bother to remember her name I assumed she was a one-time thing. You're really going to propose to some girl you met at a wedding just cause you're mad at mom?"

"No. NO. Catherine is my ex. I know I told you this buddy. Catherine predates Rowan. I left Catherine for Rowan…"

"And now you're going to propose to Catherine… who you left… for Rowan… three days after Rowan left you… man if she says yes Catherine has some issues. No one told me your rebound game was this whack, McGarrett."

"Nahele… stop… come on. I told you, we talked about this. Rowan is gone. Catherine… Catherine will be better for both of us."

"That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard."

"What? Why? You said you liked Catherine."

"No, I said _she was nice_. And I don't know if you can tell from this morning, but I was LYING. I don't know Catherine…"

"Exactly, give her a chance…"

"Give her a chance? What? No. DAD!" Nahele cried. The fact that he said it without a slip up was surprising and he seemed to not have noticed it because he just forged forward. "Please, this is ridiculous. I get it, you're mad at Ro, but proposing to Catherine isn't going to make you feel better okay? Just… just go to Japan, please! Go bring her home… I bet she's just waiting for you."

"Okay… you need to… you need to let this go," Steve said and Nahele's hopeful face fell. "Buddy… Rowan left us, okay?"

"No, she left you!" Nahele shouted suddenly and Steve cringed. "I heard your argument! She's going to send people to get me!"

"Yeah, first thing you gotta learn about Rowan Pierce, buddy, is that Rowan Pierce lies," he told him, despite the tears that were falling down his kid's face. "When was the last time you heard from her, huh?"

"She'll… she'll probably call when she's settled! She's probably afraid you'll listen in or something…"

"Kid, if she were coming back for you she would have called by now, okay?" Steve cried. He didn't want to be cruel but he had to. "Now I'm sorry, and that sucks, I get it, but right now I'm all you've got, so stop fighting me on this and just go with it okay? Because I'm proposing to Catherine and I will marry her, you got me!"

"I don't care what you do!" Nahele snapped grabbing up all his books and shoving them into his bag. "I don't want to stay with you and your stupid rebound girl. I'd rather go to a group home than stay with you and your stupid… _slutty_ second choice!"

"NAHELE!" Steve cried watching as he stormed away and towards the steps. He did nothing to chase him and the boy said nothing else to him. But a few moments later he heard the slam of a door and knew that the kid had gone to his room.

Sighing Steve put his head to his hands, his fingers running through his hair. Goddamn it. How had everything gone so wrong in such a short amount of time?

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Danny knew his boy was hurting. He could see it in the stiffness in Steve's shoulders, in the crinkles around his eyes, in the sharp inhales and the way his fingers would tighten around the steering wheel. Steve was an emotional wreck and Danny got that, because Steve was always an emotional wreck when Rowan did one of her runners. Granted she had never run off the actual island before, but this fight had been a bad one.

They had broken up.

None of the Five-0's thought it was a permanent break up but it totally would be if Rowan found out what was going on with Catherine. Steve had gotten it into his head less than 12 hours after finding out that Rowan was in Japan that in order to help Nahele, stressing that this was not to help himself as Steve was fine, that Steve needed to immediately move on. And that meant starting something with Catherine. Which was the stupidest thing he had ever heard but Steven couldn't be talked out of it.

Danny glanced to Steve again. The poor man looked crushed. God what Rowan had done to him? "So uh… how are you doing?"

"Good… good… uh… kid met Catherine properly last night… it uh… I unno… I thought it went well," Steve said. "He kind of flipped on me this morning."

"Well I mean, Rowan's been gone… what… three days now? I bet he can't be happy you've got another girl encroaching on her territory."

"Yeah I unno, he was fine when it was just me and her dating, sort of, but the real freak out happened when I said I was gonna marry Catherine," Steve admitted. "I know he's going through a lot but the quicker I get him over Rowan the easier it'll be for all of us…"

"Whoa… wait a second, say that last part again."

"What, that I need to get Nahele over Rowan? You're not gonna say something stupid like I'm actually trying to make me get over Rowan, right? Cause that's ridiculous."

That was exactly what Steve was doing but it wasn't what Danny meant. "No I mean the other thing. The thing about Catherine.

"I said I'm going to ask Catherine to marry me."

Well fuck. That… now that didn't make sense. Not when three days ago Steve had showed up at his door step sobbing about Rowan and him breaking up, leaving him to go to Japan to be with Wo Fat. Now he was going to propose to a completely different girl? What the hell was he? An emotional boomerang?

Danny must have been silent for too long because Steve asked: "What? Nothing? The man who has a smart remark for everything has nothing for this right now?"

"No… this is good. I can see it now. You and Catherine in matching camouflage cargo-pants on some very exotic shooting range and you get down on one knee, saying: Babe I want you to join my unit for a lifelong mission," Danny said and Steve smiled. "Only problem is we both know that you should be marrying Rowan. That _you_ would rather be marrying Rowan. So honestly, I can kinda get why the kid is pissed at you."

And there was that scowl. Steve must have thought that Danny was going to agree with him. The nujob. He sighed and pointedly kept his eyes on the road ahead of him. "Rowan left me Danny."

"So what? Go get her."

"She picked Wo Fat. She threw my promise ring back at me…"

"You threatened to marry Catherine when you know what she's like with your threats. She has _always_ called your bluff. Do you know what's going to happen when she finds out? Steve, if she finds out you're actually taking steps to actually propose to Catherine she'll never forgive you and definitely won't come back. And then what? You're gonna marry the wrong girl, Rowan's gonna… I unno become queen criminal? Do we really want her to get anymore sociopathic cause you know that'll happen if she stays with him…"

"I don't care. I don't care what she does, or what happens to her. She wants to be a career criminal like her precious brother, let her. I'll take her down when I have to. And I certainly don't want her to come back."

"Kay… all of that… all of that nothing more than a pack of lies and you know it."

"Shut up Danny. Shut up."

Danny watched Steve squirm in his seat a strange look crossing over his face. It was enough for Danny to realize that Steven wasn't comfortable with doing this either. The only thing keeping him going at that point was rage. And boy, when that wore off, was he going to regret everything he done while he was angry.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

They ended up having to chase their arsonist up to Lua'alaea Falls where they thought he had escaped with Duclair and was hiding out until further notice. That meant, Steve, Danny, Chin and Grover were all trekking through the jungle with Steve at the lead with a machete loving every minute of this.

You know who'd be bitching if they had to do this? Rowan. But Catherine wouldn't be. Damn why did he think that Rowan would fit into his life when Catherine was clearly better suited.

 _Oh yeah? If Catherine is so better suited why did you miss Rowan so much, huh_?

Fuck his mind. No. He was not going to change his mind again. Rowan had left him. _Rowan had left him for Wo Fat_.

"I'm just gonna keep it real, man. If these perps are up here, I'm gonna be way too damn tired to arrest them," Grover said.

"We could just shoot the guy when we get there," Danny offered. "Yeah Steve, you're good with that, right?"

The group came to a halt again, Steve did it for several reasons. For starters he could tell his friends were tired so he was going to give them a chance to rest, secondly a wave of nausea came over him again, this roiling pit of nervousness that took the wind right out of him and had him worrying that he might actually vomit here on this trail. Instead he covered it up with pretending to check the coordinates to make sure they were on the right track.

As they all stopped to catch their breaths, drink their water, and in Steve's case to force himself not to throw up, Chin asked: "Anybody got any buy spray? I'm getting eaten alive out here."

Danny suddenly straightened. "Okay, I can't keep it a secret anymore. Steve has something that he would like to share with everybody, with the group," he announced.

"I hope it's bug spray," Chin muttered. But Steve knew it wasn't that. Fuck he never should have told Danny. He didn't want the other to know what he was doing because, like Danny, they'd see right through this. Though a part of him wanted them to know, wanted this to get back to Rowan, because then maybe… if she knew what he was doing… she'd come back.

But despite Steve half-heartedly trying to stop him, Danny did it anyway.

"He's getting married," Danny told them. "He's going to propose to Catherine."

For a minute Chin and Grover were silent. Just like Steve figured they'd be. "I'm sorry I think I misheard you… did you say Catherine?" Chin asked.

Grover frowned and shook his head. "I know you can't have said Catherine cause three days ago you were dating Rowan and we all know how crazy you are about that girl…"

"No, Catherine. He said Catherine, I meant Catherine. I'm going to propose to Catherine."

They all exchanged glanced again. "Uh… are you sure that's a good idea?" Chin asked. "What happens if Catherine says yes and Rowan comes back?"

"If Rowan comes back to this island, she's getting arrested."

"No. she's not," Danny said. "No one will agree to that. She hasn't done anything wrong. Breaking up with you in not a crime."

"She's not coming back. And if she does it'll be for Nahele. And I don't care if she does, I've made my choice, now haven't I?"

Steve would have been crazy not to notice that Chin was texting. He didn't need three guesses as to who Chin was texting so quickly. "Why are you texting Kono?"

"I'm not texting Kono."

"I'm not stupid. There's no point in texting Kono to warn Rowan. Rowan picked Wo Fat, I picked Catherine. Let it go. Okay? Let it go."

And while they did, Steve knew, he knew they were right. And he was sort of hoping that maybe Kono did warn Rowan. And that terrible niggling feeling in the pit of his stomach continued to gnaw away at him for the rest of the hike.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Catherine was surprised when Danny called her out of the blue to ask her to meet. It had raised a few flags but she had gone to do just that. Meet him at the crest of the highway just above the ocean. Catherine had got to the meet place before Danny which meant she had time to think about what had been going on with her.

It had been a rough morning, Steve had introduced him to his foster kid and Nahuka, or whatever his name was, had not liked her. He was Rowan's kid and she could tell, he had the same angry glare and he was fiercely protective of Steve and the _ohana_ they had made together. She had tried not to be bitter, but she was realizing there would be no, falling into place with Steve, even if Rowan was gone, that kid wasn't going to let it be easy. He didn't want her there, and she didn't want to live in Rowan's shadow, being second best to her to both that kid and Steven.

Danny's Camaro came into view and parked next to hers. In a few seconds he was out and smiling in that strained way of his, like he did when he was nervous or about to argue with Steven. "Hey!"

"Hey, Danny," she said cheerfully though she had a feeling Danny was going to say some shit.

"Thanks for coming out to meet me."

"No problem," she assured him as they hugged. "Is everything alright?"

"Yeah everything's good. I just thought we should have a conversation," Danny told her and that's when she knew that her theory was correct.

"Okay," she said suspiciously.

"So, uh… nice view," he said quickly and she shook her head, at least she knew he was nervous about it.

"Oh, come on, bring it. Just bring it."

"Okay… well… Steve has been very happy since you've been back," he told her.

Awww that's wonderful. "Me too," she said.

"And you know you came at a really good time, because as you know, Rowan's gone." Ah here it was, he was going to tell her to back off. Well no, Rowan had fucked up and it was her time to get what was hers. What had been hers all along. "And you're here and you're capitalizing on that. Catherine I like you but that boy is hurting, he is hurting bad and he's using you as a band aid to cover it up, you feel me?"

Catherine nodded. "She left him, Danny. And both Steve and I… we have unresolved feelings that we both what to explore…"

"Yeah I got that excuse from him too," he said. "Look, right now, right now you're what's keeping him afloat. You're keeping him happy… so don't leave again."

Catherine cleared her throat, damn they couldn't possibly know already. "Where did that come from? Does Steve know that you're here right now?"

"No he does not and he would kill me if he did so please don't tell him," Danny told her quickly. "Look, Catherine, I'm just looking out for my boy, alright and honestly he's a disaster. Maybe you don't see it, maybe you think this is all some second chance and he's seen the light but you weren't here. You haven't seen them together and I know… I know you don't walk away from the kind of relationship the two of them had."

"But she left. Not the other way around. She chose Wo Fat… she chose to leave…" she reminded him.

"Is that what he told you? Just that… she chose to leave? He didn't mention anything else?" Danny asked. When she shook her head he added: "Seriously nothing about an ultimatum?"

"He told me he gave her the option to drop Wo Fat or they were over. She chose to be over," she said with a shrug.

Danny took that in with a simple _huh_ which got her curious nature humming. Steve was hiding something then, and Danny knew what it was. Well he obviously wasn't going to tell her because he moved away from the conversation. "Look, the last couple of years, he's been through a lot especially when it came down to dealing with Rowan, the girl really put him on an emotional rollercoaster and I… I just think he deserves to be happy… both of you do. I just… honestly… I don't want either of you to get super invested into what is most likely a rebound only for it to implode, okay? And I definitely don't want you leaving him and crushing him all over again."

Catherine took that in. So, Danny thought that Rowan still had a hold on Steve, but Catherine must have had some sort of hold too if he was worried that her leaving again would hurt Steve. Or did he just want Catherine to stay as a crutch because he could tell that Steve just could not handle losing both her and Rowan at the same time.

"So that's what I wanted to say," Danny summed up. "I honestly have nothing against you. I personally think that Steve is more calm and level headed when you're around, so you know… rooting for you."

Catherine looked at him as he squinted out at the light reflecting on the ocean view beneath them. She knew he was lying. Danny was expecting Rowan to come back. He was expecting her to come back and Catherine would be gone. She dare say that he was looking forward to it.

But she couldn't say anything so all she did was tell him there were still good, thank him for the warning, hug him and then get into the car.

What was she going to do?

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

After dealing with briefcase bombs and arsonists and having to put Jason Duclair back into fucking jail after he broke out, killed the copy cat he was training and then burned the corpse. After all of that, all Steve wanted to do was curl up with Rowan and…. No… no… no he wanted to curl up with Catherine and listen to her play… Catherine didn't play guitar… for fuck sake. He could do this. He could do this.

He didn't miss Rowan. _He didn't_.

It had been nice working a case with Catherine. Would have been nicer if he could have exercised the Sandy network to deal with his bad guys this time around, or had Rowan's help with the situation or her visions to put him onto a good lead. He was told he got a little… violent and aggressive with the people he was interrogating, and chasing. And he couldn't really be dependent on the word of psychic, and that app of hers had been an excuse to use the criminal world for his benefit. He kept telling himself that he was better off without both but it still felt like he was lying to himself a bit.

They had gotten Duclair back into prison, though he had given himself up to get medical attention. Duclair had taken out Trout himself, which was fair cause Trout had helped break Duclair out of prison simply to take Duclair out himself. For Fame. Which was stupid. But hey he got his two guys back.

He was going home to Catherine, to Nahele, to the remnants of a family he wanted more than anything and was desperately trying to put back together by any means necessary. A family he knew wasn't going to be the same unless Rowan came back. A family that he planned to make a family again by proposing to Catherine, probably tonight. He had the ring in his pocket, he had a basic idea of how he was going to do it and everything. He should have felt something other than nauseating nervousness.

He pulled up to his house and found Catherine waiting out on the porch. He could think of two reasons that she'd be outside and that's either Rowan had come back and kicked her out, or Nahele had done something.

A wave of nausea hit him again and he frowned. Kay not Rowan, judging by the feeling in his stomach. What had Nahele done? He hopped out of his truck and his phone went off in his pocket. It was a number he didn't recognize but he answered with his typical: "McGarrett."

"McGarrett…" that was Wo Fat's voice. "It's an emerg…."

But Steve cut him off with a sharp: "Fuck you." And then hung up the phone.

Almost immediately he regretted it. With that nervousness was now coiled in his stomach. He hadn't been able to eat much for the last few days and looking at what he was about to do it made sense. But what if something was really wrong… what else would Wo Fat call him for?

Steve shrugged it all aside. Rowan and her void shit could go to hell. If she was in trouble, Wo Fat could deal with it, he dealt with it all the other times, right?

Putting his phone back in his pocket, and steeling himself for whatever it was Nahele did and getting ready to apologize for the stunt, he headed towards Catherine. Which was when he noticed that her packed bags were sitting beside her. Son of a bitch she was leaving. What the _hell_ had Nahele done?

He got closer to her and he must have been wearing a face because as soon as he got close enough she looked up at him with her weepy brown eyes, that did absolutely nothing for him and her chin started to wobble. "I'm sorry," she said to him and Steve winced.

"Is it… is it cause of Nahele? Cause you know… he'll come around sooner or later…"

Catherine shook her head. "Steve… no…"

"Cath… you just got here."

"Look, Steve, it's not that I don't love you…I do… but I have to go away for a little bit."

Not again. No. Why did everyone he cared about leave him? WHY? He crossed his arms over his chest as if to bar his heart from anymore injury and stared down at her: "How long."

She was quiet for a moment as she thought it over. "The truth is, I don't really know." Okay so that meant indefinitely. She was going away for a very long time. Just like his mother, just like Rowan. He continued to stare down at her, and she began to tear up. "God this is so hard."

Hard for her? She wasn't the one getting dumped twice in a fucking row.

"I need more than what a relationship can give me right now," she told him.

Steve nodded. Okay fair. "Okay. What do you want?'

"To feel needed."

"You are," he answered immediately even though he wasn't sure if he needed her for the right reasons, he just knew that all of this would be for nothing if she went away. Loosing Rowan, buying that ring, all of it would be meaningless because he had made the wrong choice. And that couldn't be true. He really needed that not to be true.

"No, not like that," she clarified and those words dealt another blow, because it was another woman telling him that his feelings for them weren't enough. Why the hell was he never enough? "See, when your phone rings, someone needs you. Okay… and you can help them. And I want to feel that."

"So, come back to Five-0," Steve offered but that too was shot out of the sky.

"No. Steve, Five-0 is you. It's always gonna be your thing, okay? Okay I need to build something on my own."

Steve took that in and then sat down beside her with a heavy sigh. "So you're going back to Afghanistan."

"No. Nepal. That earthquake hit them hard. I'm going to be running helidrops for the Red Cross. Getting those supplies to people who need it most is where I can… _I_ can make a difference."

"Alright, well, that's a two month op at most," he told her, tried to reason with her.

"Could be more."

"You know Catherine, if you want out of this thing, why don't you just look me in the eye and tell me you want out of this thing?"

"Steve I don't even know what this thing is," she told him. "And Rowan… she just did that to you I didn't want to do it do you again."

But she was. She was doing it to him again. Same situation, different woman.

"That doesn't mean I didn't want this. A second chance with you. Especially since I've always felt like… if Rowan had never shown up we would have never had problems… I would have never lost you. But I… if I could be in two places at the same time, I would."

"Yeah, but you can't, Catherine. And you're choosing the place where I'm not," he snapped. The silent _just like Rowan_ was implied and he was sure she caught it. "I mean… Listen, if you leave today, I can't… I won't wait for you…" he said to her.

Catherine nodded. "That's okay, Steven, I understand," she said. She slowly got up, a SUV pulling up behind his truck, clearly her ride. Steve stood with her, letting her hug him. "I'm so sorry," she sobbed softly in his ear like this made it better. "I will always… always love you, okay? But… I think we both know that _you_ already are waiting for someone… it just isn't me."

Steve let that sink in, he dropped his hold on her and stepped back. But he didn't collapse to the steps of his porch until that SUV had driven away. He was in shock, he couldn't believe that this had happened again. He should have been crushed, devastated or upset by this turn of events, but that wasn't the feeling sitting in his chest.

Because as he sat there, with Catherine walking away from him, that ring box in his hand. All Steven felt was relief.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

When Nahele came back from school Steve was sitting on the couch. Catherine was officially gone and he had done nothing but think about this turn of events. Like how, for starters, he knew now just how fucked up what he had done was. He seriously started some kind of rebound relationship with Catherine simply to spite Rowan and then he went a bought a ring for the wrong girl. Why? Again, to spite Rowan. And maybe a little bit because he figured if Rowan heard what he was doing she'd come back.

But that wasn't what was going to happen. Rowan would hear about Catherine and the proposal and she'd _never_ come back. She'd never forgive Steve for doing that. He had fucked his chances of getting his girl back all because he was mad at her.

Over Wo Fat.

Okay yeah, the man had done some terrible things, yeah he had tortured Steve twice and he gave Rowan the ability to be just as dangerously psycho as him, but he had come through in protecting and saving Rowan more times than he could count. And you know… Rowan had always been pretty good at keeping them separate. Except for the few times where they had no choice, Steve didn't have to deal with Wo Fat.

And to be honest, it was kind of nice when he and Wo Fat cooperated. He felt like, if anyone could understand the frustration Rowan put him through, it was Wo Fat, but he had never tried to talk to him about it before. And if he ever convinced Rowan to come back, maybe he'd start. But probably not.

Steve also knew that Nahele was reeling over Rowan's abandonment. He and Rowan had always been close so this must have been jarring to him, for her to just out of nowhere leave the island and drop all contact with him. And then Steve just up and tried to replace her with his ex and figured the kid would be fine with it. Not his smartest move.

So when Nahele came through the door and didn't hit him with an immediately _hello_ he figured he deserved it. Nahele dropped his bag by the door and shuffled into the kitchen. Steve figured he'd give him his space and when the kid calmed down a bit, he'd apologize, take him out to a movie or something. He figured the kid probably wouldn't talk to him for a few days which was going to make living together kinda awkward.

But Nahele surprised him.

"Hey uh… dad… I mean Steve?"

Steve looked up to find Nahele standing above him a trembling look about his features. "Hey… hey buddy what's up?"

Nahele looked down quickly before mumbling out: "I'm really sorry I said I'd rather go to a group home than live with you… It's just… mom left me and she hasn't called and this new woman… I just… I wanted my family back…"

"Hey, hey, hey," Steve said as the kid broke out into tears. He grabbed Nahele quickly, pulling him down the couch and into a strong hug from him. "Hey it's okay, I got it okay? I knew… I knew it was because you were hurting and I was pushing some ridiculous plan onto you. I never should have put you in that position, especially since you were right…"

"So you didn't propose?" Nahele asked with a sniff.

Steve shook his head. "No… no… turns out she was leaving too… so you know… got dumped twice in three days… does not feel good let me tell you…"

"I'm sorry…"

"Hey it's okay, it's fine, I'm used to it by now…" Steve said. "But how about you? How are you holding up?"

"I unno… I just didn't think she'd just leave… you know… not without calling me… I really thought she… she'd have come to get me by now… but she really did just leave us both behind… I thought she cared for me…"

Steve nodded. "That uh… that may not have been what she did. She does care, you know?" he said which got him a huff from Nahele and a _yeah it sure looks like it_. Steve sighed this was his fault. Steve was used to Rowan's runners, Nahele was not. "What I should have told you when she vanished was that she does this."

"Does what?"

"Runs," Steve said. "It's something she does when she's upset, she's done it before and usually I go off and find her but she's never left the island before. Granted I'm not even sure how she did cause she doesn't have a passport but I guess her brother got her out…"

"I didn't know she had a brother…"

"Wo Fat is not her brother," he said. "It's complicated. Just uh… yeah, it's complicated. Look, this vanishing act she does, it's just cause she's hurting. It's how she deals with it, and when she feels better she'll come back. I promise."

"Or you know… you could go get her," Nahele said.

"I unno buddy, I said some things I shouldn't have… and you know… I'm sure Kono's told her all about this dalliance with Catherine… she doesn't think rationally where Catherine is involved, I just don't think she'll forgive me."

"I think, the only reason she hasn't come back yet is because you were with Catherine. I bet she thinks you don't want her, but if you go to Japan to go get her she'll know for sure. Just you know, don't kidnap her, just surprise her with flowers or chocolates or something."

"I'd have to find her first," he said.

"Just track her phone," he said with a shrug. "But seriously just make sure she comes home. I miss her."

Yeah he missed Rowan too. He let Nahele hug him again, let the boy go back to his room to study and then sat back wondering what he was going to do now. It wasn't long after that that he pulled out his phone to call her.

"Hey," he said, thinking to himself that it was rather odd that it went straight to her voicemail. "Hey… it's Steven… obviously. I… I fucked up Rowan. I know I should say this to you in person but uh… I love you, okay? I love you and I want you to come home. So if you could call me… so we can talk this out and figure out a way for us to fix this… I'd really like that. Just… please… Ro… I need you."

He hung up and then just sat there for a bit. The nausea rolling through him as Steven began to wait.


	207. Chapter 207

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Monday my wonderful readers. So yeah, Steve made a terrible choice, but he figured out his mistake and is going to fix it. I know you guys are wondering about Rowan and you're going to find out what happened with her really soon. As you can see episodes 1 and 2 kinda got absorbed by the drama, we're going to go way off script for the next couple of chapters. I'm not sure what's going on with episodes 3 and 4 at the current moment. I might mention them in passing but there's a good chance I'm probably just gonna leave them out. I'll let you know when we get there. This chapter is gonna end BADLY just letting you know that now, so be prepared for it. As always don't forget to leave me a review, I'd love to hear your theories about what's going on or what's going ot happen next and I'll see you guys on Wednesday._

Chapter 207

* * *

Steve drove the pastel purple GTO into the garage and parked it beside his father's Marquis. He figured, if he was going to grovel to get Rowan back getting her car out of the impound lot would be a good place to start. He wasn't in the garage for more than thirty seconds when Nahele came flying in a big grin on his face. That grin faltered when he realized that it was Steve climbing out and not Rowan.

"Sorry buddy, just me," he said.

Nahele shrugged it off like it was no big deal. "Actually, I'm glad it's back, I think I left my jacket in the back."

Steve tossed Nahele the keys. "I didn't see anything in the back, but go ham kid."

He left Nahele to look through the car while he went back into the kitchen. For the millionth time that day he checked his phone. Rowan had still not called. Granted it had only been ten hours and there was a time difference, but he had sort of hoped that she had gotten the message, and would have called him by now. He dialled her number again and it was straight to voicemail. Damn had she blocked his number? Maybe he needed to try calling off someone else's phone, like Nahele's… oh or Kono's… the two of them were besties now, she wouldn't have blocked them right?

He went into his kitchen and looked into his fridge. How the hell did he ever function before Rowan came into his life and made his dinners for him? He just didn't know what to do with himself anymore, though, to be fair, he probably should have gone grocery shopping if he wanted fresh ingredients to make food.

He heard Nahele come back into the house and Steve called: "Hey, how do you feel about ordering again? Cause I don't think you want KD for the third time this week. What do you think? Pizza?"

But Nahele didn't answer, instead he put Rowan's phone down at the counter and Steve froze. What the hell?

"I found this under the driver's seat," he said. "It's dead."

Steve picked it up, not sure it was real until he had it in his hand. Rowan's phone model, Rowan's case. It _was_ her phone. If she had left it behind, that meant all those times they had been trying to get a hold of her had been pointless because she didn't have her phone.

"If her phone got left behind… how are we going to get a hold of her?" Nahele asked.

Steve blinked his eyes. That was a very, very good question.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Upon establishing that Rowan's phone had been left behind the first thing Steve did was call his friends and ask if any of them had heard from her. He assumed that the leaving of her phone was to stop him from tracking her with the app. But they hadn't heard from her either and all of them thought it was weird that she hadn't reached out to one of them, and that she hadn't gotten a hold of Nahele by now.

So Steve called Wo Fat through the app. He got the same message as before, messages not checked, for an emergency activate Sanctuary, but Steve wasn't sure it was an emergency yet. Instead he left another message. _Hey it's McGarrett. I think something's wrong call me back._ Figured he'd get nothing, but he remembered Wo Fat's call from the night before. The panic in the man's voice. He had been about to tell him that there was an emergency. The waves of nausea were getting worse.

Something was wrong. Something had to be wrong.

He called Kong next. Asked if he heard anything. He said no. Nothing on the app. Nothing to report. Wo Fat was in Colombia and had gone dark less than a week ago. Rowan had been unusually quiet. He sounded weird, but Steve couldn't get him to tell him what was going on.

He went to the app, asked for a location. Got the same one as before. A twenty mile radius that she could be in. Still in Japan. The bay of Tokyo. The app couldn't pin her though. According to the app she had been dark for the last five days. Coincidentally since the night she left. How was it tracking her if she didn't have her phone, was that why it was having issues pinning her?

Now he was worried, because if Wo Fat was in Colombia what was Rowan doing in Tokyo? Was it a safe house? Wouldn't the app know if she was in a safe house?

He had gone to the Palace because he wanted more info about the area. His friends, sensing that something was wrong had joined him there without him asking them to. He had looked up the coordinates of where she was staying, heavy Yakuza area, the buildings in the area were all owned by shell corporations, if they did enough digging one of them would probably lead all the way back to Riku Sato, but finding out who owned the buildings wouldn't tell him if Rowan was in one of them, unless it was owned by Wo Fat or one of his aliases. But Steve knew Wo Fat wouldn't be that stupid. If he were going to put Rowan in a safe house that he didn't want Steve to find, it wouldn't be in his name, or any of his aliases' names either.

They had been throwing around theories, all of them thought that something was wrong too, but no one wanted to rub that in Steve's face. Instead they tried to hit him with the best case scenarios while they all tried to figure out the best plan of attack, which everyone figured was going to Japan and combing that area the App said it last saw her.

And then his phone rang. A strange area code, a number he didn't recognize. Wo Fat? That nausea was peak at this point, he was surprised he hadn't vomited.

"McGarrett," he answered.

"Steve?" her voice came at him, hitched in the same kind of tone that she used when she was scared. Already he was on edge but he also couldn't help but think that this was all a ploy. "Steve… thank god…"

"What's going on Ro, what's happening right now?" he asked sounded more stern then he should have. "You left the phone behind, you went to Japan…"

Rowan paused. "I'm in Japan?" she asked softly and he knew right then and there that his hunch was right. Something was wrong. That this… this probably wasn't a social call.

"Ro… are you… how do you not know…?"

"Cause I wasn't conscious when they transported me, STEVEN!" Rowan cried. "I don't know where I am and they won't stop… hurting me… just please… please come get me… please…"

Her sobs broke him, panic sunk its icy hooks into his chest, clawing at him. He gestured to Chin who immediately pulled up the tracking software typing frantically to coordinate with this call.

"Rowan, I need you to tell me everything, I need you to…"

"I don't know, Steven!" she shouted back at him. "I was locked in that room for… for… I don't even know how many days and they just wouldn't stop... I just want to go home, I thought you'd… I thought you'd come…"

He didn't know she was in trouble. But even that wasn't true because he had been ignoring the nausea rolling around in his stomach, assuming it was just lingering sickness from breaking up with the woman he loved and planning to propose to a woman he didn't even like just to spite her.

"Describe where you are Rowan," he said. "I'm coming, but I need to know where you are."

There was a soft pause, and in the background he heard a door open, unfamiliar voices were heard, the phone was dropped. Rowan's voice was garbled with apologies and covered over by shouts, and the sounds of a struggle, and then it stopped being words because Rowan was crying out in pain.

"No! STOP IT!" Steve shouted so bloody terrified for her he was certain that he was going to have an actual heart attack.

The hits continued to land. Her cries felt like blows to him as he shouted for them to stop and then the phone was picked up.

"And who is this?"

"Commander McGarrett of Five-0. I don't what you're doing but…"

"You want her back, Commander," the voice interrupted. Obviously he wanted her back. "Then get me Noshimuri's money."

The call ended and Steve turned his eyes to Chin. He didn't have a location, but he had an area.

A warehouse by the Tokyo bay.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steven had no idea how to get Adam's money. He had called him, but Adam had no idea where Rowan had transferred the money to, the only person who could tell him, other than Rowan, was Wo Fat.

And then he started calling Wo Fat, who still wasn't picking up. Steven had already begun panicking by then, had already started looking at other options to get to Rowan. It took eighteen calls before he got a hold of Wo Fat, but the man, much like when he had called Steve the day before, had merely told him to fuck off and like that the call went dead. With no other options, he had called Joe White immediately. He wasn't near-by to physically help him but he had set Steve up with a plane, a Navy plane to take him and his team down to the Bay of Tokyo.

Once transportation was set, Steve had called the Police in Japan with the information, had called every contact he had to get them to converge on the location. They had a search radius, all Steve had to give them, and they were searching. When Steve landed he and the rest of the Five-0s would join in the search.

Steve was frantic, he had shook, tried calling Wo, but somewhere between the last call and securing transport, the number he had went out of service and he couldn't connect to the app. Chin, Grover, Kono and Danny had all come with him, he didn't even need to ask they all just suited up as soon as he knew what was wrong.

Nahele had been picked up by Duke and sent to the Grover's again, he had not been informed of the situation, or at least Renee was told not to tell him what was going on until they knew for certain that Rowan was okay.

And then the video came in.

This terrible, three minute video, of Rowan. Rowan, in some dark dingy basement. Rowan, pitching and screaming as a cattle prod was jammed into her wet side and electrocuted her. Rowan struggling as a towel was slammed over her face and a bucket of water was poured over it.

She had dreamed this. She had dreamed that this would happen and he thought it just his nightmares reaching across the bed and finding their way into her head.

Now they were real.

The video cut into him. It brought him alive with an electric seething anger. His panic had become a creature attempting to claw its way out of his chest. He had screamed at the video as if her captors could hear him, as if it would get them to stop. His eyes scanned the wounds he could see, but he didn't know how long they had been doing this to her and he was more than 100% certain that when he got her it was going to be much, much worse.

His friends spent the rest of the flight trying to calm him. Each trying to watch the video, cracks of worry appearing on the skin of their faces. But Steve couldn't be calmed, not until he had Rowan back, not until he had killed the men who had done this to her.

The video had come from Wo Fat. He knew it. Because the video came with a message.

 _She was supposed to be with you_.

He didn't know how it had happened. But the miscommunication was clear. Steve had thought she was with Wo Fat. Wo Fat thought her to be with Steve. Rowan was actually in a basement in Japan. Getting tortured apparently. And now he was torturing himself with the guilt, cause he had a feeling that something was off, that she wouldn't have left Nahele. And because he had a feeling that each rolling wave of nausea that had gripped him over the last five days had been her screaming his name to help her, to try and reach him through the void. And he had ignored it. Now he couldn't close his eyes because the images were there, replaying over and over, paired with her terrible agonizing screams.

When they landed, Steve was rabid. Like a caged animal breaking free, he disembarked off that plane with a ferocious need to just _find_ her. And luckily the police could report that they had found the space in which they were certain she had been held.

They said it was easy. It was the only warehouse in that area that had been shot up. The problem was, there were no survivors. The place was on fire. And no one could tell them what they saw or if Rowan was in there when this all went down.

Steve and his little band of men arrived at the scene to smoke rising into the night air. The fires put out, the bodies being lined up to be bagged and tagged. He was hoping that she hadn't been in there. She was in a different warehouse, one that was intact, with witnesses inside that would lead Steve to her. But he knew the hallmarks of a crazy sociopath who would rain hell to get Rowan back. He knew the M.O of what was before him, recognized that particular brand of chaos. There was only one man that would do something like this in the wake of what had happened. And his suspicions were confirmed the second the lead fire-fighter put something into his hands.

It was his dog tags. They found his dog tags amongst the ashes in a small basement room. She really had been there. The question was, where was she now?

The phone rang. That same blank number that had sent him the video. Steve answered it immediately regardless of whether or not Chin was ready to trace the call...

"Where is she Wo?" he asked as soon as the call connected. His voice cracked and he was ashamed to show to his arch nemesis just how badly this was affecting him. But Steve was coming apart at the seams and so dangerously close to losing it that he couldn't keep it under control. "I know you have her, where is she?"

"I can't stop hearing her screams," came Wo's response. And Steve fell silent. So Wo had really forwarded him the video and he could safely say that he would never forget the sounds or the images from that clip either.

"When I left her with you it was with the understanding that you would keep her safe. How could you not have noticed her missing? Four days they had her in that room. Where were you?" Wo shouted, why was he breaking, he was stoic and unfeeling, but this didn't sound stoic and unfeeling. Wo Fat was raw and angry, Steve could hear emotion in his voice and he knew that this didn't bode well at all.

Steve had nothing to say because it was true. Where had he been? At his place sulking because he thought she had run off with Wo Fat. Fucking Catherine and planning to propose to her because he was mad at Rowan. He was never going to forgive himself if something had happened to her.

"Please," he whispered. "Please don't do this. Please don't take her from me again. Give her back. Please. Wo… _brother_ … please… please don't do this…"

"I'm sorry Commander, but neither of us are ever going to see her again."

And then line went dead.

Steve stared down at his phone his heart still in his chest, his breathing shallow and caught in his throat. He barely heard Chin when he said that Wo Fat had stayed on the line just long enough for them to get a location that he knew where he was. The only thing he knew was that he needed to get there. Now.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Wo Fat had called from somewhere on the Takada Castle grounds, a three hour drive away from the warehouse. He had the place surrounded seconds after the trace. Steve had arrived the three hours later to cops combing the area for any sign of where they had gone. They had found only one thing, and they were waiting for his orders. Which left Steve and Danny to walk through a temple garden that was covered in cherry blossom trees in full bloom and budding flowers. It was peaceful and serene but Steve McGarrett was none of those things. Danny stood beside his best friend ready to move in if it looked like he was going to melt down for the man was running on fumes at this point. Steve's face was gaunt and pale, he hadn't bounced back from the video of Rowan's torture, Danny wasn't certain any of them had, but it had hit Steve harder than the others.

The man looked like he had had the shit kicked out of him but the beating had left no bruises. The worry pulsed in his jaw, the fear on his face hadn't eased at any point in the last six hours. He looked like he may pass out or vomit at any point in time.

The people in charge of the castle had not been happy when a fleet of law enforcement agents appeared on the property. They were upset when they let themselves in to start searching and even less happy that they were now combing the grounds. But the search needed to be extensive, Wo Fat was an expert at hiding, escaping and manipulating people to get what he wanted.

"They were just here," Danny told him as they walked towards where they had traced the phone call to. "She's gotta be incapacitated, so he can't have gotten far from here."

They rounded the corner, heading towards the water. The water in the large moat lapped silently in the distance and in front of them were rows of cherry tries. White and pink petals drifted lazily down from the tree and whispered across the grass. To walk Rowan down here, even for an escape, made no sense. It would have been hard for Wo Fat to drag an unconscious girl through all this just to get a boat to the other side, especially since there was nothing else in the area but gardens.

Danny followed after Steve as he walked through the rows of trees towards the water. It was the last tree, right by the water's edge, the only one that was covered in twinkling fairy lights with the police man with a light up baton that had caught Steve's attention. "What do you think they climbed it?" Danny asked hoping that if he joked around with Steve he might lighten up.

But what they found at the base knocked the joking mood right out of Danny. Recently disturbed soil. Rectangle shaped.

They had found a grave.

Steve stared down at the dirt as Danny order it to be dug up. He stayed abnormally quiet as the uniformed officers all gathered around to start digging. Danny tried telling him that it couldn't be anything. Wo Fat wouldn't have let Rowan die, she was his sister, she was the only person that man could be considered close to. Steve was silent all while they dug, he was silent but tense when they came across a box. A wooden coffin made of nothing but nailed together two by fours.

The whole of the Five-0 team stood around the box once it was unearthed. They held their breaths as the lid was pried up. And gasps of horror left them when they saw what was inside.

The body was missing its face. A gunshot to the back of the head with what must have been a large calibre gun had decimated it. The hair was that familiar red to blonde fade. The body was wearing a white summer dress and its hands were folded neatly over its chest clutching a stalk of lilacs and roses. It was clear that someone had taken great time to pretty up the body, the clothes were pristine and brand new, what was left of the hair had been combed, the skin looked clean and smooth. What was worse was that they could see the peaks of the cursive that decorated the side of her body through the lace windows on the side of the dress.

Kono turned away, pressing into Chin unable to look at her as Chin dropped his head to her shoulder, he too unable to take in the sight in that coffin. Danny put a hand to his mouth, while Grover put a hand to his eyes.

Danny turned to Steve and saw that the man was holding it remarkably well. He just stared down at the body taking in all of its features. "I'm so sorry, babe" Danny whispered to him, putting a hand to Steve's arm but Steve merely shook his head and pulled his arm out of Danny's grasp.

"That's not Rowan," he said. He turned to face Danny and he saw that Steve needed to believe this. That anything else could break him. That even with the visual evidence Steve wouldn't, or couldn't take the thought of this body being Rowan. "Take that back to the lab and do a DNA analysis on it. That's not her. It can't be."

Danny let Steve walk away. He wanted to argue. But at that moment he knew Steve wouldn't listen. Danny would just have to be there when Steve was ready to accept the truth.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve got the call to come to the M.E.'s office later in the evening. The job had been rushed due to the urgency of the matter. Rowan and Wo Fat had been put on the no-fly list and there were A. and BOLOs out for them all over Japan. Steve knew that this had to be a trick. There was no way that Wo Fat would let Steve have Rowan back after such a monumental failure to protect her. He'd want to sweep her away and keep her safe from Steve. What Wo Fat didn't know was that Steve would spend the rest of his life hunting her down if he had to.

A lot of things that came to light in the hours he waited to hear from the M.E.

Like Wo Fat had a girlfriend. Osaka police had already questioned her and she hadn't heard from him in a few weeks, nor had he ever mentioned someone named Rowan to her. Which was odd, but if she didn't know anything there wasn't much that Steve could get out of her.

Like Wo Fat had been flown in on a private plane with tags that hailed from Colombia not an hour before the assault on the warehouse which meant he flew into Japan ready to take them on and get Rowan out. The pilot had been questioned but he was set to fly back to Colombia with three business men, which he did a few hours later.

Like _someone_ had gone to Riku Sato's house while Steve had been at the docks getting confirmation that Rowan had been there. That same _someone_ had taken down Sato's personal guards, raped his wife, murdered her and his children in front of him and then put a bullet in his head.

But there was no sign of either Wo Fat or Rowan anywhere and with how injured she most likely was he needed to take her to some sort of medical facility. But she hadn't shown up at any hospitals or clinics. So where were they?

So when he was called, when he was told to come to the coroner's office, he had woken Danny up who had fallen asleep in Steve's hotel room. Together they had been dialling Wo Fat's line through the app over and over to see if he'd come back online. So far he hadn't. But Danny was trying to be optimistic for Steve's sake, so when Steve told him the M.E. had news he hadn't' questioned why Steve didn't ask what the news was on the phone, he just got his shoes on and went with Steve. As they made their way down the stairs to the morgue, Steve comforted that Danny was still with him and more than grateful for his friend's presence.

They got to the bottom floor, opened the door and Steve froze. The Japanese translator was there, the M.E. a little wiry Japanese man named Dr. Oshida Phan was bowing to them out of respect. What froze Steve was the picture up on the screen. A smiling image of Rowan from her licence.

"No," Steve said.

Dr. Phan started talking and like a gap in audio the translator started to talk too.

"He's really sorry to inform you but after extensive tests he can confirm…"

"No," Steve said again but this time louder. "No. It can't be."

"… that these are the remains of Rowan Pierce."

Steve shook his head. He belatedly heard the whispers of consolation. He barely felt Danny's strong grip on his arm. He focused clearly on Rowan's body lying under the white blanket on the autopsy table. Fresh red welts bright against the skin of her wrists. Her face missing. Her body not moving.

He couldn't comprehend this. It didn't compute in his head. At no point in his life did he think that he was going to live without her. She had been a constant. There were no other options. He loved her and he should have told her that, but instead he let her walk away and now she was a cadaver on a table.

The world swayed around him. His breathing erratic and hitched as the reality came crashing down around him. His focus went in and out until suddenly he had collapsed landing painfully on his knees. He wasn't aware of any sound he was making until the wailing bounced back at him. His chest felt as if someone had cleaved it open, his heart ached and his sobs were wracking his body.

He felt Danny put his arms around him to try and reel him back in but he couldn't hold it in anymore. He had done this. His selfishness. His stupidity. Rowan was dead and it was his fault.


	208. Chapter 208

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Wednesday my wonderful readers. Wow, thank you guys for being so understanding about the last few chapters. I was worried ya'll would be made but nope, you get me. Oh if only this was the only lie Wo Fat ends up telling. For those of you who are panicking, she is not dead. I've got the rest of the story to write and it would be really weird if she were a zombie. That really shouldn't be a spoiler cause I keep telling you guys that they're going to get married in season 7. But right now, Steve thinks she's dead and that's very important, if you need to know why check out ChristinaYang4ever's review for last chapter cause it sums up why it's gonna be important really well (thanks for that by the way). So I've managed to work in episodes 3-4 in passing, which, I will admit, is actually going to happen for a lot of the episodes as we're going to be focusing a lot on whatever Rowan and Wo Fat are doing. Don't worry you'll still see some of Steve too, all the good and funny bits. Specially all the funny stuff with Danny. For this chapter, however, we're still following the Five-0's and if I've done my job right, it should make you cry. Please tell me if it does when you leave me a review and I will see you guys on Friday!_

Chapter 208

* * *

They were given a military plane to get back to Hawaii… and the whole nine hour ride back was just plain painful. No one talked, how could they when their most talkative member was in a wooden box that had been strapped down in the middle of the plane. No one could look at it, not without feeling the gaping hole in their lives her absence left.

But none of them were as bad as Steve.

Kono kept swiping at her eyes, Chin was looking away, Grover had his head bowed, a hand to his eyes to hide the tears that were falling and to avoid looking at everyone else's tears and Danny just sat there, head tilted back looking at the ceiling swallowing the tears away over and over.

His leg bounced, his eyes went everywhere but the coffin strapped down in the middle of the cargo bay just a few short feet away from where they were all strapped in in their tiny fold-out-from-the-wall seats. Steve on the other hand, was a complete mess. He was nothing but a hollowed-out shell of himself. Empty and broken, sitting there unable to fully comprehend what had happened, his chest carved out, his heart laid to waste.

They were halfway through the flight when Steve suddenly stood. He couldn't sit anymore, he couldn't sit there and try to bounce the feeling out of him. It wasn't working.

He found himself at her coffin. Knowing that his girlfriend was the one inside, face missing in a nice white dress. Covered in burns and cuts because he hadn't fucking saved her. This was all his fault. He had done this. He chased her out of the house. He didn't go and get her when he had the chance, and he wasn't in time to save her in the end. She died alone, in a basement, broken, battered and screaming for him and he hadn't been there for her.

He put his hand to the top of the box and felt everything in him start to shake and come apart and suddenly he was crying and leaning against the box.

"God I'm so sorry Rowan. I'm so fucking sorry. I shouldn't have pushed you away. I shouldn't have told you I was going to marry Catherine. Not when all I really wanted was to marry you. Fuck, you were supposed to be my forever, the girl who stayed. I wanted you so bad. I should have come after you as soon as I knew you were in Japan. I should have told you how I felt about you. Maybe if I had… maybe…" Steve's voice cracked, the quaking broke him, his knees gave way, but he didn't fall to the ground. He found himself draped against that wooden coffin that held her body sobbing much more loudly then he thought he was.

His friends didn't crowd him, they didn't know what to do or how to fix him, but Danny came to his side, his arm around his shoulder trying to calm him, to soothe him, but that burn of anger had turned into nothing short of desperate need. He needed her to come back, he needed her to be alive, had loved her goddamn it.

"Steve… buddy… you did everything you could," Danny whispered to him, but it wasn't true.

"She was there for four days! Four! Danny… I knew she was there. I knew she was there and I left her there… I should have gone… I shouldn't have picked Catherine… you all told me and I didn't… it's my fault. She's dead and it's my fault," he sobbed. He folded into himself, the pain in his chest caving him, emptying him out and filling him with nothing but that terrible agonizing pain. "I just want her back. _I want her back_!"

He roared in agony. He roared his frustrations and then sobbed into his friend's shoulder because he couldn't hold it in anymore. He just couldn't.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Danny had picked him up from school and that was clue #1 that something had been wrong. He knew very little about the situation, but from what Renee had explained, Steven had gotten a ransom call for Rowan and gone off to rescue her. The whole team had gone off to help him get her back, and the Grover's had taken him in until Steve and Rowan came back. That was two days ago.

"Where's… uhm…" he whispered afraid to ask the question. He had known something was wrong when Rowan had dropped contact with him, she wouldn't have left him behind, and finding out that she had been kidnapped and now was being ransomed confirmed that.

But when Danny winced at the question, Nahele knew he wasn't going to get good news.

"Look… the op… the mission… it went sideways… Rowan's… uh… Rowan's not coming home buddy… she's…"

Dead. Rowan was dead. That was what that meant. But what did that mean for him?

"Look… I know this is a lot to ask, but I need you to cry it out now, cause Steve is not taking this well… and uh… I'm kinda of taking you home to a disaster zone."

Nahele took Danny's advice, and Danny let him cry. They got to Steve's house but Danny didn't rush him, he just sat there, with his arm around Nahele's back, letting him cry it out. When Nahele seemed done Danny asked: "Are you good? I mean you're not good, obviously not, but for right now… are you good for right now?"

Nahele nodded. "Okay good, cause I'm not going to lie to you… it's bad, like it's really bad. I've left him right now… but if it's as bad as I think, if he's gotten worse, you're packing your shit up and coming home with me."

Nahele didn't know what that could mean until he got into the house and then he understood. Steve was just sitting on the couch an absent look on his face, tears trailing down his cheeks. He made no move to wipe them away and instead just let them fall. He was just sitting in the dark, his elbows on his knees his fingers interlaced and to his lips. He flinched when Danny turned the light on.

"Hey… buddy… we've got Nahele here, he's back from school."

Steve grunted, or grumbled, some sort of words that might have meant something but otherwise his eyes didn't move. He just stared blankly off into space. He looked broken, like a shattered version of himself and that alone scared Nahele.

"Steve?" Danny asked, he nudged him and only then did Steve react. He jumped, his eyes swung around the room and then settled on Nahele.

"Hey! Hey! How was school?" he asked, shooting to his feet. He swiped furiously at his cheeks, and though he reanimated a bit, Nahele could see the damage, he could more than see the damage that this had done to Steven.

"It… it was okay… are you okay?"

Steve's mouth trembled. "Uh… yeah… uhm… Look… I know I said… I said I was bringing her back and we'd… and she… but uh… but uh… I couldn't… she…"

"It's okay, I've already told him…" Danny started but it was too late.

Steven looked away, his chin wobbling. Nahele could only stand there and watch as the strong, impervious McGarrett folded in on himself, collapsed to the couch and started to silently sob. As Danny stepped in to comfort him, Nahele knew he couldn't leave him. Steve needed him. He needed Steve. They needed each other. They were all each other had now.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Though Danny tried, Nahele refused to leave Steve during this time of need. Even though Nahele was hurting, and he couldn't stomach looking at pictures of Rowan, he woke up in the morning ready to fake it till he made it because Steve needed him.

When he had gone to bed the night before, Steve had been on the couch, head in hands still crying, surrounded by beer bottles. His dog tags and her phone left on the table in front of him. Nahele had checked in later the previous night to find Steve passed out on the couch. He had carefully draped a blanket over the man, and cleared away the beer bottles.

That morning, Steve had kicked the blanket off at some point in the night and a few more beer bottles were both on the living room table and out on the lanai. Nahele had picked those up while making toast since he had a feeling that was all Steve would be able to stomach. He then boiled the strongest coffee he could make.

But he didn't want to wake Steve up, so he let him sleep. When Steve did wake up the coffee was cold, the toast was hard and the sun was high up in the sky. Steve had checked his phone and then cringed. Nahele didn't have to ask why, the background image was a picture of him and Rowan.

Nahele had tried to say good morning but Steve was catatonic and didn't reply. He merely walked past him, went to the fridge and took out another beer. Great. Just great. Steve was going to try to drink himself through this.

"Hey, Hey," he said getting in between him and the couch. Steve's pain fogged blue eyes focusing on him.

"Hey kid," he said softly, dropped a hand to his shoulder and then tried to walk away. Nahele put a hand out to stop him and the pulled the beer out of his hand.

"You gotta stop Steve," he pleaded. "This isn't going to fix it. This isn't going to bring her back. And even if it does make you feel better for a bit you're going to feel worse when you sober up."

Steve stared at him his eyes blinking as if his beer-logged brain couldn't process what Nahele was saying to him. His eyebrows narrowed in confusion. "Have you been home this whole time?" Nahele nodded to him. "I didn't even ask if you were okay…"

"It's okay, I know what grief is like… what it feel like to lose someone…" Nahele started but Steve lurched forward to give him an impromptu hug.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry buddy," he whispered to him. "We're going to… we're going to be alright… we… we'll be okay without her." But the shaking had started again and Nahele knew what that was going to bring.

"Steve, don't… don't…" he tried to soothe but it didn't work.

"I can't do this by myself," he suddenly whispered, though Nahele was sure that Steve didn't mean for him to hear it, and the tears were stemming again and Steve was buckling to the floor.

Nahele just let him fall because he didn't know what else to do but it was sounding an awful lot like he was out a mom again and about to be out a home.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Across the island, Danny was gearing up to do something he didn't want to do.

Danny knew he'd have to check on Steve. Steve who wasn't taking this well at all. Who had taken Rowan's death about as badly as they thought he would and then some. Not only was it killing him it seemed to absolutely shatter him. Like his strength and his will to live had been tied to Rowan Pierce's heartbeat.

But that wasn't what Danny had to do today. No, today he had to find a way to tell his daughter that her favourite Auntie Ro, wasn't going to be coming home.

He got to Rachel's place and Grace came sprinting out calling her nickname for him. He ran into her embrace letting his little girl get all the comfort she needed, to reassure her that he had come home from this latest Rowan-rescue and that at least he was okay.

"Is Auntie Ro okay?" she asked him before her feet even touched the grass again and immediately Danny faltered. He swallowed back the lump of tears he had been shoving back, as he had to be strong since Steve, their usually strong and fearless leader had crumpled at this blow to his fragile heart. He tried to smile but he knew, selfishly he felt like this conversation was going to be even harder than telling Nahele that his second-chance mom wasn't coming home.

"Monkey… I've got… I've got something to tell you about your Auntie Ro…"

And he hated the way the eager hopeful smile fell from his daughter's face and slowly faded out of her eyes.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

When Kono hadn't called him before coming back from Japan, had just arrived home without telling him, he suspected bad news. Adam had put on his bravest face and said: "So I've got a hospital care package for you and Rowan if you need to stay overnight… and uh… I'm willing to contact Shioma for information if we need to but I…"

He wasn't expecting her to blurt out: "She's dead."

Adam blinked her eyes. He was prepared for every outcome. For Rowan needing extensive medical care, for Rowan being fine and staying with Wo Fat, hell he was even ready for Kono telling him that there had been a shootout and either Wo Fat or Steven had been shot in the process. But at no point was he expecting to hear that she was dead, not when he knew just how rabid Wo Fat was about her protection. Why would anyone chance raining down that kind of wrath when they all knew that the only reason Wo Fat had been even remotely reasonable was because of Rowan Pierce. Maybe it wasn't Rowan, maybe it was someone else? Had her mother died?

"Wait… she's… you mean Rowan?"

Kono nodded, her chin suddenly starting to wobble. "We found her buried on the Takada Castle grounds… under a cherry tree by the water…"

Wo Fat had desecrated sacred grounds to bury her somewhere beautiful. Fuck. That… that was so like him.

But Adam didn't know what to say. He didn't really know Rowan, but he knew he could count on her. He knew that she was loyal, not just to Kono, but to him. He knew that when the time came she had literally walked into a hostage situation to save both him and Kono. And he had sold her out to McGarrett literally as soon as he could… he was the reason that she and Steve had that argument that got her grabbed six days ago. He was the reason she was dead. Because he wasn't loyal to the girl who had been nothing but good to him and his wife.

He looked up and saw that Kono, while struggling not to, was suddenly crying almost violently. He moved forward to wrap her up in his arm and hold her close, while the guilt crashed over him like waves crashed into the shore and his own tears fell from his eyes.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

At the Grover house, Lou had come in to a flurry of people asking how everything went. Was Rowan okay? How was Steve holding up? And he couldn't answer their questions. He just hugged them all once before heading upstairs feigning tiredness. He was followed by Renee who had known right away that something was wrong.

She was upstairs with him for ten seconds before she said: "Is she not coming back or did she not make it…?"

Grover turned to her, tears streaming down his face and that was all the answer she needed. Renee rushed forward to comfort him. This was the third friend he had lost in a short amount of time, and while Rowan had annoyed him, he never actually wished her harm, or wanted Steve to suffer the way he was going to suffer. But like Samantha's nightmares Lou couldn't take that burden from Steve's shoulders and he wasn't sure he could handle it if he did.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Chin had gone to Jerry's, not having anyone else to go to at that time. Jerry had talked a mile a minute about all the tracking he had done on the app until it up and went dark. And he had so many theories, but Chin knew why the app had gone down.

"So I think… if he took it offline, then either something really bad was happening and he had to disable it or it got so overwhelmed that it wasn't functioning. Something did go out before it went dark and the damn thing had a seizure…"

"Or because she died."

There. It was out there. Jerry fell quiet and turned to Chin. "She… she…"

"Took a bullet to the back of the head. Max has her body and is… I guess going to figure out if she died before the bullet or because of it…"

Jerry took that in before turning to him and asking: "Are you okay?"

He wasn't but he had so much pain fracturing his heart between Rowan and Malia he was numb to everything.

But it was clear, to everyone who knew Rowan, that they were all affected in different ways and only time would tell if they would be okay.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

NA hadn't failed a mission ever. You gave him a job and he got it done, it was what he was known for. Complete the objective at all costs, no matter the consequences. But he had failed this one.

NA hadn't felt guilt like this in a long time. In absolute years. Since 2010. He had been 24 at the time.

But going down memory lane didn't take away the pain in his past, nor did it stop the stills of that video from replaying on loop in his brain.

He was supposed to be watching her. How the hell had she gotten snatched up on his watch?

Easy. When Rowan had gone home with McGarrett, he figured her safe. He had just beat the ever living shit out of Gabriel Waincroft he had to go underground to keep the cops from finding him. By the time he resurfaced that video was circulating and there wasn't anything he could do.

Except sit in that dive bar and drink.

He was six tequila and soda's in when the call from Wo Fat came in. He answered with a quick: "Did you get her?" but Wo Fat wasn't in the sharing mood.

All he got was: "I need you to do something for me." And though he had no idea why Wo Fat wanted Steven McGarrett under surveillance until further notice, and he had no real desire to put himself anywhere near that disaster of a man, NA figured well… it was the least he could do.


	209. Chapter 209

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Friday my wonderful readers! We've got an interesting update in this chapter. For the next couple seasons there are certain plot points I'm messing with and for this season in particular I'll be messing with the timelines. And for this chapters I'm messing with the time line like immediately. So, at the current moment the first scene is from episode 8 but we're still in "Summer" which is the down time between the seasons. We're skipping forward because I'm changing some things. You should be able to tell by the end of this chapter what I'm switching up. Anyone got any theories about what's going on with Rowan and the dead body? We find out what's going on with that too! Don't forget to leave me a review and I'll see you guys on Monday._

Chapter 209

* * *

In the week after finding out about Rowan, everyone dealt with her death in different ways. Chin spent a lot of time on his motorcycle, Kono spent a lot of time surfing while Grover spent all of his time at home. Danny spent a lot of his time trying to help Steven who was floundering at the loss, and had taken time off work to deal with it. And by deal with it, they meant crying and drinking. The man was a fucking mess.

Adam on the other hand was so fraught with guilt that he actually climbed back into the Yakuza world to get more info on the matter.

He learned a lot.

Like Gabriel was credited for coming up with the plan to grab Rowan, having executed it from a hospital room. Like Gabriel had escaped custody at the hospital, despite his injuries, days after Rowan was taken and had been missing ever since. Like Wo Fat took down Riku Sato who had been Gabriel's partner and had been the one to hold and torture Rowan in Japan. Like Wo Fat had gone dark after hitting that building Rowan was in and pulling her out. Like Wo Fat had taken down her app and it had not come online since. Like there were conflicting rumours about Rowan's status of life, which made no sense because they had a DNA proven body in the morgue, that Max would have finish autopsying by now if they hadn't had a bunch of burnt corpses to deal with from the last case with Duclair.

On top of that, he learned that though his money was gone, locked into an account that only Rowan and Wo Fat could access together, Shioma, who had been expecting payment long before now, had not been bugging him for it. Which had been surprising. Shioma had been contacted after all of this went down to explain what happened, and he had given Adam a certain amount of time to figure his shit out. Then Wo Fat his Riku Sato and Shioma went quiet… all the way up until his men grabbed him, shoved him in a car, and gave him no choice but to go wherever they were taking him.

He was taken to a small sushi and dim sum restaurant in China Town, forced out of the car, through the restaurant and into the back a private tea room where, clearly, the meeting would take place.

There Adam was forced to sit down in front of Goro Shioma, who he now knew was the new Oyabun. The man had replaced Riku Sato the second he was proclaimed dead and maybe even before. He stared at Adam impassively as he took his seat, and his two men stood behind him. In front of him was a plate of sushi untouched, as if Goro had been waiting for Adam to start. Adam figured that, Goro's friendship with his late father was the only reason he was still alive, and he knew he couldn't mess this up for himself and Kono.

Out of respect Adam spoke to him in Japanese, their native tongue.

"If this is about the money, Shioma, I'm not sure how you want me to get it," he said. "When I gave Rowan that money, it was to keep it safe until it could be transferred to you. With Rowan… dead… and Wo Fat in the wind… I'm not sure how to…"

Goro raised a hand to silence him. "That is not why I brought you here," he said softly. "You're in luck, Adam, your debt has been paid."

Adam blinked his eyes. "Uh… by who"

The door opened again and Adam turned. He watched as Gabriel, who was moving slowly probably due to the beat down he got from NA less than a week ago, took a chair and brought it to him, so he was sitting beside Adam.

Gabriel Waincroft sat there beside him, smiling warmly at him despite looking hellish with all his purpling bruises and cuts on his face. Adam was officially worried for his health.

"Hello, Adam," he said patronizingly. Adam could only glare, he was shaking he was so fucking angry. This was the man who directly responsible for Rowan's death. How dare he just sit there and smile like he hadn't taken Rowan, tortured her and killed her.

"Five-0's looking for you," Adam warned him. "You think they were bad now? Rowan's dead because of you, if they find out you're on this island they'll come for you hard. That's if Wo Fat hasn't already sent someone after you."

Gabriel just laughed at him. "Once I get Shioma that money, I'll be untouchable, even to the great Wo Fat. And to do that we need the kid. Everything that was Rowan's went to him, so you're going to…"

Wait, did he say he had to _get_ Shioma that money? But Shioma had said that it was already paid. And Gabriel thought that Steve would _let_ Gabriel even touch Nahele? The man just lost Rowan, like he was going to take loosing Nahele well. The man would probably go full Rambo.

The door opened again and someone new walked into the room. Immediately Gabriel went silent and ramrod straight.

Adam recognized the man who had walked into the room simply because it looked like he hadn't changed since either of them had last seen him. Same worn black jeans, same white tee-shirt, same black leather jacket, the only difference was the mask. The mask was the same rabbit as before but it was no longer blood flecked but a pristine white plastic. The same bunny mask that had saved him and Kono from Gabriel just under a week ago, the man who had saved them for Rowan. A man Rowan had called Nameless Assassin or, NA. Gabriel went a stock white when he saw him and jumped to his feet only to have Shioma's men shove him back down in his chair.

Goro stood to greet him, which made this a very big deal. He moved forward to shake NA's hand and instead had a brief case thrust into it. Once Goro had accepted it, NA slammed a second briefcase into Adam's lap. He grunted at the contact even though he tried to hide it.

Goro stared at it confusion clear on his face and then turned that confused look up to NA. Adam could feel the frustration through the mask. "That is your amount. This is his."

"That wasn't the deal."

"Do you want to call him and argue? He put you in power, Shioma, he can take you out it."

Goro shook his head, no… he wasn't going to argue with that clearly. "What the hell is happening?" Gabriel growled, trying to shrug the grasp off but failing.

"Unfortunately, while your plan had devious promise, I did not invite you here to help me convince Adam to help kidnap the Pierce boy," Goro said to him. "You see, after the regrettable incident that led to Sato's death, I was given an option. I could have the power, I could have the title but I had to give Wo Fat something in return… and Wo Fat… well… he wanted you. He wanted you bad, and I needed that man to back me. He was ready to raze us, the whole organization simply for our involvement in what happened. I bargained him down to a cash settlement and… you…"

Gabriel paled. NA was behind him now. He grabbed his shoulders and whispered in his ear: "You should have fucking run…"

"No," Gabriel shouted. He managed to throw the bodyguard's hands off of his shoulder, he turned, hand going for his gun. Adam flinched, Goro's men moved to shield Goro, but NA punched him. He had slipped brass knuckles on when no one had been looking but Adam saw the glint as he swung. The hit shattered Gabriel's jaw, Adam heard the crack of the bone.

NA swept the chair aside, got on top of Gabriel and then wailed on him. He hit him over and over, the crack of the bones getting louder and more frequent. Adam just watched it all in horror.

When NA felt he had done enough he stood up, wiped the blood from his hands onto his leather jacket and said: "I want him in a room, I want him held down and I'm going to need pliers, a towel, water, jumper cables and a car battery."

This was over Rowan. Kono had told him what she had endured had shown him a three minute video that he could barely stomach and gave him nightmares. This man was going to make Gabriel live through what Rowan had. A poetic revenge.

"Did… did Wo Fat do this for me?" Adam asked, because the two of them had never been on the same page, they barely spoke or interacted. It seemed out of character for him.

"No… his girl…"

NA whirled around and slammed his fist down on the table stopping Goro from finishing his sentence and sending the untouched sushi flying. They shared a bit of a show off, communicating with just their eyes before NA turned back to him. "It was her dying wish to free you from the shackles of your family's legacy," he finished for Shioma but the look on the older man's face made it clear that was a lie. "From now on, you're free. They won't touch you… they won't even look at you the wrong way… will you?"

Goro stared up at that white rabbit mask that had turned back to him with abject fear on his face. "No… of course we won't."

Adam felt like he could feel the dangerous glittering grin under the mask, so he stayed quiet and watched as NA and a few of Shioma's men hauled Gabriel up and dragged him away. Adam sat there, a briefcase of money in his hands.

"It was a pleasure doing business with you," NA said, his tone slimy and cool. Sending shivers down both men's spines. But as soon as he was gone Adam turned to Shioma.

"How about you tell me what the hell is going on and I won't tell Steven McGarrett of Five-0 you're connected to Rowan's death."

He still knew how these people operated, he knew that there was no way Shioma wanted to stare down a grieving Steven McGarrett. And if his hunch was right, he wouldn't be able to wait to tell Kono and McGarrett that Rowan was still alive.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Max had called him in the middle of the night. Said he had news about Rowan's body. Steve had called Danny. After being emotionally shattered for the last week or so he needed Danny there as comfort, because he knew he wouldn't be able to handle a long winded description and blow by blow of Rowan's injuries and whatever else she had suffered at the hands of those people.

Steve wasn't even close to over what happened in Japan. He was furious. Furious with himself for letting her get taken, for not noticing that there was something odd about her being just gone and leaving Nahele behind. Furious with Rowan for not getting a hold of him sooner. Furious with Wo Fat for stealing that money from Gabriel Waincroft and then putting it in Rowan's name. Furious for with Rowan for taking Adam's money and putting it in Wo Fat's name so no one could get it back. Furious with himself because this was killing him and he didn't know how to save himself from this kind of loss. Furious for being the reason she had left that night. Furious for not telling her the truth of his feelings. Furious for making her relationship with Wo Fat his hill to die on… or in his case the hill for her to die on.

They made it to the M.E.'s office in record time. Danny had asked what Max had found, what was so important that at two in the morning they had been called down. Because Steve hadn't known and been too afraid to ask.

Max was waiting for them around the mostly preserved body of Rowan, they hadn't had a chance to bury her yet but he was hoping to put that off as long as possible. The thought of having to put her back in the ground made all of this too real to him. He couldn't handle any more degrees of realness.

"I have completed an extensive autopsy on the victim," Max started. Steve straightened. Max had said _victim_ , not _Rowan_. "I have compared the video to the injuries on the body and have come up with some anomalies."

"Anomalies?" Danny asked.

Max pressed a button and instead of Rowan's smiling face they were looking at stills of the video. First of when they were water boarding her. Then images of blows that had landed and even more as they electrocuted her with cattle prods. Just seeing them sent his blood boiling, had his stomach roiling and the guilt crashing through him.

"The chaffing on her wrists are not as extensive as seen in the videos, they are also made by different bindings. These were done by ropes, in the video you can see they have leather straps holding Rowan down. There is no water in her lungs or stomach and there would have been seeing how fiercely they were waterboarding her, and she had no broken bones and the contact burns on this body are not as extensive as they should be judging by what they were doing in the video. I can also conclude that these burns were made by a jumper cables and not cattle prods," Max listed.

Steve turned to him. "What does that mean?"

"Combined with this knowledge I ran another DNA test and found that this body belongs to a Melissa Court, a high end call girl that worked in Osaka and was reported missing a week ago, around the same time you found Rowan's body," he said.

A picture of the real victim popped up on the screen of a girl who looked an awful lot like Rowan, right down to the hair, but Steve couldn't focus on that. His heart was welling up with joy, with hope he couldn't bear to lose.

"This isn't Rowan?" Steve asked pointing at the body.

Max donned one of his rare smiles. "It is with great pleasure that I assure you that this is most certainly not Rowan Pierce. The tattoos, while good copies are henna and can be removed. The red and blonde fade has recently been applied to her hair. So while I see at a cursory glance you might have confused the bodies, I'm at a loss as to how a trained M.E. could have botched a DNA test."

Steve let out a loud whoop of joy. "I knew it! I knew!" he cried, but that joy faded when he realized just what Wo Fat had done. "That bastard, I'm going to kill him. I'm going to find him, put a bullet in him and then take Rowan home. If he thinks I'm going to sit by and take this then he has another thing coming. Renew that No-fly ban, put BOLOs out everywhere. She's badly injured he can't have gotten her out of Japan yet."

"There's one more thing," Max called and pulled out an evidence bag. "I found this in the skull cavity, camouflaged well. I believe it's still transmitting."

Steve looked down at the small black camera no bigger than a dime. Easily missed if one was not looking for it. He realized then that Wo Fat had planted that to make sure that his lies were bought, to see Steve's reaction. Anger rolled through him in every growing crashing waves. Wo Fat had not won this.

He lifted the camera to his face and glared down at it. "Listen here you sick bastard," he growled. "I know she's alive and I'm going to find her. I don't care if I have to spend the rest of my life hunting you down. You're not keeping her from me."

He then threw the camera down and stalked away. "Where the hell are you going?" Danny called after him.

Steve had already made up his mind. "Back to Japan."

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Danny was trying to talk him out of going alone when Adam and Kono showed up with Chin. They all took in Steve's determined face and decided not to ask any questions.

"Adam has something to tell you," Kono said, her eyes imploring him to talk.

Adam stepped up and cleared his throat. "Uh… so, today, I got pulled in by the new Oyabun for the Yakuza, and was told my debt had been paid," he said staring at Steve like that news was gonna shake him or something.

"Okay? And?"

"Well… it wasn't just the Oyabun who was there, Gabriel was there and so was… Nameless Assassin…"

Steve perked up immediately. "Nameless Assassin is still in Hawaii? Why?"

"He uh… okay, this is complicated, but essentially he's here for Gabriel."

Steve stared at him. Gabriel Waincroft, the man who started it all?

"Explain."

"I had to threaten them for the info, they really didn't want to give it up, but essentially, Wo Fat brokered a deal between himself and Goro Shioma. The deal was for my debt to be paid off, for the Yakuza to get off our back, and for Gabriel Waincroft. In return, Wo Fat didn't take down the Yakuza himself for what was done to Rowan, and Goro got Wo Fat's backing for Oyabun."

"Why did Wo Fat want Gabriel?"

"He was working with Sato, his men were the ones who grabbed Rowan and tortured her. According to Adam, NA said he was going to do everything they did to Rowan, to Gabriel. We sent HPD to him, NA got away but Gabriel's in the hospital… again. We don't think he's going to bounce back so quickly from this one. But that's not what's important right now," Kono said "You should ask why Wo Fat returned the money and paid off Adam's debt."

"Alright why…"

"Because _Rowan_ told him to," Adam finished. "Steve… we think she's still alive."

"I know."

At this Kono, Adam and Chin collectively frowned and exchanged glances. "Wait… you know?"

"Yeah, heard from Max a few hours ago that the body we have in the morgue is not Rowan. We immediately jumped to the conclusion that she was alive and this was all some crazy diversion. Steve is going back to Japan… alone."

"I've already told you, the Governor won't approve ALL of us going, so it has to be just me. Besides, I will not be alone, Joe White is going to meet me there…"

"The man faked her death, very convincingly. We know he took down Sato and his whole family over this, and now he's gone for and successful grabbed Gabriel. He's clearly playing for keeps, he's not just going to give her back to you. You don't think he won't hesitate to kill you if he thinks you're getting too close?"

"I'm not leaving her with him, do you understand? We're not doing this, he doesn't get to take her from me, not again. I lived through this, Danny, remember when she was his hostage? That was shit for everyone, I was completely disaster. And you think I don't know how bad I've been this time? I've been… I've… I know I've… I've been bad. I couldn't handle her death and now that I know she's alive I need to see her, I need to feel her or this feeling isn't going away. Now can you please, PLEASE, watch Nahele for me while I'm gone? Okay? She's going to want to see him when we get back."

"Who's watching me?"

Steve looked up and Nahele stood there on the stairs staring at him bleary eyed in his pyjamas. He noted everyone around, noted Steve's packed bag and he was suddenly wide awake.

"Where are you going?"

Steve smiled, he had been switching between livid and giddy since he found out that Rowan was still alive. "I'm going to Japan, I'm going to get your mom back."

Nahele blinked his narrowed eyes at him. He took a few hesitant steps down. "Mom… Rowan… who's dead?"

"Turns out it's a look-alike's body in the morgue. We're operating on the theory that she's alive and he's lied to go on the run with her and the body was a distraction. So uh… yeah. Steve's going back to get her, you're going to stay with me until he comes back."

"Wait… so she's like… really alive?" Nahele asked finally getting off the stairs and going to Steve's side.

"Well… that's what I think so far…" Steve said.

"And if she is you're going to bring her back?"

"That's the plan."

Nahele's lips twitched back and forth. Steve could tell that he was trying very hard not to get too excited.

"How long are you going to be gone?"

"Not very long, I promise, upside of week maybe. Actually it depends on how well he's hiding her," he said absent. "And I'll check in with you before and after school every day, okay?" when Nahele nodded Steve added: "As soon as I get her back here, we'll go back to being a family again, okay? I promise, I'll be better."

Nahele nodded eagerly and let Steve pull him in for a hug. Steve ignored the covert looks that his friends were exchanging. They hadn't known about that, hadn't know that, to him, Nahele and Rowan were a family, his family, but they knew now. He ignored the pity shining in their eyes all that mattered now was bringing Rowan back.


	210. Chapter 210

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Monday my wonderful readers! I told you she wasn't dead, but why was Wo Fat lying? Oh the mystery! Don't worry, Wo Fat's thought process through all of this will be revealed soon. As will a lot of those questions you've been asking, like how did Rowan leave Nahele behind? Keep in mind that for most of this (the Steve looking for her part) Rowan was very heavily medicated. She has been badly injured after all, and unlike the five-0's her tolerance is less and she'd doesn't bounce back as fast. As for why she leaves him behind later… well… that too will be explained. Did you guys notice the first timeline change in the last chapter? That's right, Adam won't be going to jail. That's the #1 thing I've changed in the original plot so far. There will be more to come. So please enjoy this chapter of Steve going through Tokyo trying to find Rowan, don't forget to leave me a review and I'll see you guys on Wednesday!_

Chapter 210

* * *

Steve got off the plane in Tokyo, the last place Rowan had been seen by anyone, to a stiff and well needed hug from his mentor and father-figure, Joe. When he had called Joe to tell him he needed help, he had found out that Joe was on his way to him, having heard about Rowan and figuring that Steve would need all the help he needed.

It was then that Steve realized that everyone knew just how much Steven McGarrett had loved Rowan Pierce. The only one who didn't know it was Rowan.

"I've done a little digging," he said after he pulled away. "From what my contacts say, Wo Fat went dark _after_ he knocked off Riku Sato. I have confirmed reports of Rowan being alive and well… or not well, but alive, and him being with her. Then a few hours after killing Sato he goes dark. And I mean full dark. Cut ties will all contacts, all assets were emptied out, all after a single command went through the app."

"Do you know what command it was?" Steve asked, a streak of dread climbing up his spine.

"No," Joe said. "But that command only ran for a few minutes and then the app went down. Hasn't come back up, but you know that."

Steve nodded, he did know that. And now he wished he had asked Kong what commands had gone through the app before it went down, but once he was made aware that Rowan was dead he figured her app had died with her. It would have made sense, the whole point behind the app was to make sure that she was alive, if she wasn't alive, what was the point? But now that he knew that she was alive, the app being down had a more sinister meaning.

"He's trying to make sure I can't trace her," Steve told him. "But she's hurt. She's badly hurt, he'll need help, he won't be able to move her on his own. He'll have to have gone to someone, has to be working with someone."

"I think if he's going to such lengths to keep her from you, you better be prepared for one hell of a fight when you do find them."

Steve didn't care if he started a whole war. He wanted Rowan back and he didn't care what he had to do to get her back.

"Do you know where you want to start?" Joe asked him.

"Yeah, did you know that Wo Fat had a girlfriend?"

And not only did Joe know all about Wo Fat's girlfriend, he knew her address too.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Jian Hui opened the door to find two men staring down at her. One was an older bald gentleman with a grey and white beard. He had kind eyes and a soft smile but she knew that it was masking a hard exterior. The man beside him was wildly attractive if one liked men with deep blue eyes, perfectly styled dark brown hair, chiselled jaw lines and big strapping chests. He, however, was not smiling nicely nor did he have kindness in his eyes. This was the kind of man who usually was hard on the outside to hide the gooey exterior, but judging by the look on his face she wasn't going to see that soft center of his today.

"Hello Miss. Hui, I am Joe White and this is Steven McGarrett we'd like to ask you…"

"Where the hell is Wo Fat?" flew right out the younger man's face so quickly and so angrily that Jian was taken aback a bit.

The man beside him, Joe, sighed and rolled his eyes heavenward before saying: "I'm sorry for him, but he's lost something important to him and he has become quite unmannerly. May we come in?"

Jian was struggling to understand what was happening, but if she had to guess she had a feeling she was meeting Ro's Steven. Still, maybe they knew something about the situation with Wo Fat, and could give her some kind of light into what the hell had happened so she moved aside and let them come in.

Immediately Steven barged in and began looking through all the rooms. Jian turned back to Joe who merely shot her a pained look as he walked in. He offered her yet another apology, but Steven had gone through the rooms quite quickly despite the apartment being quite large and was back in the living room with them again.

"They're not here," Steve said sounding both surprised and disappointed at once and Joe sighed again.

"Well it would be rather foolish to go on the run and then hide out at his girlfriend's place," Joe told him but Steven didn't like that answer because he grimaced and looked away.

"I could have told you Wo wasn't here," Jian answered. "I haven't seen him in four weeks."

Both men took that in, before gesturing for Jian to sit down on her couch in front of them. As if they owned the place. But she sat down because Wo Fat had been unreachable since his last message to her, and she really wanted some kind of explanation for what happened. Granted she wanted _him_ to explain it, but if Steven and Joe had answers she'd take them.

Once she was sitting Joe sat down, one couch cushion away from her to give her her space, which was quite nice of him. He must have picked up that she was nervous.

"When was the last time you heard from Wo Fat?" Joe asked. Steven had not taken a seat, but was instead looking around at her apartment as if Wo Fat would appear.

"Two weeks ago," she answered her eyes lingering on Steven. "He sent me an email."

"What did it say?"

"That something had come up. He wasn't going to be around for a very long time and that it'd be better if we broke up until things were settled."

"Did he say where he was going?" Steve asked. Jian shook her head. "Can I see the email?"

Jian retrieved the phone, pulled up the email she kept reading as if it would suddenly change and give her more than those three lines or some explanation.

 _Hello Jian,_

 _Sorry for this, but I've had something come up. A family emergency if you will. I'll be out of touch until I can clear it up. Since I don't know when that is, it is only fair that I break things off until I know more about the situation. Will contact you when I can._

 _Warmest regards._

 _Wo._

Steven looked it over blinking at it and then handed the phone back to her. Since it seemed like he wasn't going to volunteer information Jian decided to take a chance and ask him.

"Are you Ro's Steven?"

Steven's eyes widened in surprised. "Oh he talked about me?"

"Not really, he mostly talked about Ro."

"Yeah?" he asked, he pulled out his phone and showed her an image. A picture of that red-headed girl the police had asked her about two weeks ago, and him. They were sitting on a beach, the girl was smiling into the camera while Steven pressed a kiss to her cheek. "You ever see this girl?"

Jian shook her head. Why was everyone so interested in this white girl? What did Wo Fat do to her? And why was Steven with her, she would have heard from Wo if Ro and Steve had broken up."I thought you were dating his sister…"

"That is his sister," Steven said. "That's Rowan Pierce. Wo Fat's _unofficial_ sister."

Jian blinked her eyes and then stared at the picture on his phone a little longer not quite understanding what he was saying. His sister wasn't…? She glanced up to Steven obviously surprised. "Did you not know who Rowan was?"

"Rowan… he said her name was Ro."

"Ro is her nickname. Everyone calls her Ro," Steven said, he took the phone back and flipped through pictures before showing her another one. Of Rowan and Wo Fat. Both in fancy dress, their arms intertwined, while he fixed his cuffs. "She met him three years ago when he kidnapped her to ransom her against me. Not sure what went on while he had her, but uh, despite him shooting her to escape me… she kind of just adopted him and he sort of adopted her right back."

He had said he was adopted, but _three years ago_? Who the hell went around adopting their hostages? What kind of fucked up relationship did he have with this girl?

"Just a few days before you got this email, he rescued her from some basement here in Tokyo, faked her death and disappeared with her. No one has seen or heard from him since. This email is the only form of contact he's made since vanished. As you can see, I am trying to find them so if you have any information, I'd be greatly appreciative."

 _That's why he had left_? That's why he had broken up with her?

"Wait, wait, wait, you're telling me he's with _her?_ Hat he just ran off with her? Why? Why would he do that?" she asked. "I didn't even know he had come back to Japan."

"What do you mean?"

"Well five weeks ago, he got a call from one of his friends… uhm… Armando I think?" she offered and Steve nodded. "He called in a favour and Wo went down to Colombia to help him with something. And then about two weeks ago he told me he was going to be unreachable for a while because he was going into some area of the Colombian jungle that didn't have service and he'd message me when he was back and give me more info. But five days later he's breaking up with me over an email and now you're telling me it's because he's run off with your girlfriend?"

Steve blinked his eyes and it was Joe who said: "There was an incident with… uh… Ro. We think she's badly injured." Jian blinked her eyes. Yes she had fiured that out when they mentioned Wo had to rescue her again. "We think the five days between his last point of contact with you and the email, is when he found out Rowan had been kidnapped and was being tortured."

"And somewhere between rescuing her and sending you this email he decided he wasn't going to give her back to me but instead go on the run with her," Steven growled.

"Well why would he do that?" Jian asked past exasperated. This was so like him, though, to run off with his sister. He always did care more about her wellbeing then Jian's. Rowan had always been his priority. Jian watched as Steve looked away from her. She remembered all the times Wo Fat had complained about Steven's inability to take care of Ro and then asked: "He doesn't trust you with her anymore does he? He blames you for what happened!"

"Okay, it is _not_ my fault! _I_ _didn't know she was there_! Okay? She was supposed to be with him! And might I add that _he_ had no idea she was in that situation either, okay? So it's not all my fault!"

He was shouting startling Jian. She didn't understand why he was so angry at her. Joe put out a hand to ward him away from her. "You shouldn't yell at her when you're actually mad at Wo Fat, Steven."

Steve shook his head and took a step back. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "I'm sorry. I'm just… she's injured you know, and that video… what they were doing to her… I just…"

"Can I see the video?" Jian asked. When both men stared at her she added: "I'm a doctor. And I'm… I'm in the Yakuza world. It was how I met him… I patched him up… maybe if I could see her injuries maybe I can tell you who he would have taken her to, because he didn't bring her to me."

Joe looked up at Steven and said: "Leave the phone and wait outside." But Steve shook his head and instead handed her his phone where a video started to play.

As soon as she heard that girl's screams Jian understood why Wo Fat would do what he had done. If he really did care for this girl as a sister, even if it made no sense to her that he did, he would have definitely reacted badly to this. And she would have been stupid not to see the way Steven flinched at every one of her cries, but when Rowan screamed his name it looked like the man might be physically ill, or was possibly feeling her pain through the scream itself.

When the four minutes were done Jian handed the phone back to him. "If they were doing that to her for a long period of time there's only one man he would have trusted to bring her to, to handle this level of injury and that's Shiro Hinohara. If it was bad he may have outsourced to Dōsan who's much more capable but Wo's never liked him. But I've seen how he is when it came to… _her_ … wellbeing and I fully believe he'd bury the hatchet with him if she needed him to."

Steve nodded and headed for the door. But Joe stayed behind to apologize once more. "We're sorry about this and I'm sorry about him," he had added. "He just uh… he really cares for her, you know?"

Jian had nodded to him because she knew that Wo Fat cared for her just as much and that was why she was single right now.

Joe shot her a _Thank you for your time_ as he headed towards the door. She thought they might answer her questions but she found, instead, that this had just raised more.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

 ** _*Trigger warning – Sexual assault is talked about in this part_**

Steve had wanted to go after the Doctor's right away. But Dr. Hinohara was out of town. Steve had wanted to go straight to Dr. Dōsan next but he didn't have the proper authority to just burst into the man's office. So he was given a time in which Dōsan would be available to meet with him and the he had to wait. Since Steve was getting antsy Joe took him to the Tokyo police precinct, promising him that he had something lined up for him.

The something he had lined up was a contact, a contact Joe had met them outside the precinct with a file Steve knew he wasn't supposed to have access to. Conflict of interest, everyone kept saying, but he didn't have time for that bureaucratic bullshit. The contact, an austere Japanese man that was both round and covered in sagging wrinkles, said nothing to either of them, but put the file in front of him, said: _five minutes_ and left them there with it.

For a second Steve just stared at it. As if he were too afraid to open it and to be fair… he kind of was. Still he swallowed down that ball of anxiety curled up in his stomach and forced it open.

It was nothing but blood. So much fucking blood. Throats slit, bullet holes gaping up at him. God, Wo Fat had gone right back to that psychopath he used to be. No one in that house made it out alive. He got the wife, the kids, the body guards, the servants. Everyone. The notes weren't in English so he snapped a few pictures and sent them off to his team and then waited for someone to translate it for him.

By that time that call came in the cop had come back and taken the file away from him. Fair, he had pictures so he wouldn't need it anymore.

"McGarrett," he answered crisply.

"Hey! So I translated the pages for you, they're basic crime scene notes but the page at the back, it's the autopsies," Kono told him and Steve wondered why that mattered, he could see what had killed these people it wouldn't be a surprise. "Riku Sato's wife was raped quite brutally before her death apparently, they think multiple men as there were multiple DNA samples found. They think that everyone Wo Fat brought with him had a chance at her."

Steve couldn't find it in him to answer. He could barely breathe, because all he could remember was Wo Fat's promise of a threat, the same one Rowan repeated ad nauseam to anyone who dared to put hands on her. _Everything that happens to her will happen to you, ten fold_.

Had he told them to rape Sato's wife because that had been done to… to… no he couldn't even think about it.

"Uh… I know you're probably busy so I'll be quick here, but I uh… I finally got permission to look into Rowan's financials. Specifically her bank account to see if there had been any activity."

"Okay? And? Did you find something?"

"Hell yes. It's been emptied. Everything went to VD Charities, after that it got closed down."

"What the hell is VD charities?" Steve snarled.

"Well… remember when Coughlin wanted Chin, and Rowan had said she took the money from Gabriel's off shore account?"

"Yes?"

"But the lawyer said that Gabriel transferred it to an exclusive underground banking ring, called the Vault?"

"Okay yes, what does that matter?"

"The Vault is an exclusive banking system in the criminal world. It's a money laundering ring, with onsite banks hidden around the world. You get in by invite only, Adam knew about it but he also knew that his father wasn't exclusive enough to get in, none of the Yakuza has been exclusive enough, which includes Oyabuns…"

"Kono get to the point!" Steven snapped and she sighed.

"The Vault, on transcripts, goes by many different names, which are set up by the person banking with them. Rowan's code for the Vault is VD Charities."

Steve felt the breath left his body. Rowan was banking with an illegal bank? Rowan was banking with money laundering ring. Fucking why? Well that explained why she wouldn't tell him what VD charities was. There was no way he would have let that continue if he knew about it. But now they had transferred out her money so she could use it and not set off any flags with him. What the hell was happening, didn't she want to be found?

"According to Adam, Wo Fat is with the Vault, he most likely invited her into it and she's been putting half her paycheques in for about eight months," she told him. "And the rest just got deposited."

"Great, so between the two of them they've got fucking millions."

"Most likely."

Fuck, they had enough between of them to be on the run for years. If he didn't find her before she got better enough to really travel he'd never fucking find them.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

 ** _*Trigger Warning – Sexual assault mentioned in this part too_**

By dinner Dōsan was ready to see them and very unimpressed. Like with Jian Hui, Steve went about tearing apart the back room of the small clinic looking for anything that might lead him to Rowan while Joe stood stoically by the doctor's desk. Both men watching him as he did so.

"Sorry," Joe said for the millionth time today. "We're…"

"Looking Wo Fat," he snapped. "Where is he?"

Dōsan was an older gentleman. He looked like he had been doctoring for years, like he was born with a stethoscope in his hand. His wrinkled tan face still managed to convey a sense of confusion as he squinted at Steve with narrowed brown eyes.

"I don't know."

"When was the last time you saw him?" Joe asked.

"Are you two law enforcement?" he asked.

"We are," Steve snapped just as Joe said: "Naval intelligence and he's Five-0."

Dōsan blinked his eyes clearly not impressed by their credentials.

Steve was about ready to start getting physical with this man when Joe stepped forward taking the reins for him. "We're looking for a woman we think he had with him… we think you might have treated her…"

"Ah, you mean that poor little girl he brought to me so broken we thought she wasn't going to make it through the night?" he asked. "Pity what they did to her. Broke more than bones on that girl. I didn't get to spend much time with her but I could tell… he saw a difference in her and it affected him. I have never seen that man look so upset before."

Hearing it confirmed by her doctors hit him like a freight train. He had been operating under the assumption that Wo Fat's response was directly proportional to how bad Rowan had been when Wo Fat had found her, but he was hoping that maybe the man had just overreacted. Like Steve, Wo Fat was prone to overreacting when it came to Rowan.

"It was… it was that bad?" Steve found himself asking.

Dōsan seemed to think that over a second before saying: "Yes… you could say that. We were pretty surprised that she was alive. Even more surprised when she managed to roll in and out of consciousness, most people just stay out. We took it as a good sign, a sign she would eventually pull through."

Everything tightened in Steve's chest. He still couldn't quantify it, the pain she must have been in, must have endured. He was strong and he had barely been able to handle it, how had his girl managed to weather through it?

"Would she have been hard to move?"

Dōsan nodded again. "She had badly fracture ribs which were giving her trouble breathing. We had to set her arm and put her shoulder back in place. The fractures in her skull were the worst but there was nothing to do about those except medicate her. We gave him enough pain meds to knock out a horse for a year, we figured it would be enough to keep her under."

Steve was suddenly doubled over, unable to breathe himself, thinking about her injuries, about her being in so much pain they just wanted her to be asleep for it all.

Dōsan watched him calmly before saying: "Ah so you're _her_ Steven, then. Every time she opened her eyes, she'd ask for you."

The guilt hit him even harder than before. She wanted him, she wanted him and he wasn't there. God, he was never going to forgive himself. He'd never forgive Wo Fat for keeping her from him.

As Steve struggled to regain control of his raging emotions, Joe was the one who asked: "Why did you want her under?"

"The pain made her cry, he couldn't stomach her sounds. None of us could," Dōsan answered and a strangled sort of noise escaped Steve. This was getting to be too much for him. He couldn't handle thinking about Rowan in that much distress, it filled him with this longing to wrap her up and take it all from her which he couldn't do with her missing like this. "And despite our warnings he was adamant on moving her. Seemed to think her in some kind of danger. Was practically frantic to get her out of Japan."

Steve's eyes whipped up. Out of _Japan_ , not Tokyo, out of Japan. They had jumped countries? Already?

"Did he tell you where he was going?" Steve asked but Dōsan just shook his head.

"All I know is she woke up, coherent enough for them to have a conversation, and then all of sudden he wanted her set up to move even though we didn't want him to. Moved her out that night."

Of course he didn't say anything to the doctor. Of course it wouldn't be that easy for him. He swallowed down a lump of bile and asked: "Did he ask you to do anything else? Anything out of the ordinary?"

When Dōsan shook his head Steve turned his pained eyes to Joe who understood what it was that Steve was too afraid to ask.

"We heard what happened to Riku Sato's family and knowing how Wo Fat is with Rowan…"

"Ah that," Dōsan said. "Shame really. I knew the Sato family well, was his personal doctor since he was a child, same as his children. Also knew the Fat's once upon a time. Riku should have never played with fire…"

"Yes but Wo Fat is very particular with his vengeances when it comes to Rowan, and he did something very out of character to Sato's wife so we were wondering…"

"He did ask me to do a rape kit on your girl," he answered and Steve sucked in his breath not sure that he could handle this answer. "There was evidence of sexual activity…."

Everything went static then and there. He was right he couldn't handle the answer. He flew out of that little doctor's office and out to the street. He couldn't keep it in, that roiling ball of anxiety and guilt living in his stomach had had enough. It ejected everything out of him, and that was where Joe found him. Hunched over an alleyway's garbage can heaving his guts out.

Joe absently pet his back while he got the rest of it out and when he was done, Joe calmly asked: "Son… when was the last time you and Rowan… had sex?"

Steve whirled onto his mentor. _How could he ask him that_? "Are you fucking kidding me right now, that man up there just confirmed that she had…"

"Son, answer the question," Joe snapped interrupting him

Steve sighed in a frustrated way before rolling his eyes and saying: "I don't know… uh… it had been a while… because you know the wedding and the arguing… wait, no, no, no she got me away for a quicky at the wedding."

"Alright, that's good then," Joe said and Steve scowled at him.

"How is that good?"

"Because he said what he detected was nothing he'd estimate as recent or quantify as assault."

Steve straightened to turn to him. "What?"

"I think the sexual activity he detected was probably from her last romp with you," Joe explained. Okay that made him feel a bit better but it also felt a little bit like Joe was pulling something out of the air to calm Steven down.

"Then why do that to Sato?"

"Well, I guess I have a hunch. Just judging by what he's like. Wo Fat had a video, correct?" Joe asked and Steve nodded. "And he got here before you?" Steve nodded again. "Which means Wo Fat knew about the situation before you did."

Steve nodded again, that made sense. Wo Fat had tried to call him that was probably when he had found out about what happened, was probably trying to call Steve to get him to help. And Steve had hung up on him.

"So… and I'm just guessing here. Wo Fat went to Sato's to punish him for taking Rowan, but he probably didn't have the same kind of time Sato's people had with Rowan…"

"He had them rape his wife so he'd have to listen to her screams," Steve finished and Joe nodded. Wow. That was cruel. And so like Wo Fat.

"I mean we can't know for sure unless we find him and ask, so… you know…"

Steve nodded again. He had to get a grip on himself. This wasn't going to help him find Rowan.

"But I think I got a lead," Joe said. "Dōsan said that Wo Fat hadn't told him where he was going, but Rowan needed medical attention, and that she'd eventually have scars. Wo Fat was asking about getting those fixed for her, but Dōsan suggested getting her healthy first. He set her up for travelling, but only to be on the move for at least three days. He figured he was trying to get her out of Japan, but he couldn't have gone far, not in her state, so he'd probably choose somewhere close by. Somewhere to give her the medical attention she needs and not be asked a lot of questions."

"Just say what you're thinking."

"I think he took her to Switzerland."

Then that's where Steve would be going next.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve and Joe flew to Switzerland on the next flight out and on the plane they had narrowed down all the places Wo Fat could have possibly taken Rowan and prioritized which ones were more likely and which ones they would hit first. Luckily for them, while they were flying, Five-0 had pulled an all nighter and complied a short list of hospitals that had strange practices or exclusive clientele.

When they landed everything was closed so they went to the closest and cheapest hotel talked game plans for the morning and then Joe went to his room and Steve stayed in his. But Steve couldn't sleep without Rowan, and he definitely couldn't sleep knowing Rowan was out there somewhere, in so much pain that she was crying when conscious.

It wasn't the moving shadows that alerted him to the intruder coming out of the washroom. It wasn't the creak of the floor board either. It was the scent. The smell of lilacs and Roses. Rowan's smell.

He thought it to be her and if not her Wo Fat, so when he turned his gun was drawn ready to lower it in case it was Rowan standing there… or leaning as he figured she probably wouldn't be able to stand on her own. He was not expecting to see a white plastic rabbit mask looming over him.

NA? Nameless Assassin? Why the hell was he here?

Steve almost asked him that, but when it became clear that Steve wasn't going to attack him, NA did. Ferociously. The first hit, a spinning kick, knocked the gun from his hand and jarred his wrist. The second hit, another kick, hit him straight in the chest and knocked Steve off of the bed.

He felt more than he heard NA coming towards him and that time Steve was ready. He lashed out, kicking back at NA, but the man jumped up onto the bed to avoid it, and when he came off it again, he slammed into Steve who had been trying to get up. His elbow connected with Steve's collar bone and sent him back to the ground with stars in his eyes.

"You should have stayed in Hawaii, ese."

As soon as he said it, Steve knew why NA was there. He was there to stop him from getting to Rowan but he wasn't about to let this man keep him away from her.

With a roar he managed to get up to his feet and tackle NA. He pinned him against the wall and got a good couple hits to his chest before, NA managed to block and then the two were locked in a grappling hold each struggling to get the upper hand.

But Steve was done with this, done with these games. He smashed his face into that white rabbit mask, probably doing more damage to the mask than NA, forced him forward so he could shove his knee into the man's chest and then threw him to the ground.

"Where is she?!" Steve shouted as he got on top of him. But NA wouldn't answer him.

So Steve punched him, fist straight to the mask. "TELL ME!"

His second punch hit NA straight in that stupid mask so hard that it fractured and for a second he saw a pair of liquid golden eyes he swear he had seen before somewhere but couldn't place where. From the hallway came a cry of his name, Joe was coming great, and NA decided not to play fair anymore.

He started first with punching Steve right in the throat, and once he was off him, he got to his feet quickly, reared back and kicked Steve so hard he flew through the hotel door and out into the hallway where Joe was waiting to bend over him to ask if he was okay. When both looked up NA was gone but Steve knew he was getting close.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve didn't sleep for the rest of the night. He couldn't. Wo Fat had sent someone to beat him up, to scare him off. That could only mean one this. He was getting close, he was on the right track. And NA had been with Rowan, otherwise he wouldn't have smelled Rowan on him.

He just had to get to Rowan before Wo Fat tried to move her again.

When Joe met him in the lobby, Steve was ready. He was ready to hit the hospital in Geneva that he was certain would be the best place to hide Rowan. He let Joe take care of the bill and as he did he got a call. No number, odd, but he assumed it would be Wo Fat, probably taunting him, probably about to try to lead him astray. But Steve wasn't going to let that happen.

"McGarrett," he answered in a clipped tone ready for an argument.

"Steven?"

He knew that voice. Oh god, he knew that voice. "Oh my god. Ro? Ro? Is that you, are you okay?"

"No, no, I'm okay."

"Good, good, baby… baby where are you? You gotta tell me where you are. Wo Fat… he's trying to keep you from me, did you know that he send NA last night to beat me up?"

Good, good, proof, and if she didn't believe him he could send her pictures of his face. "Yes… I heard…" wait, she had? "You uh… you need to stop, Steven."

"Stop," he echoed. "Rowan what do you mean I need to stop. He _took_ you from me, he told me you were dead. I... for the last week thought I was never going to see you again, that our last conversation was going to be… And you're telling me you want me to stop looking for you?"

"Yes, I want you to stop."

"Why?!"

"Well… you picked Catherine…" Steve sucked in his breath dear god she knew about the engagement. Son of a bitch. "You kicked me out… you left me to those… animals…"

"NO… no I didn't know you were there, Rowan, I didn't know that… and…. Please… baby…"

"No."

"No? Rowan please, I didn't mean it. I know what you're thinking about how if I didn't mean it I wouldn't have done it but I was just so mad, I never would have… I never would have actually married her. Didn't you get my message baby? I've been calling, they'll explain. Just please, baby, I need you. I need you to come home, please I know you want me…"

"I don't want you," she suddenly snapped. "I don't want to go back. I want to stay here, with people who love me."

She didn't think she loved him. He had never told her and now she didn't know the truth. "But I do love you, I do. More than anything. I love you. Anything you want me to do I'll do it. I'll propose, I'll marry you, just please, please, I love you and I can't lose you…"

"Go away… Steven… just… go… go home…"

And then the call ended. Steve stood there, numb. Numb to it all. All of that worry and fear that he was too late to save her, that she had died, that she was too hurt to see or understand what Wo Fat was doing, he never once thought that Wo Fat would just tell her the truth.

That while she was in a basement getting tortured and beaten, he was actively dating someone else and was so seriously contemplating proposing to that someone else that he had bought a ring.

Of course she wouldn't want to come back to him. Steve hadn't gone into that building guns blazing and pulled her out. When Wo Fat called him for help he had hung up. Steve hadn't found her, he had ignored the pull of the void that had been so heavily attempting to warn him that she was in danger.

He didn't deserve to get her back. He wasn't going to get her back. And there wasn't anyone he could blame but himself.


	211. Chapter 211

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Wednesday my wonderful readers. So we have another sad one, we have two more really sad chapters left and then we go straight to the chapters about what exactly it was that happened to Rowan, and what exactly she did and why this happened. Not gonna lie, we're gonna get a good 20 chapters of straight shenanigans that seem pointless but will have a point, mainly for bonding and distraction purposes. Once we get halfway through the season we start getting to the real plot points, those power lessons I told you about. I'm actually really excited for the in-Canada portion of the story. Basically once we hit Canada, shit it gonna fly and I love it! Did I tell you guys I've already written to episode 10? I'm moving fast through this one, Season six might be my shortest season yet. Don't forget to leave a review, tell me if you're excited for the upcoming events too, and I'll see you guys on Friday!_

Chapter 211

* * *

Steve slung his bag over the shoulder as he headed into the Geneva Airport. He had placed a call to Danny to see what was going on and was told about their scuba diver and the fake money that had shown up was tied to Gabriel. Gabriel who had barely survived that fucking beat down and was properly secured in the hospital this time. He also mentioned that Nahele and Grace got… a little too close for Danny's comfort and he had shipped him off to Grover's who had more room and a boy around Nahele's age that he could get comfortable with instead. Steve's next call was to Nahele who had been asleep at the time, and therefore not all that up to a call. He did, however confirm quite sleepily if that he was fine, that he liked being at the Grover's and that really he could only put up with Danny's sarcastic sass for so long. Steve had totally gotten that, but when Nahele asked if he had found Rowan yet, he couldn't bring himself to tell him that he hadn't found her and she wasn't going to be coming home. So his return was going to be a surprise, but hopefully a good one. Even if he didn't have Rowan on at his side.

He didn't know how he was going to tell Nahele that Rowan had decided to stay with Wo Fat. He didn't know how to tell him that Rowan wasn't going to come back and it was Steve's fault.

Once the calls were done and Steve was getting ready to head to the gate, Joe, who had been awfully quiet since Steve got Rowan's call, finally spoke up.

"I don't like this Steve…"

Steve turned onto Joe. "Listen, you were against this from the start, right? You never liked me with Rowan, you never liked her connection to Wo Fat. So you got what you wanted, she's gone."

He didn't want to argue about this. He couldn't take anymore sledgehammers to the heart. He couldn't be told one more time that he wasn't wanted… that he wasn't good enough. But when he looked up to Joe he saw actual pity on his face and that was worse.

"Steve… you're right. I never liked Wo Fat's hold on the girl you liked so much but I never wanted this," he said. And Steve found himself shaking his head at his mentor. "Steve, you were happy with her. Granted I didn't like her methods, but that girl was crazy about you and you were always happy and that was more important to me."

Steve grit his teeth, he knew what Joe was going to say next. "I'd have been crazy to try to talk you out of that girl. Which is why I'm imploring you to not give up on this. We were almost there, Wo Fat wouldn't have sent someone to ward you off it we weren't closing in…"

But Steve shook his head. He barely survived Rowan telling him that they were done over the phone, he wouldn't be able to take it if she said it to his face. He'd do something unmanly, like sob for her to take him back. He couldn't do that when Wo Fat would most likely be in the room.

"No, Joe, she was pretty clear…"

"Yeah you said but it doesn't add up," Joe snapped. "That girl love you about you as much as you loved her. She'd've done anything for you. It doesn't make sense that she'd just tell you to go home…"

"I told her if she didn't drop Wo Fat I'd marry Catherine," Steve admitted, and Joe just stopped talking. "It was the one thing I thought would scare her straight, cause she has bad blood with Cath and she fought for me and… she left, Joe, she left and what did I do? I went and got back with Catherine. I even bought her a ring."

Joe took that in with surprise on his face.

"You didn't know she was kidnapped, Steve…"

"No? I didn't, did I? But I knew that something was up. Yeah Rowan ran when she was upset but she never left the island and I knew she'd never leave Nahele. You know, before she left, she told me Wo Fat was in Colombia, so why would she go to Japan huh?"

"Well I'd assume he had a safe house there…"

"He had safe houses on Hawaii!" Steve cried. "You're not getting it, Joe. He called me. A day before I got her call, he called me probably to me to tell me she was in trouble. He got half of the word _emergency_ out of his mouth, I heard it. And do you know what I did? I told him to fuck off and then hung up the phone."

Joe just stood there, suddenly understanding what Steve was saying, understanding that Steve blamed himself for this. "I'd be dumb not to think that he wouldn't have told Rowan about Catherine and the ring. How do you think that looks huh? She's in a basement getting tortured and I've literally replaced her with Catherine twenty-four hours after she left. Come on now, she's not going to forgive me."

"You don't know that without asking her," Joe said.

"She just called and told me that, Joe, and we both know if I get anywhere near her or Wo Fat I'm going to ignore everything and arrest them both and take her home," Steve said. "She wants me gone Joe. I fucked up. I fucked up and I can't fix it this time. So I'm just… I gotta go home, okay?"

Joe sighed but nodded. "Alright, but for the record… Wo Fat has lied to you about everything so far, this could be a lie too."

But Steve shook his head. "It didn't come from Wo Fat, it was Rowan on the phone. I know her voice."

For a while they stood there in complete silence. Steve trying not to cry, Joe just standing there as if he didn't know what to do now. Joe just sighed again and then pulled him in for a hug. "You'll get through this, yeah?" he asked more than said, it was clear that Joe was worried about this.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Steve lied. "I'll be fine. I gotta be. I got a kid back home that's uh… just lost the parent he's closest too because of me and I have to find a way to tell him that. But you're right, I'll get through this."

Joe pulled away from the hug and clapped a hand to his shoulder. A motion of support and comfort that Steve didn't want. He didn't need to cry in front of his mentor, and he wasn't going to now.

"Thanks for coming with me Joe," he said. "Thanks for being here."

"Any time, son," he said. "Sorry it wasn't a happy ending."

Yeah. Steve was sorry too.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

It took a whole day and some change to get home. He was exhausted, having barely slept on the flight and instead, spent all his time planning out what he was going to say to Nahele when he got to him. Which was why, the second he touched down in Hawaii he went straight to the Grover's because all he wanted was his kid.

Steve hopped out of the cab, threw the money he had at him, and then practically ran up the walk way to the front door. He knocked on the door and waited for someone to answer it. He didn't even acknowledge Lou when he opened the door, instead he pushed past him and into the house. He tried to smile at Nahele who looked at home at their kitchen table, suddenly too afraid to see him and admit what had happened, that he had come home alone. The second he spotted him he was up on his feet crying out Steve's name. He rushed him for a hug which Steve welcomed it whole heartedly. But as quickly as that kid had run to him, he quickly let go and rushed to the door.

"Where's mom… sorry, Ro… where's Ro?"

Steve waited for him to come away from the door, hating that he was going to have to dash that happy look on Nahele's face.

"Uh… she's… she's uh… she's not with me buddy."

Nahele's smile faded. He blinked his eyes clearly confused. "What do you mean? Was she really badly hurt? If she has to stay there until she's better can we go to her? I don't care if I miss my exams or all my summer vacation, she shouldn't be alone!"

Steve sighed. "You know… I uh… I didn't get to see her, so uhm… I've heard its bad but I'm not sure how bad it really was," he answered and Nahele scowled. "She's uhm… she's not coming back."

"What do you mean you didn't see her? Didn't you find her?"

"No… kid I didn't. Wo Fat has her very well hidden."

"Then how do you know she's not coming back then! Did you just give up?"

"No, of course not. She called me and told me to go home," he said. "She's done with me and she's not coming back."

"Well… did she… did you tell her you'd marry her?"

"No…" "WHY NOT?" "Well because…" "So you were willing to propose to Catherine but not Rowan?"

Oh god this was not going well. Nahele scowled at him, but he had unshed tears in his eyes.

"Is that why she left? Cause she found out you bought Catherine a ring?" "…Nahele…" "God I knew it! I told you! _I told you_ that she'd get mad!"

"Nahele… she didn't give me a lot of detail okay?' Steve cried. God this was hard, this was so hard, and it was worse having to do it in front of the Grover's. Especially since he knew that Lou was going to tell Danny. "All she said was that she wasn't coming back. And I know that hurts, okay? You think I'm not hurt? You think I'm not riddled with guilt over this, I am! Okay? I really am, but I'm all you have right now, 'Hele and _I'm_ not leaving you. We'll get through this… okay? Together we'll get through this."

He went to hug him, went to wrap his arms around the kid but Nahele threw his arms off of him and huffed away leaving Steve standing in the foyer of his friend and coworkers home disastrously on the verge of tears for the millionth time that month.

When were things going to turn around for him?

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Nahele hadn't fought him on going home, thank god. He had packed up his things and got into Lou's SUV without a single complaint. But he also didn't talk at all. When they got back to his place, Nahele left him in the SUV without so much as a good-bye or a thank you. Steve had apologized to Lou for Nahele's missing manners, brushed off all of Lou's questions and concerns and followed after his upset kid. But Nahele hadn't stayed downstairs, he had gone straight to his room.

Fair, Steve wanted to go to his room too. Sighing he took his bag up to the room he used to share with Rowan. On the one hand he wanted to throw himself down on the bed, but on the other hand he didn't because he didn't know if it would still smell of Catherine with a little hint of Rowan underneath. Instead he threw the bag on the bed to unpack later and went to the washroom.

Something felt off. He couldn't quite place what but Steve could tell that something that was off. He felt like something was missing, but he shrugged it off as just Rowan's presence but he had a feeling that wasn't it either.

Out of nowhere, Nahele's door flew open and the kid was bearing down on him. "Where are they?" Nahele cried and Steve turned him surprised.

"What are you talking about?" Steve snapped.

"Our pictures!" Nahele cried suddenly close to tears. "All the pictures are gone and so is half her stuff. I don't know if you think you're helping me _get over her_ or if you're trying to keep yourself from seeing her or some shit, but _I want them back_!"

Steve raised his hands in surrender and actually backed away. He had never seen his kid look so angry before. "Kid, I just flew in, like literally, I just flew in. This is the first time I've been home," he snapped. "Now what's missing?"

He followed Nahele into his room where he saw nothing really all that different except for the fact that his picture frames were all empty. "I had her guitar and her song books and all her favourite things in the closet in a suitcase and the whole bag is gone…"

"And why did you pack a bag for you and Rowan?" Steve asked.

Nahele winced. "I thought when she came back we'd have to make a quick get-away so… I packed a bag."

Steve tried not to look hurt by that, but how could he not. The kid was planning a run away. He looked back at the now empty closet. "So the bag is gone?" he asked looking around. "Is anything else gone?"

Nahele shrugged. "Well none of my stuff is gone."

Steve stormed back to his room, a hunch in his mind. He checked the jewellery box. Her favourite jewellery was gone. Her promise ring, her necklaces, the bracelet and watch from Wo Fat. The clothes she liked most, her shorts, her shirts, her shoes. All of her make-up was gone, her tooth brush, the only thing he had left was the grey sweater that she used to wear probably because it was with his stuff at the time, his dog tags and the locket he had gotten her which had been under one of his watches.

"They took her stuff," he whispered. "He sent someone to get her things."

"Who, who did?"

Steve couldn't even answer the question. Pieces of the puzzle all came back at him at once. Her stuff was missing, taken from his house while he was off searching for her. Rowan telling him to leave, knowing that Wo Fat had sent someone to ward him off. The app giving out one last order before going dark.

It all added up to one thing and he knew who he had to harass next.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve stormed through the little warehouse that held Kong's hackers and servers ignoring the cries of his guards as they half-heartedly attempted to stop him but not really.

"KONG LIANG!" he shouted on the top of his lungs as he neared the door to the man's office. He didn't even pause to knock on the door or to wait for a response. When got close enough he just kicked the door in. To his surprise he watched as Kong threw himself back to avoid the door that came down.

"What the hell!" he shouted at Steve who's anger had all but drained out of him now that the door was down and he was facing getting his answers. "Is that what you do? You go around breaking down doors?" he asked as Steve approached the desk. "Why didn't you just wait for me to answer?"

"Cause I didn't think you'd…"

Kong looked back at the door, put his hands on his hips and asked: "What do you want Commander?" before Steve could even try to explain what his thought process had been.

"I know you told me that the app's down," he said and Kong nodded. "What was the last order that went through before it got shut down?"

"What are you talking about?"

"My people looked into it. A single order went through before it went dark. What was it, what did they activate?"

Kong lowered his eyes. "Are you sure you wanna know that?" he asked.

"I do."

"Are you sure. You're not gonna blame me for it, are you?" he shot back a narrowed look of distrust around his eyes.

"Just tell me what it was."

"She… uh… she activated the Captain America Contingency," he admitted. Steve cringed he couldn't help it, because Kong didn't say _they_ or _he_ or _Wo Fat_ , he had said _she_. This order had come from her. Rowan activated the Captain America Contingency plan.

"How? I had her phone."

"She wouldn't need her phone, you need her callsign. Only need a phone with the app on it and her voice or thumb print to switch it over to her profile. If it confirms it's her, Sandy would load up her level of access," Kong explained.

Steve nodded. Okay so there were ways for her to get access to the app without her phone, guess that was good to know. "But the app's down, why take it down if she's alive?"

"Uh… well there are levels to the Contingency plan. And uh… at the level she activated it… it shut down the app immediately and destroyed all evidence of what it had done. You know once everything was set to go, so you couldn't force us to give you access to find her. It's called the Self Destruct Sequence."

Steve felt his heart constrict in his chest. She had really done it. She meant it then. She really wanted him gone and out of her life.

"Thank you for your honesty… and uh… I'll pay you for the door," he said before heading towards the exit.

He just wanted to curl up and die.


	212. Chapter 212

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hello my wonderful readers, how is your black Friday going? Anyone get any good sales? Okay, remember how I said Steve was going to hit rock bottom to help him appreciate Rowan more? Well he hasn't hit rock bottom yet. He's about to though. Please don't hate me for what's about to happen. I swear there's a reason, it may not be a good one in your eyes, but I swear there is a reason. And I promise that eventually it ends well, he gets adopted in season 7, like almost right away. I don't care if that's spoilers I just need you guys to know that there is a happy ending I promise. We just gotta get through all of this first. Don't forget to leave a review and I will see you guys on Monday!_

Chapter 212

* * *

It was a rough week after Steve came back from Japan without Rowan. Granted Steve didn't go straight back to drinking the pain away this time, no the anger of Rowan leaving him the way she had seemed to keep him above the water this time. But Steve was looking for any distraction. The first distraction he found was that more of Rowan's stuff had gone missing.

The two of them had torn the house apart after realizing that one of the items taken with the rest of the stuff was Rowan's phone. When they couldn't find it they assumed that the phone was brought to her along with all her other things.

So, when Steve wasn't around, or when things were getting really hard, he'd call Rowan's phone, get the voicemail immediately and just leave a message.

So like when he found out he failed all his exams and had to go to summer school, he called Ro's phone and left a message and asked if she'd still love him if he was stupid. Or when Steve went back to work with a terrible vengeance leaving him home alone, he called and left a message about how he felt like he'd never be enough for Steve. That he'd never be enough to fix the damage she had caused by leaving.

But that morning, getting home from summer school to find that Steve was still gone and it was up to him to make dinner for himself and Steve whenever he came home, he pulled out his phone and called Rowan again. As per usual it went straight to voicemail again.

"Hey Ro," he said once he heard the beep. "Me again. Just got home from summer school. Steve's gone again. I'm guessing he's still avoiding home cause it reminds him of you, or maybe because I yelled at him and blamed him for you not coming back. I know I should probably talk to him about and how I'm sorry, cause I kind of am but I'm still so mad him know? If he had just… done things right and listened to everyone you'd be here and I still can't forgive him for chasing you off."

He paused a briefly to put toaster waffles in the toaster, it was all they had left in the fridge. The next time Steve was in he was going to have to steal some cash to buy groceries.

"He's also just… absent, you know Ro? He's not taking this well. I always knew that he wouldn't handle a break up and I feel like he has lost himself in this. You'd hate to see the place. He's taken everything that reminds him of you and put it in the crawlspace. Everything is messy and I'm constantly cleaning… and… you should see how bad it is."

Behind him the doorbell rang and he paused. "Oh, someone's at the door. Thanks for listening, Ro. I wish you'd come home… or at least call me. I miss you."

He hung up the phone, grabbed his freshly popped toaster waffles and went to the door.

Since he started working all hours again, Steve had been sending people over to check on him, and bring him food. Usually he sent Mrs. Grover, but sometimes he sent Melissa, Danny's girlfriend. He wasn't expecting Brenda Dean at the door with her infamous clipboard.

Nahele dropped the waffle in his hand in shock as he stared at her. "Brenda!" he cried around a mouthful of waffle. "I mean Miss. Dean, I'm sorry… I didn't… I didn't think you'd be…"

"I got a call," she said. "Where are your foster parents?"

"Uhm… well Steve's at work…" he said.

"And where's Rowan?" she asked pushing her way into the house. She looked around at all the beer cans and take out boxes that Steve had left over the past couple days that Nahele had been too frustrated to clean. Fuck he should have cleaned.

"She's uh… she's…"

"She's not here anymore is she?" Brenda asked. Nahele froze. With Rowan gone, would Steve be allowed to keep her? He figured no, cause it was Rowan on his paperwork not, Steve.

"Uh… well…"

"Don't you lie to me Mr. Huikala," she snapped and Nahele just broke.

"Her and Steve broke up and then she got kidnapped, and the bad guys tortured her and she was really, really hurt and Steve went to get her but she didn't want to come back…"

To her credit, whatever Brenda Dean was expecting it wasn't that. "Kidnapped…" she echoed that clipboard coming up again. She made her way to the kitchen where she opened the fridge and found it empty. She was writing again.

"And when did Rowan get… kidnapped?"

"Uhm… middle of may?"

Brenda turned back to him. "Rowan's been gone for three weeks and no one informed me?"

"Well I mean… I mean I'm still with Steve…"

"Commander Steven McGarrett is not your legal guardian." Oh hot damn. No, this wasn't good. "Okay," she said with a sigh. "And where is Steven now?"

"I told you he's at work," Nahele said.

"Well this is more important, call him," she ordered. Nahele groaned inwardly. This was bad. This was really bad. Still Nahele pulled out his phone and dialed Steve. Call forwarded. Must have been a big case.

"He uh… he's probably busy chasing down a criminal or something," he said ending the call before it could go to the voicemail. "So maybe if you come back…"

"We're going to the Palace," she interrupted as she was so fond of doing and Nahele almost burst into tears then and there.

Regardless, Nahele got into her car even though he didn't want to and then they were on the way to the Palace, where he hoped Steve would be. He used his access to get them both in and then they were escorted to the office doors.

As soon as Nahele saw Steve he just wanted to run to him, run to him and hug him. He wanted to have him tell the bad woman to go away, that he wasn't going to give him up, but he forced himself to walk slowly to him and then tap Steve on the shoulder.

Steve turned to him, and then back to the screen, and then back to him obviously conflicted. "Hey, uh, hey what are you doing here?"

"CPS came by the house," Nahele told him.

"Yeah, okay. Uh… did they… I guess they were asking questions? I said I'd call them 'Hele, and I will… look if this isn't an emergency, I need to…"

"And do you brush Nahele off often for your cases, Commander?" Brenda interrupted and just like that Steve went ramrod straight, his angry blue eyes focusing in on Brenda Dean and her stupid clipboard immediately.

"And Brenda wanted to talk to you," Nahele finished.

"In your office, please, Commander," she ordered.

Steve sighed, clearly aggravated but he went with her and Nahele was left there, his stomach twisting like he was free falling. His life was up in the air and his stomach knew it.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve followed Brenda Dean into his office let her take the seat across from him as he sat back down at his desk. He didn't need this right now, not when Gabriel Waincroft had escaped again which made no sense because NA had literally beat the shit out of him two weeks ago, for the second time in two week span, the man shouldn't have been able to move let alone kill two cops and a nurse on his way out of the hospital.

He took in Brenda's stern face, and stiff posture. He saw that clipboard and pen come out and panic hit him so fucking hard because he had lost so much recently he couldn't lose Nahele too. He wouldn't survive _another_ blow to the heart aching in his chest which was still trying to heal from the last evisceration.

"Look, I know the place is a mess, but uh… I've had a string of cases…"

"Let's cut to the chase, Commander," she said interrupting him. "I got a call from a concerned citizen and decided to do a stop by, I was shocked by what I found."

"Okay, well as I said I've had a string of cases…"

"Nahele tells me that Rowan's no longer with you," she said interrupting him again. Well fuck, what did he tell her that for?

"Well she's alive, if that's what you're asking," he growled.

"But she's no longer living with you, is she?" she asked, but Steve wasn't Rowan and he couldn't come up with a lie as quickly as she could. "She's no longer in the state. Is she?"

Well so much for wiggling out of that one. "No, she's not," he admitted

There was a click of a pen and then that stupid clipboard. "I see."

"But that's okay…"

"His foster parent has left you, the kid _and_ the state, and you think that this is okay? You should have notified us right away so we could find a suitable home…"

"Suitable home? He is in a suitable home! He's with me…"

"You're calling your beer can and take away box infested home, suitable?" she echoed.

"I said I will clean it, okay, I'll get a cleaner in if you're so goddamn worried about it! Okay? You signed me off as a parental guardian, right? I had to do that so Rowan could…"

"Yes, Commander. Rowan. So _Rowan_ could foster him. You, if I remember correctly, had some issues with commitment, and taking on Nahele will be a big responsibility and a very big commitment," she told him. "One I doubt you will be able to take on."

Steve glowered at her. How dare she?! "I am more than capable of taking care of Nahele, I was helping Rowan this _whole_ time!"

"Again Commander, yes. You were _helping Rowan_ , having sole guardianship is something entirely different," she repeated still scrawling on her clipboard.

"Okay, fine, fine, it's completely different, what do I have to do to prove it to you then?" he asked.

"You'll need to apply for full guardianship," she said. "And we'll do the walk through and the interviews and we'll see if I pass you."

"Fine, but he's staying with me," Steve said. "Neither of us are doing so hot with the whole… Rowan thing… I'm all he has and I don't want…"

Brenda Dean turned a glare up at him and Steve almost shifted then and there, but he wasn't letting Brenda take Nahele from him. "It's not a selfish reason… I just don't want him to run again."

It was then she was relented and nodded. "We'll set the walk through for Monday," she said. "Say, 11 o'clock? I assume two days is sufficient time to get yourself and your house in order?"

Steve wanted to say that it was, but she didn't really understand his work schedule. "Uh if I have a case…"

"If your work is more important than Nahele, Commander, tell me now and we'll…"

"No! No it's fine. Monday, 11 o'clock. Just give me a list of things you need me to bring, and I'll be there."

She nodded crispy, stood up, ripped something off of her clipboard and handed it to him. Great that list she wanted. He looked it over as she headed for the door. "And I'd recommend your first stop being a grocery store, Commander, just because he's a teenager doesn't mean that toaster waffles and hot sauce are a nutritionally balanced meal."

Son of a bitch was that all that was in his fridge? Okay, fuck, maybe things had gotten a lot worse than he thought, maybe she had every right to be concerned. God this wasn't good. This wasn't good at all.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

As soon as Steve had gotten home that night, he sent Nahele straight to work. Together the two of them cleaned the house top to bottom. The following day Steve went out and got groceries as well as everything else on Brenda's list.

Then the two of them perfected their script. Steve was _not_ going to yell at Brenda Dean this time, Nahele was going to act suitably happy in his home, but not too over the top so she could tell that she was faking it, and both of them were not going to act like they were shattered by Rowan leaving them.

Nahele had also finally apologized to Steve. He had hugged Steve tightly, called him dad again, and told him that he didn't want to be taken away that he wanted to stay with him. In return Steve had promised him that they would get through this together and he'd do everything in his power to make sure that Nahele got to stay with him.

Nahele needed it as much as he did.

When Monday rolled around Steve was a ball of nerves. How the hell had Rowan done this by herself? How had she seemed so calm and collected the whole time she had been going through this process? Or had he not noticed because he hadn't been around when she went through it? How many stressful day-to-day things did Rowan go through without him there to give her support?

So you could imagine how unhappy he was to catch a kidnapping case tied to a famous rich recluse who was found murdered in the forest, the morning of that case.

He had gone off to over see things, just for a little bit, promising to be back in time for the meeting. But nothing was ever as short as he said it would be which led to Steve racing back to his own house at noon, with his flashers and sirens going to get there before Brenda took Nahele then and there.

Steve practically leapt the steps of his porch and slammed into his own house breathless. "I'm here, I'm here!" he cried.

Nahele, who had been sitting on the couch winced at him as Brenda, with her clipboard already out, sat across from him. Fuck, what had the kid been saying?

"You were supposed to be here by 11, you said you'd be back by 11," Nahele reminded him in an accusatory tone and Steve sighed.

"I have a murder I'm dealing with. We just found out it's a murder and a kidnapping and not just a plain old murder. Kidnapping victim is still in the wind and we're trying to find her."

"That's a lot of gruesome detail for a young boy to have on his mind, do you go in-depth about your cases with Nahele often?"

Steve rounded on Brenda. "No, no of course not."

"And when I got here, he was home alone. Is he home alone every time you're at work?"

"Well I mean… he's fourteen now, he needs some sort of independence right?" Steve had thought that was a good answer, he had no idea why that would be bad. "And besides… he's at school most of the day…"

"So he's at school… in June…" Brenda whispered. "That didn't seem odd to you?" Steve blinked his eyes, okay, when she said it like that, yeah, it sounded weird. When Steve said nothing Brenda put down her clipboard with a sigh. "Are you telling me you had no idea your foster child is in summer school?"

Steve turned to Nahele who had hung his head. "I was gonna tell you…"

"When, Nahele?" Steve cried, his hands on his hips. "What happened? You were studying so hard and doing so well…"

"And then mom left, and they told me she got kidnapped and you got a torture video, and you went to get her and she came back dead but she wasn't really and I just failed my exams…"

Oh god, it had all been too much and it had affected him at school. And Steve hadn't even noticed. He had been so wrapped up in just finding a way to live with that gaping hole in his chest that he had forgotten to make sure that Nahele was doing good too. Fuck, fuck, this was not good.

"Okay so… I obviously need to pay a little bit more attention, but to be fair we're both grieving here…"

The look Brenda Dean gave him could have withered a plant. Well, guess she wasn't going to let him deal the grief card.

"Mr. Huikala, I think you should go upstairs for the duration of the interview," she said and Nahele quickly got up.

He took two steps away before turning back to her and saying: "Please don't move me again. I don't think I could handle losing both parents… again…"

Yes, the guilt card. They had come up with that line last night, Nahele picked a great time to pull that card.

Brenda Dean said nothing but instead shooed him away and bid Steven to sit down. She already had the file that she had asked Steve to put together. His Police Reference Check. His financials. And he had thrown in his military record so she could see that he was well decorated and that if he could handle a battalion he could handle a teen.

"So, luckily for you the SAFE Home Study has already been done part way for you. Rowan had you fast tracked through that process and it is valid for two years, this is a secondary walk through to make sure that it is still up to the same standard that was here when she was in charge of your home."

"Now wait a second, Rowan was not in charge of my home…"

"Who did the cooking, Commander?" "… uh well… Rowan did…" "and the grocery shopping?" "Well… Rowan… but…" "… and who did the cleaning, and the laundry, and the decorating." "Okay, okay I get it."

She nodded again. "If this step is successful you will be expected to go through the PRIDE training…"

"Well I'm already very proud of Nahele…"

"No I mean the Parent Resources for Information, Development and Education Training," she said. "In order for you to be signed off that training will need to have been completed. Will your work get in the way of that?"

"Uh…"

"It's a nine module 27 hour training," she supplied for him.

"Okay, are you making up new rules or something because we didn't need this the first time around…"

"Rowan completed the PRIDE training prior to our SAFE Home Study, which would have been that walkthrough you missed the first time around." She had? Fucking when? How had he not noticed Rowan around for 27 hours? "Judging by your face you didn't know that."

Yeah. There was a lot he didn't know about when it came to Rowan. A lot she did while he was at work. He was surprised she didn't get into more trouble since she clearly had heaps of time on her hand.

"No I didn't know that, but that doesn't change anything. If it's a necessity I'll do it."

She nodded and then scribbled something down on her clipboard before flipping open the file. She looked at all the papers before carefully saying: "You make significantly less money than Rowan."

"Well it's a government job… and I don't get royalty cheques or bonuses for the level of bad guy I take down."

"I understand that, Commander, full heartedly," she said and then flipped through the papers. "Impressive service record, as well."

Steve nodded smiling a little bit. Yes, yes, maybe that would save them.

"When I first was given this case, I was very worried. Rowan seemed flighty, her job seemed whimsical and her whole life seemed hinged upon you which much like a house of cards could come toppling down around her. I forgave some of the red flags I saw because I saw an absolute love for that child I had never seen in anyone before. A sort of fierceness I only ever see in birth parents. And let's be honest no one ever wants the older ones as badly as Rowan wanted Nahele."

Okay where was she going with this?

"Now… with Rowan having abandoned the two of you, I'm a little less… optimistic," she said. Steve frowned. Okay. Not good. That was not good.

"So let's start with your job. Rowan called your hours unforgiving."

"Uh… well I am… I am out a lot, but… uh… I'm looking into getting a nanny to just stay with him, and uh… my friends… and their families they… they've all offered to help me until I find someone. At the moment I've got a rotation of people who come to check on him if I'm out late… so you know…"

"And you think, for a child who has just lost what will be a third parent to him, that that is a stable schedule?"

"Well… until I can find someone… it's all I have… and I mean, at his age I was in military school…"

"And that's what you're thinking of doing? Shipping him off to military school?"

"Well no, of course not…"

"Commander, you come from a place where tough love was the only kind of love available to you. And while you thrived on it, Nahele is not a child who will. He is sensitive, and he is hurting. He's already on the road to torpedoing himself that much is clear in the dip of his grades, and you didn't even notice."

"Look!" Steve suddenly snapped. "It's been hard, okay? I got used to Rowan doing everything, I took her for granted and have always assumed that when I fucked up she'd forgive me and we'd go back to the way things were. But she didn't come back this time, and I've been trying really hard to get over that and I guess I got caught up in my own… sadness…. That doesn't mean I don't care it just means that I'm having a hard time right now, but I am going to fix things for the both of us…"

"By proposing to another woman that was a stranger?" "—Catherine Rollins was not a stranger she was my ex-girlfriend…" "… But did Nahele know her?" "Okay no…"

"And what was your thought process there? Fill Rowan's void with another woman, maybe if you do it fast enough Nahele won't notice the difference?"

Damn he was gonna kill the kid for telling her about Catherine, he really was.

"I don't know… maybe… I just thought… I don't know what I thought. I didn't react well, I apologized to him," Steve growled.

"Mmm," she murmured softly going back to the clipboard. "I'm starting to wonder if there is anything that you do react well to."

It was a low blow that Steve didn't need, and though he'd like to say that things got better from there. It really didn't. But that pent-up aggression from the bad walk through helped him get through the rest of the case and catch their kidnappers and save their girl.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

It took only four days for Brenda Dean to decide what it was she was going to do with Nahele, which was either really good or really bad, considering it took a whole week for her to decide when it came to Rowan. Steve had gotten the call and immediately jumped into panic mode. He and Nahele picked out his outfit, going with his Navy dress blues, with cap and everything, to impress her.

Nahele then assured him that it was probably good news, because Brenda Dean never came to a conclusion that quick, especially not a bad one, because she literally weighed every single option.

Still, Steve had left Nahele at home, afraid that if things didn't go well they didn't have the excuse to take him then and there. But if they turned him down and he got home, he was probably just gonna barricade himself in the house and dare them to come and try to get Nahele from him.

So Steve had gone into the Child Services office across from the Palace where Brenda Dean, put him into her office, told him she had some paper work to finalize and copy and then just left him there to stew. As if he wasn't nervous enough. Steve had just sat there in that little office worrying the cap in his hand, waiting for Brenda Dean to come back in.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Commander," she said coming quickly into the room. She dropped a load of paperwork back onto the desk and then sat down across from him with a smile. "Alright, so, everything has been reviewed… and we're going to be declining your application to become a foster parent."

Silence hit the room as Steve took that in.

He shifted in his chair had half laughed. "Uh… declined… uh… on what grounds?"

"Now, we're not calling you a bad person, Commander McGarrett, it's very clear that you care for Nahele, which is wonderful. But with your work… and how unstable the hours are, you would not be a conducive fit for a young child. In light of what had happened, he needs more than a parent who will be home every other day or home at any hour."

"I understand that… but… my friends…"

"Pawning him off on your friends and their families is not a stable life, Commander. Kids like Nahele, they need more permanency than what you can offer him. And he definitely needs someone who actually pays attention to him."

Goddamn it this was because his didn't realize that Nahele was in summer school. That losing Rowan so close to exams would fuck with him.

"So I'm sorry, we won't be allowing you to become his temporary guardian, but if you were to ever retire or switch to a more… regular… job… we'd be more than happy to have you apply again and we'll set you up with a different child."

But Steve didn't want another child, he wanted Nahele.

"Do…do I have to bring him back right away?"

"We had HPD pick him up, he's in the lobby you can go say good-bye if you like."

 _HPD had already picked him up._ Goddamn it.

He watched with a sinking heart as Brenda stamped the application form with his name on it with a big red declined stamp. It felt like the final nail in his coffin. That was the family he so desperately wanted dead and buried.


	213. Chapter 213

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Monday my wonderful readers. So we have one more chapter of sadness before we head onto the Rowan chapters. This is going to be centered around Nahele and how he's feeling, which is going to be bad. Remember he hasn't really had time to grieve, and his life is getting pulled out from under him. But it's not all bad, you are going to see him nice and settled before we move on, so it's not all bad. Not going to lie the first couple of chapters with Rowan are rough, but it explains everything you guys have been curious about. Like why she isn't getting messages and why she didn't come back and all of that. Don't forget to leave me a review and I will see you guys on Wednesday._

Chapter 213

* * *

 _Hey mom… I… I know you're mad at dad… Steve… and I know he fucked up, but Brenda Dean came back and she knows you're gone and I think… I think she's going to take me from Steve. So… can you please come home and if you can't come home… can you just come and get me? Please mom? Please. I… I need you to come get me._

Nahele thought calling Rowan and telling her that he needed her would be what she needed to get her ass in gear and come back home, or at least come and get him. But Rowan never came, HPD did.

As soon as HPD showed up at the house, Nahele knew that Steve had failed. Brenda had already decided Steve wasn't getting him and she waited until Steve was in her office to get someone to collect Nahele. It was a good idea, it was probably to keep Steve from pitching a fit, and he would have, completely, probably would have pulled his gun and his rank and everything.

Problem was, when was Nahele going to get his things?

They dropped him off at the office, where he was told to sit while they coordinated a new place for him. He saw things printed on his file, like volatile and priority, which meant that this really had been a snatch and grab to avoid Steven's temper. But this move meant that they didn't have somewhere to put him… that meant he'd end up in somewhere worse than another home away from Steven who needed him, he was going to end up in a group home.

After that Nahele couldn't stay still. He was trying not to cry but he was on the verge. How could he not be? He had finally been happy, he thought… that this time… that his happiness would last, that he finally found his family, but here he was back at CPS because it hadn't worked out. And it hadn't been because he wasn't wanted or they wanted to send him back, but because something terrible had happened and Steven… well despite needing to, his priorities hadn't shifted. Work was still more important to him.

Nahele wanted to run away, but he had no where to go to. He didn't want to be homeless again, and he couldn't go back to Steve's. As much as he loved the man, it wouldn't have killed him to just… be home. He didn't want to be second best to Steve's work schedule. He wanted someone to notice that he had a bad day and ask him what was wrong. He wanted Steve to fight for him and that clearly hadn't happened. So why would he go back? Instead he had wandered around until he found himself in front of a vending machine. He wasn't hungry. He was just standing there staring, trying to not cry.

"I know man, sometimes I'm so unsure of what to buy I feel like crying too," a voice said. Nahele started not realizing someone was there. The man across from him had a flash of silver going through his black hair, he was in a nice grey suit with a white tee-shirt underneath. He smiled warmly at Nahele. "I mean, look at all the options they got! That's a junk food heaven in there. How do you pick just one?"

Nahele blinked his eyes, looked back at the vending machine and stepped away. "Sorry, you can… you can go…"

The man moved in front of the machine. "I've always like the _Oh Henry_ 's what about you?" he asked.

Nahele shrugged. "I unno… M&Ms?"

"Good pick," he said and then purchased a pack. He then turned that smile back on Nahele. "I know they say don't take candy from strangers but it looks like you need a pick me up," he said offering him the open pack. When Nahele just stared at him he added: "If it helps, I can introduce myself."

He offered Nahele his other hand and said: "I'm Kong Liang."

Nahele put his hand out to take the candy, threw them into his mouth and then said: "I'm Nahele."

Kong leant against the machine and offered him more of the M&Ms while swallowing his own handful. "So… whatcha in for kid? Getting shipped out or shipped in?"

"Shipped in," he answered softly.

"Ah… they going to ship you somewhere new then? Somewhere nicer?" Nahele shook his head, lowering his eyes. "No huh? Liked your old place, did you?"

The tears were starting again, and this time he couldn't hold them in. "Aw kid, it's okay," he said as Nahele sniffed. He put a hand to Nahele's shoulder and pet him softly. "I know it's hard, but it'll be okay."

"I was really, really happy," Nahele sobbed and then let him put an arm around him.

"It's alright, let it all out," he said to him and he just let Nahele cry it out. All those frustrated tears, the tears over Rowan's fake death and then her leaving, all the tears he pushed away because Steve couldn't handle his own grief, he didn't think he could handle Nahele's too.

When he was finally ready to stop a woman had come up to them. She had platinum blonde hair, a short bubble gum pink dress and matching high heels. She was so fake tanned she looked bronzed, and it was clear she was a trophy wife as she was a good ten years or more younger than Kong.

"Oh… honey… I leave you alone for five minutes to park the car and you've made a kid cry?" she asked. "They're not gonna give us a kid if you're making them cry!"

"I didn't make him cry, he's had a rough day," Kong snapped. "Here M&M?"

"You're not supposed to be eating junk, honey," she scolded him and he sighed at her. He handed the bag to Nahele.

"Come on, now, honey, let's stop bothering the boy," she said trying to pull him away. "I'm sorry for whatever it was he did to upset you."

"It's okay, I think I'll learn to forgive him," he said with a smile and Kong shot a playful glare at him before ruffling his hair.

"Don't you worry it will work out, it may not seem like it yet, but sometimes things happen for a reason."

Nahele watched them go, feeling like falser words had never been uttered to him before in his life. Except for when, an hour later, it turned out that Kong Liang, and his new wife Brandi had decided to take him home on a temporary basis. Why did he sort of feel like this had been… set up?

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

The room that Kong had was clearly for a kid a lot younger than him. The bed was a race car, the walls were a pastel blue, with race car trim. Everything was small and fit for a little kid's height and grip. As soon as Nahele saw it he turned on Kong with a pained look on his face and found an equally pained one on Kong's face.

"Uh… maybe you'll stay in the guest room until we get this settled," he said. Nahele followed him to a second room, liking that this one was more to his size. Kong's house wasn't anything like the McGarrett's house. Granted he still had a beach but this place wasn't cozy, it was gargantuan. It was a goddamn mansion. He was afraid he was going to get lost in it.

"You didn't have to do this," Nahele said softly. "You're obviously in it for a younger kid…"

"Well yeah," Kong said. "But have you ever just clicked with someone before?"

Nahele turned to him with a patronizing glare. This wasn't a dog shelter or a blind date. Clearly he was not what Kong Liang and his wife were looking for.

"Okay, fine, you want me to level with you?" Kong said. "You're right, we were thinking more of an under five kid. And yeah, I'm not gonna lie, this is temporary. But I'm not lying about the click, I clicked with you kid and I asked what was going on with you and they told us how you're a flight risk and the family they were taking you from was volatile so it was a very last minute grab. They said you hadn't even managed to get your things and I unno… we've got more than enough room and we figured it would be a) good practice, and b) it would look good on us to take you in temporarily."

Yeah that sounded about right.

"But that doesn't mean we don't actually like you, you're a sweet kid, and we did actually wanna help," Kong said. Nahele nodded and the man sort of sighed. "Uh… I can set you up with something to sleep in and for now, and uh… well… we weren't expecting a kid tonight so we don't have anything good to eat and you don't want Brandi to cook so I'll order something in. What are teenagers gushing over these days?"

"Pizza is fine," Nahele whispered.

"Cool, pizza it is," Kong said. "Feel free to come down whenever you want. I got a games room in the basement if you want to check it out."

Nahele didn't want to check it out, he wanted to go home.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Nahele had an inkling that things weren't going to be as temporary as the Liang's said it was going to be when they started buying new things. Brandi had immediately gone into decorator mode, having decided to redo the childish room for a more suitable one for Nahele. She may have been stand offish the first twenty four hours, but once it became clear that she needed to go shopping she was much more interested in him. Shopping with Brandi was a lot like shopping with Rowan, except Brandi was all about the brand names and said things like: "Nuh-uh that does not fit in my vision board for the house" all the time.

Kong did in fact have a games room in the basement, which was essentially just an arcade, he also had a home theater with a popcorn popper in the corner. It was ridiculous, but Nahele was already thinking of inviting people over, his friends were gonna _love_ this. But then he felt bad because he still missed Rowan, and he knew that Steve wasn't going to survive on his own. Not without Nahele to clean up for him. But he was fourteen. Was that really his problem?

Then two days after he had gone to the Liang house hold, Kong announced that it was time to go pick up his stuff from his previous foster. He had also hesitantly asked if he needed back up. Nahele wasn't sure but he had said no, because he really didn't want to scare Kong off and be sent to a group home. But honestly, he wasn't sure how Steve was going to react to this.

He had called Steve to tell him that he was on his way. Steve sounded… subdued and uncaring. Nahele was certain that it was a defense mechanism, but it hurt none the less.

He gave Kong the address, hopped into the man's Escalade and then they were driving to Steve's. Problem was as soon as they got there Kong looked utterly terrified.

"Wait, hold on a second. This is McGarrett's place," Kong said refusing to pull into the drive way. Wait a second Kong knew Steve? Kong turned suddenly surprised eyes onto him. "You're Rowie's kid?"

He knew Rowan. The man knew Rowan.

"Uh… yeah?" he said.

"Wow that girl never shut up about you," he said with a scoff and then turned his eyes back on the house. "And I cannot go in there. That man will arrest me on the spot."

"Arrest you for what?"

"Well my job ain't that legal kid," Kong said. "Let's just say my police reference check is a complete forgery and he's gonna know that. Everyone knows McGarrett ain't taking this whole _Rowan dumped him_ stuff well and I don't want to get in the middle of it."

But he was in the middle of it. Because he had just taken in Steve's Foster kid. Nahele sighed. "Well you can wait in the car if you want, but he's going to find out eventually. Might as well be with me around so he can't get too mad at you. Or at the very least he can't kill you in front of me."

Kong hit him with a dry glare. "Wow, thanks," he said before reluctantly pulling into the driveway. Nahele was almost too scared to go up to the house, afraid of what he was going to find, but the second his feet was on that familiar gravel path, the second the door opened and Steve was in the doorway all that fear left him and he was running into Steve's awaiting arms.

They said nothing for a long while, just hugging each other again, that embrace being something they both needed in that moment. But it meant that Nahele felt when Steve clocked Kong because he suddenly went erect, spine straight, and when Nahele pulled out of the hug he could see that Steve's eyes were wide and his nostrils flaring.

Oh, this wasn't going to be good.

"No," was all he said, his grip on Nahele tightening.

"Steve don't," Nahele warned as Kong put up his hands in a surrender motion and said: "I didn't know."

Steve glared at him. "I don't believe you."

Kong stayed back. "Seriously, I had no idea the kid was yours," he said. "I met him like two days ago at the CPS office, took a shine to him and decided to give him a home, that's all."

"Bullshit! Is this part of the contingency plan? She said she'd make sure she took him, is that what this is?"

What the hell was the guy talking about?

"Okay… dad… Steve…" Nahele said stepping between them. "If mom… damn it… if Rowan was going to take me, she'd take me, right? That's what you said, right. Rowan Pierce lies. So, this isn't anything to do with you and her, it's a guy who wants me to stay with him until they find a permanent spot for me. So maybe don't scare him off cause I really don't wanna go to a group home."

Steve took that in with anguish on his face before he nodded and Nahele sighed. "I have to pick up my stuff. Did you pack the things I'm allowed to take?"

"I packed your clothes for you, and your picture frames… I reprinted the pictures for you but I couldn't remember what went where. Oh and your x-box. I didn't know what else you'd want to take so feel free to grab whatever you want."

"I've got an x-box at home already," Kong interjected. "No point in having two."

Steve glared at him but Nahele just moved aside. "I'll figure it out, try not to kill each other please."

As Nahele walked away Steve's shoulders slumped. Damn this had destroyed the man. He wondered if that was what Wo Fat wanted?

"Uh… you know… you can still see him," Kong said softly. "You can have excursions, you can take him out for movies or dinner. Just no over-nighters, at least right away anyway."

Steve blinked his eyes. "Yeah that was gonna happen regardless." Steve was silent a moment longer before saying: "How the hell did you pass the Police Reference Check."

"It's a forgery," he said. "Please don't tank this for me, cause if you thought Rowan was bad, Brandi will literally be out for blood and I will drive her here."

Steve half scoffed. Wow. Great. This was just great, more guilt, cause he needed that, right?

Steve promised himself he wouldn't do it but the second Nahele came back with the suitcase and the boxes, the second Kong moved to take it from him, Steve cracked. He waited for Kong to be putting everything in the car before whispering: "You know who he's connected to, right?"

Nahele turned to him. "I know he knew mom, I know he's a got a less than stellar arrest record…"

"That man knew your mom but he worked for Wo Fat."

Nahele sighed oh, shit that wasn't good. It didn't look good. It put doubt in Nahele's already nervous blood but he couldn't let Steve see it because if he did that gun and badge would come out and then Brandi and Kong wouldn't be able to get _any_ kid and that wasn't fair, since they were actually quite nice people.

"He didn't know," Nahele said. "I swear, he had no idea until we got here. So, you know… if he didn't know I doubt Wo Fat's sent him for me, you know?"

Steve said nothing but it was clear he didn't believe him. Which made sense cause Nahele only half believed it himself. After a moment of silence Steve pulled him in for a hug and when he was done he pulled back, put his hands the kid he had come to think of as his son and said: "Even though you're not living here I'm still here for you okay? You can call, you can visit, any time, okay?"

Nahele nodded. "Are you gonna be okay without me?"

Steve put on his bravest smile and answered with a breathy: "Yeah. I'll be fine. You?"

Nahele half shrugged and said _fine_ like he meant it when he didn't.

And then both were going their separate ways, heart breaking, filled with longing, with tears in their eyes. Each wondering when the sun would shine on them again.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Kong left Nahele to unpack in his room, which was grateful because he spent the whole time crying. Crying for what he had lost and would never get back. He wanted to call Rowan, but he didn't want to leave another message on her answering machine. He wanted to hear her voice, he wanted to tell her what had happened so she could come home and make it right again.

By the time dinner rolled around Nahele was all cried out and didn't want to go downstairs. Brandi, who did not know how to cook, kept trying to make new things. He had gotten boxed mac and cheese, because he figured there was no way she could fuck that up but he wouldn't have put it past her to have found a way. So, when Kong knocked on the door, he figured it was to call him down for dinner.

"Hey kid, the mac and cheese was… well there's no nice way to put this but it was vile," he said. "I've got pizza coming again. But I feel like you're gonna get pizza'ed out. What are the chances of you making dinner and maybe teaching Brandi a few things? I can pay you… like an allowance kinda thing… not a child labour kind of thing."

"Yeah sure, whatever," Nahele sighed not bothering to get up off of his bed. He was really sad, but the bed also had sheets with a crazy thread count which made them really soft and comfortable.

Usually when he got into a funk, Kong would shut the door and leave him be. But this time he came into the room and then shut the door.

"Kay, kid, I know that today was hard for you, and I get that," he said. "So uh… I was gonna wait to do this, but I think… I think I should do it now. If you could please sit up so I could talk to you…"

Nahele blinked his eyes, surprised, but he sat up, surprised to find that Kong was now leaning against Nahele's desk and he tried very hard not to feel uncomfortable. It wasn't that Kong scared him but he had a feeling that there was an ulterior motive to this conversation.

"So, as we've established… I knew your uh… previous foster mom," he said and Nahele blinked his eyes at him. "You remember that app she had?"

"The Sanctuary app?"

"That's right, I coded that app for her," he told him and Nahele sat there not sure what to do with that information "I can see the look on your face, so I'mma try to be as clear and transparent as I can. Uh… how much do you know about Wo Fat?"

"Uh… that he was Ro's brother and Steve hated him…"

"Ever hear about what he did for a living?"

"He's a criminal right?" Nahele asked. "Steve mentioned that a lot when they argued. He also said that Wo Fat got Rowan away from the kidnappers, but Wo Fat also said she was dead…"

"Yeah… uh… it's a messed up situation kid I'm not gonna lie. But uh… basically what you need to know is that Wo Fat is the kind of man whose fingers are in everything. He builds empires, and topples them, and has a lot of people who will do his dirty work for him, though he's never cared about getting himself dirty when the occasion called for it." Alright so this guy was scary, he got it. "And he cares more about Rowan than you'd think he's just not above working outside the law to take care of her, you know?"

No, Nahele did not know. Once again he was wondering why this mattered. Kong let out a shaky sigh before saying: "Wow this is hard. Okay uh… so, to preface this, my wife and I were already in the process of becoming foster parents _before_ he called us, so I don't want you to think you've been forced on us or anything, okay?"

Well that was a shitty preface.

"Wo Fat really did make you take me?" he asked cause if he lied to Steve about this the man was going to lose his shit.

"No, but he did ask me if I would," he said. "I told him I'd think about it, went and met you at the office like he told me to and you know… just as I said me and you… we clicked… in a completely non-weird way. I talked to my wife about you, we got more of your story and well… as you can see we took you."

Okay so what… what was that outburst in the driveway? Was it all an act? Well obviously, but there was no point in arguing about it now, he was already a liar, calling Steve wouldn't fix it now. So Nahele nodded, well at least he wasn't forced to take him, he'd feel even worse than he already did.

"Wait so this isn't… this isn't temporary?" he asked.

"Well… I don't know. Right now, yes, but I like having you here, honestly I think you'll be easier than a toddler, but Brandi may take some time to warm up to the idea," he said. "I know we're not the McGarrett's but I promise to be just as cool. You got bullies I can obliterate their online lives, set up a virus to leak their nudes and other embarrassing media… that's cool right?"

It wasn't and that must have been clear on Nahele's face because Kong switched gears.

"You miss her, don't you kid?" He nodded again and then Kong leant in and whispered: "And what if I told you I could put you in touch with her? What would you think then?"

"You could do that?"

"I could, but there are… terms and conditions you'd have to agree to first."

"Like what?"

"Well… uh… Steven McGarrett cannot, under any circumstances know about this. He can't know that Wo Fat asked me to take you in, he can't know that you're in contact with her."

"Fair," Nahele answered immediately, and he knew why that had to be.

"And Rowan… she thinks he's gotten back together with Catherine… and that you're with them…"

Now Nahele was confused. "Wait a second… why…"

"Steven had her brainwashed, from my understanding. Wo Fat wanted her safe from him and he knew that she would have gone back to him immediately, if only to get back to you. And well… this all would have happened all over again now wouldn't it?"

"So he's lying to her? But that's not…"

"You know McGarrett knew she was there right? He knew they were torturing her and he left her there because Rowan had the nerve to leave him."

"That's not true!" Nahele cried. "He was distraught when she left, he thought she was with Wo Fat. He loves her, I know he does. He misses her. If Wo Fat has to lie her maybe he should just let her come back!"

He was close to crying because it wasn't fair. He wanted Rowan to come home, he wanted that family back, but Wo Fat was lying to her and keeping her away from him. And he was alone again.

"He also bought another woman an engagement ring."

Fuck he had him there. But Nahele couldn't think of anything else to say, he just stared at Kong with a frantic tearful look on his face.

Kong sighed. "I see we won't be seeing eye-to-eye on this," he said straightening and going to walk away. Nahele realized that he wasn't going to let Rowan talk to him, that Wo Fat would come up with another lie to explain why he wasn't talking to her too. That just like Steve would have to lose Rowan and him, Rowan would lose Steven and him as well and if Steve wasn't coping he didn't even want to know how Rowan was doing with all of this, especially since she was the one who was really badly hurt.

"No! No! I want to talk to her," he cried. "I do… I won't… I won't give anything away. Please let me talk to her, please!"

Kong stepped back, leaning back against the desk and crossing his arms. "You mean that?"

"Yes! I promise. I just… I just want to talk to her."

He went into his pocket and pulled out a phone and tossed it to him. "It's your new number, the only way to get a hold of her," he told him. "She's out of it currently, but she's been asking for you, I expect him to let her put a call in to you by the end of the month."

Nahele looked it over, the background photo was of Rowan and him on the beach. Things were simpler back then he'd do anything to go back to that.

"So, let's go over the lies: where do you live?" "With Steven." "Who is Steven with?" "Catherine." "And what do you tell Steve?"

Nahele looked up to him. "Absolutely nothing."

Kong smiled. "Good job. Now uh… Brandi uh… Brandi's attempting to make you cookies to make up for the vile mac and cheese. But there's a good chance they're going to poison you, so take a bite, I'll distract her and you spit it right out, got it?"

Nahele nodded again and Kong ruffled his hair like Steve used to. He clutched the phone in his hand. That phone was the only link to the last person he had that cared about him and that photo was about as close as he was ever going to get to having a happily family. So why did he feel like he sold his soul to keep this little piece of it?


	214. Chapter 214

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Wednesday my wonderful readers. So, as guys have gathered, Wo Fat's sold some lies and you're probably wondering why Rowan would believe any of them. So for everyone who was wondering what happened with Rowan and why Wo Fat did what he did, this is it, you're gonna see why he did it and how bad things were. Trigger warning for abuse and torture, and terrible things are gonna happen in the next few chapters. I'll put trigger warnings before the scene though so just you guys know when it's coming. Just so you know, we got two marathons coming up this month, are you guys excited?! Don't forget to leave me a review and I'll see you guys on Friday!_

Chapter 214

* * *

 **A month ago**

Juan Carlos came sliding into the room where the two men were talking about battle plans to take on Diego, a rival drug pusher that had been hitting Armando hard the last couple of months. He looked panicked but Wo Fat hadn't been concerned because the boy startled like a rabbit. Wo Fat assumed that whatever had him startled this time was something as trivial as all the other times and would be dealt with by his Uncle. However he came straight to Wo Fat.

"You need to see this," he said holding out his phone.

Wo Fat found himself surprised. Startled by the gesture, he looked at the phone in the kid's hand and then turned his eyes away from it, and back to the map as if it were a chess board and he was plotting his next move. He had no time for viral memes or whatever else the child was interested in.

"I'm busy."

"Not for this you're not," he said, he pressed play on a video and then shoved it into Wo Fat's face.

It was a simple video, a ransom video, addressed to him. Two men demanding for the return of Noshimuri's money and normally he wouldn't have cared but something about this was wrong. There were only two people he cared enough about for something like this to work. If it were Jian he would have heard by now and Rowan… Rowan was with Steven wasn't she? But when they were done spouting demands and moved away, he could see who was behind them. Who they thought was worth ransoming to him.

They had Rowan, strapped to a chair, mirrored in a position he once had Steven in. Her head was hanging low, she was soaking wet, but he didn't pitch to his feet until the cattle prod hit her skin and her scream broke from behind clenched teeth. His eyes bulged watching her body pitch and strain, his heart fractured at the sound of her screams but the anger rose at the laughter behind it.

Was this how she had felt knowing he had been torturing her Steven? If so he was doubly upset for doing that to her, but at that moment he couldn't be blinded by the echoes of this situation. He needed her the fuck out of that chair.

"When did you get this?" Wo Fat asked, taking the phone. The video was 15 minutes. _Why so long_? He paused the video but scrolled through watching the screenshots that popped up, water boarding peppered with what looked to be severe beatings and even more electrocutions.

"This morning. But they say it's been circulating for two days," he said. "They… they go on to say that you're not answering your phone... that for each day you ignore them it'll… it'll get worse."

Of course he wasn't answering his phone, he didn't have service. Wo Fat was already moving. "I need to go. I need to go now."

Armando, who had been at his shoulder, took the phone his nephew offered him, he pressed play and Rowan's haunting cries hit his ears again. No, no he couldn't listen to that. He left the bunker racing towards his car, any car, he needed to get on a plane, he needed to get Rowan. NOW.

He got service on his phone and called McGarrett, ignoring the flood of messages that came in. He got the first few syllables of: "McGarrett, it's me, it's an emergency," out of his mouth, before Steven told him to fuck off and hung up the phone. That was strange, why had he done that? It was then he turned his attention to the messages.

The one from Rowan saying that she was going to head to one of his safe houses because her and Steven had had an argument and she was pretty sure they had broken up. Dated three days ago. A message from Steven saying that Rowan and him were over and that if they came back to the island he'd arrest her. Dated two days ago.

But the worse was the message that started with Rowan's shaky voice begging him to answer, and ended with her screaming in agony as her captors tormented her for him to hear. To play over and over and over.

It was that last message. It was that one that took the normal, human Wo, and snapped him straight back into the sociopathic monster everyone knew and feared.

That message. That video.

They started it all. They started a war.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

* ** _Trigger warning guys! Lots of violence in this next part!_**

A van drove up to the nondescript, typical warehouse-by the Tokyo bay building. Inside it was a small team of very dedicated, very angry men ready to storm the place for the person they were rescuing. A team that had been donated by Armando and had Wo Fat at the lead.

Determination was on his face. Anger didn't cover the emotion in his chest. He was nothing but pain wrapped in seething blackened rage. Raw and unaltered. That video burned in his mind, he had watched the 15 minutes in entirety so he'd know, so he could hold onto the rage, so he could catalogue the ways he was going to make them suffer. Those screams, _her_ screams, echoed in his head, he couldn't stop seeing it, hearing it, and he wouldn't be calm until he had her out of that building and in his arms.

As they walked towards the buildings, they didn't bother to hide their guns. He ignored the shouts and cries of warning that erupted from the building as they were spotted. Wo Fat openly checked to make sure the magazine in his MPG was ready to go, switched the safety off, signaled to the small battalion of men that had come with him, pulled a grenade from his pocket, pulled the pin and then threw it through the doors.

Three floors below, Rowan pitched and screamed. She couldn't help it. Couldn't escape it. Punishment for escaping. Punishment for making a phone call to someone who wasn't Wo Fat. Punishment for trying to ask for help. A phone tilted on it's side, recording everything. Another video to send Wo Fat, to show him that it was getting worse, that it was his fault for not responding. And beside it was the gun. The one they were going to use and finish her off. He had waited too long, they had said. It was time to take out the garbage.

The electricity crackled and burned. She had twisted and bucked, something in her arm had snapped, she swore she heard a pop in her shoulder. Her whole left side had gone up in flames.

They withdrew the cattle prod and doused her in water again. Above them came the distinct sound of an explosion, far away but loud enough to be heard. Her abusers turned their eyes to the ceiling and Rowan started to laugh.

It couldn't have been Steve, she had just called him and he was too far away. But he easily could have sent someone. It easily could have been Wo Fat.

A second explosion went off followed by the easily distinguished rat-a-tat-tat of a very quickly firing gun. Wo Fat was fond of his MPGs. Then again so was Steve.

They slammed the door to her cell shut, locking it. They grabbed guns with shaking hands. Just two men alone against whatever was crawling its way towards them.

Rowan wanted them to suffer. Like she had. She couldn't do anything physically but she could do something else.

 _Shiver my timbers, shiver my soul, yo ho heave ho. There are men whose hearts are as black as coal, yo ho heave ho_

 _He's come for me cross the ocean blue. A blood-thirsty psycho and a cut-throat crew. It's as dark a tale as was ever told, of the love of family and revenge served cold._

 _Shiver my timbers, shiver my sides, yo ho heave ho. His anger's as strong as the wind and tides, yo ho heave ho._

They stared at her eyes wide with horror as she sung Wo Fat's favourite songs. Each lyric changed to scare them. Each lyric meant to put the fear of God or Wo Fat into them.

The one in charge. The man she called Punchy turned on her. He cut off her words, punching her, each blow landing meant to hurt her. To damage her. Each hit cracked again her jaw, her shoulder, her stomach, her chest.

She cried out. She gasped for air. She struggled to breathe and when he was done, Rowan hung limply against the bonds of her chair, trying to regain her breath. The only sounds the ones of the war descending on them. Gunshots, bullets, screams. They were so loud she was certain they were right outside the door.

She laughed, forced herself to look back up to them and started singing again. This time louder, this time no longer singing but practically screaming it, this time with a look of utter insanity on her face. Both men backed away from her, horrified by what they saw.

 _Shiver my timbers, shiver my bones, yo ho heave ho. When he's done with you they won't hear your groans, yo ho heave ho_.

 _You've made your choice and your bed is made, there's no turning back from this course you've laid. And when he sees what you've done to me, you can bet your boots there'll be treachery._

That was when the banging started. Pounding against the door. The sound of someone counting off and shoulders slamming into the door. It creaked under the strain but the door didn't give way.

Slappy, the nicer of her abusers, rushed forward to brace the door, pulling the chair to it and lodging it under the door handle. Punchy had backed away, a hand on Rowan's good shoulder a gun ready to aim at her head.

The explosion that blew the door of the handles knocked into Rowan, but she didn't tumble, it just jerked her against her bonds. It threw Slappy back, the man now missing a hand, his chest carved open, impaled by the debris of the door.

Punchy shot at the door where nothing but smoke was drifting in. He shot until he was almost out of bullets and then he peered into the shadows and smoke trying to discern movement. He coughed into the crook of his elbow.

"I'll kill her, I swear!" he called out to nothing. No one responded. No one came forward.

From her bowed head came a single and final sung line: _Shiver my timbers, shiver my sails_ …

A gun pressed behind his ear. How someone had gotten in, how someone had gotten past him is surprising. A low, cold masculine voice whispered, in echoing to her song: "Dead men tell no tales."

And with a deafening bang it all went black.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Her head hung lowly. Her body was limp. He struggled to free her with shaking hands. Her eyes were squeezed shut, her breathing ran ragged. She was alive. Badly beaten. Face swollen. Left arm in an awkward angle, and she winced when he touched it. Burns littered her arms. She was damp to the touch. She was bleeding from her nose, from her mouth, from the cuts and welts and raging blistering burns on her arms and chest. He was angry. He was in agonizing anguish. It was nothing compared to what she had to be feeling.

He got her out of the chair, got her into his arms. Something rumbled against his chest and arms in time to each staggeringly shallow breath she was taking. He heard the gurgling from her lips as she struggled to breathe through the ash and the smoke and knew without a doctor's opinion that she must have water in her lungs. Probably from the hours of water boarding.

 _The dog tags…_

It was her only request, her fingers digging into him, through the Kevlar he was wearing, scratching into his neck. She was looking for something real to cling to, and for in that moment it was him. The dogtags were Steven's, and they had emotional value. They were the last things she asked for before the pain took her consciousness away from her.

He looked around but didn't see the tags. A noise escaped Rowan and it frightened him. He realized he didn't have time to search for them. He stopped searching but he did take the phone that was left on the table. He could tell it was recording ad he wanted to see what was on it. Then he was taking Rowan out of that room. He and his team had made quick work of the warehouse. All levels of it. He had been clear before going in.

No survivors.

All involved. They needed to pay. And they had. Well… almost.

He emerged from the fires, his team was waiting for him by the van. Juan Carlos was on him first, he took one look at her face and swore.

He held her closer to his chest. It wasn't that bad, it just looked bad. He held onto that thought because it was what was keeping him calm, keeping him from turning into something even more monstrous then what he had already slipped back into since receiving that video.

He gave them the name of a Doctor. A man who owed him dearly. Too afraid to take her to Jian. Knowing that if Jian failed to save his sister's life he'd never forgive her, even if it wasn't her fault.

He left the others behind with an order, something they needed to make sure happened.

 _Burn it to the ground. Make sure no one comes out of that building alive. No. one._

And then he was gone. Crushing his sister to his chest. Relief had not hit him yet, fear was the primary emotion rolling around in his torso, it had a hold of his lungs, he could no longer breathe properly. Juan Carlos drove fast, and that sort of helped him cope.

Because if he lost his sister… if she didn't survive her injuries… not even god himself could save them from him.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

The mob doctor he had called in, Dr. Hinohara, had not been able to treat all her injuries, a secondary doctor had been brought in to drain the water from her lungs, to help him set her broken arm. Dōsan was a doctor that Wo Fat normally didn't trust, he had turned him in once to the cops, but for Rowan he was willing to give him a second chance. After dealing with the water in her lungs and that spiral fracture in her arm they had bandaged her burns, but they wouldn't be able to do anything to heal them, they'd scar no matter what they did. They then laid out a catalogue of wounds for him to take in.

Broken ribs, fractures in her skull under her eyes and around her orbital bones, spiral fracture in her right arm most likely from trying to escape her bonds, countless burns from different kinds of cattle prods, countless bruises from countless beatings, her lungs were more water then air and she officially had pneumonia. She had been starved, she was dehydrated, all her burns and minor scrapes were infected because she hadn't been given access to clean water and the conditions they were holding her in were disgusting.

He stood in that room above her listening to her death rattle, both eyes circled in purple, her nose red from bleeding, barely alive. He saw every inch of physical trauma living on her skin, but he knew it was the psychological trauma that would kill her, and he didn't know how to help her with it. All he saw was his innocent sister, who only tried to do good with her life, lying lifeless in a hospital bed.

And he couldn't bear to look at her.

He found himself outside her door shaking. The catalogue of injuries burned brightly behind his eyes, branding themselves into his brain. He'd never forget them, the bandages, the blood, her screams and cries. He thought when he saved her, when he had her safe and with him that he'd feel better. But relief never came to him, she was fine he kept repeating to himself. But it wasn't helping.

He was angry, enraged, that this had happened to her. So many warnings. So many people who knew what he'd do. Did they think he was bluffing? Did they think he wouldn't? His anger burned brighter than the fire that consumed the warehouse and without Rowan's soft voice to soothe him, Wo Fat found that he couldn't calm down.

Juan Carlos was beside him, he was covered in soot, and he too had suffered a flesh wound that Hinohara had just finished patching up. He had been taken right after Wo Fat had been patched up and briefed. He had his hands in his pockets as he stared at him.

"They said it was good news."

"Yes. She'll live."

"That's good. Then we got to her in time."

"Not before the electrocuted her, not before they snapped her forearm, and dislocated her shoulder. Not before they fractured the bones around her eyes, and broke her ribs. She's covered in dirt and cuts and burns, most of which are infected. She's malnourished, dehydrated and they drained a goddamn lake from her lungs."

"But she's going to be okay."

Her body may heal but would her mind? Wo Fat couldn't think about these things. He was so upset. Afraid for her, worried for her, scared for her. Livid with himself for not being there. Livid with McGarrett for not noticing she was gone. Beyond enraged with the people behind this.

"I uh… I got that intel you asked for. The intel you asked Uncle Mando to look up. He just sent it over," His voice was small and quiet. Like he didn't want to tell Wo Fat what was wrong. Wo turned his eyes to him, holding the glare until the younger man looked away and down to his shoes. "Her kidnapping was sanctioned by the Yakuza and executed by a guy named Waincroft. They wanted… they wanted…"

 _Noshimuri's money._

All of this over money he said he'd hand over? All of this over money that was never theirs to begin with, the kind of money they made in a month?

And in that moment, he became the something monstrous people feared him for. And he left his sister's side to make sure the monster rampaged as far away from her as possble.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

 ** _*Another Trigger warning guys! This is graphic and terrible, This contains sexual assault and brutal murder, avoid this part if that is something that will trigger you*_**

Riku Sato struggled against his bonds. Behind the door that lead to his bedroom he could hear his wife's crying. It's worse than the screaming when they dragged her in there and started… god he didn't even want to think about it.

In front of him were his children were bound and sobbing, each had a man behind them, holding them in place while he had two.

At his desk sat the man who was behind this whole operation, who lounged back with his feet on the desk listening to the sounds of the chaos he had created like it was a symphony. The man who, if Riku didn't think fast, was going to kill him and his family.

Wo Fat smiled down at him. "You look perturbed, something the matter, Riku?" Wo Fat asked

Yes there was something wrong. This man stormed his home, killed his guards, he had men holding him, his arms held outward their hands on his shoulder blades, one press to them and they'd dislocated. He was letting his men take turns raping his wife, and was threatening to kill his children. Yes, all of this was very wrong.

"Why are you doing this?"

"Why?" Wo Fat asked, standing up. "Why have I done this? Do you know what I just pulled out of a warehouse by the bay? Did you watch the video that circulated through my contacts before it reached me? Do you know the damage done, not just to her face but her body and her lungs? Do you know how loudly she screamed? And for what Sato? For what have you done this for? Money? Money that belonged to Shioma and not you?"

That bitch. It was all about Rowan. Sato had known that he'd freak out when he found out what they had done to Rowan. He had known that Wo Fat would want vengeance… but never had he thought Wo Fat would do this. Not when none of this was Sato's idea.

"You were warned, Sato," Wo Fat said leaning in close to him. Close enough that he could see the gleam of insanity in his eyes. "You tried to take my sister from me. You made me listen to her screams. So I'm going to take everything you love from you. I'm going to make you listen to their screams. I'm going to make you live with those noises echoing in your head, just like I'll have to. So you'll know what it's like to sit by helpless as someone you loves screams for you to save them."

"But she's not dead! You got her out of there! She's fine, I mean, she's a little battered but she's fine."

The latest man that had been on top of his wife came out of the room fixing his pants. Wo Fat stood to stare at him. "Everyone had a chance?" he asked them and they all nodded. "Alright, bring her out."

Riku was getting worried. Wo Fat didn't seem to be listening to reason. "Shall we take out the garbage?" he asked him.

"No! No don't. Wait. It wasn't all my idea. It was Gabriel. It was Gabriel Waincroft. He said they had a plan. Gabriel said he could get her to give us the money that, if we took her you'd do anything to get her back. I just gave him the space and the men to pull it off."

Wo Fat smiled at him. "I know. Don't worry, Sato, I did my research and Waincroft will get what's coming to him. But you had been warned, Sato, multiple times and yet you still gave them the permission and the order to go through with it… now didn't you?" he reminded him and yes, that was true but he didn't think that it deserved this level of retribution. "And you're gonna get what's coming to you too. Slit her throat."

Riku cried out, his wife managed to make a strangled sort of noise. She had been on her knees, her night gown ripped, her collarbones littered with marks, bruising, hickeys from men that weren't him. He was forced to watch as they peeled her head back and the knife slid across his wife's throat. Her scream cut off but his continued, blood sprayed across the room and himself. His children screamed, he screamed, he raged and swore but Wo Fat just smiled.

With a snap of his fingers his children were next, their cries and screams silenced as their throats were also cut. Ear to ear. And then they were dropped. He was surrounded by the flailing twitching bodies of his beloved family, forced to watch as the life drained out of them.

Riku sat there, screaming and sobbing. His children, his beautiful innocent children, his wonderful understanding, loyal wife, no one was safe from this maniac. He'd kill him, he'd kill Rowan, he'd make them both suffer much worse than what they had suffered these past four days.

"I warned you Sato. I told you, if you even so much as breathed in Rowan's direction I'd make you suffer," he said coming to stand in front of him. He leant down close to him to whisper: "Are you suffering yet?"

"I swear to God, Fat. I'm going to kill you. I don't care how long it's going to take but I'm going to get you and your stupid little sister too! You think the screams were bad then? You're going to listen to me rape her, you're going to listen to her beg for you to save her and when that's done I'm going to kill her in the most imaginable way possible and I'm going to make you watch."

Wo Fat took this all in, a sense of serene mocking calmness on his face. Sato wanted to hit him, he wanted to knock that stupid look off of his stupid face.

"Well we can't have that. Can we?" Wo Fat said, his back to him. If his men let him up he'd get a knife in his back. "Don't worry Sato. I'll end your suffering for you."

When he turned there was a gun in his hand. The silencer flush against his forehead. Riku shut his eyes, accepting his fate.

And then Wo Fat pulled the trigger.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Her eyes opened, a pair of blue slits looking back at him. Wo Fat went from sitting back to perched on the edge of his chair. He had thoroughly washed the blood from his hands, the monster was thoroughly caged behind walls of worry and desperate fear. He still felt dirty, but the excitement of her consciousness so soon after getting rescued buried those feelings.

"Hey, hey, hey… how… how are you feeling?"

Rowan's head slowly turned away from him to the other side of the room. Her eyebrows crinkled in confusion.

Wo Fat put a hand to hers and she looked back at him. "Hey, it's okay. I got you… you're safe now…"

"Where's Steve?"

Yes, where was Steve? On his way. Other then the voicemails he had left on the app, other than picking up one of many calls to tell the man to fuck off when Wo Fat was too busy rescuing her, other the text Wo Fat had sent, he had hadn't a chance to connect with him yet. He was probably still on the plane.

"He's on his way. Are you okay?"

Rowan's eyebrows crinkled. "No."

Okay. Fair. "How did this happen Ro? I thought you were with him… How did he… how did he not know you were here? Four days Rowan, four days you were in that room, where was your McGarrett when you needed him?"

"He made me choose again. He said you or him… he said he'd marry Catherine if I didn't pick him."

"He said that to you?"

Well that explained the messages he received before she got kidnapped. Rowan nodded, the motion clearly painful for her. She closed her eyes, squeezed them shut against the pain and when she opened them again her eyes were a little wider, enough for Wo Fat to gage how high she was.

Fucking hella.

"I left. I went to the airport, the one that… that you said would always take me. I was gonna fly out to one of your safe houses until Steve smartened up… and they… they grabbed me… He must have thought… he must have thought I went to you…" her breathing hitched, she started to cry and the heart Wo Fat didn't think he had snapped in two again. She was in so much pain, she was so afraid, and he hadn't gotten her in time to save her from this. That anger in him doubled, he should have done more to Sato, he should have kept him alive so he could take this anger out on him.

But it explained how Steve didn't know. Steve thought Rowan was with him and he thought Rowan was with Steve. Rowan ended up being tortured in a basement for four days without either of them knowing.

He held her hand a little tighter. "It's okay… it's okay… I know… I know what they did and none of them can hurt you anymore. I promise you… I promise you…"

"I want to go home," she hiccupped. "I want Steve and I want to go home."

Wo Fat nodded. Of course she did, she always wanted Steve. "Yes… okay… I'll… I'll make sure he gets here, as soon as he lands, okay?"

A sleepy dreamy smile stretched over her face for a brief moment, like the promise of Steve in the future was more comforting then all the pain meds they had her on. She squeezed his hand tightly. "I love you," Rowan whispered to him, her eyes closing, clearly too tired to continue this conversation. He almost got his own, _I love you_ out too but she continued talking. "I love you and I'm gonna miss you."

"Uhmm… miss me? Where am I going?" when Rowan didn't answer he shook her again. She groaned in pain but he didn't have time to feel guilty about that now, he'd feel guilty about it later. "What do you mean when you said you were going to miss me?"

Rowan narrowed her eyes at him, she shifted in her hospital bed and blinked her eyes at him. For a moment he thought she might fall asleep on him but she surprised him. "I love him, Wo. I love Steve so much… I don't… I don't want him to marry Catherine. I want him to marry me."

Oh god. No. She better not say it.

"I'm going to pick him."

THE FUCK SHE WAS.

"Just until I can get him over everything. I'm going to pick him and then when he calms down… I'll start calling you again. I promise."

Wo Fat stared at her, she smiled at him, soft and wistful like, before closing her eyes and falling asleep. He couldn't let her do this to them. If Steve got her, if he got her to stop talking to him, Wo would never get her back. And he couldn't trust Steve with her, look what happened to her when Wo Fat wasn't there to watch over her. Wo Fat and his network was the only thing keeping Rowan alive. McGarrett was essentially useless.

No… he couldn't let this happen.

With Rowan asleep again, Wo Fat carefully leant forward to grab her hand. He took his phone, opened up the app and then put her thumb onto imaging screen. Once it switched over into her side of the app, he left his chair and walked out of the room. He looked over all the options and then pulled up the one that he needed at that moment. With the function flashing on the screen, waiting for that confirmation, Wo Fat paused. He knew, once he pushed that button there would be no going back.

 _Confirm activation of Captain America Contingency Plan at DEFCON level._

He took in a sharp breath, steeling himself for what was going to be a completely different battle and then pressed confirm.


	215. Chapter 215

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Friday my wonderful readers! So yes, last chapter was a little graphic, so I'm sorry for that, but you get to see how Wo Fat was reacting to the situation and why Rowan was so complicit. Guys she's fucking unconscious, she doesn't know what's going on. So Wo Fat's obviously misguided but it's coming from a place of caring. For those of you who care, I have outlined what Wo Fat planned as the Captain America Contingency Plan. It's going to outline all the steps he would have taken depending on what was going on and where they were in the world Rowan was at the time. He obviously picked the ones that took him through Japan. If you're confused shoot me a line and I'll try to explain it a bit better. As always, don't forget to review and I'll see you guys on Monday._

Chapter 215

* * *

The Captain America Contingency Plan

 **Presteps**

1\. Hire Rowan look alike.

2\. Make sure that girl looks as much as Rowan as possible.

3\. Set that girl up with everything she could want, make sure she doesn't know the real reason we need her

4\. Research possible corrupt Coroners. (Needed in Colombia, Japan and Hawaii)

5\. Set up fake IDs for Rowan in the case of a No Fly put out in her name

6\. Set up a connection with TSA to get alerts on whether or not Rowan's been put on any No Fly list

7\. Set up connection willing to tail McGarrett to confirm that he's bought the lie, to make sure he doesn't figure it out sooner.

Estimated time needed to set this up – 6 months

 _Possible Candidates_

\- Melissa Court – Osaka call girl *** most viable option bone structure is uncannily similar.

\- Carmen Diaz – Colombian prostitute

\- Sarah Marshall – Hawaiian model down on her luck

*Other two on hold in case of secondary emergency*

 _Coroners_

Dr. Oshida Phan – Yakuza doctor – will literally take payments in Sake

Dr. Chi Zangh – Yakuza doctor – being blackmailed, will accept money

Dr. Luis Rameriez – Armando's personal doctor – will do it for free

** No viable option in Hawaii… DNA will have to be compromised or Kong will have to hack

** Sin Nombre willing to tail McGarrett. Will do for a reasonable price (5gs a day)

 **Initiating**

1\. Kill clone. Tap to the back of the head with a .45 caliber gun. This will destroy the facial features.

2\. Confirm she has all of Rowan's tattoos, use Henna transfers if some are missing.

3\. Put camera in back of scull cavity where it won't be seen.

4\. Put body somewhere where even Steve will find it

5\. Inform Steven McGarrett she's dead.

6\. Get corrupt Coroner to confirm it's Rowan via DNA and finger prints (If coroner not available, have Kong hack the test results) (If Kong unavailable have someone else fake the results)

7\. Move Rowan to secure location, once Steven is suitably distracted, move her out of the country. (Safest destination = Colombia)

Estimate time of Steve believing this lie – Anywhere between a week to a month

*if I'm lucky he'll bury the body before he figures it out – exhuming to confirm will delay the process.

Exit Strategies

 **Hawaii**

Body dump = Ocean is best – Iolani Palace is even better - if I'm feeling really angry, I'll dump the body on Steve's back porch. If I'm going for petty, I'll put it in his bed.

Put Rowan on a boat, get her to Japan. From Japan fly out to Colombia.

 _Alternative_ – Fly Rowan straight to Colombia.

Other alternative – Private charter helicopter to remote location, fly from there. If flying not an option, get her on a boat out and then fly her

 **Japan**

Exit through Europe – Germany = best option – hide out there until time to move down to Colombia.

Trains will be the best way to travel, if not I can drive. If not we'll fly.

 **Colombia**

Can't go to Armando's first. Hide her out in one of the bunkers Armando has – whichever is closest. Wait until night fall, move to the next until you get to the jungle. Hide out there until it's time to move her out

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Wo Fat had taken the long way to get where he was. Over 72 hours of travel via, train, bus and ferry. Too afraid to take Rowan up in the air with her injuries. He had her in a wheelchair, he had her drugged and asleep the whole time and for every moment they could sit and relax he had her out of the wheelchair and in his arms just so he knew she was alive. Could feel each breath, each heartbeat under his hands.

He was in Milan when he heard that McGarrett had found the body. He had been monitoring the livestream mini nanny cam he had imbedded in the corpses' gapping facial cavity, what was left of the skull anyway. It was from that, that he knew that Steve had dug it up, the dead body he had planted. He had not believed that it was Rowan, could tell, despite the face missing, that it wasn't his Rowan, but that wouldn't have mattered because he had a DNA test faked and corrupt coroner ready to lie.

They were safe for now, but Wo Fat knew it wouldn't last long. He had to get her as far away from Japan as he could, get her somewhere where he could keep her safe, but he wasn't too happy about moving her as much as he had so far. So it was relief when he got her to that little hospital just outside of Geneva.

He had just landed in Geneva when he finally heard back from Sin Nombre. The man had originally been tasked with keeping an eye on her, but like Wo Fat, Sin Nombre had left Rowan in Steve's care before going in hiding after rescuing her from Waincroft originally. He had been as surprised to find out what was happening as Wo Fat had, and Wo Fat believe him, because while Sin Nombre wasn't quite scared of him he took his jobs very seriously. This was a failure on his part and he had never failed at a job before. But because of his part in this fuck up, his next assignment was given to him for free.

He had asked not only keep an eye on McGarrett to keep track of what he was doing but to clean Steve's place out of her affects, but Steve wasn't leaving the house. He just sat their drinking away his misery. So he put him on a different task. Find Waincroft. Decimate him. Sin Nombre had taken that contract with a smile in his voice, in fact if Wo Fat had not suggested it he had a feeling that Sin Nombre when he would have done it regardless.

The little hospital just outside of Geneva was a perfect place for Rowan to recuperate. Rowan would be surrounded by fresh air, rolling green hills, tulips, and trained professionals who would help her get back on her feet, and as a result he felt a little less stressed and little more relaxed.

That was until he realized that Steve had figured it out. He had been monitoring that nanny cam in the skull so it was from there that he found out that Steve had realized that the body he had put in the morgue was a ruse. He was on his way back to Japan.

Wo Fat had called Sin Nombre who was still on Hawaii, the man reported that Steve's house was empty, of course it was, Steve was heading back for Rowan. He had gotten all of Rowan's stuff. Wonderful. But Wo Fat had something else he needed done. He needed Sin Nombre on Steven to make sure he didn't get far.

Be McGarrett's monkey wrench. Keep him from finding Rowan.

By any means necessary.

Sin Nombre had agreed. The man had no choice but he had agreed. Still Wo Fat did not feel better. Even though Sin Nombre was still on Steven, and would deal with him accordingly, if Sanctuary had done its job everything that Steve needed to track them would have been destroyed. Train tickets, schedules, video evidence of the two of them, all wiped out.

His rashness, he knew, was a by-product of the fear and the sleep deprivation. He hadn't slept properly in days. He hadn't slept on his way from Colombia to Japan, he couldn't, his body had been a live wire of fear and apprehension, knowing nothing expect that it wouldn't go away until he had saved her. Since getting her back, sleep had been illusive, because every time he slept he dreamed of her screams. He had a feeling he'd be dreaming about that long after this.

With Steve distracted, with Rowan on the mend and better to travel, he should have been able to calm down. But he couldn't, because a healing Rowan was a Rowan that asked questions, most specifically about Steven and when he was coming. He wouldn't be able to move her without drugging her, and he didn't want to do that to her.

He needed a better plan, and with McGarrett closing in he was going to have to move fast. He had one last option, if Sin Nombre couldn't get McGarrett to back off, he didn't want to pull it out this early in the game, but if he had to… he would, without showing a single shred of remorse.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

The Captain America Contingency Plan Cont.

Japan Incident – Lies told to Rowan

1\. Steven McGarrett never came to get her

2\. Steven McGarrett chose Catherine Rollins

3\. Steven McGarrett sent Wo Fat to save Rowan

4\. Nahele is with McGarrett (reminder to find suitable family to take care of until we can extract)

*Proof – phone call made to Rowan, in Steve's voice. Audio provided by Kong and Sanctuary App

 _McGarrett… oh… hey Ro… oh… yeah… about that… No… sorry… but uh… I'm not going to come and get you… Ro… No… No… you… shouldn't… there's not point in coming home Ro. You chose, Wo, Rowan, you… chose Wo Fat and I… I… I chose Catherine … I'm sorry… Alright… uh…yeah… good-bye Ro._

 **To Steven**

1\. Rowan dead – lasted about a week

2\. Rowan chose Wo Fat

3\. Rowan was sent to Colombia

*Proof, phone call made to Steve, in Rowan's voice – Audio provided by Kong and Sanctuary App

 _Steven…No, no, I'm okay… yes…. I heard… You uh… you need to stop, Steven…. Yes… I want you to stop… Well… you picked Catherine… you kicked me out… you left me to those… animals… you… no. I don't want you. I don't want to go back. I want to stay here… with people who love me. Go away… Steven… just… go… go home…_

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Despite the care she was getting, Rowan was still barely conscious. The fractures to her skull had also come with concussions. They needed her brain to heal so she spent most of the time sleeping. When she was awake she was in pain, and she'd make these terrible noises that Wo Fat couldn't stomach, so he had her doctors pump her full of morphine to keep her quiet and comfortable.

What was worse was that whenever Rowan opened her eyes she asked for Steve, and Wo Fat didn't know what to tell her. He didn't want to tell that drugged and in pain girl that Steve wasn't coming, that he had activated the Contingency plan to keep her from him. So instead, whenever she asked for Steven McGarrett, he'd tell her that he was on his way. Rowan didn't know what day it was, she didn't know that he was weeks late at this point.

Then, of course, he had to worry about Steven actually arriving and he couldn't have that. After finding out that Steve was in Japan, after sending someone to take care of Dōsan who had snitched on him once again, he had had a troubled sleep. Instead he dozed, though mostly he spent the time staring at his sister's sleeping face. He struggled with what he was doing, not because he was worried about Steven, but because he knew that when Rowan woke up he'd have to break her heart and he wasn't certain that he could handle doing that to her. He wasn't sure she could take it.

Sin Nombre called him in the morning to tell him that not only did he have to ambush McGarrett, but the motherfucker, lived. He lived and he was in Switzerland, had a hotel in Geneva and a list of places to go.

Wo Fat had been angry. Not enough to tell Sin Nombre to kill McGarrett, but enough to enact what would hopefully be the last counter measure, the last lie that would send McGarrett packing.

Steve's phone call.

It had taken longer to compile than Steve's then it had to create the one Rowan would eventually get but he finally had enough to cobble together something to keep the man off of their backs. And it had worked. Steve had bought the phone call, never even guessed that it was recorded voice, a garbled recreation of words Rowan had been saying pulled from phone calls and sound bytes that Sandy had saved.

But he wasn't sure that Steve had left until Sin Nombre turned up at the little hospital. And he looked… bad… he had a cut running down the center of his face, from forehead to the bridge of his nose, and a blackened eye.

"What happened to you?"

"McGarrett happened," he snapped. "That man was rabid."

Wo blinked his eyes and once again he wondered if he was doing the right thing. "I don't know how that man was functioning, it wasn't like he was sleeping. I know I wasn't. And that attack… he just… he figured I'd know where she was and fucking went mental… I thought the man had morals."

Yeah, apparently Steve's morals disappeared when it came to Rowan. "Anyway, here's the stuff you asked for," he said. "We've got… uh… one phone, one guitar two song books, there's a bag of purple guitar picks, they're customized so I grabbed them. We've got a suitcase filled with clothes and shoes, which, oddly enough were all packed together and in a closet…" Wow Steve really had gone all out when he broke up with Rowan, packing her things away like that. Maybe he had done the right thing. "…I grabbed _all_ make up and somewhere in there is a bunch of jewellery I thought she'd want," he said handing it over.

Wo Fat nodded taking it all from him. "Thanks. Consider yourself officially forgiven for letting this happen."

Sin Nombre hid his wince well, but Wo Fat caught it anyway. Good, so he felt guilty, they could found a guilty club together. "I know."

"So why are you still here?"

"I went by her room. She's still out," he said. "It uh… it looks bad and I unno, I didn't want to deal with that. Do you know when she'll wake up?"

More like he didn't want to face her after letting her get kidnapped.

"She's got major concussion and fractures in her skull, she's asleep to help her brain heal," he said. "If that's all, you can go."

Sin Nombre narrowed his eyes and looked back to the building and then back to him. "You're going to need help with her," he said. "Don't call me."

"Whatever. Good-bye," Wo growled hoping that would get rid of him. He'd have enough to worry about without Sin Nombre hanging around. Especially since the man could prove his lies true.

Besides, with Rowan so badly injured he could handle her no problem, he wouldn't need help. He just needed to do everything he could to keep her happy and to keep his lies straight.

But three days after Sin Nombre left, Rowan woke up. She woke up and despite them nurses wanting to put her back under she struggled. Her doctor's looked her over and decided that it was time for her to be awake. So Rowan spent more and more time in the world of the living, more and more time asking questions and asking for Steven and realizing that he was a long time overdue. Wo Fat realized that the time had come. Though he didn't want to, he was going to have to start lying to Rowan.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Wo Fat came in and immediately Rowan was sitting a little straighter. It had taken another two and half week but her eyes were less sunken now, the blackness under them seemed to have faded into this purpleish-green, if he was lucky they'd be gone soon. He knew moving hurt, as her ribs were still healing, but it was that bright pink cast on her arm that made him smile. Not the fact that she had a spiral fracture in her arm that needed to be set, but the fact that she had a bright neon limb.

"Is Steve here yet?" she asked. She asked him that every time she saw him, every time he got a call, or had to leave the room. He always got a pained look when she asked and it made her worried, very, very worried.

"Not yet," he said. He said that every time as well, Rowan was starting to think he was lying because it had been two weeks since she had woken up, and she was rescued two weeks before that, and he still wasn't here. Usually she'd bug Wo Fat, to try and make him tell her what was going on, but he never caved, he'd change the topic or she'd have a check-up or the morphine would kick in and she's forget. Though maybe she hadn't because she was afraid of the real reason why Steven hadn't shown up.

But today, today she wasn't going to let it go.

"Okay, what's going on, Wo?" she asked him and he winced and looked away from her.

"Nothing, Ro… he's just… uh…"

"No, no, don't lie to me Wo. What's going on? Why isn't he here? If he were coming he'd be here by now," she said but he shook his head. She frowned at him "Tell me."

"I don't want to you, you're steal healing."

"Tell me, Oz," she repeated and he winced once again and a little more deeply.

"Oh god, fine. He… Steve has a case, he uh… he's not coming," he said. His words might as well have been a fist hitting her in the chest, they hurt that much.

"But I called him… he said he was coming…" she whispered.

Wo Fat shook his head. "No, he… Ro he called me instead. He sent me to get you."

 _Steve had never come?_

"I'm told that he uh… he got back together with Catherine the day after you left… possibly earlier."

Rowan recoiled like Wo Fat had lashed out at her. She looked down to her hands. Those words, too, were like a blow struck to her and her fragile heart. She was in pain, she was dying and so hurt that he hadn't come to get her. She understood that he was mad at her, that they had a huge argument but something really bad had happened to her and she didn't want to believe that he would be that mad as to just leave her to her own devices and come back on her own. "I mean… he probably thought I was with you…"

"Yes, actually he did state that," Wo Fat said. "And uh… he does like me to keep him updated on your progress so that's a good sign, right?"

Rowan tried to nod, but she didn't know what to feel. He had said he would do as much… if she left… if she picked Wo Fat, he said he would go straight to Catherine. She was sure she could forgive him for being confused, he probably hadn't known what had happened. But if he thought she was mad at him over going to Catherine maybe that was why he wouldn't come.

Wo Fat, who had been sitting beside her, slowly stood up, fiddling with the phone in his hand. "You could… you could call him maybe? I mean, he's an ass to me, but maybe he'd give you straight answer. Would you like that?"

She nodded and he handed the phone to her which she took gingerly. Though she pulled up his contact she was too afraid to call lest Wo Fat be right. She didn't want Steve to rip her heart out in front of Wo Fat who would definitely send someone down to Hawaii for retribution. Didn't want Wo Fat's pessimistic beliefs about Steven be proven right.

"Would you like me to leave? Give you some privacy?"

"Would you?" she asked and he nodded. He reached out and pinched the tip of her chin in that fond matter he had.

"I'll be just outside, okay?" he said before walking away. As soon as Wo Fat was gone she dialled Steve's number. There was a silence before it connected, which she figured was because she was in a different country and all of that. It rang twice before he picked up

"McGarrett?"

"STEVE!"

"Oh… hey Ro…"

She had never been so happy to hear his voice, even though he didn't seem to be reciprocating the feeling. "Hey! Where are you? I've been waiting for you to come get me."

"Oh… yeah… about that…"

"Are you busy?"

"No." Wow that was a very short response what was going on? "Sorry… but uh… I'm not coming to get you."

"Oh… okay, well… you're busy I guess, a case huh?" she asked. When Steve was just silent she added: "I'm almost good to fly, are you going to meet me at the airport then?"

"Ro… no…"

"No?" she echoed softly so afraid for what he was saying to her. God he wasn't saying what she thought he was saying, was he?

"No… you… shouldn't… there's no point in coming home Ro."

"There isn't?" she echoed because she couldn't find it in her to ask the real question. _Are you breaking up with me?_

"You chose, Wo, Rowan, you… chose Wo Fat and I… I… I chose Catherine." Rowan froze, everything in her heart shattered. She was too late… he had gotten back together with Catherine and they were officially over.

"But I love you," she breathed out. She almost reminded him that he loved her too, but he thought she didn't know that and she wanted his first real I love you to come from him, when he wasn't high or trying to hide it from her.

To his credit Steve actually paused and Rowan struggled to keep her words inside. _Unchoose! Please! I… I know we have a lot to work on but I'll be good I promise. Please don't leave me, please don't pick Catherine, no when we're so good together, not when you really want me._

"I'm sorry," he finally said to her and that was that, that was how he felt about her love for him. He clearly didn't love her like she thought he did.

She almost scoffed at his apology. Yeah like sorry was going to fix this. Like sorry was going to make her feel better.

"No, no problem, its fine…" she lied trying to avoid the sobs that were starting to bubble.

"Alright… uh… yeah… good-bye… Ro…"

And then the call ended Rowan let the phone slide out of her hand. There were only a few seconds of silence between that and the tears that erupted from her. She threw herself down to the bed and cried and cried and cried until she was nothing but an empty husk of heartache, depression and seething anger.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Wo Fat stood outside her door listening to her sob, his heart flexing painfully in his chest. Was this what a broken heart felt like?

He had never felt guilt like this before, but standing there knowing he had just broken his sister's heart, he knew nothing but that burning guilt. He had never, ever, second guessed himself before. But listening to Rowan cry, knowing that he did this to her, he wondered if, maybe, he should have just let her go back to McGarrett.

But he wasn't about to just hand her up now. Not after everything he had just done. But she loved him. He heard that admission and he had almost hung up the call right then and there to go back in that room and have her actually call Steven. He didn't, of course. He ended up playing the rest of the recording, hating himself for doing it. But he knew, if Rowan continued like this, he'd relent. Because he couldn't stomach it, he couldn't stomach those tears knowing he was the reason she was crying them, knowing that all he had to do was hand her over to Steven and she'd be healed. It was his selfishness that had damaged her so. His selfishness was why she was crying.

He slept that night beside her in his bed, like he had done multiple nights before this. His dreams haunted by her screams, but it was easier to wake up after those nightmares to her face. He could easily stretch a hand out to her, his fingers could brush away the lingering tears, the strands of red blonde hair that would fall over her face as she slept, could feel for her pulse to be ever so certain that she was still alive.

 _You're doing this to keep her safe_. He kept telling himself. But it didn't make him feel better. Because even if he had done this to keep her safe, to protect her in a way Steven clearly couldn't manage, he knew that he had broken her heart. And if she found out about the lies, she'd never forgive him. And after nearly losing her… he wasn't sure he could handle that.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

The Captain America Contingency Plan Cont.

Post steps

 **Concerns**

1\. Injuries – Depending on where we are in the world, depending on how bad it is, doctors may need to be pulled in. Use discretion. If moveable, move her, if hospitalization is needed, take her then monitor. Once stabilized, pull her from the hospital.

*If need of immediate care, Sin Nombre will need to be deployed ASAP to keep McGarrett at bay. He will also help extract her from any hospital as needed.

2\. Steven – he won't just give up on her. Constant vigilance will be needed, distractions are a must – Sin Nombre may have to shoot him

3\. Rowan.

\- Firstly she has feelings for Steven. Deep and complicated ones. She will not give him up easily

\- Secondly she is unpredictable and hard to manage - staff will need to be hired to keep track of her.

\- Questions – Rowan will have so many questions – decide back up lies make sure they're convincing – write them down immediately to keep track

*When in doubt pair Steve with Catherine. Rowan _hates_ Catherine

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Wo Fat went into the room where Rowan was sitting in her bed staring off at nothing, his arms laden with all the things Sin Nombre had dropped off a few weeks back. Rowan had just woken up from her nap and for the first time since that phone call she wasn't crying. Granted she looked like she was about to burst into tears again, but she wasn't actually crying yet.

"I got something for you!" he said trying to smile. Rowan turned to him as he dropped the suitcase by the bed and put the guitar in her lap.

Rowan ran her fingertips over the case but didn't open it. A sad sort of smile crossed her lips as she took it all in. Wo Fat tipped the suitcase over and opened it up, picking out the things that might make her smile the most.

"Don't forget these," he said putting the guitar pics and her two song books in her lap. He noted that she was leaning over to peer at the suitcase at his feet.

"This is all my stuff. How did you get it so fast… unless you…," she whispered and then shot him a deadly glare. "You knew, didn't you? You knew that Steve was going to..."

"I did," he admitted from his place on the floor. "I did but I was hoping that you'd talk to him and clear everything up."

Rowan sighed and looked down at everything she had in front of her and then to the suitcase on the floor. She pet the side of her bed that was empty. "Bring that up here, let's see what that asshole packed up."

Wo Fat zipped that suitcase back up only to pick it up and drop it on the bed, letting her open the suitcase that time and began to rummage through it. He made a mental note of everything she was excited for. The burgundy high-top converse, the fancy leggings with lace cut outs, all the different dresses, including the one that he had bought her, and the stuffed animals. Why the hell did she have a fox, a unicorn and six get well teddies?

But it was when they got to the bag of jewellery that Sin Nombre had packed up that was when Rowan got a little weepy. Particularly over this gaudy silver and sapphire ring.

"What is that?" he asked suddenly afraid that he was broken up an engagement instead of a relationship.

"My ring."

Her what? The man had commitment issues, it took him 9 months to give her a label but he fucking proposed? Aw fuck, maybe he was going to have to give her back after all. "He uh… he proposed to you?"

"No, it was a promise ring, remember? I told you about the ring," she said staring at it. All Wo Fat could think was _oh thank god._ Thank god it wasn't an engagement ring. "I whipped it at his face the night I left."

Wo Fat couldn't help but smile, ah his girl and her deadly wicked aim. Well, he smiled all the way up until she started crying again. He crossed to the other side of the bed and dropped to his knees beside her.

"Oh, come on, Ro, don't be sad look at everything we got. What about your guitar, and all your songs, those made you happy…"

"All my songs are about Steven," she sobbed.

"Well fuck," he cried picking up the closest book and tossing it right out the window. "There, gone, feel better?"

Rowan stared at the window suddenly too shocked to actually continue crying. "Did you just throw my book of songs out the window?"

"It's fine, it's on the lawn, I can get it back," he said. "Just please don't cry anymore…"

Rowan sniffed and almost half smiled which made his own smile widen. "Ah there it is, there's a smile," he crowed which made her smile even more. He decided that now would be a good moment to offer her the other option, the one he wanted her to pick. "Well… uh… they tell me that, hopefully, by the end of the week, you'll be good to travel, do you uh… do you know what you want to do?"

Rowan looked down at her lap. "I don't know… I don't want to go home… I don't want to see him with Catherine… but Nahele…"

"Who?"

"Nahele… my foster kid."

Ah shit he had forgotten about the kid. Fuck. Fuck, she'd want to talk to him too. God fucking damn it. "Well I'm sure he's with Steven and Catherine… he'd need a new mom right?"

Yep not the nicest thing to say to her, but the necessary thing to say to her. Still he winced as her tears started to fall again and she hit him with an apathetic: "Yeah I guess."

"I could double check for you, I could call him… if you don't want to…"

But Rowan was already turning away from him with an indifferent: "Sure," mumbled to him.

"Okay, uhm… I guess you're tired. But uh… I did have a question," he said. He got up and leant over the bed, putting a hand to her shoulder. "Can I ask a question?"

"Sure, Wo, ask what you want."

"Okay, well… if you don't want to go home right away would you rather, uh, would you rather come with me? I don't have anything really going on right now, we could travel. What do you think? Me and you, anywhere you want to go."

Now that got her attention, she turned back to him to stare at him and he hoped he was smiling at her in an encouraging completely not suspicious way.

"Could we go to Paris?" she asked.

"Course."

"And Venice?"

"Yes. I said anywhere, Rowan."

"And Paradise Island?"

"I don't know where that is, but yes, we can go… if it's a real place."

"It's in the Bahamas."

"Oh, then yes, we can go. As I said, we can go anywhere you want."

"You promise?" she whispered. "You won't… you won't change your mind or need me to leave?"

"Course not, Ro, you can stay with me for as long as you want. I promise. When do I ever break my promises to you?"

"You did once."

"But I haven't done it again, right?" he said. "It'll be great, don't worry. Just rest up, and I'll get everything ready."

She nodded rolling back and away from him again and he took that as his cue to leave her to sleep. As he left the room he couldn't help but smirk because that was another step in his plan flawlessly executed. Now he just had to do something about the kid.

For a moment he actually thought about pulling the kid, but he knew that Steve was just as attached to that boy as Rowan was. Since Steve had lost Rowan, Wo Fat figured he wouldn't give up the kid as easily, he was still shocked that Steve gave up on Rowan that easily, he fully expected that phone call not to work. Then he wasn't sure how he was going to move an injured Rowan and the kid. Plus if he brought the kid to her, he could let it loose that Steve wasn't with Catherine. He could keep Rowan in the dark if she were on her own, it'd be harder to coordinate this trip and keeping McGarrett from finding them if he had two people to worry about.

He pulled up Sandy and the profiles of the people Sandy was supposed to be monitoring. A lot of people thought that the app went down when Rowan did, but it wasn't true. Wo Fat had had Kong disable it, it only worked with three profiles, his, Rowan's and Kong's. Didn't take him long to find Nahele's information and figured what it was he had to say to whoever got this next call.

"Hi, I'm a concerned citizen, I'd like to make a complaint. Yes, a certain Nahele Huikala has been abandoned by his foster mother and his foster father has been… absent, I'm really worried for his wellbeing… yes… yes… I'll hold," he said and then hung up. That call alone was enough to get some sort of ball rolling when it came to getting Nahele away from Steve. If he had to he'd have to make a second, but if Steve was unravelling when Sin Nombre had seen him, losing Rowan would have made him worse. Would make him a horrible choice for foster parent.

Now he just had one more thing left to do, you know before securing her travel papers, he had to put Nahele in a position to be controlled so Wo Fat could funnel his lies to Nahele and to keep him from going to Steve.

He dialled the number and then waited for him to pick up.

"Hey Kong… no she's fine… yeah… actually… I need to ask you a favour… how do you feel about… teenagers?"


	216. Chapter 216

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Monday my wonderful Readers! I know that you guys are hoping for a speedy return, that Steve and Rowan are going to get together again soon, but if you guys remember, they're going to be separate all the way to season 7. But as soon as they do get back together they get Nahele back too. So don't worry about that. I will tell you that I have a surprise coming up for you guys in the next week. And this chapter should have cute little things for you guys to look forward too. Cute little sibling things between Rowan and Wo Fat. So I hope that kinda makes up for all the angst. Don't forget to leave me a review, if you guys wanna guess about what your surprise is going to be please feel free, and I will see you on Wednesday._

Chapter 216

* * *

Wo Fat opened the curtains to let the sunlight in and all got a loud groan from the woman still in the room.

"Rise and shine, sleepy-head," he called but Rowan not only put a pillow over her head but pulled the hotel blankets over her face as well.

It took him almost a month and a half but not only did Wo Fat manage to get her travel papers, but he managed to get her to Paris despite Steve having her on the No-Fly list. All it took was a fake passport that scanned up as someone else, but made the computers show Rowan's picture and information but not as a no-risk flyer. Kong had worked hours on it and Sandy had spread that piece of code to every border patrol kiosk computer across the world like a virus.

The second thing he had Kong do was go through every single database and corrupt their files on Rowan. He had her DNA and fingerprints changed to Melissa Court's, even though Steve had already proven that Melissa was Melissa, simply so they could do a million tests and not have anything that could happen be tied back to her. It took a little longer for Kong to break into Five-0's locked file on her but once he got in Kong corrupted that file too.

With things being rough emotionally he had talked Rowan down from calling Nahele yet until she was absolutely ready because they had done a lot of work on calming her down and he didn't want her getting overly upset with the reminder that Nahele was no longer her kid, that her life wasn't… well… her life anymore. Though the real reason was because he wanted to be sure they could trust the kid to not fuck this up for all of them.

But maybe, if she was good he'd let her call this week.

"Come on, Ro, you need some Vitamin D," he said. "It's mandatory to live."

"It's too early for this shit," he heard her grumble under her fortress of blankets.

"It's four in the afternoon," he snapped and the blankets whipped away from her face.

"No it isn't," she cried and then checked the clock beside her. "Shit is it really?"

"Clocks don't lie."

"They do if you change them on me," she growled but he just shook his head at her and then tossed her his phone so she could check the time there. She looked it over and then sighed. "Okay fine, so you didn't change it on me."

She handed Wo his phone back and then sighed rolling over to face him. "Damn jet lag never bothered me this much before," she sighed bringing her hands to her face. It wasn't just the jet lag though, he knew a lot of it had to do with the meds she was on, they made her drowsy, but he wanted her on a normal sleep pattern.

"I don't mind you sleeping in, god knows I'm busy and can't be with you all the time, but I would like you semi-conscious at some point, a little earlier in the day, Ro."

"How very nice of you," she sighed. "You know what would motivate me?"

She had a cheeky smile on her face, it was at times like these he completely forgot she was suffering quite dramatically from a broken heart. He hadn't told her, but as soon as he activated the Captain America Contingency Plan, he had broken things off with Jian. He did so over email and he knew if he ever got to go back to her he'd be in a lot of shit for that move, but you didn't seem him wallowing in self-pity over that. No matter how much he missed her. Probably because his new empire and Rowan were taking up all of his time.

"Let me guess, sightseeing?" he offered because he knew that was the answer. He had been meaning to take her, promising to take her actually, but he had just been too busy to indulge her. Setting up contacts in the underground world in Europe so he could get himself properly re-established in the world was basically a full time job.

"Ding, ding, ding," she said with a big smile on her face and a finger pointed in his direction. He sat down on the bed beside her as she sat up. Together they sat back against the headboard, he crossed his legs in that dapper way and Rowan dropped her head to his shoulder, her body pivoting so she was leaning against him, her knees up and draped against his thighs.

"Well you're in luck, I've managed to clear my calendar for the next few days so I can take you where ever you'd like to go, bit too late to do it today, but if you give me a list of places you'd like to…" he trailed off as Rowan handed him a note. Well that was fast service. "Ah, of course. Let's see. Versailles, Disney… wow Disney that one will be fun, won't it?" he asked sarcastically and got a nudge from her. "Fine, fine, I promise to be more positive day of. If we actually go. I'm hopeful if I just let it go and don't remind you that you might forget." She nudged him again but he just smiled. "Your pain meds do make you foggy, after all so it's completely plausible." Rowan fulled out slapped his shoulder that time, it stung a bit but he didn't let her see that. "Alright, alright, let's table that talk for later. Let's see, what else… Eiffel Tower, Louvre… so everything touristy…"

"Don't forget Moulin Rouge…"

"The red light district? Why the hell would we go there?"

"Because I love that movie."

"Fuck really, cause of a movie? Goddamn it, I sense a recurring theme for this trip."

"Hey! You're the one who said you wanted to travel with me," she said a momentary crease of worry crossing her face. Wo Fat just smiled at her as he slung an arm around her shoulder.

"I did and I meant it," he said kissing the side of her head. "And I guess I'll just suck it up and deal with it. Now, are you up to some breakfast? I could get the kitchen to whip you up some pancakes."

"Oh could you?" Rowan cried and he smiled.

"Anything for my imouto."

He pinched her chin in that way she liked before reaching for the hotel phone. He may have agreed to this but that didn't mean he was excited to go around and be a basic bitch tourist. Though he was going to put up with it if it put a smile on Rowan's face. It was the least he could do, after all.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Wo Fat had forgotten how much he hated crowds, but he remembered the second he was in the Louvre with all those people just how much he didn't like being in a crowd.

It took him keeping his eyes on Rowan to keep his sanity. Rowan whose wide-eyed innocent wonder at all the artwork around her not only made him smile but made him hopeful that she might be able to get over McGarrett, that what had happened to her hadn't ruined her. She could still see the beauty in the world and that was a good sign.

They were part way through the museum, she had spent ten minutes mesmerized by the Mona Lisa only to tell him that she was underwhelmed and didn't understand what the big deal was, when she dropped a bombshell on him.

"When I was here last," she had whispered. "We never got to do the Louvre. I didn't get to see Versailles or get to Disney either. I did get to skate under the Eiffel Tower though."

"When were you here last?"

"When I was in WitSec," she answered almost immediately and then froze. He had realized, by the way her eyes bugged out that she hadn't meant to tell him that.

"You were in WitSec?" he had asked. "I thought you couldn't remember where you were from? If you were in WitSec your DNA would be on file, you wouldn't be a missing person. You'd have a real identity."

When she had just stared at him with those wide eyes he knew what ever came out of her next was going to be a lie, which was why he wasn't surprised when she feigned illness and went straight into the washroom.

He had posed that same question to Kong, asked if there was anyone in the WitSec database with Rowan's description, her origin of birth, or her DNA. It was a tall order to just pull out of nowhere but Kong said he'd get back to him when he had an answer.

He pondered that conundrum for the rest of the walk through the Louvre. Rowan had been telling the truth about WitSec, he could tell. But if she had been in WitSec, Steve would have been able to pull her DNA immediately. There would have been none of this: _she doesn't exist in the database so we had to make her a new identity._ Was it possible that she was in WitSec currently? No that wouldn't make sense, she'd need a handler and she didn't have one of those. Unless Steve was her handler and he ran off with her, fell in love with her and took her off the grid with him. That wasn't unheard of, but if that were true, he was WitSec's shittiest handler cause he like… lost Rowan ALL THE TIME. And if that were true, why the hell did he let her move in with Alex? Though it would explain why he was so damn obsessed with her.

After the Louvre, he had indulged her by take her up to the top of the Eiffel tower where they got to sample a little something at each level. Rowan got to have tea on the Tower and they ended with lunch at the Jules Verne which was Haute Couture restaurant at the top of the tower. She was terribly underdressed for it, but Wo Fat couldn't have cared less, and after sliding the maître de a hundo he didn't care either.

The best part, for Rowan of course, was the pictures she took. Wo Fat's favourite picture was the one he took of her, just her side profile, but the rest of the photo was of the skyline of Paris from the view of the Eiffel tower.

When he got a secure connection he was going to send it to Steve, to rub into his face. To prove that Rowan was having more fun with him, that Rowan was happier with him. It was a petty move, but he needed Steven beaten down enough to never _ever_ consider coming after Rowan again, to never consider renewing his search for her.

Even though Wo Fat hated crowds, he found that he had actually had fun. So much so that he had no idea that Kong had gotten the answer to the question he had asked him hours prior to him getting back to the hotel. Wo Fat had left Rowan to sleep, gone to shower, checked his phone and was surprised to find that it had several messages and a few alerts on it.

Wo Fat looked at the text on his phone. There had been no record of a Rowan Pierce in their database. No one with her DNA or looks from Victoria, Canada either. In fact the only Rowan Pierce from Victoria Canada had died stillborn on… and this was the freakiest part, January 21st, which was Rowan's birthday. But that couldn't have been Rowan, not his Rowan cause she was alive. So… who was lying? Had she been deleted from the database? Or had Rowan never been in WitSec?

But considering how many lies he was spinning between Rowan and Steve right now, he couldn't handle anymore, so he was prepared to let that go until it became an actual issue.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

The following morning Wo Fat had woken her up with a quick: "We're going to see a castle today and it's far out, so I wanna be sure we get enough time to look at it all, seeing as our Louvre trip ended up being more than five hours."

Rowan had asked him if he had meant, Versailles, which got her a non-committal shrug and a _sure_. Which wasn't promising but it was enough to get her excited.

Wo Fat hadn't wanted to drive, he hated European driving, he had said, they didn't make an Audi small enough to navigate the roads comfortably. So they had gotten on the train. She entrusted that he knew where they were going and where they were getting off, because as soon as that train started moving, she was asleep.

When he shook her awake they had to quickly exit and then Rowan was just looking at a massive parking lot, a lot like the one at Canada's Wonderland.

"Where are we?" she asked a narrowed look of suspicion and disappointment on her face.

"We're at the castle."

"No we're not," Rowan cried. "This is a parking lot, where the hell is Versailles?"

"I never said we were going to Versailles I said we were seeing a castle."

Rowan turned a glare onto Wo Fat who was digging into his pocket for something. For some reason, despite them doing touristy things the man refused to dress down. Granted he was in a dark polo shirt and a pair of crisp jeans, but he didn't look like he was going to go rough and tumble, it looked like he was going to go golfing with some big client.

"Okay then, where is it? Where is this castle?"

Wo Fat pointed out at something over her shoulder and when Rowan turned she had to bite back her squeal of excitement, because the castle was a completely different one but one she wanted to see anyway.

"DISNEYLAND!" she screamed.

"Euro Disneyland actually," he said handing her a ticket. "You surprised?"

"YES! I didn't think you wanted to go!"

"I feigned disinterest to facilitate the surprise. I've already paid for a princess make over, we have reservations at the Beauty and the Beast castle for lunch and I have paid an exorbitant amount of money, criminal even, to get you a private meet and greet with both Mickey and Ariel. Oh and Peter Pan and Hook, but that's for me."

"YES!" Rowan screamed grabbing his arm and tugging him away. She had never been so excited in her life.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Disney was everything she dreamed of and more. And even though Wo Fat had put up a big stink about being too old, he went on every ride, waited in every line to meet characters and to take pictures for her or with them, and generally got as hyped up about everything as she did. He had finally made her aware that he had taken control of her funds and moved them somewhere where she could access them without alerting the authorities. When she asked why that would matter he reminded her that he was a criminal, and if Steve knew she was with him, he could easily tell basically anyone looking for Wo Fat at that moment that the easiest way to get to him was to track Rowan.

And while that was hurtful, because she was sort of hoping that it meant that Steve was maybe looking for her again because he wanted her back, she did have to admit that it made sense.

And really, once she got to the gift shops, as long as she had money she stopped caring where it came from.

But probably the best part of her day was her princess make up. She got to run around Euro Disney Land dressed as Ariel, in the big poofy pink dress and everything. She got to take pictures with other characters, AND ARIEL, dressed as Ariel. It was… amazing.

They got back to the hotel, dropped off everything Rowan had bought and then she made Wo Fat take her out. Which meant that Rowan walked the red light district looking like Ariel, she went drinking, dressed as Ariel and she got hard core fucking drunk, to numb the pain she had in her chest, dressed as Ariel.

Poor Wo Fat had to cart her drunken, _Kiss the Girl_ singing, Ariel-looking ass all the way back to the hotel.

When she woke up the morning, it was actually morning for one, not late in the afternoon. Granted she was hung over and she threw up, but hell, she was up in the AM for once. She finally peeled herself out of her poofy pink dress, put something more comfortable on, and then sat down and looked at her haul from the day before.

The first thing she had bought had been for Nahele, who, throughout all of this had been on the forefront of her mind. She bought him a Lilo and Stitch picture frame that had Stitch sitting in the sand, with the quote _Ohana means family_. She had found photos in her suitcase, which she realized had been taken from Nahele's room. At first she had been horrified that Steve had wanted her so far out of his life that he had taken the pictures out of the frames and given them to her but now she could use it to her advantage. The picture she put in the frame was the one of her, Steve and Nahele on the beach looking like a family. It hurt to look at, but just because that part of their lives was done didn't mean it didn't happen, didn't mean it couldn't be remembered fondly.

It opened up a plan, since she had all the pictures, she would get him a picture frame from everywhere she would go. To commemorate that she had been there, and to remind him that even though she was there without him, she was thinking of him… and of Steve.

She also picked him up a Lilo and Stitch snow globe that had stitch on his surfboard inside. She then picked up Grace and Beauty and the Beast necklace which had the rose in fine crystal and gold, and a necklace for Kono too, Mulan's sword also in crystal and silver.

She hadn't been able to find anything she thought the other boys would like. So she hadn't picked up anything for them.

But she packed away all her things in her luggage anyway and found that her bag was a little hard to zip up. She would have to get another one, or start sending her stuff away for storage. Problem was… she didn't have a home anymore. She couldn't go back to Victoria, and she didn't belong in Hawaii, nor could she bring herself to go back there knowing that everything she had was gone. You know, except the writing music gig, but she could write music anywhere.

Wo Fat ended up back in her room at four pm and was surprised to find her awake and just… sitting there crying. He had immediately asked her why. But all she could say was: _I don't have a home_.

Wo Fat had nothing to say to that, and really what could he say? Instead he had hugged her tightly, told her it would be okay and then asked if she wanted to go for a late lunch. Which she did.

They ate at a suitably French restaurant, she tried escargot and frogs legs and hated both. She did however LOVE crepes. When the meal was done, and they were back at the hotel, Wo Fat handed her a phone. It wasn't her phone, her phone was switched off and in the bottom of her suitcase, but this phone had her background and lock screen.

"Is this uh…"

"A clone, yes," he said. "It's a completely secure line. Which means that it can't be tracked. And it changes its area code depending on where we are in the world."

"Why did you make this?" she asked.

"So you can't be tracked?" he answered in the form of a question as if he didn't understand why she was asking. "We had this conversation yesterday. Same reason as the money."

"Do you really think that Steve would be that petty? I mean… he picked Catherine, he told me not to come back… both of those things are his choice… you know?"

"Yes… but Steve hates me… you know that right? No matter his relationship with you, first and foremost that man has hated me and will stop at nothing to get me back behind bars, even if that means using you to do so," he reminded her. They shared a bit of a charged look before he sighed and asked: "Look, do you want to call the kid or not? Because if you don't I'll take the phone back…"

Rowan pressed the phone to her chest. "No, I want to call him… do you think now's a good time?"

"Well Hawaii's 12 hours behind Paris… so maybe not at 6 in the morning," he chided and Rowan frowned. True but the kid should be waking up for school soon. She had him up at 7:30 most mornings so maybe she'd call around 8.

"Do you think… do you think he's mad at me?" she asked him. But Wo Fat just shrugged.

"I doubt it," he said. "Probably just wants you to be happy you know?"

Rowan nodded, though she wasn't all that sure. She had essentially abandoned him, but then again… Steve had replaced her with Catherine almost immediately so… you know.

Still she waited until it was eight to call him and then waited for him to pick up. On the first three rings she was worried that he wouldn't pick up but as soon as she heard a breathy: "Rowan?" on the other end she almost burst into tears right then and there.

He wasn't calling her mom anymore. Did that mean that he was calling Catherine mom now?

"Hey kid."

"Ro!" he cried. "Ro! Ro! I can't believe it!"

Rowan laughed lowly. "I know right?" she asked.

"Where are you?" She didn't even hesitated to tell him she was in Paris. It didn't occur to her that Nahele would tell Steve and then Steve would tell the right authorities to fuck with her and Wo Fat. Luckily all she got from Nahele was a: "Wow, cool."

"I… I'm really sorry," Rowan found herself whispering. "The plan… the plan was always to come home but… with how things ended… I just… I can't look at _them_."

"That's okay," he said. "I get it."

"But that doesn't mean I don't miss you or that I won't get you uh… souvenirs or anything but… uh… how are things?" she asked. "I mean I heard you had summer school?"

"Oh… uh… yeah… with everything going on I kinda tanked my exams. But uh… Steve and uhm… Catherine got me through summer school and back on track."

Rowan grit her teeth as she said: "How nice of them." She then cleared her throat and asked: "Is everything… uh… good with… you know… things with them?"

"They're great, you know? Both Catherine and Steve petitioned to get guardianship right away and it just got granted so I don't have to worry about losing my home or going to a group home," he said. "Oh… you probably don't want to hear that…"

"No it's okay, I wouldn't want you to be away from Steve and I definitely don't want you in a group home. I'm glad you're still with him… and…"

"Catherine?"

"Yeah her. She good to you?"

"Eh, sure, but I like you better, and she knows it," he said and she almost heard his cocky grin. She should have told him to be nicer to Catherine but she couldn't bring herself to do it. Maybe when she wasn't so bitter she'd talk to Nahele about accepting Catherine into his life.

"Steve's happy?" she asked, dreading the answer.

"I unno, I guess," Nahele said. "I honestly don't care."

"That's not nice to say…"

"Don't get me wrong, I like the guy, I just think he bounced back a little too quick… and he knows, as much as you do… that I'd rather be with you…"

"Oh baby, I want that too," she said. "But you have school and I don't want to take away from that, especially since you had to do summer school this year cause of me and my drama. When things settle down for you and me, I'll think about getting you out to me, okay?"

"Okay," came from him in a breathless sigh.

"Kay, well you have school, so I'm going to let you go…"

"You'll call me soon right?"

"As soon as I get somewhere new…"

"How about next week? How about once every week?" he counter offered.

"Alright, once a week it is," she said. "Go rock 'em at school, buddy."

Nahele said goodbye and then he hung up the phone. Rowan couldn't hold it back anymore, she started sobbing. It wasn't that she wasn't happy that he was okay and he didn't seem mad at her, it was because she really truly had been replaced by Catherine in every aspect.


	217. Chapter 217

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: How are my wonderful readers this Wednesday? How are we liking Wo Fat and Rowan's little adventure so far? Last chapter was all cute stuff and of course just a little bit angst, but overall I was going for cute. This chapter has a little more drama in it, but the next few chapters are going to be short and sweet. Also, really soon we'll be getting a new Main Character. Can any of you guess who it is? Don't forget to leave me a review and I'll see you guys on Friday!_

Chapter 217

* * *

They had been in Paris for almost two weeks when things started to get out of hand.

Wo Fat was certain, at this point, that Rowan had not had any psychological damage done to her from the kidnapping, or at least none that she had made aware to him anyway. Business was beginning to pick up. He had managed to secure a few holds in the illegal gun trade and had gotten into the underground drug market too, with the help of Armando. Now he was working on getting into the black market.

Which meant dealing with renowned thieves, whether they be petty, jewel or art. Which meant dealing with big parties and needing a date as a cover.

That meant taking Rowan out. Which she was not happy with as her neon pink cast did not match a single evening dress that she went to try on. Not that he didn't buy her any dress she wanted, which he did, but he wanted her in something she would like too, which they had not found. By no fault of the dress but instead her cast.

It didn't help that after that phone call with the kid, Rowan didn't want to get out of bed. She couldn't articulate what it was to him that had her that depressed, he just knew that she was. He knew letting her call the kid would be disastrous, but he thought it would bring McGarrett on their heels and not unending tears, silent moping, and an unwillingness to leave her bed or even eat. He figured leaving her to her own devices would help her heal, but this wasn't a viable process, and it wasn't like he could get her a shrink, you know?

Then, of course, at the parties he managed to get her to, she got drunk. Like, mixed her meds with alcohol, drunk. The girl was trying to kill herself. So while he wanted to make connections, he spent more time babysitting her and carting her overly-influenced ass back to the hotel. Maybe he did need a babysitter, he was starting to realize that he needed a lot more help with her than he thought. He almost called Armando to send down Sunny or even JC at this point to help him. But even if she did need a babysitter he managed to secure a job that would land him with all the right contacts in the heist market.

So far he had lifted five pieces of art, each heist getting more and more difficult. And since he had proven himself he was now going to get to work with one of the best of the best. If he did, if he proved himself capable of both lifting and then reselling, he'd have this contact for life. Or until he got himself arrested. The art thief of course, not Wo Fat.

But before this night he had given her a stern lecture and a direct order. Well several direct orders. Don't stand out, don't wander off, and for the love of god don't drink. He had a singular job, and that was to meet with Ares, steal the piece the thief was interested in and then meet elsewhere to secure both payment and the piece.

This was a big job, and he really didn't want to bring Rowan with him, but he also didn't want to leave her at the hotel with the mini bar. One heist wouldn't be so bad, would it? It wasn't like she was going to participate. She'd just be present. It wasn't like she knew particulars either.

When he got there he had pulled Ares side and essentially asked him to baby sit Rowan for him. All he had to do was keep track of her, and when the alarms went off, he was to escort her back to the hotel. It was an easy task he thought, but before he went to disarm the security system and take out the guards he caught sight of Ares doing more than just watching Rowan.

He was right there beside her. Offering her alcohol. He had this suave look about him, a smile he didn't trust. But for the first time since that faked call from McGarrett, Rowan's smile seemed almost genuine. So he figured, for tonight, he'd let it go, only because she needed it. But after this he was putting his foot down and Ares was not going to be replacing Steven. If someone replaced Steven in Rowan's life it was going to be a man that Wo Fat could control and approved of. Though he was pretty sure there wasn't anyone who was good enough for his little imouto. Not anyone.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Pain meds and alcohol took her on a wild ride once, and it was that ride she craved when the darkness creeped around the edges of if she found herself thinking a little too hard about Steven. But most importantly it was the ride she went on when she got a little too lost in the waking nightmares. It was nice to have her world go fuzzy and her pain be forgotten in amber bubbles.

She didn't even like champagne but that was all they offered at fancy parties like these.

As if the bruises and scars littering her body weren't enough to stand her out in the crowd, the neon cast brought her to the attention to everyone else who could have possibly missed her.

She was used to people giving her a wide berth, she was used to Wo Fat dragging her from circle to circle to participate in small chat. She was getting used to blacking out at one of these and waking up in her hotel room. In fact she welcomed it.

This party was different. Wo Fat was no longer amused with her, and instead gave her strict instructions with a dark glare of warning on his face. So for the first little bit she obeyed. She stayed in the ballroom, she stayed away from the alcohol, and she kept to herself. She wasn't sure how she wasn't supposed to stand out because she was the only one who looked like a cage fighter who lost a match had just shown up in a hunter green to the floor gossamer dress.

The problem was, as soon as that handsome man with the auburn hair, the dangerously poisonous green eyes and that glittering half smirk came up to her, she stopped caring about Wo Fat's rules. She took the offered champagne and the not so subtle flirting without batting an eye. There was something very familiar about his silhouette, as if those shoulder and that jaw line had been seen before, but the champagne and the pain meds kept her too fuzzy to actually put together what this man reminded her of. And they sure as hell kept her fuzzy enough for her to forget to enforce her morals.

Which was how she ended up in that small closet with a man she just realized was built exactly like Steven and very closely resembled him in the whole chiselled feature area. She could have stopped it by then but she didn't care, she welcomed it. She clung to him like he was her oxygen, though really all this really was was a confidence boost. For the moment she was pretty and she was wanted. And if she closed her eyes she could pretend she was with the man she loved.

It was an easy rhythm to slip into and all the champagne she shouldn't have drank helped. Pretending that this man was Steve was still hard. Though built like him, he didn't move like him. So each motion, each movement, jarred her out of that fantasy she craved and brought her out of the fuzzy amber bubbled dream world and back into the harsh dark reality she was trying to escape. Not that that helped her emotionally, not that that helped her get over him, or proved to her or him that she was on the mend, but it helped a little bit.

She let Ares finish up, pretended he rocked her world, acted all breathless and amazed and then slipped out of that closet and went back to the party. Ares trailed after her, ever the French gentleman, which she thought was an extinct breed, offering to get her more to drink, asking what she'd be doing over the next couple of days.

It was nice, but unnecessary. Having got what she wanted Rowan didn't need Ares now, but if Wo Fat needed to do business with him, she figured she'd have to at least play nice. When the alarms went off and the party evacuated, Ares hit her with the code for an escort.

 _I'm your pumpkin carriage._

Great, she was stuck with him until she got back to the hotel.

Maybe it would work better next time if she picked a guy who wasn't exactly Steve's build. Maybe she needed someone who wasn't like Steve at all to get any lingering feelings for Steve out of her system. Or maybe… maybe Steve was never going to be out of her system. Maybe she had lost the one great love of her life and she'd never get a chance at that again. Because even in the city of love, Rowan felt nothing except longing and lovelessness.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Wo Fat hadn't liked leaving that party without Rowan. Granted he had a high from pulling off the heist, but that sensation was slightly muted. He had been forced to entrust her safe return to Ares, whom he knew was at least lusting after her. So when Ares, who was fifteen minutes late, finally showed up at the warehouse meeting point, Wo Fat was on him.

"Did you get Rowan back to the hotel?" he asked not liking the smile on Ares' smug face. There was something about him, something Wo Fat couldn't quite place, that made his skin crawl. The man had done nothing, he was France's most elusive art thief and stolen art work dealer. So there was nothing for him to be that turned off about.

"I did," he said coming to stand beside him, carefully taking the plastic encased scroll from Wo Fat and replacing it with a very heavy briefcase. "What an exquisite flower that girl is."

Wo Fat cocked an eye, he wasn't sure he liked his sister being referred to as a flower, but alright. "Yeah, she's really something."

"How long have you had her?"

Wo Fat chalked up the odd phrasing as a language barrier and simply went about opening the briefcase to ensure that all that was owed him was there. "Uh… about three years now maybe two and a bit. We're both pretty bad with dates so I doubt either of us knows."

"And how much would it be if I were to take her off of your hands?"

Okay, now that wasn't a language barrier. He knew exactly what Ares was asking now. He paused in counting the money and glanced up to him, a warning glare on his face, paired with a dangerous growl of: "Excuse me?" should have been enough to stop that line of questioning there, but Ares didn't get it.

"You heard me, your little concubine, I was wondering how much it would be to buy her from you."

"If you are referring to Rowan, she is my sister, not my personal slut, and she is not for sale."

"Ah that would explain the lack of chemistry between you two," he said. "Here I was thinking that she just wasn't into the _Phantom of the Opera_."

Okay screw doing business with him, this guy was just going to get punched. Instead of flying off the handle, which would not do either him or Rowan any good, Wo Fat intoned a few fake laughs and went back to the money he was dealing with.

"Seriously though, I won't take no for an answer," he said. "After a lay like that, I just have to spend more time with her. How much?"

At that Wo Fat slammed the briefcase shut. Rowan had fucked him? Fucking why? He thought she was obsessed with McGarrett. Though at second glance he did kind of have McGarrett's shoulders… and his jawline… damn did he leave her alone with a French version of her ex?

"Okay. I will say this one more time. My _sister_ is not for sale. And you _will_ leave her alone, you got me?"

"Alright, alight, I will play your game, American," he said. "There is one more piece I need, if you can get that I will double this amount."

"Just name the piece, and I'll get it," Wo Fat said. "And just so you know, Frenchie, this isn't a game. I can assure you that you don't want to know what'll happen to you if you touch my sister again, but if you want to know ask Riku Sato."

Wo Fat left it at that, taking his briefcase of money and leaving that warehouse. He checked his watch, Rowan would be out of it by the time he got back and he didn't want to wake her up. He'd yell at Rowan when she woke up in the morning about the terrible life choices she made when it came to men. And he'd let Ares find out what happened to men who fucked with Wo Fat's sister on his own.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Wo Fat had woke her up that morning to tell her she was an idiot. An idiot and a slut.

She never should have slept with Ares. _True_. But she was drunk and she just wanted to feel loved. She promised him she wouldn't drink. _Also true_. But he didn't know what it felt like to have that gaping hole in your chest crack and break at every beat away from the ones she loved. He didn't know what it was like to have a dark memory just at the edge of her mind at all times, knowing that if she were to indulge it she'd relive the terrors she thought she left behind in that basement.

He had asked her, quite nicely, not to go anywhere without him. Never go anywhere unsupervised. The problem was he didn't trust anyone other than him to supervise her and she was sick of waiting for him to be available to go places with her.

And she had listened… at least for a few hours, until she decided that she was too bored and it was about time to ignore that rule. She got herself a cab, told them to take her to Versailles, paid a ridiculous amount of money for that cab, paid an even more ridiculous amount to actually get into Versailles and then, with her headphone guide on her head she got to wander around the palace at her own leisure. Silently picking out the pieces she'd steal and put in her own place, or dreaming of being a French courtier in the era of Queen Marie Antoinette you know… without getting beheaded.

She had been so absorbed in the sheer beautify and magnificence in front of her that she didn't even notice him until he was right beside her.

Rowan jumped when Ares put a hand on her arm. She recoiled away from him, she didn't know why he was there but she had a bad feeling about it.

"Your brother sent me to keep you company and to be your _pumpkin carriage,_ " Rowan rolled her eyes god damn it. Why would Wo Fat do that to her? He had been livid that morning over last night's little romp, had been so angry that she had slept with Ares/ Why the hell would he send him to get her again? Was it because he was the only one he trusted to take her home?

"Fine, but I'm listening to my audio guide, so don't expect me to be social," she ordered putting her headphones back on. He followed after her dutifully until she was done. When she returned the audio to the front desk he tried to drag her to the car, but Rowan wasn't done. She went into the gift shop, wandered the outside gardens, found a little on site café where she had tea and croissants and only then was she ready to leave.

She followed him out of Versailles absently going through the things she bought not just for her, but for Wo Fat who was probably mad at her but she came to a complete stand still when she saw what was waiting for her.

"He sent us a car, come on, let's get inside," he had said to her but Rowan just stared at it. On the outside it looked like a high end black car but she didn't know much about cars. She just knew that something didn't feel right, and that car didn't look right.

He was saying that Wo Fat had sent this car but Wo Fat only used Audi's and this was a Bentley, or whatever car had the Tri-Star in the circle. For the first time Rowan went for her phone. "I think I should call him, just to tell him I'm on the way."

The problem was the second she said that, the second the phone came into view, Ares darted forward, one hand gripping her wrist the other quickly stabbing her in the stomach with an epidural needle. She watched him inject the strange fluid in her and just like that things started to go dark.

She never should have left the hotel.


	218. Chapter 218

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Friday my wonderful readers. I'm sorry this update is late. You'll be getting a surprise in the next update so I hope you guys are ready for it. Are you guys ready to meet our new Main Character? Cause as of this chapter he's going to be a main character. I have noticed some annoyance or concern. This season is not really taking that long, I think it'll be my shortest season yet. And I'm noticing some upset as we're missing the main cast. I understand your concern, but we're not at the actual episodes yet, we're in the "summer" part, you know the time between seasons. Once we get to September, the main cast will be returning. I do have them appearing quite frequently, so it won't be all Rowan and Wo Fat, but I did tell you that this season does focus mainly on them. If you're really upset about them being separate and you'd like to wait for season 7 to continue reading that is fine. I'm not sure how many chapters season 6 is really going to be. I'm already at chapter 233, and we're about 11 episodes in at this point and they're still not back together. I'd recommend coming back somewhere around the 290th-300th chapters. Although I hope it doesn't take that long to get through season 6, it might. Don't forget to leave a review, don't forget you're getting a wonderful surprise next chapter, and I'll see you guys on Monday._

Chapter 218

* * *

Wo Fat had purposely not called Rowan to check up on her, he figured after yelling at her and calling her unnecessary names she wouldn't want to talk to him. But he figured she'd at least want to talk to him once he had been gone for so long, he never left her alone for that long, not without contacting her. Little updates to ensure that she was okay. But he had gotten nothing. Well, he figured he deserved that, and once he got his secondary score he'd treat her to something super nice. But not at Euro Disney cause that shit was way too expensive.

He was expecting to meet Ares at the drop, not a bag man with two briefcases of money. He offered the scroll with the stolen canvas in it and then looked over the two bags. He could tell right away that this was way, way, too much, way so much more than the agreed to amount. A streak of worry rushed through him, but he shrugged that off as lingering fears about his sister.

Still he couldn't stop himself from asking the bag man: "What's this?"

"It's the payout."

Obviously. It was like the man was trying to be as obnoxious as possible. "For what?"

"For the artwork," he said, and Wo Fat blinked his eyes. Okay, so what was he getting a finder fee, or an extra bonus? "And the girl."

Panic hit his system. _The girl?_ No… that didn't mean Rowan. Right? There should have been questions to confirm what was going on. But that dark side of him took control almost immediately and he stopped being a rational human being once more. Wo Fat took that momentary pause to retrieve his gun, shoot the bag man in the leg before pulling out his phone. While the man cried and rolled around on the floor he dialed her number. She didn't answer her cloned phone, and she wasn't picking up at the hotel. He tried to calm down she could have been out, or screening his calls. He shoved the squealing man into the trunk of his car and then raced back to the hotel. When Rowan wasn't in her room and she still wasn't picking up her phone, he went back to the trunk and popped it.

"Alright, you little shit, you tell me where that girl is, now or I'll blow your head off," he said pointing his gun into the man's face.

"I don't know, I really don't know."

 _Lies._

Wo Fat's face remained unchanged. A simple stony mask of angry indifference. "I'm going to count to three," he said. "One." "—I don't know, really." "…Two…" "—I swear to god, I don't know." "….Three…"

He put the gun flush to the man's temple, right between the eyes and the man finally cracked. "OH GOD! Okay, he made me put her body in a crate and put it on a train."

Wo Fat forced himself to ignore the fact that this man had put _her body_ into a crate. "To where," Wo Fat asked.

"I don't know. Really. That train could have been going to either villa."

Wo Fat continued to stare at him darkly. "Where are the villas," he growled.

"His private villas? Uhm… there's one in Sovana and the other one was in Naples."

He fucking took her to Italy? Great. Great. She wasn't even in the country anymore!

He wasn't going to get much else out of the man, and he was too mad to be reasonable. So he blew his head off and then shut the trunk. He idly pat his body to find his smokes, only to remember that Jian had made him quit. Fuck he needed a cigarette anything to calm his nerves. But he wasn't about to just ignoring the situation to just by smokes. He needed to find someone to help him, cause he didn't want to waste his time going to the wrong place only to have to double back to get to her at the other. So he called the man who still owed him a favour.

As soon as Sin Nombre picked up Wo Fat asked: "Are you in the country?"

Sin Nombre was quiet for all of two seconds, Wo Fat could hear the din of whatever dive bar the man was in on the other end before he got that careful: "Depends on the country you're in."

"France, are you close to France?"

"I'm in Monaco."

"Monaco?" he asked, relief hitting him. Yes, that was good. "Close enough. I need you down to Sovana, Codename Ares took Rowan and either they're there or he's taken her to his places in Naples. I'm going to Naples."

"Codename Ares is an art thief he's not in the human trafficking trade…"

"Yeah well she slept with him and figured her to be a sex slave and buyable, I said no but he sent me a payment and now I can't find her. One of his bag men confirmed him taking to her but couldn't confirm to where. I'm going to Naples, can you please go to Sovana?"

"Done. If she's there how badly will you need her out?"

"By any means necessary."

"My favourite kind of means. I'll keep you updated," and then he hung up the phone. Wo Fat could hear the blood thirsty excitement through the phone and he let out an almost relived sigh. He didn't know which would be worse for Ares, if he found him or if Sin Nombre did.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

It was the buzzing that brought it all back.

The darkness, that crackling electric heat running through her. The chill of the cold. That painful strangling suffocating pressure as she struggled to breathe through the wet rag and the water.

The echoes of pain that ebbed through her, as if she were still in that basement, still tied to that chair.

It was the buzzing that also woke her up.

Her head heavy and fuzzy, her limbs like lead, her tongue thick in her own mouth. This was how she woke up in that basement, though to be fair, at that point she was already in the chair. This time she was just in a… bed?

Okay, that might be worse.

It was the scraping of cutlery on porcelain that got her attention, that had her bleary clouded eyes swinging in his direction.

Ares looked pleased as punch in that light blue suit, his white shirt open to bare his chest. He was sitting at a table that had two plates, one covered and probably for her. Two glasses, one filled with wine, one currently sitting empty.

He was cutting something up, and eating it. Loving every second. But with ever bite, every time he chewed she'd wince, because that sound was grating on her nerves.

"Morning beautiful," he said all together too cheery for a kidnapper. Rowan just glared at him. She didn't know what game this was but she wasn't buying it. It was a trick, she knew it.

"I saved some steak for you, it's a juicy cut, medium rare," he told her. "Very tender."

Despite coming off of a sedation, her stomach rumbled. The last thing she had eaten was a croissant back at Versailles, which was probably hours ago. She was hungry. It took a few tries to get her wobbly legs to work, and as she struggled to stand and struggled even harder to walk towards the table Ares just smiled and let her do it without lifting a hand to help her.

She finally took her seat and then just stared at him, waiting for something, the trick, the demand. There was no way he was just going to feed her for free. Nothing came for free, she knew that, everything had a price, and she wanted to be sure that she was willing to pay before she went ahead with this.

Ares just smiled that toothy grin of his and gestured to the dome in front of her. Rowan just glared at him, god why had she found this man attractive? He was _nothing_ like Steve.

"Bon Appetite."

She lifted the silver dome to find nothing underneath and then Ares was chuckling. Rowan carefully put it back down and turned a glare onto him, yeah she figured that his offer was too good to be true.

"You didn't think I'd just give you food?" he asked her. "No, food is going to be a reward. You behave I feed you."

Rowan continued to glare at him, being sure not to show him any other emotion. Her last captors had fed off of her reactions, she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction.

"Don't get me wrong, I love that you have a little meat on your bones, but it wouldn't kill you to slim down," he said. Rowan balked at that. Slim down? She had been so badly hospitalized she lost like fifty pounds, how much more did he expect her to lose?

Rowan leant back in her chair, crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head at him. "You're absolutely pathetic," she growled. "What's the matter Ares, can't get yourself a real date so you gotta kidnap one? I mean, come on, the sex wasn't even that good."

A darkness passed over his face, a narrowed look colored his eyes. "You loved every second."

"It's called acting, I'm quite good at it," Rowan snarled. It was a dangerous move, going after the pride, but if he thought she was going to go down without some kind of fight, he had another thing coming. "I pegged you as a guy who needs his ego stroked. Moan like a porn star get you to come and then get you off me. Simple. You were something to do and you weren't even that fun. Would have had more fun at the party."

"You're lying."

Rowan hit him with a smug smirk before hitting him with her fake moans. She had noted that there was a steak knife by her plate. The idiot had put something sharp within her grasp, maybe she could grab it without him noticing, maybe she could make him let her go. She figured he'd do anything to keep her from slicing his dick off and feeding it to him.

The problem was that it was the fake moans that tipped him over the edge. She saw it in his eyes before he did it. She put her hands to the table, leaning forward to moan out words from their moments in the closet, to mimic the faces she had made so he knew that she wasn't lying, she had faked every second with him. When he finally swiped the table away from her he didn't noticed that she had a knife in her hand, a knife she carefully hid behind her cast as she got up and scrambled away from the advancing man.

She knew better than to just brandish the knife out right. She was weak, she had a cast, with those two things combined he would be able to disarm her in a second. No, this would have to be a surprise.

"Stay away from me, or you'll be sorry," she warned and the man actually paused, which was great because the only place to go now was onto the bed. The back of her knees had officially hit the edge of the bed. "When Wo Fat gets here, you're going to be sorry. I mean beyond sorry."

In a flash he had her pinned, taken straight down to the bed, a single hand to the column of her neck as he hovered over her, pressing between her thighs. She knew better than to struggle, it would only get him more excited. Instead she stayed perfectly still and glared up at him as he smiled eagerly down at her.

"He's not going to come for you," he snarled getting closer to her. "Why would he? You've served your purpose, I paid him his money, you're mine now. Now, this can make this easy or we can do it the hard way, but either way I'm going to keep you here, and I'm going to do anything I want to you. I personally couldn't care less which way this goes. To be honest I'd love for you to take the _hard way_ I'd love to hear that scream of yours…"

She flashed back to that cement basement again, to the pain and the fear. The buzzing returned, along with the fuzziness. There was a major difference between now and the last basement. This time her hands weren't bound and she already had a weapon. She stared Ares in the eye as the knife slid up and into his chest. She heard that gasp of pain and surprise, she felt the knife slide in like butter, felt the blood drip onto her when she pulled the knife out.

Rowan pushed him off of her and stood. She looked down, first to the man she had just stabbed in the chest before she turned her eyes down to the knife shaking her in her blood-stained hands. There was silent between Ares' painful gasps and grunts for air. And in that silence, she heard laughter. She just didn't realize that it was coming from her.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

He had taken a train to Florence and then drove up to Sovana. The whole trip took six hours. Just as he got there, he heard from Wo Fat. The man had hit Naples. She wasn't there. That meant she was here. He was heading up to Rome, Sin Nombre was to find her and bring her there. He'd send an address when he booked himself into a hotel.

He started with taking out the roving guards on the wall. Sniping them from outside, once the wall guards were down he came in through the front door throwing grenades and shooting anything that came at him. He knew that if she was here she'd be in the lower level, the cells. So he made his way down but the problem was, once he hit the lower level there was no one. No one alive anyway.

He followed a trail of bodies that lead him to a cell that had been left open. In there, lying beside a rickety makeshift bed and an overturned table, was the man who grabbed Rowan. He was sprawled on his back. Sin Nombre came to stand above him as Ares shook and convulsed while holding his chest as his life leaked out through his fingers.

"Help me."

Sin Nombre cocked an eyebrow but said nothing. Instead he moved away, that man was going to die a very long and painful death, who was Sin Nombre to take that away from him? Especially when he deserved it.

Back out of the cell and looked at the bodies that were outside. Two guards, one stabbed in the back right between the two ribs, punctured lung, in the process of dying. The second, stabbed in the throat. He was dead. Down the hall was another guy, stabbed in the lower back, paraplegic now, Sin Nombre put that man down to end his misery. The next guy had a slit throat and laceration down his arms. He was the first one to show signs of being in an altercation.

Rowan had to be near-by.

He turned the corner and found her, crouched over another body, the knife sliding out from what might have been the guy's heart. She was doing this with a steak knife… who the hell had thought to give her one of those?

"Rowan?"

She turned around, her eyes wide, her pupils dilated, her hands shaking. She was covered in blood but she wasn't throwing up. She stared at him confused, tears streaming down her cheeks and then this strange bubbling laughter broke out her lips, her head tipping back looking like a wild woman.

Oh god. Rowan had lost her mind.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

The car pulled up and Wo Fat stood immediately.

When Sin Nombre had called and said that he had found Rowan, Wo Fat had nearly cried out in joy. When he then said that there had been an… incident, with that pause and everything, that joy and relief turned into dread. He had told Sin Nombre to meet him at the hotel he had booked in Rome. Around the back so that the transfer would not be seen by prying eyes and then waited for the man to come.

He had bought cigarettes on the way down to Naples, had smoked one pack just getting there and another while waiting for Rowan to be delivered back to him from Sovana. He tried not to think about what the incident could be, because that filled him with too many terrible thoughts, and that angry psychotic monster popped it's head out again. Rowan had no idea what had been done to Sato's family and he knew that if she did find out, she'd be disappointed in him, and he couldn't live with that on top of everything else. Which meant he couldn't chance doing something else in his anger… or her finding out that he blew up a summer home in Naples with all the servants and guards still inside.

Sin Nombre had confirmed that she was alive and that was all that mattered. That was what he had to cling to.

But when that car pulled up, he was ready to see if she was okay. Ready to be sure that she was alive and everything was fine, and then lecture her for being as stupid as to wander off and get grabbed in the first place. Except Rowan was not in the passenger seat.

"Where is she?" Wo Fat asked as Sin Nombre got out of the car.

Sin Nombre nodded to the back. Wo Fat looked through the window and panic jumped up into his throat. "All that blood…" he whispered ripping the door open.

"Not hers…"

Wo Fat felt at her neck a steady pulse was waiting for him so that was good. Leaving her then he turned his eyes to Sin Nombre who wasn't smirking but instead… looked concerned.

"What the hell happened?"

"If I'm going to guess, I'd say she had a psychotic break."

"What?"

"Well when I found her she had taken down at least five guys with a steak knife, she was covered in blood and laughing. She hugged me when she saw me, then collapsed. She's been asleep ever since."

"She… she killed five people…"

"If you include Ares who's probably succumbed to his injuries by now… six."

Wo Fat looked back to her, the girl who originally only had one body in her body count now had seven. Oh God. But judging what she had went through, was that really unsurprising? The laughing part was strange though… he'd give Sin Nombre that one.

"And she was laughing?" he asked, sliding her out from behind the back and holding her tightly. Having her cradled to him again, covered in blood, so soon after the incident in Japan brought back all those turbulent emotions that had filled him that night. He had to tear his eyes away from her just to get them to go away.

"Yes, she was laughing. Covered in blood, having just ended a man's life, and laughing like she's the goddamn mad hatter."

"And you just took her out…"

"Uh yeah, but first I wiped her prints off the knife, stuck the knife in the last person she killed and then set the place on fire to destroy the evidence. Okay. But I think we have a bigger problem and that is… she's lost her damn mind."

Wo Fat held her a little tighter to him and glared at Sin Nombre. "Well… do you blame her? You saw that video! You saw what they put her through… and… he took her… she got kidnapped again and…"

"And whose fault was that? Huh?" Sin Nombre shouted back interrupting him. "Yeah, she's fucked up, she was probably traumatized before that fucker drugged her and carted her off to fucking Italy! But _you_ were supposed to be watching her… REMEMBER?" Wo Fat glared at him and Sin Nombre sniffed. "And no, I did not watch the whole video. I watched pieces."

"Okay, you know what? You got your money, you've been paid, go now. Just go away."

"Got my money… I did this for free…"

"Then just leave! I got this now. LEAVE!" he shouted turning away from him to head towards the back door he had propped open. Sin Nombre scoffed at him.

"And how are you going to get her back into the hotel looking like that?"

Wo Fat paused. "Fine. You'll help me get her into the hotel, but I am not paying you for that either, you hear me?"

"Whatever," he growled but joined Wo Fat. "You should let me take her though since you have the key not me."

Wo Fat glared at him but let him take her from his arms , he'd have to knock out the cameras so no one saw him coming in the back with a bloodied Rowan and a sketchy looking Latino male. He didn't like Sin Nombre seemed suddenly a little too interested in his Rowan. He just got rid of McGarrett he didn't know if he'd be able to get rid of Sin Nombre too.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

She woke up screaming this terrible howling agonizing scream of fear. But it wasn't for him, it was for Steve.

But Rowan didn't get Steve, she had Wo Fat at one side and Sin Nombre at the other. Both trying to hush and shush and pull her into their arms. It was all very awkward until Wo Fat shoved him away from her. Sin Nombre tumbled out of the bed and then Wo Fat could focus on Rowan whose little fingers had gripped his shirt and was holding him tightly.

"They took me again! They… they took me!"

"Well… someone did," Wo Fat said taking her face in his hands so she'd look at him. "But we got you back. Okay. You're safe, you're safe cause I'm here now."

"Actually, I got you back, Wo Fat was in Naples."

Rowan turned to Sin Nombre and wrapped an arm around him to pull him into a hug that he squirmed out of after a measured count of 10 under his breath. Once he was free of her, she leant into her brother's chest and then tucked her head under his chin.

"What... uh… where are we?"

"Rome." "…The land of spaghetti and ice cream."

Rowan and Wo Fat turned to Sin Nombre who looked up at them and said: "What? It's true. Tourists live on spaghetti and gelato down here."

"Ignore him, he's been in the mini-bar," Wo Fat said sliding a little closer to her and hugging her a little tighter. "Are you… uh… did he do anything…?"

Rowan's eyes narrowed and then she started shaking. Sin Nombre got up off the bed and away from her emotional breakdown while Wo Fat crushed her in a tight embrace.

"No, its okay, its okay…"

"I killed people… I was…. I…"

"No… no…"

"What do you mean no? She killed at least five people…" Sin Nombre said from across the room and half in the mini bar. Wo Fat would have shot him if he had his gun on him.

"Five people?!"

"SHUT UP!" Wo Fat thundered in his direction and then turned back to her. He took Rowan's face in his hands and looked her in the eye. "You're okay, okay? Yes there were some casualties, but they were going to kill you first so…"

"I killed people. I killed people and laughed," she whispered the horror in her voice.

"Oh that was just a psychotic break, it's common in kidnap victims or victims of traumatic crimes," Sin Nombre told her. Both Wo Fat and Rowan stared at him like he was nuts. Wo Fat scowled at him but Sin Nombre didn't quite notice because he was busy making another drink. "Alcohol is good for wounds like those. Want one?"

"You got your money, leave," Wo Fat ordered through grit teeth.

"Okay, we've gone over this. I did it for free. No payment. And that was your last freebie, by the way, don't get me wrong, I love her and all, she's my favourite client, but I've more than made up for her getting kidnapped on my watch," he snapped at Wo Fat. "And why should I leave? Wouldn't she feel safer having a proper bodyguard around, at least for the night?"

"Oh, actually yes… yes I would," she whispered and Wo Fat groaned. He turned a disgusted glare to her and she pouted at him. "Please… it really would make me feel better."

"Fine he stays, but only if you eat something," he ordered and Rowan nodded, he then shoved the room service menu into her hands and left her on the bed to go over it.

He crossed to Sin Nombre who was downing another little bottle of rum and chasing it with the can of coke he had taken out of the minibar.

"I don't know what you're playing at, but if you're going to help… actually be helpful," Wo Fat growled, but Sin Nombre merely smiled at him. God… this was not going to be good. He could barely handle Rowan how was he going to handle her and an assassin who could take him quite easily and had the same annoying kind of personality?

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

It was the second kidnapping that brought it out of her. The mental and emotional trauma of all she went through. He figured the shock of losing both McGarrett and the kid had sort of numbed her, but this incident had brought it right out. She wasn't sleeping anymore, and the sleep she did get was fitful and full of nightmares. This was going to be an issue, he knew it. But he didn't know how to fix it, he didn't know how to make it better.

She woke both him and Sin Nombre up with her screams multiple times a night. She yelped and jumped at sudden movements and knocks on the door even if she had been told room service was coming or if she had ordered room service herself. It took two days and the promise of both of them going with her, to get her out of the hotel.

He had taken her to the Trevi Fountain, the place was pretty and calming and he figured that would help. After the fountain they could go wherever she wanted.

He stood a little ways away from her, letting her sit on the side of the fountain and play with the water. Giving her some space but keeping an eye on her as well. He had taken pictures, he had taken a video, the pictures for himself, the video for McGarrett, trimmed the right way it could really help stick it to him, keep him thinking that Rowan was happier with Wo Fat. That was important. He needed McGarrett to be bitter, to keep him miserable so that he didn't renew his search for her.

"You're going to need someone to watch her."

Wo Fat turned to Sin Nombre who was suddenly standing beside him. He handed Wo one of the three ice creams he had in his hand. Lemon gelato. He still had a vanilla and a chocolate. Depending on her mood one of those would be Rowan's. Wo Fat was betting that today was a chocolate day.

"I am watching her," he answered absently. Which was true, she was still under his watchful gaze.

"And when you're working again?" Sin Nombre asked. "You can't take her with you, not without incriminating her. So she will stay behind and who will watch her then?"

Wo turned to him. "You offering?"

"I… I'm available," Sin Nombre admitted rather reluctantly.

Wo Fat glared at him. "You? You want to Rowan-sit?"

"See why do you gotta say it like that, she can't be that bad," Sin Nombre cried. Wo Fat calmly stared him down and Sin Nombre sighed. "Alright, look, maybe I feel a little responsible, maybe I feel like… she might be easier to manage if we get her prepared for stuff like this… seeing as she seems to… attract this kind of drama."

"Tell me about it… wait... what do you mean get her prepared?"

"Well… someone needs to teach her self-defence."

Wo Fat glared at him. "Not when she has a cast on her arm."

"Best to know how to use it as a weapon."

"No. You can teach her self-defence, but only when she's healed better and up to it," Wo snapped. "And she'll need round the clock care, you sure you can handle that? Let me remind you that you are the one who wanted that obnoxious label on her."

"I can handle her."

"Fine. We'll discuss price tonight, now give her her ice cream before it melts," he ordered and then watched as Sin Nombre walked over to hand it to her.

He was right. It was a chocolate day.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Sin Nombre's had been signed on with what Wo Fat called a reasonable fee. It wasn't but apparently Rowan was draining his resources and he admitted that it was the most he could afford. Sin Nombre found that he didn't care, after the second kidnapping, after seeing that poor girl break down he knew he wasn't going to leave her to her own devices. She needed someone to help her, someone to protect her while Wo Fat was busy rebuilding his empire.

But this gig came with conditions.

For starters she had to not be made aware that Steven came looking for her. Which at first, made no sense to him, until he found out that Steve had broken up with her, dated another woman while she was being tortured and then left her in Japan for Wo Fat to rescue. He had a fit of guilt that sent him down after her, but at that point the damage had been done. Wo Fat wasn't going to trust Rowan's safety to him any longer. But if Rowan found out that Steven had come looking for her, she'd want to go back and he needed them broken up to keep her safe.

The second condition was not sleeping with her. Rowan liked to cuddle, Rowan would most likely jump into his bed after a particularly bad nightmare, but that did not mean sleeping with her, and that did not mean falling for her. Sin Nombre figured that one to be easy, he didn't love anymore, simple as that, not that Rowan was his type.

And lastly, keep her happy at all costs, but within reason. That one would be harder. But he agreed and now he had the job.

The first act as her official Nanny/Bodyguard, was to return to the Trevi Fountain to get her ring back. Rowan had thought she had been slick but Wo Fat had noticed. That little silver tiara she had been wearing on her ring finger was gone now. Wo Fat figured she was being poetic by dropping it in the fountain meant to grant wishes. But he knew she'd regret that one day, so it was his job to go and fish it out.

Which lead to him being calf deep in a fountain with a flashlight trying to find a damn ring. Took him almost all night, but he got it. When he got back to the hotel, the first thing he did was check on Rowan, which was how he found out she wasn't in her room anymore. She was in the adjoining room, Wo Fat's room, asleep on his bed. She had rolled away from him, her back facing the man, and he had simply reached out in the distance between him and her and grabbed a hold of the back of her shirt.

When Sin Nombre approached him, his eyes opened and for a moment they just stared at one another.

"She had another nightmare," he whispered, "It's going to be like this for a while."

"I can handle it," Sin Nombre told him. He handed out the ring. "Took a while but I found it."

"Good," Wo Fat said taking it easily and slipping it onto his pinky ring. "I'll get a chain for it tomorrow, one of us can wear it so we don't lose it."

Sin Nombre's eyes found Rowan again, not liking the way she curled in on herself like she was protecting herself from blows. Her eyebrows were creased, no doubt entrenched in another nightmare. It would only be a matter of time before she was awake and screaming again. He was getting tired of hearing that poor girl scream.

"It's easy to get attached to her," Wo Fat told him breaking the spell between him and Rowan. "You can say it's only a job, but it won't be. Once she gets under your skin she doesn't come back out."

He was speaking from experience and he appreciated the warning but Wo Fat hadn't experienced loss like Sin Nombre had. One didn't just let people in after a loss like his. So he was safe from Rowan Pierce and her infectious charm.


	219. Chapter 219

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: SURPRISE! Hello my wonderful readers. Because I love you guys so much, and to help season 7 go a little faster, I'm going to give you guys a bit of a Chrstimas Present. I will be running a 12 days of Christmas Marathon. So, this means that you guys will be getting 12 updates in a row (this is the first one) and a special Christmas Chapter on Christmas day! What do you guys think? Good?_

 _Also! What do you think of Sin Nombre? Huh? Huh? He's going to be a lot of fun. For those of you who don't remember. Sin Nombre is NA, Wo Fat calls him Sin Nombre, but Rowan calls him NA. he was the one who got her out of the night club in Afghanistan, he was also the guy who shot up the NLM and he was the one who saved Kono and Adam in China. So yeah, he's been around a lot but now. For those of you who are annoyed about Steve not being around, I promise he will be back soon. As will the other Five-0's. Just bear with me. Don't forget to leave me a review, and I'll see you guys tomorrow._

Chapter 219

* * *

Wo Fat woke up to Rowan's howling and practically fell out of his bed to get to her. By the time he got out into the main area Sin Nombre was coming out of his room gun in hand, ready to attack whatever it was, but Wo Fat had a feeling what had Rowan up that night.

The door to her own room opened, her eyes wide and he swore he could hear some kind of electric crackle. She went straight to him.

"There's three bodies in suitcases," she cried frantically. "Three bodies, guns and vampires at a blood bank and… and… Steve's going to get stabbed by Dr. Frankenstein!"

He had realized her visions were coming back a few nights ago, had realized that her pain meds had been keeping them at bay but her last few nightmares, which he had sufficiently kept from Sin Nombre as she was in Wo's bed when she had them, had been very… psychic.

With her meds dwindling, they must have officially broken through. He had hoped that being away from Hawaii and Steve's cases would mean she wouldn't have them anymore but… he had been wrong.

"What is she talking about?" Sin Nombre asked, putting his gun in his waiste band but Wo Fat ignored him.

Instead he took a hold of Rowan's face and looked her carefully in the eye, they were foggy, and looking through him like he wasn't there, like she was still stuck in the dream. "Rowan, breathe, I need you to snap out of it."

"Three bodies. So many pieces," she said instead. "He's going to stab him, GET OFF HIM!"

That scream came with a kind of jolt, an electric current that ran up his arms. Wo Fat yelped and let her go and Rowan plummeted to the ground. Fuck he had forgotten visions came with electropulses.

Sin Nombre dropped to his knees beside her. "Hey, hey, kid, snap out of it," he said shaking her a little bit and Rowan turned to him her eyes narrowed at him. Great she had woken up.

She blinked her eyes at him and then turned up to Wo Fat. "I need to warn them."

Wo Fat sighed heavily, his eyes turning heavenward. "Rowan don't be ridiculous, they don't need you…"

"Steve's going to get stabbed. Soon. Someone needs to warn him."

"How does she know Steve's going to get stabbed?" Sin Nombre asked.

Yeah Wo Fat didn't want to get into that right now. "Kay, look, I'll deal with it, go back to bed."

"Girlie just woke up screaming about bodies in suitcases, and now she's talking about McGarrett getting stabbed. That's not normal. Someone needs to tell me what's going on."

"No, we don't," Wo Fat answered before Rowan could say anything about being psychic. He offered her a hand and pulled her up. "We're going back to bed."

Rowan half stuttered out a _but_ to stop him, but Wo Fat wasn't listening to either of them anymore. He shoved her back into the room, shut the door and then ushered her towards the bed.

"Would you feel better if I stay?"

"No," Rowan growled. "I'd feel better if you let me call Steve."

Wo Fat sighed. "Why? Why does he deserve your saving, Rowan? He never listened to your visions before why would he listen to them now?"

Rowan hung her head and another stab of guilt hit his already guilt-ridden heart. "I have to at least try."

No she didn't but whatever. "Fine, you can try calling him in the morning. See if he'll listen to you. Though to be honest, he'll probably just track your phone to get me arrested, but alright."

Rowan sighed. "What about Sandy, what if we booted Sandy back up, just to track them? Then there's no chance of him tracking and arresting you."

It was a good idea but he acted like it wasn't. He acted like it was a big chore instead. "If that would make you feel better, sure, but I would rather not pay to track Steven. You know how I feel about him being deserving our time or care."

"Everyone but Steve then. That's a good compromise?"

He was surprised she even offered, considering how panicked she was about him being stabbed. But it was an option he was okay with so he grabbed onto it before she could chance his mind.

"Whatever you say my imouto." He went to leave but Rowan stopped him.

"Uhm… Oz… I… I lied," she said and he turned back to her a narrowed look about him.

"About what?"

"I would feel better if you stayed," she said.

Sighing Wo Fat returned to the bed and got into on the other side. "This is the last night I'll stay with you," he said to her, knowing full well that he was lying. Rowan just smiled at him, her eyes closing, proving just how tired she was. He watched her go to sleep. It was a gamble letting her call Steve, but he had a feeling that Rowan wouldn't be able to talk to him, and if she did, he wouldn't listen.

Sin Nombre on the other hand, was going to ask a lot of questions in the morning. He was going to be harder to deflect, and Wo Fat really didn't want to have to tell the man his sister was psychic. He'd think of something though. He always did.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

They didn't head to the next city until Rowan's arm was healed and the cast was off. Once her arm was good and free Wo Fat had sat her down and asked where she wanted to go next. The answer had come out of her before he even finished the question.

Venice.

And just like that it was set. Wo Fat put Rowan on a train and four hours later they were in Venice. He paid a crap ton of money to get them a tri-roomed room at the Hotel Danieli and he gave Rowan the master suite.

Rowan had apparently bought two big suitcases in Paris, which meant she was carting her life around in those. She had one for clothes and shoes, and the other for everything else. That wasn't including the guitar. It was going to get hard and very expensive having to take her places outside of Europe. Just in baggage fees alone.

For the first day they just stayed in the hotel. Rowan wanted to wander a bit, get her bearings, wanted to look around and to see what tourist stuff she wanted to do. And of course, as her bodyguard, Sin Nombre had to go with her. That walk ended up being forty-five minutes long and she came back with a stack of pamphlets. When they came back, she brought back food for Wo Fat, knowing exactly what kind of pasta he wanted and then sat herself down in the middle of their living area and unpacked her pamphlets and began to look through them.

Sin Nombre went for the minibar and then joined Wo Fat on the couch watching as Rowan began separating them into piles. There were a lot of questions Sin Nombre wanted to ask, but he wasn't sure how to go about them. Like her dreams and how she seemed to have nightmares about her friends back in Hawaii on the regular. Wo Fat always brushed them off but according to what he had seen on the app they had be coming true. How the hell was that possible?

But he didn't know how to broach the subject, so he figured he'd get Rowan alone at one point and ask her. That was not that time, though, so he went with a safer question.

"What is she doing?"

"She's sorting. She'll have three piles. Absolutely. Absolutely not. And maybe," Wo Fat said. "She did this in Paris too. She takes her touristing very seriously."

"Kay that's very organized of her," Sin Nombre said. "But uh… there seems to be 5 piles."

Wo Fat turned back to Rowan a confused look on his face and in that pause Rowan absently said: "I'm making two extra piles. Things I certainly wanna do with NA and things I certainly wanna do with Oz."

"Who the hell is Oz?" Sin Nombre snapped. "No one told me about a third person. I'm not babysitting two people, Fat."

"I'm Oz," Wo said just as Rowan said: "Wo's Oz."

"Oh…" "Yeah she has a nickname for everyone."

"It's true I do."

Sin Nombre visibly relaxed, leaning back into the couch. "Well… I'm pretty sure everything we're doing is going to be a _certainly do with NA_ so I don't know why you're making a pile for me."

Rowan seemed to think it over before saying: "Also true," and taking a pile and dropping it onto a different one, probably her _absolutely_ pile.

"What do we have for tomorrow?"

"Depends, you free Wo?" she asked turning around to face him with those wide hopeful blue eyes.

Wo Fat shook his head. "Got a meeting in the morning kid, not sure how long it'll go," he said. Rowan turned back away from them to hide the disappointment on her face. "But I've got you for dinner. I have reservations and an opera."

"Really?!" Rowan cried turned towards him once more, suddenly much more excited. "Which one."

"A special request," Wo Fat said. "I've booked the whole theater."

Holy shit, this man was balling out for this girl. He was really taking the _keep her happy at all costs_ condition seriously, too bad he wasn't taking the _within reason_ part as seriously.

Rowan's eyes narrowed at him. "You didn't have to do that."

Wo Fat stood and stooped over her to pinch the tip of her chin in what had to be a loving way. "Anything for my imouto," he said softly before straightening. "You should get your rest soon. I'll see you in the morning before I leave."

"Okay, I'll go to bed soon I promise," she said though both of them knew that wasn't true, because as soon as she fell asleep, she was going to have nightmares and probably wake the both of them up with them. Sin Nombre continued to drink from his little bottle of tequila. He had a feeling that tomorrow was going to be a very long, very annoying day for him.

In his pocket his phone went off and Sin Nombre picked it up. Just a single text.

 _You'll need a suit for tomorrow. Tailor will see you while her and I are at dinner._

And then an address was posted at the bottom. Sin Nombre scowled. Yeah. Annoying.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan had tried her very hardest not to annoy NA, but she had no idea that he didn't like boats and therefore, he'd be upset that she had booked nothing but boat tours for the day. One to Murano, the other to Burano.

He went with her and almost died of sea-sickness. The only reason she wasn't dying was cause she had purposely bought a Gravol and taken like three, and put a bunch in her pocket for if she got sick later. She offered them to NA but he turned her down. That meant while she watched a glass blowing demonstration he had thrown up in the washroom and drank down fizzier then usual ginger ale. He calmed down a bit once she was shopping and she picked a beautiful glass blown picture frame with fish floating around for Nahele, and a few glass blown charms for herself, Grace and Kono.

The boat ride to Burano sat with him a bit better. They had gotten fish and chips, NA had the fish and she had the chips. He felt a bit better after food which meant Rowan got to wander around and shop. She bought a lace bookmark for herself and a fancy lacy hanky for Wo Fat's suit pockets.

The boat ride back to main land Venice, however, was not as good as the ride to Burano. In fact Rowan had to hold onto NA's leather jacket as he threw up over the side, she pet him on the back and held his Styrofoam cup of water so he could take a sip between hurling.

Good thing the last stop put them out right in front of their hotel cause after that NA was out of commission. Rowan had busied herself in picking a picture of her and Nahele and putting it in the frame while she waited for Wo Fat to get back.

When he did, he had been surprised to find her alone in their living room area. And even more surprised to hear that not only was NA out of commission but it was a boat ride that did it. And here he was thinking that NA had no weaknesses.

But Wo Fat turning up meant it was time to go to dinner, which they did almost immediately, which was just dinner in the hotel. Nothing too fancy, but nothing that needed reservations anyway. After Dinner, Wo Fat took her back up to their hotel room and told her to get ready for their opera at the Gran Teatro la Fenice. Getting into her room she found a beautiful dress waiting for her. Damn he knew how to pick out clothes for her.

He put her in a deep purple, A-line, V-neck, long sleeved, floor length Chiffon and lace evening dress. The sleeves were made of nothing but sheer fabric, elbow length with lace accents, there was a crystal studded accent piece at the waist and this beautiful soft flowing fabric made up the skirt. With it came a silver fox stole to wrap around herself, despite it being October and warm in Venice. She had never felt more fancy in her life, except her hair and makeup didn't match the caliber of the dress.

She had said as much to Wo Fat, but he had waved it off and told her that he had that sorted for her all she had to do was trust him.

So she had put on the matching shoes, tucked his lace hanky into his breast pocket to decorate his black tuxedo and then they were heading out to the Gran Teatro la Fenice, which was a fifteen minute walk away. The sun had already descended, NA had disappeared while they were out, but she figured the man could handle himself and with Wo Fat walking beside her, with her on his arm, there was no way for anything to have happened to Rowan. They walked in amicable silence, Rowan let Wo Fat lead the way, trusting that he knew where they were going.

"You know… this theater has burned down three times," Wo Fat said softly as they walked the cobblestone streets together. The dress had come with flats, she figured so she wouldn't be too tall for him. "They named it the Fenice for this theater has been built in the same place every time as if rising from the ashes."

"That's a pretty story," Rowan said.

"It's not a story, it's all fact, I was in Venice for the third fire. I remember thinking it a waste of something beautiful," he said bringing her to the door of the grand theater, ever the nerd Rowan's throat clogged a bit in her excitement ready to be enthralled by the architecture and the history, but it wasn't until she was inside that she noted that no one else was there with them.

"Where is everyone?"

"Don't worry about that," he said taking her by the shoulders and smiling at her. "It's your time to rise from the ashes okay?"

"What?"

"Just go with that lady she's going to fix you up," he said and then pushed her towards a woman, who pulled her quickly into the backstage area where she went to work on her face and someone else fixed up her hair.

"Do either of you know what's going on?" she had asked but they had shushed her and then shoved her out into a darkened corridor. Rowan bounced a bit where she stood, she knew a stage when she felt one, but why was she on a stage. From the other side of the curtain came a deep booming voice.

"Gentleman and… Gentleman… for a limited time, one-time-only event, please welcome the esteemed soloist… Rowan Pierce."

And then the curtains pulled away and that spotlight was on her. But even through that spot light she could see Wo Fat and NA up in the balcony clapping and cheering for her.

She wasn't going to watch an opera she was the opera.

"For godsake Wo, I don't sing opera," she called to him. "And why are you all the way up there?"

"Best acoustics and view in the house!" he called back. "And we don't care what you sing. It's your concert sing whatever you want."

"OH hit me up with some Country!" NA had shouted back which earned him a smack from Wo Fat.

"Anything _but_ Country!" he shouted over NA's disappointed groaned. Rowan smiled but the gesture didn't last long. She didn't want to sing she hadn't been able to sing a note since she had left Steven or aptly… since he had decided to end things with her to date Catherine.

She glanced down to the orchestra pit and found real live actual people standing there as if awaiting her cue. Rowan stepped away from the limelight and towards them.

"Hi… uh… what music did he give you?" she asked the conductor and he produced a pages, clearly photo copies of her song books.

He began to list out songs. "I've got… Rewrite the Stars, Fall on Me, Salute, Bad Liar, Holiday…" those were all love songs, or happy songs, and Rowan didn't feel like any of those things, nor did she want to write a song that reminded her of Steven… which was all her songs. "Uh… Never Enough."

"Oh… that one!" Rowan said quickly. Yes, it reminded her of Steven, but it was the most operatic one she had written, for a musical she and her brother Trevor had been writing back in her world. He would have loved to see her sing it here, even if it wasn't a true opera. And while it reminded her of Steven, it wasn't really about him. She could get through that one, right?

The music started, Rowan took her place center stage, and Wo Fat and NA took their seats. When the right moment hit, Rowan opened her mouth and let the words surround her.

 _I'm trying to hold my breath._

She paused to dramatically take a breath as part of the song. She had forgotten how much she liked to sing, how it made her feel. And it was ten times more exhilarating being up on a major stage like this one, even if she was singing just to her brother and bodyguard.

 _Let it stay this way. Can't let this moment end. You set off a dream in me. Getting louder now. Can you hear it echoing? Take my hand. Will you share this with me? 'Cause darling without you… All the shine of a thousand spotlights. All the stars we steal from the night sky, will never be enough, Never be enough…_

Rowan let the music take her away all the way through the crescendos and her high noted solo. When she finished breathless and panting, she was grinning, ear to ear. Her first, real genuine smile since she and Steve had ended things. Wo Fat and NA were in the balcony cheering and clapping for her and she finally noticed the cameras filming her at all angles. She wasn't certain why Wo Fat had wanted to make this a video but she was glad he did.

She couldn't wait to see it. Couldn't wait to show Nahele. Couldn't wait to go back to her hotel and start playing again.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Sin Nombre was exhausted. Between that bitch taking him on not one but three separate boat rides, and the late night opera, he just wanted to curl up and sleep, but Rowan had other ideas. She had gotten back from the Gran Teatro la Fenice pulled out that guitar and hadn't stopped playing since. This had been going on for hours and poor Sin Nombre couldn't fucking sleep with all that soft twanging. How the hell was Wo Fat not doing something about it by now?

The sun started peaking up out of the water when Sin Nombre lost it. He left his bed, stormed across the hallway to her room and threw open the door.

"Okay, you need to stop. It's four in the morning again…"

She looked up to him tears in her eyes, tears hitting her guitar, a book in front of her, scribbled to all hell

"What the hell happened to you?" he asked. "We went to bed and you were smiling and happy what the hell brought you back down again…"

He caught sight of the phone, the phone with the picture of Steven and her on it and he snatched it away before she could stop him. "Why the hell would you look at this if it does… _this_ … to you?"

"Because this is my process," Rowan snapped reaching for the phone that he kept out of her reach. "In order to write it I need to feel it."

"Okay, but why do you need to feel it that much? Can't you feel it a little? And can't you feel it at a decent hour of the day?"

Rowan sat back and shrugged. "I unno, I didn't feel like doing it before, it all came back tonight."

Yeah because of the concert Wo Fat had made her put on. Great. Still, despite being cranky he found himself craning to read the book upside down. She watched him for a minute before asking: "Would you like to hear what I have so far?"

Her scribbles looked unintelligible and he couldn't help but be curious. So he sat down on the edge of the bed with a casual shrug and said: "Sure."

Rowan smiled and played out what he was certain was the opening chords to a sort of rock ballard and then she started singing.

 _Here comes the rain again, falling from the stars. Drenched in my pain again, becoming who we are. As my memory rests, but never forgets what I lost. Wake me up when September ends._

She finished, put the guitar down and then just stared at him. "So uhm… that's the chorus…"

"It's pretty good," Sin Nombre whispered. "Rock ballad, sounds nice… good thing it's not September… if you don't mind me asking… what does uh…"

"Well, beginning September would have been when I first called Nahele and I realized that Steve had… uh… replaced me in all aspects… it kind hit me that I would probably never end up going back there…"

"Fuck McGarrett did a number on you, didn't he?"

Rowan lowered her eyes from him. "I guess… I unno… I try not to think about it…"

"What so great about him anyway? From what I saw the man was pretty useless," he said leaning back on her bed and staring up at her with a smile.

Rowan his that half grin. "He wasn't all useless."

"Rowan, that man let you go to Afghanistan. He let you go on an active op. You. How does that happen Rowan? How does a man who claims to love you, let you go anywhere near a terrorist operation?"

"He never said he loved me…"

" _He never said he loved you_? ROWAN?" he cried. "Why were you with him?"

"Look… Afghanistan was messed up. He went to help his ex find some boy and he got caught by insurgents and they beat him really badly and were going to cut his head off and I went to help get him out but I stowed away on a plane to do that and they were going to arrest me and send me to military jail if I didn't…"

"That man never said he loved you but you went into an active warzone to save him?" Sin Nombre asked her clearly not understand what she was trying to say. "That boy up and used you…"

"No, he didn't…"

"Well it wasn't like he was in that building trying to get you out."

"He was injured he couldn't come…" she said.

"That boy was always running around like a chicken with his head cut off," Sin Nombre told her. "Like all the time. How about when you got sent to Colombia? That boy had a damn near heart attack. But he wasn't the one who got you out, was he? See, to me, if you love someone, laws shouldn't matter, protecting them, keeping them safe…"

"But Steve's not a criminal…" "No, Steven McGarrett just didn't love you. Not right anyway."

He turned back to her to find her looking at her hands, twisting her fingers about. He pegged it for a nervous thing before, but now he knew it as something else, it was what she did when she was upset.

"Hey, hey," he said softy. "I'm sorry. I didn't want to upset you it's just that… Look, that man, he didn't deserve you, you know?"

"I know… but I… I loved him, you know?"

"Well that's stupid," Sin Nombre said. "Cause he ain't worth a dime of your time, you know? And that girl he's with now. She's a straight up, droopy eyed dog. Like he downgraded… hard."

A smile lit up on Rowan's face before it fell. "How would you know?"

"I stole your shit out of his house, I saw things I didn't need to see," he said. "And that bitch was a dog. I don't know why he's slumming with that shit when you are the prettiest motherfucker around. You know? Like he had you, and _mami_ best believe he ain't gonna get anything better than you."

"Yeah?"

"Hell yeah! You know how many dudes would kill for a girl as loyal and gutsy as you?" he asked and that smile got a fraction wider. "Steven McGarrett is a dumb ass. And he's gonna rue the day he dropped you, you know? He's gonna rue it so hard."

He leaned back again, happy that he could have put a smile on Rowan face. And actually meaning it. He had always found Rowan attractive, physically, it was the personality he couldn't stand. That upbeat chatty hyperness that annoyed him, but she was growing on him now, endearing herself to him and that was worrying to him. Especially since he promised, after his last loss, that he wasn't going to ever get attached to another person again.

The problem was, Rowan had other ideas. One minute they were just smiling at one another and the next she was on top of him, kissing him, her hands wandering under his shirt. That night, condition number two was broken and he didn't feel a single shred of guilt over it.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Either she was getting better at being emotionally detached, or she was just getting better at pretending she was. Either way, when Rowan woke up that morning, she was comfy and cozy, and only half aware that it wasn't Steven curled up behind her, holding her to his chest. It was a position that so similarly mirrored her mornings with Steven that her chest tightened a little more. Well… so much for being emotionally detached.

"I can hear your brain whirling."

Rowan scowled into the pillow she was holding. "Nonsense, you're not that light of a sleeper."

His nose pressed a little closer to her ear, a motion Steve used to do. If he pressed a kiss to that spot behind her ear she'd loose it. Instead he rolled away from her.

"Yes I am, so what are you thinking about?"

"My brother's gonna kill you," she sang in a soft sing song voice, rolling towards him.

"Oh you know about that huh?"

"I know about a lot of things," she said. "Like Riku Sato's family being murdered… about Goro Shioma being put in Sato's place… about you beating the crap out of Gabriel again… I hope you killed him this time…"

But nothing about Steven clearly, and he wasn't supposed to talk to her about that. "I tried, but your uh… Five-0 friends snitched on me."

"Oh… sorry about that?"

"Wait is that Noshimuri boy Five-0? I was never sure…"

"No, he's just married to one. Why? Was he the one who snitched?"

"Well he was the only one on there so probably the only one who knew so…" "Damn, he's turning into a straight up Daniel Williams, and I was so good to him you know? You'd think he'd show some kind of respect."

NA shook his head. "People these days, so ungrateful."

Rowan smiled again. He looked nice in the morning sun. "You locked the door, right?" she asked him. "Cause Wo likes to walk in unannounced."

Nope, he hadn't, she could tell by the way his eyes bugged out. He slipped out of the bed easily, the sheet still wrapped around him as he flicked that lock shut and then jumped back in bed.

"Done, next we just gotta sneak me out of here."

"Should be easy he's got a meeting today," Rowan said with a shrug. "I think we have a bigger problem…"

He turned those liquid gold eyes to her, honestly with the sun hitting them they looked less like that normal hardened brown, and more like pools of warm honey. "And what's that, _mami_?"

"I need to call you something other than NA," she said. "So you gotta tell me your name."

"Oh I do, do I? Why? What does that matter, NA is working so far?"

"But will it work in bed?" she asked and he turned that smile onto her.

"That implies we're doing this again, which I wouldn't suggest," he said. "I shouldn't fuck where I work, or fuck my work, you know what I mean."

"Well, I mean, I wouldn't mind, we don't have to like… marry each other, but fucking you is better than you having to screen potential partners."

"Okay fair," he said. "But do you really need a name, I mean, you called me Steven like eight times last night."

"Damn did I?" she asked him and he just smiled lazily at her as if it didn't matter. "I'm sorry."

"It's fine. I get it, I've been there," he said.

"Yeah? What was her name?"

At that his eyes opened again and like that those warm honey brown eyes turned into the dark brown she figured that she wasn't going to get a name, he wasn't going to tell her anything.

"Call me whatever you want," he said, rolling over and away from her. "Just not Steven."

Rowan rested her chin on his bare shoulder and waited for him to shrug her off but it never came. She thought about it a moment, thought about his signature mask and figured she could play off of that. "I could call you bunny," she said.

"Don't you fucking dare," he growled. "You can call me Conejo if you absolutely have to."

"That means rabbit, it's the same thing."

"It's Conejo or nothing," he warned.

"How about Conejito?" she asked.

NA rolled over again. "I said don't call me bunny!"

"I didn't! I called you Conejito, you said Conejito or nothing!"

"That is bunny in Spanish and you know it, I said call me Rabbit. Conejo. Say it with me," he ordered.

"I unno my Spanish isn't very good…"

" _Mierda_ ," he growled. He was half rolled over, glaring at her, a hand was coming up to grab her, hovering dangerously close to her side. "I know you know it. Now say it."

"Fine. Conej…ito," she spat out and that was it, he was half over his hands reaching for her causing her to squeal, but the name that came out wasn't his name, she called Steven's.

Luckily Conejo was too distracted by it, he was too busy dragging her back to him, back under him.

"Call me Steven, one more time woman, see what happens," he warned rolling her over and kissing her thoroughly. Unlike the time with Ares, this was easier to get lost in. It was easier to close her eyes and pretend that it was Steven in that bed with her, to press into the motion and just let Conejo take over. But it was harder to pretend that she was okay, when really, she wasn't anywhere near it.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steven McGarrett had made a business out of pretending.

He pretended that he didn't miss Nahele. He pretended that he didn't drive by Kong's house just to catch a glimpse and was horrified to find that Nahele actually looked good there in that giant mansion. Like he belonged.

He pretended that he wasn't shattered over Rowan Pierce. That he didn't miss her smile, or her kisses, or the way her hair got caught on everything he owned, or how she always hogged up his shower and washroom time, or how he had put on 5 pounds in pancakes alone cause she always made him breakfast.

But while he figured his friends thoroughly convinced that he was fine, he knew better. He wasn't. At all.

He lived, breathed and slept work. That was what was getting him through this. Work and that was it. He was the first to arrive and the last to leave, usually because Danny had come back to the Palace to drag him out.

That morning, Steve had gone in early despite there not being a case for him to have to go in for. He just wanted to be at work. He wanted to take the pictures of Rowan out of the drawers he hid them in and look at them. To sit at a desk covered in her so he could feel, just for a little moment, like she was still there.

But as he walked past the smart table it powered on, all on its own.

He had no idea what was happening because Sandy was down. There should be no reason for this to be happening unless the table was being hacked. But why would anyone do that, he didn't have any active cases, and Rowan had left him so why would she care what they were doing at work?

The pause was enough. In moments the screen came to life and a video was loaded up. The thumbnail was of Rowan. He went to the table, she looked to be in a nice dress, to have been done up beautifully. Her cast was off, her hair was up, and she was looking down so he couldn't see her face.

What was this?

He shouldn't have. He knew that, but he approached that table and assessed his options. This could be a virus, a way to get information. But that made no sense cause they were already into the mainframe. Why hack in just to give him a video?

Despite his better judgement he pressed play on it and suddenly she was looking up at him, her beautiful blue eyes freezing him in place. And then she was singing. It was a song he didn't recognize but he could tell she was in an opera house. Her voice was as beautiful as he remembered and that longing flew right back up in his throat because he knew he'd never be able to hear it in person again.

 _All the shine of a thousand spotlights. All the stars we steal from the night sky, will never be enough, never be enough. Towers of gold are still too little, these hands could hold the world but it'll, never be enough, never be enough_

Steve hadn't realized he was crying until his tears were falling on the table. He'd have raged if he had anything to throw. It wasn't fair. That Wo Fat was giving her everything she wanted, that she could look so good and so happy up on that stage where she belonged. Why would she ever want to return to him when Wo Fat could do that for her?

When his friends found him an hour later, Steve was in his office, the video playing on his own computer, his head in his hands sobbing and unable to stop. And nothing they could say could soothe him.


	220. Chapter 220

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: And here we are on day 2 of the 12 days of Christmas Marathon. How are you liking things? Are they getting a bit better? We saw a bit of Steve last chapter and I got another little surprise for you as well… BAM! We've got the other Five-0's appearing in this chapter. In fact this chapter is ALL about them. We get to see what's going on with all of them. From here on in it's going to alternate between the two groups, but now that we're in the episode portions we're going to see more of Steve's group. That means every other chapter (some times more) will be all about Steve and what's going on with his cases and all that jazz. So I hope that pleases a few people. Don't forget to leave me a review and I will see you guys tomorrow!_

Chapter 220

* * *

He had gotten the call right after he got out of the shower. No number. Just a simple Private caller. No area code, nothing. The kind of call he got from Rowan's app, except it used to say her name.

Still he had picked it up, answered in his usual way and then waited. All he got was silence. But when he asked if it was Rowan, the call ended.

It wasn't the first call like that, he doubted it would be the last either.

At first he hadn't wanted to tell anyone about it, but Steve couldn't hold it in. He wanted someone to know that he was getting mysterious phone calls from someone who was probably Rowan and he wanted to know what that meant. She had told him to leave, why was she calling him now? Did she… did she miss him?

Was that why she had sent him a picture of her in Paris?

Cause if that was why, she should have made it easier for him to find her after.

He had told Danny originally when they first got out of the car, that he thought that the calls he was getting were from Rowan, but that had gotten derailed almost immediately as the walk had proven to be a long one and well, everyone knew how Danny liked to freak out.

"What makes you think it was Rowan?" Danny asked him once he was done his freak out over the severity of the case being proportional to how far you have to walk to it, and how he was going to miss Halloween with Charlie.

He had changed the topic, Steve figured, because he realized that Steve was going to miss out on having his first Halloween with Nahele who would have probably ditched trick or treating for parties but he wouldn't have cared. Steve was just grateful for the conversation change.

"Because it was no number. Like her app," Steve said. "Plus… I keep getting calls like that… all at odd hours. Like they're from someone… say… 11 hours ahead of us."

"You alerted Interpol and they combed Paris, Steve, they couldn't find her."

Yes, Steve knew that. Didn't mean they hadn't missed her. Wo Fat was a master at staying under the radar.

"Okay, well what if it was Doris, or Catherine."

"I don't know, maybe," Steve said. "But those would have been satellite phone calls, those look different. It doesn't matter, I can't trace the call anyway, so there's not much I can do to figure out where she is."

The conversation ended there, thankfully, cause he really didn't want Danny to read into comment, to announce to the world that maybe Steve just _wanted_ the calls to be from Rowan because he wanted her to _want_ to come back to him. But the conversation ended because the call for one suitcase filled with body parts had become three suitcases and he was forced to begrudgingly admit to Danny that his theory about the farther you walk the worse the case is, was right.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Every year on Halloween, Jerry went to the Blood bank off of Dillingham to donate blood. He always did so dressed as Dracula because I thought it was hilarious play on Dracula's core theme. That instead of sucking blood he was giving it. He thought it was funny and he knew that this was a joke that Rowan would have appreciated, But with the pretty and unimpressed nurse that he wanted to impress and possibly get the number off of, completely unimpressed by the witty play on the costume, he had never wished for Rowan more.

She could have made him look cool. She could have given him lines to play, but now Rowan was gone and no one could get a hold of her. He got that McGarrett and her were done, but he didn't think she'd cut everyone out of her life. It was a little hurtful that she had done that.

But at that moment, his hand was hurting him more.

"I'm losing the sensation in my hand," Jerry said to the cute nurse. He wanted to seem a little more manly. He was dressed as Vlad the Impaler after all, the actual reference for Dracula. But she ignored him and he was worried. "That's normal right?"

She turned a dry glare to him and he tried to calm down. "I'm sure you know what you're doing," he said quickly which earned him an even dryer glare. Oh that was a misstep. That was a bad thing to say. "Of course you do," he said to mollify her and while she went back to her job he could tell she was mad. He probably should have shut up but: "If blood doesn't get to my fingers, it could turn them gangrenous, right?" was coming out of his mouth before he could stop himself. That didn't go so well for him either.

He lowered his eyes and said: "I'm just going to let you continue…" and was cut off by the sound of… gunshots?

What the hell? Both of them jumped up and pressed themselves to the wall. He was going to say something amazing, like he was with Five-0 and therefore would be able to get her help but he was interrupted by a computerized voice out in the lobby.

 _Welcome to the Sanctuary network. Please wait while I analyze situation._

Jerry blinked his eyes had he heard what he thought he had heard?

"What was that?" the cute nurse hissed.

"That's not right, she's not supposed to be running," he said fishing his phone out of his pocket. The screen was just plain red. "Oh Geeze. It's never done that before."

"What is wrong with your phone?" the nurse asked but Jerry didn't have time to answer.

"Okay… uh…" he said trying to remember what Rowan's codes were. "Uh… Sandy… if you're there, can you put me in touch with Five-0?"

 _That is an unrecognizable command. If you are attempting to contact someone, please tell me who._

"Oh uh…" he said, who should he call? Who did he want rushing to his rescue? "Call Steve."

 _That command is not recognized._

"Then call Chin?"

 _Command not recognized._

"Danny?"

 _The command is not recognized._

He needed a codename. Clearly. His was Elvis, he knew that. But he couldn't remember anyone else's code names… the panic of the situation was really getting to him.

"Oh, Kono… oh… no Codename Kickass, video call Codename Kickass."

 _Connecting you to… Codename Kickass._

Luckily Kono picked up on the first ring, he had never been so happy to see her.

"Hey Jerry. Great costume." She said with a grin. "Mind if I call you back? I'm in the middle of something."

"Yeah, you and me both!" he whispered. "I'm at the Hawaiian United Blood Bank on Dillingham."

"Of course you are. I'm sure they love the costume," she said. Yeah it did not go over well but that was least of his worries at this point.

"No, listen. There's something going down," he tried to tell her only to be stopped silent by the sound of more gunshots. He glanced to the door, ready to throw himself against it if someone tried to open it. "You hear that?"

"Is that what I thought it was?"

"Yeah. Its bullets hitting wood and glass and metal. Hopefully not people, but I don't know. Some guys just stormed in here and took over the place. And that's not all that's here," he said. Just as Sandy said: _Three Armed Assailants from Local Samoan gang. Low level thugs with minimal aspirations. Good for grunt work, and as patsies and enforcement._

"Is that Sandy?"

"Yeah! And she's tricked out my phone, it's all red right now."

Outside the room came the sound of feet against the floor. Someone was coming towards them. They all went quiet, Kono included. Everyone except Sandy.

 _You have entered the vicinity of an ally of Professional with the intent to harm either by accident or on purpose. If harm is to come to Codename Elvis this network is authorized to terminate all involved. Choose next steps wisely._

There was a beat of silence, the sound of scuffling and then silence hit the room, but Jerry dared not move.

"Okay, we'll it sounds like that did the trick, but hang on tight, Jerry, we're on the way," Kono said and then hung up the phone. But Jerry wasn't worried, Sandy had scared them off, he knew it. He smiled down to the red screened phone in his hand.

"Wow… thanks for the service, Sandy."

 _My Pleasure, Codename Elvis. I have detected that emergency services are on their way, making any further activation unnecessary. It's time to go night, night. Sweet Dreams._

And just like that she powered down and his phone went back to normal. But Jerry couldn't help but wonder if he could use it to get a hold of Rowan… since clearly… she still cared.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Danny had gotten a call from Rachel. Another frantic one. This time about Grace. She had lied about where she was and as it turned out she was at some party in the middle of nowhere. Danny, while panicked, promised Rachel he would go get their wayward daughter. He hadn't wanted to leave Steve, not when he was clearly getting delusional over some mysterious phone calls. Though if it was Rowan calling him, that girl had some fucking nerve. Making Steve go through all of that, telling him to leave, and then calling and hanging up.

Fucking hell, make up your damn mind Rowan!

And why hadn't she at least called one of them to check if _they_ were okay after her faked death. He thought she'd at least call Kono but she hadn't. That was bullshit.

Danny had gotten to the party and found Grace waiting for him outside. He was surprised, but the second she saw his Camaro she scowled at him and stalked to the car. Well… at least he didn't have to go into the party to drag her out… that would have been… worse.

But Grace had been giving him the silent treatment since they had started driving back home. She was mad and he got that, but she was just a little girl, she had all her life to grow up and go to parties like that one.

"You know, Grace, um, I know that you think you're are mature enough…"

"Auntie Ro would have understood," she interrupted and his heart nearly stopped. Because she was right, but her Auntie Ro also would have been at that party somehow supervising without her knowing. And he didn't know how to argue with that.

"Well, your Auntie Ro had a very messed up childhood where her parents basically let her do whatever she wanted and as you can see it turned her into a complete and utter…"

"Don't you dare call her a psychopath," Grace warned. "Auntie Ro never forgot what it was like to be my age, unlike you. She always cared, she always told me that I was smart and I was brave and she trusted me to make good decisions and that if I ever needed her I could call her and now she's gone cause Uncle Steve chose Catherine…"

"That's not the whole reason she's gone, Grace. It wasn't all Uncle Steve, that brother of hers helped." He argued before he realized that they had gotten WAY off track. "Look. I'm not trying to ruin your fun Grace. I want you to have a good time, but I always want you to be safe? Okay? And one day, one day you will be able to make your own decisions but…"

"DANNO!" she cried and he finally noticed the pig in his way. In his panic, in his desire to not end that poor little piggie's life prematurely and mess up his car he had swerved, but he had swerved a little too quickly and a little too violently, and his car ended up crashing into a barrier.

Obviously he asked if Grace was okay, which she was, before he went out to check his car. It was less okay, it was going to need a tow. His phone had no service, Grace's phone had no service, which meant they were going to have to work until the found it.

Which lead them walking through a creepy field at night. At first Grace wanted to walk a head of him, still mad at him for keeping her from the party, not knowing that it could have been worse, cause his plan was to go into the party and drag her out.

He let Grace storm ahead, keeping her in his sight, and as he predicted, as soon as she got somewhere slightly creepy his daughter wanted to hold his hand. He was glad that she still came to him for security and support, even if she was mad at him at the moment.

They walked quietly for a few minutes before Danny turned to her and said: "You know, you were outside waiting for me…"

"Yeah, I got a warning."

"A warning? Who called you, your Uncle Steve?" Cause it would just like Steve to play up the cool Uncle so Grace would like him more.

Grace shook her head, she pulled out her phone and let it play a message. Why was he surprised when it was Rowan's voice coming out of her phone. "Hey Gracie, I hope you're having fun at that party and uh… I hope your costume turned out great! But uh… your dad's on his way to get you, so if you want to minimize the damage go to the front of the house now... oh and that hot Roman gladiator guy is too old for you. Miss you kid."

There was a beat of silence while Grace ended the call and put her phone back down. She hit him with a smug smile as she let those words sink in.

"See, Auntie Ro always understood," she said. She had a point. Her Auntie Ro always understood, but that wasn't the hot ticket at that moment.

"When did you get this?"

"I unno. It just showed up. I don't have a missed call or anything. Just a voicemail."

That screamed Sanctuary at him. Sandy was involved in that 100%. But it raised questions. Like if Rowan's app was up and running again would it tell them where in the world Rowan was? And why the hell would she care so much about them if she chose to leave? Why was she only reaching out now? A whole five months after the fact? Something wasn't adding up, and while he wanted to go to Steve with this information, he wasn't sure if the man could take anymore bullshit from Rowan Pierce. He wasn't sure any of them could.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Chin and Kono went to the Kalihi Pet Clinic where they were certain the blood bank thieves had holed themselves up. After assuring themselves that Jerry was alright, they had looked around and realized that before Sandy had scared them off, the guys with the gun had grabbed nothing except blood, a rare type, and made off with it.

That meant they were either going to sell it, or they needed it. Chin and Kono had come to the conclusion that they probably just they needed it, but they had gone somewhere to else to use it, just not a doctor clinic. What was near-by was a vet clinic so they figured that they'd start there, just see if their hunch was right. If not, they'd go on to the next lead, which was the bad guys trying to sell the rare blood.

But Kono could only think of one thing. Sandy was up and running again, and it clearly was monitoring them. It wouldn't just be checking on Jerry, she figured, it was probably monitoring all of them.

"You know what this means right?" Kono asked Chin as they got out of his car.

"That these people probably should have just did this all at the blood bank?" Chin offered but that wasn't it.

"If Sandy's up and running and following Jerry around that means someone had to tell her to do that."

"She chose not to come back, Kono," Chin reminded her. And that was true. But she also knew that Rowan had always felt like if she had lost Steve they would all be on his side and therefore her friend would have abandoned her. She would have thought that, since Rowan and her were besties, that she would have at least contacted her. But cutting them all out because her and Steven broke up was kinda… insulting.

"I know what she chose, but she obviously still cares…" she said but Chin just stared at her. "Well… what if she thinks she _can't_ come back. You know? She never came to any of us before when her and Steven argued. What if she feels like… because she broke up with Steven, we don't want her?"

"Well… she's unreachable, so how are we going to know if that's true or not?" Chin asked. They got to the door and then he paused. He took his phone out of his pocket. "Is your phone screen red?" he asked.

Kono pulled her phone and saw that it too was red. Just like Jerry's had been when Sandy had taken over.

"Well I guess that answers that question," she said smiling down to it. To her, this was undefinable proof, that Rowan still cared about them, and the only reason they couldn't get a hold of her was because Rowan thought breaking up Steve meant that her and the Five-0's were no longer friends.

It also meant that they were entering an area that Sandy deemed dangerous. She'd bet money that they had found their bad guys.

They knocked on the door and a very stressed looking woman answered it.

Chin smiled warmly at her. "Good evening. Five-0," he said carefully pushing the door a little further out of her grasp. "Sorry to bother you, but we're doing a routine sweep of the area, looking for any signs of suspicious activity."

The woman was shaking like a leaf. He didn't need to hear her answer, he had a feeling he knew exactly what was going on.

"Why, is something going on?" she asked. Yeah, she was being held hostage, but he had a feeling she couldn't say that to him. He had a feeling there was a gunman somewhere making sure she said the right things and didn't blow this.

"It's Halloween," Kono told her, obviously getting the same vibe that Chin got but was willing to play along so this woman didn't get shot in front of them. "We're just checking out the neighbourhood. You know how kids are."

"Yes, I understand…" she started, but Chin had had enough. He said absolutely nothing did nothing but just held out the phone. Showing her the red screen. For a few seconds the woman at the door was confused until the phone started talking.

 _Hello and Welcome to the Sanctuary Network. You have entered the vicinity of an ally of Professional with the intent to harm either by accident or on purpose…_

God it felt good to have an easy take down again.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Sandy was back. Which meant only one thing in Steven's mind. Rowan was trackable again.

He had a hard day. A really hard day. The suitcases for one, had been trying. Finding the would-be Dr. Frankenstein and his bride had been really… frightening, but not more than that guy almost getting the upper hand on him. The only reason he was alive was because a shot had come through the basement window and got the guy in the back, enough for Steve to knock him off of him and finish him off.

At first he thought it was Grover, but Grover had been upstairs when the shot hit. This was so reminiscent of Rowan and her app, but since losing her he had started seeing her everywhere. This was probably only an echo of her brought on by longing. That's what this was. Just his longing bringing back a ghost of her.

He was no better than their Dr. Frankenstein.

But then Jerry told him about Sandy popping up on his phone when the gunmen broke into the Blood bank. And Chin and Kono told them that Sandy appeared on their phones and helped make their takedown smooth. And Danny had Grace play a phone message left where no phone call had come in to leave it in the first place. He knew then that it wasn't just his longing, it wasn't just an echo. Rowan had been reaching out, had been taking care of them from afar.

And if she was taking care of him too that meant she still cared and there was still a chance. All he had to do was find her.

So he went to the person who created her app, knowing full well he'd be able to tell him more and he could force him to do so. Especially since he knew that Kong had to lie to get the CPS to give him a child, and Steve wasn't above revealing Kong's less than crystal clear past if he wasn't cooperative.

However, after letting himself into Kong's warehouse again he knocked politely, waited for Kong to tell him to come in, and then purposely didn't kick down the door. Just to prove that he didn't always kick down doors.

If Kong was surprised to see him he didn't show it, but instead let Steve sit down across from him and then waited until Steve was ready to talk.

"So her app is back."

"Yep, got the request… nay the order, to bring it back online a week ago. I've added new features, how do you like them?"

He didn't get to witness them, and at that point he didn't care. "Where is she, Kong."

Kong looked up to him clearly unimpressed, but now that he knew it was an option, possibly locating her and taking her back by force alone, at least to get Nahele back, he wasn't going to let it go. "I don't know, Commander."

"Lies. It's up and running…"

"It's not tracking her."

"You're lying."

"No I'm not, Steven," Kong snapped finally standing up. It was the first time Kong had called him by his first name and it startled him. "You wanna see, here, this is the dash board."

He turned the computer so he could see it. This pinging red dots along Hawaii ten dots in total for the 10 people Rowan wanted tracked.

"That's all there is."

"No but it can't be…"

"It is Commander," Kong said. "Rowan's not mobile, alright? She's still down." Injured, he meant injured. She still wasn't well enough to be up and about. Then how did he get her Eiffel tower, or to Paris for that matter? "He's watching her alright, my guess is that he figures, so long as she's with him she doesn't need to be tracked. Or maybe it's cause her phone is switched off and at the bottom of her suitcase…"

"You've been talking to him…"

"Yes, Commander, I've been talking to him," Kong finally admitted. "I run this app because he's paying me too, he's my boss, essentially. He gives me updates, I feed them to the kid, keeps him happy."

Steve didn't want to hear about Nahele and how he was happy with Kong. Instead he growled: "I'm not going to ask you again…"

"You think he's stupid enough to give me locations?" Kong snapped. "He knows I've got you knocking on my door every other day and he knows you got something on me. He tells me nothing, though he did say he sent you a picture."

"From Paris, yes, but we were monitoring the exit points, they never left France."

"Yeah well, he's a smart man, I'm sure he's figured out a way to move her without getting stopped at the border."

Yeah that sounded about right.

"Who told you to bring it back online?"

"If you're asking if I've spoken to your precious Rowan, I haven't," Kong snarled. "But the request was hers. She wanted the app up, said something about body parts in suitcases, something about vampires in a blood bank."

Dreams, she was still having dreams. So she had sent someone to help him.

"And the guy who dealt with my issue?"

"What issue?" Kong asked.

"Someone shot my guy for me…"

"Naw, app's not tracking you. That was uh… that was a big part of it. She wants everyone else to be safe, but uh… Wo couldn't give a rat's ass about you. So she's tracking everyone. Except you."

Well… wasn't that… hurtful? Track everyone but him. So great… who had helped him then? Huh?

"And if I ask you to turn it off?"

"They'll probably ask me to turn it back on," Kong said. "Besides, she just wants to make sure none of you get shot… well… everyone but you anyway…" Why did he have to keep saying it like that? "Can't you just let her keep tab on her friends? Or do you just not want to share?"

Steve would have been stupid to not have realized that his friends felt slighted by Rowan's disappearance. Especially Kono, who had been called her best friend for months. He knew they all felt like it was his fault that Rowan had never reached out to them, because she had always felt like they were Steve's friends above being her friends, and that was because he kept forcing them into positions where it would look that way to Rowan. But to hear it from someone else shook him to the very core.

"No, of course, I don't mind sharing. Uh… thanks… thanks for telling me," he said. "Uh… how's…"

"He's good. He's settling in. He's at a party at a friend's house. Kai, I think, or Makani, I unno I can't tell them apart."

"Kai is the surfer, Makani has the tribal look," Steve told him and Kong nodded.

"Oh that's good, I gotta tell Brandi that," he said. "Thanks. Yeah, no, the kids doing really good. We're keeping up with the tutoring like you suggested, so his grades are much better, he aced summer school. He wasn't allowed to try out for the football team, cause of last year's failure, so he was pretty bummed but they'll let him try out next year. He's almost to a place where I think he'll be okay visiting you so maybe you two can work on a football throw cause god knows I don't know what I'm doing."

Steve half smiled, he struggled not to show his excitement because he really, really wanted that and he didn't want to seem too pathetically eager. He missed Nahele, he wanted to see Nahele again but he got it when Kong had asked him just to hang back a bit until Nahele was settled with them cause those first few weeks had been a hard transition for the kid. It had been just as hard for Steve too.

He thanked Kong for the update, excused himself and then headed out before he could do or say something that would make him look even more pathetic.

It was on the way out of Kong's place that he got the text. No number just a floating message appearing on his phone. Just like the last time when the phone appeared. This time however it was a video.

It was only ten seconds but it was more than enough.

It was of Rowan in bed, probably a hotel bed judging by the fluffy pillows and white sheets. She was sleeping, the camera facing her. Wo Fat's hand came into view, he could tell by the burns on the wrist, and he quickly just booped her nose.

Those blue eyes opened, slowly and languidly like they used to when he would wake her up with his kisses. A sleepy smile formed on her face like she was happy to see the man behind the camera. The man that wasn't him. And then that video was done and starting over again.

There were no identifiers, nothing he could see that would tell him where they were. Just like with the photo, even if there were identifiers, Wo Fat would be smart enough to be out of that area before sending it.

Here were the things he did know. She was in a hotel. It was morning judging by the sunlight streaming in. The window was somewhere behind Rowan, probably on the other side of the head of the bed. And not only did she look absolutely fucking stunning, she looked happy. Which just made all of this worse for him because he was an absolute disaster both inside and out.

And for a long time after he just sat in his truck, staring down at the video looping over and over again on his phone, missing her with every fibre of his being.


	221. Chapter 221

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hello my wonderful readers and welcome to day 3 of the 12 Days of Christmas Marathon. Just so you guys know, I'm going to be posting the next couple of chapters from the Bahamas, so if they're a little later then they normally would be it's cause of the time change! So we do have another chapter about Rowan, but it ends with a bit from Steve. We're also going to have a full two chapters about Steve for the next two chapters. Just so you guys know, since I'm bouncing back and forth, these parts with Rowan happened the week before the last chapter. If you need any confirmation about the time line please send a review. Otherwise, I hope you enjoy the chapter, please remember to leave a review and I will see you tomorrow._

Chapter 221

* * *

Conejo had to hand it to Rowan, when it came to planning trips she was the absolute best. On their second day in Venice, she spent half the morning arguing with the owner of a Gondola to reschedule her ride for when Wo Fat said he would be free so Conejo didn't have to go with her. First on the phone, and then she tracked him down to yell at him in person until he finally agreed.

Once that was dealt with, they started walking. First to the Rialto Bridge where he was forced to take a million pictures of her on that bridge and then pose for a bunch of selfies of them together. While they walked to their next stop, which was a bookshop called the Aqua Alta, she sent off her favourite pictures to Wo Fat.

Once they got to the bookshop more pictures happened and she picked up a bookmark for herself. As they walked back towards St. Mark's square they stopped for street food, which was more pasta, and she looked at all the souvenir stands looking for something for her friends.

They were going to run out of room in those suitcases of hers at this rate.

Getting to St. Mark's Square meant buying tickets to go to all the museums. The Doge's Palace, the art museum, the archaeology museum, the clock tower and the bell tower. Just… everything.

She had told him up front that they didn't need to do them all in one day, they just had to be done within the next three.

Fine. Great.

They took more pictures and selifes by the Bridge of Sighs, and then they got to go into the Doge Palace. They were having fun wandering around, Rowan was taking pictures of all the architecture and he was just watching her, knowing that at some point she'd want to go into the gift store behind him. And it was because he was watching her that he noticed the man that was a little too close to her.

His first thought, or worry, was that this was law enforcement, or one of Wo Fat's enemies. But the more he watched that man hover around her, a better idea for what he was doing came to Conejo's head. The man was a pick pocket. Pushing off of the column he was leaning on Conejo approached them, Rowan barely noticed him do it she was so fixated on taking pictures. So Conejo slipped in between them, smiling warmly at the man hovering behind Rowan, grabbing the hand that was in her purse and squeezing the wrist.

"Let whatever you have let go," he ordered in a low hiss and when he did, Conejo moved the man a bit back and away from Rowan. "What else did you take?"

"Look man," the pickpocket started only to have Conejo twist, the man jerked trying not to cry out and he relented. "Okay, okay."

He handed back Rowan's wallet, and the hotel key and Conejo pocketed them. "What else did you take?"

"From her? That's it man," he said.

"No, what else did you take in general?" he said. "I want first dibs."

"What… come on…?"

"Fork it over," Conejo twisted again with as he growled those words.

When he finally returned to Rowan's side, he was 800 euros richer and quite proud of himself. Rowan smiled up at him as he smiled down at her. "You could have just let him go."

Wow, she knew she was getting pick pocketed, what a dumb ass. "Yeah, I could have, but then he wouldn't have learned a valuable lesson."

"Which was what?"

"Don't fuck with my _mami_ ," he said, slinging an arm around her to lead her deeper into the palace. A sort of warmth seemed to fill him when Rowan tucked her head into his side as if it were the most natural thing in the world. As if he didn't just extort money from a pickpocket. As if he wasn't a renowned assassin.

God, what if Wo Fat was right? What if she was getting under his skin after all? He couldn't let that happen.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

She hadn't wanted Conejo to notice, but she had walked by that Salvadori Diamond Atlier jewellery store three times since they got to the St. Mark's square and it kept winking at her from the display.

It wasn't an engagement ring per say… but it was the ring she would, one day, want to be proposed to with. Lot of good it would do for her now that she was single and would never see Steven again.

In fact, looking at it reminded her that Steven would probably propose to Catherine now.

The ring in question was gold, the band made to look like twigs of Ivy, the leaves had small diamond studs and form one of the branches hung a tear-drop fire opal, which was her favourite stone.

Every time she walked past that store, she saw it. Every time she saw it, she wanted to buy it. She had the money, why not?

Because there was no point. Rowan knew, if she didn't marry Steven, she wasn't going to marry anyone. And, sure, maybe that wasn't true, maybe her heart would heal and she'd meet someone else and settle down, but right now, at that moment her heart belonged to Steve and it hurt thinking about him being with someone else or eventually marrying someone that wasn't him.

"What are you looking at?" Conejo asked appearing beside her. The whole reason she had wandered over to the shop window again was because he was buying food for them and she figured him reasonably distracted. She should have been watching him a little more closely.

"It's jewellery, Con," she said quickly. "I'm a girl, it's a window filled shiny objects."

He stared at her as she took the cup of noodles from him and began to tuck in with gusto. Which was a bad idea because that was a bunch of hot spaghetti in her mouth.

"You uh… you keep looking at that one ring," he said to her. "I'm not stupid Ro, I can tell you want that ring, why not just buy it?"

Rowan scowled but got over her disappointment at being so transparent. She shrugged at him. "I unno, no point."

"Girls like shiny things, and you light up whenever you see it," he said. "That's a good enough reason for most girls."

Rowan just shook her head and moved away. "A ring is a ring, I have plenty of rings," she reminded him and hoped that would be enough. Conejo gratefully dropped the conversation in exchange for shovelling his own larger portion of pasta into his mouth but she knew he wouldn't just let it go. Sooner or later he was going to make her tell him what it was about that ring that made her look at it so often. And honestly, she wasn't looking forward to it.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Wo Fat finished up with his associates later than expected, which left him rushing through the cobblestone streets, dodging groups of tourists stopping in odd places to block the area to look at shops or take stupid pictures. He stopped, only to pick up the surprise he wanted to give her, and then practically sprinted the rest of the way.

When he finally got to the meet point, he was happy to find that Rowan and Sin Nombre were still there, though their Gondolier looked far from pleased with them. He'd just have to tip him a little extra to shut him up.

"Sorry," he said once he got close, he noted that Sin Nombre was a fraction of a bit too close to her, but it was also crowded so that could just be Wo Fat being paranoid.

Still he shot a knowing glare at Sin Nombre who glared back at him as he said: "I've got this now."

"You say five-fifteen, it's five-thirty," the Gondolier said. "Shorter ride…"

He came to a complete stand-still when three pairs of eyes swung to him. Rowan's eyes were wide and fearful, worried that she'd miss out on a portion of her Gondola ride. But Wo Fat and Sin Nombre were both shooting deadly glares at him and those were the stares that froze him.

Wo Fat carefully held Rowan's hand as he handed her down into the Gondola all while staring their Gondolier in the eye.

"The ride will be the same time as all your others," he said carefully. "And I think you'll sing us your best songs too."

The man blinked his eyes and then nodded, allowing Wo Fat to get into the Gondola after Rowan. They waved bye to Sin Nombre, whose cold brown eyes followed them until they were gone and then Wo Fat returned his attention to Rowan.

"I trust you had a good day?"

"I did. We did the Doge Palace today," she said. "Tomorrow is the clock tower and bell tower. How did your deal go?"

"Good, I am now in charge of the ice trade route coming through Venice, which will link up nicely to the export route I have going up to Paris and beyond."

"Wonderful," Rowan said though he knew she didn't think that. She wasn't comfortable with his profession but she never put it down or asked him to stop.

Her eyes fell to the brown paper bag he had and Wo Fat pulled it out from under the seat he had stashed it under.

"I thought it prudent for you to have the full experience, so I have a cheese platter and some bubbly…"

Worry crossed her features at the word _bubbly_ but he knew better than to put champagne in front of her. A laugh escaped her when he produced the glass bottles of ginger ale and she grabbed hers quickly while he put the cheese plate on his lap for her to grab whenever she wanted.

"Look at us being so fancy."

It wasn't fancy at all, but that was what Rowan was like. The fact that he put the effort in at all was what made this fancy, and he loved that about her. That a simple cheese platter and two bottles of ginger ale could make her smile like that.

He snapped his fingers. "I don't hear any singing," he called and immediately their Gondolier indulged them in some form of an Italian aria.

Rowan smiled and leant back looking all around her and up to the stars above her. It was at times like these that the guilt sort of ebbed away, and for a moment he could feel like he did the right thing for her. He would just have to hold onto it when that guilt came back.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Doing the clock tower and the bell tower on the same day had been a terrible idea. So many fucking steps. Now Conejo was in good shape, but fucking a million flights of stairs, all around in tiny circles, had him out of breath and his thighs complaining. Rowan had been so tired after the two tours she nearly had to be carried back to their hotel. Thank God it was only a four-minute walk away. When they got back to the hotel Rowan collapsed to her bed and demanded room service of fries and tea so he threw himself down on the couch with the phone in his hand and the menu looking at his options while hoping the pain in his legs went away.

They were waiting for the food to arrive when Wo Fat came back to the hotel. A slight burn to his regular scent, the kind of gunpowder burn that signalled a gunfight had taken place.

Conejo craned himself to look up at him as he untied his tie.

"You good?" he asked. He knew that Rowan was supposed to be his main concern but he wasn't going to get paid if Wo Fat got killed.

"Yeah," Wo Fat said. "Got a little heavy this afternoon, but I'm good. Gonna have to send a message… you up for a little revenge?"

"Always," he said. "Just maybe not right now. Your girl had me go up and down two fucking towers today, can't feel my legs right now."

"Is that Wo?" Rowan called from her room.

"Yeah, you tired too?" he called back and got a grumble back in response.

Wo Fat threw himself down on the couch beside Conejo and then sighed. He too as tired as the other two people in the room. There was blissful silence for a moment, they might have fallen asleep, had Rowan not interrupted it.

"Con is the food here yet?" Rowan called. Wo Fat's accusing eyes found him.

"Who the hell is Con? Does she have a boy here?" Wo Fat hissed while Conejo shook his head.

"If you didn't hear a knock its not here," he called back tossing Wo Fat the room service menu as he too was probably hungry. "I'm Con, she wanted a new nickname for me, we settled on Conejo. Which she has shorted to Con for some reason."

"Conejo? She's calling you Rabbit? Really?" Wo Fat teased.

"Yeah, laugh it up Oz," Conejo hissed. "She gets to call me that, you don't."

Wo Fat just shook his head at him, clearly unimpressed and uncaring. "I may need you tomorrow, so she'll have to stay here."

"I don't like the idea of leaving her alone in the hotel," Conejo said immediately, because it was true.

"She'll be fine."

"Yeah and I'm sure you thought that before she got grabbed in Paris," Conejo reminded him and the half shrug half nod that Wo Fat gave him told him that the remark hit home.

"I'll talk to her then."

"Fine, but uh… I have a request then," Conejo said. "She keeps stopping by this store over in the Square, she seems to want this ring, but won't buy it. I thought it might be nice to pick it up for her. I'm prepared to forgo payment for whatever extra task you need me to do tomorrow, if we get it."

"You got a picture?"

Conejo pulled out his phone and pulled up the photo he had taken when Rowan had been distracted a different shop with picture frames. Wo Fat looked at it with a furrowed look about him as if he didn't understand what he was looking at.

"Why is she looking at an engagement ring?"

Conejo looked at the leafy looking thing again. It wasn't a diamond how could that be considered engagement ring of any kind? Especially since it looked like an elven piece of costume jewellery.

"Uh… but it's not a diamond…"

"Ro doesn't like diamonds. Her stone of choice is a fire opal, which that is. If she'd want this for anything it'd be an engagement ring. So why is she looking at an engagement right when she just broke up with her guy?"

Conejo was just surprised that Wo Fat knew Rowan well enough to know what her favourite stone was. Not many guys knew that about their own girlfriends. But there was something else he had said that piqued Conejo's interest.

"I thought _he_ broke up with _her_."

"That's not what's important here," Wo Fat snapped and Conejo jumped cause he wasn't expecting it. "Granted… if she does find someone she decides to settle down with this ring will make a good advantage for him to have. And I'd love to see her settled with anyone other than Steven…"

Conejo wasn't sure where this conversation was going. By the look of it Wo Fat was having the conversation by himself. At that point he didn't care so long as Rowan got the ring.

"Kay, fine, but make sure you buy it. She won't want it if it's stolen," Wo Fat finally conceded. "But you bring it back to me…"

"We could just go together… tomorrow…" he said and Wo Fat nodded again.

There came a knock on the door and cry of excitement from Rowan's room, but she didn't appear which meant they were going to eat there. With a groan Conejo pulled himself off of the couch to answer it. Food was always a good distraction and it always made him feel better, though it made him feel even better to know that he had managed to snag Rowan the ring of her dreams. Now he just had to figure out how to get it to her without it having to come with a proposal.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Wo Fat's act of revenge was a small case of arson, a little bit of beating to extort information and then a little bit of murder. It was actually quite fun to be blood splattered and violent once more. It was a refreshing change of pace from all the girly touristy things Rowan had been making him do.

Though for the whole seven hours he was apart from Rowan, a sort of worry pressed on him from the back of his mind. Worry that while he was gone, she had done something, had wandered off or had gotten in trouble or hurt. So, he was more than happy to arrive back to their hotel to find that Rowan had, in fact, not wandered off. In fact, she had room service ready for them when they got in.

The seafood platter for him, steak for Wo Fat and a burger with fries for her. She had asked about their day and Conejo had blanked. He wasn't sure what he could tell her, what he was allowed to say.

"Standard business. A bit of extortion, and the like," Wo Fat had said. He didn't seem to go into too much detail and Conejo figured that safe. "Nothing you need to worry yourself about. What about you, what did you do today?"

"Well… I know you said not to leave the room, but I got bored of writing music after the first couple hours… and I got a few noise complaints," she said and both men had frowned at her. "So, I went down and had high tea for lunch. Thing was massive, I put the left overs in the fridge. I saved all the salmon stuff for you, Con."

"That's it?" Wo Fat had asked her and she nodded. Okay, good, so she had just gone down to the hotel restaurant for high tea, that wasn't that bad. It wasn't like she left the hotel which he figured she might do if the two of them had left her alone.

After dinner Rowan had curled up with Wo Fat for what she called movie night, which was the two of them watching a kid's movie, and Conejo had gone to bed early.

It was the wee hours of the morning when he had been made aware of someone in his room, but he didn't go into defensive mode, he knew who it was. He had turned, arms ready to envelope Rowan as she came to him. She pressed to his side and for a moment he just let her find safety in his embrace. When she finally fell asleep he made sure she was tucked in and comfortable before, he too, found himself asleep once more.

But in the morning, when the sun was up and he knew she'd have to sneak out of there, he woke up to a girl on top of him and he was more than willing to indulge her in whatever sort of activity she wanted. Which lead to glorious morning sex with a girl who was becoming more and more dear to him by the day.

When they were done, and he was lying beside her trying to catch his breath, the silence began to weigh a bit too heavily on him. It always got like this when things felt a little too… good… for him. Like he didn't deserve it. Usually it meant leaving, giving up whatever it was that was making him happy to continue to punish himself. But for the first time in a long he didn't want to give this up. Not just because he was starting to grow quite fond of Rowan but because she needed him and he was afraid if he left, and something bad happened to her, he'd never forgive himself.

"Only called me Steven, five times this time," he said stretching out beside her. Anything to break the silence, anything to get himself out of his own head. "I call that progress."

Rowan murmured some sort of apology to him but he didn't care about because he knew what it felt like to want to do _anything_ to numb the longing for someone that was no longer available. She rolled off of her back and half onto him.

"You're one to talk. Who's Mary?" she asked and his blood ran cold and his own heart fractured at the sound of the name that belonged to a ghost he was trying to outrun.

"No, no, I was saying _mami_ ," he lied and Rowan murmured something else like: _Fine don't tell me._ And Conejo scrambled to change the topic. "So uh… gotta ask, what's all this dreaming about Hawaii? And suitcases, and stuff?"

"I worry about my friends," she answered stiffly.

"Yeah I don't think that's it. Like… why did I have to say to a guy: _Rowan Pierce is always right?_ "

"Oh for godsake, fine, fine, I'm psychic," Rowan told him and the silence hit his room again.

"Your…" he started before laughing. "Okay but like… you got yourself kidnapped…"

"I don't dream of anything useful. I dream about Steven's cases."

"You're right, that is not useful."

"Yeah, makes for great nightmares. Thought they'd stop if I wasn't you know… around him… or even on the island but uh… I'm still getting them and I can't even warn them…"

"Wait so like… you're serious about this?" he asked turning to her and Rowan propped herself up, got herself off of him and then kept herself up by her elbows and looked at him.

"I know. I know it's ridiculous. But… I walked into a hostage situation, a hostage situation that Sandy hadn't picked up yet, on my own, cause I knew he was going to take out my friend's teeth. It wasn't a guess, I knew if I didn't go he'd take her teeth out."

Conejo found himself sitting up to stare at her. "Okay… so… when I stabbed Coughlin with a pen…"

"I told him a year before that if he got Gabriel out of jail to go for Chin, he'd end with a pen in his eye. To be fair Gabriel was supposed to do it…"

"But I stopped him and I did it instead," he finished. "Huh… So… what was the last one about?"

"Oh, uhm… body parts in suitcases… I think it's a serial killer that's taking certain body parts to make his ideal girl," she said. "And he's going to stab Steve."

Conejo nodded. "You seem quite upset about that…"

"Well of course I do… I lo… I cared about him, you know?" she said avoiding his eyes now. Wow, she had said it before but it was really starting to hit him. She had really loved McGarrett huh? Guess getting over him was going to take even longer than he thought.

"Alright, do you uh… do you got a date for when all this is gonna go down or has it already or?"

"Usually I don't, but I do now, it's gonna happen on Halloween," she said. "I even know the address for the cabin. My dreams aren't usually that accurate, not sure why they're so strong now."

Though Conejo was just baffled by where this conversation had gone, he didn't question it. Girl was psychic. Deal with the information and move on. "Wow, that's good. So it's gonna happen in like three days? Did you put it into the app?"

"No, Wo doesn't want Sandy to track him," she whispered and he nodded.

"I mean, that's fair… he kinda… you know… jumped into it with another girl right after you got taken. While you were in that basement actually, and uh… he dumped you… so you know… maybe he needs a little stabbing. Maybe if he loses a little blood he'll smarten up."

Rowan carefully looked away from him as she said: "Just cause he didn't want me doesn't mean I want him to get hurt."

Well that was stupid. "I'm down for him getting hurt," he told her. Rowan's lips twitched but she said nothing and Conejo sighed. "I could… put one of my guys on him if you'd like. Make sure that uh… he doesn't get stabbed. Would you like that? Would that put a smile back on that face of yours?" Rowan was already smiling, turning it towards him he found himself smiling too. "There it is. There's that smile."

As she leant into kiss him, Conejo had to keep himself very still. He couldn't help it. She had said _her_ name and it was like it had conjured her ghost into his room and it was always so hard to be with someone else with _her_ memory lingering around him. Luckily all she wanted was that kiss, and right after that she was sneaking out of his room before Wo Fat could find out she was in there.

Conejo pulled out his phone to make that call she wanted him to make, to put someone on Steven McGarrett for the time being. God what was his life becoming?

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan sat at the couch with her pancakes for lunch her guitar beside her, her music on the table. She had finished the song she entitled _Cry Pretty_ and was working on another one. It was sad, but even apart Steven McGarrett was still her muse. She had never had so much inspiration in her life.

"Hey Ro," Wo Fat said coming in in a rush with Conejo hot on his heels. He had left with Conejo that morning, another bout of business which meant that Rowan was sequestered in the hotel again. She was actually contemplating going to the gym just to have something to do.

"Hey I thought you guys were gonna be gone all day?" she called as the two of them disappeared into their rooms.

"Pack, Rowan," Conejo barked at her. "Pack now and pack fast."

Wo came out of his room with a map and slapped it down in front of her. "Choose where you want to go next. It's not that big of a rush but it is a bit of a hurry," he said. "And definitely start packing soon."

Rowan looked at the map in front of her. She couldn't focus on picking a place to go when her boys were running around all wild. Rowan got up off of the couch and scampered into Wo Fat's room to watch him throw everything into his own suitcase without carefully pressing any of his suits. Oh, damn maybe this was serious.

"What's going on?"

"Nothing," he said a little too quickly. "Have you picked already?"

Rowan blinked her eyes watching as he folded his favourite Armani suit into fours and threw it into his bag. Rowan immediately moved to rescue it.

"Something's happened if you're going to ruin your favourite suit with creases," she said only to have him rip it out of her hands and shove it back into the bag.

"I'm done, I'mma pack her up," Conejo called rushing out of his room and past Wo Fat's to hers no doubt to back. Rowan watched him go and then turned back to Wo Fat with an expectant glare. The man needed to stop lying to her. She put her hands on her hips and glared as he just held her gaze.

Groaning he said: "Alright, look, we may or may not have a situation that may or may not need us to run…." "—why the _hell_ does she have so many fucking shoes? How do these all fucking fit in these suitcases?" Conejo cried from the other room and Wo Fat sighed. "Okay so we definitely need to run."

"What the hell did you do?"

"Uh… well… I may have killed an undercover cop," he said and then paused. "Okay I killed an undercover cop. So we gotta go, like now. Have you picked a place?"

"Uh….."

"Fine we're going to Berlin, I have business there anyway."

"ORIENT EXPRESS!" Rowan suddenly shouted which cause Wo Fat to jump and Conejo to swear in the other room and drop something. "Sorry," she said quickly. "Please, please, please can we go on the Orient Express? Oh please? Oh please?"

Wo Fat just stared at her almost exasperated. "The what?"

"The Orient Express, it's a train, it goes to Berlin, it's famous, it was in a Hercule Poirot book."

"Whatever, yes, fine I will look up particulars, can you please just uh… go help him pack?"

"Yep, yes, I can do that, thank you," she cried hugging him tightly before rushing off.

As she ran it occurred to her that she probably should have been a little bit more concerned about the fact that he had just confessed that he killed an undercover cop, or anyone for that matter. But she figured if it got her on the Orient Express, she just wouldn't care.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve came out of the shower to the chirrup of his phone getting a message. That same no number. This time it was sending him a video.

Steeling himself for another update on Rowan he opened up the clip. This one must have been old, because her cast was back on and he could see the faded bruising along her face and on the one bare shoulder he could see.

She was standing with her back to Trevi Fountain. Her face was still darkened from bruises, her arm still in a cast. For some reason, it looked like some of her bruises were fresher than others, but that wouldn't make sense unless someone had been beating her again and Wo Fat wouldn't have let that happen… right? She was wearing this flowing off-shoulder burgundy top and a pair of khaki green shorts and she was just standing there with her hands to her lips. The second he pressed play Rowan brought her hands away from her lips, she closed her eyes, clasped her hands to her heart and then tossed what was probably a coin over her head and into the water. When she turned her eyes back to the camera she hit him with a sultry gaze and his stomach dropped while his heart soared.

On the one hand he'd give anything to have her hit me with her _come fuck me eyes_ on more time, but on the other hand he knew that this video was taken by Wo Fat and therefore she had been giving _him_ the _come fuck me eyes_.

Why? Why would she look at him like that? She wasn't… she wasn't _with_ him, was she? It would explain why he had a video of her in bed.

His heart cracked a fraction more, his chest practically caved in under the pain of it. He sat down on his bed, that video on loop, his heart in his mouth. He couldn't keep doing this to himself.

He couldn't keep himself in pain for ever. Rowan had moved on, she had moved on without him. Loving her was killing him, and he couldn't… he couldn't hold onto it forever.

Maybe it was time that he too, moved on. Maybe that would heal the damage dealt to him by Rowan Pierce. He wasn't sure it would, but it wouldn't hurt to try right?

Exiting out of the video, Steve toyed with the idea of deleting the video altogether… maybe he'd even delete her contact and all the pictures of them together. And though, ultimately, he found he couldn't delete her from his phone, he did decide that it was time he got back on the horse and maybe that would lead to him finally being able to delete her from his phone, his heart and his mind.


	222. Chapter 222

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hello My wonderful readers. How are you guys on this wonderful 4th day of the 12 days of Christmas Marathon? You'll be happy to know that I made it Bahamas and even happier to know that we have two chapters in a row that are from Hawaii and Steve's perspective. Oh, and the Grover's, y'all are going to see the Grover's. We also have Lynn's first appearance, I did mention she was going to be around, but she won't be sticking around so nobody panic yet. Don't forget to leave me a review and I'll see you guys tomorrow._

Chapter 222

* * *

Steve was regretting telling his team his plans for the day. He had noticed the stares of surprise when he had announced his plan and expected that it would Danny who showed up on his door step to try and talk him out of what they all thought was a bad idea. What he got instead was Grover and his wife, ready to talk him out of it.

Great, even Danny was done with his shit.

Though, try as they might, Steve had decided and there was no changing his mind. No matter how much he didn't want to, deep down in his heart, or how much logic the Grover's were throwing out at him. And to keep them from noticing how unsold he was about his own plan for the day he kept himself busy with loading up his truck with all he'd need for the day while he waited for the other person he was going with.

"So, you're sure about this?" Renee asked while she and Grover followed after him down the walkway to the truck.

"You know who you two sound like, right?" he shot back instead of answering the question. He didn't know how many times he could lie about being sure about this, because he wasn't and he was certain that Renee had seen through his lies.

"Don't answer that Renee," Grover warned just as Renee asked: "Who?"

"Danny Williams."

"I told you not to ask," Grover said with a sigh and got a curt look from his wife.

"Listen to me," she said as Steve threw his flippers into the back of the truck. "We understand. We get it. Now you've had a little heart break and you wanna get back on the horse, you wanna move on from Rowan…"

Steve froze the second they said her name, but he was getting better at shrugging off those frozen moments. That pieces of time that stilled whenever he heard her name and all the memories, the good and the bad came back to him.

With his backpack on his back and his white tank top with the burgundy trim getting a little moist in the Hawaiian heat, he turned to Renee to smile at her. To try and ensure her that he was okay, and he was ready for this, no matter how worried for them they were.

"Stop already," he said softly to her. "Listen to me. Ellie introduced me to Lynn. She seemed very nice. This is a get-to-know-you thing. I asked her out on a date to get to know her. Okay? That's all it is."

Except it wasn't cause he had picked a girl who was the exact opposite of Rowan cause he figured it would be easier that way.

He was tired of pretended that he wasn't waiting for those random long distant calls. So he could sit there and pretend like maybe this time she'll talk to him, ask if she could come home, instead of hanging up the phone the second he asked if it were her.

It was to the point where he would just sit their listening to silence, knowing it was her on the other line, just wanting to hear her voice, to hear something. He needed to get away from that. He needed to stop using it as a crutch. She was moving on, evident by the fact that she had Wo Fat in her bed, god he didn't even want to think about it. It was time for him to move on too.

"And I got no argument with any of that," Renee said. "I just think it's going way too fast! I don't think you're ready to do that. I think you need to give yourself more time to heal, right Lou?"

"Let's look at it this way," Grover said. "You're a Navy SEAL right? What is the first rule of any op? Always have an exit strategy."

"Exit strategy, Lou what the hell are you talking about?"

"Just hear me out. He's gonna go to some deserted island with this woman and they're gonna do their snorkeling or whatever, when he's done, whether he likes her or not, he's stuck with her for the whole day. I mean, whatever happened to just going out for coffee?"

"That's what you're upset about?" Renee snapped. "That if the date goes bad he won't be able to get away from her? Lou, that is not what we came here for."

"No, that's what _you_ didn't come here for. I know we ain't talking him out of it, I'm just trying to keep him on the goddamn island!"

"Lou we both know that he's not doing well since Rowan left. You tell me about it every night, remember? How he never seems to get better then out of nowhere— _bam_ —he has a date. Didn't he do the same thing with Catherine? Deluding himself into thinking proposing to some other girl was going to make him feel better?"

WOW! He did not think that he was that bad but clearly he was so very _wrong._ He couldn't listen to that conversation anymore, luckily the lucky lady of the day had arrived, driving up in her grey jeep. Not as cool of a car as Rowan's but still pretty bad ass. A girl who was into off-roading by the looks of it, this _really was_ his kind of girl.

She honked to him as she pulled up, and he waved to her, happy to have some sort of distraction from the argument that was about him and his deteriorating state behind him.

"Yeah but this isn't a proposal, right, you're not gonna propose right?" Grover asked and that was Steve forced back into the conversation.

"Course not," he answered absently as he watched Lynn get out of her truck. She was wearing a tan fedora with a black trim on top of her bleached blonde beach waved hair. She was in a light blue tank top that bared her midriff and a pair of skin tight light blue ripped jean shorts. And she looked damn fine climbing out of that jeep. For a moment he forgot everything, he just appreciated the view.

"Is that her?" Grover asked and got a _yeah_ from Steve. "Forget what I just said. I don't know what the hell I'm talking about. You should go to that island. You and her, the two of you, have a good time. Maybe not come back. You should stay forever. I would stay forever. I mean like forever-ever"

But Renee slapped his chest. "You might have to go with them and live on that damn deserted island you keep talking like that," she snapped to her husband.

"How's it going?" Steve asked as he approached her.

"Pretty good," she answered grinning at him as she looked him up and down in an appreciative sort of way. Yes she liked what she saw, that was a good sign.

"Let me take that," he offered taking her little straw backpack and the cooler she had brought with her.

He let her climb into his truck before Renee grabbed him, holding onto him tightly by his forearms, her face turned up to his imploringly. "Listen to me, McGarrett, a pretty face isn't going to fix this. She's just gonna distract you for a little bit. When everything's done and you're all alone, that feeling you think you're gonna chase away by being with this new girl is going to come back and when it does it's gonna hurt even more," she warned.

"There's nothing wrong with a little distraction," Grover chided and she turned on him.

"That boy is properly hurting, Lou, and a pretty face is just a band-aid and you know it! He needs to grieve, properly and fully before he can let go and move on to greener pastures."

"The man's been grieving for five months. What's he supposed to do? Grieve forever? Rowan left him. She's not ever coming back."

Why did it still hurt to hear that? Why did it still hurt when people reminded him that Rowan had left him? Why wasn't he over it yet? It had been so long. Why did it still feel like it had happened yesterday?

"Well I don't believe that and I don't think Steve wants Rowan to come back and find him taken," Renee snapped with her arms cross over her chest.

"Then she shouldn't have left him for his nemesis," Grover argued, another good point.

"Look, you guys, thanks for coming. Thanks for caring, but uh… I'm gonna go," Steve said to them before they could harsh his mood even more. "You uh… you tell me how this ends huh? I'd love to know who wins."

As he hopped up into the truck he did his best to close his ears to the argument that continued even as he was revving up his engine. Maybe whoever won would have the answer to helping him heal his shattered heart.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Lynn had taken him snorkelling at a spot she used to frequent as a child. It was a little reef just outside this uninhabited island that she used to hike with her brothers and grandfather. The plan was to snorkel and then go for a bit of a hike. Two things he could have never done with Rowan.

They actually had fun. He and Lynn saw a lot of pretty fish, a sting ray, a few dolphins, and she had no problem keeping up with him. He never could have brought Rowan here, as the ocean kept trying to kill her and he would have had to worry about the whole time.

But swimming beside Lynn reminded him that he would have loved to have Rowan out there with him, in her little bikini because she would have loved every second of it. She would have asked him a million different questions about each and every fish they saw, and she would listen to his long winded answers with rapt interest because she was actually interested in it. And they could have made out in the waves, they would have been making out by now, the wave rocking them back and forth with Steve holding them both up probably effortlessly.

Then came the hike and he loved that too because the view was great and his company wasn't bitching. He could have never brought Rowan on this hike, she would have fallen by now, she would have been complaining more than Danny, she probably would have hit her head by now. But he would have loved to have her there because Rowan would have loved this view. Because if she were here with him they would have already been down on the grass making love.

Fuck maybe Renee was right, maybe Lynn was just a band-aid.

"Steve," "Huh?" he said turning around after being jerked out of his thoughts. Lynn had her phone out and was smiling at him as she said: "Smile!"

The camera clicked and she looked at the picture on her phone. "We're gonna have to take another one."

"Why are you gonna have to take another one?" he asked though he knew why. He hadn't been ready. The picture was probably terrible.

"It kinda looks like you photobombed a Peter Lik."

"Okay alright, I'm ready this time," he said.

"Okay, say cheese," she ordered and he did what she said, arms outstretched wide like he was celebrating and humoring her with the exclamation of a solid dairy product so he had no choice but to smile.

After taking that picture she smiled at the photo and he leant over the phone to take a look at the picture. "How's that?" he asked.

"I'd say that's a keeper," she said with a cheesy grin.

"Let me see," he said taking the phone. "That's a good photo. Here, I'll take one of you." The exchanged spots but he gave her more time to set herself up than she gave him. "Now, I'm a gentleman. I'm gonna give you time to get ready, do what you need to do." To humor his teasing she tousled her hair a few more times. Steve tried to ignore how similar that motion was to when Rowan would get herself photo worthy for their pictures. "Beautiful. You ready?"

She posed, he set up the photograph and then took the picture. Please with his little prank he handed her back her phone while trying to hide his smile.

"Here what do you think of that?" He asked as she looked it over. Rowan would have been scowling at him by now, playfully scowling and laughing at him. While Lynn giggled at it, it wasn't the same. "What are you laughing at?"

The photo that Steve had taken was of the view, and the top of her head. It was a joke, it was supposed to be funny. By now Rowan would have smacked him and then that would have devolved into playful rough housing and they'd end up back on that fucking grass again. Instead he got a: "Very funny," from Lynn, which meant that she really didn't find it all that funny but she was prepared to humour him.

"Fine, I'll take another one."

"You are done taking photos for the day," she teased.

"You gotta be in one photograph," he urged, if only so he could send it to Danny to make him drool.

"I will. That's why God invented the selfie." Immediately she tucked into his side, her arm coming around his waist, her head tucking in under his chin like Rowan used to do. Steve couldn't escape the echo. He must have been making a face because she asked: "Unless you object."

"I do not," he said quickly fixing his face accordingly. He leant into the girl beside him and tried his very best to smile. As soon as she took the picture he was reaching for the phone to see how it turned it out.

"Let me see that," he said taking the phone and everything in him froze. Because it looked exactly like all the other selfie photos that he and Rowan had ever taken, except it wasn't that red-to-blonde faded head that was tucked under his chin, it wasn't Rowan's sea blue eyes staring back at him.

"I can erase it if you don't like it."

"Why would you erase it? It's a great photo, it's perfect. Send it to me actually, I've got a few friends to make jealous," he said handing her back her phone. "Okay, you know what? We should head back."

"Wait, I know a short cut to the beach."

"You do?" he asked in a humouring kind of way but he was prepared to follow her anywhere. Anything to get rid of the echoes following him around.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

They walked in what Steve thought was amicable silence for a while, while Lynn kept glancing back at him. He sort of wanted to know what she had on her mind, but Steve was too lost in his own ghosts to try and detect what could be wrong with the girl on his date.

"I heard your friends you know," she said after they had been walking for a while. "Who is that girl they were talking about?"

Steve came to a complete stand still. Son of a bitch. He didn't want to talk about Rowan right now, he didn't want her haunting him further, and he _really_ didn't want this girl knowing how bad it was.

"Oh, that's a face I haven't seen before. Can tell it's not a good one though," Lynn said with a playful wince having realized that she had hit dangerous territory. "You don't have to tell me, they just seemed pretty concerned and uh… I guess I'd like to know what I'm getting into."

He had options here. He could tell the truth, but telling the truth… well that wouldn't help. It would only remind him that he missed Rowan. That he wanted Rowan back and that Lynn was not the girl he wanted to be with. And that would not lead to a second date that Steve so desperately needed to prove to everyone and himself that he was finally getting over Rowan.

"No… it's not that… you have a right to know it's just… I'm not sure it's first date appropriate…" Steve muttered, but when he got a dark glare from her he relented. "Fine. Cliffnotes. My ex uh… my ex, Catherine, came back from Afghanistan, and uh… instead of staying like I wanted her too, she left me to run helo drops over in Nepal or something. There's obviously more to it, but yeah, that's basically it."

It was also a complete and utter lie and he was a little worried that she didn't believe him, because she was making a very strange face as she looked around.

"But uh… I don't see why that story would have you making that face," he said. "What's up?"

Lynn looked around at her surroundings. "We should've been there by now," she admitted. Great she had gotten them lost while he was spilling his heart… okay kind of.

Steve tried very hard not to panic. "You don't recognize this?"

"No."

Right, total honesty. Love it. All Rowan ever did was lie. The honesty was completely refreshing. "Alright, well maybe you got turned around or something."

"I'm sorry," she said with a wince.

"It doesn't matter. You know what? We just need to turn around and come back the way we came."

"Like I said, it's been a long time," she said with a sigh. Yes that was true. The last time she had been here was with her grandfather. But he honestly wasn't mad, he could get them out of this, no problem.

Problem was, he noticed something strange in the underbrush and the detective in him was immediately curious.

"What? What are you looking at?" Lynn asked.

"That," Steve said pointing to the white in the underbrush. "Do you see that?"

"Yeah what is that?" Lynn asked but Steve didn't answer which left her to follow him over to it. It took some looking, but once he established he was looking at a tarp covered and held up by branches he was busy trying to peak under it. He recognized that metal body anywhere.

"It's a plane," he told her. He threw a few upended trees away and then tugged on the tarp until it fell, revealing the plane underneath. Steve took it in carefully.

"This thing's intact. I mean, it's pristine," he said as if that would make sense to her. Rowan wouldn't have gotten it anyway, he'd have to explain and he was so used to that he did it before giving Lynn a chance to prove herself. "There's no way it crash-landed here."

"So, what's it doing here?" she asked. Ooohh, good question. Steve had the same question himself. But he couldn't answer her because as soon as she got that question out of her mouth they were being shot at. Steve grabbed her, forced her low and then forced her to run, and to keep running.

Together they crashed through the underbrush with some strange man following them firing off shots at them and luckily missing them both. They took a moment to hide from him in the bushes, they waited for him to move on, Steve had to press a hand to Lynn's mouth to keep her whimpering under control.

Once the guy had moved on and Steve had gotten Lynn calm, he hit her with the plan. Find their boat. Get home. Have him get back up, his team, suit up with his gun and he'd come back and storm the place.

Once they were certain he wasn't around them, Steve got her running again and with him at the lead not only did they find the shore, they found their boat. The problem was, when they got there, their boat was clearly visible, because it was on fire.

Their boat was on fire.

Steve and Lynn stared at the scene breathlessly for a moment before Lynn whispered: "That boat was our only way off the island."

Yeah, yeah, now they were screwed.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Once he established that the boat was not a viable way off the island and Lynn was spiralling further into her panic, Steve had to come up with a plan of action and fast. His plan was to head back inland to the plane, firstly to try and figure out who was attacking them, secondly to try and find supplies that could help them, and thirdly because he figured the guy chasing them wouldn't expect them to return to the plane.

It didn't take much to convince Lynn, as she was too panicked to come up with a viable plan of attack herself. When they got to the plane, he got them up and into it and he took in the scene to figure out what was going on.

It was a prisoner transport plane, as there was a set of cuffs, but they weren't forced. Someone had let their prisoner go. He went to the cock pit, there was no way to fly the plane, but he found the information he needed to put the rest together. The transponder was turned off, according to the flight manifest the plane was from Manila, heading for Long beach California, it flew out in 2011. It took some time but he remembered a Boston Mob Boss who was picked up in the Philippines, and was to be transported to Long Beach for the prison there and to stand trial. Steve was pretty sure his name was Dennis Logan.

The plane had been reported as downed somewhere in the Hawaii region. There had been a search but nothing had come up, and why would it? He and Lynn had been right beside it and they barely saw it. So what had happened? The guy had been loaded, so clearly he had paid everyone to let him go and he had been hiding out here on this island.

Too bad the plane hadn't given him anything useful, other than the backstory he needed, just a flare and a flashlight. But when they dismounted from the plane Logan was on them again and they had to run again, but Steve wasn't going to just run, he was going to fight.

They got back to the falls they had to climb to get to the plane, he hid Lynn behind the tree and then climbed up into the branches. He waited until Logan came into view before jumped out of the tree and onto him. He was lucky, Logan was heard before he was seen, he had a walkie-talkie where a female voice kept coming out of asking him if he had found them. That had been how Steve knew that it was Logan coming out from h underbrush and not an animal.

The two grappled for a bit and in the fight he lost his knife but Logan lost his gun. Logan managed to elbow Steve in the face, splitting his temple open as Lynn went to get Steve's knife back. She got a little too close to the fight and Logan shoved her, sending her flying into the rocks. Okay, no more Mr. Nice Steve.

He threw Logan away from him, and the guy came back at him with a machete. Well fucking hell that wasn't fair. Steve had to tuck and roll to evade him, and then his back was to the cliff's drop off. He could use that to his advantage.

"What are you doing here?" Logan snarled, he was breathless, clearly not prepared for a hand to hand combat with someone like Steve. There were prison tattoos on the man's neck, so he was more and more certain that this was Dennis Logan the supposed dead Boston Mob Boss.

"Stand down and I'll tell you," Steve sassed back, a sass level that Danny would have been proud of. Logan raised that machete of his and charged him, but Steve was ready. He deflected the machete that was aimed for his shoulder and then tripped the guy and shoved him right over the cliff side and into the water below.

He looked over, waited to see if the guy was going to resurface and behind him Lynn groaned. Damn, Lynn, she must have been hurt. He quickly returned to her side, pulling her up and towards him while looking her all over.

She was bleeding. From her head.

"You're bleeding," he said to Lynn. He tried to take a better look at it but she was ducking his hands and trying to look around as if Logan was going to climb up over that cliff so soon after being thrown over it.

"Come on, let me see Ro," he ordered as he looked it up and down. It looked deep, it looked like she'd need stitches, but he was relieved, because he had a lot of practice with head wounds. He quickly ripped a stripped of the multi colored flannel shirt Rowan had bought him for Christmas last year to make a strip of gauze for Lynn's head. He was loathed to do it but she needed some kind of bandage.

She winced as he tied it to her head and he winced too. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry but we gotta keep pressure on it."

As he continued to fuss with her bandage she asked: "Who's Ro?" Steve paused. What? Where… where did that come from? She read the confusion on his face and then elaborated: "You called me Ro."

Had he? Fuck. "Oh Ro… Catherine Rollins… I called her Cath, or Ro… she was always hitting her head and that uh… that must have brought it back. Sorry. But hey, at least I've got the practice, right?"

She half laughed at his joke to humour him and he sighed, yeah, he deserved that.

"Did you hear that walkie-talkie on his belt?" he asked. "I think he has a partner."

"Great, so even if that tumble over the cliffs killed him, we have a partner to worry about?"

Yeah that was exactly what that meant. But that didn't matter at that moment, because in the distance they heard the rumble of an engine. A boat engine. A very large boat engine. They exchanged a glance and Steve didn't have to say anything, both of them took off to follow the noise, they might be saved.


	223. Chapter 223

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hello my wonderful readers. So we're back with a fifth installment of the 12 Days of Christmas Marathon. It's the magical Conclusion of the Steve chapters. We will be back with Rowan tomorrow, but I promise it'll be interesting. I did a lot of research about the places Rowan's going to be visiting so everything that's being mentioned, for the most part anyway. So I hope you enjoy all the little details I've been putting in. Don't forget to leave me a review, and I'll see you guys tomorrow._

Chapter 223

* * *

Steve had never wanted Sandy back more in life. He missed her computerized voice. He missed how useful she was, and right now, right now he would have loved nothing more than to announce that he was Captain America and he was activating the Sanctuary Network. It hadn't really worked the last time he tried that. He did know that Wo Fat had actually actively attempted to get him out of that shot up barber shop, the bad guys just ignored the app, which he knew rarely happened. He had a feeling that if it had been Rowan in that barber shop instead of him, they wouldn't have ignored shit.

He was sort of holding out hope that Kong had lied and Sandy was tracking him too, but, you know, after what happened with Rowan, he knew there was no way Wo Fat would send anyone to help. Rowan… maybe… but it was a hard maybe.

Steve was on his knees in the sand. Lynn, too was on her knees beside him. Neither of them had a choice, the men with the guns had forced them there.

The boat that had pulled up was literally right beside the shell of their burnt-out rental boat Steve was not going to get the deposit back on. It was much larger than theirs, and had a crew. Just three men that Steve could see. Steve figured they saw the boat on fire, and came to see what was going on.

But when he and Lynn raced out onto that beach waving their arms and crying for help, they had been met with submachine guns and assault rifles. He realized right away as he skidded to a stop, trying to shield Lynn from these men that he had not read this situation right, at all.

They were on their knees on that beach for five minutes before a fourth man came out from the below deck and carefully disembarked from the boat with a giant grin on his face. He was dressed in typical play-boy millionaire yachting clothes, all white and stripes and off-centered nautical themed ascot. He even had the typical fake captain's hat. His face was round and brown, and not just from sun exposure, he was shorter than Steven and slightly rounder. His eyes hidden by aviators, but a lovely smile was on his face that he didn't understand.

"Hello Commander McGarrett," the man cried his arms outstretched as if he was greeting a friend, but Steve had no idea who this was. But they knew his name? My god they knew his name. This could be either really good or really bad.

"Steve, do you know these people?" Lynn asked in a soft whisper, clearly still freaking out as she was shaking again. He couldn't answer instead he shook his head.

"Look… there's a man on the island… he's… he's trying to kill us," he said. "But if we… if we work together we'll outnumber him."

"Uh-huh?" the captain said not really listening. Instead standing strangely close to Lynn and looking her up and down with a strange look on his face. "Pretty girl you got there. Your uh… your other girl know about her?"

Other girl? What other girl? What was this guy talking about? He tried not to look at Lynn, he didn't know how to explain this, he just… he just didn't. This screamed of app and Rowan but he also knew neither gave a shit about him anymore. So what was happening right now? What the hell was going on.

Behind them came a round of applause. Steve turned to take in Logan walking up, a little banged up, a little damp but otherwise alright. Beside him was a woman, looking as rugged as him, she too sporting a nice piece of assault rifle. She clearly knew Logan, so he was guessing his wife. She had gone missing shortly after he did after all, she must have met him here.

He walked onto that beach with a swagger in his step and he took in Steve and Lynn on their knees with those men with guns around them. He probably figured himself saved. That he was with his own people, which… well… was starting to look more and more like the case.

This wasn't how Steve wanted to go. But he also didn't have a plan to get out of this. Would they let him make one last phone call? Just to… hear _her_ voice one more time? To tell her he was sorry, that none of what happened had been entirely her fault and that she had been perfect.

"Thank you for catching them for us…" Logan said before halting as the men's weapons raised again. He took in the guns and took a step back, a hand out to ward his own girl away. "Now wait a second… I don't know what he's told you… but I've got… money… lots of it…"

Oh god. They were screwed. The captain of the boat tilted his head to the side "I've already made a deal," he said which was cryptic and weird. He smiled strangle at Logan and asked: "Just one question, Haole… you… uh… are you Dennis Logan?"

The man was stunned, and why wouldn't he be? Because he probably wasn't expecting them to know his name, Steve sure as hell wasn't.

He got half of: "Uh… yeah…" and then all the men started shooting. Steve threw himself over Lynn without a second thought, trying to shield her from any oncoming bullets. He kept his arms around her and his head down as the bullets continued to pop off until.

When they were done, when there was nothing but silence on that beach, Steve stiffly pushed himself up. Logan and the woman he was with were dead. The men with the guns seemed to think him not a threat because they had lowered their guns now that Logan was dead. He turned back to the captain, not sure what to do, not sure what had happened, not sure what was going to happen next.

"What did you… what did you do that for?" Steve asked. "What… what are you doing?"

"This is a rescue mission," the captain said. But Steve was silent for a moment.

"A what?" he echoed. Standing up to face him.

The captain blinked his eyes as if he didn't understand. "Uh… well I thought it was rather straight forward. This is a rescue mission. We're here to rescue you."

"Rescue me? Why would you… why would you want to rescue me?" Steve thundered but when the man couldn't answer he rounded on him. "Why did you do this?" Steve shouted into his face. He didn't know why a bunch of apparent criminals would just show up and rescue him if they knew exactly who he was. "Why are you here? Why would you _help me_?"

But the captain just stared at him, at first a little bit like Steve was crazy and then his face changed, settling into a passive mask of calm as he said: "We're your Rowan-gram."

All the air left his body. A Rowan-gram. Rowan had sent him a Rowan-gram, why would she do that? Why would she do that? She was supposed to not care, he was supposed to be getting over her and then she does something this.

"What's a Rowan-gram?" Lynn asked.

Steve almost answered but he didn't know how to explain that an ex he had never told her about sent a crew of pirates to save him.

"The app's not tracking me, that's what he said. Everyone but me."

The man shrugged. "All I know was the orders came today. Come out to the island. Shoot the escaped mob guy, let you take the boat back."

Oh god that was so like her. She had info that no one else could have known and instead of calling him like a normal person she went and sent a crew of criminals to act on her knowledge. She was still having visions, so much for being normal when he's not around. "Show me."

The man produced his phone and showed it to him. It wasn't the app though.

The first was a text message: _Hey Chico, got a job off the app that has to stay on the DL. Got Five-0 involved but it's a PRO request and she's willing to shell out 1.4m on it. Interested?_

1.4 million dollars. That's how much rescuing him was going to cost Rowan. Seeing as it hadn't gone through her app he figured she was shelling out her own dollars for this. That's how much his life was worth to her, 1.4 million dollars. That… that was more than he made in a year.

But what the hell did that mean?

He scrolled down through the rest of the conversation. Once Chico, or the captain, had said yes, another text had come in.

It was just a simple text with the coordinates and a bit of a description. Told them where on the island Steve was, that Logan would try to buy them off, and they were to identify themselves as a Rowan-gram. The PRO request was the first clue but the Rowan-gram solidified it. It really was her, but it wasn't coming through the app, which meant… which meant she did this without Wo Fat's knowledge. But why? She left him, why was she still doing this?

"Do you know where Professional is?"

"Nope. No one knows that," he said.

"What country code is this?"

"I unno… I aint no expert…"

"Well you know who this is, whoever this is didn't just text you out of the blue, they've contacted you before…"

"Okay… yeah… That's Sin Nombre's contact. We uh… we've heard that he's her new personal body guard. Didn't think it was true cause Sin Nombre picks his jobs carefully, and that doesn't seem like his thing, you know?"

Sin Nombre was with Rowan? Really? Who was Sin Nombre. "Who is that? What are you talking about?"

"Sin Nombre. He's this bad ass assassin, never failed a job. And he'll whack anything except kids. He's picky though. You gotta pay him a lot of dough or have something real interesting to get him on your job. We all heard that Fat's got some money issues right now, so it's probably not money that's keeping him on your girl." Steve glared at him. What the hell did that mean? What other reason would a skilled assassin who only took interesting or lucrative jobs want a job where you literally had to babysit Rowan?

Also… if Wo Fat was having money issues how was he paying to take care of Rowan?

"You can track it if you want but it's a burner. And you can't use the app to access location either, you know in case you wanna avoid her, that was a useful function once upon a time."

Steve stared at the Captain. He had obviously taken that silence as a bad as Steve attempting to come up with a plan. But he still didn't know what to say to the man he had in front of him so instead he handed the phone back.

"Says he'll pay you extra if you get arrested."

The man grinned. "Yep."

"Then clear off."

"As much as I'd like to, Commander, I can't. Because if I do clear off I'm taking the boat which leaves you stranded. And I don't get paid till you get back on the mainland."

Well son of a fucking bitch. He was going to have to hitch a ride with criminals.

"Fine! Fine, we will accept the ride, but that's it, you got me? That. Is. It!"

"So, you don't want any of the ice cold water we brought or the first aid we got below…"

Okay he was going to shut up now cause this man was about as smugly obnoxious as Wo Fat. He turned back to Lynn, he didn't know how to explain this so he just offered her a hand and said: "It's safe, trust me."

She put her hand in his without a second hesitation and then he handed her up into the boat. As soon as he was up there with her she leaned against him, probably more for protection and comfort and less because she was hitting on him.

"Are you going to tell me what's going on?" Lynn asked but Steve couldn't bring himself to answer her.

"I… it's… you know it's a long story and uh… it's for another day," he said. "Let's just… let's just go home."

And my god did he really, really want to go home.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Surprisingly, despite everything, Lynn had agreed to go on a second date with him. Why was beyond him, but she had decided that this first date was eventful and she'd love to try a normal date… where they weren't trying to outrun gunman. Just coffee for the second date. Nice and easy.

That was what he had wanted with Rowan once upon a time. Something nice and easy. But he knew, if Rowan was with him during that chase on the island he would have had to worry about her falling down or taking one of those gunmen on on her own. Though to be fair, she would have just activated her phone and then those guys would have run.

He gave her such a hard time but he missed it. And he still missed her. But he couldn't bring himself to keep missing her, not when she was around the world having fun without him, possibly in a relationship with Wo Fat.

He needed to let go of her to move on. To have a future with someone else. And in order to do that she would have to let go too. Because coming to his rescue, no matter how appreciative he was, merely reminded him of everything he missed and how he'd _never_ be able to find her, no matter how hard he tried.

He showered the rest of the day off of him and came out of the shower to that phone ringing again. That empty blank number staring at him.

For a moment he couldn't move, too afraid to answer. He wondered if he'd let it go to voicemail, it would be good if it did, but he couldn't stop himself from lurching forward to answer it.

"McGarrett?" he asked almost breathlessly, knowing what was coming and still not sure if he was going to be able to do it. He waited for an answer but just got silence as per usual.

"Rowan?" he asked waiting for the click and this time didn't hear it. She was still on the line. Taking a deep breath, he steeled himself as he made the most painful decision he had ever made in his life. "Rowan this has to stop. Thank you for helping us, thank you for saving me, but I need you to stop. I need you to let go. Can you do that for me? Can you let me move on please?"

There was a beat of silence and for a minute he thought the call had ended but then he heard the breathy: "I'm sorry," in her voice. It was the first time he had heard her voice since the phone call and he just couldn't handle it. A lump rose into his throat because before he could tell her that he didn't actually want to move on she had hung up the phone and the conversation was over.

Steve stood there looking at the phone in his hand. Now that it was done, he didn't feel free. It felt like the final end of their relationship. After this… he'd probably never hear or see from her again. And he didn't want that. But he couldn't fix it now.

He had made the wrong choice. Again.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Grover and Renee had argued all day. They argued about how the date was going to go, they argued about whether or not she was prettier than Rowan, and they argued about whether or not this was going to work.

Renee was certain that this was just a band aid fix and it would make Steve worse. But Grover was certain that this was a step in the right direction in making Steven better, I getting him over Rowan.

They argued so much that the two of them actually went to separate parts of the house, with Renee shouting that he was on the couch that night. Grover would have been more mad except he was certain that he was right, one hundred percent right… or at least there was a 75% chance he was right, and he couldn't wait to call McGarrett up and ask him how it went.

And then someone rang the doorbell.

Grover had answered assuming someone in his house ordered food without telling him and now expected him to pay for it. What he got was a very out of sorts looking McGarrett. The man may not have liked talking about his emotions but he sure as hell wore them on his face.

Tonight's look was a watery one. The kind of one that he wore before he had one of his outbursts about his heart ache over a girl who hadn't deserved a lot of the cards she was dealt, and in Lou's opinion one of those cards was Steven's heart. But that look on his face… that shot his 75% chance of being right right out of the water.

"Hey…" Steve started. "Uh…"

"How was the date man? I know you wanted to know how the argument ended but we figured the outcome of the date was the answer," Grover said but it was clear that Steve wasn't listening.

"Uh, yeah, bout that I'm actually here to see Renee."

"Oh, yeah, she's in the living room," he said. "Mrs. Grover you got a visitor!"

Before she could even call back to him, McGarrett had taken off, disappearing into the living room. Grover trailed after him not sure what the hell had gotten under his skin.

Renee had stood to greet him and got enveloped in this large hug. "Steve?" she cried in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

When he pulled away she saw the look on his face, and unlike Grover who didn't want to open that can of worms she immediately asked: "Oh, what's wrong?"

But Steve didn't answer so she sat down and pat the couch beside her and glared at him until he had no choice but to obey. He sat down beside her, clasped his hands between his knees and almost hunched over.

"Are you okay?" she asked again once he was settled.

"No."

That answer surprised her. Probably because she had asked a derivative of that question a million times this morning and he had been evasive. There was no pause, just complete and utter honesty about his feelings. That wasn't like McGarrett at all, his pride had been keeping him from telling anyone how he felt, from admitting that losing Rowan had damn near destroyed.

"Okay…" she whispered softly. "What's wrong?" she asked again. And Steve almost shrugged, but she pinned him with a knowing glare and he shrunk under it.

"You… you were right," he admitted. "I thought dating Lynn would make the pain go away, would mean that I was finally over her and ready to move on but… it hasn't worked… I'm starting to think that this is never going to stop hurting and I just… I don't know what to do."

Grover watched from the door as Steven crumpled against his wife, and she put an arm around his quaking shoulders. She turned to Grover a glare so dark he actually hung his head. They had argued, they had joked, but Renee had been right in the end. Problem was, neither of them wanted her to be proven right like this. Grover turned to get a pair of beers and to get his phone.

They needed Williams.


	224. Chapter 224

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy 5th Day of the 12 days of Christmas Marathon. Do you guys know what you're getting for a surprise yet? Yeah, I have an extra surprise coming at the end of the marathon for you. So you're getting more than a Marathon for Christmas this year! We do have a few Rowan chapters going on but Steve and his friends will be back soon. We get to see how Rowan's doing on the Orient express. Just so you know, everything is accurate except for the gift Wo Fat gives her. I unno if it's possible to do, but it would be WONDERFUL if it was. Don't forget to leave a review, and I'll see you guys tomorrow._

Chapter 224

* * *

Rowan's desire to take their next leg of the trip via the Orient Express was how they ended up doubling back to Paris. The plan was to get onto the Orient Express there for the Paris to Berlin Route, as apparently the Orient Express didn't have a route that went from Venice to Berlin in any capacity. But it was Wo Fat's notoriety that kept them holed up in a safe house in Paris, instead of heading to Berlin like expected because he wanted Rowan to be able to experience the Orient Express to it's fullest degree without them having to hide and avoid Interpol which was still searching for him.

And it _had to be_ the Orient Express. Nothing else would do. Not a plane, not a regular train. No, it had to be the Orient Express. Apparently, Rowan's favourite book was Agatha Christie's _Murder on the Orient Express_ and she wanted to live the book, or at least experience it in some small way. And Wo Fat never said no to Rowan even when he really should.

They were there for only a week before the tears started. Something had happened. Neither of them knew what it was, but it had to be bad because she suddenly just wouldn't stop crying. And with the crying came the locking herself in her room, and the refusing to eat or leave her bed.

Wo Fat was distraught. He didn't know what was wrong with her, or what could have set her off, but it was clear he was desperate to make it stop. Apparently, he couldn't handle her tears. So he decided to book the travel ahead of time, despite there being heat on him still and no real way for him to go on the move.

At first Conejo was livid. He was putting Rowan in danger with these sentimental decisions. But Wo Fat surprised him. The trip was booked, fully and completely, and everything was set for them. But Wo Fat wasn't coming. Wo Fat, would be finding his own way there, under the radar, and meeting them in Berlin. Conejo and Rowan would be going on their own.

It was only a 2-day trip, so there would be only one night in a cabin aboard the train. And he had put Conejo in a solo suit on his own, but Rowan, Rowan was in a grand suite. Something Conejo had been livid about because it meant he was in a different train compartment from her. Wo Fat hadn't seemed to care, but Conejo didn't like it. Too many variables. Which meant that he'd be in her room whether she or her brother liked it or not. What was Wo Fat going to do? He wasn't ever going to find out.

But as soon as the trip was announced, as soon as she was told that she'd be going on the Orient Express in the morning the tears had stopped and the small smiles had returned. Conejo had a plan he was content with, so despite being annoyed with Wo Fat, he stayed quiet, and let Wo Fat hug her good-bye. The two bid each other a farewell like they weren't going to see each other for years but and not the few days it was really going to be. With the good-byes done and Wo Fat left behind Con was left with getting Rowan and her fucking suitcases to the train and by the time it came boarding that stupid train Conejo was terribly annoyed.

But Rowan was all smiles and there was really nothing Conejo could really do except retire to the single bunk he was in and then cross compartments to Rowan's where she was unpacking and getting dressed. Apparently, you had to be fancy on this stupid train which meant he had to go back to his own compartment and change into the monkey suit that Wo Fat had made him purchase for her Venetian Aria.

When she was finally ready to go, they went to the dining car for lunch. Rowan had chosen to wear this navy blue and white polka-dotted dress. She looked like a vintage 50's house wife. The wide low-cut v-neck was a white trim, there were four small buttons on the bust. The matching white lace trimmed belt was cinched at the empire waist and the skirt landed just below her knees. Her hair was even in up in one of those curly Hollywood pin up dos, where her hair was all to one side. Not for the first time, Conejo found himself wondering how McGarrett had ever let that girl go.

The train was already in motion which meant they were officially on their way to Berlin, and she was uneven on her white high heeled shoes. That meant she had to cling to Conejo the whole walk. Which was something that he shouldn't have been excited for but totally was.

He ushered her into the dining compartment Rowan chose, some on-train restaurant called Côte d'Azur, being sure to watch the faces of everyone near-by to gauge their reactions and then put her into a booth closest to an exit door in case he had to run. A waiter was by them immediately with a menu and a long list of specials. Rowan got herself a rye and ginger, her signature drink and Conejo got his, which was a tequila and tonic, more tequila than tonic.

While Rowan poured over the menu like she was making a major life decision, Conejo continued to stare at faces around them. Every now and then someone would turn their eyes towards Rowan. Each and every person in the cabin was doing so at different intervals and he didn't like it. Why, why were they all looking at her? What had he gotten himself into?

While they waited for their meal to come, Rowan was captivated by the scenery whizzing past her. Conejo was waiting for the other shoe to drop, with a hand on the gun he had secreted away in a holster under his arm.

Their meal, which was roasted crispy duck for Rowan and grilled lamb chops for him, was served with a glass of champagne. Rowan's glass being handed to him immediately as she had refused to drink champagne since Paris. Conejo didn't usually drink while working, but this time he did, it steeled his nervous nerves. He didn't want to go all out on a train of people with Rowan with him, but if he had to he was going to. Made him wish he hadn't left his mask back in his cabin.

Dessert was a giant profiterole, with real vanilla ice cream and gallons of chocolate covering it and an alcoholic tea concoction that was handed to Rowan, and a stiff cup of black coffee for him. And then the weirdness happened.

They had just finished, he was ready to get Rowan out of that compartment, when the man in the booth beside them suddenly started to choke. Both he and Rowan turned. Conejo was expecting a trick, but Rowan was already reaching over.

"Hey are you okay?"

God that girl cared too much about other people, when would she care about herself? Before Conejo could grab her outstretched arm, the man collapsed to the floor, twitching a bit before finally going limp. Kay, poison. Poison did stuff like that to a man. The man had just been poisoned. Did he get a meal that was supposed to be their's? Or was this something else?

Rowan sat there with her mouth open for all of two seconds before she scrambled out of her seat and then dropped to her knees beside the man and tried to shake him away. She felt for a pulse and then turned to the other faces around them. "He's still got a pulse, someone get help!"

But no one moved. Rowan looked around at everyone's faces not understanding why none of them were moving. But Conejo was already half up, his hand under his jacket ready to draw the gun he had concealed there, sensing a fight brewing. A door opened and closed and then the people moved allowing a short man with a strange moustache and a monocle to come through. Rowan must have recognized him because she suddenly gasped happily. A smile dawning on her face as if she hadn't just witnessed a murder.

"Hello! I am Hercule Poirot, and I am here to investigate zee murder. Will my wonderful assistant, the extraordinary detective, Rowan Pierce, please assist moi?"

What now? Who the hell was this guy with the faker than fake French accent who also knew Rowan's name? Why did he feel like he had missed something?

Rowan's mouth fell open and she jumped to her feet shouting: "Yes! Yes! Yes! Oh my god YES!"

Conejo stepped over the fake dead guy and glared at Rowan. "What is happening?" he snarled but Rowan was just all smiled.

She slapped his shoulder happily. "It's _Murder Mystery Theater_!" she nearly screeched and he sighed finally dropping the hold on his gun. Why the hell wasn't he told that this was going to happen?

He was going to kill Wo Fat.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

As it turned out, everyone aboard the train with them was part of the show. Her brother, her wonderfully patient and kind brother, had booked out the _entire_ Orient Express so she could participate in murder mystery theater. Just to cheer her up. She didn't deserve a brother as sweet as Wo Fat was proving to be.

Who could say that they got to solve a murder mystery on the Orient Express? Fake or not. Who could say that they got to ride the Orient Express alone? Not many. He was spoiling her, that man. Spoiling her like she deserved.

She solved the mystery within two hours, which the troupe said was a new record. Rowan couldn't help but be proud of herself, or think that Steve would have been proud too because she had learned everything from watching him and the Five-0 team solve crimes. But then that made her sad again because she couldn't call any of her friends or Steve to tell them about what she had done. When she retired to her room for the night, she planned to stay there and watch the night sky pass through her window and try her very hardest not to cry. She was on the Orient Express, damn it! She should have been happy.

Conejo showed up only a few hours later hungry, and wouldn't let her say no to joining him for dinner. Apparently, dinner was paid for already, and Rowan didn't want to waste any of Wo Fat's money so she got up, changed out of her dress and into a fancier one and let Conejo escort her to the fancy dining car, Etoile du Nord.

There, the meal was set, no menu per say to pick from. She had a salad for an appetizer, Conejo had a soup. Her entrée was herb encrusted lamb shanks, while he settled for Lobster. She drank rye and ginger's until she felt less pain and more numb while passing off her bottomless champagne flutes to Conejo. Dessert she chose a four-flavour combination of gelato while Conejo had Crème Brule.

The nice thing about their meal was that he let her share. She got to pick off his plate and he picked off of hers. Steve had never liked that, granted he let her do it but he was grumpy about it, and he'd often steal more than his share in retribution for her sneaking a few fries off his plate.

With their meal done and Conejo being bored, she let him persuade her into joining him in the bar cart he had found. A little cart filled with blue chairs, name 3674. They drank and they drank and Rowan forgot all about why she was sad, forgot about the lingering pain in her arm and shoulder that she refused to tell Wo Fat about, and forgot all about the crippling heartache residing in her chest.

She took Conejo back to her own cabin for the night, though she had a feeling he was going to come whether he was invited or not. And for a long time they just worshipped each other, or at least, the spent the time worshipping the people they were pretending the other to be. She felt less and less bad for calling him Steven with each and every _Mari_ that fell from his own lips.

Usually sex with Conejo was fast and easy, but that night was a bit different. She wasn't sure if she called him Steven as she didn't remember speaking. That night it wasn't just meaningless sex meant to make her feel wanted again or to pass the time, though that was what she had wanted originally. This was the quiet kind she thought belonged only to her and Steven. He moved slowly on top of her as if they had all the time in the world, his head bowed to hers, one arm pressed around her to keep her body close to his, while the other kept his weight off of her.

Rowan had held him, not tightly, but softly. One hand at the nape of the neck, the other pressed over his heart. Usually they barely kissed, at least, on the lips, their mouths usually went everywhere but. But not tonight. He kissed her for the first time with real emotion, like proper emotion. And now she was worried.

When he finished, having made sure to have her climax for him too, he dropped to the bed beside her and the silence descended upon what had just happened. She didn't want to talk to him about it now, obviously, but he would have to know that she just… she wouldn't be able to have emotions for him. It had nothing to do with him, it had everything to do with her and how broken she was. She wasn't sure her heart would ever get over Steven McGarrett, and she sure as hell didn't want to make Conejo second best to him.

Judging by the look on his face, he too was thinking of something, probably something similar, but they weren't going to talk about that tonight. Instead she rolled over onto her stomach and turned her face up to the window. Eventually Conejo did the same.

They spent the rest of the night watching the night sky pass by, until the sun rose and Rowan was too tired to stay awake. She fell asleep curled up into a warmth that almost felt familiar, with a pair of familiar muscular arms wrapped around her making her feel safe.

But as soon as her eyes closed, she dreamed of Hawaii. Of a golden sun shining down on her. Of twinkling laughter and BBQ smoke. Of night time s'mores and musical jams. But mostly of a sapphire blue surf, and the man who held her heart climbing out of it. And she knew, even in the arms of someone else, even across the world doing all these amazing things, that that was where she wanted to be, where she would always want to be.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan woke him up at an indecent hour for something called a Celebration Breakfast. They had just been out half the night drinking and this bitch had him up at the crack of dawn for breakfast. Okay, maybe not the crack of dawn, it was only ten in the morning, but he knew she didn't settle down to sleep until the sun rose that morning. He had felt her curl into him, had held her cold body to his until she warmed up. She shouldn't have been awake but she was.

She dragged him back to the Côte d'Azur where he got to have a smoked salmon crepe for breakfast and she got scrambled eggs and Romeo and Juliette crepes, which were just crepes with melted butter and sugar. He had drunk enough coffee to keep an elephant awake, guzzling it down like the animal he was while she sipped on cups of fancy tea.

By noon they were in Berlin. He got her and her two massive suitcases off of the train and into a cab to get them to their next destination. Wo Fat should have given that information to him, but he had given all itinerary and confirmations to Rowan whose organizational skills were on an almost OCD level where it pertained to travel. He was still surprised when Rowan said: "To the Adlon Kempinski please."

Conejo couldn't believe it. Wo Fat had put them up in the Hotel Adlon Kempinski, which he knew was the swankiest hotel in Berlin. They had a whole fucking floor. This giant suite might as well had been a penthouse with three bedrooms, it even had it's own jacuzzi on the balcony. Why the fuck was this man dropping so much money on this girl when she could have given a rat's ass about the price? He could have put them in a motel and she would have just have been excited to be in Berlin.

He let Rowan pick which room she wanted, he even let her pick which room Wo Fat would want and then he took his own room. He dropped the one bag he owned, on the bed and immediately went back out into the main living area to raid the mini bar and look at the room service menu. Of course everything was in double digits even the sides. What the hell were truffle fries and why where they 11 euros?

But once he had established what food he was going to get, which wasn't hard cause he wanted a burger, he was left with his thoughts. He could hear Rowan singing to herself in her room and a singular chord was struck through him again.

He was getting attached.

He had wanted to talk to her about it last night that he would have to put that space between them again. He was her bodyguard, and he could let emotion affect him the way it was going to if they continued down this path. The problem was he couldn't bring himself to do it. She was already so broken from losing McGarrett that he knew he couldn't deal her another blow like that. He figured she wouldn't take that request as plea to keep her safe but instead as another rejection. And he didn't want to do that to her.

When Rowan finally joined him on the couch to pick fries off of his plate, he had a different request to pose to her.

"So what exactly was it that got you all sad in Paris?" he asked. Rowan turned to him surprised but otherwise said nothing. As if neither he nor Wo Fat would have noticed that she suddenly locked herself in her room to cry and refused to come out or eat. "Well something happened. You went from perfectly fine to crying. So… what was it?"

Rowan settled herself deeper into the sofa, having chosen to change into comfier clothes for her. Which were grey terry cloth booty shorts and a big poufy sweater three times her size that must have been McGarrett's.

"Well… remember how we sent that friend of yours down to save Steve?"

"Chico, yeah? He reported that everything went the way you said it would… which I told you," he reminded her and she nodded.

"Well I called him… again…" she whispered and a streak of understand ran through him. He had been allowing her to do that. Call McGarrett. He figured it safe because the girl couldn't bring herself to talk to him, she was too afraid. So she'd hang up when he guessed it was her. They must have talked about something.

"Did you talk to him?"

"No… he… he talked to me…" she whispered and that theory solidified, he had a feeling he knew exactly what it was that McGarrett had said to her to upset her so. "He… he told me to stop. That… he was glad I helped him and all that but he wants me to let him go… so he can move on."

Her chin was wobbling and Conejo found himself sighing. He rolled his eyes heavenward as if mentally asking the god he didn't think existed why the hell this had happened. This was bullshit. Why couldn't the man have just said thank-you? Huh? Why?

"Okay… well… we already knew he's an idiot," Conejo growled, but a hiccup escaped Rowan that he knew would, sooner or later, turn into sobs. He put an arm around her and pulled her to his side. "Come on now, stop your crying, okay? Please? Everything's going to be okay, you know?" She turned her face up to him, it was clear she didn't believe him but hope was shining in her eyes. "Just… you know… we're taking care of your other friends, who seem much more appreciative… from now on… let's just… leave him to his own devices, okay? Just… just… fuck him. He wants to deal with everything on his own, let him."

Rowan slowly looked down. "Just because he wants to get over me, doesn't mean I want him to get hurt. He has Nahele to think of too, you know?"

God his girl, she was a bleeding heart his girl. "God, you're just… you're just so good, you know? Like, if someone did this shit to me, I'd probably just take him out, but you, naw, you just wanna help the world don't you?" he asked her and she shot him half a smile and a bit of a shrug. "Don't you ever lose your halo, kid."

He stared at her for a little while longer, until that discordant chord played a painful chorus upon his heart again. Clearing his throat, he turned away from her and reached out for a handful of fries. "So, here's what we do instead. You have yourself another one of those dreams about him and I'll send someone down, but no more Rowan-grams. We won't say they're from you anymore," he offered and she smiled, obviously liking that idea. "And if my guys rough him up a bit by accident… you know so be it."

Rowan squealed her dislike of that idea at him, and smacked his shoulder, which just led to them play-fighting and eventually rolling right off the couch as she tried to fend him off and he tried to tickle her. Whatever chord he was trying to ignore had a whole melody paired to her cries of excited laughter. This was worse than he thought, but he couldn't bring himself to stop. Wo Fat's warning kept echoing in his head.

 _Once she gets under your skin she doesn't come back out._


	225. Chapter 225

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hello my wonderful readers! We are officially half way through t he 12 days of Christmas marathon. How are you guys liking it? Is it getting a little bit more manageable? Not sure if this is good new, but we have a half and half chapter coming up today. We start off with Steve and end with Rowan. She's gonna go on a wild ride, and Steve and the others have a wild time with Sandy. I've been working on your Christmas surprise and I'm really excited for you guys to read it. I'd love to hear what you guys think it's going to be! Don't forget to leave a review and I promise to see you guys tomorrow._

Chapter 225

* * *

This was an annoying case. Made annoying by their main suspect. A wise-cracking-pocket-picking-sneak-thief named Hank Webber. His partner had just been murdered, supposedly over a camera he had lifted off of someone earlier that weekend. They originally thought it was him, or someone they had been conning, but nope, it was about a stolen camera.

After recovering the camera, after having Hank shoot the guy who had it before he could shoot Steve or Danny, they had taken it back to the Palace for examination. Steve and the others having been very, very interested in what could have possibly been on that camera worth killing.

The problem was, as soon as he put the SD card in and pulled up the pictures on file, there was absolutely nothing of interest that any of them could see. Nothing worth killing for anyway.

"None of this makes sense," Steve growled taking in all the pictures.

"They're all vacation pics. None of them are even remotely suspicious," Kono said. "Why go through all that trouble to get them back?"

"Because he wasn't after the photos…"

That was right, this had to be one of those trick SD cards, with a hidden file on it. It looked like normal vacation pictures on the outside but underneath it was a bank of information. They just had to find that file.

 _Welcome to the Sanctuary network._

Everyone jumped. They looked up and there it was, that red screen taking over all their computers. Fuck what the hell had started her up? Were they under attack?

"Holy shit!" Hank cried watching as the interface booted up on their computer. "No Way! They said it went down when she did!"

Great _and_ he knew about Rowan.

 _Sanctuary has detected a spyware virus that is targeting your mainframe and attempting to create a backdoor for unwanteds to crawl in through. Please wait while I clean that up for you._

Virus? This thing had a virus? All eyes turned to Hank a sudden distrust dawning on all of their faces. But Steve had felt that distrust the whole time he had been dealing with Hank, now it had a solid reason for it validate his feelings about Hank

 _While you're waiting please enjoy this video note from the Professional._

Wait… what?

The screen across from their smart table lit up and there was Rowan with her bright red hair, sitting on his couch.

"BOOM! GOT YA BIATCH!" she cried and the laughed a bit. "Kay, so, if you're seeing this then I was right! And I would have told you, Steve, but you're being a little bitch right now, and second guessing everything I'm saying, so I took matters into my own hands again. Right now, Sandy should be cleaning up that naughty little virus for you, and once she's done I have her programmed to come offline, so she won't interfere with your stuff anymore."

She had set this up before she left. She must have set this up when they were arguing, that's why he didn't know. Why was he so disappointed? He told her not to interfere anymore. Maybe he had sort of hoped that she still would. She had never listened to him before.

"While I'm at it, if you haven't figured it out Hank killed his partner. Need proof, the pawnshop owner died four hours before his girlfriend did. Max should be calling in a few minutes about that. So, clap Hank in irons, but be careful where you stick him cause I think Gabriel's' gonna try and kill him… OH Yeah, that's right. Webber, tell Gabriel that I didn't find this funny and I'm _sooooo_ coming for him. Okay? Anyway, I'm calling this a win! And I'll see you when you get home, kay babe? GO TEAM MCGARRETT-PIERCE!"

The video ended with a cheer and Steve found himself close to crying. _I'll see you when you get home_. He was never going to see her again.

"Damn that bitch is wily," Hank said with a laugh. "And hot. No one ever talks about how hot she is. Shame she's not in Hawaii anymore." He turned to Steve to find the man glaring at him. He didn't need the running commentary on Rowan's physical appearance. Yeah, no one ever thought Rowan was cute, no one ever thought Pierce the Destroyer was attractive. Move on.

"You know I wouldn't have agreed if she was in the picture. Should'a figured she'd still intervene. She really did like you guys… and hate Gabriel."

"Yeah you know about Rowan? You want me to go easy on you? After you played us? Tell me something about Rowan I don't know."

"Uh… do you know she's alive, cause there was a story going around that you guys thought she was dead…"

"Yes, I know she's alive…"

"Kay… uh… honestly, last we heard she was traveling, he has her going around Europe, that's about it. None of us are allowed to go near her. And uh… we're not supposed to talk about her either, least of all you. Last guy who talked to you got cut I believe… some doctor in Japan."

 _No_. Not Dōsan? Simply because he had talked to Steve? Son of a bitch. What the hell was going on, why was Wo Fat so fucking… lethal about this?

"So you know kinda don't wanna tell you shit about that girl," he said. "But I will tell you this, she's right, Gabriel's behind this and I will testify against him for immunity."

Perfect, he couldn't just clap Hank in handcuffs like he wanted to. Now he had to work with him... again. Couldn't Rowan have figured out a way to get rid of the virus and Hank at the same time?

 _Couldn't she just come home and deal with it herself?_

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Chin was showing the new girl the ropes. That meant taking her on an active case. They had been put on a murder, a bunch of murder. A gang of men who had been found dead on the docks, all shot up, they're cargo pilfered through and emptied of… something. Which they quickly realized was guns. They were arms dealers, most likely killed for the missing shipment of illegal guns

Abby Dunn was from San Francisco where they were thinking of implementing a team just like Five-0. She had come to Hawaii to shadow them to see what it was like, and whether or not it would be worth it to instate something like Five-0 there. So far she had been the perfect mix of curious and grateful. She was a great asset when it came to looking for these missing guns.

And she was pretty cute too.

The only problem was she seemed to have a lot of questions about Rowan and the Sanctuary network. Two topics that Five-0 swore never to talk about. One: because it upset Steve. Two: because explaining how they used both involved explaining where Rowan came from, and her proximity with a criminal mastermind they all kinda looked past so long as she was helping them with their cases. Three: because none of them wanted to sell out their Ro like that.

They had been heading back to the Palace, she had been offering to call her friend in the FBI to get a list of potential arms dealer on the island, already knowing that Wo Fat was going to pop up even though he was somewhere in Europe with Rowan. When all of a sudden a black SUV swerved in front of them and then braked hard.

Chin had honked but had been forced to break as well. Behind him a second SUV pulled up and from that one came the first man with a gun, the second one came from the back of the first SUV.

This wasn't good. Immediately Chin's fingers itched to reach for his phone which was in the center consol. But he didn't want to bring Sandy into this in front of Abby.

A third car pulled up, a muscle car this time and Chin almost swore because he recognized who was climbing out of the passenger seat.

Why couldn't Gabriel just be dead already? How was he alive? How had Wo Fat not killed him by now?

"Get out of the car Chin," he ordered and Chin agreed, sliding out of his car, leaving Abby behind. Loving that she was all ready to shoot someone as if that would help.

Chin stood tall against Gabriel as he looked him over. It had been months since he had last seen him, since he had escaped the hospital after he had been traded by Goro to Sin Nombre to enact Wo Fat's revenge on him. Damn Gabriel still looked beat the fuck up and it had happened months ago. The man did not look good at all.

"You can stop looking for the stolen guns," he said. "They're already off the island."

"Yeah, I should have known it was you," Chin said, from the car he could hear his phone ringing.

"Don't answer it," he ordered. And Chin had no intention to climb back in the car and get it so he let it ring away. "And besides, I was just the middle man. This Chinese were greedy. So I just took the guns."

Chin's phone stopped ringing and there was three seconds between that and Gabriel's phone ringing. He pulled it out of his pocket, looked it over, ignored the call and then turned back to Chin as if nothing had happened.

"I sold them to very motivated buyers," Gabriel continued to brag. "Made so much on the deal I have enough to start up again. So much for your girl taking me down huh? Have you been having fun? Taking on your cases without Rowan Pierce and her wonder app helping you?"

 _Welcome to the Sanctuary network._

The computerized voice interrupted, breaking through the silence. Gabriel laughed, but Chin was smiling because he knew that wasn't his phone. His phone was in the car. "Oh, speak of the Devil. And what is it going to do now? Just talk from your phone? Lot of good that will do you."

"My phone's in the car," Chin told him a smug smile on his face, loving that he would get to do this again. That Rowan had the good timing to show up and now and help Chin knock Gabriel back down. "Why don't you check your phone?"

Frowning Gabriel pulled his phone back out of his pocket and there it was that tell-tale red screen.

 _We've been looking for your Gabriel Waincroft. Thank you for your patience, please wait while I connect your call._

His phone started ringing in his hand and before he could hang up the call connected. Gabriel was now staring at his phone like it was a poisonous viper. Chin was surprised he hadn't just dropped it.

"Hello Gabriel." Oh god. He knew that voice. That was Rowan's voice. "Hang up if you want, but I've got you now. Sandy's in your phone, your little lackey's phones and the GPS in your cars. There ain't nowhere you can go to hide from me now." Gabriel just stared at the phone and for a second there was just silence. Chin began to wonder if this was live or if this was another one of Rowan's recordings. "Not going to threaten me today? What a refreshing change of pace. Is it because you know you won't ever get to me?"

Gabriel's cronies had all started to shift. They clearly weren't excited to have the Sanctuary network activated near them. But Gabriel scoffed. "I got you once, I could get you again. But we both know you don't care about yourself, isn't that right? You only care about… your friends. And I have one of them here, don't I?"

"Yes you do. According to Sandy you have Chin. Hi Chin!"

So this _was_ live. "Hi Rowan," he said. This was his chance to fix things, maybe he could settle some of those unanswered questions they had. "I need…" but Gabriel cut him off.

"I'm getting tired of your games Pierce. You keep coming at me with your parlour tricks and I…"

Rowan cut him off with her laughter. That insane laugh she used when she did something crazy. Chin immediately backed away going for his car for cover.

"You're absolutely right, Gabriel. I'm tired of our games too. I'm tired and I'm mad. I'm mad and I don't have my conscience around to keep me on the good side. I'm surrounded by criminals and assassins now, and I'm starting to think a lot like them. Look up."

Both Chin and Gabriel did which was how they saw that the rooftops were lined with men in black Kevlar and black masks. They all held guns. And on each roof top was a mountain machine gun trained on their little circle.

Chin didn't even bother to hide it at that point. He turned and struggled with the door desperate to get himself in it before shit went down. Luckily Abby opened the door for him so he could slide in.

"Shit's gonna go down," he whispered to her. "Stay low."

"This isn't a game anymore, Gabriel. Now it's a war. And guess what… I'm still winning."

As if that were the code, the men on the rooftops all opened fire at once. Gabriel threw himself back to his car, narrowly missing the hailstorm of bullets that came at him, but the two SUVs weren't as lucky. The mounted machine guns must have been trained on them because they took most of the fire and kept taking fire until everyone in them was dead and the SUVs were on fire.

This continued for Chin had no idea how long, but he didn't move when he heard silence. He didn't move until the silence was dead around them and the only thing he could hear was Abby's laboured breathing and the distant wail of sirens.

 _Codename Shotgun has been downgraded to a code green._ Sandy's computerized voice said from the center console where his phone had been left. _I have detected several EMS calls including dispatch orders. If nothing else is needed I will be powering down._

At that point both of them sat up, Chin stared down at his phone and the red screen glowing up at him, waiting for his next command.

"I'm good Sandy, thank you."

 _My pleasure. Sweet dreams. Time to go night night_.

God, Rowan and her codes. He was going to have a hell of a time explaining why the hell a deadly app just told him to have sweet dreams and that it was time to go _night night_. He was also surprised that not a single bullet had hit his car, or them. He was surprised that Gabriel got away. But now he had another problem because Abby was staring at him with an expectant but not judging stare.

"Uh… you know how you said Rowan Pierce wasn't a part of your life anymore?" she asked and Chin turned to her. "You wanna tell me that again?"

Great. Just great. Chin didn't know how to explain that. But having this conversation was going to be miles better than telling McGarrett that Rowan and no doubt Wo Fat were probably going to wage war on Gabriel. Especially since that war was going to happen on Hawaii. And now that Rowan didn't have any of them keeping her from making sane, legal choices… well… Chin had a feeling that the streets of Hawaii were going to run red with blood.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Wo Fat had waited 24 hours before moving himself out of Paris. But it took him longer than expected to get to Berlin. He hadn't asked Kong to code a little something to get him through border points as he had for Rowan and he was really regretting it now.

It should have been a 2 hour flight at best but Interpol had been waiting for him at airport, courtesy to Steve who apparently hadn't taken the no-fly list and BOLOs off of him or Rowan. After a bit of gun play between him and Interpol that ended in a car chase, Wo Fat had been forced out of Paris and Into the Regional National Park Boucles de la seine Normande, where after some hiking he met someone on the other side with a boat.

The first boat took him out of Le Havre to Dunkrik. Where he then had to drive to Bruges to get on another boat that took him to the Hague. Once he was there, he took a smaller train to Amsterdam and from there it had been another six-hour train right to Hamburg where he caught ANOTHER train to Berlin.

The whole trip took six days, five of which he had been unable to contact Rowan. Once he was sure he had a secure channel he had called her to tell her that he was in Hamburg and in two hours they were finally be reunited, barring any other attempts from Interpol to arrest him. He then talked to Sin Nombre, being sure to tell him to be ready to go at a moment's notice in case someone was following him, though he figured they weren't and that they had lost him long ago.

He got to Adlon Kempinski stopped at the front desk to pick up his key and see what charged Rowan and Sin Nombre had banked, and found it to be mostly room service breakfasts and alcohol. So he could tell right away who had been using his credit card the most, and it had been Sin Nombre and his alcohol problem.

He had found out a few days into his travels that Rowan had used Sandy to not only contact Gabriel to enact a hit on him. That was surprising to him, because Gabriel was supposed to be dead. When the man escaped the assassins they sent to finish him off in the hospital he assumed the man had succumbed to his injuries in a back alley somewhere. And he planned on making sure Rowan thought that. The fact that she not only knew that Wo Fat had failed to avenge her was a blow to his pride. One that he knew she would never land on him, but it was a blow to his pride that he landed on himself. He'd have to ask her what she had spoken to Gabriel about, and why the hell she paid for 12 men and two mounted machine guns.

He made his way up to the room, assuming that Rowan would be suitably distracted by now so he wasn't expecting the projectile that hit him the second he was through the door.

"You're here!" was shrieked at him and then Rowan's body slammed into his, taking him off his feet and into the door behind him.

It had only been six days since he had last seen her but he didn't care. It was the first time he had ever had someone that excited to see him before. Not even Jian had been _that_ excited. Granted she always met him at the door with a kiss and a _how was your day_. But she never jumped him. Grappled onto him like a koala.

Maybe this was what it was like when one had a puppy.

"Yes I'm here," he said wrapping his own arms around her for a hug. "I called this morning and told you I'd be coming."

"Yes I know, but you're _really_ here," she said pulling away and smiling down at him. "I missed you."

"It was six days," Sin Nombre snapped from where he was standing. "It's not like you were here alone."

"He's just grumpy because I keep taking him touristing and shopping,"

"And she keeps waking me up with nightmares. Something about some kid witnessing a murder but she can't tell when it's going to happen or if it's already going to happen."

Wo Fat narrowed his eyes at him and then down to Rowan who had been lowered to her feet. She went to let him go but he grabbed her. "Why is he talking like he knows…"

"That she's psychic?" Sin Nombre asked. "Her and I had a heart to heart, and she was very clear her visions and dreams do nothing except help Steven McGarrett with his cases which, I think, is a waste of a perfectly good power." Wo Fat sighed and turned a glare at her. "And I'd like it if you let her go, thank you very much, I don't need her arm to break again."

There was a sort of dangerous glare about Sin Nombre, one that Wo Fat didn't like. It was almost like the man had completely forgotten that it was Wo Fat who was paying his bills.

"Okay, enough of the glaring," she ordered, snapping her fingers in front of both of their faces. "Wo, I know you're tired, but you just came back but I really, really, really wanna do something fun. With you. Not just Conejo…"

"Well I don't think Conejo…" "Don't call me that."

Both Rowan and Wo Fat paused again and turned to Sin Nombre who had interrupted them both. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me, _she_ can call me Conejo, not you."

Rowan rolled her eyes again and then before Wo Fat and Sin Nombre could get into another argument she shouted: "We need to get me DRUNK!"

She pumped her fist in the air and beside her Sin Nombre was finally smiling, clearly liking the sound of that one. Wo Fat sighed. "If you two want to raid the minibar…"

"No, I mean to a party. I want to get drunk at a party."

Wo Fat didn't want to go to a party. "You know how I feel about crowds," he reminded her. He was also tired, he had also just gotten back. He wanted to rest, not party.

"Yes I know. But I really want to go. I want this to be an all three of us thing."

"Uh-huh. All three. So you definitely need me for this?"

"Yes," Rowan said. "It uhm… it's not until later, like much later."

"You've already picked a venue."

"Yes and our outfits," Sin Nombre added.

Wo Fat turned to him. "Am I going to enjoy this?"

"No, and neither will I, but she wants to go. So I think, it won't be that big a deal. We go once, she won't ever want to go again. She's all about experiences…"

"Stop talking about me like I'm not here," Rowan ordered. "He's right though, can we go? Please? Just one little rave…" "—a rave? Oh no, no Rowan not a rave." "—And then I won't bug you for touristy stuff for the rest of the trip in Berlin. I promise."

Now that he could get behind. "Oh the Rave is the only touristy thing you'd want me and you to do together is it?"

"Well no, but I'm willing to say so if it gets you to agree."

Wo Fat sighed, looked down at his hopeful sister's face and decided he couldn't quite afford to say no. Not when he hadn't seen her smile that sincerely since he had lied to her about Steve's relationship status.

"Alright fine, we'll go, but I need to nap."

As he moved towards the room that would be his Rowan let out a whoop of excitement. He tried not to feel trepid about the whole idea, he knew that he was going to go through with it, simply to see her smile.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

This was a bad idea.

This was a terrible, horrible, bad idea.

But it was too late, he had agreed, and Rowan was so happy that he couldn't turn back now.

Though he had once he had seen the outfits she had picked out.

He first had an issue with her outfit. He didn't want her going out in that at all. Her shirt was see-through, and under it they could see her black bra. Her shorts had more rips and hanging chains then fabric, her hair was in a high pony tail, her makeup was black. Black liner, smokey eyes, and black lipstick making her look fantastically pale, and she was wearing a pair of open-sided heels so high she was as tall as him and Sin Nombre.

Then there was the issue of his outfit. Wo Fat had been put in black Denim. Black denim jeans, black denim jacket, with a matching ripped up black tee shirt. She had even gotten him black pointy shoes which made him feel more like a cowboy than a raver.

He felt a little better when he saw what she put Sin Nombre, though, arguably, he got the cooler outfit. Sin Nombre had black leather pants, his black leather jacket and a simple black tee-shirt he was certain Rowan must have ripped to all-hell herself.

He saw a theme in their outfits. They were all black.

True to her word he got to sleep in, a good five hours before she woke him up to get ready. By then she had already put product into Sin Nombre's hair so it stuck up at odd angles and put eyeliner on him. He found out, once the outfit was put in his hands that she expected him to put up similar to make up effects.

That was not happening.

He agreed to the outfit and that was it. The scars were enough to make him look emo. That was all she was getting.

When they got to FunkHaus, Wo Fat was immediately annoyed. Loud music, crazy crowds, and immediately Rowan was lost in it. Dancing to a song that had no beat and seemed to be seizing. God who called this crap music these days?

Luckily Wo Fat didn't have to worry because where Rowan went Sin Nombre wasn't far behind. Which meant Wo Fat could go to the bar and sit there. Though, try as he might, he couldn't ignore the beat of the music going wild around them. He did however get to drink.

Between sets Rowan and Sin Nombre would come back. Grab a drink and leave and that continued throughout the night. Wo Fat would sometimes put his back to the bar as he drank his disgusting cocktail, because of course this place wouldn't have whiskey, to watch them dance. Sin Nombre did a good job of keeping prospective guys away from Rowan whose body seemingly moved to a beat that didn't match the music coming from these speakers.

She seemed happy, she seemed lost to the music and that alone was enough to make this excursion worth it.

Rowan came back for her eighth drink not in the mood to dance anymore. "I want something harder," she screamed into his ear. "I want a real trip."

"I know how to go on one of those," Sin Nombre had said immediately and called up three glasses of green fizzing, steaming drinks.

"What is this?"

"Don't ask questions," Sin Nombre had said to them. "Just let the green fairy work her magic."

Rowan counted them down and on three they drank down their respective drinks.

And that was the last thing any of them remembered of the night.


	226. Chapter 226

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Dear lord! I'm sorry this update it late my amazing wonderful readers! I'm at the end of this vacation and we're starting the packing process cause I bought SO MANY THINGS! So, don't worry, we have some interesting things happening with Rowan and the next chapter we're back with Steve again. So, bonus points. We're on the 7th day of the 12 Days of Christmas Marathon, has anyone guessed what your surprise chapter is gonna be yet? Don't forget to tell me what you think, leave me a review and as always, I will see you tomorrow._

Chapter 226

* * *

 _ ***DISCLAIMER* The beginning of this chapter has some references of a sexual nature, sorry for getting so graphic but I wanted you guys to live the chaos like Rowan had to. Keep that in mind when you read this first part.**_

Rowan woke up to an explosion of glitter and feathers in her room. She woke up to not one, but two men curled up to her side. The bed was covered in clothes, mostly the clothes she had been wearing the night before plus a few outfits from her luggage and then a bunch of men's clothing she had bought herself for her boys. By the way the sheets felt against her skin she could tell that she was naked, by rubbing up to the man on her left she could tell he was naked too.

But the man on the right, the one who had an arm wrapped around her torso, the one she had been all snuggled up with, he was clothed. Mostly. He at least had his pants on.

Though all of this should have worried her, she had a more pressing concern at that moment.

Rowan knew she was going to vomit. It was why she was awake. Her stomach had very kindly told her that she was going to throw up and woke her up so she didn't do it in her bed or into the face of the man to her right. Which was… Wo Fat, wow, thank god he was clothed.

She threw his arm off of her, the motion for some reason causing him to roll over and right off the bed. With the sheet wrapped tightly up around her she rushed to her ensuite bathroom and promptly threw up. She was promptly horrified by what she saw.

Why the hell was her vomit bright fucking green?

What the fuck had happened last night? How did she end up in bed with both Conejo _and_ Wo Fat? Why couldn't she remember what happened after drinking that green fairy drink? Through all the questions that was running through her pounding brain one glaring realizing hit her like a freight train

 _Conejo was naked in her bed_.

 _Right beside a passed out Wo Fat who could not_ _under any circumstances find out about her and Conejo._

Lurching out of the bathroom she went back into her room. Oh god it looked like Moulin Rouge had been vomited up on the walls, and the floor and possibly the ceiling. She must have drawn on the walls with all her different kinds of lipsticks. There were feathers everywhere, it looked like a glitter bomb had gone off. Her bra was hanging from the light fixture above the bed, as was Conejo's underwear by the looks of it. And there were bottles everywhere.

And poor Conejo was just lying in the middle of her bed butt fucking naked his morning wood half stiff stiffy just waving in the air. Used purple condom still on it. Well he had sex with someone last night. Probably her. Hopefully.

Wo Fat was slowly pushing himself up off of the floor and Rowan lurched forward.

"Oh god, I think I'm gonna hurl."

"Washroom's free, go now before my stomach changes its mind."

She jumped up onto the bed a lot more quickly than her pounding head and protesting stomach could handle and threw up a bit in her mouth. She forced herself to swallow it down and lay down, getting her sheet over Conejo as Wo Fat got up and lurched into the washroom.

Good! So far, he didn't suspect a thing. Rowan grabbed Conejo's pants and slapped them onto his chest. Startling the man awake. Immediately a knife was pointed into her face. Rowan would have been more worried about where that knife could have come from or why it was so dangerously close to stabbing her in the face if she wasn't too busy worrying about her brother finding out that she and Conejo were fuck buddies.

"Wo Fat's in my washroom put your fucking pants on," she hissed and then turned away and immediately regretted it. "Fuck me I think I'm gonna hurl again. Where's the garbage?"

"By the door."

"It's not by the door anymore," Rowan said with a shake of her head which was not helping to settle her queasy stomach.

Beyond the bathroom door Rowan heard Wo Fat's continued hurling and she realized that this was a bathroom floor kind of sickness. She lurched out of the bed again as Conejo finally got into his pants, having discarded the condom, hopefully discretely.

She threw the door open, ignored Wo Fat who was crouched over the toilet and promptly collapsed to the floor. Hitting the ground hurt, but she didn't care as the tiles cooled her feverish skin and finally the foggy world around her seemed less titled and off kilter and finally a little more clear to her.

With in seconds she had Conejo on her. "Jeezus Christ Ro!" he cried sliding to his knees beside her. He looked down at her, his raccoon-eyeliner –and-mascara-smudged eyes staring down at her. "Did you pass out?"

"No, I just wanted the floor. Let me stay on the floor. I feel better when I feel floory."

"Feel floory?" Conejo echoed but Rowan just groaned and pulled her sheet up over her head.

"I feel like I drank turpentine," Wo Fat growled from the toilet.

"What the hell did you give us?" Rowan cried, as Conejo pulled the sheet away from her face. She turned a dark glare onto him so he knew that she blamed him for this.

"Absinthe," Wo Fat answered before Conejo could. "Though, judging by our reaction, I'm thinking laced with something…"

"No, no, the two of you are just lightweights."

"Is absinthe the shit that makes you hallucinate? Why the hell would you give me that?" Rowan asked. As Wo Fat growled. "No I can handle Absinthe, what you gave us was Absinthe with one hell of a kick."

Rowan put her hands to her head. "God, I don't remember anything. Do you guys remember anything?"

She got a chorus of _no_ s from her boys and she sighed. Well that didn't help. What had happened, how had the party ended up back in their room? How much damage had been done?

"Come on, Rowie, pick yourself up off the bathroom floor, let's get breakfast, huh?"

Rowan groaned loudly, she couldn't even think of eating food. From the toilet Wo Fat gagged, so that's how he felt about that.

"How can you think of eating at a time like this?" Wo Fat snarled.

"I unno, cause it's past noon and I haven't eaten since last night's dinner?"

Wo Fat sat up straighter. "No. No it isn't," he whispered. "It can't be past noon."

"Why not?" Rowan shot back.

"Cause I had a meeting at 11."

How was that there fault. Conejo and Rowan shared a look of surprise, as Wo Fat pat down his pockets looking for his phone before Conejo offered his own and let the man check the time.

There was an audible gasp and a horrified whisper of _dear god it's two in the afternoon_. And then Wo Fat was scrambling to get past her, slipping on her sheet as he rushed by.

"Why didn't anyone WAKE ME?!" he shouted as he ran back into her room so he could get to his. Rowan didn't answer she just groaned again. She didn't know he had a meeting, she didn't even know what had happened last night.

Rowan put her hands to her face to try and block out the noise and the pounding. This was the worst hangover ever.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan had refused to leave the washroom. Kept saying that being on the floor made her feel better. So Conejo ordered himself something from the ridiculously priced lunch menu, did his very best to make sure the room service delivery boy didn't see the damage they had caused and reported them and then attempted to eat in the washroom with Rowan. Attempted, because as soon as he sat down she had immediately gagged and then promptly kicked him out. The food smell was making her sick.

But once he finished his club sandwich, she was feeling better, which was evident when she showed up in the living room he had sort of cleaned up. She was no longer in nothing but a white sheet. She was now in her biggest comfiest sweater, and a pair of black leggings. One of the pair of moccasins he had brought from Hawaii on her feet. She had washed her face free of all the smudged make up, much like he had. She still looked pale, but still managed to look quite lovely with her hair all piled up on her head like that.

Sometimes when the sun hit her right, Conejo's breath would be taken away, and he'd wonder for the hundredth time how the hell it was possible that Steven McGarrett had let this girl go.

"My room is totalled," she said softly. She looked around at the over turned chairs, the broken table and what he figured must have been glow in the dark paint splattered on the wall They must have brought the rave back with them last night. "Poor Wo, he won't be getting his deposit back."

"I'm pretty sure that we're gonna get banned from this place," Conejo said with a smile. He offered her his plate. "I saved you the fries."

"Still not hungry," she told him as she got herself comfortable on the couch beside him. She crossed her legs, and then just sat there while he put the plate back on the small side table he was using in place of the larger coffee table that they had broken somehow.

"I think we gotta talk Con."

Well… that didn't bode well now did it? Even though he was sure it was the same talk he wanted to have with her a whisper of dread ran through him.

"Aw with the nicknames. Why don't you ever just settle with one, why you gotta make a nickname out of everything?"

"I'd have said your real name if I knew it," Rowan said. "Doesn't change that we need to talk."

Conejo didn't like the sound of that one bit. But his one attempt at deflecting had failed miserably and it wasn't like he could just walk out of the room. He couldn't leave her alone. He couldn't trust her by herself. He did that twice now, the first time she ended up walking into a hostage situation on purpose, and the second time she was kidnapped and tortured. So… leaving her alone wasn't a thing he was comfortable doing at that moment.

"Alright, fine, what do you wanna talk about?"

"Me and you."

Conejo turned to her. Ah, so it _was_ that conversation. "Yes, I think we do need to do that."

"We need to stop sleeping with one another."

Wow. She was on the same page as him. Was he surprised that she was beating him to it? Yes. But this was good. That meant, when he told her that he too felt the same way, she wouldn't take it as an insult or a rejection. Well… hopefully.

He must have been sitting there nodding at her for too long because she just up and started rambling.

"It's not that I don't like you… I do… I like you a lot. I have a lot of fun going places with you and I love hanging out. And the sex s is great. But I've done the whole sticking with someone cause the sex was great and it didn't end well and let's be honest…"

"Kid calm down, I'm on the same page," he said cutting her off before she could ramble herself blue in the face.

Rowan let out a deep sigh of relief. "Oh thanks," she said. "I was so worried I'd tell you and you want to leave."

"Really?"

"YES!" she cried. "You're my bestest body guard…" "—I'm your only body guard _mami_." "…and I don't want a new one, and this morning was too close of a call."

"You're right this morning was too close. As long as we're sharing I was worried I'd tell you I'd like this to end and you'd feel rejected. It's just business you know? I can't properly be your bodyguard if I'm that… close… you know?" Rowan nodded but a frown crossed her face. That made Conejo frown too. "What, what's that frown?"

"Oh, I unno, I guess that came off as… well… the job is more important…"

"The job is taking care of you," he growled. "That's about as important as it gets."

But when Rowan looked away from him he knew that she was taking this about as bad as he thought she was going to. "Okay… well you started this conversation, why did _you_ want to stop?"

"Because… I'm still broken. You're not a band aid to put on this gaping emotional wound I have." Ah, her and that broken and bleeding heart.

" _Mami_ , that's exactly why I want to stay," he admitted. "I know what it's like to hurt so bad you want to cover it up with every bad and stupid decision you could make. Okay? And I know you're not over him, and I know you didn't like me…"

"No, that's not it. I do like you. I do. I just like you for the wrong reasons. I like you because you feel like him… and I miss him and he told me to stop meddling again and I just… you were someone to turn to, you know? And that's not… I mean…"

"I get it," he said and she finally smiled to him.

"So not mad at me?" "No." "Not going to leave?" "Course not, you need someone to keep you on the straight and narrow."

She laughed at that and leant back. For a moment the two of them sat in silence and then she turned to him and he knew right away that their conversation was far from over.

"I think you're using me too. As a crutch I mean," she said. "You keep saying you're calling me _mami_ but I know that's not it. You're calling me Mary."

"I'm calling you _Mari_ ," he finally admitted knowing there was no point in lying about it anymore. The girl was smart she had figured it out. She smiled sadly at him and he winced, he hated pity, but he hated it even more shining in her eyes. "And I don't want to talk about her."

"Fair," she said. "That's perfectly fair."

"So, we need to stop using each other as emotional crutches, is what you're saying?" he asked to confirm and she nodded.

"I also think that… if Wo finds out he'll send you away and I unno… I don't wanna have to break in another bodyguard you know?"

Conejo laughed. "Yeah, that would be annoying," he said and then slung an arm around her. "Just so you know, since I am agreeing, it's got nothing to do with you, _mami_. Everything you think is wrong with you because Steven McGarrett said it was wrong, is what drew me to you, okay? Whatever it is that man said to you, he's an idiot. Okay? He's running around with that dog looking girl as if she's better than you. Man's pathetic."

Rowan laughed again. "Thanks," she said as she hugged him. "And seriously, nothing wrong with you either. I'm just… broken…"

"Haha, nothing wrong with me? Girl! I'm an international assassin!"

"So? Wo Fat's an international… I don't even know what his job description would be, but he's going out killing people and doing terrible things all the time… and I love him anyway..."

"Yeah, but you don't wanna sleep with him."

"Ew, no. But that's cause he's my more like my brother and like a million years older than me," "It's like what? 20 years or something?" "No, it's 14 but still. He's attractive, I just wouldn't… you know?" "Yeah, no, I get it."

"And I think… I think you drink because you're numbing the pain," she added and Conejo sighed. "I think we should both stop drinking as much as we have, it's not really fixing anything… is it?" No, it had been working just fine at keeping his past at bay. He had been doing it long before he had Rowan as a drinking buddy, he didn't really want to quit now. "What do you say? I quit you quit too?"

He had been using alcohol as a crutch for years now, he wasn't sure he wanted to… or could. "I don't know…"

Which was fair because she had no idea the kind of damage that lay in his past. No idea the kind of trauma he was trying to drink away.

"Please? I'd love some solidarity. And it doesn't need to be all alcohol, just you know… don't drink to get drunk. I think it might… it might help you do your job better?"

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me," she snapped primly and he scowled at her. "Sometimes you're drunk on me while we're supposed to be shopping. How do you plan to shoot straight? What if you miss? What if you lose me? What if we go for a nap and you sleep through someone breaking in?"

The whole notion was ridiculous. He was fully insulted and his face said so which was when she stopped rambling and looked down. She was right though. He shouldn't be drunk when he was supposed to be watching her, but she also needed to stop bringing him on excursions that bored him to tears… and then to drinking.

"If I say no you're gonna annoy me until I say yes, aren't you?"

"Well I mean… maybe… but of course I wouldn't want to annoy you too much…" She was obvious lying, of course. He wasn't that stupid.

"Alright, fine," he said with a sigh. "Fine. Solidarity alone. I promise not to get drunk on a nightly basis with you. Happy?"

"Yes immensely," Rowan said smiling at him until that frown dawned on her face. "Are you sure we're good?"

He slung an arm around her shoulder and pulled her close. "Course we are kid," he said to her. "We're always going to be good."

And though he was certain he was just fine, he couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed that whatever was going on between them had ended.

"Side note I uh… I looked back at the pictures on my phone," she said pulling it out of her pocket. "We uh… we did some shit last night."

Conejo looked around at the mess around them and then turned back to Rowan. "Yeah, I can tell…"

Rowan showed him the first picture on her phone, which was of him, no shirt, someone's bright yellow thong around his head, trying to run up a wall while drunk out of his mind. He had a feeling that didn't end well at all for him. He probably ate it, but it explained why there were foot prints on one half of the wall.

The second was of Rowan, see-through shirt gone and just in a bra having champagne poured all over her. Mouth open, tongue sticking out. A really semi-erotic picture. Why did she have to show him that _after_ ending things with him?

"We can go through those later, these are the ones you wanna see," Rowan said quickly flicking through a million pictures, including ones that had to be of them paintballing in the hotel room. Which might explain some of his bruises, but if they were really paintballing then Rowan would have had bruises and she didn't seem to be in pain.

She finally stopped swiping and showed him a picture, it was of her and him making out. All of their hands accounted for in the picture. Wo Fat must have taken it. Good thing he couldn't remember a damn thing.

"Never let him see that," Conejo warned her. "And let's just pray that he never remembers…" she flipped the picture again and now it was a picture of her and Wo Fat making out. "NO!"

Rowan blinked her eyes calmly at him while he smiled at her with that big huge grin. God he couldn't believe this. "I don't know how or why it happened, but clearly… it did…"

" _With your brother!_ " he cried and Rowan sighed.

"Look I'm blaming the Absinth, okay. It was the Absinth," she cried.

"You two are fucked up, you know that. Wow, can we show him that one! See how he feels about it?"

"Yeah how about I show him this one?" she asked flipping he picture one more time and now it was him and Wo Fat making out.

"What the shit?"

"Yeah! Got nothing smart to say about that one, do you?" she shot back and he scowled at her. He went to grab the phone from her but she kept it out of his reach. She smiled down at the picture. "I'm actually really curious why the hell we ended up in a make out ring, you know? But at the same time I not. I'm blaming the stupid green fairy."

"Me too," Conejo said. "And I'm voting we never show anyone those photos. Put them in a file and make that file hidden, sound good?" Rowan nodded. "Good glad we're on the same page."

"And I don't care what you say, or how much you wanna say it was a good time. After this…" she said shaking her phone at him. "I'm never drinking Absinthe again."

Yeah, neither was Conejo.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Today had been terrible. The meeting had been hellish and embarrassing, he was surprised he managed to make the sale at all. He had been half way through the pitch when he just turned, hurled everywhere, and then stood up, wiped his mouth clean and then continued on as if nothing had happened. The people he was striking the bargain with were horrified, but he had breezed past it and so had they, though they did look at him strangely for the rest of the meeting. Then he had gotten a call from an old friend. Someone who needed a favour. Someone he couldn't say no to, no matter how much he didn't want to derail Rowan's trip.

He returned to the hotel, still feeling sick with added nervousness now. He was a little disappointed that Rowan didn't fly at him like the last time, he liked getting her hugs, especially right when he got back. Instead he got a lukewarm grumble from Sin Nombre who was still on the couch and a call from Rowan's room.

Ignoring his _finally_ properly hung-over assassin he crossed the destroyed living space that he knew, once the hotel staff saw would be the real reason he'd never be allowed back here again, and into Rowan's room. She was lying on the bed, surrounded by teapots and tea cups looking like a mad hatter party with her red hair all splayed out. Well she must have been feeling better seeing how much tea she had drank today.

"Hello my favourite little imouto," he said picking up the first of the teapots to put back on the trolley so he could sit down.

"I'm your only imouto," she shot back. Wo Fat picked up a third tea pot and began clearing the empty tea cups.

"How are you feeling?"

"I drank my weight in tea," she answered. "At first it made me feel better, but the fourth pot was a bad idea and now I'm back where I started."

"Well, why did you keep ordering tea?" he asked her. "At what point did you think to stop?"

"Part way through the sixth," she answered and he shook his head.

"You're a disaster," he said with a smile. Disaster or not, she was his disaster and that was all that mattered.

"Have you done everything you wanted to do in Berlin?" he asked her, finally getting to the point of this conversation.

"Mmm, almost, I was supposed to do the East Side Gallery today which is the last thing I wanted to do here, but I'm sure I can do it tomorrow."

"Yes uh… about that," Wo Fat sat. "If you remember, before you were… taken… I was in Colombia, helping Armando with something."

"Yes, how did that go?"

"Well I had to leave, so I didn't get to help him that much," he said. "I left him a game plan, a plan of attack if you will. But it seems to have… not gone according to plan. He's called to request that I come back."

"Yeah? When?"

"As soon as possible," he answered and Rowan nodded, understanding what he meant.

"So, what does that mean? Are we all going to go or are you just going to go?"

Wo Fat paused, because he hadn't actually thought about it that way. He never thought about going back to Bogotá and leaving Rowan and Sin Nombre to continue to travel without him.

"Oh… well I suppose I figured that you'd be coming with me," he said. "To be honest, I don't quite think I'm over the whole… kidnapping thing myself."

"Oh?"

"I'd like to keep an eye on you if you wouldn't mind," he said avoiding her eyes. Did he want to tell her that he still had nightmares in the same shape and color as that video he had saved to his phone? To rewatch whenever he forgot why he was doing this, why he couldn't trust McGarrett with her wellbeing.

"Well that's okay, I don't mind going to Colombia," she replied and he found himself smiling. His sister was so sweet, so good to him.

"We have to leave tonight, so no time for East Side Gallery. Is that a terrible thing to do?" he asked her, actually seeming to be quite worried. "We're supposed to be on this grand trip, a trip just for you and I'm… I'm derailing it…"

"Well are we staying in Colombia?"

"Well not permanently…"

"So the plan is go to Colombia, help Armando and go back to travelling?"

"Well, yes… that is the plan I was working with, the problem is that we might be in Colombia for a while…"

Rowan just shrugged. "So? That's fine. Besides, it sounds like Armando needs you, I mean it's not like him to call for help, all stubborn Latin pride and all that. And well… after Bogotá, I believe we owe him."

Not just Bogotá. After Japan they more than definitely owed him. "True. We do."

"And I'd love to see JC again."

Wo Fat groaned. "No, no… could you… I don't want to deal with that again, Rowan… why are you smiling at me like that… are you listening?"

She was not. She was already wondering how quickly she could get JC into her bed, Wo Fat could tell by the look in her eyes. Goddamn it he really didn't want to deal with that right now.


	227. Chapter 227

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hello my wonderful readers! Today is my last day of vacation. I'm only telling you as tomorrows update might be late as well, as tomorrow I'll be flying back and I might pass out when I get home. For the next two chapters I believe we'll be seeing more of Steve. You'll notice that I'll be alternating between whatever it is Rowan is doing and the episodes. Sooner or later they're going to start crossing paths again closer to the end of the season. I will tell you that shortly after our special chapter at the end of the marathon we will be getting the actual Christmas chapter, which means I'm about a quarter of the way through this season. So… though it might feel like it's dragging on, we're actually flying through this. Don't forget to leave me a review and I'll see you tomorrow._

Chapter 227

* * *

Nahele woke up that day thinking that nothing was going to be much different.

Other than his whole life had been derailed. Other than he was living a life that should have been awesome but he couldn't help but feel guilty for liking it so much. How much worse could his day get when every now and then he was reminded that he wasn't supposed to be happy, he was supposed to miss Rowan and Steve?

He went downstairs to find Brandi attempting to make eggs. He really wished she wouldn't do that, the woman couldn't boil water. He kept asking her to let Kong hire a chef but she was determined to be the perfect house wife, that could bake and clean and make breakfast and dinner. And she looked the part, with her curled blonde hair, her little house wife dresses and the vintage bubble gum pink and polka dotted apron.

But Brandi couldn't bake, or cook or clean. All she could really do was shop and tan. But boy was she good at those two things.

As soon as he could, he pushed Brandi aside, took the smoking pan and then dropped it into sink she had filled prior to this and for this inevitable failure. She apologized a bunch of times but Nahele just smiled at her. She meant well and he knew that.

He picked up a granola bar, got a twenty-dollar bill slipped into his palm from Kong so he could get a better breakfast on the way to school.

At school he felt less guilty. At school he could pretend that he was regular kid, that at the end of the school day he could go to Kamekona's for his shift and then at some point Rowan's purple GTO would drive up and that meant he could go home to Rowan and Steve and homework and snacks. And if he was lucky, if he was really good, a camp out fire, Rowan's playing the guitar, s'mores and him and Steve throwing the pig skin around.

Instead Kong's Escalade would show up, and he'd get to go back to the Liang's mansion, where he could play Halo in the theater room with Kong, eat take out since Brandi would have destroyed whatever dish she had attempted to make, complete his homework in a specially designed room, that Brandi had Feng Shui-ed to help his motivation, his creativity and his concentration, and falling asleep in a bed who's sheets were more expensive than half the things in the room that he and Steve had put together.

Though he missed the room he had at Steve's, knew he slept better in his room at Steve's. Though he missed Rowan more than anything, and the little family they had created there. He had gotten used to the Liang house, had started to like the Liang house.

At first it was for selfish reasons. He loved the giant theater room, where he and his friends could play Halo and watch movies on this giant hi-def screen. He loved the Brandi and Kong were willing to just leave the house to let him throw parties. Something they wanted him to do to help him make more friends at school. Granted he had thrown a few, but he didn't like the friends he made at those parties, they only liked him for the stuff his foster parents had.

The real problem was he had started to like Brandi and Kong. Granted there was nothing wrong with either of them, but for as long as he could he had held the fact that they weren't Rowan or Steven against them. It wasn't fair to them, to hold them to that standard. But he also didn't think it was right to just… replace Steven and Rowan with them either. He had been having a hard-enough time with just contemplating that he might love Rowan as much as he had loved his real mother.

Regardless the Liang's were nice people. Brandi was always trying so hard to be a good wife and mother. They had started a cooking class together, where on the weekends they'd go and learn a new dish, and one night during the week they'd make that dish together with Kong. It would be the only meal that week that would be edible AND made by Brandi. And Kong was super chill and understanding about everything. There were rules, of course, and things Nahele knew not to do, but he didn't get mad if Nahele messed up.

Nahele had scratched the vintage Rolls Royce in the garage once taking out the trash and though Kong cried when he saw it, Nahele didn't get yelled at. Accidents happen, he had said. Just be more careful next time. Though it definitely helped that Nahele had owned up to it immediately.

But it was when he was at work, cleaning off the tables for the paying customers so they were nice and clean like Kamekona liked, that the day went from the normal derailed to the complete disaster derailed.

And it started when _he_ showed up.

He had tried to talk to Nahele like nothing was wrong, like he could just get out of jail and pick things up where they had left off. He had been out for months now, why the hell did he care now? Why did he have to show up now? Why couldn't he have shown up before when nothing could have happened cause Rowan and Steve would have run this man out of town. More Rowan than Steve, but Steve would have let it happen, pretending to be mad and lecturing Rowan and everything while secretly being happy she did it.

He let _him_ come up and talk to him, got through a few pleasantries out of respect alone, and then the conversation spiralled when _he_ told Nahele what he wanted. And then Nahele tried to walk away. But _he_ wasn't going to let him.

"Hey! Hey! Don't go anywhere until I'm finished talking to you!" he cried but Nahele just wanted to run, he didn't want to talk to him anymore. _He_ had grabbed him, hard, and Nahele had to rip his arm out of his grasp. He wasn't a child anymore and he wasn't going to let this asshole bully him.

"Step back. Honestly, get back. Seriously, back off," he kept repeating it hopefully trying to get this man to go away."

Kamekona was suddenly by his side. The man moved quickly and soundlessly when he wanted to. He glared down at _him_ and put himself half in between _him_ and Nahele. Yeah, get past that, asshole.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, is there a problem?"

 _He_ sized Kamekona up before saying: "Just having a private conversation."

Kamekona put a finger in his face to shut him up. "Bruh, I don't know you. I'm speaking to Nahele," he said before turning away. "Are you okay or do I need to enforce my right to refuse service?"

Nahele was going to say yes, no, no, maybe he'd say no. He wasn't sure what he was going to say and when he paused for too long because _he_ simply pivoted away, clearly to escape the domineering glare from Kamekona.

"Just think about what I said," he said to him before finally turning away. But Nahele didn't want to think about it because he didn't want it to happen.

"Who was that _lolo_?" Kamekona asked once he was gone.

"My father," Nahele said but left it at that. He didn't want to talk about it.

Nahele wanted to go home, his real home. To the people who had always protected him before. He wanted the woman he felt was his mom now, and the man he wished was his real dad. He wanted Rowan and Steve.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Not long after his father left, Nahele was picked up by Kong. His shift wasn't over, but Kong had said there was a family emergency and then he pulled Nahele away.

Nahele had heard the words _family emergency_ way too often while in the McGarrett-Pierce household. So as soon as Kong said it, Nahele asked who was in the hospital.

It had won him a strange look, but it was how he found out that the emergency wasn't Kong or Brandi or any of their relatives. It was him.

Kong and Brandi had gotten a call from Brenda Dean, saying that Nahele's father was going to petition for custody. Nahele had gotten a letter that said the same thing, Brandi had opened it after the call.

When they got home, Brandi was all over him. Holding onto him, sobbing like only Brandi could and demanding that Kong do something.

Kong responded by hacking into the CPS mainframe to get the online version of Nahele's casefile. What amazed Nahele was that he did it within fifteen minutes, didn't even crack a sweat. Kinda less cool that Kong needed his glasses now to read the screen, which he kept perched on the tip of his nose as he squinted down them to read the file.

It summed up to one thing. Nahele's father had been interviewed, assessed and vetted. As far as CPS was concerned this was a done deal, barring any monumental confessions at the court hearing.

Nahele sat in the wake of this, he could lose the secondary stable home he found. He had lucked out finding two in the first place. Now he was going to lose his second home, to live with his father! He really, really, really didn't want to live with his father.

"Wait… so he could… he could actually take him away?" Brandi cried after digesting the file that Kong had read. "I mean come on, I thought that was just something that happened in movies! We're obviously the better fit here, why the hell would they want to send him home with a convict?"

As opposed to with Kong who was a criminal hacker. Nahele looked to Kong who looked lost, and then to Brandi who looked like she was going to cry again. Already he was resigning himself to leaving, to being forced to leave.

He put a hand out to her shoulder to comfort her. "Look, it's okay, Brandi," he said. "Now you can get that younger kid you want."

Brandi turned her big blue eyes onto him, gasping in horror. "That is _not_ what I want!" she shouted and hen whirled away.

Kong sighed as she stormed off, sobbing dramatically as Brandi was prone to doing while Nahele sat in front of his cooling chicken too nervous to eat.

"Hey, hey," Kong said putting a hand out to his hand, resting his right on top of Nahele's closed fist. "We'll fight this, okay? I promise. You want to stay here, we want you to stay here, we'll figure it out."

It was something Rowan would have said. Just as vague, just as ominous. And a little glimmer of hope sparked up in Nahele's chest.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

He got a text from Steve the following day. Requesting a meet up after school. Nahele had an inkling what it had to be about. And even though he was starting to feel like it was a chore to visit Steve he still agreed, because he felt like he was made of nothing but sorrow, anguish and turmoil, and maybe Steve could help him.

He went to the beach, sat down on "their" bench and then waited, the letter he had gotten in his hand. He kept opening and closing it, like if he did it would change. Steve arrived a few minutes later, a nervous sort of smile on his face.

"Hey," he said coming to sit beside him. "How you doing?"

"Good," he lied. Though, judging by the look on his face, he had a feeling he knew why Steve had asked him to meet up after school.

"I heard your father visited you yesterday."

"Who told you Kong or Kamekona?"

"Got a call from both actually," Steve said. "Kong sounds quite frantic. He's really gotten attached to you huh?"

Nahele nodded. "They both have. They're nice. I know his background isn't you know… squeaky clean… but uh… they're really nice."

Steve nodded clearly trying to not look disappointed by that. It wasn't the first time Nahele had said something to that affect but Steve's reaction to those words always looked painful. "Look… you uh… you wanna talk about it? Your father, not Kong."

Nahele almost laughed, that Steve felt he needed to differentiate between the two as if Nahele wouldn't know.

"There's not much to say, they sent this in the mail earlier this week," he said showing him the paper he had worried to death. The creases were so deeply dug in that they were dangerously close to splitting.

Steve took the paper from him and looked it over. "He wants custody."

"I haven't seen him since I was 8," Nahele told him. "He thinks because he writes a couple of letters from prison and says he's sorry that still makes him my father. And now I gotta live with this guy."

"This is a court hearing. You know that, right?" he asked. "Nothing's been decided yet."

Yeah but Steve didn't know the system. They were all about reuniting families and all that bullshit. And if he had really got a call from Kong, hadn't he told Steve that it was already a done deal?

"I'd rather be back on the streets tan be with him."

That was a heavy thing to say because Nahele hated living on the streets. Hated being dirty, tired and hungry all the time.

A million different emotions passed over Steve's face, he opened and closed his mouth and pivoted his body a bunch of times. He was trying to decide what to say, he was nervous, probably picking up on Nahele's own nervousness.

"No chance he's changed?"

Benefit of the doubt, really? Steve was going to try to give this guy the benefit of the doubt when he had been damn near ready to crucify and arrest Kong on the spot just for accidentally taking him in? Okay so he hadn't accidentally taken him in, but that's what Steve had thought… still thought.

Nahele wanted to call him out, but they had been treading on eggshells since he got taken away. Every time he saw Steve it was all about having fun, they barely talked about anything important anymore. And Nahele didn't want to hurt Steve's feelings by telling him how he felt sort of abandoned… like Steve didn't really try to keep him, because if the only reason they took him away was Five-0, he could have just… cut his hours, or something. But Nahele wasn't as important as Five-0, and Steve was hurting so bad over Rowan even if he was pretending that he was fine, that Nahele just let it go.

Still he shook his head and whispered: "No," to Steve so he knew that this was bad, and maybe a little bit to convince him to do something about it.

And when he saw Steve nod he knew, right away, that he got it, and with Steve on it, maybe everything would turn out okay.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve thought his week was going to revolve around a professor no one liked ending up dead and eaten by pigs. He thought his week was going to have Danny undercover at the university, filling in for the dead professor, as Professor Jeffries, while his nephew Eric posed as a student.

He was not expecting a call from Kamekona saying that Nahele's father had shown up and was hassling him. And he definitely was not expecting Kong to call and say that the same Father of Nahele was petitioning for custody and might take him away. Kong's call had been a little bit more worrying because there was an underlying threat. Steve needed to fix it or Kong was going to turn monstrous and hack his way through the man's life and destroy him.

Steve hadn't wanted to jump into action. Nahele was strictly his kid anymore, but that didn't mean he didn't care. And the second he saw Nahele's fearful face he knew that he was going to jump right into this situation. Which was why he was driving up to that construction site at that very moment instead of helping to chase up leads with the rest of the team.

He waited until he spotted the guy he was looking for. Nahele's dad. It hadn't taken much to find him. Ran him through Five-0's smart table and he got everything he needed to on the guy. Steve quickly hopped out of the truck and started towards Nahele's father before he could get too far away.

"Kaili Huikala?" Steve asked stopping the smaller more wiry guy from walking away. Steve could see some of Nahele in him, but he must have gotten most of his looks from his mother, and definitely his height cause this guy was tiny.

"Yeah?"

"I'm Steve McGarrett," he said offering him a hand to shake.

"I've been meaning to reach out to you," Kaili said. Wow, that would have been a dumb move, but maybe it would have been better to have Steve scare him away before freaking poor Nahele out. "I heard you've been lookin' out for my son."

"He's a great kid," Steve told him.

"Yeah he is…"

"Look, uh… I'm sure you heard but, uh… for a while there he was living with me and my… yeah… kinda think of him as my own, you know?"

Kaili took that in and he nodded. "Yeah, I heard that too," he admitted. "Not gonna lie, if she was still around… probably wouldn't have reached out at all. Probably would have just let you have him, don't wanna think about what she would have done if I were trying to take him away from her."

Steve half laughed. Yeah if Rowan were here that guy would be quaking. Hell if he had been petitioning to get Nahele from Rowan he might have already been dead.

"Yeah you're lucky. If it were her you wouldn't have a pulse right now," he said.

Kaili nodded not laughing or smiling like Steve was. "But I'm guessing you didn't come all the way down here to tell me all that. I'm guessing you got an ulterior motive."

Yes he did, no point in lying. "Well, you're right," he admitted. "I wanted to talk to you about Nahele's well-being actually, he's uh… he came to me a little upset."

"Look man… I'm grateful for what you did. Seriously, thank you for taking care of _my kid_ …"

"Again, I did a lot more than that. I was there for him, I know what he been going through the last year and a bit. I picked up the pieces and I can appreciated that maybe you would have done the same if you were out at the time, but you weren't," Steve snapped. "I know you think this custody case is the best thing for him but with all due respect, I think you're wrong."

"I appreciate that you're concerned, but Nahele's my son.

"Yeah but he doesn't wanna be with you right now, Kaili."

"But he wants to be with you, right?' Kaili asked. "I heard what happened, I know you lost custody of him. Should you really be out here judging me on what's good for my son, when the system already deemed _you_ not good for my son?"

Wow. Wow. Kaili was about to get punched. But as angry as Steve was, he did have a point. He really didn't have any right to be out there, other than he cared about Nahele and he could tell that he was really upset about this and desperately wanted someone to save him from it.

"I'm sorry for that," Kaili whispered after a moment of silence. "I didn't mean it to come off that way. You see, when I went away, he was just a little boy. I let him down, and I know he's mad at me for that. I don't blame him. But I wanna make things right."

"I get that. But he's a runner and if you come at him too hard, you're gonna push him away. That trust is gonna take time to earn, and I'm worried he'll end up putting himself into a dangerous situation to get away from you."

"I already lost out on six years with him. That was all my fault. I'm the one who committed those robberies. But I'm a different man now. All I want to do is prove it to him. That boy is all the family I got. And it might be easier for him to accept if you'd stop butting your nose in."

"You're right, I'm sorry if you think I over stepped my bounds," he said. "But uh… Just a word of warning… you better hope, Rowan doesn't find out." At Kaili's confused look Steve added: "She may not be talking to me but I hear she's still talking to the kid."

It was a bold-faced lie but it was enough to scare Kaili, and maybe, if he was lucky just Rowan's name would be enough to convince this guy to back off and leave their kid alone.

Once Kaili had walked away and Steve was in his truck, he opened up his phone and called Kong back. The man picked up on the first ring.

"Did you see him? Did you scare him off? Is he gonna revoke the petition?" a feminine voice asked him and Steve paused cause that wasn't Kong, which meant…

"Hi Brandi," Steve said warmly. Damn the woman was just as much a Pitbull as Rowan.

"Don't you _hi Brandi_ me like I'm gonna go weak at the knees for the smirk in your face. It only works for Kong. Now you tell me what you did? You got him to back off, right? Right?"

"Can I talk to Kong please?" Steve asked and then swore that he could hear Brandi's scowl. But there was a soft argument between Brandi and Kong and then she must have relented the phone to him.

"Sorry, she grabbed my phone out of the office," he said. "Not sure if you already gave her the low down but what are the chances you can do it again for me?"

"Didn't get a chance to give her anything," Steve said. "But uh… I did speak to Kaili you know about Nahele and his case, but uh… he seems intent on doing this. Couldn't quite talk him out of it."

There was a heavy sigh from Kong and then he said: "Yeah, I forgot Rowan was the man of action in your household."

"I am too a man of action," Steve snapped. "I'm just bound by the law, and you know that." The two were silent for a moment. And Steve sighed, because he had a back up plan that he wanted to enact. He just wasn't sure how this was gonna go over. "Look, I know I probably shouldn't do this but uh… what are the chances you can call Ro and just… just ask her what she's dreaming right now…"

"Can't call Ro, she doesn't have a phone."

Then why the hell did Wo Fat steal her phone back then? How had she been calling him before? "Okay so call Fat and ask him."

"Don't think I can do that either."

"Why not?"

"Because she doesn't know. And if she doesn't know he's not going to ask her cause that's all your girl does, is ask questions and…"

"Wait… doesn't know what?"

"Anything. Look I can call him but I make no promises alright?"

"Kay, if you get a hold of him, just ask him what she's dreaming, he'll understand."

"That is the weirdest request…" "Just trust me okay?"

Kong sighed but agreed and then the call was over. Steve sat in his truck feeling crappy and a lot like he failed Nahele again. He never should have told Rowan to stop calling. Cause if she were, he'd have told her what was happening. Because Nahele was right, she would have come home to fix this if she knew.


	228. Chapter 228

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hello my wonderful readers and welcome to the 10th day of the 12 days of Christmas Marathon! We are only TWO updates away from your special Christmas Chapter. Are you guys getting excited? For those who are worried about Nahele, everything is going to be settled in this chapter. The next set of chapters are going to be centered around Rowan, but we do have a very funny set of chapters coming up. It's my favourite episode in season 6 so hopefully I did it justice. Don't forget to leave me a review and I'll see you guys tomorrow._

Chapter 228

* * *

The court hearing was scheduled for a Friday evening. Steve had caught his murderer by then, and it was pretty anti-climactic. Just a university kid, the campus pot dealer that had partnered up with their dead Professor for a big time grow operation. Kid got a taste of real profit and decided he didn't want to share. Had a good plan, have the pigs eat the body, hopefully never have it found. Except pigs can't digest lead so the bullet came out and they got a match and the proof they needed to arrest the kid.

After the arrest Kong had called back and said that Wo Fat had not been pleased but had distressingly understood what Kong was asking. Within a few hours he had confirmed that Rowan was dreaming about a little boy that was left in the car. His father kept promising him a shaved ice. But the father always left with his friend, the boy was left in the car with his comic books and then a gunshot is heard. Then the father would then come back without the friend. But she didn't know if it was recent or in the past. She also couldn't tell him who the boy was.

Kong had then asked what the hell her dreams had to do with anything? And Steve couldn't give him an answer because she hadn't given them anything they could use. Granted that was much more detailed than her dreams usually were, she didn't usually have a play-by-play that thorough for something so trivial. Still what was he going to tell Kong? That he had him call Wo Fat to get a psychic dream from Rowan? He'd think Steve was crazier than he had before.

But with his case settled, and Rowan dreaming nothing useful as per usual, Steve could do nothing except show up to that court hearing for solidarity and to offer a bit of comfort. So, he got himself all dressed up in the navy-blue suit that Rowan loved him, and made sure to put on the matching navy-blue striped tie that Nahele had bought him for his birthday. It made Nahele half smile when he saw it and that was all he needed.

He was both grateful and upset that he wasn't the one sitting beside Nahele at that table. And yet it felt wrong to have Nahele sitting at that table, nervous and afraid, his foot tapping, a habit that he had picked up from Steve. He was sitting beside Brandi, with Kong on the other side of his wife and Brenda Dean on the other side of Nahele.

On the one hand it felt like that Steve should have been the one beside him but on the other hand he knew it would have been torture if it had been him in the Liang's shoes. Cause if he and Rowan would have gotten to this point, where they were sitting in a court room about to be told whether or not they would be allowed to keep Nahele, both of them would have been nervous wrecks.

Instead he got to sit down behind Nahele, silently trying to emit nothing but positive vibes hoping that he could sense how supportive Steve was trying to be. Even if it had to be emotional support from afar.

They listened to the Judge read through Kaili's testimony's and affidavits. They listened to what the Liang's had to say about the matter, about how with him Nahele would have all the supplies to properly thrive. And Nahele's plea to not be moved _again_ not when he had just settled in and things were starting to feel homey.

Steve tried very hard not to take that to heart. He couldn't ask the kid to be miserable, he deserved a good home, a happy home, even if it wasn't Steve's home.

And then the Judge was ready with her decision.

"I've gone over Mr. Huikala's testimony as well as the social worker's evaluation, which was extremely detailed as always," the judge said shooting a pleased smile to Brenda Dean who sat on the other side of Nahele. "I also have affidavits here from Mr. Huikala's employer and parole officer."

Steve watched as the Liang's sat nervously, Brandi sitting beside Nahele, holding his hand tightly, like Rowan would have if she were there. The tenseness in Kong's shoulders. To be honest, he could have hacked himself out of this, the fact that he hadn't showed some real maturity. Steve was proud of him, though if there were ever a time for Kong to canon ball into that hazy grey area, this would have been the time.

The Judge closed the file in front of her and smiled at them. "At this point, I feel I have enough information to render a decision."

There was a pause there that no one needed before the judge continued. "The State of Hawaii prides itself in reconnecting families and after careful consideration, I believe that is what we should do here today."

"Wait… what?" Brandi cried shooting to her feet. "Reuniting families? That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard!"

"Mrs. Liang… sit down."

Already Kong was struggling to pull her back down into the chair, but she threw his hands off and he just gave up, like that. Clearly knowing that his wife wasn't just going to let this go.

"No, I will not sit down! Yes, he's said the right things and done the right things, but that's right now. He went to jail for a reason and with that on his record you know he won't amount to anything. We have money, we have station, and more than enough connections backing us. This court should be more concerned in giving this kid a better life, not putting him with some jail junky father who will never be able to afford to take care of him like we can. _Nahele doesn't even want to live with him!"_

"Mrs. Liang!" the Judge near screamed at her banging the gavel as if that was going to stop Brandi. Damn, the angrier she got the more she seemed like Rowan. Except Rowan would have activated her app by now. Sandy would be running through Kaili's and that Judge's life by now looking for dirt to throw in this court room.

"WELL it's TRUE!" she shouted she then turned onto Kong. "Don't just sit there! DO SOMETHING!"

He opened his mouth, Steve wasn't even certain what he could say to calm her down, but was interrupted by the Judge who had decided to move on "Regardless of how you feel, Mrs. Liang. This court feels that it's is in Nahele's best interest to be reunited with his father."

"Well with all due respect, this court is STUPID!"

Now if that wasn't a Rowan comment if Steve ever heard one. Steve almost smiled, hell he almost laughed at that one.

"Mrs. Liang, one more comment and I will hold you in contempt of the court," the Judge said shooting her a warning glare that should have shut her up. Brandi seemed to realize that she was shouting at a loosing battle.

"I'm already holding you in all sorts of contempt woman!" Brandi cried but none-the-less took her seat.

The Judge shot her one last angry glare before she stamped the form in front of her and said: "The petition for custody is hereby granted."

Before she could even finish the sentence Nahele was out of his seat and speed walking away. The door to the courtroom slammed behind him as he disappeared, despite Brenda Dean and both Liang's shouting after him to come back.

Once the door was shut Brandi turned back on the judge ready to fight her loosing battle again.

"See! See what you did!" she shouted at the judge. "He's a flight risk you knew that, it's on his file. If he runs away and never comes back it is on YOU!"

As Brandi and the judge argued, Kong turned. The look on his face was all Steve needed. He nodded and got up, ready to chase after his boy. Maybe, maybe if he got Nahele to talk they could find a way to fix whatever this was.

Or maybe, he'd have Kong put him in touch with Wo Fat and demand he talk to Rowan. Hell, he'd ask Wo Fat for the favour if he had to. Anything to fix things for his boy. It was the least he could do.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve found Nahele in the first place Steve thought to look. In his garage. Sitting in the passenger seat of Rowan's pastel purple GTO.

Steve, who had untied his tie and unbuttoned a few buttons on his shirt on his way over, stripped himself of his suit jacket before slipping into the driver's seat.

"Yeah I thought I might find you here," Steve said once the door was shut and he was sitting comfortably. Nahele didn't even bother to look up.

"You know, after a bad day at school, specially that private school where they were bullying me, getting into the passenger seat of this cat always made it a little better. I always felt like, when I was in this car, I was safe. Cause Ro wouldn't have let anything happen to me," Nahele whispered.

Yeah Steve got that. Rowan had a way of making you feel impervious to everything. "Look, Nahele, I know that things didn't go down the way you wanted them to but…"

"I don't care what… I don't care what that judge said. They can't make me live with him."

"Actually, they can…"

Nahele shook his head. "This wouldn't have happened if she were here," he whispered, his shaking getting worse, he was getting more and more closer to breaking into tears. "She wouldn't let them take me."

"But she's not here, kid," Steve said. "She's not… and… you know… if she was here… whatever she would have done to keep you probably wouldn't have been legal…"

"Yeah but she would have done, _something_ ," Nahele snapped finally turning to look at Steve and he fell quiet, because he got it now. There was an anger in Nahele's eyes he hadn't seen before, that maybe, Steve had been blind to. Nahele felt like no one had done _anything_ to keep him. That they just let him go. Steve included. "I keep… I keep calling her and leaving messages. I thought… if maybe… if I could just talk to her, I could maybe get her to come home and… I unno… we could be a family again… I keep telling her you don't have to be there and it could just me and her… but I guess I'm not…"

Steve sighed. God this poor kid. But he couldn't keep hear this, having that guilt trip thrown at him. Did Nahele not know how painful it was to hear that he didn't need the family with Steve, it could have been just Nahele and Rowan. Steve would have been a bonus. Yeah this was his fault but he didn't need it thrown at him or cut out of the shared family dream.

"Hey! This is not your fault, okay?" Steve said putting an arm out to him. "Look, I'm sorry, kid. I'm sorry I did this to you," he said. Nahele opened his mouth to tell him that it wasn't his fault, but it was. And they both knew it. "She didn't come back cause of me. Cause I picked Catherine. It wasn't your fault. She didn't leave cause of you."

"But she didn't come back. She said she'd come back for me…"

"Well from what I hear, she's travelling around the world with a deranged psychopath and an international assassin, so you know, she probably just doesn't want you around that. She probably just wants to be settled…"

"She hasn't called me either."

Yeah this was getting harder to justify. Damn why was he even trying to justify her terrible behaviour to him?

"This is gonna sound crazy kid, but this is how she copes," he said. "I noticed it when she got here, this unwillingness to talk about her past and her family. She just… she pretends it's not a problem by pretending it's not there. Like if she doesn't talk about it, or think about it, or acknowledge it, it'll go away. She did that for everything traumatic that ever happened to her. And that's a shitty way of dealing with anything, but it worked for her. I just means… she can never think about it again…"

"But what if she does?"

"It manifested as nightmares most of the time, look it's a messy way of dealing with things and it's not practical, but it's what she does," Steve said. "I think… and I don't have proof, but I think she's got someone screening her calls so she doesn't have to think about it… cause it's hurting her too much to think about it."

"So, she doesn't know what's happening here, and she doesn't want to know because it hurts?"

"Yes."

"That's stupid," Nahele snapped. "She's gonna be so pissed when she finds out."

Yes, she was, wasn't she? But she wasn't here now, which meant it was up to Steve to take care of their kid.

"Look, I can tell that there's something you're not telling me," he said and Nahele's eyes whipped up as if surprised. "About your dad that is. Now I want to help you but if you don't let me in, I can't."

This sucked because before, when Rowan was there, before Brenda Dean and CPS took him away, Nahele one hundred percent would have trusted him. Nahele kept his eyes down, he refused to look up, refused to look at him anymore.

"Look at me," Steve ordered after the silence was too long and the kid's chest refused to stop heaving. Nahele did as he was told and Steve could see the anguish there, and he wanted nothing more than to extinguish it for him. "I'll always protect you, alright? Just cause you're not here, in the house with me, doesn't mean I don't care, and doesn't mean I won't protect you. You got me?"

Nahele nodded softly and then started telling him about the murder he witnessed his dad commit when he was younger. A murder that was word for word, the dream Wo Fat had told Kong that Rowan was having. She was dreaming something useful after all.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve called Five-0 the second he got Nahele's story. He purposely didn't call CPS to say he found him, instead he ordered his kid pizza from his favourite place, and then tucked him into his own bed. He told Nahele he was staying the night, no matter what, and that Steve was going to be there the whole time.

But as soon as Kono and Chin confirmed the dead body in the spot Nahele had given him, he left. He left to arrest Kaili himself. Deposited him in jail and then called Kong.

He told Kong two things. One. Nahele was with him and staying the night, no arguments. Two. He had just proved that Kaili had committed murder, Nahele was the witness. Call CPS, get custody revoked. The last thing he had said was to call him when it was good for him to bring Nahele back. As in, as soon as Kong could confirm that he was Nahele's foster parent again, Steve would pack up the kid that should have been his and drop him off at his new home.

Steve then called Five-0 and got the next day off.

He didn't want to chance taking Nahele off his property and chance someone seeing him. He didn't want CPS knowing that he wasn't missing and taking him away again. So they stayed in the house.

Steve made him toaster waffles and smoothies, nothing like Rowan would have made but he couldn't make her pancakes with her living with him and showing him what to do, he wouldn't be able to do it now. They threw the pig skin around like they used to, he got him surfing on the waves outside of Steve's house. Then, when it got a little dark, he let the kid start a fire, roast some marshmallows while Steve tried to practice his guitar. Problem was he hadn't been able to play a note since Rowan left, and he couldn't do it now either.

By the time Nahele was on his third s'more Kong had called back to say that not only were they approved again, but it was okay for Nahele to come home. Steve tried to get him for one more night, feigning Nahele being tired and it being late, but it wasn't that late and the Liang's were anxious to get Nahele back.

So he packed the kid that should have been his up in his truck and dropped him off at the Liang's giant house. As soon as the truck was parked, Brandi was rushing out the front door squealing and flapping her arms like she and Nahele were being reunited after years of separation.

She hugged him tightly, squealing and crying while Nahele limply hugged her back and evenly intoned that it was okay. Steve found, that though this was touching, he couldn't quite stomach looking at this reunion. He waved good-bye to the kid that should have been his and put his car in reverse as Brandi and Nahele headed back to the house where Kong was waiting at the door, to pull Nahele into a stiff hug and to wave his thanks to Steve.

But once that door was closed, Steve started to drive because he wasn't a part of that reunion anymore.

Nahele wasn't his kid anymore. That wasn't ever going to be his family. But that didn't mean he didn't love him. That didn't mean he wasn't going to look out for him. And it didn't mean that Steve was never going to have his own family.

But at that moment, he felt as if anything else wasn't going to be as amazing as that first family he had.


	229. Chapter 229

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hello my wonderful readers! It's the 11th day of the 12 days of Christmas Marathon! (Or it was when I started editing this chapter, got side tracked by last minute present wrapping and here's another late chapter) Luckily everything ended well with Nahele and now we're heading into Colombia with Rowan and her boys. I know it's odd timing, but in a few chapters AFTER our special Christmas chapter, we'll be getting into the actual story's Christmas chapters. We're going to have some interesting things happening. And once we get back the Valentine's Day chapters, we'll be about half way through the story and onto the REAL drama. Essentially Colombia is the start of all the MAJOR drama with Rowan, I mean less about Steve and her broken heart and more about her powers and her family. I know you guys aren't quite as fond of the Rowan chapters, but I've been having a lot of fun writing them. Don't forget to leave me a review and I'll see you tomorrow for our last and final marathon chapter!_

Chapter 229

* * *

The sleek black Audi pulled into the large cobblestone courtyard where Armando stood ready to welcome the people inside. He had one hand shielding his eyes from the bright Colombian sun, as he waited for the door to open.

In a flash the door opened and a familiar bounding red-headed ball of energy hurtled herself at him. Armando, who only put up with hugs from his own girls, wrapped up this girl in a tight hug with no problem what so ever. He even managed to smile while doing it.

When Juan Carlos came back from Japan with horror stories of breaks and bruises and constant crying Armando had worried that Rowan wouldn't heal the same. But the girl smiling up at him from his chest looked to be the exact same as he remembered her.

"Hi Papa bear," she said and he smiled down at her.

"Get off," he ordered in the most loving way possible that just made her beam brighter and had her snuggling into him again. By this time Wo Fat and Sin Nombre were out of the Audi and one of his men was moving forward to take the car and put it in the garage.

Sin Nombre put out a hand, gripping the back of Rowan's shirt and tugging her back to him which meant Wo Fat could move in. The two shared a stiff hug before he pulled away and turned back to the girl and the bodyguard.

"Can you two get settled in without me?" he asked. "I've got business to attend to."

"Kay cool, don't commit any murders until Conejo can go with you," Rowan said. "Remember, you promised."

As Wo Fat no doubt rolled his eyes Armando was stunned in surprise. "Rabbit?" he echoed. The great Sin Nombre, murderer of many, who struck fear into the hearts of all criminals, let Rowan Pierce call him Rabbit?

"Laugh it up _Papa bear_ ," Sin Nombre shot back. "She can call me that, you can't."

"That's right, no teasing!" Rowan scolded him, pointing a finger at him, her other hand on her hips. She scowled up to him in that warning way she had which just made the whole situation so much more ridiculous. Because she was clearly attempting to emulate her bodyguard, and failing cause she just looked cute.

Well… wasn't that… interesting? Armando had just been starting out when Sin Nombre came onto the scene. The men he put into the ground five, almost six years ago, helped to create the empire Armando was so desperately attempting to save. Everyone knew him as this cool and detached assassin. The man who did what he wanted, held no one close to him, and killed with a singular drive. He never failed a mission, or at least he hadn't before Rowan got snatched out from under his nose. It was strange to see him exhibiting any sort of fondness or emotion for Rowan.

"We're going to go unpack," Rowan said rushing to Sin Nombre's side to take one of her suitcases. "I'll send him down when we're done. I take it I can pick my room?"

And then Rowan left before Armando could answer. He watched her go with Sin Nombre trailing after her before he turned an amused looked to Wo Fat who was watching them go from behind wide brimmed sunglasses.

"I know, it's a problem," he said with a heavy sigh. "His attachment to her and vice versa. But he took a reasonable discount for this job and he's the best I can do right now."

"Best you can do? He's the best of the best. Ain't nothing gonna get to that girl with him sitting on her."

Wo Fat turned a scowl on him. "Yeah that's what I thought when I left him on her in Hawaii. We both know how that went," he reminded him. "Not to mention Hawaii had him at a distance. Now that they're together day in and out… well…"

Armando couldn't help it, he snorted. Wo Fat definitely had his hands full between those two. He bet the two of them were even ganging up on him.

"I'm glad you're enjoying this," Wo Fat snapped. "Why don't you tell me why you called me here, what happened?"

"Diego hit my house," he said. "Went after my kids."

Wo Fat turned to him clearly surprised. It was an unspoken rule, not to go for children. Before Rowan, Wo Fat wouldn't have understood why Armando was upset. But he understood now.

"Well we can't have that, can we?" he asked. "Are they alright?"

"A little scared. Wife is very mad at me. She's gone to her sister's until further notice. I sent my best men with her."

"You can pull her here if you want. Sin Nombre's here, he'll take care of them," he said. "Unless uh… you want me to set him lose. Send a message. I'm sure he'd love the change, Ro's been running him ragged with tourist attractions. Claims that it's driving him crazy but he's always taking pictures of them and buying his own souvenirs."

That whole sentence was amazing. There as so much in there that he could use against Sin Nombre if he wasn't afraid that the man would just stab him in the throat if he tried. Instead he moved onto the main flaw in Wo Fat's plan.

"Sin Nombre doesn't kill kids," Armando reminded him. They were walking towards the study of this compound.

"Fine, we'll send me. I don't care who I kill," he replied and Armando nodded. Despite being on a plane at the time, Juan Carlos knew what Wo Fat was going to do next. He knew what was goin happened to Riku Sato and his family, so no one was surprised when news hit. But rage had been the root behind those murders. He wasn't sure if Wo Fat had it in him anymore.

"I agree a message must be sent, but I want more than a family decimated. I want his business crippled. I want him run out of this country," he growled and Wo Fat nodded.

"Then we have a lot of work, don't we old friend?" he asked. There was a gleam in those eyes that Armando recognized. A glimmer of that old villain that Wo Fat used to be before he met Rowan. This incident with her, it had done wonders for the evil in the man. It had finally brought it back to the surface.

Maybe Wo Fat still had it in him after all.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Wo Fat locked himself in Armando's study, they were busy mapping out their plan of attack, he had said. Rowan was bored, immediately. She wanted to explore, she wanted to go and see new things, she wanted to go shopping. Conejo had stopped her. He was nervous, Colombia, or at least the part of Colombia that they were in, wasn't safe for tourists, especially pretty little white things like her.

He wanted to do perimeter checks on the house, and recon on the places she wanted to visit. She quickly realized that she was going to spend a lot of time in Armando's mansion. Much like the last one she had been in, the one in Bogata, there was a pool, an indoor gym, and a large library for her to use. Though the library and the study were attached so she hadn't been able to go into yet. But that wasn't going to be enough to keep her entertained.

The first thing she convinced Conejo to do was escort her to the Vault. That request involved an armoured car and a team of men under his control with Kevlar vests and automatic machine guns and while she thought that was ridiculous it got her out of the house.

The Cartagena branch of the Vault was under a church. They walked into the Templo de Santo Domingo, the team of men left outside as to not desecreate the hallowed grounds they were on. Conejo even made the sign of the cross as they passed through the threshold. Rowan walked to the alter where they were accepting coins to light a vigil candle.

Rowan handed them a few coins. Lit her candle looked the priest assiting her in they eye and then whispered: "They say hell has three gates. I'd like access to the third."

The man nodded to her and gestured for her to follow him. He lead her to the back where, behind a hanging tapestry was a set of a stairs. The stairs lead down to the main chamber where a man with a laptop was waiting to take her finger prints and iris scan to prove that she was who she said she was. Behind him a giant vault door, like something out of cartoon or old western.

"Welcome to Cartagena, Miss Pierce, how may we help you?" the man asked her once everything was confirmed.

"I'd like to make a withdrawal, from the joint account," she told him. He typed away and pulled the briefcase out of Conejo's hand and readied it for the money she was about to receive.

"I'm sorry, your emergency fund has been emptied."

Rowan started and looked up to him. What? No. That couldn't be true. "Excuse me?"

"It's currently empty," he repeated as if she were stupid. She scowled at him.

"Show me," she ordered, and then before he could tell her no, she had grabbed the laptop to confirm it. It wasn't fully empty but it didn't have a lot of money in it. There was only one zero after that number. She hadn't realized that it was that bad.

"You and your brother have burned through it, I don't see why you're surprised."

Because Wo Fat hadn't told her. But why was she surprised? The man had been throwing cash at her since they left for Paris. She had assumed it would put a dent into the funds, but she didn't think it would decimate the emergency funds.

"What are all of these?" she asked pointing to a transfer, someone was wiring money into the account, not that it mattered since they were burning through it faster than a fire went through an Australian bush.

"That would be transfers from your brother's personal account, no doubt to flush out the funds to afford your suddenly lavish lifestyle…"

He was paying for her with his own money. Dear god, she was bankrupting him. That's why he was working while they travelled. He had to, because he couldn't afford all they were doing.

"What about my personal vault, what's in that one?"

He keyed in her account number and then showed her. He must have emptied her bank accounts before they went on this trip, probably to keep Steve from tracking them. It seemed odd to her but it was working in their favour at that moment. It meant that she had a lot of money in there.

"Alright, uhm… can you take half the money in my vault and transfer it into the shared vault and uh… take my withdrawal from that please," she told him. "I uh… I guess ten thousand will do for now, for spending cash."

It was more than enough for this leg of the trip because now she wasn't going to do anything. She was going back to being frugal, no more crazy spending, no more making it rain in souvenir shops. No more letting Wo Fat book out a full train just for murder mystery theater. No more crazy expensive hotels.

She got her money, made sure that the transfer into their shared account was completed and then they were heading back to Armando's. She needed to start pulling her weight, she couldn't be a financial drain, she needed to be useful in some sort of way.

She'd have to start writing songs again.

"What are you going to use the cash for?" Conejo asked her once they were back at the mansion.

"Christmas presents," she said. "Maybe Christmas decorations, we'll have to see what Armando has here."

"Well it's not his main house, so not a lot," Conejo shot back.

"I'll figure it out," she said and then paused. "Hey Conejo… do we like Goro Shioma now?"

Conejo paused himself and then turned back to her. "I suppose so. He forgave your friend's debt and handed over Gabriel like he said he would so I think he and your Oz are on good terms now."

Rowan nodded. "So we wouldn't want him to be dead?"

Conejo's eyes narrowed. "No I suppose we wouldn't… why?"

"I had a dream. I'm going to need you to go to Hawaii," she said as if that made sense. Conejo half scoffed at her in surprise.

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me, you have to go Hawaii and make sure Gabriel doesn't kill him," she said. "Should be easy and a fun time for you."

"I'm not leaving you alone in Cartagena, Colombia. Not when you have a tendency to wander off," he growled. Rowan opened her mouth but he shook his head. "No, I'm not going. You can't make me. End of argument. Go put your money in your safe I'm going to go to the kitchen and get us something to snack on."

Rowan let him leave knowing that at that moment she had bigger things to worry about than Gabriel's plan to take over Hawaii's underground by killing all the leaders. Right now she had to write enough songs to keep them rolling comfortably in dough for the rest of the trip.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

 _I loved and I loved and I lost you. I loved and I loved and I lost you. And it hurts like hell._

For four days, all Rowan did was eat sleep and breathe music. Once she uncorked the waiting words and the melodies, it flowed from her like a river.

 _Here comes the rain again, falling from the stars. Drenched in my pain again becoming who we are._

Each word felt like it was carved out of her skin, each note stained with the blood of her broken heart. Her love had been set ablaze and laid to waste and from the ashes rose the songs of the dying, the heart broken, the left and the lonely.

 _Why her, not me? What did I do for you to wreck it all? Oh lord, it's not my fault._

Each song brought Steven back from her. Each chord, each note, they transported her back to a Hawaiian beach. The firefly dotted nights, with embers floating in the wind mixing with her words. Each song reminded her that Steven and her Hawaiian beach no longer belonged to her. And with that renewed grief came more words.

 _How can I say this without breaking? How can I say this without taking over? How can I put it down into words? When its almost too much for my soul alone. I loved, and I loved and I lost you. And it hurts like hell._

For the first time since that basement Rowan Pierce came alive. She found that pulse, the heart beat of her, the will to live once more. Her purpose. Her drive. For the first time she felt a little bit like her old self, for real, not just for pretend for her brother and her body guard. For the first time Rowan felt like she might just be starting to heal.

 _You can pretty lie and say it's okay. You can pretty smile and just walk away. Pretty much fake your way through anything but you can't cry pretty._

Rowan Pierce was on fire, but this time the flame was one of her own creation. And like a phoenix she was going to rise from the ashes. Stronger than ever before.

 _No, I won't lay low, low, low. You gave me my soul, soul, soul, I'm not giving in, no. No, no, no, I won't lay low, low, low I've done no wrong, wrong, wrong. I'm not giving in, no._

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Once she had songs to put down, she made Conejo take her to a recording studio. The trip involved the same team with Kevlar vests and automatic machine guns. She laid down the lyrics and the music faster than she ever had before and by the end of the week she had five new songs. They were all so different, she had a punk rock, a country, a ballad and a pop song. But all of them were about love lost and the pain of living without the one you loved.

Once she had put the final song on a CD, Conejo took her back to Armando's. She went straight to the study, but both Wo Fat and Armando were not there. She hadn't seen much of her brother over the last couple of days, the most she had seen him was in passing as he and Armando returned to the mansion for supplies and to check up on her.

He always smelled of gun powder and sometimes he'd be bleeding, or at the very least covered in blood, from pools of it to flecks. So, whatever it was that her brother was doing, it involved a lot of blood. So she figured it was a lot of murder that she wouldn't be able to talk to him about.

"They're enacting Wo Fat's ten step plan to ruination," Conejo said from the door. "He's uh… heading for a turf war and he's trying to avoid a full-blown war by cutting down as much of the army and the resources of the other side as he can."

Rowan nodded, made sense. Maybe. She turned to stare at him wondering if he wished he could be out in the middle of all the blood, guts and fighting instead of stuck there with her. "I guess it's just me and you again tonight."

"I suppose it is," he said. "What do you want to do tonight? Not card games, not now that I know you can count them."

"Honestly… I _really_ need you to do something," she said and he sighed once more.

" _Mami_ , I have told you once, I have told you a million times. I am not going down to Hawaii. I'm not leaving you in _cholo_ country on your own. I'm not doing it."

"Yeah well you wanna keep getting paid right?" Rowan snapped and he frowned. "I need you to go to Hawaii for two reasons."

Conejo sighed as aggressively as he could but Rowan continued. "Firstly, I'mma need you to give the demos to Pete Ganbarg. He's my producer. I'll give you notes on what he's to sell them for and all that. I've already set up the account to put the money in, he'll get a new one each month. That way we can still make money…"

"Selling a few songs is gonna make us money?" he asked sarcastically

"It's been how I've been making my money so far," she shot back and that seemed to impress him. She hadn't quite given him the exact amount, but the fact that she was using her money to fund them at that moment, he had caught the implication that she was making a lot.

"And lastly, and probably most importantly, I need you to go to Hawaii, to keep Goro from dying."

"Yeah but I don't care about him…"

"Well you should, because it's Gabriel who's going after him. So the real reason I want you down there for, is not for Goro, but for Gabriel."

"I keep telling you, it can't be Gabriel," Conejo snapped. "The last number I did on him should have taken that man out of commission…"

"I had to send people to Hawaii to get him off Chin a month ago," she reminded him.

"Yeah and not only did you declare war on him, you sent down mounted machine guns, there's no way that guy survived… and if he did why the hell would he still be working on Hawaii? That's just dumb…"

"Well he is, Con," she cried. "He is and I'm sick of it. I want him gone, Con. I want you to kill Gabriel Waincroft. For reals this time."

Conejo took that in. He was quiet for a minute as he thought it over but he only needed to take that in for all of two seconds before he shrugged and said: "Down. Done, I'll leave tonight. But you, _mami_ , you gotta promise me that you're gonna be okay without me."

"Course," she said with a shrug. "I promise, no excursions. No touristing. Just sitting here in the mansion doing nothing."

"Write more songs or something," he offered. "I'mma have dinner before I pack and head out, you coming with me _mami_?"

Rowan nodded trying really hard not to feel the slightest bit of trepidation for what was about to happen. She hadn't been without Conejo since Paris, and she hadn't been on her own since she got kidnapped. She was nervous, she was worried but she couldn't let that show or Conejo would never leave.

They needed the money. And she really, _really_ wanted Gabriel dead.


	230. Chapter 230 - Christmas Bonus

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hello my wonderful readers. It's the last update of the 12 Days of Christmas Marathon! And can I just say: Merry Christmas (or whatever holiday you celebrate) to each and every one of you. I'm so grateful for all of you, all my readers, my favouriters and my followers. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed in the past, and all the guests and everyone else who has checked this story out. This chapter that I have prepared for you is nothing but fluff. There is literally no angst, just happy things for you to read. I hope you enjoy this chapter, have a wonderful holiday, don't forget to leave a review and I'll see you guys on Friday!_

Chapter 230

* * *

 ***So what we have here is last year's Christmas. The one where Steve and Rowan are still together, the one where he gave her the locket for Christmas. I know that seems so very long ago but I thought we could visit something cute for the first time in a little while. Just a little bit of Ro and Steve being cute again since you guys miss it! So if you're interested, this chapter would come after chapter 152.**

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

It was Christmas.

Steve knew it. But he also knew that the reason he was awake was because he was alone in bed. Steve found himself sitting up. He looked around, though he knew that she wasn't there, just to confirm that she was, in fact, not in the room with him. He listened to the house. Someone was downstairs in the kitchen, so he figured that was where she was. But he couldn't figure out why she was there and not with him?

Granted the two of them had argued over Rowan's mysterious phone call at Danny's Christmas party the night before but he didn't think that mean that she wouldn't be there with him in the morning. He had thought they had gone to bed on a good note. They had had sex, cuddled and then fell asleep in each other's arms.

So why had she left?

Sighing Steve left his bed, pulled on his sweatpants and headed down the stairs. He figured going downstairs without a shirt would help him with whatever argument they were about to have but when he got downstairs Rowan was just in the kitchen.

She was wearing a Santa hat, a black and white ugly Christmas sweater that read _Merry Christmas you filthy animal_ , her black short shorts, and in her hands were two mugs of her famous cocoa. One in a Santa mug, and one in a Mrs. Claus mug.

"Merry Christmas Steve," she whispered. It would have been merrier if he had woken up with her in bed. He whispered _Merry Christmas_ back at her and her head tilted back to the side. "Where's your Christmas sweater? I left it for you at the foot of our bed."

"I didn't…" he started. He meant to say he didn't see it, as he was too busy worrying why the two were arguing again. But then that might open up the conversation to an actual argument, and luckily, she just interrupted him anyway.

"Okay, well you go put it on, I'll keep your cocoa warm. I've got the French Toast Casserole all baked and ready to go, I've got it in the oven to keep warm…"

Steve had moved forward, his arms reaching not for the mugs but for her. He got a hold of her face, ready to kiss her.

"No, Steven I have two mugs filled with hot cocoa I'm gonna spill them all over you… and you're shirtless…"

But he didn't care and he didn't let her put them down either. He swooped in, framing her face with his hands and kissed her. He pulled her close to him so he could feel her against him, a little disappointed that she couldn't hold him back. She was holding two mugs of cocoa though, hot cocoa, out to the side so they wouldn't get on his bared skin.

"I'll go change, just don't start without me."

He rushed up the stairs happy that this wasn't an argument. Rowan was just getting everything ready. This year was all about Pierce Family traditions, but next year, and he knew there would be a next year, he was going to introduce McGarrett Family traditions. Actually, he wasn't certain he actually had family traditions, not happy one anyway. But maybe, with Rowan's help, he'd make new ones. All traditions had to start somewhere right?

He threw on his own Navy Seal sweater, ran a finger through his salt-sticky hair and then rushed back downstairs. He took the Santa mug that Rowan had offered him and then together they sat down in front of the tree, both cross legged. Rowan immediately began looking for a Christmas gift for the two of them.

"We used to get all dressed up for presents. We'd put on silly Christmas hairbands and hats. We'd wear fuzzy reindeer slippers and our ugly sweaters and we'd take turns opening presents. Mom would shout out rules like… eldest opens first, smartest opens last, stuff like that. That started because me and Trevor would always argue over who got to open the next gift and in what order. I doubt we'll have to do that today though… right?"

She was babbling, she did that when she was nervous though god only knew what she had to be nervous about. She had told him over and over that she didn't want him to be disappointed as her _big ticket_ item had gotten delayed in the mail, and in response Steve had told her over and over that he didn't care. He got to have her for Christmas, they were together, properly together, for the first Christmas ever. That was more than enough.

His eyes found that shimmer of gold around her wrist. She was still wearing that flat gold bar bracelet, the one with the coordinates she said belonged somewhere in Victoria BC, but he knew were actually somewhere in Hawaii. Was that why she was worried? Because she thought he was going to start an argument about it? But he wasn't going to argue about that because around her neck was that golden seashell he had given her yesterday and that mattered more.

"Okay, I have one for you from Danny," she said offering it to him. Steve smiled and handed her one that he had.

"And I have one for you from me."

Rowan took the gift offered and he took his own, once the present was in front of him she said, with a giant grin on her face: "Okay… ready… steady… RIP IT APART!"

And with his own giant grin he began to rip the wrapping off of what he already knew was probably going to be a Women's Day magazine subscription and a gift card to some sort of ammo shop on the island.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

With the presents unwrapped and partially tried on, or played with, and their pieces of French Toast Casserole eaten, the couple returned to the couch with their barely touched mugs of cocoa to bask in the perfectness of that morning.

Rowan sighed, contently nestled into Steve's sighed. So far this was shaping up to be the first perfect Christmas since she had got here. She hadn't accidentally drugged herself. She hadn't ended up in the hospital. She wasn't forced to be away from Steve and his friends. She got it all that year. She had her friends, her health, her soberness and her Steve.

She smiled up to him and found that he was smiling down at her. She often wondered what he was thinking about when he got that soft look about him. A soft sort of look she knew was directed at her, but was too afraid to ask him about.

Steven McGarrett did not do well talking about his feelings and she didn't want to scare him away.

Especially since she was still wearing that golden bracelet that Wo Fat had given her, and she didn't want him to deflect and feelings related questions onto arguing about where she got the bracelet and what it really meant.

Instead Rowan said: "I wondered… I wondered if maybe you wanted to try something new this Christmas." Steve chuckled at her.

"Even more new then all the Pierce Family Traditions you've introduced this Christmas?"

"Well… I mean… I don't want to just do my stuff this Christmas, but I got so focused on everything I forgot to ask what your family used to do," she told him. "What did you guys used to do for Christmas? Is there anything that me and you could do together?"

There was a sharp intake of breath from the man she was curled into and suddenly he was quite stiff beneath her. She glanced up to him again and fond that he was no longer looking at her.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah… uh… I'm fine," he said. "Uh… I unno, I guess… I guess we had normal Christmases. You know? Presents, Christmas trees, turkey, that sort of stuff."

"Okay, well was there anything I could do? Maybe make turkey the way your mom did?"

"It was just generic turkey, Rowan," he answered. He wasn't smiling anymore, he didn't look happy and she realized that maybe, maybe the McGarrett's didn't have a rich Christmas Tradition like the Pierce's did.

"Okay… okay… well how about we make a new tradition, huh?" Rowan said putting a hand to his knee. "Something new, something neither of us have ever done before. Something that can be ours. I mean… traditions have to start somewhere right?"

Steve turned to her, surprise lighting his features. "I was actually thinking _just that_ this morning," he said. "Honestly, I was."

Rowan smiled at him and he smiled back. "Okay. So. What do you want to do? What do you want to make _our_ tradition?" she asked him.

Only then did he fall quiet. Together they stayed quiet as they thought about it.

"We could volunteer at a food kitchen," Steve said.

"This sounds horrible, but I never do well around homeless people," she started but Steve laughed.

"You're not good with strangers in general, it was just a thought," Steve offered and Rowan laughed. Sometimes it surprised her how well Steven knew her.

"How about we volunteer at an animal shelter?" she said, a nice counter offer.

"I'd love to, but knowing you, you'd fall in love with a cat and then bam, we'd have a cat," he told her and she nodded. Yep he definitely knew her well.

Rowan thought a little moment longer before turning to him and asking: "Does it have to be altruistic? Or can we do something like surfing?"

"You're not allowed in the ocean anymore, remember?"

"Doesn't mean I can't watch from the shore."

Steve made a small face at her, half a grimace and she nodded. Alright, well, she guessed that meant he wanted something that they could do together, most likely something altruistic as their new tradition.

That left her wondering what was something that both of them enjoyed that they could do together. What was something that they were both passionate about that they could volunteer their time or their money at?

Her eyes fell on the handmade picture frame that Grace had made them and a lightbulb went off in her head.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

The first thing Rowan did, after Steve agreed to the plan, was to call the Children's hospital to get the exact number of children that would be on the ward that day. Once they had the number, she called in a favour with a toy store owner who owed a lot of money to her brother. Despite not talking being on good terms with Wo Fat at that time, she still managed to convince the man to open his shop up for them.

They got the gifts, even though Rowan was certain that she was being charged at least double what she should have been, then they took them to the nearest mall to be wrapped. And while they were being wrapped Rowan managed to procure two elf costumes to complete the whole look.

They arrived at the children's hospital by the mid afternoon with their satchel of toys and met with the Santa that the hospital had hired for the day. They then spent the rest of the day helping Santa hand out toys to the sick children on every ward. The emergencies, the cancer ward, the burn ward, all of them.

The kids had been so excited and happy and their parents had been very appreciative. It was enough to put unshed tears in Rowan's eyes and Steve hadn't stopped smiling once.

By the time they got home, they were too tired for the traditional turkey meal, so Steve ordered the in pizza to share. They changed out of their elf costumes and into something more comfortable and then waited on the couch while they waited for their pizza, too tired to do anything except cuddle. When it arrived, they sat themselves back down on the couch and feasted in amicable silence.

When the pizza was done and Rowan had finished making them hot cocoa to eat their piparcookgid with. She curled up into Steve's side and sighed contentedly.

"Well… what do you think?" she asked. "A good Christmas tradition?"

"A wonderful Christmas tradition," Steve whispered. "Next year… next year we'll prepare better."

"Maybe we can do all three next year," Rowan offered. "Donate food to a soup kitchen, go to a shelter in the morning and then kids in the afternoon?"

"Sounds ambitious. How about we do one a year and we rotate through which one we do each year," he said and Rowan couldn't help but grin because it meant that he was thinking _way_ a head in the future and she was still there with him.

"I really like that idea," she said snuggling closer to him. She wrapped her arms around his chest and held onto him tightly, wanting nothing more than to hold onto him for rest of their lives. Steve wrapped an arm around her and pressed a kiss into her hair, holding onto her just as tightly.

They fell silent once more, both dreaming of future Christmases and how wonderful they could be.

* * *

 ***What we have here is the season 7 Christmas Special. So, this will take place after Rowan and Steve get married in season 7 of the show. So this will take place after Episode 12. At this point, Rowan has already adopted Nahele, as she does that earlier on in the season, so that's where this part of the story comes from.**

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

As their first official Christmas as a family, a newly reunited family, Rowan brought Pierce Family traditions back to Christmas and Steve would have to grin and bear it. This was Nahele's first proper Christmas with them and Rowan had wanted it to be a happy one. The McGarrett's did not have happy family traditions, so Steve went with Rowan's. Even though they were geared towards a Canadian winter.

Ugly Christmas Sweaters and hot chocolate. Was she trying to give them heat stroke?

It wasn't all going to be Pierce Family traditions. Rowan and Steve had packed up enough food to feed an army and they were going to deliver it to the homeless shelter after they were done unwrapping presents and eating the French toast casserole that Rowan was famous for.

They all sat together on the couch, Rowan was in a black and white _Home Alone_ chunky knit sweater that read _Merry Christmas you Filthy animal_ and Steve was in his navy blue chucky sweater with the seal in a Christmas hat on it. Nahele was in a Star Wars Christmas sweater that was grey with a white storm trooper wearing red antlers. He was busy opening all of his presents, while Rowan and Steve watched. Steve had an arm around Rowan's shoulders and was holding her close while spinning his wedding ring around his finger.

He still couldn't believe that he was married to her. It had only been a month but it still felt so very new.

Rowan had gone overboard with the gifts for Nahele. She got him new games for his PlayStation, a new baseball bat and glove, a football to throw around with Steve, toys she thought he missed out on when he was a kid and way too many chocolates and candies.

But there was one present Steve was waiting for. One that he was waiting for Nahele to pick up, he was practically on pins and needles over this. He and Rowan had talked about this after they got married, and since Christmas was coming up they decided to make it a Christmas gift. They had gotten all the paperwork ready all Nahele had to do was open up that gift and say whether or not he'd want to.

Nahele was trying on the glove when Rowan said. "Kid, come on, focus here. You got one gift left," she said and Steve stiffened as Nahele went for the box.

Rowan clapped a hand to his knee as a sign of solidarity and he welcomed it because it finally occurred to him that Nahele might say no.

He went to work on ripping the wrapping paper off and then prying the thin box open. There nestled on sparkling tissue paper was all the paperwork. Nahele stared at it almost confused.

"Uh… forms?" he asked. "You got me forms?"

"Well read them, silly," she said and Nahele took them out of the box to do that. Steve took his arm off of Rowan's shoulders and sat forward as Nahele eyes scanned the words.

"These are adoption papers," he said in a quiet voice. He looked up to Rowan, he had begun to shake. "But you… uhm… you already adopted me."

"No duh," Rowan said. "Read the names."

He flipped the page over and Steve reached over and grabbed Rowan's hand because this was it.

"Steven J. McGarrett to adopt Nahele Huikala-Pierce." He read out and then looked up to them.

"You… I thought you didn't…" he whispered.

"Course I want to," Steve said. "Rowan and I… we… uh… we talked about it after we got married but since Christmas was only a month away we thought we'd save it for then well… now. Uh… we have… uhm… we have an appointment for the 28th to have a judge sign off uhm… you know… if you want us to."

"But like… you want to… mom isn't like… making you?" Nahele asked his eyes still on the paper.

"Why would you think Ro made me do this?" Steve asked frowning.

"Well… uhm… back when mom adopted me I heard you two arguing about it and mom said that part of the reason she didn't ask you to adopt me with her was because she didn't think you would be comfortable committing to that. You know… cause you have a hard time with feelings and all of that… I mean… don't get me wrong… I know you care about me and I look up to you but you… uh… you seemed more interested in a less involved role," he explained.

Rowan and Steve exchanged a glance, hers conveyed the need for him to talk to Nahele, while his was just a stare of absolute terror. He had no idea that Nahele had even heard that conversation, Rowan and he hadn't been yelling or anything but it had been an argument because Steve had been hurt that Rowan was adopting him without Steve. Like Nahele and Rowan were this little club that he always felt on the outside of.

Steve cleared his throat. "I'm sorry you… uh… you heard that. I uh… that is to say… we didn't…" he stuttered.

Rowan leant forward too. "It's not what you think," she said. "Steve's uhm… Steve's not good at letting people in sweetie."

Steve nodded. "It's alright. I uh… I got this," he said. He turned to Rowan with a pleading look on his face. "Could you maybe… uhm…"

"Oh you want me to go?" she asked. Steve nodded quickly and while Rowan seemed unsure, when Nahele shrugged at her, she got up. "Alright. Uhm… I'll uh… I'll be upstairs. Call me if you need me."

He watched her leave, thinking over carefully what he was going to say. He wasn't good at this, but he couldn't rely on Rowan to convey all of his feelings for him. When she was up the stairs and gone Steve turned back to Nahele.

"She's right… I'm not good at this so bear with me," he said he then clasped his hands together and rested his elbows on his knees. "I've talked about this at length with your mother, she knows all about it but I guess I never actually talked to you about it. To be honest it's… well… it's a bit embarrassing… so try not to judge okay?" When Nahele nodded Steve took a deep breath and just admitted the truth. "Loosing your mother last year ago, broke me."

Nahele blinked his eyes and Steve continued to talk. "Loosing her, thinking she was dead, thinking that she didn't want me, that she was better off with someone else, it broke me, kid. I didn't take it well, and I wasn't the parent you needed me to be and… well… as you know, CPS took you from me. And… I did fight it but they… they said no… and then it was just another person telling me that the person I cared about would be better off without me and I just… I shut down. I should have fought harder, I should have done more than watch you from a distance but I was just so afraid of getting hurt again I pushed everyone away."

"That argument you heard, when your mom adopted you. I was upset, I was upset because Ro hadn't even considered asking me. I was upset because I figured that when I got Rowan back that meant I'd get you back too. That, me and her would do the adopting thing together. She's right. I have a commitment issue, and yeah the thought of taking you on back then kinda scared me but had she thought to ask me then I would have agreed in a heartbeat. But then… well… she essentially implied that she didn't think I was ready, that she wasn't sure if her and I were going to stick together, and we agreed that I'd be your dad off paper and when the time came I'd make it a legal thing."

Nahele got up off the floor where he had been unwrapping his presents and slowly sat down beside Steve. "I know losing mom did a lot of damage to you. But… I lost her too and then I lost you and I… I had no one anymore. I just thought that… maybe… maybe you didn't adopt me when she did because you never wanted me…"

"Of course I want you," Steve muttered bitterly. "It really hurts me to think that you thought that I didn't. I don't know how I ever gave you that impression. I fought so hard to be your foster parent after Rowan went missing. I checked up on you all the time. It was the first thing your mother and I spoke about when it came to consolidating our things. Not that you're a thing or we have to consolidate you. I just mean that… adopting you was the first thing I thought to do."

Nahele was smiling down at his own hands. "It's just that… when it wasn't brought up after the wedding I assumed that you were fine with the way things were and that you didn't need or want to make it official."

"Well I want to… if you want to," Steve said.

"I haven't had a real family in a long time," Nahele said. "I love mom, don't get me wrong, but this… getting you guys back… getting adopted… it's always felt surreal. Like it hadn't really happened. It still feels like she's my foster mom and at any point in time she could send me away."

"Hey… hey," Steve whispered. "We're not… that's not going to happen. Rowan loves you. You know? She has a really odd way of showing it, but she does. She loves you, and she loves me. We're making a family here, her and I and we really… really want you to be a part of it. Officially."

"Okay. Yeah… yeah…" Nahele said throwing Steve a shaky half grin.

Steve smiled at him. "Yeah?" he echoed.

"Yeah, sure. Of course," Nahele said. "I'd love to."

"He said yes!" he called up to the second floor and not seconds later Rowan had hugged him from behind the couch.

"I know I heard," she said, reaching over and grabbing Nahele and squishing him into the hug.

"You didn't go upstairs, did you?" Steve asked, his hand coming up to touch the arm she had around his neck trying to loosen it so he could breathe.

"I did, I just didn't stay upstairs. I couldn't eavesdrop from the landing so I snuck back down," she said. She kissed his cheek and then Nahele's. "Oh, my boys, my boys! I'm so excited for you two!"

Steve laughed, Nahele laughed too. This was the first step to that family he had always wanted. He almost had it all.


	231. Chapter 231

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hello my wonderful readers! How did you guys like Christmas special Chapter? I hope you enjoyed it! So from now on we'll be back to our regular scheduled posts. Three times a week. Not gonna lie I've hit a bit of writers block. I know what it is I want to write but I'm writing anything I'm proud of or I think is good enough. Some encouragement would be nice! Don't forget to leave me a review and I'll see you on Monday!_

Chapter 231

* * *

Wo Fat came into the mansion with Armando by his side. His friend, though he didn't have to, had been insistent on following Wo Fat through the steps of his plan.

Last night they had torched a growing op that Diego had recently started. It had been making good returns, now it was a just a shell of itself, the fire having hollowed it out. It was a good plan, a good way to put a dent in Diego's growing empire. So far, Wo Fat had managed to destroy three warehouses, and the relationship Diego had cultivated with very important people in the business and country. He had also personally killed Diego's second in command, and had wiped out the entire faction Diego had based in Bogotá.

The problem was, Diego had been quick to respond to this attack, and Wo Fat and Armando had gone on their own as to not raise suspicion. This left them out numbered and out gunned. They had spent most of the night hiding, and trading stories.

Armando had told him of his family. His two little girls and how they were obsessed with Ballet and princesses. That it had been very upsetting to have someone wave a gun in their faces. He was lucky, he had said, that his wife had shot the man before the two girls could get hurt. He understood why his wife was mad at him, but his work had never followed him home before. Since partnering with Wo Fat, since having Rowan's name to throw around no one had dare crossed him. He didn't know why Diego was so foolish as to continue coming after him if he knew that Armando was with them. Wo Fat chalked it up to stupidity. The same kind of stupidity that Waincroft possessed. He wouldn't have been surprised if the two were in league.

In return, Wo Fat had told his friend of Rowan and her mental state. He had explained what he had been dealing with and Armando had given her state a name he felt he aptly described what had been happening. She was yo-yoing. One moment she would be fine, the next she'd have a mental break down.

Wo Fat knew that it was because she was trying to deal with trauma by pretending that it wasn't there and it wasn't helping her at all. She kept saying this was how she dealt with everything else that had happened to her in the past, but Wo Fat had noticed a lack of coping long before this. It also opened up the door to Rowan's past and how it was apparently fraught with nothing but traumatic events. Like a car crash he hadn't known about that an culminated in a broken leg and a dashed skating career. He hadn't known she could skate, though that did explain why he got reports of her He had asked her again why, if she remembered her past, why she hadn't established her real identity? But that lead to her clamming up about the past, and lying to him about it again. He also asked why, if she was about to go to the Olympics as a figure skater, there wasn't a single shred of evidence of her either on the skate circuit or in the news.

Rowan had responded to that question by literally jumping out a window and onto the roof so she wouldn't have to answer.

It was a problem. That she was that tight lipped about her past. It was clear now that she knew exactly who she was, she just wasn't looking for herself. And the more she slipped up and told him of herself the more he realized that Rowan Pierce never should have been missing. So what was going on?

He wanted to push her for more answers. He wanted to know more about her and what she was so clearly hiding from. He wanted to know what it was that was so bad that she thought he of all people wouldn't understand, but he hadn't had the time. He had been working non-stop on this plan, and to ensure secrecy he had been acting out all the steps himself. This meant that Rowan had been on her own.

Well that wasn't true, she was with Sin Nombre. He had told Sin Nombre to keep him updated and for the first few days he had done just that, but he had gone silent five days ago. He figured that his silence meant that Rowan had been quiet, no nightmares, no terrors, and no bouts of spontaneous crying.

She had been writing songs about Steve when he last spoke to her. He didn't get why she was doing it, but singing and that guitar always put a smile on her face, even if she did cry over the lyrics so he let it happen. He even shelled out more money to get her time in a recording studio. Money that he really didn't have, but she was his sister and he would do anything to keep her smiling.

But sitting in an empty warehouse waiting for the men combing the area to disappear so he could sneak Armando and himself back to the Audi they camouflaged in the bush, he began to think that maybe it was a bad thing that he hadn't heard from Sin Nombre or Rowan for five days.

So when they got back to the mansion in the early hours of the morning the first thought he had was to find Rowan.

Rowan hated early mornings, so he figured her asleep. But she wasn't in her bed, and when she wasn't there he went to Sin Nombre's room across the hall, but it his bed was empty as well. At least Rowan's bed looked slept in, Sin Nombre's was made like he hadn't been in there at all. He better not have been sleeping in her bed.

That was a very important rule that he didn't want broken. Sin Nombre was already too attached, already too invested in Rowan and her wellbeing. He didn't want to know how bad it would be if they got together. Though… anyone would be better than Steven at this point. He wouldn't be able to control Sin Nombre in the way he wanted to for Rowan's next beau, but he'd be wonderful in the way of protection. She would be much safer with him.

Okay so maybe he'd consider Sin Nombre as a protector. He'd need a new body guard for her though. That would be hard to arrange. There weren't many he'd trust to take care of her. He had to find her first though.

Wo Fat stormed down the stairs again, not sure where Rowan was, and getting more and more flustered. She hadn't been grabbed right? He would have heard, Sin Nombre would have told him that if that was the case… right? Also, who would have grabbed her from Armando's compound out from under Sin Nombre's nose. If they had somehow managed to grab her… it would have taken Sin Nombre five days to get her back… right?

It was the sound of the guitar that got him. He slid to a stop and turned. It was coming from the veranda, someone was playing the guitar on the veranda.

He rushed out into the backyard where he found someone swimming laps in the pool and Rowan sitting under a giant umbrella by the patio table, a platter of pancakes and toppings in front of her, including two pots, one coffee one tea, while she strummed her guitar, her note book open and beside her half eaten plate of pancakes, eggs and bacon.

The tension unwound from his shoulder immediately. He breathed a deep sigh of relief and found himself smiling. She was fine, she was just up early.

He merely had to announce his presence with a soft _hey_ for her to turn around. A giant grin donned her face and that guitar was put down and she then she was hugging him.

He found that he had missed this. Her arms around him, her smile in his neck and his nose in her hair. It was the best reminder that she was still okay, because so long as she was with him things would always be okay.

"Why do you smell like weed?" she asked and he shook his head.

"Never mind that, what are you doing out of bed this early?" he asked instead to get her off the topic.

"JC has a very strict schedule. He always has to do his morning laps, so he made me come out with him," she answered and then turned back to the table. "Do you want a pancake?"

Wo Fat narrowed his eyes at her, why the hell was his girl doing what JC said? She never listened to anyone. Still he joined her at the table and helped himself to a few of the pancakes with fresh fruit as she loaded her plate up with more whipped cream than pancakes.

"Uh… where's your body guard?" he asked.

"Swimming," she answered and Wo Fat turned to where JC was still swimming laps. Sin Nombre never would have been preoccupied while having Rowan in his care. He didn't like the service JC was providing, it was subpar and he was unaware why it was JC providing it when it should have been Sin Nombre.

Rowan smiled warmly at him. "I'm writing a new song, you wanna hear?"

Another new one? Damn she had some kind of inspiration recently, he was kind of curious as to what it was that brought it on. Rowan went for her guitar but Wo Fat put a hand out. "You know how much I love it when you serenade me, but we have a more pressing issue at the moment."

For a second concern passed over her features. "We do? What's that?"

Wo Fat stared her down, trying to establish if she was about to lie to him. "Where the hell is your real bodyguard? Where is Sin Nombre?"

Rowan blinked her eyes as if surprised. "Oh is that all?" she asked with a simple. "Huh, I guess I figured he'd tell you. He's in Hawaii."

Wo Fat had been helping himself to coffee, something to keep his eyes open and nerves from twanging. Rowan had a habit of doing that to him, he was sure she was giving him grey hair. But the second she told him where Sin Nombre was that coffee pot clattered out of his hand and shattered against the cobblestone of the patio.

Rowan yelped but Wo Fat was not surprised or deterred. "He's where?" he cried. "Why the hell is he there? I didn't approve that!"

And he wouldn't have either, because Wo Fat had fed the same lies to Sin Nombre that he had fed Rowan. It was easier that way, safer. Less of a chance for Sin Nombre to go soft and tell Rowan the truth. The only reason he was certain that Sin Nombre hadn't told Rowan that Steve had both gone to Japan and then to Geneva looking for her was because Wo Fat had told him that the only reason he was doing that was to get to him. As in Wo Fat. Sore loser, he had called Steve. Sin Nombre had believed him, had agreed not to tell Rowan because she would have returned to him and gotten her heart broken again when he left her for Catherine in person. But if Sin Nombre went to Hawaii and figured out the truth, Wo Fat was certain he'd tell Rowan and then they'd be screwed.

"No, I sent him," Rowan said looking around, first at the ground and then at the house no doubt for a maid. "You're ruining your good shoes."

He'd buy more. "Rowan," he snapped snapping his fingers at her until she turned to look at him. "Why the hell is Sin Nombre in Hawaii when I'm paying him to take care of you?"

"Because I wanted him to kill Gabriel," she said so nonchalantly and Wo Fat sighed. Great she had dreamed something again… and it had turned her ruthless. That couldn't be good. "Gabriel's going to go after Goro, take out some other heads of crime families on Ohau and put himself in charge. I figured if he succeeded he'd be a more formidable foe, so I dispatched Con to put a few bullets in him before he can get too powerful."

Wo Fat was actually impressed, that was a pretty good plan. If they were lucky Sin Nombre wouldn't be coming into contact with Steven. No questions would be asked everything would be okay.

"And I asked him to drop a few things off."

Okay that was not good.

"Rowan," he growled.

"Okay, calm yourself, it's just demos," she said. "I sent him to talk to Pete so I could start selling songs again."

Wo Fat sighed, no that was a complication he didn't need. A paper trail for Steve to follow. "Ro, why are you worrying about that stuff?" he asked. "You don't need to sell your songs."

"Course I do, our emergency Vault is empty," she snapped. "Why didn't you tell me this trip was getting to be that expensive?"

Wo Fat blinked his eyes, damn, he had hoped she wouldn't realize he was strapped for cash, but he should have figured that she would have found out.

"I didn't want you to worry, I had things under control."

"Yeah sure you did," she said drily. "Well, I felt bad. So I figured, since we're in this together, that it's only fair that I pitch in. I put some money in the Emergency Vault and started writing songs. Might as well continue making money. I've had the people at the Vault set up a roving off shore account, switching banks every month. Every month I'll give Pete the new account number to put my profits into, and at the end of the month that account will transfer everything to my vault and close…"

He knew what a roving off shore account was. And it was quite ingenious of her to have set something like that up. Maybe she was picking something up from him after all.

"And my suitcases are starting to get heavy so he's dropping off all of the souvenirs I picked up for everyone…"

Oh my god he really was going to have to get in contact with Five-0. Sin Nombre was going to figure out that Steve was single, the kid wasn't with him, and that Wo Fat had been lying. That was not good at all.

"Don't worry, he knows to not be seen. He's just going to leave them in the mailboxes," she said taking in his look of worry for something else entirely.

Okay that might minimize the damage but Wo Fat was ready to prepare for the worst. He had to change the topic or stop looking so panicked. He knew that if he continued to harp this subject she was going to start asking why it mattered.

"Alright, but did his replacement have to be Juan Carlos?" he asked glancing to the pool where the man was still swimming. Damn was he training for a marathon?

Rowan shrugged. "Con seems to trust him, and I did promise to behave while Con was gone. With you being so busy and us being in a bad area I figured I would uh… listen this time."

How nice of her. He was actually sort of impressed. Not only was she proving herself to be a little bit more mature, but she had also, without realizing it, but in motion the end of this very trip. His girl certainly was something. How had Steven handled her on a daily basis?

The biggest issue was Sin Nombre. He had a feeling if Sin Nombre found out the truth of what was going on with Steven McGarrett, Rowan finding out too wouldn't be far behind.

And he figured once Rowan knew, she'd never speak to him again. Wo Fat wasn't about to lose his sister like that. Not after all he did to save her life. No. Wo Fat would go down swinging. So if Sin Nombre came back asking questions, well, Wo Fat would just have to put him down before he got to Rowan.

He'd find her another bodyguard. Tell her Sin Nombre had picked up another contract and chose to leave. He was already spinning a million lies around her, what was a few more?

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Pete had been wrapping up for the evening when the man showed up. He hadn't even noticed him. He didn't hear a door open or hear an elevator, just one second he was alone in his office and the next he was staring down a man wearing a white rabbit mask.

"You Pete Ganbarg?" he asked.

The guy was decked out in tactical gear. All black outfit, Kevlar, guns, knives a utility belt. He looked like a spy straight out of a spy movie. Or an assassin. Fuck he was going to die. This was it, he was dead.

"No?"

"Well you're in his office _ese_ ," the man said coming into the office and shutting the door. "I'm guessing you're worried cause of the get-up?"

He could smell smoke on him, and not cigarette smoke, like regular fire smoke. He had a feel that the darkened patches on his black clothes wasn't water either. Pete tried to smile, tried to make light of what was going to happen, because the guy didn't seem ready to take out another hit. Maybe he just wanted a music deal?

"Well I mean, you've come in here like a trick-or-treating assassin, you know Halloween was in October, right?"

The man laughed. "Fair. Sorry, I had some business to look into tonight so I wore my full outfit. Figured it'd be better to keep it on. Make sure you can't see my face, give you some kind of alibi if McGarrett finds out I came here."

McGarrett? Steven McGarrett? What the hell did that asshole have to do with this? What had he done now?

The man in the Rabbit mask took in his look almost let out a low whistle of appreciation. "That's an interesting face. Got bad blood with McGarrett?"

Steven McGarrett who went four months before finally informing Pete that his star song writer hadn't actually died in Japan. Steven McGarrett who, when asked, was forced to admit that Rowan was not only alive, but not coming back because his stupid ass had fucked up. Pete hadn't quite followed the whole situation with McGarrett and Rowan, something about another woman, something about being kidnapped. All Pete knew was that it was stupid and now he was down the most profitable song writer her had ever worked with. In the six months since she had left his execs had been asking why the profits took such a hit in his department and he was forced to admit that he had lost Rowan Pierce as a writer. All because McGarrett couldn't stabilize his relationship with Rowan.

"Yeah who doesn't at this point?" he muttered bitterly and he swore behind the mask the man was smiling.

"Yeah, man's a douche," he said approaching the desk, he took something out of the back pocket of his black cargo pants and put it on his desk.

It was CDs, homemade ones by the look of things. He really was trying to get a music deal.

"A spy with a demo tape."

The man laughed. "Naw, just a delivery man. I'm your Rowan-gram."

Pete's eyes whipped up. Rowan? Did he just say, Rowan?

"Wait. Rowan Pierce?" he asked reaching for the CDs to look them over. The cover for the cases held the song's name, the genre of song it was, and how much she wanted it sold for with a note for her usual writer's fee. 9-12% royalties depending on the bidding war for the song. Some of the CDs even had who he should sell them to. He was surprised to see "Give to Alex" on one of the covers. He thought the two of them still had bad blood over that stupid lawsuit he had slapped onto her.

Oh my god, she was dropping singles again. But why all the subterfuge. Why send a spy to drop off her songs, why not send them herself?

"Rowan Pierce the one and only," he said. "Look, we know this looks sketchy but she's got a situation with a crazy ex with immunity and means." Fucking Steven McGarrett ruining things for everyone, that's why she hadn't given him the songs himself. "We have a plan to outsmart him. All you have to do is make her profits payable to the account we've written on the bottom of the CD cover. It'll change every month, and every month we'll give you a new code. That way Steve can't trace it."

That seemed… illegal.

"It's either this, or no songs, what do you want?"

He wanted the money. He wanted the songs. And he personally had seen what Steven McGarrett was like with Rowan Pierce, he believed full heartedly that the man would arrest her for leaving him, he had arrested her for less in the past.

He stood and shook the spy's hand. "I want the songs," he said. "We've got a deal."

He went to retract his hand but the man held onto him a little tighter. "This goes without saying, _ese_ , that McGarrett can never know about this," he growled. "You wanna keep making money, you want to see a profit, fucking McGarrett can't hear about this at all."

Pete nodded, he understood fully. But the man gripped his hand even tighter until Pete cried out.

"Verbalize it."

"I agree, damn it, I agree," he cried and only then did the guy let go.

"Good, pleasure doing business with you Pete, she said she'd send new songs on a bi-monthly basis. So look out for the package," he said heading for the door again. Except he paused before opening it, his hand on the doorknob. "Just for my own curiosity… is she any good at this song writing stuff?"

Wow didn't the guy know? "Yeah, I'd say so," he said with a shrug. "Actually, no that's not true, that's being modest."

Pete was met with silence until… "She write anything I'd know?"

"Depends, have you heard of Alex and the Doctors?"

"Maybe."

"She wrote both their albums. Heartbeats and the second one Stethoscopes. Her biggest seller was a single though. Cheap Thrills. She's still getting heavy returns on the profits for that one."

The man in the rabbit mask nodded, taking that in. Pete didn't know if the man was impressed or not. He should have been. Instead he just _hmm_ ed and then opened the door.

"Oh wait, I actually have something to give her," he said going for his drawer. The contract had come in before he knew she was alive again, it would have been perfect for her if he had gotten it to her. He handed it out to the assassin. "If she's interested, have her call me. I'll sort out particulars and everything."

The man nodded, taking the thick contact and folding it neatly before slipping it into one of the pockets of his cargo pants. He nodded his thanks to him and then turned around, finally leaving Pete alone in his office. Pete probably should have been more freaked out, but with four new songs in his hands all he could see was dollar signs.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan had promised Conejo to behave.

And she had.

And she had never, ever, been this bored before in her life.

That was a lie. She had been. In WITSEC, she had been this bored before when she was in WITSEC. God she had raised hell, to the point where her handler, Malcolm, had resorted to terrible counter measures to keep her from running off. At one point, coincidentally when she was in Stockholm, he had handcuffed her to a radiator.

But she had been young then, and Irina Stepanov hadn't put a knife in her side yet.

She also hadn't been kidnapped and tortured. Or kidnapped and taken to Sovana so some art theif could keep her as a personal concubine.

So she had been better behaved during this trip. Mainly because Wo Fat was busy and Conejo wasn't there. She figured this was not the time to get herself grabbed. Not with Conejo across seas and Wo dealing with his own stuff.

But this meant that she was spending all her time with JC, who, before Conejo named him as her bodyguard, was the fun one.

He was decidedly less fun when he got to boss her around. Mainly because he used his power to annoy her. To keep her from doing everything she found fun, and instead made her watch him do the things he found fun. Granted she could have done those things with him but Rowan didn't like gyms, or weights, or soccer. And he always wanted to swim in the morning when all she wanted was coffee and tea, never in the afternoon so she could lounge in the sun and drink mimosas.

But when he wasn't being bossy and making her do boyish things, he was still the fun JC she remembered. Together they had started working on another Spanish song, like Despacito. Another song for him to sell to his Spanish people, help his music get out there. Now that she was well known as a writer as well, putting her name on it would help boost him too.

But when they weren't writing music, they were singing, and singing led to dancing. And last night, dancing led to well… sex.

There had always been something between her and JC. The boy was cute, he made her smile. But the first time she had met him he was one of her captors. The last time she had seen him she was dating Steven, he had just given her that promise ring and she was absolutely one hundred percent head over heels in love with that man.

Now… well… now she was still head over heels in love with Steven McGarrett, but she wasn't tied to him, and JC wasn't one of the bad guys. So when he had spun her around on that dance floor, when he pulled her close and stared down at her like he was amazed by her sheer presence, she had decided that maybe he could be more than just her bodyguard.

So when he kissed her, she let him. And from there well… you can guess how it went. About as well as she thought it would. Sex was good, just like pizza, there was really no way to fuck it up, even when it was bad it still kinda felt good. But nothing was ever going to come close to the way sex was with Steven. But it scratched the itch that had been bugging her and now she wasn't all that interested in keeping this up.

She disentangled herself from JC who was apparently a cuddler and went about getting dressed. It was the latest he had slept, unfortunately, since he had gotten her used to waking up early so he could go for morning swims and still have her in his purview, she had gotten used to it. Him sleeping in meant that she could go about her morning routine at her leisure for once.

She was almost done getting ready for the day when he finally started to wake up. He stretched, first his arm across as if searching for her body, and then stretched his whole body out. Once he was done he finally opened his eyes. He looked first to the other side of the bed, realized she wasn't there and then bolted up.

At that point she was just standing at the end of the bed, brushing her ridiculously long red, blonde hair. Her dark brown roots were really showing now, she was going to have to do her hair soon. Get a trim and re-dye, maybe do something new.

"Morning," he said when he spotted her. "Why are you all the way over there?"

"Getting ready, you gonna swim?"

But instead of answering her a warm sleepy, languid smile spread across his face. A hand reached out for her. "Come here, _mami_ ," he ordered.

The nickname made her wince, cause that was what Conejo called her and she was starting to feel like she only liked it coming from him. "Don't call me that," she ordered turning away to put her brush back in her washroom and complete the finish touches on her look. Which was mostly just hairspray to keep her hair from frizzing before mid-day and a waterproof setting spray so she wouldn't sweat her make up off of her face.

"Sorry," he called. "But could you come here?"

Rowan left the washroom and moved to the suitcase she had half unpacked, she opened up the one pocket that held her jewellery and pulled out all she wanted to wear today.

"Whatever for?"

"I unno, maybe a good morning kiss. Maybe a little more of that hot loving before we get on with the day," he said smiling at her in that debonair way of his. It was a half grin, one would say it was almost crooked. It was the kind of grin, if it were on Steven's face, would have made her knees weak and the butterflies in her stomach go up in a tizzy. It had done it for him before, when she was trying to use him to replace Steven, when everything he did reminded her of him. That morning, it did nothing for her.

"Uh-huh, as fun as that sounds, I'm dressed, and my makeup's on. So I will not be chancing messing up any of this, thank you," she said to him. He opened his mouth to argue but Rowan shook her head. "Look, this was great, don't get me wrong. Last night, was wonderful. But we both know if my brother finds out, he's gonna cap you. Which I've learned means taking you out by your knees in very painful ways. So, while it was great, it's best if we don't repeat last night. Ever again."

JC took all that in and then let out a low whistle. "Damn, _mami,_ that was cold."

"Call me _mami,_ again I'll tell Con what happened last night." Now that got JC's attention.

"Alright, alright, I'm sorry."

"You gonna go for a swim or what?'

"Yeah," he said. "Yeah, I can go for a swim."

"Good I put your stuff on the edge of the bed," she said. "I'm going to go see if breakfast has been started."

As she left the room Rowan felt a little bit more in control of her emotions. It didn't hurt as much to think of Steven, it felt less and less like cheating when she was with someone else. She reminded herself that Steve had moved on and it was perfectly fine for her to do so as well. She felt one step closer to finding a way to live without Steven, to be okay that he didn't love her, and maybe even finding someone who would love her right in the future.

But until then. Fuck buddies and one night stands were all she wanted, and there was nothing stopping her from doing anyone she wanted. You know… so long as her brother and bodyguard didn't find out that is.

In fact, for the first time in four years, Rowan felt a little bit like the old Rowan. The Rowan she was before she fell into the world. The cold, confident, Ice Queen, who never got hurt by anyone.


	232. Chapter 232

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Monday my wonderful readers. How is everyone as the new year comes to a close? Can you guys believe how quickly this year has gone by? I swear I feel like it just started yesterday! As the Marathon is now completed, we are moving on to the next episode. There will be some angst, but mostly it's Five-0 drama. We're going to be seeing the Christmas stuff for this season come up really soon. I'll be focusing mostly on Rowan's Christmas stuff though. Don't forget to leave me a review and I'll see you guys in the New Year!_

Chapter 232

* * *

Steve was in a bad mood. Granted he was always in a bad mood these days. But this was yet another Christmas he would be ringing in Rowan-less and he was not happy. Last year's Christmas had been perfect, sitting across from each other on the couch, sipping warm cocoa in their knitted Christmas sweaters taking turns opening presents. Handing out presents to the children at the hospital dressed as Santa's elves. He thought finally asking her out, finally caving into giving her that girlfriend label AND a promise ring, would mean that he'd never have to spend another Christmas without her. Then after taking in Nahele he had secretly been excited for Christmas. It would have been the first Christmas with a child in the house and he had wanted to sit on the couch and watch a happy little boy open everything he and Rowan wrapped up for him.

Instead, this year, though he had a Christmas party with his friends and coworkers to look forward to, Steve would be alone.

Steve had been trying to not think about it, but with Christmas only two weeks away, with all the Christmas decorations showing up, and the need to buy everyone Christmas presents, Steve had been forced to face the fact that, thanks to a sociopath and several terrible decisions on Steve's end, he was going to be alone for Christmas. So when he caught this case… well… he might have been taking his disappointment out on the bad guys.

Starting with Juru Katsu, who was withholding information.

They had his fingerprint on a bottle shard, they knew that he was suspected of pulling off an armoured vehicle robbery, where they made off with a shit tonne of cash. They knew he was tied to Gabriel, they just didn't know why he killed Luke Nakano's older brother Ben, the night before his big boxing matching. They had thought it was his rival or one of his guys but nope, it had probably been Juru, Gabriel may have been involved, but either way Ben Nakano had been beaten to death for some reason and Juru wouldn't tell him why.

So naturally Steve had tied Juru to a sea-doo and was now dragging him around behind it.

On the dock Abby and Danny watched as Steve dragged him around for a third lap. Danny shook his head but Abby was watching with wide eyes of surprise. Danny was no longer surprised by the shit Steve pulled, he was just resigned to always having to deal with this bullshit.

"So this is your interpretation of immunity and means?" Abby asked her head moving with the sea-doo as it zipped by again.

Danny sighed. "No, no, this is his interpretation not mine," he said. "Did you know, the first week I met him, he hung a guy off a building by his ankles? To be fair he was dealing with grief then too."

"And what is Steve grieving today?" Abby wondered.

Danny said nothing, despite knowing exactly what it was that Steve was grieving, what had him acting out so viciously. Rowan Pierce still had her hooks into Steve somehow. From across the world her fingers were still digging in, causing more damage than Steve could handle.

Luckily he didn't have to answer that question because Juru had decided to talk. Steve brought him to shore and the waterlogged and coughing Juru confessed. He killed Ben for all access VIP security passes, so he could get into the fight without going through the metal detectors. Gabriel had wanted the passes, Juru didn't know for what, but he was given a choice. Either he brought Gabriel those passes or he died. That was it.

"How do we find Gabriel?" Danny asked.

But Juru shook his head again. "Finding Gabriel won't help. Not anymore."

"What does that mean?"

"It means Gabriel's found himself in the middle of a war and _someone_ 's down here to finish it," he said.

Danny and Steve exchanged glances, both understanding immediately what he was talking about. So when Steve asked: "Who?" Danny knew that he meant, who was sent down, not who had sent someone down to fight a crazy grudge war.

"Look, I got enough heat on me. If Gabriel finds out that I was talking I'm dead. If this other guy finds out I'm talking to you, I'm more than dead. But I'll tell you right now, I'll take you guys and Gabriel over the man who just flew in from Colombia."

Well that wasn't good now was it? It looked like Rowan's war was finally hitting Hawaii.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

They put Juru in lock up until further notice and then they began to search. Firstly for what Gabriel's play was, and for any sign of a burgeoning war.

They got both.

A small dive bar, a rumoured club house for Cartel soldiers had been torched. The bodies of ten Cartel men, all said to be loyal to Gabriel had been found at a warehouse, all killed execution style, a single gunshot to the back of the head. The trickle of blood in the streets had begun, they just didn't know how long it was going to last, how much blood was actually going to be spilt

They had put HPD on those killings, as they were too busy with Gabriel at that moment.

Gabriel's play was to take out the heads of the three crime bosses of Hawaii. The Triad leader, the Samoan leader, and the Yakuza leader. They didn't know if he was after just one or all three, so they figured they'd cover all the bases and just save the three of crime lords.

Lou went after the triads. Danny went after the Samoans. And Chin was going up high after a sniper who was probably after the Yakuza head, Goro.

With Abby in his ear and his gun out, he headed for the crows' nest, where the aerial shots of the ring were being recorded. He expected to find a lot of things, but as he came up towards the door, he found it open and that a scuffle had already broke out.

The camera man was dead, lying against the control board for the camera. The sniper rifle had been knocked down and was on the floor and beside it was two men. One on the floor hands raised in surrender, and one standing about him, holding the first man down with a single foot to the man's chest.

He had something in his hand, something Chin already knew was a gun. He couldn't see much as the shadows were covering up everything, but he could tell that the man with the gun was in a suit. Much like the Yakuza security detail with Goro.

Before Chin could get close enough there was a flash in the darkness illuminating the small booth for a fraction of a second. But there was no bang, just a piercing sort of chirrup. Silencer. This was a pro.

This guy was a head of them too, which was… strange, cause none of the other security details were even aware of the threats in the first place. He was almost curious as to how this man had figured it out, but he wasn't the least bit surprised that he had taken out the threat himself.

With gun up Chin headed towards him. He called out his station, Five-0, told the man to drop it. The man turned, his face shrouded in shadows, but he saw the glint of a cocky smile and a pair of almost yellow eyes gleaming at him through the darkness. He started to ease forward but through the cheer of the crowd came a gunshot, a loud one this time and Goro went down. The cocky smile faded and the man turned.

Below them they both saw Goro, down on the ground with Steve on top of him. The man swore in Spanish and then jumped right out of the window and down into the seats below. The fall had to be a good five feet if not more, but he had jumped out without a single care with what was below. Much like Steve did when he was chasing bad guys and his only thought was to catch the guy at all and any costs.

Chin was shocked, but he wasn't about to jump after him

"Someone got my guy before I did," he said into his microphone and got a confused Abby asking him what happened coming back at him. "He's jumped into the crowd, I'm going to go after him."

And then he ran out, hoping he could get his guy before he vanished completely. Cause he'd love to know how this man knew about the sniper, when Five-0 had only found out only a few moments ago.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

The other two cartel guys that Gabriel had sent to the boxing match had been stopped and captured, or in the one case shot, but there was one guy missing and they figured him to be the one that was after Goro. With no other option Steve had gone straight to the man who had given Gabriel up to Wo Fat in return for his backing to become the man he was at that moment.

He approached Goro keeping his objective in mind, reminding himself not to ask about Rowan as every criminal had gotten the same warning which was _don't tell Steven McGarrett anything about Rowan_.

He got to Goro's seat and knelt down in front of him to try and not seem too imposing. "Goro, Goro, listen to me. Your life is in danger. You need to come with me right now."

The man looked at him with such disgust that for the briefest moment he thought he might have been a cockroach. Goro turned his eyes back to the match in front of him. "I'm feeling quite comfortable and safe where I'm sitting."

"Okay, I don't think you understand what I'm saying. You need to get up and come with me right now."

When Goro refused to move, Steve lurched up and went to gab Goro. As soon as he did the bodyguard closer got up, going for his gun. One punch sent him back down to the ground, the second bodyguard was also up but when Steve put a hand to his gun and the other hand out to him the man decided to back down. He sat down at Steve's order and then Steve pulled Goro up and dragged him towards the exit.

"Where the hell is that idiot," Goro hissed as Steve dragged him down. "Said he was the best of the best. Said the threat was external not Five-0."

What the hell was he talking about? What the hell was going on? Someone had told him about the threat? Who?

He almost asked. Almost asked if Rowan had sent him someone to protect him, but there was a sudden bang and Goro went down.

He had gotten shot?! How the hell had he gotten shot? Steve had him, he was getting him to safety and he still managed to get shot? What the fuck? How?

There came a chorus of _second guy in the rafters_ followed by bangs from the other side of his ear piece. That was that guy down. After that it was all about getting Goro to the ambulance.

Once the EMTs had him, Goro had forced Steve to go away. So he had fell back to the truck where Danny was trying to tell him that they did good. They had saved everyone, yeah Goro got shot but Gabriel failed. He had taken a swing at three very dangerous men and missed. Them, combined with Rowan's war was going to be enough to end Gabriel, he knew it.

They were interrupted but a shout. Steve turned to watch as a man sprinted out of the building. He wore the same dark suits as the rest of Goro's security team, but the way he held himself was different. Steve had a feeling that this was the missing body guard that Goro had been annoyed with, the one with the information about the hit. Steve was too far away to get a good look at him, but he could hear him a mile away, and there was something about him, something that had Steve moving forward to listen to the conversation.

"What the hell happened?" he shouted as he came towards the ambulance.

"I got shot didn't I?" Goro snapped, "Where were you?"

"In told you, I went to deal with what I thought was the threat," the man cried. "Didn't I tell you to stay home? I told you this was going to happen. Why didn't you listen to me?"

They put Goro up and into the ambulance and the man followed after, the argument continuing as he it did so. Goro was arguing that he can't put his life on hold over the hearsay of some _child._ While the man, this last body guard, was giving Goro attitude and calling him in idiot. Steve was barely listening to them though.

The problem was that Steve could have sworn that he recognized that man but he couldn't place where. He didn't quite get a good look of his face but he swore he saw his eyes. They seemed almost familiar. A light brown almost so light he'd say they were yellow. Where had he seen cold light brown eyes like that before?

 _Ella dijo que solo había uno._ He muttered to himself as he slammed the ambulance doors shut.

What the hell did that mean? Why did he feel apprehensive? Like something was off.

Once the ambulance was gone he waved over Danny. "Hey uh… you speak Spanish right?" he asked and when his friend nodded he asked: "What does ella dee queh solo habieha uno mean?"

"Depends." "On what." "What you're trying to say cause none of that was Spanish, my man."

"Well I don't know what he was saying…"

"Okay, okay, it kinda sounds like you're trying to say: _Ella dijo que solo había uno._ Does that sound right?"

"Actually yeah, it does, I think that's it. What does that mean?"

"Well that means, _she said there was only one_."

But why the hell would the body guard say that? Who was the _she_ in this situation? If he didn't know any better he'd say Rowan. But why the hell would Rowan care about Goro Shioma? She had bought Adam's freedom, why would she care about anything else? Especially since the guy wasn't really Wo Fat's ally.

Chin came rushing out, out of breath. "Hey! Hey!" he cried and they turned.

Danny smiled warmly. "What has you all riled up?" he asked.

"This guy! I've been chasing him all over this building. He took down the first sniper, I think he's part of Goro's security team."

"What did he look like?" Steve asked though he had a feeling he knew.

"I unno, shadows covered his face. But he's tall, he's in a black suit, has a gun with a silencer. And the yellowest eyes I've ever seen."

"That sounds like that guy that just went to the hospital with Goro," Danny murmured but Steve was straightening for a completely different reason.

He had suddenly remembered with full clarity exactly where he was when he last saw a pair of light yellow eyes like that. Glaring down at him from behind a white Rabbit mask. Rowan's favourite assassin was in Hawaii. NA just went to the hospital with Goro Shioma.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Gabriel Waincroft was running short on men. A fraction of the new recruits he had just initiated had been taken out a couple nights ago, his base of operations had been torched and then the whispers had started. Someone coming down to run him out of town. The Peirce-Waincroft war finally starting.

He had stupidly thought himself safe. When there hadn't been a peep in a month he figured the girl had forgotten. But two days ago, _someone,_ and no one would tell him who it was, had touched down on Hawaii. And now his so called people were jumping ship and abandoning him.

He had enough to get this job done. If this had been successful he would have been set. Would have had enough power to send someone down to Colombia and get rid of Rowan once and for all. Her and Wo Fat. Dead and gone just like they deserved. He'd pay extra to have someone take on Sin Nombre too, cause he had a feeling that if he went after Rowan again, then that asshole would come back. He had heard that the man was in charge of her security team, but a lot of rumours had been running around Rowan Pierce and Wo Fat, Gabriel wasn't sure what was the truth anymore.

Five-0 had ruined his plans. They had stopped the guys from the first two leaders, and one of Goro's team had taken down the sniper he had put in place. Gabriel had tried to take out Goro as Steven McGarrett tried to take him out of the building but he had just winged him instead. He had given up the guard he had taken with him as the shooter so Five-0 wouldn't notice him escaping.

The he had made a hasty retreat and then gave chase after the ambulance. He had to kill at least one of these leaders in order for him to gain some kind of power or control back. He was kind of glad it was Goro, seeing as the rat bastard had handed him over to Sin Nombre in return for the title he now held.

He had gotten into his car and chased after the ambulance, it wasn't really all that hard to do either. He swung in front of it and then cut the driver off forcing him to stop. He get out of the car with his automatic rifle and shot the driver with two quick taps before he could call it in. Then he made his way down to the back.

He let go of his gun, letting the strap take the weight and hang from his side. He unlocked the doors and swung them open. He was hoping for the element of surprise, he wanted to see Goro's face when he realized it was him that was going to kill him. He wanted to see the realization in the old man's eyes, wanted the karma.

But when he opened the door, it was the person inside that had the element of surprise.

He froze, he froze because he wasn't expecting it. He wasn't expecting to be looking down the barrel of a gun. He wasn't expecting to have someone on one knee in front of him, waiting in front of the doors for him to open them. He took in the familiar leather gloves, the contrasting cheap plastic white against the fancy black suit. The pair of cold light brown eyes behind that tauntingly childish and cute rabbit mask.

"You should have just run, ese," he said.

Sin Nombre. Sin Nombre was in Hawaii. Rowan had sent Sin Nombre to get him, he should have known. Really who else would she have trusted with this? He raised his gun, to shoot before he could be shot, but Sin Nombre was right there, crouched right in front of him, gun up and ready to go.

He never stood a chance.

The gun went off four times before the night went silent around them.


	233. Chapter 233

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy New Year my wonderful readers! Are you excited for the upcoming New Year! I am. I'm planning to be more active along all of my stories both on here and on Wattpad. Not to mention I've also started posting to Dreame. Check me out if you get a chance. Everything will be under Avalon Reese (for those who are interested in reading some of my original works) Any and all support is greatly appreciated and welcomed. Don't forget to leave me a review, please enjoy all the Steve and the insight from the rest of the team and I'll see you on Friday!_

Chapter 233

* * *

Steve brought Danny's Camaro to a stop right behind the ambulance. They heard from Duke that a secondary ambulance had taken Goro, who was unstable at the moment, to the hospital. Cops had shown up to the scene, had secured the area but had not questioned anyone yet.

There was no sign of Gabriel and no sign of the NA either.

Steve hopped out to Duke coming towards them. "What do we have?" Steve asked him.

"Black Escalade cut off the ambulance, Gabriel got out and shot the driver. The only reason he didn't shoot the two EMTs and Shioma is because the bodyguard pulled out a gun and shot him."

"Shot Gabriel?" Danny asked. Why were they surprised? If Rowan was sending people to go for Gabriel sooner or later the goal would be to kill him. "If he got shot where is the body?"

"That's the problem. The Escalade got left behind, but Gabriel's not here. We're getting footage from the security cameras at the moment to see if we can piece together what happened. We left the EMTs for you."

Steve nodded, Danny thanked him for his time and then the two went straight to the two EMTs standing by wayside waiting for them.

Steve and Danny introduced themselves and then quickly had the two men talk them through what they had witnessed.

"Everything was fine, the two of them were arguing. And then the ambulance stopped, and the gunshots went off and… he put on that mask," one said to him.

"He wasn't even surprised. When the ambulance stopped, when we heard the gun shots. He wasn't surprised, he wasn't even afraid. It was like he knew it was going to happen. He was so… calm."

"Yeah, he just sort of… sighed… like this was all just annoying him," the other agreed.

Course he was going to act like that, he was getting insider information from a psychic. He wondered how Rowan was explaining it to him, he wondered if Wo Fat told him that she was psychic. He wondered how she got NA to go along with her plans so quickly.

"Did he say anything?" Steve asked them. Both men paused for a moment as they thought it over.

"Yeah, told the guy that he should have run."

Goddamn. Well that sure as hell proved that whoever they sent, even if it didn't turn out to be NA, was definitely sent by Rowan. Yeah, well he should have run. Rowan had been telling Gabriel to runaway for months, prior to her even leaving Hawaii.

"And how many times did he shoot him?" Steve asked him, because he knew NA wasn't going to be nice about this. He wanted the man to suffer. Though to be fair, they all wanted him to suffer for what he did to Rowan.

"Four. Point blank in the chest. Then he got out and walked off into the night."

Danny swore. "Gabriel got shot four times and he walked away?"

The main EMT shook his head. "No, it was the body guard who walked away. The other guy… well we were stopped anyway, had to call in another ambulance. While Bill was up front trying to see if we could save our driver and get help, I went to check on the other guy. He was breathing, but barely. While I was trying to stabilize him, another car drove up. Uh… a black Honda I think. These guys with heavy guns came out and grabbed him. They drove off with him."

Fuck. Fuck him. So Gabriel was in the wind and probably dying and he had no idea where NA was going to go next. The only thing he could think to do was go to the hospital and hope that Goro was awake enough to tell him where NA was going to go now.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

By the time they got to the hospital, Goro was in surgery and they weren't saying positive things about his progress. A weak heart they were saying, might not make it through surgery.

Great, just great. He didn't need this right now. He didn't need a new Oyabun on Hawaii. He didn't need the only guy who knew where NA would probably go next dying.

Danny and Steve had gotten on the phone as soon as the doctor finished briefing them. Kono and Chin had been combing the footage from security camera's around the area where the shooting happened at the ambulance. They found NA a couple of blocks away. He threw out the mask, pocketed his a gun and then hopped into a cab.

They were tracing the cab's plates and they'd have a location of where he dropped off NA as soon as they could track that cab and its driver down.

It wasn't what Steve wanted to hear. Even now NA could be leaving, could be going back to Rowan. If Steve knew where he was, he could be following him, could have a direct line to Rowan again.

Yes she had left him, yes she had broken his heart and ruined his life, and he wasn't 100% certain what he'd do with her location, but he still wanted it. Maybe he wanted to just see her, just once, just to make sure that her wounds had healed and she was happy. Maybe he wanted to drop to his knees in front of her and cry and beg until she agreed to come back to him. Maybe he just wanted her to come back to Hawaii to get Nahele back. Maybe he just wanted to shoot Wo Fat dead and leave it at that.

Danny had been suspiciously quiet. Steve had been pacing trying to think of a good cover lie for why he cared so much about whether or not they'd get NA. Obviously Danny knew the truth. He could see it in Danny's eyes but that didn't matter at that moment.

"Steve," Danny started but Steve shook his head.

"I know how this looks okay?" he said. "It has nothing to do with Rowan."

Lies vicious lies and he knew his best friend knew that. Danny however, just nodded. "Uh-huh, good to know," he said patronizingly. "So you won't care if I tell you there's someone suspiciously familiar down that hallway?"

Steve turned in time to see that familiar black suit clad figure exiting the room that Goro would soon be put into, if he made it out of surgery that was. Two bodyguards were there at the door, but the man in the suit was leaving. Steve immediately gave chase.

"Go around the other side, make sure he doesn't make a run for it," he ordered and Danny splintered off as Steve approached him.

"NA!" he shouted his gun drawn. Luckily, he didn't have to shoot in that hospital hallway as NA froze, and then, slowly, his hands raised.

"Where is she NA," Steve asked. "I know you know, so where is she, where is Rowan?"

The man half turned. He only saw part of his face, just a silver of the profile but he could read the confusion on the man's face.

"What do you care about Rowan Pierce?" he asked. "You gave her up."

Okay, he gave up, but he gave up because she insisted that he do so. "That's not true."

"Sixth months playing boyfriend to that ex-bitch of yours and you want Rowan _now_? What's the problem McGarrett did Catherine leave you?"

Steve balked. What the fuck was he talking about? "Catherine? Catherine's been gone for…"

NA cut him off with sarcastic laughter. "Okay. Yeah, I didn't sit through that girl crying over you and Catherine for you to decide you want her the second Catherine left your dumbass," NA growled. "You lost a good thing, you should have appreciated her while you had her, asshole. Too late to turn back now."

Steve was shaking he was so angry. NA was right, he should have appreciated Rowan when he had her, but having her crying over him, when he wasn't with Catherine, when he wanted her more than anything made him angry. Because _she_ had told him to leave.

He opened his mouth, to tell NA the truth, that Rowan told him to stop looking for her when all of sudden the man whirled around. Steve had to duck the oncoming knife, one that had been slipped out of NA's sleeve pocket, like he was some videogame character, like a scene straight out of a movie.

By the time Steve was back up on his feet NA was gone and though Steve tried to give chase, though Danny had gone the other way to cut him off, they still lost him. But he wasn't going to let him get off this island, not without setting everything straight first.

Not without finding out about Rowan first.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve returned to the Palace, a war mask on his face. Ready to hunt NA down with extreme prejudice. Something was wrong with what he had told Steve. That Rowan had cried over him. Well why should she have? She left him. But then… NA also thought Catherine was still around. Why would he think that? Did Rowan think that too?

When he got back he had walked through what he knew, and Kono and Chin could confirm that NA was seen leaving the hospital. He had stolen a car out of the underground parking and drove off lot with it, even paid for parking. They had tracked the car but they had found it abandoned two blocks away with no sign of NA. Damn this guy was good. Of course he was, he was an international assassin that Wo Fat himself entrusted with Rowan's safety on more than one of occasion. Wo Fat only got the best of the best where Rowan was involved.

And there was no way in hell he'd let the man come all the way back to Hawaii where it was possible for Steve to catch him and interrogate him if he thought Steve would actually succeed in doing so.

The team had been at a loss at what to tell him as he seemed very distressed over this, more so than usual. But it was Grover who said: "Maybe you should call your personal connection to Rowan Pierce and her app."

It made sense. That if Rowan had sent someone down on official business she would have done so through the app. And though he didn't want to, he pulled out his phone and called Kong. The man picked up on the third ring.

"McGarrett, great timing. Settle a debate for me, does the worrying about the kid ever go away? Cause like, I know he's 14 but uh… we worry you know? Well Brandi worries, I don't. Okay I do. Good kid or not, what if he makes a stupid decision? What if one of his friends makes a stupid decision…"

"No the worry doesn't go away," Steve answered immediately, which he knew from experience because Nahele wasn't his anymore and the worry was still there, every day, and he had no choice but to ignore it.

"Damn, I was hoping that it does," Kong said. "Don't really wanna tell Brandi she was right… again…"

Steve shook his head. "Kay, as cute as this is, I'm calling for a reason."

"Oh. Okay, fine, what's up?" Kong asked.

"I need to know what orders have come through on Rowan's app this week."

"Uh let me check," Kong said and then he went quiet for a bit, though Steve could hear him humming, probably checking up on what was running through the app. "Okay. Uh… I got nothing. McGarrett. It's been awfully quiet on her end. Why did you guys get into shit and have one of her peeps come through to clean it up?"

"No, but we have a turf war going down and I need to know who she sent."

"Uh… well… I have nothing to tell you. Nothing came through on the app."

Course not, she had all these criminals within arm's reach now. All she had to do is ask one of them in person and send them down.

"Well someone's here to finish off the war with Gabriel," Steve growled. "And I need a location on him."

"Now you know I can't do that, McGarrett," Kong said, almost like he was scolding a disobedient child. Oh so the order didn't come through on the app but Kong knew exactly what it was that he was talking about?

"Look, that man who's here, he's got information on Rowan. I need to find him, talk to him. Now," Steve snapped.

"Do you even know who that man is?" Kong cried.

"Yes, I know NA is some big terrible assassin and everyone is afraid of him…" "NA? That's Rowan's code for him, you don't you know his _real_ name, do you?" "… but I can protect you from him."

For a moment both men paused. "Wait, did you say real name?" Steve asked just as Kong asked: "Protect me from him? Nothing can protect me from him if he decides he wants to put a bullet in me. Not even you."

Steve shook his head. "You said something about a real name? Is NA not his name?"

Kong sighed. "I'm going to catch hell for this," he muttered. "Okay look, have you actually looked up NA's particulars?" Kong asked him and Steve froze.

"Uh… no…"

"Yeah we'll I suggest you put that white rabbit mask through that computer of yours and see what comes up."

And like that the phone call ended. Steve stared at the phone in his hand completely in shock. That was the most ominous order he had ever gotten.

Still he walked over to their smart table and typed into the search bar, _White Rabbit Mask_.

Immediately the returns began to come back at him. All about a crazed Assassin, one with no file, no picture of his real face, and no name. Sin Nombre, had appeared on the scene just shy of six years ago. He was credited with taking out the head of a giant Cartel in Colombia. He had massacred the whole family, all the way down to the dog. After that he became an assassin for hire with a perfect kill record. He was cold and ruthless, and he never, ever failed a job. He was famous for his white Rabbit mask, and the fact that no one knew what the man looked like or what his real name was.

This was the man that Rowan lovingly called NA? What… what the fuck? But what got him was the name… that was the same name as the man who was heading up Rowan's security detail.

"No, that can't be right," Steve said shaking his head.

"Sin Nombre," Danny read. "That means _no name_ in Spanish."

No name. Nameless Assassin. NA. Rowan and her fucking nicknames. Sin Nombre and NA were the same person. But if NA was her body guard, was supposed to be watching Rowan, why the fuck was he in Hawaii? Was it really just to get Gabriel?

"But he's the head of her security," he said breathlessly. "Why the hell would the head of Rowan's security be here without her?"

They all seemed to come to the same conclusion at the same time. "Good god, she's on the island. She has to be."

"Now babe, that's a little… a little unrealistic don't you think?"

"Wait… wait… if NA is Sin Nombre… then… then…" Steve stuttered and then came to a stop. "We have someone who's talked to him recently."

"We do?" Danny asked. But Steve was already rushing towards the elevator to head down to their interrogation rooms in the basement with Danny following him. They both entered Juru Katsu's interrogation room and then stared down at him. He looked confused but Steve was already talking and fishing out his phone.

"You said someone came down to end the war, right?" Steve asked, he flashed Sin Nombre's picture, the blurred out rabbit mask. "This him?" Juru nodded and Steve felt his heart harden. "How do you know?"

"He's the only one who wears that stupid mask," Juru said. "As silly as it is, but that mask strikes fear into anyone's heart, especially since he's kinda something like the boogey-man."

Great. Just great, cause that's all he needed right? "What did he say to you?" Steve asked.

"Look… after Gabriel grabbed me, I went home. He was waiting for me. Said, because we were friends, he'd give me the chance to talk. Tell him what I know. But he already knew about the tickets. He wasn't surprised that he warned into the fight. He asked if Gabriel got them, asked how many men he had, particulars stuff like that. Within six hours, that little club house Gabriel met me at went up in flames, bunch of his peeps got taken out. Message went out after that."

"What message?"

"That anyone with Gabriel, partners, underlings, friends, anyone standing with Gabriel as gonna die with him too."

That was a heavy-handed message. "What did you tell Gabriel?'

"Nothing, man," he said staring at Steve. "You gotta understand. When War got declared we thought they'd hit right away but they went quiet. Then Sin Nombre came back to the island. We all thought we were safe, he had gone and made himself a personal bodyguard. But he came back and he's out for blood and I'm involved as is. We were friends. He gave me a choice. Talk or die. It'd be easier to die by Gabriel's hand. Sin Nombre would have made me suffer first."

Sin Nombre was that bad? Steve knew he was that bad, there were hundreds of files with confirmed Sin Nombre hits, and ones that just mimicked his MO and could have been him but easily couldn't have been.

"Why did he come back?"

"For Gabriel. No games he said. He wasn't leaving until one of them was dead," Juru said. "And when he says it, he means it. You think Gabiel's bad, this guy… he makes Gabriel look like a kitten."

Steve pulled up another picture. He hated looking at pictures of her, but he couldn't bear to delete her off of his phone. He kept telling his friends that it didn't mean anything that he had kept her pictures on his phone. It definitely didn't mean that he was still in love with her. He quickly turned that beautiful smiling face away from him and onto Juru.

Juru winced and looked away. "You know who this is?"

"Everyone knows Rowan Pierce."

Steve nodded. "They're saying this guy, your Sin Nombre, he's heading up her security detail…" "—yeah what of it?" "… if he's heading up her security detail then where is she, huh? Is she here?"

"Course not. Fat's not gonna bring her back to the island," Juru practically spat. "Fat's not gonna let her anywhere near _you_."

It was the way he said it. like it was absolutely ludicrous that Rowan would ever be allowed back on Hawaii. Like it was Steve's fault she was gone. It made him angry. It brought back the rage and the grief.

"Then why is he here?" Steve snapped.

"Cause of the war!" Juru repeated. "Your Rowan declared war. Death to Gabriel. Death to those that work for him. And she sent her angel of death to do it."

Right, then the man knew nothing. He wasn't going to know where Sin Nombre was going next. Steve shook his head and began to walk away.

"He did say one thing though," Juru said causing Steve to pause at the door. "Said he had a package to deliver. Said if you were to show up after the fight I was to keep you talking."

Steve blinked his eyes. Good god this was a distraction. The distraction could be for only two reasons. One, to help Sin Nombre escape. Two, to allow him to hit something else. But there was nothing left for Sin Nombre to go after. But he could have been there to pick something up. But there was only one thing on this island he figured Rowan would send anyone back for… you know other than Waincroft.

He quickly left the interrogation room, putting his phone to his ear as he called Kong back. That time Kong picked up on the second ring. But before Kong could talk or tell him off Steve was talking.

"Is the kid with you?" he asked.

Kong paused, clearly surprised. "Uh… no, he's at Makani's house for a sleep over, why?"

"Because Rowan wouldn't have sent Sin Nombre back for nothing. It can't have just been about Gabriel, I think he went for Nahele…"

"That doesn't sound right. Why would Rowan want Nahele dead?" he asked with a scoff.

"Not dead, _back_ , she wants him back. I think she sent NA to get Nahele," he explained. Kong swore as Steve headed back to the library. He called up to Grover and the other to tell them to send HPD to Makani's house to intercept. To either grab the kid or take down Sin Nombre before he got away with Nahele.

He was not… _not_ … losing Nahele too. He just wasn't.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Nahele had left the Halo party with his friends to get some fresh air and take a break. It was exhausting always pretending that everything was fine. He had lit up a cigarette because he found that they calmed his nerves. He only ever did it when the twitch in his fingers wouldn't go away, when everything got too overwhelming. Kong hadn't even been asking where the extra money was going, he just kept giving him the extra money when he asked for it.

"That habit will kill you, you know," a voice said and Nahele startled the cigarette slipping from his grasp. He hadn't even heard the man show up, but there he was, standing just outside the shadows.

The man standing across from him was in a nice suit, but he was also carrying a gun, he could see the holster peeking out of the jacket. But it was the white rabbit mask on his face that scared him. All he could wonder was if Steve had a case today? He itched for his phone. Wondered if he could scream for help before the man put a bullet in him, or drugged him to get to take him hostage to get Steve to back off.

Would Steve even do that for him now?

"Got something for you," he said indicating to a box he had in his hands. Nahele just stared at it and then turned his eyes back up to him.

"Who are you?"

"Friend of your mom's," he said with a smile. Did he mean Rowan? "Your real mom."

"My mom's dead." And she didn't have a friend who liked black suits and white plastic rabbit masks.

"Ro's not dead," the man said his confusion clearly readable through the mask. Ah so he did know Rowan. "Did Steve tell you she was dead?"

"No… no… I meant… my birth mom…Ro's my foster mom…"

"Oh…" he said as if he understood. "Real mom, foster mom. Makes much more sense actually. You're awfully old you know? Compared to her. I just don't think she's old enough to have a teenage kid, you know?"

Damn this guy was chatty. He paused for a second and then looked down to the box in his hand. "You uh… you want it or not kid?"

A box from Ro? Of course he wanted it! "Yeah," he said reaching out for it. It was bigger than he expected but he took it. "It's uh… it's not going to explode is it?"

"Why the hell would she give you something that would explode?" he asked. He then shook his head. "I haven't tampered with it either, if that's what you're thinking."

Nahele nodded. "Look, she misses you kid. She told me to tell you that when she settles down, she's gonna pull you, okay?"

But what did that mean? Nahele turned his eyes up to the man, the confusion clear on his face. "It means, don't get attached to Catherine. When we're settled she's gonna send me back to the island and I'm going to bring you back to her, okay?"

Nahele smiled. Damn he would love that. Hope soared up into his chest, a guilty kind of hope. He shouldn't want to leave the Liangs, they had been so nice to him after all, and he wasn't sure that Steve could handle losing him too, but Nahele couldn't let that hold him back from where he really wanted to be… right?

The wail of sirens hit the night air, and then the front door got kicked in. Followed by a primal scream of Nahele's name.

The man stumbled back into the shadows. "Damn how did he find me so quickly? Stall kid," he said and then he vaulted over the porch railing and disappeared into the night just as Steve, with his gun drawn found his way to Nahele.

Steve had always been clear, when he was in position, when he was on point and ready to chase bad guys Nahele was to leave him alone, let him do his thing. But all he could remember was a man who his mom had trusted to send a package and a message with asking him to stall for him. So when Steve got close he grabbed onto him, right around his chest and held on tightly.

"I was so scared," he said and then buried his face into Steve's arm. Steve was tense, Nahele could feel it. He was a man on a mission but with Nahele holding onto him he softened. He let Danny take his gun from him so he could wrap Nahele up in a hug.

"Don't worry, I wasn't about to let that man take you off the island," he said. Wow that's what Steve thought was going to happen? That was why he came in there gun blazing? Fuck that guilt was hitting him painfully hard now, poor Steve he was ready to take down anyone who came for Nahele now. How was he going to handle it if Nahele left… willingly… just like Rowan had?

"What uh… what do you go there?" he asked.

"It was a box. Stuff to prove that he was you know… with mom… Ro…" he said quickly. "I uh… I didn't get a chance to open it though."

"Maybe we should wait… make sure it doesn't…"

"Do you really think Ro would send me something that could hurt me?" Nahele asked dryly and Steve sighed but relented. But he hovered behind him as he carefully opened the box. All that was inside were souvenirs. The things she had said she had been picking up for him.

She had told him that she was going to get these souvenirs to him and he hadn't known what to say to her, cause she thought that he was living with Steven. He had told Kong and he had just said to ask when she had sent it and he'd intercept it, just write a bit of code to redirect anything with the McGarrett address to his place, but then that wouldn't work cause they'd get all his mail.

Nahele had just figured he'd ask her when she sent it, have Kong track it and then get it from Steve's house before he showed up. But he never thought he'd have to open her package in front of Steve, because how would he explain how he knew it was coming? How would he explain how he knew where she had been? How could he keep up the lies Kong said Wo Fat wanted him to keep up while under the dark scrutinizing glare of Steven McGarrett in interrogation mode?

Nahele took out the first of the frames. The one she got from the Disney in Paris. A picture of the three of them on the beach that made up Steve's backyard in a Lilo and Stitch frame, the words _ohana means family_ scrawled on the lower edge of the frame. Nahele near burst into tears right then and there.

Ohana. His ohana. The ohana he wanted, the ohana that Rowan and Steve both wanted. He could do it, he could just tell Steve then and there what was going on, Kong wasn't there he wouldn't know. But Nahele didn't know where Rowan was. He knew she touched down in Colombia earlier that week but he didn't know where. If Steve didn't find her, and Wo Fat found out that Steve knew the truth because Nahele told him… he'd never let Nahele talk to Rowan again.

Steve took the frame from him, looking to over with pain in his eyes. He had two more frames in there as well, one from Venice and one from Berlin, each with a picture of them in it. Then there was a little Lilo and Stich snow globe. A little glass Gondola. An art print signed by the artist. And then a CD, one that had been hand made.

The cover a single line in her writing that said "Baby Mine, for my baby. Miss you."

He had mentioned he was having trouble sleeping. That he had hit a patch of food poisoning and hadn't been able to sleep that night. And now her lullaby was in his hands. He could take this off the CD, put that audio file onto his phone and have it with him for always.

"Souvenirs," Steve whispered. "She had him drop off…" he suddenly trailed off, he turned back to the house where his Five-0 team was watching him, pity shining in their eyes. HPD had circled around the house and had no sign of the man they were looking for, except a car had been stolen three blocks over.

Nahele watched as Steve drew that emotional armour up around himself and began barking orders. Starting with Danny getting in his Camaro and driving out to a little airstrip out in Waimanalo, one he was certain ferried criminals like the man who had just been in his backyard. The same airstrip Rowan's GTO had been abandoned in front of.

Steve had hugged Nahele goodbye, had pressed a kiss to the top of his head and ruffled his hair, much like he used to. He left Nahele to his sleep over and his friend's parents angry over the interruption and the broken down door, and the gifts Rowan had sent him.

He didn't know that Steve tried to stop a plane from taking off by driving the Camaro at it. He didn't know that someone opened up the door and shot at him, and if he hadn't taken out the wheel, the plane would have hit the Camaro and killed both Steve and Danny. He didn't know that Steve raged into the warm Hawaii air for a good ten minute, furious that he had let this chance to find Rowan slip out of his fingers.

He didn't know that that the Five-0's all got similar packages with things that Rowan had picked up for them on her various travels. He didn't know that Steve cried alone on his couch when there wasn't a single thing for him. He didn't know that across the world, Rowan was just waking up, wishing for her life back in Hawaii before faking a smile and forcing her replacement bodyguard to help her decorate the mansion for Christmas.

All Nahele knew was that for the first time in a long time, with that CD playing and Rowan's voice crooning softly in the night air, he got a very deep and untroubled sleep.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

In the seventeen hours it took Conejo to fly back from Hawaii to Colombia, add in another day of driving all the way from Bogota to Cartagena, switching cars three time and taking the back roads to avoid being tailed, Conejo had a lot of free time. Free time in his own head. Wondering what the hell had just happened to him.

After getting away from the kid, Conejo had thought himself in the clear. He figured Steve would be distracted by potential threat to his child, adopted or not. But the distraction didn't last long, and Steve was hot on his tail in a matter of minutes. The man was so fucking determined to stop Conejo from leaving the island that he charged at the little private plane Armando had sent him down in a Camaro. The pilot almost stopped, might have stopped or run McGarrett right over, had Con not opened up the hatch and shot the tires out.

But it made him wonder. What in the hell could Steven McGarrett want with him? He had done his job for him. Granted Goro didn't make it through surgery, weak heart took him out in the end, but that wasn't Conejo's fault. He had told the man to stay home after all. Yeah he had killed the sniper, but the man was a hired gun for a Cartel, he got what he deserved.

He replayed the interaction in the hallway over and over in his head. He really wished he had seen McGarrett's face in full. Could read the expressions. Because that man had asked him for Rowan. Specifically information on Rowan. As if he were looking for her. Though, why would he be? He left her right? If he left her, and he was with Catherine, then why the hell was he looking for Rowan?

And where was Catherine? Cause she hadn't been with the Five-0 team, nor had she been at their base in Iolani Palace, nor had she been at the McGarrett household. AND McGarrett had said she left. So what in the fuck was happening?

He was starting to think that someone… meaning Wo Fat… was lying. The easiest thing to do would be to tell Rowan. Tell Rowan that McGarrett was looking for her, and Catherine wasn't around anymore. If she knew that she'd want to go home and she'd make Wo Fat take her, and then all his lies would unravel.

But that was the problem. Rowan would want to go home. Home to McGarrett. Who never liked having Wo Fat in his life, so he sure as hell wasn't going to let Conejo stick around. And then… what if he was wrong? What if he just misunderstood? What if McGarrett had some other reason for wanting to find Rowan? What if he told her that McGarrett was looking for her and he was wrong? He couldn't be the reason that her heart broke again. He could barely stomach her tears as it was.

So by the time that he got back to that house in Cartagena, Conejo had a plan of attack. Question Wo Fat, figure out the truth.

He found the man in the study. It was late at night and he was still awake. There were fresh burns on his arms and a huge scab running down the side of his face. Damn shit had gone down while he was gone. Rowan hadn't been involved had she?

Wo Fat stood to greet him once he came through the door. They shared a stiff sort of hug that surprised him but he let it happen out of respect. He cleared his throat and then pointed at Wo Fat's face. "What happened there?"

"Debris from an explosion," he answered. "I was standing too close when it went off."

What was with that guy and explosives? "If you set the explosion…"

"Not me, I didn't set anything. Rowan did."

Conejo blinked his eyes. "Excuse me?"

"Rowan got her hands on some chemicals and made a flash bang that was more bang then flash," he said. "It was an experiment, if she had got it right it would have been your Christmas gift. As it stands now, she's not allowed to do any more mad scientist experiments."

Conejo scowled he was never, ever, leaving that girl alone with JC again. He was fucking useless. "I thought Rowan failed chemistry," he whispered and Wo Fat half scoffed at him.

"Yeah she says she failed math too, now I'm starting to think she's lying to me about how smart she is. Make her self seem less threatening or something," he said with a sigh and then looked Conejo up and down. "How was your business trip?"

"Eventful. I uh… I got Gabriel, but Goro died on the operating table," he said with a shrug. "Ro won't be happy, but at least Gabriel's gone."

Wo Fat nodded. "Good, good. Next time you leave her with someone who isn't you, maybe tell me so I'm not blindsided by it."

Conejo tried not to smirk, he wondered how long it took him to notice. "She was supposed to tell you."

"Mmm, she said something similar, except it was you who was supposed to tell me," he said. Conejo opened his mouth to argue, but Wo Fat shook his head. "I don't care who tells me just keep me informed."

Conejo nodded that was fair, but he had had enough of the small talk. "So uh… when I was in Hawaii… I uh… swung by the McGarrett house," he said and Wo Fat stiffened. "Place was a ghost town."

"Oh yeah?" he asked, though he didn't sound surprised. He purposely turned away and back to the desk where he picked up the whiskey he had been drinking to pour over the maps Armando had spread across the desk.

"Yeah kid was off at a sleep over, but I didn't see the new girl around," he said.

"She was probably out."

"Thought she was working with Five-0."

Wo Fat turned to him. "Last I heard she was."

"Yeah except she didn't show up at the boxing match. All the others did but her."

"Then maybe she stayed behind at the Palace."

"Naw, they have some nerd for that now."

Wo Fat turned away from him once again. "Then I don't know where she was. Contrary to popular belief the only one who gives a rat's ass about Catherine Rollins, is Steve."

"Yeah I don't think that's true either, because he said she left him…"

Wo Fat whirled around. "What do you want me to say? Hmm? What? I'm not in Hawaii, I don't know what Steve's doing. Am I surprised that Catherine's probably gone? No. She was always leaving him for extra special spy missions, and that man has been obsessed with Ro since the day he met her in a very, _very_ unhealthy way. But I'll tell you this. Catherine always comes back, so just cause she's gone now doesn't mean she's going to stay gone. He made his choice, now he's going to have to deal with it."

Conejo glared at him, something was wrong with this. Something was off. "Speaking of Steve, I don't quite like his reaction either," he said which just made Wo Fat let out an exasperated groan. "That man came at me like a man driven by the devil himself trying to get information on Rowan. You need to tell me why? Why? He gave Rowan up, why the hell would he come after me like that if he gave her up?"

"He's not after you for her, he wants me," Wo Fat growled. "He's a sore loser and he had I have always had bad blood. He's out to get me, and he'll use her or you to do it."

It sounded like a good excuse, it sounded right, all the right words in the right order. The problem was the look in his eyes. Still Sin Nombre took the words, let Wo Fat use them and decided not to argue. Because he didn't know why Wo Fat would lie, he just knew that he was. And he needed more than that before he told Rowan his theories and potentially opened her up to more heartache.


	234. Chapter 234

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy First Friday of the New Year my wonderful readers! How is everyone doing? I know it's only been three days but is everyone's New Year starting? Mind has not been as productive as I wanted them to be. ALSO! Look! Look! Someone has FINALLY figured out that Wo Fat is lying. Now what is Conejo going to do with that information? I unno let's find out. Okay, that's not true, I know what he's going to do with that information, but we're going to find out soon! As always, don't forget to review and I'll see you guys on Monday._

Chapter 234

* * *

Since it was late when Conejo got back to the Cartagena mansion he had gone straight to sleep and figured he'd see Rowan in the morning. When he got up, around ten because that was when his girl like to wake up, he found out that Rowan had been up for hours. Why the hell had JC been making her wake up that early? Maybe he was being too nice to her these days.

He found Rowan in the main lobby up a ladder attempting to put decorations on the top of a giant fake Christmas tree. JC was at the bottom of the ladder holding it straight but Conejo wouldn't have let her up there in the first place.

He put his hands on his hips and stared up at her. He had seen the other decorations around the house but this was nuts.

"Uh… why the hell did you let her up there?" Conejo asked JC and the man turned to him, one hand staying on the ladder as if it would keep it safe.

"Whoa! When did you get back?" he cried. "I am so glad to see you, she's been killing me!"

Conejo scowled, Rowan wasn't that bad. Unless she ran off again, but he had spoken to Wo Fat and the others around on the compound and they had said Rowan had been quiet. So what hell could she have done to upset him so bad?

Above them he heard Rowan asked: "Who are you talking to?" and both boys turned their eyes back up to her. "Con? Is that Con?" she cried half turning to get a look at him.

"Yeah, yeah, just be careful," he called out to her. Cause all he needed was her falling off that ladder. Wo Fat would kill him.

"You're back!" she cried "When did you get back?"

"Last night, be careful will you?" he repeated as she hastily attempted to get down only to slip a little. With JC in front of him he was trying to come off more manly but he almost yelped then and there.

"This is taking too long," he heard her say and then there was a call of: "Catch me!"

At first Conejo was certain that she wouldn't but she surprised him. By jumping right off that ladder. Even though he was trying to act manly, Conejo couldn't hold in the strangled yelp as he lurched forward to catch her. He was worried that he'd drop her, or she'd get hurt but caught her with ease. She landed in his arms, thanked him for catching her and then hugged him tightly, kissing his face all over as she said how excited she was that he was back.

Conejo was just plain livid, because fucking hell, she had just jumped off a ladder. But before he could lecture her she asked: "I wasn't too heavy was I?"

"Too heavy? _Mami,_ you're like 120 at your heaviest," he reminded her.

"Yeah, but Steve could never catch me…"

"McGarrett?" he asked and she nodded. "Mans was useless. We already knew this. And might I add, I'm absolutely horrified that you just compared me to him. I'd never do that and I thought you'd know that of me…"

"Did she just jump off the ladder," Wo Fat asked startling them both by just appearing beside them, peering down at Rowan with a dark glare.

"No," Rowan said just as Conejo said: "Yes."

"Why the hell would you do that, you idiot?" he cried and then Wo Fat whacked her.

It had been a little playful one to the back of her head, but she had cried out first in pain and then in annoyance. Conejo dropped her to her feet to hit him back. "Hey! Don't touch her!" he warned pointing a finger into his face. "Don't you ever fucking hit her again."

For a second Wo Fat was confused. "I'm paying your bills, and if I don't punish her, she's going to think it's fine to jump off ladders. There's gonna be a day where you don't catch her and she breaks her back…"

"He's got a point, you shouldn't jump off things just because you think I'll catch you," he chided before turning back to Wo Fat. "But you're not hitting her. My job is to keep her safe, even from you."

Wo Fat sighed and shook his head but Conejo wasn't finished. "And besides, _she's_ paying the bills now, it's her money in that account, not yours."

Wo Fat opened his mouth to yell at Rowan and then closed it. "You want her as your boss?" he asked a strange sort of smirk on his face and Conejo turned to her. He may have been gone for a week or so, and yes he missed her, but he remembered just how annoying she could be. And he didn't want to lose the ability to say: _well Wo Fat said no and he's the boss_. And he could see that Wo Fat knew that. "You sure?"

"Now wait a second…"

"No, no, by all means, let's allow Rowan to take control, she'll tell you what to do, no more murdering for you."

"Not true I just told him to murder Gabriel," Rowan cried and then faltered. "Oh my god I told him to murder Gabriel… I… I'm a _bad guy_!"

Conejo turned a glare to Wo Fat. "See what you've done?" he snarled.

"Me? I'm not the one who snuck off to Hawaii and pulled the damn trigger, now am I?" Wo Fat snapped. He turned to Rowan immediately. "Now calm down, if you hadn't sent him down I was going to. He's been bragging to everyone that he got off Scott free, and I couldn't have him thinking that."

Rowan blinked her eyes. "See, dead man walking," Conejo said and then turned his eyes up to the tree. "Why don't you tell me what's going on here."

And just like that her inherent evilness was forgotten as she turned her grin to what had to be her grand creation. "I'm decorating for Christmas," she said. Conejo nodded.

"I can see that. But uh…"

She frowned at him, most likely because she knew he was going to say that this was all a little much. "I like Christmas."

"And she bought us all Christmas sweaters," Wo Fat told him and Conejo groaned.

"Ro, we're in Colombia."

"Pierce family tradition, non-negotiable," she said heading back to the ladder. Conejo lurched forward to keep it steady as she quickly climbed up and then turned pained eyes to Wo Fat.

"Armando says he'll crank up the AC for Christmas day," he said with a shrug. "She's really excited and I don't want to drag down the mood."

Great so he was pandering to her again. Sighing Conejo said nothing because it was keeping her both happy and busy. And so long as she wanted to stay inside, he didn't really seem the harm.

Besides, he bet she picked him out a badass sweater.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Conejo gave her one day to relax. After helping her with all the decorations they had retired to her room where she got to nap and they, with Wo Fat, JC and Armando, watched movies. It was almost reminiscent of her hostage days. Holed up in a room, surrounded by blankets watching Disney movies with her boys. Except she could come and go as she pleased. Well in theory. Technically she shouldn't have been wandering around outside the compound walls without an escort, but that was for her own safety and not because she was a hostage.

The following morning, Conejo woke her up at nine, which was so much better than the 7am JC had her waking up at. While she was glad she got to sleep in, she was not impressed when he made her put on real exercise clothes.

Why though? She didn't know, he knew that she didn't do the whole exercise thing. Though she probably should have considering all the eating she had been doing and how stationary she had been after the events that they were now calling the Japan Incident. She liked that, it sounded a lot more trivial then it actually was. That in turn helped her internalize the damage, to push the memories far far away.

When she got down to the front courtyard, Conejo was waiting for her, he too in what she would call running clothes. He had runners and shorts and one of those tank top things that Steve was famous for, with the thick straps and low scoop neck.

He was stretching and she looked around for her chair. But there was nothing there, maybe she was just going to sit on the steps?

"Get ready _mami_ ," he told her but didn't know what he wanted her to get ready for.

"Uh… for what?"

"We're going to have a race."

Rowan laughed. "No," she said. "No thank you. You win. I'm letting you win now. You can run without me thank you very much."

Conejo merely smiled. "Very funny Ro. I'll give you a ten second head start."

"I'm not running," she said. "I don't run unless..."

"Unless you're being chased," he finished for her. Well he sure did know her well.

"Yes and unless you can't tell, I'm not being…" "I'm gonna be chasing you… and if I get close enough I'm gonna take you down to the ground. You get ten seconds, go."

But Rowan didn't move. Instead she laughed, there was no way he was actually going to tackle her. No fucking way, his whole job was to take care of her, it was what she and Wo Fat were paying him for after all.

And while she stood there laughing, Conejo counted down rather slowly from ten. But Rowan just folded her arms over her chest and smiled patronizingly at him.

"Five… four…"

"We both know you're not really going to tackle me."

"Three… Two…"

"I know you won't. You're not allowed to hurt me…"

"One!"

He lurched forward and Rowan yelped, scrambling back. He jumped, and like when she was trying to evade Steve she dropped to her knees so he dove over her. The gravel went flying, but she got up and sprinted away from him. Unlike when she was running from Steve shouldn't could hear Conejo coming after her, shouldn't she have heard the crunch of the gravel? But she heard nothing behind her so she was very surprised when he practically flying tackled her to the gravel driveway. Rowan groaned as he got himself off of her and she slapped his shoulders.

"CONEJO!" she screamed at him, though he just smiled down at her as if he didn't just tackle her to the ground. "What the hell is the matter with you?"

He offered her a hand to help her get up that she slapped away. "I'm going to tell Wo Fat what you did… or… or… dock your pay or something… that was a complete and utter…"

Conejo lifted a hand up to silence her and then pinned her with a knowing glare.

"Firstly, your brother isn't here. He's gone off with Armando again. And going after my pay is a low blow. This is important okay, you've got to start running, even if you don't like it, you gotta start," he argued but Rowan just glowered at him.

Sighing Conejo hit her with a softer look. A look that surprised her because he looked vulnerable and he never looked vulnerable. "Look, running is important Ro, cause Wo and I? We get into shit, so you gotta be able to get away from the people that come after you, you hear me? I don't want you in hand-to-hand combat if I can avoid it, so we gotta get you running."

He was trying to make her more capable. Unlike Steve and Wo Fat who expected her to stay by the sides lines and not get into trouble or to just go to one of them or wait for them to rescue her when she did get herself into trouble. He was going to teach her to be stronger so she could be a better fighter.

Amazing.

"Well I guess when you put it that way… I guess I'm going to have to start running."

Conejo's smile was one of relief. Clearly this was something of importance to him. Clearly he wasn't going to let this go. This was clearly something that was mandatory, and considering she forced him to give up heavy drinking, she figured this was a good compromise.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

She hated running.

He could tell that she hated running. But every morning she woke up and together they'd take five laps around the courtyard. They always ran together, though really it was a light jog, Conejo never once pushed her to go faster or taunted her. He merely ran alongside her keeping pace with her and encouraging her to keep going. It never mattered how long she took, just that she completed the distance.

She was always tired after, which made for slow days where she sat in beach chairs and over saw the decorating, she was making him do. Wanted the house decorated for Christmas, and it had to be perfect. Which was hard for him, because her standards were crazy. She kept making him move things.

 _Over to the right… just a smidge. A little more. Nope, don't like it. Back to the left… yeah… yeah… nope, not there either, back to the right…_

That had been his last few days.

But after today's run, Rowan didn't want to sit and do nothing or decorate the house. Rowan wanted to go shopping. There wasn't much shopping in their neck of the woods. Conejo had been forced to take her to a small little market just twenty minutes from their place. The place wasn't really all that touristy, but it would do the trick. It had handmade crafts from the locals not to mention food stalls and crops to purchase.

It would be useful and a good time for her. But Conejo was still going to have to be vigilant because the girl caused nothing but trouble. He had forgone taking a battalion of men with him, to avoid bringing to much attention to themselves. He had his guns hidden under his jacket in their holsters, and he was a quick enough shot that he was certain that he could get them out of whatever trouble she could make here.

He was letting her walk a head of him. Letting her rush to every stall to look over everything and talk with the locals. At every stall she purchased something small, spoke to the owner, and then handed over the bills. Great more things for him to cart around in her luggage. After each small purchase, she'd drop the item into her purse and they'd keep walking.

It was a strange sight, she obviously stood out. The little white girl who understood Spanish but couldn't speak it with fire-engine red hair that faded to blonde. A little white girl who wanted to talk and befriend everyone. A little white girl who smiled at everyone and tried to be kind to them all.

A little white girl who stopped to talk to a little boy and now had another little boy sneaking around behind her, angling for her purse.

He knew that move. He had seen that move before. Children always worked in teams when it came to pickpocketing.

Conejo moved quickly, grabbing the first kid by the hair and then pushing Rowan aside so he could grab the second kid. Once he had both of them in his grasp twisting and crying out for him to stop and let go he presented them to Rowan who just stood there glaring at him.

"What the hell are you doing?" she cried. "I was just talking to…" she blinked at the two boys in front of her, her finger going between the two of them. "I was getting pick pocketed again, wasn't I?"

Conejo nodded and Rowan scowled down at the two boys who were now silent and staring at him as Conejo held onto them by the scruff of the neck. "Well that was stupid, do you know who that is?" she asked pointing to Conejo. "He's a freaking assassin, boys. The best of the best. And you tried to pick pocket from me?!"

"No Sabia!" the first boy said but Rowan just shook her head.

"I don't care if I didn't know. It's rude to steal from people," she snapped to him. Conejo sighed it was weird that she understood Spanish but didn't speak it. It always freaked him out but at that moment it was actually useful. Meant he didn't have to translate for anyone.

"No nos mates por favor!"

"Kill you?" Rowan echoed.

"I don't do kids," Conejo growled.

Both boys looked relieved but Rowan wasn't letting them go that easy. "Yeah he doesn't, but I might," she growled and there was that fear back on their faces. Conejo almost snorted, because he knew Rowan wasn't going to do shit to these boys. And even though she looked about as threatening as a squirrel they both seemed very scared of her.

Rowan sighed. "Look, you guys need money, is that the issue?" The boys nodded, Conejo didn't like where this was going. "Okay, well what if I said you could earn some honest cash, what do you say about that?"

Both boys looked surprised. Like they hadn't expected this turn of events the both nodded to her. Clearly liking the idea of getting away from her and possibly getting some cash.

"Okay, here's what you're going to do. I'm looking for some presents, Christmas presents. For four males, all as badass as him," she said gesturing to Conejo behind them. "I'm going to give you, some money I want you to bring me back, four possible gifts."

She took out three bills and handed two of them to the first boy. She then handed the last bill to the last boy.

"I'm hungry," she said to him. "Bring me back two different options to eat, I'm thinking something sweet."

Both boys looked at the money in their hands, back to her and then up to Conejo. No doubt wondering what the catch was, or whether or not they could just run with the money.

"You can run if you want," she said to them. "But this is your chance to make money, real money. For a repeat job for as long as I am here. Don't bite the hand that's trying to feed you."

The boys nodded and Rowan waved her hand at them. Conejo let them go and the two boys tore off. Conejo watched them go as Rowan went through her back to make sure everything was there.

"We're not gonna see those two boys again, you know that right?" he asked her, coming closer to her. Despite not wanting to show outward emotion while they were out in public, his hand went to her arm, just to make sure she wasn't shaking. "And you're not getting that money back either."

Rowan just shrugged as if it didn't bother her at all. "There's a distinct possibility of that being true. But if they do come back I'll have taught them a lesson and I'll get something sweet and possibly Christmas gifts."

"Aww no, tell me you weren't serious about the gift thing… does that mean I gotta get you a gift?"

"Well its Christmas…" she started but she paused when she caught Conejo's look of annoyance. "No, you don't have to get me a gift."

She said so in a resigned way. Like she was disappointed. Conejo inwardly sighed, he didn't want to upset his girl. He just… he hadn't had to buy a gift for someone in such a long time. He didn't know if he'd be able to get her anything worthy of her.

"No, no, you're right, it's Christmas… of course I'll get you something," he told her. Though Rowan tried to wave him off, though she tried to tell him that she didn't want or need him to get her anything. He saw that small smile that crept up onto her face when he agreed to the whole Christmas gift thing. And that solidified his decision to go through with getting her a gift. He might even get Wo Fat one too.

They continued walking again. Continued to go through the stalls, still talking to people, still buying small things even though she didn't need them. They got through the market fully when both boys finally returned to her, each carrying their respective items.

Conejo was surprised they showed up at all. He figured they would have cut and run the second Rowan had set them loose. But there they were, both staring up at Rowan their wares in their hands.

Rowan clapped her hands with excitement. "Oh, you guys came back, wonderful!" She went to the second boy first, the one with the food. "Whatcha got for me?"

"I got a Cocada and Raspao," he said handing her the two things.

One was a snow cone and the other was a crunchy looking patty. Rowan took them both. The snow cone she was going to eat no matter what. "What's in a cocada?" she asked.

"Uh… that one is coconut and _arequipe_ ," the boy said. Rowan turned a confused look to Conejo who merely said: "Caramel."

"Oh!" she cried and then took a bite of it. "Mmm, that's good. Gonna stick with the snow cone for right now, but this stuff is good."

She handed Conejo the sweet she had just bit into. He popped the rest into his mouth without a second thought. With snow cone in hand she turned to the first boy.

"Alright, and what do _you_ have for me?"

The boy offered her up the first thing which was coffee beans. "Hmmm, Armando probably gets a lot of these, Wo likes coffee though…"

"Gurl if you make me carry coffee beans for you I'll throw them out at the next airport," Conejo growled and Rowan scowled to him.

"They'd be in Wo's bags and you know it," she snapped and then turned back to the boy with a warm smile. "What else."

He handed her a little ceramic bus and she looked it over. "Nice, can we get them customed?"

"For extra," he answered.

"I will keep that in mind," she said. He then offered her a bolt of fabric.

"That is a hammock," he said and she nodded.

"Hmm, I'll take the beans and the hammock," she whispered. "You two can sell the other two items, how does that sound?"

Both boys turned a surprised look to one another and then hesitantly offered her out the money that was left over.

"Keep it, think of it as a finder's fee," she said. "Next time I come around, why don't you come and ask me for something else to find, instead of trying to steal from me."

The boys smiled, one hugged her tightly and then the two of them ran off. Conejo watched them go and then turned back to her.

"I can't believe I just saw that," he said. "No seriously, I can't believe what I just witnessed. Did you seriously just attempt to reform a pair of pick pockets?"

Rowan turned a smile to him. "Yes actually, I did," she said clearly very proud. Conejo shook his head, they were going to get swarmed the next time they came. Why was this girl so goddamn good natured? A straight up angel. She didn't belong with the people Wo Fat had her with, but even he could see that they were rubbing off on her. She had the capability to be just like Wo Fat, but Conejo didn't want her to end up like him. Rowan deserved better.


	235. Chapter 235

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Monday my wonderful readers! I'm sorry this was late. I've been having some issues recently with getting the chapters finished. This one I'm technically still writing, the sucker was 15 pages long, so I've decided to split it. Firstly so it's not too long and secondly so I'd have something to give you guys today! Pray I get this epic Christmas chapter done so we can move onto what I bet will be one of my more funnier chapters. (Hint Hint it includes Steve and Danny at a certain… retreat). As always don't forget to review and I'll see you guys on Wednesday._

Chapter 235

* * *

Now that Conejo was back in Colombia, Rowan was finally comfortable with leaving the compound. This meant they had gone shopping every day for three days in a row. Christmas shopping, Conejo had said. Which translated to Christmas _present_ shopping and, of course, that meant he was going to have to pick up a present for her. Wo Fat was just happy she wasn't crying over her guitar anymore. But it did open the door to him having to worry about shopping he'd have to do for himself, especially since Conejo had hinted that he had been Christmas present shopping too, and that he may or may not have picked up one for Wo Fat when he got his own gift for Rowan.

But Christmas shopping was going to have to be put to the side. Diego had retaliated to Wo Fat's last hit. He had attached a car bomb to the Audi Wo Fat had rented, granted it went off while Wo Fat was out to pick up the gift he had purchased for Rowan, but it could have easily gone off while Rowan was around it, it could have gone off while he was in the car… or worse… Rowan. Then one of Armando's warehouses got hit, and he lost a good chunk of merchandise that was supposed to go to the Feds.

That meant Wo Fat was going to have to find it before it was due and the Feds moved on to using Diego as their government funded drug runner. That meant leaving Rowan alone again.

When that became clear that that was going to have to be the plan, Wo Fat left Armando to prepare supplies as he went looking for Rowan. Who once again was not in her room in the early morning hours. Since no one had told him that she was going to be up pre-9am, he had no idea where she was and had a slight panic attack when he couldn't find her or Conejo for that matter. One text to her bodyguard got him a location though.

She was in the kitchen.

Wo Fat came down to what had to be a warzone for a baker. She had a bowl beside her and she was furiously rolling out a section of dough, while there was more waiting for her in the bowl. Flour was in the air, and all over her, there were stacks of boxes beside her and all three ovens in this commercial sized kitchen were running and she had several sheets of cookies already just cooling there and what seemed to be two different types of icing, regular spreadable kind and powdered.

He watched her briefly, noting the smudges of flour all over her and her clothes, despite the apron. He hadn't seen such furious baking since Rowan's sleep over in Hawaii when Matty was still around. He didn't really want to go through that again, not when what started that an argument with Steven. He'd rather have her crying over her guitar over this.

"What are you doing?" he asked coming to stand beside her, looking over all the Christmas themed cookie cutters she had beside her.

"Making Piparkoogid," she told him absently.

"What the hell is that? A kind of explosive? You agreed no more homemade explosives Ro."

"Estonian Gingerbread cookies," Con said from where he was sitting at the table, glass of milk in hand, cookie in the other. "They're horrible."

"Stop eating them then," she snapped.

"They taste like paint thinner and bad decisions."

"You're the one who gave me wrong kind of molasses!"

Wo Fat put a hand out to Rowan to stop them from arguing any further. "Damn, Rowan why are you making these?"

"Family tradition," she answered absently. "I made the dough two days ago, let it cure in the fridge. Today is baking day. I used the wrong kind of molasses though. Well it was the only kind we had, I should have added honey to make them sweeter."

She turned away from him to go to the stove where she pulled out a sheet of light brown cookies. He watched her take them off the sheet with a spatula so they could cool off. The cooling rack was already full which meant she was struggling to find room for them.

"Did you want to try one?" she asked him.

Wo Fat shook his head. "You know I hate sweet things," he reminded her.

Rowan turned and shoved a piping hot cookie in his mouth. "These are super bitter," she said. "They're usually pretty bitter, not gonna lie, but never this bad."

Wo Fat ate his cookie with a smile. "Huh, actually not that bad. I hope you made a lot of them cause I'm probably gonna…" at the sound of Sin Nombre clearing his throat he turned and saw that the table was covered in boxes.

"At this rate she's going to have enough for the whole village," he growled.

"Fucking why?" Wo Fat groaned because he know cooking that many meant _delivering_ all of them.

"I unno the recipe always makes a lot of cookies, it's just how it is," she replied.

"And she doubled it," Conejo told him. "To hand out to her new friends."

"New friends?"

"She's made friends with the city's pick pockets. She's got them running a little monopoly on them. Has them running errands for her, shops and tourists. They get paid in tips and don't have to pick pocket. I'm assuming that most of these will be for them."

That was a lot of information coming at him. She made friends with multiple child pickpockets? Why would she do that? That meant the kingpin of that outfit was going to be livid. Just another thing for Wo Fat to be worried about.

"No one's gonna like these, Ro," he said. "They're not sweet enough."

"Again… stop eating them if you don't like them that much, Con!" she cried. She turned around as he reached for yet another cookie. "Seriously stop it, don't make me come over there with the spoon."

Sin Nombre frowned at her and then turned his outraged eyes onto Wo Fat. "Can you please tell her not to hit me with cooking utensils?" he snapped.

Wo Fat had no intention of doing that so he just stood there glaring at Sin Nombre. It was Rowan who said: "Stop being annoying then."

"I am an international assassin, I will do what I want."

"I'm Rowan Pierce, and I do what I want too, so keep your damn mitts off my cookies or suffer the wrath of my wooden spoon."

Wo Fat tried to cover his snort with the last bite of his cookie. Rowan Pierce surely was a force to be reckoned with. Lord knows he had issues with her. It was great to see Sin Nombre having the same sort of problems that he had. Wo Fat went for another and Rowan pointed a cookie cutter into his face. "That goes for you. You get one more and that's it."

"Thanks Ro," he said softly biting the head off the reindeer, and ignore the groan of frustration from Sin Nombre.

"Can we trade places please?" he cried.

"Nope, just came down to see how you guys are doing. Armando and I are gonna be… out of town for a few days."

Rowan stopped pressing the snowflake into the dough and turned to him with a pout on her face. "But Christmas is in three days. You can't miss Christmas."

Wo Fat smiled patiently at her, reaching up to pinch her chin in that loving way. "I'll be back for Christmas."

"You better be or I'll never forgive you," she warned. Heavy words from his favourite little imouto.

"Can I come?" Sin Nombre asked and Wo Fat pinned him with a dry look. The man sighed and slipped lower in his chair. "I never get to do anything fun."

"If you shut up I'll let you lick the bowl."

"The dough tastes as bad as the cookies."

"I mean the bowl for the icing, you twit."

"Oh! Down then!"

Wo Fat watched her hand a bowl over to him. "Here, take that, I need to make a new batch anyway," she said. While she wasn't looking Wo Fat snatched up three more cookies to put in his pocket, and then two more for the road.

"You two keep me posted," he said as he took a hold of Rowan and pulled her into a tight hug. "Both of you. On everything, big and small."

Rowan held him back, no doubt covering him in flour, but he didn't care. From his place at the table Conejo just nodded, too busy using one of Rowan's cookies as a spoon to get the most amount of icing into his face.

"Okay, and be safe okay?"

"Rowan, the most amount of damage that man has sustained since coming to Colombia was when you blew him up with a flash bang," Kong reminded her. Immediately Rowan whirled around, disengaging the hug with Wo Fat so quickly that for a second he thought she teleported. But that wasn't what had him laughing.

No what had him laughing was that as she whirled around onto Conejo she had thrown her cookie cutter at him. The metal snowflake hit Conejo between the eyes with such force that it took him out of his chair. Conejo groaned from where he was on the floor while Wo Fat wheezed he was laughing so hard. He knew it was going to start an argument, but he didn't care.

Wo Fat had never seen that before and he couldn't wait to tell everyone that would listen that he just watched Sin Nombre get taken down by a cookie cutter. No one was going to believe him

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Conejo had been so mad about the cookie cutter to the forehead that he refused to talk to her for a full twenty-four hours. He literally just stood there, glaring at her, the whole time. Just because he was angry at her and wasn't going to talk to her, it didn't mean that he wasn't going to do his job.

But it was annoying, because Rowan wanted someone to talk to, and he refused to respond to her. It was a fitting punishment, as one glare from him got everyone else she could talk to skittering away from her. So she went on babbling to him for hours as he was the only one there and no one else would talk to her. She had apologized over and over but he hadn't accepted it until the morning after.

And it was only a half acceptance. He was still mad. She knew that. But at least he was talking to her, even if it was in clipped gruff responses. She had managed to convince him to go shopping, mainly by saying that she was going and he could either come with her, or send JC.

He had come, stating that JC was off with Armando and Wo Fat, and he didn't trust anyone else but him with her safety. That may have been true but it made her believe that maybe he was closer to fully forgiving her than he was letting on.

When she got to the square she was immediately bombarded with children, all of them rushing forward to chirrup happy _hello_ s and to ask which one of them she wanted to help her that day.

"Maria, Juan and Lupita," she said. "I haven't used you three in a while, so you'll be mine for the day, everyone else fan out and find a tourist to help, don't forget to smile politely. Don't badger anyone, if they say no, thank them for their time and walk away. If they have questions send them to me."

The three children she called stayed with her and the others scattered. Once they were gone the smallest girl, Lupita, who was coincidentally her favourite asked: "Is it true you made cookies for Christmas."

"Yes I did but…"

"Enough for everyone?"

"Yes enough for everyone, but they're not as sweet as I wanted them to be…" Lupita seemed to not be listening, at the mention of everyone getting cookies her smile had grown, revealing that she had lost that wiggly tooth after all.

"Ohh, did someone get a visit from the tooth fairy?" she asked.

"Yes! I got a whole five pesos!"

She should have. Rowan had given her parents money specifically for the tooth fairy. It was her fault for mentioning it when Lupita's family was too poor to be able to afford to pretend a tooth fairy existed.

"How wonderful!" Rowan intoned pulling her own money out. "And what did you spend it on."

"Something special," Lupita answered. "For your gi…."

The other two kids standing with her shushed her loudly and Rowan straightened. They were getting her a Christmas gift, she knew it. Damn she didn't want them to spend their hard earned money on her.

"Okay…" she said softly. "You know I don't need anything right? You can save your money for things that you guys want."

All the children nodded but Rowan had feeling that none of them were listening.

"Okay, fine, topic change. Maria, get me the best snow cone in the place and an ice cold beverage for me and grumpy gills over there, you know what flavours I like," she said handing her the money. She then turned to Juan. "Juan, three sweet things, I wanna try new things today, so surprise me." Once Juan had his money she turned to Lupita. "And from you I want three salty things. No fish and no onions!"

Lupita nodded and ran off and then that left Rowan to go into the shops to top herself up on Christmas wrapping paper, tissue paper for the bag and more Christmas cards. She also needed more cardboard boxes to put the cookies in.

As she walked, every now and then a tourist would come up and ask if she actually knew and recommended the child offering their services to them. Rowan would smile and nod, show off the items the kids had already got for her and be sure to tell them how wonderful each and every child was. Most of the tourists would take them up on their offer, some would turn it down. Sometimes Rowan would have to explain better how it worked. That they would give them the money, they'd bring back three things, and they could choose what they wanted to keep. The rest of the money stayed with the kid. If they didn't like anything, kid gave them their money back. Simple.

The kids had all loved this new job. They had quit their pickpocketing and were thinking of setting up a stall. They had asked Rowan for help but Rowan wasn't going to be staying. She could set it up, she told them, but sooner or later she'd have to leave, and then they'd be on their own. They needed someone who knew the area and knew them, someone Rowan could train while she was still there. But so far they couldn't give her anyone who fit that bill.

Maria came back with her snow cone, and an Aguapanela which was just what Rowan needed. She also sent her off with the order to get her and Conejo a Chocolate Santafereño for the incoming treats.

Juan eventually came back with Cocada in a flavour she had never tried before, special Christmas churros, the filling was caramel and coconut, and Brevas en dulce, which were just candied figs. Those were put aside for dessert.

Conejo and Rowan sat themselves down at a table in the middle of the square and waited for Lupita to come back. Conejo was still ignoring Rowan, both opting to play on their phones instead of conversing.

When she did come back she had two street corn, two tamales and two Arepa de huevo. The two chowed down on their lunches, and eventually ate their desserts.

When they were done, they headed back to the car to be taken back to their Cartagena house, and neither of them noticed that someone was watching them. Calculating their routine so they'd be ready for the next time they come back to the square.


	236. Chapter 236

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hello my wonderful readers! Another late chapter sorry. I've just been so busy with school and work and co op and what not. I didn't quite like the flow of this chapter, but I don't know how to fix it. I'll try to come back to edit this one later. Don't forget to tell me what you thought and I'll see you on Friday._

Chapter 236

* * *

Conejo was still mad at Rowan for taking him down with a cookie cutter. But it was Christmas so he had to put it aside. He'd be mad at her again once Christmas was over, but today she'd get a temporary reprieve from his silent disapproval.

When he woke up in the morning he found that she had left the ugly sweater for him on the end of the bed. He hadn't heard her come in, so that meant that she was in the room sometime in the early morning… it also meant that she was getting better at sneaking around. He didn't know if that was going to be a good thing in the long run, but he'd worry about that on a different day that wasn't the first Christmas he was going to be celebrating since 2009.

Conejo slipped on a pair of shorts and then went for the sweater. It was a hunter green sweater with bright green mistletoe and a white arrow pointing down at his crotch. Between the arrow and the mistletoe was he words: "Kiss me under the mistletoe."

Suggestive, dirty and flirty, this sweater was him to tee. She really was good at picking out gifts. That meant that whatever gift she gave them for Christmas was going to be just as thoughtful. Damn. His gift was going to suck in comparison.

He came out of his room to find Wo Fat standing across from him in a red and white ugly sweater designed to look like a suit. A play on his inability to dress down, also a very good choice for him.

"You're here," Conejo said with a smile, because Rowan had been worried that he wouldn't make it when he hadn't shown up last night as promised. He had assured her that even if Wo Fat was late, he would make sure that they had a great time. "She know you're here?"

"Yeah, woke her up last night when I came in, so she wouldn't worry," he said. Conejo looked around but there was no sign of the Christmas Crazed girl that they were in charge of.

The fact that she wasn't there to meet them did not bode well though. "She's not in her room is she?"

"No, but there are certain family traditions…"

"How do you know about her family traditions?" Conejo snapped. "You weren't talking to her last Christmas."

"Doesn't mean we hadn't discussed it…"

"And you've barely been here for her set up…" Conejo continued as they headed towards the foyer where the large tree had been set up.

"Okay, as much as I'd love to answer your questions, you keep interrupting me…"

"Fine, fine! I'm sorry, just go ahead."

"Thank you," Wo Fat answered primly, his hand going for his sleeve as if to play with the buttons. When he found that his buttons weren't there, he seemingly paused as if he didn't know what to do. He regained his composure and said: "Her and I spoke of our Christmas traditions when Christmas came up last year. She likes to be prepared she bought my Christmas gift in August of that year. Her mentioning that she had done so brought on the conversation."

Wow, he knew that Rowan was very thorough, but that's a little next level, even for her. "Okay…"

"She's most likely getting the French Toast Casserole ready," Wo Fat said. "And the hot chocolate."

Conejo groaned and Wo Fat merely shushed him. "The AC is on, can't you feel it?"

Not really because he was in a freaking sweater. He fiddled with the neckline of his sweater, it was already itchy as he was sweating.

"What did you get her for Christmas?"

"What did _you_ get her for Christmas?" Wo Fat shot back. Yeah. Helpful.

"Something… nice," Conejo answered softly.

"I went for something she's always wanted again," Wo Fat told him and Conejo sighed.

They came to a stop by the Christmas tree, where Armando and JC were waiting for them, they too in ugly sweaters. JC's was a blinking Christmas tree, whereas Armando was wearing a glowing Rudolph sweater, the deer's nose was the source of the light. Conejo was certain it was the kind that sung. But that would be annoying so he wasn't about to press any of the buttons on Armando's shirt.

For a while the four men just stood there, none offered a Merry Christmas to any of them, because the only one who cared about this holiday wasn't there. Armando would rather be at home with his family, as Conejo assumed JC would rather be as well, and well… neither Wo Fat nor Conejo did Christmas. Or… at least… he didn't think Wo Fat did Christmas. But Wo Fat had had Rowan in his life for a lot longer, it stood to reason that she probably got him into Christmas before this.

"So…." JC murmured breaking the heavy silence around them. "Do we uh…. Just find our gifts and open them?"

"Yes would that make this go faster so we can take our sweaters off and be cool again?" Armando asked.

"We should probably wait for Rowan," Wo Fat told them and while Conejo agreed with the whole wanting to get this over with, he also wanted Rowan to be happy.

"We have to get on the road, I want to be with my girls for Christmas," Armando growled. The Christmas season had put him in a bad mood. He missed his family. Conejo understood that, but all Rowan wanted was to share her kind of Christmas with the only family she had left.

"If you have to go, go, she'll understand," Wo Fat said, once again fiddling with the cuffs of his sleeves. It was often that he did that. Conejo was starting to think that it was a nervous tick as he always did it when he was uncomfortable… or when he was lying. Because there was no way Rowan would be cool with them dipping.

"As much as I'd love to stay have some honeys to wine and dine tonight and I'd like to get ready instead of wasting my time with this lost cause," JC added.

It wasn't the first time JC had said something like that about Rowan. The first comment was enough for Conejo to get the message. Rowan and JC had hooked up while he was gone and she had quickly kicked JC to the curb when she was done with him. Conejo had confirmed it with Rowan later but the constant comments were unnecessary.

JC looked up from his phone to Conejo's dark glare and Wo Fat's confused glare. "That was uncalled for," Wo Fat snarled.

JC just shrugged and from the hallway came the distinct humming that they all knew was announcing Rowan's arrival. Conejo quickly crossed the distance to JC took a hold of the boy's phone so he couldn't use it as a distraction and stared darkly into his eyes.

"Listen here _cabrón,_ I don't care if you've got hurt feelings. She didn't want you, so suck it the fuck up because if your sour attitude ruins her day they're not gonna find your body you got me?" he hissed.

"I'm sorry what happened?" Wo Fat asked, not moving to help JC, simply curious as to what was happening. The panic on JC's face was what clued him in to JC not wanting Wo Fat to know what happened.

Well if he didn't want anyone knowing he should have kept his fucking mouth shut.

"She fucked him and chucked him. His ego's bruised but he's gonna get over it. Aren't you?"

"She slept with him?! When?!"

"Awww Con why did you tell him?"

They all turned to where Rowan was standing. She had a big tray in her hands that had two plates with big thick pieces of French toast that look coated in nuts and syrup. Behind her were two other servants, each with another tray, one with three more plates, and one with five mugs of her world famous cocoa.

She was staring at them with big wounded eyes and Conejo inwardly groaned.

"Mans wouldn't stop whining like a little bitch," he growled. "I told him to stop before he ruined your Christmas… I didn't realize Wo Fat had no idea you and him got it on while I was gone."

Rowan sighed heavily. "Alright, how about we stop talking about my sex life and move onto breakfast and presents."

"Wrap mine up to go, I wanna get to my family before lunch," Armando ordered. Rowan handed him the tray with two plates and while he handed off to a different servant to pack up, she stooped down to take their presents out from under the tree.

"It's just something small," she said to them, offering it up. "Yours is just a song," she told JC.

Immediately he had that package out of her hand. "It's called _Hey DJ_ , it's got a good mix, if you like what I got for you we can lay down vocals and I'll let you negotiate our royalty price."

JC hugged her suddenly and tightly. "You're the best." He kissed her cheek, before quickly scrambling out of the protective glares of both Wo Fat and Conejo. Armando was next to hug her, he too wishing her a soft _Merry Christmas_ and then the two of them left them alone at the tree with their French toast and gifts.

Conejo already had his plate with the French toast on it and managed to get through half of it before Rowan had turned back to them.

"Guess it's just us!" she cried and he smiled at her through his mouthful of delicious French toast.

"I'm okay with that if you are," Wo Fat said. "If not I'm sure I can get someone else to stand in for them…"

"No it's okay, I don't mind," Rowan said. She put her own plate down on the center table that was really only for decoration and then practically dove under the tree. When she came back she had two gifts, one for him and one for Wo Fat that she then handed to them.

"So the way it worked in our house is we'd take turns opening presents, cause me and my brother never…"

"Wait a second you have a brother? Like a real brother?"

"Don't ask about her Canadian family they suck," Wo Fat snapped.

" _She's Canadian_?!" Coenjo thundered because that was news to him. From the research he had done the girl had dropped out of the sky, literally, one day and no one knew how she survived or who she was. But a week later, Five-0 had gotten her an identity, a Hawaiian citizenship card and she moved in with McGarrett the first time.

But neither Wo Fat or Rowan answered his question.

"The point is," Rowan interrupted them. "The point is my brother and I used to argue about who got to open presents first, so my mom would list conditions. Like, eldest opens first, and we'd open in that order. Do we needed to do that?"

"No," Wo Fat snapped just as Conejo shrugged and said: "Maybe."

Wo Fat turned a dry glare on him and Conejo smiled. "I was joking. What about you, what gift are you going to open?"

"I unno, whichever one, I guess," she said.

"Oh, then open mine!" Coenjo said. "It's small but I bet you'll love it."

He had hid his present for her actually in the Christmas tree, but it was so bushy she hadn't even noticed it. He didn't even have a hard time lifting it off of Wo Fat, the man was barely around.

He handed her the nicely wrapped box and she thanked him for it before plopping down on the floor, cross legged, ready to unwrap. Wo Fat and Conejo mirrored her positions. She counted down from five and then they ripped apart their gifts.

Conejo opened his and found that his box held two things. A burned CD with the word _Brother_ written on it and a simple draw string bag. Inside that bag was a bracelet. His was a black leather strap with red beads and a simple Hamsa amulet.

He looked up to find that Wo Fat had the same CD and was unpacking a similar bag. His Hamsa bracelet was all black. Black leather band, black beads, except for two green jade ones his own little Hamsa charm dangling off of it.

Conejo was not impressed because he didn't wear jewellery. But Rowan was smiling at them warmly. "I got the manliest ones I could find."

"These are nice," Wo Fat said hesitantly, no doubt feeling the same way as Conejo about the bracelet. "Uh… but why a hand?"

"It's a Hamsa charm," she explained, though Conejo already knew that. "They're protection charms, so you boys will be safe."

That wasn't how the world worked, but it was a nice gesture. For a long time Wo Fat just stared at her as she smiled at them. He looked down to the bracelet before he made a big show of slipping his onto his wrist and Conejo followed suit.

"You haven't opened your gift yet," Wo Fat told her as he fit the bracelet to his wrist. "Also what song is this?"

"Brother, it's my newer song, but I'm going to switch up the lyrics. I have two different versions, one that is more EDM that I gave to Con and yours is more poppy…" she suddenly trailed off staring at the small box she had in her hand.

Wo Fat looked up, clocked the box and then turned to Conejo with a shocked look on his face. Just as Rowan opened it up revealing that ring she wanted nestled in the box. Already Wo Fat was groaning.

"Wait a second… is this… how did you know about this?"

"Why the hell would you give her that?" Wo Fat cried.

"Well the whole point of getting it for her was to give it to her eventually," Conejo told him.

"No!" Wo Fat cried. "The plan was to eventually give it to the guy she was interested in that _we_ approved of to give him a decided advantage! How did you even get this out? I had it locked up!"

"It was locked in your suitcase. I got that lock open with a paper clip." Conejo said with a huff and rolled his eyes at him and Rowan hand to cry: "Guys!" to get their attention.

When both if them turned to her she showed them the ring as if they had forgotten what they were arguing about and asked: "How did you even know I wanted this?"

Conejo turned an unimpressed glare onto Rowan. "I'm a trained assassin, I'm trained to notice patterns. You stopped in front of that store like five times a day. You _seriously_ thought I wouldn't notice that the ring was the reason you were stopping?"

Rowan narrowed her eyes at them. "Who paid for this?"

"Conejo technically got it for you but I…"

" _HOW did you pay for this_?!" Rowan thundered.

Conejo was slightly taken aback, he didn't understand why she was so unhappy. She had wanted that ring he knew she did, so why was she so upset that they got it for her?

When neither of them answered her she asked: "You stole this didn't you?"

"No!" Both Conejo and Wo Fat snapped but Rowan was just frowning at the two of them.

"Oh yeah? Where's the receipt?"

Conejo turned his eyes to Wo Fat. He had dealt with the purchasing of the ring, Conejo had gone to pick it up once it was resized. If anyone had the receipt it would have to be him. Had he saved it?

Wo Fat took a breath clearly trying to remember where he put that piece of paper. "Uh… I'm sure I have it somewhere…"

Rowan groaned. "Oh god you did steal this. You stole my ring and now I can't accept it." She looked down at the ring box in her hand with such a look of sadness and disappointment that Conejo melted. It was his fault after all.

"Can't accept it? Come on now, you're a big-bad-hit-ordering-bad-guy now. You can accept a stolen ring that's nothing compared to everything else…" Conejo started. The look on Rowan's face should have been enough to silence him but it took Wo Fat digging his elbow into his side to stop his words.

The ring box clattered out of Rowan's hands, and then she dropped her head into her hands as she groaned: "Jesus Christ… _I'm a bad guy_!"

Wo Fat glowered at Conejo. "Look what you did!" he hissed. Slowly and carefully Wo Fat got himself up, and then sat himself down beside her. He put an arm around her shoulder and pressed her to his side.

"All your decisions are made from a place of kindness. Sure you've ordered a few hits, but those people deserved it," he reminded her. "And as I keep mentioning, I was going to send people after Gabriel even if you didn't. I couldn't let him think that he got away with what he was doing, that you would declare war and then nothing would happen. You just got to it before I did."

She turned a forlorn face to him and he smiled to her. "It's true. Had I not been distracted with the Diego situation I would have gotten to it sooner."

Rowan half smiled at him. "Here why don't you open my present, it's guaranteed to make you smile."

He handed her the box that she put in her lap and carefully peeled the wrapping off of it. She looked at the shoe box, clearly recognizing the cursive writing on the top.

"No!" she cried as she took the top off. "NO!" she repeated as she pushed the tissue paper to the side.

A pair of black mesh high heels were nestled in the box. They had the criss-cross straps the girls had to wind and tie up, and the bottoms were red.

"You got me red bottom heels!" she cried.

"Yes, they're going to go with your birthday dress," he said.

"I haven't even bought my birthday dress yet," she argued.

"Yes, you have. I believe that would be Armando's gift for you…"

Rowan immediately scrambled back to grab his gift, tearing that one apart with gusto. Inside that box was a black sequined dress, a halter top, whose strings were sleek silver chains, it had a scoop neck line, but the rest was tight. It would probably land mid-thigh, that was how short it was.

Great he was going to have to beat them off with a stick for her birthday.

Rowan hugged Wo Fat first tightly, and then went to hug Conejo next.

"You guys are the best!" she cried.

"Not yet, I'm not," he said. "Next time we go to town we're going to need to pick a better Christmas gift seeing as this one got shot out of the air."

Rowan smiled up to him and as she was distracted, he noted that Wo Fat had picked up the ring and put it back into his pocket. Both of them knew if that ring had come to her on bended knee from a man she was in love with, there would have been no hesitation.

But he had a feeling that both of them were hoping that ring didn't have to be in Steven McGarrett's hands for her to accept it.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

The rest of Christmas involved opening up more gifts, eating the rest of that French Toast Casserole and then having a movie marathon where they all got to pick their favourite movies to watch.

All other gifts were well received. Wo Fat liked the custom engraved gun that Conejo got him, Conejo liked the emerald encrusted dagger Wo Fat had gotten for him. Rowan put on that dress Armando had bought her and one of the servants walked into a Grecian column because he wouldn't stop staring at her.

Conejo made her change.

She spent the rest of the day walking around in her red bottom heels, looking like a hooker in those lace up strapped heels, short jean shorts and hunter green tank top.

She just loved those shoes. He had never seen her smile like that and already he could see the wheels in Wo Fat's head turning, because as soon as she got those shoes she forgot to be mad at them for allegedly stealing that ring. And now that Conejo thought about it, he never actually saw money get exchanged for it, so who knows what Wo Fat did to get that ring.

For Boxing Day, Conejo took her shopping to pick the accessories for her party dress. As the halter top was made of silver chains, she wasn't going to wear a necklace. She didn't want to wear any bracelets either as she was planning to do a song and dance at her own party and they would be too clunky as she bounced around, she'd be afraid of losing them. And she had the rings to go with the dress already.

The performance at her own birthday party was going to open up the door to more issues.

Specifically because that meant pulling in a band and more staff. That meant having to interview staff, having to run background checks, having to worry about intentions now that Diego was trying to hit Wo Fat back. Conejo wasn't stupid. He knew that Diego was, sooner or later, going to figure out that Rowan was Wo Fat's only pressure point. It all added up to Conejo having to watch her like a hawk.

So while she wandered around trying to find the perfect accessory to match her outfit, Conejo had stood on edge, half watching her and half watching over his shoulder. He had a feeling that they were being watched but he didn't see anything out of place. Eventually, she finally settled on a tiara. This little diadem that would rest across her forehead made of silver and black crystals to match her dress.

Rowan had mentioned wanting to go to the next store over to look at the party options, she had a theme at that point, black with silver and gold accents, maybe some rose blush, whatever the hell that was. He figured she could go to the next store over while he paid with little to no issues. He was wrong.

Rowan got out onto the street and a man she didn't recognized put the tip of something sharp to her side, linked arms with her and told her to walk with him.

She knew making a sound would be a bad idea, so she kept quiet and kept walking. Looking around to see if anyone would notice that she was in some sort of distress, wondering if Conejo would notice her walking away with a stranger and come save her. But she wasn't that lucky.

She wondered what this was about. Did this have something to do with what Wo Fat was doing or was this someone arresting her for her connection to Wo Fat? Was the plan to hand her back to Steven, who Wo Fat kept assuring her wanted to use her to get to him?

He took her down a dark alleyway, saw no one waiting and figured that maybe this was a good old fashioned Colombian mugging or kidnapping.

He threw her into a darkened abandoned room, just off the alleyway, and then barred the only exit with his own body.

The man had to be in his early twenties. He had that scumbag vibe with the low hanging sweat pants, white wife-beater and backwards ball cap. He had a sneer on his face and in the light of the doorway she could see the glint of a knife in his hand.

"Okay, look, if you think I have money… you're right and you can have it," she said, going for her purse. "Seriously, if money's what you want…"

"I want more than that…"

"Well, I'd say you could have the car, but Con drove and it's my brother's car… and I know he'll kill for the car," Rowan said softly as the man stepped closer for her, tossing the knife back and forth between his hands. He was antsy, there was sweat on his brow, not from being hot either. He was afraid of something, probably her or the men around her.

"I want you to get the fuck out of Cartagena…"

"Kay, well my brother's here so I can't really leave…"

"I want you to mind your own damn business and get out of mine…"

"I don't even know where you work!"

"And I want my kids back…"

Now that one got Rowan cause she hadn't taken any kids. And then it hit her. Her pickpockets. This must have been their ring leader… you know before she snatched them all up and gave them real jobs… kind of.

"Ohhhhhh," Rowan cried. "You're Raul! It's so nice to finally meet you!"

She didn't bother to offer the man a hand to shake because she had heard all about him from the kids that she had been helping. He was mean and controlling and took most of what they stole for himself.

"Don't you talk like that to me. Do you know what you've done to me? How mad Diego is!"

"Well… from what I hear Diego is out the door…" she said with a shrug and he moved forward again jabbing that knife at her once more.

"Shut up!" he ordered. "I can't be losing money. So you're gonna give me those kids and you're going to give me all the money you got from their little side racket…"

"Oh I'm not making any money off of this," Rowan said refusing to move an inch. Conejo and been teaching her some defense tactics, but mostly they were working on running cause he didn't want her fighting if he could help it. That didn't mean she didn't know how to disarm someone. They had spent three days on how to disarm someone.

Her answer seemed to surprise Raul. "Then why are you doing this?"

"To give them a better life!"

"BETTER LIFE!" he cried and then swore at her in Spanish. Nothing she'd ever repeat. "There is no better life in Colombia. Not unless crime's involved. They'll make nothing on this, people will come and destroy them, the second you leave…"

He was gesturing wildly, the knife going every which way but his eyes were finally off of her. They two were darting around. He was clearly upset about this, probably getting threatened by his own boss over the lost money. She almost sympathized except for the fact that he had just grabbed her probably to scare her off, he probably wouldn't have hurt her… you know if he was smart.

But now that he was distracted, with his eyes off of her she made her move. She lunged at him, she hit him twice. The first right in the throat the second to the wrist sending that knife clattering away. When he was sputtering in pain and gasping for air, she geared up and kicked him square in the nuts which got him collapsed to the floor.

Once he was down she hopped over him, back out that door and into the alleyway calling for Conejo. She only had to say his name twice before he darkened the mouth of the alleyway she was heading towards. She could tell just by his posture that he was in a panic. She had been panicking too, it actually occurred to her that she didn't know how long she was gone for. How long had he been looking for her with that panic setting further and further in?

But the second she set eyes on him that panic left her. She was safe. She knew she was safe, because he was there.

It was that momentary pause, where she slowed down, thinking herself safe, that allowed him to grab her from behind. Conejo came to a stop immediately because with his grip came the cool edge of a blade being pressed to her neck.

"Not another fucking step!" he cried in Spanish to Conejo who had stopped moving and instead was simply staring the man down, his hands out to the side. "One more move and I'll… I'll slit her throat."

"I haven't moved," Conejo assured him. "Why don't you just tell me what you want?"

"I want the kids back…"

"Okay, we can do that…" "Uh NO!" Rowan interrupted and got a glare from Conejo who clearly just wanted to get this guy away from her and he was willing to say anything to do so.

"He said he'd deal with it," Raul said starting to inch her back.

"Who? Who told you that?" Conejo asked but Rowan wasn't getting kidnapped again. She just wasn't.

Before Raul could tell them who he had sent them after her, Rowan twisted in his grip. She planted her closest foot on the wall next to them and used that purchase to push off. Just like with the Chinese spy her body slammed into his, the back of her head his the front of his and together they went flying.

The second after she hit the ground someone had a hold of her arm and practically threw her to the other side. Conveniently off of the man she had landed on. Well, the concern Conejo felt had clearly left him if he was content with tossing her around like rag doll.

Rowan forced herself up to watch as Conejo literally chocking the life out of the man he had gotten on top of. Blearily Rowan got herself to her feet and then over to Conejo. She put a hand to his shoulder and shook him until he stopped.

Conejo put a knee to Raul's chest to keep him pinned and breathless and then turned to look up to her. "What? Can't you see I'm busy?"

"Yes, I can see that, but I'm going to need you to stop throttling him."

"Stop throttling him… Rowan," he cried. "This man held a knife to your throat."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I was there," she answered dryly. "But I'm pretty sure we can negotiate."

" _Negotiate_?!"

"Yes, can you just… stand him up please," she ordered and though she could tell that he thought she was crazy, he still got up off of Raul. He pulled the man up, threw him against a wall and then pinned him there.

"It's your lucky day _ese_ ," he growled. "Let's see what the girl has to say."

His wide fearful eyes found Rowan over Conejo's shoulder. Rowan's head was buzzing which to her meant yet another concussion but she had to keep her shit together to finish this out.

"Look, you're getting threatened by your boss right?" she asked and the man nodded. "Okay, well, on top of me being able to get you a better boss I can cut you in on a very profitable deal."

Raul looked from her to Conejo and then very shakily asked: "What?"

"Okay, look. The kids. The kids they're mine now. You got me? But I'm not staying forever, and they need someone to run their Seeker's stall. That someone could be you," she said. "You'd be answering to me via Armando, though. Would that be something you're interested in?"

He blinked his eyes. "Uh… yes…" he answered. "but…"

"Oh there are rules. There are major rules. Like the kids are keeping at least half their profits. And you're not allowed to abuse them," she said. "And you can't be threatening or scaring off tourists, so you're gonna need a new wardrobe."

He blinked his eyes once more, swallowed his excitement down and then asked: "Are you for real though?"

"So far yes, we can discuss it when the holidays are done, how about that?"

"Yes… thank you… uhm…"

"Let him go, Con," she ordered and then he too was looking at her over his shoulder.

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me. He's not a threat anymore, let him go," she repeated.

Conejo stiffly let him go and then glared at him. "Run," he ordered and Raul rushed off. Putting them both behind him as quickly as possible. As soon as he was gone Conejo turned to her, clearly unhappy with her.

"Girl, don't take this the wrong way but I think… I think you need therapy… cause like… the normal response to that sort of situation is not setting up your attacker with a job."

Rowan just shrugged. Maybe she did need therapy. But at that moment what she really needed was a doctor. But luckily she managed to hold it together just long enough to get them back to the car, where she missed out on Conejo's lecture because she had promptly passed out the second her butt was in that car seat.


	237. Chapter 237

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Friday my wonderful readers! So what we have here is another McDanno Therapy Episode! That is right, we've hit that one. I've got a wonderful bromance, all of Danny's sass, and Steve's Maui weekend mix up. I hope you enjoy it, don't forget to leave me a review and I'll see you guys on Monday._

Chapter 237

* * *

To say that they had procrastinated on this was an understatement. Danny and Steve had to complete a certain amount of therapy hours together, and they had put it off to the time in between Christmas and New Years for a specialty course at the Ha'aleie Luxury Resort in Maui. Steve had been nothing but excited, needing this to get him through Christmas and ringing in a New Year, once again Rowanless. Danny had not held the same excitement.

For starters, Steve was a disaster. He may not have been admitting it, but Danny knew without a shadow of a doubt that the man was not handling this whole, Rowan leaving, thing well. Even if it was six months ago, he had not been getting over it and all of them could tell.

He still had pictures on his phone that they would sometimes catch him looking at. He hadn't deleted her contact off of his phone yet. Sometimes when they were arguing, if someone did something a little too Rowan-ish, he'd call them by her name by accident. Certain songs that reminded him of her could make him cry, or at the very least change his mood entirely. He had taken the golden seashell necklace and had it converted into a key chain so he could always have it with him. He had decided he didn't want to wear the color blue anymore and wouldn't take off his cargo pants. And the team now had to dance around the subject of Rowan otherwise Steve's mood was likely to do a 180 flip.

Secondly, Danny hated therapy. He didn't want to have to go to some fancy ass resort to learn how to better channel his feelings so he and Steve would stop arguing while at work. What needed to happen was someone sitting Steve down and forcing him to realize he was a whacked out control freak who took way too many risks for a man his age.

Thirdly, Danny didn't want to send his weekend with Steve. He just didn't. He wanted to spend his time with people who didn't 100% aggravate him, or frustrate him, or spend ten minutes on a plane telling him how to wear his headphone correctly, and then some how… _some how_ end up chatting up the girl next to him and getting a date.

A date with her, that night. Danny was to come, be his wing man, Alissa would bring a friend. How nice of her, well he had a girlfriend and Steve was supposed to have a Lynn, but he had been doing to her what he had been doing to Rowan, which was playing the _no label_ card again. At least in Lynn's case she was too busy to care.

All the way through the hotel, Steve had been listing the pros. Danny had half listened but not really. Why the hell would anyone need a Soap Concierge. Who cares if the soap was specially formulated to your specific skin type? Soap was soap.

Danny just wanted this weekend to be over already.

The got to the table where they were to check in for their therapy course. Steve was under the impression that they could just show their faces and then dip, but Danny knew better.

Still he said hello to the woman at the table and was immediately hit by the ray of sunshine that was going to be their therapist for the weekend. "Aloha. Welcome," she said. As Steve hit her with the same sentiment Danny picked up the pen to sign his name to the paper. "Are you gentlemen here for the relationship workshop?"

"Yes, we sure are. I'm Steve," he said before putting a hand to Danny's shoulder. "This is my partner, Danny."

"Hi. I'm your therapist, Loraine."

"Hi Loraine," Steve said shaking her hand. Already he was sucking up. My god this shmuck.

"I'll just ask you to sign in and to kindly place your cellphone in the box you see right there."

Steve paused. He looked at the box and then back to Loraine trying to smile. "I'm sorry?"

"It's this rule I have. We're about to take a deep spiritual journey into the inner world that you two share and we can't have any distractions."

Oh god this was great. The look on Steve's face was making up for this weekend alone. And normally he'd love this, he totally would, but Danny was more concerned with the itinerary he had been reading. "Let's see. What is this, Loraine?"

"Oh, that's an itinerary for the subjects we'll be covering this week," she said. He already knew it was the itinerary for the topics, it was just that these topics were… not right for him and Steve.

"Aha, because it says, _overcoming sexual incompatibility_ ," Danny read out. And then Steve was making another face that usually would have filled him with joy but he couldn't enjoy at that moment because if his hunch was right he was going to _kill_ Steve.

Loraine nodded. "Sex is a vital component for a loving relationship."

Danny nodded and then turned to his idiot partner who looked like he had been struck dumb by the understanding of what he had done. "You uh… you signed us up for couples therapy," he said to Steve. Not a question a statement.

Steve was silent a minute before Danny got a _whoops_ from him. There was another pause while he thought this over. "Hey, uh..." he cleared his throat. "This is fine. We can work with this. This is fine."

It was fine because the year was almost up and they had this week to complete their mandatory 30 hours of therapy. This was the last chance to get that done or they wouldn't be allowed to work in the following year.

"It's gonna be great!" Loraine told them, which Danny knew was not going to be true. Regular therapy was already bad enough now he was in couple's therapy with Steve.

Never in his life had he wanted to call Rowan more. She would have appreciated the irony in this, she would have appreciated this and laughed at them.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Danny had been one hundred percent right about this weekend. It was a complete and utter disaster. Not only was he in couples therapy with a bunch of really bitter people who were not impressed with Steve's fuck up, but Steve had taken him out. And he didn't mean for dinner.

He had forced Danny to take a dive during a three-legged race they had been winning, so he could go and check his phone to see if Alissa had been texting him. Because Steve would demand a bro weekend where they could also get their mandatory therapy hours completed and end up on a date with a girl they met and supposedly annoyed while on the plane over here.

Danny was only supposed to fake an injury, but he had actually gotten injured in the tumble, and then Steve had the nerve to be surprised that he got hurt. The bastard.

Originally, Danny had been caving to the idea of going on a date to help Steve out. Especially since twice in the therapy group, Steve had accidentally called Danny Rowan. But now, with the injured ankle, yeah, Steve was on his own. And he hadn't seemed to care either, Steve went off to his dinner with the two girls.

Danny had almost been asleep when Steve got back to the hotel room. And normally, the super stealthy Navy SEAL would have been able to sneak in without Danny noticing. But on that night, the night Danny really wanted to catch up on some sleep, Steve came in like a bull in a china shop, evening managing to knock over something metallic in the washroom. So you know, the loudest the man could be.

And all he got from Steve was: _whoopsie._

Great, the man was drunk. That was all Danny needed. It was a good thing Danny's ankle was messed up or he might have attacked Steven then and there. Instead he half turned in the bed and with an aggressive sigh, asked: "You're a former Navy SEAL what happened to stealth mode?"

"I'm sorry," he whispered. "You awake?"

No he was chewing him out in his sleep. "No, I'm not awake. I'm asleep, you putz. You don't have to whisper now."

"Did you see the photos I sent you?"

Yeah the photos of him and two girls who purposely looked nothing like Rowan or Catherine. Pretending to be happy when everyone and their mother knew that man wasn't. "Yeah I saw the photos you sent me," he said instead of getting into the whole Rowan argument again. "You guys look like you were having a great time."

"The girls were really bummed you didn't make it." "…Yeah." "I didn't know what to tell them."

"You could have told them you destroyed my entire weekend. I hope you know that. I hope you're happy."

"You know what, this is the second time this month that ankle's given out on you. It's not the ankle, the ankle, the ankle Danny."

Great he was talking gibberish. Steven managed to reign his words back in for the next sentence though.

"We both know this trip never had a chance from the start."

"Oh yeah what was that supposed to mean?" he asked but Steve didn't answer right away. So Danny pressed him. "I'm just curious. Huh?"

"What do I mean? I'm talking about your attitude. I'm talking about this black hole of negative energy that is Detective Danny Williams, man. I just brought us out here to try to have some fun, reconnect a little bit, get away from work for a minute and you're just… you've been down on this thing from the start."

"Yeah and for good reason apparently, it turned out, right?"

Steve sighed and dropped himself to the bed. "You ever heard of the power of positive thinking Danny?" Yeah, he had heard of it. "Well it works the other way around too. It's the power of negative thinking. Bad things happen to negative people. See example 1-A, you."

"How…? You basically crippled me going after this girl, and somehow it's my fault?"

Steve sighed again. "Loraine said we're not allowed to go to bed unless we resolve our arguments, alright? So fine," he said propping himself up and turning to Danny. "I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry that you're negative and you bring bad things onto yourself."

"Well I find that completely and utterly laughable since that is exactly what you were like with your relationship with Rowan."

And then it was out there. Even in the dark Danny could see the pain on Steve's face and he immediately regretted kicking his friend when he was down. When Danny knew what that subject did to him.

"Okay, that was harsh and I didn't mean that."

"Yes you did."

"Come on, you know no one blames you for what happened…"

"I do."

"Yes and that is ridiculous…"

"Is it though?" Steve asked. "Maybe you're right. I was the black hole in our relationship."

Oh dear god, he got it. But Danny didn't want to do that to him now, the man was already hurting. While it was great he was clearly seeing the problems with he and Rowan's relationship, he hadn't want to force that epiphany on his now.

Though maybe if he got through it before the end of the year, he could leave Rowan behind in this year and start the New Year fresh.

"I tanked us from the very beginning. I looked for every and any excuse for us not to work together. And when I wasn't doing that I… I was being selfish, you know?" Steve said softly. "I think about that a lot. That she was always so afraid to tell me things, to be herself around me. I kept saying that we had nothing in common and she was going to leave me… but she tried. She tried everything… to make me happy, you know? She went camping for me… and surfing… and hiking and… I never once went to her gigs, I chose work over her… I just shunted her to the side and then made it her fault when she got upset."

All of that was true, of course. But Danny didn't know what it was that had brought this on, how or when Steve had this major epiphany.

"I took Rowan for granted. I took her network for granted. I blamed her for constantly lying to me but she had to lie to me Danny. She had to lie to me cause I never took anything she had to say to me positively," Steve said.

"Well, we all took that network for granted," Danny said. "We all thought she was indestructible."

"I was so upset about Wo Fat… but he… he saved her life…" "—Multiple times…" "—Shut up Danny, I get it, okay? I get why she wouldn't want to come back to me. I didn't like her for her, I took her for granted, I was conflicting when it came to her app, and I get why he wouldn't give her back. If I had just shut up… if I had just not thrown Catherine at her she'd still be here, and I'd still have Nahele and everything would be okay…"

Danny propped himself up in his bed and glared at Steve. "No you wouldn't," he growled. "And you know why? Because you and her would still have those problems. You'd still be taking her for granted, she'd still be hiding things from you cause you couldn't handle the truth, you two were heading for a break up that was going to end TERRIBLY for everyone involved. So don't beat yourself up so bad. We didn't think you two were gonna stay together much longer anyway."

For a moment Steve stared at him as if he couldn't believe that Danny had said that. He turned his head away to look at the ceiling before whispering. "You were right about the promise ring. I should have just proposed."

"God Steven."

"I know you don't want to hear this…" "—That's not it."

Was that what his friend thought? Really? That he didn't want to hear about Steve and his pain? He was supposed to be his friend, his best friend. Steve should have felt like he could tell Danny anything. And it hurt him to think that Steve didn't feel like he could open up to him.

Steve turned his wounded eyes back to him and Danny sighed. "Buddy. We know. Every single one of us knew that you two were either going to break up or get married. I know you loved her…"

"I still love her Danny."

"Wow… really? Still?" he asked. Steve nodded and Danny nodded too, damn he thought that with the emergence of Lynn and Steve trying to go on dates with other woman that Steve was starting to get over Rowan. He shouldn't have gotten his hopes up. "Okay. That's okay. I understand how that feels… you know? But if you're going to stay here… if you're not going to chase her down…"

"Chase her down, Danny she told me to leave!" he cried. "She doesn't want me!"

"You know, I don't believe that, none of us do. You should have found her before coming back, you should have heard those words drop out of her mouth, not through the phone."

"We're not talking about this again," Steve said turning away from Danny.

"Fine. Look. You're allowed to be hurt, and by all means, take your time to get over this, you know, but don't let Rowan Pierce break you," Danny said. "You know what you did wrong, make sure you don't ever do it again. Learn from your mistakes Steven."

Steve nodded, silent for a moment before whispering: "I'm really sorry about your ankle, Danny."

"Thank you…" he said before turning back around. "Do you really think that I'm that negative?"

He waited for an answer but got nothing but silence. Danny propped himself up to look at Steve. The man had his eyes closed.

"Steven?"

Nothing. Nothing except heavy even breathing. The man had fucking fallen asleep as if that apology had fixed everything. Danny threw himself back down to his pillows with a sigh and scowl. He couldn't believe he had just done that. In the silence came the deep sonorous rumbling sound that jolted Danny right back up.

And now the man was snoring. This. Was. Just. Great.

He thought they were having a moment, but it obviously didn't mean as much to him if he could just pass out before the conclusion. How the hell had Rowan lived with him? Cause at this rate, Danny was gonna smother him in his sleep.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

They had had a sort of breakthrough at couple counselling. Granted Danny had called it all stupid but he had paired it with a nice sentiment. That they all obviously loved each other and they should remember that love, not nitpick on all the little things until all they had was disappointment and irritation. Then they got a break for lunch.

A lunch that Danny was eating alone because Steve was once more off with Alissa. Or at least he thought he was. Danny was just about finished half of his very amazing, very expensive burger when Steve showed up. Deep bags were under his eyes, and he was telling the waiter to bring him a burger like Danny's and a big glass of water. That was probably because the man was hung over. He was drinking heavily these days, though it got worse on the days that he was reminded of Rowan.

Danny watched Steve sit down wondering if his date had ditched him and super not excited to be Steve's secondary choice. Steve, however, was all smiles.

"Hey, good looking," Great, he was sucking up, that was suspicious. What did he do now?

"Thought you were gonna see Alissa."

"Uh, yeah, I was. But I… you know, I blew it off to come and hang with you instead."

Danny practically inhaled the last bite of the first half of his burger. "You didn't have to do that. I'm fine."

"Oh I didn't do it for you," Steve said quickly. Danny just nodded patronizingly which got Steve rambling. "See all these people, all these nice people sitting around? You know how much money they spent to have this dream vacation experience? I personally don't think it's fair that their experience be marred by the sight of a gimpy-ankled man sitting here eating a 20 dollar hamburger by himself. It's just not right. So you know, for their sake, enjoy my company."

That was a load of hooey and they both knew it. "See, I thought you were just concerned for me."

"Nope."

Danny just nodded, fine, he'd let him have it. The waiter came back with Steve's water and Danny suddenly found himself compelled to share.

"You wanna hear something crazy?" "…Yeah." "I don't know how crazy it is, but I think you can appreciate it… but… uh… when Rachel and I started having our problems she… she suggested that we go see a marriage counsellor together. I, of course, said no. I figured, look we got problems we'll figure it out ourselves. But, uh, we never did that, did we?

"What, you think therapy would've saved your marriage?" Steve asked.

"No. Probably not. You know, we had a lot of problems. Some hers, some mine. But the point is, is that she um… she was willing to do whatever it took to save our family, and I guess… I guess maybe I wasn't. And that kind of sticks with me, you know?"

Steve shook his head like he couldn't believe it. "You left everything and moved to Hawaii so that Gracie would have a father in her life. And still you question your commitment to your family? Don't do it. No one can question your commitment to your family."

"I know, I just… you know, it's hard not to think about the fact that things maybe could've been different had I gone to see that counsellor with her. I don't know," he said with a heavy sigh.

"Things would've been different, maybe you would have never met me, how about that?"

"One could dream."

Steve shook his head. "Yeah well I gotta tell you man. Your ankle aside, look around you right now. I mean, there are much worse places a failed marriage could land you. You gotta admit, come on, look at the place."

"No, no you're right. My failed marriage brings me to Hawaii and my dysfunctional relationship with you brings me here," he said with a grin before dawning a very serious face. "But uh... I want you to do me a favour." "Right now?" "Yeah right now."

"Sure, anything for you."

"Can you please, at least to me, tell me the truth," he said. "The truth about why you're not out with Alissa right now."

"I told you, I wanted to hang with you…"

Danny pinned him with a knowing stare and then repeated: "The truth, Steve."

"Fine, fine, cause she's not Rowan," Steve admitted with a scowl. "Okay? Are you happy?"

"Yes I'm happy," Danny said. "Because keeping that bottled up inside isn't gonna help you. You wanna put on a brave face and pretend you're not hurting in front of the others that's fine, but when it's you and me. You and me, I want you to tell me the truth. I don't want you to think that I don't want to hear it. Just get it off your chest."

Steve was silent a moment taking that in. "Okay. Fine. The truth? I liked Alissa, I liked Alissa cause she's nothing like Rowan. And for a while that was great, but then I started comparing her to Rowan and… well… no one's ever going to come to close to how I felt for her. I know that, and… I guess…"

"It's hard to let that go," Danny finished for him. "You know why I told you, about me and Rachel and therapy?" Steve shook his head. "Because how I felt when Rachel and I split… that's how you feel right now, about you and Rowan. But you got no reason to feel that way…"

"But she tried harder than I did, Danny…"

"Yeah, but you tried too," Danny explained. "You did. Sure you got distracted more, sure Rowan tried harder, but you tried too. It wasn't all one sided. She asked for you to be more understanding and instead of saying no flat out, you tried and then didn't follow through. That's different. And no one, no one can ever question your commitment to Rowan. Alright? Cause you went through hell to try and bring her back."

Steve hung his head. There was something about this whole situation that Steve seemed determined to martyr himself for. Danny couldn't figure out what it was, couldn't get his friend to tell him. But despite all the logical arguments, Steve refused to let this guilt go. Or maybe he was just refusing to let Rowan go.

"I guess," he said after a while. "And maybe one day, I'll look back and find that to be true. But right now Danny, all it does is hurt."

"Yeah," Danny said softly. "But that goes away with time. I promise."

Steve held his eyes for a moment, and in those eyes Danny saw the pain he was living with, and a glimmer of hope lit up. Like maybe, finally, Danny's words had gotten through to him.

And then just like that it was gone. Steve turned away from him, the emotions clearly too much. "Where's my burger, I'm starving."

Already Danny was pushing his plate over. "Here, eat this half," he said. Steve tried to protest but Danny shook his head. "It's fine, I'll eat your other half. Have that."

"Really? Alright, thanks, pal," Steve said and then took a massive bite. Steve never could turn down free food for very long.

"It's good huh?"

"This is the best hamburger I ever had in my life," Steve said, sounding super fucking annoyed about it.

"It's worth the 25 bucks, right?"

"This is unbelievable," Steve said taking yet another bite. He hadn't even swallowed his last one. Man was trying to choke. "This place really has everything."

How was he still talking with that much food in his mouth?

"I used that artisanal soap," Danny admitted. He had said he wasn't going to but he was bored and it was included so he figured… why not? "Forget about it. Unbelievable."

"What'd I tell you?" Steve cried. Danny nodded. Steve _had_ told him.

"My hands have never been so soft, not in my entire life," Danny told him.

"Can I feel?"

"Yeah feel this," Danny said extending his harm. Steve dropped the burger and put his hand to his. As Steve stroked the arm to feel the softness, remarking right away the difference he felt, Danny inwardly remarked to himself that he was glad they were joking around. Things felt like they were sliding back into place. Like this weekend was all Steve needed to start getting himself back on track.


	238. Chapter 238

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hello my wonderful readers. So we got through the Christmas Chapter and the therapy chapter. Now we're going to get the New Year's Chapter and we're going to hear from a new character today. Well she's not new, you've heard of her, today you're going to hear from her. Don't forget to tell me what you think, and I'll see you guys on Wednesday!_

Chapter 238

* * *

Rowan was out of commission for two days after the concussion. Which meant New Year's was no longer going to be a large party, because she was the one who was supposed to plan and put it together. And apparently, even though she gave direction, the boys couldn't figure it out. And though the mob doctor they had pulled to come see her had said she'd be good after forty-eight hours, both Wo Fat and Conejo refused to let her do anything too strenuous.

Which meant that Rowan didn't get to start planning any sort of party until two days before the actual party and at that point she was going for a pot luck and karaoke.

But two days sitting in her room, even if it meant that Wo Fat stayed closer to the house after that, and that Conejo wasn't going to make her run, had been horrible. She had been bored. Terribly bored. Even if her boys were babying her to make up for her boredom.

That day, however, Rowan was done. She was going to use her new bill of good health as an excuse to get herself out of the house.

She had dealt with Conejo and his annoyance about the matter. His insistence with her staying at the house. And unluckily for her, someone else had objections as well. For the second she came down the stairs all dressed and ready to go, her over-protective big brother was on her like white on rice.

"Where are you going?" Wo Fat had asked as he came out of the library.

"Shopping."

"No, no, I don't like it," Wo Fat had said with a shake of his head.

But she had convinced him to let her go and now she was regretting it.

They had gone to get Raul set up, to train him, give him a chance to be in her shoes while she was shopping. But when they got out of the car, when they got to Raul, he had been beaten and he had someone with him. But when Conejo went for his gun, other men appeared with bigger guns and just like that she was afraid.

Maybe she should have stayed home.

"Hello, Rowan Pierce," the man said to her. "Let's see how much your brother loves you."

Oh this guy was SO dead. By either her hand or her brother's.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Letting Rowan leave after the last kidnapping attempt was a big step for Wo Fat. For two days she had been on lock down, mainly because the doctor said she could have no stimulation. She had given herself a concussion during the take down and they had noted some signs of brain swelling. She was given medicine to combat that and then for two days both he and Sin Nombre spent their time filling her bored hours with her keeping her calm and unstimulated. And safe.

Wo Fat had been so upset about what had happened that he had slept in her bed. Just so he could wake up and know she was there. It made him feel better waking up to her face those two mornings.

But he knew, even though he was worried, he couldn't keep Rowan inside forever. She'd rebel and he'd have issues with her. So he had let her go, knowing that Sin Nombre would be going with her and not feeling the greatest about it.

He chalked it up to irrationality. There was no reason for him to worry. There had already been a failed attempt to grab her. An attempt that had been foiled by both her and her bodyguard. They would be stupid to try and grab her so shortly after a failed attempt when Sin Nombre would be on high alert.

So he had gone back to planning with Armando in the hopes of distracting himself out of worrying.

And it worked for the most part. Until the guard showed up. This guard usually stood at the front gate, so it was strange for him to be in Armando's library when he should have been on shift.

He had spoken to Armando in Spanish before approaching Wo Fat as Armando said: "Something was delivered to you."

And then the man offered him the package he had in his hand. Wo Fat took the envelope. It had no post mark, no writing, just a blank sealed manila envelope. He hadn't been expecting a delivery, nor was he expecting a letter so where the hell had this come front? Not through the mail cause it would have had post marks if it had.

"Where did you get this?"

"Some guy dropped it off at the gate," the guard said with a shrug before leaving to go back to his post.

Wo Fat let him leave and turned his attention back to the envelope. Well, if it was explosive it wouldn't do much damage with a package this thin. Luckily it wasn't that anything that dangerous it was just a picture.

A picture of Rowan, out in the market. She was just shopping, she was actually looking in her purse. But it wasn't the picture that scared him, it was the big black X crossed over her face.

It was a hit. A declaration of a hit.

 _Where was Rowan_?

Wo Fat lunged for his phone, throwing the picture in Armando's direction as he went for the car. He needed to find Rowan, to confirm that she was okay, to pull her back to the house so she could be safe.

But neither her nor Sin Nombre were picking up their phones. He shot a glance to Armando who was also on the phone, no doubt trying to get a hold of someone who would know where Rowan had gone.

"Do you remember where she said she was going?"

"Shopping, all she said was shopping," Armando cried. "Any luck with Sin Nombre?"

No, no luck. He got to the car and got in quickly while Armando went into the slid into the passenger seat. "I think she's gone to set up the stall. Coach Raul."

"We never did confirm if he had been working for Diego originally, did we?"

"You really think he'll go after her with Sin Nombre on her?"

"I think he's desperate enough to do anything he'll think of to hurt us," Wo Fat told him starting his car. "I guess no one told him exactly how badly I react to threats against her."

Well like all the others Diego was about to find out how quickly the ruthless monster jumped out of Wo Fat the second his little imouto was threatened.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Diego groaned for the third time in a short matter of time and turned back to where both Rowan and Conejo had been tied to their separate chairs. Conejo had once remarked that Rowan should have been given a warning label for extreme obnoxiousness. And well… she had been living up to that label.

"Shut up, for the love of god, shut up," he growled.

But Rowan was not done. She wasn't going to let him let go so easily. Rowan blinked big innocent eyes up to him. "I'm sorry. But I was merely listing all the reasons this was a stupid idea."

Diego groaned once more.

"But it's true," Rowan cried. "I just don't see what you're going to gain from this except for dead bodies."

Beside her Conejo chuckled. "She has a point, _hombre_ ," he said. "Just imagine what's going to happen if I get out of this chair."

Diego's gun came out of his waistband, shoving it into Conejo's face. "I don't need you alive. All he cares about is the girl."

"Yeah, and I care about him," Rowan said quickly gesturing to Conejo as best as she could with tied hands. "You kill my bodyguard and it's the end of the line for you!"

Diego stared down at her, at the glare he sad he couldn't take seriously and slowly lowered his gun. "Though when my brother get's here it's gonna be the end of the line for you anyway so you know… if you wanna go for gold, like really solidify the death warrant you go ahead and put the bullet in the two of us…"

Once more Diego groaned and Rowan smiled up at him, pulling on that little bit of the void so her hands came free again. "And you know you're really bad at tying knots. Do you need me to help you?"

He took in her free hands again and the ropes that were loosely hanging from the arms of the chair. The last time they had tied her back in she had tried to walk him through it.

 _The Rabbit goes around the tree and through the hole…_

He had slapped her pretty hard for that one.

"How do you keep doing that?" he cried, more like whined actually.

"Actually _how do you_ keep doing that?" Conejo asked his voice low. "Like seriously… how?"

Rowan looked from Diego to Conejo and then said, with a typical shrug. "I'm double jointed."

It was a lie, her old fall back and neither of them believed her. She could tell by the narrowed look on their faces. The problem what else could it be? Cause neither of them were going to believe her if she said magic.

"Okay, but no seriously," Conejo said a little more sternly.

Rowan pinned him with a dry glare. "A magician never reveals their secrets."

"Okay, that's enough," Diego snapped coming between them again. "You want your hands free? Make yourself useful. Call your brother. It's time he and I had a chat."

Rowan took the phone that was offered her. The number was already there, all she had to do was press dial. Which she did.

She listened to it ring, wondering if Wo Fat would even bother to pick up a number he didn't recognize. Luckily she didn't have to worry.

"Fat."

"Hey!" Rowan cried attempting to be cheery. "How's my favourite _anuie_?"

"Pissed off. I told you to stay home, didn't I?" Wo Fat cried. Well, at least he knew that she had been kidnapped and was worried about her. "Now. Are you okay? What has he done to you?"

"Nothing. But he did say he was going to see how much you loved me," she said with a pout and on the other end of the phone he was silent. Probably because it wasn't really an answer to his question.

"What did you say?"

"I told him to keep me here and find out," she answered and earned a soft chuckle from him.

"He hasn't hurt you though, has he?"

Before she could answer Diego had snatched the phone out of her hand and then he was talking to Wo Fat.

Rowan sat there calmly, taking this time to look around to assess her exit strategies. Though, to be honest she didn't really have one. They were men at each door and more just milling around with their guns. It was like they were ready for a tactical ambush. Which… to be fair, was probably a fair response to expect after kidnapping Wo Fat's sister.

She wasn't sure how she was going to get herself out of there, least of all with Conejo who was itching for a fight, or just a simple gun so he could start shooting. She didn't think, even with Conejo who was a crack shot, that she could get them out safely, not without help.

"I've been letting you bully me for too long," he said. "I think you don't know who you're pissing off. It's time I showed you what happens to those who mess with me."

Rowan looked up to Diego, as he listened to whatever it was that Diego had to say. She opened up her other sense, the one tied to the void looking for anything that might help her at this point, as she wasn't certain where Wo Fat was and whether or not he'd get there before they all started shooting.

"You're right, Diego, I don't know who I'm pissing off."

Why could she hear him as if he hadn't come the phone? Diego lowered the phone and Rowan could finally see Wo Fat's pink string waving through the storm of deadly possibilities. Oh they were screwed now!

Rowan smiled toothily at them, watching as Wo Fat appeared from the shadows, knife out taking out the one of the two guards behind Diego, the other was taken out by Armando with his own knife. By the time they realized what was happening it was too late, both men had their throats slit.

Wo Fat was behind him, gun to his head, pulling the phone away from his ear. "Hello Carlos Diego," he said smugly. "How nice to officially meet you."

Diego glanced over his shoulder. "Only two men? You think you can take her out of here with only two men?"

Wo Fat pressed the gun a little closer to his skull and easily said: "Yes. Tell them to drop their weapons or I'll blow your brains out where you stand."

"I'd listen. He's in an awfully bad mood," Armando warned.

Diego's mouth twitched but he ultimately decided not to chance it. He shouted the order to stand down in Spanish and his men slowly lowered their guns.

Wo Fat glanced to Rowan and appraised her briefly. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yep," she said as she stood up, she smiled up at Diego and then kicked him straight in the nuts. Diego cried out and went down and she scowled at him, hands on her hips. "That's for hitting me."

Wo Fat glared at her but did nothing to help the man crumpled at his feet. Instead his gun just followed the man's head so he could always feel the steel against the back of his head. "Feel better?" he asked her and she nodded happily, moving to Conejo's side to untie him. Once he was free, Armando tossed him a gun that he immediately loaded. He turned on the others behind them as Rowan got up and swept her aside.

Wo Fat whistled and Rowan turned in time to catch the car keys he tossed in her direction. "Take the car, I'm going to finish this."

"What about you?" she asked.

"I'll be fine," he said, his eyes on the back of Diego's head. The man looked quite panicked, kneeling there in front of Wo Fat, which was what he deserved. "It's time that Diego learned just what happens to people who mess with _my_ family."

Conejo was already ushering her towards the door, his eye on all the men as if worried they'd make a move on him.

But Diego wasn't going to go down like that. He turned, his hand catching Wo Fat behind the leg, knocking him over. Rowan immediately yelped and started forward but Diego was shouting: " _Disparales!"_ and all his men started shooting.

Conejo grabbed her and threw her to the floor as he opened fire and Diego and Wo Fat wrestled. It took some maneuvering but he got them out of the door and to the car that Wo Fat had left at the mouth of the alleyway that lead to that building.

"Give me the keys," Conejo ordered but Rowan shoot her head. She got into the driver's seat and just sat there thinking for a moment. She wasn't about to leave her brother and Armando alone in that building clearly out numbered.

"Rowan I have to get you out of here," Conejo said. "They'll be fine, but you won't be if you stay."

"I need your knife," Rowan said instead. When he just stared at her, the silent reminder that Diego's men had lifted a whole fucking armoury off of him when they got taken she elaborated. "The one you hid in the car, I know it's here, give it to me!"

He sighed but did as asked, leaning forward to retrieve it from wherever he had hidden it under the seat. When he was sitting up again a knife was in his hand that he was holding out to her. Rowan took the offered knife and used it to pry open the console under the steering wheel. She found the black wire that attached to the airbags and cut it so they'd be disabled.

"What the hell are you doing?" Conejo asked her.

"I'd uh… I'd buckle up if I were you," Rowan warned as the threw the knife into the cupholder. As she buckled herself up she called: "Sandy, link to all available phones and speakers in the area and play the A-Team theme."

"What the hell are you doing?" Conejo asked but Rowan wasn't listening. From the radio, from his phone, from hers came the A-team theme. Rowan put the car in reverse and backed the Audi up as far as she could go. "Rowan, what are you doing?" he repeated.

"Hold on!" she answered, putting the car in park and pressing on the gas so the car went nowhere but the engine heated up.

"Rowan! What are you doing?!" Conejo shouted but Rowan ignored him. Quickly putting the car back in drive it leapt forward already doing about 50, by the time they were nearing the wall, the car was doing 90 and Conejo was screaming her name, over and over.

Conejo braced as they Audi crashed through the wall, taking out most of whoever was on the other side, sending debris flying into everyone else. Rowan caught her breath, opened the car door and called: "Oh Captain! Your chariot awaits!"

"Are you _fucking kidding me_?!" Conejo thundered from inside the car, just as Wo Fat and Armando made their way past the rubble to get into the car. "Move over, I'm driving!"

"No, she should drive," Armando said once seated, immediately buckling himself in. He reached over the back of Conejo's seat and pulled him back to his own seat. "Trust, she should drive."

"She should drive?! She just crashed the fucking car!" Conejo snarled.

"On purpose too," Wo Fat agreed. "But seriously, out of all of us she's the best driver," he told him buckling himself in, as Rowan got back in the car. A few feeble shots ricocheted off of the car. "Did you have to crash the Audi Ro?"

"Did you bring another car?" Rowan asked as she looked over her shoulder to reverse the car out of the building she drove it into just as a bullet came through the windshield shattering it. She didn't even bother to flinch.

Wo Fat, Armando and Conejo all responded to the shot but pulling out their guns and shooting out the now glassless window. As soon as the car was out of the building Rowan swung it around and began to drive away.

"Well this was fun," she said. "I say we don't do it again."

"Then listen to me when I tell you not to leave!" Wo Fat argued.

"Oh like you knew he was gonna come at me again so soon! Besides, I can't be cooped up all the time," Rowan argued. "Do you want me to be bored around guns and explosives and other things?"

"Okay, maybe we need to teach you self fucking restraint, it shouldn't be this hard to keep you out of kidnapping situations," Conejo snapped. "I mean seriously what the hell is wrong with you? It's like you go looking for them… or you attract him. No one should be kidnapped as much as you are!"

"That was rude!" Rowan said, turning onto the main road to take them to the highway.

"I love you, you know I love you, my little _imouto_ , but he has a point," Wo Fat said. "I can't keep running off to save you. We have to figure out a way to keep you entertained and safe at the same time. Maybe that can be a New Year's resolution hmm?"

"We have a car following us," Armando said interrupting the argument brewing.

Rowan glanced into the rear-view mirror, well shit that wasn't good. It was a big black SUV, climbing up behind them very quickly.

"Okay," she said and then jerked quickly away from the service road she should have used to get them home and back onto the highway instead. "They want a chase, I'll give them a chase."

"Chase? Chase? Rowan why the hell would you _want_ then to chase us?!" Conejo cried but both Wo Fat and Armando groaned in trepidation and reached for the grab handles. Conejo turned to them. "What? What is it?"

"Just, just hold on," Wo Fat ordered as Rowan reached for the knife in the cupholder and began to absently fiddle with the wires that were hanging from the console.

"Oh god what are you doing now?"

"Cutting the line to our lights," she said. "You see a yellow wire?"

"Why would you want to cut off our lights?" Conejo asked as Wo Fat muttered: "I'm not going to get my deposit back."

"Rowan they're gaining!" Armando called.

"Yes, yes, I know," she said, as she cut the light. She tossed the knife back into the cupholder, checked the rear-view mirror and immediately accelerated, which meant the SUV following them had to accelerate too. She waited, waited until they were on par with her, just about to hit her, when she suddenly shouted: "Hold on!" and then braked. The SUV wasn't expecting it, so they hit her full force, their airbags going off, but the Audi's didn't.

Once they could Rowan accelerated again leaving them behind once more. That time she cut off three different cars to take the next exit before the SUV could follow them. Rowan kept glancing back in the rear-view mirror, waiting to see if the car would appear again but nothing showed up.

"Okay. I think we lost them."

Beside her Conejo was gasping for breathe. He turned wide eyes of surprise onto her. "Where the hell did you learn to drive like that?"

"I used to be a rally racer," Rowan said. "I'd run a con on the street racers in the area. Was pretty good at it too."

Conejo turned incredulous eyes onto Wo Fat. "What the fuck is she talking about?"

"I unno, I never could get a straight answer on her and the car racing past," he admitted.

"I thought she couldn't remember her past? I think sending down her picture to Victoria BC with the big words _illegal car racer_ on the header would probably tell us who she really is."

"I really am Rowan," Rowan said with a frown. "We don't need to go looking into my past. And if you do, I'm gonna dig into yours and find out your real name!"

Conejo stared at her in muted horror. "You need therapy," he growled.

"She needs Jesus," Armando interjected but it was Wo Fat that said: "We just need to take her home. Take us home Ro."

And she quickly did as she was told, taking the car off of the road and into the jungle. As the trees covered the car, letting them disappearing into the wilderness, she began to wonder if they were right. Maybe… maybe Rowan really did need therapy. But… where was she going to find herself a shrink in the jungles of Colombia?

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Three days later Rowan was sick of Armando's safe house in the jungle all over again. After Diego's second slightly more successful attempt on grabbing her she went on a real lock down. Wo Fat had her in someone's line of sight at all times, whether that be him, JC, Armando or Conejo, she was never alone. She was no longer allowed to go to the village, she was forced to give Conejo notes to coach up Raul who would be taking over the stall, she was no longer allowed out to shop, she wasn't even allowed past the walls.

Hell Wo Fat got antsy if she sat by the pool. Too open he said. A sniper could drop her like a deer.

And on top of the smothering, both she and Wo Fat had started having nightmares. Which actually worked out well because it meant that she wasn't alone in bed. She'd always wake up to him already there, arms length across the bed from her already asleep again. It sort of helped her feel better. But not by much.

The kidnapping brought back the Paris incident. And with it the awful memories and the red coated haze of her psychotic break. And once the Paris incident was done with her, the Japan one would come back in full force. It made her realize that she wasn't internalizing the damage like she was so usually good at. With the tunnels, and even Irina's attack on her, those memories would stay buried for months at a time. These ones were much more persistent. She knew she needed help she just didn't know what to do to get it.

Because she got locked down it gave her a lot of time to play a party but absolutely no time to actually get supplies for it. Which was quite annoying as the boys never, ever, got the right things. In the end she gave up, too depressed to actually plan a good party.

And she didn't have to.

To her surprise her boys put together a pretty nice shindig. JC brought in the Karaoke machine and set it up with not just popular songs, but some of her own. Wo Fat got a party sized sushi tray, Armando was in charge of the décor and Conejo was in charge of morale. Which meant Conejo spent the whole time pumping everyone up.

The karaoke started off great, where they took turns and laughed at everyone's choices. Conejo sung _Sweet Caroline_ , but changed every Caroline to Rowan. Wo Fat did _Don't Stop Believing_ , quite theatrically, while both Armando and JC chose Spanish songs. But Rowan recognized JC's because she had helped him write _Despacito._

Then came the duets. All four boys sang _Bohemian Rhapsody_ together. Rowan luckily got a video of that. She and Con sang _A Whole New World_ together. She and Wo sang _I Got You Babe._ JC and Armando ended up doing a very lively version of _Gasolina_. And then she and JC sang on of her newer songs, actually one that was inspired by their lover's tryst, _Reggaetón Lento_.

But it was because of that song, the requests for Rowan's special songs started up and just like that it turned into a focus group.

Rowan and JC sang their _Hey DJ_ song together. Rowan sang both versions of her _Brother_ songs for Wo Fat and Conejo. They decided that Wo Fat's version actually sounded better as Lover and not Brother in the chorus, but he liked his version none-the-less.

The last song she sang was _Auld Lang Syne_. Then the countdown to the New Year came and while everyone cheered and celebrated she kissed Conejo.

She was certain that Wo Fat saw but it was New Years and that was all that the kiss was, a New Year's kiss. But once the party died down and it was time to go to bed Rowan was left alone with her thought and her nightmares.

She had been thinking about this for a while. That the only person she really wanted to talk to was… well… her mom.

Earlier that day she had sent a message to Kong through the app, requesting her cellphone number, because while Rowan remembered her home number she didn't remember her mom's cellphone. And after calling the house and having her mom yell at her she didn't want to chance her not picking up for her again. Even if the cloned phone she had changed her number with each new city she entered.

Kong had gotten her the number within minutes but Rowan hadn't called. She had been too afraid to. But now… now she was too afraid to go to sleep, so really, what was the better choice at that moment?

So, she shut herself in her room, kept the lights off so the boys thought she was asleep and then, before she could change her mind, she dialled her mother's number and prayed to god that she answered.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Roselyn Carter hated celebrating the New Year.

All the New Year reminded her was that in 20 days she'd hit that anniversary again. The anniversary of her stillborn baby. It was coincidentally the same time of year that her divorce to Trenton was finalized and when she moved her only living child, Trevor, out to the west coast of Canada.

There she had started her practice, built up her reputation and now she was a part time therapist with only the most exclusive clients, who also lectured at the University of British Colombia. She was the leading female in her field of child psychology, she had authored many well received and acclaimed papers, and she donated her time and money to many different charities.

So why did she feel empty? Why did she feel sadness? Why did she still wish, after 30 years that she had her picturesque family? The college sweet heart, and the one of each children.

What she didn't know that this was the year that was going to change her life. The start to getting all of that back.

It started with the phone ringing. A few minutes after 10pm. She had just gotten back from a party, a charity function where she had been the key note speaker. She had done her job and snuck out. She was too tired to stay out pretending to smile when the countdown to her saddest day started in 2 hours.

She had assumed that, whoever was calling, was wondering where she was and why she wasn't at the party. What she found was a strange number on her screen. Starting with +57. What the hell kind of country code was that?

She answered with trepidation and in response the person on the other end paused.

There was a breathy sigh of: "Hi." The caller was female and she was nervous. "Hi… is… is this Roselyn Pierce?"

Whenever she heard her married name she couldn't help but suck in a sharp breath of pain. It was always an unintentional subconscious response. Because it hurt to remember how happy she used to be before January 21st 1986.

"No… oh… I'm sorry. Carter. Is this Roselyn Carter?" the caller rephrased after Roselyn's pause. Then under her breath, almost so soft that Roselyn didn't hear it, she said: "I always forget they're divorced."

But she did hear it. And it made her very suspicious.

Almost two years ago now, she had gotten a call from someone claiming to be her dead daughter. Upon mentioning that to Trevor she got a long-winded story about how he and his father had performed an experiment to try and pull the dead girl from an alternate reality. He had asked if that phone call had come from Hawaii, which she didn't know but soon learned that it had once Trevor had looked the number over.

He had been excited to tell her that he was certain that the experiment had been successful. He was certain that Rowan was in their world and being kept from them by a corrupt Hawaiian Special Tactical unit, or at least he leader of it.

Roselyn had thought Trevor crazy, that her ex-husband had infected their son with the same insanity that had corrupted him. But then Trevor had shown her pictures of a girl, the right age, with Roselyn's nose and Trenton's ridiculously blue blue eyes and she almost let herself believe it.

But her suspicions and hopes didn't mean that it was Rowan calling her again and it didn't mean that she believed it was really her daughter either.

"Yes I'm Roselyn Carter, who am I speaking to?"

"I… you don't know me… but… I need help and I didn't know… I didn't know who else to call."

Roselyn paused. She didn't know who this girl was let alone where in the world she was, how in the hell was she supposed to help? "Okay, if you're in that much trouble, dear, I would recommend that you call the cops… I'm not sure what else I could really do for you…"

"No, it's not that kind of trouble," the caller said.

"Well then, as I said before… I can't help you."

"No wait!" the caller cried and though Roselyn itched to hang up the phone she didn't. "Look… something… something really bad happened to me… actually a lot of really bad things have happened to me. Some from my past some pretty recent and with quick succession. I just… I'm struggling with everything and I just thought… since you're the expert that you could… help me."

There was a hitch on the other side. A sound Roselyn knew like the back of her hand. The girl was trying not to cry but failing. She was either silently crying or just about to start.

"Okay… I suppose… if you come to my office after the holiday…"

"I don't live in Victoria," the girl said, a slight stutter to her words. "I… I don't have a home anymore. I thought… maybe I could talk to you over the phone."

"That's highly unorthodox…"

"Please? I… I really don't have anyone else and… and… I just want to stop hurting inside… please?"

Roselyn herself paused. She could hear the girl crying now and her heart went out to the girl on the other line. She couldn't help it because she too knew how it felt to just want the pain inside to go away.

"If I agree to help you… if… have to know what to call you…"

"I can't tell you my real name…" "You're a criminal aren't you."

The caller went quiet and Roselyn held her breath. She waited to hear what the girl would say. She had been leaning towards this girl being a criminal. It would explain how she got a hold of a private line that wasn't in a single phone book. It would explain why she didn't have a home, if she was living a roving fugitive life. But it would explain why she had, apparently, a series of terrible things happen to her.

"No," the girl said after a momentary pause. "But my brother is."

Ah, so family was criminal and she could be tied to them if she divulged her real name. Roselyn let herself into her office, picking up her pad of paper from the small table by her comfortable chair and the couch she'd offer her clients.

"Alright. Then what would you like me to call you?"

"Uhm… my… my mom always called me Wick."

Wick. What a strange nickname. Completely unheard of. Except Roselyn had heard it before. Because her daughter was conceived under what she romanticized as the magic of the Rowan tree, she had decided to name her child after it. Rowan, which she would have nicknamed Wicky, as the common name for the Rowan tree was the Wicky tree.

How strange was it that this girl had a mother who called her something similar? Those hopes she held, that irrational thought that maybe, one of Trenton's experiments had not only worked but had fulfilled her greatest desire, quickly flared to life. She carefully cleared her throat and herself free of any of those debilitating hopes before they could hurt her further.

"Alright… Wick…" she whispered. "You get me for the next hour. What would you like to talk about?"

And then Roselyn sat back at her desk, pad of paper in hand, and began to listen to the poor girl's tale.


	239. Chapter 239

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hello my wonderful readers! How is everyone on this Wednesday? So we've jumped far. From New Years to the end of the month. Does anyone remember what big event is at the January? Well you're going to find out. We've got a mix of Rowan and Steven in the next two chapters, and then it's all Five-0s in the two chapters after that. So you know, that should get your Five-0 fix. We also have a VERY large void event coming up in the next few chapters. I might be able to get before 250th chapter, but we'll see. Don't forget to leave me a review and I'll see you guys on Friday._

Chapter 239

* * *

This was a rough day for Steven. Except it wasn't supposed to be about him, it was supposed to be about his Aunt Deb and how she was saying her final goodbye to Leonard who died recently. She was holding his ashes and giving him a more than touching farewell to him and Steve was barely listening.

How could he? He had just gotten his heart ripped out by his friends. He was still reeling in shock over it, even though it had happened a few days ago. And today of all days, he couldn't stop thinking about what had happened.

Deb was in her white wedding dress that Rowan had helped pick out. They were all wearing ceremonial leis for the occasion. They were at the hotel where Deb and Leonard had gotten married, with the beach right behind her.

After Aunt Deb was done saying good-bye to Leonard she handed his urn to Steve and told him to take good care of him. With her blessing he walked out onto the beach where Kawika was waiting to accept the ashes to give Leonard a proper Hawaiian send off. Kawika took the urn and the leis, pressed his forehead to Steve's and then he returned to his boat.

By the time Steve had walked back to where Aunt Deb and Mary were standing, with Joanie on Mary's hip, Kawika was out on the ocean. They watched as Kawika disappeared on the horizon, to scatter Leonard's ashes out in the ocean.

He put his arm around Aunt Deb and let her lean on him and then tried to stifle the sigh that escaped him. She looked up at him, took in the look on his face and then frowned almost patiently at him.

"What's wrong?" Aunt Deb asked him. "I know your mind is elsewhere… is it… is it back with Rowan?"

Steve grimaced. "I'm sorry…"

"No, no, it's alright. I know you miss her. I know it's been hard on you."

Yes, yes he did miss her. But he shouldn't have been allowing it to affecting him. "I'm sorry to be like this… it's you're special goodbye to Leonard… and I'm ruining it…"

"Come on, now, Stevie, it's a funeral how happy could it really be? No, don't you worry about that. We've all got our own pain in our lives. Come on, tell your Aunt Deb what's going on in that head of yours."

"I really don't want to make this about me, it's just that… it's just… it's Rowan's birthday today."

And it was. Today was the 21st of January. Rowan would be turning 30, somewhere in the world. Without him. And his best friend had just dropped a massive bombshell on him.

"Aw that's right," Mary said. "I forgot about that."

"That's not all is it?" Aunt Deb asked.

"No," Steve admitted. "I uh… Danny let it slip last night that uh… everyone was invited to a live showing of her birthday party. Everyone except me."

It came as a shock. To hear the others talking about the gifts they had sent off with a known fucking terrorist, to be delivered to Rowan and wondering if she would get them on time and like them. They hadn't seen him come in, hadn't heard him approach, but when they saw him standing there, coincidentally after asking: "what party?" upon Danny asking Kono about the dress code for it, they had all gone quiet.

His stern glare got the rest of the explanation out. Kong had approached Kono, at the request of Wo Fat earlier in the month about the topic of her birthday. Rowan missed her Five-0 friends, and he was willing to have them share in her birthday in some way. He wasn't going to let them talk to her, but he was collecting gifts as donation. The invitation to the live show came only after Nahele showed interest in wishing to see the grand party Wo Fat was putting together for her. He agreed to a one-way, live recording of the party, where they could sit and watch the festivities. Kong, himself, was going to put together his own little party for them, and Kono had been told that it was black tie, much like Rowan's party was.

Everyone who knew Rowan had been invited. Everyone except Steven.

Danny had said it was because they knew it wouldn't have made him happy. That he would have wanted more, a chance to talk to her, or to use the footage as a way to get her back, and they didn't want that. They just wanted a good and happy time together.

And despite feeling utterly betrayed, he understood why he hadn't been included.

"Aw Stevie I'm sorry," she whispered, wrapping her own arm around him to try and console him.

"Well the morning's yours, Aunt Deb," Steve said, desperate to get off the topic. "What do you wanna do?"

"What do I wanna do?" she echoed. "Well, I want to drive your truck."

Yeah Steve hadn't been expecting that. "What?"

"Your pickup truck. I wanna take that bad boy for a spin."

Mary was suddenly grinning, she let out an excited: "Oh my gosh!"

Steve did not share that excitement. "Do you even know how to drive Aunt Deb?"

"Honey, I lived in Los Angeles my whole life. I was driving before you were in camo diapers."

Camo diapers. Wow, she was getting some of her dry quips from Danny, he just knew it.

"I know, but why the sudden urge to drive a truck?" Mary asked. Yes, yes, good question! He wasn't too pleased that she agreed with the Camo diaper comment though.

"Well, you know, actually, it's for Leonard," she explained, rooting through her purse for something. "Last year, we got together and we made up a list of things that each one of us wanted to do before we died."

"What? Like a bucket list."

"Yes, exactly," she said flashing the paper at him but not long enough for him to get a good look at it.

"What was on it?" Mary asked.

"Well, we wanted to see the pyramids, we wanted to learn how to ski and I wanted to get a tattoo."

Steve was already grimacing. "Oh don't get a tattoo. Trust me, it's not the…" but she was already rolling up her sleeve to show him the one she got.

"Too late."

"She got a tattoo," Steve said with a sigh while Mary crowed with excitement. The little red heart on Deb's forearm held her and Leonard's initials.

It merely reminded him that, when he finally proposed to Rowan and they got married, he planned to get a tattoo for her too. Like his friend Freddie had done when he got married. He was going to let Rowan pick the font of her own name, and collaborate with him on the concept, maybe… maybe even convince her to get a matching one too. He figured Freddie would have like that gesture as much as he would have loved Rowan.

Especially since Rowan helped him get over the guilt and the trauma he felt over Freddie's death.

"Yeah, sorry kiddos, but the two of you are not the only ones in the family now with ink."

"Okay, good. I'm glad you have ink," Steve said, not liking how his sweet and usually innocent Aunt Deb said it.

"So uh, anyway, we never did get to finish the list. But one of the items on Leonard's list was he wanted to drive a police car."

And then she turned her eyes up to Steve. Whose truck had flashing lights and sirens, just like a police car. Well, that explained why she wanted to drive the truck.

"That's such a boy thing," Mary said but Aunt Deb was undeterred.

"So, uh, how many ponies under that hood?"

Oh god. "I'd really prefer you didn't find out," he said with a wince. Driving with Rowan was terrifying and she had practice, he didn't want to be just as terrified with his aunt deb.

"Steven, I hate to play this card but I just lost my husband, so you're not really gonna deny me this, are you?"

Well fuck she had him there.

Cue to them flying down the highway in Steve's Silverado, lights on, sirens blaring, Aunt Deb not so expertly weaving them in and out of traffic while tires screeched and horns honked around them.

Steve was desperately clinging to the grab handle above his head and trying very hard not to lose his breakfast while all three of the women in his truck were giggling and laughing.

Joanie kept repeating: "We're flying." From her car seat. She would have loved being in a car with Rowan.

"Are you okay?" Deb asked him.

"Yea, I'm good," he said through tight lips.

"You look a little green," she teased.

"Aw god, can you watch the road! Please keep your eyes on the road!"

"This is torture for you, isn't it?" Mary asked. She was sitting directly behind him and he couldn't turn around to yell at her.

Instead he managed to mumble out a pained: _mhmm_.

Joanie began to laugh, probably because her mother was trying to hide her own laughter. "Are you going to puke?" Mary taunted

"Puke, puke, puke!" Joanie began to chant. Yeah what a supportive family he had.

"No Joanie," he said quickly. "I'm not going to puke."

"Puke, puke, puke," Joanie and Marry chanted together.

"I'm not gonna puke. Mary tell her to stop. Tell her to be quiet."

All around him the women in his life were laughing at him and he swore, he could hear Rowan laughing at him too. God when was this nightmare going to end?

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

After Diego almost succeeded in taking Rowan, Wo Fat had been particularly merciless with him. He had taken out those who were his staunchest supporters. He had massacred what had been left of his family. He undermined his connections, and swayed them away from Diego and to Armando, by any means necessary, whether that be monetary or force. He had obliterated his stock and the last that he had heard of Diego he had retreated to some unknown safe house to recoup.

After the rescue, Conejo had been gracious enough to allow Wo Fat the use of his nickname. No more chunky _Sin Nombre_. Wo Fat had proven his worthiness and was allowed to call him Conejo. But it was terribly strange to call someone like Sin Nombre _rabbit_. So he settled on calling him Con instead, less awkward and more… friendly.

After New Year's, Wo Fat found out that Rowan had taken Conejo's request to get herself professional help seriously. Along with calling Nahele once a week, she had taken to calling a number out on the West Coast of Canada. A shrink, she had said. One that she knew from her youth. It had been suspicious, as Rowan rarely spoke of her youth, but he was starting to realize that there was something about her past that she wanted to stay hidden. He had also long since understood that Rowan knew exactly who she was, she wasn't as lost as she claimed to be. He just didn't know what else the girl could have been running from.

With Diego on the fences and Rowan still on lock down, Wo Fat was charged with the most strenuous task of his life.

Planning Rowan's Birthday _while_ she was in the house.

This was a problem because he wanted most of her birthday to be a surprise. She knew that she was going to end up putting on a concert, because they loved to hear her sing and she loved to perform, even though she said she didn't want to be famous. He had been allowing her to practice, let her see the set up on the stage so she knew where to stand and what not. But he also didn't want her to take part in any of the planning. She was allowed to tell him what she wanted, what the color scheme was and what she wanted for décor, but she was not allowed to actually see to any of the details.

She had been a little skeptical, seeing as New Year's had not been the giant blow out she wanted. So he kept assuring her that all would be alright, and that she would, one hundred percent, have a reason to wear the wonderful dress that Armando got her for Christmas that she ended up not being able to wear on New Year's as planned.

It took all twenty days, but Wo Fat had gotten everything ready by the time the twenty-first actually showed up. The stage was up, the lights were working. The décor was perfect and everyone knew their schedules and their cues.

On top of that, to ensure that she stayed out of his way and out of the party planning her had booked a team of aestheticians to come and take care of Rowan. He had a masseuse to give her a hot stone massage, a nail technician to give her a mani-pedi to match her amazing dress, and a stylist for her hair and a stylist for her make up.

His _imuoto_ was going to be pampered and look wonderful on her thirtieth birthday.

Which was important because he was live streaming the event.

A last minute decision that was made to appease the boy. Nahele had wanted to see the festivities and suddenly all the Five-0's and everyone she knew in Hawaii was going to be in Kong's basement watching the feeds.

All because, earlier in the month, he asked her Five-0 friends to donate birthday gifts. This had sparked the desire from the kid to see Rowan on her birthday and… well… he didn't know how to say no. So on top of sending a special note to buy a gift that could be from Steve without actually telling him that the event was happening, he also had a note that, under non circumstances was Steve to end up in Kong's basement at that live viewing.

The gifts had arrived in bulk all at once last week. Wo Fat then spent a few days opening everything up and making sure that all cards and contents were suitable to give to her and didn't contain any secret messages and then he tasked JC with rewrapping everything.

At that moment the gifts in question were all sitting on a table in the foyer and as people came they would leave there offering there for her. So Far, unbeknownst to Wo Fat, Rowan had proven to have more friends in Colombia than he thought. Each guard working at that house had small offering to put on the table, even the servants had gifts to leave her.

But that was Rowan, she could make friends with everyone.

Everyone was going to take a break from running Diego out of town and running drug operations to participate in Rowan's birthday. Wo Fat was in charge of making sure everything got set up, Conejo was in charge of security, which had been hired on to make sure no one snuck in, JC was in charge of music and Armando was in charge of food.

Kong had been kind enough to send down one of the techies to be in charge of the live stream videoing.

They had woken Rowan up that morning with birthday pancakes and everyone gave her birthday hugs. JC tried to give her something called birthday beats and had Wo Fat had practically punched him out. Rowan had to explain the concept to him, which was getting a punch on the arm for every year she had been alive. He thought that to be the stupidest tradition ever, but both she and Conejo were certain that it was just that, a tradition.

By lunch the beauticians had arrived and Rowan was sequestered in her room, most likely until the party. He sent up a tray of small finger sandwiches and tea so she could have her own fancy High Tea for her birthday.

He heard the squeals of excitement in the backyard when the tea service arrived in her room.

Yes, Wo Fat had the day fully planned out and he was going to make sure that nothing, got in the way of Rowan's Dirty Thirty celebrations.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

As part of her bucket list Deb had treated Mary and Joanie to an epic shopping spree. They left their last store laden down with bags, almost all for Mary and Joanie. There was no point in getting anything new for Deb, she didn't have much longer left, but she indulged Mary and bought at least one dress as to not rouse suspicions.

She had purposely not told Steve or Mary how long, or more aptly how short, she had left as it had destroyed them the first time. She didn't want to hurt them a second time. No, sadly this would come as a surprise but she was going to leave them with a lot more than just money. She was going to leave this earth having completed as much as she could on she and Leonard's bucket list, and having brought happiness to her niece and nephew's lives.

And to help Steven, while Mary was in the dressing room getting her and Joanie into the next set of dresses, she had called up the one person she thought could make it a little better.

If she could have, she would have called Rowan and told her to smarten up and come home. Steven was dying without her. Deb would have been crazy to not have noticed that her poor nephew was practically a skeletal version of himself. Maybe not in body but in emotion. But she couldn't call Rowan so Daniel Williams would have to do.

Danny met them outside the shop where Deb hugged him tightly, and he got a hug from Mary and Joanie too.

"Sorry I couldn't be there with you guys this morning," he said to them. "My uh… my kid brother is in town and it's a full-time job, keeping him in line."

Deb smiled patiently as she under stood that entirely. Mary was a handful herself when she was younger. But that wasn't why she called Danny here.

"I commiserate, I do, but I asked you here for a reason," she said. "I'd like to know what's going on with this party Steven told me about."

Danny groaned. "He tattled on me? Really?" he asked and then sighed. "Alright, look, I know it was crappy of me not to tell him… but come on… you've seen him. He's not… he just hasn't taken the whole thing well. And we all… I unno, we haven't heard from her and what she went through… it was terrible…"

"I never got the full story," Deb said and Mary nodded. "Neither did I. All I know is first she was dead. Then she wasn't. Then they were broken up."

"The short version is they had a massive fight, broke up, Rowan got kidnapped, Steve thought she had just run off. Rowan got tortured for four days, Steve got back together, and almost proposed to Catherine. Steve found out Rowan wasn't where he thought she was, went to get her, her criminal brother faked her death. That broke Steve, like… it did some damage. Then… you know we figured out she was alive, that it was all some ruse, he went to get her, got some phone call from her saying she didn't want to come back and now he's miserable and she's travelling the world."

Both women stared at him. "Tortured?" Aunt Deb echoed as Mary said: "That was the short version… wait he almost proposed to Catherine?"

Aunt Deb smacked Mary. "We can get back to the Catherine… how bad was the whole… torturing business?"

"Yeah, uh we're thinking the damage was extensive, cause her brother went fucking crazy after he got her out of the basement," Danny admitted. "And the Catherine thing… yeah… that was when he thought Rowan had left him for her brother. Before she left, he told Rowan if she wouldn't drop her brother he'd marry Catherine and then you know after he left…"

"He actually followed through?"

"Well… it was that and he got it in his head that if he got back together with Catherine he could replace Rowan with her and be fine… and we're all kind of sure that him buying Catherine a ring is why Rowan didn't come back. And he knows it and it kills him. But that's why I didn't tell him. We want to see if she's okay, and we know he's not okay when we bring her up… so we all sort of thought… that you know… it'd be best if he didn't go. You know?"

Deb did understand but she also understood how Steve felt. He felt out of the loop and like Rowan didn't care.

"And it was… your idea, or Rowan's idea to keep Steve out of it."

"Uh… well as I said… none of us have heard from Rowan, so it was kind of an order from her brother… but uh… we all kind of seconded it… to save Steve's feelings…"

"Except you didn't!" Mary cried. "He's devastated that he wasn't included in this."

"Really? I mean, I wouldn't say devastated, I'd say more… angry…"

But Deb was stuck on a different point. The order to keep Steve out of the loop hadn't come from Rowan, it came from someone else. That meant… that meant that there might be some hope. That Steve could smooth things out with Rowan one day and get back together. Or at least have some sort of conversation with her where he might get closure.

Problem was, Steve wasn't going to go after Rowan. Not with his ego bruised and his pride in question. No, he'd need a nudge, and Deb didn't have the time to work on him either.

"Well what do you want me to do?" Danny cried. "I already said I wouldn't go. I said I'd stay home with him instead or go drinking but you guys are here and he said he was fine…"

"Steven is not fine," Deb said. "You're right. This whole business with Rowan had more than damaged him. And I understand why you and your friends would choose to unincluded him from this. But maybe, it might do him good to see it. To see her. At least to reassure himself that she's okay. And who better for him to have a meltdown around if not his friends?"

Danny winced and Mary straightened. "That's part of the problem, isn't it?" she asked. "You don't want him to have a meltdown and ruin the party…"

"The party, with the livestream, it's supposed to be for the kid. The foster kid Rowan and Steve had. He misses Rowan, and he wants to feel included in her party somehow. None of us want Steve to bring that mood down. The kid has been through enough. Steve has been through enough. We've all… been through enough."

But Deb stood firm. "Daniel," she said patiently. "I want Steve to go to that party." Danny groaned, a grimace firmly rooted on his face. "Now, I don't really want to pull this card but… my husband just died. You're not really going to deny me this are you?"

Danny's mouth fell open. "Wow, emotional blackmail, that's just… wow," he said. "Yeah, yeah, alright, I'll give the host a call and ask if I can bring Steve. There, you happy?"

Deb nodded, it made her very happy and her smile told them that. "Alright dears, you go a head and make your call, Mary why don't you get your car but uh… take your time. There's something I need to do," she said, happy to have gotten her way.

As she left the two, Mary and Joanie were going for the car, while Danny pulled out his phone no doubt to make the phone call he said he would. Deb, on the other hand went to the bank

She got into the bank, briefly contemplated going to a teller, but a teller wouldn't be able to help her. Instead she went to the customer service desk and smiled at the man waiting there for her.

"Hello. I'd like to talk to someone about an asset transfer."

Yes, she was going to make sure that her niece and nephew were going to be well taken care of.


	240. Chapter 240

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Guys I'm not gonna lie. The new work schedule is like… 100% keeping me from writing and posting chapters. It wasn't that I didn't post this chapter on time, I straight up didn't have this chapter ready until last night. Which is ridiculous. I shouldn't have done the marathon cause it wiped out the reserve bank of chapters I had and now I have none. And with the three a day posting schedule combined with my school schedule I don't have enough time to catch up. If I have another week of struggles, I might take the posting down to twice a week. I hope that's okay. As always don't forget to review and I'll see you again on Monday._

Chapter 240

* * *

By late afternoon, Rowan was ready. On top of all the wonderful salon treatments she got in the comfort of her own room, she had gotten her hair done as well. She had the red retouched, so it was a vibrant red and had her hair bleached and treated with purple shampoo to get this beautiful ashy white blonde at the tips. She was in her wonderful sequined dress and her beautiful red-heeled stilettos. She had her make up done in beautiful smoky and glittered tones. She was wearing her golden bracelet from Wo Fat with her name on the front and the coordinates of where they met the first time on the back. She had her nails done a glittering gold and blood red to match the bottom of her shoes and her toes matched.

She felt sexy, gorgeous and just…... perfect. She hadn't felt this good about herself in a long time.

Rowan got down the steps to the foyer and found that the foyer table was no longer sporting a tasteful centerpiece but instead a pile of gifts. Rowan approached them and found that all the ones she could see had her name on them.

"What are you doing downstairs?" Wo Fat cried and Rowan jumped, as she hadn't been expecting him. She turned around and found him smiling widely as he came towards her. "Aww, look at you! You're stunning, I'm going to have to keep the men off you."

"Keep the men off of me? Wo it's only Armando and JC…"

Wo Fat got to her and pulled her close to press his lips to her cheek. "No, we've also invited the vendors from town and the servants, and a few of JC's friends…"

After being on lock down post-kidnapping, she was surprised Wo Fat was allowing to many people in through the gate. "Geeze, why so many?" Rowan asked.

"Because you're putting on a concert, my little _imouto_ , and I wanted you to have a crowd to sing to," he said. "Also Armando's wife and girls are here, so keep it PG."

"And they all brought me gifts?"

Wo Fat shook his head. "No, no, well yes. Most of these gifts are from the people attending. A lot of the vendors and servants brought you gifts. But uhm… quite a few of these are… uh…from all your friends… in Hawaii," he admitted and Rowan's eyes whipped back to the table. Was there something from Steve in there? "And of course, there's something from me, Conejo and the rest."

Rowan smiled at him, loving just how quick he was to remind her that his present was in there as well. He probably knew exactly who her mind turned to the second that he mentioned Hawaii.

"However… I'm not quite done with the preparations, I was going to come down around 5:30, would you mind waiting? I could send someone to sit with you until then? I'd say Conejo but he's running the new guards through protocols, and I don't think he's gonna take a break…"

"No, it's okay, I can just sit and read or something, I'll be fine, don't you worry," she said waving it off. "But uh… you might have to help me get up the stairs though."

She briefly looked up to the stairs as if contemplating the daunting challenge while Wo Fat stared at her with a great smile on his face.

"Well, I do have one thing to give you before you go," he whispered. "Just… uh… stay right here."

He rushed away from her and to the front door where he ushered in Raul and her fleet of little ex-pick-pockets.

And of course, they were all in the best dress. The girls in fancy poofy dresses, boys in little suits, they all looked so wonderfully adorable. They all clamoured in with Lupita at the helm, a box in her hand. All of them _ooohhh_ ed when they saw her. All the girls exclaiming something about beautiful Rowan looked in her dress and Rowan almost burst out into tears at the sight of them.

"They have a curfew," Wo Fat said, "So they can't stay for your birthday party, but….."

He clapped his hands and the servants all came out, each helping to carry a giant tree of cupcakes out. The kids all rushed up to tree, to grab a cupcake, with a candle in it. Lupita went to her and put the box in her hands before rushing to get her own cupcake.

Rowan put the box down to accept the cupcake that Wo Fat handed her. The only pink one with gold sparkles on it. A big 30 candle on it.

Once everyone had their cupcakes, they all rushed back to where Raul was standing. He smiled at Rowan as one of the kids handed him a cupcake to hold.

"We called a holiday and closed the stall down for today. With Armando's approval of course," he said. Like she would have cared if they closed without approval. They were allowed to have sick days. "We were told that children were sorely missed by the tourists."

"That's wonderful. Didn't I say that you guys would become a marketplace staple?"

Raul nodded and then turned his eyes down to the children. "Alright kids, like we practiced." He counted them in and then they were singing happy birthday to her in Spanish.

When they got to the end of the song, they all blew out their candles with her and the kids began to clap and cheer the best they could with their cupcakes. Rowan smiled down at all of their happy faces while Wo Fat stood beside her and clapped to get their attention.

"Alright, alright, eat your cupcakes, spend some time together and then you can go home to your parents before it gets too late," he said as he snatched her candle out of her cupcake so she could eat it. she noted that the servants had stayed behind to collect the used candles and cupcake wrappers, being sure to go to each child to get the candle from them.

Rowan had only managed to get a one bite into her own cupcake before Lupita skipped up to her with a few of the other children. All of them were missing cupcakes so they must have hoovered those cupcakes down.

"Open it up, open it up!" she cried. "We wanna know if you like them!"

Rowan nodded, putting her cupcake down, and quickly trying to swallow down what she had been eating. "Alright, give me a second," she said. She took a hold of the box and looked at it carefully. It was a patchwork quilt of many different types of wrapping paper and they hadn't managed to wrap it well. The paper was torn in places, probably used before but it was all these people could afford so she was very careful with it.

"Just look at this pretty paper," she said. "I unno if I could open such a prettily wrapped package!"

"Then I'll do it!" Lupita cried reaching out for the box. Rowan had to hold it out of her reach. She waiting for Lupita to put down her hands before she indulged them by open it up. Inside the box, nestled in what had to be real live hay, was two figurines.

The first was a cat, painted as a traditional sugar skull, all pink and blue details, with a realistic looking skull. Beside it was a unicorn done also like a sugar skull, except all of it's details had been done in light purples and golds.

"We picked a cat and a unicorn cause they're your favourite. And the boys painted the cat and the girls painted the unicorn!" Lupita cried. "I had my sister help with the lines cause she's got really good lines and, we pooled up our money to put real gems on them too!"

And they were real gems. The eyes of the cat were real emeralds, whereas the unicorn had amethyst in its sockets.

Rowan looked them both over, carefully assessing each line and decoration. "You do like them, don't you?" Lupita asked a worried pout on her face.

Rowan smiled happily down at her, trying ever so hard not to cry as she had _just_ had her make up done. "I love them. I absolutely adore them. These are so beautiful… I… I can't believe you guys did this all by yourself. This… I'm… I'm going to cherish these forever."

The children in front of her let out a loud squeal and all swarmed forward to give her a hug. Something the other kids quickly picked up on. Rowan took turns hugging each and every one of the children feeling so blessed at that moment.

This was shaping up to be one of the best birthdays ever. And after being worried about how it would be, especially with her losing Steven and Nahele that year, this was everything she needed.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Mary was letting Joanie color in the living room. She was probably coloring more on Steve's coffee table than the paper but she'd just buy him a new one. Or give him the money for a new one, knowing him he'd want something he couldn't buy at a regular Ikea.

Steve was up in his room getting ready for the party. She had been there, when Danny called him and told him that he got permission from Kong to bring Steve to the party… if he still wanted to go. Steve had feigned disinterest while on the phone. He _hmmed_ and _hawed_ but he had accepted his invitation and second he hung up the phone he broke out in this big grin.

Mary had almost teared up over it. Just the very look on his face, his utter excitement… it made her day. Even if it had illuminated just how strong a hold Rowan still had on him. But once the party was upon them, Steve was suddenly nervous. He had been up in his room struggling to pick an outfit. And poor Aunt Deb, who was too tired to have Steve pacing about his room struggling to find an outfit he deemed acceptable, was moved into Mary's room for her nap until Steve left.

So Mary was grateful when Danny rang the doorbell. She rushed to answer it smiling happily at Steve's partner and… the very cute guy he had with him.

"Hey Mary," he said, leaning in for a hug. "This gimpy mug is my brother, Matty. Feel free to give him a hard time."

Matty limped up to her, a suddenly roguish look on his face. "Hi. I'm Matthew Williams, the fun one."

Danny shook his head this was weird, and he didn't like Matty's jokes. "Right, where's Steve? We're already late," he said.

Mary tore her eyes away from Matty and his dazzling grin to say: "In his room," and then her eyes were back on Matty. The two were gawking at each other like they were trying to mesmerize one another. Danny couldn't stomach the stupidity so he walked away. He pounded up the steps to where Steve was getting dressed up. He had picked the grey suit, with the black dress shirt. No tie, chest partially revealed by low buttons, pointy shoes on.

"You know she's not gonna be there right?" Danny asked.

Steve startled as if he hadn't noticed Danny in the doorway. He looked down to what he was wearing and then up to Danny who was wearing a similar getup but in navy blue.

"You're dressed up," he snapped. "They said black tie… but I didn't want to be like…"

"No, I get it," he said. "I was teasing. You know. I was just teasing." Steve said nothing he just looked down at his clothes and Danny realized that he might try to change again. "You know we're late right? Chin says we missed a video of her coming down a set of stairs looking amazing, and then some kids sang her happy birthday. We're gonna miss the whole party at this rate."

Steve turned back to his mirror looked at himself once more and said: "I don't think I can do this."

Danny was flabbergasted. He was absolutely shocked that Steve even said it. Especially after how upset he had been to not be invited in the first place. "Okay… okay… so we don't go. Me and you… drinking, like I originally planned."

Steve said nothing, just a noncommittal kind of… _yeah_ … that Danny knew meant that Steve wasn't sold on the idea.

"Okay," Danny said coming to stand beside him. "Here's what we do… you clearly want to see her and how she's doing, so why don't we go and if gets to be too much… we'll leave. You just tell me when it gets to be too much and me and you, we'll go… and we'll go drinking."

Steve nodded. "Yeah… yeah… I can… I can do this. I'll be okay, right? I mean… it's just a party… and… and I mean… I do want to see if she's okay. She'd be okay right?"

"Well I mean… I doubt Wo Fat's gonna show a video of her sobbing and begging to come home…" Danny said. "So maybe… don't except something like that."

Steve scowled at him. "That's not what I was talking about, Danny."

"I know, I know that. I just… I don't want you to get the wrong idea, you know? I don't want you to get your hopes up thinking that she'll… you know… turn to the camera and give you all your answers," Danny reminded him, like he needed the reminder. Danny wasn't expecting this to go well, but if he could minimize the damage he would.

"Alright, we good then. We good to go?" he asked when Steve didn't respond. His friend merely nodded. The two of them headed down the stairs where they found Mary on the couch with Matthew on the floor with Joanie. He had taken off his suit jacket and traded it for a pink feather boa and a plastic crown.

Danny opened his mouth to shoot some kind of witty comment at his brother but Steve was shuffling around like a zombie and he realized he didn't have time for any of that.

"Kay, time to go," Danny said heading for the door but Matthew didn't more.

"Uh… yeah, no, I'm going to be staying here. Y'all go on without me," he said.

Danny stopped at the door and glared down at his baby brother, hands on his hips looking like a scolding mother. "You've gotta be kidding me," Danny snapped. "This is her birthday celebration… you know for the girl who saved your stupid life?"

"Yeah I know, but it's a one way viewing. We can see her but she can't see us. She'll never know the difference," Matty said with a shrug. "Besides, Joanie here has invited me to a tea party, so…"

"You're absolutely ridiculous," Danny growled. "Fine, stay here, but if either Wo Fat, who spent a lot of money taking care of you, or Rowan, who saved your life, asks why you came all the way here but didn't show up for her party I'm throwing you under the bus."

It was a heavy guilt trip, but Matty grew up with Danny. He grew up with Danny's family. And he was not phased at all.

"Sounds good," he said with a chipper little wave. Steve had to practically drag him away from the house. Was it weird that Matty wanted to stay with Mary and Joanie? Hell yes. Did he need Danny ranting the whole ride to Kong's about how Mary and Matty were giving each other the _come hither_ eyes and there was no way that Danny could survive the McGarrett family being a part of his? Hell no. But he got it anyway.

Steve would have argued more, except he was driving the Camaro and was starting to panic about this party. Why did he think this was a good idea? His chest was already tightening just thinking about seeing her again and it wasn't even in person. Why did he think he could handle this, seeing her. She was going to be happy, and vibrant, and that was going to kill him. Because he wasn't any of those things. He was still drowning. It may not have been a daily thing, but there were days where the pain of losing her would hit him like a sledge hammer.

And the littlest things could set him off. Though, most recently it was the songs on the radio. More and more they began to remind him of her. He couldn't listen to _Why Her Not Me_ without feeling something. The first time he heard it, though, he cried, he could gratefully say that he no longer burst into tears when he heard it but those lyrics still hurt him. Like it was written to stab him straight in the heart. Problem was, the songs were written by Rowan. They were written by some guy named Wick.

It was pathetic that he had even bothered to check.

If Danny thought it was weird that Steve was quiet the whole ride, he didn't mention it. Too busy bitching about Mary and Matty. He didn't say anything until they got out of the car and Steve started to stall by doing up and then undoing the buttons of his suit jacket as he stared at the house in front of him.

Danny took in his posture, his fiddling hands, the look on his face and he sighed. "You okay?" Steve blinked his eyes and swallowed carefully. Danny sighed once more. "Hey, you can do this, okay?"

Steve nodded, fixed his face so he had his brave face on, and then followed Danny into the house.

He was greeted almost immediately by the servants. Each one dressed in these amazing penguin suits. Some were serving drinks, some had small hors d'oeurves, and others were posted at entrance ways to help people get around the house.

Danny and Steve both took the offered the bubbly from the tray. Steve's nervous stomach couldn't handle food, while Danny loaded up on all the little hors d'oeurves. When they got down to the basement, they found their friends waiting for them in a home movie theater. Each were dressed up quite nicely, just like Steve and Danny. They all welcomed them. There they found that Kong had set up a snow cone station, a pancake bar and popcorn maker. The walls were covered in fairy lights, there were purple and gold balloons and streamers. So clearly there was a theme here. All of Rowan's favourite things.

They were large lazy boys for seats, rows of them. The little group of mostly Five-0's was standing in the space between the screen and the chairs, where the food stalls lined up along the wall. The screen was playing silent videos of Rowan singing. Videos of Rowan and the gang. Of him and Rowan together.

Nahele left Kong's side and rushed to Steve's hugging him tightly. "You're here!" he cried. "Kong said you were coming but I didn't… I didn't think…"

Steve hugged Nahele back, having missed the boy as much as he seemed to have missed him, if not more. "Yeah, I'm here."

He tried his very hardest not to look at the videos before him. It was hard looking at his past. Because he was happy. They were all happy and he ruined everything.

"I heard uh… I heard I missed a whole video?" Steve asked. "Any chance that we could rewind that?"

Nahele turned to Kong who was standing quietly beside Brandy. He blinked his eyes calmly and then slowly looked down. "It was uh… a live feed. So, I unno… I unno if anyone recorded it…"

"Could you ask him?" Nahele asked and Kong sighed, clearly frustrated.

"I could ask, but I unno when he'll get back to me. He is… you know… at her birthday party. And he's, really, like I mean truly, invested in this party…"

But when Nahele just turned his pout onto Kong, the man sighed and pulled out his phone. "Don't hold your breath kid."

After that, it was kind of, quiet. The screen continued to loop through videos of Rowan from before, Steve made small talk and kept Nahele by his side which, he was certain, was annoying the Liangs but he didn't care anymore. It was a long time since he had gotten to spend time with the kid, and with Rowan's visage on screen he could easily pretend that she was there with him and everything had gone back to normal. And he needed that right now.

The screen suddenly went blank and everyone went quiet. Beside him Nahele practically began to vibrate.

"It's happening again," he cried. "EVERYONE TO YOUR SEATS!"

Everyone quickly rushed to the row of seats closest to them, while Nahele turned and dragged Steve to sit next to him.

Once they were all sitting the screen began to flash and then suddenly the feed was live. The camera was pointing at a door, he could tell it was in a backyard, he could tell the house was big, but he didn't know where that house was and there was no identifiers that could help him pinpoint it.

Steve struggled to turn to his investigator side of his brain off, but the second the door opened it all turned off.

 _Ladies and Gentlemen, the birthday girl!_

He barely heard the music or the announcer. All he could focus on was Rowan. In that beautiful black sequinned dress, it showed off everything, literally everything. Her beautiful tanned legs, her cleavage bared, her hair a voluminous wave of beautiful blonde and vibrant red pinned up beautifully, her eyes framed by this wide smoky cat eye. She looked healthy, she looked healed, she looked… so happy.

She smiled beautifully at the camera, at the people behind the camera. Steve was helpless to watch as Wo Fat jogged into view, to offer her an arm so she could step off the patio.

The second she did his heart stopped. She was wearing red-bottomed heels. She finally got those shoes she wanted so badly and he had a feeling he knew exactly who had given them to her.

The camera panned out so they could continue to watch as Wo Fat lead Rowan through the crowd of people who were all clapping. Steve couldn't keep his eyes off of her, he was sure he had stopped breathing. She looked ethereal. This out of touch goddess, being lead through a crowd of people and twinkling lights.

Wo Fat's party had the exact same theme as Kong's. Pastel purples and golds. There were streamers and fairy lights and a stage set up.

But he was leading Rowan to this giant cake, It had to be five tiers at the least, it was done up in purple pastel and gold fondant. It was covered in sparklers and candles.

And then they were singing her happy birthday. In the theater, everyone present began to sing with them, as if they were there. Steve couldn't find it in him to join in. Rowan's big giant gleaming grin reached each and every person but when it hit the camera Steve felt as if that smile was burning into him.

Rowan blew out the candles she could reach and a cheer went up and just like that the screen went blank again.

"Okay, I guess that's it's for the time being," Kong said. "Anyone want any refreshments?"

"I'd like a refresher for my popcorn, dear, no butter though," Brandy said.

"Oh! Can I get another lime snow cone," Nahele added.

"What, so I'm doing it for you? I'm the server now?" Kong asked.

But when both Brandy and Nahele hit him with a perfectly synchronized: "Please?" he groaned but got up to do as was asked of him.

As he was up the lights suddenly dimmed and the screen flashed again. Everyone went still and Kong practically tripped over himself to get back to his seat where he shoved the popcorn and snow cone into the correct hands. By the time he was sitting the party was back. The camera had moved, he wasn't sure where but he could tell that it was now farther away so they could see the whole dance floor and JC on the stage with the band.

But it was Rowan in the crowd that had Steve's attention. As she… tangoed… with Wo Fat. Why… why did she have to be tangoing with him? When the hell had she even learned to tangp? When the hell did Wo Fat learn? What was this man doing with her? fucking ballroom dance classes clearly? But most importantly, why did they have to look so good dancing together?

 _You shake like vibrato. A model or some kind of bottle. Well pour up, cause I want a taste… a taste oh!_

Part way through the second round of the chorus Wo Fat passed her off to someone else. Someone he was pretty sure was the lawyer Wo Fat had sent to get Coughlin off of Chin's back. As soon as they switched partners the dance stopped being sophisticated and turned into something more carnal. More like what he saw when he was watching Latino music videos. There was gyrating and ass shaking a lot of other things that shouldn't have been happening in that short of a dress with that strange man that wasn't Steven.

Steve forced his eyes away, refusing to let his heart burn with jealousy. What did he have to be jealous over? Rowan left him. She chose to not come back. He was off dating other people, obviously she would date other people too.

Steve downed his champagne and reached for something stronger. He needed things to blur around the edges so that things didn't hurt as much anymore.

The next song was a duet and it had Rowan back on the stage. But a Rowan on stage was a Rowan in her natural element and seeing her center stage the lights haloing in that vibrant red aura as she belted out this song with JC burned just as much as watching her dance with that lawyer.

 _Yo sólo la miré y me gusto. Me pegué y la invité: "Bailemos?" hey. So now we dancing un reggaetón lento. Just get a little closer, baby, let go._

Her Spanish, her flawless Spanish, that voice he hadn't realized he had missed as much as he had. That voice he was used to hearing coming out of his washroom, in his kitchen.

Steve just drank a little more until the music stop hitting him, until he was fairly certain he could just swallow back the tears climbing up his throat. The sudden raw desire to tackle Kong to the floor and demand he tell him where this feed was broadcasting from.

But the next song. The song that was Rowan's solo. The lyrics hit him harder than he had ever expected.

 _When the music gets so loud and the girls are all around, do you think about us?_

Yes. Yes he thought about them. He thought about them, about Rowan, about everything he would change if he could. And being here, watching her happiness wasn't filling him with any sort of reassurance like he thought it would. She was fine. She was happy. And she clearly didn't miss him.

Steve stood before anyone could stop him and made a bee-line for the door. He took the steps up to the main floor of the house, but didn't realize that Danny was on his heels until he got outside.

"Hey!" Danny called. "Hey, hey, it's okay."

Steve shook his head. "I thought I could… but I can't… I can't do it. I can't sit there and watch that and not…"

"Hey, I know, you know?" Danny said. "I know. I do. To be honest you lasted a lot longer than I thought you would. The second she came out in that dress I pegged you to be done with this. You did good. You know? Like really good!"

Steve shook his head, and tried not to pace. He shouldn't pace, he wasn't sober he'd just be wobbling.

"Did you want to go for a drink, me and you? Get this out of your system."

"No. Thank you, but no. I want… I just want to go home."

And Danny divulged him.

The drive was a blur. Steve might have passed out, he might have slept, he might have been crying but he wasn't sure. When he got to his house, he got out of the car. Danny following him up the path to the front door. The realization hitting him, for the millionth time, that when he came through the door Rowan wouldn't be jumping into his arms, she wouldn't be waiting for him in his kitchen or sitting on his couch with a mug of tea and a book.

It was stupid. It had been months since she had been home, since he had had her throw herself at him. But there wasn't anything in the world he wouldn't have traded at that moment to open that door and have Rowan there in front of him.

Instead he opened the door, threw his keys to the floor and found Matty and Mary tangled up on his couch, clearly in some kind of lover's embrace. All clothes were on, thank god but that didn't mean he wanted to see… that!

Behind him Danny swore but Steve was too tired, too drunk and too hurt to put to much thought into it. He just oved forward, grabbed Matty by the collar of his shirt and threw him at Danny ignoring Mary's cry of indignation.

"Just… just get him out of my house," he said to Danny who was already saying goodnight and strong-arming his bother through the doorway. Once the door was shut he turned back to Mary. Before she could say anything he said: "I have to sleep on that couch."

He moved away, hoping to tiptoe into the main washroom so he could get changed. He had been smart and left his PJs in there so he wouldn't have to wake Aunt Deb when he got home, since he predicted he'd come home late.

He ignored Mary's attempts to ask him how the party went and just locked himself in the washroom. Waiting for the tears to come but nothing came. Steven was officially cried out. But the pain, the pain was still there and he was starting to wonder if Danny was wrong. Maybe he'd always miss Rowan this badly, maybe this pain would never go away.


	241. Chapter 241

Rewrite

AvalonReeseFanFics

 _A/N: Alright guys, we're wrapping up the Aunt Deb Chapter here. Once again I finished this chapter today before posting it but I think that's what it's going to be like for the next little while until I get time to move dedicate to me just sitting at home and writing as much as I can. I'm going to guess that will be happening during reading week some time in Feb or March. After this we have at least two more chapters that will be Five-0 centered before we go back to Rowan. I'm gonna do my best to keep up with three posts a week but they might not be on the right days. Keep that in mind! Don't forget to leave me a review and I'll see you guys on Wednesday… hopefully._

Chapter 241

* * *

Wo Fat sighed to himself. He lifted the coffee cup to his lips as he watched Conejo lay out the last of the birthday presents onto the breakfast table. He knew it had been a late night for Rowan, so when she ended up sleeping in till noon he hadn't been surprised. Was he surprised that he woke up early? Hell yes, last night had been late for him too and he hadn't quite realized how stressed he was over that party until he had collapsed into bed. Was he surprised that Conejo was up? No because the man had been on high alert and very invested in Rowan's birthday being a success, just like Wo Fat had been. And they weren't done yet.

The biggest surprise wasn't that Rowan's pile of gifts had seemingly grown overnight. It wasn't that the servants had already cleared away the remnants of the party. Nor was it that Rowan was up earlier than he expected and making phone calls through the app again, probably to save one, if not all, of the Five-0's again. No what surprised him was finding out that Kong had allowed Steven McGarrett to the viewing party they had in Hawaii.

What the hell had the man been thinking?

He immediately asked if Five-0 had hacked the broadcasting signal. He said no, all of them were forewarned about that. But Wo Fat wasn't sure he believed them. Especially since Steve was in attendance. But Kong said, other than Steve leaving early, the man had been well behaved. Hadn't pestered Kong once about what he knew about Rowan. He just wanted to be included.

Maybe Steve was moving on. Kong had relayed that McGarrett had moved on, dating other women now. One in particular. A blonde. Maybe he would forget about Rowan and Wo Fat wouldn't have to worry. Though something told him that Steve wouldn't be that easily dissuaded. Sooner or later he'd start looking again, and if he had enough reason, if he even so much as heard a whisper of the lies that Wo Fat had been spinning, he'd hunt them both down.

Steven was always very good at that.

The problem was, Wo Fat couldn't let that happen. Rowan wasn't safe with Steven. The Japan incident proved that.

"You look upset," Conejo said as Wo Fat reached for the coffee urn. "What's wrong?" Wo Fat shook his head, putting a splash of creamer into his cup. "Something's wrong. Did we hear from Diego? Is that it?"

"No. Heard from Kong though."

"Yeah? How did everyone like the party?"

"He invited Steve."

The present in Conejo's hand nearly fell to the floor in his surprise. His eyes found Wo Fat panic alit on his face. "I'm sorry… what?"

"You heard me. Despite my saying otherwise, Kong was guilted into inviting him by the other Five-0's. I'm guessing Williams' doing. He was in attendance last night. He didn't stay for the whole thing, however, he left part way through _Think About Us._ "

"Fucking hell he saw my face," Conejo whispered.

"He's met you before, Con. Several times. Remember? Once on the football field after you dealt with the NLM. When you were the lawyer for Chin, didn't he almost corner you when you were last down to help Shioma? God rest his soul."

"Yeah, but I wasn't Rowan's security then! He had no reason to be interested in me back then," Conejo snapped. Wo Fat nodded he had a point. "And just judging by how rabid he was with trying to stop me from leaving the island when I was there last, I think him not seeing my real face is important. I unno how much of Rowan's app he had access to…"

"None of it. He never wanted her to use it. Kept getting mad at her for using unless she was using it to help him with one of his cases, but god forbid she use it to keep in contact with me…" Wo Fat trailed off realizing that he sounded quite… bitter. Still. He forced himself to calm down. He had won. He had Rowan now, not Steve. She was happier there with him than she ever had been with Steve. Or so he hoped.

"Man's a fucking idiot," Conejo snarled helping himself to his own cup of coffee which he immediately loaded up with sugar. "We already knew this. The more you talk about him, the more I'm proven right."

"Good morning!" Rowan cried skipping onto the patio. She threw her arms first around Wo Fat and then onto Conejo, pressing big smooching kisses to their cheeks. She had removed her make up before bed, but her hair, which had been doused in hairspray to keep in still, had been messed up.

"I know I look a right mess, but uh… I figured you two wouldn't mind," she said putting a hand absently up to her hair.

"Nope, you look fine, if you're that worried about it Con can get you a hat."

Rowan just smiled at him, letting him reach out and try to smooth down the hair that had flattened out on one side but had also seemingly gotten pushed up so it stood a good six inches off of her hair.

"Why are all the gifts out here?" she asked.

"We thought you'd like to open gifts while you ate," he answered. Her eyes found the small tripod with the camera on it and he added: "Your friends in Hawaii would also like to see your reaction."

Rowan nodded. "Did… did they like the party?"

He hadn't told Rowan what the camera crew was for until he absolutely had to, which ended up being at the end of her three songs. A necessity. As a result, it had kind of unnerved her to find out they had been watching. She hadn't asked about Steve last night but he knew he wouldn't be able to avoid it forever.

"And… everyone was there?"

"Yes, Kong invited everyone. Nahele, The Noshimuri's… uh… the Asian one?" "Chin…" "The food truck boys, the coroner and his girlfriend…" "Kamekona and Flipper. The Coroner is Max…" "I don't care what their names are, Rowan. If I did, I would have bothered to remember them."

Rowan half smiled and then lowered her eyes. "And Steven?"

"Yes, I hear he was there too, though he left early."

"Oh… did they say why?"

"No."

"Probably Catherine then," Rowan whispered and Wo Fat nodded unable to voice that lie with Conejo right beside him.

Instead he picked up the gift that was supposed to be from him and offered it out to her. "Maybe we should tackle this pile of presents hmm? You open, I'll load up your plate with all your favourites."

"Why does she have to open yours first?" Conejo snapped, snatching up his own gift and offering it out to her. "Open mine."

Wo Fat had only checked the Five-0 gifts. Now, looking at the size of Conejo's he wished he had checked everyone else's. "That's not the ring again is it?" he asked as Rowan put down his gift to take Conejo's.

"No! It's not even the same size…"

While they had been arguing Rowan had already gotten the paper off. "Oh!" she cried, taking it out of the box to look at it. It was a leather box, in pastel purple, with custom embossing of her initials, RP, in gold. It wasn't very big, but when she opened it, a bunch of strange looking compartments were revealed.

"So you don't have to carry your jewelry in a plastic bag anymore," he said.

A travelling Jewelry box. Yes that had been on the list of things he had sent out to people who didn't know what Rowan would want for her birthday. He was surprise Conejo pulled from that. Especially since he spent so much time with her, he figured he would have known all her secret wants and desires by then.

"I love it," she said. "This is great, this is perfect for my jewelry!"

Wo Fat slipped her plate in front of her while Conejo smiled widely and then handed her another present to open. Purposely not Wo Fat's gift, her realized, probably to get back at him for offering his gift for her first. Well Wo Fat wasn't about to fight over the order of present opening, and he didn't have time to do it anyway as Armando was frantically gesturing at him.

"Alright my little imuoto," he said as brushed by her. He ran a hand over the top of her head as he went. "Keep opening gifts I'll be right back, okay?"

Rowan nodded and then turned back to her gifts. The camera was still running, not a live feed, but instead something to send Kong so he could see her reaction to her presents, and more importantly show the Five-0's how their gifts went over.

Wo Fat moved into the house where Armando was waiting for him. "What is it?" he asked because he couldn't imagine why the man looked so panicked. His family had returned to their own safe house so logically wo Fat wondered if something had happened to them.

"We heard from Diego…" Wo Fat sucked in his breath. He was about to tell him that Diego kidnapped his family and he was going to have to leave Rowan to help him get them back. "He's called for a truce."

Okay. Wo Fat hadn't expected that.

"Okay… and uh… what would this truce entail?"

"Sharing," Armando said. Wo Fat shook his head, yeah he didn't like that idea. Diego crossed a line and he needed to pay. "He wants to meet to discuss terms."

Wo Fat made a face of disgust and Armando frowned. "You don't think that it's a good idea?"

"I think it's a trap," Wo Fat said.

"A trap?"

"Yes, Armando, I'm more then 100% positive that the man is trying to trick us. It's what I would do if I were him. It's what I have done…"

"You've faked a truce to get your way?"

"Yes, yes I did. Lured the idiot into a false sense of security and then I slaughtered him and all his people…"

"Not everyone is like you though," he reminded him. Wo Fat had to concede that that was true. "And I don't think that Diego is that smart enough to come up with that detailed and sophisticated of a plan?"

Well he had him there too. Because he didn't think he was that smart but he might be that desperate.

"Fine. If you're sold on this, here's what we should do. We should draw up our terms and see what he response with."

Armando nodded and Wo Fat nodded with him. "Was that all?"

"Has she opened them all yet?" Armando asked nodded to where Rowan was still ripping free her birthday gifts.

"No, but I'm sure she'll be done soon," he said. "And she's looking happier by the day…"

Armando stared at him briefly before lowering his eyes and asking: "You think she's happy?"

Wo Fat turned back to where Rowan was laughing and tossing pieces of crumpled up paper at Conejo who was refusing to go on camera now that he knew Steven was involved.

"You don't think she's happy?"

"I think she's acting. For you." Wo Fat turned to him with eyes of wide surprise. "I think, she's happy on the outside, she's happy when she's distracted, she's happy because you want her to be. But that sadness is still there. I can see it in her eyes. And if the right trigger hits her, it comes out."

That was true. Except, since starting with her therapy, she had not been as volatile as before. Hence why he thought that she was getting better.

"It's not that bad. It was worse before," Wo Fat argued. When Armando only stared at him Wo Fat scowled. "You wouldn't know, you weren't there. Just… why don't you go to the library and draw up your list of demands… just… just go."

Armando hit him with a look that he could only describe as pity. He probably thought him in denial, and maybe he was, but was it really all that bad to want one's sister to be happy?

He turned his back Armando to join them out on the patio again and Rowan smiled up at him almost immediately.

"Look!" she said brightly as she showed him what was in side one of the boxes. He wasn't sure what that pastry really was, but she seemed excited about it. "I got like fifteen boxes of cocadas which I'm guessing is from the towns folk cause they know how much I love them."" Rowan told him.

He smiled patiently at her. She knew better than to offer him one, he wasn't as crazy about sweet things as she was. "Yeah? Wonderful. What else did you get?"

"So many things!" Rowan cried. "Kono gave me these loose plastic bottles for traveling with liquids. Danny gave me this pretty make-up case, see, see, it's purple and gold just like Conejo's jewellery box. Oh and Grace got me all these travel sized versions of my favourite fragrances. I got this scan blocker slash GPS tracker that I attached to my wallet or purse and it will keep people from stealing my pin information and will help me find it if I loose it…"

"Who gave you that?"

"Jerry."

"I don't know who that is," he murmured. Rowan opened her mouth to tell him and then figured it didn't matter at that moment.

"Friend of mine, the conspiracy theorist" she said instead and let Wo Fat nod like he knew that reference. "Chin got me this black blanket sweater, it's super fuzzy and warm."

"Did you open up mine?" he asked.

"Yes," Rowan said, her hand going to her neck where the little medallion with her name on the back and the Aquarius constellation made up of small diamonds on the front. She loved the proud smile that touched his face when he saw that she had put it on.

"What about those two, the two there," he asked pointing to the two things she had barely looked at because it was just so painful.

"Oh… these? These are… uh… well this is a custom designed passport holder," she said holding up the pastel purple and gold embossed wallet for her travel documents which had been embossed with her initials just like the jewellery case had been. "And these things are the uh… matching suitcase tags."

Wo Fat nodded. "Who are those from?" he asked. Rowan was surprised he didn't know, she would have thought that if the Five-0's sent her gifts he would have torn them apart looking for little tracking devices or something.

"The passport cover is from Nahele and these tags are from… uhm… they're from Steve."

Wo Fat peered at her very carefully, a gaze she was attempting to avoid. Which was she was quite relieved when Conejo brought up what they had been arguing before Wo Fat had come back from the house.

"Yeah, except he sent her three of them, when she only has two suitcases. She said that means she has to get a third, and I don't know about you, but I am not carrying a third suitcase."

As her boys argued about how many suitcases a girl like her needed, Rowan ran her fingers over the embossed edges of her initials on one of the suitcase tags. This was all Steve thought to give her. It was thoughtful but… it felt like an empty gesture.

"What's wrong? Don't you like it? It's your favourite color… it matches your aesthetic…"

That was true, it was light purple and gold, a simple circle shape. That was very much her aesthetic. Rowan turned a watery smile up to him, she didn't know how to explain why this one gift made her feel so damn bad. That weak smile was all she could manage for seconds later she burst into tears and the boys around her scrambled to hug her to try and make it all better.

But even in their arms, with their reassuring words, Rowan didn't feel better. She wanted more than luggage tags from the man she loved. She wanted him to come find her. She wanted to go home and get her family and friends back.

She wanted Steven to love her again.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

By morning Steve felt a little better. But not by much. Sober he realized that the reason he hurt so much watching Rowan being happy was because inside he was miserable. He was play acting at moving on, he was still operating under the assumption that Rowan was somewhere in the world missing him, wanting him to find her. He was just waiting for some kind of proof and he'd renew his search for her.

Instead he had proof that she was not only fine without him but thriving. Maybe she was acting too, maybe she was sad about their break up, but her attempts to move on were much more… active.

But waking up that morning without Rowan, even with having the reminder of her the night before, even though he dreamed he had her lukewarm body pressed against him, it didn't hurt as much as it had before. The pain was almost… muted. He just wasn't sure if it was starting to go away like Danny said it would, or if it was because he was getting used to it.

He got up when he became aware of Mary bustling about the kitchen. The smell of pancakes in the air. He could hear Joanie babbling in her half-words-half-baby-talk which meant she was up too. And though he was hung over and he was tired he got up to spend time with his family.

Though he knew he wasn't going to be eating any. He hadn't been able to eat a single pancake since Rowan left. None of them tasted good, felt like ashes in his mouth. His throat was getting thick just thinking about having to eat them.

Mary smiled at him as he walked into the kitchen to grab his French Press so he could start making coffee.

"Good morning," they said to each other, with Steve adding one extra for Joanie who garbled her way through the greeting. It was cute and she was trying so he let her have it. She was little after all she'd get it down sooner or later.

"So how was the party. I can't help but notice that you were in rather early."

"Really? Cause I couldn't help but notice that Matty was practically on top of you last night," Steve shot back.

Mary scowled at him. "Not in front of Joanie," she hissed. Like Joanie would have understood what he was talking about. Still he was willing to let go of that topic of Mary stopped asking about the party.

Steve glanced back to Joanie who was coloring and smiled at his niece.

"That is beautiful Joanie," he said as the little girl babbled back at him. "Yes. Do some spirals." She quickly indulged him. "Do another one!"

He shot a glance at Mary who was still watching the pancakes. He was desperate to not be on the topic of why he had come back early last night. So he focused on the pancake on the griddle. "Hey, you should flip that."

"Okay, well, I know my pancakes and I'll flip it when I'm ready."

"It's bubbling. It's just, when it's bubbling, it's ready to be flipped," he told her.

"Okay, bossy… you're the expert on pancakes now?"

"No, it's just… Ro… Rowan made pancakes all the time and you know… she'd flip them when they started bubbling and her pancakes where you know… perfect… so you know… I know how to make a good pancake… cause Ro…"

"Yeah but Rowan left your micromanaging ass!" Mary cried a big teasing grin on her face, while Steve's face fell. She immediately frowned. "Oh… oh… Steve I'm sorry. It was… It was supposed to be a joke."

"Yeah no, I know," he said softly. "There's uh… there's no need to get all Danny Williams on me, I was just trying to be helpful."

"I know, I'm sorry, here, I'll flip it," she said indulging him and he nodded, but the smile didn't return to her brother's face. "You really miss her, don't you?"

"Yeah, Mary, I do," he answered. "But uh, feeling sorry for myself isn't going to bring her back… or save this breakfast…"

He shot her a small smile and she narrowed her eyes at him in surprise. "Okay, you know what? If you want to be so helpful why don't you go wake up Aunt Deb and tell her that breakfast is ready."

"You mean burned."

"It's not going to be burned. You're gonna love it"

Steve walked past Joanie, whispering all too loudly that it was up to her to make sure that her mother didn't set the kitchen on fire much to Mary's dismay. He then jogged up the steps to his bedroom where he had graciously forced upon his Aunt Deb as Joanie and Mary were in Nahele's room and there was no way he was letting her sleep on the couch.

"Aunt Deb, good morning," he called after knocking on the door. For a minute she was quiet so he knocked again and called her name. When he got no answer he let himself in.

"Hey, Mary's burning breakfast downstairs if you're hungry," he called but she still didn't answer and she didn't move. A whisper of dread ran through him as he stepped into the room. "Aunt Deb?" he repeated as went around the bed to get to her side.

He looked down to her and said her name one more time. Luckily her eyes opened. She kind of half smiled at him, almost weekly. He knelt down beside her and smile his good morning back at her. She managed a little bit of a wave and then she slowly closed her eyes and softly exhaled.

What… what just happened?

Downstairs the doorbell rang and Mary went to answer it. Steve looked away and then back to his Aunt Deb. God if that was Matty come to court his sister he was going to kill him. He couldn't handle that today… not when… not when he was pretty sure…

"Deb?" he asked again, this time softer. She didn't answer him. He reached out to brush his fingers against her. She didn't move, she wasn't breathing and already she was starting to cool off. God good, it had really happened. She… she had died.

Below him Mary called his name and Steve panicked. He didn't know how to tell Mary that the woman who raised her, who was more her mom than their mother ever was, had just died in his bed. But when he didn't answer she came pounding up the stairs calling for him.

"Oh there you are," she said appearing at the doorway. "Steven, there's an ambulance here, they're insisting that they come check because the caller said that we wouldn't know…" She took in Steve and Aunt Deb and her face fell.

He had a feeling he knew exactly who had called an ambulance out to him that morning and he wasn't sure if he was grateful or just annoyed that she was still intruding on his life.

Mary burst into tears and Steve had to hold onto to her to keep her from buckling to the floor. The EMTs came to remove the body and both Steve and Mary went with them to keep their Aunt Deb with them for just a little longer.

Did she have a will? He wondered. Did she have a list of things for them to do to fulfill her last wishes? Did she know she was sick? Did she not tell them how long she had left purposely? Some of these questions would be answered some would not. It was all so daunting and Steve realized that he wanted, very much, to call his friends to get some sort of help to keep him calm and collected.

After the ambulance took her away, Steve returned to his room. Someone had died in his bed. He kind of wanted to burn all the sheets, but these were the sheets Rowan had bought for his place and they were super soft and hell of expensive to replace. It was while he was standing over them that he found Aunt Deb's bucket list.

He took the paper and unfolded it. Almost everything that was done, only one thing was missing. Climb a very tall mountain. But that wasn't all. To his surprise he found another piece of paper folded up inside.

This one had the heading: "Stevie's Bucket list," and in her writing underneath it read: "I started it for you."

 _Number 1. Get closure/back together with Rowan_.

There were a few others underneath as well, but his eyes blurred over with his tears so he couldn't really read them. Well he wasn't sure if he could handle that one. But there was one that he could complete for his Aunt Deb. Folding up the papers Steve left his room to find Mary. They had a bucket list to complete.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

After the funeral and the cremation, as per Aunt Deb's Steven and Mary had one last thing to do for her. With Joanie on his back and the urn with Aunt Deb in Mary's backpack, the two of them climbed the highest peak in Hawaii that looked over the ocean. Together they took turns scattering her to the wind. Though it was a sad and somber moment, Steve couldn't help but smile, because he had helped his Aunt Deb complete her wish list.

The took a water break, appreciated the view, put the Urn with the rest of Aunt Deb back into Mary's backpack and then headed back down the mountain.

And that's when things got interesting because he didn't expect Danny to be waiting for him by the truck.

It was nice that Danny was there for moral support even though Steve had said he didn't need it. He let Mary take Joanie from him before he went to get a hug from Danny.

"How are you holding up?" Danny asked.

"I'm fine," Steve whispered even though that was only half true. So much loss in such a short amount of time was slowly taking its toll on him. HE was sure it was starting to show.

"Think you could uh… could handle a sensitive video?" Danny asked carefully.

"A sensitive… Danny what are you talking about?" Steve wondered.

"I have a video… of Rowan. Nahele sent it to me," Danny told him. "It's of Rowan… opening her presents."

Steve blinked his eyes. Why the hell would Danny want him to see that? "Thanks Danny, but uh… no… I don't… I mean I never got to send her anything, you know?"

"Yes you did," Danny said quickly. "And that's the part I want you to watch…"

"I sent her a gift?" Steve found himself asking, though he shouldn't have cared.

"Yeah, I picked something out to be from you, uh a set of monogramed suitcase tags. Pastel purple and gold. It was… uh… part of Wo Fat's orders, make sure to get Rowan a gift from Steve but under no circumstances tell him about the gifts or the party," Danny repeated as if he had the order memorized. At the look on his face was clearly not a positive one because Danny quickly added: "Not the point. The point is her reaction. You have to see what she does…"

He was fast-forwarding through the video on his phone. He got to the part that he wanted Steve to see and then turned the phone to him.

It was just a still of Rowan, sitting at a glass table outside. She had a plate of half eaten pancakes on one side of her, and on the other side was a box with the tags in it. She was looking up at someone standing beside her, but he knew exactly who it was, despite not seeing his face. Wo Fat was distinguished easily by the burn patterns going up the one arm.

While Rowan seemed to be in pjs. Flowing cotton t-shirt. Wo Fat was dressed to go golfing. He had a hunter green polo shirt on and white dress pants.

Steve didn't want to press play. Luggage tags. Why would Danny pick luggage tags? Steve would have picked something else to give her… like maybe her seashell necklace back or photo album to put all her travel pictures in.

"Did she… like it? The tags I mean…"

"Just watch the video, Steven," Danny ordered.

Sighing, Steve pressed play and then watched it all unfold in front of him.

 _What are those? Those there?_ That was Wo Fat talking.

 _The passport cover is from Nahele and these tags are from… uhm… they're from Steve._ Rowan, that was Rowan's voice except he could tell that she didn't like them. Of course she didn't, they weren't enough.

 _Yeah, except he sent her three of them, when she only has two suitcases. She said that means she has to get a third, and I don't know about you, but I am not carrying a third suitcase._

Steve didn't recognize that voice, well actually… he kind of did recognize that voice but he couldn't place where he knew it from.

 _Well she is amassing more things every where we go, she might need three._

 _Are you going to carry three?_

 _Well I mean… one for each of us. So long as it stays to that… what… what are you looking at? Ro? Rowan? What's wrong? Don't you like it? It's your favourite color… it matches your aesthetic…_

Her face had fallen and she seemed awfully tearful. She turned her smile up to Wo Fat, who had put a hand to her shoulder. Rowan said nothing else, because she had suddenly just burst into tears, her hands hiding her face. Wo Fat immediately dropped to his knees beside her, a flurry words flying from him, real concern on his face. He tried to pull her from the chair, but when that didn't work, he forcibly turned the chair around and grabbed her, pressing her shaking form to his chest.

Whoever Wo Fat had been talking to before hand, came around the other side. He was in a white t-shirt and black jeans, pretty average. He too put a hand to Rowan's back. Wo Fat glared up at the other person.

 _Turn it off._

It was the last order they heard before the camera was turned off. The video stopped with Wo Fat on his knees and Rowan against his chest. And Steve wasn't wounded by it. In fact, he was emboldened by it.

"She… she cried," he whispered.

"Yes, yes she did," Danny said. "Do you know what that means?"

Yes. Yes Steve knew what that meant. Rowan was just like him. She was happy on the outside and miserable on the inside. She was just better at acting happy than he was.

That was more enough proof. It was time he went looking for Rowan.


	242. Chapter 242

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Guys, guys, I gave you the wrong idea. I know he's gonna go looking but he's not going to find her yet, he'll come close though which might be worse. I'm almost to the half-way point. Once the incident happens well be half way through them being apart. I'm thinking it'll be another 40-50 chapters before I get them back together, I'm trying to get them back together by or around 275th chapter but it might be closer to the 300th. So don't get discouraged, it is coming, just not as quickly as you think. Sorry about that! __Don't forget to leave a review and I'll see you guys sometime later today or tomorrow!_

Chapter 242

* * *

To cheer him up after Rowan's birthday and the passing of his Aunt Deb, the Five-0's had agreed to a day of surfing. They had gone up to the Kaiaka Bay Beach Park where Kono made them all look like amateurs.

Steve had been trying really hard not to think about how hard the search for Rowan was. He had gone to the Liang's to look at the frames that Rowan had sent Nahele. He had Paris, which Steve already knew she had gone to, then Rome, and Venice and Berlin. Judging by her party, she was in Colombia now. The problem was, he had her a no fly list and not a single agency had reported her going out of the country so how was she flying anywhere when she should have been stopped.

Then he found out that her No Fly ban had been removed. He didn't know if was a hack or if someone else had done it, but he was trying to get it renewed. Problem was no one would renew it. He had a meeting scheduled with the Governor to talk about it, but he wouldn't see why the hell he'd be blocked from filing a No-Fly-ban. It was worrying him.

But being out in the water had taken his mind off of everything and he was grateful for that.

As they changed they made small talk. Chin asked how Steve was doing. He missed his Aunt already but they suspected he missed Rowan just as much if not more. Kono and Chin attempted to talk about the weather and how the North shore surfing in January was especially good that day. Well, at least they thought so. Danny not so much.

"Yeah, I'd say it can get a little bit better." Danny was running a comb through his hair. Chin was still towelling off, Steve had just peeled his swim shirt off. Typical Danny pessimism before they could even get properly changed.

"What are you talking about? You were smiling out there," Chin whined. But Steve knew exactly where this was coming from. Daniel Williams was never happy with anything.

"No he wasn't," Steve announced to the crowd. "That was more like an anaemic grin."

That got a chuckle from Chin but Danny wasn't on the, be-nice-to-Steve-because-the love-of-his-life-left-him-for-his-nemesis-and-his-aunt-died train.

"Well, let me explain that anaemic grin," Danny said to Steve. "That is because you, my friend, are a wave hog."

Steve stopped mid-way through getting his shirt on, that comment hit him that hard. It was so unexpected and out of the blue. He was almost certain he didn't hear it right. "Excuse me, I'm a wave hog?"

"That's right. Wave hog."

Chin nodded. "The man had a point."

To his horror even Kono nodded and once she had her shirt over her bikini top she added: "Yeah, you weren't um, the most patient in the line-up out there, boss."

This won them both an empathetic: "Thank you," from Danny who then turned a giant smug grin onto Steve. "See you're a wave hog."

Wow. His friends were all piling onto him now. This… come on… it was a supposed to be a cheer-up-Steve party, not a rag-on-Steve party.

"Okay. Fine. Let's talk about this. Want the truth? You wanna know why I was doing the party wave thing?" he asked them. "It's for his benefit. In case he gets into trouble."

Danny was not impressed. As he buttoned up his shirt he groaned at him. "Oh. I see, I see. So you being a pig out there, stealing everybody's waves, that's, uh, for my benefit?"

"Yeah so you wouldn't drown. Listen to me, you want me on that wave. You need me on that wave."

"I see what you're doing there," Danny said mimicking the pointing Steve had been doing into Danny's face. "That's uh… he's doing Jack Nicholson."

"He is," Chin agreed.

"Yeah, he's good. It's very appropriate. The last six years of my life have been like the _Shining_ which is a film, that if you've seen, you'd know that Jack Nicholson spends the whole movie torturing a little boy named Danny."

"Like you're torturing me now?" Steve asked drily as, to the side, Kono and Chin finished getting dressed and just stood there laughing at Danny and Steve's bickering.

"Gentleman, as much as I'm enjoying this… and I am enjoying this… we should probably get going before traffic gets bad."

"You're absolutely right," Steve said and they all picked up their stuff and began to walk away. They were walking for two minutes. Danny and Steve were volleying "Wave hog," and "Party wave," at one another when Steve interrupted the bickering with a loud exclamation of: "Whoa!"

"What's up?" Chin asked.

"Traffic's jacked already," he announced. "Kamehameha is a parking lot from Wahiawa all the way through Pearl city. We gotta take the 83."

Danny groaned again. "No, I don't wanna take the 83. Drive around the whole island? It's a nightmare."

"Oh, okay. It's another half an hour drive or another hour sitting in traffic," Steve snapped.

"Yeah, at least it's more scenic," Kono added hoping to stop the argument before it got out of hand.

"I've got a short cut," Chin said hoping to find an alternative.

"I'll take the shortcut if it gets me out of the car with him earlier."

Steve made faces at the back of Danny's head while Chin explained his shortcut. "We'll cut through the coffee fields in Waialua."

Steve shook his head. "Wait a minute. The service roads?" he asked which won him a _mhmm_ from Chin. "What are you, crazy?" he cried. "One wrong turn up there, we'll be back here. It's be midnight by the time we get home. No, it's a maze up there."

Chin scoffed. "Well, maybe for a _haole._ But I used to ride those trails on my dirt bike when I was a kid," he said cause Steve to cry out in indignation. "We're going to be back home before you guys even reach Turtle Bay."

"Boss, I think he just threw down," Kono said but Steve had already gotten that.

"Oh yeah, he threw down," Steve agreed. "You care to make this interesting, my friend?"

"What did you have in mind?" Chin asked.

"A little wager."

"Sure," he said with a shrug. He didn't care just so long as Danny and Steve stopped bickering.

"Good. First car to the Palace wins. The losers pay for dinner and drinks at Side Street. How about that?"

Chin turned to Kono who nodded deftly. He turned to back to Steve with a smile. "I like it. We're in."

"Whoa, hey, hey. Cool your jets, Turbo, there are some rules in this game. Okay?"

Chin rolled his eyes. "Okay."

"First one, no speeding." "Okay…" "—Good. Second one, no sirens." "-Okay." "Next rule, no HPD escort."

"He's going to break all these rules," Danny interjected before Steve got any more technical. Chin started laughing but Steve was not deterred in the least.

"Hey, right here, look at me," he said getting Chin's attention again. "Okay, you got it?" Chin nodded. "Okay, good, so we're all set?" Steve asked. Chin nodded again. "Alright. On your marks get set go!" he cried and then took off for the Camaro leaving his three friends in the dust.

"See, he's cheating already," Danny said with a sigh. They watched Steve as he practically slid over the hood of the Camaro and then hopped into the driver's seat through the open window.

"He just Bo and Luke'd that. Sweet," Kono sighed but Danny was just shaking his head. What was the point? He couldn't leave until Danny got in the car. But that wouldn't stop Steve for laying on that horn until Danny got there.

The things Danny was willing to put up with to put a smile on his best friend's face.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan got herself out of the pool where she had been swimming and accepted the towel that Conejo was passing her. He never went swimming with her but he watched. It seemed to Rowan that, the second January ended and February began, he had started acting weird. Suddenly he was quiet and withdrawn, no longer joking around with her as much as he had before. She was certain, the last two nights she had heard him crying in his room, but she couldn't fathom what it was that he would cry about, and when she asked him about it, he'd just glare at her and then change the topic.

On top of that she hadn't seen Wo Fat or Armando in days.

"Where's Wo?" she asked him and his eyebrows raised up quickly. "Not that I don't love your suddenly silent and foreboding company, I haven't seen him for a while and…"

"Diego called a truce, he and Armando are negotiating the details of that truce. They've also been fortifying all assets in case he plans to go after them while the two are distracted."

Rowan blinked her eyes. Okay that sounded like a good reason for him to be gone for so long, even though she didn't like it.

"It's getting dark, we should go inside," he ordered more than offered.

Rowan slipped into her flip flops, wrapped her towel around her. Swimming and running had been helping her slim down. She hadn't felt this good about her body since her younger skating years. Too bad she didn't have any guys to impress with her smoking hot body now.

"Hey Con, can I ask a question?"

"Another one?"

"Yes," she said softly. "Why don't you ever swim with me?"

Conejo turned to her, he was a few steps ahead of her. So the confused glare he had on his face shined down on her from above like a ray of disappointed sunshine.

"Why does that matter?"

Rowan shrugged. "It doesn't I just want to know," she said.

"I'm not being paid to swim, I'm being paid to watch you and I can't do that from in the pool…"

"You can't swim can you?"

Conejo's eyes widened in surprise, probably because he hadn't realized how observant she had been. "You get nervous when I go to the deep end and you make a face whenever I ask you to join me," she explained to him and he nodded.

"Okay to clarify. I can swim, I just don't like water. I have a thing about water, okay, don't make me explain it, I don't like it let it go."

Rowan sighed but let it go. "Well thank you for telling me that much. Care to tell me why you've been so grouchy lately?"

They came to a stop right outside her room where he smiled patiently and simply said: "Goodnight Rowan, you call me if you have another nightmare."

She hadn't had a nightmare in a while, not since Diego had kidnapped her. The last vision dream she had, had been a sad one, of Steve's Aunt Deb dying. That had made her cry but that hadn't really been a nightmare. Normally she wouldn't think twice about going to Con the second she had a nightmare, but he had been acting weird and she didn't feel comfortable doing so anymore. She felt like she had annoyed him too much and he no longer wanted her near him.

She missed Wo Fat, she wished he was here with her.

Instead of complaining she merely smiled, told him she would, said good-night to him too. She let herself into her room, went to the washroom where she dropped her towel in the sink before slipping out of her bikini to shower. Once she got the chlorine off of her and out of her hair, she stepped out, used that towel to try herself off before changing into the soft grey PJs she had been wearing.

She spent her time blow drying her hair so it would be nice and smooth in the morning. She did her face routine for the night, brushed her teeth and then headed for her bed.

She took a step out the bathroom and towards the bed and she wasn't in her bedroom anymore. But she also knew that she wasn't in the real world. This had been happening a lot recently. Ending up in a dream world instead of the real world. It was a little nicer than having nightmares all the time, but having waking, walking nightmares was not better.

"Get out of the hole!"

Rowan turned, two men were beside her. Both scruffy looking. A pink string travelled between them. Brothers. The elder was protective of his younger sibling as he was weaker and in the elder's opinion dumber.

Both brothers were both pointing their guns a second pair of pink-bonded relatives. Chin and Kono.

They were standing, a hole they must have dug in between them and the brothers. Chin and Kono held hands and then the brother's fired.

Rowan held up her hand, stopping the bullets midair. She stepped between them and used her hand, rolling it over and over, to rewind the wholes scene from the beginning.

Alright. Chin and Kono arrive on scene, they were lost and looking for directions. They found the two brother's instead, who were attempting to hide the body of a cop they murdered.

They took Kono's wedding ring, made them dig the grave for the cop. The elder brother took Chin away to help him carry the body back to the grave. She watched the older brother as he noticed the flasher's on Chin's car. She watched Chin run into the trees, but she knew he'd get caught.

She stopped the dream there and walked out of it and into reality again. She went for her phone a plan already formulating in her mind, a million strings severing and retying to the new possibilities.

Could she stop this situation before it happened? Hell yeah. Was she going to?

No.

Those bastards were going to take Kono's wedding ring. Why? What purpose did that serve other to be a complete asshole?

Well now Rowan was pissed off and she was going to test them. She went to the vanity that Wo Fat had bought her months ago and picked up her phone which had been left charging.

She pulled up a contact on her app and pressed connect.

As soon as the person picked up she started talking. "Hey! Yeah no I'm fine. I need someone for a messy job. You got anyone up for that? It's gonna be worth double what I paid for the last one…. Yeah? Good. Patch me through."

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

The Camaro flew down the one-lane highway, weaving in and out of traffic. There was no way that Steve wasn't speeding. He swung the car out and into oncoming traffic, narrowing missing the car coming at them as he weaved back in completely cutting off the truck, he was desperate to get in front of.

Danny swore. "Hey! Hey! Hey! What about all the rules you made? Huh? No speeding you said!" he reminded him and Steve shot a glare at him.

"I'm not speeding, it's fine," he said.

"Not speeding, what are you doing?" he cried. "I'm guessing above seventy."

"Hey, have you seen a single sign since we left the beach?" Steve asked but that wasn't what Danny asked. It was a clever excuse but not what Danny wanted to hear, because Steve was a cop and he knew better.

Danny craned over to try and see the speedometer and Steve lifted his hand to block him. Danny started laughing. "Oh my god, you are a child!" he cried but Steve ignored him. And forged forward.

After a second's pause Danny said: "Okay it's me and you now. You wanna tell me what's got you all worried?"

Steve half winced. "Uh… well… I told you about the No-Fly, how it lapsed some how and I went to put it up again and got declined?"

"Yeah, you said the Governor asked to talk to you about it."

"Yeah, well… I went into her file and… uh… there's a note on there that if she's arrested over-seas or she's found that Five-0 is not to be contacted, but instead, to contact HPD or the Governor directly."

Danny took that in and then stared at Steve. That didn't sound good, not at all. "Okay… uh… who put that note on her file?"

"I asked about that when I called about the No-Fly ban," Steve said. "He said he had the note put on her file."

"Why?"

"I won't know the answer to that until I have that meeting with him," Steve replied.

Danny sat back to think about it. Steve was obviously worried, that's why he had been so off lately. And Danny knew him well enough to have some sort of idea what this was about.

"But you have a theory, right?"

"I think he's going to tell me to drop the search for Rowan," Steve whispered. "I don't know why he would, but I think that's what he's going to do."

Danny took that in. It did sound like that was what the Governor was gearing up to do, but he also couldn't figure why he'd do that. Wouldn't he wanted to get Steve and Rowan back together? Everyone else was on the same page, why wasn't Dennings?

"Kay, but he hasn't shut you down yet, so… you know what are you doing to try and find her?"

"Well… uh… I know where she was travelling and kind of got a time frame of when she might have gone. So, I figure if the No-Fly lapsed I'd be able to run facial rec on people going in and out of the countries she's been in around that time."

"That's a good plan," Danny said. "Would take a long time to run that command."

"It's been running since last night," Steve said and Danny nodded. Steve and Danny were quiet a moment before Steve whispered: "I don't know what I'm going to do if the Governor tells me to stop Danny, not now that I know she might… I unno… want to come back."

Danny nodded. "Well he hasn't told you to stop yet, so I see that as a green light to do as much as you can to find her before he pulls the plug."

Steve nodded and they fell silent again before Danny turned to him once more. "Okay, you know what pull over," Danny ordered and Steve scowled at him.

"Pull over? I'm not pulling over. Not when we're making great time."

"Well I need to pee," he snapped. "So pull over."

"Oh, who's the child now?" Steve cried.

"Just pull the damn car over so I can go, please."

"Pee in a bottle cause I'm not stopping."

As they devolved into arguing about whether or not Danny was going to pee in that bottle or Steve was going to stop, Danny found himself thinking about what Steve had said. He had no idea what was going on, but Danny had a feeling if Governor Dennings shut down Steve's search for Rowan Steve would not talk it well.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Chin, unfortunately, got lost in those service roads like Steve said that he would. And they had found a car and thought that whoever was driving would be able to help them navigate onto the road hopefully in time to beat McGarrett to the Palace.

The problem was, these guys had guns. They were cocky, they were mean, and they were digging in the ground. Well, now they had Chin and Kono digging. They took away everything valuable they had, which included Kono's wedding ring.

The bastards.

They got a pretty deep hole going, before the main brother, the older brother suddenly decided one of them needed to go with them. Chin had offered to go, so long as they promised Kono would be okay.

Then he found out exactly what it was that they were digging a hole for. They had a body in their trunk. Chin was to help the eldest brother move it. While they were pulling him out of the trunk, a badge fell out. Not only had they murdered someone they had murdered a cop!

Chin had tried to get into the man's head. Told him about this guy he knew who went in for manslaughter and ended up killing himself. He figured the elder brother would be okay, but not the younger brother.

He shouldn't have said anything at all, because it meant they paused. Paused long enough for him to notice the lights on his car. Now he knew that Chin and Kono were cops too.

Chin dropped the body's legs and ducked into the tall grass. Chin ran through the trees trying to lose the older brother chasing after him. Then he slid to a stop. A complete stand still as he stared down the barrel of a gun.

He was silent a moment and behind him came the crash of another body coming through the foliage after Chin. He half opened his mouth but already the barrel of the gun had swung away from him, and then just as the older brother came into view, it went off.


	243. Chapter 243

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Well guys, in this chapter we get to figure out what kind of Rowan-gram, Rowan called for. What the Governor wants to say to Steve and how Chin and Kono get out of this. We're cooking now. I just have to get us through the Valentines chapter (which is coming up in the next chapter) and then after that we're halfway. And we get to all the void drama, which I'm personally very excited for. What are you guys excite for? Leave a review and tell me, and I'll see you guys on Monday. (Hopefully)._

Chapter 243

* * *

 _Winner, winner Side Street dinner_.

God Steve was pathetic, but he was just so happy that he and Danny had beat Chin and Kono to the Palace. Danny had tried to tease him about it, but Steve had refused to pull over and he had made Danny pee into a bottle when he couldn't hold onto it anymore. Danny didn't want that ever getting out to their friends so he let it go to allow Steve his chance to gloat and crow over his win, even before the losers came into the building.

But that elated happy feeling left Steve almost immediately when he got the results of his search. Everything involving Rowan had the ability to ruin his mood and that day was no different.

He came into Danny's office, changed into his office attire of a charcoal blue polo and his cargo pants, with the pictures he had and stared at his friend's face. Danny took in his hooded stare with a sigh as he turned his eyes back to the paperwork he had been working on before Steve had come in.

"I heard some swearing, what's going on," he asked. Well Steve had sworn a few times he didn't think he was that loud.

"I got the results," Steve said, moving forward to put down all the pictures that had popped with the face-rec to Rowan's face.

"Here she is entering, Paris via Charles De Gaulle," he said, "This is her getting off at the Santa Lucia station in Venice. Then here she is again in Hauptbahnhof Station, and a couple weeks later in the Calais station before disappearing on what I presume is a private charter to Colombia."

Danny nodded. These were all pictures of people entering the country, all from security camera feeds. "Okay, so she's mostly taking trains and they wouldn't be checking her passport."

"That's what I thought, except they are," Steve said. "Rowan wants a stamp in each country she's going to, she goes to a customs agent every single time."

"Okay… but the No-fly had lapsed…"

"Not for her flight to Paris, or the train ride to Venice or her trip to Berlin. Also, according to Wo Fat's file, in Venice he was suspected of killing an undercover cop. Authorities were looking for him. I think that's why they double back to Paris before going to Berlin," Steve said.

Alright so people were looking for them. So what? People were always looking for Wo Fat. He didn't understand what about this could have set Steve off like this. "Steve what are you saying?"

"I pulled up the passports that were scanned when she went through customs. I can match them to the other person and in each and every group there was one outlier and no Rowan."

He put the passport photos down, the ones of people that were from different places in the U.S. All women, all different looks. None of them could even be remotely confused for Rowan.

"Okay… so the system is pulling up someone who isn't Rowan? Wouldn't the Customs agent know that though? I mean… none of them look like her and none of them have the same name… they're not that dumb are they?"

"I unno, I unno what's going on," Steve said. "I mean, it makes sense. Fat probably figured that I'd put some kind of restriction on her and he's done something to combat that."

"That's one sophisticated bunch of something," Danny said and Steve nodded. That was a lot to take in, and Danny didn't know what to do. And it didn't look like Steve knew what to do about it either. Not with the looming meeting with the Governor.

When the silence got to be too heavy, Steve asked: "Hey… uh… have you heard from Chin and Kono yet?"

"No, why?"

"Because they're not answering their phones and they should have been here by now."

Danny sighed as he thought it over. "Maybe they, uh, had car trouble."

Steve was silent for a second as he though it over. It was plausible and he'd give Danny that but something felt off about this. "Yeah, but why wouldn't they answer their phones?"

"That's what I mean. You warned them about those service roads, maybe they got car trouble and they got no signal up there."

Steve paused, thought it over and gave Danny an apathetic "Yeah," which really just translated into him agreeing but not really. And Danny knew this.

"If you're worried, we'll go up there. We'll drive back to the North Shore and find them," Danny said just as his phone chirruped.

"Is that Chin or Kono?" Steve asked. "I've been blowing up their phones why wouldn't they text me?"

But it wasn't Chin or Kono texting him. It was a text message seemingly sent by no one.

"It uh… like those blank calls you were getting," Danny said. "Except it's just a text."

At the suggestion of Rowan, no matter how subtle, Steve went ramrod straight. "What does it say?"

"Its GPS coordinates and C+K SOS, go NOW."

Steve was already going for the door. Now he knew something was wrong. Very wrong.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

A gun had gone off.

Kono had been digging silently, try to think of a way to talk the younger brother out of killing them all and maybe turning his on his brother when the gunshot had shattered the silence. Kono was immediately afraid for Chin, but she had her own worries to worry about. Because as soon as that gun went off the other man appeared. This guy, looking like he just walked out of one of Steve's Guns and Ammo magazines, was in camouflaged body armour and held a high powered gun.

The younger brother, who had been left to supervise her, froze. Even Kono froze, because she didn't know what was happening.

"You, drop your gun and get over there," he said gesturing to a place beside the hole Kono was in. "And you, shovel down and stand beside him."

The obeyed the ordered and then they waited. The younger brother kept asking who this guy was or what he wanted, but the man said nothing. Kono was just surprised that he had shown up, and that he had taken the time to paint cammo pattern onto his face. It was kind of… ridiculous.

After an agonizing wait Chin came into view, the older brother's arm slung over his shoulder as he helped him walk. The older brother had been shot in the leg but Chin looked to be okay. Behind him was a woman, looking like this Nubian queen in all leather with a tricked out looking pistol in her grip.

Who the hell were these people?

"Alright, let him go," the woman ordered and Chin reluctantly moved away. "Go stand with your friend."

As soon as he was by Kono's side she reached for his hand. Chin held it back without a second thought and together they watched the woman kicked the older brother into the hole.

The younger brother was grabbed by the cammo man and he too was dropped into the hole. When the cammo man returned for Chin and Kono he had rope in his hands.

"Wait, you don't have to do this," Chin said. But the man said nothing at all. Instead he tied their hands together, and then tied them to a near-by tree. Once that was done, he returned to the woman with the large caliber pistol and got in the hold behind the older brother.

The woman put something into her pocket and then slowly took out a knife and put it to the younger brother's neck.

"Do you know what you've done?" she asked him. "Do you know why we were sent here?"

The older brother had no idea but Kono felt like she knew.

"These people are under the protection of the Professional and the Sanctuary network," she told him and he just looked… well… confused. Which meant he probably had no idea what they were talking about. "Yeah, she had a feeling that you were too low on the food chain to know about them. Here's the short version for you. These people are protected by a very bloodthirsty, very powerful individual, who knew you were going to be here and sent me here to fuck your shit up."

The older brother growled at her but he didn't say anything, he couldn't not with that knife against his younger brother's throat.

"But you know… had you just not taken it, had you just left her alone, we would have just roughed you up, but now, now I gotta kill you."

Taken? What the hell had they taken? They hadn't really done anything to Kono except get handsy with her. So what was she talking about? What vision had Rowan had?

"Now look at your brother and tell him it's going to be okay," she ordered.

The older brother stared at his younger brother. He had gotten shaky, like he had realized that this wasn't going to end well for them.

"Don't… don't worry, she's not… they won't… they wouldn't dare. Not with two cops watching!"

"That's right!" Chin called. "You don't have to do this. You can just let us go and we'll deal with them."

"Exactly. Ro… the Professional, she wouldn't want this!" Kono added.

The woman regarded them for a moment before this glittering dangerous grin illuminated her face. They tried to stop her but when she turned back to the brothers she had on their knees in that hole they knew that they wouldn't be able to stop what was about to happen.

She slit the younger brother's throat, as his older brother screamed and then let his body fall into his brother's lap. His older brother held onto him, he tried to quell the bleeding as he screamed. Screamed at the two watching on passively, screamed for them to help him, and when his brother died seconds later, when his body stopped twitching, he screamed at them for what they had done. He screamed insults and names at them, and when he was breathlessly sobbing over his brother's form, the man behind him pulled out his own pistol and shot him through the throat.

For a while there was nothing but grunts of pain and gasps for air but when that too went quiet Chin and Kono were left alone in the silence with two people who were probably going to let them go. Maybe. They weren't entirely sure.

Sure enough, both the cammo man and the angry Nubian queen got out of the hole and came towards them. As the man went about untying them, the Nubian queen fished something out of her pocket and then offered it out to Kono. It was her wedding ring. Kono took the ring from her and put it back on her finger where it belonged and then carefully stared at the two standing in front of them.

She didn't know what they wanted, or why they hadn't left yet. Usually once the contract was completed they'd leave. None of the new Rowan-grams had stayed past confirming that the situation had been dealt with.

The woman took in their stares of confused and then turned back to two bodies they had left behind. She turned back to Kono and half scoffed. "Obviously you don't know your friend very well. Because this," she said pointing back at the bodies in the hole. "This was exactly what the Professional asked for. Well… only if we confirmed that they had taken your wedding ring. Had they left it they would have gotten away with all of this."

All of this had been over her wedding ring? Really? Goddamn! Kono had been upset they took it, but not THAT upset.

The Nubian queen told them that their partners were on their way, which meant Steve and Danny had been informed of the situation somehow, and which also meant that their contract was completed. They took pictures of Chin and Kono before turning around and leaving them in the trees, no doubt to escape before Steve showed up and arrested them both.

As they left Kono found her eyes drawn to the damage that had been left in the wake of the latest Rowan-gram. She was officially worried. This was the most violent one yet, and she had a feeling, with Rowan being surrounded with big time criminals like Wo Fat and his associates, they were only going to get worse.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

 _I didn't fly all the way down here for deep dish pizza. I'm here to get a confession out of you. And I'm not leaving till I get it._

It was the first thing he said to Clay after he woke up. Well that was a lie, the first thing he said was: Wakey Wakey, but he liked the other line better. It sounded more badass. And it wasn't like he didn't say it, he did, it just wasn't the first thing. But when he retold the story, he was going to tell everyone that that was the line he opened with.

Lou had flown down to Chicago, drove all the way to Hyde Park, broke into Clay's house, waited for him to come back and then ambushed him. He knocked him out, duct taped him to a chair and then put smelling salts under his nose until he woke up.

Lou had gone done down with a plan. He knew that he was probably never going to get Clay for killing Diane, but he might be able to get him on something else. And then it hit him.

Five years ago, they busted a stash house in Little Village. They had killed the perp and split up to search the place. Clay found two bags, each with 250,000 in cash inside or more. All the number on those bills were sequential, until it got turned into evidence and a whole stack of number went missing. Everyone had started talking about how a bag of that money had to have gone missing but no one had ever found it.

Back in the day he hadn't questioned it. Clay was his partner, he wouldn't have thought him that corrupt. But now that he knew Clay would go as far as to kill his own wife, well, Lou had a feeling that he knew exactly where that money had gone.

But he had taken a sledge hammer to that house and he still couldn't find it. Leann had dropped by twice. The first time he got Clay to get her to leave the house. The second time when she came back Lou had no choice but to grab her too. Once he had taped her to her own chair he had tried to explain why he was there, why he had to do what he was doing. He could see the doubt in her eyes, too. She knew that if Clay could kill his wife to be with her, that he might be able to kill her to get with the next girl. Why not? He got away with it once.

But that wasn't enough. He still needed to find the money, and he couldn't. He was loosing hope too. He was starting to think that he wasn't ever going to find it. And then the text came in. A text from a blank number. Steve had told him all about the blank calls he had been getting from someone who wouldn't speak, how he had thought it was Rowan, and how stupid it was for him to have told her to stop calling. Because she had listened.

Steve had been heartbroken, and none of them had been able to tell him it was his own damn fault for telling her to stop. All of them also sort of felt a little jilted that Steve had been the only one getting blank calls. Well now Lou could say that he had gotten one of the blank messages too.

Too bad it was fucking useless.

 _If you're still having trouble finding that money… remember the car. Why is it inside the garage in the winter?_

Good God, Rowan and that fucking car… that stupid beat up old jalopy. The thing barely fucking ran, it was junk… it was…. She was right, t was in the garage… in the middle of winter as Clay's brand-new car sat in the drive way.

Now why… why the hell would he put the new car outside and keep the junk car in? Maybe… maybe Rowan _really was_ onto something.

Smiling Lou left the office where he had been demolishing the walls and came down the stairs to where Clay and Leann were waiting for him. Not that they had much choice, he had tied up them up there it wasn't like they were going to go anywhere. When he got close enough he smiled warmly at Clay who was still smirking at him.

"You remember that little girl I told you about, the one from Hawaii?" he asked. "That little girl with the magic touch, could see into your very soul? I sat her in front of you and she said she got nothing off of yah. Nothing except a car. A car in the garage in the middle of winter. At the time it meant absolutely nothing. Even now it seems crazy. Hell, even I forgot about it… and then this came in."

He showed Clay his phone with Rowan's text. "And then I started thinking. Right? Now… well… now I have some questions."

"You're telling me you're going to listen to some crazy woman? Some woman you think is psychic? You think that she's got all the answers? She didn't have the answers then, and she doesn't have them now!"

Lou just chuckled. "Oh yeah? Then answer me this, buddy. Why do you have your beautiful brand-new mustang sitting in the driveway in the middle of winter in Chicago? I mean, do you just like scraping ice off your windshield every morning and starting your car and having to let it run for 15 minutes before you go to work?"

Clay was still silent to Lou took a hold of him and rolled him towards the garage, while the new girl he had replaced Diane with called out for them to stop, to not hurt him.

"I mean, here you have a brand-new car, sitting in your drive way, and you got an old rust bucket, get out and push that belongs in a junkyard somewhere sitting in your garage just sucking up heat? Explain that!"

"I've been working on it."

"Been working on it. You haven't done a damn thing to this car in ten years!" Lou shouted. "Ten years ago I took a picture with you at a BBQ at your house, this car was right next to us. It looks exactly the same."

For a second there, Clay just stared at him, and Lou saw a look in his eyes that had him feeling all sorts of triumphant. Cause he knew he had him and Clay knew it too.

Lou took out his phone again and showed him the message. "I finally figured it out. All those months ago when she was going on about why is the car in the garage in the dead of winter. I didn't get it then and I might not have gotten it tonight but she reached out Clay. That girl got a message to me, and now I finally get it. You're not crazy. You don't have this rust bucket in here soaking up warmth for no reason."

He picked up a crowbar and went towards the car, just by the headlight where it looked like Clay had been doing work.

"What do you think you're doing?" Clay cried, for the first time trying to stop Lou. Who had been tearing up the house all evening.

"This ain't a car. It's a safe!"

It took two swings. One to reveal the money just under the bodywork, and the second had the money falling to the floor. Lou smiled, he couldn't keep it in, because it was right where Rowan said it was, because he finally had something to pin on him.

Clay glared at him. He had no more witty one liners, he tried to bribe him but it wouldn't work. Not on Lou. Lou wanted him behind bars. He would have rather had him going to jail for Diane's murder, but this was what he was going to have to settle with. And he thought, yeah, this was good enough.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve was shown into the Governor's office the second he arrived, which he felt, did not bode well for him. Dennings wasn't on the phone, or preoccupied, he waited for Steve to sit down in front of the desk and once he was comfortable, he began.

"I presume you're wondering why I asked you here, and why there's a precautionary note on Rowan's file…"

"And why I can't put out another No-fly ban on her."

"I presume that you've been doing some research on her," Dennings asked. "What have you learned?"

Steve handed him the file. "When she scans through customs she reads as someone who isn't her, I don't know what the customs agents are seeing on their screens, but that's how she's getting through security," he told him. "Uh, I can tell you she's been to Paris, and Venice, and Berlin and that she's now in Colombia."

"And I presume that you've heard that Wo Fat is wanted in connection to the murder of an undercover Interpol agent?"

"Yes. I heard that too," Steve answered. "Sir, I'm sorry if I'm speaking out of turn ehre, but what the hell is going on? Why are you trying to stop me from looking for her?"

The Governor closed the file Steve had handed him and then folded his hands on top of them. "Steve. Why are you looking for Rowan? Why do you want to find her now?"

Steve blinked his eyes. "I… because…" he stuttered. He didn't know how to tell him that it was because he saw a video of her crying and figured her to be unhappy. "I just… I wanted to… I unno talk to her and clear things up… and I can't get a hold of her so…"

Dennings nodded and with a very heavy sigh, he whispered: "And that is why the note is on her file."

Steve's heart fairly stopped in his chest. "What? What are you talking about?"

"Steve, we spoke about this when you and her broke up, or left you, the first time. You _cannot_ use Five-0 resources to stalk Rowan. She broke up with you. You are essentially stalking your ex and using the tax payer's money to do it. This isn't legal, it's harassment."

Steve sat there, back ramrod straight, taking that in. He was right. Because he wasn't presenting Dennings with a logical, legal reason why he'd be looking for Rowan now. He realized that if he wanted to keep the search for Rowan going, if he wanted to be notified of any movements or of her where-abouts, he was going to lie.

"But there is a legal reason!" Steve cried. "You just said that Wo Fat's wanted in connection to a murder, right? Well the easiest way to find him is to find Rowan. He won't be far from her…"

"So that's the real reason then? You want to get Wo Fat, not that you want to talk to her."

"Well I mean I do want to talk to her, I won't lie about that, but it's more important to arrest Wo Fat. And… well…she's… she's his weakness. To get him we'll need her."

Dennings nodded. It was convenient, the switch in attitudes and Steve knew that. He could tell that the Governor didn't really believe his words and to be fair, Steve didn't believe them either. It made him feel sick to his stomach to have to use her this way but if it was the only way for him to actually get to her this was what he was going to have to do. He was more than willing to let everyone believe that he's after Wo Fat if it meant that it put him face to face with Rowan at some point.

"Here's what we're going to do instead," Dennings said. "Instead of a No-Fly ban, I'm going to connect her file to Wo Fat's so it comes up when you search him. Wo Fat will have the No-Fly ban, Rowan will be held for questioning and observation if she's found. Okay?"

It wasn't okay. This wasn't what he wanted, at all. But it was all he was going to get and he knew that. But there was one thing that he needed to make this a little better. "And Five-0 will be notified if they manage to apprehend her?"

The Governor's eyes found his, a dry glare of suspicion on his face. "Yes, I suppose that is the best course of action. You do know Wo Fat's M.O. better than anyone else. You'll be able to prepare them for what will most likely be a vicious attack from him in his attempts to get her back."

Steve nodded. "Alright, good. Let's do that then," he agreed even though that wasn't what he wanted. He wanted Rowan back and having it set up this way would make things harder. It also didn't address the issue with her passport. If she was coming up as someone else how would anyone know that she was the right person to grab?

But Steve couldn't say any of that. Not with the Governor championing her harassment suit even though she wasn't here. This was what Steve as going to have to be content with, and he knew, if he did his own extra digging and Dennings found out, he'd probably pull the plug on even watching out for Wo Fat.

Steve was just going to have to hope that Rowan left Colombia soon, and that if she did leave, someone would grab her and call him.


	244. Chapter 244

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Monday my wonderful readers and happy Early Valentine's Day. I know we've gotten to Valentine's Day early in the Five-0 world, but I promise the next two chapters are going to be really cute. The first one is going to focus mostly on the Five-0's and then he second one will be more about what Rowan is doing over in Colombia. I had to update two chapters. 238 was missing the ending, and in 241, for some reason, I forgot to take out the direction tag I wrote up so I knew what part I wanted to go where. So for those of you who were confused about why 238 ended where it ended, that's cause I didn't have the ending. It's there now. And 241 will read better now. Anyway, onto a happier note. We're almost there, guys! As of chapter 247 we are officially in the midway of the season, or at least the stuff I want to write for this season. I'm so excited, I can't wait to see what I've got in store! Don't forget to leave me a review and I'll see you guys on Wednesday!_

Chapter 244

* * *

There had been no traction in the search for Wo Fat and Rowan. Colombia was a big and corrupt place, and despite Steve calling once weekly for update, neither Interpol, the FBI nor the Colombian authorities could tell him where Rowan and Wo Fat were. Though they could tell him that there was a turf war going on between Armando and some other drug dealer. A turf war they swore Wo Fat was spear heading.

They couldn't tell him if Rowan was involved with that, as Rowan had not been seen since she landed. There was chatter about the rival drug dealer either attempting or successfully managing to grab Rowan, but nothing had been confirmed.

Like that didn't worry him.

When he brought this concern to Danny, his friend had reminded him that this was just chatter. All they had was a pattern and that was, Wo Fat had a tendency to get really violent when Rowan was threatened and there had been several incidents where he had been more violent than before, coincidentally around the time the chatter hit. Danny spent an hour talking him down, to stop him from flying to Colombia to hack up the jungle and confirm she was okay. Wo Fat had gone down to Colombia fully swinging, he was going through waves of violence, it didn't necessarily mean that Rowan was in danger, and it wasn't like he'd let something happen to Rowan.

To distract himself for the crushing disappointment from the failure, Steve had continued to date other people. But mainly Lynn. The night previous to the current morning she and him had gone out. It had ended with sex, which was standard, he was in his nicest outfit he had turned on the charm, but it had been a hollow victory. Because that morning, when he woke up, it was Valentine's Day, and he didn't want to ring in Valentine's Day with someone else. He wanted Rowan.

So he woke up, already in a bad mood. Which was terrible because Lynn kept trying to work him up into some kind of frenzy, but it wasn't working. With each kiss she pressed to him, each movement of her hands, every time she pressed her body against his, he found himself counting the ways that she wasn't Rowan. Eventually she gave up and excused herself for the washroom, not bothering to put on a stitch of clothing leaving Steve in the bed.

Lynn and Steve had plans for Valentine's Day. So he was expecting everything to go well. There was nothing he could think of, short of Rowan coming back or him catching a case, that could derail his night.

Then Lynn came out of the bathroom.

Still Completely Naked.

"You mind if I borrow a shirt?" she asked, a knowing smirk on her face.

Steve couldn't help but appreciate the view with his own wolfish grin. Sure it wasn't the girl he wanted to see coming naked out of his washroom, but he was a guy and he could more than appreciate the naked beauty before him.

So he responded with: "What do you want a shirt for?" She shot him a playful smile while he continued to smirk at her. "Yes, you can borrow a shirt, second drawer down."

He watched her, the way her spine moved as she reached into the drawer for a shirt to pick and he was suddenly fraught with memories.

Of a red-head doing the same thing. Reaching for her favourite sweater to wrap herself into it. Steve had closed his eyes, against the pain of the memory, wishing them to go away, to not ruin this moment. And when he opened them he was shocked by what he found. Because Lynn was wearing a familiar grey sweater and was holding something in her hand, looking quite upset.

But that wasn't what had him frozen to his bed in shock.

"Steve what is this?" she asked showing him the ring box that had been for Catherine. He had forgotten that was in the drawer but what he was focusing on was the grey sweater she was wearing. _Rowan's grey sweater._

Steve blanked almost immediately. "What are you wearing?"

"Steven… don't deflect…"

"No… is that… did you get that from…" he stuttered sitting up in bed. No, she couldn't be wearing that it wouldn't smell like _her_ anymore! "Take it off!"

Already he was reaching for the hem of it ready to take it off of her before Rowan's smell disappeared like she did.

"Steven! I'm not interested in sleeping with you until you explain what this is!" she snapped pushing his hands away and then shoving the ring box into his face.

"That's an engagement ring I was going to give to Catherine but she left me before I could propose," Steve shouted at her, slapping the ring box out of her hand and away from his face. Poor Lynn looked horrified but Steven wasn't done. "But I don't give a shit about that. Just TAKE THE SWEATER OFF!"

He was standing now, the blankets falling from his bare form as he took a hold of the edge of it and practically ripped it off of her. Lynn stumbled back and away from him, completely naked again and not happy while Steve sat back the sweater shaking in his hands.

Lynn hurriedly went about trying to get her clothes back on going on a mile a minute about how she didn't realize that Steve had been that serious about Catherine and that she felt he had purposely hidden that from her. She said something about how she didn't want to be a rebound and Steve's head clearly wasn't in the game. And to be fair at that moment he was so far removed from the game, from even that conversation, that he hadn't heard a single word she had said.

He could only sit there as she argued at him, as he couldn't find the words to talk, looking at the sweater in his hands, knowing even before he tried that it probably wouldn't smell the same and being too afraid to actually find out if it was true. It wasn't until she left that Steve put the sweater to his nose.

It no longer smelt of Rowan.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Grover was having a great day. He was out in his natural habitat, out on the fairway of his favourite gold course. He was currently about to throttle Masaharu Morimoto, the famous Sushi Chef, all he had to do was sink this ball and the chef was never going to catch up to him.

He was surprised that they even managed to get an appointment to golf, usually they were booked on weekends. But he wasn't about to argue if it got him golfing, and if he won it would make his day just that little bit sweeter.

Morimoto on the other hand was very antsy today and Lou chalked that up to him not wanting to loose.

Grover had been trying to measure out his shot, trying to use some of that math Rowan had used for her hole in one magic but he was interrupted by the very impatient Chef. "You take any longer and they'll need to cut the grass!" he cried.

Lou rolled his eyes at him and went back to the shot he needed to make. "You got somewhere you gotta be?"

"It's the busiest night of the year, tonight."

"Yeah and why is that?"

Morimoto paused as if he didn't understand the question. "It's Valentine's Day!"

"What?" Grover asked, dread streaking through his system.

"It's Valentine's day," he repeated. "It's the busiest night."

Oh good god he had forgotten Valentine's Day.

"WHAT?!" he screamed, his putter hitting the ball in his panic sending it off kilter and missing the ball. Morimoto watched to roll away completely unconcerned.

"You can still save a par here," Morimoto said as if he wasn't phased at all by what he had said, and why would he be he didn't know he had dropped a bomb on Grover's life.

"Forget par, Chef, I forgot Valentine's day!" he cried and then paused and put a large smile on his face. "Listen, chef, I need a favor! You can use your influence and get a table for me and Renee tonight, right?"

He had the nerve to laugh at him. "No, impossible. We have been booked solid for months."

Goddamn useless his golfing buddy was. USELESS! Though he had a feeling it was more because the Chef had just about to be thoroughly beaten by him not moments prior to that request.

"I'm a dead man," he groaned and then ran for the golf cart.

"What about your par?"

"You win!" he shouted back. God he was in so much trouble. He rushed out of the golf club with a plan. There was a tux in the back of the family SUV that he could change into. It was his crushed navy blue tux from his disco days, but Renee had always liked him in it, so this would do.

He got to the convenience store and bought all that they had left. A heart shaped box of chocolates and the only flowers left, three fancy daisies, which he happened to know were flowers that Renee liked. Not her absolute favourite but she had bought them before. He changed into the suit in the convenience store washroom and while he did that he came up with a cover story he figured he could sell quite easily. It was just whether or not Renee believed him, whether or not she was too mad to see reason.

He had rushed home and then decided to ring the doorbell. When Renee opened the door she looked amazing. In this low cut stylized wine red dress and a low hanging gold necklace. She had definitely dressed up to drive the point home, to make him suffer.

He smiled in that debonair way that had always made her heart melt, but not today, which was not a good sign. She looked him up and down with a scoff before asking: "Can I help you?"

He was clearly in so much shit. So he tried to play it cool. "Hey, happy Valentine's day, Baby!" This won a dry _mhmm_ from her. "Oh, okay. Okay, I see. You… you thought I forgot but you got played because I wanted to be able to get you a real genuine Valentine's Day surprise, baby!"

With a giant grin he showed her the measly gifts he had purchased not moments before and hoped if he talked them up, made them out to be more than they were that she wouldn't realize that he had forgotten and buy the story he was about to try and sell her.

"Oh!" she said sounding absolutely surprised. Damn this might actually work, but it might not, her tone was not that supportive "So you… you didn't forget?"

"Hell, no!"

"Oh," she said again in that same taunting tone. Uh-oh this wasn't going well. "Like you didn't forget my birthday last year?" Grover frowned. Why was she bringing that up again? "And you didn't forget our wedding anniversary the year before that?"

Grover frowned. "See why you gotta bring up old stuff?" but when she just huffed at him, he brought out the whine. Maybe he could annoy her into conceding. "Babe, come on now. Why can't you see this for what it is? Your man is home standing in front of his beautiful wife, offering you these flowers and these… these chocolates as a token of my love."

"Oh, oh, no, I see," she said with a smile and nod as she gestured to all of him. "You know, I see what this is."

"I knew you would." _Yes!_ It was working!

"Oh, yeah. No. no. I see… I see a man…" "—Yes you do." "Who ran out, mm-hm," "I sure did." "And bought the last sorry bunch of gerbera daisies from the convenience story over on Durely street."

What was she surveilling him? Did she get one of those phantom messages from Ro, cause fucking hell gurl, she wasn't supposed to snitch on him like that. "How you know that?"

"You didn't even take the sticker off!" she snapped flicking the plastic that was around the flowers. "And I see the suit that I brought to the dry cleaners last week because I was going to donate it to the Salvation Army…" "—WHAT?" "And I see… oooh… I see a man still wearing his golf shoes."

He looked down. Aw damn it. He knew he forgot something. "Oh… oh yeah. Well, I taught you well. You really are a cop's wife," he said.

"And you, Louis Purnell Grover…" she said in that sultry tone that usually got him all hot and bothered but this time she was saying his full name it was worrying him. "You are in the dog house. Twenty-four hours, no parole."

Grover's mouth dropped in shock, he knew he wasn't going to be able to argue with her. She quickly snatched he gifts he had to offer out of her hands and then she slammed the door shut in his face. God, could this day get any worse?

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Chin had balled out to impress Abby this Valentine's Day. He had made a last minute reservation at Morimoto because Abby wanted to try the braised black cod and to top it off, to end their night they had a nice suit at the Kahala hotel to retire to. Which was where they were now.

He was in bed, he was ready to go, pouring the champagne, waiting for Abby to finish making herself beautiful in the bathroom. Not that she needed any time at all to do that, he thought she was beautiful no matter what, but she wanted to put in the extra effort and he didn't want to bother her so he let her do it.

He was waiting for her, almost on pins and needles, when she came out of the washroom, still in that orange lacy dress she had gone in. But it was the look on her face that had Chin nervous. He didn't know what had happened behind the closed door of that washroom but it had clearly upset her.

He put on his most comforting smile and tried for humour. "Well, that's not quite the entrance I was imagining."

Abby didn't return the smile, nor did she chuckle like he hoped she would. Instead she shook her head at him and whispered: "I… I can't."

She can't? She can't what? Chin straightened in the bed. "What do you mean? What's going on?"

"I'm sorry," she said as she lurched forward to grab her white jacket and the purse she had left by the foot of the bed. She made a mad dash for the floor while Chin made a mad dash to follow her..

"Wait a minute!" he called as he paused to wrap the blanket around him "Are you leav…. ABBY?!"

The door banged shut behind her, and Chin realized he didn't have to put on pants or boxers. He grabbed one of those small towels from the washroom, wrapped it around his waist best he could and then gave chase. Running out into the hallway calling her name and asking her to stop, hoping to catch her before she got to the elevator.

But it was too late. As the elevator doors shut she called out: "Look I made a mistake, I can't," as if that explained what had happened or why she had changed her mind and run out and then Chin was alone in the hallway… realizing that he had left the key to the hotel room in the room and he was in nothing but a towel.

Well… didn't that just fucking suck?

Chin had no choice, he had to go down to the front desk in nothing but a goddamn towel to get a new room key so he could get back into the room he was now going to be alone in. His plan was the get down there as quickly as possible, and hopefully there wouldn't be a line at the front desk. If there was he was hoping his state would get him up to the front so he could hide in that room and drink away the embarrassment and the confusion as to what the hell he had done to chase Abby out of the room.

He was definitely counting on not meeting anyone he knew, and, of course, at his lowest moment he bumped into someone he worked with.

"Lieutenant Kelly," someone asked as he dashed past the sitting area. Chin knew that voice, and he was not happy, but at least it wasn't someone from Five-0. Chin came to a stop.

"Duke?" he asked turning around. He plastered a fake smile on his face and attempted to pretend that he wasn't standing in a fancy hotel lobby in just a towel. "What's going on?"

Duke was sitting beside his wife. Both were dressed up and drinking champagne. They were staring at him in surprise, Duke was trying not to smile, his wife's eyes were wandering up and down Chin's abs.

Duke recovered a little more quickly than either Chin or his wife. "Do you remember my wife, Nalani."

"Yes, of course. It is lovely to see you again, Nalani," he said trying to act as casual as he could when wearing only a towel. There was a beat of awkward silence and then Chin said: "Well… uh… having a lovely evening."

He turned tail and practically sprinted his way. God he just wanted to curl up and die. His Five-0 friends were going to find out about this and NEVER let it go.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Danny, unlike everyone else, opted to wow his date at home, instead of to take her out. He had slaved over dinner, he had folded pink napkins into cute little bunnies. He had the fancy china out, candle light, champagne, roses, it was the epitome of romance and he couldn't wait for Melissa to see it.

When she got to his place, he was struck dumb by the skin tight white dress she had on. Damn his girl looked hot. Her blonde hair was smoothly straightened, her make up was shimmery but subtle. It was perfect. He lead her to the living room where all the romantic things were waiting for her. He was so proud of what he did that he could help it. he presented it all to her with a happy: "Huh?" which loosely translated to "look at all the stuff I did just for you cause I wanted to make you smile."

She stopped dead in her tracks and stared at it all with shock and absolutely happy awe on her face.

"You did this for me?" she asked.

"Yeah. Who else am I gonna do it for? Come on," he said

He helped her to her seat, being sure to pull out the chair for her and everything. They undid the bunnies together before he went to get the food plated.

"Danny these are so adorable," she cooed as she made hers hop around the plate before unfolding it.

He made sure she opened her gift, she loved the perfume, so you know, score a million for Danny. She tried it on immediately and then let him smell her neck. Which might have landed them straight in the bedroom had he not had food waiting to be eaten.

He did his best to plate the Risotto Alla Milanese as best he could, it wasn't perfect but she didn't care. She loved the home-made meal that he had made specially for her. Everything was going great, everything was wonderful and then they exchanged cards. Valentine's that were specifically purchased for one another. He got her a beautiful card, he had no idea it would cause a problem.

And it was something so stupid.

All because her card was signed with, _love Melissa_ and his was signed just, _from Danny_. Which apparently translated to him not feeling the same way about her the same way as she did about him. Which was ridiculous. Danny just wanted all of this to go away, why couldn't they go back to before, when they were fine and having a good time?

"I need you to tell me that you want me to stay," Melissa ordered.

Well that was easy. "Okay, I want you to stay!"

But she didn't like his tone, but of course she was gonna get attitude they were arguing over something stupid.

"Not just tonight," she translated falsely with a scoff.

And this kept going. On and on. It was like it was never ending. Like she just wasn't gong to think reasonably.

Danny, propped up against a chair, sighed again. "Look, look, I… I… I care about you very, very much, okay? I… I love spending time with you. I don't understand what the problem is."

"You can't say it, can you?" she asked, her arms folded over her chest.

"I can say it," he told her. "People say it all the time. They say it a million times a day, and it doesn't mean anything. I say it, it means something."

She nodded like she understood. "Ah. Right. Okay, well, you've never said it to me."

"That is not true. Does that…? That's actually true? Is that true?"

Had he not? Really? He thought he had, he thought she knew. But then again, Steve had said the same thing about Rowan, when he was refusing to give her the label she wanted, and look how that had worked out for his best friend.

But, just like his best friend, he was too afraid to tell Melissa he loved her. So he immediately changed the topic. "Is this about Rachel?"

"No! This is about how much time you make for me! About whether or not I'm a priority!" she cried. Great it was the work conversation, also something Steve and Rowan argued about. How work was more important to him.

He didn't want to end up like Steve. Granted Melissa didn't have a criminal brother who could help her disappear but that didn't mean he wanted to break up with her over a card on Valentine's Day.

"You are a priority!" he said and then repeated it two more time so she got it. "You are! Okay?"

But she didn't get it. So, she shook her head and shouted: "You're not listening!"

"YES I AM!" he shouted back.

And from there it all down hill and, despite his shrink telling him never to do so, they went to bed angry, though luckily together even though he didn't get laid. God, who would have thought that it would be a card that got them in the end. In all his pessimistic wondering about the future ending with Melissa, at no point did he think a Valentine's Day card was going to be what did them in.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve and Lynn crashed into his house, attached by the mouth. The good-night kiss clearly about to turn into something else.

To make up for his freak out about Rowan's sweater he had pulled out all the stops. A private room at Morimoto's. He had amped up the romance, and they had had a lovely evening. Thus leading him to this very moment, where the two of them were making out and trying to navigate his living room.

She got him to the couch, straddled him for a bit, before she decided to make up for that morning's argument.

She put on the song: "Nothing but the Hat" and gave him a bit of a strip tease, or at least, the beginning part.

She only got to take off her jacket and one shoe. She kicked the first one at him which he caught easily but the second one, yeah, that one wasn't so easy to catch.

Instead, Steve got a 4 to 5 inch heel to the face, knocking stars into his eyes and turning his world fuzzy and black. Steve groaned, Lynn yelped, she rushed to his side to help him. She kept apologizing over and over again, and Steve kept saying it was fine. Except it wasn't cause he couldn't see out of one eye and it hurt like a son-of-a-bitch.

Then she was trying to help him. Trying to pry his hand away from his face so she could see the damage. He wanted her off him, he wanted her to just stop for a second so he could get a hold of himself again.

He blamed the shoe to the head. Because instead of asking Lynn to just let him be for a minute he said: "For fuck sake just stop it, Rowan!"

Silence hit the living room. He heard her name and his heart fractured. He knew what was coming next.

"Who's Rowan?"

God. Steve didn't want to have this conversation. He just didn't. "She's… she's just…" he started and then she sighed. "She's someone I used to work with alright?"

It wasn't a full lie. She did used to help him with cases, all of the time. So you know. But Lynn didn't like being called Ro, she sure as hell didn't like being called Rowan. So she huffed away to get him ice, but Steve knew the night was already ruined.

Yeah, he wasn't getting laid tonight, he was going to get some ice and go straight to fucking bed.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan woke up to find herself already on the floor of her washroom. Wonderful, cause she was about to vomit.

She lurched over to the toilet, expelled all the hateful poison in her stomach and then watch the swirling vortex take the entirely green vomit away from her.

Great. Just great.

What did she do last night? She went to a bar. She went to get drunk and she must have succeeded in her quest to do so, because she didn't remember a fucking thing past getting there. She knew she had started out drinking tequila, which was not her drink of choice but she was drinking away a broken, lonely heart last night. But she clearly didn't stop at tequila because she had severe memory loss and green vomit coming out of hr.

"CON!" she shouted on the top of her lungs and somewhere in her room there was a thump. Good. She hoped he fell right off her bed. The idiot.

"What?" came at her from the door. "What are you screaming about so early in the morning?"

Rowan turned a dark glare to him. "My puke is green!" she cried accusingly. "It's green and I can't remember last night!"

Conejo blinked his bleary eyes at her and then his face settled into a glare. "For fuck sake, Rowan. How the hell is that my problem!"

"Did you give me Absinthe again?"

"No. You demanded it Rowan," he snapped. Rowan groaned at him and threw herself back to the floor. "Don't you get all dramatic with me. You demanded I give you something to make you forget and then, when I wasn't looking, you climbed up onto the bar, started a bar wide chant and chugged the bottle down. Honestly I'm surprised your quest to forget didn't fucking kill you."

Yeah. So was she.

"Forget what?!" she cried even though she knew the answer.

Conejo didn't have to tell her but he must have been highly annoyed because he quickly snapped: "Steven fucking McGarrett."

Of course. Of course. Her first Valentine's Day without him. Her first Valentine's Day mourning his presence. She didn't want to be single. She didn't want to be away from him. She just wanted him back. Was that so much to ask for?

"Did you drink with me?" she asked. When he nodded, she scowled and _tsked_ at him. "Oh my god, and you're not even hung over. You disgust me!"

"It's not my fault I can hold my liquor better than you," he said with a shrug. When Rowan glared at him a smirk donned his face. "Would you like some breakfast? I'm thinking extra greasy bacon and eggs fried up in the left over bacon grease…"

At the mention of greasy food her stomach churned and protested. Rowan groaned again and lurched up and scrambled to the toilet.

"Alright, I'll leave you to it," he said as he moved away from the doorway. He paused and even hunched over the toilet she could feel his smirk on her. "Oh and by the way, I think we slept together last night."

Rowan groaned once more. A brief flash of what had happened last night flashed through her mind. A frenzied stripping, hands where they shouldn't be, tongues dueling, her attempting to climb someone like a tree.

Kay, well out of everyone in the compound at least she ended up sleeping with the one person she was most comfortable with. She didn't even want to know how it would have gone if the person waking up in her room with her was one of the guards, or worse JC.

"I hope you had a happy Valentine's Day!" he called as he left her room. The bang of the door echoing behind him.

Worst. Valentine's Day ever. But at least she didn't remember it. She could just pretend it didn't happen.


	245. Chapter 245

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Friday my wonderful readers! We're getting double chapters tonight! Or you're getting one tomorrow, depends on how quickly I can type and edit. I'm shook I missed Wednesday cause this chapter was done and ready to go. I just… I unno, school, work and co-op are killing me right now. Anyway! We're almost there. We have one more chapter attached to the Valentine's Day episode and then we're moving right on to the fun stuff. In this chapter I've got a surprise for you guys, we have a character returning briefly. So AJ if you're out there, here's the return of the character I created for you. Hope you love her appearance in this chapter. One more chapter before the drama! Are you as excited as I am? Don't forget to leave a review and I'll see you guys on Monday._

Chapter 245

* * *

They had all exchanged their horror Valentine's Day stories over the last four days. Starting with Grover who actually forgot Valentine's Day, then to Chin who was left butt naked except for a towel in a hotel lobby when his date ran out of him and he forgot the key to the hotel room in the room. To Danny who didn't sign _love Danny_ on a card to Melissa and started world war three with her. But no one could get the story of how Steve got a black eye out of him. He just refused to let it go.

But with their _Strangers on a Train_ case finally solved and closed, the team gave Steve no choice but to open up to them, he just didn't want to do it at the hospital where they had to arrest their murderer. Or… well… one of them anyway, the only one left alive.

They had gone to Kamekona's to share a drink and some shrimp and listen to Steve's tale, which… well… was both sad and embarrassing at once. It was a story he just really didn't want to share.

When they got there, they found Jerry all dressed up as if he were waiting for a date, which, as it turned out, that was what he was waiting for. The mystery lady had not wanted to do the whole tacky Valentine's Day date, so they agreed to meet up late. The problem was he didn't know if she got off work and he wouldn't know until he got a text.

Once they got off the topic of Jerry and his date, which Steve was hoping they wouldn't do, he was forced to open up. It was only fair, all of his friends had told him about their nights. So he told them about the morning and how it went. He tried to downplay how freaked out he had been that the sweater had been worn by someone other than Rowan, especially when it was really the only thing he had left that still smelled of her.

But that didn't explain the black eye that he was sporting and it made him acutely aware of how pathetic he was where it came to Rowan.

At least the black eye didn't have anything to do with her. Just Lynn's bad aim and Steve's delayed reaction, that lead to him getting a high heel to his face. He purposely left out that he had called her Rowan and then lied about who Rowan was, that was very much a just him and Danny conversation.

The team laughed at the story, and Steve tried not to be annoyed, and to remind himself that he had laughed and teased everyone else about their stories. Luckily he wasn't in the hot seat for as long as everyone else, as Jerry's date finally showed up.

"Hey Jerry!" AJ called leaning in to kiss him. "Sorry I'm late, they kept me at the office for a briefing I really didn't need to be a part of."

AJ smiled to the table. She was in a white pant suit with a pink shirt. She had straightened her dark brown hair, and had put make up on, so she was definitely trying to look her best for this date. She was already muscling in on the spot that Chin was in, which was right across from Jerry who was beaming. He handed AJ the box of chocolates he had purchased her, while she handed him a file.

"You get to read it and then I take it back," she said. Wow she was really giving him a going above and beyond on the whole Valentine's Day gift thing this year. He had never known her to be that thoughtful.

"Ajax!" Steven cried getting up to give her a hug. "I didn't know you were in town!"

"Cause I wasn't here to see you. I'm here for 48 hours best. And I'm spending it with Jerry, thank you very much. Clear off we want privacy."

She let Steve hug her, but that was all the group needed to realize that it was time to go. They all splintered off to go home. But they were all very surprised to find that Adam was waiting for Kono. They didn't know he was coming down and they were surprised he didn't want to sit at the table with them.

Steve knew that, since Rowan leaving, they had all been very sensitive on the topic of including people. Rowan had always felt like an outsider with them, and he figured that all stuck with them, that they thought that she hadn't reached out to them because she thought them his friends before hers.

Out of everyone, Kono did not have a disaster story to tell everyone. Her and Adam had had a wonderful night. They too had gone to Morimoto, something that had annoyed poor Grover to no end considering he had tried to get a last minute reservation and failed. Adam had gifted her with new gun, a specialty gun with pearl inlay, more for decoration than use, and Kono had gotten his favourite watch completely redone as it had originally been smashed with Gabriel had been torturing them.

They had retired back to his place where they waltzed to slow music, and eventually went to bed for some more private entertainment.

So yeah, nothing to tease about there.

When they noticed Adam they all went over to say hello and once the pleasantries were out of the way Adam looked to his wife and asked: "Did you show them the video?"

All eyes swung to Kono whose eyes were wide, because clearly she had not shown them the video and she hadn't wanted to. "No, remember, we agreed that we should keep the video to ourselves," she reminded him between grit teeth.

A soft glance in Steve's direction, meant to be a clue to Adam to shut up, was the tipoff that whatever that video was about, it had something to do with Rowan.

"Show me," Steve ordered immediately.

"Boss… it's really not… it's not…"

"I don't care, show me," he repeated and Kono sighed.

"Alright, but… don't take it the wrong way."

She fiddled with her phone for a bit, obviously looking for the video to show him. "It's not a nice video, you won't… you won't like it," she said to him as she handed him the phone. The still was just of Rowan, standing on a bar, a bottle already to her lips. She was in the same dress she had been wearing on her Birthday, her hair was pin straight, her make up was glitzy and sparkling, and she was in those red bottom heels still. She looked lovely and already he was having a hard time with this.

Kono winced at the face he was making. "It's why I didn't tell you about it…"

It was nice of her to try and warn him, but Steve didn't listen, he pressed play. Immediately there was a clamour of noise.

The whole bar was chanting two words, over and over, in a punctuated beat. _Fuck Steve_. Rowan stood on that bar chugging something green from a bottle. She had a crowd of men around her feet. Of course she did they were probably trying to see up her skirt. She finished the bottle, threw it down to the ground where he was certain it shattered, to a cacophony of cheers and applause as if she had just won award. When she was done, she just turned and dropped, where one of the men below her, the one in the leather jacket, caught her with relative ease.

Steve hated how mirrored that position was to one that he always called theirs. Stupid really, to think that she wouldn't want other men to carry her in the same way, that bridal style. But to watch her arms wind around that man's neck, her face closing in on his so she could kiss him… well… she might as well have shot him in the heart, it hurt so much.

Steve stopped the video but did not return the phone to Kono. "When did you get this?"

"Last night, round 9ish," she whispered. Okay, so if Colombia was about five hours ahead, that meant Rowan had been out drinking round three or four. So… now she had a wild partying streak? Or had she always had it and pretended she didn't for his benefit? Because he sure as hell wasn't in the party phase anymore but Rowan was… well… Rowan was almost a decade younger than him. What if she had waned to go out and… he hadn't… he couldn't give her that life. "I... I didn't want to tell you. It was just so weird and it's not the nicest video… and I unno… I just thought you..."

She thought he'd react badly. Well good assumption he definitely wasn't taking that video positively. Not that he could. Steve pulled up her text conversation and found that she had a conversation from a blank number. Just like all the others. "It just came out of nowhere, you know?"

It had started with just texts.

 _Happy Valentine's Day, I hope you're having fun with Adam._

 _I'm really glad I got Wo Fat to pay back his debt, cause you were supposed to be crying right now cause he was gonna go to jail. He's not in jail right now right?_

 _Oh my god I miss my bitch so much. Wish you were here!_

 _Wanna see what I'm doing?_

And a couple minutes after that the video came in.

Steve finally handed her back her phone, where Danny then snatched it up so he, Chin and Grover could watch it themselves. Steve didn't want to see that video again, and he cringed when the chant of _Fuck Steve_ started up again.

"Thanks for showing me," he said, already moving away from his friends before they could ask him if he was alright and he'd be forced to lie to them. "I uh… I have plans with Lynn… well… she wants to come over anyway, so I'm gonna…"

That wasn't really all that true either. Originally he had told her he was too tired to hang out but now, now he wanted company. Maybe he'd make his own _Fuck Rowan_ video except he'd be having ex with some random girl and send it off to Kong to send to her. See how she liked that.

Damn Steve hadn't been this mad at her since he found out she had lied about being in contact with Wo Fat after the man had shot her. He kind of wished she was there so he could yell at her.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

It had been four days since she and Conejo had slept together the last time. After their initial discussion to stop there was only one drunken slip up, but for the last couple of months they had been very good. Their last time had been her birthday, but that was drunken birthday sex and they both decided that it had meant nothing. It almost surprised her that it had happened again, except for the fact that she knew the catalyst was Valentine's Day and her unwillingness (according to her mother/shrink) to let go of her feelings for Steve.

What was worse was that Conejo had pulled away. He didn't want to talk to her, he didn't want to be around her, or at least, that's what it felt like. She was flummoxed as to why, and like a truly desperate girl she clung to him, afraid to lose the last little bit of comfort she had. Not because she had feelings for him but because she really didn't want to be alone.

Especially since Wo Fat was _still_ gone.

Usually Con would be there when she woke up, or at least be outside the door. But today he was nowhere to be found. She went first to his room, which was across the hall from hers, but he wasn't there. Then she went to the kitchen, and he wasn't there, and then she went to the patio. Not there either.

She finally found him in the courtyard though, talking with JC. He was in a nice black suit, his hair was gelled back baring the forehead she swore she had never seen before because Conejo liked his hair shaggy and he had a bouquet of flowers in his hands.

"Where are we going?" she asked, hopping onto his back like she usually did when she wanted to annoy him. Conejo usually would wrap his arms around her legs to support her better, knowing that if he didn't she'd wrap them around his stomach. Then he'd give her a bit of a piggy back ride.

Today he grabbed her arms and twisted until she let go and dropped to the floor. She yelped loudly at the slight pain he inflicted. He had never intentionally hurt her before. Not true he had tackled her once, but it was to prove a point. He had never been physically malicious before.

"Hey!" she cried but he ignored her.

"I have business today," he snapped. "You're staying here with JC."

"Business?" Rowan echoed as one of the black cars with tinted windows drove up. "What kind of business?"

"The kind of business that's none of yours," he growled.

"But… can't I come with you? I'll just stay in the car, I won't be any trouble at all."

"Yeah right," he snapped finally turning to look at her. "Look we both know you won't just stay in the car. And besides I just want to be alone today, okay? Can I have that? Can one day, for once, not be about you?!"

Rowan blinked her eyes, she hadn't expected that. Sure she had never really gone into the reason as to why she didn't like to be alone with him, but he had always respected her reluctance to be alone.

She really didn't like the idea of being alone with barely anyone she knew in this mansion. Well, except for JC, but things hadn't been the same since they slept together.

"I'm sorry," she whispered and for a moment it looked like Conejo would relent.

"I'll be back before dinner," he said instead and Rowan nodded. As the car drove away JC approached her.

"Hey, I'mma swim some laps, maybe grab your guitar or maybe your bathing suit if you wanna swim with me?"

Rowan nodded trying to feign that she was alright but she wasn't. Not really. Conejo had been acting weird for weeks. And she wanted to know why. She knew it wasn't all her fault. She was fairly certain it wasn't all about the incident where they had slept together four days ago. And with JC swimming and all of Con's lessons in self-defence and self-preservation at her discretion, she knew that she had the skills to follow after him without being spotted.

Today Rowan would figure out what had Conejo acting so weird. She'd just have to get dressed first.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Lynn had been surprised when Danny called her, especially because she hadn't know that Danny had her number. She knew very little about Danny except that he was Steve's closest and most annoying friend. The two times she had met him, one double date with Danny and his girlfriend Melissa, and one work event at a bar, the two of them had done nothing but argue.

It was kind of worrying the amount of marital bickering the two did. Between Danny and Catherine, Lynn had been worried that the scraps of Steve's emotions were all taken up by them and all she truly had to offer him was sex. But that was an unreasonable worry, and she had refused to voice it or hold onto it that tightly, in fact she sort of chose not to think about it.

But now he wanted to talk to her and she had a feeling it had to do with the ring she had found four days ago. Something she and Steve hadn't really discussed but then again he had been super apologetic and romantic the night after and she had clocked him with her shoe. Then he was on a case and the discussion just never happened.

She smiled when Danny sat in front of her in the coffee shop that he asked to meet her in. She had her coffee and he had his. And he didn't look like he was about to chew her out for clocking his best friend with her high heel or for causing an issue with that ring.

"I'm gonna be quick, cause apparently you're going over to see him tonight," he said which was news to her, because as far as she knew Steve was tired and didn't want to see her, though she did have an unchecked text from him, so maybe that's what that was about. "I heard what happened on Valentine's Day. Uh… nice aim with the shoe."

"I didn't do it on purpose," she said with a scowl but Danny was chuckling, alright so he found that funny. She figured that was a good sign. Maybe this wasn't going to be _that_ kind of talk

"Yeah, yeah, but it was still funny," he said. "No, I'm more a little worried about the morning's events…"

"I was just a little surprised to find out that he was going to propose, you know? I don't want to be a rebound."

Danny took that in. "And there wasn't… anything else weird about his behaviour?"

"Well I mean he freaked out about the sweater, but I figure its Catherine's… I mean it was with the ring. Right on top of it actually."

Danny nodded. Was this really about the sweater? Yeah she had thought it weird that he was so frantic to get it off of her, that he seemed to go catatonic once he had it back, but she had been focusing on the ring and how she felt. It was a just a sweater after all, what could have gotten him so worked up about a sweater?

"He… uh… has he told you about Ro yet?"

It was the way he said it that her narrowing her eyes. "Yes. Ro is just a nickname for Catherine, cause her last name was Rollins."

"Huh."

Oh, well that wasn't good, now was it? "That's not it, is it?"

"I didn't say that," Danny said quickly. "I'm just trying to figure out how much you've been made aware of."

Yeah like that wasn't ominous. "He's never mentioned a Rowan?"

"Uh… yeah, after I hit him with the shoe he called me Rowan… but he said that was a coworker of his. Is that Ro? Is there someone else I have to worry about?"

"A coworker?" he asked, his eyebrows shooting up his forehead. "Sure. Sure we can call her that. Look, no you don't have to worry about her, she's gone… and she's not coming back." She opened her mouth to argue but he shook his head. "Look it's not my story to tell, but Ro broke him okay? You're not a rebound, honestly. He's actually trying really hard. He likes you, we all know he does, so just please… please give him some time, he's trying really hard to deal with it."

"Wait? That's it?" Lynn asked sensing that the conversation between them was clearly done. "But… so… who's Ro? Is Ro Catherine or Rowan?"

"I told you, this isn't my story to tell," Danny repeated. "This should all come from him not me. I'm just asking you to give him a chance to tell you."

Lynn seemingly realized that that was all she was going to get from him. She thanked Danny for his time and then left it there. Danny would just have to pray that it would work. Steve needed the distraction. He wasn't sure the man could take yet another girl leaving him.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Conejo didn't like being here, but whenever he was in Colombia he came to visit them. And he always tried to be here on the anniversary or close to it. This year he got the right date, got himself all fancy and bought an expensive bouquet to take to them.

He walked carefully through the tombstones to the desired plot. He put the bouquet into the vase, taking the old dried up ones out, before kneeling down in front of the tombstone.

He always visited Mari and Emil first, he'd visit his mom and sister later. He was often told to just talk to them, that talking would make it better, but he didn't know what to say. Mari would have been so disappointed at what he had become, of the things he had done.

Most of the time he'd just sit there and stare at them, thinking of what he used to have and wishing for that bright future he thought he'd have. But this time he wasn't alone.

He groaned when he spotted her, bouquet in hand dropping them in the vase with his flowers. Conejo sighed as Rowan knelt down beside him.

"One day. That's all I asked for. One day without you smothering me. One day on my own."

It was a cruel thing to say, he knew that she was concerned for him, he knew that out of everyone he interacted with that she was the most observant, would notice the changes in him. Just as Rowan knew that he hadn't asked for much but she couldn't help it. He had been acting so weird and she was worried.

"I'm sorry. I just wanted to make sure you were okay… and well… no one should ever have to come to a cemetery alone," she said. She looked down at all the names. She didn't know who any of these people were. Sebastian Falcon-Gonzales. Marisol Garcia-Rodriguez, and Emilano Falcon-Rodriguez.

They all died on the same day. Today actually. February 18th 2010. Emilano was barely three.

"Is this your family?" Conejo sighed at her but nodded. He gave her nothing else. "Your brother?"

"I don't like talking about it, Rowan," he answered and that should have been the cue to let it go. But Rowan never listened to him.

"But they all died today… and you're obviously sad… I could help you…"

"Help me what?" he thundered, turning on her. Conejo rarely yelled at her but there was something different about this outburst. "That's not going to bring them back? Is it? Me telling you what happened and crying about it is not going to bring my son back! So let it go! Okay?"

Rowan took that in with wide eyes of surprise. It wasn't often that Conejo yelled at her. She looked back at the tombstone took in all the names and all the dates. Sebastian would have been their age if he was alive so he couldn't have been the son. So that meant…

"You had a son?" she asked and then blinked her eyes. Understanding dawned on her and she turned back to the headstone. "Your name is Sebastian?" Conejo groaned clearly frustrated with her and she winced. "I'm sorry. You're right. I'll be quiet."

They were silent for two seconds before she couldn't hold it in anymore. "So… but… what happened to them?"

Conejo groaned again and she started to apologize when he finally turned to her. "If I tell you, will you shut up?" he asked her and Rowan nodded. "And you won't tell anyone?"

Rowan nodded eagerly.

Conejo sighed. "Alright. Fine. Yes. My name is Sebastian Falcon-Gonzales. My dad was uh... a drug cartel enforcer, my mom was a drug mule. She uh… took me to the States when I was three and left me there, wanted me to have a good life. I uh… bounced from foster home to foster home instead. Some were fine some weren't so… fine. My uh… my favourite was in Texas, got to ride horses every day…"

"Oh so that's why you like country music!" Rowan cried and he nodded, almost smiling.

"Uh… when I got old enough I went looking for my mom, found her when I was 19. She was a little better off but not by much… my older sister… Maria, she recognized me right away, she uh… she's the only who gave me my nickname. She always used to say: _Rapido como un conejito_."

"Quick as a bunny," Rowan translated. Secretly she was touched that he had given her a nickname that belonged to his family.

"I uh… I met Marisol that year. She was uh… waitress at a local bar, fell head over heels for her."

"Aw I bet she was pretty," Rowan said with a dreamy smile and Conejo smiled almost sadly as well. "Wait. Marisol… Mari! You called me Mari. You meant her!"

"Yeah, sometimes you kind of remind me of her. She never took my shit either," Conejo said with a wry laugh. "Anyway… I uh… I fell in love with her, so I moved out of Texas and moved down here, in with my mom to help out and stay with Mari. I worked at the bar with her, as a bouncer and bartender, finished my university down there. Then I… uh… applied and got into law school down in Colombia…"

"Really which one?"

"Sergio Arboleda in Bogata," he answered. "Uhm then you know… I was starting Law school when Emil was born and I was happy, but law school and babies are expensive and I needed more income so I… I joined a cartel."

Rowan was wincing at him and he just sighed. "Yeah, I know, stupid. But you know. I just wanted to give my girlfriend everything she deserved and my son everything I never got…" he whispered. "It wasn't much to begin with. Was just a bouncer, watched doors to make sure no one interrupted meetings, I mean I eventually graduated to a bag man, just you know, picked up and doled out bribes. I didn't really feel like it was a real you know… bad thing."

"But it was wasn't it?" she asked.

"It was. I was finishing law school when it happened. Marisol… she had found out where I was getting the extra cash from and she said… you know… we didn't need it now. I'd be a good lawyer, I was a good man who'd help people so I… I agreed to get out, but getting out is hard and he didn't want to let me go and… I mean, he said it. He said, families are dangerous things to have, because it leaves you open to heart ache, and I told him, I'd end him if he touched my family, that I had enough evidence to put him away forever. So we agreed, one more job and then I get to leave, and of course, I'd hand over my evidence."

Rowan nodded like she understood, like she knew where this was going to go and she did.

"So I did the job, handed over the evidence and went home. But… when I got there… they were all just in the front entrance waiting for me, left there like garbage. My mother, my sister, Marisol, and Emil. All laid out in the foyer of my home. Throats slit," he said. "There was all this blood everywhere and… I mean… I knew who did it but they wouldn't… I knew the cops wouldn't… they'd let him get away with it."

Rowan nodded. "Okay. So… if that's you…" she said pointing to the grave with his real name carved into it and Conejo scoffed.

"I needed the element of surprise. Blew up my car with one of his drug pushers inside, no one gave a shit, they didn't even question it," he whispered. "And then I… I got my family justice."

"You did?"

"I did. I mean, I used to hunt, I grew up in Texas I knew my way around guns. I thought I'd have problems… killing people… killing children, but I put on the rabbit mask…"

"Oh that's when that started?"

"We all needed an alias, I chose Conejo, he used to tease me about it but… I wanted him to know that it was me, even before I took the mask off."

"Wait so you killed the children?"

"All three of them, yes. I uh… I started with his relatives, you know? The nephews and uncles he had working for him. I killed his elderly parents. His sisters and their husbands and kids. But those were all sniper shots or car bombs or other such accidents. I was distanced from it and I think that helped. Then when he was truly afraid, when he understood someone was pick his family off one by one, I went for his family. He took them somewhere safe, some nice compound like Armando's as if that was going to stop me. I took out his guards, killed his wife, and his three daughters, and just like he did to me, I left them in the front of the house for him to find. Except… when he found his family, when he pulled his eldest daughter into his arms to see if he could shake her back to life, I showed up, took off my mask, let him know it was me and why this had happened and I put a fucking bullet in his head."

"Okay… well… I guess… I mean… that's a little twisted…"

"I thought I'd feel better but no one told me… no one told me it wouldn't go away. So there I am surrounded by death, my vengeance is complete and the pain was still there, still suffocating me, still burning in my chest and… I couldn't… I couldn't make it go away," he said. "But I was good at this and I was angry so I pushed everyone away and just started… killing… except kids, I can't do kids anymore."

Rowan thought about it a moment. "Well… you know… that's a perfectly reasonable reaction," she said to him and Conejo turned to her surprised. "I mean… look at what Wo did to Riku Sato, I mean, I know I'm not supposed to know about it, but I heard what he did…"

"That wasn't grief. He wasn't mourning you. That was unbridled rage."

"Okay fine, bad example. Okay, Batman! Batman never got over the loss of his parents and became probably the creepiest super hero on the planet!"

Conejo laughed at that. "Yeah except I'm not a superhero."

"You are to me."

That seemed to startle him. He stared at her in shocked earnest like he had no idea she would say that to him, that she would think that of him.

"You're a year older than me," she said suddenly. "You're 31."

"I was twenty four when I stopped living. Technically Sin Nombre is 7…"

"Who cares about that! You're only a year older than me! I swear I thought you were older."

Conejo turned a dry glare onto her. "Yeah. Thanks for that."

"How old were you when Emiliano was born?"

"Twenty-one… why does that matter…"

"And Mari! I bet she was super cool!" Rowan cried. "Tell me all about her, was she super pretty? OH! How did you and her meet? Was it romantic AF?!"

She was so animated and excited that Conejo almost forgot that he was supposed to be sad. He realized then that she was doing it on purpose. She was getting him to talk about the good things and he almost burst into tears right then and there. Because he didn't deserve a girl as special as Rowan, but she had definitely acknowledged that his family deserved something more than his silent vigil and new flowers.

So, as Conejo was used to doing, he indulged her.


	246. Chapter 246

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hey there my wonderful readers. Here is that Friday post I promised you. We got to see a bit of Conejo's back story, including his real name. We're just this chapter away from the Drama and the official half point of this season! I'm so excited for what's about to happen and I hope you guys are too. Don't forget to leave a review and I'll see you guys on Monday._

Chapter 246

* * *

Steve looked at the contact on his phone. Rowan's contact and the picture that went with it. That beautiful silken stare she had, pinned right on him. He had been pressing the delete contact button over and over, but every time he got to the confirm part, he'd change his mind. He felt so uneasy about this simple step, but still he couldn't bring himself to erase her from his life.

He was sitting out on the beach in his chair, watching the water come in. After that afternoon, the video of Rowan, Steve was… well… mad.

 _Fuck Steve_. Really? That was her Valentine's Day? Chugging alcohol in a bar and kissing strange men who caught her when she felt like trust falling off of a bar? That wasn't nice, now was it? If that was how she was behaving, she obviously didn't love him anymore, if she loved him at all.

He was done with this. He was done with her.

So, without a second more of hesitation, he pressed confirm.

As soon as it was done regret hit his system but he used the anger about the situation to tamp it down. When Lynn appeared, having decided to accept his off to come over and make up for giving him a black eye, he wasn't as distraught to see her wearing that grey sweater over her tank top. He let her take the seat that had once belonged to Rowan as she handed him a beer.

He took one sip before putting it to his sore eye.

She smiled at him and he found himself smiling back, his phone discarded, no longer thinking about Rowan… well… that much anyway, when suddenly…

"Who's Ro?"

Steve jolted. He hadn't been expecting that and it surprised him to hear her say that name.

"What are you… why are you?"

"Danny talked to me today," she said. God damn it he was going to kill Danny. "The way he asked… if you had told me about Ro yet… I mean, I know you said she was Catherine… a nick name for her, but it sounds like… like maybe it's not… and then he mentioned Rowan…"

 _Danny had done what?!_

God, he didn't know how to explain Rowan to Lynn. She had taken the ring badly, if he explained who Rowan was… well… she definitely wouldn't talk it well. And he didn't want things to end just yet, not when he was certain this was all he needed to get past his obsession with her.

"Rowan… Rowan was a co-worker… they're not… it's just… she's not… you know, it's not important…"

"I just don't want you to hide things from me anymore Steven."

He sighed. Okay, okay, maybe… maybe he could come clean about Rowan and things would be alright. Maybe she wouldn't take it as a bad thing, maybe she wouldn't think she was just a rebound. He sighed deeply and put down his beer.

"Alright, alright, come with me," he said and then together they went back to the house. He took her up the stairs and into the room he told her not to go into. She looked around at the cluttered dusty place as if surprised it was there. And of course she would be, he had mentioned Nahele in passing but he had never mentioned that Nahele was a past foster kid… that Nahele had lived with him.

He went to the desk, and picked up the closest picture frame. Then he showed it to her. This picture frame housed his favourite picture of him, Nahele and Rowan and tried not to wince at the happy faces staring back at him. He had asked for the photo from Nahele when it appeared again, he meant to scan it in so he could have it on his phone, but Nahele had given him the whole frame. And, because he couldn't bear to look at it, he kept it in Nahele's room.

She took it from him carefully. Holding onto it as if it were precious to her. She looked at the faces carefully before asking: "Who are these people?"

"My family," he whispered. "They're… they're gone now and I'm never going to get them back."

She narrowed her eyes at the picture, sure enough she noticed it, the edges of grey framing Rowan's shoulders. "Oh… this sweater was hers…"

That realization made her uncomfortable, he could see it on her face. She wanted it off and to be fair, he wanted it off of her too. Even if it no longer smelled like Rowan. "Well… it was mine… but she always wore it," he said.

"So… what happened to the kid when Catherine left?" she asked and Steve blanked for a moment… Lynn thought this was she was Catherine? It was right there, the opportunity to come clean. He should have corrected her, but then he would have had to explain why he had a ring for Catherine but a kid with Rowan and well… he couldn't bring himself to do it.

"CPS took him… I applied for custody but uh… my job is too volatile, work hours aren't flexible, bullshit like that."

"Oh a double rejection… first Catherine then the kid… I get it," she said softly. "I'm sorry…"

"I didn't mean to yell at you… it's just that… the sweater smelled of her… it was all I had left…"

"You talk about her like she died…"

Steve glanced down at the picture. In a way she had died. "She's dead to me," he said knowing it was a lie. Rowan wasn't dead to him, she was lost to him. But if he could, if that option were there to have her back in his life, if she were to show up on his door step tomorrow, tears in her eyes asking to come back, he would take her. No questions asked. No matter how mad at her he was.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

When they got back from the cemetery Rowan had let Conejo return to his room and didn't bother him. She even had lunch and dinner sent up, without him asking. It was like she had realized that he couldn't be around people and that he just needed to be on his own for the time being.

By night time he found that he couldn't stay still. He took a bottle of tequila and made his way up to the roof so he could look at the stars and feel smaller in the grand scheme of things. Feeling small made him feel better, reminded him that in the grand scheme of things he was just a tiny little speck that didn't matter. That this was all just some piece of dust in some giant celestial god's eye.

It was kind of like an existential crisis, except he used it to feel less sad that his family was gone and more depressed about how meaningless all of this was.

It was stark reminder that he had never really grieved his family. He had gotten angry, he had raged at his circumstances, he had gotten that revenge he wanted. But when it was all over, when the pain and that emptiness came back, he just… he smothered it with greed, alcohol and death. Sometimes he wondered if he was even human or if the death of his family had turned him into some kind of demon straight from hell.

He must have been up there for an hour, or however long it took him to get through half a bottle when Rowan appeared. Her head just popping up over the edge of the roof like a little gopher.

"Oh! Here you are!" she cried as she pulled herself up. Conejo replied by simply taking another swig out of the bottle. "What are you doing up here?"

"Looking at the stars."

"Cool, I like star gazing," she said as she carefully moved towards him. It wasn't an invitation but he knew better than to argue with her. He put a hand out so she could hold onto him, more because he wanted a grip on her in case she fell and less because she actually needed the help. "Back home, my dad turned the attic of our house into an observatory. All the walls, even the roof, all of it was glass, and you could just lie there under the stars. It was my favourite place in the whole house. Especially on rainy days."

Conejo turned to her, letting her take the tequila from him, watching as she took a sip and made that disgusted face she always made. He kept telling her to stop drinking it if she didn't like the taste but she never listened.

"Okay, seriously. What's going on with you? You gotta tell me why I can't find a lick of evidence of you existing before 2012 but you got this rich history that you can conveniently pull out of no where. Spill. Now."

But Rowan didn't spill. Instead she just sighed. "I don't like talking about my past," she whispered. "My therapist says I try to cope with the pain by ignoring it. That if I pretend like it's not there, that it doesn't exist, then neither does my pain. It's a very unhealthy way to deal with stuff like that."

Okay, well he understood that, the not wanting to talk about the past so he was willing to drop it for now. But she was crazy if she thought he wasn't going to make her open up about something tonight, not after she got him to open up.

"Okay, yeah. I can see that. Is that what you're doing with Steven?" Conejo asked. "Cause if you are… it's not working. Valentine's Day proved that."

Rowan frowned. "Yeah. I unno. It's harder to pretend that none of that happened. For starters I'm still having nightmares about… Japan… and Paris… and now… you know… the Diego thing. And it was all… I guess… much worse than my previous traumas… and I'm getting older now so maybe I'm growing out of it?"

Conejo nodded. "That's true. It also doesn't help that the pain of loosing someone like that doesn't really go away, you know?" he said. "I mean, it's been at least six years since… you know…. and I swear, sometimes it feels like it happened yesterday, you know?"

Rowan carefully looked at him. "It… it doesn't?" she asked in a soft voice and his eyes narrowed.

"Well… I mean…"

"I was hoping… was hoping that someday it would stop hurting so much… cause it… right now… I feel like it's drowning me, you know?"

He opened his mouth to tell her that he was just different, that he was certain if she put her mind to it she could get over what he couldn't. Instead he said: "Come on now, it's not that bad."

"But… it is. And when it's not hurting… sometimes I just feel empty, like I'm nothing but this walking black abyss," she cried. She turned to him took in his look of what he thought was pity and seemed to take it for something else. "Okay, yeah, you know what, that sounds really stupid," she suddenly told him and he for a second it's confused. "I mean, compared what to what you went through… what you lost… you've suffered a real loss and know real pain. But I sometimes… sometimes I really wish I had lost him, that it might have been easier if one of us had died. But Steve isn't dead, he isn't gone, he's just gone to me. And sometimes that just hurts worse… you know. Because he wasn't stolen from me, he wasn't taken, he simply chose… someone else. I just don't know why I wasn't good enough? Why wouldn't he love me?"

Conejo watched her fold in on herself, tears in his own eyes. He hadn't shown this much emotion since he had lost his family, he had forced himself to be numb to it. But sitting there on that roof with that girl, sobbing about her own heart ache he felt a little more human than he had before climbing up there.

He put an arm around her shoulder and pulled her tight. "You are good enough, okay?" he said. "I know I haven't known you long, but in the time I have known you… you've been… you've just been an all-around amazing person, you know? And in my line of work… I don't meet a lot of people like you. You just have this way of looking at the world in this different light. You don't look for the darkness, it's like you're constantly finding the light… the good in people. And if this McGarrett asshole… if he couldn't do that for you, then fuck him, you know?"

Rowan pulled her head out of his chest to stare up at him. She swiped at her eyes but just stared, as if she didn't know what to say. As if letting go of Steven McGarrett was a foreign concept to her.

"You are the nicest, kindest, smartest, bravest person I know. You are worth, ten Steven McGarretts, in fact, if I had to go on an op tomorrow I'd want to take you with me, because I know when the chips are down you'll have my back. Just you know, not really, cause I don't wanna trust you with a gun and I'd rather you be safe, but you know what I'm saying right?" he asked which won him half a nod and a bit of a chuckle. "You are worthy of so much more than the Steven McGarrett and his bullshit, okay? You are better than Catherine, you are better than him, and we will find you someone else, someone who will see that okay?"

Rowan nodded and then straightened. He straightened too, letting her sniffles run dry and tears stop falling, petting her back in a soft and reassuring way, like he used to when Emilano had to be burped. When she was a bit calmer she said: "You're worthy too you know."

Conejo paused and turned to her. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me Sebastian Falcon-Gonzales. You are worthy of love too," she repeated. Goddamn he never should have told her his full name. "Look… something bad happened, you know, something really, really terrible. Something happened to you that never should have happened, but… if it hadn't… you wouldn't be who you are today. You wouldn't be strong, or smart, or calculated. You wouldn't have this amazing assassin pedigree behind you. And you… well… you wouldn't be here with me."

The same could be said about her, but she didn't see that and he didn't know how to make her see it either. It was one thing to preach the words, it was another thing to believe and apply them to yourself.

She turned to him at that point and the night sky lit up those blue eyes of hers. Fuck she was pretty. She was so stunningly pretty and she was filled with so much love, had so much of it to give. How the hell had McGarrett turned this girl away? Just how? If Conejo had someone even a fraction like her he never would have let her go. Though he kind of did have her for a minute there… sort of… McGarrett had a strong hold of her heart then… he had a feeling he always will.

"I know you're scared of caring for someone again," she announced and his mouth ran dry because he had no idea how she could have known that. "I know that you're afraid if you open up again, you'll open yourself up to that kind of heart ache. But I promise, I promise that if you try, it will be worth it. Okay?"

Conejo let out a shaky laugh and looked away from her. "Don't make promises you can't keep."

Rowan just smiled at him. "Oh I know I can keep this promise," she said clapping a hand to his arm. "You just said it yourself, I see only the light in people and that's all I can see in you. You don't have to love me, you don't even have to like me, but I like you, Sebastian. I like you a lot. You're a great body guard, you're a great shot and you're an even better friend. I know I annoy you and you're doing so well at putting up with me, so I want you to know that it doesn't matter how broken you are, how deep your scars go or how dark your past is. I'm going to like you for who and what you are no matter what, just like I do for Wo. And when you're ready to accept that, I'll be here, with my arms open. And until then I'm just going to annoy you with constant affection. Okay?"

Conejo just stared at her. He sensed that she meant it he just didn't understand why she would.

"Why… why are you doing this?" he asked softly.

She leant in close and rested her chin on his shoulder. "Cause we're family now, silly," she said. "Family doesn't give up. And we don't let go."

Family. It had been such a long time since he had had one of those.

"Kay well I'm all cried out, I'm gonna head back down and go to bed, you gonna stay up here?" she asked. He nodded, a hand out to help her as she stood up, but letting her walk down the incline by herself. It was only a five-foot drop to the balcony she wouldn't be that hurt if she fell though if she did he'd feel bad.

He could trust her to get down, right?

"Alright, stay up there like Mexican Batman," she said to him shooting him a playful grin. "Goodnight, Con."

As she dropped out of view he let out the breath he had been holding in. He may not have liked Wo Fat but Rowan, yeah, he could see Rowan being his family. And Conejo had always said, if he ever got another family, he'd never let anything happen to them. Ever again.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Wo Fat was so tired it had reached every crevice of his body. Working tirelessly to ensure the safety of all Armando's assets while negotiating the truce with Diego. It had worn him to the bone.

So, he was happy, when after two weeks he was finally able to return to the safe house where Rowan was.

It was the middle of the night, she was going to be asleep, and he should have let her sleep, but he wanted to see her. He just wanted to make sure that she was alright.

He snuck softly into her room, to cross around her bed to see her face. She looked peaceful, she looked happy, which meant no nightmares for her tonight. Hopefully. He knelt down beside the bed just to watch her, to feel her pulse under his fingertips, to remind himself that she was alive and well. He had had his own nightmares while he was away, irrational fears and worries had plagued him both at night and while he was awake.

Yes, he was ensuring that Armando's assets were safe, but he had left Rowan, his own pressure point alone essentially to do so. If Diego was using this truce as a distraction while all the while he was searching for a way to hurt either him or Armando, going for Rowan would have been the way to go. But he wasn't that stupid. Wo Fat's response to the last kidnapping, Rowan proving she's crazy enough to crash a car into a building she knew held her brother and Armando, her friend, should have been enough to dissuade Diego to never try going for her again.

But desperate men did desperate things. And if Wo Fat had been in Diego's shoes, he would have gone for a pressure point like Rowan as soon as he could.

The second his fingertips brushed against her neck her eyes opened. He smiled at her sleepily blinking blue eyes, sometimes he forgot how blue her eyes were, and then there were times, just like at that moment, where he would be knocked sideways by the reminder.

"Hi," she whispered softly and he whispered it right back.

"Go back to sleep," he said to her. "I just wanted to check on you."

But Rowan wasn't going to go back to sleep, already she was moving. Her hands reached out to him. Immediately he reached back.

With in seconds, and he wasn't sure how she had even managed it, he was in her bed, under the blankets, their hands intertwined between them.

"You've been gone for so long," she whispered once they had settled. "Where have you been?'

"Taking care of stuff, I trust you've been alright."

He hadn't gotten any texts from Conejo saying otherwise. And all requests for updates had pointed to life at the safe house being calm and somewhat dull.

"No."

Now that contradicted all of Conejo's updates. Concern furrowed his brow. "No? Did something happen?"

"I had a bad Valentine's Day."

Ah. Yes. He figured she would. A Valentine's Day without Steven would have made it quite… hard for her. But he assumed, with Conejo on her, that she wouldn't have gotten into too much trouble.

He reached out to brush a tendril of hair away from her face and she reached out to brush the tips of his hair out of his eyes. A reminder that he was in desperate need of a trim.

"Not too bad, though. You had Conejo with you it couldn't have been that bad…" "—I chugged an entire bottle of Absinthe." "Oh my god, how are you alive?"

She let out a soft chuckle and he found that he couldn't help but smile as well. At least she was somewhat amused by her terrible decisions.

"What did you do for Valentine's Day?"

He had executed the leader of a team he had put in charge of taking care of Armando's largest drug producing warehouse. Figured him to be a spy. When the man couldn't convince him otherwise, he shot him between the eyes.

"Nothing as eventful as that," he said instead.

"What about your girlfriend?"

"Jian?"

"Yeah her."

For a second Wo Fat was surprised. He hadn't thought about Jian in a long time, Valentine's Day had briefly brought her back to his mind, but it only served to remind him that thinking about her made him sad… and filled him with such an intense longing. Combined with his worry about Rowan, his own desire to just go home to her and knowing that he couldn't, had turned him slightly more… violent then he usually was.

"She's in Japan, Ro, I don't know what she's doing."

"Didn't you call her?"

Wo Fat's eyes crinkled in surprise. "No. Why would I?"

"Because it's Valentine's Day, and you're dating her and… did you really not send her anything or talk to her? Ooohhh you're in so much trouble!"

She thought he was still dating Jian? Alright, to be fair he never really did tell her that he had broken things off with her temporarily to be go on this whirlwind adventure with his favourite little sister.

"No… uh… no, no, Jian an I… we're no longer together…"

"What? But why?"

"Well I'm here with you, aren't I?"

Rowan frowned. "You broke up with her because of me?"

"No, I mean… it's not like you told me to break up with her," he started but Rowan's frown deepened.

"You broke up with her to be here with me, that makes it might fault…"

"No, it is not your fault. Rowan I was going on the run with you, Jian has a stable life and a practice to run, I couldn't bring her with me," he told her. His had gripping hers a little tighter. "So, I ended things temporarily until I better knew the situation and whether or not things would… uh… become easier for… you know… us to reconnect."

"Which you haven't," she whispered.

"Well we've been busy, I've… been extra busy as of late…"

"Were you alone for Valentine's Day? Please say no."

"I was… uh… well Armando went home to his family for the night so I was sort of…"

"Oh Wo," she suddenly cried lurching forward to hug him. "I'm sorry you were alone for Valentine's Day."

This wasn't his first Valentine's Day alone, in fact he spent most of his Valentine's Days alone. Wo Fat let her hug him, draping an arm around her. He wanted to tell her that it was okay but she cut him off. "You should call her. Invite her out here. I know you're busy but I bet she'd love to see you."

But Wo Fat knew he couldn't do that. He had never told Jian who Rowan really was and instinctively he knew he couldn't introduce Rowan, who looked nothing like him, who had only adopted him three years ago, and whom he had chosen to run away with, to his girlfriend. It wouldn't look good, he knew it didn't look good. She'd take one look at Rowan and pick a fight and he knew that if they were to fight in front of Rowan, about Rowan, she'd take all the blame and all the guilt. And his sister was so prone to doing noble things like telling Wo Fat that it was fine to choose Jian over her.

She had enough emotional damage going on with her, he didn't want the blame for his breakup with Jian on her conscience. Cause there was no way he'd choose to abandon Rowan now.

"No, I can't do that," he whispered. "Cops are watching her. If I reach out now they'll grab her, and I'm not in a position to save her if that does happen."

Rowan smiled sadly. "Maybe we can sneak her out," she whispered. "I'm sure she'd love to see you and vice versa. We'll send Con!"

"But that doesn't matter, Ro," he said to her. "You're my priority right now. And as soon as I end this with Diego, you're going to be the focal point of my attention once more."

Rowan smiled up to him, almost sleepily, her eyes slowly starting to close. "You're the best. You should pick where we go next… once you're done with everything here." She yawned and slowly began to shift out of his grip, rolling onto her back first. "You're such a good brother to me," she repeated. "You really do deserve to be surrounded by love."

Then she rolled away from him, her back facing him now. The guilt hit his system so hard he thought, for a moment, it might have paralyzed his lungs. A sudden realization crashing over him. If she were to ever find out what he had done, if she were to ever learn the truth, she'd never forgive him.

Wo Fat carefully reached out, his hand gripping the back of her shirt lightly. He should have gone to his own bed, he should have left her there to rest, but he found he couldn't move. He needed the reminder that she was there, that she was still with him.

He had a feeling he was going to have nightmares after this and he'd want to wake up to her an arm's length away. Knowing that, as soon as it hit morning, he was going to find something else to give her, something else to do with her to bury that guilt back down where it belonged.


	247. Chapter 247

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Monday my wonderful readers! I'm starting to gain some traction again, I have at least one chapter finished, so Wednesday's update is ready to go. If I remember to freaking post the damn thing. But this is it! This is OFICCIALLY the middle chapter, kind of, it's the middle plot point, this right here means I'm halfway through everything I wanted to write for the season. It's all the chapter I'm most excited about because it's going to open up the rest of the seasons for A LOT of fun. So please tell me what you thought of this chapter, cause I want someone else to be as excited about this as me! Looking forward to your reviews and I'll see you guys on Wednesday!_

Chapter 247

* * *

Today was the day.

She didn't know what that day was, just that some very heavy dudes were going to come to the compound today and she was to not come out of her room at all. Wo Fat had been talking circles around this day for a week. Of all the things he wanted done before they arrived, and what Rowan was to do while they were here.

Conejo was in charge of security, and couldn't be looking after her, and Armando and JC were all going to be at this meeting with Wo Fat.

Rowan figured it had something to do with Diego and the truce Wo Fat had been helping Armando negotiate, but Wo Fat was tight lipped about the whole affair and essentially more interested in bossing Rowan around.

She had just finished breakfast when Wo Fat had appeared beside her. He had a stern hand on the small of her back pushing her towards the stairs as he told her again what he had expected from her for the day. "Now, when these guys are here… I want you to stay in your room. No music today just… read a book okay?"

Rowan nodded for the millionth time. "Yes, I get it Wo. Stay out sight, keep the door locked, don't make a sound."

He didn't want them to know she was there. He was worried she'd be their first target if something were to go down. Wanted her out of sight and out of mind for the whole duration of the final negotiation.

"Good," he said as he went up the stairs with her.

"Are you wearing your safety bracelet?"

Wo Fat lifted up his arm to show her the bracelet. "Yes, see…" "And Con too?" "I'm not sure but I'll be sure to ask him."

Rowan forced herself to smile. She was nervous, she had a bad feeling about this, though that could have been because Wo Fat was so anxious about this. But she had faith in her brother's cold and ruthless abilities. She believed him impervious and ingenious. This would go smoothly, she was certain. And if there was a hiccup, well Con was going to be there too and nothing could take him down.

"Okay… you guys are going to be careful though, right?" she asked softly and he smiled at her.

"Yes of course," he whispered, and then he pulled her in for a tight hug. "They should have brought up snacks and a pot of tea for you while you're here. Please stay inside, no matter what you hear. Promise me you'll stay in your room."

Rowan nodded, and voiced her promise, though she was certain if she heard something, if it sounded like they needed help, even her promise to Wo Fat wouldn't be able to keep her inside. Still she smiled as if she meant her promise, and then shut the door and locked it behind her like he instructed.

Rowan was expecting a boring day. The plan was to catch up on her reading, Armando and gone into town to pick up books specifically for today, and to drink tea. It was going to be a quiet lazy day. She started first by seeing if the heist she had planned had worked. And sure enough it had, all the money was in the account and she had set up Sandy to taunt him when he figured it out. It was a bit petty of her, but since realized that Conejo hadn't killed Gabriel like he thought she did, she was much more determined to hit him in some way. So she stole the rest of his money. She had no idea what she was going to do with it at that moment, but she figured she'd buy some appropriately expensive and girly things and then send him pictures so he knew she was going on a spending spree with his own money.

With that checked and done she put her headphones in, listened to music and then curled up in her bed to read.

She was almost two books into her binge reading when a sound was heard through the music. Immediately worry struck her. She pulled out her headphones, paused the music, put down her book and then listened. The sound she heard sounded like a gun shot, but she was listening to loud music and couldn't be sure.

She waited and then all of sudden there came the pounding of feet on the stairs. There seemed to be chaos outside her door, she was certain she heard more gunshots and then someone was banging on her door.

She figured it not to be Wo Fat so she went for the window, problem was she got half a leg out, was contemplating dropping to the jutted out roof way too far below her when they got the door down. Then she was staring down two men she didn't recognize, who were slowly put their guns away and coming for her.

"Your brother requests your presence," one of them said. She didn't like his tone, and she knew that Wo Fat wouldn't have sent people to get her. But she couldn't run, she couldn't drop out of the window without killing herself and she would be able to pull herself up onto the roof before they grabbed her.

Instead she put herself back into her room and let them take a hold of her and drag her out of her room.

She had a feeling that things had not gone according to Wo Fat's plan and she was a little worried about what was going to happen next.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve was dealing with a lot.

He had a special needs witness, a heist worth 94 million dollars, and a woman who said that all the information, the whole idea of the heist, and all the help to get it done was given to her by some unknown woman who called her from a blank number.

Apparently, nine weeks ago, a girl had called her up. Told her all about the money her boss, Mr. Fuller had been laundering, and even gave her the account to funnel the money into to keep it safe.

The problem was, the crew who pulled the heist had been brutally murdered. All they had was the teller, whose brother had masterminded the heist after she confirmed that what the girl was saying was true, and the bank manager who had been helping a very dangerous criminal launder their money.

They had found a laptop at the second scene, where they had found that someone had killed the crew that had pulled off the heist, that had been closed when they found it but was covered in blood spatters on the inside. The screen was frozen on a single frame consisting of three words.

 _I'm Still Winning_.

And on the inside of that laptop they found one single finger print that belonged to someone they didn't think they'd ever see again. So when that money turned out to belong to Gabriel… well… Steve got two nasty shocks in a row.

Not only did that prove that it was Rowan who had called and given that woman the tip, but Gabriel had somehow managed to survive getting shot in the chest, point blank four times. Damn no wonder Rowan had gone after the money, she was probably livid that Sin Nombre hadn't finished the job for her.

Now Gabriel was looking for the teller. He needed her to get the money back from Rowan. But Five-0 had the teller, so they set up a trap. They let Gabriel find out where she was, which was a building Steve figured he had reasonably secured, and then Gabriel showed up. Except he knew it was a trap, because he brought a lot of people with guns with him. He wasn't sure how Gabriel figured it out but he clearly had.

Hadn't Sin Nombre put his people down? For fuck sake, Rowan and her app were usually much lethal than this.

They had hidden the teller and then splintered off to deal with the oncoming threats. Steve taking his own guy down relatively easily, Kono even managed to snipe a few of the guys from her vantage point. Chin however, took on Gabriel himself.

Steve had gone to help him, he was closest after all. Not that he didn't think that Chin could handle it on his own, but more because he knew Gabriel was desperate and would do anything he had to to get the upper hand on Chin.

Steve rounded the corner and took in the scene. Gabriel had Chin pinned, his hands around his neck, the two were struggling, Chin eyeing that window beside them no doubt with plans to throw Gabriel out if he could. Steve had his gun on Gabriel, Gabriel who was chocking the life out of Chin as the two struggled for the pistol in Chin's hand. He had him in his sights, one shot and Chin was a free man and Gabriel was dead. He would have successfully completed something Rowan's Wonder App hadn't.

And then it happened.

His chest suddenly tightened, his heart fired up, spots formed in front of his eyes and he suddenly couldn't breathe. Steve collapsed against the pain, he hadn't felt something like this, something this strong since Rowan's last trip through the void.

He doubled over, his gun falling, hanging loosely by the strap he had around his shoulder. He had no idea when Gabriel got the gun from Chin and pointed it at Steve. He didn't see Chin struggling to stop Gabriel from shooting him. He didn't even feel the void open behind him, nor did he see the spectral figure half appear from the portal behind him, her hand extended, throwing a force from the void so strong it knocked Gabriel off of Chin and out the window beside him.

All he felt was the familiar blanketing warmth as a pair of arms wrapped around him from behind and with a jolt he was no longer in Hawaii but in the cold heavy expanse of the void.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan didn't appreciate being dragged through the hallways of Armando's safe house, she knew her way around the house better then these people did. She didn't want to say anything about it because she didn't know where Wo Fat, Conejo, Armando or Juan Carlos were and that made her nervous.

When she was realized she was being taken to the court yard apprehension took over. She got a bad feeling about this. The feeling solidified when she found that he had Wo Fat, Conejo, Armando, Juan Carlos, and the handful of men that Armando had employed here on their knees. Hands behind their head, guns pointed at them, keeping them down. Above them was Diego smiling triumphantly and smugly at them. That feeling of nervousness became paired with a jittering anger.

"What is happening?" she asked. Her eyes were on Wo Fat because she was asking him but it was Diego who answered.

"You're going to witness an execution," he told her.

Rowan turned a dark glare to him. In her stomach she knew he was serious. But she was going to give him a chance to make it a joke. "I'm not signing off on that paperwork," she snapped.

Diego laughed at her in the most patronizing manner. "Oh you and your snappy comebacks. Well, you won't be annoying your way out of this one… nor will you be slipping anymore ropes," he said to her brushing a finger down her cheek. "I'm going to have fun beating that willfulness out of you before you're sold."

Rowan blinked her eyes at him and then turned back to Wo Fat who looked like he was going to be sick. And then to Conejo who looked like he may kill someone just with his eyes alone and then Armando and Juan Carlos who were avoiding her eyes. So this was serious, this was real. It wasn't a joke. This was actually happening. Wo Fat's plan had somehow gone awry and they were all very much in a lot of trouble.

Diego crossed to where Wo Fat was kneeling and smirked down at him. "Not going to beg?" he taunted and Wo Fat's lip curled up in a dangerous snarl. But otherwise he said nothing. "We thought you cared so much for your little puta."

Wo Fat could only sneer at him. He was too proud to beg, even for her. After a charged silence Diego scoffed, he pulled his piece out of his back waistband and pointed the gun at him. "You, I'll kill myself."

"No!" Rowan shouted before he could pull the trigger. "No! Just No! You're out of our mind if you think I'm going to let this happen!"

Diego turned to her shocked by her outburst. He pocketed his gun and then walked back to her. "Excuse me?" he snapped.

"You heard me!" Rowan growled donning her most dangerous of faces. The one Conejo said made her look like an angry kitten. "Let us all go or I'll rain hell down on you."

Diego actually smiled at her. "And what are you going to do, puta. You're being held by two men twice your size and you're not armed. Unless you've managed to hide a gun in your short shorts, you've got nothing."

"Okay, firstly stop calling me a whore," she ordered and then she narrowed her eyes at him. "And for you're information… I've got magic."

It was a heavy-handed bluff. She wasn't sure if she had anything in her bag of void tricks to help. Everyone around her went quiet for a few charged seconds before Diego broke out in loud raucous laughter and his men followed suit. Even Wo Fat looked concerned, like she might be legitimately sick.

Diego turned away from her. "She may be too crazy to sell," he said to no one in particular. "But I'll still be able to have some fun with her."

He pulled his gun out again.

He levelled it with Wo Fat's head.

And Rowan Pierce lost it.

This was _not_ happening. She pulled on all the rage in her small and broken form and sent it straight back into the star shape scar in between her shoulder blades. She knew she was screaming because everyone was staring at her, but at that point it didn't matter. Rowan had called for the void and for the first time in four years it opened up all the way for her.

They were _so_ screwed.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Chaos.

Rowan had created Chaos.

Her screaming. The way her body had contorted, folding into herself, her back arching before she threw herself back. The way her eyes had glowed that terrible white. The awful ripping sound and darkness that had appeared behind her. That enveloped her into a swirling black mass of space, where white lights twinkled, where hot electric bolts flew from and then it closed in on itself, like a black hole, collapsing with a deafening explosion, followed by a shock wave of power that sent everyone flying back, even Wo Fat and his friends.

And then Rowan was gone. As were the two men that had been holding her. Silence gripped the courtyard. Wo Fat, half up scanned the area, where was she? What had happened? What was going to happen next?

Diego and his men were up, guns raised, guns ready but there was no one to shoot at. Until they heard the ripping again.

When Rowan appeared again she was half out of the void, her eyes still that terrible hot white, practically steaming in her own scull. Her hands reached out and grabbed the man behind Juan Carlos whose gun had been raised and ready to fire. It was then that the chaos really took over.

Everyone opened fire as the man she grabbed dropped his gun when she dragged him back into the hole in space or time or whatever closing behind her. Juan grabbed the gun and threw it at Conejo who took it and was immediately firing back at the small battalion that Diego had brought with him.

Rowan appeared again, Wo Fat had to roll out of the way as she dove to the other side. She had brought a car with her this time, it plowed through the group of men that had appeared behind him with their machine guns. Both the car and the bodies disappeared into a secondary portal. Rowan then got up and jumped into another hole that had ripped into the air to her left. It closed around her but the chaos kept going on.

At that point Wo Fat stopped trying to keep track of Rowan. He watched the holes open and close. He saw a tiger leap out of one taking down two men before falling into a hole that had opened up on the ground behind them. He watched people vanish into them, he watching things fall out of the sky. But, from what he saw, Rowan had stopped appearing. He should have run for cover, but Wo Fat found that he couldn't. He was frozen to the spot trying to make sense of all that was happening around him.

That was until Diego appeared in front of him. He looked crazed, panicked, and he was packing heat. He aimed at him and Wo Fat nearly screamed for Rowan.

A gunshot, louder than all the others, echoed but it wasn't Wo who dropped but Diego. Behind him, Rowan was hovering… _literally hovering._ Her hair curling around her like wild snakes, eyes white and misting. Under her, lying on his stomach on the ground, a Noveske Rifleworks Diplomat assault rifle in hand was fucking Steven McGarrett, the two of them joined together by red strings that wrapped around them, coiled and slithering like snakes.

He watched Steve stand. He saw the way Steve's eyes narrowed at the surroundings as if he didn't know where he was. But that didn't stop him for long, with Rowan behind him he shot anything coming at them without hesitation. When there was finally no one left for him to shoot, Rowan wrapped her arms around his chest. The red strings surrounded them both, bound them more tightly together. Steve's eyes rolled back into his head, a look of pure bliss cross his face and then the two of them fell back into the darkness.

Wo Fat found himself gasping out a strangled cry. Where the hell was she going with Steve? Why did she want Steve here anyway? Did she really just use his nemesis to save his life? Oh when Steve figured that out he was going to be PISSED.

Looking around Wo Fat quickly found where Armando, Juan Carlos and Conejo were hiding. Behind a the thick Grecian collumns that held up the front of the house. There Conejo could discreetly pick off men as they tried to run from Rowan as if they could. He slid into the hiding spot. Armando grabbing him and pulling him the rest of the way into.

As soon as he was sitting behind it, fully hidden Juan Carlos grabbed him. "What the fuck was that?" he cried. Clearly frantic. "What the fuck is she?"

The screams got louder, the front doors beside them opened up and men came flooding out. Rowan came with them, walking calmly. She raised her arms up and from behind her came a huge crashing wave of water. The tidal wave of water washed the rest of the men away. It washed away the evidence of the carnage. Of the hell she had raised down on them. But when the water subsided Rowan was gone.

Wo Fat watched the water run into the jungle. IT was done. They were safe, for now, but where was Rowan? Would he ever see her again? And then, as if the mere thought of her brought her to him, Rowan appeared beside him. She extended her hand, strings of yellow uncoiled from around her wrist, and reached out to each of the men crouched behind that wall. Wo Fat stared up at her. Her eyes were still that terrible white, her face showed no signs of pain, but electric bolts of orange were crackling out of her, splitting her skin open to get free. Each wound, each stream of blood turned into strings, red strings that floated up and entangled around her. It looked like they might be suffocating her.

He instinctively realized that Rowan needed to be woke up. That she was unconscious at that moment. But he never got a chance to try and wake her up, the yellow strings had wrapped around the men and once they were tightly bound she used them to pull them into the blackness that only she seemed to be able to control.

Immediately Wo Fat was blinded. He was surrounded by a million twinkling lights and different colored strings. He felt as if he were suspended in some sort of jello, he couldn't breathe, he could barely move. Even Rowan was moving in slow motion. Her head turned, inch by inch, second by second. A hand raised, a different string wrapped around her, a white one and in a flash they all tumbled out of the black expanse leaving the strings and the twinkling lights behind.

When Wo Fat managed to breathe. When he could get a good grip on where he was, he realized that they were back inside Armando's safe house, in Rowan's room. He looked up, Rowan's feet were touching the ground, her hair had stopped swirling around her as if she were suspended in water but it wasn't until the glow left her eyes did he know that the otherworldliness had left her.

And then Rowan collapsed.

Wo Fat had to lurch to catch her, she tumbled into his arms. He felt a cold static travel up his arms at the contact. Her eyes fluttered closed, her face pale, her arms, legs and chest leaking rivers of red blood all over both him and her. She smelt of ice and storms just like she had the first time he had met her. Everyone was heaving, panting, coughing, but Rowan, she was barely breathing. What the hell had happened to her?

After a few seconds of silence Juan Carlos popped up like a meerkat, ever as energetic and screamed: "WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?"

Wo Fat said nothing. He just held Rowan a little tighter and tried to quell the bleeding, but she was covered in quarter sized wounds, singed black around the edges, and he didn't have hands to cover them all. Internally he seconded Juan Carlos's question. What the hell had just happened?

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve jolted again. He fell back into the ground and momentarily lost himself. He didn't know where he was. He didn't know if he was falling, dreaming or dead. He didn't know if he had been shot. He figured he had, figured it had hit his vest and taken him off of his feet. He figured he had to be dreaming because out of nowhere he had gone from being in an abandoned building with Gabriel Waincroft across from him to a jungle where a completely different gun fight was happening. He knew Rowan had something to do with it. He had felt the flicker. He had felt the pain before he was shot, the fact hat this chest felt like it was being ripped open was how Gabriel almost got a shot on him in the first place. She was flickering again. And then her arms were around him, pillowing him as he fell having been blown back from that shot.

When he came to, when the stars stopped blinking in front of his eyes, he found chaos still reigning, and he assumed Rowan had called him to save her. He shot one man, who was standing over someone, but the person he had just saved wasn't Rowan, it was Wo Fat. He hadn't wanted to save Wo Fat. He hadn't wanted to help him. Why had she done that to him?

But he forgot to be angry. Because he knew she was behind him and people were still trying to kill them so he killed them all first. To protect her, to save her, so that when this was done, he could hold her without worry. When he was done shooting, when there was no one else to shoot at except for Wo Fat, whom he might have shot if he got a chance, he fully planned to yell at her. But the second he felt her arms wrap around him all that anger was replaced with happiness. God he had missed her arms around him. But that didn't last long either, because here he was now, dropped back in Hawaii. No Rowan just a dull ache in his chest.

Steve sat up as Chin slid to a stop beside him screaming to others that Steve had appeared again. Good god how long had he been gone for? He blinked his bleary eyes at Chin. "Did we get Gabriel?" he asked and Chin's mouth dropped.

"Uh… actually… no we didn't" Chin said after a moment's pause.

"What? Why? What happened?"

"Uh… well… Rowan, who saved your life by the way, blasted him out a window with her void powers… which I didn't think she had. And then while we were kind of panicking about where she could have possibly taken you, Gabriel managed to get up and run away. Which surprised all of us cause she knocked him out of fourth story window," he explained. He then narrowed his eyes at him. "Where _did_ she take you?"

"Uh… I don't know. I know I had to shoot a bunch of people though," Steve answered absently.

All of sudden the panic hit him all at once. Steve lurched up into a sitting position his hands gripping Chin's arm. "Oh, my, god. She was in an active shoot out. What the hell was she doing in an active shoot out? I thought… I thought he'd keep her safe not throw her into danger!"

Chin put his other hand to Steve's shoulder to try and calm him. "Look, I get it. But we don't know. And unless Rowan comes back out of the void for a social visit we're never gonna find out. But we still have to find Gabriel, and that's kind of more important right now."

Steve stared at Chin. He was right. He knew he was right. Chin didn't have to drive that point back in… but he did.

"Wo Fat can take care of her," he reminded him. "If he could fake her death for a week, if he could save her from the Yakuza and not incur some sort of retribution, he can save her from whatever shit she started wherever she is."

Steve didn't think it was fair to blame Rowan for whatever drama she had been pulled into. But he was right, so he let Chin pull him up. He forced himself to swallow his worry. Rowan had picked her path. She would have to suffer through it without him.


	248. Chapter 248

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Wednesday my wonderful readers! I'm so glad you guys enjoyed the last chapter. I told you it would be an interesting one. As you guys guessed, Rowan's not going to be able to lie to him about who and what she is anymore, so it's all going to come out at once. Will he believe her? What's his response going to be? Let's find out! Don't forget to leave me review and I'll see you guys on Friday!_

Chapter 248

* * *

Rowan came to with a sickening start. She bolted up expecting dirt and blood but found herself in her bed back the bed she had been calling her own. Wo Fat stood at the foot of her bed. Arms crossed over his chest and a scowl on his face.

Rowan groaned, everything hurt. She had a brief recollection of what she had done, flashes of a lot different places, and things, of water washing away the evil. And he had witnessed everything. He'd have a lot of questions. Questions she didn't know the answers to. God, she didn't want to deal with this. "Uh… hi… how long have I been out?" she asked.

"About 32 hours," he answered, his tone clipped. Oh my god, she had lost a whole day? He narrowed his eyes as her. "You need to tell me how you did what you did, yesterday, and you need to tell me now."

Rowan blinked her eyes. Oh God. This uh… this wasn't going to be a fun conversation. "Well… to be honest… I'm not sure how I did it," she admitted. "I've never done that before."

That would have worked on Steven, had worked many times on Steven, Wo Fat wasn't having it though. "Rowan," he growled through clenched teeth and she couldn't help but to flinch.

"I don't know how to explain it, Oz," she said hoping that calling him her pet name for him would calm him down. But judging by the scowl on his face it had not helped. "I don't know how to make you believe me."

"Try starting from the beginning," he offered, sitting down on the foot of her bed. He crossed his arms over his just and just stared at her. His eyes boring into her. Well… she couldn't quite lie could she?

"Oh god, uh, okay. You know when I told you I'm not from here, well I meant like _really._ I'm really not from here."

Wo Fat seemed to take this in. "So… like… a martian? An alien? From like… space?"

Rowan laughed a little but he was serious so she forced herself to stop. "No I'm not from outer space," she told him. She winced again and then lowered her eyes. "You have to promise to believe me. If I tell you, you have to believe me."

Because if he didn't believe her it would crush her.

"Rowan after what I just witnessed, I'll believe anything," he told her. "But you have to tell me, I need to understand what the hell happened."

"I'm from an alternate reality," she blurted out. Ripped that confession just like a band aid. Wo Fat just stared at her as if he had expected a lot of things but not that. Rowan just sighed.

"I don't know how I got here, it wasn't like I was actively trying to travel dimensions or anything like that. It just sort of happened," she said, trying to explain once more.

Wo Fat shook his head, so he didn't get that either. God she wasn't doing a good job of this. "What?" he cried.

"Okay. Four years ago, I went to sleep and woke up in the middle of the air. I dropped out of the sky and landed in the surf off of Oahu. Steve and Danny were fishing and found me. You could say they fished me out," she said, chuckling a bit at her own joke. But Wo was just staring at her like he was horrified. Rowan lowered her eyes. "I'm not psychic either. I come from a place where your world is a TV show. My favourite actually. I'm off script now so I have no idea what's going to happen. But it's why I keep dreaming about Hawaii. Why I still dream about Steve's cases. That's why I grabbed him today, I knew he was going to get seriously injured if I didn't intervene."

"So… you come from an Alternate reality, where this is all a TV show… and now you can open portals?" he asked.

"Uh… honestly… I have no idea. I mean I knew I could open up a door to the void and travel between but it takes a lot of out of me. It hurts a lot, and it affects Steve too. Today… well... I was just so mad that I guess I forced it to open for me. It showed me all the strings I needed to pull to cause the most amount of damage. It's never done that before, but I've also never asked it to do that before," she told him.

Wo Fat nodded. "Yes, I noticed the strings. There were red ones all over you and McGarrett. What are those?"

"I don't know," she whispered. There was a lot of things that she didn't know and that had never been more apparent than right now. "I once thought they were our feelings… that because there were so many of them, that how he and I felt for each other was uh… was keeping me here. But… he's with Catherine… right? I mean… he left me for Catherine, he chose her and said that he didn't… doesn't that… Wouldn't that meant they would have gone away? Or that they would be less of them?"

But she was asking the wrong person and Wo Fat seemed stricken by that question. Instead she quietly sat back on the bed and let him contemplate her words. "Okay. So you can open doors into this void and you've tried to go home before, but it didn't work?" he asked completely ignoring the Steve and the red strings issue. Fair, she wanted to ignore it too because she didn't want to think that the reason the two of them were tangled up in red strings was because she still loved him and she was keeping them still connected and her stuck in this universe.

Rowan nodded. "Yes. Actually around the first time I met you. I had been opening the void up multiple times a day to try and get home but I couldn't find my way," she told him. "It kept dropping me random places all over Hawaii, which includes in the ocean outside of that port where you first found me."

"That's why you had burns all over you. That's why you looked skeletal," he breathed out. Rowan looked down to her arms which had been bandaged. Looked like she had a few more scars to add to her catalogue.

Rowan nodded. "That would be when the burns started appearing. Before that, when something was just pulling me in, I didn't get them."

Now that got his attention. "Wait a second. What do you mean, _pulling you_?" he echoed.

"Well… uh, before I started purposely trying to open the void I was getting pulled in, it wasn't a voluntary thing. It was like something had a hold of me and it was trying to take me somewhere," she said.

Wo Fat straightened. "Not Voluntary?!" he thundered. Launching off the bed and glaring down at her. "You're telling me that at any point in time, against your will, something could open up a portal and pull you in?"

"Well… I mean… it hasn't happened in years," she answered.

"But there's still a chance, right? That's unacceptable. There's gotta be a way to learn about this," he said pacing the length of the foot of her king sized bed.

"Well…" she whispered. "I sort of know of someone who could help, but he's in Canada…"

Wo Fat turned to her, his eyes narrowed again. "Isn't that where you're from? Well I mean… alternate reality… you call yourself Canadian…"

He was spiraling. She had to help him. "Uh… yeah," she admitted cutting him off. She then sighed and ran a hand over her face. "It's really complicated though."

Wo Fat seemed to take this in before turning away saying: "You can explain it to me on the plane. We need to get you out of here."

Oh, now that was new. "We do?" she asked surprised. "I didn't fix things?"

He must have heard the uncertainty in her voice. The last time she had done something like this Steve was far from appreciative, and seeing how the whole going into the void for long periods of time had almost killed her it wasn't surprising that she hadn't tried to do something like it since. She was worried that, like Steve, he didn't appreciate her helping him in such a fashion.

He turned to her. "Oh yeah!" he said with a big grin. "You obliterated Diego's operation once and for all. He survived, which is unfortunate but he's been dethroned. Armando is in charge now, but we have a literal witch hunt brewing and I want you out of the country before it gets out of hand. Not to mention you flooded the first floor of the house and I think Armando's a little pissed off about it."

Oh… really? Wow, he sounded so happy about it. "Uhm… okay… so you're not… mad?"

"Mad? Rowan, you saved our lives. We'd be dead and you'd be a sex slave, why the hell would I be mad at you?" he asked and then realization dawned on his face. "Oh my god, three years ago, when I met you… you said you and Steve had an argument and he told you to leave. There were reported incidences at Halawa, I remember, something about electricity and some guard going nuts, talking about teleporting. That was you, wasn't it. You teleported with the guard… That was right before I met you… a couple of days… Steve kicked you out of his life because he couldn't handle the magic trick, didn't he?"

Rowan scowled, it wasn't like that. Steve wasn't that bad of a guy. "That wasn't all of it. He worried, I got myself into trouble. He had spent a month keeping me grounded to this reality because something was trying to pull me away. And then I just up and started doing it by myself. Plus he was with Catherine at the time and she told him to choose…"

Wo Fat rolled his eyes and scoffed. "He's an idiot," he snapped, not even bothering to let her finish defending Steven. He then took a good long look at her. "We gotta get going. I've already packed everything up and you're in your pjs, but we're getting out on using Armando's private plane so no one is going to care."

Rowan slipped out of bed, he was in her booty shorts and a tank top. She didn't remember changing, so that meant one of the boys did it. It better have been Conejo, he was the only one she was comfortable with changing her. But she wasn't going to ask that. She had a different concern. Yeah Colombia was hot but it probably wasn't good for her to be dressed like that. She looked at him and he looked back as if he couldn't see what was wrong.

"Geeze, if it bugs you that much I'll give you my jacket, okay?" he offered and Rowan nodded.

He handed her the burgundy converse, and she noted that they were finally getting too worn to actually wear. She'd have to get rid of them at their next stop. Then she actually thought about her next stop. Canada. Home. She was going to go see her father.

She had thought about going to visit them every day since she had gotten here. But she was dead to them. Literally. She had died as an infant. But that didn't mean that she didn't want to meet her family. That she didn't want them to recognize her on some level. Which meant… she had to look like them.

"How much time do we have?" she asked.

Wo Fat's eyes narrowed at her. "Why?"

"I need a bit of a makeover," she said. "I'd like to change my hair."

She thought he'd say that was silly. She thought he'd say that they didn't have the time. But Wo Fat merely nodded.

"Oh, that's great, cause I was going to propose a few changes too," he told her. That was worrying. But still Rowan got her shoes on, she demanded his suit blazer which he gave to her immediately. "You and I, we'll talk about it on the way over."

Rowan smiled to him. "Okay. Sounds like a plan."

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan had taken the news well. Most people who were told that they were going to be assuming a new identity usually asked a few questions. But Wo Fat told her that she needed a new name to get out of Colombia and she just nodded like she just understood and left it as that.

She had gone into the salon over two hours ago. He had sent Conejo with her, for protection. But neither had come back yet and that made him nervous. What kind of makeover did she need that lasted this long?

The plane was idling, the forger was waiting on a picture for her for her passport. This was taking way too long. Maybe something had happened? Maybe they had been captured. Maybe they were dead. God, why hadn't he gone with them? Fuck, if someone had taken her how would he get her back? He'd have to call McGarrett. Have him brought to Colombia, let him sniff her out like the bloodhound he was where Rowan was concerned. Ha… he'd probably find Rowan in less than two hours.

He was being paranoid of course, but he couldn't help it. His plan it had gone so terribly wrong so fast. He hadn't had a plan go up in flames like that in years, not since McGarrett became a constant thorn to his side. He couldn't even blame Rowan's interference, she had done as he asked and stayed inside. He had thought he was ready, he thought he had instilled enough fear in the people working for him, but maybe it was a touch too much fear, because Diego had swayed them and that was how he got control of Armando's compound. He had hoped that Diego wouldn't know that Rowan was in the house, but he knew, and then he went to get her and both he and Conejo had been powerless to stop him. Rowan had scared him before, and he had been able to put the blame on everyone else, but this time, with that man telling him he was going to take _his_ Rowan and sell her off to the highest bidder after he offed Wo Fat had been a terrifying prospect.

It was just as Wo Fat thought, Diego knew that Rowan was his pressure point so he made sure to make it known that Wo Fat had failed to protect her. The truth of the matter was, if Rowan hadn't intervened they'd all be dead and he didn't even want to think of what would have happened to Rowan.

Though he did know he was going to have Kong program a "Contact McGarrett" protocol if something like that happened again, so that Sandy would activate and send him to rescue her if Wo Fat was otherwise incapable. It was a blow to his pride to need that sort of protocol but he needed to put Rowan before his pride as she was more important.

"What do you think?"

Wo Fat nearly jumped out of his skin. He was so lost in thought he hadn't even noticed Rowan appear. Probably because she hadn't come in a car. Where the hell was the car he had sent them in?

"Wo?" Rowan probed and his eyes fell back down to her. "I asked you what you thought."

She had sheered her hair off. It was chin length, layered longer towards the back. Her hair was now a dark chestnut brown.

"I asked her to cut the blonde out of my hair. I didn't realize that I had so much of it," she said. "You don't think it's too short, do you?"

Wo Fat put a hand out to touch it. It was pin straight and silky. It was more serious than her other hair color, it suited the Rowan she as slowly becoming. The dark chestnut really made her blue eyes pop. "No. It looks good. It suits you," he said. "We have to take a picture for the passport, you can do that with that man over there."

He moved her over to where she was supposed to go and then turned to Conejo.

"She was fine as is," Conejo mumbled and Wo Fat rolled his eyes. Since the incident he had reverted back to that tight-lipped, no nonsense, speaking bare minimum words man he used to be. And with it came back the cold-detached ruthlessness. This incident had scared him too, but his intensity where it came to protecting her had not eased off, instead he had gotten worse.

"Where's the car?"

"We had to ditch it," he said. "People were following us."

Wow. Wo Fat really had bad luck with Audis. Well fuck it, it was rental that wasn't even under his own name. "Well, get on the plane, as soon as her passport's ready we're wheels up and out of this hell hole."

Conejo merely nodded but he didn't move. He kept his eyes on Rowan, somehow Wo Fat just knew that Conejo wasn't going to move until Rowan was on the plane with him.

"Armando sends his thanks," Conejo said. Well he damn well should. The only reason he had come down here was to help him. They almost died over his crusade to control more of Colombia. But it worked out. He was going to be able to rule Colombia's underworld with an iron fist now that they knew he was connected to the witch that took down Diego.

Rowan skipped back to him, her new passport in hand and ready to go. That was fast. She smiled up to him in the fashion he was used to and he smiled right back. One glance at Conejo confirmed that he too was smiling at her in the same way.

"I have a new name too!" she told them showing him the passport. "Rory Wickerby."

"Yes, I thought you'd like that one," Wo Fat told her. "Now get on the plane we gotta go."

Rowan obeyed, hopping up the steps like an excited kid. Beside him Conejo whispered: "They have a new name for her too."

"Yeah and what's that?" Wo Fat asked.

Conejo turned to him and said two words: _La Bruja._ And Wo Fat felt his blood run cold. Because it fit. Perfectly.

Well after what he witnessed, yeah, Rowan really was a witch.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

She thought having to explain what she was to Wo Fat was going to be hard. It was worse explaining it to Conejo. Only because he had so many questions. He took the alternate reality thing with stride, she told him that was what was going on with her and he just nodded like that was a perfectly normal confession. Like it explained everything about her.

They were midway through the flight. Conejo was across from her, Wo Fat was sitting beside her, drinking wine as if there wasn't a care in the word, while Conejo was peppering her with more questions that she strugglinh to answer.

"So if you're from an alternate reality… why isn't there two versions of you? Like how did that work? Did you assume your old body?"

"Oh no. I know I didn't assume the identity of the Rowan that lived here," she answered, because at least she knew the answer to that question. "No, uh, I just dropped out of the sky. Though my dad did have a theory that if a person were to travel, since the universe can't handle having two of the same person in the same place, that a traveler would just take the place of that version of them in that reality and the version the traveler kicked out would be displaced to the corresponding reality."

Both Conejo and Wo Fat took that in, because it didn't explain why they she had no history.

"Okay… but… but you… you didn't displace someone… did you, because you don't exist before you dropped in," Wo Fat said.

"Yeah," Conejo seconded quickly cause that would mean… if you did… you'd have some kind of history before 2012 when you dropped in. So… then where are you? Why aren't you in this world?"

"Cause I died."

Beside her Wo Fat chocked on his sip of wine. She snatched the glass out of his hand before he could drop it and then watched as he coughed and struggled to breathe. Well that meant this was a bombshell for him.

"Excuse me? You're a zombie too?"

Rowan scowled at him. "Hardly," she said with a roll of her eye. "I told you I didn't assume the corresponding body. No. I was still born, I died before I could even live. That's why I don't exist her, that's why… that's why I never went back to Canada."

"Oh, cause your family wouldn't know you," Conejo finished. "Well… how do you even know they're even there?"

"Cause I looked. My mom and Trevor are living in Victoria, where we all lived as a family you know… back in my reality. But my dad's in Toronto. They got divorced a few years after my death. I'm guessing they couldn't take losing a child which is weird cause I was never my mom's favourite child. Trevor was. I was a daddy's girl though…"

Which was why she was so afraid to see him. Especially since he wasn't going to recognize her. She knew it was going to hurt, because she wanted nothing more than to throw herself at him shouting _daddy_ at the top of her lungs and have him tell her that it was okay and he was going to fix it.

"Trevor is… her…"

"Her brother," Wo Fat finished and Rowan nodded.

"Oh so she has a real brother. You must hate that" he said to Wo Fat who just glared drily at Conejo's sudden grin. They held each other's gaze for a moment before he turned back to Rowan. "Or… I unno, how does that work. If they're an alternate reality version are they still your family?"

"I mean… they're all Pierces. But I don't share their DNA."

"How do you know that?" Wo Fat asked a narrowed look on his face.

"Well, Steve has my DNA on file at the palace," she said. "I used his log in credentials to run my DNA against the DNA of my family on file. I have enough genetic markers to be considered like… a distant cousin, but I don't 100% match them."

The two boys took this in but it was Conejo who asked: "So how do we know this guy is going to help us… if he even can…"

"Well my dad has the same job. He's still a professor with a degree in Cosmology, according to his university webpage, he's still the leading scientist in the field and he's still working on traveling through the white spaces to new realities. So… I'm guessing if anyone could help me put one and two together…. It would… well… be him…"

"Okay… so… white spaces?"

Geezus it was like she was back with Steven. Never ending questions. "We call it the void," Rowan said before she could stop herself. "Well… Steve and I did. I guess I just call it the void now. My dad called it the white spaces… you know… like between lines? In my world… and bear with me here cause I know the bare minimum of this, in my world my dad was under the impression that all the universes operated under the string theory… so traveling from one reality to another would mean going through the white space between each line…"

"I'm already lost," Conejo said with a huff. "Let's let the expert explain hmm?"

Rowan nodded and Wo Fat carefully put a hand to hers. He had been doing that a lot since she had told him the truth. She had a feeling it was because of the revelation she had dropped on him, that she might be pulled away. Like Steve, he decided to keep close contact with her to ensure that she didn't actually vanish again.

"We'll have to think of a cover story," he said.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you can't just walk up to the man and tell him you're his dead daughter from another reality, he'd think you're crazy," he told her and Rowan nodded because that was true. "And we don't really want him to know who you really are anyway…"

"What? Why not?"

"Rowan, your powers, they're weaponizable," he told her and Rowan paused and turned to him surprised. "I have a feeling you haven't thought of it that way, and I get that, but you did just take out Diego's whole operation in a single afternoon. That is something that is highly coveted by all governments. If he gets your name, if someone learns what you can do and decides they want to use you to their gain, they will hunt you for the rest of time."

Rowan blinked her eyes at him. She hadn't really thought about it like that.

"And we both know you'd like to settle down at some point, right?"

That was right. She wanted to settle somewhere and bring Nahele to her. Even if that meant kidnapping him from Steven and Catherine. He was her foster kid first and she was going to take him back. Well she planned to send Conejo to bring him back but that was the same thing essentially.

"Okay, so… I mean, I could draft something up for you," Wo Fat said. "I'd like to not tell him your new identity, maybe give you a new name? Takara? Maybe?"

"What does that mean?"

"Treasure, he called you a treasure," Conejo said, he was mostly interested in the bag of pretzels he was eating she was surprised he was still paying attention.

Rowan turned to Wo Fat completely shocked he came up with something that sentimental. Maybe. "I'll think of something appropriate."

"And you can't tell him you're from Hawaii," he said. "Or that you dropped in from Hawaii. Say something else, say Japan or something."

"Why not Hawaii? It's not like he'll know that's where I dropped in…"

"Because if he looks for someone who looks like you in Hawaii it will alert Steven. I told you he's looking for you to find me, which means he's got alerts on all searches for anyone who might be looking for someone like you… okay?"

"Really? That seems like a lot of effort just to get you, Wo."

"You're more distinguishable than me, Rowan," he snapped.

"Half your face is burnt, how do I stick out more?"

Wo Fat turned a dark glare to her but she had a point and he knew it. "You just do," he argued. "That's not the point. The man hates me and he's mad that you're off having fun with me instead of somewhere he can stalk, the man's a control freak and you know this. So the more we keep you out of his line of search the better."

Rowan sunk down in her seat. It seemed odd that Steve would go to all that trouble to find her simply because he wanted to arrest Wo Fat. Didn't he have better things to do with his time? But she didn't want to press Wo Fat for more answers, she didn't want to upset him after everything that happened. She didn't want to lose the only family she had left, because she knew, even though she was going to meet her dad, she wasn't getting her family back.

And he was right, in a way, she would have to have a cover story to meet her father so he didn't figure out who she was. Normally Rowan wouldn't be concerned about pulling a lie out of now where, but she had never been good at lying to her father, he had always been able to tell. This time, she was going to have to be really prepared, she may even write it down so she could keep Conejo and Wo Fat in the loop too.

Her confusion about what was going on with Steven was going to have to wait. She had to figure out what was going on with her first.


	249. Chapter 249

Rewrite

 **AvalonreeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Saturday my wonderful readers. I'm sorry this post is late. Also, warning! This ends on a cliff hanger! So in this chapter, Rowan's gonna meet her father and Steve's gonna have a little accident. I know! Another exciting chapter. Please leave a review so I know you're still interested and I'll see you guys on Monday!_

Chapter 249

* * *

Odell was treading on eggshells and he knew it. He hadn't seen Steve in a while, man had let his hair grow wild. None of this high and tight stuff, dude was straight up shaggy. The break up with Rowan and everything that came after had done some damage and he took it out on his hair. But Odell was there now and he had managed to tame the wild mane and get it back to that high and tight do that McGarrett liked so much.

And to keep himself from asking stupid questions about Rowan, he was babbling about anything and everything else.

"Dates all the way back to Ancient Egypt," he said. He knew he sounded like a shmuck. He knew it, McGarrett knew it, and he just couldn't bring himself to stop. "Barbers would make house calls to families of nobility."

"Come on," McGarrett groaned clearly not believing him.

"I'm serious! They found hieroglyphics in the pyramids showing pharaohs getting their hair cut!"

"Okay. And you're carrying the legacy for all barbers?" Steve asked.

"Exactly. Why go out when your hair maintenance man can come to you?" Odell shot back. "Truthfully, the whole thing has been liberating, since I let Dobrian take over the store I'm saving a fortune on rent, electricity, water."

"Yeah, right. Low overhead, right? That must be good for profits."

Yeah and the kickback he took to let Dobrian take over in the first place had helped too, but Odell had gone through that already. "Well, actually, I'm still just barely getting by, go figure. But, uh, I'm not complaining. Catching waves, cutting hair. What else does a man need?"

"You said it pal."

Odell finished up the final touches, brushed away the stray hairs and then grabbed the mirror to present his masterpiece. "Alright, let's take a look."

He held up the mirror for Steve to appraise the work and then waited for the praise. Steve rewarded him with a whistle of appreciation for what he saw. Well at least Rowan hadn't knocked the self-appreciation out of him.

"Buddy," he said appreciatively. "Thank you. It's perfect."

"That's what I wanna hear. Anything else I can do for you?" he asked, slowly putting the mirror away and trying to not appear too cocky.

"Yes. I didn't just call you down here for a haircut. I need a favour."

He had said that with those baby blue eyes of his staring straight down into Odell's soul. But Odell was not weak, that move might have worked on Rowan but it wasn't going to work on him.

"That's my cue to say goodbye."

Steve was absolutely flabbergasted. "Where are you going? You haven't even heard that it is yet!" he complained as Odell snapped the smock up off of McGarrett.

"Yeah, last time I did you a favour, I opened my shop early, I spent the rest of my day dodging bullets and now an Armenian gangster owns my shop. So if you don't mind, I'd like to leave now with my cash for services rendered and a generous tip."

McGarrett had stood for Odell's speech. He had turned to watch as Odell put everything back into his worn and faded messenger bag. He did not seem impressed, but Odell didn't care. But he still adverted his gaze away from McGarrett's disappointed glare.

"And I will see you again when things get unruly upstairs."

His phone buzzed and he pulled it out of his pocket. The same text from the same scammer had been coming in every morning round this time. Said the same thing: _Blind as a bat._ Nothing else. He figured it was a truncated message and it was probably something to do with eye care that he couldn't afford and didn't need.

"Odell, if I had another choice, I wouldn't ask, but I don't," Steve said. Great with the guilt trip. No amount of guilt was gonna change his mind. "My friend needs a lawyer. Right now, you're my only option."

"Well as you can see," he said gesturing with the scissors in his hand. "I am not a lawyer."

"Yeah, but you were a lawyer," Steve said. Goddamn it he had looked him up. Him and that stupid super computer. You know, word on the street was that he was using that computer to track Rowan all the time and that was part of the reason she left. He wasn't stupid enough to say that to Steven though. "You passed the bar when you first moved to the island. Which means technically, you can still practice."

McGarrett must have been some kind of desperate. Wasn't going to change Odell's mind though.

"That was ten years ago, man," he said with a chuckle. "I only took the bar because I needed a loan to open up my shop, and my father wouldn't give me the money unless I did." And then Steve just stared at him, with this wounded puppy dog look and Odell kinda got why Rowan just caved to this man's unrealistic demands all the time. "Just out of curiosity, what's your friend being accused of? What is it, DUI, B&E?"

Steve didn't look like he wanted to admit it but he eventually said: "Murder."

Wow. Just… wow. "I'm really not interested."

Steve's patience was running thing, Odell could tell. "Look, he's innocent. The public defender, he's ready to throw in the towel. They guy, he wants stop take a plea bargain."

"Well then, don't take the deal. Get a better lawyer," Odell said with a shrug.

"We can't. We tried. No one wants to touch this," Steve complained.

"Well, if everybody's saying it's a losing horse, then, uh, maybe you better step away from the window."

"Odell, this guy's a Five-0 asset. If he says he didn't do it then we believe him. Unfortunately we're part of the minority."

Well damn, that was big. Someone from Five-0 was getting pinched? But none of the main people, otherwise he would know. Damn, McGarrett couldn't handle losing more people, Odell knew that.

"He's been in front of this judge before. This guy… he has it in for him," Steven told him, well that wasn't good either, now was it? "He's accelerated the trial."

Mmmm, red flag right there. "Yeah, to when?"

Steve made that face, the same one he made when he didn't want tell him what crime their guy had committed. But he did finally say: "Monday."

Odell scoffed. "That's three days from now."

The guy was fucking crazy. He was absolutely crazy. Steven seemed to realize that too. "I know its three days from now."

Odell couldn't keep it in anymore. "Who the hell is this guy?"

And that was how he ended up in the basement of the Five-0 building in an interrogation room with a man who looked to have a dead animal on his freaking head.

"Oh sorry, dis room's taken," the man said. "You're going to have to interrogate this _haloe_ somewhere else."

Odell turned accusing eyes onto Steven as if Steven were responsible for this guy's behaviour. Steven ignored him though. "Sang Min, this is Odell Martin… your new lawyer."

Sang Min turned a surprised look onto Odell as he appraised him with almost narrowed eyes. He did not seem impressed. "Seriously, McGarrett?" he then pointed at Odell. "Dis is the best you can do? What happened? Pizza delivery guy not available?"

"Hey, Big-Trouble-In-Little-China," Odell snapped. "You want my help ease up on the digs."

"Yeah," Sang Min said though he seemed far from pleased. "You must be some hell of a lawyer. What are you goin' all out for casual Friday?"

And now he was talking about Odell's clothes. God this guy… he just wanted to punch him. And if his own lawyer wanted to punch him, what was the jury going to think?

"Are you sure you don't want this guy locked up for life? Because I do."

Steve looked exasperated but he tried to smile at Odell as he said: "He grows on you. I promise."

"I bet he does, like a bad fungus."

And then Odell remembered that Steven had once called Rowan a mold. The exact words were: _She grows on you… like mold_.

This could not be a coincidence.

"Fine, if this is going to happen, first thing I'm gonna need to do is cut whatever that that is growing off his head."

It was so sudden, but just mentioning a haircut sent this guy flying at Odell, he was up and out of his seat before Odell had even registered that he was moving.

"You touch my hair, and I'll be going to jail for your murder!"

Steven immediately had his arms between them, holding them apart. He did not look pleased but he still said: "This is going to work out great. I can feel it."

The man was touched in the head. Both of them. McGarrett the most.

Odell was already moving towards the door. "Uh-uh. No. Absolutely no way am I representing that cartoon character," he snapped as he got himself out. "Good luck."

Then he paused. "You didn't pay me for the haircut!"

Steve nodded and shockingly went for his walled. "Maybe your old man was right about you."

And just like that Odell was twice as fired up. He stalked towards McGarrett. "Hey do me a favour. Don't ever bring up my old man, alright?"

"My bad, sensitive subject, I get that," Steve said and Odell scowled because he doubt he did. He made a big show of counting the money in his wallet as he continued with the very obvious guilt trip. "Must have been tough on him too, though. Putting all his hopes and dreams into his son who would one day follow in his footsteps and, you know, reside over the family practice."

Odell stared him down, he was more interested in the bills in Steven McGarrett's hand. "I know what you're doing?"

"Is it working?"

Well at least the man could admit it when he's caught. "It's annoying."

Steven sighed once more. "Odell, I know it doesn't seem like it, but that man in there is innocent of this crime and I need you."

That was one hell of a guilt trip. Goddamn. "I'm trying to free myself from the binds of responsibility and you wanna put a man's life in my hands?" he asked hoping to hit McGarrett with his own guilt trip.

"But if you say no to me, an innocent man goes to prison," McGarrett reminded him blinking his big blue eyes.

There had been a rumor on the street that Rowan was the queen of guilt trips. They said she'd blink her big blue eyes at Wo Fat, remind him he shot her and bam, she got her way. This was clearly something she passed on to McGarrett. And he was using it without mercy.

And Odell caved.

Together they went back into the room where Sang Min was sitting precariously perched on the top of the chair like some acrobat. What the hell was he sitting like that for?

"Oh, let me guess, you couldn't find de elevator. Must be a bitch getting' old," Sang Min said and Steve finally had enough.

"Would you shut up, please? He's taking the case."

But Sang Min wasn't having it. "I like my plan better."

"Your plan has no credibility. No one knows where she is," Steven snapped. But Sang Min shook her head.

"I know you guys got Sanctuary back. Message went out loud and clear when dat app took down Waincroft. So I don't see why I can't use it call X-men. I get that you two ended tings but I feel like if we give her a call she'd be more dan generous wit helpin' me," Sang Min said.

"Who the hell is X-men?"

But Steve ignored him and turned a glare onto Sang Min. "I already told you, the app is one way. She's tracking the others, we can't track her. There's no way for us to contact her through it we tried."

It sounded like they were talking about Rowan. But… they couldn't be. He would have heard if her and her app had reappeared again. And from his understanding the Waincroft this was residual from his part in Rowan's torture.

"Then I say I give one of em call…"

Steve jumped on that immediately. "Are you telling me that you know how to get a hold of Rowan?" he asked and Sang Min paused.

"Well uh… no… but I know I can get a hold of Fat… at least I tink I can. To be honest, since all that shit went down in Colombia, no one's seen him."

Odell turned to Steven. "X-men is Rowan? What happened to Rowan?"

"Rowan's fine," Steve said thought he looked far from believing it.

"There are conflicting accounts of what went down. Some say da other guys got it. Some say X-men got involved and tings got spicy. All we know is dat a lot of bodies dropped dat day and Wo Fat and X-men are missing…"

"She's fine, I know she's fine," Steve snapped clearly needing to be off this topic. "Look you want to try and call him you go ahead but we both know he's not going to help you, and if he does it's not going to look good. We want you a free man not a fugitive. Now he's agreed to take the case, that's one step in the right direction."

Sang Min sucked his teeth as he thought about it. "And what if I decide I don't want him?"

"You go to prison for the rest of your life," Steven snapped. "Or hey, at least until Wo Fat and Rowan come to break you out."

It took all of two seconds for Sang Min to respond. "Okay, he can represent me."

Wow how gracious of him. "Well your gratitude is appreciated," he shot back drily. Steve beamed happily at the two of them while Odell just shook his head. God what had he gotten himself into? "Okay, great. We only got three days to prepare so we can't afford to waste anymore time."

"Okay, Perry Mason. Not. But I draw the line at cutting my hair," he said. Great another dig. Damn Odell might help them put this guy away. "It took me almost a year to grow it back after skippin' out of Halawa."

HE DID WHAT?!

Odell immediately turned to Steven. "Can I talk to you for a second?" Steve nodded and followed him the few feet away to where the door was. It wasn't much privacy but it was enough for Odell given the circumstances. "You do know that a defendant who escaped from prison is probably gonna be someone that a jury finds had to trust, you know?"

"Yep."

Well at least he knew right? "that kind of destroys his credibility a bit."

"Yes," Steve said patronizingly. "That's why it's important that you make sure it doesn't get brought up in court."

"Only way for that to happen is to keep him off the stand."

Well that seemed to strike a nerve because his whole forehead furrowed at the comment. "Okay, well can you do me a favour and tell him that, please?"

Odell sighed, turning back to Sang Min. He had a feeling that Sang Min and McGarrett had been arguing about this, but he might as well try. "Uhm… look, if you don't testify the jury will only hear facts pertaining to this case. As far as a court of law is concerned, any crime you committed in the past has no relevance."

Sang Min immediately shook his hand and his hands at that suggestion. "Oh, no, no, no, I have to testify."

"No you don't," both him and McGarrett cried together.

"Yes I do!" Sang Min argued.

"No you don't!" they said together again. But it was Steven who added: "Okay? You get on that stand and they're going to attack your character. Everything you've ever done, _ever done_ , is admissible, okay? And it's a long, long list!"

Sang Min shook his head and for a second he got real serious. "I didn't shoot dat guy but dere are no witnesses who can back up my story. The jury has to hear the truth from me."

Steve turned to Odell as if he was going to be able to fix this. Instead he said: "Hey, it ain't my life on the line. You want on the stand, have at it. But don't say I didn't wan you, okay?" Sang Min nodded. "Okay, have we got that cleared up?" Both Sang Min and McGarrett nodded that time. "Okay, let's start at the beginning. Tell me exactly what happened. Step by step."

As Sang Min walked him through the house of horrors that was this situation Odell realized something. This was mostly definitely a set up. But there were no witnesses to corroborate, the murder weapon was found, freshly fired, in Sang Min's hands, and Five-0 couldn't find the guy who was working with their murdered human trafficker. All they had was the word of a man who spent half of his life in jail and the other half being pursued by the cops.

Piece of cake… right?

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Trenton finished up his lecture on the expansion of the universe and dismissed the large auditorium of students who were all mostly failing his class. It wasn't that the tests or assignments were hard, it was more a commentary on how lazy and useless the upcoming generation was. If it wasn't spoon-fed to them they didn't get it. They were all about bare minimum effort and staring at their phones, so this was not the class for them. He also, every semester got a few girls who thought this was all about horoscopes. They usually dropped the class quite quickly.

So he wasn't surprised when one of the girly-girls approached him after class. She had two boys… well… she had two men with her. Both varying degrees of dangerous. She had one who looked like a biker and another in a nice suit as if he were about to go to court.

The girl herself, looked nice enough. She had chin-length dark brown hair, she was wearing a nice blouse and a pair of tall, already salt stained, black boots. But it was her eyes. It was her eyes that took his breath away. Because they were Piercing Pierce blue.

"Hello, Uhm… Dr. Pierce?" she asked.

"I don't do extra credit," he said stiffly. He wasn't going to change his mind, and her two goons weren't going to convince him otherwise.

The girl blinked those big blue eyes at him and then frowned. "No… yeah, no I know that, but uh… I'm not actually in this class… not even a student actually…"

Then why was she here? "Whatever it is you're selling I'm not interested."

"No…" she said quickly but he cut her off. Heading towards the exit of the lecture hall so he could get back to his office. She followed after him and he found that to be quite annoying.

"And I'm not interested in helping you write a thesis, no matter how much it pertains to my work. Nor can you use me as a reference, or reference any new work I might be working on at this time."

They got out onto the quad. The girl practically running to keep up with him. "Wait a second, that's not…"

"I'm not taking on anymore interns either!"

"JUST STOP!" she cried and he finally came to the halt. He turned back to look at her. She seemed frantic, like she might start crying. He wasn't certain what it was he did to upset her but he didn't like the look of that at all. "Please, I need you to help you. You're the only one who can."

Trenton narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean?"

"Look, you specialize in travelling, right? The theories about travelling from one universe to another… right?"

"Yes," he answered carefully.

"Okay, well… I need help travelling. Travelling back to my universe."

And then she stood there, obviously attempting to gauge his reaction. She nibbled her lips lightly as if that would make her seem more innocent. Except her was onto her now.

He laughed harshly causing her to frown. "Very funny," he said. "Did Wayne Lee put you up to this?"

He turned to head into the building that held his lab. He could go there but he had been terribly uninspired since the failure of the Hawaii experiment. Something the grant people had been very upset about. So he turned towards his office, wanting to lock the door between him and this crazy girl who seemed hell-bent to reminding him about his dead daughter who may or may not be here and being kept away from him by a deranged special tactics unit leader.

"We both know that Wayne Lee doesn't not have the imagination to think of something like this," she said as she trailed after him. The fact that she knew Wayne Lee enough to make such an accurate statement was enough to tell him who this girl really was.

"Well you can tell him that this was a sick joke and I'm going to get him back," he said. "Have a nice day, now if you don't mind…"

And then he slammed the door in her face. He quickly locked the door before she could try to open it and then with a heavy sigh he headed towards his desk. He wanted to call his son. But bringing up the Rowan in Hawaii only made Trevor more obsessed with the possibility of that being the Rowan he attempted to pull in all those years ago. Yes she looked like them, but her DNA didn't match them. That meant she wasn't their Rowan. Simple as that.

Also Trevor had been unreachable as of late. It occurred to him to be concerned but Trevor was a grown man and was allowed to have spans of time where he wouldn't contact his father. Though if he didn't hear from him soon Trenton might bite the bullet and call Rosie… just to see if Trevor was okay… not because he missed his ex-wife or anything stupid like that.

He had been staring at the phone when it happened. Most of the testing equipment he had brought to Hawaii was still packed in its cases, he hadn't brought himself to unpack them. And it was the boson reader that was crazy.

Trenton watched it read out a major spike in boson energy and then the door to his office slammed opened.

"Okay, listen here, buddy. I didn't fly all the way down here for nothing… so you're going to…"

"How did you do that?" he asked cutting her off. The girl blinked her eyes.

"Do what?"

Trenton stood up. He looked from the reader which was no longer reacting to the girl who looked very confused. "I locked the door, how did you get it open?"

"Oh… uhm… I picked the lock."

She was lying. He could tell instantly. He wasn't sure how, but there was something shifty in her eyes as she lowered them, the way her lips twitched back and forth.

"No, you didn't," he said and she blanked. Being called out so quickly after the lie had clearly startled her. "You did something… the boson reader registered an event. What did you do?"

"A… what reader?"

"Boson reader, the particles that create the different strings of the universe," he explained but the girl just looked confused. She glanced back to the door where her two friends were standing and staring at them taking in the interaction with concern and confusion on their faces. "This reader picks up the energy created with the strings are plucked…"

The girl went back to the door, took the doorknob in her hand and said: "Like this?"

The reader in his hand suddenly went haywire, he swore he heard the sound of a static shock and then out of nowhere the lock engaged on the door, the bar swinging out.

Trenton looked from the reader in his hand, which, now that the lock was engaged, had gone silent then back to the girl who had dropped her hold on the doorknob and was now staring at him.

"Look. This is crazy. I know this is crazy. But I had something kinda… crazy happen to me, and now I've got all these side effects that I'm having trouble dealing with," she said and then glanced at the door. "That trick is the smallest more normal one in my bag. I need help either getting back to the right… string… or at least being able to control what's going on with me. Can you help me or not?"

She was right. It was crazy. But the reader in his hand had sensed some sort of event involving the string matter that he believed created all the universes and connected theirs to all the others. It was crazy, but he believed.

He looked back at her, this girl who would be able to prove all of his theories right. He grinned widely at her and said: "Well… I can certainly try."

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

All Steve had to do was find the guy, Graham Clark, and prove that he killed the guy. But Graham Clark had gone and disappeared. That meant Odell had to take Sang Min into that court. Odell wasn't ready for this. He wasn't ready to turn exactly into his father, the worst thing he could possibly be in his eyes.

The text messages had doubled. He was getting them once in the morning, once at lunch and once at night. They all said the same thing, Blind as a bat. In fact, he got one just before the went into court. On top of that, while Steve gave him a wonderful pep talk, confessed his own drama with his father, slightly, he noticed that the man was rubbing his chest. Small twinges he said, nothing big, stuff that happened sometimes. Odell figured it was something to do the stress of his job and high blood pressure.

Either way Steve had convinced Odell to go in and then he was struggling to keep his composure and win this case. The first half of it was just the prosecuting lawyer pulling up all the witnesses and making Sang Min look unreliable. And it was working.

The problem came when it got to be Steven's. Steven was forced to admit that he had never given Sang Min a wire and that meant that Sang Min was out of his sight. It was then that Steven started to… have trouble.

Steve went to get up, and then faltered. A hand going to his chest. The prosecutor paused.

"Commander, are you okay?"

Steve half nodded. He forced himself up, practically pulling himself up out of the chair. He thought he was okay, he thought he was fine , just like the other twinges he had gotten that morning, this would go away. But suddenly it fired up again even worse than before and he knew exactly what was happening to him.

It was a void twinge. Rowan was using her powers.

Steve stumbled to a stop and couldn't stop himself from crying out. His chest… it felt like he was on fire. His heart felt like it was in a vice grip and nothing would let go. He collapsed back against the witness stand as Odell got up and came towards him. The twinges weren't this long before, they were twinges this, this was a full out attack. The twinge let go and Steve caught his breathe. He looked up to his friends who were all on their feet and calling his name, staring at him as if wondering if he was going to be okay.

"Sorry… got a little dizzy there," Steve murmured as if that would make this better, but he knew, all the of them were concerned and there was no getting away from the questions after this.

He regained his composure, got back up and was immediately stopped once more. The twinge started up again. Firing up in his chest, knocking the wind out of his lungs again.

But that wasn't where the pain stopped. There was a secondary pulse, and the pain in his chest managed to tighten and Steve dropped to his knees. He had never felt a void twinge this strong, this painful. She was either in some terrible, terrible danger or she was really trying to leave.

Steve closed his eyes to the pain.

He knew what it was. She was trying to travel. That's all this could be. She was literally forcing the void open to go home. He could just let her go, he knew it. He could almost envision it, all the strings coiled around her. All he had to do was let go of her. But he couldn't. He didn't want Rowan to leave. He selfishly wanted her to come back to Hawaii he just couldn't bring himself to give up on her. His friends were scrambling towards him. He could hear them coming for him, someone had his hand on his back, Odell maybe. Steve didn't know, he was lost to the world, lost to the pain.

He didn't realized when he had started shouting, one primal urgent cry of "NO!". He only knew when the pain in his chest came to a violent sudden stop and then all knew was darkness.


	250. Chapter 250

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Happy Monday my wonderful readers! So we're going to find out what happened to cause Steve's little episode, and in the next couple of chapter's we're going to be very void heavy, a lot of void stuff is going to happen, and we're eventually going to meet all of Rowan's family. Are you guys excited?! I know I am! We're half way guys, we're almost through this year, only a few more incidents to go through and then Steve and Rowan get back together. I'll keep you posted on how long it should take, but I'm not thinking much longer. Again I'm trying to get them back together by the 300th chapter. Don't forget to leave me a review and I will do my best to see you guys on Wednesday, but I have to write the whole chapter before then so no promises!_

Chapter 250

* * *

"Okay, explain it to me again."

The girl, whom had introduced herself to him as simply as Wick, was sitting calmly in one of stools as he bustled around his lab turning everything on and pulling out all the experiments he thought might be able to help them. She seemed at home in his lab, as if she were used to being around this kind of equipment or his kind of intense energy. Which partly might have been because of the two men she had with her.

She had introduced her two goons as her brothers. Older brothers. Both of whom looked nothing like her. The eldest, the ones with the burns covering half his face and in the fanciest of suits, she called Oz. The Latino biker with the perfectly coifed head of black hair and the severe glare was Con. Both men, while they stood behind her, had the pretending of being aloof and uncaring, but Trenton saw the way their eyes stayed on the girl. They were prepared to move if he proved himself to be a threat, so he had to tread carefully around her.

But despite their disapproval of the topic he wanted to more information about this girl. Because he had a theory and he need more evidence to support it before he went forward with his claim.

"Okay. About four years ago I dropped out of the sky and into this universe," she said. Four years ago. His experiment to pull an object through the void had been four years ago. "And… at first… I didn't really have any side effects, you know? But then maybe a few months after I got here, something started trying to pull me into the void… like it was trying to take me somewhere…"

That had also been him. It took a while to create the chain, the harpoon like hook that was designed to pulse towards energized Bosons. It must have been grabbing her. But was stopping it from pulling her through.

"Then… I unno, whatever it was… that connection just sort of snapped…" she was lying, she knew exactly what had happened. He didn't, he just knew that one day the thing had snapped and he didn't have the grant money to recreate the harpoon again. "After that I tried opening the void to go home but I couldn't find my way. Then I unno one day I couldn't open the door to the void anymore."

Void, she must have meant the space between the strings. He was calling them white spaces.

"And the uh… the trick with the doorknob?"

"Oh… uhm… I started… I started the manipulation stuff after I…"

She paused at that point and turned to the two men hovering behind her. The one with the scars, obviously the eldest of the trio and the leader, nodded and she turned back.

"I started manipulating strings after Oz kidnapped my boyfriend."

Well that was… interesting.

"Wait, that's how you got into the room?" Oz suddenly asked and Wick turned back to him and nodded. He seemed to think it over for a little longer but it was Con who asked: "Is that the ropes trick?"

Rope's trick?

All eyes turned to him and he elaborate: " _Mami_ was slipping every rope that Diego put around her wrists."

"You slipped the CIA's cuffs too," Oz murmured turning new eyes of understanding to the girl. CIA, some guy was tying her up? Who the hell were these people?

"Yep that's how I got out of the cuffs and the ropes, all I have to do is focus on the strings, find the one that loosens the ropes and bam I'm out of them," she explained and then turned back to Trenton. "But uh… what happened a few days ago… that was something that's never happened before."

"And what happened?" he asked.

"I uh… I opened the void like a million times in a row but I wasn't like… in control, you know?" she asked, "I barely remember doing it and… I unno, I can't have that happening."

Trenton was firing up his machines, his readers, he knew what he was going to ask her to do first.

"I thought you couldn't open the void anymore? That's what you said, that you couldn't do it anymore."

Wick huffed, but it was true, she had said that. "Yeah, I know, that's thing. I didn't think I could then I just got so angry that I uh… I guess I forced myself to open it but once I was there, once I was in it I wasn't in control…"

Trenton nodded. Alright. Maybe this experiment wouldn't work. Still he pushed the Wig machine into the middle of the room and right in front of him.

"WHOA! It's the Wig, he's got the Wig!" she cried pointing it at him. Trenton looked up to her surprised. Not only did she know what it was she knew his nickname for it. When both her boys stared at her with eyes of ununderstanding she said: "It's the Worm Hole Generator! Which we acronymed to WGH which is pronounced Wig. And look now it's working. Don't you get it? He was having such a hard time figuring out the theory behind it and making it work and before I fell…."

And then she stopped dead, her words died on her mouth and Trenton knew immediately what she was going to say.

She was going to say when she was home, it wasn't working. Which meant she came from a reality where someone she knew was making one of these.

It was all Trenton needed to prove that this girl really was his daughter. He was about 75% certain that this was Rowan Pierce. She had changed her hair, the red and blonde was gone, but she had died her hair to what he figured was the natural hair color. Which was the same color as Rosie's.

He'd need more evidence before he confronted her about. And he figured need her away from the two guard dogs she had with her as well, whom he assumed were criminals now and probably the reason she lied about who she was, she could obviously be traced back to them. It sort of worried him, what this version of his daughter might be involved in.

"You've seen one of these before?"

Wick blinked her eyes before muttering solidly. "My dad worked in a lab like this one."

"Ah, and did you come into contact with any of the machines before you…"

"No, I wasn't at the lab before I fell in, I was at home," she snapped. "My brother shot me with a particle energizer gun though."

"At home?"

"Yeah sometimes we play around with our dad's stuff… when we really shouldn't…" she whispered

Alright that explained a few things. Firstly the person in her life with the most likely Cosmology degree was her father. It also explained how she survived the trip. It also explained how Trevor's initial launch had reached her, out of all the other universes with Rowan's in them. She must have been a beacon with all those particles lit up.

"Okay, what does a Worm Hole Generator do, and why is it out?" Oz asked him, obviously wanting off this topic.

Trenton pet the machine. "This generates enough energy to rip open the fabric of space and let us see between," he said. "And I want her to activate it."

Wick blinked her eyes. "I uh… I don't know if I can," she whispered. "I don't really have control over it anymore… and I don't really… need to do it… cause last time it was kind of an emergency."

Trenton nodded as if he understood. "Well, you're here because you want to either learn how to control it, or find a way to go home right?"

The second half of that question had both men straightening. Con's fearful eyes went between Rowan and Oz, signifying that Oz really was the one making all the calls here, while Oz clapped a darkened concerned glare onto Wick. Wick turned back to him, looked to both her men one more time before turning back to him again and carefully getting off the stool she had been sitting on.

"Alright, I'm down to try, but uh… I think we should start for control and work on getting home later."

He glanced to the two men behind her once more. Oz had seemingly relaxed, both he and Con were leaning against the same counter, both had their arms crossed across their chests, a foot crossed over the other. Oz seemed both interested and disinterested at the same time. Con was just glaring.

"Alright… so uh… the WIG has all the capabilities of opening a portal when currently powered. I figure it'll be easier for you to manipulate than to do it from scratch. So… do whatever it is you have to do to focus and then we'll uh… we'll see if we can get something."

Wick nodded her head and then narrowed her eyes. Though nothing happened, the boson particle reader he had in his hand registered the tiniest of blips.

"Alright, well we had some action there, but not enough to open a portal," he said. "Try again."

Wick nodded and once again her eyes narrowed. That time there was a crackle, he both heard and saw it. A single bolt of orange electric static that left her. And for a second the energy detector attached to the WIG flickered. But Wick let out her breath dejectedly and seemingly huffed as if she were out of breath.

"Okay, that was a bit better," he said. "If I may ask, what exactly triggered the last event?"

"I was angry," she answered. "I was angry and I was afraid… and desperate."

It was something bad then, judging by the guilty looks on the boys faces.

"Okay… well uh… I why don't you try to pull on that again?" Trenton offered. "If it's your emotions it's attached to right now, we can start by mimicking it, and once you can mimic it you'll be able to get a better grip on it without."

Wick seemed distraught by this request. "But what if… what if I loose control again?"

"I've got lots of things in here that should, theoretically, knock you out of it," Trenton said trying to sound much more confident than he felt.

"Yeah, and if it doesn't work one of us will grab you," Con said.

That seemed to make her feel better because when she finally looked up she had a serious look on her face. She was clearly about to try again. But this time, instead of narrowing her eyes she closed them entirely.

Whatever she was doing worked this time, the boson reader in his hand began to spike, the energy reader on the WIG began to flicker again, and then suddenly out of nowhere all the readers in the room began to go haywire.

Trenton looked up to Wick to find that bolts of orange electric were budding out of her skin like tendrils of crazed lightning.

And then her eyes opened. A bright glowing white he wasn't sure he was comfortable with.

Beside him the WIG came alive on its own. A portal open in the middle of the giant hoop and Trenton almost whooped in joy. It was true, she really was a creature of the void. But the problem was, that portal was only open for a few seconds, before a swarm of red strings erupted from it and tangled her up.

The two boys yelped, immediately rushed forward. Oz wrapped his arms around Wick's torso while Con slid to her side as if he was going to take on the strings on his own. And then actually did. He took big grasping handfuls of them even though they seemed be freezing cold. He never once dropped his hold on them, instead he struggled to tug them away from her.

Trenton couldn't only watch it happen just shocked that it was actually all happening in his lab.

"TURN IT OFF!" Oz shouted at him.

Con left him to run to the machine, even Trenton managed to make himself move. But even when he pressed all the buttons in the right combination, even when he actually unplugged the damn thing the portal wouldn't close.

Oz was starting to turn to strings, tendrils of pink were snaking around the red trying to push them away from Wick, managing to repel them, but there were more red than pink and it was making very little progress. Wick who stood still practically being suffocated by the strings around her, seemingly unaffected by it all her eyes that opaque white, smoke radiating out of her skull.

None of his theories had a way to stop the attack of the strings. They weren't supposed to be alive.

He was just about ready to take an axe to his own machine when there came this terrible roaring scream of NO, one that didn't belong to any of them, and with it came this shockwave of pure power. It fried the energy core of the WIG, it destroyed the red strings around Wick and it knocked both Wick and Oz off they're feet.

As soon as they hit the ground Con yelped and rushed away. Wick was unconscious, though Oz was not. She was bleeding from the places the electric bolts had escaped her and the boys frantically struggled to plug all the leaks.

"She's really a traveller," he found himself whispering as he came to stand above them. But a single glare from Oz sent him skittering back. Doing any further experiments would be impossible under that man's watchful gaze, not unless he had a way to make the experiments as safe for her as he could.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve had been rushed to the hospital.

It had been a terrible thing, to witness the strong Commander McGarrett crumble to chest pain. Odell was immediately sure it was a heart attack but his friends, they had seemed skeptical though they didn't voice their concerns. He could tell that they didn't think that this was just a straight heart attack case.

There was a short recess to deal with it. To try and help Steven who had gone unconscious, to allow the paramedics to get to him, put him on the stretcher and then get him to the ambulance. His friends had gone with him, even Sang Min had gone with them to see him off.

None of the team could leave, of course, they were witnesses in the trial, but all of them had agreed to one thing, which was calling Danny. Danny who had been in Jersey with his mother and Matty. Unbeknownst to them, Matty had a stash of cash, separate from the cash he had stolen from Reyes. It had been put in Clara's name, and recently they had tried to access it, not realizing that the FBI had been watching it.

They had grabbed Danny's mother and his brother and interrogated them until one of them called Danny. Since then there had been some developments, like realizing that this wasn't about Danny and the money his brother had, but about Five-0 and its involvement with Rowan and her app.

Danny, had been dealing with this situation as well as Danny could, but they didn't know if he'd come back, so instead they told him what happened, asked if he was available to come back early, and were now waiting to hear back from him.

With that bit of excitement cleared up, everyone returned to the courtroom to finish off this trial. And Odell immediately called Sang Min to the stand to get his version of the events.

Then after immediately giving them, after Odell summed up how his story explained bits and pieces of the evidence that otherwise looked incriminating, the man had the nerve to say to him: "That's the fact, Jack."

Odell nearly jumped over the stand to strangle the man, but he managed to keep his composure. He showed a few more pictures and then he came to the best part. The guy who actually did it. He showed the jury the picture of the real person who should have been on trial.

"This is Graham Clark who is a suspected human trafficker," he said. And then he turned the picture to Sang Min. "Is this the man you fought with?"

And then he did it again. He paused and made that squinty face thing. He did it whenever he was looking at something far away.

After way too long of a pause he said: "Yeah, that's him."

A lightbulb went off in Odell's head. All those texts. All those blind as a bat, texts. What if they weren't an Ad? What if they were a clue?

But during that pause the defender spoke up. "Your Honour, I object. Mr. Clark's not on trial here, Sang Min Su is."

Odell didn't even care when the judge agreed with him. He had a new course of action to pursue.

"I… withdraw the question," he said quickly. "Do you wear prescription glasses?"

Sang Min paused, clearly confused by the question. "Huh?"

"Do you wear prescription glasses?"

"Glasses?"

"Yeah. Eyeglasses, do you wear them?"

"I'm the perfect package, brother," Sang Min told him with a scoff. "No imperfections here, huh?"

"Yeah, well, maybe you're not so perfect. Do me a favour. Read the Hawaiian State seal right over there."

The seal in question was a massive plaque above the door. It was easily readable, only about 10 feet away. He should have been able to read it no problem, but instead of reading it he just stared at Odell, apparently livid. "Don't look at me. Read the seal!" Sang Min continued to glare at him. "Go ahead. Read it."

More glaring. "You can't read it, can you?"

"No, I can't!" exploded out of Sang Min. And Odell smiled widely. He had just proved his point. "Huh? Now, why don't we, you know, get back to da regular scheduled program, huh, judge?"

But Odell had all he needed now. He knew how to prove the man innocent.

"Have you suffered from a head trauma?"

"Does this head look trauma to you?" Sang Min shot back. Well with that kind of haircut, yeah, yeah it kind of did.

"Sang Min, isn't it true that Lieutenant Chin Ho Kelly of the Five-0 task force hit you across the face with an ash tray the first time he met you?"

Sang Min avoided his eyes. "I don't remember."

Yes he did remember. He bragged about the story in the hotel room. That's how Odell knew about it in the first place.

"Judge, please instruct my client to answer the question."

Judge Purnell leant over. "The witness will answer the question."

Though he really didn't want to he finally said: "Yes. Lieutenant Kelly hit me." The then turned to address the jury. "But to be fair, ehh, I probably deserved it."

After that it was easy. All he need to do was the get the hospital medical records, and while he was waiting for that to come through he pulled back all the witnesses that had destroyed his credibility the first time, and had them answer new questions. First he had Max tell them that it was possible for a person to gain shortsightedness from a blow to the head, and that it might not appear right away but over time. He had Kono come back and say that there was no way that he could not have shot the guy from that far away in the dark with that kind of gun with his eyesight, not even an expert marksman ship could. And then Chin showed up with the Halawa records that stated that Sang Min had 20/100 vision, and was offered glasses only to turn them down.

This all proving that there was no way Sang Min, who was blind as a bat, could have managed to shoot that guy, that far, with that kind of gun and his terrible eyesight. At the end of trial the Jury had agreed with him.

He had won his very first course case. Sang Min Su was a free man.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan came to gasping loudly.

She was frozen, she was in pain, and it felt like she was coming out from under water. She lurched out, her hands reaching out for anything, and got two people. Her right hitting Wo Fat in the chest, her left catching Conejo's shoulder.

Her eyes frantically whipped between the two of them as they both tried their best to soothe her.

"It's alright," Wo said to her. "It's alright. It's alright. I've got you, you're safe…"

"I don't know what question to ask you so I know I'm in the right universe," she said to him and he laughed at her.

He took a hold of her hand and showed her the wrist where his bracelet was sitting. "I gave you that for Christmas, despite you telling me I wasn't your brother anymore."

Conejo nodded, she noted that his hands were wrapped up and she didn't know why. "Last Christmas, I got sassy and you took me down with a cookie cutter… then I didn't talk to you for four days."

Rowan smiled. That was it. These were her boys.

"Oh good. I'm still here," she sighed.

Behind them her father came into view, pacing about his lab as he mumbled to himself. "Amazing, absolutely amazing, whatever it was, it definitely originated from the WIG and everything in it's path has been fried. Amazing, truly amazing…"

Wo Fat followed her eyes and scowled at him. "I don't think this is wise, Ro," he whispered. "I think… I think we should stop this."

Rowan opened her mouth to tell him that she didn't want to stop now, not now that she knew she could still open the void if she was angry enough. But it was her father who shouted: "No!" at them.

"Stop now? After such a momentous experiment?" he cried and Wo Fat stood getting right into her father's face. Usually her father was not so easily intimidated but Wo Fat wasn't your regular high school principal telling him that his daughter was a delinquent that was failing almost all her classes.

"My sister is not an experiment. And I'm not going to sit here and let you put her through things that are going to render her unconscious or split her skin open. The point is to learn to control it so she's not coming apart or losing herself if it happens again! So you can either teach us how to fix it or I'm going to take her away and destroy all evidence of her ever being here."

He could do that?

Her father quickly regained his composure. "Well… the strings don't usually attack you when you open the void, or at least it didn't when I performed the experiment on its own. And if you remember, before the actually event there was another voice… almost like something was calling for her from the other side of the void."

"Yeah. Steven's."

Wo Fat turned to her a shocked and accusing glare on her face. "What?"

"Should I have mentioned that he can kind of… manipulate the void too?" she asked him with a wince and a dangerous glare hit her brother's face.

"Yes… yes… that was something you should have told me."

"Steven? Who's Steven?"

"My ex," Rowan said with a sigh. "The red strings go back to him. He… uh… we've been able to kind of link up to one another using them… I think… and uh… he was my grounder."

"Grounder?" her father asked suddenly very interested. He pushed between Conejo and Wo Fat so he could squat in front of her, notebook in hand.

"Uhm… yeah… when I was being pulled in the first time he was uh… he was what kept me here… from moving."

A sort of understanding hit him and he nodded.

"Interesting, interesting," he said as he began to scribble in his book.

"Okay, but what does that mean?" Conejo asked.

"It means we're not doing it again," Wo Fat snapped. "Not if those red strings are going to try to pull her to him."

Her father ignored Wo Fat and stood up. "It's only a theory, but uh… connected you say?" he asked, directing the question to her. "How did you know?"

"Uhm… well… he feels it when I open the void, or pull too heavily from it. Feels like a heart attack. And he could always tell when I'm in trouble, so he knew to go looking for me. He used to call it his compass, he said he could always find me with it. Uhm…. And once he was about to get beheaded by the Taliban and he wanted me so much and I just wanted to save him so badly that I kinda sent a bit of a void presence to save him…"

"Afghanistan…" Wo Fat echoed.

"Wait you went all the way to Afghanistan, nearly got yourself killed by terrorists and inducted into the Navy by force simply to help Steve put up a force field?" Conejo snapped. "Couldn't you have stayed at home to do that!"

"That's not what I went there for, and I unno, I unno how far a range this stuff has. I didn't even know I could do it before you know… I did it."

"Fascinating," her father suddenly said and all eyes turned up to him. "Not the Afghanistan thing, the other stuff."

"Why is that fascinating?" Wo Fat asked drily.

"Simply because he's the other half of the puzzle," he said. "This other man, linked to her by these red strings in the other half of the machine. The power source, if you will."

"What?"

"The red strings, there were so many of them, they're most likely what's giving you the power to resonate with the void. And since they're connected to him, he feels it when you're trying to access the void. But more over he has the power to shut you off. He is your on and off switch."

Rowan blinked her eyes and let that sink in. knowing it was true. Her dreams never came when Steve had his arms around her. He had been the only one who could keep her from travelling through the void, the simple act of him touching her could shut down all her powers, but he was also the reason all of her powers evolved.

"Okay, wait… so… if he can feel it when you use the void… did he feel that?" Conejo asked pointing to the smoking WIG machine.

Rowan nodded. "I mean… probably. Gosh I hope he wasn't on a case or out in the field when that happened," she whispered to herself but everyone heard it anyway.

Wo Fat put his fingers to his temples and then groaned, clearly past frustrated. "Okay… okay… so… how does this work? Can he like pull you? Can he home in on you?"

"He doesn't know how to work it, just like I don't," she snapped back to him. "Besides, he hated my powers. Hated that I kept using them. Even if he had the power, even if he knew how to use it, I doubt he would."

"Man's an idiot, I would use this power every fucking day. I swear to god this man has some goddamn issues," Conejo growled. His hands had not left Rowan's body once, his grip was tight, dangerously so, but she figured he was too afraid she'd vanish if he let her go. So she let him have it.

"Wait a second," Wo Fat said suddenly. "Your visions, they're tied to the void right? Cause back where you're from he's a TV show?"

Rowan hadn't told her dad that so she was a little surprised that Wo Fat had just blurted that out to him. "Okay, yeah, so what?"

"Well… you moved in with Steven and immediately had issues with your dreams," he said. "I remember, you told me they weren't coming right anymore, they came in waves, sometimes you got them sometimes you didn't right away. Is that maybe… why? He's your off switch, he doesn't want you using your powers so your dreams didn't come in right?"

Rowan blinked her eyes. Huh. That would explain why, since leaving Hawaii and Steven her dreams had become crystal clear and ten times easier to control. Maybe that was also why the void opened for her when it hadn't done so in pure ages. Steve wasn't there to shut her off when she tried.

"Except clearly he can shut her off from across the void," her father interrupted. "That blast, the one that shut down the WIG and her, that most likely came from him."

"So… he _can_ manipulate the void?"

Trenton seemingly thought over how to word it. "I highly doubt it. As Wick said, this Steven character, doesn't seem well versed in how to work the power he has. He probably responded to whatever pain he was feeling at the hands of her latest attempt to use the void and tried to stop her."

Wo Fat groaned and turned back to Rowan. "I don't like this," he said again. "I don't like this and I don't want you to do it again."

"You sound just like Steven," Rowan growled and his glare darkened on her.

"No, I sound like a concerned brother," he argued. "He opened that portal and those red strings tried to pull you in, and look at all the cuts you have now. This isn't safe, and if you end up stuck in that void I don't know how I'm going to get you out."

Ah so that was his concern, she almost melted on him right then and there. "Okay, you're right," she whispered. "I guess… I guess…"

"You said a particle energizer hit you before correct?" her father interrupted. "I trust your Steven didn't feel any twinges _before_ you fell?"

"Uh… well no, I unno he never mentioned…"

"And you did have any immediate side effects after being hit?" he asked.

"Uhm… no… I had trouble sleeping that night, that was about it," Rowan whispered.

"Alright, well I have what I think is a particle energizer at home," he said. "If you're up to it and your brothers are agreeable, maybe we can…"

"What? Shoot my sister with something when you're not even certain what it'll do to her?"

"If my theory is correct, it will simply charge the bosons that make her up and allow her to resonate with the bosons in the void. It should help her to connect to it more easily and should keep her from having to generate energy elsewhere and therefore hurting Steven in the process."

Rowan blinked her eyes and then turned them up to Wo who looked torn about this. His hands were on his hips silently digesting the theory before turning back to her. He offered her a hand to help her stand and once she was he asked: "What do you want to do?"

Rowan held his gazed, as she said as confidently as she could: "I want to try again."

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Danny rushed into the Tripler Medal hospital looking for Steve's room. The poor man was being held for observation and though he was certain that his mom and his brother needed him, after his day, after what happened with Sandy, he figured his family would be okay and Steve really needed him more than them at the moment.

A massive void twinge. One bigger than anything any of them had ever witnessed before. So big, so strong it had knocked Steve unconscious.

God, he just knew that couldn't be good. Especially since that meant that this was tied to Rowan.

When Danny found Steve in his room, he was shocked to see the state his friend was in. Poor Steve was just sitting there on the bed, his head in his hands, he hadn't even noticed Danny standing there.

"Hey! You… you okay?"

Danny watched Steve's head whip up, watched as he pulled up the walls, the pretense of him being okay. "Yeah… I'm fine, what… what… what are you doing here?"

"I'm here trick-or-treating. Obviously I'm here for you, you shmuck," Danny snapped and then he softened. "So… what do the doctors say?"

"Apparently my blood pressure is through the roof, but there's nothing that would indicate the massive heart trauma that I seemingly felt. They want to do more tests."

Danny sighed. He knew his friends hadn't wanted to call an ambulance, but a twinge had never taken him down before, had never knocked him unconscious. They had all, understandably, had been very worried.

"Okay… well… what happened?"

"I unno man, it was a twinge… except…" "—It was more like an attack?" Danny summed up for him and Steve nodded.

"You don't understand, it was like she was trying to rip my heart out of my chest. I have never felt it that strong before. Never… and then I unno, I tried to stop it and that's kinda where I black out. And now I find out she's right, my blood pressure is shot, they're thinking from the stress of my job and they want to put me through more tests and… and… they're not going to find anything, you know? They're not gonna… and how do I tell them what happened? How do I explain it you know?" He cried. Danny nodded because he was totally right, there was no way to explain what happened without people thinking he was crazy. "It's just so fucked up…"

Danny sighed. "I'm sorry…"

"I should have let her go," Steven whispered and Danny paused.

"Excuse me? Let her go? Steven you've already done that!"

"NO!" he suddenly shouted. "When that pain started, I knew what she was doing. She was trying to leave, to go home and I stopped her."

Danny stared at him, not sure how to take that in. "Steven…"

"She was gong to leave, she was going to go back to her own world and I couldn't bear the thought of that so I tried to hold onto her," Steve explained. "And now I'm here and I…"

Danny calmly sat down at the edge of Steven's bed. "This is not your fault. It's hers. She knows what using the void does to you…"

"I should have let her go home."

Yes he should have. But Danny knew how Steve felt about Rowan. Knew he was having a hard time just letting her go romantically, letting her leave the universe was something completely different.

"I just… I guess… It was killing me Danny. It was like if she left this world… if she left she was going to take my heart with her. And I couldn't…. I could bear that Danny."

That was fair. Danny sort of understood that.

"But… this is killing you Steve…"

"I know it is! I guess I'm thinking that if she's still here in my world… one day… one day I know she'll end up back here, maybe not with me… but I'll see her again," Steve whispered. Good God was that what he was holding onto? "But if she leaves the universe I'll never… see her again and… and… I… I couldn't…"

He couldn't let her go.

"This is ridiculous," Danny sad. "You… I know how you feel Steven, I know it's hard to let someone go, but this… this is killing you. You gotta stop letting it kill you."

Steve nodded and Danny nodded too. This wasn't a long term plan, this wasn't something that Danny could see working, because Steven was too stubborn to let Rowan go.


	251. Chapter 251

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hello my wonderful readers. Guess who's going to have yet ANOTHER void incident. That's right, I wasn't lying about this rest of this story going very void heavy. Essentially once she learns how to use it right she's going to be using it A LOT, so get ready for that. We are going to have some interesting things happening with Five-0 as well, so don't worry we're going to see more of them. This particular episode (Episode 17) is a long one, story wise I mean, I think it's like 5 chapters, starting here. I'm trying to get through this quickly, I only have 7 more episodes to write out and then we're onto season 7 but it's definitely looking like I'm going to wrap up season six closer to 300 chapters, but as I said I'll keep you posted on the progress. Don't forget to leave me a review, tell me what you're looking forward to seeing, and I'll see you guys on Friday!_

Chapter 251

* * *

They were all at the McGarrett house, getting briefed on the newest threat to their team. Steve was passing around pictures his contact had gotten while Danny sat with this phone. His phone, which had not been the same since he had accepted the help that had been presented to him, and had essentially been rendered useless until whatever it was running finally stopped.

Everyone got a look of the surveillance stills of a man none of them recognized in a blue suit.

"So this is the guy who's after us?" Grover asked.

Steve nodded. "Yeah."

"Hmm, who is he?"

"He's Federal Prosecutor, Robert Coughlin."

At that everyone's eyes whipped up, everyone but Danny who already knew. "Coughlin?" Chin repeated.

"Coughlin," Steve confirmed. "Yeah, he's Rex's brother. Recently transferred here from Boston."

"How do we know him?" Abby asked. She was new, she wouldn't the history so they'd forgive her for asking silly questions.

"Rex Coughlin was an IA detective who investigated me a few years back."

Abby seemed slightly concerned which was fair because Steve figured Chin hadn't told her about this yet. Their relationship was super fresh after all and I mean, Rowan had been hiding things from him even after they got together. But Chin was much more understanding that Steve had been so maybe it was just the newness of the relationship that had kept his past with IA hidden.

"What for?"

Chin wouldn't even look at her. "Cash that went missing from the evidence room."

"Which Chin was exonerated for," Kono explained quickly.

"And then more recently he accused me of protecting Gabriel Waincroft." Chin finally lifted his eyes to hers as if assessing what she was thinking. Luckily she didn't look too horrified. Just contemplative. "The whole thing was a witch hunt. In Coughlin's eyes, I was guilty until proven innocent."

Grover nodded. "He was so desperate to bring Chin down he made a deal with the devil to do it."

"What do you mean?"

"Rex cut a deal with Gabriel in exchange for Gabriel agreeing to testify against Chin," Kono explained.

"Right, but while the deal was being hammered out, Rex made the mistake of having Gabriel temporarily transferred out of Halawa and it ended with Rex getting a pencil in the eye and Gabriel escaping."

"But that's not what happened is it?" she asked and they turned to her. "It wasn't Gabriel…"

Steven sighed. "Yeah… that… we didn't know it at the time but uh… Wo Fat sent a player down to deal with the situation. He sent him down with proof that Gabriel had transferred the money out himself before Chin got involved but uh… he had chased Coughlin away before… and Coughlin had been warned not to come back and… well… Wo Fat doesn't take too kindly to people who disregard orders."

"So it was his man who stabbed Rex in the eye," she said. "The man Rowan sent down…"

"No. No. Rowan was getting extradited to Colombia at the time. It wasn't her. It was Wo Fat. Wo Fat sent the order…"

"Through her app," she finished for him. "Which is where we got most of this info…."

Steve looked down at the pictures and then up to Danny. "Yes… well… uh… Sandy hit me with a data dump after I got cleared by the FBI in Jersey. Hit me up with all his details and his motives. By the looks of it she had been monitoring the situation for a while. Either she just got cleared to do something about it, or it's become serious enough for her programming to kick in."

"I got it cleared with my contacts to make sure it was all correct and it is. He's the one after us."

"Okay… okay… but you said… you have all said that Rowan's app went down. Why… if it went down… is it back again and why are you letting it help you?"

They all exchanged glances before settling on Steve who ran a hand over his face. "You're right. Yes, yes the app went down. To fake Rowan's death he activated a protocol they call the Captain America Contingency Plan. According to my sources he activated it on what they call DEFCON mode, which essentially did everything he needed it to do and then it self-destructed."

Abby's eyes turned down to the pictures on Steve's coffee table and Steve sighed. "None of us were aware that the app was back online until it intervened in a hostage situation that Jerry was involved in. I went back to my source and found out that a base version of the app had been activated, that no longer tracks Rowan, but tracks all of us so she knows that we're safe."

"Well… most of us," Kono added with a wince.

Abby turned her eyes to all of them as if wondering who the odd person out was, other than her and Steve forced himself to admit: "It's me. Sandy tracks everyone but me. It was part of the deal Wo Fat made with the app's creator."

"So… what do we do about this guy?" Grover asked tapping the picture on the coffee table.

"Well, first of all, we need to figure out if this is an official investigation or just a personal vendetta," Steve said. "If it's an investigation, like I think it is, Robert's gonna have people working for him."

"Why do you think it's an investigation?" Abby asked.

Danny put down his phone where a red screen was permanently stuck and a little white wheel was spinning. Under it read the words: _Please wait while I attempt to locate mole._

The app was trying to locate someone. A mole, a mole in Five-0?

"What… what is it doing?" Abby asked.

"It's clearly attempting to locate the mole in our organization," Steve said and Abby looked utterly horrified.

"Okay, to explain, I'm gonna take it back to the beginning," Danny said. "I got out of that meeting, it gave me the data dump, and gave me an option. _Send forward to Professional_ , or _Ignore_. When I was at the hospital with Steve we spoke about it…"

Abby's horror became more deeply painted upon her face as if each and every confession took her deeper into the realm of concern for the people she worked with. "And you guys sent it to this Professional person?"

"Well the app has codenames," Jerry said. "Chin is Codename Shotgun, I'm Codename Elvis, Steven is obviously Captain America…"

"Rowan is the Professional," Kono told her, cutting Jerry's unnecessarily long explanation off, and then turned her eyes onto Steve, understanding immediately what choice he had picked and why.

"Let me guess, you thought… if you picked Professional it would put you in contact with Rowan," Grover said and Steve nodded.

"Yeah, that's what we thought," Danny admitted. "Instead my phone went red and that little wheel went up, can't get it off my phone. It's been at it for days and it doesn't usually take this long so…"

That was either really good or really bad, neither of them knew which one it was at this point. "See, I'm leaning towards an investigation of some sort because Sandy's looking for someone. And according to her it's a mole, so that means we have someone watching us, and I don't know how deep. Sandy running this long isn't good, either she can't find the person, which is ridiculous cause Kong loaded her with a sledgehammer for a firewall chipper, or, Rowan's sitting on info for some reason."

Abby stared at the red screen. "And Rowan… what do you think she'd do with that information? If she had it?"

"Well… judging by Rowan's sudden violent streak… if she gets to this person before we do… she uh… she might well… kill them. Which we don't want. So it's very important that we find this person first."

Abby's wide eyes stayed on the phone Danny had left on the coffee table by the pictures. She looked afraid and Steve understood. It was a lot to take in. An illegal app with connections to the underworld that was tracking all of them, it was terrifying prospect. He didn't know how else to explain it, he didn't even know how to assure her that this was actually just a kindness and not from a place of malice.

But even Steve could see that this was getting wildly out of hand.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

It turned out that Dr. Pierce was correct, he did, in fact, have a particle energizer at home. And the results were, where Wo Fat was concerned, completely catastrophic, for when Rowan had the right amount of energy levels it was easier for her to open the void. There was no pain, there was no slogging through the weight of a million strings, and they were pretty sure Steve wasn't affected either because he hadn't interviewed since. Rowan had become… powerful once more.

Wo Fat was worried about giving Rowan power like that again, not after what happened last time. He gave her too much power, she tried to take on Waincroft by herself and she had taken the brunt of the pain and fire. Wo Fat didn't want her to go through that again.

But with ease of access to the void she had gotten more than a strong hand on using her powers.

She could take an object and throw it through the void and out at a desired target. She could pull an object to her. She could create a portal that took you into the void and then use the strings to pull herself elsewhere. She admitted that she had the ability to see the strings, sometimes she had to concentrate hard to get them, but she knew that she could use them to pull out more favourable outcomes, something she no longer had any problems doing. This had been particularly useful with broken objects, but also how she had been getting herself free of her bindings. With the energizing she also had no problem seeing strings anymore, which was making her psychic abilities much stronger too.

But probably the most useful power was, if she had been to the place before, she could open a portal just to that place. She was in the habit of pulling that void at a door so she could open the door and walk somewhere else.

It annoyed Wo Fat to no end as she kept doing it when they were arguing.

They argued a lot now. Mostly about her powers, which were evolving and getting stronger with each hit of the particle energizer she took. He didn't want to be like Steve, who also didn't like the void, but he was still fresh off Rowan's last burn from power, and this burn wouldn't land her in a room getting tortured. This could get her lost in the expanse of space. How the hell would he save her from that?

To be fair, Dr. Pierce had rigged together several different tactics to keep Rowan in line. He had rigged up a gun that he called a Disrupter ray. This was similar to the energizer that was, instead, a diffuser of sorts. It was set to de-energize any bosons it hit, which they had already proved could turn her powers off essentially. He then made the mistake of letting Conejo work on the gun design with him and it turned out looking more like a rifle with a scope and everything so he could hone in on her, and that star shaped scar on her back between her shoulder blades.

A scar she said wasn't from an actual injury. A scar that appeared after Steven severed the connection between her and whatever was pulling her into the void. She called it the source of her powers and whenever she needed the void, she sent her energy out and into that scar.

Like that wasn't terrifying.

The other thing that Dr. Pierce had rigged up was a metal braided cord, impervious to the extreme cold that could survive going into the void. This cord had then been tethered both to the floor to keep Rowan from moving, and to specially created vests, Kevlar vests that Wo Fat had stolen from a Police equipment supplier, that both he and Conejo could wear to keep them in place if any major incidents were to happen.

He was also working on creating grounders. Portable poles, like pylons, that could hold onto the cord and still keep them in the right realm, but those had not been completed yet, which meant the cord had to be connected to something strong enough to hold them in, at the point walls or floors.

This was a lot to take in, in such a short amount of time. It was hard to believe that just a few weeks ago his sister was just… his sister. He never once dreamed that the reason she was so guarded about her past was because her past wasn't in his reality. Though it did explain why everything she spoke about was not findable in his reality.

It was also a good thing that he had witnessed all of her powers first hand, because if she had just up and said that to him without any proof he would have thought that all the trauma of her multiple kidnappings had drove her batty.

But that wasn't his problem at that moment.

As he predicted, once Dr. Pierce had confirmed she could do the party tricks, he immediately wanted to try and see if she could use her powers to… well… to fight.

At first it had started with small things. Like shooting her with nerf guns, or pelting her with paper, but Rowan couldn't get a handle on the combative use for her powers. She just kept getting pelted with paper and nerf pellets. He was baffled. He didn't understand how she couldn't seem to hone in on her powers to protect herself. But it wasn't until she answered his questions with a casual shrug and a _Well I don't care about me_ , that he pulled out the big guns, which coincidentally was the exact moment that Rowan showed some real promise.

The big guns were not real guns per say, but instead a goddamn cross bow that he had pulled out from behind his desk and then proceeded to shoot an actual bolt from, not at her but at Wo Fat.

They had just come into his office. Rowan had a coffee in her hand and had been looking at Conejo who was telling her a joke. But, the second that bolt had been fired, she dropped the coffee, her hand whipped out instantly, opening a portal in front of Wo Fat's chest that the bolt disappeared into. Her other hand whipped to the side where a second portal opened, the bolt flew out and lodged into the wall.

The whole incident was seconds, but it proved two things to them. One, Rowan didn't care about herself, she cared about other people. Which meant the key to unlocking her powers was to threaten the boys. And two, it proved that Rowan could use her powers defensively, and if she could use them defensively she could use them offensively.

The key to unlocking her ability to do so was for her to believe that her family was in danger. Dr. Pierce was going to have to teach her to channel her emotions so she could use her powers at all times.

And that was what they had been practicing for the last few days. All culminating in this one test.

With Conejo's help Dr. Pierce had rigged up four automatic shooting stations in his testing room separate from his lab, all of which would be eventually shooting at Rowan. Wo Fat was highly uncomfortable with this, but Conejo seemed to think that Rowan was capable so he shoved down his worry and reluctantly let her go.

Rowan stood in the middle of this contraption staring down four Gatling guns set to an automatic timer, nothing too quick, but the plan, at one point, was to have all four guns firing at her at one time to see if she could handle it. But if she couldn't handle two, they weren't going to be progressing to three.

She had given all control to Wo Fat, he got to decide if she took heavier fire. Conejo, had been strung up with that specifically braided metal cord, one that could handle the cold of the void, to go and grab her if necessary.

Even with all the precautions, Wo Fat was still uneasy about this.

Rowan was in the middle of what Dr. Pierce called the experiment room. It was a specially created room where he could monitor and test his theories in a controlled environment. Rowan had her own vest and her own tether keeping her firmly attached to the ground. There was a single wall of readers, all set to track her energy levels and see what spiked and what didn't. Everything else had been moved out. There was a window to observe through, a room that Dr. Pierce called the Control room. It had all the buttons, could control all the variables, but Wo Fat didn't trust his sister with variables anymore, not now that he knew she could alter them.

And he was never going to play cards with her again now that he knew she could count them.

"Okay, Wick," Dr. Pierce said through the microphone. "We're going to start off easy. The gun on the west wall is going to shoot first…"

Wo Fat slammed him aside to speak to her. "The wall on your left," he said. "He means the wall on your left."

Rowan nodded and Wo turned back to Dr. Pierce. "She's doesn't know west from east. You have use left or right or something else."

Dr. Pierce immediately noted it in his little notebook. He really liked to write in that notebook. If this went sour, he was going to have to take that book from him.

"Okay, Wick, get ready, firing at your left… now…"

The gunshot rang out, Rowan already had a hand up, the portal opened was small, just the size of her palm her other hand extending and throwing it out a separate portal.

"Good, trying again, this time from the right."

The shot rang out and once again she managed to deflect.

"Very good!" Dr. Pierce cried.

They did this a few more times, tried from all angles before he said: "Are you good to try two?"

And of course Rowan responded with a quick: "Yes."

When the two shots fired at the same time she had a larger shield, both bullets were portaled away from her and into the wall across from her.

The two shots ended quickly, soon he wanted to try three. Which Wo Fat okayed with much reluctance. When three was a proven success he quickly moved to all four.

Then… "Alright Wick we're going to try a rotating shoot out, we won't tell you were they're coming from anymore…"

"No," Wo snapped. Was the man out of his mind? "No. Not happening."

Dr. Pierce turned calm eyes to him and Wo Fat knew that the man was going to try and hit him with some science-y logical excuse for doing this. Normally Wo would go for that, but not this time, not when it came to Rowan's life.

"In real life she won't know where the bullets are coming from," he argued. That was true, but Wo Fat didn't want her in a situation where she was going to have to block bullets. He didn't want her having to know how to do this at all. "Can you ensure that she won't end up in another situation where she gets shot at?"

Wo Fat frowned, because he was right. He couldn't ensure that. Rowan was loyal, she was a ride or die kind of girl. She was gonna jump into a bunch of a dangerous situation simply to protect him and Con. Just like she had done for Steven.

"Okay," Rowan said to him, easily as if this wasn't dangerous stuff.

"Alright, we're going to start… now…"

Wo Fat winced, the first shot came from behind her. She whirled around and blocked it. The second from the side, she also blocked easily. The third came from the front, she also had no problem deflecting.

Wo Fat had started to relax, even in the room, Con was relaxing too. Leaning back against the

"Good job, _mami_!" he cried. "We're gonna be unstoppable."

And that was the moment. The moment right there. Conejo never should have spoken to her because the second he did, she turned. She turned just to smile at him, proudly and a shot rang out, taking her right in the chest.

Both Wo and Conejo burst out in screaming. The same word. "No!"

The power of the shot sent her flying back, but Rowan didn't fall. She hit some kind of barrier, her eyes went from blue to white to jet black. For a second, the barest of seconds, Wo Fat swore everything around them froze. Then her hair started doing that floating thing that meant she was going full void and Wo Fat knew immediately that shit was about to go down.

Instantly a scream ripped from her, this human screech that sounded more like a bird call than her actual voice. A loud ripping was heard and in an eruption of all black strings, a dome encased her and everything went haywire all at once.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Chaos hit the lab the second the dome enclosed upon Wick.

Oz was already on his feet. He attempted to open the door, but a vortex had descended upon the lab, an electrical storm of great magnitude. From the dome flew bolts of crackling electric lightning, the same kind of orange electric bolts that used to split Wick's skin apart. Despite it being, probably very dangerous, Oz attempted to move towards it, only to be thrown back. When he realized that he couldn't get through to Wick he groped around until he found Con's tether and pulled the breathless man back into the room before he shut the door.

"She got hit, she got hit and she went crazy," he cried. "I swear I saw wings, wings of all black strings erupt from her back before the screaming started."

He was breathless, he looked singed, but he was all ready for the next phase, whatever that be. The two men were obviously very good at adapting.

"We have to get her out," Oz said. Which was the obvious course of action, the problem was finding a way to do it. "Switch with me, I have an idea."

"An idea?" Trenton asked moving towards them. "I can try the atmosphere dampener but I don't think it'll work on her now…"

"No, we need the disrupter," Oz said instead taking the vest from Con and slipping it on, tightening it to fit his narrower chest. Con ran off to get the gun while Oz prepared himself to do whatever he had to do.

"What is the plan?" Trenton asked but Oz wasn't paying attention, Wick screamed again, that inhumane screech that wasn't really hers but coming from her. The wince that crossed Oz's face was brief but enough for him to know that he was very worried for Wick.

"I'm gonna use the disrupter to disrupt the field to get in to her. If I can get in to her, I can pull her out, simple."

No, not simple. The disrupter was meant to be a decharging ray, he had no idea if this was going to work on whatever the hell this was. He opened the door again and the wind from the vortex came at them. He was clearly attempting to get a better look at Rowan. She screamed again, this time sounding a little more like her.

This one came with words. _Help me_. And _Steven._

Now that got Oz's attention he went ramrod straight and for a second Trenton was sure he saw a flash for light coming from the experiment room and then horror painted his features.

"Steven?" he whispered.

Trenton had to push him aside to get to the doorway, he really squint to get a good glimpse as to what was going back to but he was right. Steven McGarrett was standing in the middle of the warp zone, wading his way through the cacophony of strings to get to Wick.

The same Steven McGarrett, who had deported them. The man who Trevor was certain was keeping Rowan from them. The appearance, the confirmation that the Steven who had chased them away was the same Steven who was connected to her, who had found her when she fell and grounded her to this world, effectively messing with every single experiment Trenton had ever performed involving Rowan, was enough to prove that this was his Rowan. This really was Rowan Pierce and if this man got his way he'd take Rowan away from him again.

Steve's hands merely had to touched her and the black strings all changed color, straight to that red. Once he had the strings back to red, he had Wick in his arms and the two were wrapped up in both each other's arms and the red strings.

"NO!" he roared. "Con! Con! CON!" he shouted and then Con was sprinting towards him gun ready to go. It was a Hail Mary, it was meant to depower Wick's bosons if she ever got too powerful, and it had worked on her before, but he didn't know if would reach through the shield that was around her.

"What, what is it?" Con asked when he got to Oz's side.

"Steven's here, get me in there now!" Oz shouted.

"Steve? Steve, Steve? He's here, how the hell is he here?"

"I unno, you think I know?" Oz shouted back at him.

"She probably called him, if he's connected to her and she's in a state of panic she probably used it to call him here."

As he talked the boys got themselves ready. Con getting the rifle set up, Oz getting himself ready to charge a force field. "Means he can try and take her back, right?" Oz asked him, his eyes never leaving Wick and Steve. Trenton nodded first, realized that the man wasn't looking and then verbalized the confirmation. "Yeah that's not happening."

They both got low, Con was propping the gun up like he had done this a million times, using his forearm to brace. Oz was in a racing start position. The two took in the shield around her, the man holding her to his chest, and Con seemed to find some grievances with the plan Oz proposed.

"Oz…"

"I know, I know," he said. "Look, you're gonna shoot it right when I get there, make a hole."

"What if it doesn't make a hole?"

"Then I'm running into that thing face first. So let's hope it works."

Both Oz and Con nodded and then Oz took off sprinting head long at the force field. At the right moment Con pulled the trigger and a hole opened, just big enough and just long enough to get Oz into the void. He moved, slowly, struggling to get through the strings to Wick, and as he did the red strings around him turned to pink.

Steve and Wick were lost, Steve was holding her, tightly to his chest, shielding her. His eyes, white like Wick's used to be, clearly as much as creature of the void as she was.

Wo Fat put a hand to her shoulder, he tried to pull her from him, but Steve's hand came out and the red strings turned on Oz and pushed him back.

"Shit, shit, shit," Con said, charging the gun up again, twice its usual dose. He set up to shoot again and then before Trenton could ask what he was doing, Con shot twice in rapid succession. The first opened up force field, the second shot through the hole and hit McGarrett in the shoulder.

This hit sent him staggering. This hit got him to drop his hold on Wick. It stopped the red strings from writhing and it allowed Oz to grab Wick.

But once Oz had Wick in his arms, Steve had regained his composure, he reached out again, went to fight Oz for Wick and Oz responded by decking him so hard he knocked him down. With Wick in his arms, he struggled to move back to the room, even with Trenton and Con pulling on his cord to get him back.

They got him to the entrance, both men grabbing onto Oz's pack and fairly pulling him through the door. Together he and Wick toppled to the floor and in the room the vortex slowly began to collapse, and Trenton could tell this was going to be exactly like a black hole, which meant another explosion was going to come.

Steven still stood there, the portal energy closing around him his arms outstretched towards them, the red strings began to gather and move as if readying for another attempt to grab Wick.

"GO HOME!" Oz shouted his hand whipping forward as if attempting to push him away and the red strings at Steve's command went pick, The pink strings slammed into Steve's chest and then he was thrown back through the closing void.

The black hole eventually closed, sending a shock wave through the room, destroying what was left of his equipment, but Oz and Con had already shut the door and there were unaffected. Silence hit them as Oz held Wick to his chest, heaving, trying to catch his breath. Wick's otherworldliness slowly began to fade from her, her eyes, no longer black, were shut, her breathing going back to normal.

"Where was she shot?" Oz asked, feeling at her body for any other injury other than the bullet wound she should have sustained.

"Shoulder, I think," Con said and the two of them searched. There was no wound, no blood, just a simple white starburst on her left shoulder, mimicking the one on her other shoulder. "Is she… how is she…"

They both turned their eyes to him and he blanked because he wasn't sure what happened.

"I… I guess she pulled a different string for a different outcome."

Oz looked down to her and when his gaze hit him again the darkness there scared him. "That's it. We're done here."

Trenton knew better than to argue. Knew better than to try and ask them not to stay. He had a feeling that if he told them he now knew exactly who this was and all he wanted to do was just… talk to her… as his daughter, they'd answer with violence.

So instead he watched this man pick up his daughter, his daughter from a different world, and walk away with her in his arms. He knew, instinctively, that if this man disappeared with Rowan he'd never see her again. He wanted to stop him, but this wasn't Steven McGarrett of Fieve-0 with the law to hide him, this was a man that most likely wouldn't hesitate to kill him and probably his whole family simply to keep Rowan safe.

So what was he to do? How was he going to get her back now?

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

 _Hello and welcome to the Sanctuary Network, Anna Novick. You have entered the home base of the allies of Professional with the clear intent to harm. I have been directed to inform you that if any harm comes to anyone under the wide umbrella of the Professional's care, which has now extended to any suspects being held within the Palace's walls, we will be taking measures of extreme prejudice against you._

The woman stopped moving. She had gassed out all of Five-0 all of them were unconscious but the computer. The computer was running something else entirely. The mythical Sanctuary Network. She had hoped to never see it in person. And it knew her name. Probably the most terrifying moment of her life. That terrible, lethal program knowing her name. But Professional wasn't even in the country. What could they really do to her from a different country?

She said nothing but instead she walked towards the elevator where her stupid pretend boyfriend was being held in the basement. One step closer to de-encrypting that key and getting the known locations of all the undercover agents the American Government had.

As soon as she pressed the down button the computer spoke again.

 _I regret to inform you that you have chosen to be immediately terminated. Someone will be dispatched to deal with you post haste._

A shiver of dread went down her spine. But she knew, she knew her people would protect her. Everything would be okay eventually. Really what could Wo Fat and Rowan Pierce do to a Russian spy? The Russian government was stronger than both of them combined.

What Anna didn't know was that, while she was there, dragging Chris Dalton out of the Palace, Sanctuary downloaded to her phone. She didn't know that when Five-0 woke up their computer not only had a GPS tracker on her, but a GPS tracker on the person that it had hired to kill her showing on the smart table.

She had no idea that they watched that little red dot hone in on her and the little band of men that the Russian Government sent to protect her after she reported the threat from Sanctuary to her bosses. They watched that red dot sit on her own green dot for all of five minutes and then it went on it's way and Sanctuary declared the situation dealt with and powered down. She didn't even know it when the shooting started because the first bullet went straight through her brain.

When Five-0 did get there, there was nothing but bodies to find and a little flash drive that was not even close to being decrypted yet. On the computer screen was a picture of Rowan's face and the words: "You're welcome." Both of which disappeared the second Steve pulled the flash drive from the computer.

Steve wasn't sure if he was happy. Because Rowan was getting more and more violent by the case. He wished… he just wished there was a way to get a hold of her to tell her to stop, to get her to see that this wasn't her, this was the influence of a certain criminal in her life. He was afraid that she was his influence on her was slowly turning her into the monster she was really afraid of being. And that if she slipped too far he'd never get his Rowan back.

And it was because of that fear that the dreams about the void started.


	252. Chapter 252

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Well…. My wonderful readers. I very obviously did not finish the chapter on Friday, I didn't even finish it on Saturday, I finished it Sunday night. Since I had to drive back yesterday, I didn't really get a chance to publish it. Sorry about that guys! This week we're going to get four updates okay? We're gonna get one today and one tomorrow, one on Friday and one of the days on the weekends, not sure which one yet. I will say that this update was originally 13 pages but I cut it down to be a little more manageable. And it means I have a chapter to post tomorrow. Hopefully I have one to post for Friday. Would you guys be a little annoyed if I took time off to get us more chapters to post? I really don't want to but I might have to. What do you guys think? Please leave me a review and I'll see you guys on Friday!_

Chapter 252

* * *

Rowan bolted up again she gasped loudly once more and then looked around. She was back in their room at the Park Hyatt hotel across from the Royal Ontario Museum and ten-minute walk away from the University of Toronto campus where her father's lab was situated but she didn't know if she was brought there or if she voided. And if she did void here… where were her boys?

"Con! Wo!" she cried and, in a few seconds, the two boys darkened her doorway. She let out her breath in a shaky exhale happy to see them. She reached out for them and Wo Fat was by her bedside almost immediately, his hands framing her face, one of her hands reaching out to hold onto the front of his shirt.

"Are you okay? Are you okay?" he asked. Con came to kneel beside her, his hand went to her knee and her other hand went to his shoulder.

"Yeah, I'm okay… I don't remember… I think I did it again… I did it again, didn't I?" she asked. Wo Fat and Conejo exchanged glances and she sighed. She did. She went full void. "God, Con was in the room with me, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, _mami_ , you're the one who got shot."

"I did?" she echoed and a little flash of what happened came back to her. "I did," she breathed out. She looked to both of them as if they held all the answers. "How am I alive?"

"Well you got shot, wrapped yourself up into a void hole and came out unshot so…"

Rowan sighed, she let them go to put her head into her hands. "I changed my strings."

Wo Fat sighed a bit, he glanced to Conejo and then back to her. "Uh… I want you to uh… listen to me, it's very important and I need you to take this the right way."

Rowan shook her head, this couldn't be happening, she didn't want to be sent away again over her powers. "I'm sorry," she suddenly cried, her hands darting out to grasp Wo Fat's arm. "I'm sorry, I'll be good, I won't use the void anymore, I won't. I'm sorry. Please don't make me leave!"

Wo Fat soothed her, trying to hush and sush her. He tried to hold onto her, but she refused to let go of his arm no matter how much he tried to brush her fingers away from him.

"No, no, I'm not sending you away, deep breath, calm down," he ordered and Rowan nodded, finally letting go of his arm. "Okay, come on, you're not going anywhere. I'm not letting you go anywhere."

He hugged her tightly, holding her close to his chest and for a second that was all that mattered in the world, was her brother's arms around her.

"Well… yeah but we need to figure out or next steps like… ASAP," Conejo said and Rowan pulled away. Wo Fat shot a glare at him and cuffed the back of his head.

"What's he talking about?"

Wo Fat took a deep breath. "We've been talking, Con and I," he said. "We think… we think that this whole… this whole experiment business, we think it's stupid. You've learned how to use your powers, we could steal the equipment to ground you and practice on our own, there's no need to go back to your father's lab. Neither of us, after this last incident, want to go back to your father's lab."

He was right. She knew that but she didn't want to stop going back to her dad's lab. She wanted to go there every day and talk shop. She used to hate his lab, she used to hate having to go there, thought it was boring, and now… now she didn't want to leave.

She looked away from Wo Fat as she whispered: "I know."

Wo Fat watched her for a bit. "But you want to go back, don't you? That's why we keep going there. We keep going there because you want to see him, your dad," he said. Rowan nodded and he sighed once more. "He's not your real dad, Rowan, he doesn't know who you are."

"I know!" Rowan cried. "I know that but sometimes… sometimes… I just want to pretend…"

Wo Fat nodded. "Do you think that maybe…" he started. "God… do you think maybe you'd want to go home?"

Conejo turned his eyes to her and for a moment she held his gaze. She wasn't certain she understood the question. "I mean we could go to Vic if you want, I've always wanted to do the train trip across country, it is on my bucket list…" she started but he cut her off with a shake of his head.

"I mean your _home_ ," he said. "Could you… now that you have a better hold of things, now that you're energized right, could you get _home_?"

Rowan found herself gasping in surprise. "You want me to leave?"

"Yo, you just said you weren't going to send her away!" Conejo cried, slapping Wo Fat's leg.

"No, of course I don't want you to leave, and I am not sending her away. But you… you miss your family and I want you to be happy… even if that's not with me," he whispered.

Conejo put his hand up. "I don't want you to leave either and I don't like this plan at all. What if she can't come back?"

"Who cares, we want her home with her family!" Wo Fat cried.

Conejo opened his mouth to argue and Rowan stopped him. "I don't really want to leave… you know," she whispered. "What will you two do without me?"

Both boys laughed at that question. "I think Con and I will be just fine," Wo Fat said and Rowan frowned. "I mean we'll miss you and we'll probably go back to our dastardly ways, but uh… I think we'll be okay."

"But you'll fight with Steven… and I won't be here to keep him from killing you," Rowan reminded him and Conejo snorted back his laughter.

"Damn, she had no confidence in your abilities," he said.

"No! That's not it. It's just that… I saved him from Steven once… he was supposed to die a year ago, but I stopped that from happening… what if I…"

"You rewrote the strings for me?" Wo Fat asked and Rowan paused.

"Wo… I told you. When you kidnapped Steve… only one of you was coming out of that basement and 9 times out of 10 it was Steve."

"That's why you were so upset," Wo Fat whispered. "It wasn't just that I took Steve, you were upset because I almost died."

"I was upset because you put yourself onto a path where you would die, and I couldn't fix the strings to save you anymore, which meant I had to find both of you before a certain event, before Five-0 figured out where you and Steve were. But mostly, MOSTLY, I was upset because when I got you to promise me you wouldn't kidnap him that fixed everything but then you broke your promise…"

"Yes, I know, but I wanted to find my father and you kept saying Morocco but he's not there…"

Rowan paused. "Oh… huh… well… maybe he's supposed to be there later. Maybe they move him. I know Steve's supposed to help his mom rescue him at some point…" she thought about it a second longer. "See if I leave, what's gonna stop you from going to Steve and kidnapping you again, how can I help either of you? What if I can't help Steve anymore…"

"Have you been helping Steve with his cases? I thought the app wasn't tracking him… just his friends," Wo Fat asked with narrowed eyes which just caused hers to widen. When she didn't answer he sighed. "Rowan, you're my sister, and… I'm not good at being your brother, no matter how insistent that I am."

"But you are!" she protested only to have Wo Fat shake his head.

"I'm selfish Rowan, I know I am. I know I think only about myself, and I don't have proper emotions and I do things that upset you for purely selfish or intrinsic motives, but… if you're unhappy, if you miss your real family and you want to go home… well… I don't want to stop you. Not now that you have the ability and the know how to do it."

"But I don't know if I do!" Rowan cried. "I don't. Not really. I swear. I can jump from place to place in this reality. But the couple times I tried to jump back to my reality I couldn't find my way and ended up back here."

Conejo shook his head. "No, see, no, she should stay. It's not safe for her to go on her own."

"I'm not telling her to leave," Wo Fat said again. "If she wants to stay here, yes, she can stay here. I'd love for her to stay here, but she's unhappy, Con. She misses her family, and she could go home. Wouldn't you want her to be happy? Don't you want her to see her real family again instead of putting herself into dangerous situations simply so she can pretend that Dr. Pierce is her real dad and not some version of her dad that doesn't know who she is? I mean, that can't be good for her, you know? That can't be a good feeling."

He was right. Nearly getting herself killed for her dad's experiments… when he wasn't really her dad. Pretending that this version of her dad was hers wasn't going to stop her from missing her family. Wasn't going to fill that void. But… she didn't want to leave. And not because of her father either. And not just because of her boys either, though she was very worried about leaving them alone when she was essentially their consciences.

"Would… would you guys still keep Sanctuary running for me… to keep my friends safe while I'm gone?" she asked.

Wo Fat paused in his argument with Conejo and turned back to her. There was a single beat of silence as he digested the request. "Of course."

"Even… Steven?"

Wo Fat pinned her with a dark glare. "That's not fair, Rowan. it's not fair to ask me to take care of that disaster of a man. It's not. Not with all our bad blood…"

"But… but he's going to need your help and… I mean… you don't have to tell him that it's you…"

"She's one hundred percent been sending people down to Hawaii to help him, hasn't she?" Wo Fat asked Con. "Behind my back, through you, I bet."

He was right but that wasn't the point. She turned on her cutest puppy dog pout onto her brother and already she could feel him melting. "Just… please?"

"Ugh, fine. Fine. Yes, if it makes you feel better, I will watch out for Steven. Even though I hate him and I kind wouldn't mind if he died."

"Okay, so I'm gonna write down all the major events and the time line for them and then you and Con can just… I unno… keep an eye out for the signs or something?"

"Wait… so she's going to leave? You're going to let her go home?" Conejo asked as Rowan got up out of the bed to get the pad of paper the hotel left on the desk.

"Well… I could always try to come back and visit right?" Rowan said. But she had a feeling that both of them knew that… well… other then them, she had nothing to return to this reality for. Not with Steven no longer being a prospect.

But they all pretended that her coming back to visit could totally be a thing, despite her not being sure if she could jump a reality more than once. She wrote down all they needed to know about Steve's and the other Five-0's immediately future. Hugged them both tightly, whispered well wishes and her love in both of their ears and then opened up a door to the void and stepped in.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

The void blinded her for all of two seconds and then she was used to it. She looked around at all the strings, the red curling around her, as they were prone to do if she wasn't moving, she waved those off with a strong brush of her hand. The white stars of all the opportunities and options twinkled around her, but she was focusing on something else.

This seething wall of red before her, where, behind It, pulsed this misting silver light. She knew in her heart of hearts that the way home was through that wall. She moved stead fast towards it, not really walking, not really swimming, more like floating. She had gotten better at repelling the red strings, at keeping them from winding around her. But she hadn't ever tried to cross the wall… well… not since she got her new powers anyway.

Taking a deep breath she moved towards it, pulsing small bits of energy into pushing away the red strings that came for her. It was working too, she was making a little hole for herself to get through, but she wasn't even half way through the wall when the strings began to wrap around her.

She tried to pulse her power again, to try and get them off of her, but there was no amount of power she could pulse that could keep the strings from wrapping around her. They tightened around her, tangled her up and began to suffocate her. She began to panic, struggled to get herself free. She tried to scream, but nothing came out.

Good God, was her feelings for Steven going to be what killed her in end? Cause that was ironic as fuck. God she just wanted to go home!

And just like that the void opened up beneath her and Rowan dropped. That time she managed to scream, because just like when she first came in to this world, she was dropping, dropping to the ocean below her and she couldn't bring herself to open a portal to drop into. She was too panicked. To open the void, she couldn't do anything but scream and brace for when she hit the water.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Wo Fat woke up to water cascading down on him, like someone had taken a bucket and dropped it all over his face. He bolted up out of bed sputtering, his hand going for the gun he had hidden under his pillow, but there wasn't a single threat in the room, though the room was flooded.

Conejo bolted up for where he had fallen asleep on the couch, drunk out of his damn mind, for as soon as Rowan left, he had drunk half the mini-bar. He started screaming: "We're sinking! We're SINKING!"

Granted he hadn't taken Rowan leaving well either, but Conejo had really been… terrible. He hadn't think he'd miss her but knowing that his sister was going to go home, to her real home, where she had a brother that… well… he wasn't certain he trusted with her, should have made him happy, except it didn't. But, there was no Steven. Her version of Steven was from a TV show. So he felt a little better about sending her back, because she wasn't going to end up in another fucked up situation with a terribly abusive Steven McGarrett. Except… he missed his sister and he was more than a little upset that he had convinced her to leave.

So, while he was very surprised, he was very happy that in the middle of this little lake that now filled up his hotel room, in water that was calf deep on her, was a soaking wet Rowan. She coughed a little bit, like she had been underwater and was trying to cough it up. She looked around at her surroundings, and even in the darkness she seemed to realized where she had ended up.

That was worrying, because she was only unaware of where she was voiding too if she was panicked. So what had freaked her out?

"Sorry," she whispered and just like that the two boys were on her. Conejo having hopped over the back of the couch, Wo Fat having ran down the length of his bed to get to her. Both of them bombarding her with a series of questions.

Wo Fat shoved Conejo aside so he could have her full attention. "What happened? Are you okay?"

Rowan nodded her head but she looked around at everything, the damage she caused. "I… I'm okay?"

"Not that I'm not happy to see you, cause trust me _mami_ I am, but did you have to bring a lake with you?" Conejo asked her.

"It's not a lake, it's ocean," Rowan answered. "And I wasn't trying to bring it back… but I guess… I guess I opened the void when I was underwater…"

"Underwater? Rowan I said to go home!" Wo Fat snapped.

Rowan's eyes whipped to him, clearly pissed off. "I know! And I tried. But I got all stuck up in those stupid strings and… well… I fell again."

"Fell where? Where did you fall? Which ocean?"

"Well I unno Wo! They all look alike!" she shouted. "But if I'd have to guess, somewhere off Oahu."

"Hawaii?" Conejo asked shooting Wo Fat a knowing look. "Why there?"

Rowan shrugged. "I unno… it just… it's just always where I fall. Or at least… usually that's where I fall."

But Wo Fat wondered if this was Steven's doings. If Rowan got tangled up in red strings and fell somewhere near Hawaii, was that because Steven wanted her back. Had he somehow sensed that Rowan was trying to go home and used those red strings to stop her?

Wo Fat looked around. "Alright, well… we can figure this out tomorrow. Here's what we should do, we obviously need a new room, uh…."

Rowan nodded, she opened up a small portal at their feet and watched the water slowly drained away. Who knows where she was sending that water. With the water gone and their room soggy, Wo Fat called down to the front desk to complain of the clear leak in their room to get them somewhere better. They were given another room, Wo Fat and Conejo together got everything out of their room and into the new one.

Rowan was so tired she fell asleep in the master bed, and both boys couldn't help but curl up beside her. Wo Fat to her back, so his hand could hold onto the back of her shirt and Conejo at her front so he could hold her hand.

Neither wanted to let her go. Maybe Wo Fat would convince her to stay in the morning.


	253. Chapter 253

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: And here we go, it's another late update. I'm sorry, my wonderful readers, I'm sorry I've been so disastrous this year. It's cause of all the work I have. I'm dying. I really am. But I'm gonna keep trucking! I think it'll be a little better for at least tomorrow, because tomorrow's chapter is done. Don't forget to leave me a review and I'll see you guys tomorrow!_

Chapter 253

* * *

Rowan woke up the following morning before her boys did. Both of them had ended up in bed with her. Something she took to mean that both of them missed her. Neither of them wanted her to leave.

But she was desperate to try again. Now that she had the idea in her head she wanted to try and get home. She started by using her powers to void off of the bed and onto the couch. Essentially she opened a hole under her and dropped away from them and onto the couch. It hurt a bit but once she was free of the boys, she went to each one and pressed a kiss to their temple.

This would be her last attempt. If she failed this time she wasn't going to try again. She'd stay with her boys. But she owed it to herself and her family to at least try one last time.

She took the energizer gun that Wo Fat had made Conejo steal from the lab after their last void incident. She hit herself with a ray twice as powerful as she was used to and then opened the void and disappeared inside.

Once the portal closed behind her she eyed up the stupid wall of red strings. She already knew she couldn't go through it, but would she be able to go over it?

She looked up and willed herself to move upward. But the more she floated up the more agitated the strings became, and the more she realized that these strings seemed to go on forever. It didn't really thin, it didn't weave out in patches, it was just… on going?

She tried moving a little closer to get a look and that was the worst mistake ever because the stupid red strings grabbed her again. God they were always grabbing her, and even though she had extra power, no amount of pulsing behind her motions did it stop them from ripping her out of the void and throwing her right back into the water.

This time she knew it was Hawaii. Because it spit her out closer to shore this time. She swam towards the beach, pulling herself out of the water, already knowing exactly where the void had sent her and she was livid.

Why? Of all places, why the hell did it have to send her here?

Still she forced herself to walk up the beach towards the house she had left behind. The backyard was empty, the house looked silent, she wasn't certain what time of day it was, other than daytime, maybe no one was awake yet. She knew she should have voided away from this place by now but she couldn't bring herself to.

Rowan looked at the house. The back yard. The beach. Oh how desperately she wanted to go to the door, to maybe just… see them. But Catherine had her family now and it would kill her to see Catherine in her place.

Why would she do that to herself?

And knowing her, she'd start crying, and screaming and causing a scene. She might have even thrown a punch at Catherine's stupid smug face. But she didn't want to do that, she didn't want to be that person, and she was certain, even with all the extra training Con had been doing with her, that Catherine could more than take her. And she was embarrassed enough about what happened, about losing Steve to Catherine. She didn't need more things to be embarrassed about.

She was standing between the two chairs, the one that was his and the one that used to be hers and was now probably Catherine's. It must have been morning because Steve's towel and his blue hoodie lay waiting for him on the back of his chair. She couldn't stop herself from picking it up, putting it to her nose and just deeply inhaling. God his scent, how she missed that warm spicy scent of his. She just missed… everything. Maybe she could… steal the sweater, take it back with her. No… she wasn't that pathetic… was she?

She shouldn't stay. She couldn't try to go home either. Traveling through the wall was clearly impossible and every attempt was going to drop her back here. Her father would have a theory, she knew, probably something to do with her entry point being set to Hawaii for some reason, but she had a feeling she was returning to where she had left her heart. With Steven.

She slowly put the hoodie back to the chair. He'd need it when he came back from his swim. And she needed to be gone before he got back. She'd have to jump obviously and she needed to do it before Steven came back. He, out of everyone, was the one she both wanted to see and didn't. She missed him, with all her heart, but she knew, if he saw her, if he saw her and he then arrested her to get to Wo Fat it would kill her inside. She couldn't take another blow like that.

Behind her came a series of quick splashes, like someone was swimming towards her, dolphin diving in the surf. Yeah that wasn't good.

She knew, if she turned, if she saw him, she'd do something pathetic, like throw herself at him. And she couldn't do that with Catherine in the house a few feet away. Not when he told her not to come back. Not when the only interest he had in her now was as a tool to take down and hurt Wo Fat.

But the splashing stopped and she could feel his eyes on her. God, she hoped he didn't recognize her, maybe he wouldn't with the new hair.

"Uh… hello?"

Rowan couldn't help her self. His voice. God how she had missed his voice. She should have run by now, she should have voided away. She was terrified of seeing him, so why was she still standing there? She turned and there he was. Her Steven. Standing thigh deep in the water, glistening in the morning sun, squinting at her, probably not able to see her right with all the salt water and high morning sun in his eyes.

He froze where he was standing, seemingly struck dumb by her. He blinked his eyes again and held her gaze. "Rowan?"

The second he said her name she whirled around and immediately bolted. Sprinting for the house, the closest door. She needed a door to somewhere she new, she needed not to be panicked cause if he caught her, she was fucked.

"Wait!" came after her but she didn't stop. "Wait… Rowan!"

God how had he recognized her? She had changed her hair, she had… okay not much else had changed, but the change of hair had thrown off a few people at first. She couldn't stop now though, she didn't want Steve to be able to use her against Wo Fat, she didn't want to see him with Catherine, she didn't want to see him at all.

She got to the back door quickly. She put her hand to the door knob and though she was panicked she didn't have any trouble pulling a portal to that door frame. She opened the door to rush through it, slamming it behind her and disengaging the portal so Steven couldn't follow her. She then sighed and leant against the now closed door.

She was safe. She had thought of the hotel the boys were staying in, pulled the right strings to land her in their hotel room. She had used the bathroom door and, if she had walked through it right, she would have let herself into Wo Fat's section of the suite.

But the second she opened her eyes she realized that in her panic, she must have opened the portal the wrong way. Instead of ending up in the suite, she was in the washroom, where Con was sitting on the toilet staring at her with horror on his face.

He scrambled to cover himself, hunching over his lap while Rowan forced eyes away and scrambled to turn around and away. "WHAT THE SHIT?!" he screamed.

"Sorry," Rowan cried, opening the door, normally this time and then shutting it behind her. She found Wo Fat on the other side, carton of ice cream in one hand, in his nice suit pants and a white undershirt. Staring at her in utter surprise as if he was dumbfounded by Conejo's outburst and shocked by her appearance.

What the hell? Had the two of them turned into disasters the second she left? Maybe she hadn't gone to the right reality after all.

"You're back again? I thought… I mean when we woke up and you were gone…" he started but Rowan cut him off with a quick nod, knowing she was home for sure now.

"Yeah… I uh… I don't think I can go home," she told him. Then, as if uttering the words made it real, Rowan felt the weight of that realization hit her right in the chest. And just like that she was crying.

And as always, as soon as the tears started, the second she was back in her brother's soothing embrace. So, you know, at least she hadn't lost that.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Trenton Pierce was having a rough week. Since the last incident, he had not seen Rowan, A.K.A. Wick, and he hadn't seen her two brothers either. Though he did realize that they had clearly stolen from him. They had taken the energizing ray with them when they took Rowan's unconscious from out of his lab.

He had been so upset by the turn of events that he had called in sick to all his lectures and chosen to stay home. He had stayed in his office the first few days, waiting for her to return, but when it was clear she wasn't going to be coming back he retired to his specious Queens Park loft apartment to drown himself in hot cocoas with more than a hint of baileys in them.

He was a bit of a cocoa connoisseur, he always knew how to make the best hot chocolates for a person. And it started by making each person's cocoa personally. It took longer but it always came out better.

To make himself feel better, Trenton had tried calling Trevor. Trevor had been shockingly hard to get a hold of, but he kept calling, multiple times a day until he finally got a hold of him.

He thought Trevor would have been surprised to find out that Rowan was in Toronto. He figured that he would be happy to hear that Trenton had managed to talk to her, and managed to gather enough evidence to prove that Trevor was right. This Hawaiian Rowan was their Rowan. She was the one that Trevor had pulled into their world.

But Trevor was not impressed. He wasn't interested in hearing that she had powers to manipulate the void. Or that the whole reason that she survived in the first place was because her version of Trevor had hit her with an energizing ray the night before they attempted the first experiment, which not only helped her travel the void it was probably the reason why she got pulled out of all the different Rowan's in all the different realities floating around.

Trevor had just _yep_ ed and _mhmm_ ed him over and over before claiming a work emergency and ending the call. Trenton was a little put off. Trevor was the one that a better relationship and he was now the one acting as if he didn't have time for his own father.

His plan was to finish making enough cocoa for the rest of the night and then he was going to curl up with one of his physics books and fall asleep in his reading chair. But life had a different plan for him.

"Uh… hi…" someone said and Trenton jumped. He turned to find Rowan at the door to his kitchen. He blinked his eyes surprised. She had never shown up in his home before. "I'm sorry… I know I usually wait to see you at the lab but I had a situation and…"

"How did you get in here?"

"Hmm?" she said quickly. "Oh. Yeah, I popped a portal into the kitchen doorway."

She had told him that she could only do that with places she had been before and even with all their experiments she had never been able to open a portal, both in a doorway or not, to a place she had never been to before. So that meant she had been in this apartment before. He'd bet dimes to dollars that she had been there in a different reality, not this one.

This would have been the perfect time to tell her that he knew who she was seeing as her brothers weren't around. But Rowan looked jumpy and he didn't want to spook her. Especially since this was the first time seeing her since in the incident. "You said you had a situation?" he asked. "Is this situation separate from the first one? Uh… the one three days ago?" Rowan nodded. "Alright… what is it?"

"Well… I tried to go home, to my reality," she whispered and a streak of panic ran through Trenton. He couldn't help it. He had just found her he didn't want her to leave.

"And that… didn't work?" he asked, which was stupid because she was still there. "Was there something stopping you?"

"Yes, a giant wall of red strings."

Trenton blinked his eyes. Dear god. Considering those strings went all the way back to Steven that was a very… frightening bit of information to learn. "A giant wall…" he whispered and she nodded and finished with a very serious: "of red strings, yes."

"Like the red strings that connect you and this… Steven ex of yours?"

"Yep, those are the ones."

"Like the same Steven who rescued you from the vortex you created in my lab?"

"I'm sorry what?" she asked.

"Did your brothers not tell you that Steven appeared in the vortex?"

Rowan scowled. "Nom, they did not."

"Well he did," Trenton affirmed and then he paused. "Did you… love him? Steven I mean?"

Rowan sighed and looked down. "Yeah… I do… did… why lie, I do. I love him. That's it isn't it? I love him and now I can't leave."

Well it was probably a lot more than that. "Well, to create a whole wall I would assume you'd need more than one person. Judging by his appearance, and the amount of strings that appear, I'd say that he has feelings for you as well."

Rowan shook her head. "No, Steven… Steven… he left me. He picked someone else. He doesn't… he doesn't want me back."

His eyebrows shot up to his forehead. Bullshit. His daughter was beautiful and amazing and ten times better than any girl Steven could find. Steven was clearly an idiot. But he had a feeling that Steven knew he had made the wrong choice, because those red strings were still going strong. He had a feeling that Oz had taken Rowan away before Steven could figure that out and was keeping her away so he couldn't get her back. And well, Trenton figured, that was Steve's loss.

But Trenton didn't know how to say that to her so he instead he said: "Well alright, I can hypothesize different reasons why it happened, but it's clear that until I figure out how to manage those strings, that you can't go home."

Rowan nodded clearly having come to that conclusion as well. "Did you get hurt trying to go through?"

Rowan nodded again. "It was like the were suffocating me… and… and… they ripped me out of the void."

Ripped her out of the void? That was new. "Where did they take you."

"Hawaii. Both times they took me to Hawaii," she said. Hawaii with Steven. The strings were trying to tie two broken hearts together. "And it's done that before too. Every time I try to go home it drops me in Hawaii… or in the ocean off of Oahu."

The ocean off of Oahu. Where he had predicted their object had fallen. "That must be your… exit point," he said. "I assume that's where you fell your first time?"

Rowan seemed to think it over. "Uh… yes… yes… I think that's where I fell in that first time."

"Yes, so that must be where it drops you, it's the initial point of entrance," he mused. "Interesting, I suppose the strings are sending you back to where they think you're supposed to be."

"In Hawaii? With Steven? Who picked Catherine and told me not to come home?" she asked. "Really? The man who arrested me for no reason, on multiple occasions, who drugged me and took me to Japan to intimidate an Oyabun? That guy? The strings want me with that guy?"

That was a lot to drop on him. It made him realize that he should have done more to fight Steven to get to her. He shouldn't have just given up because clearly, clearly Steven McGarrett had tortured his daughter and then dumped her.

"I can't begin to fathom why the universe would want you anywhere near a man like that, but I can tell you that… for your safety, you should probably stop trying to cross that wall until I know more about what we're dealing with."

Rowan nodded again. She seemed to sad and forlorn and Trenton wished to just hug her and make her feel better. "Well… I happen to enjoy working with you, even if your brothers are… a little intimidating. I would like to have you come back to the lab."

"Whoa…" she started and then paused. "Oz, isn't really into the idea, not going to lie."

Yes that sounded fair. "I had a feeling."

"I'll do my best though," she said. "I think we just need some time."

Trenton nodded, and then out of no where she hugged him. A quick grip and then she let go. She was already walking away from him. She shot a quick: "Thanks for listening, bye," at him before she opened yet another portal in his kitchen doorway and then she was gone.

Despite his classically logical approach to emotions, Trenton found himself tearing up a bit. For the first time in his life… he had gotten a hug from his daughter.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Was Wo Fat angry that Rowan left without saying goodbye the second time? Yes. He hated that he woke up to her already gone, because he hadn't wanted her to leave.

Did Conejo punch a hole into the door to the master suite of their hotel room when he realized that Rowan had left? Yes. Wo Fat got that he was angry, he understood that Conejo hadn't wanted Rowan to leave either but did he have to take it out on the door?

Was Wo Fat going to get his deposit back? Fuck no.

Was he happy when Rowan came back? Absolutely elated. Was he happy that she came back crying? No. Was he happy that Rowan was crying because, not only could she not find her way home, but her second attempt to get home and landed her _on_ Steve's back yard beach? No. Did it scare him that she had actually seen Steven and that he had actually seen her and recognized her with the new hair? Fuck Yes.

Did that description of the giant wall of red separating her from the way home, sound an awful lot like Steve's feelings were keeping her stuck in this world? Yes.

Did any that mean that he wanted her to go visit her father, at home not even at his lab, to figure out why she couldn't pass the wall or why she kept ending up in Hawaii? Hell no. But she jumped before telling him and she came back with well… some kind of answer.

But after her second attempt to get home, after talking everything over with her father, Rowan had decided that she wasn't going to try again. Wo Fat had assumed that the wall was nothing but Steven's feelings for her, even when he wasn't with her he was keeping her from leaving. Where it came to Rowan, that man was selfish. And Wo Fat was almost grateful for it.

Dr. Pierce had blamed Rowan's emotions for the wall. Her own subconscious desire not to leave. Wo Fat didn't like the idea of blaming Rowan for what had happened, he was more inclined to blame Steve. Rowan was already feeling guilty enough about everything. She internalized criticism like that and took them to heart.

And on top of that he had told Rowan that Steven had appeared, had been the one to save her from the vortex. Which wasn't true. Wo Fat had pulled her from that vortex. Steven had just calmed her down… and possibly saved her from a gunshot wound. But he had just stood there hugging her, Wo Fat got her out. And he hadn't wanted to tell Rowan that Steven had appeared, but now she knew and he wasn't sure what she was going to do with that information.

He expected there to be issues, she had disappeared for a little bit afterwards, not a void jump this time, just simply walked out of the hotel room. He had been worried but Rowan came back and she… well… she had a box with her, and a request.

"Can… can I take us somewhere?" Rowan asked. Wo Fat looked up from the whiskey he was drinking and the business section of the paper he was reading. He glanced to Conejo who had been lounging with the room service menu.

The two of them exchanged glances but it was clearly up to Wo Fat to figure out what was going on. "Uh… I guess that depends? Where did you want to go?"

"Well… well it's something I kinda want to be a surprise," she whispered. "It's… it's something I did before and I want to do it again and I'd love it if you two came along with me."

Well that didn't help, now did it? "Is it a surprise because neither of us will like it?" Conejo asked. Rowan winced a little bit and then his eyes turned down to the box at her feet. "And what are those."

"I uh… I actually bought myself skates. I want to go skating. And… well… do you guys want to come with me or not? Can you come with me? You don't have to skate, you can just watch?"

Yeah like Wo Fat was going to say no. Since finding out that she had a skating career, Wo Fat had wanted to watch her skate. He wanted to see how good she was at it. but he was still mad at her so he was going to act like this was a huge chore just to punish her. With a sigh, Wo Fat got up. He walked over to the closet where he pulled out his coat, expecting to go somewhere cold.

"Alright, I'm down to watch," he said. "I've been told you're pretty good, I'd like to see that in person."

"Yeah? And who says she's good?" Con asked, also getting up and reaching for his leather jacket.

"She did," Wo Fat said. "In her world she made it to the Olympics."

"No, I made it to finals. I might have made it to Olympics but uh… I got pulled here and well… yeah…" she said as she picked up her box. She reached out her spare hand and Wo Fat took it, almost instantly Conejo had the back of his jacket as well and then she popped open a portal in the door and took them through it.

There were a lot of things that Wo Fat expected. The top expectation being a rink, and he sort of got it, but he had a feeling they weren't in Toronto anymore. Already Rowan was sitting on a bench and opening up her skates. Black figure skates, traditionally those were for the men so it was surprising to see Rowan pulling them out.

Both Conejo and Wo Fat looked around. They were at an outdoor rink, and they weren't on the ground. And judging by the skyline, Wo Fat could tell that they weren't even in Canada anymore.

"Where are we?" Con asked but Wo Fat already knew.

"Paris."

"It's the Eiffel tower actually," she whispered. "I wanted to go skating here… again… the last time I was here was in my world."

"Your world," Wo Fat echoed, already Rowan was sitting to put on her skates tying them tightly and deftly.

"Yeah, I know this is crazy, but uh… I kinda wanna be able to say I've skated under the Eiffel tower in two worlds," she said sheepishly. "I… I had a pair of skates in Hawaii but uh… I didn't want to chance going back there to get them, not so soon after my last jump. I also don't know where they'd be. I'm not sure where Steve put the stuff I didn't pick up."

Wo Fat didn't know the answer to that either, so he just kept quiet. Rowan turned her eyes back up to him. "Did you guys want to skate with me?"

"Uh… maybe… do they rent out skates here, cause neither Con nor I have a pair," Wo Fat asked her and Rowan looked around.

"I'm not sure."

She turned her eyes back to the ice. Longing on her face. Wo Fat knew better than to keep her from it. "Kay, we'll uh… we'll see if we can rent skates but uh… you go on the ice and warm up and we'll be there momentarily."

Rowan smiled got herself onto the ice and then glided away while Wo Fat and Conejo turned away. "You can skate?" Con asked her.

"Hell no," Wo Fat whispered. "But to humour her I will try."

It turned out that they couldn't rent skates, but the two of them bought hot chocolates and croissants, one for each of them and one for Rowan and then returned to the ice. There in the middle was Rowan, twirling around and around in some fancy spin.

"Whoa," came out of Con as he watched her move like fluid around the ice. She wasn't even trying but she looked beyond graceful, like this was her home element.

Wo Fat had been running out of things to give her when the guilt felt a little too strong, or when he needed something to distract her from the questions she asked. But now, seeing her on the ice, he knew he had a new thing to offer her.

And he concluded that it was actually rather upsetting that his sister never made it to the Olympics. She surely deserved to go.


	254. Chapter 254

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hey there my wonderful readers! Well this will be the third update in a row, and I'll either be posting Saturday or Sunday for the day that I missed. I'm not sure which day yet but I'm leaning towards Saturday so I have a day off on Sunday but that depends on when I get the next chapter done. I hope that's okay, and I hope you guys are still enjoying everything, cause I know I'm still enjoying writing the chapters and we get to see how Steve is reacting to Rowan's last visit and all her trip. Don't forget to leave me a review and I'll see you guys sometime on the weekend!_

Chapter 254

* * *

Danny had just gotten out of the shower when he realized that something was off. It took a little while of him racking his mind for him to figure out what it was that was missing. It was the little red glare from his phone, it was gone.

Damn the thing hadn't died had it? Honestly he had been keeping it plugged in, been monitoring it for days, having specifically had to borrow one of Grace's old phones to be in contact with everyone else. All he did was go for a shower, maybe not one of Steve's Navy showers, but he couldn't have been gone for more than 10 minutes.

With the towel around his waist he went to the bedside table where he had left the phone and looked. The red screen was gone and now it read the simple words: _Search completed. Subject Found._

Sandy had found the mole, the person Robert Coughlin had sent to watch them.

He quickly picked up his phone, and opened up the alert. When the person's picture popped up Danny was both surprised and not. Shaking his head, he pulled up Steve's contact but didn't call him right away. No, he'd wait to call him. He was with Nahele for his birthday and Danny didn't want to encroach on that with this news.

So he pulled up Chin's contact instead. He needed to know just as much as Steve did. If not more.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steven had had a rough set of days. He hadn't been sleeping right and it didn't help that his mind was playing tricks on him. The dreams had started four days ago, after the massive attack, so there was no way that they weren't tied to that initial attack. They were dreams of Rowan. Dreams that were stained with the void, that felt so real that sometimes he was certain they were real and not just dreams.

He always knew if the dreams started in the void that he'd wake up with a hurting heart, but he couldn't pull himself out of them.

He'd fall asleep and then wake up in the void. Nothing but twinkling lights and absent black patches. And Rowan. His beautiful, wonderful Rowan, just standing there in the far distance. He'd know her anywhere, nothing but long red hair and her curvaceous silhouette, a silver misting light lighting up her outline. Rowan would then open up a door in a wall and disappear. No. He'd find himself thinking. No he couldn't have that happen. She wasn't allowed to close the door on him. On them.

Panic would take a hold of his throat. First his throat and then it would have his heart. She couldn't do this to them, they belonged together.

And then he would be running, running to get to that door, to stop her. The door would fly open, he'd watch Rowan get tangled up in those red strings, stopping her from leaving him. He'd managed to get to her, to wrap her up in his own arms, and then the two of them were falling. And somewhere in the falling Rowan and he would end up separating. Then he'd wake up in his bed, Rowan would be gone and his heart would hurt, just like he figured it would.

But that one wasn't the bad dream.

In the bad dream he'd wake up in the dark, startled, alone, cold, and in that darkness came the cries. Rowan's cries, her screams, like she was in agony. Screams that reminded him a little too closely of the video he tried very hard not to think of. Then she'd start crying for him, screaming his name. Like she needed him, only him. She was in danger and she needed _him_. So he sprinted through that darkness until he couldn't move, like he was running through thigh deep water.

But it wasn't water. It was strings. Black strings, and Rowan in the middle of them. Black strings were streaming from her chest. He had never seen black strings before this dream. What color had she said black meant, he wondered, and the void answered him.

 _Death._

NO!

Steve started forward, wading through them to get to her. Once he was close enough, once he got a good grip and could hold her tightly to his chest, he felt a little better. But those black strings was still attached to her, hurting her, draining her. God, no, his girl couldn't take any more pain, not after everything else. Give him the pain, let him take it, he was stronger, used to it.

He pressed his hand over the black strings escaping her, willing them to go away, taking all the red strings around him and pressing them to her wound. She had always been the one to change the strings, for Chin, for Kono, for him, the least he could do was try and do it for her. Pull the correct string to her, make a better future.

He wasn't going to let her go until he knew for sure that she was okay. But one second she'd be in his arms, and the next his shoulder would be hit by some sort of painful static shock and he'd be sent spiralling away from her.

It would be Wo Fat. Wo Fat who would appear out of nowhere and taken her from him. Just like he had in real life. This was worst kind of nightmare, the kind that mimicked real life. Steve would reach for her again, and Wo Fat would decked him. The second hit would knock him down.

His heart would be bursting at this point. He just wanted her back, but just like in real life, Wo Fat got away with Rowan and he ended up back in his bed.

The first time he had the bad dream it had felt so real both his shoulder and his jaw hurt the next morning. Since then the rest of the dreams were like echoes. Echoes of that first one, and the pain he felt after was only contained to his chest.

But the dreams about the doorway, those were always accompanied with a terrible panic, no echoes of a past panic, straight panic. Like she was leaving him right then and there.

And to make matters worse, he was starting to hallucinate her. First he saw her out of the corner of his eye, making him do double takes. But the hallucinations got to the point where he was seeing a very clear version of her. Short brown hair, same blue eyes. Standing on his beach, running away from him and into his house.

He had chased that illusion all the way up his beach and into his house, but when he got inside no one was there. The house was still quiet and empty, no sign of someone else, no sign that anyone before him had even opened the door. He had never felt so alone in his own house ever before so he was really glad when Danny invited himself over and let himself not an hour after the situation went down. Though he couldn't bring himself to tell Danny what he had hallucinated.

But it wasn't just all the dreams that had him in this terrible state of agitation.

The flash drive that Chris Dalton had copied and that Russian spy had almost stolen, it had the identities of all the undercover agents currently out in the field. Though this was something that the government knew and they had managed to pull all the agents out, there were some agents that they had not been able to contact. One of those agents, he found out, was Catherine. That's right. Catherine wasn't out in Nepal doing helo drops like she said she was, she was doing undercover work. The Nepal thing had been a lie, a necessary cover.

And it really, really hurt that she had lied to him again. Even if it was a necessity. Even if it was her cover. Even if they weren't really anything anymore. He had thought about proposing to her, granted he was thinking about it out of vengeance, but he had been about to actually propose to her. To think he might have ended up married to a completely different kind of liar. The kind that hid her own selfish motives.

Unlike Rowan who lied and hid things from him because she knew he'd freak out and she didn't want him to worry.

He also found out from Catherine's handler, that this wasn't the first time that Catherine's cover had almost been blown. In fact before this, they had been forced to pull her out of three different ops. Someone, had been compromising her and they had a sneaking suspicion they knew who too.

They asked Steve if he thought that Anna Novick might have been working with Wo Fat. But Wo Fat's app was the reason she was dead, so Steve highly doubted that. He just didn't see the motive. Rowan had left him, not the other way around. There was no need for either Wo Fat or Rowan to be that petty.

But they did a sweep of Catherine's electronics and found the app embedded in every single one of them and Steve was forced to admit that maybe they were that petty. He just didn't know why they would be.

But he put all of that aside to take Nahele out for his birthday.

The Liang's had pulled him out of school for the day. Nahele got Steve for the morning, and a giant bash at the Liang's in the evening.

They had started by going to the beach, and throwing around the pig-skin. When that was done he took him over to Kamekona's where the man had a special birthday platter of all Nahele's favourites waiting for them.

And then Nahele surprised him by pulling out a gift.

"What? What's this?" Steve asked, taking the small box from him.

"Well, your birthday is tomorrow, don't think I forgot," he said and Steve laughed.

"Damn, can't outsmart you can I?" Steve asked. He went into his pocket and pulled out the keys to the Marquis and then tossed them to Nahele. "Yours is in the trunk, go get it."

Nahele nodded and rushed off. As he did Steve opened his gift. He probably should have waited for the kid but he was just so excited to get a gift, especially since he wasn't trying to make his birthday a big deal this year.

Inside was a simple tie. Just a navy blue tie with a seal on it. A Freaking Navy Seal tie. God this was Rowan's kid. One hundred percent this was Rowan's kid, they were so freaking alike. And he loved this tie, it was the best thing he was going to get this year.

When Nahele came back he had his own gift in his hands. He clocked the unwrapped tie and groaned. "I knew you wouldn't wait for me."

"You know I can't stand suspense," Steve said with a grin. "Thanks, kid, I love it."

"You can wear it with your dress blues," he said with his own grin as he sat down. Steve shook his head.

"Not without getting court marshalled," he shot back.

Nahele just laughed. "Just tell 'em it came from your cute kid then show him my picture, that'll get you off the hook."

Steve shook his head, and playfully swatted at Nahele from across the table. Nahele was far from the cute little pre-tween that Rowan brought home with her last year. He had started to go through puberty. His voice was cracking and deepening, he was shoot up like a weed, almost at Steve's shoulders now, and he was bulking up. Rowan would have been proud and horrified, he was pretty sure the boy was taller than her. Something she hadn't wanted.

"Alright, just open your gift. I wanna know if you like it."

Steve already knew that the kid was gonna like it. Rowan had picked it out last year. Just like she had picked out all his Christmas gifts, things Steve had gotten him for that Christmas. After this, he'd be on his own for gifts.

He was just about to dig into the present when his phone rang. Nahele winced. "One second," he said and then pulled out his phone. Steve got a half glimpse of the phone screen and swore that it read nothing, absolutely nothing

Was Nahele getting blank calls?

"Sorry, Steve, I've been waiting for this call," he said quickly and then purposely put a lot of distance between him and Steve before answering the call.

Steve watched him talk, the smile that grew on the kid's face. He was happy to get this call, he had a feeling that it was the same kind of smile that Steve got when Rowan used to call him. Steve watched Nahele pace, that absent smile on his face as he listened to all the caller had to say. Steve itched to pick up his phone and ask Chin to trace whatever call was coming through on Nahele's phone but he knew if Nahele found out he'd never forgive or trust Steven again. And Steve couldn't have that happen, not when he was certain his relationship with Nahele couldn't handle another disappointment.

So he waited the whole fifteen minutes for the phone call to finish and then tried to smile as Nahele came back to him and the giant box he had been left with on the table.

"Sorry about that, it was an important call about tonight," he said and Steve nodded softly. Yes, h e figured that. "Let's open this gift, huh?"

Steve nodded and Nahele ripped it apart. He watched his face dawn on this huge smile. The longboard coming through. Steve hadn't been aware of what she had done until the box had showed up. She had obviously ordered it before all the stuff in May had gone down.

Nahele ripped the plastic off of the box to open it up. Even Steve had been impressed that she had purchased this particular board. Simply because the brand she had gone for was very good brand, and a very expensive brand.

"Aw, it's the longboard Ro ordered me."

Steve paused, watching him taking it out of the box. Rowan had purchased a Fish 37 bamboo longboard from Arbor collective. The bottom had a very Hawaiian surf kind of theme, waves of water with koi fish all along the bottom while the top was a wood finish, looking a lot like the wooden floors of the McGarrett homestead. And while it was lovely, and totally something that Rowan would buy, it didn't explain how Nahele knew that it was Rowan and not Steve who had ordered it. Especially since Rowan had been gone for more than half a year at this point, and Steve was the one who was giving him the gift… and he wanted full credit for it.

"How do you know Rowan ordered it?"

Nahele paused, he blinked his eyes as if the question surprised him. "She uh… she let me pick the pattern. She was trying to be all secretive about what it was about… but I knew," he said.

But Steve wasn't sure he believed that. "Who called you," he asked, his voice low. "And don't lie to me either."

Nahele blinked his eyes almost surprised, but surprised did not stay long. Instead he seemed to get angry. "It was just a girl," he snapped, a red coloring his cheeks. "This girl I have a crush on at school. She's coming to my party tonight… I'm hoping to ask her out…" Steve held his gaze, trying to determine if Nahele was lying. It had been such a long time since Nahele had been living with him and now he couldn't quite tell. But not too long ago, the kid had been crying in Rowan's car about not having heard from her, he knew that Steve was looking for her too, so he figured, if Rowan was getting a hold of Nahele, that he'd tell Steve. Or at the very least tell Rowan that Steve wanted to talk to her.

"It wasn't mom," Nahele said, a frown crossing his lips. It was strange to hear him call Rowan Mom, he hadn't done that for a long time. It seemed odd that he would slip up on that now, that he wouldn't correct himself.

Steve longed to push for more answers, especially since he felt so out of the loop with everything in Nahele's life. He hadn't even known he was getting into girls, well… more into girls. He wanted this to be a nice birthday event, he didn't want this to end badly.

So he forced himself to smile and say: "Right. You're right, of course. Sorry." He then cleared his throat. "Uh… how about you tell me about this girl? How do you plan to pop the question?"

Nahele seemed to loosen up at this new proposed topic, though a pink tinge still crossed his cheek. Steve forced himself to loosen up to, but he couldn't help but wonder just what it was that Nahele was hiding, because he had a feeling that the kid was lying to him about something.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Abby had gone to see Robert because she didn't want to work with him anymore. Now that she knew what he was really doing, which was looking for revenge for his brother's death, she felt dirty. It had nothing to do with the fact that she was dating Chin, nor did it have anything to do with how much she actually liked Five-0. Okay… maybe it did. But it didn't change the fact that what Robert was doing was setting up a witch hunt, and making her the snitch.

But even when she said she wanted out, even when she told him that Sanctuary was running a process to find her, he still wouldn't let her go. And as she was on loan to him, he was technically her superior, and going against him meant losing her job.

She loved her job, but she didn't want to be used like this just to keep it.

Robert had given her a choice, she could continue to work, find proof of Five=0 using Sanctuary, not just having Sanctuary appear without their call, or she could turn in her badge.

She was stuck, sooner or later that app was going to pinpoint her. In fact she was really surprised it hadn't by now. But when Five-0 found out she was going to lose her new friends and worst of all Chin. And probably her job.

Could things get any worse?

Her phone rang and she went to pick it up, only to freeze. She was getting a call from… no one?

She answered it with a quick _Dunn_ and then got a very chipper and perky: "Hello, Abby Dunn. I'm Rowan Pierce and I understand that you're stuck between a rock and a hard place right now, correct…"

This wasn't… this couldn't be _the_ Rowan, could it? "I… yes… how did you get this number?"

"Not important hand the phone to Robert I know he's in front of you."

Abby paused. She looked up to Robert who was glaring at her. She then offered him her phone and said: "Uh… it's… it's for you."

The glare turned into a more confused glare but he took the phone she offered him and quickly put it to his ear. "This is Robert Coughlin."

Robert had not been expecting Rowan to be on the other end. And he didn't expect her to sound so… happy? He had seen pictures of Rowan Pierce, he knew exactly the kind of girl that she was, looking so much cuter than her acts proclaimed her to be, but that was the genius of having someone like her running an App like hers. No one ever saw it coming.

But he was not going to be duped by her.

"Hello, Robert, it's so very nice to officially talk to you for the first time," she said. As if this were a social call. "I've heard that you've been made aware that I have been tracking you and your little mole."

Yes he did know about that. Abby had just told him. The question was, how did she know that?

"That's right, I know all about you and your little vendetta against my friends. And I know that you know about me and my app."

He did know all about her app. He was trying to prove that Five-0 used it to solve its crimes, to get as much done as they did.

"And, of course, you're after Five-0 which is under my jurisdiction until further notice. So, I'm going to have to clearly redirect you. I know you're one of those tough types so I won't bother threatening you and you won't bother threating me. So this is what we're going to do. You clearly want me, not Five-0, me. You want me and my brother and my app. And I can tell you now that continuing to go after them is not only unnecessary but it's going to get you killed."

Robert smirked. He couldn't help it. Because now he knew how to get her. "You've just shown your hand Pierce…"

"True, but I figured that fair as I already know yours," she whispered. "Check the phone."

He took the phone away from his face and no longer was it showing the call, but pictures. His wife. His kids. His nieces and nephews. All pictures, surveillance stills. She had been tracking his family and for a while by the looks of it.

"I won't hesitate to kill them, Coughlin," she said, her voice calling him from the phone. "An eye for an eye, your family for mine."

"If you even so much go after my family…" he started but he was cut off by an aggressive sigh from her.

"Fine, we'll do this the hard way," she growled. Out of no where a gunshot rang out, and the coffee cup in his other hand flew, obliterated, clearly by a bullet. She had shot at him? She was on the fucking island?

Abby was glancing around, hand on hip ready to draw but he had a feeling they weren't going to find the shooter.

"Since you don't want to see reason, here's what I'll tell you. If you keep fucking with my family and next time I won't miss."

"I'm going to find you, Pierce," Coughlin ordered. "I'm going to find you and arrest you."

"Yeah? Well it would help if you were on the right fucking continent," she snapped. "You want me, you come and get me." And then she hung up the phone.

Robert glanced to Abby who looked rather concerned. When he took on this assignment, when he launched this investigation, everyone warned him about Pierce and her app. Just because she was gone didn't mean she didn't care and she had proven to be more than a dangerous foe who had obliterated FBI operations, IA investigations and took down criminal organizations with little to no retribution.

For the first time Robert wondered if, like all the others before him, he had bitten off more than he could chew.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Chin had been sitting at his desk and Abby was hovering outside his door. She was afraid to go in. But… she knew that Rowan knew she was the mole. And there was only so long before she released that information to the others, if she hadn't already done so.

She knocked on the door and Chin turned his eyes up to her. He had a smile on his face and she knew, just by the way he looked at her, all happy to see her, that he had no idea the kind of bombshell she was about to drop on him. And her heart shattered a bit knowing she was going to hurt him like this.

She walked into the office, but declined to take a seat. She let him say hi to her, she let him ask her how her day was, but she couldn't bring herself to make small talk with him.

"Chin… I have something to tell you," she started and he nodded easily at her, as if she wasn't about to blow apart his world. "I… I'm the mole. I'm the one working for Coughlin."

To her surprise he just smiled. "I know."

Abby blinked her eyes. She had not been expecting that. Did that mean… was this a trap? "The info came through on the app this morning, Steve's off attempt to verify it."

Abby's shoulder's slumped. Five-0 already knew about her? Then… why had Chin been so happy to see her?

"Then you know what Rowan did," she whispered but Chin frowned.

"No… I didn't hear what Rowan did. What did she do?" he asked. Abby opened her mouth and he shook his head. "Actually you know what, you tell me from the beginning, everything that happened, and save the Rowan stuff for last. God knows, it's probably something that will stress me out anyway, might as well prepare myself, build up to it."

She almost laughed. He sounded so frustrated with her and he kind of got it, because when he found out that Rowan contacted Robert and did nothing but make him really, really mad, he was going to get stressed. Cause it meant that Robert was going to come for them harder now, just to piss Rowan off.


	255. Chapter 255

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hello my wonderful readers! I know I said I'd get this chapter out yesterday but I had so much more to write than I thought! Anyway, here it is, this chapter has a wonderful little twist and it opens up to the next MASSIVE lie that Wo Fat is going to tell Rowan. However, for the next couple of chapters we're going to be leaving the Five-0's behind for a little while and we're going to be following Rowan's shenanigans and trust me... she's going to get up to a lot. Don't forget to leave me a review and I'll see you guys on Monday. (if I finish writing that chapter that is)_

Chapter 255

* * *

Abby had resigned herself to losing her job. She was so resigned to it that she had thrown her badge into the ocean. Coughlin be damned she wasn't about to let him corrupt her in that way. She'd rather go back to work as a regular beat cop then work for his dirty operation, for his witch hunt. She had just gotten back to the hotel, was part way through packing when there came a knock on her door.

She went to it, checked the peep hole and saw Steve on the other side. Damn, he must have confirmed that Rowan's intel was correct. He was here to yell at her clearly. And not only did she know he'd probably kick down the door to talk to her, she also knew she deserved it. So she opened the door.

His smile seemed warm, his eyes creased with worry. He offered a simple: "Hey."

Abby smiled back as confidently as she could. "Hi, come on in," she offered. Might as well get this over with.

He slipped in past her, looked around at her room and then turned back to her. Abby shut the door and steeled herself for a very angry confrontation but he didn't say anything, he just stared at her, his hands on his hips, looking altogether too calm for someone who just found out that the woman he swore in as temporary Five-0 was actually there to take him down and spy on him for a man with a grudge against Five-0. Well if he wasn't going to start with the lecture she might as well start him off.

"I'm sorry Steve," she said. "When I found out what this was about, I told Coughlin I couldn't do it anymore. I lied. To you, to everyone."

"Yeah, you did, but you had an assignment. You were following orders," he said. "No one blames you for that. We all understand how it works."

She half scoffed and Steve paused. "No, I actually… I really mean that, Abby. By now, I'm pretty sure I know what type of person you are. I can see your integrity, and on top of that, I think you're an outstanding cop."

"You know the crazy thing about it? The whole cover story they made up, shadowing your unit, seeing how you do things, why you've had the success you've had, it worked, because it's the truth. And what you're doing with Five-0, you're making a difference."

Steve took that in with a casual nod of his head as if he already knew that, or maybe he didn't quite believe that. Either way he opted for a topic change. "What are you going to do now?"

"I don't know," she answered truthfully. "I was under Coughlin's supervision San Francisco P.D. considers what I did an act of insubordination. If I go back, they'll take my shield and reassign me to patrol. "

"I guess you better stay here, then, help us."

Abby was dumbfounded, she had no idea what to say and when he just smiled. "Why don't you think about it?"

As he moved towards the door, Abby called out for him to wait, she figured if he could give her such a big gift, she could do the same.

"I think we should get to why you're really here," Abby said. "You want to know what Rowan said."

Steve's smile was a wry one. "That transparent huh? I guess you figured Chin told me that she made contact. That's uh… that's quite the honor, she hasn't made contact with any of us since… well since she left…"

Taken more like it. she had heard the story, and with just how fiercely she protected her five-0 friends she had a feeling there was some sort of extenuating circumstance that was keeping her from coming home. And she had a feeling it lay with that criminal brother of her.

"I don't know her Steve," Abby said. "I don't know her tones or her mannerisms. I know that she knew things and I didn't know how she knew them. I know she sounded… uncharacteristically chipper…"

"Yeah she does that. It's this thing she does when she's afraid. Her voice pitches up makes her sound more… unintimidating. I unno I'm not sure she realizes she does it."

"She didn't say much to me, just that she understood that I was in a tough situation, and then she asked him to hand Robert the phone, the rest of the conversation was between she and him, but… she had pictures of his family and someone took a shot at him, narrowly missed him. He's understandably pissed."

"And have you told him that Sanctuary has been active with us?"

"I did, but I haven't seen any of you use it. All I've seen it do is appear. It's never something you seek out which is the problem. Rowan's taking all of the blame onto herself to clear you guys."

"Yes and if I'm correct, if Robert keeps digging he's going to have to deal with her," Steve said. "You have to understand she's not usually this bad… it's just that… when she's with her brother that ruthlessness…. It's like she doesn't have a conscience."

"Well, she didn't kill me," Abby said. "I was worried she would."

"Yeah well… that's another thing Rowan does, she kinda ride or die for her family."

"But I'm not family."

Steve smiled. "Yeah, about that," he said as he opened the door revealing Chin. "See, though I'm pretty sure we'd all like you stay, there's one in particular, who happens to be Rowan's immediately _ohana_ who has a decided interest in you staying. I'm going to guess that swayed her decision on the whole killing you or not matter."

As Steve left, Chin came into the room. Pulling Abby in for a hug. She apologized to him again but he silenced her with a debonair smirk and a joking: "It's a good thing we're dating huh?"

Yes they were still dating! Yes, wonderful! She had been worried that her confession had shattered her chances for them but he still liked her still wanted her. She kissed him quickly, more than glad that he was here, and already leaning towards staying with Five-0. Anything to get more kisses from him.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

The arrow hit the man in the leg and he went down immediately.

Danny approached him carefully, he started by firsts ripping the arrow out of the man, who howled in agony when he did so. The second thing he did was kick the gun away from him. The third was a swift kick to the arm and a gruff snap of: "Don't fucking move," then he was moving forward again, restringing the bow and arrow as he did. There was one other guy for him to find.

Danny was _not_ having a good day.

All he had wanted to do was have a nice lunch out, at a new food truck with the best chicken on Hawaii, out in the country side of Koala Moa in Haleiwa. He wanted it to be a phoneless day, where they all left their phones in the car and had good old fashioned family time. Grace had pouted, apparently unable to function without her phone while Charlie seemed more interested in wearing his chicken instead of eating it.

The first problem, other than Grace's attitude, was when they went back to the car they found out that his car was gone. Not gone. Stolen. Someone had stolen his car. Now, could Danny have borrowed someone's phone to call this in, hell yeah. He could have killed two birds with one stone and called Steve. Would have gotten him a ride and called it in all in one. But there was no way, no way, he was going to tell Steve that his car got stolen out from under him. He'd never live it down.

So they had decided to take the bus home. Or well, that's what Danny said. And on that bus, he got more attitude from Grace, Charlie decided to lick a bus seat, they bumped into their old friend, or well, Steve's dad's old friend, Mamo who was apparently also a bus driver as well.

But it was on that bus ride that they witnessed his car peeling out of what he assumed was an armed robbery at a gas station. Just a hunch by all the shouting, the waving arms, and the way they had raced off practically burning the rubber off his new tires. He had pulled a Steve and commandeered that bus immediately, forcing them to follow his Camaro and the thieves inside. He told Mamo to follow at a safe distance, like a bus normally would, but the idiot turned onto a dirt road to follow them, which alerted the thieves to well… to a bus following them.

Once Danny realized that, he got everyone off of the bus, leaving his children with Mamo for the rest of this. He gave chase in his bus, looking for the car, and found it abandoned a few blocks over.

The car was empty, they had his work gun, they had his badge, they had his extra gun he thought he had hidden in the trunk. They had even taken the phones. Of course they took the phones. Not that it mattered because he had no fucking signal. Couldn't even call Steve. And right now he really wanted Steve. Or Sandy. But he didn't know if she could run without service. Nothing had popped up on the phone or the car's built in GPS either so he was guessing no.

He wasn't sure how he was going to take on an unknown amount if assailants, he wasn't Steven McGarrett who had gotten twice as reckless since he had lost his family. Luckily he flagged down Vance, a boar hunter who, not only had a giant dead board hogtied to the top of his jeep, he had a secondary bow to offer to the hunt and was willing to help him track the guys.

This was wonderful because without his own personal pathfinder Danny was lost. And in case you missed it, he meant Steve. Steve was his personal pathfinder. Though this guy was better than Steve, just as good at tracking just not as cocky and nicer.

But that was how he got here. Vance was off calling 911 from the landline while Danny had gone after the two assailants who were shooting at him with his own gun. He had taken one down, he got the arrow to his leg, and now he was looking for the other.

And he didn't have to look far because the other guy had come around the corner. No doubt to avenge his fallen friend, by shooting Danny with his own service gun.

"Stop! Don't move," Danny ordered his bow up and ready to fire. But, while the guy momentarily paused, he didn't actually stop. This guy looked like a tough Hawaiian native. Low hanging khaki shorts, black jersey, black ball cap on his head. But Danny could take him, he had no doubt.

"Well, this is a situation," the guy with the ballcap said. Gun up and ready to go.

Danny tightened his grip on his bow. The fact that he was going up against a guy with a gun with a bow and arrow was so stupid. "Put down the gun," he ordered

"Or what? You gonna shoot me in the leg too?" he taunted. "From what I seen, your aim ain't too tasty."

There was a beat of silence and then they both fired at once. The bullet glanced off of Danny's upper arm whereas Danny's fired arrow hit the man straight to the chest. Both men fell, Danny knocked off balance by the hit to the arm, the other guy essentially just fell down dead.

Danny was on the ground for all of two seconds before he heard someone calling his name. Someone who sounded like Steve but how did he… how did he know that Danny needed help, or where he was. Unless Vance had gotten a hold of the Calvary and someone had called Steve, but then how did he get here so fast? Did he teleport?

Danny carefully got himself up as Steve, with gun in hand rounded the corner past the guy that was downed originally and then skidded to a stop beside Danny.

"Danny! Danny I heard the gunshot are you okay?" he cried, his hands going to the injury and then to his shoulder to hold onto him and look around.

Danny sighed. "Yeah… yeah, I'm good," he said.

"You're bleeding, you get hit?" Steve asked which was stupid cause of course he did.

"It's just a graze," Danny said and then turned a soft stare to Steve. "Sorry to worry you on your birthday."

He had asked Steve to come with him and his kids out for chicken that day. But Steve was determined to stay home and punish himself. It was like he was certain that he wasn't allowed to be happy. So he had planned to be alone for his birthday, alone in an empty house. Wouldn't even let his friends take him out for a beer.

"It's fine," Steve said. "So what uh… what happened here?"

Danny looked at the two guys, both downed by an arrow. He half laughed. "First time I aimed for his head and got him in the leg. The second time, I went for… uh… the leg… and got him in the chest."

Steve, who was busy taking his shirt off to rip into pieces to patch Danny up glanced to the body and then back to him. God why did he have to always take his shirt off, there were no girls he needed to impress so what the hell?

"Did uh… did Vance call in the cavalry?" he asked.

Steve shook his head. "I got here while Vance was making the call. Calvary is on their way though."

"Oh… uh… then… how did you find me?" Danny asked.

"Ro," Steve said holding up his phone. "She uh… she sent me a text."

Danny peered at the screen all it said was: _Danny in trouble. Go ASAP._ And then a bunch of numbers which he assumed were coordinates.

"She's getting coordinates with her dreams now?"

"I unno, I unno what's going on, but they're getting terribly accurate all of a sudden," Steve whispered. And like the phone decided to start ringing out of nowhere.

"McGarrett," he answered but was met with silence.

Danny sighed. "I'm bleeding out he picks up the fucking phone."

Steve shot him a glance and turned back to his phone. He was about to say his name again when he heard a soft whisper of: "Hi."

His body went still. He knew that voice. He'd recognize it anywhere.

"Rowan?" he whispered back.

"Yeah. Uh. Hi," she said. She sounded nervous. Like she expected him to be mad at her. And maybe he was a little. "Did uh… did you find Danny?"

So it really was her texting him and not just a message from the app. "No… yeah… I did thanks… uh… thanks for that," he whispered and for a second Rowan was silent and he didn't know what to do. He didn't know what to say to her that wouldn't sound crazy or pathetic. He was disastrously on the verge of telling her that he loved her and he wanted her to come home.

"Well that's great! Uhm… so yeah, the uh… the real reason I was calling is cause… uh... I just wanted to wish you a happy birthday. So uhm… Happy Birthday!"

She had remembered. She was calling him to wish him a happy birthday. That was standard wasn't it? So why was his heart beating wildly out of control in his chest?

"Thanks," he answered. He couldn't find the words to say anything else. He knew if he started talking he'd start begging and he was too proud to beg Rowan to come home.

"Are you having a good day?" she asked. God, this was what they had become? A pair of strangers unsure how to talk to one another so they were resorting to small talk.

"Yeah, it's been good," he replied, he noticed that Danny was staring at him so he quickly got up and walked away from him. This needed be a private moment. Rowan murmured "good, good" to him and then he couldn't keep it in anymore. "Are _you_ happy, Rowan?"

"Yeah, I mean… uhm… yeah. I've been doing all sorts of cool things," she said but she didn't sound happy. He longed to ask her where she was, but he knew if he had the information he'd send authorities to go get her and he wanted her to be happy.

"You know you can come home, if you want," he said before he could stop himself. "I know you said you didn't want to see me again, but everyone else misses you, I'm sure they'd love to have you come visit. I won't arrest you or Wo Fat if you're worried about that."

God he sounded so pathetic. Practically begging her to come home. Lying to her too. The second she set foot on this island he'd be all over her. She'd never leave again. Wo Fat would be leaving in a body bag. She'd hate him forever but he wouldn't care.

There was silence from Rowan's side for a few seconds before she whispered: "I never said I didn't want to see you again, Steven."

Steve felt his eyebrows furrow together with confusion. "Yes you did," he told her. "You called me and told me you were done with me and you wanted me to stop looking for you. That I picked Catherine, you picked Wo Fat and I couldn't change my mind again."

He could almost hear the confusion on Rowan's end too. He heard her take a deep breath and he knew that she was going to say some shit. "No I didn't. I called you and you told me you weren't coming to get me and that you didn't want me to come home because you were with Catherine now."

Steve blinked his eyes. "No I didn't," he told her. "Rowan, what are you talking about?"

"What are you talking about?" she snapped. Steve felt that same sensation of apprehension on the back of his neck, stiffening his shoulders and making him nervous. That stone of worry in his gut sinking further. Had they been lied to?

"I did come to get you but I couldn't find you," Steve told her. "You called me and told me to stop looking."

"No. I. Did. Not," she cried. "Wo said you never even came to Japan. He said you were on a case and you sent him to get me. So I called and asked if you were coming, and you said no. Then I asked if you were going to meet me at the airport and you said no. And then you told me not to come home."

Steve's mouth ran dry. She thought he didn't come to Japan. She thought that he hadn't come to look for her. She thought he told her not to come home? WHAT THE HELL?

"Rowan, I never said any of those things," he told her. "I wanted you to come home. I wanted to find you. Didn't you get any of my messages? Rowan, I didn't pick Catherine I picked you. I wanted you. Do you understand? I wanted you!"

Rowan was silent for a second as he stood there breathlessly clinging to the phone. Willing her to hear the truth in his voice. Willing her to believe him.

"Steve… I don't understand," he heard her whisper.

"Just tell me where you are. Where are you Rowan? I'll come there, we'll straighten it out," he told her.

"I don't know…" she whispered and then she paused. "Hold on a sec…. What? I'm talking to Steve."

He wasn't sure what happened but he heard Rowan yelp, heard a sort of scuffle and then the line went dead. Steve looked at his phone. At the number he didn't recognize because it wasn't hers. It was the first time that a number had come through, it wasn't just blank. He didn't recognize that area code either. 416? Where the hell did that area code belong to?

Steve dialed Chin and then waited for him to pick up. "Hey. A call just came in on my cell phone. Can you figure out where it was calling from?" he asked. Chin agreed and then hung up the phone and Steve sighed.

What the hell was going on?

"What was that?" Danny asked. "Was that Rowan?"

"Yeah. She called to wish me a happy birthday," he told him.

"And then you guys argued?" Danny asked. He tsked at him and sighed: "Typical"

"Uhm, yeah. I don't know. Something doesn't seem right," he whispered.

"What are you going to do?" Danny asked watching Steve carefully.

"I don't know," Steve replied, because he didn't. If they had been lied to, it was done by Wo Fat. But he had no idea where in the world Rowan was. How was he going to figure that out without her? No he'd just have to wait to hear from her again. But at that moment he had to worry about getting Danny's gunshot wound patched up and then back to his kids. Rowan would have to be on the backburner until then.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Rowan groaned from where she lay on the floor after he had tackled her. Wo Fat was on top of her, having pulled the phone she borrowed out of her hand to end the call. She couldn't get that panicked look on his face out of her mind. All she had said was that she was on the phone with Steve, why the hell did that scare him so much?

"What the hell, Oz," she growled and she propped herself up. Wo Fat got off her breathless.

"Why did you call him, Ro? Why?" he asked. He sounded so frantic, so upset, so terribly disappointed in her.

"I just wanted to wish him a happy birthday," she muttered. Wo Fat got up and looked at the phone.

"Five minutes?" he cried. "You talked to him for five minutes? Why did _happy birthday_ take five minutes Ro? You realize he was probably tracing the call?"

Rowan narrowed her eyes at him. Why the hell would Steve trace the call? It's not like he cared. It wasn't like he wanted her back. Unless he wasn't lying to her when he was on the phone with her. Unless he really didn't say any of those things before and he really did want her back.

"Why would he trace the call if he doesn't want me?" she asked him. Waiting for his answer. If Wo Fat had been lying to her about Steve's intentions, she'd see it now, wouldn't she?

"Because I'm a criminal Rowan. And everyone's still trying to find me. Or because McGarrett is a sore loser and no matter what I do, he and I will always have bad blood," he said and she lowered her eyes. Okay so that was a good reason. She had forgotten all about that. Mainly because since taking her he had been keeping her separate from that world… and after Colombia he didn't want her anywhere near it again. "Did he ask you to tell him where you were?"

"No," she grumbled and then paused. "I… uh… I may have forgotten to block the number when I called him though."

Wo Fat swore and she winced. "Great so he'll know we're in Toronto." He helped Rowan up and then sighed at her, clearly defeated. "We're going to have to leave now," he told her. "Pick where you want to go next and I'll set it up."

"England," she answered without thinking about it. It was where they were going to head before they came to Toronto. "Actually no… let's do a train trip."

"Another one?" Wo Fat asked.

"Yep another one but you don't need to rent out the whole train for this one," she repeated. "We take a cross country train all the way to B.C. and we stop off at all the cool places to see in the provinces. I've always wanted to do one but when we were going back and forth it was for championships and we couldn't stop off. And we always took planes."

"Okay. I'll get everything set. Pack all our stuff up, say good bye to your father. We'll leave as soon as we can," he told her.

Rowan nodded. He moved to walk away, being sure to take the phone with him. "Uhm… Wo?" she called out causing him to pause. Wo Fat turned back to her. "Steve said some things… some things that don't make sense."

"Yeah? Like what?" he asked. He didn't look like a guy who's carefully laid lies were about to be discovered. He seemed genuinely interested in what Steve could have said to her.

"He said he did come to Japan to look for me. He said that you wouldn't tell him where I was. That… that he wanted me," she told him. She purposely avoided his eyes because she wanted this to be true. She wanted Steve to want her. But she didn't know who was lying to her anymore.

"Rowan… I don't know why he told you that, but I can assure that that it's not true," Wo Fat told her. "You heard him when he called you. Not me. Remember?"

Rowan hung her head. That was true. When she had called him all those months ago it had been from a clone of her own cellphone as the real cellphone was lying dormant at the bottom of her bag in case any of the governments after Wo were trying to trace it.

"Why would he lie then?" she asked.

"I don't know," Wo Fat said. "I can do some digging, figure it out if you'd like?"

"Could you?"

"Course. Anything for my _imout_ o," he told her lightly and lovingly pinching the point of her chin like he always did. And then he left the room.

Rowan couldn't help but feel a bit crestfallen. It wasn't that she didn't love travelling the world with Wo Fat. She did. She really, really did. But she missed Steve. She loved Steve. And she just wanted him to want her to. And she wanted Nahele back. She wanted Nahele with her. All the things she was doing, she wanted them both with her to share the experiences.

But she didn't want to get hurt by him again. So she'd wait until Wo Fat could tell her what was going on. And while she waited, maybe she'd look for some clues to figure out which of her boys was lying to her.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Wo Fat closed the door to Rowan's suite and let out the nervous breath he had been holding. Dear god, he was screwed. How was he going to cover this? She had talked to Steve and now his lies were unraveling around him. How was he going to explain the confusion? How was he going to look his sister in the eye and tell her that he had been lying this whole time?

Conejo came out of his own room, his mouth filled with whatever he had taken out of the minibar this time and took in Wo Fat's concerned face and realized that something was wrong. Concern dawned on his own face as he looked him up and down.

"She still in there?" he asked around the mouthful of whatever he was eating.

"Yeah," Wo Fat whispered. "Yeah, she's still there… she uh… yeah… start packing."

"Packing?" Con echoed after he forced himself to swallow. "Why? What the hell happened?"

"She called Steven," Wo Fat told him and Conejo groaned. "Call was unblocked and lasted over five minutes."

"What? Come on she knows better! Why did she call him? What the hell did they talk about?"

"I unno… he uh… he said somethings that were confusing but uh… she called to wish him a happy birthday."

Conejo shook his head. "That girl, I swear, she's a straight up kindness. She's got way too much heart, you know?

Wo Fat sighed. "We uh… we obviously have to move. He has more than enough to track us, and I uh… I can't afford to have him find us. Also she wants to do a train trip across the country…"

Conejo groaned again. "Again. Trains? What the hell is it with this girl and trains?"

"Well apparently it's beautiful, you know?" he asked and behind him he heard a pop. Wo Fat groaned, turned and opened up the door to Rowan's room and found it empty.

"She's gone isn't she?" Conejo asked and Wo Fat nodded.

"I know where she's going though, her dad's lab," he replied.

"I'll go get her," Conejo said. "You're still pissed at him over the experiment. She just wants to say good-bye you know. So uh… can you pack us up? Most of my shit's in, just you know, toss all you can into the minibar if you could."

"Yeah you gonna pay for it?"

"Why? It's your credit card," Conejo shot back with a grin. As he went towards the front door he picked up the leather jacket he had abandoned when the first came back from breakfast. As soon as he was gone, Wo Fat pulled up his phone.

He figured he had a relatively good lie he could feed Rowan to explain what had just happened. But first… first he needed evidence to give her.

He dialed Kong's number and then waited him to answer. When he did, Wo Fat immediately said: "This is gonna sound crazy but uh… how good are your photoshop skills?"

Kong sighed but eventually said: "I know I'm going to regret this but uh… I have a photoshop whiz on my current team. What do you need now?"

This was good. He might just be able to make this work.


	256. Chapter 256

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Hey there my wonderful readers. I know the chapter's a day late but I had to do a lot of typing to get it ready. I know it's not what you wanna read, but Wo Fat's going to come up with some more lies to make up for what happened last chapter. But I'm working on getting them back together. Only a few more episodes and a few more void incidents and then they'll be getting back together I promise. Don't forget to leave me a review and I'll see you guys tomorrow!_

Chapter 256

* * *

Rowan came out of the void portal she had opened and walked into her father's lab. Around her his gauges were beeping wildly and already he was straightening and looking around for the source of the void activity.

"Behind you," she said and her dad turned around with a big smile.

"Wick! How nice to see you!" he said coming towards her. He opened his arms as if to hug her but they made awkward work out of it. "I was hoping you'd come back to see me soon. No brothers today?"

"No, just me," she said quickly. "I uh… I actually came to say good-bye."

Her father paused and a frown graced his face. "Good-bye," he echoed. "What do you mean, good-bye?"

"Well… uh… I uh… I kind have to leave…"

"If you need me to speak to your brother, Oz, I will," he said sternly. How very astute of him to realize that Oz was calling the shots though, really, it was quite obvious who was in charge.

"No, no, it's nothing to do with you. I uhm… I made a bad choice today and uh… well… we gotta go. I'm sure you've guessed already but uh… my brother's and I… we're kinda not… the good guys you know? So uh… we have the authorities after us and once again I've probably given them the ammunition to find us."

Her father took this in with a blink of his eye. "Yes, I had rather gathered, but I figured Oz and Con to be the criminals and you to be the one that follows them around."

"Well… I mean I guess…"

"Wick you're obviously in trouble. I think it might be best if maybe your brothers left you behind. If you stay here, not only can we continue our progress with learning about your evolving powers, but you'll no doubt be safer."

"You don't understand…"

"No. I believe I do. Whatever incident triggered your first void scare was no doubt engineered by your brothers' less than legal jobs. If you stay here…"

"I can't stay here. I need to go with them," Rowan urged. "You really don't understand…"

"No Rowan. I do. I do understand. You need to be with people who can help you and I can help you," her father cried. She was going to tell him that she had to leave because she had given her position away to her crazy ex who had the power to arrest her and would because he wanted to catch Wo Fat but Rowan was frozen. She forgot to say all of those things because her father hadn't called her Wick he had called her by her name. Her real name.

"What did you call me?" she asked him in a small voice and her father sighed.

"I called you by your name. Rowan. Your name is Rowan. Rowan Pierce."

"You know who I am?" she asked. "Like… who I really am?"

"Of course I know who you are. I pulled you here."

Rowan stood there her mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water. There were so many things she wanted to say, except she couldn't. Not because she couldn't get them out either but because someone swept her aside and then decked her father, hard. Poor Trenton went down like a bag of bricks.

Rowan gasped, dropping to her knees and crouching down beside her father. She spent all of two seconds try to rouse him before she turned her glare up at Conejo who was literally heaving as if he sprinted there. "What the _hell_ Con?!" she cried and his eyes swung to her, panic clearly alit on his face.

"He knew who you were, Rowan!" he shouted back at her. "You said that your family wouldn't know you. That's what you said. You didn't exist, so they don't know who you are! How the hell did he know who you are?!"

Rowan glared at him. "I don't know, Sebastian!" she snapped a scowl dawning on Con's face. He hated it when she called him by his real name, but she was pissed and didn't care at this point. "I could have asked him but _you_ knocked him out!"

Conejo huffed and began to pace back and forth. "We should call Fat."

"No, cause if you do he's going to panic and he's going to tell us to come back."

"ROWAN!" Conejo shouted and she jumped. "You just gave our location to McGarrett and now your father, who seems more interested in doing experiments on you, has just revealed that he knows who you are. Who you really are. Which mean he knew you were his daughter and he put you through all of this anyway!"

Rowan let that sink in. That was true. If he had known all along, why did he put her through such dangerous experiments? Clearly he cared more about the experiment and proving his theories right over her own safety. But then again she wasn't his real daughter.

Her boys were clearly panicked. She had messed up really badly for them today, and they were all obviously both very worried. Firstly because Steve had been made aware of where she was and secondly, well, they had been putting on a brave face but she knew that her void powers kind of scared them a little.

It was time she started thinking of someone other than herself.

"Come on," she said to him, taking a hold of his hand. "Let's go back."

She opened up another door into the door way of the lab. All the readers in the area beeping frantically as she did so and then she guided Conejo through the portal and into the hotel. She took one last look at her father's lab with it's reader's beeping and the gauge needles flying off the charts, her poor father unconscious on the floor, knowing she could never come back.

And then she shut both the door and the portal behind her.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Wo Fat took the whole, Trenton-knows-Rowan's-his-daughter thing really, really well. Like… shockingly well. Rowan expected him to ask more questions. She expected him to be angry at her for voiding over to her father's lab to say goodbye. She expected him to be upset that her father knew who she was, had probably known the whole time. Instead he just blinked his eyes, sighed and said: "Right. We're leaving tonight."

And that's just what they did.

They actually voided to Union Station where Rowan bought three tickets, where they had on and off privileges, for her and her boys. The plan, that she let them in on, was to stop at each and every capital city, spend the day touristing, and then hop on the last train heading out that night and do that until they got to Vancouver.

Neither boy seemed happy with this plan, mainly because that meant lugging two giant suitcases around. She figured there'd be some kind of locker system at the train stations where she could lock them up if they had to. She also informed them that there were certain things she wanted done.

Every capital city in Canada had a giant white sign that spelled out the name of the city. She had a picture of her and the one for Toronto, and she was going to collect all the others. She also wanted to see the museums, have afternoon tea and go horseback riding in each province.

That was a lot. And she knew that. But… well… she really, really wanted to do these things.

She had outlined her plans, told them she planned to research everything while on the train and the two of them just… you know went with it. Granted they rolled their eyes and groaned but that was all the push back she got on the matter.

She had booked them the giant suit on the train. Which included two bunk beds and one single bunk on it's own on the other side of the small compartment and a sky light so she could see the night sky flashing by. They had argued about that single bunk, both boys insisting that Rowan be the one to take it. But Rowan didn't want the single bed, she wanted to be on top bunk watching the stars. So it was agreed that Wo Fat would be on the single and Conejo would take the bottom bunk. And that night, she did all her researching with the stars twinkling above her, as if they were cheering her on. And with her two boys snoring on their bunks below hers she didn't feel as alone as she had earlier that day.

The first stop was not technically in the next province. They stopped in Thunder Bay so Rowan could go horseback riding and to stretch Rowan's cramped legs. There they established that there was nowhere to leave the suitcases. So, Rowan posed Wo Fat with a question, would he be okay if she voided to Vancouver, rented them a hotel room to leave the suitcases in. The answer was… he was not. What they decided on instead was renting a storage unit and having her jump whenever she needed to change. Oh and Conejo had to carry a backpack with her essentials in it.

She figured that was a good compromise so that was what they did.

After renting the storage unit and dropping off Rowan's suitcases and the boy's bags, they went horseback riding at a small little ranch she had found and had already booked with. They were supposed to have an hour on a trail, but Wo Fat got thrown like thirty seconds into the ride. He had been hesitant to even get onto the horse in the first place. Rowan had to hold it's head just so he could get on it, she knew the horse was picking up on his nervous energy, but the man was a Chinese Spy, he couldn't be afraid of horses.

She was wrong.

He was not only afraid, but he didn't like riding them either. He insisted she go on the rest of the ride, but she could also tell that he had hurt his back. She did eventually get to go on hr trail ride, but first she saw to Wo Fat to make sure that he was okay and comfortable before she left him.

It also meant she didn't feel good about putting them back on the train that night. She rented them a room at the nicest hotel that Thunder Bay had to offer and then, between her and Conejo, they made sure that he got both ice and hot treatments for the giant bruise forming on his lower back.

The following morning, they let Wo Fat pick where they ate breakfast and then they got back onto the train.

The next stop was Winnipeg. They found the sign, took the picture, found a little café that offered Afternoon Tea, and Rowan took a million pictures of her boys and their little tea cups and finger sandwiches. They both looked so out of place, the banker in his beautifully pressed grey suit and the biker in his leather jacket.

They spent the rest of the morning wandering around the downtown area going into bookshops and other stores. For the afternoon they rented a car to drive out into the rural area so Rowan could ride more horses. The ranch they went to included an area for Wo Fat to sit, drink coffee and read the raunchy spy novel Rowan had picked out for him at the bookstore, while she and Conejo went horseback riding.

Conejo was a natural on a horse. Rode like it was second nature. But he wouldn't tell Rowan how he had learned.

When she was done with her trail ride, they drove back to the city but before going back to the train, Rowan opened a portal to the storage unit. She picked out the next day's outfit, dropped off the bags of all the stuff she had bought, tossed Conejo and Wo Fat the clothes they wanted for the next day, and then they were back on the train.

And once again, Rowan fell asleep to the great expanse of the night sky going past the window above her and the comfortable snores and exhales of her brothers sharing the cabin with her.

The following morning, they were in Regina. They paused only to change and to have Rowan open another portal to throw their clothes through to the storage unit they had rented. Rowan got her picture with the sign. They once again went for high tea. They found a few book shops for Rowan to wander through.

The boys took Rowan to the Royal Saskatchewan Museum, where they got to smile as they watched her run around like a kid in a toy store. They posed for every and any picture that she asked them be in, but spent most of their time snapping pictures of her.

However, they had lost track of time in the museum, which meant that they would potentially miss out on the next ranch where Rowan's next horseback riding excursion were to happen. They made the executive decision to use a portal to get there, but when they went through both boys realized that their phones had been destroyed.

Rowan had forgotten to tell them about that.

Conejo's was a burner so he didn't care, but Wo Fat's phone was important he was not happy. He had asked where Rowan's phone was, and she had said that she had left hers in the suitcase.

So while Rowan and Conejo went horseback riding, he used the ranch's phone to do research. Apparently, that meant calling her father. Rowan wasn't sure how that went but he got the answer. That answer was a combination of Borosilicate glass and specially tempered metal, like stainless steel.

Wo said that her father was going to whip them up a few phone cases, and that would protect them in the crushing vacuum and electrical currents of the void. Rowan would have loved to know how Wo Fat had managed to convince her father to go along with that one but he didn't feel like sharing so she let it go.

She used the void to get them back to the train station where they boarded their next train to Calgary. There they got a hotel, the two boys threw out their phones and Rowan slept a little bit. She was getting low on void power. Luckily for her, one of the essentials she had packed was the energizer ray.

While they were in Calgary they purchased a disposable camera so Rowan could take pictures. They went for afternoon tea in their hotel restaurant, and then they rented a car for a ride up to Edmonton. Stopping in the mid-afternoon for her third horseback riding trail.

This time, Wo Fat did not have a comfortable place to sit, drink coffee and read the sequel to the raunchy spy novel that Rowan had bought him and he had secretly loved. He said he just wanted to see the conclusion to the plot points that had been left hanging but Rowan knew it was cause he actually liked the book. But he was embarrassed to have liked such an erotic and clearly feminine book so she was perfectly fine with letting him have that, to keep his manliness.

So, Wo Fat stayed in the car, saying he'd read until they came back, while Rowan and Con got to ride. On this trip she found out how he had gotten so good at riding. Turns out he had ended up in a foster home in Texas, and in Texas you learned to ride. It was also his favourite and last foster home. That was the family who had loved him best and they had offered to adopt him on more than one occasion. He had never actually agreed and they had been devastated when he left them for his real mom. He hadn't spoken to them since.

When she got back to the car, Wo Fat was asleep in the driver's seat and both Rowan and Conejo had felt bad about waking him. So instead, they sat in silence until he woke up. He was mad that they hadn't woken him up sooner because he had somewhere he wanted to take her and now they were going to be late again.

It turned out to be the West Edmonton Mall. There she got to shop and he took her onto the Deep Sea Adventure, which was one of Canada's working subs. A lot of use it was sitting in a mall.

Conejo chose to stay on land where it was safe, and Rowan and Wo Fat got to go inside. While they were there he told her all about his time on a Chinese spy sub and what the differences were. She asked how he had liked being underwater, and he said that it was fine, but he was there for months at a time, and he found that he had missed natural sunlight, and things he had previously found silly, like breezes or the rain. Rowan figured she'd go stir crazy in something that small. Wo Fat figured she'd just bump into some important mechanical fixture and sink them all by accident.

Luckily she didn't bump into anything too important when she was on that sub.

After they drove back to Calgary, Rowan took everything they had bought that day, and instead of opening a portal, she threw them to the destination in her mind. She was also made aware that both Wo Fat and Conejo had named her moves. When she took items and just pulsed them to where she wanted to go, they called that throwing. The opening of a portal to travel they called jumping, opening a portal in a door was a hop and when she used the void to bring something to her it was called pulling. Rowan blinked her eyes surprised. She was unaware that her powers had names now but it made her feel a little bit more like a super hero.

They got back onto the train and didn't get off again until they were at their final destination.

Vancouver.

Rowan was only one ferry ride from her home. Not her real home. Not really. But she couldn't help but feel like this was a homecoming for her. And she was more nervous than excited to be there.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

They had rented a room in the Empress for several reasons. One, they were tired and it was the nicest hotel. Two, it was the birth place of high tea, and Rowan loved her high teas. Three, they had a room that could fit all three of them. Four, Wo Fat had standards and he liked the best of the best. Five, Rowan had always wanted to stay there.

You can guess which one of those reason was the most important. (Hint it was number five)

By the time they got to the Empress, and got all of Rowan's luggage, minus her two phones, to the hotel room, Rowan was exhausted. All the touristing, all the jumping from place to place, it was a lot for her. Wo Fat was tired too, Conejo had been spending all his time hovering over her so he was just as tired as her. They all just wanted to sit, or in Rowan's case lie down, and relax.

Rowan tucked herself into her bed and was out like a light. Conejo took a hold of the room service menu and ordered half of it. Wo Fat set up his brand new phone, and was surprised to see that he had gotten a few emails, including one from Kong with the first set of pictures he had requested.

He made the mistake of opening up the attachments while in the common area. He just wanted to see how they did, to see whether or not it looked real. He didn't think Conejo, who was busy wolfing down a burger, half a chicken, and a lobster behind him, would notice.

But then the phone was snatched out of his hand and he knew immediately who had grabbed it. He turned to watch Conejo survey the picture wondering if the Photoshop looked believable enough, if this would trick him. For a long while they both said nothing as Conejo continued to stare at that one picture.

"When did you get this?" he asked, his voice a mere hush.

"Uh… well Kong sent it a few days ago, but uh, with my phone having been crushed in the void, I didn't get it," he said. "I uh… I asked him to look into the phone call Rowan made and why he would lie to her…"

"Cold feet," Conejo whispered. "It must have been… doubts, right?"

Conejo offered the phone back to him and Wo Fat looked down to the picture of Steven and Catherine in wedding attire. Her in a poofy white dress, he in his dress blues. Standing at the end of the aisle, holding hands in front of a minster. They were getting married on a beach. By the looks of it, Conejo believed it to be true so Kong's guy had done a good job. It was whether or not it would trick Rowan that was the problem.

"You can't show her that," Conejo said. "You just… you can't."

"She's the one who wanted to know…"

"No!" Conejo snapped. "I know you think she's strong, Wo, but she's not. And showing her that is going to destroy her so can you just… please."

Wo Fat couldn't help but sigh, he couldn't help it, because he was right. This was going to devastate her. He didn't want to do that, not really, but speaking to Steven, hearing the truth from him, having it conflict with everything that Wo Fat had told her, it had opened up this door. He had no choice but to fabricate a lie that would cover all the truths she had been told.

He could have told her the truth. He could have easily just told her what he did and why. But he was too deep now and he knew, if Rowan knew the truth, she'd want to go back to Steven. She'd go back, he'd take her back and then she'd be so furious with him that he knew it would be the end of their relationship all over again. Until she ended u in another basement like that one and Steve needed Wo Fat's help to get her out.

He couldn't live through another situation like that. He couldn't. He still wasn't over the first one. He wasn't going to let Steven get her into another situation he couldn't save her from. He just wasn't.

"I will try to hold off on giving her the info for as long as I can but you know what she's like, you know how she is when it comes to answers, especially about Steven."

Conejo glared down at the phone again, even though Wo Fat had disengaged the screen. "I know," he whispered. "I just… I just don't want to hurt her more than she's already hurting you know?"

Wo Fat nodded because he got that. He didn't like it any more than Conejo did. He just didn't know what else to do. This was quite the dilemma that Wo Fat had found himself in and he loved his little _imouto_ too much to blame her. So he'd just have to blame Steven instead.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Steve had gotten dressed up for this affair. The Liang's had asked him over for dinner. A week after the event, for a birthday shindig at their place. A family birthday for both he and Nahele that would just be the Liang's and Steven. He had jumped at the chance.

It was a kindness, this invite, it was an olive branch and if it went well it meant more in the future. Steve had to be on his best behaviour which meant not bringing up Rowan as soon as he got there, if at all.

But when he got there, in a pair of grey slacks and his best blue shirt, a bottle of the most expensive wine he could afford in his hand, he found that the place was basically on fire. Or at least whatever meal that had been in the oven was on fire.

And both Nahele and Kong seemed quite… well… calm about the whole situation. Steve rushed to help Brandi put out what was left of the dinner she had made and while he was distracted, either Nahele or Kong ordered food. Apparently this was a common occurrence.

While they were waiting for the food, Kong took Steve to the basement, a separate one from the theater room, where he kept his wine. The whole wine cellar had to be bigger than the living room of Steve's house. Imagine all that space just for wine. Maybe he should have turned to the criminal life after all.

He let Kong take him down the aisles, let him talk to him about wine as if Steve understood any of it, and let him show him where he was going to put Steve's bottle. A place of high importance he claimed, but Steve had a feeling that this was where Kong put all his discount wines.

"I said I wouldn't do this but uh… I had a question to ask… about Rowan."

He's said the words before he knew he was speaking them. Kong turned to him as if he wasn't surprised by the question but just resigned to having it posed to him.

"Alright," he said softly. "So long as it's only one question."

"Well… it might be more than one…" Steve admitted and Kong laughed bitterly at him.

"Yeah, it never is just one question with you is it?' he asked. "Alright, go ahead, ask away."

"Okay!" he said quickly, ready to go before Kong changed his mind. "Uh… I got a call from her on my birthday. 416 number. Do you know where that is?"

"Really?" Kong asked. "You didn't just look."

"No I did…" "Then why are you asking me?" "Cause I want to know if you heard about Wo Fat taking her out of Colombia."

"No, I hadn't heard about that," Kong admitted. "Is this because he took her to Toronto, isn't there where she's from?"

"Well Vancouver, but her father's in Toronto. I was hoping you could tell me if he maybe took her to see him?"

It was a fear, of course, that Wo Fat would take her to her father. Because then Trenton would tell her that Steve had him and her brother deported when they were searching for her. He also still wasn't sure if their motives came from a place of caring or if Rowan was just going to be another experiment after all. Either way, finding out that the 416 number that called him originated from Toronto around the University of Toronto campus where her father worked had been a terrifying revelation.

Kong sighed to him. "Steven, I don't know how many times I have to tell you this but let me try again. Unfortunately I do not get daily updates on Rowan's activities. Not unless something's happened." Steve opened his mouth to remind him about the party they had here with the live stream of Rowan's party and Kong quickly shot him down. "The live stream was Wo Fat's idea and it was for the kid. He contacted me not the other way around. That was the first time I got any sort of update."

Steve shut his mouth quickly and then thought about what he was going to say next.

"Do you happen to know if… if… if he lied to her?"

At this Kong straightened. "What do you mean?"

"Look she called me on my birthday alright," Steve snapped. Something Kong already knew. "And she spoke to me. Like actual words and… and… she thinks I didn't go to Japan to get her. She thinks I told her to stay with Wo Fat and… and… she had no idea what I was talking about when I told her that _she_ was the one who called me and told me to go home."

Kong took a deep breath as he took that in. "Steve… Rowan… when you went looking for her, she was really out of it," he said. "That part I do know. She had skull fractures so bad they had to induce a coma for her to heal. Or you know… that's the rumour anyway."

Despite himself Steve found himself sucking in his breath. He couldn't help it, he still couldn't think of his Rowan that injured, it still hurt him.

"She might not remember calling you," Kong finished. "And she might have jumbled up what Wo Fat had told her, to be fair the first couple months he had her she was on all sorts of meds and you know what she's like on morphine."

Steve nodded he did know what she was like. But he can't help but feel like Kong was lying to him. He definitely knew more about this situation than he was letting on. More than he was allowed to tell Steve.

"Alright," Kong said with a clap of his hands as if that ended the conversation. "Enough talk about Rowan, this night is about you and Nahele, the birthday boys. Shall we join the others?"

The conversation about Rowan was clearly over, for now. Steve was willing to let Kong have this one night, but he was crazy if he thought Steve had let it go. Now that the possibility was in his head he wasn't going to forget it. He just didn't know how he was going to prove that they had been lied to unless Rowan called him back or he found her.


	257. Chapter 257

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: Alright guys, this is unedited at the moment. I'm just trying to get it out ASAP as I'm super behind. I'll put up a proper Author's note about the situation as soon as I'm done editing. For now, please disregard any chunkiness, awkwardness or any major spelling mistakes! I'll deal with is tomorrow morning!_

 _Updated: A/N: Hello my wonderful readers, so here is the edited chapter as requested. I know it took me a while, but luckily this update is coming with a secondary chapter because I finally finished chapter 258. Still, I hope you enjoy the fully edited (to the best of my ability) chapter. Please don't forget to review and read the next chapter._

Chapter 257 (unedited)

* * *

It took a few days, Rowan had wanted to do all sorts of things in Vancouver beforehand, but eventually they made their way over to Victoria on the ferry. Something Conejo had been livid about but eventually put up with for Rowan's benefit.

This was after, of course, they did Afternoon Tea at the Empress. And went to the VanDusen Botanical Gardens, and went horseback riding AGAIN, and whale watching and to the Capilano Suspension Bridge, and took pictures with the Vancouver sign. After they spent a day in Gastown, went to the Vancouver Aquarium, to the Queen Elizabeth park and the Museum of Anthropology.

Essentially, they got onto that ferry once she had run out of things to do in Vancouver, which took at least an extra three days, she had faced one of the biggest decisions in her lifetime.

Continue on the grand round the world vacation, or go to see her childhood home. She chose to go home.

Of course, she knew she wasn't going to her real home, and was actually just going to the house of her mother, which was, in her reality, the house she lived in with her family. The plan was just to look at the house, just imagine that she could go inside and pretend she was going home, it wasn't possible of course. But once she was standing outside of the house she used to call her home she couldn't just stand there and only look at it.

Conejo had confirmed that her mother had left for one of her conferences and if she was right, if this version of her mother stayed true to the version that Rowan knew, then she knew exactly where her mother hid the spare key for Trevor, who lost his keys constantly. She skipped up to the front step, got up on her very tippy toes and reached up to move a wooden panel aside. It took some fumbling as it was designed for Trevor who was much taller than her, but she finally got the key out. She used it to unlock the front door, then she put they key back and together all three of them entered the house.

Once she was in the house, however, she stopped. She stood there, staring at everything around her, and as she did, Wo Fat stayed by her side, as per usual. While Conejo went towards the fridge… also as per usual.

It didn't look anything like her house. Okay, the living room did because that had always been her mom's room, but it everything else was completely different. It was like the style of the living room had taken over the whole house making everything so much more sleek. Her house had never been this empty before. But then again, her father, Trevor and her had always cluttered the place.

She walked around slowly with Wo Fat following her as Conejo helped himself to a can of coke and dug through the pantry where he then pulled out a sheaf of cookies.

"It's not the same is it?" Wo Fat whispered, no doubt sensing her distress.

"No," she whispered. "I mean… that makes sense. Things change. I'm not… this isn't my home. I… I don't have a home anymore."

Wo Fat bowed his head. "I'm sorry," he whispered to her, as if he were the one who took her home away. But it wasn't his fault Steven didn't want her nor was it his fault that she wasn't in her own reality with her own home. He seemed to think for a moment before he said: "You can have a home with me. No matter where I go… you can always have a home with me."

It shocked her to hear that come from him but in the nicest way possible. The offer, the offer alone was enough to make her heart swell with happiness. He had never had much, had never had his own real home, or family and here he was, offering up something she knew both of them wanted more than anything. Essentially telling her that as long as she was with him, they'd be home, they'd be family. It was enough to almost mend that broken heart of hers.

She turned away from him so he wouldn't see the tears and her eyes and spotted something on the mantle that she recognized.

"MR. BUNS!" Rowan cried rushing forward. She knew she shouldn't have pulled the little white bunny was in a decorative case but she couldn't help it. She picked up the protective glass case and took the rabbit out and clutched it to her chest before putting it straight into Wo Fat's face. "Look it's Mr. Buns!"

Wo Fat stared at the soft plush white Rabbit like it was a dirty dishrag. "How… nice?"

"Shut up," she scowled at him. "This was my favourite toy. I got it when I was born, it went with me everywhere and I never got rid of him. I mean he's grey now… was grey… at home he's grey… but I loved this rabbit."

"Looks like your mom kept it for you," Wo Fat said turned back to the display case. "Rowan Hazel Peirce. January 21st 1986. Forever our Angel," he read off the plaque. He glanced back to Rowan who was cuddling with the rabbit again. "Well I guess that explains why you like Con so much."

"Hmm?" Con asked coming into the living room mouth full of cookies.

Rowan showed him the rabbit. "This is Mr. Buns, I got him when I was born."

"Mmm" he said with a nod washing down the cookies with his pop. "Emil had one of those, his was a giraffe. He loved that thing."

"Who?" Wo Fat asked but both Con and Rowan ignored him. Con because his mouth was once again filled with cookies and Rowan because she was snuggling with her Mr. Buns. He realized he wasn't going to get an answer from her, and with a heavy sigh just changed the topic.

"Well… I mean… if you're so attached to the thing, why don't we take it and go?" he asked. Rowan shot him a glare and he shrugged. "Fine. How about you show me where your room is… was?"

But Rowan didn't want to see what her room was now. Seeing as it wouldn't be her room at all. This was all just… too much for her. She thought seeing her home would make her feel better, but it didn't because it wasn't her home. The observatory wasn't there, her room wouldn't be there either. The house was empty and it didn't have a single thing that reminded her of home. This place wasn't hers. This place was essentially… hollow.

She shook her head and Wo Fat nodded. He didn't press her for a reason he just took her answer at face value. Sometimes she hated that about him, but at that moment, and most of the time for that matter, she loved it. Wo Fat wasn't about the facing of one's darkest demons if one didn't want to, so he rarely pressed her when she gave short but uncharacteristic answers like that.

"Kay, do we wanna blow this popsicle stand?" Conejo asked, pocketing the cookies.

Wo Fat's eyes narrowed at the question as if he didn't understand it. He very often misunderstood references and slang like that, usually took them way too literally. She figured because he had a deprived childhood and slang was different in China where he grew up. But Rowan was focusing on Conejo.

"Are you stealing cookies? What is wrong with you?"

"I'm hungry, I'll eat them on the go," he said with a shrug.

She shook her head but the argument didn't progress past that because the front door opened and closed and that was them, caught. Rowan stood there in the living room, noting that while Wo Fat had paused, pivoting as if to block Rowan from view, Conejo had backed away, back into the kitchen and out of sight.

Rowan briefly thought about ducking behind one of the white couches, but ultimately thought against it. It wouldn't hide them for long after all.

Her mother turned the corner and found them there and she paused. She looked them both over and blinked her eyes. "Are you… you…" her eyes narrowed in on the stuffed rabbit in Rowan's arms. "That's not yours."

By all means the woman should have been shocked or startled to find intruders in her house, but instead her face was painted with anger… Rowan knew that look was coming before it even graced her mother's face. And her mother was the kind of person to stare down two possible burglars without flinching. So she wasn't surprised when her mom crashed towards them.

"You can take anything else. But you drop that right this instant."

Wo Fat got in between them immediately, shielding Rowan from her mother. Rowan dropped her hold on Mr. Buns as directed without a second thought.

"I'm sorry," she said. She watched her mom stoop down to pick Mr. Buns up as Wo Fat easily ushered her aside. "I'm sorry, we're leaving. I'm sorry."

Rowan kept a tight grip on Wo Fat and his suit jacket, desperate to pull him away from her mother before he did something to her. She didn't think he just lash out at her out of nowhere, but she knew her mother well enough to know that she could lash out unpredictably, and she knew Wo Fat well enough to know that if someone takes a swing at him he'll take a swing back… and his swing won't miss.

She held onto Mr. Buns for a moment before she turned her eyes up to them again. "Wait… I know that voice."

"No you don't," Rowan said quickly though she really should have just shut up.

"Yes I do… Wick? Is that you? And this is… well judging by the burns… I'd say, Oz? Your eldest brother, correct?" she asked. Wo Fat turned a dry glare onto her silently asking her why the hell she had described him to her mother.

Rowan just stared at her with a mouth dropped open in shock. "No. I don't know what you're talking about."

"Nonsense. I've been talking to you every week for almost a month," her mother said. "I know you've been raised on the wrong side of the law, but we agreed to phone calls as you couldn't make yourself available to come in person and now you've broken in, and you're touching my things. Things that are very important to me."

"I don't… I'm not…"

But her mother had more to say. The only reason she didn't get to say any of it was because Conejo had snuck up behind her and essentially pistol whipped the back of her head. While Wo Fat seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, Rowan let out a cry of dismay.

"Con!" she cried, going to her fallen mother's side.

She had more to yell at him for, but instead Wo Fat grabbed her arm and pulled her up. "You can yell at him back at the hotel, come on, let's go."

Rowan let him drag her away, she had managed to check her mom's pulse and she would live, though she knew that, when Wo Fat wasn't looking, she'd call an ambulance in to check on her mom. And when both of them weren't looking Conejo paused, simply to scoop something.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Trevor's life was hell.

Literal absolute fucking hell.

The burn on his arm had healed nicely, he now would forever be branded as the Stepanov's property. Even if he managed to buy himself free, everyone would know exactly who he belonged to.

And then he became the look out. The caser. The one who went into the bank that the Stepanov twins were looking to rob. He sweet talked tellers, he got schematics and blue prints, and he waited in the car to report suspicious activity outside while Roman's hand picked crew went in and stole all the cash out of the vault.

So far, though he felt quite guilty about it, it hadn't actually gone that bad. They only shot their guns for attention and to keep people in line, bullets were in ceilings and ceilings alone. No one had gotten hurt but it was only a matter of time. And he knew that.

He had tried to act as all of this was normal, but he knew it wasn't. He was criminal and it wasn't sitting with him well. He jumped at every siren and generally avoided going out.

He stopped hanging out with friends, he drank more, he gambled even more. He tried to use work as a crutch but it was hard when he was usually hung over. He thought going with his contestant for her competition would distract him, would help him, but the Stepanov's had other plans and instead followed him to the city and made him case another bank. He hadn't wanted to, but then they threatened to break his legs again, so he did as they asked. But things got wild when they told him that someone had dropped out last minute, couldn't travel up to Manitoba with them. That meant he had to go into the bank. He had struggled, argued, reminded them that he had no training which was why he did all the casing, but they were adamant and he got forced into the job after all.

And it was that heist that went wrong.

It was that heist where Roman Stepanov actually shot everyone who moved. Starting with the cop that was in the bank, by pure chance, who was making a move to stop him. The he shot the security guards, three by-standers and one teller.

The cop died.

They had decided to lay low but earlier that month they had decided that they had gotten away with it. It was out of province after all. No one was going to suspect that the same crew pulling heists in BC had branched out to Manitoba.

When they changed their minds they demanded his presence again. Trevor had been ignoring their calls, however. He missed the next meeting for the next heist. He was getting messages from both Roman and Irina about wanting him to come in, reminders that they owned him and he didn't have a choice.

Trevor threw himself into his work, he avoided leaving his house other than to go out for work and supplies, and ignored his phone. His friends and family were all trying to get a hold of him, but he was too ashamed to face them, so he had essentially cut all contact.

But then his dad called every day for a week, leaving breathless messages for Trevor to come back. After one message that simply said: _It's an emergency_ , he finally picked up one of his dad's calls and got the shock of a lifetime.

Rowan was in Toronto. Or well… more aptly had been in Toronto.

She had left Hawaii and come to visit their father for some reason. His dad reported that she was now travelling with two men, to obvious criminals, that she called her brothers, though neither of them looked like her. She was calling herself Wick instead of Rowan, and claimed to have broken up with a controlling law enforcement officer who was still after her so he could arrest her eldest brother Oz.

Oh and she had magical fucking powers.

Why that wasn't the first thing his father thought to tell him, why that was a second thought was completely beyond him.

She could manipulate the void, travel through white spaces. Throw objects, deflect bullets, and pull people to her… like McGarrett. All a side effect of being pulled from one reality too another, something made possible when her version of Trevor shot her with an energizing ray.

Trenton had gone on to tell him of all the experiments. How Rowan could open the void by it affected McGarrett back in Hawaii and hurt her. How, once she was energized everything came easy to her. Though she did have an incident where she got shot, sort of, but came out of that incident not shot. That was the incident that pulled McGarrett to her, which proved that this was the same Rowan that they had been looking for in Hawaii, and was the girl that McGarrett had hidden from them.

Despite the DNA test that she had failed he was certain that she was their Rowan. Their DNA wouldn't match, his father said, because she was from a different reality, she was from a different family. In his mind it made sense but Trevor didn't quite get it.

He had tried to pay attention to the conversation but he didn't know why any of this mattered if Rowan had vanished with her two evil brothers.

But only a few days after that conversation with his father he got a message from a hospital saying his mother had been admitted for a head injury and that the cops had been called for a break in.

Trevor had rushed to Victoria General to see his mother and found her sitting in the hospital bed, going between crying and snarling. She was livid and she was very upset. Not a good combo.

"Hey! Mom!" he cried entering the room. "What the hell happened?"

She looked up at him, opened her mouth and then closed it as if deciding not to tell him certain aspects which was also exactly like her mother. "I… well… I got robbed and they snuck up behind me…"

"Okay… what did they get?"

"Not of extrinsic value…"

"Mom, they got something, you're crying…"

"They took the stuffed rabbit," his mother snapped and Trevor paused. "Okay? I'm upset because they took her bunny."

"Rowan's bunny? Why would anyone break into your place, nobble you, and then steal a stuffed bunny?"

"I don't know," his mother said with a huff but Trevor had an feeling that she was holding something back. He sat down on the edge of her bed and put a hand out to hers.

"Come on mom," he said softly. "You can tell me."

"It's silly," she said. "I was so stupid…"

"Kay just spit it out, mom…"

She sighed aggressively and finally opened up. "New year's… new year's came and I had this girl call. She was… she sounded basically desperate for help. She… she couldn't come in to speak to me, she wasn't living in our country, but she needed someone to talk to to help her through some traumatic experiences… and… well… I agreed to help her."

"Why couldn't she come to speak to you?" Trevor wondered.

"She's a criminal, or well… her oldest brother is though I'm thinking from her stories that her second oldest brother is as well but uh… they're obviously living off the grid," she said.

Two older brothers were criminals? Why did that sound familiar? "How did she uh… know about you?"

"She said she was a fan," her mother said with a shrug but Trevor had a feeling he knew where this was going.

"It was her and her brothers who broke in," he finished for her.

"Yes," she said with a sigh. "I recognized her voice. I surprised them in the house. She and, I assume, her eldest brother Oz."

"How do you know?"

"She mentioned he had been in a helicopter accident and he had burns. The man she was with… half his face has burns." Trevor nodded. Okay that was fair, though Oz was the same name as Rowan's eldest evil fake brother as well, and he was starting to see more and more similarities between the two.

"They already had the bunny out of the case when I got in there, but she had given it back to me… and then… someone hit me over the head, I'm guessing her second oldest brother, and when I woke up the bunny was gone."

She swiped away a single tear away and Trevor sighed. He knew how his mother was about Rowan's bunny but he had a feeling he knew exactly why that stuffed bunny had been stolen.

"Did you tell the police?"

"Of course I did, but I don't know their real names. I only know the codenames she gave me. Wick, Oz and Con," she said and Trevor's breath left his body cause those were the names that Rowan and her brother's went by in Toronto with Trenton.

But the last time he brought up Rowan and the experiment he and his dad had performed she had refused to believe him and instead threatened to throw him into an asylum. So he wasn't too comfortable bringing it up again.

"Okay well… maybe with their descriptions they'll… I unno… find them. It's not like there's a lot of burned guys in Victoria, you know?" he offered but his mother just shrugged.

He took a chair beside his mother and held her hand until she was good to be released. When they were good to go, he took her home with the plans to stay with her until she felt better. There was no damage, no sign of a break in, nothing had been moved, and nothing had been taken or broken. Nothing except the rabbit and they hadn't even broken the container that held the bunny, they had simply removed it. What kind of robbers where that considerate?

The ones who knew where the family's hidden key was, the ones who were just there to… well… visit. Rowan hadn't wanted to steal anything she had just wanted to come home.

Damn, Rowan was fucking fearless, she was running around with two criminals breaking into houses and basically doing and taking whatever the hell she wanted. So… like… why couldn't he be like that?

He was emboldened by his sister's bravery. So, after his mother went to bed, he pulled out his phone and called back the Stepanov's, getting Roman on the first ring.

"You got some balls, Pierce, you do. You better have a goddamn good reason for going radio silent for as long as you have," he growled.

"I do. I quit," Trevor told him and there was a very long lengthy pause.

"Oh, you really _do_ have some balls Pierce!"

"Yes, I do," he said though he didn't quite feel like it. "I'm sure we can reach some kind of agreement or payment plan, but I'm not doing any more heists, alright. I'm done. That's it."

Roman seemed to think this over before saying: "You're still not getting this, I am not a damn bank. And unless you've forgotten I own you. So you're going to…"

"No, I'm not and here, let me tell you why. I have the gun," Trevor snapped and Roman went silent. It was a gamble, telling him that he had the gun that Roman had used to kill all those people in Manitoba, because he was supposed to get rid of it. He hadn't because he knew, somewhere down the line that he'd need it, and that it would be his ticket out. He just didn't think he'd ever use it. "I have the gun and a sheaf of proof that you and your sister are behind these heists and I am _not_ about throwing myself down in front of the cop bus if it gets rid of you people. So fucking try me, bitch. Run your heist without me, figure out a payment plan or I'm taking us all down, you hear me! You got till tomorrow to decide!"

And then he hung up his phone. He felt liberated, he felt brave and, well, wonderful. He should have done this forever ago. But he wasn't sure if this was the best move, he would just have to see how the Stepanov's responded to his threats.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

The following morning Rowan, who had spent the night crying and sulking and refusing to talk to her boys after the disastrous meeting with her mother, decided that today was going to be a happy day. Which meant she was going to do something fun, something that would make her happy.

She was on her own now, when it came to her mental health, because she would not be able to go to her mother after what happened. Her mother had recognized who she was, just by the voice, her mother had always known her voice. And now, now that they had broken in and attacked her, there was no way she could call her mom and ask for more therapy. Which meant, everything that Rowan had learnt up until now was going to have to do.

She announced to her brothers that she would be going to GR Pearkes Rec center for skating. There was no discussion, no itinerary to give them, just that she was going and that was it. Both of them were surprised, of course, firstly because she hadn't spoken to either of them since Con had knocked her mom unconscious and secondly because she was deviating from the plan. They were supposed to visit a few local places from her childhood, spy on her best friend Sarah and her daughter Evolet and then the following day they were supposed to leave. Finally make their way back to Europe to do all the parts that Rowan had missed out on because of the Colombia detour.

They got into the Audi that Wo Fat had rented because there was no way that they were going to be taking the bus around the city, and he drove them up to the rec center. It was there that Rowan got another surprise, because the skate schedule wasn't the same there and that meant she showed up and she wasn't allowed on the ice.

She had shot a crestfallen look to Wo Fat who merely huffed at her and went in search of an arena manager. She wasn't certain what he said or what he paid, but he came back twenty minutes later and she was suddenly allowed to skate despite them being adamant that they needed 2 weeks before they were allowed to book out permits and there was no way they could just purchase the ice time right at that moment.

Rowan wasn't about to argue either, so she left her boys to get comfortable on the stands with their little Tim Hortons cups of hot chocolate while she got her skates on and got onto the ice as quickly as she could.

This was her arena. This was where Rowan and Trevor would practice. It was where they taught lessons and became legends on the ice. This was where she spent most of her childhood, this was her life. She knew this ice inside and out, she knew it better than her own home.

Skating here, the familiar blur as she whirled around rink, it was like she had finally found her way home.

She had been lost, lost to the music, lost to the possibilities. Even if she was somewhere else, there was always going to be the ice and the blur, and in that blur, she knew her two boys were always going to be there. And maybe, even with everything gone, changed and different, so long as her boys stayed wit her, she'd be okay.

"Hey!"

The voice cut through the music she was listening to, so abruptly that she couldn't help but freeze at the sound of it. Rowan stopped spinning and almost lost her footing. Across the arena she could see Conejo and Wo Fat suddenly on their feet. She should have skated away but she couldn't. She had recognized the voice immediately and it was the only family member she hadn't managed to see yet on this trip. She blinked her eyes as she stared at Trevor, her older brother, standing across from her, waving her over.

For a moment she was certain that he recognized her but, how could he, in this world he had never had a sister. Then again her father knew who she was, but Trevor had always been a skeptic would he have believed their father's claims of her being his dead sister?

Maybe… maybe she could farm him for information Sarah and whether or not Evolet was sick. Talking to him couldn't hurt, right?

Rowan glided over to him feigning confusion. "Hey, I'm sorry," she said to him. "I was told I was allowed to skate… I was only practicing…"

"Yeah, no, that's fine. You're, uh, you're quite good," he said as she got closer, his eyes running up and down her, blinking rapidly. He had this smile on her face, his excited one. She wondered why he was looking at her like that. "Where did you get that routine?"

"Oh uh… that was just free skating…"

"No it wasn't. That was a practiced and rehearsed routine. I know, because I choreographed a routine… JUST like that," he said. "So how did you get it?"

Rowan shook her head. "Aw come on now Trevor…"

"So… you know who I am?"

"Course, everyone knows Trevor Pierce," she said with what she hoped was lowered blushing gaze to look more like a fan. Trevor did not look impressed.

"Uh-huh…" he said looking down to her black skates before turning his eyes back up to her. "So uh… the piece I choreographed was too… hard for anyone to skate… it was made for someone smaller but with my skill…"

Rowan couldn't help but scoff because Trevor, while good had never been able to skate as well as her.

"What's funny?"

"Nothing," she said quickly because there's no way to tell him how she would know that.

Trevor looked away and then back at her. His eyes seemed to soften. "There's really only one way you could have known that routine so well,"

"I didn't steal it…"

"Course not, I thought it up like a week a go, it's just sketches in a book right now," he snapped. "You see, I've been watching you for a while and you're… you're doing a lot of moves that I know you wouldn't be able to do unless you had the physics formulas and I doubt any of my dad's friends just up and did them for you. That means that you couldn't possibly be able to skate that routine."

"I don't know what you're…"

"You see, as I said, I designed that routine for someone with my skill, my physics formulas but for a female girl and I had someone in mind. You're my sister, aren't you? You're Rowan Pierce."

Holy. Shit.

He knew her name. Rowan's mouth fell open, how did he know? How did he even know she was here let alone alive? A smile stretched over his face at her reaction but he didn't get to say anything because no sooner had he confirmed who she was had someone knocked him over the head.

Wo Fat stood behind him watching Trevor's body slump to the ground and Rowan cried out in horror. "WO!" she shouted at him as he stared at her with angry confusion. "STOP HITTING MY FAMILY!"

Wo Fat just stared at her clearly hurt and offended that she would yell at him. She sighed aggressively. "Why did you do that?

"Why did I do that? Rowan that man knows you're _real_ name!"

"Of course he does, this is TREVOR!"

"Wait what?" Conejo said popping up, he had already grabbed Trevor's ankles as Wo Fat went for his wrists, which meant that they were going to drag him somewhere. But the second Rowan confirmed his identity Conejo dropped him. "I thought your family didn't know you were here. If you're supposed to be dead how does he _and your father_ know who you are?"

"I don't know, I didn't get to ask him now did I?" Rowan snapped. Conejo and Rowan turned their eyes onto Wo Fat who scowled at them both.

"He knew her name. I panicked," Wo Fat snapped. "And don't you look at me like that either," he pointed at Conejo. "I'm not the one who knocked her father sideways when he announced he knew who Rowan was."

"He knew who she was. _I panicked_." Conejo sighed and then he turned a dark glare to her. "In fact… you're whole family has recognized you. _You_ were the one who said that they wouldn't!"

"Now wait a second," Rowan snapped, skating towards the door to get out off of the ice. She stomped over to them, quite comically as she was still in her skates. She came to a stop by Trevor's feet while she glared up at bout Conejo and Wo Fat. "I have no idea how my father or Trevor knew who I was, but my mom recognized me as Wick. So… you know… she doesn't know I'm her daughter she knows me as a client."

"She still recognized you," Conejo muttered but Wo Fat, ever the pragmatic one, went straight to business.

"Well we can't leave him here," he said. He then turned to her. "You skated her when you were young, where do we stash him?"

Rowan thought for a moment. "Well… uh… he should have an office here," she said. "If he uh… if he's a coach which I think he is."

She bent down and rooted through his pockets until she found his keys. It didn't take long for her to find them either. "Yep, here it is. The uh… the office is just up there," she said pointing them towards a room that had a lot of windows, was on the second floor and over looked the arena.

Conejo groaned. "Of course it's the second floor. Let me guess no elevator?"

Rowan shook her head and the two of them sighed. "Come on, I'll grab his hands, you go for the feet," Wo Fat offered and though he very clearly didn't want to Conejo still went to the feet and picked them up.

Immediately Rowan sat herself down to get her skates off, watching as the two men struggled to pick up Trevor and drag him away. She sensed a lot of hostility from Wo Fat about this, she already knew that he didn't really like Trevor, from her stories, and she sort of didn't trust him not to drop him purposely to hurt him further. But it was because she was watching him very closely that she noticed the strange pinkness on Trevor's upper arm, made visible when Wo Fat grabbed his arm to hoist him up.

"Hey, wait," she said jumped to her now socked feet. Both boys ignored her so she rushed forward.

"Stop, stop, stop, stop," she said swatting them both aside. Trevor dropped to the ground but Rowan didn't care about that right now. She peeled Trevor's jacket sleeve back forcing it up his arm to reveal what she was afraid she saw.

"No," she whispered in horror.

"Is that… is that a brand?" Conejo asked.

It was. And she recognized the design. The Stepanov family crest.

The Stepanov's had her brother.


	258. Chapter 258

Rewrite

 **AvalonReeseFanFics**

 _A/N: And Hello my wonderful readers. So this update is coming on Monday (today) and I'm sorry but last week is getting two updates. I'm going to try to get us up to three updates a week, but it might be less than that. I still haven't finished typing up Chapter 259, I'm really struggling, I've hit a real block and I'm dead tired and honestly between work, school and co-op I have no time to write. I'm going to try my best, but as I said, we might be getting less than three updates a week. I hope that's still okay. Please tell me when you review._

Chapter 258

* * *

Rowan paced back and forth and Wo and Conejo watched her do it. Upon realizing that Trevor was in quite a bit of trouble, the ditched the abandoning him in the arena office plan and moved onto a secondary one. They had put the unconscious body of her brother in the trunk of their Audi and then back to his apartment. He hadn't moved, same place as she remembered. Even remembered where he hid his spare key.

Once they were inside Rowan couldn't avoid the questions that were going to come up from her two boys.

She had been forced to explain to them what the mark had meant to her and why she was so upset to see it on her brother. She finally told them the truth about the Professional scam. About being blacklisted at all major gambling houses in Vegas and half of the East Coast of Canada. About Trev's gambling problem. About the Stepanov's recruiting her as a get away driver. About the accident that killed her career.

At that point she segued away from the conversation to confirm that it was the accident that derailed her chance at the Olympics the first time, and that her travelling to this universe had derailed her last chance to get there. She also had to explain how her career, specifically her choice to go solo, had impacted Trevor's already existing gambling addiction, before getting back to the point of this whole twisted saga.

She told them about the Stepanov's, about her problems with Irina. About how the crash, the accident that ended her skating career, was done purposely. About how that crash killed everyone in the car except her. About how she had been conscious before they got her out of the wreck, something she hadn't really told anyone. She told them about witness protection, about Irina stabbing her, about Trevor and Malcolm and how they got together because Rowan annoyed Malcolm into essentially coming out. But most importantly, she explained that Trevor only got out from under the Stepanov's because of her.

It was a lot of information to throw at Wo Fat and Conejo and both of them were kind of just sitting there in shock over it. she waited to see if they had any more questions and when they finally seemed to be done asking them, she said: "We have to do something."

"Well I don't see how, or why we have to? He's not really your brother, you know," Wo Fat reminded her. It was easy to tell that Wo Fat was… well… jealous.

Rowan hit him with a dark glare. "The whole thing that saved him from this was the fact that I could drive. He doesn't have me, so what's going to happen huh? I know he can't pay his debts. He'll be chopped up."

"So, we pay his debts. We find out how much it is and we pay his debts," Conejo told her with a shrug. He had just finished going through the fridge and was now going through the pantry. Damn why was he always hungry? "Easy."

"Not easy. They're greedy people. I give them money, they'll want more. I need them off him, I need them to know he's untouchable. I need him to be safe."

Wo Fat nodded, clearly he understood what the Stepanov's were like, probably because he was like them himself, but he still said: "But he is _not_ your real brother."

"Neither are you," Rowan cried. "I'd do it for you, I'd do it for Conejo, hell I'd do it for Steve and he chose Catherine instead of me! We are going to save my brother, you got me? Now help me figure out a way to do that."

Wo Fat sighed, looked very hard at the girl he called his sister, as If weighing the pros and cons of this. He hadn't ever said _no_ to her before but maybe this was thing that got him, maybe this was when he'd stop pandering to her. Instead, after thinking long and hard about it, holding her quivering blue gaze with his calm unwavering dark brown one, he said: " Fine. Here's what we should do…"

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Electricity crackled all throughout the room and everything electric in the small back office of the garage died in an instant. A portal opened and Rowan, Wo Fat and Conejo stepped out of the void and into the room. Immediately Conejo found himself looking around, his eyes narrowed as if he were expecting something, instead Rowan slapped his shoulder and they all started moving.

Rowan and Wo Fat went to the desk, Conejo went to the door, opening it a crack to look out of it.

"Okay, so… uh… last time I went through this he had everything in a little green flip book, you know like a receipt pad, it uh… it says _For Fox Sake_ on it," she said. Wo Fat turned to her, at the door Conejo turned to her too. "What? He thought it was funny!" she cried though she didn't know why she was justifying it for him. "Oh, just go back to looking."

Conejo turned back to the door for all of two seconds before he let it go and moved towards the monitors by the wall. Four TVs were sitting there, normally they'd be playing feeds of the garage, it was so the Stepanov's could have their meetings in the back but still know what was going on outside. They were nothing but static at the moment though.

"I thought you said this was CCTV footage," Conejo whispered. It helped that Roman and Irina hadn't moved their headquarters. It was still in the garage of the dirtiest mechanic in town. He'd chop your car apart and sell it back to you piecemeal. He was who Rowan would take the cars she got from the Professional scam she ran. It was actually how Trevor met Roman Stepanov in the first place. The mechanic put them in touch when Trevor mentioned he needed more money to gamble. Up until that point, though, neither Pierce sibling had bumped into Roman before, despite being in that garage quite often.

He was also the mechanic who vouched for Rowan when Trevor told them that she was the better driver of the two and that she'd be down to help them in return for not breaking her brother's legs.

But now was not the time to get into that.

"It's supposed to be," she said with a shrug.

Conejo fiddled with the TVs for a little longer. Long enough to get someone else's attention. "What are you doing?" Wo Fat asked stopping from his search to brace himself on the desk and glare at him.

"Well… these are all fried," he said. "The uh… the clock on the wall isn't working anymore either."

"Okay? So?"

"Well try the computer on your desk, does it turn on?" Conejo asked.

Wo Fat indulged him and then shook his head. "So, everything in this office is crap so what?"

"Okay, hey, I've been noticing somethings, and I think I got a theory."

At that point both Rowan and Wo Fat stopped. Wo Fat sighed, clearly frustrated while Rowan just glared at him. This was not the time for theories. "Okay, call me crazy, but remember at the hotel? Every time Rowan would void in and out of it, our TV would stop working, as would the fridge and the clock, right?"

Wait… it had? Rowan turned to Wo fat. "Yeah so?"

"And the trip through the void killed our phones."

Okay that part she knew. "Get to the point please," Rowan snapped.

"I think her void shit takes out electronics," Conejo said. Rowan blinked her eyes and Wo Fat did the same. "Like, if she opens up a portal it messes with the electrical field and takes out everything electronic in the area."

Rowan turned to Wo Fat. She wasn't sure what to do with that information, let alone how to figure out whether or not it's true. Wo Fat merely scowled at Conejo. "As fascinating as this is, I really, really need you to watch the damn door, do you think you can do that? We can figure out the void shit later, let's just try to not get caught trying to steal from these people."

Conejo huffed but did as he was told shuffling back to the door, opening it a crack to keep watch out of it.

It took a few more seconds but after a furtive search they turned up the book, taped to the bottom of a drawer.

Wo Fat tugged it loose and then looked it over. "That was a very uninspiring place to hide something this thick…"

"Yeah, he's really not the brains, his sister is… and if we're lucky she'll still be at home in the motherland," she told him snatching the book out of his hands and flipping through it until she spotted her brother's name.

But the number in the red column wasn't anywhere close to the number she was thinking she'd find.

"Holy shit!" she groaned and Wo Fat took the book.

"24 mill?" he read out. "Rowan!"

"Whoa, this kid has a serious gambling issue," Conejo snapped. "How much did he owe when you did this when you were home?"

"Like… 3 mill," she whispered. "But I… when he couldn't pay the first time… they just came to me right away… he always came to me when he got himself into something he couldn't smile his way out of…"

Wo Fat stared at her for a second. "And he was your _older_ brother."

Rowan turned a glare to him. "Stop throwing shade, we don't need it right now, okay?" she ordered and he sighed. He let Rowan sweep everything off the table even though both boys winced at the loud noise it made. She was originally going to uncover the calendar taped below the cluttered desk, piece but piece but she was too angry and too frazzled to care about being subtle now. Rowan looked over the calendar on the table. She knew his codes she knew what everything meant. She copied it down on a piece of paper before pocketing it.

"Kay I got it," she said to them both. "Next heist in three days, but he should be racing tonight."

"Good," Wo said. "Kong got us the info on the Stepanov's and their crew. Conejo is going to deal with the driver, make sure that he can't make it. I'll sit on your brother, you go to the race with Con once he's done with the driver, he won't recognize Con but he might recognize me."

"We got people coming," Con hissed rushing back to them. "Jump now, plan later."

Rowan nodded, opened up another portal and calmly the three of them walked in before Roman could come into the room leaving no evidence that they had been there except for the destroyed desk, the missing book and the fried electronics.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Trevor woke up to his head pounding and someone moving around his apartment. He couldn't remember much except that he had _found_ his sister and then been brutally attacked. He had a feeling that Rowan would still be hanging around, he figured she was there to visit her old home. He had a feeling the arena would be another place she'd want to visit, if she were like him she'd either have spent a lot of time there watching him skate or skating herself. He was very happy to see that she was a skater just like him, but he even he could see that she was well… better than him.

He put a hand to the back of his head before getting up. He figured, since he had gotten home, that someone had come and found him unconscious at the rink and brought him home. He figured that it was Sarah. There was no way that she would have left Evolet unattended. So, the TV going was probably one of Evolet's annoying kid's shows. There was no reason to expect that someone else was in his apartment.

So, he was rather surprised when, instead of his best friend and his god-daughter, he found a rather attractive Asian looking male in a nice suit, with his feet up on his coffee table, drinking fancy alcohol in a fancy glass he swore he didn't own.

Trevor stared at him as he lounged on Trevor's couch.

"Uh…. Hi?" Trevor asked and the man turned to him. Half his face was covered in burns and just like that he wasn't as attractive anymore

"Morning!" he said and then looked down to his watch. "Well… evening actually."

"Uh… kay… who are you…"

"Not important," the guy taking another sip of his drink. He clocked Trevor's narrowed stare and sighed. "If it'll make you feel better you can call me Oz."

Oh my god. Oz. Rowan's Oz. This was her older brother. And yeah, he could see why his dad was threatened by him, the man oozed deadliness. He was going to have to be careful what he said to him.

"Okay…" Trevor said carefully and then asked: "So why are you in my apartment… Oz?"

"Because I've been told to sit on you until further notice. So, you better not run, because I'm ready to keep you secure with the most extreme of measures."

Trevor blinked his eyes. Oh god it was the Stepanovs they had sent someone to watch him to make sure he didn't snitch on them for their next heist. But they had sent… Rowan's older brother? Oh god they must have known one another. Maybe… maybe if he got to Rowan, he could get them to flip sides.

"No, now wait a second," he whispered. "I was bluffing… it was just to get them off my back… I'm not gonna say shit. I promise."

The man nodded. "That's wonderful and I'm sure if I worked for them, I'd care," he said.

"You don't work for the Stepanovs?"

"No. I work for no one except myself," he said. "And luckily for you I've decided to help you."

"Help me? Why?"

"I unno, my sister likes you," he said with a shrug. Well that didn't sound like it was Oz's decision to help him. "And she's decided that we're gonna clear up your debts, all you have to do is stay here. And I'm to make sure that you do."

SHE DID?! Rowan had sent him. Rowan had sent him to help. Oh god, yes, this was great. A step in the right direction. Trevor went to sit down beside him but one single glare from Oz sent him skittering back.

"I uh… I'm going to go shower," he said while Oz continued to stare at him with an unimpressed glare on his face.

"You do what you gotta do," he said to him, clearly not interested in him. Trevor walked away, heading for the shower, stopping first at his room to grab his phone only to find out that his phone was gone. That meant Oz had it.

There was obviously a plan here, he just wished he knew what it was. And he hoped that Rowan would come back so he could get to know her, because at the moment she seemed a little more… dangerous then he really ever expected her to be though he had a feeling that at that moment it was going to work out to his benefit.

 **H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O**

Roman, leaning against his car, smiled happily to himself. It had been a good day, he was making money, good money too. Which meant his sister could stop bitching about his drag racing on the side.

He thought there wouldn't be anyone who could beat him, no one who could give him a run a little black Audi R8 LMS rolled up to where the gang's cars were all parked by the kink in the bend. It was the kind of car that posh racers liked to use. The kind of sucker they exploited on the regular. They were going to make mint off this poor fool.

So they were all a little shocked to see this little girl in a pair black leggings and a tight fitted hunter green tweed type jacket get out of the driver's side of the car. Oh yes, they were going to make a lot of money off of this girl, but if Roman was lucky he'd get something a little more. He looked her up and down appreciating the look of her and being quite blatant about it.

He loved watching her skip up to him, this big giant grin on her face like she was excited to be there. He smiled his own wolfish grin at her as he got off of his car to approach her. "Hello there _kotik_ and what brings a girl like you to my life at such a late hour?"

"Trevor Pierce."

Roman blinked his eyes. Yeah, he had not been expecting that. Why the hell did this little bitch care about that waste of space? Roman was no longer smiling at her though the girl was hitting him with a coquettish flirtatious grin.

"I hear he owes you a lot of money," she said. "I was hoping that you'd uh… be willing to come to some kind of arrangement."

Roman looked her up and down again. This girl and Trevor talked a lot a like, and they both seemed to think that he was a bank. Though, unlike in Trevor's case he was willing to come up with something, so long as he got something in return.

"A race," she said knocking all the dirty thoughts out of his head. "One race. If I win you let him go."

Roman laughed she wanted to race him? "You ever raced before _kotik_?" he asked her.

"No. But I've borrowed my friend's car and I know it goes fast."

Oh, even better. She had never raced before. She probably didn't even know the car. This was going to be the easiest race to win.

"And what do I get if you lose?" he asked, smiling at her, she might not have realized it but he did. This race was already won.

The girl seemed to think for a bit. "Well, we brought about ten grand with us, is that enough?"

More than enough. "Alright, well sounds like we have a deal. Here's the course, you go up and around, loop at the gas station and then meet back here. You think you can do that."

"Uh… I uh… I think so?" she said. He tried to hide his smile, this girl wasn't from around here. This was going to make things so much easier. She smiled almost warmly at him, in a flirtatious kind of way. "But you'll go easy on me, right? Cause I'm a beginner… right?"

Oh my god this girl was naive. Dear god this was wonderful, this was going to be the best score of the night. He tried to hide his happy grin, the laughter that was trying to bubble out.

"Anything you say _kotik_ ," he murmured. Her nose crinkled when he said it, his little Russian nickname for her. For a second he was certain that maybe, maybe she understood him but if she had she would have slapped him.

He got into his car and he put himself in position for the race to start, waiting until she did the same. Once she had the position both of them waited for the start marker. When the flare went off, he flew, her sleek little Audi following him, but he ate up the road between them until nothing was left. He was miles in front of her by the time they got to the gas station and that was it, he had won.

He finished up the rest of the race at basically a snail's pace and she still managed to come down off the trail a good three minutes behind him.

As soon as the race was done, the girl was out of the car. She approached him, a paper bag in her hands, one that she was clutching tightly. And that would be his money.

"Well that was fun, but it seems both you and Trevor are not so good at this whole racing thing hmmm?" he said he held out his hand for the bag of money she clearly owed him.

His little _kotik_ surprised him though. Instead of just giving it to him, she clung to the bag instead setting a hopeful sort of frown onto him. "One more race? Just one more try. I just need one more chance."

Roman found himself laughing. Wow, and just like Trevor this girl didn't know when to quit. "No thank you. I'd feel bad taking advantage of you like that."

"Well how about if I make the wager worth your while?" she asked. "My pink slip for yours."

Roman stared at her. That was quite the ballsy move, and it definitely surprised him. "You think a car is worth that much? Do you know how much he owes?"

"Fine. My pink slip against all of yours. I win I get Trevor and the cars," she said. Roman glared at her.

"And if you lose?"

"Then you get my car, my money, and I'll take on the rest of Trevor's debts."

"How do I know you're good for them?" he growled. The girl blinked her eyes.

"How do you know I'm not?" she asked.

Okay, now he was more than a little suspicious. This was a strange request, and it seemed like she had something else planned. Roman shook his head again. "No, still doesn't seem worth it."

The girl merely shrugged. "I mean… I didn't peg you for a coward, but alright, take your measly ten grand and we can part…"

"What did you just call me?" Roman snapped and the girl had the nerve to look surprised. But she still looked him right in the eye to say: "I called you a coward."

Oh, she had a death wish this girl. "Fine. Fine. But if you lose, you're mine for a night."

This seemed to surprise the girl but she looked him up and down and then shook his hand. With the deal set, the girl got back in her car and Roman did the same.

It all started out the same. The two cars set themselves up, the starter marker went off and that's where it all went to shit. All of a suddenly the little Audi leapt forward, dashing away from him and his car. Suddenly she was the maneuver queen, getting around the two bends as if she were a drifting queen. And there was no amount of NOS in his tank that could save him, probably because he was certain that she was using NOS too. She must have had hidden tanks.

The Audi drifted across the finish line a food couple feet before Roman's car and by that point he was fucking furious. What the hell had just happened? Actually, no, he knew what happened, the problem was, _how_ did it happen. How did that prissy, proper bitch get into his head?

He sat in his car briefly as if trying to breathe through the anger and humiliation but as soon as that girl came out of her car, smirking he way she was, he fucking lost it.

Roman quickly got out of his car, slamming his car door as he whirled on her. "You fucking bitch. You absolutely fucking bitch!" he shouted storming towards her. "You fucking played me!"

"Yes, it's called a hustle and you were a surprisingly easy mark. I can see why your sister is the brains of the outfit," she said with a smug grin. Around him his men went for their guns but she seemed unphased by the threat.

"You think this is a fucking game? You think I'm going to take a 24 million loss?"

"Well you're the one who agreed to the terms and conditions so… you know not my problem," she said with a shrug and with that the guns came out. She stared them all down completely unphased who the hell was this girl.

She sighed. "I don't think you want to go down this road," she warned him but when the guns stayed out and no one backed down the girl simply sighed again and then snapped her fingers. The door to her car opened up and a man in a rabbit mask with a sub machine gun appeared. God, no it couldn't be.

"Meet the friend."

This girl knew Sin Nombre? Holy fuck! Even his team were slowly starting to back away. Sin Nombre was legendary and none of them wanted to try taking him on.

"Look, you agreed to the bet, it's not my fault you lost. Do you know what they tattoo on you when you default on your debts in a Russian Gulag? Would you rather do that?" she asked and his snarl darkened. "Look this seems to be upsetting you so why don't I make you a counter offer hmm?"

Roman glared at her and her condescending tone but he did nod at her. "Alright. You can keep your car. I don't need no shitty Mazda MX anyway. In fact all of you can keep your cars. Hell you can even keep the ten grand," she said throwing the bag at him, it bounced off his chest and landed at his feet. "Counter offer, if you forgive Trevor's debt's, I'll drive in your next heist."

"I have a driver," he growled.

"No, you don't," she said with a shake of her head and worry crept up his spine. What had she done? She handed him a paper no doubt with her number. "When uh… when your driver tells you about his unfortunately incident… uh… call me."

"Wait!" he called after her. She obviously had him where she wanted him. The girl turned around and he forced himself to put on the cool leader persona. "You're good, I'll give you that… uh… I'll talk it over with the crew and then uh… I'll give you a call okay? … _Kotik…_ "

The girl merely nodded as if she were fine with that. But as she was heading back towards the car, he called out for her again.

"There's a number but no name," he called out and that one won him a smirk.

"You can call me Professional," the girl said. "And best believe if you call me Kitten… or pussy… one more time, I'mma turn your _Khuy_ into a _kotik_ , you got me Comrade?"

Fuck she knew Russian too? Who the hell was this girl? Well the kind of girl who would threaten to mutilate his dick, that was for sure. She shook his hand and headed back to the car. He wasn't sure if he was afraid of turned on. Maybe a bit of both.


End file.
